1. Jen visited. It was great to see Emmett's sister. Evan taught her how to play the Pokemon card game, and Corrie forced her to make up stories about princesses. Ben required hours of snuggling. And I - took naps! And ran errands by myself. It was great. :) Note: Emmett also enjoyed seeing his sister. They had lunch by themselves one day, and stayed up talking a couple of nights.
2. Corrie turned FOUR. I still think of her as my little girl, but she is really quite big. She has now lived longer in Texas than she did in Chicago. She loves pink and purple, and she is like a magpie - collecting toys, hair doodads, books and odds and ends in assorted backpacks and on her bed. She adores her dad. She sings and dances around the living room every day. She loves to go on mommy/daughter dates for yogurt. She says "Ack" all the time (drives me crazy). She likes to pretend to be the mommy while I am the sister. She sneaks sips of my Cokes. She makes up wonderful stories with her dolls.
3. God is providing for Ben! I talked in the last post about the community of families that we are getting to know. I am so thankful. One family actually lives down the block from us - how amazing is that!? Then today, Ben and I had the opportunity to hang out with a speech pathologist. I met her three months ago at a Pampered Chef party, of all places. She admired Ben, so we got to talking. It turns out that she has a Continuing Education DVD from Talk Tools - an oral motor therapy system for babies with Down syndrome. Today, she and I watched part of the video together, and she offered to see Ben regularly so that she can practice and develop her oral motor skills with infants. This is a huge blessing. This therapy will be in addition to our regular speech therapy from Early Intervention. This wasn't something I was looking for; God has been reminding me that He has plans for Ben - and that He will provide for him - even when I'm not expecting it.
4. Evan turned SEVEN at the end of January. Evan is great. He loves to learn - we hear a regular recitation of Pokemon info and lessons from school. When Evan plays with Ben, Ben's smile can light up the room. Evan is super-competitive. He likes to tell us how he is doing in class, compared to everyone else. He can throw a football in a pretty spiral. Evan's favorite team is the Seattle Seahawks. (He actually likes all the bird teams - Ravens, Falcons, Eagles, etc. - but the Seahawks are his favorite). He can read! (This is amazing to me. I am in awe of how the kids grow and learn). He and Emmett are currently reading The Two Towers by Tolkien. He is (mostly) kind to his sister.
That's probably a long enough list for now. If I were really good, each of those items would have been a separate post.
And just to prove that Ben is not always as happy and sweet as he might seem on the blog, I figured I'd throw in a "mad Ben" picture ... just to keep me honest. :)
