Oh to be a BI

Yesterday gave me a look at myself. I have come far from where I started when it comes to work. I ended up waiting a kid out for more than 25 minutes until he said, "hi Dora". That was the expectation and he has all the skills to pull this off. He was being a turkey and said, "I'll say hi to spiderman". I told him he could say hi to spiderman after he said hi to dora. Than we sat there. He got mad at me, he got violent (tried hitting me, than hitting the dora picture) he tried saying "I don't know" he tried everything possible in his little power. I continued to just sit there and wait. I'm paid to wait, is what I kept saying to myself in my head. It was incredibly frustrating, just say hi dora and we can move on. But he was having a power struggle. I haven't worked with him in over 2 weeks so I'm sure most of this was to test the boundaries again. After our 25 minute sit with nothing but a picture of dora he finally said, "hi dora" and I basically jumped up and down and praised him for complying and gave him every toy he had asked for in that time. After that the rest of our session I had nothing but compliance from him. Whew! But it made me take a good long look at far I've come as a BI. I wanted to give in at one point and switch to a different program thinking I could come back to this later. But I knew that's what he wanted and in order to get my instructional control back I had to wait him out.

Today was a great day, however. I worked with one little guy who is non-verbal and he combined both the sign for "open" with an approximation of the verbal "o-en". I was so incredibly excited. This is a huge step!!! He also really thrived in his pec program. (That's when you use pictures for words). He is really getting it that he needs to be a nagging communicator. Meaning I would put out 3 pictures of things I know are really motivating for him to get. Than I turn my back so he has to not only choose the picture of the thing he wants, but he has to come around me, get my attention, give me the pec in order to achieve his desire. He did it! Again a first and I was so happy and basically jumping up and down once again. I do a lot of jumping at work. (Today I felt it as my tummy was super tight after my shift).

My second shift today the little girl I was working with gave me a laugh. I asked her to describe to me in 4 pictures how to get ready to go outside. The first thing she said was, "you have to put everything you're going to need in your purse, don't forget your keys, than put on your boots, your jacket and open the door". I killed myself laughing with the purse comment. I checked in with her, you have a purse? haha. She said she did. I thought this was hilarious. What a funny kid.

Well, that's about all there is to report for now. Until next time,

Michelle

Feeling better and Inigo

Nothing much new to report from yesterday. I stayed home from work again today. When I woke up this morning my pj's were soaked. I am guessing that my body sweated the fever out. It was such a gross feeling. So I got up and changed into my other jammies and called in to work and went back to sleep. When I woke up at noon my second pair of pj's suffered the same fate as the first. oh yoy yoy. Gotta do some laundry.

However waking up today I was super hungry (different from yesterday or the day before). I took this as a good sign and came out and made myself a lovely little fruit salad. I woke Inigo up for the day and he is currently sitting on his door, staring at me chirping his little heart out (the quiet pleasant chirping not the shrieking shrill chirp). He's so cute. I've been contemplating on getting him a little bird friend, but I don't know if I want to commit to two birds just before baby comes. But it might be a good idea so he has a friend. I remember having this same debate with one of my previous birds and when I did get him a friend he became more friendly towards me and they were the cutest little pair. What do you think? Leave a comment and tell me your vote - yes second bird or no second bird. His bruise is healing, slowly but surely. Did I mention on here what had happened? We came home from being out and there were feathers everywhere, including on the ceiling. I looked at Inigo and he had a bruise on his head. Poor little guy. I can only assume he did his daily fly around (which he only does once or twice a day if that) and went to high and hit the ceiling. That's just my guess. He was pretty shaken up about it though because he didn't come out of his cage for the rest of that day and we keep his food and water out of his cage so he's forced to exit his comfort zone at least a couple of times a day.

Another way to force him out of his cage, although I forget this most times, is to sweep around his cage. He hates the broom for whatever reason and you'd think something must have happened before with his strange little phobia. But as soon as I come around his cage with it he freaks out and flies out and either lands on top of the cupboards or on the tv.

Well, that's all there is really to announce for today. Feeling quite a bit better just a little weak and headachey and tired.

Until next time

Michelle

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines day to all my lovely friends! I was really looking forward to today as it's Valentines Day, my friends baby shower, a potluck at work, and a group maternity appointment. However I am sicker than a dog and had to bow out of everything. Yesterday I woke up feeling great! Than I had a cough that made my gag reflex act up and had a lovely little moment of morning sickness. Didn't think much of it and continued on my day. As the day went on I was feeling much worse. It came on so fast. By the time the second session came along I had to do a lot of sitting because I was having some major dizzy spells. I fought through the day and was happy that of all days to be sick I had a routine doctor visit so I could have the chance to ask her to fix me. My appointment went well, babies heartbeat was soo fast at first and then slowed down. She said, it's pretty active...yep!

