Growing Up in a House of Girls

Sometimes I feel sorry for Daniel.
Because he has to grow up with 4 older sisters

who ALWAYS subject him to some form of girlie-type torturePoor little boy!
No more tutu's, hairspray, orange toe nail polish....
I promise to protect you!

TuTu for Tori

Tori has been asking for a tutu forever. Why? I'm not sure but she told me she'd wear it all the time. So last night I made her one, and she danced around the house! LOL
Horrible picture as it was with my phone but you get the idea.

Tough decision

After a hard decision, we have decided that we can't continue ABR because of the costs. It seemed to be a really great alternative therapy. We saw some improvements.

It is very time consuming and if that is what it takes we were willing to do it.
Unfortunately due to financial issues, we aren't able to continue with the traveling 3 to 4 times a year, and the training sessions, lodging and such.

I really wish we could. But because this is considered an "alternative" therapy, none of it is covered by insurance. We were able to raise some money and save some money but it just wasn't enough in the end. We needed to choose and we'd rather have a house to live in at the end.

So yes, we are still saving money and selling crowns and such to raise more money for other alternative therapies that don't rank up the in the ten of thousands per year. I hate that I have to decide my sons future upon money but unfortunately we don't have a money tree in our back yard. Nor do we have a fairy godmother for Daniel. We only have the two of us.

Sick and Tired. Tired and Sick

My poor guy is sick, so he has been stuck at home all week.
So we've been working on things at home. One thing I've found out...
a teacher, I am not!

I mean I can teach the little things. This is red. This is an elephant. But when it comes to, Which is the small one? How many is this? I just can't get it out. Can't figure out ways to teach it.
Guess I'm going to have to start some Google searches to find some ideas.

Because of a *mix up* with insurance, Daniel can't attend any therapy until its straightened out. And according to the insurance.....until they get all the paperwork, and the processing time, we're looking at least 15 business days. Can I fax the papers you're missing? No? why thanks, I appreciate your helpfulness!

I am so tired of paperwork. Tired of keeping everything in order and reminding people of stuff that needs to be done. I just want to shut down the brain for a few weeks and go on vacation....

Who Wears Short Shorts

Well the weather is getting warmer, so I dug out shorts (size 3T) from last year for Daniel.

Washed them, put them on Daniel and proceeded to get the laugh of the day.

Victoria's first common when we came out of the bedroom in the morning.
"You're not serious are you? OMG Mom you can't send him to school in (gasp) those! He's "stuff" is gonna fall out of those!"

I really wasn't going to but just wanted to see a reaction from her, which sent me into another fit of laughter.
Apparently my 3 yr old son has gone and grown up on me. The shorts that I got last year at the end of the season which were suppose to fit him...DO NOT. They were suppose to be shorts that came to right above his knee. Not the short shorts from 1980!

In an early-summer attempt to solve our shorts problems, I went in search of little boy shorts that still looked like they were for little boys and not the ones that hang off the butt.
After much searching, I think I found some "acceptable" shorts. Ones that are not too short, too long, too tight in the waist, and ones that don't have elastic around the waist like a "baby". So my 3 year old is in a 5T!! Big boy!

Raising Up My Arms...

and hanging my head in defeat...This can either be the sick monster or me.....You pick! :)

The horrible "sick" monster has reared its ugly head again. Laughing in triumph that he has gotten us yet one more time before school is out for the summer.

Sum-min-a-itch (sounds like - bun in a ditch)!

He was fine on Friday. What I can't figure out is we haven't gone anywhere in the past few days. WTFudge?

fudge fudge fudge!

Penny Pinching

Let me just say this BEFORE you watch the video.
Daniel does NOT have good use of his hands. He does not grab at things much. If he does, he uses his fist.

While watching this remember one month ago Daniel started a medicine called Zanaflex (to reduce the spasticity).



Now, HOW FRICKIN' COOL IS THAT??!?!?
This was the first time he's ever done it! We've tried it a long time ago but he could never do it.

I LOVE DAYS LIKE THESE!!

Almost Wordless Wednesday

It's not what you look at that matters....

......it's what you see

Ever have one of those days where you just want to hit the snooze button for 24 hrs???

Yep, I had one of those.

Hopefully I'm not getting sick....that would suck

UUUUGH Monday

For whatever reason today, Daniel was super emotional.

He was laying in bed with me and one minute he'd be smiling and the next we would have the biggest boo-boo lip known to man-kind.

This is what sucks. I know something was up, and he was upset. But because he is non-verbal, its all a guessing game. So I laid there and tried to comfort him, and guess what was wrong.

We got ready for school and all seemed to be going fine. Put him in the car and pulled out of the driveway and I hear "home" and look and there is Daniel with the boo-boo lip, looking at the house. "home".

Agh, Daniel you're killing me with that lip kiddo. I could only respond with a cracked voice-
"Lets go play with Ms. Mills, then we can come home"

Frizzy Friday!

Well my sister moved to Texas a month or so ago.
This same sister is the one who has always cut our hair.
So that being said, its been awhile since Daniel has gotten his hairs cut!


She was nice enough to talk with another hairdresser and explain Daniel's fears and such.
The wonderful person said she would do whatever to help. Pretty cool.
So after waiting until it couldn't go another day with his fuzzy, curly top
The hairdresser was very cool and worked wonders. Daniel had a mop of hair.
And he even did really well with the buzzers. Laughing and having a grand ol' time.

