Sunday, January 2, 2011

He's Gone and Done It

He's gone and done it alright. My baby turned 10. He hit the double digits and that boy stage that makes them hard to read. You know the one. It's the stage that when you give them a gift they have been dying to get, you don't know whether or not they like it because of their reaction. They are to "old" to show their excitement. That's the one.

My sister and her family came down and helped us celebrate Connor's birthday by going out to eat. (No pictures of them. Took them on Connor's new PSP and have bothered to figure out how to upload them yet. Left my camera at home.) Angie brought him a couple of Harry Potter books he wanted and $15. Thanks Aunt Angie!! So glad they were all able to come and have dinner with us.
 A couple of days before his birthday Connor received his gift from Papa, Ruby and Kacie in the mail. He was so excited to open it. I thought the anticipation of waiting for his father to get home before opening it was going to drive us both insane. He couldn't stand it. He was thrilled to open up the Harry Potter Lego game. He stayed up late that night putting it together. There was no way he was going to bed before he finished.

 As soon as he awoke yesterday, he started in wanting to open his gifts from us. His Nana left him a card and $10. Thanks Nana.


Here is the part where that weird boy stage comes into play.
Each year when Connor makes his Christmas list I also ask him to include things he would like for his birthday. I just go ahead and do all the shopping at once. I wrap up his Christmas gifts and put away the birthday presents until the big day. (That way I don't have to run out right after Christmas looking for the perfect birthday gift.) This year he included a Harry Potter Years 1-4 DS game on his list. I felt a little bad as Christmas came and went and he didn't get it. It was one of the things that stayed consistent on the list. You know how kids change their minds or at least mine does. This particular item or his desire for it never wavered. I knew he wanted it and would need games for his new PSP so I got it in PSP format.  He seemed happy enough with it when he opened it but nothing over the top by any means. He opened up the PSP which game in a bundle with a specific game that had been on the list. Still no big deal. Thanks was about it . Look at that face in the picture below. Does that look like a kid who got exactly what he asked for his birthday? I think not.
 

It wasn't until about bedtime last that I was allowed to know how much he liked it. "Mom, I'm really glad you got me the PSP with Invisalbes and Harry Potter. I love it. Thanks."

My baby is no more. He is growing into a nice young man. We all want our kids to stay little but no  matter what, they won't. At least we can be blessed with the knowledge that they are growing into a person we will be proud to call Son.

Connor, we love you so very much!!

Saturday, January 1, 2011

The Two P's ~Never a Dull Moment Here

**WARNING: The following post may will contain some gross or disgusting details. Reader be ware.**

Before you start reading the real post,  I would like to say that when a person blogs, scrapbooks or journals it is easy to make things look perfect or at least present things from a positive point of view. I don't often blog about the trials we face like other bloggers do. It isn't that I don't want to be "real". I just haven't. Sorry. It isn't because life is perfect and we don't have issues. That is far from the truth. Today's post will give you a view into how NOT perfect things can get around here. I wrote the following post because I really felt like I was being tested yesterday and I often feel better when I can talk it out. This morning it was too early to talk it out with anyone so I blogged it out. Feeling much better by the way.

(original post)
As I sit down to begin this post it is only a little past 6:30 am on New Year's Day. You know the day that most people will or would at least like to sleep in, especially if they celebrated the arrival of the New Year. I had no intentions of being up this early. I figured I could sleep til about 8 or so and then I would make pancakes for breakfast. Pancakes are Connor's favorite and today is his birthday. Figured I make the boy what he likes. You know instead of offering him a poptart.

For the last couple of years we have invited friends over on New Year's Eve to celebrate and to make it fun for Connor. Because we are always on Christmas break for his birthday we like to wait until school is back in session to celebrate with his friends. Anyways, back to the story here. Yesterday was like any other New Year's Eve day. I had to straighten the house and get food ready. I had already put away all the Christmas decorations and had been cleaning up throughout the week here and there. I just needed to put the final touches on so to speak. No big deal right. Well that's what I thought. However, that wasn't the way it felt about 1:00 yesterday afternoon.

