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Ethan finds the red!

Oh Ethan, my wonderful youngest son, Ethan. With having my first exam for my microbiology class tomorrow, most of my day has been spent at the computer and in my notes making up my own test questions. I would really love to do well on this exam. As I went to take a study break, I found Ethan at the kitchen table being artistic. He had some paper and scissors which was a big concern for me and then I saw his head. He was covered with some kind of gooey stuff that I at first thought was paint. Upon further examination, I came to the conclusion that it was lipstick...possibly belonging to Katheryn. At this time, Katheryn and Brian walked in the front door, home from school. I asked Katheryn if she had lipstick in her room and she shook her head and seemed a bit confused. I asked her to take a look around the house to see if she could see what it may have been that Ethan used. Well, she found Brian's iDog and it had been made over. She then found my purse was dumped. Aha! He took my lipgloss compact from my purse!!!! When I asked him if I could wipe it off, he said no and that he liked it. *sigh*

School is in session

The kids have been in school for about a month now. Brian has adjusted very well to Kindergarten. I had gone in prior to school starting for an informational meeting with his class teacher. That was the hardest thing for me to sit through. All the parents met in the cafeteria and the principal introduced herself and went over the activities for the evening. We then walked to our child's classroom and sat in those tiny chairs. Brian's teacher had quite a bit of information to share and I was very concerned about Brian's meals. How was he to eat lunch because he is on a GFCF diet. Everything we make comes from the freezer because it has no preservatives and it needs to be heated or it needs to be kept refridgerated. I asked about access to microwaves and got a huge NO response from the teacher. I was a bit offended the way she answered me but then, I know she had a lot to get through. Then she gets to dismissal and car riders. Brian will be riding the bus so the car rider line didn't concern me but I was shocked to hear how dismissal happens. The kids are released on their own. When they go out the door, who knows who is taking them. I let my concern be heard and the teacher's response was, well, we've never had a problem with it, it's worked out well so far. I was in shock. I again questioned her and asked what would happen if a step mother or a parent who was not supposed to have contact with the child shows up before the parent could. The child recognizes the parent and goes with them and next thing you know, the kid's parent is at the school wondering where her child is. Again, I got the same response. I just shook my head and started to get bad vibes about this class. She then proceeds on and lets us know that she is the only adult with 17 kids. I was shocked. Brian's IEP states that there will be an aide in the classroom for him so to hear that she will be alone did not sit easy with me. By the end of the meeting I was a bit shaken. I waited my turn after a few parents had stayed after to talk about my concerns with the teacher. Especially surprise birthday parties. I wanted to make sure there was some way to bring cupcakes in for Brian to eat that are GFCF if his classmates were celebrating. I didn't want him to feel left out. It was so late the principal finally made her way to the classroom with Brian. I spoke with the principal and she was much more understanding of my concerns and we were able to come up with a plan for Brian's lunches. The school will provide a GFCF lunch for him as soon as I brought in a doctor's note. The next week I had the note and Brian was set. We do still pack his lunch but I am thrilled that the option is available to him to eat a school lunch. Katheryn is enjoying her 5th grade year. This is her last year at the elementary school. She is so thrilled to be able to have a locker. I told her they were training her up for Middle School. She and Brian walk together to and from the bus stop everyday. It's so nice having them walk together. Next year Brian will be without Katheryn but at least I can enjoy watching them leave in the morning together. I as well have started back to school. I am taking 3 classes this semester with the intention of graduating with an associates after this semester. Ethan goes to the YMCA while I am in class. The first day he loved it but now it is difficult getting him to uncling from me when I drop him off. It's a great place and he tells me all about how they played outside and the friends he has made. I think it's just a little bit of seperation anxiety in the morning and then he's okay.

Katheryn and I had "the talk"

