Growth

We're growing in lot of different ways around here.

Asher, January 2012

Asher and Abel, May 2013

Today is DDD

Ditch the Diaper Day

Yes, today is THE day. It is the day I get brave and put underwear on the new guy. I was going to wait until he'd been home a couple of weeks, or even a month, but he is SO ready! He's even peeing standing up because he's a great one for imitation. It was hilarious last night when Asher was standing at the toilet and Abel whipped down his pants to join him. 

He knows what to do on the toilet, now he has to learn the "when" part and the "when not to" part. 

Pray for me. 

Men

That's an awful lot of men laying around my living room. And just think...there are five more. We're missing Rob, Noah, Tyler, Bryon and Aaron!

Abel and Dudley

The first time Abel pet Dudley.

Settling In

We've been home with Abel three full days now. It feels like we've been home a month and yet I've gotten nothing done!

Today I was doing some reflecting on our past adoptions. I remembered when we brought Asher home, he was a HUGE shock to our family system. In our heads we were adopting a 7 year old. In reality we brought home a 6 month old who could walk. He needed SO MUCH from us. He needed everything to be done for him. We thought we would have to childproof the house only to discover just the opposite! We had to teach him to reach out and touch things. That he could explore his world. That life is meant to be experienced, not passively observed from the shadows. We had to teach Asher how to LIVE. I would say the first two months were really tough while Asher learned the routines of our home and family. It took me two months to re-learn the logistics of having a kid in diapers. And a car seat. Who couldn't walk very far or eat anything that wasn't pureed to applesauce consistency. Eventually we all found our groove and we found our new normal.

Enter Abel.

I am keeping my eyes on the future. I'm remind myself that when I look back on Axel and Asher's pictures I realize they are no longer the same children. I can't imagine where Abel will be one year from now, just like I couldn't with Axel or Asher.

We were miraculously able to avoid jet lag coming home this time. This is an absolute gift from HIM because HE knew we wouldn't have time for it. No, between the extra curricular calendar, getting kids out the door for school, getting kids off the bus, taking Abel to the bathroom on a regular schedule, and never ever ever taking our eyes off him, there really isn't time for sleeping.

Abel is a very busy little boy. He has been VERY GOOD, he is just busy. He is becoming more creative in the games he plays with his block, going through developmental stages with his trusty friend. Today he played with Papa and a truck for nearly an hour! He also played with a hammer/ball toy, but took the balls out and tried to make his block work in their place. Today I took him into the bedroom and showed him how every one of the toddler toys work. He would try everything then shake his head and push it away. Later I went into the bedroom to find every toy had been taken off the shelves and explored (evidenced by the pieces all over the floor.) The other kids were at school so as long as I could hear him and I knew he was in the boy bedroom, I knew he was safe playing without me being in the same room.

We were going to wait until this weekend to introduce Abel to the dogs. Two big dogs and one small wiggly one is a lot for a kid who has been severely sensory deprived. Well, the first three mornings home he got up before Dean and I, and was found wandering the house. (that will change today!) Yesterday morning, after sending Abel back to bed, I crawled back into ours and told Dean, "Well, no need to wonder about the dogs. He's already met them and isn't thrilled."

The most difficult part of the day is morning, getting everyone breakfast and ready for school. It's been really difficult for Abel to sit and wait for his food, especially when Angela needs to get eating first because she's has to get out the door. Every morning has been lots of worry and fretting noises while he wonders if he's really going to get food. But he's learning the routine, and this morning he sat relatively quiet, making mostly happy noises while he waited. This was a HUGE and welcomed improvement! Today he had pancakes for the first time too, and he ate them without complaining. I can't say the same for the chicken strips and french fries we had last night.

Our first breakfast! Angela was already gone for school.

Abel LOVES to ride in the car! Before we traveled to Serbia, and knowing he was very close in size to Asher, I bought him the same car seat Asher sits in. Well, they may be close to the same size, but Abel has the more typical long torso/short legs that is more common among kids with DS. His torso is longer than Asher's so the harness on the car seat was too small for him. He is big enough to use it as a booster seat, but he is not ready to be in just a lap/shoulder belt. A couple days ago I brought him along to Target for some much-needed supplies. In a flash he was out of his car seat and had pushed the button for the sliding side door of the van. Yep! A new car seat was added to the Target list! Later in the day he figured out how to loosen the harness straps. UGH!

Have I mentioned that Abel doesn't sleep very well? While we were still in Serbia he was waking up between 5-5:30 a.m.. Now that we're home he's still waking up at the same time. Because he's been getting up so early and he's used to taking a nap, he's usually crabby and ready for a nap by 10:00 a.m. The first few nights, when it was time for evening bedtime, there were lots of tears and a bit of panic. Last night, for the first time, he climbed into his bed without prompting, laid down and pulled the blanket up over himself, just like Axel and Asher do. This is kind of funny since he hates having a blanket on! He fell right to sleep without any tears or worry. When I checked on them later he had thrown his blanket and pillow up onto Asher's bed. LOL

Later I'll try to get a blog post up about how everyone else is doing with their adjustment to having a new brother. 

Brothers

We're home now. I think its time to move back to blogging over here since this is our family blog and we're now a family!

Here is some video from this morning. As you probably already know, Abel came to us complete with his block (and a spare we have in hiding!) NOBODY touches the block. We have gotten us to play a back and forth game with us. I sign "please", he hands it to me, I sign/say "Thank you!" then he signs "please" and I hand it back to him, he signs "thank you." He's getting better and better at letting me hold onto his block. When he goes to the bathroom I would set it on the counter. Now he prefers to set it there himself.

This morning Abel was playing with his block on one of the dining room chairs. Asher decided to join him.

A bit of history: Asher loves to get people into headlocks, and is very creative about getting people into proper position to grab them, including baiting them into position if necessary. But Abel had a game in mind and he wanted Asher to play with him. I love how he taps Asher on the head with his foot and points to tell him to come back to the game. LOL

Crickets

I know, I can hear the crickets chirping here too. I'm around, but only blogging on my adoption blog right now as we're currently in Serbia adopting our newest son! You can find me HERE. 

Mish Mash

This is where I go through pictures from the past month or so to create something entertaining for you.

It is pretty obvious that Asher loves having a daddy to call  his own. Mom? Yeah, she's ok but the daddy belongs to him! 

When we got Axel two years ago we had his heart checked out. He had an enlarged aortic root, and we should come back in 2 years for a re-check. A couple months ago we noticed his color changing, particularly in his hands and feet. Since we're at that two year mark we had his follow-up echo this week. Everything looks perfect  now, so we don't have to go back for 5 years. The color changing? It's a DS thing. Angela does it too, only her hands turn reddish purple, not gray like Axel's. Mostly I think I just needed a diversion from worrying about adoption related stuff. 

Axel and Angela both have blocked tear ducts. Angela had stents put in years ago but she pulled them out after about two weeks. Anyway, they both needs stents now. He often comes home from school with his eye all read and swollen. By the next morning it's gone. I was hoping to get it done this month before we leave, but I couldn't get it scheduled. We'll get it scheduled when we get home, after we've checked to see if B needs it done too.

Asher at the therapy center.

Angela, who hates to color, decided she would teach Asher how it's done. 

Soon B will have someone to put him to sleep just like this!

Hi There!

I have a few new readers recently. If you're new hear, I am currently dividing my time between this blog and my adoption blog. If you haven't yet added it to your reader, well I sure wouldn't want you to miss anything! You can find my adoption blog here. 

Cooking with Axel

Tonight was waffle night here, and I love to help! I love to help with pretty much anything, but if it's in the kitchen, I'm in heaven!

First I washed the strawberries.

Then cut the tops off. I was careful with the sharp knife!

Put them in the grinder to make sauce. Asher gets really excited when the grinder comes out because he knows his food goes in here. 

I poured it into the bowl.

Mom had the waffles ready. First I dished up Angela's

Then I dished up Asher's. See his face? He's not happy because he thought he was going to get ground up waffles. Nope, tonight he got waffle bites he had to chew. He ate it all gone.

Then it was my turn, but I was starving! I ate four waffles, 6 strawberries, and 6 sausage links. Then, just a little bit later I had a big bowl if ice-cream! I'm going to be a teenager in August and I'm getting ready! 

Urgent Need

Please, please please go read the Kacirek family blog. There is an urgent need to change their flight status to bring their new child home. When they got to where their child is currently located, they were shocked to find her current condition.

The problem? She cannot sit in an airline seat. If she is upright she is not able to breath well. She can handle a few minutes at a time, but certainly not 24+ hours of travel time to get home. She and one parent need to fly first class in one of the seats that will lie down nearly flat.  Please, if you can, go CLICK HERE to contribute to the Kacirek family fund so they can upgrade their seats. While there are other avenues to getting them the seats they need, paying for it outright is the fastest and easiest way.

Please help if you can!

Hearing Loss

When Angela was 11 months old she was diagnosed with a high frequency hearing loss. This is the most common type of hearing loss among people who have Down syndrome.

Here's a look at the speech banana that will help you understand what that means. Please keep in mind I am NOT an audiologist. Although I understand how this all works, I'm not so great at explaining it! LOL

The numbers at the top of the chart that run from left to right measure frequency (Hz) of sounds. The numbers that run down the left side, from top to bottom are decibels (dB) - or volume - at which those sounds are produced. Looking at the chart you can see that high frequency speech sounds, at conversational volume, are produced at 25-40db, with low frequency sounds being produced in the low 50's.

High frequency sounds are those to the far right of the picture. They are sounds produced at high frequency - or pitch- these include p, h, g, k, t, f, s, th, ch, sh.

Angela's hearing loss is high frequency loss. When she was first diagnosed she tested at 45 dB for anything over 1000 Hz. That means that those speech sounds normally produced at 20 dB she couldn't hear without amplification. She couldn't hear any high frequency sounds produced at less than 45dB. That put her into the mild/moderate range of hearing loss.

Lets take a sample sentence and see what Angela can hear. How about a common direction? "Hang up your coat then put your backpack away."

Now lets remove the sounds we know Angela can't hear:

"ang u your oa en u your a a away."

This is why hearing aids for kids with even a mild hearing loss are so important. A child cannot learn to say sounds they cannot hear.

Angela has been wearing hearing aids since she was first diagnosed. Although she can be difficult to understand, she would be MUCH worse if she'd never worn them. In fact, she would not have intelligible speech at all! Well, when I went to Serbia to adopt Asher, one of Angela's hearing aids disappeared. She won't wear just one because it's very disorienting to having your hearing distorted on one side, so she's been without hearing aids while at home since then. She wears hearing aids at school, along with using an FM system, so she could at least hear in school. But over the summer, when she was without amplification at all, hear speech really regressed badly!

Insurance will only pay for hearing aids once every 5 years, and the insurance available on them is very limited so we had to wait until this month to get new aids ordered. Part of ordering new hearing aids is retesting her hearing. Oh my...Angela's hearing has gotten significantly worse. Take a look at that speech banana again. Angela's bad ear is down to 75dB, and her good ear is down to 55dB. Thankfully, with hearing aids, we can bring her hearing into normal range. We have one more week until we can pick them up!

Boyz room, take TWO!

Last fall I redid the boys' bedroom, giving them some cool beds and creating more space. Then we decided to adopt again, and have been trying to figure out the sleeping arrangements. We have an empty spare bedroom so space wasn't a problem.

The real issue is not knowing the boy who's coming, and the fact he has spent his whole life sharing a room with 15 other kids. When we adopted Axel, he was 2 years out of the institution and had gotten used to sleeping alone. He had no problem having a room tho himself. Asher has never been on his own so I don't know how he'd do if he had a room all to himself.

Thinking maybe Axel would feel left out of the party if we moved him to the empty bedroom, we finally decided to put all three boys in one room. We looked at plans for triple bunk beds, and...well we looked at lots of different options. We ended up getting a second IKEA Kura bed.

Asher LOVES Axel's top bunk, so he's very happy to have his own now. Unfortunately his ladder is covered up so I'm going to add a set of steps for him to get up/down without climbing over his brother. ;-)

There is a fun little hiding place under Asher's bed. All the "younger" toys are in there.

 I'm still trying to decide if I'm moving some of the toys downstairs. Not all of our kids play well without direct supervision so if I  move it all downstairs, that means I'm spending more time down there as well.

 This will work for now. When we have had some time to get to know our new son we'll decide weather or not to make some changes. Angela is now bugging me for bedroom make over. She's about due, but I hate to cover up the pirates!!!

Repost: Naked in My Robe

I posted this 5 years ago today after a run-in with ice on our driveway.
.................................................

C'mon. You've all done it. Throw a robe on to make a trash run, or to grab something out of your car. I, for one, will never again be caught naked in my robe. Surely if I'd been fully clothed I wouldn't be typing this entry one handed!

Let us take a walk back in time to...say...Wednesday, March 12th. At 9:00 a.m I was helping Angela get out the door...naked in my robe. You know, the kind you have to re-tie every 8 seconds? We have this horrible patch of ice right on the front step that is quite large and is head injury waiting to happen. I held her up and skated her across the ice sheet, then watched to make sure she made it down the rest of the driveway ok.

Quick, before the bus came, I turned to go back into the house. I approached the ice carefully, but as you all know, once the fall begins, you're S.O.L. I could see that my head was aimed straight for the cement step, and my immediate instantaneous thought was, "ooohh Don't hit your head! You'll be out here awhile..naked in your robe!" It must have been in that second that I stuck my arm out to...I don't know, push away from the step maybe?

The next thing I knew, 3 body parts hit the ice at once. My left hip (it's a lovely shade of green now) my left cheek (cracked one tooth that now needs to be repaired) and my left hand/wrist/elbow-all-at-once as I heard a horrible C-R-A-C-K sound. The pain told me what happened. I screamed "oh my GOD I broke my ARM!!! Oh my GOD!!! Oh God Oh God!" and then I looked up at my arm (and my hand that was where it shouldn't have been)....and passed out. I'm sure it was only for a few seconds. What woke me up was the feeling of wanting to vomit. That and the cold ice against my now-bare front side.

I tried to just breathe. From where I was laying I could see Angela standing at the bus. Good..she's safe...she didn't hear me screaming. Breathe...the pain was like nothing I'd ever felt before. Breathe...

Getting up and off the ice. Well, I'm not exactly sure how I did it. I was tangled in my robe, and my knees and good hand were slipping on the ice. Makes for a great visual, doesn't it? I managed to get into the house, but by then the world was spinning badly. I found my cell phone but couldn't for the life of me figure out how to open the darned thing. When I finally did I couldn't remember Dean's number. Oh yeah...speed dial.

(your difficulty reading this is the same trouble Dean had understanding me screaming in the phone.)

Dean: Hello?

Me: OHMYGODIBROKEMYARMGETHOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dean: What? Who is this? Leah? What's wrong? What happened?

Me: GETHOMEIBROKEMYARMOHMYGODITHURTSGETHOME!!!!!

