She is getting better with wierd textures! That’s all. She helped me bag the pork chops up. Selena did great!
June 4, 2013 June 5, 2013
Selena is getting ready to bridge into Brownies and we have made it through our first year! We have had our ups and downs with behaviors but overall she is such a great little girl. She has been acting out a bit more since it’s becoming the end of the school year, but naturally so. There has been little to no self injury and I believe it’s partly because she has a few semi-loose top front teeth that are taking up her idle hand behaviors like picking and scratching! Hooray! We are so proud of her and how much she’s grown.
The school ended, she did not meet any of her I.E.P. goals this quarter but is making progress and I’m so proud of her, she has come a long way! I like to look back at my older posts and see how much she has grown, all she has accomplished and everyone who has supported her along the way. Such a huge thank you, you rock! We have had our ups and downs with schooling and our challenges with first grade. From smacking and pushing classmates to being pushed into bookcases, it’s been a rough year, but everyone came out ahead and some even with “I’m sorry for hitting you” cards! It has also been a really great year with her making friends, reading better and better, doing math equations like no tomorrow (when she wants to) and even enjoying after-care; meltdowns do occur but almost no issues! Hooray!! She is going to be trouble when she gets older! She has had 1 kiss, 2 boyfriends and 1 husband through this school year. Since she will be in the same class next year, but with a 2nd grade curriculum, I bet she will have 3 ex husbands HAH!! At least they know to not mess with her or she’ll pop them one, oh goodness.
We went through the motions and had a PT evaluation done because her doctor recommended it. We have been waiting to get it done due to insurance reasons and also because I didn’t really think that she had a serious issue, just an irritating one. I kept pushing it back and we are usually so busy it seems to get the back burner. So push comes to shove and I take her up there during our doctor extravaganza Selena and myself had one day. Everything went really well and there was no follow-up recommended, which I figured was going to be the case. What irritating issue did we have? It’s been so long I don’t remember if I wrote about it or not so I’ll tell you again. She loved to drag her toes in her shoes. She would shred a pair of shoes in a week and a half to 2 weeks, well only the tips of them. I mentioned it to the doctors and they wanted to have a physical therapy eval done, I agreed although I think that she does it for stimulation reasons. We went and it was all good, no reason to pursue it any further.
That day was crazy! We had 3 doctors appointments and 1 Girl Scout shop to attend and a meeting! First up we had her doctor’s appointment to clear her from a month and a half ear infection, yay finally better! Then a dentist appointment because it seems as though she is grinding her teeth down and it looks like it’s going to be painful here soon enough, hopefully they fall out soon! I was not impressed at all! They were trying to tell me that Selena couldn’t be autistic because of how she interacted with them. I was rather irritated and I can not f’n stand when people dribble ignorance out of their mouth like they have seen it all. I have a standing appointment with Dr. Bowles so I don’t understand why I had to jump through 6 hoops, 4 of them being wrong and then back through the 1st one just to get her looked at by someone else so they can tell me she isn’t doing anything to her teeth that isn’t “normal”, try to teach her Spanish and try to tell me that she can’t have autism. F them, never going back, quit with the autism stereotypes already!
While I’m on that soap box, I will just vent a tad bit more. I am well aware that Selena’s name is very Hispanic, I can not deny that because she has her biological father’s last name and he comes from a Cuban family. Moving forward, whenever we go to a new doctor or anything with the health dept at all and school board at times, we get notices sent to us in Spanish even though English is clearly marked. At that P.T. eval we were in the waiting room and we were called up to fill out some more paperwork and as Selena and myself were walking up I see the receptionist turn her head and make a comment to her co-worker about how “she got the wrong paperwork” and “I thought you told me you saw they were hispanic” – “Yea I was just looking at the name.” Really? I’m right here and a bit offended. I shrug it off and move forward. But it’s seriously so irritating!! I can’t wait until we all have the same last name!! The girls are really really excited to be in the wedding! So are we!
Our garden has been doing well, we’ve been getting to harvest our yummies and the tomatoes have been spectacular and I don’t want to ever have a store bought tomato ever again! The heat is a hard one to fight off, we are definitely learning which plants will not survive a summer in Florida. We have more Cayenne peppers than we know what to do with, I have to figure out how to preserve them properly so when we get enough harvested we can make an oil or something similar. You have any suggestions, that would rock! Selena really enjoys to help in the garden and she is our awesome grasshopper remover. She has no fear, she will pick up a full grown grasshopper (who like to mate in our backyard for some reason) and carry it to the fence to get out of our garden, while reprimanding it for even thinking of eating our leaves. I just love her! Selena used to enjoy being in the garden more than now, she has this issue with getting her hands dirty…she has always had a texture issue. Couldn’t play with play-dough for the first 5/6 years of her life, has issues fingerpainting, mud or when she gets a hair on her (which is bad because mine goes almost to my butt and they are LONG heh) and now she is getting pickier with her socks. We work around it and she helps out using tools and picking the fruit. The best parts I think!
Selena has an obsession with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, she loves them and is a part of their crew. She’s Rose, Raphael’s sister and we gifted her a dress up set for her graduation present. It includes Raphael’s eye mask and sais, weapons, and she wears it all over the place! She hasn’t even complained lately that we took the movies away. Only watched them for 3 or 4 days and she was hitting kids at school so we removed them from the house. She had perked back up and was doing well in school again so we rewarded her with the dress up costume that she was eye-balling. I’m glad to see her so happy! I would like to add that the new TMNT are nothing like I remember, I’m pretty excited they are back in a new light with way better imaging technology. I’m happy that we could show her the older style cartoon, even if only for a few days. I feel like I’m getting so old, heh.
Grammy and Papa visits are always a blast, they are always doing a new craft or going on an adventure. Selena sure does fill up there on some delicious foods and I don’t blame her! The crafts Grammy does with her are always so neat, ya know….I am looking for another co-leader as of yesterday…hint, hint. I’m excited for when Selena is a Brownie because there is a bug badge and that is right up Papa’s alley! She is so cute with him, you can tell she loves her Papa.
Church visits with Mahja have been most interesting, Selena is enjoying herself and I’m glad that she is getting that experience. I think she just likes hanging out with Mahja! I always try to get her to tell me some things that happened while she was in Sunday school but she always tells us that she doesn’t know but she is happy so that’s good enough for me! That’s a fun day because we get to spend time with Mahja. Who I have to say is a pretty awesome woman right about now and I am blown away at what we’re doing to go do in 9 days. We’re going to Disney for a 3 day excursion! I know right!! We are so incredibly excited, I can’t believe it honestly, we are so blessed. I can’t wait to see Selena and the girls’ faces when we get into there. Grammy is coming as well and she just loves Disney so it will be a blast for sure!!
