Vanquished!!...and Catching Up

Alexander- Xander turned 16 in January, and will soon be taking driver's ed in anticipation of a driver's license. He's anticipating; I'm not quite so excited. He does seem to be a little weak lately, as you can see by the way Dante so effortlessly took him down in the photo above. Xander is definitely one of Dante's favorite people.

Zachary- He recently purchased a pair of bantams to add to his brood. It is pretty funny hearing Radagast attempt to crow, since he is not quite full grown yet. It is amazing the size difference between the two roosters. The new hen, Acorn, is quite confident despite her size and does not let the larger hens push her around. Thankfully, Zachary's hens are laying again after a winter hiatus.

Nikita- Nik is still taking riding lessons weekly and hopes to learn barrel racing. She has been working hard at saving her money to buy a horse, and learning as much as she can about horses in the meantime. Nik has also been attending "bee school" with Jamie, a series of seminars on beekeeping. She is busy as a bee!!

Amelia- She is 9 now! I cannot believe how much she is growing. We just purchased and are waiting for a reading system for her by Edmark, and I expect she will just take off with it once we get it started. She has so much capacity to learn. We are working on answering questions using full responses, and the poor girl can be so confused sometimes. She knows that often a response is either "Yes, I am" or "Yes, I do" but isn't always sure which I want to here. Once my question, "Amelia, do you want french fries?" received a "Yes, I am". She tries hard though!! We are also working on using I, she, he, and you instead of names all the time.

Sunny- Sunny is going through a bit of an adjustment period, and currently isn't too fond of Amelia. She will not eat food if Amelia is in the room, which makes mealtimes interesting. She sits and stares at Amelia throughout the whole meal, then sighs and starts to eat when she leaves the room. (Thankfully Amelia is clueless and actually cheers for Sunny when she sees her start to eat.) Sunny thrives on individual attention so we try to keep that up, and she really loves her speech therapy at Worcester State College. She totally lights up when Dad gets home from work every day!

Micah- He has been allowed to join the Adaptive Dance class at Boston Ballet!! He went last Saturday for a trial run, and was absolutely perfect. He has also come a long way at Special Olympics gymnastics, following directions and not bolting as much. For me, it has helped to know that he is basically deaf in his right ear as far as household conversation. It is much less frustrating to know to get eye contact and sign while talking, instead of feeling like he is ignoring us. He is definitely a smart little guy, and I think will also do well with the new reading program.

Dante- Dante is fully recovered from his pneumonia, and doing quite well. We have taken him off wheat to see if that is causing his eczema but it is too early to tell a difference. He has been much more active lately, though. We also cut his naptime down, which is helping him to sleep better at night. Dante is also vocalizing more, and said "Momma" the other day!

Junior- We are at 24 1/2 weeks, just over 15 to go! He is NOT allowed to be late, no matter how many people tell me it would be neat if he was born on the 4th of July. He does seem to like kicking my sciatic nerve, and it is already difficult to carry Dante anymore.

So, that's us in a nutshell!

God is good!