Mowing the Lawn

I told Amelia and Micah to go mow the lawn, and before I knew it they were out the door getting to work.  Who knew doing chores could be so exciting?  Leif and Sunny even went out for a turn pushing the mower.

Micah clearly didn't like Amelia's management tactics, but everyone was happy in the end.  I did have to pay them, with freshly baked orange muffins....which was a definitely a deciding factor in the happy ending for Micah.

Swinging in the Sun

Leif is our eighth child, a long awaited blessing from our Lord.   He has eight siblings, and they adore him.  Well, maybe Dante is a bit conflicted sometimes, but that's ok.  Leif is loved.

And Leif loves.  He loves his brothers and sisters.  They are each his.  If Amelia is holding Kimberly, he tells her "My baby!".  If Zachary is remonstrating with Micah, Leif steps in and says, "My Micah!".

Leif loves his yard, his home, his animals.  He collects eggs every morning with Zachary.  He plays in the sandbox with Amelia and Sunny.  He yells to be pushed on the swing, and Daddy and I drop what we are doing to spend that time with him.

Every little boy, every little child, should know love. Warmth. Hugs. Swings.  Parents.  Family.  Holidays and Birthdays and...

...and abandonment?  An orphanage?  A mental institution?  These are what Vytas has and is facing when he turns 5 this month.

He desperately needs to be loved.  To be adopted.  If I had $15,000 to add to his grant and pay for his adoption, I would not hesitate. But I know it is not realistic for me to think we can adopt him.  However his family is out there, and he needs prayers, he needs his grant fund to go up to help the his parents adopt him.

In these photos he is clearly stimming, because he has no sensory input except what he gives himself.  My Dante also stims, because his autism causes him to need sensory input.  Every photo of Vytas is reminiscent of Dante, and it breaks my heart  to think of this little boy so desperate for a hug or a kiss that all he can do is repeatedly tap his hand on his mouth, and probably bite himself too.  With sensory input and lots of therapy, we have been able to significantly reduce Dante's autistic behaviors, but Vytas does not get therapy. 

Please pray for Vytas, that God would be with him while he waits, that his grant fund would continue to go up, and that a Mommy and Daddy would adopt him soon.

Girls' Night Out

In the six weeks since my last post, we have been busy just living life.

Kimberly now pushes up to sitting by herself, and loves to go outside in the sunshine.  She still just crawls on her belly, but since she is over 20 pounds now that belly is a lot to lift up!  She is off formula and on goat's milk, and her weight has gone up...it is so nice to see her filling out.  The fresh milk is so good for her!

We thought we had a sinkhole in our back yard, but discovered instead it is an early 1900's septic cistern, with timbers the size of railroad ties over it, covered by 10 inches of dirt--- we never knew there was a 9 foot diameter 5 foot deep hole under our ground--- until one of the beams gave way and we suddenly had a hole.  Jamie and Zachary filled it in and have covered it back up.

Last week Jamie and I escaped for 2 days, going up to his parent's cottage in New Hampshire.  We took Amelia and Leif with us and had a wonderfully relaxing time, and even stopped at Magic Wings Butterfly Conservatory on our way home.

Next week is our Georgia trip!!  Micah and Amelia have been practicing relentlessly for the USA Gymnastics Special Olympics Championships in Marietta.  Sunny is on the same team they are on, but when the coach asked for team members who would like to go, I did not suggest Sunny.

I know they are supposed to have fun at Special Olympics, and anyone with a disability can participate, but I expect my kids to earn the right to do some things.  And I feel that Sunny did not earn the right to go to the Championships.  She can be quite stubborn at practices, and even at last year's Summer Games she had to be cajoled into doing her floor routine.  I think she does that on purpose, and enjoys being coddled and the the coaches wheedling her into participating.  (The amazing coaches certainly have more patience with her than I do, because at last year's Summer Games I had to fight the urge to march down onto the mat and tell her to do her routine now or go change out of the leotard.)

However I realize this means Sunny is missing what is sure to be a weekend full of fun, with the plane ride, the hotel, the restaurants and the actual event!  Nikita certainly has made it known she know she is missing out on all of that!  (Nik loves any chance to travel and see new places.)

So last night Nik and I took Sunny to see Disney on Ice.  She had not seen all of the Disney movies that were represented, and never uttered one word the whole time we were there, but I know she had fun....she has had that silly fairy hat on ALL day today!

God is good!

Uh Oh!

 This morning,

 for the first time

 in her wonderful little life

 Kimberly knocked over a tower of blocks

 and spontaneously said, 

"Uh Oh!"

So we did it about 20 more times with lots of cheering.

Until Leif, being a 2 year old boy, became a little too energetic in his

tower tumbling assistance.

God is good!

"This" really shouldn't be so hard

Galatians 5:22-23 lists 9 things as the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  I have often thought "self-control" must be listed last because that means it stays with us longer, being the last one said.  Patience is the other one that is much easier said then done, and something people seem to think I have a lot of:  "Nine kids!?!?! You must have so much patience!"

Well, that myth is often dispelled for anyone spending a day or two in my house!

Yesterday, it was Micah who was determined to push me to the brink.

