Sunday Post with Berls | Week of April 3rd 2022

Week of April 3rd 2022

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kim @ Caffeinated Reviewer. It’s a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog and showcase books and things we have received. Share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.

News at Home

Sunday

Today was productive and I’m happy with how much I got done. Dante woke up around 6:30 crying – but I saw that he was tossing his blankets around on the baby cam and realized he was having trouble finding his Elephant Luvy. So I went in, gave him Elephant and he was back to sleep until almost 8. We did breakfast and I took care of some reading plans for April. Then I was off to get groceries – took me longer than expected because I had 4 stops. First, Walmart pickup. Then I went in to Aldi – prices are cheaper I discovered if you go in, rather than order for pickup. Then I went to Target – returned some fruit pouches Dante wont eat because of the packaging – and bought a few items. Then I had to stop at the other Target for things the first one didn’t have (I have two within 5 minutes of me; in fact all these grocery stores are within 5 minutes). Then car wash and home. I cleaned the fridge and started meal prep – before I was done it was time for our COYER Readalong chat, which is always fun. By time we finished I was about done with meal prep. Then Kiko took Dante to ride his tricycle (it has a handle that Kiko can push) and I put away laundry, did blogging for the week, and setup my BUJO for the week. We did dinner, clean up, and I watched my nutrition lesson for this week – I’m 12 weeks into the program! Wow! After bath Dante threw up (wrong order Dante lol) but we think he just ate too much, he seems otherwise fine. *fingers crossed* So I had to pull out the spot cleaner for the carpet – best investment ever! And now I’m off to bed! Ready for the week and feeling good 🙂

Monday

6.5 hours of sleep last night. Not bad but slipping into bad sleep habits again! Determined to get back on track tonight. This morning I tried to add a little Apple Cider Vinegar to my morning routine because of its amazing benefits – but it immediately resulted in pretty strong stomach pain, followed by feeling warm, and then my stomach hurt off and on all day. I asked my nutritionist about it and she confirmed that this is not how my body should respond and I should definitely not do it again. She said that she wouldn’t even recommend I try any of the pill/gummy forms; this is often a signal of an ulcer – in my case she thinks it’s actually just a consequence of my gastric bypass causing stomach scarring/thin membrane (? I may be remembering words wrong). Anyway that was a failed attempt. Now to figure out what to do with this bottle of Apple Cider…

Beyond that, I was busy with work, bootcamp, and a workout throughout the day. I also did a bit of chores I had intended to do this weekend but had run out of time. I did some more reading this evening and I think we’re a couple days away from being able to start doing focused work with Dante. He also has his Audiologist appointment tomorrow and I can’t even describe my mix of emotions. On one hand, if he has a hearing problem it could explain a lot of his delays… but not all of them I don’t think. Plus, then he’d have a hearing problem! I guess basically it’s about knowing what he needs, getting it, and not worrying one way or the other about how we feel about it. Anyway, getting myself put together for bed and that much needed 7 hours sleep!

Tuesday

I took today off as part of my new self-care / goal rewards plan. This was a day off I “earned” for meeting my goals in February. I woke up like normal (after 7 hours sleep!) and did my morning routine and then Dante was up. I fed him, since he had his audiologist/ear-nose-throat appointment today. We had about an hour after breakfast before the appointment, so I got him ready, got myself ready and let him play while I did some reading. We left at 9:15 for his 9:30 appointment (6 mins away). The appointment went pretty well. They are really setup well for kids – they put us in this room (kind of like you see on tv for recording studios) and they would make sounds or say something to him through a speaker. If he looked at the correct speaker, a box above it would light up with toys inside that would dance. Oh he was giggling and having a blast! They did have to do an examination which was harder, but they made everything else so painless that it was an easy appointment. The result was as expected – his hearing is fine. I’m not surprised and honestly, now that I’ve really started to read up on Autism I see so many other things beyond his delayed speech that a hearing impediment wouldn’t have really been the answer anyway; it would have been an additional problem I think.

After his appointment I dropped him at daycare, stopped for gas and went to the dollar tree for a couple items I still needed for his “table time” (the at home therapy I’m hoping to start really soon. When I got home I took Buffy for a walk and finished my audiobook. Then I lay down on the couch and read until I finished my eBook. I wrote my reviews for both, did a little bootcamp work, finished the final pieces for Dante’s table time supplies and then it was time to pick Dante up from daycare. When I got to daycare Dante was crying and had been for about an hour they said. 🙁 He was tired they think, as he kept stopping crying and lying down. He didn’t nap until the las 15 minutes of nap time, when all the other kids woke up and woke him up. He was fussy when I got home too, but after he ate, he was much happier, and we had a nice evening. I finished reading the chapter I needed to read before I could start table time with Dante – so I plan to get started tomorrow. It’s a slow process at first, but I’m hoping since he’s already been in therapy, he will maybe take to it quickly.

