In the news...

Enough has been going on with each family member that I thought it would be fun to do a little tid-bit report on everyone...

Dennis

Dennis is *finally* done with ice fishing! And, just like every year, he gave up too soon, thinking we were on our way to the spring thaw, only to have one or two more snowstorms and freezing temps. It happens every year. :-)

Next month, he will be leaving for 5 days for a conference that his work is sending him to. I don't remember off the top of my head where it is, but it's no where near home. I am dreading it facing 5 days by myself with the kids. Henry technically is sleeping through the night, but is still up 2-3 times with bad dreams or constipation lately. Onto Henry....

Henry

Because we've switched to milk, he's been having problems with constipation and the stomach cramps wake him up at night. We've been battling this with a lot of pear juice but believe me, it takes A LOT of pear juice to get him regular again. It took an entire week just to get him back to normal. Any change in diet seems to block him up again. 

But other than that, things have been good, and, he has been walking! He now is a regular walker--he can walk about 10 paces now without falling down. I even saw him do a fancy about-face spin on his heel to walk in a new direction--although I think that may have been an accident.

He is also starting to talk a little too. He is our first early talker! Well, for us, he is early. All our other kids didn't start talking until they were nearly two. :-) He now says "Mama" and "Da-da" pretty regularly and his newest word is "Done!" He seems to understand what it means because he uses it when he's done sleeping or eating. It sometimes comes out as "dumb" but we know what he means.

Max

It is Max's birthday today! He is now a 9 year old. I can't believe how old he has gotten and how the time really does fly, as people say. I remember those first few years they seemed to crawl and I used to celebrate every new age he hit but now I just feel a little more sad every year. Well, sad and happy.

He's been doing good overall in school--he still brings up at least once a week that he wishes he could be home-schooled. It might be that one day, he may be home-schooled again but for now Cologne Acadamy seems to be helping him in ways that I cannot. He's learning to type and is getting regular "A's" in spelling. The only thing I don't like is that the work that he's doing--such as spelling--is at the level of  Kindergarten. (three letter words, once in a while there might be a 4 level word.) It's hard to get excited about his spelling tests when I see Luke bringing home the same work, but for Max's sake, I do try to scrape up some enthusiasm. I have noticed that over the past week that the teachers are trying to introduce some 4 letter words in--they felt it was more important to help Max's confidence is spelling before challenging him on hard spelling words.

He is "Star of the Week" next week. Every student is at some point the Star of the Week and they have to fill out a little paper that tells more about themselves. They're also asked to bring something that's important to them. When I told Max he is Star of the Week, he said, "Oh NO! I HATE Star of the Week! I don't WANT to do Star of the Week! You have to remember everybody's NAMES for Q&A and I STILL don't remember their names! WHY does this always happen to ME???"  
And here I thought I was telling him good news.
His teacher told me that his para will be up at the class to help him if he needs it though, and to help him with remembering kids names. :-)

Lucy

Lucy is doing well at school too--except that I found out only last week that she has been failing her spelling tests. I had no idea that they had even been doing spelling (they started back in January for the 2nd trimester) and I found many "0's on her spelling tests. My fault, I guess, for not going through her backpack lately. 

Unlike Max, Lucy has spelling words that almost seem too hard for her--words like "volleyball" and "valley" and other words with those hidden "e's" in them. But we went over her spelling words this week and she proved me wrong by getting every word right--to which she was very proud!

She's also showing a real love of history; she does pretty well with those tests and we haven't even really studied them together (oops.) She's learning all about Lewis & Clark and some Indian woman that helped them. I gotta  tell you, I'm learning right along with her. 

At home, she's always working on some project like drawing a map. She loves to make maps of the city of Chaska. She does pretty good too. One day I told her we had to go to Target and she pulled out her map and said, "Ok. So according to this map, we go here and here and here..."

