Dear Brain, Please Stop

Ah, I haven't posted in a whole week! That's not to say that there aren't a host of them swimming around in my mind, though. The month of April is Autism Awareness Month, and as most of you know, our Beast was diagnosed with high-functioning autism almost two years ago. We are currently in the midst of a series of evaluations, teacher meetings, specialist meetings, and an ever-growing mound of paperwork. The Beast just celebrated his fifth birthday (fifth?!!!!) yesterday while he and I try to navigate through ever-increasing meltdowns, struggles to communicate, and most recently, bedwetting.

My brain is so literally filled to the brim with autism-related problems and hopeful helps that I am having trouble sleeping at night. I spend copious amounts of time researching and trying new ways to communicate and help my son. Then I worry and feel guilty that I may not be paying enough attention to my other children. It's a balancing act that makes me uncomfortable, but discomfort is all a part of parenting, anyway, as I am finding out more and more each day.

So while my head has been spinning and my heart has been hurting, life has still been a joy. God has given us more than we ever imagined, and my heart still smiles at the memory of my three oldest excitedly whispering to one another in their bedroom last night after a birthday celebration at John's Incredible Pizza. This weekend will be filled with Easter happiness and yes, probably a LOT of overstimulation for our little man.

Decisions are in the making for the Beast's education and other well-being. Next week, our whole family will be starting a new adventure as we tackle the Feingold diet(http://feingold.org/) and the drastic changes that will bring to our lives.

But, today, I am going to try to enjoy this day I have been given. The kids are playing with the Beast's new giant bowling set in the hallway, and Momma's got to show them her awesome bowling moves.

Six

Yesterday I posted the birth story of our newest addition to the family. Today I am thinking about the time six years ago that we headed into the hospital to have our first baby girl.

It was the day I first became a mother and the day I truly realized what deep unconditional love was.

Today we are celebrating our firstborn's sixth birthday. She is incredibly excited!

She woke up to find a bunch of Hello Kitty balloons from her daddy tied to her breakfast chair and a whole set of Disney Princess school supplies from mommy.

She chose rainbow sprinkle pancakes for breakfast and played happily with her brothers all morning. ( no school on your birthday in this house!)

Tomato soup is her all-time favorite food so it starred for lunch.

The afternoon promises some fun at Grandma's, and the evening will be spent at John's Incredible Pizza with several varieties of gourmet pizza, Angry Bird cake pops, and lots of arcade games.

This girl is so grown-up lately. Sometimes she amazes me with her maturity and profound thoughts. She surprises me often with her offers to help and her "second mommy" role in our household. She has become Daddy's favorite video game buddy and my favorite artist and crafter. She still retains a lot of child-like enthusiasm and giddiness over the smallest of things, and for that I am grateful.

May God bless this next year with our beautiful daughter!

Happy Birthday to my Man

Today my man turns thirty-one. We celebrated with family on Friday night at John's Incredible Pizza - I don't know who had more fun at the arcade, the kids or the Nerd. :) The kids gifted him with handpicked cards and presents from the dollar store. That man is now the proud owner of several plastic sports cups, a ball gun, slime, and more. I am sure the cards - a Transformers one from the Drama Queen, a dinosaur one from the Beast, and a Dora the Explorer one from the Spud - are now prominently displayed in his cubicle.

As for me, I will buy the man whatever he wants for his birthday - he tells me and I go get it. It's verysimple and terribly noncreative or romantic - but it makes my man happy. And I am all about that. He also gets to pick any cake he wants out of my multitude of baking books. I am in the process of making a peanut butter chocolate torte for the man of the day. We are also looking forward to grilled steaks, rice, and corn tonight when he gets home from work.

Speaking of food, I founda super easy sliced baked potato recipe the other night whilst pinteresting (is that a word??) We tried it last night - amazing! Try it - it will change the way you make baked potatoes forever.

Three Already

Oh my sweet little man, tomorrow you turn all of three years old. It seems that just in the past few weeks you have grown up so much. You are becoming quite the potty pro and such a helper to your momma. :) It has been so much joy to be your momma and to celebrate this special birthday with you this weekend.

