Sunday night after the kids were in bed, the tree fell a second time. I was in the kitchen so knew that no one was within 10 feet of it. So, we grabbed some wire and a screw. It is now securely attached to the wall - however the boys do not know this!

The next morning the youngest two thought it was funny to throw gloves into the tree. Then JB decided it would be fun to throw an ornament. Just happened to be an ornament that was around 30 years old and breakable. I just about lost it. I told them that if they keep touching the tree, that there would be no Christmas presents under it this year. That they had been disrespectful and broken an ornament that I really liked. Somehow we were able to make it to school on time, despite my rant and I had to apologize to the boys for coming down on them so hard - it is only just stuff.

B's class at school has a set schedule every morning. One of the things they do is circle up and have 'newsworthy' time. This is where each child that chooses can share something of 'interest' with the whole class. The afternoon of the ornament incident, one of B's friends came over after school. One of the first things he said was 'where is the ornament that was your mom's favorite?'. I asked a few questions only to find out that the tree falling over and the ornament incident made the morning 'newsworthy' section at school. I think his teacher was horrified that I threatened to take away all presents.

The paper on the wall for the impulsive child is somewhat effective, but as he told me, I need to put paper up in the car (after he drew in the car). JB has learned how to crawl over the railing on the top bunk and drop down below (there is a mattress below him). It takes a bit of worry off me because I now know he can get down safely. The younger two have been in bed recently as early as 7pm. They are just exhausted and it makes for very productive evenings for me. JB starts his third speech therapy session this week and physical therapy will be just before that. It is Thursday afternoons, so my job Thursday mornings is to make sure he gets a good nap! I pulled out the video camera today to see if I could record JB talking. I have not been successful in the past because he always likes to look in the view finder and see himself. So this time I decided to turn the view finder around so he could see it. That meant, though, that I was not able to see for sure what I was recording. Here is what I was able to record. When I downloaded it, and then tried to preview it in the blog, it said an error occurred. But sometimes when I get that message it works, so hopefully it will work for you. (If you are receiving my blog via email, you can only watch videos by going to the actual webpage...welcomeatmyfire.blogspot.com

There has been nothing on the schedule since lunch on Thanksgiving and it has been nice. Lounging around. We have watched way too many movies this weekend. I decided to do Christmas stuff differently this year. I put up all the decorations Friday after the boys were in bed and then saved the tree and decorating the tree for Sunday. The boys have had a ball playing with their nativity sets. They each have one and I love to hear them playing with them. We pulled out all the Santa hats, my boys really love them although we don't really have Santa around the house. Jbird informed me that I look much better in a Santa hat. (Not sure how to take that one). JR went out and got the tree this morning. Made me a little nervous because his idea of cutting down your tree, is pulling up, getting out and finding a tree within the first 20 yards. As long as it is green, it qualifies as a tree. I made him promise to not cut down the first tree he found. He was gone a couple of hours and he did good. Probably the fullest tree we have had. The boys had a great time looking at all their ornaments. Each year they get a 'yearly' ornament from Granny with a current picture and then each year I take the boys to purchase an ornament. Here is a picture of the finished product.......

Yes, our tree is leaning, because it took less than 2 hours for the older 2 to knock it over. (Still need to get it straight) On the way home from church today, anticipating getting the tree up, Jbird asked why they can't hide behind the tree because it is the best hiding spot. We had a long talk about getting behind the tree. I see my words fell on deaf ears. At least I had a quiet evening as the boys were stuck upstairs until bedtime!

We also made gingerbread houses. I bought this year a mini village thinking it would be cool if the boys could have their own houses to decorate. Uuuggghhh. Trying to cut the pieces apart and then glue them together. I think going forward I will stick to the one big house and they each decorate a side! Here are some pictures........
(Notice snaggle tooth B. He can now appropriately sing "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth....")



