March 13, 2011

Today was a very special day.  Today Morgan went to his very first friend birthday party ever!  The invitation arrived home on Wednesday and I almost cried just getting it.  I called to RSVP right away and explained I would stay with him.

So today was the day.  We had to leave about 1:15, so I didn't tell Morgan until 12:45 and even that was too early since he spent the next 30 minutes asking for his coat and shoes.

We managed to find the right lanes in the zoo they call a bowling alley here - my goodness.  The kids all greeted him - "Hi Morgan!" "Gimme 5 Morgan!" "Are we going to have fun today Morgan?"  Nine other boys, all anxious to start bowling and having fun but each taking a few seconds here or there to include Morgan.

Morgan was anxious to get onto the lanes as well, and was not so good at waiting his turn.  I managed to get him into the rental shoes, which he instantly didn't like or understand, and was taking itty bitty mini steps in them, slowing down an already slow Morgan-walk.

Then came the challenge of showing him how to bowl.  Hmmmm.  I got him a ball and put his fingers in it, but he wouldn't hold it.  So I put it back onto the ball return and put his fingers in it and told him to pick it up.  Nope.  Hmmmm, ok.  I picked up the ball and walked up to the foul line and put the ball down in the middle and told him to push it hard.  He did.  ok, that worked!  I went back to get another ball and we repeated the process.  The next turn, I managed to hand him the ball and he would bowl between his legs by himself.  Progress!

After his third frame I was watching the other kids bowl (they were pretty good!) and glanced down to make sure Morgan was ok and noticed his shoes and socks were on the floor beside his feet.  Ack!  I quickly put them back on him.

After his fourth frame, the party beside us was served pizza.  Oh dear.  Now every 3 seconds he asked for pizza.  

I had him sit at a table in between turns because otherwise he wandered.  Every now and then a friend would come by to check on him.  When it was his turn, some kid or a few would say "Morgan's turn!" to him and hand me a ball while Morgan shuffled up to the foul line.

After his 9th frame the pizza was delivered.  Clearly the highlight of the party for him, he sat there happily and inhaled 3 pieces of pizza.  I gave him water, which he had to pick the ice cubes out of before drinking (oy).

Once everyone was done eating we finished up the last frame, on which he got a spare and therefore an extra throw.  After his turn he asked for more pizza and I could see from the look in his eyes he was about to walk around and eat everyone else's half eaten pizza.  I tried to get him to sit but he was fighting me.  So it seemed time to call it a day before we launched into meltdown mode.  I thanked the birthday boy's mom and grabbed his coat and shoes quickly since he was headed to the door without me.  I dragged him back to the shoe return and was changing his shoes when a few boys, including the birthday boy, came up to tell him he won the game!  I told him to say thank you and happy birthday, which he did without looking up, and we headed home.

We drove home with him reciting some tv show I didn't recognize.  A few minutes in to the drive I realized my face was wet with tears.  Was I sad to think that all these wonderful friends gave and gave and gave kindness to him, while he returned nothing, not even eye contact?  No, quite the opposite.  These children gave to him after years of learning they would get nothing back.  They greeted him and befriended him and were kind to him.  Had this been drilled into them at school?  Perhaps.  Perhaps all 9 little boys have been raised so well as to know it was the "right thing to do".  It felt like something more, something I can't put in to words that speaks to the very epitome of generosity.  And they therefore restored my faith in the goodness of humanity.  

In the end Morgan had a wonderful day.  He had looked forward to it, been excited to go out in the car, took all his turns despite the funny shoes, and came home smiley and energized from the day.  The other kids never got to see that, never got to see what a difference one can make without knowing it, never got to know that they had filled my heart and made it overflow through my eyes.

March 6, 2011

Big week this week - mostly a big negative for my bank account, but still.

First off - our carpeting was installed!  Yay!  That means that this summer will mark the first since Spike died that the living room won't smell like cat pee all summer.  Whoopee!  Oh, and this was funny.  When Morgan got home from school the new carpeting was in and the room was completely empty, so he immediately yelled "help me help me!" and started running around the room in circles.  I have no idea where that came for, but he can run for a surprisingly long time without stopping or getting out of breath.  Of course Jocelyn and Jesse had to join in so there's a circular rut in the carpet now, but no matter.

Second, and I blame this on Uncle Jeff (aka Uncle Jebbs), we got an xbox 360 with Kinect.  It's pretty awesome!  Ok, it's made by microsoft and has the accompanying irritations, but if you can learn to just expect that part, then it's pretty awesome.  As I always say, the secret to happiness is low expectations.

The best part about the xbox is that because it doesn't need a remote, Morgan can do many of the games.  For a few I've had to stand behind him and hold his hands in the right spots to teach him, but he's mostly got the hang of it.  He's especially fond of Reflex Ridge, which is where you're on a rail going through an obstacle course.  He doesn't understand that you're supposed to AVOID the obstacles, so he hits them on purpose, but hey - exercise is exercise.

Timothy's favorite, of course, is Dance Central.  He's a bit competitive (wonder where he gets that from?!) so I catch him practicing the various songs from time to time and then he challenges me to a dance battle.  Being at least marginally smarter than the average bear, I just make sure to choose songs he hasn't practiced.  Even still, we're roughly an even match and I can mostly hold my own.  I'd like to think neither of us looks quite as comical as Jocelyn and Jesse, who are downright hysterical.

Both Morgan and Jocelyn have xbox 360 and Dance Central in their gym classes. Jocelyn says they takes turns getting to be at the front and the rest of the class stands behind and all do it together.  Jocelyn said when she got to be in front, she did Brick House, which happens to be Morgan's favorite.  Jocelyn is constantly surprised that she doesn't beat me.  I will say she tries REALLY hard and often does a fairly good job.  Jesse can't quite keep a beat.

This week at ballet class the parents got to go in and watch (usually we're in a separate waiting room).  With the exception of the warm up time when Jocelyn did a little too much chatting, she did a pretty good job of paying attention and trying to do what the teachers are doing.  She's clearly a visual learner and does much better imitating (like in Dance Central) vs. following oral instructions.  At times she can be rather graceful.  At the very least she looks really super cute in the leotard!

I was listening to Temple Grandin speak on NPR on the ride home one day this week.  I guess she would be the extreme of a visual learner, going as far as being a visual thinker.  Until I watched the movie, I didn't really realize that not everyone thinks in pictures.

February 12, 2011

I have read before that spoiling your kids means giving them things when you don't want to give them, where as when you give them lots of stuff because you want to, that's not spoiling.  Maybe true, maybe not, but if that's the definition, it's just not possible for me to spoil these kids, because it is so much fun to buy them things or take them places.

Josh called a dance studio this week to find out about signing Jocelyn up for ballet class.  They said we were welcome to come this morning and try a class out for free and then register if it turned out to be something she liked.  So last night I put out tights, a leotard, and the new ballet slippers that Jocelyn got for her birthday from Susan and Jonathan.  This morning she got dressed and I put her hair in a bun and off we went.

She vibrated out of excitement the whole way there.  We went inside and she went straight in.  There were hoola-hoops all over for the kids to play with while the class was gathering.  Jocelyn is quite good with a hoola-hoop and was happy to show off. The class was about up through kindergarten age, so she was on the older side (and definitely the taller side!).  It was a really comfortable place - the kids wore various styles of Target brand tutus (another place we had called required black leotards and pink tights, but this was more casual).  The owners were super nice.  The class was very kid-centric.  Jocelyn had SO much fun.  

On the way home, she jittered on about how she wanted to go back every day.  She finally sighed and said "it was just the awesomest day EVER."  So she is now registered for Saturday morning pre-ballet classes and has 2 new leotards and 2 pairs of tights on the way from Target.com.  She may not have any particular natural talent, but boy does she look the part with long skinny legs and a bun in her hair.

In other Jocelyn news, I was explaining to her this week that I was not going to be able to attend her Valentine's Day party at school.

Jocelyn: you have to work?

me: yes

Jocelyn: do you just like to work EVERY day?

me: well, I don't LIKE to work every day.

Jocelyn: then why do you sign up?

Josh also signed Jesse up for Little Kickers soccer this week.  Last time he pretty much just sat on the sidelines and didn't participate, but according to him, he's all about soccer now.  He did ask if it's ok to take the ball away from someone if it's during a game, which I thought was just too cute.

