GAH!

Okay I really have like….zero time to talk.  So much to do, so little time.

Silas was sitting for his three minutes cuz he hit me.  To entertain Ikey I was rocking him and singing him the sesame street song.  When Silas’ time was up he wanted me to do that with him, so I got Ikey to bed and then sat on Silas’ bed and sang to him and rocked him and rocked him and rocked him.  He was falling asleep at the end.  I think we did that for about 30 minutes before I finally told him I had to go.  It was so sweet.

It reminded me of when he was little and I’d have him all wrapped up with his blanket, his sucky taking up half his face and his big brown eyes looking up at me.  We did a LOT of rocking and a LOT of singing those days.  So warm and cozy.

So I’ve fixed up my bike so I can ride it and it’s so much fun!!  Bike riding is WAY more fun that running or walking.  I get to go FAST.  I wanted to get a seat for Ikey so he can ride with me.  I noticed my neighbour had one and I asked her if we could borrow it to see if Ikey would like it and she just gave it to me!!!  We took our first ride today to Leanne’s house and Isaac was soooooo in to it.  He let out a happy giggle as we rode off and he was calm and relaxed the whole time.  Brilliant.  A perfect thing for him and I to do together.

OKAY, my timer is going off.  I gave myself 15 minutes to be on here before I need to go do stuff!!  I babysit tonight and my house is still a mess and i need a shower!!

Love you all!!!!!

Leah

Party Day!

Today at preschool Silas had what’s called a party day!  It’s so much fun.  All the kids sing us parents their songs they’ve learned.  We hear about what the kids are doing and what they’re about to do.  It’s pretty cool.  We then sing happy birthday to the kids who have had bdays that month and then the parents leave.

I had tears in my eyes seeing Silas standing up there.  He had to stand on a red line so he looked back to his aid and said “look I’m standing on the red I”.  I love that kid.  He stood there so nicely and sang so nicely.  made me teary.  He’s so precious.

I forgot my camera though…bummer

I just went upstairs and didn’t get within three feet of Silas and he said “mommy are you eating Kashi, milk and banana?”  I said what?  Then he changed the kashi to All Bran Buds and I couldn’t believe it!!!  I’m eating All Bran Buds, YOGURT and banana…but pretty frickin close enough.  Wowsa.

How is my kid SO good at SO many things?  Alesha and I were talking today and she said “you notice how Silas can imitate a sound of something perfectly?”  I was like “ok I’m NOT crazy?”  cuz he DOES.  I just never wanted to say anything because I felt like I talk about his gifts so much that I couldn’t POSSIBLY point out another…but she did first so I’m allowed.  His ability to imitate is really weird, especially when he’s imitating beats with his mouth.  My little beat boxer.

Anyway, enough bragging about my perfect smeller, harmony singing, lyric memorizing, amazing spelling, reading, counting to 1000, imitating three year old.    I’m sure I missed something in there…oh ya…his smile is like sunshine

BLAH

Sorry folks, I’ve been SO caught up in this shirts for Silas thing that I’ve not done a bit of blogging.  I’ve added SO MANY new shirts and things that you must go check it out.

links:  USA Canada UK

You can order from any place in the world…FYI.

Anyway, there’s lots of new stuff up for grabs there.  There’s a new shirt that says “I love someone with autism” on the back.  I like that saying too.

On my last blog I said they said “I’m not autism I’m Silas”….not true.  Most say “I’m not autism I’m handsome”

There’s also some baby shirts up now, buttons, mugs, magnets…you name it.  I make almost as much $$ off a mug as I do a shirt so they’re a good idea to buy too!

I’ve tried to make them look as trendy as possible so you know when you wear a Shirt for Silas you’ll be hip hip hip.  Hip with a cause.

Now go buy something before I cry in my afternoon coffee

Love you all.

DUM DA DA DUMMMMM!!!

