New Clothes Phobia?

Over the holidays we went shopping (love those outlet malls) and got these CUTE, matching (of course), blue, fleece camouflaged pullovers for the boys. When we were still in SC I tried to get them to wear them, but the weather was so nice that it was actually too warm. The Elder said, "I don't need a coat! I'm not cold!" So now that we are back in the mountains and the cold temperatures decided to come join us for the winter, I thought that I would try again...

Again, I started with The Younger and he actually screamed and hollered, not because of the pullover but because I tried to get him wear a pull-up with cars on them. Cloth pull-ups are not cheap so I'm sad that he won't wear them. (Aside: I pulled his diaper off this morning and let him roam naked and he used the potty all by himself! I just asked him, "Did you pee pee in the potty?" "Yes," he says nonchalantly. I go look and sure enough, there was pee pee in the potty and no puddles in the surrounding areas! Yahoo!) So I put a diaper on him and then he left the pullover on too. I bring The Elder his pullover, making sure he can tell that it is like his brother's.

"I can't like that. I'm not cold."
"You're not cold now, but you will be when we get outside."
"I'll just wear my blue coat."
"You can wear both."

He actually picked it up, sneaked, and hid it in the closet in the playroom! He hasn't figured out yet, I guess, that you don't hide things from people when they are watching you. Ha! But then again this is the guy who, when playing hide and seek and you ask the rhetorical "where are you?" he yells back "I'm right here" from his hiding place!

So we get all ready to go and I asked him why he didn't want to wear it.
"Because it has a sticker on it."
"No it doesn't."

He had to show it to me and was pointing to the camo pattern. I guess he mistook it for a sticker. So what's up with this fear of stickers on clothes now???

"I really would like for you to wear the same shirt as your brother because Home Depot is a really big place and I can find you really fast with this pattern, like a mama zebra can find the baby zebra."

I'm so full of it. Although all of that has merit, the truth is they look so dang cute when they are dressed alike in cute clothes! Ha! Well, it worked and he wore it very reluctantly. When we got to Home Depot, he totally forgot that he hated the pullover. When we got back into the van later he looks at me and says,

"I can wear this shirt on Tuesday."

So now it's one of his favorites!

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The other clothes story is short and sweet...

We took the tags off the last pair of new matching jammy-jams (that's what The Younger calls them) tonight for them to wear but The Younger insisted on wearing the Timberland Footies PJs. So I handed The Elder his new robot PJs and he looked at me and said,

"I can't wear dese. I can wear them on.....on Friday."
"Oh but isn't today Friday?" (I'm quite the liar today)
"It's Friday? Oh! Then I can wear dese!"

And then he puts them on.

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As far back as I can remember I have ALWAYS loved getting new clothes. Does anyone else have weird New Clothes experiences with their kids?

The date is set...

The Younger did great yesterday at the orthopedic. The Hub met us there. It was a really big office complex with a lot of people in the waiting room. You could tell that The Younger was overwhelmed at the grandeur because he would not let my hand go. When The Hub came in, I said,"Look who's here!" and he just stared at him. So I said, "Um, it's Daddy." Then his face lit up and he lifted his arms up for him. I hope that isn't an indication that he needs glasses too...

Anyhoo after filling out paperwork and praying they would call his name soon before the 2-story blinds came crashing down on us (why do kids think they need to pull on those strings?), it was finally our turn to go back. He did perfect with the x-ray machine. I guess the time at the pediatrician's office was just a dress rehearsal. Maybe he knew he would get a sticker. Who knows?

No sooner were we back there when I smelled something. "Do you have something in your diaper?" as I'm checking it out. I look at The Hub and say, "Yep, it's a solid one!" The Younger corrects me and says, "No, it's a poo poo."

