No, he doesn't speak Spanish, he just doesn't want to talk to you. LOL.

Sunday we decided to take the boys to a different park that a friend suggested to us. (Thanks Karissa!) It's right by the Missouri river and some train tracks.

While we were there a couple trains went by.....C tried to run after them, essentially running away from us and the playground....completely normal behavior for him. SE liked to see them go by as well although he's now holding his hands over his ears at louder types of sounds. This is new for him and I'm hoping it's a phase, since wearing sound muffling earmuffs will also prevent him from hearing US and other people talking to him.

SE climbing!

SE in the rocket ship!

C navigating the playground

C "chasing" the train

While we were at the park and I was supervising SE playing, a little girl who looked about 7 years old tried to engage him in play and a conversation. He just stared at her for a minute then walked away. The little girl then turned to me and asked, "Does he speak Spanish, because he wouldn't say anything back to me". I chuckled a bit and told her no and that he just wasn't very talkative.

The more I thought about it, the more it bugged me. When will SE interact with peers? Will he ever interact with peers? I've heard that 5 is the magic age when things CLICK for some kiddos on the spectrum. Kids that had previously been very quiet start chatting up a storm, that intense interest in something kicks in, etc. I can't help but wonder if that's going to happen for my little guy. He seems so far from it now, even with all the progress he's made.

My faith tells me that it will come and that this condition of Autism and dealing with it is a marathon, not a sprint. Things never happen on MY time, they happen on God's time. SE didn't speak his first words when I wanted him to, he did so on God's time

Just wish God's time and my time lined up more, ya know? LOL!! Just like I wish it was his will for us to win Powerball too.

C was totally not okay with pulling into the driveway when we got home. Guess he wanted to stay out and about!

In other news, we went to a going away party last weekend for one of the receptionists that works in the hubs' clinic.

Here's my question: when will we be able to go to a get together and actually be able to talk to people? Like have a real conversation without having to shout "No!" "Don't touch that!" "Don't eat food off the ground!" "Do you need to potty?" right in the middle of it? LMAO!

But it was still a good time!

 

C and the hubs

 



And then we got a surprise at the local Price Chopper on Tuesday! I had NEVER seen the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile before!



SE was so excited about the Weinermobile, he couldn't even turn for the photo!

SE's class as well as the other afternoon PreK classes went to the park for a picnic day on one of the last days of school. I brought some cupcakes from Sam's. SE selected Angry Birds over Spiderman and Batman. Good choice son, good choice. The Angry Birds cupcakes had light mint green frosting opposed to the dark red and blue of the other cupcakes. No parent wants a surprise color in the diaper or potty that they weren't neccesarily warned about. Been there, done that. GROSS.

Sidenote: Sam's has the BEST cupcakes. They are perfectly yummy....and cheap! $14 for 30!

C was riding in the cart and kept turning around telling me he wanted cake. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree huh?

And as always, we had to get a slice of pizza after shopping. The first thing both boys say when we walk into Sam's....."PIZZA"!

This is what's left from the ginormous slice we got. I had TWO bites of crust and that's it. The boys polished it off!! Why can't they eat veggies like this?!?!?! Oh yeah, they're 2 and 4...my bad.

When I pulled up to the park where this little picnic was held, I noticed SE was wearing different shorts than I sent him to school in. El accidente. Ms. Jenn was trying to get him into the bathroom at the park, but he kept saying "No thank you". Hey, at least he was polite right?

I don't know what it is, but SE has a huge fear of public bathrooms. Probably one of the main reasons he's not potty trained yet. Hmmmmm. Yet another thing to work on in ABA.

In other news......SE is out of school for summer for this coming week until summer school starts in a week. He's in PreK and the session will start at 7:30am. I got a call from the district transportation department that informed me the bus will come get him at......wait for it.......6:40am!

Yeah....so I think I'm going to just take him at 7:30 and he can ride the bus home. He LOVES riding the bus, but that is just too early for a preschooler to be on the bus...in my humble opinion.


