Botanical Garden

What a BEAUTIFUL afternoon at the Alaska Botanical Garden!!!

BEAUTIFUL walks!

This path is in the Alaska Botanical Garden.  I LOVE the little stick fence on both sides of the path!!!!  I love pictures of paths, especially paths that are beautiful and have unseen ends.

I also love pictures of benches!!!  I think Seth took this picture on his ipad (or "high-pad" as he calls it for some reason).  These benches are behind the condos on Cheney Lake.

I think these purple flowers are hydrangea.  I read that they are normally purple, but that different soils can make them change colors.  I love how they almost seem to have been altered like hot house flowers that have been dyed, but they couldn't have been because they're in the ground at the Botanical Garden.

So many pieces of beauty on my walks with Seth!!!!

One Tiny Sliver

Seth went to the lab for his six-week blood draw.  I almost didn't take him because I couldn't find the lidocaine to numb his poor little arm.  When I called the pharmacy to order a refill, they told me that it wouldn't be available until Friday at the earliest.  Since it was six weeks on the dot from the last blood test, I didn't want to put off the test.  Seth was brave and didn't move or yell at all when the phlebotomist stuck in the needle.  I was so proud of him, especially since a little girl with Down syndrome was screaming in the other chair.  The poor girl did NOT want to have her blood drawn.  On our way back out to the car, Seth looked up to the cloud-covered sky and pointed at the one tiny sliver of sky without clouds and said, "Look, Mom!  Beautiful blue sky!"  God, please give me that ability again to find pieces of beauty even in the grayest darkness!

hygiene

Seth can get undressed and dressed all by himself and can even (usually) pick clothes that match (or at least come close).  Today he added another step in his morning hygiene routine:  "Mom, my armpits stink.  I can't go to Meema's with armpits stink."  LOL!!!!  The only thing that really ever stinks on him is his hair because he wears a hat every minute that he's awake, but he uses deodorant (when I remember) just in case he gets stinky.  Today, I did NOT remember, but he DID!  :-)

Tears of Joy

Homeschooling Seth makes me cry sometimes.  We have had a few days that involved yelling, spanking, crying . . . failure.  We've had a few days that Seth tried his best, but he just can't do what I asked him to do which makes me cry . . . sadness.  Today, though, I was crying because HE DID IT all by himself!!!!  The task was so simple, but it took Seth three days of practice to understand how to put the numbers one through ten in order.  Other days, he would get 1, 2, 3, and maybe 4 but then think that 7 went next.  He would only know what number to put next if I counted out loud starting at one, not just once, but six times to get numbers four through nine in order (obviously, when the number ten was all that was left, he knew what to do without re-counting).  Today, though, he whispered the numbers himself.  I sat and watched and gave no input at all.  If he put the numbers in the wrong order (which he did a few times), he corrected them himself.  He didn't need to re-count to know what the next number was every time.  He only re-counted to check to see if they were in the correct order.  Four attempts in a row he put the numbered cards in numerical order!

Yesterday, I got to spend the evening with three sweet girls from church.  One of them is two years old and said many things just like Seth does when he's not feeling like being sociable:  "Leave me alone," "Don't touch me," and "Go away!"  All of those words made me chuckle because she's SO cute and spunky!  When she was feeling more comfortable, she said sweet things like, "Thank you," and "Are you ok?" when I said "ouch" as I tried to stand up straight after being on the ground with her.  Another of the girls is seven years old and is perfectly capable of taking care of herself and her little sister.  She's polite, fun, and funny.  And then there's the 13-year-old.  She's only two months older than Seth, but is a beautiful big sister who can (and does) take care of her younger sisters and herself just like a young mommy.  Everything about her shows normal or even above average development.  She's smart, pretty, caring, polite, and competent.  She can see what needs to be done or said and react appropriately.  Everything about these three delightful girls shows perfect development and great parenting.  I try so hard not to compare Seth to anyone else, but sometimes comparisons hit me in the face, especially when I realize that a certain child is the same age as Seth.  I can get so completely wrapped up in Seth that I forget how different he is from other people his age.

Comparisons like last night are a little difficult, but necessary for me to remember that my reality isn't what it was before I had Seth.  All at the same time, the normal development of those three sweet girls and the snail-pace slow development of my sweet boy are parts of reality.  The differences aren't cause for mourning because God made Seth exactly how He wanted him to be.  Over-analyzing the whole concept of being happy for both sides of reality can make me confused and sad, and that's probably Satan's attempt to steal the joy that God intended when He gave me Seth.  I can't allow the thought, "This isn't fair!" to be any part of my thought process.  Accepting and seeing the benefits of both sides of reality causes celebration.  I'm so glad for the successes of my sweetheart Seth,  and I'm equally glad for the successes of the sweethearts who visited yesterday.