September - Early December (Fall) 2010

    It has been a very busy Fall! Lainey had spinal surgery the 29th of October. The surgery went well but she is just now getting back to her jovial self. The growth rods decreased her curvature from nearly 60% to almost 30%! The Dr. said we will wait until her curve increases about 10-15% and then have another slightly less evasive surgery to lengthen the rods to pull her spine again. We are hoping thing will only happen once a year until she is about 12 yrs old when they can do a bone fusion surgery that will hold for longer. The most the surgery should be done is every 6 months.
    Other than that she has been doing wonderfully! She has seemingly made a game up with her Pappy, she walks over to him and when he puts his arms out and talks to her, she grins and turns away! She adores her Pappy so it's not aversion, but a game of some sort! We all laugh when she does it and she smiles so big her eyes almost disappear! We also have been presenting her with color shapes. She seems to prefer yellow but also chose the red and blue ones too. Squares were her preferred shape and as expected (fear of balls) the circles were her least favorite. She wasn't afraid of them, simply picked them up and put them down without playing with them as she did the squares and triangles. 
    Jude has had ups and downs as most 9 yr olds, I presume :-)  He actually asked for chores and punishments. We made a chart of "expectations and consequences" with three levels of consequences for each expectation. We all signed it and agreed to stick to it. I think he likes the idea of knowing a definitive consequence for his behavior. It has seemed to work thus far (in week 2 of it). We are now doing "schooly" stuff Mon-Wed. Right now it's just light stuff. Math everyday, Monday is Science, Tuesday is History/Geography and Art and Wednesday is Reading Comp and multi-subject workbook and Bible study. His math skills are greatly improved as are his writing skills. His new meds. are helping concentrate so much. He says he's able to actually think about something and that it was so frustrating to "forget" what he was thinking all the time when he had other thoughts "interrupting"!
    We, as a family, have started having "no electronics" time. It's Mon-Thurs after lunch until about supper time. We were all falling into bad habits of no being lead by our interests but being tv/video game/ computer zombies! LOL But seriously, it has been really nice. We also don't start "school" stuff until after lunch, that way Jude has some computer time and his meds have time to kick in before we start. This week during no electronics time, he has investigated why his Airhog helicopter wasn't flying straight,  started a knitting project, made cookies, built tons of lego things, and made lunches a few times! We also began Bible study as a family like we had been wanting to, and playing more board games. Basically, getting back to connecting with one another!

Jude is making "Mamaw's" hot roll recipe in her special bowl, the day after what would have been her 60th bday RIP.

Dividing with M&Ms

Lainey's spine pre-op.

Post op. It's hard to see but a curve is still there but the two images are staggering side by side!

First time sitting up after surgery!

This is how Lainey spent Trick-orTreat night. Thankfully friends took Jude out and about. :)

Jude's costume for Halloween!

This is Lainey-bugs' back now. The upper scar goes all the way to her neck, but I didn't want to upset her by taking off her shirt. They left the center connected as to aid in healing.

Lainey checking out the shapes while Bubbies does some work too!

Pretty yellow! Regardless of the position, she chose it first every time!

Jude's learning to use a knitting loom (or rake or board) and Lainey checking it out!

This was in the Library at the Ronald McDonald's House we stayed in while Helaina was in the hospital. Jude was wonderful during our stay. The Hospital has a terrific clubhouse program (similar to a super cool daycare with only 6 kids) for siblings to visit for 1 1/2 hrs twice a day so parents can be with the patient sibling. The siblings can play or ask questions about what their brother/sister is having done all while very safe. They praised Jude every time he was there. (Lainey was in for 5 days) He was the oldest because the other kids his age were at school and he helped all the other, younger kids. We were so proud of him.

The week before Helaina's surgery we had a pre-surgery appointment in Columbus at the Hospital (2 1/2 hrs away). The night before, the neighbor across the hall caught her stove and a plastic cutting board on fire. Our whole stairwell was evacuated for about 2 hours. It was close to 10 before we could go back in and the plastic smell was sickening.  We decided to leave and stay in a hotel half way to Columbus because of the smell. Luckily no one was harmed and only minor damage done to the one apartment. We had just studied about fire safety and prevention as Oct is fire safety month and the kids and I went to our meeting spot and waited for Daddy to help our elderly neighbor and join us!

August 2010

    Well, August has been quite an adventure for us! Lainey turned 6 years old this month, we also found out that her spinal curvature went up to 57% so we can not put off the growth rod surgery, and last but certainly not least, Chad  had a heart attack,  2 blockages one at 75% and another at 100%! He had two stints placed and is healing well. He is only 34 and in fairly good physical shape so it was a surprise for sure! On the good side, it did make him quit smoking!!!! As for Lainey's surgery, the Dr. said if we could be flexable with dates he would look for the first available operating room even if it's not his usual operating day. It most likely will happen in the next couple months, we will get a call with hopefully a day's notice. If we scheduled it he said it would be several months and because her curvature went up 5% in 4 months he's not wanting to wait. She will then have one to two readjustment surgeries a year until she's around 12-14 years old. It will be rough but without the surgery, she will have more pain and a reduced chest capacity and with a heart defect already, that's not good.
    Other than that, Jude said he would like more of a scheduled homeschool again. We still embrace much of the radical unschooling life. The end of August began our first week of scheduled activities and it has gone wonderfully. He seems to like the separation of "schooly" stuff and free play. He said it makes free play and free computer time seem more special. It also helps to keep track of what we work on with Lainey. It truly has been fantastic!

   We have been doing a lot of hand over hand activities songs with Lainey. She sometimes will allow it and sometimes wants to just watch me do it. We made and lamminated (she loves lamminated papers) 3 different shapes in 3 different colors. The goal is to place them one shape at a time in front of her to see if she chooses the same color or a certain placement or no preference at all. We intro'd them to her and she didn't like them so we will be bringing them out on and off until she becomes comfortable with them. We are also working with putting things in and taking them out with her. She will do it with the toy fish bowl and bus but we are working with a box and a cup now. She has not done it when we were all taking turns, but a day later she put something in the box and took it out! She is doing well when we toss the beanbags. She often will take one from the floor and kind of toss it!!! We all clap and she flaps her hands, rotates side to side and smiles! It is beautiful!

   Jude has found a new something that he really likes *drum roll* MULTIPLICATION!!! This from the kid who says he hates math! We are just starting out but he is very confident about it. It is wonderful to see! He has been doing much better in writing too. He gets frustrated quite easily but we reassure him that he's getting better. His reading comp is as great as ever! Science remains his favorite subject.

Science experiment on what we are breathing. It's a cardboard frame with clear plastic wrap coated with vaseline. We let it hang for 2 days and when we looked we only saw a few small things...until we got out the EyeClops to magnify it. Wow so many little things! We talked about the work our nose and sillia in our lungs do for us.

Science experiment. We rubbed water and oil as control spots and label them. Then Jude chose random foods to rub on the paper sack. We labled each one. The ones on the left are pepperoni, chicken nugget, and a corndog. They look just as the control oil on the far right. Ewww. He then did research on nutrition.

Beach and underwater WikkiStix Scene we made on our window.

Squirrels on our walk.

Lainey on her Birthday! She loves SpongeBob!

Lainey found the loop on Daddy's shorts!

"fancy" dessert Jude made for Mommy and Daddy (couldn't bear to tell him we don't like chocolate and strawberry lol so we ate it) so sweet!

Jude disassembling an old plug-n-play game.

Daddy "getting" Lainey with the crab claw!

Our first time eating crab legs. Jude Loved them.

Jude working on drawing a family flag.

July 2010

We decided to make our own Brandt Family Carnival Day!  We made up games and "shows" and had tickets and prizes! It was such a blast!

This is from Jude's Amazing Tightrope Act.

 Jude and Lainey have been doing such a variety of things this month. Jude hasn't had much of an interest in books but has done some science experiments and a good bit of art work. He also has been looking up tons of stuff online. He's found his new hobby, as he puts it, and it's "Stickman" he found a lot of videos on YouTube that were hilarious! He also found stickman games that imho, were too violent but not really more so than tower of defense games I suppose. I downloaded a stickman animator and he's been making all kinds of cartoons and drawing new figures for it!

