Hi everyone, it's me Joshua. Don't tell my Mama, but I have started my own blog! If you've come here to read about me, come on over to visit me, it's called Pooh Bear's Adventures.
Can't wait to hear from all of you!
Bear hugs to everyone- Joshua
P.S. I came back to tell you that I changed my blog over to Word Press, the link is updated!
See the look on that sweet little face? That is exactly how Joshua feels about his new therapy program! I think he would like to call the founder of the NACD, Bob Doman, and ask him if he has something against kids! He,he,he,he! I am seeing a defiant side of Joshua I haven't seen before, but developmentally speaking, that is a good thing. The milestones that we parents of "differently abled" kids celebrate are sometimes quite a bit different than what we would celebrate for our "typical" kids. I certainly did NOT feel like celebrating when Christine threw her first tantrum! :-)
It's not really THAT bad, he is just so used to doing his thing, his own thing, which does not include Mom, and Dad touching him all over all of the time and making him do things he doesn't want to do. It's WORK, and let's face, none of us really likes to work too hard. So, I can't blame him, poor kid. At least I have my nephew Eli to look to, he was an emotional wreck also when he began his program, but he DID, eventually, give in to the fact that this was his life now and it became routine. Routine is good, especially for kids. So, I hope to report to you all in a month or so that our new program has become routine, and not so much work!
I love the fact that the program is so laid out and so specific...do this for blank amount of time, blank times a day, check off the box. I like lists and I like being able to check things OFF of the list.
Joshua has an EXTREME facination with string, string of any kind. The other night I was holding him against me with his head on my shoulder, when he looked over my shoulder and spotted the ties on the back of my shirt. He suddenly lunged upwards and over and snatched them right into his mouth! He just hung there, for a good ten minutes, sucking on those strings, making his little sound that he makes when he sucks his thumb in bed at night. As you can see from the picture, he is pretty happy and content. Who needs toys? Certainly not Joshua!
Joshua just got this cool new chair last week. It's called a Tripp Trapp Chair and it's made by the Stokke company. Isn't it cool looking? He had been sitting in a booster seat strapped to a dining room chair before, and his legs were getting marks on the calves where the chair was cutting into him. This chair is completely adjustable, the seat can move up and down, the footstool moves up and down so that it can be the exact height he needs for those very long legs of his. :-) It's meant to put a child anywhere from the age of 8 months on at the right height for the kitchen table so that they can enjoy really being a part of the family dinner time. I am not quite ready for Joshua to be at the table, I admit it, he would be pulling everyone else's plates off the table and smearing his food all over. He'll get there though! Once a child is older the seat is removed and the footstool becomes the new seat, so it's going to be able to really grow with him!
Well this is my SLOWLY breaking my way back into blogging post...:-)
I have posted about this father and son team before, but this video really tells so much more of the story, and best of all; it's in their own words. They inspire me more than I can ever express...
You can also click HERE to read a great article that was done in Sport Illistrated on the Team Hoyt.
I know I have not blogged in two weeks, but now I am announcing my "official" blogging break. I don't plan to be back until October, but really it may be sparse even then, considering Joshua's evaluation at the NACD is scheduled for October 2 and within a week of that we will have his "program" to daily attend to. Believe me, after watching my sister do this with my nephew Eli, I know it takes a while to get into a groove with it all, and add school with Caylee and keeping the house on top of that, and well...I can only pray that I will have more energy than I think I will. :-)
So, just a quick update...
Everything here is going great, we are in the full swing of school again, and it feels good. Christine and I just finished our 4th week of ASL class at The Goodrich Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and we are learing a TON, and having a great time doing it together.
Here's a pic of Joshua, looking as if he is really modeling, his new Fuzzi Bunz diapers. I love them! I ordered the package of 12 and it seems enough. I throw them in the wash every other night, and fold'em all up in the morning. They are so simple to use, I wish I had thought to switch to them before now. Joshua will most likely be in diapers for at LEAST a couple of more years, so I expect that it will save us a quite a bit of money in the long run! The Fuzzi Bunz company is forcing all retailers to raise the price as of September 1, so if you've been putting off purchasing them, wait no longer!! I do plan that I will get a few more before then, maybe in the next size up. I love them though, and even Hubby doesn't mind changing them since there aren't any pins to worry about!