Dean: You broke your arm? Honey, I'm THREE HOURS AWAY! I can't get home. Is the neighbor home?

I heard "cant get home" and "neighbor" and hung up the phone. I remembered that speed dial thing and found my neighbor's cell phone on it.

Cindy: Hello?

Me: CANYOUTAKEMETOTHEHOSPITALIBROKEMYARM

Cindy: Huh? Who is this?

Me: Leah can youtakeme tothe hospitalI brokemyarm

Cindy: Oh..oh..I'll be right there! Right THERE!

I got off the phone and realized all 3 big dogs are running around outside, and the neighbor isn't exactly fond of dogs. The puppy was dancing around my feet trying to trip me. I hollered for them all to come in, and got them downstairs into their kennels, carrying the wiggling puppy who hasn't yet mastered stairs in my good arm.

I climbed back upstairs and went to the front window to see Angela just stepping onto the bus, and my neighor Cindy down there as well. That's when I looked down and realized somewhere along the way I'd lost my robe. Now I was just naked, with my hand hanging at a sickening angle. I headed for the bedroom and grabbed my "comfy clothes" which would be jeans and a sweatshirt. Obviously I wasn't thinking too clearly, huh? I managed to button the jeans with one hand (making any OT proud, I'm sure!) and figured out how to get the now tricky sweatshirt on. While hollering "ow...ow...ow" I pushed my broken arm through the sleeve, then pulled the rest over my head. The thought of the pain when I did this still makes me nauseous.

I looked for my shoes, but realized one was still laying out on the ice. I slipped my toes into one shoe and tiptoed outside. There sat my shoe, in the middle of the patch of ice...well out of reach. Grabbing a nearby shovel I dragged the shoe to the safety of the cement and stuck my toes in.

About this time Cindy arrived at the top of the drive with her van, but I couldn't get to her because I had to cross that darned ice, and I told her don't even try it or there won't be anyone to get us to the hospital! Somehow she coaxed me over the death patch, and got me hoisted into her huge 15 passenger van, then asked, "Which hospital should we go to?"

We arrived at one of the area hospitals, got my arm in a sling and some drugs into my system, only to be told it would be a 4-5 hour wait before I'd be seen!!! Cindy had a light bulb moment, "One of my kids had hand surgery at this orthopedic center a couple years ago, and I remember seeing an "acute care center" sign in the building. I wonder if they do stuff like this?" A couple phone calls later (quick, before I was too loopy to sign anything) we were on our way. At least the drugs were kicking in so I wasn't in excruciating pain anymore!

This place is amazing! It's called "Tria Orthopedic Center" It's been there a couple years but since this is the only area of specialty Angela has never needed, I didn't even know it existed!

To give you and idea of the type of care a person gets there, when we pulled in in front of the doors, the concierge came to get me from the van! I was wheeled up to the intake area, and within just a few minutes was taken to X-ray. I have horrible memories from when I was 15 and broke my elbow, and having the techs force my arm into a position it didn't want to go. This tech was so very gentle, and instead of making me turn my arm all over the place, instead slanted the table and made the necessary adjustments that way. I was then brought back out to Cindy, and almost immediately brought back to an exam room.

A couple minutes later the Dr. stuck his head in. "Oh..oops..wrong room. I'll be seeing you next. But, just to let you know, you have a really bad break and are going to be needing surgery." The he disappeared.

GASP

He was back just a minute later and pulled up my xray. I had 3 breaks, a small one on the end of the ulna (the small bone on the outside of your arm) and two breaks on the end of the radious (the larger one on the inside of your arm) and would need a plate or two and some screws installed to put it back together. He asked when I had last eaten and was very excited to hear I hadn't eaten since the night before. It was now 11:00 (I broke my arm at 9:00) and they could get me in for a 1:00 surgery. Had I eaten I would've had to wait until the next morning!

But Dean wasn't there yet, and I really wanted him there before I went in for surgery! He ended up arriving at 12:40. Cindy said a quick prayer for me before leaving us, and we were so very thankful she was able and willing to help me that morning! Without her knowlege of Tria I probably would have gone up to 2 days before having surgery.

Eventually we were brought back and I was seated in a surgical chair. I had an IV placed, and was given some more drugs, and met with the surgeon. (and Dean got to see the xray for the first time. He turned white.) Then the anesthesiologist came in to give me a nerve block in arm. They did this by putting my arm up over my head sticking a v-e-r-y l-o-n-g needle into my arm pit. I felt electrical shock-like sensations zipping through my arm, and Dean said, "Oh cool!" as my fingers jumped around. That's the last memory I have prior to surgery. Dean later told me that after the electrical zingers in my fingers they took a bigger needle and shot stuff right into the bones of my arm. BLECH! Glad I don't remember that!

The next thing I remember is waking up in the recovery room, my head hanging on my chest, and wiping the drool off my chin. I asked for Dean and he appeared from some far away fog. We sure didn't sit there very long! I know I was in surgery for about an hour and a half, and we were home by 5:30!

