Knock Knock!

Bethany is cracking me up lately! Well I shouldn't say lately. She makes me laugh all the time. Her latest thing is trying to get the hang on knock knock jokes. It is pretty funny. She says "Knock knock!" I say "Who's there?" then she yells something totally off the wall and falls apart laughing hysterically. It makes no sense, yet it makes me laugh. Aaron taught her the one that goes "Boo" "Boo who?" "Well you don't have to cry about it!" I don't think she even gets the joke which makes it even funnier.

Some other funnies... Aaron has 2 missing teeth that simply never came in. so he has a retainer thingie with 2 false teeth attached. The missing teeth are toward the front of his mouth. Well Bethany noticed the silver bar that goes across his teeth last night and wanted to know what it was. He tried explaining it, but she got confused, so finally he just popped it out. I wish you could have seen her face. Her eyes got really big. Now she wants to know why her teeth dont come out too.

She is such a bossy little mommy. She is always fussing at Shea. She literally follows her around all day and takes things away or tells her to finish her food, or get out of something she is not supposed to be into. She also has started playing with a baby doll but all she does is tuck the baby into bed and tell it, "Go to sleep, DO NOT get out of bed again!"

Bethany is one of the pickiest eaters ever. I have never seen the child eat a piece of meat until today. Today I went through Wendy's for lunch since it was 1 om and they had not had lunch. We were on our way back from Wal Mart. Aaron and his mom had been working in the yard too so I knew they would want food. Anyway, while we were eating Bethany looked at Donna's ( my mother in law) burger and asked her, "Is that a crabby patty!?" Donna told her yes it was and asked her if she wanted to try it. Bethany said yes, and took a bite. I totally expected her to spit it out, but she didn't! She said she liked it, but would not take another bite. But this incident has given me some sneaky ideas... Thank you Spongebob!

Speaking of Spongebob, little miss Shea whose vocabulary consists of the words, ball, no, baby, mine, etc.. tries to sing along to the Spongebob song. whenever it comes on I hear her say something that almost resembles Spongebob, lol. Have I mentioned we watch a lot of Spongebob these days? That portable DVD is a lifesaver when you are traveling.

Another Shea story: The other night she was making noises in her sleep, and then I heard her say, "Nee nee! NO!!" I had to laugh. Nee Nee is what she calls Bethany.

Well I think I am done telling sotries about my babies for now. Rest assured there will be more. There is never a dull moment with those two.

A Homecoming and a PCS

So much is going on right now. We are busier than ever. Aaron came home on July 8th! I spent that day having my hair done and making myself pretty, then left the kids with my mom who was visiting. His flight was an hour and a half delayed, but he finally got there. Funny, but as soon as I saw him it was like he had never been gone. We stayed in Atlanta for 2 days and just enjoyed being alone. Aaron had some requests such as eating at the Waffle House and Longhorn.

We got home on the 10th and right away Bethany just looked at him and said "Hi Daddy!" I was so glad she remembered him. Both her and Shea took right to him. Bethany h as been having some big fits though. We think she is testing him to see what he will do. He is a lot tougher than I am, so she doesn't get away with much.

On the 12th my mom went home to CA and on the 14th the movers came and packed away all of our things. On the 15th the movers packed everything into the truck and we had an empty apartment. Bethany and Shea handled that a lot better than expected although Bethany did keep asking where things were and insisting that we have to find them. We tried explaining everything as best we could, but it is still a bit confusing to the kids.

On the 16th we cleaned up the apartment and packed up the car. It was Bethany's last day at Easter Seals, so we brought cupcakes for her class. It was especially hard to leave Easter Seals. I started bringing her there soon after we were told that she was delayed in speech and socialization skills. She was diagnosed with PDD-NOS (Autism spectrum) soon after. We saw amazing improvement in her in just one month and she continued to do well. Shortly after she turned 3 she was moved from Toddler 1 class to Preschool 2. She had wonderful teachers. Miss Sandy and Miss Melissa were wonderful. It was so sad to take her out. You always hope that your child will be in an environment where they flourish and the teachers love them. I really hope I can find her a great place when we get to TX.

Last night we drove to Orlando and we are staying with Aaron's mom here for about 2 weeks. On Sunday we are going to church with Aaron's Grandma. She lives in a very small community about 2 hours away. Most of the people in the community are elderly and have lived there forever. They have known Aaron his whole life. Not only are they excited to see his kids, but they are so proud of him for his service in the Army. He has agreed to wear his dress uniform to church and the whole community has left up their July 4th decorations for his visit. I am very proud of him too, and excited for Sunday. I will take pictures.

