Dear Noah......we were tagged.......25 personal things about you....

Well I was actually BUT I decided to base the answers to 25 personal questions about YOU since this is a blog all about you and your life. SO the tag came from Marcie at Fighting for Timmy's blog and I was supposed to list 25 personal things I would not mind sharing about me...but as I said.....I am changing this to list 25 personal things I can share about YOU!

1. You did not really start talking until you were almost 5 years old. Then it was only 1-2 word sentences. You made a lot of sounds which you still sometimes make.

2. You were not potty trained (pee) wise until 5-1/2 years of age. Poopy potty trained probably within a year of that or so...but it took longer....but wiping on your own? NO.....I still had to help you with that until just about a year ago. You are now 10 years old and can wipe yourself...with wet wipes...which we do NOT flush down the toilet which means each poopy wet wipe has to be bagged up and thrown away.....which means someone has to TIE all those bags shut ...which you cannot do..so I am still involved. We were using zip lock bags but you did not always get those locked....You are obsessed with wiping your butt and always seem to have to do it..so I tie off a bunch of bags each day. My next project is teaching you how to do that. NOW if you use any other bathroom than ours....I still have to help you wipe....as most bathrooms do not have a mirror you can see yourself in...which is required if you wipe your own butt. I am trying to teach you like the school tried....that you CAN wipe without checking your backside in the mirror....but it is a process. SO if we go out or to a relatives and you have a bowel movement.....I still have to help you wipe.

3. You only eat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with extra cheddar cheese powder mixed in with the cheese packet that comes with it in the box and only noodles that are whole..no broken or split ones.

4. Every night before going to sleep when I am telling you good night and I love you.....you are still busy telling me where a Wal*Mart or Target or K-Mart location is or what you will do per hour schedule the next day. Trying to "turn off" your brain at night to sleep has been a bit challenging. I now tell you to tell your "thoughts" goodnight and you can pick them back up to think more on them in the morning. This has worked pretty well. I tell you to think of things you would like to dream about...relaxing things.

5. You chew off your fingernails and toenails rather than have me trim them. Of course you cannot always handle the toenails anymore as they are getting thicker so I do have to trim those from time to time...or at least the ones you cannot with your teeth. When you were in preschool you pulled out all the hair in the center of your head. Stress related? Behavioral? Had to give you elastic bands and squishy things to "pull" on instead....slowly you stopped pulling your hair out and it grew back. Until then you looked like a little monk.

6. You do not eat any real vegetables or fruits....by that I mean raw or cooked. You will still eat Stage 3 Gerber baby food bananas. AND YOU WILL sometimes now eat apple slices...but they have to be a red apple only and very juicy ones and slices a certain thickness. TOO thin or TOO thick and you will cry and not be able to eat it. Last Sunday you tasted ONE kernel of corn for the first time in years....and you said it was very good, but you did not eat any more than 1 kernel. I still am encouraging you to try tasting pieces of fruits or vegetables even just laying them on your tongue to get used to the texture...and then hopefully one day you will eat them. You do eat frozen French fries or hashbrown crowns....only Ore-Ida brand...and only ones in complete circles...no broken or blackened potatoes. You also eat them from restaurants.

7. You have hyperflexible joints and are sooo flexible! You can still put your feet behind you head and often use your feet as hands.

8. You do not any longer eat my homecooked spaghetti..only will eat the sauce and garlic toast. However...you WILL eat spaghetti and ziti at Fazoli's. You also love their breadsticks.

9. You do not eat candy except for PLAIN M&Ms and only the standard colors....no holiday ones for you. You also sometimes like candy corn or Hershey kisses. You recently discovered the big Hershey candy bars and now like those too.

10. You do not eat ice cream.

11. You do not eat cake, but will now eat icing off of a cake.

12. You can work wonders on a computer designing house plans and rooms and toilets and such.

13. You only learned to use scissors correctly by the time you were around 6 years old. Same for writing which we continue to work on today. It is very difficult for you to write things and it overwhelms you easily.

14. You love real estate and looking at houses (you get that from me I think!) You love to look at real estate booklets and floor plans. When looking at houses for sale in the past all the real estate agents were impressed with your knowledge base and vocabulary of real estate. I dare say you put many of the agents to shame! You have just about every home floor plan book Lowes sells.

