Menu Plan Monday!

It's been awhile! I am giving myself a challenge this week - use the crockpot for all 7 nights of the week. I am excited to do it! I need something to help motivate me to cook at home. We have been eating out WAY too much, so everything is going to be eaten at home this week. I even have our breakfasts/lunches/snacks planned out. I can SO do this!

MONDAY -
Breakfast: Rice Krispies, yogurt
Lunch: PB&J/Turkey sandwiches
Dinner: Chicken & Dumplings with frozen veggies

TUESDAY -
Breakfast: Granola with yogurt
Lunch: Grilled cheese with soup
Dinner: Hash Brown Casserole w/fruit

WEDNESDAY -
Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (and maybe cereal)
Lunch: PB&J/Tuna sandwiches
Dinner: Cranberry Chicken w/salad (Jack will have pasta with butter and parmesan)

THURSDAY -
Breakfast: Cereal
Lunch: Quesadillas
Dinner: Meatloaf w/pasta salad

FRIDAY -
Breakfast: Frozen waffles
Lunch: PB&J/Egg salad sandwiches
Dinner: Hot & Sour Soup w/frozen eggrolls (Jack will have Mac & Cheese)

SATURDAY -
Breakfast: Pancakes w/eggs and sausage
Lunch: Turkey sandwiches
Dinner: Teriyaki Chicken w/rice

SUNDAY -
Breakfast: Oatmeal
Lunch: PB&J
Dinner: Leftovers!

Don't forget to check out I'm an Organizing Junkie for HUNDREDS of menu plans!

22 Questions with Jack

I've seen these questions floating around and I thought it would be fun to ask them of Jack. He was watching Blue's Clues while I was asking the questions, but he responded surprisingly well. I was impressed!

1. What is something mom always says to you?

Help (I think I say it more like this - HELP!!!!!!)

2. What makes mom happy?
The Stroller (???)

3. What makes mom sad?
The Mater (from the movie “Cars.” He doesn’t make me sad.)

4. How does your mom make you laugh?
Buster

5. What was your mom like as a child?
Did I go to McDonald’s? (I don’t know what McDonald’s has to do with a child.)

6. How old is your mom?
3

7. How tall is your mom?
Big

8. What is her favorite thing to do?
Play with you

9. What does your mom do when you're not around?
Play with you

10. If your mom becomes famous, what will it be for?
Playing (I’m starting to see a theme here.)

11. What is your mom really good at?
Rhode Island (Hmmm???)

12. What is your mom not very good at?
At Rhode Island

13. What does your mom do for a job?
Joe (uh, OK)

14.What is your mom's favorite food?
Chicken

15. What makes you proud of your mom?
I make you so happy

16. If your mom were a cartoon character, who would she be?
Fred (from Blue’s Clues – that’s what he is watching as I ask questions)

17. What do you and your mom do together?
My puzzle

18. How are you and your mom the same?
Zook (no clue)

19. How are you and your mom different?
Zooks (again, no clue)

20. How do you know your mom loves you?
Play with you (I think he wants me to play with him)

21. What does your mom like most about your dad?
Sad of daddy (???)

22. Where is your mom's favorite place to go?
In the car!!!

We like to move it, move it!

Across the Aisle

We went to Target last night to get Jack some bigger underwear. For starters, it's hard for me to grasp the fact that we're buying big boy underwear in the first place. I knew that we would eventually come to this point, but it's still weird for me to watch Jack running around in underwear and not a diaper. Anyway, we had to go to Target to get bigger underwear. The 4T underwear that we had was getting too small. (!!!!!!) Well, that's the biggest size that they carry in toddler underwear. So...we had to cross the aisle. To the BIG BOY side of Target. Where the clothes are big enough to fit 13 year old boys. We had to buy underwear in the BIG BOY section. Amongst the briefs and boxer-briefs. My baby is too little to wear underwear from that section! It's very scary. I think I might have to send just Lonnie and Jack to buy those kind of things from now on.

We've been working out A LOT

Create your own FACEinHOLE






Create your own FACEinHOLE


And maybe we had some work done. Just a little bit.

Thanks

Thanks for your encouragement. I was having a bad day. I was typing the last post as Jack was screaming while Lonnie was trying to give him a bath and get him to bed. It was a long day. We were all very tired. Not all moments are like that. I was just at the point where I needed to get it all out...and you all got to be the recipients of that lovely vent!

We had Jack's preschool conference this morning with his teacher. It went really well. As we already knew, he is doing great at school. There are a few things he needs more work on (doing activities independently, identifying emotions, some communication skills), but he is meeting all of his IEP goals. His IEP (Individualized Education Program) "expires" next fall, so we will review the whole thing at that time. He will most likely go to a school-funded preschool next year. It's not quite "mainstream" preschool, but there will be neurotypical kids in his class, along with some special education kids. He will have a "regular" teacher and a special education teacher at the same time. It sounds like it will really be a great thing for him. Kind of a halfway point between special education and mainstream school. And then the year after that will be kindergarten. OH MY!

His teacher gave us some good ideas on how to manage Jack better at home. Ways to help him communicate his frustrations better and ways to help us deal with tantrums, screaming, etc. Hopefully some if it works!

Again, thanks to everyone for your encouragement. We know that God gave us Jack for a very specific purpose. He is our child for a reason. We are learning to lean on God more than we've ever had to before. We are learning so much through this process. Both mentally and spiritually. :)

I cannot tell a lie

I haven't been posting much because I am finding it hard to be all "sunshine-y" right now. Jack's behavior has gotten worse recently and we're really struggling with how to handle it. I've always told myself that "things will get better" and have the mindset that he'll just grow out of most of this...but lately I've had the realization that things might not get better. Things might stay the same. Things might get worse. Jack will get bigger and stronger and smarter.

His listening skills have gone way down. He doesn't listen to most of the things we tell him or ask him to do. He yells and screams A LOT. He throws many tantrums throughout the day. A lot of what we say doesn't "register" with him and we get a lot of blank stares. Parts of his communication have improved, but other parts seem to be regressing. It doesn't seem to matter how we talk to him or how we discipline him - things just keep getting worse. It doesn't matter whether we talk calmly to him or if we yell at him - he reacts the same way. It doesn't matter whether we put him in time-out, try to re-direct him or ignore it - he reacts the same way. He yells and screams. And then he screams and yells some more. We spend quality time with him. We play with him. We read to him. We have a pretty well-structured day. We give him plenty of warnings as to what activities come next. We give him reasons. We love on him. We keep his routine consistent. We talk to him all of the time. And it seems that none of that makes a difference. His behavior (even if it is completely unintentional on his part) is like a slap in the face to us. We TRY. I wish there was an easy solution to this.

What makes this even more difficult is that no one else sees this. No one else sees the way Jack acts at home. He acts fine at school. His teacher has mentioned that she can tell he's "holding it together" at school...just because he's at school. He's absolutely adorable when we're in public and he smiles and says "hi" to all of the people. He's a ham at the doctor's office. Everyone just thinks he is the cutest kid ever. But once he's told something that he doesn't like or doesn't get his way or gets upset over something (that is invisible to us), he turns into a different child. And, let's be honest, you can't let a preschooler have their way all of the time. We still need to be parents.

Autism sucks. There's just no other way to put it. We have so much to learn and so much to figure out. We feel lost. We are tired of being yelled and screamed at. We are tired of repeating the same instructions hundreds of times. We are tired of not sleeping well. We are tired of the tantrums. Lonnie and I are just so, so tired.