Guess what Selena can do now!! With the help of arm floaties but still….she can swim! She is blowing me out of the water by how good she’s getting at it! Once she could put her face in the water, we were able to get somewhere! Getting all those parts working at once doing different things can be a challenge. Move your arms, move your legs and hold your breath at the same time is a lot to do! She is doing really awesome. I saw this thing for the Special Olympics swim team and I tried to get information to join her up but she has to be 8 to sign up. No, I do not think that she ready for hardcore swimming, but maybe they have something for her ability level and could be good for her to be introduced into a team type activity so she can learn healthy competition and that it’s ok that other people “beat” her and are independent with their choices (not what she wants them to do). I have been thinking a lot about soccer over the past year and was thinking of trying to get her into that. Selena says that she likes it, but I’m not sure if that will be something we can swing with our current schedules and all the activities our family is already involved in.
We have made it through our first year in Girl Scouts with only a few hiccups and I am stoked for next year! We will have a Daisy/Brownie split troop and will be doing more activities since all of our Daisy petals have been earned and the journeys are pretty much done through. I’m not really impressed with the Daisy ones, the Brownie level journeys are much better in my opinion. We had a fun year, we just recently visited a fire station and saw all the ins and outs of the trucks and where they stay. The girls even got to meet a new nurse that recently joined the BayFlite team and was a mom to a Junior scout herself! She asked them if they knew their promise and gave them a detailed tour of the helicopter. What a great time, the staff did a wonderful job and the girls had a blast! We will be doing our Clover Project soon enough so when we do our bridging ceremony we will also have our Clover Award ceremony so the entire troop can be involved! It will be a blast and we will also get to have some local Brownie girls come to the ceremony so our new Brownies can be welcomed into that level. If anyone reading this can dedicate every other Thursday from 6:00-7:15/7:30ish, open for communication and creative insight, occasional weekends and event dates please let me know! It’s a lot of fun and the girls are great, I’d like to give them an amazing Girl Scout experience and you can help too!
Holy cow, I think this is long enough, it’s late and we have to be up extra early so we can shuffle everyone to their respective places and still be to work on time. I will try my best to be back soon, working on getting back into the groove of it, too many gaps for so many events!
Much love,
J
February 20, 2013 February 20, 2013
I have failed you bloggity! I have not written in so long and we’ve missed out on all the fun holiday stuff. I hope you won’t be too mad. Seems like every time I’d get started writing, something would interfere and I’d have to stop. Orrrr I was just really, really tired. Anyway, excuses aside. Selena has been doing pretty well considering the fact that her entire routine has been turned upside down. No school for 2 weeks! What is that about?! I understand teachers and holidays and all that, but I just wish there was something I could enroll her in for those 2 weeks so that we can keep on track with everything. There probably is and I just haven’t looked hard enough. Day after Christmas, Selena was upset that she wasn’t going to school. Every morning she is asking if she’s going to school, even though every night before I am telling her where she will be going. I should soak this up while I can, because once she hits 15/16 it’s all over! Heh.
No new nail picking and Selena is doing great in that aspect. She has started slapping and hitting herself now and doesn’t seem to know how to not drag her feet. Gaaah!! We are buying new shoes just about every month.
And that from above was from Jan. 3rd. Sigh. I always think about writing and just never get to do it anymore. Gymnastics, Cheer, Girl Scouts and something else… Planning our wedding!!! EEEEE!!! My darling finally proposed to me and Selena is so excited to have the same last name as everyone. Most days. Heh. She is too cute and talks about it often, but if you catch her on a bad day (like yesterday) she’ll cover her hands over her ears, keep her back towards you and tell you that you are the worst person in the world. Needless to say, things have been a bit busy. Always busy. Ask anyone we know and they’ll tell you that we never stand still long enough for our shadow to move. All that set aside, I will not bother to go too in depth with everything that I’ve missed telling you about because, that is just too much.
We started a garden! Selena loves working in it! She loves it so much that Papa & Grammy got her a garden set (which Rob and myself love too). We have had some ‘harvests’ and it’s so neat to see her get so excited about picking pea pods and planting her own seedlings. I have a bunch of sweet peppers germinated so she’ll need to transfer them over to some soil and that will be so awesome for her.
Great Christmas, she got everything she wanted, except for the dancing robot. I could not find one anywhere! She enjoyed the Mrs. Potts tea set and tea cart. I swear when I opened up the box to assemble it, glitter encased our entire living room. Christmas went well, we were all spoiled by what Santa and our loved ones gave to us; she did wonderful at my brother’s house, I think that’s mostly because Emma and Hope were with us. Now that the Christmas honey moon is over and there were a few weeks off of school, the fun can begin. She was excited to be off school, then crying, then happy again and finally every day I would hear the same thing, “School today Mommy?” Every night before she went to sleep we’d count down the days and remind her that there was no school. Ugh. How happy she was to be back in school!!! I’m sure that will wear off soon enough. The new year came and left, Selena understood the months changing, but not the year. Just keep explaining over and over and over again, knowing that one day she’ll understand.
January became the month of change. An instant cut of our insurance got us scrambling for something, anything to help cover the $1,200 a month cost of medication. No more hippotherapy, which didn’t help nor hinder her in anyway; I’d rather have someone have the slot who can substantially benefit from the hippotherapy. Applied for KidCare and SSI, which I have to call and make an appointment for the SSI which I can never seem to find the time for, which has to be done. It’s been crazy. Selena has been doing great in school, when she wants to and is scoring high on the Florida practice exams.
Girl Scouts has been going great, we are quite a few petals in; have done quite a few activities and now it’s cookie time! Selena is super stoked about this because she is a social butterfly. She does not have the traditional social wallflower behavior at all. She will go up to anyone, anywhere and tell them her name, that she’s a girl, that her name is Selena, that we are her parents and what our names are….it goes on and on! They are instantly her best friend and she will hunt them down and follow them everywhere. It is so bad that when Emma and Hope are with us, she will have nothing to do with them and tell us that!! I try to tell her that it hurts their feelings and that it isn’t a nice thing to say but frankly, she doesn’t care. Tunnel vision is in full swing and it doesn’t matter who is around her or who wants to talk to her. Get her on a playground and say good-bye to Selena because she isn’t on this planet anymore.
