Holy cow, I'm tired!

Whew! Yesterday was tons of fun, but I'm wiped! Here's a few photos to show the fun: The Blur

The Cake

The Candles

The Animal-like Eating of the Cake

Hooray for CAKE!!!

(In case you couldn't tell, the cake was a hit. It was also breakfast this morning!)

Last day of his 3rd year

And he has finally overcome his aversion to stickers! George is extremely tactile sensitive. He's long acted like all those friendly cashiers in grocery stores who try to give him stickers are, in fact, the monsters that live in his nightmares who want nothing more than to stick their evil poisons on him.

Okay, maybe I made that up. I have no idea what he experienced when peeling happy faced stickers off his clothing, but I do know that he panicked at the very sight of them.

But apparently, that is no longer the case! This morning, he calmly went into Emma's room, helped himself to a sheet of butterfly stickers, and proceeded to peel off every single one of them and affix them to his shirt. Then later, onto his pants. Then later, onto my magazine. Then later, a select few ended up on his cheeks and neck. Strange child.

Emma was great about sharing her precious stickers. (As soon as I promised we'd go buy some new ones!) She seems to understand why we get excited over silly little changes in George's behavior. She cheered him on as he covered himself in pink, green, and blue butterflies. What a great kid she can be!

I met with George's teacher yesterday, for a six month review. It amazes me how much he's advanced. Really, he was diagnosed with Autism only nine months ago; but in that time, with the help of many incredible teachers and therapists, he's come so far. His vocabulary expands daily, with several short phrases now finding their way into conversation. He is an active participant in his class, even at the circle time that used to be so difficult for him. (Over 30 minutes of sitting in a group, paying attention to teachers and students doing show and tell.) His violent outbursts (hitting & hair pulling) have completely disappeared at school (still working on that at home), and he plays with his friends actively, instead of parallel play off to the side.

Earlier this week, I was rereading what I had written the day he was diagnosed, and feeling those emotions anew. Overwhelmed, sad, angry, fearful...you name it, I felt it. But then, going through our photos and the memories we've recorded since, I feel so differently. I'm proud, happy, still frustrated sometimes, but hopeful and excited, too.

Love you, buddy! These three years have flown by, and I can't wait to see what the next three bring!

Oh boy...

George had cupcakes today at school. Remember that whole Gluten Free diet we are trying, and it's wonderful results? Cupcakes aren't gluten free. George had to take a shower after his nap time.....while I ran a load of laundry.....and scrubbed the carpet in his room and multiple puzzle pieces, toys, and furniture. yuck. And we're going into a weekend with not one, but two birthdays; and not two, but three birthday celebrations that include cake or cupcakes. Oh boy.

On a more positive, and less icky, note: We're still here! The vultures were gone by morning. We figure they either finished their meal or followed it elsewhere. Can't say I'm sorry to see them go. Did you know that turkey vultures have a 6 foot wingspan? Yikes!

It's been a good week. Despite the rain, we've gone swimming everyday. Emma LOVES her current class and it's amazing to see her propel herself through the water with such confidence. No meltdowns since the Blueberry escapade, and she's stayed in her room quietly after bedtime every day this week. As my friend, Sharon, pointed out, and my mom has often said, just when you think you've got kids and their needs figured out, they come up with something new. Now that we seem to have Emma in a good place, I fear for the next upheaval!

George and I generally just play while Emma's in swim class. He's fallen in love with the slide at our local pool. Here's a pic from their site:

I don't know if you can really appreciate it's hight, twists, and speed from the picture. But it's really fun! The only negative is waiting in line on the staircase leading up to the top. BRRRR! We usually brave it about 6 or 7 times before we head back to the regular pool or off to get changed into dry clothes!

Stinky boy is fussing, so I have to go now. I suppose I ought to wrap a few of the many Thomas products currently hiding in my closet. I'll be back with pictures sometime this weekend!

