kirstencan

Bummer

Here's a quote from the latest post on the Utah Autism Coalition website:

"SB55 was substituted this morning with a bill that appropriates more money to the pilot program created last year and increases the age cap from age 5 to age 7. Insurance coverage for autism in Utah will not happen this year."

I'm bummed about this.  It seemed like the last time a major bill was introduced that Autism Speaks supported and had people rally behind it too was switched out - to one that was not as good and Autism Speaks pulled their support.  I'm afraid that dissenters + people not really paying attention just kinda go 'We DID pass SOMETHING for Autism, that's good, right?' and then the thing we really need to happen just takes longer.  It's not good enough.

Insurance coverage for autism in Utah will not happen this year

Well, maybe this year we got one step closer, but it NEEDS to happen, folks!  Preferably while my autistic child is still a child!  We can do so much for these kids, and NOT just the ones who are under age 7.

Utahns - Action Needed!

I emailed some family and neighborhood friends about this already, then decided I'd post it here, too.  If you live in Utah, there is a bill coming up in the Senate that is important and personal to me:  it is State Bill 55, which would require insurance companies to cover kids with autism and provide treatment that now is not covered.

Yeah, it's a bill is personal to me.  If you know me, you know a family affected by autism, but chances are, you know many more.  Utah has the highest rates of Autism, yet we're one of the states that doesn't require insurance to cover treatment.  Lame!

Autism is expensive.  Speech therapy, occupational therapy, psychologists/psychiatrists, private lessons etc.  We recently took the redhead to an autism specialist who recommended a course of treatment that would cost us $48,000 a year.

Can you afford that?  We sure can't.  We are trying to trim the plan and asking second opinions.  He's ten, so he isn't 'early intervention', but are there therapies and things we can do to help him learn/make his life better?  Absolutely.

I'm not just talking 'autism treatments' either, I'm talking ANY medical care.  Did you know that some insurances won't cover kids with autism for ANYTHING?  Like well-child visits, illnesses, injuries.  So some families are in deep, and praying their kid stays healthy.

Uncool.

It's not a way you think that autism could affect your family, but it even effects our career choices.  We would love to someday start our own company.  But we can't, because our son probably wouldn't be covered if we had to buy our own insurance.  So we're still working for the man. 

We've been talking a lot the past year about whether or not we will be moving.  Besides looking at states with better air quality (we'd love to be rid of Utah's horrible air) we have also been checking states for autism insurance laws (and homeschool laws - why is moving so complicated?).  I hope this bill passes and gives us another reason to stay.

So anyway, I urge you to take a second and email your senator.  Here's a link with a form and prewritten letter (feel free to personalize/write your own):  click here.  Do it now, it may come up for debate VERY soon.

It's important, and it just takes a minute.  Let's make Utah more awesome.

Thank you!

 

Fetch with Ruff Ruffman Party!

Well, here's a photo overload for ya!  Because I know there are other quirky awesome kids out there who love the Fetch show, too, and let me tell you, there are VERY FEW Fetch Birthday party ideas floating around the interwebs.  Weird but true. ;)

The redhead chose a Fetch theme months ago.  He's been stoked about it.  Fetch is a pretty cool show, I have to admit.

Anyway, here we go:

Invites:  I modified the Fetch Club invitation (lots of printables somewhere on here) to turn it into a birthday invitation, also adding the bunting Ruff is holding to make it more festive, and the number 10.  Oh, and taking out corporate sponsors on the bottom. ;)  Because they didn't pay for the party.

Also from the print shop (I don't have a color printer, so I emailed some PDF's to a local print shop and had them print on white cardstock.  Then I swung by and picked everything up - easy!) were these certificates, also modified from printables you can get from PBS.

If you look closely you can see what I did (click to see it bigger)

And I printed a couple pages of cropped Ruff heads and attacked them with my circle punch.  We'll come back to these.

Other decor/projects:  a door sign,

some fun foamboard cut-outs (yes, I like cut-outs and this one seemed appropriate.  I painted these while watching election night coverage - funny, last presidential election I was making these invites for his Star Wars party!),

I covered an oatmeal box with orange duct tape,

and of course, made some of these:

which turned into these happy guys (hee!) with some circles!

Speaking of circles...

