Autism Awareness

This is copied from an email I received. A friend also checked it out on snopes before forwarding. The cause is a great one and the video is touching. I'm sure you all realize that as a special education teacher I am witness daily to the struggles children with autism face. Early intervention is the key. Don't ever feel stupid brining up concerns with your child's pediatrician if they are failing to meet their developmental goals.

Dear Friends and Family,
The band "Five for Fighting", is generously donating $.49 to Autism Speaksfor **each time** this video is viewed. The funding goes toward researchto help find a cure and to advocate for early intervention. When you havea moment, please visit the link below to watch the video and pass it alongto your friends and family. I'm sure you will enjoy it. It's a beautifulvideo. They are aiming for 10,000 hits, but hopefully we can help them tosurpass this goal.
http://www.whatkindofworlddoyouwant.com/videos/view/id/408214

Day 2

When it seemed that Emerson was turning a corner and perking up, Kaleb started a horrendous cough Tuesday night. From about 5:00pm until 7:30pm he coughed non-stop. The only time he wasn't coughing was when he was taking a breath. He puked at least 10 times because he was coughing so hard. Without any other options I took him into the ER, where they got us in sooner than they should have because of the way he was coughing non-stop. The place was packed and there were supposed to be 12 people in front of us, but the nurse got us in. After a few tests and an x-ray they found that Kaleb had an ear infection as well as pneumonia. That night the poor kid slept over 12 hours and only woke up because I was getting scared and woke him up just before 11am.
So, I took another day off of school and when I think that it is Kaleb that I will be babying for the day it ends up that he does great all day and Emerson is once again hit with a fever and diarrhea. She wouldn't sleep anywhere except in my arms. She only wanted to be held so you can imagine how much I got done around the house.
And just when I'm thinking that Kaleb seems like he will feel well enough to go back to school, he wakes up several times though the night to throw-up. I had to strip his bed once, my bed once, scrub my floors once. It was good times. Little miss light sleeper Emerson decided that if her brother was up, she should be too. It was a long night with very little sleep. Today both kids are still out of daycare, but at least we got the grandparents to watch them so that I could come into work. Grades are due this week so I needed to be here.
Lets hope for a better night. I'm exhausted. Even though Jason seems to think I enjoyed having the last two days off, staying home with two sick kids is no vacation! Especially when you can't even find the time to shower or dress for the day!!

Home with a sick baby

You know it is bad when you walk into your child's room only to be knocked over by the horrible smell that could only have come from your sweet baby girl!!! In the 5 hours since Emerson first woke up I have changed 3 nasty diapers, stripped the bed twice, changed her outfit 3 times, given her 1 bath, and she is now on her 2nd nap of the day. Holy Cow! I haven't gotten her to drink anything including pedialyte, but she has kept down both a dose of motrin and some applesauce. I just feel so bad for her. She looks so run down. There really is nothing worse than seeing your child hurting because other than loving and caring for them you are helpless.

On a happy note. Anna (my matron of honor) and Jeff Haney had a baby girl this past Sunday night. Stella Rose weighed in at 9 lbs 13 oz and 21 inches long. She was 2 days late and a good 2 lbs heavier than her older sister was. I haven't talked with Anna yet or seen any pictures but I'm sure Stella is gorgeous and I hope they are all doing well!

I also wanted to mention from the last time that Kaleb is doing an AWESOME job in the 4 year old preschool room. The teacher just raves about how well he is doing. He encourages his friends to 'use their words' and he is learning a ton, including new rules, songs, and skills. He is getting close to writing his name. He has some of the letters, but they tend to get written backwards or upside down!
Today Kaleb has his 2nd dental appointment. I hope he takes it better this time. Last time he was just so freaked out that two dental hygienist has to be with him. I'll just have to remind him that he got to pick out a toy and a new tooth brush the last time he was there. That should make him excited to go!
Our only concern for Kaleb at this time is wanting to get him in for a hearing test. For the last few months Kaleb has been asking us to repeat more often, even saying "I can't hear you". He is constantly trying to turn up the voumne when he watches his movies and when I turn it down he whines and says that he can't hear it. I hope there is some kind of allergy, sinus, ear wax thing that is going on that can be cleared up. He has an appointment coming up around his next birthday, but that is too long to wait. I'll have to put in a call to see what the dr. thinks we should do.

