More happenings in April............

April is a busy month for us..with baseball for James, softball for Jazmin. Jaz is also in dance and piano, though I think next year she may have to make a choice as she now wants to do cheerleading as well! James' basketball team finished up in 2nd place in their tournament, not too shabby, they played some great b-ball. He wants to stick with it, so in the fall he'll start on the junior high team. If he works just a little harder, he might be a starter.

Finally got Judi's Social Security card ordered, now have to get her birth certificate, I am such a procrastinator! Dad and I are also having a huge garage sale on May 2nd! I wonder how I ever fit work into this schedule, but I better remember, cause I go back to work fulltime June 1, but am working some evening hours now because they basically guilted me into it.

I'm happy to say Jazmin, I think, has morphed into her role as big sister. When she comes home, Judi follows her everywhere. She (Judi) still seems a little jealous of her big sis, yet wants to do everything, get everything, and be everything Jaz does. And she kind of goes into baby mode when Jaz is first home from school, wanting to be held and carried. But then when Jaz says, "come on, Judi, let's play", she's off like a shot!

Her English is just flowing along, new words every day; her newest is "no", which she likes to use frequently! And "nobody"! Where did that come from??

Something she does i find soooo funny, is when we go to the store and she picks up toy after toy and I say, let's put that away, we're not getting that today - she will say in a forlorn tone, "ooooooh, noooooo". But she puts it away! So far, no tantrums! She pouts when she doesn't get her way; thank goodness! I've been through some whopper tantrums with my older kids; glad to not have that to deal with, at least for the time being!

Some new pics to enjoy..............

Easter and Judi's birthday on April 14th

Suffice to say, Judi likes Easter because not only did we have an egg hunt at my Dad's place where she discovered not only the fun of finding eggs, but that they had CANDY in them! Then we had a small birthday party for her at the park. We invited a few friends who'd gotten to know Judi in the month she'd been home. She had a blast and when she saw the playground, she said "Wow!!". The pics tell the rest of the story.

The "eyes" have it!

Wow, been awhile since I posted! I could not resist putting these pictures of the girls' eyes on here; we were just goofing around with the camera, but I thought they turned out so cute! Can you guess whose eyes are whose? On another note, here's the scoop........Judi is just fine! Her CAT scan showed no atrophy whatsoever, and all her bloodwork came back fine. Children's Mercy did say she'd had Hep A in the past and now had immunity. So knock on wood, our special needs little girl is completely normal! Well.....unless stubbornness and an inexhaustible energy level are special needs! We praise our Heavenly Lord for his blessings on all our children, we are truly fortunate to have these great 4 kids to enrich our lives!
Judi continues to settle in and try to establish herself as the boss; she and I have really great days together. She occasionally tries to assert her will over mine, most notably at nap time, but she concedes if I push the issue firmly. The biggest thing that works with Judi is simple firmness; I'm the parent, you're the child, period, my job is to love and protect you, even if you don't like being prevented from doing something you think is fun!
She is really starting to use English spontaneously now; her vocabulary includes "wait", "I fink so", "night, night", "one more", "Hello, Kitty", "cookie", "lotion", "hello", "bye-bye". I believe she understands a great deal of what we say now; whether she chooses to listen is another story.

She and Jaz are still working it out; Jazmin has taken on kind of a bossy big sister role in a gentle way, but Judi does NOT like her telling her what to do! She will play with Judi on days when we're all home together, but during the week we're so busy with basketball games and now baseball and softball, we're not home that much! Jazmin is in machine-pitch with Jr as the coach; she seems to really enjoy playing, hope that lasts. We're going to try tee-ball for Judi, I showed her once how to hold the bat and run the bases and she had it down, plus I think it'll help her run off some energy.

James is finishing up his basketball season; he's really become quite good; still not a starter, but with a little more practice, he'll get there. He wants to continue all through high school, so you know where we'll be all the time!

Jessica, our oldest, is just concentrating on grades right now. We had to do a worksheet for all 4 high school years and she was really excited about that; she likes to have things planned out, like I did at her age. She's been a huge help looking after the girls' at "gege's" games.

If I don't post again til after the weekend, everyone have a Happy Easter! Judi's birthday is the 14th, but we're going to celebrate it Sunday night with just us and then have a party on the 18th.

Enjoy the pics of my crew!