Luke

Me and Luke have been working pretty hard on some of the parts of his personality that needs polishing. We had a heart-to-heart chat the other day about how sometimes his behavior might make people not like him. It made him cry but I still don't regret telling him this. He needed to hear it because he has no idea how he can come off sometimes. Since then, he's really been working hard on his teasing and his listening (respecting people when they tell him to stop doing something, such as teasing or purposely annoying them to make them mad.) I rather tell Luke hard things like this than someone else just go up to him and tell them that they can't stand him because of these things he does. I think it's a hard part of parenting--the tough love--but it's necessary. I also told him how much it hurts me when he acts like this because I know the loveable and sweet side of Luke. A lot of times, he is misunderstood how he tries to show love--such as smothering Henry to the point where Henry screams at him to get away from him.

However, there is that very sweet side to him and I'm trying to show him that I see that part of him too. More praise, more hugs, more positive attention. At least this is what I try to do. I've also talked to Max and Lucy, who sometimes are too easily annoyed by Luke, about being more patient with him. Sometimes I worry that Luke will grow up thinking that no one likes him and therefore, he will stop trying to be good. 

On his IEP report, I had to laugh. One of the goals on his IEP is that "Luke will attempt to play with children for at least 10 minutes by demonstrating sharing, listening to others ideas, ect."  I read his IEP update yesterday to which it said: "Luke was asked by an adult if he would like to participate in a game that other kids were playing. He said no and kept drawing. Then he saw other kids getting excited about the game and he decided he wanted to play too. Luke was playing nicely about 10 minutes when he was asked by another child if they could play too. He said "No. Only three can play." And turned his back on the student. The adult explained to Luke that the appropriate way to respond is: "This game can only take 3 people, but you can play the next round." Luke still shows that he needs to continue to work on this goal--however, only one more time is needed before he meets this goal!" 

I had to laugh as he was *almost there* he had been playing so good for 10 minutes and then that little mouth of his ruined it. :-) I have to confess, even though sometimes his bluntness can be a little startling and we do need to continue to work on this, it does make me giggle a little. 

On the complete flipside to Luke--he is showing more and more a side of him that loves order and neatness. I once made his bed (yes, I said "once") and he was so happy that he didn't want anyone--including himself--on the bed in case it got messed up. He loves to organize and he's always the first one packed and ready to get to school. For school, he brought home a paper in which every student was asked what they wanted to be when they grow up and Luke said he wants to be a teacher. He has said this more than once, so we'll see!

I couldn't help laughing at what one other student said: "I want to be a cop. My Mom said that sometimes they have to use salt and pepper to get bad guys to be good, so that's what I want to do."

Luke's segment is a little long, but also on a positive note, me and Luke go every week Nicklodean at the Mall of America. We go during Max's therapy time at Frasier, and seeing that the Mall of America is right across the street from Frasier, it works to go there. It actually is a lot of fun, because no rides are open at the time that we go there's no crowds to deal with. Other than the custodians and mall-walkers, it's just me and Luke. He has a lot of fun running all over the walkgrounds of Nickolodian, looking at rides and telling me which ones he wants to ride when we go someday. We usually end our time with a smoothie at "Aunt Annie's"--one of the rare stores that are open that early. (Max's therapy is at 8 in the morning but the mall doesn't officially open until 10.) 

Anna

Dear little Anna is waking us up in the middle lately. Originally she was waking up poor Lucy in the middle of the night, and once I found both the girls playing downstairs at 4 in the morning! I told Anna that she must wake us up instead--and it took a week before she actually started doing that. Finally, one night, I woke up because I thought I heard something. I got up to check on Anna when I tripped over a body lying on the floor. It was Anna, who got up--again--in the middle of the night to sleep on our floor. I have no idea how long she was there. 

We've tried cutting out her naps during the day but all this does is make her impossible with her behavior. One day all she did was walk around with her blankie, lying down in every room--including the kitchen--trying to take a nap. I have no idea what time she got up that morning but it must have been really early.

The past two nights she has at least slept in her own bed and Lucy said that she isnt' waking her up anymore saying "Go time? Go time?"  But she still gets up too early. We give her a nap every few days for the sake of her sanity. And ours. 

Ok, I have to go make breakfast now. As Anna says, "It's go time!"