A Little Bit of Hope

After a blogging sabbatical, I am ready to continue to put thoughts into words. The very first thoughts I need to post are of thanksgiving to God for a beautiful, healthy third child born in early March. She arrived large, late, and bathed in prayer by the ladies in my Bible Study who were meeting as I labored. My heart (and hands!) is full.

In addition to welcoming our little one we have had the joy of watching friends and family welcome new children into their homes in the 2 months surrounding her birth. We are so grateful to God for the lives of Faith, Justine, Hope, Katie, Emmet, Benjamin, Coulter, Cody, Austin, & Abraham and for the presence of these children in their families.

Books, Books, Books

Over the past two months, I've been coming our library for applicable or interesting parenting books for parents of children 0-6. Here's a list of books, each with a synopsis and some opinions thrown in:

Could It Be Autism? by Nancy Wiseman, founder of First Signs
Written by a mother of a child diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, Could It Be Autism provides excellent developmental guidelines for parents of children 4 months (yes! 4 months!) and up as well as warning signs and "red flags" of Autism. Wiseman guides a parent through the "what do I do's" of concerns, evaluation, referrals, Early Intervention, second opinions, therapy, choosing professionals and advocating for your child in the school system. The information presented is factual and relevant. She strongly urges parents to be a cooperative but persistent advocate for their children regarding school-based services. While this perspective caused me some discomfort as a professional she rightly stressed how creating positive, cooperative relationships with school staff was the most effective way to get help for your child. This book is going immediately to my reference list.

Anne from "A Little Bit Crazy" referenced a book called Wonder Weeks in her blog. I have not yet read it (and apparently neither has Anne) but I have recommended it to several parents. It's on my "watch list" for the library. You can read Anne's blog and her review of this book on her blog, annesasylum.blogspot.com

Beyond Baby Talk: from sounds to sentences - A Parent's Complete Guide to Language Development by Kenn Apel Ph.D., Julie Masterson Ph.D
Written by Speech-Language Pathologists, this is ASHA's official language development publication for parents. The book does a great job of breaking down language development into stages by age (0-6 mo, 6-12 mo, 12-24 mo, etc.) and providing information for each area of language (comprehension, spoken expression, social use). I learned a few useful items to easily apply in my practice as a Speech-Language Pathologist and would recommend this book for parents of children who are under 12 months or for parents of children with language delays (versus a motor speech/articulation delay or disorder).

The Late Talker by Dr. Marilyn Agin, Lisa Geng, Malcolm Nicholl
Dr. Agin is a SLP-turned-pediatric physiatrist (rehabilitation doctor for children) and feels that Apraxia of Speech is under diagnosed or unrecognized by most pediatricians. While Agin does address other areas of speech and language development, her book is a focused bullet for parents seeking answers and treatment for children with severe speech delays or disorders. She gives a useful table of speech and language development milestones, how to cooperate and get results from the school system and how to go about getting insurance coverage for private speech therapy. I would reserve recommendation for only families with the most severely impaired children. I thought her descriptions, concerns and advice were realistic for children with Apraxia, though it might give other parents a scare. This book gave me a great professional "kick in the pants" to be aggressive in my therapy plans and a reminder of how parents rely on professionals for quality intervention, answers, help and support.

Positive Discipline for the First Three Years by Jane Nelson
The best and most applicable I've read lately. Nelson's big themes are "kind and firm" and a child's developing autonomy. She addresses all manor of "behavior issues" (biting, hitting, exploring the forbidden, running away, obedience) and developmental milestones (sleeping, eating, toileting). She holds that it takes just as much time an energy (or more) to yell, lecture, or discipline using a slap/spank/time-out as it does to firmly and gently re-direct, provide an appropriate substitute or ask simple questions to help a child solve a problem (such as sharing) on his/her own. She feels that young children understand actions better than words. Included is an excellent chapter on choosing childcare/daycare. Coverage of special needs is cursory. She also authored Positive Discipline A-Z and Positive Discipline for the Preschool Years. I am most anxiously looking to read these next!

Meat-less Loaf

While we are by no means vegetarian, occasionally I like to experiment with "meatless" recipes. Since Thing Two doesn't eat meat, it's a good way to get in some extra protein. Every time this dish has been prepared it has received accolades and requests for the recipe. So as the weather cools, whip up this wonderful Cottage Cheese Roast and enjoy a meat-less meal.

Cottage Cheese Roast (Recipe Zaar) with My Modifications in italics

16 oz. Cottage Cheese
4 eggs, scrambled
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup diced onion
1 oz (about 1 package) Onion Soup Mix
1 cup sesame seeds
2 cups Corn Flake cereal

Grease loaf pan. Combine all ingredients til well mixed. Spoon into loaf pan. Bake 60-70 minutes at 350 degrees. Let rest 5-10 minutes prior to serving.

