IEP Season

I have been IEP'n it up having two boy on the spectrum. It's
transition time for both of them. Javi is going in to NSH (non
severely handicaped) and Ethan in to Integrated Preschool (50% typical
kids with less adult to child ratio). This is a big step up for both
of them, in terms of independence. They will both be at a new school
with new classmates and new teachers, so it's a pretty big change.

Yesterday we had Ethan's transition and today is the continuation of
Javi's transition meeting. Hope all goes well!

Shanna Grimes
(Sent from my iPhone)

Pilot Butt

Yesterday we went to the top of Pilot's Butte. My MIL affectionately
calls it Pilot Butt. It's essentially a large mound of earth that
doesn't qualify to be a mountain or a hill. It's pretty high up there.
I am afraid of heights, so it seemed really high to me. On a clear day
you can see all of Bend, but yesterday it was pretty foggy. You can
kind of see how high it is through the trees. I got a little weak in
the knees while taking this pic, but the view was stunning.

We also took the kids toy shopping in downtown Bend at this cute
little specialty toy shop called Leap'n Lizards. GG spoiled everyone
yesterday. Ethan chose new Thomas Trains after playing at the train
table and Brio car table and Kay chose a Whoozit Photo album. We are
going to put some pics of daddy, GG, Grandma Von and Grandpa Jim
before we leave. We did find quite a few surprises for Javi while we
were there, since I promised I would bring surprises.

We had lunch at a cute little bistro downtown. The food and service
was just so-so, but the building and ambiance was spot on. We could
people watch at our window seat. It was busy downtown, no doubt due to
the holiday weekend.

After that, we took the kids to the book store. The kids just love the
bookstore. Ethan kept bringing books for GG and me to read to him. We
did settle on a few including a children's book with facts about
Oregon called "B is for Beaver", an Elmo book for Ethan and Kay that
plays music, "The Boxcar Children" a chapter book for Javi that we can
read together (one of my fav's as a child) and a "How to Draw" book
for Javi. We had a great day.

Today we are going to attempt to BBQ, if the weather cooperates. It's
a 60% chance of rain, so it's questionable. I am making Mexican for
the family. Carne asada, refried beans, and rice. I've been marinating
meat, but it may be an indoor cook out.

Happy Memorial Day! Be sure to give a little thanks to all those men
and women who lost their lives for our freedom. Today, we light up our
BBQ's in their honor.

The Bend Update

Ok, so I haven't had a lot of time on the computer since I have been away, hence my one liner blogs with a pic sent from my phone. It's been a relaxing trip so far, but unfortunately we have spent most of it feeling under the weather. Guess it was that 40 degree temperature drop and the plane ride that did it.

Kaylee is getting four teeth at the same time, so she has been pretty miserable. She has also been fighting a cold that returned after riding on the plane. She was finally feeling better, but I think that the plane ride wore her down. Ethan has been going strong. He has been a little ball of energy as usual.
I have been fighting the good fight. I woke up today with a lot of fluid in my ears which off set my equilibrium, so I was having dizzy spells. That was no fun! I felt like I was on a boat in rough seas all morning. Thankfully it has finally subsided. I guess I got my sea legs. GG is now sick (sorry :_). Not sure if it was our germs that mutated or not. She seems to have something different than we have.

We haven't been too busy so far, just relaxing mostly. We had a nice dinner prepared for us by Great-Grandma Von when we arrived from the airport Tuesday. Wednesday we went out shopping for a bit and had some lunch. Yesterday we took the kids to the children's museum in Bend called Working Wonders. I will post some pics to Flickr later. We were house bound today, since we were all feeling sick. I made some chicken soup and we just hung out. It was raining, so there wasn't much we could do anyway. Who knows what the plan is tomorrow. We are just going to play it by ear. We have talked about going up to the snow about 15 minutes away from here, but we will have to get better before going to cavort in the snow.

Posing for Pics

Ethan and Kaylee were posing for GG and I managed to sneak in and snap
this one.

We have arrived!

Ethan's first plane ride.

Weekend Report

It's been a busy weekend getting ready for our trip. I may not be in blogland until I arrive in Bend on Tuesday. I will try to keep up with reading everyone's, but if it's quiet around here for a bit, that's the reason. I will of course be taking pics and blogging daily when we arrive. I am a little behind on trip plannI was sick all week, I am a little behind on my trip prep.

