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8.31.2010
Delay Schmilay
Girlfriend is CRAWLING and she's right on target with it. Seriously, I have friends and family who's babies started crawling at the same time (and some later), right around 11 months. Totally typical non-delayed children. I'm so proud of her!
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8.29.2010
A Great Blog to Stumble Upon
Somehow I stumbled upon The Stir, a cafe mom blog. There's an article called 9 Lifesaving Car Seat Rules You're Probably Ignoring that caught my attention. It's a pretty good article and is also written with some humor. Anyway, I was poking around the rest of the website and discovered one of the parents is a special needs mom. She writes a column about her experiences called "Isn't That Special." She has a sense of humor.... I like her :). If you have a second, check out the website and poke around. I guarantee you'll find something you like!
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8.28.2010
Weekend Blog Challenge Recap
Just a quick recap of the weeks blog challenge highlights.
Have you met Blondie over at Transatlantic Blonde? If not you should definitely check out her Feminist Friday post and join along. I have never considered myself a feminist, because truthfully I thought it meant burning bras, vowing never to wear pink ruffles, and being a "man hater"... but alas, I was wrong. After reading some of her posts and some of the other bloggers Feminist Friday posts, I realize it's more about equality, choosing your words wisely, not characterising someone based on their gender, and overall respect.
There's so much more I could write about this topic - but we'll save that for next Friday ;-)
Also check out My Two Red Shoes. I love this blog. It's beautiful, there are amazing pictures, an adorable baby boy, and right now... chocolate croissants. I'm drooling just looking at them and cursing Trader Joe's for being an hour away.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
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Have you met Blondie over at Transatlantic Blonde? If not you should definitely check out her Feminist Friday post and join along. I have never considered myself a feminist, because truthfully I thought it meant burning bras, vowing never to wear pink ruffles, and being a "man hater"... but alas, I was wrong. After reading some of her posts and some of the other bloggers Feminist Friday posts, I realize it's more about equality, choosing your words wisely, not characterising someone based on their gender, and overall respect.
There's so much more I could write about this topic - but we'll save that for next Friday ;-)
Also check out My Two Red Shoes. I love this blog. It's beautiful, there are amazing pictures, an adorable baby boy, and right now... chocolate croissants. I'm drooling just looking at them and cursing Trader Joe's for being an hour away.
Hope you all have a great weekend!
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8.26.2010
Things I don't want to forget
I never want to forget the adorable little noise you make when you yawn. It was one of the only noises you made for months and we would wait for it with anticipation each time your lips opened to make a tiny little oval, just in time to release all your sleepy sighs with a smile inducing "oohhhmm." (We still wait for it in anticipation, though now the sound that comes out varies from a sweet sigh to an irritated growl. You are such a sassy little thing.)
I don't want to forget the way you stick your little index finger out on your left hand and so carefully aim before jabbing it right into my eye, and in some cases my nose.
Or the way you try to pick up your food with your right hand, only to pass it to the left fingers to put in your mouth, with your right hand guiding your left hand all the way to give it the extra little push into your mouth.
I don't want to forget the way you stick your little index finger out on your left hand and so carefully aim before jabbing it right into my eye, and in some cases my nose.
Or the way you try to pick up your food with your right hand, only to pass it to the left fingers to put in your mouth, with your right hand guiding your left hand all the way to give it the extra little push into your mouth.
Or how easily you fall asleep next to your daddy, even if you just woke up from a nap. (And how much he enjoys spending time with you)
8.24.2010
SO busy
Today we had a lot going on. I purchased a Toshiba laptop, hopefully it will be ready to pick up tomorrow. They're doing something with it (I don't know all the details) that will take until tomorrow and then I'll finally have a working computer.
Lillian has been great since her teething pain has gone. She's such a happy baby and makes me smile all day. Even when she's being a stinker I can't help but laugh about her big personality. She's doing this funny thing lately where she wraps her arms around our necks and squeezes while she tries to "kiss" your face off. It's more of a shove-your-face-in-her-mouth type of kiss, but we love it.
