My Boy Can Read!

Oh yes, I am extremely excited. I think I scared the pants off Ian. I think I told ya'll about the Bob Books. If not, they're great, in my opinion. I've been using them to help start Avery into reading. They keep with pretty much the same words within a book, keep a lot of them into the next book while adding a new word or two and using a new word family.

Well, Ian has this thing they do from school. If he reads 10 books in the month, he gets a pizza coupon....could it get any better for him! He's made it one month, but I've had trouble getting any books on there the last couple of months. Obviously, I don't wait until he can read the book fluently by himself (he might be in 3rd grade by then :) ). So, I consider his abilities when deciding when to write the book down as "read". Well, I decided to try a Bob Book since it's a great beginner. I pointed to the words, and here's what HE read, totally on his own. "Dot had a cat." Next page: "Cat had a hat." And he continued to read the rest of the pages (about 6). He got caught up on 'sad' (called it 'said') and 'on' (called it 'no'). It was very obvious after watching him read the book that he has been learning the site words at school very well.

After he read the first page, I screamed...yes, screamed. He looked at me like I was nuts. We high fived over and over and I told him how proud I was of him over and over. He looked like a very proud peacock. After I showed Jim what he could do (he usually thinks I exaggerate until he sees it himself), he told his teacher and the head of the program. They wanted me to send the book to school so he could read it there too.

Then, yesterday, Ian's aid told Jim something he did. They had 2 sets of cards. One set had shape words on it (trapezoid, rhombus, circle, triangle, square, rectangle). The other set had the shapes on them. He was to match the shape names with the correct shape. He read each shape name and matched it to it's correct shape. He did call the rhombus a diamond...that's because it looked like one the way they drew it. :)

I was thinking a lot about Ian last night on my run. And about the rest of you. I was thinking about how much rejoicing we've all had and great it has been to share it all. I was thinking about how the Lord really uses the little things in life to remind us how big He is. I don't know where the rest of you stand, but I know without a doubt that I would definitely not be seeing things the same way if it were not for my Jesus. Do I wish sometimes ( a lot) that I had 'typical' kiddos? Sure. I'd be lying if I said otherwise. But would I ever change my kids or switch them out? NO WAY! Life will always have it's tough rides (whether I had FX kids or not). So why not learn to watch for these wonderful moments and let them outweigh the heavy ones! Something I have to continue learning everyday. But I sure feel like I'm further ahead than I was on diagnosis day!

Hodge Podge

Hope you all had a fun Valentine's weekend. We're putting ours off for a few weeks when we get a short overnight getaway.

Not a lot going on around here. I just got back in town from visiting my great niece. She's just as beautiful (more) in person. Seems like a really content baby. Mommy and Daddy are doing great, and will definitely never be lacking in babysitters between grandma and other aunt! They actually argue over who will watch her! Anyway, it was great to see my family.

We had record snow here last week. I know for some of you, our measly 11 inches doesn't compare, but it was great. This makes the 3rd time it's snowed this season. This time it was nice packy snow so the kids got to have snowball fights and build a snowman. My little Ian, who seems to have ZERO ability to know when something hurts, kept taking off his mittens to use his hands. We were too afraid he'd get frostbite and wouldn't even feel it. I don't know how he does it. Well, we all had a good time. Wish I had pictures ready to post.

Benjamin did a new thing a few days ago. I'd forgotten about this til now. He went to the bathtub faucet, pointed to it, and said, "water". So cute.

That's about it for the hodge podge. Just wanted to be sure I didn't stay off from writing for too long.

"Make Me Proud, My Love"

These were the last words Jim said to me before I left to go for a run Friday night. (He calls me 'my love' - sweet, isn't it?) So, I decided to take him up on it. Oh, but first after I got a little ways from the house, I decided I needed to go to the bathroom and couldn't wait. So, I stopped at one of our neighbors on another street and thank goodness they were home. (Aren't you glad you're not my neighbor?) By the time I finished my pit stop, I had spent about 10 minutes being gone.

On with the run. It was a mighty good one. It didn't rain...that's a plus. I started hitting my wall at about 4 1/2 miles. I kept hearing Jim's voice, "make me proud, my love". So, I kept going. Thanks to Todd Agnew, my MP3 voice of choice, I made it 6 miles running. I knew Jim had to be worrying at least a little, cause total I was gone over an hour (including my warm up walk and pit stop) and I run in the evening, so it was dark (I know, shame on me). So I turn the corner to our house and sure enough, there's my sweetie in street looking around for me. Next thing I hear is, "Lady!" (That's what he calls me when he's a wee bit frustrated). So of course, I reminded him of what he said before I left. So sweet that he worries. Was he proud?

Yep. 6 miles in under an hour.

So, I decided to do the same last night. Got rained on a bit, but again Todd Agnew and his great praise songs kept me going. Especially when God is so good to have it start raining (1) when I'm almost home and (2) when Todd sings "Grace Like Rain".

Next step....Jim plans on buying me pepper spray. He'd rather convert me to a morning runner, but my body just won't cooperate in the morning!

