Trip to All Kids - Part 2

The trip to All Children's Hospital in St. Petersburg is "Part 2" of the story in a couple of ways.  It's the second entry of my blog regarding this and our second trip to this hospital.  Jared spent three weeks there after he was born and as a result, I have avoided any trips to the West coast of Florida since. That time in my life has too many stressful memories.

Our second trip to St. Petersburg did not go as planned but I believe it went the way it was suppose to go.

The plan was to leave for St. Petersburg early Thursday, July 12th for Jared to be admitted the day before the procedure for what is called a "Drug Wash".  During a catheter ablation, the electrical signals of the heart must be mapped to find the faulty path. In order to do this, an SVT is induced. Since Jared's drugs are meant to stop SVTs, all his medications needed to be flushed from his system. For this to happen, we were instructed to stop his medications on Thursday morning and it was decided it was best to admit him as soon as possible just in case.  We also had made arrangements to stay at the Ronald McDonald House as soon as we knew what day we would be arriving.

On Wednesday, I called (as instructed), to confirm our reservation at the Ronald McDonald House and was shocked to find out they had no availability. This sent us scrambling for a Plan B.  Being Summer in St. Pete, hotels were hard to find and not near enough to the hospital.  We realized that our only real choice was to divide and conquer.  Chris and I have never really been separated, much less our whole family; this was not an easy decision but in the end it was the right decision. The new plan was for Chris to drive over with Jared and for me to stay here with everyone else.  Having only one car, once we started this plan we were committed.

The next challenge was figuring out when they needed to arrive Thursday.  This too was a bit stressful as  it wasn't until after lunch Thursday that they told us a room would be available at 4:30pm! Thankfully, Jared didn't have any issues being off his drugs and this extra time together as a family was spent playing games, watching Le Tour, and doing artwork.

Chris told Lance he was "the man about the house" while he was gone and Lance did an awesome job.  He was proactively helpful, patient and kind.  His positive attitude really helped sweet Titus not worry since he was a bit confused about where everyone was and when they were coming home.

Chris and Jared left at 2pm and on the drive over they hit a number of traffic jams which extended the trip by 45 minutes.  This was the first confirmation we made the correct decision, as this would have stressed our carsick prone Lance and baby Amber too much.  They had given themselves extra time by leaving early and ended up arriving right at 4:30pm.

The new All Children's Hospital complex in St. Petersburg was completed just over two years ago. Ground was broken and building started right around the time Jared was there seven years ago. The new complex is just around the corner from the old location. Chris said the hospital was really nice, as was their room which was clean and quite large which included two chairs, two TV's and a sofa. One TV was large and just for the patient and one small one was by the sofa and for the parent. The "TV" was more of a computer monitor, as the patient could play games, watch movies, even surf the web and use instant messaging.
From their window, they could see Tampa Bay and Tropicana Field (home of the Tampa Bay Rays baseball team).

Being an ICU room and seeing all the gadgets, tubes, and switches on the walls it was definitely better the mighty Titus wasn't there.  Jared had pizza and Doritos for dinner; we figured what ever he wanted.  He and Chris had some great bonding time that night.  Jared slept well, but poor Chris didn't sleep much on the pull out sofa. Hospitals are not the place to find a good night's sleep - too many people moving about and alarms sounding.

Back at the ranch, we hung out at the house until they arrived safely and were settled.  We then headed over to Miss Mae's house for dinner.  After eating, we all went for a long walk. Our walk tired the kids out and ourselves.  This helped settle everyone down for the night time routine and getting to sleep that night.  We did prayers over FaceTime with Chris and Jared. Having our iPhones has been a life saver; throughout the three days away, Chris and I were in constant contact via texting, pictures, and FaceTime. Plus when driving, I can see where he is using the Find My Friends app.

When Friday morning arrived, Jared was still all smiles.  He is such a tough and courageous kid.  He rarely complains about the IVs or the masks.  The nurse said he was even laughing as they put him under for the procedure.  The doctor was able to map the offending nerve, zap it and the surrounding area to reduce the chances of any additional faulty electrical pathways.  It was in an area of the heart that is particularly thick and hard to get to.  The procedure, in total, took over four hours and the doctor was completely wiped out when he talked to Chris after the procedure. The doctor was great, as were all the nurses and assistants. The doctor even took the time to speak with me at length after the procedure via phone.

