Friday, February 27, 2009

Lost and Found

I didn't have time to post about our lost kitty until she was found. But it was a traumatic day, for sure! Romania has been out of school all week and I was doing light school with Holland. I hadn't seen Fancy all morning and asked the kids if they'd seen her. We looked in all the usual hiding spots, but couldn't find her. Finally around noon, I emailed super-hero and asked if he saw her before he left for work. Yes, he had. He had gone outside to put something in his car and she followed him out. Now, our cats are not outdoor cats, so I'm not sure why he even let her out. But, he didn't make sure that she followed him back in. She had been outside for about 6 hours before we realized she was missing. Oh. And it snowed in the morning. Indoor cat + snow + 6 hours = not good.

Right away Holland made three lost cat signs to hang around the neighborhood. We put two on mailboxes and then drove around calling for her. Several neighbor kids came over and looked in our backyard and past the fence where the tree fort is. No Fancy. I was positive that I would just have one kitty from now on. After the kids were in bed, I went out for a much needed break at Target. (great escape, huh? Shopping at Target!) When I came home, I stood outside and just listened for her. I called and heard some quiet meowing. I looked over and saw her come from behind the hydrangea bush. I still don't know if she wandered around or stayed in our yard and was just hiding. The kids of course were thrilled to see her. She was wet and muddy but very happy and hungry. I've decided to put them in the laundry room at night so there's no more escaping.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

High School Reunion

Do you ever wonder if you are the same as you were in high school? Apparently I am. Last night I met with a friend from high school that I hadn't seen in 20 years! I didn't attend either reunion, but we found each other on Facebook. We decided to meet up at a restaurant and catch up on the last 20 years. I arrived a few minutes before she did and saw her through the glass doors and waved. She started to laugh and when she came in said, "I knew it was you! You have the same wave you did in high school!" We talked for about 3 hours and closed the restaurant. We didn't even noticed that the place had emptied out! If the internet had been around 20 years ago, we'd have had no problem staying in touch.

Monday, February 23, 2009

You know that song from "Sound of Music"; "How do you solve a problem like Maria"? This song should be about my daughter. Most of the time she's pretty cooperative. She loves to sing songs and play with the cats and do puzzles. But there are moments that I wonder who she is and what she did with the real Egypt. Today was no exception.

It was going to be a busy day. We had ceramics, then Egypt had an eye dr. appointment and then swimming lessons. Well, after doing a half page of his logic book, Holland fell asleep on the heating vent. I let him sleep and we missed ceramics. I debated getting him up; wondering if it was just his way of getting out of schoolwork. But I think he's not been sleeping well and it's affecting the rest of his day. We had already planned on my mom coming by to watch him while I went to Egypt's eye appointment. I couldn't remember if she was going to have eye drops at this one and it could take up to 2 hours if that was the case. After my mom dropped Holland home, we went straight up to swim lessons. Holland was a little sassy but then apologized and said he wanted to do a good job during his lesson. He ended up being only half the problem.

As soon as she got in the water, I knew that I'd be spending most of the lesson correcting Egypt and getting her back in the water. She refused to do any work for the instructor. I came downstairs and pulled her out of the water. We had some conversations about obeying and the consequences. She refused to get in the water. I took her in the bathroom for some more conversating. We had 5 "conversations" and she still refused to get in the water. I took her back to the pool, told the instructor I didn't know what to do (she's the only student in class - so we are getting private lessons without the cost). I asked what would happen if I threw her in. She said "go ahead". So I did. She came up sputtering a bit, but I can tell you that she obeyed the rest of the lesson (all twelve minutes by that time). I asked if I was the first person to do that and was reassured that I wasn't (whew, right?) I had to leave the deck area and went with another mom to get something to drink and clear my head.

When I went back in to get the two swimmers, I noticed Holland sitting on the concrete bench. I thought maybe he was sick (remember super-hero three days ago??). Not sick. Just refused to listen. Kept popping under water every time the instructor was talking. It was so frustrating to have them both behave that way. Kinda wish I could have thrown Holland into the pool as well.

