No Easy Button

Well, it's been a couple of weeks and I figured it was time to squeeze in a new posting. I've been back to work now for two weeks. It's been nice to see my students. My little guys with autism always have stuff to say that makes me laugh. Even on the worse days. So, coming back to school was very tough but my students, one in particular, made it a little easier. Speaking of easier, the one particular student of mine has developed an awesome fixation on the Staples "easy button." Upon going back to work it was the peak of testing season. Testing season really could be a whole other blog and perhaps someday it will be. Anyways, my students worked very hard on their assessment and throughout the whole process my one guy would regularly check to see if there was an "easy button." Myself, and the other teachers would very sadly have to break the news that there was "no easy button" but that we wished their was one as well. I love these kids.

Speaking of autism, April was autism awareness month. I started to write a big-to-do post on the subject but it never got finished. I will come back to it eventually. Matthew and I have almost officially decided I won't teach next school year. I'm going to substitute part time until I start my own business.

Ok-now for some updates! My Olivia is 4 months old now. I CAN'T believe how fast time has flown already. Two weeks ago we got her ears pierced. I wanted to get her ears pierced when she was an infant because I had a lot of issues with mine getting infected as a kid. My hair used to get wrapped around the earing and OUCH! SO, we went to claire's in the mall. It was really nice because they pierced both ears at the same time. She screamed for about ten seconds and that was the end of it! They look so cute. Her ears stick out a little just like her daddy's and they are adorable.

Livvy also had her 4 month checkup. She weighs 12.14 and is 25 inches long. She is still in the 75th percentile for legnth and 25th-50th for weight. My little peanut! I was worried her weight gain wasn't enough but the doctor said she was fine. She's been flipping over from her stomach to her back for a few weeks now. I was mad I missed the first time on that one but all well.

Tonight was the best. We got home from a big BJ's trip. Olivia got fed and then was playing in her jumper. I heard some bodily function noises and of course by the time I got to her she had jumper-ood herself and the contents of her dirty diaper was up to the back of her neck. Unbelievable. Matthew was helping me get her in the bathtub and we were both laughing so hard at her because she just had this look on her face. A little smile and not a care in the world. So, we were cracking up and all of the sudden she let out this big hearty laugh!!!!! It was the first time we've heard a big hearty laugh like that and it was SOOOO CUTE and special. We stood there in the kitchen with the naked poopy baby and I honestly got teary eyed.

Quite often in life I wish there was an easy button. Especially here in the last couple of weeks. I know millions of women do the working mother thing but it is so hard!!!!!! I think it takes a lot of time to adjust to the whole thing but right now I am hating it. I miss Olivia a lot and only get to see her a couple of hours in the evening during the work week. I used to bring a lot of my "school" work home with me to work on. I very quickly figured out this strategy was NOT going to work with an infant at home. House cleaning and laundry have gone out the window. I just can't find balance in my life right now! Oh if only there was an easy button....

Big blue eyes

Ears pierced!

25 ThiNGs oF RaNdOmNeSs

I usually don't "participate" in the facebook stuff but filling out the "25 things" seemed like the thing to do, so I did. I actually enjoyed reading other people's "25things". It was so enlightening some of the stuff I found out about people I knew pretty well (or so I thought). I thought I would post it on here as a blog again just for the heck of it. I probably could write a whole entire blog about each and every one of these in the list....maybe that will happen, at some point.

25. Simply because of where these items come from, I don't eat eggs, I don't drink milk and I don't eat anything "that used to swim"

24. On a high school trip to Argentina, me, Alison, and Kristen got left on the train...with NO thanks at all to me, we somehow found our way.

23. I have a fear of falling down steps and think about falling everytime I walk up and down stairs.

22. I have rear ended many cars and also been pulled over by the Po-Po at least 8 times and somehow have a clean driving record without any tickets or recorded accidents.