15. You do not like to smell pork cooking or saukerkraut. It makes you gag and almost vomit. (cannot blame you on that one...it does the same to me now).

16. You have very flat feet and have to wear orthotics in your shoes.

17. You know everything there is to know about trains, and toilets, and bathrooms, and elevators, and Wal*Mart, and K*Mart, and roads, and highways, (you are my little MapQuest!) and anything that has interested you over the years. I mean you are like a walking encyclopedia of information on those subjects.

18. You know the tune of a song after just listening to it one time and then can play it by ear on your piano...nothing fancy but you can do it.

19. You have read your Bible many times over.

20. You are very lovable and always ready to snuggle. You come out now every morning and climb in my lap and give me hugs and just snuggle for a period of time.

21. You like to smell things and people. You do not do it so much anymore. You also used to lick people...which we nipped in the bud I think which is good.

22. You now love to play with other kids. You still like many toddler toys better than age-appropriate toys. I don't care about that...I am the same way.

23. You love Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Domino's Pizza like I mentioned above. You love Domino's Pizza, but only sausage with lots of extra sauce.....lots.....did I say lots of extra sauce?

24. You do not eat beef or pork or turkey and only certain kinds of chicken. You do not ever eat what I eat or fix for myself....unless I am having the same thing you are having.

25. You are interested in making a time machine to travel into the past and future to see what the bathrooms used to look like in some of the former Wal*Mart stores or restaurants that have since been closed.

Dear Noah......we are now a Level 3 Snow Emergency........

that was a lot of shoveling and of course the snow plow plowed us all in at the end of our driveways......over 3 feet deep in at least a 10-15 foot section I had to move

my snowman that stands 3 feet got completely buried after this last snow pass moved through....I tried to shake the snow around him off.....

There is a bush buried under all this snow on the corner

Noah is a little over 4-1/2 feet tall.......he is right about the height of the snow to the right of him

at least the mailman will be able to get to my mailbox!

Dear Noah......we are on a level 2 Snow Emergency so far.....

it has been snowing a lot since yesterday....and is expected to continue until at least tonight.   I figured since I shovel I better get out there and do some shoveling to keep ahead of the accumulation as we already had 10 inches on top of what was already out there.  It is still coming down....I posted a bunch of snow photos on my photography blog   http://photographyfordummies.blogspot.com but here are a couple too:

Yesterday was another trying day here at home for  you as far as school was concerned.  You worked with your teacher online in her classroom for an hour.  It was nice to have a break and let someone else handle it for a bit.  I have decided to try you on the same schedule I am on.....and break down your lessons so they are less likely to overwhelm you.  You cried at the drop of a hat yesterday....over anything and everything.  You have been over the top emotional lately.  

So we will break the lessons down and spend a lot longer on each lesson.....and incorporate more "supplemental" hours to the school weeks so your actual true curriculum time will be reduced and this will hopefully make it easier for you to handle.   I have my work cut out for me.

I love you Noah.......today will likely be a pajama day for you.   You had occupational therapy on Monday and speech therapy on Tuesday and we stocked up at the store.  AND now since I am sitting here waiting for work to come in we will just go ahead and do some school work now instead of later.

LOVE YOU BUNCHES!

Mommy

XOXOX

Bayer knowingly sold HIV contaminated vaccines......

this is extremely disturbing. I thought I had posted all this on Dear Noah but apparently I only posted it on my other blog....so go here to read this disturbing story and see the video about it.

BAYER should be held accountable for what they have done......but it is a big money game..and do you think for a minute they will be closed down?

We have become too apathetic as a nation of people

BAYER HIV CONTAMINATED VACCINES

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP CONTAMINATED WITH MERCURY......

SOME of the products that tested positive for mercury.....

Much High Fructose Corn Syrup Contaminated With Mercury, New Study Finds
Brand-Name Food Products Also Discovered to Contain Mercury

Minneapolis – Mercury was found in nearly 50 percent of tested samples of commercial high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), according to a new article published today in the scientific journal, Environmental Health. A separate study by the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (IATP) detected mercury in nearly one-third of 55 popular brandname food and beverage products where HFCS is the first or second highest labeled ingredient—including products by Quaker, Hershey's, Kraft and Smucker's. HFCS use has skyrocketed in recent decades as the sweetener has replaced sugar in many processed foods.