Hubby is on vacation for 2/maybe 3 weeks in September, so we are going to be really enjoying him, after not seeing too much of him the past few months because of his strange new hours at work.
I will still be reading, maybe only lurking, at my friend's blogs. If you want to contact me, feel free to e-mail me anytime. I'll still be praying for all my blogging buddies while I am gone. Shelly is expecting the birth of her second son, anytime now! Tonia is embarking on her 30 Days of Nothing journey beginning September 1st! Go over and read about it, and join in if you feel led to!
Photos taken of all the kids during our Angelman get-together last Friday...All Joshua's new friends!
Here are the three brothers first, loved meeting them! :
Jacob-14:
Gabriel-10:
Elijah-4:
This is Nicholas, he's 4:
A sweet shot of Nicholas and his mama:
Here is a shot of Grace with her mom, who's wearing her cool Hippy Chick and Maya wrap (I have to get me one of those to save my back!) :
Grace, sweetie, obviously loving it in the sling with mom:
MY little monkey, having a good time:
I am so glad I was able to get pictures, I love looking at all of those sweet faces! It was a really good time. I am so thankful to get to meet all of them!
Today we met three other families, at a local destination, who all have children with Angelman Syndrome, like Joshua. The mom of the sweet little girl, who's three, in this video with Joshua set it all up, and it was a GREAT time!!! One of the mom's was there with her three boys who all have AS, one is 14, the other 10, and the other 4. The other family has a four year old boy. They were all just great to be around, fun kiddos! I'll post more pics of the other kids later! But for now here is a videos of Joshua and his friend Grace.
Date night: Lady In The Water last Saturday night. I really enjoyed it. Click on the link to read the Focus on the Family-Plugged In review.
Reading:
Consuming:
Fresh, raw goat's milk. Joshua is lactose intolerant, and his new program at the NACD suggests that he be taken off of all dairy because of his chronic congestion and ear infections. I found a local woman who sells fresh raw goat's milk, and this has been our second week of drinking it around here. Joshua has has NO symptoms of his usual lactose intolerance, the lactose in goat's milk is much different than in cow's milk, and much easier to digest, plus I am giving him a good pro-biotic which helps with lactose digestion also. Joshua loves the goat's milk and seems to be putting on some needed weight also. We buy it in the half gallon canning jars, but I found them much too hard to pour from, so I found the neat half gallon glass jar on the left from The Container Store tonight, I love it!
This is a picture of Joshua at the hospital on Wednesday. His ENT put tubes in his ears that day. There was a little boy in pre-op in the very next cubicle who was pretty loud and upset beforehand, so I put my headphones on Josh, with some classical music playing, and he seemed to really relax and enjoy listening. :-) I am SO blessed to have a Hubby who will take the day off of work to be with us for events such as this!!! The procedure went very smoothly, but he was VERY upset when coming out of sedation, he woke up and didn't know where he was or who the people around him were...Hubby and I asked the nurse if we could please just take him home right away, for he would not calm down while there, thankfully she consented. Sure enough, in the car on the way home he calmed down with a good bottle of apple juice, Mommy kissing his hands (one of his FAVORITE things) and some Wiggles in the car stereo. After we made it home, he ate a bit of baby cereal, and quickly went to sleep once in his crib...four hours later, he awoke and you would never have known by his behaviour that anything had happened. Thank you Lord!!
Christine and my nephew, Sam, left yesterday to spend the rest of the week in San Antonio at my mom's house. Tomorrow they are going to Sea World! I am so jealous :-) I told them to kiss a dolphin for me and to bring me home a penguin, they are so cute! I am missing my baby girl and my Sweetie!
I am bird sitting Christine's bird, Lydia, while she is gone. Christine actually wrote instructions out for me of what to do with Lydia, and one of them included "Play with her for at least 30 minutes and day. You can either just cuddle with her, or you can play some ball with her." He,he,he,he,he!! :-)
The Idealist You are creative with a great imagination, living in your own inner world. Open minded and accepting, you strive for harmony in your important relationships. It takes a long time for people to get to know you. You are hesitant to let people get close. But once you care for someone, you do everything you can to help them grow and develop. You would make an excellent writer, psychologist, or artist.
