JJ Eating Update: it has gotten worse again:(

After all of the testing last year and the diagnosis of why JJ was vomiting into his mouth many times a day we did some alternative medicine interventions and he improved significantly. He was down to about once a month. However, recently (and most notably since we returned from Disney World) he has worsened to many times a day again:(

Yesterday our 2 kids who attend the Christian school did not have school since 1/2 of the kids were out with Influenza so I decided to take the kids back to the chiropractor who did the desensitization and see if he could help with JJ's vomiting and Faith's terrible spring allergies that lead to a worsening of her Asthma.

Last time the kids were desensitized for Faith - cats. JJ - calcium.

This time we worked on trees for Faith. However, JJ tested positive for vegetable oil and sugar mix.

Sugar? Like glucose, fructose, etc.

So, I got thinking. JJ didn't have these vomiting issues until he was over 4. He was very easily car sick, but it was usually after drinking a bottle (calcium I am now realizing). But he didn't really EAT until he was close to 4. I think he wasn't getting enough in him for this sensitivity to be an issue. Do you remember how I would talk about how he would, at times, act like he was hungry but as soon as he had a bite he looked like he was going to be sick and refused to eat more? His mom has told me that she has the same kinds of issues and has seen tons of specialists with no answers. However, once he started Speech he actually started eating, and then he started vomiting. Learning now what his sensitivities are I am not surprised anymore the timing of why things got worse.

But now? Well, when we got back from Disney World and I actually had time to buckle down and find a way to get him to comply with school I decided that Smarties was a good bribe, oh, um, reward for compliant school behavior;)  Very few things are enticing for JJ, especially food things. He will just refuse (I have never had a more stubborn kid than him - and if you have read my blogs you will know that says A LOT!) So, smarties are small, many in a package, he likes them so they are rewarding to him so he would actually work on his school, it seemed to work great.

But the vomiting increased:(

Now I realize it is because my "reward" significantly bumped up his sugar intake for the day and...with his sugar sensitivity it increased his vomiting:(

AND, all we use is Olive Oil in our house to cook with so his sensitivity to vegetable oils is also triggered.

Yesterday we desensitized him to the sugars. It remains to be seen if it will help or not. The good news is that they retested him for Calcium and he did not test sensitive to it:)

But, that isn't the point at this time. The point is that...we have to keep him away from the desensitized items COMPLETELY for 25 hours. !!!!!!!!!!

Let me say that again.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Essentially the kid has been able to eat (well, the list of what he is able to eat is much larger than what he is willing to eat) protein. Which for JJ means eggs, chicken, and shrimp. And popcorn. Until supper tonight. And only water to drink (instead of milk which is all he usually drinks).

He was one unhappy camper. When I told my husband he said "Uh, I have somewhere to go. See you tomorrow night!"  lol!

No dairy. No carbs. Absolutely nothing that is his normal food.

And he was still vomiting last night. I am hoping that it was because his body is detoxing...

Anyway, I am hoping that he sleeps until 5:30 tonight so I don't have to deal with what is to come (just kidding, sort of).

In that vein, his sleep is soooooo much worse again. If I have him asleep by midnight it is awesome, but he doesn't make it very long. Last night he made it about 10 minutes - and he was sleeping hard when I left him in his bed:( I made him sleep on my floor instead of my bed just so I could get some sleep and he made it there until 6 so that is something:) He just keeps saying he is too scared (even though he has a sibling in the room with him).

He came home from Awana Wednesday night PUMPED UP about going to overnight church camp. I looked at him like he had 7 heads. I told him that he had to figure out how to put himself to sleep and stay in his own bed all night long every night before he could go to camp. He assured me he could do it. Thursday night he had me stay with him (like usual) to fall asleep. But when he woke up in his own bed Friday morning his first words were, "I made it 1 night!" Then...last night was a bust.

Hey, if his desire to go to camp helps him figure out how to confront his fear and sleep all night in his own bed I will send him every week all summer lol! Somehow I don't think it is going to happen though:(

Anyway:
Jesus, you know what is going on in JJ's body. You know what he needs. Give me wisdom to know what he needs and how to help him. Give me patience with his quirks. Heal his body. Give him courage. You are sovereign over all of this, I trust you. Amen.

