It's the Holiday Season (video updated)

We celebrated Emma's 7th birthday!  I look at her and she is so much her own person now, definitely all the baby is gone (sniffle, sniffle).  I really enjoy her company and think she is an amazing big sister.  She really does love Josh and Kate and is a tremendous help to me.  I call her a little therapist for how well she works with Josh and she takes pride in that, helping him to use his words or learn new physical therapy moves.  There are times when she can calm him down from a meltdown and I've exhausted my patience.  Last week she told me, "Mommy, it really helps if you don't scream back at him."  Emma is inquisitive and loves to read.  She's really into the Magic Tree House series of books right now and is on a mission to collect all 42 of them.  She's got a good sense of humor and a laugh with no volume control!  Emma is her own person and confident in her decisions.  I admire that.  Before Thanksgiving break, her class had a Thanksgiving party planned and they were going to dress up like pilgrims and Indians.  When I picked her up that afternoon, I pulled around the corner of the pick-up line to see a little girl confidently wearing her paper apron and bonnet.  Before I could tell it was her, I knew that was my daughter.  I asked in the car if she wanted to take it off since I got to see her in it.  She said no and proceeded to wear it to pick up the dog from the groomer and for quite some time when we got home.  I would have been too self-conscious as a child to do something different than everyone else, but Emma knows what she likes and is happy to strut her stuff.  Same goes for the socks or headband that have nothing to do with her outfit, but she likes to wear.  I hope she is always so confident in what she believes in.

I like where we are at now and have long forgotten her two's, the meltdowns in that time were truly terrible well into her three's.  The testing, struggle for independence and experimentation with backtalk have subsided.  I attribute some to age, but a lot to the circumstances of this year.  Between the birth of Kate and our running around everywhere with Josh, we have all been forced to work for the common good of the family more than our own priorities.  I think it's been good for all of us.  So, we're on to the age of 7...

Getting into the holiday spirit has been slow going, but we made it through.  Our college friends lost their newborn baby right before Thanksgiving.  She was 9 days old and did not survive surgery for her spina bifida.  We went to the funeral the weekend after Thanksgiving.  It was one of the hardest things I've ever done.  I cannot imagine losing a child, but our friends handled everything with such amazing faith, strength and grace.  Sometimes, we need perspective like this to realize we don't have it so bad.

Emma nagged us to get the tree up the following week.  We got it up on a weeknight and set out the ornaments.  The next evening, she helped teach Josh how to put ornaments on the tree.  It was pretty sweet to watch.  When I looked at the tree afterward, the majority were laying on the tree rather than hanging, and there was only one ornament casualty.  I usually love Christmas, but had a hard time getting in the spirit this year.  I mailed cards a few days before Christmas and for the first time ever, had to finish shopping on Christmas Eve as a rare Texas snowfall was coming through.  Hopefully, I'll be on top of life better next year to be able to enjoy it more.

Danny's childhood friends were in town for Christmas and we were able to visit them.  Josh really takes to some people and he took to our friend, Dave, immediately.  The entire evening, I kept hearing, "Come on, Dave!  Sit down, Daddy."  Josh wanted to play with Dave.  Period.  It's hard to turn down because Josh's calls come with a huge smile and great eye contact.  Who can resist?  Dave was great with him and I think they both slept well that night after playing ball for hours.

Christmas was good.  Emma woke up a little after 7:00 and came in our room.  We sent her to wake up Josh since he'd be less likely to scream at her.  She brought him out and he picked up on the idea of opening presents very quickly.  For each gift, he requested with, "Open it." and enjoyed seeing what was inside.  Since we had a rare snowfall, the kids went out and played in it and had a ball.  We went to my parents' house that evening and Josh couldn't wait to open presents.  I had him and Emma bring the presents out into the family room.  He quickly ran back and forth between the rooms because that's what he knew he needed to do in order to open them up.  On his way back with an armful of presents, my mom got in his way and gave a commanding, "MOVE GRANDMA!"  We got quite a laugh!

Josh gave us a Christmas present.  We were waiting to eat dinner and I told him to wait for us to bless it.  Usually, when we pray at dinner time, Josh does the sign of the cross (waves his hand up and down, palm out like a priest) and folds his hands as we say the prayer, then does his cross-wave at the end.  Sometimes, he'll say "Father, Spirit, Amen" (rather than Father, Son, Holy Spirit, Amen).  Well, for Christmas, he wasn't up for waiting for everyone to sit down, so he started the prayer and said it himself.  We all cheered for him so he proceeded to say the blessing three more times and my brother got a video of one.  Most of it is unintelligible to most, but we all knew what he was doing.  It was the best gift I got for Christmas.

When we got home that evening and got the kids ready for bed, Emma said it wasn't her bedtime yet.  We were puzzled because the kitchen clock said 8:30.  She said that her bedroom clock said 7:30.  We figured Josh reset it when he played with it.  Emma got a little irritated and said, "That's why I had to wait so long to wake up this morning!"  Ha! Ha!  We just thought we were lucky she slept in.  Thanks, Josh, and we'll have to remember that for next year.

Kate has really been coming to life. Here words so far are mama, dada, Emma, ball, hi, and bye. She is pulling up on everything, likes to walk holding our hands, and is working on letting go when standing up. I'm betting she'll be our earliest walker. Emma walked just after she turned 1 and Josh walked at 15 months. Kate is still easy-going, but I see her get a kick out of making Josh scream. She'll crawl to him when he is playing with a toy. Josh will scream, get up and move a few feet away. Kate follows him and the process repeats until Josh gets tired of it and abandons the toy. At that point, Kate wants nothing to do with the toy. This sibling rivalry will be interesting, as we experienced little of it with four years between Emma and Josh.

On Christmas Eve, I was sent the link to the blog of a mom who is very active in the Texas autism community. She has a beautiful blog entry for Christmas. If you have the time, I really encourage you to read it. Many of her writings have inspired me and many others. We have our challenges and I realize that sharing Christmas with Josh was really a blessing that many families dealing with autism would give anything for. Autism is a spectrum. Children with, have such a range of abilities. Parents have such a range in attitudes and emotions in dealing with it. I only know how to cope with our situation, but I share in the emotions of other parents I have met. Michelle's blog really touched us and beautifully depicts how through suffering, we learn to truly love. 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!  My New Year entry to come in 2010!