Day 17.

S*it.... S*it, s*it, s*it. Just when I get lulled into a false sense of security. Blah. Shame on me for falling asleep. With all of the excitement of Ally's birthday party yesterday, Joey getting back from boy scout camp soaked with lots of wet, muddy clothes and gear, and finishing up our taxes, I was pretty much spent tonight. I had gone into our bedroom and turned the iron on to iron for a little while... I laid down on the bed while the iron heated up, next thing I know it's an hour and a half later and my husband (who had also not been near the monitor for an hour), walked out in the hallway and his poop detector nose was beeping. I know I should be grateful it 'wasn't too bad'. But somehow tonight as I was scrubbing it, and scrubbing it off of her hands (it took 20 minutes for me to get them clean. seriously.), I just wasn't mustering up that grateful feeling. When I changed her sheets I had noticed that one of her little pillow shams that my aunt had embroidered a pretty pink princess on, was covered. It was like Vicki decided to color her dress and change it from pink to brown. Insert stupid line here... well, at least she colored and stayed in the lines really well. :(  I have to be able to crack a smile at something, right? Now that I am awake again, and up for a while doing laundry... let's change the subject...

Let me tell you about a couple good things. I was super proud of Vicki this morning. We had a meeting with the director of religious education at our church about Vicki receiving the sacrament of Holy Communion. It was something different for Vicki to do, out of the ordinary. I always hold my breath before we get her out of the van. If she doesn't want to go, she'll push the lock down on the door and start yelling. Today she jumped right out and started skipping. :)  Skipping is always a good sign.

It always helps when someone who is trying to assess something sees what/who they are trying to assess. I wasn't sure how things would go, we've had some difficulties and stumbling blocks in the past. I'm excited and very nervous with what came out of today's meeting. She's going to be receiving First Holy Communion with the whole class in a few weeks! At first they wanted to just have a stranger sit with Vicki during the mass, but we were able to convince them that that's not in the church's or Vicki's best interest for a whole multitude of reasons. So we'll be sitting with her. One of the things that Vicki, and anybody else who is receiving communion must be able to do is demonstrate her understanding of transubstantiation, whereby you believe that the bread and wine becomes the body and blood of Christ. I am thinking of doing this in pictures for Vicki. Showing a host by itself with an equals sign and showing the host again. Then, showing a host + her symbol for church and have it equal Jesus. I'm not sure how else to do it.  And what we are going to do over the next few weeks is practice having her walk, folding her hands in prayer, saying amen, sticking her tongue out, chewing and swallowing, making the sign of the cross and walking back to her seat. This is just like anything else we have to teach Vicki. Separate it into small steps. Imitate. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Today they tried it with mini saltine crackers. Vicki got excited. With some imitation and practice, she did it. And she liked this kind of practice. She kept saying, 'more crackers'. :P  Then they switched to an unconsecrated host. Good thing we did. On the tongue it went, and in the hand it went. Spit. Yuck. So... our next step is to find some kind of crackers that have a similar type of flavor and consistency as the wafer. We went to the store after we left, and again, Vicki did great. We found a few types of crackers in the international food aisle that might do the trick, as long as there is no salt on them. The one thing that came to my mind is a type of candy... I remember I used to get it during life guard's break at our hometown pool when I was younger... They looked like flying saucers and inside there were little balls that looked like nerd candy. The flying saucer itself reminded me a little of the texture, kind of like styrofoam. I don't know where I would find those now, our hometown poo has long since closed down.  Anyway... I am very hopeful that all will go well. It should be a beautiful, blessed day. I already got a dress for her... I knew Vic wouldn't be able to wear the little communion dresses that the girls wear. For one, she is head and shoulders taller than the girls and also much more developed. Plus, I knew that the tulle under some of the dresses would be distracting and itchy for her. So I found a cute little dress and a sweater to go over it. I am thinking of making her veil, because I know what kind of material, if any, we could get her to wear. I don't want anything big or distracting to her... We may end up with just a ribbon tied in her hair with a little princess tiara we got at the bippity bobpity boutique at Disney two years ago. I hope everything goes well that day and we can get her to sit through mass, and go through the communion line. I am nervous about her receiving it with the whole communion class, but I am also looking forward to her being part of the group. Here's hoping that having our families in town too will not be too overwhelming for Vicki. I'm cautiously optomistic that she will like all of the attention focused on her, like she did last year at her dance recital.
Matthew 19:14
Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these."

The rest of today Vicki  was very whiny. Come to think of it, so were my other kids. I wish I were not invited to their 'come down from an exciting, tiring weekend swaree whine fest.' That makes me think of wine fests that I'd rather be at. :P  Anyway, you know how your kids each have their own unique whine style, as do I, I'm sure!!  You probably know mine by now. :P  Vicki's whine style tends to  intensify everyone else's whining. Including mine. Vicki has taken to random high pitched whiny noises. And not just every once in a while. It's every 3-5 seconds for, say, for 3 hours at a time. It can kind of get on your last nerve. I try lots of different tactics. Redirection. Telling her to use her words. Giving her choices. But sometimes, you just want to whine. And that was today.

We did go to track practice today, the weather was beautiful after all of the rain we had this weekend. She seemed happy to be running and feeling the wind on her face. She did great running the first 50 yd sprint. The next one, was more of a 50 yd daddy tugging Vicki along for the ride sprint. :)  She even tried the high jump today. She kind of ran up to the bar, stopped, looked at it, and the proceded to put one leg over it and then the other. Not sure if high jump is her thing. She didn't want to do it a second time. :)  We also went to the playground this evening and her walk/run around the perimeter must have been a highlight for Vic. She mentioned it at bedtime. She said, 'Playground. Walking. Trees.' And then smiled and said, 'and the water'. And my husband laughed. He said she almost made it into a gigantic puddle. Had that been me and my lightening fast reflexes with her, she would have. :P