Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

We were so very blessed this year, and the kids had a great Christmas Day. Unfortunately, I came down with a whopper of a stomach bug the day before Christmas Eve, and was down for the count for three whole days. It's literally been years since I was that sick, and it was miserable! I have to say that it did make me even more thankful for my wonderful husband, who took amazing care of me, and took over the house and kids even after working all night. I am a very lucky girl and he is my HERO!

Joel, you are awesome!

By Christmas Day I was dizzy and weak but at least able to be upright for a few minutes at a time and enjoy my little ones enjoying their day. No big Christmas meal for us, Joel may be awesome but preparing Holiday Feasts is not in his bag of tricks! We'll just look forward to a New Year's Feast instead. Enough of my holiday puke stories, and on to the pictures and other good stuff!

Merry Christmas Pictures!

Here they are, posing before the festivities begin - Emma always closes her eyes, so after awhile we just give up and accept that at least the other three look conscious. Josh was not as depressed as he looks, I promise! And isn't Eli cute signing "Happy"?

Digging into the stockings! Maybe this is a weird tradition, but I always put new underwear in their stockings - it's not the only thing in their stockings, don't worry! In this picture, Emma and Hannah have gotten to the good stuff underneath the underwear, and Eli is still pulling out underwear - notice the outrage on his face as he peers over at Emma's new toy!
Joel was very excited that he and the boys will be building model rockets to launch this year, just like he did growing up:

Ah, now Eli's got the Christmas spirit. New Legos from MomMom and PopPop:

Hannah's MaMaw sent her very first Piggy Bank!

MomMom and PopPop got Josh a video game he's been wanting forever! May the force be with you, MomMom and PopPop!

Hannah's big present from Joel and I was her very own dollhouse and furnishings:

And Emma was the ecstatic recipient of a brand new bike! And not just a regular bike, no sir! It's a BMX bike. A very boyish BMX bike. Which I have no issues with, and I certainly did not stare enviously at the couple in front of me in the bike shop, there buying their daughter her very first bike - a lovely purple and white very girlie bike. Because Emma is her own person, and if she prefers a boy's blue and orange BMX bike to a lovely cruising bike with sweet little pink and white hearts all over it, then I fully support her. Do you hear me? Fully.

The best part about Emma's bike is that she had no idea she was getting it. She's been begging for one for a very long time, and we'd told her we'd try and get it for her birthday in May. Here is the video of my very excited little sweetie. Please ignore the sickly looking brunette woman dashing into the kitchen in her pajamas - I don't know who that is, but those pajamas make her look fat and her haircut is weird:

Both girls received matching pajama sets for themselves and their dolls from MomMom and PopPop, they are so cute! I hate that this picture of Emma was so blurry, but it was too cute not to post:

Peek-A-Boo Puppies

I can't stand it when people have animals and don't take proper care of them. For instance, when people have dogs that are left outside all of the time, no matter what the temperature. What is it with those people - why even have pets at all? What is the point of having a pet that you have no desire to interact with, thereby leaving the helpless animal to suffer from your neglect?

Unfortunately, we have neighbors like this. It started with a darling little golden retriever puppy, who sat outside in their back yard crying pitifully all day long - rain or shine, sleet or snow. Humanitarians that they are, they were unwilling to let this puppy suffer alone, so they added another - this time one of those sweet fluffy little goldendoodle thingies. The best I can say is that at least they have each other. Amazingly, their lack of proper loving care has not impacted their sweetness - they are really just SO sweet it would break your heart.

Why am I talking about my neighbor's poor pooches? I promise I have a reason! Today I found this in our back yard:

To be fair, it's possible that one of our dogs knocked out this portion of the fence. It's a very old fence, after all. I think it's more likely that we had some very bored Retrievers working at the wood on the other side - maybe they hatched an escape plan? Here's how I imagine that went:

Golden: "Cute fuzzy friend, I really hate our owners."

Doodle: "Me too, if I could just remember what they looked like, I'd bare my teeth while picturing their faces."

Golden: "Those dogs next door have it made, have you noticed they only go outside to use the bathroom, and then they go right back in?? And I've seen their Mom give them treats - and she always talks so sweetly to us too."

