Three Words I Hardly Ever Utter as a Mom

“I can’t wait.”

I made a vow very, very early on to try very hard to never say it, because as soon as it’s said, whatever I was longing for happened and then I was left mourning the passing of a stage.  Don’t get me wrong, I don’t judge those of you that, “can’t wait until he crawls” or those that, “can’t wait until she sleeps through the night.” I know not everyone loves every part of having a baby. I just have my own personal guilt associated with those three little words.

Oh, and I would be lying if I said that I have *never* said it, because I have. It’s warranted in certain situations. Like potty-training, for example. I definitely said, in the middle of cleaning up poop and/or pee from my floor, “I can’t wait until she’s potty trained.” However, for most of the passing baby-stages, I work really hard at savoring it because I know that in what feels like the blink of an eye, we have gone from this:

To this:

And from this:

To this:

So for all of you “can’t waiters,” I offer that you try and wait. Just a little. Unless you’re potty training, and then I think you should “can’t wait” all you want.

- Abbi

“I’m Going to be So Essited to See Him!”

See that smile on the toddlers’ face up there? I’ve only seen that smile that one time…until today.

I took the girls to the mall to play at the play area because it’s been pretty cold and windy here the last few days and they needed to burn some pent up energy. So they played. And played. And played. They had a fantastic time and were much less ca-razy by the time we left the play area. As we’re walking toward the exit, Peyton spots Christmas trees. And then she spots some light-up reindeer. And then she spots him. HIM. You know him. The guy in red? The one with the beard? Brings gifts to the good little girls and boys? Yeah, him. She loses it.

Peyton: “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! LOOK! It’s SANTA! Santa Mommy! It’s Santa! Can we go see Santa?! I LOOOOOOOVE him. Can we please go see him?!”

Me: “We can go see him. But we’re just going to look today.”

Peyton: “OK! Oh my Gosh! We’re going to go see Santa! I’m going to be so essited to see him!”

We head down the elevator and I’m talking to my husband on my phone. He was a bit saddened by the Santa news at first. It’s always a family thing for us to go see Santa but I assured him that we were not going to really go see Santa, we were just going to look from afar. Maybe wave and smile.

Once the elevator doors open, she bounces out. And I mean that literally – she was actually bouncing. Santa’s area is about 12 feet from the elevator and I tell her to stop and wait and she does. It becomes clear to me at this point that we are not going to just look at him. So, I tell her we’re going to get into “that line right there” and she walks over to it. As I’m trying (and failing) to coral my youngest who wants nothing to do with being picked up or touched right now because she’ll do everything HERSELF, I notice that Peyton is not at the back of the line anymore. She has somehow maneuvered up around the bend to where I cannot see her anymore. And it’s not really that it was a long line. There were two other families in front of us. One of those families was a mom with her parents and her tiny baby girl. Clearly, they were there for her very first pictures with Santa. Say it with me now, “awwwww…” Yeah, well, my daughter totally high-tailed it in front of this little family and another family who was there with their son. Seriously, she ran right in front of all of them and plopped herself right down on Santa’s lap. Meanwhile, I’m holding the thrashing 17-month old who is yelling “Na!” (No) at me as I apologize to the families who should have been in front of us in line. And I get to my darling daughter who is dawning that same “on top of the world” smile that you see in the above picture, telling Santa all about how she would like “How to Train Your Dragon” for Christmas. Santa looks up at me and asks, “is she yours?”

Yes. Yes, she is.

- Abbi

The Flu Shot. And Stuff.

Are you getting yours? More importantly, are you getting one for the kids? I don’t contribute Kylie’s Autism to vaccines, but I would be lying if I said they didn’t still freak me out. So it’s that time again. Yippee.  Do I risk my baby getting severely ill (the flu is proven to have that effect on folks, after all) or go ahead with it and risk further exposure to icky toxins and a possible regression of developmental skills? This is a fun one. Hardee – har – expletive – har.

Kylie has been doing incredibly well since we moved back to Colorado.  Speaking in  4 and 5 word phrases regularly, huge for us, and showing a whole lot more interest in other adults, as well as her peers.  Kylie and I were lucky enough to spend 6 weeks of quality time with my parents while my husband tied up loose ends in San Diego – they are her new bffs – to say the least. We have been in our new home for three weeks now and every single day she asks where her Grandma and Papa are or suggests we go see them.  I’m so proud of her, this little big eyed munchkin of mine. My favorite spontaneous phrase, is one she also uses daily, “You make me mad, mama!” You would think this would hurt my heart…oh no…every time I hear it, my heart swells with pride and I have to turn my head so she doesn’t see the huge smile on my face.  It’s little things like these that remind me she is going to be OK. She is the most fab of the Autistics after all.

Not all days are full of sunshine and rainbows.  Some days I want to stick my head in the toilet and I can’t understand why money doesn’t grow on trees.  Why oh why should my baby miss out on the best of therapies because of the size of my checking account?  It doesn’t seem right. So I try to take it one day and one dilemma at a time.  Today it’s the flu shot,  Tuesday it will be grimacing over the rates provided by the ABA therapy provider who is stopping by, and next Friday it will most likely be, trying to stick a helmet on Kylie’s head for equine therapy. Wish me luck cuz I’m going to need it.

Well, Hello There

It’s been a little while, I know. Megan and I have made an art of being able to blog for the other when either one of us has life take over but then, she decided that she needed to move back to Colorado right when I decided to start a little business. That selfish wench! (Just kidding, Megan! You know I heart you and I’m so very happy you’re home!) So yeah the two of us had to take a little hiatus. But, we still love you and we still plan to do this widdle blog.

