How do you dress a squirmy boy?

SHOW HIM WHO'S BOSS!!!

Hehehe...such a typical thing for us, we do it automatically. Just throw a leg over him and keep on going. Caylee's expression in this just cracks me up, it's so Caylee, and I can just hear her "I don't think so Mr.!" and he's thinking "Who me? I didn't do anything!"!

Josh with his cousin...

This is my silly cousin, Justin, entertaining Joshua (they speak the same language as you'll see). :-) These two just love each other!

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YUMMY!

I will omit the melted butter and substitute, organic virgin coconut oil in the butter's place.



Bon apetit'!

Catching up? Not even close, but a glimpse...

Caylee and Joshua on the carosel.


Caylee, Josh, and Tiffany (Joshua's aide/nanny. Isn't she cute?)


Joshua and his best friend, Maddie at the Laurie Berkner concert.

I haven't been on in sooo long, there is way too much to catch up on! Thought I'd catch up in pictures.

The zoo was a blast. This time of year is the best time for a trip to the zoo, in Fort Worth anyhow. ;-) The weather is perfect, for us and the animals, who are super frisky in the cooler weather. The male lion stood on his own "pride rock" on roared so loud, it was so cool. The mama lion had four cute cubs bouncing all over her and each other, it was so cute! We drug Tiffany along with us, my other sweet girl around here, even though she isn't quite the camera ham as my Caylee and Joshua are, she was very reluctant if you can't tell in the picture. Hahaha, but I'm a mean boss and made her pose! Right Tifferzz? :-)

Joshua did have two seizures on the train at the zoo though, caused by the sunlight flickering through the trees. That was a bummer, but he had fun nonetheless.

We went to see Laurie Berkner in concert a couple of weekends ago. We went with Josh's best friend, Maddie, and her mama and nana, and Caylee. She sings the cutest songs, and they are not near as annoying as other kids songs, I think they are quite catchy and I love the folk feel of her music. I did worry about the lights in the dark theatre and if they would affect Joshua, but all was well! Hooray!

I haven't said anything on the blog yet, but we are adopting Joshua's biological sister, Ashley, VERY SOON! We are all so very exctied to have her here, to have her and her mini-me together at last! We have been cramming, lots of adoption classes, and all the other stuff that goes along with it:

1~TB tests for all in the family
2~CPR/first aid for Kevin, Cay and I
3~Fire inspection
4~Update the dog's vaccinations
5~Medication training
6~21 hours of CPS training
7~Lock and keying all meds
8~Background checks for all in contact with kids
9~Homestudy
10~Tie-downs for Ashley's wheelchair in the van
ect...

Fun, fun, fun....but all so worth it to get her here! Keeping my eye on the prize as my good friend Jen told me. :-) That's the truth!

We found out some awesome news....Joshua's medicaid waiver caseworker told me that as soon as we get Ashley here in our home that we can get her on the program also! That means that I will be able to hire her very own aide/nanny to work with her after she comes home from school each day! Happy dance! Just that will make such a huge difference in being able to trasition her into the family smoother. I am so thankful for the way that God has been in all of the details of her arrival. We are very blessed. I mourn for a friend who had to go through such a loss for us to have such a gain though. There is always a good and bad in any situation, and I know that she is happy that we are going to be her new family. Bittersweet...

Well that is about all the catching up that I can handle for one night, I have a kitchen to clean now!

Love one another!~Yvonne

Joshua's VEEG...

Joshua had a video EEG done last week to test for seizure activity. We were at the hospital for about 30 VERY long hours! Don't ever go to a hospital to get any rest, it's impossible. Anyhow, it did go well, they were able to see the seizure activity that I had witnessed a month or so ago. While it was scary to witness again, I was so glad that it happened, so that they could see it for themselves and know that I really did see what I thought I had. I would hate for Josh to not have had any activity while we were there and then have it happen again a week later and have to do the testing all over again.

