Unringing the Bell

Easter Morning 2012

It's Easter. Might as well blog! 
Last night Rainer became convinced that the Easter Bunny was bringing him a clock. I suggested that perhaps he should draw a picture so the Easter Bunny knew he was hoping for a clock and then Mom went on "an errand."

Look what he got this morning!

I think he was pretty happy about it.

But let me go back.

Of course, there was the obligatory egg dyeing. And, as is custon, Georgia had absolutely no interest in coloring eggs, so she and Alex did something just as spring-y and went outside to swing in the hammock while Rainer and I dyed eggs in...oh...about five minutes. Turns out some 3-year-olds ("almost 4!" as he will surely tell you (even though it is not true)) don't have a high patience level for egg art.

But no worries. They came out decent anyway thanks to good ol' Paas.

I think he looks just like Alex in that last one.

The kids' grandmother sent them some balsam wood bunnies to color the other day and I was surprised and impressed when Georgia spent a good 20 minutes coloring hers. (Coloring is a "non-preferred" activity, I think, due to her sensory issues and lack of fine motor. But...whose counting??? I was IMPRESSED. Especially because we couldn't find our black marker so she made good and sure to turn the colors she did have INTO black--her favorite color).

Guess which one is Georgia's?

Here's a hint. Not the one Rainer is clutching to his heart.

This post is getting a little Rainer-picture heavy, so here is a cute picture of G from yesterday.

And this one, too.

Here's most of our eggs. (We were still hunting.)

This one is my favorite. It was a naturally ocurring accident and I think it looks cool.

Here's Rainer with his haul. Georgia wasn't feeling well, so she slept in.
Quote of the morning: "Mommy!!! The Easter Bunny went to Trader Joe's to get me jelly beans!!"

The alarm clock has been going off every hour at his request. (He read the package to tell me the clock "has a pink blacklight!!!" (He meant backlight.))

So, you know, a regular Easter candy morning.

And don't worry. When Georgia woke up she got to examine her haul, too.

Pretty sure her favorite part was her new wind-up robot. (Although she liked her "Olivia" book as well.)

Happy spring!

Here are some spring flowers Rainer made the other day.

P.S. I don't think Alex must have ever been a boy scout because in true Alex un-pre-planned form, he decided at 8am on Easter to go out in search of kielbasa, asparagus, and babka. We'll see what he turns up with!!

Pop and Lock

1.The project is moving along, though it's had a few days hiatus here and there. Once for a houseguest (hello, MIL!), then because Rainer and I caught the crud. Tonight I won't be painting because for some reason my back is KILLING me. My lower back, feels like I can't stand up straight. Need to do some stretching and maybe get into a chiro if this doesn't go away. But, in case I led you astray, dear reader (hello out there???), we are not, in fact, painting that old hutch (by the by, Alex thinks I have a hutch problem--says I call EVERYthing a hutch, but the truth is we have a computer hutch, a tv hutch, and now, a dining room hutch)...ANYway...we are not painting that old...er...HUTCH...white. That's just the primer. We are, in fact, painting it green. Green! And not just any ol' green. Bell Pepper green. It is going to be bright. I am hoping it will read a little country, a little quirky. I already bought some clearance knobs for it at Target the other day, but I happened into Anthropologie today, and well...I don't think this hutch will work unless we get some of those AMAZING KNOBS! (Even though I will have to buy one or two a month to be able to afford them! Sheese! I need to go into the glass and ceramic KNOB business!)

2. I happened into Anthropologie because I was going to get my haircut at the mall. When I got home Rainer got a HUGE smile across his face because I got my hair cut really short. Now, it's not as short as his--we shaved his down to 5/8th of an inch a week or two ago--but it's short. He was thrilled. "Now we match, Mommy! Now you are shorter!!" and then, "Does this mean now you can't reach things that are up high high high like me????" Hahhaha silly bug.

