Maid for Cleaning

By Sandy on June 13, 2012

I’ve never been one to enjoy cleaning. I don’t know many people who do, actually. Well, there is my mom. She loves to clean. And, Victoria and Maria, 2 cleaning ladies we had at various times when with just 2 kids we thought life was too busy to keep the house clean ourselves. Those sweet ladies were the happiest women I have ever met. They were always smiling. They had such joy. Maria hummed constantly, all the while cleaning up after others.

But that’s it. Those are the only 3 I know of. I don’t like to clean, but I love to organize. Give me a room full of clutter and chaos, a few trash bags and a marker and I’m in my glory. There is nothing like sorting and categorizing and simplifying. Lately however, I’ve noticed Josiah has been helping me. Without realizing it, that boy has been encouraging me to clean.

A Little Sleep, PLEASE

By Sandy on June 8, 2012

Recently, I met a very dear friend for breakfast. She asked about Josiah. When I mentioned he had been sleeping better, she was thrilled. We have been praying for him to sleep well, she said. Well, it’s working, I mentioned. In fact, if I remember right, I may have even told her it was no longer necessary to pray for Josiah to sleep. At that time, he had been sleeping almost too much, if that is even possible.

Josiah had been taking 4 and 5 hour naps at school for a few days in a row, after full nights of sleep at home. On his last full day of school, when the class had a water day, Josiah crawled in the arms of 3 different teachers and fell asleep while with each of them.The other kids were splashing in a pool, playing with water balloons and bubbles, eating snow cones and popcorn, and even jumping in an inflatable house. All the while, Josiah slept.

The Fast and The Furious

By Sandy on June 6, 2012

This may be a very long summer. It’s only day 2 and already I feel as if I’ve run out of things to do with Josiah. I sat down Sunday and created a schedule for this first full week of summer break. I picked activities everyone would enjoy.

Actually, I chose activities Jesse and Chandler would enjoy and Josiah would most likely endure. There isn’t much that boy really enjoys doing. Yesterday, we went to an indoor trampoline place. Each of the kids brought a friend. Josiah brought me.

The Great Outdoors

By Sandy on May 28, 2012

I’m not sure when or even why we decided camping would be a great idea for our family. We camped often as I was growing up. I have fond memories of early morning breakfasts at the campsite; of playing in the great outdoors with my siblings. There is nothing like camping, when you are a kid.

It’s a whole different story when you are the adult who has to prepare everything for the camping experience. Think about it. Basically, you are planning, purchasing and packing everything you will need for everyone in your family to live in, sleep in, eat, wear and enjoy for as many days as you will be gone.

Unique

By Sandy on May 23, 2012

It’s been said Josiah is an enigma. The dictionary describes it this way: One that is puzzling, ambiguous, inexplicable and mysterious. Interesting way to describe a child. Early on, when Josiah didn’t fit the mold of a ‘typical’ child with Down Syndrome, we just knew beyond a shadow of a doubt something more was going on with him. We mentioned it countless times to specialists and therapists and physicians. Everyone disagreed.

They said, if Josiah had Autism he wouldn’t be so affectionate. If he had Autism he wouldn’t let others get so close to him. If he had Autism he wouldn’t give eye contact at all. We were told things like every child with Down Syndrome is different. He’s just very low functioning. Why would you WANT your child to have a diagnosis of Autism anyway?