Brags

It’s been too long since I’ve written. I’ve felt a blog post coming on for awhile and I hope I get to write it now. I want to talk about the kids and how awesome they are! I am often pretty real and open about the struggles… but today is a day to share updates and brags of mostly the bragging sort!

Anna – age 11 and 11/12ths – 6th grade – Almost as tall as me – People say she looks like me (and I take that as a compliment):

Anna is serious in her interests and creative in her pursuits. She loves to make gifts to give away and she appreciates beauty. She is naturally helpful and very competent. She’s anxious about making mistakes and doesn’t like trying new things, but once she gets started, she takes ownership of the work/play and enters in completely. She has preteen sass and sometimes grouchy moods and resists parental teasing when we try to lighten the mood. So I think she’s following in the footsteps of her parents.
Anna loves her painting class… partly because her efforts hae been successful and partly because the teacher (Ms. Debbie!) is such a gentle soul and that is music to Anna’s soul. We’ve taken this school year off of ballet and about a month ago she finally started missing it. I’m optimistic about her getting to attend next year, though I haven’t figured out the practicality of doing so. She has several special friends and loves spending time with them and trading emails. We stopped attending church for now to rest and stay together as a family (special needs and church were not working out) and she really misses her Middle School youth group.
Anna got a puppy in February as an early (April) birthday gift! She just started a 6 week obedience class and she’s really impressed me with how hard she’s working to take care of him…. brushing, toileting, caring for him at night, etc. He’ll turn a year old in April too, so it’s kind of fun that they share a birthday.

Jordan – age 9 – 4th grade – nonverbal including not signing, but has a lot to say:
Jordan hanging out with me while Carolyn reads to me for school:

Jordan is feeling the almost-ten-year-old-itis and is growing bored of the long winter. He has a daily routine that includes lots of Signing Time videos, frequent snack and meal and toilet breaks, sitting by my space heater by my desk and playing with music-making toys… but he’s growing bored and restless and has discovered several clever (if irritating) ways to entertain himself: Banging on stuff with his hands, elbows and feet is his go-to…. lots of banging and rattling around. Also, screeching. REALLY LOUD screeching. AGH! Then there’s chewing on his thumb… this is my least favorite, because it’s harming his body as the thumb nail is breaking up and the callous is enormous. I’ll take your nail-biters and raise you one thumb-gnawer. (laughs)
The last weeks have been sunny if COLD, so Jordan and I have gone for a short walk up and down our road many afternoons. He loves the first lap…. running ahead of me with a true (if wacky) running gait! It’s great to see him so strong! He’s out of shape, though, so he gets pretty winded. Then when I turn him around for another lap, he fights me… not sure if it’s because he actually wants to be done or if it’s just the autism “but we’re back at the house so we’re SUPPOSED to go inside” thought process. But the second lap is usually much slower. Funny: one day was cold and super windy. Jordan drools a little bit usually, but with that icy wind??? He was like a St. Bernard with water coming out eyes, nose and mouth and blowing behind him. Cracked me up and I almost took a picture of his coat decorated with stringy wet spots!
He thinks it’s really funny to lie down on his back and kick and giggle! I have no idea why – he just came up with it one day. It’s a little weird when he tries that while we’re walking, but thankfully, he’ll get up when I ask him. He loves vanilla yogurt and has a favorite rope that he likes to dangle. His favorite music toys are the ones that drive adults insane with the tinny repetitious sounds. I can sing all the songs that all of his toys play. We finally found a way to give him toys so that we’re safe from flying plastic toys! We got some produce bags (the nylon kind?) and hook those onto the eye hook we have in his play room. He can still see into the bag and push the buttons, but they stay put!

Maggie – Age 9 – 3rd grade – excited by life and doesn’t like her picture on social media:

Maggie is a bright star in our family. She finds delight in all kinds of activities and is proficient at creating situations where peals or shrieks of glee burst out. She is “hot or cold” and drops rapidly into emotional holes, but she lets us love on her and help her back out again. She’s incredibly forgiving and compassionate. You can hear Maggie watching a funny movie or reading Garfield (again!) by the intermittent chuckling and squealing. She’s physically agile and strong, enjoying climbing and biking and running and swimming and many things active. She loves outdoor survival themed activities and I find myself eager to see where her mind takes her.
Maggie is doing well in school overall. She sometimes struggles to get traction on an idea or to “get started” but once she gets the idea, she often launches much further into a project than even the books suggested. She adapts and improves school to fit her impressive imagination. While she struggles to get as much volume of schoolwork (or anything) done, because she moves at her own pace, she doesn’t fall much behind in her understanding. I’m learning to adapt my teaching to meet her pace. I don’t feel she’s struggling so much because the subject matter is too advanced for her, but because we haven’t found the best way to connect her learning style with the material. I think she would really struggle in a public classroom environment… but I think she is going to be somebody who finds an interest and takes it on to well-deserved acclaim and success. Perhaps she will be some type of scientist or engineer? Or maybe she will be an adrenaline-loving Mother Theresa. It’s hard to say. But that’s Maggie.
Maggie has a few friends, though no close buddies yet and she enjoys days and weeks long imagination games with Carolyn and sometimes Anna. There are always props all over the house that are left over from their shenanigans. She started hugging again and I’ve been loving the snuggles. If I’m tired or sad, Maggie is the one who usually comes over and gives me a hug and tells me I’m a good mom. When I lose my marbles and Maggie catches the brunt of it (which isn’t terribly surprising, as Maggie is the source of a large portion of unexplainable phenomena in our home), she’s quick to forgive and willing to work with me on how we can both do better the next time. Personally, I think every home needs a Maggie.

