In November we started a new chapter in our family when we started homeschooling Joy (BethAnne and Grace already do online school). This has allowed Joy to be able to skip a grade (from 2nd to 3rd) which is really good considering her height and intelligence. It's been an adjustment for all of us but she's doing great. After one full year of homeschool/online school in her new grade, the public schools will recognize her in the advanced grade level so we could put her back in public school then if we choose to.
One benefit of having all the kids at home doing school is activities like this one- we watched a rocket launch together, the one where Elon Musk sent his car into space. It was very cool.
Brothers!
Sweet Daniel
A neat Pre-Valentines Day card made by Joy. Her cards and art are amazing.
Dapper Daniel dressed for Church
Mark got me two kinds of flowers for Valentine's Day. Lucky Me!
Andy does a great job with this cheap little vacuum I got. Best purchase ever.
Engineer Andy
Adorable Baby Daniel.
February was challenging for our family because at the end of January, Joy got Pertussis (Whooping cough). It took the doctor quite awhile to figure out what was going on, they didn't suspect Pertussis because she had been vaccinated (as we all have been). The treatment was not effective for Joy because by the time she was put on the right antibiotic, the damage had been done. So she had a terrible cough (often to the point of vomiting) for a couple months. They treated the whole family when Joy tested positive so it wasn't supposed to be able to spread, but somehow Daniel got it 2 weeks later. When he showed signs of Pertussis, I took him in to the doctor right away. The doctor thought it was just a normal cough, but he agreed to test Daniel and treat him with the antibiotics while waiting for the test results. That turned out to be a big blessing because the Pertussis test came back positive 4 days later. By that time, Daniel had almost finished the treatment and he was almost better because the treatment had been done in time. It was a stressful month as we watched Joy suffer, unable to help and worried about Daniel because of his young age (Pertussis can be fatal in infants). They are both doing much better now and we are looking forward to a happier spring.
