Communication Is Key

com·mu·ni·ca·tion  - NOUN:  The act of communicating; transmission. The exchange of thoughts, messages, or information, as by speech, signals, writing, or behavior.

I have always heard how important communication is; I have heard this since I was young and living at home.  Communication is something we learn when we are baby's; without it we can't get our needs met.  My son has few words that we understand and the one that everyone understands is all done and this is vital to him because it ensures that he can tell you when he doesn't like something, or he doesn't want to go outside, take a bath, eat whatever it is that I have put on his plate either way we get the message loud and clear.  My boy uses lots of signs to communicate to us and I will have to say that we have totally enjoyed learning sign language and have found it to be very useful when we want to talk to each other threw the window of the house.  People communicate to each other all the time when driving in cars.  The other night someone flashed their lights at me to tell me that my lights weren't on (not used to driving at night).  My daughter is starting to enter a major communicating burst in her life.  She has a phone now since Christmas and an iTouch that she does facetime with her friends on.  I often think about when I was just in high school and not having the ability to communicate with friends the way she does.  She is my social butterfly.  But how do you give a butterfly the freedom to fly without all the access of technology.  There is a lot of trust that goes into this and of course communication on our part to her about her limitations.  Honestly this isn't a post that is going to give you some big answer on how to handle this cuz we are taking it one day at a time.  We like that she can text her friend she has known since she was born, because without this she would never see her and lose touch and basically that is what all this technology has done for us it has brought us together, like it or not.  Unfortunately I have been without my phone for a couple of weeks now and I am no longer communicating with my friends.  Life moves on even when you don't have a phone, but know this I miss all my peeps.  So communication is key and I suggest we all embrace it.  So go and communicate that thing you were meaning to tell someone and don't wait another minute. 

Mama Likes To Sing





So my boy has some sensory issues and one of them involves sound.  He can't tolerate sudden bursts of sound, such as a dog bark, crowd cheering, the intercom system at the store and babies/toddlers making any kind of sound.  Recently we have added a new one to the list and that is his momma singing to his favorite songs.  Ok I know I am not the best singer but come on I don't deserve the nose curling, hands over your ears display of disgust.  No my feelings are not hurt cuz this momma likes to sing and I do a lot of it in the car to my songs.  Having a child with sensory issues has taught us to be more flexible and as I have said in the past, go with the flow of things.  We always have a plan of exit for when things might go bad.  Restaurants are usually out because there is just to much going on there with noise and food, soccer games he hates but we make it work with me usually sitting far enough away so I can just see enough of the game to know our team just scored, some stores he will not do because of all the paging they do over the intercom and public restrooms are tricky because of the hand dryers, I try to send everyone a telepathic message to not use the hand dryer until we leave.  No I don't have this gift and it never works.  We make it work by planning out all of our outings with him and being totally equipped with a backpack of goodies, and those of you who are a mom know all about the backpack of goodies, it is that stuff that provides us with a little more time to get you threw check out at the store.  Yes there is a lot of things that we just don't do with our boy but we don't stop trying.  We have certain places he will go and I take him there regularly just so he is being a part of something different.  He likes the pet store so we go and he tolerates Quiktrip so I take him in when I can.  So do I stop singing, no but for now I will stop ruining his favorite songs and this momma will only sing to my songs.   

La La La Oh Well

Rootbeer floats in the sun!!

 Right now I would have to say that we are having a great summer.  Already we have taken a vacation, the kids spent a week at the lake with their grandparents, we have had tons of sleepovers and have done this successfully without getting a sunburn, yet. Yes we are in a good place right now and it feels great, the kind of great that when your son throws something over the fence into the neighbors yard again, you can sing la la la it doesn't matter, la la la oh well, this is currently my new favorite song  Find it here .  Thankfully we have nice neighbors and they have decided that it is just easier to give us total access to their backyard, the other neighbors kindly throw the items back over whenever they find them.  Yes we have nice neighbors.   .

Can't get in the water without all our toys!

More fun in the sun

 

Putting rocks in the noodle kept this boy busy!




Yellow countertops

  For those who don't know we have recently moved into an older house that needs some updating and we are currently living with yellow kitchen counters, la la la it doesn't matter, la la la oh well.  We have plans to update and change things and we will one thing at a time.


Wallpaper

  We did get rid of the 80's wall paper because I guess I just couldn't say it doesn't matter.  It was in the living/dining room.