So, summer vacation has officially started!

But not so fast SE and C! Therapy will still continue throughout the summer and I'm actually going to work on some home school activities/field trips for the afternoons.

So we have a big and FUN to-do list for summer!

Now onto MY business...LOL!

I've stated before that I was spoiled with Whole Foods being so close to us when we lived in Colorado. By close, I mean it was about a 20 minute drive. It was actually on the way to my Mom's house. So when I would visit her.....I could stop there and pick up the essentials.

Well, then we move here (northern KC area) and the closest Whole Foods is 50 miles....yes, 50 miles away!!! It takes an hour to get there! An HOUR!

Actually everything cool, Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Lululemon, H&M......all far away.
sad SAD SAD.

We do have a nice shopping center that has a Buckle, Dillards, Sephora and some other stores I frequent about 10 miles down the road, so that's convenient, but not ideal.

Anyway, we (me and C) made a trip to Lululemeon because I needed some new groove pants (the BESTEST yoga pants ever made) since they are essentially my "work clothes" and the 2 pairs I've been rotating were starting to look ratty.

I am hopeful that Lulu has fixed the problem of sheerness with the Wunder Under crops, since I need a new pair of crops and these would be ideal. I'm going to be waiting until July to read the reviews first. :) BTW...I've gotten a lot of compliments on my headbands and they are Bang Buster's from Lulu. They are the only headbands I will wear when working out, find them HERE!

And right by Lulu in Snooty McSnootville, is Trader Joe's.

These cookies right here.....

Heavenly. AND 110 calories A POP! I should have just passed them by....but I didn't. The boys love them and the hubs and I do too. Yes, I know I shouldn't even have them in the house because they are too tempting....but they are SO GOOD!

And here is me trying to justify eating Reese's cups. It's DARK chocolate so that makes it healthy right? HAHAHAHA. No Rosie, it definitely doesn't. But damn they're good! Hubs has requested that I hide them so he can't eat them. NO PROBLEM. Can I hide them from myself too?

Here's my Trader Joe's haul. I picked up 6 bottles of their Low Cal Stevia sweetened lemonade. SO good. And $2.99 for a gallon of milk....yes please!! Up here at the local grocery store it's $4.20 for hormone/antibiotic free milk.

So.........

That's pretty much it. 1. No, SE doesn't speak Spanish...but I wish he'd talk to more people. and I have faith it will happen. 2. The day will come when we can attend a party as a family and it won't look like a relay with mom and dad chasing after children. 3. The Oscar Mayer weinermobile is pretty cool. 4. Bringing Sam's cupcakes to the end of the year class picnic will make you THE coolest mom ever. 5. 6:40am is a re-DONK-ulous time for a 4 year old to get on the bus for summer school. 6. Trader Joe's is like crack. Or what I envision crack being like. I think about it often and a feeling of absolute euphoria comes over me as I walk in the doors.

And that's it for now peeps! Until next time!



love,

Supermamarosie

Slacker! Well....maybe just a little.

Alright....so yes, I've been slacking on the blog.  I promise I'll do better...
because I know you all are just so excited to read my random ramblings. Ha!

At any rate...here was my week/week and a half. 

Beginning of the week.....5am workouts and scheduled therapies for the boys.

Then...Wednesday.  As the boys and I were eating breakfast I noticed SE's right eye was a little red.  He has been blessed with allergies like his mama, so I chalked it up to that.  Later we went to the doc and they deemed it was pink eye, which I DOUBT, but hey we got the drops and I put them in...as best I could.  Anyone that has ever tried to give a cat medication....that's close to getting eyedrops in SE's eye.

