Beach

We surprised the kids with a long weekend trip to the beach upon finishing the last day of school. The night before the final day, we were eating dinner and I commented how on Friday (the first non-school day) I wanted to just hang out at the pool all day. Oh, and wouldn't it be cool if Daddy could take the day off and hang out with us. We played around with that for a minute or two and then Lehr told them he would, but only if we went to the pool at Watercolor.

Of course, they nodded and said yes (thinking it was a joke, but yay that Daddy was staying home). Then Lehr told them he was serious, that he wouldn't join us unless we went to Watercolor. I told them we should pack our bags then, because I wanted Daddy to go to the pool with us. It took several minutes for them to get it, but they were beyond psyched once they did.

We left first thing Friday morning so that we could make it to the beach just after lunch. Ruby LOVED the ocean...she stood on the shore with the waves tickling her toes for a long LONG time. Then she was in and out of the water a bunch, in the sand a bunch, and then stayed awake until we rode to dinner, walked around, and then came home. In fact, she fell asleep on the bike ride home and slept later than we expected the next day...her body didn't know what to do with all of that natural PT!

Lehr rented a surf board for the weekend, so the kids were up and down on that several times, and out with the boogie board several times, and with the innertube several times. In fact, they didn't leave the water much! Ruby stayed sand-side most of her time, but was very happy to float in the ocean when Lehr would take her. (I'm not as water-happy as the rest of them.)

We rode bikes, went to the beach, rode the waves, ate ice cream on our deck, built sandcastles, went to the pool, ate dinner on the beach, played shuffleboard, walked Seaside, found new pools, ate fish sandwiches, went to two farmers' markets, rode bikes some more, ate breakfast on the porch....I don't think we could have fit more into our weekend trip if we tried!

New Speech Therapist

Ruby started with another speech therapist last week. For those counting, that makes three that we check in with regularly. (She has one through Babies Can't Wait, one who is a speech therapist and also a T21 mom, who we see monthly-quarterly, and now the new one who is myofunctional.) I know....sounds kinda crazy. We really think Ruby is in a state of big potential surrounding her speech, and all three therapists attack her speech in very different ways. They also get different results from her. I don't mean that when they ask her to say 'yes', she answers differently to each therapist. Instead, one is great at getting her to slow down and focus on the individual sounds, one is great at keeping her pushing ahead and giving word approximations, etc.

So here we are, with a myofunctional specialist who is focusing on individual sounds produced with the correct form. So far Ruby loves her (maybe because she ended our evaluation with a lollipop!). We spent over two hours with her the other day going over what Ruby does and does not do and what our initial goals are.

Game Ball

Maddux's softball season will come to an end tomorrow. It's been a season of ups and downs for sure. Between the freezing temperatures and the rain, it took quite a while to really get started; we weren't able to consistently practice or have games until after Spring Break. Also, Maddux isn't always as focused as we'd like. That is not to say she isn't performing well enough - that's not at all our concern. She just tends to forget why she's at practice (to learn, not play follow the leader), and she often loses her equipment/uniform (both at practice and at home).

But she's excelled as a softball player. This girl is just athletic all around. She makes solid contact with the ball every at bat. She throws well, and her head is IN the game. (When she's focused, that is.) She has made many really great plays throughout the season, even though they haven't all resulted in outs. When she is positioned at pitcher, Maddux tends to pay so much attention that she knows where to run with (or throw) the ball without even checking in on the runners...she's really impressed us.

Today Maddie showed that level of focus again. She played a great game, both at pitcher and catcher, and in the last inning, made a crucial out. The game was tied with the bases loaded. When the ball was hit, she hustled to it and sprinted to home, tagging the runner at the plate and preventing the winning run from scoring. Game ball for Maddux...winner winner, chicken dinner.

