The Keirnan Clan

Soccer

2012-01-31T14:16:00.001-05:00

The local soccer club has a program for children with disabilities. We have never taken part in it before, but I thought I would let Rachel give it a shot this year. Players from the local club volunteer as buddies for the special needs players, and the buddies do their best to get out there and keep the kids focused on soccer skills and games. The volunteers often have their hands full! Rachel has loved going out to the field to play. She rarely is doing what she is supposed to be doing, but she is having fun and talks about soccer throughout the week. I cannot say enough about the young volunteers that get out there with Rachel. They have been so sweet and so patient. Rachel has really kept them running for the hour and a half they are out there, so I am betting they go home pretty tired.

Rachel and her buddy.

Learning how to kick the ball into the net.

The little kid in the white shirt sitting in the middle of the the field is Rachel. Not sure what she was doing. I am not sure she even noticed the game going on around her, haha!

She is still sitting in the field............Oh well, she had a great time!

"Why?"

2012-01-16T15:52:00.000-05:00

One of Rachel's newest things is to ask "why?" every time I tell her to do something. The teacher commented, recently' that she was asking "why?" at school too. She has the perfect inflection with it and really seems to be asking for an explanation, but she only says it once. I don't want to sell her short, but I am thinking that Rachel is not actually asking for me to explain myself, she is just responding to me with "why?" because she has noticed that her sisters do it ALL. THE. TIME. I think that was one of my biggest fails as a parent......giving the older girls explanations for why they should do something. I am paying the price now. Sooooo, poor little Rachel gets no explanations. I say, "Go wash your hands." and she says, "Why?" at which point I just tell her again to go was her hands. She will usually go ahead at that point and do what I have told her to do. Now if I could just get that to work with the older two!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-09T15:39:00.000-05:00

All the Christmas decorations were up, presents were wrapped, school was out, and we were ready for Christmas!

It may have looked like Christmas on the inside, but outside it was warm and sunny on the outside. Christmas Eve the girls got out and played in the kayak behind the house.

I was inside baking. Leah decided she wanted to help in the kitchen instead of going outside. She loves to cook, and one of her favorite shows to watch is "Chopped". Maybe she will be a chef when she grows up. I am not any sort of inspiration for her, as I can barely follow a recipe, so she will have to just keep watching her televisions shows.

Finally everyone joined me and Leah in the kichen to decorate cookies. We could not convince Rachel that it would be fun, so she wandered off to do something else.

As has become our tradition, our dear friend, Regina, joined us for Christmas Eve dinner. It just wouldn't be the same without her or her silly hats.

Christmas morning arrived and the girls were up before the sun. son't know what was up with that, as they have never done that before. They got lots of stuff and spent the day playing with all their new stuff. Rachel's favorite Christmas toy was her new set of blocks. She perfected stacking them on the couch. She really has a knack for that....must be all those years of occupational therapy!

I got to spend a little time playing with the toys, but Christmas Day was busy for me because the girls and I were packing up and leaving the next day to go see my dad in Alabama.

Rachel Loves Santa

2011-12-12T14:14:00.000-05:00

We went to a Christmas party last week, and Santa was there giving out gifts. I was not sure what Rachel would think about him. We have not gone to sit on Santa's lap since Leah was one. She was always afraid of him and so we just quit going. I figured Rachel would not like him either, since she has been slow to warm up to things that are new. Just in the last year, Rachel has started recognizing Santa in pictures, and this month she started talking about Santa and Christmas. When her name was called to go see Santa, she ran right up to him and gave him a huge hug. I guess it is fair to say that she is okay with the jolly man in red!

Time, Again, For Christmas Card Pictures!

2011-12-08T14:31:00.001-05:00

Allison wanted to try to get the dogs in the picture again this year. We tried last year with just Cookie and couldn't do it, so..........

.........It was not to be. Needless to say, the dogs had to go. Just too many uncooperative personalities! Okay, now let's get down to business.......

Whew! That was fun wasn't it?!?!

Rachel Loves To Climb!

2011-12-06T10:08:00.001-05:00

A friend here in town has created a group that gets together to teach rock climbing to children with disabilities. I have known about the program for a couple of years, but had never considered it since Rachel would not even attempt to climb the small rock climbing wall at gymnastics. That is until just a couple of weeks ago when she went to the wall and climbed to the top! Just after this, my friend, Barb, emailed me and asked us if we wanted to give rock climbing a try. Perfect timing! I told her that I thought Rachel would enjoy it and I would love to see what she would do. So one Saturday, recently, we headed out to the local rock climbing gym and let Rachel give it a try.

Here Rachel gets hooked up to the lines.

Finally it is time to give it a try. She was quick to get started.

After a quick start though, she was not too sure this was going to be a fun as it looked. The steps could get pretty far apart and she had to struggle to reach some of them. She needed a lot of encouragement from the volunteers and a few reassuring looks from mommy.

In the end, she made it to the top!! Way to go Rachel!!! She has talked about rock climbing ever since.

This past Saturday, we were able to get back to the gym and let her go again. She really seems to enjoy it, even though it takes quite some time to get her to the top. The volunteers deserve lots of praise and credit for their ability to encourage and refocus Rachel. They are wonderful and their patience is to be admired. Thanks, Barb and Andrew, for giving Rachel the opportunity to learn something new and have fun while doing it and for helping her build selfconfidence!

Rachel Loves To Take Pictures

2011-12-03T12:00:00.000-05:00

Most of her pictures look like this........thank goodness for digital pictures that allow you to delete the bad pictures.

But sometimes she gets it right. Some pictures are of family..........

Some pictures are of the house.........she seems to like to get pictures of her movies.

Some are of her toys.......below is a shot of her FAVORITE doll and her Rapunzel tower she got for her birthday.

No matter what the pictures are, it is always fun to see things from Rachel's perspective.

You Can Never Get Too Much Nature!

2011-12-02T15:56:00.001-05:00

I sat down to transfer my pictures from my camera and noticed quite a few pictures of our local wildlife that I have collected in the last month or two, so I thought I would share. Below is a white egret. He is scoping out the shrubs in the neighbor's yard, looking for lizards. Shortly after this picture was taken he grabbed for something. Not sure if he was successful or not.

Below is a polka-dot wasp. Even though it is called a wasp, it is actually a moth. The desert rose plant on my front porch became infested with caterpillars that were killing every single leaf on the plant. I began to wage a daily war on them to try to save my plant. I couldn't bring myself to kill the caterpillars, but I would flick them off the plant and hoped they would not return. Each time I flicked them off, fewer of them made it back. After a while, the girls decided they wanted to bring in a couple of the caterpillars to watch them go through their metamorphosis. We looked up the caterpillars to see what they were, placed them on the counter in our bug box, and watched. About three weeks later, we had adults. Below is a picture of one of our moths before we released it.

No real story to go with this guy. He is just a little spider I saw as I was walking through the back yard. He is called a crablike spiny orb weaver. He is not as big as he looks......if you notice he is sitting on a blade of grass.

This is a Mediterranean gecko. He hangs out on our screen on the back porch sometimes at night catching bugs. It is not too unusual to see them on the walls of houses around here, but it is always a treat. Unfortunately, our puppy found this little guy first, and Allison had to rescue him. That is why he is missing his tail.

Here is a real treat. This is a Crested Caracara. It is actually the national bird for Mexico, but they can also be found in southern Florida. I am not aware that they migrate, but we usually only see these guys around here in the winter months. They are pretty big birds, standing about two feet tall. Every time we see them, we see two. I wonder if we see the same pair from year to year.

When we first moved into this house, we saw Mallard ducks frequently on the lake behind us. For the past few years they have been noticeably absent. This year we have seen some around from time to time. Last weekend we had a male swimming around with nine females. He was really busy trying to keep them all in line. His ladies were not good listeners, and by the time I got this picture, most of them had headed off on their own.

Nest we have the ibis. These guys are around all the time, and in this case there were about fifteen of them marching through the neighbor's backyard. If you look close, you can see there are a couple of black ones in the middle of the picture. They are immature birds and will turn white as they mature. Like a lot of the big birds here, they are not too fearful of people and will let you get pretty close before they take flight. This drives my dogs crazy! They love to chase these birds when we go on walks.

This little softshell turtle was found in our pool. Mike noticed him swimming around in there one morning. Allison was still in bed, and Mike yelled to her upstairs to come catch this little guy. She broke the land speed record getting down stairs and out on the back porch! Wish I could get her up that easy every morning.

I saved the cutest for last. These three little guys were born in our neighbor's flowerbed. The kids discovered them while they were still hairless little black blobs. We got the joy of watching them over a period of about two weeks. Boy, did they grow fast! It was so hard to stay away from them and to keep the kids from touching them. The blanket pieces surrounding the babies in this picture were courtesy of the neighbor. She was worried the bunnies would be too cold one chilly night. I am guessing mom new how to keep them warm, but it was hard not to worry about the little guys. The last we saw, they were venturing out of the nest and getting around pretty quickly. I hope they made it! Not that we need anymore bunnies in the neighborhood. We see at least three on every walk in the summer evenings. The dogs love to try to chase them too!

Snoop Dog

2011-11-10T19:12:00.001-05:00

Last Saturday, Allison and I walked into the local Petco to buy some guinea pig supplies and we walked out with a dog! I can usually walk away from those rescue adoptions, but Saturday, it was different. Not sure why, but this little guy caught our attention and now he has a forever home! We have gone round and round all week trying to come up with a name. Nobody liked the same name, but after seven days and about fourteen name changes, I think it is finally unanimous....... so meet Snoop Dog a.k.a. Snoopy. He is a nine pound chihuahua mix. He is a little thin right now, so he will likely put on some weight, but I don't think he will grow much bigger.

Cookie is still trying to decide what he thinks about the new addition. They are enjoying some play time together, but Cookie is probably about seven years old and Snoopy is only about four to six months, so Cookie can take it or leave it and Snoopy cannot say hi without chewing on you. He still has some puppy teeth, much to Cookie's dismay! Can you tell that Cookie doesn't know what to do with Snoopy in the picture below. This is Cookie's crate, but Snoopy will not stay out of it! He has one of his own, but it must not be a comfortable. Cookie is such a sweetie to share his bed! He has been very patient with Snoopy, thank goodness.

This is one of Snoopy's favorite positions to sleep! Looks a little uncomfortable doesn't it?! He slept curled up in a little ball the first several days, but he is getting more comfortable and starting to stretch out and get comfortable. It will be neat to get to know him and his quirky little traits. He cried a little the first three nights when we put him to bed, but since then he has done great. we are still working with the potty training, but hopefully soon he will have that down too.

Halloween 2011

2011-11-05T16:39:00.000-04:00

Gotta refuel before the Trick-or-Treating starts. Rapunzel loves her chicken nuggets!!

One more year with all three girls. There was talk from Allison and Leah that they wanted to go with friends, but none of the plans worked out and they went with me and Rachel. It is hard to believe that our days of dressing up and Trick-or Treating will be coming to an end in the not so distant future.

Rachel scared me at first, because as soon as she got her costume on, she wanted to take it off. She was almost in tears because I wouldn't let her take it off. I told her to just keep it on long enough for me to take pictures, then she could take it off. Fortunately, she got over it and was ready to take on the night, costume and all.

I LOVE decorative pumpkins! Each year, I tell myself that I will not buy another one. This year, I was good up until the last minute. I bought another one of the fake carvable ones. I found a cute picture on the internet and copied it......below is my newest addition.

Now all the decorations are put away and I am wondering why I had to have another pumpkin. I guess I am going to have to go out and buy another storage box for my Halloween stuff, because I have filled up the two I have. Oh yeah, and yesterday I went into CVS and all their stuff was 50% off. Now I have a little scarecrow to add to my now full decorations boxes! Today, Allison asked if would could decorate for Christmas at the end of November.......let the holiday season begin!

School Pictures

2011-10-25T17:59:00.000-04:00

The girls school pictures have arrived.

Rachel's First Grade Picture: Doesn't she look happy? She does not smile for the camera. Never has. At home we are now getting her to at least look at us now, but she still won't smile. Apparently the professionals still can't get her to do it either. Notice the scratches on her right cheek? She told us that the cat did it, but that is all we ever knew. Don't know what she did to make him scratch her.

Leah's Fourth Grade Picture: I cannot get over how grown up she is starting to look. I don't see it until she is in a picture.

Allison's Seventh Grade Picture: I cannot believe that I have a teenager!

A Day At The Beach

2011-09-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

I stopped at the beach a couple of weeks ago to watch the waves and ended up enjoying the wildlife. I love to watch the shore birds dodge the waves.

Looks like one guy got a meal.

Lots of ghost crabs were out running around too.

The cicadas were out singing their songs. They were so loud as you walked through the vegetation on the dunes.

Gotcha!

2011-09-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

A couple of months ago, Rachel got a new carseat. Instead of the five point harness, this one uses the seatbelt to strap her in. Recently, Rachel figured out how to unbuckle herself. As I cheer her on with her newly acquired fine motor skill, I cringe at the thought of her being in control. Fortunately, she does not tend to do this when are going down the road and just uses her new skill to get out of her seat when we are stopped, thank goodness The other day, I had to stop and run into a store. I left Rachel and Allison out in the car watching a movie. Shhhhh! Don't tell anyone! When I got back into the car, this is what I found!

