THE HAPPY ONES

Overjoyed

2012-01-26T13:28:00.000-08:00

It's been a good week, getting back into our schedule after such a fabulous trip last week. And I am thrilled to report that Natalie is finally back to using the toilet without protesting. She isn't all the way back to where she was before school started, but we have made so much progress this week that I can't help but be overjoyed on the topic of potty training...more joy than I've had in a long time on this subject!

The alarm that senses when she's wet is definitely making a BIG difference. She hears and feels the alarm, stops peeing, then we can take her to the toilet and she pees on the toilet. Today she peed twice while dry, so no alarm sounded! This week I started putting the alarm on her during her afternoon nap/quiet time. Sometimes she sleeps and sometimes she doesn't sleep during this time, and it's a huge block of time to work with her on potty training...since she's not using the toilet yet at school, I need every moment at home to be consistent. If she doesn't have to go pee during nap time, I'll be happy if she sleeps! So she's hooked up to the alarm from the time she gets home from school at noon until she gets dressed for bed at night, about 6:45 p.m. It's finally working! And Tom and I are so much less stressed this time around, trying to anticipate when she needs to go and constantly worried that she's had an accident...there's none of that!

We are determined to be consistent this time. Even if there's some backsliding, we'll work to find the reason while we keep encouraging her to keep going. Just to document our reward system, she gets a chocolate chip if she's dry, and a sticker if she pees on the toilet. Tom does a potty dance (a new thing for us!) when she goes, and she gets to wear her Belle dress when she goes #2 on the toilet.

Here she's showing off the fish sticker she received for using the toilet before nap time. Go Natalie!

Lukas goes to Washington

2012-01-22T15:11:00.000-08:00

When we learned that one of my aged aunts was declining quickly, Tom suggested I attend the funeral in Pennsylvania and take Lukas with me! Then my brother Julian, who lives outside DC, suggested we stay with him and drive up to the funeral together (I always forget how close everything is back east)...Virginia to Pennsylvania via Delaware, all in a few hours. So it worked out that when Aunt Miriam did pass on, everything at home was calm enough that Lukas and I could go. Aunt Chris came to watch the three younger kids one day, and our sitter Sarah watched the kids on parts of three days, so Tom only had to take parts of two days off from work. It was wonderful how everything worked out to make this a successful trip.

Last Sunday, Lukas and I flew to DC. Here we were, saying good-bye to the rest of the family.

This is what Lukas did most of the time on the airplane. I had grand ideas about how much homeschooling we would get done on the plane, but I had forgotten how loud an airplane is. And then on the trip back home, it was quite bumpy, so also not conducive to study.

First day, on the metro to DC with Julian.

We were actually at the MLK memorial on MLK day...as were a lot of other people! It's a beautiful memorial and fits well within the other memorials already in DC.

I love Washington, DC, and it was so relaxing and beautiful to walk long distances...Lukas wasn't so thrilled about walking long distances, so I was more careful that we didn't walk as far after that first day.

Shortly after I cajoled him to keep walking, I turned and pointed...what's that, Lukas? His face lit up with a big smile.

We briefly visited the Smithsonian Castle and saw the final resting place of James Smithson.

And then moved on to the Air and Space Museum. Here Lukas is touching some moon rock.

Posing with airplanes from other countries.

And saluting a uniform (his idea!)

A spectacular model of the planets, with an arc of the sun to the side (out of the picture) showing size relationship. Lukas studied astronomy last year so this was fun for him to see.

Learning about the Wright Brothers.

And the moon landers.

Checking out the flaps on a Cessna. That was a great first day, although he was less interested in Air and Space than I thought he would be.

The next day we traveled to Pennsylvania for the funeral. Lukas captured a photo of these photos: the home my mom grew up in, and a picture of her family from the 60s (my mom on the far left).

Lukas was excited to see my cousin Rachel and Cal there from Iowa. We last saw them on our trip across country in 2010.

As usual, we didn't take enough pictures of the family gathering after all the non-family had left. Here's one that turned out of my cousins and aunt and uncle.

Then it was back to DC and more museums! We started Wednesday at the Natural History Museum.

Lukas' favorite part of this museum was the gems and minerals...he is definitely Tom's son! We saw the Hope Diamond, and many other huge examples of diamonds and minerals. Here he is with a huge piece of quartz.

And the Tucson Meteorite.

A huge example of amethyst.

Then it was time to stop and run over to the Capitol building for our tour appointment. Our tour guide snapped this photo of us in front of a model of the capitol.

We saw many statues and Lukas posed with many of them...here he is touching the Helen Keller statue (the only one you're allowed to touch).

Lukas is posing with our tour guide, Ryan, on the star that marks the center of Washington, DC.

Lukas was born on George Washington's birthday, so he posed with George many times. We also got to sit in the gallery of the House of Representatives while it was in session, and hear them debate about raising the debt ceiling.

Then our tour was over and we went back to gems and minerals at the Natural History Museum. Here's Lukas with the Arkansas Quartz.

Lukas was very impressed with their selection of gold nuggets. It must have come from his study of California history and the gold rush last year.

Thursday I bought sightseeing bus tickets, so we could visit the memorials without having to walk so far. Here's Lukas at the Thomas Jefferson memorial.

And the Lincoln Memorial.

And the Vietnam Memorial. Lukas was excited to see this since he had seen the half-sized replica last summer.

Right next to the Vietnam Memorial was a field of Canada geese!

Friday, our last day of sightseeing, we went to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. They didn't let us take pictures on the tour, but after the tour there's an area to take pictures (and spend money). Here we see that Lukas' height is equal to about $1.3 million in $100 bills. He asked me, "Is that how much I'm worth?" No, you're priceless, Lukas!

After hopping on the tour bus again, we stopped at a fun restaurant near the White House and called home while we waited for our meal. We actually called home several times a day, and Tom did research on things we should see at the places we were going to visit.

We visited the White House visitor's center (not enough lead time to visit the actual White House), and then we stopped in at the National Archives to see the actual documents of the Declaration of Independence, U.S. Constitution and Bill of Rights (no photos allowed) before stopping at the National Gallery of Art. We had been to the Spy Museum, where photographs were not allowed, and the Bureau of Engraving and National Archives, where photographs are now allowed, so I asked the security guard as we checked in, "Are we allowed to take pictures?" He said, "NO, you are not! You are allowed to take photographs, but you MAY NOT take any pictures!" Lukas can't stop laughing.

Tom's mom was an artist and he has great memories of visiting art galleries with his mom...so I took pictures of Lukas seeing a lot of paintings I knew Tom would love to see.

Rembrandt.

On three occasions, we saw artists copying the masters at the Gallery. They were good copies!

Lukas posing with George's family.

And George himself.

And one of Tom's favorite artists, Sargent.

Then it was time to head back to the Metro and ride home with Julian.

Julian's kids were visiting for the weekend so Lukas played Scrabble with his cousin Chris.

And we celebrated my birthday with cake and a big candle!

Brigit finally let me take a picture of her, posing with Lukas at the airport as we left.

And the trip wouldn't be complete without visiting the pilots, would it?

Tom snapped this picture of us coming out of the airport after we arrived home. We were so happy to be home!

Whew! It was a wonderful trip and we had a fabulous time. I think Lukas grew a lot and learned a lot and I hope will remember a lot of what we saw. I loved sharing my favorite city with him. But we are so happy to be home. I know Tom and the other kids missed us...a week is a long time in the life of a child. Dominik preferred Tom when I tried to snuggle with him, Natalie kept saying, "you're back!" when I snuggled with her this morning. And Konrad gives me nice big hugs spontaneously (more than usual). Oh, yeah, Tom missed us too!

It's good to be home.

The fort

2012-01-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

I need to post more pictures of the fort! For instance, did you know Tom ordered wood chips the same day I asked him? I quickly realized that dirt under the fort meant three changes of clothes for the boys every day, the inevitable mud tracked into the house even though we always take our shoes off...we do, don't we? And Tom was quite responsive...we were planning to eventually have wood chips in the play area (which means maybe by the end of the month), but the popularity of the fort meant it should happen sooner than later.

What do you think? I think we have too many wood chips!

Here the wood chips have been spread out over the whole play area, about 6" thick, and it's still too many wood chips. We think the wood chip delivery man was a little generous.

The little wall on the right side will eventually be a climbing wall, and hanging to the left of it from that tall beam will be a climbing net.

On the left side, a climbing rope will be hanging from the tall beam. We're trying to give the kids lots of opportunities to climb, since they're not big enough to climb the trees in our front yard yet (without a lift up).

Can I just say that I LOVE THIS FORT!? The boys are now playing in the backyard exclusively during morning recess time, which means I can be working in the kitchen instead of sitting out in the front yard making sure they don't get kidnapped. The one thing we're working on is the swing under the fort...that has become the hot item.

Now we just need a warm evening so the boys can sleep in the fort overnight!

Equal time

2012-01-18T06:00:00.000-08:00

Sometimes there are a lot of Dominik pictures and sometimes there aren't. Here are a few to try to even the score. He sure loves to pose and say, "cheese!"

With his favorite snack, a graham cracker.

And his favorite pastime, taking a bath. This expression reminds me a lot of Konrad, but it's all Dominik!

A new, old look

2012-01-16T06:00:00.001-08:00

Natalie got new glasses! Longtime readers may remember that she broke her previous pair right before the warranty was up, one of the lenses was scratched (which means both lenses get replaced since they are transitions lenses), so she got a brand new pair out of it! Then with all her eye surgeries last year, getting a new prescription was delayed and delayed...until now!

Here's Natalie with her old glasses, pink and round frames.

And here are her new glasses, with denim and more square frames.

Here's a picture from June 2009 (3.5 years of age), when Natalie last wore these frames. It's a cute look, I think!

Matching in the tree

2012-01-14T09:36:00.000-08:00

Lukas asked to wear matching shirts with his brothers to church last Sunday. I cannot believe they're all still able to wear the same shirt I bought before the summer of 2010 (well, Dominik's was huge on him back then, and now they are all a little short on each boy). Then it was a beautiful sunset so we attempted to get "tree" pictures of them as well. Someone wasn't so happy about that, and usually he likes being in the tree...his brother might have been squishing him a little.

And then we got two happy boys in the tree.

Science experiment

2012-01-11T14:41:00.000-08:00

Yes, I'm talking about a real science experiment, not a "science experiment" like what we find when a sippy cup with milk in it goes missing for a few weeks. That's called "cheese"!

Lukas tested different juices for vitamin C as part of the lesson on nutrition for human anatomy and physiology class.

Here he's making his vitamin C indicator, stirring iodine into a cornstarch/water mixture.

Now he's adding the indicator into the different glasses, labeled with the juices he's testing: two kinds of bottled orange juice, fresh orange juice and fresh lime juice. We also added a test for milk to see if it has any vitamin C.

Now he's adding the juice to the vitamin C indicator.

And here are his results! Fresh orange juice had the most color change, so it has the most vitamin C. Even fresh lime juice didn't have quite as much vitamin C. Milk doesn't have much vitamin C in it.

Lukas was chagrined to learn that his hypothesis that Minute Maid orange juice would have the most vitamin C was wrong. But I told him it was ok to be wrong with a hypothesis: that's what happens when scientists do an experiment--they learn!

The errors of a four-year old

2012-01-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

Konrad wanted to write Natalie a congratulatory note after she used the toilet the other day (she's going about once a day), so he asked me how to spell 'Natalie.' Funny how he spelled his own name: Konrab!

Konrad's other funny spoken error that I've started to work on is using "don't" when he means "do." For example, he often says something like, "How don't you spell Natalie?"

I guess they go together: b is the opposite of d; and don't is the opposite of do.

Cooperation

2012-01-06T19:41:00.000-08:00

This is a picture of cooperation: two brothers working together to assemble the puzzle Lukas bought for Konrad's birthday (this was taken at the beginning of Christmas break). In the interest of full disclosure, cooperation like this is not a regular occurrence at The Happy Ones...yet. But there's a glimmer of hope that it will become more common!

20 months, going on 5 years

2012-01-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

This is our 20-month old baby, Dominik, fresh out of the bath. He doesn't hit me when I call him "baby," yet. He's 20 months old today, but he acts like he's going on 5 years. Not only is he overly aware of his bodily function s (IMHO) but he likes to wear baseball caps and backpacks like his brothers. And he's chattering away at me about a million things that are terribly important but are unintelligible. To me.

The speaking is getting better, with practice. Believe me when I say he has a HUGE vocabulary...you just can't understand what he's saying. But he understands us! He understands when he's getting left out of what everyone else is doing, and he doesn't like it. I think in the past few weeks, the light bulbs have been going on in Dominik's brain that there is a lot of stuff out there to learn and he wants to learn it all NOW.

This kid is so much fun! I love every age of my kids, because it's fun to watch them learn a new stage. I had forgotten how much fun 20 months is. Then I checked on what Konrad was doing at 20 months...I'm happy Dominik is still happy in the baby swing with a restraint.

Blast from the past

2012-01-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

I was browsing through our pictures, looking for a specific picture for a blog post. Then I came upon this picture and I just had to share. It makes me smile, and I hope it makes you smile too.

Lukas (2 yrs, 4 months) and Natalie (almost 7 months) in June 2006.

2012, the year of ?

2012-01-03T19:45:00.000-08:00

We are well and truly off and running in the new year. Natalie went back to school bright and early this morning, and contrary to some days right before Christmas, she was actually happy to go to school and said she was looking forward to seeing her friends, teacher and aide. It's Tuesday so Lukas attended his once-a-week classes with the homeschool co-op. As we were leaving the house, Lukas suggested getting a picture of him on his first day of school in 2012. Of course I obliged! You will notice Lukas wearing shorts: it was 84 degrees (29 C) today.

