November

It's been over a month so I need to recap November.  Starting off with the very end of October, we had Halloween.  Cameron wore the same costume as the previous year (construction worker), and Ava was a black cat.  Have I mentioned before (probably last year) how much I dislike Halloween?  I took Ava to pick out her costume early this year so she could have lots of practice wearing it.  Costumes are not fun for kids who have even the slightest sensory issue.  I took Cam to the Halloween store with us and he pretty much cried the entire time we were there...he was so afraid of every costume mask and Halloween creature in the store.

We went trick-or-treating with Ava's school friend and the kids had lots of fun.  It was too long of a night for Cam but he hung in there.  Ava got TONS of candy and would have continued for a few more hours if we would have let her.  The next 3 weeks were spent obsessing over eating all of the candy.  I was able to toss a few handfuls of it in the trash when they were not looking.  They have finally forgot about it.

Ava continues to love gymnastics and works very hard at it.  She was able to finally master the back hip circle on the bars so she was able to move up to Level 4 for the start of the winter session.  She also goes to tumbling class on Friday nights and the last time I was able stay and watch she was working on her back handspring.

Swimming lessons also ended the week before Thanksgiving.  Cameron is finally going underwater and is progressing well.  He's not real confident yet, but it will come.  Ava began to work on the butterfly and breaststroke which are both very technical.  She was easily frustrated which then leads to anger, but she is a strong swimmer and loves the water so much, I'm hoping with some of the changes that we are working on she can overcome the frustrations she feels when trying something new and challenging and stick with swimming through the winter session.  Only time will tell.

November has been a very long, challenging month.  Daddy had 2 long weeks of travel, Mimi helped out a TON.  There was a lingering illness hanging over us all for what seemed to be 2-3 weeks.  Medication trials, doctor appointments, homework battles...all behind us now.  Moving into December...hopefully a happier month.