Oh, and Jason got the first of his presents last weekend. He finally saw in concert a band that he's loved since.....well, forever. They've been around since the 70's, I believe. As have we. Social Distortion isn't one of the bands we enjoy together. But I had to laugh as he dug out some of their CD's over the past week. I have many a compilation tape, stuck somewhere among the boxes of our history, containing Social D songs that a young Jason felt conveyed emotions he needed to share with me! Remember compilation TAPES???? Ah, glory days.

The vultures are circling

There are three of these ugly guys in our trees this evening, and a forth that's either their female counterpart or a hawk. So basically, we're surrounded by birds of prey.

If you don't hear from me within the next couple of days, you may want to come check for bones in our field.

Summer Boy

Farm day

We've been having some trouble lately with Emma throwing tantrums late at night (long after bedtime) and just in general having a difficult attitude. So we've taken some privileges away. And it's my job, as stay-at-home-mommy, to keep her gainfully occupied. Lucky me! I figure she must be getting bored with summer, I certainly remember getting to that point during school vacations, when the novelty has worn off and the lack of schedule means there's nothing specific to look forward to. (Sorry Dave, I know that sentence structure was horrific!) So, I'm trying to think of fun, active things to do on the weekends, when there is no school for George and we don't go to the pool because it's packed.

Today we went to the farm. Many of George's newest words focus on animals, their noises, and farming (thanks to a reemerging interest in Baby Einstein videos and books). We have a farm here, just outside of town, that has WONDERFUL produce, plus the family-friendly incentives of many hungry goats and a super playground. We had a great time, George did really well with all the transitions between activities (usually leaving a playground is incredibly difficult, but he was totally intrigued by all the other things to see), and we brought home some yummy cherries and raspberries.

Unfortunately, the trip home will now be known as the "Blueberry Meltdown", as Emma did an amazingly accurate rendition of the poor child in The Exorcist over my failure to purchase blueberries. Even Georgie looked at her like she was insane. Isn't he supposed to be my difficult child? Not sure what's going on with her lately, but we'll continue to try new adventures in the hopes of wearing them out, if nothing else!

Mommy

I know, I know, two posts in one day after a long dry spell. But I had to share.

George just said, "Mommy". Not entirely unprompted, but really, I didn't expect him to say it. He has a lot of trouble with M's in general and M's in the middle of words especially. Emma has been "Ebba" for months, Thomas is usually pronounced "Tho-as", and I haven't had a name at all.

But tonight, when I said "I love you", he said, "I love you". And when I said, "I love you, Mommy?" He said, "I love you, Mommy."

Off to go cry now.

Update time!

First off, I'm going to apologize for not apologizing. What? I haven't blogged in a while. Because I've been lazy. Not busy, just lazy. Just about every day this summer, I have read a book. An entire book almost every day. Granted, I read really quickly, but still, that's a lot of time sitting on the porch with a book, laying on the couch with a book, going to bed early to read a book.... And I do not apologize for it! Most of those books haven't been worth mentioning (I choose my books at the library based on their cover art work, that's all the time I'm allotted by my oh-so-patient children), but it has felt so good to just relax that I really haven't cared. So, I'm not on the computer much and therefore the three of you that check in here from time to time have probably deserted me completely! Oh well, before I go choose my next trashy novel, here are updates on and cute pics of the kids!

George went back to school last Tuesday for a month-long summer session. I was worried that he would resist, but nope! I brought his backpack out of hiding on Monday and he promptly put it on and started dragging me to the door, saying "school" and "teachers". Then when he discovered that we'll still go swimming every day, after we pick him up, well, life just doesn't get any better.

He is completely loving anything that has to do with water these days. Thus, his new best friend, Gracie:

I'm not sure how these pictures look to you. My monitor died on me last week and I'm using the old CRT monitor from Emma's computer. Which apparently has a dying bulb because it's on full brightness and contrast and still everything looks grey and washed out. Just waiting on a check from one of my magazine publications and off to Circuit City I'll go!

