Number One Son goes Number Two

J. doesn't get much mention in this blog, because he is generally doing well, I suppose. One area he has found challenging is having a poop anywhere other than in his pull-up, which he wears at night (I write this blog assuming that it won't be around by the time my kids are old enough to be embarrassed by it!)

I kept upping the positive reinforcer ante (okay, bribes), to the point where he was getting a full-blown party once he accomplished the deed. Well, he finally did it, and we had the party. He ended up confused, and told one person we were going trick or treating, told others that it was his birthday, and actually asked us to sing "Happy Birthday" to him at the height of the festivities, which we did.

So, there is a light at the end of the potty-training tunnel.

Watching the Hurricane

We're all in a tizzy around here, watching the progress of Hurricane Dean. We think we learned a lot from our Hurricane Rita evacuation, two years ago, but we're hoping not to put it to the test.

The wonderful family we stayed with last time has emailed us, offering to take us in again. They live in a very different type of area: scrubby woods with cacti, lots of deer, even scorpions. I thought it was beautiful...a great change from suburban Houston. In a way, I'd love to go back. On the other hand, twenty-five hours in the van would be a lot more difficult now that the boys are much more active (and opinionated!) We would leave earlier this time, hoping to beat some of the crowds (most of the twenty-five hours was spent sitting still or inching along).

Last time we were given some gas by a local man along the way. This time they say that fuel tankers are being sent to areas along the evacuation route. Lots of people have bought gas cans to bring their own extra fuel.

G. will only drink milk, so we'll bring a lot of that in a cooler. B. will drink soy milk in a pinch, so I can have some cartons that don't need to be refrigerated. Last time I thought we could buy food along the way, but most stores were closed. I wonder if they would drink water or juice if they got thirsty enough? I hope so!

According to the projections, we may not even need to evacuate, but you have to prepare, just in case. If we do go, I'll update from Austin.

Edit on Saturday: Looks as if it will miss us. Yay!

A photo from the last evacuation:

The opposite of mild

Our one remaining ECI therapist just called to schedule the twins' annual IFSP meetings. She said, "Hard to believe it's been a year, isn't it?"

I wanted to say, "Oh, honey, it feels as if it's been a lifetime". But she's new, and I like her, so I just said, "Yeah".

Last summer the ECI evaluator told me she thought I was imagining PDD because I was a special ed. teacher, and was over-reacting. She thought it might be sensory integration problems or maybe mild PDD. I have never, ever wanted so much to believe someone, but I just didn't. I called this blog "Hoopdeedoo and PDD", because that soundsd milder, and I was still hoping for "mild".

I love my boys for the wonderful, silly, sweet guys that they are. I also would love for them to have a milder kind of autism, whatever that means.

My oldest son calls any food which isn't absolutely bland "spicy" (yogurt, orange juice with pulp, etc.) I was thinking that rather then considering our situation "severe", I could think of that other opposite of mild: spicy.

Starting to Sing

B. has always loved to dance in front of the mirror. Lately, he has added in more vocalizations. It used to be a lot "Aaaaaah"s, but more and more it is strings of syllables that have the intonation of speech.

Yesterday, he was listening to a Signing Time CD (I'm embarassed to even mention Signing Time again, but it seems to have a magical power in our home), and started trying to sing along with a song...

Lay down on your bed,
Pull your blanket high.
Turn out the light.
Welcome the night.
Dream, dream,
Sweet dreams.

It's sung as a round, which I would think would be confusing, but it is the first time he has ever tried to sing along with a song! He has filled in final words, but that has such a different feel. Since then, I have overheard him trying to sing it a few times while looking at the mirror.

For so long, I felt I mostly had G's progress to blog about, and it feels so great to be writing this about B!

Back from the retreat

The retreat is over, and things are back to normal, such as it is. I had an absolutely wonderful time. Whenever I called home and spoke to my sister, she said things were going great. The one time my husband answered things didn't sound so rosy, but I think it was just a matter of perspective.

Getting away for a weekend was the best thing I've done in months! There was a lot of silliness, chatting, eating, chick-flick watching and even actual full-fledged conversation. Everyone there was a teacher or former teacher, but I managed to stay off the topic of special education for the most part.

I made a little scrapbook for the boys with pictures of them and very short sentences describing the pictures.

It's good to be back, but we are having some new sleep, or really non-sleep, issues, so it's difficult to blog coherently.

A big thank you to my husband and my sister for letting me get away and goof off!