I will have a lot of pictures to upload when we get settled in TX, so be prepared for it! I took pictures of Bethany's last day at school, and of some of our friends in GA too.

We are planning some fun things that the kids will love while we are in Orlando. We plan to take them to the beach and Sea World. We will go on to Texas around the first week of August, and work on getting housing. That's all for now!

10 days left!

Oh wow! 10 days left until Aaron will be home! I am so excited! When I think about seeing Aaron's face it still seems too far away. But when I think about how much I need to do before he gets home, I don't think I have enough time! I have been working hard to get our things organized before the movers come, and getting paperwork done and updated and gathering records, etc. I finally got to check something off my list, then Aaron called and told me about 2 other things I need to add to the list! I know I should be happy he thought of it, or we would have problems later. I am just pretty overwhelmed. I keep getting rid of stuff we don't need, but the apartment looks as cluttered as ever. On a positive note, Aaron spoke with the housing office and it looks like we will probably walk right into housing and not have to wait! I am glad because we will have a yard for the kids to play in. It may not be fenced in, but I think we can get it fenced. But I am just so happy they will have some space to play outside. Living in an apartment is hard for such active kids. Going to the park takes planning. Not as easy as just opening the door. I want them to have fun kid experiences like playing in the sprinklers. I can't believe there is just 10 days left. I was totally set on losing my baby weight before he got home. But I am still pretty darn fluffy. Good thing he loves me for my sparkling personality. Oh well. I will lose it eventually. I am nervous too. I hope the kids do well with all of the changes coming. I feel sure that Shea will go along with things, but I think Bethany might have a hard time. Aaron and I have talked about it, and we know that all we can do is make sure to give her plenty of attention and talk to her about whats going on and reassure her.

On a good note, I think I am winning the bedtime battle! Bethany has been using some really good tactics to get out of having to go to bed, and be allowed to lay on the couch instead. I made the mistake of giving in a couple of times, but once I wised up to what she was doing I realized I had to get her back to sleeping in her own bed. It has not been easy. She is really persistent. But yesterday she didn't have a fit when I sent her back to bed every time she tried to come out. It was hard not to laugh. She tried casually walking out, she tried doing a belly crawl to the couch, she tried running to a piece of furniture and hiding behind it then going to another piece of furniture, etc. But tonight she didn't even try to come out of her room. So I am pleased. Well thats enough babble for now.

Bethany Funnies

~ After bedtime prayers, she asked, "Where IS Jesus Christ?" I told her he is in Heaven watching over her to help her make good choices. She looked at me like I was crazy, then started calling out, "Jeeeeeesus!!! Where are youuuuuu?!!!"

~While singing Old MacDonald had a Farm, I usually stop to let her say which animal was on his farm. She really threw me for a loop when she called out "Caribou!" Since then Old MacDonald has also had a turtle, a fox, and an eagle on his farm. I have no idea what sound any of those animals make.

~Bethany is always pulling off my shoes and socks. Recently I was wearing new socks and they left some lint on my foot. Bethany picked off the lint, held it up to look at it better, and said, "Oh! a sheep!"

~When Shea took one of her toys that she was playing with, Bethany got eye level and says, "No Shea. That's mine. Do you understand?" Funny because she got that from me. Whenever I tell her something, I tend to say, "Do you understand?" She sounded like such a little adult.

~For a few weeks now whenever I tell her to do something, she yells "YES SIR!" Like she is in boot camp or something. It makes me laugh every time.

That's all I can remember right now. I will add more another time.

Updates

First of all, I want to say thank you to Liz for the information. I couldn't access your profile to say thank you, so if you are reading this, I really appreciate the information.

We have only been restricting Bethany's dairy for 5 days now, but it is proving to be pretty tough. Seh goes to the fridge herself and tries to get yogurt and cheese. I had to get a lock for the fridge. I may have to not buy these things or hide them better until she gets used to being without dairy. I have decided not to follow a time line and just take each step as we are ready for it. When I feel like we have the dairy cut off under control, then we will go to step 2. I don't want to try to move so fast, that we get overwhelmed and quit again.

I have now lost 4.8 pounds through Weight Watchers. I am doing good, and well on my way to my goal of hitting my 10% mark by the time Aaron gets home.

Speaking of Aaron, we are getting so close! I am so excited to have him coming home soon! Not excited to be facing a move though.

Shea is up from nap, so I will have to cut this short now.

