Firsts

We had two firsts in our family tonight.

Tonight was my oldest daughter's first school dance. Awww! She went with a friend and met other friends there. My camera isn't downloading so I can't upload any photos but she looked cute. It was school attire so the clothes were normal. But she did wear makeup. I painted her nails, put on eye shadow, mascara, and blush. She looked so mature. She was excited to tell me that she was "party boyed" which means that a boy came up and danced around her. Not just any boys though - two 8th grade boys - one while she was dancing and one while she was just standing with friends.

Tonight was my son's first friend sleepover at our house. Didn't go quite as well as oldest dance. Things were fine - until bedtime. The little boy lives upstairs and, from the sounds some nights, he doesn't have a real bedtime. There are nights we hear the kids upstairs jumping and running after midnight. I've called the mom several times and asked her to please tell the boys not to jump because we're going to bed or my kids are already in bed. Little boy said his bedtime was 11:30 and I told him not at my house. He wasn't thrilled but was ok while they were playing. At 9:30 I told the kids bedtime. At 9:35 little boy decided he was going home. Fine with me except it broke Deklan's heart. I walked little boy home and came home to find Deklan crying his eyes out in bed. I tried to console him. Problem is I get really upset when I can't console the kids - it hurts my heart when I don't know how to make it better. So hubby did a really good thing - he took Deklan out of my arms and held him for nearly 30 minutes. I told Deklan that he could stay up just a little longer and color a sheet if he wanted to. After sitting in daddy's lap crying he finally decided that maybe he could color for a few minutes. He was back in bed before 10:30 so it wasn't too horrible. But that little boy will not be invited to spend the night again that's for sure.

So that's our night of firsts.

Fall Festival

Last Saturday was our town's fall festival. We went to the parade in the morning. Actually we were all part of the parade - two Girl Scouts and a Boy Scout. The girls were both in the parade last year. This was Deklan's first year. Since I'm a leader this year, I rode the float our troop decorated. Originally Deklan was going to walk with our co-leader's husband or ride on the float with me. Instead we found out he could ride the Boy Scout float and that excited him. When the parade was over I asked him if he had fun.

His response, "I had to sit on a bale of hay with the sun shining, I couldn't do anything, and it was HOT!"

"So, did you have fun?"

"It'll be better next year."

O... K... then.

Later that evening we went to the festival carnival in town. I was walking with Deklan when he stopped and looked at the sky. It was a very nice evening. But the sky was dark.

He said, "The sky must be busy tonight."

"The sky is busy? Why do you say that?"

"Because there's no stars and you can't see the moon either."

The Charming Award

Thank you to Mommy~Dearest for this award.

The Rules:
Leave the following message on your post when you pass the award on to their chosen eight blogger buddies.

“These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in prizes or self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers! Deliver this award to eight bloggers who must choose eight more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award.”



So the eight blogs I chose to share this award with are:

Bobbi at Mixed Blessings
T at Send Chocolate
Casdock at Faces of Autism
Alexandra at Happy Hearts at Home
Jodi at Reimer Reason
Mara at Mama on the Edge
Mommazilla at www.tsblogs.com - cheaper than therapy
Jess at diary of a mom

The appeal worked!

I am so excited. Yesterday I got a call from the county organization that turned Deklan down for case management a couple of weeks ago. I wrote a four page letter for appeal. Some of that letter I posted a few blogs ago on the 15th. Yesterday the lady in charge called me to thank me for the letter. She said it was exactly what she needed to learn more about Deklan. She also said that because of the letter they are moving him into the approved category and we should have our acceptance letter by the end of the week. YEA!! I'm not sure what all the benefits will entail but anything has to be better than nothing - which is what we have now.

Also, more good news for Deklan. I'm friends with Deklan's bus driver. She's really great. Anyway, she asked me yesterday if there was anything he could bring on the bus with him to keep him occupied. She said he's not a problem just really antsy - a lot of stimulation on the bus. She suggested putting a few cars in his backpack and she'd allow him to play with them on the bus. This actually excited me. With having so much opposition from the school (psychologist to be exact) I love having a person from the school that I can use to help my case if I need to. It's great. It's the little things that make me happy. lol.

Thank you

I just want to say thank you to those of you who read my blog. And leave comments. I don't always reply to them - mostly because I'm not quite sure how. Do I leave a re-post? Do I reply in my comments? I'm just not sure - any ideas are welcome. Anyway, I just want to say thank you. My biggest online support comes from two of my favoriteist (I know that's not a real word) blogs: Quirk Factor Resistance is Futile and Mixed Blessings. I absolutely love you guys. I think it's great that Bobbi has went back to college. I'm excited that Jayson may be finally in the right school with support. I may not get to read everyday but I always catch up. I actually read quite a few, but these are my constant blogs. I'm also very fond of Send Chocolate. T over there likes to tell it how it is. Some of the others are: Happy Hearts at Home, Reimer Reason, Mama on the Edge, Diary of Mom, and way too many to list. Anyway, I just want you to know that I'm always here and appreciate your blogs - even if I don't always comment. And thank you for reading mine and supporting me.