Jared just after the procedure

After the procedure, Jared had to lay flat on his back with his legs straight for the next 12 hours.  With the numerous movies available on the TV and in combination with his iPad, Jared was more than thrilled to watch shows all day. Jared did fantastic and followed instructions well.

We need a bigger boat!

Jared slept well again that night, but with nurses coming in to monitor Jared's condition all night, Chris' sleep was interrupted much of the night.  I've always believed hospitals are the worst place to recover.  Saturday was a day of hurry up and wait to be released. To pass the time they built Legos and played games together on the iPad.  They finally got the go ahead to home in the afternoon and arrived at our door around 5pm. Chris decided to drive home a different way, over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge to avoid Tampa. It only adds about 20 minutes to the drive and Jared was thrilled to drive over such a large bridge.

To keep things as normal as possible, we went to swimming lessons on Friday. Since Chris had the car, I decided to try Amber out in the bike trailer. It worked well so Saturday I went all out (or overboard depending on your point of view).  I decided Lance, Titus and I should bike around the lake, which is a 4.5 mile round trip from our house.  I knew Chris had taken Titus before on his bike but what I didn't know is that I pushed the pace a bit more than Chris does, oops!  Lance didn't tell me this till we got home.  But my goal of making sure they got the wiggles out was accomplished. Titus was completely wiped our for the rest of the day. Very unusual.

When they arrived home, Jared looked exhausted as did Chris. They were quite the motley crew.  Between the lingering effects of the anesthesia and drug withdrawal, Jared was rather spacey for the next couple days, which was disconcerting for his parents. During his stay in the hospital, the threat of Jared having a stroke from the procedure and also his condition was discussed.  Finally when I couldn't take it any more, I had him read, recite some math tables to make me feel more comfortable it was all just withdrawals.

In addition to hopefully taking care of the SVTs, Jared's drugs were reduced down to one - Digoxin. I hope this will provide him more mental clarity and less sleepless nights (side effects of the other drugs).  

What to do next is a matter of opinion. The next step(s) in his treatment are: having another procedure to plug the atrial hole in his heart, which is what makes him "blue", and/or a valve replacement. The doctor that performed his procedure assured us his associates in that specialty were quite capable and we should think about doing something in the next few months.  However, when we spoke with Jared's cardiologist here in Orlando, he indicated that the next step would be to go to the Children's Hospital in Boston and only when the time was right. He has been in contact with Boston since Jared was a baby and the prevailing thought since his birth was to do something invasive only when absolutely necessary. We pray that they can come to an agreement that is the best for Jared and his future.

I am forever thankful for our friends the Paray's who having been hanging out with us or us with them since Chris left.  They fed us, entertained the boys and kept me company the last two days. It made a difficult situation much easier.

We serve a mighty God and I am thankful for His love and Grace, not only has he healed my son but he's taught me to lean more on Him when everything is out of my control.  Thank you all for your prayers!

Doctor and the Aquarium - Part 1

About three weeks ago, Jared had two SVTs in one week.  That was unprecedented frequency and led to use having to drive to Tampa two days later to see an Pediatric Electrophysiologist (EP) under the recommendation of Jared's Cardiologist. Bonus goes to anyone that can say "Pediatric Electrophysiologist" 10 times without pausing. :-)

We went as a family and arrived right on time and, of course, the doctor's office was running about 45 minutes late. :-)  The kids all behaved exceptionally well.  The office had toys in the lobby and then they were given their iPads in the examination rooms.  We went from the initial stats collection room, to the ECHO room, and finally to the examination room with the EP Doctor.

The doctor gave us hope that he could remove the cause of Jared's SVTs.  Up to that day we had little hope it would be treated because of a complication with another Cardiac condition he had.  The procedure was thankfully not surgical but instead utilized catheters and a process called ablation to remove the faulty electrical pathway.  He explained that there was a success rate of 85% and if the SVTs should return, the catheter ablation can be repeated.  We made the choice to schedule the procedure as soon as possible, as not proceeding would risk Jared's life. An upside was the doctor's assurance that his quality of life would improve and the dropping of two of his daily drugs. Regardless, it was not an easy decision.

