February 8, 2010
Boy, it seems like the older the kids get, the more unexpected, recordable quotes pop out of their mouths! Today’s is from M, age 3:
Mom: “M, why are you wearing one pink sock and one yellow sock?”
M: “Because I didn’t have 2 pink socks, and I had an extra foot!”
Guess you can’t argue with that reasoning.
February 5, 2010
I think this would only come from a child in a transracial family!
JR: Mom, how am I going to know when I meet my wife? I mean, I don’t even know what color she’ll be!
February 4, 2010
N is well into his therapy now. We go to the therapist twice a week and learn new exercises to work on. It has actually been very interesting learning to see N from an outsider’s perspective. I mean, we noticed that N had pointed toes and some trouble controlling his legs. However, now that we have been in therapy, I have begun to see how limited his movement really is. No doubt he has a very mild case of CP, and for that we are all blessed. However, as we have tested him through the therapeutic exercises, I have seen how the CP affects his entire body. Not only did he point his toes, but his hip flexors are very weak which has prevented him from learning to stand. He is physically unable to stand straight up at this point. He is also unable to fully straighten his arms, always having a bend in the elbow. Anything that requires reaching or stretching is very uncomfortable for him, and the slight shakiness in his hands is due to the CP rather than just ”baby-ness” as I thought. Furthermore, his entire left side is significantly weaker than his right, which really limits him the most, and causes the right to “follow” suit. Since I majored in biology in college, I tend to find it fascinating how everything works together. For example (warning, tmi!), since starting solids, he has always had pellet-like stools instead of normal mushy, messy ones. Turns out that is due to muscular function (or, in the case of CP, a lack thereof). In any case, for those of you who have been asking for more info about his treatment, I thought I would offer a bit of a pictorial to help you understand the descriptions we have been giving you.
Even though N is 12.5 months old, he still "army crawls" or "creeps" for the most part. This is also due to the weak hip and leg muscles. Real crawling requires a great deal of stretch and muscle function, which he just doesn't have at this point. That being said, however, he IS learning very quickly, and currently uses a lot more leg pushing in his creeping. He also performs a real crawl several times a day now if the surface he is on does not require too much strain for him.
Our biggest focus at this point is his feet and legs. As it turns out, we caught the issue in the nick of time. Fact is, he would have eventually learned to walk on his own, however, he would have compensated for his weaknesses by standing on his tip-toes all the time. Just 2 weeks ago, he was not physically capable of standing on his flat feet (see photo below).
On the rare occasion he would stand, it was always on his very tip toes. His calf muscles and hip flexors did not physically allow him to stand flat-footed.
Imagine standing/walking in high heels or boots for a long period of time. If you are used to walking flat-footed, your foot may begin to ache and desire to return to that position. On the other hand, if you wear heels or boots regularly, then your foot will be trained to desire that elevated position when you are flat-footed. So, we immediately started re-training his legs to “desire” heel pressure. We have to do “heel pounds” on the floor. In this case, he just sits on our lap and we bound his foot on the floor to make heel contact with the floor. We also began all kinds of massaging the calf-muscles to help loosen them, rotating his ankles, and generally trying to stretch his foot into a flat-footed position. We were having some trouble though, and the therapist really wanted to train his legs BEFORE he learned the bad habit of toe-walking, so she fitted him with elevated shoes to help with the training between therapy sessions.
First, she fitted some shoe inserts to his little foot, and attached risers to the heel at the lowest level he can stand on his own. (like the duct tape?)
Then we had to go buy some high-top shoes for him. (Do you have any idea how difficult it can be to find firm-soled high-tops for an infant?) The raised sole was then inserted into the shoe. The theory here is that if he can't get his heel to the floor, then we will bring the floor to his heel. Theoretically, as he begins to use his feet more, it will cause his heels to desire that contact, and prevent him from becoming comfortable with toe-walking.
N wearing his custom shoes. His heel is actually a good inch off the floor, but that is much better than the way he stood when bare-foot (see pic above). It allows that much needed pressure on his heel, and his foot is held at a smaller angle with less bend to his toes.
The next step is to get him standing up and walking–actually using the shoes and his feet. There are difficulties here, as well, though.
N standing up. Notice how is little bum sticks out a bit, and he leans forward.
Because of his tight leg muscles, he cannot stand straight yet. That is why is upper body is somewhat angled. The flatter his feet get, the more this angle increases. You should see the contortions I have get my body into when I work with him without his shoes on! I have to use my hands to hold his heels down on the floor, keep his knees and legs straight, and use my knee to push his bum in, which, in turn forces his body into a more upright position. It is getting easier, but I think I get as tired as him after these sessions.