Injuries and behaviors. Oh here we are, time for the fun part of our little one sided chat. She has some interesting ways of hurting herself as of late. Slapping and hitting herself. At Girl Scouts she did it when she couldn’t get something right. At home when we ask her to do something she doesn’t want to do or agree with. I’m not sure what brings it on yet, if she’s doing it because she’s angry or if it’s because she is looking for some nerve stimulation or if she’s just being stubborn. Either way, she caught some crooked looks from the other girls and Rob had to remove her from the meeting to calm down (we could still hear her screaming though lol). Another injury which is peculiar. She is biting on her lips and breaking the skin open. I think she’s been doing it for a while but now she’s doing it worse – or she finally got caught. This one, I have no idea why she’s doing it and I have no idea how to stop her. Granted it doesn’t seem like she’s eating her lips off or anything, but if it’s something she does to cope with feelings, I want to find a way to get through to her so she stops doing it. She doesn’t seem to be dragging her toes as much as she was. I’m not sure if they are catching it or what’s going on, but her shoes don’t seem to take such a beating. Watch, I’ll say that and go home today to find her shoes all messed up!! Rolling her eyes. Does your child do this? When we are eating she rolls her eyes into the back of her head and if you didn’t know Selena, you’d think she was going to start spinning her head around vomiting everywhere. We ask her about it and she just blows it off, unknowing of what she is doing. She is always ‘coloring’ things with her finger. You know how you pretend to squish peoples heads? Squint and squish-squish. Well, she does that but like she’s coloring with her finger or hand sometimes. I guess our house needs a little bit more color. Irritating if she’s doing that while we are trying to talk to her. Routines, ugh. Don’t F with the routine. That’s well known though, so no surprise there. That’s it for now, I’m sure that I will think of more right after I hit the Publish button.
Now to end on a good note – since I am about to punch out and I don’t know when I’ll be back (no point in beating around the bush).
Selena is about to turn 7 and I am thrilled that she has come as far as she has! I cannot express enough how happy this makes me. We are constantly working with her and always trying to take our time and show her everything. Talk to her about everything and just be there for her. Times get rough, patience gets thin and she likes to tell us just what she thinks of us (which can be really mean) but all in all, she is my beautiful little girl who is taking her time with growing in this big world. I don’t think I could imagine it any other way.
I’ll be back as soon as I can. Thanks for your patience.
J
November 21, 2012 November 21, 2012
I know, I know. You don’t have to say it and neither do I. Let’s just say that procrastination + a super over-flowing plate = blogging getting pushed to be a back burner activity. Let me try to play catch up while I have a chance to. I will probably rant a bit and talk about this and that and make a ginormous post. So take a minute, go to the bathroom, get a drink, maybe a snack and then come back. We’ll be here.
Where did we leave off? Oh yes, Halloween! Lately, when we are going to be having a lot of changes in schedule, I try to get her full attention and explain to her what the day will be like, what we will be doing and what order we’re doing it in. I’m not sure if it has been effective yet, but I will continue to do that for her! ASD or not, I think every child should be informed and not just toted around mindlessly. This Christmas break should be interesting for her and hopefully we will get through it smoothly.
A quick thing about her meds, she is on them full time, 3x a day and when we miss a dose, we can tell! Also, I tried to start weening her off them by cutting 1 dose in half once a day and it was bad. I don’t think she’s ready to be cut back on them, which is a bit upsetting because I’d love for her to not be on them! However, I am thankful she has them, because the things we are experiencing now with her behaviors would be much, much worse. I have hope that with time and growth she will be able to cut back on them, I just don’t think that right now is a good time, especially since we’re heading into the holiday season.
Halloween went great, she got herself ready and came walking down the hallway with her costume on, her broom between her legs, holding her lantern and her cauldron and her kitty purse and then realized that she didn’t have enough hands to effectively hold everything! I hooked her pumpkin lantern to the end of her broom and we were ready to go! I got a bunch of glow sticks so we could wear them like necklaces and she really enjoyed hers because they gave us all magical powers. We had a good run going with the trick or treating and we got to the last road in our little neighborhood and it was the most alive one yet! Lights, music, people carrying on, tons of decorations! Me and Daddy were excited to go down a not so drab street like the others…but Selena would have no part of it. She was done and wanted to go home and since we were going out for her, it was time to go home. For her it isn’t about the candy or going out late. It’s about Selena getting to dress up and go into a fantasy world where she is a good witch that spreads her magic and says hello to everyone.
*****Super side note! I love her echolalia at times! Especially when we are hanging out with Erin and Gareth, because Gareth is British! She blatantly tries to repeat how he says things, it is just too cute. It all started with Harry Potter – magical things, cool accents, and the general awesomeness of it all. It went from repeating simple Harry Potter lines, to using the accent with everyday conversations and I won’t lie, I helped perpetuate it because I get a bar-wenchy kind of accent when I try and it’s just fun. So back to Gareth. We were helping them bottle up some beer one evening and Selena was in full swing, just carrying on and repeating anything he’d have to say. It was a riot!!! She did pretty good too. Having behaviors and quirks that are brought on by the autism is not always a bad thing! Try to take these things and turn them into a positive behavior. Granted, not all of the behaviors associated with autism can be manipulated into a positive light, but some of them can and you should take every opportunity to show your child that they may have something going on with them, but they are still amazing and unique. Gosh I’m just ranting today, here goes another rant.
Disciplining a child with Autism is so absolutely confusing and frustrating (for both parties). When do you discipline them? When do you give them support, love and encouragement instead of a spanking or time-out? How do you know if it’s getting through to them? How do you know if they are acting out because they want to or if it’s just a result of a sensory overload? I have went over a few instances in the past, where disciplining was so ineffective but I didn’t realize that until much later. Now when she has bad days and does things wrong, I try to get her to communicate with me, which is usually a dead end and only because if I ask her how she was feeling, all she says is that her heart started beating really fast and it was going crazy. Anxiety attack maybe? We’ll keep working with her and hopefully we’ll find something that works for Selena. Her behavioral pediatrician said that when she does all these things at school: the meltdowns, lashing out, being disruptive, not doing her work; that we should support her when she gets home, be there for her and ‘gentle’, soothing, and promote a relaxing environment because she is so emotionally drained from a rough day at school. You can visibly see that she’s had a rough day, her eyes are a bit swollen or a bit sunk in and she has dark circles around her eyes and she looks like she had been up for days. I can agree with the pediatrician to an extent. If she’s have genuine meltdowns then yes, we should be supportive and not be rough with her. However, if she is consistently being disruptive, trying to cause physical harm to anyone, or anything along those lines, I will try to at least give her a good talking to and try to get through to her. If you have any suggestions or have experienced this and know of a way to effectively get through to her, please please please let me know!!