3. Georgia KONKS out at 7pm lately. Like, peel her off the floor tired. Limp noodle. She hasn't napped for about 8 months or so (and even then it had been intermittent at best for over a year), but 7pm rolls around and that girl is ready to hit the hay. (She went through a rough sleep/wake cycle this fall which I NEVER hope to relive with 4am wakings and whatnot, but she has generally been a great sleeper.) She is SO cute during this time. Snuggly, giggling when she uses her toothbrush to brush her stuffed elephant's teeth, smiling up a storm. I love that girl!

4. That said. That girl has been giving me angina lately. She wants to get into EVERYTHING. If it's possible for a kid to both start listening better AND start being more independent-minded at the same time, it is happening! I want more of both, really, but I hope the listening starts to coincide more!

5. There's more I want to talk about with G and her behaviors, but that will probably deserve it's own post.

6. Rainer has been WAY into dancing lately. He is constantly asking us to put the "black song on with the white letters" on youtube. It is just some random recording of Trans Siberan Orchestra playing that famous (and kind of annoyingly cloying) Christmas song. You know the one. He dances to it OVER and OVER and OVER. See?

He is a little imp.

7. Anyhoodle tonight he told Alex he was going to teach him how to dance. He actually has a "signature dance move" that he calls "Biz Bah." He told Alex to stand up, but his hands on the ground "like this"cross the ankle of one foot behind the back of his other knee and then move it back and forth. "Biz Bah!" It was hilarious hearing him break it down for us. Then he taught us another dance move, pulled up the chair, sat down, and said, "Now I'll watch you do it." Just like a little teacher. After we did it like the proudest little dance mom he said, "You did it, Mommy! You learned the dance!"

Here he is teaching Alex the "Biz Bah."

8. He also has a dance move he calls "My one hundreds."

9. I am seriously thinking we need to get him into a breakdancing, or capoeira class. He also loves watching those dances on youtube. I have yet to find a local-enough class although there's a great looking capoeira class in DC for littles. I wish it were closer!!! But maybe we'll find a breakdancing class--he already has the cardboard (puzzle) down in the pic above!

10. Oh this family o' mine. I just loves 'em.

 

 

A Lover & a Fighter

Rainer is a lover. He is constantly, randomly, exclaiming, "I just loves ya, Mama!" and "I really, really love you!"

He won't let anyone leave without kisses and hugs for everyone. Included kisses and hugs for yourself.

During the day he or I will say to the other, "Guess what?" "What?" the other will say. To which one replies, "I love you and I like you."It's become our little catchphrase and we've even written a song for it.

As a result of this love fest, Georgia has learned how to really pucker up when she kisses. For her part, anytime you enter a room she will say, "Hi, Mom!" or "Hi, Dad!" and give a little wave. And the once aloof little lady has become a full-body hugger. She's a lover, too.

She's also a fighter.

It's true, she is much happier lately. In general. It is SUCH a relief. DS stereotypes be damned, because my gal is not always happy. Though, thankfully, she is getting happier. Calmer. More relaxed.

I love watching her when she doesn't realize anyone is looking. She has a curious way of interacting with the world, though she gets so frustrated with things. Today, at a friend's house, she was setting up a drum set. She was trying to fix the kick stand for the bass drum because it had fallen over. She tried about ten times, but just couldn't get it to sit right. If it was upright it was facing the wrong direction, if it was facing the right direction it was upside down. Eventually she just knocked the whole drum set over and walked away, like the best impersonation of a badass drummer at the finale of a set.

I can see how, if you didn't see what led up to the destruction, one might think she was simply being impulsive, or a brute. But she's FRUSTRATED. I don't know if it's the lack of fine motor coordination, sensory dysfunction, or, more than likely, a combination of factors, but she has a very difficult time with these seemingly simply tasks. And it infuriates her. I totally understand it. I would be mad, too.

That's why, when I am spying on her, say through the little window in the door to her religious education class, and I see her knock a chair over five times, and then each time diligently pick it back up (in itself no small task) to try and push it under the table again (even though it keeps getting over turned when the little feet get stuck on the low rug), I can't help but feel my heart in my throat while doing a little rah-rah-you-can-do-it cheer inside my head while I watch her.

I've been noticing that I've had a few more victory dances lately when I get witness her accomplish these not-so-little tasks.She's building upon her skills, and starting to want to perservere more. She's trying and trying again. She is the little engine that could personified.