Therapy Update

Speech:
Ruby is going to yet another speech therapist (that makes three). This one focuses on the actual sound production of each letter/sound rather than words. She will also be helping me with some eating/feeding stuff. Ruby eats fine to those of us that don't know what to look for, but if you dig a little deeper, her chewing motions and her tongue thrust could use some improvement. Instead of chewing with her back teeth to break down her food, Ruby tends to squish and mash with her tongue and general mouth movement.

Tongue protrusion has always been one of my biggest stress-factors with Ruby. Recently we've been working with a few newer oral-motor tools to try and help with that. One is plastic flutes/whistles that helps strengthen her overall mouth. The one Ruby has really taken to is a red one; she can often be found around the house blowing the heck out of that thing. The other is a small plastic 'chip' that she puts in her mouth and it helps remind her to keep her lips together. I can honestly say it is helping!

Last week we had the evaluation with this new speech therapist which lasted two and a half hours. Ruby did great, considering, especially since she was strapped into a chair the entire time. One bonus for her was when the therapist pulled out a bright blue Dum Dum lollipop and did some things. When she was done, she let Ruby finish it....big time.

In general news, Ruby is still as vocal as always, but no words that others may recognize yet. Many word approximations and signs still incorporated in her communication. One area she is improving noticeably is when she needs something, she will tell me "Mama (verbal). Help (sign with random talking)." We've heard a "yesh" (yes), "goddit" (got it) and "hep" (help) in the last few weeks.

Physical Therapy:
Ruby is walking and fast walking everywhere, including up the driveway. She still keeps her hands in an 'on-guard' position, but will put them down when I remind her. She is also carrying things while walking....mostly small toys, books, soccer balls, and anything that doesn't weigh more than her.

Some of the exercises we are working on include hanging from a bar (to help her upper body development since she's not crawling anymore) and deep (DEEP) squats. That is something Ruby does pretty well actually; she will squat down and play often, standing back up without any help most of the time.

Occupational Therapy:
We don't meet with our PT specifically for this, but it gets worked in during some PT sessions. Also, there is an OT at Gigi's that chimes in with great ideas for Ruby. Recently we've been working on sorting objects by color (she does pretty well until she's bored and then she loses focus and interest). Our next step will be to sort them by shape or 'type' (animals, foods, etc.) Ruby is also stringing big beads or pasta onto shoelaces....another area I was unaware she could do at all until we showed her and she picked it up the first time.

Behavior/General:
We are almost two, so I've been working with Time Out. Yeah....we will be working on that for a while. She doesn't get it, or thinks it's a game, or both. And the word "no" is sometimes met with her hurrying to do whatever she is on her way to do. (To be fair, sometimes it's met with intentional walking away also.)

Asking for help on her own, without me prompting her, is a huge thing. She has done that several times in the last few weeks and I LOVE it.

Ruby is climbing into and out of any chair she can. Sometimes it's her small lounger that the kids got her for Christmas, sometimes it's her car seat, sometimes it's the couch. Whatever it is though, she giggles the whole time.
Ruby shows us continually that she 'gets' things. She listens and picks up on stuff that I'm not even trying to teach her. When I took her for a haircut last week, the beautician gave her and Maddux each a paper cup of animal crackers. When Maddux was done, I threw her cup in the trash. About a minute later, Ruby finished her crackers and crossed the room to the trash can where she threw hers away. We haven't worked on the concept of trash or throwing things away, but that girl doesn't miss a thing.

Spelling Bee

Continuing with the trend of our kids surprising us by excelling at something we didn't even know was 'a thing', Maddux qualified for the finals in the Second Grade Spelling Bee last week! Apparently they had a class spelling bee and the winners advanced to the finals, held today.

In true Maddux fashion, when I asked her about it after school (because I got an email from her teacher informing us that she won - shocking since I didn't even know about the class bee), she lit up and said, "I know...crazy, right?"

And in true Maddux fashion, when I asked her if she wanted to review some tougher words yesterday after school, she told me there was a list for her to practice with. I told her that was perfect, and to go get the list. (Likely sighing), I reminded her that the Spelling Bee was the next day at which point she smacked her forehead with her palm.