Sunday, February 22, 2009

I Hate Planning Parties

For some reason, I just can't get into planning a birthday party. The boys' birthdays are a day apart and I can never get up enough motivation to plan anything. Usually we do something lame, like go to a park. One year we didn't even make it to our own party. I had just invited my sister and her kids and I couldn't find the place I said to meet. It was really pathetic. They ended up partying without us.

The other big problem is having to clean the house. And not just for guests (if I get up enough energy for that), but for new toys/books/gadgets that will flood the house with two birthdays at a time. Part of me wants to completely empty their rooms. Purge. Oh wait. I've already done that with Holland. Several times. And it always finds its way back into his room. This last round of room-cleansing, some boxes did actually make it to the basement, but what was transferred to the garage, is now back in his room. I guess I'm just not looking forward to the chaos I feel when new things enter the house. Because I know that within hours, there will be parts and pieces and doodads leaving a trail around the house.

I need some motivation.

Saturday, February 21, 2009

"I want to sell this rock"


That's right. Holland wants to sell a rock. A neighbor boy convinced him that this was worth at least $100 and he's insisting that I list it on ebay. I told him nobody would want to buy a rock, but he begs to differ. I checked on ebay and the only rocks like this that were selling (and they were hardly selling) were those pretty Thunder Eggs, all smooth and polished. Ever since I started listing clothes to sell on ebay, the boys have been bugging me to sell their stuff so they could earn some money. I decided to list it on Craigslist instead, so I wouldn't have to deal with far off places or the listing fees. We had no takers. Not even one person was interested. So I can't imagine that listing a rock will get much response either. I just can't convince him that listing a rock makes no sense. I'm still convinced that his curiosity will benefit him somehow in his adult life. Maybe he'll come up with some new show for the Discovery Channel.
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Friday, February 20, 2009

He has the crud

I usually don't like to write about the bodily functions of my family, but last night was a doozy. Super-hero was up all nite puking in the bathroom. The reason I share this is because it totally disturbed my sleep! I know. I know. I'm so callous. But when you have to take care of three kids and get them off to school and you have a sick adult (a man no less) on your hands, it's hard to function on no sleep. I had locked Holland's door last night, something I haven't done in a long time. But he's getting up very early and wandering around the house again. The other morning I found milk on the counter, cocoa mix in the sink and food out of the pantry. Then he ends up sleeping on the couch with the fireplace on and the heat cranked up to 80. So, I must lock his door so he doesn't sweat us to death.

This morning I'm taking a shower after listening to puking all night. I have to get Romania to the bus hub and then get back for a few moments of school before heading off to Portland for a chiropractor appointment for me. All of a sudden I hear pounding. That's when I remembered I locked the door. Even if super-hero hadn't been sick, there's nothing he could have done about the pounding, what with not being able to hear and all. So, I ended my shower prematurely and ran downt he hall in a towel to let the cat out of the bag. He had wet the bed. Or more precisely the floor. I swear we should just get rid of his bed. He never sleeps on it. He ends up on his floor, my floor, the couch downstairs. Apparently it's not cozy enough. So the night he decides to sleep on the floor and be cozy (that makes perfect sense, right?) he has an accident. So, I'm rushing him down to my shower to get cleaned up and it's then that super-hero decides he needs water very badly and starts grumbling. This is the perfect situation where cloning would be beneficial. No one in my family seems to understand that there is just one of me and four of them. Everyone feels I'm ignoring him (and believe me, sometimes I wish I could!)

But we all survived the day and they are all in bed. I doubt they all brushed their teeth, but hopefully they all went to the bathroom!

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Updates and New News

Well, Holland is exempt from the State Assessments. I'm so glad he doesn't have to be put through that torture. He was in tears when I was trying to prep him for it. The Charter School didn't check his IEP, which stated the exemption and there will be other ways for him to be tested and the results reported. The good news is, I've ordered the Co:Writer software. I had enough money left in this year's allotment and decided it was the best way for me to test it without actually spending my own money. Only bad part is I have to give it back at the end of this school year. Anything that's consumable (workbooks, art supplies, calendars, or anything that can be written in) we get to keep. Everything else has to be returned that can be reused. I'm sad we have to give back our bird feeder, but it was $25 bucks I didn't want to spend! I'm hoping that we can somehow get this software written into his IEP for OT and speech purposes and maybe somehow get the school district to pay for it. I can't wait to see how it works and hopefully the success it will bring to Holland's writing.

