Getting Ready…

…to celebrate our son’s 7th birthday this weekend.  He is so excited.  Our kids love their “special” days.  I bought everything for his cake tonight and am looking forward to putting it together tomorrow night.  I’ll update with pictures.

Good Bargains

Just wanted to pass along that Target has some good stuff in their $1 bins right now.  I found some workbooks for the kids for schooling and a few other things.  In the past I purchased similar things at the dollar store.  But, these are really nice too.  Walmart has notebooks for 15 cents each and Crayola crayons for 25 cents.

Things I Like

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most lately is cutting my kids’ hair.  Never thought I would say that.  I don’t really like it at first…trying to conjure up the time and energy to do it. (because it seems really hard to find.)  But, once I start, it feels so good.  It feels good to be saving our family $.  It feels good to see how cute they look after I am done.  And it feels really good to hear your 5 year old say just how much she loves her hair after I’ve cut it.  And it also feels REALLY good that almost all of my kids have nice wave or curl in their hair.  Because that kind of hair is very forgiving when it’s a less than perfect cut! ; )  But, this mom is learning!

 

Something else I like.  I really like the way our schooling is going here at home with our new changes.  It’s such a treat to see my five year old grow in her reading and writing.  As well, as listening to my almost 7 year old read books to me.  It’s a treat to do read-a-louds with my kids too.  I think I get as much from it as they do.  A person is never too old to be a student.

 

I like it when my oldest daughter, who has a genetic disorder, has days when she is content and happy and not struggling with stomach pain.  How I pray that those days would increase!  I love seeing my daughter’s true colors.

I like the way my three year old son overly says his “r’s.”  It’s way too cute.  I ask him to repeat his name just so I can hear him say it.  So far, he has been able to say his “r’s” way earlier than his older siblings.  I’m still doing my own at-home speech therapy with my 5 year old so that she doesn’t sound so much like she is from the East Coast when she speaks.  It seems to be working.

I *really* like the way our two year old daughter answers my questions with a simple, “yup!”  This was a conversation we had today.  She started out saying, “Mama?!”  I said, “What?”  She said, “Pweeze have Shobbies.” (May I please have strawberries.)  As I am slicing up strawberries, I ask her, “You want strawberries?”  Her answer….”yup.”

Oh and this was one more thing that I really liked today and made me laugh.  Last week we had a day of not-so-good day of homeschooling.  I am sure our 3.5 year old was to blame…:)  But, anyway, that particular day we were learning about run-on-sentences.  During the lesson, my thought was, “Yeah right…are my almost 7 year old and 5 year old going to get anything from this?”  My thought was, “NO.”  So, fast forward to today.  I was going over a new Bible memory verse with my kids.  It was fairly lengthy for them (but doable, I think.)  My almost 7 year old son looked at me and sort of asked in frustration, “Mommy, is this a run-on sentence?”  I just started to laugh.  So, my kids were listening after all.

A Little News

Well, it seems that this week I have another child with a temperature and stomach bug.  Last week I had another child with a temperature and a sore throat.  Something has been going around here S-L-O-W-L-Y over the last several weeks.  But, outside of that…my 3.5 year old son (who is the sickie this week), has gone #2 on the potty two days in a row.  Only a mom would understand the joy in this!  But, even not feeling well today, he actually stopped what he was doing and TOLD ME he had to go.  Amazing.  I don’t know what this means.  Will it become habit?  I’m praying that it does.

 

I had my 28 week appointment for baby yesterday, and did the glucose test thing.  They now offer a new flavor of the overly sugary drink a mom has to drink.  Lemon Lime.  I stuck with the orange…thank you!  Everything is looking good, and so far, I haven’t received a call that I failed the glucose test.  I’ve never failed it in the past.

So excited about meeting our little girl!   Not excited about the upcoming c-section.  For me, it’s not one of those things that gets easier the more I’ve had.  It really sinks in each time that I am going in for major abdominal surgery.

Baby is moving A LOT and it’s so much fun to feel her!

Our Fourth

Ready To Enjoy the Activities

Enjoying Bounce House

Waiting for Parade to Start

 

Sharing Candy

 

Taking Walk with Daddy at Parade

 

Snuggle

 

A Wonderful Fireworks Display

 

Ready to Watch Fireworks

Too Tired to Watch Fireworks

Very Tired Girl

We took a very long day trip on the Fourth of July.  We traveled a bit south to celebrate with grandparents.  Plus, the hour and a half drive is about perfect for our five kids at this point. ; )  All of the kids seemed to have a great time, outside of our oldest.  That part was disheartening to me and my husband.  After a fairly good week with her, she just ended up having a hard day with tummy issues and jealously/communication issues it seems.  Anyway, we tried to stay positive.  She did do okay at the parade and fireworks.  I think she just wanted to GO places! 

We got up Sat. morning at 6:30 am to leave for the day and arrived home Sunday morning at 12:30 am.  We were exhausted, and to stay awake while driving home, my husband and I were eating some of the sour parade candy.   It worked.