Alright so back on track with what we’ve been up to. Halloween – check. Oh Girl Scouts!! Selena is really enjoying her time as a Girl Scout and she got invited to her very first birthday party!! I remember times when I have cried because she still hadn’t been invited! We are doing crafts, bonding and having a blast! We are about to start making some homemade ornaments so we can deliver them to a local nursing home. Selena has earned her light blue petal, for being honest and fair; her dark blue promise center, for gaining the basic concept of the Girl Scout Promise; her violet petal, for being a sister to every Girl Scout and we’re working on her orange petal, being responsible for what I say and do.
We have started doing chores around the house and for every chore that gets done, she gets $0.10 per chore done once a day. We have a rotating ‘chore schedule’ that varies week to week with some basic chores that are done every week and a few that get rotated between the girls. They are really enjoying it. Let’s see how long it lasts! I have a banking notebook all set up with their Savings Account balances, their Allowance balance and our Family Fun Account balance. When they get paid, they get to keep all of it in their allowance jar, but as soon as they want to ‘cash it out’ then the mathematics begin! 10% goes into their savings and 10% goes into the family fun account and they get 80% to do with what they want. It was so cute, Emma had about $7 in her hand and she was counting it all as Mahja asked her what she was saving her money for and she said, so I can buy something at the Dollar Tree. Oh how cute, if she only knew she could already buy 7 things there. I love their innocence. I know that right now Hope likes to do chores because she gets sticker stars, Emma feels like a big girl and Selena like the stickers too, but I am hoping that as time goes on they really gain a concept of saving money and being responsible for what they do, how they take care of themselves and their things.
Our garden has begun! 4 pumpkin plants, a tomato plant (going to get a few more), green pepper plant, 8 green bean plants, 8 broccoli plants, 8 pea plants, 3 healthy basil plants, 2 cayenne pepper plants (one has a super nice pepper on it), 2 cilantro (waiting for the other seeds to perk up), and trying to grow some chives. Selena loves to water the plants and help take care of them! I can’t wait for her to be able to go out and pick some fresh stuff off! Taking care of the plants are part of their chores, not like they need any incentive to help with the garden, they love it!
Thanksgiving is coming up, tomorrow actually and the girls are going to make some decorations for the tables, help make some homemade butter and be great little helpers in the kitchen. Selena is handling this well I think, I am going to go over everything with her tonight so she won’t be so in the dark. She is at Grammy and Papa’s today, hopefully she’s having fun! I’m sure she is. Grammy said something about shopping!! She went over there last night to spend the night so I didn’t have to rush around all crazy in the morning before work, which actually turned out well because Daddy proposed to me!!!! The girls have all agreed to it and Selena said she wanted to have Daddy’s last name and to be a ring girl or a flower girl. How adorable!!
One last thing while I can think of this, remember last year around this time Selena was chewing on her fingers and fingernails, and she almost had to have 3 nails removed and 2 fell off and all that jazz? Well…she’s back at it again and I am trying to do everything to stop her from chewing her nails!! Her therapist at horses gave her some hand play toys to try to keep her hands occupied. However, I can’t let her bring them to school so that leaves the whole bus ride to her disposal. I might have to get the gloves back out again before it gets worse. This year she isn’t chewing her nails, she is picking and chewing the skin by where her cuticles are at the base of her nails. My goodness. This girl just has such a low pain tolerance. Like last night, I get home and she has a HUGE mark over her right eye and a note saying that she ran into another pole or door coming out of the bathroom. I am thinking she hit one of the poles in the bathroom that makes up the stalls. So regardless, she is going to have a black eye for Thanksgiving. She didn’t complain about it at all or anything. So as we’re going to walk out the front door, she walks backward for some reason and smacks the doorknob right into the back of her head. Selena just starts to walk away, I grab her and ask if she’s ok and she told me that she was fine since she wasn’t crying. Daddy got the ice pack and I had her come close to me to check her head out. I told her that she can feel pain and be hurt even if she doesn’t cry. That makes me worried a bit. Because I know she runs into things often and can be clumsy sometimes, I wonder how many times she has actually been hurt, but since she didn’t cry she didn’t think she was hurt. How many times has she suffered through the pain, not realizing that we could’ve helped her?
I promise, I promise, I promise I will try to write more often than once a month. I will make time for you!!
Have a great Thanksgiving and I hope you get to spend it with your friends and family!!
J
Oh and Amy, you are so kind, thank you for power reading our journey and the wonderful things you have said, if you have any insight or have any suggestions, please let me know 🙂 Also, feel free to use our experiences, I’m delighted that our story has helped at least one person!
October 30, 2012 October 30, 2012
Oh time, you have once again rushed past me again. Things are going alright with Selena, with the season of sickness upon us, we are going to be seeing a lot of behaviors flare up as her mood and immunity levels decrease. We will just be there for her and move forward with our pursuit of happiness. I haven’t gotten to write in a while, but we are back on her meds full time which is a major help. We are a promise center and a light blue petal into our Daisy adventures and we are going to start working on our orange petal – being responsible for what I say and do. This should be interesting. We have started doing chores at the house already to kind of prep her up for it, and some of the things on there are not activities that she does very well, so when she does achieve them by herself, they mean much more to her because there is a visual aid to back it up, also money…everyone loves money.
Halloween is coming up and we have been making crafts, carving pumpkins, planting pumpkin seeds (which grow at a phenomenal rate) and getting our costumes fine tuned for the big day! I had to hide her costume from her because I’m sure she would’ve worn it out before she’d gotten to wear it out at trick-or-treating. Getting her ready to trick or treat is easy, but getting to change the subject after it’s all done with is a whole different story. Last year we were knocking on doors and asking for trick or treat over and over for months until Christmas came along. We’d have to relive Halloween again and again. Now, I love my child, but there comes a time when you have to say ENOUGH!!!!
She’s been doing really good in school and just lately has she started really acting out. Yesterday was a 2 hour meltdown, refusing to eat until everyone left the classroom and then refused to do any work at all. What reason might you ask? She said her heart was beating fast. Ok. So we’ll be there for her, explain that we have bad days and talk her up for tomorrow.
