Grace from God

Disclaimer: Cute dog pictures will follow.

Let me start by saying that I wasn’t looking for a new dog. Fostering was fun but my other two dogs were not exactly thrilled. I have friended HSSA, Smiling Dog Rescue, and SavethePetsAZ on facebook so that I can share posts and help others find their future furbaby. I often see pets on the news feed that make me say “awww” but they don’t really make me feel like I need to bring them home. Then I saw the picture of stray-2 aka fluffy:

My heart dropped and even though I posted on her picture that I was already in love with her, but to let someone else adopt her, the next day I was contacting Kelli at SavethePets and told her to hold her for me til after the holidays.
I showed her picture to Little J and at first he didn’t want to adopt her, but with a little prodding I found out it was because he thought I meant foster and that we would have to give her away. When I explained it would be forever he was on board. He wanted to name her Frosty and I agreed.

Then I showed J and he was all “no way!” I told him she was sweet (per her foster dad’s description) and that he could have a say in which dog we adopted but that we were adopting again.

January 2nd we met Kelli at Petsmart and met a Jack Russel mix puppy (too much to handle), a large greyhound mix (so sweet and calm, but big) and Fluff. The kids agreed that Cassie the greyhound was sweet but in the words of J, “I’d rather prefer that we adopt Fluff.” So she came home with us. On the way home the boys decided that Frosty was not the right name and J suggested we name her Grace. I was a bit surprised by his suggestion but as it turns out I shouldn’t have been. It is the name of the human lead female on the Smurfs movie and he had been watching it all break. So she became Grace.

Now here is the real story:

For those of you who have followed along, J doesn’t like furry pets or pets that need interaction. He prefers his turtle. To him, pets are nuisance and bother him with wanting attention or trying to lick his face or barking. Grace is none of these things. She is calm, polite, rarely barks, never licks, and waits to be given attention instead of begging for it.

The day after we got her, we took her for a walk just me and J. After getting the mail, he wanted to run around the block and Grace wanted to run as well while I just wanted to walk. So I asked him to take the leash and run with her. They ran all the way home together.

It has been a week and he has asked to go on 2 more walks and both times has asked if we could bring Grace. He is starting to think about something/someone other than himself and wants to include them in his plans. This is a huge step and at this point I don’t care if she isn’t human.
But the story doesn’t end there. A couple of days ago, Grace and Luna got in a tussle when Luna was going out and Grace was coming in. After I got them separated, J got up from his homework and came over to Grace to comfort her. He petted her and told her sweet words.
It still doesn’t end. When I tucked him in a couple of nights ago, Grace followed me in the room. I asked if she could just lay in his bed until I was done and he didn’t even blink before saying it was ok. I have tried this in the past when the other two dogs were puppies and he always said no way. In fact he hated having them in the room when I tucked him in. Last night he insisted on sleeping with me and since he is in an emotional state right now that requires some extra attention and love, I said yes. But I told him that Grace already sleeps with me and that he would have to let her stay in the bed. He said alright and we fell asleep with Grace between us. When I woke up in the middle of the night, she was curled up against him on his side of the bed and he had his arm around her. When he woke up in the morning, he hugged and kissed her before getting out of bed. I asked him if he was happy that Grace slept by him and he said yes. He also told me that the reason he liked her is because she is calm.

She may have been a therapy dog in a previous household (she was surely someone’s well-trained dog at the least.) But even if she wasn’t she is now our therapy dog and she is truly a gift from God.

Life in the classroom

So we’ve gone back to the preschool motto used in J’s class “what’s fair for one is not always fair for all.” J used to earn 2 rounds of free choice time. One for morning work and one for afternoon work. They were short long-term goals. He has struggled the last month to get any work done and has instead chosen to throw huge Tasmanian devil tantrums. So they lowered their expectations and let him do anything he wanted as long as he asked. A worksheet a day was a big accomplishment. This week they raised their expectations and are asking him to do his work but every time he finishes an assignment he gets to do a bit a free choice (computer, iPad, etc.) He’s actually had a fairly good week if you don’t count the first 30 minutes of Monday.

On a completely separate note, this is the time of year for fundraisers for clubs, groups, schools etc. Usborne Books and More has come up with a super easy fundraiser that gives 43% back to the organization (slightly less if no tax exempt Id is available). If you, your school, church, sports group, family reunion are interested in finding out more please take a look at this quick presentation. http://bit.ly/cardsfundraiser It is on going so keep it in mind for future funding needs as well.

Transitions are Killing us!

The short story:

There have been changes in the structure, location, and teachers for Bible Class. This has led to him standing on tables, throwing fits etc. Last night he went into an adjoining room and found a jar of orange powder tempera paint…and proceded to sprinkle, spray and toss it all over the empty room. He was sweaty from playing before class and what stuck to him turned to paint. Yeah that pretty much sums up our month.

Trying to revive this place!

Dear Blog(osphere),

I have missed you. I know I have cheated on you with facebook but I am ready to come back. It has almost been a year and there is plenty of catching up to do so here it is in list form cause you know I can get kinda wordy:

1) Big family Christmas with lots of people and presents, a wedding, a health crisis (not mine)

2)House we rented was foreclosed on. No solid leads on a rental. Decision to buy

3)Hubby was told he was going to be discharged from the airforce. (as of posting he is still in Korea with no return date, but it may be soon)

         3b) In an attempt to get stuff done before the insurance/military benefits run out we have been to the pediatric dentist 5 times in month, the ladies doctor, the primary care, the vet, and the optometrist.

4)J left home in the middle of the night. I was woken up when the police brought him home. (pick your jaw up off the floor, everyone is okay and new safeguards are in place.)