Afterwards, we wanted the kids to have some fun too and on our way home we stopped at the  "Florida Aquarium".  This is a great place to visit during the hot Florida "winter" (otherwise known as summer). Amber was sleeping in the stroller when we arrived and missed the picture.

Lance's favorite parts of the Aquarium were the gators and the sharks.  

Jared liked the Touch Tank best.

Titus' choices were the gators and fish in the mangroves.  However, I really think he liked the dry ice projector best since he kept running back and forth through it.

Amber clearly liked the main aquarium.

Part 2 of this story is the actual procedure and a three day trip to St. Petersburg which began on July 12th.

Ancient History - Creation to The Flood

It is my desire to teach my children that the bible IS history, not a separate fanciful subject. I want them to know God is real and so is his word.  It is true and can be trusted completely from the first word to the last.  I want to show them how the bible is supported by the findings of secular man, logic and science. 

This is a tall order for the elementary years apparently.  I've jumped the gun and bought Middle School curricula in the past hoping I could simplify it but it didn't work. The solution was of course to create my own curricula.

Additionally, as I mentioned in a previous post, I could not find a pre-made timeline that met all my needs.  I decided to start creating my own timeline a few years back.  I finished tweaking this timeline last month. I spent this month working off this timeline to create a history curricula for the boys.

This turned out to be a much bigger task than I had imagined. It took the whole month and I still have not completed the last part of the timeline curricula.  Currently the curricula is over 35 pages long. I don't think I've ever written anything this long; remember I like numbers better than letters.  However, after a month of researching and tweaking I was getting burned out and decided to keep our school date start of Monday, July 2nd.  The only way to truly test the curricula is of course to use it.

Thankfully, I am not a person who has a problem with change.  The first week of using my curricula led to a lot of changes, in timing and even in materials used.  Below is what we did, with comments in red of what worked and what did not.  Overall, I would call the week a success because the boys are enjoying learning and ask about doing History work.  More importantly they seem excited about learning, which is all I ever wanted because when you're excited about something you really learn.

*Note in most cases I was able to find the DVDs we have online for free viewing and and have included the links.

READ ALOUD BOOK:  In the Days of Noah by Snellenberger

MUSIC:  Holst’s “The Planets” I’ve included them in the daily schedule below as an idea how to introduce them this month.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzLjg-e9bYg&feature=BFa&list=AL94UKMTqg-9DfnE7zalDDi01NYqtdHvJH

ART:  Noah’s Ark by Edward Hicks http://gardenofpraise.com/art2.htm

Dates		People/Events
B.C. 4004		Creation
		The Fall in the Garden
3874		Cain & Abel & Seth - The Godly Line
2302		The Flood
2300	1600	The Ice Age
2242		Tower of Babel
c. 2200		Sumerian Civilization in Mesopotamia
2109	1703	Unification of Upper and Lower Egypt by Pharaoh Menes (Dynasty 1 -11)
1900		Pharaoh Cheops/Khufu Builder of Giza Pyramids

 DAY 1 – 4004 BC Creation

• Read Genesis 1-2:3
• “Ancient Civilizations and the Bible Elementary Activity Book” by Diana Waring (ACAB) Unit 1 Discussion Questions
• Hand out 7 index cards to each child.  Ask them to write the number 1 t o 7 (one number per card) on the opposite side tell them to draw a picture about that day of creation and these simple words:

o   Day 1:  Day & Night

o   Day 2:  Heaven & Earth

o   Day 3:  Seas & Land        

o   Day 4:  Sun, Moon & Stars

o   Day 5:  Creatures of the Sky & Sea

o   Day 6:  Creatures of Dry Land & Man

o   Day 7:  God Rested

• ·        Here’s an alternative “Creation Memory Pegs” with coloring pages for each day which may be really useful with younger children.
• While drawing listen to:

o   Play Holst’s “The Planets – Mercury, Winged Messenger” Before we listened we discussed briefly who the god Mercury was and I asked what they thought the music would sound like as a result.  After listening we talked about if it sounded like they expected, could they imagine him running about?  The boys liked this piece

o   What in the World (WIW) Disc 1 Track 2  “Creation” (7 min.) This was too mature, my boys didn’t get her sarcasim.

