Saturday, December 13, 2008

Deck the Halls.....& our house!





Here are some pics of the house and our tree. I decided to take some before the rest of the lights went out..LOL! We lost one string during yesterdays storm.

Taking the boys to Target; and remembering why I shop online in December!

Today I had to take Michael to Target so that he could pick out a birthday present for his friends' party this evening. Temperatures were hovering in the upper 30's, so it was time to break out the heavy duty coats. We said our goodbyes to daddy; and were off. During the 15 minute ride there Nick manages to take off the brand new shoes that we bought him last week. We have yet to find a pair of shoes that he cannot wrangle out of. Not even the lace-up high tops. They might buy us a few more minutes at most;but they too come off. He has also managed to take off his socks, and his jacket. A regular Houdini this one is! We get to Target, and I spend the first few minutes outside putting clothing back on my four yr old. Today I am very thankful it is not raining!

We walk in and the store is chaos with all the holiday shoppers. I give it 20 minutes before we are on the verge of meltdown. I opted for a carry basket instead of a cart and told Michael to get it for me. Hoping against hope that this was not a decision I would regret. We had barely made it to the toy aisle when things started to fall apart. Michael accidentally hit Nick in the head with the basket; and Nick was wailing.
"He should watch where he is going! It is not my fault!" as I console Nick, who is carrying on like he has lost a limb. "Say you're Sorry!" I tell Michael. "Tell him to watch where he is going!" he retorts back. "Say you are sorry or you are not going to the birthday party!". He forces his lips to say "Sorry". We continue on with our journey-trying to think of what the kid would like. Michael is a few steps ahead, I am back with Nick who is poking at all the bright packages with his pointer finger. In my head at this very second I am thinking this classifies as a "point" of some sort(and no, I don't care what all the experts say right now, after TWO YEARS this is as close to a point as we have gotten; let me have this one.) Nick finds one of his very favorite needle toys-and I have to be the bad guy to say "All done" and take it away. You can imagine what comes next. Total loss of control. Fortunately, through the years, I do not get as flustered as I used to. Afterall, I have endured years worth of countless meltdowns-nothing shocks this momma anymore. After a few minutes, Nick regains composure(maybe realizing the fact that we are not about to leave?) and finds an Elmo doll to comfort him the rest of the way. Fine. Whatever. Works. We find our items, and we are even carrying home some birthday ribbon(don't ask, it was cheaper than the Elmo doll ok?) We made it home in one piece, and we accomplished our goal. It was a successful day!

Friday, December 12, 2008

Brrrrrr!

It is finally starting to feel like Christmas around here. We have had rather warm temperatures for the past few weeks now, and I was wondering when it would start getting cold. Well, we got our answer: This weekend. We are also going to get snow to go along with those lowering temperatures. This week was pretty nice and stress free. Last Sunday we spent the day putting up our Christmas tree and lights up on the house. Unfortunately, the wind and rain today blew out our icicle lights, so they are no longer lighting up. Not sure what happened, as all the connections still looked good; but oh well. We still have the other lights that we put up, and the yard decorations. I had the day off work, and I was able to catch up on the laundry and grocery shop before the weather crap really hits the fan. Nick had his usual appointment at UW this afternoon. Today was the first day that it was an hour and a half long. He did fine the first hour, but by the time the extra 30 min was up he was ready to go. He was stimming quite a bit, and not used to the longer sessions. I am getting sick of waiting for his OT to start. I was told last Feb that it would only be "4 months" to wait, now, here we are nearly 1 year later and no OT. I have called this place numerous times recently, only to get brushed off. Needless to say, we are looking elsewhere. Makes me so sick because I feel like we just wasted all this time WAITING; only to be let down AGAIN. Today, Nick's therapist at UW gave us some info for some FREE OT-to start in Feb. FREE is for ME! She gave us the paperwork to fill out, and the best thing is; we do not need a Doctor referral!! I also called up the special ed tutor today, and she starts next Thursday. Things are going to get better-I just have to tell myself that. We think he is finally ready to start potty training-we are going to concentrate on that when school is out for the holiday break. Wish us luck!! I will post pictures of snow when we start to get some this weekend.