Apparently, Rachel did not want to stay buckled in her seat and would not stop walking around the car and messing with the movies screen. Allison decided to take matters into her own hands and strapped Rachel down. I guess she figured if she put all the belts on Rachel, it would take her a while to get them all off. Rachel just seemed resigned to being strapped down and was just watching the movie.

Smile!!?!?!

2011-09-19T09:00:00.000-04:00

Rachel recently had to have one of her top front teeth pulled. I was trying to get her to smile so that we could show of her new tooth that was coming in. Let's just say that she was quite tired of me saying, "Smile!" by the time I took the last shot.

How is this mom?

How about this?

This?

You want me to do what? Pull my lips back like this?

Okay mommy......I am done!!

Maybe you can see in one of the last pictures where her new tooth is coming in. Rachel smiles all the time when we are talking or being silly, but for some reason she just will not smile in front of the camera. Maybe next tme.

Disheartened But Gathering Steam For The Next Move

2011-09-17T09:00:00.001-04:00

August 10, 2011

Rachel started off the year on a relatively good note..........this is the first entry to her daily communication book. The teacher seemed ready to take on the challenge and we were all excited about the new year.

For the next week however, the notes were repeatedly about the trouble Rachel was having on the "big" kid playground and that she refused to go down the slide. I was relieved that this seemed to be the most pressing concern and figured that the classroom part was going okay.

August 30, 2011

However, the notes quickly become more negative about Rachel's behavior in the classroom.

After this note I had to respond to inform the teacher that Rachel cannot write or draw. I thought the fact that Rachel was scribbling was great! I also wondered why Rachel had the puppets in the library. There is no note to tell me how they tried (or did not try) to keep her from getting the puppets. I had Rachel placed in the regular classroom in order to teach her that she has to follow rules and am now wondering if they are even trying to get her to follow the rules or are they just letting her wander around and then complaining about what she does.

September 13, 2011

I think what bothers me the most here is the statement that Rachel "won't" listen. Rachel will listen when she is interested in what you are saying.

At this point I wrote a note to ask about what was being done to help Rachel follow the class rules. The teacher said that she uses redirection and time out but that Rachel will not stay in time out. I have suggested that the teacher uses the "first we do this, then we can do that" to try to keep Rachel on task and that the use of a visual schedule would probably help too.

September 14, 2011

This entry just breaks my heart. I was so hoping that Rachel would rise to the occasion and fall into the first grade class with minimal problems. I at first felt that I had made the wrong choice to push for her to be in this classroom, but after talking with friends in the Ds community here, I am beginning to realize that maybe the school is making the mistake. Maybe we are all making a mistake by not providing Rachel with the tools she needs to succeed in the classroom. Maybe the teacher lacks the tools to help Rachel adapt to her new classroom.

September 15, 2011

To think that the teacher is writing to me that she could not get Rachel to give her the cupcake just really frustrates me on many levels! First of all, it sounds like a little kid being a tattle tale. Secondly, the teacher appears to do nothing to make Rachel hand over the cupcake. The part about explaining to Rachel that they are going to read for social studies and Rachel not listening, makes me think that the first grade teacher lacks the skills necessary to help Rachel be the best she can be in the classroom. Yes, I think that Rachel needs the explanation, but at this point, just telling her it has to be done is not enough.

These entries really make me feel like the teacher is done. She seems to be saying that she is unable to do anything with Rachel. I requested a behavior analysis about the second week of school. I know that some of the observations have been done and I am anxiously awaiting to hear what he has to say. I am hoping that he has some very helpful advice.

I am also prepping to go to battle for Rachel in the very near future. We should be having a meeting soon to assess how things are going and to discuss the findings from the behaviorist. All the notes have insinuated that Rachel cannot handle the new environment. Maybe she can't-actually, I am pretty sure she can't-handle the regular classroom on her own. But I think that with an aide she could be relatively successful. Also with some modifications to the way they staff deals with Rachel, I think things could go more smoothly. I am surprised how little some of the teachers seem to understand about teaching our kids. I know that in some cases the teacher has done the best she can, considering that she has 18 other kids to keep control of. Often what Rachel needs, the teacher simply cannot provide and still be a teacher to the other kids. I hope that she is still interested in having Rachel in her classroom, if she gets some support. This school district is adamant that the cannot provide aid to Rachel when we have mentioned it in the past, so the next few weeks may be somewhat interesting. Please send up prayers and good thoughts that we are able to work out this situation and get Rachel on track for a great rest of the year!

Surf's Up

2011-09-16T13:14:00.000-04:00

Hurricanes have been spending a lot of time off our coast this hurricane season. Fortunately, they have not really caused us any problems. Three weeks ago Irene was creating some big waves that were really pounding our coast. Below are some pictures I took that week. Needless to say, Allison has not had her new surfboard out in this rough surf.

Happy Birthday Take Two

2011-09-16T13:10:00.002-04:00

I am so far behind in posting. Geez, these photos are almost a month old. I know I posted about Allison's birthday party, but that was the first of August. We had a little family party on her actual birthday and she got her presents form us, which were a surfboard and a sewing machine. The surfboard has yet to make it's inaugural run, but the sewing machine has gotten some use. I actually sewed a pair of pajama bottoms. Allison said she wanted to do it, but somehow I got drafted into doing nearly all of it. Mind you, I have never sewn a thing in my life, so I am learning along with Allison. We still....or shall I say, I still......need to make the pajama top. That material looks like it will be a little harder to work with, so I have not been to eager to try that, just yet.

Big Sisters Rock

2011-09-04T09:00:00.001-04:00

Allison has always had a motherly instinct when it comes to Rachel. Leah....not so much. As a matter of fact, not at all. But that has changed somewhat over the last year. Leah freaks out if I let Rachel get just a few feet away from me when we are out of the house. She nearly has an anxiety attack if I tell her to leave Rachel alone! I guess she really does care after all :-) That, or she thinks I am the worst mom and cannot be trusted to keep up with my own child.

Leah rescues Rachel at the beach.

Better Late Than Never

2011-09-03T17:00:00.002-04:00

I am nearly three weeks late with this post! It has been a little hectic around here lately. The girls went back to school August 10. Rachel is now in first grade. Leah is in fourth, and Allison is in seventh. We pushed really hard with Rachel's IEP team in the spring to get Rachel in a regular classroom as much as possible. She is now in the regular classroom for everything except math and reading. It has not been going very well, but I will post more on that another day. Leah is enjoying her year so far. She is very happy to have several good friends in her classroom, and she is liking her new teacher. She is doing great with her classwork and homework. I hope she keeps up the good work. She will have to start writing soon and will be tested on the statewide writing test in February. I am a little concerned, as she is not as strong a writer as Allison was at that age, so I hope that she makes great strides in the coming months. The teacher promises she will. Allison had to move on to her next step in her education journey. Our school district has middle schools that contain seventh and eighth grades, so she had to change schools this year. Not only that, but she is now changing classrooms for every class and she has seven classes. We spent the better part of three hours the week school started wandering around the school campus learning the layout and locating all of Allison's classrooms. She seems to be handling all of the changes very well. She got off to a rocky start and had several days where she battled anxiety, but she seems to have settled down and is enjoying her new teachers. She has become much more independent with her school work and tells me she is doing well on her tests. I have not seen any of them yet, though. Hmmmmm. Below are the obligatory "first day of school" pictures.

Meet Bugsy

2011-09-03T00:19:00.000-04:00

I always end up with the strangest animals.....I had a cat that I could not teach to potty in the litter box; a cat that went to the litter box but winkled right where the top and bottom of the box came together thus making a mess that would drip out the back of the box (grossed out yet?). I had a dog that was so allergic that the vet said he won the award for the most allergic animal he had ever seen (in an allergy test he tested positive to 31 different allergens!). After a year of giving him desensitization injections, he was no better off and he was on steroids daily for most of his life just to keep him somewhat comfortable. Now I have a guinea pig that has had respiratory problems for over six months. I took him to the vet around the end of April, because he seemed to be getting worse. We have been back to the vet about every two weeks since then, changing up medications and doses trying to cure this little guy. We have done x rays and lung aspirates-yes, you heard that right. It was not cheap and it came back negative for any bacterial growth. This pig is worth a couple of hundred dollars at this point and he is not much better than when we started. The vet we have been seeing now wants me to take Bugsy to the vet school in Gainesville (three hours away) to see what they have to say. Okay.....I don't have time to take a day off and drive up there and back, and I really don't want to pay for more tests that will possibly tell me nothing. But after investing so much already, I hate to stop now. The poor little guy seems to get worse when he is off the antibiotics, even though they don't get rid of the congestion. Sometimes he seems pretty uncomfortable and there have been times that I thought he might not make it to the next day. Today, I decided to try one more thing. I have taken out all of the paper bedding that we have been using and replaced it with a fleece material to try to eliminate as much dust as possible from his environment. We will see how that goes.

Here is Bugsy getting one of his respiratory treatments. He gets these twice a day and it takes about twenty minutes. Fortunately, he is a sweet little guy and sits nice and still for them. He also takes his two oral medications very well.

During Bugsy's treatments, Conan likes to try to get into the guinea pig cage. One night, I decided to let him and see how far he would go.

Turns out he wanted to get in the cage to eat the timothy hay. It made him sick so he is not allowed to do that anymore. You might think that the guinea pigs would be afraid of the cat, but they aren't. Actually they are very curious and often try to touch noses with him when he comes up to the cage to see them. What is even more funnier is that if the pigs are out of the cage, the cat will run from them!

Happy Birthday To Allison

2011-09-01T18:37:00.000-04:00

August 19 was Allison's 13th birthday! I am now a mom of a teenager. I still cannot believe it. Allison has always hated that school starts before her birthday, so she requested that her party be before she had to go back to school. We had the party on Monday August the first. Looking back in retrospect, I think Allison was actually just trying to get two parties! Of course we could not just let her actual day go by without cake, so we had another small celebration with family on Allison's actual birthday.

I hope this is lucky thirteen! For years I have heard horror stories about teenagers, so I am entering this stage of motherhood with just a tad of trepidation. Wish me luck!

Leah gave the pinata such a whack she knocked it off it's tether and sent if flying across the yard.

The girls wanted to play this game with toilet tissue where you race another pair and try to get your person wrapped up like a mummy first. They had a great time, but do you see all the little white spots in the pictures below.....that is the dust from the tissue. My house was covered in a fine layer of white dust after this was over. My whole house!!

That is Leah all wrapped up below.

Rachel thought the girls were pretty funny. I am thinking that she was wondering why she gets in trouble for using too much tissue, but big girls can wrap their whole bodies in it.

After the game the girls proceeded to shred the paper and play in the huge mess. I guess when you live in Florida and don't have piles of leaves in the fall or mounds of snow in the winter, paper makes for a pretty good time. Sad, isn't it?!?!

Hopefully, this will be the first of many posts that will posted in rapid succession over the next several days. I am going to try to catch up with what is going on around here. I will need some really good luck for that too!

New Haircuts

2011-08-17T14:37:00.000-04:00

The past couple of weeks have been busy ones. After our Trip to Alabama in July, the end of summer was fast approaching. I actually got the girls in to have their hair cut before school started this year. No one decided to go with a drastic change, but Allison did get several inches cut off. She is no straightening her hair everyday and is starting to look the part of a middle schooler. Now she is asking me to show her how to wear make up. I am certainly not the one to ask that question, as I rarely wear it myself, and I am not sure I am ready for her to start doing that!

Redneck Regatta 2011

2011-07-23T09:00:00.002-04:00

In honor of our friend, Bill, who passed away last August, we gathered with old friends to celebrate great friendships and create new memories. Bill originated the first get together in 2009, and named it the Redneck Regatta. We were able to celebrate two Regattas with Bill before he was suddenly taken away from us last year. It was hard being back to the last place we had been with Bill. His presence was felt everywhere. We spoke of him often, and even in his absence, he brought laughter. We miss you Bill!

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More Communing With Nature

2011-07-08T14:35:00.000-04:00

Apparently living in Florida allows for frequent encounters with all sorts of creatures. Some are pretty unusual, while others are found pretty much anywhere, but no matter the creature, it is always fun to get up close and personal with nature.

This peacock wandered through our neighborhood one evening about two weeks ago. It was with two others at the time. They got separated and this one ended up on the roof of the house across the street calling out to it's friends for several minutes.

Here is one of our butterflies. If you recall from a previous posts, we had four caterpillars that were metamorphosing. Two have emerged from the chrysalis. We are still waintng to see if the two remaining ones will emerge or not. It was really neat to release the butterflies and watch them fly away!

This little guy was found in the pool this week. He was lucky someone saw him and was able to get him out. The girls always love the opportunity to see a snake and these are docile enough to handle. how pretty he was with his orange ring around his neck and his orange belly.

Love Bugs

2011-06-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

Love bug season hit hard this year in Florida. Those pesky insects were out in record numbers, and the infestation seemed to last longer than usual. These bugs are terrible. You cannot drive your car anywhere without getting hundreds of them stuck to the front of you car, and if you don't wash them off quickly, they will damage the paint on your car. I had to wash my car five times in two weeks! Luckily, I had lots of help!

Bath Time

2011-06-29T09:00:00.003-04:00

The dog needed a bath, so I let the kids put him in the pool to get him good and wet. I think this picture sums up his feelings about having to get in the pool. I am guessing he was thinking the crown incident from a few days earlier was not so bad after all.

