The Baptism

 Twin sis (whom the Love Magnet is named after) came to support us.  We also had many of both sides of the family present.  This was a huge weekend.  Not only was it a baptism, but is was a farewell for Firstborn who was leaving to go on a mission to Romania.

 The Love Magnet was so excited.  Her big brother was going to baptize her and her daddy would confirm her a member of the Church and give her the gift of the Holy Ghost.  She was so thrilled that the room was full of people she loved.

 I worried a little about how she would feel about the baptismal clothing.  But it turned out to be soft (and not scratchy as I remembered from my own baptism when I was 8.  Mr. Wonderful had reminded me to bring a white tshirt and white bike shorts for her to wear underneath.  Good thing - with those on, she did not freak out over wearing unfamiliar clothing or over the feeling of the elastic waistband.  As soon as she changed (which was 15 minutes before the ordination), she tried to immediately step (dive) into the font.  I had to stop her more than once and remind her that other things (talks, singing, and prayers) had to happen first.

 This was Firstborn's first baptism.  I love that his first baptism was for his sister.  It is not appropriate to take pictures during the ordination.  The Love Magnet led the music.  Seconborn and Thirdborn gave the opening and closing prayers.  The Grandmothers each gave a talk on baptism and on The Holy Ghost.  The Grandpas served as witnesses.  Firstborn did a great job with the actual baptism.  When the Love Magnet came out of the water, she announced to everyone watching that she forgot to plug her nose.  It didn't bother her.  She just shook her head and kept smiling.  In the dressing room, after the baptism and before the confirmation she kept saying to me "Mom, I feel so AMAZING!"



The Baptism Portraits

A friend of ours who took Firstborn's Senior pictures offered to take The Love Magnet's baptism portraits.  My daughter was enamored by the photographer.  She thought the photog was very pretty. 

The Love Magnet was also thrilled to pose with scriptures.  She loves scriptures.

 The photog directed TLM to open the scriptures and start reading.  So TLM did just that (and pretty much ignored everything else - she was busy reading). 

 This is my favorite shot.  I'm not sure what The Love Magnet was thinking.  This wasn't a directed pose - I think TLM was looking at the cute baby hat display while the photog and I were talking.

 And one more of the same shot.

The dress is soft and flowing.  Not the white baptism dress I dreamed of, but she looks beautiful.  Huge thanks to the photog for taking these.  Her work is stunning.

The Baptism Dress and what is really important to my salvation.

I had in my mind a dream that most mothers do - shopping for the perfect dress with their daughter.  When you daughter is going to be baptized, you want to find the perfect white dress for her to wear before and after. 

Problem:  the Love Magnet has sensory issues when it comes to clothing.  No shiny, slippery, satin, lacy, itchy, sequins, or large seams or tags can touch her skin.  It causes her to go crazy.  She wears knits, some denim.  And as soon as she gets home from school, she changes into pajamas.

I thought that taking her to the mall to let her watch the teen girls trying on prom dresses would work.  She loved looking at the "princesses" and wanted to stay there a long time. While she watched, I pulled white dresses her size off the rack and then took her into a dressing room.

She looked at the dresses and started to shake, sweat, and cry.  I felt awful.  I tried to explain that she had an undershirt on and tights so it wouldn't touch her skin.  I couldn't even get the dress over her head.  She was inconsolable.

I gave up and took her to lunch.  During lunch she apologized profusely over not trying on the dresses and asked if we could try again.  So, after lunch I took her to another store. The same thing happened in the dressing room.  We gave up and went home.  Where I cried - I know it was selfish.  I just wanted to have that moment with my daughter.  If she ever goes to prom, I will have to pay someone to design a prom dress out of jersey knit or something equally soft.

My Twin Sis started sending suggestions and wracking her brain to figure out how to make something work.  She also reminded me that baptism dresses did not need to be white.  File the white baptism dress idea under "If it is not important to my salvation, I'm not going to worry about it."

Two days before the baptism, I found a dress.  It wasn't white.  It was gold and cream.  It was organdy on the outside, and fully lined in soft cotton on the inside.  The Love Magnet felt it before we went into the dressing room.  She made sure she had on her undershirt and sweater tights so the dress wouldn't come in contact with anything but her shoulders.  She started to panic before I slipped the dress over her head, telling me that it was going to hurt.  I reminded her that she felt that it was soft.  She then begged me to hold the dressmaker tag in my hand so it wouldn't touch her and the price tag in my other hand for the same reason.  Then we were finally able to get it over her head (with much panicking) until she realized it was going to be okay.  With her arms held out so she wouldn't touch it, she looked in the mirror.  "Mom, I look like a princess!"