Add my favorite meatloaf topping: 1/4 cup ketchup, 1 T mustard, 1 T brown sugar mixed together.

The Rest of the Summer

Summer is not a time to be indoors on the computer.... so in an effort to catch up on my blogging, here's our past six weeks in a picture/nutshell:

Riding with Grandma at Family Camp, Northeast, PAVacation should involve some golf.....
And swimming [lessons] with Tante....

Take in a ball game and too much junk food...

Or make the children into food (we were playing 'burritos' here)...

Speaking of food, one should always eat blueberries off the bush for at least 30 minutes solid when picking...

Maybe get a few in the bucket (we did manage to pick 14 lbs in about an hour; most of them are now in the freezer for winter cereal topping)....

And celebrating some one's 2nd birthday! Not just once,

But twice!

Ahhhhhh, summer!

Cottage Vacation

We spent the past week at a cottage with my parents and sisters. While I wait for my dad to upload his 500 pictures, I pulled the best ones of the 20 on our camera. My aunt and their children & grandchildren (a.k.a. "our cousins") cottaged about 1 mile down the road from us. We spent the week biking or driving between the cottages, sharing meals, playing in the water and sand, reading novels, boating, lying in the sun, splashing on the "rack" (interpreted as 'dock'), painting and enjoying long naps!

Thing Two squashed in her bed (she's sideways in a pack-n-play, though she barely fits the long way) during nap time.
This pic of Thing One with my dad is my very favorite picture of all. I'm pretty sure we had to record "rack" time in hours rather than minutes.

On the suggestion of a very smart friend with little boys, I bought 3 foam craft "paint brushes" for $0.99 and provided water in a bucket and an empty yogurt container. And I don't know where Thing Two's pants are.

Cherry Fest

Sweet Cherries were ready today at Moelker's Orchard so off we went. The kids and I met a friend and her boys there and we picked for about an hour. Her boys were quite helpful with the picking! My children were more apt to climb a ladder and get stuck or just eat cherries of the ground. Together we picked 6 full buckets (approx 4 qts each) which totaled 20 lbs for her and 18.5 lbs for me. They are priced at $1.50/lb. (less than 2008!). At 8:30 am, we were the second set of customers to arrive and had the trees and ladders mostly to ourselves. My friend, who is smarter and more experienced than me, brought a wagon (to pull both children and cherries and have a place to put the diaper bag) and a bib for her youngest. We didn't have to go far into the orchard but it was wonderful to load all our six buckets of picked cherries in the wagon and haul them easily to the weigh station and the car.

The cherries we picked today are firm, dark, nice size and very, very sweet!

From 18.5 lbs, I have several pounds for eating after canning 7 quarts and 7 pints. I loved canned cherries as a kid. They were the easiest fruit I've done yet. Here's what I did:

Wash cherries

pack into warm canning jar (I just keep the jars in the dishwasher after I washed them)

add heaping 1/4 cup sugar; fill with water to 1" from the top of the jar

wipe the edge of the jar, cover with lid and lightly screw on band til just stops turning easily.

Process in boiling water bath for 25 minutes for quarts, 20 minutes for pints.

When my mom and I were remembering and researching how to do this, many of the sites recommended a hot pack (using hot water to pour in jars, slightly cooking the fruit first), pitting the cherries and soaking them in a salt/vinegar solution to retain color. I do not plan to sell them. We just want to eat them all winter. So I left the pits in so they'd retain a nice shape and not get soggy.

Well, the first batch is out and I have heard three "pops" of the lids sealing so far.

Content

There is just something special about holding a newborn baby. Friends of ours delivered their first baby over the weekend and I've been lucky enough to have held her twice this week. It's special because they are so fragile and new, so innocent and sweet, so small and helpless. A newborn is only a newborn for a few short, sleepless weeks. A newborn is meant to be held.

God has been attempting to teach me a thing or two over the past year. I have been slow to listen and slow to learn. From the point of deciding we wanted to have children, "more than two" seemed to be the goal. For the better part of a year, this desire for "more than two" has turned into an emotional and spiritual struggle. Mid-winter my soul finally heard God's calling to me: Be Content. That was it. No further instruction.

God intended this to be a comprehensive reform, starting with our desire for more children. Content with our finances. Content with my husband. Content in my job. Content with my children. Content in His provision, His blessing, His calling on my life. Whatever it may be. It doesn't matter what anyone else has or has been through. It's as if God said to me, "I AM the Alpha and the Omega. I AM all you need."

The learning process is tough. I see hope, humility and answered prayer in the good days. I see pride and stress in my failures. What's next is unknown, except that God is Sovereign and Jesus is Lord. So I'll go snuggle my babies, clip some coupons and greet my husband warmly, knowing that God's mercies are new every day.