I almost posted on Monday about how well J did on his first day of Kindergarten.  Good thing I didn’t.  He had an awful rest of the week with incidences including running away, spitting, and biting.  UGH!

He should have a permanent parapro on Monday.  Transportation should start soon.  Once we get in a routine and put a bus ride between separation and class starting things should go better.  I hope.

Side note:  He’s a had a rocky start every day and goes a little crazy/aggressive the first hour.  Then he does wonderful the last 2 hours.  So there is hope.  It’s the transitions that are killing us.

Oh and in other “first” news, J lost his first tooth.  The tooth fairy brought him M&Ms.  Little J now asks every day, “When I get a tooth fairy, I get M&Ms?”

Here is one of the blogs thats been in my head and I should have written it long ago.  Just a reminder, I did get free samples from Bob’s Red Mill, but I was not asked to blog about it, nor am I being paid (besides the no-strings samples), I just want to share our GF/wheat free diet adventures.

Back in June when we were at my parents’ house for a week, I did some baking.  Once before I used the Bob’s Red Mill Brownie Mix to make cupcakes.  They were only mildly successful, as I burned the bottoms.  J still eats them though. 

So back to “Grandma and Grandpa’s” house.  J wanted to do some cooking so I promised he could help me bake a cake.  We got out the brownie mix and copied the recipefrom Bob’s Red Mill site for modifying it and got to work.  We realized though that we didn’t have the bundt pan it called for so we decided on 4-5 mini foil loaf pans left over from Christmas pumpkin bread baking.  In the end it took 5 pans.  We made it too late to taste it that night, but they smelled wonderful.  Unlike the cupcakes, which I made in paper cups, I sprayed the pans withcooking spray and then dusted with plain rice flour.  My mom has been very sensitive to and supportive of the boys’ new diet, but when it came time to grease the pans, she suggested Baker’s Joy.  Yeah we laughed about it.

Next morning was moving day for my sister and BIL.  I subscribe to the Bill Cosby philosophy so the boys had Chocolate Cake for breakfast.  The wife of the couple that were helping move (out of my parent’s house and into an apartment) is also wheat free so we sent a loaf with her.  Later that weekend, she said she shared it on a camping trip and no one knew the difference.  This cake is GOOD!  We finished the first pan and took one home with us.  We left the other two wrapped in foil in the freezer. 

4th of July weekend was another family BBQ/birthday party.  When we bought the family b-day cake we also bought some frosting.  Side note:  Read the ingredients on store bought icing.  I thought it was all the same sugar and milk.  NOPE.  Betty Crocker puts wheat in all of their icings.  So we went with Pilsbury.  The thawed cake was still moist and yummy.  The boys even asked for seconds.  We took the last cake loaf to a BBQ at a friend’s house on the 5th, didn’t want to deprive the boys of sweets. 

I will be making this again, especially in the loaf pans to freeze and save for events when thee will be cake that the boys can not eat.

I tested a new pizza theory this past week too.  I made the usual  GF Pizza crust and then topped it with sauce and cheese.  they ate some and I froze the rest.  We get 2 pizzas out of one package of crust though.  The directions say you can store it in the fridge for a few days, but last time I did that, I couldn’t get it unstuck and spread out and it didn’t rise right.  So this time I did the pre-baking and then sliced it and froze it untopped.  Here’s the thing.  J doesn’t like it when the cheese melts into the red sauce and turns brown.  He thinks I put some kind of topping on his pizza and has a hard time believing it is just cheese and sauce.  By freezing the crust first, I can now add cool sauce and cheese to a cool crust and microwave.  The cheese stays white and he was very happy with the results last night.

This morning I made a double batch of Bob’s Red Mill Pancake Mix to celebrate the 1st day of school.  When they cool I will freeze the rest.  I also promised J that I would make Hot Dogs on a Stick (corn dogs) while he is in school so that he can have one when he gets home.

 Today or tomorrow I will also be trying a new bread recipe “Our Favorite White Bread“.  I found it on the back of Bob’s Red Mill Potato Starch package  (I ended up putting the package back though because another brand was on sale for about 1/3 of the cost but looked it up online. )  As a rule, I usually bought the kids and family, whole grain breads, but I am getting desperate.  J wants to eat sandwiches again, but our last few attempts at the Homemade Wonderful Breadhave been less than stellar.  I turned the last batch (baked in the crock-pot) into French toast and they have tolerated it, but that’s probably due to the syrup.

