A lot has happened in the last couple of months. Little Lucy had some pretty concerning medical stuff going on, but is mostly doing better. She is still a bit behind of where she should be, but she is slowly catching up. She ended up having two tongue tie surgeries, and after the second just stopped eating. She started seeing early intervention due to very low tone, and as of yesterday her therapist was thrilled with the progress after not seeing her for two weeks. She help her head up while on her tummy and played with toys for 15 minutes, then sat in Kelli's lap and played for quite a while. She also showed off some mad skills by sitting unassisted for maybe 15 seconds (she has done about a minute before, but was not really in the mood to sit). As of last Friday Rich finally got her to willingly take a supplement in the form of syringe feeding her. She is still completely refusing bottles, and for the first few weeks screaming like she was dying during the syringe feedings. They have to be pretty thick, but we are thrilled that she is willingly taking more food. Other than that, out blue eyed girl is doing great, she is interacting, smiling, babbling, and bringing us so much joy! It is crazy to realize she is nearly six months old!
Jeanette is also doing amazing. I failed miserably in keeping up to date with blogging her progress, but she is now a very solid, very active two year old doing all the normal two year old stuff. She still gets a little scared when you do things like toss her in the air and catch her, but even that is slowly getting better. She is also completely terrified of walk down stairs and insists on going down them on her tummy, but that's ok with me. She is running, trying to figure out jumping (so stinking cute when they are learning that one!), climbing, and talking. She loves to sing, and sings non-sense made up songs in the car, usually to the tune of "let it go" or "Jesus loves me". Most of the words aren't real words still at this point, but it reminds me of another little girl who has also always loved to sing and now at almost five does it non-stop. Jeanette has officially graduated from PT/OT, which is amazing, and will hopefully be out of ST soon as well.
There isn't tons to report on Ruth. She is still our clown, although she is looking more and more like a kid instead of my chubby cheek toddler. Guess it's time since she is almost FOUR! She will be starting speech therapy sometime soonish (in Corri-ism that means sometime this year, because frankly, I am relishing not having a child I have to take to speech and with two others in weekly therapy still... Sigh). She is smart and funny and still a complete Daddy's girl. In fact, every single time Rich and I try to talk without the kids, she has to come in and climb in his lap. He is far too much of a softy for that girl! She is also still completely obsessed with cats. Reminds me so much of myself as a child.
Naomi is doing very well, too. Lately we have had far more good days that bad, and seem to be in by good routine with her. She is getting better and better at knowing what she needs and self advocating. Two weeks ago at church the early childhood department had a "family day" where the parents got to hang out with the kids and each class had an activity to do with the kids. It was very hard for Naomi, and she was able to make it known through pulled on my hand that she needed out of the room, and when I asked if the place I took her was quite enough or if she needed it to be quieter, she told me she needed quieter, which is huge for her. She then calmed down and did fabulously the rest of the time we were there, although is had to really engage her a couple times. I honestly expected it to be a disaster with the complete chaos, but she proved me wrong! She also did something incredibly huge about a month ago at Costco. We were walking around, and all of a sudden she yells with complete panic in her voice "where's Ruth?!" Ruth was fine and just walking behind Rich, but my girl was aware of somebody other then herself and showed concern, which is incredible. Sure it was Ruth, her buddy, partner in crime, and closest friend whom she is never without, but I'll take it!
Tobiah is also doing really well. We have had some major breakthroughs with him in keeping him calm and capable of listening. It's still a process, and I really don't think we have seen the full effect of this awesome new way of working with him. I think it will be a huge transformation just like it has been with Naomi now that we have unlocked how to get through to him. He is still my little smarty pants that loves to learn and never forgets anything. Reading has unlocked the world for him, and he spends hours reading each day. Space, bugs, ocean life, pirates... His interests are 100% boy. He is also loving school using Sonlight. He blows through most of it, but he really loves the set up, and especially loves all the reading involved. Other things haven't changed at all, Danielle is still his "bestest best friend", he still loves riding his bike (and has gotten quite good), and he is still very protective of his sisters...when he isn't tormenting them.
Elli has grown and is hitting that age of inner struggle between being a child and not. It's bittersweet to watch, and I personally hope that being a child continues to win just a little while longer. She is still the same compassionate person she has always been, although she has started to get a bit of a snotty attitude towards life. She pouts when we make her push a cart, and often whines at the injustice of being the oldest and being expected to help with simple things. She is still typically helpful, and adores her younger siblings. She often asks if she can help with things like giving Nette a bath, getting Lucy in the car, and making breakfast. She is definitely growing up. She's also finally caught the reading bug and carries a book just about everywhere, and she, too, seems to really enjoy school using Sonlight. She also got an awesome bike for Christmas and is bound and determined to learn to ride it. It was not cool in her book that Tobiah learned first.
There have been a couple other changes. We somehow have multiplied in the fur baby department. Jeanette was given a kitten named Oliver, and he's a sweet little guy that loves to snuggle with Lucy (just like Sadie, my sweet kitty I got when I was in labor). Tobiah got a dog, a sweet but somewhat dense yellow lab. And at the end of the month I'm getting the puppy I've wanted for 15 years. Her name will be Princess Buttercup.
We are also in the process of building a house (currently looking for land), so we can fulfill life long dreams of living on a farm. I'm quite excited, but will post more about that later.
Other than that, life has just been "normal" around here. I'll try not to go months without blogging again, and will be doing my next Sonlight post soon. :)