The next picture serves two purposes: second, to document Natalie's toes (other RTS parents may be interested...her big toes are not significantly odd, but they are definitely wider than typical, similar to her thumbs). But the first reason we show this picture is the new thing we're trying with potty training: an alarm. You can see the pager-type thing that is attached to her shirt, then the wire attaches to her underwear. At the first hint of wetness, the alarm goes off with a sound and vibrates. The idea is to catch her right when she starts to pee, and then she can hold it until we get her to the bathroom.

If you had asked me to make a bet, I would have bet good money that Natalie would NOT accept wearing this. But it just goes to show that you never know until you try! I put it on her right before the Rose Parade started, because I knew that would distract her from this contraption on her back...and it worked! She asked to remove it a few times the first day, but now she doesn't even ask. And it has helped her stop when she's already started...we're still working on getting her to go on the toilet. But the addition of the alarm to our potty training routine has really reduced the stress on the adults watching her. We continue to take her on a regular schedule, but we don't have to be watching her constantly in fear of an accident being left somewhere, because the alarm goes off as soon as she starts, and she's learned to stop when she hears and feels the alarm.

We hope that by consistently using the alarm, and consistently putting her in underwear during her every waking moment (the school wants her in a pull-up, so the underwear is under the pull-up) that she will regain the potty use she had before school started...and surpass it! Thanks for your prayers for a positive outcome with this.

In other potty training news...dare I say it? Dominik has been attending Natalie's potty activities with unusual interest for the past three months. This week, he's decided it's his turn. He has asked several times to be put on the toilet; he has actually peed in the toilet once, and peed on the floor right after I took him off the toilet twice. Where did this child come from? I am definitely not ready to potty train a 20-month old...I thought potty training Dominik would fit into my schedule this summer. But true to form, children don't always follow their parents' schedules. I am not going to encourage this further (right now), but if he asks to get on the toilet, I'm not going to tell him "no." OF COURSE NOT!

So, I AM NOT PREDICTING ANYTHING, but it crossed my mind that 2012 might be the year of No More Diapers at The Happy Ones. We have 12 months to see what happens!

The New Happy Ones Fort

2012-01-01T15:19:00.000-08:00

What did you do for Christmas Vacation? Did you build a fort?

Cindy and I had planned the landscaping of our backyard pre-kids. In hindsight, it would have been nice to set aside some space for future use, such as a kid's fort. This dilemma has been dogging me for the last four or five years. How much area should I carve out? What can, or what am I willing to remove? What am I going to install? Many of the playground kits did not meet our requirements (e.g. we don't need more swings, or they cover too much area). So finally this summer a plan started to coalesce. We first decided to take out a chunk of garden including a tangerine and orange tree. I designed the fort on paper and received approvals from my sister-in-law (architect) and nephew (civil engineer).

I prepared the site earlier in the month and planned on building the fort during my long Christmas vacation. Two weeks seemed like enough time.... As my vacation approached the scale of the project became overwhelming. I would be doing this project without Cindy's direct help (someone has to watch the kids). In the past we have always worked together on projects. Besides her excellent skills with the power saw I would not be able to chat about the project as it developed. Fortunately I was able to secure extra help for two days. A friend's teenage son helped me mix and pour cement for the footings. And Matt and Greg, who are contractors, were able to quickly trouble shoot the assembly of all the large posts, joists and floor boards a couple of days later (their relative youth and vitality, and tools were useful too).

Here is how it came together:

The 6' by 8' area is cleared and marked off. I dug six holes and mixed and poured concrete for footings.

All the wood was hand picked and pre-painted (two coats). Boy, there was a lot of wood. My big van made a great hauler.

The six 12' posts go up!

The floor is laid.

The boys and me enjoying the fort mid-construction (thank you Greg and Matt)!

More progress as the ladder, railing, roof, walls, climbing wall, climbing net and rope posts are finished.

The interior walls still need to be painted and the hand holds and net and ropes have been ordered. Also the ground needs to be cleared some more and the wood chips added. I pray I am done by the end of January.

Happy New Year!

2011-12-31T19:52:00.000-08:00

And in what has become our New Year's Eve tradition, we ate the gingerbread house. We didn't eat the whole thing, but we made a dent!

Happy New Year wishes for a blessed 2012 from all The Happy Ones!

Brotherly love

2011-12-30T08:53:00.000-08:00

Konrad has made a habit of looking under the orange cones that line the path near our church. What is he looking for? Toys, of course! (Think toys crossing the road in Toy Story 2). So yesterday Lukas put together a surprise for Konrad...wasn't he thoughtful? (In the interest of full disclosure, the boys replayed Konrad's discovery of the toys for the benefit of my camera and our blog).

Thankfully they didn't try to have the toys-in-cones cross the road!

More vacation day trips: San Diego Zoo

2011-12-29T08:55:00.000-08:00

The day after Christmas, we decided to go to the San Diego Zoo (we have annual passes this year to the Zoo and Safari Park [formerly Wild Animal Park]). It's getting a lot easier to make these trips as the kids get older. Dominik is walking more on his own (and roaring at all the animals...right now he thinks that's the sound all animals make), Natalie is walking a lot and also getting on and off the stroller easily by herself. What more could we ask for? Well, everyone out of diapers will be a huge milestone one day! But I'm happy with where we are right now.

Natalie enjoyed saying hi to the orangutans.

Up close and personal with a bird...not a turkey, but perhaps the tropical version of one. This bird didn't run away, so I was a little nervous about our kids getting too close.

The bronze gorillas are so fun to play with!

Konrad and Dominik are wrestling with the gorilla, but Natalie's going to take him out with the finger-in-the-nose move. Haven't you always wanted to stick your finger in the nose of a gorilla?

Tom and Dominik checking out the real thing.

More face-to-face time.

Natalie was very interested in seeing the hippo. A few years ago we saw the hippo in the water, but this year he/she was on land.

Fourth children hanging together. Dominik, Tom and me--we're all the fourth child.

Somehow, this is very comfortable for the female panda...but it's not my idea of a comfortable napping place! The best part was that we got to see both pandas without waiting...we've waited in lines before to see them (maybe that's at feeding time?)

Even with all the times we've visited the San Diego Zoo, we still haven't walked every inch. I don't remember ever seeing this climbing thing...but the boys were all over it, once Tom paid the pricey fee. Maybe we won't see it again for a few years? But the boys loved it! Here's Konrad on the right side (easier climb) with Lukas on the moderate climb area on the left. This is as high as Konrad got.

Lukas' turn for the easy side, then he enjoyed "falling" down.

Tom calls this the Siamese giraffes.

Someone passing by said, "Look, he's being a gorilla!" Tom corrected him...he's working on something.

I took Natalie and Konrad on the gondola to see the polar bears (Lukas doesn't want to ride the gondola yet) and Tom caught us on the way back. We saw polar bears! They are huge!

After our zoo visit, we stopped by Point Loma, Cabrillo National Cemetery to see the final resting place of Tom's parents. It was a beautiful day to visit and see that the marker is now there...thinking of them on our first Christmas since their passing.

A morning at Pretend City

2011-12-28T15:29:00.000-08:00

Last week Tom took a break from his backyard construction (I still need to unveil that on the blog, don't I?) to go with us to Pretend City. We were so blessed that a friend of his from work gave us five tickets, so we only had to buy one ticket...it's definitely on the pricey side for a family of 6. We were there for just under two hours...the rush started at around 11:30 and we had to leave in order to retain our sanity. Even with two adults, it's hard to keep track of four kids, each going in a different direction, when there are so many other kids too.

Pretend City is a kid-sized city with many places for kids to pretend they're being a grown up. The whole family loved it.

Dominik spent quite some time mowing with this fireman hat on. As you will see from the video at the end, this is one of the few times that he had the hat on correctly.

Natalie had fun at the grocery store, buying food.

But she had even more fun at the cafe, making some tasty food!

Konrad like the construction area. Hmmm...we have pipes like those!

Dominik rode almost every ride-on toy...here he's lifting the airplane to make it fly.

Lukas enjoyed checking out the construction area too...

...but what he really liked was earning money. He was a little disappointed that he couldn't redeem anything for the "money." But, hey, we can take it home as use it for math lessons!

Dominik enjoyed the control tower. This is how he holds a telephone--over his shoulder.

And Dr. Konrad was in the hospital keeping everyone healthy.

We've intended to go to Pretend City before, so it's surprising that it's taken us this long to get there. Definite thumbs up from The Happy Ones!

And here's the video of Dominik, a hat, and a mower. It's really very funny!

A Very Merry Christmas

2011-12-27T11:21:00.000-08:00

It's only two days since Christmas...not too bad for posting the excitement of the day, since we went to San Diego Zoo yesterday. We did other fun family stuff before Christmas too that I still have to post, quick before it becomes January!

Here are the kids on Christmas morning BEFORE!

And here are the kids AFTER opening a gift...it was more of the same excitement all morning long. In this picture, Natalie loves her Pillow Pet (a giraffe...she says, "I love my Pillow Pet!" a lot), Dominik is sitting on his new cement mixer, Lukas is looking through his periscope, and Konrad is riding his scooter.

Konrad is jumping up and down because he got some Cars 2 pajamas.

Tom received a sweater and a hoodie (which he's wearing) AND a generator...we are ready for the next power outage, either from earthquake or power grid overload. Also in this pic, Dominik finally has a helmet that fits, that's also for a boy! In the background, Natalie is trying to put on a belt Tom received.

Konrad is excited about his army men set, complete with vehicles. There has already been a lot of dirt play in the backyard by Konrad and Lukas with this toy.

Natalie loves the princess wand she received from her aide.

And her new Belle doll. We're not sure if this is actually a Rapunzel or a Belle doll, but we're calling it Belle (Beauty and the Beast is Natalie's new favorite movie...although she definitely knows more lines from Toy Story 2).

Lukas is excited by his new Super Mario Bros. for Wii. Konrad hasn't played it at Aunt Patrice's home like Lukas has, so he has NO IDEA how much fun he's in for.

And all that fun before breakfast! Then it was time for church, lunch, lots of playing with new toys, saying hi to a neighbor's new dog (I know our kids would love that gift, but we're not quite ready for it) and preparing for a special Christmas dinner. Earlier this month I spotted a holiday recipe guide that had the recipe for perfect chocolate eclairs. Since this is Tom's favorite dessert, I justified buying the magazine just for that recipe...and it has a lot of other cool holiday recipes too! I do think this recipe is a slight improvement over the previous recipe I used...and it's nice to know I'm using the very best recipe ever...I don't have to keep looking for a better recipe now. What's with the one without the icing? That's Konrad's...it also doesn't have the vanilla creme filling, since he can't handle anything "creamy".

We hope you also had a very Merry Christmas! Spending time with family and church friends is our favorite part of celebrating our Savior's birth, but it's great to see the kids have so much fun too. We were so pleased that Lukas' prayer that night included spontaneously thanking God for the gift of His Son.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

For the highlights of the year, please read our 2011 Christmas letter on the top right of the blog. I hope to have highlights of Christmas Day on the blog in a few days...we've been busy living life, and recording it on the blog has taken a backseat at the moment. But it's been a wonderful celebration and we hope yours was as blessed.

More Christmassy things

2011-12-23T14:26:00.000-08:00

Traditions of The Happy Ones: seeing the Christmas lights in one specific neighborhood, making Christmas cookies.

This is in front of the tree that we've named "The Tree of One Million Lights." It seems to pulse with the lights on each branch.

This girl throwing a snowball at a boy is part of a larger display with gondola and people skiing on the roof...but Lukas' favorite part is the snowball throwing.

Another family has a zillion lights on their home, AND opens up the curtains to show off their Christmas room inside.

Natalie and I are trying to see everything on the lawn at that same home.

And then there are Christmas cookies. I thought I was particularly brave to attempt this with four children at the same time (I usually try to do this kind of thing with one or two children at a time...I know my limits). I am happy to say we are all still alive, and actually had a fun time. Dominik went for his cookie as soon as it was iced. Natalie tried to lick the icing off the cookie.

Konrad and Lukas had a little more interest in the cookie decorating...they each decorated 4 or 5, before leaving the rest to me to finish.

A good morning's results!

I have special holiday postings planned for the next two days...depending on the cooperation of the other Happy Ones...so stay tuned!

Christmas break

2011-12-21T15:11:00.000-08:00

There are lots of things happening at The Happy Ones over Christmas break. Tom is working on a big weekend warrior project that he has the benefit of stretching into a week instead of just working on it over the weekend. Maybe when we were younger and didn't have kids we would have thought to finish it in a weekend (a long weekend). And while he's working on this project, which may be a Christmas present for the kids and might be debuted on the blog sometime after Christmas (even though the kids of course know about it), I've been in charge of watching the kids and keeping them happy while occasionally keeping them out of Tom's hair.

We know that ONE DAY our kids will provide more labor than the effort that's required to supervise them, but we are not yet there. But we keep working on it, knowing it will happen ONE DAY. In the meantime, there are lots of obtuse questions that keep Tom from using his brain properly. But the project is still going to be a masterpiece, even with the obtuse questions!

Anyway, I know what you really want to see is pictures, so here's what we did yesterday:

Since there were two boys awake during quiet time (first time before Christmas at this home), I decided that I would decorate the gingerbread house and the boys would each decorate their own graham cracker houses. I did this in the interest of stress reduction. If you have children, you know why.

Tom let the boys help with the special project today. You cannot imagine the chaos in the four hours that preceded this picture...yes, it involved paint in places that paint was not supposed to be. Can you guess what this is a part of?

Tomorrow, I plan that we will bake and decorate Christmas cookies (Tom will especially need the boys out of his hair then). I hope to not have to go shopping anymore until after Christmas...if I tell you that, will it mean I won't do it? Oops, I forgot, I haven't shopped for Christmas dinner yet.

In which Natalie reads a book

2011-12-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to post a video of Natalie reading for you...but I haven't found the time until everyone is off school. Hopefully I'll get to all the other projects I've been meaning to do during the school break, but for now, let's check this off the list.