Some of you have asked if we are noticing behavior changes in the boys being on the diet.  NOPE.  But digestively, things are more on track.  I have noticed that on 2 occasions when someone gave J wheat snacks unknowingly, he had a headache and tummy ache the next day.

I got a new camera this weekend.  I got the perfect opportunity to take a picture tonight.

so I was trying to think of how I could show you my picture and make it relevant to my blog……

It came to me immediately that J is MY rainbow.  We had just left a terrible monsoon in our driveway and as we drove towards our friend’s house on the other side of town, the sun was shining, but there were doom and gloom clouds just on the other side of this rainbow.  Basic science: rain+sun = rainbow.  It takes both for such a beautiful outcome.  There will be no rainbow if every day is sunny and vice versa.  J is wonderful, I love him.  BUT it takes the stormy days lined with sunshine to make him who he is.  At the end of the day, no matter how frustrated I am, I gotta take the good with the bad to love him exactly how he is.

First off I just checked “my dashboard” and I hadn’t written anything in almost 3 weeks.  Unfortunately I have started many blogs in my head that never make it to the computer.  I think of them usually while driving and then when I get home, read everyone else’s blogs, and get the kids in bed, I’ve forgotten the premise of my post.  Oh well, I’ll get you caught up.

Secondly, I can’t believe that my darling J is not only 5 years old (March) but he will be starting Kindergarten TOMORROW July 14th.  We moved to a district withyear round school.  On Thursday we met with the school’s inclusion specialist and J’s teacher.  Then I went back for meet the teacher night so that I couldmeet some of the parents.  I knew that his new school was good, I didn’t know how good.  Not only does he have a wonderful teacher with plenty of energy and warmth but there is a full time aide in the classroom.  AND he will be assigned a para pro to be HIS aide.  As of Thursday it was uncertain whether his para pro would be available (since his IEP had not made it to the new school yet, they hadn’t officially hired one, but were working furiously on it) but the inclusion specialist felt that there would probably be one or two other aides in the classroom who would be able to make sure that his needs were identified and met.  We wrote an interim IEP that basically said the old one would stand with the exception of classroom placement (old one says self-contained autism classroom).  His Teacher Miss C.  is very organized and schedule oriented which is a perfect match for J and she has experience with picture schedules.  I had a question about transportation at meet the teacher.  She couldn’t answer it but directed me to the office.  On Friday morning she called me to make sure that I had gotten a satisfactory answer.  I like her.  I like a teacher that wants to stay in contact.  Transportation is not resolved yet, but the inclusion specialist offered to meet us at the parent drop off tomorrow so that he will see a familiar face.  Kindergarten is only half day and we are scheduled for afternoon class (11:35am).  I’m so glad that I don’t have to struggle to get him out of bed in the morning or into bed at night.  Now I just have to figure out when to feed him lunch.

Sorry this is all over the place.  I am excited and nervous all at once.  It will be fine, but it might be a rocky start.  He hasn’t decided if he wants to go or not.  He waivers between being excited and not wanting to go, or only wanting to go to his old school.

We will be reviewing Usborne First Experiences Going to School in the morning.

I’ll be back tomorrow to let you know how it goes.

J takes a nap most days.  Just not in his bed.  In fact he will nap almost anywhere except his bed.  His favorites are the living room couch or my bed.  If I have nothing planned for the rest of the day then in my bed is ideal because it is dark and quiet and he will get the best sleep.

More than once this week I have gotten in bed at night to find a pile of hairspray, hair gel, body lotion, body spray bottles under the covers.  He has been gathering them from the bathroom and then sleeping with them. 

I knew I should have gotten him attached to teddy bear as a baby!

This is what J told me 5 minutes ago.  I put him to bed 2 hours ago and he came out at the hour point to find some forgotten “toy” (a dowel rod/stick that is many items in his imagination).  Then I just saw his door open and I went to investigate.  He was sitting against the living room wall closest to his room.  It looked like he was asleep.  I got down on the floor to look more closely and with a deadpan voice he says, “I’m being a statue.”  I had to giggle.  Then the dog came over to investigate and he started to squirm away.  I told him if he was a statue then the dog gets to kiss him.  Otherwise he has to get up and go to bed.  He went to bed, go figure.