Happenings With a Couple of Kiddos

I am not jumping for joy…yet.  But, our 3.5 year old has made some more progress in his potty training.  As far as going #1 in the toilet consistently (I bet you all really want to know this ), he is doing swell.  Had that one down for sometime now.  But, as far as going #2…he has gone TWICE this week for me in the potty.  Woo-hoo! : D  I seriously almost don’t know what to do with myself when it has happened.  My SIL (hi, Jenny!), passed along some wisdom she gained from her kids’ pediatrican about having your child sit for 20 minutes on the potty after mealtime.  I had also read this a while back, but never acted on it until I reached a day of utter mommy desperation.  Our pediatrican has only ever said that it’s normal for our little boy to not be going in the potty.  Maybe so.  But, all I have to say is that when a mom has been working on potty training with her son since Dec. of 2008…it’s about time he at least starts to get the idea of p**ing in the potty. (lovely, i know.)  So, maybe we are on the road to success with this!

Our 8.5 year old has two loose teeth, with two adult teeth pushing on the baby teeth, making one baby tooth look very strange.  I looked one day and thought, “Oh my goodness!”  You’d have to see her mouth…but we’ve truly thought when she goes to the dentist later this month that they might possibly suggest pulling this “weird tooth” that our daughter has.  But, here it’s a baby tooth…whew!  Our daughter lets us in her mouth (barely) to brush her teeth.  Otherwise, she tends to be orally defensive.  Still, I am sure that the dentist is going to have a few interesting things to say about the way our daughter’s teeth are coming in.  AND one more small note about her teeth…she’s been having unusual small seizures thru out the week.  I am attributing it to teething.  Many years ago, we went thru the same thing when she was getting in teeth.  It’s not uncommon for kids to seize when there is stress (even like teething) on their bodies.  Fun for anyone? NO.  But, at least I know that it’s not uncommon.

Challenges for Parents and Families of Special Needs Children

Challenges for parents of special needs children

I have been so incredibly blessed to find that Family Life Today Ministries has been airing a show online about special needs children over the last three days.  The parents in the interview are Joe and Cindi Ferrini.  Their son Joey was born with Cerebral Palsy, a seizure disorder and mental retardation.  Our 8.5 year old daugther too is epileptic, and has an intellectual ability as well.  I feel that we relate SO much with this family.  This last audio interview (which I’ve linked above) with this precious couple mirrors us (me and my husband and our family life) even now so much, though our daughter isn’t quite 9, but Joey is 27.

I think there are a couple of moms with special needs kids that may glance at my blog here and there.  If you get a chance…check out this broadcast on the Family Life website!

This Little Girl of Mine

This evening, our 5 year old said some words that made me cry and gently, yet profoundly grasped at my mommy’s heart.  I have noticed lately that she has been more attentive to her older, special needs sister.  When her 8 year old sister laughs or really obviously and purposefully does something, our five year old will sometimes gasp in joy and say, “Did you see that?”  “Did you hear her laugh?!”  Or she’ll say, “She’s really trying to talk!” 

So this evening our 5 year old was watching her older sister like a hawk as big sis was laughing and being silly.  I watched my 5 year old then approach her older sister and start tickling her.  It is so obvious just how much she wants to play and interact with her special needs sibling.  I helped our five year old play with her by showing her where to tickle her, what songs to sing to her (to get her attention) and then we played hide-and-seek.  Our 8 year old loves to find people.

What were my my 5 year old’s profound words this evening?  She said this about her older sister.  “She never has anyone to play with…so I will be her friend and play with her all of the time!”  She in fact said this a couple of times.  I couldn’t help but cry a little (hiding it all the while from the kids.)  But, I could tell my husband was touched too, as he looked at me with pleasure in his eyes from across the room.

I told my 5 year old this evening at bedtime that she had a pretty heart.  This is something that I’ve talked to her about numerous times over the last couple of years.  Anyone that really knows her understands that she is *very* visual and beauty oriented (with all things, human appearance and beauty in nature.)  The Lord certainly did create her that way, and she also hears a lot just how cute and pretty she is.  She seems rather immune to it now.  I always try and talk to her about how having a kind and pretty heart is much more important and pleasing to the Lord than outward appearence.  Yet, I also want her to know that she is “fearfully and wonderfully made.”  She should never feel ashamed!  But I think it’s important for all of us to know how to handle compliments.  I also regularly share with her the verse from Proverbs, “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised!”  I explain it to her in 5 year old terms of course

All I Want For My Birthday Is My Two Front Teeth

Mr. Toothless will soon be 7, but I doubt he’ll be getting two new front teeth by the time his birthday rolls around.  He loves being toothless.

Making Maps and Squanto

Today the kids made maps to go along with our history lesson.  This is how excited my kids were about history today….they were *extremely* disappointed to end our reading for the day.  Yup, it’s true.  I hope this continues for a very long time!

Almost done with our first Biography

This has been our first read-a-loud biography that we’ve done.  My son has really enjoyed it and mommy has too.  We’re almost done.  I think our next step with it will be some simple notebooking so that my son can look back at something fun and also it will help him review what we’ve read and learned about Squanto.