Just because.....

Thought this was too fun not to share :)

The Poof...

Giving the hair a little breather from braids for 24 hours!

This afternoon we will go for the twists with heart beads in honor of Valentines Day.

Ghana Plaits

It is always fun to try new styles with Hannah's hair.


That being said, I was introduced to some fun new videos by Shonni over at Nations Around Our Table.


I enjoy these videos mostly be cause they are done by a wonderfully funny and good teaching, Nigerian-British woman on her bio daughter's hair. Lots of videos I have seen are adoptive moms teaching, not that it is bad, just nice to see it from a perspective of a mom who does this herself! Her links are found at Girls Love Your Curls on You Tube.

This style is the Ghana Plaits, also known as African Hair Threading, using weaving thread.

When I was done, I just braided them together.

This is a protective style which should give Hannah's much braided hair a chance to rest for a while, at the same time protecting it.

If we have good luck with it, I will try it for a while and see if we can get some hair growth and less hair loss.

Though as you will see when I post some pictures this week for our 'Gotcha Day', her hair is very long compared to what it was when she came home 5 years ago. This is an extra close up.

It is not braided or twisted, there is a thread wove around the hair giving it this look!

I Love My Hair!

I love this video!

A New Do---And Life!!

Not been doing much posting---I think the craziness of the last 2 months has caught up and I am finding myself just kinda zoned out! LOL

This morning was hair take out time--

I always love the pictures right after braids out.

I left her 80+ micro braids in for a month---

not such a good idea!!

They started to loc!!

Lost a bit of hair ends to get them out!

We now have quite a few less for wedding #2 on Saturday!

She was allowed in the pool with strict instructions to keep her hair dry!

Next week we head to the coast for 4 days---

any good ideas to keep the sand out of the newly done hair?

We also did VBS last week.

Caleb is in football camp this week.

And both Hannah and Caleb start baseball this week.

Drew is working full time and working around life missing his car.

David is busy with 3 classes this summer.

Erinn is done with work and packing and planning like crazy.

We expect Danielle in tomorrow night for Erinn's wedding, sadly Ryan will not be able to attend with his new job just starting.

Michael will be in on Thursday.

Neither of his groomsmen in the military ended up with time off, so we had some last minute change of plans for the wedding.

We have a living room full of wedding stuff getting boxed to go.

Other than that, life has been pretty NORMAL!!

You know, sometime you just gotta roll with the punches or get knocked out!!

As I have said before...

Life is good, Life is busy, but I wouldn't want to change it for the world!

An Invasion....

....of cousins that is!!!

Today David's brother, Stephen, and his family came for a month from the Philippines where they are missionaries.

Jonathan, the thumbs up cutie!

Luke, the mouth open run, kinda like Michael Jordan.

Abby, the petite trailblazer.

Rebekah, the beautiful big sister!

Now I am not sure how Ryan and Drew ended up with my crutches. They were actually having a battle with them.

My bead bobbing beauty!!

And Caleb, who does most competitive things with all his energy!!!

Much To Do!

I guess I am kinda at that point that there is so much to do, sometimes I just get stuck and don't want to do anything!!

So we did hair today, and ironing!!!

And 40 twists, 120 beads and 80 rubber bands later---Walla!!!

Then as we were picking up I hear a crash and a little voice upstairs saying ,"U-O"

Needless to say, this was not on my list of to do's!!

SMILE!!!!!

Braids Woven In

Tried something new with Hannah's hair today!

Funny thing was, I got the middle section done and was at a loss for what to do with the sides!! LOL

Anyways thought it turned out cute!~

Wow--2 in a Row!!

Yes all, that is two great, amazing days with Caleb!

We are both rejoicing!!!!!

When you eat the labor of your hands, you shall be happy, and it shall be well with you. Ps 128:2

Here are some pictures of one of our OT games we are working on.

Both kids struggle with grip, due to trouble 'feeling' things in their hands. Caleb compensates by grasping his pencil really hard and going through lots of lead in one sitting. His had also gets very tired from gripping so tightly. Hannah on the opposite side, does not grip tight enough (I posted a little on this a while back). She holds the pencil so loosely that she has a hard time controlling it, hence a very difficult time writing. Both kids hate coloring and drawing and will only do it when I tell them to, it is just too much work for them.

So here you see Caleb using a zoo stick to pick up squishy worms and place them in a cup. If he presses too hard the worm will actually slip right out!! He is learning correct pressure and the 'feel' of the object in his hand.

And here is Hannah with her beautiful new hair style that she chose all by herself!!!

Here Hannah is doing the same task with the worms and frogs. For her this takes lots of concentration! She must maneuver it around the bug and then grasp it tight enough to hold on to. She drops lots of them, but she thinks it is tremendous fun and will just keep at it for a long time. She does not even realize she is working!!! You gotta love that part.

I will hopefully just keep the ideas coming. Please leave me a comment if you are finding this helpful.