We are so pleased with how Natalie's reading has improved since she started kindergarten (she even got an award!)...she was reading single words before, but now she's reading sentences, although, as you will see, she still needs practice going directly to the next line and not getting distracted by other things on the page or in the room. These stories are practice stories from school, and I think it helps that there are no pictures on the page, because pictures would distract Natalie even more. But she does pretty well with books with pictures too.

Enough, here's the video!

Christmas concert

2011-12-16T20:02:00.000-08:00

Lukas has really enjoyed learning to play the recorder at his homeschool co-op. This week his music fundamentals class participated in an outdoor concert at a local mall. It was interesting to watch him learn about band events: we were supposed to show up 30 minutes before the performance. Why? he wondered. So in case we're late, we're still "on time." Then since we weren't late, there was a lot of sitting around waiting for the performance. But no twiddling thumbs here...Lukas created a new game with his friends: balance the recorder on its end, then see who can blow it over first.

And the other kids made the best of standing around waiting too! It looks like Natalie's starting a new dance craze here.

Konrad and Dominik ran around the amphitheater, chasing each other and jumping.

Of course the Christmas decorations were beautiful, and the water with lights was mesmerizing.

And then the concert began! Lukas performed three songs; here's one of them.

Check-ups: 6 & 4, Sleep study results

2011-12-15T10:38:00.000-08:00

When I take just Natalie and Konrad out, I sometimes get questions about whether they are twins. It was ironic that I got that question on the day I took both of them to the pediatrician for their annual check-ups...and when I told the person they were two years apart, the follow-up was "She must be tall for her age," because they assumed Natalie was two years younger than Konrad. Ouch. Well, she reads better than Konrad does, so there!

Anyway, here are the stats. Natalie is 42 1/4" tall and weighs 38 lbs. That's 7th and 10th percentiles on a typical chart for her age (kids with her syndrome are shorter than the rest of their family, so she would be well in the middle of an RTS growth chart).

Konrad is 43 1/4" tall and 42 lbs, which is 97% and 90th percentiles. I cannot believe Konrad is a whole inch taller than Natalie...I guess they both are bouncing around so much that I didn't realize the gap.

And the report from the ENT (this morning!) on Natalie's sleep study is that she has no apnea (hurrah!) and the snoring is actually not significant to do anything about. I questioned him further about the snoring, since the sleep study tech said it was significant...but the doctor assured me it's all within normal levels, and she's getting a good amount of Stage 1, 2, and 3 sleep, and REM, so her sleep quality is actually good. Wow! I'm so pleased, and I guess I need to stop worrying (at least for now) about how much sleep she requires...especially after she didn't nap two days this week. I've seen so many other kids with RTS who have sleep issues, that I expect for Natalie to have an issue...and she doesn't. Ok, deep breath, move on!

Natalie gets an award! And other school activities!

2011-12-13T11:04:00.000-08:00

Yesterday afternoon, Natalie's teacher called to tell us that Natalie would be getting a reading award today, so we might want to attend the award assembly! Wow! Tom and I were so proud to watch our little girl receive an award for her awesome reading skills. Way to go Natalie!

After Natalie's aide showed her that we were in the back of the room, Natalie said, "Hi Mom!" "There's Mom and Dad!" for the rest of the time she was on the stage. There were a lot of snickers from the other kids, and the principal reminded everyone to be quiet, but Tom and I were bursting with pride. It's so wonderful to see her get an award that isn't a result of modifications. I told Tom last night that I wasn't sure Natalie would appreciate the award ceremony...sometimes special attention on her isn't exactly welcome. But we could tell that she was proud to walk up and receive the award, and had a lot of fun at the ceremony!

Then it was off to music class for Lukas. Since I had the camera along, I took pictures of the boys enjoying the drums before class, and Lukas practicing during class. He has a Christmas concert tomorrow night! I am so excited to see him participate!

Tuesday is my day to focus on Konrad and Dominik. Konrad received a craft project for a birthday present that requires him to paint the wood pieces, then assemble into an airplane.

This is what Dominik was doing while Konrad was painting: strapped in, refusing his snack because he wanted to paint too. Sorry, little man...but your time will come! First play-doh!

The Birthday Party

2011-12-10T21:48:00.000-08:00

At some point, we might have a request to separate the birthday party with friends into two separate parties...but in the meantime, it's great to get two parties for the price of one, and the headache of one! We celebrated Natalie's 6th and Konrad's 4th at the Orange County Model Engineers Mackerel Flats and Goathill Junction Railroad. It was a lot of fun riding those mini diesel trains. We were last here for Lukas' third birthday...but let's talk about today!

Tom took the gang on the first trip.

So excited to ride the train!

Catherine and Julia (9, rts). Julia's birthday was yesterday! Happy Birthday Julia!

Tyler, Frankie, Julian, Ha, Marilyn, Katelyn. Don't they look so excited?

Matt, Maren, Kristie, Tyler.

Dat, Zoe.

Here they are, coming back into the station.

Now it's my turn!

Taking a break from trains for lunch.

And then it's time for cake! I made these cupcakes...and they were much better than the ones I got at a bakery...everyone said so, I promise. (Instead of typing "better" above, I first types "butter"...I think that's what makes mine better).

After singing, it was time to blow out the candle...

...and Natalie actually blew out her own candle (although you can see me anticipating that I would need to help).

Dominik didn't like riding the trains so much (I think he was ready for the ride to be over after about 30 seconds)...but he sure did like the frosting. Once again, butter!

Natalie and Julia enjoying chocolate cupcakes. Is there anything better among friends? Butter!

Yeah! Now we can think about Christmas! But first, Happy Birthday to all those December people out there...it's not the best time to have a birthday, but you seem to make the best of it!

The other Birthday

2011-12-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

This family birthday celebration for Konrad might look very similar to Natalie's family birthday celebration two days ago. If you're confused and think we did them the same day...no, we did not, but we used cupcakes from the same place both times. Sorry, I'm not in a very creative mood right now, what with being overwhelmed with homeschooling and preparing for a larger double birthday party on the weekend and, oh yeah, Christmas! Anyone who is thinking of having a baby, try to avoid having the baby in December, ok? And if you have two babies in December, let's just chalk that up to POOR PLANNING! ;) But, hey, they're a tax deduction! And really, I only regret having a December baby once a year...and there I went and had two December babies and I still only regret it once a year!

Anyway, enough about me...here are some pictures. Lukas brought the flaming cupcake to Konrad while we sang.

A big bite of chocolate off the top.

Natalie is anticipating her cupcake.

And there's Dominik too!

Dominik realized it's easier to eat a cupcake with a fork.

Natalie wants a fork too!

Lukas gave Konrad a Spongebob puzzle. Konrad is such a puzzler!

Konrad loves being four! Although he forgot and said he was three a few times yesterday...I think he'll get used to it soon.

Konrad is 4!

2011-12-07T06:02:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Konrad! It's so hard to believe that it's been four years since that exciting morning that we woke up, not knowing if we would have a boy or a girl, and meeting you later in the day. You have been your own person, very different from your older siblings, and you've taught us so much about how each child is an individual. We love you and we love your exuberance! We know you can't wait to be 9, but we hope you'll enjoy this year first!

Love, Dad and Mom

The Birthday

2011-12-06T13:51:00.000-08:00

You know I have to be prompt in posting pictures of Natalie's birthday...because tomorrow is another birthday in our family. And that birthday boy has a hard time on Natalie's birthday because he just can't wait two whole days for his birthday to arrive...but enough about that.

The boys and I brought cookies to Natalie's class, and here they are, standing with her at the front while everyone sings Happy Birthday. It was very cute! You may note that Dominik has no shoes. I didn't intend that we stay for the party because all three of the boys have snotty noses, but the teacher said to bring them in from the car, so I did.

For dinner, I gave Natalie the choice of mac and cheese, or pasta with pesto. She chose pasta with pesto! Then it was time for cake. I thought for sure that Natalie would blow out her candle, but no go.

But she joined in with the excitement!

Cupcakes for everyone!

Dominik kept saying, "noooo" when I asked him if he liked his cupcake. I don't believe him.

So it's another birthday tomorrow, then the big party with friends on the weekend...aren't birthdays fun!

Natalie is Six!

2011-12-05T06:00:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Natalie!

We cannot believe you are six years old already! Six years ago, on a Monday, you came into this world, and we haven't stopped loving you since. You have always surprised us in what you can do, and we know you will continue to surprise us this next year.

We love you!
Dad and Mom

Teachers and gluten

2011-12-04T21:14:00.000-08:00

Three cheers for a great teacher-parent conference on Friday! The teacher is finally speaking about Natalie in an acceptable manner: yes, she's got behavior problems, but she has a lot of smarts too. On her first report card, Natalie is going to get excellent grades in reading and spelling, average grades in math, and poor grades in behavior, transitions and organizing. Tom and I hope that the past is behind us and we can move forward with helping Natalie learn how to have self-control and focus.

And on the gluten-free front...Lukas and Natalie went back to gluten food on Friday and Tom and I have seen no difference. We saw no difference when they were off gluten, and no difference when they were back on gluten. I am very happy that I don't have to continue with the gluten-free stuff (we eat a lot of whole wheat and whole grains with wheat in our home), and I know Natalie and Lukas are happy too! I'm glad we tried it, because so many people have seen differences with their kids. But I'm also glad it's over...just in time for some birthday cake!

Sleep Study 2011

2011-12-01T15:05:00.000-08:00

One of my favorite sayings is, "there's not a lot of sleeping that happens at a sleep study." That was based on my two experiences with sleep studies with Natalie, I think back in 2006 or 2007. At the first sleep study, Natalie arrived seemingly healthy, but presented cold symptoms as the tech was hooking her up. Not a very fun night...and since she was sick, it had to be repeated since they want to have an idea of how she's sleeping when she's healthy, not sick. In both instances, Natalie did not do well with the stuff taped all over her head and face, and sleeping in an unusual place...which meant I didn't sleep well because the tech was coming into the room all the time to fix something Natalie had pulled off.

Fast forward to 2011. Natalie did great! She sat and watched Thumbelina while she played with tape and stickers, and the tech taped wires all over her, with no protest at all. Then when the tech was done, I scooted her under the covers and she fell asleep within 2 minutes (she usually goes to bed at 7 p.m., and the tech was done hooking her up about 8:45 p.m.) Natalie fans might be interested to know that Natalie chose to bring Snow White with her on this trip, instead of the usual Jessie.

I was also prepared for my night: I brought ear plugs and Benadryl, which I used after asking permission of the tech. I slept the best I've ever slept at a sleep study, and I think Natalie did too, but that still means I will enjoy a good night's sleep tonight (it was a short, painful bed for me)!

What the tech told me is that Natalie snores, and that's what's keeping her from getting good quality sleep. She also sits up in bed a lot, which might be caused by the snoring. Her O2 levels were great all night long, which is wonderful (I think there were hints of possible tracheotomy the last time she had a sleep study, which thankfully was not entertained further). We might get more/different info from the doctor, but it appears she's getting enough oxygen, but her brain is being disturbed by the snoring...so we'll talk to the ENT about how to help her stop snoring. She had her adenoids out a few years ago, but her tonsils were fine at that time...I'm sure a tonsil check will be in order.

Natalie sleeps 11-12 hours a day, and she's nearly 6 years old. It's a little much, and it's starting to interfere with her time to do homework. I'm also hoping she'll have better behavior and less seizure issue (although she's had no seizures that we've seen since she started Depakote) with better sleep.

Thanksgiving weekend

2011-12-01T14:45:00.000-08:00

Our Thanksgiving weekend celebration started with a big family meal at Tom's sister Chris' home. It was fabulous! There was a ton of delicious food! Tom and I were ecstatic because we got to have actual conversations with relatives at this reunion (instead of making sure our kids weren't breaking something...probably because some special Aunties Patrice and Chris bought the kids gifts!) I told Tom afterward that it was our best get-together with his family and extended family ever. But did we take any pictures? Nope! We were so busy talking that we didn't break out the camera. But you can imagine how wonderful it was, right?

Anyway, after the meal, we drove to my sister Rose's home in the mountains. Last year there was 2-3 feet of snow, but this year the ground was mostly clear, with some melting snow in patches. That's ok...it was enough snow for the kids to play in, without us having to get them in full snow gear. And it was also warmer than last year (although much colder than we're used to in Orange County).

There was enough snow to make a very short snowman. Of course, the boys picked the longest carrot in Rose's fridge for its nose.

But at least they ate the carrot. Poor snowman!

The boys loved having Uncle Gary read to them.

Natalie is all ready for a hike after her second Thanksgiving meal on Friday.

Here's our group, out to walk off some turkey.

Natalie did great on the hike (lots of practice walking to school). We had Dominik in the stroller, until Natalie couldn't go any further, then she rode in the stroller while we carried Dominik in a baby back pack.

This was another hike, on Saturday. We drove down to a part of the road that is closed for the winter, and walk right down the middle! There's a great view!

Konrad found some acorns.

Beautiful Kings Canyon in the background.

Dominik was happy to be out of the stroller and walk around...but then I had a hard time keeping him from falling off the cliff...

...so it was back in the backpack!

On Sunday, Tom, Gary, Lukas and Konrad had a boys' hike while Rose and I stayed home with Natalie and Dominik. They saw a lot of big trees!

Tom captured an older sequoia on the left and a younger sequoia on the right. You can see how the crown changes to become more round as the tree ages.

Lukas is interested in it all!

The boys enjoy a snack. Lukas has his hat and Konrad his Batman sunglasses...

...and then it's time for silly faces.

Natalie and Dominik are happy to welcome them home upon their return.

We saw a large herd of deer as we left Rose and Gary's home. I have never seen so many deer at once! And they all looked healthy, which is great. This one actually came toward our van.

Here you can see more of the deer. I think there were seven or eight.

And these are the kids, enjoying the trip home. By the time we reach LA, there were lots of "are we there yet" questions. This picture was taken before that!

