Dom

Dom

Monday, April 26, 2010

Fighting - another day another glass of wine

As i sit here listening to every abc song on utube, i am hiding from my teenagers in the office.

As every afternoon goes by so does the same scenarios. I work all morning and pick up Dom at 130 and get home, soon after number 1 and number 2 get home half an hour after each other. Everything is fine at home until all 3 are home at the same time.

Its not 2 seconds until the teenagers are in the same room and they are yelling, fighting, teasing each other and scream one word, "FRANCESCAAAAAA." I think that I am going to change my name, seriously!!!!

I have learned along the way to just let them handle their own "battles." But why must they drag me into every single little problem. "He's looking at me funny" "He locked me out of my room" " He's listening to the tv while doing homework" " I hate him, he hates me" BLAH BLAH BLAHHHHH

As i hide here listening to the abc's in english, spanish and french, ( Dom loves the abc's by the way) the boys have had another fight so i told them to handle it on their own, ha ha ha, lets see how this goes!! As time goes on, whatever the fight was originally was about doesn really matter, the bys only care who gets in trouble the most - arghhh....

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Developmental Pediatrician Appointment and Meltdowns

I was so set for our appointment today. Dr. N diagnosed Dom with Aspergers back in January of 2009. Since then we have been back every 4-6 months for checkups where she watches Dom play and interact with us and her. Our last appointment in November went so well, Dom was very outgoing, lovable and well spoken, so i expected todays appointment to go well too, right? WRONG SOOOOOO WRONG!!!

So, we get there and Dom is playing in the waiting room and using his imagination with a kitchen set. And even pretending to make  pizza! ( In my head i am saying WTF is the doctor to see how happy and "imaginative" he is - of course she doesnt see that, that would be too easy for us!) Anyways, we get into her little office and we encourage Dom to play with some toys in her toy box, toys from the 1980's btw!

Dom starts playing by dropping a toy on the floor. Dr. N says to be nice to "her toys". Dom then tries to put himself in the box. (which i have never seen him do - of course) and Dr. N says that only hands belong in the box. So then, my little smart ass takes out a big truck and then looks at Dr. N and drops it on the floor for her to see. ( obviously dom was trying to see howmch he could get away with - why me!) So then, Dr N says to Dom that this is just unacceptable behavior. Dom goes and sit downs in the chair and i could see it coming. The moment that i dread most! Meltdown time - dum dum dum
Dom then starts to cry for about 15 minutes,  i calm him down and then our time is up! See ya in 6 months! ugh

Sunday, April 11, 2010

Men and children birthday parties

As many of you mothers know out there, our children get invited a birthday party about every other week. Our obligation as a mom is to try to make our children happy by suffering through the gift buying, wrapping, napping before parties and threatening our children to be on their best behavior. All of these tasks seem to be on the moms shoulders!

What is it with birthday parties and men anyways? It seems that my husband would rather get a root canal than to attend one of these obligatory events. Dont get me wrong, i do enjoy going to these things and enjoy watching Dom "socialize" with the other kids BUT sometimes it seems like too much work for one mom to take on 2-3 times a month.

Is it really so much to ask for the men to come along for the ride and eat some cake?

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Yes i know i look young.....

As many of you guys know, yes i am 30 and yes i do look like i am in High School.

So today one of Jonathans friends mom came to pick him up and said hello in this very loud voice. You know those types of people that just talk way too loud like they are talking in front of an audience?

Anyways, i invite Mrs. Loud in and she says, "How old are you?" A little rude if you ask me but what are you going to do, some people have no manners. So me being the polite person that i am say, "30". Mrs. Loud respondes, ohh i thought you were the older sister in the house!

By now you would think that i would be used to these statements, but i guess not. I do realize that i do look 1/2 my age, but cant you just keep that to yourselves! And no i am not a homewrecker either! I am just a young looking woman who fell for an older widowed man - so there BIATCH!!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Grocery Shopping With No Nap - not a good idea

Dom is getting older and I should probably realize that his naps are pretty much non existent, right? RIGHT

So, yesterday we had a playdate with one of his friends Naomi where he basically played with her dog the whole time and got drooled on and then we went to the mall. Malls are definately not a fun place for me when Dom is around. It basically goes like this.... "Dom, stay close to mommy, ok?" "Yes, mommy" Ten minutes later he runs around the mall and through every rack until i find him. What a fun game when i am trying to choose out clothes for my boys. Its not like i am even buying anything for myself, but since my teenagers would rather play video games or kill people on the computer, i have no other choice!