The snow and icicles are finally all off the house, which means we have something like an extra 4 feet of snow in a circle around the house.  I don't remember if I also mentioned that our dishwasher exploded a few weeks back, but we finally got someone out here to replace that as well.  And in another home renovation note, we are FINALLY replacing the carpet in the family room.  Spike peed on it before he died a couple years past and despite my best cleaning efforts and every urine-away product known to man, it still smells every summer when it gets humid.  So the goal was to replace it before we hit another summer.  I looked around for the most stain resistant carpet I could find and found some stainmaster on special at Lowe's.  It's ordered and they should be out here beginning of March.

Everyone is coming next weekend for February birthdays and we have tentative plans to go duck pin bowling in Manchester, but the alley has had some roof leaks and so we have to call Monday to make sure they'll be open (or if the roof has caved in, which is surprisingly common around here).

February 5, 2011

What an eventful week!  Our one room leaking ceiling expanded to 3 rooms leaking and it took us until Thursday to get someone out here to get the 4 feet of snow off the roof (and I won't even tell you what it cost us!  oy the laws of supply and demand).  But 2 1/2 days of 2-4 guys at a time later and we're definitely snow free and not quite ice-free.  And leak free too!  The head guy is coming back with some kind of heat gun for the rest of the ice.  

While 1-2 senior guys were up on the roof at a time, there were two 18 year old kids with shovels doing the deck, the walk, and carving out the mailbox.  The mail lady was very pleased and we were able to take the hold off our mail.  This is rough snow though, mostly ice at this point, at least the first several inches down, so those kids were working pretty hard.

So anyway, Friday was Jocelyn's birthday.  I left her baby bunk beds in her room so she could get them when she first woke up.  We had planned to have a dinner party and then for the two of us to have a sleepover in my room.  When she walked in the door from school at noon she screamed "but where at the balloons?!" and started crying.  oyoyoy.  Finally talked her down and she ended up in a better mood for the rest of the afternoon until the festivities began.  Once we were in party mode she was all giggles and smiles.

We all nibbled on fruit from an edible arrangement that came with a princess crown and then opened presents.  She got 5 barbies in all - 3 knock off imitation barbies that came with lots of spare dresses, 1 princess from princess and the frog, and 1 quite done up Belle.  Then a set of princess crayons.  Then we had the dinner she requested:  meat, perogies, and salad.  She's crazy about salad.  Maybe she's just crazy period.

Then it was time for our girl sleepover.  First - a bubble bath with bubbly grape juice in champagne glasses.  I told her about the day she was born.  I said how I was screaming and yelling and she asked why:

me: because it hurts when you have a baby

Jocelyn: oh yeah, I saw a picture of Auntie Mandy screaming when she was having a baby

me: well it didn't hurt me as much as Auntie Mandy because I had some medicine to make it not as bad

Jocelyn: why didn't Auntie Mandy have medicine?

me: because Auntie Mandy is one tough lady

Jocelyn: does she wrestle?

Then I braided her hair while we watched this week's episode of Teen Mom 2 and then did her nails while we watched this week's episode of I Used to be Fat.  Then we fell asleep to Time Traveler's Wife.  Josh slept in Timothy's room, and so did Jesse, so they had their own little sleepover.

Today was Jocelyn's party at Chuck E. Cheese's.  We had our 4 kids plus 6 friends (2 boys and 4 girls).  The first hour where the kids just ran off and played the whole time was super!  Morgan loves this motion coaster they have - these reclining seats thing that shake and move like a roller coaster while you watch a video of a roller coaster.  I like it ok, but was dizzy when I stood up!  

When it was time to sit for pizza Jocelyn started freaking out about Chuck E. coming out and by the time he did she was pretty much hysterical.  Then he left and she ate her pizza and cake.  

The real fun was the ticket blaster.  She was wearing a dress so the hostess handed me a velcro belt to put around her to keep her dress from flying up.  Then she got safety glasses and was wearing her blow up crown and in she went.  Then the air goes on and the tickets start going all around and she grabs all she can.  It was hilarious and she really loved it.

So we're exhausted but she's happy and had a great birthday, so yay.

January 30, 2011

Rumor has it we've set a new record for snow this year - 6 feet so far in January. About 3 1/2 feet is still on the ground, up to Josh's waist.  Snow, and ice.  Icicles taller than Josh and 80 times heavier.  

So that would be the background to our weekend fun.  Saturday morning when I got up Jesse informed me that there was a drop coming from the ceiling.  In the toy room!  Now those of you that have visited realize that there is only plumbing on one side of our house, and it isn't on the toy room side.  The toy room is right below our bedroom, and as far as we could tell, we did not unknowingly spill a bathtub's worth of water under our bed.  So where on earth was the water coming from??

Josh opened the hallway closet and turned on the light, thereby blowing a fuse.  Well there's a clue!  Ear to wall revealed a dripping sound.  We walked outside and the outside wall of the closet just happened to be the one fully encased in ice.  From the ground all the way up to the roof.  Our suspicion laid where the brick met the stucco - there must be some kind of hole letting water into the house.  So we grabbed a ladder and a pick-axe and Josh waded into the snow and spent the next hour or two knocking ice off the house.  When he got all he could reach, we went up to the bedroom and he straddled the window and hit it from there.  He managed to get the grand majority off the house.

The dripping expanded to 3 holes during the day and then by the end of the evening only one hole was dripping.  However, this morning revealed a 4th hole, on the other side of the house!  Ack!  So turns out the entire back side of the house, which is vinyl siding, is also covered in ice.  Well, it's marginally less advisable to hit vinyl siding with a pick-axe, and it wasn't at all obvious where it was getting in, so we just give up.  We may be under water in the morning, and for sure we're going to have to get someone out here, but with this much snow left to melt, it's going to get worse before it gets better!  I guess the good news is that besides the spot under the original closet, the basement is still dry, so our hopes to one day finish it and carpet it live on.  Oh, and the ceiling in the toy room is now getting a little soft and bulgy.  Odds are the whole thing is going to cave.  So we have that to look forward to.

The snow on the deck is up to the railing, but the deck is still holding up, so that's good too.  And I heard we're getting another storm this week!  Ack!

Since the toy room was wet with bits of plaster all over it, it seemed a good time to clean it. So last night while Josh was at Timothy's basketball game, I dumped all the toy bins into the middle of the floor and started from scratch.  I mostly got it back together before they got home.

Since I was on a roll, I decide to attack our bedroom today.  So after I had a cup of coffee from my new Keurig machine (which I bought with some Amex points I had and keep in the bedroom) I started the bedroom cleaning, which included matching up about 200 pairs of socks.  Josh got the laundry started (we're a little behind!) and kept bringing me up a load at a time.  I told Jocelyn she had to go clean her room too (I just picked it up a week ago and it was already a disaster area!) and that she couldn't come out of her room until it was clean.  She went in there and locked the door.  Every so often I would knock on it to hand her socks or clothes or whatever and she would open it just an eyeball's width.  Needless to say, nothing was getting cleaned.

So once I was done with my room and the socks, I went in and forced Jocelyn to clean her room.  We got everything put away and we vacuumed and then we cleaned out all the drawers for clothes that didn't fit and organized all the toys.  Then on to Jesse's room for the same, stopping every once in a while to fold more laundry and match more socks.  Right now 25 single socks are still lined up on the floor of my room.

So now J&J are both happy with their rooms, as am I.  My new k-cups are neatly arranged in the new coffee station in my bedroom.  I need some of those little individual half and half thingys so I don't have to go down to the kitchen for milk!

Jesse asked today if he could have some fruit snacks.  We said no, after dinner.  He noted that it was the last one in the pack and he didn't want someone else to get it (ah, one of the side effects of having many children).  So I said fine, go hide it in his room.  He ran off and then came back to tell me:

Jesse: ok Mom, I hided it.  It's in my dollhouse.

Jesse starts to walk away

me: but now I know where it is

Jesse stops dead in his tracks, but doesn't turn around quite yet.  Finally he turns around

Jesse: yeah but just YOU can know mommy, and don't tell anyone and don't tell daddy

me: ok

Jesse turns to run off to play, but returns 10 seconds later

Jesse: and tonight YOU put me to bed, not daddy, ok?

Well that's the news from here!  Please pray we don't all die of black mold poisoning before we are able to get someone to come look at the ceilings!

