one large poop for mankind.

I know, gross right? Just what you wanted to read about. Well, I am a nurse and guess what, poop doesn't phase me. That's why when I became a new mom, diapers were probably one of the easiest thing about motherhood.
I am writing about poop today because something remarkable happened.
My most excellent friend and soon-to-be-mom friend Shannon M. bought me a gift card to get a massage. To say it was desperately needed is an understatement. I went this morning and I could FEEL the knots in my muscles. Painful, yes. Worth it? More than I can say. (Shannon - you are AMAZING).
So, my husband tells me as I am on the way home (via the farmer's market to get some fresh fruit, veggies, and such) that our son pooped. Good! Victorious, even, as when he gets ANY casein in his diet it backs him up awfully.
I come home, and we're playing, and he's destroying the living room. All of the sudden he is grabbing his pull-up, says "bye bye poo poo" and very carefully pulls it off and runs into the bathroom. This is THE FIRST TIME he has ever told me in any way that he has gone or has to go #2. He had already gone, but at least he TOLD ME!!!
We go in to the bathroom and take care of it. He is thrilled. He even got excited about washing his hands.
We still have a long way to go, still, but my husband and I work VERY VERY hard to get him to communicate his needs without stressing him out too much. It seems to be working.

I am pretty exhausted. My husband left when I got home to go to the autism support meeting (30 miles from our house). If we had a reliable baby-sitter with special needs experience, I could have gone to the meeting, too.

We had wanted to buy a house over that way but we just can't. Most of why is because when you get bombarded with medical bills you can't pay, they send you to collections. We've both been sent to collections in the last year for stuff our insurance wouldn't cover for him, for me, and, you guessed it...our son.
Insurance would not cover the ER visits when our son had a reaction to the antibiotics for his last ear infections. The rash left scars. The bills have left scars on our credit. They really don't give out mortgages like they used to.

So we are stuck in our rental, really far from our jobs, really far from anyone we really know. Just super thankful I have a job right now. I don't know what we'd do at this point. It's 5pm and I feel like I could pass out. Just so tired.

Thanks for reading.