Braces

Our boy got braces yesterday!

As I explained at the bottom of this post, Jonathan has some highly unusual tooth issues that are making braces (and a couple of tooth extractions) more urgent.  So urgent that he's the only eight-and-a-half-year-old that I know who has braces.  (I got mine at nine.)  He was a fantastic patient at the orthodontist's office yesterday, and I took this picture right afterwards, in the car.  See how zig-zaggy his wire is?  It's almost straight today.  Already.  Amazing.  Obviously there's a lot more work to do, but it's amazing to see such a quick first change.

Of course, that's why his teeth are so sore, and he's shed a few tears about how difficult it is to eat today, but we're helping him through that and he's being very brave.  And he thinks the mechanics of brushing his braces are very interesting, thank goodness.  I hope he keeps up his conscientious brushing habit!

My boy looks so grown up!

Baby No More

Awhile back, after our move, Jeff and Jonathan put together the IKEA Kura bed that we had gotten for the boys to share.  Benjamin has been anxious to sleep in his spot for awhile, but I wanted to get the move and family camp behind us before I put him in a regular bed.  (Hopefully I'll blog about putting together the bed, family camp, and the move at some point.)  Last night, I finally unrolled his mattress and put sheets on it, so today he got to try his first nap in his bed.

Here are the boys hanging out together on Benjamin's bed.

Benjamin was over-the-top excited to sleep there.  I think it took him about an hour and a half to fall asleep...

but he finally did.  We'll get a few successful naps under our belt before I put him in the bed at night.  I'm sad to see him grow up, but I'm happy to look forward to putting away the crib so that the boys can have a little more space in their room.  I can't believe my sweet baby is getting so big!

"That's Me With Pig Hands and Feet!"

She cracks me up.

The Danger of DIY

So, we're slowly settling into our new house.  And, quite awhile back, I had been inspired by this idea on Pinterest.  Not to display photos on my washer and dryer, but to make the top of them more functional for folding, etc.

I had the kids to myself unexpectedly today, as Jeff is hiking with a friend, so I thought wewould trek to Home Depot and start on this project.  I decided not to stain the wood, but to cover it with fabric.  I wanted cheapest kind of plywood cut to 63 1/2" x 26", and the helpful guy at Home Depot did that for us.  The kids were fascinated, but it was loud.

Later, while the kids were finishing lunch and sort of contained at the table, I got started on my project. I checked my piece of wood to make sure it was the right one that actually fit on top of my washer and dryer.  It was.  So, I got to work staple-gunning batting to my plywood.  Every girl should own a staple gun.  (Jonathan took this picture.)

 Then I laid my batting-covered plywood down on my black fabric and cut the fabric to size.  Here it is before stapling...

 and after.  Sorry I didn't rotate the photos!  At least I'm writing a post.  :)  That's Grace's foot as she runs off with the scrap of taffeta.

 We had bought a roll of the grippy drawer liner stuff, and I cut that to size...

 and put down my lovely, new, fabric-covered countertop.

And noticed a problem.

I had used the wrong piece of plywood.

I used the 22" wide piece instead of the 26" piece.  I neglected to check that part of the measurement when I checked to make sure I was using the right piece of wood.  So now, I have beautifully covered a piece of wood that does not extend out as far as I had planned, leaving the scuffed tops of my washer and dryer exposed, and giving me less surface area on which to fold laundry.  Sigh.

I'm not going to redo it.  I'm going to live with it.

I think about this so often...I'm so thankful to have a laundry room at all, even a small one with the washer and dryer hookups installed backwards.  Even when the washer and dryer doors open into each other and I have to climb over them, I still can do laundry in my house.  Why am I the one born here in a country with running water, easily accessible to everyone, when so many in the world have to labor so hard to even have enough to drink?  I don't know.  So I am not going to worry about my missing 4" of plywood.  When I notice it, I'm going to resolve to thank God for running water and a washing machine and not having to go down to the river to scrub my clothes.  I don't know why I have been blessed with so much, and I don't know to solve the problem for all those who don't have adequate water.  We'll keep praying for and sponsoring our kids in Uganda, though, and finding ways to share what we have with those who need it.

 And here's what my work space looks like.  A basket for lights, a basket for darks, and a place to fold. And be thankful.  And I didn't take a picture of the floor, because it contains all the odds and ends I took off the washer and dryer so that I could put on the countertop.   :)

Absent

Well...I've been absent for awhile.  I hope to be here more consistently soon.  So much has happened, I'm not sure where to start...but I'll explain why I haven't blogged, and that's because we moved three weeks ago.  Packing up our stuff...and now unpacking...has been really stressful for me and I haven't dealt with it well.  But, we had a wonderful week at family camp last week - a reprieve from the cares of the world - did I mention that it was wonderful?  I'll tell about it soon.

The reason I had to post last night is that it was such an unusual night, kind of funny, kind of not... The kids each did something unusual, and it probably only matters to me to remember.  Anyway, Benjamin sat on the toilet before bed and "produced,"  Grace woke me in the middle of the night because she had wet the bed, and Jonathan sleepwalked for the first time.  And Jeff, although not a kid, discovered that yes, glass things do break more easily on tile than on other surfaces.  The casualty was a lid to a Pyrex dish, and it went everywhere.  We have tile downstairs now and I am working on adjusting to that.