January 26, 2011

I think I'm behind in my emails again.  It's also snowing.  Perhaps those two things are correlated - like ice cream sales and drowning.

Susan & Jonathan arrived Friday for a fun weekend visit.  Jesse cried especially hard when they left.  This also allowed me to escape sans kids on Saturday to go meet my new nephew - who is just too cute!  (For those of you who have not seen the pictures on my facebook page, you are totally missing out).  Saturday night I stayed home with 3 kids while the rest of the adults went to Timothy's basketball game.  They lost (again), but you wouldn't know it from Susan's pictures - makes it look like quite a thrilling game!

Here's a gem of a conversation I had with Jesse on Sunday:

Jesse: I'm hungry

me: what do you want?

Jesse: I don't know?

me: a banana?

Jesse: no

me: salami?

Jesse: no

me: granola bar?

Jesse: no

me: well then WHAT??

Jesse: just get me something special that I've never seen before

We've booked Jocelyn's friend party at Chuck E. Cheese's for 2/5.  She's very excited. Also for her birthday, she wants to have a sleepover with me in my room while Josh sleeps in her room.  She snores less, so I agreed right away.  We haven't told Josh yet.

Today Jocelyn is wearing her preschool graduation shirt from 2009.  It was SO big on her then.  It's so NOT big on her now.

Morgan, while still a large boy, has been looking marginally smaller these days.  Josh weighed him and he lost 2 lbs (not sure how much he grew at the same time), so hey, that's something.  We thank youtube, which Morgan has now learned to navigate such that he can watch old episodes of teletubbies in Russian instead of eating.

Timothy has another girlfriend (for those not keeping track - that's number 4 this school year) and this one seems to be a good match and he seems quite enamored with her.  It's cute.

Our year end bonuses pay out in February, so I look forward to being rich for one whole day until Josh uses it to pay off last year's bills.  I better get the champagne ready, don't want to miss the window!

January 17, 2011

Josh hands me a piece of paper from Jocelyn's backpack and says, "Well, I hope she can get by on her looks."

On the paper there is a row of boxes and 5 of them have Xs in them.  Underneath is the phrase "I counted" followed by a box to fill in a number.  Inside the box is a picture, drawn by Jocelyn, of something I can't quite make out.

me: Jocelyn, what is this?

Jocelyn: it's a bear

me: why did you draw it here?

Jocelyn: because I counted bears

January 10, 2011

I think I've sort of run out of stuff to say. Maybe just a round of ho-hum updates?

Timothy started dating a new girlfriend on Christmas.  They had a date planned for last Friday, but she broke up with him on the first day back after the break.  She said there was no spark.  I guess there was only a spark via text and not in person.

We learned Morgan likes fudge after an entire plate of it went missing.

Jocelyn has made good use of all the art supplies she got for Christmas.  She's out of glue, just in case anyone is shopping for her birthday.

Jesse is still sleeping with all 3 knock-off pillow pets that he got for hanukkah and christmas.

I'm really out of material so that will have to do.  We all had a great break between the week before New Year's and it's been back to the grind since then.  Ho-hum!

December 31, 2010

Happy New Year!

Jesse and I closed out the year today with a trip to the doctor's for his annual well child appt.  He's 42 in (90th %) and 35 lbs (50th %) and got his blood pressure done and drew pictures, named colors and generally passed all the other tests.  Then he had to get three shots, which made him cry but he still sat there and didn't fight and was so good.  Then we went out to Friendly's for a Mommy/Jesse lunch.  He's a very nice date!

Jocelyn and I had a girl's day out this week.  We went and saw Tangled (which was super cute) and then we went to Target to spend some gift cards and Jocelyn spent some of her autism-study money on a new leotard.  Then we had lunch at Atlanta Bread (we shared a grilled cheese and potato soup and smoothie) and stopped at GapKids to search the clearance rack.

Today mostly Josh and then some me spent time cleaning up the disaster of a house we call "Christmas happened here" since we had Tim and family for dinner tonight. Yikes.  I'm surprised we were able to live in a house that looked like this for a week! But it looked much improved upon their arrival and mostly looks ok now.

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror tonight after dinner.  Yikes, I've packed on a few pounds.  Looks like my plan of living off sugar while not exercising has some unforeseen consequences.  So it's time to get back on the treadmill... and take a break from the fudge...  hmmm, maybe I need to do a sparkpeople food journal again, that's really the only thing that keeps me honest.

Well no time for a pithy New Year's monologue now, it's time to watch When Harry Met Sally.  Maybe tomorrow!

December 23, 2010

Dear Santa,

I have a feeling that my kids left a few things off their lists this year, so I'd like to send this addendum.

For Timothy -

Well, Santa, while I was led to believe that I had until June before I had a teenager, it seems that mopey teenager syndrome has set in early.  So for Timothy I ask you to give him patience as I transform from his beautiful perfect Mommy into a controlling witch with no knowledge of anything and no memory of anything that happened to me before age 30.

For Morgan -

I think what Morgan really needs is some gum that he likes.  He chews shirts - do you have shirt-flavored?  I feel this would really help with our efforts to keep him this weight and wait for him to be 6 feet tall.

For Jocelyn -

Please please bring Jocelyn a quiet voice.  Yes, I understand that lack of knowledge of one's volume is a symptom of Asperger's and since this family requires at least one symptom per person, that is clearly hers, but Santa, my goodness!  I will be deaf before 40!

For Jesse -

Ok, this one is the most important.  Jesse also needs a new voice - one that doesn't whine.  I think if Josh believed in you, he would join me in this request because we have both agreed that if he doesn't stop soon we're going to hide in the basement until he turns 18.

Please Santa, I don't mean to sound like a complainer.  I adore my family, I really do. I'm just saying, I have to be locked in a house with them for the next week and these things would really make for a special New Year!

Sincerely,

Mommy

December 22, 2010

I went to Jocelyn's class for her holiday party today, and I must say it was 90 minutes well spent for me.  She was SO excited to see me that she was practically jumping out of her skin and introducing me to all the kids and the teacher.  If she's not one of the tallest in the class, she's close.  I met her on-again off-again boyfriend and that was interesting because I'm thinking he's at least hyperactive and perhaps a bit off somewhere else.  On the drive home I said I was glad to get to meet him and she said "yeah, he doesn't really have any friends so that's why I wanted to be his friend."  awww!

Besides being at least close to the tallest, she’s also close to the most talkative.  I was so surprised to meet several children that didn't say a word the entire time.  Their houses must be quiet!  Jocelyn and one other boy were quite the chatterers, and all the room parents knew everything about our family from having spent at least 15 minutes with Jocelyn.

The room parents ran a pretty good set up.  Four tables with four chairs each, the kids rotated every 15 minutes.  Two tables were crafts (I was in charge of the pipe cleaner beaded wreathes because I was the only parent who could figure out how to form a bow out of the ends of the pipe cleaner), one was snack (one of the moms made reindeer cupcakes with pretzel antlers and apologized for the reindeer not having ears), and one was a combination of pin the nose on the snowman and playing dreidel.  Each kid had a pre-made bag with their name on it and a gift, and we put their crafts and gelt in it as they made their way around the stations.  Very well organized!

One other mom worked at Aetna and knew of me, which was funny.  Another asked me if I went to South Windsor High School because I looked familiar, but I get that a lot.  I must have a familiar face.

So just had to share.  I came home and made meatballs for Friday, which turned out pretty well if I do say so myself, and cleaned the downstairs bathroom and steamed the kitchen floor and inflated the air mattress for my office and got it made up. Tomorrow more cooking and cleaning and Friday is making up beds.  Now time for a bubble bath and wine!  Gotta love vacation!

December 17, 2010

This morning I spent an hour on the phone finishing up the interview portion of our autism study - questionnaires for each of the kids.  Then this afternoon one of the doctors called to give us the major points of the evaluation, which we will receive in writing in January.

First she hit the positives, saying that Morgan was much more willing than average to work and perform the tasks, which was surprising to me since he certainly didn't seem into it in my mind!  She said they really enjoyed him and what a sweet kid he is, and all remarked on how good our whole family is with him and how loving and kind we all were with each other.  To be honest, I wasn't sure if she was just saying that, but it was nice to hear just the same.  I was somewhat surprised at the compliment and responded that we all get used to and learn to deal with what we're given.  She replied that actually, that's not really true.

