Seasons, one, all....

Jake, the master of all trades, has restored the Golf to running condition.  i actually took it to Baltimore (2, 2 1/2 hours drive, one way) with no troubles.  When i got back into town, just into city limits, 1st and 2nd gear went away :) .  i pulled into a strange warehouse and called Jake for help, but he couldn't help me.  i am not mechanically astute enough to manage the transmission below an older diesel engine.  But a VW mechanic sacrificed 2/3 of his lunch hour to show me how to find both gears so i wouldn't burn up the clutch.  His name was Mike, he was *the* VW mechanic of the business, and he was just coming out of what i now know was All About Cars, a repair shop, to eat his McLunch when i was out on the phone with Jake with the hood up.  How God cares, whether you can see it or not.  When he got home, Jake tightened the loose whatever-it-was, and all has been well since.  We'll get a kit to fix it so it never happens again at some point.  When i'm a little better organized and recovered, "Mike" at All About Cars will get a thank-you card and a gift card to McDonald's.  i hope he was eating it that day because he likes it and not because he had to.  Maybe i should get him a gift certificate for someplace else.

So what did our trip to Baltimore reveal?  Well, first of all, that i love Kennedy Krieger at Johns Hopkins medical center.  Everyone i dealt with was astute and interested -- even the receptionists, who took a personal interest in my well-being and assisted me more than they had to (and more than i wanted them to :) ) once they caught glimpse of my gigantic stomach.  NewBaby4 is doing well, quite active.  Likely has a future in kick-boxing.  i'm exhausted.

The children were both rather intensively tested.  Isabel is indeed on the spectrum, although more high-functioning than Andrew, and Andrew needs much more, i found, than he's getting at school and at home.  i was surprised by both findings -- i just didn't realize what i was missing in my day-to-day interactions with my children.  We really won't know just what it is Andrew needs until after he receives a neuro-psychological evaluation, which will likely happen at Johns Hopkins.  In about a month i can expect to receive all the paperwork on what the speech therapist and doctor did find on both children, and i can start from there.

i mentioned NewBaby4, and have been receiving loving criticism for not talking more about him or her.  i apologize; i'll find a ticker somewhere sometime, and will be more descriptive in future posts.

"You Call Yourself a Xangsta but You Don't Post Nothin'!"

I saw that somewhere on the site when i was considering starting a blog here.  i thought it was cute; and it never left my head.  Now i know why: it's me!!!  Sorry.

Hello friends -- i'm posting because i never post.  Here's the latest:

Andrew and Isabel are going to Kennedy Krieger at Johns Hopkins (Baltimore, MD) next week for evaluations!  We'll leave the 17th, spend the night at a hotel, and go through two days of testing for both.  There will be more testing later, this is all we could fit in this trip.  We are visiting Autism specialists, but i think they'll be more open-minded than the ASD specialists were at Kluge Children's Rehab Center at VCU.  We'll return the 20th.  i'm excited to get some accurate, professional ideas about the two more enigmatic of my three children. 

Wait, what am i saying?!?  Eric has turned into a punk.  He's not the same kid in kindergarten that he was in preschool.  The second day of school, he came home with a note that he punched a kid in the stomach.  Timario had it coming for the racial comments that he said to Eric (if Eric is to be believed, and i do, because there's no other place Eric could have learned what he repeated to me), but still....Later Eric comes home with principal's notes for spitting in somebody's hair and unruly conduct on the bus.  Eric.....

The rest of us are okay.  i am stuggling with transportation -- i don't have any.  The Golf is down until Jake finds a special (hard to locate) bolt that can hold the alternator where it belongs, and the tags expired last month on my dad's car, which  he offered to me to be driving until his license is reinstated.  Nobody with access seems to be in a hurry to renew them.  All our family of six has is an '84 Chevy S-10 (15 mpg, 18 hwy mpg -- woo hoo!!).  No, no extended cab ;) .  So only two of us at a time can go anywhere!  But i'm grateful for the truck -- where would we be without it?

Completed WIP: Mittens for the birthday girl

Current WIP (Knitting): A sweater for Isabel

pics to come soon

Yes, there are no pictures....

i know, i'm sorry, there are no pictures yet of my trip to visit my family and a great friend from Oklahoma becauseihavelostallthefilmfromthetripsomehow.  My sincerest apologies!  They'll be posted ASAP, promise! Notice i put "asap" and not "soon".  i'm confident i'll find the film -- i had prepared to send it to Snapfish, put labels on it and everything, then i set it someplace "safe" where i'd be sure to find it when i finished the last roll in the camera.  Damn it.

In other news, Isabel will soon no longer receive speech services.  No, it's not because she's made such large gains, but more because she hasn't made...any...gains.  Not at all, and she has stopped making the "ma" sounds that i thought would become her word for me.  i requested an evaluation a while back for an Occupational Therapy consulation, and when my case manager reviewed our lack of progress after 5 months ST and my reasons for request, my OT request was granted.  Some of the reasons i was concerned were the fact that once Bella finally started walking, she wouldn't walk on grass (not even soft, silky new stuff), but has never minded pebbles.  She was afraid of door threshholds (the odd angle?), and she used to eat anything but now won't touch wet food, such as fresh fruit, or eat anything unpredictable (e.g. fruit in yogurt).  Finally, she licks everything.  She licks or puts into her mouth all toys still (she's a little old for that at 27 months), she licks the windows, the t.v., people, the walls, will bend over and lick the floor.   If you're sitting on the couch she'll walk up and lick your knees.  She will be evaluated Aug. 17, and we'll check to see if an OT need is causing processing problems that keep her from communicating.

