You People

Wow...it has been a while since I updated this blog! So much has happened in the time since I last wrote. Kathryn has been opening up and talking about her past and her feelings, which is tremendous progress. I have realized that she needed to be taught how to properly express herself and feelings so I have been helping her identify her feelings. Her new favorite phrase is now "I am so very sad because..." It is usually something like, "Mom, I am so very sad because I don't have pink crocs like Evalin." (I would be so very sad too, because pink crocs are cute!) or "Mom, I am so very sad because Lukas won't let me watch Cinderella (again for the 100th time) and says we have to watch 'Cars' " You know, heartbreaking stuff like that! Her other new phrase is "You people" For example: "I want to go to church with you people" or "I am going to have dinner with you people." I truly can't imagine a worse pharse to describe us, but have tried to let it run it's course UNTIL the day we were in Target last week. Phil and I took the girls to Target (to help them bond without the boys around) and we shopped together. As we were finishing, Evalin hurt herself on the cart and so Phil picked her up and snuggled her. Kathryn INSISTED on carrying all the bags (5 of them) and so that left me with nothing to carry. So picture this in your mind: white dad carrying/snuggling his white daughter, white mom carrying absolutely nothing and black daughter dragging 5 bags out the door. We are almost to the door when she says at the top of her lungs "WHY MUST I CARRY ALL THESE HEAVY BAGS FOR YOU PEOPLE?!" I wanted to shrink, disappear, vanish, you name it...I was so embarrassed. Needless to say, we are working on a different phrase, such as "My wonderful family" or "My loving parents" Any of those will work!
Isaac . There is so much to say that I have a hard time narrowing it down to just one update. He loves light switches and is now banned from turning them off and on, off and on, off and on. He also copies absolutely EVERYTHING that any one of the kids says. It is driving everyone in the house crazy. I am letting him just punish himself on that issue, which he does regularly. For example; Lukas was not feeling well and said he didn't want ice cream and wanted to go to bed (7:00 pm) and guess what Isaac said without thinking?! And another time, Evalin said she wanted some celery for a snack and guess what Isaac said, again without thinking?! So he punishes himself and makes my life easy in that area! It is really ridiculous though at times because he has no clue! If anyone in the house has to use the bathroom, so does Isaac, at that EXACT moment! (Yes, he goes a lot because with 6 people in the house, that is a LOT of trips to the bathroom!)
Evalin and Lukas are doing better. The adjustment for them has been harder than I thought it would be, but we have changed a lot of rules, parenting styles, etc. And they have been given some extra privileges to help ease the transition.
Lukas learned about presidents in school and was a bit confused by the end of the day. I know this because I asked him what he learned about (knowing that he learned about George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and George W. Bush) So he told me, " I learned about George Lincoln who lived in Texas and raised Longhorn cattle" Oh Boy! Other than that, Lukas is doing so awesome in school. he finished all his reading curriculum already and so I am trying to keep him busy with other books and materials. He writes me messages all day long which has taught me to read using lots of clues. For example, "Mom, win is dinr going to be reedi?" So my thinking skills are being sharpened as I read mysterious notes all day long! He wrote a book for me too, called. "Isaac's Happe Day" it is wonderful. He not only wrote it, but illustrated it as well.
And Evalin. She is just Evalin. Loves her horses and chocolate. Of course there is so much more to her than that, but I don't want to share on this blog because Evalin needs to be protected (as do all my kids, but more so for her). So that is all you get!
Hopefully I will be more faithful about blogging so that it isn't soooo long next time.