That night was all about heavy drugs and lots of sleep. Well, really the next two days were. By Saturday I was off everything but Tylenol, which of course I had to overdo a bit, putting me back on drugs for Sunday. If you called during those first couple of days, it's likely I don't remember it, and cannot be held responsible for any promises of "I'll call you back"!

It's a Birthday!

If there's one thing our kids love, it's a birthday!

Angela knows the date of every birthday in our family, and possibly your family too. Today is Dean's birthday and Angela has been counting down for several weeks. She doesn't even keep her motive secret though. The whole purpose of knowing everyone else's birthday is so she can measure how close we are to her birthday!

The kids made cards for Dad.

It's been awhile, but Dean and I are going to try something we haven't done in ages. That's right, we're going OUT. With "grown ups". We're meeting up with Dean's twin brother Dave and wife Sandy. Dean made something from scratch for his brother.

A very happy birthday to the best friend a girl could ever ask for. Love you Babe!

And the sickies hit AGAIN!

The beginning of February everyone here was really sick. Well, everyone but me. I managed to escape the influenza bug this year. Asher was down just a day or two. Dean was sick well over a week, Axel a few days. Angela had it the worst of all of us because it triggered her asthma which took several weeks for her lungs to recover.

And now there is something else upon us.

On Thursday last week we were innocently going through our morning routine; Angela getting her backpack/jacket on, Axel getting dressed and Asher sitting on the pot.

I was in supervisor mode, walking through checking on everyone when I heard...I heard a noise I have not heard in 16 years. Dean had never heard the noise before and looked confused, "What was THAT?" he asked.

"OMG THAT WAS PUKING!" I hollered as I ran for Asher in the bathroom.

Yes. Yes my mind had remembered that sound correctly.

I don't do puke. I can clean up a lot of things, but puke is not one of them. When big brother Tyler was a kid he used to get carsick all the time. It started when he was just an infant, so by the time he was 4 he could independently manage his puke bucket and towels in the car. All I had to do was roll down all the windows. :-)

As I lifted Asher to the bathtub I hollered for Dean to bring paper towels. Lots of 'em. When he came back with the paper towelsI don't even think he came into the bathroom. No, I think he just threw them at me and ran. "I don't do puke" he said. Really???? So I should just leave Asher here in the mess because I don't do puke either? "Sorry kid, you're on your own with this one. We don't do puke." But I am the mom, so I stayed. Dean, on the other hand, didn't say a word and supervised Angela and Axel through the rest of the morning. You know, don't draw attention to yourself and nobody will make you deal with the puke.

There is one thing about cleaning up puke, and that is I never really know where to start. I mean, do you clean up the kid first or the floor? Since it wasn't really possible to walk in the bathroom without stepping in puke, I opted to start with the floor first. That was great until I realized - too late - that Asher was standing in the tub leaning over me.

And WHY IN GOD'S NAME did He...the same god who gave me these beautiful children - why did He give us mom's the reflex to CATCH things???? ALL things?

Eventually I got the floor cleaned up, the kid cleaned up, the tub cleaned up, and then I got me cleaned up. I wasn't really sure where to put the puking Asher now. Hmmm Somewhere that can be wiped clean, but the hardwood floor didn't seem like the most comfortable option. I laid him on his bed and images of washer load after washer load of puke bedding flashed before my eyes. I stripped his sheets and let him lay on the vinyl mattress cover. Thank you to whoever invented those! They are great for puking kids! It did look a bit like a scened from an institution, but I didn't care. I was more concerned about avoiding more laundry.

I left Asher there while I went to wash my hands for the 27th time in 30 minutes when I heard that noise again. I went running back to find Asher sitting not on his bed, but on the other side of the room and he had puked all over the carpet. Lord Jesus help me! I put him through another rapid bathing and put him back on his bed then ran downstairs to get the carpet machine.

I passed Dean who was sitting quietly in the living room, minding his own business. I must have looked like I needed help because Dean was working from home that day, but when he saw me he suddenly slammed his laptop closed and ran for his shoes. "I'm outta here!"  he said, and I'm pretty sure he was smiling as the door closed behind him.

Now, this thing...this carpet machine... is brand new. I bought it when we had a pipe burst back in November and have only used it one time. It is a whole lot of awesomeness. Yeah, well, things are a lot of fun until the carpet cleaner craps out on you in your time of need!!!!

I spent the next two hours trying to unclog tubes that I decided must be the problem, stopping every 10 minutes or so to clean up more puke. He hadn't even eaten that much in the last 24 hours, how could there be SO MUCH???

Eventually Thursday ended, as did Friday and the weekend. Today is Monday and Asher stayed home with me again. He'll be home tomorrow again too. What a lovely lovely thing. NOT!

Soaker Pads

This post is for my dog breeder friends. :-)

Hospital Soaker Pads make for awesome whelping pen bedding! They lay flat, are super absorbent with a waterproof backing and wear like steel!! When using in a whelping pen, put down several layers. As they become soiled just pull up the top pad and you have a fresh clean one underneath!

Hospital Soaker pads also make great dog blankets to give to your puppy families. Living in Minnesota we put them in our dog kennels to soak up all the water after our dogs have been out playing in the snow.