I hope everyone has had a nice weekend and we'll be seeing ya real soon ;)

My first Coach

That's my girl. Daddy bought Kaylee her very first Coach. She is
always so interested in my purses and make up bag, we thought it would
be good for her to have her own. Not surpising at all, her favorite
thing that came with the purse is the money :) (it has that krinkly
sounding stuff sewn in to the money). Gotta have lots of that if you
want to collect pricey purses, Ms. Thing! It came with money,
lipstick, mirror, car keys, and bracelette. It's missing an iPhone
though. Maybe next time Kay! You'll have to make due with your cell
phone until Daddy can afford another one :)

Happy Anniversary, Mark!

 

More Milestones for Kay

Today she got up into the crawler position and held it for about two minutes. She did the "bouncy bootie" thing, but didn't actually crawl anywhere. It's only a matter of time. I will have to have my camera ready at all times. I am actually hoping she waits until we get back from Bend. One, so daddy can see her and two because their house isn't child proof and they have two kitties that each outweigh Kaylee by 10 lbs! They are huge! I picked one up on my last visit and nearly hurt my back. At the time they both outweighed Ethan at age 2!

I am hoping that she will not have any issues walking. She is very bow legged and she has a genetic abnormality called "curling". Her toes curl sideways, almost looks like a few of her toes and pinky are broken. She tends to "monkey toe" everything (grip things with her toes), which is even easier for her to do with the curled toes. The doctor said that over time, the joints may straighten out a little and we could always get her ortho shoes. Ethan and Mark also have them, but her joints are the most curled. She will probably never be a hand model or a pianist, but it doesn't hurt her and she manages fine.

I'm a big girl now!!

I stand up and play with my leap table. Today I even stood without
holding on to anything. Then I noticed that I was standing and had to
grab on to something. I am starting to pull up to a standing position,
but I'm not quite there yet. Mommy is so proud of me. Soon I will be
chasing my brothers around the house.

Best Garlic Bread Ever!

Here's the recipe:

Take a good loaf of hearty country bread. I like to use ciabatta bread. Split the bread in half, so that you can spread the garlic mix on the bread.

In a medium size bowl, mix:

1/4-1/3 cup of light mayonnaise

1 heaping tsp of minced garlic (I like roasted organic garlic)

3 tbsp of fresh grated parmesan cheese

Spread liberal amounts of the spread on the bread and bake in a 375° oven on a cookie sheet for 10-15 minutes.

I find that eating very aromatic food when you are stuffy, not only opens up the nasal passages, but it also allows you to taste your food! I find that using mayo is way more flavorful than using butter, plus it stays fluffy on the bread, instead of sinking in to the bread completely and making a greasy mess.

Cool New Blogging Tool

Trying on MarsEdit2 for size. It's so much faster than using the blogger web app to blog. I was really frustrated with how slow it is. I had turned to using email to blog, but that was no good because you can't tag, add video or use some of the other options. Mark had told me about MarsEdit2 a while back, but I just never checked it out. I finally decided to tonight. OMG!! So much faster and it does all the things I need it to do. It's native to my Mac, so I don't even have to be online to use it, not that I am ever not online, but it's cool that I do all the things I want to a post then I post it. Super quick, super easy to set up and to use. Makes my blogging much easier. I can post to multiple blogs too. Unfortunately, it's only for the Mac, but I am sure there are similar apps for Windows users.

Bend Trip

Since I have had a couple of questions about Bend, I thought I would post about it.  Mark's parents live in Bend, OR.  They moved there about six or seven years ago, I think.  Mark has never been up there, but we are hoping that we can all go for a trip sometime soon.  His work schedule is just crazy, so it's hard for him to take a vacation.  So far, the only vacation he has had is for his illness, kid's illness and babies being born.  There isn't much time left after that, I'm afraid.

This is our second trip there.  I went two summers ago with Ethan. Here is a pic from our last trip. It was at a park near downtown Bend. GG and Ethan were getting a closer look at the ducks.

Kaylee has never been there.  We were waiting until she got a little better to take a trip there.  Mark's Grandmother Von also live in Bend, so she has never met Kaylee before.  We are looking forward to seeing everyone and getting the chance to take it easy and just relax.  I am just taking the little ones this trip since I am going solo.  I can't handle all three on the plane alone and Javi is looking forward to visiting with his Nana (his Dad's mom) while we are away.  When we talked about it, he said he wanted to stay here.  Javi is still in school too, so it's more crucial that he not miss any more school than it is for Ethan to miss.  It worked out for the best because Javi would want a structured activity every day and we are just going there to visit and relax. Although, Javi would be in hog heaven with the amount of video games Grandpa Jim has.  They have a Wii, xBox and tons of computer games. 

