It is the last week of June, hard to believe! This is one of those summers that is going to pass me by before I can even begin to catch it, I can tell.
Sydney also is totally in love with foreign languages, with special attention to Spanish and (to a lesser degree) Chinese. She walks around and speaks in gibberish but says she is talking in "Espanol!!" If she sees someone out in public who is Asian or has darker skin, she will try to speak to them in her version of Spanish or Chinese. This has created some uncomfortable (and hilarious) situations but so far people have been understanding!! Today she was at the park with a caregiver and apparently heard a family walking by speaking Spanish. She giggled and pointed and said "Look, they're speaking Espanol!!!" It probably sounded horribly rude but in reality she was so jealous. She wants badly to be able to rattle off sentences in SOME other language.
Her really big struggle right now is with anxiety, particularly big signs. I kid you not. She will go into a store and if there is a big huge sign (particularly one hanging from the ceiling) she will literally freeze and drop to her knees. She can't move, can't walk...she covers her ears with her hands and will say "Help me, I can't move! I don't like the sign!" It is heartbreaking. I think it started with an unfortunate sign at KFC a couple months ago that had bones on it and she apparently though they ate people's bones at the restaurant. Yeah, that would scare me too. Thanks KFC. We are working through it but it is definitely a struggle for her right now..she is worried about the signs before we even leave the house. Poor girlie.
Natalie...ooh that girl makes us laugh and think and also, want to scream! She just finished up her first year of homeschooling for 2nd grade and has decided to continue with it for 3rd...I had kind of left it up to her. She really loved taking horseback riding lessons this spring at a ranch just five minutes from our house. First it was very difficult for her, she had some scary moments and that made her want to quit. But she kept at it and towards the end of the school year she began to relax and enjoy herself. Now she can't wait to go back in the fall. We are so proud of her for sticking with it and not giving in to her fear. And it is so fun to watch her up there on her horse (right now she rides Comet, or sometimes Rooster), straight backed and determined to have him listen to her.
She has been losing teeth left and right and for the past month was missing her two front teeth...so, so sweet. In the past few days, however, the top right one has grown like crazy...it's over halfway in now. Boohoo. I was so enjoying that little smile. And lisp. A couple months ago she had to get a few fillings...her first and hopefully last! She wasn't flossing well enough and got a couple between her teeth. I have to say that watching Natalie on laughing gas was pretty entertaining. Like her normal personality turned up about 10 times! ;)
Natalie is soooo good with her brother and sister. She can be so helpful and at the same time, doesn't let them get away with things just because they have autism. Sydney's play skills are awesome and we think that is mostly because she plays with and watches Natalie play all day. No better model that that! She and Jacob are both swimming fairly well now and they will go down the waterslides together (she helps him go through the line and get set up in his slide and everything!!) and swim in the pool and goof off. Sometimes Jacob listens to her (like when he is about to take the whole carton of ice cream in his room and she tells him to put it back...he does) and other times he complains and yells at her (if she comes in his room and he wants her out, he will yell "Natalie, OUT!" Makes me laugh, I admit!). Overall she is just so understanding that they have different needs and we can't make everything "fair." I know it is hard for her sometimes but she really tries to be supportive and understanding. She has such a great heart.
Jacob has struggled so much this year with SIBs (self injurious behaviors). The week after his MRI, he had punched himself so much that he had a black eye and was completely bruised from his left forehead down to his chin. It has been so hard to watch and understand. We are making progress, though, and he is mostly bruise free at this point. Thank goodness. Still hitting himself, but not as hard or as often. We had to rule out any medical complications and so he had quite a bit of testing done, which was scary and at times painful to him unfortunately. We had genetic testing run as part of it and found out that he has 7 mutations on 4 genes, 3 of which are associated with autism. There seems to be a lot of hope for one in particular (SHANK2) and perhaps there will be some treatment or therapy associated with it in the next 10-20 years. How amazing could that possibly be??? Anyway, he also had a lot of behavioral testing and data-taking done and even a Functional Analysis run. The Functional Analysis was an experiment which manipulated his environment to see what would cause him to hit himself and what wouldn't. That was particularly painful to watch at times, but also gave us some great information. It proved once again that tries SO hard to do what is expected of him, and sometimes has more patience and self control than most of us could even hope to achieve. He never stops amazing me.
He is a little math whiz right now and spends a good portion of his time quizzing us on addition and subtraction. He can figure it out so fast and he looks amazed if you get it wrong, like he doesn't know how we could mess something so easy up. I have to say, I am getting faster at it!! We all are. I am starting to have to whip out a calculator at times because he likes to say things like 999109 minus 99989. He is learning multiplication right now in school and I'm a little worried. I am going to have to have a calculator with me at all times.
He also loves to make videos of himself on the iPad. He maxes out my storage almost daily and we have to erase some so he can make more. When I get the chance I will edit some and post them here. Some are just repetitive videos of him shaking a toy or making sound effects. But some show his personality and what he likes and just his view of the world. They are so fun to watch, but he guards them and will tell you to turn them off if he sees you watching one. I love it. I always go through them just in case...I never know if it'll be the day he decides to send me a message. :)
We just celebrated Father's Day for Chris and I had this collage printed up and framed for his desk at work. So cute! He is working tons of hours and stressed out as ever. On evenings and weekends he repairs the holes Jacob has kicked in the walls, the doors Jacob has pulled off the cabinets, and tries to make improvements as well. He just cleared out our garage (a huge task!) so that we could start parking my car in it. Today it rained (June, I know!!!) and what a treat to be able to get all the kids in the car and not be soaked by the time I got in. He is always thinking of us like that!
He has also been running regularly. He is down to a 7 1/2 minute mile and I am so proud of him! He says he was much faster when he was younger but then I remind him he's not 22 anymore! He's lost a lot of weight and for Father's Day he asked for some simple gym equipment to help build muscle. He says he wants to get in good shape one more time before he gets too old. ;)
As for me, I couldn't find a recent picture with me in it. As usual, I'm the one who loves taking pictures around here! Actually, I'll have to check the iPad. I think Jacob and Natalie have taken a few. :) I'm just trying to stay afloat and attend to all the things that need to get done in a day. We are pretty busy around here. We are making a big effort to organize and get rid of things, especially since we no longer have babies in the house (boohoo). So I'm going through mountains of papers and toys and stuff and trying to figure out how to reorganize based on our lives now. We had babies in the house for so long! But we are at a different stage now with tons of school papers and work, art projects galore, pets, forts in the living room, etc. I want to make the kitchen more accessible to the kids so they can have some independence there, but it is so tough with the layout of our space. And I also am working on a plan for Natalie (hoping to get Sydney on it as she matures) dealing with chores and money. I'm still up a lot during the nights with the kids...Jacob and Sydney have trouble sleeping and Natalie just wakes occasionally for reassurance or a glass of milk. So I'm still pretty exhausted, it's like I've had a newborn for 9 years. But we're getting there. So much to do, so little time.
A few more recent pictures I haven't had a chance to share:
Natalie working on a list of things she would buy IF we could get ducks for the backyard again. This was my tricky way to get her writing, and doing some math. I love her list. :)
On the playground at Jacob's school on his last day of 3rd grade. He and Sydney hanging out, Natalie climbing up the rope in the background.
A couple weeks ago, Chris loaded a PacMan game on his Kindle and Sydney went bonkers. He was just so amused that she loves the game so much. She is actually REALLY good at it.
So that's it. Happy Summer!!!
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