So many things have been going on that I finally stopped to take a moment to catch up. I wish I could do this as things happen but I get so caught up with our daily activities that blogging seems to have taken a back seat. So, here's a memorable moment that I've been wanting to post. This happened in the summer about a month before school started. Katheryn is now in 5th grade and this is the year where the school seperates the boys from the girls and they introduce to them their anatomy and physiology. So to prepare Katheryn, I decided that I would talk to her so that the information she hears at school will not be so shocking and so that she can hear it with a sound mind. To start our conversation off, I asked Katheryn to join me in the dining room. She sat down with a look of, "uh-oh, am I in trouble?" I then asked her if she has noticed any changes going on with her body and immediately she takes her hands and thumps at her chest and says, "yeah, these!" I chuckled and we talked about it. I explained to her the importance of wearing a bra everyday to school and proceeded to tell her about puberty. I told her she was going to grow hair in her armpits and genatalia area and she asked me what her genatalia area was. I explained that to her and she responds back with, "oh, I just call that area a piece of fruit like kiwi or strawberry." I was dying inside with laughter but I had to keep a straight face. I didn't want her to feel uncomfortable talking to me. I then proceeded on to the menstrual cycle. I think I lost her here. I explained to her that every baby girl is born with tons and tons of eggs. At that moment, she blurts, "what?! I have eggs?!?" I then went on about menstruation and how the egg is released and where it settles and if it's not fertilized then the lining sheds causing blood. Well by this point she looked totally confused. I asked her to tell me what she knew about sex. Thankfully she didn't know too much other than it involved kissing. I could be naive and she may now more than she is letting on but I honestly think she is clueless. So I then grabbed some pictures to show her. Suddenly, she stops, waves her hands towards her face and says, "mom, it's hot in here, can you turn on the air or something?" My toes were freezing! It was no where near hot in our house and I wanted to bust out loud with laughter but I contained it. It was hard. So we continued with our conversation and talked about the fertilizing of the egg and what happens when the egg is fertilized. We talked about abstinence. Katheryn during this part of the conversation had her head buried in her hands and screeched out, "mom, why are you telling me this?!" LOL! "Mom, it's so hot, I'm hot!" The next part of the conversation went like this with her saying, "I think living a solitary life with animals will be just fine for me!" "Katheryn, what will you do when boys start taking interest in you and want to hold your hand or something?" "Well, I will punch them out or I will tell dad to." Again, I am just dying with laughter inside. She then asks me if she will die from the bleeding. I explained to her that it was a sign of her becoming a woman and she then said that she doesn't want anything to with becoming a woman and she wants to stay a kid forever. Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. Then she asked me what boys get to go through and there wasn't really a whole lot compared to a girl. I don't think she liked that. I then of course immediately had to run upstairs and call Matt. I could not help but just laugh out loud for the next 5 minutes with him on the phone and I told him what had just happened. Our little girl is growing up and she just doesn't want to. :)

*WA-HOO* It's a Celebration!

This morning I woke up at 6am and shortly after at 6:30am, Ethan came to my bedroom door knocking. I let him in and he immediately heads to my bed and jumps on it mumbling to me about something I couldn't quite grasp. He then hops off the bed and says, "you are beautiful mommy." I about melted and had to give him a big hug. We went downstairs, he had breakfast and then I changed him out of his pull-up and into some Lightning McQueen underwear. As I put them on him, I told him that Lightning McQueen does not like to get wet or poo'd on and that if he needed to go, he was to go in the potty. Ethan replies, "don't get McQueen wet; go potty." I went to the basement to work on a window pane frame I had and when I came back up to the kitchen, I saw Ethan on the potty and he was grabbing some toilet paper. I went to him and asked if he went pee and he said he went poo! I couldn't believe it!!! He actually went all on his own without my prompting. I am so excited!!! We're getting closer. Hopefully he can keep it up. **WA-HOO!**