I love it when circumstances are such that they provide real life learning. The boys are doing chores and they have a little bit of spending money. Last week, due to a Red Box malfunction, we were given some codes for free movies. The boys wanted some movies, so Jbird opted to get one at the library and B wanted a movie from Red Box. We headed to Red Box and Benjamin has learned his way around those machines, so before I knew it, he had pulled up a Pirates of the Carribean Wii game. He was so excited it was available and asked if he could rent it. Without thinking, I said sure but he would pay me $2 when we got home. Okay fine he said. He got the game and as we were driving off, Jbird reminded all of us that B is grounded from the Wii. Oh, he was upset. He wanted to take it back but I told him too late, we were already charged for it. It was a great opportunity to talk about impulse buying. He was so excited when he saw it was available, he did not think things through. Now I will forever have something to refer back to that he will get.

JR got a deer Thanksgiving morning. After hiking 20 plus miles this hunting season, he went to a friend's land and was basically able to drive around until they saw the deer. It was a small buck. Meat for the freezer.

We had a really nice Thanksgiving. A lazy morning. We watched the parade on tv and then had a scavenger hunt. I gathered 4 of like objects (paper cups, straws, rubber bands, wash cloths, dominoes, etc). Since Jbird cannot read yet, figured it was easiest if they each had a pile of items to look at and then go find. It was a hard concept for them to begin with, but by the end of the game they had it down. It provided more physical exercise than I intended. I assumed they would find a few objects and then run upstairs to match them with their pile. But they would find one item at a time, run upstairs, run back downstairs, find another object, run up stairs and so on. They enjoyed it. I had to coach them on how it was not necessarily being the fastest but having the best eye as you looked around a room. (What are the chances this game can teach them to see 'the mess' in the room, when they have told me the room is picked up and they don't see the other 27 small items scattered around the room).

Then for lunch, we headed to some friends from church. There were 3 other families there and it was just a really nice time. It had been quite a few years since we have had Thanksgiving meal with someone and then stayed after to just hang out. No football, just all sat around for several hours talking. The kids did really great, except one child falling off his chair during the meal and causing a scene. We had one casualty with the toys they were playing with too. There was, what appeared to be a really nice doll, that I found on the floor with her hair scattered everywhere. I found a piece of braided hair and wondered if one of the boys had flung her around until it came out. Still not sure what happened, because the boys are not real sure. But either way, the host was very gracious. They said all the stuff down there was junk and it did not matter to them. She said it was probably a 25 cent doll from a second hand store (and maybe that is why all the hair came out).

We came home and I put all the boys to bed and curled up on the couch by myself, working on organizing all my recipes and watched a movie.

Right now the boys are downstairs watching a movie and I am soon to join them with hot chocolate and popcorn (one of our favorite treats right now). One thing I enjoy about this holiday season is all the fun movies.

This morning the boys invented a new game and it pleased me because it requires physical activity on their part. They put a step stool beside the bed. Then they go down the hallway to get a good running start. They step on the step stool and then catapult themselves through the air onto the bed. Then Jbird wanted to show me his new trick in the playroom. Actually a trick that made my heart skip a beat. He climbed to the top of the climbing wall and then had me hand him one of the rings we have hanging from the ceiling. Yep, he let go of the wall and flew down and across the room. So thankful for the hedge of protection!

Off to enjoy some time with the boys!

We recently had biscuits and gravy and bacon and eggs for dinner, just before bible study. For some reason B thought it would be fun to take the biscuits and gravy to bible study and share with the other adults. I looked at him and told him 'no, that mom happens to really like biscuits and gravy and I don't get to eat it very much and I am not interested in sharing.' Jbird's eyes got really big and told me that that was not nice and that Jesus would not like it. I was busted, for not wanting to share.

I finally broke down and bought some clippers for the boys. I do not like buzz hair cuts and have always either tried to cut their hair or a few times a year take them to a barber. However, since it seems to be getting more and more expensive, I decided I would give it a try. Poor Benjamin. Everything looks okay except the front. For some reason one spot is much shorter than the rest. If I were to even it up, he basically would not have any 'bangs'. Hopefully I can only get better the more I use them. I have not tried them on JB yet. I will NOT try them on Jbird and his curls.

