Life gets in the way of blogging

Life has kept me busy in the past several months. I have completed my school work towards my masters in special education and am starting my student teaching, well yesterday. The kids are now seven years old, almost eight and going on twenty. It amazes me how fast it goes by and how much has happened since my last post. I am sorry for those of you that read this that I have failed to keep you updated, maybe that will change, maybe not...
we will see..

Wow it has been a long time

So much has happened in the time since I have posted, Sorry for the delay, as you are aware life gets away from us and we get busy living, so busy living that we forget to post on our blog in fact.
I am in school now, getting my masters in Special Education, in fact I have one class remaining and have maintained a 4.0 throughout my school. I still have to do my student teaching which will be a 12 week process.

The kids, well they are starting first grade in a few short days, this will be a challenging year for us, they are all in their own classes and JM has a teacher that I am not so sure about. We will have to see how things go.

Getting ready for Disney World

We will soon be getting ready to take the triplets to Disney World for their first trip to the Magic Kingdom. We will be staying on the grounds of Disney and will visit all the parks. I may need some extra Valium for this trip. To prepare the kids we started a count down to Disney at the start of September, marking off each day with notes as to who was good, what chores he or she did and if he or she got into trouble.. They have loved it. Then today the kids got a letter from Mickey Mouse telling them how excited he is that they will be coming for a visit and I did the Mickey on a Shelf for the next two weeks. He is watching over them and if they are bad he may have to close Disney.. I will let you know how it goes...

Wish us luck.

WOW so much is going on.. so sorry for the delay

As you can imagine it has been a busy but awesome summer at our house. We started the summer by going to Kiawah Island off of Charleston South Carolina. The kids had so much fun, so did Mom and dad. It was a blast. The summer was full of pool time, Lake Lanier Islands and family time.

I made a call as a mom, a call as an individual to cancel therapy for the summer. I thought the kids deserved to have a schedule free summer, and that we did. It was so much fun and so relaxing. I do not think they suffered as a result, in fact I think they thrived on the freedom.

There have been a few issues, JM's issue with socks and clothes has progressed, he has certain socks he will not wear and vice versa. Same thing with clothes, he only wants soft shirts and soft shorts. It is what it is...

Now, here we go school has started yet again, we are repeating K... and planning our first trip to Disney World..

Wow it has been a while

So much has happened since my last post, so much going on. Sorry for the delay but life happens. I have been having an awesome summer, there have been ups and downs, the kids have done great. We took them on a beach vacation, they loved it, Kalie loved the ocean, waves, sand and all, okay so they all loved the ocean, they are truly my children.

We are going to repeat Kindergarten next year, my choice, I just do not think they are ready, and well neither am I..

The kids were evaluated again by the developmental ped. John Michaels diagnoses was confirmed and now Kalie is on the spectrum and has selective mutisim Douglas is all boy but they placed him border line. Life goes on.. they are great kids and I could not love them more.

I said earlier this year that this was going to be an awesome summer, and it has been. I have had so much fun with the three of them and with my husband. It will be over before I know it.. then what..

What is normal anyway?

Today was not unlike any other days I have had in recent past, with the exception of having someone who lives close to me tell me that they are so "happy" that their children are normal. Being the person that I am and not being able to bite my tongue, I asked her so what is normal, and what makes a child normal? Of course, I never got an answer and yes it got me to thinking about what it means to be normal.

My normal is very different from many people's normal, but just because it is different from everyone others does it make it wrong or not normal? I do not think it does, yes my children are special, yes they are wonderful and no my life is not like that of yours nor is yours like mine or like that of others. Normal is different from everyone, that does not make it bad, that does not make me and my husband bad parents. I do things differently than most, but I do what works for my family, for my children, that does not make it right for everyone else.

You see that is the thing about children on the spectrum, there are no two alike, they have different stims, triggers and things that set them off, so what works for one family may not work for another. We are all doing the best we can, instead of judging us, educate yourself, ask us what you can do to help, we would rather the questions than the judgment.

What I did not know

What I did not Know..

I have learned to deal with the looks and whispers behind my back.
I know that many people think I am a bad mother or my husband is a bad father.
I know that there are a lot of judgments about the way I do things and the way I handle my son.
I know, because like so many, there was a point in time in my life when I made the same assumptions as so many are now making about me.
What I did not know about Aspergers children will amaze you, it still amazes me.

I did not know that today my son would need a twizzler so bad that nothing else would do, that he would ask for it repeatedly and even thought I did not have any in the house it would not matter. He wanted it so that was all that was important. I did not know he would not understand or grasp that there were none here. However, when tomorrow gets here and I have twizzlers that he will no longer want them and will have moved on to Gum as that is what I gave him yesterday to calm him down. Too bad I no longer have gum.