You requested mac'n'cheese and hamburgers for your birthday dinner, but you were way too excited about your presents to eat a single bite. Apparently your brother and sister were pretty excited too!

I knew you would be getting plenty of cake the next day at your monkey party; so we decided on a cookie pizza for our family celebration. You probably poked at the frosting at least a dozen times before dinner, with the excuse that you "were just looking at your cool cake." Your brother beat you to blowing out the candles, but I wasn't about to let you miss your moment. I made your daddy relight them so you could do it yourself, and you did it in one glorious breath.

The wrapping paper excited you just as much as what was inside. It probably helped that your brother and sister kept chanting, "Open it! Open it!"

The pirate ship was a big hit - not only with you but with your brother and sister as well. I guess you'll have to learn how to share it. :)

And Grandma and Grandpa knew just what to get our growing little man - a big boy bike (in a Cars theme of course!)

And apparently we can never go wrong with Thomas. You immediately begged to have your new track sets put together so you could spend some time pushing your favorite trains around the tracks. You didn't even want to stop so you could go over to grandma and grandpa's house for a sleepover.

I guess I can't stop you from getting older. But amid all the grown-up things you are trying to do, I still see bits and pieces of my little boy, patiently playing with his trains or snuggling up with Momma to watch a favorite Veggie Tales.

I love you, Spud! Happy Happy birthday to you!

Did You Have as Much Fun as We Did?

Hello all you people on the other side of the computer! This is the Drama Queen, guest-posting for my momma today. In case you are wondering about my mad typing skills as a four-year-old, I am just dictating this, thank you very much. If you were wondering about my excellent grammar, well, I just have a knack for it. Really and absolutely.

So how was your Independence Day celebration? I hope you didn't spend it inside watching Fresh Prince of Bel-air marathon (or whatever was on!) We had a great day! Momma let me wear my red cowgirl boots with my patriotic outfit, which was cool. She unfortunately also insisted on yanking all my hair up on top of my head into a ponytail with a red ribbon. She said she knows it hurts because Grammy did it to her too when she was little. I don't get it!

Momma tried to get a really and absolutely great picture of us on the church steps. She always does this when we are wearing matching outfits. I of course was listening and trying to keep my brothers in check, but you know brothers. Annoying!

See, when I'm by myself in the picture, it turns out great! (except The Spud's head is showing a little. Momma needs to crop him out!)

Momma said she will always treasure this picture because the Beast never sits still long enough! I don't really know what she meant but I laughed anyway. Grown-ups like it when you laugh at their jokes, and then they are much more willing to give you stuff.

After church, we had a barbeque right out in the parking lot. It was a lot of fun, and we stuffed ourselves with hot dogs, chips, cookies, and cupcakes. The Spud shared his food liberally with his clothes and his stroller. Haha! Again, I have no idea what that means, but just laugh, okay?

While we were eating, we got to see a whole bunch of people do different stuff on stage for us. There were people singing and reciting poetry and talking. It was cool. I liked when the big kids got up there and sang. Soon I'll be in school and I'll get to do that stuff too!

Momma and Daddy are not the greatest at planning our fireworks adventure each year. When they FINALLY decided where we were going to see fireworks, it was way too crowded, and there was no parking. I cried, but Daddy promised me we would get to see fireworks somehow. We went back home where Daddy set up a bunch of chairs and got out a big pack of fireworks and sparklers. I was really good at the sparklers - see how I am teaching the Beast how to do it right in the picture?

The Spud was a little scared; so he didn't do any sparklers with us. But he had fun watching us and the fireworks that Daddy set off. And, as it turns out, we were able to see a lot of fireworks in the sky through the trees near our house.

Here is another example of my awesome sparkler skills! It was so fun, and I am glad we had such a great day!

Let me know in the comments about your fun celebration and maybe even a link to your post about it. I love looking at the pictures, and Momma will read them to me.

Oh, and don't forget about Found It! Friday this week! The inspiration is daisies - here's hoping some more of you participate this week. :)