Monday, August 31, 2009

Appointment Today

Wow Autism what a scary word when it relates to your own child . The specialist is having us evaluated at an autism clinic but sadly the wait list is long and our minds have nothing to do but wonder.

I wonder if he will live a happy full "normeal" life.

I wonder how others will treat him, I wonder how people will see us .

His hearing seems to by fine, we will proceed with the audiologist still just to be sure.

Saturday, August 29, 2009

Please Pray

Well I will just through it out there the way it is .

I believe in god yes but do I know more then that? Most days no.

I would like to find him in all of his goodness and I would love him to show me the way on my darkest days .

Well today is a very dark day for me .

My sweet brother's birthday, it should be glorious with a bbq and carrot cake but not this year.

He was in a serious car accident and now we are concern something is wrong with his brain . Between the loss of his short term memory and odd behaviors to him calling out of the blue to say he wants to see no one and cancelled an upcoming vacation for labor day .

We are scared for him and hope that he will see what we see .

Please pray he will decide to take us up on our offer of support and that he will go to the doctor like we believe he needs to but is scared due to his financial situation .

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

So We Dont Forget




This Week's Topic: What is a favorite "alone time" activity?

As a mom of 2 kids 2 and under the "alone time" is few and far between .As I am exclusivley nursing Lyla there's no " alone time " from her but once a week I do take "Me Time" as we call it around our house . I adventure out with Lyla in a baby carrier and we go get coffee, sometimes do a little shoppping but mostly

I think.

I think alot .

Getting coffee and enjoy talking to strangers who know nothing about me is just a pleasure .

There is no expectations, no heavy duty talks, no concerns expressed and more then anything there is adults to talk to !

I dont know about you other stay at home moms but sometimes I so badly want to have a " grown up " conversation that doesnt evolve my children interupting .

So there you have it in my alone time I want a venti vanilla latte made with organic milk, a nice stranger to talk to and maybe something to shop for . I find I appreciate life so much more when I get away . I find I am so much more patient with my kids and my husband .

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Mcklinky Blog Hop

You might be a redneck if...Your wife has a beer belly and you find it attractive.

Theres a new country song about beer bellies and I just couldnt help it! My brother is a self-proclaimed redneck and I know he likes beer bellies.


MckLinky Blog Hop

Therapy Session # 4

After some changes in the seasons of our lives I am back updating my blog . I am happy to let you all know that Riaan has been making some leaps and bounds towards our goals.

He has taken to us using signs so well . He will know sign "more","all done", and "eat".I hope this week he will pick up on bath, cup and stop.

Besides just signs Riaan has added some words to his vocab and has been trying to communicate to the best of his ability. For many two year old's saying "Yum Yum" or " Wow Wow" wouldnt be a moment to rejoice but around here that is what we did ! WE REJOICED. We rejoiced in the fact he is adding to his vocab, we rejoiced for the fact that therapy has been seeming to help and we rejoiced to see the happiness on Riaans face when he saw how happy we were when we heard his voice .

Our goals are to continue to sign with him and get him into an audiologist this month. Monday we will go to a pediatrician with hopes to get some things cut off of the list of possibilities.

Monday, August 10, 2009

Therapy Session #3

So "R" came again today and was pleased with some of Riaans new "THINGS".He has began to say "wow wow", for those of you with kids I am sure you will know the show Wow Wow Wubbzy.So thats where he got it . She is also please he has started saying all done and signing more .

Our new goals are including the sign for bath and eat . I hope that both will be able to help us communicate better with him . If he is able to communicate eat with us we will be better prepared with knowing he is hungrey . He has recently been very upset when we get into the bath so we are hoping that preparing him with a sign he wont be feeling so frustrated.

Still waiting on insurance and referrals for things lets hope it is all done soon .

Sunday, August 9, 2009

Over the Years

Wow what a week and weekend ! Life has became diffrent, surprising, and beyond all we are starting a new journey . A journey of being sober. Not me, I am already ! But sweet Miss "A".

Background :

Miss "A" and me have been friends since we were 14.

My brother was her brothers best friend.

My mom was her moms best friend.

Fast Forward 8 years

Sweet "A" is in a bad relationship.

She is doing heroin .

She is calling crying .

My brother rescues her from herself and gets her clean.

Present

She is sleeping on my couch.

She is eating my food .

She is playing with my kids .

She is needing help.

So there it is.I am without many words.I took in an old friend who had no where else to go . I would hope someone would do the same for me .

Friday, August 7, 2009

All Natural Cleaners

I hate cleaning, I do .But one thing I do love is making my home safe by using non-toxic cleaners and laundry soap . We recently have realized we spent over 200.00 last year on organic products for cleaning . Since there is no way I can justify spending that my goal was to cut my cost in half while still finding clean counters, toilets and floors in my home .

Today I got a call from my dear friend " J" wondering what products we used. We recently have turned her on to DR.Bronners soap ( if you haven't used it you must ) and so she was curious .

So my non-toxic recipes will follow.