I was just going to post this whole next bit as a status on facebook, but it required more characters than facebook would permit, so I thought, “I know! I’ll take it to the cribside!” So here I am. And here is my afternoon story:

I had lost my phone. Again. I lose my phone all the time. I’ve never truly lost it for good, so I guess I should say that I misplace my phone on a regular basis – like, at least once a day. At least. Today, I had misplaced it for the second time and jumped on google chat to tell my husband, who was at work at the time, that I had once again, lost my phone. He sent me a link. This link (www.icantfindmyphone.com) and I clicked on it. After checking out the page, which is nothing more than a phone with boxes within for the user to type his or her phone number. I went back to my husband, “is this real?” I queried. He said, “I think so.” So I figured, what the heck, I’ll give it a go. If it doesn’t work, I’ll just have my husband call my phone. I type in my number, get up from my chair to go listen for the nearly silent vibrate (because, of course, I left the stupid SOB on vibrate. I never lose my phone when I have the ringer all the way up. That’d be too easy). I go upstairs. I think I can hear it. I walk back to the where the bedrooms are and realize it was a fluke, I never really heard anything. As I’m heading back downstairs, I hear my lovely 3-year old say, “Mommy! I found your phone!” Woo hoo! She hands it to me and it’s still ringing. It was a number I didn’t know and I wasn’t quick enough to answer it. I’ll have to try the website again just to hear if there’s a recording on the other end. Anyway, I give her a high five and big “thank you” and ask her where she found it, which was under the couch, obviously, because where else would it be? On a table top? On the kitchen counter? Nooooo. Under the couch. Anyway, the phone has been found. Yay.

See why I needed to tell all of that? This would not have sufficed: “how sad that I just bookmarked this page www.ican’tfindmyphone.com.” But seriously, how sad that I really do have that page bookmarked now?

And with that, it’s time for me to go drink a glass of wine and pretend that I’m totally sane.

- Abbi

You People Said It Was Still Summer In Colorado

Well it’s not. And it’s cold. And rainy.  And windy.  And I’m supposed to be happy about having seasons again? I might be being a little dramatic and truth be told, I might be a little excited that Kylie is going to get to play in snow soon.  Probably a little too soon for my liking but it is what it is and I am thrilled to be moving back home!  Kylie and I have spent the last 4.5 weeks in Parker and I am happy to report that she is absolutely thriving here and her Grandma and Papa are her BFFs. To say the least.

So far our stay has consisted of…..

Missing the daddy A LOT. But he’ll be here soon! Friday if I get my way. I’ve been trying to downplay the chill in the air. It’s hard to talk to someone at the beach about this thing you people call Fall.

Quality time with Peyton, London and Abbi! My awesome photographer of a blogmate took these cute pics.

Cheech is such a pest. Girlfriend was not letting him get anywhere near her ice cream. With good reason.

The thing I love most about Parker, Colorado is the abundance of wildlife! Right in mom and pops backyard, it’s pretty incredible and I’m sure going to miss seeing this little family every morning and evening.

 

Want to see a sneak peek of my new house? It’s pretty cute…

Interior pictures coming soon! You can watch me try to do home improvement projects and decorate on a budget. Should be interesting. Stay tuned…

 

I Know This is Wrong…

But, I really, really want my 15-month old to start watching cartoons. Not for hours and hours, or anything, but long enough that I could maybe pee, or empty the dishwasher without having to worry about little fingers grabbing at knives…or even just to have 5 minutes to check my email (i.e. read celebitchy). I know it’s wrong. I know it. They’re not supposed to watch TV until what is it? 2? Eek. I honestly don’t know if I can wait that long. That’s another 9 months of peeing with an audience. Maybe I’m just not introducing her to the right shows because she seriously wants nothing to do with it. My oldest watches some TV. They’re all educational shows and she typically doesn’t watch them for any extended amount of time on any given day. Sometimes she watches for 30 minutes, sometimes an hour, once in a while we’ll have a movie day in which she’ll watch waaaaaay more than usual, but it’s so rare and they’re really fun days for us. And then there are many days that she doesn’t watch any TV at all. When the oldest is tuning in, I’ll try and sit London down with her to watch and she will sit for 22.6 seconds before she’s up and into something. That something is usually cat food. Or the dog’s water. Or climbing up onto the fireplace (her new favorite thing to do).

Maybe it’s time to bring out that baby straight jacket…*

Abbi

*Totally joking. Please do not call CPS on me.

I think this daddy is kinda classy..

Fla. Dad Apologizes for Threatening Students He Believed Had Bullied His Disabled Daughter

OK..so, he shouldn’t have threatened the lives of middle schoolers. But..But..But. Thirteen-year-old boys are pretty tough…I think they’ll be alright.  Who picks on disabled kids anyway? Really?

“My daughter broke my heart by standing there crying,” he said.

Jones erupted last week after he said a boy threw an open condom on his daughter’s head and that another student may have spit on her, WTSP.com reports. He then reportedly decided to board the bus heading for Greenwood Lakes Middle School to confront the driver and the boys who allegedly harassed the girl.

Video surveillance from the bus shows Jones asking his daughter to point out the alleged bullies. He is then heard threatening to “kill” those students involved in the alleged incident, according to the station.

You know they did it.  Kids are cruel.  I only feel sorry for the innocent kiddos on the bus he likely traumatized as well.  Still giving pops props, you have to protect your kids.  Parents make mistakes too..and we all have our breaking points. Those nasty little cretins are lucky he didn’t put them over his knee like this teacher did.