"Just published in the peer-reviewed scientific journal, Environmental Health, is the bombshell that commercial HFCS appears to be routinely contaminated with mercury. It turns out the contamination isn't so much accidental as newly recognized, given the fact that much HFCS has been made and continues to be made using 'mercury-grade' caustic soda."

HFCS is found in sweetened beverages, breads, cereals, breakfast bars, lunch meats, yogurts, soups and condiments. On average, Americans consume about 12 teaspoons per day of HFCS. Consumption by teenagers and other high consumers can be up to 80 percent above average levels.

"While the FDA had evidence that commercial HFCS was contaminated with mercury four years ago, the agency did not inform consumers, help change industry practice or conduct additional testing."

“Mercury is toxic in all its forms,” said IATP's David Wallinga, M.D., and a co-author in both studies. “Given how much high fructose corn syrup is consumed by children, it could be a significant additional source of mercury never before considered.

We are calling for immediate changes by industry and the FDA to help stop this avoidable mercury contamination of the food supply.”

Click here to learn more TO LEARN MORE
Click here for IATP site IATP SITE
Click here for Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy report, "Not So Sweet: Missing Mercury and High Fructose Corn Syrup" FOR DISTURBING REPORT AND LIST OF SOME OF THE CONTAMINATED PRODUCTS

Dear Noah.......last week I cut your hair.....

and it had grown so long. The more I cut.....the more I realized we would probably just have to cut it really short and let it start growing out again. So I did.....and you love to rub it now......(so do I) ...and you said to me the other night "I love it when you cut my hair like this....I love to feel it.....it reminds me of Sierra Nevada......my hair goes up and down and up and down like the mountains!"

I thought that was pretty cute.

One of the first things I always ask you in the mornings when you get up now is "did you sleep well?" and then I ask "did you have any dreams?" Usually you say if you dreamed you cannot remember them...but Sunday morning when you woke up you HAD a dream and you DID remember it. You said you were out in our backyard playing with some kids from your former class and you were eating "wasp fruit" and a big wasp with big long legs came flying up to get you because you were eating wasp fruit...his fruit...so you called for me to come help as I was watching you all playing in the yard from the kitchen window....and you wanted me to bring you a chaos emerald (something from a Sonic game you play)...so I did and you pushed the button on the chaos emerald and you were immediately transported back safely into the house.

You have talked nonstop lately about this time machine and now you are getting into many details about it. I have to wonder what the future might hold in this regard...wouldn't that be something? You have also been super busy designing your own bathrooms on Sketch Up......I will have to post some of your designs another time.

Today you had occupational therapy....tomorrow speech therapy....and Wednesday the youth program after school. Makes me tired just thinking about it all.

I think more snow is on its way. We ran errands today and stocked up from the store just in case. I also decided to try having you on the same schedule as I work so you were OFF school today as that is my day off....this will allow us to have one day free for sure each week through the week where we can go on field trips or do fun things together or run errands....etc. This means you will do school Tuesdays through Saturdays.....or maybe even just 4 days a week if I can work out our schedule to get everything in during that amount of time. We were able to do it in the past.

Anyway....I have lots to do and it is already 8:30 p.m.

I love you! Here you are in your Sierra Nevada hair cut!


Mommy
XOXOXO

Dear Noah.......busy day again!

After I worked and we did some school....we ran and got grandma C. some candy she wanted that was marked down from Christmas.....Hershey Kisses...and then I picked her up a brand new snow shovel and a 50-lb bag of salt ...more cat food for Tom...and we popped back over to her house again Tuesday to drop it all off. We had a nice second visit with her. I had to drop off those keys of hers I forgot I had.

You had an emotional day. ANY time you get emotional now....you end up with a thumping headache afterwards. I am sure your blood pressure probably sky rockets....or you get tense. You looked almost drugged and ill at speech therapy......your typical ZOMBIE/recovery face and affect you get after you have a difficult emotional day. It zaps you.....yet at the same time you were bouncing off the walls...had a very difficult time listening and settling down to do anything.