The other day I went to pick Jbird up at pre-school. Normally I leave JB in the car and just run in quick. This time around we were a few minutes early so decided to go inside with JB. He loves to climb the stairs inside and sure enough when it was time to go, he wanted me to pick him up and carry him down the stairs. Not that that is a terrible request, but lately, he asks to be picked up a lot and carried. Not a habit I want to get into as he is getting older and bigger and hard to carry for long period of time. So, I told him no. He just stood there and watched me and watched me and watched me. He was not going to budge. A stand off had begun. One of the preschool teachers, not realizing what was going on, helped him down the steps. So, now he stood at the bottom of the steps wanting up. I again said no. I told Jacob we were going to go outside. The teachers were becoming aware of what was happening and they just watched, as did JB. He stood in the same spot and did not move a muscle. Jbird and I walked outside and stood for close to 2 minutes. Frustrated and not knowing what the teachers were thinking or needed to do, I walked back inside. They both looked at me and said he wants a stand off. They told me to go back outside if I wanted to and they would keep an eye on him. So, Jbird and I walked outside and got in the car. I sat in the drivers seat and waved at JB (he could see me through the glass front door. He just stood there and did not move. I started to put it in reverse and saw one of the teachers kneel down to talk to JB. I could see his eyes get big as the car moved and then he slowly sauntered outside. One small victory for mom! I think next time I will leave him in the car!

I was talking with a friend yesterday about my impulsive child. We were talking about trying to set some boundaries even within the impulsive behavior (drawing on walls or beds). So today Jbird and I walked around the house with scissors, butcher paper and tape. I decided we would tape some paper to the walls so that there would always be some paper in each room when the urge hit for him to draw. He would find a spot where he had previously drawn and we put paper up. We will see how well it works. Hopefully JB won't try drawing on the walls without paper and hopefully Jbird will use the paper only when 'needed' and not just whenever he wants to draw. I have told him that now that there is paper up, there are no excuses and there will be consequences if he draws on other things.

B is out of school Wed, Thurs and Friday of this week. Other than trying to go sledding and heading to some Church friends for Thanksgiving, no plans!

Had a quiet weekend! Got into the single digits, so was not much on venturing out, except to do some solo shopping.

Talked with the speech therapist today. After scoring the results from the test last week, she is fairly confident that we are actually dealing with apraxia. There could be some phonological disorder too, but hard to tell because some of the phonological stuff normally disappears when they turn 3. Apraxia is a long uphill road, basically retraining the mental processing. Jb did throw a frustration fit today at therapy for the first time. She was surprised she was just now seeing one.

My precious impulsive child. I thought we were making some headway when I saw him recently pick up a marker and turn to the wall. Then he said 'oh, we don't draw on the wall, but on paper'. Yeah! Then later that day I found where he had drawn a big green square on the couch with a marker - and yes he colored it in. It was done very nicely and had it been on paper, I would have been impressed. Then I found a lot of scribbling with a black pen all over the sheets of our bed. The other day he went to a friend's house to play (a friend we are just getting to know). We had been there about 2 minutes when the other little boy comes running in and asks "are we suppose to draw on walls?" His mom was puzzled, but I was not. Seems my precious child had found a really, really long, big ol' fat pencil and just had know if it would write. It did. Fortunately the other mom was very understanding and did not seem to mind - she was able to get all the marks off without taking off any paint. Disciplining for these things just seems to have no impact.

My 'wall' is now finished. Somewhere between when the boys turned 2 and 2 1/2 I have had two collages done of them. Just recently had JB's done and they are on the wall. (Despite the angle of the picture, yes, they are hanging straight). Just love how they have all turned out and how the pictures capture so much of their personality.


Here are the other two pictures I had taken while we were at it and they are now framed on the wall too. (It is hard to take pictures on a wall because of the flash reflection in the picture. All the more reason for me to figure out how to use the manual modes on my camera and turn off the flash!)

Recently JR and I got a babysitter and went out. We went to shoot some pool and I lost terribly. While we were out, B called me on the phone and wanted to know "where my stickers were that I put on letters. Not the stickers with the tennis balls and my name but the ones with the flag." Ahhhh.....stamps. I asked why he wanted to know and he told me he had written a letter. Curious, but told him where they were. When I came home he showed me the letters. He had written two of them, one to Mr. Smith his principal and one to a teacher's aid. It melted my heart that he, unprompted, wanted to write a letter. Here is his letter.