We're also having her tested by an autism specialist, among a team of other developmental specialists, at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Balitimore, MD.  Lately i've been seeing behaviors in her that are bringing back memories of Andrew at this age, just in a more subtle way.  For example, Andrew couldn't handle it when i left and would try to beat the door down, until i returned.  He also was a headbanger.  Isabel has a similar attachment to me, but she gets over it within a few minutes.  But at 27 months i should be able to go upstairs, or even into the kitchen, without her screaming in fright.  She also kind of enters into her own "little world" sometimes, like Andrew did, and does it more often than atypical developing children her age.  Finally, she has some unusual strengths, including able to count to 15 by rote, and displaying one-to-one correspondence to five.  Her fine motor, unlike Andrew's, is exceptionally developed and has always been, to the point of really weird.

Three out of three autistic kids? -- huh -- Jake and i like to be thorough, i guess! :)

Nowtofindthatfilm.

Clicking Your Heels Won't Work

But saving up your money and buying a plane ticket (or four) likely will get you back to Kansas, and that's where i'm going! :)  Joy!  Rapture! 

i haven't seen my sister, my father, my nephews and niece, aunts, uncles or in-laws for three and a half-years, and when i did, it was when my mother passed away.  None of them have ever met Isabel, who just turned two.  My brother-in-law and his beautiful wife are due any day with their second child.  But now i am going for and with such happiness; to see my sister graduate.  She worked her you-know-what off and is graduating as an M.A., with director's honors, and after watching her nearly kill herself to get through a very tough time in her life, i am intensely determined to see her grab her degree and be given the recognition she deserves, in front of everybody.  Cheryl has inspired me to grow beyond myself in small ways every day.  The end result is unimaginable, but it will be worth it.

My beautiful children and i will be flying out May 31 and returning at some point that is currently unknown to us.  Since our car is on its last leg, which is practically gangrenous (is that a word?), and my dad isn't driving right now, we are borrowing his car for a while and driving it back.  How i relish that 1500-mile trip with my beautiful children. :)  No, really!  Actually, Jake may be able to fly out later and drive back with me.  i'm really hoping so!  But if not, we'll make it...joyfully.  i will choose to put on my Good Attitude shirt (and keep it on), and i will choose to hold on to my sense of humor, hour-by-hour.  i want my children to remember this as a fun opportunity to fly in an airplane, enjoy the Sedwick County Zoo (far superior to our own National Zoo, sad to say), maybe ride Grandpa Joe's horse with me, and enjoy family without it being Crabby Yellfest 2007, courtesy of Mom.  Since they are so young, it's my responsibility to make certain that is how it is.  Of course, we all know, only with God's help, do i stand a chance :) .  So i'll be asking (or do i mean "pleading"?), and let's see what He does.  All who read this are welcome to ask Him to make me nice with me :) !

And if i'm lucky, i'll see my newest neice or nephew while i'm out there :) .  But if things go like they often do, Patricia will go into labor after i cross the state line into Missouri on my way home. We'll see :) .  Either way, "Speedy Delivery" Patricia!

Photos to come.

Happiness and Cosmic Kick-Me Signs

Isabel qualified for interventive speech services when she was evaluated late February, but not physical services.  She has caught up to age-appropriate in her walking.  Wonderful! :)  i'm so glad.

Also wonderful would be that i am sure the long-awaited sound of my little girl saying "Mamma" is coming soon.  She started including "mamamamama" in her babbling again last week, as she did so long ago before abruptly stopping.  i can't wait to hear her call me Mommy or Mama, or anything really!  Andrew did not call me anything until he was three, when our neighbor girl, Deborah, who often babysat him, worked very hard to help him understand i had a name and it was Mommy.  For the time being, since Isabel hasn't made much progress of any type with the last couple months of therapy, we're trying Picture Exchange Communication (PECs).  She hands me a picture of something she wants, and i give it to her.  The point is to teach the non-verbal the value of communication and force them to engage personally while they do it.  We just started today, so hopefully i'll have some progress to report shortly.

We're also kind of high on life because of the gift of having each other.  Late March Jake had an accident in the home and i had to face the possibility of being a widowed mother of three for a very brief, but ugly enough, time.  At 1:30 one morning he woke up feeling terribly sick and with horrid stomach cramps, so he tried to get to the restroom.  We sleep in a finished attic, and on the way down the stairs to the restroom on the second floor, he passed out.  i heard him fall down the first flight, then an awful crack, then he fell the rest of the way down the stairs and landed on his face (except for the linoleum in the bathroom and kitchen, our floors and stairs are entirely hardwood).  The crack was his head smashing into a solid oak door frame.  i came down to find him face down in a pool of blood, and he wasn't breathing.  i couldn't turn his 225 lbs over, but i could pull his head out of the pool, and figured Randy and i together could get him over when Randy was off the phone with the EMS.  We didn't have to try; within about 40 seconds he began to breathe, and it was awful sounding; loud and gurgling.  His nose is fractured and he was breathing blood all the way in and just as much out.  But he did come back to consciousness before the EMS got here, and even got up to finish in the bathroom what he had originally come down for :) .  He was terribly confused and in quite a bit of shock, but coming back to us very well.