Too much on my mind

I have too much on my mind, and I can't sleep. I met a girl today who is 8 years old with Bethany's same diagnosis. I know all kids with ASD are different, but she was so similar to Bethany, that I really felt like it was the closest I will get to an idea of what she will be like at that age. I don't know what is wrong with me. Maybe somewhere in the back of my mind, I am still thinking she will suddenly come out of this. But today I saw reality. Not much I can do except love her and do my best for her. And to do my best for her, I feel like I need to give the GFCF diet another shot. An honest to goodness real good try this time. It may not help her. But it might. This feels overwhelming. The tacanow.org website has a 10 week plan to easing yourself into the diet/lifestyle. I know that it is not going to suddenly become easy. I just need to jump in and figure it out. So I will plan to start Sunday with step 1. Cut out all dairy.

The PCS is hanging over me like a black cloud. Although my husband is fabulous about most things, he is a procrastinator. He also tends to think that everything will just fall into place. I am starting to panic, because I feel like there is so much to do, and I feel like it is all on me to get things done. And I don't have a clue. Literally, not a clue as to where to even start. I know he needs to do his levee briefing to get more info. But thats about as much as I know.

Bethany is not potty training at all now. I have bought stickers, lots of big girl underpants. I sit on the edge of the tub while she sits on the potty for sometimes 20 minutes while she wants to sing songs and we spell every 3 letter word int he english language. She hasn't actually gone in a few weeks now. She will go in her pull up or underpants often within a few minutes of having spent 20 minutes on the potty! It is frustrating! I don't know what to do. I feel like she is at an age now, where I am getting nervous. I guess logically I know she will not be in diapers forever, but it is hard for me to think objectively these days.

I feel like everything is on me. I feel like I am failing if I can't get her potty trained, or help her improve her skills, or cook a decent meal every night, or if I forgrt to take a diaper to the trash and it sits out for a few hours. Yuck! I feel like I need to be superwoman and have everything under control, and I am failing because she has no interest in the potty, she is mean to her sister and pushes her down, We have pancakes for dinner at least once a week. I guess I am just a huge worrywart. Aaron would tell me "It is what it is". As he puts it, he is so laid back that he is almost at a stand still. Why can't I be more like him and relax a little. Trust that all will be okay?

On a happy note, I lost 2.4 pounds this past week. I had my weigh in on Wednesday. I have been trying to work out more too. I am doing pretty well.

Thats the most of it. Hopefully now, I can get some sleep!

Jibber Jabber

Shea is napping right now. Thank goodness. She was up half of the night crying and I had a hard time calming her. I was worried that my upstairs neighbor would try to call social services again. She has now threatened everybody with small children in this apartment building. She thinks none of us are feeding our kids or they wouldn't cry/act out/ make noise, etc. I am really getting sick of this lady. But I refuse to tiptoe around and let my kids take over because I am too afraid to dscipline them or let them make a peep. So if she has a problem, it is hers alone. It's true I would be upset if Family services show up at moy door, because let's face it! That is scary! Even if you have nothing to hide, it is intimidating to get a visit from people who could take your kids away if they think something is wrong. But I am not going to cower to her threats. I have nothing to hide. And I have faith that most social workers would be able to see that my kids are well taken care of.

But anyway, onto my favorite topic. Losing weight. I have decided to go sign up at Weight Watchers on Wednesday. Tomorrow. I have tried doing it all on my own, and I am getting nowhere. They have a Wednesday morning meeting that you can bring your small children with you to. I have roughly 8 weeks until Aaron comes home, and I so badly want to lose some weight before then. But apparently not bad enough to stop eating crap! I am hoping the accountability of going to the meetings will help enormously. Also I am making a better effort to get to the gym. I am in my gym clothes now with a diaper bag packed. when Shea wakes up, I will give her lunch, and then we are going to the gym. She can play in the nursery for an hour while I work out. If I can get there twice this week, I will feel like I really made the effort. Of course I need to make the effort to continue going as much as I can. I have been trying to do a pilates dvd here at home. It is hard to carve out time for that. I am usually so tired by the time the kids get in bed, and I use naptimes to get stuff done. So I try to do it when the kids are playing, but they both flock over to me and start climbing on me, and pressing tv buttons to find out why Nemo isn't on. Last night though, I waited until Shea was in bed, then I did my pilates while Bethany was still up. I had to stop and take a picture when I realized that Bethany was trying to do pilates too. It was so cute.

If I could figure out how to download the pictures from my camera to the computer, I would post it! I have a new camera that I love so far, but I cannot get how to get the pictures onto the computer! I did exactly what the manual said to do, and nothing happened. Well Shea is awake! Time for me to go.