Well, I'm 3 days away from my due date and I'm thinking this is really not the week to have a baby! Deren has a nasty cold, and 2 of the kids have a stomach bug. Seeing our propensity to pass around germs (Yes, I've use bleach; Yes, I've used clorox wipes; Yes, I've used rubbing alcohol; Yes, I've used peroxide; YES, I've done everything short of torching the house to the ground.) So I'm really questioning whether I want to bring a baby home into this germ cesspool right now.

The problem is.. 1) Deren starts his new job next week 2) We won't have insurance to cover the birth next week 3) my blood pressure is going up and down. ..don't know why for the last one. We're getting an average 2-3 hours sleep/night. I got to sleep after 4am last night. Rachael absolutely refuses to throw up in a bucket, and decided anything is preferable to that (e.g., couch, blanket, pillows, herself, daddy.. the list goes on, and it's all in the laundry right now - except for Deren, that is.

My dr's appt was last Thursday. As mentioned above, the b.p. is bouncing back and forth (from high to normal). Other than that nothing is happening. Right now, I don't know whether to be relieved by this or not!

Here is a picture of Abby with her favorite toy - toilet wipes! She's set up office in our bathroom. If you can't find her, that's a good first place to look.

Here's a picture of some of my latest knitting projects - 1 pair of wool longies, 1 pair of shorts, a wool soaker, and a pumpkin hat for baby pumpkin.

Conversation today.. "Rachael, are you wet?" "NO, not wet." (if you look closely you'll see that Miss Rachael was not exactly being truthful). The potty training misery continues..

Got a call from the school nurse today. Jacob lost his two front teeth at school today. Apparently everyone made a big deal of it, because he got off the bus just smiling away! My baby is growing up!

Bath picture of Abby, Joshua on his 5th birthday, and me 38 wks pregnant

..can't get the photos blogged right now. Hopefully tomorrow.

Goodness - it's time for another "Week in Review" post. Good news - no more meetings with the school district. Bad news - there's apparently another boy in Joshua's class who has singled out Joshua for attacks. Joshua came home 2 days in a row with bad scratches on his face. The first day we were thinking "Okay. Things happen." Now we're thinking "it's time to take this little menace out." I have little doubt that Deren will be at the school if Joshua comes home injured again.

I'm already having homework battles with Rachael - at the tender age of 3. They incorporate new skills into music a lot in her classroom. For example, she has songs about yellow, red, orange, green, and number 1-3. So, the basic idea is that I'm supposed to be singing these songs with her at home so she's learning these new concepts. I start singing a song to her and she flips. She yells "No song!" and will start singing her own song at the top of her lungs. So here I am sining "R-E-D I can spell Red" and Rachael's belting out "Frosty the snowman, la la la la la.." (she doesn't know the rest of the words). Her teacher has asked me twice already if I received the list of songs. At this point should I make her sing her songs each day? Do I sit her down at the table and say, "no playing outside, no horse movie.. until you sing your songs." Is this what it's come to?

It's now 11 days until my due date. And NO, Rachael is still not potty trained. So it will be 3 in diapers. Although we are getting hopeful about Abby. Yesterday she wanted to pull her pants down and sit on the potty. She was pretty proud of herself. Unfortunately, Rachael is not one to succomb to peer/sibling pressure. The boys have been potty trained for what, 2 years now? And Rachael could care less.

Maybe one of the Grandma's will want to take her on at their next visit. Deren's parents are planning to come on the 27th to help. We'll see if the baby is here then. I was originally thinking I would be early. But I think that ARD meeting set me back. I've actually read that if your jaw and neck muscles are tensed your body will resist labor. So I'm thinking a Thanksgiving baby at this point?!

Jacob has become our resident George of the Jungle. He has taken to climbing the tree out back. No sense of danger there. He will try to climb up a branch that's about 6 inches in diameter.

Joshua is still not sleeping. He has an appt with our autism doc this Thursday. I'm hoping Deren can take him so I don't have to go with all the kids. That trip would push my due date to around Christmas!