One sunny afternoon I was sitting on my mom’s back lawn with Jill.  I was telling her how I’m just making the word “autism” common for Silas…so it’s not taboo…it’s just always been there for him.  Suddenly Silas spoke up and said “I’m not autism I’m handsome”.  Ohhhh we laughed and laughed.  Perfect Silas.

So Jennie, hearing Jill tell her what he had said, came up with the idea to put that quote on a t-shirt.  I’ve been wanting to make shirts to sell to raise funds for Silas.  I just didn’t have any ideas yet.  But the idea has been born and put in to the works.  There is now a store open where you can purchase a shirt.  All proceeds go to fund Silas’ therapy.

Our first goal is to get enough money to take him to a Dr Amen clinic in WA where they will do a brain scan and tell us exactly how his brain is working.  From there they can recommend all different types of treatments, food, supplements, medicines and therapies that we KNOW will work because of the results of the scan.  This is about $3000 US I believe so start buying shirts!!  There’s only a few basic ones on there right now but I have more graphics in the works.  All shirts will have the saying “I’m not autism I’m Silas” on them.    So if you don’t like anything now, be sure to check back and see what we have in the shop!!  And of course I’ll keep reminding you too

Behold:

SHIRTS FOR SILAS <——click there to get to the store.

Stinker

Ikey Bikey Boo is a walking 27 pound ball of attitude these days.  Throwing things, hitting, biting his brother’s arm so hard that he still has teeth marks days later, throwing more things, smiling when I tell him no.  So I guess that means he’s two right?

He’s the most curious boy in the world I think.  I love that about him and at the same time it makes me wanna scream and pull my hair out and throw him in his bed without supper.  K not the last part.  He just can’t help it

he

has

to

touch

EVERYTHING.

Which really, it’s an enduring quality.  But it’s also a pain in the neck.

I keep telling myself “he’s not being naughty he’s being two” which has become my new mantra.

Ugh it’s hard to focus and write now.  Silas smacked my face really hard and my nose hurts.  He’s so violent lately.  Now he’s screaming at me from his room.  Ugh.

He’s such a delicious cupcake thought, really.  He’s just a go-getter.  I STILL maintain if left in the wild he’d turn into some feral child who talks to wolves and eats raw flesh and live till he’s 100.  I also maintain that he SHOULD have been born in the caveman years.  He’s just…well…he’s a caveman.  Mark can testify.

Lately after he hits I’ll tell him he hurt me and right away he says “are you ok mommy?”  “kiss it better” and he’ll kiss me.  It’s so cute and tender it’s impossible to not forgive him straight away.  Stinker.

Isaac showing off the jewelery I made him out of playdough. He asked me to!!

stinkery smile

Driving Miss Daisy

I got this in my in box a while ago:

I’m so sorry about missing my last post. I wrote half of in and then I was sure I finished it, but for some reason I guess I didn’t. So here’s what I wrote if you still want it. Still sorry! Love you!!

“Wow. My final week already. Its kinda sad. Sad like…end of summer camp sad. Sad like…end of DQ blizzard sad. Sad like…losing your T.V. remote kind of sad. Just Sad.
Hmm. What LeLu and Cootie story shall I leave you with? What story shall I leave like the song stuck in your head or the taste left in your mouth? What more shall I say then…
I shall title this Blog…Driving Miss Daisy. (Side note. All stories are beyond the 7 year period and I’m pretty sure they have all been told. Even one of them by accident. I’m still sorry about tattling to Other Mom and Dad. My Bad)