Well, I was texting The Asst back and forth trying to get a publication mailed out that day so since technically I was working, The Hub volunteered (after I handed him the diaper bag) to change it. He had to ask twice for the bathroom and twice they told him to just change it in the exam room and twice he explained that they were cloth diapers. Our exam room was near a station so I heard everything. The second lady even gave him a plastic bag,

"Can't you just put it in here and throw it in the trash can in there?"
"Well, it would just be the poop."
She looked at him like he had 2 heads. I interject from the doorway,
"He needs a toilet to flush the poop. I don't think the people after us would appreciate us throwing poop in the trash can."

Finally he took The Youngers pants down to show her the diaper. After 5 minutes of requesting a bathroom, she points them in the right direction. Geez!

When they got back I asked The Hub,
"Why are they arguing with us on this?"
"Maybe it's a high security bathroom?"
"I can't imagine it meets sanitary standards for us to throw the poop in the room's trash can." (It was a big trash can - like the size you put by the curb. I guess for trashing larger leg casts?)
"Shoot, maybe I should just take a d*mp here." as The Hub pretends to sit on the trash can and waving to the doctor pretending to say "excuse me, don't mind me, we weren't allow to use the bathroom." Just then the doctor really did walk in and we busted out laughing and the doctor is looking at us like, "did I miss something?"

Anyhoo, enough fun and games. The verdict: Verified that he has congenital trigger thumb, surgery is necessary. They'll have to put him under for the half hour procedure and then put him in a cast past his elbow for 2 weeks. sigh... Fun. The date is set for Feb 15th.

"Are you kidding me?"

This was the response from my brother after I asked, "Is there a Starbucks in town?"

I wasn't sure if it was "duh, there are Starbucks everywhere" answer, or if it was "we don't have anything in our dinky town" answer. It was the latter. We didn't plan our consumption very well on this trip. We assumed way too much, so our food routine has been off the last 24 hours. Actually our whole routine is but I figured, better to do this on a trip AWAY from home than in our own home. No blender for The Hub's daily smoothies. Because tax is cheaper in SC (like by 5%!) we decided to wait until we got here to purchase groceries since we get the organic-gluten-free-casein-free-costs-an-arm-and-a-leg brands and every little bit helps. So we had very little food to choose from. We found a KFC during the trip and peeled off the breading to get it as gluten-reduced as possible. (Here's a picture of The Younger discovering he like corn-on-the-cob. Was NOT a fun diaper to change later especially since I didn't think about bringing a sprayer.) We made a box of hash browns for breakfast and noticed in the ingredients that there is wheat flour in it (I guess to keep the potatoes from sticking together). The kids have been super hyper today and I looked at The Hub saying "no more gluten for them." He laments, "why does gluten turn us into zombies and they go freakin' crazy?" Well, The Lola (my mom) only knew of one place to go (because we scoped 2 grocery stores in town that had nothing organic, much less gluten-free) and we stocked up on some goods for the kids that they (and we) can handle.

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So we come in yesterday and The Elder goes crazy running around the house. He goes up to The Lola and says in shock and awe, "You got TWO uv em???? One over there and one over there?" I realized he was speaking of TVs. We only have one TV upstairs in our house and we have taken the the cable out of the wall. So they had 2 channels going simultaneously on ABC family watching The Incredibles and USA watching Christmas Vacation so that those in the kitchen were bombarded by clashing noises. This morning, we were serenaded by Spongebob at breakfast. I looked at The Hub and said, we have got to buy some toys to lure these kids away from the tube. So we went out today and got these.



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The Kiddos immediately took ALL (all 832 of them) the throw pillows off the couches and onto the floors. This is acceptable in our house because we have crappy furniture. My parents however have really nice furniture, the kind I'd like to have one day when I grow up. The Lola was hilarious when she decided, "Maybe tomorrow I'll have to establish some house rules." I interjected, "Maybe now?"

"Rule #1: Pillows are not toys."

So The Hub made a sign and taped it onto the oven and printed that for The Elder to read.