Not a lot went right yesterday it seemed..I could have screamed a couple of times. In fact I think I did do a couple of MINI screams......which obviously does nothing to help the situation any.

Praying tomorrow will be better for us bot but since I am still up and need to start work in a few hours......I won't be starting the day on my best foot will I?

I LOVE YOU Noah......so very much!

Mommy
XOXOX

Dear Noah.......we had a nice day off from school....

we went to grandma C's for lunch. Aunt Melissa and cousin Audrey met us up there and then came back to our house to visit too. We all had a nice visit I think. You let Audrey take home 3 of your computer games to play with for a week. I thought that was sweet that you let her do that.

Tomorrow we have school again....I have decided to back off on the pressure...and just go at the pace we can when we can and not worry so much about what we get done or when. We will get it all done. I may alter the lessons a bit too ...to suit your needs better.

I just made you another batch of Valentine heart-shaped gingerbread cookies....125 of them! I cannot believe you have gone through all those cookies from a few days ago already. Well I did help eat a few myself this time...but still!

You are all about elevators lately.....and playing elevators with closet doors....and looking at Wal-Marts and K-marts and Targets online on Google maps........you can now recognize which store is which store just by scanning the top roof of each store from a birdseye view on the map...it is amazing how you can know the things you know...and so quickly.

You have been holed up in your bedroom most of the weekend...only coming out briefly for food....water....bathroom breaks.....otherwise you are so content with doing searches online on the street maps.....and checking out all the department stores...mostly Wal-Mart which you used to not be able to stand. Now you love Wal*Marts.

Anyway....I have to go finish cleaning the kitchen and I am super tired already...I have to start work at 4:00 a.m. Tomorrow will be busy too. ..me working and then home-schooling you and meeting with your teacher on the phone and then online....and then to speech therapy....and then to grandma C's house to return her keys I had stuffed into my pocket today when I was out shoveling her walks (that I forgot I had in my pocket till I got home and emptied my pockets).

I love you Noah!

Mommy
XOXOX

Dear Noah.....a little video clip you made where you apparently used a bad word and had to explain to me why

and it is -14 with a windchill of -34.....please pray for Joe and Tom


Joe


Tom

Tom is a cute cat that hangs around my grandmother's house and Joe is her neighbor's dog. The neighbors do not take very good care of Joe and he is left out in all type of elements without proper shelter and conditions are horrific for him. I have written about him before..it is so very sad. I want to just go rescue him and bring him home to where I live...but right now renting this house I am not even allowed to have the one cat I do have (which I took in as a stray).

Tom-Kat we take pretty good care of, but he still has to be left outside. My grandmother is helping to keep him fed and such until I can hopefully bring him here to live too....somewhere if I can get a place that allows pets.

Needless to say I am worried about those 2 little guys and wish I already lived somewhere ...where I could have brought them both to live. I don't want to find out they froze to death during this bitterly cold weather.

I love you Noah.....I am hoping and praying for you too....to "understand" more in school a little easier than you have recently. We had a very emotional day again yesterday...and you had a hard time understanding things you read as well as just handling the school work load. It is extremely frustrating at times....and I feel like I must be doing something really wrong.....so I need to figure out a better way to help you understand the things you need to understand.....as this is just not working. AND it could be that I need to realize you will just not be able to grasp some of these things.....maybe not ever. I am not sure what that means for you down the road....and I do admit it is a little scary.

So lots of prayers today.

Love you lots! We made gingerbread Valentine cookies last night....so you will be all stocked up!





(We have 3 containers FILLED with cookies now ...so well over 4 dozen. That should last you a few days I would think.....)

Mommy XOXOX

Missing Pieces......by Mark Leland

Dear Noah..when we have a trying day of school here at home...all I have to do is read an article like this one to remind me we made the right choice!