After our doctor visit we stopped at Bylands nursery because I had a gift certificate from my sister and it expires in the next week or so. As we were walking around my body got slower and slower and my eyes started to cave in on themselves and I felt like I was about to pass out. So we headed home (I did get a lovely gift though and will take a picture of it so you can see). Once we got home I forced myself to stay awake, trying to coax myself with The Bachelor. I didn't make it. I was in bed before 6:30. At one point I texted Brenton from the bedroom to bring me a glass of water. He thought that was funny, why didn't you just call out? I have no strength to walk let alone yell. (I'm not a yeller - my voice always cracks when I try). I woke up about every 3 hours because one part of my body would either overheat or be so frozen. It was a typical fever when you're covered up and then you start to over heat but once you expose even the smallest part of your body to the air you're frozen to the core. So uncomfortable.

When I woke up at 7 to determine if I could face the day I stood up and didn't feel as bad as yesterday, however once I started to walk around it all came flooding back so I headed back to bed, called into work and went back to sleep - until 1pm. When I woke up the baby was kicking and it freaked me out, what is going on?! Than I remembered that I was pregnant and it's ok. Talk about throwing you through the mental loops though.

Every ounce of my being hurts, especially the joints. I cried to Brenton, my knee caps hurt! Right now it's my hips and my legs and basically just everything. At 1pm I got up and walked the full 10 feet to the couch and was ready for a nap. Such a sad case.

I'm really hoping I'll be better by tomorrow because I don't think I can take much more of this. I'm very whiny today and I'm sorry I didn't have more uplifting news to share.

My fever is at 99.8 and it's not worrisome until it's 102, so I'm praying that it goes down fast and that I can be back to my old self quickly. Until then, everyone have a happy healthy Valentines day.

Adventures in bathing suit shopping

Bathing suit shopping was all it's cracked up to be. I went to a million and one stores (ok like 5) and anyone who knows me knows I hate shopping at any time and bathing suit shopping just has that extra -why am I doing this to myself- aura around it. I skipped one store on purpose because they also have a connecting lingerie store and their sizes are always too small for my body type so I decided I'm not even going to go in there unless it becomes a last resort.

My first stop - Jersey city. Not even close to bathing suits right? Well it was right next to the bathing suit store and I needed to check to see if they had one thing that I've been looking for since finding out I'm pregnant. Alas, they did not have it. So before I went into the bathing suit store I went across the mall and looked at some summer dresses that I saw hanging up (I love sundresses so this seemed like a natural place to go when procrastinating from trying on swimsuits). Told ya I was really procrastinating on this whole endeavor. Finally I dragged myself into the first swim suit store. I tried on at least 6 or 7 swimsuits. Naturally my girls are large, being pregnant they are now elephant size and nothing they had was fitting them very nicely. She told me that they had a couple of other swimsuits but that it bumped me up into the next price category. Not thinking it would be that much I agreed to trying them on. The one was so beautiful, it was very flattering and then I looked at the price. The top alone (no bottoms) was $135! I've never paid that for an entire swimsuit before, let alone a top that I'm only planning on wearing for the next 6 months or so (I am under the understanding that after baby comes the girls are going to get even larger so I'm trying to plan ahead).

I sulked out of the store, defeated. So I went to the next department store along the journey (I had stopped in one department store when I first arrived at the mall, however they didn't have anything that would appeal to anyone under the age of 60. The second department store was also a bust (in the bust department - ha - I crack myself up). I figured out pretty quick that this was going to be a challenge, so I went to Gap. I went straight to the back and hit up the baby section. I talked with one lady who works there and told her that I needed a break from big girl shopping and came to look at something I knew would fit this little one at some point. It was also just really cute to see the things they had for little ones. After a little -little people shopping therapy(I didn't buy anything)- I was ready to embrace the big bad world of swimsuit shopping once again. I went to the last store, the one I avoided at the beginning. The last resort store. I went in already feeling defeated. When the girl approached me to see if I needed help with picking out the size (I was looking at one particular bathing suit) she asked me my size. I told her and she said, yes we have that in all the swimsuits here. Freedom! I could look at any bathing suit and know that they had it in my size. I tried on at least 7 bathing suits and the only reason I was taking forever in the change room was because I was having such a hard time choosing which one I liked best! I don't think that has ever happened before. My girls were completely covered - no spilling out on the sides or anything! I was ecstatic. I ended up deciding on two tops and one bottom. I was very pleased that it was a shopping success and that I wouldn't have to have another day devoted to the dreaded mall or shopping at all!