Today was exactly what I needed. I had a few more things I had hoped to accomplish but instead I really just gave myself some recharge time and it was so nice. I’m starting to schedule these more often and I think it will be great. And now to make sure I get to bed on time for those 7 hours of sleep again!

Wednesday

Overall, today was a good day. I started setting up my time blocks on my google calendar each night (with repeating for my routines in the morning and evening), so that I have a more intentional plan for the day. I think it was helpful and I was a bit more focused. Today was truly a balance of work and bootcamp – I was busy with both. I also spent some more time going over Dante’s “table time” routine to start tonight. And it went REALLY WELL. The first step is to get him willingly coming to the table where we’ll be learning. So you choose reinforcers that they love, but also aren’t obsessed with. Well I used Cheetos. The fat girl in me hates the food reinforcement, but the momma who really wants to help her baby learn essential skills feels like we’ll worry about that later. He came and sat, no problem. And they say to see if you can get them to stay at the table (without any type of force) for 3 minutes. Well we stayed at the table for about 10 minutes! We even did some practice with pointing and manding. I’m feeling super hopeful! I know it’s only 1 day but it’s a positive start.

Kiko’s mom is in town from Mexico – first time since COVID – so he went to his brother’s after work to see her for the first time in 2 years. That meant it was me and Dante solo tonight. We did well, but I did miss him. He usually has dinner ready for Dante when I get home with him from pickup – but since he was gone, I started dinner before I left and then turned the burner off while I went to get him, so that it would be warm but not hot when I got home. Turned out perfect (phew!). After dinner we did our table time, started to sit on the balcony and since it was BEAUTIFUL out decided to take Dante for a walk. I got his tricycle and Buffy all ready and then we went downstairs and walked 2 big laps of the apartment (took us about 30-45 minutes?). Dante had a blast and when we got back I let him have his tablet for a bit while I took care of some evening tasks. Then it was bath time, got him ready for bed. He’s playing just a bit now – I finished cleaning up kitchen and getting my vitamins. And in a minute I’m putting him and myself to bed! I ran out of time to reply to comments tonight, but all things considered I think I did pretty well.

Thursday – Saturday

Whelp I struggled to keep up the rest of the week I guess! It wasn’t bad just busy. I was in the office on Thursday and very busy the whole day. I did manage to call the developmental pediatrician and manage to move Dante’s appointment up to May 10th (almost a full month earlier thanks to a cancelation). Makes me feel better to know we’ll be a little bit closer to getting him the help he needs. I had to stop at my brother’s after work (which is my standard anyway) because they are out of town and I’m taking care of Commadore (their cat). While I was there, I did some of my bootcamp work. When I headed out, I called Kiko and he was already at his brother’s to see his mom again. Which I totally understand… but it meant another night in single mom mode. And since I was coming from Phil’s I didn’t have time to get dinner ready in advance. So Dante had McDonald’s for dinner. And we did table time again, he lasted the full 15 minutes and loved the added reinforcer of bubbles (which I’m happy for so that we don’t have to rely too much on the bubbles). Kiko made it home in time for bedtime today too, which was nice.

Friday was incredibly busy. I was in meetings basically all day. I took a call around 1:30 and used it as my chance to drive over to my brother’s apartment to take care of his cat. I got off the call around 2:30 and spent the next hour rushing through a few tasks that had to be wrapped up before I left at 3:30 to meet a friend for drinks (which we had planned on for 3 weeks already!). It was great to see her and catch up – we talked about Dante’s situation, and she was very encouraging. And I got dinner to-go from that restaurant for us. We had a good evening – Kiko was home (he’s on call starting tonight for the next week, so he’ll be staying home) and we did our table time again. Since Dante is having no trouble coming to the table and staying there – happily runs to it when I tell him it’s table time and show him the bubbles and Cheetos, actually – I introduced some actual skill learning today with this shoebox method from the book/videos I’ve been studying. She said that the act of putting cards into the shoebox was a reinforcer in itself for kids and boy was she right. Dante absolutely loves putting cards into the shoebox. So much so that we stayed at the table for 30 minutes. And he said “moo” for a cow, several times!! Later Friday night, Kiko was playing with him and said “blue” and Dante said “boo” a couple times. I hope it’s a positive sign that with some consistency he’s learning to echo and mand! I had some bootcamp work to do and stayed up much too late – BUT I fixed my code, so I was ready for bootcamp workshop Saturday morning.

