A bit of bragging

Nate has been amazing us with his computer skills. He loves Starfall, an ABCs website, and now he can pretty much do all of the preschool portion by himself. He needs my help only on some of the memory/matching games. He is just mastering using the mouse this week--with his left hand of course, since his right still has a cast. I am so impressed!



In general, Nate is doing better and better with his communication. No one besides us knows what he is trying to say, but he is at least vocalizing and trying to use noises to express what he wants. I've even taught him to call "Mama" if he wants my help on the computer; he hasn't seemed to generalize that action to other areas (he doesn't call my name for anything else), but that will come.

I've been finding myself praying much more for patience, as I tend to get frustrated that Nate still can't talk--and he gets frustrated too. I have faith that God will give me more than I need.

We are so blessed by our little boy!

Congratulations are in order

Welcome to the world, Ezra Chalmers Hales! Bryce and Ashley welcomed their baby boy last night. I'd been checking their blog religiously waiting for the news, and he's finally here (a week past due)!

Some pictures

I just started giving Lucy baths in the tub instead of the baby bath seat I have for the sink. She had started kicking and splashing a bit too much in the sink (water was just pouring everywhere), so now she can kick as much as she wants!



Here is Nate leaving for "school" (therapy) this morning.

Home improvements

Here are some pictures of what I've been doing in the house lately. I'm almost done with the green in the kitchen. It's kind of a 70s avocado color, but I love it with the white cabinets (and what I hope will eventually be dark grey or black countertops). I'm unsure about the curtains, though (and ignore the pillows on the couch--they don't match). I like the panels but don't know about the valance. At first I put the valance in front of the curtains and didn't like it, but I think I like it a little better behind the panels (even though I know that isn't really the right way to do it). I might take it down completely!--we'll see.

From house to home

Well, I still have about five or six boxes still sitting around, but this week I've been doing the stuff I love--making this place feel like home. Today I've hung quite a few pictures, and I'm also hoping to finish the living room curtains in the next day or two. (I found this really great light blue/brown/tan fabric at the discount fabric place that is going to match our new couch perfectly.)

Here's Lucy enjoying her Bumbo.

Bath time

Nate's reaction to his first bath with a cast: not amused.

Cast

Yesterday at the orthopedist was not nearly as traumatic as it could have been. They didn't need to set the bone, so they just put the cast right on--it was very easy. Nate slept great last night and is his usual self today.

What a day!

Are you like me--do you think little kids who have casts are just so cute but just so sad, and you wonder how those kinds of things happen? Well, wonder no more, because Nate is now one of those children... Nate fell off of a tiny slide in the toddler nursery at church this morning and broke his arm in two places (the radius and the ulna).


We knew it was more than just a typical injury because he cried for more than two minutes, but even then he didn't cry very much (a testament, we think, to his high pain tolerance). He kept his arm by his side and didn't move it, though he could move his fingers. It wasn't too fun getting the x-rays or holding him still to have the splint put on, but Nate is a trooper. He was happy to have a Happy Meal and chocolate milk afterwards (with enzymes of course). We have to take him to the orthopedist tomorrow to have a cast put on. :( Poor boy! I hope these are his only broken bones, but since Nate is all boy, all the time, I'm not so sure!

Lucy's room

We've done a lot of work around the house today, including moving most of the boxes left in the garage into the house so I can unpack them this week. We also put the crib into Lucy's room (and put a borrowed crib in Nate's room--we've decided he isn't ready for a big boy bed), so now her room is pretty much finished. I love it!

Nate and Lucy: 4 months

I have such fun looking through my old pictures of Nate! Here are some comparison pictures from when he was 4 months (and Lucy today). What sweethearts!

Milestone

Lucy rolled over for the first time today! Here she is.



Nate didn't roll until quite late, so it's nice this time to have it happen a little sooner.

Pics

Nate recently discovered that he loves ketchup, a.k.a. dip dip:

And Lucy is getting cuter and spunkier every day!

I'm onto you, kid...

Nate has this very specific laugh he laughs when he thinks he is alone with Lucy and he is doing something to her. If I hear that laugh, I come running. He has never done anything harmful to her (at least not on purpose); he's usually just pushing her pacifier into her mouth or poking her nose or ears or something. It's just so funny to me how recognizable his noises are.

On the homefront, our TV is up and running as of today. I finished painting the ceiling in the master bathroom last night (one coat primer, two coats white paint to cover the dark tan that was there). My enthusiasm for painting is wearing out quickly, but I still have two "must paint" areas left (small kitchen wall and big guest bathroom). We are unpacked enough to live our daily lives but there sure seem to be a LOT of boxes left in the garage. :)

New schedule

Nate's new/extended therapy schedule starts today, so he's in his in-home ABA from 8-11 this morning. On Tuesdays he just has PT at home for an hour in the late afternoon. Then Wednesday, we've worked it out so that Jon can drive Nate to the center for therapy starting at 8:30 (then he'll continue on to work), and I'll pick Nate up at noon. (We have an extra car seat we used for traveling to VA so we can keep it in Jon's car.) Thursdays I'll take Nate for his 9:30-12:00 therapy, and Fridays we have off. I'm really excited about the Wednesday morning thing, because it means that I only have to take Lucy up there for a long morning (sort of messes up any schedule she's on) once a week.

