Thursday, February 23, 2012

A Fun Week

What a fun week! Well, besides all the horrible diapers from Jefferson due to his antibiotics (and his constant crying in the beginning of the week)...I can honestly say, we have had a fun week. On Saturday, I made the kids rainbow rice. Jewell has played with it NON STOP. She loves it. I'm so glad! I just need to get her to touch it with her feet without her freaking out. We're working on it. You can see from the pictures that I let the kids play with the rice before they mixed it together. That lasted about 2 minutes :).




It seems as though I can't turn around and do anything anymore now that Jefferson knows how to climb. Let's just say, I'm not exactly relaxed during the day :).



And here he is on top of the shoe rack...



And now the toilet. I was shocked when I saw this... So I put him on the ground to see how he got on it!






It was a really nice day outside yesterday afternoon. So I took the kids outside to play with some toys. All the neighbor kids loved helping them play! The kids loved it too.



Jewell LOVED being pushed by her brother.




Jefferson didn't seem to be too thrilled Jewell got pushed on the scooter and not him. In fact, he wouldn't give up!





Then I caught Jefferson trying to get into the sink this morning...


I took the kids outside again after Bible Study today. Jefferson was more interested in drinking the water out of the toy. It was quite humorous.



And of course, here is the reason why I can't ever load or unload the dishwasher when Jefferson is on the loose.


I am really looking forward to this summer. I think we are going to have a blast now that everyone is pretty much mobile :).

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

Our Sweet Jewell

Today, our sweet Jewell had an evaluation for physical therapy. She was in physical therapy when we lived in South Carolina, but we took her out when we moved here. She's been having occupational therapy about every other week for several months now. We were hoping that would be sufficient, but the OT knew she needed more help.

The evaluation today was good. It was very good actually. For the first time, I was able to see my daughters true weak areas as far as her muscles are concerned. I was also encouraged to know that her weak areas are not at the fault of my own :). So many people have told me it was because of something that I did or didn't do to her while she was an infant that caused her weak muscles. I can't begin to explain to you what a relief it was to hear from a professional that it's okay.

Jewell has weak muscles on her left outer leg. In fact, she sort of displayed pain when the PT was touching it. Very odd. But the PT isn't too concerned yet. She's also weak in her trunk. This is of no surprise to me. What I was surprised about was just how much adapting she does because of those weak muscles. Jewell can't really jump. She doesn't stand on one foot. She goes up the stairs with only her right leg leading, and then goes down with her left leg leading. Jewell also has a very young walk. I always thought that was because she didn't walk until she was 20 months. But the PT says it's because she has weak muscle tone at those point. All of this is fixable with work. And boy did Jewell NOT like to work on it. That's okay though, we will do it in time :).

Jewell also has several sensory struggles. For example, today the PT was holding her hands. Jewell immediately told her her hands were rough and that she needed cream. Boy is our girl sensitive to touch! The PT was so impressed. She told me that Jewell is incredibly smart because she has learned to adapt to all of her muscle weakness and she can figure out things without instruction. Like how she needed lotion because her hands were rough (I still don't know where she got that).

Overall, the evaluation was great. It's sad yes, but it was so good to know that we can work on these things with her, and in time, she should catch up.

I've learned so much with parenting Jewell. What a privilege it is that the Lord allowed her to be my child! He's trusted me with her and all her struggles. I love Jewell, I wouldn't trade anything about her for the world. God has this amazing plan for her life. I can't wait to see what He has for her! But the first thing I've really learned is patience. I've always struggled with patience. My sweet Jewell didn't do anything on time. And that's okay. She's not like everyone else's child who climbs the playground equipment by themselves and runs and jumps as soon as they start moving. Instead, I get to help her and teach her step by step. And yes, it does get frustrating that she seems to just give up when I try to get her to go up a step on the slide, but again, patience, I'm learning to love her more through that lesson. The second thing is judging others. Oh, I was the QUEEN of judging parents when I taught school and basically in overall life. But really, I didn't know that child or their parents struggles. I don't know if that child was premature, has autism, or there Dad is oversees. Most of the kids I observe at the store all have a story, and a struggle. Who am I to judge the way their parents have raised them? Maybe that short 3 minute tantrum was the shortest tantrum he had at the store and the Mom thought "YES...we are making progress!" So really, my thinking on other parents parenting has completely changed. They know the battles they have, I don't. And the third lesson, I've learned that each day I have to give more and more of myself to the Lord and my children. God trusts me with these lives. So what if I don't get any reading time during the day. So what if I have to play with Jewell for 2 straight hours because she just needs Mommy time and still just doesn't know how to play on her own. It's okay. It's all okay. We'll get through this. I can read later. I can rest later. My kids are my mission field. And I've decided to love every minute.

Jeffers Turns 1

Jefferson is 1! Actually, 1 year ago today was his due date :). But he turned 1 on the 1st. And had it not been for the sickness in our family for the past 9 days, I would have written this on his actual birthday!

I took Jefferson to the doctor today for his well baby check. Even though he's super sick with a cold. We postponed his vaccines because his doctor said he was wheezing from his cold and he had his first ear infection. Praise the Lord for a good doctor. :) Overall he had a GREAT check up. He's in the 75th percentile in all areas. Weighing 24 lbs at one year. I can't believe my boy more than tripled his birth weight!

Today at the doctor she noticed that Jefferson's little eye might not follow things properly. She thinks he might have a lazy eye. I actually noticed his eye looked a bit funny at breakfast 2 days ago, but that's the only time I ever really noticed anything. She said it could be the fold of his eyelid making it look that way, or it really could be a lazy eye. We have been referred to a pediatric ophthalmologist here in Medford just to be sure. She said it will take 2 to 3 months to get in, but not to worry because it should be easily fixed with a patch she believes. We'll see what happens :).

Jefferson's birthday was great. I made him a football cake because he always watched football on Sunday with his Daddy after his afternoon nap. It's really sweet to watch the two of them do their little guy thing. The cake turned out okay. It was really good. But I learned the peanut butter frosting is a bit tricky so the sides of the cake don't have a TON of frosting on them. Oh well. It was my very first completely homemade cake, I'm proud!


Jeffers man LOVED the cake. You can see from the pictures....
















We bought Jefferson a cool construction walking toy. He LOVED it. So did Jewell :).









Jefferson had a great birthday. And he's had an amazing 1st year of life. He's developing right on track and is overall a very happy and adventurous little boy (except when he's sick...poor little boy). It was fun celebrating his 1st birthday with him as a family :).