We have come to the holiday season and her anxiety level is going to increase, so I fear that her issues and behaviors are going to come alive again. However, we are seasoned players now and we have a better grasp on what we can do for her to help her cope with all the feelings she has. I will try to write again tomorrow, you caught me at the tail end of the day.
J
September 10, 2012 September 11, 2012
Another post, so soon! I know, I know! Selena has just been going through some more of her old behaviors and I wanted to get them jotted down while they were still fresh in my mind. I am not sure about what’s going on with her, but I’m trying to get to the bottom of it. The best way to do that is to increase recording of events, add times (if possible) and look for patterns. So on that note, I shall continue with what’s going on with her as of late.
The rest of the weekend went well, Sunday we had lots of fun around the house playing pretend, went swimming at Mahja’s (brrr it was cloudy and the weather was rainy off and on), eating a yummy dinner at Mahja’s house, then back to our house to round up their belongings and then we had to bring them back to their mom’s. Selena was repeating almost everything Daddy and myself were saying, including directions and what we wanted them to do. When we did a bit of light shopping for necessary supplies, Selena was yelling at them to hurry up, don’t touch anything and to “come on, come on”. I would like to add that we don’t talk like that to them, we rarely ask them to keep up with us, but we aren’t rude about it. Oh I almost forgot! They had a test of patience at the store when we were looking for new flip-flops for the girls. Emma and Selena had found matching flips and we were having a lot of problems trying to find a pair that was Hope’s size. No luck. How do you have 1 size smaller than 8 and 1 size larger than 8 with an entire Wal-Mart shoe section completely lacking to have one pair that fit her tiny little feet. That caused some serious tidal waves in our shopping experience, so none of them got to get shoes because Hope wanted us to get her dress shoes instead and well…that wasn’t going to happen and she didn’t feel it was fair for them to get flips and not her. Ugh. So while we were trying to resolve this issue, Selena was reminding us constantly to hurry up and to move on while pacing around the shoe aisle, Emma chilling on a seat and Hope frantically searching the shoes and crying. Daddy to the rescue! He helped calm Hope down, we moved on and finished our shopping trip with 3 extra ring pops and smiles all around. In the van, the girls like to sing and play pretend and generally have a great time. Selena didn’t want anything to do with them majority of the time and resisted joining in their activities. She did join in a few times, but mostly she sat their quietly.
I would like to add that when they were swimming, they all did a really great job and the goggles that Mahja got for them, are SO CUTE! They all look absolutely adorable in them. Selena has happy that she was ‘swimming’ again and she considered herself a full fledged mermaid. We tried to get her to move both her hands and feet simultaneously while she was swimming and it is just too confusing for her to hold her breath, kick her feet, paddle her hands and keep her bearings all at the same time. She is getting there, it’s just going to take a lot more time and practice than the other girls. Selena had a blast and was very excited with herself so that’s all that matters to me. I just want to see her happy.
At the table she didn’t eat a whole lot and didn’t join in our conversations. During the favorite time of the day talk, she couldn’t pick out an activity for that day and was picking things from the previous day. I tried to explain to her what happened that day and she just wouldn’t have any part of it. I have noticed that more and more she closes her eyes and rolls them back when she’s eating. Also I have to cut everything up into perfect bite sizes because she doesn’t judge how large it is and will just shove the whole thing in her mouth. She complained of her belly hurting and being full more often lately. She wanted to go lay down during almost every meal and just looks drained.
She’s been going to bed super early lately and it usually is a challenge for her to get to bed. Now it’s a challenge to get her to stay awake! She was becoming so independent in the morning. Walking to the bathroom, helping getting dressed, brushing her own teeth, even attempting to brush her own hair. Now she isn’t wanting to walk to the bathroom anymore, she doesn’t want to get dressed, asking her to brush her teeth and hair is instant meltdown. She cries, screams out, stiffens up, shakes and refuses to do what is asked of her. Selena repeats over and over that, ‘her hands are tired’, ‘her legs are broken’, ‘her arms are broken’, ‘her belly hurts’, while crying and refusing to do what is asked. She will put her hands right up to her mouth, half an inch away and she’ll say she can’t reach. It has become a nightmare anymore and I am struggling to get her back to where she was.
School is going alright, however she is starting to have meltdowns in class, climbing under desks and refusing to do her work. She also isn’t really eating her meals in school, but she is eating her green beans… lots and lots of green beans. She is addicted to them now! I think she is doing well in after care because she gets a fresh dose of her medication and it is in full swing when she gets in with all those other children.
At home she has been quiet, even after school she is constantly telling us her arms are broken and her legs are broken. She’s been running in circles a lot more than usual and hanging upside down off the couch rather frequently. She has been doing more side ways looking and eye rolling. She’s being more defiant when it comes to simple things like going potty and telling us she can’t do it and throwing herself around. Selena will tell us she has to go to the bathroom, we give her the ‘okay’ to go (since she feels she requires permission every time she goes) and she then pitches a fit and tells us she can’t do it. Her independence level is decreasing even though her age increases. I don’t understand what’s going on with her and I don’t know what I can do to help her any more than we already are.
Today she just looked so tired, run down, ready to give in for the day. After dinner she didn’t even get up from the table and was falling asleep at the table, Daddy had to carry her. I’m going to keep my eye on her a bit closer and be writing more frequently until we can get to the bottom of it.
On a side note, I got the contact number for the other woman who is going to be leading the troop with me, gave her a call and left a message. I hope I hear back from her soon, as I am getting the list of girls tomorrow, calling the school tomorrow to see if we can use their facility for our meetings and going to the scout shop to get all our leader/daisy goodies! Selena is very excited at the thought of Girl Scouts and can’t wait for our first meeting. Daddy is going to be a troop helper and it’s going to be a lot of fun, even though I’m still really nervous.
Also, you guys rock!!! Some of our most near and dear friends have so selflessly donated to Selena’s Instride fundraiser! Pauline, Erin & Gareth, Pat & Bill, Aunt Becky, Uncle Greg & Aunt Loretta, and Grammy & Papa to only name a few. We have almost reached our goal, which means we’ll just have to make it higher! There is still time if you feel like giving 🙂 We love you all so much and I truly can’t express my appreciation or gratitude enough for your awesome acts of kindness. Everyone is welcome to attend her session on Sat. Oct. 6th, I think they said they will have games and stuff set up to make it more fun and interesting. We’ll have to see!
