absent.

I have been completely unavailable. I started this blog for a couple of reasons. I wanted to have a central place to keep friends and family up to date on the happenings of my children and my life. And what I learned pretty quickly was that it was also a great place to vent, share information and just feel better about things. How disappointed that I haven't made the time to do this lately. It truly has been one thing after another.....but, ugh, no excuses.

Catch up:

Noah finished school. Very emotional. Before that though there was an "incident" with the physical therapist. It was very ugly and I have to say that this woman got under my skin like no one had in a very long time. No sleeping, stressed, upset... she certainly did know what to say to push my buttons. I am disappointed I let her get to me the way that she did. I now have put it behind me (sort of-- ok, I'm desperately trying) and am trying to look forward to next year. It's the end of IVE (independent varying exceptionalities) and the beginning of General Education. I hope we are doing the right thing for Noah. It's so scary. I have faith that he needs to be given this chance.

We spent some time in Columbus visiting family. Joe's grandmother hasn't been feeling too well and we wanted to be sure to see her. She reassured us of her steadfast and amazing spirit with her glowing smile and strong grip. It was wonderful and emotional to see her.

While in Ohio I saw two of my favorite girls-- thank you C and J for making me laugh more than I have in a long time. The wine, the conversation (accompanied with tears from laughing) and of course, the striped, yellow pants. Ah, I loved it.

Summer has surely kicked off here in Florida. It's so unbearably hot. and humid. and did I mention, hot?? HOT. HOT. HOT. We got a solar heater installed for the pool (not that we need it this time of year) and a salt water filtration system. That means NO MORE CHLORINE! ahhh... it's nice to go into the pool and not feel like your skin is burning off from the chemicals. The salt is about one teaspoon to every gallon so you hardly notice it. Noah starts swimming lessons next week-- he's doing one-on-one classes with a recreational therapist.

Speaking of classes, I am starting Reese in swim classes (group) next month and she is also wanting to do dance. Doc says no ballet and she keeps saying she wants tap shoes. We'll see... She also loves to sing. No one can sing Twinkle, Twinkle better than my Reese!

I have learned over the past few weeks that you can use bribes, er.. incentives, to convince your children to go potty. Noah has been pee trained for a year. He rarely has a mishap. But pooping has been awful. The doc said to make sure it's soft and don't give him a hard time about it because he'll get a complex. So we did that. "Use a chart" many said. So we did that. Some said to grab him and take him to the toilet when we see him "trying." We did that. Gosh, we did everything we could think of. I had a "potty bag" that contained special gifts if he went poop on the potty. We're not talking candy and matchboxes. Wii games, significant toys, etc. Although he enjoyed that, it wasn't enough. He didn't care. He could sit in poop and be happy. I was at a loss. Then one day it clicked. He is OBSESSED with the computer (he's Gateway Joe's son after all) and plays playhousedisney.com and nickjr.com. He's always been so good at computer type stuff and I think that's why he loves it. It gives him great confidence. But I limit how much he can have it and he HATES that. Then the light bulb... he can only have the computer if he poops on the potty. whoa. revelation. It started out rough and he still has accidents, but he has gotten so much better. And lately he wakes up and runs to the bathroom (many grunts later I hear "I DID IT!!!!")-- and sure enough, he has done it. He makes himself poop to get the computer. And they are getting more and more frequent and bigger. I know, tmi, but seriously, this is huge. And come to find out, Reese is 2 and 1/2 and apparently she should be potty training too. Are you kidding me???

Reese starts part-time pre-k in just a couple of months. She will love it. I can't talk about it yet. My baby is growing so fast. :(

Our beloved OT Ms. Cheri left the therapy center Noah goes to. Her last day was so very emotional. Noah didn't understand it. I couldn't explain it. But I knew what it meant. How much she meant. And it was difficult.

I almost forgot...

My short response I wrote to RealSimple.com got posted on their site. Go to the site and "your words" and it's under "what money can't buy." Or you can just go to the link:

http://www.realsimple.com/work-life/your-words/best-thing-money-cant-buy-00000000013632/index.html