So Lehr, Ruby and I got to the school just before the Spelling Bee was to start. Eli asked his teacher if he could attend (only the second grade was invited to watch with the parents), so he joined us too. The students filed in and the finalists sat in 20 chairs facing us (10 classes, two kids each). Maddux looked so nervous....lots of fidgeting.

The lead teacher explained a few rules first and then started right away. The main rule was to not clap each time a student spelled a word correctly, but rather if/when they missed one we would applaud them for their cumulative effort. That definitely helped cut down on the time!

A few rounds went by with all students spelling correctly. Then a few dropped off slowly. Suddenly there were only about half of the kids left and the word "omit" was given. I think that word took 4 kids out! Maddux's toughest words were knock, chocolate, public and deny (the word that took her out). It was cool to see her up there, mouthing the spelling of the words the other kids received. When it was her turn, she'd stand up and sway back and forth while she spelled the word in her head and out loud. Afterwards, I realized how much attention she was paying to everything; she told me that when the person before her missed "knock", she had to think fast because they spelled it the way she would have, but when she heard they were wrong, she thought "knock...knife", and remembered the 'k'. (Her words, not mine.)

She lasted 45 minutes in the competition, and it only went two more rounds after she left. She got a little teary when she received her applause, but I reminded her that she didn't even prepare for this contest, yet she came in 4th in the entire 2nd grade. Imagine if she put forth some effort! We were all so proud....especially Eli!

Softball

Maddux's softball season has finally started to take off. After a long line of canceled games and practices due to cold weather and torrential rain, I think her team is starting to get into a rhythm now.

Lately Maddux has been playing some Pitcher and Catcher. But unlike most kids this age, when she plays Catcher, she doesn't just sit on the ground or on her knees and wait for the ball to fly by her. She hops up in a Catcher's stance and really tries to stop the ball.

Maddux has had her share of great plays infield also. When she's playing second, she runs the ball to first. And if she realizes she won't get them out, she turns and immediately runs to the next place there is a runner....all without checking first. (She knows where the runners are before the ball is hit.) Loving the focus on this girl who is sometimes anything but focused.

And as we already knew, Maddux is speedy as can be. She has no problem getting on base, and when the girls run laps, she is often leading the pack.

Poster Contest

About two months ago, Eli was given the assignment to make a poster about Benjamin Franklin. He did all of his research and prepared to start putting his final project together just as one of our snowstorms hit. As luck would have it, we already had the poster board at the house, so Eli was able to spend 4 days working on the poster at his leisure. He really did it all himself, outside of some of the gluing. The idea for how to present and all of the research and typing was 100% him.

The final touch we had to add to the poster was an identification paper on the back. I don't remember now the info we needed to include, but apparently that was for the purpose of entering the poster in a contest. During the week that the kids turned their posters in, the National Society, Sons of the American Revolution came to each school to judge the posters and chose 3 winners from each school. Last week they announced the winner and Eli got 1st for his school!!


He was SO excited and we could not be more proud. We also could not be more shocked! Eli put a lot of work into the poster, but this assignment really was a 'non-event' in our house, and Lehr and I didn't even realize it would be part of a contest. Unfortunately, because his poster will now be sent off for a statewide contest, I can't even take a picture of it to show you!

Maddux Says The Darndest Things

Not much set-up needed here. Just another absolutely awesome exchange with my daughter as she prepared for her shower a few minutes ago.

"Please be careful when you take my hair band out. That part still kinda hurts from my bruise."
"What bruise?"
"You remember when i walked into the wall?........well, actually, there are probably lots of them up there because, yeah, well, you know."

I do. That girl walks into walls often. (And, yes, I've had her eyes checked.)


