The Halloween I'm kinda glad is over

We started off great.

Tyler's school hosted a "Fall Festival" the Saturday before Halloween.  The lady in charge actually went ALL out- tons of games, bounce houses, food, a photographer, you name it.   But when I heard her mention a week before that they had rented a cotton candy machine, I told her to skip that!

This is seriously my husband's happy place.  He LOVES spinning cotton candy, and especially converting new people to how awesome the Jolly Ranchers are in cotton candy form.  It was nice to feel like we contributed, too, because a lot of work went into that day.

Oh, and Christopher is Mario for the sole reason that Tyler told him to be.

Daddy's favorite thing to do when he gets home is play Mario Bros. Wii with Tyler.  Green is for Tyler, so naturally Tyler is Luigi and Daddy is Mario.  When I asked Tyler if he wanted to be Luigi, he was thrilled.  I debated on sewing him a costume for a few minutes, but realized that Luigi is wearing overalls and overalls are useful.  Luigi's hat came as a pair with the Mario hat, so I figured they could wear them while playing sometime.

But the day the hats arrived, Tyler changed into his green shirt and overalls as fast as he could and gave Daddy his hat.  He happened to be wearing a red shirt that day, which Tyler congratulated him on.  "Daddy, you have a red hat - check!  You have a red shirt- check!  Now you need . . .  a blue thing!"

Daddy had marching orders.  So that became my shopping orders, and soon we had a matching pair.  I love how much Christopher truly enjoys making that little guy happy.

At that point, I decided to make this a no-sew Halloween!  Practically a first for me.  Jasmine and Kaitlyn had plenty of dress-ups to choose from, after all.

This little lady went with her Anna costume for the party.

I know that "selfies" are all the rage right now, but I have to tell you I have no idea how people do that.  Every time I try to take a picture of myself it is terrible.  Or at least awkward looking.  I need lessons.

Now, Kaitlyn's choice surprised me.  She has entire rack of Princess and mermaids to choose from, but was thrilled to invent her own ghost costume out of a weird dance slip from a garage sale, and other random white stuff she could find.

At first I was a tad miffed she didn't choose to wear her Elsa dress, but then I realized just how many Elsas there were this year.  Someone told me there were 34 at the school parade.  So maybe going her own direction wasn't too bad.  She has been on  Ghostbusters kick lately, and really enjoyed being chased by any Ghostbusters she found at school.

Anyway, after the school party, we went to the end of our block party back by our house, and then got in bed so they would be ready for the Primary Program in Sacrament meeting the next day.  Kaitlyn did a great job memorizing a tricky little part - and Tyler, as usual, got up there and decided he wanted to sing as loud as he could in the microphone.  Thank goodness the teacher that was sitting next to the mike controls was quicker than him, and turned the sound off as soon as he said his part!  I was impressed.

Oh well.

Christopher got sick the next day with a typical congestion cold, so I didn't think much of it when I woke up with a sore throat Tuesday.  It was painful to swallow, so I got some cough drops and figured I would be fine.  Then the fever hit.  By the time I had to go pick up the kids from school, I was starting on the chills.  That was no fun, especially considering that Tyler's school is a half an hour round trip.  Once I made it home, I just set the kids in front of the TV, rode out the chills until that broke, and then called all sorts of people to get rides for my kids on Wednesday.  Obviously, I needed a day off, and thankfully, I have lots of great friends and neighbors who were willing to help out.  Jasmine was also willing to watch TV and scavenge for her own food all day, the silly girl.

I spent basically all day Wednesday in bed (and not really able to get out very long), but figured I'd be fine by Thursday.  So I didn't arrange any more rides.  Thursday morning I decided I was now better, had breakfast, took a shower, and herded the kids to the door to go to school, while ignoring how tired and out of it I felt.

And then the fever and chills hit me like a rock wall.

I have never felt that sick in my life, I have to say. But I couldn't make Tyler late to school- he had a field trip to go swimming and have a pizza party for lunch!  So I drove out there, and pulled over in the parking lot of his school white as a sheet and shivering like mad.  I knew I couldn't go any further, so I called my sweet mother-in-law who dropped everything and drove over to pick me up.  She drove me to the Instacare,which, you have to understand, is impressive for that family.  She taught all her kids that you don't go to the doctor unless you are truly broken.  But the Instacare checked my vitals and said that I was too low to stay there.