A Thoughtful Conversation With JJ, and a Speech Update

Today my husband and I took JJ to eat at his favorite Chinese restaurant. In order to get him to be compliant with doing school (and knowing that it is extra hard for him to learn to read) he gets candy. I have pre-bagged his favorite candy into 20 bags (that are given to him for diligent work) and he was told that when he completed 20 days of school without complaining we would take him out for Chinese. That happened to be today right after his first session of speech therapy with his new Speech Language Pathologist. He completed the evaluation the last 2 sessions and today they started working. She is much different than the last agency we worked with, but we are very excited about the results of the language testing (he scored at or above "average" in all areas except for how he arranges words in sentences - the "Yoda speak" that we joke about). However, Language is different from Speech (I never knew that until I had kids with learning disabilities) and he obviously is very delayed in speech articulation. Despite that, she was very encouraging after even 1 actual speech therapy session today that he picks it up very quickly and will learn fast. She said that since he did not start talking until he was 4 he has to play a lot of "catch up" and if we thought about what we would expect from the speech of a 3 year old (with a child normally beginning to speak at age 1) that he would be on target.  Now that we have this evaluation we have started speech therapy again, and will develop a new plan for how to teach him how to read. That will mean more candy...and more Chinese food;) She did agree with the continued diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech but it is very mild at this time - he has progressed so much!!

My husband and I love to take JJ to the Chinese restaurant because he actually eats a ton of food and, for some reason, that place makes him stop and think - and ask deep questions. Part of me was so proud of him for thinking through issues in a deep way that is outside of the box. He obviously takes time to consider issues and I marvel at the way his brain contemplates things. Another part of me, though, is so sad about the topics that he has to spend time thinking about...

Today part of our conversation sounded like this:

JJ: Dad, why did you choose Mom to marry?

Dad: Because I loved her.

JJ: Oh.

Me: We loved each other so we chose each other to get married to. Just like we loved you so we chose you to be our son.

JJ: No you didn't. God did.

Me: Yes, you are right.

JJ: Why did my mom not raise me?

Me: Well, she didn't have a daddy to help raise you and she didn't feel like she had enough money and people to support raising you the way she wanted you to be raised. She loves you very much so chose our family to raise you the way she wanted you to grow up.

JJ: Why did you keep Beautiful and Buddy? They were in your tummy and you kept them.

Me: Well, I had Dad to help me raise them and we were blessed to be able to have enough money to provide for them.

JJ: And Superman, and Faith, and Grace. That is a lot of people! That must take a lot of money!

Me - laughing: Yes it sure does. You are all gifts from God and we love all of you.

Me: Your mom is married now and I just saw on fb this morning that she has had another baby a couple of weeks ago. So now you have 4 other siblings.

JJ: What is the baby's name?

Me: I don't know, she didn't say.

JJ: You should ask her.

Me: I will.

JJ: When do I get to meet my mom?  I know she lives a LONG ways away.

Me: Ummmm, some day we will go and meet her. We would have to fly there so it wouldn't be soon that we could do that.

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Later at home when I showed him the picture of his new baby brother

JJ: Where is a picture of my mom?

I showed it to him, her husband was in the picture too.

JJ: Is that my dad?

Me: Ummm, no. That is her husband and the father of your youngest 2 brothers.

JJ: How is her husband not my dad?

Me: Well, she was not married to him when you were born. You have a different dad. The same as your older sister.

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JJ has asked questions before but not quite like this. And he has never asked to see his mom before. This topic is so complicated. Flying across the country to go see his mom would be a nice experience for him (I would hope). But then there are 3 other kiddos in the house who don't get to see their moms. I often second guess myself on what I am "supposed" to be saying to the kids, because each of their adoption stories are very different and I don't want one to feel worse than another from the story that I tell them. Hard stuff.

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In other news: JJ is doing awesome in math and moving quicker with putting consonants and vowels together than he did learning the sounds in the first place. I am hopeful of his continued progress.

He is still not sleeping well. In fact, since we have gotten back from Disney World it has been much, much worse. It is like he is terrified at night. He barely makes it a few hours in his own bed then he is back in ours with his arms around my neck like he is scared I will not be there. He used to crawl in our bed, warm up (he hates blankets and kicks them off all.the.time. Yet he complains when I make him wear warm clothes to bed in an attempt to keep him warm enough to stay in his own bed longer...) and fall back asleep without touching us at all. It is odd. I just know that I.am.tired lol!

