Cookies

Ella: Mom, I love you.
short pause... Even though you always eat all the cookies by yourself. Sometimes humans like other humans to share.

Lesson learned! (At least until we have another box of cookies.)

Pom Pom Parenting

Tyler and I are taking a class for parents of children with Aspergers & High functioning Austism, despite the fact that Ella's doctor thinks we are just over-reactive parents, and that she's just a typical kid who happens to be very naughty. In the class last week they mentioned that many Aspergers kids actually enjoy Time-out. I'm sure I've mentioned before that Ella definitely LOVES time out. She puts herself in it all the time, and refuses to come out for hours. The teachers informed us that when we put these kids in time-out, we are actually rewarding them for their naughty behavior. We have learned so many helpful tips in these classes, wether or not Ella has been mis-diagnosed. They have been giving us so many alternative behavior modification tips, that actually work probably 75% of the time, as opposed to 10% of the time.

Ella's cousin Katie was over last week with some pom-poms that she got as a reward for not sucking her fingers. Ella was very envious of Katie's pom poms, so we decided to combine pom-poms with one of the behavior modification methods we are learning in our class... and viola... Pom Pom Parenting. It is working so well! Ella informed me tonight that she is going to earn so many Pom Pom's that we may have to buy a second house just to store them all.
Hooray for lots of Pom Poms!
Now if we could just figure out how to help her eat... maybe next week.

Just for Jami

It's been a while, but I've finally completed my last “Just for you” project. Jami is my sister-in-law. She’s married to Tyler's brother Greg. She has two cute little girls. Her oldest daughter, Katie, is Ella’s age. Ella is so lucky to have such a fun cousin who lives so close to us. Jami used to watch Ella one day a week while I was working at Stampin’ Up! so I'm lucky too, to have such a nice and caring sister-in-law. Jami mentioned she wanted some wall art for her newly painted bedroom. Her whole house is decorated so cute, so I'm flattered that she'd want my wall art as part of her decor. I'm making her some flowers & doodles as shown below, but in our beige vinyl.



I also made Jami a Japanese wooden Kokeshi ribbon holder. (For no other reason other than I really felt like making this one day.)

I'm also giving her some all-occasion gift bags & a chandelier gift card that I made. I also plan on making her a necklace. I ordered some custom charms that I designed over a month ago, and was hoping they would be done by now so that I could make her necklace, but... I'll have to post a picture of it at a later date.

I had so much fun doing this. I'm definitely going to do something like this again, but probably on a little smaller scale.

Enjoying the sun

I'm so behind on work because I was very sick the past two weeks... but this week the sun was out... and I really needed a break... so I took one.

On Monday Ella, Lily, and I enjoyed a full morning at the “beach” (new park in Daybreak). We played in the sand & water all morning! After lunch our neighbors invited us to go back to the same park with them for an afternoon of more fun in the sun.

Tuesday we were scheduled to go to another park with our neighbors, but I ended up working. There was just way too much to do, and I felt guilty for leaving Tyler to work alone the day before. But the work didn't last long. Today we headed over to Wheeler Farm to see all the animals and take a fun ride in a tractor pulled wagon.


The girls were so happy this week! My life was so much easier. We are going to do these things more often. I’m so excited for this summer.

P.S. If you are waiting for something from me... I haven't forgotten about you... I'm feeling better, and will be back to work full force this weekend.

Backhoes & Street Equipment

Ella: Dad, wouldn't it be cool if we were in another country, and we were dogs, and we met running in a field, and we played in the field? And mom was a cat?

..........

Ella: Mom, do you wish we could learn about backhoes & street equipment at church?

I'm Blue daba dee daba doo

I know, I hate that song too... Now it’s stuck in my head because Lily decided to remind me why I shouldn’t try to do any work on the computer while she’s awake. She wasn't trying to eat paint. It is actual Blue Dye.

Princess Academy Preschool Graduation

Cait getting her graduation cap (aka tiara), along with a hug from Mayci.

Ella, walking down the red carpet to receive her diploma & cap.

Cupcakes for everyone!

I'm so glad Ella got to go to Princess Academy this year. She made some great friends, had a fun time, learned a lot, and taught each little princess how to ROAR like a T-Rex. Her teacher went beyond the extra mile to teach the kids academically as well as socially. She also made everything so fun for the kids. The holiday parties were amazing! Today Ella brought home a binder of Alphabet projects she worked on throughout the year, it was fun looking at them with her. Tonya (her teacher) also kept a preschool blog, and gave us all a copy of the pictures & text. Wow! Ella is very lucky to have such a neat experience. Thank you Tonya!

I have tell you something

Ella: Mom I have to tell you something.
Me: What?
Ella: Nothing

Ella: Mom I have to tell you something.
Me: What?
Ella: Nothing... ha ha

Repeat twice a minute, all day long.

then? can we ruin the tile?