And that's how I ended up in the ER the day before Halloween.

After taking all kinds of blood samples and tests, all they could determine was that I probably had strep.  Between the 2 IV fluids I got and the shot for strep, I finally felt better enough to get out of there.  Lorraine stayed with me all day, Christopher came down from work, and my sister-in-law came to get Jasmine.  Their family had the funniest story of the day.  Jasmine apparently blended in so nicely into their family that she started calling them "mom" and "dad" with the rest of the kids.  They kept her until bedtime, and helped her carve a pumpkin with everyone else, too.  So when they asked if she was ready to go home, she said "no."

"Don't you want to go home?"

"No.  Mommy sick."

She had found a new family for herself, I guess.  One that actually did fun things, with a Mommy that got out of bed.  I wasn't sure what she thought of how sick I got, since she just sat silently watching in the backseat while I shivered.

Thankfully, we were . . . almost back to normal in time for Halloween.  I had to keep reminding myself to not over-do it, but it is hard when it should be such a fun day.  I am just so amazingly grateful to everyone that helped me out.  As I apologized to my neighbor and told her that I owed her some favors for all the times she got Tyler to school and back, she reminded me that we are all in a Sisterhood.  We all do everything we can to help each other, and we might not ever help the exact people who helped us, but we just all help those we can help when we can help them.  The kids thought I was crazy when I started crying while blessing the food that night, but knowing how much love had gone into that clam chowder that arrived on my doorstop was just the last in a long list of helps I had gotten that week.

Halloween night was crazy, at that point.  I was too tired to be of real use, but I did manage to get the kids put together in time for a neighbor to take them trick-or-treating.  I just didn't get a picture of them before they went, sadly.  Christopher didn't take them himself because it was the warmest Halloween I can remember, which gave him a new idea of what to hand out as kids came by.

Thankfully, when I told my kids today how sad I was that I didn't get a good picture of them and asked if they wouldn't mind dressing up one more time, they were thrilled to go change.

Jasmine went though a few dress-ups that day, but eventually settled on Princess Sofia.  Which is pronounced "Pin-cess Ah-Fi-AH!"  Part of me regrets not making her a really nice version of that, because it would be a fun costume to create.  Then I remember that this is cheaper and easier.  And that her favorite part is the silly plastic medallion with a picture of Princess Sofia on it, just in case she forgot who she is.

Tyler's bucket is the only sewing I did this year.  A 1-up!  It wasn't my best work, but he didn't mind at all.

Happy Halloween!  I'm just glad we made it.

Fall Break

I was originally hoping to go on a trip for fall break, especially considering that Christopher turned 35 during the break.  Christopher couldn't leave work, though, and didn't want to have a party or anything.  So . . . I took the kids to Salt Lake to visit some family.  Christopher's brother and his wife just bought an awesome old house that they are gutting to renovate, so it was cool to see the "before" and hear about all the plans for "after".

And while we were up there, we even took a quick zoo trip.  Along with a good portion of Utah, it appeared, though thankfully we got there as some people we already leaving.

And this is what happens when I aim a camera at Jasmine.

The kids really liked that trip.

Of course, I didn't get any pictures of the most fun part of that weekend.  We went up to the cabin Sunday evening and invited friends up Monday for lunch- and a few actually made it!  Most of the time, everyone has such crazy schedules that no one can come, but we actually had three moms come up.  Hooray!

Family Pictures

We had quite the time fitting a family picture session in before all the colorful leaves fell to the ground.  But thankfully, we pulled it off!

Of course, it wasn't without the usual frustrations.  Tyler went into silly mode pretty quickly, making the oddest faces for me.  And Jasmine decided about ten minutes after we got there that if we wanted her to do it, it must be something terrible she should run away from doing.

Which leads to shots like these.

Jasmine trying to run away, and Tyler . . . I have no idea what Tyler is doing.

Thankfully, we coaxed out a few good shots.

Kaitlyn lost both of her front teeth within the week before pictures!

Conference weekend

We always spend Conference weekend up at our cabin. So as soon as we got back from our trip to Zion, we headed up there for some hot dogs.

Except, Jasmine believes that hot dogs are for eating, and the buns are for squishing and leaving in the grass.  Clearly.

