Eventually, right?

I ought to be at Sensational Kids with Matthew right now, but I had to call in and ask for a later appointment. Matthew is um... in the middle of his business, and when you wait five days to DO your business, it becomes a time-consuming and uncomfortable process. He'll get it eventually, right?

Christopher is at school. He's doing very well there, aside from being teased by the other boys. His teacher seems to have a handle on it, and Chris is doing SO very well at controlling himself when it happens. I'm pretty darn proud of him. He's no longer going to Sensational Kids, because the school is giving him OT, PT and speech. Nice to know that our taxes are going to SAVE us money in at least one department!

Matthew's birthday is Saturday. Hard to believe he's going to be four! He's really starting to shoot up in inches. He put on a pair of last year's long pants yesterday and sported the "high water" look for awhile.

I'm working hard at work. My current count is 13 kids. 8 on Mondays, 4 on Thursdays and 1 on Fridays. It's pretty fun work. I have a range in ages from 5 to 17, so each half hour is something different.

I also have a lot going on, knitwise. Working on a few potential Christmas gifts, and some socks. I made a circle vest out of some lovely Noro Taiyo. I hate it. I'm going to frog it eventually when I'm not so mad at it anymore. It's a "Wow, check out her ass!" sort of a fit...

I'm taking a sweater class with Jared Flood tomorrow at the Gourmet Yarn CO. Very excited about that! It sounds like this will help with designing sweaters and knitting them seamlessly, which is always a good thing, since my finishing leaves a lot to be desired.

Oh, I'm also excited because I ordered a Scooba from iRobot this week! I love my Roomba so much and have wanted a Scooba for a long time. I saw that HSC.com had the basic model for $212 and had to get it. It should be here sometime next week, and I can't wait to get it charged up and mopping my floors!

I need to get back into the blogging habit, so maybe I can blog instead of writing these mundane Christmas card letters.

Negligence

Yeah, I've been negligent in posting a blog. Sorry, faithful reader(s).

Summer is nearly over, and to blog about everything will take too many pages, so here's the more succinct version:

• CME graduated from Kindy and also got his official autism diagnosis. The process is underway to get him into public school for first grade. He's also started piano lessons.
  

• Matty has started therapy at the same place as CME. We're hoping to grow a little impulse control soon.

• We went to Alaska. More on that another time. I might have to do a blog series on it!

• We survived 85 kids at VBS.
  

• We celebrated 13 years of marriage on the 6th of July. 3 more years and I'll be as old as Mark was on our wedding day!

• My favorite yarn store moved to a new bigger location. Lovin' it. Not a lot of knitting happening right now, but I have a lot of projects in store.

• CME and Matty have both gotten the hang of swimming with their swim vests on. Matty loves jumping in and both boys can do the lazy river by themselves now. This is much easier on Momma than trying to float with two clinging monkeys pulling her swimsuit down.
  

• I've started jogging. Go ahead and laugh, but I've lost 8 pounds using the Couch to 5k program. My calves hate me, though.
  

• CME's summer program is finished and Matthew's ends this week, so we'll just be counting the days until school starts again. (28!)
  

That's the summer in a nutshell. I promise to elaborate on the Alaska experience soon. It was beyond awesome, and I doubt anything I write or any pictures I post will really do it justice.

Later...

Two weeks

Two weeks from today, Mark and I will be in Vancouver, boarding a boat heading to freakin' Alaska. Kind of hard to visualize. I'm looking forward to it. My life doesn't have much adventure to it, and, well, here's a chance. We'll be Jeeping up a mountain, hiking along a glacier, canoeing a lake, exploring a rainforest, frisbee golfing by the ocean, and of course, hunting for musk ox wool.

Between now and then, there are a million things to do. My oldest baby is going to be graduating from Kindergarten on Thursday. Back in October, I'd have sworn he was going to be the first ever Kindergarten drop-out, but he's really blossomed. Today is confirmation at church, and their preschool graduation. Funeral on Tuesday. BIL's are visiting this next weekend. Matthew has an evaluation with our OTs. Maybe the school will call about CME's enrollment. That's doubtful.

