Bama Bound

Well, I guess our time here in California is up! Honestly, when we moved here I didn't think I would last a full year. I cried and cried to Clay about dragging me away from my beautiful home, friends and family. Now, I will be crying in a few days from dragging me away from California and my wonderful friends.   I never would have thought with only 5 short years this could feel so much like home.

We have had such a wonderful adventure! We have visited so many places we would have never seen and met wonderful people we would have never known. And I do feel blessed.  But, now we have so much to look forward to. We have a wonderful home in Alabama and wonderful friends there (whom I am so excited to see).

Good quote about change:

"Change is Hard at first, Messy in the Middle and Gorgeous at the end."  Robin Sharma

So, thank you California for the wonderful memories and Look out Bama because here we come!!

Autism and Traveling OH MY

Our family is taking in California as much as we can..there is so much to see and do. We don't know how long we will live here, so lately we have been adding in extra trips to make sure we see it ALL! :)  The kids LOVE to travel too, so that helps.

The hardest part are the transitions, which I just don't have the answer to yet, for helping Cohen. The night before we left for our Yosemite trip Cohen was starting to ramble about how he was going to miss his house. He actually stretched his arms out and kissed the wall. He isn't joking he misses the actual HOUSE! :)   So, he was getting anxious about leaving but it was fine, we talk a lot before we leave about how many nights we will be gone, who is watching our dogs and that our things will be here when we get back. But, as always Cohen fell in Love with the "new house" which was actually a small cottage near Yosemite. He decided he loved that house and didn't want to leave. UGH! We can't win, but this is normal we expect it to happen. But, what we know is that we will hear the same sentences the entire way home! This time it was I don't want my old home, I want my new home. Then he decided he wanted to go to the lake house tomorrow on another trip, as long as he didn't go back to his Old house, he would be happy.

We don't understand how his mind works, why he goes there but he does. So, we get home and there was a LOT of screaming until he calmed himself down. He has to be by himself to self calm. Then he went down stairs and started doing his art. He drew his family at the Lake house, himself wakeboarding with his Daddy, and builders fixing our old house, so we could move to the lake house.  Art seems to help him express his feelings, when he can't find the words.

This is just a little glimpse of our lives with Cohen. He is such a joy and we Love him so very much..but it is also very difficult to be the best parent when you just don't understand your child the way you wish you could!   I don't believe in cures for Autism, I believe my baby was born with it and we are learning to parent him the best we can and understand his World!!

Another Cohen update...

I know a lot of my posts are about Cohen, but it's hard not to update the amazing progress I am seeing daily with him.   Cohen was diagnosed at age 3 with Autism and he was considered non verbal because none of his words were actually full on words, they were hummed or not full words..but I actually understood a lot of it. ( Mommy's get it) :)  And skip forward now to Age 5 and my little boy is talking non stop, communicating amazingly with us and others. A lot of his sentences are still from commercials or something he has heard, but he fits it into conversation nicely! :)

But...what I am most excited about is that my Cohen is registered for K-5 next year and will be mainstreamed into the regular classroom. This is one of the main reasons we held him back last year,  so that he would be ready.  I am so very very proud of him.  We will have a lot of work to do I am sure, but I know he can do it!!

And...I have to say that Cohen would not be where he is today without the TEAM of wonderful people that have helped him, and still are.  His progress is not about 1 variable it's about them all.  Yes, we changed his diet and have worked hard with that and have read and worked hard with him, but my Gosh we would be Lost without his ABA therapy, occupational therapy,  preschool teachers, and family and friends.   So, today I just feel thankful at where we are.  Cohen still has Autism, but we are all learning to deal with it, and push through it.

Beach Day in January

We have had some lovely 70 something days lately, so we decided to take full advantage and go to Santa Cruz yesterday!  We have only been one time, but never hit all the popular spots so we decided to do that!  First we went to the Wharf for lunch, which was really nice, but we had to walk past a roller roaster and other rides and an arcade, so there was no way the kids would let us leave without playing a little there. After a really nice lunch with a beautiful view of the ocean we walked back to the hectic craziness rides area, which is totally not my thing!  Clay found out that Cohen was not tall enough to do the roller coaster, and if you know Cohen you know he LOVES LOVES to ride roller coasters, they have a track and they are the closes thing to a train, and he loves that rush!  He had a minor breakdown, but he actually calmed himself down, (which he has worked hard on the past 2 years).  He stopped after and told himself to "Just Breathe." He took a deep breath and we kept going. So cool to see. The kids did a ride and then we got the heck out of there and went to a different beach!

