Curse of the pregnant gimpy woman

Well friends, it's finally happened...
I have become a complete and total cliche.
It all happened on Thursday night as I carried a load of laundry toward my basement. This laundry you see, really needed to be done or there would have been a clothing emergency the following day. I had recently made a rule that Kurt is the official laundry basket carrier at least until December 30th, when the little Dommlet is supposed to make an appearance. However, this laundry REALLY needed to be done, and Kurt was playing basketball.
So, I ventured down from upstairs and was on the home stretch toward the basement, when after taking a step I was surprised to find myself airborne.
This was nothing compared to the surprise of landing on my poor defenseless left ankle. I was surprised again as a few choice words left my mouth, amid a few gasps at what seemed to be quite a lot of pain associated with said landing.
After crawling up the stairs and making it to the couch I called Kurt a few times and he finally came home. He got me some frozen peas for the ankle and helped me up to bed (after we watched The Office and 30 Rock, because somehow it was really important that I still watch both of these shows) and I spent the night wondering how the fall actually happened. Was it weird center of gravity? Did the stairs suddenly become a slide? Did I need to prove to myself (yet again, because I have sprained this ankle before) that gravity works? I'm still a little flabbergasted.
So anyway - the ankle has been examined by a doctor and x-rayed and it's not broken, so my grandiose dreams for running after the baby is born are still on track. I have a brace and a lovely pair of crutches that will be my constant companions for the next few weeks, and then hopefully we can just chalk this up to my inherent clumsiness becoming more pronounced with pregnancy. Because in addition to impaired walking ability and some pain, I really hate to be called gimp, and also to be reminded (thanks Dad!) that if Grandpa Jack were here he would have a few things to say about my little spill. These opinions would be along the line of :
"No use being clumsy unless you can show it."
"Come here and I'll pick you up."
and
"It could have been worse; it could have been me."
Also, how embarrassing would it be if I actually did this again AFTER the baby was born?!

All About Aiden

I'm slightly embarrassed that it's taken me this long to blog about the happenings of last month, but can I plead clemency based on the fact that my computer takes FOREVER to load my digital pictures? I don't flatter myself that you read this blog for the witty content, dear reader, but for the pictures of my adorable kidlets that I try to post each time.

Anyway - the end of September was all about Aiden. He is loving Kindergarten and making lots of friends and amazing me with all that he's learning. On September 26th, he turned 5!!!! We had a "friend and family" party, and sent out invitations and everyone had a blast. Aiden's great love right now is Spiderman, so of course we had to send out Spidey invitations, and have cupcakes with spider webs on top and so on and so forth. It was so strange to think that he was 5 - my BABY is five! He loved opening his presents and playing with his friends and is now counting the days until his next birthday, though we keep telling him that it won't happen until next year.
Oohing and aahing over his presents. This was his favorite part of the party.
Having some cupcakes and other treats...

Also in September, our school district sent out a notice about a lacrosse program for K - 6th grade that went for 5 weeks. Kurt played lacrosse all through school and so we asked Aiden if he wanted to do it. He thought that was a cool idea, and so every Saturday for about an hour and a half he's been at the high school turf field practicing his skills. Kurt said he was a little nervous on the first day, but one of his good buddies from preschool was there and then he was fine. He got a t-shirt for participating, and was showing it off to everyone today - very cute! Anyway - he had all the gear and we got him a mouthguard and ahem, athletic supporter. (good times, he didn't want to wear it till Kurt pointed out to him that if anyone hit him down there he wouldn't feel a thing. Somehow that was the coolest thing.) So - here is a picture of him in all his gear with his friend. I hope that he continues to play lacrosse and maybe one day we'll be going to his games!
Happy Birthday Aiden! We love you! (um, he's the one in the Spiderman shirt)

News News News

Everyone send a warm welcome over the internet to my very adorable and sweet nephew Troy!
He was born Thursday September 3rd and though less than a week old, seems to have a nice mellow personality. Congratulations to my in-laws Robyn and Terrence on their bouncing baby boy!
SO CUTE!