Teaching a Child with Apraxia (CAS) How To Read...

Overwhelmed. That is how I feel when I think about teaching JJ how to read. It is overwhelming. When I was in graduate school I did a practicum in a high school testing students for learning disabilities for their IEP's and coming up with ideas for helping student's learn despite those learning disabilities. Little did I know just how much that experience would be used personally in my life. God was preparing me... I also often consider the irony that when we adopted we were asked if we would feel comfortable dealing with special needs and I said "no." Ha. We have so many diagnoses around here I can't keep up lol!

The psychologist that I trained under while doing that practicum asked me to come up with a model of understanding how students learn. He wanted me to understand that it is not just this global process of "learning" but that there are many, many facets and processes involved in learning. If neurologically a brain is unable to process information "optimally" then learning is compromised. The brain is an incredibly magnificent and complicated organ. It can compensate for a lot, but damage also makes outcomes...messy.

Buddy asked me the other day why JJ having difficulty speaking contributes to his incredible struggle with learning how to read. My first answer was that statistically there is a very significant number of people with CAS who also have written language learning disabilities. If he "only" had articulation error problems with his speech, then reading would not be such a problem. It would be a "muscle" issue and not a "brain" issue.

I am not a neurologist so cannot pretend to understand all of what is going on. But what I do understand that is happening is overwhelming enough.

I have talked about how JJ has trouble with retrieval of information when he tries to speak. He has no problems at all with non-verbal understanding or following directions (other than stubbornness - he has loads and loads of that lol!). However, ask him to actually say the specific words and he usually uses a lot of "attribute naming" to describe words/situations rather than being able to retrieve and say the actual word. That is adaptive and over the past 2 years he is finally able to communicate with us and as a family we know what he means when he speaks and all is well.

But...when learning how to read. Uggg. It gets so complicated. Because in reading there are those pesky 26 letters. Those letters don't have "attribute naming." They simply say what they say. For someone who can't retrieve specific information that is overwhelming. I have taught him the sounds (forget trying to teach him the name of the letters - at this point who cares?). But I had to teach him the sounds in conjunction with a word (again, to help him combine another piece of information to a meaningless couple of squiggly lines so it will "mean" something). That is pretty normal and most kids do that but they realize that the /b/ in butterfly is just the "b." Not JJ. To him /b/ means "butterfly." I am working on getting him to break that idea but it is pretty stuck.

When Buddy was 2 I sat him down to potty train him and thought I would work on teaching him his letters while he sat. He proceeded to tell me what all of the letters were in 1 setting. I realized he had learned them from a Thomas the Tank Engine computer game. He learned and retained and retrieved it fast.

I didn't even attempt to teach JJ letters until he was 6, and it has taken SIX MONTHS for him to get the sounds. Even now it is a laborious process for him to have to stop and really think hard to retrieve correct sound when he is looking at the letter. I am now working on trying to get blends like "am" or "at" or "bat." For him to see the letter, retrieve the sound by pulling up the "picture" in his mind of what picture goes with that sound, THEN hold that sound while adding another sound to it that he had to go through the same laborious process to retrieve. THEN actually remember both of those sounds and put them together to make /am/ instead of /a/   /m/.  He loves to rhyme and does great with that. So if he finally gets the hang of bat, cat, sat I can get him to do mat, fat, nat - but at that point he is only rhyming and not actually "reading" if that makes sense. So if I switch it up to "mad" instead of "mat" he is completely confused.

Do you see where this is going? I can't even imagine how to transition him to learning that /a/ makes more than 1 sound...:(

He doesn't have the same problem with numbers. He can retrieve numbers just fine. I don't even understand how that makes sense. He still has to associate the number "1" with "one" item and so on. But for some reason that clicks for him while sounds do not. He can count to 100 with only a few mistakes. He is starting to do adding and basic math with ease. But reading.

Uff. Da.


Friday we have an appointment with a different speech pathologist to get another evaluation. She has a lot of experience with Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS). I am hopeful of what she can tell us.  At that point we will have to make a decision between several options for intervention. I am not sure what the answer is... Hopefully we will know more after Friday.