Joshua is 5 YEARS OLD!! His birthday was on Tuesday. He played with waterpaints, had some sprite, went a little bit psychotic after all the sprite.. I'm excited about the present we ordered for him with his birthday money. There is a lady in a nearby town that makes weighted blankets. She's going to make Joshua a blanket, a bit smaller than twin-sized, with Thomas the train print on one side and a soft chenile on the other. Joshua loves to burrow and the feeling of weight over his body. He tries to climb in between the mattresses on the beds here. He's tried out the blankets in the occupational therapy sessions he used to have, and always enjoyed them. It should be done in a week.

Deren has been doing a lot of walking around the neighborhood with Joshua in the wee hours of the morning. I'm afraid he's getting as cranky as his pregnant wife is. I know the conversation is going downhill when we start comparing and competing about who got more sleep, and therefore who should get up and feed the kids breakfast. A couple times we've sent the boys to school with their breakfast in their bag.

Well it's past seven now, and I've been dreaming of bedtime since 5, so I'm signing off. Rachael has a field trip to a local pumpkin farm scheduled for Wednesday. I am hoping to meet her there. Who knows, maybe I can try out a couple school songs with her while we're there so her teacher can see that I'm not fibbing about her homework!

Week in Review: The Good, Bad & the Ugly

The Good. Deren has the new job. It promises some challenging work, and I'm praying it will be a good fit for him

The Good & the Bad. Rachael's notes home from school. You know to brace yourself when the teacher's notes start off saying "We've never seen this kind of behavior from Rachael before.." Apparently, Miss Rachael was starting to crack keeping up her role as leading lady in "The Many Faces of Eve", and her home/school personalities integrated a bit more. I responded to her teacher (who is terrific, by the way) that we see Rachael throw things A LOT at home (that's what she was doing at school that day). The next day there was a long note in Rachael's folder again. I thought "oh, boy.." Turns out, Rachael has a boy with cerebral palsy in her class. He was playing in the kitchen area, and Rachael made it a point to be his helper - she would bring him plates, utensils, cups, fake food.. The note said she was a really sweet friend that day.

I was thinking about this afterwards. I was so darn proud of that note. Having kids w/special needs forces you to tone down a lot. Especially with autism, you know play-groups, soccer, cub-scouts, Sunday school.. well let's face it, a trip to the grocery store without 3 days of prep are all out of the picture. Rachael did better than most of us this past week. She may not have a good concept of loving God with all her heart, mind and soul, but she sure nailed down loving her neighbor (Well, at least at school that day. By the time evening came she was throwing punches at home. Miss Eve still has some integrating to do!)

On Thursday Jaccob's in-home trainer jokingly told me that he is developing a reputation as a clepto. Everyday before coming home he grabs things from the classroom and sticks them in his backpack. They have to do a shake-down each afternoon to make sure he hasn't succeeded. Deren hadn't heard the story yet, and was frustrated that Jacob was attacking all the backpacks this morning. I told Deren to let Jacob search through the backpacks until he's convinced that no loot made it home.

Now for the Bad and the Ugly (the really ugly). Had Joshua's annual ARD meeting yesterday. The story has been the same - Joshua has been in the school district 2 yrs now, and has almost mastered one sign (movie), which he uses for everything. He'll be standing over a cup of juice and signing movie. I called his new teacher a couple weeks ago, and told her I was going into this meeting pretty upset with his lack of progress, that I wanted all the data and notes she had on Joshua so I could decipher if any progress had been made since 2004, and I wanted his 1 on 1 time increased and his 1 hr nap/watch a movie time eliminated. Dr. Bourland, a BCBA (board certified behavior analyst), attended the meeting with me. He's worked at the home with Joshua off and on since 2003. Anyway, get to the meeting and the teacher, the speech therapist, are saying "He's such a happy boy. He's doing wonderful! We're thrilled with his progress." Uhhh... what progress? I ask for data - ANY data - supporting their claim. The school principal starts griping at me at this point, saying I shouldn't have sprung the data question for the first time at the meeting. I look the teacher in the eye, then respond that I notified her a couple weeks ago about wanting data. "Oh" Whenever Dr. Bourland or I tried to get the teacher to clarify something, she took on the role of bumbling fool. Afterwards, Dr. B said he had never seen a teacher walk into an ARD meeting so unprepared. And in a school district that has (in the past, that is now apparent) prided itself on using ABA and collecting data.. things aren't looking good for Mr. Joshua. Dr. B and I agreed that it seems they are trying to move over to a TEACH style of classroom. For those not familiar w/TEACH, it's a classroom style, developed at the Univ of NC, that proposes an "eclectic" approach, and since it's so eclectic, you really can't pin down a particular methodology, or heaven forbid, try to evaluate the shifting methodologies. So a teacher using TEACH will look you right in the eye, tell you your child's doing great working 4-piece puzzles and vedging in front of a video all day, then say they can't collect data because their methods may shift the next day, depending on Joshua's needs (and I'm not making up this scenario - this is a good part of Joshua's day). I will refrain from typing profanities at this point.

