Waiting for school to start

We are waiting patiently for school to start. Andy has been home for July and August. He gets bored so easily and melts down. Now that I am almost 6 months pregnant, I am too tired to put Andy in the car and drive around for an hour. When we took him out yesterday for 30 minutes, it didn't really work that well. He just needs the structure of being back in school, which he loves. 

Time to stock up on Huggies!

Now that I am pregnant again, I have been searching around for diaper deals. There is a coupon site that has been pretty good, Krazy coupon lady , and they also have a phone app. I am also looking around at all the diaper options, and I recall really liking the newborn Huggies, because they have the notch cutout for the umbilical cord. So, once I find the deals, I will be stocking up on lots of huggies !

I've decided that this time I will make things easy on myself, and have the diapers delivered right to my door. No more lugging around heavy diaper boxes with baby in tow. Diapers.com seems to be a pretty good option for diaper delivery. They offer free shipping over $49, which I will easily spend on monthly diaper needs. I also like their site, because they offer other products that I will need soon after the baby arrives, such as pantyliners, maxi pads, and breast-feeding supplies. I don't want to waste a bunch of time driving around trying to get these things, when they can be delivered right to my home.

I've also been looking around at mom forums for their opinions on diapers and deals, such as BabyCenter.com. You can get some great honest opinions there on all things baby, and being a parent.   I also enjoy What To Expect.com for pregnancy issues and concerns.  I feel that this time around as a new mom, I have lots of great new resources to work smarter instead of harder, and have more time to enjoy parenting.

Taking Andy to a party

We brought Andy's trusty headphones and iPod to my brother's house for a first birthday party. Andy needed to wear his headphones the whole time to keep from crying. We also sat him in a room with a few other people in it. The small kids mostly stayed in a different room at the back of the house. We fed him right there on the couch with his headphones on, and didn't try moving him to a table. The party had about 30 people, which can be chaotic for Andy, but the headphones help us to stick around.

We are having another baby!

There are all kinds of emotions and thoughts we have about adding a new member to our family. We've been hesitant to have more children for years, due to our son being severely disabled. I found myself always feeling sad about having to suppress our wishes to have more kids out of fear of the unknown. The question of having more kids or not has been answered for us, and we are now expecting this Christmas. 

How I survive in public with my Autistic child

It's hard bringing Andy into stores because of his meltdowns, but I do it anyway. A way to make things better is to have Andy wear his iPod nano and noise-canceling headphones. Andy has a playlist with pop songs on it from artists like Black-eyed Peas, Kesha, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Meghan Trainor, Lady Gaga and Jason DeRulo. 

I took Andy to Ikea just a few days ago, we went for breakfast and to pick up a few things. Andy really enjoys riding around in the car, so he really enjoyed that part. I pushed his wheelchair into the store with no problem and we rode the elevator. I got our breakfast and put it the trays on the cart and dragged it behind us as we made our way to the table. Andy was good until he heard a woman sneezing behind us several times. Then the whining starts and his lip is sticking out. "Okay Andy, lets put on your headphones". I start playing his music, and he's fine during the next half hour of shopping. 

Next, I had to stop by my brother's house and they have a one and two year old. Andy had to keep his headphones on the whole time, because any peep he hears from the kids makes him cry. He stayed busy with a bead toy while we were there. 

The next day, I took him to an outlet mall for back-to-school shopping. The headphones were a lifesaver again. I charge them at night or in my car on the way there to make sure they'll last for several hours. Andy started whining in the first store we went into until I put his headphones on. 

We are going to the one year old's family birthday party this weekend, and I will definitely be bringing the headphones and nano! They were also very helpful at a camping weekend we just took. 

American Girl Store now open in Novi, MI

I got to go visit the American Girl store today with my daughter at 12 oaks mall in Novi, Michigan. We've traveled to American Girl stores in other states. This store is a temporary pop up store. It doesn't have a cafe, but does have a hair salon desk at the back of the store. The store will be open until January 31st, 2017. American Girl will decide later whether to have a permanent location in Michigan or not. We visited on the Monday after the opening weekend. We had about 15 people ahead of us in line at the check out, but we were able to just walk into the store. Opening day had people in a long line wrapped throughout the mall, and only those that got tickets could get in, a mall employee told me.

The store is located on the second floor near Nordstrom. The store also had changing rooms, books, rainboots and limited accessories for girls. Previously, if Michiganders wanted to visit an AG store, it would require a 4-5 hour drive to Chicago, or Columbus. Now that the store is here in Michigan, I'm sure tons of girls will want to visit, given a way shorter travel time. I would recommend visiting during the week, because this mall is normally very packed on the weekends, and so far the store is a huge hit. 

Sister time

Andy loves time with his sister. It's usually only at mealtime and barely ten minutes a day otherwise. I try to point out to my daughter how much Andy lights up and squeals when he sees her enter a room. She often doesn't want to be around him due to his frequent outbursts, and doesn't want to pay him attention when she's with her friends. 

Andy loves when she plays with him though, if she does. Andy loves toy pianos, and also likes to watch other people play the piano. She started playing it, then started singing, and he was thrilled. 

I know someone who grew up with an impaired sibling, and she tells me not to get on Gabby too much to pay him attention. She told me to just let her be with her friends and not drag her back to him, and make her spend time with him. I don't do that, but I do point out to her when he is ecstatic that she walked into the room, and could she say "Hi" to him for a minute? 

I don't see any harm in that. My daughter has explained to me that she doesn't want to be bothered when she's with her friends, and I understand that. But I don't want my son to live his life in the same house as his sister and they never interact. That isn't right. So, we at least have mealtimes together, and traveling in the car, and sometimes ten minutes of playtime when she's not too busy...