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Today was the first time The Younger met his cousins and the first time The Elder noticed them. Collectively, they are ages 2, 4, 6, and 8. Isn't that cute? (Since there are more of them, I couldn't called them The Cousin.) Well, The 8yo announces "I have glasses now....Are yours as bendy as mine?" and then later over dinner he looks at me and proclaims, "did you know that animals are connected to sound waves?" So the smarty pants are obviously hand-me-downs, except each kid keeps the smarts before passing it on. The Elder isn't that great with names yet until after the 2nd or 3rd meeting so as he was calling after them "Hey, 2 guys...." and then later trying to get The 6yo's attention, he calls after him, "Hey....the one with the no tooth." I thought I would die laughing.

The 6yo With No Tooth shares The Younger's love for bananas. We don't understand why he put it on his head. I think The Younger has a classic sensory look on his face as that peel gets a little too close to his face. Here you can see The Elder indulging his most recent compulsion, flipping the light switches on and off.

"Rule #2: Light switches are not toys."

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"We need a napkin." (uh-oh)
"What happened?"
"He has tomato on his shirt."

My immediate thought was bloody nose, then worse I thought about the bottle of ketchup on the table. But then I see The 8yo With The Bendy Glasses with a whole Cosco-sized container of cherry tomatoes, feeding them to The Elder.

"Don't be eating those on the couch!!" (remember, it's nice furniture.) At least he got the Elder eating tomatoes, um, unless he spit them out and that is why it was on his shirt. The Hub thought ahead while he was in there, and removed the squeeze bottle of potentially projectile ketchup from the table while reciting, the next rule...

"Rule #3: Tomatoes are not toys."

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Off to deal with totally overstimulated kids...

Reading & Comprehension

Those were always my lowest scores on those standardized tests in grade school. I remember that by the time I was in high school I was very aware of this deficit (being the over high achiever that I am) and would concentrate so hard on the passage trying to figure out exactly what questions they would ask on the next page and I'd scanned the paragraphs in an attempt to memorize the whole thing. I still got low scores because the older I got, the harder and more complex the questions. I've been overanalyzing myself these days in light of The Elder's diagnosis and then the recent suggestion by The Super Doc in our last three sessions that I am classic ADHD. I'm not exactly sure what about me is so classic, but as much as I hate to admit it, the more I talked (just being myself - finally to that point with her), the more she pointed out my traits. Dang it. Just what I needed, another lightbulb moment to explain the madness I call daily life. Now I have to follow the a-ha! trail back to my childhood (that's the OCD in me, which I've always owned up to! Ha!). Reminds me of this post by Kristina. I always wondered why both my siblings have a passion for reading and I rarely ever finish a book (though I did finish Look Me in the Eye). I like to read. I love to learn. But I have to concentrate so hard to focus that sometimes I have to read out loud to myself. And I might get really excited about something that I learned in the first chapter that I'll go make life applications based on that and never finish the book! I know I'm not alone so I'm not ashamed. I just always wondered how my brother could read The Hobbit in 2 days when he was in the 6th grade and I can barely get past reading the title as an adult. The Super Doc doesn't push medication but strongly suggested it with each time I put my foot in my mouth and showed my adhd colors. Well, see my last Success Sunday quote. The good news is that I'm already on the gluten-free-casein-free reduced diet. If I see no significant change then I'll stop the meds. I'm specifically looking for consistent executive functioning skills. I tend to be one extreme or the other. The scenario that really gets me is when I spend all day on my agenda, that by the time I'm done, it's bedtime and the day is over. I think that is why I do well flying by the seat of my pants. The no-reading thing I can live with.