This article scares me. It reminded me of similar scenarios involving you in your previous schools that might have ended up like this one day. MOST of the things this little girl in this article did that got her into trouble....also used to get you into trouble and you also did just about every one. You also LICKED other students and teachers or sniffed them or wanted to HUG them sometimes (which was not allowed either for some reason) and you would also kick, push, shove, and bite. You also made lots of sounds and stomped your feet. You also ran off from the school grounds a few times. You were made to sit within a taped off area on the carpet in the classroom...not ever allowed to move your chair or body outside the taped off square you sat in. You were isolated within a classroom with cardboard petitions around you.....walls the staff made out of cardboard....so you could not see any other kids or see any other parts of the room because they said you disrupted the class...would not listen.....would not do your work......etc. They had STOP SIGNS all over around you which bothered you immensely..(this was in the SECOND kindergarten you tried..one that supposedly specialized working WITH autistic kids). Most times you just wanted to GET OUT of the room and I cannot blame you. WHO would not feel a bit claustrophobic and a need to get away from that type of environment? The stories I could tell...and some I have here on this blog in prior posts....is extremely upsetting. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about it.

I knew the older you got and the more you might resort to being "physical" in any capacity at school during social situations that set you off.....(instead of being able to VOICE your concerns and opinions) we could one day face a scenario like the one below or worse. It reminded me of when you were in Kindergarten in a school in Colorado and the school made us sign a paper giving them permission to "physically restrain" you if you took off or got into a push/shove situation with another teacher or student to supposedly keep you safe as well as the staff and other children. I ONLY agreed to do that after they showed me what they meant by "restraining, " but there is no guarantee things would not have ended up differently. I did NOT like being made to sign a paper like that and not feeling comfortable about what might happen. THAT only lasted about 1 week before things escalated and I yanked you from that school. BUT.....this is just such a reminder to me of how poorly most schools are set up to handle autistic children at all....and the staff have no clue how to handle situations that come up..or how to pick their battles (like in this story below...why could they have not just allowed that poor little girl to keep her cow hoodie on?) They have no idea how to teach an autistic child anything "social: whatsoever. All they seem to do is reinforce their positions to make our children feel more like a social misfit or outcast than they ever would on their own.

Yesterday was a very trying day for us. You are doing 5th grade language arts (though you are still only in 4th grade)...and while you can read all the work easily....UNDERSTANDING some of the most basic texts of the stories is still very difficult for you. INFERENCES you still have HUGE issues with....those things IMPLIED ....etc. You became so frustrated yesterday doing an assessment on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. I started to question my decision to homeschool you (via Ohio Virtual Academy)...I wondered if I was cheating you out of the "BEST" possible education you could get by doing things her at home instead of in a local school. Things regarding school here at home are just so much easier when I can do all the homeschooling on my own.....including picking the curriculum......HOW I teach you...etc. BY still following OHVA's curriculum and schedule it has been a challenge for me....but I felt it necessary to follow something specific along with whatever else I would choose to teach you....in order to make sure you would be able to PASS STATE MANDATED tests. Needless to say the pressure has been incredible...with me working full time....teaching you full time.....or trying to. Trying to find ways to incorporate MY ways into what THEY want us to do. Taking you to your occupational therapy, speech therapy and Gateway each week. I find we have little free time these days....as all these things can take up about 14 or so hours out of any given day. I am NOT complaining Noah don't get me wrong.....and after reading this article.....my energy is renewed and my faith restored that we did make the correct decision ..the BEST decision for you as far as your education environment...for now at least. I love you Noah...we will just keep plugging away. We can make our own schedule. You can complete your school year when you complete it. I am taking the pressure off us somewhat.

Mommy
XOXOXO

Autistic girl, 8, cuffed after school scuffle


Wednesday, January 14, 2009 | 10:05 AM

ABCNews SARAH NETTER



The mother of an 8-year-old autistic girl who was arrested after a scuffle with her teachers said it was horrifying to watch her daughter be led away in handcuffs from her northern Idaho elementary school.



Police in Bonner County, Idaho, charged the girl, Evelyn Towry, with battery after the arrest Friday at Kootenai Elementary School.


Even though prosecutors dismissed the case Tuesday, the family is considering legal action against the school. They say their daughter was physically restrained to the point of causing bruises and is now tormented by memories of the incident.


The mother of an 8-year-old autistic girl who was arrested after a scuffle with her teachers said it was horrifying to watch her daughter be led away in handcuffs from her northern Idaho elementary school.