All-Purpose Cleaner:

Mix 1/2 cup vinegar
1/4 cup baking soda (or 2 teaspoons borax)
1/2 gallon (2 liters) water

Use on anything . The smell isn't great and some people like to add some essential oils to hide the vinegar smell . I don't personally but feel free.Also using a microfiber rag lifts dirt and grease really well . You buy these rags in the car department, I also use them to stuff my pocket cloth diapers, wipe kids faces and wipe spills!

Laundry Soap

Mix 1 cup Ivory soap (or Fels Naptha soap)grated
1/2 cup washing soda
1/2 cup borax

Use 1 tbsp for light loads; 2 tbsp for heavy loads. I have never used it but some people love Kiss My Face brand 100% olive oil bar soap grated for this as well . The options are endless but the more natural of soap you use the more all natural laundry soap you have.

There is so many different cleaners and recipes out there but I find that a good all purpose cleaner is just that all purpose . I dont need nor want 30 bottles around of cleaner.

Now I haven't found a great toilete bowl cleaner so I am still buying that so if you have a recipe to share please do .

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Some of my Favorite Things

*The way Lyla will just wake up and smile

*Cherry blossoms

*The way Riaan now runs to me to kiss his boo boo's

*When a stranger asks how your day was because they really care

*When you let someone over while driving and they wave

*Seeing people singing while driving

*Swimming on hot days

*My husband calling just to check in

10 things you may not know about ME

1.) I had my first baby at 19 but was far from a teen mother . We co-slept, I nursed him for as long as possible and cloth diapered.

2.) I would stay in my PJ's all day even if I had to go somewhere.

3.)I dont clean my house tell about 30 minutes before my husband gets home !

4.) I had my second baby at 21 by VBAC and was planning a home birth .

5.)I have recently found the love of pictures and wish I had a better program to play around with them .

6.)We are most defiently having more kids, just not 2 years apart again .

7.) I love everything about cherry blossoms, the color and the way they look and I hope to paint them on the wall of Lyla's room some day .

8.)Both my kids still sleep in bed with us at night .

9.) I hate everything about doing laundry and putting it away .

10.) my mom comes over to my house on weekends to have sleepovers to hang out with my kids .

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

I thought you knew better

As many of you know I am very against any form of physical punishment to our children . Even time out is rare in our home. Yesterday at the park a women I have only met one other time proceeded to hit her 10 year old daughter! "T" as we will call her made her poor daughters lip bleed and in the moment all I could say was her name.I was disgusted appalled horrified but in the moment I couldn't think of what to say, if it was appropriate to say anything . I was just plain old shocked and without words . After getting home and processing the situation , realizing her lack of empathy, compassion and regret towards her own daughter I made the decision to call CPS.

I know some of you are thinking wow that was harsh but if you could have only been there to see this poor little girl . The tears rolling down her face and the terror she showed.After calling I turned on the radio and it was a song called " concrete angel" it is by a contry singer by the name of Martina McBride .If you have never heard it, it is about a little girl who dies at the hand of a parent. It was god telling me I did the right thing . I did what I knew in my heart somebody needed to .

I thought she would know better not to inflict pain on her own child . I thought I did the best thing I could .

Monday, August 3, 2009

Not My Child



Welcome to Not My Child! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

So this week while we were visiting my mother , Riaan didn't pull the fire alarm ! The fire station didn't have to come to double check everything was OK....There wasn't multiple women outside waiting for the fire men to see if they were good looking and I defiantly wasn't so embarrassed when the fire department showed up they didn't have to comfort me and tell it happens all the time !

Riaan also was NOT clever enough to pull our dinning room table chair outside so he could turn the bbq on . I was watching him closer then that ! I wouldnt be blogging or anything .

World breastfeeding week

http://www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org/

As a mom who nursed 1 son into toddlerhood and another now nursing at 4 months and going strong I felt like this was so important to post . Please take the time to read there website and consider what they have to say .

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Therapy Session #2

So this week we had miss "R" come over for therapy . She was pleased with our progress in getting Riaan to sit at one toy for 2 minutes . One of our goals is getting Riaan to show more patience and improve his attention span . We have worked this last 2 weeks on offering Riaan a book and then trying to keep him interested . In the past we would get through one page and he would move on or stalk some blocks, knock them over and move on.

The next two weeks we are working on patience . For instance when he is in his booster seat at meal time when he is done he will start to throw food or start shrieking like a banchi to get down . We will use our " words" with him and remind him we will come to him when we can . We will start with adding 1 minute at every meal time of him needing to use patience and waiting for us to come to him.

Our biggest struggle right now is that he is so vocally loud when he is wanting or needing something but because he doesnt have any words , he just yells .

We are also going to introduce more signs into our daily lives such as....

More



Finish




We hope this week the referral for the child audiologist will come so we can take the next step for his hearing . We are also waiting for the nuerologist as the wait list is 9 months .If you feel this on your heart please take the time and pray that these things will happen fast.

Saturday, August 1, 2009

Six Words Saturday



"Sometimes we need to love more "