No wallpaper

Denis painted it a pretty shade of blue the exact color of a robin's egg and it makes me happy.  This summer is going fast and all the plans we have are all falling into place.  So I do hope that your summer is finding you in a good place a place that makes you sing, la la la it doesn't matter, la la la oh well

A Team or No Team

Little girl before tryouts



Extreme 2000 Girls



Little girl had soccer tryouts today and I would have to say that she handled it with style and grace.  If she was nervous she did not show it.  She woke up and had breakfast, one egg and a waffle.  Then we headed out to tryouts just as if it was another practice.  This tryout was  different for her because she was not trying out for the team that she had played with for 3 years now, she was trying out for a team that had become our team nemesis we could never beat them until a couple of weeks ago.  Little girl had some tough decisions to make about this move, she would be leaving some of her friends and her coach that she likes and respects a lot.  The crazy thing about all this is if you would have asked us a week ago if we thought we would be changing teams the answer would have been NO.  So what brought about all this change you ask?  We were losing some key players on the team and possibly losing more and with this we had to have a back up plan and my girl understood all of this better than anyone what was going down, the team was falling apart at the seams.  This team took second in the State and who would have guessed this would have happened.  My girl  is 11 and she was upset but she handled this information like an adult.  She asked her dad what are our options, and where would I go?  So here we are trying out for TSC Red.  Red is the A team for TSC.  My girl wanted the red team or no TSC team and she went out there today and showed them that she was TSC Red material.  I would have expected some kind of nervous rant but nothing, she got out of the car and smiled and went to do her thing.  Oh the confidence this child has, there was no question in her mind that she wouldn't end up on the team she wanted.  So we went for the A team today and came home with new teammates.  We will miss our old team and all that we learned and experienced from them but she welcomes this change with open arms and we are here supporting her every step of the way.  Goooo Girl!!!

It's All Good Up In the Hood

You know it is a good day when nothing gets broke, destroyed, misplaced or dunked in water and that is the kind of week we have had,  I am jinxing myself right now as I type this.  I think most of my friends know how it is here but for those of you who don't my boy is for the most part non-verbal and so when he thinks he needs something desperately he might take desperate measures to get our attention.  For instance if his show is over and he wants to watch something else he just might put something in the sink if I am in the kitchen,  yes this gets my attention but so does tapping me on the leg.  This week he has been so focused and he has got his head in the game.  Some of the things he has done this week might seem like small potatoes to some but we do celebrate the little things at our house.  For starters the communication between us is awesome, coming to us when he needs something and the big one that we are still talking about is when he ran to the bathroom like there was no tomorrow and pushed open the door to go potty.  We are still celebrating this but unfortunately those moments come and go for some reason.  He also drank pink lemonade and he had a rootbeer float.  He generally doesn't try new things so again big time stuff here.  We are always so confused about the things that our boy can do and the things that he struggles with.  E has always been able to work any electronic device we give him without any direction from us.  Amazing!  He can work the PS3 controller to pick out shows on Netflix and this is the game controller which is a little bit more confusing for this momma than a regular controller.  He has always been able to work the iTouch, which has recently passed due to being dunked in water to many times.  But the thing is I think he is doing much better without the iTouch.  Maybe that is why he is so much more focused and has his head in the game of reality.  I was raised hearing the phrase that things always happen for a reason.  So for now it is all good up in the hood, bro!!  Yes this could change in a matter of seconds as we all know who have kids.  I would love to hear about the good things going on up in your hood, nothing is to small to share!!

Go With The Flow

 My day rarely goes as planned and you will often hear me tell my girl to just go with the flow of things.  I like to think that going with the flow opens up the door to all kinds of wonderful things, like an unexpected guest staying for dinner, or that split second decision to get snow cones just because you are driving by one and then there is always the unexpected things that E brings to any day.

  But my girl likes to have a plan for the day and she does well knowing way in advance when things are going to change.  So it doesn't surprise me that she already has a plan for her future.  She told me the other day that she wants to be a physical therapist and with that statement came questions like do they make a lot of money and will I need to know all about the body?  She is smart and she will make this happen if that is still what she wants to do when the time comes to make this choice.

 I on the other hand am still trying to figure out what I am going to do when I grow up and I am always hoping that I will just flow right into something that is just perfect for me.

    So I have decided that there are times when you need to go with the flow but in order to move forward you have to make waves.  So let's all go out and make some waves and stir things up!     

Meet the Characters

Well I guess I am a blogger now and welcome to my world.  My world consists of lots of random thoughts that I have decided to share for some strange reason.  I am not real sure where I want to take this blog but I am sure it will go places that I did not intend and I hope you enjoy.  You will be introduced to my family and all the crazy that comes with them.  You will hear about the man that keeps me on the right track and my two children, E and Little Girl, that is what we will call them for now. E is 7 and has Down syndrome and Little Girl is 11and is almost taller than me. But the unique thing about the two of them is they are my children and I am going to share them with you.  So this is where it all begins and I think it is time to let the good times roll!!!