He did not have any seizures unless they used a strobe light to induce them, and they tested the frequencies that it occurred and used different colored filters in front of the strobe to see what difference that made. He seized at many frequencies and with all colors but blue. From that they were able to tell that he has photosensitive epilepsy. He has an appointment on the 11th to see a pediatric opthamologist to get his vision checked and to get a prescription for frames with polarized blue lenses in them. The blue lenses are supposed to keep him from seizing when he normally would with certain light conditions.

He had two seizures today on the train at the zoo. We were on the train, it was going through the trees, and the sunlight streaming in through the trees and flickering, set him into a seizure. He bumped his head when he first went into it because it makes him stiffen his entire body, so he sort of goes from the sitting position to a stiff board for the duration of it. He was wearing sunglasses, but not the right blue tinted kind. The eye doctor appointment can't come fast enough for me!

He had a blast on the train other than that, and loved riding the carousel also. We had a great zoo day, the weather was just gorgeous for it, and the animals were quite lively. The lions, tigers, and giraffes all have babies running around right now, and they are so cute!

I have so much more that I need to update here, but for tonight I am exhausted!

Love one another!~Yvonne

Pictures from Joshua's video EEG...

Click HERE to see the pictures!

It was quite an eventful night...I'll post more about it later!

Hippotherapy...

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Joshua's favorite day of the week is Wednesday, when he gets to ride horses! He is SO CUTE when he is up there!

His therapist is so pleased with his progress. Today she commented on how well he is weight bearing into his feet now. She said when he first started it was like he had no bones! :-) Now he's so strong, and getting stronger all the time. I love that he gets to do this therapy that is so fun for him, and not just work. It's so fun to watch him on the horse, how happy and big and proud he looks; I could watch him up there for hours.

Love one another!~Yvonne

Texas State Fair (part 1)

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The Texas State Fair was a lot of fun! Joshua, Kevin, Tiffany and I all went. Caylee was spending the day with her friend for her birthday. It was SO LOUD that even I had sensory overload, so while Joshua looks a bit overwhelmed in some of the video, he really enjoyed it. He seemed to love the fountain and the airplane ride the most. Once he got hurt on a slide, and I took him straight to the restroom to play in the water in the sink to distract him, and he loved that too. So while you could spend a fortune in tickets for the rides, he loved playing in the bathroom just as much! Silly boy cracks me up! We all had fun watching him have fun.

Love one another!~Yvonne

A rare moment...

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

We caught Joshua actually being STILL on the couch! It is a very rare sighting, indeed! I had to capture that moment on video. Kevin, Caylee and I watched in amazement. THEN we realized the only reason he was lying so still is because his arm was caught in the couch cushions! LOL!

Maybe one day he'll lay around like that without being stuck...but I'm not holding me breath, he has way too many things to do! :-)

Love one another!~Yvonne

Odds and ends...

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Caylee and Joshua playing around tonight. Joshua looks so funny with his legs going up and down, sort of like a frog jumping. :-)

Cay and I had co-op today and while she was in her classes, I sat out in the cafeteria and played around with Joshua's new communication device. It has a very large instruction book, plus instructional dvd's, online classes, or local workshops too. Yes, it's that complicated! Ah... Good news is his new speech therapist says she knows how to program them! It will be going to therapy with us tomorrow, and she'll be taking it home with her to work on getting things programmed in that are both fun and functional for Josh. So far he likes to watch You tube videos on it! :-)

I actually made it to the gym to work out tonight!!! HUGE accomplishment for me. I was working out steadily for months, that is until Kevin's back went out and I drove him all over for appointments and therapies and to work and back, plus all the usual of going to Joshua's many therapies, and Caylee's activities. I just didn't have energy then, or the time, and got out of the habit. So, today is a fresh start.

Joshua is getting heavier and I have to get some muscles back or I'm not going to be able to lift him any longer. It's not just his weight, it's his weight combined with his wiggliness. He loves The Wiggles, and he aspires to be a Wiggle, so he never stops wiggling. He must practice, practice, practice! I love that little wiggly boy!

