Girls??? Did you adopt???

While at the grocery store last week I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in probably a year.  While I was blabbering on, she stopped me and asked, “Girls?  Did you adopt?”.  It was then that I realized that I constantly talk about our BI’s as ‘our girls’. 

In fact, I don’t know where we would be without them.  Honestly!  Even the ones that came into our lives and moved on (Gil, Jessica, Aly and Stacey!!!!), were invaluable both to the boys and to us as parents!!!  Then there are the ‘lifers’, Kimmy, Aimee and Angela.  OMG!  I love these girls!!!!  Our precious subs (read life-savers) Chelsey and Carly brought their vast experience and perspective that I greatly value.  And finally the ones that couldn’t get away, Halyna and Sarah, are with us at kindergarten now. 

Each one of them, masterfully guided by My Shauna, have helped mould us into who we are today.  They have taught the boys AND me so much and enriched our lives beyond comprehension.  I know I’m not accurately expressing how truly HONOURED I am to know these women and have them in our lives.

They have been there throughout the highs and the lows.  And they keep coming back!!!  I would adopt any one of them at any time.  I consider them my family.  Family by choice.

Crap.  I’m getting misty.

H

Autism - If I had to do it over again – Part 1

I am becoming more aware of how widely different each child with autism is.  And I’m not just talking between my two boys.  Each child (and family) is faced with their own similar, yet vastly different set of challenges.  I would be arrogant AND blatantly ignorant to say that I understood what another family is going thru.  Not understand completely at least.  Some of it, yes, but definitely not all.

I was thinking about what I would do differently if I had to do it over again and funnily enough, not one of the things included ‘professional’ help.  Other than the great Shauna of course.  The Guru of Autism, I think she is.  I admire her passion and creativity to stomp this thing down.  But for my part, the ‘other’ therapy, other than Shauna’s genius ABA program (with other therapies intermingled), what would I do differently when we began our ‘hurry up and get on the next waiting list’ journey.

When someone was finally able to give us an honest answer about the boys indicating that it probably was autism (thank you Sue), we started the wait list for an Autism Assessment and I put the boys on a GFCF diet.  We are fortunate enough to be financially set so the huge extra cost of the food for them wasn’t an issue.  Cutting them off Goldfish Crackers WAS an issue.

The paediatrician we were referred to seemed like a nice lady but did not instil any confidence whatsoever that she knew much about it.  She didn’t even seem to know what the GFCF diet was.  In my books, being nice isn’t enough.  Seriously!  She ordered up a battery of medical tests but didn’t explain or tell me what any of them were.  In hindsight, I should have had her explain.  In reality, I had one little boy there (Randy had taken the other to the car already), who did not want to be there and was going through her desk, much to her dismay. 

I’d love to say that I was completely on top of this whole process.  I wasn’t.  In the back of my mind I was truly hoping it wasn’t as serious as it was/is.  In a life altering crisis, your mind is never ‘rational’.  When it comes to your children’s health, you are never ‘rational’.  I don’t ever want to be that detached emotionally from them.  More aware, yes, not detached.

What the diet did for us:

Nate – craver of carbs.  Still is, but doesn’t flip out like he used to if I tell him ‘no more’.

Josh – craver of milk.  Still is, rice milk now though.  More alert.  More interactive.

We still haven’t given them nuts.  Randy has some nut allergies where his tongue tingles and his throat closes up.  Not wanting that to happen to the boys when they can’t tell us what the problem is.

The diet sucks.  But I wouldn’t stop it.  We buy most of the food for them because they (especially Nate) is still such a picky eater that new foods won’t even be tried).  I’ve baked stuff before, only to have Randy and I eat it, or it turn out so gross we wouldn’t touch it, and we throw it out.  Seriously, it can’t be impossible to make good GFCF basic food!  It is just so much trial and error.

Next up …. Methyl B12!!!!!

H

Spandex is your friend!

Should the post Christmas wardrobe leave something to be desired, remember this:  2% SPANDEX IS YOUR FRIEND!

This delightful, mere, 2% can make all the difference in fitting around the surprisingly enlarged size of your butt or that ‘muffin top’ which appeared out of no where (yah … right).

Should you be needing more ‘encouragement’ than the 2% spandex rule, also remember that a spray bottle filled with water is an even better friend!  A light spraying around those ‘suddenly snug’ areas, a few deep knee bends, and voila!  You feel almost back to normal.

No need to thank me … unless you really want to.

H

Quilting / Sewing for Christmas

I didn’t do very much this season for quilting.  Life seems to be rushing by at an extremely fast pace and most of the time I am behind.

I did manage to finish my Christmas quilt for my chaise and two improv pillows.  The first pillow took forever.  I am very much a planner and doing improv was difficult to wrap my mind around.

My picture taking ability leaves MUCH to be desired.  I would like to try more improv type quilting in the future.

H

New Years!

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Our New Year was quite quiet.  And peaceful.  Very relaxing.  We don’t seem to get a lot of those kind of days, this one was perfect.

A few days ago we bought an old snowmobile.  She ain’t that purdy but I’m sure the boys will have a blast.

The seat needs reupholstering but we purchased it from a friend who is a mechanic.  It’s loud, but runs great.

We had full intentions of inviting the neighbours over for snowmobiles rides, having a large bonfire and roasting hot dogs.  Except it was –10C and windy … oh, and we are wimps.  We cancelled the neighbours and lit the fireplace instead.

As you can see, Randy was still wanting the hot dogs.

Here’s a better view.

I brought down a feather duvet blanket for the boys to lay on in front of the computer.  They are expanding their viewing repertoire without being afraid.  We are onto YouTube video clips of Franny’s Feet, Dinosaur  Train, some Barney, SuperWhy, etc.   The boys have had a hard time not being afraid of watching full episodes on TV so that is where YouTube is fantastic.  It shows a couple of minutes of a show, or just the opening song, and they move on to another cartoon.  Or they replay it over and over to memorize the words.  They are still building language and this works really well for that.

I fell asleep well before midnight (hey – my kids are up by 4:30am!) but was woken up by the fireworks in the area.  They were very loud.  Reminded me of being at the hotel across from Disneyland and hearing those fireworks.

H