Much love
J
September 8, 2012 September 9, 2012
Oh gosh, what has happened since I wrote last. Let’s see, we’ve got the girls over this weekend, we had a neurology test done on Selena, she’s back on her meds, we’ve had some pretty typical Selena behaviors pop back up and life goes on some more!
First, let me tell you about her EEG she had done. Selena’s behavioral pediatrician wanted us to get a neuro consult done, so naturally we followed through with doctor’s orders. We tried to prepare Selena for the test since Daddy filled me in that the EEG is where they put nodes on your scalp and they gather brain activity. So we tell Selena they are going to put stickers on her head, that it won’t hurt at all and that we’ll be right there with her through the whole thing. She was a bit nervous about it, but she was telling people that she was having a test on her brain done. She asked why she had to have the test done and I explained to her that they were going to show us just how smart she was and how perfect her brain was. I wasn’t sure what they were going to be looking for or what to expect so I didn’t want to scare her and tell her the ‘truth’. She would then tell me that they were going to tell us how smart she was. Good enough for me!! They said we had to get her as sleep deprived as we could and boy did we try! Now that she’s on the right medication schedule, she has been putting herself to bed around 8:45-9:00 every night. So, when it became about 9:00 she started with the, “It’s time to get ready for bed” routine. I told her she needed to stay up and about every 10 minutes she would remind us that her eyes were very tired and that she needed to go on the potty and get ready for bed. It was rather cute although she was getting more and more upset as the time went by. Me and Daddy each had a long day and we were pretty tired ourselves so it was a stretch for us to stay up ‘late’ too and I was curious on how in the world we were going to pull that off! Around 10 she was rather agitated and was to the point of arguing with us about how she needed to go to bed and how her eyes were very, very, very, very, very sleepy and that she just had to go to bed. Needless to say, she fell asleep on the couch around 11 and we put her to bed. Our destination was St. Pete and we had to be there at 8 am, so we had an early wake up call. She was not thrilled about that either, but we pressed on, made it up there and had the test. We went into the testing room which was pretty small and straight to the point. The woman who was doing the EEG was awesome with kids (well she should be, she works in a pediatric neurology office) and explained to Selena what was going to happen. Selena was naturally nervous and Daddy was right there to take her hand, per her request. I would like to note that I was totally unprepared for all the paper work, my purse was a disaster (which I had to sift through) and I was very thankful that Daddy was there for Selena. They gave her ‘rainbow’ hair with all the electrodes sticking out and wrapped her head up in gauze. She did everything asked of her, although she didn’t like to answer questions like, “Can you name something that is red?” or “What is your favorite color?”, she did pretty good and the result of the tests shows that she doesn’t have epilepsy or seizures. Her doctor wanted to rule that possibility out because children who have autism can also suffer from epilepsy and also that their behaviors could be linked to seizures. That’s great news! We were also complimented on being great parents, that’s always nice.
After the test, we headed back to Sarasota to pick up her medication and they counted wrong! They were 30 pills short! Good thing I counted before we left or I would have been extremely mad! I went back in and they said that it would be filled within the week, that is so frustrating! I could only make it there because it was my day off during the week, I don’t get out of work early enough to make it 30 minutes north to her pharmacy. So now I have to get up there Monday (they’re open till 8pm) and be home an hour late. Ugh. Oh and her pediatrician had said that her medication wasn’t covered by medicaid, well…it is and she just didn’t want to fill out the form? Either way, I got a copy of it and when we go to her next appointment, I’ll be sure to bring it and have her fill it out so we don’t have to jump through these hoops again!
We picked Emma and Hope up on Tuesday instead of Wednesday, and I had to work late so that was pretty stinky. I always love it when they’re with us and when I get home, they rush out to see me and it always makes me smile! Daddy had dinner ready, dinosaur chicken nuggets, mac & cheese and hot dogs for Selena. They always dress up in these really cool costumes and outfits, they definitely know how to play pretend! Dinner is always fun when we have the dino-nuggets, because they like to make rawrs and bite their ranch covered heads off. Just 3 more days until they get to spend the weekend with us! We’re always so excited when it’s our weekends with them, Daddy and myself talk for days about all the fun things we can do! This weekend will be pretty busy though, seeing how we have horses, my Girl Scout leader meeting (I’ll get to that), swimming with Mahja, possibly some cookie baking and who knows what else!
Nothing else really happened before the girls arrived, just work and sleep. Selena has been a bit more defiant but with her getting back on 3 times a day, she’s starting to mellow back out. Mornings have been really bad lately and she has been fighting me to do everything, throwing herself on the ground when requesting to do simple tasks like brushing her teeth. Something is happening to her lately and I’m not sure if it’s something at school, at home or this time of year. We are going to start seeing her do more things because holidays are about to start back up. I only hope we can keep her from chewing her fingers again, oi vey. School is going alright, she has settled in and is now starting her meltdowns at school, but they seem to be further apart (or at least they aren’t writing everything down). She has also not really been eating at all, which is odd because one of the side affects of her medication is increased appetite, and that really hasn’t been happening. I hope that her experience in after care doesn’t get worse since she’s starting to act out in school. Side note, Emma is rocking at school and Hope was nervous for nothing, she’s loving kindergarten.
Daddy picked up all the girls on Friday and the weekend has officially begun! We had salisbury steaks, potatoes, corn and of course dessert, which was fudge bars (the big ones!). Bath time, movie time and they were out. That’s good, because Saturday is going to be a busy day. Early morning wake ups by the girls and we’re off to a start before 7:30. Mornings movies and play time then it’s time for the library for the Girl Scout leader meeting. It was the first time Emma and Hope got to play in ‘our’ library, they had a blast! There are more toys there than at the library they are used to going to. I went into the meeting thinking that I was going to be a co-leader for Selena’s Daisy troop and I walked out of there being the leader for the troop. I am so stoked and nervous at the same time! That means that I will have more to post about! This is going to be a lot of fun and Daddy has said that he wants to help with the troop too!! So far we are up to 12 Daisy scouts interested in being in our troop. Holy cow! When I was greeted by the rest of the family, they all had their special movies they picked out and were very excited to get to watch them later. We were off to horses!
At horses they did really well waiting patiently for Selena to get done, visiting all the other horses and waving to Selena. InStride is having their annual Giddy-Up fundraiser and we’ve begun taking pledges on Selena’s behalf. They have an online donation page set up which will go directly under Selena’s name. If you would like to give a monetary donation or would just like to go check out our pledge page (has a cute pic of her and her horse) please follow this link. http://instride.dojiggy.com/ng/index.cfm/aa1a98e/regPages/pledge/SELENA/ I don’t like asking my friends and family for money because I know how hard it is right now financially and every penny gained is a penny earned but if you are able, willing and wanting to donate to a program, click that link. Hehe. Don’t worry, we still love you, no matter what you do!
