Seth's good ears test

Seth has had his hearing checked every few months for most of his life. He barely passed the newborn hearing screening, and he barely skates by on the hearing tests with his audiologist. He wore hearing aids for awhile last year, but he kept taking them out and throwing them across the room. The audiologist suggested that Seth have a sedated study that tests the part of the ear and brain that translates sound. Wednesday was the day.

I had planned on waking Seth up at 6:25 a.m. so that we could leave at 6:30, but he decided to wake up on his own at 6 a.m.

"Bink, Mom."
"I'm sorry, Seth. I can't give you a drink until after the test."
"NO SORRY!!! BINK!!!"

He forgot about needing a drink when we got to the hospital. He charmed the information desk receptionist, telling her all about his green Buddy Walk shirt. Then we got to go to the pediatric unit where Seth got his own bed. I didn't take a camera, so I took a couple pictures with my phone.
That's Scooby Doo in the bed with him :-) We also brought a Scooby Doo dvd for entertainment (aka -- distraction).

The nurse put numbing cream on both of Seth's wrists and gave him a "drink" of Versed (sleepy medicine) to get him ready for an i.v. The first try at putting in the i.v. didn't work, but the nurse kept trying and trying. Seth only said "ow" once, then just laid there, still and quiet. The second try at putting in the i.v. was much faster and worked. The nurse started the sedation meds, and soon Seth was unable to speak clearly (which made me laugh because he doesn't talk very clearly to begin with).

The test takes a couple hours, so the audiologist, the nurse, and I sat there chatting while they monitored the machines. When the test was finished, the audiologist told me that there is nothing wrong with Seth's ears or the part of the brain that receives sound. In other words, Seth does not need hearing aids. This also means that Seth probably just hasn't felt like cooperating with all the hearing tests he goes through when he's awake. Or maybe he takes longer to respond even though he hears fine. His brain just needs some time to process the sounds that he hears. Probably a combination of both of those theories.

Seth woke up after another hour or so, sweet as can be. He was unbelievably brave and tough. The nurse said that he was a perfect patient!

This is how I found Luke and Seth this evening, watching netflix in Luke's bed:

Such sweet boys!!

a great Saturday

Yesterday was SUCH a good day!! Luke had a basketball game, and his team played REALLY well!!! They kept getting control of the ball, shooting baskets, and actually MAKING the shots!! Luke made FIVE baskets!! It was very exciting -- their first WIN of the season :-)

Then Seth and I went to soccer. I was concerned about how soccer was going to go because his regular coach wasn't going to be there (she had her own soccer game). But as soon as we got there, another mom from the Down syndrome group (her 19-year-old daughter has Down syndrome) got Seth's attention and got him running around and kicking the ball. She kept him moving for the first half of the hour, but then he slipped away from her and ran to me.

This picture is from the 2010 Buddy Walk, but it's the only picture I have of our friend Lindsey.
Lindsey was having trouble on the field because there weren't enough coaches to give one-on-one attention this week, so I played soccer with her. Seth, Lindsey, and I ran and kicked and ran some more for the last half of soccer time. It was so much fun!! (and it burned off so many calories that I might have made up for all the birthday overeating I did earlier in the week)

My sweet little nephew Gavin decided to give Seth this storm trooper helmet:
Amanda brought it to Luke's basketball game and said that Gavin told her that he wanted to give it to Seth because Seth likes it so much. I almost cried, he's so sweet. He liked the helmet, too, but he wanted Seth to have it anyway. And when it was time to leave the basketball game, Makayla saw the helmet and told me, "That's for Seth!" SUCH sweet little kids :-)

At Gavin's birthday party last night, Jason brought up how Gavin and Makayla were disappointed when Amanda didn't have to work on Wednesday because I wouldn't be coming over to play with them. When Amanda said that she didn't work again this next Wednesday, Gavin and Makayla both said, "AWWWWWWW!!!!!" That made me feel great! (although I know they really want to be with their mom the most, it's nice to know that they enjoy being with me sometimes, too :-)

