Catching up

Anthony's been busy - he got his orthotics, broke his orthotics, and got them back again.  We've started toilet training - not exactly back at the beginning, but we've gone back a few steps.  He has had some successes, and some accidents.  His program manager emailed me yesterday, though, and said that in the morning in between bathroom visits, he took his therapist's hand and pulled her to the bathroom, where he peed mightily.  Ha, I wanted to say he emptied his bladder but it sounds so scientific, but peed mightily sounds crazy too!  Anyways, that's a very good sign and gives me hope that some day it might all work.  We have been having the hardest time on Thursdays.  He goes to swimming and he likes it so much, but he drinks a lot of pool water during his 45 minutes lesson and then he almost always has an accident on the way home and last night, he not only had an accident on the way home but he peed again before we got him up to the bath, sheesh.  So we are working on it but I am hopeful.  I am determined for him to be toilet trained, I know he can do it.  It just might take a year, is all.  

He has these new orthotics and that is taking some getting used to.  He is supposed to break them in gradually, and wear them for a few hours in the morning and in the afternoon, but the first afternoon he broke the velcro on them.  They fixed it this week but man, he doesn't seem to like them.  We bought him some new shoes, that are his size but extra wide and they seem to be working well.  He got home yesterday from school and was FREAKING out about them, crying and dragging Mike's hand down to them until he took them off.  SO.  That stinks, right?  It will get better, I'm sure.  I'm sure his muscles are sore and hopefully that will get better, too.

Mike and I went to Pittsburgh this week for a few days.  We left Tuesday morning after taking everyone to school.  We went to a Mets v. Pirates game that night, ate at Jerome Bettis' restaurant, which was good.  We shared pierogies for an appetizer and I had a grilled chicken sandwich and Mike had a burger.  We went to a place called Finnegan's Wake after for a few beers but it was really empty once the game was over.  Pittsburgh is weird like that, that city shuts down earlier than any city I know!  It's like the opposite of the city that never sleeps.  Wednesday we had breakfast in the hotel, which featured BREAKFAST pierogies, which were amazingly delicious.  We went to the Warhol Museum, which was super interesting, and then we went to have drinks before the ballgame, which was at 12:30.  It was packed at the ballpark, lots of kids' groups, but it was a beautiful day and we had good seats and the Mets won again, so that was good.  We had a nap after the game and then went to Station Square, a cute area of town just a few stops on the train away.  We went to a Houlihan's that had the craziest happy hour - everything was half price!  Everything!  So we had some apps and some drinks and then we went on the incline up on Mt. Washington and we walked around up there for a while.  Then we went back and got some room service, a fruit and cheeseboard and some *bananas foster pierogies*, which were amazing.  We went to sleep before 10 and I woke straight up at 5:00, because apparently I can't sleep more than seven hours in a row anymore, but it was fine, I went and exercised before we had breakfast (more of those damned pierogies) and we came home.  It was great to see the kids, my parents stayed with them and everyone was really good.  Anthony was as sweet as ever when he got home and then he had swimming last night, which always makes him happy.

I'm sorry for the travelogue, but where else can I say it?  As it is, it is taking me nine years to type this.  Mike is home today and the baby is sleeping but Maria and Veronica are so up in my grill I can barely breathe.  I'd think maybe it's because we went away but they are alway like this.  I'm sure some day I'll miss it and blah blah blah but right now it's annoying.

Which brings me to my next point.  I said the other day on Twitter that I found motherhood on the internet to be like this:  I do it this way and you should too.  I am obsessed with _____, therefore I am an expert on ______.  I am better than you.  I think that's how some people on the internet can be and we are always talking about it, were people always this smug and the internet just gives them a chance to really smug it up?  Or does the internet make people seem smug, or make them actually BE smug?  I really don't know.  A friend of mine was saying she sees it entirely differently, she thinks that's what experts are, people who are obsessed with things.  She thinks if you read the blog of a mommy, a mommyblog, if you will, you are there to learn from the person who's writing the blog.  I don't know.  I disagree, HEARTILY.  After all, I am a mother, and I have a blog or four, but I don't expect anyone to do what I say.  I am not an expert on autism, or children, or even having four children, or being married to an attorney.  I am only an expert on Anthony, Maria, Veronica, Felicity, and Mike and actually I'm not even that good at Felicity yet!  I am completely thrown by all her ear infections and her need to have formula and her bubble palette or whatever the hell.  But it would make me SO MAD if someone assumes because THEIR baby had ear infections or their baby couldn't nurse, that they can boss me around.  OR if I, say, said that Felicity couldn't nurse and I tried but I couldn't make it work and then some person said that I was WRONG about that, I have to be honest, I'd try to hunt down that person so I could feel the satisfaction of smacking their stupid face.   I think being a mother in particular is so personal and I think everyone that is a mother is trying as hard as they can to do the best they can.  I think about Anthony and how Mike and I are always trying to figure out what's best for him, I have spent hours and hours thinking about it and planning for it and I STILL barely know what I'm doing with him.  It would never occur to me that because I've become an expert (of sorts) on Anthony that I am an expert on someone else's child.  Anyway, it drives me bonkers and I swear I want to quit the whole internet sometimes.

Anyways.  That's what's going on with Anthony and his parents.  :)