Question for everyone:  How often do you get "the look"?  I got several of them within a span of about an hour today.  Took both my sons to my friend T's house for her daughter's birthday.  Now, keep in mind, my son is the only one there with a disability.  We walk in and not only are there too many people there for my comfort level but because my son is highly sensitive, I now have to prepare myself for the meltdown of the century along with dealing with my own anxiety.  I'm trying to keep both eyeballs going in two different directions so I can make sure that both boys aren't destroying things and are happy.  While I am trying to maintain a conversation with an old high school friend, I realize that I am the only one looking after the boys in all this chaos.  So, I call downstairs to DC and ask him to please not disappear again.  He had been coaxed into "going downstairs to get a soda" or as we women know it "go shoot some pool in the man cave while the womenfolk walk around barefoot with the ankle-biters".  Little did I know, later on he told me that it was sketchy down there and he was glad I called him upstairs.  Sorry, I tend to go off on tangents....  ANYWAY.....

DC takes Kahler out to the deck where he can play with the dog and be outside.  His brother soon follows.  Ahhh, 10 minutes of bliss.  I was able to have a conversation (more listening on my part) and not dart my eyes around the room.  Soon enough, Kahler comes walking back in and wants his bottle.  Now, before this gets out of hand....YES.  MY 5 YEAR OLD SON STILL DRINKS FROM A BOTTLE.  I have tried everything to get him to at least a sippy cup and he absolutely will have nothing to do with it.  So.....  I give Kahler his bottle and he walks into the middle of the room (where everyone is) and starts to drink while spinning.  This attracts much attention.  Although no one spoke up and said anything, I could see in many of their faces....."the look".  I could see looks that ranged from "Why doesn't he have a cup?" to "What is wrong with him?" to the inevitable "What is wrong with his MOTHER?"

I'm the type of mom that will speak up if my parenting skills are challenged.  Actually, I'm more likely to start a cage deathmatch with anyone who says anything about my kids, me OR my parenting skills.  I was glad that none of them spoke up, being that I consider T a good friend and didn't want to alienate her and her 3 year old daughter.

Oh, and did I mention that this party was during Kahler's usual nap time?  Yeah.  So we decided to leave before Kahler got too stimmy.  We got home and it was 1.5 hours past normal naptime.  Slowly tried to get both boys into their room without alerting them to the fact that it was indeed naptime.  Didn't work.  Colfax was alright with it since he was tired anyway.  Kahler had a COMPLETE MELTDOWN.  One I've never seen the likes of before.  I sat at the foot of his rocking recliner, rocking it for him and he kicked me several times.  Not because he was mad at me, but because he was overtired and did not want to lay down.  I then took him to his actual bed and laid him down far enough from his brother to have some space.  He continued to thrash.  I then gave up and took him to the living room to sit with me in the recliner.  Gave him his blankie, his bottle, his nubby and got him comfy.  Took another 20 minutes before he calmed down and finally fell asleep.  I then got up and carried him into his room and laid him down on the bed without waking him....  cause no matter what looks those mothers gave me?  I am one BAMF Mama.  (Oh, and if you don't know what that means, I suggest you look it up, cause you just might be one too).