The final problem I was encountering was how to convince a baby to stand, stretch, and walk when it was so uncomfortable to do so that he would just cry. We tried toys, we tried placing him into position, anything we could think of. Any little successes tended to be short-lived, and he always wound up frustrated and crying. Then I figured it out.
Who can resist some homemade chocolate chip cookies?! I was eating one today, and N seemed very interested. So, I placed a few bites onto the trunk and encouraged him to stand. At first he resisted, but eventually figured it out.
Instant gratification isn't always a bad thing!
After he figured out that standing was rewarding, then I began putting a couple bites on the exersaucer behind him. With me simply holding his hand, he had to use his feet to turn his body, and then walk 5-6 steps in order to get to the cookie pieces. We did this several times, back and forth, until he had it all figured out. Then we ran into the problem of how to get him back down to the floor in a controlled manner. So I put a cookie piece between his legs, and supported his body, helping him get into a squat position. He was then able to tumble backwards into a sit.
Just writing all this wears me out as much as the therapy I think! You can probably understand why I didn’t get pics of the rest, as I do only have 2 hands!
You have probably gathered by now that we are working on his entire body simultaneously. We are teaching him to reach straight up for objects (he previously could not lift his upper arm above shoulder level), extend his elbow as much as possible, use his hips, perform controlled and intentional movements with his arms, hands, legs, and feet rather than just flopping them into position. The hardest part is definitely coming up with creative ways to make the sessions fun and interesting for him.
We are going to try the shoes for a few days, but the therapist really feels that she will likely have to cast his ankels in the next couple of weeks. This will involve a plaster cast being put on up to mid-calf, which will force his feet into a flat position (ankle at about 90 degrees). The casts will be left on for 2 weeks, with the idea of getting those leg muscles stretched out, and then he will be moved into leg braces for a little while to help the feet stay in the proper position. We’ll see. It is all so touch and go right now. I am just thankful we started early to prevent more problems later.
Whew, so there you have it. I can only hope all that makes sense!
February 3, 2010
Over the last couple months, I have posted recipes for homemade laundry detergent and homemade dishwasher detergent. Now that I have been using both for a while, I thought I would write an update on them.
No doubt, I am now a huge fan of homemade soaps! I love the fact that we have reduced our use of chemicals around the house and into the environment. I love the money saved from not buying store-bought chemical detergents. I love not having a strong, “perfumy” smell to my clothes. I also love how gentle the detergent seems to be on my fabrics. They just smell fresh and clean.
I have found some downsides which I do not love so much, though. The dish detergent tends to leave stains, which can be a problem since I am big time fan of sweet, iced tea! I will say, though, that the built-up stains are generally easy to remove by hand once in a while. We currently have a pretty lousy dishwasher, so it is hard to know exactly which issues are due to my soap or the dishwasher, but for now, that seems to be the biggest issue I have to occasionally deal with. Similiarly, the laundry detergent is not a good stain remover. In addition, over time, it tends to leave my clothes with a somewhat dingy appearance. I am confident the clothes themselves are clean, and they generally smell fresh, they just gradually appear more “dingy” or aged as time goes by. Mind you, we are really hard on clothes. While I have not found a good remedy for this yet, I do find that an occasional “whites” load with bleach at least gets the whites looking brighter again. I would like to get away from bleach entirely though, so if anyone knows of another remedy, I would love to know it! Another issue I recently discovered is that the homemade detergent cannot counteract really bad smells. I mean super-bad!
Like when I recently cleaned up some spilled cultured cream, tossed the towels into the washer and forgot about them for the weekend (I never do the laundry on weekends). Oops. When a horrendous stench begin permeating my laundry area, we searched all over trying to find the source. Hours later, I remembered the dirty towels, which were now hopelessly soured. So, as any responsible and efficient laundry-lady would do, I tossed in a few other clothes to make it a full load (please tell me I’m not the only one that was dumb enough to do that!), added the detergent, and started the wash. After the load washed, the stench was still there, only now, it had permeated every item in the washer. So I ran it through the wash for a second cycle, addidng some vinegar to neutralize the smell a bit. No luck. I decided to run them through a cycle in the dryer in the hopes maybe the clothes were clean and it was the washer that smelled. This did help a bit, though if you stuck your nose right on the clothes, you could still smell a hint of sourness. At this point, I gave up and ran the white items through a bleach cycle. I will just let the smell wear off the other clothes over time (it isn’t too bad). I also ran the washer through a bleach cleaning cycle.
Lesson learned: if I clean up something stinky, always soak it in a vinegar solution prior to throwing it in the wash!
So, there you have it. If any home-detergent making folks out there have found a remedy for these issues, please let me know. I really like making my own, and plan to keep using it, but with four kids, we do have our fair share of stains and stinky clothes. I can only imagine how much worse it will be on the farm! So I do need a solution.
