My favorite time of year

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the mild weather so that I can work out in the yard. I love pumpkins. I love the kids going back to school. And as mentioned before, the apples and peaches. However, my ability to work out in the yard this fall has been hampered greatly by S3 and his decided lack of enjoyment of being outside. He's fine if you hold him, but he still hates the grass. Forget about the play pen, it's way too boring. It makes it impossible for me to clean the gutters when a 17 month old wants me to hold him. Plus I can't leave him inside by himself while I do it. Oh, the trials of motherhood!

Yesterday I finally got the front room cleaned up from my file project. Then I wasted no time in getting my fall decor up. Then I got the four loads of clean laundry sorted and folded. Now the laundry needs put away and the kitchen is in dire need of attention. And then there are the other loads of laundry to be washed that were waiting for me to fold the first four loads.

Apart from that I also have to call the school district and see what we need to do to get S1 into the self-contained autism unit at a normal elementary school for part of the day. And we are adjusting his meds to see if we can better control his seizures. If the increase in meds doesn't help we'll have to go in and see the neurologist (who's at the children's hospital) again before switching medications. Fun Fun Fun. Isn't it great that all of this coincides with S3 being at the children's hospital too? Life is a joy. Really it is, I couldn't ask for sweeter or cuter boys. They are so much fun and so bright. Plus they love me tons and love each other too. Their dad is such a hard worker and supportive of all my efforts. The boys just light up and go crazy when he comes home-especially if it is earlier in the evening so they have time to play.

I had a meeting with S1's teacher this last week and he's doing well in school. But it is frustrating to know what goals to set for him since so often it seems as if he's not making progress. However, I continually see growth in him as he masters new skills and finds way to get what he desires. S1 loves fall too and is spending a lot more time outside in the backyard these days. The only problem with this means that he gets dirtier more often and needs more baths-which means more water all over the floor and more laundry. Oh well. At least he is happy.

Now if he'd only STAY asleep

Prior to putting S1 on Melatonin, he would fall asleep at 10:30 pm but wake up and get into our bed sometime between 2 and 4 am. But he would fall right back asleep. Well, now he does the same thing, but half the time he won't fall asleep and thinks it's time to babble and get up and down. So, even though I am enjoying my evenings, the pre-dawn hours are starting to take a toll. I think part of what wakes him up are the movements and sometimes fussing of S3 in the crib. Or sometimes he gets too cold because he's knocked off his blankets. No matter what the cause, it is hard to sleep with him in our bed because even when he sleeps, he rams his head into yours or shoves his feet into your back. Unfortunately right now we are not in the position to give him his own room. Once my sister moves out we should be able to do that. Hopefully then he'll sleep through the night because it will be quieter and even if he doesn't, we'll be able to make it a safe place where he can be "locked" in and be up and play while the rest of us sleep in our beds. We'll see how things go because it might just get to the point before we can give him his own room that I can't deal with it and the doctor will have to give me something to help him stay asleep.

Please Sir, May I Have More Melatonin?

Well, I have certainly been feeling quite a bit better this week. I got pictures hung in my living room that have been ready and waiting for almost a year (however, in order to do this I did have to go and buy a new piece of glass since the kids had cracked the old piece in the large frame-which is part of the reason it has taken so long), kitchen cleaned-pretty much, and the laundry room straightened up. For the last two days I have been having a shredding party getting rid of all the unnecessary paperwork that I have. Basically I hadn't filed anything in the past two years since we moved into this house. It was all in piles down in the laundry room.

Well, since having an autistic child and another who needs major surgery isn't enough my washing machine has decided to leak. Good news is that it only leaks when you use hot or warm water but not when you use the cold water so we aren't stuck wearing totally stinky clothes. Good news also is that the papers are all up on stuff so they didn't get ruined and it didn't leak so much that it got much past the periphery of the washing machine and dryer. Bad news being that it isn't covered under warranty and that the room was such a mess that a repairman couldn't come because he would have no room to work on it! So, this has forced me to "do something" about my piles. Now I have three big black garbage bags full of shredded and discarded paperwork. Hurray! Next I need to actually file the papers that remain. However, the repairman now has plenty of room to work. If any of you are close to me, I'll gladly refer you to my appliance guy-he's great.