Well, one thing I was able to pin the teacher down on was the Autism Supplement, a state-wide document that is 'supposed' to be followed by school districts. One big part of the supplement states that there should be no more than 15 mins of unstructured time/day. At this point in ARD meetings, teachers are supposed to submit their classroom schedules to prove this. Of course, that would have required some type of organization on her part, so once again, she sat there with a blank look on her face. I asked the diagnostician to clarify if it was 15 mins/day, and she affirmed. Then I looked at the teacher and said "how about that nap/video hour?" So thanks to mean old Mrs. Ebdon the nap/video fest may need to shortended. Let's face it, though, at this point I'm thinking she may type up a new schedule and continue as it's been.

In finishing, the district's autism consultant is supposed to be in town Nov 8th. I've requested written summaries of the classroom environment and of Joshua's progress from him, and requested a meeting with him (this last may/not be honored). The teacher is supposed to supply all data within 8 wks (instead of 4 because I don't want to be at an ARD meeting with a 1 week old baby). And I have until then to find myself someone who has experience with court mediation, 'cause it's looking like we may be headed that way.

On a funny note, at the end of the meeting the minutes were read. I'll get a paper copy next week. It was good reading. Apparently Miss Rachael (aka many faces of Eve girl) is a chip off the unstable mother block. The minutes start off reading "Joshua has been doing very well at school.. He's a happy boy".. yada yada yada. Then, the tone turns black.. "But Mother (that's how it refers to me) doesn't believe this, and is demanding that the teacher go out of her way to submit data.." yada yada yada. At the time, I wanted to pounce over and strangle the recorder. But after having a (half) night's sleep I'm finding it pretty darn funny. Dr. B said that there was no way I was going to get away in a favorable light. All my requests were in the minutes - that's what I cared about.

So if you could please pray for our plight with Joshua, I would appreciate it. I was so depressed, so discouraged last night. But I have our God with me, and he knows my troubles.

Oh, and one final baby/family note. Deren was summoned for Jury Duty 3 days after my due date! Deren called and rescheduled for next week. I had to cancel my OB appt on Monday. The kids are off school Mon & Tues, and there's NO WAY I'm taking all them. Sometimes I get out of there in an hour, sometimes, with the wait, it's a couple hours - forget it. The OB already cancelled my appt for this past week because she wanted to take a vacation. They called and rescheduled me yet a 2nd time for later in the morning on the 9th. Then I called yesterday and said I can't make that time b/c of Deren's jury duty. The nurse, in a snit, told me I won't be seen next week because they are too busy to fit me in. Sooo... I guess we'll see if I have another dr's appt before the birth, seeing as how my next appt is at 39 weeks, and my last one was at 36 weeks. Beyond praying about it, I don't think I'm going to bother with anything else. So please pray that the baby is okay until my delivery!

If I hear the phrase "unseasonably warm weather" too much more in the next couple weeks I'm going to have a tantrum that will impress the kiddos. I went for a walk with Abby at 9am today - it was too hot. I'm going to have to return to getting out before sun-up or bust. The kids want to be outside. We had some beautiful days in September, and that is still fresh in their minds. But we're outside for a couple minutes now, and all our cheeks are flushed, I'm a cranky mess, and so on. So it's back to being couped up again, and we're all showing the strain. Everyone is high-maintenance and irritable. The boys have reverted to some of the old behaviors. Jacob is having potty accidents daily. Joshua decided sleeping is no longer necessary. He was up from 3-5:30 this morning. I really need to put the autism doc on my to-do list. He needs to be on some kind of drug - at this point Deren and I aren't really concerned with what - just make the child sleep!

