So potty-training is all the rage in our house right now. I’m so excited I could hyperventilate, even if I had a pulse oximeter on hand, haha. So yesterday afternoon Ryan came to me complaining about the fit of his cloth diaper, and next thing I know he’s sitting on the toilet, and then he peed. He went again at Target, and several times since then. He’s had several accidents as well, so I know this won’t be an overnight accomplishment, like it was for Alyssa.

So… how do you go about potty training an autistic child? The biggest thing is consistency, of course. Plenty of positive reinforcement works wonders, too. I want to come up with some type of reward chart. Speaking of charts, I want to have two charts on hand. Tonight I’m going to create a records-keeping chart like the one TEACCH has featured on their website, and then tomorrow I’m going to print out a fun one for Ryan to mark his progress with. I’m thinking 10-15 blocks for each day of the week, and every time he goes he gets to put a smiley face sticker or gold star in the appropriate block. I’ll probably further reinforce the awesomeness of it by giving him a miniature bag of cheese Goldfish, or milk chocolate M&M’s.

Based on experience with my brothers (both are on the autistic spectrum; my fourteen year old brother has been diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder, while my twelve year old brother is on the lower end of the autism spectrum), I know that successfully potty training Ryan just for days could take several weeks. And if he takes after my one brother (I’m going to protect his privacy by not mentioning which one), he could need diapers at night for another eight to ten years. *sigh* I certainly hope that won’t be the case, but I’m prepared for the possibility of it.

One of the things I gave my mother for Christmas was a yearly membership to AAA. It’s just the basic membership, but it does include free 24 hour towing, gas if you run out, a jump if your battery dies, and other general roadside assistance services. I’m glad I got it for her, because as of this month she’ll be making 75 mile round trips at least once a week, and a lot of the driving is on long stretches of rural highways.

Early last fall I bought memberships to AAA for both Dan and myself. We haven’t had to use it yet, thank goodness, but with his car having 76,000 miles on it and my car having 107,000 on it, you never know when the need might arise!

The parenting gods must love me, because yesterday morning Dan quickly showed Alyssa how to tied her shoes. Since then she has successfully tied her shoes on her own, with no assistance or input, at least half of a dozen times. I cannot BELIEVE she picked it up that quick! I remember being six or so, and at my babysitter’s house, and it took three older kids at least two days to teach me how to tie my shoes. Go Alyssa!

And Ryan has started potty-training! He went to the bathroom with no prompting (I simply suggested that he use the potty like a big boy after he complained for the millionth time about the fit of his cloth diaper) early yesterday afternoon. I immediately took him to Target for a toy of his choosing (he picked out a $10 Play-doh kit, whew!), and since then he has been in underwear except for at night. He’s had a few accidents, but he’s also peed in the potty at LEAST six times since then! WHOO!

I love my babies, and I am SO proud of their accomplishments!!!

Man I am so glad for the weekend. I did nothing this past week but run, run, run. In one day alone I put over 150 miles on the car. Ergh. But now it’s the weekend, and I can RELAX! And that’s all I’ve done today. The kids slept in until almost 10:00am, and they haven’t even bothered to get dressed. I did, but that’s because I always get dressed, even if I don’t go out anywhere.

So, what do I have planned for this weekend? Not much! I’m working on getting Mac OS X installed on my desktop, a acnefree review to write up, a few sex toys to write up reviews for, and Alyssa wants to make almond & chocolate chip shortbread cake. Ryan is busy with puzzles and painting, and of course the train track set that Jason got him for Christmas.

Man, it sucks that Saturday is already half over. Tick tock… time goes too fast these days!

I just entered to win a Flip Ultra HD. Nate Hines of natehines.net is holding a giveaway. Entering is a simple as filling out a form with your first name, last name, and email address. You can earn up to five additional entries by referring other people. When you enter, you’ll get a unique referrer link, which you can then use to refer others to the contest. The person who refers the most people will also win a Flip Ultra HD — so Nate is actually giving away two of them altogether!

Go enter!

After Alyssa had her bath this morning, she couldn’t wait for me to finish with my shower so I could fix her hair, clean her piercings (standard wipe-down with a cotton ball soaked with antiseptic) and then take pictures. Now she’s excited about going over to my mom’s house, because she’ll be seeing her uncles — my brothers — and will be able to show off her new earrings. Silly girl.

I’m currently waiting on a load of laundry, blogging and doing my make-up. We’re leaving in about a half an hour, and damned if I’m leaving the house without looking pretty!

Not ten minutes ago I pulled up mamahood.org’s admin dashboard with the intentions of blogging. Then I ran off to check my feed subscriptions, and in that short amount of time I completely forgot what I was going to blog about. Pfft. I know it had something to do with food & weight loss, but damned if I can dig anything more out of my brain than that.

Ahem. So in other news, I absolutely love the vacuum sealer that my husband gave me for Christmas (psst, here’s my review on it). I was SERIOUSLY excited about it when I ripped the wrapping paper off of it on Christmas morning! This year is all about living a bit more frugally, and one big thing I am committed to is being more efficient with food. Of course, my gastric bypass (I’m so grateful for the quick weight loss that actually WORKS!) helps with that, since I eat maybe 1/4 of what my kids do at any given meal. I’m cooking smaller portions so we don’t have as many leftovers, using leftovers, relying on home-cooked meals and actual meats, sides and veggies instead of pre-made foods, etc. So far, so good. My freezer is jammed to the gills with about $100 worth of vacuum-sealed meat, plus a variety of vacuum-sealed and otherwise freezer-appropriate packed quick meals and foods.

Oh! I just remember what I was going to blog about: Cadbury creme eggs. More specifically, my daughter’s love for them, and my amusement that she adores them just as I do, while Ryan is all about the Reese’s peanut butter cups — which I could also nom on like there’s no tomorrow.

