Spinning out of control

First off, I apologize for the lack of updates this week. Let me give you a brief recap of the week.

Monday, Mr N did terrible in therapy, was uncooperative and didn't respond well at all.

Tuesday and Wednesday Mr N was his normal self and did great in therapy. He did some color matching, which I've been dying to see how he does with learning new things. He did great, I think he did 4-5 colors one day. 

Wednesday morning Mr N and I took some mail to the mailbox and before we got to the mailbox I got super dizzy and had to sit down. The dizziness progressed through the day and by 11am I asked Daddy to come home from work ASAP so that I wouldn't be alone with the kids after therapy. He hurried home to help. 

I woke up Thursday thinking I'd be all better, but nope, I was dizzier than ever. Instead of Daddy heading to SoCal for his meeting he took me to prompt care, but not before the puking began. I know what you are thinking, OMG I'm so jealous spinning & puking, did you even puke in the toilet? After 3 hours at prompt care, 2 shots, a pill and a couple of prescriptions they sent me on my way with a "vertigo" diagnosis, most likely migraine related. 

It gets better...the prescription for the nausea has a side effect of....wait for it....dizziness. Sweet! Maybe it'll spin my brain the other way and make it all stop. Nope. Both medicines make me drowsy. I fell asleep on the way home from prompt care, then took a 4 hour nap once we got home. I woke up at 4pm, ate and went to bed at 6pm. At some point Daddy canceled his trip to So Cal, for which I'm incredibly grateful. 

Friday I decided I would refuse to take my medicine so I wouldn't sleep all day since even though Daddy didn't go to the meeting, he'd be in the meeting on a conference call all day. That didn't quite pan out either, I dozed off and on until about 10:30 and then finally managed to stay awake for two hours before I took my medicine and went to bed.

I'm sure you get the jest of it, I slept a lot and did a whole lot of nothing. the grandparents are arriving for their visit today, so I've skipped the meds, done some cleaning and we took a family grocery getting trip so we can actually feed them. 

When my head stops spinning, I'm sure I have a few stories to tell about my precious littles, but for now this will have to do. Concentrating on anything makes my head hurt. 

Just another manic Monday

I wish it was Sunday....

I always hope that Saturday will skip ahead and come right after Sunday, just once. But alas, it is Monday and Sunday was not our fun day. We spent Sunday just doing little projects around the house in preparation for the Grandparents coming next weekend. We had two projects on the list for Sunday, to hang the mirror in the guest bathroom and to make the hot/cold water actually supply hot/cold water rather than it be a surprise. Daddy got the water dilemma fixed, then got side tracked and did not hang the mirror. Mirrors are overrated anyway, just trust me when I say you look fabulous!

Sunday may not have been a play day, but Saturday sure was! We decided to take advantage of our gorgeous weather and headed up to high country. We hiked into Lake Eleanor then enjoyed the beauty and silence of the pristine wilderness. There is no vehicular access to the lake so there aren't a lot of visitors. We had no intentions of letting the kids play in the lake, by no intentions I mean we clearly didn't think ahead with any common sense. As soon as we got to the lake the kids shed their shoes and we told them not to get their pants wet, before they even got close to the water we removed their pants and told them not to get their shirts wet. As you can imagine, they were happily playing in the water within minutes.

It was a wonderful, relaxing day with the family, it couldn't have been better spent.

Today Mr N woke up in a wonderful mood, all smiles and full of cuddles. My favorite way to start the day. E slept until almost 9:00 and didn't wake up in such a good mood. She insisted that Mommy get her out of bed and carry her to breakfast, which I did. Katy and the coordinator arrived while E was still in her PJs and eating breakfast. E finished eating while Katy & I blew bubbles with Mr N. Once E finished eating I left Mr N outside with Katy while I got E dressed, hair and teeth brushed.

E and I joined Mr N and Katy outside for a while before we headed in for some puzzles. Mr N only lasted about 45 minutes before he seemed tuckered out and ready for some cuddling. He took a break then got back involved with some painting and dancing. He stayed engaged for another hour or so before he needed another break. He seemed to tire down very easily today, he even fell asleep at 11:00 and slept for a little over an hour until I made him get up for lunch. After lunch he remained crabby for quite a while.

I don't know if Mr N's crankiness is just random or if it's because it's Monday, or if it's because it's Monday and the coordinator was here. But the crankiness has lasted most of the day, he's not tantruming and crying like he was during therapy, but he's just being unpleasant and short tempered.

E and Mr N have argued over pretty much everything all afternoon. I'm really hoping tomorrow goes much better.

Letters & Colors

I always wonder just how much Mr N knows, if he knows what letters are, if he knows the difference between them, etc. Same with colors. It's very difficult to access how much he knows and understands when he is not very verbal.

I mentioned recently that Mr N picked out the yellow and orange goldfish and ate them first. Today he was eating them again and when he picked out all the yellow and orange ones he asked for more. Yesterday when we were at Taco Bell he noticed all the sauce packets, but was only interested in the orange ones, the rest he didn't even bother with.