I'm not sure whether I have any readers here anymore, but I miss being here and keeping a record of our happenings for our own enjoyment, so I'll be recording more soon!

"Love, Grace. To: Benjamin."

To the untrained eye, the words on this "crown" say LV GRAEC TO BNJUMN.  But to Grace, they say "Love, Grace.  To:  Benjamin."  :)

An Exciting Development

Grace has suddenly become very interested in writing!  I, of course, am thrilled.  Here is her name the very first time she wrote it.  She has been giving me some challenges in other areas lately, so it's very encouraging to me that she is so determined to figure out how to write.  (She does get really frustrated with herself when she can't figure out how to form a letter without help.)  Yesterday she told me that it was easy to write "love" because she only had to make an L and a V.  I thought that was great...and funny.  (Jen, if you're reading this, I bet you have all kinds of insight into that statement based on your recent studies on Grace's stage of development!)  And she spelled "frog" on her own today, too.  I'm just a little proud.  With scissors, markers, and paper, Grace can stay happily occupied for a long time.  She ends up with a big pile of paper scraps on the floor, but I think it's worth it!

Cousins

I have barely blogged in May, and I expect that trend to continue for the rest of the month.  However, I did want to mention that we spent a long weekend recently with Jeff's mom, and Jamie & Michelle, and their daughters, Hailey and Brianna.  The kids had a lot of fun making trouble together.  We were so thankful that our faraway family came to see us.  Here is a picture of Cheryl and the cousins together, all dressed up and laughing at Jeff's antics.  (His silliness paid off and gave us a good picture!)

Shopping

Updates on the Boys

We had a couple of events worth remembering for the boys today.  I'll start with Benjamin.  He has been in speech therapy - among other things - for almost a year now.  (It was a year ago - in June - when his pediatrician freaked out at his 18-month checkup.  And in July, he qualified for services.  In August, he had his first visits from his therapists.  I somehow managed to type out some thoughts about how he was doing in September 2012, some pictures with his speech therapist in December, getting orthotics in December 2012, and his progress in February 2013.)  His therapists and I have been planning to re-evaluate him by June, which is his 30-month birthday.  (He was also re-evaluated last December.)  His testing with his speech therapist was today.  At his first evaluation, at age 19 mos., his receptive speech scored at 17 months, and his expressive speech scored at 14 months.  That was called a 33% delay in expressive speech, and was the main concern of all his scores.  In December, his expressive speech was (still) not a concern, but his scores showed that he still had a 3 - 6 month delay in his expressive speech.  I still felt like we were struggling with him.  It seemed like I was bashing my head against a brick wall with him a lot of the time in the area of his speech.  Soon after he turned two, though, he began to blossom, and it has been a joy to watch his ability to talk grow and grow.  At his evaluation today, here's how he scored, compared to his original scores..  And I have to set the scores off by themselves because they are so shocking and gratifying.

July 2012, age 19 mos.

Receptive speech:  17 mos.
Expressive speech:  14 mos.

May 2013, age 28 mos.

Receptive speech:  44 mos.
Expressive speech:  40 mos.

Yes, friends, you read that right.  My sweet boy is scoring in the range of a three - to three - and - a -half - year - old.  Seriously.  I can't tell you how grateful I am that all our prayers and hard work have produced fruit in such a short time.  I can't even believe it.  Originally, our hope that he would be "up to speed" by age three, and he has surpassed our expectations!  I don't yet know how he'll score with his physical therapist - he and the teacher only come once a month now - but I am optimistic.  Even if he still needs their services, I am so proud of Benjamin and how far he has come.  He no longer qualifies for speech therapy!  And it is so much fun to hear the phrases and sentences he comes up with, all on his own.  (Here's one from this morning, TMI, but if you have read this far, you probably don't mid that this information is embedded in my post.  He said, "Need (to) poop..because my tummy hurts."  Ha!)

Now for Jonathan...I suppose teeth are not that interesting, but Jonathan's have a way of adding some interest to a boring subject.  I thought today would be the day to crown his broken tooth, but it was just an appointment for the dentist to check the health of the tooth and THEN to make an appointment to crown it.  (Clearly, dentists do not know that it is tricky to set up childcare multiple times.  Anyway...)  Thankfully, his tooth looks good and she will put a crown on it that will hopefully last five to seven years.  The dentist took a panoramic x-ray of Jonathan's mouth for the first time.  And you may not remember that Jonathan has a permanent tooth that is just not there.  Well, this is where it gets strange...it IS there, it is just growing so very diagonally that it is not pushing out the baby tooth, or the eye tooth next to it, but the MOLAR next to that.  This is why Jonathan has a loose molar even though he is only eight.  The dentist said she had never seen anything like it, and that Jonathan's mouth could be in a textbook.  (At this point, I'm not excited about his uniqueness, I'm just seeing dollar signs and hearing a cash register say, "cha-ching!")  She referred him immediately to the most experienced orthodontist she knows.  She said that the orthodontist will evaluate Jonathan and likely want to pull the three teeth being affected by the stray permanent tooth, and while the tooth straightens itself out, he'll likely need to wear a retainer or something until he is 12-13 and the other permanent teeth come into their regularly scheduled locations.  Oh, my.  The good news, she said, is that he has all his teeth!  Um, yes.  But I think we should have started saving for the orthodontist bills a little sooner...