And with that said, I am seriously tired, and there’s still a load of laundry to fold. So without further ado, good-freaking-night!

This morning Alyssa went on a preschool class trip to one of the local elementary schools (we live in a rural area, so there’s three in a 10 mile radius). Once there, she got to participate in a kindergarten class and do a variety of activities to get used to the idea of going to kindergarten (she’ll be in kindergarten next year! I can’t wait!). When Dan brought her home (he was nice enough to go with her so I could stay home to relax & work) she went crazy bouncing off the walls in excitement over kindergarten. She also remarked that some of the girls in kindergarten had earrings in her ears, and she wanted earrings, too.

Now, her ears were pierced. I took her when she was two and a half. She did fine, her ears healed fine, and she enjoyed wearing earrings. But I’d no sooner put in a new set for her, and she’d wind up taking them out and losing them. Or they’d somehow fall out. She last had a pair of earrings in about a year ago, so obviously the holes probably closed up. So this afternoon I asked her if she wanted her ears pierced again, she said yes, and off to the mall we went.

I took Alyssa to the Claire’s at our local mall (which I hate going to, since we always have to dodge the sales people offering hair straightening irons, exterior shutters, skin cream, eyebrow waxing, massages, etc.), since I figured they’d have more of a little girl selection. And oh boy, the first thing she saw was the Hello Kitty earrings they had, and of course they were a piercing set. And of course they were $29.99, while the other pairs were just $10 and $20. Pssh. But I let her get them. She did really well, though she was nervous while she was sitting in the chair and the employee and her manager were prepping the little guns and cleaning Alyssa’s ears. She held my hand and my mom’s hand, and held perfectly still for them. She did cry for about a minute afterwards, but then she was fine. She skipped off and picked out a pair of wearable pink angel wings and a cute little headband that had a felt crown and veil on it. Luckily for me, both were marked down and then reduced even more — $4 for the wings and $2 for the headband. Sweet! That took some of the sting out of paying $30 for a damn pair of Hello Kitty earrings.

I asked Alyssa tonight if she was happy with her earrings, and she said yes. She’s all set on picking out a complete Hello Kitty outfit to wear to preschool on Friday — Hello Kitty skirt (leggings with it, since it’s obviously cold out!), shirt, underwear (yes, underwear), socks, watch, necklace, the earrings, and even a Hello Kitty hair barrette! Yes, she’s a bit crazed over Hello Kitty… and we indulge her love for it!

I think the worst thing about having a girl is dealing with all of the drama that ensues. From the time Alyssa was born she was giving what my mother appropriately deemed “hard ass looks”, and now that she’s five years old the dramatic flouncing now accompanies those looks. She gets herself into a tizzy over the silliest things. This morning, for instance, Ryan was waving around one of those feathery cat toys for the cats to play with. You know the kind — a long plastic rod with a bunch of feathers on one end. Well Alyssa came over and tried to start up a game of Tug-of-War with the toy, with her holding onto the feathered end while Ryan squawked and shrieked and held onto the other end. Obviously I intervened and told her to let go of it, that it is not a toy, and furthermore, Ryan had it first. She flounced off. Not five minutes later she returns with an armful of Hello Kitty toys, dumps them on the living room carpet and proclaims, “I don’t want my Hello Kitty toys anymore”. I should have played along and taken them all and bagged them up for donation — and then proceeded with donating them to teach her a lesson — but instead I told her to knock off the nonsense, and quit acting out because she’s upset with me for reprimanding her for doing something wrong.
Ugh. Does this kind of behavior ever go away? I have patience for a lot of crap, but this flouncy drama? No patience whatsoever!

One thing I hate about hospitals — and medical offices in general — is that you rush around to get together the paperwork they need, blood work they want done, etc., and rush to get there… and then you wait. It’s especially bad with surgeries. My gastric bypass is a good example of that. I was told to arrive at the hospital at 5:15am. I didn’t get taken to the OR for surgery until nearly 8:45am! Three and a half hours to check in with admissions, sign consent forms, change into a gown, get an IV, and answer a few questions? Ridiculous. *eyeroll*

As I type this, I’m sitting in yet another waiting room at the hospital. Jason’s surgery went well. His surgeon was able to complete it laparascopically, though he mentioned something about it being “assisted”, whatever that means. Jason is being moved to the ICU for observation, and so long as he recovers well from surgery he’ll go to a regular room tomorrow morning. I definitely don’t envy him. Surgery sucks! And a splenectomy? Good, because it will hopefully resolve his low platelet issues. But it’s not exactly “exciting” like my gastric bypass, which results in dramatic weight loss (and hair loss that could definitely benefit from hair loss treatment, unfortunately). Now that was a surgery I actually looked forward to!

I’m doing my best to keep busy with work and blogging, because if I don’t I’m seriously going to go crash somewhere. I went to bed around 1:30am and had to be up at 4:45am. Do the math. Yeah, I’m tired. Yeah, it sucks. Yeah, I fully plan on taking a nap when I get home this afternoon! Dan has plans to hang out with his brothers tonight, but that’s tonight. It’s only noon, so if I get home around 2, I’ll be able to crash for 2-3 hours, then get up in time for him to leave to go do his thing with his brothers, which’ll leave me with the kidlets for the evening.

Hmm. Speaking of kidlets and the evening, I better think up something to make for dinner. I have like ten pounds of spaghetti sauce to do something with, so maybe I’ll make up some more meatballs and serve up spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. Ryan loves my meatballs. He loves them so much, in fact, that he woke up yesterday morning and immediately requested them for breakfast. How awesome is that?

So… sleepy…