Camille's Daily

Messy Fun

2009-06-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Did you miss me? I have been swamped with a lot of things - so I will play catch up in this post.

1. I launched a new blog - for business. It rocks and I love it. www.attachedgeneration.com It is a product review blog for attachment parenting/natural parenting/green products that I use or have tried. It is still being worked on daily to get it to where I want it, but it is happening, slowly but surely. Eventually, I will put products for sale up and hopefully have this site help bring some more income in. We will see.

2. More evaluations. I took Alex a month or so ago to his pediatrician/our family doctor (Dr. Nathan Vitaro, NMD - the best doctor I have ever known. I highly recommend him to everyone!) and went over my concerns with his developmental delays. He confirmed my thoughts that we needed to get him evaluated and hopefully start therapies with him to catch him up. We had our first screening with Early Intervention and they came back saying that we was significantly delayed in 4 of the 6 areas that they test for and scheduled more evaluations for next week. We will see how it goes and I am trying to stay positive and not have a total meltdown. Even if it is determined that he needs some EI, we are catching it extremely early and there is a ton of hope - which is what I live by - HOPE.

3. More therapies. A few days ago, we had a meeting with DDD to get Emily more therapies to help her along. I was mostly concerned with her eating, since she has completely stopped eating and makes herself vomit whenever I put food in front of her. She will be getting an evaluation done soon to determine if she gets feeding therapy or not. We will get that for her, even if we have to private pay. She did qualify for Habilitation therapy, which is AWESOME, but it means daily therapy now. 2-3 hours a day, for the next 3 months and then it will get bumped up to 3-4 hours per day. They are also wanting her to go to the special needs preschool in the fall, which will add on another 4 hours per day, totalling about 8 hours a day in school/therapy. Yeah, homeschooling is becoming more of a reality for us for sure!

OK - THE FUN STUFF!

We have been having a mild summer so far in sunny AZ and we have been taking full advantage of it - no doubt.

Painting with shaving cream...

A little down time, reading....

Today, I introduced the concept of composting with the kids. First we pulled out all of the grass (that grew from bird seed) then we got one of those industrial sized trash cans that we had laying around from our warehouse and put the grass in it. Then we added mud, spinach, green beans, water and shredded junk mail. We then went worm hunting, but didn't find anything, but we mixed up our delicious mixture of garbage and had so much fun getting messy and muddy!

Alex digging for worms...

Emily decided it would be more fun to put the shredded paper in the kiddie pool...

Shredded paper EVERYWHERE!

Our compost bin...

Ok, so I know this is not the proper way to compost and mostly did it for the messy fun and to introduce the idea to the kids. I would love to compost and if anything comes of this bin, then great! We will use it on our other non-food producing plants and have fun with it!

Here is a photo of our beans that we planted a few months back too...

They are getting big and are now viney! We have been pulling off the pods of beans as they get "ripe" and just replanting them to hopefully create even more plants. Emily loves it and understands the concept of planting. Today, she got her shovel and her watering can and we went to work. I didn't even have to tell her the steps this time, she just did it on her own! She dug a little hole, put the beans in, covered it with dirt and then watered it with her watering can. She made me so proud! :)

In My Backyard

2009-05-18T15:05:00.000-07:00

So, I do bitch and moan a lot about our backyard. Mostly due to the lack of grass for the kids to play in. I feel really bad that grass is a novelty to my kiddos. I do have to say though, that I am trying to make the best of it. Here's how:

Our beans...

These are so cool. As a messy/sensory activity with Emily, we planted dry beans in our little spot of dirt in the yard and were pleasantly surprised to see these little beauties pop right out of the ground! They are blossoming right now, but I really don't expect to be able to harvest anything. It is fun though to watch them grow.

MAMA BIRD...

This mama dove thought our shelves in the backyard were a good place to lay her egg. It happened so fast, that we didn't have a chance to gently move her nest before she laid her egg. So, we left it. Hopefully soon, we will see a baby bird chirping in there! That is pretty cool, you have to admit.

