Today, I received a call from a lovely woman with the early intervention program. She informed me that Jonah has been accepted into the program, and she will be his case manager! I was ecstatic - so happy that I nearly cried!!!

We had an intake person come out to evaluate Jonah a few weeks ago. She was nice, but didn't feel that he was a very good candidate, as he is incredibly sociable, and makes good eye contact. However, she was quite concerned by his refusal to eat solid foods at 8 months. Funny, because that wasn't even a concern, in my book lol! Turns out, that qualified him for further evaluation.

The next lady came out a week or so later, and evaluated him, looking at me like I had lost my mind. She couldn't get over how friendly and happy he was, how he made great eye contact, responded to different stimuli, etc. Yet again, she was concerned about his inability to eat. She said she really didn't think I had anything to worry about, and that she was going to run his information through the computer to see if he qualified. She was rather doubtful about it, though, saying that he might just be laid back and meeting milestones a little slower than average.

I wasn't thrilled about these responses, as I can see that something is certainly different with him. The past two nights, I've been trying to figure out what the next step was going to be. And the more I read the more I recognized traits in Jonah that seem very strong indicators of some form of an Autistic Spectrum Disorder. Flapping his arms when he's frustrated or excited, opening and closing his hands when he's hungry and upset, not reacting AT ALL when the pyro goes off at a football game, right beside us. Then, of course, his issues with food. It really appears to be a combination of a texture problem, and just not knowing how to move food from the front of his mouth to the back. He almost "nurses" his food, pressing it to the roof of his mouth with his tongue, neither swallowing it, nor spitting it out. So many little nuances that I just chalked up to him being HIM!

Now, if I could just get Adron to realize that this isn't a BAD thing, we'd be ok. I'm afraid he thinks I'm overreacting, or that having a form of autism is a horrible thing, not just something that makes Jonah, well, Jonah lol! While I want nothing more than for my children to have "normal" lives, I think there are many, many blessings to be gained by being gifted with a child with special different needs!

The oddest part, however, is the more I read, and the more videos I watch, the more I see of Ellie in them. Crazy - I honestly thought she was ADHD, but with the arm flapping she has been doing since she was 5 months old, the screaming that started 4 years ago (and hasn't stopped yet), and her funny aversions to touching things, I'm starting to wonder. That kid didn't eat much solid food until she was a year old, either...

My special little guy

I'm sitting here looking at my beautiful baby boy in a somewhat different way. It's a really great thing, but kind of strange.

One of my sisters is blessed by having a son with autism. He is quite high functioning, but still very much a challenge for her. Anyway, she came to visit us the other day, and brought both of her amazing children with her. We laughed and talked for hours, and it was so wonderful to catch up with her.

While we were talking, the subject of Asperger's came up, and she mentioned that it might be a good idea to have Jonah evaluated. I've often suspected that something was *different* with him, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

He's always been an exceptionally good baby, only crying when he truly needed something. Since he was a newborn, I've been able to stall him for an hour or even two when he's hungry. It's just been a matter of giving him his pacifier and hugging him. Not that I would do it normally, but, for example, I would know he was hungry during church, but I could put him off until the end, and even longer sometimes. Granted, he would make up for it by spending much of the rest of the day nursing, but still. That's NOT normal behavior for a newborn! Even at 3, Noah can't do that!

Another thing that has kind of concerned me is that he doesn't care a thing about playing peekaboo. He smiles because I'm talking to him, but doesn't look for me or get excited by the game. I call his name, and he doesn't turn around with recognition in his eyes. Oh, sure, he responds when I talk to him, but it's different. If I say anything in a sing-song manner, or in mommy-eese, he's going to look at me, smile, and usually try to crawl over to me. But, calling his name in a normal tone doesn't elicit any kind of response.

Granted, all of these could be completely unrelated, and maybe he's just a very laid back guy, and has a high tolerance for discomfort/hunger pains? However, if there is something there, and all it takes is a little effort on my part to make his life more "normal", I'd be foolish to ignore it.