o   True Tales (TT) Disc 1 Track 2 “Dates for Creation” (10 min.)  They got more from our discussion afterward where I explained things than listening alone.  I’m realizing they prefer active listening, ie. Discussion over listening to audio lecture

• Watch “Created Cosmos” by Dr. Jason Lisle  This is not their first time watching this video, each time we watch it we are all in awe.  It is so beautifully done and really puts the size in perspective the boys can understand.  I had hoped to do some art with it but we didn’t get a chance.

DAY 2 - 4004 BC Creation

• REVIEW:  Use the index cards from yesterday to play two different games.

o   Order Up:  Using the Picture side, have the children put the days in order and then turn them over to check if they are correct.

o   What Happened?  Call out a random day and see if the children know what happened.  This could be incorporated into a game of “Mother May I” where the children get to move forward only if they answer the question correctly.

• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 4-7  After much debating I guess I chose well, the boys are so liking this book that they ask me to read more each day.
• ACAB Silly Songs pg.  13  The boys absolutely adore this song and have asked to sing it every day since.
• ACAB Marvelous Maze pg. 11  Boys liked this maze, but my boys like any maze.
• Mark on Timeline  Since my 7 and 9 year old are doing this together I’m expecting more out of my 9 year old and requiring him to write out the points on the timeline in addition to gluing the pictures.  Ironically my 7 year old has chosen to write out the names also.
• Play Holst’s “The Planets – Venus, the Bringer of Peace” and have kids move to music

o   Briefly discuss who the god Venus was, what they think piece will sound like

o   After listening talk about what the piece sounded like vs. their expectations and what instruments were used to achieve that sound.  They liked this piece also.

DAY 3 - Fall in the Garden

• REVIEW:   Days of Creation

o   Play Adam Name Game:  Get animals you have around the house or a book with lots of different animals in it and discuss what you might have named the animals and what day they were created.  We didn’t do this they have the days down pat and wanted to sing the "Silly Song" again.

•  Read Genesis 3
• ACAB Unit 1 Discussion Questions
• “Act It Out” – Jared came up with this great idea to act out Chapter 3, we had so much fun we did it again for daddy when he came home.  Jared was God and the Serpent, I was Eve, Lance was Adam and Titus the serpent crawling on his belly at the end.
• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 8-11
• Mark on Timeline
• Play Holst’s “The Planets – Mars, Bringer of War” and discuss (see above)  Lance thought it sounded like Star Wars and Titus disliked it so much he kept telling us to turn it off.  Jared said he could hear when the “bad guys were caught”.

DAY 4:  3874 BC  Cain, Able and Seth – The Godly Line

• REVIEW:  Timeline and Days of Creation w/ Silly Song
• Read Genesis 4 & 5
• ACAB Unit 1 Discussion Questions
• ACAB Coded Message pg. 9  The boys did not enjoy this so we stopped.
• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 12-15
• Mark on Timeline.
• Play Holst’s “The Planets – Jupiter, the Bringer of Jollity” and discuss.  Boys really liked this piece Titus was jumping and dancing around.  Very “happy” music.
• Listen to:  We listened to these but this will be the last day.  The boys sat quietly and did their best to listen but it’s clear they don’t enjoy it.  I noticed that most of the commentary is quoting from “Puzzle of Anicent Man” by Donald E. Chittick.  This is an awesome book about OopArt (Out of Place Artifacts) and other archaeological issues as they relate to the bible.  So from now on I’ll just read from the book so we can pause to discuss as they want/need to, they’ll get more out of it this way.

o   WIW Disc 1 Track 3 “Early Man” (12 min.) Replace with pgs. 33 -38

o   TT Disc 1 Track 3 “Early Man” (17 min.)

DAY 5:  2302 BC The Flood

• Watch Creation story according to Native Americans (starts after introductions minute 4:45) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NP6MGRNt_A 
• How do these stories compare to the bible? 

