What time is it? - Bed time

The title of this blog is a little jingle Kimani and Nemi came up with. It is really cute and pretty effective to setting the tone for the bedtime routine.

All right, here is the story: the other day (it was exactly last Friday) I said to Kimani at about 7:15 pm that it was time to get the kids ready for bed.

His response to me was, "No way! it is Friday! They could stay up late. We always stayed up late on Friday's when I was growing up"

Oh! No - not on my watch buddy. So we both got the kids in bed by 8 pm, keeping the routine in tact and then we were off to pillow talk, pray, you know - whatever. Well tell me why before 9 pm a certain Daddy Smith was out snoring. SNORING! 'Hey! Mister, it is Friday, we can all stay up late tonight!' ;)

You see Daddys may not fully understand the method to a Mommy's madness, but we parents need the rest, peace and quiet as much as the kids need it...

So once again Daddy what is that jingle, "What time is it?"

Daddy: "(snore, snore)"

Lamaze Me!

(Oh! I never published this one)
The other day Kimani asked me if I wanted to go to Lamaze class this time around. I thought about it and said, "Well, kid #1 we scheduled it in vain because we had him via C-section. Kid #2 was our first experience with having a 'natural' birth and it was fast and furious ;). with this kid, well, it is our last one.... let's just go for it without Lamaze.

He said, "Let me know if you change your mind."

so we will see.

The Grass is Always Greener

Very seldom is the Pediatrician's office vibrating with kids. Maybe because it was after school, maybe because it is Friday, or maybe because a snow storm is coming, today the waiting room was full of kids. It almost felt crowded.

Since Nemi's doctor specializes in dealing with children with developmental delays and on the autism spectrum many of the children there were going to get the hyperbaric oxygen chamber treatment (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyperbaric_medicine). Looking around at all these kids suffering from autism put things in perspective a bit for me.

Living day in and day out with a child with this condition has its challenges, but at the same time, today I saw that it really could be worst for us. Though no doctor would give me a definite response that Nehemiah's case is 'mild' looking at some of the other kids my heart went out to their parents. Those parents have a much harder load to carry, not that mine is a walk in the park. You see, Nehemiah walks on his own, and talks out his needs, and listens (on occasion - :D) and he looks at you and he writes his name and he does a million other things that 'traditional' parents take for granted from their children and we celebrate Nemi and his progress even if it is one inch forward.

The other day we went to visit a friend and she told us how her nephew is 10 years old with autism and he does not speak. He only communicates with sounds. That broke my heart. But their point was to say that Nehemiah is doing so well. Kimani gave them the most perfect answer that I will treasure forever. "What you see in Nehemiah is a miracle! The Lord has answered us and He is the one healing Nemi and bringing him this far!"