Clay took us to a beach he had heard of that has natural bridges! Absolutely beautiful!  We also hit it right for the low tide there and were able to see some sea urchins and other little things. The kids really enjoyed exploring on the rocks.  Once again, that beach was super crowded and I like the area to be peaceful and relaxing. So, it was a great experience, but not going to be our new spot. Back to Monterey and Carmel we will go!!

Blessed

Autism A Blessing?

I look at Cohen every day in complete an utter amazement. I am so overwhelmed everyday with him. When I say overwhelmed I don't mean with work I mean the love I feel when I look at him.  The first half of Cohen's life I felt overwhelmed, seriously overwhelmed like how am I going to do this??? Why me? Why did God give me a special needs child?  I am not the most patient person and I never thought I had the gift of taking care of a child like him.  We (Clay and I) struggled and we still do with knowing how to parent him properly, but we just do our best and take it day by day.

Cohen is teaching me probably more than I am teaching him. I am learning to have more patience for sure and to have more compassion for others.  Cohen loves with all of his heart..all of the time! Wow,  how can that not be a gift?

I watch my big 5 year old boy progress daily in his talking, (actually sometimes I can't make him stop), his art work,  riding a bike (which we didn't know he would ever do), and even starting to throw a ball a little. (I don't think he will be an athlete :))  Cohen knows all of his numbers and letters and is learning site words at school.

Just over a year ago I was wondering if we would ever know how how he felt, what he needed, if he would have any friends, have any passions (other than Thomas).  I know I am lucky, I know that I am blessed, some parents aren't ever able to know the thoughts of their children or how their child feels. I get that, I am getting more than that. I am Blessed.

Celebrating Cooper

Cooper has been working so hard in school this year!  He has had some struggles with his spelling.  We have been trying to build his confidence and then I think better grades will come! So...his reward for an A was to go to Chuckee Cheese!  Just before the Christmas break he got 2 A's on his spelling test! We are so proud of him and took him out to celebrate!

We went to our favorite breakfast place, Black Bear Diner and then went to Chuckee Cheese to play! The kids had a ball and Cooper new this adventure was all to celebrate him!!

Christmas

We just celebrated our 3rd California Christmas!  We have created quite a few new traditions here that we all enjoy. Being that we don't have family here, Clay and I have tried to find other things to do to make lots of family memories!

We go to the Christmas tree farm and cut down our tree, which is always fun!   We did a little bit of baking together, went to visit the white reindeer at Mount Madonna and this year we were able to go to the Christmas Eve service at Church.   The past few years we haven't gone because we always have to leave around 10 minutes in,  the kids just can't keep quiet.  This year we made it, almost the entire time. Clay had to walk out with Cohen because towards the end of service Cohen says Really loudly 3,2,1 and then says My Mom makes really good hot chocolate.  We tried and the kids new what Christmas was all about, which was the important part.

And of course..we made reindeer food and left out Cookies and milk for Santa!

Christmas morning, Cohen was sick but we were still able to enjoy opening presents together and had a wonderful day!  Hoping soon to be able to celebrate with our Alabama and Georgia family!

Christmas Time 2014

Well...it's December already!! And I am so in the Christmas Spirit this year!  The day after Thanksgiving we went to our favorite Christmas tree farm here and found the perfect tree for us! I love doing that..it's so fun and the kids love the experience. All the kids were able to help cut down the tree this year, pretty cute! Cenley found a stump she worked at for a while trying to cut down? :) The Gilroy newspaper took our families picture while we were there, so we will see..we might end up movie stars! Ha Ha
The next day we turned on Christmas music, had hot chocolate and had a lot of fun decorating. I am glad we don't have 10 trees in our house though, it took us a few hours to accomplish the one :).

Loving the memory making and family time together.

Thanksgiving 2014

I can't believe this is our 3rd Thanksgiving here in California.  When we moved here I thought we would possibly be here for 2 years and head back. The time has not come yet for us to leave, but we are really making the most of our time here.  We have not been able to celebrate with all of our family for so long, I really don't think the kids even remember the Holidays back in Alabama. So...I am trying to recreate some of the things (foods) we used to have back home. We are creating some new traditions as well. I just want the kids to have Great memories of all of the Holidays here in California even though we don't have our wonderful family with us.

So, Clay cooked the turkey for us yesterday. While that was baking he took the kids to the park so I could make all of the other stuff :). I pulled out my book of my Mom's recipes and went to town and added some gluten free yummies too to ensure Cohen didn't get the wrong foods.

We had a great day together! Fire going, playing outside and full of thankfulness!!

The dogs filled their bellies as well. I just added a picture of Roxy doing a trick we didn't know she could do! :)

Back to School

Well school is officially back in full swing! All 3 kiddos are in school now!! :) I would like to say it's going to make my life easier but it's not really. They all go to different schools so I feel like a bus driver! :)  I need to find the pictures of Cohen and Cenley...I have them..