5)Found awesome new house that pretty much met our dream list. Took 3 months to close on it cause the asset manager was a pain in the tookus!

6)Made the slow move to the new house. It is only a mile from old house so we moved at a leisurely pace.

7)Aunt Melody came for a month to help save my sanity. We missed her flight home due to oversleeping, she stayed an extra week.

8)We took in a foster dog. She was beautiful and sweet and now she is adopted to a wonderful family.

9)I rejoined the Usborne Books business as a consultant. Shameless plug here: http://www.ubah.com/n3365 . Do your Christmas shopping, host a party, find out more about our free books for schools and money for fundraisers.

10)I refocused on personal time like playing Bunco, having coffee with friends and blogging.

There is your year in review.

Love,

The Prodigal Blogger.

P.S. Pink pancakes and Backyardigans keep my blog stats from plummeting into despair. I find that hilarious.

must be the water

I think the kids and the dogs are drinking from the same contaminated water. What ever is in it, sends a signal to the brain to block obedience and increases stubbornness. Just a theory.

Or it could be all the up down changes in the weather. Whatever it is, I am ready for tings to go back to normal. You know where they all listen at least half of the time.

NaBloPoMo Bust and a Special wave hello

Well I did pretty good. I made it 19 days with out missing a post. I am being honest and not back posting for yesterday since the competition for prizes is on the honor system. I could have posted yesterday, it’s not like my computer blew up. I just forgot since I am at my parents’ house and usually just check email real quick from my ipod.

Also hello to my new friend out there, we will be friends by the time you are done. You have blown up my stats today. Feel free to leave a comment when you are done reading all 172 posts.

Not so profound

What? I can’t pull thoughtful well created posts out every day.

Besides right now I am trying to think good thoughts and not catch whatever stomach ick that Little J has. Hmm that reminds me I haven’t has enough Vitamin C yet today.

Really glad that the boys no longer share a room. Makes it easier to keep them quarantined.

Is Llama Llama Autistic?

I can’t remember when we first purchased Lllama Llama Mad at Mama. I think it was after J’s diagnosis. I do distinctly remember thinking “This Llama sounds a lot like J when it comes to shopping or public outings.” I also remember reflecting on how Little Llama didn’t like all the people, all the noise, all the waiting and has a terrble outbursts. J liked the rhyming in the book, but it got lost along the way.

This week a shipment of Scholastic books came in and it had “Llama Llama Red Pajama,” “Llama Llama Misses Mama,” and “Llama Llama Mad at Mama.” I had never read the other books in the series so Little J and I read the Red Pajama one Tuesday night. I then realized that Llama Llama is not autistic, he is merely young and young kids are not patient and have outbursts. I know this now because Little J is older and I have his experiences to compare to as well.

There is always that question in the back of my mind (and some of yours as well). Is this the autism acting this way, or is my child displaying unwanted but totally typical behavior. I think the difference comes in the fact that in all of the stories whether Little Llama is feeling mad, sad, scared, etc. he is able to get his emotions under control very quickly after a few words from Mama Llama. Where we diverge is that J is not easily calmed once he reaches an extreme emotion.

I think he recognizes himself in the stories. Last night we all read together, Llama Llama Misses Mama which is about Little Llama going to school for the first time. He gets emotional and doesn’t want to do any of the other activities that the other kids do. On the page where they show a tear drop in his eye, J stopped the reading. He spoke directly to Little Llama, “Llama Llama, don’t cry. Ms. S my parapro tells me to take a deep breath like this: breathe in (demonstrated) and blow out (demonstrated). That is how you calm down the easy way. I used to cry at school too but now I like it.”

Wow! I had a hard time not crying listening to him comfort Little Llama. At the end of the book Little Llama loves his mama and school too. We had a really good conversation about it and how Little Lama’s mama came back and that J is always picked up from school too either by his babysitter or by me.

So Llama Llama probably isn’t autistic but the author sure knows how to write a good social story. I know next on my wish list is Llama Llama Holiday Drama.

Enter title here

because I can’t think of anything more original to post than copying the pre-populated  phrase. nablopomo bites again.

Any questions you want to ask me? put it in the comments and I’ll post about it tomorrow.

Oh something I was going to post about yesterday…

We have an addiction around here. An addiction to books. I ordered a ton from Scholastic book club knowing there was a book fair coming up because the ones from book club are cheaper, you can buy sets, and the teachers are rewarded with classroom books. We still support the bookfair cause it supports the school as a whole, but the book club has more. Anyway, I ordered quite a bit a few weeks ago and had the foresight to order some for now and some for Christmas. That way I wouldn’t be tempted to give them their Christmas presents early. They arrived yesterday. J got some Magic School Bus chapter books (fiction meets science) so he can read a subject that interests him and he can take AR tests on them. Little J got some picture books with Llama Llama, Bear, and Skippy Jon Jones. I love some of the new characters in the newer books. It has been so long since either of them has been interested in me reading to them (J has been reading well above his level  for years and Little J just wasn’t interested in being still). Now they want to read every night and not just because they have to write in their reading logs for school.

And tomorrow? Late night at the bookfair. After a full day of work (my first this week), we will wrap up the day with more book shopping.

I already admitted it was an addiction right?

What’s on my phone?

Just found out about this fun linky party on Tuesdays where we show you random pics from our phones. I don’t use mine for pics a lot cause it is a pain to send them to my email and then save them but I pulled a few of my recent favorites.

What? The black and white stripes match the black and white checks!

drumming at a backyard b-day party

If you want to show us what is on your phone, go here and link up. Let me know if you do.

And if anyone knows how to get videos from my phone to my blog, let me know. I got it to email but then the file wasn’t right for the blog.