Wow

Summer is just flying by. The kids are definately keeping me busy but it is all great. Because of me staying busy I have lost a few pounds :) . Today was great. Hung out in the house all morning because it was just too hot to be outside with 5 kids under the age of 6 (I babysit my cousins 4 month old occasionally). But as soon as the sun started hiding behind the clouds and my cousin picked up baby, we went outside to play. The kids had a blast even though it was still really warm outside. Luckily my back yard is pretty shaded, but also kind of suck because there are tons of mosquitos out there. All in all it was a great day. Now all I have is the twins, Monster and Itty Bitty (I call them twins because they look so much alike, are often mistaken for twins, only difference is Monster is a lot bigger than Itty Bitty). Princess went to one grandma's house for the night and Monkey Man went to a different grandma's for the night. It is so peaceful here, the twins are in bed, and I actually have some free time before I am too tired to do anything. I forgot how nice it is to only have two but I wouldn't trade the four for the world.

The here and now

The past week has again been crazy with trying to get things set up for Monster, trying to get Princess set up in school, and just trying to keep things together. I am feeling better about Monster's diagnosis and am ready to face the challenge of getting services for him head on. At the very least I can feel good about the fact that I have already been through all of this and know the ropes. Of course my advocate and the lady from the county have been out all week so I am just playing the waiting game at this point. I am so not a patient person and hate to have to wait. But at this point that is all I can do.
I also have scheduled an appointment to get Monkey Man screened for ADD/ADHD. His attention just isn't there. I started noticing soon after his autism diagnosis but he was still young and I figured I would give it some time. But now it is becoming obvious that he is going to have to be put on meds if we want to continue with progress. His inattention is vastly hindering him and I know how much meds helped me out when I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 9. Even Monkey Man's therapists agree that it would be beneficial for him so now it is just another waiting game, his appointment isn't until Sept. UGH!!! But I did call another place to see if they can get him in sooner but they haven't returned my call yet.
Other than that, the children have been good. Today was a little bad but only because we were stuck in the house because of the rain.

Sad day :(

Today started out really well. We went out to my mothers to visit, do some laundry, and let the kids swim. Princess and Monsters mom came over to visit with the kids and brought over some paperwork that came from the place that evaluated Monster for autism. I opened it up and there it was. Monster has autism. Before receiving the diagnosis I could atleast tell myself that I was just being paranoid and that he was fine. Or even convince myself that when we got the results that it would say that he was ok and didn't have autism. But now I have it in black and white and there is no turning back now.
I honestly thought that I was ready to hear/see the word autism again but it hit me like a ton of bricks. My heart is heavy as I think about Monster's future and what it all means. Will he do as well as Monkey Man does or will he always function at the level he is at? Will he always require supervision or will he be able to live on his own? So many questions and only time can give me any answers.
When we got home today I came online to go to my online support group and discuss Monster with them and come to find out that one of the ladies (there is only about 20 of us) passed away. I didn't know her in real life but it still breaks my heart to know that her autistic son and husband will be without her. She was such a kind and caring person and will be sorely missed. She helped me out alot with her kindness and I never got the chance to re-pay her.
All in all it was a sad day with too much going on. Hopefully things will look better in the morning.

The Visit

Our visit with the case workers went well. I told them what was going on with Princess and Monster after visits with their mother and basically they told me to limit visits and try to get mom to only visit without her boyfriend. Since we all believe that the children are having a reaction to him and not to their mom.
Things have been good and I am thankful for the little break in all the commotion that has consumed our lives as of lately. It's nice to not have so many appointments, meetings, etc. Most people would think our normal everyday lives are extremely busy but weeks like this are great to me. Between all the kids we have around 30 hours of therapy a week, and Monkey Man has baseball once a week. That's alot to most people but to us it's everyday life. It's when there are other appointments and whatnot going on that it gets a little crazy.

Update

Itty Bitty's surgery went very well. His little silver teeth are just cute. When he came out of surgery he was very crabby but once he seen me, he calmed right down. After a bottle he was walking around and playing. No complications or anything and he is eating with those front teeth already. I'm so glad that we had it done and now we can focus on getting him bigger (he is so tiny).
Things here have been a roller coaster. I am so glad that last week is done and the big things are out of the way.
Yesterday Princess and Monster had a visit with their mother and last night wasn't good, again. Everytime they have a visit with their mom, they are up part of the night. With Monster, he starts whining in his sleep and I just go in there rub his back and give him his blanket and right back to sleep he goes. With Princess she is up crying and carrying on until I have her come and cuddle with me on the couch and then I have to make her a bed right by mine before she will go back to sleep. Poor kids. This only started when mom went back to her old boyfriend. I am beginning to think that there was much more going on over there than any of us knew. I don't think they like mom's boyfriend, I don't know what he was doing to them but they do not like him.
I have an appointment with the case workers this week and will let them know what is going on. I can only hope that they will not send the children back to that situation. I know they were talking about doing unsupervised visit's but hope they change their mind.
Other than that, things have been going good. The children are starting to settle down and are becoming accustome to how things are done (like bed time routine, etc). Hopefully we will know soon if Princess and Monster will be here for a while, cause if so than we need to find a different place. This one is ok but is pretty small for all the kids.

Surgery

Itty Bitty is in surgery right now to put caps on his front 4 teeth. Poor baby has been in surgery for an hour and a half aready and it looks like it is going to be atleast another half an hour. Stupid teeth, enamal didn't form correctly and now he has to go through all of this. So here I sit worried/scared out of my mind and all I can do is wait. I never had a child go through surgery before and honestly don't know what to expect. I post more later when we get home and he is settled.

The appointment

So I took Monster in for his autism eval today. It went well but at the end I found out it will take 3-4 weeks before we get the results. UGH!!!!! I asked the evaluator for her honest opinion and she told me that she was leaning towards pdd-nos. She said that she seen a lot of signs of autism but wasn't sure if he would fit all 6 criteria that is needed for an autism diagnosis but he fit into atleast 4-5 criteria so that's why she said pdd-nos. But she had to talk with the psychologist to see what he said then they would send me the results.
I am not a patient person when it comes to this kind of thing. I want to know now and hate that I have to wait atleast another month to get the answers. My sister (the good one) kept the other 3 while I took Monster to his appointment. When we returned she said she doesn't know how I do it. She was going crazy after only 3 hours. That actually felt good to hear.