Life is back to normal..

All three children are returning to normal now, swine flu has moved through the house, it still lingers with my husband and I. Odd all the news reports say that it is hitting children much harder and yet the two of us have suffered much worse than the triplets did. Which I am glad it turned out that way. I would much rather my be sick than them any day. It is so much harder when a little one is sick.

I had parent teacher conferences yesterday and was plesently surprised at how things turned out. First their grades were awesome. JM had the most areas in which he needs help (which was no big surprise) and the areas that he needs work are things that I already knew he needed extra help on and is getting at school and home. The teachers love him and say that he is very well behaved and that other than typical boy behavior they have had no issues with him. I am so happy that he is adjusting so well and doing so well in school. I was so worried that I would get reports home and be called to the school often due to him not doing well. His teacher's in fact said that had I not told them and if not for a few minor personality things they would have never guessed he had aspergers. I attribute this to him being in therapy since he was one years of age and all of the hard work he has done over the past several years to learn to deal with all the sensory input.

Douglas had a great report as well, he had 3's on everything with the exception of two things, address and patterning. I am so proud of my little man. The teacher said he gets the giggles so easy and has such a contagious laugh. She also said he seems to be a care taker, I was aware of this and will need to work on him doing things for himself and not giving up his things for his brother and sister. I want him to be happy and not always worry about everyone else.

Kalie Rose, like Douglas had mostly 3's with a handful of 2's, the teachers love her and call her their fashion princess of the class room. (big surprise there) the things she needs work on were no big surprise to me either. She is such a smart girl and is doing so well.

Again, all and all I am very proud of the three of them and how well they are doing in school. They all seem to have adapted very well to being in the new school, to being in separate class rooms and to the longer days.

Wetting the bed.

About two weeks ago JM wet the bed, I thought well he just had too much to drink and did not wake up, changed his sheets did not make a big deal about it, then last week it occurred again. So we made some changes and said we would make sure he goes to the bathroom prior to going to bed, no big deal. Well this morning he was wet again, that is once a week for the past three weeks. He has never wet the bed before, in fact none of them have. This is new to us.

I am not sure if something is bothering him, if it is related to my surgery, if it is school or if this is just part of aspergers and part of our life now. I hate to think of him going through this and waking up scared and ashamed. I have to make sure that my husband knows not to make a big deal about it, the last thing I want is for him to be made to feel bad about an accident.

So we are now going to make sure he does not have liquids after a certain time and that he goes to the bathroom prior to going to bed. Poor guy...

Any other suggestions would be greatly appreciated. He is now five years old and like I said this is a "new" problem, we did not even have this problem when we were potty training him. So please any ideas..

Conversation with an old friend. - Mamma Bear

I ran into a n old friend this past week, she apologized for losing touch with me and for not being there when we got JM's diagnosis. She acted as if I should have lost it, like really lost it when I was told. She was surprised at my resonse and seems to think that I am not letting it sink in. I assured her that I was well aware of what this meant for him and our family. She just kept apologizing to me, asking me about my support network and what was I going to do.

The best way I can answer this question is that I am going to get up tomorrow, I am going to get dressed, I am going to get the kids dressed and I am going to live my life. I have no choice in the manner. I do not have time to lose it. I have to be my children's advocate, I have to fight for them and the fight is only beginning. I know that I will have days that I do not feel like getting out of bed, I will have times that all I want to do is cry but I also know that in order to ensure that my children have all that they need I need to be strong.

The therapist I go to for the kids, she has been with us since the kids were two years old, calls me mama bear and has me talk to some of her new moms in the practice and has me talk to them about what they need to do to help their child. She say I am strong and encouraging and she uses my children as examples all the time, examples of how far they have come. So if I have to be known as Mommy bear the tough one then I shall be.

More Great Pictures of the kids

What a wonderful day we had

We went ot church as a family this morning, okay so we always do that. Then after we all went to lunch together, close to my husbands new office. We were able to see where he will be working, which just so happens to be close to a Dairy Queen, so after the tour we all were treated to ice cream. The kids were so good the entire time.

At lunch they ate their entire meal, stayed seated at all times and were just great kids all morning. So I guess today was our one step forward. I am hoping that hte two steps back takes a while to get here.

We have big plans for the upcoming future, we will be traveling to Mississippi where we will go with my mother to a local camp ground that caters to children 7 and younger. We will stay in a cabin for two days, camping, having a camp fire at night, spending time in the day at the water park that is designed for younger children. When we return I will update with informaiton about the park etc, name location for anyone that is interested but for now I am not going to publicize where we are going for safety reasons. Okay I may be over reacting, but you never know.

A week from today Vacation Bible School starts at our Church and for the first time we are going to have a special needs class. We have several children in our church that have autisim, aspergers, SPD and Downs. One of the moms asked me If I would be interesed in teaching a class of special needs children, as most the children are in the same age group we deiced to not single them out but to have them in their class, however one mom (me and another mom) will be in these classes at all times to help the teachers and to assist if any issues arise. As we did nto want to burdon the teachers who know nothing about the issues that come with SPD etc.

So now our special needs children can attend VBS and their parents can be assured that they will be well cared for. The best thing is, word has gotten out in our community that our church offers this, enrollemnt for VBS is up by close to 35, with several of them being special needs. We are hoping that this will be a start for our church to reach out to these families, to show them that the church looks welcomes these families into our church and that we will do what we can to make them feel included and not singled out of any of the activities.

Good for us...