So this post wasn't really about MY reading and comprehension skills, but The Elder's. As you recall I have witnessed him read an entire book by himself. Well, The AP takes them to the library every Friday while I'm at a church group meeting and they check out books and videos (that has actually been great for shaking up his routine. "Sorry we returned that book to the library already, pick a different book."). Well, today after doing some great pretending (The Elder was the bus driver, I was his little girlfriend on the bus, and The Younger was The Elder on the bus - it was hilarious. We also pretended to be in the classroom, but once I told him that the bus driver doesn't go to class, maybe he should be The Teacher, he decided he wanted to be himself so that he could pick a (PECS) card and play games. Then he told me what to say..."Now you say, 'You may now go to your centers.' Say it, just like that."), we decided to read some library books because we hadn't cracked into them over the weekend and he pulls out a sequel.

"Are you going to read it to me?"
"No, you read it."
"Let's take turns."
"OK, you first."
"It was Easter morning...your turn."
"The Easter Bunny hid ten hot-paynk (TN twang for pink) marshmallow...I like marshmallows...chickens, um, chicks. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall over the house."

We continued like this until I smelled The Younger. So I leave The Elder on the couch with the book to go change a diaper (Yay! It was solid). As I was cleaning him up and spraying off the diaper (we tend to always forget to use a liner when he poops), I could hear The Elder continue to read aloud. It was so cute! He was using proper story-telling inflections in his voice. He read the rest of the book by himself! You can tell when looking over his shoulder that he doesn't sound words out as much as he tries to recognize the word first. Like saying chicken first, then correcting himself to say chick. In the past, he has said "away" instead of "always"; "engine" instead of "english"; "violin" instead of "vitamin"; etc etc.

Well, I thought I would test his comprehension level and skimmed the book and started asking questions about the the story and he got all of the questions right!

"What color were Ruby's chicks?"
"Paynk"
"What color were Max's chicks?"
"Lellow...and they go pop pop pop pop through the mail pop."
"Mail pop?"
"I mean mail slot."
"How many chicks did he get?"
"Just ten."

I verified with The AP that she hadn't read the book to him before, so it was his first time reading that book. Gushing with pride. Watch out standardized tests! We got a genius on our hands!

Oh...Fanks...

It has felt like Saturday the last 2 days.....and it isn't even Saturday yet.

When you don't have company for the holidays, sometimes you forget that it is the holidays. Even the AP went to Washington DC for vacation, so it was just the 4 of us. So sorry that I didn't get to show my thanks and gratitude to everyone that is important in my life, The Sister on the West Coast, The Brother on the East Coast, The Dad in the Far East, and The Mom on her way to the Far East for their annual Medical Mission Trip. This also includes all my readers and especially those who comment. You truly mean more to me than you may ever know. Thanks for the support, advice, and fellowship. I look forward to your thoughts on a daily basis. As The Younger would say (when we fulfill a request), "Oh....Fanks!"

Wednesday evening we went to the Fantasy of Trees. I'll have a slideshow of that on our Picasa site and on the sidebar once I have them all downloaded from the 3 cameras we had there. We did wait in line to see Santa...we hadn't done that since The Elder was 2 himself and he did NOT like it. As a matter of fact we keep that picture of him in distress on the man's lap on the oven with a magnetic frame. I don't know why really, I guess we just never took it down. Now the kids don't really get the whole Santa bit. We have been kind of indifferent about the concept. We don't keep Santa from them, we just don't make a great big deal about it. So when I asked if they wanted to get their picture taken with Santa, I knew The Younger was completely clueless to what he was actually agreeing to do. We stood in line anyway, juuuuust in case we could pull it off. They did pretty good standing in line considering they are 2 and 4 and the line was slow. The Hub was standing by with his camera to snap their picture so we didn't have to buy one. (That was legitimate, they were actually allowing personal photographers, but had their own photographer in case we wanted to buy.) Well, as we were waiting in line as the next one up, one's of Santa's "elves" (bless her heart) in an attempt to get the kids excited, may have just triggered the meltdown. It was 20 questions in 20 seconds, "What's your name? how old are you? what do you want for Christmas? are you ready to get your picture? are you excited about Santa?......" The Elder just looked away and collapsed into a little puddle on the floor right then and there. It was a quiet meltdown thank the Lord. But then there was The Younger, very vocal and very loud. He took one look at Santa and the whole convention center knew that he was NOT happy and there was NO way he was going to get even CLOSE to that skeerwy red man. But I really wanted to get their picture taken since we had 1) waited in line that long with success (up to that point) 2) dressed them so adorably in the same "Mister Roger's" sweaters and 3) we didn't have an appointment to get official Christmas pictures taken in time for Christmas.