Am I Right?

2011-06-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

This post has been in my head since the first of May. I just wasn't sure what I wanted to say. I am still not so sure, but I feel that it should be said if for no other reason than to get it off my chest. On May 10, 2011 we held our second (yes, second) meeting to complete Rachel's IEP. We spent a total of five hours over two meetings discussing Rachel's past and previous goals and whether or not she had mastered them. Sadly, she had mastered few of them. The school stated that they let us set the goals last year knowing that they were lofty. But it was not us who set the goals, as the IEP was written before last year's meeting and we just went over it, just like we have done every year, including this one. This is neither here nor there, but it is frustrating for the school to always try to but the blame on someone other than themselves.

This year, I made a point to get a copy of the IEP prior to the meeting, and I pored over it trying to think of questions I needed to ask and things I needed to request for Rachel. I am still far from an expert at these things, but I feel that we did indeed do our best to get what was in Rachel's best interest. We fought to get Rachel in a regular classroom and argued with the staff and teachers about whether it could be done. This past year she was designated as resource student, meaning she was to be in a regular classroom at least 40% of the time. This was not done, and we were determined to get her into a regular classroom so that we could be sure she was getting to be with regular peers. I know that she cannot keep up academically with her peers and would need assistance in the classroom. I knew that it was pretty much impossible to get Rachel an aid in the budget strapped school district, but we tried anyway. We did our best.....but the school wins again. According to them Rachel cannot do the work of a first grader. Duh! From everything I read about inclusion, the ability to work on the same level as the other students is irrelevant.

The inclusion specialist had been out to the school to observe Rachel prior to our IEP meeting per my request. I wanted to go into the meeting with some people on my side. I wanted the inclusion specialist to see that Rachel is not a behavioral problem and that she could be in a regular classroom with assistance so that she could put pressure on the school to get Rachel included.. The specialist apparently did some testing with Rachel, that I was not informed about and found Rachel to be on the level of a two year old in some areas, a three year old in some areas, and a five year old in other areas. She presented this info at our first meeting. I had no idea where she was going with this at the time. I agreed with her findings, but did not see how it was going to affect Rachel's placement.   The specialist failed to show up at our second meeting, despite the fact that she is the one who picked the date. At the second meeting she was contacted by phone, at which time she stated that she recommended placing Rachel in the self contained classroom for most of the day. Wow!  That was not what I was expecting to hear from an inclusion specialist!

Mike and I refused to accept that placement and pushed the staff to find ways to include Rachel. At the conclusion of the meeting Rachel was listed as a self contained student despite our protesting, but we added an addendum that stated that she would be in the regular classroom for science, social studies, activity, lunch and recess. She will be in the self contained classroom for reading and math. The fact that she is listed as a self contained student means that the school only has to get her into in a regular classroom 40% of the time or less. If they do less, they are still okay by the IEP. Hmmmm....all my prepping and pushing served to get us nowhere. We are right back in the position of the school keeping Rachel in the self contained class as much as they see fit, or as I believe, as they find convenient.

We will be meeting with the staff again in August to set the schedule in stone so that everyone knows where Rachel is going to be and when, and to try to get her in the regular classroom as much as possible. I am doing this because for the last two years the school has failed to follow the schedules we have discussed at the spring IEPs I am going to be all over them this year to make sure Rachel is not in that self contained classroom all day.

As a final blow, I was told just last week by our family liaison that the inclusion specialist actually wanted to put Rachel in an even more restrictive setting. She actually recommended that Rachel spend 100% of her time in the self contained classroom. The liaison told me that the inclusion specialist thinks Rachel is so far behind in her academics because she has not been in the self contained classroom all the time.  It hurts to hear that others think that what you have been doing is harming your child. It makes you question if you are doing the right thing to continue to push for inclusion. It makes it hard to stick to your guns about what you think is right. But self contained classrooms go against EVERYTHING the Down syndrome community says is the best thing for Rachel. Could it be that she is behind in her academics because the school switched out her teacher in the middle of the school year? Could it be that the new teacher had never taught before and seemed overwhelmed with the task at hand? Could it be that I need to find another school for Rachel and give up the hope of having her go to school with kids from her neighborhood? Could it be that I am doing everything wrong? Oh, I hope not!

The Princess And The Dog

2011-06-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

The other day Rachel came downstairs wearing all of her dress up jewelry. At one point I turned around to find here sharing her accessories with Cookie. I am thinking he was not too keen on being a princess for a day, but you be the judge.

The Class Of 2017

2011-06-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

On Monday May 23, 2011, Allison completed her tenure in elementary school and participated in a ceremony to mark that milestone. It is unreal to me that I have a daughter old enough to go to middle school. It seems like just a few months ago, she was an infant cuddling in my arms. Allison attended Suntree Elementary since first grade. Up until that point she had been to a new school every year: preschool in Texas, kindergarten in Minnesota, and first grade in Florida. It was such a relief to go back to Suntree for her second grade year and not be the new family. Having been there since 2004, it was amazing to see all the kids so grown up. During the ceremony, the teachers posted each child's first grade picture and then their sixth grade picture. They are not babies anymore! If you look to the middle of the picture below, you can see Allison filing into her row. She is still standing and wearing a blue dress.

Here is the picture of her accepting her awards packet from the principal and assistant principal. It is blurry, because I was so far away and then tried to zoom in on the picture after it was taken. I was so absorbed in looking at all the kids' pictures that I was surprised when Allison was the next one called up, and I almost totally missed the picture. So, I was not able to get the zoom set before I took the picture. Bummer.

He she is walking away from the podium. It still surprises me how tall she has gotten. She hasn't gained any weight, but she has gotten taller. She was wearing her fancy earrings and shoes and just looked so grown up.

The Class of 2017.....the year Allison will graduate from high school was something I had truly never even considered. It was very strange for me to hear them acknowledge what year she will complete high school. I am going to try not to think of that for another year or two.

I am all about taking in the moment and I was looking around the cafeteria and thinking, wow, this will be the last time we are ever going to be in the building. This is IT! I don't think a 12 year old gets that concept of finality. A place that was part of her world every day for seven years and that she knows like the back of her hand will just be a memory one day. She was unimpressed, to say the least. She thought I was strange for taking a picture of the cafeteria. I told her that one day she would look at this picture and say, "Oh, yeah. I remember that school!" Why, you may ask, will we not be at this school with Leah and Rachel? Redistricting moved them to another school this past year, so we are officially done with Suntree Elementary.

Below is a picture of one of Allison friends from Suntree. Schools here are so different from my little town where everyone goes through all twelve years together. There are lots of middle schools, so of course zoning seperates some kids from their friends. Their are also lots of different programs that students apply for that are offered at individual middle schools so that further seperates the kids. That means that there are four or five different middle schools that Allison's classmates will be going to. Her friend below will not be going to the same school as Allison, and Allison's very best friend that is already in middle school goes to different school as well. There will be lots of kids from Suntree at Allison's new school, but there will also be lots of new kids too. I hope that Allison is able to move into her new school and make new friends. I know she is going to be very anxious that first week or so, as will I. But here we go, off to start another chapter in our lives, whether we are ready or not! Congratulations to the Class of 2017!

Dog Sitting

2011-06-20T11:00:00.002-04:00

The neighbors are out of town for the next two weeks, so we are dog sitting. They have the tiniest dog. Her name is Minnie, and she weighs in at a whopping six pounds. This makes for the perfect size dog for Rachel. She loves to walk the dog, but sometimes Cookie will snatch the leash out of her hands when he tries to go after something. Not a problem with Minnie. Rachel thinks it is so neat to have a dog of her own to walk. She is actually getting pretty good at it, and is learning to stop when the dog wants to go potty. In the past she just kept going and would end up dragging Minnie down the sidewalk. Poor Minnie. I know she is always glad when her family comes back home.

Becoming One With Nature

2011-06-19T18:11:00.000-04:00

We went to the beach a couple of weeks ago. The wind had been blowing like crazy for days, so the surf was rough. There were jellyfish washing up on the beach, as was seaweed and the small little reef fish that call the seaweed home before the grow up and move on to the reefs. The large surf was also causing problems for the land dwellers as well. We find a ghost crab washing around just at the water's edge. They live in holes they dig in the sand and are not swimmers, so he was not a very happy crab (I guess you could say he was a little crabby-sorry, just could let that one go by!). He was still alive, so we carried him up out of the surf zone and placed him in a dune area. He was a little worse for wear so he did not put up much of a fight. I remember catching these guys on the beaches of Alabama when we were kids. Since they can pinch pretty hard, we didn't usually pick up ones this large. This one did latch on to my finger, but it was at the nail and he was not pinching very hard. The girls really enjoyed seeing the crab up close.

About two weeks ago the girls come running into the house yelling for me to look at what they had found in Allison's garden. In their hands they held five caterpillars. They had found them munching on the parsley. I first thought, that the girls had pulled them off the parsley because they didn't want the caterpillars eating it, but they informed me that they wanted to put them in a container and watch them grow and change into butterflies. So they set them up in our little ladybug habitat, and we looked them up online to find out what they were. Turns out they are black swallowtail butterflies. Anyway, for the next week we picked parsley from the garden to feed the caterpillars and watched them grow.........and grow.....and grow! Those things quadrupled in size and they did it fast. Allison must be growing some healthy parsley. Of the five caterpillars, four have survived to morph into their chrysalis. We have moved their habitat into a butterfly enclosure and are now anxious awaiting the arrival of butterflies.

Allison and I got out and enlarged her garden recently (just before the discovery of the caterpillars). She was just itching to plant more "stuff", and she had run out of room. She immediately got more plants and seeds and proceeded to fill up all the new space too. She has been getting quite a few tomatoes, lots of parsley, a few strawberries and a few green peppers. She finally got a green pepper to grow bigger than a quarter and was so excited. We had to cover the strawberry plant, because apparently strawberries are irresistible to the local wildlife. Tomatoes are too, but there are more of them, so they stand a better chance of getting into the house to be eaten by the human consumers. Her newest plants are beans and jalapeno peppers. Wonder if the wildlife will like the jalapeno peppers?

Harmony Farms Showtime

2011-05-23T18:14:00.000-04:00

Rachel has completed her third year of horseback riding. There is no way that I can over exagerate how much she loves it. She talks about her horse every day........."Horsey......Pepper.....Trot.......Ride." To the best of my knowledge she is saying that she wants to go riding; she wants to ride Pepper; she loves it when Pepper trots; and she wants to know if today is the day to ride. At least that is what I think she is saying. I hope she is not saying please don't take me to see the horsey, I don't ever want to see Pepper again, it scares me to death when he trots, please, please don't make me ride anymore....Ha!!

Below are some pictures taken a couple of weeks ago when Rachel was participating in her Showtime. It is going to be a long summer without horseback riding. I hope Rachel can make it until September.

Awwwwwwwww!!! The girl loves her horse!

Where To Begin........

2011-05-21T17:30:00.000-04:00

As usual, time is getting away from me. I would like to use the excuse that something out of the ordinary was going on, and I just couldn't find the time to blog. But that is not the case, as I have just let myself get bogged down in the everyday stuff. Like.........

Packing lunches for school. I usually get the right foods in the right lunchboxes without so much as a thank you, but believe me they let me know when I mix them up. A mom's work is under appreciated.

Getting the kids up for school in the mornings. As the year progressed, the kids got harder and harder to get up in the mornings. This was one of Rachel's particularly rough mornings. She actually went back to sleep in the floor!

Taking the big girls to riding lessons. They have actually found something they love to do. They looked forward to Monday afternoons all year. They will be taking a break for the summer, as they will not be going regularly on Mondays, but the lady is so easy going she said the girls could come out from time to time to see all of the horses and various other animals she has.

Taking Rachel to riding lessons. Another year for Rachel has come to an end. She has completed her third year at Harmony Farms and loves it more now than she did when she started, if that is possible. She talks about riding ALL of the time.

Taking a long weekend trip to Vegas with a friend. This was a welcomed change of pace for me. I had a great trip out to Vegas with a friend I had not seen in seven years and a cousin I had not seen in at least ten years. It was so good to get to see them both again, and there is nothing better than having friends that you can pick up where you left off. Thank you Laura and Lori for a great trip!

Going on a camping trip during spring break to Manatee Springs State Park. We set a record with this trip. We had never camped out for more than two consecutive nights. This was a three night trip, and much to my surprise, one of the best trips ever. We had perfect weather (it was a little cooler than we expected at night and I had to run to Walmart to by blankets for the beds, but cool is better than hot!) The springs were beautiful, and the kids had a great time.

Taking the kids to the beach. It has still been a little chilly, but the kids have had a great time. We pretty much have to take along a friend now for the girls to want to go, so we always have an extra kid or two along with us.

Celebrating guinea pig birthdays. We have had the guinea pigs for one year as of April, so the girls wanted to give them a birthday party. The pigs were none to happy about wearing party hats! One of the guinea pigs has been having breathing problems for a while and I have been making multiple trips to the vet to try to figure out what is going on. He is now being treated for pneumonia after his chest xray (yes, you read that right....his chest x ray) showed some consolidation in his upper lobes. He is now on two antibiotics and a probiotic for the next several weeks. I am getting pretty good at giving meds to guinea pigs. Last year at this time I was treating the other pig for an abscess and he was on antibiotics for several weeks. These are two expensive guinea pigs. Please remind me of this when the kids start asking for more guinea pigs in the future.

