Super-Hero and I have been planning a secret trip to Great Wolf Lodge in Grand Mound, Washington. We decided not to tell the kids because it's just too hard for Holland to wait. Like his new psychiatrist says, "he lives in the eternal now." Plus, it was fun announcing on the morning of school that we were skipping!
We stopped for lunch on the way, but Holland refused to get out and eat. I said we were going inside and if he wanted to eat, he could come in. We sat in a booth near the window so I could see the van and he didn't move the entire time we were in there. He does a lot of "if I'm not getting my way, nobody else is going to be happy, either" thing. I told him he wasn't in charge and we were going in to eat. (He wanted McDonald's, but we chose Dairy Queen) When we got to the hotel, Super-Hero and Holland went in to see if we could get our passes early. They let you check in and use the waterpark before you even get your room. Which is nice, because you can't get your room until 4! We got in to swim at 12:30. Kids had a great time at first. It's always a gamble with Holland. Will he have fun? Will he cause problems? Will he demand things and make a scene? Yes, to all of those things. The first problem that happened was a ride down one of the tunnels. Romania and Egypt had gone down with Super-Hero and I had stayed in the wave pool with Holland. Egypt wanted me to go and dad said that I would have fun. Holland decided to come. He does not like fast, scary rides. He gets scared at Oaks Park with the small rickety roller coaster ride. Well, turns out that Egypt had taken us on the stairs to the scariest of the four rides. I thought I was going to fall out of the raft. Holland was NOT happy and was screaming (not a fun scream!) the entire way down. Egypt had this huge smile on her face. The tunnel drops straight down at least two times that I remember. Your heart goes up in your throat. After that, Holland decided he had had enough with the water and wanted to go. I said no, we were staying. He went back to the chairs where our stuff was, and fell asleep with towels over his head.
We got into the room at 4 and decided around 4.45 to look for a place to eat. Holland was content using his laptop that he brought and again refused to come eat. I left Super-Hero's phone with him and told him if he needed anything to call. We found a restaurant that was right across the parking lot. Super-Hero and Romania ordered hamburgers and Egypt ordered chicken strips. I ordered a chicken salad and I'm the only one who had a decent meal. Romania asked for a plain hamburger and it had cheese on it. So he took it back and asked for another one. Meanwhile, Egypt and Super-Hero are eating and I can tell he doesn't like his hamburger. Egypt said there was something "funny" about the chicken. When I looked at it, it didn't look cooked. When Romania got the plain hamburger, he took not even two bites and wouldn't eat anymore. Said it was horrible and Super-Hero said the same thing. My salad was the only thing that saved me! When we got back to the room, Holland was sitting in the exact same spot, doing his computer.
After dinner, the kids wanted to go back to the pool. I was getting a headache, so stayed behind and he took the kids back. They all had more fun and Holland came back about an hour later saying he was tired. Egypt and Romania slept in a little den area with bunkbeds and Holland slept on the hide-a-bed (only bed with an outlet nearby for his computer). Kids had no trouble falling asleep. At one point, Romania said he couldn't fall asleep and I said, "oh, you'll be asleep in five minutes." I went back to my bed and then a few minutes later hear him say, "mom, has it been five minutes?" I said "yes, why?" He goes, "well you said I'd be asleep in five minutes and I'm not asleep." I told him he was too literal and to be quiet!
The next morning, we couldn't get out of the room fast enough for Holland. He didn't even want to eat breakfast. That makes three meals he didn't eat. He wanted to go down and check if they could get in to the pool area at 8.30. We told the kids we needed to pack everything up before we went down to swim or we'd have to come back up and pack up everything and load it into the car by 11. Holland was so mad and threw a couple tantrums saying he didn't want to do that. I kept reminding him he wasn't in charge (psych's idea) and that this is what we were doing. After much complaining, by now it was 9 and they still hadn't loaded the car. Holland was not happy. I told him as soon as he helped load stuff, they could go swimming. I stayed to finish packing and get ready. Then I went downstairs and Super-Hero went up to load the rest of the stuff in the car. It's nice because you can play in the water area before check in and also after the next day. You just have to be out of your room and so we had to organize which clothes the kids would need after swimming.