For the scores - not so great but not surprising.  His verbal age equivalent is about 2.5 and non-verbal about 5.  They were not able to give an IQ test because he could not complete the one that was appropriate for his age.  I asked about this because we are trying to apply for state services, which are meant for persons with an IQ under 70.  She said she would include in the report what they use as a proxy instead, which is average functional age level divided by chronological age, which will put us well under the threshold.  (We plan to include this evaluation with our application).

The report will also include recommendations for his therapies/learning plan, most of which sounded like they are already being done (using pictures instead of words, encouraging social interactions, that kind of thing).  I asked what she thought about the fact that I didn't think medication was necessary at this time, and she said she totally agreed with me.

I asked how to stay in touch with the results of the study.  She says it's a nationwide study called Simons Simplex and she'll send me web site information to keep up with it.  Here's a little more info: https://sfari.org/simons-simplex-collection. The data collection has been underway for about 5 years and is wrapping up April 1, so we're actually on the tail end and won't have to wait as long as the first families to see what comes of it.

We chatted a bit after and I noted that I thought our family made an interesting genetic study.  She agreed, but for a different reason than I was thinking - she said it was very unusual to see a family with as many kids as we have with only one of them having autism.  So that was interesting to note.

I'm very proud of our family for participating in this study, and I am hopeful that the results will be a step towards a cure or at least an improved treatment.

December 15, 2010

Jocelyn: why do people celebrate Easter?

Josh: because Jesus's body disappeared after he died

Jocelyn: so then he was just a little head?

December 13, 2010

We spent the day at Yale New Haven doing an Autism study.  Morgan and I did tasks in the room, Josh answered questions, and the other three hung out relatively quietly in a very small room (with a grad student playing with them).  It was pretty interesting what Morgan could do and not do, especially since he was SO not into it after about 5 seconds, so he was not a willing participant and when he could do things it made it more impressive.  Still, I think Jesse could have gotten more of the tasks right, except perhaps some of the more complex block structures, which actually Morgan did most of.

We had an hour off for lunch in a crowded cafeteria.  Seeing as it had been about 75 degrees where we had been, we all went outside with short sleeves on to cool down for a bit before we went to get food.  Getting food was the hard part of the day for me.  Josh and Morgan and Timothy waited in line (nicely) for nuggets and fries while I was in charge of not letting Jocelyn and Jesse sneeze on the salad bar.  Quite a challenge!  By the end I was pretty much crawling out of my skin.  But then we all managed to sit down and eat without incident.  Morgan not only waiting in line patiently and quietly (and still!) but sat nicely while eating as well.

After lunch they took pictures of all of us - head from all angles, ears, hands, feet. Then weights and height and head circumference.  Then it was time to get the numbing cream on their arms because we had to each give some blood.  Jocelyn was afraid of the cream - she thought it was going to make her whole body numb. Forever.  So she told Jesse he could go first.  He jumped up and stuck out his arms and got the cream while I explained to Jocelyn that it only worked on her arms and only for a little while.  After Jesse seemed unharmed, she agreed to go next.  Morgan obliged as well (as did Timothy of course).

Then we had to walk to a completely different building for the blood draw.  The grad student who walked us over asked who was going to go first and Jesse raised his hand immediately.  I asked if he was sure, that I would go first if he wanted, but he said yes he was sure he wanted to go first.

So Jesse goes first.  I sit down and he sits in my lap and holds out his arm.  The grad student is suggesting he look away but he makes a fist and stares straight at the needle going in, doesn't flinch cry or whine, and when it's in and he can see the blood running, he finally looks up and says "but I didn't even feel anything!" I was so proud of him!

Of course, Jocelyn was another story.  A big talker about how good she was going to be, but scrunched her arms up tight the second it was her turn and I had to pry them open (she's strong!).  Then she SCREAMED like she was having a toe pulled off as the needle went in, then calmed down, the screamed some more "I CAN FEEL IT I CAN FEEL IT!"  Later she admitted she could not actually feel it.  Morgan's was the saddest because he cried vs. screamed, and almost made me cry myself I was so sad for him (where as I could tell Jocelyn was just being dramatic, so I was biting my lip to keep from giggling).

Jocelyn's dramatic show made Jesse's all the more impressive.  The blood drawer said she wished all her 4 year olds were like that.  Once we were done he said "where's my $40?" which is what we each got for the blood.  He was then disappointed to learn it was only 2 bills, I think he was expecting a wad of ones.

So that was our day.  Not as bad as I thought it would be, but glad it's over.  They will call on Friday and give us information on Morgan's tests, and we'll get a write up. The genetic stuff we'll never get as it goes on and on.  They've already been doing this study for over a year at least.  Our data will get put in a national database so other researchers can access it.

Let's see, in other news this week, Timothy's girlfriend broke up with him (and he's not the least bit upset about it) and Jocelyn's boyfriend broke up with her (and she's devastated).  Timothy's basketball team got creamed 27 to 5.

December 5, 2010

I. Love. Presents.

I just love presents.

I find Hanukkah especially fun because we get to open one gift every night that we then actually play with.  Plus for the first year ever, Morgan actually opens the presents.  Then, of course, he couldn't care less about them and puts them down, but still - he opens it!

Josh had Jocelyn with him when he/she picked out my presents, which means every time I open one she jumps up and down and says "do you like it???"  It's just hysterical.

I think Jocelyn is especially rewarding to buy gifts for because for every gift, she acts like someone has just given her a new car.  Of course, for the first night of Hanukkah - someone did!  Jocelyn got a Barbie four-wheeler and Jesse got a Lightening McQueen car, and let's just say that when I took them out in the garage and pulled the parachute that was covering them off in a big dramatic movement, well it was worth the 3 hours it took me and Josh to put them together.

Jocelyn and Jesse spent the day on roller skates, which they got for Hanukkah last night.  Plus elbow pads, wrist pads, and knees pads.  The pads are not because they need them, since they skate slower than a snail on the carpet, but rather because it just makes them look so cute!

We had a rough week with all of us taking turns throwing up, starting with Jesse and ending with me (who, happily, felt like I was *going* to throw up for a day, but never actually did - but everyone else did).  Poor Jocelyn got it the worst and at one point was just crying in bed and saying "I just wish I didn't feel this way!"  But it disappeared as suddenly as it started and everyone was fine by Saturday, with the house mostly not worse for the wear.

I had a fairly productive weekend.  I made Jocelyn a dress out of old shirts, pants, and pajamas.  Then I worked out the games I am planning for xmas eve, which of course are awesome.

My holiday cards are ready to go and should go out tomorrow.  I wanted to wait until I didn't look like a freak for being so early - but we got 2 this week, so I think I'm in the clear.

I guess not much else for news.  The house is mess, but what else is new.  I had to vacuum dust bunnies today that were threatening to turn into tumbleweed.

Ok, Jesse wants me to put his present together, so I better go!

November 21, 2010

I was thinking this week about why I write these updates.  While it makes me happy that some of you enjoy them, and happier yet when some of you write back (infrequent though that may be for most of you!), that's not why.  To tell stories that I think I'll remember but won't... sure.  But at the root is one main driver.  Some day I want my kids to read these and know how much I loved them.

I thought of this on my way to bed, as I was putting blankets back on each and turning off their lights.  I pause each night as I do this, and just stare at them for a moment.  So perfect, so sweet, so... quiet.

Don't get me wrong, I love them when they're loud too.  Especially when I first come home each evening.  Usually they are up to the counter having dinner when I first open the door.  Little eyes drift over to me and there is a split second of silence, and then "MOMMY!"  "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY!!!"  It's impossible not to smile.

So to all you parents out there, how about more email traffic?  And even if you don't want to send it out, still I encourage you to write it down.  Someday these stories will be priceless, if only to a limited audience.

November 14, 2010

We had Mandy and family here overnight last night and had so much fun!

They arrived in time for dinner.  Josh had made pizza dough and Mandy and Jeff brought toppings.  Jeff did all the prep while the rest of us basically stared at him.  As the pizza neared ready, the kids seemed to have gathered around us.  It was quite a raucous!  The adults scarfed down some pizza, grabbed our cocktails, and headed to the deck where it was much quieter and quite a nice night out.

I guess we lost track of time.

After a while, there were a group of kids gathered at the door.  They opened the door and pushed Jesse out.

Me: Yes?

