Thursday, July 28, 2016

Acceptance & Denial

It seems to me, that within the autism community there are two camps.

Camp Acceptance promotes awareness, understanding and of course acceptance. My child is different not less. This is the way she is and we are not going to change her. This camp has great empathy for people with autism, doesn't seek to change them and is not looking for a cure so much as looking for ways to support and accommodate those on the spectrum

Camp Denial are the fighters, seeking ever more therapies, supplements, tools and strategies to treat their loved ones autism. They google the same topics repeatedly looking for new answers. If you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism. They continually question and fight to deny autism's grip on their loved one.

My Tigerlily is still very young, only 6 years old and I am usually to be found in camp denial. There was a big response to a line I wrote in one of my early posts.

"  Now I'm waging war against the invisible enemy who steals my child's smiles and interrupts her dreams at night."

I would cure my little girls autism. I want a cure. I want her to be free from all the sensitivities, stims and difficulties that arise because of her autism. I want her to be able to drink a warm drink when she's cold. I want her to be able to move all the parts of her body at once and do a great doggy paddle across the pool. I want her to be able to sleep at a sleepover and fix all the things that autism wrecks. I've been fighting this battle for a few years and I've won and lost battles along the way but I am not ready to give up the fight.

Now some will argue that autism alone does not cause all the symptoms I'm describing. That its the comorbid diagnoses that go with autism. That an autistic mind is a beautiful mind and seeing the world differently is a gift etc. That if she wasn't autistic she wouldn't be my Tigerlily.

But the fact of the matter is that autism rarely comes to the party alone. She's that annoying friend who shows up at your birthday with her own little posse.
She brings along sleep disorders and gastrointestinal issues, eating disorders, OCD, ODD, ADHD, SPD, epilepsy, fragile X syndrome, Rett etc.

Tigerlily's HFA isn't travelling alone. Although I have not sought formal diagnosis its' a pretty reasonable hypothesis that she has SPD. I always expected the ADHD that runs in my family and I'm thinking she's leaning towards ODD. I don't know what benefit would be derived from having the additional diagnoses as I am already treating everything I can, anyway I can. I'm a fighter because
 without her autism she would just be Lily.


And if she was just Lily, I would still have the same hopes and dreams I had for her before she was diagnosed with autism.

The High functioning Life, some of us are better at accepting our fate than others.

HFL Mama

Coffee Now & Always

I love Coffee.

I drink a lot of coffee. I rarely drink less than 2 cups a day, by which I mean two big Tigger mugs full, and frequently I drink closer to 4 or 5. I have a coffee station in my kitchen. I always need a coffee.

I'm drinking one right now.

Coffee is a part of my identity,  the world rarely sees me, without one in hand. I post coffee memes on my FB and friends and family post them to my wall daily, coffee makes people think of me eh. In fact, one of my life goals involves coffee. I was 16 living in rural Quebec with family when my aunt asked me to think about what I wanted out of life, what my goals were etc. Of course I wanted to be a famous actress, but there were some very practical goals  too.

I wanted Timmies* every day.

Some of you might be laughing at that, but if you've ever been homeless or experienced real hunger, you'll understand that my coffee goal represented a lot more, than a need for caffeine. I managed to reach that goal (off and on) and all of my other goals as well. (except the famous actress bit). In fact I've been struggling to set new goals for myself as I have so many that I am working towards that are for Tiger,..... But back to coffee.

Coffee plays a big part in my life.

Tim Horton's donated to my baby shower, providing cups and boxes and giving my friends permission to use the logo. My buddy created this for me I kept it up in my house until we moved.


Thanks Alex.

My husband makes me a coffee each morning to get me out of bed, and I make him a coffee to go, for his long commute into work. Coffee says I love you.
If I know how you take your coffee, chances are I think you're swell.
When I haven't slept through the night in weeks but still need to get up and go, coffee.
When I've got the job done, coffee. If I need the motivation to start the job coffee. If I have a problem I want to mull over with you, let's go for coffee.

& When Tiger wants to be sweet to me she knows ....


The High Functioning Life, where the answer is always coffee.

HFL Mama.





*For my international readers Tim Horton's or Timmies is a chain of Coffe/Donut shops.


Monday, July 25, 2016

Sink or Swim

Today we had our first private swimming lesson.
Man I feel bad for her instructor.
Tiger was excited, and nervous and more than a little stimmy. Jump, jump, jump, jump, jump, jump.