Pads are 32x32 with a waterproof backing

Boxes of 10, discounts for multiple boxes!!

Questions? EMAIL ME

Orders shipped within Continental US only

How many do you need?

10 $60.00 USD 20 $115.00 USD 30 $175.00 USD 40 $230.00 USD 50 $285.00 USD

It's Fixed!

I was receiving emails from people saying the paypal button on the KINDLE fundraiser wasn't working. After messing around all morning I finally got it fixed!!! We're running out of time to raise the last of the money we need, being short $1900, and leaving in 34 days.

OMG!

Like most kids in the U.S. Angela carries a backpack to school.

A couple weeks ago I had to drop her off after an appointment. This meant taking her down to her Special Ed. classroom (which was empty) getting her hearing aids on and her FM system hooked up, then finding where she was supposed to be.  Although there wasn't anything in Angela's backpack that she needed, she still insisted upon carrying it with her. This was clearly her routine so I didn't say anything. It was a looooooong, winding walk to the other end of the school. I wasn't sure I'd be able to find my way back to the front doors! I had a hard time keeping up to Angela who was clearly on a mission go get there quickly.

Watching Angela lean into her backpack it occurred to me she wears it more for sensory input than because she needs anything in there. She likes deep pressure and "heavy" work. Some days she crams a lot of stuff in it: phy ed clothes, hockey helmet, water bottle, etc. In the summertime she often gets puts a ton of stuff in a backpack and goes "exploring" around the yard. She has nicely taught Axel how to put all this random crap in backpacks then later dump it out all over the bedroom put it away.

And then this morning happened.

It had already been a rough morning; her obsessing over the fact the collar of her shirt got wet when we were doing her hair, me telling her to stop obsessing, which of course makes her obsess more. This evolved into her refusing to leave the bathroom mirror which was about to cause her to miss the bus. "If you miss your bus you will NOT be watching any of your shows after school and I am not EVEN going to give in on that one later on!"

"Fine!" she yelled.

"Fine!" I said back.

She gave a big growl.

After realizing the world would end if she didn't watch her shows, she finally conceded with, "I need a new shirt."

"Well then you better hurry UP because your bus is coming in 5 minutes." (and we have a long icy driveway that is difficult for her to navigate.)

I haven't yet checked, but based on historical evidence, I'm sure she ripped apart her closet to find just the right shirt.

She raced back up the stairs and got her jacket and shoes on. As she slung that backpack on I wanted to know what she had in there that was so heavy.

I reached in.

I pulled out two sets of phy. ed. clothes, two planners and a folder. I reached further down and found a water bottle that hadn't been properly closed because it was quite damp in there.

And then...then I reached further, until my hand found....

Slime.

A lot of it.

That's when I realized the bottoms of the folders and planners I'd pulled out were covered in it. After yesterdays vomiting episodes with Asher I was still pretty gaggy myself. OMG...this was nasty.

"Oh my God what do you HAVE in here???????"

Apparently when Angela is done with lunch she's been putting her left over fruit in her backpack. There was now both a LIQUID banana and a slimy apple at the bottom of her back. I still can't figure out why it didn't smell. A mystery that will probably never be solved.

I did what any good mother would do and threw the entire backpack and it's contents into the trash. Well, I did save her Lands End mittens because they're awesome, but everything else went out.

Years ago Angela had a clear backpack. I loved that thing because I could always see she's brought something home for me. I think it's time to go back!

This n That

Angela is just entering her last week of floor hockey season. She really loves floor hockey! Unfortunately the season started right when she got sick. She missed the first 3 weeks and it's a short season. Angela has been playing since 7th grade but last year was the first she really seemed to understand the game. Unfortunately "understanding" and "keeping up" are two very different things. She is usually several seconds behind the puck. The good thing is, she doesn't care!! She does lot of running around and it's great exercise for her. She's easy to pick out in this video, wearing her new bright pink shoes. LOL


This year she's been so busy with cheerleading, soccer and swimming, then floor hockey. While most people have trouble keeping their kids busy during the winter, we have the opposite problem. Angela is super busy all winter long but when softball season rolls around (in two weeks!) the activity level drops significantly. Special Olympics track and field wills start while we're in Serbia, but it's only twice a week. Maybe I will get us moving more with family walks this summer.

Axel is doing tremendous in school. He is really hitting some developmental leaps right now! He has also started writing and drawing on his own.

He wrote Tyler's name on his own. He got it almost right. LOL

He drew a bus. It starts with "B". Can you see where he drew himself in the door of the bus?

 We're really working on his last name now. I won't let him just write his first name anymore. He's getting it. 

Asher...Asher...Asher. We had his IEP last week. The district is hoping to have a new special ed classroom on our end of town next year. I asked how many kids they need to open it. ;-) This  year he has been fully included in a regular ed. kindergarten classroom and it's been going really well, particularly once he got a 1:1 aid who is fluent in ASL. (Asher adores her!) His teacher is fantastic too. While Asher is developmentally 24-28 months old, it has been really good for him to see that kids TALK, and the play with toys, and just generally how they act. Never in his life has he been around typically developing kids. This has been really helpful for him and he's trying so hard to talk now. We have a solid "bye!" which is adorable. He has several other word approximations he uses as well, and his singing has increased exponentially. Asher has never been fishing in his life, nor has he been in or seen a boat in real life. As I type this Dean is sitting on the couch stringing fishing rods and Asher just signed to him "boat" and was all excited to see what he was doing. 