Translation - Mr. Smith, I know how much you like being our principal and I know I like you being my principal. Your Friend. Then he wrote gobble gobble down by the turkey. I saw Mr. Smith the next day and the first thing he told me was how much he appreciated the letter and how it made his day. He has it on his bulletin board! It provided a great opportunity for me to tell B how much his words meant to Mr. Smith and how much he blessed him that day. I encouraged him to continue writing letters and looking for ways to bless and encourage others.

Speaking of B, the other morning he just could not focus long enough to get dressed for school. So my precious little boy had to go to school in his Star Wars pajama bottoms. If I could have gotten away with it, he would have gone barefoot but I knew that was not permissible. Hopefully going forward mornings will be more focused!

JB got approved for speech three times a week! Yeah. We also saw the opthomalogist today. JB was not very cooperative, which is some what normal at that age. It made it hard because he could not look at a picture and tell us what he saw. She was able to get him to track, but not for very long. His eyes move in all directions but she struggled with his visual attentiveness. She said he is showing a possible correction (need for glasses) but wants to do some more testing and dialate his eyes. She said his visual attentiveness could be from needing a correction (he can't clearly see things so he quickly loses interest) or just the day. I asked her if there could be another issue that causes poor attentiveness, and I honestly can't remember what she said but she did say something. She said from the stand point of the health of the eye, it looks good from what she could see, but we will explore everything at our next appointment in 2 weeks. So no huge red flags at this point, but she also just seemed to think that there are possibly some very subtle things that are adding up to something more (not necessarily a serious 'more').

A quiet weekend. I might get the opportunity to redeem myself with some more pool. Otherwise, bundling up for a good chance of snow.

JB has gotten authorization from insurance to start PT. The report came back that he is below normal range is several different areas in regards to balance and strength. We ordered him some chewelry, in hopes that he will wear it and chew on it than other choking hazards. I talked with a speech therapist down in Austin (thanks Jan for hooking me up). She said everything she has heard it sounds like we are doing all the right things. She did say if it were apraxia that it is a very long road. Still searching out options to get him around other 2 year olds. A much harder thing than one would think.

B has gotten a part in the 2nd grade Christmas program. He is Donner, the reindeer. The only bad thing about it, is that the 2nd grade and the Kindergarten Christmas programs are on the same evening, 30 minutes a part. Still not sure how I am going to manage that one. B has also taken an interest in Sudokus. I have never done them but find that I could get lost in them. I really enjoy them. I am glad that he and I are finding some common interests. He has also taken a liking to one of my all time favorite Christian artists...Rich Mullins (he died in 1997 in his mid 40s). The song Awesome God is played over and over in our car!

This past weekend I went to see the local high school put on 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. I have always enjoyed musicals and the theatre, but for obvious reasons, not been to many. That hopefully will change. I already have plans to go see 'White Christmas' this holiday season. I even checked out Sound of Music from the library this week and have been singing and dancing around the house. Usually the only one to join me is JB. If I had all the time in the world, I would love to get back into doing theatrical performances (not that I have done many, but the few I have done, I have thoroughly enjoyed them) and I would also love to expand my musical abilities - through song and an assortment of instruments that are long neglected in our house (keyboard, harmonica and guitar). Lord willing, some day!

Time to get the kids ready for bed.

The cub scouts recently had an outing to a local candy shop. They each got to make their own sucker with candy molds. They thought it was pretty cool seeing all those colors!




To pass the time while we waited for our molds to freeze, they were given a taste of chocolate out of a 200 pound drum of melted chocolate.




The finished product.......I am not sure how they ever got to sleep that night.

I don't usually like taking the boys grocery shopping, but there is one store that the boys really enjoy, because they get their own carts.


The two boys look so cute walking beside each other with their own cart. Wouldn't you know, the one time I remember my camera, Jbird refuses to get a cart. The store is very kid friendly. The last time we were in there, the owner was stocking some milk and gave each of the boys a carton of chocolate milk on the house.

