Damn, It Feels Good to Be ... Mollie

Not everyone can pull off the over sized hat look, but my Mollie girl can.  She wears the swagger with style.

Even when she's coloring.

Big smiles!

Baylor couldn't care less about his sister's antics when he's focused on his Legos.

"Oh, big brother!  I'm wearing your hat!  And I'm being silly!"

"So much silliness, Baylor!"

"Did he look?"

Nope.

"Mom, enough with the pictures!"

Okay, okay ... camera down.

Nap Restart

The other day, I was on the phone with our credit card provider trying to get some fraudulent charges refunded (important note: do not pay for stuff on iTunes with PayPal).  Anyhow, I was on the phone, couldn't get off it, and all of a sudden Mollie started to stir.  Baylor was actually sleeping that day, so there was no way I wanted him to wake up.  I figured she was awake so I, still on the phone, bounded up the stairs, went into her room, and scooped her up and realized she wasn't exactly up yet.

So, after finishing up getting our money back (yay!) I snuggled with Mollie a bit and realized she needed to sleep more, so I asked her if she wanted to go upstairs to nap again.  She said no.  In a moment of slight desperation, I asked her if she wanted to nap on the couch and she said yes.  Oookay.  So I set her up on the red couch, snuggled her in with her dollie and sleep sheep, and pulled up our green leather ottoman next to her ... just in case, you know?

Thank goodness I did!

As you can tell, she first went for the legs-over-the-edge move.  Soon enough, though, she was all butt-in-the-air.

At least she got a little more sleep, though, right?

Esquela!: Flying Solo

This past Friday, February 10th, my son, my beautiful boy, went to his Friday class without me.

Deep breath, Nicole.

I dropped him off at the door in the capable hands of his autism specialist, and after snapping a quick picture through the wet car windows (because no matter how upset I might be, the dork in me just won't go away) I left the parking lot sobbing.  He looked so nervous and scared as he walked away from me, that I couldn't help it; I was so worried for him, so hoping this would go well.  Even now as I type this I'm getting all choked up.

After dropping off a card at the post office, talking to one of my best friends - who had already done the dropping-the-oldest-kid-off-at-school thing before - to calm me down, I drove back to the school and sat in the parking lot, car running, like a total dork.  I read a funny book my sister had gotten me for Christmas as I sat there and laughed a lot less than usual.  (Seriously, though, if you are in need of a hilarious read, I highly recommend Notes from the Underwire, by Quinn Cummings.  This book has made me laugh harder than any book has in a LONG time.)

Once his hour was up, Baylor emerged from the school, happy to see me and excited to go to Toys R US, which is where we were headed next (after picking up my mom and Mollie, of course).  His specialist told me that he did a great job, though he remained an observer on the periphery most of the time.  All in all, a great start to his solo school visits.

Later on, I asked him when we were alone, "Baylor, what did you think of school today?  I mean really, honestly ..."

He sat there in silence just playing with his Legos, not responding at all.

"Was it a little scary?"  I probed, hoping for something ... anything.

Then he spoke.  "Yeah, it was a little scary at first, but then it was okay."  So matter-of-fact.  So calm.

And such a relief to his mom.  There is hope yet for him to like school.  And I couldn't be happier.

Is That How You Dress for the Super Bowl?

None of us were really rooting for anyone in particular in the Super Bowl this year, so we instead chose to focus our attire-related cheering efforts to our beloved Spartans, who were playing our in-state rivals, the Wolverines, earlier in the day.

Hey look!  There I am looking halfway decent!  (Thanks for snapping a picture of me, Mom.  I like everyone to know I'm still alive every now and then.)  Baylor and I were just messing around with some Qwirkle tiles.

Mollie, meanwhile, waited for ...

... and enjoyed a clementine.

Then the kids spent some time reading with Aunt Christine.

And Mollie worked on memorizing family member faces.

In no time, though, Mollie was hungry again, so she set off to mooch from my mom.

We had a lovely Mexican meal: tacos, homemade guacamole (for those that enjoy it), homemade applesauce, rice, salsa, chips, and fresh berries.

We all ate and enjoyed dinner, but in seemingly no time at all, Mollie was hungry again.  Growth spurt, anyone?