One of our best Thanksgivings ever! I hope yours was as good!

Where we've been...

2011-11-30T18:29:00.000-08:00

Yes, we've been away for Thanksgiving, and getting back into our regular schedule has been a struggle: yesterday I guess I had my first migraine ever, and tonight Natalie and I are going to the hospital for a sleep study for Natalie (previously scheduled for Friday, last night they called to see if we could come tonight because of hospital construction over the weekend). On top of homeschooling. It never ends! And that means blogging has also had a bit of a vacation.

Anyway, here's a teaser picture...check back tomorrow for the rest of the story.

Ten Years

2011-11-24T06:00:00.000-08:00

This Thanksgiving Day, I'm thankful for 10 wonderful years with the man of my dreams! Tom and I have had a blast together, through the good times and the hard times...and I look forward to what God has in store for us in the next 10 years.

Happy Anniversary, Tom!

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone else! What are you thankful for?

Winding down...

2011-11-18T20:52:00.000-08:00

...for Thanksgiving vacation! We're so excited to be officially on Thanksgiving break. Natalie has all of next week off (Mon-Wed are furlough days at her school) so we decided homeschool is on break too!

Here are a few of the fun things we've done recently:

Lukas and Konrad made "boot people" from things they found in the garage.

After they posed, they looked again with satisfaction at their creations.

If you need to keep an eye on the 1-year old while you're cleaning out the car, just put him in the car! He can't run into the street while you're occupied. Do remember to check that your headlights are in the off position before you go back inside. Your windshield wipers are guaranteed to be ON, but that doesn't drain your battery like the headlights would. Yes, I remembered to do this...but only because my door alarm sounded because the lights were on!

I'm sure everyone has a picture of this...but I had to share our lovely turkey girl. She actually wore her creation for a little while!

And then it was back to the serious business of tracing numbers and letters. I love these tracing, wipe-off letter and number books (both Natalie and Konrad are getting a lot of use out of them...and I know Dominik will eventually). I found them at Lakeshore Learning (they have a store in Fountain Valley).

We have a lot to do before Thanksgiving, so I'm glad school is on break to allow us to get everything done!

School update

2011-11-17T14:49:00.000-08:00

Homeschool, that is. Lukas is doing great and has really adjusted well to a longer school day for second grade (more work + me helping Konrad with "school" = longer overall school time ). Lukas is getting his math facts memorized, which I let slide last year--much to my chagrin. He's also doing great at adding 3-digit numbers and carrying to the next column, and I see that he may finally learn to tell time. I know a lot of homeschoolers would be shocked, but I never put an emphasis on telling time (the child can't argue about going to bed when they have NO CLUE what the time is!)

Lukas is doing very well with reading and comprehension: I love our new reading program because there is a workbook that goes along that requires written responses, so his writing is also improving. I switched back to the spelling curriculum we used last year (the one I started with this year was too easy), and we're continuing with the grammar and writing curriculum from last year. Lukas loves science (human anatomy) and history (ancient civilizations--Tom teaches this), so he's a pretty happy camper this year. I'm especially happy that he now likes the math program that we're using. It's the same one we used last year (I couldn't make another change this year), but now he likes it!

In the picture above, Lukas is drawing a comic strip to show a piece of food as it makes its way through the digestive and renal systems.

Konrad is doing great with coloring, learning his numbers, learning to read and write. I purchased some dry-erase books for upper and lowercase letters, and numbers...for both Konrad and Natalie to use. They are great! Much better than printing off tracing pages or buying a book with paper tracing pages. Konrad likes to spend a lot of time tracing letters and numbers, and I'm in no hurry to get him to write without tracing yet (he's not yet 4!) I don't push Konrad to do school (I'm very busy with Lukas!)...but he wants to do it all, so I provide the opportunities.

Here's Konrad showing off his Play-doh creation.

I have to say that it is A LITTLE overwhelming when I have Lukas doing school, Konrad tracing letters AND Natalie working on homework in the afternoon after naps (Natalie still naps, but Konrad is no longer napping). Thankfully Dominik is still taking a morning (and afternoon) nap...he's threatened to lose his morning nap but I just keep putting him in the crib and he keeps falling asleep...or maybe he's just being quiet?

Boys' Trip to The Desert

2011-11-16T13:24:00.000-08:00

I love the desert, but without a four-wheel drive vehicle I am limited in where I can go. A couple of weeks ago I was lamenting that very fact , and a friend of mine suggested I rent a four-wheel drive vehicle. Wow! That is a great idea.

On Monday I picked up a Jeep Wrangler, and headed out to the Mojave Desert with Lukas and Konrad. Packed in the back were two model rockets, radio controlled cars, and a sling shot. Our first destination was Soggy Dry Lake. The flat dry lake bed is large and a perfect place to launch rockets. We also had it all to ourselves. The first rocket launch was flawless. Lukas was anticipating a lot of noise and he fled to the Jeep (he nearly made as much noise as the rocket, protesting the impending launch) . Konrad had no idea what to expect and was surprised by the noise of the rocket. The first rocket is a large rocket and probably reached an altitude of 500'. The boys enjoyed chasing the parachute and collecting the rocket. We prepared the second smaller and faster rocket for launch, and conducted our count down. Nothing! Hmmmm? After four failed launches I finally determined that in the excitement of the first launch I must have dropped the launch box, which made the batteries fall out of their holder. Once that was solved we had a great time launching our two rockets, until we ran out of rocket motors.

Now a dry lake bed has no plants or objects to reference for distance. What seems close can actually be far away. So when the small rocket started to come down from its 1,200' altitude it, floated about a 1/4 of a mile away from the Jeep. The boys started running to catch it, and they ran and they ran and they ran. They came back panting for air, but they always ran after the rockets. I eventually angled the launch pad so that the rockets drifted back towards the Jeep.

Now a Jeep in four-wheel low will literally crawl along at 2 or 3 miles an hour at idle. So I conducted a driving school for the boys on the lake bed. I sat them in the drivers seat, and from the passenger seat I put it in drive. The Jeep putted along at a walking pace while they steered. They both really enjoyed that.

After the rockets and driving school we headed out into the desert with a couple of goals in mind. We first stopped off at a place where the magnitude 7.3 Landers earthquake cracked and lifted the ground. The earthquake occurred in 1992, but because it does not rain much in the desert, the scarp is still obvious.

We then checked out an old iron mine. I had more fun at the iron mine dragging my large magnet and collecting Hematite. The boys just looked for junk and used shotgun shells. Wait, maybe they had just as much fun as I had?

Next we stopped at an old Navy bombing range at Galway Dry Lake. The bombing range was used during WWII to train Navy bomber pilots how to drop bombs on ships. There are three granite outcroppings in the dry lake bed that are the size of ships. There are craters, shattered boulders and shrapnel laying on the ground.

I had one more goal in mind, but the sun was setting low in the sky. I have had enough "a bridge too far" experiences, so I turned around.

On the way back we stopped off at a spot that is believed to be the location of the oldest living things on earth. They are called creosote rings, and they are a ring of creosote bushes that are clones of each other. The idea is that the original plant sent out new branches from the parent plant and these branches keep growing out from the center. We found a nice 20' diameter ring, but we did not find the "King Clone", which is supposed to be over 60' in diameter.

We ended our desert adventure with Sushi, Teriyaki chicken and ice cream. What a bargain it was to rent a Jeep for the day.

Gluten-free...

2011-11-14T15:13:00.000-08:00

...for a month. We're trying Lukas and Natalie on gluten-free diets to see if it helps their self-control. Somebody may tell me it won't be a true test if they aren't 100.00000% gluten-free, instead of the 98.95555% gluten-free that I consider an appropriate compromise, but I can only do so much. If you've considered going gluten-free before, you know gluten is in a lot of things that are not obvious. But since no one here has celiac disease, I figure our bar can be a little lower.

This first started as a test for Lukas, because it seems like he can be completely not himself after a meal of pasta. Then when I started buying all the gluten-free stuff, I figured we may as well test Natalie at the same time, since it would be no more bother to do two kids. I bought gluten-free pasta and gluten-free bread-machine mixes and a few gluten-free snacks...other than that, I'm trying to use rice and corn products (like tortillas) in our meals, so I don't have to make a special meal for Lukas and Natalie.

I haven't done a ton of research on this (again, I can only do so much), but my plan is to try it for a month, have Tom and me gauge their behavior over the previous month, then re-introduce wheat products and see if we notice anything different.

Lukas has been a real sport about it, not complaining at all. He likes the gluten-free bread for his sandwiches, and I made gluten-free pancakes that are pretty good with syrup (anything is good with syrup, right?) The other day he asked how much longer it would be (it hadn't been a week yet)...so today I bought a gluten-free cookie mix. I usually don't buy things that are mixes, but in this case, I think it's money well spent, since the alternative would be to spend TIME...if we decide to continue the gluten-free path after the month is over, I might spend the TIME.

Natalie doesn't understand why she couldn't have the leftover pasta (wheat) that I gave to Dominik...she was a little put out by it. So I've learned...don't give someone else pasta if I can't give any to Natalie!

IEP Part 2

2011-11-11T21:06:00.000-08:00

I'm happy to report that we have completed Natalie's IEP for this year. After the original IEP didn't even get to her goals for the next year, we scheduled Part 2 to review the goals. The unexpected event yesterday was that Natalie's teacher went home sick in the morning, and wasn't able to attend the IEP in the afternoon. And that might have been what made the IEP so great! Don't get me wrong: Natalie's teacher is a great teacher, but she is needing to be re-educated on how to teach a special needs child (she's never taught a child with as many delays as Natalie) and what to expect of a special needs child.

Anyway, Tom and I are very happy with the outcome and see that the goals are realistic but also exciting for Natalie to achieve this year. New for Natalie is a behavior plan, and we were happy to also meet a behavior specialist who had observed Natalie a few times and worked with Natalie's one-on-one aide on how to help Natalie redirect and change the disruptive behavior. The behavior specialist was also great in that she differentiated some of the talking Natalie does in class: there's the self-talk that Natalie does while she's sitting at her seat working on school work, which is appropriate and fine (although probably not preferred by the teacher, we shouldn't focus on changing that); and then there is the talking and outbursts that occur while the teacher is teaching the class, which are not appropriate.

We also discussed accommodations for Natalie: a foam wedge pad for her to sit on and a footrest so that she can have better stability in her body while she's doing schoolwork; being able to use Pip Squeak markers (short, fat markers) instead of pencils for writing; using a slantboard for writing. Natalie is already giving verbal responses for spelling tests and math, since her writing is poor and it's difficult for her to keep up during a test environment.

We talked about Natalie using letter tiles at her desk to complete a test instead of doing it orally, and using number tiles for math...until she's able to write better. She's nearly caught up to where she was at the end of last school year with writing (there was a lot of regression over the summer), and we hope she can really improve during this school year. I'll have to post a video of her practicing her spelling words...it's really great how well she can spell even in her head.

Anyway, it's a relief to have the IEP part over, and now we can just work on her goals! Photo credit to Lukas for taking this great picture of his sister at the San Diego Safari Park today...more pictures soon!

Trivia

2011-11-08T19:57:00.000-08:00

Lukas just completed the first quarter of his second grade year. He got all As! Great job Lukas!

Natalie has turned the corner (we think) on her behavior at school. She's been doing a lot better, although there are still rough days, like yesterday, in which she was stimming most of the day. But she's participating in class much better, and cooperating with the teacher during testing. The cutest thing is how the rest of her class "fights" over who gets to sit by her. Usually its the girls who say, "Natalie sit right here!" when we arrive at school...but today it was two boys who invited Natalie to sit on the bench with them until the teacher opened the classroom door. So cute!

Konrad is on chapter 19 of Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. He's doing great! He will definitely complete this book sometime while he's four.

Dominik is very happy to be eating at the table with us (instead of as an "island" in his highchair). He does pretty well with a spoon and fork, although the hand is still used a lot!

And what's with the picture at the top? That's what happens when you put dish soap in the dishwasher instead of dishwasher detergent. I know you've always wondered what would happen...now you know!

18 Months

2011-11-07T10:43:00.000-08:00

Dominik has turned 18 months! Twelve months was a milestone for Dominik walking (he started freelance walking at the end of 12 months) and it seems 18 months may be when he starts saying real, understandable words. This past week he started calling me "Mamma" instead of calling both Tom and me "Dadda." He's saying "yes" and "no" more clearly, and he throws in a couple other words that are more clear too once in a while. Of course, most of his communication is still screaming and pointing. But I was encouraged that he was more receptive to learning to sign "more please" when I tried it this morning. I had sort of given up on signing when I first started working with him several months ago...I need to get back to it!

Here's what Natalie and Dominik did while Tom took the other boys on errands this weekend. Dominik is now insisting on wearing a helmet...and the only helmet that fits is Natalie's (she has microcephaly, so she still wears a toddler helmet). You can tell one thing Dominik will be getting for Christmas! Natalie wasn't too worried...she was happy with a hoodie...and notice that she is wearing a dress, which means that she used the toilet that morning. She has really regressed a lot in toilet use since she started school, since she's wearing pull-ups every day to school. I can only fight so many battles at once, so this is one that I am letting slide.

Another celebration is that the high chair is leaving our house! We bought another chair for the dining room and finally put Dominik in a booster seat. That meant we moved everyone's seat at the table around to make it fit, and this is how we finally look. Tom and I are used to being across from each other at the table, but the short way, so it's a little odd to see him so far away from me as we sit at each end.

Getting into EVERYTHING!

2011-11-01T14:24:00.000-07:00

Dominik is definitely at the age where he's getting into everything. I think it's more of a challenge for homes with kids of different ages because we have stuff out (like crayons) because there are older kids around, but the littlest Happy One likes to climb on chairs and pull stuff out. Oops, it made a mess! I don't really like those crayon boxes with 96 crayons (many crayons to pick up) and the sharpener in the back (lots of little bits of crayon to clean up).

