Hitting a Wall with Sewing

Have you ever "hit a wall" before?  You know what I mean... trying to do something and you just get stuck?  I am always reminded of "Arrested Development" when Buster literally can't climb over the wall in basic training and his brother, Gob, motivates him to do it finally, and then punches him in the gut on his descent from the wall.

Well in June, I hit a wall.  I was working on car seat canopies/covers for my good friend here who was expecting twin boys.  The body of the car seat canopy was so easy and simple to make.  Then, I tried sewing the straps of death.  And my machine started freaking out.  And the velcro would cooperate in getting sewed on correctly.  So, I decided that I had plenty of time to work on it and I put it away in my sewing box for the time being.

I decided to use the sticky velcro instead of the sew on velcro to make it a little easier for myself.  All I had to do was sew on the straps.  I just kept putting it off because I was tired or lazy or just worried that I wouldn't be able to figure it out.  Well,  my friend had her twins almost three weeks ago, and since I've been a ball of nervous energy all afternoon (in anticipation of this Hurricane Irene), I decided to put that energy to good use and within an hour, I had finished them.

Sometimes I hit a wall.  It's important to regroup and give myself time, but I've learned that I need to keep going and I'll achieve my goals, whether it's a sewing project or actually cooking dinner every night of the week.  Hopefully I can get myself working on more projects, and get more organized.  I think it will help that I'll actually be more lively after the first trimester ends in a few weeks.  Then I can crank out a bunch of stuff for  the new baby and other projects before I get to the third trimester and lose all of my energy again!

Better late than never... Right?

Okay, so my birthday has come and gone.  I am now 26.  We had a lot of fun the weekend before my birthday.  My birthday was on a Monday (8/8) and so we decided to celebrate the weekend before. 

My sister came up on Friday.  I had a craving for Chipotle, so we ordered online and sent Rick to pick it up.  We watched "Psych" and just laughed our heads off (love that show).  Evan went to bed early, and I went to bed pretty early as well!  I was so tired! 

On Saturday we went to the mall.  We have a Mills mall about 10 minutes away from us, and it's probably the only mall in this area of Maryland because of how packed it is.  Seriously, no parking at all hardly.  And we were there only about 10-15 minutes after it opened! 

We went to Old Navy looking for maternity clothes.  I like buying maternity clothes.  Anyways, Sarah ended up buying me a black cardigan that was on clearance.  It was a size small, not maternity, but because of the latest styles, it looks good on me.  :) 

Holding up the ice cream cake.  It was almost too sweet for me!  Silly pregnancy hormones.

We then went to Motherhood Maternity, but it was still closed.  So we headed over to our favorite Frozen Yogurt place around here called "Yogurt Mountain".  It's one of those self-serve frozen yogurt places that has a lot of flavors and toppings and they charge you buy the ounce.  It may be as good as Golden Spoon, my favorite yogurt place in California.  We went back to Motherhood and saw that it was open.  Sarah bought me a super cute dress and I used the money my parents sent me to get a really cute tunic/leggings outfit and a sweater. 

I told myself I would never wear leggings, but seriously, it is SO comfortable!  We went home after that, ate our leftover Chipotle and Evan and I took about a 3 hour nap.  After we woke up, we went and got an ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins.  We dropped the cake off in the freezer at home and then we took off to got to T.G.I.Friday's for dinner.  I was craving a steak, so I got it, had a few bites and that was all I wanted!  Rick happily finished it off for me! 

We then went home, ate cake a few hours later and then Evan went to bed.  Rick and I went and saw "Captain America" in the theater. 

Superheroes like to eat sweets too.

Check out that melted ice cream running down the arm, chin, shirt...

Very pleased with his ice cream cake.

On Sunday, we went to church, ate chef salad for dinner and had cake for dessert.  It sure was yummy.  :)  Of course, the only pictures that I have are of Evan eating.  He had a lot of fun with that cake! 

Rick made me wait until Monday to open up the gifts from him and Evan.  Evan got me a pastry brush (I can't tell you how long I've been wanting one of those!)  And Rick got me a pizza stone (a super duper nice one!)  And then, of course, they also paid for all of my celebrating the whole weekend.

Unfortunately, I am now on the "other" side of 26...the side that's closer to 30.  Crazy...

You really think that Evan is?

I took Evan in to a school here this past Wednesday for his evaluation.  Let's give a little bit of background information about this "evaluation." 

Back in April, Evan's doctor gave him a clean bill of health.  But she told us that she was concerned about a slight delay in Evan's speech skills.  She gave us a referral to a government funded educational program called "Infants and Children". 

I called and set up an appointment to meet with a lady.  She came to our house and basically gathered as much information as possible about Evan and our family.

They set up an 'evaluation' for him the following Wednesday. During the evaluation, they tested Evan on a variety of activities, including drawing, stacking cups, puzzles, reading (how he 'reads' books), feeding a baby, playing with a ball and stacking rings. 