• Read Genesis Chapter 6-8
• ACAB Unit 1 Discussion Questions  Like the CDs, I had bought this book with the set years ago.  Unlike the CDs, I’ll probably keep using the book but I’m sorry to say, I would not recommend buying it.  There are some neat ideas but I think discussing the chapters would go fine without the questions and similar activates could be found for free online.
• Pre-measure out the distance of 450.  Take the children to the spot.  You stay at the beginning and have them walk out the 450 feet to the spot you’ve marked.  So they can get a visual of the size of the Ark. Boys enjoyed this turned out the ark was about the size of all the houses on our block put together, which is a great visual.
• Read “The Puzzle of Ancient Man” pgs.  38-43 Reading this worked better than listening, we were able to pause to discuss and skip ahead a little too.
• Mark Timeline
• Listen to Holst’s “The Planets – Saturn, the Bringer of Old Age” and discuss Boys like to watch the youtube version that shows the orchestra and close-ups of the instruments best.
• Read “In the Days of Noah” pgs. 16-21
• Watch “Noah’s Ark:  Thinking outside the box” by Tim Lovett (25 min.)  This is a great DVD (or watch on youtube) because the design came from a nautical engineer and they include some nautical history.

Ready, Set, GO!

It's the first week in July and in our home that means the start of the new school year.  I have spent the last month planning for this week and I'm sure the week will go nothing like I planned but here's what I've done to prepare.

First - Organize!  I read in an article on TOS (on their new handy dandy Free App) that the best way to get your kids to keep their space organized is to let them have a say in HOW it is organized.  We've tried a lot of "systems" in the past, but they were all MY ideas.  I realize now that their brains may not organize things the same way I do and when they have a say they are more likely to take ownership.

In order to start, we had to find their desks. they've been buried under my junk and their's over the last month.  With that done, I took out the new tools I had for them to choose from and discussed how they wanted to use them.

I offered them the choice of stacking their subjects on their desks, in the cabinet or in the extra magazine folders I had.  Both chose the folders, and both chose to keep them on their desk not on the adjoining book shelves. 

Next we discussed which colors they wanted and where they wanted to post their schedules.  I had purchased these dry erase "Wall Pop Calendars".  This is not their intended purpose but I hope it will work well.  They each have one square for their morning work and one for their afternoon work.   That will help my progression to a Charlotte Mason approach by limiting them to five subjects morning and afternoon and give me the flexibility of mixing up which subjects to do and when.

I made sure the both had their own rulers and timers on their desks to stop delays in finding them during school work time.

For certain subjects with a lot of loose papers I made them labeled binders.  For these same subjects I loaded the teachers manuals to my ipad as PDF; instead of printing them out or having to read from my computer.  This allows me to carry them around easily and switch quickly between subjects and children.  Specifically, I did them for Map Trek IV: Ancient (which came in a PDF) and KISS Grammar (which came in a Word Document that I converted to PDF).  I may also add my History Curricula as a PDF, but I'm still making many changes and I will most likely have to make hard copies and edit as we go along.
 

For the children, I went ahead and bought them "Student Planners" from a Well Planned Day.  I have always kept their activity logs on my computer but that was becoming cumbersome towards the end of last year.  I thought about creating something on my own, then decided this would be easier and I think better in the long run.  I am using the "Month At a Glance" for all their extra activities, ie. horseback riding, swimming, piano, baseball, etc.  I'm using the "Week at a Glance" pages for them to log what they do each day on the left and what books they read on the right. The planner only came with one page for books read and that would never do with my voracious readers.  This is going to take some time for them to take full ownership but I think it will be a great lesson in responsibility.  I'm giving them flexibility with recording as well.  Lance likes to write everything down from his schedule in his planner at the beginning of the day and check them off as he completes them.  Jared prefers to write them down in the planner as he completes them.

