What we do when little t naps...

Naptime is a special time for me and Trin....I am constantly striving to find a balance between our life with Autism, and our normal life...if there is such a thing...I want Trinity to think there is. I want her to know that she is just as important and cared for and loved and valued as a daughter, a person, a friend, a sister etc. I try to find special things that only she and I can do together. Today was a DAY for us...we face painted and tatooed! She was a kitty, then a ROYAL kitty! I was a puppy (totally painted by Trin) and then a Princess (again T did this) she even painted a rainbow tattoo on my arm. We had a good day together!

Me and You....

...and You and Me....T n t, will always be! The best of friends, they really are, and I am so greatful of how she loves him, protects him, and is proud of him. I love how he kisses her goodnight, every night and before nap. I love that they are so close. As you can see from the picture, he is almost the same height as his big sis...I mean, how much more can he grow!!!

If Trinity were a boy....

...she would be Andrew. Their birthdays are just 2 days apart. We have known him since they were 15 months old or so....and they have very similiar temperments...head strong, intelligent, witty, loving, smart...smart....smart. They have another similarity, they both played on the same soccer league! Imagine T's surprise when she saw another "5" walking up to her and it was her pal Andrew. We don't get to see him and his family as much since we moved, so it was a nice surprise indeed. So, if T were a boy....she would be him.

Oh yeah...we smoked you!

Is what came out of Trinity's mouth last night when we (Shannon and I) were "racing" *don't worry...we were only going like 50, but we would rev up the engine for T so she thought it was much faster*. Well, we won of course...and when we got home, Shannon gets out of the Civic, we pile out of the Magnum and Trin walks up to Shan, with a little pep in her step..."Hey dad...I guess we smoked you!" It was the cutest thing. I think I have a race car driver on my hands...just add that to the VERY long list of things that she wants to be when she grows up.

Scratch and Sniff

Today we had lots of fun with our school craft. We made paintings with watercolors, but not just ANY watercolor, no, no...we made SCRATCH and SNIFF watercolorings!!! Yes, you read it right...SCRATCH and SNIFF! It is SUPER easy, and really...smells great. The recipe is at the end of the blog! Enjoy the pictures.

You will need something to hold the watercolors, an icecube tray works perfectly.

Water

Fruit Drink Mix

(1 TSP of Water for each TSP of fruitty drink mix (kool aid, flavor aide etc.))

Just mix them together, and watercolor as you normally would!! When the paint dries, it smells like the fruit that the drink mix was supposed to make....love it!!! ENJOY

You so funny!!! Talking and talking.......

Trinity is really a crack up. I love her, talking to her at times is like speaking to someone from a foreign country, the way she uses her words, mixes up nouns/verbs, leaves of important constanants.....I think it is cute that she has a speech impediment, I mean, I am sure it will leave soon, will be a memory of her that will eventually dissapear, but for now, I love it, I soak it up, I listen to every word, every imperfectly perfect word. Some examples

Mama, you silly!!!
Tupid is not a nice ting to say!
Dat was pecial to me.
Yeah, dat was punny...I tink we sood do dat again.
Mama, puhmember?

There is more, these are only a few sentences that come to mind...but her words are really something worth listening too...the innocence of it all is very endearing to me. I think about how Tristan may not say his first real words for some time, and it really changes the way I look at how Trinity is such a jabber jaw...I don't think I will ever shush her again, I want to hear my kids talking and talking and talking, I guess you take these things for granted. I want to hear him talk so badly it hurts inside. I think about the day that he is going to say "I love you momma" and I hope it is soon.

Newsletter for Big T : Month 50

You turned 50 months on the 4th, you are so much more mature than most children your age, both refreshing and frightening all in the same breath. This month is a fun one for everyone, it's Christmastime again. I have a mixed feeling when talking to you about Santa and such...you are incredibly smart, and honestly, I have this feeling you know that we are lying to you about the man in red and you are just going along with it to appease us...which, I do appreciate. All in the same, I do sometimes feel a tiny bit bad that we have resorted to a type of bribery by means of "Be a good girl because Santa is coming..." but hey, your 4 and sometimes if that is what it is going to take to make you stop asking me the same question OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER....well, you get the picture. You asked me where he gets in the house since we don't have a chimeny...I at first said the attic, then you had this sort of startled look on your face and looked up to the ceiling in this way as if thinking "So, there is someone in the attic???" in retrospect, that was probably a really stupid thing to say to a recently scared of the dark 4 year old...so, I quickly backpedled and said that we gave him a key. PHEW, averted disaster, again..this parenting thing is not as easy as it looks my dear. You will see, you are going to have a smarty pants little girl too, and coming up with cleverly witty things to trick her will be hard! I love you boo boo bean, thanks for keeping me on my toes.

Love Momma.