I technically could have slept in this morning (Saturday), but my body woke up at 6:30 and I gave up sleeping by 6:45. I did some more reading in my Turning Autism Around book, a really good chapter with some things I need to try and implement for Dante with eating pickiness. Kiko was up at 7:45 because he told me (and I assume found out) yesterday that they have an inspection on Monday so he had to work this morning to get ready. Which meant I got to do the bootcamp workshop while taking care of Dante thing. Dante was up right at 8, so we did breakfast and had some time to play before bootcamp began at 9am. This is our first week in a new area – React Native. I was a bit hesitant because we had such a crappy teacher for the last section – React – but this instructor is FANTASTIC. Yay! I was slightly distracted today, but Dante mostly played really well by himself or sitting in my lap. Of course, he did have not one, but TWO poo diapers I had to change during class. Because, of course. But really bootcamp went well. Kiko was done for the day around the time we finished bootcamp. Again… because, of course. LOL! We did lunch and I did my meal plan and grocery order. Then I took Dante on our long walk to the park. We played for a bit and he fell asleep on the walk back to the car. I transferred him to his car seat and he didn’t wake up. So when I got home I just sat in the car and listened to an audiobook for about 30 minutes. Then Kiko came and got him (that way if he woke up, he had about 1.5 hour nap already) and I went to my brother’s to take care of Commadore – they’ll be back tomorrow, so this is the last day. While I was gone, Kiko got a call, so I had to rush home. Dante was just waking up when I got home and we did dinner, followed by another really good table time session. 15 minutes of really good focused attention. He said momma but when I was pointing to bubbles, so we have work lol. But any talking feels positive.

I also found out today that tomorrow we’ll be visiting my mother-in-law and my brother-in-law’s and then she’ll be coming home with us to stay for a few days. So I have to find a way to get all my Sunday chores done early tomorrow. And be ready for a visitor. And I have to get a little bit of bootcamp work done, not to mention we have a wedding shower at work on Monday that I have some work to do for. So tomorrow is going to be super busy. However, my in-laws all speak Spanish fairly exclusively so I may get to relax a bit and get some reading done in-between playing with Dante while we’re visiting. It’s just before and after that will be crazy.

Blog News

Last week on Because Reading

• [4 Apr] It’s Monday! What Berls is Reading April 4th 2022
• [5 Apr] Tell Me Something Tuesday: Spring Reads
• [6 Apr] The Better To See You by Kate SeRine ★★★★★
• [7 Apr] Destined for an Early Grave by Jeaniene Frost ★★★★
• [8 Apr] Last Guard by Nalini Singh ★★★★★
• [9 Apr] #MyTBRList Results and Linky: April 2022
• [10 Apr] Sunday Post with Berls | Week of April 3rd 2022
• [10 Apr] The Sunday Post ~ Well that took longer than expected ~ Week in READview! 2022

Challenge update

This week I finished:

I’m participating in 7 Challenges, plus the Goodreads Challenge, this year. Here’s how I’m doing.

1. COYER Seasons & COYER Community 2022 –
   1. Winter – 22 books (final count for Winter)
   2. Spring – 6 books
2. Bookish Resolutions – This was a challenge that Michelle used to do without me and she took last year off. This year we’re bringing it back together. Details on post, but basically I’m setting 5 “bookish” goals for the year: Here are my goals:
   1. Blog ahead at least 1 week. So far, managing to stay 1 week ahead.
   2. Keep a blogging planner. Since changing how I’m using it, this is going really well.
   3. Visit & comment on 7 posts a week. I managed to visit on 3 days this week, so I managed to visit at least 7 posts.
   4. Reply to comments each week. I did not manage to do that most this week 🙁
   5. Review books before starting a new book/on the same day –
3. The Backlist Reader Challenge –  15/50 books
4. 2022 Audiobook Challenge –  31/75 books
5. 2022 Library Love Challenge –  8/24 books
6. 2022 Finishing the Series Challenge – My goal is 5 series.
   • In Progress:
     1. Mine by Cynthia Eden- read book 4 this year, still need to read 5 and 6.
   • Completed:
     1. The Ivy Chronicles by Sophie Jordan – read books 2 and 3 this year, finishing the series.

FitReaders (hosted by Jen @ That’s What I’m Talking About & Felicia The Geeky Blogger)

My big goal for 2022 is to lose weight every month. I’m not setting a specific number goal; I just need to make sure I’m going the right direction (down) every month. I will weigh in on the last (or first) day of each month only (so I don’t get too attached to the scale).

My goals for this week were:

1. Drink minimum 100 oz of water daily. I struggled with my water this week, and as of Saturday have fallen short every day.
2. Sleep 6.5 hours minimum every night. I did this every night except Friday night.
3. Exercise 4 days this week. I managed 2 days (plus long walk on Saturday, so kinda 3).

I’m realizing I didn’t set a specific food goal this week, beyond my meal plan/prep and I diverged from it quite a bit this week. So I’m going to add back in specific food goals next week.

Weight gain/loss for the year so far:

• +3.9 pounds Feb 1.
• -3.0 pounds March 1 (for the year, so total loss for Feb was 6.9 lbs!)
• -3.0  pounds April 1 (for the year, so no new loss in March, but no gain)

Added to My Shelf

I’m trying to be more responsible about keeping track of the books I acquire, so I’m going to start sharing them again. If I share them here, surely I’ll remember to add them to Goodreads, right?

How was your week? What are you Reading?

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