Second - Distraction.  Titus has not napped since he was 18 months old.  However, it has been clear for a long time he needs to.  The weekend before school we decided to initiate the quiet hour (or two) each day.  As it turns out he's ended up falling asleep 2 of the first seven days.  I do this around 2pm when I put Amber down for her afternoon nap.  On the weekends the boys use this time to read quietly for pleasure.  During the week I am using this time for the subjects I need to instruct them in without interruption, ie. anything with a read aloud element such as history.  I'm pleased with how it is working out.  Titus has been a little resistant some days but I think he'll get the hang of it and its imperative for Lance and Jared to have this uninterrupted time with me.  In the mornings, I am also bringing Titus upstairs when I put Amber down for her morning nap to read books or work on his numbers/letters on his iPad.  In the past, when I leave him downstairs, he interrupts the boys and they don't complete much.  In the mornings, the reward is one on one time with me if he can play/read quietly while I put her down.  

That's "the how" of the plan to implement our new year.  If the first week is any indication, I think we may actually have something that will work this year.  The boys say they really like the AM/PM schedule because "we can play in the morning when ever we are done and the same in the afternoon".  If they like it, we are much more likely to succeed. 

BTW, I only worked up to six subjects a day so far.  I'm easing them back into a full load.  Ironically our summers are much busier than the school year and we may have to wait for our friends to go back to school until we try a full load.

In the next post, I'll list out "the what" of the plan.

Tally- Ho! It's Horse Camp!

A few months ago, Jared started taking horse back riding lessons at Westwood Farms.  I bought a Groupon for three lessons back in November and we finally got around to using them in April.  

I was hopinh that the horse-child bond would be good for Jared, both physically and emotionally.  It could help build his core muscles without aerobic activity. Plus being able to control a thousand pound+ animal has to be good for self confidence.  Since it was a Groupon, I didn't have high hopes for the quality of the farm and the instruction, but I'm happy to say I was pleasantly disappointed for once.

The facility has the most beautiful barn I have ever seen and the horses top notch. All that would be for naught, if it wasn't for the awesome staff.   They have incredible knowledge and patience.  The boys adore them and they really seem to adore the boys.

Notice I said "boys" (plural). After Jared had been riding for a bit, we found out about summer horse camp.  In a moment of insanity, I suggested to Chris the boys should go and to my surprise he immediately said "yes".  I wasn't willing to send Jared to camp alone, so that meant Lance needed to take a few lessons before camp.  And Titus is never left out.  Miss Jane always makes sure Titus knows where the cats are when we arrive.  If they are missing she'll go find them for him. We can also go pet the baby horses and ponies.  The atmosphere at the farm is so relaxed and welcoming, it's a pleasure to go and hang out during their lessons.

Camp, like the lessons, exceeded our expectations.  

The first day of camp we were surprised to see two other homeschooling families there. It's truly a small world and a nice bonus. Out of the other four children, only one was a complete stranger. Jane had said I could hang around as long as I wanted, so we did.  I was only having them do a half day (3 hours) but it was my first time ever leaving Jared.  Eventually, Amber was ready for a nap and we headed home. 

Poor Mr. Titus was very disappointed he couldn't "do camp".  A friend's daughter was holding a summer day camp for three year olds during the same week and I called to see if there were any openings and there were for the Tuesday and Thursday session. Why not I said?!  I was clearly out of my mind already, so I might as well jump ship completely.

When we picked the boys up on Monday the first thing they asked was to stay longer the next day.  Miss Jane was happy to ablige and we agreed to another hour.

On Tuesday, to avoid driving three hours in the car with Amber, I asked Christina if she could drive Lance and Jared to camp, while I took Titus to his camp.  I stayed a little while at Titus' camp stressing the importance of germ avoidance but it was clear he didn't need me there so I left.

Amber then obliged to taking a long nap and for the first time I had the house and my time all to myself.  Very relaxing I must say.

When I picked the boys up from camp on Tuesday they were really excited.  Jared had posted off lead three times around the ring and Lance had trotted off lead too.  This was a big move forward and they were anticipating more advancements in the coming days.  In addition to the lessons they had done - they did crafts, scavenger hunts and learned about horses.  Here they were identifying all the parts of a horse with post-it-notes.

Chris and I joked that we were paying them to use our boys as free labor.  Cleaning horses, stalls, moving them around the pastures, feeding the horses, etc.  It was a dream come true.  We have talked for years about how do you teach children a work ethic living in the city.  Apparently, you send them to horse camp.