Dryin' Dipes...

These are our diapers. I really do love these things and also a bit embarrassed that diapers make me happy. I know, I am a dork. I did seriously trade my love of shoe shopping for my love of diaper shopping. GASP. With it being so hot outside now, hanging them out on the line is not only more environmentally friendly, but they dry super fast (even faster then the dryer). The sun is an amazing thing - it also takes the stinkies and the stains out of my beloved diapers. Yay for solar power!

Major

2009-05-14T18:07:00.001-07:00

Major Bed head...

Yeah, it takes me forever to comb out her hair!

Major Proof...

There is no denying... Emily had my camera.

Major Collection...

Alex loves this little walking toy and he loves filling it up with his favorite things even more! His latest collection:

1. Goat Milk
2. Favorite race car
3. Mama's broken iPhone
4. The Daddy from Emily's doll house
5. A piece of toast from breakfast

Major SUMMER FUN!!!

Its Summer Time!

2009-05-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

Here are some summer time fun pics!

Emily loves swimming and wants to do it every day, which we pretty much have been!

This is the funniest picture ever! Alex refused to eat his icecream with a spoon and ate with his hands. Then he screamed because his hands were frozen and couldn't eat anymore. Funny? Yes!

2009-04-30T23:51:00.000-07:00

UGG. I need to unpack already...

Em found my camera.. yeah! The best part? I found my USB cable so I could get the pics off of it too... double wammy! SO - Here are some pics to catch us up, yes, US since I don't remember all that I took pictures of in hopes to update my blog. Enjoy.

Emily blowing bubbles... yep, she figured it out!

Alex deciding to pull out all of my papers. YIKES. I have started scanning to get rid of all of the paperwork!

Traffic Jam - we need a light at this intersection.

There is more, but tired and want to get all of this posted... look for more later this week!

XO - Camille

Its been a BIG week!

2009-04-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

So much has happened over the past 10 days, since I blogged last. I don't know if I am coming or going at this point, but love being so busy. I have ADHD, so the busier I am, the happier I am! :) I can't find my camera, so I am totally bummed about not getting all of my cute pics for my blog uploaded. I will have to go look in the normal Emily hiding spots.

We celebrated Spring on the traditional Easter holiday. Easter and Passover were days apart this year, so we kind of just chilled and did nothing religious! Emily decorated hard-boiled eggs with fingerpaint and then we had fun having egg hunts over and over again. She thought I was the best mom ever with the cool game I showed her! :)

We have decided to have Emily start the special needs preschool in the fall instead of right now. She will only get a few weeks of it before summer break and I get to keep my baby home for a bit longer. I am still toying with the idea of homeschooling her, since we are having such a good time doing it now, but we will see. Eric and I have the whole summer to figure it out. My biggest concern is that she will be overwhelmed with school 4 hours/4 days a week and then her private therapies on top of that. We hope to get HAB therapy started within the next few months too, so we are looking at another 4 hours a week of just therapy on top of the 16 hours she would have with school. 20 hours a week sounds more like a job, and I am not totally comfortable with doing that to her at 3.

WE ARE NOT MOVING. We have a new agreement with the mortgage company that is good for six months, so we will take advantage of the agreement and then figure out what we will do afterwards. I am thinking that we will end up moving around Thanksgiving time, but we will see how the months ahead play out. Now to start UNPACKING. Yikes.

I am a little bummed, but also excited to be taking back my house and really putting some TLC back into it. First thing I did was pull the weeds out of our yard and I started planning out the projects I have yet to finish on the house. I am not going crazy, since we won't be here much longer, but perhaps finishing the paint job in our living room might be in order. Perhaps I won't be as embarrassed to have people over if there is more then just primer on the walls. I am debating if it will be worth it since my little Van Gogh would probably add her mark to them.