I did not know that his socks would hurt his feet which would result in him having a meltdown in the middle of the grocery store. I did not realize that the tag inside his shirt would itch and irritate his skin, I did not know that his shorts had to be made out of a certain material or it would irritate him. I did not know.

I did not know that his world was black and white, that he saw things in tunnel. I did not know that there was no gray in the world. I did not know that rules would be unbendable and that you had to do the same thing at the same time everyday to avoid meltdowns.

I did not know that while my child would be so different he would also be so amazing and loving. I did not know how much it would hurt me when you leave my child out from playing. I did not know how much it would hurt him when he is left out of games, and activities that all other children are included in.

I did not know that so many adults would be so uneducated on Aspergers and on what it means to have an Aspie child. I did not know how many people would not even try to understand my child and would just make assumptions based on their experience.

I do hope that the next time you see me at the park, pool or a social even that you will not feel sorry for me, I am blessed to have the unconditional love of an Aspergers child. What I hope is that you will understand and instead of talking behind my back, ask what you can do to make my child apart of our neighborhood.

Kids Sixth Birthday Party: Knights and Princess..

For the kids sixth birthday party we used the theme princess and knights. Lets just say it was awesome. I am not sure that I could ever duplicate this party, but I have to say it was well worth all the efforts that T and I put into it.

My invitations were printed on cloudy paper, with the wording:
By Royal decree, for all in the land, A grand birthday party is now being planned. Sir D, Sir JM and Princess Kalie are six. We are really excited, if you could please join us, we would be so delighted! Every Princess and knight, mark the notable date. At 6:00 o'clock have your carriage arrive at the gate. The 23rd of April is the festive day. At the famed ****** castle, your mom knows the way. We shall have a grand time, so come one and all. If you plan to attend the queen request a call ***-***-****. Well have a yummy banquet and games to entertain and no one goes home until the dragon is slain. If I tell you much more, it wont be a surprise, youll have to come see with your own eyes! So please be our guest, oh before I forget the party ends at eight.


My menu was simple, we served: Dragon Dogs (hot dogs) Dragon Scales (Doritos) and Dragon Nails (Bugles) as well as Capri Suns, Soda's and of course cupcakes

My cupcakes were Pebbles Cupcake Cereal, Made like rice Crispi treats. Make sure to use an ice cream scoop to put them into the cupcake shape.I topped the boys with dragons, knights and horses and the icing was red..The girls were topped with a princess crown.

Decorations, this is where I went overboard.. With the help of a friend we made a castle entrance, draw bridge and dragon that were placed on my fence.

The garage was decorated with yet a second castle, this is where I had the tables for arts and crafts set up as well as the food. For arts and crafts the girls made fair lady hats, princess pointy hats and wands. The boys made shields.

I filled a small chest with the kings jewels, crowns and beaded necklaces, do not forget the rings.

For favors I had a medieval cup, bubbles adorned with a sword and fruit gummies. In addition each child got to take home a sword and a horse on a stick.

For fun we had many games sat up, sack race, ring toss, horse shoe toss and even a castle to color.

I got an awesome blow up dragon from Oriental Trading that we used to end the party. It was taken down off of the play system and the kids attacked it with their swords, and ax's.

At the start of the party all the horses were placed at the bottom part of the play house with the weapons at the top.

Yes I overdid it but it was so worth it to see the look on all of the kids faces.
all the pictures can be viewed here...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=205977&id=568670038&l=0e7a57ad35

Some adults amaze me. Really making fun of an asperger's child

I had an incident recently where JM was upset because he wanted a grape drink but it was not cold. Someone else in the group where we were was watching the entire episode. She watched as I placed a grape drink in the cooler for him and explained that in about thirty minutes it would be cold. I then convinced him to go on a walk with me. We get back and there she is drinking the grape drink. She smiles and says oh, I put another one in, hope you did not mind. JM of course looses it. He has a complete melt down. This person then starts to make fun of him, telling him he is a sissy, that she is going to get him a dress and diaper. That he needs a bottle and is a sissy baby girl.

I was speechless. I had no idea what to say or do. I picked up my baby boy and drove him to the store to get a grape drink. It took all I had not to slap her into next year. Why are people, ADULTS at that so stupid. So ignorant, so idiotic. My son has aspergers, he is six years old and yes he has melt downs. It happens. but to treat him that way is uncalled for. 

Happy Sixth birthday my angels..

It is hard to believe that I now have six year olds. They had such an awesome day yesterday, sorry I was busy all day with them did not get to post. We woke them with breakfast, daddy stayed home and ate with us, I then drove them to school. I later surprised them by bringing them lunch to school, after which we shared ice cream with all of their classes. I met them at the school bus with balloons on the mail box and with cupcakes for all their friends. They got their presents once daddy got home and were allowed to stay up late last night, we played outside till close to 7:30.



All in all they  had an amazing day, I had an amazing day and am happy to say that they are my children. What an amazing six years it has been.