21. I have had the chronic habit of plucking my eyelashes since I was five years old.

20. I love to play scrabble (Thank you KK and David =)

19. I am kind of a germaphobe and obsess over germs and touching bacteria in public places.

18. My first job was at the Cracker Barrel..I was 16 and made a hundred bucks a night.

17. The most childhood memories I have are of times I spent at Meggan's house...playing barbies...mermaids in the pool...."little women" on the swing set...street hockey...etc.

16. I love to spend time with children/people with autism.

15. I really like to bake and feed people my baking.

14. I absolutely have the worse time making a decision about anything....feel free to comment if you've been shopping with me.

13. I am directionally challenged and get lost frequently.

12. My sisters and I love "couch time"...this usually consists of PJ's, laptops, TV and a roll of cookie dough.

11. My little dog Bailey goes by many names including but not limited to,mamas little honey bear pea pod boney bones boney macaroni peanut butter buckeye.

10. I have a terrible sweet tooth and cookies are my favorite.

9. I am the worse dancer EVER.

8. Next year I am going to try and start my own Autism consulting business.

7. I frequently get the lyrics to songs very wrong.

6. I am most proud of giving birth to Olivia...3 hours of pushing...was the hardest thing I've ever done.

5. I claim to make the best boxed mac n cheese ever--darn right Stephanie haha

4. I LOVE the beach but am so scared of sandcrabs and seagulls.

3. I have survived an Alison Bite

2. My family is crazy however spending time with them is my favorite habit.

1. Ironically enough, my shortest dating relationship ended up in a marriage to the best, most patient and unselfish person.

Daddy Day

Today Olivia had her first "Daddy Day"--8 hours of uninterrupted quality time with out the mama. I left around 10 in the morning to go to work on VGLA portfolios with a couple of other teachers. When I left Olivia was in her bed playing and her Daddy was in his bed with the pillow over his head. OH BOY. I laid out her clothes for her. In hindsight, I kind of wish I wouldn't have done that--it would have been cute to see what Matthew found to put on her. I guess he will have many more opportunities to pick out her clothes =)

By 11 I had only gotten one phone call asking if he needed to bring anything else for Olivia when they went out to run errands. He had remembered everything though, including the pink Vera Bradley diaper bag which I know he was thrilled to be carrying around. Daddy and Olivia ran errands all day. Matthew did get a 2 hour break when he dropped Livvy at Mimi's so he could go complete some experiment at his brother's job for $100. Not a bad deal.

When I left to come home around 6:30 I called Matthew to check and see how everything was going. He said Olivia had gotten real cranky when they got home. She was hungry so he fed her. She was cranky still so he fed her some more. And then she was still cranky soooo he fed her again. Lucky Livvy got triple helpings of dinner tonight, friends...thank you Daddy! When I walked in the door he was in the bathroom cleaning poop off her sock in the sink. She was half "nekid" laying in her play pen having a grand old time. The poopy diaper was wide open on the floor with Bailey standing nearby. I couldn't help but laugh at the scenerio.

Matthew is a GREAT father to Olivia. He really does take good care of her and is SO particular about her safety. Before she was born he was all about researching infant safety and making sure everything was assembled correctly. He cracks me up with the stroller. We have one of those "travel systems" with the infant car seat that just clicks right on top of the strolled. Matthew has to make sure every single clip is fastened. I usually just click the seat in without fastening all the little "do-jobies." I joke with Matthew like he is going to take Olivia off-roading in the stroller.

All jokes aside though, Olivia has the best Daddy in the whole world and I love him SO much!!!!



This is a picture of Matthew putting Olivia's first diaper on in the hospital right after she was born.



Like father, like daughter--they LOVE to sleep =)



He loves his little girl.