Mark's parents do come to visit us every year in November.  It's a little bit easier for them to come this way then the opposite because of the kids and Mark's work.  Mark also has other family that live here, so they come to visit all of us when they come.

We had to ship car seats and diapers.  I have to take baby blankets, playpens, booster seats, toys along with our clothes and other necessities, so it's a lot to manage on a trip with little ones.  Well worth the trouble though.  We enjoy our time with GG, GV and Grandpa Jim!

Home away from home

Well, we are here again at our home away from home, Dr. Pedi. I feel
like we are here at least once a week with one of our kids. This time
it's Javi's turn with a probable ear infection. When you have three,
then tack on special needs and weakened immune systems, you
practically live in a doctor's office, whether they are sick or well.
I chuckle with Mark about starting a separate savings account just to
cover co-pays. Next year, I think we will start using the flexible
spending account so we at least get through all the medical without
paying Uncle Sam on top of it. We would have started it at the
beginning of the year this year, but it was a crazy time with Kaylee
and Ethan's diagnosis. We were still dealing with a lot of evals and
appointments at that time. That was one of the items that slipped
through the cracks.

Still have all the usual things scheduled. With our trip coming up
next week, we couldn't afford to cancel or reschedule anything else
and since most of our services are based on monthly hours, if you
don't use, you loose.

No sick days for Mom. Just gotta keep on trucking! Thank goodness
Grandma will be here soon to help out . Grandma is our savior :)
Don't know what I'd do with out her.

Shanna Grimes
(Sent from my iPhone)

A huge case of the sickies

Sickies are running through our house. Yuk! Mark is the last one
standing right now, which is unusual. He's usually the first man down
because of his late night shenanigans and lack of sleep. I have a
residual cough and lung yuckies, Ethan has cough and runny nose, Javi
has fever and ear infection, and Kay has a runny nose and sneezes.
It's been tough trying to keep up today, but I am hanging on.
Tomorrow I have Ethan's IEP, Javi's doctor's appt and we did have the
Parent's Choice Teacher Awards for Special Education scheduled for
tomorrow afternoon, but we will be skipping that. I had to dial in an
emergency grandma lifeline, so I had a babysitter who would take sick
children while I go to Ethan's IEP (it been scheduled and rescheduled
twice already, can't do it again).

Ok, it's about that time for me to go to bed. It's nearly midnight
and it's going to be a busy day. I'm just glad we all got sick this
week and we have enough time to get over it before we hop our flight
to Bend, OR. Just hope we don't catch anything else!

Mothers' Day Gift from Javi

This was my wonderful gift from Javi. Notice it has our entire blended
family. Starting from left to right: Kaylee, Mark, Acho, Javi, Me,
Brianne and she is holding Ethan. It makes me so proud that Javi
thinks of us as one family unit. I guess we are all doing something
right :)

What is totally amazing is Javi's attention to detail. He actually
painted everyone's eye color correctly. Great job, Javi! I am so proud
to be your Mom.

Happy Mothers' Day!!

Serving Breakfast in Bed to all you Mothers out there!  Happy Mothers' Day!!

Photo courtesy of francescabondy.

Potsticker Recipe

Ok, so I promised to post the recipe for potstickers, so here it is:

Recipe and more on how to fold, cook prepare a dip.

As usual, I did modify the recipe to fit to our taste.  I added a little more hoisin, a tiny bit less tofu, and instead of using garlic chive (couldn't find it at the market) I used green onion.  I also minced everything (garlic, ginger, onion, green onion).  I think the recipe says to dice the onion.  I have kids, so I though they would be more likely to eat it if it didn't have big chunks of anything.  Also, my Grandparents aren't big on onion, so I wanted to make sure it tasted good minced when I make it again on Saturday.

