Disney World

September is a great time to visit Disney. We had a wonderful, fun-filled day without waiting in lines! Here are a few highlights:

1. Jonah stood and watched Splash Mountain for 20 minutes, trying to decide if he wanted to ride. This was a new experience for us, i.e., Jonah with a fear. He thought there were monsters that would come from the water.


2. Lydia persuaded Pop and Grammy to buy her a Pooh Bear. She's never been a stuffed animal lover but she's sleeping with her Pooh Bear as I write.


3. Jonah decided that Peter Pan and Buzz Lightyear rides were too scary too. Amazingly, he said he wanted to ride Space Mountain. He rode it-- and rode it again-- and rode it again-- and rode it again. He rode it six times!! He was on his way to number seven when a different employee decided that he wasn't the 44 inches that were required to ride.

Here are a few other favorites:

Guess who turned five today?

Cousins

All the Ways Lydia is Displaying her "Twoness:"

1. She wants to "choose" everything to a degree we never thought possible-- shirts, pants, shoes, cups, cheese sticks, blankets, toys, crayons, socks, underwear, cereal, snacks, pajamas, etc.

2. She's learned that "time out" is not a fun place to be.

3. She wants to do everything "elf," i.e., by herself-- getting water from the fridge door, putting on her clothes, wiping her bottom, carrying her clean clothes up the stairs, putting laundry in the washer, etc.

4. She's developing her feisty spirit. I heard myself say, "Lydia, quit jumping off the couch onto Jonah; you're going to hurt him."

5. Her verbal language is drastically improving. When Mike says that she's "Daddy's girl," she always says with a smirk on her face, "No, Mommy's girl." Tonight, at the end of a long day, Mike said, "You're Daddy's ragamuffin," to which she cleverly responded "No, Mommy's muffin."

What would I do without her?!!!!

This is Me

This is what I get for coordinating MOPS, agreeing to work in the admissions office, hosting a garage sale, making meals for new moms, hosting friends from Alma, starting a photography business, hosting 22 new college freshman, working in the church nursery, attending soccer games, and trying to keep up with the everyday demands of laundry, cooking, cleaning, and parenting.
I'm hoping next week will return to normal.

School!

School started today!

It's a bit of a teaser for me, actually. Jonah is attending the special needs preschool from last year on Monday afternoons. I never intended to send him another year, but he'll receive speech and occupational therapy during his school day, and I thought it would be a better transition if we continued with their special needs services throughout the year so when he's back at the school next year for kindergarten, they'll be more aware of his needs, the progress he's made this year, etc.

His teacher from last year visited our home last week (she visits everyone's home in her class; I'm sure it's a very interesting thing to do). While holding back tears, she explained to me what a better teacher she'll be this year now that she's a mother (I think her son is four months old). She also told me that last year was just a bad year since her energy level was so low from the pregnancy. I felt like it was her way of apologizing to me for her attitude toward Jonah last year. I think if she would reread some of the notes she sent home, she'd be embarrassed and mortified at the way she described my child now that she has a child of her own.

He starts his "five year old preschool" next week. He'll go there three afternoons a week. I have high hopes for this school, his teacher, and the progress we'll see him make this year. I'm driving 15 minutes away, passing one perfectly good school, and giving up carpooling options to another school because I just feel good about this place. I'd like to think that it's what God has for Jonah this year, allowing us to exhale a bit.

And since I'm kinda on the subject, we were excited to learn that Miss Kim, the OT, has a place for Jonah in her fall schedule. We'll be traveling every Friday afternoon to see her.

This child of mine is so loving and so smart and so fun...and so overwhelming. As I've said before, I know that God gave him to me because I'm the best parent for him. I have to tell myself that everyday-- literally-- so that I don't feel discouraged. But then I see pictures like this and think, my golly, he's worth every ounce of emotional energy, don't you think?

ELF!

Lydia wants to do EXACTLY what we're doing all the time. If I'm mopping, she wants to mop. If I'm folding clothes, she wants to fold clothes too. If I'm setting the table, she wants to set the table too. Today she got into the battery stash and was attempting to change batteries in a toy that needed new ones before I saw what she was doing. Everything is "elf." She wants to do it HERSELF.

So at small group on Sunday, I chuckled when she approached Mike with her version of roasting marshmallows. I have no doubt that she helped herself to a marshmallow and then went hunting to find the stick.

She's my little lady.

