My sweet boy #1

#1's PPCD teacher shared a story that happened yesterday. She said she was working with another little boy who was having trouble learning not to hit others. She tried various ways to teach him, and finally in an effort to let him know it was unacceptable and hurt others, she sat down, put her head in her arms, and pretended to cry. She said that #1 stopped what he was doing, and ran over to her, hugging her, kissing her, patting her, and saying, "It's ok...Don't cry." The little boy stopped his hitting when he saw #1's response and he started hugging the teacher as well. I almost started crying when I heard the story.

That's my sweet boy #1! I was told when he was diagnosed that he would have a hard time recognizing feelings and empathizing with others. He has come so far in the last few months, and this is just another example of something he has learned to overcome! Way to go #1!

Mommy - look what I did!

During Hurricane Ike and the aftermath, my parents let us stay with them for two weeks straight. My sisters and their families came as well seeking relief from the heat. At one point we had Mom, Dad, me, Matt, Tamara, David, Tabitha, and Joe plus 8 grandkids: Hunter (9), Sadie (7), Emma (5), Cade (3), Cole (3), Kallee (2), Riley (2), Ethan (2), and Corban (5 months) staying under one roof in their 3 bedroom house. We made do with pallets on the floor and played outside a lot. Thankfully my parents live on 66 acres so we could fish, play golf, swing, play baseball, whatever. Although it was a bit cramped, we had a great time, and it was nice to reconnect again as an extended family. The only two missing from the bunch were Wendy and James, who were sitting in their air conditioned house in Ft. Worth. Oh to be so lucky! :) Just kidding Pooh!

It was during this time that Cole decided to explore the artist within him and using a PERMANENT MARKER wrote all over himself, the wall, the door, the comforter, the carpet, the furniture, you name it, in my parent's bedroom while he was supposed to be taking a nap.

I couldn't help but laugh and take a picture, and then Cole got a spanking from Matt. I think we thoroughly confused the boy on that one! However, I did get a cute picture of his artistry to keep for posterity.

Little Green Frog

This morning on the way to school, Riley sang the "Little Green Frog" song to me. The words are as follows:

I'm a little green frog and God made me,

God made me,

God made me,

I'm a little green frog and God made me,

I'm as happy as can be.

I love to hear their sweet voices especially when they are singing songs about God. They are so pure and innocent, and I can't help but smile when I hear it. Riley has trouble saying his R's and C's, so he was a little green "fog" and was as happy as "tan" be.

Today I vow to be "happy as can be" simply because God made me.

What do you say?

We have been working on teaching our kids to have good manners (please, thank you, may I have more please, etc.). The other day Cade had the cable remote in his hand the other day and was pushing buttons, thereby changing the channel of the TV. Matt told Cade, "Give the remote to Mommy" and I held out my hand. Cade held the remote away from me and said, "What do you SAYYYYYYYYY?" in the sing-songy voice that sounded strikingly similar to my own voice. "Thank you Cade" I said, laughing. It is funny yet a bit eerie when I hear my own words, inflection of voice, and gestures mimicked in my children. It reminds me that they are constantly watching and learning from my own actions and words, for better or worse. I need to constantly remember that their little souls are so impressionable. Thank you Cade for my reminder, and God please forgive me when I forget.

Big step for Cole

I am THRILLED to announce that #2 is officially wearing big-boy underwear all the time! He is so proud of himself, and we are hoping that the other two will be influenced to do the same. On a selfish note, I have had three children in diapers for almost three years, and I'm looking forward to decreasing the diaper changing task. :)

He is getting self conscious about his appearance now and stands in front of a mirror with a comb trying to get his hair to stand up just right. He likes the "crazy hair" look (the towel dried, sticking out everywhere look) and gets disappointed when his hair dries and lays flat. It is so cute!

Way to go my big boy #2-Bolie!