I quickly left the mall(I got what I needed and left - just like a guy shopper) and headed home. I was a starving marvin when I got home and quickly made a salad and was happy. As soon as I sat down though my legs throbbed. I had been walking around for 3 hours and I forget that my body wears out quicker these days. But my day didn't end there. I went grocery shopping as well for the week. Normally this is a Sunday evening adventure but this week we have plans for tomorrow evening so I decided to go tonight instead. I really recommend, if you live on the westside, to do your grocery shopping on either Saturday or Sunday evening, after 7pm. There is barely a soul in the store and the westside store is pretty good at keeping their stock topped up.

Baby Kiwi update - kicking up a storm. B is able to feel him/her kick and each time it seems to be getting stronger. I am so enjoying the imagining stage. Imagining if it's a boy or girl, what he/she will be like. What they will look like. The ability to snuggle them, are they going to be a cuddler? I bought kiwi a gift today using my swagbucks and I'm so excited for it to arrive in 6-10 business days! haha.

Wow you're lucky, two blog updates in one day. I just thought I should update on my bathing suit adventure.

Until next time

Michelle

Procrastination at its finest!

It's the weekend and I am procrastinating big time! I have to go to the mall and pick out a bathing suit. Let's face it, like every other girl in the world, I don't care for this kind of shopping. However, with my ever growing belly my old bathing suits don't work so I need to get a new one if I would like to enjoy swimming on our upcoming get away. I love to swim!! My sister in laws parents can attest to that (they have a pool and I was not shy on using it when I lived closer to them). Especially since their pool is a salt water pool and I react to chlorine.

Yesterday was a really fun day at work. Little guy I worked with first thing (I believe he was story number 2 last time I talked about work - little non-verbal guy) came up to me yesterday, stared me down and jibber jabbered to me for almost a minute. Very exciting!! It doesn't sound impressive I'm sure, but it really is. Not only did he acknowledge my existence, but he was trying to communicate verbally with me. Huge step!! After this milestone comes language. I really hope he gets to that stage (or the beginning stages of it before I leave).

After that little guy's session I had a play group that I run with three little girls. We started out with yoga, and then finding out information about your friend (helping to build conversation skills), than we coloured a picture and then wrote a story together (when everyone adds one sentence to the story), than we acted it out. Than we had a craft, I had made sugar cookies the night before and our craft was to decorate them. Although it was with a twist. First they were able to decorate their own cookie however they wanted, than the second cookie they decorated they had to take direction from a friend (works on listening to your friends). So their friend told them what colour icing to use - but then they had the creative freedom to do whatever they wanted with that icing since all three of them were in charge of directing someone and taking direction from someone else. It went over rather well and it was fun. My favourite part was the yoga because it really challenged them on balance. The three of them were falling over and it was really funny to watch. Definitely something we'll be doing again - they need the practice.

I guess that's all there is to report for now. I will catch up with you later, have a great weekend

Michelle

Sleepy head

Today I stayed home from work. I was beyond exhausted. I woke up and thought it isn't that bad, than I stood up and decided, well since I almost passed out I should probably not go to work. So I called in and went back to sleep not waking to the world until 1pm. Since I went to bed at 9pm the night before that would equate to 16 hours of sleep. When I woke up my headache was gone and all the over-all body pain was no longer so severe. I was however still so tired. I dragged myself out to the couch and rested there for the rest of the day (still there actually) and I plan on going to bed in the next couple of hours.

I know it's been going around the centre where I work but most of them have gotten fevers and such as well. I was lucky enough to not have that aspect of it. I'm hopping the day of rest did my body wonders and I'll be back at it tomorrow. I missed working with the kiddos I was scheduled to work with today, especially since one of them only comes once a week, so now I won't see him until next week.

This is a pretty sad blog update, really nothing to report except that I'm still growing a little human and I wonder if it's going to be a boy or girl. My niece really wants a girl because she only has boy cousins (on my bro-in-laws side). On B's side though there's only one grandson so far and 3 granddaughters. So which ever way kiwi tips the scale someone's going to be happy :)

Kiwi was very active this afternoon, especially when Inigo was chirping and I was trying to rest. They've already ganged up against me! I'm excited and can't believe there's only 17 weeks left until my due date. How did that happen?! It's also a shock at how time is going to be broken up between now and then. It's going to make time go double time. We have a trip planned in there, as well as spring break and then when we get back from spring break I'll only have 6 weeks left of work until I'll be on my mat leave.

I decided that I would leave early because my job is very physically demanding. Crawling, jumping, rolling, up and down, climbing etc...everything a little kid wants to do really. So I figure when it comes to my 9th month of pregnancy I'm going to not want to do those things. When I mentioned this at the staff meeting one of the girls piped up and said, "I was planting flowers when I was 9 months pregnant" I said, "well maybe than I will plant some flowers too", I just don't think I can physically do this job without burning myself out at that point...planting flowers isn't a must do job, however, when you're at work it is a must do to do your job. I didn't really understand how planting flowers equates what we do with these kids every day and maybe I was a little moody and took it the wrong way but it kind of erked me.

