October Catch Up at The Zoo

This month I’ve let my Talbert Zoo readers down and I apologize. It’s been a few weeks since I last updated this blog. October is nearly over and I still am not used to my family’s school schedule yet. It’s been a busy, crazy couple of months. I’ll try my best to catch you all up on the happenings at The Talbert Zoo.

Monkey and Bear October 2013

Goose is now a junior in high-school and sometimes I can not believe that she is that old. School has been tough for her this year and she is failing two of her classes. Because she has ASD ( Autism Spectrum Disorder, formally Aspberger’s) she is very disorganized. Her poor grades are due to her lack of organization and the fact that she forgets to turn in assignments. I want her to succeed in school, but with eleven missing assignments already I am terrified that she may not graduate high school. But I need to remain positive and continue to help her when I can.

Kitty recently got glasses and she looks so darn cute! Before her glasses she would get headaches when she read, watched television or stared at a computer screen for a long time. We found out that she is far-sighted and the glasses are really helping. She was having trouble with reading this year and we thought the glasses would help, but it’s her own stubbornness that is causing her to fall behind in reading. Getting Kitty to sit down and read a book is like pulling teeth. I think she just dislikes reading. Her trichotillomania (compulsive hair pulling) hasn’t gotten any better with her glasses either. She just plucks her eyelashes so we thought having the glasses as a barrier would prevent her from plucking as often. But she is strong-willed and stubborn. When she wants to pluck Kitty will go into the bathroom, climb on the counter, take her glasses off and intentionally pull her eyelashes out. Her therapist thinks the trichotillomania is anxiety related and should be treated with medication. I am not ready to medicate my little princess, but if that is what it is going to take to get her to stop plucking, then I do not have a choice.

Parrot joined Cub Scouts this year and he absolutely loves it. They meet on Thursday nights and I’ve attended every single meeting. His den leader is trying to set up a field trip to a fire station, but I haven’t heard when that is going to take place. They are also selling popcorn, but Chris and I are terrible at fund raisers. Needless to say, Parrot has not sold a single can of popcorn. I sure hope he doesn’t get upset because we did not participate in the popcorn sale. There is always next year.

Monkey is in soccer this fall and they have one more game before the season comes to a close. Watching little four-year-olds play soccer is really entertaining. I am sure going to miss it when it is over. They wear light blue jerseys and their team name is The Sharks. I am proud to say that I came up with that name! The Sharks are undefeated too. Besides playing soccer, Monkey has also been playing girl and he wants to do everything Mom and Dad do, by himself. Every day he goes into Kitty’s room and puts on her clothes. He even wears her night gowns to bed. I don’t know if I should laugh or cry when I think about Monkey cross-dressing. I shouldn’t worry about it, but I do anyway. He is a boy, although his favorite toy is a baby doll. Maybe I should be a little concerned. Naa, he’ll outgrow this, right? Now I am skeptical. Only time will tell.

Little Bear finally mastered the potty this month. He’s a big boy now. I feel a little sad knowing that my youngest is growing up. But at the same time, I am proud and excited because I do not have to buy diapers or pull ups any more. I am also enjoying spending quality time with my little guy. Monkey goes to preschool on Tuesdays and Thursdays which leaves me home alone with Bear all day long. It is so nice to sit around a quiet house when the kids are at school. I’m also getting a lot more work and housework done on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I’ve been spending more time on my other websites too. I finally launched the blogging opportunity at healthymomsmedia.com. With all the clients piling up in my social media business I thought it would be nice to share the love with my blogging friends. I’m also spending more time on Healthy Moms Social. I upgraded that site and am trying my best to get more people to participate. It time for my little plug: Have you joined Healthy Moms Social yet?

My social media following isn’t as large as it should be. I am extremely frustrated because I’ve been on twitter for five years now and facebook for about the same but I have less than 10,000 followers on both sites. Never give up, right? I think I finally figured out how to grow my twitter account but it is so time consuming and tedious. My goal is to have 10,000 twitter followers by the end of the year. I need 7,000 more for that to happen. Never give up, never give up!