Life around here has gotten pretty interesting since Gavin turned five. He has entered what I can only hope will be a short lived phase where he is basically a defiant little bastard. I say that with love in my heart. It takes me no less than 18 minutes to convince him to do the simpliest tasks. I’ve heard quite the array of excuses “Why don’t you do it”, “I can’t I am busy”, “I have SO much work to do already”, “Pajamas are clothes so I will jsut wear these to school”, and my favorite “I can’t my computer is NEEDS me!”. When I ask him to pick up his toys he tells me that Webkinz are not toys, they are pets. When I ask him to get his shoes he says he can’t because he doesn’t have any shoes. None whatsoever.
Along with his new found defiance he has turned into a Drama Queen. At least two days out of five he acts like a PMSing teenager. If he doesn’t get his way he will threaten us by saying “Fine! I won’t love you anymore”, “Fine! You can’t be my friend”, and the best “Fine then I will break your laptop (or insert hack into the place of break)”. He sounds super cereal about them too. I am always scared he might, Gasp, not love me anymore! WHY GOD WHY? His newest kick is the funniest of all. When he gets sent up to his room he will always say “I QUIT! I QUIT THIS LIFE!”. Sometimes he spices it up, like for the holidays, “I QUIT! I QUIT VALENTINES DAY!”. Once he even randomly screamed “I QUIT BRUSHING MY TEETH AT BEDTIME!”. Now insert Molly Shannon in Superstar door slamming over and over.
I’d be convinced he’s a reincarnate of his Uncle Danny if it weren’t for the fact that Danny were still alive. When Dan was a kid he was dramatic. You could never get him to do anything. He’d just flat out refuse. I remember how frustrating it was for my mom, or for me if I were babysitting him. The kid was just stubborn. Seems Gavin has inherited that stubbornness. Just a minute ago he was laying on the floor playing dead because he didn’t want to hang up his coat.
He is messy, disorganized, sloppy, and a pain in my ass. He sure gives me a lot to laugh about though.
I know its a little late. I couldn’t get my photo editing software to stop dicking me around and work. Finally tonight it let me put this together. Last week it was a snowy day and we were so tired of being cooped up in the house. So we decided that breakfast at IHOP would be a perfect way to break up the day. Keaton had a big stack of pancakes and Gavin ordered Mac and Cheese. Well, because, he always orders Mac and cheese.
Today we had quite the adventure. I have frequent back issues because of how I hunch over my laptop 18 hours a day. So at least once a day I have John give me a tight hug to crack my back. I know at least 8 other people who do this so I am going to say its not weird. Anyway, after the back cracking I of course have to obnoxiously hang on John because that is how we roll. He told me to get off because his back was hurting a little. Nothing major, just a little sore.
Just a half hour later we finally decided how we’d spend John’s night off. We decided to head over to the Nickle Arcade because the boys are obsessed with anything that accepts coins. We were all hurrying to get ready to leave, grabbing shoes, coats, and hats to cover greasy hair. We went out to get the kids buckled in the car and John was getting the car seats rearranged and started to say his back was hurting. It just kept getting worse as he bucked the boys in. Finally he said he thought he just needed to go to the bathroom. So he left and went inside. At this point I wasn’t thinking it was anything. I went in and told him to hurry and went back to the car.
Then it went from bad to worse. John came practically stumbling out of the house white as a sheet. He told me he thought he needed to go to the hospital. I was still thinking, “uhhh, it can’t be that bad”. I told him to go inside and try stretching. He somehow made it inside and was crawling on the floor. I knew it had to be bad. He was trying to stretch out and moaning in pain. He told me to just take the kids to the arcade and he’d be fine. YEAH RIGHT! I told him I didn’t want to come home to a corpse. I headed for the door to re-buckle Gavin whom had gotten out of the car, so we could head to the hospital. As I opened the screen door my brother Danny was right there. He had come up to visit at exactly the right time. What a blessing.
Dan came in to take a look, he’s an EMT. He wasn’t sure what was going on, he told me he though appendix. Which would make sense if John still had his. Then it got even worse. John started throwing up. In the sink, over the front porch into the garden, and right outside the car. He basically vomited his way into the car. Dan of course offered to watch the boys so I unbuckled Keaton and left both boys with Uncle Dan and some frozen pizzas. Off we went to the hospital.
The drive to the hospital was a little scary. John spent the drive curled in a fetal position and wasn’t able to take very deep breaths because of the pain. Every bump in the road had him screaming in pain. I was so scared that something serious was going on. I was also feeling like it was my fault because he cracked my back! Finally he decided to pull his feet up to his stomach to see if he could stretch out that part of his back. He did that for a little while and by the time we hit the hospital he was fine. I wasn’t convinced though. We pulled in and parked. He got out and stretched some more on the lawn of the Hospital. Then he walked around a bit. He said he felt fine other than a little bit sore through his mid section.
I still wanted him to get checked but he didn’t want to pay the outrageous ER co-pay so he agreed to go to Urgent Care. We arrived at Urgent Care 15 minutes later and we told our story. John was convinced he had herniated his intestine. When the doctor came in and listened to his symptoms she said “I think its probably a Kidney Stone”. Both of us were like “no, that can’t be it”. She wanted to test his urine for blood. Sure enough he had blood in his urine and that confirmed a Kidney Stone.