Also, Dom as learned the word "shut up." So its not bad enough that he is running sround stores but also screaming shut up to me and everyone he sees. Yippeee

So onto the afternoon, here we are at the grocery store. Since my teenagers tell me there is never any food in the house, it is up to me to buy more food that they will devour later that afternoon.

I start our trip as i always do bt telling Dom to stay close to mommy. This works for about 5 minutes. Dom is too big to sit in the front of the shopping cart and wont even sit in those cute car looking carts. He would rather walk/run through the store. I swear that i must of called his name 1,000 times. In between Dom running through isles, eating cookies, the colored chocolate ones by the way, he reads every single price he sees while walking though the store. Since Dom has Aspergers he is totally obsessed with letters and numbers. He can count and recognize all nmbers to 50 and read and sound letters, even upside down. Gotta love the friggin abc's every where! Anyways, back to my story, i then get to check out with dom trying to run out of the store, me putting him in a time out and then running into everyone i know so that they can watch me yell at my 3 yr old. Good thing i dont get embarrased easily!

As i leave the store and Dom tried to run into the parking lot, one of my friends Kay Kellog helps me to the car. As i finally sit in my car and realize it is only 5pm - i wish for a drink but instead go home to make burgers. Until next time!

About Me

Thanks for reading my blog. I thought that this would be a great way to express my daily frustrations/adventures and milestones.

Here is a little bio about my life.
I grew up in Westchester County, you know where there are million dollar homes everywhere you look and you pay to park for almost everywhere. At 22 i moved to Albany, NY for a job and other bad reasons but i am very happy that i did!

At 25 i met the love and loves of my life. Tom and I met at work in Albany, after 6 months we were engaged and 9 months after that married. (Here comes the complicated part. Tom is 15 years older than me and was a widower. His wife died of cancer the year before we met and left behind 2 boys, Jonathan and Nathanial.) And 3 months after we got married i was pregnant! So there i was 26, married with 2 1/2 kids.

Let me say that our transition into a family was not as bad as i thought it was but trust me it was not easy. What did a 26 yr old know about teenage boys and mood swings? Basically nada!

So then comes Dominic. He was born in July of 2006. I had a very normal pregnancy and bf for about 9 months, that was always fun with the boys and their friends coming in and out of our house btw!

At about 16 months i realized that something was a bit different with my bundle of joy! Dom acted very to him self or overly clingy to me. He got very high anxiety with other people/kids. My mom and dad used to say how i was too over protective and held him too much. But, i was like, why wouldnt i? He was so adorable and probably the only baby that i would have.

At 18 months i contacted Early Intervention and got Dom evaluated. He was then approved for Special Education therapy. I used to call it behavioral therapy since i hated the word "special ed". After a few months Dom started speech therapy. That went ok but then therapists thought that he should then be evaluated by a developmental therapist. Dev Ped? SCARY!! Is there something wrong with my kid?In my heart i knew there was something up but i didnt want to hear it but i never stopped getting Dom the most therapy that i could.

As January of 2009 approached i was a nervous wreck, our dev ped appt was coming up. Tom couldnt even talk to me, i was always on the internet looking up autism links, looking at different therapies to try and what our next step would be. On the day of our meeting i was a complete mess but tried to keep it together. As soon as we walked into Dr. Nordhauser's office Dom started crying and yelling and clinging to me and basically didnt stop till we left the room. The Dr. tried to read to him his favorite book but that didnt help at all. By the end of the meeting the doctor told us what she observed and said that he has Aspergers Syndrome, just like that. I still get choked remembering that day and the words that came out of her mouth.

So,fastforward to today. Dom is 3 1/2 and in an integrated special ed program at one of the best pre schools on earth, is talking so mcuh more and actually socializing, as best as he could.

This blog is a way to show the world some of the experiences that i go through with my 3, 13 and 16 year olds. Enjoy.