Today we went to a 31 party open house and managed to buy some Christmas presents! Can't believe we're already Christmas shopping, but with a baby it's better to do what you can when you can. While the weather is nice and there's no flu going around, we're going to do as much as possible!
We are REALLY looking forward to our trip to DC in a few weeks. I'm especially looking forward to meeting all the other kids with PWS and their amazing parents. Lillian's going to be in the daycare with the other babies and I can't wait to see how much fun she has. But I'll also admit that I wish I could keep her with me during the seminar. We'll have to sneak off to see her during lunch.
Anyone have any suggestions for sight seeing in DC? Anything we absolutely should not miss? I'm all for suggestions!
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Lillian has been great since her teething pain has gone. She's such a happy baby and makes me smile all day. Even when she's being a stinker I can't help but laugh about her big personality. She's doing this funny thing lately where she wraps her arms around our necks and squeezes while she tries to "kiss" your face off. It's more of a shove-your-face-in-her-mouth type of kiss, but we love it.
Today we went to a 31 party open house and managed to buy some Christmas presents! Can't believe we're already Christmas shopping, but with a baby it's better to do what you can when you can. While the weather is nice and there's no flu going around, we're going to do as much as possible!
We are REALLY looking forward to our trip to DC in a few weeks. I'm especially looking forward to meeting all the other kids with PWS and their amazing parents. Lillian's going to be in the daycare with the other babies and I can't wait to see how much fun she has. But I'll also admit that I wish I could keep her with me during the seminar. We'll have to sneak off to see her during lunch.
Anyone have any suggestions for sight seeing in DC? Anything we absolutely should not miss? I'm all for suggestions!
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8.23.2010
Crashed
My computer crashed. Not really planning on blogging from my cell phone, so hopefully I'll find a reasonably priced replacement tomorrow.
The good news is, I had time to finish Lillian's 1st year baby book!
And in case you were wondering, I did end up going back to the special needs room yesterday at our church. It was a much easier day than last week.
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The good news is, I had time to finish Lillian's 1st year baby book!
And in case you were wondering, I did end up going back to the special needs room yesterday at our church. It was a much easier day than last week.
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8.21.2010
Birthday Invites and More
Finally a day to catch up! So far the invites are almost finished. I used shipping labels to print out the wording which goes on the back of the card. I thought they were clear labels, but obviously I was wrong...
How cute is this little fishbowl I found on clipart?
This is what it looks like on the back of the card
And the front (still not completely finished)
Today Lillian slept until 9:30 this morning! After she woke up, had some breakfast and played for a bit, she went back to sleep around noon for 2 more hours. It was amazing. I even had time to make some of these fall colored hair clips for her and some to sell at a store here in town. If I have time I'll add some to Etsy this week... maybe.
8.19.2010
Things I don't want to forget
The day I fell in love with your eyelids. Sometimes I pull you out of your crib so I can hold you while you sleep and see this same face, just a little bit older each time.
The funny noise you make when you click your tongue. And how you get a big grin when we immitate you.
When you learned to clap, you clapped at everything and everyone. For a week straight everything ended with clapping.
When you pick up something new, you scratch it with your thumb and finger. Before putting it in your mouth.
You will do anything to get to a piece of paper or a pair of glasses. You crawled forward for the first time for these items (yesterday).
You would rather look at the person playing with you than the toy they are trying to get you to play with. It makes for interesting therapy sessions. All the therapist love you for this, though it makes their job that much harder.
When we're having a bad day I take you to the pet store and you try to touch the fish through the tank glass. You laugh at them when they swim to your hand.
You laugh at the dog over anything. absolutely anything.
8.17.2010
Grief and Guilt
I've been putting off this blog post for 2 days now. Hell, I even let it interfere with my own Blog Challenge. To be honest I'm not even sure how to put this into words without offending someone but I'm going to try because it's impossible to keep this to myself.
On Sunday's I've started volunteering in the Special Needs room at our church. Our church has about 3,000 members, and a very active youth program, so thankfully they have the resources to offer care for the special needs kids while the parents attend the service. They've been needing volunteers for the special needs room since the offer has been open and during the week of VBS I decided it was something I could do to help.
