This week has been one filled with doctor's appointments, carting kids to school, laundry, baths, eating, cleaning, painting, building a swing set...  WHAT A WEEK!  Oh yeah, and we're moving all the kids around into different rooms.  Yikes.

Matthew is SO CLOSE to walking.  He wants to walk so badly.  This pic is him at the end of a long walk on all fours.  He just started doing this.  Eli did this for while just before he stood up and walked.  He walks as though he's standing straight up with his legs as straight as boards but he puts his hands on the floor.  It's comical to watch but he just wants to do it so bad!  It's a shame the caretakers in the orphanage didn't help him instead of leaving him in a bed all the time.

Micah is doing so well.  He didn't spit at church on Wednesday night.  In fact, the teachers said he was so well behaved they wondered what had happened.  Praise God!  Hopefully Sunday will be good too.  It was Biker Night at AWANA on Wednesday and he got a do-rag.  He liked wearing it and I must say he's pretty cute.  

BTW...you read that on Sunday he faked a leg injury.  WELL...as soon as Mary got him in the building Wednesday night, guess what?  His leg injury returned.  She told him to get up and walk and knock it off and he did.  Foiled again!  Curses!!  :-)  Smart kid.

Thursday morning, was quite a morning.  :-o  

Here's our little man laid out sick on the couch.  After the fake leg injury, I would have believed him capable of feigning sickness too.  But I know for sure that his tummy was hurting.  No really...  I know for SURE.  Ugh.

Wednesday night, I suspected that he had had a lot of goldfish crackers to eat based on his poochy tummy and his shirt.  He woke up about 4:00 Thursday morning screaming and crying.  He's done that once before when he had a nightmare so we assumed that's what it was this time too or that he was just awake and wanted to get up or something.  Mary went and quieted him and all seemed to be well.  WRONG.  When I went down about 6 to get breakfast and laundry going, I could smell that someone had had a code: Brown during the night in a serious way but walked on by to get laundry, coffee and breakfast going.  I don't change them into their clothes from pj's until after they eat and potty so just decided we'd endure the diaper until after breakfast.  Wrong again!!  I went in about 6:15 to get Micah who was already awake but being quite.  I got close to the bed and the worst you can imagine doesn't even touch it.  So I turned on the light and it got worse.  :-)  Micah had had a serious blowout of diarrhea during the night (probably around 4:00???) and he likes to put his hands down the back of his diaper and scratch (we're trying to break him of that) but normally, while it's gross, it's  just a bad habit.  Ummm...let's just say that this time was very gross.  His hands were caked with it.  It was on his face, dripping out his pjs, on his shirt all over the blankets, the sheets and his stuffed animal that he always sleeps with (that Jamie Hejl gave him).  So I took him to the tub (holding him out in front of me...all the while him wanting to give me my usual good morning hugs and kisses...NOT ON YOUR LIFE BUCKO!).  So I handed the bathing off to Mary and went and got all the other stuff and put it in the washer.  Then poured bleach on my head to disinfect.  Not really, but probably needed to.  :-)

Then he wouldn't eat his breakfast (hello?  who are you and what did you do with Micah?).  So I let him sit in the floor and watch Franklin.  A few minutes later he was pointed at his stomach and crying so I laid him down on the sofa with a blanket.  He was happy then...  

What a morning.  Believe it or not, the next time he had diarrhea he alerted Mary and made it to the toilet before it happened.  Praise God for that!

So...anyone hungry for dinner now?  LOL

Blessed be the Name of the Lord...

Sorry we haven't updated you all lately.  Here's some pictures of our recent days.  Things are going real well with the boys and the whole family.  We've had a few discipline challenges at church with Micah.  He sees an opportunity to test boundaries with new people.  And might I add that these are new people who are aghast at the idea of disciplining a child with Down syndrome.  One of the workers said that she just couldn't spank Micah's hand or talk to him in an "angry russian" voice because he's so cute.  Hello!  Spitting in someone's face is not cute.  Ugh.

So this week, I popped in on him in class.  And guess what?  The glasses that he never touches and always insists on having on his face at home were off his face and they said every time they put them on him, he pulled them off and they were afraid he would break them so they just left them off.  Uhhhh...no.  So I grabbed him and the glasses and took him into the hall and told him in no uncertain terms that he would wear his glasses and he would not touch them again.  (He knows that both Mary and I mean business when we tell him to do something or not to do something).  And he had been spitting again.  The teacher ended up making a game out of time out so of course he kept doing it to keep the game going.  Argh.  I told them when he spits to  put him with force into a time out position so he knew that it was not a game and to speak to him in a sharp, low tone.  One of the tips in the Connected Child book which works great.  Then he knows it's not a game.  And I told them do anything but smile at him.  Yikes! Talk about gasoline on a raging fire!

So I talked to the teacher later in the day and after I went in there and told him how it would be, he was fine and on best behavior.  That was for another 2 hours!  So HE CAN DO IT!  