The year LeLu and I turned 16 was a special year. We earned out freedom via the graduated licensing program. I had the pleasure of earning my freedom a month and a half earlier than LeLu. Neither of us had earned that freedom the first time we drove Other Moms car. I was not often swayed to antics that would really get us in trouble, but on this occasion I threw in my hat. We were at a youth event and LeLu’s older brother drove us there. (Side note B. He once drank apple juice I gagged on and spit back into a glass. ew) Big Bro made the mistake of giving the keys to LeLu and Cootie who “Just needed to look for something in the car”. You see, both LeLu and Cootie had their “L’s” or learners licenses. Cootie knew how to drive standard, but LeLu didn’t. I can’t remember who instigated it, but LeLu needed to learn stick shift and Cootie was a willing teacher. Once in the parking lot Cootie explained the theory behind the third pedal in Other Mom’s little white car.
With LeLu behind the wheel we backed up and then proceeded to drive around the church parking lot (we didn’t want to get in THAT much trouble.) I decided LeLu needed to learn to stop so I explained that you had to put the clutch in or we would stall. So at that moment LeLu slammed both the clutch and brake. Cootie then slammed her head into the dash board because she neglected to wear her seatbelt for the little parking lot jaunt. After the laughter subsided, LeLu and cootie reparked Other Mom’s car in hopes that we hadn’t been missed too much and Cootie has never EVER driven without a seatbelt again.”

Hey Court, do you remember when you made me go 4by4-ing in that car?  Then you made me go through the deep puddle?  Then the car stalled and it wouldn’t start again so your dad had to pick us up.  Why didn’t we get in trouble for that!?

Our Autism Story Part II

Part one is here

Silas took to solids just fine.  He’d eat a variety of foods.  They always had to be pureed though, always.  When other kids his age were eating more solid things Silas was still eating very simple baby foods.  Of course he knew his way around a cheerio and mushy things.  He couldn’t chew an apple up until he was about two and a half.  He also never spit food back out, once you got it in his mouth he would have to swallow it.  He’d stuff his mouth REALLY full of food and he would never be able to chew something fully.  He’d chew it partially and then swallow it…it looked like it really hurt.  Even if it was just a little bit of food.

Feeding was a weird thing with Silas though.  I used to give people proper instructions to feed him, I forget what they were now, or Silas would have a fit.  My mom would look at me like I’m nuts and just go feed him how she would feed any child, it often ended in a fit.  I remember Jill attempting to feed him one Christmas.  He was over a year old and still on pureed food.  I was calling to her from across the room telling her she was doing it wrong and that’s why he just wasn’t eating it.  He was screaming and crying.  We were walking on eggshells for him without even knowing it.  I was insulted when people thought I was weird for telling them exactly how he needs to eat.  Wasn’t every baby like this?  I had no clue.

Silas crawled right on time, if not early.  He was a super duper power crawler boy.  People would say how fast he would crawl.  He would look straight down at the floor and watch it go by.  Even past the time he was walking he’d still drop to his knees on a new floor, put his nose down close to it and watch it go by as he crawled REALLY fast.  He would crawl right in to things because all he’d watch is the floor go by.  “Quirky” I thought.

Silas wouldn’t notice things like other kids would.  I began walking in the mornings with my friend Ashleigh.  Her daughter, only 3 days older than Silas, would point at the birds and look up when an airplane flew by.  Silas seemed oblivious, completely unaware.  He had never taken note of a bird or an airplane.  I decided then and there that some kids were interested in certain things and some kids interested in others.  Silas could sing like no tomorrow, singing full songs that no baby should be able to sing.  He was interested in Singing, not talking and airplanes and birdies.

At about 10 months Silas began to bash his head on the floor when he was mad.  It was an awful sight to see.  It broke my heart to see my son so mad that he would hurt himself.  Person after person told me it was a normal thing to do so I just let him, hoping that he would hurt himself enough to not want to do it again.

At times I would be with my sis in law Leanne.  Silas would do something odd and we’d look at him and just wonder what on Earth was going on with him.  The word Autism came up many many many times.  But then we’d say “but he snuggles”  “but he makes eye contact”.  Then we’d leave it at that.

Leanne even once said “I bet if Silas was an abused child he would have autism”.  I found that to be an interesting statement.  I know for sure his autism would be a million times more apparent.

Jill and I were talking on the phone yesterday, about this stage of Silas’ life.  About how it was so stinking obvious but we just didn’t put the puzzle together yet.  We both concluded, though, that Silas is far more high functioning than he was when he was a baby.  “Less autistic”.  He was SO within himself as a baby that he wouldn’t let me play with him.  I tried and he would just cry.  From the day he was born, Silas has slowly been emerging from within himself.  How lucky am I for that?