The First Day of School, Team Domm style
I also had to share our experiences today - since it was the first day of Kindergarten for Aiden, and the first day of preschool for Owen.
Now, let me preface this little account by saying that I don't normally think of myself as ditzy, but after today I'm not so sure.
Aiden was antsy all morning waiting for school time to come. He got dressed in his new Spiderman shirt and jeans, we put his school supplies in his backpack and got ready to go. He was oh-so-excited to catch the school bus, and imagine the anticipation we felt as the bus came driving down the street! The bus stops in front of the house, and the following conversation happened:
Bus Driver: "Are you waiting to get picked up for school?"
Me (Thinking that this was a strange question on the first day of school.): "Yes."
Bus Driver: Well, we don't pick up the PM Kindergartners today. I'm just driving the route to make sure I know it."
Me: (admittedly perplexed at first, and then realization begins to dawn.) "Okay...."
In the dim reaches of my brain, something about taking Aiden to school on the first day begins to float up. I tell Aiden that he will get to ride the bus home, but I will take him to school. So I go and look through the pile of papers that I got about Kindergarten and yes, right there on letter 29B is the information that I'm supposed to be driving to Aiden to school. And we're going to be late. My dad, bless him, was early to watch Connor, since Kurt and I were going to Owen's school for his first-day "Meet the teacher" stuff.
Kurt meets us at home, and we take off, convinced that Aiden is going to be late on the first day. We get to his school and see a few students still standing around outside. I get out of the car, and get him and once we are walking toward the school doors, a helpful aide tells us that they're not going to let students into the building for oh, another ten minutes or so. Apparently I also forgot that Kindergarten starts slightly later on the first day than usual. Unfortunately, the time they will be allowing Aiden to enter the school is the exact time Kurt, Owen and I are supposed to at Owen's school.
So, I'm feeling a little flustered at this point, but we take some pictures outside the school and I walk Aiden in, giving him a big hug and starting him on his journey through the public school system. I would like to say that I got teary-eyed and starting humming "Sunrise, sunset" as I raced to the van, but I didn't. I was just hoping that Aiden would have a wonderful time, and not do anything that would cause him to get sent to the principal's office.
So, we make it to Owen's school about ten minutes later. Luckily he only had school for about an hour today, and the whole time consisted of playing with all the cool toys in his classroom. So - he was pretty much happy. We got to meet his teacher and I signed up on the class calendar for what I thought was snacktime. No, apparently I will be at the school on those days as the parent helper (something that will happen monthly). The only dates that were left on the calendar were this Thursday and Friday. Fabulous!
Aiden rode the bus home and said that he had a great time at school. He played with play-dough, made a crown and played restaurant. He also talked about the playground and said that he really liked his teacher.
Owen enjoyed the toys at school and fell asleep on our way home.
So, first-day success is ours!
Here are pictures of my grownup boys:


Seriously though, am I a ditz or just preoccupied? Anyway, we hope that everyone had a great first day of school!

Summer Tales

Hello. So, here I am once again. It's slightly after the tomorrow that I promised in my last post, but here ya go - this is what we've been doing this summer!

I'm feeling lazy, so this is mostly pictures. I'm not sure if they're in order, but does that really matter?

We celebrated Owen's 3rd birthday and thoroughly enjoyed cupcakes and opening presents!

We had tons of fun with Aunt Jennifer and Uncle Adam when they came to see us...
Aunt Jen and Connor at the zoo
The boys in front of the sea lion exhibit

Chillin' with Uncle Adam

Going on our first family road trip to Tennessee. It was so fun to see Uncle Nate, Aunt Tracy and Dallin and Tyler! (thanks for being such great hosts guys!) We discovered that portable DVD players are the best invention ever, and that Connor sometimes gets carsick.

Playing in Nate and Tracy's back yard.

Helping Daddy fix the truck.

Playing with our pool in the backyard.

Eating scrambled eggs and doughnuts in our underwear.

Finding the mud after a rainstorm.

Watching our garden grow!

MayDay

Wow, don't fall over in shock! I know, two posts in two days - this is quite unlike me. However, I did promise to catch you up, so here you go.

