Long Time No Write

Hi! It's not a New Year's resolution, but I am committed to blogging again, more regularly. Things have actually been pretty good around here, which is kinda boring, and then the more I didn't write, THE MORE I DIDN'T WRITE. So, anyway.

The biggest thing with Sam is that at home there is a lot of inappropriate laughter. Which sounds like not that big a deal, but is super annoying, and kind of a stim (self stimulation). Also, a sign that his emotions are kind of all over the place. So we are trying a pro-biotic in the hopes that it is related to a yeast problem. But, that doesn't seem to be helping in the short term, so we are considering other options (READ: we have no idea what to do next and are hoping NOT to have to take wheat/gluten out of his diet). He has continued to get up obscenely early on a too regular basis, which causes every other night sleep deprivation (we take turns getting up with early with him). It's not worst case scenario, but it's another situation that we don't really have any ideas on how to make better (other than what we've already tried...melatonin, adjusting bedtime, keeping him in his room, limiting before bed liquids...).

On the good side, Sam seems to be doing well at school post our big IEP meeting. So we have that going for us. I also signed him up for a private swimming lesson, and we survived the first one without any disaster. Sometimes lack of disaster is our standard. We have been sledding and snowmobiling in the last several weeks over the school vacation, and a good time was had by all. It is nice to go on vacation with the kids and have it actually be fun.

I am unemployed, which though it was my choice is I think some of where my increased anxiety has been coming from. Still working on that. I am starting to take advantage of the extra time to get some things done, but realistically, I seem to adapt to whatever time I have available, so I am getting about the same amount done as before. Which is on an as needed, right before the deadline basis.

We don't really exchange holiday gifts as a family, because the kids get so much stuff from other people, and they already have so much stuff, and I'd rather get birthday presents and Valentines Day flowers (the one day of the year I get flowers from my sweetie). However, we did get some family-type items, one of which was a Wii. For a while, the kids didn't know we had it. We would just switch the channel every time they came upstairs. Plus, it was really funny to watch my parents box each other when the kids went to bed. Now the cat's out of the bag, and the kids have started playing a little. Their favorite part seems to be the balance board. The little person likes to fly in the chicken suit and land in the water. He is also into the running, and maybe the boxing...I know, stellar parenting at work.

Sam has been into Legos, which is fun. And he's been creating these crazy set-ups with the train tracks. I thought that they were done with the trains, but I guess not.