Videos

Here's Nate cutely kicking a ball (and you can see a little bit of the house too):


And Lucy last night:

Back in the swing

Jon hooked up our TV and our internet yesterday/today, so now I feel connected to the world again. Phew! That felt like a long week.

Lucy "found her voice" today. She spent a lot of the day making these cute high-pitched squeals, almost like she was singing. Love it!

Tomorrow we're going to church and then we have a wedding in the afternoon, so we won't get much house stuff done, but at least we're settled enough that it won't matter too much. I'll try to post with more pictures soon. For now, here is Lucy laughing at Jon last night:

Very slowly but surely

We're in our new house, and we're doing OK living through the chaos. On top of having most of our stuff in boxes or strewn on random floors at our house, this week is VBS week at church, and I'm helping again this year. Can you say "stress"? :) So far at the house, I've painted Lucy's room (two coats primer, one coat of a super light pink), cleaned a lot, painted about 1/3 of the main bathroom (just the area that is around/behind the washer/dryer), unpacked a lot of kitchen boxes, and I'm sure there's more but I think I'm too tired to think!

Our internet is getting hooked up here in the next few days (we're online using Jon's phone right now), so I'll be on more then and will post some pictures too. :)

Done deal

Escrow closed on the condo today--it's ours! We went by tonight to pick up the keys, and I immediately took down the purple curtains in the living room, dining room, and master bedroom (this girl definitely has a thing for purple). Colleen and I took out the contact paper from the kitchen cabinets too. It looks like tomorrow will be a cleaning day and a "partial moving" day. I doubt we'll get everything moved, but we'll get started. Jon has his company's 14-foot truck this weekend, but I think he could probably get it next weekend if we needed it then too.

I don't think I ever mentioned it, but we were able to make the loans work so that we are also able to keep our Irvine house and rent it out. Yay!

Questions I've been pondering

Where is the balance between helping Nate to be "normal" and accepting him for who he is? I am glad he is getting so many kinds of therapy and seems to be doing well with it. But is there a point where we are pushing him too much, not allowing him to be his own person?

No parent wants to hear their child has something "wrong." We want our children's lives to be easy, happy, so when we hear they have a condition that means things will be more difficult for them, it's heartbreaking. But do I really know what's going to make Nate happy when he's older, or am I projecting what I would want for him (to have friends, to do well in school, to speak eloquently, to get married and have children)?

Estee Klar-Wolfond, a mother of a child with autism and an activist, writes,

We do not hear about research that seeks to help autistic people be the best autistic people they can be. We need to redirect our attention to merging help (with the more disabling aspects of autism) with respect (respecting the autistic person’s right to exist) and realize that there is life beyond an over-simplified “cure.” Further, helping the more disabling aspects of autism (anxiety, sensory issues) can exist outside of a "cure" for autism.

I urge every parent (but for those who visit this blog, I bet I’m preaching to the choir), to actively seek out the alternatives and become proactive in not accepting strategies that change your child to “appear normal” because they will ultimately be very damaging to their self-image as teenagers and adults, and we will have greater problems to contend with later.

I don't necessarily agree completely with the author (e.g., "self image" and self esteem often encourage us to look inside ourselves for our identity, when really our identity is in Christ), but she did make me think. I don't want Nate to think we believe there's something wrong with who he is. He does need therapy, because we want him to be able to communicate effectively and function in the world. But beyond his learning to talk and at least identify (if not understand) social mores, I don't want to push him too much. (But what is too much? I don't want to waste his most formative years when therapy and behavior "modification" and discipline and proactive parenting have the most impact! I don't want to say, "Nate is just going to be this way," just because it's easier not to take action. As you can see, I haven't worked this all out in my head, which is why this post is titled, "Questions.")

I guess what I really need to keep my focus on is fostering Nate's spiritual growth. I want him to become a believer in Christ, and I want him to be happy, however that happens. I want him to know we love him no matter what, that we enjoy his personality and want him to pursue his interests.

VA

Here are some highlights from our trip.

• Jon and I left Nate and Lucy with my parents midway through the week and went to Natural Bridge and the caverns that are there too. It was really neat. I'd been to Natural Bridge about 10 years ago but hadn't been to the caverns.
• Nate played some new games with my parents. My dad put three cups upside down and placed an object underneath one; then he moved the cups around while Nate watched and then had to pick which cup the object was under. Nate loved it. He also liked an alphabet puzzle my mom had, and by the third or fourth day of the trip, he knew all 26 letters (he can even say some of them correctly). He says "Umpa" for Grandpa and "Neenee" or "Nannie" for Mimi. (FYI for the video below: Jack is my parents' dog.)





• Several people commented on how Lucy looks more like Jon than pictures made it seem. She definitely seems to have his eyes and face/head shape. I love that! :)
• My dad and I played at "social hour" at the place where my grandparents live. Pop introduced us, and we played six or seven pieces. It was fun!
  
  
  
  
• At the end of the week, our friends Nate and Louise and their children, who are in the states for a family reunion in North Carolina, came and stayed at Hanshill for two nights. It was a sweet but very short time. Their three girls, who are 4, 2, and 4 months, are adorable. Here is the youngest with Lucy and then a cute bath pic (hate those red eyes):
  
  
  
  
  

We had a lovely trip!