Zion Family Reunion

This last weekend we had a family reunion down in Zion with my side of the family, which included my step-dad's two daughters and their families. We had a blast! Thanks again, mom and Jim!

 We couldn't help but take a picture of this AWESOME van while we were stopped for lunch in Cedar City. I mean, really, who puts rims like that on such a ghetto van?

 Papa Jim and his dollar game..."Are you focused?"

 Park's turn to get his $5.

 On the riverside hike in Zion's. What good sharing!

 Indie on his leash...yes, it's a retractable one! He did surprisingly well on it once he figured out that he wasn't getting off.

 All the grandkids!

 Can you tell Indie didn't want to be in the picture?

 The Ghost town in Kanab. Park looks pretty cool with that gun!

 This is mostly what we saw of Indie the whole trip...and yes, that is a giant sticker on his back. It said "My name is Indie. My parents are Scott and Karin." and it had our phone numbers with it. We were taking every precaution not to lose that kid.

 This is Indie enjoying the mesmerizing campfire. Pretty much the only time he sat still.

 Roasting marshmallows! Yum!

And Annie just being a poser for the camera.

Summer Fun!

So far our summer has been a busy one! There was the carnival at Pony Express Days. And of course Park wouldn't ride a single ride and Indie and Annicka couldn't get enough.

 Annicka wasn't too thrilled with this little roller coaster, but she was brave and went on it anyway.

 We also got to go to Jumpin' Jacks for a cousin's birthday party. It was the perfect place for Indie! He could run around and go down slides and jump to his heart's content (did I mention that the space is enclosed so he couldn't take off?).

 Park even got brave and went down the giant slide that he has always been scared of. Way to go buddy!

And since it's summer I decided the boys needed a summer buzz! (Mostly because they needed haircuts and I didn't want to bend over them all pregnant trying to make their haircuts look good.)

BABY #4!

 This morning we had our ultrasound! Baby #4 is looking VERY healthly and VERY manly! Poor Annicka is a little bit disappointed not to have a sister yet...but I must say she handled her disappointment really well. She didn't run screaming from the room, or anything, she just sat quietly looking a little sad. She'll just have to help us name him, and hopefully she'll get to see him be born so it'll make up for it.

As for me...any disappointment comes from not being able to use our girl name yet, cause I really like it. But honestly, I love my boys and having three boys together will be a LOT of fun! Think of the Father and Sons campouts, the basketball games, the wrestling matches and all that comes with it! We are excited!

A HUGE sigh of relief!

So, not too many people (except for family) know that we have Indie working with "Kids on the Move." They are an early intervention program for children under three in our school district. You see, he doesn't talk much yet and he's almost 2 1/2, he only has 20 words and he doesn't even say them consistently. At first I wasn't too worried about it, Park took a while to talk as well, but the last several months I've just been wondering about him. He acts differently than most kids. For a long time I've been wondering if he might be autistic. Every time I thought about that though, it just didn't feel right. I worked with preschoolers with autism before I had Annicka for almost two years and it just didn't feel like that was his problem. He connects socially and emotionally and his gross and fine motor skills are really good, but he does some crazy things sometimes, and he is very active, constantly running, jumping, climbing, dumping things out, moving his body in weird positions, squeezing into tight places, hanging upside down, spinning, etc. But they were never repetitive like an autistic child. I just couldn't put my finger on it, but I could tell that there was something different. So I've been praying to know what I need to do to help him and to know what is wrong, so that I could help him. Yesterday I got my answer.

We had a couple of Occupational Therapists come out from Kids on the Move to assess Indie's sensory processing. As it turns out Indie has a sensory processing disorder. It can manifest in many different ways, but to make it shorter, in Indie's case he is hyposensitive to vestibular (movement) and proprioceptive (deep pressure) input. In other words, his brain processes any kind of movement and pressure as not enough, and so he needs a lot more than most kids to remain balanced. The OT said that in this case it probably has something to do with his inner ear not connecting to his brain correctly and so it takes more input for his brain to process it. So to help him, he needs lots of different kinds of ways to receive that sensory input. Basically, all of the stuff he does by himself and all the things we do to rough house with him and a few other things that the OT will train us how to do over the next little while will help him learn to receive that sensory input better.

After the OTs left I felt this calming sense of peace and relief, that this is what is wrong. I cannot tell you how much stress it has relieved for me. I don't think I realized how much it was bothering me until this answer came. This helps me to understand him much better and to know what to do to help him calm down or to help him get the sensory input he needs. YAY, for answered prayers!

FINE! I'll take down the crib!

So last night it took Indie a while to fall asleep. I put him down around 8 and at 9:30 we could still hear him puttering around his room and banging on the walls. Up to this point I haven't made him sleep in the toddler bed yet because even though he is in and out of his crib, he usually gets back in his crib to sleep. So, I didn't go in until I was sure he was asleep. I expected the mess on the floor, but NOT the broken crib. At least he fell asleep on the toddler bed, right? If I had known it would be this dangerous to let it go on like this, I would have changed it weeks ago! So the crib came down last night and from now on it looks like the toddler bed for Indie.