Sometimes I wonder if it was that delivery.  There is a test we can do to find out.  It will break my heart if that’s what caused this.  But the fact that he’s slowly emerging, perhaps his brain is slowly healing itself from damage done due to lack of oxygen, the trauma and the force of the forceps.  We’ll find out soon.

Stay tuned for part III.

Preschool

Nothing like your child starting preschool to make you feel kinda old…and stressed.  I’m pretty sure that I’m the youngest mom.  The rest of them seem like women in their 30′s.  I still feel old.  Especially when they handed me a scholastic book club thingy.  So cute.

Silas’ aid is great.  They made up these little things on a key ring.  Stuff like “circle time” or whatever.  I said that we write things out instead of using visuals so it’s just written out.  She shows them to him and doesn’t say anything and he responds really well to it cuz he just reads it and the reading it gets him excited.  Smart lady.

Anyway, The first day of school I tried to capture some photos, he wouldn’t stand still…this is what I got.

on his way

alllll done

Wine Tour Anniversary

Before I begin, I must be cliche and say what I’m sure more bloggers are saying.  Kanye West, that was a total jerky move dude….not cool.

Moving on.

Brent and I celebrated 5 years together this Saturday!!  Where has all the time gone?  Children are little black holes that suck time right out of it’s place, not to mention the sucking of the elevation straight out of our bossoms.

Brent had this BRILLIANT idea.  We live near LOADS of wineries.  Like…too many.  He thought we should go tour them.  So we prettied ourselves up, handed our darling dearies in to the arms of my generous sister Jennie (thank GOD for the one person who’ll actually take our children for an evening), and set off in search of wine.

Our first stop was The Fort Wine Company.  I read on their website that they have a bistro so off we went for lunch.  When we got there we had a tasting of all their fruit wines.  Now I’ve been known to say numerous times that I pretty much despise fruit wines.  Its like drinking syrup.  Yuck.  These wines, on the other hand, were clean, fresh, crisp and most importantly…dry.  Gotta love a dry wine.  They served fruit platters there so we sat outside in the shade under an amazing grape arbor, I with my glass off apple pear wine and Brent with his glass of blueberry.  We enjoyed this amazing platter of food.  My word, I’ll be going back there.  All for $30.  An experience and a lunch for such a cheap price.

We then moved along from winery to winery tasting what they had to offer, hearing their secrets of where to find the next amazing wine.  I found my most favorite Merlot in the world at a little place called Blackwood Lane.  Sitting ontop of an large hill, this old post and beam home made us feel like we were in another country.  The view was excellent.  This place was a lot more expensive but seriously, have you ever tried a wine that’s buttery?  Velvetty even?  Well I certainly have.  Their Merlot almost sent me through the roof.  You can definitely taste when a wine company has a wine maker that knows exactly how to get the most out of their grapes.  Unreal.  The next time Brent and I have special evening I’m going to make my way back up that hill and buy us that $40 bottle of Merlot.

My 2nd favorite Merlot was from Township 7.  I loved their farm and their service.  They paired the Merlot with a rock salt and pepper dark chocolate bark that was to die for.  I think today I’ll attempt to recreate it in my kitchen as we couldn’t take it home (peanut allergies) for when we decide to enjoy our bottle of Merlot that we purchased there.

It’s funny, when you look at what communities around you actually have to offer, you can make an easy vacation out of a day.  We honestly felt like we were in another country.  These places were amazing!  I can’t wait till next time we have a chance to go out and tour more…there’s so many we hardly touched the majority of them.  It’s also on my agenda to tour some of the farms around here.  There are many organic farmers in these parts, I should be taking advantage of all the local goodness around me.

