lessons - really?

I have yet to understand even at my age, why we don't get our life's lessons. Why sometimes there are some people that must get hurt repeatedly & still with no sight as to the problem? It's sad - really

Social skills

Well, today was my son's first real birthday party. I say first one because this is the first time he has passed out his own invitations and invited his own "friends". I hadn't really thought too much on the other times he has had party's but the "friends" were well family or family friends. I am not saying those are less important by any means, but for him to choose or even be able to choose was such a big deal. He had been talking about this party for months. The predicted weather of rain thank God didn't happen. We couldn't have wished for better weather.
I'll start when I can say well patience is so important. First I finalize the date so he can finally pass out invitations. Funny thing .... we are in the car after picking him and his brother up from tutoring at school. I'm driving home and ask about the invitations. He knew he only had 10 because the party was going to be paintball and that is not cheap. I was also worried he wouldn't really know enough "friends" to invite. So I ask him if he passed them out and he naturally responds how he has a lot still cuz his friends had to ask their parents. I'm surprised and tell him you're supposed to give them the invitation. I'm driving and realize "this is a moment" a moment of realization for me that he doesn't know how it works because he has never done it. So I explain to him that he is supposed to give the invitation to his friends so their parents can read the info on the party and then decide. I also throw in the fact that if he needs more invites I will give him more. (I think that was a concern too)
Well the party went awesome. He had an assortment of classmates at the party. It made me beam. You know the kind of group that if at school wouldn't be caught dead together. He had one meltdown probably from all the excitement & getting tired - who knows. Even with that he did fine and his friends knew almost as well as we did how to calm him down. He was so ecstatic about the party the gifts didn't even matter. So when we got home and opened all his gift cards and the dinosaur book from his girlfriend. Yeah I said girlfriend he was on the moon with no landing in site. I was just so happy it went well that now my husband and I are beat.
the party was actually Feb. 20 lol I just forgot to publish!!

Long time Gone

Wow I can't believe it has been so long since I've written on here. I only remember because my middle child just had his 14th birthday and believe it or not he has never really had any party's. He lacked in social skills that he never knew who to invite & then wasn't into all the fuss about it. This year is different. My PDD son has grown this year alot. In all ways possible... he is almost taller than me, he eats like a horse, tries new foods, adjusts to change so much better and is the man of the house all the time. I don't know what I would do without him.
This year the PARTY is paintball. I don't know how or why, but that is the choice. He even had a list of kids wanting to come before February even hit. Well tomorrow is the big day & it was supposed to rain. We've been praying and well the rain may hold out until Sunday! He is so excited and anxious! I've gotten three RSVP's and he passed out 12 invites so hopefully (I know that is wrong) they just didn't RSVP. I hope so much this party works out for him. I'll post pictures as soon as I take them. Well, not as soon because hopefully I will brave it out onto the field.
On a different note, my youngest will be starting his own blog. About the trials and tribulations of middle school. I am hoping it will help him with all of his bullying issues. Those kids sure make it rough for him and I've told him he isn't alone.
Later

the little things that come with Autism

Okay well, here is the story. My daughter and I love these Pepperidge Farm cakes chocolate with chocolate that you keep in the fridge. Oh just writing it I wish we had some. Anyway, my daughter wanted to know if she could serve us the last piece of it. The boys were still out of town so I told her yea, just get it out. So then she shows me this huge piece that is left over and asks if she can have it. I giggle at her and tell her to cut it in half. So my wonderful daughter does, and she shows me that she didn't do a good job and I just assure her that it is fine. Of course if anyone has ever had these cakes the best is the icing when it is cold. Oh man, I am gonna have to go to the store. Anyway, the piece she showed me was missing the icing, but I said nothing. She apparently placed it on the table and went to eat her piece. I hear her yelling no to the do and telling her to get down...our dog likes to wander in the kitchen and clean up what the kids might have dropped. She brings me the cake and I tell her I will be right there. I stop folding laundry and go grab my piece of cake which is now on the kitchen counter. lol I'm sorry I am laughing so hard I can't type. So I see my piece of cake and yea it is missing the icing, but hey it is chocolate cake. So I am in the kitchen eating my cake and we are talking when,... she tells me that she gave me some of her icing on her cake. Well, um I didn't have any icing on my cake. So I ask her what, but there wasn't any. She says well Sadie got it. lol At this point I have just finished the last bite of my cake. She says I took some of my icing and put it on your cake, but Sadie got it. So I am like she ate it off my cake. Her answer, "yea, but she didn't eat all the cake." I couldn't help it I went to laugh and spit cake all over the kitchen. I was like Allison, if she ate the icing she got ahold of my cake. You should have told me I was so irritated. I mean she stood there and let me eat the whole cake, but the child honestly didn't see anything with it. OMG. She ran off to the bathroom and I was just standing in the kitchen. I went to go talk to her and I could hear her in the bathroom - laughing hysterically. She inside and on the outside of the door I am laughing so hard trying not to let her hear me I am crying. I explained to her that if the dog got part of the cake I should not have eaten it. That was like the dog getting all of it. We laughed so hard and swore me to secrecy. She did allow me to tell her brothers when they came home and they laughed so hard in the car. Ah the little moments.
Who cares that it was at my expense? so I ate after the dog *laughing hysterically* it is a page in our story. The shock to my best friend was that she actually just let me eat it. Oh well, I guess I won't want her serving me the cake or make sure I hold the dog. lol
**Good thing she isn't gonna read this**