Mom

I thought it would be fun to have a mini photo session with my mom. We took a few pictures around her house. I think she looks great, don't you?

Soccer

Jonah is playing his first sport. We opted out of t-ball, thinking that it wouldn't be active enough for him, but I'm very pleased with how he's doing in soccer. I just want him to fit in-- and he is.




And my personal favorite...
During the last quarter, Jonah and Logan were just too tired to play, but they certainly weren't too tired to stand on their heads on the bench! (You can enlarge it for more details.)

After the game was over, he asked for a pretzel and looked at me so seriously.

"Mom, we lost and I didn't score any goals."

That's okay, Bud.

He fit-in and enjoyed himself. That's enough to bring a smile to my face.

A Day at the Zoo

Jonah's favorite person right now is Pop.

Pretending to be a prairie dog...

Lydia's hands were "cold!"

Uncle T

I think the wrinkled nose is a family trait:

Princess Lydia

I just found this picture from a few weeks ago:

I'm happy to inform that Princess Lydia is wearing underwear everyday now!

Imagination at Work

Jonah has never been focused on imaginary play. Imagine my delight when I discovered he had set up a movie theatre in his bedroom with a concession stand. The movie "screen" consisted of a pile of books, blankets, towels, and miscellaneous toys that I was instructed to keep my eyes on and give the play-by-play of what was taking place in the movie.

My favorite part was the attempt at taping the "50 [cents]" sign to the table :)

The Petting Zoo

Family

Wow!

Look what we found outside the front door!

We've named her "deer." She's our friend.

Man's Best Friend

We've been at my parents' house for over a week while Mike is taking his intensive summer classes. My parents' neighbors have two dogs, Morgan and Annie. Jonah loves these dogs. He talks to these dogs like they're humans (remember folks, I'm not much of an animal lover), and he played with them for over an hour in the backyard. That's an accomplishment.

Poor boy, he'll never have a dog of his own.

Our Mastercard Commercial

A tank of gas: $77.00
A box of pudding: $1.00
A week at Pop & Grammy's house: Priceless

Brothers

I know my brother-in-law, Alex, and my husband are two different people, but this post from Alex's brother-in-law just describes one of their similar characteristics perfectly.

Not only was my husband talking about buying fireworks for the entire week before the 4th of July, he, too, will always choose the $20 _________________ over the $2_________________.

Excitement

Look what we're building!

Yesterday

I have a wonderful husband. My birthday was yesterday, and he planned an event-filled day for me to enjoy. My morning started with a surprise massage, followed by an informal party with Alex and Tricia, and then ended with a surprise evening out with friends.


Although this picture is horribly blurry, I just had to document the cake that was so lovingly prepared for me :)

I have a wonderful group of friends here that are so supportive and fun and helpful and encouraging.

Thanks, everyone, for a great day!

The Farm

"Community Supported Agriculture or CSA is a unique model of local agriculture whose roots reach back 30 years to Japan, where a group of women were concerned with the use of pesticides. Originally called "teikei" in Japanese, which translates to "putting the farmers' face on food," the concept later moved to Europe. Eventually, in the mid-1930's CSA made its way to the U.S.
It’s about FRESH, quality, locally grown produce direct from the farmers; from YOUR farm!
Being part of a CSA is a relationship of mutual support and commitment between local farmers and community members who pay the farmer an annual membership fee to cover the production costs of the farm. In turn, members receive a weekly share of the harvest during the local growing season. This arrangement gives the farmer a direct connection to and relationship with the consumer.
Ultimately, CSA creates "COMMUNITY-SUPPORTED-AGRICULTURE" where members receive a wide variety of local in-season foods harvested at their peak of ripeness, flavor and vitamin and mineral content."

I took this information from our farm's website. We share a membership with my cousins and bring home delicious vegetables each week. The kids love going. Typically, food is bundled and ready for us to pick it up, but we love it when they invite us to pick our own.

I haven't quite figured out what to do with turnips or beets or cabbage, but I've LOVED having fresh spinach and all varieties of lettuce. I've been cooking more with green onions this week and even incorporated these things called garlic scapes into our evening meals. This vegetarian is loving it!

Today we picked snow peas and snap peas. I wanted to take pictures for their scrapbooks so we didn't come home with too many peas (sorry Brittany and Eric), but we had a wonderful experience.

Why Blog?

My friend, Lynn, directed me to a blog of a women in her book club. I've glanced at it a few times.