Wednesday was also the day I met with the school district to determine which assessments they would do to gauge if C is: a. eligible for services (which OF COURSE he is...he has an Autism diagnosis) b. what class/services he needs.  As I walked into the meeting I knew it would be short, but I didn't want it to go poorly because of a certain person that works there that I hate.  LOL.  Here's the back story...because I just don't hate people very often: when I was challenging the school district to actually do a full eval on SE (they took the data and test scores from when he was diagnosed and used them to create his IEP--cringe...I didn't know any better) she actually told me "well, here's what you need to do".    Uh, excuse me?

Now, you know what I was thinking... (excuse the language)

She made me go full ABW!  Angry Black Woman.  Nobody is about to tell me what I can or can't do when it comes to my boys.  Was she serious?!?! 

So ever since then, every IEP meeting has been horrid between her and I.  The tension is so thick that you could cut it with a knife.  C's state ABA therapist picked up on it immediately at the meeting she came to and it was only 15 min long!!  Which....BTW, she has a great research based blog...Behavior's Missing Piece! Check it out if you get the chance!

But back to the the crazy lady...

This lady actually suggested that we do all of C's testing this month, May, then wait the summer and write his IEP when school starts in August.  No freaking way!!  She is crazy, that's my conclusion.  Why would you want to write an IEP from his testing from months ago?!?!  Hello, same crap they pulled with me with SE!  Yeah, too bad I wised up.  It's like she lives for making parent's lives difficult!  The sheer look of astonishment must have been evident on my face, because she immediately asked if that was going to work.  Yeah.....NO.

But this meeting on Wednesday went really well, mainly I think, because crazy pants wasn't there.  They are going to do some great comprehensive testing on C and I think we'll be able to come up with some good goals for his IEP.

Sunday was Mother's Day and I got some quality time with my boys (all 3) and by myself (much needed).  

Yes, I love my boys....but I KNOW I'm not the only Mom out there that savors those small slices of time where you're by yourself.  Heck, I know Moms that have hidden in the closet just to get away from the kidlets.

First we went for a family run/walk and some playground time!

 

 

One of the subdivisions close to us has a community pool by their playground.  C loves water, actually both boys do....obviously C wanted to go swimming.  In addition to trying to sneak under the fence he keep pulling my arm towards the pool saying "Want swim, want swim".

 



 

After lunch, I took the boys to Walmart and Hyvee.  We got some flowers for the deck.  SE was all about picking out the marigolds for me and C, well, he managed to actually pick some petunia blossoms off my hanging baskets in the cart while we were shopping.

 

 



Yeah I know, my neighbors to our west (right in this pic) are all HGTV and well....we have a swing set. LOL!  Priorities I guess.

So.....as I'm writing this, SE is sitting across from me at the kitchen table playing with his iPad and eating animal crackers.....man I want some animal crackers. 

I'm "dieting down" starting today.  Which simply means I'm not in muscle building mode anymore so my calories will go down and my high intensity cardio will go up.  I had a good first workout this morning; high reps, high sets of chest and shoulders and 30 min of 30/30sec sprints on the treadmill at 9 mph.  I'll also go to Zumba tonight for some additional calories burned.  But those animal crackers look SO good!!

I'm gonna go ahead and just say no.  LOL.  Chicken and veggies for dinner tonight!

But....on Mother's Day I guess I was convinced that calories didn't count  because I had:

Chipotle!

 

And....

 



And a cookie cake!  And I got 100 rounds for my Ruger!

 
And some Shari's Berries from my Mom!

So needless to say, I was a gluttonous piggie on Mother's Day.  And I paid for it on the scale baby.  Wow.  So hence the decision to start "dieting down". 

One good thing I did start before the eating frenzy was a gallon of water a day challenge.  Surprisingly I was already drinking close to a gallon everyday so it wasn't hard to just add a little more.  Now....I don't drink the whole gallon at one sitting.  I sip throughout the day to make sure I'm hydrated.  No, I'm not peeing every 2 seconds either.  I do feel better, and the one day I didn't meet my goal, only had half a gallon....huge headache.  So I'm gonna keep it up.  And yes, I carry that gallon jug to the gym.  It's way easier than filling a water bottle every 2 minutes.