quality time

So I was working on my computer and my husband was doing an online class. My boys have been waiting for school to end so they could go to my Uncle's in San Antonio. They will be staying for a week and I have been asked about the trip repeatedly since 2 months before school was even going to be out. Tomorrow is the day he is coming to pick them up. Anyhoo, my oldest son looks at me and says can you please get off the computer so we can play a family game. OMG how could any parent resist? So I saved my drafts, shut off the computer and we sat to play a game of UNO!! UNO - a classic, still to this day. I used to love that game when I was a kid, of course it was the new UNO, ummm oh yea UNO ATTACK. lol We just love the fear when we have to hit the button and cards may or may not spew out at us. We got so loud playing, but we were having so much fun. My husband who was still working on his class got annoyed 'cuz we were so loud, but oh well. He just got up and locked himself in the bedroom. We continued to play, switching cards with another player or making them press the darn button until cards shot out at them. The best part of the game is when my daughter used a switch cards with someone and she chose me. I only had three...ugh so close. So my son starts laughing and he says I can't believe you did that I only have two. He precedes to show us all his TWO cards, but fails to realize he is showing us his cards. We are all dying laughing and when he realizes what exactly happened he is oh lets say not as thrilled as he had only a moment ago been. We told him thank you so much for making us laugh. So I get lucky and win round one. We go again and my youngest son says that we are playing this game until he gets to win. Well, this round is lasting at least 25 minutes and my oldest(Chris) apparently changes the color of the cards continuously and we don't know why. So my daughter asking me what she should do has a card where everyone has to push the button until cards spit out. I tell her play it and Chris hears. He looks at me and is so upset because he says he has been trying to put the colors that "Benny" has so he can win. I look at my daughter and she puts down the color requested for him to win - yellow. It was just a game and I believe kids should learn that they won't always win and there are disappointments, but that letting him win wasn't the only reason she decided to play her yellow card. How could we ruin what Chris had been working at for his brother? So unconditionally wanting him to be happy. Guess there are other lessons you learn and teach when playing a game. Sometimes you just want to do something nice to boost someone's confidence & lol then you could just want the game to end already.
I am glad my kids and I got to spend this time together. My daughter is upset they are leaving. She is worried as is in her nature, she is my worrier. Come to think of it I am sick about them leaving too. I have never sent them away in the summer before. I know my boys will look out for eachother they are eachothers best friend I'm just gonna miss them something awful. It will be an experience on all of us. I am praying for a good one!!

Talking autism

Oh the world of autism. I used to feel so alone and limited as to who I could talk to about autism. I wanted ideas, other peoples stories just to know that this is how it goes. That it will be better. Little did I know I would find something called twitter and see advocates @thebucknation,@tannersdad, parents @autismfamily, children with autism @CarlysVoice and even a few celebrities @JennyfromMtv in one common place anytime, anywhere sharing or taking a stand. Encouraging me in their own twitter way that I am not alone as a parent or advocate of awareness for my children. Using the power of technology in the best possible way. All our opinions might not be the same, but that is what leads to other ideas or knowledge. There are many other twitterer parents, advocates, celebrities and even people with autism I'm sure I've left out, but you all have helped me just as much. Thank you!

End of school & Summer

Ah the joys of summer, with no school for a while. As a parent I am truly excited. To spend more time with my kiddos, as they are growing faster than I would like. I would like to say that I have so many things planned for our summer, but well life happens. My transmission on my truck is out so while I am still car shopping we will be homebound for awhile. That doesn't mean we won't have plenty to do. I figure I'll get them to "spring" clean their rooms to start off our summer. Ah, they will be so angry excited. (You do hear the sarcasm right?) But I look at it that if we get that over and done with then we all just got to do upkeep. Oh I'll sell it to them somehow just to make it not seem so awful. We have loads of board games they still like to play as long as I sit down with them. I love that. That still, with one going off to high school & both boys in Jr. high, they would like to spend time with me. I am a lucky, lucky parent. Then we have trips to the pool, tennis matches on Wii, $1 movies on Wednesday(if we can get there) and well, crow that is only the first week. lol My boys are going to my uncles for a week. They are going to go help get the lease ready and shoot their rifles or gun or well I never call them by the correct name. My daughter, my oldest will be staying with me so we can bond a little more before the big jump to high school. She has PDD, and has just started showing different interests, wanting to know about things she didn't care about before and it may be delayed, but I am so thrilled. I haven't picked them up from school yet, but I am sure by later I will be an emotional wreck. I just don't know where all the time has gone. I do know that I promise to try and enjoy every moment of our summer together. :)M