Blueberry Pickin'

Bad Boy Noah (in James Dean kind of way) - after taking this picture, he took the sunglasses off and snapped it into half.
Saya likes to look at the new ABC poster and learn letters and words. She can say some of the words on there in both Japanese and English.

Alyson, picking blueberries today. She kept picking the green ones and Sean was making sure she doesn't put them in our bucket.

Sean really liked picking blueberries today. Now he needs to work on more natural smiles...

Noah and Saya feeling a little pissy because they are strapped into the stroller. They did get to come out later on.

He had a nice expression but as soon as he noticed that I am taking his photo, he gave me this smile...

Sean making sure Aly picks big blue ones. When she does, he said "good job, Alyson, that's a nice one".

Well, it's August already and I cannot believed I survived June and July without Sean's full-time public school. It's one more month to go before his school starts and part of me likes spending more time with the funny 4 year-old, but who am I kidding - bring on school!! Cannot wait for it to start again.

We've been very busy with the usual therapies and a few appointments for kids here and there. Lately, I've been told from various professionals that I am doing an amazing job taking care of four young children two of them with special needs. When I list everything I do during the conversation, from GFCF diet to taking kids across town to therapies, I realize that I am doing quite a bit. I never feel like I cannot go on being the kids' advocate though. It's something I need to do and I feel quite happy pursuing what's best for them.

On the lighter note, we went to pick blueberries at a local blueberry farm today. It was a pretty awesome idea because Sean and Aly loved it. Sean carried the bucket and was being so sweet. Every time someone put the berries in, he said "thank you!" or "good job, that's a good one". Aly sometimes picked green young ones and Sean gently told her "Aly no, they are not ready yet. " He was being really good and it's a sign he really enjoyed it. We ate them after lunch and they were delicious. Sean even put one in his mouth (didn't eat it though).

Saya has been walking around in the house lately. When she wants to move fast, like when she notices the living room door is open, she still prefers to crawl. But we are seeing more walking than crawling for the past few days. She's really cute. She started to scream a lot though, ear-piercing high pitched sound and she turns red while emitting the sound. She thinks it's funny and we are considering introducing time-out...

Noah is becoming more vocal since starting the GFCF diet. The overdose of Vitamin B turned out to be false. I now suspect he is experiencing the withdrawal symptoms from the opiate effect of gluten and casein peptide. It is very common for children to go through some sort of symptoms from being cranky, not napping etc... and it fits what Noah is doing. I am hoping it passes soon.

All in all, things are going well and I am ready to conquer another busy week!