And then she followed that up with a conversation about her Field Day plans for tomorrow. I asked her if she had to partner up with a classmate. She answered yes, but that she wasn't sure if she got to pick her partner or if her teacher would pick. As expected, she told me that if she got to choose, she would pick D (her best friend). I jokingly asked if she thought she'd get to be partners with D if her teacher picks (the two are often in trouble for talking). She laughed and said, "No. Mommy, this is play partners, not 'be quiet' partners.......If it was that, I couldn't be partners with ANYone."
She speaks the truth.

Therapy Update

I recently realize something. Even when Ruby isn't racing towards her next milestone, she is still moving in it's direction. Sometimes slowly and silently, so much so that I don't even recognize it at first. That girl....she's amazing.

PT
What can I say....she's all over the place! Ruby is walking constantly, pushing herself to go further and faster everyday. She still fatigues and will 'drop' to a seated position when her legs run out of steam, but she is never down for long. Her walk is so fast sometimes that I would almost call it a run. Ruby is also riding/pushing around her new bike. She can totally get on and off of it by herself too, which takes more balance than I thought she had.

OT
Ruby is currently able to sort colors, sometimes even with differing objects. She plays this game with me where I think she understands that the red ball and the red button are both red, but she puts one of them in the yellow bucket just to test me. It's all in the way she gives me this sneaky look as she does it, as if to say, "Your move, Mommy." We are also working on threading big wood beads and pasta onto a cord. She does pretty well with that most of the time.

Speech
Random signs keep popping up because Ruby is very interested in mimicking these days. She will sign "cow" and "horse" and "cracker" and a few others, even though they don't have a lot of every day relevance for her. She is making more word approximations when we read books together too....that is very cool. Finally, Ruby is starting to follow 2-step directions. (Ex. Pick up the egg and bring it to me.) To be fair, most of these directions are very predictable and related, so they may not be a fair test. That's to say that when I ask her to pick something up and bring it to me or pick up the cup and put it on the table, the secondary action is often an assumed action after the first. But I'm still giving Ruby credit.

Cleaning Lady

That girl.

In the last few weeks I have often found her trying to break into the cabinet under the kitchen sink. That's where we keep a big bucket of white rags for the inevitable spills that come from life with three kids (and meals with Maddux). She will reach in and grab one and then take off, randomly wiping spots on the floor or cabinet doors.
It's almost like a security blanket of sorts because once she gets ahold of one, she doesn't want to let it go. I love it. I love it. I love it.

Of course the day I choose to take photos of this cleaning-love, she is wearing a dress-up 'gown'. Very Cinderella-esque.

Dinner with Grandparents

While Grandma and Grandpa were in town, Eli and Maddux begged them to go to Ted's Montana Grill. We seriously never go there (maybe twice in their entire life?), but when my mom comes to town, Eli insists on it out of tradition. (Kind of a self-fulfilling prophesy.)

This year it was all four of them, and Maddux and Eli dressed up in their new clothes and all for the occasion. I have been assured that the kids were very well-behaved and chatty in a very awesome way. A few nuggets I heard about afterwards:

• Maddux asked Grandma, "Can I get the $15 bacon buffalo burger?" I can only imagine that this comes from a conversation I had with them recently about manners when someone else takes you out; we discussed the importance of being aware of how much things cost so as to not order the most pricey thing on the menu.
• Eli commented to my parents and Maddux that the waiter was great, "He is seriously the best waiter I think I've ever had!" My mom encouraged Eli to tell the waiter, to which Eli refused, likely out of embarrassment. So when he returned to the table, Maddux said, "You are a really good waiter!" When he thanked her ('little lady'), she said, "My brother was going to tell you, buuuuuuut (quick look at Eli, who is embarrassed) he didn't."
• A conversation about Ruby came up and both kids raved about her as a little sister. Eli said she was the best little sister in the whole world. Maddux said she just loves her so so much. She said something to the effect of, "I know she has Down syndrome, but that doesn't matter cuz she is the best best best." Both kids talked a little about DS with my parents and confessed that they both worry sometimes that people will make fun of her. That's another conversation we've had recently, but I didn't realize it was weighing so heavily on their minds.