She still panicked every time I put it over her head, but she acted fine after it was on.  A photog friend offered to take her picture.  A ward member with a brand new hair business made her a hair pretty and did her hair for the pictures and baptism. (picture to come as soon as photog friend sends it.)

Now the non-salvation stuff was taken care off.  On to the baptism.

"Mom, I want to be baptized."

When the Love Magnet turned 8 years old, people asked if she was going to get baptized.  We knew she wasn't ready.  She never talked about it.  She loved to watch others get baptized but she did not think to want it for herself.  So we let her be.

Fast forward to last summer.  Out of the blue, the Love Magnet announced "I want to be baptized." I told her that was awesome and let the subject alone, thinking that it was fleeting.  But she kept talking about "When I get baptized...." and asking when that would be.  Wanting to make sure she understood the ordinance and the promises involved, we started to focus Family Home Evenings around the subject.  It is a bit difficult to put together lessons that she will understand and yet still be interesting to her older brothers.  With a 4 year spread between each of our sons, they each have a different level of understanding.  It helped when they each were in charge of lessons.

The Love Magnet was asked to give a talk on the Holy Ghost for the Primary program in September.  She was thrilled to participate.  She told me what to type:



The Holy Ghost

The Holy Ghost can help me to not be scared when there is a fire drill at school because I don't like loud noises.
The Holy Ghost can help me be polite and kind.
The Holy Ghost can help me remember to be honest and tell the truth.
I can't see him.  He doesn't have a body.  But I can feel him.
I'm glad I know how to choose the right.

We spent the Saturday before at the church, practicing sitting on the bench where her class would sit, practicing walking up to the microphone and putting her paper on the stand.  We practiced how to speak in the microphone.  This went on over and over for an hour until she told me she was ready.

During the Primary program, she sat with her class.  When it came time for her turn, she walked up to the podium, put her paper on the stand, took a deep breath and said under her breath (but loud enough for the microphone to pick it up) "Okay....here we go.", and gave a Primary talk by herself.  It proved to me that she does understand, in her own way, about the Holy Ghost, about Jesus, and the promises she would make in baptism.

She was ready.

2012 Buddy Walk

The Buddy Walk this year consisted of our family and some of the Love Magnet's special education teachers and therir families.  We were so thrilled to have them join us.  There was a glitch of our team not on the list, so no red buddy walk shirts for us (I am still trying to rectify this).

Ten Years Old



Watching Madeline



Must read all the cards before opening the presents.  There is an order to birthday things.



Note the pink cupcakes.  This was part of her dream birthday celebration.



Manicures in every color and with bling!



The manicure station



Waiting (anxiously) for guests to arrive.  She wanted to stand outside in front of the door to make sure her guests didn't go to the wrong house.



PInk cupcakes, black and pink wrapped table.



Each guest was presented with the Crepe Cafe menu (Thanks to the Seal Bark for doing them up for me).



Decorations included balloons supplied by her brothers



The brothers also willingly helped decorate everything else.



The Love Magnet on her 10th birthday.

Ten most incredible things about The Love Magnet

1.  This girl LOVES to dance.  Hip hop, ballet, modern, hula........she has moves.

2.  Everyone is her best friend.  If she just met you, you are her new best friend.  She doesn't discriminate.  Feel the love.

3.  She will thank you.  Gratitude abounds with this one.  Often she will also throw in a "my darling" along with the thank you.

4.  The Love Magnet has finally discovered the joys of fashion, nail polish, accessories, and bling.  Just like any typical preteen.

5.  She loves to read.  Chapter books, cooking magazines, scriptures, or over my shoulder looking at blogs. 

6.  This girl loves to be in the kitchen, especially to make breakfast.  She is a foodie.

7.  The Love Magnet believes that everyone deserves to be happy.  If you are down, she is the one who can cheer you up.

8.  Her heroes are her brothers.

9.  She loves school and wishes it were year round.

10.  No grudges.  She forgives completely.  How many of us can say we have that ability?

Love Magnet speaks up. Watch out.

