Big News, Big Move!

"Don't forget to take me, mom!"

Life has happened once again and we are obliged to uproot and replant in sunny southern California. Murrieta, California, to be exact.

The story: Tyler's company, Sodexo, lost the account he works at here in Austin. It was a pretty big deal. The enormous organization that owns the also very large hospital network he was contracted with decided to hand the support services contract to a company that undercut them in the bid. That's what happens when a hospital system is not-for-profit + a down economy + Obamacare looming like a death sentence (and it is for hospitals as well as providers and insurers.). And who can blame them? They need to save every penny in a time when fewer and fewer have the ability to pay AND the future is so uncertain. Tyler's hospital alone does over $400 million in charitable work every year.

So while we were not unemployed (thank heavens!), we had to find a new position in the company. The pickings were obviously sparse in Austin since a few hospitals were lost in this bid, leaving a surplus of managers. So we applied a few places including this hospital in Murrieta. (Murrieta is about halfway between San Diego and LA, more inland.) We are happy this worked out because in a few months there will be a total of FOUR Neal girls living in the LA area! Talk about an exodus! So while I am sad sad sad about leaving my Zion here in Austin, I couldn't ask for anything better than to be with so much family. It's where we feel like we should be right now. And I guess California is pretty nice too. ;)

But here's the kicker: Tyler's first day is Halloween! Here's to executing a move in 2 1/2 weeks!

And come on, how cute is my girl?! She is also hilarious! Her latest hilarious escapade: she and Cameron were being crazies in the bath tonight. She kept trying to climb up the back, angled part of the tub and slipping into the water. She would flip over quickly onto her back in an effort to save herself, and as the water washed over her face I would see her smiling with glee. Nice. "Tyler! Get in here and get Jane! She's trying to drown herself!" (I was still bathing Cameron.)

It has a name!

(Okay, I hope you think this picture is as hilarious as I do. If you can't tell, he's getting a massage.)

After the long wait to get in to see the ONLY developmental pediatrician in Austin, and an even looonger time (3 years 9 months to be exact) of wondering at Cameron's oddities, we finally have a name for his official medical condition (and a justification for our parenting abilities): dyspraxia. Cameron has a neurological condition called dyspraxia. His mixed language disorder is a side symptom.

So what is it? The short definition is: difficulty in conceiving of, planning, and carrying out an unfamiliar motor action or series of motor actions. I.e. he has trouble doing new things. It is a lifelong condition, but the good news is is that it is not linked to intelligence. For example, we read that the actor who plays Harry Potter in all the movies has dyspraxia. So Cameron will most likely be, for all intents and purposes, a normal functioning adult.

Last night Tyler and I were researching dyspraxia on the internet and came to a site that listed the symptoms in children. We were actually laughing because we could not believe how well they described Cameron in so many ways! For example (the bolded items are of no extra consequence):

• Irritable and difficult to comfort – from birth
• Feeding difficulties: milk allergies, colic, restricted diet
• High levels of motor activity: constantly moving arms and legs
• Repetitive behaviors: head banging or rolling
• Continued problems with development of feeding skills
• Toilet training may be delayed
• Delayed language development: single words not evident until age 3
• Highly emotional: easily distressed, frequent outbursts of uncontrolled behavior
• Concentration limited to 2 or 3 minutes on any task?
• unable to stay in one place longer than 5 minutes
• easily distressed
• temper tantrums
• Difficulty Pedaling Tricycle or Similar Toy
  
• no sense of danger, jump from inappropriate heights
• Continue to be Messy Eaters
• prefer to use fingers to feed
• Lack of Imaginative Play
• Do not enjoy ‘dressing up’ or playing appropriately in the home corner or Wendy House. – Limited creative play
• Isolated in Peer Group
• prefers adult company
• Limited Response to Verbal Instructions
• slower response time
• problems with comprehension
• Limited Concentration
• tasks often left unfinished

Wow! So that has been what's been going on all these years! I have gone from feeling like maybe I am not so great at parenting to thinking I rock at it. No wonder Jane has been such a treat. Here we were thinking this was normal parenting!

So what's next? 1 hour of private occupational therapy a week and 2 hours of private speech therapy a week. It will be a long and hard road (and what, it hasn't already been so far or something?) but I think I'm up to the task. Heavenly Father wouldn't have sent him to me if I weren't. And Cameron is making great strides in his language. Tonight I realized he was using "ing" on the end of verbs finally! ("I jumpin" and "I dancin") I am just so relieved to finally have some answers!

My Work Blog

Fun for me, I have been put in charge of the social media marketing for my company. It's still getting a foot hold, but I wanted to share the other blog I've been working on!
sweetencpa.wordpress.com

I was vacuuming the floor tonight and wondering how in the world my floors got so dirty when I just wet mopped the entire house yesterday (we have all hard floors). It was the kind of thought you would Facebook. Then I said to myself, I want to talk all about myself so I will blog tonight! Plus, I have fun stories and news with regards to my ninos.