We have an alphabet puzzle and he can put every single piece in within a very short period of time, but doesn't say the letters when he does it. I have no way of really knowing if he just is matching shapes or if he understands that they are letters. He has recently become a lot more interested in playing with his iPad and loves the Starfall game. (Thanks Aunt Wendy for introducing us to it!!!) The app basically looks like this:

Every time he starts playing it he chooses the letter "N" first and then moves on to other letters. Sometimes he'll just do the letter "N" then be done and go play something else. The last couple of days when he plays it he'll say "N" and make the "nnnn" sound. I have yet to figure out if it's just a coincidence that his name starts with an N or if he knows his name starts with N and that's why he likes it. When the kids play anything alphabet or letter related E will mention that his name starts with "N".

Regardless, I'm super impressed that he seems to prefer certain letters and colors. It probably means nothing, it is probably nothing to get excited over, but I'm Mommy I can be excited about it if I want!!

Field Trip

Yesterday was our outing for therapy. We met at a local apple ranch that has a train, orchard, pumpkin patch and animals to feed. Our first stop was, of course, the coffee bar before we headed outside. The first animals we saw were the horses, which are fun, Mr N wants to stick his hands up their nostrils....

Next we headed to the feeding area and got the kids some corn feed for the chickens. We could have spent all day feeding the chickens. The kids thought they were great, until Mr N got his thumb pecked, then he realized they make tasty food and time to move to better animals. He quite enjoyed feeding the goats (I think they are a tad icky, thankfully Katy helped him feed them). There were two calves that were absolutely precious, baby cows are my favorite. We just pet them, we didn't feed them. After feeding the first group of animals we headed to the duck and goose pond, all fun and games until a goose decided Mr N looked tasty and nibbled on his head. I'm telling you the kid is so cute even the animals want to eat him up.

The train ride really made the kids happy, Mr N sat perfectly still in his seat just taking it all in as we circled the ranch and went through a couple of tunnels. I was, in fact, a wee bit worried that he would not enjoy it and we'd have to stop the train and disembark, but my little man loved it.

The kids loved the trip to the apple ranch so much, we plan to go back when the grandparents come to visit next week. I can't wait for them to experience the joy with the kids.

Once we left the apple ranch the kiddos were ready for lunch so we stopped for a healthy meal at Taco Bell. Yes, my friends, that is sarcasm. Neither of the kids were super interested in eating, but we tried. They overheard Katy and I talk about going to the park after lunch and would have preferred to skip the lunch part all together.

At the park the kids ran around, E mostly stuck with Katy, while Mr N was super attached to Mommy. There were quite a few other kids there, so that effected his willingness to play uninhibited.

After therapy time was done we stopped at the store for some milk before we headed home for the day. By this time Mr N was ready for his nap, I put him in the ergo and E in the "car cart" and hit the dairy aisle. Mr N dozed off while we were shopping and was asleep within moments of being put back in the car.

So why the outings? Why the doing normal, mundane things for therapy? Remember all the posts about sensory input about Mr N getting easily overwhelmed? These outings are great for gently getting Mr N more exposed to new things. While I can, and do, take the kids on outings by myself, having the therapist there to help Mr N get out of the car, or to encourage him to hold her hand are very beneficial in helping Mr N step a little outside his comfort zone. Yesterday we made four stops, that is four times into the car-seat and four times out of the car-seat, that is major progress over the last six months. I don't think Daddy and I would have attempted that even just a few months ago.

More on Mr N's speech, I know I talk about it constantly, but it's become sort of an obsession, just trying to look for progress. Today I had ran upstairs for something, when I came back down he said "hi, what are you doin?" wow, that is five words strung together. Thursday he voxed Susie and said "hi, I wuv you, hi Susie". I'm so amazed and proud of his progress. He also voxed Susie some gibberish along with "what are doin?" this morning. Thankfully she's pretty tolerant of undecipherable messages from my kiddos.

Today we have a play date in the park with our friends, so I'm excited for the kids just to get out and interact  with other kiddos.

Colors & Carseats

The kids are eating goldfish crackers and listening to kids songs (100 songs on iTunes for $9.99). I look in Mr N's bowl and he had eaten out all of the yellow and orange goldfish, leaving the green and red ones. I am just so happy to see that he recognizes different colors and seems to have a preference.

Therapy went pretty well this morning, Mr N has been pretty clingy and cuddly the last couple of days, I'm starting to think he's coming down with something. He doesn't have a fever and isn't complaining or acting like anything hurts, but he doesn't complain when he falls and skins his knees and elbows either.

We did some bubbles outside, Mr N did some fruit cutting, balloon play, dancing, and ball play, of course. Mr N loves to throw stuff, I'm not sure if he gets sensory input from it or if he's just like his uncle who threw anything and everything (and most likely still does). As much as Mr N looks like his Daddy, I certainly see my brothers in him quite often.

Nap time came a bit before therapy was over, but he seemed to really need the rest today so we didn't fight Mr N on it.

While baby napped, I tried to teach sissy how to play "Mary Had A Little Lamb" on our wooden xylophone. I took the liberty of using permanent marker to help her learn her notes. Like this...

She doesn't quite have it down, but she thinks it's awesome when Mommy plays it, so that's a good start.

Now I'm gonna climb up on my soap box for just a minute. This week is Child Passenger Safety Week, so I'd like to raise awareness for all parents. Motor vehicle injuries are the leading cause of death among children in the United States. THIS IS HUGE! Seriously, this is a huge problem. Parents are constantly running their kids to the doctor for minor bumps, bruises, fever, etc. Parents take precautions by vaccinating, baby proofing their homes, putting in smoke and carbon monoxide detectors....yet fail to properly keep their child restrained in a vehicle. It's unfathomable how this is overlooked by so many parents. It's estimated that 72% of child restraints are misused and could increase the risk of a child being injured in an accident. There is no excuse, if you are a parent, read your car seat or booster seat owner's manual. Watch YouTube videos that have been made by professionals. Take your vehicle and car seat to an inspection station. Here is a link, search by your location....it's right HERE again!

You thought I was done? No, I'm not done. Here is a link http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/child_passenger_safety/cps-factsheet.html
to more facts and guidelines for parents and caregivers. Laws are finally changing to help protect our precious children. I'm actually going to post some of the guidelines. This is the information hospitals should be forcing parents to watch before they leave the hospital.

~ Birth through Age 2 - Rear-facing child safety seat. For the best possible protection, infants and children should be kept in a rear-facing child safety seat, in the back seat buckled with the seats harness, until they reach the upper weight or height limits of their particular seat. The weight and height limits on rear-facing child safety seats can accommodate most children through age 2, check the seat's owner's manual for details.

~ Between Ages 2-4/ Until 40 lbs - Forward-facing child safety seat. When children outgrow their rear-facing seats (the weight and height limits on rear-facing car seats can accommodate most children through age 2) they should ride in forward-facing child safety seats, in the back seat buckled with the seat's harness, until they reach the upper weight or height limit of their particular seat (usually around age 4 and 40 pounds; many newer seats have higher weight limits-check the seat's owner's manual for details.

~ Between ages 4-8 OR until 4'9" Tall - Booster seat. Once children outgrow their forward-facing seats (by reaching the upper height and weight limits of their seat), they should ride in belt positioning booster seats. Remember to keep children in the back seat for the best possible protection.

~ After age 8 and/or 4'9" Tall - Seat belts. Children should use booster seats until adult seat belts fit them properly. Seat belts fit properly when the lap belt lays across the upper thighs (not the stomach) and the shoulder belt fits across the chest (not the neck). When adult seat belts fit children properly they can use the adult seat belts without booster seats. For the best possible protection keep children in the back seat and use lap-and-shoulder belts.

~ All children younger than 13 years should ride in the back seat. Airbags can kill young children riding in the front seat. Never place a rear-facing car seat in the front seat or in front of an air bag.

~ Place children in the middle of the back seat when possible, because it is the safest spot in the vehicle.

Okay, I might be done now. I had to edit out a lot so I didn't sound so heartless and judgmental. But these are precious, innocent lives being lost for absolutely no reason. Please, please, please keep your children safe.

Edit: I wasn't quite done. Here is an image that will help guide you on where the chest clip goes (should be even with the armpits) and to determine how snug the harness should be. Just remember, it's a chest clip, not a belly clip.

A little brag

Mr N's speech has been progressing daily, it's such an astonishing thing to see. He strung several words together today and now I'm kicking myself for not writing it down or blogging it when it happened.

He did a couple of other pretty awesome things today. The first, he had finished eating a Popsicle outside and gone back inside. But before long he came outside and said "help up". I followed him in, he climbed up on the new stool Grandma made for Mommy and wanted to wash his hands at the sink. It's the first stool that he can actually reach the faucet, so I'm pretty excited to help teach him that part of washing his hands. Anyhow, he put his hands under the water, held his hand out for soap, rubbed his hands together, then rinsed them. When he was done he dried his hands and said "done". Washing hands has been a "self help" skill that they want to see mastered in therapy. We've been working on it, but it typically requires a few prompts to get it accomplished, today was the first time he asked to wash his hands.

The second thing I need to brag about is his mad puzzle skills, we all know he can do puzzles even the 26 piece alphabet puzzle. Today we set up the train set along with the farm set, we also pulled farm and train pieces from 3 different puzzles to fancy up the farm. When we went to put it away, I took all three puzzle boards and handed Mr N the pieces to all 3 puzzles, 2 of them are farm puzzles, 1 is a train puzzle. While he was working on that I picked up the train set & pieces which also includes a cow and a horse, and I put away the farm. He quickly put all the pieces where they went and helped me put the farm pieces in the correct bin along with the putting the farm pieces in the correct bin. I was quite impressed. They are all Melissa & Doug sets so a lot of the horses, cows, barns, sheep, etc look very similar but he sorted it all out without any trouble.

I'm so proud of my baby boy.

Compassion

Last night E face planted off the arm of the sofa onto the floor. I held her while she cried, Mr N came over and asked "wha happen?" I told him E got an owie, he climbed up next to us and stroked her head over and over saying "okay" (it's okay) and "alright" (it's alright). Mommy got a little teary at this exchange of compassion for his sister.

Therapy started off poorly today. We started by attempting to dress him, that did not end well. The first hour of therapy involved mostly Mr N cuddling Mommy while Katy attempted to get him to engage or even acknowledge her, to not avail. Finally, he decided to get to playing with Katy and did well the rest of the day.

Soon after Katy left we began Operation Nap Time, it began with Mr N taking a nap while Mommy tried to get stuff done, but quickly the sleepies took over and Mommy joined the napping game.

I think my brain hasn't woken up all the way yet, so we'll keep this post short and sweet.

Look!

Can I just say how proud I am of my little man? What an amazing little dude I've been blessed with in my life. He amazes me day after day with his progress, his new words, his ability to learn new things.

After a very busy weekend I was anxious to see how Mr N would do with therapy this morning. When Katy arrived Mr N was pretty intent on cuddling with a blanket on the sofa. It didn't take very long for Mr N to get involved and start playing. He did some great work the play doh rolling it with the rolling pin, pushing his thumbs into it and patting it flat with the palms of his hands. Mr N also engaged in some sensory seeking behavior, he took the big bears and would pull them on top of him and just lay there under the weight of them. Once he came to find me, gave me a hug, then ran back to the play room.

He is very much responding well to Katy and staying engaged during the entire 4 hours of therapy. It's great seeing him do so much. Today he pointed and said "look" to Katy to get her attention, it's a new word. New words during therapy is like bacon on a cupcake.

We've started eating lunch during therapy since it goes until 1:00p. Today the kids had Ramen noodles, crackers and a banana. Mr N ate all of his noodles and most of E's noodles. I was pretty excited to see him eat so much!

After therapy ended Mr N headed to bed for a much needed nap, it was a nice long nap while E begged to go to the market as soon as he woke up. This resulted in E saying "he's awake" every time he stirred a bit. Once he finally woke up we ran to the market for apples and muffins. The market stopped carrying the muffins E likes so we made our own muffins out of banana bread batter with some mini chocolate chips added. E thinks they are the best thing ever, she even saved 4 of them for Daddy.

At one point during Mr N's nap he woke up and needed cuddled to which I gladly obliged. As I laid there holding him looking at his perfect face, touching his perfect toes, loving my perfect little man, I couldn't help but think how lucky I am to have the precious child in my life.

Wild Weekend

Friday started off with sleeping in (for 15 minutes) then breakfast, cuddles and a movie. Ahhh blissful laziness.

Our relaxation was only temporary, we then met up with some friends and headed to town for some last minute necessities for the wedding. Next time we will prepare better so we can take the kids to the park after shopping. Mr N fell asleep on our way to town, so I put him in the Ergo at the first store we went to, then foolishly left the ergo in the car while we went to the grocery store. He typically likes to ride in the car cart with E, but Friday he was not having it. He walked or had me carry him the whole time.

We arrived back home with the tools needed for cooking. I was asked to bring pasta salad for 10 people, so I found a great recipe that included in bacon. What I lack in personality, I make up for in bacon recipes. I made Chicken Bacon Ranch Pasta Salad and it was delicious, if I do say so myself. It took a few hours to get all the bacon baked and chopped up.

Saturday we started off with a parade, bounce house, and lattes. It was our town's annual festival, the parade started at 9:00a. The kids love the parade, this was our second time going, it's hard to believe we've lived up here a year already. After the parade ended we headed to the coffee shop for some caffeine, since we left home in a hurry. With lattes in hand we headed for the park where all the booths and chili cook off was located. First we had to pass the bounce house, which was very enticing to the kids. E chickened out after observing all the big kids playing recklessly, but Mr N was determined to get his bounce on and go down the slide. He bounced about half a bounce before he headed for the slide, which required some Mommy interference. The big kids were pushing, shoving, climbing up the slide and not letting any of the little kids use it. Mommy cleared the ladder and slide for Mr N and he happily slid to the bottom to a waiting Daddy. We then hurried away from the bounce house to avoid going through that again.

Unfortunately, we had quite a hot Saturday so our time at the festival was quite short lived, we bought a bottle of water, said hi to some friends and then headed for the car. On our way to the car E reminded me that we needed new library books so we made a short detour for some reading material. Upon arriving home the kids & Daddy cuddled and played while Mommy put together the pasta salad. Mr N skipped his nap altogether, but so kindly fell asleep on the way to the wedding and slept through most of it.

The reception was outside so the kids played until the injuries were more abundant than the enjoyment. Daddy took the kids home to bed while Mommy stayed and danced like a fool. I caught a ride home with our guests and dragged my tired body to bed.

Sunday started a wee bit late, but we got loaded up and out the door, we were only a few minutes late to meeting. Afterwards we headed to some friends to barbecue, chat and let the kids play. Mr N was quite the Daddy's boy on Sunday, I don't think Daddy minded one bit. I hope the kids never take for granted how great their Daddy is and how much he loves them. He is an amazing man.

After an exhausting, fattening weekend we came home and crashed.

Power, Playdates and Pomegranate

Yesterday we had a scheduled 8 hour power outage beginning at 8:00am which I forgot about until 8:00am when the power went out. This changed up our plans a bit for the day since I hadn't made coffee yet. Mommy sans coffee is nothing to mess around with, so for yesterday's field trip we went for coffee, walked downtown, then cruised the market. Doing normal things with the therapist is great for Mr N to get used to others. When we got to the coffee shop Mr N let Katy unbuckle him, but not get him out. It will take baby steps and probably quite a few outings before he lets her get him out, but he is becoming more and more familiar with her and more comfortable with her helping him.

The coffee shop has a nursery in the back so while I imbibed in some coffee, we walked around the nursery and the kids explored the area. There is a tree house that the kids climbed up into, there is a small stage where they have summer concerts, and a grassy terrace for concert goers. The kids wandered, explored and found things to play with; including a wagon, tonka truck and rock. E pretended she was a cat and "hid" in the tall grass while Mr N threw the rock up the hill, then back down the hill.

After the coffee shop we walked through downtown, nothing was open so it was really just a walk while trying to get Mr N to hold hands. This is not usually an issue with him, but yesterday he was not cooperating. While we were walking through the produce aisle at the market the sprinklers came on which excited Mr N. He started saying "water". I've noticed that as time goes by his words get clearer and easier to understand. Water used to be one of those weird words that sounded nothing like water, but now it starts with a "w" and has two syllables. While him learning and saying new words is exciting and encouraging, I'm even happier when he starts pronouncing things better. Progress is such a beautiful thing.

Once we arrived back home Mr N did some painting, puzzles and ball play with Katy. Then he started playing with the toy food again, he really likes dumping it on his body, rolling in it, then throwing it. We've been redirecting the throwing aspect into throwing it back into it's tote rather than at people or across the room. He dumped, rolled, and threw the food a few times before moving onto playing with blocks. He also wanted to throw the blocks, but they are hurty and unsafe so we put the kibosh on that.

By the time therapy ended it became pretty clear that no power, which directly resulted in no water, was not something we were prepared to handle. We had plans to go visit a friend who has kittens, so we set on our way for our little play date. Mr N was asleep within 2 miles of leaving home, which left me hopeful that he'd continue to sleep after we arrived. That didn't happen. Instead, he woke up as soon as we got there and cried for quite a while. He kept wanting to go back out to the car, but he finally settled down.

Both kids loved the black kitten and Mr N was very gentle with her. Mr N also let my friend pick him up 3 times, we were both pretty surprised. Her kids are 5 months and 17 months, eventually Mr N was playing nicely with the 17 month old. The kids had fun and so did Mommy. We intend to have regular play dates with our new friends.

Amidst the chaos yesterday, we did receive a phone call from Mr N's pediatricians office letting us know they are sending a referral to the neurologist and we should hear from them within a week to get his appointment scheduled.

No pomegranates were harmed during the posting of this blog.

Cuddlebug

Mr N is the cuddliest kid I've ever known. I love it. Does it get any better than having a cuddle bug crawl into bed with you in the morning? Nope!

Mr N is pretty much obsessed with counting lately, little by little he is learning his numbers. So far he says "two", "seven", and "eight". But he will point to objects and count "two, two, two, two, twooooo". He recently discovered the Ants Counting app on his iPad. It certainly is increasing his ability to recognize numbers.

Today during therapy Mr N grabbed the toy phone and handed it to me, so I talked for a few minutes to "Grandma" then said "it's for you". Mr N immediately grabbed it and said "hello? what you doing?". Pure awesomeness. We will have to call Grandma later so he can talk to her for real.

We ran to the hardware store yesterday for brackets to hang the guest bathroom mirror and noticed they still had a few Melissa & Doug toys on sale, they had one puzzle that we don't have yet, so we picked it up for use during therapy. Ok, I confess I love Melissa & Doug stuff, it's so durable, so well made, so stinking cute and it was $5. Mr N quickly mastered the puzzle today and moved on to other puzzles, played basketball with balls and a tote, then a repeat of basketball with the toy food and a tote. I'm pretty sure his super power is throwing; I'll be honest, I haven't been around a lot of 2.5 year olds, but his athletic abilities are impressive to me, as well as his hand and eye coordination. Basketball, baseball and kicking seem to be his favorites; he will use a plastic bowling pin as a bat and the bowling ball to play baseball.

I was doing some reading recently on an autism board and someone posed the question, have you or your spouse been evaluated for autism since receiving your child's diagnosis. A surprising number of people had either been officially diagnosed with a spectrum disorder or had done some online questionnaires and feel they fit on the spectrum. My initial thoughts were that they were trying to determine if it was genetic, or place the blame on one parent. I say place the blame, because it seems there is some blaming when a child is diagnosed, like it somehow makes one parent feel better if it's not their "fault" that their child has autism. Personally, I don't think either of us is to "blame", it's just something that happened and there is nothing we can do to change it now, so why focus on the how? I think for prevention issues, it'd be great if research was done to determine if outside elements were contributing to autism.

