One of the first things that struck me about James was his direct stare. We spent the first few days of his life bonding in the hospital, and I remember thinking that I didn't realize newborns could stare at you like that. When they handed him to me in recovery, he stopped crying and his eyes locked onto mine. He was a peaceful baby and all he wanted to do was stare at me and his Daddy. To this day, when I see him looking at something new, I know he's memorizing it, just as he did those first few days.
Over the next few months, he did the typical baby things. A few weeks of minor colic, rolled over at 3 months, smiled and laughed by a month old. He developed infant asthma around 6 months old, and I was so busy learning the ropes of treating him while juggling full time work and daycare, that I didn't pay too much attention to his daycare teachers when they described his play behavior. "James loves this set of blocks, he arranges them into the same pattern every time he plays! James loves to spin this toy around, if we don't take him away he'll sit there all day and spin it!"
Around 8-9 months he started to cruise around, and he loved our coffee table. He would place an object on the table, and cruise around the table checking it out from all angles. Once he began walking, he would collect certain toys, usually plain blocks, and arrange them into the ROYGBIV rainbow spectrum. We didn't know for another year that he was using that pattern, until we called to get him evaluated for speech at 2. The first thing the woman noticed was that ROYGBIV, and told us we needed to get him into an autism specialist ASAP. I started to read, and research, and read some more. My mommy instinct was screaming at me not to allow the full 50 hour per week therapy that the state was recommending. I agreed to 6 hours, with the option to increase if needed. I felt I had to let him lead me to what he needed, because through all the confusion and concern about James not uttering one word, he and I were still communicating, without words, as we had from day one.
We officially had him diagnosed with High-Functioning Autism when he turned 4 years old. He has made amazing progress, and I can't believe that God trusted us with him. Honey (my husband) and I could barely do our own laundry, and here we were handed this angel and expected to not only raise him, but advocate for him for the rest of his life. He's so peaceful, and super smart, and we are so grateful that he's here:)
Organizing my household one project at a time
I spent the weekend creating a project inspired from Pinterest (by the way that place is really addicting, almost as much as coffee, but not quite). Once school started I realized I was in over my head with keeping up with everyone's schedules and activities, so I decided to create a family information center. I say this project was inspired by Pinterest, because I recently created a mini chalkboard for my kitchen that I use to write daily inspirational quotes for my family. I got to thinking that a chalkboard on a large scale would be great. That way, I would be able to keep a weekly calendar for all to be able to see an update fairly easy on the happenings in the Vercher household during the week. Between Cross Country, Football, Soccer, Karate, 2 PTO's, volunteering at school, doctor's and orthodontist appointments, etc. our schedules get pretty hectic.
I was thinking big scale where everyone would be able to view it on a daily basis, and I didn't want a chalkboard wall in my foyer. Everyone passes through the foyer, but, seriously, it would clash with my decor. And there was no way I was going to clean chalk board dust off the floor every day! Then it hit me...Everyone goes in and out the garage daily (multiple times daily as reinforced by the sound of the chime going off when I am trying to take a nap). I should make a chalkboard wall in the garage! That way everyone walking by can see what's going on today and what is coming up for the rest of the week. Even better, the kids can add important dates for themselves too, i.e. test days, study days and mall with friends days.
So I set off on a mission to create a chalkboard wall (an erasable, reusable and environmentally friendly life organizer) in my garage. I told my husband about the idea, and he thought it was great. Check. I had his buy in since the garage is not really my domain, and I knew if I needed help he would be more than happy to help. He even offered the idea of framing the chalkboard in to make it look nicer. He knows me so well. I couldn't make the frame, because I am not good with power tools...yet so I had to enlist my husband to make the frame. He framed. We taped off the section of the wall that we wanted to paint. I painted the chalk paint on the wall (three coats). The paint can be found at Home Depot or Lowes. After the paint dried we hung the frame. Then the hard part was to pick out a fun color for the frame. I wanted something fun and bright that everyone would notice. I found a great granny apple green (that's not the name of the color, but I think it should be). I painted the frame, but for me that wasn't enough. I had to make it cutesy. After all, this is where I am going to be organizing my life. I found some great stencils at Home Depot, and I stenciled the corners in the same granny apple green color. When that was dry I treated my chalk board by taking a large piece of sidewalk chalk turning it side ways and rubbing it across the board. I let the chalk sit on it for 1 hour then I erased, and it was ready for the Vercher family happenings. Now my family has a really fun way to keep up with our hectic lifestyles, and it makes for nice decor in what would otherwise be a boring garage. Until next time when I tell you about organizing your garage and creating a great space you want to come home to and a garage door you want to leave open so you can be the envy (green with envy like my granny apple frame) of all your neighbors.
