Kids Husband and Happenings....

Hello March and spring! Well it be update time again!
KIDS:
BAYLIE: Miss Roo turns 5 this month! Holy cow!! Her birthday party is on the 6 @ Godfather's for any that would care to join us. She's a trooper. Happy, loving, and very talkative. Mostly we understand all of what she says. She will talk with you about any and every thing that comes to her mind. If you know her at all you know that, that can be SEVERAL things in the span of a minute. On the way home today she talked with me about the signs she saw (recognizing the letter H! Yay!) ((if you wonder why I am so happy about that you should know that she has a really hard time with letters)) the gauges in my car, the passing airplane, trains, the sky and sun, and a few other things i have forgotten. The drive home takes me all of 10 minutes btw! We are trying to prepare for her kindergarten testings and screenings. Because of her special problems she will get two testings and a regular screening. We are hoping to mainstream her with an aide. She surprises me almost every day with the things that roll through that never quiet Brain of hers. Her memory for events is like a steel trap she can remember things that happened over a year ago, small things that I forget about until she tells me. She is very mechanically minded and a very tactile learner. My greatest challenge with her will be figuring out how to make abstract 2 dimensional things (like letters, numbers and words) into hands on, moving activities, and also figuring out what we can do to help her transition from one activity to the other. Transition is hard for autistic people. She enjoys teaching her sisters the things she has learned. Like letters or shapes or colors. They say we learn things best when we teach them to other people. This may have to be a concept I work into her learning. Which takes me to Daisy....

DAISY: AnnaBanana is stubborn and sweet, opinionated and loving. She won't do a thing unless she's ready too. This is one of those love/hate things. Her strength and ability to think for herself is a wonderful trait that I love, BUT it also makes things very hard to do. Take potty training for example. She has been ready to make the transition for...oh I don't know about 6+ months, but her stubborn hard headedness has prevented her from actually doing it until today. Then suddenly she comes to me and says she wants to wear panties, period, the end. She went all last night and all through school today without and accident. She has a mishap at nap time- but that happens and I didn't expect perfection on the first day. But she had to decide she was ready for it, we couldn't make her do it even though she was ready and capable. Daisy continues to LOVE LOVE LOVE school. Her teachers love her too. She has already begun to learn and grow so much from being there and she has just started! Daisy is very affectionate with her siblings and pretty much everyone else. And I often have to remind her (and Baylie) that Pepper needs her space and not to get in her face. And that takes us to Pepper...

PEPPER: Peaches is still my doll-baby. Though she's been sick lately. She started getting a yucky nose in December and when it hadn't cleared by the start of January I took her to the pedi. She had a sinus infection and was given amoxicillian. After that was finished she had a couple good weeks and then it was back again! So back to the doctor who gave us nose spray for allergies. That did nothing for her, so more antibiotics were given. Something called Cefprozil. It hurt her tummy but we gave it to her anyway. And then it cleared for a few day and came back AGAIN!!! But this time it came with a yucky cough and a fever (she reached 102 last night). So back the doctor today we went. She has an ear infection :o( :o( . So no more messing around, the doc brought out the big guns Zithromax. It stays in the system 10 days after the last dose which will take her to her 9 month appt. (which will be taking place on the day she turns 10 months lol). But as of today she was 21.11 #'s and 29.5". I don't know what % that is but I know its higher than most :). Despite being tire and sick she is still the sunniest child I have ever seen. She smiles and loves everyone. She loves to make noise, from banging things on the floor to rattling toys to talking she like to make what I call her music! She is still not walking but getting closer by the day. She observes her world and takes in everything she sees. She loves other babies and children and always wants to play with them or touch them. Even running a 102 fever last night at 1 in the morning she was still smiling and happy to see me when we went into the kitchen to let the Advil take hold. She has 5 1/2 teeth as of right now, two on the bottom and 3 1/2 on top. She is a total Daddy's girl too (just like her sisters) her whole face lights up when he gets home from work and she often won't go to bed unless she's seen him. That takes us to James...

JAMES: Hubby is LOVING his new job at L&H. He has already had a good raise and enjoys the people he works with. Just today is boss brought pizza out for the crew to the work site for lunch. This company truly believes in taking care of their employees and their families. James made the decision a few weeks ago to undergo an elective sterilization. (aka vasectomy) So the appt. is set for June 10th and yes I will update about that as he has asked me to come with him and hold his hand. His new job keeps him busy all day and the kids keep him busy at night. Most nights we are pretty content to just veg. for an hour after the kids are down for the night before we go to bed ourselves.

OTHER STUFF: With our taxes we got a new computer tower (yay!) and paid some bills off (yay again!) and then put some into savings. We are now the full owners of our mini-van, and our slowly whittling away at the rest of our debt. Not too much is new here in Soesbe-land other than the afore mentioned things :). I am so amazed that my oldest will be 5 and my youngest will be 1!! Its bitter-sweet to me that James is getting the big V. Bitter because I know we will never have a son- no one to carry on our last name. Sweet because I know we can't afford to have an accident and I need to get off the current method of prevention I am currently using. I am glad he volunteered for this and though it makes me sad to know we wont have that boy, I also know we are stretched thin enough with the 3 beautiful girls we have.

PICTURES COMING SOON. AFTER BAYLIE'S BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!