Starting with Bella, we still call her "baby" even though she's 2 1/2 because this Halloween looking for costumes we are still looking at size 12-18 months. Yup. Still teeny. Matthew and I are definately keeping our hands full with her! She has proved the most time-consuming of all our children at that age. She wants to do everything. And if she is unhappy o boy does she let you know. She's got the pouty lip and dramatic sulk to a fine art. What she lacks in size she makes up for in enthusiasm and fearlessness. Three times is how many times she's split her head open this past year. One of those requiring staples to her head. Three times is how many times she's decided to run away! One of those times resulted in 15 min of panic, a phone call to 9-1-1 and 3 neighboring families helping look! Now I'm actually quite the mother hen with the kids and make sure I can see them at all times. The times she disappeared she was in a fenced in area! Totally fenced. She is so tiny she fits through holes you don't think a rabbit could squeeze through. One time she got out she got inside a neighbors backyard which is completely surrounded by vinyl fence! Dogs don't even get in there and to this day we still can't see how she fit.
But as enthusiastic as she is about adventure, she feels the same way about love. She loves to be held and cuddled. She would let me carry her around all day long (thank goodness she's so light!) if I could. She adores hugs and kisses and anytime someone cries or sulks she's trying to kiss them better. She puts your face in her hands and gives you a kiss and an enormous smile and says, "all better." It's precious. This little girl can make your heart melt. Just ask my husband who tries to stay firm and tough and has to turn his head away half the time when he disciplines because she just makes everyone smile. She's learning how to keep herself entertained while I'm working with Hailey which is a new transition from a very attention-needing little girl. She loves counting, even though not usually in order, and boy does she talk. She pretends to be on the phone and has conversations in her own language whenever she's around new people. This conversations usually involve her being the boss and she let's you know what's what with the finger point.
Hunter has started school this year. The first two weeks were kind of nightmares and we actually contemplated pulling him out. We are talking potty accidents, total melt downs, refusal to sleep at night. But on week three it was like a 180 turn. He was happy to go to school. Loves going. Tells me all about his teacher and the fun he has. He's learned how to pee standing up (thanks preschool) so now he feels like a big man. He's having fun and getting used to being around other adults. He cries a lot less when going to nursery now on Sunday too! He already knew his colors and numbers but he's talking about them a lot more. He watches when I work with Luke on learning to read and has memorized quite a few sight words. He loves to learn! (Hailey's sibling for sure!) He and Luke have a blast together but as typical brothers, fight just as much. It's usually when wrestling and someone gets hurt or they're building a road for cars or a tower for the bad guy and somehow it gets ruined.
Luke has started Kindergarten this year. He is having a blast. He is learning a ton already. He loves learning from other adults, especially pretty girls. LOL! He is my social butterfly talking about new friends the first day he came home. When he's not in school he is busy building. Building roads for his cars, castles or towers for super heros or villians. He is not picky about building materials either. He uses blocks, books, blankets and ropes. The imagination on this boy is amazing! He is also quite the artist. He LOVES to draw. He makes books and comics with police men and bad guys. He invents animals and tells me all about them as he draws a picture of it. He is by far my pickiest eater and prefers most snack food to any meal period. He likes to negotiate and as soon as he learned he gets money for chores he LOVES to do chores and then gets so excited when we are going to the store so he can pick out just the right hero/car/villian/ etc for his collection. He can be so very helpful when he wants to be and he really is quite the little man.
The one thing we are realizing he doesn't care for is organized sports. We tried t-ball earlier in the year (he said he wanted to) and it was quite the fail. He would cry when it was time to go and him and Matthew often fought about him even going on the field. When we finally would get him out there he would sit down and fill his glove with dirt. Then he said he wanted to do soccer so we agreed to sign him up with Hailey. It's not quite the fighting as t-ball was. But he always says he needs to take a break (there's often at least 1 child sitting out at a time during the game) sometimes because he wants to hold the flag, he's tired or just last week because soccer makes his "brain hurt." He would rather sit in the grass and pick flowers than even look at the ball. We've talked about the importance of finishing what we start but we will not be continuing until he asks us to sign him up for something.