I have to be honest I was laughing so hard from the bench.
Tiger never stopped the whole lesson.
Chatter chatter chatter, jump jump jump
Can I do this, watch me do this, I wanna do this.

In true Tiger fashion she ran the whole show.
The lifeguard assigned to teach her looked a little stunned. I'll be honest here I
LMAO, it was so fun to watch Tiger run them ragged, instead of me. There were literally tears running down my face I was laughing so hard, it was so funny. About halfway through the lesson another instructor came to help.

I never said I was a nice person.

It was amazing though. Tiger could do way more than I thought.
This is our third attempt at level one swimming.
Tiger can retrieve stuff from the bottom of the pool (shallow end)
She can hold her breath, and open her eyes under water.
She can push off from the wall
Front float.
She can swim after a fashion its obvious there is some motor planning issues going on there.
she has difficulty with being on her back. My child has almost no body fat so she don't float folks.

Maybe because she had the whole pool to herself and 2 instructors by the end of her lesson, but she really gave 110% to her swimming today. we had to end early as she was frozen and exhausted. She was so determined to impress them and be able to go down the slide.

I bought her the bad candy, I was so proud of her and frankly she could use the extra calories.

She won't nap but she might lay around for a bit.
 The High Functioning Life, it's sinking while swimming folks.

HFL Mama

Friday, July 22, 2016

HFA Captured On Film



Autism, A Photo.
 
This is the best picture of HFA I have.
Can you see all the signs of autism here?
 
There's 6 on display.
 
1. lack of eye contact
2. sensory seeking behaviour (climbing on table to be up high)
3. Stimming just look at those twisty fingers.
4. Unusual fixation on objects, dice are cool.
5. Repetitive Behaviours sorting, stacking and lining dice up for hours
6. Toe walking, Ok. this one is you can't really tell in a picture. But she was, I swear.
 
It is just a perfect picture of HFA.
 
In this photo Tiger has just finished "playing" with a box of dice. It's probably not clear enough to tell in the photo, but the dice are all sorted out according to size and number of sides. She liked the mini square dice the best, so they got a line to themselves. She "played" with them for hours, stacking and sorting them different ways, she had so much "fun" that Daddybear gave her his collection of dice. She still pulls them out and sorts them on bad days now. This photo was taken a couple years ago, but it's one of the ones that sticks with me. I have other photos of Tiger sorting, stacking and lining stuff up. The Christmas I received a Keurig ( All Hail Fast Coffee) she ignored her new toys to sort the K-cups.
 
Tiger is awesome at sorting stuff. but somehow that skill hasn't made it to clean vs dirty clothes?
 
The High Functioning Life, where we don't build with Lego, so much as we sort it out by colour and number of bumps.
 
HFL Mama
 
 

Monday, July 18, 2016

Following The Script, What's my Line?

Maybe one day Tigerlily will be a famous director.
The kid loves to stage and script her play, her imaginative play is awesome.
She loves to set the scene and walk you through the storyline. Tiger will tell you exactly what she wants you to do in her little dramas, which is fine when she's playing with me or another adult.
It doesn't work so well with other kids. Well that's not strictly true, some kids are just awesome little people who instinctively alter their play to include Tiger.

Anyways, we have a playdate today and I'm a little worried about how it will go. You see, yesterday Tiger got a new hairbrush, and she has been scripting her dialogue about how she is going to tell her little friend about it.

Example: Name, like my new hairbrush? It's almost the exact same as yours except it is round and yours is square and you've picked some of the crystals off the back and mine are all there and I could have got the exact same but then I would have duplicated yours.

For hours last night Tiger rehearsed versions of this little speech. She was creating dialogues, about her trip to the dollar store, her hairbrush, her toys, pets etc.. She practices with her little dollies and will have the dolls supply the appropriate answers to her questions.

  She tends to plan encounters and when they don't go as planned, she doesn't know what to do. Again this is probably my fault, a behaviour we taught, inadvertently.

We/I taught Tiger how to introduce herself. We practiced the scenarios.She's been taught how to make requests, politely with eye contact. This was an ABA goal, there was a lot of practicing.
We've practiced meeting kids in the park, how to initiate play, how to take turns (still working on that one). In other words,
 in an effort to make socializing easier for Tigerlily, we have  created a new issue to work on. Or maybe this is just a normal part of her autism, the need for structure and routine in all aspects of her life, what do I know, not enough, obviously. Hopefully one day she will be self aware enough, that she can explain it all to me.

Then, there is the issue of other kids.... who have not been taught, or don't care to follow social rules. I can't even begin to describe the heartache that comes from watching my little Tiger bravely approach new kids, introduce herself, or ask to play only to be met with silence and blank stares, or ignored altogether. It's happened so many times *sigh*. Thankfully Tigerlily doesn't usually take these rejections to heart. Sometimes she will just repeat herself and that will get her a response and sometimes she will just walk away when they don't respond, but sometimes, she comes tearfully to me.

Leaving me to explain, that not everyone is friendly, that we cannot make people play or talk to us, and that we can only control ourselves and not other people. That she is not at fault for their behaviour, and that sometimes even when we are friendly and kind, other people won't be.

A hard lesson to have to teach my six year old. Sometimes I just don't have the words and so I just hold her and then ask her to play with me.

Thankfully todays playmates know my Tiger well, and they will play nice, even if they don't follow the script.

The High Functioning Life, excuse me director, but can I have a copy of the script...Please.


HFL Mama


Friday, July 15, 2016

Facing The Day

Ok this is anther post about me, not Tigerlily.

I don't want to face today.
This mornings news is heartbreaking.
There were 10 kids killed at a fireworks show in Nice, France by a madman driving a truck, in total he killed something like 120 people and injured a lot more.
The 5 yr old girl in Calgary... well the amber alert has been cancelled, they found her body.
Another article about a couple who killed a 5 yr old boy going to trial.
Pro Life Protesters using very large, and very graphic images spark outrage amongst parents of small children who see the images.
I found out yesterday that there are almost 50 Thousand kids in foster care in Canada.
On another front I saw a brilliant attack ad against Trump that showed small children watching all his hate speech, that followed with our children are listening, then switched to Hillary who in contrast looks and sounds like a complete saint, with her talk of working together.

Maybe it's the lack of sleep, maybe it was the immediate onslaught of craptacular news, but I'm not really feeling up to facing the world today, and yet I have to, and not only do I have to, but Tiger has to come along.

It's going to be a very long day.

I need to go to the bank, post office, grocery, pet, dollar store, and all with an unwilling Tiger in tow. We need to drive into a larger town too, so there is 90 minutes of truck involved.  So I already know there will be screaming, there will be whining, possibly a melt down.  I have to brave several parking lots with her, will she bolt? While we are shopping I will need to let go of her hand to pick something up or push the cart and when I do, what will happen?

I've already put this trip off twice this week because Tiger is so resistant to going anywhere lately.
I don't blame her,  I know its not her fault, I know she's only 6. I know her discomfort is real.

Can you feel my anxiety building?

I think I'll have another coffee before facing the day.


The High Functioning Life, it's just another day, we'll get through it.

HFL Mama


Sidenote: We didn't make it to the grocery store as Tiger made it quite clear that she was done for the day in between the bank and post office.





Thursday, July 14, 2016

For The Love Of Food Colouring



Tiger loves food colouring.

I don't get it, but there it is. Any craft or activity that involves the food colouring is a winner.
The stuff can stain anything, and my dining room chairs are ruined but what's furniture compared to a child's joy.

We do colour experiments and we've done lots of different art experiences with the stuff and I just tell myself that it's the experiences she will remember, not how many times mommy flinched when she had the bottles in her hot little paws.

Today I messed the experience up. I should actually read the little articles attached to the pins I save eh, if I had I would know we were supposed to be making a sun catcher. I should have been using a plastic lid so we could peel it off when it dried.

 Instead we just painted on white glue. We will for sure do the experience again to make the sun catcher, but I thought this was just cool looking. Not as cool as the milk painting... but still pretty cool.

I'm straying from my original thoughts though. I just can't get over how expensive all her arts and crafts stuff is getting. Today I paid 6 bucks for food colouring.

Did I mention I'm not working right now?


The High Functioning Life, they'll remember the experiences.




Saturday, July 9, 2016

Well Hello There

Hey Peoples,

I started this little blog to share my experiences and sound off about what's going on in Tigerland and apparently there's a lot more people who can relate than I thought.
There is actually people on the other side of the world reading my blog?!?

Why is this surprising to me?

Well my Tigerlily is a GIRL, yeah I know pretty obvious, but the number of girls with ASD is much lower than boys and the severity of the symptoms is also generally on the lighter side of the spectrum.
A lot of the time that makes me feel invisible. Well until today, when I saw how many views I've had.

So I just wanted to say Hello there, and Thank-you for hearing me. I needed the boost today as it's a bad day in Tigerland. There has been much rage and crying and you guessed it screaming in my house today. Thankfully Daddybear is home, and I've tagged him in. He's found a movie to distract the wee beastie from her frustration and it's kinda working. I'm still hearing a lot of noise but its less rage filled and more squealy spazzy in nature... must be a good movie.

So I'm just going to sit here and marvel at the numbers a little bit and you guessed it, drink a coffee.


The High Functioning Life, there's more of us living it everyday.


HFL Mama

Friday, July 8, 2016

I Scream & You Scream , & Tiger Screams Because Of Ice Cream.

This is a food post people.
Food the never ending story, battle, struggle, problem.
It's July and it is HOT. Time for some ice cream

HOLD UP!!

We can't just go get an ice cream.
Why??  Because a lot of ice cream is not actually ice cream :(
It's a frozen dessert,
It's modified milk ingredients
It's every kind of fake sugar and preservative and chemical shite you can name.

Poor Tigerlily can't eat DQ, MC D's soft serve, a frosty or most ice creams, frozen desserts and treats.
I don't know what chemical they are using, or if it is just the modified milk ingredients or what, but something in the frozen desserts out there is not good for my baby girl. She suffers manic fits after the bad stuff, and I say suffers because she the wild movements and flailing always result in injury. The stuff interferes with her sleep which makes the next day a bad day and usually involves more injuries.

The doc chalks it up to chemical sensitivities and the solution of course is to not let her eat the stuff.
So we search out the good stuff, Canadian stuff, Chapmans, Kawartha Dairy etc. The stuff where you read Cream as the first ingredient in ice cream.

But it sucks. I feel terrible denying the little one the bright coloured rocket popsicle she so desperately wants, the bright pink ice cream with sprinkles, the funny yogourt pop shaped like a ghost.

& sometimes I just give in. I don't want her to feel deprived.
I don't want her to remember her childhood as a series of Sorry Tiger you can't have that.
Image result for ice cream meme

Yesterday I let her have some of Gramma's ice cream. & it was ice cream Gramma knows the deal but it also had modified milk ingredients, & some modified sugars.
Which seriously modified Tigers' behavior and sleep.

It's 9 am and she's still in bed, because she was up most of the night.

Maybe Tiger n I will make ice cream in a bag today so I'll know exactly what's in it.


The High Functioning Life, where we read the labels or suffer the consequences.


HFL Mama

 




Thursday, July 7, 2016

Public-Private-Home & Mama Needs Schooling

 
Tigerlily is very smart.
 
We were in her specialists office, the doc and I were discussing weight gain issues when out of nowhere Tiger said "it's on the left"
The doc asked her what's on the left, but got no response, but before I could intervene she gave me the hand and walked over to Tiger and asked to see the book Tiger was holding.
Sure enough there was a single question on the page.
 
Where is the balloon?
 
It was on the left people.
 
She was 2 at the time.
 
An I.Q. test was scheduled. She did well, actually as the questions got harder, her percentages improved. She's no savant, but Tiger is smarter than me. Of course being her father's daughter I always assumed she would be, & I was right (win for me). Along with therapy, I was also teaching my little Tiger and she learned very quickly and once she started speaking again the extent of her learning was hard to miss.  So I have proof that homeschooling worked or works? for Tiger.
 
 
Flash forward and Tiger starts public school.
Complete Disaster, culminating in Tiger suffering a regression. Losing 30% of her bodyweight and self injuring. Her entire personality changed, to the point that I wonder if she doesn't have ODD.
 If you want a good cry see post Pain and Suffering A Lesson Plan.
 
So I know a standard classroom, even with supports, doesn't work for Tiger. Her sensitivities are too great.  She couldn't cope with all the movement, light and noise and that was just in the classroom. At recess, well if you saw what I saw, you would do my goose impression too.
 
Sniff*
 
After public came private school. The private school was and is awesome. They adjusted her curriculum day by day to match her abilities. The ratio was 1 teacher to 8 students!!, & she has never attempted to leave her little school ever, not even once. However, she still fights about going to school each day, we still have meltdowns after school, from exhaustion mostly. The effects of the public school debacle are still very evident. Tiger is now tough to engage, if she is not interested, she is not doing it. She hasn't recovered her fine motor skills and she isn't an easy going cooperative kid.
She negotiates and debates about her workload and flat out refuses to be tested. She spent most mornings in grade one and most afternoons in SK. She is ready for grade 2 math but she is not performing to her capabilities in any other subject. Tigerlily is only 6 so repeating grade 1 full day was the plan for this fall but...... I'm questioning if that is the best course for her.  She is still dramatically underweight, still gets sick really easily and recovers slowly. she missed 30 days of school that's more than a months tuition gone, and well special schools come with special price tags.
So research has begun and oh boy there are lots of options.
 
We've eliminated public school for obvious reasons.
Private is still an option, we love her school but how long can we afford it.
Homeschooling has worked in the past but with her current attitude toward learning I'm not sure if I'm strong enough or patient enough, even if she's asking to be homeschooled.
A combination
Private Tutor
Unschooling
 
It's all a little daunting, and straying from the mainstream is scary in and of itself.
 
Daddybear thinks that we need to back off while she is still little perhaps De-school her before making any decisions about her future educational path. He thinks that with all the therapy and school that she has been subjected to too much pressure to perform. It's true that Tiger has had to work a lot harder than most kids. I'm so proud of her progress, but have I pushed her too hard?  There is a lot of therapy scheduled this summer, most kids get to play all summer.....
 
So I dunno what I'm doing here. Maybe we'll let the psychologist weigh in before we decide.
 
 
The High Functioning Life, there's lots of choices to be made but don't worry, they only affect the ones you love most in the world.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Monday, July 4, 2016

Pain & Suffering, A Lesson Plan.




I have to tell this in story format or I'll start doing my goose impression and be unable to complete this post. I really failed my Tiger here. I made mistake, after mistake, after mistake and ultimately Tiger paid a heavy price for my inability to surrender or give up on my dreams for her.
Warning this post is very long, you might want a cup of tea and some Kleenex.

I'm scarfing a chocolate bar and drinking a BIG cup of coffee.

Once upon a time there was a little girl diagnosed with high functioning autism.
Luckily she was diagnosed very young and responded wonderfully to therapy.
The little girl made remarkable progress and was deemed ready for school early.
She was doing so well, it was suspected she was gifted.

The little girl had to wait until the following year to start school, but still things were going very well, so well in fact, that the little girl was discharged from most of her therapies and her mama was able to go back to work.

The little girl continued doing wonderfully in her daycare.
She knew her letters, numbers,shapes,colours, could print her name. The little girl was counting, skip counting and even doing a little bit of addition. Her care provider ran a lovely and quiet daycare with only a few children and a great routine. She worked with the little girl on her fine motor skills while the other kids napped, and the little girl continued to improve.

There were obviously still issues, the little one was still a major flight risk. She still had meltdowns and bad days where she wasn't mobile. The little girl struggled with her sensitivities to lights and sounds. Her abilities still varied by day, hour, minute! The little one was still up every single night, but her mama had adjusted (given up on ever sleeping 8 hours ever again). Most importantly, the little girl was happy and healthy and eager to learn new things. She loved doing experiments and exploring new concepts, especially math related.

The parents consulted her specialist and therapists and  researched schools and finally decided on a French immersion program, very close to mama's work. The mama had always wanted that for her child and since the girl was so smart and had already completed the kindergarten program in English it was hoped that the immersion program would keep her from getting bored and stagnating.

It was also secretly hoped that she would be the only ASD in her class and or program and thus have less competition for EA hours and supports and also be surrounded by bright "normal" children to emulate.

Even though her parents had done everything they could to prepare both her and the school for her arrival, found after school care within walking distance of the school.
Attending meetings
Sharing treatment and therapy information
Providing documentation
Requesting an EA
Alerting the school to her flight risk, sensitivities and challenges.
Making visits prior to school starting
Providing materials and a proximity alarm system for her and her EA to use etc.

It didn't go well.

Well that's not strictly true, on her orientation days where only half the class was present and the day was short, the little girl did just fine. The first 2 weeks she had an EA check in with her periodically. The school withdrew EA hours since the little girl seemed to fit into the new routine just fine.


Then full class and full day started.

The little girl started having meltdowns about going to school every morning.
When her mommy would pick her up from after school care the little girl would fall apart, screaming and flailing in her carseat until she passed out from exhaustion.

The after school care provider quit, she couldn't handle the little girl.

The little girl walked out of the kinderyard one morning, passed by countless adults and headed down the street. Only the fact that her mama looked back and saw her on the street saved her from being a statistic.

It got worse with meltdowns moving into the classroom. The little girl escaping from her classroom and being found in the gym, the library the school hall and trying to get out the front doors.
Mama went to countless meetings, trying to get more help for her little girl.
She gave her long awaited ABA sessions to the school.
She sent Erin Oaks and Kerry's place to do school assessments.
The school wanted to backtrack to using pecs,
The little girl attacked another child when they took completed items off her pecs board.
She was sent home.

The little girl was changing, the happy, eager little bunny was becoming a miserable and angry kid.

The little girl managed to get into another childs lunch and ate a fruit roll up.
The school called as the resulting manic fit required physical restraints, and the little girl ended up at the hospital due to an extended racing heart beat. (The little girls system couldn't handle the Tartrazine and chemicals in the candy).

The little girl kept catching viruses she was sick every month.

The mama had to go part time so she could take the little girl directly to her class and pick her up from there because the little girl was trying to leave the schoolyard everyday. This seemed to help.

& then it didn't.

The little girl started self injuring.

More meetings, with the school, with the school board, with Kerry's place, with Erin Oaks with her specialist, with a psychologist.

Then one day the mama's boss said something that made the mama stop fighting.

She said " You can't make a square peg fit in a round hole".


The mama pulled the little girl out of school.

In less than 5 months the little girl had gone from happy, healthy and engaged to angry, sick, miserable and uninterested in learning. She was down to 24 lbs. She had lost her tri-grip, her sight words and reading, her stims had become more pronounced and she was self injuring. the specialist said it was a mild regression, but 18 months later we still haven't recovered.

I'll never forgive myself for not seeing the truth of the matter and changing course sooner.

I wanted so badly for Tiger to have and do all the things she would do if she were "normal" that I fought for that dream much harder and longer than if I had just stepped back and accepted that Tigerlily is a diamond and as such she deserves better than to be forced into some cookie cutter mold.

So we sold our house and Tiger moved over to a private school that is just perfect for her.

She's never attempted to leave.


The High Functioning Life, there's no going back, and we can't fix the past but we can always do better.

Lesson Learned


HFL Mama














Sunday, July 3, 2016

So Much To Say, Eh!

Whew, there has been a lot happening in Tigerland lately.

First off, the switchover to natural gas is complete. They completed the project in just two days.
It was great, and Tiger was great. Mostly she hid in her room, she wore her headphones and when that didn't work, we went outside. When the workmen came outside to drill, we went inside and when the smell was yucky, we went to the backyard, it was a lot of in and outs, but there were no meltdowns and that's just awesome.

Oh and Tiger is really digging the air conditioning, getting some more sleep around here.
Happy Happy, Joy Joy Dancing all around the place.

Amazingly the government of Ontario has reversed its decision to end IBI at age 5 !!
My sister in-law and I both cried when we heard the news. The relief I feel knowing that therapy will be available should Tiger suffer another regression is just so immense, I have no words and I might start honking like a goose if I keep thinking about it, so lets move on. More great news...
Tiger is being allowed to access ABA out of area, which is simply awesome, saving us a ton of money in gas and hours of screaming in the car.

To all of you who campaigned, signed petitions, emailed, called, hash tagged and protested along with us, let me say Thank-you. No matter how small your act of support was, it made a difference and the officials we elected heard your voice as well as mine. To our elected officials I say Thank-you for listening and reevaluating your position. I'm so proud to be a Canadian right now.

Speaking of being a Canadian. We ended up having a much larger than expected celebration.
We have more friends than I thought, and even though it rained on Friday  we still had a great time. We just extended the party, straight through till late Saturday night.

Tiger only had  a few meltdowns on Friday and Saturday.  Admittedly I had a lot of help pulling this off. My BFF basically runs the show when she's here, for which I am eternally grateful, and my in-laws took on most of Tiger watch, which makes it possible for me to relax and have some fun. & boy did I have fun, I had 2 mixed drinks people... 2!!!!


The High Functioning Life, where we don't get out much, but we still know how to party.

HFL Mama