This easy peasy garland was done with baker's twine, washi tape and the cardstock circles (and if anyone is in need of one of these, I could be persuaded to give it away). It is about 6 ft long.

Um, I kinda love this (the photo's a bit bright, you can't see all the detail on the sign, but oh well).  The blue streamers are to represent the blue siding in Ruff's garage Studio G.

Watching Fetch as guests are about to arrive:

(Our couch isn't always placed that awkwardly, we moved it to create a bigger open area.  Which was very smart.)

See the orange shirt?  It's this year's birthday shirt:  10 dog bones (stamped with a cookie cutter and fabric paint) for a newly 10 year old

We got these lanyards (ordered CHEAP on ebay) on the boys quickly before this happened:

But they chilled out a bit to do an activity page (also from the Fetch website).

BTW, I didn't plan on repeating the lanyard thing (Lego party), but they had a printable name tag on the PBS website that was too good not to use.  Plus, it's kinda fun to have something for the kids to wear that's not a party hat (or a tshirt, which would be more $$).

Then the kids were divided into two teams and given their first challenge (I made up some story about Ruff wanting to build a tower onto his doghouse, so he wanted them to try and make something tall with materials found... in the mailbox (oatmeal box)!  GO FETCH!


Inside the mailbox were marshmallows and toothpicks (we love this).

They could work individually, in pairs, or however they wanted, but the winning tower got extra points for their team.  Star stickers were given out for the backs of their tags, but we weren't consistent at this.

Next up:  a challenge to make the slowest paper airplane (again, I made up a little two-second story and the paper was in the mailbox).

They had a few minutes to build and test and modify, and then we had them compete a few at a time to see who won.  Our crazy-high ceilings came in handy!

Next up:  target shooting with nerf guns.  My husband hung up paper plates from the ceiling in the playroom (I wrote numbers on them and drew cats on a few of them - because Ruff doesn't like cats) and they had to add up the points they got for their team.  Everyone got six shots, and my daughter was busy reloading guns while my husband kept score.  This part got a little crazy, it would have been better with a smaller group! ;)  And I took no shots during this section, but you can see the plates here (and the cluttered not-Apartment-Therapy-worthy-anymore playroom! ;)

After this we did a Half-Time Quiz Show!  Each team was asked five questions.  They varied between questions about what we'd done at the party, questions about the birthday boy, and questions about the Fetch show.  BTW, this is about when we stopped keeping score for the teams and no one noticed or cared.

Then it was time for cake!

(and 'kibble' (cocoa puffs), skittles, soda, and chips - wow, junk!) 

Because I'd glazed cookies the day before, I didn't feel like FULLY making a frosting mess again the next day by making a Ruff cake.  So the wonky cake has 3 dog bone cookies stuck in it and skittles around the edges.  Done and done.

I broke out some of my precious Heather Ross fabric as a little table runner.  Orange AND dogs!  Perfect!

I had a couple more activities planned (make a costume for a stuffed animal out of paper and building with index cards) but we ran out of time so we opened presents next, the boys hung out, and then they got their 'doggy treats' and certificates.

The treats were sugar cookies and more 'kibble'.  I really like giving cookies as favors instead of plastic junk.  I glazed the dog bone cookies and ... well, maybe I'll get it right the third time around (Monkey's party will be in April!  I kinda hope he picks a Lego theme, because we already know what to do! ;)

Then, when I'd kicked all the guests out, we all took a deep breath and vegged on the couch for a while while the boys went through the loot pile.

And from an autism standpoint:

He did awesome.

I was a little worried, because, while I haven't written about this here, the redhead has NOT had a great year.  Especially post-fire.  But we are in the midst of changing some things up and trying new treatments, so hopefully things will start looking up.  ANYWAY, being around a million (11 guests + a brother) boys sounded too hard.  But he really wanted to invite a lot of boys, plus our street has a million boys on it and they all play together, so it's hard to draw the line. PLUS, his next party will be in two years... and who knows what the social situation will be then.  Maybe there won't even be a friend party.  So let's live it up this year, I say!  It was LOUD and he didn't love that.  He didn't fully participate in all the activities, but he loved  having his friends over - he was so happy.  He LOVED when they sang to him, and made a nice little 'toast-like' speech afterwards.  He was ready for them to go, but after an hour or so break, he went right outside where most of them were playing in the snow.  Boys are funny.