She does the same thing with hamburgers and deli meat sandwiches.  Pulls out the meat to eat, and then ditches the bread and veggies.

And Kaitlyn, the one that likes veggies, decided to roast a little pepper.

The next day, Grandma Skarda came up to watch Conference with us.  We had fun going on a walk between sessions, too.

I love fall in the mountains!

Grandma and Grandpa came to visit!

When we scheduled Tyler's baptism, one of our main considerations was making sure that my parents could come out and be here to see it.  They usually make their drive out in August, but my Dad was able to shift things around and come out a month later.  I'm always so excited when I get to spend time with them!  A fair amount of our time was spent prepping for the lunch after the baptism, but we still managed to have fun.

Of course, the rain had to continue ALL weekend.  My mom got tickets for the General Women's Meeting for our church, so we headed up to Salt Lake to go see it.  In an absolute downpour.  We jumped over small rivers in the streets, and my shoes were still wet at the end of the night!

The next night, we headed up American Fork Canyon, tossed the football around for 20 minutes, and then the rain chased us back home.  Oh well, Tibble Fork is always worth the trip.

We have fun indoors, too, after all.

After that, my parents continued onward to Moab, Canyonlands and Capitol Reef.  I pulled the kids out of school at the end of the week to meet them in Zion National Park, which worked out really well.  I was nervous about making the trek without Christopher, but it wasn't an issue at all.

We didn't meet up with Grandma and Grandpa the first day, so we just took the shuttle around . . .

hiked and wandered around . . .

and somehow, the most exciting part to Tyler was that he saw a squirrel.  He's easy to please.

When we got to the hotel with Grandma and Grandpa, I was all set to take the kids swimming in the hotel pool.  But Kaitlyn said she didn't want to- she just wanted to put on her jammies and climb into bed!  I assumed that meant they were really tired, but since they were bouncing around and talking until 10pm, it turns out that just meant she was nervous about an outdoor pool in the dark and thought a hotel bed sounded exciting.  They wore out eventually, though.

I promise I put Jasmine up in bed after I took this picture, but when I woke up in the morning she was on the floor.  Poor thing.

Notice my backpack carrier, here.  The good one was at our cabin, so I only had this old garage sale find.  Everyone else in Zion had fancy ones with sunshades and cushions and zippered pouches, but thankfully Jasmine didn't mind the Big Bird colored thing we have. :)

I think the only one that had a bad day was poor Tyler- a bee flew into his ear and freaked him out so much that my mom was worried he got stung, and then right after I took this last picture he fell and scraped his knee up pretty bad.  We had to hobble all the way back to the car with him holding his shorts up so they wouldn't touch the owie (after stopping at the bathroom, because of course, he had been needing that for a while too) and then he finally got his precious band aid.  

Kaitlyn was just thrilled she got to be a Junior Ranger.  And Jasmine . . . was ready for her nap, having not slept well the night before.  We were all sad to say goodbye to Grandma and Grandpa, though!

Tyler's Baptism

 Sometimes you have to make things up as you go as a parent.  I was going to say that as a parent of a child with special needs, but then I realized that we are all adapting everything in life to the needs of our kids.  Which change daily.  And which we figure out as we go.

Anyway, I talked at length about Tyler and his postponed baptism back on his birthday post in January.  So I won't repeat that here.  We did take him to almost every baptism since then, and usually when we got home I would go through more of the questions that our Bishop was going to ask when he interviewed Tyler to be baptized.  We debated on how long to wait- at one point we scheduled December 6th - but in the end we decided that he is as ready now as he will be as an eight year-old.  He knows a lot of the answers to the questions now.  How much he understands . . . is something still up for debate.  But I do know that one thing he gained was a true excitement to be baptized.  After seeing other kids get baptized month after month, he was SO excited.  And I am starting to see those answers we prepped him with pop up in other Gospel discussions, so I think some of it really has sunk in.

We don't know exactly how his interview went, since he met with the Bishop by himself, but I know that our Bishop has been emotional every time he has talked about it since.  He said that "in all my years as a Bishop, and all the interviews I have ever given, this was the first time that when I asked a question, I was sung a song in reply."  Tyler loves to sing and remembers things better when he sings, so when asked about Jesus being baptized, he replied by singing "Jeee-suss caaaaame to John the Baptist."  Our sweet Bishop was so touched that he called us the night before the baptism and asked if Tyler could sing that as a special musical number.  When I told him that it was set to be the opening song, Daddy figured out that Tyler could sing the first verse and let us all join him for the rest of the verses.  We spent some time practicing, and it was one of the most adorable things I have ever seen. (Yes, I'm biased.)

Of course, the Bishop also told us that he finished his interview by asking Tyler if he had any questions he would like to ask.  "Yes,"  Tyler answered firmly, taking Bishop Anderson by surprise.  "Do you know -  what is four plus one?"
Through his laughter, the Bishop replied "Is it five?" and Tyler congratulated him.
"Yes, you are right!  It is five!"

I seriously love this kid.

Daddy does, too.  When I asked Christopher if he wanted to use his white shirt and white pants, or wear a jumpsuit like Tyler, he told me he wanted a jumpsuit "because I think Tyler will want me to dress just like him."

The baptism service went really well, too.  Bro. Simko (one of our friends in the ward) gave his talk using a coloring book, and Tyler was absolutely riveted (which is rare for him).  The theme for the day seemed to be preparing for baptism.  Tyler's Grandma Skarda said that he was the most prepared anyone has ever been for baptism, I think mainly because he was born so pure and happy.  His Uncle Brian added that "no one gives you enough credit, Tyler.  I think you're just going to amaze everyone someday."  My mom and my Uncle Bob talked about their baptisms as well.  Their mother did not like the Mormon church, and merely tolerated my Grandpa taking them to church occasionally.  I guess one day he just decided it was time and took them both to be baptized, assembly line style with all the other kids, at the Tabernacle downtown.  Neither of them had a clue until they were about in the car, and hardly had any interest in it!  So to them, it came down to what you do with your life and your testimony afterward, not how prepared you were when you got baptized.

And when Tyler got baptized, he was grinning from ear to ear.  Daddy held him under for an extra second so his hand didn't fly up, but they got it done.  And when they were climbing out of the font, Tyler told him happily "I got wet!"

Ironically, one of the reasons we switched from December to September (apart from how excited he was for his turn to come) was because we figured it would make it easier to host our families for lunch afterward.  Christopher's family alone is 7 siblings, their spouses and 30 grandkids, not including his aunts, uncles, and Grandma that came.  Then you add my family, and you no longer fit in our house.  September meant we could be outside and have plenty of room.

Except the fact that it rained all weekend.  So we made a quick decision and reserved the gym at the church, which worked out well.  We had all of Tyler's favorite foods- pizza galore, mac and cheese that Grandma made, Cheetos, chocolate chip cookies, and chocolate muffins.  He was a happy guy.

And we were all happy for him.  I could truly feel how much everyone in that room loved Tyler.  Even one of his old aides from school a year or so ago came.  We always laugh at how quickly Tyler converts everyone he meets to just adore him.  We feel truly blessed to have him in our family.

School is awesome!

Tyler and Jasmine have been obsessed with the song "Everything is Awesome".  And I have decided it is the perfect theme song for Tyler.  He just goes through life believing that everything is awesome! Thank goodness, this year school truly is AWESOME.

Last year was not a good year for him, in that regard.  I liked his teacher as a person, but she had never taught that age group before and was not too eager to get it all going.  She basically started off the school year by apologizing at PT conference, assuring me that she was talking to other teachers to learn what she needed to do and how to do it, and not to worry- she'd have it sorted out by Christmas.  I don't want to focus on the negative on here, but suffice it to say that it didn't go well.  Tyler regressed a bit last year in his reading and such, instead of progressing.  My inside source basically told me that Tyler spent most of his time by himself, doing nothing in that classroom, since the teacher was just trying to contain the other kids.  Late in the spring we found out that this teacher was not returning . . . along with all the other teachers for the small group classes at his school.  No matter what, if we stayed with the public school we would have a new teacher who was just learning what they were doing.  And after how badly last year had gone for Tyler, I just wasn't okay with another year of throwing the dice.  I needed a sure thing.

Thank heavens I knew right where to go.  We've taken Tyler to Clear Horizons for summer school for years now, and I can't tell you how happy I am to have him there this year!  Actually, I could go on and on about this.  Maybe I'll go with bullet points on why this is the most awesome school ever.

