The VanDyk Family

Playing at the park! (Summer 08)

2009-06-26T20:14:00.000-07:00

The kids love to play at the park - specifically, they love to play at either Riverside Park (near our home) or "the park behind Oma's house/the loooooong park" (AKA, Churchill Park. Here are some pictures of their adventures over the summer, most of them from the new accessible playground at Churchill.

In the summer of 08, Gabe was still a little hesitant about the splash pad. He WANTED to play in it- if you could absolutely, positively GUARANTEE him that he wouldn't get wet in any way he wasn't completely expecting. As that kind of defeats the purpose of a splashpad, his enthuasiasm was a little dampered. He still hangs around them, though, cautiously dipping a toe in here or there and then running like mad.

Gabe got sick of me taking pictures, so he very helpfully tried to get me to put the lens cap back on.

Levi didn't want to go home. This was, sadly, a pretty typical reaction to being told something - anything - he didn't like.

Judah found the park either really boring or really tiring.

Ah. Tiring it is, then.

Levi attempting one of his famed dare-devil physical feats. This kid can get himself in and out of position that should not be humanly possible (this the least of them, obviously).

At the beginning of the summer, Gabe was a little scared to go down slides on his own. Not matter how small the slide, he would need to sit quietly at the top for a few minutes, calming himself down and gathering up the courage to go. After the first few weeks, though, he worked through it and would race Levi in a loop to see who could go up the stairs and down the slide the fastest.

Speedy Gonzales over here usually won those races.

He was a little shocked when Gabe beat him this time around!

MacGregor Point - July 2008!

2009-06-26T20:00:00.001-07:00

And........ I'm back! Hopefully I'll be able to do a bit more catching up on my blogging tonight. I do NOT want to lose all these memories!

In July 08 we headed out to MacGregor Point. The boys had a blast - the beach at the park was a little small, but on Saturday we headed north a few kilometers to Port Elgin.

Our first night there - celebrating our min-vacation with some sparklers!

At the beach at Port Elgin on Saturday... poor little Judah found camping a little exhausting.

They'd had a sand-castle building competition on the beach that weekend. This was the only one still standing.

The boys getting out of the water at the campground's beach.

Levi makes a new friend!

For good measure I'm throwing in a few photos of our trip to the Pineries. It was mostly uneventful and boring - the beach was closed due to high bacteria levels. However, the first day we got up early and they hadn't yet put up the sign, so we didn't know - we wondered why all the people there were giving us strange looks for letting our kids play in the water for hours.

This is what happens when you tell Levi to go fly a kite...

Gabriel has never liked the feeling of sand on his feet, and it took a while to convince him that beaches are fun. This was his initial reaction. (After a few minutes he was diving right in, splashing and dunking, though.)

We couldn't gt any pictures of the boys' favorite beach game - they love to put a hand on your head and "dunk" you (though their attempts at dunking have all the force of a feather, so you REALLY have to be in the mood to play along). If you happen to take one of them with you when you go down - GREAT! What they REALLY hope for, though, if that you'll come up spluttering and pretending to be angry, initiating a chase through the waves, complete with dramatic trips and almost-captures. That games really was one of the first times that the boys showed a preference for playing in a way that forces them to interact with people instead of playing on their own. It's like it starts a landslide - since then, so much has changed with them and the way they play. You'd hardly believe they're the sames boys. :D

StoryTime with Levi

2009-01-11T20:43:00.000-08:00

Unlike the rest of the posts I'll be making over the next few days, this video is current - it was filmed January 9, 2009. But I absolutely love it and couldn't wait to share it. This is Levi reading the last section of "The Paper Bag Princess" by Robert Munsch. (What he's actually reading is posted under the video so you can actually understand what it is he's saying.) Don't forget to press pause on the music player before you try to listen to the video!

When he got back he was too tired to talk, and he lay down and went straight to sleep.
Elizabeth whispered very softly, "hey dragon." The dragon didn't move at all. (Levi repeats this part.) She lifted up teh dragon's ear and put her head right inside. She shouted as loud as she could, "HEY, DRAGON!" The dragon was so tired he didn't even move.
Elizabeth walked right over the dragon and opened the door to the cave. There was Prince Ronald. He looked at her and said, "Elizabeth, you are a mess! You smell like ashes, your hair is all tangled, and you are wearing a dirty old paper bag. Come back when you are dressed like a real princess."
"Ronald," said Elizabeth, "your clothes are really pretty, and your hair is very neat. You look like a real prince(ss, according to Levi, lol), but you are a bum."
And they didn't get married after all.

Canada Day celebrations!

2009-01-11T20:23:00.000-08:00

Now Levi is "officially" three, though if you ask him, he'll tell you that he's four. Maybe five. Occasionally two. But never, ever, EVER three. And so begins July. Oh yeah, and there was a parade, for some country or something.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm SO thankful to be Canadian. And yet, I am scratching my head trying to figure out what a parade of small vehicles has to do with my country... ah well. Who wants some cotton candy for $4.50?!

Levi watches as the minicars approach...

...and keeps watching them waaaaaay down the road.

I was at home with Judah, so I have NO idea who or what he was sticking his tongue out for, but I'm glad we have a photo to tease him about when he's older!

After the parade we headed over to the Horton's for a bonfire, and the boys had a blast!

The boys LOVED the hammock swing... so much so that Levi didn't want to get out of it. A few times I heard the other children getting sad that Levi wouldn't get out so they couldn't have a turn, and so had to remove him from the swing myself. Good times, good times. (Thankfully, sharing has ALSO gotten better since then, though it's not exactly gracious yet.)

And thus concluded our celebration of our country's.... something or other. No one actually mentioned anything about our country that day. But it was a fun day, wasn't it?

Levi's Third Birthday!

2009-01-11T19:23:00.001-08:00

June 29th was Levi's third birthday! And what a busy birthday it was.

Judah wakes up at the start of a busy day!
Levi was SO excited to sing Happy Birthday and get to blow out the candles!

This was the first time that levi really understood what PRESENTS were about!

Gabriel sees something he likes...

.... and he quickly took off to play with it.

BUBBLE TOYS!!!!!

Already chatting on a cell phone. But WHY did it have to be PINK?!

Sweet, lovable baby Judah gets some playtime with Uncle Roy (or as Levi calls him, Uncle Boy. Or, as Gabe calls him, Uncle Woy).

All partied out.

When we got home, we thought out boy deserved some fireworks! But as, well, setting off fireworks on our teeny property is both unsafe and illegal, we decided to downsize the plan a little.

And then, to close the day out properly, we decided the most appropriate thing to do would be to GO AFTER DADDY WITH OUR NEW GUNS! YEAH!

And that concluded our birthday celebration. On that note, let me tell you a little bit about what Levi was like at the start of age three.

He was a complete terror.

Now don't get me wrong, Levi is an absolute joy to be around. Sometimes. He's got this spark in him that makes you want to grin and giggle. But the same spark that makes him silly and lovable and excitable and joyous also makes him throw a MEAN temper tantrum. Mules takes lessons in stubbornness from him. And the whining.... oh, don't even get me started on the whining. There are no in between with Levi. Life is fabulous, or life is a nightmare, and compromise is NOT an option.

I love my son very much, largely because he (obviously) takes after yours truly quite a bit. My mother loves him because she finally sees me getting paid back for my own behaviour as a child. My husband loves him because Levi tires me out so much that I have no energy left to fight with Shane anymore. So overall, he's a well-loved kid. ;)

That being said, since that point in time Levi had changed. He's still got that spark of life, but he's a little bit more obedient, and little less whiny, and throws a lot less temper tantrums. (When he DOES decide to throw a temper tantrum, however, it is NUTS. I have never seen or heard anything like it in my life.) And he's ever so slowly learning to care about others and about God, which could be a tremendous blessing not only for him and our family, but for the church as a whole. Levi approaches everything in life with a whole-hearted enthusiasm that I can't even wrap my head around. If, with God's help, that enthusiasm and desire can be directed towards God and serving Him - who knows what he could accomplish? We have so much hope for Levi's future... now if only he would let us sit down long enough to think about it!

Long time gone

2009-01-11T18:56:00.000-08:00

And lots to catch up on!

Obviously the craziness of life with 3 kids has caught up with me! However, I promised myself that I would get caught up on my blog again, and so I shall! This blog was originally intended to be a substitute for scrapbooking for me - more room for stories and captions, and way less work - and I fear that if I don't start catching up on it soon, I may start forgetting details and memories before I write them down!

And so, on that note, I'll be working through our lives for the past six months or so over the next few days. Expect that a few posts will be out of order, but hopefully I'll have some great pictures and memories to share!

Father's Day!

2008-07-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Father's Day happened to fall on the bi-weekly visit to my parent's place this year, so we headed over there to celebrate! Unfortunately the craziness meant that the boys and Shane had to visit his Dad a few days early, but we just couldn't squeeze everything into one day.

While yes, I do have a lot of pictures of Shane and the boys, I'll put them up in a post later of photos that we've taken around the house the past few weeks. In the meantime, here's MY father playing with the kids (who, as you can see, think Opa is pretty awesome).

Shane promised Emma that he could get a balloon to stick to her hair. Unfortunately, Jenn uses more conditioner that Shane seemed to account for, lol, so it didn't work out too well. He snapped this photo anyways to prove that it does, indeed work (but pay no attention to the hand holding the balloon in place).

Mmmm.... blue icing. Food colouring is yummy.

TICKLE FIGHT!

It's fair season!

2008-07-19T07:35:00.001-07:00

And a few weeks ago we kicked things off at the Cambridge Kinsmen Festival. The boys had a blast! They especially loved the Jump 'n Bounce and the Fun Slide.

Gabe LOVED this slide. He went on it over and over and over... and over... and then when we ran out of tickets (and money) he kept on trying to run away from us and sneak past the carnie at the gate to get a free slide.

From this perspective, I'm beginning to think that even going down the slide requires some courage!

Levi joined him after the first few times. However, Levi was a little over-excited and just threw his potato sack down the slide in front of him rather than riding it down. Every time he'd actually get close enough to catch it, he's just grab it and throw it down ahead of him again.

We also let Levi go on the swing ride, which I think he enjoyed considerably less than he thought he would.

The fair as seen from the top of Mount FunSlide.

Judah taking in the sights.

Loong overdue photos

2008-07-18T20:15:00.000-07:00

If you look way down at the bottom of the page (or possible on the next page by now, who knows) you'll see a post about our May long weekend camping trip, and that pictures were coming but couldn't be uploaded right away thanks to some issues with our USB cable. "Issues" meaning that Levi chewed on it until it was completely warped out of usable shape. Anyways, it still hasn't been fixed and we're having some trouble finding a replacement cable, but Shane managed to load the pictures at work and bring them home on CD, so here are the long overdue May long weekend camping photos!

That weekend was FREEZING. not only was it just plain cold, but there was a LOT of wind, and being right next to a lake that hadn't warmed up yet didn't help either. Generally, if we were outside, we had the boys wear their winter coats.

That, however, did not stop Levi from taking off his shoes and wading into the lake. [rolls eyes] He had a great time and we had a towel (and a seat right in front of the tent heater) handy, so we didn't even bother trying to fight with him on this one.

Right about now he's realizing just how cold it is and wondering if this is REALLY such a good idea.

Yup, good idea.

Until the biting cold starts to sink in, that is.

Levi walking across the bridge with Judah and I.

This was a game the people at the next site played. They stuck their sticks in the ground, put their empty beer cups upside on them (trust me, there were plenty) and then threw a Frisbee at the sticks to try to knock off the cups. Gabriel thought this game was AWESOME. If we'd have let him, he'd have watched it for hours. He started laughing so hard when they knocked off the cups that he got not only the people playing laughing along with him, but the people watching from their site (across the road from the grassy area), AND the people at the site beside them.
Gabriel loved the lake - only because he loved to pick rocks up from the edge, throw them in, and laugh hysterically at the splash.

At the playground.

Don't let the sun fool you - it was still COLD at the end of the weekend. Even around the fire pit in the middle of the day, we put Judah in a sweater AND wrapped him up either in a blanket or our coats.

Judah's first time in a Bumbo seat, and he's a little... concerned.

Camping essentials that can NOT be forgotten at home. Ketchup, mustard, hot dog, marshmallows, baby.

All work and no play

2008-07-18T19:43:00.000-07:00

Make Kathryn a very poor blogger!

Life around here has been CRAAAZY! I'm now doing photos again (I haven't started advertising yet but I've been doing about a session a week just for friends and by referral/repeat clients) and I had forgotten how much time it takes to edit photos! The time I used to spend blogging I know spend photo editing, and just trying to keep up with life! I've finally got back into a "groove" the actually lets me keep my house semi-presentable, which has led me to realize that somehow there's a big jump in laundry when you go from two kids to three. Or maybe it's jsut the addition of a baby and the all the poop stains, puked on clothes, and drool-soaked shirts that go with it. Either way, instead of jsut keeping the house clean I know have to have a cleaning "schedule" to actually keep on top of it all. I am NOT a schedule person, and I am CERTAINLY not a the type of person that loves to clean, so this is rather antithetical for me. But hey, if I want the luxury of having friends over whenever I feel like, I'd better learn, right?

Mom, I can HEAR you thinking "I told you so." STOP THAT! It's just not polite. ;)

For some brief, non-photo filled updates... Judah is still a gem of a baby. He's now rolling over both ways (though he does way better rolling over front front to back), and is starting to work some consonant sounds into his babbling. I know that probably seems like minor details, but since failure to roll over is a super-early symptom of autism (neither Gabe nor Levi rolled over aside from a few fluke times), as is failure to babble normally, this has us celebrating. :D He's still sleeping through the night, smiling up a storm, drooling like crazy, laughing at his brothers (whom he just ADORES) and is obsessed with Shane's fish tank. He is just a joy of a child. And trust me, there will be plenty of photos as I find time to upload them. ;)

Levi is actually starting to behave, if you can believe it! He's still hyper as anything, but most days he only needs to be disciplined once or twice and is seet and polite the rest of the time. He's still a little whiny at times, but "The Look" seems to be enough to keep him in line. I can't believe I'm using THE LOOK. I am such a Mom. I remember Mom giving me THE LOOK as a kid, and now I'm that person! Weird, weird, weird. Anyways, Levi is also doing really well with his speech and his Bible memorization. He's starting to really use words properly and ab it more clearly, so I think he's headed for a big breakthrough in the next few months. He's also starting to get annoyed when his diapers are dirty, so I think that once we send Gabe to school and get into a routine as far as that goes, we may work on potty training. Again. Twice in a few months... we've either very brave or very stupid.

Gabe ir progressing SO QUICKLY with his new more intensive therapy schedule. We now have "playdate" therapy sessions twice a week where other kids come in so that he can work on his social skills. He still obviously needs a lot of help, but now when he knows his friends are coming over, he is excited for DAYS ahead of time. He constantly asks to go play with them, go see them, have them come over, etc. While I admit it's getting a little annoying ;) the fact is that he desperately wants to interact with these other kids now, and that is HUGE. He wants to have friends. Considering that one of the main issues with autism is that the person prefers to isolate themselves and not have any social contact... this is awesome. The more he wants to befriend other kids, the quicker he'll learn and the more he'll enjoy himself while he does.

I can't believe that in jsut a few short week he'll be going to school, in addition to his therapy schedule. I jsut can't believe that my little boy is that old. I'm so proud of him, and yet I just want to cry! We're somewhat able to think of him as so young, simply because he can't carry conversations on with us like we naturally expect a school-aged child to. And yet, in his mind is a child who's ready to learn, ready to start making a life of his own in some respects, and he jsut needs help to bring that out.

I'm going to be an absolute WRECK the first day of school, aren't I?

So, I'll try to post some photos tonight and over the next few days! There have been a lot of photo-friendly things since I last posted, like Father's Day, Levi's birthday, a camping trip to the beach, and of course our usual random VanDyk-style-insanity photos. And Judah, who's not yet able to participate in the VanDyk-style insanity, but is really cute anyways. ;)

If you were this cute....

2008-06-14T12:02:00.000-07:00

I'd post lots of photos of you, too. ;)

I was holding Judah on the couch and he was in SUCH a happy, smiley mood that it spread to the whole family. Shane broke out the camera and just started snapping away. Once I looked at them, there were so many that made me grin just looking at them.... I tried to pare down what I posted, but I really wanted to post all of these ones. I know that from someone's else perspective they're probably all the same, but to me that just means I can't choose between them. I love this little man SO much, he is honestly the sweetest baby I've had yet. Just being with him brings a smile to my face.
If you want to be 100% sure this is Shane's son (and if you were actually doubting that for some reason you can go now. Just go.) check out Judah's nose. Notice anything a little... off (centre)?

Up, up and away!

Burn baby burn

2008-06-08T19:59:00.000-07:00

We had a great time camping this weekend! Since I haven't managed to upload the pictures from our first camping trip yet, I decided to go overboard with this trip instead. ;)

This is the sight that first greeted us when we got to our campsite.... the playground!
This is our trailer. As you can imagine, the boys decided that camping is GREAT, since camping seems to come with a gigantic playground 15 feet away. This campground, and this site at this playground, were absolutely perfect for the boys.

The "old" playground, behind the big one. This is the view from the boys' bed in the trailer. Imagine trying to get kids to sleep when THIS is what they see through their windows. [rolls eyes]
Long overdue pictures of the inside of our trailer. From the door- the cabinets, fridge, heater, sink, etc.

Some of the scenery around the park. This is the view from our picnic table, right outside our trailer. Just gorgeous.Just to the right of the fountain.

Levi, "acquainting himself" with the scenery.

Going for a ride in a two person pedal car! The boys LOVED this thing, though it was exhausting for them.

Checking out the fountain.

Walking over the bridge.

I took some pictures of Gabriel sitting on the ledge by the water. Unfortunately, I hit the "overexpose" button on the camera by accident while we were walking, and the photos literally came out entirely white wit ha few light lines. Photoshop let me recover a little of the images. It makes me a bit sad - Gabe was SO happy for these photos, and it's HARD to catch Gabe on camera smiling, normally he doesn't like having his photo taken.

A quick camera correction and we're good to go - unfortunately, in the time it took to fix the camera, Gabriel was getting rather bored and stopped smiling for the camera. Nonetheless, we persevered and continue to take countless photos, because we could.

Levi decided that splashing should be a competition...

... that he, of course, would win.

Playing at the playground.
All play and no work make Gabe a tired b0y.

Judah decided to use the time away from it all ("it all" being eating, sleeping, and pooping) to learn some new tricks. He did this once just before we left, and once at the trailer - let's hope he keeps it up!

I think I'd prefer a different view, Mom.

I can do this!

An officially rolled-over baby (complete with overly excited applauding Mommy).

And finally, the reason for my thread title. The front of the sunscreen bottle didn't say "WATERPROOF!" in gigantic letters, but it did say it in fine print on the item description on the back. From now on, I'll be requiring the gigantic letters, thank you very much, as the fine print doesn't seem accurate. We got in the pool, sat on the deck for a while, and THIS is what we looked like when we got inside. My poor baby boy. :(

Burns aside, we had a great time. Best of all, the campground was close enough that we could still attend Sunday services (held this week at the United church two blocks from our house while we come up with a long-term plan). Our church still needs much wisdom to come to a long-term decision - we're looking at possibly purchasing a building and with everything going on it may be hard to see exactly what God's plan is in all of this.

Ahoy! I felt like plundering!

2008-06-03T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well, there are a lot of things we've been wanting to buy for Gabriel's therapy that we just can't afford. Comprehensive flashcard sets, learn-to-read aids, social stories, books that appeal to kids with autism (this one in particular), developmental toys, etc. Everything just seems SO expensive.