Evan was a total brat.  One thing about Evan is he DOES NOT like people "telling" him what to do.  He wanted to wander around and explore the room that he was in, not be force to sit down in a chair (or held in my lap). 

So, by the end of the evaluation, he was ornery and ready to leave.  The evaluators left the room and came back to a much happier Evan who was roaming around playing with the toys on his own.  They proceeded to sit down and tell me that Evan because of a few things they noticed, is showing 'red flags' for being on the autism spectrum.


What were the red flags?

-He doesn't make prolonged eye contact.
       *Well, neither do I OR my husband.  Evan makes eye contact enough when we're looking at them.  I know that I never really make eye contact with people I don't know that well.  And Evan definitely didn't like them.

-He doesn't follow directions.
        *Um... yeah, well.  Let's see.. How old is he?  Oh, yeah.  He's only 21 months.  Wow.  Who knew he was already supposed to following directions and listening to them already.  Have I also mentioned what an impulsive and trouble-making child I have? 

-He doesn't imitate sounds.  
         *  Sorry, that's because he doesn't like you.  I don't go around saying "pow", "wow" and "bam" all day, so why would Evan imitate you?  Maybe the problem is that I don't talk "baby" enough around Evan. 

-He doesn't imitate behavior. 
         *  They gave him a baby to feed a bottle to.  Then they tried it with a stuffed animal because he didn't like the baby.  He was so annoyed and refused to do it.  That same day I made some french fries and pretended to feed a fry to his cheetah.  He smiled (while making eye contact at me) and then a couple of minutes later I caught him trying to feed his fries to the cheetah.  Hmm... doesn't imitate behavior?  Sorry if I don't pretend to feed his doggies and stuffed animals, but now I guess I will.  

-He doesn't point to the objects in the book when asked.
         *  But he does point to his belly button when I ask him, and his nose and mouth (still working on that one!).  And the other day, I asked him to point to the dog in the book and he did!  Amazing that he does this stuff for me, but not for the evaluators! 

-He tends to zone out when he's doing something. 
          *  That's genetic... All the way.  Rick and I are the exact same way we're doing something interesting, and well, EVERYTHING is interesting to our Evan.  So, it doesn't surprise me that he's doing that. 

I don't by that my little man is showing symptoms on the autistic spectrum.  Evan is usually such an easy going kid, and honestly, he was really having a bad day on that evaluation.  They gave me some options.  They want him to go to a class (about 20 minutes away) Kind of like a Pre-preschool.  At first I thought that it might be a good idea (it's free) but now that I've talked to Rick about it, I'm not so sure. 

First of all, Evan is far too young to be going to school, of any kind in my opinion.  Everything that they are teaching in that class, I'm positive that I can implement at home with Evan.  I just hate that I feel like I have to do it NOW! 

I have been planning on helping Evan learn his letters and reading and all that stuff, but now I have flash cards that I made with pictures and words on them to try to teach Evan the words.  I wasn't expecting to do it for a while!  I wanted him to learn to speak at his own pace and not be forced, but honestly, I now feel like a bad mom because of what the evaluators said. 

I held my own against them and told them that I disagreed.  I told them that he's far too young to diagnose something on the Autism spectrum.  I then told them that I knew they were going to say that was his issue.  They asked "How did you know?".  I told them I could tell by the way they so casually asked me, "Does he make eye contact at home with you?"  When I told them yes, I just don't think they believed me. 

And who were the evaluators?  No, not doctors.  Just a speech pathologist and a special ed teacher.  Thank goodness I have educators telling me this and not a medical professional!  Seriously, who would believe a doctor over them? 

Barcelona v. Manchester United

Saturday evening Rick, Evan and I went to the Barcelona v. Manchester United soccer game.  It was so hot, the traffic was terrible, and there were a ton of drunk people.  It wasn't so obnoxious as a game in Europe, I'm positive, but it was still kind of annoying.  My sister and a bunch of her friends were there though, and it was a great experience seeing some of the greatest soccer players in the world play. 

Evan snoozed through the first half, startling only when the cheers were loud when Manchester scored their first goal.  Rick wore a Spanish jersey, supporting Barcelona.  I was neutral.  I liked players on both teams, but my favorite Pro team is actually Liverpool.  So, hopefully I'll be able to see a Liverpool game. 

Drinking lots of water---it was hot!!!

Trying to stay cool.

Manchester United warming up

Manchester United warming up again... a little bit of a closer view. 

Chugging the water bottle.

Bleachers that Evan was playing in. 

Evan playing with the seats.  Little busybody.

Evan and I in front of the field. 

Rick and Evan in front of the field.

Barcelona and Manchester United coming onto the field.

National Anthem.

Evan under the shade of his shirt... that's where he stayed most of the half. 

Laughing at some of the soccer players. 

Evan sunbathing... such a hot bod.

Tasting Rick's frozen lemonade---he always had this face.

Our family and a random guy in the background.  Do you see Evan's face following the lemonade in my hand?