Her Hillbilly Highness

My sweet lil' Riley shocked me this week by showing me that he can READ!! We've been focusing so much on verbal communication that I didn't realize how many sight words he was soaking up and actually memorizing! I can't tell you the joy I have experienced from watching him track each word on the page and sound it out himself. Priceless!!


It all started when I found these BOB books in all my scrapbook materials this summer. I put them under the coffee table and was going to try to work with Riley when he got bored. One day he was bugging me every 5 minutes and not having such a calm day when I told him to sit in my lap and got the books out. That was seriously one of the first times he actually focused on something for more than 2 minutes and showed me what he could do. Amazing!!

If you have a child with Autism or you know someone who has a child with Autism or somewhere on the spectrum, I just want you to know that the first couple of years are definitely the hardest! I really don't know how we got through them and I know that we have some hard times ahead- but seriously- I can honestly say that I am so blessed to be the mommy of my Riley Roo!

Last weekend, we traveled down to Texas to visit the family and leave Kylie at her grandparents for a whole week! She and Nana are having a blast doing crafts, updating her room, and bugging Poppy to help them out with big chores.

Back to the Texas trip. We got there late Friday night and visited with my parents until it was time to go to bed. I love staying with them because we have the whole upstairs to ourselves and we also have a big screen with a million movie channels on it. It's like a retreat!


The next morning, the girls went shopping for birthday presents for Kylie's sweet cousins, Hannah and Lilly. Alan and I took Kylie and Aunt Becky over to Southlake for a sweet and sassy birthday- rock star style! Alan and I ventured next door to Mi Cocina and had a great talk about future vacations and plans. Kylie had the time of her life! They got made up, made a video, and walked the runway. Kylie is really good at walking the runway. She knows how to strut after watching modeling shows with me. Not to mention that her favorite site online is People.com (the fashion & style section). Then the girls got a sweet limo ride!





Let me tell you- it is H.O.T. in Texas! We were at an outside mall and the heat just permeated off the sidewalk. We were so excited that some of our relatives let us take advantage of their pool that night while they were out of town. You can't live in Texas without a pool, I'm telling ya! Luckily we have our choice of a couple down there. Here, not so much.


So, I've got my little man here with me and I am even thinking of taking him to see Toy Story 3 today by myself! Anything to get him out of that pool! I bought a small pool and he is getting really good at putting on his swimsuit (without underwear- yea!!) and helping himself to the pool. He's excited about having all of my attention but I know that he's going to be glad to see Kylie at the end of the week.

Today is the last day of school for the kids and the last day that I have to myself to design, go to the gym, bask in my sanity! ha! I'm really excited about spending the next 6 weeks with my precious babies who are so not babies anymore. wah!

Yup, that's my Riley this morning. I walked in his room and he was standing on top of his dresser. I told him to "stay" and ran and got the camera- aren't I a great mom? ha! I wanted to capture this picture to show just how sick my little Riles is. pppfffft

Yesterday I was in the line to pick the kids up from school when I saw one of Riley's teachers come rushing out towards the cars. I just had a strange feeling that he had done something. I was right! Ms. N jumped in the car and told me to get out of line and drive to the front of the school. Riley had thrown up FOUR times on the playground and in the hallway and had also had diarrhea. Poor little guy! Poor teachers!

So we rushed into the nurses' office and he was laying on his teacher and just looked really sad. I grabbed both kids and we drove home- 2 minutes that seemed 30 because I was just waiting for him to blow in the car. Luckily he didn't and I brought him in and put him in a bath. I made him a little pallet on the couch and put Toy Story into our dvd. I guess he laid there for about an hour before he wanted to go out and ride in the jeep. (It's actually Kylie's powered Barbie jeep that he has fallen in love with but that's another story for another day!) He does look a little sick here.


Luckily, he was fine the rest of the night and we had no other occurrences. Whew!! I was delighted because Alan is the strong one regarding the vomit virus. I get panic attacks and can't handle it!

Needless to say, he had to stay home with me today and has been wonderful! I'm so glad that he is feeling much better and hopefully that bug is gone for good!