Well, we missed a lot of therapy time in April thanks to both of our therapists having final exams and one having a vacation. As such, we have a LOT of leftover funding. They'd already told me that we're allowed to use our funding money to cover costs for therapy supplies. I emailed and asked if this situation would apply - they confirmed that it would, and not only that but that they EXPECT people to submit large receipts for such therapy supplies when they first get funding.

And so... here is our plunder, courtesy of Scholar's Choice. ;)

If you wanted to try to count books, I gave up when the boys distracted me at 25.

And, of course, the requisite picture of Judah.

Wrestle-Mania. They're laughing, not grimacing. Really.

And, our first fish in the big tank! It's not really totally up and ready to go yet - there's water in it, but Shane still has some "tweaking" he wants to do. But his Mom had some problems with her tank, and this fish was sick and not getting better, so Shane somehow managed to be convinced that he could handle putting a fish in his tank already. ;) The fish recovered pretty fast over here and now seems happy. Yes, you can actually tell if a fish is happy or not. if they've gone almost totally white and are laying at the bottom of the tank barely moving..... not so happy. ;) But brightly coloured, friendly swimming fish = happy. And yes, it's Dory, as the boys insist on telling us every five minutes.

All that aside, for those of you who didn't know, here what our church life is like right now...
http://www.swo.ctv.ca/news.php?id=1806
http://news.therecord.com/News/Local/article/360221

Pray that we can find a new place to worship temporarily until a more permanent solution can be found. For that matter, pray for a permanent solution soon, since the church building was up for sale anyways. With some many changes (a new building, the pastor leaving for Scotland, the fire) coming all at once, it's obvious God is moving to do something at Riverside, so I'll just keep praying that we stay on course with His purposes, whatever those may be.

In other news....

2008-06-01T20:42:00.000-07:00

Well, if I'm taking the time to update my blog, might as well take the time to do it well!

Life in our house is CRAZY right now. Judah is an absolute joy as a baby. He's smiley, giggly, and as sweet as anything. If I need to put him down to get something done, he has no complaints. At least, not for a few minutes. And he LOVES his Bumbo chair. The boys are really starting to play with him. The other day, Judah was sitting in his Bumbo beside Gabriel. Gabe didn't want him there, so he started hitting Judah's feet. I was about to pull Judah away and punish Gabriel when they both started cracking up! Judah was giggling, Gabe was giggling, and the two of them just fed off of each other until they were both hardly breathing! For Gabriel to not only interact like that, but with a BABY, is so amazing for both of them. And Judah just adores his big brothers - both of them. He's especially, however, a big fan of Daddy. And my goodness, that boy can drool. He started sleeping through night in about 9 hour stretches a few weeks ago, so we're all feeling a little more, well, sane.

Levi is doing EXCELLENT. Don't get me wrong, he stills whines like crazy and throw temper tantrums every 5 minutes, but he's starting to ASK for things rather than just taking them now, and the nice weather permits him to burn off his energy a bit more productively. He is OBSESSED with Curious George. He hasn't seen the movie in a while (we're trying to cut down and TV and computer time, also leading to the lack of blog posts for a while), but he loves any books he can get his hands on, and he especially loves the expensive licensed merchandise. [sigh] We now own a Curious George blanket and Curious George shirt. Not a lot of stuff, but he MUST sleep with the blanket AT ALL TIMES. Sometimes he'll wake up crying at 2am because he kicked off his George blanket and can't find it back in the dark. And if the George shirt is in the laundry.... look out. I just bought a few more Curious George shirts on EBay that I'll give him for his birthday, but I'm hoping that by that point we'll have gotten this fixation under control so it'll actually be a nice present and he won't see it as us giving in to his whining.

Aside from that, Levi is reading now. Yeah, Levi. he's not even three yet! I meant to get it on video for the blog, but by the time we got home tonight he was just too tired to want to bother. He's just reading simple three and four letter words, but he usually LOVES to do it.

Gabriel, on the other hand, is NOT reading. He's spelling. If you put the letters F-R-O-G in front of him, he will say
Fuh.
Ruh.
Aw.
Guh.
But not be able to string the letters together to read the word. However, if you ask him to spell the word frog, he'll think for a few seconds and say "F-R-O-G! FROG!"

Gabriel is also getting stuck. If he wants, for example, to go to the potty, he'll say "I want to p.... I want to.... I want... I want to p.... I want...." It's like a broken record, and it is REALLY annoying. The only way to stop him is to interrupt him and ask him "Gabriel, what do you WANT?!" and unfortunately, with that intonation. If you don't sound exasperated, he doesn't stop. [sigh] That seems to reset the "cycle" and give him a fresh start. That being said, we've brought it up with his therapist and they say this can often happen right before an autistic child has a big burst of new language skills, so here's hoping! He's been doing some exciting new stuff with words in the past few days, so we'll see where this goes.

Aside from all that, now that Gabe is getting full funding for his therapy, we still have some money coming in from other government programs that needs to be allocated for certain purposes such as respite care for Gabriel or for other kids in the family, having a worker come in to help care for any of the kids, etc. If we don't use this money it just sort of... disappears. As such, we've decided to use the money to hire a therapist for LEVI two mornings a work (for two hours). It qualifies as respite care since it will give me one on one time Judah and enable me to get things done around the house, and it'll definitely be of benefit to Levi. While Levi doesn't have a diagnosis right now, he certainly has speech issues that need help, and he and his current speech therapist just don't work well together. He LOVES Gabriel's therapists, so while Gabriel is in therapy on Wednesday and Friday morning with one therapist, Levi will be in therapy with another. This should be great for everyone involved! Especially me. ;)

On that note, here are some new videos for you of what life is really like over here.

In case you thought Gabe was the only person around here learning his Catechism...

Judah laughing for us. Yes, I know I'm speaking in that annoying Mommy voice. We all hate it, but babies love it, so you'll just have to deal with it if you want to hear the baby laugh, m'kay? ;)

And finally, Levi was having something of an identity crisis. Thankfully this was the only time he did this, we just happened to have the camera going to try to tape him doing his Catechism questions. I believe this falls under the category of "Funny... but Wrong."

Growing up TOO FAST!

2008-06-01T11:15:00.001-07:00

I told you I wanted Judah to stop growing. Why do these children NEVER listen? Already he needs glasses! ;

And wearing his new hat (just because he's so adorable).

Gabriel loves to help out around the house. Here he is doing his favorite chore - putting away the dishes. (How did I have a child who LIKES to do housework?)
This is for Mom - she has a remarkable similar photo of me wearing Roy's PJs in our kitchen.

It's park season!

Playing soccer at Opa's house.

I took some pictures of Jenn's kids a few weeks ago, and while they were changing outfits snapped a few of our family (Jenn took the photo of our whole family for me).

Judah and Jillian.

Long weekend camping!

2008-06-01T11:11:00.001-07:00

Well, we took our ten trailer camping over the May long weekend. And it was... interesting. The boys had fun... when they could. The whole weekend was cold and windy. Now, cold and windy they could handle - they wouldn't let a little thing like that keep them from playing on the slide, throwing balls (or rocks into the water), walking on the beach, etc. But the RAIN we had for two days straight... that put a bit of a damper on things.

As such, we have discovered that from now on, we'll be checking the weather forecast before we head out for a weekend camping trip. Definitely. Thank goodness for a portable DVD player and The WonderPets, or those two days of rain would have been even more interesting. To SEE a beach and a playground from the trailer but not be allowed to go there - and in the boys case, not understand why not - well, let's just say we're grateful to the inventors of Tylenol.

That being said, this weekend coming up looks sunny and bright in the forcast, so we're going again!

Pictures are coming. We've had some problems with our memory card, but they should be on our computer shortly for you! We got some really cute ones that I can't wait to post.

Forget what you heard.

2008-06-01T11:01:00.000-07:00

We did NOT take Levi to the hospital for an ingrown toenail.

We took Levi to the hospital for appendicitis.

He was crying in pain, saying "NO! OWIE!" over and over again, but couldn't tell us where he hurt. We started poking and prodding various parts of his body starting around his head (as Gabe and Levi frequently like to knock each other's head around), and got quite a pained reaction when we touched his stomach on the lower right hand side.

Yeah, uh-oh.

Fearing the worst, Shane rushed him to the ER, who saw him right away. They quickly determined that no, it was not appendicitis. But what was it?

Well, evidently, he had an badly infected ingrown toenail that, rather than having the infection spread out around his toenail, got pushed backwards. The infection has spread into his foot and leg and they were worried about it possibly entering his bloodstream. As it turns out, we'd simply leaned over his felt-like-it-was-on-fire-every-time-it-was-touched leg to poke his tummy. They told Shane to come back the next morning so they could put Levi under (they couldn't do it right away since he'd eaten recently), and when they returned the cut open his toe and drain the infection. They were going to do it to his toe as well but once they could actually get a good look at it without Levi attempt to do some nasty kung-fu moves on their face, they decided it wasn't necessary and he could just go on some incredibly strong antibiotics for a week.

So there you have it. We took him to the ER for appendicitis. The fact that "appendicitis" is apparently code for "ingrown toenail" is not our fault. ;)

DreamTime is back!

2008-05-11T18:34:00.000-07:00

Well, I have my first "official" client for my photo business (since I decided to start back up again, that is) on Tuesday. I'll be starting up some basic advertising (ie - putting up one flyer at the MidWives' office, lol) again next week, and I just finished my business website. It feels good to be doing this again! The kids have, quite frankly, been driving me INSANE, and I need to be able to purposefully focus on something else.

On that note, if you have a minute please take a look at the new website (the link is in the right hand column) and let me know if you see anything that should be fixed/changed, or even if you just have any neat ideas!

Plus I want to show it off. ;)

We're overloading our hard drives with photos lately. We just take TOO MANY PHOTOS. A year and a bit ago we lost a couple of months worths of pictures in a hard drive crash. A few times since then we've had some problems with some of our hard drives loading, and I've been worried that we'll lose our photos again - and this time way more of them. We try to back our photos up on CD, but the boys get into the CDs and occasionally scratch them up. Not to mention, with SO many pictures we often take 4 or 5 CDs to burn one months worth of pictures. at ten minutes a CD, that can get annoyingly time consuming.

So, knowing how much I value our photos, Shane bought me an external hard drive for Mother's Day. Meaning, we plug it in an it almost instantaneously updates itself with everything that's been added on to our hard drive since the last time it was plugged it. Essentially it's like burning CDs but faster and waaay less destructible, plus it has nearly infinite space.

In other words, I'm happy. ;)

Now if only someone would explain to the boys that it's nice to BEHAVE for your Mommy on Mother's Day. Gabriel was his usual obedient self, but with a touch more whininess than normal... and Levi was just.... [sigh]. There are no words.

I think I'll conclude my Mother's Day with a nice Hard Lemonade. Or a daquiri. Rum and Coke? Something, er, calming. ;)

I'm KIDDING! Really. Okay, mostly.

I hope everyone had a great Sunday and a wonderful Mother's Day!

Pick a baby, any baby.

2008-05-09T22:04:00.001-07:00

Go ahead. Guess who's who. I dare you.

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

Done guessing???
.
.
.

The correct answers are....
.
.
.
.
Levi
Judah
Levi
Gabriel
Judah
Gabriel
Judah
Levi
Gabriel

Crazy.

A month's worth of pictures!

2008-05-07T19:11:00.000-07:00

We've finally been able to load some of our photos on to the computer and sort through them! My boys are all growing up so fast. Judah can just stop. Right now. He's attentive, he's smiley, he's giggly, and he's the perfect size to fit into ALL the cute baby clothes. So stop, honey. Just stop.

Shoot, I think he gained a pound in the 30 seconds it took me to type that paragraph.

Alright, first off.... bragging rights! Or as Shane calls it, my pile of conquest. This is some of the stuff I picked up at the Mom 2 Mom sale in Hamilton. I can't believe I'm using my blog to show off my SHOPPING, but I am SO thrilled with how much money I saved and how much the boys love some of it (okay, not so much the clothes).

Attached camping chairs for the boys. They LOVE these (despite Gabe's expression), they just sit outside and people-watch. - $6
A plane swing - $5
A new moon and stars quilted crib set for Judah - $8!
Not to mention there was one woman selling pretty much brand-new clothes from Gymboree (LOVE Gymboree - they're the only clothes that I can buy used and still be in good shape once they've made it through both Gabe AND Levi) for $3 or $4 per outfit.

Wow. I'm talking about the deals I got on baby clothes on my blog. I'm officially shallow now. Happy. But shallow. (Raise your hand if you're surprised. Anyone? No? Alright then, moving on.)

This is Gabe checking out cameras on display at the photography store while Shane is testing out various models to find one he likes.
A few days later Shane bought a camera, got home, and the boys instantly started clowning around. I'm not sure if they MEANT to ham it up for the new camera or not, but they were just having such a fun time that we had to take some photos. This camera is SO fast - finally, we can take shots of the boys while they're moving and they don't come out totally blurry! In addition to that, the boys have been acting very "brotherly" lately. I mean, they've always picked fights with each other ;) but lately they love playing together, they'll follow each other into rooms, try out new things together.... they're really becoming FRIENDS. It is truly amazing to watch.

The boys playing on their ride-on toys in the gorgeous spring weather...
....until, of course, "someone" had to tailgate, get distracted, and cause an accident. ;)
Gabriel counting dandelions.
Judah is one VAIN baby boy. He enjoys nothing more than checking himself out in the mirror for a while.

How YOU Doin'?
Who is that handsome devil?

From a distance is one thing, but.... Judah's not too sure about what to do when this thing gets too close.

He's not really sure if he likes this camera thing...

Nope. Definitely not.
A change of scenery can work wonders.

Phew! That was TIRING! (And I would like to take the opportunity to yet again be shallow and say that this was a $3 outfit from the Mom 2 Mom sale. I now return you to your regularly scheduled blog.)
One of Gabe's favorite hobbies - jumping on the bed.

One of Levi's favorite hobbies. Ugh. Any advice on what to do about this?

Levi tripped over the edge of the church parking lot. It would have been a nasty fall if he hadn't broken it with his face. [rolls eyes] He's still pretty scratched up, but thankfully no cuts were all that deep.

Don't worry though - he's not gonna let a few scrapes keep him down!

Judah has been doing push-ups like this since he was about 5 weeks old. He's nuts, I tell you.
Eminem Minis! ;) I don't know why, but I just love little track suits on him. ([coughs] $3 [coughs] ) I didn't like them with the older boys, but now I think they're adorable!
And finally, a few short videos. (Don't forget to pause the music!)

This was one of the first days of Judah giggling. He has a few very short, very quiet giggles in here, so you may have to listen more than normal. Especially since Shane and I are so excited about the giggling that we're talking over each other (and him) in our annoyingly high-pitched baby voices.

And this is Gabriel answering the first few of his "Children's Basic Catechism questions."

[Captioning for the autism-impaired]
Me: Gabriel, who made all things?
Gabe: God.
Me: Why did God make all things?
Gabe: For his glory.
Me: That's right, and what does the Bible teach us?
Gabe: How to love God!
Me: MmmHmm, and where is God?
Gabe: Everywhere!
Me: Good boy, buddy!
[insane stimming ensues]

I hope you enjoyed the insane amount of photos!

Just a quick update!

2008-05-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been meaning to update recently, but please don't take my lack of updates for lack of activity! We used our tax refund to buy a new professional camera (a Sony A300, if anyone cares - this thing is AWESOME!) and we've been taking SOOOO many pictures with it recently that I just don't have to time to go through them all! I'll try to MAKE the time, soon, though!

The purchase of our camera happened to coincide with two old clients calling me within a few days of each other, telling me that they'd had another child and wanting me to take photos for them. With everyone going on at once, at the same time as we were praying for direction on whether or not I should start up my photography business again, we've decided to go for it! Frankly, not only could we use the money, but I had fun doing the photos for my friends. It was great to have something to do as an "adult" that doesn't involved a whiny voice voice saying "Moooooooommmmmy......" It may not bring in too much money, but that's actually sort of how I like it. I started doing it because I was looking into professional photographers and they were all SO expensive - $400 to $500 just for a session and then $4 a photo on top of that? I wanted to do something to help average people get nice photos affordably... and even though it may not bring in a lot of cash for us, seeing that people really do appreciate the photos makes me happy. :D

Anyways, we've got some REALLY cute pictures that I should post, and hopefully I'll find the time in the next few days! In the meantime, Judah has just started to giggle (oh so cute, although sometimes he kind of sounds like he's choking), Gabriel's therapist who was going to quit in September to go to school has decided to keep working with us part-time (and stated it was only because she couldn't bear to say goodbye to Gabe, lol), we're hammering out a fall therapy schedule, and we've made some major advances with funding so that we no longer have to supply the money upfront (apparently having three kids qualifies us for some in-house funding program - ie, they pay all the bills directly, no questions asked)....

Alright, I'll take a breathe as the run-on sentence was leaving me rather winded.

Okay, here we go again.

Levi is finally starting to understand that whining won't get him what he wants and is learning to (occasionally) ask politely, we're getting our trailer ready to go camping soon (which is actually a lot of work - you need to buy a LOT of stuff for a trailer!), we've booked TONS of time at campsites this summer, we did our taxes (The Disability tax credit is an amazing thing) and are now looking at finally finishign the siding on our living room - it spent the whole winter just being tyveced (yeah, I just turned tyvec into a verb), which means we'll probably need to do that over again as well.

[sigh]

So, how's that for a high-speed update?

Judah babbling

2008-04-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

Judah has been cooing for a week or two now. I finally managed to get it on camera - normally when I pull out the camera he gets so distracted by the big shiny thing that he stops talking altogether. I just love his little baby babbles. And when he grins, his smile gets so big that it doesn't even look like a smile anymore - it's just a big huge open mouth. You'll see what I mean.

At long last.

2008-04-21T12:18:00.001-07:00

Our long overdue photos of the Maple Syrup festival!

When we got to the festival, we had to take a hayride in from our parking spot. The boys loved looking at the tractor from a distance, but when we actually rode into town the ride was a little jarring and Gabe got upset. I comforted him by telling him "It's okay Gabriel... we're going to the festival! We're almost at the festival!" He responded by telling me, "Mommy, I don't want a testicle."

um..... not much Mommy can do about that, sweetie.

The crowds there were INSANE. This was in the early afternoon, which according to the local newspaper, was when the crowds were starting to "thin out". Imagine trying to get through this with a double stroller.

Facing north on the main drag...

Facing south.

Levi after a nice warm lunch.

You know, it takes a man truly confident of his masculinity to walk around in a crowd of people wearing a black & gold satin baby carrier.

Gabriel, now very much liking the "testicle". ;)

Gabe Jumpin'. (n' Bouncin')

There was a family of Amish girls ranging from about two through their mid-teens who just LOVED Judah. The stared at us and eventually ended up at the back of a hayride in front of our van as we were leaving. The littlest girl was still trying to see if she could see Judah through our van's front window.

And finally, on our arrival at home... Gabriel, the pseudo-teen.

Too much happening!

2008-04-20T20:13:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a while since I updated this. Life has been more than a little crazy!

Last week Monday we bought a tent trailer! We'd been considering it for a while, but every time we found one that we thought we might like, it would already have been sold by the time we expressed any interest in it (even if that was only a few hours after the ad had been posted). On Monday the boys were showing no interest in the computer (thanks to a few videos games Gabe got from my parents & Roy&Ann for his belated birthday party the day before), so I was able to check kijiji with no interruption... and happened to find an AMAZING deal that had been listed not five minutes earlier. We emailed him right away and bought it that night! :D This trailer is PERFECT. We didn't think we could afford a unit with everything we wanted (and we still stretched our budget more than we should have, though we only paid about half of what it's worth), but we got a trailer that is pretty much brand new, though twelve years old. It was owned by an older guy and has only been used three times in it's entire life before. It's pretty much brand new! It's got a fridge, stove, heater, Add-a-Room, and nicer cabinets than our kitchen at home. (Sadly for our kitchen.)