Asher is a daddy's boy. Yesterday we got paint for the main bathroom. Asher helped carry the paint.

I have implemented a "tough love" program for Asher and his eating. He doesn't have the stamina yet to eat and entire meal but he'll never increase his stamina if he's not made to do it. On Thursday he came home from school and I gave him pancakes for lunch, cut up as finger food. He isn't very fond of finger food since he was never allowed to use his fingers in the institution, but using his fingers allows him to place the food in his teeth.  When I gave him the pancakes he ate 2 or 3 bites and politely pushed it away. I didn't say a word. I gave him time to eat while I ate my lunch, and when I was done I put it all away. When lunch is done, it is done. 

We went to therapy where he had PT on an empty stomach. Dinner time rolled around and I knew he had to be starving. I gave him a 1/2 tuna sandwich and  he wolfed it down!  Then I gave him some stuff that doesn't require chewing. 

Friday he's at school full day so I have to send food they don't have to worry about so it was a wash. However, Friday evening he fell asleep on the couch at 5:00 and slept until 6:00 the next morning! He had slept right through dinner so I knew he'd be famished at breakfast time. He came to get me out of bed carrying his box of baby cereal then got himself a bowl and spoon. Sorry buddy, no baby cereal for you! I made him a waffle and he ate the whole thing without any prompting. Then I gave him a yogurt and some fruit puree to top him off. 

Except for breakfast this morning he has eaten finger food all weekend! He gets about 1/2 the meal as finger food then when he's done with that I give him something easier. We'll keep it at this level for a couple of weeks then up the ante to eating full meals. I'm so proud of him. This has been a real challenge for Asher - and me - but will make some things in life so much easier, particularly going to restaurants and eating at school. 

Prepositions

Asher has been working hard to learn his prepositions. I think it's really cool I haven't had to do any of the teaching. Nope, he's doing it all on his own! The last several weeks he has focused his area of studies to "On", "in", "under' and "up"

Under the table

Under chairs in waiting rooms

Back under the table

Don't forget "up"!

and in

and more "up"!

Dear God

Dear God,

I have tried to be so patient with this chewing business. I knew it would take a long time to overcome the 7 years of pureed foods that Asher received his entire life. We spent months pureeing everything while working on his oral motor strength and...you know...teaching him that he HAS a tongue.
Once he had some strength built up we worked on learning to bite, which he can do very well now and actually has for several months. Several months. He CAN chew now, but not for very long. But most important, he doesn't WANT to chew.

God, I am bored with this now, and pretty much done. Really, it is time to move on to other things. Only I don't want to be pureeing everything for him forever either. So, if I could just ask that you flip whatever switch it is you have up there with you. The chewing switch. That would be grew. Ok?

Thanks and Amen

Adoption Blog

If you're not following our adoption blog, tonight we started an awesome fundraiser! Please go have a look-see! 

What Time Is It?

Axel has been working on telling time. He is pretty obsessed with clocks right now. Just last week he was introduced to telling time to the hour. He was really excited to bring home homework!

Neglected Blog

I know! I'm sorry! It seems most of the blogging I'm doing now, which still isn't very much, is over on my adoption blog. Things have been kinda busy!

But, I'll leave you with something cute. We had a bit of a snowstorm over the weekend. Sunday turned into a BEAUTIFUL day!!!

Do you see the snowball headed my direction?

Some Days

Some days a kid just needs to sleep.

Last night I picked Angela up from floor hockey practice and I could tell she was just wiped out. He leads a busy day you know. Just like most high school students do. The difference is it takes more than the typical amount of energy for her to make it through her days.

For several years, I think the beginning of 3rd through the end of 6th grade, Angela had a shortened school day. She just could not make it through a whole day. When she was there all day staff spent a majority of their time redirecting behaviors and trying to keep everyone else safe. What we didn't know was she was having nocturnal migraines and daytime and nocturnal seizures. Once we got those things diagnosed she was a totally different kid. The majority of difficult behavior was gone and she was suddenly able to not only make it through a full day of school, but also extracurricular activities.

Unfortunately the last several weeks have been so rough on her system. Her lungs still haven't settled down and her asthma continues to be a major issue. (in fact, as I type this, I'm waiting for her doctor's office to open so oral prednisone can be called in.)

This morning I made a judgement call. Although she was in bed at 7:00 last night, she was still out cold when it was time to get her up at 5:30 this morning. I'll admit I didn't try too hard to wake her up, but as I type she's been sleeping for 13 hours. Something told me today was one of "those" days. Some days she just needs a day to sleep. She might wake up energized and ready for school, or she might sleep a couple more hours and still be groggy. It's a "wait and see" kind of day. Wait and see how she's doing before I make a decision as to weather or not she's going to school. She does have a floor hockey game today that she won't be happy to miss if she doesn't go, but some days....some days she just needs a day to recoup in the middle of the week. 

