Thanksgiving

alert: wild grandmas

it just makes me smile

I inherited a piano. The piano that I played as a little girl. The piano that my mom played on as a little girl too.

Jonah started lessons in September. I couldn't be more proud.

The World's Best Grandparents

football & friends

We tried soccer with Jonah when he was in preschool. It didn't work. He tackled the other players instead of kicking the ball and emptied his teammates' water bottles on the sidelines. I spent the majority of the games yelling at him from the other side of the field because he wasn't doing what he was supposed to do.

Since that time, we've been a little nervous about typical organized sports. His OT, Miss Kim, has always discouraged us, explaining that his ability to think about plays while trying to fulfill his sensory needs, wouldn't really work. He'd end up doing what he wanted to do on the field and not really following the coaches' plans. It made since to me so Tae-Kwon-Do has been his sport, and we haven't felt the need to do anything "typical."

Until now. Jonah really wanted to play football this year. I was nervous about it. He's on a team with a lot of this friends, and I told the coach beforehand that the best place for him was on defense. If he could just run after the kid with the ball and pull his flag, then I thought he would do well.

Jonah successfully managed his first football game today, and we couldn't be more proud! He did what he was supposed to do. He was appropriately aggressive. He tried hard. He didn't make bad choices. And he fit in with all the other boys!

Happy Day

We took a few quick pictures before going to see the orthopedic doctor because...

Lydia gets her cast off today!!!

Celebrating Lydia

Lydia turned five last week. We opted for a small party with Pop and Grammy. She spent a few days deciding on the perfect restaurant. Can you guess where we are?

I realize I never blogged about her broken wrist. She gets her cast off on Thursday. She hasn't complained ONE BIT.

She is my little blessing, my sunshine, and my pride and joy. I'm so proud of the girl God created her to be.

In typical Lydia fashion, she was a little shy when we were singing to her-- represented by her trademark tongue in bottom lip.


While we were asking her to choose a restaurant, we were also asking her what kind of cake she wanted me to bake for her. She LABORED over the decision before asking for the "cookie cake" at the grocery store bakery. Okay. That was easy.


Fancy Nancy Colorforms from big brother.

We love you, Ray-Ray!

Vaca

I just posted our vacation pictures on Facebook. You can view them here: It just takes too doggone long to upload them to Blogger!

There's one story that I hope I can articulate. Jonah and Lydia went tubing for the first time. They both enjoyed it. On our final boat trip we asked Jonah what he wanted to do one last time. Did he want to get on the jet ski or go tubing? He wanted to ride the tube by himself.

He knew that a "thumbs up" was the signal for going faster. Throughout his whole ride, he had his thumb up in the air. That, alone, caused me to giggle. Ashley's sister was driving and was pretty timid about going too fast for him-- especially after Lydia had bounced six feet in the air before diving head first in the water moments before!

So during his inaugural solo ride, he was sitting in the tube with his thumb up in the air as we were cruising through the lake back to the dock. After about five minutes, he put his thumb down...but wait... it was back in the air. Oh no. It was back down again....then it was back in the air!

His eyes were closed from water spraying his face. I could tell that it was probably a little hard to breathe because of the water spraying, but he just kept switching back and forth between a thumbs up and a thumbs down.

At this point, we were all giggling at his determination and desire for a fast, adventure-filled ride. Suddenly he leaned over the front of the tube. Oh no. Was he going to vomit? Jonah doesn't have motion sickness. What was wrong?

STOP THE BOAT!

He sat up tall and held his left arm in the air with his elbow a little bent.

He was giving us a signal. What did it mean?

Wait. There were hand signals printed on the tube!

He was leaning over the front, reading the hand signals! In the midst of trying to get a breath while water-- as he said later was "stinging his eyes,"-- he was reading the tube to give us the proper hand signal :)

Totally Jonah.

As he climbed back on the boat with a big smile on his face, we asked what his hand signal represented.

GO BACK TO THE DOCK.

Of course it did.

Calais Virginia

We spent the week at my sister-in-law's parent's lake house. We had a delightful time. I was just going through this week's pictures and had to show this one right away. I love it. We miss her already :)

our dancer

Someone has a dance recital tomorrow night...

He's Published!

Check out the top article.

a sneak peek

I thought I would give a little sneak peek via my personal blog. The Falders spent some time with the Chicago Smiths this weekend. We love our cousins!

I can't wait to show you more... :)

Today

While setting up for a session today, I had the kids step in front of the camera so I could check my lighting.

Here they are...just as they are.

Demorest Designs

Most of you know my friend Beth of Demorest Designs has a God given talent for interior design. I'm blessed to call her my friend, but I'm also blessed to exchange talents with her! We did Jonah's room a year ago, but we hadn't put forth the effort to take "after" pictures for her blog/business portfolio.

They're done. Finally. Check 'em out!

Look!

Look what happened in math class today!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Look at my photography blog!

Cousins

They really enjoyed being together tonight.

Perhaps a bit too much... :)

Never a dull moment...

I can never let down my guard. I know that. Sometimes I just forget.

