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Success Sunday (PostID 1305)

November 2, 2008 at 4:31 pm

Success Sunday Banner


“Start by doing what’s necessary;
then do what’s possible;
and suddenly you are doing the impossible. “
––St. Francis of Assisi

I took a little hiatus. Ok, a long hiatus. But I would guess that I’m not alone seeing that this is just a busy time of year, then throw in a election in there too. I’ve had sooooo much to blog on and I’m sure I have already forgotten most of it if not all. I had been logging everything in my DayNotez (love it) but The Hub stripped Vista off my laptop and replaced it with XP (sweet) and my phone kept crashing and I had to hard reset it twice and reload everything on it and try to find a replacement for the applications that were crashing it. So Daynotez is neither on my desktop pc nor my phone. Oh yeah, and I’ve had to take care of The Kiddos. lol. We had Fall Break last week and we let The AP off for most of the week because The Lolo and The Lola were in town visiting. You know how that goes. You think you will be productive because you have built in babysitters but I’m way too social to sit at the computer when I can have adult conversations in the convenience and comfort of my own home.
This week were the Halloween festivities. And of course the month-end deadline – which is always interesting in October. Usually I pretend that the 30th is the last day of the month, but this year the 30th was on a Thursday which is my meeting night, plus I was recently elected president of my networking group and that has me a little stressed out because of technical issues at our first leadership meeting. Technically, I voted by the group to be president, but wasn’t allowed to run the meeting. I was more like a referee which is hard considering that I, standing, am still shorter than the other guys, sitting. On Halloween day, The PaPa and The Girlfriend-in-Law came to visit for the weekend. They are still here and plan to leave on Tuesday (They voted early)
Also, since The Elder is in Kindergarten, they had a fall party and I got to volunteer (so much fun) and I even stayed to have lunch with him at the school. It was fun to meet his friends. I had had a nightmare on Thursday night before the partyI had had a nightmare on Thursday night before the party that all the friends he has been referring to whenever I pick him up were not really his friends, but were bullying and teasing him and he interpreted it as they were being his friends. I was heart broken and at a loss of what I needed to do. In real life, he had hit 2 kids in the lunchroom with his lunchbox and removed all of the clips off the centers board in the classroom because he wanted to do the Blocks Center and there wasn’t any more room for a 5th person. Then he threw his shoes and hit a little girl. I made him write apology notes to them and sent them with him to school on Friday. That made me a little nervous to enter his classroom because I didn’t know what kind of enemies he was making. What if the kids were looking at me with the disappointed look on their faces as if to say, “you are a bad mom.” I was afraid to meet the other parents because what if their child told them how disruptive he is in class and how he hurts people and throws things and behaves badly, etc etc. We always think the worst huh?
Well, to my delight, the friends he speaks of love him just as much as he love them. one even said he wanted to sit beside me at lunch and gave me a hug (he was only about a head shorter them me! yikes!) and then blew me kisses because it ended up that The Elder was sitting between us. The first thing I noticed was how young The Elder looks compared to the other children. He is only 5. There are 2 other girls in his class that are younger than he is, but he is the youngest boy by a lot.
I was however surprised at all the things that I was able to do though. I had very full but very productive days this week, catching up on somethings. Even the Meeting from Hades had a happy ending, and my training meeting went well, even though I didn’t train on what I had intended. I was able to rearrange my schedule to make sure I had my priorities in order. i squeezed in time to do this and I overestimated duration on some tasks and had some free time to do something random (obviously not blogging, but with the downgrade to XP, my web username and passwords were reset and it actually took me a long time to figure out how to get into the Wordpress Dashboard!). The more and more I deferred blogging (not to mention the many times I pushed the snooze on my phone alarm that reminds me to do Success Sunday posts) the more guilty I felt for not documenting the goings-on (and there was a lot going on). But finding this quote gave me some peace. I was busy and I was productive, but I would have never been that productive if I hadn’t been able to recalculate my schedule on the fly. Who would schedule themselves that packed from sun up to sun down? on purpose that is? So in essence I was doing the impossible.
Would it be possible for me to take a nap right now?

Find out How to Post your own Success Sunday!

Find Out What Happened to Jen’s Blog

October 12, 2008 at 12:33 am

I was locked out! 8-O

Thankfully it wasn’t a server problem so everyone was able to read and comment but I couldn’t moderate first-time commenters to have it post. But thanks for the emails (and comments) and phone calls that I got with your concern of our whereabouts.

Looks like the lastest upgrade to the Open ID plugin was a bust (as discovered be The Hub). So I’ll have to find a different one but I don’t think anyone who is currently commenting is using it. As a matter of fact, someone with a blogspot address should see if it is taking your URL yet.

If you are wanting to Mr. Linky your post for this week’s Success Sunday, post it on the previous one.