I'm not the only one doing a lot of reading this summer. Miss Emma has fallen in love with it! YAY!!! She now reads to ME every night at bedtime. And this is one of my favorite sites these days:Green Eggs & Ham was her first book that she really read by herself. Now we go to the Early Readers section of the library and she goes crazy! She also loves to write stories and letters. (Some of them are cranky, angst-filled notes that start, "Mom and Dad, I'm upset today...." Love those.) So, if you need a pen-pal, let me know! I'm thinking of setting up an email account for her, and of course "real" mail is even better.

So, there we are. Swimming, reading, and lazing about. Hope your summer is equally relaxing!

Emmatude

Digital Scrapbooking Magazine

There are some GREAT layouts on pages 34 & 69, if you're interested.

Ballet Photos

Yesterday was Emma's first ever stage performance. She was very nervous last week before the dress rehearsal, but once she got on stage, under the lights, in front of an adoring audience... she wanted MORE!! I was recruited to help backstage, which was exhausting, but so much fun to see the excitement on all the little faces. Plus, it was fun for me to be "behind the scenes" again after so long. I haven't been on or behind stage in 12 years, YIKES, that's longer than I thought!

The show went really well, and the girls all did wonderfully. Emma's already talking about wanting to get back on stage. And she certainly loved getting flowers afterwards. They were a surprise and she was thrilled!

I'm busy color correcting the photos, but I chose a few of my favorites to do first and share here. Enjoy!

And Jason is...

a Dreamer, too! But in a very different way. I'm an escape artist and he's a thrill seeker. It's amazing sometimes, reading these things. I know they're horribly generic and, like astrology readings, you can always find a way to make it fit. But still, it's interesting to read how the choices you make may define you. Anyway, here are Jason's choices:

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

Another Fun Quiz

I'm a Dreamer, what are you?

Read my VisualDNA™ Get your own VisualDNA™

You know you're old when...

...you spend 10 minutes dancing in the cool basement at 4:30 in the afternoon with your husband and 6 year old daughter to the awesome band you loved in college (Lawsuit, now sadly defunct), and you get a cramp in your side.

Jason was winded, too; only Emma kept going strong.

I love summer

It's 9:15. I'm still in sweats and no make up. The kids are outside playing in the sandbox and chasing the dog. In an hour, we'll get ready for our second day of swim class. After swim class we'll stay for family swim time. Then we'll have lunch. Then we'll go back outside. Then nap time/reading time/quiet time. Then back outside. Then dinner. Showers for the kids and off to bed. Drinks and maybe a movie for Jason and me.

Can life get any better? I'm so very glad that I decided not to over schedule our summer with day camps and such. The kids are loving this freedom, and so am I!

Pictures and stuff later, I'm going to go refill my coffee and sit....you guessed it, outside!

The newest 1st grader in town...

Leaving for school this morning:
Getting a hug at the end of the day from quite possibly the best Kindergarten teacher in the world.
She received an award for perfect attendance, has the phone numbers of several friends who want playdates, got a new I Spy book from Gramma, and McDonald's for lunch; but the thing she's most excited about? She gets to sleep in almost every day for the next three months!!

I'm right there with you, kid, enjoy your summer!

George's Wish List

I know this will come as a complete surprise to all of you, but George's birthday this summer will have a Thomas theme. I know! SHOCKER!!

I normally hate wish lists, I would rather people give what they want, but in this case I felt it would be easier to put together a few things for family members, since we do already have a few Thomas items. Plus, I've had more than one request for a list this year. So, here's a dozen or so things that I found on Amazon that he doesn't have. Add to that list any Thomas books, he only has a couple and even duplicates would be fine as we could keep them in the car.



We buy the metal Take Along series, not the wooden trains. For obvious reasons, I think! They can be found at Target, ToysRUs, and Barnes & Noble, among others. Thank you in advance to all our family! Thomas trains are helping him be more verbal and interact socially with other kids. For those reasons, we're happy to encourage this obsession!

