A Not-So-Festive Festival

I grew up in Dana, Indiana.  Dana is a small farming community with a population of around 600 that's located about a mile east of the Indiana/Illinois border on Highway 36.  Each fall while I was growing up I remember looking forward to the Ernie Pyle Fireman's Festival, or Danafest, as my friends and I called it. 

We would get so excited when the program was dropped off at the local businesses.  It was multiple pages and consisted of articles, photographs and a schedule of events that we would look through to determine our schedule for those three days.  We had to decide how we would decorate our bikes for the bike decorating contest, which costumes our pets would wear in the pet parade, and what type of act we would put together for the talent show.  We practiced with our partners for the Jitterbug contest, thought of possible questions we would be asked during the Queen contest, and selected our shifts to help out at the town meals with our fellow 4-Hers.  There were fun activities such as the kids games, the duck pond and other carnival games, and lots of exciting rides.  There were educational activities such as the Fire Safety House and the Jaws of Life demonstration.  We always took at least one tour of the Ernie Pyle home.  The evenings were fun, too.  We could put our friends in jail, play Bingo for hours, and buy tickets for the merchandise wagon that was overflowing with prizes.  The streets were lined with booths full of items to purchase and great fair food to enjoy.  Everyone came out to enjoy the festivities, and on Saturday, friends from neighboring towns came to the parade and stayed for the rest of the evening.  Those three days were packed with so much fun that we were worn out when the festival came to an end. 

Maybe I remember it that way because I was a kid and the festival was the most exciting thing that ever happened in little Dana.  Or maybe it really was that much fun. 

Nikolas and I made a trip to Dana this weekend to visit with the family and to check out the annual festival.  When I arrived at my parents' house I was ready to take a look at the schedule of events.  Instead of the carefully designed program that I was expecting to see, I was handed a single sheet of white paper that appeared to have been quickly typed up and photocopied.  As I read through the list of events, I noticed that there wasn't much going on.  The change in the program was only one of many changes that I noticed.  We still ate at the fish fry, watched the parade, and stuck around for the big Saturday night drawing, but it just wasn't the same.  There were only a couple of merchandise booths and food stands, and the excitement that I remember from my childhood just wasn't there.  It was sad to see something that I loved so much as a kid change so much.  I understand that things change over time, and Dana has certainly changed a lot over the past 30 years, but I left the festival last night feeling a little bummed.  Maybe it was the weather, or maybe it was something else.  At least I have some toffee from Brooke's Candy Company and some Brown's Kettle Corn to cheer me up.    

Three Year Update

On July 25th we celebrated "Nikolas Day".  Three years ago we picked him up in Sofia, Bulgaria and became a family of three.  Nikolas has made so much progress in the past three years.  He came to us as a tiny, scared little boy who had the skills of an infant.  He weighed 19 pounds and was 29" tall.  He was wearing a size 9-12 months clothing.  He walked unsteadily, didn't know how to play with toys, and didn't speak at all.  Today he is outgoing, friendly and caring.  He makes friends easily and gets along well with others.  He now weighs 38.6 pounds (10th percentile) and is 44" tall (75th percentile).

His gross motor skills have greatly improved, and he was released from private PT at the end of July.  He hasn't quite caught up to his peers, as his low muscle tone and range of motion prevent him from being able to complete certain tasks, but he doesn't let it slow him down.  He'll still receive a small amount of PT at school to help him continue to work on the skills that challenge him, such as hopping on one leg, skipping, and balancing on one leg.

His expressive speech continues to be his biggest challenge.  One of his speech therapists diagnosed him with CAS (Childhood Apraxia of Speech).  He's been working hard on his sound combinations in speech therapy each week and is really improving.  He is still very difficult to understand, but he's trying so hard.  He has a private speech session once a week and also receives speech therapy at school.  His vocabulary has expanded so much.  He understands how to form sentences and is using the correct tenses most of the time.  His receptive language seems to be right on track for his age.  He can successfully identify all of the letters in the alphabet, even when they are out of order.  He knows the sound that each letter makes and has even started sounding out basic words.  He still has a long way to go, but he's doing great!!