I found this post, though, to be so true. I had my own ideas on the same topic a few weeks after I started my blog more than a year and a half ago.

So have I convinced my non-blogging friends yet?

Freckles

Summer Fun

And for all those that think otherwise, I dare say that Lydia's hair looks red in this picture :)

Beeman

We had an unusual phenomenon at our house last week. A swarm of bees took up residence in our small maple tree. Jonah was thrilled. He wanted to talk to everyone that called our home that afternoon.

"There's a beehive in our tree....and there's a queen bee....and there's a THOUSAND bees!"

Mike was excited too. He was excited to be our hero and save his helpless family from the killer bees. His first step? Call the maintenance department on campus. They advised him to wait until 10:30 at night when the bees wouldn't fly and gave him a spray to use.

Our friend, Mel, was visiting that evening. Mike, who will be called Beeman from this point onward, clothed himself from head to toe and ventured out into the darkness. Mel shone a spotlight through the window onto the swarm of bees. Beeman edged closer, holding the spray can at arm's length. He sprayed, ducking his head, crouching low, and preparing for a quick escape.

The bees did not move. He continued to spray. The bees still did not move. He realized that he enjoyed spraying and decided to drown the dying bees.

Silence.

The bees started falling from the tree. Like a melting icicle, they dripped off in clumps while the small branch lifted higher and higher, relieved from the weight.

Beeman had saved us all.

Cousin Abby

"Babby," as Lydia likes to call her, was here two weeks ago. Jonah and Lydia adore her (and her Nintendo DS)!! We had to document her visit with a photo session on the last day. I just posted them on my photography site.

Thanks for visiting, Abby. We love you!

Minds in Motion

Eye contact. I realized today that I never have eye contact with my son. Sure, he looks at me, but it's in this quick, frantic, dodging kind of way.

We started private Occupational Therapy two weeks ago. We've wanted to find a place for a while, but even therapists who said they had experience knew quite a lot less than we did about Jonah's special needs. The school therapists haven't known what to do, the pediatrician is clueless, and it feels like everyone just turns to us for answers. Most days I just look at God and say, "Help." I certainly don't know what to do.

But I have some hope. Through web research and a series of phone calls, we discovered a place called Minds in Motion. I sat in the waiting room last week before our evaluation and just felt relief. My child fit in there. My child was understood. I was understood.

Most meetings we've had with teachers/therapists/etc. have been a long discussion where we share about Jonah and they take notes. If we were "lucky," they'd demonstrate some knowledge by giving me advice: Do you listen to classical music to calm him down? How about a swing? Make sure he doesn't watch TV before going to bed. They were all conversations that annoyed the heck out of me and gave me no hope.

At Minds in Motion we were called back to the "play area" with Miss Kim, and I didn't have to tell her ANYTHING. She talked to me about the center while observing Jonah out of the corner of her eye. I had tears in my eyes as she explained Jonah to a "T" within the first five minutes of our meeting.

We're driving over an hour (one way), but I'm very confident that we'll see results from his time with Miss Kim. He has to complete an obstacle course two times a day for his homework this week to work on his "pinging." (That's how Miss Kim described it-- his focus pings, his eyes ping, his body pings, etc.) The course involves a mini-trampoline, a sit-&-spin, a balance beam, a swing, jumping on a series of carpet squares, etc. The purpose of the course is that he'll be purposeful with what he's asked to accomplish. If he falls off the balance beam, then he needs to start it over again. If he doesn't keep his feet together while jumping across the carpet squares, then he needs to do it over again. When he's done with an activity, he needs to look me in the eye and say, "I'm going to the sit-&-spin next" or "I'm going to the swing next."

If you know Jonah, then I think you can see what a valuable tool this could be. He's had to be so focused and deliberate with the obstacle course that I'm overwhelmed with pride when I see him complete a task. He's proud of himself too. Sometimes it takes six tries for him to look me in the eye while he says what he's going to do next, but HE'S TRYING. I think it actually feels good for him to have eye contact with me.

Tonight before bed, Grammy (we're visiting my parents this week) had him look me in the eyes and say, "I love you." He smiled. I smiled too.

Catching Up

It's been a while since my last post. We've had an eventful summer so far; I'll certainly have to share more in some upcoming posts. In the meantime, you can see that Jonah has been enjoying the mud that surrounds our yard. Now here's an interesting tidbit: Jonah was playing with three other neighbor boys on this particular evening and NONE of them were dirty. Gee.