Battle of the bulge

The bulge meaning the disk in my neck that has decided to cause me to wait to find the nearest guillotine just for some relief. I go to see the pain management specialist soon so hopefully relief with come in the form of injections to my neck. Just what I always wanted.

The girls have been in Vegas for the past week with my Dad and Denise and they are having a blast. Lauren finally got to ride the roller coaster at New York New York so that made her whole trip right there. I did get a call from my dad saying that "you told me she got moody around this time of the month, not f**king bi-polar". Sorry dad, I tried to warn you. Here are some older pics of the kids. Will is working on our post for all of our summer activities.

As the World Continues....

As the world continues to turn, we have found ourselves traveling down a tunnel that never seems to open back up. Sure we get the occasional window for fresh air; however every time we look through it, we find another hurricane coming right for us. It is true that we continue to travel through each day with only enough supplies to last tomorrow, however we as a whole have found a drive that seems to not fail. There is the temporary speed bump that sends us for a ride, but the strength this family finds while standing together continue to get stronger.
We have found that there is hope for our dear Fletcher, as he prepares to begin the long journey through ABA therapy; we find that he begins to grow in his thought process and verbal language. Although he is growing, the growth is very slow and very difficult. On the plus side, he does understand the phrase; “You want a piece of me?” which he learned from his brother and has pieced it together to mean: “Beat Daddy until he cries like a girl!” The other day during speech therapy, it took a lot of time and repeating, however we finally got him to say “ball.”
Aiden has been getting a little more understanding that his brother is not what would normally be called normal. The other day Fletcher was in his room crying by himself. Aiden went and stood outside the door to there room and would not leave until Mommy came up to help Fletcher. Aiden just stood there and called and called for mommy saying that something is wrong with Fletcher. I thought that was the best thing I had heard about the two of them together in a while. Aiden has been showing an enormous amount of love for Fletcher, even when Fletcher only wants to hit and beat on him. Aiden has also been showing signs of a hyper active personality that would give the energizer bunny a run for his copper-tops. I have never seen a three-year-old with so much energy that just never seems to slow. Granted he is the cutest thing that most people would clam to have seen, but WOW. It does not matter if there is something for him to climb or not, he has become out little spider man and has the wall climbing thing down to prove it. He even tells us that his name is not Aiden, but that he is spider man. GO WEB GO!!!!
Lauren Lauren Lauren. What can we say about that child that has not already been said? She still has this look of complete loss in her eyes, and the concentration level runs about the same at this point. I have to say that she is still the little sweetheart that makes everyone fall in love with her. She still is the innocent one in that family, and right now that is something we really need. Her singing though, WOW. She is not like her sister yet, but the passion she shows is remarkable. She has recently found her mp3 player again, and can be found all around the house dancing around in circles with her eyes closed and her trying to sing. It really is quit funny from time to time. She still manages to find every little crack to fall over too. I think in the last month or so she has tripped going up and down the stairs, fallen at the park, and needed about a pack and a half of band aids. I find my self wondering how a child so innocent can find the power to remain as happy as one can possibly be even in a time of so much hard ship.
Aileen is the attitude we all have inside; however she has not quite learned how to control it just yet. Her mouth can go a mile a minute, and can somehow come up with the intelligence to defend it. I think she gets that part from her mother. Aileen has recently hit the level of maturity that no father wants to see in his daughter, and yet as I sit here thinking about it, it really is not as bad as I thought it would have been. She is getting ready for the sixth grade now, talking about boys, wanting to know how to sew, and growing in her tastes from the little girl she once was to a full blown 18 year-old. Don’t even get me stated on her clothes selection either. There is only so much change that I can handle at one time and I think she passed the point a long time ago. Even with all these changes and her parting from us more and more, I have to say that I am proud of the woman she is becoming. With out her, I would have to say that the tunnel would never end simply because Morgan and I would never be able to get anything done at all. She is the chain that allows this roller coaster to get up those really steep and tall hills. I can not begin to thank her enough for all the wonderful help she offers and gives us on a daily basis. I hope you (Aileen) enjoy your little vacation away from home when you go to Las Vegas.
As for Morgan, I am going to have to save her for another post. There is a lot to cover there and I am not sure I will be able to find all the right things here to say. So this is the story for now. The following addition will include all the fun things we have done in the last week or so. This will include a trip to the Children’s Museum, the Aquarium, and the Monitor/Merrimac Museum.

From the Lighterside,

Will