Ok, so my friend Joseph got me on Twitter too. So... now I blog, Tweet and Post on Facebook and I am loving every minute of it. The only problem is that I am running out of things to say! Follow me! mamaofautism on twitter; camille edelman on Facebook, and if you are reading this, you already know my blog address!

Are We Too Good for Your Home?

2009-04-08T23:39:00.000-07:00

During our time at house hunting-land, I am finding that I must be a snob. We have been looking at house after house and I am finding something at each house that bugs me and I think that we can't possibly live there. We looked at another one today and it sounded good until we got there and the place was trashed in my opinion. Stains on the carpet, the counters were chipped and needed replaced, parts of the tiling on the floor was stained and needed replacing, it just felt dirty. THEN - we got home and I realized that our house was MUCH WORSE then the house that we just left. Apparently, we are too good for YOUR house, but not too good for OURS.

The need to blog

2009-04-02T18:25:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in almost a week and I am feeling the withdrawl, for sure! There are a few topics that I have been thinking about posting, but I think I am just going to do little snippits of what has been going on this week and keeping me away...

1. We have more time! Thankfully, our move has been delayed another 2.5 weeks, so that will give us more time to find a house! YEAH! We have been frantically searching online for homes and will hopefully find something soon.

2. WORDS! Emily has had a word EXPLOSION and it has been so much fun listening to her talk and talk. She is still incredibly behind, but my days with her have really been much less frustrating, now that I can usually make out a piece of what she is saying. Some major words that have helped are - MILK, STUCK, BIRD and YES. Stuck has been my favorite by far. She really does need help and will say in her little tiny voice - I tuck, I tuck! I am trying to get it on video and hopefully will soon.

3. ALEX IS A WALKER! FINALLY! I am pretty excited that he has decided to take his first steps. He is still crawling for the most part, but if I work with him a bit, he will take a few steps before falling to his knees and crawling the rest of the way. Emily didn't really go through this phase at all. She started taking steps and before we knew it, she was walking 100% and a couple of weeks later, she was running and hasn't slowed down since. I hope he keeps trying to walk at least - he seems to prefer crawling. I love to see his little ET walk though. I did get it on video and will work on getting it posted soon!

We have had a pretty busy week so far and think it will continue to be busy.

WTF? Please don't let this be happening.

2009-03-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

I have been having a rough time over the last week or so. Mostly due to Emily getting up earlier (the sun is rising earlier) and coming in to wake me and Alex up, but also because I have been noticing another little Emily arising.

Alexander has been acting more and more like Emily which scares the bejeezus out of me. I keep telling myself that he is just "imitating" his big sis, but I am expecting the worst as the days go by and his behavior and abilities are eerily similar. I am trying not to think the worst - and lets face it, there could be a lot worse things then him acting like Emily, but I can't help but think something isn't right.

So to explain what I am talking about and to show the behaviors that they are similar with, I have made a list. I have also included some of the physical delays that Alex has that Emily didn't have.

First word - "Oh no". Still no mama or dada, or any other word. Same as Emily.

Cycles of sleep. He will nap for a few weeks, not nap for a few months. Up until midnight or later - he rarely sleeps. Same as Emily at that age.

Hand flapping. Same as Emily.

Crawls around in circles when he gets excited. Emily was walking/running by his age, so she would (and still does) run in circles uncontrollably when she gets excited or overwhelmed.

Eats non-edible items. Mostly, soap, lotions, etc. Emily still eats these things and Alex has started to actually eat them, not just baby mouth them. Thank goodness we are pretty much chemical free in the home!

Showing texture preferences in food. Emily has a lot of texture issues when it comes to her food. Alex is starting to really be very particular about his food, which he was never before. He is still eating more then she does, but she used to eat A TON when she was his age.

In addition to these similarities, Alex has some physical delays as well. He still cannot sit on his bottom by himself. He will sit there if I put him in that position and only for a few seconds. He usually sits on his knees. He is also not walking yet and not really showing any signs of doing it anytime soon. He is able to stand on his own, for about 20 seconds, but will not step on his own at all.

