Now A Family of *gulp* Six.

I told someone the other day that Charlie was "my normal." He's really just a pleasure to spend time with. He's almost 3, and has the attitude that comes with that. Wants to do almost everything himself. He is happy most the time, which is how he's been since birth. Even the caregivers at daycare have mentioned this - he is just happy! His speech is getting better too. What we have noticed is that the beginning sounds of words don't usually get pronounced, and "s" definitely doesn't. Like "poon" instead of "spoon." Or "har" instead of "car." I do expect at some point he will need speech therapy, but I also hear him trying to say these sounds more and more. He loves to help around the house. His favorite is unloading the dishwasher, naming everything that he hands to me. When in a good mood, he'll even help pick up his toys but they don't always end up where we want them to. We are about done with h...

Doug wrote this title on his Facebook the other day, and I had to completely agree. Roman was needing an adjustment in medication, & that means more of it. He was bouncy again in class, going to the bathroom 3-4 times before lunch alone. Picking his scabs until they bled on his leg, arm, & now under his nose. Having meltdowns almost every day after school. Disorganized thought processes (not making much sense or connections) after dinner. So we had to up his ADHD med, his bipolar med, & adjust the times he takes them. If it doesn't work, we'll probably have to up his anxiety med too. Sooo.... We hate it. I hate having to give him medicine to be like other kids. For me to like him better. For him to function in society and be accepted. Yet what I love about our therapist is she is always on the lookout for cutting edge & even more "natural" therapies. Enter: neurofeedback. Basically, it adjusts the "bad reaction" brainwaves to be "proper ...

Tomorrow morning I am going on an overnighter with the ladies from my mom support group through therapy. We all have adopted children who are, at some level, attachment-disturbed. I am excited and nervous about this opportunity. We have been seeing each other practically every other Monday since January and at some level I know them all intimately - and the other, whew, I barely know them at all personally. And I have always hated my initial personality - I am so shy that I think I come off as stand-offish. It's very hard for me to make friends and yet I want to badly. Anyway, so it'll be a fun weekend but I'll have to work hard to try to break out of my reserved shell. Yes, people, those of you who have known me forever may be surprised at that! Cross fingers that things go well.

I really struggled with these letters. Not that I couldn't come up with ideas - it was settling on the idea that was the problem. Neighborhood came to me after I was thinking about it for awhile. I knew I wanted "yummy" but couldn't think of what to feature - and then threw ham in the slow cooker Monday and realized how much I loved it. And "zoo" for Z - of course. I thought it odd to end with a picture of a snow monkey though, so added a picture of myself to go with it. So as I finish the alphabet book about me, I have lots more ideas. This past weekend I scrapped another 22 pages, plus finished my picture-a-day album (12 weeks were left). One of my more successful weekends. So now what? I think I'll finish a couple projects started in the spring and see where the creative spirit takes me!

Okay folks, this is the best I can do until after this weekend. I am spending Thursday packing my stuff for my terrific scrapbooking weekend with the girls!

It's so crazy, gentle readers, I don't even know what letter I should be on anymore. Officially, today's class is the letter U. However, having missed C, N, & T I felt I needed to do a little catch-up. So I finally scanned in my C picture, and did U and V. Tomorrow I will go back to N hopefully (I've settled on "neighborhood" instead of "nap"), get my T picture taken ("teaching"), and maybe even W? I am going scrapbooking this weekend and I'd love to have all the pages printed out to show off to the ladies.

What a strange part of the alphabet. My idea for S, which is today, has to wait until tomorrow for a picture. My idea for T has to wait until Monday for a picture. I suppose I should just do U today, but I've got some books from the library I want to plow through, so I'm going to do that tonight instead! Enjoy Q & R.