On Saturday we took the chance to "sell" the trailer to the boys. We set it up (there were a good many awed looks as they watched a little box transform into a "house"), played their favorite board games in it, made some Lego creatures, and ate french fries. By the end of the afternoon they were quite convinced that the trailer is the greatest thing since sliced bread. And so we spent the night after bedtime booking up some campsites over the summer.

I think this will go over really well. Since the weather has gotten nicer the boys are LOVING playing outside. We've set up a swing in out yard, along with one of the feeble imitations of a basketball net that Little Tikes makes. Even with just those two things, the boys have no interest in playing inside anymore. At all. I can only imagine how they'll be when we're at a campground with a full playground and beach.

Well, our budget is feeling stretched after booking all those campsites and buying the trailer (not to mention filling it!), but I honestly think that this is the right thing for our family to do. I think the boys will just THRIVE this summer, and I can't wait to see the changes this sort of activity brings out in them!

Unfortunately, no pictures as of yet. We may set up the trailer again next weekend, and if we do you can bet I'll take pictures this time! :D

The pouter and the maniac.

2008-04-11T06:18:00.001-07:00

Ever since Gabriel's birthday, Levi had been a little confused. He thinks that because Gabriel's answer to the question "How old are you?" has changed, his must have, too. Up until then he knew quite well that he was two years old. Now, though, he's been anything from 1 to five lately.... except two. As a matter of fact, he seems to find the concept that he might still be two quite amusing.

This was Judah's reaction to Levi. When Levi was holding up fingers and counting, Judah thought it was all very interesting.
But when Levi started his maniacal laughter, Judah got a little scared...

Also, I have some photos from the Elmira Maple Syrup festival that I'd LOVe to post... but Levi spilled something on our USB cable and we can no longer remove pictures from our point & shoot camera to the computer. In addition to that, our expensive SLR camera is now broken... it can still take photos, but it shuts off after about a minute of use and takes a few minutes to turn back on, and the screen is broken. We have to decide if it's worth it to invest in another one or not, or if we should use that money to buy a tent trailer. [sigh] I love taking photos, so camera problems bug me.

The Riverside boys.

2008-04-09T12:44:00.001-07:00

At our church recently there's been, to say the least, a baby boom. Judah was the middle baby of three boys born within three weeks (and a baby girl born shortly thereafter who was too young for her parents to be able to come for these photos). A few weekends ago I got together with the other parents and did photos of the babies. I'm still working on the shots of the individual babies and families, but thought I'd share with you some of the photos that we got of the three boys together.

Birthday (Redux!)

2008-04-03T12:11:00.000-07:00

Well, Gabe's birthday has come and gone and, as you saw, he got a MagnaDoodle. But his favorite present was one we weren't sure would work out... KerPlunk! It's supposed to be a great game for kids with autism, but it's listed in the "autism" books as being appropriate for the 7-9 age range. Gabe doesn't quite get that the objective is to NOT get the marbles, or that he can only take one stick out at a time, but he still LOVES the game.

The face he makes as he's preparing himself to hear a lot of marbles fall.

The face he makes when the marbles actually DO fall.

He was loving that he gets to blow out more candles!

Waiting for us to start singing (and for Daddy to realize he forgot two candles... oops! IN our defense, this WAS about the 200th candle-blowing ceremony of the day).

Blowing out the candles!

Very proud of himself.

As you can see... Gabriel likes blowing out his candles. And Levi LOVED singing Happy Birthday. If you've never seen him "stim" before... let's just say you'll get the chance now. The excitement combined with the flickering light of the candles just set him right off. Oh, and don't forget to pause the music so you can listen to the videos.

This is Gabe's recap of his day. I was SO surprised at what he had to say - I thought he'd tell us all about his presents and the marbles, etc. Instead he told us about getting to play with Josalyn (his therapist) and getting the computer (we've cut back on it for him - he now gets it just as a reward for telling us when he has to use the potty, or on special days like his birthday). But what really made me SO happy was that one of the most memorable parts of his day was that he thanked God for everything he got to do. :D I love my little man SO much.

Guess all that therapy is working!

2008-04-02T10:21:00.000-07:00

Today is Gabe's FOURTH birthday! How in the world did he get so OLD so FAST?!

I'm sure I'll have more pictures, but in case I don't get time tonight I wanted to post this before I forget. Gabriel LOVES having people sing Happy Birthday and then getting to blow out candles. Especially the blowing out candles part. This morning before Shane left for work I think we sang & blew out the candles three times, and after he left at least three more. Since we all have strep throat right now it was getting a little painful to keep singing (which is why, in the video, you'll see that I try to ignore him when he asks for "Happy Birthday" - sorry, budd, Mommy would sound like a frog in pain if she tried to sing anymore), I decided to bring him back to our room to play with his new present, A MagnaDoodle DoodlePro. He LOVED it when he first opened (still does) so I figured it might be distracting enough to make him stop thinking about cake, singing Happy Birthday, and blowing out candles. Apparently not. For an autistic child to come up with this idea, implement it himself and then pretend his way through it is just.... wow. I'm glad I got it on camera or his therapists might not believe me! (Oh - to hear, the video properly, you'll need to press pause on the music player, or both the audio from the clip and the songs will play at the same time.)

Gabe also is quite clearly getting the concept of presents. He didn't care at all at his last birthday. At Christmas he knew what presents were but didn't really care too much about getting them. Today, though.... oh, he gets it. He gets it a LOT. There's a few more presents around here that we'll open tonight when Shane is home, and every time he sees one he'll grab my hand, drag me over, and say "Mommy. may I have present, please?" I'll tell him he can have the present when Daddy comes home and he'll whine "Mommy, may I have present NOW, please?!"

How can a child be simultaneously so whiny and so polite?

Alrighty, I'm off to go hide those presents, lest the boys decide they're tempting enough to try scaling the bookcase for.

Since you asked...

2008-03-29T20:24:00.001-07:00

Alright, alright, and mostly since I found myself keeping it open all day to listen to music, too, I added a few more songs.

[Warning - if you've never heard the song "Homesick" before and you've ever lost someone you love, have a box of tissues handy. Come to think of it, I've heard it lots of times before and I still make a few puddles. ;) ]

Do you hear what I hear?

2008-03-28T19:18:00.000-07:00

Yes, that would be music! :D Unless you've suddenly lost your hearing (or, I suppose, have no speakers on your computer) you'll likely notice that I figured out how to add music to our blog! The playlist is on the right if anyone wants to check it out. Odds are no one will be sticking around here for long enough to get through the first song, but hey, if you wanna listen to some good music (in my humble opinion), feel free to click on any of the songs listed and it'll stop the current song and start the new one. My absolutely favorite is the second song - East to West. If you haven't heard it and you've got a few minutes, give it a listen! :D And let me know what you think of the songs!

And if anyone wants to add music to their blog but doesn't know how (like I didn't 12 hours ago), just click on "create a playlist" and go from there - if you get stuck, shoot me an email!

Elementary, my dear Watson.

2008-03-27T20:11:00.000-07:00

We have quite the mystery on our hands. Let's title it, "The Case of the Mysteriously Disappearing Easter Egg Toys."

In our Easter Egg hunt on Saturday, the boys each got an Egg with Silly Putty in it. Sparkly Silly Putty, to be more specific. They LOVED it! They were pulling it apart, rolling it, etc. And suddenly, the eggs could be found, but the Silly Putty was GONE. Nowhere to be found. Gabe was asking for it and seemed upset that it was missing. Levi just seemed irritable about not only the Silly Putty, but everything in general. Then I realized that not only was the Silly Putty missing, but more of their Easter toys. We'd bought some of those "put this pill in water and in five minutes you'll have a farm animal cut out of sponge!" toys to put in their eggs as well. We bought two package of "magically" growing animals - one package of farm animals, one of sea animals. All of the farm animals were accounted for, but when we wanted to throw the sea animals into water and watch them grow, about half of them were also missing, nowhere to be found.

As of this morning, there's another mystery. So, our three-fold mystery can be summarized as follows:
1- What happened to the glitter silly putty?
2- What happened to the magic growing sea animals pills? and
3- Why does Levi's poop sparkle and have a texture much like that of several mis-shapen sponges?

The evolution of a Dancing master.

2008-03-24T20:10:00.000-07:00

I took a new video of Levi dancing today - he was grooving to "Kids in America", which was playing while I fed Judah. Undoubtedly one of the most annoying songs ever, at least when heard ad nauseum like Levi was requesting during this nursing session, but he was having a blast and wasn't hurting anyone, so how could I say no?

As I was uploading the video I saw just how many videos we have of Levi dancing. And so I decided to post them all, just for the fun of it, with the new one at the end. I'm sure there will be many more dancing videos over the years... I should probably put him in lessons soon.

Age 15 months.

18 months (ish)

2 years

Today

The one without the photos

2008-03-24T19:52:00.000-07:00

Things have been crazy here these past two weeks. Rather than do one huge long post I decided to divide it up into two - one with photos, for those of you who are only here to say "oh, look at the cute little baby!" and one without if you actually care to read about what's going on over here. ;)

Blogging is rather difficult now. As I type this, Judah is screaming away in his room. He's really a very pleasant baby, as long as you give him exactly what he wants the second wants it. That's not asking too much, right? [sigh]. For the most part he's actually really good, but in the evenings (when I normally blog), you can NOT put him down. If you hold him and pay attention to him, he's the sweetest baby, but if you dare to do something as cruel as, say, put him in the swing.... you'll be hearing about it. On the plus side, he's now sleeping for two five hour stretches at night, so the sleep situation is improving.

Judah's baptism was last Sunday! Sorry, no photos of that, we forgot our camera. I'm taking some photos this weekend so we'll put him back in his outfit for a few photos then. It went really well! Levi sat with my Mom, Gabe sat with Shane's Mom, and overall they both did really well through the service! My sister held Judah and he was just a sweetheart (because, after all, he was being held and getting attention). Everything went off without a hitch. That is, with the exception of the fact that, unbeknownst to me, while our family was standing at the front of the church for the actual baptism, Gabriel has his hands down his pants and was playing with himself the whole time.

You know, maybe it's better that we forgot the camera.

Our church doesn't have special holiday church services, but we did have a Worship evening (AKA Jubilate) on Good Friday. It was a wonderful service (to say nothing of the plethora of fattening desserts that followed), and the boys had a great time. They just drank in the singing. There was no babysit, so Judah came in with us, which made Levi SO thrilled. He just loves his baby brother. Every time a song would end, Levi would grin and just be SO joyful. He'd come over every time and give Judah a hug and a kiss on his head. Towards the end of the service, Judah got hungry and I tried to feed him discreetly under a blanket... unfortunately, after a particularly joyful song, Levi was feeling VERY happy and decided to lift the blanket waaay up so he could get under there and hug his baby brother.

Evidently, my boys are rather lacking in discretion. Thankfully in this case I was able to see it coming and keep that blanket down!

And finally, Gabriel's new afternoon therapist started this week! Gabe just loves her already. She works really well with him and he's already started to speed through his programs at break-neck speed. Let's pray that he can keep up this progress! :D

Aside from all that, we had a wonderful long weekend. I wish there were something more we could do to make Easter an important holiday in the boy's lives. As far as religious celebrations go, Easter really should be the most important, and yet it feels like everything we do to celebrate it falls so short of what I'd like. We had the Jubilate, and we did an Easter egg hunt (just for fun, no religious reasons behind it), and it seems like so much is lacking. For all it's flaws, Catholicism may have a great idea in having a holy week. Next year I'd really love to take more time over the week to impress upon the boys what this really means, in a way that can get the message through to young children who may not really understand the Easter story itself yet. And even children who CAN understand the story can always have it impressed upon them in other ways. I can't seem to think of any traditions that I'd like to start that would be helpful, though. Does anyone have anything they do that they really value and feel is useful for their families?

I hope you all had a blessed Easter weekend, with all the sorrows and joys that are inherent in such a celebration.

The one with the photos

2008-03-24T18:29:00.000-07:00

Judah has started smiling! Unfortunately, he doesn't smile often (he's taking his sweet time getting a hang of this - either that or I'm not very fun), or for very long, so all of the pictures we have of him smiling are either blurry from whipping the camera out and trying to get a shot too quickly, or before he really breaks out into a grin. So, for your viewing pleasure, here are a few blurry, non-grinning photos (until we manage to brush up on our photography skills).

Here's a video where we caught a short, teeny-tiny smile on camera. The video is about ten seconds long and the smile is only in the first second or two, so feel free to turn it off after that. ;)

This year we did an Easter egg hunt with the boys. Our upstairs apartment is currently vacant - I hope God sends us a great new tenant by April 1st, the rental money makes a HUGE difference - so we did the hunt up there. Granted, there are a lot more hiding places down here with all our furniture, etc, but that also means that eggs are likely to get forgotten, which leads to things like melted chocolate destroying a $40 educational/therapeutic toy that happened to be in the same box as a long-lost egg. Herego, we hid them upstairs, in plain sight. The boys (all of them, even Judah!) thought it was a TON of fun!Levi opening an egg - unlike Gabe, he couldn't collect them and then open them all at once. He got so excited he had to open them right where he found them. This meant that as he was opening them, Gabe kept gathering, so Gabe ended up with about 80% of the eggs. Not that Levi noticed.

Gabriel opening his eggs (with a little help).

So that Gabriel wouldn't get confused between his emptied eggs and his full ones, Shane had Gabe put the emptied one in a separate pile. The first time through, Shane told him "You opened it! Okay, now put it over there." From that point on, every time Gabe would open an egg he'd say ""I opened it! Okay, now put it over here." He's so methodical about that... once you tell him to do something a specific way, he sees it as the "right" way to do it, and can't handle doing it any other way.
Gabriel's not a big fan of sugar. He gave all his sweets to Levi (and a few to Shane).

Judah intensely watching the festivities.

The boys eventually ended up helping us "give" their eggs to Judah once they'd removed their contents.
Judah absolutely LOVES Gabriel. If Gabe is in the room, Judah will just stare at him. He's more taken with Gabe than anything else, seemingly - he'll even stop nursing if Gabe comes close. That is why, in all of these photos of Judah, his head is craned off to the side like this.

Gabe's (post-candy) stash. Since we knew he didn't like candy, most of the eggs contained little toys anyways.

Levi got into the camera again. While uploading pictures we found these, taken of some of Levi's favorite things.

His favorite food (a picture of it from starfall.com, a learn-to-read website. Highly recommend it to give you some time to do laundry and help your kids learn to read, by the way).
His favorite computer game (apparently they left the Mommy-approved starfall site while I was busy folding said laundry).

His favorite big brother. ;)

We took the boys to the movies for the first time! We went to see Horton Hears a Who, and aside from a few scary/loud moments, the boys loved it. Well, the movie they LIKED... what they LOVED was the theatre seats. A big, comfy chair that folds you up in it while you're sitting there and tries to "eat" you (according to Levi). What could be more fun?

And, just a few more random photos of my boys! This is Judah just before the Jubilate on Good Friday, just looking cute and waiting for us to get out the door.

This baby seems to carry all his baby fat in either his cheeks or his chin.

And finally, my cool little dude. He used to HATE wearing glasses, but since he's discovered that being "cool" is a good thing, he's a little more keen on the idea.

From lack to surplus

2008-03-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

This week has been an eventful one! We got the call that Gabriel's turn has come up on the waitlist for full funding for behavioural therapy! Wooohoooo! This was rather unexpected. When we first were put on the waitlist we were told, both by the government and by other parents, that the wait was about 3 years. It's two months shy of 2 years since Gabriel got his diagnosis, so this is SUCH a blessing for us! He currently gets two sessions a week (with an extra session every other week) which we pay for ourselves. This funding will cover him for SEVEN sessions a week. We'll be more than tripling his therapy. This comes at a great time for him (and us). He's just reached the stage that he doesn't need a nap in the afternoons anymore, and I've been completely exhausted trying to keep up with him now being awake in that time, which fills the time where I would normally do my housework. Alright, alright, where I normally SHOULD do my housework but instead go on facebook, my Mommy board, and occasionally grab a nap. We decided that his new extra therapy could be done in this afternoon time while Levi and Judah (okay, and myself) are napping so that he can get as much therapy as possible without cutting into his time with his family at all.

Generally, this would be a problem. Therapists are fully booked and usually have extensive waitlists. The government is willing to provide you with a therapist, but you have to agree to work with their agencies, which are known to be much less willing to work with parents requests. Given that we prefer to work our faith (eg, Bible stories, and occasional religious lessons) into his therapy whenever possible, we wanted to find our own therapist rather than use their agency. We called Gabriel's program supervisor (ie, head therapist) and asked her opinion. As it turns out, a young woman who's just graduating from a brand-new specialty program in autism in Toronto has been training with her for the past year, and the family that she was supposed to work with every afternoon had just informed her that they would be moving away. And so, a fully trained therapist suddenly had instant openings every afternoon, but since she hasn't graduated yet did not yet have a waitlist. We arranged a meeting with her on Friday night and Gabriel already seems to like her, which for Gabriel is a BIG deal.

God really does have some amazing plans for us, doesn't he? Talk about his thoughts being higher than our thoughts... a week ago I couldn't have imagined writing this post. :D

That only downside of this is that, by providing our own therapists rather than using the government agencies, we need to pre-pay each quarter. Meaning, we pay them out of pocket and are reimbursed at the end of each three month period. Unfortunately, coming up with close to $10K (yeah, that's how much the cover every three months - insane, isn't it?) every three months can get you a LOT of interest charges. Thank goodness we used our huge disability tax refund a few months ago to pay off all our debt... looks like we'll need that line of credit again!

And now, to cap off my celebratory mood, here are some new photos of me and Judah that Shane took tonight... he's turning into SUCH a cuddly little man!

All those pictures were a little exhausting...

The swing of things.

2008-03-03T20:01:00.000-08:00

I can't believe Judah is two weeks old already. Time FLIES! There has got to be some way to freeze time so that he'll stay little for just a while longer. He' s growing FAR too fast for my liking. I'm actually dreading our next appointment, simply because I don't want to find out how much he weighs now. And before I forget, his baptism has been set for March 16th during the evening service (6pm). If anyone is interested in coming, shoot me an email (or a comment) and I can send you directions.

This week has been a busy one. I think we've managed to adapt our life at home pretty well now that there's three kids at home, but I won't pretend that the boys aren't watching more TV than is good for them. Each day gets a little easier, though, and I'm able to spend a bit more time actually playing with Gabe & Levi and getting things done around the house. As of Thursday, though, our meals from church are finished, so I'll have to figure out a way to get back to making supper on top of everything else. I think the laundry that's currently sitting on our floor may just have a permanent home there.

And, because you KNOW I can't resist taking pictures, here are some new ones!

Jillian was baptised last Sunday. While I have a whole bunch of pictures of various people holding her, etc, in this one you can actually see her face and how she's grown (and, of course, her favorite cousin).
This Sunday, we went over to Mom and Dad's house for lunch. Both the babies made the rounds, of course. ;) This is Judah spending some quality time with Uncle Roy, ie, eating his finger. Unfortunately about two seconds after Shane took this picture, Judah decided to puke all over Roy's nice new black shirt.

I took this today. He's finally starting to have more awake time during the days! For most of the first two weeks of his life he had only two modes - eating and sleeping. Now he's getting some awake time and I just love how he stares at us like this.

