Saturday, March 31, 2012

Meltdowns...

Well, it has been a good 6 weeks since Caleb's last hysterical meltdowns. That is a blessing. They are spacing out to the point where hopefully, they no longer exist. Maybe that is wishful thinking, but at this point, I choose to be wishful.

Today he is in full force meltdown mode. I saw it coming, and there is a point of no return that he hit yesterday...where nothing anyone can do or say will prevent it. Honestly, it is good to get it over with, because all the pent up frustration, anxiety, and angst needs to be gone so he can feel relieved and start over.

His birthday was this week, which I am sure has contributed to his spiral into hysteria. He had a fun filled weekend, and his week at school was not his typical routine. I saw it on Tuesday. He came home just a little bit out of sorts. He was a little louder, a little easier to anger, and more argumentative. Homework was difficult each day. Thursday, he didn't want to ride his horse, Sunny during horse therapy and actively avoided contact with him after a certain point. He showed all the signs of a meltdown.

This morning he didn't want to go to his friend, Logan's house...which is completely out of character. Once Logan came to our house to spend the night, Caleb was extremely rigid. He wouldn't let anyone play near him, with him, for him, at him...He screamed and yelled. He would only let them play with him in a certain way. His level was minutes away from being reached.

It hit a rule point when he wouldn't let Logan be the Mario character on his Mario racetrack. I pulled him aside to let him know that the rule is: When you have a guest over, the guest gets to choose toys and characters. It was that point where he lost his mind.

He began screaming, spitting, and hissing at me, to which I took him to his room not to return to the living room. I had already explained before the great meltdown what the consequence for his behavior would be, because I knew once he blows, there is no rationalizing with him. He checks out. So, he has been in his room, screaming, throwing toys (and as each toy is thrown, I walk in a quietly remove them from the room), telling me he hates me, blaming me for his grounding, threatening to destroy my belongings, flopping around on the bed and the floor. I popped him when he spit in my face....I draw the line there.

The other two boys have been so wonderfully playing together, and I am now trying to keep Caleb in his room, even though he wants to play. Much like having a seizure, I just have to keep him safe until he is able to calm down and we can talk. We are going on an hour now with the screaming and crying.

It makes me think....I am looking at a 9 year old. Right now, I can wrap him up, squeeze him, and help him calm down. What happens when he is 13, 19, 32? Can I do this as he gets older? Can I wrestle this young adult to the ground to lie on him and compress his joints? Can I teach him how to do this for himself, even when he feels out of control? ***sigh***

The crying has subsided and I am going to venture in to try to talk to him. Wish me luck.

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Marble Easter eggs...


It's that time again...time to color Easter eggs....


The boys decided to do a marbeled style egg this year, so it was a multi-step process...

Here are the eggs with the base color...minus the blue egg on the right that fell on the floor and shattered. Yeah....that's how it rolled....
Some of them turned out more marbeled than others, but that is what makes them each beautiful!
My favorite, hot pink and lime green!!!
We won't be in town for Easter this year, so these will be hidden on Thursday before we leave and will be found on Monday when we return :)

Gluten free dessert....

Today, I needed to make something gluten free to take to my bible study class. Boy, did I find the perfect recipe!!! Where???? Pinterest, of course!!!

This was totally, completely, and amazingly delicious!!!!
So here is the recipe:
  • gluten free brownie mix
  • 8 oz softened cream cheese
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
  • strawberries, blueberries, raspberries
  • 1/4 cup apple jelly
Bake the brownies according to the directions on the package. I baked mine in a pyrex pie plate. Cream together cream cheese, sugar and vanilla until smooth and spread on top of the completely cooled brownies. Top with berries. Mix the apple jelly together in a bowl until smooth and brush over the berries. Cover and chill for an hour prior to serving.

Holy crud. Divine!!!!!!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Family time....

My husband is on a shut down at work until June, which means he gets next to no time off. He even had to fight to get the days off for our cruise next week....we booked that cruise last October, it has been paid for, and planned for WAY before we knew he was going to be on a shut down. But miracle beyond miracles, he was off last Saturday! He woke up ready to take the kids out.

So we drove up the road an hour to the Kemah Boardwalk for a day of amusements! As soon as we go there, we headed to for the big wooden rollercoaster. Josh got Caleb on it without Caleb knowing what was going to happen. Ah blissful ignorance! I was going to take Jansen on it, but he started screaming hysterically, so I wasn't even able to get pictures of Josh and Caleb riding it. He had a blast by the way.

This is Jansen's panicked face on the ferris wheel. He has never been on one, so I had to do a lot of negotiating just to get him seated in the bucket.


But by the time we got to the top, we was happy. You can see the ocean behind him :)

These smaller airplanes are more his style. He is by nature, a scardy cat!

We ate at the Aquarium....

The boys got to check out the fish while we waited...

The whole place is blue tinted...


Posing with the Kemah shark...

We got to ride the train, and the boys got new sunglasses because it was so bright and HOT..


Chilling while we waited for sno cones...

Riding the needle...

Caleb getting some artwork...

Everyone enjoying some frozen treats on a sunny, hot day...

I love spending time with my little family. We had a blast!

Monday, March 26, 2012

A special birthday for a special boy

I love my kids' birthdays!

As a child, my mom always made a big deal of birthdays. She always had a cool cake, we always had special breakfasts, and we did anything I wanted just for my day.

Kids grow so fast, and I want them to have those same special memories on their birthdays. Today my oldest son turns 9. This is his last year in the single digits. As I put him to bed last night, I hugged him as tight as he would let me and told him, "This is the last time I will see you as an 8 year old. When you wake up in the morning, you will be 9! A final, I love you to my 8 year old boy."


Ah.......bittersweet. I simply cannot believe that this precious, tiny baby is now a big 9 year old boy!



This morning he was greeted to balloons and streamers!

This morning he had birthday cinnamon rolls with sprinkles!

This morning he went to school for the first time as a 9 year old!


This afternoon, Nana and I ate lunch with him at school!


This afternoon he came home to goodies!





This evening he ate at his choice of restaurants!

This evening, I was able to say "I love you, good night!" for the first time to my 9 year old!

Life is grand!

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Angry Birds cupcakes...

This shall be the last of the Angry Birds posts for sure...thank goodness.

Tomorrow is Caleb's official birthday and so I am sending some Angry Birds cupcakes to his class. I didn't have a ton of time to get this stuff done, so I just made some toppers that I printed off from THIS site.

I printed out these little Angry Birds, cut them out, and then grabbed my supplies. Then I realized that I had cookie sticks...and should have had lollipop sticks. Oh well, those will work just fine.
I printed these circles out on scrap cardstock so that is why there is a print on the other side. But I hot glued the stick to one of the circles....
Then I hot glued the matching circle to the other side....
And came up with all these.....cuteness!
I did have to trim them down a little bit but that was ok by me. Then I added a bit of curling ribbon and called it a day.
Here are the cute little pigs....
And here is the bomb bird...

After tomorrow, I don't want to even hear about Angry Birds for at least another week!