That's all my whining for the evening. I'd better get a couple hours of sleep before Joshua starts squealing again. Good night.

Kids say/do the cutest things:

Quote from Rachael yesterday (looking at a mole on my arm): "Mommy, you have an owie. Poor baby Mommy."

Jacob, after coming home from school yesterday. I was putting up their backpacks and emptying their lunchbags. Jacob had heard Abby awake in her crib. He grabbed some leftover dry cereal from Joshua's lunchbag, went to Abby's bedroom, and was feeding her cereal between the slats of her crib. I put her in the highchair and gave her more of the cereal. She threw it over the side. Nothing tastes better than cereal from my brother Jacob!

Baby countdown: 23 more days!

34 week picture and big girl Abby

Background for quote of the day: About a month or so ago there was a gecko on the ceiling in Rachael's room (we have a lot of geckos around here. Rachael agrees with me - they're quite disgusting). Deren was settling Rachael into bed. She kept fretting and pointing to the ceiling. Deren finally looked up - about the time it fell to the floor. It scurried away, and Rachael fretted for days about a lizard in her room. The morning after the incident, Rachael started fussing when she saw the exposed speaker wires on the ceiling in the living room. She kept saying, "Look, lizard!" I kept telling her they were wires, not lizards. She has a hard time pronouncing "w", so she would say, "Look, there's a fire on the ceiling!" Needless to say, she surprised Deren when he came home that day and she told him we had a fire on the ceiling.

..fast forward to this morning.. She's been learning about firemen and firetrucks at school. She pointed to the wires, said "Look, there's a fire! Get the firetruck!"

Joshua update. Joshua was a happy man when school started back up Aug 14th. He has a lot of trouble dealing with unstructured/'down time.' I know, I know. Boredom is hard on all kids. But Joshua will either 1) get completely emotional for stretches of time, crying and carrying on and/or smacking himself and the walls; or 2) make up his own fun (e.g., crawling into toilets, flooding the bathroom, etc). He has clothes galore now, seeing as how Jacob is growing out of everything he has. It seems like in just the past week Jacob outgrew all his shorts. Come on, cold weather! Grandma Priscilla got Jacob some new pants for the winter, but the warm weather pickings are pretty scarce.

It rained most the day today. Joshua, a true lover of water, played outside in the rain and had a good old time. Rachael wanted to go outside, too. But when she stepped out in the rain she then ran back in the house, yelling "I'm sorry! Raindrops!"

Our annual ARD meeting with the school district for Joshua is on Oct 6th (you have an annual ARD around their birthday). Joshua's new teacher looks like she is about 18 yrs old. She seems nice enough, but Joshua is quite a challenge. He sincerely feels he does not need to use sign language when he can grab for what he wants without asking. Also, Joshua's new teacher instituted a daily nap/movie time from 2-3. I'm not too happy about this, and a couple other things. So, I will talk to her on the phone before the ARD meeting and tell her what my concerns are. NOT looking forward to all that.

Joshua's birthday is on the 10th. I have a gut feeling that the baby is not going to be a 42, 41, or 40 week baby like the last three. But I don't want them to share birthdays, either! The countdown is on, and the excitement is building! I can't wait to see if it's a boy or a girl. I'm still thinking boy..

School is out on the 9th and 10th, and Deren is hoping to take off the Tuesday the 10th for Joshua's birthday. Deren makes wonderful, wonderful gfcf cakes. I'm not allowed to bake - I have a really bad track record, especially with gfcf. I do the frostings - yum! Anyway, prayers for Joshua on his birthday would be appreciated!

Kids playing outside yesterday

Abby update. Abigail has been our little 'whirling dervish' - I think that's the term her Grandpa David uses. She's into/on top of everything. She can climb up on the kitchen table, on beds, with relative ease. She's seen her siblings use chairs as booster steps enough that she herself is a pro at it. If she wants cereal, she scoots up the step stool and gets a box from the counter. If she wants some of her siblings' juice, she climbs up on one of the chairs, gets on top of the table, and storms the contents on the table. It was comical watching her with Joshua last week. Mind you, he usually tries his hardest to ignore her very existence. He was sitting at the table, trying to eat his dinner, and Abby is right there on top his placemat, grabbing at his cup and his plate. He's trying his best to still ignore her, but how do you ignore someone who's sitting on your dinner plate?? I took pity on the poor boy and drug her off the table. Which brings me to the next observation about Abby. She, too, is honing her stubborness and her temper. After all, she has had very good role models in the tantrum department. Pound for pound, she can throw a fit that meets or exceeds the best of the them. She has learned from Jacob and Rachael to run and smack at you when she's really mad. You don't know whether to laugh or put her in time out in her crib!

