Tickets please!

I don't know why I worry so much. Ethan always does great at school. His teachers tell me what a fantastic job he is doing, and whenever I observe him there he's always following directions and happy. I think I underestimate Ethan, and I'm going to work on that. Ah, the emotional roller coaster that is parenting. Sigh.

Travis left for Tampa this morning. Madelyn was sad to see him go, but she enjoyed playing with his suitcase before he left. She would stand behind it, say, "Tickets please!" and Travis and I would hand her "tickets". "Thank you!" she would say, and then she would stick the tickets down her shirt. :) Madelyn had a difficult morning. She cried when Elijah got out of the car to go to Kindergarten, she cried when we left Ethan at preschool, and she cried on the front porch as Daddy drove away, headed to the airport. Poor little girl. Most mornings she isn't sad to see everyone go, but today maybe she knew Daddy would be gone for a couple of days and that made things more difficult.

I just have a small stack of dresses left to sew for What a Pretty Girl, and they're all cut out and ironed. I should be done this week. I've sewn Madelyn three Christmas dress and ruffle pants sets, so she just needs one more. I like to make her a new dress for every Sunday all year, especially in December. The boys will have ties to match. It should be a very cute Christmas season around here!

Back in the swing of things.

Today Travis went back to work and the boys went back to school after having last week off. No big deal for Travis, though I'll miss him, and no big deal for Elijah, who jumped out of bed and shouted, "It's computer day!" (On Mondays Elijah's Kindergarten class gets to spend a half hour in the computer lab, which is his favorite activity of the week.) But for Ethan, who just started attending special needs preschool the week before last, it was a big deal.

Ethan had just gotten used to getting up early, being rushed around, and spending the morning in school a couple of weeks ago, and then last week since there was no school he once again got used to NOT going. He's a creature of habit, even more so than most children, so this morning was not fun. He didn't want to get up, he didn't want to get dressed, he did want to go potty since he loves to do that, he didn't want to eat breakfast, he did want to drink his juice (of course), and he didn't want to have his hair or teeth brushed. But then he got in the van with no problems, and he seemed okay when he went into school. I hope he eats his breakfast there.

Since I have to get all three kids around by myself most of the time and Ethan is such a challenge in the mornings, I have to plan everything out the night before. Make sure everyone has nice, clean clothes to wear to school (as in NOT the too small jeans or the shirts that bother Ethan, a pair of matching socks for everybody, underpants, school shoes found, etc.), get Elijah's Kindergarten folder together, get Elijah his lunch money and whatever else he is supposed to bring (today it was a can of white frosting because his class is making gingerbread houses), plan a breakfast both boys will eat, and find clothes for myself since I have to walk Ethan into school. Then I have to get up before everybody to make sure that everything is ready to go in the morning, and (lucky me) I get to spend half and hour trying to wake Ethan up and get him out of bed and fight him into his clothes. I am hoping this gets easier with him. Once he's in the habit of going, maybe it will be?

I was unsure about putting Ethan in preschool as it was, since he's still only three. But he gets speech therapy at school for free (instead of the $200+ sessions from before), and the teachers really seem to be helping him. The first week he went, he learned to pee standing up (haha) and how to pick up after himself and put things where they go on the shelves. Those two things don't sound very big, but for Ethan they are a huge deal! I'm really proud of him, but I worry about him the whole time he's there...is he doing okay? Is he having a good time? Is he having a meltdown? Is he participating in the activities? Is he listening? I am also hoping the worrying lessens over time. I worry about Elijah, too, but not as much. Elijah can tell me if something bothers him or goes wrong, and Ethan's can't. A big part of me just wants to keep them home with me forever! Would that really be so bad?

So it's just me and Madelyn. We're watching Super Why and doing a puzzle (and blogging!). Before I pick up Ethan at 11:30 I want to sew a dress, take a shower, and play with Madelyn some more. I'd better get going!

I *heart* Wags

A couple of years ago a friend of mine showed me how to get tons of free stuff using coupons. All you have to do is watch the weekly ads and the blog, combined with clipping coupons from the newspaper, and you get a lot of free, more than free, and almost free stuff your family can use! Well, I forgot about couponing until a couple of months ago. We don't have a CVS in this tiny little town I live in, but we do have a Walgreens. I've been hitting up Walgreens a couple of times a week for the last couple of months and I have a closet full of free goodies to show for it. Tons of free toothpaste, cough and cold medicine, deoderant, shaving cream, soap, shampoo...you name it. If they sell it at Walgreens, I probably got it for free and it's sitting in my master bathroom closet. I'll never have to pay for toothpaste or soap again. Thanks, Wags! I became a thrifty mama and I'll never go back!

Also, Travis is taking care of the yard today so you'll actually be able to see our house instead of just leaves piled up everywhere. Yay! But...it's his last of 5 days off for Thanksgiving. He goes back to work tomorrow and he'll be in Tampa for 2 days this week. Boo. I hate it when he's gone. :(

Ethan's New Diet

Today I set out to design a new gluten-free and casein-free diet for Ethan. He has autism, and one of the homeopathic treatments many doctors and experts suggest is such a diet. This means he can't have any wheat, oats, dairy, soy, or many other things all of us eat without thinking everyday. Most of the things Ethan will be eating will be rice-based. So he'll have rice cheese instead of dairy, rice pasta instead of wheat, etc. His favorite food is pizza, so I bought rice flour at The Truck Patch (our local organic and natural foods market) to make gluten-free pizza crust, and shredded rice cheese for the top. He can still have most organic meats and fruits and veggies, so the rest of the pizza will be as usual. I hope he likes the rice cheese. Since he doesn't drink milk (he's had trouble digesting milk since he was a baby, which was one of our first clues to his condition) we won't have to do much to alter his drinking habits. This new diet, though, will be a challenge for us all. It will taste different, obviously, but it will also be a lot more expensive. And since Ethan is fairly set in his ways as far as food choices, it won't be very much fun making the switch. I am interested to see how it works, if it works (I hope it works!). Since his 4th birthday is next month, I already have plans for a gluten- and casein-free cake. Yummy! I hope.