Jinxing Myself

e
These are some pics of the girls helping decorate the small feather trees.

I do realize that I am probably jinxing myself (again) by writing this, but Olivia has taken herself to do #2 in the potty for the last 3 times! We are doing everything we can think of to make this a special event. It's nice because she's completely doing it all herself--she just comes to tell me. She is using her small porta-potty for this though which is fine. I think she is scared of the regular potty for some reason. We had a big melt-down at the ARC yesterday because she is terrified of using a toilet that has an automatic flush on it. I hate how they always seem to flush while you're using it and appartently Livi does too. Anyway...I hope this is news that will stick. We are keeping our fingers crossed.

Jocelyn was invited to the birthday party of her long-time friend on Saturday night. I took the girls there and we brought Livi as well so she could swim too. The party was at the Rec Center (ARC) that we joined and it was during open swim time so we weren't intruding too bad on the 'big kids' celebration. Jocelyn still thought it was fine that I was there. I'm not looking forward to the time when that is no longer okay :) I guarantee people thought I was torturing her by making her go potty before she could swim. She was screaming, crying, the whole 9-yards. It was such a proud moment that drug on for 20+ minutes. I managed to just keep giving her the same options in a calm voice so for that I am grateful. It went a little something like this: "Olivia, you need to go potty if you want to go swimming" "I don't want to go potty there" "Do you want to go swimming?" "Yes" "Then you need to go potty" "I'm not going potty" "Then we can leave here and watch Jocelyn swim" "Noooooooooo....(scream cry kick)" Repeat process about 50 times in 20 minutes and you get the idea.

I've mentioned to some of you on the phone about our plans to get a dog. I think this will happen next Saturday (we have plans to meet with someone who will bring a couple for us to look at), but it almost happened today. I went to the pet shop and they happened to have some dogs from a rescue facility there. The facility is based in Kirksville which provided a bit more variety than what I had found here in town. We are looking for a small dog that is considered less likely for allergies (for Olivia's respiratory stuff although we are hoping that is getting better). The rescue facility had a Shih Tzu and a Cockapoo (Cocker/Poodle mix). The Shih Tzu was not what the girls were looking for--they barely would look at it. The Cockapoo was my choice but another couple snatched it right before Jason got there with the girls. The girls actually fell in love with the sweetest puppy (named "Cody") but it was an Austrailian Shephard/and other bigger-dog-that-likes-to-run mix. As I explained to Josie, it would probably want a lot more room to run (and it was VERY hairy. It would've shed EVERYWHERE!). It was nice that we found one that both the girls really liked though. It was the only one Olivia would pet but she was very excited about the dogs being there and did not seem overly afraid.

Thursday, I will be going to Olivia's IEP meeting and I'm hoping to get some speech therapy time back. I think it will be effective from the initial conversations I've had over the phone. I was also lucky enough to have great suggestions from other moms in the same boat as us (other children with the duplciation). They have sent some suggestions for IEP goals that they use. It's pretty amazing how similar the things that these kids struggle with are. The support group has been amazing for us and very helpful. I think without it, it would harder to realize and consider which parts of Olivia's behaviors and challenges are related to the duplication (and not JUST stuborness).

Jocelyn and I were talking before bed the other night. She has been having the 'leg pain' that we assume is related to growing again. Judging by the amount of food she's been eating lately, I would guess it's pretty accurate. Anyway, we were talking about how her leg hurts because she's growing and that rest is the best thing for it (yes, we just make this stuff up as we go). She comes back and says 'but I just don't understand why I actually have to feel it doing this! Can't it just get it done while I'm sleeping?!!". Her indignant tone just cracks me up.