Good Influences

I was thinking about last summer today and my frantic homeschooling research. I wrestled with the decision for months. I prayed and researched and prayed some more. Homeschooling seemed to work so well for many families I met and I wondered if it would work for us. One day, a few weeks before school started, Nicky sang a cute song I'd never heard before. I asked her who taught her that song and she said it was Mrs. Baker her preschool teacher. Suddenly, I knew the answer to my prayer. Nicky was supposed to go to Kindergarten and it was ok for her to be influenced and taught by someone else.

Sometimes, when I'd read about homeschooling, I'd read a lot of negative things about teachers and public school. I was totally floored by how our Kindergarten year and teacher compared with some of the things I read. Ms. H is a phenomenal teacher. She taught Nicky to read, write 100 times better, and memorize more poems and songs than I can count. All of this happened while she taught 25 other unique little bodies to do the same stuff. To top it off she actually had tears in her eyes when she told the moms at the Mother's Day makeover how much she loved our children.

As time passed this last year and I continued to send Nicky into the arms of Ms. H for learning, the thoughts of being teacher and mom grew more lackluster. I'm sure there are bad teachers out there and we may have to experience one someday but, oh, how I am thankful for the many people who influence my children for the good. I love Nicky's school teacher. I love Nicky and Andy's primary teachers. Tonight, I love a speech therapist who taught my toddler to push his fists together and say, "mo" (more). I love singing to him and at the end of each song, I love to see the frantic fists and hear his little "mo" almost muffled out by his snotty nose and green binky. Most people out there rock! I have some lucky kids in my house.

Therapy Times

I haven't updated my blog regarding Christian in forever. Alta Regional (California's early intervention program) added him in April. This was such good news as I was driving him an hour and a half round trip to Folsom three times a week for therapy through our private insurance. Now we go to the Jabber Gym in Roseville which is only 10 minutes each way. LOVE IT!!! The building is new and the therapists are fantastic. Christian gets four different therapies, physical, speech, occupational, and what they call IDP (infant development). His problems stem from low muscle tone. The neurologist tells me that on some premature babies, the white matter in their brains doesn't form all the way. So Christian will work hard to find new pathways through his brain and to catch up. Right now he's at about a 25% delay overall compared with other children his age.

Here are some pics from Jabber Gym at a physical therapy session. Basically they make working really hard seem fun. In this shot he's going through a tunnel over bean bags.

Christian has a hard time sitting up without W sitting or in this picture he's got his hands down to support himself. The therapist was trying to get him to sit on his bottom and stabilize himself while she moved the swing. He wasn't having it.

We're really thankful Christian is having all this good early therapy. He's picking up the sign language and a few words they've taught him already. On Sunday the Sacrament tray passed by us after he'd had a piece of bread and he frantically made the sign for more. Jeff and I tried not to laugh too hard. He's a cute little bug. He's walking so well I'm forgetting how upset I was that he wasn't walking last month.

Mother's Day Flowers

Mother's Day was wonderful. Jeff was doing claims in Alabama until Saturday night so I took the kids to Lowe's on Saturday and bought a ton of potting soil, marigolds, and petunias. Nicky and Andy helped plant them until Andy got distracted with making the water balloons Daddy left for him. Nicky loves planting flowers and we had fun talking about my mom, dad, and Grandma Peck who all loved planting flowers, particularly marigolds and petunias.

Jeff planned to come home in time for Mother's Day and it was no small feat for him. Most of his co-workers were staying out for two weeks and he had to get special permission to come home after staying only one week. He worked day and night to be able to get here. So it was the best Mother's Day gift just to have him home.

