A Life Update.

So I need to blog about life so I will remember it someday. I want to remember more than just vacations and holidays.

I will start with Jensen. I love this kid so much! He is so funny. Him and I have a great time hanging out together everyday. He keeps me entertained and laughing all day. We have great conversations. Most of the time he wants to know where Maegen and Jed are and if they want to come hangout with him. He also wants to go to gwama and gwampa's house everyday. His other request that I hear everyday is that he wants to go bowling. We started potty training last week and he is doing great with the exception of going #2. We have had a couple of accidents but for the most part he has got it down. We also moved him into the girls old bedroom into a big boy bed. He has been the easiest bedtime kid. He likes the routine of books and a drink and then usually he will lay down by himself and go to sleep. He has figured out that it is fun to take the heater vent off and yell down to his sisters bedroom when they are going to sleep. We just put him back in bed and that is usually the end of it. He still takes about a two hour nap everyday and doesn't fight it at all. He is a wild child and can be pretty crazy. I would say it's a boy thing but I have seen his sisters act like that too. He is for the most part such a good boy and pretty easy.

Pictures of his new room.

On to Reese. I am super grateful for this little girl. She teaches me a lot about myself everyday. Mostly I recognize all of my weaknesses. I realize how much I don't know about being a mom. Reese is relentless. Once she has made her mind up about something she isn't going to forget about it. Sometimes this quality makes me crazy! Sometimes she reminds me of my sister Brittney:) Sometimes I feel like I want to run away. Sometimes I don't know what to do. She definitely challenges me the most. You know what though. I wouldn't change this about her. It can be hard to deal with for sure, but I also know that she will never let anything in life stop her. I think that it is a blessing to her. She needed this personality of hers! She will never let herself be held back because of her deafness. She is also a very loving child. She makes sure that I know that she loves me. She loves her dad and she loves her brother and sister.

People ask all the time how Reese is doing with her speech and hearing. Sometimes I want to just lie and say it's great. Paint a perfect picture for everyone. I have to remember that this is our own journey and not compare her to anyone else. Sometimes the journey sucks. It is hard. I can't wait for the day when I can say she is all caught up and we don't even think about it anymore. We aren't there yet but we get further along everyday. Last week I got discouraged. It was after a long drawn out bedtime with her. I was frustrated that she didn't understand that if she didn't go to bed she was going to be tired the next morning. Last week was rough going with bedtime and then trying to wake her up for school. She had taken a nap on Presidents day and because of that she would not go to sleep until almost midnight. Tuesday morning was HORRIBLE. She would not wake up. She kept ignoring me and rolling over and going back to sleep. I went and made her lunch and got her clothes. I literally had to pull her jammies off and get her dressed while she tried to sleep. I did her hair while she buried her head in my pillow. I carried her out to the couch and tried to put her implant on but she wouldn't let me. The van came and I had to carry her out and load her up all while she pretended to still be asleep. She had a little grin on her face so I knew she was aware of what she was doing. She went to school without going potty, without breakfast, and really scary looking hair. I was in tears by the time she left. I sent her teacher an email warning her but apparently she was fine and dandy for everyone else. That is Reese though. Everyone that works with her adores her and so do I, it's just tough sometimes. Reese is doing very well though. After getting discouraged I was reminded of what a amazing child she is. I have been blessed with many times in the past week with reminders of how great she is doing. I think somebody knew that I needed some encouragement. I have heard so many long sentences and phrases from her this past week. A lot of which I didn't know that she knew. I have been told by her teacher and one of her speech therapists at school that they are so pleased with her progress. They say she is a completely different child than she was last year. She comes to school wanting to share stories and what is going on at home. She is very social. We recently had a meeting with all of her "people" to discuss her progress and to start thinking about what direction we are going to go with her next year. We were so thrilled to learn that she had made 15 months of progress in her receptive language in the last year. 8 months in her expressive. She is picking things up SO quickly. She can learn a song at school and come home and sing it to me that day. She is picking up so many preschool skills like writing and shapes and counting. She is a very smart girl and amazes me with all that she knows. It is wonderful to see her progressing more quickly. It use to take HUNDREDS of times of her hearing something before she would learn it. I think that is one of the hardest parts of having a hearing impaired child. I will never again take for granted how amazing our brains are. Jensen automatically figures out and learns about the world around him. He says words that I didn't know that he knew or understood. You have to teach deaf children in a much different way. It takes patience, which I need more of, and time. I need to remember that Reese was profoundly deaf for the first TWO years of her life. It is truly a miracle that she can hear and talk. What I am sure of is that Reese will be fine and in time you wouldn't know that she was deaf unless she told you! I love her so much and I am so glad that she is mine. Even on the rough days.

Kenadee is starting to act so grown up. I forget that she is only seven sometimes. She is easy most of the time. She is dramatic and emotional but I think she gets that from me! She just lost her other front tooth and has a pretty cute toothless grin right now. She is super smart and figures out most of her homework by herself. A few weeks ago we had parent teacher conference and her teacher shared a cute story about Kenadee with me. She said that she had pulled her out for some testing with reading levels. She asked Kenadee what one of her favorites books was. Kenadee told her it was a book about a family that left everything they had to go to the Promise Land. Her teacher thought that was great. She loves to read the Scripture readers and I am amazed at how much she learns about them. I found a notebook of hers where she had written all about the 2,000 Stripling Warriors. She had a substitute in church a few weeks ago who called after church to say what a good girl she was and what a remarkable young women she is. She wanted to make sure that Kenadee knew that. It is nice to know that your kids know how to behave. Sometimes at home I wonder! She is in LOVE with Justin Bieber and reminded me yesterday that it was his birthday. If someone would teach that child that cleaning up is not the end of the world she would be perfect! She is lots of fun though and is patient with me as her mom. I love her lots.

Whew. Long post but I am glad I did it.