Police in Bonner County, Idaho, charged the girl, Evelyn Towry, with battery after the arrest Friday at Kootenai Elementary School.


Even though prosecutors dismissed the case Tuesday, the family is considering legal action against the school. They say their daughter was physically restrained to the point of causing bruises and is now tormented by memories of the incident.


Spring Towry said she got to the school Friday just in time to see 54-pound Evelyn -- who was diagnosed at age 5 with Asperger's Syndrome, a high functioning form of autism -- being walked to a police car with two officers at her side.


"She started screaming 'Mommy, I don't want to go! What are batteries? What are batteries?'" Towry said. "She didn't even know what she was arrested for."


Towry, who lives in Ponderay, said Evelyn told her that she had been refused entry into a school Christmas party that had been delayed until after the holidays because of a string of snow days, because she refused to take off her beloved "cow costume" -- a hoodie with cow ears and a tail.


Towry said Evelyn, who loves Spongebob Squarepants, told her she was put in a separate classroom away from the party, but when she tried to leave, the teachers told her to stay put. Evelyn did not listen, Towry said, and the adults physically restrained her.


"She reacted in a violent way to the physical restraint," Towry said.


Towry said her daughter demonstrated for her how she was held down by her arms and legs. And Towry videotaped the thumb-sized bruises she says were left on Evelyn's legs from the incident.


"She said 'I was very scared,'" Towry said. "She told me she was being hurt."


Dick Cvitanich, superintendent of the Lake Pend Oreille School District, which includes the school where Evelyn was a student, said the school called police because "there was escalating behavior that resulted in what we perceived to be an assault on staff."


At a hearing on the case Tuesday, the prosecutor "said that he didin't think at this time it would be beneficial to pursue it becauase of her age and, of course, her condition," Towry said.


Evelyn was at court for the hearing, but "she didn't exactly know what was going on," Towry said.


'Ongoing Problems' With Autistic Student


Cvitanich said Evelyn's outburst Friday was the culmination of a series of incidents "that demanded staff intervention."


"It's definitely not typical," he said of the decision to call police on a child as young as Evelyn, "and not something we particularly want to do or like to do."


Towry said her daughter didn't even meet the minimum age requirement of 10 to be booked at the county juvenile detention center.


Bonner County Police Lt. Ror Lakewold said the police report indicated the child -- who he declined to name because of her age -- "hit, kicked and spit on teachers."


Lakewold said there was also a complaint that the child grabbed a teacher in a "sexually sensitive place," not in a sexual way, but to cause pain.


Towry said that complaint stemmed from Evelyn pinching her teacher's breast, but she believes Evelyn wasn't aiming for any spot in particular. She was just fighting to be let loose.


"Teachers and the principal wished to pursue charges because they felt there were ongoing problems and this was the only way to resolve it," Lakewold said.


But Towry said her daughter thinks she got into so much trouble simply because she didn't want to take off her cow costume.


When asked what she likes best about school, Evelyn responded quickly and emphatically.


"Nothing," she said. "I don't like school."


And Towry said Evelyn won't be going back to Kootenai Elementary School, where she has been suspended for between two and 10 days.


"I fear for her safety and mental well-being," she said.


They haven't decided yet if Evelyn's 6-year-old sister, who does not have a developmental disability, will remain there or be transferred along with Evelyn.


Nothing formal has been filed yet, but she and her husband are considering legal action, Towry said.


"I would like them to learn a lesson that they should not treat children with disabilities in this manner," she said.


There's a lot of children with autism in the world now, she pointed out, and school officials need to learn how to properly discipline them.


Raising a Child With Asperger's


Towry said there was no indication there was anything wrong with Evelyn, the third of her four children, when she was a baby.


"All she really wanted from me as a baby was to nurse," Towry said, adding that Evelyn spoke early, walked early and hit all of her other developmental goals either on time or ahead of schedule.


Towry said she and her husband started getting calls about Evelyn's behavior when she was in kindergarten, before they moved to Ponderay. School officials told them the little girl would act out by making animal noises or stomping her feet.


"I guess I probably knew there was something wrong with her," Towry said. "When you're a parent it's difficult to think there's anything wrong with your child."