Our little reader

About nine months ago, the preschool director at Northland met with me to discuss #1's behavior at school. She said he was very bright but had problems transitioning from one activity to the other and preferred to play by himself. She mentioned several possibilities ranging from ADHD to Autism to a normal phase he will grow out of. At the time, I had no idea what a journey that would take us on. We had him screened by Spring ISD, and the initial conclusion was that he was perfectly normal. He was affectionate and didn't shy away from direct eye contact. However, one of the evaluators pushed to have him evaluated further by observing him at school. After the observation and doing a thorough evaluation, the conclusion was that #1 has a mild form of autism called PDD-NOS (pervasive developmental disorder - not otherwise specified) which is basically a Miscellaneous category for all Autistic kids who do not fit a certain type of Autism, or possibly another form of autism called Aspergers. Being so young, it was difficult to distinguish which one he had because it required more evaluation of his verbal skills, and he was not talking much at the time.

Matt and I knew nothing about either or these so we tried to read about it, and to be honest the more I read the more it scared the heck out of me. I was in a weird place - I didn't want to attend group meetings because I didn't want to have to belong to a Special Needs Parents group - that is a group no one really wants to have to belong to. I went through a period of mourning, not that he was gone, but because of all of the things I thought he might never be able to do because of this condition. Would he ever be able to have friends? Go on a date? Get married? Have a steady job? Have children? I cried every day for a long time for the "someday" dreams for him that he would never experience.

My discipline methods did not seem to work at all for him, and I felt like a total failure as a parent. I tried to recall what might have caused it. Perhaps it was because he was born three months premature, but then again so was his twin brother #2 and he was not autistic. Perhaps it was the vaccinations, but once again #2 did not develop autism. The only think I could think of was that the steriod shots we had to give #1 twice daily during the period he had siezures somehow caused it. I still don't know why he has this condition, and I will always wonder.

#1 is now in a special program called PPCD at Reynolds Elementary in the morning (he rides a bus to Northland in the afternoons), and has made great strides since he has been there. I have learned a great deal about ways to help him be successful and to learn the social skills and behaviors that most kids pick up naturally. He responds best to visual cues rather than verbal ones, and he is learning more every day. He does not run away from me in parking lots or throw major tantrums quite as much and overall seems to have a calmer spirit about him. His issues at school now are staying quiet and still during nap time at school, paying attention during circle time, and outside of school his biggest challenge is getting a haircut (he still goes BALLISTIC). His PPCD teachers are confident that Cade will overcome his challenges and will be able to assimilate into a normal classroom setting for elementary school.

Although only three years old, #1 has learned to read. He reads billboards, books, canned goods, anything. He can't seem to get enough of it. Since he has learned to read, his verbal skills have increased tremendously, and he is now putting together complex sentences, rather than the "more milk please" short phrases he had been using. It dawned on me last night that the reading might have been the visual cues he needed to learn to speak.

I know God has a wonderful plan for Cade's life. It may not be the traditional path that I had once expected, but he has a purpose and is a blessing to those who know him. His handsome eyes, quick smile, affectionate cuddling, and tender heart are so sweet. God didn't give me damaged goods, he just put them in a different package than what I was expecting. I continuously pray that God would guide me through the rocky times so that when I look back I will see His pefect plan unfold.

Random thoughts

Where did February go? I feel like time has been put on fast-forward speed and I have a hard time believing it is March already.

Like many of my New Year's Resolutions, my resolution to update my blog regularly has already been broken, although I still have good intentions to continue.

Throughout each day, when one of my boys says something funny, or an incident occurs, I think to myself, "I need to put that in my blog." However, when I sit down at the computer, my mind goes blank.

Since Wednesday little Riley has been sick sick sick. He is usually so energetic and sweet, but he has been battling a mean stomach virus and high fever, in addition to a possible slight case of pneumonia. I can see in his eyes that he doesn't feel well at all. I've been sleeping on the floor beside his bed to help him with his middle-of-the-night vomiting and fever, and am feeling tired after 3 days.

I called my mom to ask her to come help with the other boys because I am trying to prevent them from getting sick. Thank goodness she is coming tomorrow! I don't know what I'd do without my precious mom - she's always been there for me and willing to help. It makes me wonder how many sleepless nights she spent with me when I was sick as a child.

Anyway, enough of my rambling. I'm off to bed...or rather floor.