Well, my day will be filled with lots of cuddling and laundry. I better get to it!

I'm not ready for this

I was a little shocked when I took the kids back to the daycare yesterday, after having been off for 2 weeks. Emerson has graduated to the toddler room. In many ways I am happy about that. She will be involved in more age appropriate activities and will have the chance to learn from some older babies. BUT...... in the toddler room they only do one nap per day AND they have to sleep on cots. Yesterday she did ok. It took her over 1/2 hour to fall asleep and then she woke up again before falling asleep for a little over an hour. Definitely not the amount of sleep she normally gets. She was a little bit crabby yesterday after we got home, but not too bad. I plan to keep her on her 2 nap schedule at home, as does my grandma on Tues/Thurs. If that causes too much of a problem then I guess we will be going down to 1 nap a day, a lot sooner than expected.

My second shock of the day came when they told me that Kaleb has also moved up to the 4 year old program. Um, he's not 4. The teacher assures me that she thinks he is ready academically (and then she blew it by saying the one thing I HATE) and even though he's not 4 yet, he is BIG. WHAT?!!!! Just because he is bigger than every other kid in the class does not mean that he is ready. I am concerned that with the addition of new rules and more academics, that we will be seeing more behaviors. Of course, if they start complaining about his behavior I will oh so sweetly remind them that he is NOT 4. I will try to be optimistic and think that none of this will happen. I'm crossing my fingers that he makes a smooth transition and really learns some new skills from the older kids in class. I'm sure he will learn a lot. The kid is a sponge. I just hope that too many expectations aren't being put on him too early.

My babies are growing up.

Fun Random Pictures

Here are some fun pictures I have taken over the last few weeks. Don't forget to scroll all the way down as I have added several new posts. I am so behind I thought I would try to catch us up in one sitting!

Our New Years Eve Celebration

For the first year Jason and I decided to stay home for New Years Eve and I'm glad we did. We had a blast. For dinner we did fondue (cheese, oil and chocolate!). We toasted with sparkling raspberry juice and we finished off the celebration with a parade through the house at 8pm. We were blowing horns and dancing the conga down the hallway wishing eachother a Happy New Year! Kaleb picked out the beautiful crowns for us to wear that night. He insists that we are all kings and queens!

The Lion King

Jason's mom got tickets to see the Lion King for me, Kaleb, Renae, Hanna, Janelle, Keeley, herself and Dana (but Dana couldn't make it so Grandma DeLand went instead). What an excellent Christmas present. This was such a great performance. Kaleb did pretty good. He doesn't quite understand the concept of wispering during a performance, but for having to sit for 3 hours I think he did great.

Notice that he didn't want his picture taken at the end though!

I would have taken more pictures of everyone sitting in the theater, but I was yelled at for using flash photography! OH NO!!!

What a Merry Christmas

We had an excellent Christmas this year. I think we all got everything we could have wanted and for anything we were still hoping for we received money to purchase it!

Christmas Eve was spent with the VanDeven side. It was the kids first chance at opening presents and they were excited!

Christmas Morning was fun! We tried to spread out the gifts to make it last longer, but Kaleb had no patience for us or Emerson the turtle. He wanted to move on to the next present. At the end I think he was extremely excited about his gifts.

Keeping with tradition we went to Grandma Rice's house for a Christmas breakfast with my family.

The rest of Christmas Day was spent with the Hodgins side of the family where we got to see Renae, Dave, Hanna and Avery who were home from California!

Emerson loved Avery's toy so much we used some of her Christmas money to buy one.

1 Year Pictures

Yes, I'm a horrible mom and the poor second child is getting the shaft again! I still have not gotten Emerson's 1 year pictures done. I originally wanted to do them myself like I did the 6 month, but with the way I take pictures it is much more difficult getting a good shot indoors. I also planned to take Emerson in to a studio during Christmas break but is seemed that she always managed to have a huge bruise or rash on her face!

Here are some attempts!

Christmas Card Outtakes

I had made a few attempts at getting the kids sitting by the tree for a Christmas Card picture, but things didn't go as planned!!

You get the picture!