Celebrating Easter. I hope I did not let Allison go to church with her hair looking like this. I think Mike took these pictures before we were ready to walk out the door. At least I hope so. We had a nice Easter Sunday. We went to church, went out to lunch, and headed to the beach in the afternoon. Very relaxing.

Praise You in the Storm

2011-05-10T10:41:00.000-04:00

I loved this video that someone made right after the tornadoes rolled through Alabama in April. The destruction seen in the pictures is incomprehensible, but the songs remind us to keep God at the center of our lives no matter what we are going through. I am still praying for those struggling to get their feet back on the ground in Alabama. Thankfully all of my family was okay. One cousin lost his home, but his family and even his dog were spared. Praise be to God!

New Skill Emerging

2011-04-08T18:00:00.001-04:00

I was so excited when Rachel brought home some class work a couple of weeks ago. For the first time ever she attempted to write a letter without hand over hand assistance. Check it out!! What you cannot see in the picture is that the letter "n" was written in each blank with a highlighter for Rachel to trace, but that does not detract from how excited I am that she did this on her own. You may ask why I am taking so long to publish this if I was so excited, but when I tried to publish it two weeks ago, the picture would not show up in the post and if I left the post as a draft and came back, the picture was gone. Anyway, it is working now!

You Learn Something New Everyday

2011-03-25T09:00:00.002-04:00

The camera was sitting on the kitchen counter Tuesday night and Rachel picked it up and was carrying it around. She loves to look at the LCD screen. You are always at risk of losing pictures when she does this, though, because she is quite capable of getting to the "delete all " button, no matter how many steps it requires to get there. I know this from experience. I asked her to give the camera to me and forgot about it for a few minutes. Then Allison asked, "Did she actually take a picture?" I was certain that she had not, as she had never been able to do that before, but I turned on the camera to see. I was expecting to see nothing new, and at the most a picture of Rachel's fingers, but this is what we found!

Well, you cannot argue with a picture. Rachel is the only one not in it. Turns out she can not only delete pictures, but she can take them too.

Florida Field Trips Rock!

2011-03-24T13:35:00.002-04:00

Tuesday Leah had a trip to Port Canaveral. I was not sure what to expect, because all I know about the port is that it is the place where the cruise ships dock. Turns out that the port is home to more than just the cruise ships. We got to tour a fish market where they bring in the fresh catch and process it. They have their own boats, so that was pretty neat. to get to see a shrimp boat up close. The owner of the market also showed us how shrimpers use the Turtle Exclusion Devices (TEDs) which prevent netting and killing sea turtles in the shrimp nets. It was neat to see how shrimpers now accept the devices as a natural part of the shrimping process. Over twenty years ago, when I was studying marine biology, shrimpers were very angry about the new TEDs devices the government was just starting to make them use.

While we were at the fish market, a cruise ship came into dock. Another chance to get to see something up close and personal for the first time. The kids really loved seeing the huge boat, too. After the market we had a picnic in the park that is also in the Port. There is actually a county park with camping sites, playgrounds, picnic tables, beaches and a fishing pier. Who new. I had herd the name of the park, but did not know it was at the port. The pier was the coolest part of the trip. We got to walk out and look at the wildlife in and around the water. The grownups were having as much fun as the kids. I have to say that living in Florida does make for some really fun field trips.

Say What?

2011-03-20T09:00:00.001-04:00

Rachel came home from school the other day with red paint all over her shirt. I asked her what she painted and she said, "Shirt." No kidding.

When I pack Rachel's lunch for school, I always ask her when she gets home what she had for lunch. It is always interesting to hear what she says. She usually says, "chicken." I will tell her I don't think she had chicken because that is not what I put in her lunchbox. Then I ask her again and she will answer, "ham" which is what was actually in her lunchbox. I will ask her what else she had, and she will name the other things in her lunchbox. I am so excited that she is able to remember and name the things she ate. I still cannot count on her telling me the right answers, but she is getting there.

Rachel is also becoming a tad bit bossy. She will now tell me she has made and mess and that she wants me to go clean it up! Can you believe that?! LOL She will come up to me and say, "Mess" and I will ask her if she made a mess. She will say, "Yes." She will then say, "Clean up?" and I will say are you going to clean it up? She then says, "No" which is followed by, "Upstairs." I ask her if she wants ME to go up stairs and clean up her her mess and she says, "Yes." Little stinker!

Rachel has also perfected the disgusted teen attitude. You know the one. When they cross their arms across their chest, take a deep breath and say, "humph!" She has been walking the dog with me lately and wants to constantly run. Well, the dog has to do his business, and that requires him to stop periodically (he also has to sniff every verticle surface he can get to in order to make sure no other dog has peed on it since he last made his rounds) and eventually Rachel get too far ahead. At that point I have to tell her to stop and wait for us to catch up. That is when I get the attitude. She turns around, says "WALK!" I say for her too wiat, and then crosses her arms, stomp her foot, puts her head down, and says, "Humph." Girls...........what to do with them!

Family Harmony

2011-03-19T09:00:00.002-04:00

I was looking through some pictures today and came across this one. You gotta just feel the love when you look at this picture, right!?! I guess Allison had no idea anyone was paying attention to what she was doing.

This really says a lot about Leah's and Allison's relationship. Allison is the bossy big sister and Leah is the submissive little sister. I cringe to think that I must have been just like this to my little sister at that age. At least my little sister was the same size as me and could fight back. Allison is not always arguing with Leah, but it is definitely happening more frequently, than it use to.

The closer Allison gets to the teen years, the meaner she has become toward Leah. We discuss it on an almost daily basis, trying to get Allison to see how she acts from Leah's point of view. No luck with that, though. Right now, Leah is the annoying little sister that says nothing but "stupid" and "annoying" things. (I have not made it on to that list yet, but I know my days are numbered ) Allison will be thirteen in August. She will be leaving elementary school behind in May and heading off to middle school in August. I am sure that as she makes that transition,that poor Leah will take some heat from Allison when things aren't going right at school or around the house. I know that there is little hope that I can change Allison's perception of her little sister at this point, but I look forward to the day when the are the best of friends again, and they look back and laugh at the things they did as children. I hope that is sooner rather than later.

Time Change

2011-03-18T13:52:00.001-04:00

Apparently, changing time is hard to do for Rachel. She has really been dragging this week. She isn't usually too hard to get up in the mornings, but this week she is not wanting to get up at all. When I tell her it is time to get up, she tells me, "No, all done!" After dragging her out of the bed against her will the other day, she proceeded to lie down in the kitchen floor and go back to sleep. I felt bad about handing off this happy child to the teacher, but I got over that and was glad I did not have to listen to little Miss Grouchy all day.

Horsing Around

2011-03-17T13:51:00.000-04:00

The girls have been enjoying their horse back riding. It is even more fun now that it is not cold. We had some really chilly riding days, but fortunately winter is over. Allison and Leah go riding on Monday afternoon. They ride together, and it is just them so they get to do whatever they want. The lady that does the lessons is VERY laid back, and she lets the kids do what they want to do. I am okay with that, because the lesson are very cheap and the girls are having a great time. A couple of weeks ago, she took Allison and Leah trail riding. She loaded up two horses and their tack and my two girls and took them to a nearby park with horse trails. This week she let Leah and Allison exercise two of her minature ponies. The girls had a blast. The girls are now thinking that they are serious riders and are wanting to get riding helments. Notice in the pictures below they are wearing bicycle helmets.

Rachel rides every Thursday afternoon ,and she may be more in love with horse back riding than she was last year. She talks about it constantly and to anyone who will listen. If a stranger stops to tell her hello, she starts talking about horses. It is always the same conversation. She says, "Horsey," then pauses and waits for you to repaeat it, then she says, "Guke" which is Rachel speak for Duke and is the name of the horse she rides. She waits for you to repeat that, then she will say, "Trot." This is a close as she comes to saying a sentence, and she uses it every morning to say goodmorning to her daddy. Rachel has been so excited this week because she is getting to ride twice. Tuesday she got to ride to make up for some of the classes we have missed due to rain and cold. She will ride again this afternoon. She is now always asking to wear her shirts with the horses on them. She only has two, so it doesn't happen every day, much to her dismay. Twice in the last month she has asked to wear her horse shirt to sleep in and then worn it to school. The girl is loving her horses!! Oh yeah, she is finally starting to hold the reigns and even trying to turn the horse! She is looking like such a big girl up on her horse these days. Below are some pictures of Rachel and Duke.

Springtime

2011-02-24T15:17:00.000-05:00

It is warming up nicely here in Florida.....actually a little warmer than I would prefer for February, but I will take the 80 degree days over the 40 degree days anytime! The robins are flying around, the trees are blooming, my flowers are starting to come back, and everyone is sneezing and complaining about allergies, so it must be spring! The big girls decided that they were going to get into the pool on Monday. They did manage to get in, but that lasted for about 30 seconds. It will still be quite a while before that water is warm enough to swim in.

Another indication that it is spring, is the middle school registration deadlines. I cannot believe that Allison will be going into seventh grade this fall. I went to one middle school last Friday to check it out. They had an open house to show the parents what the school is like. It really freaked me out to think about sending Allison to school there. The school is so much bigger than where she goes now and of course, she is expected to be more independent in the middle school setting. They have seven classes a day and three minutes to get from one class to another. That is plenty of time I am sure, but it will certainly take some getting used to for Allison. Having to keep organized for seven different teachers will be one of Allison's biggest challenges, though. Organization is not one of her strong points! Allison also does not excel in meeting new people, so the new surroundings will be somewhat intimidating for her. I hope that she can get off to a smooth start in the fall.

Rachel is busy learning new words. She has lots of new words she is trying to say. Train, chair, kitchen, Sea World, sea lions, killer whales (notice the Sea World influence?) bed, school, class, and lunch are some I can think of off the top of my head. I am the only one that understands her, but it is great to hear her trying to say so many new words. Her speech therapist is trying to get her to say the "f" sound, but no luck yet. She will put her mouth in the right position when we rub something on her bottom like and she tries to get it off, but she will not make the sound when she does it. She was so funny the other day. She came home from school with red paint all over her white shirt. I asked her what had she painted at school. She looked at me and simply stated, "Shirt." Well, of course. Cannot believe I did not figure that out.

Leah is being the epitome of the middle child. She is cruising along under the radar, not causing any disruptions. She is even slowly turning into a wonderful big sister for Rachel. Not that she has been bad, she just chose not to have too much to do with Rachel in the past. Lately though, she has seemed to grow up a little when it comes to dealing with Rachel. Allison has always been good with Rachel, but Leah......not so much. If we asked Leah to get Rachel to do something, a battle of wills would quickly ensue. Lately, Leah has been offering to help with Rachel, and it has been neat to see her encourage Rachel to do something that she originally did not want to do.

Rachel Loves "Donalds"

2011-02-09T11:30:00.002-05:00

Here is a video I took this weekend as Rachel and I waited on the big girls to get ready to go to McDonalds. Rachel loves to eat from there and gets so excited when I say yes. I believe she could eat her weight in chicken nuggets and french fries. I think it is funny that she says something about a milk shake, because she never gets one of those!

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Why, Yes They Do!

2011-01-31T14:07:00.000-05:00

Well, it turns out you can indeed grow tomatoes in January! Allison planted her little garden back in the fall, and I was not sure if the plants would do anything in the winter. It is usually warm enough here, but I was not sure if the number of hours of sunlight would have an effect. This winter has been another unusually cold one, so we have had to cover the plants and put a light out there to keep the plants from freezing three times already. It has been warm enough the last several weeks, so maybe the really cold temps are over for the winter. Allison's plants have started producing quite a few tomatoes now, and she is so excited.

The plants are even starting to send up new shoots. It won't be long before we will have more tomatoes than we can eat. Allison, always the entrepreneur, wants to set up a produce stand and sell her tomatoes. Got to love the optimism of a kid!

Right now, Allison's biggest costumer is Rachel. She LOVES the homegrown tomatoes and will go into the refrigerator, grab a tomato, and eat the whole thing!

SeaWorld 2011

2011-01-29T16:46:00.000-05:00

Last Saturday we went to SeaWorld for the day. Allison got to go to Aquatica for her birthday a few years ago, so Leah wanted to go to a park for her birthday too. Aquatica is a water park, which is not an option for a January birthday, so Leah picked SeaWorld. It is one of our favorite parks in Orlando. It was a pretty chilly day, but that really seemed to knock down the attendance, so we had a great day.

Here we are at the stingray touch tank. You can touch and feed the rays, but we just watched. Lots of the local birds hang around the exhibits taking advantage of all the fish that get fed to the animals in the park. Do you see the big white birds in the foliage in the middle of the tank?

We decided to pay a little more to feed the dolphins. That was really cool! Rachel did not like it at all, and yelled, "no, no, no, no, no" every time I tried to lift her up to see over the wall. The seagulls were very aggressive around this exhibit. One flew in and took Allison's fish-he snatched up the paper tray and flew way with the tray and all of her fish!

This shot may explain why Rachel did not like looking over the wall. This is what she would she when she looked over the wall. Looking into those mouths full of teeth can be a little disconcerting.