None of this worries me or freaks me out, it just makes me realize that this little guy really IS special! I've known that he's incredibly smart, but now I know that he might have to work a little harder at being like the other kids. When I say "light", he starts opening and closing his hand in the ASL sign for the word. However, while he associates the sign with the word, he doesn't look up at the light. His first "word" was "I love you", otherwise pronounced "ah wub wub" followed by a huge kiss! Today, he started saying "ba ba" while waving. LOL the kid loves to go places! Not "mama" or "daddy", but "I love you" and "bye bye". How cool is that!!!!

One of *those* days.

Do you ever have a day where nothing has really gone wrong, but you just kinda feel a little off?

Noah was supposed to be putting his shoes on, but misplaced one of them. I found it, and by that time, he had taken off the other shoe. Then, I told him to bring it to me and put them both on so we could pick up Amelia. While he was putting them on, I changed Jonah's diaper, found socks for him, put him in his carseat, and turned around to see Noah taking his shoes off AGAIN. Grrrrrr! So I yelled at Noah. That, of course, made matters worse. And on top of that, Noah had pooped in his diaper. He was in big boy undies all day yesterday, and only had a little accident late in the afternoon. Two steps forward, one step back, right?

I loaded the boys up into the van, with Noah wailing the whole time because I hadn't zipped up his jacket. After getting past that, everything was fine with Noah. Jonah, as usual, fussed almost the whole way home from getting Amelia. He did, however fall asleep right before we got home, so, as usual, I carried both babies in the house and left them in their seats. Gave Noah his antibiotic (ear infection), put Amelia's milk in the freezer, and by that point she was fussing.

Poor kid was starving, and it took forever to get her milk thawed. Bless her - sweet little thing was even willing to eat it cold! While the milk was thawing, she cried no matter what I did. Amazingly that didn't wake Jonah. But as soon as I got her fed, he woke up starving. Ok, no biggie. Changed his diaper first, only to discover that his bottom is still red.

Now, Jonah is quite a, well, regular kinda guy - fills his diaper around 5:30-6 every morning. No problem, but apparently he was running a little ahead of schedule last night. This is the kid that never gets rashes, so I figured the redness would go away by the next diaper change. It didn't - in fact, it was worse. Now he's in a disposable to see if that might help keep him a little drier.

That brings us to the clothing issue. Right now, I have 4 large totes worth of 0-12 month clothes IN MY ROOM. They are a huge mess, and are making me nuts! The problem is Memphis weather lol! Last week, we were wearing shorts every day. This week, it's chilly. Making matters worse, Noah was an October baby, Jonah was born in April, meaning that they are complete seasonal opposites! I have plenty of little bitty long pants, sweaters, and other cool weather clothes. And nearly all of the 6-12 month clothes are summer. Ugh! Of course, there are winter clothes in 12-18 month sizes, and I left out the smaller ones since it will still be cool by the time Jonah grows into them. However, the poor little runt is swimming in a pair of jeans and a long-sleeved shirt, both of which have been cuffed so they are wearable lol! Unfortunately, the cloth diaper was really helping keep the jeans on Jonah's scrawny little behind, and how that he's wearing a paper diaper, he's crawling right out of his pants!


But I lost 1 lb this week LOLOLOL!!! That brings me to a total of 10 lbs even for the past 7 weeks. That makes me happy!

Here are a few LOs I've made recently. I'll post pics of some of my sewing projects later ;o) Click for credits:

This was yesterday - Jonah is rotten!



Ellie and Noah playing with my camera - there were oodles of hilarious photos:


Noah and a friend at the last Tigers home game:


I love that Jonah tries to play with the mobile on his swing!



Ellie, after a very long day lol:



Madeline in her Halloween costume:




Wow. I REALLY need to get some pictures of Audrey!!!

Grateful! (Warning: Photo Obese)

So another month has gone by - and life is good! There are SO many things right now that make my heart happy!!! Amelia is getting so vocal, and Jonah loves her as much as ever! It makes me feel good to know that somebody else's baby loves me as much as Amelia does. My kids kinda have to love me, right? But she doesn't, and that makes it super special! I have succeeded in spoiling Jonah to the point where he won't sleep unless I'm holding him :o) Is it wrong to love that so much? I love that Noah is such a sweet big boy, and so desperately wants to help me out and make me happy! Ellie is learning to read, and it's blowing me away! I don't remember the big girls going though this age - but maybe it's because I was working when they were in kindergarten? Or because I hadn't had and lost Max yet, so I didn't appreciate them like I should. Madeline is my little song bird. She's in the choir at church, and was thrilled to be able to chose choir as her art elective this year. In fact, they performed tonight, and it was amazing! Audrey is the tough one. She's so gorgeous, smart, funny, and talented, but SUCH a teenager. We are very much alike, and butt heads regularly. That, for some funny reason, makes my heart sing, too. Not the fighting in and of itself, but the knowledge that I have a fabulous daughter who is growing into a strong woman!