Now, here's the best part of my week - I have my evenings back! I'll start at 8:00 pm trying to get the kids ready and in bed. Usually I can get S2 and S3 in bed and asleep by 9:00 pm. S1 on the other hand has to be hog tied and he still won't sleep. After the other two are down I grab S1 and lay down with him. That child won't sleep until 10:30 pm. Well, by the time he falls asleep, Dave has usually fallen asleep and I then have to go straight to bed or I can't get enough rest. So I never get any down time, I am always taking care of someone. Well, it had gotten to the point that I could not deal with it any more. Mentally and emotionally I am exhausted. It's hard to have to physically restrain your child every night for over an hour. Yes we are laying down but it does take exertion to hold him down every time he wants to get up. Anyway, sleep issues are common in kids with autism. Many parents have to "help" their children to sleep with various medications so that all parties may maintain their sanity. So, I finally got over the guilt and called the doctor to find out what I could do since I was at the end of my rope. He suggested Melatonin, which you can buy over the counter and which your body produces on it's own. Basically it is what makes you get sleepy when it gets dark. You can get it at Wal-Mart or most health food stores and it is relatively inexpensive.

Well, I gave it to S1 about 1 1/2 hours before I wanted him to go to bed- and it worked! An hour after he ate it with his dinner (it was a very late dinner) he came to me rubbing his eyes. I felt like the bad witch in a fairy tale, luring him to my bed as I said, "Come here little boy, lay down." I got him into his pajamas and settled into my bed and he was out. And if was just before 9 pm! Tonight I gave it to him a little earlier, since we had dinner earlier, and he was asleep by 8:30 pm. One thing I have noticed though is that he is whinier as he goes to sleep, like he is fighting it where before it was like a switch, one second awake, the next passed out. Since S3 went to bed around 8 pm and S2 was snuggled in my bed watching "Glass Bottom Boat" (an old movie) I had the evening free. It has been so nice to be able to relax and not be on alert to tell if S1 is getting into the sink spraying water every where or traipsing up and down the stairs to fix a video or TV channel. It's nice to feel normal again!

Good thing he's seeing the Plastic Surgeon

It's as if S3 can't wait to go have surgery on his head because in the past week he has banged up his head THREE times!!!

Last Saturday he and S2 were running up and down the hall having a blast. Well, I told S2 to knock it off, which of course he didn't. Instead he pushed past S3 while they were both running and sent S3 pointy forehead first into the corner of the wall. Dave picked him up, since I was cooking dinner or something like that, and thought he was fine except for the line in his head, so he just picked him up. Having experienced this before I would have gone straight for the ice to keep the swelling down. But since Dad had him I just kept cooking, thinking that S3 was fine. A couple seconds later I hear, "Jen- his head is splitting! It was fine two seconds ago." As I come running I see the goose egg that has formed and the line was splitting open and starting to bleed. So I grab the ice to help keep it from getting bigger and hopping it will shrink. Not bad enough for stitches but it will leave a lovely little line, this one is vertical and will go well with the horizontal one he has from when S2 pushed him while they played chase in the living room and he went flying into the edge of the couch (which is wood - except for the cushions of course). Of course he still has the scab.

Then on Tuesday or so S3 was going from the kitchen to the "landing" to go down the stairs. Well, he usually does this very well, until now he'd never done it poorly. This time however he slipped or something, my back was turned since I was putting dishes away, and fell sideways from the kitchen to the landing, hitting his nose on the way down, I believe, since when he got back up his nose was scrapped and bleeding! I picked him up and did my best to try and stop his bleeding nose but he wanted no part of it. I am pretty sure he broke his nose since it is still a bit swollen and black and blue across the bridge, not to mention the lovely vertical scab he's got on his left nostril. He didn't bleed too much and was back to his normal self. His nose did bleed periodically through the day but that was because he wouldn't stop sticking his finger up it! So far it doesn't look crooked but if it is, the plastic surgeon can just fix it when he goes in to reset his eye sockets.