(p.s. -- at the very bottom of the page is my weight loss ticker. TEN POUNDS so far!!!! so excited!!! friday, one of my managers noticed that i was losing weight. that makes me feel SOOOOOO good :-)

cupcakes

Makenzie told me that she wanted to take cupcakes to school tomorrow for her birthday lunch treat. She specifically asked for store-bought cupcakes with the little rings in them, so I went to the two grocery stores to see how much they cost and what rings they had because I thought it was the rings that she wanted. Wrong! It was the cupcakes. Mine aren't soft enough, apparently. So Jason went to the store to buy the on-sale leftover Valentine's cupcakes. Turns out, they were on sale this morning when I was at the store, but not this afternoon when Jason went to buy them :-(
These are the cupcakes I made, thinking they would be cuter than the ones with little kid rings in them or the leftover Valentine's ones. But they were too dry for the princess birthday treat. I must admit that I might need to find a new vanilla cake recipe because these were dryer than cupcakes made from a cake mix.
We went to the parent-teacher meeting for Seth this afternoon. His teacher said that she really likes Seth and that he is a super-cute kid. He's not exactly cooperating for his teachers in the educational requests, but he is cooperating in following directions such as "let's go use the restroom," "it's time to put on your snow clothes for recess," "walk nicely down the hall in a line," and "please come over to the circle with the rest of the class." He's not usually being mean to anyone (except when people invade his space; but even then, he's often yelling at them instead of trying to beat them up -- this is GOOD because Luke has taught him to be too physical). He knows his letters very well, but won't or can't write them at all. He does hold a pencil correctly, which really impressed his teacher. He is probably at the top of his class if regular "grades" were to be given, but it's REALLY hard to get him to do any kind of school work. His teacher commented that it's pretty noisy in their classroom, so maybe it's hard for Seth to concentrate with all the distractions. We're going to try using his basketball headphones in school and see if that helps him at all. Overall, he's doing pretty well and everyone is glad to be with Seth each day. I can't ask for much more than that right now.

Seth loves these play glasses (although he refuses to wear his real glasses at home). He was watching movies while Dad took a little snooze.

Makenzie's 11th birthday

Makenzie's 11th birthday is this Thursday :-) For her gift, I redecorated her room. She and I both dislike white walls, so we made her room MUCH more colorful:
Makenzie picked out all the colors, and liked the curtains, curtain rod, tie backs, light switch and electrical socket covers, and border that I picked out.


We took down her closet doors and hung glittery curtains instead:
The glittery curtain on her window had to be cut to fit the window, so we used the extra piece to make a glittery "M" to decorate one wall:
After church Sunday, the Hofacker/Nelson clan came over for a birthday party spaghetti lunch. Makenzie chose cherry cheesecake for her birthday "cake."
Makenzie has turned "teenager-ish" much earlier than Joel did. Actually, he's not really very "teenager-ish" at all, and he IS a teenager. I guess girls are MUCH different. Makenzie mostly enjoys being with her friends, watching tv, listening to music, and playing games on her ipod. She's doing very well in school (now that she understands that we will take her ipod away because of falling grades like we did a couple months ago), loves to read (actually, she likes to collect books more than she likes to read, it seems, although she does eventually read them -- very similar to her mother), and often helps with chores and babysitting Seth. If I would let her, Makenzie would be involved in cheerleading. But I won't let her do that, so she wants to play volleyball and run in the track meets with the rest of the family (except me) during the summer. She tried playing basketball, but didn't really like it.

Seth is still playing soccer on Saturdays. I use that term "playing" VERY loosely!! This was what he did most of last Saturday:
His "buddy" is SO patient with him and actually got him to run and kick the ball a few times.
This is how we find Seth sometimes after he falls asleep -- cuddled up to Scooby Doo :-)
This is a very busy week for Hallmark, of course. I worked three of my stores yesterday and the other two today to make sure they were cleaned up after the mass Valentine's shopping. Then Thursday and Friday, I have to take all the Valentine's cards down and put up Easter cards. Those will be two rushed days since Thursday is Makenzie's birthday and I can't work early or late or I'd miss being with her. I just have to be super speedy in the hours that she's in school ;-)

catching up again

I've been so busy lately with work, shopping, laundry, kids, and painting Makenzie's room that I haven't posted the pictures I've been taking or blogging at all.

