Pre-Thanksgiving News

What’s been going on with the Hawkins family? I’m sure that this question has been plaguing you since my last entry. For those of you who are interested, here are a few items.


Stephanie and I ran the Healdsburg Wine Country ½ Marathon this past weekend. I finished in 2:55. Steph beat me by about 30 minutes and the winner finished in 1:05! (That is a 5 minute mile for 13.1 miles !!!!!) Steph plans on continuing her running, while I plan on beginning MMA training (exercise only). Running is too rough on my legs.

Claire is still plugging away at school. She is doing a great job with her receptive language, but continues to struggle with her expressive. Although, she did manage to tell Stephanie that her new chicken dish was “gross” and that she was not eating it. Claire is a smart little girl, she is just perplexing. Every once in a while she will burst out with a great sentence and the very next minute, she will revert back to her jargon. I really don’t know what to think about her progress or how to get her to try harder. I am confident that she will be able to “mainstream”; we’ll probably just continue to take our lumps while getting there. Oh. Her new favorite activity is locking Bruno the dog inside her tent that we have set up in the playroom. Bruno really loves this! I love Claire. She makes me smile and laugh every day. She is truly a blessing!

Max continues to do well. We received his first 2nd grade report card a couple of weeks ago. He received all “E’s” (excellent) with the exception of one “S” (satisfactory). The “S” had to do with the area of language development, so the fact that he did not excel in comparison to his peers is neither a surprise nor a disappointment. Max is also participating in a cool hockey program sponsored by the Nashville Predators. It is called G.O.A.L., which stands for “get out and learn”. He gets a completely free, one hour hockey lesson every Wednesday for four weeks. They gave him a free jersey and stick and let him borrow the rest of the equipment at no cost!! Awesome!! I did buy him a new helmet, so I could “doctor” it for his Harmony. I cut away a little padding so he could wear his device along with the helmet. I am the master of this surgery, so if you need help with a baseball helmet, hockey helmet, etc., let me know! Oh yeah. Max had his first two sleepovers recently. He spent the night at a buddy’s house one weekend and his buddy spent the night at ours on another. The little man is growing up.

I still can’t get my mind wrapped around taking Max bi-lateral. I wish that I could snap my fingers and make it so :(  It is such a painful process for me. Anyway……..