Doodle: "Yeah, she's one gorgeous human."

Golden: "Say . . . there's only this rickety old fence between us and her . . . if we dug long and hard enough, I bet we'll get through."

Doodle: "You are a cuddly genius! And so cute too! Once we're over there, she'll never be able to resist our fuzzy perfection. We'll be curled up at her feet eating doggie cookies before the sun sets! Put your cutest face on, we're going in!!"

"Um, wait - move your head over a bit, we're almost through . . . arrrrggggghhhh this is not working out quite like I thought!! Rats! Well at least we can see the pretty nice human better like this. Hey pretty nice human! Give us a hand, would you? Okay . . . give us a cookie??"

Sweet

Eli

It is so hard for me to grasp how far this little guy has come in just one year. He had so much to contend with - learning to communicate, a new home, family, and school. And he's done more than excel, he's knocked our socks off with how quickly he has learned and adjusted to all of the changes. I can say confidently that I would not have done have so well in his shoes.

Our next project will be working on the funky picture face you see above. That has got to go.

But that's not what I wanted to tell you about today.
For the past year, we've really struggled with concepts of empathy and compassion with Eli. These are things that we model to our children from their earliest hours, yet were not modeled to Eli during so many of his crucial formative years. But I knew, from the moment I saw him that a sweet and tender spirit lived within this boy. Though I've had cause to doubt that intuition several times this year, deep down I knew that if we would feed and cultivate what was already in his heart, it would eventually rise to the surface.

In the beginning, Eli was all about what he had, what he could get, and whether or not he had more than the other children. If he received candy at school, he was careful to save the empty wrapper so that he could wave it triumphantly in front of his siblings. But something has changed - he's no longer counting french fries to ensure that someone else doesn't have more than he does. He's no longer coming to me in tears because he just noticed that Josh has one more Bionicle than he does. Which leads me to the story I did come here to tell you:

Last week, Eli came home from school the proud recipient of a Hostess cupcake.
He was very excited about this cupcake, folks. Instead of eating it right away, he decided to save it and it sat on the counter for almost a week. The other night he asked for it, unwrapped the cupcake, and asked me for a knife.
"Oh great," I thought, "he's going to mangle the thing before eating it." I even wondered if maybe he was making a process out of it to ensure that his siblings were fully aware that he was in possession of a very yummy chocolate cupcake. Eli took the knife, and carefully divided that little bitty cupcake into four equal portions, and then he handed one to each of the other kids. This meant that Eli enjoyed exactly one bite of the cupcake.
Joel and I were floored.

He did it without any fanfare, and was very excited that he was able to give something to his brother and sisters. He insisted they all sit at the table and enjoy their nibble together. It was a wonderful opportunity not only to praise Eli for this amazing act of selflessness (Would I have shared my only cupcake? Um . . . are ya crazy??), but to point out his example to the other three children.

What a perfect example of Christ Eli showed in that moment - to give everything that he had to those he loves. I know that God was glorified by that simple action, and it made me see that through all of the battles we've been fighting, God has been working in Eli's heart. Christmas definitely came early for me this year!

Oops! I almost forgot to update on what we've heard so far with his speech. He had a new audio gram done this week, which produced the exact same results we've seen all along. The school speech therapist is going to have a look at him and we'll go from there. The audiologist thinks that Eli is just a very talented boy who has been reading our lips and mouth movements very carefully all this time until he was able to imitate them. I completely agree with the 'very talented' part! He will probably begin receiving some speech services, since he is very enthusiastic about learning to speak. In fact, he's driving me a little batty pointing out everything in the house and wanting me to teach him to say it - all day long - and I mean everything from coupons to the labels on soup cans!

Deck The Halls . . . And Also Daddy???

This weekend we headed out to choose our Christmas tree, and yesterday set about decorating it. The kids were all so excited and we had a great time. It was so nice having my Mom here this year for tree trimming! The kids take turns putting the star on the top of the finished tree, and this year Josh was up, literally:

Stop the presses, folks! I got a picture of Joel smiling!