Soooo much to update and journal on, including The Elder’s IEP meeting but that might take a while because I typed it up in my DayNotez in very raw form. A cut and paste would make NO sense to the General Public.

However I will give you an up-to-date quip.

Let me give a little bit of background information. Fridays are usually family movie night, but since last night The Hub and I went bowling for an event (I do better at the Wii though), we had to defer the movie to today. Well we were going to go to a party instead but they totally were NOT in the mood for a 45 minute drive to a party that starts about an hour before their regular bedtime. It gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about the potential chaos we might have endured! However they did start to lighten up (with some threats) enough to go ahead and watch a movie.*I guess I do too.I got some really cute popcorn holders ($1 each at the Target Hot Spot) and they eat a LOT less popcorn that way too*.

Now, The Elder has been SUPER sensory lately and licking everything.**Yet, this is the guy who won’t eat French Toast (GFCF of course) that has black spots on it. I try to explain to him that it was cinnamon, but I just get the “It’s barnacles! It’s boring!” typical response.He was even licking the inside of the VHS tape case before the movie even started. I’ve seen him licking his shoes, licking the legos, licking his brother, I mean, everything!

So when The Hub asked which movie we should watch, I replied, “Osmosis Jones, because it’s about germs.” If you haven’t seen the movie, it is half cartoon and half not. Bill Murray plays Frank, and his body is the “City of Frank” where germs, organs, bodily fluids, etc. are all animated and portrayed as a micro-universe or such. It is a very clever movie. Me likey witty.

Anyhoo, when the movie first introduces the above concept, you see Frank eating an egg that had fallen on the ground and the camera follows it down his throat. In attempt to explain that to The Elder I said:

Me: See? We are now going inside of his body.
The Elder: No, that’s not it. We are just watching.
Me: (I pause to enjoy my amusement) You’re right, I didn’t mean to be so literal.
The Hub and I make eye contact and snicker while The Elder continues to watch like nothing happened.

Maybe about 10 minutes into the movie I look at The Hub and say, “I guess this isn’t an kids movie” I look around and neither of them are paying attention to the movie. Either their back was to the TV or their head was inside a bookshelf or something other than watching the screen. From the very beginning The Younger was playing with a puzzle so he was never really engaged in the movie to begin with. I think he was just excited to have his own little popcorn box (which he knocked over and lost his popcorn and The Skipper Dog ended up partaking). The most exciting part to The Elder is realizing that Osmosis Jones is the same as Marty on Madagascar (Chris Rock).

The Elder: When is the funny part?
Me: (looking at him confused, but totally seeing his point) You don’t think it’s funny?

The Younger continued to work on his puzzle (the same one over and over again for most of the 90min movie) and The Elder started playing with the invisible ink and black light pen he got because we he sold for him at least 10 coupon books on behalf of his classroom. Then he started going through the VHS tapes and DVDs and pulling them all out. The Younger decided to join him.

By the end of the movie (I did prep them for the funny part at the end and they laughed hysterically as if they were waiting for that for years), all of the movies were off the shelves, on the floor, on the futon, etc. The good news is that there never was a meltdown and they never said “I don’t like that” or “Let’s watch a different movie.”

But they gave us some pretty strong hints…

Youngerese at its best!

September 23, 2008 at 3:09 pm

Today is The Younger’s follow-up appointment for his evaluation results. Well, he didn’t have to go, but The Hub and I met with The School Psych, et al (there were 4 total present, it felt like an IEP meeting).

Let’s back up to yesterday. I texted The Teacher to ask her to call me to discuss what we ought to do because he was doing so well at this MDO program. She suggested that I have a visit with The Director and The MDO Teacher. After all The Elder, loved his preschool (the one before the 4 he got kicked out of) but when I went to observe him, I noticed that, yes he did have friends…but they were all playing over there while The Elder was playing in the corner by himself. “Oh he is just the sweetest little boy. We don’t get any trouble from him.” They should have knocked on wood…

So I called and The Director said that she couldn’t but The MDO Teacher could. So I get there a little late (they didn’t charge me) and I sat down in his classroom. The first thing I loved is that when I got there, The Director made herself available for the first 10 minutes. I assured them that nothing was wrong I just wanted to ask some specific questions regarding The Younger.

They talked about how good and sweet he is. The MDO Teacher went through their routine from beginning to end. Very detailed – so there was no room for assumptions.

She said The Younger can pick out his name, he sits nicely on his mat, he’s attentive and follows directions and he is good at cleaning up, which was no surprise to us. When I taught him to bathe himself with a washcloth, as soon as he was done…forget those toy boats! and he started cleaning the shower stall with his washcloth! This is also the guy who got a fire engine and a playset of a broom, mop, dust pan, etc. Guess which one he plays with more. He also was more excited about the vaccuum cleaner I got for him at a consignment sale. “It’s my size!” is one of his favorite phrases. Now we can sweep our floors without hunting for the broom (which was always found in his room).