Carolyn – age 6 1/2 – Kindergarten/1st grade – never met a stranger she couldn’t talk with:

Carrie is the extrovert of the family. She’s generally self confident and up to trying anything. Except for things that she thinks she shouldn’t do, because it’s what her sisters don’t do. Like foods she doesn’t like, because they don’t. If anybody tells a story about something they did or saw, she immediately tells a story where she did/saw/heard that too. It’s cute, because until recently, she had no self awareness about what she was doing. Still don’t have much, but it’s coming. I hope it doesn’t spoil her self confidence, because I love her! Carolyn can make her own sandwiches, toast and just learned to fry eggs. She can read chapter books but prefers comic books. She’s starting to figure out how to tell jokes that make sense and I’m really sad about not having a baby any more.
Let’s see. She’s doing first grade schoolwork, but I’m not pushing it as she’s a bit young for a first grader. It’s fun having a kid that doesn’t need loads and loads of help to do the “typical” tasks. She potty trained herself when she was two and a half and just generally decides when and what she’s going to learn. I am glad that she’s the baby of the family, because she’d probably be hard to live with as a firstborn! She loves her cuddles and a dream evening for her would be to be wrapped up in the same blanket as me, on my lap and in my arms and possibly sharing the same skin for a few hours. She’s funny and playful and only sometimes sneaks the gum off my desk or puts holes in the candle wax. (Usually, the candle digging is Maggie and the gum thief would be Anna.)

Daniel – age 5 11/12ths – preschool – alternating between sweet and bonded and holy terror:

Daniel is in the throes of learning about trust. So basically, he’s in full blown threenagerhood, but with the adoption story twist. He’s learned most of his capital letters and a large smattering of phrases to go with each letter… “D is for Daniel. D, dinosaur. Rawr!” etc. He knows some of the lower case letters and can count to 10 and sometimes above. I’m getting the feeling that he’s getting close to working on letter and drawing things… he hasn’t had the interest before. Honestly, he doesn’t now, but he’s starting to look at his sisters doing their school and I’m hoping that he wants to do some himself soon. His vocabulary is vast. His speech is hard to understand and he often talks to himself with gibberish or repeating things he’s processing, but he speaks to communicate and is the cutest little boy when he’s being silly.
I went to a lot of effort to procure some gym wedges for Daniel, so that he could scoot to the top, turn around to let his legs drop down, and then pull to standing without my help. Well…. that sparked some blazes in his brain and he decided to learn how to stand up in many places in the house! He can stand up in his bedroom (using his mattress and his low shelf) and in my bedroom (using the recliner) and I’ve found him standing in a few other places without knowhing how he did it! I predict that he’ll learn how to get to standing in the middle of a room all on his own when he’s ready. (That will take making a tripod of his legs and arms and then some top notch core muscles. He can’t balance without holding onto things yet, but he’s far stronger and balanced than just a few months ago. He spends a lot of time on his feet!
Daniel is very fragile emotionally. He will spend minutes, hours and sometimes even days (yay!) with a mostly calm temperament and be able to be reasoned with. But most of the time, if he has a need or a want or a hurt or something, he’ll flip straight to fight or flight and scream and hit and pinch and generally be unavailable until we tease him out of it, wait him out of it, or restrain him until he’s “back online.” Considering that he spent the entirety of his first 4 1/2 years either being ignored or mistreated, he’s doing awesome! Breaks my heart to see his broken, but he’s rocking this new life. Family looks good on him.

First few days standing up:

This week standing up:

Same day in his room:

Walking out of his room and climbing onto the chair!

So there you go! There’s the kids in a nutshell.

Brian and I are in a season of being overwhelmed, but we’re holding steady here. We’re both spending the extra energy we have on figuring out how to become healthier individuals. We don’t get all the things done and the home projects and medical work and etc. etc. are just endless and basically insurmountable, but we do one thing at a time and a suprising amount is accomplished. I’m dealing with a hip injury that I woke up with, crocheting, knitting, visiting friends and just had a season of walking a lot. Brian is doing well at his work, coding for his personal time and we both are enjoying some single serve brownie-in-a-mug treats that my sister sent me, because she wanted to bless me. I’m blessed, sister! Thank you!

Now for pictures. I’m going to see if I can load these on. Then I’m done. Forever and ever amen. Or something like that.

One of many medical appointments for Daniel: