The Absent Blogger

It has been quite a while since I posted regularly. Several things have contributed to this. One reason is that I have had an extraordinarily difficult time keeping up with the activity in my daily life. I enrolled two of my sons in a rather demanding homeschool curriculum this past fall. It proved to be very difficult to keep up with while having to continually customize Samuel's school work. In addition to that, last September I became Vice Chairman of our county's Special Education Advisory Committee. Granted, the demands of this position are not very great, but it did involve a monthly meeting, along with a few informal meetings or discussions with other members around that. Also, due to some activity that came up during the year I also served as the committee secretary. A new secretary had to be named and I came to realize that was really the position I wanted to serve in. So, now that's what I do. Again, it isn't all that involved but there is the responsibility of typing meeting minutes each month.

In addition to that, a good predictable bedtime for the kids has become a thing of the past in our household! Bedtime has always been a bit on the late side for our children because of Samuel's natural tendency to stay up late. Well, now his two younger siblings are used to that.. and my youngest has a hard time falling asleep on her own! On top of that, even though Samuel has finally mastered the required skills to change from his clothes to his pajamas, that doesn't always mean he is motivated to do so. I have come up with checklists, etc.. to take care of getting the school work done. Now I have to work on the same thing for the night-time routine! I would love to have my free time in the evening back, at an early enough time that I can stay awake to enjoy it!

Probably one of the biggest reasons for my lack of posting, however, is the advent of Facebook in my life. It is so difficult for me to sit down and write even just a few short paragraphs when I have gotten used to doing posts in two and three sentence blurbs! I went through a Facebook overload when I first joined it over the winter, but now I'm finding that my activity on it has leveled off a bit and I am hoping to post on this blog a little more regularly!

Real Bowling

Our family has gone bowling several times over the years. Two of my sons have had birthday parties at our local alley. That's where Samuel had his eighth birthday party, and spent much of it fighting to get into the arcade room.

We were newly inspired to go bowling as a family again recently by our youngest son, who is currently the family bowling champion on Wii. So this past Sunday we trekked over to the lanes. Samuel and his younger siblings had rails up so their balls would stay out of the gutter. My youngest son got the best score of anyone, thanks to the rails. We were all surprised at how poorly we did compared to our results on Wii, especially my oldest son.

I was so happy that we were able to convince all the kids to stick with the game, even my 3 year old. That was no easy feat, considering that six of us were in the game! Samuel was especially impressive. He stayed with us the entire time, no running away and no attempting to escape to the game room! We gave them a moment to take a look after the arcade afterwards.

There is talk of us going again. I hope we will, it was lots of fun and we could all use a bit of work on our skills; not a one of us scored over 100!

Wii love it!

A Wii game system from Nintendo was one of our family's most popular Christmas gifts this year. Right after gifts had been opened Christmas morning my oldest son set out to create characters for the entire family. They are called "Mii"s (pronounced like "me"). Then he, his father and youngest brother played some of the sports games: tennis and bowling. When it was Samuel's turn he got a bit upset. This wasn't the Wii playing that he was used to. After a few minutes I figured it out; to Samuel "Wii" means "Wii Fit" because that is what he plays while he is at Occupational Therapy. We took out the Wii Sports disc and put in Wii Fit, he was fine after that.

I have been very surprised at Samuel's lack of balance and control while he does some of the exercises on Wii Fit. While exercising, a visual reference showing your center of balance appears on the screen. Samuel's moves all over the place! Players earn points for doing the exercises the correct way, and Samuel's scores are usually very low. Just last week I watched his occupational therapist guide him in these exercises and now Samuel's helpers and I will assist Samuel at home when we can. I think Wii will be a very helpful tool for improving Samuel's coordination and awareness.

As for the rest of the family, we are all enjoying it in different ways. My other two sons have an intense competition going for the top scores in the games and exercises. They really like the video games. My youngest son can beat everyone in the family in Wii bowling! He does this crazy twirling motion with his arm when he releases the ball! I don't ever recommend standing behind him in a real bowling alley if he tries that move there! My 3 year old daughter has fun on the balancing games in Wii Fit. Her 6 year old brother "helps" her, so she has some of the high scores on those games. I am the yoga champion for right now, but some of that is because I am the only one doing those exercises! I think I still hold the record score in the hula hoop games as well. The step aerobic exercises are the funniest to watch the kids do. All of them but Samuel will line up in the family room and follow along with whoever is actually using the Wii board at the time. The boys have the record scores in that.

We're all enjoying our new Wii game system very much!

"Can I Help?"

My husband and the boys worked on putting up our tree a few nights ago. Samuel usually gets quite excited when we pull out all the Christmas decorations, but he tends to stay on the periphery of activity. I was cleaning up in the kitchen when I heard Samuel ask my husband, "Can I help?" I was so happy to hear this! He helped for a short while and then was off and running again.

Tonight we put ornaments on the tree. He hung around the living room while the other children and I did the work. As each ornament was pulled out we had some commentary to go along with it; who had made it or who gave it to us, when we got it, etc.. I had shown Samuel an ornament he had made at school and was just about to hang it up when he said, "Wait, let me hang it!"

Samuel has his own way of participating in our family's Christmas activities, but he definitely participates! He seems to tolerate differences in our yearly activities as well. Last year we hardly decorated the house at all since we went up to Maine for Christmas. This year we waited a long time to get the decorations out. No complaints so far!

Thanks for the comments and good wishes everyone! The fun here is continuing so I just have to give an update! This morning (Christmas Eve morning) I had to call Santa on emergency speed dial from my cell phone. This was for the benefit of my youngest son. Samuel was horrified, "Oh no, Santa! We're doomed!" was his comment. On our way up to Occupational Therapy in the car he gleefully told me, "Hey Mommy, this is Christmas Eve; Santa comes tonight!" Samuel has never expressed so much interest in Santa verbally so this is great fun!

More Challenges and I'm Overwhelmed!

Life with Samuel has been a bit of a wild ride lately! He started private Occupational Therapy services earlier this summer and I told his therapist that he was having 2 or 3 behavioral outbursts per month. Beginning about 3 weeks ago this number seemed to go up so I started keeping a log of his outbursts and the frequency had increased to more like 2 to 3 PER WEEK. In fact, this past week he had an outburst almost every day.


I'm carefully looking at our daily schedule to determine how we might be able to get things done without the outbursts. Among the culprits I blame this increase on are a change in routine as the summer ended and school was started up and my husband's and oldest son's frequent travelling for racing. At the recommendation of our occupational therapist I am trying to work more sensory activities into Samuel's schedule. They are so easy for me to overlook or brush aside as I try to get things done.

Another challenge we are facing with Samuel is the using of some very bad expletives. I strongly suspect he picked them up from watching things on You Tube, so I'm severely limiting his time on the computer and try to stay in the vicinity as he is on it so I can monitor what he is watching. He knows exactly what I'm doing and doesn't like it one bit! I'm considering moving the computer down to our family room, where it can be monitored more easily than up in my out-of-the-way office.

I am in over my head with keeping up with school work for three children. One thing I like about the new curriculum materials I am using is that I am given lots of guidance in constructing lessons. Samuel has actually had some fun doing his math work with some manipulatives, and my youngest son seems to be getting a lot more out of our time together when I have some kind of lesson planned. I'm just having a hard time adjusting to the amount of time I'm having to put in to the lesson preparation.

Samuel will be participating in a Challenger Soccer league (a league for those with special needs and different abilities) beginning in a few weeks. We would be going this week, but he has an EEG scheduled, for which he'll have to be put under general anesthesia. I have no idea how on earth he'll be able to tolerate the wearing of all the electrodes once he comes out of the anesthesia. He'll be monitored for 23 hours! I'm already talking to him about what is coming up, and am stashing away all kinds of special goodies and activities (like DVDs and videos - what else?!) Any ideas for preparing him, anyone?

Two yahoo groups I belong to have been embroiled in some very nasty discussions lately. It's very disheartening, why do people get so opinionated and so intolerant of each other!? I find I have to just let go of these kinds of things so that I can focus more on what really matters - taking care of my own children's needs!

I have greatly missed posting and visiting all my usual "blog friends," but I suspect it will be a while before I can return to it the way that I'd really like to.

Happy Thanksgiving!

To those in the U.S., I hope you are having a wonderful Thanksgiving! If you're not in the U.S., well then I hope you're having a wonderful day as well! Samuel's Godfather (who joins us for most holidays) is with us. We tried going to mass this morning. Samuel was scripting an episode from "Rugrats" that included Reptar making monster noises, so we weren't able to stay in church for very long.

I had the kids make these wreaths so they could be mindful of what they are thankful for. My eldest is the one thankful for his go-kart; Samuel is the one thankful for National Geographic (he has several of their videos from the library right now); my youngest boy is grateful for his TEDDY bears; and I figured my little girl is probably thankful for her new baby doll, which she asks for every bedtime and nap time.

After the kids made their wreaths they got to play with shaving cream on the table. It has been a while since they have done this so they had a good old time!

Maine Vacation - Midcoast Region

The third day after leaving home we arrived at the cottage we would be renting for a week. It is in New Harbor, Maine, and we rented it from L. Dewey Chase Real Estate. We stayed in a cottage called "4 Stars." You can look it up at this website: rentals.ldchase.com/rental.list.php We used this same real estate company four years ago to rent a different house and were happy with them. The house we rented then would be too small for us now. This time we were a closer distance to Pemaquid Beach, a place we have come to enjoy over the years. We could walk to this beach by crossing a path in an empty lot across the street from us. We had to walk over some big rocks to get there. I had a hard time with that since I had to carry the baby. I was amazed how easily Samuel was able to walk over them!

Samuel absolutely loved the beach. I think he was in sensory heaven! He liked playing in the sand and walking in the COLD water. It was a bit too cold to wade, but there were a few hardy souls that were doing so, and swimming! We spent lots of time at Pemaquid Beach. Each time we went Samuel explored a little more. One time he and I walked to the opposite end of the beach and explored some rocks. He liked wading and sitting in the sun-warmed pools left behind at low tide. By the end of our week there, Samuel was picking up the seaweed and checking it out!

Here are some more highlights of our week. One cloudy day we went over to Boothbay Harbor, about a 30 minute drive from where we stayed. It is a charming town that has a lot of quaint boutiques and antique shops. This time we only had lunch there, no browsing in shops like we did on our honeymoon! On our way home we stopped at a miniature golf course and my husband took all three boys. Baby girl and I wandered around the rest of the property and browsed through a sea shell museum. The owner of the golf course runs the course during the summer and then lives in Florida for the winter.

We were very fortunate to have the opportunity to take a family ride on the water. Our good friends who live in the area have a son who works at a marina near Falmouth, Maine. We were able to take a catamaran ride thanks to him and his friend who owns it. I was a little apprehensive about all of us being on the water, but felt better once I saw the kids would have life jackets to wear. I thought Samuel might enjoy wearing it, thinking it might be like a weighted vest, but he wanted nothing to do with it. We kept a harness on him instead. My oldest son got to stear the catamaran, which he greatly enjoyed!

On our last day of vacation we went to Pemaquid Point Lighthouse, down at one of the southernmost points of the peninsula we stayed on. We honeymooned at an Inn that was within walking distance of this. On another visit (the one where Samuel kept waking up at daybreak - 4am!!!!) we had dinner in the house right next to the lighthouse. Some people we knew at the time were renting an apartment on the second floor. They had been living there for 15 years (would you ever give up an apartment like that?)! There are some amazing rock formations and cliffs in the surrounding area. My husband and oldest son walked on them while the rest of us explored the park area.

The godparents of our two youngest children live in this area. We saw them every day that we were there. We used to see more of their sons, but they are all grown up now and have moved away. Our last evening they had a pot-luck dinner for us at their house and invited other people we have met over the years. It was great fun, though (as often happens) I did get a little overwhelmed as the evening went on with whiny demanding kids, mosquitoes, and a husband caught up in conversation with other adults!

Other information about the area we visited.. locals and tourists enjoy a local treat, The Lobster Roll (pronounced "lobstah"!!!). It can vary a little, but it is basically a hot dog roll with lobster meat (I've had it where the meat is mixed up with mayo, like tuna salad). The going rate for one on this trip was about $17! We did not partake this time. One of the towns we passed through in Maine as we headed north, Wiscasset, had people lining up for them!

One of the northernmost towns on the peninsula we stay on is called Damariscotta. It is quite picturesque. During our stay we experienced its main street, including the sidwalk, being repaved. It made traffic through the town heavy, but fortunately there were ways to get around it. The paving was completed our last day there, just in time for the area's tourist season, which always gets under way the week of the 4th of July.

We were very sad to leave our cottage as well as our friends and the area. We hope to be able to return next year. My trips to Maine have always been enjoyable no matter what stage of baby and toddler I have to deal with, but I sure do look forward to the day when I can experience these things with children that are a bit more independent!

