by Sarah | Jun 7, 2011 | All About Kennedy, All About Molly
The first time I read them I was four years old.
I stole them out of my brothers room and kept them tight.
That original box set still sits on my dresser.
Dog eared.
Worn.
Missing covers.
Now the girls are reading.
Everything they can get their hands on.
Now I pass these stories onto them.
We read together, they try to read alone.
One day I hope their copies are as worn and well loved as mine.
As well as every other book they touch.
The love of reading runs rampant in Archie & I.
I think they’ve caught the bug.
No better addiction to pass on.
by Sarah | Jun 1, 2011 | All About Molly, Autism
The school year is over.
The book bags hung up.
The pencils returned to their cases.
The boredom sets in.
The insanely hot weather.
The year of struggling for what was right.
IEPs and diagnoses and social anxieties.
In the midst of the struggles, wings emerged from a cocoon.
Some social advances were made – not many, but a few.
But there were wings…
Words on a page brought her in. Drew her with their magnetism. Something to love with words and stories.
Intelligence was her spotlight. Math and reading brought her joy. Her grades excelled in those areas.
In the end there were gains. I’ve made peace with her being in school, though I still worry every day.
So I focus on the gains.
I watch her read, and teach her sister to read with joy.
To have her love what her Daddy and I both love so much.
In the end, we had some wonderful gains.
by Sarah | May 21, 2011 | All About Kennedy, All About Molly, Crap, Special Needs
We have no lingering baby toys.
They broke them all.
Toddler toys?
The same.
Toys that were mine as a child, passed on to Brandon, and then the girls…
Now in the local landfill…destroyed in little pieces.
Close playtime and giggling.
Always dissolving into tears and screaming.
Hand made curtains, lovingly sewn and hung.
Ripped off the wall, the rod broken.
The girls have always been more destructive.
Their room is a barren waste-land of decorating because they can’t be trusted w/ a dresser, much less finer details like lamps, pictures, or even hangers.
They are five and six now.
And as they sit here in extended time out for their latest run of torture, mayhem and destruction. We are left wondering.
When it is time to say “Enough is Enough”?
Is it sensory issues? Is it rotten kids? Bad parenting?
Did we go wrong somewhere?
by Sarah | Apr 21, 2011 | All About Kennedy, All About Molly
Six years and 2 days ago I was lying in a hospital bed staring at the TV waiting for the smoke at the Vatican to change…oh, and for the stupid Pitocin to make a lick of difference in my labor. I was 38 weeks, but as Riley had stopped growing at 34 weeks, the doctor thought we should get the IUGR baby out and kicking. At 5PM it really started to hurt. By 7:30PM my little princess Riley pushed herself out without making me work a bit for it.
Five years ago at this very minute I was walking with Riley and Brandon to Dairy Queen. At 36 weeks pregnant I was trying to kick start labor. Ordinarily I wouldn’t at that early, but Angel had tried to come almost a week before and the doctor had made her stop…and once I was 36 weeks I was given the all-clear. My body was tired. Bed rest was getting really old…so we took a walk. 2 miles there, 2 miles back. By 4PM labor finally kicked in, at 11:33PM Angel joined us.
I didn’t know the crazy, curvy hectic road ahead of us.
I thought I’d never sleep through the night again.
I wanted to hold my tiny little baby girls forever.
I blinked, though.
In that blink they turned into little girls.
Smart, beautiful, happy, crazy, obnoxious, witty, loving little girls that fill our lives with laughter and chaos and so much love.
In the fall Angel starts Kindergarten and Riley will move onto first grade.
I’m afraid to blink again.
I want to sit and stare until my eyes go dry. Capture every moment and lock it up tight.
Happy birthday to both of my little girls.
Stop growing up now.
Please?
by Sarah | Feb 7, 2011 | All About Molly, Autism
We chopped her hair off.
She had us worried.
Terrified.
She wasn’t eating.
Her hair was so thin. She was getting weaker.
We chopped her hair off.
Now…
She’s eating like a champ. (Almost) Everything we put in front of her.
Figures.
by Sarah | Jan 18, 2011 | All About Molly, Autism, Failure to Thrive (FTT)
Riley is almost six years old.
At last check, she weighed a tiny little 37 pounds to her almost 4′ frame. Which puts her BMI once again well below the growth chart.
Then…
She stopped eating.
We don’t know why.
Or how to stop it.
Her beautiful long platinum locks got thinner and thinner. Weak. Stringy.
Her already skinny frame is getting skinnier.
Legs long enough to fit into size 6.
Waist tiny enough to fit into 4T’s.
She won’t eat.
Unless it’s pancakes.
Mac & Cheese.
Hot Dogs.
It has gotten to the point where a peanut butter & jelly sandwich that has been asked for is snubbed.
Food.
Unappealing.
Whether it’s the texture.
Or the taste.
We’ll be spending the money for an appointment with the ped.
We’re reaching alarming levels.
Her autism is rearing its head more, her behavior unpredictable.
I’ve cut her hair in an attempt to make it appear thicker. It’s cute, but I miss the beautiful long locks.
I’ve made allowances and fed her outside of what we eat (a habit I’m sickened to start…the rule has ALWAYS been eat what’s in front of you). We’ve been giving her boxes of her sister’s Boost to make sure she gets her vitamins, minerals, and extra calories.
We’re worried about what this is going to mean for her in the near future.
But she can’t go on like this.
Neither can we.
The first time I read them I was four years old.