Anyways, that's all there is for today

Sweet dreams

Michelle

Kiwi the baker in the making

Last night I decided that after my 4 hour long nap (not even exaggerating) I needed to clean the house and bake cookies and a chocolate cake. The cake is for work tomorrow (I'm writing a blog update while I wait for the butter to soften for the icing). Two of the girls have their birthdays this week and we have a staff meeting so I thought lets make a cake. I just have to decorate it now. I think kiwi enjoys baking because as soon as the mixer was turned on baby started to jump around. I talked to kiwi and said, if you enjoy baking just as much as I do we will get along just fine.

As we drove to church this morning I counted on my fingers how many more months I have left before kiwi makes his/her appearance. Only 4 fingers stood up. I was shocked. I know that I count down to everything but it just hit me that in 4 months we will have a baby in our home. I looked around the living room last night as I was making cookies and tried to imagine it full of baby things (baby swing, where will I put kiwi's highchair) that kind of thing.

Do you think nesting can take over this early on? I came home with some groceries this afternoon but before I could put them away I had a strong urge to not only purge some of the nearly empty containers that were still living in the fridge but I also needed to scrub the fridge out to make a nice clean home for the new arrivals. I couldn't put the new groceries away (even the cupboard ones) until the fridge was clean to my satisfaction.

Funny things kids say: A little guy who is mostly non-verbal that I work with (he has random words at random times) apparently told his dad to "shut up" last week. While we want to encourage words and communication you don't want to encourage that type...ahhh. the fine line. I thought it was hilarious to hear about though.

Funny things kids say number 2: Apparently another little kiddo I work with (also non-verbal) but has random words at random times counted his mom down, "3,2,1 all done". Which is hilarious because that's what we use at the centre I work at when we're counting down their free time.

Well that's about all there is for today.

Michelle

A tiring week, but very rewarding

This past week has been a tiring one. I'm so thankful it's the weekend once again. When I woke up this morning my first thought was - tomorrow I don't have to wake up to an alarm! How riveting don't ya think? Driving home after work today we stopped to get the car washed through one of those drive through car washes. I fell asleep half way through. I guess I found the sound of the water spraying against the car relaxing. When we got home I had a shower (my feet were oober stinky once again - gotta get new shoes), after we (B and I) chatted with his one brother. Again I fell asleep for a moment or two. I was woken up by B's nudging. This little kiwi takes a lot out of me, especially on working days. I have realized that my legs are starting to get super tired and sore by the end of the work day. I think it's due to always being up and down and crawling and supporting the kids though some physical things that they aren't able to do on their own. I'm a little worried about what it's going to be like once I reach the third trimester.

I can't believe how fast time is going. It seems like just a few weeks ago that I found out that there was a little kiwi in there and now we're down to only 17 weeks left (until my due date - I'm sure I'll go over like most people with there first).

This last week marked the first time B was able to feel the baby kick. There was one night in particular I put his hand on my stomach and told him to feel the baby, he said he couldn't feel anything, just wait. And then boom! It was the biggest kick I've felt to date and B was very shocked at the intensity. It was great. Kiwi is a funny little person already!

This past week also marked our first maternity group appointment. We get together with our group every two weeks. We have our regular check up followed by a group lesson taught by a doula. This past week was a nutrition information session. (I kind of jested with myself about how this might have been more useful in the earlier months of pregnancy - but what do I know). It was a large mix of people to say the least. Many walks in life and I'm excited to get to know them.

Work funny story: Today I was working with one little girl and this other little boy and his BI came in and she suggested he take off his over sweater to put on the painting smock. He took it off and then proceeded to take off his pants. She said, "Oh no, you can keep your pants on" haha. It was hilarious. Totally reminded me of when I walked into my nieces room to find her sitting at her desk completely bare ready to paint. Funny little kids!

Work victory story: I work with this one little guy who is non-verbal. We are in the midst of teaching him to use pictures (called pecs) in order to communicate his needs. He's still on the first step where I lay out three choices and he points to the one he would like. Well the other day I was in the middle of putting something away when he went into his pec binder (full of at least 50 or more different pecs) and pulled out the one he wanted, came and found me, got my attention and gave me the pec with his choice on it. (Computer time). It wasn't a great time for this but I threw our plans out the window and said, "Of course you can have computer time, let's go". You gotta reward that kind of communication. He totally skipped so many steps in that particular program. (He is on step 1 but what he demonstrated was the final step). I was so incredibly proud of him.

Well, I think that's all there is to report for now.

Till next time,

Michelle