A Sisters Example

There has been a lot of talk lately swirling around about inclusion of people with special needs, seeing the ability and not the labels, and using person first language like saying Riley is a girl with special needs, not a special needs girl. Luckily for us we don’t run into lots of discrimination or negative attitudes towards Riley. I’m pretty sure it’s the gigantic contagious smile but it’s also that we go to a great school and a great church mostly full of great people. But trust me it does happen. We get LOTS of looks and stares out of curiosity, pity and/or ignorance and the occasional ridiculous comments. Y’all I might punch the next person who says she “looks normal” in the trachea! And Unfortunately Keagan gets the brunt of these shameful experiences. Recently Riley burst into tears after falling during PE and what Keagan said to 2 boys who laughed and mocked her definitely made me proud. Keagan got up close to them and said “you better shut up right now or you are not going to like what happens next!” Ya gotta love a girl like that! 

This brings me to my point. If anyone is wondering how to treat a person with special needs just follow the example of their sibling! And more specifically if anyone wants to know how to treat Riley, just follow the example of her sister Keagan. Is Keagan always kind and mature towards Riley? Nope! Because guess what? Keagan just sees Riley. She just sees her as her sister, not as her sister with special needs. She sees Riley for exactly who she is without any labels, diagnosis, pity or agenda. Keagan is so kind and helpful towards Riley, but she also gets frustrated and is rude to Riley. She is her biggest cheerleader and her loudest opponent. Keagan helps Riley, teases Riley, protects Riley, annoys Riley and gets annoyed by Riley. Keagan is a really great big sister but she treats Riley the same way she would treat any younger sister, and everyone should follow that sisters example! 

These two sisters were so incredibly sweet towards one another last Friday when they both had cardiology appointments at TCH! Riley was there for her routine heart check for her dialated cardiomyopathy. And because Keagan is her twin sister and because she had heart surgery at 4 days old and still has a small device in her heart, she has to be seen every 2 years. But both girls were very concerned for the other one when they were having their echocardiogram and EKG. Riley was so concerned that she insisted upon holding Keagans hand during her echo and Keagan kept reassuring Riley “I’m ok. Im fine. Don’t worry Riley!” That about burst my momma heart! But even better was the results that both girls hearts look great! I’m sure thankful for that and that our doctors at Texas Childrens are rated #1 in the country! 

We celebrated the great news by heading to Herman Park! We had planned to go to the zoo but it was closed for a private event. So we rode the train and explored the park including rolling down the hills, playing at the reflection pond and exploring the gorgeous Japanese gardens for the first time! Then we headed over for dinner on the patio at Barnabys. We topped off a great celebration with what else but cake as big as our heads and some driving around downtown in neighborhoods we’ve never seen before like we love to do! 

This past week we had another similar celebration for good news on Nanas heart so she was generous and insisted upon taking the Fosters and us out to Saltgrass to celebrate! People I love and good food is my favorite combo ever! So I forced everyone to document another fun and delish dinner with the Fosters at Goodsons last weekend.

Back at home, the three of us have had lots of giggle filled nights together outside playing in the back yard! Besides the yellow dusting of pollen on everything in sight, the weather has been so perfect lately! Which was also perfect for another awesome night at baseball! We have really big Angels and Astros teams this year so it takes quite a while to get thru an inning.  But I guess that also means lots of new fun player and family friends this year! And last week the volunteer buddies were lots of sweet girls we had met at the Klein Oak cheer clinic that remembered both Keagan and Riley! 

The odds and ends of the last two weeks are numerous! We had more fun at DPAC, more awesome hats made in class for Miss Riley, more Come Follow Me learning and memories together, and a new obsession for Riley wanting to wear her pink cow girl boots to school everyday! Keagan had an interesting little protest of not wanting to go to dyslexia tutoring where she happened to mention to me that my life is “so easy” and that I “love making her miserable” which she later appologized for (she was hangry). Plus she got her cactus art displayed, got a nasty bruise on the playground and loved “camping” with all of 4th grade to prepare for STAAR. Both girls rocked the PE fitness test by Riley doing 10 whole curl ups and Keagan doing 73 which was the most of any girl in her class! Riley took advantage of “helping” me with the school store and kissed me several times before slipping a squishy in her back pack! Today the girls had a fun play date with Avery and then we went to see two friends in the awesome “Shrek the Musical!” And I just cant forget there are lots and lots of Keagan selfies on my phone lately! 

And finally, this week I was brought to tears (more then once over this) at school as the most beautiful thing happened!  Monday was Workd Cerebral Palsy day and CP’s awareness color is green. Well because that is one of Riley’s few diagnoses out of 23 with a day, her INCREDIBLE friends, their amazing mommas who are my friends, and her awesome teachers all dressed in green for the day!! Her own momma forgot so thank heavens the wonderful Ann Johnson even thought to send a new green shirt for Riley, that she of course wanted to wear all week! Y’all they dubbed it “we love Riley day!!” Which of course made all of Riley’s dreams come true and me ugly cry!! I am so beyond thankful for their love and support!! Oh these pictures y’all!!