She's a tough cookie that one. She doesn't always get the credit she deserves. She can be very misunderstood. She's been called stubborn, willful, impulsive, destructive, impatient.

But the more her patience grows, the more I get to see that she's kicking ass and taking names.

Rainbowsaurus

Rainer was putting his hands in the light of this rainbow and smelling his fingers.

I said "Whatcha' doin?"

He said "Smelling rainbows."

"What do they smell like?" I asked. His answer?

"Dinosaurs."

Rainerisms

I have no idea if he understood the question, but tonight before bed I asked Rainer if he wanted to have kids one day. His answer?

"Ummm. No...they're kind of...kind of...ummm...too much."

ha! Yeah, tell me about it!

Let me just dive in here...

1. Georgia asked for her glasses tonight. She asked for them. With no coaxing or coaching. She asked! She wanted to sit on the couch and snuggle with Dad before bed while watching Pink Panther--both kids really like this cartoon. Rainer liked it first, but Georgia has been way into it lately, I think in no small part because it's almost entirely action-based with few, if any, words. When she doesn't have her glasses on she needs to sit (or stand, as the case may be) very close to the TV in order to see it. So she asked for them when we suggested maybe watching an episode of the show. That feels like MAJOR progress! Mind, she still fights them and gives her teachers a hard time about them at school, but...I still think we're getting there! She GETS what they are for, she GETS that she needs them. She is better about wearing them for things like TV-watching, and playing outside.

2. Rainer, before I leave for any one of my various meetings during the week won't ever let me leave without hugging and kissing everyone goodbye. I don't ever intend to leave without saying goodbye, but he jumps in as soon as I put my jacket on or grab my pocketbook and says things like "Don't forget kisses!" And if he didn't actually SEE me kiss Georgia or Alex he'll say "Don't forget Georgia! Don't forget Daddy!" Usually I go back and kiss everyone again because...why the heck not, right? I love that he does this. I also love that when he says "What about kisses and hugs?" he pronounces it "KIsses & Hug-es" with two syllables on each word.

3. Georgia and Alex are both still coughing from their pneumonia and bronchitis respectively, but thankfully they are both at at least 90% health for the first time in AGES! I say this not, I hope, to jinx it, but to rejoice.

4. Speaking of rejoicing, I recently told some friends that things are typically rather difficult for Georgia. I am not talking about DS exactly, because really, I am comparing her to everyone, including other kids with DS. It just SOMETIMES seems, in my admittedly woe-is-me moments, that things just don't come easily for Georgia. MUCH of this (all of it??? Sometimes it feels that way.) stems from the fact that she has an anxiety disorder and issues with sensory processing. I have to admit I have occasionally wished I had a child who fit the "always happy" DS stereotype. I mean, don't get me wrong, before anyone goes and lambasts me on that one, I KNOW we are lucky. I know it could be MUCH MUCH MUCH more difficult than it is for us, and I GET that a. it's not really about me, and b. we have it pretty good, and c. I really wouldn't want her to be anyone other than who she is, and d. well, lots of people tell me her strong-will and sass will serve her well one day, so let's hope that's right because I am banking on it. But the anxiety? Not a WHOLE lot of good can/has come of it.

It's been THE most difficult thing we've had to deal with. Harder than DS (10-fold) and in it's way, scarier than the heart stuff, too. ANYWAY,  I am bouncing around.

What I am trying to get at is that recently I was bemoaning how difficult things tend to be for G--she's not a potty-learning superstar, she didn't walk super early, her speech is coming along, but it's still a struggle, etc etc...(God, typing this out, I kind of just want to throw a pie in my own face or something, because it makes me sound like a world-class a-hole.)

The thing is. I think G is AWESOME! I think she has accomplished TONS of stuff and she is well on her way to accomplishing SO MUCH MORE. More than I can even imagine. I KNOW this. I BELIEVE this. It's just sometimes, I wish she didn't have to work SO HARD all the time. I wish she could just be handed something. I wish I could be sitting around with my other DS mamas and tell the story like this "Yeah, we were expecting glasses to be a real struggle, but she just...got it. Immediately. No struggle." ha! Does that happen for ANYONE??? (Don't tell me if it happened to you. I am too busy being a sore sport.)