Sunday during church JJ went to the bathroom and came back very excited to tell me that "h, h, horse is the same as h, h, hot!!!" It was the first time that I know of that he has made the connection that the first letter of a word was for more than just one single word. When he then also told me, very excited, that "J,E,S,U,S spells Jesus" I teared up right away. His first spelled word. And it should be. Even if he doesn't understand yet how those letters make sounds that make up words.

God gave me hope right then. JJ will make progress. It won't look like everyone else's progress but it is progress. He is wonderfully and perfectly made:)


2 years ago JJ still wouldn't speak to anyone outside of the family.

2 years ago no one outside of the family could understand anything he said.

2 years ago I still had to carry him in public because he was terrified of people and he wanted to feel safe.

2 years ago we couldn't get him to stay with a babysitter without a family member present.

2 years ago he didn't sleep through the night and needed me to stay with him until he fell asleep and if he woke at night he could not put himself back to sleep and needed me (OK, all of that is still the case - but I have hope for that some year too lol!)

But tonight he is at AWANA!  By himself!  Well, 3 siblings are also in the building but he is alone with his leader and group without fear. He is learning verses!  Well, the leader works with him and there is A LOT of paraphrasing going on. But he is making progress every week and retaining information about Jesus even if he struggles with retrieving it in a specific way. He is actively playing games during the game time and there are no family members in that room to encourage him. He is just feeling safer around people. He has made some friends. He often has to ask us what their names are as he forgets and will say "the one, you know, that has the brother" or "the one I danced with?" He is gaining confidence.

This is yet another opportunity for me to trust  in God and His plan for JJ's future. And that He will guide us on the correct path for His glory and not for what the world says is important.

Psalm 25:1 

In you, Lord my God, I put my trust.

Psalm 56:3 

When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

Isaiah 26:3 

You will keep in perfect peace those whose minds are steadfast, because they trust in you.

Psalm 37:5 

Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him and he will do this:

Psalm 33:21 

In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name.

This parenting thing sure isn't for the feint of heart! It is a good thing that we have God:)

Alaskan Cruise?

My husband and I have been on two cruises (before having children;) One was a Caribbean cruise - for our Honeymoon. The second one was a Southern Caribbean cruise while I was 7 months pregnant with Beautiful. We have talked over the past 20 years about going on an Alaskan cruise. Recently I have been prodding my husband along trying to get him to take me. We have Beautiful to watch the kids and we can go a week that the Middles are at camp (we have no family in our state so have never had grandparents/etc to watch kids. We are so grateful for the friends who have kept our kids in the past when the Middles were younger so that us older ones could get away to Mexico (so.incredibly.grateful!) but they are now just too difficult to ask someone to take them for that long - hence us trying to go while the kids are at camp lol!)

He has been reluctant. He wants to wait for the kids to get older in case something happens to them or us while the kids are away. And, lets face it, our kids are a handful! He also argues that our oldest son will be gone to college soon and we should just spend the time with him until he leaves.

I keep arguing that Beautiful is probably going to have her own family soon and then she won't be able to keep track of our "handful" children as well if we left for a week, the kids can only go to camp for a couple more years, and - lets just be real - as difficult as our daughters are right now it will be nothing compared to what they are like from ages 13 - 16 (in my opinion those are some downright insane years for girls). So, I think we need to go sooner.

I think both sides of our argument have valid points. So, today he shocked me when he gave me a proposition.

I have been desperate to lose weight for years and no matter what I do I can't seem to lose it. So, he asked me what my goal weight would be - and then told me that if I reach it we can go. I countered that he has been itching to go on a fishing trip and that if he gets his A1C down to the recommended level (he was diagnosed with diabetes just over 4 years ago) that he could go on the fishing trip.

Then I told him - "It is ON!!"

Of course he will likely win way before I do. In fact, given how hard it has been for me to lose weight there is probably a fishing trip and not a cruise in our future. But I have a new motivation and maybe it will help lol!

Quite honestly, his motivation is probably that he gets to go on a fishing trip with only our 16 year old and will get to leave the rest of us home lol!

Disney World: Day 9 We finally get HOME!

I thought I had packed Grace's bedtime pills in a logical place. I thought I knew exactly where I packed them. But, I could not find them. So between putting her and Faith in a bed together (right next to our bed) knowing how much they are like oil and water (MOM! she breathes too loud! Mom! she is pulling on the blankets! Mom! Ewww, I am not sleeping with her!) and me not getting her sleeping meds in her I am not sure if she slept at.all. Which means that I did not sleep much as I can't settle until I know they are sleeping and not causing mischief.