It’s now Saturday night, Emma has been sitting here proofreading almost my whole post, we have a busy day tomorrow and I’m ready to spend some time with Daddy before we pass out ourselves.
J
*For the record, 8 year olds can try really hard to proofread but they don’t know all the rules of English or grammar yet, so it makes it a bit difficult. Although her input is greatly appreciated 🙂 I have edited the post now that she’s passed out.
September 3, 2012 September 4, 2012
School has been going so well for Selena! On Friday we got a note home saying that she has already passed the next 2 weeks of Dolch sight words reviews, which is AWESOME! When we were at Unkie and Bobbi’s house today for a BBQ, Bobbi pulled up her list of Dolch sight words and Selena got to the letter G with only a few error words before she got herself worked up and didn’t want to do it anymore. Very impressed and excited that she’s doing so well in school and as much as I was against putting her on medication, I must admit that she is soaring! We have been cutting her doses (mostly because I failed in having them refilled in enough time and not planning ahead for the holiday weekend) and we can really see the change in how she acts and her behaviors. Today she was non stop! Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. OMG, just stop talking, for 2 seconds! Picking at fingers, giving us her crazy eyes, being more defiant and having meltdowns. We haven’t really experienced meltdowns at home when it’s just been her and us, in quite a while, so it was definitely a bit shocking to see her act out. Ah well, that’s what we get for messing with her head.
I got a great recipe for some homemade finger paints, so I crafted them up, let them cool and guess what happened? Selena hated it. She didn’t like how the paint felt on her fingers and went into almost total meltdown mode. She did however paint a single picture. A frown face with tears. Hah. So I have learned that if we want to paint, that there must be brushes or it will end badly. We have done other crafts that include making homemade crayons, bead crafts and drawing pictures for her family members to be mailed out. When the girls were over we made some more crayons, they had a blast picking out the colors, peeling them (Daddy to the rescue), breaking them, watching them melt and then inevitably coloring with them. Little Hope had the most fun coloring and giggling every time she would draw a line and it would turn a few different colors, Emma was the instructor showing them just how to color with them and Selena had a blast doing her own thing.
When the girls were over, we had quite a bit of fun. From hanging out and playing pretend to going to Panera for the best mac & cheese, to swimming at Mahja’s again, to getting prepared for the storm that never came and just having fun being a family! There were quite a few instances of meltdowns, tantrums, arguments and territory issues but hey, we are dealing with a 5, 6 and 7 year old! I would like to add that when we went swimming, they all had goggles on that were to die for! I could not stop giggling at how cute they all looked! Each girl wore their goggles around Mahja’s house for a good 30 minutes before we even got to the pool!! Selena was very excited to get her face in the water and be able to open her eyes underwater that I thought she was going to lose it completely! She didn’t hesitate at all to start swimming underwater and swam about 6 feet by herself under the water. Selena is really getting there and we’re all very proud of how quickly she has gotten the hang of it!! You rock sista! That next Wednesday we had a quick evening of math homework, chicken nuggets and pretend time.
Thursday we went to explore the option of Girl Scouts and I have to say, I am super excited for her to join up!! I was a GS for 10 years, Leader in Training, helped with cookie sales and graduated out of it when I was 18. We went to her school to meet a few of the leaders in the area and to sign her up. They had a table all set up with crafts so that the parents could talk about what Girl Scouts entails and all that jazz. She introduced herself to some of the other girls, took a seat and started doing the crafts that they had out for all the girls! They had a tent set up, which she thoroughly enjoyed going in and out of, she even took off her shoes. Girls Scouts have new books and badges and I have to say, I wish they had those to work through when I was a Girl Scout. So we get her signed up, and we get the email saying that there are enough girls to start a troop with the girls in her school and I am excited to volunteer as a Co-Leader but I am hesitant because I don’t want to be a leader, I am nervous about being a co-leader as well. So needless to say, I haven’t responded to her email yet, volunteering myself. Hope is going into gymnastics again (which I thought she said she wanted to do Girl Scouts too?) and I am wanting to go check that out for Selena as well, although, I don’t want to put too much on her plate at once. Emma is doing cheer and dang it if I don’t want Selena to do that too! I want to get her involved with things where other ‘mainstreamed’ kids are so she can work on her social skills and not always be surrounded by only Autistic children (there is nothing wrong with that, don’t get me wrong). However, I do think we’re just going to stay with Girl Scouts and check into the gymnastics to see if that is something she would want to do, and something we can afford.
This past weekend we went shopping at Goodwill and Selena found another unicorn on a stick, that even makes noise. After Papa fixed it, he told Selena that the horse snort at the end of the track that plays was the unicorn farting, so ever since then she giggles uncontrollably when it goes off! Silly Papa. Grammy and Papa were happy to have Selena over and Selena was just as excited. They ate lots and lots of food, played in the water outside, played pretend and shared lots of hugs & kisses.
Neurology appointment on Wednesday and we’ve prepped Selena up for the visit. I believe she’s rather nervous about it but we’ll get through it. They are going to do an EEG, which Daddy says is some nodes they put on her to check her brain waves? It all seems a bit complicated to me and I’m a bit nervous myself, so I’m so glad Daddy can come too!! I will update you on what happens there, because they are wanting us to do something crazy! They was us to bring Selena in sleep deprived and said that we need to keep her up late the night before and wake her up early the morning of, don’t let her fall asleep on the way (from North Port to St. Pete at 7 am during rush hour) so that she’ll fall asleep when they are doing the tests. Well, if all works out as I hope it will, she’ll get through the visit fine either wide awake or completely asleep, doesn’t matter to me which one it is!
Oh yea, she seems to be slipping back into crazy imagination land with her not so ‘medicated’ brain just ticking away. Not that I mind it at all! I love who she is, medicated or not. I just want to see her succeed and be a happy, healthy child!
J
August 23, 2012 August 24, 2012
*Sigh* What a stressful day, I am ready for it to be over. Selena was a sweet heart, it has nothing to do with her and everything to do with life.
