Fired

I think moms all over the US will agree that whoever designed the packaging for Apples to Apples is FIRED.  If the kids even shift the package, every single card falls out, and that gives me a lovely 20-minute session of putting all the cards right in the back slot.  I'd throw it away, but it's a good game.

And know who else is fired?  Whoever designs packaging for tents and stuff.  I never can squish any of it small enough to go back in the bag without plenty of grunting and struggling.

And Jill is also fired.  Know why?  Today I took her and Timmy with me to go to the Post Office to mail a package to Jeremy.  I put Timmy in his stroller, and Jill was all excited to push him around.  She loves looking at all the things for sale in the store side of the Post Office.  But usually she just pulls the reusable shopping bags off the wall and puts stuffed animals in them.  No biggy.  Well, today as I was filling out the customs ticket and getting everything all set with the package, Jill disappeared with the sleeping Timmy in his stroller.  I hurried and finished up and then went looking for her.  I found her over by the wall of greeting cards.  I noticed that she'd taken one of those shopping bags and put it on the handle of the stroller.  Then I noticed there was something in it.  And I'm sure you guessed it - she'd taken entire stacks of cards out of the display and dumped them all together in the bag.  Silly girl!  I tried and tried to figure out which envelopes went with which cards and where each stack went, but I finally ended up giving up.  But I did get a good laugh out of it.  Oh, Jill!

Little Stripper

After church today, Timmy wandered around the house for a while and then ended up without one of his shoes after a while.  He came to be held, and I took off the other one.  Then he made it very clear that he wanted his socks off as well.  Before five minutes had passed he had stepped out of his pants.  A few hours later I took off his shirt so he could eat beans without staining it.  And then as I was putting dinner away he wandered nonchalantly into the kitchen with absolutely nothing on.  I'm not sure where he left his diaper, but he seemed pleased to be free of it, and he just kind of went about his business as usual.  I laughed about it, but continued to put dinner away, figuring I'd just hurry and then get a diaper on him as quickly as I could.  It doesn't hurt to allow a little baby nudity, right?  Well, before I finished he squatted down and pooped right on the kitchen floor!  Argh!  I got him cleaned up and put a diaper on him, and not five minutes after that he had stripped that diaper off too.  Heaven help us!

Poor Fella

My poor baby woke up repeatedly last night.  Looooooong night!  This morning at 5:30 I was fed up.  I marched us both downstairs (after stubling over the boys who were sleeping on my floor - who will NOT be there tonight!) and tried rocking him.  That usually helps.  It didn't really do the job this time, though, and then he threw up all over himself.  I gave him a bath and tried to get us some more sleep, but I was awake and he kept fussing every five minutes before falling asleep again.  And he's still throwing up.  So sad!  I'm thankful that at least he doesn't have a fever!  And I'm praying that this does not spread to everyone else!

We were supposed to go camping this evening to celebrate the last day of school, but we're not going to make it.  It is really, really windy today and I'm not sure how long this sickness will last.  These are not good camping conditions.  I felt bad telling Joshua that we couldn't go. He's really been looking forward to it.  But Hyrum reminded me that we could go on Monday if we want.  Hooray!  Maybe we'll try that.

In the meantime, the declaration, "Timmy's sick," reminds me of The Secret of Nimh, and my arms are gettin very tired.  Timmy keeps falling asleep, but he does not want to be put down.  That boy is getting heavy!

Look at This

This picture is from July of last year.  Becca, Austin, and Rachel came to visit, and Rachel took this picture of us.  I love it!  And just look how much littler all my kiddos look.  Crazy!

Thank Heavens, He's There!

Jeremy's dorm room

I'm so thankful all that flying is over and he's there.  We just got done Skyping him.  We couldn't see him because he doesn't have a camera or even a place to plug one in, but we could see him. :) It made me cry.  It's 1:30 there - too late for him to be up skyping, but thank heavens for the technology of today!  It sure makes this a lot better.  I've actually been sitting by the computer for way too long, dying for any news from him.  I'm just so thankful!  Jill loved hearing her Papa and was sad to hang up and let him sleep.

He's Gone

Jill has been talking for the last 2 days about going to see the airplane. She kept saying things like, "A miss you a airplane." And she kept asking if she could come on the airplane. Then she found the toy airplane Hyrum bought with his own money when he was about Jill's age, and she kept asking if she could go on that airplane.  Then Papa showed her some airplanes taking off.  And she also kept asking if she could go with Papa.  And then she'd start the process over.  And over.  And over.  It was a bit maddening and sad.

At 5:30 this morning we all left home and hurried out to the airport.  Jeremy quickly kissed us goodbye and ran inside to check in.  I intended for us to stay outside to watch the plane take off, but it was really loud just idling, so we went into the waiting room.  We could see Jeremy on the other side of the window in the passenger waiting room.  Joshua had his camera, so he and I were both taking pictures and video.  Jill stood on the windowsill and told the airplane to go up over and over again.  After Jeremy turned in his boarding pass he came ot the window and waved goodbye to Jill and the rest of us again.  Finally, the plane taxied away, and then after a little wait we saw it zoom down the runway and fly away.  All this time I was trying hard not to just bawl.  It was fun to show the plane to the kiddos and have them watch it go, but Hyrum and I had a hard time watching Papa go.  It was just so sad. 

