Crib to Toddler Bed, part 1

Milestones are giant mountains for us. Dragging Snugglebug to and over a milestone can be a frustrating process. The advice of so many to not worry about a milestone is completely false when you have a neuro-atypical child.

If I had waited for my son to speak and never enrolled him in speech therapy, he would still be squealing, and certainly, not talking and putting two words together. I could go down the list just like this for each and every milestone between birth and now, but that would be monotonous. You can just read past blog postings.

The current milestones are no less mountainous. Moving from a crib to toddler bed has been more than a little frustrating. Potty training has been disastrous thus far. And the transition to summer school was a complete failure.

We attempted moving from crib to toddler bed in the spring. We have one of those awesome convertible cribs and took apart the front portion to turn it into a toddler bed. It was a momentous occasion. I was nervous with his sleep issues, but with him crawling out of the crib, I knew it was time.

I spent every night for the next three weeks battling him to keep him in bed. For three hours every night from 7pm to 10 pm. He would crawl out of bed and come down the hall. I would pick him up and put him back in bed. I followed all of Supernanny's rules. I didn't say a word. No kisses. No hugs. Just back to bed. At 10pm, he would finally fall asleep. And, so would I . . . from complete exhaustion. We would repeat this process at 2 or 3 am for an hour or so.

I was not a happy camper. When my alarm went off at 6am, I had no desire to see dawn break. In fact, I wanted to sleep all day.

I would stumble out of my room, half asleep, and literally trip over my son who would be sleeping somewhere in the floor. We found him sleeping in the kitchen, using the step stool as a pillow, in the hallway outside his room, in the walkway between our room and the kitchen, in the floor of his room next to his bed, and leaning against his doorway of his room (yes, standing but sound asleep).

My Facebook friends found it quite entertaining to see where I would find him each day. I wasn't quite so entertained.

A little research later and I found a store that carried a Crib Tent and new plan was born. After three weeks, I threw in the towel, put the crib back together, and put a crib tent over the top. He was trapped, and I could get some sleep.

This story would be continued but at a later date...

Blessings In Disguise, Part 1

We all know the adage about viewing a glass as either half full or half empty. The jest of the adage is that we can see what is front of us as a blessing or as curse.

A recent glass half full blessing was presented to me as I suffered from a horrible asthma attack. My floors took revenge on me and after scrubbing every nook and cranny, the fumes overwhelmed me and I couldn't breathe. My husband took me to the doctor where I was given a steroid shot, a breathing treatment and a chest x-ray. The doctor scratched his head not really understanding why I had such a sudden reaction when I've never had such a reaction.

Later, I saw my primary car physician and discussed it all at length with her. I had 24 hours to think about it. Being a holiday, the first doctor was at the fantastic CareNow facility. As I sat with my doctor, I outlined breathing issues that I have had my entire life and that as a rule I stay away from strong chemicals. She concluded that I have had asthma my entire life but never had an issue because I learned my triggers and stayed away from them.

She sent me home with a nebulizer and breathing treatments. And I spent the rest of the week and part of the next laying around the house, watching TV and napping when Snugglebug napped.

I could easily view this is a glass half empty and moan and groan about my new diagnosis of asthma, but instead I see it as a blessing in disguise. I would have never known that I had asthma and needed to be especially careful in certain situations if I had not had this asthma attack. I, now, have an inhaler in my purse and know the symptoms of an asthma attack and when to use the inhaler. Interestingly enough, I have had these symptoms in the past, especially around cigarette smoke but the situation always corrected itself after I removed myself from the carcinogen.

I've also never been able to run or jog because I would start wheezing and coughing. This was always so disappointing because I was told this was my fault for not breathing correctly. Really! I didn't realize one needed to take a class to learn how to breathe. I thought it was automatic. Either you did or you didn't! Nevertheless, I took the blame. Now, I know the problem wasn't my lack of understanding of breathing but asthma. And, now, I can treat it.

On my bucket list is a half marathon. With this new diagnosis, I believe I actually have a shot at being able to breathe for the entire 13 miles, not to mention all the miles involved in training.

