Glow Golf

I really needed to get out of the house yesterday and was trying to think of something fun to go here. With it being winter and the area we live in, the options are very limited. I was going to attempt taking both kids to see The Princess and the Frog at the discount theater, but Ryan didn't want to see it at all, even though he was laughing while watching the trailer on YouTube. So I nixed that idea. I did not feel like trying to take both of them to Chuck E. Cheese alone, even though Ryan has been bugging to go (and we were just there a couple weeks ago). So I decided we would go to the mall and Ryan could try out the new Glow Golf minuature golf course they put in recently. I figured Brooke would be happy to watch from the stroller and she was. Personally, I think the prices are high ($7/adults, $5/kids ages 5-17, $3 kids ages 4 and under), but I knew Ryan would love it. And it turns out that for some reason yesterday if you paid for one game, you got to play 3 and they didn't have to be in a row. So Ryan played through once and then we went to the food court and got some Wendy's for lunch and then went back and played again. I wasn't that impressed with the course, but Ryan had fun. He was extremely well behaved the whole time we were out, which was a very pleasant surprise :-). Brooke is usually good, especially if there's food involved ;-). I didn't think to take my regular camera, but I did snap a few pictures with my cell.

Brooke had white tights on and her legs were glowing so bright. LOL.

This is probably hard to make out, but every time Brooke saw me taking a picture, she would look up and say "Cheeeeese" and smile. LOL.

Wordless Wednesday - Little Miss Monkey

(Crappy quality cell phone pic.)

Ryan's first team sport

This past Saturday I signed Ryan up for a bumper bowling league that is every Saturday from now until mid-April. Bet you weren't expecting bowling to be the sport ;-). He LOVES bowling and is finally mature enough and patient enough to take turns and wait for his turn, so I thought this would be a good start. Maybe someday we'll try soccer or something (he's really uncoordinated, so this makes me a bit nervous lol.) All I heard from the time he got up Saturday morning until we left was, "Is it 9:30 yet? Is it time to go bowling yet?" LOL.

Let me back up a little bit for a minute. Back in September we took Ryan for an evaluation to try to get him some more services for his PDD diagnosis that he received at the end of July, like a TSS for home and/or school. The first agency we went through really dropped the ball and we ended up switching to a different one at the beginning of last month. We got the approval for home and community right away, but the insurance wasn't wanting to approve it for school. We were going to try to appeal it, but the school has changed their mind and no longer feels Ryan needs one since he is doing SO much better since the start of the school year :-). His TSS is Miss Arlene and she spends 5 hours a week with Ryan (and me). Her typical schedule is Tuesday and Thursday from 3:45 to 5:15 and Saturday 9:00 to 11:00. When I told her I wanted to sign Ryan up for this Saturday mornings, she said if I wanted her to, she could just go along and I told her that was fine with me. I thought it would be a help if Ryan had one of his meltdowns or couldn't handle the stimulation with all the kids and noise because sometimes that can be a problem.

So Saturday morning she got here at 9:00 and we left here at 9:30 to make sure we had time to sign him up and all that before it started at 10:00. Before we left, we talked to him a lot about being polite and waiting his turn and not throwing a fit when it was time to leave. We ended up with about 15 minutes to spare after signing him up while we were waiting for it to start and he did really well with the waiting (NOT one of his strong points). He is used to bowling with those ramps and they don't use those for this, so it was a bit of a learning curve for him to figure out how to get the ball down the lane with some speed behind it lol. But he got it :-). He had a lot of fun and was cheering on the other kids...so cute :-). All was well until he was going up to take his turn on the 9th frame of the 2nd/last game. Miss Arlene and I were talking and the next thing we knew, Ryan was flat on his face and his ball rolling across the floor :-(.

Ryan doesn't even handle someone bumping into him well, let alone falling down on the floor in front of a bunch of people. He was extremely upset and even let me pick him when usually he doesn't want anything to do with anyone in a situation like that. He was screaming and crying and SO mad. He wouldn't take his turn and someone else took it for him, but he did calm down enough to take his last turn, although it just escalated again when he realized it was then time to leave. I had to struggle with him to get his shoes on and then there was NO way he was cooperating to get his coat on. Miss Arlene just scooped him and carried him right out to the van. Luckily it wasn't freezing cold out anymore, but really it wouldn't have mattered anyway because there was no way he was going to calm down while we were inside, so no way he would have gotten his coat on. Once he gets to a certain point, there's no way for him to calm down unless he's removed from the situation. She got him out to the van and somehow buckled in to his booster seat and he finally calmed down. We left there and headed to my in-laws' house where Brooke had spent the night. It was there that I realized he had hurt his right thumb and I almost took him to the ER. It was red and swollen and really bothering him, but he got extremely upset at the idea of going to the hospital. So I let him go for a bit and kept asking him to move it and wiggle it and I pushed all over his hand and the only part that was bothering him was his actual thumb. The more time went by, the easier he could move it without yelling in pain and within an hour he was able to play the Wii so I knew it couldn't be *that bad ;-). LOL. It has gotten better every day since then, but I can't believe we almost had to make an ER trip after his first week! Hopefully no more injuries ;-).