I talked to the person in charge and started showing up a few weeks ago. The first 2 weeks there were no kids to watch. The regulars must have been sick or out of town. The coordinator mentioned having me "buddy" with some of the older kids that were included in the regular Sunday School programs, but still needed some assistance. I said I was fine with that and she had me come back the next hour to be with a new girl. It was her fist week, and her mother had not been able to find a church to attend because he daughter was not being accepted into the other Sunday Schools in town. They just simply didn't have the help required to offer the girl one on one care. All was told was that she was autistic, had A.D.D. and she enjoyed music.
I've never been around autistic children. I've read about autism and have learned some things about the spectrum through various special needs message boards, and from other PWS parents that have children on the spectrum. I know it varies from child to child, and that the difference from one to the next can be as different as night and day. I was not prepared for this. The little girl was 6 years old and cute as can be. She ran over to play with the toys and the stuffed animals, and immediately took to one of the other adults in the room (who happens to have a son on the spectrum). For the first 10 minutes the kids just played in the room and the little girl played with the stuffed animals and started talking to me about the animals. When it was time for the group to gather around for music, the music played and the little girl dropped everything, closed her eyes, and swayed to the music. That was fabulous.
Once the music stopped, something went wrong with the sound, and there was loud static over the speakers. She immediately covered her ears and went running for the door. That was fine and we handled it by directing her back into the room once the sound went away, but it all went down hill from there.
For the next 45 minutes, which honestly felt like eternity, I tried to include the little girl in the activities that were going on. She wanted nothing to do with the other kids or the puppet show, so she decided to go into one of the other rooms that had some toys and she begged me to shut the door. I closed it so the noise wouldn't bother her, and occasionally another volunteer would pop their head in to see if we were OK, but those 45 minutes were absolutely painful. It's like she's shut off to the outside world. She turned on "auto pilot mode" and just started talking a mile a minute. She was talking to me, but never waited for me to answer her, instead she answered for me. At one point she noticed some crayons on the floor and she couldn't stand the sight. She had to put them away. Then she started making up this elaborate story about tigers and pumas and her imagination went into over drive and she was talking SO loud and hardly stopped talking to take a breath the entire time we were in this room.
I know this story doesn't sound that bad. But when I was in that room with her, it was like my existence didn't matter. It was so far from normal that I couldn't help but hurt for her. It pained me to see how different she was from the other kids. It drained every emotion from me, and took all of my energy not to lose it. I thought I was strong enough to help other kids with special needs, but honestly, that experience was almost too difficult.
Towards the end of Sunday School we managed to get the little girl to join the other 6 year olds for a craft project. She was to cut a heart out of a piece of paper, and glue it to another piece of paper. The heart was outlined in black. I gave her some scissors and handed her the paper and explained that she was supposed to cut along the black line. After I explained it to her she loudly explained she wanted to draw a lion. So she did. The other little girls in the room tried not to stare, but it was obvious they could tell she was different. They had no troubles following directions or cutting out perfect hearts, but my buddy couldn't do it. Finally I got her to attempt to cut the heart and she kept yelling "help me help me help me" so I explained to her how to cut from the outside of the paper to the inside of the paper to get to the black line. Then when that didn't work I made the first cut for her, and she went from there. She cut the heart out. It wasn't perfect, but she did a pretty decent job following the black line. Right about the time we were ready to glue the heart, her mother came to pick her up.
When I saw her mom my heart just shattered. The woman was not much older than me, maybe in her early 30's. She looked like an angel with a pale face, blue eyes, and blonde hair. The first thing she said to me was "Are you her buddy?" When I said yes, she asked me "will you be her buddy next week?" How could I say no? How could I say yes? In one hour I felt like I had been hit by a truck, backed up, and repeatedly hit again. But this woman, her mother, this is her normal. She should get a gold medal in parenting just for making it through the day. How could I tell her no? But I couldn't promise her I would be there the next week, because to be honest I don't know if I should. My answer was "It's a good possibility", because that was the truth. What I know for sure is that SOMEONE will be that girls buddy. Her mother deserves a break. She deserves an hour on Sunday morning to be with God and other people that can listen to her and be there for her. She deserves to know that she and her daughter are welcome to come back, no matter what it takes to make it work. She deserves much more than 1 hour a week, and I hope she gets it. I hope she has more help.