And then there are the tissue boxes and the wipe boxes. What could be more fun than pulling out tissues...another one pops up and it's just as fun to pull that one out too! Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat... And when you pull out the crayons AND the tissues at the same time, twice the fun!

Another mom told me yesterday that she wasn't allowed to have Play-Doh as a child because of the mess it makes in the carpet. I didn't have Play-Doh as a child either, but I thought it was just because they didn't make it back then. I had to think LONG AND HARD about whether I would allow Play-Doh in our house if we didn't have wood floors. Our kids play with Play-Doh at the table (or in the high chair, as in the case of Dominik), but bits of Play-Doh still end up on the floor. I don't worry about it because it's easy to clean up (somehow easier than bits of crayon sharpenings!)

But today I was reminded how young Dominik still is (he's almost 18 months)...when he was eating his Play-Doh! I kept saying, "yuck!" to him, but every time I turned my back, he tasted it again. I decided I had made the right decision when I DIDN'T give him paint (Konrad was painting), but gave him Play-Doh instead. Play-Doh is non-toxic for a reason.

Speaking of putting things in mouth...Dominik likes to do that a lot too. I really have to watch him when he tries to play with his brothers because 1) he usually tears apart what they're doing and makes them mad and/or 2) puts small pieces in his mouth. Another reason a house with different ages is a challenge. We really want to invest in the small Lego pieces, but those Duplo pieces are still much safer while Dominik is tasting everything. Since Lukas and Konrad don't read this blog, I will reveal that more new, small Lego pieces are in their immediate (Christmas) future. But it would be nice to not have to store them on the stop shelf to keep them away from Dominik.

Next year!

Candy and carnival

2011-10-31T22:12:00.000-07:00

The kids were more excited about going to a carnival this year than they've been in the past. We were also excited to see friends at the carnival...but as usual, it's an exhausting event to keep four kids who want to go in different directions happy! But they definitely had a great time! Here's how they looked at the beginning.

Natalie had to be in the jump house all the time, so no more pictures of her.

Mom of one

2011-10-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

What is it like to be a mom of only one? This morning I had a brief reminder as Tom took Lukas and Konrad on a hike while Natalie was at school. Dominik and I read books, played with toys and generally had a very relaxing morning together! I do remember that things were a lot less hectic when I only had one child, and it's quite lovely to experience it all over again...but I'm glad it's just for a short time since I do miss those other kids when they're gone!

Photo credits

2011-10-27T06:00:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed a few changes on the blog...unless you read blogs in a reader like I do...then please go to the blog and see the changes we made! First of all, a big thank you to Catherine for taking the wonderful pictures of the kids that are in the header and sidebar. Catherine is also mom of Julia, who has RTS just like Natalie, so we have a special connection...Julia was the first person I met with RTS besides Natalie, and Catherine was a great encouragement at the very beginning (and still is!) If you live in the Orange County area, you might consider Catherine for your family photos!

And Tom gets credit for the background photo. It's from our recent trip to Joshua Tree...by the time I shrink the photo so it's small enough for Blogger to use as a background, then stretch it so it isn't tiled all over the background...it turns out fuzzy like that. But just between you and me, that's the way it's SUPPOSED to look! ;)

Yes, we do have four children...

2011-10-26T13:34:00.000-07:00

...although sometimes it seems like we focus a lot on one child at a time! My goal is usually to post something about each child in turn...but often the events of the moment dictate that something different happens.

So back to our regularly scheduled programming...here's a little about the third child.

Konrad had been asking for new sunglasses for several months. A few weeks ago I finally remembered while we were out shopping, and stopped by the children's sunglasses section. He picked out a pair of Batman sunglasses, which he is modeling for you in this picture.

And he's done a great job of remembering where he put them, and remembering to ask for them when we go outside...pretty good for not-yet-four years old! But it almost makes me wonder if he's slightly light sensitive, which seems odd for brown eyes.

In other news, today we took our first walk/bike ride to the post office since Konrad's training wheels came off. I had Dominik in the stroller and Lukas in front on a bike (Natalie at school!) and Konrad in the middle. It was a little nerve-wracking, but we arrived home safely. Once he's an inch taller, it will be a lot easier...but he's developed some habits based on having training wheels (like when he stops and starts) that he has to unlearn since the training wheels are gone. Great job Konrad!

Natalie's Strengths

2011-10-25T13:55:00.000-07:00

I'm sorry I left it sort of negative last Friday after part 1 of Natalie's IEP...combining the stress of an IEP, a teacher who doesn't know what kind of expectations to have, and my severe back pain, I didn't give a proper report on Natalie's "present levels."

Since I'm a parent who gets to see ALL TOO OFTEN reports on Natalie's delays (which are emphasized at IEP time, to justify services), my summary to you is on all the positive things from Natalie's present levels. We all know that she has significant delays...that's why she has so much therapy and an IEP. Humor me while we celebrate the ways that Natalie is average or above average!

1. The psychologist administered several tests to Natalie. The one I would like to highlight was the Test of Early Reading Ability (TERA-3). Natalie's score on the Alphabet subtest was in the superior range: grade equivalent 1.7.
2. The speech therapist also administered several tests. The Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation-2 assesses the production of English consonant sounds. During this test, Natalie was asked to repeat the words after the examiner. Natalie performed within the average range when compared to other females of her same chronological age level.
3. Natalie's fluency appears to be adequate according to the spontaneous speech sample recorded by the speech therapist.

Hooray for average!

The other thing I am BEYOND excited about is that her physical therapist is recommending reducing therapy to only one day a week (down from two days a week). We've been driving to therapy twice a week for more than four years (which ends up being a 2-hour event every time, with the therapy session and drive time) since the therapist stopped coming to our home because Natalie needed the equipment at the clinic. It's such a relief to have this reduced to one time a week. This doesn't mean that Natalie met all her goals for PT, but she has made progress, and the PT can see that other areas of her life require attention.

After the IEP

2011-10-22T14:34:00.000-07:00

Tom and I survived Natalie's triennial IEP yesterday. It was 2.5 hours long and we didn't even get to her new goals, so another date has been planned for Part 2 of the IEP. Overall, I think the meeting went well: reviewing Natalie's current levels and where teachers and therapists understand her strengths and weaknesses are. But the continuing question is Natalie's behavior and how to deal with it--she's behaving differently than she did last year, and it could be because there is so much more sitting at a desk in kindergarten than there was in pre-K. We're happy that a behavior management plan will be prepared, and they will also be consulting with autism specialists at the school, since many of Natalie's objectionable behaviors are autistic-like.

We think everyone at the table understands what their job is, except Natalie's teacher! Natalie's teacher has stated that the classroom environment is just asking too much of her and everything is just too hard. The lingering suggestion when she makes these comments is that Natalie should be somewhere else (a special day class instead of a general ed class). As I think about it after the meeting, that's the purpose of the IEP team! We have to come up with ways to challenge Natalie, but not beyond her capabilities. We still think that Natalie will do the best in the classroom she's in, and with the teacher she has, but we need support from other people who've had more experience with special needs modifications. There have been some modifications (a one-on-one aide), but more modifications need to be made.

Thanks for your continued prayers...it's not over. This has been the hardest IEP yet, but we have confidence that we will have a positive outcome in the end. I'll probably be making some phone calls next week to follow up with those who understand what their job is...to make sure they know that we know what their job is!

How to make a Mom's Day

2011-10-19T14:08:00.000-07:00

If you've spoken with me recently, you probably know I'm stressed. If you haven't, here's what's been going on to stress me out in a way that I haven't been stressed since Natalie was born.

About a month ago, we learned that Natalie wasn't doing well in school, much to our surprise. It wasn't that she couldn't keep up with the other kids...it was that her behavior was disruptive and getting in the way of her learning and participating. I observed her in class and gave some pointers to Natalie's one-on-one aide, but the notebook on Natalie's behavior continued to show that basically only Natalie's worst behaviors were happening all day long at school. It wasn't that we never see those behaviors at home...but they are not a significant part of her life, as they appear to be at school.

Now, we know the notebook is there to justify continuing a one-on-one aide (the need for an aide is supposed to be re-evaluated at her triennial IEP, which is the day after tomorrow). But it is quite depressing to read the notes about Natalie's behavior when we know she is capable of so much more.

Today I had a great conversation with the principal...it made me think that they do really understand Natalie.

And then...

...today when I picked Natalie up from school, the teacher said Natalie had her best day of the whole year. I said, "Great, maybe she's finally showing you what she can do." The teacher said that if that's what Natalie can do, that's great!

Needless to say, I'm feeling a lot better about Friday's IEP! And the pictures of Natalie? They were taken by Catherine, mom of Julia (8, RTS) a few weeks ago. Aren't they great? We'll have those pictures framed at the IEP...so everyone remembers who we're all excited about.

Of course, I'm expecting many ups and downs this school year, but I'm excited that the staff at Natalie's school are finally getting a glimpse of how much she can do...and I'm celebrating this "up"!

Thank you Kristin!

2011-10-15T18:34:00.000-07:00

Kristin gave Natalie one of her cool flower girl flowers for a get-well gift after Natalie's eye surgery. Of course, Natalie loves it! She's using it as a wand, and copying her friend Princess Pea from Super Why by saying, "Cue the sparkles, cue the music!" as she waves her wand.

Thanks Kristin!

Herding cats

2011-10-14T21:23:00.000-07:00

No, we haven't bought a cat...but parts of our second activity of the day felt like herding cats. But before I talk about the herding cats part, let me just say that it was so fun to wake the kids up from naps and head to the pumpkin patch for our annual visit. Don't you love comparing pumpkin patch pics of your kids over the years?

Here's Dominik at the measuring post...the only one I captured in a photo at the measuring post this year.

For some reason, the kids were VERY drawn to this picture stand.

Who are these people?

Natalie and Dominik in the hay maze.

Dominik's first year for pumpkin patch (that he can really appreciate!)

Lukas and Konrad smiling on the train. It's always about the teeth!

Here's where the herding cats starts: trying to get all four kids to look at the camera at the same time. This one: Natalie's looking away.

Now Dominik's looking away.

Is ANYONE looking at the camera? Oh, yes, Dominik is.

We have lost the battle...

...and then our friend Kim popped up and offered to take a family picture. Somehow, SHE was successful! Thanks Kim!

Here are some previous posts about the pumpkin patch: 2008, 2007, 2006 and earlier. I know we went to the pumpkin patch the last two years...but I guess I didn't blog about it (cannot find 2009 or 2010 pumpkin blog). Something else must have been important!

No training wheels!

2011-10-14T12:41:00.000-07:00

A wonderful blessing of Tom's job is that the hours are 9/80, which means he gets every other Friday off. We usually use those Fridays to do special things that others do on Saturdays, but we get fewer crowds. This works great for a homeschooling family, too...but Natalie is in public school, so we have to balance her school schedule with the rest of the family.

So this morning while Natalie went to school, the rest of us went back to Mile Square Park for a morning of bike riding for the boys. Last weekend, we all went to Mile Square Park to try Konrad without training wheels, and he did great! But we forgot the camera, so it was nice to re-enact the scene to have pictures and blog about it. Konrad is 3 years and 10 months old and he does great without training wheels...he doesn't have confidence starting himself on the bike, but once he's going, he's a natural.

I slept in this morning (6:15 a.m.) and didn't go running, so my workout was carrying Dominik around the park (we probably went 2 miles). It definitely reminds me to consider how much easier everything would be if I were 25 pounds lighter!

A very hot day

2011-10-12T21:31:00.000-07:00

The weather forecast had said 99* but I didn't believe them. Well, it topped off at 101* (38* C) at our home...thankfully there wasn't much wind to go with it, or it really would have felt like an oven.

The easiest water play was to just turn on the sprinklers, and I was all about the easy choice today. While a contractor was here giving a bid for a new front door, the school called and said Natalie fell asleep and would I come get her. So as soon as the contractor left, we piled into the car and picked up Natalie from school. Of course, after she came home, she was wide awake and playing like normal...hope she doesn't learn that she can go home if she feigns sleep! We don't know if she's extra tired from recovering from the eye surgery, or if it's a side effect of a new seizure med we're trying (I think I didn't post that she had a new kind of seizure last week, so we're trying a new med to see how she tolerates it). It's been a little crazy around here...we have a lot going on. And my back is not feeling great, so I pushed one button to turn on the lawn sprinklers instead of lugging out the hose and the favorite water toys.

Anyway, here are some pictures from water play this afternoon.

Who was the most excited about the sprinklers? The oldest child!

But the youngest liked it too!

Konrad was sad that I didn't get the hose and fun sprinkler out, but he finally decided to get wet, as did Natalie...but just for a few seconds before she went back to the swing.

After the sprinklers had run through their courses (and the kids enjoyed going to a new spot on the lawn when a new section started up), Lukas built his own sprinkler out of his own parts, and pulled the hose out.

And when I have four dirty and wet kids at once, three of them are going to go in the tub at the same time (Lukas took a shower).

Tomorrow is supposed to be 97*...might be a repeat of the activity from today!

Getting back to normal

2011-10-11T19:21:00.000-07:00

We expected Natalie to recover well from this eye surgery, since she did so well last time. She is recovering well, but maybe not quite as well as the last time...a little pain, a little more bothered by it. She keeps saying, "I hurt my eye!" which tells me it's time for another dose of ibuprofen.

Here's Natalie lounging on the couch last night before bed. I think she's putting a piece of tape on the Duplo Jessie, and taking it off, putting it on and taking it off.

Tom took her to the follow-up appointment this afternoon so I could go with Lukas to a special event at his one-day-a-week school. It was great to see Natalie more interactive when they returned...because she could finally put her glasses on. I know it's hard for her to function with only one eye open, and poor eyesight in that eye but not able to wear glasses over the patch.

Tonight, things were a lot more back to normal, as evidenced by this picture:

Tomorrow, if she's still doing well, Natalie will go back to school.

