Wednesday

Sometimes I get really frustrated by Samuel's lack of common sense/logic within his thinking skills.  Yet, Aaron and I have talked about how that is kind of like getting frustrated with a bunny because it won't bark.  If he can't do something, what's the point in being frustrated about it?  Anyway, here are two examples from yesterday.  First, his bedroom especially reeked.  As he soaks through 3 pull-ups, his pjs, and his bedding most nights, it always smells really strong in the morning, but this time it was even worse.  Turns out he'd shoved the previous night's bedding under the bed instead of taking it to the laundry room.  What was his answer when asked why?  So it could dry under there.  I explained that it would be dry and STINKY, but if he took it to the laundry room like he was supposed to, I could make it dry and CLEAN.  Later in the afternoon, he saw that in the living room someone had used the foam blocks we have to create a really big intricate castle across a big section of the floor.  He kicked it hard twice, destroying most of it.  Stephen flew at him enraged and I had to take care of both issues.  I got Samuel to apologize and for Stephen to sit down on the couch to cool down and then took Samuel to a separate room to ask him why he had done that.  He had wanted to know whose it was.  Ah!  Next time just ask, Samuel!  Life is certainly never dull around here.  I picked up 2 books from the library on helping a child who is mentally retarded/brain injured.  I'm hoping to find some things in there to help Samuel.  Someone from the school district will be over later this afternoon to hopefully get his evaluation finished.  I'm so glad that I've got the 2 teenage girls that help out once a week coming over this morning.  When the man from the school district comes, I am supposed to have a quiet peaceful atmosphere in my home.  That would NOT be an accurate description of what it would be like if I was involved in the evaluation and the other children were left to entertain themselves!

The trip to Sam's Club went well.  I took Naomi Ruth and Benjamin with me.  She has always been such a fabulous helper with the little ones since she was tiny.  I can remember her at 3 years old sitting in the rocking chair with baby Hannah in her arms, gently rocking her and singing to her.  :-)  In the store, I carried Benjamin against my body in my Maya Wrap slings.  It is one of 4 slings that I have and love.  Benjamin is such a happy little guy when he is all cozy and warm right against my chest.  The shopping time took a LOT longer than I had anticipated.  Naomi Ruth wanted to stop and see SO many things.  In addition to their regular stuff, they had a lot of Christmas shopping things available.  By the time we got back out to our van, I had to explain to her that dawdling to that extent when I keep telling her to hurry up and come on is disobedience.  She shared how she loves the special one-on-one time with me and liked looking at the things in the store.  I told her I like those things, too, but if she wants to come with me more often instead of less often, she needs to be able to move faster.  She agreed to be much quicker in the future.  We did have to make one other stop, this time at Meijer's.  Can you believe that Sam's Club was completely out of bagged cat food?  That was a first in my shopping there over the years.  I'd also wanted to buy plastic wrap and they only had containers with 3000 feet of it.  I don't use THAT much plastic wrap!  So, true to her word, we were able to get in an out of Meijer's quickly.  Oh we also got Samuel new socks while we were there.  He's had a foot growth spurt and suddenly has toes popping out of all of his socks.  That's not good any time of the year, but especially when it's COLD!  His feet will be much more comfy now.  :-)

A friend and I are trying out a new site for chores.  It's called chorebuster.net.  I am pretty excited about it.  I only got a few of the chores entered into it last night and will continue on that today.  I'll let you know what I think of it after I give it a whirl.  If any of you have ever tried it, please leave a comment giving your opinion of it.  And by the way, anybody else is free to leave comments, too.  It's fun to get comments.  :-D

Well, I'd better hop into the day.  Bye until tomorrow!  Ooh an exciting update here!  I just found out that Samuel stayed totally dry last night!  That's the very first time since he got here!  Gooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Samuel!  :-D

Love, Dawn