Valentine's Weekend

I wanted to have a wonderful Valentine's weekend with my family. I bought books for the kids and planned on making treats with them. Instead, Lane got ill and got a one way ticket to the hospital. Laney and I stayed there for 3 days. She had RSV - like symptoms. Her RSV test came back negative but the doctor thought the test was incorrect. She was dehydrated and lethargic. It absolutely broke my heart to hold my baby as she coughed and choked all weekend.

Another Day at Hobby Lobby

I think what I am feeling is "normal" for parents who are told their child has autism. I have some Mommy guilt. I feel responsible. I feel sad for him yet happy he is my child. My heart continues to break. I'm not entirely ready to say the words out loud to someone in person.
I almost had my first public breakdown yesterday. I took the kids to Hobby Lobby. Laney refused to sit in her car seat so I carried her. Alex sat in the tiny cart. Gabriel walked alongside the cart for a while, until he saw the tub of scissors.
He kept running to the scissors and even broke the tub open to pull the big blue pair out. He was insistent that we purchase the blue scissors and did not understand that they needed to be purchased with the entire tub. He ran back and forth from the scissors to me, even when I wasn't next to him. Gabriel lacks that sense of safety still.
He had a meltdown from the back of the store all the way to the front checkout, screaming for the big blue scissors all the way. This is understandable from a two year old but not so much from a 5 year old. I couldn't pick him up because I had Laney in my arms and he couldn't go in the cart because it was too small.
Older women were giving me looks. It felt like they were questioning my parenting. This is when I almost let the tears fall down my face. I wanted to yell.. it isn't me! It isn't him! It's this damn black cloud lingering over him called AUTISM! Be kind and accept him and quit giving me dirty looks!!!
Instead I calmly paid, got him out of the store, and buckled everyone into their car seats. I drove through Starbucks for a mocha treat after that fiasco. Gabriel was still screaming for the scissors.

Iowa City

On February 3, we traveled to Iowa City. Gabriel had an all day evaluation and received a diagnosis at the end of the day. Gabriel has PDD-NOS. He is officially on the autism spectrum. It has taken us a couple weeks to deal with this emotionally. However, we know that he is still the same sweet and loving little boy that we knew before the dx. Now we can set more therapy in place for him to help him succeed in life. We hope to give him every opportunity available so he can have a happy and successful adulthood.

Andrew was thrilled to show the boys how to play chess. It was very entertaining to watch the boys "destroy" each other.

Valentines in Progress

Day two of Valentine creating has been accomplished. The paintings are dry and now we have to assemble everything. Even Laney helped out with the painting.

Swinging and Sleeping

Lane fell asleep in her swing for the first time in weeks. Hooray! She is such a sweet princess. She is holding on to her kitty and caterpiller in the photo.

A snow day in January

Another busy snow day. We're stuck at home but we completed many things, including Gabriel's Valentine's box for preschool. He is very proud of it. We started our Valentines. Hopefully we'll complete them in time! The kids did a lot of jumping for me this afternoon. The boys are very creative and set up a border to jump over - here is a video of their adventure! Laney has been obsessed with jumping. I put her in a friend's jumperoo and she now realizes how fun it is to bounce and jump all day!

Art Center

We went to the art center with the playgroup today. Gabriel painted a train and added feathers per his friend Lily's advice. Alexander painted a house (it's actually a church). It's interesting to watch their different techniques. Alex is very careful and tedious in his painting. Gabriel dives right in and completes his task quickly. Both boys were very proud of their work. Laney was charming and stayed in my arms most of the time. Our friend, Ryan, held her for a while and she flirted with Ryan and Lacey.