Weekly Wrap Up

What's up here at Casa Quarantina? Well, let's see...



Brianna managed to liberate her new double pointed knitting needles after they'd been eaten by her bunkbed.

We've watched our share of documentaries and mindless fluff movies. Anything to distract from the itching and keep us all from going stir crazy. (Stir crazier?) The blanket-draped figure is Annaliese, who, understandably, does not wish to be photographed in her poxed condition.



For those who are wondering, this is what stir crazy looks like. Sigh.

The big kids finished up their CAT testing! WOO HOO! I did a lot of this:

while they were working. Can I just say I love love love my iPad? I'm pretty sure it's my favorite present ever. I just need to finish up a couple more sections of testing with Furby this weekend, and we'll be mailing the whole box back next week for scoring.

I escaped to Target for a bit after school today, and got the girls a lamp for their bedroom. They got a new lamp when we moved, but Hannah fried it. I'll have to post about that someday. Maybe when it doesn't make my heart stop to think about it. At any rate, they NEEDED a lamp. So I found this pink bling-y one and knew Bri would approve. I had a coupon for 20% off kids bedroom stuff, which saved us $6 bucks. Bri decided a new lamp was reason to spruce up the dresser.

I finally went through my neglected coupon binder and pulled all the expired coupons and clipped over half of the pile of inserts that have been stacking up, neglected in the chaos of moving and getting settled. Although many of the coupons expired in February, I did find a couple that went all the way back to September, oops!

I have to say, having the product stash I had stored up when we moved has been amazingly helpful. It was so nice not to run out of things! Especially since we had many extra expenses getting the other house rentable. We finally came to the end of the dishwasher detergent and were getting close to the end of the laundry soap, so I made sure to find deals on those. The photo above was from Wednesday, when Sam and I picked Josiah up from school and went to Papa Murphy's to pick up dinner. While our pizzas were being assembled, we walked over to Rite Aid and went couponing. "Wellness + savings": $33.35, Coupon savings, $10, total OOP: $42.59.

Today's Target run was even more fun, with a savings of $75.33. It's been kind of nice doing an errand with just Josiah and Samuel after school every day this week. Annaliese can't go to school with the pox, so she's home to watch the other spotted ones while I catch a breath of fresh air and talk to people who aren't polka dotted.

Guess who is learning to wash her own hair one handed?

That's right! Hannah Banana is doing a great job sudsing up on her own. I still pour the shampoo and does a "check scrub" and the rinsing, but it's a great start, and just a matter of time before she takes over those tasks, as well.

Hannah watching Dora in Mandarin. She's lost most of it, but we continue to expose her. In the fall, she'll be old enough to start at the local weekend Mandarin school. I hope that hearing the tones regularly will make it easier for her to pick it back up. Mandarin school is a long term committment, as I hope she will be at least able to make some conversation with our guides when we go back to China for a heritage tour someday when she's older.

That's my week in a nutshell. I'm SO VERY MUCH looking forward to a Mom's Night Out with my adoptive mama friends next week. I need my batteries recharged. I miss park day and homeschool co op. I miss talking to grown ups.

Couch potatoes

Trying some mindless entertainment to keep the itchy boredom at bay. The empty spot on the couch is where Annaliese was before I got the camera out. Redbox provided tonight's entertainment for the big kids. And where was Hannah during all this?


Watching Dora in Mandarin on my computer, of course.

Sunday Snapshot

A pictoral glimpse into my day.

Poor Furby has them on his lips.

And Eli on his hands & legs.

And neck.



This morning Paul took Samuel and Hannah to church while I stayed home with The Spotted Ones (and Josiah).



Somehow, I managed to convince them to let me take a few pictures.



After working looking over Furby's spelling test, I decided to sit down and do some phonics practice with him.




Which quickly turned into a multi-player game.



In case you can't read Eli's note, here it is up close:


Oh yeah. That's why I do this. And no, I didn't correct his spelling.

I can't make this stuff up!