My sister, gifted baker she is, treated us to some homemade cream puffs, filled with homemade pastry creme!

Aaand covered in chocolate!  They were delicious!  As Olivia's mom would say, Christine is a "magician in the kitchen."

We had a fun-filled evening at my parents' house.

Go Green!  (And congratulations to the Giants!)

Low Sodium Life: The Bread Maker

When I started this whole low sodium diet a couple weeks ago, I had no idea how much sodium was in the food I ate.  Bread, in particular, shocked me; as I mentioned previously, just to eat two slices of the regular bread I buy would equal ten percent of my daily allotted sodium intake.  The thing is, I love bread; there was no realistic way I could cut it out.

So, with lots of plans and hopes of follow-through, we started researching bread machines.  My husband was, surprisingly, on board with the whole plan; turns out he was just really excited at the thought of homemade bread.  (Who can blame him, though?)

After much looking online, we settled on the Oster 2 LB. Expressbake Breadmaker.  (In case you are interested, the model number is CKSTBRTW20.)  It is relatively quiet except for the beeps during the kneading time (when you can add things like raisins) and at the end.  It has been pretty easy to clean up, and so far the bread we've made has been delicious.

Though the bread maker came with a bunch of recipes, we have been making recipes from one of the low sodium cookbooks I checked out from the library, and it has been awesome.

It's odd trying to get used to making bread when I need it, but it has been nice not to have to go to the grocery store when I run out of bread.  The kids aren't in love with this new bread yet, but I think they will warm up to it with time.

If any of you are interested, I can always post a couple of the recipes here on the blog.

Have a happy, healthy day!                    

Weirdest Cold Ever

Last Saturday, the kids came down with the weirdest cold ever.  We were first made aware of such illness when Mollie woke up at 2:00 a.m. throwing up.  As far as minor illnesses go, the stomach flu is my worst nightmare (the smells, the sights, the clean-up ... ughhhhhh), so needless to say I didn't sleep well that night or have a very good day the next day.  And Mollie, poor, sweet girl needed lots of cuddles and rest.

She tried to sit up to snuggle next to me but ended up slumping over onto my leg.  It was the saddest sight.

(P.S.  I just love that this is one of the only recent pictures I have of myself.  On the one day I didn't shower in the past YEAR!  *deep breath*  Okay, I'm over it.  Very small price to pay to comfort my girl.)

The really weird part was that she seemed to have a cold, too.  And the last stuff she threw up looked weird, more mucus-y than former food-ish.  (Sorry if that was an over-share.)

Baylor got a cold that day, too, so we just sort of hunkered down.  Most of the week was spent either at home or at my parents' house resting and having fun, because most of the time they were just all sniffles, snot, and coughing.  Lovely picture, huh?

Which is probably why I was so surprised when Baylor started throwing up yesterday morning.  Seriously.  Six-or-so times in a few hours, all of it mucus-y ... like that was all he had in his stomach.  So it appears that this bizarro cold has so much gunk to go with it, that if you're not getting it out of your nose, you'll be throwing it up later on.

Baylor was not himself yesterday, which is really putting it mildly.  He asked very few questions, moved around very little, and fell asleep both on the floor and on the couch.

He did let me know, however, that he was NOT sick.  He just, as he put it, had "coughing, throwing up, and crying."  Luckily, later in the day, things were reduced to just "coughing".

I'm ready for this cold to pass the kiddos ... I want them back to their usual selves, as exhausting as that might be.  It's tough not to have them at their spunky best!

Esquela!: The First Day!

He wouldn't let me take a picture of him all suited up and ready to go with his backpack on his back ... hell, he wouldn't even put his backpack on.  But I snapped a picture of him on the way to school, perusing a map and staring out the window every now and then.  And that's enough for me.

Mollie came with us but the autism specialist that has been working with us was there too, and since Mollie is really comfortable with her I was able to focus most of my attention on Baylor. Which was good because he needed it; just to get him to walk in the door I had to distract him by telling him one of his favorite stories ... what we did on his birthday last year.  After everyone got their coats hung up, they sat in a circle around the rug in the classroom, but Baylor wasn't comfortable yet, so I held onto him and we participated as much as we could.  Mollie got to participate too, which was undoubtedly exciting for her.  They sang songs, learned about "light" and "heavy", and then they got to make a craft using kid scissors and crayons.  By the end, Baylor was able to be away from me at least a little bit and seemed to mildly enjoy himself.

