All of the children are nuts

Bad weekend

Big blow up from Rahj, Luke is being sneaky-mean to Aaron, and Aaron's throwing tantrums for candy and having night terrors. Rahj is grounded and will lose flexibility for awhile, Luke is having long conversations with me about kindness, and Aaron just gets to be a toddler. I'm not sure I want to be a mommy this week.

First Bike Ride! and Halloween

Of course I forgot that the video can't rotate, but here's a sideways view of Luke's first bike ride at home:

We went to Larry Carson's house after church for a picnic. He has several grandchildren who are older than Luke, so he had several bikes in his backyard for kids to use. Luke was delighted to find one with training wheels and he spent most of the afternoon riding around on the grass and down a gently sloping hill. When it was time to leave, Larry gave him the bike! Luke is SOOOOO excited. He rode lots of circles around the driveway (and even fell off of the brick wall into our little garden), then rode the mile loop around our neighborhood.

We managed to get through Halloween with only one big bowl of candy from the parties and trick-or-treating. The Hendersons had a big neighborhood party full of adults that were fun us, but the kids really wanted to trick-or-treat. We went to about 10 houses, but we'll have to start earlier next year.

Rahsjay surprised me yesterday. We were on our way to swimming lessons and Luke was trying to convince me to let him carve a pumpkin by himself with a knife. His biggest argument was, "Rahsjay got to do it when he was 4." Rahsjay immediately responded with, "But that's because my parents didn't care about me. I'm not being mean, it's just true." He's amazing sometimes - realistic and honest about his past, and optimistic about his place in the world now.

Deep Sleep

I just went downstairs to make my end of the night check on all of the boys....all three snoring and sprawled so wildly across their beds that I had to adjust little bodies and cover each of them again with their blankets. They were so beautiful and peaceful.

Wanting cookies, football, and more assessments for Aaron

Luke saw Raha eating a cookie and told me, "Look, Raha has a cookie. Mommy, I always want what the other guy has."

I took Raha over to South Oldham to get info about registration and to see the school. We went back tonight to get football gear and practice starts tomorrow. Yikes! I told him that he's not allowed to hit, be hit, or fall on the ground, and of course he looked at me like I was a total idiot. Probably not for the first time? My dad says that he had less injuries in football than basketball thanks to the protection from pads and helmet but it still scares me. I am glad for the initially welcoming coach and I hope that he really feels welcome and thrives on the team environment. I was nervous for him while we were signing up, completely out of my comfort zone with football gear and parents who were obvious sports fanatics, then had a good moment of levity when Raha told me we need to go to the sporting goods store to buy him a cup. I punted to Rich on that one.

It's definitely weird for me to be on the other side of ECE (special education) services. The assistant principal was condescending and quite sure that he should be in self contained services even though she doesn't know him at all and doesn't know how beautifully he's behaved for months. I was furious but acted polite since I'll need to work with her for the next couple of years. We have a meeting next Monday, so I'll take lots of behavioral data, references from administration, and bring his therapist and other classroom teacher. I need to learn how to be a good advocate.

Aaron's speech therapist made a referral for another assessment, this at my request for him to receive services in the home for sign language. Austin is great, Aaron loves her, and we don't want to switch to a therapist who can provide both services. When we were with Barbara and Dennis, Aaron was enamored with Barbara. She speaks fluent ASL, and he'd get so excited that he start wiggling his fingers and waving hands to talk to her. He spontaneously picked up lots of signs and is so willing to communicate, and we're so desperate to talk to him. I'm not sure that there are signs for 50 kinds of construction vehicles, but I'm sure that Aaron would be delighted to learn all of them.

New Anatomy

Luke has a new system for digestion: "I have one tank (pointing to his left ribcage) for food that makes us grow, and one tank (the right ribcage) for treats." Fortunately his ideas of nutrition are developing. He just told me that it's ok if the treat tank isn't full and that you can't fill up the food that makes you grow side with treats because you need that food. Luke suddenly looks so grown up to me. He's long and bony, and his face is still sweet but I can see just what he'll look at as a teenager. There's been such a big shift this summer.

Aaron the Tosser did a big one.....he found the camera and did something with it. Rich went through every bag in garbage, the recycling, the backyard, the toy bins, etc., but we still don't have a camera. We're hoping it turns up in some weird place, but it's hard to be optimistic at this point.

For some reason Aaron is more willing to imitate Raha than anyone else. He's made "la" and "vvvv" sounds for Raha in the last day, and he's waving bye-bye like a mad man.