And somewhere in there we have to figure out what to pack, and what to pack it all in. I'm planning on lots of layers. What's worrying me is what yarn to take, and whether my needles will be confiscated in the airport. TSA says they're fine, but security people don't always see logic when faced with such formidable villains as Mark and myself.

Love all!

The Truman Show

I'm starting to feel like Truman Burbank. Every week of my life is just like the one before it and the one after it. I take kids to school and do housework, shop, surf or knit while they're gone. I watch TV and play games and read books while they're here. I go to church and do the same things with the same people; I go to work and do the same things with the same people.

And the same things happen over and over again. There's a kid in the neighborhood who is ALWAYS walking around the block. It doesn't matter what time of day. I can hear the director saying, "Erica is leaving the house now. Cue Chubby iPod Kid." Then comes, "Wranglers, cue the Neighbor's Lab," in my yard. And as I'm driving away, "Cue traffic on 2nd street."

I think the directors like to throw a few things in here and there for comedic effect. Like the neighbor's baby, who cries are so important they take up BOTH channels of our baby monitor. That must be good entertainment for the late-night watchers. And, I bet this explains Matthew's lack of toilet training. He's really a child actor being paid to tinkle on the floor to give the show some laughs. They throw in some drama: marriage, work, kids with problems. You know, to keep women 18-35 watching.

I bet our upcoming cruise will be a logistical nightmare for the producers. New cast members, new locations, travel costs for the crew. It's probably a ratings stunt. May sweeps, no less!

I'd say we need some explosions and gun fights, but I think we should keep this a chick flick, okay, producers?

Monkeys in a Car

Yes, my blog title is "Monkeys in a Car." And no, I don't mean MY children.

I'm tucking CME in to bed tonight, and rather than going into his usual monologue about Halo Wars, or his imaginary friend, Roginox's, latest escapades, he starts telling me what a crazy day he had. How he saw monkeys in a car.

I did some questioning, thinking he'd seen something on TV, but he insisted it was real, and that his Dad had seen them too.

While I was at work tonight, our friend Major Mark came over to get my Mark's advice on a new HDTV purchase. They took the kids to Ultimate Electronics to do some comparison shopping.

On the way home, they were stuck in traffic on Sante Fe. Major Mark noticed something with a funny tail in a blue Prius a few cars ahead. They pulled up closer, and saw a Capuchin monkey, wearing an orange shirt, sitting in the back window of the car looking back at them. As they pulled up, they saw another monkey sitting in the lap of the woman driving, with its hands on the steering wheel. This made an impression on my kids.

I'm not sure what the city regulations are concerning driving around with monkeys in your vehicle, or letting them have the steering wheel. But I'm going to be on the lookout for a blue Prius. Nice to know there's someone out there with goofier monkeys than mine!

You can leave now, Mommy.

I dozed off while snuggling with CME at bedtime. He was telling me a "story" about his favorite game, Halo Wars, while we shared his big comfy pillow. I guess I must have tuned him out because next thing I know, he's shaking my belly, saying, "Mommy?... Mommy?... You can leave now Mommy... Time for bed... Go now..."

Today was a good day. It was quiet. There has been lots of battling between the two boys lately, but today was pretty peaceful. We're getting Matty evaluated next month with Sensational Kids. He's starting to show some sensory seeking behaviors, and he's definitely having impulse control problems. CME had a rough day at school, but only because he didn't want to do his phonics. Other than that, he was fine. It was his first red card in a month, so I can't complain too much.

I've got all the paperwork back to the dev. ped. and am expecting a diagnosis soon. She did say she'd call before our June appointment, but I'll give her a week and call the office to double check. I'm getting impatient. It will either be Aspergers, High-Functioning Autism or PDD-NOS. My money's on Asperger's. I'm also waiting for the schools to get back to me with the next step for getting him in 1st grade.