Jonah is seven. It shouldn't be unreasonable to give him his privacy in the bathroom. But sometimes what's "reasonable" doesn't work in Jonah's world. The kids were upstairs playing. I was getting a few chores done downstairs before starting homeschool. I think it may have been Lydia who called me although I don't really remember.

I ran upstairs and was greeted to an inch of water in our bathroom with water continuing to pour out of the toilet. Jonah was sitting on the counter and Lydia must have been in the hallway. I screamed. And then frantically paced the floor.

I ran downstairs to put on some boots, ran back upstairs, moved Jonah, and then paced a bit more.

Hmmm. Call Mike.

Oh yeah, Mike was in Chicago for the day. Lovely.

I still called him.

Crying.

He told me to gather towels to get it cleaned up.

"No, you don't understand!!! It would take ALL DAY to clean up with towels and the water is not clean!!! There's toilet paper and other 'stuff' in it!!"

He advised me to get the shop vac.

Lesson #1: how to remove the filter so that the shop vac can handle water.

Without giving too much information, Jonah was a little dirty, so I sent him to the shower while I prepared the shop vac. In the meantime, the nasty water was still just sitting upstairs...or so I thought. After Jonah got out of the shower and I was, by this time, back upstairs shop vaccing (is that even a word?), Jonah yelled to me that water was coming into my closet.

My closet?!!!!!

It was pouring through the second floor bathroom into the light fixture in the closet ceiling on the first floor. Lots of it. Two and a half buckets to be exact.

I put Jonah and Lydia on "switch the bucket" duty and prayed that he would be kind to her while I continued to shop vac the water in the bathroom. Then I prayed for patience...and more patience... and lots of patience.

I felt like Superwoman. Really, I did.

I'll spare you the other details.

Insurance was called the next day. Serv-Pro was here quickly thereafter. I won't discuss the three days we lived with seven industrial fans blowing constantly in our home, "cooking" the moisture out of the wood with 118 degree temperatures in both rooms.

The ceiling in our closet was removed. So was the bathroom floor and some of the hallway carpet. We have towels in place to protect ourselves from the sharp tack strips!


I think Jonah learned his lesson-- although you never really know....:)

Florida

Mike and I were able to take a little trip with friends last week. Check out a few pictures on my photography blog!

This could be us...

Don't you think?

Yeah!

I got great news on Friday night. I was chosen as one of the top photographers to be listed on the Matilda Jane website. There were nearly 1000 entries and they chose 59. It was completely unexpected so I'm still in shock :)

This is actually a contest with one winner. My goal was just to make it through the first round, but I've been encouraged by friends/family to not give up yet! Round 2 is to photograph a little girl (probably Lydia) in a dress they're sending me in the mail this week.

Thanks for your help!

This is it!

You swayed my opinion. I'm trusting you. Here's my entry!

A Profound Moment

I know that as Jonah gets older he'll be able to articulate things about SPD that we just can't understand. We get little glimpses of it right now-- like when he told me last year that he didn't want to go to the basketball game because "that thing" (the buzzer) hurt his ears.

We discussed the anatomy of the ear yesterday in homeschool. At the beginning of the lesson we were supposed to be quiet for 30 seconds and just listen. I heard a fan in Lydia's room and her quietly read books. That's all. It was a quiet house. After about ten seconds of silence, Jonah said something like, "When my brain processes, it makes this [humming] sound."

"What do you mean?"

"When it's quiet I always hear this [humming] sound in my brain."

"What does it sound like? Like this [humming] or like this [I made a few other noises just to clarify]."

He made a monotone hum noise. That's the best way I know to describe it.

I got tears in my eyes.

"Do you hear this all the time when it's quiet?"

"Yes. Well, not all the time, but a lot of the time. It ANNOYS me."

"So is that why you make loud noises when you play?"

"Yes..."

and the conversation was over. He didn't want to talk about it anymore.

I was dumbfounded. All the research I've done has said nothing about this, but it makes a lot of sense to me. His OT has told me that his SPD gives him the feeling that he wants to crawl out of his own skin all the time. Yep. I'd say. If I heard a humming when I was quiet, I'd want to crawl out of my skin too!

I brought it up again at the dinner table. It was a nice family dinner. Jonah was in sync. I asked him to make the sound for Mike.

He paused and waited in silence. We all did too. He was waiting for it to appear in his head. After about six seconds, he hummed aloud, apparently joining in with the sound he could hear.

I'm fascinated.. and sad...and overwhelmed...and amazed...and so thankful.

Today I learned why being still is difficult for him.

opinions, please

I'm getting ready to enter a Matilda Jane photo contest. The advantage for me is if I'm one of the 50 photographers they choose for the first round, I'll be listed as a "photographer" on their new website. This should bring in great business with great clients. They have very specific requirements for the way the photograph needed to be cropped; therefore, my choices were limited. Here are a few of my favorites. If you were me, which one would you send in to the company? I can only choose ONE. It needs to represent me well, but I also want it to stand out with the hundreds of other photographs they'll receive of cute girls wearing their clothes.

Number 1:

Number 2: one negative to this photograph is that my lens wasn't as good so the quality isn't as good as the others...

Number 3:

Number 4: