Christopher Lakin

What can I say??  He is the little blond/white haired, blue eyed boy that when he smiles at you he wins your heart  Even as a baby everyone had to rub is white hair like it had magic powers.

At 2 yrs he was non verbal – except for screaming. 2 yr 6mo he was at a 16 month level.  We started with sign language and that helped, he could communicate. Kim and Lakin fought for him to have a teacher and speech therapist. He did well when he learned that words meant something. At 3 yrs, after his 3^rd birthday in November, he went to a developmental preschool. What a difference that made. He loved his teacher, Ms Deeded and learned fast. He finished that year and started the next school year but was tested out of the program at 4 yrs 6 months, in November Just before his 4th birthday.. Then it was up to Nana to help him continue to learn. He knew his ABCs, well most of them, could count to 20 when he wanted to.  He could tell you the name of every one of the Thomas the train engines and cars.  And he has most of them…

When this school year started, he went to Eagleville to an at risk preK. Another teacher, Mrs. Smith, whose words were law!! He learns so fast. They do a rhyme and he knows it by the end of the first session.  Christopher keeps her hopping to keep ahead of him. He now draws something besides trains. His people drawings have to have 5 fingers on each hand.  When he is doing something he uses his right hand for a while then switches to his left hand.   He does not want Mrs Smith to give him a “mad look”. So he says he trys to make good choices.  He wears his backpack upside down in the front. When I ask him why “made everyone laugh”. But most of the kids now wear their backpacks that way.

When he went to the first music class at "Eagleville"(a word he loves to say) The music instructer ask each student what instrument they would like to learn to play. Christopher said "all of them".  She said he would only be able to play one insturment. He didn't know why cause 'grammy' played lots of instruments.

He has an answer for everything!!   Many friends have told me I need to put his Christopherisms in a blog.  Hopefully I can remember a lot of them. I am checking back in my facebook posts to find some of them.

And they will be in future posts.

When I pick up the kids at school, I have juice and snacks for them. Well Lakin picked them up the other day and was informed that Nana had drinks and snacks for them and next time he was to bring them.  I am sure he finished the sentence with “get that?”

Christopher gets a phrase or a word and uses it constantly for a while.  The latest word has been “hello”. If he tells me something and I forget and ask him about something, I get a “Hello, I just told you that!”.

His two best frends at school are Emmey and Dani, yes both are girls.  He informed me that both had pretty hair.  A couple of weeks ago , Emmey got to school after we did so was behind us in line. Christopher got out of my car and went to her mom’s truck to talk to her. Yea talk to her….  Her mother had put the window down, Emmey leaned way out of the truck, Christopher stood on his tip toes – both stretched  for a hug.  After she got out of the truck they hugged again and he took her hand and walked to the door.  And I didn’t  have a camera and had left my phone at home. The caretakers that were dropping other kids at the school saw this happening – heard a lot of aaaahhhhh how cute.  But so young!!!

Last week He saw Lakin without a shirt on. “Daddy you have fur”

We have a wait of over a half hour for Savannah.  Several of his class mates have siblings at Rockvale – so the wait time was very noisy of shouting back and forth.  I have a Kindle and downloaded some stories for that time.  Once in a while he wants to read the stories, sometimes I read with him pointing out words he knows. Surprised how many he knew. This is also the time that I HAVE to see what he brought home. It is a battle to get him to put the papers back into his backpack, he says he showed them to me that was enough.

Savannah Grace

SAVANNA GRACE

Savannah is 8 Yrs old and very loving. All that know her love her - even some of the little boys in her 2nd grade class.  She is active in Faith in God for girls at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.  She loves going on Wednesday night to learn more about God. She was baptized the first of last December. She has been brought up to dress modestly and will not wear anything that shows her shoulders or abdomen or is short.  She dresses with style, most of the time, but always very modestly. She took dance for 2 years and for recital wore a body suit to cover her shoulders and belly. She is ok with a one piece bathing suit

Savannah has “anxiety attacks”. If you ask she will explain them to you and what she has to do to combat them.  She has worn glasses since she was a baby. They are a part of her body now.  She was having trouble concentrating at school, she was prescribed a medication.  After a couple of days of non stop talking, she ask Kim if they had put talking medicine in with her concentration medicine.  I mean NON STOP, even at night in bed. Her jaws were tired from clamping them shut so she wouldn’t talk so much in school.  It is interesting that she fully understands what her problem is. It takes extra effort to do school work. It appears that most of her friends accept her as she is.

Savannah is in the Girl Scouts. She has met new friends and enjoys the activities. Even the Cookie sales. Last year she was runner up in her troop. This year she has sold over 300 boxes.  She called several family friends and ask them to buy cookies. Gave the whole sales talk.  She also worked the Girl Scout Cookie table, one at a Kroger’s and another time at Wal-Mart.  Both were on a cold windy night. She looks at the people going by and sweetly asks them if they would like to buy some Girl Scout cookies.  Who is going to tell a cute little Girl Scout no? Especially when she tells them thank you after they buy the cookies.