Right Eye

2011-10-10T19:51:00.000-07:00

Today, Natalie and I left early in the morning for her scheduled EUA at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. Cindy held down the fort with the boys, and kept the homeschooling schedule on track. Natalie and I were sent to a different surgical center, which allowed us to see a different part of this huge hospital. Natalie was given a doll as a gift from the hospital, which was an extra special treat. She admired her new doll in the box, but was still more attached to Snow White (Jesse had the day off). Natalie still prefers her soft human-like dolls rather than hard human-like (who really has legs proportioned like that?) dolls.

We still held a little hope that Natalie would not need a shunt in the right eye, but the doctor reported that her pressures were too high when she checked them today. The good news is the shunt that was implanted in August is working fine and Natalie's pressures in that eye are normal. Normal, that is, with the aid of pressure-reducing eye drops. Once Natalie's eyes are both operating under normal pressure, we hope her existing glasses will be more effective. More importantly, that she will retain her vision and not lose her sight.

The nurse put a purple mark over the eye to be operated on today.

Remembering those who gave the last full measure of devotion

2011-10-08T13:39:00.000-07:00

Last night we took sandwiches to Garden Grove Park on Westminster, played at the playground, then went to The Moving Wall. The Moving Wall is a half-sized replica of the permanent Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. It's called "The Moving Wall" because it moves all over the country to communities who host it...it could also be called that because it is so emotionally moving to see 58,000+ names inscribed, who gave the last full measure of devotion for a grateful country.

I saw the real Vietnam Memorial in D.C. many years ago, but it's great that our kids get to see it without taking a flight!

Natalie and I were hanging out...

...and Tom had the boys. I didn't realize that they were being such a challenge until he told me later...they might be a little young to understand.

The bench is a good place to sit and reflect.

Lukas is posing with uniforms from the South Vietnamese army.

A bagpiper playing as the sun set.

The Moving Wall will be in Orange County through Monday; you can visit it 24 hours a day (the adjacent education center is not open 24 hours). Much easier to visit than flying to D.C.!

It comes full circle

2011-10-08T13:00:00.000-07:00

More than three years ago, I blogged about a funny afternoon spent with Lukas. Imagine our surprise when the writing lesson yesterday was from The Owl and the Pussycat! I was so pleased that Lukas remembered it...he even said, "wasn't there a funny word we didn't know the meaning?" How's that for a memory!?

So the writing textbook stated that a "runcible spoon" is actually like what we call a spork: a spoon with tines. Now we know!

Bees and Yellowjackets and Turkey Vultures, Oh My!

2011-10-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

Last weekend's trip to Joshua Tree could easily have been my 100th time camping in the desert, but that did not mean I did not have any first-time experiences or ponder something new.

My first experience with Africanized, or "Aggressive Bees" as the National Park staff call them, happened last week in Joshua Tree. As we entered the park, Nature called and I chose to put it on hold for about 30 minutes. After I could not take it any more I stopped at a lovely pit toilet. As I walked up to the toilet I noticed a large number of bees crawling around the bottom of the bathroom door and several flying around. Hmmm? I thought to myself, "That is unusual", and opened the door to take a peek inside. I think I looked for no more than a half a second and started running back to the van. I saw at least 50 bees flying around inside the bathroom, and my brain translated their flight patterns as aggressive. I made it back to the van and closed the door. As I described the bees to my family I saw about four or five flying around my van in that aggressive pattern I saw in the bathroom. OK, let's drive to the next bathroom, which was about a mile or two away (the Hall of Horrors). I approached this bathroom with a sense of humor since my kids were watching. I boxed at the air as if I were fighting bees. Well, when I opened the door there were more bees! I retreated to the van, and came up with plan "C", which was a nice juniper bush a short walk away. My best understanding of the bee problem is: the bees are attracted to water and the National Park staff wash out the bathrooms with a hose. The bees are drinking the water on the floor of the bathroom. We noticed this same kind of behavior when we washed dishes in our camp.

The bees are not the only thirsty insects in the park. They just happened to have the benefit of an advertising campaign on the park bulletin boards. The yellowjackets, which are a wasp, happened to be quite busy around the campground too. I think this is the first time I have experienced yellowjackets in the desert. I flicked them off of the kid's sippy cups. Off of dinner plates. The water jug. The wet dishes. I failed to keep them off of my body when I was packing the car (I was a walking beverage stand to them). As I placed some gear in the van I squished one between my upper arm and chest. OUCH! I looked and he was hanging on to my arm by his stinger. The good news is the kids did not get stung the whole weekend. One solution I might consider in the future is to go to a more remote camping spot in the desert. With fewer man-made amenities, there should be fewer bees and wasps.

Lastly, Lukas and I were hanging out in the heat of the day, in the shade of a pinon pine. I pointed out some turkey vultures flying over-head, which led to a discussion of what they eat. Lukas then had the idea of lying on the ground and pretend that he was dead. I told him that was a good idea, but he would probably need to smell dead too. We did not test either theory.

First Rain of the Season

2011-10-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

It's a beautiful rainy day in Southern California! Recess for homeschool was a lot of jumping in the water...and Natalie got to participate too (first by swinging, as in the back of this picture, and later by stomping in the water). She was home today for a planned EUA (exam under anesthesia) and possible surgery in the other eye...but then we found out this morning that paperwork didn't happen to get approval for the surgery, so it's rescheduled for Monday. Since we'd already told the school that she wasn't coming today, and the aide was cancelled for her, she stayed at home anyway (and did school at home!)

Dominik was so happy to follow his brothers in this new (for him) activity. See how his pants are wet? By the time everyone came inside, his pants were completely drenched!

And then the battery on my camera died and it was all I could do to watch the kids to make sure they got out of the street when a car came by. We love the rain!

A kids' view of camping

2011-10-04T19:10:00.000-07:00

By Lukas

At Joshua Tree National Park we played with a kid named Derek and found secret caves and trails. We also made s'mores and marshmallows too and then we went to bed in our tent. And I collected bottle caps.

This is me and my new friend, Derek.

This is a cave that Derek found. We walked through it.

This is a picture I took of some rocks we climbed.

Derek and I got to go rock climbing with his friends. This is me climbing the bottom of the Cyclops.

I had a lot of fun on this camping trip. The best part was finding caves and trails with Derek. I took a lot more pictures, but these pictures give a good idea of what I did.

It's camping time!

2011-10-03T20:47:00.000-07:00

Really, it's waaaay past camping time. Usually we try to camp much more than twice a year, but that's the way it's happened this year. Our last camping trip (Dominik's first) was six months ago! Ok, a lot has happened this summer, so I'll cut us some slack. So quick, before the weather turns cold (we thought!) let's go camping. But it turned out that our camping trip at Joshua Tree National Park this past weekend was on one of the warmer weekends of the month.

Yes, we ended up camping in the desert in 90+ degree weather (what we try to avoid!) It was hot and dry but we still had a blast. This was our first time at the Hidden Valley campground (all of our previous J-Tree trips were at Cottonwood), and it turned out to be good timing: the Cottonwood campground had recently been damaged by flash flood and will be closed for at least another month. We loved camping closer to all the rock scrambling activities...in fact, there was rock scrambling right next to our tent!

Lukas is on top of one of the boulders near the tree in this picture.

Here's Dominik enjoying his first s'more (remember, six months ago he was barely eating solid food, and those were only purees).

The next morning, Natalie enjoying her cup of hot chocolate. The kids now assume that hot chocolate in the morning is a part of camping! And it keeps them out of my hair while I'm making breakfast.

And speaking of breakfast, my new favorite thing is to make waffles at home and then reheat them on the griddle. This works better than reheating pancakes...and fast meals are important so I didn't plan to make pancakes fresh on the griddle (although it's not completely out of the question). This is in addition to pre-cooking the bacon at home so I get rid of a lot of the fat...then I finish cooking the bacon in the pan here, and scramble the eggs in the little bacon grease that comes out.

The kids spent a lot of time digging in the decomposed granite at our campsite. We're still shaking that stuff out of shoes!

This is the audience for...

Ford vs. Chevy monster trucks! I got this pack of two radio-controlled cars at Wal-Mart for $60...then the teller asked if I wanted to buy the replacement plan for $6! Are you kidding? The boys get to trash the trucks at the desert for four days, and then I come back and replace them? Of course I'll buy that! Funny thing...the trucks are still running fine. Just goes to show that "buying insurance" might be the best insurance!

Natalie said, "We made it!" a lot on this trip as we hiked here and there.

Konrad's latest facial expression when you take a picture of him.

Quick, take a picture! Natalie has her hat on! This is a rare event, but we managed to convince her to wear it on several occasions.

Rock scrambling.

The audience for the rock scramblers.

Ok, that looks like too much fun not to do!

I think this was at Skull Rock. It was VERY warm so we were taking advantage of the shady side of the rock.

And then the boys posed. Note to self: if we're camping in an area where boys are going to be climbing on granite, just go ahead and put jeans on them, even if it is 90 degrees. You'll use fewer band-aids.

At Keys View. The last time we visited Joshua Tree, it was extremely windy at this lookout, so it was nice to take in the view without being blown back to the car.

No, we didn't do official homeschool on this trip, but we did work on the Junior Ranger booklet.

Friday evening, out for a walk. Beautiful!

And that's the end of the first full day. More to come...soon!...including guest posts by Lukas and Tom.

Our handsome boys

2011-09-29T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ok, I admit I'm biased, but aren't they handsome with their fresh hair cuts? And Dominik is still blond! I thought his hair would be darker after this, only his second cut.

And just to show that our kids are not always smiling, here's what Dominik looked like before the hair cut...I think he thought someone was leaving without him!

Don't those eyes scream indignation?

Playdate

2011-09-28T06:00:00.000-07:00

Sarah and Samantha came over for a playdate yesterday and it was so fun! Fun for Sarah and me to catch up, and fun for Konrad and Dominik to play with Samantha.

Konrad is showing Samantha the buttons on Dominik's new car. I love her expression. I would caption it "and you think I can't figure that out?"

I had a hard time picking the best picture of Samantha and Dominik...so I posted a few.

Here's the cutest (I think) of Sam.

Wait, Konrad snuck a ride on the car!

Don't they look so serious?

And now for a completely different expression! What is really going on inside a baby's head? "C'mon, mom, you got enough pictures already!"

And just because I didn't capture a normal expression for Dominik in the previous pictures, I had to include this one.

And Lukas and Natalie loved seeing Sarah and Samantha when they came home! Yeah for playdates!

P.S. Compare the picture of Dominik above to the picture of him on the sidebar of the blog! Can you believe how much he's grown in a year?

Easy Tuesdays

2011-09-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Lukas goes to homeschool enrichment classes (music, P.E. and art) every Tuesday morning, so with Natalie at school I only have two kids at home! These are the days that I get to focus on the two youngest Happy Ones, Konrad and Dominik.

Today Konrad painted and Dominik played with play-doh. Konrad played with play-doh too, but this video is all about Dominik. And then, we had a playdate with an old friend (check back soon for pictures from that fun time). I can see that Tuesdays are going to be a lot of fun (if we avoid more doctor appointments like Natalie had this afternoon...that's yet another post!)

Anyway, this video gives a small idea of how Dominik is talking these days. The first part is just him saying "cheese," which he's picked up from his siblings. I can't seem to break any of them of that!

The tiniest lizard we've seen...

2011-09-26T06:00:00.000-07:00

...is crawling up Lukas' arm!

I'm excited about this picture, because sometimes Lukas is very squeamish about this kind of thing. Go pick up more bugs and lizards, Lukas!

Auto Show

2011-09-24T14:33:00.000-07:00

When Tom said we were going to a car show, the kids thought he was talking about one of those car shows where people show off their antique and vintage cars. Nope! This car show was all about new cars!

I remember going to this car show when I was pregnant with Lukas, but I don't think I've been back since...so that's eight years! Somehow this year it sounded like a good idea (other years, someone wasn't walking well enough), and we had a fabulous time!

Our visit started with a trip to Camp Jeep. I stayed in the track with Natalie, to keep her going in the right direction.

The people behind us were standing in line to ride a real Jeep over the Camp Jeep course, but we were watching Lukas on the climbing wall.

There he is! Lukas liked to go about 12 feet, then slide down and climb again. We couldn't convince him to go to the top of the climbing wall (about 25 feet).

Tom used to own a Jeep (which he sold to buy my minivan...such a dad!) This was a great feeling to be sitting in a Jeep with his three sons.

And then they tried the Fiat!

This morning, Konrad asked to go back to the auto show. Sorry, that's a once-a-year event!

Stars and Stripes and Butterflies

2011-09-21T19:29:00.000-07:00

This afternoon I walked by the dining table and found this (I did not touch it before I took the picture):

I asked, "who put these letters here?" Was it you?

No, you can't convince me of that! Was it you?

Nope...we're working on reading, but you still have a long way to go! Ok, it must have been you!

You are reading and writing and spelling up a storm...and "star" would have been easy for you. But since you said you didn't do it, that only leaves...

That's right! It was the cute girl wearing the butterfly wings she earned for using the toilet at school yesterday!

Unfortunately, Natalie didn't get to repeat her potty performance today since she had her first visit with a new neurologist (I wanted to change neurologists while things were good...before we were in crisis mode with a new kind of seizure, or something). The new neurologist appears to have met kids with RTS before and was surprised when Natalie read a few words for him from one of the books in the office. He's ordering another MRI to compare the findings of the last MRI and check for changes. Fun!

But where do the "stripes" in this title come in? On the way back from the doctor's office, I heard Natalie saying the Pledge of Allegiance to herself in the back: "Put your hand on your heart, ready, begin. I pledge allegiance to the flag, of the United States of America. And to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

Amen!

Homework and potty training

2011-09-20T15:33:00.000-07:00

So did you know there is homework in kindergarten? Not that there shouldn't be...Natalie only goes to school half day, so it makes sense to do more work in the afternoon. Every day, there's a homework page in her backpack. The challenge for me is to remember to have her work on it after she gets up from her nap, and before I start working on dinner...with three other kids also wanting my attention. I really have to sit with Natalie and encourage her to write the letters and numbers that the teacher wants her to write (you can imagine what I have to do to get her to write...yes, I do!) Obviously practice is the best way for her to learn...but I have to be involved.

And the big news of the day....drumroll...Natalie finally used the toilet at school! Yesterday the teacher finally understood me when I told her that Natalie does use the toilet at home (I've told her this at least five times already)...then I realized I'd never looked at the toilet at school. I'd assumed it would be a small, child-sized toilet. Guess what! The toilet in the kindergarten room is an adult, elongated toilet with the gap in the seat at the front: regular, standard-issue, commercial toilet seat. The toilet is a little lower than normal, but the seat is huge!

Today I brought a potty seat for Natalie to use, and today she eliminated in the toilet. Duh!

Legoland II

2011-09-19T16:09:00.000-07:00

Back in June, we visited Legoland as a part of our summer trip to San Diego. Well, the tickets we bought for Legoland were good for a second visit if we used them within 90 days...and if you know anything about me, you know that I don't pass up a good deal like that!

This visit to Legoland was better in so many ways: we only went to one place before going home; the kids (especially Dominik) are older so they do better without that morning (D) and afternoon (N, K, D) nap; AND we had a helper along: Tom's cousin Jean joined us for the day, so an extra pair of adult hands was really great. And we all enjoyed the additional adult conversation!

Here are a few pics from the day...

The back of the van from my vantage point...Natalie is there, but not in this photo.

Wow, everyone looking at Jean! Take a long look at Tom, because this is the only picture of him from the whole day. :(

Natalie can't pose with one of these things...she's too interested in looking at them and touching them. I'm sure the people inside are used to that!

Konrad was very interested in the "rocks" that were singing Queen "We Will Rock You". Yes, my children enjoy Queen (with editing).

Lukas and Konrad both had fun driving the cars (Lukas on the bigger cars). The lack of lines was an incredible difference from our June visit. Soooo much fun to be in a park that was practically empty!

Natalie patting the dog, with Dominik looking on. He did get out the stroller once in a while!

My favorite picture! Obviously, because all four of our kids are in it!

The pirate ride was Natalie's favorite (we got doused right at the end.) Natalie kept on saying, "Ahoy matey" the rest of the day.

Ok, not many pictures of Dominik out of the stroller, so I had to post this one.

Fun log ride!

Lukas with Jean.

The kids loved the big playground area...so much fun!

Ok, here's another action picture of Dominik's.

Natalie did such a good job of climbing everywhere...but that pesky dress did get in the way once in a while.

Jean took Natalie to see this ride and said Natalie was giggling the whole time she watched it. I love this picture because Natalie is smiling! So often, she doesn't smile, even when she's enjoying something...I think she's thinking about it too much.

Here's one kid who can always smile for the camera...

...and another!

This picture is just to document that Dominik did ride another ride. See his head peeking out the top in the front next to Konrad?

Lukas is watching Konrad and me on the Technic rollercoaster. Lukas did not want to go on this ride. Konrad was barely tall enough to ride it, so he got to ride.

One of Natalie's favorite characters...Bob the Builder.

End of the day...time to wind down and build some Lego cars!

Don't ask what this is...even Lukas doesn't know.

Natalie enjoyed pushing the button to start the car races.

Thanks Jean for joining us on a great outing! We had soooo much fun!

Because it was fun!

2011-09-18T21:39:00.000-07:00

What are these kids doing and why? The answer to the second question is: because it was fun!

But the answer to the first question? Can you guess?

Tom was throwing out old VHS tapes and decided to let the kids run around the yard with them, pulling the tape out. Lukas especially went a little crazy, running back and forth from the trees, Natalie was spinning on the swing, getting her legs completely tangled. The neighbor girls thought our kids were weird.

But they were just having fun!

(PS...don't anybody get any ideas about using this instead of toilet paper on a tree...it would be much more difficult to remove, I think.)

Quick, post it!

2011-09-17T16:29:00.000-07:00

Quick, before our internet connection goes down again (the bugs are not completely worked out), here's a post about how happy we are for Natalie in her new class.

First, a Bravo! for Natalie that she is now able to dress herself. She CAN put on all of her clothes: underwear, shirt, pants, socks, shoes. Sometimes (often) she gets distracted and ends up doing something else and I come back and she's completely naked, playing with her stuffed animals or dolls. So often I will dress her because it's the most efficient for now. But when I have time, or when I'm changing Dominik, I let her dress herself. She does need help with her dresses, because some of them have linings on the inside, so that's hard for her to maneuver. The skill has come about within the past month or so. Go Natalie!

Secondly, Thursday my day, nay my week! was completely made when I picked up Natalie from school. We now have to go into the classroom to get our child, because apparently there was too much confusion and the teacher was uncertain that kids were going home with their parents...anyway, when I went to get Natalie, a girl sitting next to her said, "Good bye Natalie!" Natalie said good bye too...I looked at the girl and asked her name: Leila. Then Leila's grandmother, who was picking her up, said Leila had a dr. appointment that morning, and afterward the grandmother said she could stay home from school, but Leila said, "Oh, no, I have to go to school because I have to help Natalie." Doesn't that just bring tears of joy to your eyes? It did to me!

I have to say that I need to figure out how to get to know some of the kids in the class, and their parents...right now it's a little hairy with the 3 boys being along with me when we drop off and pick up. But hopefully Leila is an indication that the rest of the class loves Natalie too!

Thirdly, Natalie is doing a pretty good job of telling me what she did during the day at school. Last year, when I asked her what she did today, she would say, "I played with Ashley." Everyday, same answer. Now, with a little prying, she's telling me more about what she did that day. I do have to ask open ended questions, like "What book did the teacher read to you today?" She answers, "The Three Little Pigs!" And sometimes she doesn't answer, so I don't know if the teacher didn't read that day. Or I ask, "What is the Alpha Friend you worked on today?" She answers, "Callie Cat." This is progress! She's also more chatty than she was right before school started, so I know that hearing a lot of typical kids speaking is helping her speech (although the kids in her preschool class last year had pretty good speech).

Anyway, Natalie is off to a great start! There are good changes happening! Whoo hoo!

Now, if this posts right away, we still have internet connection...let's see....

Laundry boy

2011-09-15T22:51:00.000-07:00

Kids love to help with laundry...until they turn 5 years old and it's their job! Just kidding...now Lukas tells Konrad to not help him with his chores. I remind Lukas that one day laundry (collecting the laundry from the different rooms) will be Konrad's chore. Konrad already helps with "switching out the laundry"...putting the wet laundry in the dryer and the dry laundry in a basket. Natalie also does laundry from time to time, but usually I do laundry in the morning while she's at school, so she doesn't get the chance so much.

Dominik is always trying to close the machine doors when I'm putting laundry in...so this time I showed him how to put it in, and he was only too happy to help! Am I biased, or is this video seriously funny?

Where have we been?

2011-09-15T10:22:00.000-07:00

Yikes! We're back...from internet blackout! We lost our internet connection on Monday, thought the DSL company was shipping a modem...they cancelled the shipment without telling me...Tom ran to the store to get a modem, and we're back in business.

I have to say that a short (is 3 days short?) internet blackout has been good for me...but I have gotten so used to looking things up on line, that not having the internet as a resource has been really odd. Sort of like I've been camping, instead of actually living in our house!

Anyway, to update everyone, Natalie's been doing well in school (today is her 6th day of K). The aide is great, the teacher is great...we're still figuring out how to communicate, but the kids have already figured out the morning schedule for walking to school, so that's a relief. So far, everything's good! Natalie still hasn't used the toilet at school yet (she resists using the toilet with new people, and at new places) but I'm hopeful that will come soon. The picture is of Natalie with her feet wrapped up in VHS tape...that's another blog post!

Lukas and Konrad are doing great with school at home. Since Natalie has been in school, I've started Konrad with "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons." He's doing well so far, and he's especially motivated to learn to write, so that's fun (he likes to do scribbles and tell us what he wrote). It's all about keeping up with Lukas!

Lukas started his first day at a new-to-us one-day-a-week school for homeschoolers. He's taking music, art and PE, and he loves it! This school has many more kids his age, so we're excited about making new friends, who live closer to us. Lukas is doing great at home with reading, math, science and history...we really love the curriculae we're using!

And Dominik! He's getting into everything (like Tom's glasses, above)...but he actually started "helping" me with laundry. Here's my 16-month-old putting dirty laundry in the washing machine...youngest age I've ever tried, I think!

But just because I wasn't blogging, doesn't mean I wasn't taking pictures and video! Check back again soon (today?) for more pics and videos...

First Day of Kindergarten

2011-09-08T12:44:00.000-07:00

Yeah! Natalie started kindergarten today! I think practicing walking to school paid off...she was still resistant to walking to school, but less so today, also because today she knew it was for real. And the boys knew the drill, so that helped too. Before we arrived at school, Natalie still wanted to go home, but when we got there, she knew she wanted to go into the classroom.

The teacher has all the children sit on these benches before class starts...then everyone went inside. It was a little crazy with all the parents there for the first day, but we got it sorted out (Lukas was such a big help, to keep Dominik occupied in the stroller outside, while I got Natalie situated inside...Konrad as a little in and out).

The great news is that I just found out yesterday that the class will have an instructional aide for two months to help Natalie get adjusted (there is usually no aide for a teacher with 35 kids! even for gen-ed, that seems crazy!) Then at Natalie's IEP meeting next month, we'll review everything to see how it is working. I met the aide this morning and she seems great.

The challenges I saw this morning were just keeping Natalie in one place...she wants to wander all over the room and see all the interesting things the teacher put up. That why the aide is so important...I knew there would be an aide for a portion of the class, but this is a new situation with an aide for the entire class time.

When we picked Natalie up from class, there were great reports from the aide and the teacher. Natalie's strengths and challenges were just as we expected. I really like Natalie's aide! And Natalie said she had a very fun time!

OWWWW!

2011-09-05T11:36:00.000-07:00

I can't take a picture of it, so you'll just have to take my word for it. Dominik is teething his 2-year molars, and it hurts! I put a finger in his mouth to feel his gums and one molar is in, with a blister the size of a bean on the gum below. On the other side, he has even bigger blisters on top and bottom, and at least one of them is very dark blue under the skin: blood welled up, ready for that tooth to erupt (don't you love the technical term doctors use? Sounds like a volcano!)

Anyway, Friday night he woke up crying, Saturday night was even worse with about 3 hours of sleep lost with sore mouth. Last night, I planned ahead and kept him on Tylenol and Motrin ahead of time, anticipating when he needed another dose and just giving it to him! He only woke at 3:30 this morning, and I gave him another dose and he was back to sleep.

Today he's helping Tom vacuum. After all, it is Labor Day, so let's work!

Finally!

2011-09-03T11:22:00.000-07:00

Natalie is showing off her prize for going #2 on the potty for the first time in months and months and months (since January?) I immediately took her to Target to buy the Belle dress (Beauty and the Beast is her new favorite movie).

I think she likes the way it looks!

Yeah Natalie!

One week follow up

2011-09-02T19:38:00.000-07:00

It hasn't been a week since Natalie's eye surgery, but today was her one-week follow up! It all had to do with getting an appointment with the surgeon in Orange County instead of having to drive up to LA again...today was the day! The doctor was very pleased with how Natalie's eye looks. It is really healing very well. There is still some redness in the white of her eye, but it looks much better than it did the day after.

I had actually expected the worst: that Natalie would be rubbing her eye and pulling at it and maybe rolling around in pain at night. The whole surgery thing (since she got her eye patch off) has not seemed to phase her at all. Praise God! The next check up is at the end of the month, and then we'll schedule another EUA in another month or two to check the pressure in both her eyes...to see if the right eye is still responding well to drops and if the left eye is doing well with the shunt.

The only down side now is the drop regimen: 5 drops a day in one eye, 8 drops a day in the other (and don't get confused which bottles go with which eye!) AND no swimming for 4-6 weeks. Not that we have a pool, but we were planning to go to the beach this holiday weekend, so we'll be looking for other recreational opportunities. We hope you have a great weekend!

15 months

2011-08-31T18:58:00.000-07:00

Before he turns 16 months next week, I need to post Dominik's stats. His check up was actually last Friday (late in the month for 15 months...the doctor was on vacation, then we were on vacation, then she had a lot of back-to-school check ups). Anyway, Dominik weighed 23 pounds 9 ounces (40th percentile) and was in the 80th percentile for height. Bad mommy, I didn't get his actual height. If he cares in the future, he can get an estimate from that info, right? Anyway, it's odd for me to have such a small boy (Lukas and Konrad were often off the charts for height and weight) but it's great to have clothes and diapers fitting longer! On the other hand, it will be longer until he can ride this trike by himself... I put it back up in the garage so he doesn't hurt himself on it.

When I mentioned that he's soooo skinny, the pediatrician said, "he's slender, but he's not skinny." She's not worried about the difference between percentiles, so I guess I won't either!

Quick, I'll post this before Dominik clicks it away (his latest favorite thing is to stand on a box next to the computer and click the mouse). Gotta show that boy more attention!

First Day of Homeschool

2011-08-30T19:39:00.000-07:00

We had today on our calendar as the first day of homeschool for Lukas and Konrad (2nd grade and pre-K)...and then Natalie's EUA and possible surgery were scheduled for yesterday. I had been planning to NOT do school if Natalie did end up having surgery...but, hey, why not change? Natalie was doing so great today (I had expected to have to drop everything and hold her all day) that Lukas and I started the first day of school today during naptime for the three younger kids.