So I have cleared out my evening to blog. But I did still exercise first which leads me to my first piece of self news: I am back to below my pre-pregnancy weight! In fact I can't remember the last time I weighed this little. Nice! I was at my annual checkup ("What? It's time again? I just had a baby in November!" "Um, that's right." "Oh yeah.") when I weighed in. I came home to tell Tyler the good news and first thing he did was point at my chest "Yeah, you lost it here," then at my tush "and here" then his superego kicked in and he quickly pointed at my stomach and said, "and here!" Right, nice save, Tyler. But part of that is true. Since weaning Jane 2 months ago, I'm probably back down to my high school bra size. *Sigh.* Such is birthing children. Even if you manage to repeatedly work your weight off, you get saggy skin and then lose your boobs for good measure. It's a good thing children are (usually) the best things in the world!

...at least I think mine are!

So without further ado, let me give updates about my two sweetheart full-time employers, er, kids!

Cameron

First of all, let me say Tyler was not a huge fan of me giving Cameron a Dora Princess coloring book, but the kid has been inseparable from it since he got it. He even sleeps with it. The selection of coloring books at WalMart is only so-so and Dora was his favorite of the options. I figure it won't destroy any natural masculinity.

Some of you may know already, but Cameron has been diagnosed with Expressive/Receptive Language Disorder. What is that? Basically he has the language abilities of a 2 year old (he is going to be 4 in December). But we are very encouraged at the progress he is making. I remember he barely quoted some lines from his favorite shows before Jane was born, and he has come so far! There is almost some new milestone I notice for him every day. He is having 2 way conversations, telling stories and recounting past events and future plans. He is receiving speech therapy once a week but when the school year starts we will most likely be enrolling him in a specialized pre-school specifically just for children like him who have speech and language disorders. It will be like 4 hours of therapy a day. I am just so happy we live somewhere with that sort of a resource available to us. In fact I heard about the school from a new visiting teachee who moved from San Francisco just so she could enroll her daughter. (See the amazing blessings that happen when you do your visiting teaching?) Wow. I told Tyler we may find that the reason we ended up in Austin was so Cameron could attend this school.

That's enough of the serious, on to the fun stuff!
Since our new (hand me down) TV afforded us basic cable, Cameron loves the show Wipeout. He asks for it every day. (In the world of instant stream Netflix he doesn't understand he can't have some shows on demand.) The other night in the bath he was pretending shampoo bottles were contestants and making them "wipeout" into the water mid-trip across the edge of the tub. He added all the sound effects of screaming and even told the bottles "You made it!" when they finally made it safely across. He has also been setting up obstacle courses for himself with our furniture, off of which he makes sure to wipeout.

Jane

Poor baby Jane had wicked bad bum rash tonight. It was really sad. One of my attempts to heal her bum was to let her go without a diaper for a while. It was so cute I had to get a picture.

Jane is getting more personality every day. And she is a go getter. Big surprise! She is very, very close to walking. In fact, I am sure she would be if it weren't for our hard floors; they make for a hard fall. (In fact, I am worried about how often she hits her head and hope she's not getting brain damage.) When at a friend's house yesterday she was walking confidently around on the soft carpet. She has three teeth. She loves her baths and loves food.
And she LOVES Cameron. In fact, Cameron really likes her too. It's so fun for me to see them interact. I like to think about when they are older and will still be the best of friends and how it all started here.
Now to a random, serious question. Does anyone else feel "second child guilt"? I don't get to spend near as much time with Jane as I did with Cameron, for obvious reasons. But then Cameron takes extra work even now so Jane always gets put on hold. And she is growing up too fast for me. I don't feel like I get to shower her with attention as much as I want to. I don't want to feel like Jane always gets less than Cameron. Can anyone relate?

Pictures of My Parents' Visit
The highlight of July was my parents coming to visit. It was SO much fun! I didn't get to document the visit like I would have liked to, but there are lots of good pictures to show for it! Most of our fun centered around food, just the way we like it! The first night we didn't get any pictures of our kid-free outing to a moviehouse that served us dinner while we watched Super 8. So fun!

First morning, a patriotic pancake breakfast!

Then, to the pool! What else do you do in such hot weather?

That night, we went to eat at a restaurant that overlooks the lake. So pretty and fun!

Grandma building a Small World castle with Cameron.

Sunday night Tyler and Dad made a huge Chinese food feast. SO delish!
Then we played some cards and ate treats! (That is our friend Amra.)

Independence Day = free to spend all day in the kitchen cooking, including two pies from scratch,

and a tasty feast.

That night we watched a movie and Jane decided she wasn't going to go to sleep until midnight.

She also wanted Grandpa's popcorn.

The last morning. Grandpa does some final bonding with baby Jane, introducing her to bananas.

No Diapers on ME!