So, I may be overreacting since Alex is only 15 months old. I keep telling myself that it will be ok, he will be fine, calm down. It is still too early to get any testing done, it is much better to wait a bit, but I don't want to wait too long! We didn't get Emily evaluated until she was almost 3 and I have always regretted not getting her in sooner. If Alex does have some issues, I would rather we get him help soon.

I know that if he did turn out to have any form of Autism, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it certainly would change my world all over again. I love Emily so much and I love Alex so much too - it will be ok, Camille, it will be ok.

Party Like Its My Birthday...

2009-03-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Today, I am 27 and feel like I am older then ever (wait, I am older then ever). We are dirt poor right now, so I wasn't expecting anything extravagant for my birthday. The only thing I had planned was to pack and move boxes into the storage unit, since they are picking up our PackRat tomorrow. I was pleasantly surprised to actually have such a great day! Here is how it went down.

5:30 am - Emily woke me up and wouldn't leave me alone until I got up. Not so fun.
7:30 am - Eric woke up and we just chilled for a bit before getting breakfast ready.
8:30 am - Alex woke up in a really good mood, which NEVER happens. He is cranky in the morning usually.

9:00 am - EDITED
10:00 am - We got the kids dressed and headed to the park for the morning. It was so much fun! I take Em and Al to the park 2-3 times a week, but it was really nice to have Daddy with us this time. I didn't have to chase Emily around everywhere while trying to play with Alex. 1 to 1 is so much easier! :) We played ball - Emily has gotten the Dutson gene with baseball, that is for sure!

11:30 am - Headed home for lunch. I made lunch, changed diapers and just relaxed for a bit. It was nice.
12:30 pm - Alex went down for his nap, while Emily watched TV upstairs while I packed and loaded the storage unit.
2:00 pm - Writing in my Blog and taking a break.

So, that has been my day so far. Seriously, it has been great. I know, I know - how could that day be so great? It seems so "normal". I guess it is because we haven't seen "normal" in a very long time. Yay for NORMAL!

Thanks to all of my buddies and fam for sending me birthday wishes. I won't lie, I hope 27 treats me a lot better then 26 did. So here's to another year older, another year wiser and another year of love, motherhood and great friends. Peace.

To School or Not To School

2009-03-23T14:55:00.000-07:00

Today we had Emily's last evaluation with the school district to see if and what she qualifies for with the special needs program there. After yet another evaluation that lasted a good 2 hours today, they determined that she is delayed enough to qualify for preschool in the special needs classroom. There are two levels of the special needs program. The first level is a larger classroom (up to 18 kids) will all but three with some learning/developmental disability. The other 3 spots are for typicals (the PC word for normal/average developing children) to be used as peer role models. The second level is much smaller (only up to 6 kids) and focuses on visual learning and working with children who have significant sensory issues and severe development delay. It was requested that Emily would be put in the second level classroom. I was overjoyed that they knew that she really wouldn't do well in the larger classroom (mostly due to the fact she doesn't mingle well with other children). I was afraid that they would try to put her in the larger classroom to sink or swim. I was glad that they understood that she needed to take baby steps.

The bad from the meeting - I don't understand why everyone one (in-laws, state coordinators, etc) are pushing so much for Emily to be away from me during the day. Am I toxic to her or something? All of the therapists and child psychologist stated that she is ready to learn and needs to be in preschool amongst her peers and away from home, etc.

I know Emily needs structure right now, which is why we are even considering sending her to preschool, but I swear if I hear one more person say to me - "She needs to be around people during the day, other then mom" or "aren't you excited to be getting a break from her?", I am going to go postal. NEWS FLASH - Stay At Home Moms (SAHM) are never home. We are out running errands, appointments, playgroups, playdates, etc. If I didn't make us stay home at least one day a week so we can recharge, we would never be home. Emily gets lots of socialization - we aren't hermits.

