I had planned on writing a post tonight that was a little thought provoking for me... but, I chickened out when I sat down at the computer just now. I have a little bit too much on my mind tonight. And, thankfully, a lot of what's on my mind does not have to deal with autism. Tonight anyway...
I am scurrying around trying to finish up 99 different things. For some reason I wrote 99 because that sounds so much better than 100. But now I am singing 99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer. And that makes me thirsty. Not for beer; I am not a beer drinker. But for, what else, coffee. Be right back. ;) Much better. There is nothing better than a hot cup of coffee at midnight with that flavored Italian sweet cream coffee mate.
Stupid to-do-lists. Tax preparation. Blech. You would think some year that it wouldn't surprise me when tax day rolls around. You would think I would try to prepare a bit more ahead of time. Especially since this weekend is going to be crazy busy. But, nope. I like procrastination. I like doing things under pressure. Speaking of that... I tend not to sleep much during the month of April. It's amazing to me how writing a blog for a month can really cut into my productivity. Or more precisely, my productive sleep time. Remember the other day when I was talking about getting Vicki ready in the mornings? How I said that I wake her up at 7:30? Well, I looked at my clock yesterday and it said 7:42. It's amazing to me how quickly I started thinking about worst case scenarios... I ran downstairs and did Vicki's schedule for the day and quickly went in to get her. But usually, when I am short on time, Vicki seems to sense that... I guess it's pretty hard not to sense me all frazzled. :) So, I had to make a legitimate effort NOT to seem rushed, so that in the end we could rush, if that makes sense. Even though I am silently counting the ticks on the clock, I lay down next to her as usual and slowly start talking about her upcoming day. Thankfully, Vicki was agreeable that morning and off we went. In the end, all 3 kids got to school on time, were showered, fed, medicated (wait... that sounds odd) lunches packed (except Vicki, who buys her lunch everyday. She loves making the choices in the lunch line!) and homework in their backpacks. AND, I got the girls to school 5 minutes earlier than usual. Pause for loud clapping and whistling. Woo hoo! Go Mommy. go mommy. go! Maybe I'll have Joey look for a ring tone like that for me. :) Just to feel good. Anyway... that morning solidified the notion that I work much better under pressure. :)
What else am I scurrying around tonight trying to do? Well, the kids don't have school tomorrow and Ally is having her birthday party tomorrow. Her birthday is not until Sunday, but she wants to have a few friends over for her very first birthday sleepover at her house. :) So, I will have 3 girls in addition to my 3 kiddos for the afternoon. Then we are all headed to Chuck E Cheese. Yes, that's me squealing with delight over that one. I love Chuck E Cheese. (Umm... that was sarcasm. ) Chuck E Cheese. Where a kid can be.... super crazy over tokens and tickets that really don't buy you anything besides a tootsie roll and a plastic slinky. But, man, that's the best tootsie roll and plastic slinky my kids have ever seen. :) Can't I just buy them some tickets ? Or better yet, just buy them something at Five Below? Sigh. I'm complaining about it, but I am really excited for Ally. She is over the moon excited and will probably get me out of bed at 5 just to decorate for her party. :)
I haven't really talked a lot this year yet about Joey and Ally and autism. But, as I've said before, their home life is so very different from other kids their age. They don't have a lot of friends come over and play at our house. Sometimes it's just too hard. Plus I love it when they get out of our house and go somewhere else to play and relax and just be a kid. And just leave autism behind for a few hours.
So much of Joey and Ally's life is dictated by what we can and can't do because of autism. They are used to how we always lock our doors and keep our windows shut and locked. They are used to me saying, 'what's Vicki doing?' when I walk out of the living room and do something in the kitchen for a few minutes. They are used to Vicki not sharing the couch with them. They are used to Vicki yelling. There are millions of little things they are used to that they don't even blink an eye at. And although they never say it, I wonder what they think when they do have a friend over? Are they worried about how Vicki will act in front of them? Are they worried their friend will make fun of Vicki? (None ever have... everyone that has been in our house has gone out of their way to say hi to Vicki and talk to her. Not at her. And I think that's amazing.) Are they worried that their friend won't want to come back?
Gosh, yet again, I forget my point. Oh well.
I need to run... because I just realized that number 3 on my to-do list is bake Ally's birthday cake tonight. She wants a butterfly cake. Fun. No really, I love planning parties and decorating cakes. It's a great diversion. And we all need reasons to celebrate. Tonight as Vicki and I were talking about her schedule for tomorrow... I started out by saying there was no school tomorrow. Vicki doesn't like it when there are random no school days. It doesn't make sense to her. Plus she loves Fridays at school because that's library day. New cookbook day. Vicki tends to argue with me... I say no school. She says school. I say no school. She says school. It's fun. But tomorrow right after I said no school I told her we were having Ally's birthday party. And she gave out a super excited Vicki squeal. We all need something to look forward to and celebrate. And that's her sister's birthday party tomorrow. (If you could just say a little prayer that she's still happy about it tomorrow morning and that all goes well... I would appreciate it. Planning and executing a child's birthday party in general, is no small task. Add to that autism, and well... it can be very frightening. Let's hope Chuck E Cheese and a butterfly cake make the day. Fingers crossed.
BTW... I said I was going to start making more Vicki-Did-It lists... here's a few check marks for you:
Even thought we haven't gotten Vicki to go into school without her purple sweatshirt jacket yet, she didn't wear her coat outside for recess the other day, and she left her jacket at home when she went for a walk. Yay Vicki!
And how about this one for on Vicki's-Did-It list... She got nominated to be one of the "words of the month" students... they get their picture up on the front hall wall at school and a quote under their picture as to why they were chosen. Vicki's word was perseverance. "No matter what difficulties she faces every day, she perseveres." Well done Vicki. Well done. I couldn't agree more.
Now it's time to persevere through our day off tomorrow and enjoy the party. xoxo
(PS.. sorry this was such a lame post!)
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