So I guess......

 

I pick things up and put them down.  (Gawd, how I HATE Planet Fitness....judgemental douchebags)

 



And to close I'll talk about 2 gym pet peeves I witnessed this past week.

1.  People that don't re-rack their weights.  I walked in on Monday (yesterday) and there was a 45, and like three 5 pound plates on each side of the smith machine.  What is that all about?!?!  So you can lift it, but can't put it back?!?!?!

 

And 2.  No curling in the squat rack!!  Especially since it's the ONLY squat rack we have!!!

 

Squat racks are for.......SQUATS!  Which luckily I had already completed when the high school football players came in (3 of them....one of which I'm friends with his Mom) and started committing one of the cardinal gym sins.  I was tempted to take a photo, but I'm not good at taking pics on the sly.

 

 

 

Yeah...no curling in the squat rack. Just.Don't.Do.It.

 

 

Oh and I also had the pleasure of buying the hubs a new pair of kicks yesterday.  Now, my hubs isn't too concerned about what his sneaks look like.  Me on the other hand?!?!?!?!  I love a cool looking pair of sneakers!

 

So...here are his old ones....He's put some miles on these bad boys.

 

 

And here are the new mamma jammas I got him yesterday!  Cool huh?!?!?!

And here are the beauties I'm waiting for!!  C'mon UPS man!!!!!



love,

Supermama rosie

 

 

P.S.--I also got 3 new Lululemon Bang Buster headbands!!  They are my ABSOLUTE favorite!!  Thanks babe!!!

 



Warrior Dash, Wonderscope, workouts and WHEW!

Oooooh weeeeee.  This mama is TIRED.  Like the kind of tired when you fall into your bed and all your muscles relax and you don't even remember trying to fall asleep, because you were out like a light.  Yeah...that's me....almost.all.the.time.

But let's do a quick recap of my roller coaster week/weekend.

So...last weekend was pretty busy.  Like....super busy.  On Saturday, with a grand ole high temp of 43 degrees.....I did the Warrior Dash.  Making up for the cold temps, I got to do it with some great peeps from the YMCA!

Here's our group pic after.  Don't adjust your screen.....that is mud...ALL OVER MY FACE.

 

I'm considering that outfit.....a loss.  Good thing it was old. 

 

The race itself was so fun though....except for the frigid temps.  The first pool of muddy water I slid into was the coldest water I've ever been in.  What can I compare it to...hmmmm...? Oh I got it.  When I was playing volleyball at Ohio State, during preseason a lot of us (players) would sit in the cold whirlpool in the training room.  People would dump the the ice from their ice bags into the pool while you were sitting in it.

 

That water I slid into....colder than that.  I swear.  The minute I was up to my mid torso in the water....I immediately wanted to pee.   Was it the shock to my system? NO.  It was because I knew it would be warm.  LOL.  Fear not fellow dashers, I resisted the urge.

 

After we finished I came home, shed the cold wet clothes and relaxed in the hottest shower my skin could stand.  I got out and I was red.

 

SE and C really liked the hat they give you for participating.

 



 

 

That evening was also the Wonderscope Children's Museum's sensory friendly Autism night.  I knew the boys would love it....and they did!

 

I was extremely impressed by how they (the staff and volunteers) set up and staffed the areas.  At the front they gave out a map you could fill out with your child and some helpful suggestions on how to engage your kiddo.  Some people are naturally gregarious and always in their kid's faces (like me) but for some, that's harder and doesn't come as easy.  So I could see how these suggestions would help.  Each room would only allow a certain number of people in, to keep the crowd down for the kids that aren't comfortable with large amounts of people around them.   And they also had a quiet space for kids that might have become overwhelmed and needed to regroup.

