Random Monday Musings

Here we are in the last week of school. How the heck did that happen??? I have exactly 7 hours 45 minutes left of kid-free time! George's last day is Wednesday, and Emma's final day on Friday only lasts until 11:00 am. It's my goal to keep these kids busy, but not overly scheduled this summer. George's behavior quickly deteriorates if he doesn't have some kind of routine or if we fail to get out of the house every day.

I've signed them both up for swimming lessons starting next Monday. Not sure how that's going to go. Emma will be fine, but George and I will be doing what is essentially a Baby & Me class. I couldn't see him going in safely with his age group, away from me and paying attention to a new teacher. So, we'll go in together with the babies. I may have wasted that $36 and we'll end up moving over to just open swim, but he loves the water so much that I want him to have some concept of water safety. Never sure how much of that computes, though. Can you tell I'm really looking forward to this new adventure? At least it will get us out in the open air every morning (not too early, Emma's not exactly a morning person, LOL), and we can play in the open swim area afterwards.

Other than that, there will be a lot of trips to the library, craft projects, visiting various family members, and trips to the beach whenever Jason's available to go with us. Emma's especially excited about the library. She's reading and writing all the time now, and loving it! I love watching her and having her read to me. Such a fun stage!

Speaking of the library. Emma checked out several books last week, and Jason was looking through one last night. Kid books have definitely changed since we were youngsters. Case in point: Um, hello? It's a true statement and all, but is it necessary? Course if you're going to mention pooping, I guess you've got to go the other way, too. Did you notice this is a "pull the flap" book?

Seriously people? Thank god they stopped there!!!

Back to normal stuff. We've had lots of success lately, or rather George has, with some changes. He's been pacifier free for a couple of weeks now. I wasn't sure how that would go, but he didn't fight it at all! I made him a social story (picture book) all about how he didn't need it any more, and a few days later, when he had ripped his latest pacifier, I simply didn't put it in his bed. NO FUSSING! Unreal. A few days later, when he was having trouble sleeping, he asked for it, but when I told him it was gone, he didn't whine or fuss at all. Whew!

We've also changed one part of his diet. There's a lot of research about gluten free diets being better for kids with Autism. Their bodies have a hard time breaking down wheat products and it not only upsets their digestive systems, but also creates more havoc in their brains. I fought this idea for a long time, George is such a picky eater that it was just something I couldn't deal with. But we need to get him out of diapers so he can start attending "regular" preschool in addition to his early intervention preschool. And having a messy diaper every afternoon was not helping. So far, we've only switched out his sandwich bread to this:It smells horrible to me, but George seems to like it. And the messy diapers have STOPPED!!! Unreal. I guess those scientists know what they're talking about. Now I have to be careful what snacks I let him have. Over the weekend, I made chocolate cupcakes for the kids to frost and decorate, as a treat. Let's just say that George's system is no longer used to the regular flour and sugar in cupcakes. Poor kid was miserable. So many things to keep track of just to help him be a normal, happy boy. I've gotta keep reminding myself that all the work we do now will make it easier for him as he progresses.

Novel over, sorry for rambling! And I only have 7 hours, 15 minutes left of my kid-free time! Must go mop the kitchen, wheeee!!!!