Cohen

I decided to hold off on K-5 for Cohen this year, he has been doing so well in his preschool class we chose to do that one more year and try to mainstream him into regular classes next year. (we hope) So back to school with Mrs.Shew (his happy place)




Cooper

Cooper is in Second grade and has Mrs. Patterson!  He really likes school so far and his teacher. I am proud of him and hoping for a great year!

Cenley is in Soccer

I have wanted for some time now to get Cenley in some activities! She loves to dance, jump, flip and run! So what to choose, what to choose?? We started out with Soccer this time. She said she wanted to play but when the first practice day arrived she said she was too little to play :). Getting nervous I think. I had to take Cooper to his last day of a class he was taking so Daddy got the privilege of taking her to her first practice.  He said the first 10 minutes she wouldn't join in but finally did and LOVED it. She keeps asking me when she can go back to "basketball."   I asked Clay to take pictures and he sure did, he took 200! Love my photographer!!

So here are a few of her first day!

Dreams

A long long time ago Clay and I used to visit this beautiful Lake called Smith Lake.  We were dating and if I was going to be dating him that meant I would have to adjust to spending weekends and every evening on a lake. That's how it was, our off days were on a a boat and Clay was wakeboarding. We camped, roughed it

and enjoyed life with our 2 dogs. :)  Clay had always told me he wanted to one day live on the Lake and slowly his dream became my dream.

But, as life became real we were married, had 3 kids and up and moved to California! We had to sell the boat and do the Baby and mini van thing for the past 7 years. Fun years but no time or money for a boat.

We have continuously talked about our Dreams and Lake Life, and have made part of that a reality. We found the perfect house for us on Smith Lake. Although we will only be able to visit once a year, we have a place now in Alabama we can call home!   So...our first visit as a family was Last month and it was wonderful! We were able to visit with a lot of friends and family. 2 weeks was not nearly enough time to see everyone and we do hope to catch up with more friends next time!

My Cohen

I can't believe Cohen will be 5 years old next month! Sometimes it feels like it and sometimes time just seems to be flying by!  I have so much Love for Cohen it is really indescribable.  Something I have only shared with a few people I am going to share now. I really had such a hard time bonding with him as a baby. I don't know why, I wondered if it was because he was immediately taken from me and in the Nicu for a week or if it was because he was my second and I couldn't completely focus on him. Or was it that I didn't understand him, the way he never looked at me or react like Cooper had. I don't know and I don't care anymore. Our first 2 years were so amazingly hard and I felt like I was doing something wrong because of the tantrums and all that came with his Autism. But, now that Clay and I really "get" him so much more and he is able to express his feelings with us now, my heart just overflows with Love I didn't know I had. He is the most wonderful, smart, loving, funny little boy and I am so proud of who he is and who he is becoming.

We are still doing Lots of therapy. 5 days a week of preschool (3 hours) which he Loves.  9 hours a week of ABA therapy (at our house) and 1 hour a week of occupational therapy.  The ABA therapist have goals set for him that extend for about 3 months and if he reaches them they add new goals.  He has been mastering the goals each time. He is writing his name, learned his Address, asking questions. The hardest part is trying to get him to carry on a conversation but it is slowly coming.

Cohen learned to Swim this past weekend. Wow!!! I have been so nervous about Cohen in water because he is completely fearless at the Beach and around large areas with water. But, now that is conquered.  Cooper is so proud of his brother and is trying to teach him to dive :). Cooper says we now only have Cenley to "train."

Cohen and Cenley are little best friends lately. They dress up EVERY day as Mario and Princess Peach and they call each other by those names when they are in costume. They play pretend tea parties and Mickey and Minnie Mouse. I just love these times.

We continue to do a dairy and gluten free diet for Cohen and we do our best to do the same for ourselves. we know that this has helped speed along some our goals.  Thank you all for loving us and loving him.

Reminiscing

With all of the "winter weather" back home in Alabama! I have been thinking about all of my friends and family so much! I miss everyone back home and am so proud of how everyone has taken care of each other. One of the things I miss so much about the South!  Everyone really comes together to help each other out, if they know you or not!  I do think our friends here would do the same , but there is something about the South that I miss so much!!

The last time we "lived" in Alabama Cooper was 3, Cohen was 2 and Cenley was not quite 1. All were babies!!!  The time has really flown by! I was just looking at pictures we taken not too long before we moved. I actually found one where we had some Snow! :) Thought I would share. And, the top 2 pictures I had to add because they are of Cohen as a baby,  playing trains nonstop at about 7 months and hasn't stopped yet!! :)