* In public school, there are privacy laws that protect the students from other people knowing they are receiving services.  For example, if you ask my friend the speech therapist if she is seeing so-and-so, she can't tell you.  But that meant that parents are not actually allowed into the classroom for these special ed kiddos.  Regular classrooms have parents coming in daily to help with reading centers or lead art time, but in the classes that need it the most, it is not allowed!  Not only are the missing out from added help, but I missed out from learning how to help my little guy.  I'm not a professional in special ed!  I don't have a clue what I am doing- but I am eager to learn.

But not only CAN I come and watch at this school, I could come all day every day if I want to.  Each classroom has an attached room with a one way mirror, and I am welcome to come and sit in there to see the class if I don't want to disturb them.  If I want to come in and help out?  Come on in.  If I want to learn what techniques they use, or what the latest research is showing?  They have classes for the entire community to come and learn, and partnered with UVU in the creation of an Autism Studies Minor that even non-UVU enrolled students can take.  They fought so that parents like me can take those classes and learn how to help my own child.

*Sometimes it is the little things that get me.  At our parent meeting the other night, a parent asked the Adaptive PE teacher if there was anything they could do to help her child learn to ride a bike. And they said sure- bring a bike in, and we'll work with him!  Another parent volunteered that she loves teaching kids to ride bikes, and I think they are now developing a bike riding workshop.  But the look on that mom's face is what got me.  Her jaw just dropped.  "I've asked that same question at IEP meetings for years," she said.  "And they all told me it wasn't their job."

"Welcome to Clear Horizons!" someone chimed in from the back row. They consider their "job" to be anything they can do to help these kiddos.  That is truly evident in their classrooms.  Anything they can do - from special desks that help the kids focus, to extra aides, to rearranging their schedule to meet the needs of the class, they are on it.

*Another story- the age group from 16 to 18 is called "transition" because they are transitioning from school to life on their own.  They need to polish off their skills from handling currency, to doing their own laundry, to job skills.  In public schools, I have to say that the people I have talked to don't see it as a place of hope.  If you are still in special education by transition age, then they just don't see much hope for you.  But the teacher of that age group at this school spent her entire summer writing to businesses and asking them if her kids can come in and visit.  She wanted them to see, hands on, what sort of entry level jobs they could get, and to be introduced to employers willing to hire them.  Do you know how many letters she sent out?  "I expected to hear back from 1 in 10 of them, but can you believe it was actually double that?"  She told me with a huge smile.  She has enough for them to take a field trip every single week out into the community.  That is a teacher filled with hope in her students!

*Their school building is awesome because it is designed with these kids in mind.  They have a tendency to run off, so all the doors have alarms to make sure everyone is contained.  They need a lot of physical therapy, so there is a giant room dedicated to the most awesome swings and tunnels and everything they could want to use for that.  They sometimes need to divide and conquer, so there are smaller rooms attached to each room so an aide can take some kids aside and away from the chaos of the rest of the class if they need to.  The students often have sensory issues with certain clothes, so there isn't a dress code, let alone uniforms.  Many students have dietary restrictions, so their cafeteria has microwaves the kids can use to heat up whatever they bring in.

Wow, my bullet points are actually novels.  Um, sorry.  But when people ask me if I mind the drive (sadly, they are 15 minutes away) or the cost (they are a private school) I tell them I could not be more thrilled to be there.

And so is Tyler.

I love this "first day of school" picture.  Tyler was being silly, and Jasmine wanted to join in- but Kaitlyn is trying to be a big grown up first grader (while actually just laughing at her siblings).

Oh, and I don't want to leave out Kaitlyn.  Because she has the sweetest teacher in the world.

Her teacher has been teaching First Grade for 10 years, and told us that the point of first grade was for the students to learn to love school.  And she does a great job at making that possible.  Kaitlyn just gushes with all the details of how much fun she has and what she learned that day, and her teacher has emailed me notes just to tell me how much she loves having Kaitlyn in her class and all the wonderful things that she has seen Kaitlyn do.  The parent next to me at the back to school night told me that this was her 5th child to have Miss Hull.  And that if she had enough money, she would pay Miss Hull to quit her job and come to her house and homeschool all of her kids.

I'm glad that if the kids have to be gone from home so much for school, I can at least know that they are in such awesome hands!