This is Gabriel's first ever ACTUAL painting. To clarify - he's painted before, but he's never actually painted, well, something. Usually he just throws paint onto the paper and laughs. A few days ago he started trying to paint circles, triangles, squares, and on one memorable occasion, a rhombus. His words, not mine. How he knows what a rhombus looks like is beyond me, but evidently he does. Anyways, this time around, he started to draw a triangle, but after making the top two sides, he stopped, looked at he paper and said "a ROOF!" He then proceeded to draw the bottom of the house and tell us that he made a house. I asked him what a house is made of and he told me "A roof... walls... a window [pauses, paints a window]... a door [ pauses, paints a door], and a chimney! [paints a chimney]" THEN he draws a line underneath it all to be the grass. And then, completely without prompting, he gets green paint and starts smooshing it around in circles to the right of the house. He looks at us and tells us "I see a tree!" Oh my goodness, now he's even getting creative! And THEN he goes on to paint a sun on the other side of the house! Yes, that IS supposed to be a sun. ;) I know this may not seem like a huge deal to most parents, but for an autistic child to want to make art, and to come up with these ideas all on their own is just..... It's huge. As in, I should probably be prepared to catch his therapists when they faint kind of huge. So here it is - Gabriel's masterpiece.

And finally - on Saturday night, we were all getting a little stir crazy. It was fifteen minutes to bedtime and the boys still had energy to burn. We'd all been cooped up all day. And so, like any reasonable parents, we decided that bedtime is a strictly man-made number that can be thrown out the window in favour of a trip to ChuckECheese. The boys has a blast! Our budget... not so much. Regardless, they slept well that night, as we all had fun. We got our photo taken at one of those "turn your instant photo into a fake sketch" booths while we were playing there. And by "we", I mean that we somehow managed to get the four of us (Judah wouldn't fit without taking him out of his carseat and waking him up) into a teeny tiny little both to get out photo taken, sit still for twenty seconds in our appropriate places, only to have Gabe throw himself off of Shane's lap into the middle of the picture just as the flash went off. Therefore, the photo of "us" became a photo of Gabe, the bottom half of Shane, one half of Levi, and no Mommy. Ah, the memories this will bring back someday.
I hope you've all had a great week, too! :D God has blessed us so richly these past days, and I can't help but hope and pray that all of the people who care enough about us to read this blog can have some small measure of the joy we've had here.

A "few" more photos

2008-02-23T09:33:00.000-08:00

My apologies to those of you on dial-up! How can a Mom resist taking so many photos of a baby this cute?

[alright, admittedly... my newborn baby, like most newborn babies, probably most closely resembles what would happen if you crossed a grumpy old man with a russet potato. And, in Judah's case, a smurf. HOWEVER, to a Mommy's eyes, a newborn baby could not possibly be more adorable.]

Judah just after he was born. He got stuck for about 4 hours with his face getting pushed sideways instead of the top of his head getting pushed downwards - hence the fact the his entire face is blue. It's just one gigantic bruise. Having the cord wrapped around his neck didn't help any, either.
Tuesday morning, and the bruising is almost entirely gone already.

Yes, I know it's just gas, but let's make me happy and pretend he's actually smiling for me, okay? ;)

Levi meets Judah on Tuesday night when we finally get to come home. He LOVED him - for about five minutes until the novelty wore off. He still loves to "help" with him though, by doing things like shoving a soother into his mouth and throwing his favorite toys at him.

Judah was a little jaundiced, so we put him under the bili lights. AKA, Shane's fish tank.

This is my favorite photo - not necessarily because it's the cutest, but IMHO it's captures the best how he actually looks most of the time.

Gabriel trying to figure out what Mommy thinks is so great about this new "toy".

Gabriel doesn't show interest in Judah too often, but when he does he's REALLY excited and sweet.

Last night I took Judah out with me while I went shopping. Jillian's baptism is coming up tomorrow night and I desperately need some clothes that, well, fit. My maternity clothes are far too big, and I'm a size or two smaller now than I was before this pregnancy, so everything is just about to fall off. Which, though it may be humorously (or more likely, horrifically) entertaining, is not necessarily appropriate for my niece's baptism. It's the end of February, however, and apparently no one needs winter clothes anymore. And you know what, I understand that. I can't help but roll my eyes, however, and the store I went to that already had their SPRING stuff on clearance, because apparently it's time for the SUMMER merchandise to be coming out now. Riiiight. So, given that it is literally impossible to find winter clothes in my size anymore, I'll either be wearing some of my old clothes that have been gussied up with a ton of safety pins, or I'll just be cold. Really really cold.

Aside from that, I came across an interesting phenomenon. I've heard of people making rude, silly, or off-the-wall comments to pregnant women and new mothers, but I've never actually had it happen to myself. And yesterday, the exact same thing happened three times in a row! Now, normally I'd think if something weird happens three times in a row I must be setting myself up for it somehow... but how in the world a person could set themselves up for a comment this mindless, I do not know.

Judah was in his infant carrier with a BundleMe bag. For those of you who don't know what that is, here you go. http://www.jjcoleusa.com/obm.php ) While walking from the van to the store I would cover his face briefly and then uncover it as soon as we got inside. In three different stores when I did this (uncovered him), someone nearby would look over and exclaim with a tone of complete shock,"Oh, look, there's a BABY in there!"

Um... yes. Yes there is. You were expecting maybe a kitten? A slice of pizza, perhaps?

Maybe I'll brave the crowds of crazies today to look at one or two more stores and see if I can find anything... Wish me luck, or you may see me wearing tshirts and shorts for the next few weeks.

Judah Andrew VanDyk

2008-02-17T20:07:00.000-08:00

Judah was born this afternoon at 3:52.
He kinda took a beating as the 12 long hours of owies turned into a very quick exit
He's 8lb 3 oz - 22.5" long.

A photo update

2008-02-09T20:29:00.001-08:00

There is nothing else going on around here to update on, so I thought I'd take a few minutes to post updated photos of what we've been doing around the house these past few months. And by nothing else I mean... nothing else. No contractions, no Braxton Hicks, not even any "okay, these last few weeks of pregnancy totally SUCK!" type pain. Why is it that the second we get everything ready to for me to have this baby, everything stops stone cold? After all those pre term labour scares I will, of course, end up going overdue. God needs to give me these reminders every once in a while that he's in control here, not me. ;)

These are the boys new bunk beds. They've adjusted REALLY well to them, and I just think they're so cool. I always wanted a bunk bed as a kid. :D (The pieces under the bed are from Gabe's old toddler bed - we're trying to decide if we should keep it or sell it.)

Gabe's new therapy area, in the corner at the foot of the bed. He just started having his therapy here instead of in the baby room this week, and his therapist says he's actually doing much better in here. For some reason he seems to be able to concentrate better in the smaller space.

And finally, here's that cradle that I posted waaaay back when we bought it at an auction. It was in rough shape, but Shane sanded it down and painted it black, and here's what it looks like now. :D We're not sure how much we'll be using the cradle or if we'll mostly use the crib instead, but I just LOVE this cradle as a beautiful piece of furniture regardless.

While I was taking that photo of the cradle, Gabe was trying to play hide and seek with me behind the curtain in the window seat. Normally as soon as the camera comes out he gets shy and rather stoic, but he didn't seem to care this time, so I took a short video. It's not very often that he can be caught giggling on camera, so I thought I'd post it here for those of you who don't get to see him play in real life.

The world at 3 feet

2008-02-06T20:09:00.000-08:00

Levi has always wondered what it is that we're doing when we use the camera. So, this week, we let him try to figure out exactly what's going with weird square plastic thing.

This, my friends, is the world through the eyes of a 2 year old.

Concrete evidence that my husband does NOT take his shoes off before walking on my mother's carpet.
Because really, having a head was always overrated, right?
This is your first glimpse of the new baby's room. Ain't it beautiful?
I think I'd best leave this one without comment, for the sake of my marriage.
We call this piece of art, "Reflections on Constrained Fruit." Also known as "Mommy, get my an orange out of the box, please!"
SO glad my floors were relatively clean that day (more about that later). And somehow Levi's fingers were clean, too! Wow, I was on the ball that day!

Aside from Levi's artistic exploits, his week has been INSANE. We've had appointments and meetings like crazy. Gabriel is now resuming both speech and occupational therapy through KidsAbility in Cambridge - he's had the last four months off and is now "on-block" again. He also had his bi-monthly assessment with his supervisory behavioural therapist this morning, and she's very pleased with his progress (not to mention downright shocked at his potty training). We were supposed to have Bible study here tonight, but it was cancelled, courtesy of the ice storm. However, that leaves us with a clean house and lots of fattening foods, which we've now frozen and saved up for post-baby company. And naturally, now that I've posted that, everyone will be wanting to visit as soon as possible post-baby before all the good stuff is gone. And that's fine by me- just bring a meal and a housekeeper with you. ;) (Just kidding of course. About the meal.)

On that note, the midwives have confirmed the this baby is indeed dropped and ready to go! Shortly after getting that news, Shane came home from work, sick with the lovely bug that the boys and I had this weekend. He informed that this would be a very inconvenient time for me to go into labour for him. Well, gee, honey, I'll try to work my insufferable pain around your schedule. That being said, he wasn't too concerned that I'd be going in to labour anytime soon. According to him, I hadn't had that burst of energy and completely insane cleaning spree that I always go on just before I have a baby. At this point he proceeded to sleep for 15 hours straight while I cared for and fed the children, put them to bed, packed our hospital bag and their overnight bags, washed and folded two loads of laundry, organized the baby bedroom, went out to pick up a present for Jillian, scrubbed our floors, did our dishes, baked some food for Bible study, and hung some curtains.

Shane woke up for work the next morning quite groggy. He mumbled as he got out of bed that he felt much better, but still hoped I'd hold off another day or two. As he stepped into the dining room and saw what the house now looked like, he simply looked back at me and said [and I quote]

"Oh, crap."

Ah, the affirmation of a supportive husband.

Nonetheless, as it's now two days later and my ribcage is still being used for kickboxing practice, my heartburn is still extending from my kneecaps to my ears, and I still cannot see my feet, it appears that I have indeed been the loving wife who will accommodate her husband's intense work schedule into her labour plans. Because that's just the sort of generous, giving person I am.

Alright, stop laughing now.

Now that everything is ready to go, let's hope that my next post has even more cute baby pictures! Preferably taken by someone OTHER than Levi. ;)

Introducing.... someone else's kid!

2008-02-06T19:57:00.000-08:00

This was GOING to just be called "introducing....", but Shane pointed out that such a thread title may give many of you the wrong idea about what happened this week. ;) Herego, I feel the need to clarify that this my new NIECE! :D Welcome, Jillian Brenna! :D

She is just the sweetest, most alert little baby EVER! I don't think I've EVER seen a baby so young be so attentive to her surroundings. I am BEYOND excited to hold my own little baby now. Come on out, little bean, Mommy wants to meet you! (Not to mention the fact that I'm getting REAAAAAALLY sick of this heartburn.)

Gabriel really didn't seem to care much about the baby. It was all we could do to get him to hold still for one picture, and then he was back to playing with his toys. I'm not sure if I should HOPE that he leaves his brother alone this easily, or hope that he shows a bit more interest.
Levi, on the other hand, thinks babies are the best thing ever. Next to the alphabet and maybe pizza, of course.

Kissing cousins?!?!? Oh my.

It sounded so simple....

2008-02-03T11:54:00.000-08:00

All we had to do was stock up on basic groceries so that when the baby comes we have food. That's it. So last night, we headed out to Price Chopper to do just that.

Why are the simplest things SO hard when you have kids?

I got the feeling right from the beginning that something was off. Levi was being, well, obedient. It's just a sad fact that Levi is NEVER obedient. However much I may want to convince myself that maybe our discipline is finally bearing some fruit, it simple doesn't seem to possible for Levi to be obedient without a greater underlaying cause. Last night he just so sweet and GOOD in the store. He didn't whine when I refused to pick him, he was happy to stay by my side and hold my hand, he went where I told him, he was asking for things very politely and not throwing tantrums if I refused to get a box of cookies... yeah, that's right. Levi didn't throw a tantrum when I told him no. If that's not the biggest red flag in the world, I don't know what is.

At one point, Levi asked for a hug. So I bent down and gave him a squeeze and noticed that something just smelled... off. I told Shane that I thought Levi might be coming down with a touch of something. His breath just didn't smell right. In an effort to hurry our trip, Shane went to the freeze section with Gabe to pick up a few things while I went through the aisles.

Two aisles later, Levi yet again asked for a hug. I bent down, held my arms out to him, and about .35 seconds later was completely covered in puke. Oh it was lovely. Right from my shoulder down my shirt and on to my pants. Levi, of course, is also just dripping in puke, and wants nothing more than to have a great big comforting hug from Mommy, so to complete the pukey package he threw him barf-covered against me and started crying. Wonderful. Clean up on Aisle Seven, please!

So us, the puke covered mother/son team, walked boldly through the store and to the cash register that has the key for the washroom. Just what everyone wants to see when they're grocery shopping, right? In the washroom, I was able to clean Levi up pretty well. He was wearing his waterproof winter coat at the time, so everything cleaned up nicely. Myself, on the other hand, was a wreck. The puke just would NOT come off my shirt. In the end, I had to take off my shirt, wash it in the sink, wring it out as much as possible, and put it back on. The pants I just gave up on after a few minutes and decided the patch of puke on my knee would jsut be a mother's badge of honour.

While Levi and I were getting cleaned up, Shane and Gabe went through the checkouts and were waiting for us at the exit. As I approach them, I notice that something smells funny. Yup, it is possible to be covered in puke and notice that someone ELSE smells funny. As we start to leave, I also notice that Gabe is walking as though he's just gotten off a horse after riding for the first time. Oh, that child is beyond poopy. Since the washroom at Price Chopper were in the process of being cleaned, for some odd reason, Shane ran Gabe next door to Wendys to use the washrooms there while I loaded up the van. But naturally, this couldn't be an ordinary poop. Oh no, it had to be the explosive, up the back and down the leg type of poop. Especially wonderful since we'd left our diaper bag with the spare diapers and clothes at home. You know, since we were just going on a short, simple shopping trip.

Shane clean up Gabriel as best he can, but in the end without any wipes or spare clothes, he had no choice but to put a still slightly poopy Gabriel back in his still-poopy pants with NO diaper, and put a blanket under him to keep his carseat from getting ruined.

If only we'd had that foresight with Levi.

On the way home, Levi naturally throws up again, this time managed to get it UNDER his jacket and his shirt, and yet all over his carseat at the same time.

Upon our arrival at home, both the boys got hosed off and the dumped into the bath. Thankfully, the bath seemed to help them both feel a little better, if only temporarily. In the meantime, Shane had to take Levi's carseat out of the van and work some magic to get off the carseat cover. Why oh why do carseat manufacturers seem to be oblivious to the fact that carseats DO get puked and pooped on? Poor Shane literally had to take apart the carseat in order to get the cover off. As in "Honey, can you find me a Phillips screwdriver so I can pull the plastic off the back and unscrew that...." [at this point I get lost, but apparently unscrewing parts of the carseat was necessary]. Once that was done, we did one HUGE load of laundry. With extra rinse. And then we did it again.

After that, Gabriel decided to graduate to throwing up as well. In the end, we were up about every half hour with at least one of the children puking or pooping out of their diapers. Finally, FINALLY, they managed to fall asleep for the night at about 1:30/2ish. I'm a little fizzy on the time, since at that point I started throwing up myself. Realistically, there's only so much puke a person can get covered in before you KNOW you're going to get sick, too.

Unfortunately, the puking of course lead to me having more contractions, which lead to me totally freaking out. Even if we WERE ready to have this baby (which, after Shane's hard work yesterday morning & afternoon, we almost are!), I do NOT relish the thought of going through labour while having the flu. Doesn't that sound doubly fun?

Thankfully, with a lot of rest (read - being lazy and staying in bed while Shane took care of two sick boys), the contractions have stopped and I'm feeling way better. Now, let's get completely past this flu bug so that I can be HAPPY when the contractions start up again!

Oh, and.... in the midst of my puking and contracting this morning, I get the phone call that my sister has had her baby! Wooohoooo, Jenn! :D I'll wait to post the name until she's been able to spread the news herself a little - don't want to steal her thunder! :D But I am SO excited for her!

On that note, I hope you've all had a lovely-smelling, puke-free week, and that it stays that way! :D

One month in...

2008-01-27T20:45:00.000-08:00

And I think this might be working! Gabe hasn't had an "accident" in more than a week now! He's finally figured out that yes, poop actually DOES belong in the potty, and it's a whole lot easier to just get it over with.

I don't think I've ever heard of an autistic child (let alone a BOY) being potty trained inside of a month. Gabe is such a trooper. Or a pooper. Or both. Regardless, I'm not wiping crap off my floors anymore, so I'm happy.

Tomorrow night we turn in our forms (and our cheque) to officially enroll Gabe at LHCS (www.lhcs.ws) next year. I can't believe I'm actually enrolling one of my children in SCHOOL. Holy cow, that pretty much officially makes me a grown-up, doesn't it? Yes, I recognize that I officially became a grown-up a loooong time ago, but it still amazes when the evidence smacks me in the face. Particularly when the evidence is in the form of a gigantic cheque coming out of my account. Regardless, this is going to be weird. I remember my first day of kindergarten (and Shane CERTAINLY remembers his, what with him clinging to the table leg at home screaming and begging not to have to go - that would stick out in anyone's memory, I'm sure), and it's just plain WEIRD that my baby boy is about to experience it. Weird, weird, weird.

I hope everyone had a blessed weekend! As it is now 11:55 pm and I haven't yet gotten a phone call, I think I can safely say that my sister was NOT blessed with baby #3 this weekend, and is now officially, what, 3 days overdue? MUAHAHAHAHA! SUCKA!

Oh, I am so gonna pay for that. For making that comment I'm sure I'll go at least a week over.

A late Sunday

2008-01-24T20:57:00.000-08:00

On Sunday afternoon and evening, we went to visit Roy and Ann at their place. The boys had a BLAST! Jumping on a waterbed is apparently quite an exciting challenge. And let's not forget the joys of a big-screen TV with complementary Wii games. You would not believe how well Levi can use a nunchuk, it's scarily impressive. Gabriel loved watching the games, but after seeing Levi beat up another character in a boxing match, he seemed scared to try it himself. He loved bowling, though.

Aside from that, the greatest entertainment of the night for them was running their self-made obstacle course. Roy & Ann have two couches back to back - one faces their fireplace, the other faces the TV. The boys would climb up one, over the top, and launch themselves on to the other. Check out how static-y Levi's hair would get.

Over we go!

Running the circuit. (No, there's nothing wrong with your speakers, this video has no sound.)

Gabriel's been falling asleep while sucking on his top lip for some reason, You can see here that he now has a swollen area over that lip, from it getting dried out. :( Doesn't he look so OLD, too? How did this happen?

Shane sat on the couch, right in the middle of their circuit. So of course, the only natural thing to do was for them to launch themselves right over Daddy's head.

Tired little man. I still can't believe that I have such a beautiful little boy.

This is what happens when you keep two children running until 11 pm.
Thanks for having us over, guys! :D

Vanity, vanity...

2008-01-24T20:18:00.000-08:00

While doing some reorganizing this week, Shane moved a mirror out of storage temporarily and propped it up against the wall in our kitchen. (And yes, it was in storage, so it's REALLY dirty.) Every other mirror in our house is at adult height, and I guess we never realized how little the boys actually see of themselves. Gabriel didn't really care too much, since he hates to make eye contact with anyone, even himself. Levi, on the other hand, was quite thrilled to play with that bee-you-tee-ful child in the mirror.