After church I met my family for lunch at Wendy's. The drive there was painful. It felt like my body was in knots just trying to keep myself together from the hour with the little girl. It was so different from the drive I had taken TO church. The drive to church I was thinking about my grief with Lillian. How sometimes things like teething, or her feeding tube giving us problems, or her daily gagging on bottles/food/drainage/whatever gives me so much grief. Sometimes it feels like the hay that broke the camels back. One extra little stumble with her some days and I feel like my world is crashing in. How trivial that seemed after my 1 hour with my buddy from church. How pathetic is it that my day can be ruined because of a leaky feeding tube? It's not like it's life and death.
I walked into Wendy's and there was a huge line. I was the last one in my family to show up. I went to stand in line to order my salad when my aunt walked up and asked me how I was doing. I completely lost it. Standing there in a busy Wendy's, in a long ass line waiting to order my freaking salad, I completely lost it. Sobbing. Trying to explain how I just felt so bad for that poor little girl and her mother. Her mother who hadn't even found a church to accept her and her daughter. Who had to live through every day knowing that her daughter was so different she couldn't even have friends. She couldn't even have a normal conversation with her. I wonder if she even has family to give her a break every once in a while. If she woke up every day wondering how she would get through it? I felt so bad for her, and so guilty knowing that just that morning I was grieving over Lillian's differences, which seem so trivial now. At least with Lillian she engages with us. She responds to us. She laughs, she cries, she babbles, she's social. Even though her future is still a big question mark, right now there's not a whole lot to be sad about. I just felt guilty, and now my grief was for another mom and another daughter.
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On Sunday's I've started volunteering in the Special Needs room at our church. Our church has about 3,000 members, and a very active youth program, so thankfully they have the resources to offer care for the special needs kids while the parents attend the service. They've been needing volunteers for the special needs room since the offer has been open and during the week of VBS I decided it was something I could do to help.
I talked to the person in charge and started showing up a few weeks ago. The first 2 weeks there were no kids to watch. The regulars must have been sick or out of town. The coordinator mentioned having me "buddy" with some of the older kids that were included in the regular Sunday School programs, but still needed some assistance. I said I was fine with that and she had me come back the next hour to be with a new girl. It was her fist week, and her mother had not been able to find a church to attend because he daughter was not being accepted into the other Sunday Schools in town. They just simply didn't have the help required to offer the girl one on one care. All was told was that she was autistic, had A.D.D. and she enjoyed music.
I've never been around autistic children. I've read about autism and have learned some things about the spectrum through various special needs message boards, and from other PWS parents that have children on the spectrum. I know it varies from child to child, and that the difference from one to the next can be as different as night and day. I was not prepared for this. The little girl was 6 years old and cute as can be. She ran over to play with the toys and the stuffed animals, and immediately took to one of the other adults in the room (who happens to have a son on the spectrum). For the first 10 minutes the kids just played in the room and the little girl played with the stuffed animals and started talking to me about the animals. When it was time for the group to gather around for music, the music played and the little girl dropped everything, closed her eyes, and swayed to the music. That was fabulous.
Once the music stopped, something went wrong with the sound, and there was loud static over the speakers. She immediately covered her ears and went running for the door. That was fine and we handled it by directing her back into the room once the sound went away, but it all went down hill from there.
For the next 45 minutes, which honestly felt like eternity, I tried to include the little girl in the activities that were going on. She wanted nothing to do with the other kids or the puppet show, so she decided to go into one of the other rooms that had some toys and she begged me to shut the door. I closed it so the noise wouldn't bother her, and occasionally another volunteer would pop their head in to see if we were OK, but those 45 minutes were absolutely painful. It's like she's shut off to the outside world. She turned on "auto pilot mode" and just started talking a mile a minute. She was talking to me, but never waited for me to answer her, instead she answered for me. At one point she noticed some crayons on the floor and she couldn't stand the sight. She had to put them away. Then she started making up this elaborate story about tigers and pumas and her imagination went into over drive and she was talking SO loud and hardly stopped talking to take a breath the entire time we were in this room.