I pushed publish and he called out for me.  When I went to check on him he gave me this gem, “Mommy I saw lightening in my eyes.”  Yes honey thats what happens when you close your eyes at night.  “But there must be a storm outside”  no you are just seeing light in your eyes, go to sleep.  “okay, I love you”

Now as I’m typing this he comes out and says, “I’m suppose to wear pajamas.”  He usually picks them out during the bedtime routine but a couple times this past week he has gone to bed in a t-shirt so I didn’t think anything of it.  Luckily I had the rejected pair from last night sitting next to me and he put them on and is back in his room. 

One more “awakening” (I’m not sure he has been asleep yet) and I am going to have to up his dosage of melatonin.  Its obviously not working.  He didn’t nap too long today.  We got out for almost an hour’s exercise in the backyard.  He ate well.  He’s just not sleeping!  Not that I am trying to get to bed, cause I’m not, I just need him to sleep so that we can make it through tomorrow behavior wise.  We have an outing planned at naptime.  We may have to cancel if there is a case of the crankies.

I don’t recommend this as a bedtime for moms of children who get up at 7am.

Lots of things happened to cause this bedtime, the least of which that I just wasn’t sleepy.  was puttering on the computer until around 2:30am.  Then when I was about to go to bed to red a few pages, Little J came in crying and wanting to sleep with me.  Since hubby is on day shift and up at 5:30am this is a no no. I got him to potty and back in his bed along with a rice cake cause he was soooooo hungry (so he said).  Then I went to read my “few pages.”  Well turns out it was the climax and wrap up of an FBI thriller/romance book and I just couldn’t find a good stopping point.  Plus, most nights, I just read until I can’t keep my eyes open and that never happened.

So now, just plain exhausted.  I should have used my puttering time to write a blog, but I didn’t.

Tuesday we had 2 boys, who are foster kids of a friend at church, over to the house while their “mom” worked.  They were here from 8:15am - 12:30pm.  Things went REALLY well.  Usually and hour to hour and a half is all J can handle with friends and then a meltdown ensues.  We played a lot of different things including water play outside.  The boys had a blast and there were very few “hurt feelings.”  Most of those were between J and Little J.  So every one had fun and then they went home and we went to a b-day party.  When we got home we all crashed for naps.  When J woke up he was snuggling me and here is the conversation we had.

J:  I had fun today.

M:  Yeah?  What was fun today?

J:  Playing with my friends.

M:  Oh?  you liked having T and C over?

J:  Yeah.  Tonight when we pray, can you say a prayer for fun with my friends?

M:  Of course I can, but you can too.  You don’t have to say all the same words for your prayers.  You can change it just like mommy does.

J: uh huh.

When it was time for bed he said his normal words “Dear God, thank you for my friends and family.  Help God make all the things he makes.  In Jesus name, Amen.”  and then added, “I mean and thank you for the fun with my friends T and C today.”

He has been saying the first part verbatim for about a year.  His prayers used to be longer where he thanked God for family members by name and for other things around the house.  He came up with the part about helping God all by himself.  And I’ve tried to talk to him about the fact the we are talking to God so the sentence doesn’t make sense, but it does to him.  They both say prayers at night and then I follow up with one that usually includes “Thank you for all the fun we had today doing _________.  Help us get a good night sleep and be good tomorrow.”

This is the first time in a long time that he has asked for something different and specific in his prayer.  Its nice to get out of a rut.  Of course last night’s prayer was the same ole same ole but nothing exciting happened either.

The boys wanted to build a path.  They started with couch cushions, I stole one back to sit on.  They added throw pillows.  and floor pillows.

J kept saying, “There has to be more pillows around here somewhere!”  Then they raided their beds.  Still the mantra continued.  As they placed pillows on the path they would take a few walks/runs/leaps around and then declare that it wasn’t enough.  “There has to be more pillows around here somewhere!”  I drew the line at using the pillows on my bed but did send them into the spare room, which is not unpacked, on a mission to hunt pillows in the closet.  When it was all over they had close to 20 pillows/cushions/etc.  the shape of the path kept changing.  It wasn’t good enough if there was a gap between pillows.