Aware, astute, and understanding, the INFP mom is sensitive to her kids' feelings and needs. Responsive and helpful, she tends patiently to those needs as they arise. But she's comfortable letting her kids follow their own course and make their own choices, offering insight to head off trouble along the way. The INFP takes vicarious pleasure in watching her kids enjoy childhood and is happiest creating pleasant, memorable times for them. Stay-sane tip: You function at your best when you have long blocks of unstructured time — time to deal with the unexpected, loll around with your baby, and pursue creative projects.
I would have to say that this fits me perfectly! I definitely do need time to "loll" around! :-)
Found the links to get this info over at Mommy Life. Hi Barbara!
UPDATE: Click HERE to go to the site that tells how your personality type affects your mothering style. Sorry, I forgot to include it last time!
My nephew Jeremiah, the clown of the family, washing his hair.
Jeremiah, Josh, and Eli in the tub at my sister's house, Sam and Evan are at the other end. 5 boys in a tub at once!
Josh now likes to walk up the stairs instead of crawling. He really gets those little feet going fast! His therapist, yesterday, showed me how to let him hold the railings as he goes, so that when he does do it on his own, he will already know how.
After trying just about everything else, moving furniture to block entries, and many other things...Hubby installed a sheet of plexiglass over the entrance to the fireplace to keep Joshua OUT of it! He is not too happy with the new arrangement that has spoiled all of his fun! I on the other hand am giddy with joy everytime he tries to get into it and finds the plexiglass still there. Ha,ha!
We had a fun time visiting with "old friends" whom we haven't seen in TOO long this week! My friend Elaine and her girls, Alison and Mallory.
My nephew, Eli, had his evaluation at the NACD this past Monday. I went along, since Josh will be the next one to go! The NACD organization "teaches parents how to utilize a multitude of therapies to create new neurological pathways in the brain of their impaired child thereby circumventing the injured or malfunctioning areas of the brain".
It has been an extremly busy week, and now I am off to spend a few hours by myself, thanks to dear Hubby!
I realized I haven't given a Josh update in a while, and had some pictures to share too. Josh has been having a horrible time cutting his two year molars recently. One of them came through in one night! The night before I had felt a small edge of one tooth, and then the next morning he opened up his mouth for a bite of oatmeal and I saw blood and a huge tooth! I don't remember any of Christine's teeth ever coming through like that, it was a much more gradual thing. Well, only three more to go now, I know he will be glad when they are all in, and Advil is no longer in his bottle. :-)
The little monkey is getting much quicker at climbing on things now! Too quick! :-) Pulling up to the kitchen counter is a new favorite activity and the guy is so tall that he can reach right up on the counter...not good, especially for his sister's china tea cup. OOPS! (He has promised to buy her a new one the next time mom takes him to World Market!) I have to now be very careful what I leave on the counters when he is around, I forsee a gated kitchen in our future! Otherwise he may grab a big knife or pull a pot of boiling water down on himself, oh, it's much more complicated whenever your little one is so tall!
Joshua LOVED the fireworks display we watched. He loved the lights and the noise, it would look surprised and just gaze up and then giggle and giggle over the noise. It was really fun for all of us to watch his reaction!
We will soon be starting a new therapy, with the NACD. My nephew, Eli, will be going through it also, my sister and I are very lucky to have each other to go through these kinds of things with. I am going to go with my sis and Eli on Monday to Eli's evaluation at the NACD here in Texas. Joshua won't be starting the program for a couple of months still, we are still in the saving process, but it won't be much longer now.
Well...I'll have to update more at another time, I just saw the clock!
Christine checked out both of these videos from our public library and they are both really good teaching videos. Be sure and check your library, if they don't have them maybe you could get it through inter-library loan.
The first one is: I Want to Learn Sign Language! this one is listed for ages 5-12, but I think it is good for any beginner. This one is volume 1, so of course there is a volume 2 also. We have only watched the first one so far. Christine has already memorized every sign in that first one, so we will be getting volume 2 tomorrow, our library day. The acting is a bit cheesy, but the teaching is wonderful!
The second video is one even your youngest ones will enjoy! Sign-Me-A-Story, this one stars Linda Bove, whom we all know from Sesame Street. Ms. Bove and some fellow actors are signing actors who are acting out the fairy tales, Little Red Riding Hood and Goldilocks and the Three Bears, while someone narrates what is being signed. It is so cute. Christine took this one with her when she babysat the neighbor children last week and they all loved it and even the 5 year old was able to tell her back the signs for the story.
I hope you can find them and that you enjoy them. They were such a neat find, the library is wonderful!