One word....

One little word uttered.
One little word repeated.
One little word spoken with purpose.

Driving away from school yesterday, I turned right to head directly to therapy. To go home I would have gone straight.

"Home" and a whimper is what I heard from the backseat. I look over my shoulder and there is a tired little boy who you can tell wants to crawl into bed and nap.

me: Home?
Backseat: big smile "home"
me: We have to go to therapy, then we can go home.
backseat: "home, home, home" with whimpers

Me- grinning ear to ear and teary eyed. Daniel telling me he wanted - to go "home".
Telling me with purpose, no prompting, no nuffin...just Daniel telling me with his own voice, what he wanted.

No, he didn't string words together and make a sentence. But I don't care.
He said a new word and it was completely clear.
Loud and clear.

Next time Daniel, I promise we will go home when you ask.

Lokomat Trial

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

He tolerated it really well! We are now on a waiting list and will see if insurance will cover. He looked so proud of himself, standing up tall and walking.

It was way cool. He listened to the therapist so well. She would tell him to lift his knee high, and she would help him for a couple steps and then he would do it himself. I cannot wait.

Random Photos

Just some photos of Daniel from the past couple of weeks.
Below you will see Daniel working on his ECO device. That is if you can see past the flippy-doo he has in his hair!

Here he is just sitting and smiling pretty.- His bashful look

This is Daniel showing how big he can open his mouth.......
Here are puppy dog eyes saying "Mom make Ms. Carol stop putting me in this position!"

That is all........enjoy your weekend and hope the Moms' out there have a wonderful weekend.

Lokomat

A couple of weeks ago while watching Daniel's speech therapy I learned of something new.
Well not exactly "new" but to us it was.

Lokomat Therapy- Robot-assisted walking

Well, lo and behold DMC where we get our speech therapy has it. They were the first in the country to get the pediatric legs last year. There are only a handful of locations in the US that has it. Chicago is another location.

Guess what? Daniel is tall enough to use it.
Guess what? I would have to drop our current therapist who has been Daniel's PT since 4 months old.
Guess what? We would have to play an insurance game to get it covered
Guess what? It'll only be an 8 week session then I'd switch back to our favorite therapist
Guess what? I would kick myself if we didn't try this out.
Guess what? Lonnie talked the DMC therapist to let Daniel "try" it out on Friday to see if he'll even tolerate it. (I'll post a video then)

Cross your fingers on one hand he'll like it and it will work.
Cross your fingers on the other hand that we'll be able to get back with our original therapist after the 8 weeks.
Cross your toes that we'll get insurance to pay this.
Cross the toes on the other foot please and hope that our current therapist will understand that we need to try this.

Not so Wordless Wednesday

May 2007
May 2008


May 2009

"In" and "On" and A Plea to Aunt Aimee

Yesterday was pretty cool. Its something simple but so very cool. During speech therapy we are just starting to work on the concept of 'IN' and 'ON'. Like the dog is IN the box, the dog is sitting ON the box. Well Daniel was nailing it. We'd ask where the toy was. And he'd look at the picture of the words and he was getting them right!! And as if that wasn't enough, he SAID both words. Actually spoke each word. Pretty straight forward, no mistaking it. IN and ON. Used the word when asked where the toy was, no delay, no big long pause. It was an instant definite answer. And he KNEW he was right! We have witnesses too!! So very very cool. Loved it. Lets just hope its not months before we hear his voice again. :)

Here is a photo for Daniel's Aunt Aimee-

We borrowed one of Victoria's hair bows. Get the hint?!

Here is Daniel when I asked if he liked his hair long and in his eyes. And he did this....He wants Aunt Aimee to come home and cut his hair or we're going to have to change his name to Danielle

What a Clown

Even when I am feeling down, one of my kids manages to get me laughing.

Victoria saw a commercial for these Speed Stacking Cups. Then proceeded to say how "easy" it was. I happened to catch it on video. Here are Victoria's attempts.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I was laughing my butt off by the time she was done. These are only a couple of the videos of her trying and not getting too frustrated. Easy Peasy eh Tori? Me thinks you need to practice more!

This is what it is actually suppose to look like!

And The Winner Is.....

Thank you to everyone who entered!! It was fun! And Tori enjoyed picking the name, although she complained. She thought it was fun too! (Daniel fell asleep so he couldn't draw the name.)

WINNER:

Logan's Super Heroes

CONGRATULATIONS!!!
You have 3 days (Monday, May 3 before midnight) to contact me with your one custom crown that you would like.
You will get an additional five crowns of various colors, for a total of 6 crowns!!
If winner does not contact me, another winner will be chosen and the first pick forfeits their prize! :)
(Sounds real professional eh?!?!)

Hope you enjoy!!!

May Day!

The Crown Giveaway is closed and the winner will be announced on here and will also get an email at 10 p.m. tonight.
I am sure you will all be waiting at your computer to see if you're the lucky winner!!

Remember if you're not the winner...you can still check out my stuff and see whats new. Sign up for the mailing list to be the first to see all the cool new things that will be coming up and future giveaways!!

The mothers day crowns, the new birthday hat, the party in a box, the birthday gift set (t-shirt & hat), Ugly Dolls, and sooooo much more!! Or if there is something you would like but don't see, let me know and we'll see what we can do!

Thanks everyone who entered!!