The Solution? Me and The Hub had to get in the picture and hold them in our laps. You can tell we were not expecting to be a part of a portrait that night --- we usually like to coordinate a little better (and use a hairbrush). But hey, we got it and it has a great story behind it. The Younger is exhibiting his nervous tic of picking at his fingertips (or someone's fingertips). The Elder was actually OK, and gave Santa a high five before we left, I think he was just overwhelmed with the elf. The Younger....just not happy all around.


Thanksgiving Day, The Hub and I left the house at 6:30am for the annual Autumnfest 8K. I haven't run it since 2003 when The Elder was born, but have volunteered every year since then in honor of my "Papa" who passed away in 2000. The Hub was assigned registration so we were there early. I was assigned the finishline, so I was recruited to play chef for some food prepping for post race munching and then ended up having to take over with Registration too because there were sooo many day-of-race registrants that The Hub might have actually missed the race had he not left! I was glad that I got to do more than the finishline, but I really like working the finish and being a "pusher" because it is pretty fast paced and also fun to boss people around who don't know who you are but they listen to you anyway, and I also like being their cheerleader and telling them how great they did. We didn't have any pukers, so it was a good race, however it did rain the entire time so I was wet and hoarse and came home probably just as tired as the Hub who actually ran the race.

The rest of Thanksgiving was a little blurry. I think I fell asleep on the couch reading Look Me in the Eye. And I know I got up to help cook dinner (The Hub is the official Chef in the House. I'm just the assistant). It was interesting this year to keep it GFCF. The kids didn't like the turkey, but The Elder didn't mind the "chicken." (Cue: Evil Laugh) I think the tryptophan hit us all early...the kids were asleep by 7:15 and I think I started to fall asleep on the couch again while The Hub and I were trying to decide if we wanted to brave Black Friday or not.

We didn't. The Hub slept in and for the first time in a LOOOOONG time I had both kids to myself all morning. It was actually nice. We made Oatmeal, and ate Breakfast together, then started playing together. Then they were watching a DVD and I found myself waking up on the couch. Boy that tryptophan is merciless. Once The Hub was up we started decorating the Kids' tree. I think we decided since we weren't going to be here for the holidays that we would just do their tree and not put up the big one. This was the first year that we got to do some really fun decorating and we painted macaroni (some gluten pasta that we saved for projects) and strung it on fishing line. It was a great sensory and fine motor skills activity for them. The Younger was disinterested in stringing but enjoyed the macaroni maraca we made for him (until he dumped all th pasta in the floor). After that, another blur. I woke up to The Elder screaming and I came running into the kitchen. Short-lived food-related meltdown that ended up in nakedness but thank goodness no urine. Once the kids were asleep, it was The Hubs turn to nap, and I finished the book, which didn't seem like "work" at all. It was very entertaining, yet informative and pertinent to our circumstances. Here's a comment I left on BEYOND Understanding about the book...

"I loved the book too. It is the first book I have read every single word from cover to cover in less than a week in my entire life! It truly brought a lot of insight to what goes on in The Hub and the Elder's brain. It also gives me tremendous hope."

We sound soooooo lazy. But I think the Super Doc would be happy that we had a stress free Thanksgiving. So my apologies for letting the occasion pass without proper acknowledgments, and I hope that everyone had a wonderful day!

What's all the talk?