We were back on the road by 8:30 a.m. and we got home about 8:30 p.m. We had called ahead to pick up pizza hut pizza on the way home so we didn't have to find food. I did that, and when we got there they had no idea what we were talking about. So we ordered Casey's pizza and picked it up when we got home. We were not happy with Pizza Hut:(

Last night we stopped so late because there is NOTHING after Memphis, TN. We kept looking and looking for a place to stop and had to just keep driving until we could find a town big enough for a clean hotel - we found a Holiday Inn. As much as I refuse to get a smart phone, I was VERY thankful for our son in law using his to look ahead on our route and help us find a hotel to stay in lol!

The drive this day...We stopped to get McDonalds for breakfast to eat on the road and get moving. On the second day of driving down we had instituted a rule that we would only stop for bathroom breaks every 2 hours and EVERYONE was required to relieve themselves so that we could be sure to make it another 2 hours. We used this rule on the way back as well.

However...our 12 passenger van set up is that I set in the first bench seat with JJ and the snacks, electronics, everything else that people may want and I need to have access to in order to keep them QUIET and NOT FIGHTING. So, there is not much room around me. Beautiful and her husband have the second bench seat. Two people over 6 foot tall look quite uncomfortable for long drives in a bench seat. I am just saying... And in the back 4 person bench are the Middles with a space between Grace and Superman (who protects Faith from Grace by sitting in the middle of them. Poor guy).

About an hour after McDonald's Grace (someone said she had fallen asleep, not sure if that was true) sat up and yelled she had to throw up. She gave us about 10 seconds of warning. Yeah...

Thankfully we use ice cream buckets double bagged with Walmart bags for trash cans in our van so someone closer to her got her a bucket.

I then tried to navigate the moving of Superman and Faith through all of the junk that was piled all over the place to my seat while I tried to get to the back seat. Beautiful and my husband DO NOT handle vomit well, and since Beautiful had been sick 3 days before she was not happy. We made a bathroom stop before the 2 hours was up (we have to be flexible people!) and I pulled out her dirty clothes from the day before that were in the hotel bag (nothing else was accessible) and got her clothes changed. Thankfully, we also always keep lots of baby wipes in the vehicles!

Also thankfully, I had my EO's handy so I got Tummygize and Peppermint on her tummy frequently (and mine just.in.case) and had a Purification spray that I sprayed many times over the next 11 hours of travel:) She vomited a total of 8 times in the van (and a couple more times after I got her home, showered, and to bed).

I remained in the back to help her and she either vomited to slept the rest of the drive home.

Silver lining? It was blissfully QUIET in the van as the girls were not fighting, and I got to SPREAD OUT in the back rather than being stuck in a small space. So, it all turned out ok:)

Palm Trees and warm February weather?  We will miss you!!!

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Post Vacation Contemplation
Our home is a stressful home. It is not a peaceful home. There is no way for me to even describe the conflict in our house or the issues we deal with. You wouldn't want to hear about it anyway.

Every day of travel we prayed for our safety and other various things. But I kept praying for unity for our family and that we would like each other more after the trip than before the trip.

You know what? I think we do. Despite 9 days of being is close proximity to one another 24/7, I was able to relax enough and actually enjoy my kids enough that I like them more than I did before. Does that make me a terrible mother to admit that? I love them all. But constant rebellion can be a weary experience. Does that mean that we did not have any conflict on the trip? Far from it. But we got to have more moments of joy than we usually do, and more moments of togetherness without distractions. Overall it went better than I expected it would go. How to keep that momentum going now that we are home is something I am contemplating...

Of course Beautiful and her husband were more than ready to not come over again for a month (except for the Superbowl of course) lol!

Maybe I am doing better at anticipating conflict and intervening earlier. Maybe (PLEASE) they are actually maturing. Maybe God just gave us a very needed break. Whatever it was about, I am glad that we went:)

Oh, and JJ has put himself to sleep 2 out of the 4 nights that we have been home, doubling the number of times he has done that while at home. So maybe the trip got that trend started too.

Please?