Hailey on the other hand LOVES soccer. (Yes that's Luke sitting in the middle of the game), but Hailey is getting right in there. She loves chasing the ball up and down the field but until recently has always felt bad about taking the ball from other people. She's starting to learn that that's the game. She enjoys going and never wants to take a break. She gets pretty hooked on the game and gets sad when the other team scores but this year (unlike last) she doesn't have a melt down over it. I'm glad she likes soccer because it gives her some great social interaction. This year we made a monumental family changing decision and decided to homeschool Hailey.
SHOCKED?!? So were we. But we spent a LOT of time fasting, praying, researching, discussing and ultimately reaching this decision. You see, Hailey is autistic. She however has an IQ well above her age level. And last year we decided to focus on her social skills and enroll her in public school in Kindergarten. Hailey had a great teacher, and she loved going, enjoyed her friends and had fun. However, at age 3 Hailey taught herself to read. And I don't mean I practiced with her and she picked it up. I mean she brought me a book and started reading to me without me ever doing anything to teach or train her. At age 5 she was well beyond the alphabet and the sounds of letters and sight words which is what they focus on in Kindergarten. I went to the Principal and asked she be placed in 1st grade because of her abilities or at least be given an additional challenging reading curriculum. He refused because of her diagnosis and age (she is the youngest already in her class). Based on a lot of advice from others we focused on the social skills she would learn in kindergarten. She aced the test the students take at the beginning of the year. And again, great teacher, had fun, but was not challenged like school should be. At the end of the year her testing scores were below her beginning of the year scores. And I don't mean a few points. They dropped quite a bit. Am I saying she learned nothing? Absolutely not, she did learn. But not enough, she was bored, never did the school work, followed the kids who misbehaved all day because they looked like they were having fun. We decided this year, we would homeschool her and focus on the gift Heavenly Father gave her.
She will always be autistic. Her social skills will always be lacking. However, she has been given an incredible gift of intelligence and fast learning, an amazing memory. This is where we are putting our efforts this year. We had her tested to find where she ranked academically and at a national level (which has higher requirements than the state) she qualified for the fourth grade. While we knew that she could probably surpass the 1st grade we didn't want to jump to far ahead. We have enrolled her in the 2nd grade, with me homeschooling her. We are aware that there is more to school than the standard math and language units (which she is doing at 2nd grade level) and therefore this year we are doing a curriculum of both 1st and 2nd grade levels in science, history, art and music. She has been doing this curriculum for a little more than a month so far and is loving it. It took me and Hailey a little bit to get through the school day without one of us getting frustrated but we've learned the importance of breaks and patience (on both our parts) and are doing delightfully well. She is being challenged and for the first time she is being asked questions she doesn't immediately know the answer to. She is actually learning. She is enjoying the stuff she learns and while we all figured science or language would be her favorite subject she cannot stop talking about math. We are not sure what the future holds for us. If the principal will let her enroll in the third grade next year we will probably give public another try. But we will see. Until then, we are doing the best we can in giving Hailey a chance to use that beautiful gift she's been given.
As for me and Matthew. O well now, basically the same. Matthew is working his crazy bum off, like usual. One of his jobs now is working in the oil field though. He's enjoying the work and loves his boss and the pay is better than most of his copping work. It's a lot more physical labor and his first day home he tells me Wow, that's hard work. Other than that he fills his time usually with XBOX or hanging out with his friends, often times both. I am just busy doing what I do. Never realized how time consuming being a 2nd grade teacher is, but wow do I cherish the time I'm not in school. I am learning to let a lot more things slide and I'm sure next summer my whole house will need a complete overhaul. Between homeschooling and Bella I apparently decided that wasn't enough and agreed to coach soccer this year. What was I thinking? I'm not sure. I need to work on learning to say no. This will definitely be the last year I do it, with 2 children running on the field or street during games, 1 refusing to play at all or laying on the field mid-game and only having one engaged and actively playing, I am pretty worn out by the end of that 45 minutes. I'm still trying to bake/cook and get new and exciting FHE and lessons going for my kiddos all the time. I am struggling to find any spare moments. But we are making it work. And I know in a couple years all my kids will be in school and I will miss them all so dearly.
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