First off, Thomas independently showed me the sign for "key"!!! When I told him I didn't understand, he brought me Ryan's keys that were right next to him. AWESOME! I am thrilled! He has also mimicked the sign for apple (he actually does it the same as "candy" :) ) and yesterday, he also patted me on the back to get my attention. I am just amazed.

The kids and I gleaned potatoes at my friend's farm, and then she let us pick apples off of her trees, too. Patrick and Rebekah especially loved the gleaning. Rebekah not so much the apple picking--she spent the whole time on the trampoline.

We, of course, had baked potatoes for dinner the next night. I told them all to wash some--I thought it would be fun for them to wash the potatoes they had "picked". They all thought that was great. When the potatoes were done and I was taking them out of the oven, 3 of them had little tiny bubbles on them. I wasn't sure what it was, so I washed them again. More bubbles!!! Then I realized that those must have been Rebekah's, and she washed them with dishsoap. At least we knew they were clean!

Hopefully I'll have lots of apple things to bottle this week. It'll be great!

Our little one-year old William is walking now! He's all over the place. He is so cute, just toddling around. And he jabbers. All day long. . .

Thomas has made a lot of progress the last 8 weeks with a new speach therapist. He actually has what might be considered a "vocabulary", but it is a mix of words, signs, and picture exchanges. He is acquiring about 2 words per week. If you are the least bit interested, here are his words.

Vocalization:
dog
quack
boo!
ow!--this is his word that means "I don't like what you're doing"

Signs:
more
dog
duck
horse
plane
helicopter
sock
cheese--this one he used independently yesterday for the first time! Yee haw!

Picture exchange--which we are just starting, and only includes desirable things:
m&m
swedish fish
oreo
mater movie
toy car
book
(he avoids the picture of the diaper :)

So, there is his progress. He'll be three on Saturday, and I can't believe how far he has come in a year and a half. I am really grateful to all of the therapists that have been working so hard with him.

And on the personal side, I now have three daughters wearing bras!!!

Well, ttfn!

Because I know myself so well, I am going to take this opportunity to wish everyone
"Happy Mother's Day!

Here's a small recap of what's going on:

William:

He's now pulling himself up on everything, and I think he'll be taking steps sideways soon.

Thomas:

He has acquired his first words
No! (about a month ago)
Weeeee! (on slides and driving down hills)
and his latest, just a few days ago
EEEEE (his version of please, while making the sign!)

He has resisted signing, and we don't know if it's his ears that have delayed him in speach, or something else. But I am glad he can do something! He takes me by the hand and drags me to wherever the thing is that he wants.

The Big Kids

The big kids are working together to dig a hole to Tibet. It's in the back yard, and is a pretty big hole now. The other day when it was going to rain, they put a sheet over it to protect it. Today they made black and yellow construction/warning signs to go around it, as well as a flag that shows the sky and a big brown blob that hangs off of the bottom (that's the hole, if you haven't figured it out). They say that if they succeed, they will make a name for themselves throughout kiddom. They even tried to use the post hole digger, but they were too little to use it properly. Thomas thinks it's great fun to help them dig (with a spoon), and then to throw the dirt back in.

I hope you've enjoyed this little update!

William is no longer "broken-back fang baby". He was so cute as Fang! He is now "crawling all over the place with 7 teeth" baby. He is so fast! He dragged himself around pretty quickly before, but there is no stopping that kid now!

Catherine had her 9th birthday today. It was a "Polly Pocket" birthday. She counted and she now has 13 PP's, with various outfits and companion animals. She loves playing with them and spends too much time dressing them. She especially loves the new little pool with water slide that she got as a gift today. I must say that I would have really enjoyed a toy like that when I was a kid, as long as none of my boy-friends knew about it.

I had an AVON open house yesterday. Last time I did that, Rebekah keifed the sample lip glosses, and over time, they were all gone because she'd used them all! She also loves nail polish and kept asking if she could have that. This time, I watched her like a hawk. She didn't get any lip gloss, and cried when I told her she couldn't have any more lip balm or body paint, even though "I yoss mine!" When she asked about the nail polish, she answered her own question with, "maybe tomorrow, is dat alright?"

Now that it is spring, we have to be even more careful with Thomas, the escape artist. He's not actually an escape artist, just and opportunity escapist. If there is any kind of door open, he runs for it. And he runs fast! Laughing the whole way down the street. The kids are totally oblivious to him running down the road whether he has clothes on or not. I do let him roam around the back yard, where he usually goes to see the dogs. One of the very few sounds he makes is a dog barking. He stands at the window that looks out to the dogs and barks. It's really quite hilarious. Today we went for a walk, and there was a guy with a dog ahead of us. For the longest time, Thomas just kept barking at that poor dog. I wanted to yell to the guy, "Seriously, it's the only sound he can make!" except that wouldn't be totally true now, since Ryan finally helped him learn how make a sound of, well, a sick cat.

Well, I'm off to bed, since it's entirely too late to be awake.

The Return of the Raisin

Okay, so I totally forgot the most important thing that happened yesterday. At 9:00 pm, Ryan and I were in our room with the door closed. The kids were supposed to be asleep, but I had given Rebekah a bowl of raisins because she was hungry and couldn't go to sleep. We heard crying and knocking on our door. We were trying to ignore her so she would just go away and go to bed. But she wouldn't stop fussing. Her speach isn't really very good, but I kept hearing the word "raisin", and I finally caught the word "nose". So I said, "you have a raisin stuck up your nose?" to which she replied....drumroll please..."yes!" I, of course, couldn't ignore her anymore in the hopes that she would go to bed, so I opened my door and looked up her nose. I couldn't really see anything, but she cried when I touched the outside of her nose up toward her sinuses. Just great! She blew and couldn't get it out, so I tried finding the bulb syringe to no avail. Finally, I had her blow and blow a whole bunch. In the middle of a blow, she stopped and smiled and said "the raisin came out!" Voila! Back to bed, and no more raisins for her! It's hard to believe, but it took 5 kids for any foreign objects to be stuck in an orifice, and we didn't even have to take a trip to the ER. What a great night!