Today was a fun day with the boys. I again got to spend pretty much the whole day with them and it is just amazing how well they are talking. I have noticed that Ryan has taught Eric a lot of phrases (and Eric has taught Ryan a lot of behaviors, hmmmm...) and it is so cute to hear the Elder echo the Younger.

Some of the things that have sunk in this week for Eric. To ask to use the computer. Wow, I never thought I'd see the day that would happen without me having to duck to avoid a shoe, or spoon, or whatever he could get his hands on at the moment, when I would have to say no. Or quickly remove the laptop from in front of him (or vice-versa) to keep him from beating the keyboard to death. I mean to hear "mommy, caniplay on lour computer please?" wants me to let him use it every time he asks and so far I have. He does have his own logon name on my laptop, so he knows he has to "Switch User" and get to his screen before he can play (which he can do independently). He used to have a Thomas Wallpaper but has moved over to Curious George and on his 2nd CG scene since I showed him how to change the wallpaper that one time. He also has a bunch of Internet Explorer links (which is how I know he is on his screen in a quick glance because I use Firefox) on his desktop that only HE knows where they link to, because to the layman, the links look like they link to some site called "lksjdh ;uh;fjzsdj ohg;oshdogi," ";shtuwaotuSDjf;o'rg" and ";ish;oahrjgJ dng;ahr'goi." plus some other sites too that speak a similar language.

Well, today our internet is down so I was planning on using my broadband card, but in an attempt to stake claim to my computer I told him it was down, and he proceeded to hover over the network icon in the systray with the mouse, saying, "No, we have 5 bars!" He was ok with playing Purble Place for a while which is on my hard drive.

During that, the Younger awakens from his nap and comes running to me with arms up, saying, "Hold you." So I pick him up so he can he what Eric is playing on the computer. "Sit down stead." So I let him share the barstool with his brother. When Eric finished and won his game, I cheered for him. Ryan then put his right arm around Eric's shoulders and his left hand on Eric's left arm and gave him a squeeze and said,"Good job, eh-kick!" just like a proud dad would do to his graduating son. Of course this is also the same kid that 10 minutes later when we put Little Einsteins in the DVD player tell me to "Go away" as I go to kiss him good-bye. Hmmmm.. where'd he learn that from, eh-kick?

We are trying to potty training Ryan (not very hard as he is still in diapers - he hates trainers). But every night after tubtime we let him run around nakey until he pees (yes, our carpet is sad). And then we tell him that feeling is pee pee and when he feels that he needs to sit on his potty. Last night he was in our room and ran ALL the way to his room (which isn't far but when your legs are only 12 inches long I guess it is) and sat on the potty without prompting and he made pee pee!!!

Because I've been spending a lot of time with the boys lately, Ryan has gotten a little clingier than normal. Tonight he used his body as a barricade to my car and wouldn't let me get in and I was already like 5 minutes late for a meeting. And when I did get in he tried to open the back seat door. When I pull out of the garage waving to him, he was giving me the "fake pout." Cris and I each had to cover our mouths to laugh. It's funny how I don't get too wound up about this separation anxiety. I guess because Eric never had it, and I had lived through the stress of it vicariously through the other preschool moms whose children in Eric's class were screaming death cries when they got dropped off. And then again learned the lesson right along with them that they are just fine. (I think I cried more because Eric didn't cry when I dropped him off)

Anyhoo, the meeting was canceled so I came home in less than a half hour and I thought I would surprise him. They were both in the tub and when I got there they became wired. We let Ryan do the nakey dance (no pictures were taken to protect the embarrassment at his future wedding reception) and they were running up and down the halls getting us "food." TWICE Ryan stopped what he was doing to run and sit on the potty and TWICE he would look up at me and say, "s'not working" (stage fright I assume). Shortly after the second try, he peed on the floor. He was very upset about this and started rolling on the floor, saying "I'm sleepy." I mentioned to Cris how it is so odd to hear him talk about his feelings because Eric never told us when he was tired or hungry or thirsty or happy or whatever (at least accurately). But, again, Eric has learned a lot from his baby brother. Like how to pretend play at least with the "serving us food" game. It's cute because Eric's play is a cross between what he sees/hears Ryan do when he is pretending and what he sees/hears us (Me, Terry, & Cris) say when we are actually serving him food.