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!!!!

Inspiration Overload

I love my husband. I love his job. Yesterday he brought me this:

This, combined with the information that he can acquire paint for us at an extreme discount means I can get paint happy again! Those of you that saw our last house know that I am not afraid of color. But painting here was put low on the priority list simply because the money was needed for other repairs. But for, ummmm, *cough* $5/gallon *cough*, very little money, we can go for it!

Jason keeps laughing at me because I'm carrying this book around with me like a baby blanket. But I love it! I'm thinking a buttery yellow for the living room, dark grayish blue for the dining room (to match the trim on the curtains), with all the molding touched up in fresh white. But what about the kitchen???? There isn't much wall space showing in there, might just go for the same yellow as the living room.

Ahhh, life changing decisions going on around here, I tell ya!

Just 'cause

And my heart melts....

Climb

We went to Florence yesterday, and the kids helped Papa & Gramma clear brush and chop down trees. Fun for all!

Summertime Cometh!!

I'm looking at listings for swim classes and day camps, and loving that I don't have to factor in 90% humidity this year!! Made me feel like drifting down memory lane, so here are a couple of pages featuring photos from last summer. (Man, those kids have GROWN!!)

Remember

Edited to add:

Thank you to Sue for the link to this amazing video. Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1

Road trip pics

So, I took pictures of (almost) every "Welcome to..." sign on our way across the country. Finally today, I figured out what to do with them. A fun way to record a snapshot of the trip!

A message from Emma:

Gotta go!! I don't want any more "tikits"!

Thomas Derailed

Around here, we're all about Thomas the Tank Engine. Yesterday, George felt Thomas needed to leave the Island of Sodor and go exploring.
Thomas begins his journey. Pesky boulders make it difficult for this little 4x4-challenged fellow.He evades the rocks by squeezing through a tight crevase.
What a HAPPY place Thomas has found!! Giant flowers provide shade and protection from giant bees!
Um, oops, need a little help here! Too much fun in the sun for Thomas.




Think maybe I need more sleep or did these pictures crack you up as much as they did me? Yeah, I hear ya. Off to bed I go. (In my defense, these aren't posed! I just followed George around and took pictures whenever he left Thomas somewhere.)

Mommy of the Year Award

Bet you thought you were going to get it this year, right? Nope! I’ve got this one wrapped up! Jason was going to pick up Emma from school yesterday. He had a 1:00 meeting, but would have plenty of time to get back across town afterwards to pick Emma up at 2:10. Except for one thing. Yesterday was Wednesday. Wednesdays are Early Release days. School gets out at 1:10.

So, at 1:15, I’m mentally planning out the rest of the day. Let’s see, we would be going swimming so I ought to give George an earlier nap and plan an easy, early dinner. Isn’t it great that we can go swimming every Wednesday? Wednesday. A quick glance to the clock. It’s 1:15 on Wednesday. Oh no!!!!!!!!!

As I frantically call Emma’s school and grab George’s shoes, I have visions of Emma standing by herself in her classroom, sobbing her eyes out. The receptionist tells me they’ll have her brought to the office and I run out the door. Breaking every possible speed limit, I arrive at school approximately 3.8 minutes later. Okay, maybe it was 7.8 minutes, but it was fast!

And Emma? Yeah, she was having a blast. Sigh. She thought it was the coolest thing ever. Ms. AJ took her outside to look for my car, and while out there, she heard her name being called over the loudspeaker. She’s famous! In the office, they gave her a book to read and admired her outfit. So you see? I really am the Mommy of the Year! I allowed my daughter to be treated like a princess at school!

Mom asked me this morning if I plan on picking my daughter up from school today or not. Thanks Mom.