Getting ready to watch the dolphin show. We were lucky to get a front row seat right in the middle. Well not exactly the front, we made sure not to sit in the splash zone.

The girls rode the kiddie roller coaster a few times. If you look close you can see Allison and Leah in the car in the left corner. Rachel l really liked it too. As soon as the ride came to a stop she said she wanted to go again.

Rachel also really liked the large playground too. It is really just a maze of tunnels and nets, and Rachel could not walk across the nets very well, but she kept asking for more.

Here you see me and Rachel trying to walk across the nets. Mike was laughing because he had already had his turn in the rope trap with Rachel ,and he knew how hard it was to get across.

We bought the fun passes that are available to Florida residents. They cost the same as a regular ticket, but allow you to go back to the park for the rest of the year for free. Hopefully, we will get back over there again soon, before it gets too hot.

The Good And The Bad

2011-01-21T13:47:00.000-05:00

Rachel had to go to the dentist yesterday. In November she went in for a check up, and they pointed out that she had a new tooth just starting to come through behind her baby teeth. Very shortly after the visit, another tooth popped through the gum. Both teeth came in very quickly and were really starting to get pretty prominent, but the baby teeth were not getting any more loose. I took her into the dentist yesterday to see if we needed to pull the baby teeth. The dentist concurred that we did and proceeded immediately to get them out. I was thinking I would have to schedule another appointment for that. Anyway, with a little gas, numbing gel and numbing shot, the teeth came out without any problems. Rachel was the perfect little patient. She even went back to school after the dentist appointment! She was none too happy to show off her new smile to the camera last night, though!

The girls and I went to a nearby park over the weekend to enjoy the nice weather. They had a good time playing on the playground and an even better time walking the trails. They found a mound of sand to play on and Rachel was having a great time trying to keep up.

Rachel loves the playground and is finally pretty much independent on it. I still stand right behind her when does some of the things that put her high off the ground. with nothing to catch her if she fell.

Subtle Milestones

2011-01-14T14:38:00.000-05:00

I have waited so long to be able to communicate with Rachel, and if you were to ask me if we she can communicate, I would likely say no. Rachel cannot speak in sentences. For the most part she will not utter more than two syllables. But just this week I was thinking about how many new words Rachel has added to her list of words she says that I can understand, and I realized that she is already communicating. Below is a typical conversation.

Rachel: Mommy?
Me: What?
Rachel: I eat.
Me: What do you want?
Rachel:  etzel
Me:  You want pretzels?
Rachel: Yes.
Rachel: Mommy?
Me: What?
Rachel: wovie. I watch.
Me: What movie to you want to watch?
Rachel: agon
Me: You want to watch Dragons (short for How To Train Your Dragon)?
Rachel: Yes
Rachel: Mommy?
Me: What?
Rachel: I milk.
Me:  Do you want water instead?
Rachel: No! Milk!

Suddenly, I have come to realize that we are carrying conversations every day! It has happened so slowly that I have not noticed how much Rachel actually does say. The words and requests are simple, and no one else would know what she was talking about, but ever so slowly Rachel is making progress toward becoming a talker, and I could not be more excited!

Happy New Year!

2011-01-10T12:03:00.001-05:00

We finished out 2010 celebrating and reminiscing with old and dear friends that are like family to us. Two families came down from Alabama to visit with us over the New Year's Weekend. Our friend, Bill, who passed away in August, was Dad to one of the families, and since his sudden and unexpected death, we treasure our friendships, and are doing our best to keep in touch and share more time together.

There were a total of 13 people in the house and eight of them were kids. The kids LOVE those kinds of numbers, and they had a great time together. Unfortunately, Allison was sick with some kind of cold bug and pretty much slept on the couch the whole time everyone was here. She was so sad that she did not feel like getting upstairs and being silly with all the other kids. I think Rachel pulled her weight, though, she loved getting up there and acting goofy. Below is a pic of the moms getting ready to feed the hungry masses.

The first day everyone was here, we headed out to a nearby amusement park that has go karts, miniature golf, and arcades. The go karts were a blast and the kids had lots of fun playing the arcade games. Rachel was even able to ride the go karts, and she was grinning from ear to ear when she got to ride them. Allison made it on this adventure, but was worn out afterwards, and it turned out to be the only thing she was able to participate in.

New Year's Eve was our second day together. Some of the more adventurous of the group headed out before sunrise for a fishing trip. They spent all day on the rolling seas trying to catch fish. Unfortunately, they came back empty handed, a little seasick, and tired. But they did have some funny stories to tell. The other half of the group, which included me, Leah, and Rachel, went to the zoo instead. The weather was great and the zoo was not too crowded, so we had a nice time. Below is a pic of your landlubbers.

New Year's day was a little more laid back. Everyone hung out in their jammies for a bit. At least Allison could be part of the group here. About noon everyone headed to the beach for a bit. Allison was still feeling tired and run down so she and I stayed home. The kids had a great time at the beach, even though the water was a little too chilly for some. I guess not too bad for a January day though!

Happy New Year to everyone and may 2011 be your best year yet!

Christmas in January, Pictures That Is

2011-01-09T14:58:00.000-05:00

December had us...........

decorating........Notice the wonderful help I had putting up the outdoor decorations. They were no help with the stuff on the ground, but had a fit to get on the roof. I probably should not have let them up there, but they had the best time just sitting up there. Well, actually they complained that all I would let them do up there was sit, but they did have a good tme checking out the bird's eye view.

baking cookies.......it is so nice to have the girls old enough to do them on their own. They used to want to make them, but quickly lost interest and left me to finish them. Now we can all all work together, or they can work on the cookies while I move on to something else. Rachel did not take an interest in the cookies. She does not even like to eat them, silly girl!

making candy........I tried my hand at making divinity again. I had tried it once in the past, and it did not work at all. I had lots of help this time and we actually pulled it off despite dropping my brand new candy thermometer in the boiling syrup and having to use a 40 year old mixture to try to stiffen up the candy. I think the mixer just about gave it up right there at the end, but we did it!

eating lots of sweets........The finished product.

celebrating..........Christmas Eve dinner was shared with Grandpa and our dear friend, Regina.

unwrapping presents............The big girls could not wait for this part of Christmas. It is fun to have Rachel old enough to be interested in this after all these years.

playing with the new toys Santa brought.........Rachel never really seems to pay much attention to what is going on around her, but she was just precious Christmas morning when she walked out of her bedroom and looked downstairs. Her eyes got big and I asked her what did she see. With eyes still the size of saucers she said, "Christmas!" Once downstairs she immediately took to the new Woody doll and played with him most of the day. Who new the doll talked so loud! Rachel has an older Jessie doll and you can barely hear her talk, but this doll is LOUD! Did not notice that at the time I got it.

hanging out with Grandpa..........Grandpa actually came down and spent three days with us. He usually zooms in and out much too quickly, so we were delighted to have him come down and stay with us for a couple of days.

Trying To Catch Up

2011-01-08T14:20:00.000-05:00

I have gotten so far behind in my blogging. I am going to try to do better this year. Below are some pictures of our trip home to Alabama for Thanksgiving.

The girls love to ride the lawn mowers at Daddy Hawk's.

Rachel is finally big enough to get in on the fun too.

It was hard to get her off once she got going.

The cousins love to get together for a couple of days.

The kids' table. Now I know why my grandmother had a kids' table.

After a while, it just gets plain silly.

After a warm start, the holiday weekend really cooled off. That did not keep the girls inside, though.

The big girls decided to climb the tree. If you look closely, you can see Allison near the top, maybe.

Christmas Cards

2010-12-02T11:30:00.027-05:00

Merry Christmas Script Christmas 5x7 folded card

Make a statement with Shutterfly Christmas photo cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Just finished creating my Christmas cards with Shutterfly. Wow! What a selection they have. It took me about three days to decide which one I wanted. I actually created four different cards before I settled on one. They were all so different, I just had to decide which look I wanted to go with. I love this kind of stuff. I lets me feel so creative, and take it from me, creative I am not! It certainly makes me want to get serious about making some photo books for the girls. If the photo books are as easy to create as the cards, I should be able to do it. I have done a few photo books with another online company, and they are lots of fun, but Shutterfly seems to offer a lot more options to really make the project your own. I am excited to try them out!

She Is Growing Up!

2010-11-23T23:00:00.000-05:00

Rachel went in to the dentist on Monday for her check up. The hygienist found out that Rachel has three new teeth!! Three! She has both of her upper six year molars coming through. I am not surprised I did not know that, because she will never open her mouth for me to look in there, but the third tooth is a lower incisor. It is coming in behind her baby teeth. I cannot believe I have not noticed that one. The dentist told me to start wiggling the baby tooth to try to get it to loosen up and come out. I have to say I am not looking forward to Rachel losing her baby teeth. She is my last one and I hate to see her grow up. I cannot believe all my babies are gone!

Frustration Was The Word Of The Day

2010-11-21T16:35:00.000-05:00

We had Rachel's IEP meeting on Thursday. It was such a fiasco, that I could not sit down and write about it until today. As soon as the meeting started, I realized that the IEP team and I were not on the same page. I immediately told them that I was there to change the IEP to place Rachel in a regular kindergarten classroom full time, as her original VE teacher had informed me I could do. The teacher stopped me right there and said she had never told me that we could move Rachel into her classroom. I was flabbergasted. I had talked with this teacher multiple times regarding this change, and I really don't think I just misunderstood what she was talking about.

In addition to this, I also found out that Rachel was still not getting into the regular kindergarten classroom from her new VE classroom. She has not gone into her regular kindergarten class since sometime in September!! The new self contained teacher did not even know that Rachel was supposed to be pulled out of the VE classroom for certain activities! I have lost a lot of confidence in Rachel's school in the the last couple of weeks. I have had several parents tell me what a wonderful school this is, but right now I am not impressed.

After the meeting, Rachel remains in the VE classroom with the new teacher and will be pulled to a regular classroom for some activities. I cannot believe that we had to hold a meeting in November to get Rachel back on the schedule that we put in place back at May's IEP meeting!!! I guess I am going to have to get into the school on a regular basis and make sure the school is carrying this out. I am not devastated with this placement, as I knew Rachel would not do as well academically in a regular classroom, but I did want her back with her original teacher and I wanted Rachel to get to experience the feeling of "belonging" in a regular classroom.

Tomorrow Rachel should resume the schedule she had at the beginning of the year and hopefully, she will be comfortable going back into that kindergarten class. She does not like change and it has been two months since she was last in the class. Mike is also interested in talking to someone that knows IEP law and discuss this situation with them. Not carrying out IEP requirements because it is not convenient is not acceptable. I really should have stayed on top of everyone to make sure things were getting done, but I had been so pleased with the staff after last year, that I just assumed that everything was being done like it was supposed to be. Wrong!

Inclusion

2010-11-17T18:21:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow I have a meeting at Rachel's school to change her IEP. This was not in my plan, it is just how things have been falling into place. In September, a teacher just walked out of her classroom and quit. It was not a teacher that Rachel had, but the school put the kids that had no teacher in Rachel's classroom. Rachel went from a self contained classroom with eight kids with special needs to a kindergarten-first grade multigrade classroom with 21 kids-13 of them regular peers! I was told that the school was going to be looking for a special ed teacher for the older kids in the self contained classroom and the younger kids in the self contained class were going to be staying with the multigrade class and their original teacher and an aide that they had started the year with.

Well, it turns out that the school had other plans. The new special ed teacher was hired to take all of the kids that were in the self contained class. Not only that, but the self contained class moved to the classroom that the kindergarten first grade class was in and the kindergarten first grade class moved in to the self contained classroom.........what was the logic behind that? I will never understand taking kids that have to have their routine and changing up EVERYTHING on them!  I will never understand the way some people think!

The last of September and the whole month of October was a waste because it was total confusion when the class of thirteen kindergartners and first grades were pushed into the Rachel's class. All the kids were out of sorts and there was no routine. Finally, the class started getting into somewhat of a groove, and then the special ed kids were pulled out and moved into the new classroom with the new teacher.  Therefore, all of November has been spent trying to convince Rachel that the new room and teacher aren't so bad. She has not wanted to go into the new room. She is starting to adjust, but the teacher seems so quiet and the room is so empty it just doesn't seem like the best learning environment. It is this teacher's first teaching job, so she is still trying to figure it all out.

Now if this was not confusing enough, about two weeks ago Rachel's original teacher stated she thinks Rachel could do well in the kindergarten first grade class, and she wants to get Rachel in there full time!  I agreed, but Rachel could not go into the class until her IEP was rewritten-mind you she had been in that classroom the whole month of October, but in the new self contained for the last three weeks. We scheduled an IEP meeting which took about two weeks to get done-two weeks of Rachel getting used to her new room and teacher. Now, I wonder if I am doing the right thing pulling her out of that room. She is finally starting to go in there without complaining. It will mean moving Rachel AGAIN! It will back to her original room with her original teacher, so maybe it will be easier for her. I hope so, because we have gotten almost halfway through this year, and I feel like Rachel has not really gotten much out of it. It also means compromising her one on one time for reading and math in order to get the social interaction with regular peers. I hope I am doing the right thing.

