Our Month in Photos

It was a crazy, busy, and awesome month.  These are a few of the Hoy highlights from when the blog was quiet--

Jackson's Cub Scout den led the pledge at a naturalization ceremony.

We attended Aggie Muster with friends.

We hosted our annual crawfish boil.

Jackson continued to enjoy Lego club at school.

Padme scratched her eye and had to wear the 'cone of shame'.

Alyssa enjoyed archery at Mother/Daughter camp.

I enjoyed all my time with the daughter.



 

The boys enjoyed scouting day at the Express game.

Matthew loved to watch airplanes.

We enjoyed one of our favorites, Portillos, on a very quick trip to Chicago.

My Hoy boys looked sharp for a fantastic family wedding.

Matthew's teacher helped him with the M and the W, but only had to give him verbal instructions one letter at a time to write the rest of his name.

Alyssa presented her research on the differences between the Army Air Forces in WWII and the Air Force today.

Yearning Subsides

I used to YEARN to find information about Matthew's rare chromosome duplication.  I NEEDED to know everything I could about what was to come, what we might encounter, and what life might be like for Matthew.  

Now, 5 years after Matthew's diagnosis, I don't yearn for the information like I did before.  Probably because I now know Matthew.

I enjoy meeting those impacted by a 4q duplication.  But while their journeys are somewhat similar, they are also very different from ours.  Each story is uniquely his or her own.  I know there is only one Matthew.

When I first started teaching this year, I'd look in the special education department to see if I could envision what life might be like for Matthew years down the road.  Similarly, I have realized that there are no Matthews.  The school system has likely never seen anyone exactly like him, because there is only one Matthew.

That knowledge used to make me a bit batty, but now it is almost comforting.  We don't know what to expect.  No longer scary, it is empowering. 

It will be a challenge assessing what Matthew knows, given his speech and OT issues, but I have no doubt this kid will figure it out given enough time.

When he wanted the truck out of the way, he tried to push it out of the way.   Matthew doesn't realize he has limits.

So Happy

While we were at the park one day playing on a merry-go-round, a little boy (probably around 10) was speaking to his friends and pointed at Matthew.  I held my breath as I waited to hear what he had to say. 

He told his friends, "Come here.  You have to come see this little boy.  He gets so happy when we spin!"  And that little boy was right.  Matthew LOVES to spin on the merry-go-round.  And I loved this little boy for thinking it was pretty cool. 

It made up for the not as nice comment our (usually very sweet) pediatrician said without thinking later that same day. I don't even remember exactly what the comment was, just that it wasn't very sensitive.

I guess it is always good to remember the good and forget the bad!

Growing Up

A few days ago, I sifted through the kids clothes to weed out those items that no longer fit. I've done this twice a year (or more) since Alyssa was born.  This was the first time I got a little sad.  We really no longer have 3 little kids. 

My sadness was short lived when I remembered that after 9 years (NINE YEARS) of changing diapers, we are down to one diaper a night with Matthew.   Fantastic!!

So 3800 for Alyssa, 3800 for Jackson, and twice that (7600) for Matthew.

I also relish in the fact that the kids are so much more independent.  They can get their own breakfast.  They play outside without every second having to be supervised.  They can do for themselves most often.

And we can go to a sit down restaurant again!  I think in the last 9 years, we've been relegated to quick service meals for about 7 of those.  I have missed nicer places!

We went to not one, but two sit down restaurants this past weekend!

In my gig, I've seen bigger kids, with bigger problems.  I'm in no hurry to have these 3 grow up anytime soon but I'm very thankful and happy for where we are at right now. 

Catching Up

Here are a few pictures and happenings since I last blogged.

We celebrated St. Patty's day with friends and neighbors.

We had dear friends in from out of state for Spring Break.

And even though we passed around a stomach bug, we still had lots of fun.

We celebrated Darren's birthday.

We had a fun visit at Grandma and Grandpa's with Easter confetti eggs.

And Uncle Will.

A few random thoughts from the past few weeks: 

Ugh, the time change was just awful.  Now we get up when it is pitch black outside and go to bed when it is light.  Yuck.

After 6 months in my 'new' job, most everything has fallen into place, except the one thorn in my side--homework.  In the hour to two hours in the evening, it was increasingly a point of contention to get the kids to work on homework.  They just weren't getting it done in the after school program and I was tired of being 'mean mom' harping on them to get it done.  The last few weeks, the big kids have taken the bus from their school to mine a couple of days a week.  It has done the trick.  Homework gets done while I have tutorials and finish up my work and then we are able to tackle the rest of our list (pesky tasks like eating, bathing and reading) during the small window of time in the evening before bed.  I feel like we are finally into a good groove.

Speaking of the job, I LOVE it.  After spending the week away during spring break, I walked back into my classroom and I felt warm and happy.  I missed being there that week.  It is nice to finally be doing what I was (probably always) meant to do!

Alyssa and I bought boots a few weeks ago-- in the same size.  Yep, I am wearing the same size shoe as my 9 year old. I knew it would happen someday, I just didn't expect it so soon.

(Not really) Bad Weather Day

Last Thursday, our school district cancelled school due to the threat of ice.  The 'hazardous conditions' never did transpire near us, so we just had a random day off school.  All in all, it was a pretty nice day.  Maybe it was because it was the first we'd seen of sunshine in over a week, or maybe it was because my frame of reference has changed (now a 'bad weather day' is a 'holiday' for me too!), but it was much more enjoyable than any 'bad weather day' we've had so far. 

We did some crafts.

We played some Minecraft.

We hit balloons with fly swatters.

We met Darren for lunch.

We played school.

And we ended the day with some yoga.

Bday Celebration

*Warning-- I am using the Holland extended analogy again in this post. I tried to write this post without it but couldn't capture the true essence of the feeling without it.

To celebrate Matthew's momentous 5th birthday, we took a trip to Dallas to stay at Great Wolf Lodge. 

We spent Thursday at the indoor waterpark.  We swam, splashed, and played. Matthew got annoyed at not being able to ride the big slides with the big kids but he made do and must have gone down the little kid slide dozens of times. It was a great day-- and felt awfully close to being in Italy. It was like being in a museum looking at beautiful art. We totally forgot about being in Holland.

 

Then, on Thursday night a little glimmer of Holland seeped into our celebration as Matthew struggled to sleep. Friday, we were tired, a bit water logged and stuck in Dallas due to the few inches of snow that shut down the city.

We decided to spend the day on a magic scavenger hunt through the hotel. You wave a wand and a treasure chest opens or a picture comes to life. Pretty neat.  I thought for sure Mattie would get into it like the big kids. 

Instead the curtains opened wide to expose the fact that, in fact, we are still in Holland. Our big 5 year old spent 6 hours following the big kids from floor to floor of the hotel-- pushing a luggage cart. That is how he wanted to spend his birthday--just happy to push the cart. Yep-- Holland. Then, now, and likely forever.

It isn't like we are denial about being in Holland.  When your son is born without thumbs, you realize very quickly that you didn't land in Italy.  No sitting on the tarmac for us.  We didn't wonder if we were in Italy, we knew very early that isn't where we landed.  Even now, when the realization of the bilateral absent thumbs and Matthew's diagnosis are both distant memories, we still KNOW we are in Holland.  Our 5 year old has the verbal capabilities of an almost 2 year old.  We get it. 

5 year checklist- Matthew hit 50% of the targets.

...but some moments, some entire days, it feels a lot like Italy.