Behold, a bona fide Christmas Miracle:

Remember I promised I would not be photographed until my hair grows out? Yes Joel, this goes for tree trimming too. After much badgering, I finally consented to him snapping ONE picture, on ONE condition: I would use my bad hair to cover my face:

My Mom loves Christmas - and Josh. You put the two together, and she makes this face:

Eli was determined to put every ornament on a bottom branch.

Here he is demonstrating just why he does that:

Nope Eli, that excuse just won't cut it. If Hannah can manage some higher branches, so can you. By the way - see that can of soda on the table next to Hannah? When the tree was finished, we turned out all the house lights and prepared ourselves to be dazzled by our glittering masterpiece. I bent to plug in the tree lights, and knocked the entire contents of the soda can all over the carpet. I am happy to say that I did not curse out loud, and it all came out of the carpet. I thought the soda was all the disaster we could expect out of one day. Silly, naive little me.

After the tree was trimmed and lit, I began preparing dinner and Daddy began seriously riling up the kids with a very loud, chaotic wrestling match. I admit, I am the kill joy of the family. I'm always the one saying "Slow Down!", or "Watch out for the sheer drop off!", or "Don't point that dart gun at your sister's eye!"

Think I'm just being funny?

I've actually said each one of those phrases within the past two months, at least.

So you'll understand why as the wrestling match continued to escalate in both noise and chaos, I started getting nervous. I started watching the clock, wondering how long it would take before someone was screaming or bleeding - or more likely - both. I wondered which kid it would be, and how bad it would be.

Then it happened.

Looking back, I realize that I did hear a sickening "crack" and "snap" before Joel came running into the kitchen with blood pouring from his face and four very frightened looking little hawks following closely behind.

Apparently Emma came shooting backwards out of a crouch, directly into Joel's unsuspecting nose - and broke it. Emma was devastated, and cried inconsolably for a long while.

Despite the horror of the situation, it was sort of funny to hear her sobbing,

"Daddy I'm soooooo sorry I broke your nose!"

Just another of those phrases you never expected to hear your kid say.

Joel's nose is slightly crooked, very swollen, and I'm sure very painful (though he'd never admit that) but he refused to visit Urgent Care and opted to be nursed at home instead:

And who do you think his nurse was? Well, Hannah of course! While I mopped up the bloody footprints that were all over the place, Hannah pitched in and cleaned up the source:
I forced Joel to let me take this picture of him before he left for work. Oh, okay - you can't really force Joel to do anything. But it took alot of persuasion (read: "whining, pleading, and badgering") for me to gain permission to document this Gigantic Nose:

Oops! I mean, this momentous occasion:

Twas the night before an EEG and all through the house . . .

Every creature was stirring - ahem - well, except for this one:Hannah had an EEG last week and needed to be sleep deprived for the test. This meant that I had to keep her up until midnight and then wake her up by 5 a.m. Since Josh and Emma were going to school late anyway due to the appointment, I let them stay up with her. Joshua made it until about 10 p.m., when I found him like this on the couch. Though we'd lost one hard fighting soldier, we pressed on. The girls were bright eyed and ready to go:Emma never should have curled up under that blanket. I warned her.When Hannah started to look as though she was looking for a comfy spot like her sister, I decided a nice bath was in order. Sure enough, it did the trick and she perked right back up:Rugby: "Mom, seriously - do you have any idea what time it is????"Jane: "So, have you seen Josh lately? I really miss Josh! And by the way, do you have any idea what time it is???"Pidge and Dobby: "What do you think is going on? What's she doing? Why aren't we covered up for bed? Should we fly away from that silver rectangle thing she's putting in our cage? Whoa - get a load of the clock! I wonder if she has any idea what time it is?"Turns out Emma was not sleeping after all - she was just "resting her eyes". She rallies for the final moments of the countdown to bed:For some reason, Hannah still doesn't look sleepy, but she is finding everything (such as brushing her teeth) a little more hilarious than normal. Sleepy Hannah = Crazy Hannah:Ahhhhh . . . we made it. Time to give in to those heavy eyelids:Surely these little eyelids will be getting heavy soon? Any minute now . . . Chili: "Well, I'm glad that's over. You usually put your puppies to bed at a reasonable hour, I just can't imagine what you were thinking keeping them up playing games all night. This never would have happened if Daddy had been here."