So I told my friends that one day if she ever IS handed something I will either a. rejoice and sing and do backflips, or b. I won't even notice. Because, come on...we, as humans, can...sometimes...tend to see the worst in things, and not notice the good stuff. Or the...regular stuff that is actually GREAT if you put the right spin on it.

My friend and I joked about that. Yeah, I probably wouldn't even notice.

Well, I am here to say, I did! I noticed! G went to the dentist this weekend and...other than the kicking and screaming and the next time you have to come when other patients aren't around sort of message we were given. (Oh Lord, I love me some anxiety tantrums at 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning. You know, one of those tantrums that has the hygienists running for the dentist??) ANYHOOOOOOOOOoooo....

Besides all that crap. Georgia's teeth got a delightfully boring clean bill of health. Nothing unusual to report. Looking good. Alls well. See ya' in six months.

Granted, this is her baby teeth, and I have certainly just jinxed her adult teeth. But. I'll take this momentary blessing! I am proud to say I noticed.

Thank you. Thank you teeth gnomes, or whomever heard my prayers that something be easy and boring for my gal.

The Wrapping Elf Blogs

Before I sequester myself in the basement for an evening of wrapping (whilst keeping an ear out for Rainer who just might barf all over his bed at anytime (again) ('tis the season) (fa la la la la)), I thought I would come to the ol' blog and write something.

But what???

Seems I decided to stick around and then whoopsie! I realized I am still busy! As a result, the posting will happen when I can write, as it did before--I suppose--with hopefully at least a little uptick in regularity.

It's looking like Rainer is going to miss his first holiday recital. I am honestly kind of bummed!  It's tomorrow morning and what with his illness, I don't see how he's going to be able to go. I've been catching him singing the songs for it for weeks, too. Poor guy! It's funny when he sings them, too. He doesn't always get the words right. For instance fwhen he sings "Up on the housetop," instead of "Ho! Ho! Ho! Who wouldn't go?"he sings "Ho! Ho! Ho! Who's at the door?"

We made a sweatshirt with a foot- and handprint angel which he is supposed to wear tomorrow, but it's looking like he'll have to just wear it around the old homestead INstead.

Let's see, what else is going on in our lives?

The usual, of course, with the holidays. Time seems to continue ticking onward.

Georgia is doing well in school. Early on we were seeing some difficult behaviors (hitting, hair-pulling, running away), and while I would like to report that those behaviors have completely abated, they have seemed to lessen in frequency. She hasn't had many full weeks of school because she had pneumonia, but the teachers all seem positive about her progress.We'll meet again early in the new year to discuss the Behavior Intervention Plan.

Last week I volunteered at her school and I got to see her in action. When I used to volunteer last year at her old school, she had a hard time with my presence in the room, but this year she just seems excited to see me, which is nice. She seems to be popular with the other kids. They all follow her out to the playground and fight over who will get to sit with her on an air vent while she smiles and looks at them. According to the teachers this happens every day when they go out and Georgia laps up the attention! She will only dance with one boy in the morning for their wiggle time, and apparently he is the biggest and most rambunctous kid in the room. All the teachers were surprised that she wanted to dance with him, but they hold hands and spin in a circle and it doesn't surprise me at all that Georgia would like that!

I got a note from her aide that one of the other girls and Georgia sat together and had a little conversation and made silly faces together, and the following day when a child was upset and crying Georgia went to sit with him.

I don't remember if I have discussed it here, but I have often wondered about empathy. Georgia has never displayed a ton of it, but we're starting to see little glimpses of it here and there.

As for for me, well...I feel like I don't really know what to say. I'm going to think on it a little and maybe I'll share what I find out.