In May, we watched proudly as Aiden graduated from preschool. I got a bit teary-eyed (darn pregnancy hormones!) and can't believe that he will start Kindergarten in September! Unfortunately my camera chose that day to stop working, so here is a picture from the Mother's Day Luau at Aiden's preschool. It was my favorite activity for the whole year and so fun!

May was also in a big way all about Owen.

Since November he has been receiving speech therapy twice a week. In February he started with occupational therapy. We were concerned about his lack of speech at age 2, and also a couple of other behaviors that he was showing. So, thanks to our county's Early Intervention program we had him assessed and he tested as having speech and motor skill delays and some sensory issues. The assessment team was also concerned about a few things and referred us to a developmental pediatrician. In December I called to make an appointment with this pediatrician, but we couldn't get in to see him until May!

We started with therapy and Owen did well, making slow progress in his speech and with his other issues. I waited impatiently for our appointment in May, and when the day finally arrived, I was nervous. What was this pediatrician going to tell us?

We were at the doctor's office with Owen for almost two hours. Dr. Sulkes was very nice and asked us lots of questions, and then spent time testing Owen. Once he had consulted with a few other people on his team, he gave us the diagnosis. Owen has Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified.

So what is this? It's one of five developmental disorders (also known as Autism Spectrum Disorders) that impair a child's ability to communicate and interact with others. PDD-NOS is diagnosed when a child shows some signs of autism, but they aren't severe enough to be considered classical autism and he doesn't show symptoms that would be specific to the other disorders on the Spectrum. Owen is on the autism spectrum, but according to Dr. Sulkes, just barely. He's considered high-functioning.

Once we got the diagnosis, May was mostly about trying to understand what this meant for our family, and what this meant for Owen. Would he outgrow it? Would he get worse? Was this disorder somehow stealing our son from us? For all of these, the answer is we don't know.

Autism spectrum disorders are mysterious. They're on the rise among children. They tend to run in families - if you have one child on the spectrum, your chances increase that you will have another child on the spectrum. No one knows what causes ASDs, though there is a genetic component to the disorder. Usually children don't manifest symptoms of an autism spectrum disorder until after they're a year old - for that first year, they seem to develop normally. There are some parents of children on the spectrum that believe their child's disorder was caused by vaccinations they received. Right now there is no cure for autism or the other disorders on the spectrum.

I was sad, and grieving - I guess for an Owen that didn't really exist. My expectations of what he will be able to experience in his life had to change and I kind of had to throw "normal" out the window. I envied Kurt, because he was confident that Owen would be fine, and that this wasn't going to change his life too much. I felt like I was lacking in faith. And I had an overwhelming desire to talk about it - but no words. I still don't know if it's even a good idea to post about it. What if you, dear readers, think that I am just looking for sympathy? What if having a child with a few special needs isn't really that big of a deal?

But then there are the blessings:

Owen's therapists are amazing! Because of our county's early intervention program we were able to receive speech and OT in our home at no cost. Now that Owen is three, our school district takes over, and he will continue with home therapy and well as have the opportunity to go to an integrated preschool five days a week where he will also receive speech and OT.

We live in an area that has an abundance of resources that we can use, in fact I've heard from two different sources that parents of children with special needs move to Rochester because the resources and services are so good. I know now this is one of the reasons why Kurt and I always felt like Rochester was the best place for us to be.

We have an amazing support network of family and friends who love Owen.

And lastly, I feel blessed to be learning so much about child development and the brain and behavior and sensory stuff. My reading list keeps getting longer and I now know cool acronyms like IEP, IFSP, SID, ASD, RECDC, and cool words like cognitive and neurotypical. It gets a little overwhelming sometimes, but I know now what it means to be an advocate for your child.(thanks to my mother-in-law for that phrase!)

As long as Owen keeps giving me full-body hugs and smiles and thumbs-up, we'll be okay. He is making progress - since November his speech has improved from being at the severely delayed level to a moderate delay. (Did I say that his therapists are awesome?!) He is my beautiful, gentle second boy.

Here's a picture of him that Aiden took - he actually got him to smile for a picture!