Lainey has been learning too! She was playing with her Uncle Jamie and took off his hat and tried to put it back on his head!!! She only did it once but she for a moment knew where it went, how impressive! She also has been giving kisses! Well, her version of kisses :) if we say "Lainey, can Mommy (or Daddy, Bubby or whomever is speaking) have a kiss?" and make the kiss sound mmmmm(followed by the smack-ah when we kiss) she will tip her head and let you kiss the top of her head!!!!! The other day I asked for one and she waddled her way around the table and leaned to me with a huge smile and let me kiss her. She has also on a few occasions repeated an action. She threw a toy and Jude picked it up (their fav game), she threw it again and it went under a side table which surprised her, after he retrieved it, she slowly, deliberately stretched her little arm and placed the toy UNDER the table so Jude would have to repeat laying down to get it!  Both of the kids amaze us everyday! What a glory it is to be a parent of such delightful kids <3

Jude had a Monster Truck Crazy Week! He did the build at Lowe's which was a Monster truck, followed by visiting a couple Monster Trucks (grave digger and black stallion) at other branches of the Advance Auto Parts stores (Daddy works there), AND Jude and Daddy went to the Monster Truck show! We didn't plan this but it just all fell together! How wonderful!

Some friends of ours got married at a small outdoor wedding and it was cool enough for Lainey!

Jude and Daddy went to the Broughton's Ice Cream Social but Jude mostly wanted to play instead of eat ice cream :)

We went with my Dad on a three day vacation at Dillion State Park. We rented a cabin and had a wonderful time. Jude, Daddy, and I went swimming in the lake, Jude and Daddy played tennis and basketball and played at the playground,  AND Jude and Pappy went fishing. Needless to say it was fun and tiring! Lainey had a rough time adjusting to the change in the evening but was happy that everyone was together.

Playing peek-a-boo at the cabin!

 We decided to take a drive one day and ended up near Fly, Ohio so we took the Ferry over the Ohio River to Sistersville WV. It was the kiddos and my first time on the ferry and Daddy's 3rd. So very fun! Lainey and I stayed in the a/c in the truck, while the boys got out to see how the tugboat turned around.

This is Jude making dinner for everyone....yummy Kielbasa!

Lainey exploring how different the console feels or so I guess! <3

Everyone with a child should have a Bilibo! We got this for Lainey knowing full well Jude would love it just as much. It has lead to some wonderful, beautiful, joyful, hilarious times. I saw Jude sitting like this and was cracked up! Too cute!

This is a video of Lainey and Daddy playing. Her giggles sound almost like growls when she's really cracked up!

June 2010

The Brandt Box Bots!

We've decided to make the jump to Radical Unschooling. As we look back from Jude's birth until now, we see a slow natural progression to that.

Jude has been looking up so much online. From bugs to the electric chair! Which led to what states have the death penalty, what method, when did the other states get rid of it, how does it work, what is each of our opinions of the death penalty, and how some laws are federal and some each individual state's people get to decided the laws for just that state. This is how most of our conversations go! Starting with one question and snowballing to the other, learning all the way!

Lainey had an appt in Columbus and we decided to stay over the night before as a treat. However, there was a death in the family so Chad stayed behind for that. It was our first "exploring" trip to Columbus with just Mommy and the Kids! We had a blast! Lainey did not do well at the hotel though, we ended up leaving early morn. and driving home not attending the appt after all. The day before was beautiful and well worth the loss of sleep and missing the appt!

Jude panned for gems at a place we found while "exploring" near our hotel in Columbus!

We all went to Campus Martius Museum. So much history. They have a large collection of Vincent Rifles which were made by my Great-great-great-great grandfather.

Mastodon tooth!

Lainey has been doing wonderfully. It is such a beautiful joy to watch her investigate her world!

Jude has a magic science kit and here are some of his experiments.