My son

My son is the little boy in the front row that has to sit on a special seat because he can’t sit still. My son is the little boy who has a need to touch everything. My son is the little boy who flips the little girl’s hair because he likes the way it feels and looks when it flips. My son is the little boy who can only take one instruction at a time because he gets confused. My son is the little boy who has to watch other kids to figure out what is going on because the transition to another subject was too quick. My son is the little boy who makes noises and it takes four times of telling him to be quiet before he realizes that he’s making noises. My son is the little boy who will repeat things over and over because he likes the way it sounds – he’s especially fond of jingles and songs. My son is the little boy who will catch your conversations and hours later repeat it back while talking to himself. My son is the little boy who has little eye contact and when talking to you will let his eyes wander every where except your face. My son is the little boy who will walk into the house after school without saying a word, go into his room, and not come out until you make him come eat dinner or get ready for bed. My son is the little boy who, when frustrated, will refuse to open his mouth and talk. He uses his own special brand of sign language that we must figure out in order to know what he needs. That’s assuming he hasn’t completely shut down by that time. My son is the little boy that you’re weary of taking into a store or restaurant because you don’t know what’s going to trigger a melt down. My son is the little boy who loves to be around other children and, yet, he just doesn’t quite have the understanding of how to play WITH other children. He usually prefers playing games where there is not direct interaction. My son is the little boy who has to wear pull-ups to bed because he still wets the bed. My son is the little boy who still has accidents in his pants (both urine and bowel) and doesn’t realize it. My son is the little boy who recently laid in the hall and cried for over an hour because he couldn’t decide if he wanted to wear big boy underwear or a pull-up.
*My son is the little boy that tells me twenty times a day that he loves me. My son is the little boy that can brighten my room just with his smile. My son is the little boy that makes me laugh every day just by being himself. My son is the little boy that I wouldn't change for all the money in the world. My son is the little boy that I love just the way he is.

I had to write an appeal today. I didn't know what to write. I put in a lot of the IEP and eval wording and quotes from teachers and staff. I referred to all the tests he's been administered since April 2007. Then I put in a paragraph (up until the *, the rest I just added) to describe Deklan, my son, to them.

Potatoes and corn

Last night we asked Deklan what we should have for dinner. We were thinking hamburgers. He thought we should have more to go with it. He chose to have hamburgers, hot dogs, mashed potatoes, and corn. Ok, we can do that. He actually ate one hamburger and one hot dog - holy cow! But he also ate potatoes and corn. Now the really big news... not only did he eat the potatoes and corn but he mixed them together and still ate them! Yeah! He ate something mixed that were two different colors. I was so excited. Daddy wasn't quite as excited but I just don't think he quite understood the significance.
I'm still excited.

Smooth bumps

This morning my son was feeling his pop tart. (Did I mention he's a sensory seeker and touches everything?)

He said, "Oooh, it's smooth and bumpy."

Daddy says, "You can't have it both ways. It's either smooth or bumpy."

Deklan says, "Well the bumps are smooth."

Healthy Breakfast

I am such a good mom. We have no pop tarts and no more cereal. What am I going to give the little ones for breakfast? Hey...hubby made cake last night. SCORE!! Chocolate cake for breakfast. Yep, such a good mom. lol

Yesterday Deklan wanted a snack before dinner and I told him no. He stood there - stuck out his bottom lip, batted his little eyes and gave me the puppy dog eyes.

"Pleeeaaassse?"

I stuck out my bottom lip, batted my eyes, and gave him the puppy dog eyes.

"No."

He put his finger on my bottom lip, pushing it in, and said, "You can't beat me at this."

Yesterday we went to my brother's for dinner. They were having a barbecue. My brother told oldest daughter to get a lawn chair out of the back of the car - a cougar.
So Uncle said, "Kodi get a chair out of the Cougar."
Deklan came up to me and said, "Why is there a chair in the cooler?"


On the way home I was talking, using my fingers for punctuation. I used my finger and made a circle in the air. Oldest daughter started laughing and said that I made the "shape of a butt" with my finger. Ha, ha - ok. Later Deklan called Nana to tell her about dinner at Uncle's. When he was done he gave me the phone to talk to mom.
She said, "So... Deklan told me you shave your butt."

I was just at Wal-Mart and saw the strangest thing. Wind up Sushi. No kidding - little wind up sushi toys. Who buys these things?