Rugby: "ZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz"

And we all settled down for a very, very quick winter's nap.

Update . . . Oh My

I just heard back from Eli's teacher, and she said that he has not been receiving speech services at school. She said that she doesn't understand it, and that we just might have a miracle on our hands here. We're going to get in contact with the school audiologist and start trying to figure out exactly what could be going on.

I'm officially flamboozled.

~ Jen

Mama, Watch This . . .

Sometimes those three words precede a trip to the ER.

Sometimes they precede something truly wonderful.

Don't worry, this post describes the latter.

Remember when I posted about how far communicating with Eli has come in just a year?
It just kicked up another notch! I guess he must be receiving some sort of speech therapy at school, although I am a bit surprised they wouldn't have notified us of this change to his IEP. It was previously discussed that his level of hearing loss excluded him from this therapy, unless we specifically requested it. Since we were more than fine with him communicating exclusively via ASL, we did not request it. Anyway . . .

The other day I was making dinner, and Eli was seated at the table stalking my every move just like any normal mealtime. He waved at me to get my attention, and signed, "Mama, watch this!"

Me: "Okay."

Eli: "Watch, I'm going to talk."

Me: (internally dubious) " . . . O - Kay"

Eli: signs 'what' and then actually says the word what!

Me: speechless

He did it a few more times, and I was just as impressed each time. He was so thrilled with himself. That night as I was tucking the boys into bed, he asked if I could help him talk. So I sat on his bed and we worked for awhile. If I make a sound into his ear, he can hear and mimic that sound (yes, that's new and quite shocking on it's own).

He would give me a sign and I would try to teach him to say the word.

He said:

Car

Eli

No

Who

Bad

Every time an actual, clear word came out, I screamed and clapped and jumped up and down. Josh would shout, "Whoa!" and Eli would burst out laughing and roll around on his bed. We were quite the insane trio. At one point, he asked how to say "Go". Every time he tried to say it, it came out as this crazy sounding tongue roll, and the three of us were hysterical laughing. Then he signed, "I love you" and asked how to say it. I placed my mouth to his ear and said "Love", exaggerating the L and V sounds.

And he said it!

He said "Love", just as clear and concise and beautifully as you can imagine.

Logically I know that this was just another word to him, but to me it sounded like absolute magic. I never, ever expected to actually hear that word from his mouth.
Yes, I cried - okay, I cried alot!

I'm not sure what all of this means, but it would seem as though Eli's hearing loss may not be as profound as the tests have shown. I'm wondering if it's possible that the stress of the transition had an affect on the audio grams with and without the hearing aids. We'll have to revisit and evaluate all of these things, but right now I'm just so happy that he's come so far.

Now, if I could just get him to say "Mama", I think I really would burst!

~ Jen

Happy Birthday Eli!

Today is my sweet boy's tenth birthday! It's hard to grasp that one of my little hawks has moved up to the double digits! Even though the kids are out of school for Thanksgiving this week, we still had a crack of dawn birthday celebration. This way, Rinnie could see Eli open his presents before she left for work, and Joel was still fairly conscious having just gotten home from work. Eli was so excited to open his presents! He got some great Lego sets, his first video game of his very own, some comfy pajamas (you'd be surprised at how big on comfy jammers my two boys are), and a Halo action figure. With no hope of any 'good' toys being opened, Emma and Hannah were pretty sleepy, but Josh was just as anxious as Eli to get a peek at the birthday loot:

Isn't this a cute picture of my Mom?

She looks like she's daydreaming about seeing her husband David on Thursday:

They boys have been lost in Lego mania all day long, only stopping for a quick lunch and some buttermilk pie. I really took this picture just to remember what my living room floor looks like without Legos scattered all over it. It will be some time before I see it again:

Hannah was quite sleepy and a bit underwhelmed, so here she's taking a breather from all the festivities to wake up a bit more: