Olivia's bug bitten eyelid update

Well I kept her home yesterday and when you see how her eyelid looked you will know why.

This is how my poor little bugga's eyelid looked when she woke up yesterday morning. She is just like me when she gets bit by May flies. The poor thing could barely see out of that eye. I tried to get her to put an ice pack on it (per instructions on WebMD) but she didn't like it. So, I gave her some Benadryl and Acetaminophen.

She started to feel better and of course her ADD/ADHD kicked in. She was bored so after much fussing and whining about me not being able to play with her (she thinks I sit around all day while she is at school and not running around the house frantically trying to complete chores, run errands, make phone calls, order stuff online, fill out forms and what not) she wanted to make a stuffy out of felt. So she told me what shape she wanted and I drew it, cut it and she sewed it.

In the above photo you can see her eye was starting to look better.

Here she is this morning looking and feeling better. Still itchy and sore (she got bit on Monday!) so I gave her Benadryl and Acetaminophen. Of course she had to take her kitty to show off at school ; ) I just taught her how to sew this past year and she has become quite good at it.

Am I the only one who feels like they just want to put their sickly, accident prone kid in a bubble? She is always sick and/or injured. I feel so bad for her that she always has something painful or uncomfortable going on with her.

Darn May flies!!!

My poor little squirrel has inherited my severe reaction to bug bites. She got bit on the eyelid (of all places!!) on Monday and it is really swollen and itchy. I got bit on the earlobe over the weekend and it swelled to cartoon proportions off and on for a couple of days and itched like crazy. This morning her eyelid looks really bad. I gave her a Benadryl and some Acetaminophen to see if that helps. Does anyone know a good home remedy for the itching and swelling of bug bites besides applying ice?

Our staycation

If you want to know what we did for our staycation this weekend, check out the new post on my other blog http://stressedbymess.blogspot.com

They had a V8!

Actually, a V8 V-fusion popsicle.

I have been making juice popsicles for my daughter for about six months with o.j. and Juicy Juice. Stephen loves popsicles but won't touch my homemade ones. Until.... I made them with V8 V-fusion juice. Olivia got one out of the freezer and he started pointing and said "Posicle, posicle". He tried it and he loves them! I am so excited by this because he won't eat fruits or veggies (sometimes goes through phases of eating blueberries). The only veggie he eats is the tomato sauce on the pizza I make. He also stopped drinking juice years ago and will only drink water.

This juice is awesome! I love fruits and veggies but don't feel like I eat enough of them. It tastes really good. I also have $1.00 off on one coupons and they are $2.97 at Walmart right now. This juice has veggie and fruit juice. It is 100% juice. I'm hoping I can puree some fresh fruit with it and make pops to get some more fruit in him without him knowing it!

Things can only get better

My day got better yesterday.

I bought Stephen some birthday presents on ToyRUs.com and got him a gift card on line for Barnes and Noble for his birthday.

At lunch Pat brought home the Autism Awareness magnet. One of his coworkers thought it would be amusing to put it on our hood. We never noticed!

I took Olivia to her appointment for ADHD screening. He asked her some questions, had her do some tasks and asked me some questions. He gave me two very thick assessments to be filled out. One by me and the other by the teacher. I filled mine out yesterday. It was not only about ADHD but also, Asperger's, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, Turret's, Bipolar, OCD, etc. Boy, I was thinking that some of those things pertained to me! Especially in the ADHD category. Someday I'll get a referral to get checked out. I can't even get off my butt to get a yearly check-up and follow up appointments for all my ailments. This will also go on the back burner.

I just really hope that her teacher fills her assessment out accurately. She really seems to have blinders on because she loves all the positive aspects of Olivia's personality. She does have a lot of great qualities and talents but she has some things she really needs help with.

I'm really worried that as she gets older her school performance, self-esteem and ability to function in life will be affected if she doesn't get some help now. I have had concerns about her behavior for years and have really tried to wait as long as I can to get her looked at for ADD/ADHD. I was hoping that she would outgrow the behavior. Her brother has matured a lot and gained a lot of self control with age. I feel really guilty about getting her "labeled". Have any of you had similar feelings about having your child diagnosed with anything? I just hope I am doing the right thing and that it will help and not hurt her. I just want her to have a happy healthy life. I feel like I should have had some diagnosis's as a child, ADD or ADHD and Asperger's maybe OCD, and that my experiences in life have been very painful and traumatic because I didn't get the help I needed. I don't want her to look back at her childhood and feel like she struggled and needed help that she didn't get.

So we got back from her appointment and it was almost 85 degrees outside! I put on my bikini and Olivia put on her bathing suit and we went out to sun ourselves. I got to use my new lounge chair (my first one!). I have always laid my bony little body on the hard ground to lay out in the sun so this is really a luxury for me!

I went to the store and bought 5 packages of Perdue chicken flavor bites and 3 bags of Wacky Mac for $3.70 by using my coupons and the stores double dollar coupons!!

My husband and I watched American Idol and had some much needed alone time.

Thank God tomorrow is only a day away when you are having a bad today!

I hate Mondays and I'm not Supermom

Started my week off on a bad note.

Went to the gym and the no touch soap dispenser is not working. I go work out and figure it will work the next time I use it (it has been fickle in the past). I get ready to leave and it is still not working. I always eat a snack after working out on my way home and MUST have clean hands. Heck, even if I didn't eat after I still want clean hands! I tell the two guys that are working. I offer to help replace the batteries. He is using a flat head screw driver on a Philips head screw and he has only one good hand he can use. I offer to help. We replace the batteries. Still no soap. Ugh!

I go out to get in my car and notice that the back right hand tire is sitting in a huge pile of broken tinted glass. I look at my windows, it wasn't from my car and there is no car parked next to me on that side. I go back in and ask for a broom and dust pan. Same guy helps me with the glass. I pull my car back and inspect all the tires. I am already paranoid about tire inflation, it is really an obsession, and find a nail in the right front tire. Joy. My poor husband, God bless him, took it to Town Fair Tire after work later that day(love them!!) where they tested all the tires, removed the nail and patched the tire for 4 bucks and change. This took 2 hours out of his day after working 10 hours.

On my way to Walmart I call Stephen's school to see how they liked the Flarp (farts in a can putty) and she tells me he bit his hand. He has not bit himself at school since January. Thankfully he didn't break the skin (he was biting chunks out of the backs of his hands for a while last fall and winter) I tell her that I expect this behavior to come and go throughout his life unless he is able to find a way to communicate his feelings (we are in the process of having the school evaluate him for assistive tech device). At least when he bites his hands now we have gloves to put on him, hoodies with thumb holes, etc. While I am at Walmart I buy him some new stuff to make a necklace he can bite or fidget with (he has tired of his beaded necklaces).

I call my daughter's doctor's office and leave a message for her doctor to write a letter about her ADD diagnosis and fax it to her school and send me a copy. I get a call as I am leaving Walmart saying there is NOTHING in her file about ADD. Really, I then explain that I filled out a screening form and at her follow up appointment (she had pneumonia at her yearly check-up and that's when I filled it out and she needed to come back to get her lungs checked out) her doctor, the ADD expert, looked it over and said that the other doctor recommended her seeing him and we discussed it and he said it looked like she had ADD. So the receptionist told me he would call me. He didn't. I had to call back the next day and talk to him. He wants me to bring her in today, fill out forms, look her over, give me forms for the teacher to fill out. What the heck!! Don't tell me she has ADD and then decide we need to jump through more hoops for an "official" diagnosis. I will hopefully find the time to post the results of all this soon.

Meanwhile, Olivia's behavior has become more hyper, impulsive, angry and fragmented. She is leaving drawers open in her room and leaving a trail of mess throughout the house and whining and crying when asked to pick it all up. She hasn't been taking her Prilosec or doing her inhaler and then lies to me when I ask her if she has taken it. Then gets mad at me for asking repeatedly if she has taken the medication and done her inhaler after finding out she has been lying about it. She even said herself that she talks when the teacher is talking, doesn't raise her hand, doesn't look where she is going at school. When I go to pick her up at school on Monday's the teacher is oblivious to her standing on a chair and almost falling on her head (I caught her when she fell), crawling around on the floor and not stopping what she is doing so we can go home. She is constantly in the nurses office with injuries from the playground. She has had her academics slip over the second half of the year. This is the same teacher that said in my meeting with her and the principal that there are no problems with Olivia's behavior other than chattiness. The principal all but told me not to get her evaluated for ADD because she already has too many kids with it in her school!

I spend the rest of the day listing a bunch of our crap on ebay trying to get rid of some of the more valuable clutter that is overtaking the house.

I got an e-mail on Monday that we need to send in receipts for the fiscal year for the grant money we receive from the state for Stephen. I added up receipts and realized we still needed to spend more of his money. I think some receipts got lost but I know we still have some of his money to spend. I spent all day yesterday researching computers just to realize that what we want to get him is out of our price range! So now I will try to buy some stuff for his upcoming birthday to use up the money.

A water main broke in a city a half hour away today and my son has a two hour delay that I don't know about until the bus doesn't show up because my kids have their shows on every morning. My son is in an out of district school and rides the bus for 45 minutes one way everyday and goes through this city. The lady at the bus company has the nerve to say "It was on the news" when I call to find out why the bus hasn't shown up. Why the heck would I expect a delay unless it is snowing!?


While I am waiting out front to put Olivia on the bus I look over at our car and see that our "Autism Awarness" magnet is missing.

My house is a mess, I feel like I am in a swirling vortex of mess and chaos. Normally, I can cope. But lately I am on overload and feeling a lot of stress and anxiety over the mess and clutter and chaos. The yard is still a total mess because no one lived here and took care of it before my landlord recently bought it and it was winter when he was fixing everything up and didn't get a chance to do the yard. I just can't accept that I am not Supermom!

Pat said during this long weekend we will do some reward charts for Olivia, make a chore wheel for everyone to help with cleaning and try to deal with some of the clutter.

Am I the only one who feels like they are expected to live up to this ridiculous ideal of doing everything single handed with a big smile on their face!?

I am not even going to the gym today because I have to get the house in order before I pull my hair out! I already cleaned the cat box and cleaned both bathrooms and am doing a bunch of laundry.

I really hope my week gets better. If Supermom is reading this, oh wait, she doesn't have time to read anything because she is too busy doing everything perfectly!!

Farts in a can

Pat took Olivia out to spend some of the money she has been saving. She bought some pink and purple Sculpey, a little stuffed dog, a ready to paint ceramic cat, a stuff your own pink poodle doll, etc. Typical girl stuff. And of course she bought Flarp noise putty which should really be called farts in a can. So much fun for a dollar. She can't stop playing with it. Lovely. It's not like 2 people in this family who shall remain nameless don't already perform daily as the fabulous farting duo. Pat had Stephen try it out this morning and it was a big hit!

It sounds like a fart....does it smell like one too?

Does the Tooth Fairy have surgical skills?

If she doesn't than I guess she won't be getting the tooth my son pulled out after school today! I HAD NO IDEA HE EVEN HAD A LOOSE TOOTH. I brush his teeth everyday! Granted he always has his tongue near the toothbrush (defensive moves) so I can't see very well where he lost the tooth.

He came home after school and looked at me with distress the minute I got him in the door. I asked him what was wrong and he pointed to the trunk/end table next to our couch. He wanted a tissue. I gave it to him and he put it in his mouth. I knew that meant he had a loose tooth. He doesn't like getting the blood on him when he is yanking on a loose tooth and likes to put the tissue over the tooth to avoid messes, God bless him. So then he hands me the tissue and looks at me like he wants me to get the tooth out because it is bugging him. I don't pull teeth. No way. Neither does my husband. Luckily, when Stephen was little his teeth eventually fell out or he pulled them out.

He had a real urgency with getting this one out though. It could be due to the fact that 3 out of the last 4 loose teeth he has had, had to be pulled (crowns on the baby teeth made them stick to the gum and one tooth actually had one long root still attached, blech!!). This one had a crown also. And I was not really shocked to see that the new tooth was already about 1/4 out of the gum under the old tooth. That was the case with all the other ones that had to be pulled. I think he figured he'd rather do it himself than get it pulled.

His lovely collection of crowned teeth are the direct result of the pounds of candy reinforcers he was given in ABA over the couple of years at 2 different points in his life that he had it and not allowing us to brush his teeth when he was little due to sensory issues with his mouth. I believe he only has one crown left to loose thank God! I never want to have to take him to the dentist again to have a stubborn tooth pulled.

So I took him upstairs and put Anbesol on it after a lot of coaxing and reassurance that it would make him feel better and not hurt him. He kept pulling it and there was blood. I showed him how to take water into his mouth and spit it out. This is a big milestone! He spits out toothpaste when I tell him too, but we haven't tried swishing or even just taking water into his mouth and spitting it out. He really liked doing this. And he kept pulling and rinsing and spitting out the blood. I tried to use his electric toothbrush to loosen the skin on the outside gum. He let me go over it a couple times. He was determined to get it out and I gave him some paper towel to just absorb the blood but he kept trying to pull it out. There was nothing more I could do. He was going to keep trying to pull it out and he seemed to have control over the blood. So I took him to his room and told Olivia to check on him while I finished watching "Schindler's List". I have been wanting to see it since it came out. It was soooo long and I thought I'd be able to finish before the kids got home and it was so close to the end that I had to finish watching it.

I went downstairs and about five minutes later heard him coughing. I thought oh God he is puking from the blood in his mouth. I ran upstairs and he was just standing there poking the spot with his tongue. I looked in his mouth and the darn thing was gone. WHERE WAS THE TOOTH!? I looked everywhere in his room and couldn't find it. DARN IT! No Tooth Fairy. I think he swallowed it. When all his teeth were pulled they wouldn't let us keep them. In the past he has swallowed, lost or done something with his pulled out teeth. He made a Tooth Fairy pillow in class last year and we have only been able to do use it once : ( But at least the tooth is out without a trip to the dentist and he is happy!

My hubby rocks!

Yes, he rocks musically because he is a stellar guitar player and composer but he just rocks in general. I was having one of those days yesterday where I felt like the black sheep of the world and had 100 things to do and just couldn't accept that they all couldn't be done in one day. I talked to him on the phone about feeling sad and like no one liked me which usually doesn't bother me (story of my life, undiagnosed Aspie?) and overwhelmed by all my responsibilities and projects that are half finished (I have way too many interests) or waiting to get started. He gave me a pep talk and tried to make me feel better.

I just couldn't stop feeling so much anxiety. He came home and immediately made the beds with the bedding I had washed earlier in the day, vacuumed the upstairs and straightened the clutter. He also waited on me and tended to the kids. He did all this without being asked after he worked a ten hour day. I guess this is why we have been married almost 10 years : )

Rock on Big Daddy!!

Too big to pick up?

My son didn't like being held most of his life and now that he weighs 60 lbs. he wants to be picked up occasionally. How can I say no? This is one of the many reasons I work out!

Check out my other blog!

http://stressedbymess.blogspot.com/

Best Mother's Day ever : )

No, I was not taken to a fancy restaurant, showered with diamond jewelry or given a gift card to a spa.

I was woken up by my husband and daughter this morning. My husband had a tray with a wheat bagel with chive cream cheese from Dunkin Donuts, coffee and the Sunday paper. This is the first Mother's Day I have been served breakfast in bed : ) And it was wonderful.

Then Stephen woke up and had his bread and jelly with his seizure medication in his room and then Pat brought Stephen in so he could see me open up the Mother's Day presents he brought home from school on Friday.

Pat had him say Happy, Mother's, Day and Stephen repeated each word after he said it. Then Pat said it as a sentence and Stephen repeated it. Stephen faced me at the edge of the bed and watched me open the present. He kept looking in my eyes and then at the presents.

I said thank you and that I loved what he made for me. And then opened the other present. He stayed at the side of the bed and watched me.

I turned the wheel and read each word that appeared in the cut out rectangle and thanked him for making it for me and that I loved it. He leaned towards me and made his little happy sounds and put his hand on my shoulder and rubbed his cheek on my cheek and then grabbed my upper arm and rubbed his cheek on it. This is the way Stephen shows his affection for people. He does not just do this anytime or with anyone. It is reserved for those close to him. He has never done this after I have opened presents that he has given me. He has never been so interested in watching any of us open present from him. It brought tears to my eyes : ) And then he ran off to his room. The gift of LOVE! What a great present : )

I was then left in bed alone to enjoy my breakfast and Sunday paper. On the front page was an article about mothers in jail and how heartbreaking it is for them to be separated from their children. Regardless of how they got there it made me feel very sad for them. There was another article on the front page about mothers who have lost a child. Sometimes as mothers, especially stay at home moms, we are so busy and stressed and tired with all our responsibilities that we forget how special everything we do with our children is. We forget how lucky we are that we are physically with our children every day or that our children are alive. More tears. I am such a softy. I felt like the most blessed mother on Earth at that moment.

I finished my paper and came downstairs to pay our bills online. Stephen wanted to go on the Internet. He had been waiting his turn all morning. Pat had gone on to play guitar and now I was paying bills. I explained that I had to pay the bills and then he could go on. He stood there over my shoulder waiting. Our printer is now out of reach when the computer desk is open. So I printed a receipt and asked Stephen to get it for me and he did. I printed another and he gave it to me after I asked him to get it. The next one printed and he handed it to me without me asking. And he grabbed the next one and so on. Another priceless gift from Stephen on Mother's Day : )

Here are some of the other gifts that my children gave me this week. Olivia couldn't wait to give me any of them and gave them to me as she brought them home. Not to be outdone by her brother this morning she made me a couple drawings and paper crafts. I really love the handmade gifts because they show that my children are growing and thriving. What more could a mother ask for?.

This is a box Stephen made in OT, love the bling bling!

I could have done anything with my day today and even considered a little shopping. Instead I decided to watch "Bolt" with Pat and Olivia and celebrate Mother's day by staying home and being a mother.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Stephen got dressed by himself!!

I brought his outfit downstairs this morning and put it next to him on the couch and then I went to the bathroom. I came out and he was standing there completely dressed. He never gets dressed unless I am there to help him. His shirt was on backwards. I told him I was so proud of him for getting dressed all by himself but I needed to fix his shirt because it was backwards. He wouldn't lift his arms. I praised him some more and after a couple tries and more praise and explanation he let me take the shirt off. I didn't want to have to fix his shirt because he was so proud of himself for getting dressed all by himself : ( Then I noticed his pants were on backwards also. And I was praying that when I checked the underwear that that was on the right way but it wasn't. I just wanted to be able to let him have his moment and not have to change at least one thing. Needless to say, I praised him repeatedly and showed him the tags and other "landmarks" on his clothing that would let him know if they were on correctly.

He has been able to dress himself correctly if the clothing is laid out in a certain way and still needs to have buttons on jeans and snaps, etc done for him. I guess it's time to teach him how to do it himself : ) My little boy is growing up and I need to LET him do it.

Signs of intelligent life : )

It has been raining so much I am expecting the Cat in the Hat to walk through my door any minute and offer to entertain my kids by messing up my house. Perfect day to stay home and get caught up on chores and blogging.

The teacher sent home the piece of paper that Stephen wrote a word spontaneously, independantly to communicate for the first time. It is definately getting framed!

He came home with a school book catalog two days ago and brought it to me and pointed to guess what.....another Mother Goose book. He even took my hand and made me point to it. This is the first time he has ever showed me something in a catalog, flyer, etc. that he wanted me to get for him. So I went on ebay, found one and purchased it. He kept pointing to it in the catalog. Literally, I had to explain in every way I could think of about twenty times, that he had to wait for it to come in the mail, he can't have it now and that he has to wait but it is coming. This went on for about an hour. Then he pointed out another Mother Goose book in the same catalog by the same author that just had a different cover. So I went back on ebay and bought that one also. And again explained it is coming and I know he wants it but he has to wait.

I let him go on the internet and introduced him to doing searches. He typed in mother goose all by himself except I had to show him spacing between the two words. He was in Mother Goose heaven : ) I am hoping that he will start to see that typing and writing are ways for him to communicate and from what he has been doing lately he seems to be realizing that!

Once his time was up on the computer he started pointing to the first book he showed me in the catalog again and actually got quite upset. He went up to his room and was crying : ( I then realized he had been so focused on Mother Goose since he got home from school that he hadn't had a snack or anything to eat. So I got him some popcorn and when he came downstairs to hang out he was all better : )

Do any of you with children with Autism find that they forget to eat or drink because they are so into what they are doing?

Last night he came downstairs around the time he usually gets ready for bed and said, "I need help" : ) I asked him what he needed help with and do you need help with x,y,z and when I said,"Do you need help getting ready for bed?", he went upstairs. Whenever Stephen is trying to tell us what he wants or needs through talking, gestering, etc. and we say the right one he runs or walks away and we know that is what he was trying to tell us. Or if he doesn't want something we are trying to give him he will push it away. But when we present him with something he wants he will grab it and look at. It's really amazing how much a person can communicate non-verbally.

Have any of you had these kinds of "conversations" with your child?

Last night he came over to me and took my hand and brought me to the marble race. I sat him down on the rocker ottoman (he started rocking, yeah!) and showed him where to put the marbles and he had me do it a couple more times. He has slowly been playing with all the stuff we bought him. Yippee!

Bean bag or litter box?

Well the bean bag curse continues. After ordering two and having to bring one bag back to Walmart for being half filled, the remaining bean bag has taken some abuse.

I was standing in the sensory room looking at Noel who started doing a scratching motion like she was in the litter box. To my horror I saw a very deep puddle on the bean bag as she walked away! It went right through to the floor. Great! How the bloody H*ll am I so supposed to clean a ginormous bean bag. Oh, I know, I'll just throw it in my industrial size washer and dryer. It will totally fit and the dryer won't melt the stuffing and all will be right in my Universe. Meanwhile, back in the real world....All my germ sensors went off and I just wanted to clean it, RIGHT NOW!!

I called my friend Jenn who has 4 kitties (used to have 5 but one poor little kitty fell ill this year and is now in kitty heaven) and has a cat that has potty issues to see if she could give me any advice on cleaning the bean bag. Needless to say, she had no experience with kitty pee on ginormous bean bags so I just bounced ideas off her and tried to come up with some different solutions. I wasn't about to throw the whole thing away. But it would be too expensive to refill it with the same kind of stuffing.

Long story short, I put it out on the porch until I could decide what to do. Stephen came home from school and we needed to go pick up Olivia at school. She stays after on Mondays to do all her homework for the week. It used to take her an hour to an hour and a half a day at home. This works much better for her. Once my husband got home I decided to deal with the bean bag. Poor Stephen, who is already attached to the bean bag, kept taking us to the window and pointing to it. This just broke my heart and I wanted to clean the darn thing and get it back in some kind of working order ASAP!

I ended up dumping all the stuffing into 1 giant black trash bag and 4 regular size bags. My porch looked like a frat house after a party of jock bean bags drank too much and threw up all over it : ( I would have taken pictures to share with you all but the magnitude of the mess was completely distressing not to mention the smell of cat pee and I just wanted to be done with the whole ordeal as quickly as possible. Thank you Jesus for my wet/dry vac : ) That thing has come to my rescue so many times in the couple of weeks I have owned it. If you are completely freaked out by giant dry spills or any other dry mess that would kill your vacuum I highly recommend you purchase one.

So the cover went into the wash with about 1/4 of a bottle of Shout stain remover and a full cap of Tide. I washed it again with 1/2 a cup of Tide after the first washing. I stuffed the cover with all our throw blankets. We have about 20. We love our throw blankets ; ) It is limp and squishy, a mere shadow of its once firm and puffy form. Just another manic Monday!

Guess who slept nestled behind my legs last night....Noel.

Stephen proof computer

I finally Stephen proofed the computer. Mine and my husband's sides of the computer are password protected and the only internet account the kids can access has parental controls. We have implemented a 1 hour timer to help him deal with having to get off the computer. It has made the transition easier every time he goes on the internet.

More sensory goodies and photos!

All messy activities are in the basement. Thank God for the wet/dry vac!

Believe it or not I did mop this floor once since we moved in a couple months ago but from the look of the dust on Stephen's pants I need to do it again! I finally organized the basement this weekend so it should be easier to get most of the floor. Any tips on keeping the concrete clean?

Stephen likes to feel the different textures in each box, clockwise from top-macaroni, beans and rice.

Stephen is enjoying the Shiatsu massager chair pad.

Cleaning up the rice!

The kids got to try out the rice box in the kitchen before I got the basement organized. Love the Dust Buster!!

The sensory room is complete!!

And behind curtain number 2.....

This is the "right" side of the curtain that faces our living room. These are black out curtains and really work well in blocking out the light. We hung it with a shower curtain tension rod.




The shoes had to stay. I tried to make them as inconspicuous as possible.




Totes with sensory goodies in them.

Ginormous ball pit with 2000 balls!

Balance board and broken computer desk chair. Stephen somehow broke the back piece within a week of purchase. It is great for spinning around on.

After recently completing my engineering degree I was finally able to put this marble race together. Denim ottoman from his glider set. It took up too much room in his room so I put it in the sensory room. It is great for rocking on.

Trampoline. He can't get enough of the one at school and doesn't want to go near this one!

With the lights off and rope light on. Has 8 different functions for different effects. PLEASE give me some suggestions on how to display this in a more appealing way! Keep in mind that I rent and don't want to put tons of holes in the walls. Screws are acceptable. Would love to do some sort of shape.

Lava lamp and Litecubes (freezable light cubes for drinks) These can flash (never will be used in this mode, too annoying) I took a much better picture of them but for some reason I am not able to drag any pictures in this post. I will have to post them separately.

The 3 nubby things are from the $1 store. The big red ball is awesome (Target)! It has some weight to it and is a little stiff but squeezable, my son loves it. They are all dog toys. The Spongebob flash light has little plates that can be put in it and can project the pictures on them.

Peg toy. Feels cool on your hand.

Various brushes. 2 on left are from $1 store.

Weighted cat I made out of an old Ty Beanie Buddy. Stuffed with taped snack bags of rice.