The last incident was today and he ended up bruising left ear. I was sitting on my bed changing S1's diaper getting him ready for school. S3 was lying on the bed watching TV upside down. He decided to roll over to get a better view. But he was too close to the edge and I tried to stop him but S3 was too far away. Since he was at an angle when he rolled off the bed, he hit head first- onto the heating vent/grate that is on the floor! The plastic surgeon has said that he won't need a helmet after surgery but I plan on insisting on one because with the way that this week has gone, S3 is sure to bust a stitch or suffer some other head trauma. Poor kid.

Mr. Independent

Well, my job as far as helping S1 get onto the bus in the mornings has been reduced to simply unlocking the top lock on the door and occasionally helping S1 turn the handle. It used to be I would have to walk behind him to the bus and give them his backpack. But now S1 is such a big boy that he wears his backpack and so I just stand in the door as he goes down the porch steps, across the lawn and steps up into the bus. He's very good about waiting for the bus to stop (he gauges this by the sound the air makes when the brakes release)and then taking off towards the bus. If he goes outside before the bus comes, he will sit and play in the gravel and once it has stopped, he'll stand up and run to the bus door. Good thing S1 likes school!

Update on S3's Surgery

Turns out the neurosurgeon had a conflict on the 18th so his surgery has been postponed until the 27th. I got a fun little brochure in the mail today from the children's hospital on "Pre-Surgery Class". S3 is still too young to go but I may just to see what will be happening that day so I can be prepared. We just have to get a family picture done before the surgery or you can forget seeing an updated picture this next year!

He WANTS to get dressed

Well, S1 certainly is picking up on a lot more these days. We were most impressed last week when, after being in his pajamas all day, S1 started pulling and tugging at his clothes. I asked him if he wanted to change his shirt and he immediately came over for help in getting it off. We got his new shirt on and I continued to fold clothes. He then started pulling at his pants and was fidgeting around. I said, "S1, do you want to wear some pants?" He trucked right on over to me. I said,"Well, I'm busy so you need to take them to daddy and he'll help you." He took the pants from my hands and went straight across the room and handed them to his father! This is the first time he has EVER indicated that he wanted to get completely dressed and followed verbal cues without physical prompts so well. After he was dressed he started in on "Shoes, Shoes". Turns out he wanted to go outside and actually cared about getting dressed first, or finally he realized that it wasn't cool to just go out in a diaper, shoes and a jacket. Either way we were happy and needless to say I took him out for a nice long walk. I still had to have him on the leash though!

And, although my brain is in a fog at the moment and I can't remember specifically what happened, this same type of thing, understanding and compliance with verbal request has happened a couple of times over the past week, making us very proud of S1. Now if we could get him to stop stealing S3's toys and laughing when his brother cries!

All the Gory Details

Okay, this post is for all you technical types that wonder what the surgery is. Here we go. First, the plastic surgeon will cut from ear to ear over the top of S3's head. Then the ps peels his face about half way off. Then the neurosurgeons (ns) cut through his skull, basically cutting his forehead off (over the top round part and across the front above the brows.) The ns then separates the forehead piece from the dura (the leathery covering of the brain). He does this because there is an artery that runs right underneath the bone and sometimes taking the bone off results in a bleeder so he is there to control it. Then the ns hands S3's forehead over to the ps for reconstruction.

Next the ps "resets" S3's eye sockets. I haven't asked yet, because I'm not sure I want to know, what resetting the eye sockets entails. He also does something with the brow so that it all lines up with the reconfigured forehead piece. Then the ps reattaches S3's forehead using plates and screws and such that will dissolve within a year. By that time his bone should have grown back, otherwise they have to go back in and use bone cement to glue the two pieces together since it's really not a good idea to have a floating forehead. Last, and maybe least, the ps folds his face back up over his new forehead and sews him all up. Then off to the PICU.

S3's eyes will swell shut from all the trauma for about two days and he will look like someone beat him up. The external swelling can take two to three months to go down but the internal swelling can take up to six months to all go away. My MIL will be coming to help out while S3 is in the hospital and then my mom will be out to help when S3 first comes home and a couple of weeks as long as I need her. So, there are all the gory details. Feel free to email me if you have questions.

Frankenstein's Monster

That is what S3 will be for Halloween! The Frankenstein Monster, well, that's what he will look like anyway. He is scheduled for surgery on Wednesday, October 18th. So he will be in the hospital at least through the 23rd.