Off to bed for me now, tomorrow is a busy day. Joshua has speech, and physical therapy and then we'll grab lunch and head over the the ENT's office. His tubes have come out of his ears and the holes don't seem to want to close up on their own. So, we'll see what the doctor has in store for us.

Love one another!~Yvonne

Soy Ice Cream

We don't eat dairy at our house, and we missed having ice cream so badly that we bought a Cuisinart Ice Cream Maker. We have tried quite a lot of recipes in it, but this plain ole' vanilla recipe is our favorite. We can each add whatever we want to afterwards. I like to put cinnamon, and pecans, and ginger snaps in mine. YUM!

Vanilla Soy Ice Cream (I don't remember where I found this)

Serves 4 (or Caylee and I) :-)

1 C powdered sugar
4 egg yolks, or 1/2 C of egg beaters
1 tsp. of corn starch
2 C soy milk
1 tsp. vanilla extract (if you are gluten intolerant make sure to use a GF extract)

1. Put the egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch into a bowl; whisk the mixture together.

2. Heat the soy milk; slowly pour the hot soy milk into the mixture while continuing to heat.

3. Add the vanilla extract.

4. Gently heat the mixture until it thickens.

5. Let the mixture cool in the refrigerator for 3-4 hours.

6. Pour the mixture into an ice cream maker; make ice cream following the instructions of the machine.

Put whatever toppings you enjoy on it. Stawberries, blueberries, banana, cookies, honey, candy bars...endless possibilites.

Furry friend...

Josh loves to play the piano, he stands there for up to 10 minutes playing sometimes, and that's a LONG time for him to do any one thing. He is usually more like a little hummingbird, quickly flitting from one toy to the next.

Today, Happy joined him at the piano and listened to his excellent playing. Every few minutes Happy would lick the spit bubbles from Joshua's chin. Now, that's a great friend!

A yummy GF cookie recipe...

Gluten-Free Recipe of the Week:
Chocolate Peanut Butter Treats

Difficulty:
Easy

Makes about 16 servings


Ingredients:

1 cup sugar
1-1/2 cups light corn syrup
1-1/2 cups peanut butter
6 cups EnviroKids Koala Krisps
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

Place the sugar, corn syrup and peanut butter in a large saucepan over medium low heat. Stirring constantly, cook the mixture until blended and the mixture begins to bubble. Remove from heat and set aside.

Combine the cereal with the chocolate chips in a large bowl. Stir in the hot peanut butter mixture until combined. Spread the mixture into a 13x9" lightly greased baking pan. Let cool to room temperature. Transfer to the refrigerator and let chill for 15-20 minutes or until set. Cut into squares or fun shapes with cookie cutters. Serve.

from Gluten Freeda Magazine

Sweet...

This was on the magnadoodle when I came home yesterday. Tiffany and Josh are doing so well together. I know the feeling is mutual, he loves her too!

Love one another!~Yvonne

Potty training...

Or maybe potty timing would be the better phrase! hehehe! I've been keeping record today or all Josh eats or drinks and when he wets or poops his diaper; exciting times in the Hamrick house! Tonight about 15 minutes after his last bottle I sat him on the potty (the kind that fits over the regular toilet seat) with a step stool under his feet and after about 4 minutes he peed! I had to help him aim it down so it wasn't hitting mama in the face, but otherwise it went well! After he went, I helped him walk to the back of the toilet and flush and then he got to stand on the stool and wash his hands, all of that definitely made it worth it to him; he was laughing his head off! It was so cute! We went back to the living room and Daddy and Sissy cheered for him too, and that made him laugh all over again!

I am feeling so much better. That was one whopper of a virus I had. I didn't think it would ever end! It was so good to have Joshua's respite worker, Tiffany, here to help during that time. I don't know what I would have done otherwise! I slept most of the days away.

I'll get that book list on here soon! Caylee and I are really enjoying them a lot.

Love one another!~Yvonne