But it wasn't until they moved to Ponderay and put Evelyn into kindergarten at Kootenai that they got a diagnosis. Towry said she was called to the school on Evelyn's first day when her teacher said the girl began acting out in class, again making animal noises among other behaviors.


When the Towrys took the teacher's recommendation and had their daughter tested, they were shocked by the diagnosis.


"It scared me," Towry said. "I had no idea what Asperger's Syndrome was."


In Towry's mind at the time, autistic children drooled, were disconnected, didn't talk, didn't communicate. And none of that was Evelyn.


Towry said Evelyn isn't a perfect child at home. She sometimes gets into shoving matches or the like with her younger sister over sibling rivalry-type issues, but Towry said those situations are easily diffused with words and have never risen to the level of what Evelyn and police say occurred Friday at Kootenai Elementary School.


"She was not a bad kid," Towry said.

Dear Noah......you started out sleeping like this......

with all your Sonic plushies and Mickey Mouse plushie lined up beside you in bed.....FACE UP.........


but by morning when I went in to make your bed I found them all lying like this.......
all FACE DOWN.



I love you......

Mommy
XOXOX

Dear Noah.......let me tell you bout the birds and the bees....and.....

Well on your last night of your "extended stay reservations" sleeping in my room over the holiday....we had quite the interesting discussion. We got on the subject sexual things....and our conversation and my explanations and your questions kept us up until around 2:00 a.m. You were full of questions and I explained everything to you and I also explained it all to you in the manner which GOD intended things to be.....and you listened intently and my answers would usually cause you to ask yet another question.

On and on we went...and for one answer when I was explaining how the male and female parts all fit together you said "huh" so cute and sweet at the end......haha...

anyway....I won't go into detail here but I believe we covered just about everything.....for now anyway.

Today was a busy day...back to school here at home for you.....we had a busy day....and then to Occupational Therapy.....then I took you the play area at Burger King knowing this would probably overload you......but you did well....and you did well at the store following that. BUT once back home and time to finish the 2 assignments we still had to do for the day and you were not happy. I was scolding you and did use a bad word...to describe your complaining.......and this totally upset you. We are both very careful about not swearing or saying cuss words......but you were overloaded...you lost it....was crying....having a fit.......charged at me.....but thankfully you did NOT hit me. You are so good and so much better at controlling yourself. BUT we discussed how you MUST learn to control your emotions and outbursts all the time....especially as you get older....and the possible consequences if you don't. I also said that we ALL need to learn to do that...me....you....grandma and grandpa...everyone we know and in the world. We all mess up from time to time because we are human beings but that is no excuse.

We do pretty well here....most all the time. BUT we did get into it a bit tonight. After much explanation and discussion....and calming down you did so much better and you quickly finished your last 2 assignments...had your supper....and now you are spinning on your Gym Spin.

All is right in your world again....as you head off to play Sonic games on your computer.


I LOVE YOU!

Mommy
XOXOXO

Dear Noah....you have been very affectionate lately.....

(Noah at around 3-5 years of age in Colorado I think..my camera's time stamp was wrong half the time)

Every morning you now come into my office where I am working and climb onto my lap and give me a big hug good morning and then sit there for a long time....I kiss you and we talk....and you snuggle. So sweet.

Last night you actually took a break from your computer to come into the living room to snuggle with me again. You pressed your nose tightly into my arm and sniffed.....and said "you smell VERY good!" followed by "I love that smell!" I asked you what I smelled like but you could not give me any description. Later you told me I smelled "sexy." I asked you if you knew what SEXY meant and you were not really totally sure..but you did seem to use it in the correct context.

You used to go up and smell everyone. Even in public places you would want to "sniff" other kids or people and sometimes even lick them. It took a long time to change trade that behavior for another more appropriate one. You have also always loved women and when you used to see women in shorts in the summertime you always wanted to go up and rub their bare legs. Haha...you were something.

You have wanted to have a sleepover in my room over the holidays...and you keep trying to add another "night's stay" onto your booking or reservation as you call it. Last night you informed me you were extending your reservation in my room until the weekend was over...then it would be back to your usual routine and your own room again.

I smiled. I love you.....you can be so adorable.

Mommy
XOXOX