The neurosurgeon that we saw today agreed with the other doctor that S3 should have surgery as he has a rather substantial case of metopic synostosis. Getting the CAT scan this morning was the worst because they had to sedate S3 but they couldn't get a vein. Dave has really small veins that make it hard for people to draw blood on him, mine are huge and it's never a problem for me. But for S3 it took five different tries, once on each arm by the radiology nurse, once again on each arm by the IV technician and finally the third time on his right arm the second IV tech got it. A combination of extra small veins and lots of chubbiness made it hard. They even checked his feet to see if they could find a better vein there but no luck. Needless to say S3 screamed the whole time and was all sweaty from trying to thrash around to get away. He was also none too thrilled with all the cotton balls and band-aids and tape he was then sporting.

The rest of the visit was rather uneventful but involved lots of wait time. In fact part of that time was spent waiting for S3 to wake up. When we went to put him on the board for the CAT Scan he wouldn't let go of me so we had to give him more drugs. Once he was on the board, when the machine turned on and he started to slide back through the ring, he kept trying to look around at everything. So they stopped it and the nurse came in and gave him another drug that kept him from being able to move around. They then did the rest of the scan. As I went to pick him up he was pretty much a limp baby in my arms. We took him back to the sedation recovery room and I put him down in a crib. They hooked him up to a pulse ox monitor and slapped a pressure cuff on his leg. He looked at me and made a few noises and just when you thought he would wake up (the drugs are short acting) he fell asleep. S3 had worn himself out fighting the needles earlier, plus I had gotten him up 1 1/2 hours earlier than normal to get to the hospital on time. He slept for about an hour and when he woke up S3 looked around like, where the am I? He turned his head and saw me and promptly tried to get up. I picked him up and it was just like every other time he gets up from a nap, ready to conquer the day, only a bit hungrier since it was after 10 am and he hadn't had anything to eat yet that morning.

Anyway, we shall enjoy this next month until S3 has to have his forehead removed and reattached. Joy! That ought to make for some exciting scrapbook pages.

I don't have any money.....

While at the Heritage Festival on Saturday, S2 had a ton of fun. After we visited the free activities and he had played at the playground, S2 came back to my booth for a drink. There was a booth across from mine that had prepackaged cotton candy and other treats they were selling. S2 grabbed a bag and brought it over asking if he could have it. I told him no because I hadn't brought any money with me. He put it back and came back over. Soon he wanted to go play and explore again. When he got up to leave again I explained to him that we had done the free activities and that he couldn't just take stuff from vendors tables. If he wanted something he had to ask the person how much it cost or if it was free. If it was free he could have it, otherwise he would have to put it back.

Well, the booth next to mine was selling honey they made and hand made soaps. As S2 walked by he picked up a soap, smelled it, and then asked the man,"Excuse me mister, how much does this soap costs?"

"A dollar-fifty."

"Oh, thank you, but I don't have any money," S2 replied as he hung his head, put the soap back, and started to walk away. The man had been watching S2 and thought he was sweet so he called S2 back to him and gave him a different soap, but the same scent, and said he could have that one for free (it said $1.25 on the tag). S2 came running back to me as quick as lightning saying, "Mom, Mom, look what the man gave me!" I asked him if he had said thank you and he ran back and did so.

On my table I had several jars of jam that I had canned to use as decorations. I told S2 to ask the man if he preferred blackberry or raspberry jam. S2 asked and reported that the man said he liked both. I told S2 that it was very nice of the man to give him the soap but that the man was trying to sell it to make money. I said that since we didn't have any money, that we should at least trade him something. So, since we had the jam I told S2 that he should take the jar of blackberry jam over to the man. This he happily did. Although it wasn't the fairest trade in the world, my jam's worth at least $3 a jar =}, I felt the man should be repaid plus some for his kindness and S2 needed to learn about being fair.

Peaches, Peaches Everywhere

My boys love canned peaches. They go through a 29 oz can in one morning in addition to whatever else they may be eating. There is always room in their tummies for more canned peaches. So, since peach season is upon us, I bought a box. Then my neighbor gave me a box from off of her tree. Then S1's bus driver came by with another box for us. So, even though I had canned my neighbor's peaches and part of the box I bought, I still had tons to can this week.