Adron and I seem to be doing really well lol! For as crazy as he makes me, there is something completely breathtaking about knowing that he loves me so much! I can't imagine how anyone could love me so much, especially with all my multitude of flaws. I know I must make him even crazier than he makes me, poor guy!

I've been doing a lot of hugging babies, and not much of anything else. I've done a little sewing, a little scrapping, a little cooking, but not so much house cleaning. I've got a stack of sewing projects that need my attention, but I was able to put them off by trying quilting! Shocker, I know!!! I can not believe I am actually making a quilt!!!!

Here are a few pics of our life - I don't want to write a book tonight lol!

Skirt made using this tutorial, flowers with this one - birthday gift for a sweet friend of ours:


Tailgaiting before the Tigers' last home game - couldn't have been a prettier day! 70 degrees in the middle of November? Woohoo!





Noah has learned how to put his shoes on, but I still need to tie them ;o)





My sweet baby boy




And Halloween - totally forgot about these!

Here's Madeline, the dead bride:






And Ellie as Rosetta from the Tinkerbell movie:





Noah as Spiderman, his hero :o)



And here's all of them, plus my baby sister and David, a dear friend of ours:



Jonah was a vampire, but the pics are awful, so I'll dress him up tomorrow if he's feeling up to it lol!

Life

I admit it. I'm a HORRIBLE blogger! Yes, I've been avoiding my blog, deliberately not posting updates - because I have been feeling a little overwhelmed by life in general, and an unhealthy desire to blog regularly. I totally admire the people who blog daily, or even several times a week, and I feel like I can't measure up to them, so I may as well not even bother.

Totally defeating the purpose of creating this blog in the first place, right??? LOL! I apologize again for being a total flake, and promise you that, while I may not post as frequently as I want or feel I should, I think about my friends here quite often, and when I'm not posting, I am living life as fully as I can!

I don't even know what all has gone on since the last time I posted, but I do know that I have been spending crazy amounts of time holding and snuggling this divine baby boy of mine :o) He is so sweet and yummy, and smells just delightful! I adore him, and love knowing that I hold him "more than I should". It's SO worth the sleep that I miss out on, and I know that if I don't hold him now, there will never be a time when I can go back and catch up ;o) Adron seems very serious about not having any more babies, and it's totally breaking my heart. I can't change it, so I'm going to squeeze every possible drop of preciousness out of my time with Jonah.

So, the girls are all settled in school. We got the 1st report cards today, and overall, I am fairly pleased with how they are doing. There are definitely some areas we need to work on, but that's life, right? I've gotten my new machines, and am LOVING them! I had no idea how nice it was to sew with premium machines lol! The mastery classes are awesome, and I'm learning so much! I've not done a ton of sewing, but what little bit I have has been delightful =)

I am keeping my sweet niece, Amelia, 3 days a week, and it's phenomenal. Jonah is a dream baby, and Amelia is even easier than he is. Jonah absolutely adores her, and it's really funny to watch him with her! I swear they are twins separated *before* birth lol!

Here are a few pictures that I love - they are mostly the past week, but a few are a little older:

Missing my friends :o)

Summer is crazy, it seems! I thought May was my busy month, but August was so nuts that I only managed to scrap one page!!! I keep meaning to post, and I've thought about it nearly every day, but something has always come up to prevent me from getting here. In fact, I went 3 whole weeks without visiting anyone else's blogs, too!!!

I'm hoping that I can get into a nice routine with my life, including keeping the house neat, sewing regularly, and blogging at least a couple times a week. ;o) If I don't do it, feel free to yell at me lol!