By 11 am, Holland was complaining very loudly how hungry he was. I reminded him that he hadn't really eaten much the past three meals. He complained a lot. Super-Hero had left valuables in the car rather than get another locker. So he had to dry off, go back to the van and get his wallet. I took Holland to a snack shop and he got a hot dog, fries and a drink and his mood changed for the better. I had another chicken salad (too much greasy food on vacations!) and then the other two kids got something to eat with Super-Hero. We played tag like this all day. Swapping kids and duties. Worked out pretty well. But then Holland got bored and said he was tired and wanted to go home. I said we weren't going home and we couldn't go back to the room. He got upset (very loudly) and complained a lot. I told him he could go back to the van if he wanted. When I went to find dad and the kids eating, there was Holland, asleep! on a chair. Everyone who walked by had this sad look on their faces of a kid asleep in such a fun place. The other two finished eating and wanted to swim again. I said I would stay with Holland. When he did wake up, he wanted what he wanted (which wasn't what we were doing) and got angry. He then shoved the table, which hit my foot and broke my toenail. He also knocked some stuff off the table. I got up. I had had enough. I told him to clean up the mess and walked away. I could tell he was throwing a fit behind me. I fully expected him to come running behind me and push me. He didn't, though. He just kept after me, crying that it wasn't his fault. So tired of hearing this. I told him as soon as he cleaned up his mess, he could get his laptop. Dad came back to where we were sitting and I explained what was going on. Super-Hero took him back to the mess, but it had already been cleaned up. More crying about how it wasn't his fault.
Super-Hero decided to get him the laptop and took him to the lobby where he sat until we left at 6.30. Egypt and Romania played hard the whole time and didn't want to leave! We had a great time - minus the meltdowns that Holland had. We found a pizza joint in Centrailia called "Grandma's Pizza" with a giant pizza man outside the place. Kids thought that it was really funny to have a place called "grandma's pizza" and not have a grandma outside! We ordered a pepperoni and the kids each had these bottled drinks. We watched funny home videos on a giant tv and then left for home. Holland and Egypt fell asleep on the drive home. We were able to get all to bed without much fuss.
Now I'm wondering how our beach trip in June is going to go. My nephew is playing in a soccer tournament in Seaside and we rented a house there to stay the entire week. Hopefully having his cousins around will mean he'll have more fun. But who knows? Things rarely work out like I think they're going to.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Sunday, May 22, 2011
How Does She Do It?
This could have been the name of a website *I* came up with! But it's not. It's my new favorite place to plan meals and keep track of recipes. Last week I was making another effort to get organized for the week and plan meals ahead of time. It's such a simple concept, yet something that I struggle with all the time. It's hard enough to fit in everything I need to do to keep the house running. It almost feels like wasting time, to sit down and plan out a menu, shopping list, etc.
So I Googled. I just love making a verb out of a noun. What I found was 1. Most websites I came across either wanted a membeship paid, or money for a CD for a menu planner. 2. Most websites were not helpful at all. The layout was confusing, or not attractive or not helpful. 3. When I finally did find the right website - I realized how EASY it was going to be to get organized!
The website is called howdoesshedoit.com and is just wonderful. I can input my own recipes. I can search for other members' recipes. I can cut and paste members' recipes into my own menu planning. The recipes you enter are there forever (unless you delete it, of course) and then when you select a recipe, the entire shopping list is saved into a seperate link that you can print off! I can't say how much I love this site. My first week started last Sunday. I spent a couple of hours (ok - that's probably the only downside to this) entering in recipes and measurements. But when I was done, I had my entire week of dinners planned out and I'm happy to report that I stuck to it the ENTIRE week! Yes, that's right ladies. I actually followed my own plan. I figured out what I had already on hand, what few things I would need to buy and chose recipes. So far I have maybe 12 dinner recipes, 3 desserts, a couple salad and snack recipes. I will have to keep entering recipes in to my databases to be able to pull them out for later use, but then all the hard work will be over.
I was also smart and cooked up a bunch of shredded chicken, ground beef, cubed cooked top round and shredded beef, all from other meals and then I froze. Now, I just find recipes that fit the meat I have and type them up on my new friendly website!
So I Googled. I just love making a verb out of a noun. What I found was 1. Most websites I came across either wanted a membeship paid, or money for a CD for a menu planner. 2. Most websites were not helpful at all. The layout was confusing, or not attractive or not helpful. 3. When I finally did find the right website - I realized how EASY it was going to be to get organized!
The website is called howdoesshedoit.com and is just wonderful. I can input my own recipes. I can search for other members' recipes. I can cut and paste members' recipes into my own menu planning. The recipes you enter are there forever (unless you delete it, of course) and then when you select a recipe, the entire shopping list is saved into a seperate link that you can print off! I can't say how much I love this site. My first week started last Sunday. I spent a couple of hours (ok - that's probably the only downside to this) entering in recipes and measurements. But when I was done, I had my entire week of dinners planned out and I'm happy to report that I stuck to it the ENTIRE week! Yes, that's right ladies. I actually followed my own plan. I figured out what I had already on hand, what few things I would need to buy and chose recipes. So far I have maybe 12 dinner recipes, 3 desserts, a couple salad and snack recipes. I will have to keep entering recipes in to my databases to be able to pull them out for later use, but then all the hard work will be over.
