Tuesday 31 May 2011

Socks...

Yes that is right SOCKS! Socks can derail a perfectly going morning.
 Why you ask?
They hide! They are like magic and disappear!
I have bought more darn socks. I would hate to add up just how much money I have spent on socks!
Oh sure I have bought a ton of socks but do the kids have any socks? NO!
Come to think of it I don't even have any socks... my daughters steal them...then POOF... gone! (To be fair I have also been known to steal their socks in an emergency)
In the morning they are nowhere to to be found, especially when someone is late for the bus!
Oh sure I wash socks, lots of them (6 kids=lots of socks!). There are tons of socks in Mt. Laundry. Socks make it into the washing machine no problem.
The problem is that socks aren't individuals they only work in pairs!
 Ahhhh the pairs...
There is a huge bin of lonely socks looking for their soul mate but alas they are still lonely and single.
I have even gotten the kids to play match maker and have had mass sock sorting parties. The kids competing to see who can find the most pairs! (announcing a sock sorting party illicits loud groans just to warn you.)
But sigh...there are still lonely socks waiting and waiting for a match.
I even threw out a bin of lonely socks and started over fresh and bought all new pairs of socks...but guess what..
yep you guessed it..the lonely socks are back and the kids have none.
So today I am going on a sock hunt and hoping the wandering socks find their way back to their mate...
If not I am buying everyone sandals and forgetting about the socks until fall!

Thursday 26 May 2011

A whole person...

This particular post is being written because I am a raving lunatic and mad at the moment. This said I am not sure how much sense I am going to make!
My kids arn't just Learning disabled, ADD, ADHD, auditory processing disorder, autistic, aspergers, dyslexic, discalculate, dysgraphic, language delayed, sensory, have a visual spacial disorder and quite a few others I can't even remember right now. They are Kaitlyn, Kelsey, Daniel, Alexandra (also known as Ali), Braeden and of course Colton.
Colton often says things like it is, no filter just straight out with it. Sometimes it comes across as being rude but it usually isn't it's just Colton stating it how it is. Well sometimes this gets him in trouble, so this mom gets a phone call to discuss his behaviour...
 The next most frequent discussion is he can't focus, well I know it and hell even he knows it! He will say straight out, I can't focus, I just can't do it.
One day he wasn't focusing and he told who he was working with that he just couldn't do it, he just can't focus. I guess they made the mistake and asked him why. Well my boy told them... he just looked right at her and just stated plain as day "Because I have autism!". I got a phone call but I was a bad parent and I laughed. Well he does have autism, it wasn't news to me. My oldest daughter laughed also, and said "well now they know" *L*.  I guess it sounded like he was making excuses for not doing what he was supposed to be doing. He wasn't making an excuse he was asked why he couldn't focus and he told them *LOL*
However today he told me that focusing is hard and he just can't do it because his focusing chip is broken..Mmmmm guess he is a robot now!
I just don't want phone calls or notes about the bad things. I know I need to be aware of them but I want to and need to hear about the CAN do's and the great things!
My kids are whole being not just what ever disability they have.
 Never underestimate perseverance and hard work no matter the road blocks, or diagnosis. My kids have proven this over and over again, I am so proud.
Look always at the whole, and you will see a remarkable human being who will surprise you and bring you joy and much love, no matter how rough the road. :)

Ali's drawing of the gang... Daniel, Braeden, Colton, Ali, Kaitlyn and Kelsey. :)

Sunday 22 May 2011

Dance like no one is watching...

Dance like no one is watching and they will stop and look. My crazy daughters Ali 15 and Kelsey 18 figured it out.
When I say crazy they are. My two girls decided they wanted to wait in the car while I ran into Best Buy to pick up a movie. Now you would think that leaving a 15 year old and an 18 year old out side for a few minutes would be ok. Well apparently it's not...
I was in the store for a few minutes bought the movie and came out to a bopping, bouncing, blaring Jeep.
There Ali was in the front, Kelsey in the back, the front windows down and blaring out of the Jeep was Mika, Big Girls you are Beautiful. (apparently before that Lollypop and Grace Kelly was eminating from the vehicle).
From where I was standing, with my jaw dropping to the ground, you could see Ali whipping her head around, waving her arms frantically back and forth and bouncing up and down in her seat (bouncing and flailing enough to make the Jeep rock violently).
People were actually stopping and starring. Ali was either oblivious or having a hoot that people were stopping, jaws dropping and staring. She was having a blast and definately doing it on purpose!
In Kelsey's defence the back windows were rolled up and you couldn't really see her back there, she is 5 ft 5 but Ali was out there bobbing as if there was no one else in the world (and quite visible, she is 6ft 2!)
When I got to the car there was Kelsey howing and laughing so hard in the back she couldn't breath or talk and there was Ali still rocking out having the time of her life.
By this time people were now staring at me and of course I was howling by this time at the sight of my daughters. Ali told me, on the drive home after I asked her what the hell they were doing, that the more people stared and the more extreme the reaction (some guy couldn't even get in his car because he was staring at her with a very strange look on his face) the harder she danced and flailed in her seat. I should have known! *L*
My girls are totally awesome, definately entertaining and know how to give me a laugh when I most need one!! They sure know how to have a good time!

A couple of pictures of two of my crazy ladies from a family trip to Niagara (Colton is also in the bottom shot, loving his sisters being silly!)



Saturday 21 May 2011

Today my heart melted...

My heart melted when I saw the picture that my daughter Ali drew. She drew a picture of her and Colton and posted it to facebook with the caption " For my youngest brother Colton, I love you with all my heart".
She so gets him, it's an amazing relationship that they share. It melts my heart.

Friday 20 May 2011

Another birthday has come and gone...

Well now I am old, well only by another year but still old.  Well ok, old to my kids that is.
I had a great birthday, my oldest and I went out for dinner and a show (We saw the Trans-Siberian Orchestra) a drink, and a full nights sleep in a hotel.
 When I say full nights sleep I mean actual sleeping without one ear open. At home I sleep perpetually with one ear open listening for Colton going down stairs in the middle of the night or going in the fridge or just generally getting into things. At 9 you wouldn't think this would be an issue but it is.
I just love it when I can go away to sleep and wake up feeling like I actually slept! However, it would probably take years of full night sleeps to get even close to catching up! Then of course I come home and my stess level goes through the roof and all that relaxing goes right out the window *LOL*.
This past year has been crazy dealing with... School issues, sensory issues, autism issues, Ali's ankle injury,  going back and forth to up where my husband is, one finishing college, getting the paper work done to get another one started and just plain getting stuff done and keeping the house from caving in has been insane.
Looking back has been great but I am now looking ahead at all the crazy stuff to come...
Unless the world ends tomorrow... and it that case it will have all been awesome. 

Wednesday 18 May 2011

The last nerve...

Usually I am the one telling the kids that they are all on my last nerve and jumping all over it. 
What also happens with three kids on the spectrum, all under one roof, is that quite often they are on each others last nerve (and their sisters of course).
The boys each have their own sensory issues and thesholds as to what they find annoying. Quite often what is a huge part of one boys personality is just the thing to make one of the others cringe and be annoyed.
It can be a huge challenge some days to figure out just what is annoying one of them and getting the other one to stop. The problem is, the one who is doing the annoying at the time can't stop because it is apart who they are. This is frustrating for the one who isn't being annoying on purpose and to the one who is now also over stimulated and can't handle it. (Can we say melt down?)
When all is said and done they are all constantly learning to relate, understand and hang out with each other in appropriate ways, and that is never a bad thing.
As for me, my last nerve is shot and very worn out and jumped all over on a daily basis. That said, I wouldn't change a day of my life, it's interesting and always a challenge.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Literal translations...

The world I live in, meaning my abode with my 6 offspring and my sometimes home hubby, is a life of interpretation.
 Quite often the interpretations are not correct, meaning that one person has said something and the other has taken them literealy. This is quite often not a good thing but it often is quite hilarious.
One incident involved my daughter Kelsey. She had finished doing her laundry and folded it quite nicely in a pile. Her mistake was asking her brother to take it up stairs for her and "throw it in her room".
I am sure that those with a child with autism in the house can see where this is going.  So my son went up and well...threw them into her room.
 My daughter was freaking out and my son was like, why?
I was not making the situation any better because I was howling with laughter. It took me awhile before I could speak and ask my daughter to repeat what she asked her brother to do. She said... "All I said was to take my cloths up and..." she stopped and laughed and went up to clean up her cloths.  Her poor brother did exactly what she asked. He not only speaks literally he interprets that way too.
Lesson learned think before you speak or you may have a "cloths incident!"
Life is crazy around here!