Jenna Bush Hager's pregnancy

I watched the video of Jenna and her husband Henry announcing to the world that she is pregnant. Of course now that her dad is no longer in the White House the pressure is off her a little. But she admitted she was nervous and excited to let the world know. She said it is a spring time baby.
The part of the story that caught my attention was that they have been married for four years and her parents were beyond anxious to be grandparents. She said her dad said he saw her husband's boss at a conference and he said to stop paying her husband until they produced children. If I remember from her biography, Laura did not have an easy time getting pregnant, finally had twins when she was about 35, and those twins were a difficult pregnancy and birth. Perhaps that is why they pressured them to get pregnant, they wanted them to begin while they were young in case they didn't have an easy time.
First, I am thrilled for all of them that they will have their first child/grandchild. Second, I can't imagine needing to announce a private thing like this to the world. It was a difficult enough decision when Ram would announce to our church members that I was pregnant! Third, it seems that she is far enough along to be beyond miscarriage and I am so glad she was able to wait until now to announce instead of have to tell almost immediately like the Duchess Kate.
But the media focusing on how much the Bushs wanted to be grandparents is ridiculous. I am learning more and more from my friends and the He Remembers the Barren site how much infertility is part of our sinful world. What if they would have gotten to the point of trying for a baby and nothing would have happened? What if they have been trying but just not telling the world and nothing happened until now?
I also have to say that I never dressed like Jenna when I was pregnant, not even after my morning sickness lessened. I never wear high heels. I never would have worn a sleeveless dress in December. I read the pregnancy books and didn't paint my nails or wear much make up while I was pregnant. And frankly it would have been obvious I was pregnant by the time I was well enough to get dressed and announce something like that on TV. I know that each pregnancy is different and I pray for her sake that Jenna's is easier than mine.
Also, we live really different lives. She is focusing on her new job as Southern Living magazine editor. Once I got beyond the sick part of pregnancy I focused on getting ready for baby-read books about parenting, got the nursery ready, started organizing the presents from baby showers, etc. I did not go back to work after I had children. Then I had a baby that never slept because he had MSPI and there is no way I would have been able to work outside the home or even be an editor from my home.
May Jesus bless and keep Jenna and baby through pregnancy and birth and the newborn stage.

I'm excited that my child failed!

Lamb 1 was a very late talker but he talked well at age 3 1/2. When we lived in MN Lamb 2 went to the public school for speech once a week for 1/2 hour. When we moved the first problem was getting the paperwork from his MN speech teacher. When we finally got that then we contacted the public school here. We were surprised to learn that there were no services like speech provided to home school students. I talked to some other home school moms and learned that the public schools really do not have enough money here so they do not usually provide services like this to home schooled students. When I talked to a public school teacher she said we should be able to get speech at the school. We considered "fighting" to get him in to speech at the school. By this time it was almost the end of the school year so by the time he was tested, they wouldn't have even had time to work with him before summer break. I tried unsuccessfully to get him into a program at the university where students that are studying speech therapy need students to work with. Finally, we got a referral from our doctor. In August, Lamb 2 began speech therapy at a pediatric rehabilitation services center. He goes once a week for an hour. This was quite expensive but it helped us meet our insurance deductible. Once we met our deductible, the rest of the year of speech was free to us. After a few months I am pleased with our decision. He had missed speech for several months and he needed to get back in speech. In just a few months I have seen very good progress. He has a once a week appointment for an hour and we don't need to deal with school schedules.

Meanwhile, while I was trying to get Lamb 2 in speech, Lamb 3's preschool teacher strongly encouraged me to get Lamb 3 evaluated and into speech. Lamb 3 has listened to Lamb 2 incorrectly say words. Some one told me in September that he sounds like a cartoon character when he talks. The public schools evaluate one day every other month. He had an evaluation today at the public school. He did well on every area except for speech. He failed speech. Which means he will be referred to the public school speech therapist and hopefully begin speech early in 2013. For free! He also did not pass the hearing test in one ear. He has never failed a hearing test at the doctor or when we took him to the audiologist in MN. We think he is healing from an ear infection. So we will have his hearing tested again in a few weeks.

My next hope is that if Lamb 3 begins speech at the school I can discuss Lamb 2 with the speech therapist. They might be more helpful if I talk to them in person instead of over the phone and if they are already working with Lamb 3. Lamb 2 will continue his speech where he goes currently unless things work out with the public school. I'm just thankful that we only have to pay for one child to attend speech.

I know this will increase my chauffeur duties-piano for Lamb 1, Lamb 2 will begin piano in January too, speech for Lamb 2, now speech for Lamb 3, and preschool for Lamb 3-but I'm glad the Lambs that need speech will be able to get therapy.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day!

When they woke up this morning, the Lambs found this outside their bedroom door.
(Chocolate coins in their church shoes and a fabric map.)

All the pieces are up there, but they still have some arranging, especially for countries and rivers.

Lamb 3

Lamb 1 and 2
We put it between the boy's bathroom and the laundry room upstairs. I think hammering nails in the wall to put it up was almost more fun than the map! I think they will enjoy this map for a long time. We can also add more names of places just by putting velcro on the back of our homemade pieces.

