I'm rambly....

This was Faith's first "official" week of being a -part-time Pre-k'r.....she has enjoyed it a great deal.  I've seen some Pro's and Con's to it all, but I'm very pleased with how it's all turning out.  She can't handle the hand dryers (even when she's in the hallway and not in the bathroom), they freak her out BUT they are super loud to me too (magnify that by 100, that's probably what she's hearing).  She LOVES playing in the rocks on the playground.  Like most kids, not happy when recess is over.  The other kids seem to want to be protective over her. That's good stuff.

  Angelus just completed his second full week of school (he's our little rocket scientist....ere something like that...in the making). He doesn't like it when he has to get up in the mornings, but other than that I haven't really heard any complaints. He's SOOO not a morning person (and by morning I mean whenever he first gets up, whatever time of day that might be).

It's definitely a schedule I'm gonna hafta figure out how to get myself more productive.  I get the kids up around 7:15 or so, out the door around 8:00 or a little after. Drop Angelus off, get Faith to her school after breakfast and in time for recess 8:30, get back home around 9:30ish (hafta ask and answer questions teachers and I might have). Once back home, I *try* to do something productive such as fix lunch for when Faith gets home, do dishes, a load of laundry, mow on the yard a little....11:00 pick Faith up, come home for lunch and maybe a nap. Off to get Angelus at 3:00, then we're back home at 3:30.  That's how the week has pretty much went. We work Speech in on Monday's (while she's already at school), Occupational Therapy in on Thursday's so she doesn't go to school at all on Thursday as OT is 30min. away for an hour. Didn't make sense to go to school on that day, since she just does the half days.

Being a Stay At Home Momma now, I'm also trying to make myself get out in the community more. For those who know me (and I'm sure most anyone reading my blog knows me fairly well), know it's something I'm fairly uncomfortable with as I'm incredibly shy. I've been accused of being a "snob" and other such things a chunk of my life due to it.....Generally speaking, though....I tend to like pretty much everyone and don't make a practice of "bad mouthing" others (at least I try not too, like everyone I mess up sometimes but I do try not to say mean/negative things).  In my attempt to be more social, and active in this community, I've signed up for Zumba classes which are done in this community, started getting back into church down at the end of our road here, and I also do stuff with the Autism support group. EVERY one of those are actually something that takes a great deal of self talk for me to do because of my insane shyness. 

Just thought I'd toss a photo of Tommy in here 'cause I rarely do.

Zumba has been a great workout and a lot of nice ladies there.  Church is a good thing, 'cause I always feel like a piece of me is missing if I'm not actively going to one. It has about 100-150 people or so there.  My first thought on that is: whoa! That's big. (I know it's not to most, but for what I've been used to it's stinking HUGE). The Support group has just been such a great thing too, I've met some incredibly nice ladies that I enjoy and have learned an awful lot from them and the group as a whole.

Tommy seems to enjoy his job (or at least not actively hate it). It has good hours and we get to see him on weekends and evenings. This makes me happy, and I'm sure the kids too.

  Right now, seems like we're just in a period of adjustment. We'll be in the "swing" of things before you know it. 

Improvements?

As the "year" is coming to an end in the IEP world, and therapy world we're doing an awful lot of assessments and things of that nature to see where Faith "falls" after a year of it.  She scored 13months in fine motor skills, 18months in gross motor skills, 2in sensory processing (there's 5 things they test for and she improved slightly in sensory processing).  She scored pretty much the same after a year, on paper.  The reasoning behind that is she doesn't have good receptive skills, stay on task for 2minutes (that "you" ask her to do)....still, it pretty well all comes down to communication.  Boy, it's so important.  I always heard "you have to communicate if you want a marriage/relationship/friendship to work"....I used to always think in a "deeper connection" when I heard that. Basic communication is the building block to everything.  I have a better understanding of that now, than I probably ever would have if we weren't blessed to have Faith as part of our life.

Angelus started back to school Thursday and wasn't looking forward to it at all.  The first day he was presented with an invitation to a birthday party from one of his classmates (he was the only one that showed up at it too, which is pretty sad 'cause this little girl is super nice and friendly), so he was "sold!" at being back at school. He didn't go swimming all summer because every time I would ask him about it he'd say "I don't wanna go outside, it's TOO hot for that".  Then after going, he was kicking himself in the rear-end for not agreeing to go sometime during the summer break.