Trying to give himself a hug.

When he couldn't hug himself he tried to figure out how he could get to that boy.

Giving himself ten.

Practicing his favorite facial expressions to see what they actually look like.

Self-confidence is one thing, being in love with yourself is another.

Trying out more expressions.

Since the video is a little dark, I'll tell you what he's doing so you can look for it. First, he puckers up for himself to see what it looks like. Then, he notices his birthmark and pulls his shirt down to try to see it better. Then, he kisses himself (of course, he's irresistible). Then, he sits against the mirror and looks over his shoulder at himself. I'm not sure if he's trying to see himself from different angles or if he thought he might catch that boy in the mirror by surprise. ;)

We FOUND it!

2008-01-19T16:32:00.000-08:00

I am SO thrilled! We finally had our meeting at the Christian school in Kitchener this week, and I am just so relieved. After visiting the Christian school in Cambridge and doing tours of the public schools in the area (since our meetings at Kitchener got put off for various reasons I was being proactive, lol), I was getting worried that we wouldn't be able to find a school that would meet Gabe's needs.

But this school literally feels like a God-send. The classes are small, they're able to get great resources for Gabe, they have lots of experience with autism, they have good resources to dedicate to him, and most importantly they have a strong Biblical foundation that they very noticeable work into every single aspect of school life. Not only that, but they charge the same tuition as other Christian schools in the area but have access to far more help with tuition and grants than other schools, and somehow seem to make much more efficient use of the funds they DO have.

I am so impressed and relieved. We've found a school for Gabe (and all our other kids in the long run) that I can have confidence in.

Now to find the money for it.

For the Bible tells me so.

2008-01-19T16:23:00.000-08:00

While researching Christian schools and education, etc, this week, we've started building some Bible verses into our daily routines. And by "some" I mean "one". That being "Children, obey your parents, for this pleases God." And yup, that's a paraphrase of a Bible verse, because teaching them the actual verse would be pointless since they wouldn't understand it.

However, we're quickly realizing that we're using this verse when disciplining them for disobeying us. Not that there's anything wrong with that in and of itself, but it becomes evident pretty quickly that the only time our children are being learning this stuff is when they're being punished. The LAST thing I want is for them to get the idea that Bible verses are punishment and that they should only think about what God wants when they've done something wrong. So now, we're trying to use this verse as praise when they obey us willingly as well.

That being said, this is one verse. And however much I want my children to learn that God wants them to obey, I also want them to learn other things, like how God wants them to treat others, how God wants us to praise Him, etc. So, can anyone help me out here? I'm looking for appropriate Bible verses to use in situations like:
-hitting another child/each other
-praise for sharing willingly, and rebuke for NOT sharing
-encouragement to sing along with hymns
-praise for praying happily
-discouragement from whining and tantrums
etc, etc.

Does anyone have any helpful verses for me? I'm having problems finding things that can be phrased succinctly enough for a two year old to be able to understand and memorize them.

My head is spinning.

2008-01-15T20:20:00.000-08:00

What a week! Appointments, cancelled appointments, illnesses, lack of illnesses, nope-we-were-just-faking-you-out-the-illness-is-back-again, and of course, the requisite poop on the floor.

Gabe is now almost totally potty trained as far as pee goes. He had one accident today, but I can't hold it against him - poor guy is sick and just couldn't move fast enough to get to the potty. But he's started actually - and I can't believe it myself - just walking to the potty on his own, pulling down his pants, putting the potty seat on the toilet, sitting down, peeing, pulling his pants back on, turning the taps on, washing his hands, and drying them. Without asking for help. He's doing it all on his own! As a matter of fact, he gets annoyed when you TRY to help him! I still have to remind him to go every once in a while, but for the most part he does it all on his own now.

Poop, on the other hand.... not so much so. I'll leave it at that. We now have the mother of all poop stories to share, but I don't feel like reliving that particular memory right now as I'm not sure my stomach can handle even the though of it. ;)

Everyone in this house (except for me) has strep throat right now. Levi was cranky all last week, and was running a slight fever on and off, but never seemed to be in pain. On Sunday he seemed to be back to his normal self - until Sunday night's church service when he just sort of turned into a rag doll. On Monday he was so obviously in pain that I was practically stalking the doctor's office via phone waiting for them to open. The doc looked in his throat for about 1/2 a second before saying he had strep. And of course, that night, both Gabe and Shane started complaining about their sore throats. of course, Gabe's complaining consisted mainly of coughing, then whimpering and saying "ow!" while trying not to cry. My goodness, if that doesn't tear up a mother's heart I don't know what does.

Despite all the sickness, Levi still manages to be his usual impertinent self. While in the waiting room of the doctor's office he somehow manged to get up the energy to push his brother away from the toys. I pulled Levi aside, gave him his lecture, disciplined him, and made him say 'sorry' to Gabriel and hug him. I then asked him if was going to obey Mommy. He turned towards me, looked me right in the eye with a smirk on his face, and replied...

"NOPE!"

and then tried to run in the opposite direction.

Hmmmm. That might not be the best way to challenge your Mom, sweetie. Now go sit in the corner.

I do, however, feel much guilt for the poor old lady in the waiting room who witnessed all of this. Not because she had to see my child's misbehaviour, but because the poor woman obviously she lung problems, and she started laughing so hard at Levi's response to me that she was literally gasping for air. You know, if he wasn't so darn cute and lovable when he does these things, people would think he's a nightmare, but for some reason as it is, people in doctor's offices and the grocery store seem to think it's just darn funny. Makes it hard to take discipline seriously and teach your child that he's done something wrong when everyone around him is laughing and smiling at him. But MAN is it hard to keep a straight face sometimes!

Oh, there is so much more I could post about this past week, but I'm in desperate need of sleep if I'm going to keep fighting off this strep virus. I hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

Two days and counting!

2008-01-06T20:21:00.000-08:00

It's been two days with NO accidents! Well, no accidents on Gabe's part, at least. WARNING - frank poop talk ahead! I can't believe I'm blogging so much about poop.

Yesterday I unfortunately missed Gabriel's complaining for help to go to the potty - I was helping Levi and couldn't hear him. He was too uncomfortable (since he REALLY had to go) to maneuvre himself on to the toilet without my help, so the poor kid ended up pooping in his pants while right in front of the potty. :( He felt horrible and was crying, but since it was obvious that he TRIED to use the toilet we rewarded him and told him over and over again that he'd done just the right thing. And today, he did it over again and actually pooped on the potty for the first time! On top of that, he hasn't peed anywhere other than the potty since Wednesday night - not even when he's wearing a diaper! We went out shopping for four hours Friday night for which he wore a diaper, and he came home totally dry. We went to the VanDyk family party on Saturday, he went to the toilet there (without even a potty seat!) and came home dry. We went to church twice today, he wore a diaper both times and STILL came home dry! I am SO proud of him, not to mention absolutely amazed that he's doing so well! I can't wait to see his supervisory therapist and tell her, she'll be shocked.

Oddly, his turning point seems to have been when we STOPPED rewarding him for using the potty. One night we told him that it was time to go to the potty, and that if he went pee on the potty he'd get a cookie. He said, and I quote, "I don't want a cookie. I want first pee on the potty, and then computer please!" (translation - If I go pee on the potty, you'd better reward me with more than a cookie - I want Daddy off the computer so I can play on it myself.) Well, obviously if he could go pee on the potty for the computer, he's perfectly able to control himself and do it if he wants to. So we decided that this was becoming a matter of character development for him, not just about learning to control when he goes to the potty. And so we decided to get rid of structured rewards altogether. From that point on, we put him on the potty every few hours, when we knew he'd have to pee, and just waited until he went. No promises of big rewards for doing it. We want him to learn to glean his own rewards simply from accomplishing things. Somehow, someway we have to teach him to do the right thing as a way of serving God.. but how exactly to get that across to an autistic three year old with respect to potty training is beyond me.

Anyways, basically we decided to go our own route, completely different from everything any therapist would recommend, and make this about building character rather than building a skillset. And it would seem that so far that God is blessing that choice. Not only is he not having accidents, but he's proud of himself and seems to be much more complaint overall. Gabriel is just such an amazing child, I could not be more proud of him. Then again, I've said that before and then he goes and does something to make me prouder.

New year, new photos!

2008-01-02T20:30:00.000-08:00

Because I just haven't posted enough photos in the last few days!

New Years Day was awesome. Just plain awesome. We started the day off by being parents of the year and letting Gabe stay in a diaper and play computer, letting Levi watch a movie, and letting ourselves sleep until we were scared to look at the clock and see what time it actually was. Once we actually woke up enough to look around, the whole world was blanketed in a tick layer of fluffy, sticky snow. No cars had yet driven by, no snowplows... everything looked so still and serene. What a beautiful day. When we finally got up and got showed and dressed we decided to make ourselves a nice big brunch of bacon and eggs, although I'm pretty sure that "brunch" was later than lunch usually is. Ah, vacation days. Soon after we all ate brunch/lunch together, the boys headed off for their afternoon nap (since a morning of watching TV and playing computer is understandably exhausting), and Shane and I read books, looked for ways to waste money on Ebay, and in general found great ways to waste time. Somehow in there we got some laundry and dishes done, too. I feel a little cheated about that, actually. Why exactly did I feel the need to ruin a perfectly useless day by actually ACCOMPLISHING something? I spent so long perfecting my laziness technique as a teenager, and now it's gone. [sigh]

After the boys woke up from their nap, we bundled them up in their winter gear and decided to take them for a walk through our winter wonderland of a neighbourhood. I just LOVE this area in winter. It feels like I live in the midst of a whole bunch of huge gingerbread houses or something. We took our camera with us to catch some photos before all the snow melted, so here are a few to share with you.

We could have gone for a winter drive instead, but the cars were really snowed in. ;)
Gabriel kept saying "Be careful, Mommy, it's slippery! I want Mommy's hand please!" He is so sweet sometimes.

Some of the houses (and snow-covered trees) on our street. We also took a lot of pictures of evergreen trees covered in snow for Shane to use for ideas when he paints the frozen part of Narnia in the next few weeks.

Down by the river, two blocks away.

Out neighbour's bonsai tree.

The tree in our front yard.

I tried to get a good shot of Shane dragging Lev in the toboggan, but Levi was only happy when it was moving, which meant it had a continual cloud of snow around it. I did, however, get this short video. You may want to turn the volume waaaay up so you can hear the boys laughing and Levi telling Shane to "ready set go!"

More winter fun!

2008-01-02T10:47:00.001-08:00

I meant to put these up last night but Blogger was loading photos soooo sssllllllloooooowwwwwwllllllyyyyyy..... so I just went to bed. I'm dedicated that way. So, for your amusement, here are some random photos that show, in my opinion, a pretty accurate view of exactly what life is like in this house on a day-to-day basis.

One day Levi decided he wanted to get dressed up as if we were going outside. Now, he didn't actually want to play outside. I tried to put his coat and boots on and he freaked out. He just wanted to dress up and watch OTHER kids play outside through our window.
Potty time!

An old 80s hand held game system. (A NeoGeo, if anyone other than Shane knows what that is.) For some odd reason he doesn't mind sitting on the potty for long periods of time anymore.

The problem with this system is that just when he has to pee, something will happen in the game that makes him excited or tense, and he suddenly can't pee anymore. Every once in a while he'll look down, totally confused, as if saying "Where did the pee go?"

Subtitles for the preschooler-impaired.
Gabriel, what did you do?
I went pee on the potty!
That's right, you're such a big boy. Do you like being a big boy?
YES!
Yes, me too, good boy.
[Note - no, I have no idea why I said that I liked being a big boy. For the record, I would NOT like to be spontaneously turned into a big boy who knows how to go pee on the potty, although I suppose that would be an improvement over being turned into a big boy who DIDN'T know how to go pee on the potty. I'm just trying to be an encouraging mom, cut me some slack.]

We had some foam left over from moving in Shane's fish tank. We cut the leftover foam into "swords" for the boys, and they had a blast!

Gabe gets in a shot as Levi tries to climb to higher ground.

BRING IT ON!

Gabriel is sick of sword fighting. He's completely unconcerned with it in any way. Levi, on the other hand....

and yes, we would have stopped him if Gabe had seemed upset by it. ;)

Flying high! :D

I have no idea what he's trying to accomplish here. He gets himself into the weirdest positions sometimes and then just laughs his head off.

Levi's turn!

Levi reading his favorite book! He loves to read, especially anything to do with animals. You can have a cookie on me if you know what book this is. ;)

Overdue Christmas photos!

2008-01-01T21:03:00.001-08:00

First off, my apologies to the VanDyk family - I forgot to ask permission to post the kid's photos on my blog. That being said, there weren't a whole lot of photos of the kids anyways since Shane accidentally left the camera in the van, but I feel bad that there's so many of my family and none of the VanDyk get together. I do have one video that has the boy's cousin/Shane's nephew in it... I hope their parents don't mind his video being posted here since I didn't ask permission, so if I pull it down later don't be too surprised at the missing video space!

My family's Christmas Eve celebration.

Shane and Emma. I think even HE'S glad to have an excuse to buy cute little girl's clothes every once in a while. ;)
Me and my huge belly. Is it possible to feel any bigger?

Yes. Yes it is. (Don't kill me, Jenn. [ducks and runs for cover])
My Brother in law Ken. He's either very drunk, very silly, or very constipated. I think I'm happiest without knowing the answer.

See, THIS is what happens when holiday dinners don't get served on time.

Studious Gabriel, looking about as serious as it's possible to be when reading a book called "Elmo's Play Day".

Elise and Emma didn't believe us when we told them that bubbles were made with soap. We told them to catch them on their tongues and see if they tasted like soap. I suppose it says something that neither of them had to question what soap would taste like.

The inevitable happened - the girls went for the same bubble and ended up licking each other's tongues. I'm guessing this reaction was more for the accidental kiss then for the taste of the bubble (which they did indeed confirm was "soapy..... eeeeeewwwwwww").

Levi was incredulous at the first present he opened.... his very own (pretend, but don't tell him that) REMOTE. He just stared in shock. Oh, and in case you're wondering, the lack of shirt is because having a lot of excited people with a lot of warm food in a small room is a little hot. Check out his cheeks.

Gabriel opening his first present. It took him a few to get into the hang of it, he seemed to think he might get in trouble for ripping the paper.

The present - Perfection! I don't know how much more perfect of a present you can get for an autistic child than a puzzle games with 25 different shapes to sort through that springs up at you when you're least expecting it. Gabe's certainly in love with it!

And Levi is still not letting that remote out of his sight.

Finally, a way to make girls who love pink AND their Daddy (and uncles!) happy!

Levi gets his present from Oma!

And after that point things just got too crazy to keep taking pictures!

Here's the short video of Levi and Kenny! Shane's Mom got them a new VSmile for Christmas, and it has (tada!) Kiddie Karaoke. The boys love it, but I'm kind of wishing the VSmile came with earplugs as an accessory.

A year in Review

2008-01-01T17:10:00.000-08:00

New Year's is kind of a trumped-up holiday, isn't it? I mean, the number on the calendar changes back to a one. Again. The last number of the year changes, and you spend the next three months dating cheques wrong. Sounds like cause for celebration to me! Bring on the alcohol! Oh wait, I'm pregnant. Okay, um.... bring on the virgin daiquiris!

Aside from the fact that I appreciate that the government gives us a holiday for no real reason on New Year's Day, it makes any easy time for reflection. Not because I spend the day actually reflecting on the past year (I'm a stay at home mom, vacation days are used for things like cooking, cleaning, and all the other stuff I do every day whether it's a vacation or not), but because for some reason it's easy to remember what life was like at this point last year. Ask me what life was like on March 12th and I couldn't tell you, but I CAN tell you what was happening on January 1st.

Last year at this time Gabriel was saying one word at a time. One word. If he wanted a cookie, he'd say "cookie." Now he's graduated to "Mommy, may I have a cookie, please?" Granted, he's still pretty much got a terminal case of the gimmees, but at least the linguistics surrounding it have improved. He was starting to recognize his letters and definitely recognized his numbers up to ten. Now he knows his numbers up to 100 and is reading simple words. He's starting to work on potty training (though he's still had one accident per day every day since Saturday), and a year ago that was just wishful thinking.

At this time last year, we were worried that something might be wrong with Levi. He wasn't talking as much as we'd have liked. We were wondering what to do if he had autism, too. Today, we know he doesn't have autism. He's just plain insane. This child is something else. maybe it's just that Gabriel is so withdrawn into himself and difficult to pull out, but Levi's personality is so overwhelming somedays that it practically oozes out of him. Oh no, wait.... that's just another dirty diaper. His speech hasn't come as far as we'd thought it would since he doesn't have autism, and for that I'm actually grateful. The words he does know he uses to full, annoying effect. Continually. This child is his own non-sensical narrator.

It is January 1 2008, and I am hugely pregnant. Annoyingly, heartburningly, hip-poppingly, get-me-chocolate-this-second-and-nobody-gets hurt-ingly pregnant. On January 1, 2007 I was about as not pregnant as it was possible to be. The painful, ache in the pit of your stomach, why in the world is this happening to me kind of not pregnant. The get-me-chocolate-this-second-and-nobody-gets hurt kind of not pregnant. What can I say, chocolate heals a myriad of evils. Sometimes it seems the only difference between this year and last year is that my stomach is much larger, and something is trying to ribcage in half. I have no new answers about what happened to our babies. No profound, life-altering reason for their death that makes our loss easier to deal with. Except perhaps that I've learned that there doesn't HAVE to be a profound, life-altering reason for everything. At least, that reason doesn't have to be explained to me. God is good. Too wise to be mistaken, too good to be unkind, right? God doesn't need to justify himself to me, and sometimes it's best for me to have to learn to trust him. So often I need to understand everything, reason everything out, and I suppose in my own mind I make myself God. If I don't understand something or agree with it, or want it, or can't justify it, than it must be wrong. It has been humbling to have something happen to us for which I cannot account. Leaning not on your own understanding is a whole lot more difficult than it sounds. And I daresay that, unfortunately for myself, I'll need to be taught that lesson over and over again throughout my life. It's not easy to give up that control and put yourself in God's hands.

A year ago our living room hadn't yet imploded in the great mold-fest of 2007.

A year ago, my husband was a wonderful man who loved his wife, his children, and his fish. But MAN did he ever strike me as an overgrown little boy sometimes. Meh, not everything can change, right?

And on that note, I'll be putting up a bunch of posts tonight. I think I'm long overdue with my Christmas pictures, so I'll divide up my posts into different events so things are easier for you to find (and for me to keep straight!)

I hope you've all had a great day off work and gotten some time to relax! :D

Random insanity

2007-12-29T10:28:00.000-08:00

Life in this house is so randomly funny (and sweet) that sometimes I just don't think to put the little details on here. So, while I have a moment, I'll just share a few things that pop into my mind that have happened in the past few days.

Gabriel and Levi were playing a video game they got for Christmas from Uncle Roy & Aunt Ann. Levi was trying to play it but couldn't figure out the controls, and the following conversation happened.
Levi: "Help, please!"
Gabriel : runs over, Levi hands him the controller, Gabriel starts playing.
Levi: "Thank you!"
Gabriel: "You're Welcome!"
Levi: "I want my turn, please!"
Gabriel- Passes controller back and says "Thank you!"
Levi: You're welcome!
Gabriel, two minutes later when Levi wins the level : "Thank you!"
Levi: "You're welcome! Wooohooo, we did it!"
Gabriel: "Good boy!"
Levi : "I'm a good boy!"