She still idolizes Joshua, in terms of the mischief he gets into. The other night Joshua decided to go toilet diving again. He made one big mess, splashing toilet water across the bathroom, shredding toilet paper (now wet) in the midst of it. Rachael walked into the bathroom and said "Joshua made a BIG mess. Clean up, Joshua!" Then Abby walked in. Her eyes got big, she got a big grin on her face, and she was ready to dive in herself. She was furious when we drug her away (Are you catching another theme? She hates to be drug away from a good time!).

Abby's favorite song is "If you're happy and you know it", followed by "Twinkle Twinkle little star." She loves to run errands. I know this is a good thing. Instead of throwing fits, she's all giggles and smiles when I take her to the grocery store. But the thing is, I do not like to go to the grocery store! Every day she's standing by the door waiting to go on an errand. With the cooler weather, I've been taking her on stroller rides and walks around the block, but it doesn't even compare to a good 'ole car ride and grocery run.

We were at the pediatrician's office yesterday. She is 12 lbs, 13 oz with a diaper on. So she is still quite petite. But goodness, is she ever a bundle of life!

Rachael posing for Grandma Priscilla

Rachael update. Rachael has been using more and more language. She has also gained more and more stubborness and willfullness (are those the same things?). I was describing her to another mom today as God's little challenge for us. As I see it now, the biggest challenge for us as parents is to figure out how to get through to her. I've read part of 5 Love Languages, and Love and Logic. I ordered a new child discipline book yesterday. Just don't know how to get through to her. For example, she is way older than Joshua was when he potty trained, and he didn't have the slightest clue what we were doing to him at the time! One morning he's using is diapers, the next he's peeing all over himself and being marched back and forth to the bathroom. There were no "is he ready for potty training signs" you hear about - we just did it without his consent. Miss Rachael Mae, on the other hand, will tell you when she's wet. She'll walk up and ask you to change her poopy pants, but try to get her on the potty.. it's a battle.

She will pound on other kids (siblings or not) at will. She knows what time out is. She will tell you she would rather go to bed than do a time out. As I said above, she's a little challenge from God! My mom says I'm getting payback, but I have no memory of being like Rachael (and if you can detect lies through typed text you're probably on high alert now!). It seems like each new 'bad' behavior the kids pick up, Deren looks at me and says "I wonder where they got THAT from..?" hmmpfh!

Anyway, on to cute Rachael stuff. Grandma Priscilla ordered Rachael some very cute skorts (skirts with shorts underneath) from Lands End. Rachael had seen the skorts in the catalog. There was one with a horse, one with a cat, and one with a dog. We got the package in the mail today. Rachael got the horse and cat one. Our appreciative little miss immediately exclaimed "Where's the Dog??!!" It's been over a month since she's seen the catalog, but we're learning she has a very good memory.

She also uses her good memory to hold grudges. When Grandma and Grandpa were here over the Labor Day weekend they took Jacob to see the movie Cars. Each and every day, at some point, she comes to me and says "Jacob stay home. Rachael go and watch Cars movie and eat popcorn." Hopefully Grandma and Grandpa will be up for another trip to the movies when they come next. Otherwise, Rachael will never forgive us all!

As for her speech, it has been so neat to hear her use more word combinations. Last spring it was rare for her to say more than one word at a time. Now she's holding conversations, making up her own songs. We still see a delay compared to other kids her age, but we're tickled with all her progress. She loves to watch her "horsie movie." And when the horse jemps into the river, she says tells us how the horsie is in the water with the dolphins and the sea turtles!

All and all, I guess she is a lot like me. When she's in the mood for it, she's a complete hoot - she's affectionate, she's funny, she's cuddly. When she's NOT in the mood - stand back!!