And then I came home with 6 wide-awake children and 2 hours to go before we had to get to school.  I made pancakes and just tried to stay busy.  All morning I just had such a sickening feeling.  It was not fun.  And I kept breaking down and crying.  But I made breakfast, and we watched Cinderella, and then we took the boys to school.  I took Jill and Timmy shopping, and by the time I was done shopping things felt better.  Life goes on.  I miss Jeremy, and it pains me to think he's headed to the other side of the continent.  He'll be on the other side of the world tomorrow, with an 8-hour time difference.  But I'm very excited for him, and I think that if I just focus on one hurdle at a time I can do this.  It will be all right.  Still, I can't wait to welcome him home 2 a little over 2 months!

Joshua

Today we had a meeting about Joshua.  It included a special ed. teacher, the school psychologist, the principal, and Joshua's teacher.  Jeremy and I were there with the 2 little ones (who turned out to do very well through the whole thing), and we brought Joshua with us too.  They tried to persuade us to leave him out of it because they would be discussing test scores and things, but we insisted that we wanted him in there.  We want him to know what's going on, and we want him involved in the process.  This is about his future, and he should have some say.  I was thankful that Jeremy was there to be with me.  They seemed a little disgusted when we insisted that Joshua stay there, but really, we left it up to Joshua and he wanted to stay.  It did feel a little uncomfortable for a bit, but overall the meeting went well.

The psychologist led the group and talked about the tests he did with Joshua.  To make a very long story short, he pointed out that Joshua has the skills he needs to do the tasks and that he's a smart boy.  He knows how to do things.  He just takes a long time to process it.  That's what we have seen too.  And that's what his teacher has noticed.  After hearing her talk about her experiences with Joshua, I feel so thankful for her, and I honestly feel like we were brought here so that Joshua could have her as a teacher.  She said that she was the one who allowed Joshua all the time he needed for the end-of-level tests.  She said there was no rush.  She knows he has the skills and that he could do the tests, but she knew he needed extra time to do it.  Other teachers would probably have just thought he doesn't know the material.  She knew the truth, though, and I'm thankful.

Anyway, the psychologist went through all the tests and the questionaires we and Mrs. Smith filled out.  The information definitely nothing new.  We sat there nodding our heads the whole time.  He showed us the math tests and the IQ tests where he had to code things and match weird shapes.  All the work he did was very precise, and it was mostly correct.  He just didn't have enough time to finish because he takes so long to process.

In the end, the psychologist didn't give a definite diagnosis or anything, but he said that he definitely would classify Joshua as having an autism spectrum disorder.  And he explained to us that he feels too many people are being classified as having autism nowadays (kind of like the ADHD craze before), so he really, really hesitates to even bring the idea up.  But he said that in Joshua's case it definitely fits.

So they gave us 2 different routes we could take.  One would be an IEP where Joshua would be placed in special ed. to recieve specialized everything.  I can't remember the name of the other route, but it sounds way better for Joshua.  I think everyone in the room agreed that it would be best to leave him in the regular classroom, but to just make accommodations for him.  Maybe they can give him less busy work, and they can probably give him more time to work on his schoolwork at school so that he won't have to bring it home.  They expressed concern over the middle school years that are coming up because he'll have all those different subjects with homework in each one, and that will be just too much.  But in middle school he could also do study hall, and that would help.  On the other hand, I know that, at least here, if he does study hall he won't be able to do the other options, and that would be sad.  I think they have band, choir, and orchestra as the other options.  I know Hyrum had to pick one, and he picked orchestra.  Joshua really would like to do orchestra, though.  We may have to finagle to work things out because I know music would be so good for him.  I guess we will see. 

I can't begin to explain to you what this means, though!  It really can mean that he can succeed and that middle and high schools do not have to be a nightmare for him.  I am so, so thankful!  This means that so much the advantage over so many people who before him have been undiagnosed who needed to be.  While I feel very sad for their suffering, I feel incredibly grateful for these opportunities that Joshua has.

And now all we have left to do is discuss the decision with Joshua and then sign papers for it.  I'm sure he will choose to stay in a regular classroom.  It's been so beneficial for him so far.

One thing that was really funny to us about the meeting was when they were talking about how serious Joshua is.  Yes, that is how he is at school.  They can't get him to smile or laugh.  He's finally starting to open up to his teacher and process things with her like he does with me during homework time and at bedtime.  But he's still very serious.  We kind of laughed about the thought that they don't think he has a sense of humor.  We explained to them that Joshua was probably the first of our children to make up a joke and that he is not nearly so serious or quiet at home.  Joshua heard us tell them, and, boy, are we going to hear it from him when he gets home!  That is his one deep, dark secret that he has repeatedly told us that he doesn't want out.  But this group kind of needed to know that, and I am sure they won't tell his fellow students, which is probably what Joshua is really worried about.

In other news, Timmy has learned to say, "No-no-no-no-no-no," when he does something he knows I told him not to do.  Silly boy!  And sometimes when he pulls my hair he says, "Ow."

And in other other news, Jeremy flies out tomorrow morning.  /sob.