I am so proud of Javi for being open to new food.  Even with the Autism and sensory issues.  A few years ago, he pretty much only ate chicken nuggets, french fries and pancakes (Ethan's current diet).  Now he eats pretty much everything.  We just couldn't be more happy about that.  It's a good thing too, because he will be going to Spain every two years or so with his Dad's (Aita, Basque for Dad) family.  He did really well when he went last summer.  I think we will get there with Ethan. Oh, how I wish we could afford to whisk our children away to a foreign country to give them a real cultural experience. Well, maybe someday ;) Ethan would probably starve to death if we took him now. They would have to have a McDonald's near by. Ahh...the food in foreign countries. Mark and I strive to visit foreign countries just so we can eat. Mark is much more adventurous than me. He is more like the guy from Bizzare Foods, but I too am getting a little more in to eating cultural foods.  One of my two favorite things in the world is lumpia and pancit.  Although, not exactly healthy, it sure does taste good!!  It is food that is healthy for the soul.

I did get some great suggestions at parent education night the other night.  I swear I will post about it soon.  I have a lot of great info, I just haven't had time.  There is a lot to post, so I need a good hour to organize my thoughts.  I just haven't had that kinda time this week.  It's going to be another full day today.  Lots of running around for teacher appreciation.  It's the last day, so next week will calm down, hopefully!!

Cultural Experience at Seafood City

Today, I decided to open up my test kitchen to making some potstickers
or Asian dumplings. I will be making an Asian fusion meal on Saturday
for the family (mom, sister and grandparents are coming over for a
Mothers' Day family feast. Potstickers is just one of the items on the
menu.

We decided to go to Mira Mesa, to one of the many Asian markets,
Seafood City. Mira Mesa is a predominantly Filipino community. Similar to Chinatown
that most major metro areas have.  Ethan has not been to an Asian
market since he was a baby, so it was quite an experience for him. As
always, I go straight to the lumpia counter to purchase a couple for
Ethan and I to snack on. This time we tried a sugar glazed banana
lumpia (similar to an egg roll, but with a sweet fruit fill). It was
delicious. I tried to get Ethan to taste, but he refused.  

Next we hit up the fruit and veg department. I needed just a few
items. I didn't want to stock up, since they did not offer organic. I
did manage to get organic tofu and locally grown strawberries.

After that, we went to the seafood section. They had live fish and
crabs, whole fish on ice out of the case packed with ice, whole shrimp
with the heads still on. Ethan and I took a look at the live fish in a
barrel that just had a small amount of water. Ethan and I got really
close to the barrel and when one of the fish flopped up, we must have
jumped two feet back. It was hilarious! Pictured is Ethan next to the
blue crab. He didn't want to get to close after what happened with the
fish.

Potstickers came out delicious. I even managed to get the pleat down
(one of the many ways to fold an Asian dumplings). Javi called them
hot stickers, it was cute. He loved them. Ethan got as far ad smelling
them and having a healthy curiousity about them, but didn't want to
eat them. Maybe next time!

Tonight we are going to open house at Ethan's school, so Mark will
have to wait to have some tasty potstickers.

I will post the link to the recipe later. I used Sohui Kim's recipe,
chef and owner of The Good Fork (Asian Fusion) recently featured on
Throwdown with Bobby Flay. They do have a wonderful moist flavor with
the tofu. Yummy!

Flappy Flapperton

Check out Javi's blog for the latest post about flapping and ASD self stim.

Rainy day fun

Yesterday it was cold and rainy here in San Diego (ok, cold for SD 52
degrees), so we played some indoor games when Ethan got home. They
were playing peek a boo under the blanket inside the laundry basket.
It was so cute. Ethan had Kaylee laughing hysterically. They are so
cute together. You would swear they were twins the way they talk to
each other in their own language.

Schedule Management

Ok, so I know I have posted about this before, but I feel like it's important to keep your life in order. Although, I wish I could train my schedule to complete itself or add things to it at the speed of thought. I really don't know what I would do with out it.

With three children with special needs, needless to say there are quite a few things to schedule and keep on top of. Here is my schedule for May.



I have multiple calendars, hence multiple colors on the cal that track different items. Javi has his own calendar that is published to his website, I have a Family calendar that is shared with Mark, I have a bills calendar with all the due dates for bills, I have a national holiday's calendar, birthday calendar and one that we fortunately haven't used in ages, Kaylee's Seizure Calendar that I used to track her sz's with.

I border something between organized and anally retentive. I really wish our house was just as organized as our schedules, but three kids under seven, special needs, lots to do equals less than perfect house. My biggest problem is laundry. I have a repetitive task that pops up everyday in Things, but for the life of me I just can't get in to the everyday habit. I know if I just did it every morning right when I get up and put it away for 10 minutes right when I get home from taking the kids it would never pile up. But it's my least favorite activity, so if any item in my things to do list gets dropped, it's usually laundry. As long as we all have clean clothes to wear, we make due.



