Watch this video of the kids finding out about baby #4 (who we now know is Jackson) for the first time on Valentine’s Day. It was back in February, but it’s an unforgettable moment that we wanted to share. Ella was blown away. Seth and Kyle took it in stride.
This news drew happy tears from Ella.
We can’t wait for September to welcome another little one to the Fun House.
Ella was born on November 28, 2005. She is currently the only girl out of eight nieces and nephews, all of who are shown in this video. November is a big month for her as we usually celebrate her birthday three different times. In this video, you’ll see that we celebrated her birthday with her friends, one time with Joel’s family, and once with just the Fun House. Ella is getting taller every day as you can see by those long legs in the video.
She’s really growing up
We’ve been in a long battle of sickness off and on here at the fun house. We can’t seem to shake whatever is going around at school. As I write, Seth and Emily are both recovering from the flu while Ella, Kyle and I are hoping our number isn’t next. We are determined, however, to celebrate Christmas with a bang tomorrow morning. Here at the fun house, we will be celebrating Jesus and His arrival on earth as the God-man who would be the Savior.
We are so grateful for another Christmas season.
Jesus lived the perfect life that was required of us in order to satisfy an infinitely holy God. He died the death that we deserved because of our deliberate sin and rebellion. And, He clothes those who would believe with His perfect righteousness so that when God looks at us, He doesn’t see a rebel who deserves punishment but rather His son Jesus who has become our perfect sacrifice.
We love the festivities of this season, but we celebrate Jesus with great zeal and hope, because without Him our “holiday” would be pretty hollow. Our hope is certain, first of all, because we believe God’s promises are true in scripture, but also because He has proven Himself faithful in miraculous ways in our family.
We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season. Merry Christmas!
Seth is enjoying the wooden train set this year here the FunHouse. It’s hard to turn this guy down when he asks you to play. How can you?
Nothing like two boys playing with trains
Seth has really been making progress with his speech. He’s been going to speech therapy once a week since March and is now back in his half day pre-school program since school started back up.
The kids are loving school and so is Mom
We are working really hard on shapes, colors, and ABCs. Regular readers remember my feeble attempt to make a video for Seth singing the ABCs. Emily stepped up the game big time this week by making a longer, more comprehensive, video where she reads several books. We figured someone else might benefit from this other than Seth so we are posting the video Emily made for Seth. We try to keep learning fun here at the FunHouse.
I also created a video in the past for Ella where I read “Where the Wild Things Are” for her viewing pleasure.
After unsuccessfully cajoling Emily to write about Seth’s potty training success here at the Fun House, I decided to give my shorter, less compelling recount of that experience.
History
Many of you may remember a post back in July of last year discussing our potty training attempt with Seth. Seth wasn’t ready then and he made that quite evident through his vehement opposition to even the thought of sitting on a potty upon request. (This stubborn defiance, we believe, is about 50% a uniquely Down syndrome characteristic and about 50% Seth just reflecting the personality of his wonderful parents!) Additionally, we weren’t sure he was putting together the bodily output and the feeling that came right before it. Finally, our frustration and expectation levels were way out of sync with where they should have been. But, this is not unusual with Emily and me both being “bottom line” achiever personalities. We aren’t the type of people who typically just “enjoy the process” or “ease our way into things”. We like formulaic (A + B = C) answers and will carefully follow the process to ensure we get to the result on time and under budget, so to speak. I confess that I naturally fall into that camp even more than Emily. Continue Reading…
The Fun House went south for the last part of June and enjoyed the sandy beach and unusually blue waters of Galveston. The water turned amazingly blue starting the second day we were there. The locals say it was a change in the currents. So, God blessed us with a more aesthetically pleasing beach for most of our stay.
We had unusually blue Galveston water
We kept the itinerary pretty simple as on previous beach vacations. This time, we were able to get both sets of grandparents to come enjoy the beach with us. Most days, Mimi and Poppa and Nana and Pappy would join the kids in the swimming pool to start the morning. This ended up being the favorite time for the grandparents, as the heat wasn’t as oppressive and the kids were fresh and in good spirits. Continue Reading…
Here at the fun house we make a lot videos that make you laugh and smile. This one may or may not do that, but it is particularly effective in getting my son to learn his ABCs and make the right shapes with his mouth. Children with Down syndrome often have speech delays and require different types of therapy to meet milestones that typically developing children do with ease.
These boys are keeping us busy
Seth really enjoys watching videos of daddy, so my wife told me that I should make a video that would have some therapy value. So, here it is. The key was for him to see my mouth making the letters and the words. We’ve found that he’ll string three and sometimes four words together singing, and he rarely does this any other time. Maybe it will of help to someone else. Our beautiful Ella was gracious to help with the recording of this one, and she is prominently featured.
Today, Seth, Kyle and I were hanging out at the house while Emily was watching Ella at a swim meet. Ella’s starting to swim fast. Her backstroke is almost as fast as her freestyle. The breathing part slows her down a little on the freestyle.
First year in swim team for Ella
While we were at the house, the boys and I took some photos. Here’s a good one.
Fun with the tripod
While we were home, we also did a little dancing. One of Seth’s favorite movies to watch is Mary Poppins, but it’s not because of Mary Poppins. The primary draw for him is Mr. Banks and, of course, Burt. He calls them Burt and Banks. His absolute favorite part of the movie is the nine minute long “Step in Time” portion of the movie where Burt and all the chimney sweeps dance. He typically gets up and holds the iPad and dances along. Needless to say, we’ve heard that song plenty. Today, I decided to purchase that song, and now when Seth hears it, he just dances along. We are keeping it fun at the fun house. Enjoy the video:
By the way, say a prayer for Seth when you think about it. We are back to potty training. It didn’t go splendidly the first time. We are dedicated this summer.
