Bethany Where?

Kimmie: "Bethany where?"

Us: "Where is Bethany?"

Kimmie: "Church."

Us: "She's not at church. She's with some people from church. They're in Arizona. She got on an airplane and flew for 3 1/2 hours."

Kimmie: "Aaaahhh." Slaps hand or stomps foot. "Mad."

We've had this conversation with Kimmie 5 times today. She misses her sister and is really mad that Bethany's gone.

I think she's going to be looking for Bethany at church in the morning, and then she's going to be really mad that she can't find her. I bet it's going to be a really "fun" morning at church.

--Mom

Where's Sister

Kimmie has this thing about wanting our family to all be together. When we go to church, she wants our family to all sit together. If her sister sits with her friends in the youth group, then Kimmie gets worked up and will fuss and sign "Where's Sister."

Kimmie has gotten used to her Dad being somewhere else during the service and her brother going to a completely different church, but she is very attached to her sister and always wants her with us.

We have the same routine every week. We go to early church, then we go to Bible Study. In early church Kimmie, her sister and I always sit together. Sometimes Dad is there and sometimes he is somewhere else in the building. After early church, Kimmie and I head upstairs to our classes while her sister goes to the youth wing for her class. Out of the blue a few weeks ago, Kimmie started getting upset because her sister left us to go to her class. Kimmie proceeded to sign "Where's sister" and fuss all the way to her class.

Kimmie has been fussing about "where's sister" ever since. Kimmie has become very attached to her sister since her sister babysits her every afternoon.

--Mom

Hmmmmm

Kimmie has always been our quiet child. Being non-verbal, she has not typically made much noise.

Lately, however, she has had her "hmmmmmmmm" going. We sometimes say she has her "motor" running. It is a noise she makes in her throat. Sometimes she can get quite loud.

She can be watching a movie and start "hmmmmmmm"ing. She will get louder and louder as she gets excited about the movie. The competing noise from the movie and the noise of her "hmmmm"ing can become overwhelming.

We often ask her to be quiet and she will shake her head "yes." But when she goes back to what she was doing the "hmmmmm"ing starts up again. It's like she doesn't know what makes it or how to turn it off.

One of the places where she will make this noise is church. No matter how many times I ask her to be quiet, and she agrees, she just can't seem to stop.

She sounds happy when she makes this noise.

What to do, what to do, hmmmm.

--Mom

Soap Dispenser

Our church has recently renovated most of the restrooms in the building. Lots of automation was included in the renovations. All the "hands-free", "no-need-to-touch" stuff including automatic water sensors, automatic soap dispensers and automatic paper towel dispensers.

Taking Kimmie to the restroom has become an adventure! This past Sunday we had extra events going on at church and we made three adventurous trips to the restroom.

Kimmie's favorite accessory is the soap dispenser. She loves to stick her hand under it and be rewarded with a dallop of soapy foam. The sinks are very close to the soap dispensers and it is difficult to move her to the paper towel dispenser without her sticking her hand back under the soap dispenser. So we usually end up washing our hands at least twice before I'm able to maneuver her past the soap to the paper towels and then out the door.

Sometimes I'm able to move her away from the sink quick enough that she doesn't end up with more soap on her hands, but she is usually fast enough to trigger the dispenser. The soap lands on the counter and then I end up trying to clean the counter while keeping Kimmie far enough away that she cannot trigger the soap dispenser again and have us starting this whole process over again.

We have so much fun!

--Mom

Salt and Pepper

On Wednesday evenings we go to church. Kimmie's sister goes off to the youth activities while Kimmie and I join the pastor's Bible study in the fellowship hall. Dad is usually around getting microphones and slides and video clips ready for the study. He usually goes straight to church from work.

The church serves a meal before the Bible study, but the girls and I eat at home since they don't always like the food that is served.

When the Bible study is over we have to wait a little while for Kimmie's sister to appear since the youth activities go a little longer than the adult Bible studies. While we are waiting the people who clean up usually come in and start cleaning up the fellowship hall. They pick up the salt and pepper shakers, remove the tableclothes, stack the chairs and fold up the tables.

One evening Kimmie started playing with the salt and pepper shakers so we encouraged her to help gather them. She really took to this. Most weeks now she helps gather the salt and pepper shakers, running all over the room snatching them from the tables. I run around behind her encouraging her to hold them upright, although the floor gets its share of salt and pepper.

At first I wasn't sure what the cleaning crew thought of this. They even picked them up in different ways a couple weeks, ways that did not allow Kimmie to help. But now they place a tray out for Kimmie to put the shakers on while they take the tableclothes off. They carefully remove the tableclothes leaving the shakers on the edge of each table so she can reach them. And everyone comments on what a big helper Kimmie is.

--Mom