Oh! We did have a holiday party this weekend! This year is the first year we got a real tree in our house because the last two years we didn't trust that the kids wouldn't pull it down. When we put it up though, we realized no one was coming for the holidays and we were the only ones who would enjoy it. That's all well and good, but coupled with the fact that I'd been entertaining the notion of having a holiday party--like the ones my family used to have every Christmas Eve--in the back of my brain, I decided to send out an evite and whoever could make it could make it. I only gave a week's notice, but we had a good turn out! Around 15 adults and 12 or so kids. We had a lot of good food (we provided a lot of it, but we asked people to bring some, too), and plenty of drinks (including spiked eggnog, which I am not sure anyone ACTUALLY enjoys, although I am happy to hear arguments otherwise), and the playroom noise level reached decibels it hasn't yet seen since we've lived here.

The kids had a blast! We had a good time, too. But the kids having fun is what really made me happy. Rainer didn't have a voice by the end of the night, and what's more, Georgia, who last year would have likely hidden herself away in a room, hung out and talked to and played with everyone. Adults and kids alike. I think it helps that she's beginning to recognize people--most of them were from church, although we also invited a few neighbors. Her speech therapist from her old school who G has always loved and who happens to also be a neighbor came and I think Georgia was floored to see her in her own house. It made her really happy!

Miss D helped us at the kid's joint birthday party a month or so ago, too. She's great! And that reminds me...Georgia turned FIVE on Sunday! I have a few things to say about that. And did I ever even talk about their birthday party?? I honestly can't remember. I'll have to go back and look.

Well, would you look at that? Things to talk about!

Next time....

Until then, a silly holiday season photo of my three hearts.

This Week Because

Earlier this week, after helping my daughter climb out of her car seat and out of the back of the van, I tucked her arms one at a time into the straps of her little black L.L. Bean backpack with her name embroidered across the back of it. The backpack is black, because if you ask her, it's her favorite color, and despite my asking at least fifteen times she always requested that color over the lime green, turquoise or pink I had my eye on.

After she and her brother exchanged their good-byes and their "see ya' later!"s and I pressed the button on the keyfob for the door to slide shut, she and I walked across the street, and joined up with the other students lining up for their morning at school. At school we are greeted by "Hi, Georgia!"s and "Hi, Georgia's Mommy!"s and when Georgia recognizes her friends--IF she does while she is in her own eager little hop-skip world down the path to the school building--she waves exaggeratedly at them and says their names. She knows all of their names, and has since the early weeks of school.

This week, even the sight of the huge dead crow that had met it's demise with no doubt a large thud when it flew into one of the classroom windows high above the entryway where Georgia and I meet her aide every morning, couldn't suffocate the disarming sense of pride and accomplishment I felt for my daughter on the warmer than average December morning.

She was going to school. She had a pep in her step. She was wearing her backpack on her back like the other kids! (One of those little victories felt by the parents of sensorily-quirky kids like mine.) And when I let go of her hand, and she walked up to Ms. W turned around and smiled, waving, and said "Bye-bye, Mommy" before walking into the school building to start her day, I knew I wanted to keep blogging.

There are so many little things I want to record.

I'll surely be a little more cautious about what I have to share, but I don't want to stop. Out of the over 10,500 comments I've ever received on this blog, less than a handful of them have ever caused me any negative concern. And I don't want them to define this experience for me.

This evening, peeling back the foil wrappers from the Hershey's Kisses we were unwrapping for the Peanut Butter Blossom cookies Rainer and I were making, he looked up at me and said, "I like doing teamwork with you, Mommy, because."

Lately, he ends a lot of sentences that way. "Because." There needn't ought to be much of any further explanation anyway.

At night--and other times, actually--he tells me "I love you and I like you because." It's become our little thing.

There is no reason. Just because. Not only do we love each other. We like each other, too. That feels remarkable. I hope it will last.

Some things you want to do just because.

Because your son likes "doing teamwork" with you, and because your daughter carries her own backpack and says "Bye-bye, Mommy" before starting her school day.

Why wouldn't I want to write about those things?

Why wouldn't I want a record?

Why wouldn't I want to share them with the world?

We've been working on teaching the kids mine and Alex's names, our last name, and my cell phone number, in the event that they should ever become separated from us and should they need to know the answers to those questions. It's going a little more slowly for Georgia--as we expected it would--but I often catch Rainer singing the little tune we taught him with my phone number as he goes about his daily activities. Even though it's going a little more slowly, though, Georgia is getting it.

