Goodbye 2013

Goodbye 2013!  You brought many good things and many difficulties. 

Here's hoping for a smoother ride in 2014.  

In the meantime, look how cute my kids were at Christmas. 

It's the most wonderful time of the year

It's the most wonderful time of the year! 

At least that's what the Christmas songs would have you believe. I do enjoy Christmas, though. 

I do feel that this Christmas season has been dampened a bit by circumstances. 

There's not a lot going on in regards to Christmas cheer. 

Don't get me wrong, we've got our tree up, and took the pictures of the kids in Santa hats. 

They were adorable. 

I've been baking cookies like crazy, and though I've found a form of therapy in that task, I find my cookie decorating skills sadly wanting. 

Tasty, tasty ugly cookies warm from the oven.  Mmmmmmm. 

We've had a few interesting things occur recently.  

A major ice storm rolled through and dumped a lot of sleet and ice on us, so we were kind of stuck inside for quite a few days.  It's no fun playing outside when all you do is slip and the wind bites. 

Kayla is crawling everywhere. The determined little thing will quietly crawl to her goal, grab whatever got her attention, and like a minature ninja, will sneak up on me when my attention is elsewhere.  She's pulling up on everything, frustrated with the indignity of crawling and wants to stand like everyone else does. 

Evan is doing good. He caught a stomach bug and we had a couple of terrible days of spontaneous vomiting and little to no eating/liquid. It got bad enough I considered taking him to the ER because he didn't take any liquid for so long. 

But he got better. 

We haven't had to use the g-button, at all. 

I'm hoping to get it removed with no fuss in the spring. 

Evan is doing okay. He is always such a sweet boy.  He comes up to me and says "hiiiiii" in his own particular way, and hugs my legs, then walks off. 

I've debating taking the kids to see Santa this year. I want to, but feel like the mall with all it's noise and pack of people would make Evan feel a bit overwhelmed. I notice he tends to do better when we go shopping for groceries at less popular hours than when the place is packed. 

He's become very intently interested in letters and numbers. He'll point to a letter or number and say "This?" So I tell him what that letter or symbol is.  

I've been having a hard time with certain things though. After my initial burst of activity after his diagnosis of autism, I have done nothing. 

I mean, we still go to therapy, we still do all the things we normally would do..... But I have yet to make contact with other parents. I haven't quite gotten up the motivation to start calling and inquiring about other programs we can take advantage of. 

And that's okay, I'll get there. 

In the meantime, I'm going to bake cookies, take the kids to the park, take Evan to his therapy and try to have a very Merry Christmas.  

 It won't truly be that hard to be merry.