Before I go any further, I just want to remind everyone that Keaton has autism. He is doing very well and has made lots of progress. We are so very blessed that he is doing so well. It makes it hard at times when he has difficulty with other things, say like wiping his bottom for instance. Here is where one of the P's comes into play. **(This is where the disgusting or gross will come into effect. Stop reading here if you have a weak stomach.)**  It seemed like every fifteen minutes yesterday Keaton needed help cleaning himself up from where he tried to wipe his bottom. He must have been having some bowel issues because he never really pooped or if he did it was flushed away before I got there to witness. He just seemed to have a little dab in his undies and when he tried to wipe it only made things worse. This happened a hundred billion times what seemed to me like a hundred million times. I couldn't get anything accomplished because every few minutes I was either wiping him up or putting him back in the bath.

Keaton and I had finally had enough of each other and I was nearly in tears when I called Lauren (Respite/Community Living Support worker/FRIEND). At the last minute, Lauren came over and took Keaton out for a few hours to give us both a break. He needed out of the house and I needed to finish my chores. About the time that Keaton and Lauren were leaving, Rob and his friend came home from watching the game. They helped me finish sweeping and getting the house ready. I took a much needed shower and nap.

I was able to finish getting the food ready and was somewhat ready for company. With Keaton putting things in the toilets that do not belong we occasionally have flushing issues. I went to double check the bathroom downstairs to make sure 1. It was clean enough for guests. & 2. It flushed correctly.

GUESS WHAT!!

If you said it worked perfectly you must really be an optimist because in fact that is not what happened. The water slowly began to rise, you know instead of going down the drain like it was supposed to. OK.....no big deal. I had a plunger and a snake thingy. I was prepared. So I plunged and plunged. I used the snake thingy and flushed again. Meanwhile, the first of our friends and guests had arrived. They found me in the bathroom with the plunger and an overflowing toilet. That's right I had somehow made it worse. The water was now overflowing instead of going down the drain. I could have lost it right then and there. I could have had a "come apart". Instead I gathered myself up, turned off the water, grabbed some towels, cleaned up the water and locked the bathroom door. There would be no using the restroom downstairs for the night.

All our friends arrived. We ate some yummy food, enjoyed each others company and played Cranium. The kids played Wii games, DSgames, built with legos, had sword fights, and played other games like hide and go seek. It sure seemed like things were going well. The wild and crazy bunch we are finished our game of Cranium and folks started heading home at the late, late hour of say 11:00 pm. When you're dealing with 12 kids under the ages of 10, you don't have to stay out until midnight to bring in the New Year. It's OK to go home before the meltdowns begin.

Keaton hit the hay right away. Believe it or not, I actually cleaned up when everyone left. I usually leave it for the next day. I checked out facebook and then played wii with Connor until I could wish him a Happy Birthday. We watched a little tv and went to bed around 12:30. Up again around 2:30 -too hot in my room to sleep. I finally was able to go back to sleep on the couch downstairs and was actually resting.

Imagine finally being able to rest well after the day I had had when all of a sudden you hear, "Amy! Amy! I need your help! He ate too much!" Any guessers out there?

Yep, you got. Keaton puked all over the place. It was all over the comforter, him and the bathroom floor. I don't know how he didn't get it on the carpet in the hal,l but I am very thankful for that. I am also very thankful for my husband who, by the way, was sleeping in the same bed as Keaton. So Keaton pukes and pukes some more. He then attempts to flush and it overflows!!! Can you believe it? It isn't bad enough that we have puke everywhere but the toilet now has to overflow with it. YUCK!! YUCK!! YUCK!! I get Keaton in the shower and start cleaning him up. Rob removes the sheets and comforter and begins cleaning up the bathroom. I am so very thankful he was here to help to do that part of the job. It was awful. The smell alone was enough to make me want to puke too, much less actually have to wipe it up.  The washer just stopped. Be right back..........that was the comforter. Looked ok, but running it through the wash one more time for good measure.

So now it is 7:20. I have already given Keaton his first bath of the day, mopped the bathroom floor and scrubbed down the baseboards with Clorox wipes, unclogged the toilet (It's flushing fine for now.) and have started the laundry. If nothing else, I should feel very productive today.

Oh, just in case you're wondering. Keaton isn't sick. I'm sure. We have learned that he does this (puke I mean) whenever he is allowed to eat without limits. We usually have combination locks on the food pantry, the freezer and the refrigerator. Last night we didn't and we also left the food out on the counter so that our guests could come back for more. We're good hosts that way. It just makes it difficult to monitor Keaton's food intake resulting in cleaning up the outtake.

Until next time,