I can't blog and think through my issues at the same time. There is a huge wrinkle in Jack's school life right now and I'm so unhappy about it I can't think straight. I'm unhappy (very) with his school right now. And I'm sorry, bur IEP apparently means "we can do whatever we want and you have no say even though you know your kid the best and we if we say that's appropriate, you can suck it". Yes, that's what I'm hearing, even through it isn't quite in those words. More later.

We just got back from a camping trip. Our annual camping/float trip with hubby's family (and a few friends), to be more precise. This year, we had 39 people in attendance and we floated in 2 rafts, 12 canoes, and 2 kayaks. We stayed in 6 campers, and set up a huge awning, or pavillion-type thing over 5 tables set end to end where we ate and played games and hung out.

I have more pics I can post, but here's just a couple. We had a great fire made by Andrew and my nephew Nick:


There's a funny story behind this photo. My MIL wanted a pic of all of us. A friend was taking the pic, but there were gumpy teen-agers and distracted little ones so another friend decided to MOON us! Yes, he really did it! I think Tyler is going to need therapy for the next 20 years! This isn't the funniest part.....


After seeing the mooning, as we were walking away, Jack decided to give it a try! Allan saw him first and nearly cried he was laughing so hard. I managed to catch a quick pick (Jack didn't get as far as actually removing his bottom covering which would have been WAYYYY preferable to the one we did see!).


More pics coming...

Jack - Summer 2010

Thought I should do an update on what Jack is doing this summer.
-He walks very well and is even running (not with long stretched out legs yet, more like a fast walk. But those strides are getting longer every day - just give him a cookie and then try to get it away!).
-He goes up and down stairs standing. Still mostly one step at a time (due to short legs, I think). But he's starting to do it without holding onto a hand or railing. So that's good.
-He eats. Just about everything. He uses a spoon and fork mostly appropriately. If it's peaches that will not be stabbed, he uses fingers. And we're working on eating a popsicle from the top down, not side to side :).
-Words continue to elude him. Not completely, I guess. He has a few words and a few more word "approximations". I can't possibly type it the way he says things, but he says down, catch, and several others that I can't think of now that I'm trying. He says Daddy and TyTy (for Tyler) and those we think sound like it. I still haven't ruled out apraxia. Sometimes he'll say something and we can't get him to repeat it. Or he'll say "bussss" (he likes to draw out the "sss") but when he repeats it, it'll sound like "dus". So we'll see. But he IS trying more, and we often hear something new.
-He loves water. The pool, the tub, makes no difference to him. If it's water, we must splash it!

-Jack is going to summer school (or ESY - extended school year). We just finished week 2. He seems to enjoy it, and is ready to go. But if it's not a school day, that's okay too.
-Potty training. He actually went #1, once. He isn't fond of sitting on the potty - there are too many other things to do. I'm not exactly pushing it. When he cooperates, we give it a try. But from experience, I know when he's ready, it will happen.
-He opens doors. He can open the front door (the dead bolt unlocks when you turn the knob) and leave. He can unlock and escape through the back door. Our summer home improvement project is finding Jack proof locks. (You wanna see him run? Wait 'til he gets the door open and gets out. Then try to get him back in.)
-He still loves his blanket and it goes where he goes. So cute.
-He still has cute little yummy toes, and fingers, and cheeks. Especially right out of the tub.
-He's loving books right now. We read often. He'll bring me a book, or before nap and bed time we read, and he settles right down, pays attention, and points to things when I ask. It's cool.

That may be most of it for now. We couldn't love him more. He has such a neat relationship with his brothers; I love watching them interact and play.

Picnic

If you read our adoption blog, you know we held a picnic/potluck as a benefit for Dashlyn's adoption fund. You can read about it here if you would like. I was hoping for a big turnout, and we tried to have a couple of games (like a 50/50 raffle) to earn some money. It was fun; my sister and brother in law provided burgers and hot dogs and grilled them, my good friends Pam and Ken provided music from their DJ business, we played games and ate great food, but it didn't quite work as well as I'd hoped. We didn't even earn $300, so if I subtracted the money we spent, it would probably be closer to $180. So I'm bummed, and worried about the financial aspect of our adoption. And the only reason I'm posting about this at all is a few people have asked how it went and I'm having trouble being positive. I need to come up with more ideas I guess.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Here he is, my oldest son, my firstborn, the first to call me "mom", the first person to ever take my breath away when he tripped at age 1 1/2:

Isn't he handsome? His face has changed so much over the past year. We had senior yearbook photos taken a week ago and I still can't believe it. He's matured, he's grown, he's becoming an amazing young man. It will be so fun to see what he does as a grown-up. It went too fast though. I miss the baby, the little boy, the sweet way he said "mick" when he wanted a cup of milk.

He went go-karting for his birthday, with a few buddies. (They're sooooo big!)

They came here afterward (along with a few more), for roasting hotdogs over a firepit and then an entire night of Xbox. Yes, they ate a lot. Yes they were noisy. But I cheated. Since the in-laws live super close, the younger kids and I snuck over there to spend the night, and then we snuck back in the morning! Al was here, but since he can sleep on an airstrip the noisy boys didn't bother him a bit! Andrew had a great time and I hope the other guys did too. He sure does have some nice guys for friends :).

Just so you know how well I'm doing...

I got up and got ready a little earlier that usual this morning to take Jack to his ENT appt. Just another follow-up to check on his tubes, check his hearing, all that stuff. M wanted to go, so got her up too and we all headed out. We get to the Dr's office, and yeah, his appt was yesterday. They will probably charge me the "no show" fee which I deserve. grrrrr. We set up a new appt for next Mon. MONDAY. The 21st. MONDAY. (I keep thinking if I say if often enough it should stick. Right?)

Jack's last day of the school year (well, almost)

(I added 3 posts today! Woo Hoo! So keep reading!)

So this is the next-to-last day. See the day I took these pics I thought it was the last day. Turns out, he had one more day. But this was a seriously good day!

Can you tell what this is? (Inside the big bowl!) Yep, it's ice cream!

Everyone got to add something to the giant sundae. Jack added sprinkes!

Braska added MORE sprinkles!

And here it is - the biggest Preschool flavored ice cream sundae I've ever seen!

Look who showed up to help enjoy the ice cream.....it's Kinlee!

Yummy! And really cooooold!

And a kiss for Mommy is even better than ice cream!