80's Day

Eli and Maddux's school has gone into spirit day overdrive. There are dress-up days all of the time right now. And I love it!

Today was 80's day, which I didn't even realize until the kids came home. Eli started talking about it during snack....he started formulating his plan about a boom box to wear on his shoulder.

By bedtime, Eli had made a cardboard boom box, created a blingy necklace, and gathered his clothes for the morning.

We didn't have as much creativity surrounding Maddux's get-up, but I think Lehr did a smash-up job of fixing her hair, 80's-style.

Junior Golf Course

Eli has long since enjoyed the sport of golf. Lehr sawed off an old golf club when Eli was younger - maybe four - and Eli's been putting and hitting around the yard every since. Whenever Grandpa Jim and Eli are together, they go to the driving range, and the last few times have resulted in 9 or 18 holes.

When Masters week rolls around, Eli's fondness for the game increases, as one might expect. This year it was heightened even more because a visit from Grandpa Jim coincided with Masters week. So not only did they visit the local par 3 course, they also created a course in our front and back yard. It was all Eli's idea (so I've been told), but Grandpa definitely helped in the manifestation.

So El's "Junior Golf Course" includes a sign, tee markers for each of the ten (five, repeated) holes, and a flagged 'hole' in the front yard. Eli chose five different spots in the front and back yard to tee off from, all aiming towards the same hole. He even named one of the holes "Azaleas", just like in Augusta.

While Grandpa Jim was here, there were a few days that the duo had an early tee time. Since then, he's hurried through his homework each day to get four or five holes in before the rain hits, or before soccer practice. On his own, Eli even changes into proper golf attire (a polo shirt and plaid shorts) before hitting the links.

Roller Rink Rockstars

Last spring break, I took the kids roller skating for the first time. They loved it so much that we returned to the skate rink a few days later with the Marshalls. That has stuck in the kids' heads for the last year and they've been talking up our 'tradition' of skating with the Marshalls over spring break for the last few weeks.

On the last day of spring break, the older kids and I joined our friends for an afternoon of craziness. All five kids laced up their skates and fell around the rink.


All except Maddux: she soared around.

Eli, Drew, Davis and Emmaline used the PVC pipe 'walkers' for a little bit, and then they mostly-fell-sometimes-skated for a bit, then they mostly-skated-sometimes-fell for the rest of the time.

Eli was just as unstable on his feet as he was last year. He smiled the whole time, but he didn't spend more than a few steps on his feet each time between falls. In addition, he couldn't help but dance to each and every song that came through the speakers. That didn't exactly help his balance.

When it came time for a few games, Maddux joined in immediately. She lasted a decent amount of time in their balloon tag games. Then they announced that they would be doing races. She stayed on the floor and lined up with the 6-10 year old girls. When they lined up, Eli called out her name; when Maddux looked over, Eli gave her a thumbs up and said, "Win!". (Color me shocked...Eli doesn't typically encourage his sister!)

The staff skater counted them down and they took off, with Maddux in the lead. She held her lead for almost half of the race before she was overtaken by one girl. Smart girl that she is, Maddux didn't back off. This was a great strategy because said girl tripped a few paces after passing Maddux. She was rewarded for crossing the finish line first with a slushy from the snack bar.

Just before the races, Eli and Drew traded in their skates for roller blades. They seemed to be a much better fit for Eli; he suddenly had better balance. That doesn't mean he didn't fall any more, but he and Drew were able to make it around the rink between falls in the blades.

Big Kid Day

When my parents secured their travel plans to stay with us for Spring Break, one of the things Lehr and I planned to do was take the older kids out all day and do things that are a little harder for us all to do when we have Ruby with us. Once Grandma and Grandpa arrived, we let Eli and Maddux help us pick some things to do that day.