One of Many Differences Between Boys and Girls

Snugglebug snuck out of bed after I tucked him in and loaded his bed up with his favorite Matchbox cars. I believe I would not be wrong in saying that girls sleep with their stuffed animals and baby dolls, but boys sleep with their cars and trucks.

The Economy: A Layman's Perspective

While the news media, politicians, and the President are telling us the economy is improving, I'm having a difficult time seeing it from where I am sitting in the great state of Texas. Allow me to explain from my position as an untrained economist.

Every week someone from my friends list on Facebook announces a job loss. Sometimes, the spouse is able to pick up extra hours and make up the difference. Other times, they have a trade that allows them to quickly find a new job. But, many remain out of work. It has almost become an unspoken rule that if you run across a job (that you will not be applying for) that you share it with your friends on Facebook. Unfortunately, the job posts are as rare as the job loss announcements are common.

With each out of work person, the family must cut the budget to meet the new income level. Contrary to the news media's analysis, this doesn't make for a recovering economy. How do I know this? I am by no means a trained economist. But, experience can be a great teacher.

We learned yesterday that my husband lost one of his jobs. Yes, he works more than one. When you have a special needs child, the medical bills are insurmountable. I'm not at liberty to go into the amount of bills my son accumulates each year but to give you a hint he is three years old and just had his fourth major surgery. He will have his fifth surgery by year's end.

With the loss of one job means the loss of a third of our income. We must cut our household budget by one third. We were not living extravagantly but definitely did not have a tight budget. With the loss of salary, there will be no more eating out, no more movies, no more lattes, no books, no crafting supplies, no more driving that is not absolutely necessary, no more cookies and ice cream in the grocery cart, and I will return to the use of coupons to save every penny possible. My trusted travel companion, my SUV, will remain parked in the driveway. We can't afford to fill the tank with today's gas prices approaching $4 a gallon. Instead, my husband and I will share the economy car.

Now, here's your challenge: How many retailers will be hit by our job loss? How much money will no longer be added to the local economy? And to add to your numbers, my husband wasn't the only one laid off his job. There were others. So, add their income, budget cuts, and the retailers affected to the list.

We know numerous teachers have lost their jobs due to school districts cutting their budgets. We also know that Blockbuster (a distributor is in our area) laid off a lot of employees recently. We were enjoying Chili's burgers recently when half the restaurant was filled with employees who lost their jobs that very day. They were "celebrating" life one last time before going home to cut their budgets to their new income level. How many retailers were affected by the jobs lost at Blockbuster alone?

Despite the push to blame the business owner, large or small, for not hiring workers and for laying them off. The true blame should be placed on government as a whole. Budget talks are going on right now on Capital Hill and to no avail. My husband and I cut all non-essentials from our budgets when income drops. Capital Hill must do the same. I can name numerous budget items in the city that employs my husband that should have been cut from the budget as non-essential items. I mean, really, do we need a brand new bridge that runs parallel to an existing bridge with no problems whatsoever. According to the city, we do. Why? Because the old bridge isn't pretty and the new one will be. I could go on and on just about this one city. In the end, they cut my husband's salary and all the other city employees' salaries by five percent and gave them unpaid days off. I rather doubt one bridge will add as much stimulus to the economy as thousands of employees in the city.

I'm sure there are many more examples nationwide and on Capital Hill. When government cuts the non-essentials out of their budgets, then maybe we can add the non-essentials back into our budget thus boosting the economy.

The Irony of Life

I appreciate the irony of life. It is what makes the world turn. Without it, everything would be completely and totally boring.

But, in this case, irony has me beating my head against the wall and kicking myself. To fully understand the irony, let's backtrack to last year and my wonderful adoration of all the hummingbirds visiting my feeders. I had three different types of hummingbirds visiting my feeders on a regular basis. I identified two of the varieties but the third I couldn't identify. I took pictures and compared them to website photos and databases. I spent all winter researching hummingbirds and looking for this incredibly small species. This hummingbird was about half the size of the black-chinned and ruby-throated varieties that I had already identified. And there were no hummingbirds of that size in our region. The only one even remotely matching the description resides in Montana and never leaves the mountains. I found it impossible to believe that a mountainous species would survive the 100 degree plus temperatures of Texas.

