The latest in paradise...

Just an update on a few things... Trevor is doing really good with potty training. He's still working on the communicating when he needs to pee, and holding it, and he hasn't pooped on the potty yet, but overall I think he's doing pretty good! He seems to have somewhat of an allergy or something with milk. So we're trying rice milk and so far it has helped a lot. No more diarrhea! (At least when I remember I can't give him milk - seems so simple to remember but somehow I forget every once in a while...) He's also talking a lot more - complete sentences most of the time, like "I don't want to go potty" or "I don't want to hug." (Can you tell we've hit the terrible two's?!) Moving on... Jaylen's appointment with the psychiatrist went good... at least I think it did. He (Dr Harle) will be sending us a letter with his impressions, and he agreed that Jaylen seeing Dr Zinner (the autism specialist) is a good idea. That appointment is coming up in July, so we shall see what that brings.
Jaylen has been going to VBS here in Sumas this week and is having a lot of fun. The singing was a bit rough for him at first (couple songs where the kids shout really loud), but he seems to have adapted and actually likes it now.
Tomorrow is Sumas Community Days, so we'll have a fun day going to the parade and the park with lots of fun activities for the kids, and then a great fireworks show tomorrow night.
I'll be flying solo with the kids next week starting Wednesday while Geoff takes a motorcycle trip with his dad for a few days. It should be fun... We might keep Geoff's mom company for a bit - she just had a knee replacement on Monday and will spend most of the summer recovering.
That's all for now, I'll be posting some pictures and hopefully a video if I can get it to work. :)

Tip of the day...

Make sure you check a pull-up for poop BEFORE pulling it down to take the child potty... you could end up with poop on the bathroom floor... at McDonalds. Yuck.

Just a few pictures...

Here's Trevor with his cousin Jessica, in their cute camping chairs, at Silver Lake

Jaylen in my Curious George apron, helping me bake...

The boys in their Easter suits... (nice look, Jaylen!)

And taking a bath! (This was a bath that Daddy gave them; for some reason,

the baths Mommy give just aren't quite as fun :)

Back home...

After a great time in sunny Arizona, I am back home! I flew in on Wednesday and Geoff and the boys met me at the airport with a balloon and flowers! It was so good to see them again - I missed them all so much. I wondered what Jaylen would do when he saw me... When he first saw me, he started to say, "But I don't want you to come home yet." But then he gave me a big hug and seemed excited to see me... Trevor was too. He was all smiles to see me again. :)

I had a lot of fun with Wendy and the kids... Samantha gave me the silent treatment the first day and a half, but once she got used to me we had a great time together. It was fun to play with a little girl - so different then my rough-and-tumble boys. I took the kids to Burger King and the park to feed the ducks one night, and Zion especially loved that. We got to swim at Wendy's in-laws' place (Zion loves it - that kid is like a fish!), go to the zoo, do a little shopping... but no baby yet. My mom is down there now to help out, hopefully the baby will be here soon - before she leaves!

It's good to be back in my own home now... Jaylen got me right back into the swing of things last night. He was having such a meltdown he ended up going to bed at 7:20 (VERY early for him!) with no dinner. Then spent another half hour crying in his bed. Whew! Was I glad he slept the whole night and woke up in a good mood!

Zion with his fly at Burger King, and me with Samantha at Bass Pro Shop...

Leaving... on a jet-plane

Tomorrow is the day! I'm heading to Arizona tomorrow to visit my sister and hopefully-soon-to-arrive niece or nephew... Unfortunately, we found out a couple of weeks ago that Jaylen's preschool program is the same day and time that I need to be at the airport. So Geoff is going to bring me to my sister-in-law's place so she can bring me to the airport and Geoff and the boys can go to the program (and my mom will be there too). Lucky for me, we've had some 80 and 90 degree weather here, so I'm getting in shape for the Arizona heat! It'll be hard being away from the boys for a week, but I think it will be good bonding time for them with Geoff. And it'll be really fun to hang out with my sister and her family. I even get to have a massage there on Thursday! Thank you, Wendy's friend! :)

Update on potty training.... Trevor is doing REALLY well! I've been surprised at how good it has gone so far. He needs to learn how to hold it still, and also to poop on the potty, but I think we've made great progress!