Who ever would have thought that MY children could be so polite? They say please and thank you and you're welcome so much that they lose track of who's supposed to say what and when!

-----

When I was having contractions the other night, I asked Shane to pack a hospital bag in case we had to go in. He didn't quite understand why I would need a bag for a quick trip to the hospital. I pointing out to him that if I did end up going in, I'd likely be there for at least a few days if not a few weeks for them to make sure this baby didn't come until it was ready, and that if the baby WERE to be born at this point it would likely be in the NICU for a month at least. Plus, at this stage I would still likely have been transferred to McMaster in Hamilton, so we couldn't jsut pop back home if we needed something.

He hasn't realized until then exactly how serious this might be, and the fact that he was somewhat shocked and a little befuddled at the time became obvious when I unpacked yesterday. He had packed
-2 pairs of pants for himself
-2 shirts for himself. That is, thin summer t-shirts with holes in them that came out of the hamper.
-5 pairs of underwear for himself. 1 for me.
-4 shirts for me.
-1 pair of non-maternity pants.
-an umbrella. (Think about that for a second. An umbrella, IN the suitcase.)
-one toothbrush.
-a box that used to hold a tube of toothpaste, toothpaste removed and sitting on our bathroom counter.
-a Bible.
-a diaper, Pampers, size 7.

and, finally...

-a tankini for me.

That would have been some hospital visit.

------
Gabriel is not yet telling us when he has to go pee. At least, not intentionally. We sit him on the potty about every hour, and more often if he seems to need it. Yesterday was the first time he ever used his words to tell us about the potty, whether he meant to or not. He walked into the room holding himself, doing his "special" dance, looked straight at us and said "No thank you, I don't want to sit on the potty, I want computer please!" Riiiiiiight. That's gonna happen. Thanks for letting us know, now let's drag you to the potty.

On that note, I should take Gabe to the potty. I hope you're all having a great weekend!

Helloooooo down there!

2007-12-28T18:03:00.000-08:00

Well, the contractions have stayed away and I'm feeling pretty much back up to par aside from being REALLY tired, but the lay of the land has changed a little bit. By which I mean, holy cow I think this baby is about to fall out. I don't know if any of my kids have ever dropped so far so fast. My clothes are certainly fitting differently now. What was comfortable three days ago is decidedly uncomfortable today. Hmmm... does that sound like a good excuse to go shopping to anyone else?

Gabriel's potty training is going very well! He hasn't peed his pants in three days now! :D Aside from bedtime, that is, when he gets a diaper to wear. Pooping, though, is a different matter. Normally he goes first thing in the morning before he gets out of bed, when he's still wearing a diaper, but for the past two days he's gone in his pants in the afternoon. He doesn't seem to understand how to control it. Actually, he seems almost terrified about pooping on the potty. Anyone have any advice on what worked for them to get them through this?

And for our house - progress is being made! YES! As I type this, Shane is working on airbrushing the Narnian landscape! :D Tonight and tomorrow we'll be doing our background - green fields, blue/gray mountains, dark green background that we'll paint forests over, some clouds in the sky fading to night on one side of the room, the ocean, etc. Then we'll spend nights over the next few weeks painting details like characters (which we'll actually just use decal paper for mostly), the lamppost, castles, landmarks, etc. I can't wait to see how this turns out! :D Can you tell I'm excited?

SOO not ready for this

2007-12-27T07:33:00.000-08:00

Here we go again. I was feeling a bit "off" yesterday, and... well, let's just say that the toilet and I spent some time getting reacquainted. Blech. It seems as though my body just can't handle being both sick and pregnant at the same time, because every time I catch anything, off I go having contractions again. Last night was pretty scary, though. They were starting to get pretty strong and not too far apart, so we called up Shane's parents and warned them that we might need them overnight. I took the advice from the midwives from the last time this happened and took a bath, got some Tylenol, and tried to relax. Eventually the contractions went away, but I had them for a good 12 hours at least. So today I am taking it easy and hoping that they don't come back. The flu seems to have been a 24 hour bug, so if I can stay healthy, I might be in the clear. I had no idea my body responded this way to being sick. Then again, I've never been this far pregnant during cold and flu season before.

Aside from that, Gabriel went all day yesterday without an accident! He only went to the potty twice out of the approximately 15 times we took him, but still, he never once peed himself. And first thing this morning he went pee again, so things are looking good for today as well! Let's hope he can keep going like this! :D

Hope you're all having a great week and that you've been spared this nasty bug. It seems to be making the rounds.

To pee or not to pee

2007-12-25T19:28:00.000-08:00

Oh my. What a week this has been so far.

Sunday was... wet. Wet and stinky. By the time Shane got home from church on Sunday morning, I had already done a load of laundry (though admittedly it was 3/4 ready to go anyways) and had started a second. Pee is annoyingly pervasive that way. All of Gabe's behavioural therapists have told us to ONLY use positive reinforcement when potty training. Not to discipline them for peeing themselves by accident, but to reward them like crazy when they do well.

In theory, that sounds lovely. In reality, nothing about this potty training thing is lovely. Gabriel is perfectly able to control himself. Sometimes we doubt that, but when he pees on the floor right in front of you while smirking, simply out of spite, it's pretty obvious. And so now, when he pees in his pants instead of on the potty, he gets punished. But MAN is this a lot of work! We have to sit right beside him, non-stop, because if he wants to pee and we're not there for him to ask to go to potty, he'll go right on the floor rather than come find us. And if he pees on the floor and we're not there, we can't discipline him right away, so by the time we find out five minutes later, he has no idea what it is he's being disciplined for. So this has turned into a full-time job of sitting with Gabe, waiting for pee and taking him to the potty every hour or so.

HOWEVER, things have gotten better. When we're at home he's going to the potty about 50% of the time now. He doesn't ASK to go to the potty- we convince him to go every hour or so, for a reward. But hey, if we can get him to go to the potty when we take him, he can take his time learning how to recognize when he needs to pee.

Last night at my parents house while wearing a diaper, he didn't use the diaper AT ALL and actually used the potty twice with no issues. Since that went so well, we decided to go to Shane's family's celebration today, thinking that the diaper wasn't causing him any issues. [snorts] riiiiight. Now I get why they said to only do it ONCE. The first time they think it's the exception to the rule. The second time they think you've just gone right back to diapers and have no problem utilizing them. When we got home he went right back to peeing everywhere again. Thankfully, he seemed to get a bit back on track right before bedtime, so hopefully we can continue to progress tomorrow.

So basically, we're being consistent and really hoping SOMETHING sticks (other than the poo stains, that is) by the end of the week.

As for the bunk beds, the boys have adjusted WONDERFULLY. We had them up and assembled in time for their nap on Saturday, and I spent that naptime in their room making sure Levi didn't leave his (lower) bunk. Gabe stayed put in his bed without a complaint. As a matter of fact, he didn't really seem to care much about the change! After that first naptime of being consistently, uh, "reminded" not to leave his bed and play in the room, Levi's been excellent about it. I'm amazed they adjusted so fast! And they absolutely LOVE the new beds.

Shane also moved his new huge aquarium into our living room on Saturday. It's made space a bit tighter, but it's actually not nearly as bad as I'd feared. And I gotta admit, it'll look pretty cool once it's done. Once we get some more work done this week with regards to the tank stand and painting the nursery, I'll put up some photos of the boy's room, nursery, and living room for you all.

I hope everyone has had an amazing Christmas! I have about 30 million pictures I could post, but I think you'd probably all prefer it if I sorted through them all first. The boys have been overloaded on presents... so much so that this morning we held some back and decided to give some to them tomorrow instead. It's just too much, too fast, and they were actually getting upset by it all. Now they have a day to appreciate their presents before getting more and not even being able to take it all in.

This was longer than intended! :D I hope any deBoer family members that are reading this have a blast at the reunion tomorrow. I don't think I'll be able to make it since Gabe seems to depend so much on me for his potty training, but I'll be thinking of you all!

Less than two hours into potty training

2007-12-23T07:18:00.000-08:00

and five pairs of pants down. Ugh, It doesn't seem to bother him in the slightest to be wearing pants that are covered in pee. Now what? [sigh]

The calm before the storm

2007-12-22T05:46:00.000-08:00

As I type this, Gabriel is quietly eating his jam sandwiches for breakfast. In ten minutes, his therapist will be here and the craziness begins! This morning we're taking the boy's respective toddler bed and crib out of their room and setting up bunk beds. The crib will move into the nursery and Gabe's therapy stuff will move into their bedroom, and the toddler bed will likely be thrown out since it's on it's last legs anyways, Then we'll pick up the mattresses so the boys can actually NAP on their new beds. (That is to say, that's what's happens in my daydreams where they don't spend all of their naptime exploring their new bed, ie climbing up and down the ladder and jumping off the top bunk to see how badly they can injure themselves.) While the boys have "naptime" and I'm losing my sanity, Shane will be moving his new fish tank into our living room, and having someone come by to pick up an old one. Since this fish tank is HUGE he'll be backing the truck up to our front door, which will mean taking out two sections of fence and a fence post in addition to rearranging our whole living room so that it can get in. THEN once that gets, in this evening will likely be spent finishing up our Christmas shopping. You know, for the gifts you normally forget about until 5 minutes before the gift exchange? I remembered them three days early this year!

Then begins tomorrow's craziness of our first day of potty training Gabriel. I think I have your sympathy on that one without going into further detail.

After that we have my side of the family's Christmas celebration, our own immediate family's on Christmas morning, Shane's family on Wednesday afternoon (which Gabe and I will be missing because our therapist has directed us to only put him in a diaper once if ever, which will happen at my family's celebration since Shane's family is having another one next week), and probably a good deal of Boxing Week shopping (sans the diaperless wonder) after that.

Speaking of which, if anyone sees a good deal advertised on place settings/stoneware, let me know. Our dishes are getting pretty gross from our hard water and I'd like to buy some new ones for a reasonable price if at all possible.

And now to greet the insanity head on! I hope you all have a weekend that's a good deal more peaceful than ours is sure to be!

White Christmas indeed!

2007-12-19T11:17:00.001-08:00

I don't know if church has ever had a snow day before. That was new for me. In the afternoon during a break between snow squalls we got the boys bundled up and out playing in the snow for a few minutes. Unfortunately it really only was a for few minutes. Both of them have had growth spurts since we got them their snowclothes in the fall, so Levi was in a waaaay too short snowsuit, and Gabe was jsut wearing about 3 or 4 pair of track pants. ;) Knowign the storm was coming, I checked on Saturday EVERYWHERE for snowpants for them, with no luck. Last night, though, Shane and I managed to pick some up for them at Zellers in Waterloo - the only store in the region with ANY snowpants left, and these were the ONLY two not sold yet, and they just happened to be the boys sizes. WOOHOOOO! So tonight we may head out again, since there's still a good 18 inches on the ground in our yard.

Levi atop Mount Everest, AKA the pile where Shane dumped the snow from our driveway. I'm guessing it's about 4 - 4 1/2 feet tall?

Aside from that, our Christmas shopping is pretty much done. I have a little bit left to spend on the person who's name I have for Secret Santa and have NO idea what to buy for them, but I'm sure I'll figure something out. Shopping IS my forte, after all, and trust me, I've been practicing a LOT. ;) Earlier this week I went through the boys toys and donated a bunch to charity. Some of them were big, taking up tons of space, and the boys never really played with them, so getting rid of them (to make room, of course, for the 2.5 million new toys they'll be getting next week) just made sense.

Nest week will be INSANE. On Saturday we're moving the boys into bunk beds (bought the mattress protector,s by the way!) and then as of Sunday we'll be potty training Gabe cold turkey, which should be about as fun as... well, there's really no fitting comparison that comes to mind. But since we'll be potty training him that week, we'll be skipping out on most parties - let's just say Gabe wouldn't make the best houseguest. Ont top of that we'll be trying to get some work done on painting the Narnia mural. But at least things will be getting done before the baby gets here!

The times, they are a changin'

2007-12-15T21:10:00.000-08:00

Well, it had to happen sometime. My boys - my teeny tiny [snort... riiiiight] baby boys are growing up.

Shane spent a large part of last night and today sanding and staining the boys bunk beds. Incidentally, they don't seem to have suffered any damage after Levi's fish tank flood incident. They'll likely still need a second round of sanding and staining (the first coat of stain tends to bring up splinters in the grain, and can be a little uneven), so we're hopeful that if he keeps plugging away at it, they'll be all done, have a few days to dry, and be ready in time to get the boys in it by next weekend. So while Shane spent the day sanding and staining, I went shopping for new twin sized mattresses (thank you, seriously discounted mattresses at Snoozetime, for saving our budget!) and bedding. Shopping for mattresses and bedding for a "big-boy bed" has a way of making it sink in a little that your children are actually growing up. My goodness, my babies are going to be in BUNK BEDS. I was getting a little misty right there right there in the middle of the Linen Warehouse. I'm telling you, these hormones are out control. Since we'll be potty training soon, though, we need to do SOMETHING to protect these poor mattresses. Crib mattresses are made for kids who wet through diapers and puke... these lovely purple and green plaid fabric-covered foam mattresses (let's hope the fitted sheet can successfully hide this fabric, shall we?), not so much. How do we protect these things? Do they sell mattress protectors? Do I just put a shower curtain under their sheets and hope for the best? Someone walk me through this, I have no clue what I'm doing.

Oh, and the nesting is seriously over with. Sort of. I still WANT my house to be clean and organized and it drives me crazy that it's not... but the need for rest is starting to overrule the need for organization. Given that the snow storm will likely have us trapped at home all day tomorrow, I'll probably be happy to do something as useful as laundry or vacuuming. Is it wrong to nest on a Sunday? hmmm....

The forbidden fruit

2007-12-13T20:38:00.000-08:00

Well, we're finally finishing up our Christmas decorating. I remember when I first drove past this house and saw it listed on the market, even just from the outside in it's totally delapitated (hm, that's coming up as a spelling error - how DO you spell that?) state, I was SO excited . I thought "Now THERE is a Christmas house!" I could picture a tree in the window and garlands coming down a staircase, lights everywhere.... We're still nowhere NEAR that picture, but I honestly can't believe how much this house has changed since then! I LOVE Christmas here.

Anyways, back to the decorating. We still have a few small things to pull out and organize, but the main stuff is done. The boys are loving all the extra lights. And balls. Oh, sorry, the "apples". This year we decided to do mostly red & gold ornaments. This is the first year we've really had our dining room finished and can have a "pretty" (albeit still shatter-proof) Christmas tree, so we decided to go with red so it would fit nicely in the room. The boys, however, were quick to point out to us that we had effectively decorated our tree with delicious looking "apples". Wonderful. At least they learned quickly that the ornaments were NOT as yummy as they thought they would be.

The boys helped us put on some finishing touches tonight. I think we'll still make a popcorn garland in the next few days (hm, we seem to be going with a food theme here), but aside from that I think the tree is done.

I love Gabe's smile in the background of this picture. He's always so pleased whenever he can help us with something and feel like he's accomplished something or made us proud.

The finished product!

The garland between our kitchen and living room, This was NOT fun to put up with the boys underfoot. All those dangling fake pine needles are just too tempting.

Oh, the saga that is our second Christmas tree. Last night we wanted more lights to our tree. We ran to Canadian Tire to pick some up, and found that their "blue" line was on sale. According to a sales clerk, this was the name for their more environmentally/energy friendly line. They were VERY cheap, so we picked up a few. However, the clerk neglected to mention that the "blue" line is, well... blue. Obviously didn't work so well on our red and gold tree. So, rather than waste them, we decided, "Hey! Our living room is blue!" And so we decorated our hibiscus. Because, well, why not? Above the hibiscus is where we're putting out Christmas cards this year. I LOOOOOVE getting Christmas cards. :D (hint, hint....)

Just to show you exactly how blue the "Blue" line really is.
So, how about you? Has anyone else waited up until now to decorate? Anyone just not bothering this year?

Edited to add:

Oh, and thanks to Sylvia for this video! You made me and all the other special needs Moms on my Mommy board BAWL! In the best possible way, that is. ;) I wanted to share this video, not to show that people with autism are capable of great things - but just to show how much it can mean just to be given a chance, and to have people who genuinely care about THEM, not just their autism, in their lives. You might have to copy & paste the address, I've had some problems setting up links within a blog post. Sorry!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0z1Y6N8k2c

A quick note! Hey, Deanna!

2007-12-10T18:32:00.000-08:00

I am nesting. I am sooo nesting. Today I

-redid our budget, printed out said budget in a spreadsheet with blank squares for us to keep track of things on our fridge as we buy them, set up a system for our spending money each month, and made notes of what we've already spent so far this month to get us up to date
-folded and put away five loads of laundry
-Went out to Walmart with boys in tow, to buy envelopes so I could
-Address about 70 Christmas cards
-Made up said Christmas cards in photoshop
-Printed said Christmas cards at Zehrs, along with
-making an album of professional photos for my Mom's group (as in, my group of Moms that I go to, not a group that my mother goes to) since they requested I bring along some samples for tomorrow morning's meeting
-set up our new high chair
-set up our new carseat along with a bundle bag
-went to Walmart AGAIN to buy some Christmas decorating items (to help display Christmas cards), and
-picked up some paint and stain at Home Depot, since it's finally hit home exactly how much we have to do before the baby comes.

And yet STILL, I feel like I have SO much more to do that just must get done right away! Up until two days ago I needed a nap every day or I felt like I would fall over... now, my body seems to think that if I nap this baby will be born without a roof over it's head or something.

Which brings me to my reason for this post. DEANNA! Yes, YOU! :D While addressing said Christmas cards I tried to call you for your address. I have your new phone number here... at least it's not your old phone number. But I think I must have written it down incorrectly or something, because I keep getting a message that the number is out of service. If anyone out there knows Deanna's number, or if you're reading this, Dea, can you give me a shout or email me at thevandyks@golden.net , so that I can send you a card?

And now, I must be off. I have return address labels and stamps to stick on! :D

CandyLand - more than just a game

2007-12-08T18:32:00.001-08:00

Yesterday and today were a little crazy... therapy, and more therapy, and Shane taking a trip to Toronto with his Mom for her birthday, and a visit from friends, and.. well, you'll see. First off, I wanted to say to Gerald and Sylvia if you're reading this that it was SO good to see you guys again! It's been way too long! :D

This morning Shane was gone to Toronto with his Mom, and while he was gone I did some "rearranging" in our living room and dining room to make room for the Christmas tree we got this afternoon. Right after he got home we headed out to... CandyLand! I think they've had CandyLand going on in downtown Preston's Central Park (AKA two blocks away) for the past few years, but this is the first year we've taken the boys. And WOW did they have fun! We got pictures of a bunch of things, but unfortunately we were bit busy at the time to take pictures of Levi dancing up on stage with the kid's music group that was playing (I'm telling, it was like a mosh pit for toddlers), or Gabriel stimming to the carousel. Suffice it to say, the boys has a very fun, very TIRING time.

The Gumball Labyrinth. They had one of those huge jawbreakers in here, and you had to try to steer it through the maze into the middle. Gabriel just LOVED playing it (ie, watching Shane play it).

Levi gets in on the action!

BUMPER DONUTS! The concept is pretty much self-explanatory, isn't it? The boys both spent a few minutes staring in awe at these. Levi, however, was a little more bold and decided to jump right in and play. I know there's a few more pictures than necessary of this... but I just love seeing the sheer joy on his face and couldn't NOT post them!

They had a section where the kids could build using ice blocks. Levi was trying SO HARD to lift one on his own (and he did eventually manage it).

Gabriel was being very careful with these. I think he was afraid he might drop one on his foot or something.

I didn't think they could make Willy Wonka any creepier than he is in the movies, and yet somehow they managed it.