Amelia and I spent some time transplanting tomatoes; the seeds the 4 musketeers planted a few weeks ago are now thriving seedlings of at least 60 tomato plants, plus some green bell and hot peppers.  Amelia also spent some time on hand writing, and Sunny had been using LetterSchool on the iPad to practice her writing.  I decided that Kimberly and I would do some flash card work with Micah.

Micah is wicked smart.  He know so many words, and catches on quickly to things.  He can be a very eager learner.  He is also exceedingly stubborn.

We were flying through the cards, and there were only a few -- "before" and "around" --that he needed a bit of a prompt to read.  Then came "this". 

"Sit", says Micah.  I thought maybe I heard wrong and said "this". 

"Sit", this time signing it as he said it.  OK, maybe he is reading it backwards, which would be a first but understandable.  So I sounded it out for him, and he repeated after me.

"th" "i" "s".....  "sit"  Again he signed sit with added emphasis, giving me an "I can't believe you cannot read that word" look.

After a few more tries, I put the card in the middle of the pile, since we both needed a break from this.  We came to it again.  And went 20 rounds again.  By now we are both frustrated.  Apparently we both know exactly what t-h-i-s spells, and we both know the other is wrong.  And quite frankly--- after an injured Dante with an ER visit and still a bad limp, a choking Kimberly with her own ER visit, and a van that would not start just that morning--- the last thing I needed was an obstinate 10 year old who thought his mom couldn't read a simple 4 letter word. 

So I called Zachary over to give it a try.  Apparently Zachary cannot read t-h-i-s either.

Then Amelia decided to step in and take over.

The peer pressure did not work.

Dad even tried when he got home.  Micah lives with a family of people who cannot read.  He must have so much patience with us illiterates in his midst.

Thankfully, I had to go to work, because I was about to tell Micah to spend the rest of the day doing exactly what that card says:  "SIT"!

~~~~~~~

This morning a friend asked me why I didn't make a second flash card that actually says "sit" and show him the difference.  I took her suggestion to heart and did just that.  According to Micah they both say "sit".

I give up.

For now...

Nikita is our Hero

My teens are amazing big siblings, and are often called upon to help watch the little ones if I need to take one or two to an appointment.  Jamie and I try not to leave them at night though, because having to serve dinner and do bedtime is a lot different than hanging out together during the day. 

However Saturday nights I work, and Jamie takes the triplets to team practice for gymnastics, so Nikita and Zachary are left with Dante, Leif, Kimberly, and dinner in the crockpot.  Oh, and a new baby goat Nikita had just bought (one of the ones she delivered 2 weeks ago), and our own doe out in the barn waiting to go into labor.

So when my phone buzzed at work I answered, despite having a table to get to, and suddenly I was talking to an EMT who was at my house, apparently with the ambulance sitting out front.

Kimberly had choked on some potatoes.

And Nikita had saved her life.

I let the EMT know that I would be right home and take Kimberly to the hospital myself, since it seemed at that point that a ride in the ambulance would have been a little excessive.  I asked Nikita to come along with me, because I thought she needed to see that Kimber really was going to be ok.  The Physician's Assistant praised for Nikita's quick thinking in getting the potato out of Kimber's throat.

 From the story I heard, I am not sure if Nikita was more shaken up by her baby sister's lips turning purple, or Kimberly was more shaken up by not being able to breathe!  By the time I heard the details she was breathing, but needed x-rays to rule out aspiration, since she was drooling a lot.  There were no bits of food in her lungs, and we were sent home very thankful.

Leif was a little off for a while, but it isn't every day we have 2 policemen and 3 EMTs in our living room while Kimberly is crying and the baby goat is wailing in the back room in her crate.  Jamie did get home a few minutes before I did and stayed with the kids while Nik and I did the ER visit.

And my coworkers were awesome picking up my tables when I rushed out with 2 minutes notice!

Kimberly has been having a growth spurt and wanting to eat constantly, but we are definitely going to be limiting the amount she is allowed to shove in at once!

God is good!

Gymnastics

Yesterday Dante was injured at school, so I took him to the ER for some x-rays.  Unfortunately there was no diagnosis, and Jamie and I were sent home with a badly limping boy and told to watch him for a few days.  This morning he would not even put weight on his right leg or try to walk.  If he is still like this on Monday we were told to go back to the ER.

While sitting waiting for some answers, I used Dante's iPad to do a little internet browsing, and ended up getting three free tickets to the American Cup 2013 in Worcester!!  I had known this was going on and looked up ticket prices, but there was no way to justify the cost.

However, I really wanted to take Amelia and Micah, since they are on a Special Olympics Gymnastics team and this May they are traveling with a part of their team to Georgia to take part in the USA Gymnastics Special Olympics Gymnastics.  So it was a very pleasant surprise to get these tickets from Klems! 

I really hoped they would be inspired by seeing the amazing athletes, and they were.  Micah particullarly enjoyed the pommel horse and the rings, saying "up down up down" when watching the athlete from Great Britain doing his amazing routine.

While walking out to the van and once we were home Amelia was imitating the balance beam routines she had seen.

For the next few months they will be practicing and I will be saving every spare tip to pay for our trip to Georgia!