Epic Update.....or not......

I should be cleaning right now so it seems as good a time as any to update the blog.

Of course, Owen's supposed to be napping right now too.

He's not.

Well......Unless you call jumping off his bed and yelling at me to come help him rebuild his tank napping?

I don't.

So here comes the blog update.

You ready?

We're good.

Nothing new going on.

I like it that way.

Here's some cute pics of the kids and a friend to go along with this epic update.

Enjoy:

The End.

Childhood 101

I swear my kids have this conversation. 

Often.

 

Sorry for the cussing.

I tried to find one that said "bat-poop" instead but sadly, it does not exist.

A Good Nuggle

As Owen gets older, he is getting a little bit better at understanding what his body needs. For example, he will sometimes tell us he needs to jump. When that happens, we send him to the ottoman and let him jump off it as many times as he needs to. Sometimes he says he needs his backpack on and he'll leave it on for long periods of time until he feels "organized" again. (Organized meaning his brain has corrected the "traffic jam" and is once again sending the right signals.) Sometimes he'll ask for bunny hops in the middle of a transition and we drop everything to hop him from Point A to Point B. It's not very fun but at least I'm getting an arm workout, right?

But my favorite has come about in the past few months and I LOVE IT because it is a direct answer to prayer.

When we were told Owen had SPD and autistic tendencies, one of my greatest fears was that he wouldn't want to be touched. (This is very common in both disorders.) I prayed hard to God because I knew that would be my breaking point. I feared if Owen couldn't handle my affections, it would send me over the emotional edge of the cliff I was precariously tight-rope walking at the time. You see, I'm a toucher. (I know that sounded dirty; get your minds out of the gutter.) It's true though. I love giving hugs and holding hands and using affection to show others what they mean to me. So the thought of not being able to do that with one of my children was devastating to me.

God answered my prayer ten fold. 

Does Owen always like to be touched? Nope. Sometimes he only tolerates it, but at other times, he craves it from me. His body needs to be held tight and his hands need to find comfort on my face or in my hair. It is definitely not always at the most opportune times, but I pick up his 28 pound body and let him slump against me because I know this is God's way of saying "See? Everything is going to be alright. I'm still listening. I'm still answering."

Now instead of just screaming, Owen knows when his body needs that tight embrace and he will come running on the verge of a meltdown and say, "Mommy, I need a nuggle. I need a nuggle. I want to nuggle you." And we nuggle and brush and do joints and nuggle some more and once the traffic jam in his brain is over, he's off on his next adventure and I'm thanking God for helping an affectionate girl out.

Because one should never underestimate the art of a good Nuggle.

Da Beach

Dare I say it and jinx it?

Oh, what the heck.

It finally happened - that magical age that all parents dream about has arrived. The age where you go to the beach, sit your booty full of cellulite in a chair, and just watch the kids play for hours and hours on end. The age where you don't have to head back to the house for someone to nap or eat baby food or drink breast milk or etc, etc, etc. Don't get me wrong, those were good times too. Sort of. But I can't say that I missed those times this past week.

Because this was way better. At least it was for me, the lazy mother who likes to sit in a chair and read about Ernest Hemingway's wife. This was Heaven. If ignoring your kids at home while you cook dinner and check facebook is fun, then ignoring them at the beach is a blast. Just kidding. Sort of. I mean, you can't totally ignore them because of those blasted crashing waves and my irrational fear of sharks, but still, you get my point, right? The point that I am still not up for winning the Mother of the Year Award?......

I did take lots of pictures. That counts for something, right? Please tell me I'm right.

We were blessed with four days at the beach with close friends. We crammed all ten of us in one small condo and had a blast.

Even this one.

He did great. Probably because for the past month at OT, we've been all about sand, sand, and more sand. And it worked. He didn't freak at all. I think he knew it would be a losing battle because you can't go to the beach and avoid touching sand.

Awesomesauce. Seriously. He did awesome. All week.

And these two? There are not enough words to describe how fun and sweet they are.

And these two? There are not enough words to describe how crazy they are, especially when they're together.....

And these two?

They needed some vacation time.

And these six?

They're just way too much cuteness.

So to sum up, Spring Break was awesome.

But it's back to the real world now.

Until Summer......

Oh wait. Here's proof that I did interact occasionally with the children:

Whew, I feel better.

We're Baaacccckkkkkk

We're back.

And it's 63 and rainy.

And that makes us sad....

because we wish we were still doing this.

More pics to come.

Right now we have to go to the store because these people get hungry every day at the same times.

It's annoying and strange and we have no lunch foods. Or dinner foods. Or breakfast foods, for that matter.