I discussed the topic with Daddy to see what he thought of it all, his perspective is so insightful, so positive, so perfectly what I need. He said "I would be happy to find out that I have autism, it would reassure me that Mr N could live a very productive, successful and happy life". What an amazing way to look at it. I hadn't thought of it that way at all, but he is absolutely correct. It would most certainly relieve some of the stress and worry to find out that one of us is on the spectrum.

Our guests from out of state arrived last night and were so kind to bring me flowers. Here is a picture, so you can enjoy them as much as me (just imagine them smelling absolutely divine).

Getting Dressed

Lately Mr N does not enjoy putting his clothes on, not every day but several times a week we have to fight getting dressed. Today is one of those days. I'm not sure what causes him to be so upset with the clothes, we've been waiting to get him dressed after Katy gets here so we can work towards him letting others dress him. I'm wondering if it is just too much change after she arrives. I'll keep track the next couple of days and report back. We ended up taking his clothes back off since they were really bothering him.

Yesterday in therapy Mr N did amazing, it was the first day that he really spent a lot of one on one time with Katy. He is making tremendous progress and he really likes Katy, it helps that she is very relaxed and really works well with him. He did a great job working on puzzles, giving great eye contact, stacking blocks and used the cardboard nesting blocks to play basketball.

After therapy Mr N took his nap while I worked on painting the guest house and getting it ready for company that is arriving today. The painting was short lived, Mr N woke up in a very crabby mood. Daddy had mentioned on Saturday that when Mr N woke up cranky that he took him for a drive and he calmed right down. I figured I'd give it a go, the doors and top are still off the Jeep so it makes for quite the enjoyable drive. Sure enough he calmed down as soon as I buckled him in, and was happy for the whole drive.

The kids were not any more cooperative with allowing me to paint after the drive, so I gave it a break for a couple of hours. The kids played outside, which means digging up the empty flower garden and flinging dirt all over each other and the patio. I hosed them off and banished them to the house for a while.

Today Mr N has done quite well with therapy despite the initial getting dressed dilemma. He's done some painting, blocks and puzzles. E got out the ABCs puzzle and as she'd pick up a piece he'd say "right there" and point to where it went. It was pretty impressive, he knew immediately where each piece went and pointed it out. Mr N also did the hide and seek board which I've mentioned before, today we mixed up the pieces behind each door and Mr N corrected each one. It's amazing just to watch him and see his little brain work so quickly, knowing where each object goes.

Before we went outside we tried putting clothes on Mr N again, he put them on with no problem. When we came back inside the kids had lunch, then dumped out their piggy banks and put the coins back. E discovered how to climb in the big purple bucket and put the other one on top, Mr N gave it a try and really seemed to enjoy it. It makes me really want to get or make him an enclosed swing. How hard could it be? Hopefully it won't turn into a curtain fiasco.

Busy, busy, busy

I meant to update my blog yesterday after therapy, but we spent the last bit of therapy at the park then headed home and I started painting the guest house. Therapy went really well yesterday, Mr N is really bonding well with Katy and eagerly invites her to play with him. I know most of my posts include reference to Mr N's speech or vocabulary, but it's hard not to keep track of every little word he says when his last evaluation placed him about 12 months verbally and receptively. I am eagerly awaiting speech therapy to begin, he is making such remarkable progress now, I can only imagine how well he'll be talking with more help.

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Mr N seems to be really moving forward with potty training, but he does not like wearing underwear, he wants a diaper or to be naked. He has been going pee on the potty several times a day and telling us as soon as he pees in his diaper. So we are making forward progress.

I'll keep this brief since I'm unable to make paragraph breaks on a mobile device. I'll go back later and edit, I just wanted to update about our field trip to the park on Friday. I am so lucky to be Mr N's mommy.

My Big Boy

Potty training? But I'm not ready! I've always felt child led potty training is the most effective and easiest method. You can call it laziness, I'm fine with that. My point is Mr N has started peeing on the potty on a daily basis without any prompting. He pats his diaper when he wants to sit on the potty, then runs for the bathroom. I'm not sure that he really needed to pee all 8 times he went today, but he certainly enjoys receiving praise for peeing on the potty. 

Today was our big grocery shopping day, so while we were in town we got Mr N some big boy panties, now just to convince him that he needs to wear them rather than running around naked. Grocery getting was pretty uneventful, Mr N did great today. It was a beautiful day so I didn't bother putting the windows back in the Jeep, on our way into town E kept asking me to take the top off, so before we journeyed back home I took off the top. There is something so relaxing and wonderful about wind blowing through your hair in perfect weather. 

Mr N napped on our way into town and I wore him all through Walmart, then at Costco he walked beside me most of the time or maybe I should say ran. He was quite riled up and ready to play so we did Costco quite quickly.