I wasn't going to post because I don't have any pictures to share, and really, what fun is a blog with no pictures?? But the very unbelievableness of my life compels me to write.

I recently read someone's "Weekly Wrap Up" blog post, and I thought I'd deviate a little and share my month of March so far.

3/1 Take kids in to dr. Update shots, including Sam's chicken pox vaccine.

3/2 Sam breaks out in pox. Okay. It happens. Not unheard of for a vax'ed kid to get them.


3/3 My birthday. It's a really good friend who will bring their family over to your house for dinner when you have the plague (and it helps that they just got over it, lol).

Like the candles? Dh kinda forgot that part, so he threw on random candles from the last couple birthdays. :eyeroll:

Over the next 11 days we missed out on: Adoption play group, park day, civil air patrol, church, youth, baptism ministry, homeschool co op, etc. We started going a little bit stir crazy. I kept checking the other kids, "Lemme see your belly," and "Lemme feel your head," but none of them showed any sign of spots.

And just as Samuel's pox started crusting over...

3/15 Brianna wakes up poxed. She's HAD them before! That's when I start to get a little annoyed. I check the little boys and have a horrible suspicion about Eli, which is confirmed later in the morning. I said, "I know God won't give me more than I can handle. I guess I should be flattered in His confidence in me."

3/16 Drop Annaliese and her suitcase (the same one Paul used for two whole weeks in China) off at school for a 2 day trip to Disneyland with her sign language class. I'd teased her the night before when she was packing, "Wouldn't it be hilarious if you got down to Disney and woke up Saturday with Chicken Pox?" No, Mom, it wouldn't be funny at all. "You're right, it wouldn't be. I'm sorry." Didn't really think it was a possibility because (same song, second verse) she had the shot. 9 p.m. she texts me and tells me she has fever & headache and feels awful. I text back, "Check your torso." Next text, "I have chicken pox."

Seriously?! My heart broke for her. I felt completely awful for having teased about this very possibility. And the suckiest part of all is that she's 400 miles away from home. On a field trip. With a very contagious disease. Crap! They can't put her on a plane and fly her home because she's contagious. I can't fly down and rent a car and drive her home because I have 4 poxed kids here at home, and Paul is at work until morning.

Eventually, the plan was worked out. She'd stay at the hotel all day while her classmates went off to Disneyland, and Paul would leave from work at 8 a.m. to drive down and get her.

I'm so incredibly bummed for her. Even the other kids have been really sympathetic about how awful it is. Brianna said, "Annaliese missing Disneyland is way worse than me missing out on the Tween/teen Scavenger Hunt [with our homeschool co op].

They're on their way home now. I just talked to Paul, and they should be here in a couple hours. Before midnight, even. Which is an incredibly fast trip, all things considered.

And the rest of us? Well, we had our green foods for St Patrick's Day lunch.

We wore green and shamrock silly bands bracelets. We had corned beef for dinner. But there's definitely a cloud over the house. Bri, Eli, & Furby lay around and itch a lot. Sam has started to lose his mind after being cooped up so long with no end in sight, so he's picking on people, which makes them cry because tempers are short.

And I have another 2 kids who haven't had pox yet. And at least 2 more weeks of quarrantine to look forward to.

Trinkets from Zach

Yesterday we got a package from Zach!
The boys liked the duct tape closure.

In one of his phone calls, he told us he would be sending some trinkets.

The tiger, elephant and camel all open on hinges.

Oh look, it's my boys!

See the resemblance?

Little marble cups

A set of Arab nesting dolls!

I always think of nesting dolls as a Russian thing, so this was a neat surprise.

And the turtle Brianna is holding has a hinged opening, too.

Poor Bri. She wasn't feeling so great yesterday (hence the less than flattering picture) and this morning woke up with CHICKEN POX! How unfair is that?? She had them a year ago! She hugged her friend with pox 4 weeks ago and didn't break out when Samuel got them. So bummed for her. She was doing okay most of today, but this evening has a tummy ache and is pretty miserable.