I also have an iPhone that beeps and warns me when I have a scheduled event and I also have daily clock alarms that are set for picking Javi up from the bus stop and my weekend and weekday wake up alarms. I used to have them set for Kaylee's meds, but now that she takes one drug twice a day, I can manage that now that it's a habit.

Tonight is Parent Education Night. I really look forward to these events, not only because it's one of the few places I go by myself, but because I get to learn new techniques and interface with other parents (that whole misery loves company thing). I have been thinking of starting a support group for ASD parents of poway unified, but just haven't gotten around to organizing it. Maybe by the next parent education night I will have something put together. We'll see...

My Little Rock Star

We were having fun last week playing with his new microphone. He was pretty cute. I had to clip the vids, so it took me a little while to post.

Spring Cleaning

We are vigorously working on spring cleaning the house today. It's
nice to get a fresh start for the spring. We are changing filters,
dusting moving furniture and vacuuming underneath, clearing out dust
bunnies and everything. The kids really get in to it too. It's cute
to watch them check the "Chore Board" and get motivated to get to the
next item. Javi is assigned to dusting and helping with the trash,
Ethan is assigned to pick up toys and Mommy and Daddy are assigned to
everything else. We are about half way through, since we have been
working on it for the last few weeks. It feels really good to
freecycle things and get rid of clutter. We are going to do the
neighborhood garage sale soon, so we are getting our really choice
items ready for sale and piling them up in the garage. It feels good
to get it clean, but will feel better when it's all done and we can
admire the work :)

Cock a Doodle Doo

Ethan and Javi in front of the giant rooster at Knott's Chicken Dinner
for Papa's 84th birthday. We had a nice time with the fam at dinner.
I saw my cousin, who I haven't seen in about six years today. It was
good to see the fam together. There was about 14 of us there,
including Papa. I will post more pics to flickr later. I have to off
load two different cameras.

Found a cool website...

If you like so many of us are wondering, "Gee, how many calories were
in that White Chocolate Mocha Latte I had this morning?". We'll
wonder no more! <a href="http://www.thedailyplate.com/">The Daily
Plate</a>. I know there are a lot of website like this, but this one
is pretty impressive. The database returns your search criteria so
quickly and it has a gigantic database of food.

It also allows you to track all your food and calorie intake,
exercise, water intake...it's pretty cool. It's free to sign up for
an account.

Yet another busy week...

Well, it's been a busy week, but a productive one. Let's see...

Sunday-Finished up Teacher appreciation web and flyer, made travel
plans to visit GG and Grandpa Jim (Mark's parents) in Bend, OR.

Monday-Kay's Therapy, Javi's Art class, Room Parent Stuff, Major house
clean since my parents and grandparents were coming the next day, made
more arrangements for trip.

Tuesday-Grandparents and mom arrive. We finally finished the bathroom
floor tile. Now it's just fixing some of the imperfections here and
there.

Wednesday-More room parent stuff for Ethan's and Javi's class,
shopping and errands,

Thursday-Behavior Mod for Javi and Kay's Therapy, more cleaning, more
errands.

We have come up with a new plan for Javi as far as behavior
modification goes. We are trying to curb a few of his behaviors. We
are trying to limit the flapping and keep it to certain times. I came
up with the idea to have a "baton" or "token" to signify to Javi when
it was ok to flap and the consultant agreed that would be a good
plan. Hey, I'll pretty much try anything for a little while. You
never know what is going to do the trick with Javi. We also came up
with a new token economy (reward system). I will explain the new
token economy in further detail when we are finished with creating
it. I know to a lot of people think that may sound confusing to have
so many different systems to follow, but really you are asking for the
same result. There is always a constant: good behavior=reward. The
reward may change, but the expectation is always the same. Think of
it this way, if you were a kid and every time you did something
positive you got a cookie. Your mom would say, don't do that, or you
won't get your cookie or if you are good at the grocery store, I'll
give you a cookie when we're finished. After four months of dangling
a cookie in front of them, the cookie wouldn't seem very appealing
anymore. This is why we have had so many different systems.
Eventually, Javi will learn exactly what behavior is expected and he
won't need the tokens anymore. Then the tokens will turn in to real
money as he gets older :) You know teenagers!!

Well, I better get started on dinner. TTFN!