What was really funny was the clean up chart. They get a sticker each day that they help clean up. Check out his chart:

There were no red flags that got me worked up. I gave her a few things to look for, those things that appear age appropriate, but can linger a little too long. Like playing by himself, which she admitted that he does do sometimes. Also she said that he doesn’t really participate well in Music Class which is in the choir room with ALL the children instead of just his class of 6 or a combined 3-4yo class of 14 total. It’s EVERYBODY. So there might a little bit of anxiety in larger groups because she said he is fine in the classroom.

I made a point to let them know how happy he is with the program because he has huge anxiety of the unknown. To the point that he is a completely different person. But here, he feels loved and secure and I don’t have to hide from him in the mornings to get him to go.

“That is a huge compliment to you and this program.”

Then I asked The AP about gymanstics and the library because when I take him, it is meltdown city. But she said he is fine. So he only performs for me. This is the same guy who just a month ago (August 11) melted down for TWO HOURS at his evaluation before he recovered to be open to testing. He pulled he stripped naked and peed on the floor. It was very intentional, because the assessor said that it was in a perfect arch around him.

So today, I was slightly afraid that they were going to give us a diagnosis that is not appropriate. However The Teacher insinuated that we should take the services if they offer it to us because if we decline then we can’t go back. Even a year later…

Well, this morning we wake up to this:

After I put The Elder on the bus and The Hub went off to work. We decided to do a little art project. I was taking notes and snapping pictures the whole time so i wouldn’t forget just how hilarious this was.

Exhibit A

Exhibit A

The Birthday Card

Me: Today is Ms Nanny’s birthday!
The Younger: Yeah, and tomorrow is Daddy’s birthday.
Me: No daddy’s birthday is on Saturday.
The Younger: Oh Daddy’s birthday is Saturday and tomorrow is MY birthday.
Me: Let’s make Ms Nanny a card

Exhibit B

Exhibit B


(Click on pictures to enlarge)
Me: Can you make a face?Exhibit A-a
The Younger: That’s Hair.Exhibit B-a
Me: Where are the eyes?
The Younger: I can make a mouth…I’m drawing Daddy.Exhibit B-b
Me: Where’s his eyes?
The Younger: Oh, I can make eyes.Exhibit B-c
Me: Can you draw a picture of Ms Nanny?
The Younger: I can make a road.
Me: Oh ok.
The Younger: That’s not a garage…Exhibit A-bThat’s the garage.Exhibit A-c
Me: What’s that?Exhibit A-d
The Younger: Crashing…there’s lots of crashings.
The Younger: This is the garage.

Me: I think she will love it.
The Younger: WAIT! I not finished yet……there, I finished.Exhibit C-a
Me: What does that say, your name?
The Younger: No. says, happy birfday annie.

Exhibit C

Exhibit C

 

Enlightening Conversation

Me: Guess what? You have gymnastics today!
The Younger: I donwanna go gymnastics.
Me: But you love gymnastics (positive thinking)
The Younger: Gymnastics is BORING.
Me: Why don’t you like gymnastics?
The Younger: I be really sad…..I will miss you

Me: Do you like the feathers at gymnastics?
The Younger: No.
Me: Do you like the bubbles at gymnastics?
The Younger: No….Its BORING. (to the tune of “leave me alone already”)
Me: Do you like the trampoline?
The Younger: No…um, yes. (trick question I guess)
Me: Do you like the Bars?
The Younger: I donwanna go on big bar…is scary…I small…[The Elder] can go on big bar. He’s big. I small, mommy.
Me: Yes you are small. Do you like the balance beam?
The Younger: No, too scary.

Me: Well, [The Gymnastics Teacher] said you are SO good at the balance beam, and the trampoline, and the car, AND following directions.
The Younger: (immediately perked up) Heeeeyyyyy, I do directions at my school!
Me: Do you like school?
The Younger: No…Um YES I happy at my school.**Can you tell he is 3yo? No is the automatic answer to every question!
Me: What makes you happy?
The Younger: I not crying
Me: What do you like best at school?
The Younger: I don’t know.
Me: Do you like music?
The Younger: No
Me: Why?
The Younger: Cause I can’t talk.**He is SO my child! Except I like music class…
Me: Do you like story time?
The Younger: Yes
Me: Is it your favorite?
The Younger: No (to the tune of “duh”)
Me: Cleaning up?
The Younger: No (to the tune of “no, silly mommy”)
Me: What is your favorite thing to do at school?
The Younger: I like to……I like to……I like to…..Play! Outside!

 

All Boy
No Aspergers

Oops! Update—> The Hub’s birthday is on SUNDAY!! I thought the 28th was on a Saturday. I really did honey…honest! :)

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