 

Also.....we got to see some of the boys' former therapists!!  SE's speech therapist and both boys' occupational therapist.  I'm always happy to see the wonderful people that I know have made such a difference in my boy's lives and development.  *I also like showing the boys off a bit because of how far they've come*. Ssshhhhh.

 

SE's absolute favorite room was the one with golf balls and tracks to roll them on.

 

 

C enjoyed the golf ball room as well, and also loved the market/food room.  He loved taking the veggies out of the garden, but conversely couldn't care less about putting them back.  LOL.

 



 

The last room was fun as well, with air chutes and scarves and a submarine with a slide.

 

 

Both boys love slides.  And this mama loves HUGS!!!

 

 

 

And this was the result in the car.  I consider it a success!!

 





 

 



Now....let's get down to the not so fun part of the week.  On Monday, I was sitting in the YMCA waiting for yoga to start.  I was reading a People magazine and a woman I know came up and starting talking to me.  She asked if she could ask me a question.  Which, on a side note, that ALWAYS means something bad or inappropriate is coming.  It's almost like, "Don't take this the wrong way but...." or "Don't take offense to this but....".  It's like those statements---so I braced for impact.

 

"Are you pregnant"? --woman

 

"Excuse me?  Um, no".--me

 

"Oh, okay I was just wondering".--woman

 

"Uh...yeah...I do have a little belly left from when C stretched it out.  He was 9lbs 1oz and over 20 in long.  He was a big boy.  Left me with some stretched out skin.  But I'm trying to work on it".--me

 

LIKE I NEED TO DEFEND OR EXPLAIN MYSELF TO ANYONE?!?!?!?!  UGH.

 

Then the creme de la creme....

 

"That must be really frustrating to look so great everywhere else".--woman

 

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!?!

 

SERIOUSLY?!?!?!?!?

 

1. Who says that?!?!?!  Seriously, unless the chick is in her 8-9th month and her water's about to break all over your shoes..........keep your TRAP shut.  Just a general rule.

 

2.  Here's what I was wearing when she asked me.  This photo was seriously taken 20 minutes before yoga class when I was leaving for the gym that day. 

 

 

Now, I don't think I look pregnant, nor did anyone else I told.  At any rate, saying something like that to a woman that isn't 100% confident in her body brings up some bad juju.  I cried when I got home.  The hubs was of course, super super great about it.  He told me that comment she made was ridiculous and she had "no idea what the hell she's talking about".  He let me cry on his shoulder like he always does and gave me big hugs.

 

While I love the fact that I have super awesome friends and family that support me, it lit a fire under my butt. 

 

I've ramped up my workouts significantly this week.  I'm still lifting hard, but I'm hitting the cardio hard too.....running or doing mountain climbers in between sets while lifting.  And that's on top of teaching TurboKick and PiYo Strength every week. 

 

More importantly, my diet has changed.  I've always been a yo yo "dieter" in the sense that I go between eating clean, paleo and I just need this candy/cookie/donut/pizza, etc.  The boys' diet isn't the best, they tend to lean towards that beige autism diet, LOL, but me eating their leftovers ain't helping my cause.  Neither is eating a couple pieces of their cinnamon roll at breakfast.  Well, I've stopped that.  It's high time I got serious about this.  I would never want to go my whole life without knowing what my body could look like if I really put in the work and got consistent about my eating.  I'm giving myself 6 weeks.

 

6 weeks in the grand scope of your life is a drop in the bucket.  6 weeks to eat clean (so cutting out all processed crud, refined sugars, artificial flavors/colors)  with a large paleo (no grains/dairy/processed) influence.  I will still have some dairy, but most grains are out with the exception of oats for breakfast on occasion, family pizza night (which I make) and the carbs that come from my protein shakes.  I'm also taking some supplements.  Whey protein shakes after workouts with a tsp of creatine and tsp of glutamine, a recovery formula right after lifting, casein protein shakes before bed (casein protein digests much slower), a multivitamin, an omega-3 supp and this preworkout supp..