We're also a little frustrated at the moment around here.  We're gonna need to find a different place to live soon. An actual fully functioning 3bedrooms, is a BIG thing. I'd also LOVE to have these other things: central heat/ac, roof that doesn't tend to leak (the land lord is good about coming to or sending someone to try and fix it, but it's been a constant no matter what), a bathroom a little more kid friendly, a privacy fence 'cause Faith WILL run and I want it so she can play outside safely (it's more to keep her in, than others out), windows that can be opened....those are my big wishes for another place. I kinda wish we were able to buy, then I kinda don't and there's just not loads of options around the Oaks area, but I want to stay around here because I've been incredibly happy with how the school situation is coming along and with all the therapy's in place for Faith. Angelus' school is a good fit for him too and it's awfully close to Oaks. So.....this is where we are, I suppose. Tommy and I've been talking about it and knowing it's needed to happen because we just need a house (not necessairly bigger 'cause this one isn't super small, it's just laid out weird), where everyone can have their own space.
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*Weird things Around Here*

-I never thought I'd be using duct tape to keep someone out of the dryer.
-Faith still screams (more often than not) at bath time. :(
-It's pretty well impossible to comb/brush her hair and I've tried all the tricks I was told.  Occasionally I can get it, but not like it needs to be and *if* she'd let me it'd be way easier and quicker. Her O.T. seemed to think she's big enough that I'd need to try other things to try and get her "exhausted" or connecting her neuron receptors in a different way (I still didn't quite understand it even though I asked her to explain it to me and she tried her best), but she's still limited to receptive language skills that I couldn't really "talk her into it". Thank goodness we got permission for her to wear her hats. :)
-Angelus' loves watching television to fall asleep to, but Faith has now taken to throwing televisions, I mean she's done that for a while and we're actually pretty lucky that none of ours are broken at this point.  It does make us watch a lot less television. :)  Probably good for us.

Last night I made a meal that was GF/CF .....the entire meal AND Angelus helped with pretty much ALL of it.  That was so much fun.  I remember when he was littler and I'd help him cook with me.  Last night I was able to just kinda give direction and he did his thing from there.  It was very cool.

Learning a new Language

Just when I think I've got all these new "words" or abbreviations down, someone goes changing them or adding to them.  I seriously feel like I've almost learned a whole new language in the past year. Here are some (a few I already knew, working in the Mental Health field but most of these I didn't), feel free to add to it, if you know some.

*GFCF............................................................Gluten Free Casein Free diet (a diet that individuals with Autism do very well on, but not all)

*GFCFSF.......................................................Gluten Free Casein Free Soy Free diet (same as above).

*SCD..............................................................Specific Carbohydrate Diet

*Feingold Diet.................................................Also a diet some do very well on

*SIB...............................................................Self  Injurious Behavior

*SID...............................................................Sensory Interegration Disorder

*SPD..............................................................Sensory Processing Disorder

*IEP................................................................Individual Educatin Plan

*ELL..............................................................English Language Learner

*ASD.............................................................Autism Spectrum Disorder

*HBOC..........................................................Hyper Barric Oxygen Chamber (I'm not even real sure what this does only it cost about 2grand a month to rent one)

*Chelation therpy............................................A type of  spray or shot or something that's supposed to help rid the body of toxins...(clearly I need more research on this one too).

*Brushing Technique........................................you do every two hours for two weeks AND you have to be VERY consistent with it and it's done with a specific brush overseen by the O.T. (generally, I think)

*Epson Salt baths..........................................Also help to rid the body of toxins (again, that's general consensus and I know they help when your body is hurting).

*Stimming.....................................................Self stimulatory behavior (Faith's is generally spinning, but it changes from time to time)

*O.T.............................................................Occupational Therapy

*SLP............................................................Speech Language Pathologist/Speech therapist

*PT..............................................................Physical Therapy (and obviously sometimes Physical Training for those military folk)

Then there is:
*ABA Therapy, the *SonRise program, *biomedical treatments, a kid having a *melt down--which is different from a tantrum, *sensory over load....I'm sure there are others I'm leaving out  but a lot of this is terminology I've learned in the past year or so.

I was reading on another persons blog where a few of  these popped up and I had no idea what they stood for, so as any good (interested) person would do, I googled them.

In other news, Angelus starts school Thursday. He says he doesn't want to, but once he gets there and ``sees his friends I know he'll change his mind.  He usually does. I took Faith and Angelus to church last Sunday.  They both did great, we plan on trying it again this Sunday. I also downloaded a Bible app to the iPod with different versions so I'm ready to follow along no matter what. :) AND I started Zumba classes this past week. I'll try it for at least the month that I paid for it. The instructor was great with an amazing amount of energy and the ladies there were all pretty new to it too, except a couple. They did great with trying to help us who weren't so good try to figure it out.  I think it'll be a good, healthy "mom" time and hopefully get me in better shape as I go along.

'til next week.
Oh and thanks Christi for the reminder ;-)