"Mommy, what do you want? Orange juice or apple juice?"
"Orange Juice"
"That's a good ideeee."
Then he puts his hand tightly over my mouth (as if he is trying keep me from talking) and makes drinking noises.

My boys....growing up...

It's like summer again...

I decided to pull both boys out of school. I love the Younger's teachers but I honestly just didn't want him to go there. If anything were to happen to him or BY him, I am not confident that it would be handled properly. We save on the tuition and plus, we can go back to full-time cloth diapers!

Tuesday the WHOLE family went to Eric's evaluation. It took a lot longer than I anticipated but the outcome I believe is going to be very good. His next meeting is October 2 so we are back to our summer schedule for the next few weeks. The school in Karns is only half day and about a 30 minutes drive so I have decided to not find an alternative school for Ryan since it didn't make sense to drive back and forth (Eric would be 7:45 to 11:30 and Ryan would be 9-2. I'm getting dizzy thinking about the back and forth driving) and I decided that I should probably have some good quality one on one time with Ryan because I feel like I'm missing out on him. It always pangs to see them grow up so fast right in front of your eyes, I suppose.

Anyhoo, on Wednesday I had to think of something for them to do since there wasn't school anymore. I HAD to work because I had put off so much in the wake of the Friday Confrontation and I had hired a new lady who was coming in to sign her paperwork and orientation at noon and I hadn't even had her contract filled out yet! So Eric comes in the room, in a very good mood I might add, and I ask him,

"So what do you want to do today?"
"I d'know"
"Do you want to GO anywhere?"
"How 'bout...(index finger to mouth, eyes at the ceiling)...Chuck E. Cheese?"

Well, we hadn't been there since a birthday party last month and we fed them ahead of time because of the gluten in pizza. Terry took them to the party so I'm not sure how they handled not being able to have pizza, so I thought I'd get a feel of why he chose that place (like it isn't obvious!).

"So why do you want to go there?"
"First, you get a stamp on your arm, next, you pick food, next, you pick coins, then you PLAY! That's the rules!"

It was hilarious. He did just say food, not pizza, so I asked him if he wanted carrots and cheese (off the salad bar) or hot dogs (no bun)? He didn't answer but I know he heard me. I told Cris to pack some extra contraband in case the carrots and cheese weren't enough.

That evening, Terry came home and took the Younger to the grocery store and I took the Elder to church for Cherub Choir. When we pulled up to the church, Eric says, "I don't want to sing." Well that made my heart sink. I'm hoping it was because he discovered that when you tear up paper napkins in the sun it creates "fuzzies" and he was hyperfocused on that. The choir teacher needed another adult to volunteer for the class so I volunteered on a rotational basis and so I sat in the class with him. I meant to ask the teacher if his behavior was typical or if because I was in there. But it started off, I think, as little stressful for him.

First, when we walked in there were 5 adults in the room (including teacher) as opposed to just 1 in the previous sessions. I think that made him apprehensive and he didn't want to sit in the circle. I asked if he wanted me to sit with him and he slowly started creeping to the circle. I showed him a yellow dot that he could sit on and I tried to pick him up to put him on the dot and I think I overstepped a boundary and he squirmed out and ran to the back of the room. In the meantime, a little girl came in late and joined the circle - on the yellow dot. Eric's face immediately dropped and he looked at me and said,

"I fink there's no room for me in the circle." My heart is just breaking seeing him feel rejected. "Yes there is, here are 2 dots over here."
"But they are not yellow." I can't interrupt class because it is only a 30 minute class, but I look to the teacher and mouth, he wants a yellow dot. She very professionally says, I don't see any more, and continues singing. I mean what is she going to do? Jerk the dot out from underneath the little girl?