I know this story doesn't sound that bad. But when I was in that room with her, it was like my existence didn't matter. It was so far from normal that I couldn't help but hurt for her. It pained me to see how different she was from the other kids. It drained every emotion from me, and took all of my energy not to lose it. I thought I was strong enough to help other kids with special needs, but honestly, that experience was almost too difficult.
Towards the end of Sunday School we managed to get the little girl to join the other 6 year olds for a craft project. She was to cut a heart out of a piece of paper, and glue it to another piece of paper. The heart was outlined in black. I gave her some scissors and handed her the paper and explained that she was supposed to cut along the black line. After I explained it to her she loudly explained she wanted to draw a lion. So she did. The other little girls in the room tried not to stare, but it was obvious they could tell she was different. They had no troubles following directions or cutting out perfect hearts, but my buddy couldn't do it. Finally I got her to attempt to cut the heart and she kept yelling "help me help me help me" so I explained to her how to cut from the outside of the paper to the inside of the paper to get to the black line. Then when that didn't work I made the first cut for her, and she went from there. She cut the heart out. It wasn't perfect, but she did a pretty decent job following the black line. Right about the time we were ready to glue the heart, her mother came to pick her up.
When I saw her mom my heart just shattered. The woman was not much older than me, maybe in her early 30's. She looked like an angel with a pale face, blue eyes, and blonde hair. The first thing she said to me was "Are you her buddy?" When I said yes, she asked me "will you be her buddy next week?" How could I say no? How could I say yes? In one hour I felt like I had been hit by a truck, backed up, and repeatedly hit again. But this woman, her mother, this is her normal. She should get a gold medal in parenting just for making it through the day. How could I tell her no? But I couldn't promise her I would be there the next week, because to be honest I don't know if I should. My answer was "It's a good possibility", because that was the truth. What I know for sure is that SOMEONE will be that girls buddy. Her mother deserves a break. She deserves an hour on Sunday morning to be with God and other people that can listen to her and be there for her. She deserves to know that she and her daughter are welcome to come back, no matter what it takes to make it work. She deserves much more than 1 hour a week, and I hope she gets it. I hope she has more help.
After church I met my family for lunch at Wendy's. The drive there was painful. It felt like my body was in knots just trying to keep myself together from the hour with the little girl. It was so different from the drive I had taken TO church. The drive to church I was thinking about my grief with Lillian. How sometimes things like teething, or her feeding tube giving us problems, or her daily gagging on bottles/food/drainage/whatever gives me so much grief. Sometimes it feels like the hay that broke the camels back. One extra little stumble with her some days and I feel like my world is crashing in. How trivial that seemed after my 1 hour with my buddy from church. How pathetic is it that my day can be ruined because of a leaky feeding tube? It's not like it's life and death.
I walked into Wendy's and there was a huge line. I was the last one in my family to show up. I went to stand in line to order my salad when my aunt walked up and asked me how I was doing. I completely lost it. Standing there in a busy Wendy's, in a long ass line waiting to order my freaking salad, I completely lost it. Sobbing. Trying to explain how I just felt so bad for that poor little girl and her mother. Her mother who hadn't even found a church to accept her and her daughter. Who had to live through every day knowing that her daughter was so different she couldn't even have friends. She couldn't even have a normal conversation with her. I wonder if she even has family to give her a break every once in a while. If she woke up every day wondering how she would get through it? I felt so bad for her, and so guilty knowing that just that morning I was grieving over Lillian's differences, which seem so trivial now. At least with Lillian she engages with us. She responds to us. She laughs, she cries, she babbles, she's social. Even though her future is still a big question mark, right now there's not a whole lot to be sad about. I just felt guilty, and now my grief was for another mom and another daughter.