Eli woke up with them, too. Actually, I wasn't sure about him at first, just a couple spots, but as the morning wore on, he developed more.

Looks like another 2 weeks of quarantine for us.  I really, really hope that if Furby is going to get them, he gets them soon so we can get it over with. 

Testing, one, two...

It's CAT testing week at our house. Living in California, homeschool families have the option of using a charter school, an umbrella school, or filing the R4 and declaring yourself a private school.

We have many friends who use public charter schools, and that works for them. But we've always filed the R4. I like being independant. I like having the freedom to choose all my own curriculum and not have to omit any religious references in sample work submitted for approval. Heck, I like not having to submit any sample work, period!

While we are not required to do any testing, I like to keep a pulse on how the kids are doing, and it's a nice way to break up the routine every spring. My kids take the CAT 5 California Achievement Test that we order through http://www.familylearning.org/ . Once we've filled all those bubbles in, we send it back to be scored and get the results a couple weeks later.

Testing can only tell us so much. It can tell us how the kids are doing in math or spelling fairly accurately. But since we choose our own curriculum, often what they're testing in Social Studies or Science is not what we're learning that year. Interestingly, the kids usually still score well in those areas, simply by virtue of being curious in a learning-rich environment. Books, books, and more books play a role in this, I'm sure.

Hannah's too little for testing, of course. But her picture is here to remind us there's so much testing can't tell us. Just like when we were waiting to travel to China to adopt her, what's reduced to paper is only one tiny facet of who a person is. She's so much more than her referral paperwork.

The scores we get back for the homeschooled kids are just a part of the bigger picture. Scores don't mention things like, "Amazing cuddler" or "Class clown" or "very creative!" They don't test in the areas of my kids' obsessions.

If Eli was tested in Aircraft or Lego, he'd score top marks. If Sam was tested in his areas of interest, he'd do well in Marine Biology, WW2 history, and Survival Skills. Brianna could ace any quiz in bling or glitz. Maybe fashion design is in her future?

So yes, testing is important to me as a school administrator. I want to know where we're doing well and what areas need some improvement. But as we've seen from public schools, "teaching to the test" leaves out so much. And really, who came up with these tests? Who gets to decide what a second grader should know? And what happens if they don't know that until they're (gasp) 10 instead?

I'm going to look at their results and plan for next year based on what I see. But I'm also going to plan for next year based on what works for our family, and the interests and abilities of the individual children I'll be teaching. After all, isn't that the beauty of homeschooling?

A trip to the fabric store.

A couple days ago, Brianna and I got out to JoAnn's for an hour. It was amazing to be out in the world of real people again. I get a little cabin fevered when I'm home too long, and since I haven't wanted to take pox-boy out, the only time I've left the house is to drive the kids to and from school and such. It was good to get away for a little while and finger endless crafty possibilities.



Brianna got a gift card for her birthday, and she's been aching to get in and buy yarn. She's my little knitter/crafter. I don't knit, so this has been a little weird for me to see her soar in an area that I have no experience with. I'm very proud of her. Her knitting teacher says she has natural talent, and until her brothers started teasing her about it (grrr!) she usually had knitting with her wherever she went.

This picture of her knitting at the park was taken a year ago.

It's so neat to see her skills improve. She reads patterns and makes intricate designs in her work now. When we went shopping, she purchased her first wool yarn to make a felted bag for Annaliese. She also got a new kind of "yarn" which is actually not very yarn like, but a wide weavy stuff called Sashay. http://www.redheart.com/yarn/boutique-sashay She's started a project already, and I can't wait to see how it turns out.

And me? What did I get? Well, it's pretty rare that I manage to go into a fabric store and not buy any fabric. But since I haven't sewn in a month, and I have an entire room of fabric already, I worked on building up my ribbon collection. (because, you know, a basket full isn't enough...) I've been making bows for Hannah's hair lately, and I needed some specific colors to match dresses/outfits she has.