Another Hair Day!

Thankfully we were able to get Hannah's braids out yesterday. So today after a swim lesson we jumped into getting the new braids put in.

Now for those who do not KNOW black hair care, here are some pictures to help you understand!

First we wash the hair and leaving the shampoo in for about 5 minutes to soak well into a scalp that does not get deep washed often.

Then we condition well.

With the conditioner in, we brush out the hair with a wide tooth comb. This is not usually a pleasant experience, as there are usually a number of nasty tangles and dead hair to remove. We all loose hair every day, since Hannah's hair is all braided up, she looses all her hair from 3 weeks at one time! I did not take a picture of the pile of hair!

So part of our newest regimen is to have Hannah involved in the process, so she can see I am not pulling her hair on purpose, but that it is just part of the process.

So here is my n**d girl sitting in the bathroom sink, working on brushing out her hair. She did enjoy this even though she told me it still hurt! I did finish up for her, but it was good for her to try.

This next picture is also for those of you without dark pigment in your skin!! And NO my bathtub does not normally look like this!! Only after Hannah's hair days! I am very thankful for bleach spray which takes care of this in just a moment.

After brushing we lightly rinse out the conditioner and pat dry to head down stairs for the actual braiding process.

Next time I will try to get some pictures of the process and post them and tell the rest of the LONG process.

So I will leave you with a picture of the new braids. Hannah wanted a pony tail. Well now she has one for three weeks. LOL! I tried to put some swirl in it, but it did not work too well. And just in case you are wondering--it does look like a pony tail even without the band on it!!

Our Interesting Day!

I call today interesting, but then I guess lots of them are!!

Isn't this an awesome picture of Drew and Hannah!

Don't they look sweet!?!

Well actually they were in the process of doing this!!!

Yep, they hog tied Caleb!

Now before you try to figure out what is going on at our house, let me assure you that Caleb was running around the house for 15 minutes before this antagonizing his older brother. Yes, this is our boys bonding!

Mr. Totally Innocent--or so he would like us to think.

But he is a great big brother!

Grandma Mae is back at our house and she was adamant she did not just want to sit around.

So here you see her fixing holes in two pillows that had feathers falling out!

We might just try and figure out a way to keep her around more if she keeps this up!!!

And it has been three weeks, so it is hair time again.

You have to love the smile, she is not always smiling when I do her hair.

We also got school done.

9 quarts of grape juice juiced.

College books purchased.

Clothes washed for Drew to head to Stanford tomorrow.

Lawn mowed.

School Thoughts

Definitely underway with our school year!

Caleb is doing much better with the stress of it, but not totally where I would like to see our days yet. So I have decided to pursue some occupational therapy with him to see if they can help to address the sensory integration issues. I am hoping they can help with exercises we can do at home to keep him from going into panic at the mention of school and help with listening and concentration.

We have added much more movement time in the day, along with frequent high protein snacks and that has help tremendously.

We are also using a large white board to reinforce concepts. I will write and talk through concepts and reading we have done, then will have him come to the board and re walk me through it. It does seem to be helping with comprehension issues.

But he is still going into overload in about 40 minutes. I am usually catching it too late and have a hard time giving him a break when he is acting out, though it is what he needs. So we are doing redo's at breakdown points and trying to end on a victory before a break. Not wanting him to think that acting out gets him a break.

I guess he never went to the bathroom when he got up this morning and about 10:30 after we had just done some board work and I set him to finish his worksheet, he came and asked if he could use the bathroom!!! I have no idea what that was about, he never asks. After the emergency trip to pee for a VERY long time, we discussed using words to express needs before they became extreme emergencies. I also made a new CHART (you know how I mentioned I love those!!) with all his morning chores, and actually put "go to the bathroom" on it, because I guess he needs reminding!

Finally the last big change I made was to put most of our curriculum away for now. We are only using Rod and Staff Bible/Reading curriculum (which is pretty intense) and Abeka science for the most part. We discovered this year that he loves science, so this was a big plus as far as education. So I am using these two books to work on reading, spelling, writing, grammar, science, and comprehension. Lots easier on his mind than lots of books.

So our day for Caleb looks like:
Bible reading with mom
basketball
Rod and Staff reading
jumping on the huge tube out back
Sequential Spelling
Review 2nd grade math
lunch
play time with Hannah
Abeka Science
Abeka Readers with comprehension questions
Critical Thinking (Think a Minutes)

I will post some about Hannah's school tomorrow if I get time.
Grandma Jordan will be moving in with us tomorrow for a time, till we can get her into the neurologist and figure out some meds for her seizures.

And just for fun, and since I figured out how to download them!!

Here are some pictures of Hannah's new hair style!

They are cornrowed to the middle of the head, then a bead is attached and finished the rest of the way down with snap on clips at the bottom. The back is all box braided with snap on clips. She loves the clicky sound of beads and clips!!