Pensacola Beach, Florida, January 2012

The Love Magnet has been harder to understand this year.  Her speech is somewhat garbled.  I think there must be a disconnect somewhere - is her brain running faster than she is able to express?  Or is it that she hears her peers speaking faster and tries to match their speed at the expense of being understood.  Whatever the reason, I've tried to work more with her on articulation.  It has been an interesting journey.  Mainly due to the reason that I can't be caught at being the teacher - rebellion would ensue.

The boys have picked up on the articulation models I have been using and started using them as well.  when The Love Magnet attempts to articulated /s/, they will point out that they can see her tongue.  "Hide your tongue!  I see your tongue, put it back in your mouth".  Alternately, when she attempts a /th/ sound, she ends up substituting with a /d/.  The boys will model where her tongue goes and then tell her it is her turn.  She complies with much more enthusiasm for them than she shows for me. When her entire sentence is unintelligible, they will let her know.  "Whoa, I didn't understand that.  Say it again, but this time slow down."  She is very willing to clarify to them, particularly if she is requesting something.

I love that the boys have picked up on this without me requesting it of them.  They are also learning to be more careful of what words they say and how they say them.  I've said it before and I'll say it again:  Heavenly Father sent The Love Magnet to our house to show us how we sound to each other.  She can mimic tone and inflection in speech with absolute clarity.  It is very obvious who she is mimicking and the offensive party ducks their head in shame when they recognize that they are the ones being imitated.  Worse, she picks up new words with lightning speed, particularly words we don't want her to repeat.  We've discovered that it is more than twice as hard to train her out of a bad word than it was to get my boys to stop saying a new word they learned on the school playground.  Read this post.  It was the most mild of words we didn't want her to say.  It took all the next year to train her out of it.

Here I raise my glass (of water) to old words said with more clarity and new words that aren't offensive.  And most of all to the power of the examples of sibling and friends.

My daughter is watching and listening to you.  Please be kind to each other.

Grad school: community screenings, time crunch, random thoughts

Tonight I was signed up to do community screenings.  I headed to the school to pick up an audiometer, print a map, and off to the other side of town.

The building was set up with all the disciplines the school provides: Nursing, Pharmacy, Dietitian, Counseling, SLP/Audiology, and Dental.  There were tables for vital signs, HIV screenings, nutrition, Rx check, lab work, dental checks, and hearing screenings. 

The hearing screenings were difficult due to the noises in the room from the HVAC, refrigeration system (there was a commercial kitchen in there), and the conversation from the other tables.  But we made do. Otoscopes for visual check of the ear canal and ear drum.  Tympanometer to check flexibility of ear drum, and hearing screenings.  Raise your hand when you hear the beep and say Hallelujia!  (No, not really.  Raising your hand is just fine.)

The screenings were for anyone, but mainly aimed at those in the community who couldn't afford health care.  Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a turnout.  I'm not sure if it was due to location or how well the community was informed.  The volunteers mainly sat around, or went to the other tables to check out the other disciplines.  My classmate and I had great conversations with counseling and dietitians.  Pharmacy came over to our table for screenings.  There were tables full of pamphlets on everything from immunizations to additional service referrals. 

The more I work in community screenings, the more I work in elementary school screenings, the more I work in clinic, the more I love this job.  The only drawback - there are days when I don't get to see my children much.  Twice a week, I get home just after dinner. I miss my family.  At least I know that this schedule won't be forever.  Once I graduate, I can work my schedule to fit theirs and be home when they get home from school.  In the meantime, when I am home, I am home.  I am theirs.  I crack open my books after the youngest ones go to bed.  I shut my laptop when the older ones want to tell me about their day.

I can do hard.  2 1/2 semesters, 1 internship, and 1 externship to go.  Can I see the light at the end of the tunnel?  I dare say I do.



Thanksgiving 2011

I know, blogging hit the wayside.  A victim of grad school.  But here are the Thanksgiving Day pictures.  Amazing fun with two incredible families.  The biggest turkey I have ever roasted.  Wii Just Dance 3 competitions. Secondborn's famouse Baconator Deviled Eggs. Perfect, perfect Gratitude Day.

Buddy Walk 2012

The Buddy Walk happened in October.  The Love Magnet had the opportunity to dance her little hip-hop heart out with a great dance troupe.  Huge thanks to all of those who made this day incredible.

The video is the practice the day before the Buddy Walk.

HONK if you are a LOVE MAGNET!