Not much else to report. I've been working on a knock-off version of the Circle Vest, but I don't like how my makeshift edging is looking, so I'll probably frog it back to the arm holes. It's a nice yarn to knit with, so I won't mind doing it again.

Things are really feeling very monotonous lately. I'm not sure if the upcoming summer break is going to be an improvement, but at least it'll be different.

I'm not worried

I've been getting to know the features of Ravelry a little better the past week or so. I've used it to peruse patterns and chat with friends, but hadn't paid much attention to all of its bells and whistles.


This morning, I listed some my stash yarn. You can list your yarns, and Ravelry can find patterns to fit the yarn you already have. I went through my shelves box by box and bag by bag. Sock yarns, lace weights, and all of my "nice" yarn went into the database. I did NOT add the 20 or so little skeins of cheap cotton for dishcloths, or the 12 or so skeins of Caron's Simply Soft I keep for baby hats, or the countless skeins of Cascade 220 I use for felting bags. Nor did I add in any partial skeins and leftover balls, of which I have an entire two shelves. And I also didn't add in any yarns which are currently being knitted in one of my 14 works-in-progress.


It's fair to say I listed just over half of my total yarn stash. Then I added the number of yards up...


Let's just say I'm no longer worried about the state of the economy. I'll survive.

RAK'ed at Starbucks

The person in the car ahead of me paid for my coffee and Matty's chocolate milk this morning. Thank you Random Person!

I didn't have my wits about me enough to pay for the next in line, but I will next time.

BTW, think some nice thoughts for Mark and his brothers today. Today is their mom's birthday. We'll be making a Blitz Kuchen in her honor on Sunday.

March

So, it's been a while. Hi y'all. March has been particularly crazy, yet there's been nothing really interesting enough to warrant its own blog. Here's the Cliff's Notes version.

♦ Lent started. It's going better than normal.

♦ Got a toothache/started Spring Break

♦ Went to Houston, presumably to help Jim unpack, except he was already finished.

♦ Came home for one day, then took the boys to The Folk's for a few days.

♦ Came home and had a 5 1/2 hour root canal.

♦ Got a back spasm yesterday morning which made church rather stiff.

♦ Had our first Easter ensemble practice. Only minor flatulant elephant noises.

♦ Came home just in time to watch Mark's car roll down the driveway and into neighbor's tree.

♦ Watched this morning as repair guy took away our TV. I'm not sure who's missing it more, Mark or CME.

♦ And now I'm procrastinating mopping the floor after Matty dumped out an entire jug of OJ.

♦ Still procrastinating.

♦ Wait, now I'm multi-tasking because I'm ALSO procrastinating folding the boys' laundry which has been in the hallway for a week.

♦ Still procrastinating, but feeling very smug and content with myself for my super amazing DOUBLE procrastination skills.

♦ Crap. Now Mark is home from the grocery store and I can procrastinate no longer. See ya!

St. Paddy's Day in Houston

Greetings from sunny and muddy Houston!

Jim has a gorgeous new house. 2,400 sq. ft. of newness. I have house envy. 4 bedrooms all with walkin closets, a huge living room, plus a game room upstairs. Lots of space for all of Jim's stuff.

The Hubs and I are down here, supposedly helping bro-in-law Jim with the unpacking in his new house. The problem is, Jim is already 99% unpacked. So far, Mark has helped him to hang a light in the garage, we've been to Walmart for supplies, and laid some stepping stones in the back yard. Now, I'm just sitting here. Technically, we're helping by doing nothing right now, because the Comcast guy is here fixing the cable. Yea, us! Go team!

I'm feeling a bit duped about being here, since I thought the whole point was to be helpful. But, when the cable guy is finished we're going to hit a local yarn store and a disc golf course.

Mom is home with the boys. We video chatted over xBox Live last night. Kids seem fine. Mom is either fine or shellshocked. Hard to tell.