Insanely pleased with matching the color for this dress--without having the dress with me.

Hannah's getting a matching doll/dress for her birthday. So of course she needs matching hair clips, right? I think I might even tie ribbons in the dolls hair to match, too.

I found some St. Patrick's Day Hello Kitty ribbon and made Hannah hair clips and Brianna a bottlecap necklace.

I made the Easter egg ones a couple weeks ago. Not sure if they'll match anything she owns or not, but the ribbon was too cute not to use.

For those who've asked, here's a little look at how I make hair clips:

I use double prong clips (I got a box on Amazon that will last me until Hannah decides she's not going to let me mess with her hair any more.) and Scotch adhesive. I originally bought the glue to fix a pair of shoes, and this is great stuff. I like it better than hot glue, but hot glue works, too. I use a 4.25" piece of ribbon, and I glue starting with the inside of the upper part of the clip and working my way all the way around to the bottom, but leaving the bottom prongs free. I have some store bought clips with the prongs covered, and I much prefer having them free because they go into her hair easier.

Aqua clips are right side up, ivory clips are upside down. Go have some potstickers, let the glue dry. (The potstickers are optional.) Then come back and glue on your embellishments, or leave plain if you prefer.

I thought about putting some red star buttons on the clips on the left, but I decided I like them just the way they are. Simple.

Another day, I'll have to show my bow method (like the Easter egg and HK ones), but I don't have pictures of that right now.

How it all began

Our family story in a nutshell:

Paul and I met in 1993 and married in 1994. I wanted a large family, and before we married, he agreed we could have 6 kids. We started our marriage with a 2.5 year old, and the kids came quickly after that. At one point we had a newborn, an 18 month old, a 3 year old, a 4.5 year old, a 6 year old and a 10 year old. We thought we were done. (Cute, right? God laughs at us, I'm sure.)


God was good to us in the early years. We went from living paycheck to paycheck in an 800 sq. ft. apartment, even rolling coins from Zach's piggy bank once to make the rent, to better jobs and living on my grandmother's 5 acre farmland.


In 2003, we had a surprise pregnancy. I knew Paul would be less than thrilled, so I didn't tell him until the second trimester. During this pregnancy, we moved from Santa Rosa to Elk Grove, buying our first house. We welcomed Jack (Furby) in 2004, and Paul took steps to ensure there were no more surprises.


When Furby was 4, we were at a totally different place in life. The kids were much bigger, and we felt like we had a better grasp on things. One day I was reading a link about adoption that a friend (http://lifeaccordingtothechristians.wordpress.com/) had posted to her MySpace page and was called away from the computer. I came back to find dh sitting in front of the computer, and he looked up with a funny expression on his face. "Sorry! Sorry! I wasn't trying to say anything, I was just reading something Ashley linked to!" I hastened to reassure him. His startling response was, "I've been thinking about it lately." You could have knocked me over with a feather. Although I'd brought up adoption several times during our marriage, he'd never taken me seriously or expressed any interest.


That was in August of 2008. Over the next couple months, we explored the 3 types of adoption and settled on fost-adopt because it was the cheapest option, and because we felt like we would be helping to meet a need. We signed up with an agency (http://www.families4children.com/) and began our paperwork and classes. And I started to read everything I could get my hands on about foster care and adoption.


We finally finished the homestudy and received our license in April of 2009. Then we started to wait. And wait. And WAIT. In July, we got a call. I said yes! we'd take the little boy who was being treated for burns and needed a family willing to learn to care for them. Unfortunately, another agency secured the placement before ours did, so we didn't get him. Then we had a long dry spell of waiting again. Our eldest son, Zachary, turned 18 during this time, and was fingerprinted in accordance with the rules for foster care. Finally, in December, we received another call. Can you take a 3 month old baby girl with broken bones? I said yes again, heart breaking for this tiny child. They called back an hour later and said she was taken by another agency. 2009 was a dry year for foster placements because the County had laid off so many social workers due to budget cuts.