Levi with his "candied ice". They froze candies into huge blocks of ice and then had those huge blocks cute into small squares with chainsaws in front of the kids. He LOVED the idea at first... and then became a little perplexed about how exactly he was going to get at that candy. We stopped in our driveway before we loaded the boys up for our next trip and helped him out a little.

Finally! Now how do I get this open?

After CandyLand and the ceremonial Campino-smashing ceremonies, we hopped right into the van to go get a tree! About 5 minutes into the 15 minutes drive, things got strangely quiet...
The boys were NOT impressed when we woke them up at the lot. Levi, fortunately, perked up as soon as he saw our ride out to the back lots...

Gabriel, though, I had to carry across the ice-covered parking lot on the hip that I threw out of joint when I slipped while he was tantruming. At 7 months pregnant. Oh, I'm sure you can guess how thrilled I was at that moment. He was NOT impressed, either, when we got off in knee-deep snow and then walked around in it to find a nice tree. He seemed to be interested in helping Shane trim the trunk a bit, though.
Since it's already the second Saturday in December, the pickings for a tree were a little slim. Ours is admittedly decent enough... But when left we noticed that the pricing for ours (7 1/2 ft tall, to fit in our huge dining room - and it STILL looks small) was actually MORE expensive to cut your own than to buy a pre-cut one of the same size! And the pre-cuts were all gorgeous! Then again, they could have been cut up to three weeks ago and be on their last legs, so I guess I'm more comfortable with this anyways.. but STILL, put the pricing sign so it faces towards the people coming in, not the people leaving! :D

Now the boys, for some strange reason, are sleeping EXTREMELY soundly in their beds. I think we'll need to tire them out like this over the Christmas break, too, when we introduce them to their bunk beds. They'll be less likely to climb out when they're so tired that they can't move.

And finally, just because. My cool little guy.

Merry Christmas, train!

2007-12-05T18:34:00.001-08:00

Tonight we took the boys to go see the Christmas train. While telling the boys that it was called a "Christmas train", someone told Gabriel "Merry Christmas!" while waving at him. Apparently this confused him a little, because he spent the next few minutes looking at the train while occasionally waving to it and saying "Merry Christmas, train!" :D At least he's enjoying himself.

Unfortunately, the camera battery died after taking just one blurry photo. Maybe I should have thought to check that before we left. ;) So here is my singular, lonely, blurry photo. If for some odd reason you can't read it, it says "Canadian Pacific Holiday Train".

Tomorrow is our last preschool, presumably until the new year. We'll be building a snowman with the kids as part of our lesson. And yes, it actually IS to teach them something, albeit in a roundabout for-pete's-sake-you-kids-need-to-burn-your-energy-NOW sort of way. Hopefully the snow will be good enough to build a decent-sized snowman with by then. Plus, tomorrow is Shane's birthday! If you see him tomorrow, wish him a Happy 40th birthday! No, he's not 40, but I'm sure he'd appreciate the humour. Really.

Snow day!

2007-12-03T10:08:00.001-08:00

Is it still considered a snow day if your kids aren't in school and thus don't have anything to take the day off from? It's like "YES! I have to take the day off from having fun to go have fun!" In my humble opinion (stop laughing, Mom, I can be humble. It's true. I used to be conceited, but now I'm perfect.), though, today decidedly qualifies as a snow day for one very good reason.... I am taking the day off. I'm not baking any more cookies, I'm not worrying about the dishes, I'm not worrying the laundry, I'm just playing in the snow with my boys. Of course it takes about two hours worth of work to get the boys to the point that they're ready to get out the door and actually play, but that doesn't count as "work" right? Well, at least it's better than dishes and laundry.

The boys had a TON of fun playing in the snow... when I was there with them. They thought that throwing snowballs and stomping big footprints was the best thing EVER! We were going to make a snowman, but the layer of freezing rain over top of all the snow made it impossible to roll a snowball. Maybe some other snowday, though. (Try not to picture Shane cringing at the though of me taking more time away from dishes and laundry.) After a while, though, I ran inside to grab the camera to take pictures of them having fun. By the time I came back, Levi has somehow managed to get fistfuls of snow down the front of his pants (hm, wonder how that happened), trapped in his gloves, and down his socks. Poor guy was crying his little heart out. Apparently Willy doesn't like being that cold. You'd think that accidentally shoving snow down his pants and thus having poor Willy in pain would teach him to keep his hands out of his pants for more than, oh, 30 seconds, but as soon as we got in the door and got him cleaned up, there he went again. My goodness, are all little boys this bad?

At any rate, here are some photos I took while trying very hard not to laugh at my son's self-inflicted misery.

Levi being quite uncertain as to what exactly went wrong in his fabulous plan, and Gabriel realizing that the snow is sticking to his gloves. By the way, it is HUGE that he willingly kept his gloves on and played in the snow. Getting an autistic child to wear gloves (which inhibits their strongest abilities to meet their sensory needs) is akin to trying to muzzle a lion. Okay, maybe a tame little baby lion, but still. He didn't like it at first, but once he realized it meant that he could throw snow back at Levi, he was actually happy to wear to them! ;) His therapists will be thrilled.

Levi rushing to get back inside while Gabriel tries to stall for more time and see if he can fire off one last snowball.

Is there any hurt that a good chocolate chip cookie can't fix?

Can YOU swim in cookie dough?

2007-12-01T18:40:00.000-08:00

I believe I can, if I have to. Which, apparently, I do.

I had to make 9 dozen cookies for this weeks' cookie exchange. Very handy, as my favorite cookie recipe makes approximately 9 dozen cookies. (I know, it's a LOT of cookies.) Everything seemed like it would go perfectly... until the first batch went south. Our cookie trays are old and just kind of gross, so I sent Shane to the store to pick up some new ones for me while I made the dough. Shane came home with cookie trays, alright... I think he might have gone to Dollarama instead of Zehrs, though. They were the cookie trays that are essentially molded tin foil. They're really thin and good for just a few uses until they basically collapse. If you're lucky at least they don't collapse in the oven.

Since these trays are so thin, the first batch burnt to a crisp on the bottom. It took us a couple more tries to FINALLY get the cooking time and temperature adjusted for these trays. By that point I had far less than 9 dozen cookies, and needed to make a second mix of cookie dough. So, all said and done, we made enough cookie dough for 18 dozen cookies. Thankfully I have another cookie exchange next week where I can get rid of most of them. That is, what Shane doesn't eat in the next three days.

As I type this I am staring at Shane's birthday present. Shane's birthday isn't til Thursday, but this was one of those things that he REALLY wanted soon, so we got it today. I should say more accurately, HE got it today. He picked it out himself, went out and picked it up, paid for it, etc. So essentially it's not so much a birthday present as it is a "Oh, do you want that? Okay, go ahead and get it, but don't feel guilty this time because your birthday is within a week of today." Either way, we're all loving the new 19 inch LCD computer monitor! Woohoo! Shane was getting headaches at night staring at our old smaller screen that would reflect the streetlights back at us, so hopefully this helps him. So, if anyone wants a new/used 17 inch computer monitor in fine shape, feel free to take it off our hands! It's not really worth anything to sell, but it feels silly to throw it away when there's probably someone out there who would appreciate it.

Aside from all that Gabriel had an appointment with his supervisory therapist this week and he seems to be doing quite well! His sensory issues have gone off the charts in the past two weeks, though. Would you believe that it seems to be because of.... his haircut?! He doesn't have hair tickling his neck anymore, or anything covering his ears to dampen sounds, so he is FAR more sensitive to stimulus right now. If you see him in the next few weeks, try to cut him some slack when it comes to hand flapping, fidgeting, and other quirks that seem to make no sense. As his hair starts to grow back in it should get a it better.

Sensory issues aside - he's starting to read now! He still needs help figuring out which vowel sounds to use in a word, but he's gotten the concept of stringing letters together to make a word and thinks it's just the coolest thing in the world. He's still VERY SLOW at it, but I think by Christmas he'll be plugging along nicely. :D We're so proud of our little man!

Levi is starting to talk up a storm - if you can understand a word he says. I would try to type his babble here for you, but I think it would be even harder to understand that way. in his own garbled way, though, he's stringing together sentences a LOT and just gets SO excited when he finally understand what he's trying to tell us.

Sorry, no pictures this week! But, we've got a BIG week coming up - getting our tree next Saturday, Shane's birthday, the Christmas train coming to town, the Christmas carnival just down the street - so hopefully the next few posts will be photo-laden! :D

My future cuddler.

2007-11-25T21:08:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a weekend! :D On Friday night we went out to do some basic shopping (oh, and I picked up the Lord of the Rings on DVD - if anyone out there is interested, the box set of the basic version - no extended/deleted scenes, etc - is on sale at Future Shop right now for $22!) and then put the boys to bed and rented Shrek 3. A funny, gross Shrek movie about snarky people, pregnancy and raising babies... wait, how is that different from my real life? WHY is that a relaxing night for me? Ah, well, it was fun.

On Saturday Shane started the day off with a great birthday present. Ie, I looked at the clock for the first time and it was an insanely late hour of the morning, and my children was already fed, dressed, and being played with. I got out of bed and got big hugs, a sloppy kiss from Levi, and Gabriel said, "Happy Birthday Mommy... I want to blow out candle please!" What more could a girl want?

Not only did I get to sleep in late, but the boys went down at the same time in the afternoon, and I got a nap, too! Seriously, is that one of the signs that you've officially become a Mom? That all I really want for my birthday is sleep, and then more sleep? I get it, and I'm a happy woman.

After that, Shane proceeds to start packing up the boys and tells me that we have to be out of here at 4! So we go out to the van and drop the boys off at his mothers... and he takes me to have a 3D ultrasound of the baby! :D My goodness, I love that man. I didn't really want to see the baby's face (he knew that - I'd mentioned a few weeks ago that often 3D ultrasound face picture kind of creep me up since the babies don't have fat built up yet and are all skin and bones), so he got me the basic ultrasound - in other words, let's see what we're having! :D

It's a BOY! I am SOOO excited! I'm honestly thrilled to be having a another boy. I LOVE my life with the boys now and I can't wait to see what the boys are like with a little brother! :D Since it was just a gender determination ultrasound I don't have any photos to show you, sorry. Well, the tech did give us a confirmation photo of his, er, maleness, but I'm not really feeling the need to show it off here. ;) Trust me, it's a boy, it was rather hard to mistake.

They did, in the course of trying to get the right angle to determine gender, gave us a quick look at what we could see of the face. The baby is squishing his face right into the placenta. For about 2 seconds it turned it's face a little and we got a quick glance at him, and then he went right back to shoving his face in there. I get the feeling this baby is going to be a swaddler/cuddler. They wouldn't take a pic since we didn't pay the extra for facial photos (and they couldn't have made him move again if they tried) but from the brief glimpse we got he seems to looks a LOT like Gabe. He's already got big chubby cheeks and a cute button nose. So much for not having built up fat yet... somehow I should have known that wouldn't apply to my 9-10 pound babies.

And on that note, I hope everyone else had a great weekend as well! :D I feel so blessed right now jsut to share my life with my special men - all of them. ;)

You mean I have to CLEAN?!

2007-11-21T06:16:00.001-08:00

This week is just plain crazy. Monday afternoon I went to the second school on our list ( the one that has no experience with children with autism) to interview them and get a feel for the school. While I think it's a great school in and of itself, I don't think it's for us. I didn't realize that not only do they not have experience with children with autism - they don't have ANY experience wit ha special needs child who needs resources beyond what they own teachers can offer. They've never had a PSW come in, never had a child had therapy at the school, they don't even go in to classes to help students but instead pull them out to help them in the (very tiny) resource room. I don't think that would work in any way for Gabriel. I'm setting up an appointment to go see the school in Kitchener soon. I hope that things work out a bit better there!

Yesterday we had MOPS (my Moms group and the boy's preschool) in the morning. Gabriel freaked out a little but he seemed just fine by the end of it. The teachers were commenting on how smart he was - I think they were working with letters with the kids. That's great for Gabriel - exactly the sort of thing he needs to start feeling comfortable there. Levi was his usual insane self, but in a class full of two year olds I imagine that's to be expected, right? I hope? ;)

Yesterday afternoon I had a midwives appointment, and everything is looking good! :D It amazed me that in between getting the boys ready to leave for home(ie, feeding them, changing diapers, making sure their clothes aren't dirty, putting on socks, shoes, coats, double checking the diaper bag, etc), walking there, having my appointment, leaving (which involves cleaning up the mess they made in the midwife's room, fighting with shoes and coats all over again, asking for water from the water cooler, etc) and walking back home, a half hour appointment turns into a two hour ordeal. [sigh]

This morning Gabriel has therapy, and tonight we have Bible study here! I spent last night doing some baking since we're hosting, and this afternoon and early evening will probably be spent cleaning like a madwoman, trying to make it look like the preschooler aren't in TOTAL control of our home. (In other words, living a lie.)

I have discovered that you should NEVER put a pregnant women in charge of snacks. Since there's generally not really a "healthy"standard expected for Bible study snacks, ;) I just went grocery shopping and picked up a few things that seemed appealing to me without really thinking about how it would all work together. Once I started baking last night I realized that our snacks would consist of:
-chocolate peanut butter cheesecake
-chocolate peanut butter brownies
-chocolate fondue
-chocolate chocolate chip cookies, and
.
.
.
-a veggie platter.

I'm wondering if I should make a chocolate dip to go with the veggies, just to round things out nicely.

As for the rest of the week, tomorrow we have preschool here for the first time in a few weeks (thank you, flu season), so I'll have to hurriedly throw everything together for that after Bible study tonight. Thursday afternoon we get a BREAK! I can't believe it!

Gabe's Friday morning therapy is canceled this week, since instead we're heading to a playdate with some friends from my MOPS group. It's at an indoor play centre they set up on weekdays on Calvary Pentecostal. I've never been there before, but I've heard it's good. I can't help but wonder how exactly you go about making an indoor play centre that can be set up and taken down every weekend. Maybe I'll bring a camera and take some pictures so you all can see what this place ends up being like.

As for this past weekend, we took the boys to the Santa Clause parade! They actually weren't too impressed by it. To be honest, I can't blame them, it was kind of boring. Most of the "floats" were people sitting on the back of flat bed trucks dressed in normal clothes and waving. The few interesting things that there were, the boys really liked, but they got sick of the overall experience pretty fast, especially since they were so cold.

I hope you're all having a great week, with maybe a little less craziness than us! :D

Looking collegiate

2007-11-15T20:50:00.001-08:00

Levi's appointment today went fairly well. Since he stayed up late last night (courtesy of their overly-exciting shopping trip), he had a few more sensory issues than normal, but even so the pediatrician wasn't too concerned about them. (Sensory issues are more prevalent when a child is tired. Even in neurotypical people, you either don't feel things as much or they hurt way more when your body is fighting to stay awake.) She said that clearly he doesn't have classical autism like Gabriel does. At worst he may have mild PPD-NOS, which is at the mildest end of the autism spectrum. PPD-NOS is essentially a diagnosis that says "you have a few autistic traits but nowhere near the realm of actually having autism". As we already knew, his autistic traits are his speech delay, which is by far the biggest issue at this point, and his sensory issues, which were much more pronounced in this evaluation than they normally are. Even with his issues, though, she said that she doesn't feel comfortable diagnosing him with anything at this point since he seems to be outgrowing his issues rapidly. She'll be seeing him again in another 6-8 months to see where he stands at that point and if he warrants an official diagnosis. There's no benefit to having an early diagnosis with PDD-NOS (no long waitlists, no government or charitable funding, no particularly helpful therapies beyond what we're already doing), so waiting for a diagnosis isn't an issue.

The good news is that speech and language issues are by far the easiest to work through. He's already starting to put together some simple sentences, so there's no reason to think that his speech delay will affect him long-term. His sensory issues, even at their worst, don't present a huge problem. Ie, he doesn't refuse to eat food because they feel funny in his mouth, he won't refuse certain types of clothes, he doesn't have issues with balance (clearly - I refer you to the headstand video should you have any concerns ) :D , so really even if he WERE to receive a diagnosis, there are no long-term issues. The biggest concern with PDD-NOS is when a child is diagnosis because they have social issues, and Levi seems to have none of those.

Aside from that news... Gabriel got his haircut tonight. I think he's leaving for college tomorrow. This grown-up looking person in my house cannot POSSIBLY be my son. My goodness, he is just so OLD! That's it, we're keeping his hair in that long hippie-ish surfer style until he's 30 (or gets his own fashion sense, whichever comes first). I felt like crying when I saw it, even though I knew it was coming. I already miss those long wavy locks! :( Even hugging him feels different. What happened to my baby?!

Edited to add - looking at these pictures, I think I know what the problem is... he's just too PRETTY for such a boy-ish haircut!

Nina's last day

2007-11-14T20:09:00.000-08:00

Our afternoon therapist has had to leave us. She's having some circulation problems with her legs and can no longer work properly by the end of the day. She'll be having physical therapy in Gabe's time period instead. To be honest, it's a bit of a relief for us - because of her her physical issues, she hasn't been able to play with Gabe the way he needs to play in order to bond with her and feel like he's having fun, so the therapy hasn't been very beneficial for him. At least now we know what's going on, we don't have to spend our money on therapy that's not really helping him, and hopefully we can find someone else to give him some afternoon therapy. Anyone looking for a part-time job? :D

Here's Gabe saying bye to Nina!

I'm now working on teaching Gabe his letter sounds. We've done it for about 5 minutes two or three times a day for the past two days or so... and he's already learned most of his consonant sounds. Wowza. The vowels and the dual-sound consonants (c, g) are next. That's usually the tricky part. Once that's down, it's time to start stringing words together. If he keeps going at this pace he could be reading by the end of the year. Come to think of it, at THIS pace he'd be reading by the end of next week, but I'm not gonna push my luck. ;)

Shane took the boys out shopping tonight while I went to the church shower for Buse. (Which was a lot of fun, I have to say.) They have a gumball dispenser at Old Navy that dispenses superballs instead of gum. Gabriel and Levi LOVE this thing. Shane bought them both one ball. Gabriel then very politely looked at Shane and said. "Levi good boy. I want Levi TWO balls, please!"

Wow. He's so sweet! He thinks Levi is being good and wants him to have two balls! Shane was so shocked. He went ahead and bought a second ball for BOTH of them(a whole dime, so not a bank breaker), and Gabriel says "here you go Levi!" and hands one to him! What a sweetie!

.
.
.

Until, of course, he runs over to Levi, steals BOTH his balls and then runs around saying "I have FOUR balls!" and refuses to give them back to Levi. I'm telling you, either Levi is teaching him some tricks or Gabe's just hitting the terrible twos a little late.

Tomorrow is Levi's appointment with a developmental pediatrician. Since he wasn't able to get into the same month-long evaluation that Gabe had, this will be an appointment that last a whole hour or so, at the end of which the pediatrician can diagnose him with autism if she so chooses. Yeah, I'm not too comfortable with this whole set-up. But Levi has been improving so rapidly and is just so perceptive that I can't imagine there's anything wrong other than a speech delay. We'll see what happens tomorrow, but unlike the feeling we had with Gabe where we just wanted to get a diagnosis and get it over with, I think if they DO start talking about autism at this point with Levi. we'll ask for other opinions.

That's our mid-week update! I hope everyone is doing well.

He shoots, He Scores!

2007-11-12T20:08:00.000-08:00

I've been having some problems logging into Blogger this past week, so sorry for having to condense a week and a half into one post!