Easter 2009

Sunday was Olivia's first Easter and let me tell you. I was very concerned for her Easter dress as she had not had a dirty diaper in two days since "The Great Explosion of 2009." I will explain more later. Easter was a good day. Olivia wore the Easter dress her Mimi bought her. She looked so cute in it with her big hair bow. I know I get rediculous with the hair bows, but I just LOVE them. Everyone always asks where I get them. I have bought a couple, some of them (a few with the flowers) I have made, and then her Auntie Bridget started making her some real cute ones too. I just love the big hair bows! We went to Easter service at church and then went to Karen and Brian's house and hung out for a little while. Matthew played wii Mario Cart with our newphew Zachary. He loves the wii and apparently we are the only one of his six siblings who don't have one which is his good enough arguement for us to get one. We shall see.

Later on we went over to my parent's for dinner. I made mac'n cheese and a cake for dessert. The older I get the more I realize a lot of how "we" do things is because of my Italian background. Everything is always a big-to-do. Most people, it seems, don't really do a big Easter dinner similar to a Christmas dinner. But, the Italians do. There are so many traditions. In fact, this may be the first Easter I remember NOT having lamb as part of the meal. This year there was only ham. I never ate the lamb of course. In fact, I think my grandparents and mom may be the only ones who actually ate the lamb. My Grandma and Great Aunt Ata said that growing up they always had either lamb or rabbit on Easter. I thought this was kind of funny. I mean, little lambs and bunny rabbits are so Easter-ish....of course it would only be appropriate for the Italians to eat them on Easter.

After dinner out came the board games and the wii. Matthew was all about playing the wii-fit yoga. It was QUITE histerical. He was really into it. Olivia got cranky for some reason. In fact, she has since been cranky. Her excema has gotten really bad the last couple of days. I called the doctor to see if there was anything else I could do for her because she seems so uncomfortable. She said I needed to go ahead and make an appointment with an allergist. They think she may have a food allergy to something I am eating which would cause severe excema and also vomiting (which she vomits a lot). SO, we shall see what the allergist says. My poor baby girl.

Here are a couple pictures of Olivia in her Easter dress.



My pretty Olivia...


Can't believe those blue eyes

Hope you all had a great Easter! I'll be back again soon!

Just Some Updates....

It's been a few weeks since I have been on here. So much for my keeping up with the good old blog. I go back to work in two weeks and I know that is not going to help as far as giving me extra time to blog. Speaking of work, I am not looking forward to going back. My maternity leave has just FLOWN by. At least when I get back to school I will only have 8 weeks until the summer. I just feel like right now Olivia is changing so fast. Everyday she is developing more and more. It is so fun to watch and I'm sad I might miss one of her "firsts" if I'm not with her everyday. At least I can leave her with her Daddy or Mimi.

So what has been new?

As of two weeks ago, Chase's adoption was finalized. We all went to the courthouse for the ceremony. The night before my mom was trying to explain to Chase that he was going to be adopted and she asked him if he knew what that meant. He very seriously told her "I don't want to die." She then quickly told him that adoption didn't mean he was going to die but that he was going to be with them forever. He looked at her like "well, duh where else would I go?" Have to love a 4 year old's perspective!

Olivia has become so active the last couple of weeks. She interacts with people and her toys so much more. She is also sleeping through the night at least 8 hours ...one night she slept for 10 hours straight!!! I know I am really lucky that she has not been bad at night. I mean don't get me wrong, we've had our moments but overall she has been a very good baby. Matthew is so cute with her. He's already trying to teach her letter sounds which is quite comical. One time we were convinced she said "Matt" (it really was just her making the noise "MAAAAAAAAAA"). Yes, I suposse we are "those parents." Also, despite our original plight to keep her "pacifier free" (I don't know what we were thinking) she has chosen to eat her hands 24/7. She had her first real laugh last night while Aunt Jess was eating her neck, I mean, kissing her neck. Below is a video of sweet Olivia "saying good morning" to her Daddy while he was away for two weeks last month.



That's all for now folks...I'll log on again soon =)

Autism Moment?