January 26, 2010, I was once again looking at photolistings online. Many areas have a Heart Gallery of photos of adoptable children waiting for families. http://www.heartgalleryofamerica.org/Galleries/default.asp Here is a listing, if you are interested. I cruised the listings regularly, looking for 2 little girls to add to our family. On this night, however, I clicked a link and found myself here: http://www.rainbowkids.com/ This was a site that listed "hard to place" kids, both domestic and international. I plugged in our search criteria, and up popped several photos. One of them stole my heart, so I showed her picture to Paul. Now I had shown Paul pictures from the photolistings several times before. Some serious, like the twin 1 year olds and the baby brother that we inquired about in Oregon. Some, less serious, like the sibling group of 6 in Texas. Usually, I got a grunt. Sometimes he would go so far as to agree the child/children were cute, but that's it. This time, he asked questions.


Would we qualify? I was surprised to learn that, while China only allowed small families to adopt their healthy babies, their Special Needs program would allow larger families to adopt. Our income level, net worth, health history, and criminal history were all within China's rules. It would mean changing our homestudy. It would mean travelling to China. It would cost thousands of dollars. She had special needs we had no experience with. But as we prayed about it, the thought of leaving her there... we just couldn't do it. We contacted the agency that had her file, and within a couple of weeks had decided to move forward. 2010 was spent paperchasing, and on Thanksgiving day, we landed in Beijing.


Now, one year after our adoption, I know this is something I want to do again. Not right now--we just bought another house--but eventually, I'd like to adopt 2 more.

Why I *Didn't* buy Hannah navy blue squeaky shoes today.

Quick info for those not familiar with China's adoption process. When the time finally comes, you go to China, you fly to the capitol of the province your child is in, you meet/receive your child there, spend a few days sightseeing and waiting for paperwork, then ALL Americans adopting from China fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong province for the last week of their trip. (Canadians go to Beijing.) In the heyday of Chinese adoptions (2003-2006) there were up to 150 American families at a time staying on "the island" each week. Shamian Island is where the American consulate that processes the childrens' visas to the United States used to be. When it was there, 2 hotels on the island, the White Swan and the Victory, had a booming business with adoptive families, and at least a dozen little shops sprang up on the island to serve their spending needs. One of the most popularly purchased items (remember, China adoption used to be all about baby girls) was and continues to be squeaky shoes for toddlers. I bought Hannah a couple pairs while we were there.


And then I came home and bought her a couple more pairs.


Her feet have not grown in the last year, and she can still wear the ones we got in China. Somewhere along the way, I discovered Zulily. http://www.zulily.com/invite/sbernard372

Zulily is a series of kid/mom related flash sales. Smocked dresses, tutus, squeaky shoes, hairbows... all delivered to your door! Every morning, I wake up to a tempting email full of new flash sales to browse through. Dangerous, no?

Totsy is a site similar to Zulily. http://www.totsy.com/join/Grtlyblesd For some reason, I like Zulily better, so I only check Totsy every once in a while. But last night, I took a peek and saw that they'd have squeaky shoes today.

Now, I have a thing for pictures of the kids. When my firstborn arrived, I hauled him in to JCPenney or Kinderfoto or whoever every.single.month. on the day he was born. When he was 9 months old, I was so broke, I couldn't possibly afford pictures, so I took a roll of pics on my lousy little film camera. I still regret not finding a way to take him in. I was looking at the kids' baby pictures last night for a project I want to do, and came across Zachary's 9 month shots that I took myself, and they were so disappointing.

Anyway. All that to say, for the last 2 decades, we've been frequent fliers at the portrait studio. Babies get every month for the first year, plus a couple sibling shots, plus family pictures annually. After age 1, they have birthday pictures until they hit school age, then they have their annual school photo (plus family pictures, of course). The last couple of years, we've had a homeschool mom take pictures for our homeschool co op of our homeschooled kids so they could have "school" ish pictures, too. I realized last week that we hadn't done that this year. And that Hannah & Furby have birthdays next month.