Pretty Please?  ;)

Regardless of where he fell asleep, he has slept through the night 3 of the 4 nights we have been home. That means that I have gotten to have 6.5 hours of uninterrupted sleep 3 nights. I laugh when I think about how that is so much less sleep than I used to need but after over 6 years of getting so much less than that it feels like I got 12 hours of sleep those nights lol!

If you have read all 9 of my Disney World blog posts to this point - Wow! Thanks for reading:)

Disney World: Day 8 Starting the Drive Home

Of course it took us longer to get out of the house than we would have liked, but I think we were gone by 9:00 EST. We had been advised by people in Georgia that unless we wanted to sit in traffic in Atlanta during the day we should also go through it at night. On the way down it was a Saturday and traffic (and construction) was not good. So we decided to head back through AL instead since it would be mid-day on a Friday (like we did last time). We traveled 15 hours this day and got to a hotel somewhere in Arkansas around 11:30 p.m. CST. It was a LLLOOONNNNGGGGG drive. JJ even fell asleep before we got to the hotel and slept all night long!  A very rare occurrence for him to fall asleep in the van at night.

Traveling through Alabama was long. We took some back roads per the GPS, but I think that staying to the interstate would be better on our patience because of the slower driving and stops to go through towns.

It was an interesting experience to stop at gas stations or McDonald's and be the only white people there. As a transracial family we are used to getting a double look when we walk in, but it was different there. It was a good experience for us to know what it is always like for Superman, Faith, and JJ when they are the only black people in a room, building, town...

We got to see some of the damage from the tornado that went through Georgia a couple of weeks ago. We went through FL, GA, AL, MS, and AR today.

Georgia tornado damage

Georgia tornado damage

FEMA in Georgia for tornado damage

Alabama

Birmingham, AL   I am so glad we do not live in a city!

I tried to take a picture of every state. It was obviously dark out. I think this was the MS one lol!

Disney World: Day 7 Epcot Day Two

Beautiful was feeling better this day so we loaded up for our short day at the park. We were all tired and ready to be done with long days. We chose Epcot for a second day since we all liked the park and Beautiful didn't get to see it yesterday. She was still pretty week from the stomach crud so we got her a wheelchair and her husband pushed her all over for the 6 miles of walking;) He is a most excellent husband:)

We went to Mission Space and Test Track again. We got to watch the Jamminators - which are 2 men in a percussion "band" who bang on garbage cans for as their instruments. It was really fun to watch. This week was arts week so there was a lot of art work and bands playing. Three years ago it was horticulture week when we came and the bushes were all clipped to represent Disney characters. Personally I preferred that week. However, there were a bunch of bands (loosely labeled) and as the kids love music (especially JJ) it was nice for me to be able to sit frequently today while they listened and danced to various entertainment:)

The oldest 4 of our group were moving slowly and spent most of their time today in the "countries" looking in the shops. NOT a safe place for our youngest kiddos if we don't want to purchase a bunch of damaged souvenirs, so I took them on more rides. We went on the Figment ride and Under the Sea (Nemo). They are both fun. Then the kids played in the play area after the Nemo ride and watched the fish in the huge aquariums there until I was texted that it was time to go for the night. I think we left around 7.

We then headed to IHOP. If one wants to call it a tradition, we stopped there 3 years ago as we had never eaten at one before so decided to do it again on this trip. Everyone got a huge "breakfast" meal then we headed home to pack. While packing I contemplated whether it is worse to pack for the beginning of the trip or to just pack up everything in the vacation house to get it home. I am undecided...

I was so excited for the pool and the game room. I got to enjoy the pool with the kids a couple of times. I never did get to play pool though:( But I was very thankful for those two activities at the rental house so that we could give the kids something to do besides argue...

Grace in Canada

Percussion players in China

Trains

The kids swam a lot this morning while we packed up.

Finally got a family pic with our shirts:)

Figment!

Either JJ is posing like a goofball or grumpy when I want to take a picture-so I will take the goofball;)

game room

boys' room

kitchen

patio/pool

girls' room (Well, Grace's room)

Living room.

There were 3 other bedrooms - two with king beds and 1 with a queen bed. It was a nice home and plenty large for our family. Washer/dryer so I was able to keep up with laundry. Dining room table for 6 and a kitchen table for 4. It was a nice house:)

This is the link to the house if anyone is interested in staying there:)