time flies

where to even begin about the past couple weeks? andrew now has 2 molars. another one broke all the way thru. in the meantime, he is still cutting 3 teeth(the other bottom molar, and 2 on the top--right before the molars, on each side). andrew is very mr. independent now. turning on his mobile music(only the music part's attached) on his crib 1st thing in the morning when he wakes up, not letting anyone spoon(or fork) feed him, and of course everything has to be his way and he will let you know when it's not his way. ladies & gentleman, the terrible twos have begun(at 15 months, 9 months early).

last thursday, we went on a field trip with both of the classes at collin's preschool. we went to a stawberry festival(for free!!) in downtown garden grove. it was set up as a mini carnival/amusement park. he went on all the fast rides, and really enjoyed himself. the staff & i weren't sure how collin would do. he had a hard time riding on a small train at a fellow student's b-day party at the school a couple months ago. ivy was disappointed that she didn't see many strawberries, but she and collin got a free strawberry shortcake stuffed doll before we left. ivy only got one because one of the kids in collin's class didn't come on the field trip.

collin's picked up a new phrase: "go ahead". i'm sure that one's from school. he's also picking up ABC recognition & can now sight recognize most of his ABC's. collin has also learned to *mostly* pedal his tricycle, instead of sitting down and walking it. he's (hopefully just temporarily) stopped all attempts at drawing anything remotely circular. he had just been doing that very intensely(on his own) the past couple months. today i'm meeting with his speech therapist to see if anything needs to be adjusted with his communication goals.

ivy has started 2 classes: ice skating(early saturday mornings) & karate(monday afternoons). i think she's liking both. tom teases her that by the time the classes are over, she will be able to do karate moves while ice skating.

me..not a whole lot. feeling a little burned out, while trying to go with the flow of our ever changing schedules. collin & andrew kept getting up an hour early for several days. they're finally back on schedule, but last night andrew had inconsolable crying for almost an hour, even after a diaper change & motrin for his teething.

speaking of changing schedules, tom's flying to north carolina this weekend for his 2 week summer drill for the coast guard reserves. luckily, he's going to be able to call a lot. he did get father's day off(everyone else doesn't). he asked about a month ago, but didn't hear back till yesterday. i made sure he mentioned the primary program & the fact that collin has autism. he's also got a scheduled rocket launch that morning.

we've also got stake conference this weekend. thankfully, tom's arranged babysitting for me tomorrow night for the adult session. not sure how sunday will work(since the primary won't be open at the stake center), maybe a double stroller for the boys?

by the time we'll be back into the swing of things(after tom gets back), one of my sisters will be visiting us. that should be fun.

what a sad, mad, bad day in CA

I am so sad that this happened, but at the same time outraged the CA Supreme Court would go against the voice of the voters.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/05/15/same.sex.marriage/index.html

what an "interesting" past 6 days

so..here's the story. i took collin in on thursday to the pediatrician's office for a referral to a pediatric gastroenterologist(they deal w/digestive issues..which collin, let's just say he's got a lot of issues). our pediatrician tried to, in my opinion, save face by recommending a 2 week trial run before we could get the referral. so, collin got switched from one over the counter laxative supplement we had been using(magnesium hydroxide) that was causing bleeding, to a powder called miralax. supposedly it is more gentle than the magnesium.

um..yeah. whatever. it'd caused his frequent constipation to get worse, which is causing constant tantrums. he is back to the classic autistic head-banging symptom(walls, doors, me). he hasn't done that for almost a year now. he is also been very aggressive and takes awhile for each time to let up. for tantrums & the aggression, we had JUST gotten it to under 3 per day. more "spacing out" and his speech is jumbled up(more than usual and different than a couple weeks ago when he was talking to me before bed).

while i was trying to put two & two together last night, i stumbled upon this article(written by a mom with an autistic child).

we have now switched pediatrician's (thanks for the recommendation rebecca!) . i had a few things going on before this i didn't like, and this was the straw that broke the camel's back. he's now all set for a new patient visit & referral in a couple weeks. and hopefully that'll be one less challenge in our life.

Marching to the beat of her own drum...

Ivy is so funny, the thing she does and says. She loves me printing out activity books & coloring pages, which I have no problem with. Tom brings tons of scratch paper home from work just for this purpose. I find it strange, though, she asks for things in the wrong season. For instance, a couple days ago she was telling one of Collin's therapists that she needed to make Valentines for Valentines Day--never mind it won't be Valentine's Day till next year. Today she is asking for "fall pictures", even though it's not even summer yet. Oh well. Luckily for me, I've become quite the expert at finding online coloring pages for her, and have everything bookmarked so I don't have to search for it again.

In other news, Ivy's having a hard time distinguishing between my birthday(a couple weeks ago) and Mother's Day this Sunday. She doesn't understand why I get a present and she doesn't. I told her why we celebrate Mother's Day and that she can get a Mother's Day present when she's a grown up. I also reminded Ivy that her birthday is not for a very long time(December).

my little chatterbox

andrew has a couple new things he likes to say "shoes"(he sounds like a snake when he says it "sssss") while pointing to either the shoe shelf or his toes, and "hi" (sounds like "ha"). today he went up to ivy and said hi. she was busy watching something, and didn't respond so andrew squatted down, got in her face(literally) and said hi again. i made sure ivy answered that time. ;)

andrew can also say "hi dada". still waiting for "mama". i know he knows how, he said it once before christmas but for whatever reason likes saying "dada" better. maybe daddy's more of a novelty than mommy, since we only see him after the kids & i eat dinner and on the weekends?

Prayers *finally* (sort of) answered

Collin got up early today before church, and took a long nap this afternoon. We only woke him up from the nap for a diaper change before getting Ivy & Andrew ready for bed. After the diaper change, Collin was excited to be awake, but obviously couldn't stay up and play or watch a movie like he was asking for since he needs to go to school tomorrow. After many failed attempts at getting him to eat or drink anything before getting ready for bed again, I sat w/him on the rocker in his room & just sat there talking to him. He really doesn't like rocking in the chair, just likes to sit still on my lap(I chalk it up to his autism) I just talked about things like what happened this weekend, what's going on tomorrow. Collin did an amazing thing! He started to *try* to talk in long sentences to me. It was all babble, so I didn't understand a word of it, but I kept telling him about I like him talking to me & using his words. I actually let Collin do most of the talking since this is such a rare thing. He talked to me probably a good 3-4 minutes before I had to put him in bed so he could go back to sleep. It was so hard not to cry listening to him babbling to me. He obviously felt he had something to say to me and was trying to express himself which is such a hard thing for him to do, more so than a typical child.

This is something we've prayed for, for so long: to be able to have a 2 way conversation w/Collin! I can't tell you how many times we prayed just to get Collin to talk a year ago--too many too count(multiple times per day). It's such a relief and comfort to know our prayers are really being answered. I admit there have been several times I've wondered if Heavenly Father is really listening or paying attention to our little family? I feel like lately, in our prayers besides thanking for the typical things, that it's more asking for things than anything else. But at the same time, I feel like we sure could use all the blessings we can get and why shouldn't we ask for things we need that are completely out of our hands after all we've done?

I would have loved to know what Collin was trying to say, but at this point, I'll take what I can get.

What happened?

This is half of Andrew's "what happened" sign. He typically does it with both hands.