Horses are her big love and have for the last 3 years. In 2010 for her birthday party she invited some of her friends to go ride horses at Uncle Kim and Aunt Carol's farm. Last month I made her a hooded poncho with pictures of horses all over the fleece.  I think she slept with it the first few nights and wears it daily to school and where ever she goes.

When Savannah was 4 yrs old she saw an American Girl catalog. Of course she picked out the doll she wanted. But Nana told her she had to be 8 yrs old to have those dolls. Every time she saw the catalog she reminded me that I had said that when she was 8 I would get her one.  She started last summer reminding me she would be 8 in November. So she now has Lulu that has brown hair and brown eyes like hers.  Of course lots of clothes, doll carry case, cupboard to hang Lulu’s clothes. She got upset that Lulu only had one set of underclothes, she would need to change!  Even has a poncho just like Savannahs.

Savannah kept going back and forth about getting her ears pierced. About a month ago she went to get her ears pierced. She picked out the earrings she wanted. They did both ears at the same time and all she said was OW.  She is soo proud of getting her ears pierced.   

Grandkids

So who are Savannah & Christopher?  They are the two little darlings that call me Nana.   Both want sleepovers at Nana”s so she won’t get lonely.  Savannah stays one Friday night and Christopher stays the next Friday night  Not every Friday but when I will let them. If I don't see them for a few days they want to go to Nana's to see her.

ME?

Me

What have I been doing?  I mainly watch the grandkids - taking them to school and picking them up. Keeping them when needed. This way Kim and Lakin did not have to worry about where they are and could concentrate on work and school. Most of the time I have loved having them here. But as with all kids there are days LOL.

Last May I saw a poster about being a stay at home Church Service Missionary. I made a call to Salt Lake City a couple of days later. Talked to the Elder in charge of the program. By the time I hung up, I was scheduled to start classes July 5^th.. For 2 months we had a couple hours of class 5 days a week.  This didn’t count all the hours I spent going over the information to learn all or where to look for the answers.  At my age I had to spend extra time studying. The end of August we were answering phones with our mentors helping with the answers we needed for 3 weeks..   We are to spend at least 15 hours a week answering phones.  The calls are an 866 number that are then forwarded to the Family History Center Support queue i.e.  to one of the missionaries...

Then we got an extra assignment – contact Family History Centers who needed to send in a form to receive new computers.  A while after that we started getting overflow calls from the Online Film Ordering queue. Which added to my stress, it is a whole different area. I am to the point I can answer simple questions but NOT the complicated ones.

New printers were sent out to some of the Family History Centers so the calls started again.  “Did you send in the form about the ink?”

I work my hours between the time I took the gkids to school and when I picked them up for 3 days. On Wednesday I do the evening shift because the person who did that time had finished her missionary time. Take and pickup gkids as usual..  Makes for a busy days..  Seems like this mission takes over my life.  I am finished July5th.. It is interesting and meet lots of people from all over the world. If they speak English we get them. It can be rewarding but sometimes very stressful.

Every once in a while I have to take a break. I get so tired and stressed. The stress is not good since I had a stent put in the ascending blood vessel on the heart last September. So I have to watch it.

Nana's Rambling: Nana's Rambling: Who am I?

Nana's Rambling: Nana's Rambling: Who am I?: These buildings depict some of the Historic buildings of the LDS Church.

Nana's Rambling: Who am I?

These buildings depict some of the Historic buildings of the LDS Church.

Who am I?

I thought I had already posted my first post on MY blog. But I guess it is in cyberspace.

Several people have ask 'where my blog is hiding'. What will be included in this Rambling? To start with, I retired September 30, 2001 after 40 years of Nursing mostly in the operating room. I worked with some great gals and guys in several hospitals. BUT I do not miss working. I ofter wonder how I had time to work, I am soooo busy in retirement.

I have made friends and traveled to many states. I collect Department 59 villages, mostly North Pole but a few others sneak into the mix. 4 & 5 levels of North Pole buildings cover 2 sides of a bedroom. There is 2 & 3 levels on the 3rd wall. The Barbie buildings and the Lemax Nutcracker complete Savannah's area. Christopher has 2 Nascar buildings, he keeps exchanging the cars & trucks in front of the buildings with some of his Hot Wheels and 'Cars'. There is 4 Mickey Mouse buildings in that area also. Mickey and Minnie go to visit the North Pole elves and the elves migrate to see Mickey. I never know what I will find in the village. There is no train track in any of the village but "Thomas" and a couple train cars seem to visit Santa and the elves have to ride on Thomas the train. Some days Christopher will go in and turn on some of the light in the buildings. Especially he turns on the Nutcracker to watch them dance "like sister dances" and he loves to hear the music. There are times that he stands and watches and listens to the music.