Language Acquisition

Like I mentioned before, William's language has hit a growth spurt in the last week or so. He no longer needs the paper to say, "I want..." He is using lots of longer words and phrases (mostly from Thomas movies). My favorite is when he says, "Thank you, God," and then answers himself, "You're welcome."

Most excitedly, he's starting to combine words in different ways. Tonight I heard him say an original sentence for the first time: "I t.v. for Jenn." It took me a while to figure out what he meant. He finally showed me- He wanted to clean up the videos. He had heard me talking about cleaning and preparing for company this week, and he wanted to participate.

Interestingly, William's also had significant behavior issues lately, which is why the videos needed to be cleaned up. And he's regressed in potty training. I'm not sure if that's coincidental or related. (Perhaps his brain can only handle so much?) Personally, I wouldn't trade it though. I am so grateful!!

Growing Girl

Abby continues to grow, fill out, and come alive more each day. She loves watching William and Lily, making raspberries, chewing on her fists, and kicking her legs.

Lily's been trying to teach her how to suck one finger. So far, she hasn't seemed to interested (which is probably for the best).

She's still generally content. She giggles sometimes, which is really fun. She likes to make "conversation" with people. She still gets up once or twice at night. I plan on working on that next month.

She's also showing less interest in nursing. I'm not sure how much of that is due to teething and how much is distraction. We will see...

Bag Boy

William no longer goes around with his arms full of Thomas toys. Instead, he carries one or more bags of Thomas toys...

BTW, William's been super verbal in the last week or so. I can't help thinking it's connected to our prayers. Hopefully Eric will get the videos working soon so I can show you all. It encourages me to keep praying!

Making Raspberries

First Dance Class

This morning was Lily's first, much anticipated ballet class. I knew the teacher was very experienced, but I was still a bit surprised to find out how grandmotherly she was. The class was total fun; no pressure, which was just what we wanted. And there were a bunch of other brothers (and toys) in the waiting room, so it was a good environment for William to practice being the one to watch and wait. At the end each little girl got a crown to wear home. Lily was kind to share hers with Abigail.

Lily von Trapp

A friend from church gave Lily this dress yesterday. Isn't it so fun? I think it may be time to introduce Lily to The Sound of Music...

A Place For Us

This weekend we received a huge answer to prayer. The Christian school in the town where I grew up that my dad taught at for years and my brothers and I went to our whole childhoods, has agreed to take William as a student in their independent studies (ie. supervised home schooling) program whenever we want to enroll him (most likely a year from now).

This is huge for a number of reasons:

-Our solution for this coming year was really a postponement of the decision of what to do for elementary school. We can't keep going to preschool forever, and our tutor informed me a couple weeks ago that this coming year will be her last.

-I've spent the last year and a half researching public and private school options for William, and come up short.

-We can home school with extra help from experienced moms, lots of resources, and overhead from an official organization so the school district won't bother us.

-The school is a scholarship provider, so the program will be paid for and we can benefit from scholarship provider speech, OT, and tutoring (if we can find another tutor- anyone interested?)

-The program includes extracurricular classes twice a month that we may be able to participate in for socialization. These classes are thoroughly Christian and taught by veteran teachers, some of whom are longtime family friends.

-The program goes through high school, so we don't have to research options again in 3 or 5 or 7 years if we don't want to.

-Lily and Abby can participate in the future for a reasonable fee.

-And, probably my favorite, it gives us an excuse to visit my parents twice a month!

Is that incredible or what?! I'm still in awe; it just seems too wonderful to be true.

Thanks so much for all your prayers. We are rejoicing in God's provision!

Bouncy Seat Lessons

...from an enthusiastic and loving coach

Father's Day Fun

Sippin'

What is it about drinking from a straw that is just so fun?

Special Sibs

Lily and Abigail don't know it yet, but they are part of a group of kids called "special siblings," siblings of children with special needs.

I became very aware of this at the end of the school year when Lily got very excited that she would have her preschool class for two days that William wouldn't. I shouldn't have been surprised. Every day of the week last year, Monday through Friday, William had some activity Lily didn't have- speech, OT, tutoring. These activities were hard work for William, but to Lily they looked like fun. He got special attention and special praise for his efforts.

I wasn't really surprised, but it did scare me. I don't know much about special sibs, but I know enough to know that rivalry is a major issue. It seems like siblings will usually come to accept their brother or sister with special needs, but often the bitterness towards the parents and hurt from being neglected remains into adulthood.

So I determined to make this summer one of inclusion. Thanks to a new Siblings Splash program, Lily is allowed to come to swimming lessons with William. She can't come to Safety Town of course, but I did go so far as to sign her up for OT camp. And I also decided to try out a summer dance program at a local studio so she has an experience outside the special needs world.

We went this week to buy her dance outfit. She wanted the one with the long skirt attached because it spins. She was so excited to try it on when we got home. She twirled around and giggled. (I wish I could get the video to work for you all; at the end she almost crashed into the tv. Yep, we need dance lessons!) Then she said, "I wish Bubbie could go to dance class with me." I still think it's good for her to have her own activity, but I'm so glad that's how she feels. Here she is posing by Abigail, her adoring audience.

Another Picnic...

...Princess style!

Lily's been asking about royal titles lately. The conversation usually goes like this, "If I'm a princess, what's Bubbie?"
"Bubbie's the prince."
"Bubbie's the prince. And what are you?"
"I'm the queen."
"You're the queen. And if I'm a princess, what is Daddy?"
"He's the king."
"Bubbie's the prince and Daddy's the KING. And what is Abigail?"
"She's another princess."
"She's another princess and Daddy is the king. And if I'm a princess, what is Bingley?"
"He's.... he's the jester."
"He's the jester!"

Artists

Lily got a cardboard castle for her birthday back in October. I told her then that when it was warm and not rainy, we would take it outside and paint it. Today, finally, was that day. What a blast!

Playmate

The last couple weeks, we've had a little friend with us off and on. She is William's age (We met when they were in class together a couple years ago) and has a special affection for him, but now she's also a great playmate for Lily. Here they are all dressed up.