Then we had a moment of faith Wednesday morning.  We were just about to leave the house when Jared had an SVT.  I felt horrible for him, he was in tears about missing camp.  I fought my natural tendencies (to hide and protect him from the world) and told him if we could convert him quickly he could still make it to camp.  That was all he needed to hear and he courageously plunged his head into the ice bucket three times and on the third try it worked.  I texted Jane told her we'd be 15 minutes late and we headed out.  Chris was handling all the doctor correspondences and he was surprised and pleased that I was still taking him to camp.

When we got to the stable I informed them about our morning.  One of the trainers had personal experience with SVTs and both instructors knew a little about Jared situation.  Thankfully, this was the morning the Farrier had come to teach the children his trade so I was able to talk to them quietly behind the children.

Kassie then shared with me a story that made my heart melt.  Jared generally rides her horse "Poppy".  Kassie thought she was seeing Poppy adjust himself to help keep Jared's balance when ever Jared faltered.  That is not a normal thing for a horse to do.  Kassie thought maybe she was seeing something, being biased since it was her horse and all, so she asked Steve and Jane to watch.  Much to their surprise they too saw Poppy doing it.  Apparently, somehow Poppy and Jared have truly bonded.  Later that night when I told Chris, he said to tell Kassie she can never sell Poppy and Kassie said she never would.

Needless to say I stayed around for a while on Wednesday.  It was fun to see the Farriers do their work and they were great with the kids.  Jared had a ton of questions and they were patient in answering them all.  However, after a while Amber and Titus needed play time too.  Thankfully, my friend Cecily lives less than a mile from the stables and happens to have a three year old named Corrie that Titus really likes.  With some urging from Chris that it was okay to leave, we headed over to their house for the rest of the morning.  Kassie guessed I was glued to my phone even sent a photo of Jared to ease my worries.  Despite a little apprehension everyone ended up having a really great day.

Cecily was kind enough to have us stay at her house during camp the rest of the week.  Titus was thrilled, he likes Corrie better than his "lake camp".  Amber had a safe place to crawl around.  I was thankful to hang out with a friend.

 

On Friday, they put on a mini-horse show to show off what the children had learned during the week.  The show was at noon, we picked Chris up from work so he too could attend.  Jared was second in the points competition and was awarded the "Most improved Posting Trot" award.  Lance was awarded the "Best Sportsmanship". In addition to their awards they both got to pick out stuffed ponies.  Jared named his pink pony "Beauty" and Lance named his "Corvette".

We were very proud of both the boys.  They had performed exceptionally.  Jane and Kassie sang their praises everyday.  It was nice to hear, especially since they are not the type to flatter.  The week was a success on many levels.  The boys learned about horses and more importantly the gift of work.  I learned to walk in faith a little more.  A lesson that we will too soon need to exercise again.

Tubby Tops Twenty

A week before Amber turned 8 months old, she weighed in at twenty pounds!

That same week she took her first step.  Her attempts at taking more are a bit unstable but I'm sure she'll have that all worked out before she reaches nine months.

One of her favorite past-times is blowing "raspberries".  She even raspberried herself to sleep one night.

Another favorite is having Lance carry her around in the baby carrier.  This was not our idea; Lance begged for weeks and we finally decided to let him give it a try.

We are amazed at how aware she is. Perhaps it's quite impossible, but she seems to understand much of the conversations around her and reacts accordingly.  One day, Chris asked Lance to set up Sarge's cage and she immediately crawled to were it's stored and started to try to pull it out from underneath the couch.  Scary stuff :-)

Aunt Susie pointed out that there is no doubting she's a girl.  We are biased, but we sure think she's beautiful!

Here favorite show is the "Speekee", which is a Spanish immersion program I am using for the boys.  Whenever the purple puppet comes on the screen, she's totally engrossed. Some of her first words may even be in Spanish. I play "Speekee" at lunch, which allows everyone (including me) to eat (and finish!) and also learn something.

 

Just like her brothers, she really likes the water - faucets, showers, baths, dog bowls, and now the pool. Chris found a really nice floatie for her and she really likes it.

Its difficult to watch her grow up so fast, knowing its our last baby. We are enjoying the journey as we have with all our children, trying never to speed it up or slow it down.