Mark has a cold. It started Sunday before we left.

I have a toothache and an appointment for a root canal next week. So thrilled about that.

Not much else. We'll be heading home early tomorrow for 7 more hours on the road. The good news is, since I don't have anything else to do here, I've gotten my iPod and iTunes running again. It took a few uninstalls and re-installs, plus a reset of the iPod, but we'll be able to listen to Melinda Doolittle's album on the way home!

Guess I'm done. See y'all soon! Happy St. Paddy's Day!

Sorting through some thoughts

This is just me rambling. I need to type some things out. You might want to ignore this.

I had an appointment for CME with a developmental pediatrician on Monday. We've known about his sensory processing disorder and dyspraxia for some time, but there's been something else going on, that we haven't been able to put our finger on. It's obvious he's going to need more help to succeed in first grade, so this trip to the Dev. Ped. was the first step in finding out what we need to know.

CME has "red flags" for so many things, but so far, there's no ONE disorder that fully "fits" him. And all these disorders are inter-related. The more I dig into this, the more symptoms I find match him, and the more confused I get.

We're pretty sure we're looking at some sort of Pervasive Developmental Disorder. PDD isn't a diagnosis, just an "umbrella term under which specific diagnosis are defined." Isn't that clear as mud? Under that you've got the autism spectrum, and within that spectrum, you've got dozens of other things. Some things are IN the spectrum, and others are not. They all overlap.

CME matches some of the "red flags" for Asperger's, Sensory Integration disorder, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic disorder, OCD and ADD. He doesn't fit neatly into any ONE catagory, though. And a lot of his symptoms fall under several of these disorders.

It's like if you drew a giant circle on the wall, and labeled it "Autism." Within that circle there would be a few smaller circles with his symptoms listed inside. There would also be a ton of circles half-on and half-off the larger circle, with some of the symptoms in and some out of the larger "Autism" circle. Kids with autism tend to have some or most of these things, but not all kids who have these things have autism. But, how the hell do you know the difference, and does it even matter?!

I know I'm not making any sense, and that's okay. I told you to ignore me.

CME's main issues:

1. Sensory processing. (Fits all these disorders.)

2. Social difficulties, eye contact, conversations. (Same as above)

3. Rigidity/inflexibility. (Same as above)

4. Super reading skills. (Falls under Asperger's and hyperlexia.)

5. Poor communication skills (Asperger's, Hyperlexia, semantic-pragmatic)

6. Subject obsessions (Asperger's)

7. Inattention (All)

8. Poor motor skills (All)

9. Poor receptive language skills (semantic-pragmatic, hyperlexia)

OK, so I've typed a lot and havent figured anything out.

We're working on improving his diet, and adding more sensory diet to his day. We go back in six weeks for another appointment. In the meantime, we need to do a full speech evaluation, and a vision screening.

The speech eval was a surprise to me. He reads so well, and has a great vocabulary, but it's obvious to me now that his speech patterns are not normal. He doesn't partake in normal conversations, with "give and take." He talks AT you, usually about one of the subjects that he's "obsessed" with, and tends to make up gibberish to fill in for things he doesn't know. And it turns out, he's unable to understand three-step directions or answer more complex verbal questions. So there seems to be some sort of receptive communication problem.

Sigh. This is a lot harder than I thought it would be.

End of an era

It's the end of an era. I knew it had to happen one day. It happens to everyone eventually and there's really no avoiding it. Sure, some defensive steps can be taken, but it only prolongs the sad, inevitible reality. Sooner or later, we're all affected by this, and parenthood is never the same.

Matthew learned how to climb out of his crib. (Moment of silence, please.)

After lunch today, we did our usual nap-time routine, and I sat down with Mark to watch a bit of TV on his lunch break. Matthew was his usual noisy self in his room. We ignored him, thinking he'd settle down and sleep as he usually does. After about 30 minutes of listening to him chattering to himself, I noticed that the light was on in his bedroom. A moment later I heard the door click shut. Getting up to investigate, I found the little monkey, butt naked on his toybox, reading a book. Upon seeing me, he gleefully announced, "Mommy, Maffew wake up!"