Things are a little crazy over here! Levi is being... well, Levi-ish. He fully warrants his own adjective. Gabriel is doing very well. We're getting started on picking a school to send him to for JK next year, and it seems like this may be never-ending. He'd get far better services going to a public school, but it seems he'll be getting to the point that he can finally start understanding Bible stories and things about God when he heads off to JK, and we want to teach him as soon as he's able to understand that God is in ALL aspects of life. Granted, we try to teach him that already, but he isn't able to take in too much. having him learn about God and having faith built into every aspects of his life is more important to us than getting more aide for his autism, so we've decided to send him to a private school, at least for a few years. Time to budget crunch! Oddly, provincial aide agencies don't seem to recognize the reasons behind our choices [rolls eyes] so we're in for an uphill fight for any services we try to get him in a private school. Ask for them at a public school and it's standard procedure, but apparently they hear the words "Christian education" and start running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to figure out how this could possibly be. I understand it's not as common, but you'd thnk they'd have SOME experience.

Anyways, we're looking at two schools, one of whom has a bit more experience (two current children in Grades 1 and 6) with autism, and the other of whom has never had a child with autism before. The school that has NO experience with children with autism would need to learn how to fight their way through the system for service, but they'd also be more likely to adapt their plan specifically to Gabriel (since there is no set plan yet) and be more flexible. In addition, that school is more likely to have children attending the Gabriel would know - or at least who's parents we know and would thus be able to set up more playdates/social interaction with outside of the classroom, helping make him more comfortable at school. [sigh] We have some meetings lined up with principals and teachers over the next few weeks, so hopefully we'll get some more information that will help us make up our minds.

Aside from that - Friday night was our "family fun night" - meaning we all stayed up late and ate too much sugar. Here's the gingerbread house we put together. Notice the candies that "mysteriously" went missing from the trees out front. That would be Levi's doing. Sure, there was a whole bag sitting right there, but the ones on the trees looked SO much tastier!

After that we blew up our air mattress, put it on the floor in the living room, and watched Ratatouille together. The boys thought this was the best idea EVER. I mean, jumping on the bed and watching a movie at the same time?! Why did no one ever tell them before that this was possible?!?!

After a late night, this was Levi on Saturday. The poor kid could hardly move all morning he was so tired.

On Sunday we headed over to Shane's parents for his Dad's birthday party (we'll just say he's 30 yet again, shall we?). The boys absolutely LOVe going over to Shane's parent's place... who wouldn't? They've got marble toys AND air hockey. ;)

Gabe's got skills! :D

Hope you're all having a great week! If anyone wants to impart some wisdom to me on choosing schools, have at it. ;)

Does insurance cover Acts Of Two Year Old?

2007-11-02T11:16:00.001-07:00

Levi loves to play games with people. Tag, hide and seek, tickle wars, wrestling - anything that involves interacting with people. Today we were playing hide and seek. Generally, Levi will predictably hide in either the pantry or a corner of his bedroom.. I counted to ten and was walking around slowly saying "Where are you?". Somehow, jsut hearing me say that from another room always makes him really excited. I heard a fit of giggles coming from his bedroom. I take my time because he seems to be giggling a LOT, so I assume he's enjoying the anticipation of being found. I finally open the door and a very wet Levi looks up at me and says "Wook! Water!!!!"

He had tried to hide in the stand under the fish tank, which is normally where we store our pjs. He'd pulled all the pjs out, dumped them on the floor, and then tried to get in, but found it too small. So he yanked some of the tube going from the fish tank to the pump to make more room, thus dumping about 75% of the fish tank water onto the floor. The whole room was flooded.

Thankfully, the large pile of PJs caught a lot of the water. Shane's Mom came over pretty quickly wit ha carpet cleaner that has a function designed o suck water up from out of carpets (wonderful invention!), so we're hopeful that there's nothing in the underpadding that will grow mouldy and make us need to replace the carpeting. All the same, we had to move all the furniture around, take everything out of the room, etc. The crib, bed, and dresser all got pretty soaked around their feet, and we're hoping that the excessive water doesn't cause the wood to warp and make them unsteady. For the same reason we're concerned because we had the (untreated, unassembled) wood for the boy's new bunk beds sitting in a corner, and the ends of those pieces also got soaked. We got to them and tried to dry them out as quickly as possible, so hopefully it doesn't become an issue.

And this Friday was supposed to be my "downtime" after a crazy week. Oh, I am SO ordering pizza for dinner.

Candy, anyone?

2007-10-31T19:36:00.000-07:00

This week has been a little crazy. On Monday Shane took off work and we headed down to Buffalo for some cross-border baby shopping. When we were expecting the twins we sold a lot of stuff, assuming we wouldn't have room or would need something specially sized/designed to fit twins. As such, we needed to buy a new carseat (which we would have anyways, our old one expired) swing, and high chair, plus a few other smaller things. I'm amazed how much less money big-ticket items like that cost in the States than in Canada. Actually, a number of the things we bought are new and I don't think they even SELL them up here yet. After that, we had preschool for Levi Tuesday morning (they're letting him stay in the special needs preschool every other week until they start their new "semester" next year), some playing at the park, a meeting with Gabe's supervisory therapist on Tuesday afternoon, grocery shopping at night, therapy this morning, therapy this afternoon, trick or treating as soon as Shane got home from work, supper and games at church at night.... phew! We have preschool tomorrow morning and then we get a BREAK for the afternoon and night! Thank goodness, because I really need a nap. My house is a wreck right now, so hopefully my friends avert their eyes and feign total blindness at preschool tomorrow morning.

I have never seen so much candy in my life. People could NOT have been this generous when I was a kid, I do NOT remember this much candy. Seriously we went trick or treating for about 45 minutes and came home with 1.5 large grocery bags FULL of candy. What exactly am I supposed to do with all of this? I'm sure not going to eat all of it (at least I hope not!) and I'm certainly not going to let Levi eat it all! Gabe won't touch sweets.... maybe I'll send it to work with Shane. The guys there will work it off in one morning. (Shane the Slave Driver will make sure of it.)

Bob the Builder (not that you can tell since he refused to keep his hard hat on) and a couch potato! What can I say, our finances dictate that we make do with what we have around the house. Actually, a lot of men started laughing at the couch potato idea and asking if he was dressing up as "Daddy on a Saturday morning".

Bowling and other mysteries

2007-10-27T20:15:00.000-07:00

What with the rainy weather today, the boys were feeling a bit stir crazy by late afternoon, so we decided to get out and go bowling. Given that the boys both don't like loud noises or dark places, we thought it might be a challenge for them, but they LOVED it!

The boys both insisted on choosing (and carrying!) their own bowling balls.

I've never seen a contraption like this before. It certainly improved the boys bowling! (Maybe I should use it next time....)

Levi in amazement that he knocked down some pins.

Gabriel gives bowling a big thumbs up!

The final scores - from top to bottom, Shane, Gabriel, Kathryn, and Levi. Come to think of it, why am I posting this, it's really embarrassing?!

After bowling (and to celebrate getting our taxes back, woohoo!) we took the boys out for dinner. However, waiting for our food to be served was a little tedious and hunger-inducing for them. Levi resorted to eating the butter intended for our dinner rolls. We didn't see him until he'd already gotten into it, and by that point it was just too late. A milk mustache is one thing, but a butter mustache seems SO much more ostentatious, don't you think?

Gabriel, on the other hand, killed time by teaching himself to spell "Heinz", "Tomato", and "Ketchup".

Levi came home and immediately had to call Winnie the Pooh and tell him all about "blowing".

And finally, the boys taking a bath. They grabbed the cup from the sink beside the tub and Levi decided to turn it into a game.

Turnabout's fair play, though!

I hope you've all had a good week - it's been a wonderful one over here. The boys have been getting along fabulously, Gabe's speech is improving like crazy, and Levi has actually started obeying us! Well, occasionally, which is a biiiig step up.

Apple picking - photo overload!

2007-10-20T19:07:00.001-07:00

This morning we took the boys our apple picking! At the entrance there were a few skids of pumpkins that the boys enjoyed for a while, too.Levi could not for the life of him figure out what was wrong with that man and why he was just standing there.
The boys give each other a nice big hug....
... and then trip over a pumpkin.

Picking apples. The boys were So excited! As soon as they saw apples on trees, Gabriel said in his excited voice "I see apples! Mommy, may I have a apple, please?!"

Did I mention they were excited?

At Gabe's request, heading to find more red apples.
As soon as we started loading back into the van, Levi was asking for an apple. This is one he picked - perfect snack size for a two year old.

Man, this IS a bad virus!

2007-10-18T20:13:00.001-07:00

As we all saw coming, this virus FINALLY took it's turn getting to me this week. It hit me pretty much out of nowhere late on Wednesday night, and man did it wreak some havoc! Unfortunately, the constant - well, there's really no delicate way to phrase "throwing up", is there? Alright, I'll just come out right out with it. The constant throwing up started to irritate my stomach to the point of having cramps, which eventually turned into mild contractions. A warm bath and some Tylenol helped slow them down and make them a little less strong, but it wasn't until mid-morning today that they stopped entirely. Every time I tried to do anything of value today (such as, say, play with my children, clean my house, or move), they started back up again. So Shane took off work, and I stayed in bed letting my body recuperate. My stomach stills feels a little tender - rather like your leg feels after a charliehorse, come to think of it. But I can get around now and function without having to lay down 30 seconds later. I'll take it as easy as I can tomorrow, and we'll see how things go from there. hey, at least now I have a valid excuse for my house being a mess!

I'm also excited because we found back a memory card that I thought we'd lost. It has some great pictures of my sister-in-law Ann's 30th birthday party. That's right, Ann, I just told everyone that you're THIRTY now! THIRTY! MUAHAHAHAHA! How do all those "old" and "going thirty" jokes sound NOW? :D

Ann and Gabe having a tickle fight on the swing.

Gabriel showing off/giving his monkey to Ann.

Ann's brother John, teaching Gabe the fine art of lounging.

BWAHAHA! Ann went thirty! And we got it on film! And are showing it to the world! To Ann's credit, she took a moment at the party to declare that "40 is the new 30."

Levi found a kitten, and his life is now complete.

MAN did he love this thing. He would NOT put it down...

... until he lost his grip a little and tried to hold on by holding it's neck very tightly. Yikes. Poor thing. (Shane was reaching to rescue the cat while taking this picture. I think. I hope.)

And thus began the institution of the "Kitties belong on the ground" rule. Oddly, that cat still hung around Levi and wanted to be pet, even after the accidental strangling.

The upside of being sick

2007-10-17T05:32:00.001-07:00

Is that the boys are too tired to fight with us about taking pictures! :D

Poor Gabriel was so out of it, he just sat on our bed and stared at the light.
Which then progressed to laying down and staring at himself in the mirror.

And then Levi gets it (again).

At least it doesn't take long to recover from this bug!

Pictures from the Rockton Fair:
Levi LOVED playing in the corn pit. He thought it was hilarious when Shane would dump a bucket of corn right over his head.

So hilarious that when Shane stopped, he just did it to himself.

Petting a cow! Sorry for the view. ;)

Kicking myself.

2007-10-14T19:41:00.000-07:00

I KNEW IT! I KNEw it when I typed it that it was a bad idea, but I had to go and do it anyways.

Levi, of course, woke up at midnight beginning round number TWO of this lovely virus. Thankfully it seems to have passed already. Maybe it's not rotovirus but just a particularly nasty flu bug. Whatever it is, I stayed home from church for both services today. This morning I stayed home since we all slept in (courtesy of puke duty every hour or so overnight), and this evening I stayed home so Shane could go.

This weekend, we got a bunch of toys and other things out of storage. The boys are ECSTATIC to have some of their old toys back. Who cares if they're designed for six month olds, they have fond memories of these things and are REALLY attached to them right now, lest we take them away again. As for Shane and I, he got our GameCube out of storage, and the boys - all three of them - are really enjoying it.

I realize I haven't been updating much on Gabe's potty training. That's because there's nothing to update, we've stopped. Gabe refuses to sit on the potty anymore. There simply is no reward good enough to make it worthwhile for him to sit on it. We've given it a break for a few weeks and were hoping that we could give it another shot in a while. So you can imagine my surprise when tonight he looked me right in the eye and said "Mommy, may I have poo please?" I think I just sat there shell-shocked for a second and eventually recovered enough of my wits to ask "Gabriel, did you go poo in your diaper?" To which he replied. "No, Mommy, I want poo. Mommy, may I have poo please?" At which point I get VERY excited and stand up and say "Alright, let's go sit on the potty!"

At this point Gabriel starts to look very agitated and says "No thank you, Mommy. Mommy, may I have poo, please?" At this point, I'm both very annoyed and very confused and say "Gabriel, poo goes in the potty. Do you want to sit on the potty and go poo?" At this point he shoots me a look like I'm an idiot and repeats, "No thank you, Mommy. Mommy, may I have poo please?"

Alright, I give up. I hold out my hand and say "Gabriel, you show me what you want." He promptly takes me hand, leads me to a cardboard box in the corner that just came out of storage, and reaches in. He pulls out a Winnie the Pooh preschool video game and repeats, "Mommy, may I have Pooh please?"

Yeesh, this child is GOOD. He's saying EXACTLY what he wants, it's ME who seems to have problems understanding proper speech in this house. Aside from that - we put this in storage almost a year ago and hadn't played this game since - how in the world did he remember it even existed?!

Oh, and guess what? This morning (Yes, on a Sunday- who knew they worked on Sundays?) our tax agency called and told us that our adjustments had been filed and we'd be getting our adjusted returns back by the end of the month. And let me say - WOW. These people are GOOD. Without disclosing too much personal financial info - good-bye, debt! Mama needs a new pair of shoes! Alright, so I'm not going to go buy shoes or anything quite irresponsible like that, but we can finally get rid of our debt and reasonably afford Gabe's therapy without too much worry. This is so exciting, and SO relieving. I can't tell you how blessed I feel right now. We've made a lot of tough decisions in the last year trying to find a balance between giving Gabe the therapy he needs and being fiscally responsible, and he fact that this adjustment will pretty much exactly get us in line with a solid budget for his therapy is such a blessing, and so validating. I know "validation" is a much-overused phrase in pop psychology today, but when everything seems to work out just right - not to indulge in material gains but to support a decision you feel you made with God's guidance for your family's best interest - it really does feel like God is smiling down on you.

It's called a VIRUS for a reason.

2007-10-13T18:36:00.000-07:00

Viruses SPREAD. And that means that, yes, I can hope and pray that, even though Levi spent Thanksgiving Monday throwing up, Gabriel won't get sick. However, as it a VIRUS, such blessings are just not always meant to be. I had to miss the VanDyk Thanksgiving festivities on Monday to stay home and clean up barf - might as well round out the week be having to cancel our date night to do the same, right? Well, at least I'm getting it all over with at once. (Except that, now that I've typed that publicly, I'm sure the rounds will be made between the four of us for the next 4 weeks.)

Levi was back to himself by Thursday, so we were able to hold the preschool again, which seems to be getting better each time. Don't get me wrong, they're still a bunch of half-crazed preschool maniacs (and by "they" I mean especially my own children), but what can I say, we love 'em.

I hate appliances. I realized that "hate" is a strong word, but trust me, this is a mutual feeling. And besides, THEY started it. First the microwave died. It's five years old, what did we expect? So, we picked up a new one, thus taking up pretty much our entirely monthly spending allowance. Then the fridge start mysteriously leaking water all over the back shelves and onto the floor. Lately it's been a bit better - I don't know what made it start and what made it stop, nor do we have the finances to call someone to find out. perhaps Levi has been giving the fridge lessons in how to have a sporadic, unforeseen temper tantrum. Then the handle broke off the front of the oven. Apparently, refixing a handle onto an oven isn't as simple as you may think - and thus, we're now simply grabbing the teeny tiny bit of exposed corner of the oven door and yanking on it until it opens, because again, appliance repairmen charge an hourly rate similar to that of Bill Gates. And finally, our dishwasher is kaput. Not leaking, not giving us some issues, it's dead. Thankfully, Shane bought an extended warranty, and the repairs SHOULD be covered. Contingent, of course, on the issue because by the three parts that are covered by said warranty and not the 300 that aren't. In the meantime, we're back to (hold your gasps of horror in, now) washing dishes BY HAND. When we first got our dishwasher, couple who had been married for more than, oh, 1 year, told us that doing dishes was really a great way for the to spend time together without worrying about the kids trying to get in on the conversation, and for them to feel like they'd actually accomplished something together. While at the time I understood their viewpoint, I couldn't say that I really "got it" and would ever find myself in that situation myself. Now that I have kids, I can honestly say... I don't even understand it anymore! Man, I miss my dishwasher. While I enjoy spending time with my husband, doing chores together is pretty much the opposite of quality time for us. If a Ferrari is "quality", then dishwashing as "quality time" is a 1990 Pontiac Firefly with 300000 kms on it.

Ah, that feels better.

I likely won't be seeing many of you this weekend as I think I'm coming down with a touch of this... whatever it is. I'll be staying home from church with Gabe, which means I won't get to see more of Levi's "church behaviour", which has gotten quite interesting. He now understands that he can't talk during church - when people make noise during church, it's only to sing. Which may explain why he burst out with "Holy Holy Holy" in the middle of the sermon last Sunday night. Poor kid is a little confused. Gabe was even more confused. He looked at us quite obviously thinking "um... am I supposed to sing now, too?" Is it bad that I'm actually enjoying laughing at the new ways my children find to embarrass me in church?

Have a great weekend, everyone! God Bless!

So THIS is "getting it"!

2007-10-06T19:21:00.001-07:00

Back when we were first trying to get a diagnosis for Gabriel, we had a lot of people telling us things like "Stop worrying so much! All kids learn at different rates - one day he'll just get it and start talking up a storm." No offense to anyone who says these things - we know you're just trying to make us feel better.

As an aside though, if anyone you know ever does struggle with concerns like this, please don't say this. I can't tell you how many parents of autistic children we've met who don't get a diagnosis for the child until they're 4 or 5 because people kept telling them not to worry. It's hard to face something like this, and what parents truly need is encouragement to get through it, regardless of if there really is a problem or not. It's easy, but not healthy, to live in denial about an issue, and encouraging to someone to not deal with a potentially life-altering issue is dangerous to a child. Those years can make a BIG difference, and if a parent IS worried about their child's health or development, is it ALWAYS better to have them checked by a professional rather than assuming things will be okay. Rather like in a our Christian walk - it's not pleasant to deal with the fact that we're sinners and the consequences it brings, but not dealing with it and continuing on as if everything was okay is far more terrible. Sorry, went off on a tangent there!

Back to topic! :D We've had Levi checked out, and gotten him help... and suddenly he "got it". having never witnessed the moment that something clicks in a child's mind before (without intense therapy), seeing him get it has been rather interesting. Yesterday he picked a stuffed lion up off the floor, brought it to me and said clear as day "Look, Mommy! I found a LION! What does a lion say? A lion says RAAAWWWWR! Hurray, I did it!" I just sat there staring at him thinking "Did that actually just happen?" Tonight we took the boys to the Rockton fair and he was randomly saying things like "Look, a sheep? I want to pet the sheep." "Can I have a hug?" "Gabriel, I see a rainbow!" I mean.... are you kidding me? Where did this come from?

I should clarify, though.... clear as day to a Mom is clear as mud to anyone else. I think most Moms of preschoolers realize this at some point. I know his voice and inflections and hear exactly what he's trying to say, while another person would hear something akin to "a goobley doo? A samma doo blah!" Regardless - he knows what he's trying to do now!

And MAN, is Gabriel enjoying it! Him and Levi are talking together now! And by talking I mean arguing. Now the real parenting challenges begin, right? [sigh]

I hope everyone has a wonderful long weekend! God Bless! :D