GOOD NEWS!!!!!!!!

YAAAAAAAA HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! I called to cancel our monthly SW home visit today, M is very sick and we need to go to the Dr :(, thinking M may have strep throat, its been going around. SW: "I am 99% done with E's (whatever that word is) I just have a few questions to ask you..." She is calling me "later" to ask the questions because she wasn't at her desk when I called. Today is the day, I can feel it! Keeping my prayers going. While I was typing SW called me back!!! Yes it is done, basically its an updated homestudy. Thats it, we are finished! She does have to have her supervisor sign off on it and then she will fax it to our attorney. This means our date will most likely be November 15th!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am doing a dance in my chair right now, crying a few happy tears. Our Homestudy will be finished tomorrow when we have our home visit!!! Isn't this exciting!? Wow, baby girl is on her way. I woke up E from his nap last week so he would sleep that night. He usually wakes up grumpy if I have to wake him up. He is also HARD to wake up. He sleeps like a rock. I carried him downstairs. I was talking to him and trying to gently wake him up. No go, then all of the sudden he opened his eyes he said "baby", smiled, and got up to play. Later on that day he found a doll (one that had been long forgotten by his sister years ago and back in a closet), he's been carrying his "baby" around since last week, he feeds her at dinner time, he puts her "nigh-nigh", he does occasionally swing her around by her hair saying "funny baby", he wants to bring her in the car with him.....okay I know this is normal for most 2 year olds but E has never once played with a doll. My mom has several dolls at her house, they have them at nursery at church, he has never shown the slightest interest. I think he knows his baby sister is coming. Something. The rest of this journal entry is me rambling because I do not want to clean my house spotless as it needs to be for the homevisit. I'm being intentionally lazy....:) On a very different note E has been testing me and the OT. Its been a very frustrating week, after last week's very good week and wonderful OT time it was hard. My mom was here and we had a very big busy weekend. I was not able to do his brushing on Saturday so I'm wondering if the busy weekend and the lack of me brushing him for a day affected his behavior or if this oppositional acting out is just a part of being 2 years old and a power struggle and has NOTHING to do with sensory issues. Is this a behavior we need to deal with seperatly? I also feel perhaps I'm being too controlling because I am constantly worried he is going to either hurt himself on purpose, he does this, or hurt himself on accident....so I do keep him close in public situations. I dunno but I do know there is a power struggle going on. C had her first horse riding lessons at the new stable, came highly recommended. Wow! This is a very nice stable, allowing C to be much more independent in her riding and actually get some skills rather then wasting my $$$ on a riding lesson with a lead rope while an old horse walked in a circle. She was able to direct and control the horse, who was not so old she didn't have a mind of her own, C had to show her she was in charge. It was very good for her. She did some posting for the first time and LOVED it. C sits very tall and looks elegant on a horse...not to mention that she is in heaven and glowing the entire lesson. I paid for a 1/2 hour lesson but it was more like 40 minutes plus she got to brush the horse after, all in told we were there for an hour. E was very well behaved, typical 2 year old when he wanted to ride and couldn't, but it did not escalate into a meltdown. Next week the instructor said she will let E ride at the end of the lesson. She saw how broken hearted he was not to be able to ride like he did at his Grandma and Grandpa's. He did have a good time saying "hi" to all of the horses in their stables. Anyway I'm excited because I feel riding is theraputic and if E can ride for even a few minutes it will be good for him. I don't think he would last for a 30 minute lesson nor do I think they normally let 2 year olds take riding lessons :) so that would work out well for him. Oh, our OT is going to start him with swim therapy! I think he will love this and perhaps this will help with his oppositional behavior he had this week with her-he was awful, if she wanted him to do it he wouldn't, ugh! It was a total waste of time. OT also recommended gymnastics. I'm still wondering how our baby is going to fit into all of this. Poor baby girl is going to be dragged all over for therapy, horse lessons, gymnastics...I may pull my hair out as well. If I truly did not think M lived and breathed and died for gymnastics I wouldn't do it-it is way too expensive, much too time consuming. The hardest part is not having a typical 2 parent household where my husband could take her a few nights of the week and I could stay home with the other kids. Or to live close enough to the gym where I could drop her off, go home with the kids and then go pick her up. Its all on me and its a huge sacrifice for all of us, not just me, but C and E as well. In the warmer months its easy. We go to parks and do outdoor things while she is in gymnastics. In the colder months its just a pain. C's horse lessons are during and close to M's gym so it works out really well because I'm there anyway-its also a heated barn so we will be able to go there in the winter, that takes out one night where we can having something constructive to do during gymnastics. Now just trying to see how to work gymnastics in for E. He is advanced when it comes to large motor skills, he tries gymnastics moves and can do front walk overs, almost making it to his feet, and this is not like he's giving himself a running start (very dificult for M when she learned it from a walking position), "baby" cartwheels, full front flips off of furniture, front/back summersaults......all self taught and most of these moves give me heart attacks. He also tries to make a "bridge" which takes a tremendous amount of body awareness and self control. This is way over what they do with them even in the 3 year old program. So I've been thinking the mommy and me gymnastics would be a waste of time and he would be totally bored and not cooperate. He would be wanting to do what he sees his sister doing! Wouldn't that be fun for the instructor!? I'm sure he is NOT supposed to be doing any of the gymnastics moves he does. I try to keep them to a minimum and redirect. Whenever we watch M I know he is going to be doing his moves, he awes people with his strength. Its that deep pounding he is looking for to meet his sensory needs....if only they knew it was a neuro problem causing him to do his daring moves and in order to keep himself from certain injury he compensates by being very athletic and good on his feet. If dh would support it I do think we have an Olympic gymnastic athlete in the making. Anyway I'll just have to wait until he is 3 and can enroll him in a regular program. I think the gym is going to be shocked.....they have no idea how amazing he is but it won't take them long to see, I'm sure he'll give them heart attacks! I'm so putting off cleaning. M and E are watching TV and I'm being lazy.....ugh!