The primary kids were to sing "I Often go Walking" in Sacrament meeting so I was to accompany them on the piano. I was so nervous because it was my first time ever playing in Sacrament and in front of such a large and quiet audience. I knew any flub would be heard from the front pew to the stage. I wore the ring my mom gave me with her wedding diamonds. It's a big gaudy thing that looks like a gold tumble weed with diamonds. I'm trying to keep it on the down low that I have the ring because I found in one of her journals that she promised it to my oldest brother. Ha ha then she gave it to me (that crazy Alzheimer's). I wore the ring because I wanted Mom to be a part of the number. I know she'd be surprised and pleased to see me playing in Sacrament meeting. She had me take piano off and on for years and I never did anything while she was around to prove I'd picked anything up. Anyhow, the song is simple enough. I practiced it five times a day for two weeks so I had it almost memorized. It was a good thing too because my fingers went numb. There were a couple of small (unnoticeable) mistakes. The song itself reminds me of my mom because she was an artist and loved flowers so it's like the song was written with me and my mom in mind. I especially like the parts, "all flowers remind me of you," and the whole last verse,

"O mother I give you my love with each flower

To give forth sweet fragrance a whole lifetime through

For if I love blossoms and meadows and walking,

I learn how to love them, dear mother from you."

It was nice to pay a quiet tribute to my mom with our flowers and my simple performance. I was glad to be here to enjoy the little cards from the kids and just be their mom. I'm not one who feels guilt on Mother's Day, I save that for every other day of the year. So I enjoyed the day. Jeff's mom also came up with some of the family to have dinner with us and it was great to have a real mom around to spend the evening with.

Mother's Day Makeover

Nicky's Kindergarten teacher invited all the moms to come into class today for a Mother's Day makeover. When I came in the room, the kids were at recess and the moms were each seated next to a plate. The kids had prepared each plate with a comb, butterfly clips, a dab of hand cream, lipstick, and some cotton balls for makeup application.

The kids came in soon after the moms were seated and sang to us some songs about apple trees growing bigger with their branches extending and little hands changing the world. There was also a slide show with snapshots from the year. All this sentimental stuff had my tears rolling. I couldn't help but think back to when I was pregnant with Nicky or when she was a little toddler driving me nuts with tantrums and wearing her ugly "pretty shirt" every day. It all seems like yesterday and now she is a big elementary school girl. Her whole face lights up anytime I am in her class for any reason. She acts so shy in a cute way at school. Like she is totally reserved but she doesn't let it get in the way of getting what she wants. She loves to learn and loves her class. She's already been crying about moving on to 1st grade. Is it just me or does each year seem to be going by faster?

I loved letting Nicky put on my blush and eye shadow. She got it on nice and thick and got plenty of lipstick on my teeth. She loved the butterfly clips the most and told me I had to wear them the whole day. So I went to Safeway and the Jabber Gym (for Christian's therapy) with blue metallic butterfly clips on. The front desk lady at Jabber Gym said something like, "sometimes you're just in a hurry and grab something" when she saw my clips. I had a laugh that she thought I'd wear something like that on my own free will. I explained they were a gift from the Kindergarten makeover and I wasn't allowed to take them off.

I also got a book from Nicky for Mother's Day that she made with her class. Inside she says she likes to go shopping with me and feels special when I buy her something. Geesh! And I thought maybe I could go one day without feeling guilty for something. Seems we're a little materialistic around here. Gotta do something about that.

Photo Shoot at the Temple

Finally the kids appear in pictures in their Easter duds however many weeks later. I took everyone (-minus Jeff) to the Sacramento Temple this evening to get pictures. Though 19 miles doesn't sound far in theory, I discovered that the Sacramento Temple is the most inconveniently located temple in my experience. There is no freeway there from my direction so we traversed back roads for 40 minutes and got lost on the way home. That part wasn't fun but the temple and the pictures were worth the trek. The Sacramento Temple sits on a hill overlooking Folsom. There is a huge tree park on the temple property where multiple benches give you a choice to enjoy the temple's beauty in shady spot. Of course it has all the temple musts...the water fountains, roses, various flowers, pretty stones, etc.


I should just use this picture to represent Christian at 18 months. I can never get him to look at me.

There they are in all their cuteness. Try not to notice the ghetto footwear (e.g., Sketchers, Vans, Stride Rites).