The new news is that I took Egypt in for a re-check on her knee. She's been complaining quite a bit. I haven't noticed that it was locking up, but thought we should go in. It has been 8 months since her first injection and we really should have gone in before now. The doctor said there are so many subtleties to this disease that he really should see her every 4 months. He checked all her fingers, the way her arms moved, both legs and her jaw. I didn't realize that the jaw could be affected. There's going to be a parent chat on the effects of arthritis on the jaw in a couple weeks through this parent support group. There is this amazing bunch of parents who created this support group here in Portland. Everything they do is free. We attended our first activity last year - a family picnic that was lots of fun. They have these informative meetings every couple of months and they provide activities for the kids in another room while the adults listen to the speaker. They are also having their first annual family camp next year. It's fully funded - we pay nothing! It's a three day camp that includes accommodations, food and fun. I'm so excited!

So back to Egypt. Basically I waited too long for the recheck. When we first saw the doctor, he measured how flat her leg could be pressed down. He wrote in his chart a -5. The first injection got the leg to go all the way flat. But yesterday, he measured and it was at a -2. Not good, but not bad. She doesn't have much, if any fluid on her knee. But there is bony growth that makes her knee look swollen and the arthritis is causing her right leg to grow faster. He showed me and I could totally see how her right leg was longer. We are supposed to come back in 3 months, or sooner if I notice any changes. He said I may not notice a big limp, but I need to watch for the little changes. She may not even complain about pain and it could still stiffen up.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

I Need a Secretary

Apparently one person can't do it all. And it's not because I'm not trying. I got a call from Holland's charter school saying we never signed up for the statewide Writing assessment. It is Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Luckily Holland's speech session got canceled. We drove over to the school and he had about a 30 minute session. I just felt horrible. He is so not prepared to do the kind of writing they are expecting. I tried to prep him right before we left and he just ended up throwing his pencil and ran off crying. We were very blessed to have a proctor who was very understanding. He has accomodations written into his IEP, so we are spreading out the testing over several days and he is one-on-one with the proctor.

And let's complicate things even more. I drove Romania to school this morning. I wanted to hand-deliver his immunization records. As soon as I walked into the building, the Principal said, "oh, people have been talking about you. They heard you know sign and want you to teach a class." If this doesn't give me a mental breakdown, I don't know what will. How do I answer that? "I'm sorry. I have no time to help you out. I'm busy schooling Holland, driving to doctor appointments, going to swim lessons, meeting for speech, attending a ceramics class. Somewhere in there I manage to feed everyone and wash clothes every now and then." How do I explain to people that I'm overwhelmed and cannot add one more thing without sounding like I'm making excuses? Let me know if you've figured that one out.

Monday, February 9, 2009

A Day In The Life

Today was a packed schedule, from the moment I fell out of bed (just kidding). After dropping Romania at the bus stop, we had about an hour of schoolwork before heading off to ceramics class. Then it was home again for more school, lunch and then swim lessons. I had to remember to pack clothes for after swim, snacks for after swim and after my chiropractic appointment. Yes, today was the only day I could fit in an appointment. I even had to get my mom involved. She had to pick up Romania from the bus stop. By some miracle, I remembered to throw some chicken in the crockpot so when I came home from being gone all afternoon, and before I had to get Romania to basketball practice, we actually would have something to eat. Things are getting so complicated. Do you ever feel like your head is going to explode?

The rest of my week looks no better:
Tuesday - Holland's appointment with his therapist; school; speech in afternoon; pick up Romania
Wednesday - school; swim; pick up Romania; another dr. appointment
Thursday - HIGHday co-op; meeting with ES; speech; pick up Romania; Romania's bb practice
Friday - Romania has no school, but we'll be doing school anyway all day.