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8.14.2010
Saturday Blog Challenge Recap
Some how this morning I managed to find the time to glance at all the blogs taking on the 30 Day Blog Challenge. Here's a little summary of some fun things I found:
Toddler Awesome - Emma has a few things going on. First of all she designs blogs over at IndieChick Designs. This is good to know, because trying to design my own blog is like trying to suck mash potatoes through a straw. She also hosts a Friendly Friday Follow, which seems to be a huge hit because there are over 300 people following along. That's a lot more impressive than my 30 Blog Challenge followers, and I thought we were doing pretty well. So if you're looking for new blogs to stumble upon, or would like more people to stumble upon your blog, check it out.
Mtendere Means Peace - My favorite thing about Mtendere's blog is the "Things I don't want to Forget" posts. What a fantastic idea. If you're like me, you're not very good at keeping the baby book updated. This is a great way to keep your memories in one spot!
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Toddler Awesome - Emma has a few things going on. First of all she designs blogs over at IndieChick Designs. This is good to know, because trying to design my own blog is like trying to suck mash potatoes through a straw. She also hosts a Friendly Friday Follow, which seems to be a huge hit because there are over 300 people following along. That's a lot more impressive than my 30 Blog Challenge followers, and I thought we were doing pretty well. So if you're looking for new blogs to stumble upon, or would like more people to stumble upon your blog, check it out.
Mtendere Means Peace - My favorite thing about Mtendere's blog is the "Things I don't want to Forget" posts. What a fantastic idea. If you're like me, you're not very good at keeping the baby book updated. This is a great way to keep your memories in one spot!
Random Acts of Brackett - Maybe it's because I have a daughter now, I just can't get enough of the adorable things little girls say and do. This blog has plenty of girliness. 3 girls in this family, plus the mom is a 7th grade teacher. She deserves a big fat gold star! Another thing I noticed in this blog is the Love Actually button over on the side. CLICK IT! It's good stuff.
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8.13.2010
Thankful Thursday turned into Freakout Friday
I was going to post a "Thankful Thursday" blog entry yesterday and had everything laid out in my head how it was going to go. Then I realized my laptop was running really slow and decided it was probably best to start backing up documents before something terrible happened.
While backing up my pictures, I LOST MY LILLIAN PHOTO ALBUM. The entire album. All 10+ months of photos of her entire life.
After a little discussion with some e-friends about how I was going to possibly castrate my husband for telling me I could just "Drag and drop" the documents (which caused them to disappear) they taught me how to do a system restore. And now all is right in the world of photo documentation.
Thank God for e-friends.
We'll be backing up the computer the CORRECT way tonight and hopefully I can find a decent laptop that isn't going to cost an arm and a leg to replace this laptop. Right now I'm using an HP that was purchased my freshman year of college. It's been used and abused and it's time for a new one.
Anyone have recommendations? No Macs please.
PS. The button for the 30 Day Blog Challenge has been fixed, and will now link back to the 30 Day Blog Challenge post. If you have a button on your sidebar, please replace it with the one that links back to the post so more people can join the challenge! It's been a blast reading all of the blog posts, and I hope you're checking out the other blogs taking part in the challenge!
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While backing up my pictures, I LOST MY LILLIAN PHOTO ALBUM. The entire album. All 10+ months of photos of her entire life.
{insert freak out}
After a little discussion with some e-friends about how I was going to possibly castrate my husband for telling me I could just "Drag and drop" the documents (which caused them to disappear) they taught me how to do a system restore. And now all is right in the world of photo documentation.
Thank God for e-friends.
We'll be backing up the computer the CORRECT way tonight and hopefully I can find a decent laptop that isn't going to cost an arm and a leg to replace this laptop. Right now I'm using an HP that was purchased my freshman year of college. It's been used and abused and it's time for a new one.
Anyone have recommendations? No Macs please.
PS. The button for the 30 Day Blog Challenge has been fixed, and will now link back to the 30 Day Blog Challenge post. If you have a button on your sidebar, please replace it with the one that links back to the post so more people can join the challenge! It's been a blast reading all of the blog posts, and I hope you're checking out the other blogs taking part in the challenge!
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8.11.2010
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