Tyler: Ella, stop doing that. It could ruin the tile.
Ella: Why don't we want to ruin it?
Tyler: Because this isn't our house.
Ella: It's not our house?
Tyler: Nope, we are just renting it. It really belongs to someone else. They don't want us to ruin their tile.
Me: We are paying someone who owns this house, so that we can live here until we build our own house.
Ella: Then? In our new house? Can we ruin our own tile?

the Easter Bunny

Tonight Tyler told me to go get some milk while he put the girls to bed. I wasn't about to turn that offer down, since getting Ella dressed isn't an easy chore. I wasn't gone too long, so I was surprised to get a phone call from Ella (who for the record, has always refused to talk or even listen to others talk on the phone.) She told me she not only had her jammies on, but she had put them on herself! Yes, she has the capability to get dressed her self, but again, she refuses. When Tyler put her to bed she asked him, "Do you think the Easter Bunny is proud of me?"
Personally I think the Easter Bunny should visit more often! Maybe I'll make up a new character next month who can visit us at night, maybe then Ella will eat something? Probably not, but It's worth a try.
Now that I've told everyone everything that is naughty about Ella, I feel like I should tell you how awesome she is. First of all, she is very clean. Even when she was a baby I never had to put a bib on her, she always stayed so clean. She is very creative and smart. The Psychologist gave her an I.Q. test, and although she didn't finish it, he said her I.Q. was well above average. She is fantastic at Math! She's funny. She loves to make other people make her laugh, because she loves to laugh, and she has such a cute laugh. She doesn't get into mischief. Even when she was very little she never got into drawers or cupboards or made big messes. Tyler and I laugh sometimes... We never should have bought any of those child safety locks. Ella never needed them, and Lily just breaks them all. Ella usually puts herself in timeout when she knows she's in trouble. She is very nice to Lily, especially since Lily is always hurting & picking on her. She tries and wants to please me. I asked her to try waving and saying "hi" to all her cousins & friends that came to her Easter Egg hunt last week. I was so surprised that she even tried. She only ended up saying "hi" to the first 4 guests, but that's more than I thought! Last night she told Tyler what to say in his prayer. He prayed that I would get a flower from a wonderful husband, and some roses from a beautiful daughter. So, even though we have rough times, she's still sweet... and she makes us laugh... a lot!

Thanks

Thanks for all the comments & emails! They’ve really helped us make a decision! Personally, We really want to make sure that Ella is diagnosed right, but I still think it would be such a waste of a LOT of money to pay for a 2nd opinion. I'd rather use the money to get Ella the help she needs. I’m glad to know that the school usually does tests of their own. I also know that it is very hard to get the school to do this kind of testing, but I’m quite sure that in time... Ella will eventually have a meltdown, and perhaps then, we will just have the school test her. Until that time we are going to seek treatment for Ella instead of using the money to have her re-evaluated. If the school doesn't end up testing her, and the treatment isn't working, then, at that time we may get a 2nd opinion.
Thanks everyone!

They wrote a book about Ella

I really should be working instead of blogging, but I need your opinions. After 2 years of frustration & wondering what we did wrong as parents, Tyler and I finally decided to seek professional help for Ella. We started off by taking Ella to her doctor to see if anything was physically wrong with her. Everything was normal, she was healthy, and she didn’t seem abnormal to her doctor. I told him that I was very frustrated with a lot of her behaviors, and that I would like to get some proffessional help. He referred us to a behavior specialist. After the behavioral specialist observed her and did some play tests with her, she concluded it was possibly Aspergers and referred us to a Psychologist who specializes in Autism & Anxiety. The psychologist diagnosed her as having High Anxiety & Asperger’s Syndrome, saying that he had no doubt that these were the things that had been causing Tyler and I so much frustration over the years. Tyler and I were relieved to finally find out that it wasn’t all bad parenting (not that we are even close to perfect parents.) We were happy to finally get some help with some of our struggles, which include (but not limited) to: Two or more hours to get Ella dressed each day. Some days I can't even get her dressed at all. Hours of temper tantrums after preschool, or after playing with friends, or being at church, or most social activities, Refusing to come in our house from the garage after an outing while screaming as loud as possible for long periods of time, Out of control-on the floor-temper tantrums in public places, Nagging me obsessively to invite friends over to play, then when they come, spending half the time in her room trying to get her to come play, sleeping issues, potty training issues, and worse of all... Dinner Time! I’m not even going to try and explain that one to you. I know that it is typical of young kids to throw tantrums, and act naughty, however Ella’s “ritutals” happen on a daily & quite frequent basis. You can see why instead of being sad that our daughter was diagnosed, we were so happy to finally get some answers. We quickly signed up for a class on how to work through some of these problems. I bought a book called Aspergers Syndrome, as I read it, I felt as if they were writing this book specifically about Ella, down to the part about how these types of kids tend to have obsessions with Dinosaurs. Yes, they mentioned Dinosaurs specifically! Even my mom read a book on it, and mentioned how she also felt it described Ella.

So, here’s the problem. Tyler took Lily to a doctor's appointment today. The doctor mentioned to Tyler that he had gotten the Aspergers Diagnosis Certificate from the Psychologist, and thought that perhaps the Psychologist had made a wrong diagnosis. He wants us to get a 2nd opinion. So, do we spend hundreds of dollars (not to mention many hours) to have her re-evaluated? Only for them to confirm what the first Psychologist has told us? Or... am I so caught up in the fact that I might finally get help with my parenting issues, that I can't see that she has been mis-diagnosed? What would you do? Would you pay all that money twice? (Our insurance isn't the best since we are self employeed.) Just to make sure? What If I don't get her re-evaluated, and it ends up being that the first Psycologist was wrong? What would you do?

It's a trap!

Ella: Mom, Lily is shaking her hand, like her is glad to meet me... ...uuuhhh mom, I think it's actually a trap.
(Ella then proceeded to scream and cry, since Lily was actually pinching her.)

Ella: I think I’m going to be a fabric designer when I get bigger. First I just need to draw some dinosaurs on some paper and color them, then I have to make the paper soft. Ummm, mom? How do I make the paper soft?

Tyler: Ella, come get your shoes on your bazookas. (We’ve found that using made up works makes Ella more likely to obey us.)
Ella: Dad, they’re called ears.

8 hours of sleep

Last night the girls slept all night. This morning Ella let me get her dressed without a fight in only 10 minutes, then she told me exactly what she wanted for breakfast & ate it all in less than 1/2 hour! ha ha APRIL FOOLS!