Thursday, February 07, 2008

Hello everyone,

By now you’ve probably realized that I’ve changed things around again. I decided I didn’t like the lay out of my pictures and Update, so I tried rearranging it, but I couldn’t come up with something that made me happy. I was doing something else when I came across Blogs, and I thought, Why don’t I give that a try? So, here it is!

You’ll still see the pictures and other information on my web site, but I thought, if I used a Blog, then people could leave their comments right here instead of sending me an email, and it would keep all my Updates in one place for those of you who don’t read it as often as you should! :) Consider this a test run. If you don’t like it, then tell me so in the comment area below, and I’ll go back to doing it pretty much the same way I’ve been doing it since Hunter was a baby. Hunter a baby? He doesn’t believe it!

When I told myself to have a seat and jot down some things to talk about this week before my sister calls asking where the heck her Update is, I strained and racked my brain. All I was remembering was negative things about Hunter this week. He’s been testing the patience of both Tim and I. A lot of it are little things that I won’t even mention, but the following are bothersome.

Every night he has the same routine:

The bus drops him off about 4:00. He watches his cartoons until 5. Tim argues that he should do his homework right away to get it out of the way, but I said he would just be getting home from doing it all day, he needs a break! So about 5:00 I have him sit down and do his homework. Dinner at 6:00. He plays in his room or on the Xbox until 8:00, and at that time he heads to the bathroom where he is supposed to be doing three things; using the toilet, taking a shower, and brushing his teeth. An HOUR later I’m hollering at him to stop hogging the bathroom and he almost always comes out forgetting to do one of the three. I’m considering using the visual schedule again. The past few times he’s gotten in the shower, I’ve had to verbally remind him to use a small amount of shampoo and soap or else he plays with all the bubbles and the bottles are empty by the third day.

He carry’s those small toys every where, with every thing he does! He almost dropped a gallon of milk because he couldn’t get a good grip on the jug while holding the felt characters from the Three Little Pigs! If I send him on an errand with something in his hands, he’s slow or he forgets completely.

If he spills something, it stays there until I notice it, be it milk on the table, pop on the carpet, or bread slices on the pantry floor. He’s sneaking snacks, but leaving the evidence all around him. He’s eating the selections he’s chosen for his school lunch, so for two days last week he didn’t have a morning snack or chips in his lunch box because he ate them all in one sitting.

He has been taking my new phone, which is smaller than the previous one, and hording it with his other small toys, in the lock box he got for Christmas. I talked with him about it, but he really got chewed out when he took his dad’s cell phone and did the same. Is he playing a game, or does he really need to take it?

Ok, enough of a vent! He is walking on the treadmill! I told him he could watch cartoons at the same time, but that he must keep moving on the treadmill for at least 30 minutes and not go any faster than two and a half mph. He said he could go four, and with me right there I said he could give it a try…he agreed he’d only go 2.5! Last weekend he did it both days and he’s done it twice so far this week. Back on Saturday, his first day, I went downstairs to check on him after hearing the treadmill turn off after ten minutes. He was slouched in the chair watching TV and I said if he was done with the treadmill, he’s done with the TV. He said he needed to catch his breath, that he felt lighter, that he lost at least ten pounds! I had to laugh and told him it takes much more than walking ten minutes on a treadmill. If that was all it took, I’d be wearing a bikini by now!

What I am most happy about is that he told me a story! It had been snowing and the white stuff was clinging to the windows and he asked me if I knew what it really was. I went into educator mode and spoke of frozen water, ice crystals…but he stopped me and said it was really ice forts and castles and that every time it snowed more were built by the little people and creatures that rode the flakes down. I asked him some questions and learned that there are danger zones, like the windshield of cars and that after the snow melts, they live in the water and go back home. I wasn’t sure what he meant by “go back home”. It took a little working it out because he couldn’t put the words together right, but he meant they ride the vapors back up to the clouds. He says they are from the artic circle and come here with the snow on a vacation.

I was very impressed and said I would get him a special notebook and new pencil set to write down his story. He doesn’t want to do that because his printing isn’t that good and it hurts his hands. Yes, that’s still an obstacle. Kind of changing the subject here, but kind of not, but Tim tells me that a co-worker of his has a son that had horrible penmanship, worked with an OT, and now his printing is the best in the class. Therefore, Tim thinks the OT Hunter has been working with for a few years now, isn’t very good. I disagree and think it lies within Hunter. You can offer him different tools; bigger, darker pencils, pencil grips, different types of lined paper, but it all boils down to Hunter and how he always rushes to get it done and that he doesn’t take any pride in his work. When he slows down and notices what he writes, it’s actually pretty good, although not as neat as his peers.

Back to what I was saying before, I would really like to get Hunter one of these. I’ve asked the school if they’d provide it for him, but they said no, of course. I asked another mom I know if the Autism Scholarship would cover it, but was told it’s an all or nothing kind of thing. The mom who first suggested we get one for Hunter said I might want to gather up some research and give it to the school to show how beneficial one of these would be for Hunter. I haven’t talked with Tim about that yet, so it’s still up in the air. If not, then I’ll probably use our tax return to get it for him.

Once again we’re experiencing crazy weather days. On Monday it was almost 60 degrees, but today, Thursday, the snow is back and the temperatures will continue to drop until they are down to the teens for Sunday. I am so looking forward to warmer days and drier conditions so I can take the two year old who keeps throwing balls at me and the black lab that keeps staring at me outside and let them tire each other out! Tim and I are considering installing a small fence to keep the boys confined around the play area, but I really don’t want the dogs in there all the time, either (poop factor). That might be a problem with Devin because he wants to be around Knight all the time. The poor dog can’t get any rest…but he’s not complaining! Devin has started pulling on his tail, making us get on him tough, sometimes drawing tears, but even the great family dog that a black lab is, Knight’s patience will only go so far, and he’s getting older.