JB had several appts. this week. Seems like no two people are seeing the same thing. He saw an occupational therapist, physical therapist and pediatrician. Some of them saw a weakness, but on the opposite side as to last week. Some of them saw some visual tracking problems, others did not. Friday morning he had his hearing test. This is the one area everyone involved has been wanting to get something definite. Today we got definite. He tested within normal ranges for frequencies for his age group. So the audiologist had no concerns at this point about his speech being connected to his not being able to hear everything. The pediatrician had looked at his ears on Wed and all looked good. We will just need to watch them once the ear tubes fall out to see if he regresses. Not that there is much regression that could happen at this point. Still have two eye appointments set up for him in the coming weeks. Otherwise, we will plug along with speech, implementing some new things, praying that they trigger something within him that starts bringing it all together. Might try again finding a daycare for a few hours a week for the socialization. Sometimes being around peers can challenge and push kids more than other situations.
The pediatrician did say that with a second speech therapist coming on board, if we don't see some marked improvement in the next 3-4 months, maybe try seeing a developmental pediatrician in another part of the state. Hopefully we start progressing.

On two different occasions I have gone in to check on the boys after they are asleep. I have found the older two, asleep with things on their head.
Many years ago, when I moved from Texas to North Dakota, my mom gave me one of those white 'Russian' looking hats. It is very warm but I don't wear it much, but never wanted to get rid of it. Well, B has discovered it and wore it around the house one evening with his pajamas and later that night he had fallen asleep. (The following two days he also wore it to school....he was so proud of that hat, regardless of the comments he got)



All the boys love the football helmet and for some reason, Jbird wore it to bed.


The chores are slowly starting to pay off. One thing we do is pick out our clothes the night before, so the boys can get dressed first thing in the morning. I try to get them to fold their clothes, so they look a little nicer laying on the floor. This morning I woke up to this....I just had to smile. My little Jbird is sometimes so precise and particular about his clothes.


The last two nights Jbird has been sleeping on the top bunk and loves it. He thinks it is so much warmer up there. One plus is that he has not been waking up in the middle of the night and crawling into bed with us.

For those of you who attempted a guess at the baby pictures on the last post, the answers are Joseph, Jacob, Benjamin, Jacob, Joseph. I had one friend that guessed all 5 right, quite impressive since mom struggles to identify them.

I have always thought my boys all looked so different. Since I was going back through some old pictures, decided to post some of the baby pictures. Two of them have a newborn picture and one that is a few days old. One of them just has one a few days old. Not sure what happened to the hospital pictures of that one boy. Can you tell who is who? Surprising, I had a hard time. They all started out looking alike, but sure changed quickly, in my opinion.

Had our first snowfall of the season yesterday. (A few weeks early in my opinion). The boys had a great time getting out in the back yard.


Jbird has gotten into the card game Slap Jack. As he was waiting for me to play, he started 'shuffling' the cards. Had to laugh because all he was doing was running his hand down one end of the cards to make the shuffling sound. Then he would flip the deck over and do the other end and declare them all shuffled.
When he is mad now, his favorite thing to say is "I am not going to play with you any more Mom." Thankfully he forgets that 2 minutes later.
We got a huge box of Jalepeno peanuts in the mail from my dad. The kind in the shell. Jbird just loves them. I love eating the shell along with the peanut, but these are way too hot for me, but Jbird just eats them hand over fist. The other day JB was napping and Jbird and I just laid on the bed and talked. He was telling me all the sports he was going to play when he turned 5 and was old enough. I am seriously considering getting him a free standing basketball goal for Christmas. I am amazed at how many baskets he makes on a 6 foot hoop. He is the kid that would stand out there in the cold and shoot and shoot and shoot.

I had a huge victory with my eldest son. He finally tried my most favorite comfort food of all times and then asked for seconds. It was chicken fried steak with gravy!! I can't believe the foods my kids miss out on just because they won't even try a bite. I
B has tried out for the 2nd grade Christmas program. I believe they will all be singing but he tried out on Friday for the Director position for the 'play' part of it. A position that would suit him VERY well I think.
Teacher conferences are this next week. Report cards came home on Friday. Just laugh at some of the same comments from last year.

Last night JB was just chattering away while sitting in my lap. Did not have any words just stringing sounds together. The frustrating part, I was trying to watch some TV and found myself telling him to be quiet. What was I thinking. Tomorrow we will have a pow wow with his therapist and see what she thinks of the 'diagnosis' and their recommendations. The one thing in researching Dysarthria further, is it seems a huge component is slurred or slow speech, of which he does not really have. He very well could have a few components of dysarthria and apraxia, the other 'diagnosis' that his therapist has thrown out before.