This may be old news for some of you but Cameron is officially potty trained! HOORAY! We started over a month ago and he picked it up in a matter of days. The "number 2" was a bit more tricky, but one day about a week ago he realized he understood the concept and went without me even knowing it! So with the exception of an accident here or there he is pretty much self sufficient in this regard. He still has his own Cameron twist to it: when he realizes he wants to go he drops pants right where he stands and then goes naked bummed to the bathroom. I usually end up chasing him afterward to get his unders and pants back on. We'll work on that later I suppose, but for now I am not complaining! Good job, Cameron!

2011 Kiddie Triathlon

This weekend Cameron participated in his first Kiddie Triathlon! A lady from my ward puts one together every year. It was so darling! She had a photographer there to take pictures (well, I did too but they're on my camera still). There were 18 kid participants with the average age about 4 or 5. Every child had an adult to accompany them. They got to wear real bibs and everything!

At about 9 am the triathlon began with the .25 mile run (down the street and back)!

This picture is washed out but I had to download it anyway because you can see the sheer joy on Cameron's face at running down the street with a big group of people! Like something out of a dream!

Go Cameron!

Next, the biking! We bought him this bike a few days before so he hadn't yet mastered pedaling. Tyler pushed him the whole .21 miles. (And if you're thinking the bike is too small, you're right. We're returning it for a bigger one tomorrow!)

Last leg, swimming! Again, Tyler assisted Cameron with the swim.

Finished!! Phew!

Cameron, stoic about finishing his first triathlon race. He got a medal and a "swag bag" full of goodies and trinkets.

Group picture! (Cameron is the only one cheering in this picture.) Everyone also got souvenir shirts to document their accomplishment. Cameron wore his shirt and medal all day. Today during his quiet time I noticed he found his shirt and swim shorts in the clothes hamper and got them out. Apparently he wants to do it again!

Best of Disnealand

Hooray for Disneyland!! We were so lucky to get to go two times in two years for five days each! So for the benefit of everyone out there (that cares), and more especially for my family's photo swapping, here are my best pictures of the awesome vacation! I have to admit that while they are my best, they are not great by any means, meaning I took pretty terrible pictures. I don't know about you all, but I have to make a very conscious effort to make sure I get enough good pictures. Between taking care of my kids and wanting to talk to my family, I didn't have a whole lot of brain processing space left for worrying about pictures!

(Note: they loaded out of order, so apologies that chronology is a bit messy!)

First ride HAD to be Captain EO!! Oh yeah! Nobody ask me how we got in trouble twice for having our video camera's out.

Nice face, Cameron! Always the charmer at Redd Rocket's pizza joint, a fave of ours in the park.

I think Space Mountain is probably still my favorite ride in the Disneyland park!

WOW! Look how big my family has gotten! There are 19 of us now! We take up a whole section of tables when it's time to eat.

My dad, never without a project, used the vacation as a chance to get more footage for his long anticipated Disnealand movie. He is going to assemble it using footage spanning across decades of Disneyland trips!

Suckers!

Heidi was, along with several others, a huge help with the kids. Here she is holding sleeping Jane. It seems like she was always holding a sleeping Jane! Oh that's right, she's the sleep nurse. Way to go, Heidi!

Jack and Cameron would hold hands all the time. It was so sweet! We all wish they could live near each other so they could have their best friend near by.

The end of day 1. Cameron was so well behaved, too!

Soda buddies!!

In order to stay together as a group but still get to ride the rides the kids were too small for, we would break up into 2 "shifts" to watch the kids. They did surprisingly well staying in one spot just playing for 30 minutes or more at a time while us grown ups got to ride our rides.

I wondered if Cameron would be a bit scared of the characters. Apparently not!

After coming home from the park between 8 and 9, Cameron and Tyler would sit and watch TV for about 30 mins, and then Cameron would roll over and crash to sleep.

The third day was the day the princesses got to wear their dresses to the park. Paige and Sarah were entranced with Jane once they saw her in her dress. Melanie and I joked that they realized that Jane was "one of them."

Always the lover of babies, Caleb was very sweet to Jane the entire trip.

Grandpa on watch, considering the jump he'd have to make to go after one of the tykes if they fell into the water.

Princess Jane! So cuuute!

Tuesday, the rainy day, on the Rockets.

Princesses! Melanie and I made sure our girls got to sport their pretty dresses together in the park. We barely got these pictures in at the very end of the night before Jane "lost it" out of tiredness.

Toontown! Just the place Cameron needed to be: a place where he could run around and explore and not have to ride any rides. For the most part he didn't like the rides, especially the ones inside a building.

Jungle Cruise Ride

Cameron's best friends: Caleb and Jack. He is still asking for "Small World" with "Caleb and Jack!"

The last night we staked out a great seat for the Fantasmic light show, which I love! Here we are having a great time chatting at our last activity all together! What a great vacation!!