2010 by the Numbers

7 How old Aliza turned in January. She is in second grade now and growing so fast. This past summer I noticed that sometimes she was having to get up and walk to the TV to see it clearly, so she went to see her favorite Optometrist, her grandpa Mike, and got fitted for glasses. They are purple and so cute!

1 The level of competition dance class Aliza is in this year. You don’t want to know the number that represents the cost of the competition costume.

270 The number of times Mark has come home from the new job he started in March, feeling grateful and blessed to have one finally after such a long unemployment stint.

5&5 How many years old the boys turned on Valentine’s Day. They started kindergarten in September and are doing great!

6  Number of months the boys have really been talking.  I didn't realize it's only been 6 months until I started reviewing posts.  This blog is such a great way to keep track of their progress.  Why is it so easy to forget when they couldn't talk at all?  How come I take this for granted?

Here's one post that documents AJ's big talking progress.  Here's another that discusses more miracles in speech, just last June.  Here's one that chronicles their new love of counting.  It's really been an amazing year for the boys!  One year ago all I could get out of them was "hi," and I think that was just AJ.  Now they both talk up a storm.  All right, perhaps saying they "talk up a storm" is a bit of an exaggeration, but you can't blame me, I'm excited and proud!  AJ is over here right now watching the Monkey Dance and singing along...."jump, back, forth!"  I wouldn't have believed it, a year ago.

927 Estimated number of times we took the kids swimming this summer. Okay, that’s an exaggeration. It’s probably more close to the number of pictures I took of them swimming. Or perhaps it’s the number of times they jumped on the trampoline this summer.

23 Number of years Mark’s been playing softball. That’s got to be some kind of record. He’d be the Brett Favre of softball, but he still plays for the same team.

2 Number of years I spent working as Newsletter Editor for the Minnesota Valley Mothers of Multiples club, before deciding I was ready for a change this past year, and switched to Publicity Coordinator. I love the club and love being on the board with all the wonderful MOMs.

1 New newsletter I’m working on now is New for Networking, a newsletter that goes out to all the parents of special needs children ages birth to 5 in Dakota County. I volunteer on a committee for ARC and when it came up that they needed someone to do this newsletter I jumped at the chance.

740 Number of people who attended the International Fragile X Conference in Detroit in July, including Mark and I.

3 Number of days AJ and I spent at the Waisman Center in Madison, WI in November so he could participate in a word learning study for kids with Fragile X Syndrome and autism. He was a great study participant, and he and I did a little shopping (i.e., I dragged him around a bookstore), a little swimming, and a lot of hanging out in the hotel room watching the Wiggles on You Tube.

2 Number of times AJ threw up in the car on the way to Madison.

0 Number of paper towel rolls I had in the car.

Thank you all for following along with us on our thrilling year of leaps and bounds!  We eagerly anticipate more joy and adventures in 2011, and you can be certain it'll all appear right here on The Fragile X Files!