Jaylen is done with school - Friday was his last day. I think he's happy to be done, but I'm guessing he'll miss the time of playing with the kids there. Good thing we live in a great neighborhood with lots of kids his age - he loves playing outside and riding bikes with the other kids. I think he would live outside if he could. Yesterday at my mom's house he was outside literally all day - starting before breakfast!

Well, I am off to finish cleaning the house, doing the laundry, packing, and everything else I need to do before tomorrow morning!

update...

Today we started potty training Trevor... put the cute little undies on and away we went. He's peeing on the potty pretty good, he just needs a little time to figure out the holding part of it. He did end up pooping in his underwear (which, I'm sure you don't want to know, but looked really funny) but overall, not a bad first day potty training.

Our bathroom is almost done - we've had a few minor setbacks. The only thing that needs to happen yet is the patch on the drywall by the sink. Geoff was trying to attach the new towel holder to the wall and ended up hitting conduit, then found out most of that wall has a metal plate on the other side of the drywall. Anyhow - ended up with a few holes really close that now need to be patched. But - I will have before and after pictures soon. I love how much better it looks! (I guess anything would have been a major improvement, but I really like it!)

Cinco de mayo...

I was just thinking about the fact that today is May 5th. Exactly one year ago we found out that Jaylen (probably) has Aspergers. We had gone camping the weekend before with my family, and I remember trying to not think about the fact that we were going to find out the results of all of Jaylen's testing on Monday. I wanted things to just keep going the way they were, to be unaware of any problems he might have. I was already figuring they were going to tell us our son had autism, and who wants to hear that? Jaylen was improving, talking better, becoming more social. Surely he was just coming out of his shell, right? Maybe we can pretend a little longer that nothing is wrong... Well, Monday came and Geoff and I took the boys to the school to meet with the psychologist, speech therapist, and special ed preschool teacher. I remember going over charts and graphs and talking over some of the results, and then the psychologist looking a little nervously at me as he was about to drop the A-bomb. But it was Aspergers, not autism. I kind of knew a little about aspergers, but not a whole lot - mostly that it was similar to autism, but very high-functioning autism. I was a little teary-eyed, but in a way, I was actually kind of relieved. Now we knew what we were dealing with and we could start doing just that - dealing with it.

I was a little afraid of Jaylen having a "label" because I was afraid he wouldn't be pushed and challenged; after all, he's an incredibly smart little kid. But the more I thought about it, I realized that a label would not change Jaylen. He is who he is and God made him who he is. Knowing what Jaylen's challenges are would help us understand how to be better parents for him and what services he would need to help him.

Jaylen was enrolled in preschool to start in September, and I had mixed feelings. I was hoping it would be good for him, but didn't really think it would make much of a difference. Was I really ready to put my 3 year old on a bus and send him off to strangers? I had no clue how big of an impact his being in preschool was going to make. Jaylen has come so far, in his behavior, his speech, his social skills, really overall it has made a huge difference. This is not to say we don't still have our challenges, trust me, we do! But he's making so much progress! And as I said earlier, he's one smart kid. He basically taught himself to read, and can now pick up a kids book he's never seen and start reading it with little help. I think math will be a strong point for him too. Counting and adding just come natural to him!

So here we are, a year after first discovering our son (probably) has Aspergers. Tomorrow morning a nurse is coming from the health department for a home visit with me and Jaylen. We're starting the process to have Jaylen officially diagnosed. In July, we will have an appointment in Bellingham with Dr Zinner from Seattle - he works at Children's Hospital and the University of Washington. I kinda have this "here we go again" feeling, like what will we find out this time? I've heard so many stories of kids being evaluated by different doctors and getting different stories from each one. I'm praying this whole process will go smoothly and we'll be able to get a clear diagnosis. But once again, I'm reminded that Jaylen is who he is, and no diagnosis will change that. We love this little (big) guy and nothing will change that either!