We started out at the skate park; both Eli and Maddux skate boarded. It was a beautiful morning, so we stayed longer than originally planned, but no one was complaining. Eli even shocked us by trying something very new, all motivated by himself! He rolled into the pool, unassisted! The first time he came down, Lehr was there to catch/steady him, which he needed. But then he realized what he did wrong and how to change it, so when he rolled in the second time, Lehr didn't touch him. Then he did a third and fourth time and went back and forth up the sides a few times. On the last one, he fell pretty hard (he wasn't wearing knee pads), but after a short break he was back out there.

We stopped for a quick smoothie and then drove to our favorite mountain biking spot. We go there often enough, but I usually just hike with Ruby while they ride. This time we all got to ride. Eli ate it on the BMX trail, causing him some pain, but all in all, it was a great ride through the trails and on the BMX section.

Lunch was next on the list: we stopped at a pizza place to share a quick pie before hiking. We didn't hike very far...maybe 2 miles...but we did get down to the creek. This is something we do with Ruby a lot, but she is not big enough to sit on the rocks in the creek yet.

The kids started talking about playing tennis while we were hiking back. We grabbed our rackets and went to the courts in our neighborhood. (Let it be known that none of us actually plays tennis, so this was to be mostly a chase-the-ball type of activity.)

Finally, we were all exhausted and dinner was on our mind. We knew we'd have to go to the house quickly to clean up, but we didn't want to upset Ruby by letting her see us after being gone all day only to leave again. The kids were amazing; they even conspired with each other to put on their new clothes from Grandma and Grandpa for our date out. We went to Grindhouse for our favorite burgers, and even let the kids share a milkshake.

Such a fun day....it was really cool to be able to hang out with Eli and Maddux and focus all of our attention on them. We definitely will do this again!

Easter

In the last few years the older kids have become very fond of Easter Egg hunts. Not necessarily for the goodies inside of the eggs, but for the hunt of the eggs themselves. Last year we stepped up the game and bought a pack of the nature eggs that look like grass and rocks. The kids had time trials to see who could find all of them fastest.

We had our neighborhood egg hunt the weekend before Easter. The kids helped put out eggs for the younger ones (including Ruby). Ruby did not get overly excited about the eggs: we had to wake her up from a nap for the hunt. Eli and Maddux found their 12 eggs and moved on to playing with their friends.

But when it came to our family egg hunt, they were all business. After church, we put out several dozen (empty) eggs in the backyard. Eli and Maddux ran around like crazy to find them all. Once they found them, we hid them again. And again. They even hid them for Grandma Cathie and Grandpa Jim to find. Egg-Mania.

After they finished with that, Grandma Cathie guided them in making chocolate 'nests' and decorating them with peeps and chocolate eggs. Yeah....they kinda liked that activity too.

Fire!

Both kids have been studying a fire safety unit over the last few weeks. Eli and Maddux each have special fire safety workbooks and they are scheduled to take a trip to the local Fire Safety Village. (If you don't know what this is, seriously cool. We had nothing like this when we were kids! It's a series of buildings and streets designated to teaching fire safety (and bus safety, and street crossing safety, and and and) procedures.)

Eli's main assignment was to draw a floor plan of his house and complete a fire safety plan. Then, he had to put his family through a fire drill to practice that plan. We've talked as a family about this before, so Eli was pretty well-informed about what to do, but we'd never actually gone through a drill. He insisted that we all go to our rooms and wait for him to blow a whistle and then follow our procedures exactly. He even wanted us to put Ruby in her bed to practice getting her, but I vetoed that given her likelihood to be less than excited about being dumped into her crib a good hour before bed time.

Eli blew the whistle and we all followed our plan, leaving the house through our assigned exits and meeting at our safe place. Once we finished that, he wanted to practice what we'd do if the kids couldn't leave their rooms because there was a fire in the hall. While we didn't actually climb out of the windows, we did have the kids stay in their rooms and go to the window to wait for an adult on the outside to give the all-clear.

Once all of THAT was done, Eli then reminded us that we need to do it once/month to remember what to do. Love that boy.