Jesse:  It seems to be quite a long time that we've been waiting for cake.

I laughed so hard!  The Mikey-will-eat-it version of asking for dessert.  So I went in and served the cake and they all ate happily.

Jocelyn bunked with Jesse, the Roberge girls were in Jocelyn's room, and Timothy was in our room.  About 6am I heard Jesse's door start opening and closing roughly every 30 seconds.  Apparently it was home base for everyone waking up and eventually contained most of the kids.  Morgan was even in and out at certain points (happily, he was wearing pants).

When I finally came downstairs some kids were munching on cereal while I made coffee.  Sage announced that Morgan had hugged her, then looked at me with a big smile on her face.  Jocelyn shouted (repeatedly) that she was so glad to have all these sisters.  Jesse was glued to Ruby.

Mandy headed home early to enjoy a few hours alone but Jeff and the kids stayed behind.  Jeff and Josh made us all a big breakfast and then Jeff and Timothy settled into the game room for some video games, with everyone else looking on.  Rumor has it Jeff even won.

When it was time for them to leave, Jocelyn yelled after the girls "I'm sorry you don't have any brothers!"

November 8, 2010

Jesse is walking around the house like he owns the place, carrying the last of his birthday presents (we saved one for the actual birthday vs the party this weekend) around - a cheap mp3 player with little ear buds that he calls a music phone.  He's pretty sure he's awesome.  To say he enjoyed his birthday would be an understatement.  Friday night was the first party with just grandma and grandpa Lessard.  He got to open one present (from G&G) - a wrestling singlet.  He immediately shrieked and ran upstairs to put it on, proceeding to wear it the rest of the weekend.  

The next morning Elisabeth and Chase joined us for the brunch party and he opened the rest of the presents.  He gasped appropriately at each one and played with all of them all weekend.  He's so fun to buy for - he loves everything!  Today he got to bring his remote control car to school for sharing day, but not before he reminded us that it was his birthday about a thousand times.  Then tonight the mp3 player, after which he's told me that I'm the BEST about a bazillion times!

Jocelyn had a birthday weekend as well.  In addition to what seemed like one long 3 day party for Jesse, she had a friend's birthday party on Saturday and another on Sunday.  The Saturday one was at one of those indoor gym type places and she wanted us to go with her but we wanted to drop her off.  We compromised by sending Timothy - genius!  Sunday was just at the rec center and she didn't want me to leave then either but geez they invited the entire class plus probably 250 other kids and what seemed like every adult relative they had.  It was packed!  So I talked her into letting me go - people are just not my thing.

Morgan was in rare form while we had visitors Friday night and Saturday.  He usually settles into the game room or upstairs for long gaps of time but he didn't leave us alone at all the whole time.  He mostly jumped on top of people or tried to get in their laps.  He's a lot of Morgan, so we were at least pleased that no one got hurt.

Timothy had basketball try-outs (well, not really try-outs, more like placement) Saturday and got his team placement for this season - the Minutemen.

Last week was career day at Timothy's school and one of the careers was sports marketing for UConn - so that would be why Timothy (after answering a UConn trivia question) came home with 4 tickets for UConn's first (exhibition) game of the season at Gampel (on campus vs. in Hartford).  And good seats at that!  So I rushed home (Uncle Joey covered for about 30 min in between when Josh left and when I got home) and Josh took all but Morgan over to the game.  They grabbed a quick bite at the Co-op first, which apparently was the funnest thing ever.  

The first half of the game was a little less fun, mostly bathroom trips and telling the kids to sit down and Jocelyn crying because Timothy got to be on the jumbotron but she didn't.  Josh was going to toss it in and leave early but then the cheerleaders came up into the stands and got Jesse and Jocelyn out into the aisle to show them some cheers.  Jocelyn even got to hold the pompoms AND she got to be on the jumbotron.  This made her night, and she kept saying to Josh "I remember when I became a star!" and also spent the rest of the game imitating the cheerleaders from her seat.  Jesse was quite smitten with the cheerleaders as well and flirted with them the rest of the night and on the walk back to the car (after the WHOLE game) said to Josh, "I miss the cheerleaders."

So a little past 10 the kids come BOUNDING in the door to tell me ALL about it, mouths running a mile a minute and each trying to be louder than the other.  We got them settled down for bed somehow, though Josh had quite a challenge getting them up for school in the morning.  He managed to get them all out though and Jesse even got to tell his whole class about it.

So a more eventful week than usual!  We also got back all the kids school pictures and they all came out pretty decent and I got my holiday cards ordered and finished all my Hanukkah and Christmas shopping and most of the wrapping.  Phew!

October 31, 2010

I'm too tired to write much.  It's chilly tonight and my hands are still cold from trick or treating, but the kids sure had fun!  Morgan's been asking for trick or treating all week, and I think this was the first year he hung in there the whole time. He also started eating his candy before we could even get the rest of the kids in the door and get it away from him.  He chose oreos, which is especially funny because when they got them, Jocelyn said to the neighbor "Morgan loves these!"  Jocelyn had a comment for everyone, but I was very proud that when asked if she liked peanutbutter cups (she doesn't), she just said umm and nothing else and took it with a smile.  

Jesse had the most energy I think and didn't even fade at the end.  In fact, he found the end especially exciting because at our house we were giving away lollipops, and those are his favorite and no one else had had them.

Not much else for news this week.  I came home early on Thursday and when I walked in the door, Jesse yelled, "but dinner's not ready!  and it's not dark yet!" Then I took off Friday and got to go pick up Jocelyn from the bus stop.  As she stepped off the bus she burst into tears and yelled "why didn't you come to my party!"  Oh dear! I didn't even know that parents were invited to the party!  And I had specifically checked her backpack each night that week to see if there was going to be a parade or something.  So I hugged her for a while before she calmed down and eventually she recovered enough to tell me all about the fun party and who wore what costume as we walked home.  Once home I looked in her backpack, where there was a note that parents were invited to the parade and party.  How did everyone else get theirs and mine was late??  Well, later that night we figured out why.  I asked her how notes got into her backpack - did the teacher put them there.  No, the teacher puts them in the mail boxes and then the kids take it from their mailbox and put them in their backpacks.  Ahhhhh, now it was getting clearer.  So I told Jocelyn she had to check her mail box EVERY DAY so that this wouldn't happen again.

Friday afternoon I met with Morgan's teachers to talk more about next year and then it was almost time for school to be out so I got to go into his classroom and pick him up to go home, which is always fun.

Saturday morning Josh and Timothy were up and out early to make a 6:30am flight to DC to go to the Rally to Restore Sanity.  Apparently, there was quite a bit of INsanity due to the shear number of people!  At least 150 thousand, maybe more.  So even getting there fairly early, they couldn't get close enough to even see or hear a jumbotron, much less the front!  So they hung out for a bit and then left and visited various tourist spots.  After resting at the hotel for a bit they met up with Aaron and Abbe and Becca for dinner at one of those Japanese places where they cook your food in front of you.  Sounds like fun!  Anyway, they made it back safe and sound today in time for trick or treating.

Oh, and all the kids were star trek officers - 2 reds, a blue, and a yellow.  I think I got at least one picture of everyone looking at the camera.

Happy Halloween!

October 24, 2010

Well, add another sentence to the list of things I never thought I'd say:

"Did Morgan eat my shoes?"

Timothy brought home his first term report card this week.  He has something like 8 classes and only got one B and it was in Art.  The rest were As and A+s, including 103 average in Science and a 95 in Math.  Go Timothy!

We started the week with Jocelyn having a stomach bug, of course starting while she was sleeping and going into the night.  Josh had to pick Morgan up from school on Monday, everyone stayed home Tuesday and then just Timothy was home on Wednesday.

Timothy had a school dance Friday night and got an 8th grade girl's number.  She proceeded to text him into the night until he finally turned off his phone.  By the time he turned it back on on Saturday around noon, he had 20 messages.  I explained the word "psycho" to him.

Jesse's in desperate need of new pants.  His all look like he is expecting a rather severe flood.  Luckily it's dumpster time!  Which means time to clean out all the drawers and move in the next sizes!  Also Big Brothers Big Sisters is making a drive through the neighborhood on 11/5 so we can leave boxes of clothes and household items out on the curb and they will pick them up.