All photos are from Flickr.com. Pemaquid Beach pictures taken by MaineMama. First picture is of the NW (I think!) end of the beach and second photo is of the SE end of the beach, if I have my directions correct. We walked on a path through the area with the trees in the second photo to get to the beach. Picture of the seaweed was taken by Thallium. Boothbay Harbor picture taken by Harry390. Picture on the water taken by denjes3, near Falmouth, Maine. We sailed on the catamaran near here. Pemaquid Point Lighthouse picture taken by eva8. Red's Eats picture taken by Madame Pocklock. Lobster Roll picture taken by wendalicious (this is a lobster roll from Red's Eats). Damariscotta scene picture taken by GTOfan. Downtown Damariscotta picture taken by Wildhorses.

Maine Vacation, The First Few Days

We left for our vacation early on a Thursday evening. We drove for about 5 hours up Interstate 81 through Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania and then we stayed overnight in Port Jervis, just over the border into New York. We didn't stop until we got there! We were able to do this thanks to bringing along sandwiches to eat for dinner, a box full of little toys to keep the kids entertained, and the availability of oldies music on the radio, which my kids love. I think the time of day we were travelling helped as well; I suspect this long of a drive would not have worked had we tried it first thing in the morning.

The only source of frustration for Samuel on this leg of the trip was that he had great difficulty in trying to see the sun set. We were driving through mountains so by the time he thought of looking at it, it was below the horizon of the mountain tops. When we left the mountainous area we had tall trees to contend with. The setting sun was a gorgeous orange ball that evening, but you could only see it when a quick opening came up between the trees. Samuel started crying and said "I want to leave tree land!"

We stayed that evening at a Comfort Inn right along the interstate. Samuel was quite happy, he loves staying at these kinds of places. He talked about it the rest of our trip. I asked him today what his favorite part of our vacation was and he answered "Staying at the Comfront (how he pronounces it!) Inn."

The next morning our family of six invaded the breakfast room at the motel and then got on the road for a roughly six hour drive to Freeport, Maine. We traditionally stop at the roadside liquor store in the narrow stretch of New Hampshire that we drive through (New Hampshire either has a low sales tax, or maybe even no sales tax, on liquor). While we were here Samuel said hello to several people that we saw. He did this quite frequently on our trip and would then ask "Where are you from?" On this occasion the woman he spoke to told him she was from Cambodia! People are surprised to get a "Hi" from him, but everyone he talked to was very friendly.

We ate a late lunch/early dinner at The Jameson Tavern, a place we have frequented just about every trip to Freeport. Samuel got a case of "the sillies" while we were here. This was to be another frequent occurance on our vacation. He started laughing and giggling very loudly. I'm sure this was just a reaction to being cooped up in the car all day. Each time he did this I took him outside for a few minutes (or somehow removed him from what was going on at the time). This time I took him out to the parking lot and had him jump around. I also gave him some "big squeeze" hugs and I had him hold my hands and spun him around a little. We got a few funny looks from passers by, but I'm sure I'd take a look if I saw something like that too.

We stayed that evening at The Harraseeket Inn, a family tradition. My husband and I stayed there on our honeymoon and we have stayed there three other times now. It's quite an adventure each time we go with more children, but it is a very family-friendly place. Samuel remembers his stays here and always looks forward to going back.


While at The Harraseeket we went on a walk along Freeport's main street that has lots of outlet stores. We always stop at the L.L. Bean outlet store. We browsed there a bit and my husband returned solo the next morning to do some clothes shopping. We went in the pool at the Inn several times. Samuel has been afraid of the water on past trips but this time he loved it. It was our baby girl's first experience in the water and she loved it as well.

I neglected to take any pictures while I was on my trip but still want to share some of the images from our trip. I am able to do so thanks to Flickr.com and the following photographers: First two photos: Port Jervis, NY , from Click Click Photography;New Hampshire Liquor Store photos: Red Building from The Cod 72, Road Sign from autumnsan ;Jameson Tavern from kara.brown ;L.L. Bean outlet store from kmf164;Harraseeket Inn photos from marcomazzei and j_dian

This has been a long, taxing week. My head is spinning from all the thought going on about Samuel, his school, finding a good place for him at his school.

I did manage to find out that Samuel's class will not be moving to a "modular classroom" (there are so many different names for these things I have learned!). A story goes along with how I learned this, but I probably shouldn't share it here. I will say that this situation has caused me to wonder if I'm hearing the full truth from school staff and administration. I have heard statements from different people that just don't jive. The bottom line, however, is that Samuel's class won't be in a modular classroom and in spite of the questions I now have about who is saying what, I'll just be happy with that knowledge.