I happen to know that St. Nick got a great deal on the map, with coupons it was just $10 at Kohls. St. Nick had a difficult time choosing from all the Discovery Kids toys.

In case you haven't read my posts about St. Nicholas Day before, I'll let you know that my boys refer to Santa as St. Nick. They know that others call him Santa. When we drove around looking at lights last night they called out to each other, "That house has a St. Nick!" They know that Grandma and Grandpa give them presents on Christmas.

Piano Lessons

Lamb 1 began piano lessons the end of September. He has done so well that a few weeks ago I had to buy him some more books because the beginner book was too easy for him. Each week he practices out of his beginner book, a beginner hymn book, and a beginner Christmas songs book.

Practicing for piano lessons two weeks ago was awful for him and for me. I think it was the first time it was difficult for him, not easy to just sit down and practice what was assigned. When we went to lessons last week the teacher spent extra time answering all his questions and making sure he was ready to practice "Away in a Manger" for his recital on Dec. 16.

I expected this week to go better after the teacher spent extra time with him. On Friday he kept asking me questions and when I didn't know the answers he wanted me to look them up on the computer. I didn't understand his questions enough to even look them up. I reminded him I only had 6 weeks of piano lessons and I never had a music theory class. When he calmed down I tried again to answer his questions. I figured out he wanted to know about sharps and flats. I don't think I answered all his questions, but enough that he was satisfied.

On Monday I watched him while he practiced. He had a blank music staff and he composed one line of music. No wonder why he wanted to know about the black keys on the piano! I assumed he was just writing it down. I asked him to play his music he wrote. I was shocked that he could play it. I think all this came from reading biographies of Bach and Beethoven to the boys recently. He also asked me to print off music for "Beethoven's Fifth" and "Ode to Joy" and he started practicing those. (Amazing what you can get online for free, just by typing easy piano sheet music!)

After he played his music then he told me that he wants to learn "O Come O Come Emmanuel" because that is an Advent song and his recital will be during Advent. I asked if he thought he could really learn two songs before his recital and he said he has to because he needs to play an Advent song. I wouldn't be surprised if he does.

He originally started piano lessons because the deal in our family is a year or two of piano lessons and then you are allowed to add or switch to another instrument. He wanted to play trumpet. Last week Lamb 1 told me he just wants to play piano so that he can do well on one instrument. We'll have to wait and see what he thinks next year, but he obviously likes piano even after a week that was difficult for him to practice.

Ram and I think that Lamb 3 is smarter than Lamb 1. What am I going to do when Lamb 3 gets to piano lessons if Lamb 1 is composing music less than 3 months after he began lessons? Lamb 2 is anxious to begin lessons in January.

I'm not trying to brag about Lamb 1. I just wanted to blog about how I'm shaking my head, that I was not expecting this part of homeschooling.

Ordering preschool products online

When school began Lamb 3 brought home his book order forms. I tried several times to order online because you get a $5 free book with the next order if you order online. It would not let me do the final step to submit the order. I called Scholastic. Basically I had an account in MN and the computer couldn't figure out that I wanted a new account for ID. I had Ram try to order it-thought perhaps I was doing something wrong. Ram even tried on his laptop while he was at his office, just in case the problem was something with our internet. After a few days of trying several times, I gave up. I waited until the next month and I was able to order just fine.
Today I tried to order the pictures the boys had taken at preschool a few weeks ago. I wanted to order a CD with a couple of the pictures instead of paying the outrageous prices for a few sheets that weren't exactly what I wanted. I went online, clicked on quantity, and just like Scholastic there was no way to put it in the cart to finalize the order. I called the picture people. The lady was very nice and apologized several times, but there was no way for her to order a CD over the phone, only I could do that final step. Her computer was working fine. :) I cleared the cookies off the computer and everything I could think of. Ram tried too. Finally Ram got out his laptop and tried. It worked fine on his laptop.
I just want to scream when I know what I want to order and the websites won't let me. I have wasted a long time on this. I was able to try several times each day. I don't know what the mothers that work outside of the home do at times like this. Or maybe it's just me, the other moms don't have any trouble?

At the library today...

The Boise library that we go to sometimes has a parking area near the door with signs saying those parking spaces are for Fuel Efficient Cars. It seems kind of silly to me, the parking lot is often almost full, but not full. If more parking was needed there is a shopping mall nearby. I think instead they should promote walking to the library as several houses and apartments are within walking distance. All the parking spaces have about the same walk to the front door of the library.
Today I had to laugh because one of those Fuel Efficient spots had a big old boat of a car-I would guess the car was made in the 70's. Add to that the bumper sticker had something not nice to say about Prius owners. If I had a better phone I would have taken a picture.

What do you call..?

What do you call cinnamon rolls when you forget to put the cinnamon in? Everyone in my family watched me make them, ate one, talked about what ingredients were in cinnamon rolls, and no one noticed. About an hour after I ate one I realized. I don't know if it is more crazy that I forgot the cinnamon or that my family didn't notice. They were still yummy with raisins and walnuts!