The Worst Blogger!

I know, I know! I win the award for worst blogger right? I'm sorry! Although I have to admit when you threaten to send a search party out- I thought it might be fun to have a little pow wow!
But seriously we are all doing well. Little bumps in the road, that I guess are to be expected. Why haven't I blogged? Well, first my laptop died :( and my hubby definitely believes he can resuscitate it :) except he's been working 6 days a week. Now obviously more work is a good thing, but not always easy. One day to rest is not much, so I'm not really going to ask him to stare at my laptop on his one day off. Second, we had issues with our phone land line at this house, we have 4 bedrooms and only 2 jacks- one in the kitchen and 1 in one of the kids rooms (weird). The jack in the kitchen doesn't always work either! Which is not a huge deal because most of the time we just use our cells. But we've had some probs with the Internet because of it. So Alex says he has to go buy a new router and I say ok because I really don't understand any of that. Just fix it and I'll be happy ;) So I'm waiting.....
I have new cell phone, a Blackberry Storm, its neat but a bit complicated. I manage to check all my email through it, but I don't find it amusing to blog on it- too time consuming!
On top of all this I'm reading a few books because I need to educate myself on a few topics. 1st there's the issue that it appears Angelina may have Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) also known as Sensory Integration Dysfunction. Its a bit complicated, so I'm reading up on it to try to understand it and help Angelina with it. I'll explain more later.
I'm also reading up on taking care and training a puppy. I'm realizing I kind of jumped into it without truly knowing how much it would entail. At this point I feel like I'm failing Kobe at times because I don't know how to respond to some of his behaviors. And I feel like some of the things he does is because of lack of attention from me/ us. He loves digging, he has dug up a few plants in our backyard, and even made a pipe leak! When I take him out in the morning he LOVES to bark at the whole world and make it known that he is up. I'm sure my neighbors love that, since he gets the other dogs going too! Alex's favorite: he pees when he gets excited- a lot. And I mean he pees a lot not he gets excited a lot. The worst part is he does it mostly with Alex. Needless to say, my hubby is not amused! I've been told its called submissive urination...great- now I just have to get him to stop! Yes I watch the Dog Whisperer a lot!
Then there's our front yard and back yard that are so sad looking. Sad because it consisted mostly of dry grass, weeds and old faded mulch! Luckily my handy dandy brother works at Home Depot, so I bug him a lot. He has kindly gotten our sprinklers working on a timer. it still gets a little out of wack- the other day I'm pretty sure they were on for 2 hrs- not good! I've weeded and cleared out the old ugly mulch. Then I decided and I'd plant some pretty flowers. So of course I had to do research on that- didn't want them to die on me instantaneously. Well there's a lot to learn. Great! Any of you out there got green thumbs? This is all new to me! So far so good. Its not beautiful yet, but nothing has died on me yet (big achievement for me!) I thought my petunias were goners after the first day, but they have actually made it through. Better Homes & Gardens is my friend right now. And I'm actually going to take a free class at Home Depot. Yes I know I'm crazy- but I've only actually messed with the front yard right now ;)
Marcelina is good. Looking forward to summer as am I. She will be entering the GATE program next year, which I'm really proud of her for. She still wants to be a rock star. Eventually I will get her in some guitar lessons. She's a smart cookie, but at the same time little Ms Attitude. She's great with Angelina, but a firm believer that Girls Rock, Boys Stink. Unfortunately her brother is no exception. So often times she doesn't want to be bothered with him and is not the kindest to him. Sadly he'd probably do anything for her.
Alex will be entering Kinder in the fall. I'm really excited for him, I can't wait to see how much he excels. This little monkey can read and do math. He's caught on to it from listening to Marcelina. He is quick too! I actually a little worried about him, to the point that it makes me sad. Alex is a perfectionist. Everything he does must be neat, perfect, should not be messed with and he will take his time to finish it. If he is cutting and its not just right he wants nothing to do with it. If he builds a robot with Legos, he takes his time and then doesn't want it broken down for it to be put away. If he happens to color outside the lines, the paper is trash, and let me tell you he is very neat about his coloring. Recently his preschool teacher called me and I had to go pick him up from class. This is the first time this has ever happened. Alex is the type of boy that all the teachers love. He is sweet, loving and follows directions, especially in class. You just see that smile of his and know he is a sweetheart. Well lately this perfectionism of his is getting in the way. Two weeks ago his teacher mentioned he had gotten upset after a painting project they did, did not turn out the colors he had wanted it to be. Apparently they were learning about mixing colors. Anyhow, once it was messed up, he wanted nothing to do with it and wouldn't talk to the teachers. It took him a while to come out of his funk, and his teacher was surprised at how mad he had gotten. They never have to ask him twice to do something and this time it took quite a bit of coaxing to get him to move on. Last Friday, when i was called it was worse. Not only did he get mad about his project, he kicked and stomped at the floor, refused to talk to the teachers and then secluded himself from the class. He basically put himself in a time out and refused to participate in anything. His teacher called me to see if me talking on the phone to him would change anything- nope, silence on the other end. He finally said he was too tired. So I picked him up and brought him home. Since then, he has had a couple episodes of this anger. I mean he can be happy enjoying himself and in a split second he is furious to the point that he shuts down and won't talk. Today at least he used sign language with me. Its weird, he gets mad, either he crumples up what he is working on or throws it, then he like hollers out of frustration and then won't talk. And Alex by no means is a boy of no words. He can talk for hours non stop, and not nonsense either. It doesn't always happen, and so far he's been fine at school. His teacher has expressed being worried as she had never seen him act like this before. Don't get me wrong, Alex has had temper tantrums before, never at school, but they were "normal" in sense of being over not getting to do something. This behavior is because what he is doing isn't perfect. I'm worried that it might be either something medical or something I did or didn't do. I worry that I've jipped him out of time because of my worries for Angelina. My plan is to spend more one on one time with him and see if I can help him cope without the anger. Depending on how I see him, I'll make an appointment with our pediatrician. And then I wonder maybe I should just make appointment anyway? He is still being sweet and loving otherwise. He is caring and gentle with Angelina, and always trying to please Marcelina.
And finally Ms. Angelina. She is active and all over the place. Sometimes a bit hyper. Her walking is still not smooth (but that does not stop her) and she walks with a wide stance. She is a talker, except like I've mentioned before, its really hard to understand her. We are continuing with Speech Therapy, we still use sign language, and have actually started using PECS. With OT we have started using a pressure vest, to help calm her down a bit. Since she was sick with stomach issues last week, we haven't used it much, so I can't tell you if it helps.
Since this is already an extremely long post, I'll tell you more about SPD, PECs, her pressure vest and Angelina next time.
Sorry I didn't post in so long. Thank you for still checking up on us. I hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! AND PLEASE, IF YOU HAVE TIPS ON ANYTHING I POSTED TODAY....I WANT TO HEAR THEM! I promise to keep it current!