With the advent of spring, I no longer had time to research the hummingbird, so waited for it to make its appearance this year for a better look. For the record, I have not yet seen this tiny species this year.

Fast forward to today, I had not been to my garden in several days. Due to all that has been going on, my garden was in great need of attention. After dinner, Snugglebug and I ventured out to the garden so I could see what all needed to be done after he went to bed. I immediately noticed my tall, lush tomato plants were mere stems. This disturbed me, but being a life-long farm-girl, I knew the work of a hornworm when I saw it. It didn't take me but a moment to find the fat culprit lounging on a naked stem. Then, I found a second and a third hornworm.

After putting Snugglebug to bed, I went straight out to my garden (baby monitor in hand) to search for any more tomato eating fiends. What began with three worms became ten then twenty. At twenty-five hornworms, I called my friend, Liz, and said, "You're not going to believe this!" She did and hung up so she could go check her tomato plants. The final count was 28 hornworms on three tomato plants! I would have taken a picture but the sight of them turned my stomach, and I would hate to run off my readers with such a sight.

After plucking the worms and depositing them in a large (very large) pickle jar, I turned on the sprinklers and came inside to do some research.

I first wanted to know what type of moth the hornworm became so I could make sure to spray it with Raid the next time I saw one. I also wanted to know what the pupae looked like and what ate it so I could prevent the hornworm ever reaching my tomato plants.

I learned that the hornworm becomes a moth that when in flight looks like a hummingbird. It eats nectar just like a hummingbird, feeds on flowers just like a hummingbird, has the same long tongue, and from a distance looks like an extremely small hummingbird. The photos and the description on all the websites matched the unknown hummingbird from last year. I sat in complete astonishment. Last year, I had been feeding and marveling at a moth, not a bird. Last year, I had been feeding the moth that would lay the eggs and become a hideous larvae known as the hornworm that was now eating my tomato plants.

The irony is too much to bear. And while I typically admire irony and say, "My hat's off to you for pulling that one off," today, I say, "cussword, cussword, cussword."

Take a close look...No, closer

So, this lovely lady has taken up residence in our backyard, beyond my garden.

She is a Killdeer. She is ground nesting bird who has a very sad sounding chirp. She makes an even more distressing broke wing limp when you get too close to her nest. The idea is that the ground dweller will be led away by the enticing thought that the injured bird will be easily caught. She will lead the prey quite a ways away before taking flight. She then makes sure the prey is far from her nest before she returns.

Here's a picture of the nest.
Oh, you don't see it. Well, that's the way it's meant to be. I searched at least an hour this afternoon and could not find her nest. This evening while working in my garden, I kept a close eye on the little bird and followed her visually back to her nest. Even with a reference point, I had a tough time finding the nest. It blends in with the ground so well that one could literally step right over it and never see it.





Here's another photo of the nest. Take a close look at this photo then go back and take a closer look at the photo above.



Now, do you see it.










Here's one last, even closer, look at the nest and eggs. Can you see how they would be lost even though they sit right out in the open? Amazing! Simply Amazing!











PS For those who would like to see a better view of the little bird (I don't have a long camera lens.) click this link to a Wikipedia photo.

We Have Sentences, People!

We had our first sentences, today! They were only two word sentences but subject verb just the same. Prior to this we have had a lot of two word combos but more like adjective noun or a please attached to a noun or a name attached to a request.

What were the sentences you ask? I'm so glad you did!

Wot dis! (interpreted: Watch This!) While climbing over the sofa (that's another post)

i bo. (interpreted: It Broke) Referring to a nickel yo-yo he received from a recent birthday party as a party favor.

Only 6 months ago, we had our first verbal words. He still signs and most of the time will sign one word and say the other word. Other times he signs and says the word both. Most of the time the word is only the first consonant which renders the spoken word useless without the sign. His verbal speech has surpassed his signs though, so at times there is frustration when he can't get across what he is talking about. We are working on that! My husband and I are taking a class in sign language with the goal of being able to communicate with him via sign and teach him the same way verbal communication is taught. We are well on our way with an excellent teacher!