I have to share my most recent Target experience. I was with brothers Chase and Jonathan. We were getting ready to check out at Target after having spent a good thirty minutes staring at the baby play gyms. The boys helped me pick one out for Olivia. Anyways, I could hear this boy carrying on and on. He was crying hysterically...really loud too. Of course I purposefully chose the checkout line he was in so that I could psychologically assess the situation. People must think I'm a total weirdo. I mean who does that?? Most people would do all they could to avoid the line with the screaming child but not me. I fearlessly seak out the screamers just to analyze the situation including both the child and the caregiver(s). OK, so back to the story.

We get in line behind the boy who was crying hysterically. Chase and Jonathan were, of course, staring blatantly. It's funny how kids do that. They have no qualms about giving a good stare down. Mouth wide open and all. So that was Chase and Jonathan. The little boy was a cute little guy...probably about 5 years old and he was sitting in the front of the cart. He was crying and going on and on about Thomas the tank engine. He was with, I'm assuming, his mom and dad. They were both very calm and went about their business getting checked out and loading the bags into the cart while the child continued crying and carrying on about Thomas. They didn't address his behavior at all until the father quietly said to him, "remember what we talked about?" and the little boy said, while crying, "it's dooonnneee." Then the father said "you have to be good and then we can go see Grandma and Grandpa." The boy sniffled a couple of times and started to calm down but then started crying and carrying on again talking about Thomas.

Let me tell you exactly what caused me to determine this boy had autism.

1. His crying and carrying on was a little over the top for a boy his age.

2. He was very fixated on this Thomas train and could not get over it.

3. The parents were both very calm (as if this has happened many-a-time) and handled their child much different then if the child was just throwing "a brat fit."

4. The boy looked like a typically developing child.

Moral of the story. Before you judge a screaming child as being a spoiled brat or having parents who don't know how to parent, stop and think there may be more to the picture then what you see. Especially because so many children on the autism spectrum look like typically developing children.

Thank you for listening and now I will step off my soapbox.

Ode to St. Patty

In honor of St. Patty's day and my being half Irish, I thought it would be the perfect time to write about my Grandpa Frain. He passed away when I was in high school but I have a lot of memories and funny stories about him.

My Grandpa Frances Frain was one of thirteen siblings born in Ireland. He came over on a ship to the US in his early twenties...making him a first generation immigrant. This has always been so interesting to me.....not many people can say one of their grandparents was "right off the ship." I think I may have one or two great aunts/uncles left on his side in Ireland, along with cousins etc. Someday I want to go there and visit. A few years back they had a family reunion in Ireland, but the Fredericksburg Frains could not make it what with how many of us there are and how expensive flying is.

The thing I remember most about my Grandpa was his THICK Irish brogue. My dad can immitate him perfectly.

My dad told me growing up my Grandma had to cook him some form of potatoes every single night for dinner.

When I was little and we would visit family in New York, my Grandpa used to bounce me on his knee and play this lion game. I don't remember exactly what it was but there was some sort of lion character and bouncing on the knee. He used to make me a poached egg for breakfast before anyone else was awake.

I remember when he got older and my dad had to move him out of his house in Brooklyn. When my dad brought him home to our place in Stafford, my Grandpa had a bag of fresh New York bagels. My sisters and I saw him throwing WHOLE bagels in the front yard "for the birds." We of course got a kick out of this.

Another story I remember hearing was when my dad was about to take his test to get his driver's license. My Grandpa went behind his back and told his driving instructor to fail him on purpose. My dad thought FOR YEARS that he actually had failed his driving test...come to find out it was only because my Grandpa told the driving instructor to fail him. When my dad asked him why he did that he said "I didn't want you to be too confident."

My Grandpa was such an Irishman...even down to the drinking. I'm pretty sure scotch was his favorite. Or was it brandy. Sadly, his alcoholism is what eventually killed him. He was as strong as an ox though and lived to 76 years old despite having smoked and drank so much like he did.

I'm glad I knew my Grandpa. It makes me sad some of my siblings never got to meet him but I know I can always share the memories I have of him.

Happy St. Patty's Day!