Samuel is enjoying an afternoon outside in our backyard. His younger brother, who turns 5 in a few weeks, has discovered the joys of playing games on the computer. Great, now I have 3 boys who fight over 2 computers! There is also Dad's laptop, but it isn't always available. (If I was my husband I would NEVER let it be available to them!) When my oldest lamented about not having a computer to play on I jokingly told him "Just think, some day you'll tell your grandchildren about how you had to endure the hardship of sharing electronics with your brothers!" He didn't sense my sarcasm.

We all attended a car show that was part of the Apple Blossom Festival up in Winchester, Virginia. We let Samuel know ahead of time that he could not touch the cars and he did terrific! He also did very well walking with my husband and he played nicely at a playground before we left. He fussed a bit when it was time to leave, but I gave him a 2 minute countdown. I had to get him when time was up, but he accepted that and then willingly walked the 3/4 mile back to our car with us. It's great to be able to all go out together like this. It takes a bit of planning and strategizing, but it always does with young children anyways!

My husband and I have decided that we are going to attempt a vacation to our favorite place on Earth.. mid-coast Maine! We went there on our honeymoon, which was the end of May almost 11 years ago. We have returned there many times together, usually the same time of year. As mid-spring approaches now I always start thinking about going back. Our trips there used to mean staying at quaint inns and B&Bs, but not any more (though we may attempt one overnight stay at one of the inns)! We now either stay with friends we have made up there, or we rent a house. We're going to try and rent a charming house we stayed in four years ago. I have not been up there in 3 years, so I'm very very excited at the prospect of returning. Two years ago I was pregnant and last year my husband just took the boys while I stayed home with the baby. I'm not even going to think about the 12 hours of driving up there with a fiery tempered baby girl who hates car rides!

Aahhh..Saturday Morning!

It's 7am and it's quiet in the house. The boys were up pretty late last night, well past 10:00, so I'm almost guaranteed they'll be asleep until 9:00. Baby girl woke up at dawn and I fed her so she should sleep in even later than the boys. I could conceivably have 2 more hours of peace and quiet!

In a moment here I'll be typing up some lessons for Samuel. I received some information from Samuel's teachers about what he is working on in Math and Science. I got some library books yesterday that cover what he is learning in Social Studies (Ancient China and Egypt). I need to get back on track with his Religion lessons. It's good to sit down and feel like I have something to work with! My oldest son has a Science exam to take today. My youngest son is learning to write the upper case letters of the alphabet. I've been printing out pictures from Writing With Symbols that correspond to the particular letter he is working on. It's time to print out more pictures, we've worked up to the letter "O".

Later today we'll be going to the library, something Samuel is eagerly anticipating. Tomorrow we are going to visit some friends who live an hour away. They have 5 children, so with our 4 plus the 4 grownups our visits are quite lively. I expect it could get downright chaotic tomorrow because we will most likely have to stay indoors, rain and snow are forecasted. I am going to type up a social story for our visit to remind Samuel that he should not invade their collection of videos and that he should play where the other children play. The daughter of our friends has a dollhouse that Samuel likes to play with. It's fragile and delicate and my friends have made attempts to hide it and one time he found it. The children of our friends, without them knowing it, are helpful in giving me the hint about what I need to watch for with Samuel. The daughter complained about him getting into it and I wouldn't have known about it if she hadn't said anything.

Time to get to work!

Mobile Chaos!

Baby girl just started walking this past week. She is the latest to walk of my four children, at 16.5 months. She can hear me open the dishwasher door from the other side of the house and she toddles over immediately to "help" me unload it, whether I'm in the process of loading it or unloading it.

The basement playroom is her favorite place in the house. She was motivated to learn to maneuver the stairs so that she could get down there to play. The toy pile on the stairs was a creation of Samuel's. It stayed around for a few days and Samuel wasn't very willing to clean it up.
I watched Oprah's interview today "The Faces of Autism". A few of the families from the "Autism Every Day" video were there. I'm glad there were some hopeful, encouraging comments about living with autism in the family, bit I'm still left with the same impression after watching this as I was after watching the interview on Larry King Live. I don't like how those who are getting media attention are portraying autism. They are very negative and make autism sound like a death sentence, as I've heard others say. As I said before, those of us who do not have this view need to get our voices out there as well.