So this morning, when I saw the perfect picture outfits for Eli & Furby on Zulily, I used the $15 credit I'd been saving and bought them. Then I started thinking about what Hannah has that might go with their red/white/navy new duds. For a minute I thought she might need something new, but then I remembered her beautiful smocked homecoming dress.

It's a beautiful dress with American flag hearts, made by another mama who adopted from China. And Hannah looks totally overwhelmed in this airport photo.

Okay, she can wear that. But what shoes...? And then I remembered Totsy and went to check what was up in the squeaky shoe sale. They had cute little navy ones that would work. But, oh, my. $21.75? Ouch. No, I can't spend that much. I got them in China for $5/pair, and I can get them for $12/pair if I watch for them to come up on Zulily. Surely, I decide, she must have something that will work already. So I pull out her shoe bucket and line up her current shoes to see what's in there.

Wow. I knew she had a few pairs of shoes, but this is getting out of hand! Out of all those shoes, only 4 pairs don't squeak. Good heavens. I think she'll be wearing the red ones for pictures.

I may need a new hobby. Her tutu collection and hair bow collection are similarly ridiculous.

Vaccine Irony

Remember how I talked about taking Samuel and Hannah to the pediatrician Thursday? I mentioned that both kids got 2 shots. Hannah got Hep A and Pentacel, Samuel got Hep A and the chicken pox booster shot. Booster. As in, he'd already had one almost 12 years ago. Guess what he woke up with Friday morning?

Yup. Chicken pox. I knew he'd been exposed 2 weeks earlier, because we had friends who had it, and we were over at their house. But I assumed (yes, I know) he would be okay because 1) he didn't get it last year, when Brianna had chicken pox; and 2) he HAD THE SHOT. Well. That was effective. I kinda think the booster may have been the straw that broke the camel's back so to speak.

Wook at dat face!

We're quarantined until he's better. Which meant no homeschool co op, no Civil Air Patrol, no church, no park day... I can't decide if it's frustrating or relaxing, actually. The silver lining in this is that it's been nice not having to run around quite so much. But we are starting to get a bit of cabin fever.

Poor guy. His feet have them, too. They're in his ears, his hair. He's been a really good sport about the whole thing, though. One of the things I love about Samuel is his good attitude. He's even been limping along in his schoolwork.

My one hope is that no one else breaks out with them. We're less than a week in, so it's still too early to say that no one else will catch them from him. I just dread the thought of getting Samuel all cleared up and ready to go back out in the big world, only to have Furby or Eli, neither of whom had the shot, break out.

When I talked to Zach, he suggested putting Sam in front of a movie. Fortunately, I had a free Redbox code for my birthday, which I used to pick up a movie the kids hadn't seen. I may even spring for another one when we return it, as a treat.

Totally irreverant Bible study thoughts

I like to set the ipad up in the bathroom in the morning, and let this deep voice with just a hint of an accent read to me while I'm getting ready. I'm using the You Version ap, but I'm sure there are other Bible aps out there.

I've hit the part in Exodus where they're talking about the priestly garments. The first designer clothing, so to speak. God tells Moses exactly how He wants these special clothes to look for Aaron and his sons. --Actually, the part about the breastplate with the different stones was rather interesting, and I found myself wondering if there was a unit study available about the 12 stones. Note to self, check CurrClick for that later.

At any rate, it tells that these special garments are to be made out of special fibers by skilled workers. These outfits were a Big Deal. I imagine it would have been an honor to have worked on them. I "read" on past the bells and pomegranates, and get to the part where God instructs Moses on how to consecrate the priests. If you've never read it, I'm in Exodus 28-29 this morning. God basically says okay now wash the priests, put them in these great new duds, and sprinkle BLOOD all over them.

