Red is 13

Wow. He was just 3 feet tall, rapt with wonder at the power and variety of stinkamotives (steam locomotives), carrying a duck and a penguin. Now he's taller than I am, sometimes smarter, and much more self disciplined. He's always been a little man, like that line from It's A Wonderful Life , "you were born older". He's into history, reading, movie making (stop motion with Legos). He is a born shepherd, loves being in charge and making sure everyone is in line and doing what they're supposed to. It gets a bit wearing on his younger brothers, but he is usually a pretty gentle guy and they also know they can turn to him for safety. He has always asked the hard questions, from "momma how can you be happy on earth when we've got babies in Heaven" to " how come you're going faster than the speed limit". He combines his dad's love of facts with my over confident "I'm right because I am" personality, which has made homeschooling him..... oh, let's call it interesting. Talking him into anything he didn't think of, or out of anything he did, is more than I'm am capable of most times, which leads us to believe he will either be the President or the guy leading the coup. I do love his strong personality though. He is my Samwise Gamgee(Lord Of The Rings reference). Steady, loyal, loving, gentle, my right hand man. I hope he always stays strong in what he believes but has a teachable heart. I hope he learns that failing a few times doesn't mean failure. I hope he's gentle with himself, like he is with his little sister. I hope he grows up to be much like his dad, but always his own man. I hope he learns long division, and the difference between an island and a peninsula. But most of all, I hope he always knows how glad I am to be his mom and how much having him has changed me closer to who I want to be.

Who needs play therapy?

Life is certainly never boring around here.

Baby Girl has been diagnosed with Epilepsy. We are probably going to do medication with her. She's had 9 events since March, and although all are short (longest has been 21/2 minutes), they are not precipitated by anything, and obviously fairly frequent.

Dad and I had talked about it the night before, how the appointment would be short, he would tell us yet again that they don't know why she's doing it but she's perfectly healthy and call them if anything changes. And the first part of the appointment went as planned. He observed her, she showed off her charm by trying to dismantle his blinds, and then giggling at him. He said her neurological development was perfect. And then he said, "But considering the unprecipitated nature of the events, I'm inclined to diagnose epilepsy and recommend medication". That wasn't in the script.

So once again, nothing has really changed but everything feels different. 10 years ago this could have been a devastating diagnosis, but now there are so many medications that have so few side effects, that this will be just a very small part of a normal life. Especially if everything goes by the script. Which occasionally does happen, even around here.

Meanwhile the older brothers are working through their feeling about this. The youngest 5 got all their Teeny Beanies and had synchronized seizures. "Ok, everyone has a seizure on 3" and then they would all shake their little animals. Then there were the unexpected ones. "Bear is walking along, thinking about playing ball when OH NO he has a SEIZURE!!"

It's saving us a bundle in play therapy.

My Summer:in pictures

Another Iheartfaces challenge:


We've had a busy summer and I've photographed most of it, so here's some of it LOL

We visited with my sister and did the capital. The boys are looking through the glass floor in the Library of Congress in the Capital Building. At least they were very quiet.

Then we visited my uncle and did the Alamo, where mommy did nothing for Mexico/US relations
Then my nephew was baptised and 2 of my boys turned 8. I'm so blessed to get to see all these young men grow in my life.

We've spent lots of time at the lake and pool, enjoyed the 4th of July with some art, parades and fireworks and got to hang out with our cousins some more.

And that's just June and July. I just adore summer!

iheartFaces-Beach

This weeks challenge at iHeartFaces is Beach Week!





Now, we are about about 800 miles from an ocean beach but we have been blessed to find a beach at a local lake that is perfect for us. That's my T, feeling sad about something, as usual. :-)

E and Z at 8

These guys are 8!! Their first initials are E Z and that's how they've been most of their lives. Sweet babies, sweet boys. Both are so obedient, but follow through is a bit of a problem. However I know that's mostly just part of being an 8 year old boy. There's just so much going on in the world and if you don't stop and watch it all, well, who knows what will happen?

E spends much time building Lego and is a bit of a loner, hard to imagine, right? Z is quite a comedian and loves art. Both spend all their spare time moving and laughing. They have such great laughs and can get each other going till they can't breathe. E is a more typically oldest child, which is weird cause they're only 4 minutes apart. He is more precise, much more of a rule follower than Z and much much more of a cuddler. Z is a bit more volatile, although compared to A, J1 and J2, he's a kitten. His artistic vision is amazing to me. He figured out all by himself that if you make things smaller, they look like they are far away. E figured out addition all by himself. I guess that sums them up right there.

I never wanted twins, I always thought it would be too hard, but now I can't imagine my life without the two of them exactly as they are. My precious, laid back, funny, sweet twin boys. I just didn't know how much I wanted YOU.

Patriotism

is a fun photography blog I love to read. This week they are doing their "Patriotic Story in Pictures" and since I love posting pics of my kids, and I didn't get to post these on Memorial day, here ya go!

Whenever we can pull it together, I like to take the children out the cemetary on Memorial Day to honor our military dead. Most of the men buried in our cemetary did not die in action, but they served our country with pride and honor. I want my children to know, and always remember, that we are only free as long we are willing to die for it. It is an honor and a privilege to do so.

Alamo

A while ago we took the kids down to the Alamo. Well, we actually went down to see my Uncle Vern in the Cardiac ICU. He had a major heart attack and I needed to make sure he knew how very much I love him. He is still surviving and trying to recover. Anyway, because he was in the ICU, we couldn't spend much time with him, so there we were in San Antonio with 11 kids (ours and my nieces and nephews)and nothing to do. Let's do the Alamo!!

It was very fun! Turns out on weekends in the summer they have people in historical costumes that give demonstrations in the courtyard. Fabulous. S was so so into it!! He just loves history, loves weapons, loves war stories. Even J1, who "hates" history, thought it was really interesting. They even got to do a weapon loading drill, with fake weapons, but they still though it was great. We had picked up a scavenger hunt sheet they gave away at the front desk. All the kids were really enjoying finding all the stuff on the list. A1 had decided that the Mexican soldiers would be the perfect people to ask where to find the stuff, so while the other children hung back in fear at the men in dress uniforms with guns, A walked up asked them if they were dead, and when told they were very much alive, then demanded some answers! They were very obliging. Funny guys, they would yell, " Viva (child's name), viva Mexico!" for each picture.

They also got to see some real weapons from the time period and watch one being loaded. It is amazing anyone got killed back then with how long it took to load a weapon!

Under things not to say at the Alamo:
I had bought the boys a bunch of plastic Alamo and Mexican Army soldiers in the gift shop and was distributing them. A couple of the boys complained that they didn't like the Mexican soldier they were given but wanted one who was posed different, to which their loving mother responded quite loudly, "All the Mexicans look alike!!". *blush* In my defense, all the PLASTIC Mexican Army soldiers had come out of the same mold and did look exactly alike. The real Mexican soldiers laughed loudly at me.

Fun trip, lots of learning, highly recommended!