It was then that I knew, life as we know it is over.

I plopped him back in his crib, hoping--praying--that he'd remain. Moments later, I again saw the light shining under his door, and my worst fears were confirmed: It's Big-Boy-Bed Time for my baby boy.

And so I lovingly dedicate this blog to our Sweet Crib... (insert some tender, melancholy music here.)

My dearest crib, I am so grateful for your time of service.You held the first of my babies six years ago, and lovingly contained the second child for three and a half years, even after enduring what must have been a lonely year in storage. You've always contained my children gently, allowing me to safely trap them, sometimes for hours at a time. You've never asked for a thing in return, aside from sheets free of baby pee and vomit. Now you will live out your twilight years, without your fourth rail, as a toddler bed, for the last time. (music swells) Thank you my dear crib. I hope you enjoy your new Thomas the Tank Engine Toddler bed set. I hope that the near future brings an end to being peed on. And I hope that your final year or so is peaceful. And restful. And quiet.

Really, really quiet.

Valentine's

So, Happy Valentine's Day everyone. After 12 1/2 years of marriage, it's not quite as exciting as it once was. It's not worth battling the crowds for a nice dinner out, and it's not like we could find a babysitter tonight anyway. Mark did get me some roses, which are lovely. I got him a card about farting. *shrug* He might be one up on me. (It was funny!) ((and appropriate!!!))

There's not much new to report. The kids are doing well when they're not trying to kill each other. They learned how to scale up the bunk beds, using a rocking chair and their big play kitchen. Industrious little fellows are they. So it was time to get the ladder out of the closet. I'm just praying no one falls (or gets pushed) off.

Oh, I got my new little aquarium started and it looks great. Meemo the clownfish is very happy there, and he loves the new frogspawn and other corals. The big tank is empty, and just waiting for a buyer. I got good money out of the rock, sand and lights. Hopefully, someone will want it soon, or I'll see if the fish shop will take it back for credit.

And I finished my sweater last week. Love it. It fits perfectly. I want to get more yarn to make another.

Oh, I ordered a drop spindle and a batt of roving off of Etsy. I'm trying to learn to spin yarn. Last night I made about 5 yards, which is drying in the kitchen. It's pretty fugly yarn. Spinning is supposed to be relaxing, but I'm not so sure. We'll see.

Lent is coming up very quickly. I usually give something up, like Starbucks or chocolate. I think this year, instead of giving something up, I'm going to give something back. I'm going to only do charity knitting for the 6 weeks of Lent. I haven't made any preemie hats in ages, and I can probably make 100 or more of them to donate to Mercy's NICU. I can also make some more helmet liners for the GYC basket to be sent to Iraq and Afganistan.

I really hate the Lenten season. I know we're supposed to be penetant and reverential, but honestly, I just feel--I don't know--squashed or something. With the addition of Wednesday services, all the music practices are messed up, and it feels like we're at the church all week. Trying to fit everything in means giving up a big chunk of family time. The whole family feels the stress.

So this year, I'm trying to change my perspective. I'm not giving something up for Lent. I'm just giving. I'm giving my time to the church when needed, and I'm giving my knitting time for good causes. Maybe this year I won't be a raving lunatic by Easter.

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Let's love those who are with us and those who are not.

Chilly/chili

It's been quite the peaceful day here at Team E (CME's new nickname for our family.)

Matthew is battling a cold, so he stayed home today, while CME went happily off to school. Matty and I played with trains and race cars. He was pretty good company while Mark did the grocery shopping.

We've been having freezing rain on and off most of the day, and it is COLD!

The phone rang at 1. Mrs. C was calling to tell us that CME was upset. Apparently, somebody at school hit him with a ball during recess. I asked him if he was supposed to catch the ball, and he said the kids was trying to "shoo" him away. Mrs. C said that she was down to 5 kids because of the ice storm, so we went ahead and brought him home. He'd had a good morning, so we brought him home on a good note.