I'm thinking what on Earth would one of Aaron's sons' wives have said?? I mean, these outfits they had made would have been treated with the same reverence that we give, say, a bridesmaid dress before the wedding of a sister or dear friend. Hung up carefully. Protected. The kids could look but not touch. Kept CLEAN, for crying out loud! The Big Day (consecration) comes, dude goes off to the temple for a few hours, comes home, and his wife takes one look at him and says, "What the heck happened to you?! You look like you and your brothers have been flinging ram's BLOOD on each other all day!" Guy looks down, scrapes his toe in the dirt, peeks up at his wife sheepishly, "Well... uh..." I mean, seriously, it's not like they had peroxide back then.



This would be the part of the blog where I tie it in to some modern application and make a poignant point about how the Bible applies to our lives today, and what deep and meaningful lesson I walked out of the bathroom with this morning. :crickets chirping: Yeah, I got nothin'. But I will be just a little bit more grateful for my bottle of Spray & Wash (not to mention the whole washer & dryer thing) as I start my morning load of laundry.

Kinda makes me wonder about all the other stories left out of the Bible. Now, I know, the Bible is sacred and meant to be history/prophesy/instruction/etc, not a story book. I get that. But it sure would be fun to have had some female perspective in there every once in a while.

You might drive a large vehicle if...

Years ago, we were staying in a hotel with actual television. We don't do tv at home, so this was a rare treat, and Paul channel surfed his way across a Jeff Foxworthy comedy routine. There was a lot of "you might be a redneck if..." in it.

We have a larger than average family, and I drive a larger than average car. Recently, I've gotten some comments about my wheels, and it reminded me of the comedy routine.

You might drive a large vehicle if a mom at school hops out of her vehicle, races over to yours and asks, "How much do you charge?" assuming you're running an after school shuttle/drop off service.

You might drive a large vehicle if you get charged BUS PARKING fees at the Lodi zoo. (true story; I'm still cheesed over that one)

You might drive a large vehicle if you're sitting in a softball parents meeting and you realize you have more seatbelts than the team vans do.

And from just last week, you might drive a large vehicle if an absolute stranger comes up to you in a parking lot, peers over your shoulder as you're loading groceries into the back, and says, "You could put a bowling alley in the back of that thing!"

Pediatrician appointment

It's a weird thing, registering one child for high school and one child for kindergarten. In some ways the same (both needed shots) other ways so different (one had to write an essay, the other didn't even have to appear). Even the worries are the same and different. Will they fit in? Will the other kids like/accept them? Have I done enough homeschooling to prepare Samuel for the big world of high school? Will Hannah's classmates make fun of her prosthetic leg and xiao hand?

Today we headed off to the doctors office, just Hannah, Sam and I. Sorry, no pictures, I forgot my camera. Both kids got their "well child" check ups and a couple of shots. It was so cute to see them hold each other's hands for comfort during the shots. (Sam didn't cry, of course. Hannah started crying at the alcohol wipe.) Samuel got the puberty talk and the "just say no" to drugs and alcohol talk, Hannah got praise for wearing big girl panties and learning to walk on her new leg. (The Ped hadn't seen her since she got it.)

This visit was Hannah's first hearing and vision screen. (I don't think we could have effectively done them much earlier, given her comprehension and maturity.) GUESS WHAT? She didn't do so well on the vision test. Once again, I'm venturing into totally new territory here, as the other kids have all had great vision. We'll be taking her in to an optomotrist to see if we can determine how much of her score was based on not knowing the names of the shapes and how much she's really not seeing them. The nurse said she got 20/50 in one eye and 20/70 in the other. I'm anxious to see what an eye doctor gets.

Oh, and Hannah weighed in at 30#, up 4# from when we got her a year ago. She's 38" high, but I wasn't paying attention to which leg she was standing on when they measured her, and her prosthetic is almost an entire inch shorter than her natural leg. So she could be a little taller than that. I need to call about getting an adjustment again. I just took her in December and they "grew" her leg 3/4" then.

Samuel broke triple digits, weighing in at 102# and standing 5' 1.5" tall. Both kids are a little on the small side on the charts.