February 2, 2010
If you have followed this blog for any length of time, you may have noticed that I enjoy utilizing some Montessori tools in our homeschool. Although I am not a fan of the Montessori principles themselves, I have found that many of their tools offer a tremendous resource to aid in other methods of homeschooling. I have recently discovered another example–Counting Beads.
Counting Beads are a Montessori tool to help students learn to count and visualize numbers. They consist of color-coded beads on a copper wire. A regular set will have wires with 1 bead, 2 beads, 3 beads, and so on until you reach 10 beads (see photo above). The basic idea is that you can take different wires and do basic arithmetic with them(2 beads +4 beads= 6 beads total), or use them for more advanced mathmetics such as multiplication (5 wires of 10 beads each = 50 beads). The imagination is really the limit with this tool. Unfortunately, the full sets of these beads are very expensive (some are over $100).
When JR recently reached something of a stand-still in learning his math, I decided we needed to give him a visual aid to help him out. I thought the beads would work perfectly, however, there was no way I was going to spend that much. So, I went to my local craft store, and for about $20, I bought copper wire, and several sets of beads of different colors. Then, JR, M, and I had a lot of fun stringing beads one afternoon. I would assign each child a color and a number (like 5 pink) and they would put that many pink beads on the wire. My job was to size the wires and create loops on the ends to keep the beads on. This whole process was sooooo much easier than I had expected! It really did not take long, the kids had a great time, and we got a nice little kit out of it. We still need to make a few more, as we are missing the “1″ and “9″ bead wires (I didn’t buy enough colors), and we will eventually make more of the other colors as well. Our supply works great for now though.
The beads have helped JR move beyond his stagnant point and he is once again learning and conceptualizing new concepts. He has a really mean mom who won’t tell him answers to math problems, so he loves being able to grab the beads when he is stumped on a problem, and counting them to figure it out. I expect we may be using this set for many years to come!
February 1, 2010
JR recently had his first violin concert! It was somewhat unexpected, but we showed up for what we thought was a lesson, and it turned out to be a group rehearsal. The teacher talked us into joining them for the concert, and we left the decision to JR. He loved the idea, so a couple of days later, we found ourselves in a very crowded room, full of other families. After we listened to a small group of 2 and 3 year olds play, JR was called out to be the first soloist (is that what you call a single violing player?) Anyway, he was a bit nervous, but he marched out front, performed a beautiful bow, got ready, and begin to play.
He did a beautiful job playing “Mary had a little lamb” from memory. We were so proud of him! I never would have guessed he would be so confident in front of all those strangers, but he just did awesome! He had a huge grin on his face the entire time. After playing his solo, he bowed again, and left the room. It was beautiful. I think we all talked about it for several days after.
I hope to post the actual video on here soon, but we have to do some transferring to get it onto the pc, so it may be awhile.
January 28, 2010
I was doing math with JR today. He has been getting a bit stuck with “before,” “after,” “more,” and “less” numbers when we go above 20. So, we were practicing, and it went something like this:
How am I supposed to explain math with a child who doesn’t reason normally?! Yet, I can’t argue with that!
January 28, 2010
A friend sent me this, and I know many of you can relate:
Lots of moving…
Moving…
Moving…
Moving far from home…
Moving two cars, three kids and one dog…all riding with HER of course.
Moving sofas to basements because they won’t go in THIS house; Moving curtains that won’t fit; Moving jobs and certifications and professional development hours.
Moving away from friends;
Moving toward new friends;
Moving her most important luggage: her trunk full of memories.
Often waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting…
Waiting for housing.
Waiting for orders.
Waiting for deployments.
Waiting for phone calls.
Waiting for reunions.
Waiting for the new curtains to arrive.
Waiting for him to come home,
For dinner…AGAIN!
They call her ‘Military Dependent’, but she knows better:
She is fiercely In-Dependent.
She can balance a check book;
Handle the yard work;
Fix a noisy toilet;
Bury the family pet…
She is intimately familiar with drywall anchors and toggle bolts.
She can file the taxes;
Sell a house;
Buy a car;
Or set up a move…
…..all with ONE Power of Attorney.
She welcomes neighbors that don’t welcome her.
She reinvents her career with every PCS; Locates a house in the desert, The Arctic, Or the deep south.
And learns to call them all ‘home’.
She MAKES them all home.
Military Wives are somewhat hasty…
They leap into:
Decorating,
Leadership,
Volunteering,
Career alternatives,
Churches,
And friendships.
They don’t have 15 years to get to know people.
Their roots are short but flexible.
They plant annuals for themselves and perennials for those who come after them.
