Exhausted...that's a mood, isn't it?

If it is, then that's the mood I'm always in.

I knew parenting would be hard, don't get me wrong, but I didn't know I'd have an autistic child. However, I do recall saying to God one day, "God, if you need me to have an autistic child, it's okay, I'll do it." So, I guess I brought it upon myself.

I am worn out. My exhaustion can be related to climbing a wall: You stand back and see this wall; you think, "oh yeah! I can climb this!" So you start to climb. You climb and climb and climb and think to yourself, "Shouldn't I be at the top by now?" So you look up and see that the wall goes forever. You can't go back down because you've climbed too far, so you have to keep climbing despite how tired and exhausted you are. And all you want is to take a rest, but you're on this wall and only YOU can climb it. That's pretty much how I feel all day, every day. Okay, I take that back. The days I don't feel like that, I feel like I'm running on a treadmill that is in the size of a room that just fits the treadmill, so you can't get off, and the stop or pause button doesn't work. Yeah. So if you ever see me, you can ask if I feel like it's a treadmill day or a wall day because it'll one of the two.

Okay...now for the fun stuff:

Do you remember how we'd put the boys to sleep a couple weeks ago? Well, Cruise caught on (and Jett just hated it) and then started falling asleep at 2am and waking up at 6am. So for about a week and a half the three of us were living on 4 hours of sleep with no naps (okay, Cruise took one nap).
I'm still recuperating.

We learned that some kids with Autism don't produce as much Melatonin as everyone else, so they don't sleep as much, so we started giving him melatonin. It has actually started working and now he goes right to sleep (without a car ride) and is out by 9:30.

Jett has figured out how to climb the stairs. I'm not too excited about this one. The bruise, cuts and scrapes stage has begun. He's wobbly and too unaware of his surroundings. But, he's just so darn cute.

Anyway, that's my quick little post. It's past midnight which means my recall and short term memory have shut off.

Now I must get back to Mt. Laundry.

The Only Thing To Do in 100 Degree Weather

Friday and Saturday we all went to the Scera pool to make peace with this disgustingly hot weather. The boys always have a blast, especially Cruise. Cruise has now taught himself to do cannonballs, front flips into the water, and a dead man's float (none of which Dave or I even thought of doing at age 3). He has gotten to be quite the little fish! He kicks so well and wants to swim all on his own. Looks like I'm going to have to get him into swimming lessons next summer!



We usually have Jett in his little turtle, but Saturday we realized he doesn't like it so much: he must be either allowed to crawl around or be held. So he had fun splashing and wandering around the pool. He eventually fell asleep on Daddy's shoulder and took a little nap while we all munched on snacks.






I may hate the heat and being out in the sun for long periods of time, but the boys sure love it...so I guess it makes it that much more tolerable.

Growing, Growing

Jett is Growing!
Jett turned 8 months this week. He has mastered crawling and is now quite pleased with himself that he can pull himself up and stand. He is a very fast crawler and follows Cruise all over the house (which Cruise isn't too thrilled about).
Jett doesn't like to go to sleep. He has decided he'd rather cry himself to sleep than lay in his bed with a bottle and fall asleep quietly.

Jett loves to be outside! He enjoys the feel of the grass, the birds, the sun, and watching everyone work or play. He loves animals and their soft fur. He enjoys chasing/crawling after the cats when he's outside.

He has 3 teeth and the 4th is pushing its way through. He still loves to eat, but is getting over baby food. I have a theory that his dreams consist of a living room floor covered in cereal, strawberries, and sweet potatoes.
Jett is very good at responding to his name and is just as social and happy as ever. He loves to explore, but is cautious of danger or unfamiliar things/places. In fact, he has started to develop stranger anxiety and get somewhat fearful if I have to leave him with someone he doesn't know.
He sure is growing fast! I don't know if I can keep up!


Cruise is Growing!
Last week, Cruise had his assessments done for the school district to determine eligibility and services for the special ed. preschool. His first assessment was Tuesday where they tested his fine and gross motor skills. He was found to be in the 50th percentile for fine motor (which is average for his age group), and was found to be in the 98th percentile for gross motor (surprise, surprise). Tuesday, to say the least, was a breeze!

However, Thursday wasn't as much fun. They tested for speech and cognitive development. He scored in the 23rd percentile in cognition (low average for his age group) and in the 1st percentile for speech. Which was sad, but good because that meant he qualifies for services. After that evaluation (which he behaved and sat extremely well for) I took Cruise to Arctic Circle where we shared a Snickers shake and french fries. He even got to play on the ghetto play equipment before we left.

Cruise's IEP (Individual Education Plan) was set for Tuesday the 20th (yesterday). Preparing for the IEP was so stressful. I spent hours upon hours studying laws, parental rights, etc. I brainstormed and organized my questions and concerns, and made a list of Cruise's strengths. I put together a lot of helps for the teacher so she knew how to meet Cruise's needs, only to get there and see that she didn't show. In fact, not many people showed. The LEA and a general preschool ed. teacher was there to go over the prepared IEP. I had my dad come to take notes (and be an emotional support) as well as Cruise's care provider, Jenna, from Kids On The Move (which was a huge help).

We all sat down and introduced ourselves, and then I was handed a copy of the IEP (a draft, but they act as if it is the final one). We went over it and I noticed that the goals were only speech/language related. It contained NOTHING about sensory, social, or behavioral goals. So suffice tos ay, I refused to sign the IEP for approval unless it contained sometihng about needing Occupational Therapy. Because if his sensory needs are not met, his speech goals will not be met: plain and simple. At least I thought it was; I had to repeat myself over and over and even had Jenna reinforce that fact. They finally agreed to add an OT assessment to be completed in the first 2 weeks of school to determine if and what OT needs he has.
Another important issue was brought up: Cruise's safety. As you know, Cruise will climb and run off if upset or bored. Dave and i were concerned about him leaving school without anyone noticing. So another addition to the IEP was to see the school psychologist to determine if he is in need of supervision or other measures that need to be taken if he in fact tries to run away.

Once those two things were added to the IEP, I signed and finally exhaled. I needed a nap.

Cruise will start school September 1st at Vineyard Elementary going 2 days a week, 3 hours each day. The school bus will pick him up and drop him off at our house and the school. I really hope he likes it.

And finally, meet Cruise's new anger management tool: I was getting tired of him throwing things in the general direction of Jett (not on purpose), so I picked this up at Toys R Us for $12. Now when he gets mad and looks like he's going to throw something, I take him over to the bag, I hit it and yell, "I'm mad!" and then he smiles, hits it, and yells, "I'm mad!" It's quite an effective tool. I even enjoy it.


The Garden is Growing!

Well, we did it! We grew zucchini!!! And thanks to Dave's parents, we have lots and lots and LOTS of raspberries. Jett was sure happy about that. Aren't they beautiful?

A New Blog!

I guess you could see it as a change of address; same person, same opinions, same kids and husband, just a different location.

I don't know what brought it on, but today I woke up and said, "I needs something fresh!" Maybe it's the 100 degree weather, maybe it's the fact that I need a haircut very very badly, or maybe it's the fact that I can't figure out the whole new blogger design addition! (Seriously, I wasn't pleased with that one).

Anyway, enjoy the new blog!