I am embarrassed to say it, but we hit a milestone this week. For the first time in probably 5 years, the boys and I have been having family dinners. See, JR gets home to late for the boys to eat. So, normally the boys sit at the island and I stand in the kitchen. I seem to always be getting them this or that, so I always figured what was the point in sitting down. Well, things changed this past week. I decided we needed the structure, needed to work on some 'table' manners and the boys needed some chores. It has gone well. At the end of dinner, I ask them a bible question and if they get it right, they get a piece of their Halloween candy. I am also being intentional about asking specific questions about the day. How easily it is to spend a day with my boys but not really connect with them. They seem to be enjoying it too.

I mentioned chores. We officially have chores now. I have tried chores, chore charts etc but to no avail, mainly because of my inconsistencies. However, I went to the bank and made sure I had all the coins and dollars I needed for 2 months. Since B is 7 he gets $7 a month or $1.20 a week and Jbird gets $4 a month or $1 a week. They have been doing really well about staying on top of their chores. The boys switch chores every week. Some of them are daily and some are twice a week. I of course have had to spend some time with them showing them how to do it, but when they switch, each boy with train the other in how to do the chore. They also each have parts of the house that they are responsible for. They don't necessarily have to clean that area, but have to make sure whoever made the mess cleans it or they themselves end up doing it. Finally pushing some of the burden on them. In the long run it will be great for me and them, it is just hard getting it going and knowing how long it is taking. I am determined though not to step in and do it for them. Today is the first pay day. They have containers where they put some money in to spend, save and give away.

JB had a 2 hour evaluation yesterday. I felt like after a year of speech therapy and not much progress, we needed to re-evaluate. He met with 2 therapists that conducted all kinds of tests. They think they have a diagnosis. Yay!!! Dysarthria, which is a neuromuscular impairment. That is, the speech mechanism (larynx, lips, tongue, palate and jaw) may be paralysed, weak or poorly co-ordinated. (Often times this can be seen in older adults with a brain injury, stroke, Parkinsons, etc) A few other things they noticed that are symptoms is poor breathing control and weakness (on his left side). All of it should come, but we will be ramping up the therapies and adding a few more to the list. They are still concerned about his hearing and wants another test to see if we can get better cooperation from him (the last test was one day at 3pm and he had not napped, so he zoned a bit). They also noticed that he was not properly tracking objects with his eyes. We will get that checked out by an opthomalogist in the next couple of weeks. Really important to start working on that before he gets to school age and learning how to read. They noticed how his abdomen was a little distended (swollen) and attributed that to all the air he is swallowing because he is a huge mouth breather. They were able to feel some of his muscles (his trapazoid). Since they were very tight, that is one of the indicators that he is not using proper breath control and without breath control, you can't form words or sentences. While we were there, he took a couple of swallows of his water and when he was done, he was gasping loudly for air. They were like, clear indicator of breath control, and I just laughed and told them whenever he had done that, I looked at him and said 'wow, you were thirsty.'
It is just amazing while talking with them how God created the body and a deficit in one area really affects other areas. So, I am going with Dysarthria and we will see where we are in 6 months or so. Just glad to be able to hang my hat on something right now. They said that he is a very frustrated little boy that is trying very hard to get words out and just not able to. Makes me use a little more patience with him, knowing that he is truly trying but just neurologically unable to do the tasks at hand. (They are not sure how the never damage occurred and they told me I could run further tests, but may or may not get answers.)

Here are some recent pictures....

The boys trying on some glasses and teeth they got in the mail.


I was amazed at how well JB was able to keep them in, once we got them in.

Did not get any pictures of actual trick or treating....but got one over the weekend when we went to a Trunk or Treat party at a church.

Recently took JB to have his 2 year pictures taken. With each of the other two boys I have done collages of them in an 8x24 and 11x14. When we did JB's, I had them take a picture of the 3 boys. (Either I don't know much about resizing photos or when she emailed it to me, she did something with the photo because I can't figure out how to enlarge it.) Anyway, thought it was a great picture, so wanted to post it.