Happy Easter!!

Its only mid day here, I have been up since 5 am with the kiddos excited to see what the Easter Bunny brought them. I have to admit that has been one of my worst Easter's yet and the day isn't even over, yet I feel confident deeming it as such.

As annoying as it was for the kids to be up at 5 am it was nice to finally have them behaving as I remember as a child with the excitement and anticipation of their full baskets and running to find hidden eggs. So, the day started nicely, but I knew that based on their 5am wake up call the day wouldn't end so great. I was hoping however that it would be later and closer to bed time.

By 8 am I was graced with B-mans screaming. There are days when it is easy to forget he has aspergers. We are quickly reminded by days like today. It is 12:56 and I have already been screamed at a handful of times, told that I don't care about anyone, and informed by b-man that he hates me at least 3 times.

Hopefully the day gets better, and I hope anyone reading has a great Easter!!!

Progress

Last night was parent/teacher conferences for B-man. Thankfully he is progressing well and doing fantastic this year. Its such a big difference from last year. I honestly would like to forget 1st grade even happened for him. My fear now is that AJ will be placed in the same class that B-man was and I really disliked the way the teacher handled her class.

Im leaving the placement up to fate though. AJ is so different from B-man that it sort of makes me giggle to think of how Mrs. U will deal w him. Ha.

After the conference we picked up the boys and brought them to dinner at the pub. Both boys love going there, yet they always seem to find something to complain about.

Once we were home, we decorated our easter eggs for the Easter Bunny.

This event took place without any mess, to be noted-every year there is ALWAYS a spill, and the majority of them are by ME when I am cleaning up. Last night was perfect!!

We have 12 colorful eggs out for display for the EB.

Jobs

I have had less than a handful of real jobs in my entire life. I have plenty of babysitting that I have done, but in terms of real, time clock, boss to report to jobs, I can only recall maybe 4.

I had my fun stint at the local sporting goods store in highschool. this was a fun spot to catch up on gossip on the weekends and get a discount on all the new stuff that came out that I NEEDED. And of course, there were plenty of boys that worked there that were fun to hang out with.

I also had a sort of position at the gym during high school. I worked in the child care room, I also had some shifts to help people use the equipment, and operate the tanning beds. Anyone who knows me, knows this was seriously a joke job.. but I had a blast doing it.. or not doing it.

Then there was the restaurant/ice cream shop. This is where I learned the most. The most about who I was and who I wanted to be in the real world. I came and went all through high school, college and then some adult life. I quickly realized that I wasnt going to be in the restaurant industry and left to come to where I am now... Insurance..

If I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, working in insurance was the furthest thing from my goals. It still is for that matter.

I have gotten to have a glimpse of the medical side of things, which I love. I do not love blood and needles, so this job gives me the opportunity to learn and develop without having to deal with my fears.

I would LOVE to work at a hospital or doctors office. I am so intrigued in the medical field, and LOVE dealing with people. I just cannot deal with blood and needles. I have issues I know.

My current job situation is bleek. I need to get myself into something new before I am completely in a deep hole and figthing tooth and nail to get out of here.

Its a work in progress, but how does one, with 2 young school aged children find a decent paying job that allows for the flexibility of being a parent? Realistically speaking-there isnt one.

Its my mission to find something...

Recovery

The past 3 days have been a complete whirlwind of time keeping for around the clock meds and waiting on a 7 year old hand and foot, and then dealing with a semi-psychotic 6 year old who isn't sure how to handle the lack of attention he is getting. And when I say lack of attention, he isn't neglected by any means, but he isn't getting waited on, so it bothers him.

I have to admit it was a nice change to stay in bed and asleep until almost 11 am today with B-man who usually cant stand missing anything and never stays in bed past 7.

I did have several plans of things I wanted to get done between today and tomorrow and due to my late wake up, I feel that I have in inadvertently put a lot on my plate for tomorrow. EEK.

All in all, B-man is doing well post-op and seems to be on the road to a good recovery and should be back to school in no time. :) Fingers crossed!!

Preparations

Bman has surgery scheduled for tomorrow and although I knew it would be rough, I never anticipated being this worried about it.

I spent a lot of time yesterday back and forth with the hospital and doctors offices to try and figure out how to make him manageableof
 to just get to the hospital. Im still waiting on a call from his pediatricians office.

Him and I went shopping last night, I thought if I made it fun it may ease some of his stress about it all. After an hour

DONATE....

There is a little boy I know, he is 7 and in the 2nd grade. He has a fairly normal life, loves sports and most importantly LOVES to GIVE!!

This little boy has the biggest heart and so much to give. His mind is constantly thinking of ways to help others. I admire him.

Below is a link to his cause. His facebook page explains his goals and I can attest to the fact that he is exactly who he says he is and that he is truly a 7 year old boy on a mission to make a difference in the lives of others.

Check it out....

http://www.drews-shoes.org/

Ice Cream Social

Last night the boys had an ice cream social at their school. They do this twice a year to promote the book sale that they have.

We brought the kids to the book sale, which I knew would be bittersweet. The kids really want to go, both for very different reasons, and then we as parents have to deal with B-man and his behaviour.

Its events like this that make dealing with B-man and his aspergers extremely tough. He wants to go, because he hears everyone talking about it at school, and enjoys being able to pick out something with mom and dad, and of course he LOVES that he can have an ice cream sundae afterwards.

BUT... he gets EXTREMELY ANXIOUS at the amount of people. He has a lot of conflicting feelings since the school gym is a comfortable familiar place to him and the majority of faces are those of classmates and teachers, however, those people are also there with their families!! Which in post cases doubles if not quadrules the number of people there. He cant handle this. Then to add in the fact that he also needs to DECIDE on a book that he wants us to buy.