The Redhead is 10

Today is a family holiday, as all birthdays are, so I thought I'd pop in here for a public declaration of awesomeness.

He's ten.  The redhead.  Crazy crazy stuff.  He was still 3 when I started this blog!

While I guess you could say he is our most challenging child, he is also the one that has taught me the most, pushed and pulled me in directions I didn't know I could go, and made me a better person.

For real.

I see the world differently because of my boy.

I see people differently because of my boy.

He is awesome and I am so grateful he is mine.

Hard sometimes?  Oh yeah.

Do I worry, stress, get frustrated?  Big time.

But overall, he has made me more.

I hope I can be the mom he needs me to be.

My heart breaks regularly for him.

I wish his life was easier.

But when he is happy it is contagious.

I wish you could hear him belly laugh.

Not everyone sees him as I see him, and that's okay.

The time you meet him might not be a good representation of who he is and can be.

But take my word for it, he rocks.

I love him to pieces.

My heart is full today,

but that's not a horrible thing.

.

(Oh, and his party was on Saturday, ridiculously detailed party post soon. You knew that was coming.)

Speech Stories

You guys, I had to show you this.

I was cleaning out the school boxes (the night before school started, whatever) and was going through what has become the redhead's speech box.  It was full of homework from speech, and stacks of these awesome books.  I had forgotten about them!

A couple of years ago, his speech teacher used to make these books with him, about whatever interested him.  At the time, that was usually Star Trek.  She would print off some coloring pages and they would write them together.

I couldn't just recycle these without at least taking photos!  And then I still couldn't toss them in the bin yet!

The titles get more interesting as you go on...

Of course she made the stories incorporated whatever sounds he was supposed to be working on.

I have no idea where this one came from...

This one shows how Star Wars vs. Star Trek stacks up for us, I think.

This one is one of my favorites.  We must have just watched  Power Puffs episode.

See how in the illustration they are turned into Borg?  HA!

Man, this speech teacher was awesome.  She would really keep Thomas interested and made a lot of progress.  She definitely had some creative skillz and was willing to use them to teach hiim.  And thank goodness she seemed to know Star Trek!  I guess that by the fact that she recognized and could spell Guinan. ;)

Mrs. C, if you're out there, we miss you!

Floored

This kid.

Notice something missing?

Training wheels!

I am in shock.  Seriously.  His training wheels were not touching the ground, and when I pointed this out to Aaron they were quickly removed.  And the kid barely noticed.  He rode off just fine.  Actually, if we weren't cheering for him (and maybe getting a little teary - me) he might have thought this was no big deal.

Big deal!  Woo hoo!  I honestly thought there was a chance he would never 'really' ride a bike.  He has such coordination/balance issues, and hated anything to do with it until last month.  But hey.  He rocks.

And while his sister got a certificate when she learned (SO her), he got to pick cookies to make with Dad.  Chocolate crinkles are tasty.

*Oh, and for anyone with training wheel-aged kids, we LOVE the adjustable ones!  It's what both kids had (this kind - except the girl had stupid pink ones too, after I ran over the original good ones), and you can just slowly move the wheels up and when you take them off they are good to go.  No running with them or holding on to their bike at all!  So we've moved the 'good' training wheels to Monkey's bike.  He's nearly ready, too!

Super Proud

So proud of Thomas yesterday.  That boy.

You know my kids haven't come naturally to bike riding.  They're just not that into it.  Last year we did a bike chart where they got stickers for practicing every day, ending with a reward.

Last year the girl took off and now rides her bike every day. She's going to have a dance stretch/exercise chart this summer instead. Monkey had no problems but just isn't into bikes that much.  He'd rather run.

Thomas really struggled.  He wouldn't ride unless I was 'holding on' (just touching his back) and would count the number of times around the circle and stop exactly when he was done.  By the end of last summer I was proud that he'd do a quarter of our little circle without me holding on.  But that was it.  And once he got his prize, he would ride his scooter, but he didn't ride his bike again. 

Until yesterday, when I broke out the bike charts again.

He didn't want to do it.

Fine, I said, but you can't open your prize until you do.

He still didn't want to.  Until he did.

He asked me if he could just do one lap today.  I agreed and promised I wouldn't let go.  Baby steps to start.