Maybe I am complaining too much or maybe the fact that I have gained a boat load of weight and look like a mess all the time provide that assumption. I don't know. We have our bad days, but I absolutely love being at home with my kids. I just don't want to miss anything or my baby while she is at school.

We are willing to send her to the special needs preschool, but I would really like to try homeschooling/unschooling her at some point. I have been reading a lot about it and talking with my other mama friends who do it and I think it will be such a great experience for me and my kids. I know Emily has needs that I may not be able to provide her right now, but you better believe that I will do everything I can to do some sort of alternative schooling somehow.

This brings up another thought. Why are our babies expected to be grown up so early? I remember not so long ago researching Mommy & Me classes to get some Mommy and Emily time in right after Alex was born. We looked at the Jewish Community Center, since they also have a good preschool program and wanted to get info about that too. I remember in the introduction meeting and having the coordinator person explain to me that I needed to get Emily in right away to "preschool". She was BARELY 2 and I was told that I was starting late in the game. WHAT? I thought anything earlier then 4 was daycare and why on earth would I send my child to daycare when I am a SAHM? What is the point? The JCC was just an example and I have gotten that "lecture" many times before. I was shocked to say the least. I just don't understand why we as mothers are supposed to get our kids "off the nipple" so early. No breastfeeding after the age of 1, they need to be in their crib and sleeping through the night by 6 weeks old or no more then 3 months. It is recommended to give them shots for things that they really can't get until they are sexually active (unless family history, exposure, etc.) - why a 4 month old would need this, I don't know.

Why can't I just mother the way that feels natural and right to me without getting a bunch of crap for it? I don't judge other moms - to each their own, why do others judge me?

Ok, getting off my soap box.

Therapy and Moving

2009-03-22T11:50:00.000-07:00

Originally written on March 18th, 2009

Yet another month has passed and I need to update again. :)

Emily is now ALTCS approved (YEAH!) for services, meaning that the Federal Government has decided that she is in need enough to pay for therapy. It was bittersweet news. I was happy that we are getting the help that she needs, especially since there is no way we would be able to private pay for any of it. On the other hand, it just broke my heart all over again to hear that she is delayed enough to need federal money, which isn’t all that easy to get. I look at her and see how special she is and how truly smart she is and know that there is so much going on in that little brain of hers - I just wish she could let it out. It has forced me to become a better mother though and I enjoy each small accomplishment that she does.

Today she helped me “pack” and picked up all of her toys and put them in a plastic bag for me. I thought it was quite cute. She has been doing that a lot over the last week or so (since I started really packing up the house). Every once in a while, she will come over to the box that I am putting things in and help me with it. Then she will take the marker and color “Oswald” on it. Oswald is a favorite show of hers and he is an octopus, so it is fun seeing her develop her artistic skills on our moving boxes. She is getting pretty good and I can even make out what she is drawing most of the time.

Alex is trying to stand on his own. He is getting better and better each day. It is hard for him since big sis usually comes over and knocks him down as soon as he starts trying. I have been “practicing” with him after she goes to bed and it is safe. He gets the best grin on his face when he does it for more then a couple of seconds. Hopefully, walking will shortly follow. He is almost 15 months, so I am starting to get worried because he isn’t walking yet.

The move - yeah, we are moving. We have no idea where yet, but we have to be out of our house next week. I think we are going to go stay in an extended stay type of hotel to get us by until we find a house. It really has been fun packing (I know, I am twisted, right?) only because my house has never been cleaner or more organized! I am actually looking forward to staying in a hotel for a bit and having HOUSEKEEPING! :) I am going to get so spoiled.

The good thing though is that I am trying to pick up a few more clients for Graphic Design work. Since I won’t be cleaning, perhaps I will really have more time to devote to growing my hobby, I mean business.

2009-03-22T02:13:00.000-07:00

Originally written on February 22, 2009

So - 8 months have gone by and I feel completely horrible about not keeping this up. It is the story of my life - I seem to quit everything. I really feel that this is important for my kids and I really am going to keep it up. Sorry, kiddos!