I was also smart and cooked up a bunch of shredded chicken, ground beef, cubed cooked top round and shredded beef, all from other meals and then I froze. Now, I just find recipes that fit the meat I have and type them up on my new friendly website!
Saturday, May 21, 2011
Overdue Update
I've been scolded several times for not updating my blog. I think I spend too much time on Facebook updating my status and have forgotten about my blog.
I've started several posts, only to abandon them and never hit "publish". The quick update is we have a new doctor. We started seeing him in March. Holland came to the first few appointments, meds were dropped and a new one added and glad to say he is doing somewhat better. The medicine is for ADD and seems to have helped him get the focus he needs. I'm shocked at his handwriting and how much he is reading and writing. It looks like the past 6 or so years, I've done nothing. I've decided that the medicine has helped so much that it's not my fault he couldn't read or write until 6th grade. The teacher and staff at his new school (he's in a day treatment program) are great. They've done several home visits to help work on family social skills and just to see how he does in a non-school environment.
We've had a few bumps in the road. Like the time he physically attacked me in a park on the way to Romania's baseball game. It was like a scene out of "What Would You Do?" with John Quinones. Only this time no one stopped to help me at all. He was really angry about having to stay for Romania's baseball game and for the time it took to walk from the parking lot to the field, he kicked, hit, yelled, yanked my coat and tripped me. And then repeated that scene on the way back to the van after I dropped Egypt off with Super-Hero at the field. It was horrible. I couldn't believe that he felt nothing about acting like that in public. He's so upset when he doesn't get his way that he resorts to phsyical violence to get what he wants. The interesting thing is that when I told our new doctor about this scene, he wasn't surprised at all. He also did nothing about giving me help on what to do when something like this happens. What I wanted to do was turn around and smack him (how's that for honest?) It's humiliating and degrading to be beaten up by your own child. And it's even harder to turn around and show love after that. All I wanted to do after that was completely ignore him. Instead of ignoring, we came home and worked around the house for 3 hours while the other three enjoyed a day at the ball field. Let's be honest here - I'm the one who was punished in this case. He feels remorse (which I'm relieved he does), but I just wish he could get to the point where he doesn't have to resort to physically hurting someone (it's not just me; he hurts his siblings, too).
We are no where near what I would consider 'normal'. I don't even like using that word. It's more like what's 'typical'. But we've come so far from last summer when I had to hospitalize him.
The next thing we have to work on is getting him into another program next fall since he ages out of the current placement. I am also planning on sending him to a 7 week program this summer and calling it 'camp'. We'll see if the even flies.
I've started several posts, only to abandon them and never hit "publish". The quick update is we have a new doctor. We started seeing him in March. Holland came to the first few appointments, meds were dropped and a new one added and glad to say he is doing somewhat better. The medicine is for ADD and seems to have helped him get the focus he needs. I'm shocked at his handwriting and how much he is reading and writing. It looks like the past 6 or so years, I've done nothing. I've decided that the medicine has helped so much that it's not my fault he couldn't read or write until 6th grade. The teacher and staff at his new school (he's in a day treatment program) are great. They've done several home visits to help work on family social skills and just to see how he does in a non-school environment.
We've had a few bumps in the road. Like the time he physically attacked me in a park on the way to Romania's baseball game. It was like a scene out of "What Would You Do?" with John Quinones. Only this time no one stopped to help me at all. He was really angry about having to stay for Romania's baseball game and for the time it took to walk from the parking lot to the field, he kicked, hit, yelled, yanked my coat and tripped me. And then repeated that scene on the way back to the van after I dropped Egypt off with Super-Hero at the field. It was horrible. I couldn't believe that he felt nothing about acting like that in public. He's so upset when he doesn't get his way that he resorts to phsyical violence to get what he wants. The interesting thing is that when I told our new doctor about this scene, he wasn't surprised at all. He also did nothing about giving me help on what to do when something like this happens. What I wanted to do was turn around and smack him (how's that for honest?) It's humiliating and degrading to be beaten up by your own child. And it's even harder to turn around and show love after that. All I wanted to do after that was completely ignore him. Instead of ignoring, we came home and worked around the house for 3 hours while the other three enjoyed a day at the ball field. Let's be honest here - I'm the one who was punished in this case. He feels remorse (which I'm relieved he does), but I just wish he could get to the point where he doesn't have to resort to physically hurting someone (it's not just me; he hurts his siblings, too).
We are no where near what I would consider 'normal'. I don't even like using that word. It's more like what's 'typical'. But we've come so far from last summer when I had to hospitalize him.
The next thing we have to work on is getting him into another program next fall since he ages out of the current placement. I am also planning on sending him to a 7 week program this summer and calling it 'camp'. We'll see if the even flies.
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