Yes, my 5.5-year-old, 3.5-year-old AND 15-month-old all take naps at 1 p.m., usually until about 3 p.m. I can't explain it, except to say that I am VERY thankful! Ok, consistency helps. Anyway, Natalie needs more sleep (she has slight sleep apnea) and lack of sleep can make seizures more frequent...and one of the glaucoma eye drops she uses makes her drowsy. I am expecting Konrad to drop his afternoon nap sometime this year, but I am definitely encouraging it as long as possible! And Dominik is still napping in the morning and the afternoon...I'm definitely encouraging that morning nap to help with homeschool!

But back to the first day of school. Konrad will start tomorrow (since today's classtime coincided with his naptime), but Lukas had a great first day. We've kept some things the same and changed a few things: math, language arts, grammar and science curriculum are the same publishers as last year. Reading and spelling are different, so we took some time to become familiar with the new routine for those. And I've added one-day-a-week classes in manners and logic. History is also new, but Tom's still teaching that to Lukas at night, so that's more his responsibility.

We had a great ~~day~~ two hours! Lukas agreed it was a good day, so it must have been!

Eye follow up

2011-08-30T11:36:00.000-07:00

Natalie did great last night! We put her to bed with the arm splints on, since we expected her to try to take the eye patch off...but she took the arm splints off and left the eye patch! Whoo hoo! She didn't much want to open her other eye, even when she was awake. I'm so glad she had an 8 a.m. appt to remove the patch.

But an 8 a.m. appt meant we had to leave at 6:30 to make sure we could get there during morning rush hour. Thankfully, we arrived in plenty of time (carpool lanes really work!) and met Aunt Chris at CHLA. Chris watched the boys while I took Natalie to her appt. Thank you Chris! The boys had a very fun time exploring and finding the great playground that's there. (I still prefer CHOC, but CHLA does have some amenities.)

So the dr. removed the eye patch and said everything looks very good. Natalie's eye is very red, which is to be expected, and it will take some time for it to look normal again (like a bruise that heals). But I was surprised that I couldn't see the shunt...I thought it was going to be visible over the top of the colored part of Natalie's eye. The dr. said it's right below her eyelid, so it's only visible if we pull her eyelid up. I'm so glad! This is what the shunt looks like, and all the pictures and diagrams we'd seen of it indicated it would be visible.

Now another follow up in a week, then once a month for several months, and another EUA in 3-4 months to see how both eyes are doing. Thanks for your continued prayers for a healthy recovery, no infection and no scarring. AND that Natalie will adjust to this after the local anesthesia wears off (the doctor said she applied something yesterday that is helping Natalie to not feel it).

Patch off: check. Glasses on: check. Happy girl: check!

Eye surgery

2011-08-29T19:32:00.000-07:00

A month ago, Natalie had an EUA that showed her eye pressures were the highest they've ever been: 26 and 27. Today, after giving five drops a day for a month, we went back to see what the pressures were.

I was really nervous about this day: at 8:30 am, I remembered I hadn't given Natalie her seizure medicine (which is supposed to be given at 6:30 a.m. and p.m. every day). I haven't forgotten that in a long time. I guess I was so focused on her eyes that I forgot about the other thing that is a constant part of our routine.

Since surgery was a possibility today, Tom and I both went. I'm so glad he did! We spoke with the dr. before Natalie went under to find out what level she considered worthy of doing surgery. She said if the eyes were 25 or above, she would do surgery. I was CERTAIN they would be below 25 after all the eye drops we'd been giving.

But 10 minutes after Natalie was under, the assistant doctor came out and said one eye was 28 and one was 17, so the dr. wanted to do surgery on the left eye, which is 28. Wow, if it's still 28 after all those eye drops? We understood Natalie really needed the surgery to protect her vision.

So what does glaucoma surgery look like? The dr. said the shunt is actually very "elegant." Not what I would use to describe it...although I haven't seen it yet, because Natalie's eye is covered in a patch until the morning. But the dr. is comparing it to glaucoma options of the past: it's a thin plastic tube attached to the back of her eye that comes down to the front of her eye, to drain fluid and thus release pressure.

Tom and I had so many emotions today. We were both sure there wouldn't be a surgery, and then Natalie gets a 50%, but that still means surgery. She has been a trooper through it all. It took longer than previous times for her to come out of anesthesia, but this was also the longest she's been under in a while, and definitely the longest outpatient procedure she's ever had. And she did great without versed!

So we're home now, and Natalie is sleeping. She's wearing splints on her arms so she doesn't take the eye patch off. And we have another appointment at 8 a.m. tomorrow for the doctor to remove the eye patch and make sure everything looks good.

Thanks to everyone for your prayers. We were definitely comforted by them today, and are so pleased that the surgery went well. Please continue to pray that Natalie's eye will heal without infection, and that the tissue will not scar excessively (which we were told could also cause the surgery to fail).

Natalie kept saying, "May I get dressed?" and "May I go home?" so I started asking her to tell me her telephone number and address.

After waiting tooooo long for surgery, we finally asked to go in the play room, where Natalie had a great time.

The view out the window of the parents' waiting room. The television show in the waiting room was terrible...some gossip show with a woman slamming people she's never met. It made me quite nauseous to hear it, while dealing with the emotions of Natalie being in surgery. So we waited in the hallway instead.

Natalie was number 3784, so we got to watch the board for her progress in the OR.

When we first saw Natalie, she had the oxygen mask that Jessie is wearing. Natalie is still sleeping off that anesthesia.

The outpatient PACU was sort of like a bar closing at 2 a.m. (Tom wanted me to write that...there you go, Tom!) The PACU was supposed to be closed at 5 p.m., so around 4:15, they started actively trying to wake up all the remaining patients so they wouldn't have to go to a hospital floor room to recover. Natalie was not a happy camper: no glasses (they won't fit over the eye patch), arm splints and a big patch on her eye.

Our trip to the mountains

2011-08-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

Whew! What a fun time we had at Kings Canyon and Sequoia Parks. We are so blessed to be able to stay at my sister's cabin in the National Forest and enjoy the beauty of the high country (thanks Rose and Gary!) The kids had a blast, and we can see the trips slowly getting easier as the kids get older. This was our first trip where Tom and I both had cameras, so we took a lot of pics! Here are a few pics (rather a lot!) from our adventure:

Out for a walk the first day. Our "trick" to get Natalie to walk as much as possible was to put Dominik in the stroller, and when Natalie got too tired, switch Dominik to the baby backpack I was carrying and Natalie in the stroller. This picture is after Natalie got too tired...but Dominik decided to walk a bit, first.

Lukas and Konrad climbing a sand wall...so much fun to slide down!

There's that cute boy on a walk!

Some of the wildlife we saw: a mountain rattlesnake. Rose and I were walking at the front of our group and heard his warning.

Everyone was very interested to see the rattlesnake!

Two boys out for a walk in the woods.

Mountain tiger lilies.

Dominik showing off his pearly whites...his eighth tooth came in, on the bottom, on this trip.

Back at the cabin, Dominik is eager to help keep things clean.

One thing I learned after looking at the pictures I took and the ones Tom took: Tom takes pictures of Natalie, and I need to take more! Here he captured her looking cute.

The kids on Lukas' bed, watching a movie.

We discovered that one of the eye drops Natalie has been taking (for glaucoma) does cause drowsiness. Now we're giving that one to her right before her afternoon nap, and before bed...so she can eat breakfast without falling asleep!

This was taken on Sunday...Gary winds his clock every Sunday, and Lukas enjoyed helping.

Whenever Lukas had free time (during the kids's naps, etc) he worked on a trail behind Rose and Gary's cabin. Here he is making street signs (he named the different parts of the trail).

Rose planted some beautiful Shasta daisies, which the butterflies loved!

Here's my one-and-only! Doesn't he have a great smile?

Lukas had a hard time digging in the hard soil, to "plant" his street signs...but he was not to be deterred.

Yes, I'm biased...he's cute.

Gap model, anyone?

Another member of the wildlife population.

We saw more deer this year than we've seen before. We also heard bear twice, but didn't see them.

Another walk! We had high hopes for Natalie to walk a distance because the path was paved and she started out with such vigor!

Natalie and Konrad, her closest friend.

Now she's slowed down to examine the foliage on the side of the path...eventually she stops walking.

Konrad picking some gooseberries (stickers on the outside, so you have to squeeze the pulp out). I still have a sticker in my finger from this experiment.

One of only a few pictures with the four kids: Natalie could not be persuaded to face the camera.

Lukas and Konrad yanking on an old cable left over from the logging days.

The "purpose" of this hike was to count the rings on a sequoia tree that had been felled a hundred years ago. It would take hours to actually count every ring, so we took a sampling. Here, Gary is measuring the diameter of the stump.

Then we counted the number of rings in an inch, at three or four locations.

Konrad's posing with the fallen giant. Our estimate was more than 1,300 years, but less than 1,500 years old.

Natalie is bored with counting tree rings, can you tell?

Lukas standing on top of that same fallen giant's stump.

Dominik is seeing what I see through the camera.

Here the boys climbed another huge stump...or rather Lukas climbed it and Konrad tried and then was sad because he's not quite big enough to climb it.

Konrad showing Dominik how the loggers did it (plastic toy chain saw)...oops, no chain saws back then!

We made a trip down the mountain to check out my nephew, Darren's new home. That's him in the back left, with his brother Justin next to him (Justin's home is nearby). It's so exciting to have 20-something guys owning their own homes!

And we swam in the pool! Of course the kids couldn't get enough of that!

Lukas showing off the lettuce wraps he made for dinner.

Dominik, the watermelon eater!

Tom took Lukas and Konrad on a boys adventure one day while I stayed home with Natalie and Dominik and chatted with Rose. Here they are climbing up to the top of Buck Rock, a fire lookout.

Lukas is counting the steps.

They were greeted at the top by the ranger's dog, Kelly.

Lukas signing them in.

Oh, yeah, Tom was there too!

Lukas asked the ranger how many steps there were, and his count was slightly off, so he decided to count again going down. Lukas is covering his ears because Konrad ALSO decided to count, but he can only count to 30, so it was messing Lukas up. I'm glad Lukas didn't fall down...those are some steep stairs!

Whew! They made it down safely!

The last day, we saw the General Grant tree (2nd largest tree in the world). I was amazed that Lukas didn't remember seeing it before, or seeing this cabin nearby...it's been too long since we took that hike!

The boys and me in front of the General Grant tree.

It was a wonderful trip and we can't wait to go back. It's exciting to see the boys exploring the wilderness and loving being outside so much.

Lego-mania!

2011-08-26T15:29:00.000-07:00

We're just back from a mountain vacation, but before I post pictures of that trip, I have to catch up on Lukas' Lego camp from last week. Here are a few pictures of his creations (five days, three hours each day) on the days that I arrived before they took everything apart. You have to watch the video of his Lego bot in the bot wars at the end (it's a great ending to a great week!)

Here's the gondola he made...it moves across the rope it's hanging from.

Here's the decoration part of his bot (Lukas is into making his bot look good).

And finally, the video:

We're so happy that Lukas had a great time and learned a lot. He was the youngest in the class (the five other kids were age 8-11), and I think he kept up with everyone!

Summer is about play!

2011-08-17T13:07:00.000-07:00

And we've been doing a lot of play! Summer is also about growing, and I have a blog post in the back of my mind on all the ways our kids have grown this summer...let's see if it gets to the front of my mind and ends up on the blog!

Anyway, here are a few pics from a new-to-us park we visited yesterday. The kids had a blast! It was seriously hot...further inland than our home, so at least 5 degrees, if not 10 degrees hotter. When I got home, I was surprised that the high temp at home was only 85, because I still felt hot from that park! BTW, is everyone aware that we have been experiencing unusually COOL temps the whole summer? We have only broken 90 one or two days. I know a 100 degree day is in our future, and it will probably include dry Santa Ana winds, making it even more miserable. But in the meantime, we've really enjoyed the cooler summer...it's almost like we live in San Diego!

Ahem...back to the pictures I promised!

After this picture, Konrad was too busy for me to get a full face shot, so here's his one and only smile!

Natalie left the playground momentarily and decided to hug a tree...then it was back to the equipment.

Mom, please help me! Please lift me up to the hanging rings!

I love this picture of Natalie because she's stepping so well...after years and years of physical therapy.

Lukas is coming down, but Konrad doesn't realize this is a one-way corkscrew.

Ok, now Natalie is getting beyond her ability to safely navigate. I snapped the picture and then went over to "spot" her to make sure she didn't fall.

Slides are always safe...

...and fun!

Here's someone else who's trying to climb beyond his ability...

...yes, I snapped this picture and then went to help.

No, he doesn't want to swing...he just wants to push the swing.

Natalie starts school in three weeks, but homeschool at The Happy Ones starts in two weeks! Yikes!

Fresh Air and Poison Oak

2011-08-14T14:27:00.000-07:00

Lukas, Konrad and I headed off early yesterday morning with warm breakfast burritos (Cindy's excellent suggestion) to eat on our drive out to the local mountains. I have hiked in the local mountains a lot in my life, but since having children I have only been a handful of times.

The boys and I headed for the Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in Modjeska Canyon. The weather was excellent and the trail was nearly empty. Our first goal was the old Modjeska Reservoir dam in Harding Canyon, which required hiking up a nice hill of switchbacks, and then down into the neighboring canyon. The lake behind the dam filled up years ago with sand and rocks, so I told the boys we were going to be walking on a lake. The boys were impressed when we got to the dam and looked down. We found frogs where the water ponds at the edge of the dam. We headed "upstream" across the filled-in lake to the canyon that empties in the "lake". Lukas' backwoods skills are developing as he identified a nice patch of poison oak. We had hoped to get to a silver mine prospect that goes into the mountain about thirty feet, but the kids, OK, me too, started to get tired. When we arrived back at the car we had spent over two hours hiking.

Remember how I said that I do not hike as much as I used too? Well, my feet were sore today. I have to wear boots on all hikes now. No more getting by with my tennis shoes.

Here, Lukas is pointing out the poison oak plant he found.