After his one lap he stopped.  And asked his sister and brother to come race him.

What?!

He took off by himself (slowly) and went a few more times around the circle.

Actually, like a trillion times.

More bikes came out - all the neighbor kids had bikes, trikes, or scooters in the circle, and he loved it.  Once when he got stuck in a crack and I helped him out of it: Don't hold on, Mom!

Seriously?  What happened?

Something clicked yesterday, and I'm SO proud of him!  I think he might actually learn without training wheels at some point.  I wasn't sure, honestly.  I was thinking of getting him a gyrowheel this year, but they're so expensive and this year will be the last one he fits this bike (why isn't there a booming used market for gyrowheels?).

He rode for like an hour.  By the end he was picking up speed. I was shocked.  When we had to take his sister to dance, he tried to talk me into letting him stay and keep riding.  Sorry, bud.

When we got home he came inside for a few minutes, but when Aaron got home he wanted to race his dad and rode until dinner.

Which he scarfed, and then rode some more.  Those legs were pumping.

This morning he woke me up at 6:03am (he's not supposed to get up until 7:00) fully dressed (yesterday's outfit), glasses and shoes on, and asking if he can go ride his bike.

Holy cow!  I'm still so surprised.  This kid just does things on his own schedule.  But when he wants to do something, nothing can stop him.

And I love his red hair sticking out of his helmet (which I know isn't on right - I picked my battles yesterday).

Go buddy!

Sometimes

Sometimes when you homeschool, you can't find exactly what you'd like to use for history that day.  Like a little printable plague book.  Or a coloring page of an illuminated manuscript.

So during taekwondo, you make your own. 

Using this as inspiration (the boys liked this book).  Wondering why you're going to this much trouble, as your fine-motor delayed boy will just color the whole thing one color.

Sometimes when you homeschool, you are surprised, and he rocks it.

Yeah, just a coloring page, but he was SO careful with this one, and I was way impressed by the number of colors he used!

Yay for surprises!

Basketball

We are nearing the end of my second season coaching the young women's basketball team at church.

It's been kinda awesome.  But not in the way I expected.

Not that I was dreading it or anything, I love basketball, and coaching is so much more fun than coaching volleyball, which I do in the fall.

I guess I wasn't prepared to learn so much? 

I don't know.

First off, I didn't have to take the kiddos to practice with me this year.  Last year, that was HARD.  This year it was easier to run better practices.  I even made them run a suicide (once) just so if I ever run into my high school coach, Ms. Lawson, I could tell her I did.  Oh, how we hated the suicide.

Thomas has LOVED coming to games.  He's never done that before.  I couldn't coach and keep track of him at the same time.  But this year it turned out that I had to take him to the first game.  We got there early, during the game before us.  He was really into watching it at first, but HATED the buzzer.  Hated in such a way that only sensory-sensitive kiddos can.  He was shaking and wouldn't uncover his ears.

Darn it.  I called Aaron to tell him to swing by ASAP (after picking up the girl from dance - logistics lately has been crazy) to pick him up, making mental backup plans if he wasn't here soon enough (so-and-so can take him to walk the halls).

BUT, Thomas surprised me.  As soon as my girls started showing up, he did a 180.  He greeted them all, and told them to put on their uniform, showing them where the uniform bag was.  He was so excited for them.  When we met with the other team to do the pre-game theme and prayer, he tried to say the theme, too. He sat with the team and cheered "Go Mermaids!!!  Go go go!" Then he sat with our neighbor who runs the officials' table.  He brought his beloved puppy Slush and showed everyone.

When Aaron came to get him... he didn't want to leave!  I was so proud of him.  He overcame his sensory stuff because he was motivated to be with the people he likes.  That's kinda awesome.

Each game, he insisted on going.  The second game he started asking for his own uniform.  He volunteered to give the theme many times (he wasn't taken up on that, but said it with everyone as best he could).  He cheered.  The girls loved him and called him their mascot.  When we huddled, he huddled.  He gave them excellent advice like 'Don't get hurt!' and 'We need to win the game!' that they thought was awesome.  Once he did a funky dance for everyone in the huddle and made them laugh. He asked me several times 'When do I get to go in?'.  The girls took the bench farther from the buzzer and closer to the official's table every game - for him - even though they prefer the other bench.