I was so relieved! Although that sucks for John and he was really in more pain then I’ve ever seen anyone not in labor. I am still happy it wasn’t anything deadly. Now he just has to make sure he’s drinking more water. If it becomes a reoccurring problem they might setup a treatment plan. But for now he just needs to rest and enjoy his new little baby!
The boys went for their second dental check-up today and came out with 5 cavities between them. Two belonging to the little one, and three for Gavin. How did they manage to get so many cavities in 6 FREAKING MONTHS? Sure, I am not the perfect mom who brushes her kids teeth twice a day. But I try. I really try. I floss. I brush for two minutes. I try to encourage them to drink more water and less sugary drinks.
This is the end though. I think I got cocky with their lack of cavities last time. I started to slack off assuming they just had great genes and I didn’t need to brush. Not anymore. I let the dentist talk me into a sonic care tooth brush for them (turns out its kick ass). I bought more kids flossers and just put in an order for some xylitol products. The dentist said no more sippy cups. So I am weaning them and only allowing water if they want one. I am not worried about Gavin. He rarely takes a sippy cup except for breakfast. Keaton on the other hand still calls it a “Bah-Bah” and walks around with the damned thing hanging from his teeth all-day-long. I am even guilty of putting soda in it for him. I’m so ashamed.
I am going hardcore folks. I refuse to shell out $200 every 6 months for dental work. Total in the passed 8 months we’ve paid out almost a grand for our family and their lack of great dental hygiene. Well no more! Our family is going to brush twice a day and floss. We are going to avoid sugar and excessive snacking. We are going to try our damnedest not to have cavities at our next check ups. The End!
In other news we saw Gav’s adult teeth just under the surface of his baby teeth. They think he should start losing teeth very soon. I got so sentimental. I never want him to grow up. If I could just keep him at this age forever I would. I love his baby teeth. I am going to miss them when they’re gone. Literally one more step toward moving out and leaving me forever. Why God Why?
Yesterday was Pajama day at Keaton’s preschool. He was pretty excited about it. He has been anxious all week to get to school and wear his “Ja-Jamas”. He wore his car pajamas because he says they are his favorite (and they are new, so they aren’t stained and gross). He also insisted on wearing the train slippers he got for Christmas. He looked so darn cute waiting to leave for school, I had to take pictures.
For two and a half years Gavin has had to trace his name when he goes to school. Every day for the two and a half years his teachers have had to fight him on it. They’ve heard every excuse in the book on why he won’t write him name…er…trace his name. Really by Gavin’s age he should have the fine motor skills down to write. But a lot of kids with Autism have poor fine motor skills. Gavin is just the norm.
Recently it has gotten even harder to get him to trace or attempt to write his name. He becomes angry and is often rude when he is asked to do it. I decided to take matters into my own hands. We’ve always pushed him to try to write. But never as hard as I have pushed him this week. At first he was a little jerk about it. He ended up having to go to bed early twice in a row because he flat out refused to write. I started out small too, just trying to get him to practice letters in his name. I made him practice twice a day and his reward was having computer time, and his punishment was sitting on his bed. On the third day he finally realized it paid to just do the 15 minutes of handwritting. On the forth day he actually started enjoying it. And the rest is history.
He struggle a little with curve on the C and G, and he writes his C’s backwards, and S’s are a huge struggle. But other than that he can pretty much write every letter in the alphabet legibly.I am so proud of him. He writes like he has been doing it for years. I am just so relieved that he is finally doing it. Its one more thing we can check on the list to him becoming a normal every day kid. Now he just needs to learn to pedal a bike and I think he will officially be kick ass.
Gavin and Keaton have been attending a creative dance class since August. Neither of them learned very many dance moves because neither one of them is very coordinated, hell they’ve got us for parents. Gavin did however learn not to talk out of turn. By the last class he barely even mentioned Visual Basic and what a damn fine product it is. Keaton may not be the best mover in the class but he sure is the best listener. He would often times tell other kids, including Gavin, to shush. They both had a great time learning different movements and to follow directions though.
They had there final performance on Saturday and they both did so well! Despite Gavin never being able to stop thinking about computers even for a second (during dress rehearsal he stood on the stage with a blank stare most likely thinking about programing). And poor Keaton with a horrible bum rash thanks to a bad case of diarrhea (poor kid was limping around at his dress rehearsal). Here’s a little video to prove it!
So I am a little late posting this. Between the dentist, parent teacher conference, the boys crazy week of dance, dance, dance, and tummy issues for some of us, its been hectic.
Gavin and Keaton got this fun tent set last Christmas from their G&G Bosko. It used to be a permanant fixture in Keaton’s room until he decided to pee in it. After a lot of clorox wipes I decided to retire it to the closet. Well the other day I the boys were trying to make a tent out of a blanket and it wasn’t going well. I remembered the tent that was tucked away and I thought it might be time to pull it out (seeing that Keaton is now potty trained). The boys were thrilled and spent the next hour on a “webkinz ‘venture” to go camping in Colorado (or Alfredo as its known by Gavin). I just heart their imaginations.
(click photo to view larger)
In my opinion, Childhood is captured more beautifully in Black and white.
All content found on this website is Copyright of John and Rachael Grotegut. If for some reason you want to use some content of this website, please contact me first grotegut@gmail.com