Well he went and got a chair and sat near the back of the room. Several of the songs require "requests" and each child may raise their hands and name a body part or and action or what not to sing the song about. Well Eric had his hand up but because he was leaning over, it was more like it was sticking behind him. I told him she couldn't see his hand. So he slowly inched his chair closer and closer and closer to the circle. He finally gave his hand a full raise (it was beautifully poised) and teacher didn't see it and turned around to start a new song. Again, droopy face and a heart-wrenching "aw" of disappointment came out of his mouth. With a little pout he looked at me and said,

"I fink I didn't raise my hand."
So I encouraged him to sit in the circle so she can see his hand. I showed him a red dot he could sit on and he put it under one of the chair legs! (Of course, not in the circle)

At the end we all did a nice "this little light of mine" walk around in a circle number. We got up to hold hands and I deliberately placed Eric between me an another adult. We are walking in the circle and I keep seeing the other mom getting jerked around because Eric HAS to push and pull. I think he was focusing on the dots on the floor and stepping on them as we walked by each. Her daughter has sensory processing disorder so she and I were on the same page. Afterward she is like "he is SO strong!" One last group circle number and more parents had arrived to pick up their so we just made a big production of it. The other mom got moved to the "inner circle" so Eric was holding on to me and a very small petite little girl who was holding her dad's hand. I got a little anxious thinking he just might pull her tiny little arm out of socket. But instead of asking the dad to exchange places (there was another little girl and her pregnant mom on the other side of me), I just whispered in Eric's ear, "Let's see how gentle you can be with her hand." He did GREAT!!!!!

I praised him like crazy and asked him if he wanted to help clean up the dots. He ran around the room and picked them all up (they are very hullabaloo-like), and I was going to ask him to give them to teacher, but he raced to the table and started unstacking them.

"What are you doing?"
"I gotta make a pattern.....there....ok, bye!"

Update on the school front...

We had "Get Acquainted" day at the Preschool today. I must say that I feel much better now that I have talked with Eric's teachers. They seemed very willing to work with Eric. They do not practice Time Out in the classroom, only redirection, which eased a lot of anxiety because I didn't want the other kids seeing him in Time Out all the time and be afraid of him (Time out doesn't appear to affect Eric at all). The other pit in my stomach was to warn them about his biting. I know they have a very strict no biting policy, as in expulsion after the 3rd time (Warning, Sent Home, Sent Home for good). They didn't immediately go at me like I envisioned in my head for weeks. I really felt at ease so praise God for that! I brought them a copy of the John M Ortiz lecture to listen to. Neither of them had heard of AS so I was glad that I had it available for them today. I just hope they listen to it before Monday. I'm trying to think of things that I need to make sure they know. I'm so new that I don't really know what to tell them until after it happens, even then I don't always know how to tell them how to handle it. I am experiencing this with Cris as she tells me about the "what happened today" episodes. I know what to do in the heat of the moment, but I rely alot on my instinct and how do I teach that to someone who doesn't know my child as well as me? When you know what sets him off then you can prevent a bite or meltdown or whatever. Once he is in the mode though, it takes spur of the moment creativity, a lot of patience, a lot of love, and a lot of acceptance.

I think the younger is going to have a lot of fun this year. His teacher Miss C told me over the summer she was looking forward to having him this year and I warned her that he was mighty strong-willed. Her response was the stronger the better! Yeesssss! The only bummer thing is that they don't allow cloth diapers in their class. They did last year. I guess because they are potty training at this age, I dunno, but I did ask if I could send one for them to put on him at the end of the day. That's one diaper a day, 2x a week that I wouldn't have to 1) pay for and 2) contribute to the diaper pile in the land fills.