NEED COFFEE!

If you saw me this morning, you would think to yourself, "she needs this"...

And you would be right, I need at least that!
House full of coughing last night, myself included and I am
E-X-H-A-U-S-T-E-D!!!!
I think it is all allergy related because the Hubs has no signs of it and mine and Monkey's has been improving with allergy meds but Peanut refuses to take any medication, except chewable vitamins...hmmm I wonder if there is chewable allergy tabs in his small of a dose...mental note to look into it (that I will soon forget I am sure):) His little cough will serve as a reminder today, oh yeah and every time I think of my level of exhaustion, especially while riding the bike at the gym today...Maybe I should rethink this training schedule and do the bike on Monday, then I may-be more likely to do the spin class because come Friday, after working out all week, I am too chicken to join a spin class that will most likely cause me to drop dead from exhaustion or worse cause me to puke in front of a class full of people, mortifying enough to cause me to drop dead too...ok enough rambling about my exhaustion and I will be back on later to share a recipe and to do some 40 day challenge catch-up blogging...I have been a busy bloggin bee the last couple days, my private family blog was a little behind as well... :)

Over-reacting...as per usual of me!

So Monkey made a comment this morning that his teacher was taking each of the kids out to do special stuff with shaped and colored blocks...so maybe I freaked about that comment in her note too much. It just goes to show how much I lack trust in the public school system, can you blame me with all the stories out there about bad experiences. I want to hear some good experiences; maybe it will restore my faith, a little :) Anyone got some good stories for me?

Public School, Only Three Weeks In...need I say more?

Monkey is now in the Public School Early Intervention Services and I am grateful that we live somewhere that provides that but he has only been going for almost three weeks and I am already having daily anxiety...maybe it is the defensive Mom in me or I have been poisoned by the "water" after reading so many other Moms' struggles with special education in the public school systems. I was thinking I was getting myself all prepared for it by doing the Wrights Law course on Advocating for your special needs child but nothing has prepared me for the emotional rollercoaster I have been on for the last three weeks. I feel like at every turn his teacher is questioning me about his symptoms, and things I have reported him doing versus what she sees in class. I just don't get it, we have had three independent evaluations done and they all came to the same conclusion. He is on the Spectrum, where on the spectrum is still not fully diagnosed, the Doc is leaning towards Asperger’s, the School Board Evaluators said Very High Functioning ASD, with no developmental delays in his intellectual levels and the Florida Center said Sensory Processing Disorder and possible ASD (pending further evaluations from the Neuro Doc, see his conclusion above) Anyway, after all that I now have a teacher that feels like blaming my parenting for his behaviors...huh? Didn't I play the blame game for years, frustrated and confused why Super Nanny's tactics didn't work, researching every possible discipline technic I could find and trying it with no consistent results. It was a nightmare and a confusing nightmare at that. After his diagnosis I terrified but in some ways relieved because I now had an explanation for so many things I had questioned for some many years! So I immediately put him on the gluten free and low dairy diet and saw improvements, then I added some vitamins and dietary supplements and continued to see improvements but the tantrums, fixations, repetitive behaviors, delays in speech, delay in social interactions and sensory problems are still there, just not all to the same degree that they were before. Does that mean he is any less on the spectrum? I make a few diet changes and I see improvements in a few of those areas and suddenly there is cause for questioning the previous diagnosis...isn't the point of these changes to see improvements? My four year old still does not initiate play with his peers or stay engaged with his peers for very long. He has been there for three weeks and for the first two weeks he did not know a single kid's name in his class. Last week he finally came home saying one kid's name because it was his birthday that day. And two days ago he remembered another kid's name because they are riding the bus together. Isn't that delayed for a 4, almost 5 yr. old? The Teacher tells me after two days that she sees no sensory issues, she says she walked around the classroom making loud noises and he had no reaction, well then she should come over to my house when I turn on the vacuum without warning him or during a thunderstorm. Or how about she come over and try to cut his hair or nails for me?! UGH, so infuriating! After having these things brought up on only the second day of school I have lost a lot of trust in her. I feel like she is out to question everything and I find myself questioning all her actions. So my point of this rant is she sent a note home today saying "I had to test with him-not finished yet but doing well" And because I lack trust in her and feel like she is questioning everything I of course jump to conclusions, are you retesting him again? Are you trying to get him out of this early intervention program, is he going to be robbed of the early intervention services he deserves because this teacher decided he doesn't need them? All I know is I have been documenting everything, because I am super paranoid and frustrated with this experience and it has not been all I had hoped for :(

MIA and a Tri

I have been MIA again and I am sorry for that, I have gotten off schedule and had a busy couple months. I will be blogging my 40 day challenge still because I did do it, just didn't get the blogging part done. I now have a new (to me) laptop I got for Mother's Day so I can sit in the living room and blog while my little one plays (yes that was not plural on purpose, Monkey is in school now) SO much to catch up on so much to vent about, I just don't even know where to begin...UGH! That is what I get for not making the time to blog anymore and allowing life to get too busy for me time again. Am I the only one who struggles with this? I get in a groove and then one of the kids gets sick or decides they want to get up earlier and it throws everything off and I am so focused on getting routine back I forget about me (and my blog) :(
I have managed to make workout time again for me since Monkey started school. In fact I am training for a mini tri...call me crazy but I am kind of excited about it!

Mostly cause I am going to look like this by October....HAHAHAHAHAHA! Maybe after several trips to the plastic surgeon :)


Actually in all honesty I really just need some kind of goal to work towards rather than working out just to lose weight. I have been doing that for a year and in some ways I feel better but in others the weight loss has highlighted some very unhappy side effects of pregnancy and made me realize the only way i will ever wear a tight shirt again is with spanks (too hot in FL for that) or a tummy tuck. A bit discouraging since I am not too sure about the idea of plastic surgery. I need to learn to embrace my new "Mommy" body and move on so my new focus is to push this body beyond what I have ever done before in my life. I was going to do a half marathon last March but the training time was too short and so I gave up on it. I felt terrible about giving up but I was SO NERVOUS about running that far without proper training. This Tri is months away so I have plenty of time to prepare and I pretty comfortable with the different legs versus a big long run, running is not really my forte. I am super comfortable with the swim because I was a distance swimmer in High School and the swim is just a half mile...no biggie (lol), the bike ride I am not so comfortable with but I have lots of time to work on that and the run is only a 5k which is short enough that I have complete faith I can pull it off with some good training behind me. SO far my training has been mostly "running" to work on my cardio, but this week I started what I feel will be my training for the rest of the time: Monday-Run/Elliptical, Tuesday-Muscle Works Class (not really part of the training but it is part of my regular workout regimen and I am not ready to let it go yet cause I love it, maybe when we get closer to the tri I will have to give it up to get better prepared) Wednesday-Swim, Thursday-Muscle Works Class, Friday-Bike/Spin Class and hoping to get out for a Bike ride at least once over the weekend, depending on our schedule. I think this will be a good start and after I get back from my trip over the summer I will take it all to the next level for 6 weeks to really be prepared. Oh yes and I am trying to do yoga every night to relax my tired muscles and continue to get some prayer time in every night :)
More to come soon!