Needless to say, it was an interesting night. All that B-man wanted for books were preschool like picture books, Im guessing because these were a safe easy choice, vs having to delve into the madness and actually seek out a book he may actually enjoy. I refused to purchase such a book for him because lets be honest, these books arent cheap and I am not going to buy something they will never touch again. So I tried to help and he was relentless in the picture book category, so we took a break and I suggested he go have ice cream.

In the meantime, I helped AJ pick out a few books. Can I just say NIGHT AND DAY.. its amazing that two siblings can be so entirely different. AJ chose 2 books and then went to mingle with his friends.

I spot B-man wandering around aimlessly eating his sundae, wearing most of it either on his face or shirt. EEK!! I quickly sat him down to finish and then hoped to find him some books and leave.

We did agree on 2 books-one baby-ish book and another challenging book for him.

Now we are saying goodbye... again a chance to watch the 2 boys and their ways interacting w peers and teachers.

AJ walks around like he owns the place saying good bye to all his pals and they all know him.

B-man walks over to the table of teachers and stares until one asks him if he is leaving, and he shakes his head and they say bye and he shyly says good bye.

WHEN DOES THIS GET EASIER?!?!?!?

Sleeping arrangements

K and I have spent the last 6 years or so working on a sleeping routine for our kids. I consider us quite lucky in that B-man was sleeping through the night by 4 wks old, and continued this until the past year or so. AJ we weren't so fortunate with when it comes to sleeping; he wakes up at the creek of the floor.

About a year ago the boys started asking to share a bedroom. I was very hesitant to do this because I had to share a bedroom with my brother growing up and I HATED it. Clearly a boy and a girl 3 yrs apart vs 2 boys 18 months apart is not a very good comparison on how the sharing of a bedroom would play out; but needless to say my experience made me delay this as long as possible.

Both boys were in separate rooms, both with full size beds. This posed a conveniently inconvenient issue. If they woke up at night, K or I would just go sleep in their bed, thus allowing them to sleep in our bed whenever they wanted. We chose our sleep over the 2 am argument. As I'm sure one would guess, this got old real quick. (although not as quick as one would think, I'm talking like year or so)

I used the boys wanting to share a room as incentive to get them to remain in their beds. In order for them to share a room, they would need bunk beds-which they both thought would be SO COOL. So I told them they had to sleep in their beds in their rooms for at least 30 days. They did this, and without much difficulty-which I found frustrating, to only find out that a little bribery would work so quickly.

We went through the process about 4 months ago now, to convert B-mans room into the new toy room and now AJ and B-man share a bedroom and have full over full bunk beds.

These bunk beds are monstrous, and open up so many possibilities for a young boys imagination. We have had a jungle, army fort, castle to name a few.

The boys had an endless supply of concerns with this new bed arrangement too. The top was too scary, the bottom too dark, what if I fall, what if I bump my head.. it went on and on for the first week or so.

I am happy to say though, both boys have been sleeping in their beds, through the night for 10 days now.

They currently have a chart with 25 boxes. It takes 21 days to form a habit, so I have given them the goal of 25 days to sleep in their beds and through the night, and every 5 days in a row, they get a prize.

Fingers crossed that this 21 day habit forming rule rings true!!

Mondays

Why are Mondays always so blah. I NEVER want to get out of bed on Monday mornings-even if I don't have to work.

I often wonder if Mondays were made part of the weekend, so no school or work, would Tuesdays start to be as crummy as Mondays once were? Or do we need the extra day to recharge?

I personally think that the 4 days on, 3 days off is much more realistic that the 5 and 2 that is so common.

I spend the majority of my Sunday getting ready for the upcoming week, with laundry, lunch and dinner planning, appointments, etc. So, in actuality I only have 1 day during the "weekend" to relax and spend quality time with my family.

My life balance would be so much easier to achieve if I could use Monday as my planning day and work/school started on Tuesday.

You, know, just in case someone out there cares what I think.. :)

Fun times

I love shopping! It is by far my most favorite thing to do. Yesterday I got to spend time with the kids shopping! A perfect combination of my two most loved things to do- hang out with the kids and shop. They too had tons of fun because it was very leisurely and ALL about them. We went to the mall, the local craft store, and of course Walmart.

The boys got a bazaar array of things...fake glasses, anti-bacterial soap and holders to attach to their backpacks, slippers, pants, wallets, craft beads, stickers and a couple John Deere tractors.

Today we are hanging out with their cousins, I got in some quality nail time with my niece and now we are working on potty training. She is doing great!!

TGIF!!

I have to admit, I expected this week to drag by and anticipate many more bumps than there actually were.

The oldest "boy" was out of town this week for meetings for work. So it was me and the kiddos. This isn't completely abnormal, as K's work schedule leaves a lot of time for just me and the kids; however this was me in the mornings AND after school.

Typically, every weekday but Mondays, I leave the house by 6:00 am for work. K gets up and gets the kids ready for school and then heads to work himself, or goes back to bed depending on his schedule that day. On the flip side, because I am in so early, I am out in time to get the kids after school-well for the most part. We usually have someone get them off the bus and then I am there 10 min later.

This was all on me this week and I thought for sure I would be stressed out and behind at work, and all types of CRAZY would be going on in my house!!

It wasn't at all. Each morning the kids were up and getting ready and I actually enjoyed having some leisurely time at home in the morning, vs getting up, showering and rushing out the door like my usual mornings.

I did work a little later each day, which I don't enjoy at all, but such is life I suppose. Maybe I can look into p/t hours or something, and then have the best of both worlds. :)