I am also wondering if I should do this, because it is happening solely because of the unexpected turn of events. When we tried to get inclusion the last two years, we were pretty much told it was wishful thinking, and it was not what was best for Rachel. This is happening only because Rachel's original special ed teacher is now teaching a regular classroom, and she thinks she can handle Rachel in the room without an aide. It seems to be unheard of to have a special needs kid included in a regular classroom with and aide. When we go to an IEP meeting in the spring, the school will not offer us another inclusive opportunity. Here in Florida, they consider an aide in an inclusive environment more restrictive than no aide in a self contained class! Can you believe that?!  I guess that is their way of saving money. I am getting really frustrated with the school system. Inclusion in Florida is not a reality for the most part.

School Pictures 2010

2010-11-13T17:01:00.000-05:00

I have finally gotten everyone's school pictures and gotten them scanned into the computer. I cannot believe how big the girls are getting. Allison is in sixth grade and will be in middle school next year! Rachel went in to the doctor for a well check this past week and measured in at 3 1/2 feet tall. Not very tall for a seven year old, but it shocks me how tall she has gotten.

Rachel is also on a roll with her language right now. She is saying lots of new words and even putting two words together sometimes. Her newest two word combo is "stay here." This is often said with great emotion as she is being forced to go somewhere she does not want to go.

Free Christmas Cards!!!!

2010-11-12T18:06:00.000-05:00

If you haven't already seen this offer on another blog, check it out! Shutterfly is offering 50 free holiday photo cards to bloggers. In this economy I am so excited to see an opportunity to save some money. Since having my first kiddo 12 years ago I have sent out photos each Christmas. I started by getting professional pictures taken and just including the pictures in the cards. That was expensive! I moved on to taking my own pictures, printing them out at the local Target or Walgreens, and inserting the photos into the cards with the photo pockets. Having to take the picture, get it printed out, and stuffing it into the photo card was a lot of work! This year, I decided I am going to try the photo cards. No more running around and stuffing cards!

I was aware of Shutterfly's photobooks . I have created a few photobooks with other sites in the past, and they are both fun to create and wonderful keepsakes to remember special times. They also make great gifts. Over the last couple of years, the sites I have used have become stale and boring. I recently opened a Shutterfly account to create a photbook after seeing a friends book. It was so colorful and creative. So much more interesting than the ones I have created in the past with other sites. I am looking forward to creating a book on their site.

I had not really looked at the cards, though, until today. They are so cute and the combinations that you can do are almost endless. Check out their selection here. I am really excited about being able to not only add my own pictures, but also my own message. No more poring over the cards at Target and Hallmark trying to find a card that will look good with my picture AND has a message I like! I already think I might have one picked out. The girls are wearing blue shirts this year, and I think this one would be really cute. Okay......I am off to start taking pictures so I can get started on my card!

Halloween

2010-11-01T10:14:00.000-04:00

We carved the pumpkins on Friday night. Leah drew two of the faces and Allison requested a pumpkin that looked like Winnie the Pooh. The kids design and I cut.

The front porch all decked out. The pumpkins on the left are not real pumpkins.

Here the girls are all dressed up for Trick-or-Treating. Allison was not a happy camper at this point, because she was supposed to be a vampire, and the teeth she bought would not stay in place like they were supposed to. So she was left with just the dress and the white face paint. Fortunately, she got over it and went out and had a good time-so not like her?! Maybe she is finally growing up. We had planned on dressing Rachel as Belle, but she had other ideas when she saw the Incredibles' costume. She would have nothing to do with the princess costumes after that.

We also got Cookie in on the act. We had not planned on doing this, but on a last minute run to Target yesterday, we saw that the pet costumes were on clearance. We could not resist. It is hard to see, but Cookie is supposed to be a unicorn with a princess riding on his back. He really did not like the head piece. Below is Cookie posing with Minnie from across the street. Don't they look like they are having fun?

Rachel thought Minnie was cute!

Is this really my child?! Leah was lovin' the green hair. Thankfully it washed out easily.

The morning after........Rachel wanted to eat candy this morning for breakfast.

The Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-25T13:00:00.003-04:00

Rachel's class had a trip to the Pumpkin Patch this past Thursday. She missed the trip last year because she was sick. She just about missed it again this year. She was home sick Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday with a cold. She missed a field trip on Monday, but made it back to school on Thursday just in time for the second field trip.

More Riding Lessons

2010-10-24T12:00:00.002-04:00

The big girls have been having a fit to take horseback riding lessons, so a few weeks ago we signed them up with this lady that does lessons in her backyard. She is really cheap, gives hour long lessons, and the girls are having a great time with the horses.

Thank goodness Rachel is okay with the big girls getting to ride and her not. This lady has LOTS of animals at her house, so Rachel does enjoy checking them all out, and she loves playing on a slide and in a play house that are there.

A Great Day For A Walk!

2010-10-23T15:15:00.000-04:00

Today was our walk for Down syndrome awareness. Unfortunately, it is no longer named the Buddy Walk, because NDSS copyrighted the name and required a large fee for its use. Our organization wanted to keep all the money to help the local Down syndrome community, so they opted to change the name.

We had amazing weather!! It is usually VERY hot and sticky or it is raining. Today was picture perfect. The temps were comfortable and the wind was blowing. It was perfection. This year saw a record turn out and record donations totalling of $35,000!!! It is so neat to see so many people come together for a great cause!

When It Comes To Running.........

2010-10-22T16:00:00.002-04:00

.....I have always been a sprinter. Even as a kid, I was really only interested in running shorter distances. I loved to run when it meant racing at top speed from one end of the yard to the other or around the house once or twice, but I never even entertained long runs. My cousins and I would race every Sunday at my grandmother's. I was one of the fastest, but one of the oldest too.

Anyway, apparently in all aspects of my life, I am a sprinter. I jump off to a great start and maintain the speed for a short while, and then I am done. I present my blog as evidence. I got off to a pretty good start on the 31 for 21 blogging project and even added a blog or two while entertaining company for a weekend. But, I quickly faded and have totally lost my rhythm.

Unfortunately, life is a marathon.. In life with Ds, there are lots of marathons....sometimes lots of marathons are going on at one time. I am struggling to keep up the pace. I actually never really even set a pace, LOL. When I found out I was expecting Rachel, I prayed to God for patience. When she was diagnosed with Ds, someone told me she would teach me patience. As the saying goes, be careful what you ask for, you just might get it! I guess I better start training for a marathon. Over the last seven years I have fought tooth and nail to remain a sprinter, but it is time to change gears.

Horseback Riding

2010-10-17T14:57:00.000-04:00

I am not doing too well with this 31 for 21 posting...........I knew it would be a struggle, but my does time fly by. I think I have just missed a day or two and am surprised to see how many days I have actually missed. I cannot seem to get caught up from having company last weekend. Well, that is my excuse and I am sticking with it!

We have had beautiful weather here this past two weeks. It has been nice to be outside when we have the chance. Thursday afternoons, Rachel does her horseback riding. Below are some pictures from this past Thursday. I cannot believe how big Rachel is looking these days.

We Are Still Recovering From All The Fun

2010-10-14T21:20:00.002-04:00

We had a very busy, but fun, weekend with our friends. It is amazing how much sand seven kids can bring home from the beach. I am still sweeping sand out of my house! The kids were constantly on the go from early Saturday morning until Monday night. They kayaked, went swimming, went to the beach, went shark fishing, and played on the water slide a neighbor let us borrow. They also argued, complained, whined and told on each other, but generally a good time was had by all. Tuesday morning, reality reared it's ugly head, and I fought an heroic battle to get the kids off to school. I am not sure how, but I managed to get them out of the house and to school on time. Our company left about noon on Tuesday, and that evening we were all worn out. Even today I am still recovering from the hectic weekend.

Rachel really enjoyed the water slide this time around. In the past she has not been able to climb up the slide by herself, but this weekend she proved that she is indeed growing up by showing us she has mastered climbing up the water slide. It was so much fun to watch her do it on her own. I have tried to upload a video of Rachel on the slide, but it is not working right now.

Happy Birthday Rachel!

2010-10-10T20:28:00.000-04:00

Today, 10-10-10 is Rachel's birthday. She is seven. Where has the time gone? I still think of her as my baby, but she really isn't a baby anymore.

For her birthday she got a little indoor trampoline, two books, and a Kids Bop CD. Her favorite thing was the card she got from some friends that plays "The Hamster Dance." So much for the gifts..........;-)

Let The Fun Begin!

2010-10-08T23:06:00.001-04:00

We have a very busy weekend ahead of us, and the girls could not be more excited. Our friend, Bill, who passed away in August, left behind a wife and four kids. They will all be coming down from Alabama to spend the weekend with us. Allison and Leah cannot wait for the kids to arrive. They have been on pins and needles for the last week, and they were just silly all afternoon and evening they are so excited. I am hoping that Rachel will be well for the weekend. I kept her home from school today because she had had several bouts of diarrhea the last two days. She seemed to feel okay, but I just thought it would be best to keep her home. About noon today she threw up, but shortly after she was fine and has been fine all evening. I am praying that everyone will stay well for the weekend! It should be chaotic with seven kids...:-) It will be strange to have Joanna here without Bill. I still cannot believe he is gone.

In addition to the company, Rachel's birthday is Sunday. My plan was to get out today and get some shopping done, but with Rachel home sick, that did not happen. That means I have to try to work that into Saturday. It should be lots of fun to have all the kids here for Rachel's birthday. I plan on getting her one of those little trampolines that they use in therapy. She LOVES to "jump" on the trampolines in gymnastics. The problem is, she cannot jump. She cannot get both feet off the ground. Maybe if we have something for her to practice on she can finally reach that milestone. She will have fun trying to get there, anyway.

OOTS!!

2010-10-07T23:59:00.001-04:00

I almost let the day get by without a post........well, actually the day is over here in Florida, so I will just have to pretend I am on Central Time tonight! "Oots" is Rachel word for oops. It is one of the many things that she mispronounces. Mollie from across the street is "Moss", kitty is "killy", Whitney is "Nee", horse is "see"-see is also fish and cheese........we sometimes have to resort to sign language to tell which "see" she is talking about.

I have waited so long to be able to communicate with Rachel and if you were to ask me today if she can communicate, I would say not really. But, I have recently noticed that she is saying many new words. She is still limited to one word at a time, but she is really increasing the number of words available to her. Tonight the doggie gate going into the kitchen was a little hard to open. When Rachel pulled on it and it did not open, she said, "Locked." It is really cool to be hearing the new words. Hopefully soon we will be hearing sentences!!

Is It Just Me?

2010-10-06T17:20:00.000-04:00

Today Rachel had speech therapy. She gets speech in school, three days a week, and I take her in to someone else once a week. Rachel has had speech since she was an infant. Over all these years, I have been given numerous oral motor exercises to do with her. I always try to be the good mommy and attempt to do what I am told, but it never fails that, even if I get off to a good start, I end up tappering off. I always have some excuse not to do them.......it is too late, Rachel is too grouchy, there is not enough time, I will do it later, Rachel doesn't feel good, I don't feel good, we are off our schedule with travel or friends visiting, etc..... I always have good intentions and have spent lots of money on these intentions, only to let them fall by the wayside over time. Take the eProReading program. We got through the first coouple of sets of cards, and then I started missing days. Days became weeks, and now we are not doing it at all. Am I the only one out there that has a difficult time doing all the recommended exercises? (I am not any better with the PT or OT exercises either, by the way) If you are good about following through on things, how do you do it?! I just feel overwhelmed with the things I am supposed to do. All three girls seem to have a thousand things that they are supposed to be doing, and I feel like I just cannot keep up.

School Pictures.......She Looks So Grown Up!

2010-10-05T13:15:00.000-04:00

October 2006

October 2007

October 2008

October 2009

October 2010

I cannot believe that Rachel will be seven years old on Sunday, but when I see this recent school picture, I have to say she is growing up!

One Month Down............

2010-10-04T14:00:00.002-04:00

Rachel has been taking her thyroid medication for a month now. I am glad to say that it has not been too hard to get the pill down her. At first she gagged a little when I put it in her mouth, but she got it down. She will still sometimes gag a little when she just sees me getting the pill out of the bottle, LOL!!

After taking the meds for a couple of days, she started protesting when I would say it was time to take her medicine. I was thinking it was going to get ugly, but she did not protest too hard, and now, she seems to understand that it is something she just has to do and protesting won't get her anywhere.

Sometimes she seems to swallow it whole, but most of the time she chews it up a little before I can get her to take a drink of water. She makes some nasty faces, but she gets it down. Just this week I have been able to hand her the pill and get her to put it in her mouth.

I am so proud of how she has adjusted to taking the medicine. I was really thinking it was going to be an ordeal, and that I would have to get her up earlier for school in order to be able to get it down her and get her to school on time. Leave it to Rachel to take it in stride.

For any moms out there who might not know, hypothyroidism is not uncommon in children with Down syndrome. It is important to have regular check ups with an endocrinologist to monitor thyroid function. We were taking Rachel in every six months. Because we were monitoring her on a regular basis, we were able to catch it before Rachel was really experiencing any significant symptoms.

Beware Of The Dog!!!

2010-10-03T12:30:00.000-04:00

You gotta feel safe when this is in your house to help keep a lookout for intruders!! This is what I found the other morning when we walked in the kitchen to eat breakfast. He never even knew we were in the kitchen and did not know I took the picture. Good thing I was not looking for a dog for protection! Cookie, we love you anyway!

