Birthday Girls and Football practice

Sydney turned 13 on the 13th. She had a very small pool party with her best friend/ boyfriend, Dustin and the Huyke's, Kerry and Allen. We made our own pizzas and had a good time watching Sydney make her famous pickle pizza. Everyone agrees that it is not as bad as it sounds. On the way to Su Su's house (where the pool is) we stopped at Dairy Queen and got a Cookie Dough Blizzard ice cream cake. Yummy. As the party was wrapping up, Adrian surprised Sydney with a diamond and ruby ring and told her he wanted to be the first man to give her a ring. She cried. So sweet! He did that for Jolie when she turned 13 too.

Jolie turned 15 on the 24th. She has been grounded until school starts. (just a little something about a camping trip and not calling home to tell us where she was and spending the night out with her friends, no parents...no big deal!) She has been very humbled by her consequence, but was sad she would be grounded on her birthday. I took the kids to the Mall of Georgia and Fischer, Jolie and Sydney got to finally see Harry Potter while Nicholas and Mollie played in the spray fountain. We did a little shopping and came home. Everyone thought we were going out to dinner so we waited in the van while Jolie had to run inside and put her shopping bags in her room. (I told her to do that.) She opened the door and some of her friends were there! Surprise! She nearly had a heart attack! The video at the bottom was taken after the surprise. We had some good eats, thanks to Adrian who put it all together while we were gone. Then the teenagers went to the back yard for a bonfire. Adrian pulled extension cords for Christmas lights and music. He even cut out heart luminaries to light the path. It was so pretty. It was fun and Jolie was so glad to see her friends! (sorry some pictures are fuzzy.)

Fischer has been playing football. Isn't the view of Mount Yonah so pretty from the field where they practice? It is hard work and we are very proud of Fischer for never giving up or complaining. The helmets are heavy and he gets super sweaty. It is a very different world for him. He's used to reading, fishing, drawing, and playing chess. He loves it.

Autism Part 4

Nicholas is 41 months old, almost 3 1/2 years old. He was recently diagnosed with PDD-NOS which means Pervasive Developmental Delay Not Otherwise Specified. PDD is autism. One person told me Nicholas is not autistic but we asked our developmental pediatrician and he said, Nicholas IS autistic. Some people say, "Oh, he's fine, he looks at me in the eyes." And others ask, "What interventions are you doing? You better sign him up for these hundreds of therapies or he will not make progress." People on the outside assume that if you have a diagnosis of autism that magically, state agencies like a public school, will take you under their wing and lead you by the hand and show you what to do. On the outside, people assume that autistic children will automatically receive special services. What they don't realize is that even though there are federally funded and state funded services for Nicholas, each one comes with a brick wall. Can you hear this mother bear growling yet?

Our family began taking sign language classes with a private tutor named Jordan. (Here's a picture of Nicholas signing his name with Jordan.) Sounds fancy, but actually, the teacher is a student himself and used to be one of my students at Good Shepherd Lutheran. We are all picking up on it quite easily and quickly because Jordan has a special teaching gift. He's wonderful. The language pathologist at the autism clinic where Nicholas goes every few months told me that sign language would be good for Nicholas. It is multi sensory, meaning it stimulates Nicholas' communication skills visually and tactically. Nicholas' speech is delayed by over a year. He can say several words but does not engage in dialogue or speak in sentences yet but is beginning to put two words together.

Nicholas is a cool little fellow. He is obsessive about certain things, but I can appreciate his fascination with them. One of his new passions is car washes. On a typical morning, the first thing out of Nicholas' mouth is, "Car wash? Car Wash? Car Wash? Car Wash? Car Wash, peeeease." For a special treat, we drove the van through the automatic car wash last night and you would have thought we'd taken Nicholas to Disney World. He was so excited!

Another passion is dominoes. Nicholas loves to build things and he is fascinated by making dominoes mazes and knocking them down. This is a new thing for him. He can focus for HOURS on this new thing. He climbs on the pool table and gets his Kapla blocks and goes to town. Nicholas is the size of a 18 month old, but you should see him climb onto the table. My sister calls him Lieutenant Dan (the guy with no legs in Forest Gump) for his amazing upper body strength. I think I should send Nicholas to train with a trapeze artist. Actually, some times I think we should all join the circus.

Life is good.

A Clock, a Coffee Pot, and a Field of Lilies

More books are coming! Everyone is sold out. 500 are due to arrive on Thursday! The Window Shop at the hospital will get some and The Little Lady Bug on Thompson Bridge Rd. will too. I will have some and you can e mail your request to: asklulabelle@windstream.net and I will mail a signed book to you.

Also, there will be another book reading with music on August 5 at 7:00 at Cleveland United Methodist Church. You can purchase your book then and I will be there to sign them.

Books are $15.00 and proceeds go to the J. Michael Hosford Foundation.

Happy Fourth of July

Check out Mollie's flips on the left hand side of the video! She is a water baby. We celebrated Independence Day at Adrian's sister, Melissa's house with her husband, Steve, 4 of their 5 wonderful children, 3 sons in law and 3 (plus one on the way soon) grandchildren! We love spending time with this remarkable family. They are so full of fun and love. We can only aspire to raise our 5 children as successfully and as phenomenally as they have!