School Evaluation and Classroom Placement for Brian

We arose early yesterday morning for Brian's 9am appointment at the elementary school. He was tested and evaluated for classroom placement for the upcoming school year. Things seemed to go well. One of the three kindergarten teachers took Brian back to a classroom and when they came back, she shared his test results with me. Brian maxed the shapes and colors as well as writing his name begining with a capital and the remainder in lowercase. He did pretty well with grouping. When the teacher asked him to group together 3 things, 4 things, etc. he was able to. He got 4/5 on this one because when she asked him to group 5 things, he counted 4 and didn't add another to make 5. When we went out to dinner last night, I had him group peanuts at the table and he was able to. He had a little trouble recognizing all the letters of the alphabet and numbers so we'll have to work more on that. I think he has lost the memory of those since being on summer vacation. He recognized a few of the sight words and had a little bit of trouble with the front/back and direction of reading a book. Not quite sure about that one or how they tested for it. He also only counted to 7 on rote counting which I KNOW he can do at least to 10 if not more. The teacher said that perhaps he was just nervous with someone he didn't know. I honestly think that he may have been distracted and interested in the new surroundings...which may be the ADD. I'm not positive, but that's my hunch. She then stated that Brian did well and that he tested average among his peers. WOW! For him to have a diagnosis of autism and then to test average with his typical peers almost brought tears. It's such an emotional feeling to know that our hard work, research and dedication to him has gotten him so far. I remember him playing solo or even parallel playing among other children and now when we go to the park, Brian is the first one to ask a child to play or what their name is. :) I'm so proud of him. The next part of the evaluation was with the speech therapist. Our neighbor's daughter had gone in before Brian and when she returned, the therapist said something about th sounds coming out as f sounds which is typical. We're actually working on that in speech with Brian now. Anyways, Brian goes with the speech therapist next and when he returns she smiles and says, "he's great!" She then asks if he goes to speech and we talked a tad bit about his sessions now. She doesn't have any concerns for him so now I'm left wondering if his speech therapy received at school will be reduced. Hmmm. The therapist was also to hang out a bit with Ethan earlier while she was waiting for students to evaluate. She had a small chat with Ethan about what he was coloring. As we were leaving, she said that I should keep an eye on Ethan and his speech patterns. I stopped and I was a little annoyed; not with her but with our past. I had taken Ethan to be evaluated for speech when we were in NC. They did see him however, I was told that he really did not need speech therapy and was testing within the range. We of course then moved and I asked for a referral for him to be evaluated. He was tested and the results came back as him not needing speech therapy services. And now, just a quick chat at the school, and the speech therapist is suggesting that he may need some service. We talked a bit about that and she told me that he was evaluated via medical views and that it's different than educational. She told me to check into Early Intervention, which is how Brian was able to start pre-k in SC at age 3. So on that note, I better go so I can research it and see if I can get Ethan into an appointment. If I can get him into pre-k this year, then that would be wonderful!

Just CAN'T get ahead!

Going to bed late last night and waking up extremely way to early this morning is surely why I am tired, I thought. After the 3 hours the kids have been awake, I'm ready to just go back to bed. Wait, maybe this all started last night on my way to bed. For the past three nights, Ethan has not allowed us to put a pull up on him for bed. Matt and I will wait for him to fall asleep to change his underwear to pull ups. Last night, Matt fell asleep with Ethan in our bed and Ethan was only wearing his underwear. I went to bed around 2am and started to change him when I realized he was wet. He had pee'd in our bed. I woke Matt up to let him know he was sleeping in pee and I'm not sure what happened after that. I took Ethan and put him in bed with Brian after getting him cleaned off and then I went to bed in the guest room. I think Matt continued to sleep in the other bed. LOL! I woke up then at 6am this morning to Cody barking wanting to be let outside. I dragged myself down to let him out and then crashed on the couch. I remember hearing click clack of the dogs footsteps on the kitchen floor and then some crunching by the dog food. I just figured that my mom's dogs were eating their breakfast. Then I realized, my mom's dogs were still in the kennel. I bolted up and when I looked toward the dog food bowl, I see a BIG Black DOG! It's Cody!!! He had let himself back into the house through the basement door, made his way upstairs and into the kitchen and helped himself to my parent's dog's food. LOL! I then get the poodles out of the kennel, let them outside and when they come back in, JJ dumps the dog food bowl all over the kitchen. I had to clean that up and Ethan and Brian try to help when Ethan then dumps the water bowl all over the kitchen floor and it mixes with the dog food. Nice slushy dog food on my kitchen floor now. I proceed to clean that up and I start to cut open a watermelon for Ethan when he then says, "sorry." I look, and he has now pee'd all over the kitchen chair and left a puddle. Nice. I'm cutting watermelon, making pancakes and cleaning up pee. **sigh** I asked Katheryn to help me out with cleaning the basement while I worked on the upstairs. My mom then comes to pick up the dogs. Ethan at this point now is just wearing a t-shirt because I had him take his underwear and pants off from when he pee'd. We go outside to say goodbye and Ethan starts to pee on my mom's foot!! LOL! So funny. I couldn't stop laughing. She then leaves and I came inside to make a comment on my facebook page about him peeing on her foot & while I'm typing, I see Ethan peek around at me with a red hand towel. I asked him, "what are you doing" and he replies back in his innocent voice, "nothing" and then runs off. I immediately got up to check on him and my bathroom floor is flooded with water!!!! I'm trying to get the house cleaned, bed sheets washed and dinner prepped because we are having some friends over for dinner tonight who we met in Germany. It is now about 1pm and I have accomplished very little. Ethan is not allowing me to move ahead and I have sooo much to do before they get here in about three hours!!