I asked him what he'd like to do as a reward for being a big boy and going to school, and he said he wanted to go to Oma's house.  So, to Oma's house we went!

There, he got to enjoy a nice big piece of cake with whipped cream.

Mollie, not much of a fan of sweets herself, was content to have a chip.

Oh, and an orange ... because she's perpetually hungry.

While watching Olivia, he showed off his art project ...

... and got to practice a little more with kid scissors.

I was hoping to build on all this socialization success and get him out over the weekend, but the kids have been sick, each with their own day of throwing up, and that just hasn't worked out.  In fact, today was supposed to be our second class visit, but because Baylor threw up so much yesterday I wasn't comfortable letting him around other kids just yet.

There's always next week ...

What Did You Say, Young Lady?!

If she had been older, that's exactly what I would have screamed at her.

But since she's so young, it was actually kinda funny.  Unfortunately, I still have no idea what she was talking about.

Have a bitchin' night!

Java Gym

Ordinarily I would never think to patronize a place called Java Gym, as I don't drink coffee ... or exercise much, for that matter.  But this place was actually more for the kiddos than it was for me, so my dad and I got the kids out of the house and into the gym.  We had a lot of fun and took lots of pictures!  (Oh, and doesn't Mollie's new haircut look adorable?!)

So, it's basically a giant jungle gym.  And when I say "giant" I mean giant ... it's built so adults can go in it too!  Perfect example here ... there is my 6'3" dad having fun with the kiddos, able to go everywhere they could though not always able to keep up with my Mollie girl.

And it goes really high up, too!

In spite of the height and size of this thing, it seems very well-constructed and very focused on safety.  And, as many of you know I'm sure, kids really like to put that to the test.

There is only one 15-foot section you can exit from; a brilliant idea if you are not in there with your kid, but an infuriating one if you're trying to get an anxious little man out.

There was a lot of this strap netting going on, and it seemed pretty secure ...

... don't you think?

We had a lot of fun, but unfortunately there were a lot of tears as well.  Baylor was pretty nervous about the slides and after being nudged down one by my dad, he wasn't about to go on one again.  Or let anyone else he loves go on one, for that matter.  A couple moments there could have been taken directly out of the part of A Christmas Story when Ralphie goes to visit Santa.  Yikes!

After a while we started a man-to-man coverage of the kids, if you will, with Dad watching after Mollie and Baylor and I hanging together.  All of a sudden, though, I noticed that Dad had two kids with him. As it turns out, this little guy named Aaron decided that Dad was his new best friend and that they should totally hang together.  So they did.

Mollie tore the joint up, climbing everywhere she could and some places she couldn't.

Baylor, as usual, was more cautious and wary of other kids.  So he and I took it slow and just explored.  I tried to get him to go down the slides with me (as they looked like they were a lot of static-y fun), but it was a no-go.

Okay, I'll be honest ... I usually don't have a problem with heights, but this freaked me out something fierce!  Just look at that drop!

We explored every last inch of the place, save for the slides, and went up and down so many times that I was quite sore the next day.  (Maybe I should exercise more often ...)

Eventually Dad and I switched, and I got to hit the orange slide with Mollie.  To be fair, though, I couldn't keep up with her; she zoomed around everywhere she went!

Which is probably why she crashed pretty quickly.  Just look at those tired baby blues!

Oh, and the other bad thing about only having one exit area is that it makes it kind of tough for kids who are still potty training.  Long story short, Baylor had an accident, but luckily he was wearing very absorbent pants and was able to stop himself early enough on.  Unfortunately, his bonehead mom forgot to pack pants for him.  So he had to wear his sister's leggings.  I'm so sorry, kiddo!

Amazingly enough, though, he didn't notice he was wearing them until we got to the car.

And lucky for him, it was time for us to go anyway.  We had a lot of fun, got a lot of big muscle time in, and I'm sure we'll be back there again soon!  And this time, I'll make sure to bring extra BOY pants!