But it was a busy week. Monday was Labor Day and if you have read my previous blog you know how that turned out. Tuesday was the start of the first full week for S2 in preschool- which he absolutely loves. I also had activity days and I was teaching the girls how to make pillow cases. That lasted all of half an hour before my machine started to act up and I couldn't sew anymore. After half an hour of fiddling with it I sent the girls home. Then after half of them had left I figured it out - my bobbin had been put in the wrong direction. So, I hurried and finished the cases for the two girls who were still there. Then it was home to the boys and making dinner. One of the other girls lives across the street from us so I had her come over that evening to finish hers. Unfortunately she had pinned the wrong side for me to sew and I didn't realize it until I was done sewing that side. She sat and picked it out while I made one for her brother. By the time I was done it was time for her to go home, 8:00 pm, for bed so she took her brother his pillow case and I told her to come over after school on Wednesday and I would help her with hers. I also called the two remaining girls and extended the same offer. Then S2 insists on having a pillow case too so I have to whip one out for him before getting all the monkeys to bed.

Wednesday morning after getting S2 off to preschool I came home and had an appointment with the early intervention unit in our school district. I had called last week to set up an appointment to have S3 evaluated before taking him to see the cranial facial doctor at the children's hospital. Since Metopic Synostosis can cause behavioral and learning disorders and retardation, I wanted to make sure where exactly S3 was developmentally. The pediatrician does a general check but it's not as detailed. Anyway, after the evaluation and interview, it turns out that S3 is only at his age in one area out of six. He's not too far behind, only a month or two, in three areas but he was four or five months behind in a couple of them. I am not overly worried because he is the third child and I do have to deal with S1, so S3 is kind of on his own, on the periphery so to speak. But it could also be the beginning of problems to come if we don't get his forehead fixed.

The rest of the day I spent trying to get the house in some kind of order. S1 didn't have respite so he was home early while I was trying to help the other two girls finish their pillowcases. Boy, is that kid fascinated buy the sewing machine. He just stood there with his hand on top of it grinning. Then he would bend over and stare at the light. I had to sit right there to make sure he didn't get his finger sewed into one of the girl's cases! After they left it was time for dinner. Then I had one more girl who hadn't finished her case so she came over and we got that done. Luckily S1 was downstairs watching a movie so we were able to get done before he noticed.

Thursday morning S3 had his appointment with the cranial facial doctor. So, I got both the older boys off to their respective schools and off we went. Well, the doctor looked at S3 for all of oh, five seconds, and said, yes he does have metopic synostosis. We then talked about ramifications if we left him how he is, about surgery and all that good stuff. He gave me orders for the opthamologist to make sure there wasn't pressure on his optic nerve (which can happen causing vision problems with the disorder) and for a 3-D reconstructive CAT scan to see if he has pressure on his brain yet or not. Then Dr. said we needed to get this done and come back and see him on Tuesday, three days later! That isn't good when it usually takes a few weeks, if not months, to get appointments at the children's hospital. Plus I said, should I call for an appointment time and he said, "No, just come in and tell them that I told you to come." We were able to get the opthamologist taken care of shortly after his appointment but we have to go back on Tuesday for the CAT scan. So we will have the CAT scan at 8:00 am since S3 has to be fasting for the sedation (he has to hold still for 15 minutes). Then we will head over to the Dr.'s clinic after we get done and see how soon we get in. The medical imaging people said that the doctor will be able to access the CAT scan as soon as we are done and if he wants the radiologist to read it on the spot, they will so it's not a problem to have it done the same morning. Plus, I don't know how soon they'll be able to get me in at the clinic.

This all took much longer than I had anticipated so I was grateful that my friend Reta, who had picked S2 up could keep him and get S1 from the bus. As it turns out I got back shortly before the bus did. Plus Reta said she was bringing me dinner since I had to make a ton of calls when I got back to check out insurance and such. It was very nice not to have to worry about cooking. I called to let our parents know what was going on also. By the early evening my eyes were very sore from crying. They also were starting to puff up. David was teaching school all day and then he had the school musical rehearsal and an open house so he didn't get home until almost 9 p.m.

All I have to say is thank goodness for Mary Kay's soothing eye gel! I was sure that when I woke up Friday my eyes would be swelled shut from all my sobbing but Thursday night I put it on my sore, tired and puffy eyes and felt instant relief from the fatigue and went to bed. The next morning my eyes were totally normal!! This does not happen normally, that gel is a miracle.