It was so nice to spend a day with my Brent.  I love him more than ever.  Him and I, despite having a child diagnosed with autism, have had the best year of our marriage this past year.  We’ve totally opened up to each other, we’re no longer afraid to say what we feel, Brent has energy for us at home now because his job is so much easier and less stressful.  We are so well matched I almost feel bad bragging about it, because it really is THAT good.  Our relationship is peaceful, loving and respectful.  I love it.  Had I married someone who argued a lot, said mean things out of anger, yelled, etc…I’d freak out.  Because of my past, I cannot handle men raising their voices at me.  It triggers memories and emotions of things I’d rather leave forgotten.  Brent is the perfect gentle person for me.  It’s great.

Now that my siblings have gagged and barfed, I’ll move along to some photos of our adventure.  Enjoy!

cuz I always have to do this

The Fort. So pretty.

The happy couple.

YUMMMM

drooling over the goodies

The hunk

grapes....duh.

hey, look at my eyes!!

yummmm

PS I just got a call…I didn’t make the show…

errr…hi…

So, um, I’VE BEEN SO BUSY IM SO SORRY IVE NEGLECTED ALL OF YOU SO MUCH!!!

Seeing that I am still a busy buzzy bee, I’m going to give you highlights of the week in point form. (grandma and grandpa close your ears and say “lalalalala”)  I need to get back to cleaning my room as tomorrow is my anniversary and it needs to be in top form for the one time a year we consummate our love for each other (or the 300th time but who’s counting ?) Stop looking at me like that.  Anyway, at this point, even a lit candle in there is a hazard so it’s best to make it all shiny for our married shenanigans.

MOVING ALONG.  perverts.

-We spent the whole long weekend at the parents resort house.  It was fabulous.  I went on two bike rides which was great.  We also celebrated Papa Mark’s 50th birthday.  It was good to spend time with family.  I love that Jill lives so close, I’ve seen her more this summer than I have in the past 3 years I assume.

-Silas bit Alesha this week but she stuck through a 45 minute tantrum and came out on top!  GO Alesha go!
I’ve found a very great new way of giving Silas the sensory input he needs.  I got the idea from Jill doing this one song with him lying down.  I pretty much just sing about what I’m doing to him and I kneed, pound, squish, squash, smother…etc.  By the end of it there’s usually drool coming out of his mouth.  I’d say it’s a good tool.

-I still haven’t heard about the TV show.

-Wednesday I met with Silas’ aid and his CDC worker.  They’re both fabulous and I’m sad his aid has to leave us in a few months.  Selfish lady…like c’mon…push out the baby and get your butt back to Silas’ preschool class!

-Preschool on Thursday was a success.  His aid was fabulous.  I’m proud of him AND her.  He’s been asking to go back ever since.  I dunno what happened in there but he said something about circle time and singing songs.  He also shoved an apple that he put stickers all over towards me when I got through the door.  Cutest ever that he wanted to show me.  *pride*.  The other mom’s in the preschool seem really nice.  One also has a boy with a peanut allergy, he’s older but she’s a good person to befriend for Silas to have playdates with and stuff.  The kid’s birthday party will be an easy one to go to etc.  Pray they become friends!

- Last night Brent’s friends from Manitoba came over for supper.  It was great to see them and feed them and have their youngest little girl run around just as crazy as my kids do.  Silas and her daughter Gracey are a little apart in age but about the same developmentally.  He never gets to play with a kid the same as him so they had a total blast, they were so cute giggling together.  They were even quiet a lot and NOT getting in to trouble!

-Today I was organizing Silas’ drawer so I could neatly put his clothes away and Ikey was spinning around really fast to the music.  He whacked his head so we had a cuddle.  He sat there admiring my cool pedicure I got a few weeks back (and is still beautiful!) and next think I knew I was sitting on the bathroom floor painting his toe nails purple.  He also has pink fingernails.  We also did some peppermint foot lotion for him and daddy’s cologne.  He’s really proud.  He just tromps around the house looking at his toes saying “pritty toes”.  Cutie pie.

- the end.

Have a good weekend folks!