Right now, I'm finally getting used to having just the boys home during the day. I miss the girls like crazy, but I'm enjoying my time with the guys. Ellie started kindergarten, and Madeline started middle school this year. Audrey is now a high schooler, and is doing marching band. That means practice 3-4 times a week, with performances almost every Friday. Then, she and Ellie started cheering again last week. I am a little irked by Audrey's practice being moved from Monday to Wednesday, as Wednesday is the ONLY night I do something for *me*. I guess that isn't so important, really, but I'm struggling to be okay with it. I am incredibly angry about having to give up my study group, but I suppose it's part of being a mom. Add to that the fact that she hates me right now, and I'm just not a happy mama! Now my adult contact is pretty much limited to Sunday morning at church, and online... Sighhhhhh.... I dunno what to do about my attitude.

But, on the bright side, I was able to go buy myself some awesome new sewing stuff! Yesterday, I bought a brand new Bernina Aurora 430 sewing machine and embroidery arm, and a Bernina 1150MDA serger (at least I think that's the model# - the Bernina website isn't loading for me!). I also got a ruffler attachment, an extra bobbin case to use for elastic thread, and a few other little accessories. I am so excited!!! Of course, I have to wait until next week for them to be ready for pickup lol!

I also started building my sewing area =) I got several cabinets to use for my sewing table and for my cutting table. I still have to get tops for them, but I'm not sure what I'm going to do. I realized that the cabinets are going to be about 9" too short for my cutting table, so I may have to reprise the plans. I am also planning to buy an armoire-type cabinet to store my fabric. I am going with all white furniture, and am playing with ideas for decorating now lol! I am heavily leaning towards using Lila Tueller's Soiree line. I was thinking about using aqua with pink and maybe some yellow accents, and I think these are just perfect! There are just so many gorgeous fabrics out there, and it was so hard to narrow it down lol!

In order to create my sewing space, I had to go up to that insanely hot room and start digging through all the boxes that came back full of clothes and fabrics that had been cleaned to remove the smoke smell/soot. I got through the clothes pretty quickly, but there are just so many of them! I can't remember who blogged it, but I read the other day (in regards to stash reduction) that if you wouldn't buy it today, then you should just get rid of it. So, I'm trying to apply that same principle to the massive piles of kiddo clothing ;o) I have actually gone through all of the boxes of fabric, too, and started by sorting them into basic categories: diaper fabrics/pieces, woven solids, woven prints, woven checks/stripes & corduroy, specialty fabrics, fabrics with pile, knits, and scraps. Of course, there are more knits than anything else lol! That presents it's own problems with storage, but I think I can figure it out... Now I have to go through all the other boxes of non-fabric contents. Exciting, huh? And, for now, I'm not at all sure where I'm going to put things until I get storage areas set up. Of course, I can't set those up until the boxes are out of the way, so it's a vicious cycle lol!

I also found out that they decided to refinish my family furniture pieces!!! I am absolutely ecstatic about that - and can't wait to get them back!

Wow!

Ok, so the folks that came up with the GroBaby diapers have absolutely lost their minds!!! They are doing another blog giveaway, but this time it is their brand-new Tiny Bubbles laundry detergent!



I have been wanting to try this since it came out, but, like most things these days, I hadn't made it that far. I've still got most of a bottle of sports wash sitting in my laundry room...

In other news, I am on Dani's team for DSA's Battle of the Creative Teams :o) Here's the LO I made for it for this week - I'm particularly happy with the way it turned out:



Last night, I played along in the ESS speed scrap and I really love the way this LO turned out!



And, to round out this post, I've been busy getting ready to sew lol! I've cut out a diaper bag, a purse, 4 jonjons, a slip for Jonah's daygown, a top for me, a skirt for me, and 2 card wallets (I'm working up a tutorial for those, if anyone is interested). The bags and card wallets are interfaced, pleats pinned, and I'm ready to sew. I'm doing shadowwork embroidery on the jonjons, so those will be a minute, and I've got to get the slip done today so Jonah can wear the gorgeous whale daygown that Christa made for him :o)

I'm gonna run - I've got to get Audrey some new shoes for band camp, need to pick up the fabric to make some a-line dresses for Meagan's girls, and I've promised Madeline a trip to the library.