One game he had a hard time.  He didn't want to go home, but wouldn't stay by me.  Luckily, I knew there were enough people from the neighborhood there who would keep an eye on him.  It takes a village, right?  At one time out, he ran off into the hall, and a couple of my girls who were on the bench just called out 'Got him!' and went to bring him back.  Up until that time I had been thinking how good this was for him, to socialize and all, but then I realized it was also good for the girls.  And how much more did I love those girls when they loved my son?  I now have a new perspective on this scripture.

The girls lost a game.  "Why?  Why did the white team win?"  He was so sad.  When I told this to the girls, they were more motivated to win the next game.

Before the last stake game, he wanted to warm up with the girls.  He doesn't really have the coordination yet.  He has trouble throwing and catching, and wanted to dribble, but couldn't figure it out.  I think we'll be working on this a lot come summer.  But he was glad to get out on the court with the team.

We lost that game.  He cried.  The girls were so concerned for him.  We got to tell him how we still get to go to the tournament.  Now he's excited every Thursday in case it's game day.  And he tells everyone how 'we' are going to a tournament. 

I also wasn't expecting this to be my last season coaching, as I have now been called to be in the Primary presidency (over teaching the children).  I still get to coach them at the regional tournament, but then I'm done.  So I made sure to make the girls cute valentines:

Cookies (that look green, ironically) that said 'Go blue' and 'U R Awesome' packaged in cello bags.

Love that boy.  Love those girls!  What a great time I've had, and how much I have learned! 

Dog Days

Our neighbors got a puppy. 

A teeny tiny puppy.

I was torn between: "Oh, great, now our kids will really want a dog" and "Thanks, now we don't have to get one, they'll play with yours."

And play they did.

Especially Thomas.  He is such a dog kiddo.  We go on walks around the neighborhood and he'll usually find a dog to visit.  We are lucky to know nearly everyone in our neighborhood, so it's easy.  He used to love stopping at a huge german shepherd's house.  He's not scared of any dogs, even if they're HUGE or jump.

Anyway, Thomas talked of two things all week:  the new puppy, and the dog at swimming lessons who will jump into the pool.

He knocked on the puppy's door wanting to play, and frequently got to. 

He learned to smack his lips or pat his lap to call the puppy, who didn't know his name yet.  He got nipped by the very excited puppy and didn't mind. He went for a 'walk' (where the owner's kid carried the puppy) with him and came out in his pj's to play first thing in the morning.

True puppy love.

After one week, the family sold the puppy.

Their son told my boys during church right before Sacrament meeting.  They came in saying 'Cody's gone?'  and I knew this would be bad.  Monkey sat next to me, blinking his eyes really fast with a lip quiver.  Thomas started crying louder, so I took him out to the foyer.

It took half an hour to calm him down.  He was completely heartbroken.  He was sobbing and sobbing and asking 'Why did they sell him?' and 'Where did he go?'  and saying 'My heart is broken' and 'I don't like dogs anymore'.  He was also very concerned about he puppy's safety at his new place: 'Robbers will come!' and 'There will be a fire!'

One of those times where I wanted to cry with him, but I also wanted to laugh.

I reminded him of the other dogs* on the street that he loves to play with and the swimming dog.  The former owner was in the foyer too, so he was trying to answer the 'why' question and tell about the puppy's new big brother dog, and someone walking by us stopped to tell him to come visit her dog.

The rest of the day was a nightmare.  Tantrum city.  That continued Monday.  Tuesday was better, but not good.  Finally he calmed down.  I really think he was grieving.

It kinda sucked.

I have frequently felt guilty about not getting this kid a dog.  Because he LOVES dogs and because supposedly it's good for spectrum kiddos.  But I just can't do it.  Up till now I don't know if Thomas was ready, but mostly I just can't handle that on top of everything else. Also, I hate touching animals, and going down the pet aisle at the grocery store makes me want to gag.  I am the farthest thing from a dog person.

I wish I could, that puppy was adorable.  And for the first time I'm saying 'Maybe someday'.

*We visited the best and most favorite dog on our street the other day and the owner told me that poor Bailey has cancer.  Great.  I think I need to prepare Thomas for this one so it doesn't come as a shock.  Poor kid.