Future Businesspeople Of America

2010-10-02T12:00:00.001-04:00

In Florida, anytime of year is a good time to make a little money with a lemonade stand. The girls got out in the driveway with the neighbors the other day and made somewhere around $24 selling lemonade. What nice people I have in my neighborhood. They are always willing to stop and buy a cool drink from the kids. I wonder if they have any idea how happy it makes these kids to sell a cup of lemonade.

What I Have Learned So Far

2010-10-01T12:19:00.001-04:00

In honor of Rachel, I will be posting everyday in the month of October to help bring awareness to Down syndrome. Before Rachel was born, I had had very little dealings with children with special needs and was not sure what it meant to raise a special child. I certainly am not an expert in the field today, but I have learned some things in the last seven years.

I have learned that these kids are individuals with their own ideas. In the past I did not give people with Down syndrome the credit they are due. I never really thought that they were unique, and I grouped them all together like so many other people do. "They are all such angels," is one of the most common things you hear about our kids. Well, they aren't. They are just like any other kid with good days and bad.

I have learned that in general, children with Down syndrome will learn some things more slowly than their peers, but they really aren't behind in other things. Rachel did not walk until she three, but she was swimming on her own when she was five. Not to shabby for any kid! She also was the easiest of my three girls to potty train. Imagine that. The better her speech becomes, the more I realize how much information she has soaked up over the years. Just because she has been limited to communicating basic needs, has not kept her from taking in all the things that surround her.

I have learned that kids with Down syndrome are amazing when it comes to some things. Rachel picked up the iPad and within minutes knew how to operate it. I struggled for a while with it (still do, sometimes), but not her. I was wondering how or if I was going to be able to teach her how to use it, but turns out she didn't need my help. It took us a couple of tries to figure out how to lock out some of the functions on the iPad. We would think we had it done, but next thing you knew Rachel had figured a way back to the movies or youtube. She has a memory that is amazing too. She will recall something from months ago if she is placed in a similar circumstance. When she becomes a better communicator she is going to be a walking archive!!

I have learned that as a mommy, I am not good at letting my kids do things for themselves. I am much too quick to jump in there and help Rachel get dressed instead of letting her do it herself. I have learned that Mike is much better at teaching the girls to be independent. I have learned that Rachel may not be able to do something on her own simply because I have not given her the chance. Down syndrome may make Rachel more dependent on me, but I have to remember to give her the chance to show me what she can do.

I have also learned to appreciate the accomplishments. So many things that came so easily to my older girls, have often been a struggle for Rachel. Despite the difficulties she does it anyway!! I have come to admire all the determination that is packed into that little girl. If only I had that kind of drive.

So.....to you, Rachel. Happy Down Syndrome Awareness Month! Thanks for all that you have taught me and all that you will teach me.

I Hope I Can Do This!

2010-09-30T10:54:00.000-04:00

My postings have become few and far between, so committing myself to this is not the smartest thing I have done. I think it will be fun, though, and hopefully get me back into the blog routine. October is National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. I have accepted the blogging challenge to blog every day in October. Thirty-one days for twenty-one chromosomes. It is not much, but if it can help raise awareness and acceptance of our special kids, I am all for it. Bring on October!!

I Cannot Believe It Is September

2010-09-03T18:00:00.000-04:00

This time of year I start wishing I did not live in Florida. I long to have the temps start cooling down and the trees turn colors. But that does not happen here. Instead I put up my autumn colored wreaths in the heat and sweat through Halloween. If we are lucky, it is a little cooler in November. Well, cool enough that you don't HAVE to wear shorts. Since I cannot have autumn colors outside, I will just have to settle for having them on my blog!

One thing this Florida weather allows us to do is grow things year round, so about two weeks ago, I let Allison plant a "garden" in a flowerbed that I had just cleaned out. She decided she needed to grow vegetables for us so that we don't have to "spend so much money" at the grocery store. So far I have invested $5/plant for 5 plants and then $20 dollars for tomato cages. Oh yeah, and another couple of dollars for a bag of mulch. I hope these plants start producing soon! Actually, I am not really sure how it will work out. With less sun and eventually cooler temps, I am not sure if the plants will make vegetables or not. We will see.

Here are a couple of pics of Allison's "garden." It is around the plumbing for the pool pump, so it is not a pretty place for one, but if noise helps plants grow, then the sound of the air conditioner and pool pump should makes these plants THRIVE! Why here, you might ask. Well, we had to dig up the plants that I had around there, because they were choking off the plumbing, You couldn't see the pipes and controls anymore. Before I got around to dismantling the bed, Allison said she wanted a garden. Viola! I may have made a mistake letting her plant the zucchini. It is getting huge!

Hypothyroidism

2010-08-31T13:49:00.000-04:00

I just found out yesterday that Rachel has hypothyroidism. We are fortunate that her endocrinologist has been following her very closely, and we are catching this early. Rachel has not shown any symptoms of hypothyroidism. This diagnosis is not a complete surprise. Rachel's lab work has shown her to be borderline for the last several years, but the labs from last week confirmed that she has finally crossed that line and will have to take medication. Medication for the rest of her life......bummer. I have never been the greatest at remembering to take or give medications. Lots of irony there, considering the last job I had was pediatric nurse! I guess I will have to get her a pill dispenser to help me remember to give her the meds.

I got Mike to pick up the prescription last night and did not look at it until this morning. It turns out the pills are caplets. I called the pharmacy and asked if they had another way of dispensing the med, but she said, unfortunately, no. So it looks like I am going to have to try to teach Rachel how to swallow a pill. I did at least confirm that it is okay for Rachel to chew the pill. I am betting that it tastes horrible, though. It might just be easier to try to get her to swallow it. Just to make it more fun, it has to be taken on an empty stomach, and she cannot eat anything for 30 minutes after she takes the pill.

It is going to take us some time to get this routine. We have been so fortunate up to this point, as Rachel has not had too much to have to deal with. I loved filling out the forms at the doctor's offices and putting "none" for medications taken at home. Don't get me wrong, we are still so very fortunate. We still have a very healthy little girl. We are truly blessed. I am betting the first time Rachel tastes that pill dissolving in her mouth, that she is not going to think she is blessed, but she is indeed. Wish us luck!

First Day Of School

2010-08-14T11:07:00.000-04:00

It is that time again! The girls went back to school this week. Allison and Leah started on Monday and Rachel started on Thursday. I tried my best to get them to ake Rachel on Monday, but they wouldn't........actually, I forgot that she was not supposed to start until Thursday and I got her up and dressed and to school bright and early Monday morning. She is in the same class as last year so the teacher knows her (and me) so she let Rachel stay in the class for about 15-20 minutes while I got Leah into her new classroom and settled in and ran to the school office to take care of some paperwork.

Things seem to be going smoothly. Allison is in 6th grade at the school she has attended since 1st grade. She seems to like her teachers and is pleased with the friends she knows in her homeroom class. Leah is now at the school Rachel is attending. We were rezoned last spring, but Allison was grandfatered into the old school for her last year. Leah has two little girls she knows from our neighborhood in her class, so she is happy about that. She is also in a multiage classroom with 4th graders. I am curious to see how that is going to work out. Right now, I feel a little uneasy about it. I am not yet sure if I like that or not. Rachel is in kindergarten again this year. she has the same teachers as last year. She will be going into the indergarten classroom more often this year and will be pulled out only for academics and therapy. The teacher told me that they would send an aide in there with her at first and then try to give it a go without the aide. We will see how that goes. I am excited and scared at the same time. I hope it goes okay and Rachel can gain some independence this year!

Missing Bill

2010-08-13T13:32:00.001-04:00

It has been over a week since my college friend, Bill, passed away. He was just 46. Left behind a wife and four kids. Aortic dissection, they said. All I know is that one minute he was here with us and the next he was gone. Actually that is not exactly the way it happened, but it seems that way.

I knew Bill in high school, but it was those first years in college that we became friends. Everything I did, I did with a core group of friends that included Bill. We all watched Magnum PI and Simon and Simon on Thursday nights. We watched M*A*S*H after the late news.  Bill harassed me to no end about going home from college on the weekends to see my mom. Once in a while he would win, and we would stay in town. He was always sure we were out partying with him if we stayed. He wanted everyone to have a good time. We attended many football games together. I can remember painting a sheet in his garage one Friday evening and watching him carry it around the stadium the next day. It was a game against Notre Dame and the sheet said something about God and the ten commandments, and of course something about beating Notre Dame. I can remember following his little gold Honda to Birmingham to football games. His was the only car I ever saw that was dressed up to look like an elephant! That was Bill.

After college the get togethers were less frequent. We lived only about 20 minutes away from each other, but you know how that goes. Everyone gets a job and gets wrapped up in the day to day stuff. We were at his wedding in 1990 and he was in ours in 1992. Well......until the bachelor party hangover required him to have a seat in the nearest pew. He gave me grief for months about scheduling my wedding day on an Alabama football game day-Alabama vs Southern Mississippi, I think. I was actually surprised I had not thought of that, but he could not believe that I had forgotten to consider that in my wedding plans. Some friends were angry with him for thinking like that, but I wasn't offended. That was Bill.

In the mid 90s, Bill became a Dad for the first of four times.  Mike and I packed up our household and moved to Texas, and our family started not too long after that. Needless to say, there were even fewer times that we connected in those years.  Our little college group of friends started turning 40. We were in contact with friends as they started planning ways to embarrass each other at "Over The Hill" parties.  Mike and I were in Minnesota, so we could only listen to the funny stories after the parties were over. Wish we could have been there to celebrate with them. Sounds like they went all out for Bill's big day! A big party for a guy who loved to have a good time. That was Bill.

In 2004 we moved to Florida. Finally we were in a place where people would actually come visit, and our kids were getting old enough to actually travel around. After many long years of not seeing each other, Bill came to Florida with his family twice.It was great to reconnect again. He also came down with "the guys" for a long weekend of deep sea fishing.  My kids still talk about how high "Mr. Bill" could splash water when he did a jack knife jump into the pool!! You could always count on him to be the big kid! That was Bill.

Bill decided to organize a regular get together with the old college buds in Alabama. He named the annual reunion the Redneck Regatta. For two years in a row we packed up the family and headed to Alabama for a few days on Lake Guntersville. What wonderful times we had hanging out together. It was really neat to see our kids form friendships with our friends' kids, and for them to get to know our old friends. The girls LOVED those trips because they got to hang out with Bill's kids and got to tube behind Bill's boat. At one point during the last visit, all the kids ended up sitting on one of the boats. When Bill noticed that they were all out there together, he got the jet ski and started spraying the kids on the boat. The kids loved it.........that was Bill.

As Facebook gained popularity, Bill became a part of my everyday life again. It was always fun to read his status and banter back and forth with him about anything and everything. Our core group of college friends were together again and it was a lot of fun. One of Bill's last posts was, "Come on feel the noise..." He would throw a line from a song out there, and everyone would try to come up with the next line. There won't be anymore of those games on Facebook. There won't be anymore commentary between Bill and his fellow political enthusiasts. There won't be Redneck Regattas with EVERYONE there. There won't be anyone to splash water up to the top of the pool enclosure. There won't be anyone to spray the kids with the jet ski. There won't be anyone to help his wife raise those four kids. Bill, we miss you terribly. It was fun while it lasted.

In Memory Of Bill

2010-08-13T13:09:00.003-04:00

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We Love Our Wildlife!

2010-07-31T09:00:00.002-04:00

Earlier this week Allison caught the smallest lizard I have ever seen. After the cold winter, we did not see any lizards for a while, but they appear to be making a comeback.

Allison caught her first bass this morning in the lake behind our house. She was proud of herself.

The kids started throwing lunch meat in the water to feed a soft shell turtle. It was lots of fun watching him come up to eat. He kind of blends in but he is the brown circle toward the top of the picture.

Leah decided it would be fun to drop the hook she had been fishing with in the water to see what the turtle would do...........he took the bait. Literally. He had been cautious to not come too close to the shore so I was sure when Leah dropped the hook in, he would not come up to it because it was pretty close to us. In seconds, he saw the bait and grabbed it before I could get it out of the water. Poor guy. I had to work pretty hard to get that hook out.

We found this grasshopper on the pool screen. I used to see these all the time growing up, but this is the first one I have seen here in Florida. The girls thought he was really cool and had to have their pictures made with him.

Summer Is Winding Down

2010-07-30T09:00:00.001-04:00

Summer is quickly coming to an end here in Florida, well as far as school is concerned. The girls will go back to school on August 9th. Wish the heat would go away when the kids head back to school, but no such luck. It will probably be around till December. I feel for the kids having to trudge back and forth to school in the heat and humidity..........makes them tough, I guess. This 105 degree heat index may kill them before they toughen up, though.

We had a very laid back summer. The girls did not go to any camps, so the summer consisted pretty much of hanging out with neighborhood friends and swimming in the pool. Sometimes it was hanging out with the neighborhood friends in the pool! There were days of staying in your jammies until you changed into your swimsuit, and mornings sleeping in. The big girls will actually sleep past 9:00am sometimes now!! Not Rachel though, no matter how late you keep her up. There were days of camping in the Keys, building tents in the bedrooms, visiting with cousins, celebrating the 4th of July with neighbors, playing Wii games, playing cards, getting haircuts, and going to the dentist for checkups (the girls LOVE doing that on summer vacation!) I managed to get Rachel to the orthopedist to get new orthotics. I also got her started with a new speech therapist here in town. The trips to the Orlando therapist were just getting to be too much, and I was only going twice a month. Now Rachel is going once a week. I miss the therapist in Orlando, though. She was really good and worked well with Rachel.