Seth LOVES to sing and dance to the music from the movie Rio!! I don't know if the hands on the ears was part of one of his dance moves or if I had turned the music up too loud :-)
And he LOVES to make this face to make me laugh :-)
Here are the two cutie pies I get to spend Wednesday afternoons with:
They posed SO nicely for me!! And then Makayla wanted to pose some more with silly faces :-)
She's so beautiful and fun!!! And Gavin is so funny and smart (he does a reading lesson with me every week from the same book that I taught Joel, Makenzie, and Luke to read -- he can read entire one-page stories now)! Wednesdays are never boring :-)
A friend from church gave Seth this light saber -- thanks SO much, Chad! Seth uses it as a makeshift lock on his door to try to keep us out of his room or to protect himself from Luke or to just cause excitement (a.k.a. yelling and chasing to get that thing away from him before he hits someone else). Seth is so funny with putting on hats every now and then, even though he rarely keeps any kind of hat on when it's freezing cold outside and he needs a hat.
Makenzie's room is all finished, so I'll try to get pictures of it on here asap :-)

above zero

It has been below zero for longer than I can remember, but it's FINALLY above zero!!! The only problem with that is that we got more snow. LOTS more snow! It took Jason almost two hours to use the snowblower on the two driveways.


Our mailbox is completely surrounded by snow. I'm thinking it needs to be painted so that the mailman can see it better. Pink and purple butterflies would look GREAT!
The snow is higher than Luke, and he's standing up on the front deck which is about a foot up off the ground.
In the middle of all the snow falling today, I went to work at 6:15 this morning and then drove to Seth's school at 8:30 so that we could get on a BUS and drive downtown to attend a performance of "Sleeping Beauty." When we got back to the school (safely, thank goodness!), I drove home and texted Jason that I would NOT be leaving the house again! He brought the kids home in his four-wheel-drive truck.

Joel's a TEENAGER!

Wednesday, Joel turned THIRTEEN!!! Sometimes, he surprises me with great maturity. Usually, he's still a normal kid, though :-) Wednesday, Joel got to pick all the meals for the day (which is probably one of the reasons that I gained a pound this week). Today was the family party. Everyone came over after church for chili, gifts, and brownies with ice cream :-)

Gavin was the gift bringer :-)

Makenzie and Luke made sure to get in the "Happy Birthday" song and candle blowing pictures :-)

After the family party, Joel and I went to the library to take his birthday pictures:



He cooperated with the pictures so that we could get them done. I wanted to find more spots to take a few more pictures, but he just wanted to be finished.

Then this evening, Joel stood next to the polar bear :-) He is FIVE FEET, FOUR INCHES tall!!!
At thirteen, Joel still loves to read (fantasy/science fiction and comics are his favorites -- today at the library, he checked out several Garfield comics), play video games, watch movies (he's really into the old "Muppets" tv shows, which makes me chuckle), playing his trumpet in the jazz band (Glenn Miller is his favorite! One of his favorite birthday gifts was a trumpet mute so that he can try to copy the "Glenn Miller sound."), and spending time with his friends. He runs track and cross country because Jason makes him, does the high jump during track season (or tries to -- he's a little stocky for that event), and wrestles. Just Friday, he placed second in a junior high j.v. wrestling meet. He was VERY excited about that! He's pretty mean to Makenzie and Luke, not any more than I would say is "normal," though. Joel is a VERY good worker, better for other people than for me :-)

Since I have trouble remembering what happened two hours ago, the day Joel was born is a little bit of a blur. I do remember enough, though, to be thankful those days are behind me and to be VERY thankful that God gave me this special gift that we named Joel !