******************************************************

In other news, we attended a Walk the Diamond fundraiser this morning for the Early Education Program that supports preschools like George’s. Very simple little parade around the local baseball diamond, snacks, and fun for the kids. George spent most of the time playing in the first baseline and turning his white socks brown. But he also loved the parachute (he called it a balloon), I loved watching him play happily alongside so many kids. Normally, that many people in so small a space would completely drive him crazy. All in all, it was a fun little event to gather the teachers, parents, and students and enjoy the sunshine. Several hours later, he is still wearing the little ribbon they gave him for completing the walk.

So often, we end up staying home because George can't handle big outings. I sure appreciate his school system sponsering something fun like this for kids like him. It feels great doing something as a family and breaking up the routine a bit. (By the way, George handled the routine change just fine, but wasn't real thrilled at seeing his teachers somewhere other than school! I think he thought we were going to leave him in a strange place, so he stuck pretty close the whole time we were there.)

This may only be interesting to my scrapbooking friends, but I met Ali Edwards and her son, Simon! Okay, Simon blew past me to go play, but he’s as adorable and full of life as all her pictures and layouts show. For you non-scrapbookers, Ali is the Creative Editor of Creating Keepsakes, the largest scrapbooking magazine, and an incredibly talented artist.

Pool, Glorious, Pool!!!

Wow!! Was that a success or what?!! We all had a blast the other night. I've never seen a pool like this one. Here's a pic from their website:

It doesn't look too strange, I know, but it really was so different. It's housed within a wellness center, so it's completely set up for every handicap or theraputic use. See the black stripe between the pool and spa? That's a wheelchair ramp. Not only useful for chairs, but also perfect for little toddlers, not ready to be in the big pool, but wanting to play without hanging on. Plus, the water was salt water! And heated to 92 degrees! Very, very cool!

George loved jumping off the edge into Daddy's arms and being piggy-backed through the deeper water by me. Emma loved practicing her swimming and enjoying the many floats, noodles, life vests, and toys available. Mommy and Daddy loved the spa! George thought the bubbles were the coolest things ever, so we got to spend lots of time in there! And the best part? The happily exhausted kiddos when the night was over. I had forgotten just how good post-swimming sleepiness feels. Can't wait to do it again next week!

Oh, and an added bonus: George now loves to take a shower, making hair washing night much, much easier!

When it all seems too hard...

...take a look out the window. And breathe. In....and out......ahhhhhhh, that's better now, isn't it?

This is our view from our living room window. Could it be any prettier? I love watching the sun set over the city and warming myself in the morning sun with a cup of coffee, enjoying those few moments before the kids get up!

I have lots more pictures, but it seems like the house looks different every day. One more box emptied, one more project completed, one more detail added that makes it all feel like Home. The fence went up (and with it, the play structure and Emma's garden), the downstairs bathroom was finished just before we moved in, the master bedroom was painted the day before the new carpeting went in (unfortunately, I can't stand how the color turned out, so we'll be redoing that...someday), and slowly but surely the basement has been reorganized and cleaned. As I write this, I can hear Jason dragging his new workbench into place and unloading yet more boxes. So life slowly returns to normal.

Tonight, after dinner, we're going to check out an indoor swimming pool that we can go to for free on Wednesday evenings through George's Early Education Program. This will be one of the first times George has been in a real pool (not a kiddie/wading pool), he loves the water though so I think we'll have a blast!

And now, just for your viewing pleasure (and a cuteness overload) here are the kiddos!

My fellow Oregonians...

I know that the sun is shining and, compared to the recent past, 61 degrees feels oh so warm and good. I agree with you! But please, I ask you to remember the fact that it has been a long winter, and your skin has spent much of that time covered up. The bare legs and arms, I can handle. But, for safety's sake, please keep your bikini tops in your dresser drawer and boys, please keep your shirts on. You're making it awfully difficult to drive down a busy street and see all traffic signals.

Construction workers, this goes double for you, there are too many of you and the blinding wall of white that confronted me across from Safeway was overwhelming. Thank you.

April is Autism Awareness Month

Links for info, if you're interested:
http://www.autismspeaks.org/
http://www.tacanow.com/
Network for Good