In the end we had this covering our living room…

The dog thought they made it just for her!  She wished they’d used some blankets too.

For the perfect homemade gluten free chicken nuggets!  I know some of you have been following the saga…and some of you are thinking “why is this important news?”  Well it is a big deal in our family.  Little J has not been impressed with my previous attempts at nuggets and in an effort to add something else to the lunch rotation besides salami and hot dogs, I have tried all sorts of combinations.  I found the right texture the last time, but not the right taste.

The other day I was thinking that maybe I should try the corn based fish fry stuff in the pantry.  Then while browsing at the grocery story I came upon Zatarain’s Crispy Fish Fry.  It looked to have the perfect seasonings and I am famliar with the brand so I know it is generally flavorful for Little J with out being too spicy for J.  I also liked that the instructions did not call for a coating of egg first so I could skip the messy step.  I started with a few tenders to make sure the boys would eat them before wasting a whole bag of tenders.  They were begging for more.  I just cut up chicken tenders into 3-4 pieces shook them in a bag of the mix and dumped them in the fryer.

Every batch came out perfectly.  I didn’t have any burnt ones in the beginning or the end.  I also didn’t have any uncooked chicken centers with perfect outside.  I wanted to gobble them up for myself!!!

So the boys each had a plateful that night with honey.  They have also tried them with ranch.  I have never seen plates to clean at the end of a meal!

So for your viewing pleasure:

Don’t mind the clutter.

P.S.  We started our journey to a wheat free diet to encourage healthier bowels in Little J so that he would potty train.  Then he gave up altogether.  After a week at my parents’ house we are now about 95% accident free.  HORRAY!!!  We have bought our last package of diapers.

Hey peeps.  Its been a while.  And along with not writing, I also haven’t been reading.

Friday, Hubby and I left the boys with my parents for their first official sleep over.  (There was one other time but it began at like 10pm andended at 7am)  We left them around 2pm andI got back around 4pm on Saturday.  We took a little mini R&R at a local resort to celebrate our 9thanniversary.  Then I dropped hubby off at the airport so that he could spendthe next week with he family in San Antonio.  His baby sister is graduating from highschool this week.  The boys andI are spending the week with my family and just chilling.  My sister and her hubby andbaby are still living with my parents, so its been a full house.  But in a good way.  They should be moving into their apartment this week though.

We had a big week last week.  In terms of break through for J, we made some big leaps.  We went to the children’s museum with friends and J andthe 7 year old had a few moments of sustained, focused reciprocal play.  Also B WANTED to play with J andwas EXCITED to play with him.  We see B a few times a week in bible class andhome group settings.  BUT usually there is one or 2 other boys around that B is closer to in age andinterests so J just does his own thing.  Little J played with the younger girls of the family and we stayed at the museum over 2 hours.  This is about double the time that we normally stay.

Also, at the new rental house, we have in ground sprinklers that the boys have asked to be turned on nearly every day.  I bought a wading pool, filled it, and added a slide and we’ve turned the yard into a mini waterpark.  J who hates water in his face has spent 30 minutes at a time sliding into the pool with water splashing over him.  AND ENJOYING IT!  He wasn’t freaking out, he just wiped his face and did it again.  Yesterday we went to a friend’s house in my parents’ neighborhood to enjoy their in groundpool.  J spent the first 1/2 hour hanging out by the steps.  However, by the time we left he was swimming the length of the pool with out assistance from an adult (wearing a floatation body suit).  This is also huge, as he normally won’t go into water where he can’t touch the bottom. 

Things are going well.  We only have one more month until school starts.  His Occupational Therapists made the final transition on Wednesday.  He is doing well with the new one for the first half hour but starts to flake for the 2nd one.  I am going to give it a few more weeks before deciding what the cause is (time of day, medication, new therapist?)  HE’s only been going 2 months and has made great strides.  Last week his new therapist invited a new patient working with another therapist to join J for cooperative play on the swing.  He was a pro at the swinging and was able to give the girl tips to help her since she was at square one, where he used to be.  It was adorable and heart warming and amazing to see him be supportive of her while waiting his turn to do his favorite activity. 

So many people have commented lately about the changes they have seen in him.  I must store up these words and the things I write in my blogs to bolster me up on the days when it seems like nothing has changed.