Therapy went pretty well today, Mr N was in a much better disposition and interacted well with Katy. He climbed up on the table to turn on the CD player because he wanted to dance with her, such a precious boy. I love him. He also did some painting. 

After painting he did some fruit cutting (wooden fruit/wooden knife), hide and seek, then some outside time. 

While Mr N and E were busy playing with Katy I scheduled well child checks and sent a message to Mr N's pediatrician requesting a referral to get his rest of the testing done. I was going to procrastinate and avoid the issue because I'm a bit scared. But last night I decided, somewhat naively, that I would just google these things and reassure myself that his tests will all come back negative. After that shock of information I decided I'd rather know for sure one way or another, the sooner the better. 

I've been a bit of an emotional wreck today just thinking about the prospect of Mr N having yet another diagnosis that I'm not prepared to handle. I just assumed we were ruling out stuff, that there was one in a million chance that he'd get more diagnosis, that there was little chance that he'd actually have anything in addition to autism. I know they say knowledge is power, but right now it feels like knowledge is crippling. I just want the tests to be done, to have some answers.

Every time my beautiful baby is being silly, making me laugh, giving me hugs, and just being a boy I get a little teary. He's so amazing, I've never met such a joyful, little boy who was so quick with a smile, who is so amazingly beautiful and sweet. To know him is to love him. 

I am making it my goal to not think about the testing until the appointments are scheduled, I will not continue to wallow and blubber (well maybe a little bit, but I'll do it privately). Another diagnosis does not change who my beautiful love bug is, it only adds another layer to him.

Stimming

Stimming is a part of autism that we've grown to accept. This doesn't mean it's easy watching our child do it. Today was just one of those days where the stimming was very obvious and quite frequent. Some stimming we do not try to alter, but if Mr N is doing something that is not socially acceptable (chewing on tampons) we redirect to give him the same sensory input with something more socially acceptable (chewing on velcro, tooth brush, etc). We also redirect him if his stimming is dangerous to himself or others. During therapy today he was throwing his monster trucks. As you can see, these are made of hard plastic and could possibly injure himself, his sister or his therapist. We redirected him to a bin of stuffed animals, much more appropriate for throwing.

Mr N had a relatively rough day, he didn't want to engage with his therapist, he wasn't even interested when she started playing ball with E. He wanted held while I did some head compression and used some lotion to calm him. He finally interacted once we did some outside play time. He "painted" the house (using water and paint brushes) and kicked the ball. 

Since morning therapy runs until 1:00 we will be doing lunch while the therapist is here. Today we were a little ill-prepared so Katy and the coordinator had a snack with the kids and I ate later. But Mr N did an awesome job with lunch, I served the kids sandwiches, grapes, string cheese and crackers. Usually he will only eat crackers, occasionally he'll have some cheese and/or grapes. He ate at least 4 big bites of his sandwich. What a glorious day! That is all he has eaten today, but what an amazing thing to see him trying new things!! It truly is the small things in life that bring us the most joy. 

During the last 30 minutes of therapy Mr N laid down for his nap. I really think this new schedule will be so much more productive. 

While Mr N was napping I took E out to the garden to water and pick tomatoes. Then E played some addition and counting games on the computer while Mommy called Grandma. 

We started back in with E's "school work" today. She isn't old enough for Kindergarten yet, so we are just using the tools we can find to do Pre-K stuff until she can be enrolled in K. She wanted to draw a picture of herself like her cousin did yesterday at school, but E is a bit of a perfectionist and she started two different drawings without finishing. She did, however, complete two pages in her workbook and did some coloring. I'm really hoping that once Mr N is more comfortable with Katy that I can do school time with E while they are doing therapy, but for now we will work on it in the afternoon.

Tomorrow we shall attempt a grocery run, I'm already dreading it. But I'm hoping that Mr N will nap on our way to town and possibly while shopping at one store. 

Gulliver's Travels

Minus Gulliver, it mostly involved Mommy, Daddy, Sissy and Baby. :D

I'm sure many have been wondering why my blog has not been updated in a while. Well I'm here to tell you.

Daddy had business meetings in SoCal last week so we took the opportunity to accompany him, for several reasons. First, the kids really miss Daddy when he's away, the less they are away from him, the better it is for them and me. Second, his hotel was a mile from the beach. Third, free hotel.

Monday morning the 27th we loaded up both vehicles and departed for SoCal. Along the way I discovered Red Bulls & Rockstar energy drinks, I have been missing out. For whatever reason, I was sure they would taste like poo and was never brave enough to try one. Then I saw that pretty pink can. Oh yes that one right there.....

And here you thought you'd see some amazing pictures from our trip, not so, grasshopper. I mostly took pictures of drinks and feet. 

The trip down was pretty uneventful, we stopped for lunch along the way. An interesting little tidbit we found out is that since my phone is set as priority one on the blue tooth in both vehicles, if I'm too close to Daddy while following him my phone will take over his blue tooth so I can have a conversation with myself for him to listen in on. Good times.