Military Wives quickly learn to value each other:
They connect over coffee,
Rely on the spouse network,
Accept offers of friendship and favors.
Record addresses in pencil…
Military Wives have a common bond:
The Military Wife has a husband unlike other husbands; his commitment is unique.
He doesn’t have a ‘JOB’
He has a ‘MISSION’ that he can’t just decide to quit…
He’s on-call for his country 24/7.
But for her, he’s the most unreliable guy in town!
His language is foreign
TDY
PCS
OPR
SOS
ACC
BDU
ACU
BAR
CIB
TAD
And so, a Military Wife is a translator for her family and his.
She is the long- distance link to keep them informed; the glue that holds them together.
A Military Wife has her moments:
She wants to wring his neck;
Dye his uniform pink;
Refuse to move to Siberia;
But she pulls herself together.
Give her a few days,
A travel brochure,
A long hot bath,
A pledge to the flag,
A wedding picture,
And she goes.
She packs.
She moves.
She follows.
Why?
What for?
How come?
You may think it is because she has lost her mind.
But actually it is because she has lost her heart.
It was stolen from her by a man,
Who puts duty first,
Who longs to deploy,
Who salutes the flag,
And whose boots in the doorway remind her that as long as he is her Military Husband, She will remain his military wife.
And would have it no other way.
–Author Unknown
January 26, 2010
We FINALLY had the much-anticipated appointment with the neurologist this morning. She was very kind, gave N a full evaluation which included measuring his head, checking his muscles tone (tight) and reflexes (extra sensitive), and checking his joint range of motion (also tight). She said there is no explanation other than cerebral palsey (CP). While we basically determined that fact from previous doc appointments and research, what was nice about today is that we actually got some information about what to expect.
While he is still young enough that it is difficult to predict, she was very impressed with his level of alertness, his activity level, his physical abilities, and the joint range-of-motion he DID have. She said it was very unusual to see a CP kid in as good a shape as he is. Because he was tight from the day we received him (4 days old), she is pretty confident the CP-causing injury happened in-utero. In any case, she said that she is pretty confident he will walk with little to no aid. While he may need leg braces in the beginning, he likely won’t need them permanently. There is a catch, however, and that is that we have to get into a regular daily routine of stretching his muscles. Apparently the muscle tightness caused by CP can result in joints being used less and less, which in turn can cause the joints to basically freeze up. So, while the condition itself does not get worse, the physical abilities can decrease if not treated properly. Therefore, each joint must be exercised on a daily basis to ensure they are used, which will prevent them from freezing up. While daily stretching will likely be something that has be done for several years (if not, for life), she said it is highly likely that he will seem completely normal otherwise, and any disability will be difficult, if not impossible to detect just by looking at him. We consider this to be wonderful news! She also warned me that CP does affect every muscle of the body. Therefore, while he will walk, he will likely be very delayed. Furthermore, potty-training may be affected. Again, he will be able to be potty-trained, but he may be delayed based on how his muscles develop. Guess I better prepare myself for another long while of diaper changes!
The next step is an MRI, which will hopefully take place in the next 2-3 weeks, then another appointment with the neurologist to discuss the brain issues involved. In the mean time, we will be doing physical therapy twice a week, to learn how to exercise and stretch his little body. Just for the record, N seems to enjoy the workouts for the most part. He has always been such a happy baby that he just loves any attention. He only gets a little cranky after you pick on one area for longer than he likes, or when you are working on the joints that are excessively tight (which gets uncomfortable for him).
We praise God for the good news we got today, as well as the fact that God has provided N with a family that has good insurance, medical care, the ability to stay home with him and work with him as needed, and just when he may need it most, the chance to live and work on a farm and/or with horses (horseback therapy is awesome for CP kids!) God always works things out for the best, and perhaps N is the reason much of our life is coming to together the way it is.
January 21, 2010
I can’t believe it has been almost 2 years since I began homeschooling, and almost 1 year since we decided to make an official thing that we will continue to do. I sat down the other day to began planning out next year’s curriculum. Wow! It is just so hard to believe how fast the time has gone. In any case, I am working on new goals for myself as manager of my home (when Dad is away) and as the main teacher of our homeschool. I am also working on new goals for each child. The biggest challenge next year is that M will also be starting school. She will have only basics, and it won’t take long each day. However, she will be introduced to schooling so she is ready for next year, and hopefully get a bit of a headstart. My personal goals include:
I think most homeschool moms would agree that the ordering the materials for the following year is almost like getting presents at Christmas. I am already getting so eager to check out the new stuff. Unfortunately, with the move, I may have to wait (depending on when we actually move) to order our things until we re-locate. Time will tell in that area. In the mean time, I am going try to set some new habits now to help us out next year.