Devin is still sleeping most of the night on the floor. I’m trying not to think of what he might be breathing in!

Right at this moment, he’s trying to rearrange the track of the train I put together for him. It’s great to see him want to change things around like that! However, the plastic track doesn’t do that as easily as the wooden one…which I see he’s just realized and put it all back in the tub and is headed back out to the living room, where he has the wooden track spread out all over the floor…and Bryce is probably gnawing on it.

Devin is talking so much; it’s hard to believe sometimes that Hunter was silent at this age. Dev has such good manners with us and his brothers, and even with Knight! His favorite thing to do is play fetch on the stairs. He stands up at the top and drops the bumper or dog bone down and tells Knight, Fetch! Knight is happy to oblige. The stairs is the only place they can do that where it doesn’t shake the house! You may have seen the picture already of Devin covering his mouth while playing fetch in the sunroom. I was sitting here at the computer when Devin threw the ball and Knight pounced on it so hard and fast, it seemed like there was a thunderstorm in the room for a second! I said, Whoa! Easy, Knight! and Devin slapped his hands across his mouth! I let them shake the house a few more times so I could get a picture!

His eating habits have gone up and down. Some days he pigs out something awful, and other days he eats only a few bites of each meal. Sometimes he gives me these looks, with his eyebrows down low where I can’t really see his eyes and his upper lip is protruding a bit. I got this look just this morning when I gave him a bowl of Coco Puffs and he looked up at me that way and said in this tone like I was being scolded, Chips. I told him, for lunch, yes, for breakfast, no. He must have known what I was going to say but thought he’d try anyway, because he took his bowl of brown circles and left.

Bryce will be slimming down soon, I know it! We’ve been keeping the gate above the stairs closed because Bryce is rolling, scooting and sliding backwards all over the place! Most of the time he gets to different places by starting on his belly, sitting himself up, reaching toward something and ending up back on his belly. Then he pushes himself up again and repeats, and before I know it, he’s on the other side of the room! No more being stuck in the center of blankets for him!

I was sharing small bites of my pasta lunch the other day. Obviously I wasn’t sharing fast enough because Bryce got up on his hands and knees and did a half crawl and reached out to me, trying to grab my plate! He loves snacks of table food, but he’s still getting most of his meals from me.

The past two nights haven’t been that bad. Last night I think he woke three times, the night before one or two more than that. There have been nights when he was waking every 20-30 minutes. I couldn’t give him the same boob he had the last time he woke, I had to offer him the other, but by flipping both of us over to the other side, before he’d settle back down again. Picky! One of those nights he woke up every 30 minutes, we also had Devin come downstairs crying for his sippy. I was able to sneak away from Bryce so hubby could stay in bed and brought Devin back upstairs and laid him down, promising to be right back with a sippy. I come back into his room, and what do I find? He’s sound asleep! My lack of sleep and zombie like state wanted to call him a brat, but he looked so precious laying there on his side with his blanket clutched in his little fist. I returned to the dark kitchen, clenched my eyes closed and put the sippy in the fridge. Have you ever tried to find something in a fridge when you’re blind? Try it some time! :) I didn’t want the bright light in my eyes, or else I’d NEVER get to sleep that night!

I think his top four teeth have finally broken thru enough to give him some relief. I think I said once before that I got him some baby Orajel because the Hylands Teething Tablets didn’t seem to be enough for all four at once. Ya gotta be quick if you use your finger; those little teeth hurt! I was sporting a deep groove on my finger for a bit!

OK. I’m going to end this now. But before I do, I’m going to announce something that I wrote briefly about in my last Update (not to be found on this Blog because this is the first one!) I spoke last time of the news about Bisphenol-A or BPA being in our children’s bottles, sippy’s, etc., and how Tim and I were looking into a new undertaking that will help us put away some money for a rainy day, but also to help me feel better about Hunter’s future. If this works out like we hope, it can run itself and support Hunter until he finds himself and his place in the world.

Tim has always given me heck about my “Soapbox Ways” and, now that the sleeping bag business has fallen through, he wants to try something else and is open to my ideas. I told him what I’ve learned and how I feel about it, and, www.bpafreekids.com is the result. We started off reading the “Z Report” and I did surveys and polls on a few message boards to find the most popular of the products found to be BPA free. We selected one from each category and have stock in the Foogo and Adiri at the moment and if there is interest in the other three, we’ll get those as well. So far we haven’t put a lot of money into it, just time, and want to make sure we sell what we have before we continue. I plan on putting in more pictures because that’s a big selling point for me; I want to see different views of what I’m looking to buy, not just read words. We’ve found a way to do a 360 degree view, but have to iron out some stubborn details.

So, please tell me what you think. How is it on the eyes, navigation, too much, too little? One thing we paid attention to on another site is how many clicks it take to buy the products if you choose to do so. We’ve made it so if you know what you want, you just have one click to make to buy it, but if you’re not sure and need to know more, there is more information in another click.

Those of you with English degrees or writing credentials please let me know if there are any grammatical errors, etc., that need my prompt attention. I know it gets on my nerves if I see a spelling error or if words like pear and pair are used incorrectly. It takes me a good amount of time to write my Update, not just to write it, but I must go through it and proofread it as well!

I hope you are all doing well. You don’t have to email me now, just leave a comment on my Update, or about the pictures!

Question: Why do bagels have to be so bad??