So, Alex is now 1, Emily is 3. I am not going to be able to go back and fill in all of the blanks, but will just highlight where they are at now and have this be our new starting point. Life has been quite busy over the past year, but it has been fun, exhausting, weird, anxious, enlightening, enriching, loving and well its... MOTHERHOOD.

Here we go -

Emily. As I stated above, she is now three. Let's get her condition out there, so that the rest of this entry and blog will make sense. Emily was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD - Autism) last December and tested at the moderate level on the spectrum. She is non-verbal, which has caused many, many frustrating moments with her (from both ends) and also some really exciting ones! Every new word is such a miracle and such a special moment, that I cry like a baby each and every time. She is our little princess. As it can be imagined, it is really hard to mother her too. Every day is a battle, a frustration and exhausting. I cannot imagine how difficult life is for her and not being able to communicate her wants and needs to me right away. We play the guessing game and that doesn’t go without many tantrums. She is very opinionated (which I think is awesome - she is going to be such a confident woman; she KNOWS what she wants) and there is no stopping her or changing of her mind once her mind is made up. These traits are both positive and negative. I am learning how to mother her differently to hopefully be able to teach her and raise her to be a great lady. Since her diagnosis is so recent, we haven’t started her in any official therapy due to funds not being available. The therapies that have been recommended are Habilitation (ABA approach), Speech, Occupational Therapy, Play Therapy, Music Therapy and the Special Needs Program through the school district. Private pay is not an option for us right now (seriously, who has an extra three grand or so a MONTH laying around in this economy). We paid for her testing so far and would be willing to do what it takes to get her help, but we wanted to see if she would qualify for ALTCS (Arizona Long Term Care System) to fund some of the therapies she needs. We were notified on Thursday that she did qualify and we are really excited to get her started. We have been told that is is just a matter of a week or two and then she will be able to start her therapies. As of now, she needs Speech, Occupational Therapy, Habilitation Therapy, Music Therapy and Play Therapy. We will most likely have to pay for music and play, but as long as she gets the others paid for, then the rest will come as we can. So, when I blog about something that may be a little, not significant milestone - it is HUGE to us. I do talk about her condition a lot, just to promote awareness, but I will try not to turn this into an Autism blog. :)

Alex. Alex is such a baby still, but trying to live life as a preschooler. He wants to do everything that Emily does and then some! He is infatuated with her and even though she isn’t always nice to him (ok, really, she isn’t nice to him most of the day), his face just lights up when she does pay attention to him (which really is rare). He is constantly eating, which is funny to me because he is so thin! He must have the fastest metabolism ever - no joke. He also came with his own sound effects He has this adorable Cookie Monster like noise that he makes every time he eats. It is like AMCH, AMCH AMCH, AMCH. He makes a huge mess too, so he really is my little cookie monster! :) He is cruising furniture right now, but doesn’t seem to have any desire to walk yet. He is still learning how to balance on his feet and is happy to crawl to get around. We are also moving next month. YIKES! We haven’t found a house yet that we like, but we are going to have to be out of this house in about 4 weeks. How does anyone pack and have children? A mystery I hope to find the answer to!

New Blog!

2009-03-22T02:01:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Camille's Daily!

I decided to jump on the bandwagon and get my blog going and updated. I started a blog right after Alex was born, but failed miserably to keep it up. I really was shocked on how much more it took to go from 1 to 2 kids! I have started updating it again and found that my MobileMe account is no longer active. So, instead of waiting for my dear husband to move the hosting to our personal server, I decided to start a new blog and keep the old one for photos, etc. Perhaps when Eric does move it over, I will have this one be more of what I am up to/daily doses and use the other for family to post recent photos and the like. We will see.

The other blog/website is www.theedelmanfamily.com. Seriously, I love iWeb and my Mac!

So after saying all of that, these first few posts are going to be what got "lost" between the two blogs and will update you on what we are doing now.