One thing I already cleaned out was the costume closet and have a pile of ones that are too small for any child (or girl ones that are too small for Jocelyn).  I figured I would take them to work and see if anyone is interested - there are some pretty cute ones.

October 17, 2010

We mistakenly slept until 10:30 this morning.  Oops!  Well, I didn't sleep ALL the way through.  At 7:30 I got up to stand at the top of the stairs and scream "WHAT ON EARTH IS GOING ON DOWN THERE?" at the top of my lungs.  "Morgan's eating the play house!" was the answer.  "SO??" I retorted.  Then I went back to bed.  Just for a minute, or maybe 5 more minutes... I didn't expect to be left alone until it was nearly lunchtime!

I read an article a while ago that you really can catch up on sleep.  So if you get too little during the week but more than enough on the weekends, it really does even out.  I use this as an excuse for not feeling guilty when I sleep too much on the weekends.

Timothy's outgrown his shirts again, or at least his long sleeve shirts.  Sometimes I feel like all I do is buy clothes for the kids.  Where do they go??

We got Timothy and Jocelyn's school pictures this week.  Morgan only had his taken this week, so we won't see his for another month I guess, and Jesse a week before Morgan's I assume.  Jocelyn's came out REALLY cute, and also she was able to tell me most of the names of the kids in her class picture.  Jocelyn is easy to pick out - she's the one in the back row smiling so big her eyes are practically shut.

Jesse has a friend at school.  Her name is Sarah.  Jesse says he tells Sarah that she's beautiful and Sarah tells him he's handsome.  He says they play together at centers. I asked what they play at centers.  "Whatever she picks," says Jesse.  Fast learner that one.

I was giving Jesse a few physical challenges yesterday.  I asked him to stand still and then jump as far forward as he could.  I think he can jump farther than I can.  And the most impressive part is that he really sticks the landing.  He jumps off the couch and does a flip in a very well formed pike position before landing on the floof.  He really has some impressive skills.

Josh went to a concert Friday night so I managed to not lose any of the kids and even get them all into bed by myself.

We got a note home last week from Miss Dana.  She said Jesse had told everyone at circle time that a chipmunk had driven his car.  She didn't believe it at first (the week before he told everyone that Josh had 4 flat tires and that's why they were late to school, when really the bus had been late to drop Jocelyn off), but when pressed he gave amazing detail and she wanted to know if it was true.

October 9, 2010

Some days at work I have to remind myself that I'm not a doctor.  Lives do not depend on my actions.  It is not the end of the world if I divide by 2 instead of multiplying by 0.5.

Some days it seems like a competition for who can be the most busy, the most stressed out, the most challenged.  Some days it seems like a competition for whose job is the least fun.  And interesting enough, many concede to my victory without even being asked.  So-and-so will come in to my office with the lead-in "I know your problems are bigger than mine, but I need your help."

Why is there such a competition over who can be the worst off?  It's not just at work. My kids sleep worse than yours.  They have more activities and I spend way more time than you do driving them around. My husband helps less than yours.  My heat is more expensive.  My income is lower.  My mortgage is higher.  My taxes are higher.  My parents are crazier.  My boss is meaner.  My company is worse.  I work more/earlier/later.  My commute is longer.  My car requires more servicing.  I pay more for my kid's college.  My dog throws up more.  I'm so busy that I can only talk to you in the car or while I'm walking to the mailbox or while I'm cleaning up dog puke.  You couldn't possibly understand how busy I am.

Well, today I declare that I lose.

My job is busy and stressful and I work a lot.  But I don't work as much as some, I like my job, and most of all, I have a job.  So clearly I lose.

My kids are many and loud and they sleep less than I'd like.  But I get more hugs, more love, and more appreciation of the wonder and awe of the little things in life. What ARE stars made of?  So clearly I lose.

My mortgage is high and my heat is expensive.  Surprisingly, these things both relate to the fact that I live in a big house that I love.  I love my house.  I love my giant ugly jacuzzi tub that's brown with brass fixtures.  So clearly I lose.

My commute is only 30 minutes.  I actually like the 30 minutes.  I take deep breaths and listen to NPR and count backwards from 100 while letting my crazy day escape me.  And on most Fridays I work at home and have no commute at all except to get from my bedroom to my office.  So clearly I lose.

My parents are crazy (sorry guys) but they are financially stable and they don't pop in without calling.  I definitely lose there.

My husband treats me like a princess and does all the household chores and manages to get the kids to and from school on a mostly daily basis.  That's not even a contest!

I am, quite possibly, the luckiest person I know.  I am thankful that I recognize that. I'm also thankful to recognize that for the most part, it's not luck.

Maybe I don't lose after all.

September 26, 2010

Jesse's teacher (Miss Dana) called this week and talked to Josh.  She said that Jesse is the greatest kids ever at school and his enthusiasm is contagious, yada yada yada, but there's just one little thing.  There's one other kid that ADORES Jesse and follows him around all the time and it drives Jesse crazy.  They are working with this other kid (he's a special kid) but you know, it takes some time, so she was hoping we could talk to him about trying to be patient or at least going talk to the teacher when he's frustrated.

Josh and I of course think this is hilarious, seeing as when he's home, he generally spends most of his time following one or both of us around.  We tried to explain to Jesse that when he follows us around, he likes it when we're nice to him right, so he should be nice to his friend.  He didn't really get it, but did agree to try.

Oh, and we asked why the other kid frustrates him, and he says because he sits in the wrong seat at circle.  In other words, he doesn't follow the "rules" - oy my kids! He still wakes up every morning SO excited to go to school though, and Miss Dana says he checks the board every morning first thing to see if the schedule says they are going outside that day.

Jocelyn used the bathroom at kindergarten for the first time this week.  I guess she had forgotten where it was so didn't want to use it, but Thursday she really had to so she had to ask the teacher where it was.  It was traumatic enough that she actually talked about it when she got home.

Jocelyn's class has library once a week or so.  She never brings home a book.  I asked why didn't she bring home a book and she said she didn't want to.  After much back and forth and confusion I finally got it out of her that she's afraid that she'll forget to take it back to school.  I assume the librarian must have given them all the fear of god for not returning a book, so now she doesn't want to borrow one for fear she'll forget to return it.

One day this week I asked Jocelyn what she did at school.  "I'll tell you what I did at school," she says, "but I don't want to tell you what I did on the bus."  Much coaxing later, turns out she was kneeling on the bus instead of sitting and the bus driver told her to sit down.  She almost cried telling me.

I'm meeting with Morgan's teacher on Friday to start talking about what will happen next year.  She will be biased to keeping him in the SW school system I'm sure, and maybe that's the best thing (it's certainly most convenient!) but I have questions as to how the routine and curriculum will actually work in middle school for him.

Timothy had the first school dance of the season this past Friday.  It was actually "activity night", so not just dancing but there was a movie in the auditorium and there was bowling and some other games.  He had a good time as usual and apparently slow danced with 6 girls at the same time.

Jeremy came for a visit this weekend and I'm not sure the kids let him have a quiet thought the whole time he was here!  They were all over him, which was just super cute.

September 12, 2010

I looked at my blackberry yesterday and it said Sat, Sept 11.  I couldn't figure out why it looked so weird to me.  But later on it dawned on me - Sept 11th was a Tuesday, and I don't think it'll ever be anything else.

Timothy has been desperate for a pair of skinny jeans.  Josh thinks skinny jeans are dumb, especially for boys.  So when Josh was in the bathroom earlier this week, Timothy slipped me some cash and I ordered them for him online.  They were delivered yesterday and he's been wearing them today.  Despite the fact that I think they are dumb too, he seems to like them and they don't look THAT bad.  Luckily they were out of his first color choice - red - and so he went for black.  Josh is not enjoying his fashion choice, which means Josh and I have spent the day arguing over Timothy's right to look like an idiot if that's what he wants (and if he pays for it).  I argue the pro, Josh argues the con.  Josh thinks the kids will call him names and that we should dress him in order to avoid that.  I think that our dressing him will not prevent that, and may make it worse!  Josh and I are not exactly models of current fashion.  Plus, fashion is sort of liking dancing - it doesn't really matters if you're any good, it only matters that you can sell it.  Actually, I guess that's like a lot of things. So anyway - next online purchase will be some herbal chill pills for Josh.  Just wait until Jocelyn's in the 7th grade!

