The Lupoli Life: Leaving for Florida tomorrow

We are packing up today for an early flight tomorrow morning to Florida. Michael is very excited to see his Grandma and Grandpop, and for Santa to come....it seems like every toy he sees on tv or in a store flyer he wants!!! Our flight is super early at 7:15 am, so we are actually going to spend the night at a hotel near the airport since it is about a 45 minute drive from our place. We are supposed to get freezing rain and more snow, so the roads will be horrible. Speaking of horrible roads, yesterday the snow started coming down early in the morning, and we had a doctor's appt for Sofia at 8 am....well the traffic was so slow, cars were skidding off the road and into each other everywhere, it took us 2 hours to go what normally takes 30 minutes!! I hate snow....it is pretty when you are inside watching it, but not when you are driving in it or trying to run errands with kids in dirty, slushy parking lots. Michael loves the snow, as you can see by the pictures and video below...and yes it is dark outside already in the pictures...Michael did not want to come inside!!

In other news, I found out I passed my boards :) Yeah!! Don't have to do that again for another 6 years!!

Sofia had her appointment with the developmentalist. She could obviously see that Sofia had improved, unfortunately the testing they do to assess development includes mostly points for skill level (mostly fine motor) and language. And Sofia tends to not want to do as much as what she is able to do when she is in a new environment....it is a bit of sensory overload for her. So she did not improve much on their criteria. I am hopeful that these skills and more language will come as she gets stronger.....for example, now that she has more trunk control she explores a lot more with her hands b/c she is not using her hands and arms to balance so much....for language, low muscle tone also affects facial muscles and mouth/tongue movements (even her eyelids...when she sleeps sometimes her eyelids don't shut all the way)...she initiates her movements much more quickly now as well...she used to show a lot of interest in toys/other items held in front of her with looking at them, but was slow to actually touch them. Now if she wants it, she more easily reaches out and gets it. Her therapists who see her every week have seen good, although slow, improvements since we started 4 months ago. They are excited, so that makes you feel positive!! I am going to try to work in more therapy for her at a facility (on top of the in home that we do know) with the new year...I think she can handle it now.

Michael starts preschool 2 days a week in January....he is so in need of a structured learning environment....he soaks up everything!!! The other day he observe that the bagging area at Walmart was a triangle, that it had 3 sides, and 3 angles...angles, where did that come from!!! And last weekend he was looking out the window and asked me if the sun was a star? He must have been paying attention when we had on a show about the universe on!?!

I probably will not get a chance to post next week....so a very Merry Christmas everyone...I am sure I will have lots of pictures from Disney World and Christmas to post when I get back!!!

Dressed for Church