Last weekend was good, Selena went to Papa and Grammy’s house, she had fun. Selena hasn’t been feeling too well, so she put herself to bed early and got herself up early too. They watered plants, played in the Grammy made sprinkler and generally had a good time. It’s always so cute when we go and pick her up, because she always tells us what she ate and always with these big eyes. Selena has been very excited to start school and it was only a few days away! We got all her supplies and clothes during the tax free weekend so we were all set there, especially since she wears school uniforms everyday but Friday, a.k.a. Diva Day!! Selena had started coughing a day or 2 before she went to her grandparents and had been acting a bit run down, I just figured she had been infected with the head cold that was going around. Sunday, we get her back and she is tired, sleepy and coughing pretty intensely now. Gave her some medicine and was worried that the first day of school was going to be spoiled because of the pink eye drops (which she hates getting) and the head cold that she now possessed.
Well, I worried too much, she did great her first day and her second day and her third day AND her fourth day. In school and in aftercare, even though she is only in aftercare for about an hour and a half. She keeps coming home with smiley faces through her whole schedule and some pretty cool art pictures which I will have to talk myself into disposing one day, a long way away from now.
Wednesday went great with the girls, they were all wound up and were having a great night. Dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets were the highlight of the meal.
Tomorrow is Diva Day and we’re going to have Selena so primped and dolled up, she’s going to be spectacular! We also get the girls tomorrow for the weekend, which is going to be interesting and probably an indoor kind of weekend seeing as we are counting down the days until hurricane Issac is supposed to be upon us.
J
August 21, 2012 August 22, 2012
Well hello there. I’m the Queen of Procrastination. I’ve been meaning to get this post out for days and days now. Silly life seems to be getting in the way. Anyway, on to the good stuff, life has been busy! Well, busier than usual.
Where did we leave off? Where the girls were over? I believe so. Oh man, I just checked it out! I’ve missed writing about a lot of events!! Ok, so Saturday, we went to see Mahja, and she treated us to a very awesome lunch and then some swim time. As usual, Emma and Hope did AWESOME in the water and guess what happened?! Selena finally put her face in the water!!!!!!!! We have been working on water touching her face for years, and she finally did it!! After that, there was no stopping her, she was trying to swim like a champ, occasionally sitting on the steps and putting her face into the water. She really braces herself to do it, it’s rather amusing. We are so proud of her! The girls, especially Emma, are so sweet, thoughtful and encouraging. She swam right over to her, gave Selena a great big hug and kept saying how awesome it was she put her face in the water and how good of a job Selena did. I love seeing that with the girls. They are all so supportive of each other and try to help each other out. Emma more than the other 2, but that’s just because she’s a bit older. Either way, Selena rocked it in the water and she was trying to doggy paddle so hard, she was getting places! So after hours and hours of swimming, we headed over to the Easter in August that the Bridge Church in Venice was hosting. It was soooo hot, thank goodness that the girls were all set to get into the water slides they had available! Selena wasn’t scared or frightened with all the people there at all, she did really great. They had some huge water slides, they are like the blow up bounce houses, but with slides and water, so it was a new experience for all of us. As we make our way to the back of the grounds, there was this huge blue slide with a shoot and pool at the end of it, had to be about 3o ft high. Emma was so excited to go down it, Selena was excited to follow Emma and Hope, well Hope is a tiny little thing who was very hesitant but didn’t want to not go down it because everyone else was. They wait in this crazy long line to get their shot at going down this enormous thing. We see Emma and Selena go down, but not Hope…so we wait, and wait, and wait…and I can see through the mesh at the top that she’s sitting up there, wiping her face. OH NO!! She’s crying and at the top of this water slide. No sooner do I think that and I see the man at the bottom of the slide start to climb his way up the ladder and retrieve our Hope from the top of this tidal wave water slide. We were supportive of her fear, calmed her down and gave her high fives for trying even though she was scared. We were there about an hour and a half, but decided to go because the girls had been out for so long, we didn’t want to push them any longer. We didn’t get to be a part of the egg drop, they opened the gates at 5:00 but they didn’t do the egg drop until 7:00 (the guy we asked said 7:30). We almost get home and it’s raining, they are in their bathing suits still, so I had a genius idea. Let’s let them play in the rain! They were so excited! They didn’t know what to do with themselves! Jumping in the puddles, watering the plants from the gutter downspout and just having fun, being little girls in the rain. Naturally after all that, they get into the bath…which didn’t last that long…no duh! They were in the water all day and were ready to be dry! They didn’t last too long after dinner, and snuggled in for a family movie.
Sunday was a pretty easy day. When we could tell they were getting a bit of cabin fever, we suggested a park visit. Since it was raining off and on, we tried to go to a park that was covered. Everywhere we went was a bit moist, but we still have fun, and I got some pretty good pictures taken. We had some lunch, played for a bit…they were rather whiny though I might add, then we went to Grammy and Papa’s to play there and visit! They had fun at their house, although Selena is very accustomed to being over there, so there was a bit of territorial issues with the toys and how everything worked. I had to go explain to her that it was the first time they were over there and to be nice, share and explain the toys, piggy food and everything to them so that they were on the same page. Papa and Grammy spoiled them with some ice cream, we then went to Subway and got some dinner. We always hate having to say good-bye to them but alas, it is what we must do.
The last week before school starts, what a joyous time for Selena. She was starting to get worked up and had some behaviors appear, but that was to be expected. She has started chewing on her cuticles, seemed to be back into serious pretend world with all her ‘friends’, spinning quite a bit more and repeating herself more often. We haven’t really noticed the ‘record on repeat’ as much since we started her medicine. Everyday a new link had to be removed and everyday it got shorter and shorter and it would make her more and more excited, taking a link off excited her so much that she started to shudder on a few occasions. Tameka and her are coming to a close with their time together and it stinks to have to end her time over there, Selena really enjoyed being with her and all of their animals. I did learn a cool way to make crayons, once I perfect it, I’ll have to post up how to do it…the right way, lol. They went swimming, on Tuesday which was great for Selena but something bad happened!! I went to pick her up and noticed this big green goop in the corner of her eye. OH NO!!! Pink eye!!! I stay home with her the following day, take her to the doctor to find out she’s contagious for another 24 hours, looks like Mommy is having a short work week. I was bummed because it was the last week she was going to be with Tameka and I was hoping she’d get to have a great week with her. Friday she went back over there but was a bit lethargic and not very excitable.
I know, I know I still have a weekend and this week to catch up on, but there is this really handsome man with a hurt back falling asleep behind me and I need to go take care of him. Finish tomorrow.
J
Dirty Shoes 