Next week we are going to drive over to the other side of Florida and spend a few days on Sanibel Island. We will be leaving Monday and coming home Thursday. I have always wanted to go there for the great shelling. We have really wanted to go to the Gulf with the kids, but with the oil spill, we were afraid to try the Panhandle this year. The girls are looking forward to it, and I think Rachel will love the Gulf since it is so much calmer than the Atlantic. We even found a place that takes dogs, so Cookie will get to go along for the ride. I may learn a lesson here and he may never go on another trip with us. We will see how that works out.

Building tents in Rachel's room. Did you notice that they even have a fan in the tent?

Face painting on the 4th of July.

Rachel attempts to Wii bowl. She didn't know that her remote didn't work, and I was actually bowling for her. She has not figured out how to work all the buttons yet, so we just let her think she was bowling.

Cookie and Leah hang out at the pool. Wow....look at that paint job on that pool deck! ;-)

The big girls practice their snorkeling skills.

Rachel enjoyed playing with the water hose as we filled the pool. Usually in the summer it rains enough that we don't have to do that, but this has been a dry summer.

Rachel was such a big girl when she got her hair cut this summer. It was the first time she did not sit in my lap. I did have to move in and hold her head at times, but she did pretty good on her own. At times it looked like she was going to fall asleep in the chair.

Rachel has been learning how to swim deeper into the pool this summer. It has been so funny to watch her try to get below the surface. Her little butt pops up in the air every time.

This is what happens after the butt pops up and she begins her descent. She is actually making it almost to the bottom of the pool in the deep end, which is eight feet!

eReadingPro Reading Program

2010-07-29T11:07:00.001-04:00

When I was at the National Down Syndrome Congress Convention, I purchased a reading program for Rachel called eReadingPro. Listening to the speaker, it just made so much sense. It states children with Down syndrome are visual learners (and Rachel is) To teach them to read with phonics is not the best way. Also trying to teach a child with Ds sight words such as and, that, the, etc are difficult because the child has no mental picture they can associated the word with. She stated that showing the child flashcards of words that they can get a mental picture of allows them to quickly memorize the word. The program works through lots of repetition with lots of flashcards (LOTS of flashcards, the book states that to complete the program I will need 700 sheets of card stock!) At first the child is just memorizing words, but the program builds and the flashcards get more difficult. As the child progesses, you add in the site words like and, is, the, etc. At first the child is just spitting out memorized words, but over time they start to associate the words with meanings and the program states that at that point you can start to work on phonics.

This program seems to be meant for Rachel, because she to love to memorize things. She loves to watch movies and listen to songs so that she can repeat the lines with them. I am hoping that she really likes this program. It gives you a daily calendar that is 14 months long. I started with the first four cards this morning. It says to make it fun and only do the cards when the child is happy. It also says to do each set of cards three times a day........not sure if Rachel is going to be happy every time. As a matter of fact, she was not thrilled with the first round of flashcards this morning. She is a creature of habit, and I am sure that as it becomes part of the routine, she will be happier to do them.

Below are a few of the over 100 hundred cards that I have printed out this week. I did go ahead and change some of the cards, because the program come with ready to print cards with names that Rachel has never heard. It seems that woud be the same as asking her to memorize the site words that have no meaning to her, so I made my our cards with family and friends names copying the size, font, and color used in the program.

Here is our beginning schedule. Seems straightforward enough to start out (you put a label on the back of each card that shows a letter and number on it to correspond to the schedule below)

But it seems to get a little confusing as it progresses.......

Hopefully, it will all start to make sense to me as I work my way through it. Wish me luck. It will be REALLY cool if it works. I am excited to think that a year from now Rachel could be reading. Another possible plus is an improvement in Rachel's speech. That would be even better!!

2010-07-20T16:03:00.000-04:00

National Down Syndrome Congress Convention 2010

Orlando, Florida

July 16, 17 and 18

I spent this past weekend driving back and forth to Orlando for the Down Syndrome Convention. I just signed up for the preconference sessions and the Saturday and Sunday workshops. I did not attend the banquets, dance and such. There were so many knowledgeable people gathered in one space at one time that I was torn as to which workshops I would attend. I wish I could have gone to more. On Friday, I attended an all day session on speech that was taught by Dr. Libby Kumin. Friday afternoon I attended a sharing session. They had if set up so that you could be in a room with moms that had kids your kids' age. It was an opportunity to sit and chat with other moms that are going through some of the same things. It was one of my favorite things at the conference. Saturday I attended workshops on inclusion, speech, and teaching children with Ds to read. My favorite workshop was the reading workshop. I really bought into the speaker's idea of how to teach reading.....so much so that I bought the program. I am excited to see how it works with Rachel. I also picked up a few books and educational games at the exhibition.

On Saturday, I was able to meet up with some fellow bloggers! Aimee, from Aimee's Bowl Of Cherries; Melanie, from The Baeten Family; Kelli, from Living Life With Es; and I had lunch together. Despite having to sit outside in the heat it was really neat to get to meet the other moms. An added bonus was getting to meet Aimee's little girl, Piper. She is simply adorable!!! Believe it or not she is cuter in person than she is in pictures!! I cannot believe none of us took any pictures. I even had my camera with me just for that occasion and got so wrapped up in talking that I totally forgot about it. Bummer. Ladies I really enjoyed the get together. Thank you, Kelli, for getting us together!

There were some people at the Orlando conference that go to the conferences every year! I am glad I went, but I am not sure that I would go again anytime soon. Maybe as Rachel gets older. There were lots of things for the older Ds population and their siblings to do that sounded like lots of fun. It was really neat to be in a place where everyone knew where you were coming from. I have never seen so many people with Down syndrome before. It was wonderful to see the young adults being so independent. It helps me keep in mind that anything is possible for Rachel. I might have enjoyed seeing all the little ones even more. There were soooo many little ones there and they were all just so cute! The Down syndrome world was in Orlando this past weekend, and I am glad to have been able to be a part of it.

Family Visit

2010-07-19T22:56:00.000-04:00

My Dad came down from Alabama July 9th and stayed with us until the 15th. During his visit, my sister drove over from Tampa with her two girls and spent the weekend with us too. It was a nice visit. As always, the cousins had a great time and were as silly as ever. Sunday, we took the girls ice skating. I decided it was time for Rachel to try it out, so she got on the ice for her first time. The rink rents out walkers to the new skaters, and it worked quite well for Rachel. She had a blast. I figured she would be done after one lap around the rink, but she stayed on the ice for the whole hour and didn't want to get off went the free skate was over. We will definitely have to take her back! Leah and Amelia decided they need the walkers too, so we looked like a bunch of old ladies going around that rink.

Hannah will be having a birthday on July 22nd, so we had an early celebration while the family was all together. She will be 10!! Another kiddo hits the double digits.

One night we attempted to do a family Wii tournament. Turns out only Rachel and the grownups were interested in playing. I am embarrassed to say the the next day I was sore! It is a lot of work to flap your arms to make the chicken fly......and the boxing was no piece of cake either. Jane and I went head to head in the boxing ring, and worked out all those pent up frustrations from childhood.

The last night Daddy was here, everyone enjoyed hanging out with him on the couch, even Cookie. Unfortunately, Rachel went to bed before I remembered to get a picture.

Just before Daddy left, I remembered to get a pic of me and my sister with him. Too bad I did not plan it when we could have looked better. I am not liking my new camera, either. It is 14 mega pixels, yet most pictures come out fuzzy! It does help conceal my wrinkles though! Hmmmmmm, maybe fuzzy is not so bad after all! Wonder why my side of the picture is more fuzzy than my sister's. Wonder if there is some built in wrinkle detector on this new fangled camera!!

Summer Haircuts

2010-07-07T23:46:00.000-04:00

Last week the girls went in for haircuts. All the long hair was just getting to be too much to mess with during the swimming season. Not to mention, it had been a long time, and their hair was looking a little worse for wear. Alliosn and Rachel got a couple of inches cut off, while Leah just got a trim. She says she wants to grow hers out as long as Allison was. We will see how she does with that. Allison is a little upset with how short her bangs are, but she is loving the shorter hair and it looks so much healthier. Rachel is loving the fact that it does not take so much work to get all the tangles out in the mornings.

Hey, Mary Lou.....These Guys Really Do Exist!

2010-07-03T23:34:00.000-04:00

Look at the fish in the background, Mary Lou. It is just like the ones you painted in the picture we have hanging on our wall! This guy was in a tank at Marineland. Who knew they really existed.

A Charmed Life

2010-07-03T14:00:00.000-04:00

Cookie went up to Grandpa's with us for Father's Day. It was his first trip with us and he did great. He has a tendancy to mark his territory and he likes to chase cats, so he was not allowed to roam freely around the house. He did enjoy hanging out on Grandpa's back porch with the family. Check him out relaxing on the lounge chair!

Cousins Are Cool Too!

2010-07-01T16:00:00.003-04:00

We had a fun time last weekend. The cousins came over to spend a few days with us. Nothing is better than having the cousins visit.....at least according to Allison and Leah. Rachel seems to like having them over too. She doesn't really play with them when they are here, but she gets excited when we talk about them coming. It is tiring having five little girls running around the house and always saying they are hungry, but it is nice not to have Allison and Leah complaining about being bored, so in a way it is a break for me too.

The girls arrived Saturday evening, and they all got into the pool immediately. They got out for a short time to eat dinner and then were back in until almost 10:00pm. Rachel does not last that long, but she was in there with them for a while. Sunday, we packed up and went to the beach. I cannot believe we have been twice in one month! We are practically beach bums now.......well, compared to our usual of two trips in a year. The girls had a great time and I managed to get enough sunblock on them for a change. When we got home the girls spent another evening in the pool. Rachel was done with swimming after the beach and would not get into the pool.

Monday we went to Funtown. It is a local roller rink that has arcade games, laser tag, and of course, roller skating. I actually got Rachel some skates for the first time, and let her give it a whorl. In order for me to be out on the rink with her, I had to wear skates too. How you are supposed to stay on your feet and hang on to a 6 year old that has no concept of how to skate is beyond me, but I gave and shot and we only went down a few times. At least I manged to make all the falls happen in slow motion and no one got hurt. We made it around the rink twice. It felt like it took us an hour and half to do it, but it was probably more like 10- 15 minutes. It nearly killed my legs, arms and back and I am still a little sore today. When we got home the girls spent another

Tuesday, we just hung out around the house, and my sister arrived around 3:00pm to pick up her girls. After three days, I think they were all glad to get a break from one another. They would never admit that they have had enough of each other, but we had some pretty grouchy girls for most of Tuesday. They will get a break from each other for about and week, then the cousins are back over for another weekend visit when my Dad comes down from Alabama for a few days. We are all looking forward to that....no really, we are!

Snakes Are Cool

2010-06-30T15:50:00.004-04:00

It is so hot! "How hot is it?" you may ask. Well, it is so hot that the snakes are getting in the pools to cool off too. The girls had been playing in the pool for about 15 minutes the other day when they discovered a little ring neck in the pool with them. They had a great time holding him, and we kept him in a little tank to show him to Mike when he got home. I am sure the little guy was happy to get back out into the yard and out of Leah's and Allison's hands when we finally released him.

Father's Day With Grandpa

2010-06-24T22:42:00.000-04:00

We had a very laid back Father's Day weekend, because Mike was out of town and did not get home until Sunday evening. On Monday we loaded up the girls and headed to Grandpa's house to celebrate a late Father's Day with him. We grilled a tenderloin, baked an apple pie and had a great evening together. On Tuesday, we all went out for breakfast. Then, Mike helped Grandpa do a few things around the house. After lunch, we loaded up the girls and went to Marineland. After driving by the place for the last 15 years, it was neat to finally get a chance to see it. It is located directly on the beach, and in the past was all about dolphin shows, but these days they claim to be a research center. Not sure what kind of research they do, but they keep pretty busy offering several different levels of interactions with the 13 dolphins they have. We could only afford the feed and touch, which was the cheapest interaction. For five minutes you get to go into the pool area with about five other people and touch and feed the dolphins, of course. It was quick, but a fun way to spend the afternoon.

Sum-Sum--Summertime!

2010-06-18T17:51:00.001-04:00

The girls have been enjoying their summer so far. They have been hanging out with the neighbors, swimming, staying up late and sleeping in. Rachel is loving the pool and is trying her darnedest to swim deeper into the pool. She is so funny to watch with her little butt up in the air and her feet flailing around as she tries to swim down. She is really becoming a little fish!

Today, our neighbor asked us to go to the beach her and her kids, so we got our lazy butts in gear and spent the morning at the beach. I was really glad we finally got around to going. It was our first trip this summer, believe it or not! Mike is always wanting to take the girls to the beach, but they don't like to go unless they have a friend along, and Mike doesn't want more kids to keep up with. It was beautiful weather today and the ocean was really calm. A calm ocean gave Rachel the opportunity to get out in the water and swim. And swim she did! She was in the water for almost three hours straight. Having another grownup allowed me to focus on Rachel and follow her down the beach when she decided she wanted to "run." The big girls also got to stay at the beach with their friends when Rachel decided she was ready to go home. It was a nice day.