Upon arriving at the hotel Daddy went straight to work and didn't get back to our room until well after the kids were asleep. While Daddy was busy doing his work stuff the kids and I went to the nearest grocery store for some necessities (milk, yogurt, red bull, bread, cereal, etc). Then we headed down to the pool and splash pad for some good fun. The kids loved it, Mr N has no fear and has figured out how to hold his breath and go underwater. It scares Mommy every time since he does it without warning and does not come back up on his own. Relaxing would not describe our time spent at the pool.

Tuesday morning we woke up bright and early and hit the beach, but not before hitting the lobby for some coffee. 

The beach was beautiful and amazing, as you would expect. We built sand castles and played in the water until we were all tuckered out. We headed back to the hotel for showers, naps, and some TV. The kids do not really understand what TV is since we haven't had it for quite a long time, they did not grasp the concept of commercials or that I couldn't just make Dora be on for hours at a time. 

Tuesday evening Daddy had a break from work and joined us for dinner, then watched the sunset on the beach. 

As it started to get dark we headed back to our car.....

Wednesday we checked out the mall and got to know the area a little better. After Daddy got back to the room that night at 10:30 I joined my friend (whom Daddy works with) for drinks in the bar. It was nice getting a little grown up time, I'm sure Daddy didn't mind getting a little sleep. 

We decided the beach was much more fun than shopping so Thursday we hit the beach again. 

After a long, exhausting day at the beach we headed back to the hotel and watched the sunset from there.

Thursday night my cousin came to visit and we took the kids out for ice cream. We had planned to spend all day Friday with my cousin then head to her place for the night before heading back home on Saturday. But after sending Daddy on his way to Utah on Friday morning E decided she just wanted to go home. So we had more ice cream with my cousin then journeyed back home.

While the trip down was uneventful and took about 7 hours with stops, the way back didn't go quite so smooth. There was a ton of traffic and the trip took a little over 9 hours. The highlights from our return trip....

~ the GPS had me drive through an orchard

~ the GPS routed me down what I can only guess is a very scenic route if it is during the day and you can see

~ the "cutoff" it sent me down was an unmarked very narrow, windy road

~ E announced that she needed to pee while we were a thousand miles from nowhere and then couldn't pee alongside the road, upon donning a diaper she said "look how cute I am", five miles later she insisted "get this diaper off of me, I'll wait until we get home"

~ after many windy miles up and down the mountains E announced "I'm gonna puke" I hurriedly pulled off and started to take her out when she calmly said "I'm not gonna puke right now, I just feel like it"

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday were pretty uneventful, we relaxed, played outside, did some laundry, ran some errands and eagerly awaited Daddy's return. He made it home last night quite tired but excited to see us. 

Mr N certainly missed his Daddy while he was gone the four days, he called him a few times and chatted him up. E only called once to say "come home now" when she was tired of him being gone. They both enjoyed having some time with him last night before bed. 

We recently got "The Adventures of Milo & Otis" since E loves cats so much. At first, it seemed that Mr N wasn't that interested in the movie, but in the last few days it is the only movie he wants to watch. E has an imaginary cat named Milo (since we refused to take Elephant back to the pet store and buy Milo) that goes everywhere with us. Buckling a cat into a carseat with E is not quite as easy as one might think, although imaginary, it is easy to pinch his legs in the buckles. Today Milo's wife Joyce joined our family, so far she fits in well, I barely notice her.

PS. I was serious about the pictures being of feet and drinks.

Baby

Mr N is now recognizing pictures of himself, he points and says "baby". We still refer to him as baby and I do not intend to stop anytime soon, he is my baby, he will always be my baby. 

Along with saying baby he is stringing more words together, his speech is soaring, as is my heart. What an amazing little boy I have. I'm so blessed to have such a precious child in my life. I love his hugs and kisses and even when he tries to lick my tongue. 

Today was our first day back to therapy after our trip to SoCal. He did pretty good with his new therapist, Katy. This first week will be about bonding and getting to know each other, he really seems to like her. For the most part he just led the way today picking out toys and activities, the rest of us just joined in with him. He was in the mood to dance this morning, he kept grabbing Katy's hand to invite her to dance with him. Adorable.

Mr N played with his train set, stacking blocks and did some ball play with Katy. But the thing that surprised me the most was a puzzle that I purchased a few months ago for the kids. I've never seen Mr N play with it, only E. Today he got it out to do with Katy, while I watched. I was super impressed, behind each door is an magnetic piece. He put them one at a time into the right door. Below is a picture of the puzzle, it's amazing to me that he can put things in by category, rather by shape or exact match. For example, the oven door has a turkey that goes in; the cookie jar gets cookies, dog house gets a dog. Color me impressed. 

Katy got Mr N to say at least one new word, she even commented on how much he was vocalizing today. I am so proud of my little man, he is just doing amazing. 

Towards the end of the therapy Mr N dozed off for a nap, he had a late nap yesterday which resulted in a late night last night and then an early morning this morning. Hopefully we're back on schedule for an afternoon nap. Although, if he falls asleep during the last 20 minutes of therapy I'm not going to complain, that will give Katy a chance to do some paperwork.