Timothy and Morgan's CMT test scores came yesterday.  Timothy's were fine, though not as much better than last year as the grade average.  Morgan's were an adapted CMT for special kids, and he still failed horribly, except for the "access" skills, which measure a child's ability to be integrated into a normal school environment.  I guess that's something?  A couple of the math ones he did fair, and receptive language he did ok, everything else - well, he could have slept through the entire test and I don't think I would have noticed a difference in the scores.

I still can't get any names out of Jocelyn.  She says the "dark curly haired girl" is her friend that she sits with on the bus and they always wait for each other.  Josh also says there's a boy on the bus in the morning that waves to Jocelyn and she waves back.  Jocelyn says she likes gym class, but she doesn't like music as much.  I asked why she doesn't like music, and she says because she likes gym.  Apparently they got to have races like animals across the gym and she thought the crab was especially funny.

Jesse's teacher says he's doing great in school so far and is a happy participator in class.  Josh says there is a really cute little girl in Jesse's class and so Josh pointed her out and said to Jesse, "is that cute little girl in your class?"  Jesse replied, "ewww dad, girls aren't cute."

September 9, 2010

Jesse:

My day of school had we goed outside and we were swinging and we got to circle times.  And then we were gonna go home.  Oh, and we did table top too.  And then I had circle time after table top.  We readed a book.  And then we went outside.  I swinged and I slided on the big slide and on the twirly whirly and then we just did another circle time.  Then we went home.  And that's all the secrets I have, so bye bye.

Jocelyn:

I want to talk to the bus home.  What Jocelyn did on the bus home.  She talked to her friends.  She talked about gingerbreads and she likes to eat the gingerbreads all up. Ok, now I'll talk about Bus 9.  Also I'm in room 9.  When we go to our classroom, we go to the library again after and we did writer's workshop at the library instead. That's where I want to end it but it's not the end at all.  That's not just it, I just want to make it it.

September 6, 2010

All the kids survived the first week of school - yay!  The schedule goes like this:

7:20ish Timothy leaves for the bus

8am Josh takes all the other 3 down to the bus stop

8-8:15 the kids play at the bus stop, including Morgan who really likes it and the other kids are nice to him so far (maybe because they are afraid that otherwise he'll eat them)

One day Morgan's bus came first, the other two Jocelyn's bus came first, but they are generally close together

After the busses come, Josh and Jesse head home

noon - Josh and Jesse drive to the bus stop to wait for Jocelyn

When she arrives, they drive over to Eli Terry to drop Jesse off at preschool

3:10pm Josh and Jocelyn pick Jesse up at preschool

3:30pm Morgan's bus drops him off at home

So Josh is never actually alone and spends a good part of the day either waiting for a bus or driving back and forth to a school.

I think Jesse had the most fun at school.  He told me they did TWO circle times and he had something that looked like a granola bar but wasn't a granola bar for snack and he picked water.  The 2nd day he told us that Miss Dana had to tell him shush at circle time because we have to raise our hands to talk.  Jocelyn said they do that at her school too.  Jesse asked why we don't do it at home.  I said maybe we should.

Thursday morning he jumped out of bed going from dead asleep to the "I'M GOING TO SCHOOL TODAY!" shuffle in 2 seconds flat.

Jocelyn's 2nd day started a little rough because she got to school off the bus and realized she didn't know how to find the right hallway and started to cry.  What she didn't know is that the 5th graders wait out there for the kindergartners the first week and help them to their room, so someone was along quickly to help her.  Then she said the rest of the day was fine.  They had library but she didn't pick a book because "we already have all those books".  I guess we do have a lot of books!

Jocelyn knows 2 names of friends in her class - Brian and Hope.  When she says Hope, she giggles.  I asked why.  "Because Hope is something that you do!"

Morgan's week seems to have been fine and a fairly easy transition for him.  Today he got a haircut that he sat through very nicely!  Maybe the secret was the mirror as I cut it in the bathroom with him sitting on a stool in front of the mirror instead of cutting it in the kitchen up on the higher stool and without a mirror.  Whatever it was, he sat fairly still and even moved his head up and down wherever I pointed him.  He said "almost done" 30 or 50 times, but besides that, he did great.

Timothy also seems to have had a fine week.  He was so worried the first day of school because Josh told him not to dawdle getting home so he could get Morgan off the bus just in case Josh didn't get home in time from getting Jesse.  But Timothy's bus was really late and at 3:30 when Josh was out waiting for Morgan's bus, he saw Timothy running in 95 degree heat from his own bus stop 2 streets away.  He's such a good kid.  Josh told him not to worry the other days now that he knew he'd make it from Jesse's school in time, but the other days Timothy got home at the more normal 3pm timeframe anyway.

Saturday mom and dad came down to sit for the kids while Josh and I went to a coworker's wedding.  It was very nice, and nice to get out of the house!  We hit grandma up for our first (of many) fundraiser for the year - Otis Spunkmeyer cookies.

Yesterday we went to the playground in the afternoon. It was gorgeous out.  Just as nice out today - what a beautiful weekend!

I've been working on getting the old updates posted to my new blog and I'm up midway through 2005, so just 5 more years to go!  We just sold the house and went to Elisabeth's bridal shower.  I'm working full time, nursing Jocelyn all night, repainting the old house, and packing.  Morgan was biting his teachers, Timothy was upset because his teacher yelled too much.  Boy that was a stressful time!  Makes life these days seem pretty simple and relaxed.

August 29, 2010

I'm typing this from the deck, sitting up to our new patio furniture (that was on end of summer clearance at Home Depot with free shipping!).  The younger 3 kids are actually outside playing - what a novel idea!  The set got delivered this week and I had planned to put it together this weekend.  When I got home from work on Friday, Jesse was jumping up and down with his lips pressed shut.  I wondered if he was having  seizure.  He started to say something that I couldn't quite make out, but the others shushed him.  Then, with quite a dramatic flare, Jocelyn pulled the curtain to the deck open and everyone starting jumping up and down!  Josh and Joey and the kids had put almost everything together already and it was all set up.  Everyone helped and was very proud of themselves.  

I've now been asked 500 times if I love my surprise, each time with the asker practically exploding from excitement.  It's nice out here now though, and I brought all the work I had to do yesterday out here and sat most of the day listening to the kids play, so it was barely even like working!  Well, almost...

This week was my first official week in the new job, and apparently just in time as it scored me an invitation to the Aetna Leaders Forum on Thursday and Friday.  28 tables set up in the auditorium, 7 rows of 4, 7 people per table (so about 200 of us I guess), and from what I could tell, your importance was generally correlated with your proximity to the front of the room.  I was in the back row.  My boss was in the front, my peers were in between.  It was actually a pretty good agenda - lots of outside speakers.  The key note address was from the CEO of Xerox - she was hysterical!

Timothy has to make an 8x8 quilt square to bring for the first day of school.  Since I don't really sew, he picked out some pictures yesterday and we designed it in photoshop, so today I just need to print it out and iron it on to a fabric square.  We started to make it last weekend but after an hour of searching, could not locate an iron.  I know there is one somewhere in this house, but I guess one of the closets ate it.  Downside of a big house. Or maybe it's just a statement as to my organizational skills.  In any case, Josh went out this week and purchased a new one, and we've managed to keep track of it since Tuesday.

While getting the iron at Target, Josh also finished most of the school supply shopping - and what a list.  Timothy needed a 2 inch binder for every subject (which also means filler paper, tabs etc).  Morgan needed one binder and folders.  Everyone needed colored pencils.  Etc etc.  He had to elbow an assortment of other stay at home parents, but came home with everything except a pencil box and erasable pens.  One more trip to CVS by Wednesday ought to do it.  Jocelyn's tag to wear the first week, with her name, classroom, bus number, etc, came this week.  I think I'm more nervous about the kids going to school than I ever was about myself going.  I just hope Jocelyn listens...

Morgan said hi to me yesterday.  Sounds like a small thing, I know.  But it was the first time it ever happened without me prompting him.  Usually the way it works is something like this:

me: Hi Morgan

M: Hi Morgan

me: Hi MORGAN

M: Hi Miss MOMMY

Yesterday I was sitting out on the deck (reading through 600 pages of comments from the employee survey).  Morgan opened the door and stood there for a minute. He took a step outside.  I kept reading.  He closed the door behind him, I kept reading.  He walked over in front of me, I kept reading.  "Hi," he said.  I looked up. He looked me in the eye and smiled.  "Yes, you can come out and play", I said.  He walked over to the loveseat swing thing to swing.  I fought back some tears and then returned to my reading.

