My Big Boy Helper

So for those of you who have been reading my blog for the past year know that last summer was a doozy. Josiah was very mischievous to say the least and was definitely a challenge. That challenging behavior has continued all year and finally just this week I have seen a significant change in his attitude. This week has been pleasant and I have really enjoyed spending time with him.

Yesterday Naomi took an extra long nap in the afternoon and Josiah and I were able to spend some time playing together and working together. After playing I started to make dinner and he asked if he could help. I was a little reluctant because his help in the past has turned out to be a whole lot more work for me. Also, I was chopping vegetables and wasn't sure about how he could help. Since Naomi was still sleeping I decided that help wouldn't be too bad. I set him up with a paring knife and a chopping board. I gave him a large piece of yellow squash and showed him how to cut it up. All the time in my head I am thinking, "what are you doing?"

He did a great job cutting the vegetables. He cut yellow squash, zucchini squash and green onions for me. About the time he was finished chopping I started to mash the potatoes and Naomi woke up. So, I gave him the masher and showed him how to do it and then left him unattended to get Naomi. Again I'm thinking, "what am I doing?"

When Naomi and I came back down stairs the potatoes were mashed beautifully. He did get a large amount of splatter on the kitchen counter, but I think he did a great job. I am so proud of him.

The best part about him helping was when we sat down for dinner and he said that yellow squash was nasty (before he even got any on his plate), I said to him, "you know they taste much better when you've helped make them!" He piled them up on his plate without hesitation and said, "Wow! These do taste good!" He is such a cool kid.

Another Busy week.

With Naomi being sick a week ago, things at home got a little behind. I have been trying to get caught up with laundry and general around the house cleaning with little success. Summer time is a hard time to stay inside and clean. Josiah has spent a lot of time outside playing in his sandbox, since Daddy filled it a couple of weeks ago and Naomi has been practicing her walking.
Last week Wednesday, Grandma came over bright and early to watch Josiah while Naomi and I headed for the Audiology department at Kosair Children's Hospital. We are getting to know the staff there very well. She had her hearing tested again. This time instead of being sedated and tested at the brain stem level, they put us in the sound booth and tested her response to sound. Once again she came through with flying colors. Her hearing is good, but will still need to be monitored until she is 5 years old. We will be back at Kosair in 3 months for another test in the sound booth.
Friday night we went to dinner with our friends that have adopted children from Korea. We went to Lee's Korean Restaurant. The food was really good and the company was too. Josiah made a new friend, Daniel that he talks about all the time. We will have to get together again soon with him.
On Friday around 10pm a very dear friend of mine arrived to spend the night. She was going to a wedding in Louisville on Saturday and needed a place to stay. I had a good time catching up with her. We did not go to bed until midnight and were just exhausted.
Saturday we went to breakfast with a couple from our church that are adopting a baby from Ethiopia. We spent time getting to know them and talking about our adoption experiences. We had a wonderful time and would love to spend more time with them. Since the week had not been busy enough for us we loaded up the kayak and headed to Derby, IN for the afternoon. Greg's family gets together at Uncle Bill's house every year for lunch, swimming and boating. We always have a great time at Derby. I learned to play washers for the first time and Naomi stayed up all day and refuse to nap. She was surprisingly cheerful for being so tired. We headed home after dinner with two very sleepy kids.
Monday our good friend the Zoeller's moved to Fort Wayne, IN. The moving van was at their house in the morning so I picked up their kids to come over and play with Josiah while everything got packed up. We are very sad to see them go, but at least now we will have a place to stay when we go visit.
Today Naomi had her 1st Steps 5 area assessment to see if she needs any therapy. The therapist that did her assessment said she would have the final results to us by Saturday. Her initial assessment is that Naomi has an expressive language delay and a mild fine motor delay. She will be evaluated by a speech therapist of our choice when all the paperwork is in. We will be having a therapist that we know from church do the evaluation. If you have any questions about speech and language delays take a look at her website.

Now We Are In Trouble!

My Poor Sick Little Girl

Saturday afternoon Naomi spiked a 103.7 degree fever. During the night she seemed OK while on meds and Sunday during the day she kept the high fever, but was eating and drinking normally. Sunday night at about 11:30pm she woke up and felt as hot as hot can be. I took her temp and it was 104.2 degrees. I freaked out and all I could think about was "what if she has a seizure?" We put her in the bath tub to cool off. She did not like that at all. We gave her more meds and laid her on our bed under the fan. We turned the air down to what seemed like freezing to me and let her fall asleep next to us. Her fever went down to about 102 by morning so it was off to the doctor bright and early. Turns out she just has a virus that needs to run its course. While we were at the Dr. office he decided that she needed to be treated for a sinus infection which he thinks is not related to the fever. So, she is now on a 3 week course of antibiotics. No that was not a typo - it is 3 weeks of antibiotics for her. After one dose of meds and 2 doses of probiotics the next 3 weeks are not looking promising. Pray that she feels better soon.

Some of our Portraits

What a Week!

Last week was very busy. We spent time at the Y on Monday and Tuesday, working out and swimming. On Wednesday we had a service coordinator from 1st Steps (birth to three) come out to our house and set Naomi up for a speech evaluation and possibly an Occupational Therapy evaluation. Since she came home she has not increased the number of sounds that she makes very much and she also has a mild fine motor delay. She was evaluated back in April and this is a follow up to see if she is still delayed.
On Thursday, Josiah and I dropped Naomi off at Grandma's house and had a fun day together. We went to Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom with Aunt Melody and Leah. They have a season pass and got us in free for kids fest. I forgot to take my camera with me, so no pictures of the blast that we had. Melody convinced us that we should ride the kiddy roller coaster. She even convinced Josiah that it was no big deal and that he would need to hold Mommy's hand to keep her from getting scared. For those of you that don't know - I do not like roller coasters very much. Anyway we got on and as soon as we got to the top of the first incline, Josiah freaked out. He cling to me and cried for the entire 30 seconds of the ride. He was completely distraught and said he was never going to do that again. We got off the coaster and he said, "Let's ride the carousel - I think that would be a better choice!" So we did! We did not swim at the water park since it sprinkled on us all day and we didn't want to be caught in a thunder storm while swimming. We had so much fun.
Friday we got up late and got dressed to go to Grandma's house. It is Melody's birthday this weekend, so we celebrated at Grandma's house. We really thought we were going to get rained on, but we didn't. We ate a lot of good food and played outside for a long time. The kids drew with chalk on the driveway and rode their bikes. I rode the little tricycle and everyone thought that was too funny (bring back any memories - Jan?). I will have to get a copy of the picture from Melody.
As if our week and week end were not busy enough, we went to have family pictures taken on Saturday at Portrait Innovations. We have never had them do our pictures before. It was a good experience and we got some nice shots. We also had Naomi's 1 year pictures done in her Hanbok (Korean traditional dress). She was just not very smiley this morning. She woke up with a low grade fever, but nothing that really concerned me. By the time we got home and she woke from her nap she had a raging 103.7 degree fever. It took several hours to get it to come down to 103 and then another hour to decrease it further. She is feeling a little better now and is in bed. I can only hope and pray that we have a good nights rest. Boy am I tired?

4th of July