Sunday night, he was in a new room, with new teachers.  Mary went and checked on him near the beginning of the class and he was going crazy.  She pulled him out of the class, explained to him how it would be and took him back and re-instructed the teachers.  He was great for a while.  Then a whole bunch more kids showed up.  A sure way to set him off.  I thought I better check on him during the service and I walked up to the room only to see him on top of the table dancing and shaking his finger at his teacher.  Uh...that's not the way Malone children behave.  I just came right in the room (without knocking which the teachers don't like much) and since his back was to the door, he didn't see me (which definitely worked to my advantage).  I said in my angry russian voice, "WHAT are you doing?!"  He stopped dancing, sat down.  Not only had I snuck up on him and scared him with my voice, he was caught by papa.  He KNEW that he was doing wrong.  He KNEW that there would be discipline so he immediately started crying (his real loud high pitched baby cry...which is another story altogether).  I took him down the hall and we had talk and he sat in time out in a corner.  Then he got up and we hugged and kissed and he was all fine again.  There was another hour that he was in there and when we came back he had behaved like a gentleman the rest of the time.  So he may have Down syndrome, but he is apparently high functioning and has great understanding.  So there will be no excuses for that boy.  :-)

Okay...here's something else weird that happened Sunday night.  We went to pick him up and the teacher said that they had gone to the play room and he was sitting on a padded block and when he stood up he pointed to his leg and sat down and started crying and wouldn't walk on it (he's a good walker and generally likes to walk).  So when we picked him up, we put him down to walk (because we have 1 not so good walker meaning he won't stay with the pack and a non walker).  He walked about 10 feet and then drew up his leg and pointed at his knee and started crying and sat down.  He was crying real tears.  So I was concerned something was broken or torn so I poked around a little bit.  Nothing.  I flexed it. Nothing.  So i put pressure on it from the bottom of his foot.  Nothing.   Hmmmm....  So I started thinking that maybe he was faking it.  The teacher came up and said he wasn't jumping or playing....just sitting before it happened so I thought again...this little squirrel is faking!  But then I got him up and the same thing happened a few steps later.  He was crying REAL tears.  So again I worked it over and no response.  In fact, he laughed hard and loud because it tickled.  This went on every few steps and people were all huddled around every time we stopped.  So we got out of the building and it was just me and him (Mary had stopped to talk to someone) and he was fine and we walked to van, he climbed in the van and jumped up in his seat (which is no easy task because we have a 12 passenger van that's high off the ground).  I purposely did not help him because I wanted to see how he would react to the use of his leg.  No reaction.  Everyone got in the van and we drove home.  He sat indian style all the way home (wouldn't that hurt if you injured your knee?).  We got home and as the other kids exited he was still in his seat and he pointed at his knee and started crying real tears again and pointed at them and then his knee.  I told them to ignore him and not react.  So he stopped crying, jumped out of his car seat, jumped out of the van and ran in the house.  I looked at Mary and was like, "What just happened?"  We couldn't believe it.  That little guy had been faking it.  Not only had he faked it, but he knew I knew he was faking and so he didn't try to get a reaction from me when it was just him and me.  So...is he smart or what???  Wow!  Funny and a little bit scary that he could be so convincing.  And Eli fake cries sometimes, but Micah can turn on tears too.  

Anyway...things are going great at home, better at church and will keep improving.  Matthew is doing so well.  He wants to walk so bad.  We had him fitted for Sure Steps today so we'll have those in a few weeks and if he's not walking by then, they will really help him.  His ankles roll even worse than Eli's did before he wore the sure steps to build up the muscles.  He is just as sweet as Micah is but he's not quite as forward about showing it.  He has not thrown a fit at the table in a long time which is a huge blessing!  He is so precious and so flexible and fits right in to what we're doing.  Micah does too for the most part.

We are SO BLESSED and are head over heals in love with these guys and our 5 other kids too!  God is SO GOOD to allow these 7 angels in our lives.

Blessed be the Name of the Lord.

We've been making Micah wait to eat until we have prayed before meals.  This morning, I put his plate down in front of him.  He was the only one at the table and ready to eat.  I was making pancakes so I was just letting them come in as they were ready.  So I put his down and he sat there.  I thought maybe he was just tired and not ready to eat (which would be out of character for him).  I continued making pancakes and I looked up at him a couple of minutes later and he gave his little head nod and grunt and folded his hands and bowed his head and motioned for me to come over.  He wanted me to say the prayer so he could eat.  WOW!!

When we drive up to the house, Micah just goes crazy with laughing and clapping and pointing.  He's so excited to be HOME.  HOME!!  He understands.

When we put Matthew in his bed, he just looks up at us and smiles so big and he wriggles all around doing what we have labeled the "happy dance."  He also does this when he gets ready to eat.  Just pure joy overflowing on to us.

Micah and Matthew just LOVE the bath. i have the privilege of giving them their bath right after dinner.  They just completely LOVE it!  Laughing, screaming, dancing around.

Micah loves the other kids.  When they get in the car when we pick them up from school, when he sees them for the first time in the morning, he just laughs and wants to get hugs and kisses all around.

Matthew loves to be held. Just sit with us.  I'm thinking he didn't get much of that.

God is good.  I have lots of great pics from the weekend that I will post soon. I don't have the right computer right now to do it.  Hopefully tomorrow!

Blessed be the Name of the Lord!

PS>>>>>congrats to the Sizemores who have committed to adopt Jeremiah!  Blessings!  (check out their blog  tillgodbringsthemhome.blogspot.com

Proverbs 24:11-12 (The Message)
"Rescue the perishing; don't hesitate to step in and help.
If you say, "Hey, that's none of my business," will that get you off the hook?
Someone is watching you closely, you know— Someone not impressed with weak excuses."