Then we had quiet time, all of us napping while CME played his DS. He loves that thing.

Now Mark is making some chili for dinner. A warm, tasty end to a peaceful day. I feel like some fuzzy slippers and some knitting is in my immediate future.

An experience

Being on vacation this week means that church is going on today without us. When on vacation, we like to visit some other churches, to see what they are doing, and get ideas from them. We've been to a Methodist church, Catholic mass and CME's school's church services, to name a few. We'd never been to one of those "mega" churches, and I've always wanted to see how they do it. So last night, we went to LifeChurch.tv. They don't call it a worship service. It's an "experience," and let me tell you, it certainly was.

We walk in the door, and it looks like we'd stepped into Disney World. The entire entryway/foyer, which was huge, looks just like the It's A Small World ride. There is a ticket/information booth, with computers that do goodness knows what. Beyond that, there is a giant room for elementary aged kids with moon bouces, and an arcade, and goodness knows what else. We knew we couldn't leave CME in there because he'd get over-stimmed in no time.

Down the hall, which was plastered floor to ceiling to look like a forrest--Wait. I know I'm not describing this properly. It wasn't covered in decorations. It WAS a forrest. The hall was lined with "trees" for sitting on. There were "leaves and branches" on the walls and ceiling. The place looked like a freakin' forrest. In the middle of the hall was a giant, beyond life-sized tree. It was talking. An animatronic tree telling stories in the hallway. Down another hall was an animatronic bird! We found a playroom, and asked if it was a place for a three and six year old. We were told that Matty could stay, but CME was supposed to go in the giant moonbounce arcade room. I told the girl there we'd like to keep them together, and she told us it was okay for "just once." I didn't tell her, fine we aren't coming back anyway.

So the kids went in to play, and Mark signed the sheet and we went into the auditorium. It's a humongous room set up with hundreds of thousands of $$$ of big-screen TVs, sound and light equipment. We were reading the information handed us, and saw this, "Are your kids sitting next to you? Boy, are they missing out!" The seriously think that having your kids in church WITH YOU is a bad thing!

Well, then the "experience" started, and we quickly understood that it would have been a bad thing, if our kids had been there. Holy cow. That was loud.

The band came on stage. The strobe lights flashed. The fog machines (I shit you not) went off. And the music started. Let me say, they have a great band. The music was great, but it was loud. They did a 20 minute "set" and then it was time for the message.

The message was a 30 minute TV informercial for LifeChurch.tv. (I guess I get now why it's called Lifechurch DOT TV.) Their head pastor, super honcho guy broadcasts to all their campuses. It was kind of a cross between Oprah and MTV. There was plenty of scripture and gospel, but the whole thing came across as, "Our lives are so great because of Lifechurch!"

Don't get me wrong. What they are doing is powerful and great. They do something like 9 "experiences" each weekend, and the one we were at had at least 600 people there. It works for a lot of people. Not my cup of tea, however.

We left a bit early to get the kids. We were promptly told that 6 year olds were not allowed with the little ones. (Sorry, but you said it was fine before.) And then, it turns out we were supposed to get a sticker with a number to identify our kids. (Um, we were standing right here signing in and no one mentioned this to us.) They told us how worried they were that our kids were there with no identification, and how we'd better not do that again. So I was disappointed how rudely we were treated when picking them up. Like we had deliberately broken all the rules, when we said right off the bat that we were first-timers. They lost some points there in the "visitor friendly" department.

But the kids had fun. We got pizza on the way home and had a picnic on the living room floor while watching football.

Neither of us felt like we'd been to church. It was more of a concert/informercial. I don't feel like it's worship when all you can hear is the band. I like that feeling of communion with other people singing, and feeling like I'm a part of it, not just a spectator. And while I'm sure God was present in the music, I pretty much just felt the subwoofers.