So let's see...

I thought I would try updating on a couple things that I initially wasn't sure I would share. I probably still won't go in to a lot of detail, but here is some of what I haven't really posted about in the last few months.

The kids and I moved out Saturday, September 5th. By the following weekend, their dad was no longer living in the house (which is right next door to his mom and dad's house), either. He ended up moving in with someone in a neighboring town. He then went almost 8 weeks without even calling, texting, or emailing me to ask about the kids, let alone see them. Finally he asked his mom to check with me about seeing them over at their house on Friday, November 6th, so they visited for a few hours. The following evening was my sister's wedding reception and his mom had offered to babysit the kids, so they went there again and I found out he was staying there temporarily. On Sunday, the kids and I all went over to visit. A few days later, he went back to where he'd been staying. He has seen the kids a few more times since then, including Thanksgiving and Christmas, but only that first visit was initiated by him. I receive no texts, phone calls, or emails from him asking about them or anything of that nature. Ryan rarely asks about him and Brooke is too little. Ryan did start to seem be really affected by not seeing him around the end of October and was starting to act out in school (a first for him) and more at home. I can't be sure that was the cause, but it seemed pretty coincidental. He's doing much better now and I am hoping that somehow won't change if there's another extended period without a visit. Anyway, now I am wondering how long it will be until their dad asks to see them again. Right now it's been since Christmas, so 2 weeks today...and counting...without even a text to ask about them....

On a happier note....I am still seeing the guy I mentioned in this post and things are going really, really well :-). His name is Joe and he is a divorced dad of an adorable little boy named Cole who is going to be 4 next month. He is very involved in Cole's life and has him at least half the time and I love that about him. He is an amazing father and he is so great with Ryan and Brooke, as well. We waited a bit before bringing the kids in to the mix to make sure this was something that was going to be long term. We were actually ALL together on New Year's Eve for the first time and it went really well and we had a lot of fun. I think we are all looking forward to more of that :-). Tomorrow Joe is coming out (it's his weekend without Cole) and we're going take Ryan and Brooke bowling or something. It was actually his idea for all of us to go do something rather than just he and I go out while my parents babysat. I think that's pretty awesome ;-).

And with that, I think I've shared enough for tonight :-P. LOL. Goodnight!

Seriously

It can stop snowing any time now! It seems like it's been nonstop for about 2 weeks now. Yes, I know I live in the northeast and yes, I know it snows here in the winter. But last winter was more cold than snow and I guess I got really spoiled. Now we're getting hit with both at once....snow and snow and more snow, plus temps only in the twenties or teens or below. We have all this out there now, freezing temps the rest of the week, and a possible nor'easter on Friday that could bring a foot or more! To be quite frank, it sucks....and yes, this is me complaining about it. Maybe then I'll feel better :-P. Shoveling is getting old. Even though it hasn't been difficult, it's just annoying and it seems like a neverending job lately. This morning I went out and shoveled the sidewalk and half of the driveway before Ryan went to school at 8 and by 10:00 when I went out to do the rest of the sidewalk, I had to redo what I had already shoveled. My back is bothering me a bit today from shoveling all the nasty crap at the end of the driveway from the plow trucks. That driveway where my van (which my brother-in-law has named the Space Shuttle lol) can fit about 5-6 cars, to give you an idea of how big it is. While I obviously only have one vehicle and usually only have one extra car here if someone comes to visit, I still feel like I need to keep the whole thing clear just so it's kept up with. My upstairs neighbors moved out over the weekend, so I'm the only one here right now, though they didn't do much shoveling anyway. My dad has been over to help quite a few times and I really appreciate that! But feel bad at the same time. There was a time when I loved getting snow like this because it usually meant a delay, early dismissal, or school cancelation. But now I am an adult and have to deal with shoveling, driving in it, and dragging two kids around in it. Not so fun or exciting anymore! :-P

Not good at this anymore

Blogging was a lot easier when I had pregnancy updates to post and then NICU updates and I guess before my life really got turned upside down. Now it seems hard to blog about things without including personal things that I don't really feel comfortable putting out there. But at the same time I really don't want to stop blogging. It's such a fine line and I'm having trouble defining what is too much and what is ok to post. So that's why posts have been few and far between. I'd like to change that, but I'm not sure if I can! Does anyone else have this problem??