Today's randomness

Angela is back to school, but she's having to do nebulizer treatments twice a day at school, plus the ones she does at home. This is a very bad year for her asthma! Her lungs still haven't settled down from her hospital stay.

.................

A couple weeks ago, whenever someone came to the door, Asher started making this funny noise. It took us a couple times to realize he's barking like the dogs. Dudley is his favorite dog and he often comes running into the room just to hug on Dudley a bit. I think because Dudley doesn't tell him no like the rest of us do. (because these are not "love" hugs, these are "I need to squeeze the living daylights out of something!" hugs.)  Now whenever Dudley yawns, Asher imitates him with a big, exaggerated, tongue sticking out yawn. LOL

................

Axel was just eating breakfast. He's very concerned about the whole bussing schedule in the mornings because, well he just is. He just told me, (in sign)  "Mom. Bus comes. Stop. Axel on the bus. Bus drives away." 

.................

Axel is going through  learning explosion. Suddenly he understands the concept of adding. His counting isn't consistent so he doesn't end up with the right answer, but he understands the basic adding concept. He is also learning to tell time to the hour, and reading sight words. I can't wait for him to see his old social workers in Serbia and show him off a bit! 

.................

Asher is also in a little learning leap! Now in the mornings when we're waiting for the bus  he says, "Buh Buh!" for bus. When Dean comes home from work Asher comes running to tell me (in sign) "Daddy! Daddy!" Just now he finished eating breakfast and came to tell me "Ba Ba!" while signing bath. He went running to the bathroom when I told him to go take his clothes off. Oh how this child loves water! Before I could make it to the bathroom he was hollering "Ma Ma Ma!" When I got in there he was sitting naked in the bathtub waiting for me. LOL

.............

Angela was very excited to be back to floor hockey! She missed two weeks of practice. Last night was her first game (and first day back to hockey!) and she did great. She was pretty wheezy afterward though. I cannot wait for spring and I think Angela agrees with me. 

................

In school Angela's broadcasting class just finished producing a PSA about the R-word. I think the plan is for it to air in her school in March for Spread the Word to End the Word. 

I hope you have a wonderful day! Mine promises to be busy busy busy! Oh, guess what? I filed my taxes at midnight on January 31st! Do I win the early filing award?

Just Another Friday Night

Friday.

It was supposed to be very quiet day. Well, I guess it was but now that it's 10:00 pm it feels like it was quite busy. I guess it just depends what side of the morning I'm looking at, huh?

We're having record cold here in MN this week. To cold, in fact, to send the kids to the bus stop on their own, so at 6:45 Angela and I were sitting in the freezing car waiting for her bus. It was -2 with a wind chill of -40. Brrrrrrr  Because of the ice I escorted  her across the street and around the front of the bus. In my pajamas. With bed hair. Just a little while later Dean walked (ok ran) Axel down to his bus, and another 90 minutes later I was again in the cold car with Asher waiting for his bus. Brrrrrrrrr

Dean was off work today, so I left him lounging on the couch while I went to run some errands. On the way I realized I was going to be going right past my good friend Kathie's house and decided to call and see if she was up for a drop-in visitor. That's when I realized I didn't have my phone with me. Ruh roh! It is very rare I forget my phone. The kids are spread out among three different schools and it's an unusual day that I someone's teacher doesn't call or text me. Being a woman of fantastic priorities, I stopped at my friends and we visited for quite awhile. I don't get to see any of my real life friends very often so it was a really refreshing visit.

It was almost 1:30 by the time I got home. I walked in to find Dean baking chocolate chip cookies. (is he not the best husband EVER?) He said "Hi!" very quietly and pointed to the couch. There was Asher, sound asleep buried under blankets. Of course today was the day school called! Thankfully they were easily able to reach Dean and he went to get Asher from school. Poor baby was asleep on the couch with his 101* fever.

Before we knew it the big kids were coming home. Dean made dinner (see? AWESOME MAN!) then we were just hanging out. Asher had perked up thanks to some Tylenol so the kids and I were having fun singing some action songs. Somehow this turned into Axel showing us how he could do push-ups. (and he does them quite well!) Then Angela decided to lead them through stretching exercises which included push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, and some strange contortionist thing she had going on!

I decided to teach Axel and Angela how to arm wrestle. Apparently she already knows how, because when I asked her if she wanted to arm wrestle, she whipped up her sleeves and declared, "BRING IT!!!" and set her elbow down to wrestle!

A family arm wrestling tournament ensued.

Then I had the brilliant idea to challenge Dean to an indian wrestling dual. On the hardwood floor because we trashed our area rug months ago.

Did you indian wrestle as a kid? It's when you lay on your back, the other person lays next to you but with their head by your feet. You each bring up the leg closest to the other person, hook legs and try to pull the other person over.

Indian wrestling is not meant for two very out-of-shape middle-aged adults. Just say'in!

Now the kids are all in bed and Dean and I are both taking Ibuprofen. And also, he kicked my butt wrestling.