Friday was a busy day since I had to can one and a half boxes of peaches. The one's from S1's bus driver were absolutely divine. They were so delicious. I had some leftover peaches so I made a cobbler but had to wing it since I couldn't find my recipe. It turned out pretty well except that I forgot to put cinnamon on the top! I also had to work on some stuff for the heritage festival that our town was having. I had to condense twelve pages on how the neighborhoods got their names down to one sheet of paper, front and back, for a tri fold brochure. I also had to make up a quiz/drawing form and re-type the twelve pages since the lady I had gotten them from didn't know how to give them to me electronically and they were full of typing errors. I got copies made and went to buy prizes for the drawing and the foam board for the display. I was up half the night typing. I finally called it quits and figured I would assemble the display boards the next morning, but I slept in so I had to do it while setting up at the festival. Oh, Friday night Dave also told me he had forgotten about play rehearsal so he wouldn't be here to watch the boys! We called all around to find a sitter and finally found one.

Saturday morning I slept in too late and S3 wanted me to hold him or he would just cry and cry. That made it a bit harder to get ready. The sitter came and I finished getting my stuff together and took off to set up. I came back to the house part way through the festival because S2 had a soccer game. I took him to the game and stayed with him. Then I took him back to the festival with me. I checked in at my booth, which was really a self-guided thing that didn't really need me there except to attract people to it so they didn't just wander on by. Everything was fine so I went with S2 to have some fun. We used one of those two man saws to slice a disk of wood off a log and he had something branded into it. Then we went over to the brick making table and stamped a brick. We checked out the teepee. Then we went back over to the table and I let him go to the playground because I could see it from where I sat. We were both glad when it was finally time to go home.

So, it was a very busy, emotional week. I'll let you know what happens on Tuesday and I need to tell you about my little barterer - S2.

Where is the monkey?

Labor Day my husband Dave suggested that we go to the local zoo since we had purchased season passes for S2's birthday. Before you get all concerned about him having to "share" his present, the kid already has all the toys he "needs" and the vast majority of clothes that he needs. He would love to go to the zoo every month. So anyway, Monday morning found us getting ready to go to the zoo. We had decided to rent a double stroller at the zoo but also brought along S1's leash so he couldn't run off. Well, we had traversed one side of the zoo and stopped to have a snack. My aunt had also come with us since we get a free guest. While my aunt Wrae and I were cleaning S3 up, which due to the cheetos was truly a two man job, Dave started to take off with S1 in the stroller. S2 followed after him. Apparently Dave didn't realize this and so once S3 was clean and we caught up to Dave, I asked, "Where's S2?"

Dave, "What do you mean. He was with you."

Me, "No, he went with you."

In this instance we realized that he was gone. It was a very busy day and after checking the snack area we knew he was gone. I stayed put with the other two boys and Dave and Wrae went searching.

Of all the kids to lose I would have thought that we'd lose S1 before S2. Dave managed to track down a security person on a bike and let him know what was going on. It was hard to find someone to help us. How would S2 be able to do it? They all took off and I was waiting. Next thing I know I see a little boy running up the hill towards me, not S2, crying and looking all around. I ask, "Are you looking for your mommy and daddy?" He cries, "Yes" as he speeds by me. I say very nicely, "Wait! Stop! I'll help you. Come here and we will look for them. If you keep running away they won't be able to find you. You need to stay in one place so when them come looking for you they will see you" as I wrap my arm around his quivering little shoulders. He was about five or six years old.

Now remember, I'm doing all of this while S1, who is on the leash, is pulling on one arm-which happens to be the one I am holding onto the stroller with so that it doesn't roll down the hill. It occurs to me that out of all the people at the zoo, why am I the one who stopped to help this boy. Surely someone else wasn't as busy!