Isn't She Beautiful?

Okay, I've tried over and over to figure out why my paragraphs won't separate with a line space. Can't get it to do it! What's up with this! Help, anyone!? So, I've separated them by color to hopefully make it easier to read.

So, does this make me a great aunt? I can't believe how much hair she has. I also can't believe this makes my oldest sister a grandma! She is 52 (or 53?). But that only makes me sound older to hear her being called a grandma. Oh well, at least I don't have gray hair yet...not that there's anything wrong with gray.... My sister is sooo excited and loves being a grandma. My other sister is loving it too...she's already gotten to babysit.

It all makes me a little sad because I'm away and won't play a big part in her life like her other aunt will. To be honest, I'm not even really close to my niece, especially not like I am to my nephew. He and I talk all the time on the phone. I think it makes a difference that I was still living in the same city when he was born. I had already moved away by the time my niece was born. My goal this year is to be the one to put forth the effort to stay in communication better. I usually go visit my family about 4 times a year or so, but other than my older sister (not the grandma), I don't talk a lot to the rest of my family on the phone. I used to talk with my mom all the time. But things have changed a bit since my dad's stroke a year and a half ago. But, that doesn't mean that I can't change that. Then maybe it'll make it easier for them to call me too. It's just kind of a strange thing to come up with conversation when you don't talk often. So I figure the more we talk, the more comfortable we'll feel. It's not like we're total strangers or anything. When I go visit, it's totally different...like we've never been apart. For that, I'm extremely grateful! It's just the darn distance.

Okay, well, thanks for the therapy session! I"m extremely motivated now.

Oh, did I already mention in a previous entry that Benjamin says, "Want, dat"? We don't ever know what "dat" is (unless we give him choices), but hey, he's saying a 2 word phrase! Rian, if I didn't tell you that already, sorry. I will when I talk to you next. :)

Signed Up

Well, I'm now committed to a 10K run with my wonderful husband. I know I mentioned in one of my past blogs that I had started running again. I'm proud to say (if that's okay) that I'm still faithful to it. I go at least 3 times a week and run between 4 - 5 miles each run (occasionally I hit a wall at 3). Jim goes at least 3 times a week and he's up to 6+ miles each run. So, we decided it was time to sign up for an organized run. It's great just doing it on our own, but there's always been that certain something....oh, it's called competitiveness...about an organized run. The last one we did together was a 10K about 8 or 9 years ago.

This one is at the end of the month and the even better news is we get the night before without kids. We've decided that would be our Valentines weekend.

On another note. As I was typing this entry, I had sat Benjamin on the potty to see if I could get anything out of him. I just heard an "uh-oh". So, I go in there to find his "W" book in the toilet. HOWEVER, along with that "W" book was a toilet full of poop! Yea, Benjamin. That makes 6 times over the last 4 months or so. Poor Ian has only gone once - period. Hopefully this means Benjamin won't have a phobia about letting "it" go.

Stop Procrastinating!

Oh, I'm such a procrasinator! Can't stand it, but it's true. Can I say it's the FX part of me? Sure, why not. I'm working on switching back to our old neurologist. I FINALLY called their office and left a message. I asked for the doctor to be the one to call back so I could ask him directly some questions. I want to know if he'd be more open to researching than our current one is. So, if he's actually the one to call me back, I will be extremely impressed.

I'm also working on taking advantage of services Ian and Benjamin just received from In Home and Family Support. I got an email from our rep who informed me they were running out of funds so she wanted to get us the services we want. Problem is, I'm not sure what they are. I know one would be Hippotherapy. Again, I've got to get on the ball. I need to call our insurance company first to see if they cover it...doubt it though. I also have to get a script from our pediatrician. The other thing I'm hoping for is a device for Benjamin to help with his speech/communication, as well as computer programs that might help out. Gotta get on-line to see what's out there! So, these are my goals for this week. IF ANY OF YOU KNOWS OF ANY GOOD SOFTWARE PROGRAMS, CD'S, DVD'S, OR BOOKS FOR THE KIDS, PLEASE LET ME KNOW! ANYTHING EDUCATIONAL OR DEVELOPMENTAL (SPEECH/COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT).

Jim and I have been talking about totally enclosing in our back patio. Currently, it's closed in, but with screens and screen door and pebble-rock ground. So, it's still more outdoors like than indoors. We have absolutely NO idea how to even begin...who to talk to to see how much it will cost us. I'm hoping we can even afford it. The reason we want to do it is so that we could use it as a school room for the kids. I decided if I'm really going to do what I can to home-school, then I have to have a place for it (schooling and all the schooling stuff). Jim and I are both procrastinators when it comes to BIG projects (especially that cost).

I can't wait to hear how Ian does at school today. He was CRACKING HIMSELF UP in bed since 3:30am this morning. He never went back to bed. It's funny to hear him cause I really want to know what he's laughing at. I always say he sees angels. He left for school so pepped, that you'd never know he'd been up that long.

Well, better go get started with some of those things on my list. Have a great day all!