 

 

 



 

before workouts on occasion.  I'm only taking 1/4 to 1/2 a scoop at the MOST.  I have never used a pre workout supplement EVER.  I've always been scared that I would have a heart attack or something.  I mean, c'mon, some people have keeled over from taking too much of this kind of stuff.  THAT BEING SAID, I'm not going to take too much, I won't take it everyday and it will be when I'm going to be working out for an hour +. 

 

Oh and it tastes like crap.  Ick.  Good try with the pretend raspberry lemonade ickiness.  Good thing it's only 10oz of water I mix in it.

 

I'm also committing to drink at least 3/4 gallon of water a day.  Surprisingly I was already very close to that everyday anyway!  SCORE!

 

 

 

This weekend will be pretty uneventful.  Lot's of housework (YUCK) and quality time with the boys...all 3 of them (YAY!!!!!).

 

 

I'm also going to be navigating my new app, iAdvocate!  C has an IEPish meeting to choose what evaluations to do for him for the school district on Wednesday.

 



 



It's that little spud on the far right.  This was introduced to me by one of C's therapists.  It's a quick navigating app for IEP/IDEA/504 laws.  Basically it helps equip parents in IEP meetings.

 

 

Having been a teacher and present in some pretty ugly IEP meetings, and now as a parent of 2 special needs kids......it's always important to be prepared and to know what services your children are legally eligible for.

 

Newsflash....school districts aren't always out to help you.  They have budgets to worry about and believe me, while some teachers really care....some don't.  I actually heard (with my OWN ears) a teacher at the school I used to teach at say "Don't put those retards in my class they'll just be a distraction to my good students". 

 

YEP.  So that just tells me that if he could have that kind of attitude, others could as well and parents need to go in assuming this is what they'll be dealing with. 

 

Now, that doesn't mean I'll go into every meeting with the school with a craptastic attitude, BUT I will be prepared.

 

It's our job to advocate for our children and make sure they get every service they are entitled to.  Those laws were created to protect our kids and give them the best shot at education and development the school can provide.

 

For those not in the special needs world....an IEP is an Individualized Education Plan.  It outlines what services, accommodations, goals, benchmarks and strategies will be used with/for your child.   There are also laws within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that the school has to adhere to.  As with all things government related it's worded kinda crazy and hard to follow for the lay person.  So this is where tools like iAdvocate and other IEP guideline books can help.

 

 

So far I've managed to stay in the blue and once yellow range with SE's IEP meetings and I would love to believe we'll be in the green with C, but that's unlikely.  I just don't ever want to make it to the red.  The red would mean lawyerville for me.  I don't ever really want to get there. :)

 

Here's a valuable visual example of how much interventions and services can help.

 

 

 

  The photo on the left is SE from last spring, his first time in preschool, age 3.

 

And the one on the right is SE this spring, age 4. 

 

In the first photo he had to have a fidget, the toy car, and he couldn't focus on the camera or photographer, instead he was mesmerized by the flash on the umbrellas.  This year......whoa nelly.  Is that the best school photo EVER?!?!?!?  I mean, yeah, I'm biased because I did birth this little cutie, but seriously...looking at the camera AND a smile?!?!?! That's what I'm talking about!

 

When I pulled that photo out of his backpack.....I was like...

 





 

 

I was SO PROUD of him, and all the work WE'VE put in.  And by we, I mean myself, the hubs, C and all the therapists that have been working with him.

 

So....it's Friday and I'm gonna take my sassy pants to the kitchen and make some homemade pizza.  Unfortunately our family movie night will move to Sunday for the next 4 weeks because I'll be co-teaching an adult dance class at the YMCA.  Tonight is line dance night...which means: cha cha slide, electric slide and some others.  The participants will undoubtedly be the coolest, most dance happenin' peeps at the next wedding reception they attend.  Fo sheezy. :)

 

Until next time!!

 

love,

Supermama rosie