Now that doesn't look like a whole lot on paper (internet, whatever), but you have to figure in drive time; allow time for arguments, not being able to find clothes/shoes/socks/bag/lunch, rescuing a cat locked in a closet, finding gross dirty clothes under someone's bed; and the 2 classroom sets of Valentine's that we have to make (Romania's school is "environmentally friendly" and they like you to make them. Does printing them count?) And I always seem to run out of things that have to be replaced right away (dish soap, laundry soap, pullups, deoderant). Why does that happen? Is there some law of Murphy's that says you have to run out of laundry soap when no one has any clean clothes left? I would love to be able to pull something dirty out of the laundry room and make them wear it, but I'm not kidding, there's just no way that clothes smelling like that wouldn't offend (or scare) someone.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

It's Just Too Stressful

I thought I would be able to handle it. I thought I wouldn't get upset. But apparently, watching my son, the mini-NBA player in a basketball game for 7 year-olds, makes me a wreck. I seriously got irritated every time one of the opposing players knocked the ball out of his hand; or stole it while he was dribbling or made him miss a basket. And it didn't help that super-hero dad forgot to bring the strap for his glasses so he had to play without them. He dribbled so close to the floor I wasn't sure if it was because he couldn't see or he didn't want anyone to take the ball.

I told super-hero that I was a non-contact sport kinda gal. I play tennis. I could do badmitten. But forget basketball. Someone in my space would make me want to knock 'em down. They don't keep score for games in this age group. And they're pretty lax on the traveling calls. I just don't know if I can enjoy myself because I just tense up when he's playing. After the game I asked if he had fun. "Yes. Can I play the computer?" Well, there you have it. The attention span of a 7 year-old.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

Like Links in a Chain

It's amazing how things all come together. I have not been teaching in a school since Holland was born. But I've kept in contact with several of my co-workers. One in particular was actually my boss at the school. Over the years she's sent me great websites with information about education and just been a great resource for all the complexities of this journey of teaching a child with learning deficits.

I emailed her a copy of a writing that Holland did. It was unprompted, but it was about birds which we have been studying for a couple weeks. If you remember the bird sanctuary he built on our deck, that was the inspiration for his writing. Basically, it's unreadable. I had to send along an interpretation of it. And several of the "sentences" Holland wasn't even sure what he had written when I asked about it. After seeing this, my friend offered to drive up to my house (she lives over an hour and a half away!) and chat face-to-face to see if she could offer any more help. Holland had a speech and language evaluation several months ago and I showed her a copy of that. Many of the suggestions she had were very similar or the same as this evaluation. I showed her the drawings and writings we do for any reading we do; the picture dictionary and the general curriculum we're using.

Then she told me about this computer software called "Co-Writer". We went to the website and I've gotta say it's the most amazing thing I've ever seen. The software uses "intelligent word predictor", a built-in ability of the computer to recognize phonetic and invented spelling patterns. It has a very extensive dictionary and all the possible spellings of a word. So when a child is typing, the software will predict what the next word will be and the student can roll over the word to hear it. I looked at before and after writings and the difference is phenomenal. Some of the students had legible handwriting, but spelling, punctuation, spacing problems were common among all of the samples. Then they had a sample of what that same student did with Co-Writer. Not only was spelling improved almost 100% in every case, but the students wrote more and added more details.

I want this software! Only problem is it costs $245. I don't have $245 just lying around. But I've talked with several people on his IEP team to see about getting the software added to curriculum the district has for special needs students. The wheels are in motion. Hopefully (sooner than later) we will have this software and I can't wait to see what kind of writing Holland produces!

Sunday, February 1, 2009

It's Sports Season Again

Romania just started basketball last week. He's had about three practices and on Saturday played his first game. He was bouncing all over the court, hopping back to the opposite side whenever the direction of the ball changed. It was fun and funny to watch. He made 2 baskets and had several assists (according to Super-Hero; I wasn't counting!) They practice twice a week, which isn't bad, but Thursday's practices are at 7 and for us that's kinda late because he gets home after 8.

Holland and Egypt are swimming twice a week, which is great excercise for Holland, but I practically have to bribe him every time we go. He just hates it, but you'd never know it once he gets in the pool. He basically gets a one-on-one lesson. After being in the same level for about 2 years, I asked if they had special considerations for kids with disabilities. They said yes they did and so the second session of lessons he's had his own teacher. He's made some good progress, but he still has trouble with the rhythm of kicking. He ends up just flailing around. Hopefully in the next couple of sessions he'll progress enough to move up. Me? I get to sit for 30 minutes and do nothing. Aaaaaahh.