I wish puberty would end!

Today, I am sickened. I am too sick to tell you what Braxton was doing and you may get sick if I told you. I may post a bit later..It has not been fun

So Glad to be Back

WOW! I am so amazed. I helped a friend start her blog today and told her I was sad as I had deleted mine and then here it is! I did not delete it after all and am so glad. I missed not blogging about our adventures and mishaps.
The kids are really growing up. Sarita is in 4th grade and Braxton in 9th. Braxton has chosen to vocalize that he wants to wear his hair long and I took that as a way to have him start combing and brushing his hair:)

Sarita has so many talents. She is quite the artist and becoming a little singer. She has gotten so tall and so pretty ...I got a karaoke machine and put in a disc by The Platters and played "Enchanted". Now neither one of us had ever heard it before. She started singing it her way and I could hear a jazzy growl in her voice and decided to record her on video. She was nervous, of course. Then I put it on youtube and here is the link :

                   http://youtu.be/KWJdfxqi_Pk

So, I will write more later...Have  a nice evening.

I Need My Own Bathroom

I want my own bathroom. I cleaned the one I share with the kids at 4AM. I got up to go wee and at the same time, Braxton got up. After holding my urge to go, for several hours..I was in a rush to sit down. Well, I just sat down and started to go and here comes Braxton with a strained look on his face, holding his twinkler and said "Off mommy!" 
I get this panicked look on my face cause (rememberi

ng the day he peed on Sarita) no way I could stop and was horrified to see him holding it and aiming for the toilet. What a predicament!
So, I did what I had to do and lifted my butt and inched forward giving him room. It did not work very well and I had to clean the bathroom and then shower myself. All I could say when it was over is it would have been down right funny watching someone else in the same boat:) That kid is so much like me!
Hope you are enjoying the show in your mind :):)

I would like to get him to use the tub in emergency situations, but an afraid it would become a problem.

Today, we went to a birthday party and someone was in the bathroom, so Braxton went out in the back yard to pee. 

On a great note, on Friday morning while waiting for the school bus, I started to sing to him and he said "No mommy." I said "Are you going to sing for me?" To my surprise, he started singing! This is so huge. I have had people tell me they have noticed huge changes in him over the past few weeks and I am wondering if it could be the Vitamin D3 I been giving him?

Sarita has been an almost angel with not too many problems lately. She has been spending a lot of time at the new neighbor girl's home. This concerns me a little as she likes to give her gifts. I often wonder which of my things has she given. Todays birthday party was for our 9 yr old granddaughter and to my surprise, one of her presents was a gift I had bought for a friend of mine. I ddi not say too much, but gave my daughter a look. I want to think before I act on this stuff, but do not want her to think it is okay to do that.

Our rains are back after over 80 days of being dry. Weather is cooling down and life is good..

Sandwich Shop

Lovely day today in lower 70's. Took the kids to park and then they had their choice of McDonald's or Subway. Usually Braxton picks McD's and Sarita takes Subway. They switched on us. Got to Subway and wouldn't you know it was crowded with a line and Braxton's mind on hunger!  Waiting was not on that boy's mind! After about almost 10 minutes of us trying to calm him down while he was hitting us and letting out blood curdling screams, Paul & I walked out saying "Goodbye" to him. He panicked and tried banging on the window, until he realized where the door was.  People were staring and of course could hear their thoughts. When we got Braxton into the car, Paul took him for a ride and I went back in to get our food. Braxton said he was sorry for hitting us and all was good. 

Laughing and Crying

Well, the past couple of days have been very interesting.
First off, I will start out with something very funny. This is what i wrote yesterday on my Facebook page :
:"By the end of the day, I will be a proud grandmother..to a LOAD of LAUNDRY!! I have been chuckling all day about this one. Thank you Braxton for keeping me so entertained. I thought he dressed pretty classy..however; Sarita was not so amused. She was a bit upset about her dress LOL"
With Braxton's sensory issues, he constantly stuffs clothing under what he is wearing. He needs to feel his body in space. This is probably why you may see autistic kids jumping up and down or flapping their arms and hands. There is a very good article on this at :http://www.tsbvi.edu/seehear/fall97/sensory.htm

There are a few things happening. My daughter continues to see a therapist weekly and is set to be evaluated on 11/14..A step in an alright direction. Now, whether he believes in giving someone her age a dx is another question.

I have been to hell and back with her over the past few weeks. I say something like 'Get out of my face" and she says "Oh you want me out of your life" Then she says things like "You want me to die, don't you?" I guess I should realize it is manipulation. Then to have her say things about not being good enough and on and on really wears a guy down.

She is putting bad bruises on my autistic son. The therapist says she needs a group to understand him..I thin k it goes way beyond that. She just says she wants him gone. We are setting up consequences for every time she hits him and also when he hits her . Sadly, she has taught him to hit. Last time she came crying because he was fed up with her, I looked at her and said 'Aren't you happy that you taught him to hit?" She was mad at me then.

Is this normal for these kids to only think of "I" and to be mad and jealous if someone gets something? She was mad at her dad because he is going after his purple belt in karate and it was not fair because hers is white.

One thing I have done is that whenever she is disrespectful to us, we don't let her go places. That is a consequence for her..but you know what? I don't think she can help it.

My daughter also goes into very immature behavior when she wants attention with baby talk and acts helpless. She also hits herself. There has been a question if she may be also on the spectrum (autism).