Both kids when they are addressing us, will sometimes get our names confused. I can't tell you how often one or the other of the kids will say "Da-Mommy," to me, or "Ma-Daddy" to Alex.

I really had a good chuckle yesterday though when Georgia attempted to say hi to me. She ran up to me excitedly and said, "Hi Dad-Hi Ma-Hi-Trish-Hi MOMmy!"

So yeah, it's sinking in.

Our newest bit of news is that Georgia is getting glasses. We went to the eye doctor yesterday and over the last two years Georgia went from "She'll probably need glasses one day," to "She's REALLY near-sighted!"

We kind of figured. She's started squinting a lot when looking at things across the room.

A friend helped me wrangle the kids at the optician's office today while we got Georgia fitted for her new glasses. I feel mixed about the whole thing. Mostly, I'm kind of just like "Whatever. She needs glasses. Big whoop! I have them, her dad has them, every one in our families other than Rainer (who, I should mention, feels TOTALLY on the outs and wants a pair of his own in the WORST way) now has them. It'll help her see!" But there's a teeny tiny little part of me that aches over it. The TEEEEEENIEST smidgen. Because we'll be covering up her face, and the bridge of her nose that I kiss regularly.

We ordered her glasses today though, and in ten days or so they'll be in. It ought to be an adventure. Getting her to wear them. But we're up for it, I guess.

And in two days, this little gal, who 1822 days ago cracked my world wide opened only to help me find a tiny little pearl in amongst my own guts, will be five years old. I can hardly believe it!

We've come a long way. I hope we have a long way to go.

Let Your E-Flags Fly!

Rainer is way into writing and drawing now. Suddenly.

Today, with just a hint for the 'i' he spelled and wrote his name. To her credit, while I was writing hand over hand with Georgia, she spelled G-E-O in her name all on her own. I had NO idea she could recite it out without looking. When I asked her what her name starts with she just said it. (And she got distracted at "o" by something Rainer was doing, so for all I know she knows how to spell her whole name.)

See his extra flag on his 'e'? How cute it that?

I have to admit, I was impressed. And yes, I suppose I am bragging. But mainly because I am sort of like "wha-? Really?"

And honestly, it's all because of The TV Teacher. I saw a presentation on video modeling by the people who run this company at the convention in Texas this summer and I was enthralled. I really think this is going to be the KEY to teaching Georgia a LOT of stuff. Not, by a long shot, "just" writing.

Apparently, Rainer, too. Although we only purchased the shapes video (which teaches how to draw basic shapes), he saw this video on youtube and between that video and the shapes one he taught himself his own way to write. For instance, the letter "r" is written as he says "Circle it around, draw a stick and another stick."

Funny monkey.

Check it (and definitely video modeling) out!

3rd Boo-thday!

Having a birthday on Halloween will likely always be a mixed bag, baby! It's exciting and fun, but it sure does make for a hectic day--especially when it's a Monday (read: school/work day) and there are class pictures scheduled for the next morning (read: bath night without doubt). But we did it! And I think Rainer had fun! And now, we are the proud parents of a three (and a four) year old!

I wasn't really sure how it should all "go down" so while I was preparing Rainer's requested birthday dinner--boiled eggs--and Alex was entertaining the littles in the playroom, I brought balloons in from the car and arranged the gifts from various far-off relatives on the table. Considering we spend these types of days with just the four of us, he had a nice little haul!

I am making cakepops for his class party on Thursday and cupcakes for the kids' combined party this coming weekend, so we went with store-bought ice cream cake for last night. But! It was shaped like a football, which I think went over well.

With BOTH of them!

Rainer didn't need any direction on opening presents this year! He dove right in!

His first gift conained two knit hats from his Great Grandma Bunny and he immediately put one on and wore it the rest of the evening (until costumes).

He let G wear one, too.

He was quite pleased with his gifts.

Here he is showing off his football wristbands.

One of the pages from a silly photo book.

Halloween pics forthcoming.