Also, if you're interested in learning more about autism spectrum disorders these are two of the best websites around:
Autism Society of America

http://www.autism-society.org/

Autism Speaks

http://www.autismspeaks.org/

More tomorrow - we start talking about June - oh boy!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

So do you have a Christmas song running through your head? I know that August is a little early to be thinking of Christmas, but I have the holiday season on my mind.

You see, we're expecting another member to Team Domm to arrive on or about December 30th!

My apologies for not spreading the joyful news via blog earlier, and in general sadly neglecting to share my thoughts with the bloggerverse. We have been occupied with big things and small things and eating lots of popsicles. I will post about the summer this week and then will try to be more timely in my posts. (Heaven forbid that I continue to have people heckling me about lack of posts) But I won't promise. I can't

As pregnancies go, this one has been smooth sailing so far. The usual symptoms, though I am glad for the small burst of energy that I've had this summer. I'm 20 weeks this week, and got to do one of my favorite pregnancy things last week - have an ultrasound.

I love ultrasound. It's so fun to see the baby and watch them move and wiggle and listen to the sonographer pointing out body parts. The baby is beautiful and seems to have all the right parts. Including some special parts that make it possible for me to announce:

WE'RE HAVING A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yes, that's boy #4 for Team Domm. Apparently we do a pretty good job making them. So, that's the first big thing that we've been occupied with this summer. There will be more to tell tomorrow.

Spring Fling

After some gentle hints from a cousin of mine, here I am again. I really meant to post before now, but somehow manage to fill my days and before I know it I'm ready to go to sleep and the blog can wait until tomorrow. It's amazing how busy you get with three kids. ("You must be busy" is the most common thing that I hear when I venture out into the public with Team Domm. The second most common thing is "God Bless you". Except, I have no idea what that means. Bless me for having kids? Boys? Taking them places and putting up with their hijinks?)

So, I've become enamored with the whole concept of gardening. I have seedlings for tomatoes, eggplant, green peppers and other stuff growing on my window sill. Kurt has dug a large hole in the backyard for said seedlings and we actually paid someone to dump a big dirt hill by the large hole so that we have good soil. (Necessary, since I happened to choose to put our garden spot in the middle of a grass and topsoil-covered gravel driveway. With brick underneath. And then was forbidden by Kurt to pick another place to dig.) I am thrilled with our orange tulips in the front yard, and that I have peony bushes coming up by the side of the house. I have a large plastic bag full of seeds that will go into the ground as soon as the last frost is over. I LOVE this! I am reading books and planning to compost and already bugging my mom about canning the wonderful vegetables and fruits that are sure to grow this summer.


Gardening reminds me of dear great-grandparents and grandparents who were blessed with green thumbs. I hope I have inherited their ability, because I want to realize the beautiful blooming garden that I see in my mind's eye.


So -send good thoughts to my seedlings, because they are still looking pretty spindly! Which leads me to the horrible thought: What if NOTHING grows? Okay moving on...


My sister-in-law Kelly had the great idea of taking some family pictures a few nights ago. There is a local park filled with flowering trees, daffodils, and tulips. Pretty soon its hundreds of lilac bushes will burst into bloom and the park will be filled to the brim with people for the Lilac Festival. But a few nights ago, it was in the upper 70's, and a beautiful night. There were people out enjoying the park, and we got a few good pictures of our family:

including, this one of Connor which might just be the cutest picture ever!

My brother-in-law helpfully pointed out that I might be feminizing Connor a bit by seating him among the daffodils, but I don't think so. This much cuteness overrules any feminization.(not a word I know, but it fits.) Anyway this is the cutest picture I, with my humble photography talents, have ever taken and I LOVE it!

Also, I would publicly like to acknowledge my dear husband Kurt for digging the large hole in the backyard, and hauling all the old driveway gravel to the dump. I was not properly appreciative when the hole was initially dug, and am hoping that this public display of gratitude will make up for that fact. Kurt, you are the best hole digger and gravel hauler that I know. Thank you for digging the hole. Thanks for making the hole bigger when I said that 4 foot by 8 foot was too small. I owe you for the gravel haulage. I promise that I will make you Eggplant Parmesan if our eggplants grow. I love you!