The boilers were being replaced in our ward and they were mid-project the Sunday before conference. We had unseasonably FREEZING weather and it was cold in our chapel. Here are the kids trying to stay warm before sacrament meeting. As I was taking the picture, Liam asked if I had brought anything for him to eat after the "snack"-rament.
Yesterday I went to school to stick reminders on the elementary kids during lunch for our Sonic Restaurant Night. Liam came with me, he bought school lunch and sat there for an hour eating it. He loved the green beans the best and didn't like the mashed potatoes at all. The choice was chicken sandwich or turkey but I told them he is a vegetarian (which he is mostly) and so they gave him the vegetarian muffin basket: a yogurt, string cheese, and corn muffin. After we dumped his tray, I was trying to get the last few kids and the principal thought he was a kindergartner and started shooing him to class. He is as tall as some of the kindergartners.
Liam is still struggling with some of his sounds. We've been on the waiting list for speech therapy for a long time. This week I went to a class taught by a speech pathologist and was the only one that showed up. So she spent the time just talking through Liam's sounds with me and we made a plan. We're working on his "L" sound right now because if people could just understand him when they ask his name, it would feel like amazing progress. He substitutes "W" for "L" at the beginning of words, but says it just fine in the middle or end of words. So we've been practicing making the "L" sound with the tip of our tongues between our teeth. He is definitely getting better. She also suggested working on "k" and "g" sounds by using a tongue depressor to hold down his tongue.
Abby is doing great this year in school! It is such a dramatic difference from last year - and I had a parent catch me yesterday when I was at school to comment on Abby's new maturity. We spent the whole summer working on the problems we had in school last year. The most helpful thing we found was an occupational therapist who diagnosed Abby with a sensory processing disorder and has been working with us on a sensory diet for Abby (by diet they don't mean food, but regular inputs to her body - sleeping under a weighted blanket, lots of bike riding and exercises, sucking things like pudding/applesauce through a straw). We also took her to get glasses and discovered her prescription had tripled since last summer (-.50 to -1.50) which I'm sure explained some of her behavior in the classroom if she couldn't see. In the end, I don't know what all the factors were in her maturity/behavior change - I'm sure the things we did helped, but I suspect her own growth spurt (physical and emotional) and getting a new teacher helped as much as anything we did.
Sandy has grown so much we went through two bikes this summer. She's now on an adult size bike and she looks so grown up. She has the same teacher she had last year - it's a 3rd/4th grade split class and really loves her teacher. One of the boys in our ward got baptized last month and they asked if a primary child would give the talk on baptism. Sandy wrote her own talk - I didn't clean up her atrocious spelling. She did a great job!
AND NOW
IT CAME TO PASS THAT ALMA TOOK HELAM HE BEING ONE OF THE FIRST, AND WENT AND
STOOD FORTH IN THE WATER, AND CRIED, OUT SAYING: O LORD, POUR OUT THY SPIRIT
UPON THY SERVANT, THAT HE MAY DO THIS WORK WITH HOLINESS OF HEART WHEN HE HAD
SAID THESE WORDS, THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD WAS OPON HIM, AND HE SAID: HELAM, I
BABTIZE THEE, HAVING AUTHORITY FROME THE ALMIGHTY GOD, AS A TESTTIMONY THAT YE
HAVE ENTERED INTO COVANENT TO SERVE HIM UNTIL YOU ARE DEAD AS TO THE MORTLE
BODY; AND MAY THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD BE POURED OUT UPON YOU; AND MAY HE GRANT
UNTO YOU ETERNALE LIFE THROUGH THE REDEMPTION OF CHRIST, WHOM HE HAS PERPAIRED
FROME THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD AND AFTER ALMA HAD SAID THESE WORDS, BOTH
ALMA AND HELAM WERE BURIED IN THE WATER
THEY AROSE AND CAME FORTH OUT OF THE WATER AND REJOICING BEING FILED WHITH THE
SPIRIT. WHEN HELAM WAS BABTIZED IT WAS
PROBLY ONE OFTHE BEST DAYS OF HIS LIFE.
ON MY SPECIAL DAY WAS LOVLY. WE
PUT UP RAINBOW DECERATCHIONS AND THE WHATER IN THE FONT WAS JUST RIGHT. MY MOM HELPD ME CHANGE AND DO MY HAIR. AND MY DAD BABTIZED ME IT WAS ONE OF MY BEST
DAYS OF MY LIFE AND I HOPE YOURS I TO.
AND I SAY THESE THINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS CRISTE AMEN