Josh took the 3 youngest to a play date at Shelby's house this week.  Shelby is Jocelyn's friend from preschool, and she has a 2 1/2 year old brother and an 8 year old brother.  Her older brother has a rare affliction that causes him to pass out for random periods of time, generally sparked by some kind of smell.  I'm not exactly sure of the details, but what it means is he doesn't walk very well and has some other delays with speech and such, but is generally aware and intelligent when he's awake.  

Apparently he was quite smitten with Jocelyn.  Jocelyn had gone down to their finished basement to play and he was sitting at the top of the stairs trying to get someone's attention.  Josh stooped down to see what he wanted.  "Jocelyn" he said, pointing.  So Josh put him on his back and carried him downstairs.  When Jocelyn came up, Josh went down and got him and brought him back up.  But the sweetest part of the story is that Jocelyn played with him and included him and was chatting him up, filling in some of his parts of the conversation.  She left his side a few times to go play with Shelby, but generally returned quickly, and he was so happy to see her.  Too cute!

While at Shelby's, Shelby's mom made the mistake of opening their very well stocked freezer in Morgan's presence.  Waffles, gogurts, you name it.  Morgan practically exploded from excitement and started asking for food.  Shelby's mom asked if she could give him something.  "No no," Josh said.  "Don't feed the bear.  If he starts he'll never stop and we'll have to move in."  On a related note, our efforts to slim Morgan down a little have not been successful.

Let's see, I guess that means I need a Jesse story.  Well, not a very glorious story, but Jesse wet the bed 3 times this week.  In the 18 or 20 months since he's been wearing underwear to bed, he's only wet the bed maybe 3 or 4 times before this week, and now 3 times in the same week?  No idea what's going on there.  Maybe a growth spurt?  He does seem to be getting taller by the minute, but then that's always true.  I can't think of any other Jesse stories.  Oh, he ate another stick of my chapstick this week, but then that's not really news.  Luckily I found about 25 chapsticks at Walgreens a year ago on clearance for 24 cents each.  He hasn't quick eaten all of them yet.  I think they have vitamins in them...

August 22, 2010

I know I already wrote this weekend but the kids were restless from the rainy day inside so we decided to do a Q&A session that I had to share.  I must say I type fairly quickly but it was a challenge keeping up!

Q: What did you do on vacation?

Jocelyn: Ummm, one day I goed on a float with daddy but I was too scared though but when I goed on a water walk with mommy I just got a little bit scared but when I went on a float with mommy well that was the first time I went on a float.  I goed underwater one day and then I just loved Jesse and touched his feet one day and mommy's, that was a lot of feet.  One day mommy checked on her - what's it called? oh yeah, email.  Sometimes Jesse whines.  But I like going under water.  ok bye.  But I'm not done, I want to do another one.  Tell me when I'm gonna do another one.  I did a lot of things right?

Jesse:  Last night when I was at vacation, I got super underwear.  And then I was going downstairs and then I was gonna tell you something mommy.  Then I was gonna play for a little bit and then you said we're going swimming.  And then that's it.  That's all mine.  Hey mom, what did you do on vacation?  Mom what you did? MOM!

Q:  What will Jesse do in Miss Dana's class?

Jocelyn:  Well, first he goes to table top but maybe it's outside first but he'll have more fun outside but only when it's sunny so when it's raining he doesn't go outside. He'll do what Jocelyn did.  She just cleaned a whole playground at school.  There's lots of slides.  One of them are fun like a twirly slide.  Ok we're going back to Jesse.

Jesse:  I was gonna play with the toys and then (Jocelyn breaks in: you have to do what the teacher says you know.  Jesse: when the teacher says jump I'll jump. Jocelyn: she doesn't say jump. It's not like Mrs. Gerber's class).

Q: What is your favorite toy?

Jesse: my favorite toy is everything.  My favorite toys is everything.  Mom, my favorite toys is everything.

Jocelyn: my favorite toy is, well, I don't have a favorite.  Well, my favorite toy is…  is…  is…  uh…  Well, I like my toy dresses.  Ok can I do my favorite game on computer?

Q:  What is your favorite computer game?

Jocelyn: the one who you make music so you can speed up and get louder and my other favorite game on computer is from crystal kingdom and did you know it has a flying unicorn?  Dora wants to find a unicorn and they love to find a unicorn cuz it flies with wings.  Ok that's my favorite computer games.

Jesse: uh, my favorite game is everything in the whole world.  I love everything in the whole world.  Mom I said I like everything in the whole world game.  Mom!

Morgan:  Nemo!

August 20, 2010

Well, I guess it's been a while!  So let's back track to July 30th or so and see if I can account for our time.

The evening of Friday July 30th was my grandmother's wake.  While a wake could hardly be termed "fun", it was so nice to meet all her friends (some for the first time, some not) and hear many stories of her.  One thing was constant in every conversation - the fact that every single one of her friends had seen every single picture of her great-grandchildren that we had ever sent.  Most of her friends were obsessed with telling me how much I looked like her, even though really I don't look much like her.  But we both have short hair I guess.

Friday night my cousins Brian and Lauren (and Lauren's husband and son) came back to our hotel room and we all hung out.  Josh and I had 2 adjoining rooms (one for the kids) and so the kids were sleeping in one room while we hung out (including Elisabeth, Rob, and Chase) in the other.  Much beer and many stories and laughs later, it was time for bed.

Saturday morning was the funeral.  I don't think I've been in church since my grandfather died back in 1992.  I forgot how much it creeped me out!  But I know Grammy would have wanted it that way, so there you go.  I delivered the eulogy without totally breaking out into tears, though I had hoped to hold it together a little better.  The bottom line is I love her desperately and will miss her every day.  After the funeral and burial was the reception at the Sunday School Hall where Grammy's friends' daughter Lilly did just a wonderful job of getting us all fed.  I was so glad to meet Lilly as she had done so much to help with all the arrangements and been such a good friend to my grandmother.

After the reception (hmmm, is it even called a reception?) we headed to Gray, ME, for the Mann Family reunion (mom's side of the family).  By now Morgan was getting rather irritated with being shoveled from place to place.  We stayed as long as he could tolerate it - the rest of us were having fun.  But Morgan could smell that we were near the lake and after about 2 hours he finally insisted on simply sitting in the car until the rest of us complied with leaving.

That meant it was time to drive around the lake.  We knew Morgan must be hungry and were surprised when he didn't asked to stop at Wendy's or McDonald's.  But then, around the bend, we were approaching the Ice Cream Dugout when we finally heard him speak up: "Ice cream?"

We got all checked into the cabin and Elisabeth & family were not too far behind. The next day Mandy & family and mom and dad joined us.  We had sun sun sun! Mandy and Elisabeth left Sunday and mom and dad left Tuesday morning.  For the rest of the vacation we had more sun sun sun!  Ahhhhh vacation.  It was just oh so awesome.  Beautiful weather, beautiful water, just awesome.  Mostly we just swam every day (one during sunlight hours, again in the evening when we didn't need sunscreen).  We ventured out for food, and also once for shopping and fudge. Generally we subsisted on lobster and wine.

I did have to work a little on vacation.  Right before I left my boss told me she had taken another position and so the big boss offered me her job.  Yikes!  I'm now officially a big freakin' deal and have 95.3 people reporting to me.  Because of the level of the position, there had to be a communication "strategy" that couldn't happen before I left, so I had to do some communication meetings while I was out. Not the biggest deal in the world.

While my first official day in my new job is not until this coming Monday, my soon-to-be old boss was on vacation this week, so really I started this week.  And this morning was my first big meeting where I had to have opinions in front of the CEO, CFO, etc and be questioned on such opinions by them and the onlooking remainder of our senior management.  I'm happy to report I survived the day, and even received unsolicited compliments on my opinion-delivery.  So yay!

Other changes necessitated by my new position: I bought 5 new suits and colored my hair.  Yes, the gray was finally too much.  So as of today, I am gray-free.  I went with just a shade darker than my natural color.  And apparently I have made this decision just in time because in a few weeks I will be recording a web cast with my peers to be broadcast to 25,000 people!  ack!

So I guess that's about it.  School starts 9/1 so one more week of vacation for the kids!