I recently read that the world is changed by your example, not by your opinion. I subscribe to that idea whole heartedly! I’m incredibly thankful for the many examples of love, support, generosity, hard work, preservation, faith, charity, optimism, strength, grit, compassion and so much more that I see surrounding me! I have even seen examples of all of those qualities just in these last two weeks and most notably in my precious daughters. I often fall short in my efforts, just like we all do. But I’m so thankful I have these incredible girls and that they have each other! May we forever follow a sister’s example. 

All The Help I Can Get

I have taken several parenting courses in the last 2 years. Listen I am doing this parenting business alone and it is HARD so I need all the help I can get! And there is  just so much to learn as these little humans are always changing and always needing something different from me. It is proven to me time and time again that my greatest parenting help is without a doubt Heavenly Fathers love and blessings, Jesus Christ’s atonement and example and the Holy Ghost’s direction, warnings and inspiration! I try so hard to rely on them and follow them! But I also seek knowledge and understanding in other good places because did I already mention this parenting thing is HARD?! 

I have read several times in parenting books and courses that it is important to establish family traditions and specific ways your family has of doing things. Well that is definitely an idea I can get on board with! This sentimental mommas heart loves a good tradition! To take it further, I recently read something that pushed me to start verbally labeling just what a Kikuchi girl is and does. Hopefully that will give all three Kikuchi girls strength, confidence and closeness like some parenting guru suggested. It is worth a shot! Because again, I need all the help I can get! 

So in last 4 days of Spring Break, the three of us made it obvious that Kikuchi Girls love to get out there together and make fun memories! On Thursday the girls were pretty tired after a full and fun 5 days with their dad. All morning we could be found being lazy, doing laundry, unpacking and catching up on missed cuddling time! All good things a Kikuchi girl does! Then we got it together to go do a Student Council outing with Keagan. The Mahaffey student council had a blanket and sock drive for a retirement home in need in our community and we were blessed to be a part of delivering what was collected! We met the StuCo reps Mrs Stephens and Mrs Goolsbee, plus the Ostermanns at Lawrence Street Care Center and we were able to meet some of the residents and pass out the donations to many rooms.  It was a perspective gaining and heart warming experience for all of us and I was proud of both girls for having loving and compassionate hearts! That’s something a Kikuchi girl has. 

Sweet Audrey came home with us and then Lauren came over so they were just missing Avery who was sick for a besties play date. And then we got to hang out with more friends because baseball season is back! Yay!!! Riley is SO thrilled to be back with her friends on the field, especially since so much of the fall season was rained out. Luckily we had perfect weather for our first game of spring season! Kikichi girls definitely all love Superstars baseball! 




This season, this girl REALLY wants to bat all by herself! 












On Friday all of Keagan’s Texas history loving dreams came true! Because Kikuchi girls love Texas! She has been dying to go to the San Jacinto monument since Mrs Goolsbee taught her about it. Lauren joined us for what turned out to be a really fun day! We explored the museum exhibits, shopped in the gift shop, rode the small but quick elevator up 54 stories to the top of the monument to see the incredible views and make our own souvenir smashed pennies and then explored outside. At first Riley wasn’t too thrilled about the whole situation and showed us with lots of tears. I’m afraid she is still scared by us tricking her on to too many roller coasters at Disney World. But she was glad she did it and we all had a great time topped off by taking the Lynchburgh Ferry ride on our way home! 

The girls totally cracked me up by booing Santa Anna and making this photo! I just love that they know their history! 

Saturday we revisited one of the best things we did on Spring Break last year by visiting all of our exotic animal friends at TGR Exotics Wildlife Park. We had just as much fun this year as last and loved doing it with the Lakes! We ended up having a fantastic day that continued when we then picked up Miss Taryn and Todd to indulge in a fun dinner at Woodson’s and then on to embarrass Addie at her boyfriends house! Kikichi girls love their friends and family hard! 

Sunday was another great day. Besides going to church, the Kikuchi girls have really embraced and are loving the results of our church’s new home and family study plan. We have substantial lessons like devotionals every Sunday afternoon together. We have really loved learning from each other and the spirit it brings to us! This past Sunday one of the things we talked about is how the gospel of Jesus Christ is like a pearl of great price as talked about in Matthew chapter 13. I thought it would be fun to hit that home with real freshwater clams to break open and get the pearls out of. We all loved it and got 7 beautifully colored pearls out of 4 clams. Oh and Keagan is so stinkin cute and is currently obsessed with making fortune tellers! She even made a mini at church. 

And just like that, Spring Break was over. It was back to school and back to busy for the Kikuchi girls. But we do so with lots more fun memories and quality time in our pockets. Hopefully our well spent time off will motivate us to get back to work and finish of this school year strong! We have STARR testing (booo) and musical performances (yay!) ahead so we need all the help we can get!