 Even celebrations are tainted because she got less and on and on. How does one go on and ignore this behavior? The other night at dinner, she went on and on with her screaming, etc. Finally the 3 of us there just got up w/o a word and went into another room. WOW was she surprised. I am going to do whatever I can to help her with emotions. One thing she really enjoys is art work. She is an awesome artist.  

Changes Again

Over the past week, Braxton has been doing some interesting things.
He thought I was crying and came to me saying "Don;t cry mommy", then he kissed me. Usually, he laughs when someone cries. Then the next day, he pretended to cry and put his head toward me. He wanted me to say "Don't cry Braxton" and hug him.  To me, this was huge growth.
Another thing he has been doing is peeing on his bedroom floor:( Now, this is not so cool and I do not know where it is coming from. I told him if he does it again, I will take away TV time.
Otherwise, he is doing fine. We are working on a schedule to make things easier. The locksmith will be here today to give us an estimate on locks on all kitchen cabinets.
My daughter is doing well in school and is such a happy girl most of the time. My main problem at this time is finding ways to help her not feel so jealous of her brother. She keeps telling me she hates him. I try my best to explain his needs and capabilities are different from hers. I am beginning to feel that this goes deeper than that though. She cannot stand any of my attention on anyone or anything.  If I even give the animals attention, she is mean to them.    Her therapist seems to think all of her behaviors are just seen at home. I told her that is where we always are and she acts up wherever we are.  If you put limits and boundaries down, she will fight back. It does not matter who you are.
I have been having to put limits and boundaries on her relationship with Sue, whom she calls grandma. When she goes for a visit with her, her behavior is horrid when she comes home. Sue seems to do whatever she is told by my daughter and she spends more time running and playing with her. I do not think this is so healthy at times. It really puts a strain on me. It has been several months since I have allowed my children to go to Sue's home even. Recently, I told Sue she could only take the kids to the park, instead of spending so much money on them. I hate having to feel like I have to compete for my daughter's affections.  I am not able to give her all the attention she seems to feel she needs. It is like a bottomless pit that cannot be filled.  If the truth be known, I actually spend more time with her, because Braxton is so much easier to care for.
Tonight, I will take my girl to karate. She is getting pretty good and I am so proud of her.
This last Saturday, we had the last barbecue of the year at my parent's home. It was very enjoyable. My dad and husband did the cooking. Of course, there was enough food to feed an army.
I play games with dad every morning via Skype and almost daily, I hear my mom asking him to clean the litter box. So, I made them a kitty litter cake. This was a huge hit and everyone was taking pictures, but nobody would eat it. It is a mixture of spice and white cake crumbled together , then vanilla pudding and crushed vanilla sandwich cookies mixed in. I made the poo out of softened tootsie rolls and put green food color in about 1/4 c of the cookies and sprinkled them on. My nephew, who is a vet, had to look twice and sniff and then asked em to make him one to take to work:) Now Braxton, knowing what the poo was, ate the ones off the side:) 

School

School started for my little darlings and on the first day, both of them were excited. I worried about Braxton as he kept saying "No school", but he was excited also.  He has a new teacher this year, Mr C. Braxton really likes him and he still has his 1 on 1 Mrs R.  I can hardly believe he is in grade 7.  I look forward to a really great year for him since there are only 5 kids in his class. A few weeks ago, I started giving Braxton Vitamin D3. There was a study done on it and autistic children seemed to have performed better and most of them showed they were low on D3....http://blog.vitamindcouncil.org/2012/08/17/study-high-antibodies-low-vitamin-d-levels-in-autistic-children/      A few moms on groups I am on have commented on improvements in their children.  A few days ago Braxton showed proper emotions for the first time. He thought I was crying and looked at me and while coming to me said "Don't cry mommy" and gave me a kiss. This was major as he usually laughs when he sees someone cry.  He is getting better at talking in sentences also.

Sarita is a big 2nd grader this year. I suspect she will do well. She is very smart and so creative. . Some of her drawings just amaze me.  In November, she will get an evaluation for her emotional needs.  She is so explosive at times, it worries me. We have given her a bigger bedroom now and she really likes it. We are hoping to have it all put together and painted within a couple of months. Last night, my little artist painted herself up and the clothes she was wearing with chocolate cake batter. I should have taken a picture, but truthfully, I was a bit annoyed at this one. Braxton is the one who made the batter him self:) He read the directions and made it. The bad part is that the cake mix was to be used for tomorrow's barbecue at my mom's. 

My husband went in yesterday for ultrasound on his kidney's. I do not know any results yet. He seems to be holding his own. Since he is now on medicare, there were some changes we had to get used to. At least his meds are pretty well covered and with his plan, he will have no deductibles. The biggest difference now is that instead of putting out less than $160.00 for medical per month, we now put out over $1,000.00 which has really hurt us and right now, we are in distress over this. I can barely get my kids what they need and school lunches are expensive . The forms do not take into account what you have to pay. Another bad thing is that we no longer get any income tax back with the kids. I know so many grand parents go through this also. They live on a fixed income and are having to support their grandchildren and can't even claim them. Things need to change in this realm.

I went to a weekend training a week ago and really enjoyed it. This was for Community Connectors. The trainings were on special education and Wraparound.  I met a lot of wonderful people and look forward to attending another training in March 2013.  We were at Ft Worden in Port Townsend, Wa. 

I have been very busy with school meetings with other parents and passing out fliers for Family Alliance for Mental Health www.familyallianceformentalhealth.com and makin g new connections for families in need of support. 

Well, I am off. Have a great day!