bountifulplate

Yesterday, we could actually be outside in a sweatshirt and not be cold!  I had a light jacket on Dominic and he told me the sun was too "hot." The temperature in the shade was 43 degrees :) Yes, it's been such a long winter that even 43 feels "toasty."  Anyways, the kids and I spent a few hours outside soaking up the rays and they started playing on the swing set in our backyard.  There is a set of rings and Lauren started doing back flips.  She looked at Dominic and said something like, "do you want me to teach you how to do that?" He of course said yes!  It warmed my heart to see her be so patient, but more importantly, encouraging with him, even when he fell. It took him a handful of times, but he mastered it!! When he did it by himself the first time, he said proudly, "I did it!" Each time he did it after that, Lauren and I clapped for him.  The two questions Lauren has heard since her senior year began has been, "where d...

This past Thursday night, as Dominic and I were waiting for his music therapist, I noticed him displaying a "classic" sign of Autism. There were two men standing right in front of the water fountain chatting away.  Since Dominic had eaten some pretzels in the car on the way, he was thirsty. I told him to go over to the water fountain and get himself something to drink.  He walked right between the two men, it was like they didn't exist.  There are three areas that children with Autism have difficulties or impairments in - social, communication and behavioral. I did a little experiment with Dominic yesterday morning.  Usually, when he wakes up and comes downstairs, I say something like, "hey, how are you doing?"  Yesterday, I didn't say anything.  Within about 20 seconds, he said, "mommy."  That might not seem like a big deal, but it was to me.  I can be the "queen" of prompting.  By that I mean, I catch myself a lot not giving him eno...

In the past week, Dominic has woke up at 5:00 a.m. about four times.  He normally wakes up between 7-7:30 a.m. It would be great if he would go back to bed for an hour or two, but instead he goes downstairs to the family room.  He has been going to bed about the same time, so it's a bit of a mystery as to what is going on.  When he has woke up early in the past, it's usually because he is going through a growth spurt.  I'm not 100% sure that is the case now, since he has also been having some behavior issues at school.  A while back, he ran out of the cafeteria during lunch and one of the aides had to chase him down.  It wouldn't have been so bad, but he had a mouthful of food!  His teacher and I have been in close contact to see if there is any kind of pattern, since Dominic has been on the same dosage of Ritalin for a few years.  I sometimes think that his ADHD is the bigger issue than his Autism.  Since he does take medication, we see his ...

Last Sunday afternoon, while Dominic was at his religious education class, I headed over to my local Sears to pass the time until his class was done.  I am on the hunt for dress pants with an elastic band in a boys size 8-10 for his Holy Communion, so if anybody knows where I can find a pair let me know! Anyways, after I looked around and didn't find any, I did notice that all of their winter clothes were marked down.  Since I had a 15% off coupon, I figured I could probably get some good deals.  I found a sweater for myself that had been marked down to $7.99 and a long sleeve shirt for Dominic that was $3.99.  I figured with my coupon, I would pay about $10.00 for both. As I headed towards the register, the gal said, "do you have a Shop Your Way Rewards card?"  I told her yes.  Those cards are free and it keeps track of any "points" you may have.  I told her I thought I had about a $1.00 or so on the card.  She looked up my account and told me ...

Today, because of parent/teacher conferences, Dominic had the day off from school.  Last night, he was asking me what we were going to be doing today.  I told him that we had a "field trip" to Kroger in the morning and then after Lauren got done with her day at school, we would meet up with her at Culver's to have lunch.  After Dominic had a waffle, pumpkin muffin and milk, we hopped into the car and headed to Kroger.  To the other shoppers, they probably figured it was a mom and her little boy out grocery shopping and didn't think twice about it.  To me, I used the trip to Kroger as a continuing learning experience for him.  The past couple of times I have taken him grocery shopping, he has preferred sitting in a cart that has a car attached to the front and read a book, occasionally assisting me. Since he hit a growth spurt, he can longer squeeze himself into that type of cart. Well, he probably could, but he might not be able to get back out :)  I ...

