braggin'

Ralph likes to imitate...well, everyone doing everything! He slips into my chair as fast as lightening and starts clicking on my computer mouse! He sneaks into the laundry room to start a load. So when Leroy was drawing yesterday, Ralph wanted to color, too.

He chose a pencil to begin with. I was pretty impressed with his ability to hold it. I took about 25 photos trying to get a good view of his pencil grip.

What intense concentration! You know, children with Down Syndrome often have difficulty with hand strength and holding a pencil can be challenging. I used hand over hand technique to help him draw and name different shapes.

Now, moving on to the purple crayon.

More imitation! Ralph put on Leroy's socks and shoes. The he grabbed his play purse and started throwing me kisses. (That means good-bye!)

I need to brag about Chipper for a minute. He had his first wrestling meet of the season today. He brought home this massive 4th place medal.

I've never seen anything like it! It's heavy. You could hurt someone with it. Wow.

Drama

After my marathon road trip yesterday, I was hoping to have a quiet day at home. I enjoy putting around, picking up, vacuuming, cooking first thing in the morning. I like to do these things early in the day.

Nope.

This morning I got a phone call from Chipper's school. It was the school nurse. Apparently, he was hit by a van while walking to school this morning. 

What? I was a little confused because he leaves before 7:00 am and it was 8:15 am when she called. Where was he now? A teacher overheard him talking to a friend and sent him to the nurse.

He was crossing a street at a nearby intersection on the way to school when a van with no headlights hit him. He went up on the hood and then fell to the ground. The van was slowing down for the stop sign, so it was not going fast. Chipper insisted that he was not hurt at all. Thank you God!

Here's the kicker - when Chipper got up off the ground the van peeled out and drove away.

Coward.

Moron.

P.O.S.

I'm not complaining, but I didn't get around to much around the house today. I contacted the authorities to file a police report. I needed to be at the school so that the officer could interview Chipper so I had to quickly pack up Ruby and Ralph and head out. 

Chipper is a great kid, but...oh my. He gets near perfect grades. He's very respectful. He helps out with the little kids. Why am I so worried about this kid?

Ramblin' catching-up

Life is so stinkin' busy around here right now! I feel like I'm just hanging on tight so I don't fall off the ride. Ruby is snoozing for the moment so I'll have to make this fast!

Thomas did well on his state assessments last week. It was three days, two tests per day. Thankfully dad was in town last week and was able to help me get him there and picked up several times. He was signed up for morning testing, but he had to leave early and come back in the afternoon one day so that we could attend a memorial service. Phew.

Yes, a memorial service. James aunt passed away on April 1. She was young, too young. Cancer sucks and then it sucks some more.

Wesley passed his first CLEP test last week. Thomas, Leroy, Ralph, Ruby and I dropped him off on Thursday afternoon and then went to Eastborough Park to kill a couple of hours. Leroy likes to harass the ducks there!

Chipper had his first track meet last week and it got rained out. :( He had another one today and then an orchestra concert tonight! Richy is also running track this Spring.

Oh joy! Summer rec baseball practice starts this week. I've gotten a few emails from coaches about practice times. It's always funny because the emails usually say "I'm your child's coach this year" and so I have to do a little research to figure out which of the children they are coaching! Five children, five different teams. Next year I'm going to offer them $20 ($50 even!) NOT to play baseball. I think my sanity is worth a couple hundred dollars, don't you?

Wesley's graduation is coming up! WOW! He is so incredible...really a treasure to me. We ordered some announcements today because tomorrow it the deadline to turn in announcements for the graduation ceremony scrapbook. That's me...last minute scrambling. Oh, also turned in a graduate info sheet to church today...2 days late. I know people understand my being lame, because I've been preoccupied with Ruby, but it still feels bad to be so lame!

Ralph had his appointment with the cardiologist today. I brought along a Signing Time video for him to watch during the echo. I thought he would be so mesmerized by it (like he is at home) that he would be still and good. Well...no. Of course today he wanted to show off all his signs! I had another bright idea to slip his socks on his hands during the EKG! He still managed to pull some wires off with his toes!

Ralph's test results were pretty good. He has been off of oxygen for a little more than a month. And, he is staying off of oxygen!!! His pulmonary pressures were only slightly higher than last time when he was still on oxygen. He is running at 35-40 mmHg. Not terrible. Now we are working on taking him off of some of his medications. After some blood tests this week, I'll know more.

One thing the doc said that bothered me...he mentioned Bosentan in passing. I'm pretty comfortable with the medications that Ralph is taking right now. I've been under the impression that his PH would be improving over time, but maybe I'm wrong. Bosentan scares me. It would be something to consider is Ralph gets worse...a lot worse. He is such a yummy little piece of sunshine! So, I can't think about that right now. If I do, I'll go crazy.

I'll leave you with a little sample of my sunshine:

Chipper

Last Thursday Chipper turned 13 years old! Wow! He was the sweetest baby, all smiles and grins. My grandmother swore that she should pinch him to make sure he knew how to cry. He is the only one of our children born in Arizona.

Being our third child, everyone assumed that we were 'done.' I guess we bought into that, too, because I sold a lot of baby things after he outgrew them. It's funny to look back now, knowing what the Lord had in store for us!

At age 3, Chipper was a very bright little boy who couldn't understand why his older brothers could go to school, but he could not. He was begging to go. He was really ready! I was disappointed that the preschools close to home were not academic but eventually I was able to find a Montessori program for him 30 minutes from our house.

Now my sweet baby is 13 and in 7th grade. He was recently invited to take the ACT or SAT tests, his choice, because he scored so well on his school's latest round of testing. He is playing on the school's 'A' football team, even though he has never played before this year. He spent much of his birthday weekend at deer camp last week. I think he is growing up rather nicely!