Update to Swimming to the Surface

I just scored a very decent A- on my huge project #1 for Language Development. Feeling like I am going to survive grad school after all. At least this week.

Excuse me while I do a happy dance. Feel free to dance with me. Pat me on the back. Give me a woot-woot. Its all good.

Swimming my way back to the surface

Overwhelming. That pretty much sums up the first half of my first grad school semester.I'm still not caught up with all the reading, but then all of my classmates have admitted to the same thing. I love clinic - absolutely love it. The paperwork threw me for a loop. I believe I have the worlds best clinic supervisor because she has been beyond patient with me. My grades aren't stellar. I still have a chance to pull them up.

Finding my balance of school and home has been hard, too. The kids have been patient. The older help the younger with homework. Mr. Wonderful has also gone above and beyond to help this home run. Sometimes we see each other coming and going. At least we still make sure we have date night. We don't even sit by each other in church anymore. I'm at the organ. Since there is always a rest hymn and no special musical number, I stay up by the organ so the transitions are smooth.

We did celebrate Down Syndrome Awareness Month at the Buddy Walk. This year was more special than others. The Love Magnet danced a hip-hop number with a local dance group. She loved it. The best news (and still makes me teary whenever I think of it) is that this particular dance company has asked if she would join them. She'll be put in dance classes with typical kids. We're signing up in November. We had to wait a few weeks because -

The Love Magnet had a tonsilectomy/adenoidectomy. Her tonsils were huge and stinky and starting to cause bad breath. If was a rough first week. I called for help and angels came in the form of my parents and Grandmother. These three angels made it possible for me to make it to clinic while they stayed home with The Love Magnet. They did my laundry, reorganized my pantry, vacuumed, cleaned my kitchen, and spent time with my children. I felt loved and cared for.

I think I will make it through grad school after all. I had my doubts.

First Day of School

Remember this school picture from 2010?

Check out how much taller they are now. 5th grade and 3rd grade.

This one just won't quit growing. He is in 9th grade and it was his first day of high school. According to Secondborn, it was also the worst first day ever. New school and none of his friends went to this school. (It is an advanced, invitation only high school.) Thank heavens the second day was better. He likes most of his teachers; loves Chinese, Geometry, and American History; still has few friends, but getting them through early morning Seminary and the fact that his classmates are learning his name. His high school shares the same building as my university, so he eats lunch with me if he doesn't have anyone else to eat with (I told him that a cute girl inviting him to sit with her constitutes a better deal than eating with mom). So far, I've only had two lunches with him.

Firstborn is just working and starting his mission papers. They should be turned in by Thanksgiving and hopefully he will have a call soon after that.

No back to school pic of me. I was too stressed to think to snap a pic.

Countdown to grad school

Titres, skin tests, CPR certification. All the stuff I didn't know I needed to have before grad school is now messing up my trip-to-Utah plans before school starts. Grad school also wants my immunization records. As another 40-something classmate has also found out, we can't get those records because they no longer exist. I've had a few booster shots in the past two years that will count, but it looks like I will need a few more.

I've spent over $500 on textbooks for this upcoming semester, including 5 books for neurology alone. I love neurology but I will admit to some apprehension of the seeming insurmountable workload from that class alone. I need to pay tuition this week, too, and give information on my insurance for my SHIP waiver.

Kids school supplies have been purchased as well as most of the school clothes they will need. Still waiting anxiously for information on meet-the-teacher night as I still don't know who they will be.

Slowly things are being checked off my to-do list. I will admit to a small bit of anxiety in the realm of "Can I really do this?" But I know that this goal of grad school is a righteous goal and I will have all the help I need to accomplish it. God is great. He will not leave me alone.

I've been marveling at all the huge milestones our family will see during my two years of grad school:

* Firstborn has an interview this Sunday to be ordained an elder after which we will start marking off the checklist of everything to be done before his mission. He can turn in his papers in November. He'll leave for his mission sometime in February. He is hoping to serve in Africa like his grandparents.

*Secondborn will turn 16, be ordained a Priest which will allow him to bless the Sacrament. He will also start driving and dating (in my church, dating doesn't start until you turn 16). If you ask him which one he is more excited for between driving and dating, he will certainly tell you driving.

* Thirdborn will turn 12 and be ordained a deacon, which will allow him to pass the Sacrament. This is a big deal and he is so excited at the thought.

These are huge milestones in my church and my kids are really looking forward to them. Here is to the next two years. They will be monumental.