Awaiting a visit from the Beemans

Hunter helping keep the baby quiet

Samuel giving Gabriel his first bottle


Well not much has been going on here in Oklahoma. The weather is so wishy washy with spring arriving that one day it will be 70' and very windy the next day it won't get past 40' with very little wind. It stinks because the boys stay inside ALL the time and are bored to death and start bugging me and each other trying to drive me insane! I'm so ready for warm weather, so we can all get our daily dose of vitamin D.

My eight weeks of rest post c-section has expired and I am now back at the gym trying to lose all this extra weight. It's amazing what 9 months and 50 lbs can do to a body, prior to finding out I was expecting I was training to run in my first 5K race. I was actually up to running 4 miles every-other day. It finally dawned on me why I was wiped out the entire rest of the day after I exercised...duh!! So to be fair to the boys (and not sleep all day or just lay around while they tore up the place) I decided I would put working out on the back burner until now! So I will be trying again to get up to running a 5K, maybe by October I'll be ready for the annual Tulsa Zoo run. Michael ran that race last year only he did the 10K, he's so awesome!

Oh as for the visit, my folks are coming down later this week!! AWESOME!! Michael and my Dad are going on their annual, week long Red Fish, fishing trip to Louisiana, while mom and I hang out and go shopping. Once they return we'll all have a week to spend together and then it will be spring break for Hunter so we are all headed back to Durango together!! I'm hoping to get in a quick snow boarding trip to Wolf Creek and hot tubbing at the hot springs in Pagosa after busting my butt on the slopes! My old aching body will need the healing waters and maybe a message too! Although I would much rather be in Florida or Mexico soaking up the sun and enjoying the beach, I guess seeing some family and friends along with some free time (without the kids) will be very nice too!!

Looking forward to our Durango trip March 14 - 20, clear your schedules!!

Hunter and Gabriel

2 months old

Grinin'

What?

Gabriel found his thumb

2 months old

Well Gabriel turned two months yesterday!! I still can't get over how quickly he is growing. I will post some pictures as soon as I get a minute to download them. Baby Gabey as I've come to call him, had his first check up yesterday. He is 23 1/2" long (almost 2 feet at 2 months) 75% and weighs 9lbs 13oz only 10% so he is already having a build like Michael and Hunter tall and thin!!

I have almost finished the announcements and am currently addressing the envelopes. Just yesterday as I was putting the finishing touches on them all I realized that I had forgotten to put his name anywhere on the announcement!! I guess that's what happens when you get old and have 3 kids. I'm just lucky to be getting announcements out at all, but I really had to since I made hand made announcements for the other boys. I guess later is better than never.

On another note, a friend of mine bought me the first book in the Twilight series. I usually try to avoid main stream anything (books, movies, fads, fashion, etc) with the exception to electronics because those things don't define who I am. I am unique, different and a rebel. Any who, I didn't have any books left in my haven't read stash and began reading this book (my Dad commented unapprovingly, you have time to read with 3 kids?), I read when I am feeding the baby (a little more stimulating than just watching TV). Well during this mornings feeding I got to the part where Edward has just saved Bella from the thugs in Port Angeles and they are in her drive way he says, "do me a favor Bella, don't go into the woods alone"......RING RING RING my phone with this horrible ring tone to signal my Dad is calling starts up and SCARED ME TO DEATH!!! This same friend who gave me the book had text messaged me a ring tone labeled psychosis and it's like in the scary movies when the victim is about to get hurt (reh, reh, reh, high pitched squelches) at least I didn't have that ring tone on!! YIKES.

Okay so back to the boys... sorry I'm all over the place Michael's been out of town all week and I think the sleep deprivation has caught up to me. He usually takes care of the big boys when they wake at night so that I can get some sleep between feedings, so sweet huh! Good thing Hunter has only half day school and goes in the afternoons other wise he would have missed the bus all week. Gabriel has had some trouble with his BM's for two weeks and the doctor advised 2oz of warm water with a tablespoon of Karo syrup, I was skeptical about this remedy but went ahead with the plan and gave him a bottle last night. At 10am this morning we had a blow out, I'm just wondering does this work on big kids too?

No plans for the long weekend (kids are out Friday and Monday for Presidents day and Teacher planning) or Valentines day either. Michael says it's a made up holiday just to get people to spend their money, but I think he's just too cheap. Heck every day should be Valentines day, aren't I worth fine chocolates, diamonds, beautiful flowers, mani's and pedi's, facials and messages too?!! HAHAHAHA that would be the life, but soon would get boring too.

Well that is all that is on my mind right now. Will get those pictures posted soon!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

I know it seems odd to be so excited over parent/teacher conferences when kids are only in preschool but because it's with Hunter I cannot tell you how important these things are to me.

Hunter was "officially" diagnosed with PDD-NOS (Pervasive Development Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified), basically he has many behaviors that fit in the Autism Spectrum but because he doesn't fit exactly into any one category like typical Autism, high functioning Autism, Aspergers or ADHD he has the NOS label. He attends pre-school at the public school where they have a delayed development program for 3 and 4 year olds. Just recently we put him on some medication (our last resort) and his response has been amazing! Thus at parent/teacher conferences Hunter's teacher was so excited about his progress that she was pretty certain that Hunter would be able to attend regular Kindergarten full time.

Early on in the school year Hunter was placed in the regular preschool program 2 days a week while the rest of the week he attended the delayed development preschool. Just prior to putting him on medication we had a meeting with his teachers, they didn't feel like he was having a whole lot of success in regular preschool so they wanted to have him in regular preschool only one day a week while increasing his time at the delayed development program. So having his teacher say that she wishes they would have waited to change things after seeing such major improvements with Hunter and that regular Kindergarten was more than just a possibility was AWESOME!!

We are so thankful for everyone who has been so supportive and helpful with Hunter and in our venture in finding him help. It hasn't been easy, to say the least and at times it can be extremely frustrating but we know how smart Hunter is and we are confident that his successes will be great, we are so blessed to have him in our family. I now have a much better attitude when we go shopping or out to eat and I hear children screaming or having a meltdown in public. Sometimes it is just what it is but other times that child may be having a problem with the many noises, lighting, or any number of things. For me to judge what is going on with that child would be nothing short of ignorance, just because there are no outward signs DOES NOT mean that a child doesn't have a disability. Remember that next time your out and about, because 1 in 150 children have Autism ( from very mild to extreme, the spectrum is so large). If your not sure about what Autism is or your perception is skewed by movies like "Rain Man" check out the web site http://www.autismspeaks.org/!