As of Late

A typical day for Myk n Mags, I have to laugh a little to myself when I see the word typical... but you understand what I mean... Our schedule is pretty consistent.

6am - Myk wakes up showers and gets ready

6:30am - Maggie wakes up and gets ready

7:10am - breakfast in the car, drive to ABA

8am - Arrive at Autism Matters - Maggie works hard, learns new and interesting things!

I have classes, errands, meeting, paperwork, homework etc during the day until I finally drive back and

4pm - Maggie pick up and drive home in rush hour traffic

5-5:30pm - Arrive home, prepare dinner, bath, football or VeggieTales, books and play time

7pm - Maggie is requesting with signs to go to sleep and believe me, she's ready!

Somedays she looks like this... not so happy and in need of a snack

But most days she looks like this... 40 hours a week is a lot and she is one tired girl! but she's making such progress! New signs, better eye contact, more sounds, better behavior and all around wonderful progress :)

My sleeping angel face

Pan - O - Prag Part 2

Ever wish you just stayed home? This event was suppose to be relaxing, easy going and I thought how bad can it be? My mom, uncle Andy and I took Maggie to meet some friends to watch the parade and cheer our friend on. We found out before the parade that he was pretty far back and it may be an hour till we see him, that was the first bad part. The second came when the parade was delayed for half an hour and we had already been waiting for an hour. THEN the fire department put a hose out for the kids to play in which was fun except it sent Maggie over the edge! (Next year we can't be anywhere near it!) She wanted to play in it and I hadn't brought clothes for her. My mom took her and she was soaked and cold after playing for almost an hour I cut her off. I'm a terrible mother but her lips were blue. This is when things started to go wrong. Maggie started crying and melting down, I wanted to leave, but my car was blocked in by the parade and we were their for a friend. So I tried everything to calm her down. Walked with her, squeezed her to give her pressure, cereal, sippy cup, Uncle Andy and our friend Noah tried to help, my mom took several turns. Everyone in our group just felt for her and wanted to help and kept saying 'it's okay', 'she'll eventually tire out and want to watch the parade.' The moms were joking about how awful their children were when they were young, it put me at ease because I was feeling so bad for how miserable Maggie was. But I was also aware I was getting dirty looks, judgmental faces were glaring at me and I wanted to disappear. After several hours our friend Lars finally made his way down the parade route to us! Maggie was excited to see him and I was excited to finally be leaving!

But just before we saw him I had the unfortunate pleasure to meet the rudest and meanest woman in Lakeville. I had a picture of her but decided to delete it and make it more universal. But has anyone ever had some pretty awful encounters with strangers? This woman was so rude and nasty and I understood that my child was miserable but her words just made me so mad I was trying to just respond nicely, kill them with kindness kind of deal!

But after all that drama we saw them...

I have no idea how they do it! but I saw his video's on youtube and he's crazy talented!

Pan - O - Prag Part 1

For those of you reading thinking to yourself, 'Self, what's a Pan-O-Prag?' I can't answer that, but what I do know is my small town of Lakeville hosts a week long celebration for July 4th. It consists of midwestern fun - parades, car shows, hockey game, street food etc. This is my second year and to be completely honest it was awful but I will get into that in the next post :)

The parade part went something like this...

cute old men and their toys

marching bands!

A zamboni with a trailer (this is Minnesota after all)

more cute old men having fun

A moose, just because

Cub is our local grocery chain...

And last but not least our friend, Lars who is an international unicyclist competitor - he can do all this cool tricks like shawn white does on the snowboard but on a unicycle! He's 15!

Nothing like small town America on July 4th

Rolling in the DEEP

From home to Autism Matters every morning takes about 35 minutes. Morning radio is okay but usually boring and I typically turn it off and hit shuffle on the iPod. Maggie can be quite vocal about what she likes and what she doesn't care for. Recently I have learned that she really likes Bob Dylan... And this lovely lady... the talented Adele.

This morning though was different, Adele's song 'Rolling in the Deep' came on and Maggie started to sway back and forth in her seat, her own type of dancing, and all of a sudden the sound "Dee" pops out of her mouth.

I was shocked!

I waited and she still danced and then the chorus came up again and she said "Deep"!

Clear as day!

It was wonderful and I started singing to the song which she loved and for approximately 4 minutes she was delighted with herself and her accomplishment, rightfully so!

Summer Mix

I have been going slightly crazy on iTunes and finding music that I like, that the kiddo likes... and I have been finding all sorts of great new stuff and a few classics that are awesome. I like a lot of different music and I will listen to almost anything So I will share with you...

Country Lane - Telekinesis

Skip the Charades - Cold War Kids

Battery Kinzie - Fleet Foxes

Faster - Matt Nathanson

Rest - Parts & Labor

Keep On Tryin' - Poco

Half Of Something Else - The Airborne Toxic Event

Underneath the Sycamore - Death Cab for Cutie

Eyes - Peter Bjorn and John

Just a Friend - Booker T. Jones

Chapel Song - We Are Augustines

Mary - Patty Griffin

Dirt Road Anthem - Jason Aldean

&

All Things Bright And Beautiful album by Owl City!

Eclectic, Upbeat, & Great summer BBQ songs. I am usually not much of a country fan but I do like the 'Anthem' song.. it's different. And less than four weeks till I see Owl City in Concert! I am so excited :)

Myk n Mags

Someone jealous of me... that's ridiculous! A mom friend of mine confessed to me she was envious of the relationship Maggie and I have. Single parents with single children. Not that she isn't in love with her husband and we had a good laugh over that but she jokingly said she didn't like sharing her children with so many others. Now I know this woman very well and she has it great! An awesome husband! 4 cool kids. But I can see her point in a way... One child may confide in one parent over the other. Or in a sibling. And with the addition of the lack of language skills no one understands Maggie, like I do. My parents and brothers try. Her therapists are with her all day and are great. And then there are those who may care for her but aren't around often enough to know her. But I know her... and no surprise in many ways she's a mini me... and in other ways she is her own little unique person.

Maggie's Baptism

Chillin' on Lake Michigan in the windy city, thus the wild hair

It's rough having an angel face... with drool and all :-)

ABA

3 weeks ago Maggie started an awesome new therapy, ABA - Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy. If you want to learn more click Here. 40 hours a week! It's her full time job! And she is a hard worker.

Today she crashed! Hard.

I had to adjust her sleep schedule from 8 or 9pm to 7pm - which took a few days to adjust to too. And I used to wake her up at 7:30, now 6 - easier for miss happy morning girl than her caffiene addicted mother. She has fallen asleep in the car on the long drive home a few times but for the most part she's been a trooper!

Yesterday I was a mean mom and took her to evening Mass. It started at 5, she was already tired by the time we got home at 6:30 and had increased her exhaustion with excessive crying. This morning she woke up and she watched 'Finding Nemo' played with Kanye, books and spilled her cereal, by noon she had consumed nothing caloric. When she eats like a bird that's normal, but when she refuses to eat even foods she likes... never a good sign. She then cried and begged for a drink and started requesting 'Sleep, Sleep'. I put her in bed and she was out after about 2 seconds of crying and has been sleeping for the past 2 hours... I'm going to pay for this tonight...