When I went to bed Tuesday night, the temperature was 40 degrees.  The most exciting thing that I was "expecting" to do on Wednesday after the kids went to school and the hubby went to work was to attempt to catch up on my laundry (is it ever really caught up)??!?! Anyways, instead, Wednesday morning at about 5:45 a.m. the phone started ringing.  My first thought was that there was a family emergency.  Instead, it was an automated message from Dominic's school saying it was cancelled for the day.  I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.  At 6:15 a.m., the phone rang again. This time it was Lauren's school leaving an automated message that they were closed too.  I rolled over and did fall back asleep until about 7:30 a.m. when Dominic came barreling down the hallway from his room.  Since the temperature was so warm Tuuesday night, I figured there must be ice on the roads. Well, when I looked at the window, it wasn't ice, but snow! Okay, I was...

Doesn't it seem like whenever you're running late, you either get stuck in a traffic jam, at a railroad crossing or hit multiple red lights? When you're not in a rush none of those things happen, right? Yesterday, I had an appointment to get a routine echocardiogram (echo) of my heart at my cardiologist's office that started at 10:45 a.m. I left my house at 10:25 a.m. thinking that would be plenty of time with about a five minute "cushion." Well, I managed to hit at least five red lights in a row! I pulled into the parking lot and rushed quickly into the building. The receptionist gave me a sheet on a clipboard, which I hurriedly filled out thinking I would be going in soon - they typically run pretty close to being on time. Well, they were running a full 30 minutes behind. When I got called into the exam room, the nurse took my blood pressure and said something like, "is your blood pressure normally this low??" Hmm, not usually, guess I relaxed a li...

Before I moved to the Midwest, over 12 years ago, I would see deer once in a while in my old neighborhood, mostly because we lived down the street from a large park in Maryland.  Well, that is certainly not the case in our yard here. This winter has been so cold and harsh, that within an hour of tossing out some old bread scraps this past Wednesday morning, these guys or gals, (who frequent our yard often - you can tell by their tracks in the snow) showed up to pay me a "visit."   This one looked sad and was shivering so much, that I felt like inviting it inside to keep warm while I waited for some muffins to get done baking :) Perhaps the smell of cinnamon was luring my friend close to the window?? A few seconds before I snapped this picture, the poor deer had stuck it's nose in our bird feeder hoping for some water.  I can only imagine how thirsty he or she must be. A few weeks ago, while sitting at our kitchen table, I saw something white go past our bac...

Lauren and I are both bargain hunters when it comes to clothes shopping, so we decided this past Sunday night to take a quick trip to one of the major department stores here in town.  We went about an hour before the store closed, so we figured it would be pretty empty.  I can count on one hand how many cars were in the parking lot when we pulled in.  There were many great deals to be had (some clothes were 90% off), so Lauren and I grabbed several things for her to try on and we headed to the closest dressing room area.  I told Lauren that I wanted to take a quick look at the clothes right outside the dressing room area and I would join her in a minute or two.  When I walked in to rejoin Lauren, imagine my surprise when I found an adult man waiting right outside of one of the dressing room stalls.  This dude was at least a foot taller and about 50 pounds heavier than me and he kept standing on his tippy toes and peering over the top of the dressing room st...

My hubby has a very busy and demanding job, but he does have the option of working at home one or two days a week. Monday has been his "work at home" day for at least a decade.  With the sun actually shining today, I guess I was thinking of the summertime and how great it would be to be able to have a big bowl of fresh fruit. Since winter shows no sign of slowing down (the temperature was below zero this morning and we got another 4-5 inches of snow over the weekend), I did the next best thing and used some frozen strawberries and blueberries I had in the freezer and made a smoothie!  Since I've never made a smoothie before I told my husband he was my "guinea pig" tester today.  I put it in a glass and when I handed it to him to "sample" he said, "oh, you put it in a "fancy" glass!!!"  It's all in the presentation, my friends!!  Guess it beats the old Garfield glass I was going to put it in :) Ingredients 1 cup cranberry...

We are super blessed that Dominic is talking and even though he is behind with his speech, 95% of the time he can communicate to us what he wants and needs.  Being able to answer the "why" questions still present a huge challenge for him.  While most of the time I have tons of patience with Dominic, I sometimes have those times when I hit my limit.  About six weeks or so ago, after being fully trained with the potty training for several months, he decided that he was all done.  He started having accidents and lots of anxiety.  I have been down this road with him before, but it was after he had a migraine. That was not the case this time, so I was more than a little perplexed. The more I pushed, the more he resisted.  Potty training is all about the control, right??  It reached the point that I was almost ready to put him back in diapers (yes, I was THAT frustrated).  I relayed my concerns to Dominic's teacher at school and he made a picture sched...