More late night ramblings about odds and ends

Adam has had a loose tooth for a while, and the other night while he was sleeping, he banged his face (somehow?) on the bed. That woke him up, and he apparently decided to see if he could pull that tooth out. Mission accomplished. I was mighty bummed that I didn't get to video The Event, but he's proud of it regardless. I just wanted his first lost tooth in America to be a bit more memorable. *sigh*

Speaking of Adam, I have to say, he's really a nice kid. He has a heart of gold. He is a hard worker, and really takes pride in a job well-done. He works really hard on his school-work, and even will ask me if he could work longer (over a break period in the day), so he can be done sooner. I don't even have to stay watching over his shoulder. He just does it. And I'm floored. (This has NOT always been the case with this guy, trust me!)

After a meal he still thanks me for making his food, rinses his dishes, and it is not uncommon our Adam to volunteer to wash dishes before we draft him/anyone. Gives lots of hugs and kisses. Loves his sisters. No temper tantrums. Pretty much, he's becoming a really great kid.

But, his silliness is hard on the nerves sometimes. He often reminds me of Tigger. While Tigger bounces everywhere he goes, Adam will do that too, as well as squeak, squeal, get in your face, invade body space, etc. While people don't always appreciate that, and I'm afraid it has cost him some friends, but this is who he is right now, and he can't seem to change the habit. I'm looking forward to him growing out it a bit... which, thankfully, he is. It's a million times worse when he's overstimulated though. Oy.

Adam's sentences are getting better and better all the time, but he is still months behind his sisters. Just in the last few months though, we've seen major improvements, and since we have seen such good development there, John and I think that a lot of the trouble with his speech is that he's lazy. If we say, "Can you say that better?" He usually can. I'd say 90% of the time, he can. He just doesn't always bother. It just usually takes too long, so he'll grunt, point, and slur, leave out words, do sound effects, etc. All of that is getting less and less all the time (we were QUITE impressed with his repretoire of sound effects when he first came home from UA. We don't hear nearly as many anymore.) He also has a stutter and a hard time with his "r's." This guy has so much going against him for his speech. Age, gender, brain development/structure, and probably biggest I'd say, is the trauma he has endured in his life. (The doctors/therapists disagree, but if it were all mechanical, I don't think we'd see the progress we've seen this summer. We'll see.)

Liana came up with another funny word today. "Mama, feel my heart, it's beeping!" That's one of my new favorites, along with her "shaking" tooth, and "buzzing" (sleeping) feet. It has been really fun to hear how the world can be interpreted by these kiddos. They all three are still having trouble with certain word orders in their sentences, ("Why he does that?") and they still don't know all their irregular verbs yet. We still hear things like, "I throwed the ball.." etc.

Aleksa is still Aleksa. She's always flying under the radar. Liana tramples all over the radar screen, and Adam bounces across it. Leks is a different creature. The other two, if they are naughty, you KNOW about it immediatly. Aleksa is harder to figure out. She's our happy-go-lucky one. She's just thrilled to BE. She is thankful, full of hugs and kisses. Loves to snuggle and cuddle, and touch and tickle, and giggle, and she loooooves her tummy blubbered. I wish there was a way to bottle up her laugh, because it can NEVER fail to make me smile. If Aleksa is laughing, then I'm smiling. And I've never seen anyone else fail to do so either. Her happiness is contagious, and her smile brightens every room. When I tuck her in at night, she cups my face in her hands (palms pressed to my cheeks) and then she'll slide across my cheeks and smoothe my hair. All the while she'll jabber on about "what she liked today."

Life at my house is exhausting, but we're a happy bunch! (Anyone want to volunteer to come and do laundry for me though?) ;O)