Just another Friday night

Tonight we have the privilege of having Dominic for an overnight.  It's a rare honor and we love it.  Tomorrow when he wakes up hours before everyone else does my opinion may change, but now while he is sleeping in the other room - priceless.

We don't know why, but Dominic's happy spot in our house has always been under this piece of furniture.  Usually he would lie on the shelf there, but tonight he fell fast asleep up against the wall underneath.

When Mark and I were having our first meeting with a psychologist for one of the kids and we were discussing our family Mark commented on the fact that for some reason we really hadn't considered the overlap in grand parenting while still actively parenting.

 We may not be able to be as available as some grand parents are, but on the other hand we didn't have to re-childproof our house, we never un-childproofed.  We often hear from other grandparents our age how exhausted they are after their grandkids visit.  We're still pretty used to the exhaustion that is parenting, albeit we do enjoy our down time much more these days, and frankly require much more of it.

Best finish up it's tIme to send the aunts and uncles to bed before the grandson's night is half over.

Toddler Tornado goes home

We had a really fun couple of days with Toddler Tornado.  He has autism and his mom and dad have done an excellent job helping him deal with this confusing world.  It wasn't difficult taking him out places because they've done the difficult job of teaching him to hold your hand when you are walking places.  As long as he held my hand he did a great job of behaving himself.  Every once in awhile he would drop my hand and slowly edge his way further and further away from me.  As he "escaped" he would begin to get over excited and start acting "silly".  It seems as though the hand holding just helped him keep his act together, so to speak.

Probably the biggest battle we had was getting him to eat.  His food choices have become increasingly more restrictive.  He really hadn't eaten anything all day on Thursday and we wanted to be sure he didn't wake up in the middle of the night hungry.  His mom and dad brought steak for him and after cooking it we offered it on a fork, but he wouldn't have anything to do with it.  Finally Mark offered it with the tongs he had cooked it with.  That he would take and he ate it all.  His parents told us he had several forks at home that he favored as well.  Who can know why he has issues with utensils, but he does.

These are the kind of behaviors parents of kids with autism deal with every day.  They can be overwhelming to deal with, or you just realize it's just the way it is and it becomes part of your "normal".  Our daughter Callie deals with many sensory issues as well.  Today it started raining.  She has such an intense fear of lightening and thunder that she climbed into bed and covered her head hiding from what the rain might bring.

I've gotten the impression that some people look at the adjustments we make for Callie and those that are made for Toddler Tornado and think we may be "spoiling" them or giving in to them.  They simply don't understand how deep these issues are - sensory or otherwise.

 I know I had fears as a kid, still have them, but never debilitating enough to hide in my bed.  She is my hero every day that she gets up and deals with a world which often presents itself to be a very scary place for her.  My grandson is my hero as well as he is living in a world that often perplexes him in ways I don't understand.  He begins extensive therapy next week and I'm so excited to see how he progresses as I know he will.  They are over comers - every day that they get up and live in a world which I find easy to navigate, but is often completely baffling to them.

Every time they allow me to take a peek into how they experience the world it's a privilege.  How blessed I am that they are a part of my life.

Brynn Morgan has arrived!

She was born May 26 at 8:14AM weighing in at 8 lbs. 5 ozs. which surprised everyone.  The delivering doctor sai, "Looks like you have a sumo wrestler here," which Melissa decided was an acceptable statement only because the Dr. was also Asian.  There was also a clanging of a scalpel hitting the floor followed by silence and my daughter's right on humor, "5 second rule?"

Big sister Kaia spent the night with us and did quite well, but by 11AM when it was time to go meet her baby sister she was ready to go.  On the way in as we were drilling her on seeing mommy, daddy and baby Brynn - and how she was a big sister she proclaimed, "OK I try."  When it came down to sharing daddy's lap with baby Brynn she did what every 2 yr. old does - tried to push her off daddy's lap.  Such is the beginning of sibling rivalry.

Now, everyone is home and the adjustment will begin.  I try to remember what that was like after Jonathan was born - I came home to Conor, 3, but also Chad, 9, who we had adopted just 7 mos. earlier.  Mark's mother graciously stayed with the boys while I was in the hospital, but had to return home as soon as I was home.  Somehow we all manage to adjust as will they - as I like to say - it's our new normal.

Spring Break day two

So, today was an interesting freebie. Ella and Jacob thought it was so cool to help mom clean house - for like an hour or more. Jacob vacumned, until I couldn't take the noisy vacumn anymore. Ella mopped and then cleaned windows. It occupied nearly a full morning. Then they got bored.

So, Ella, Jacob and I went to McD's to eat and play. They played for 1 & 1/2 hrs. while I read - a win-win situation. Callie was with Julie today and Christian and Shannie stayed with Mark. Shannie has the ear infection that has made the rounds here, even though pediatricians will tell you they are not contagious - whatever - 3 in the past month or 2.

Christian started out the day just a pickin' on Callie. He has definitely established that pecking order - for whatever reason. The wierd thing is when just the two of them are home, they play well together. For some reason if Ella and Jacob are around - he constantly picks on her.

Mark and Jonathan took the boys to get their hair cut. There used to be a barbershop in our mall that cut African-American hair, but it close some time ago and we've had trouble finding a place near by ever since. Conor and Shannan have a good friend - Orlando who has a shop, so they headed out there. Well, Orlando was delayed and so no one was there. They ended up going to a shop across the street. She did a decent job - Jacob loves having his hair cut. Christian hates it. It often takes 3 people to hold him while their trying not to cut something other then his hair. I think for the summer we'll just shave his head weekly as he's getting his bath. Not really worth the money or fight when you can't get the cool detailing - which is the part Jacob loves so much.

Today ended with a rousing game of newspaper tag - Mark chases the kids and slaps them with a newspaper - they love it. They run and scream as if they're scared. Hi-larious. Then we read our book - The Saturdays by Elizabeth Enright. What an awesome writer. She never wrote down to kids and they all listened intently. The vocabulary is so rich. So many words not used much - the rained teemed down - for instance. It's our second generation of kids to enjoy her series about the Melendy family. Hopefully I'll be able to read it to my grandkids next. By the way, Melissa texted today that she is 1 cm. dilated and 50
% effaced, so little Kaia is on the way. We can't wait to meet our granddaughter.