Anyway, I asked him where he had last seen his parents and he said they had been over by the penguins. Well, we were standing about twenty feet up the hill from the penguins. I hadn't heard anyone calling for a child so I figured they were still there. As my little group was about to head down to find his parents, Wrae reappeared and I handed S1 and S3 over to her. As we walked down to the penguins I asked the little boys name. He repeated it three times and I never got it right so I asked for his parents names, which he didn't know. As we approached the penguins he said, "My sister's name is Kristen." I was glad he volunteered that information because I would rather yell out "Kristen!" than "Hey! Did anyone lose this little boy?" After calling out to "Kristen" a few times a woman suddenly exclaimed, "There you are!" Since the little boy was happy to see her and went straight to her, I figured it was his mom. She thanked me and I said, "Hey, no problem. My little boy is lost at the moment so I couldn't just let yours wander off!" Then she felt guilty for going to enjoy the zoo while my little guy was lost. I assured her that it was okay but if she spied a blond, four year old boy with a yellow shirt and grey pants, with a certain name, to please take him to the proper authorities.

I got the two boys back from Wrae and she went off looking for S2 again. Then Dave came back and still no luck. Same with the security guard. However this time I gave my cell phone to Dave and let him know that my aunt would call if she found S2. After a while, and another fruitless pass by the security guard, Wrae came walking back by the other path saying that S2 had been found. I was starting to get a little worried because S2 had been missing for almost half an hour. Turns out that when he left the table he headed towards Dave but got caught up in the wave of people and went past him. When S2 couldn't see dad he figured he was up ahead and kept running to "catch up." Eventually he realized that he had missed his dad and back tracked. But he never backtracked enough. S2 went back and forth a couple of times and once he realized how "lost" he was, started to cry. That's when another mom saw him and took him over to the "Beastro" where the worker gave him an ice cream and called security. Shortly after Dave was walking by and saw the other security guard and asked about S2 and they were reunited. He called my phone, got Wrae, and she came to get me. By the time I had gotten up to where S2 was (practically the front of the zoo), his tears and his ice cream were all gone.

Obviously we forgot to have the what to do if you get lost talk BEFORE we went into the zoo, but we had it afterwards for sure! Dave was worn out from circling the zoo three times so we figured we'd take a train ride and then go home. But the train was out of commission for an hour while they fixed their brakes. So, we called it quits and headed home. Now we know to get a leash for S2 also! Just kidding, but we will be a bit more careful and go over the getting lost protocol before going to the zoo again!

Bye Bye Bottle

First of all, I can hardly believe that it is September and my favorite time of year is here - Fall! I love the pumpkins and the cooler weather. Plus my lawn turns green again. And, the kids go back to school. Then there are all the fresh off the tree peaches, yum. Oh, and you can't forget fresh apples. What is not to love? I bought a box of apples and canned 6 1/2 quarts of applesauce. Then I bought a box of peaches and then received another box from a neighbor's tree. So far I have canned (or put up as Grandma Helen would say) 11 quarts of peaches and I still have to do one box. I am actually about to start up again right now and I should get about twelve quarts.

S1 is finally off of the bottle! He still doesn't drink very well or regularly from a normal cup, but if desperate could manage somewhat. S1 is drinking mostly out of sippy cups that have straws built in because I couldn't get him to use any other kind. Then today S3 was using a cup with a spout and S1 took it from him and drank out of it! I guess he's realized that he's bigger than S3 and should be able to at least do the same things as the baby. We have been phasing out the bottle for S1 for some time now. Especially once I noticed he was using it solely for comfort, just holding it (although it still had to be full) and not drinking it unless he was really upset. He still won't tell me when he is thirsty so I have to offer all the time. He tends to drink the most when he gets home from school. We aren't even bringing one to chuch anymore. It is funny to see an almost seven year old chugging from a bottle.

Part of the reason I hadn't tried to wean S1 sooner was that when we had tried it before, he had gotten dehydrated because he wouldn't drink from any other cup or straw. Then I also couldn't figure out how to wean him while the baby was still using a bottle. But luckily S3 is good with a cup and they both have been weaned from the bottle gradually together. S3 is going to bed without one now but he has started cutting molars and will wake up in the middle of the night screaming and the only thing that works to get him back to sleep is a bottle. Prior to the molars he wasn't drinking in the night. So I look forward to those teeth getting in and sleeping through the night again.

Speaking of which, S1 and S3 are asleep but S2 is still cruising around so I need to send him off to dreamland. Dad is off on a "guys night out" so I am the lone enforcer tonight.