A Roller Coast Week

1. I cannot seem to write on Friday's anymore. I'm on week #2 of this ear infection, which means antibiotic #2 with ear drops this time, which means I feel wifty all the time now, either from the antibiotics or the fact the stress around here lately hasn't allowed me to drink any Diet Coke, so I'm running on a lot less caffeine. Anyway, yesterday I kinda wandered through the day, doing the necessities, but nothing else. Probably shouldn't have loaded that free Backgammon app on my phone.

2. Thursday was a big day here. My mother-in-law came over to help me finish a project my mother had started last December, the dreaded school binders. Our kids have so much paper that comes home from school and a lot of it is important, like IEP's and report cards (because they have IEP's, their report cards are 15 pages long because they are essentially updates on their IEP's) and I have been trying to keep it all straight in binders, one per kid per year. (Yes, I now have a whole drawer of them in the filing cabinet.)

Well, About 18 months ago I got discouraged and got behind in my filing. Sometimes it's just hard to look your kids' disabilities full in the face. Last December, when both Marshall and I were laid up with our various ills (his shoulder, my ankle, for those who don't remember), my mother was here helping out a lot and she tackled the then-current piles and made some sense of them. But, busy with PT, I neglected them again, until the pile was at least a foot high. (I really should have taken a before picture to go with the after pictures. Dang.) The pile had been nagging at me for weeks but I just couldn't seem to tackle it on my own, so on Thursday morning, my mother-in-law came over and in 3 hours we had it all licked. And, one of the advantages of waiting so long was that I was able to throw out quite a bit from the 2011-12 school year that I no longer needed to keep handy. Here are the pictures:

I felt exultant! Like I said on Facebook, if you see either of these ladies, give them a hug. Without them, this wouldn't have been possible.

3. I was able to get some stitching done earlier in the week, when I just felt miserable because of the ear infection, so all I wanted to do was sit around, stitch and watch baseball. Go Phillies!

I look at this and am amazed at how fast it's coming together. Somedays, when things are really tough around here, it's so satisfying to make something beautiful. And, since this one is for my honey, it will stay in the house so I can admire it often.

4. Wednesday afternoon I took Alex to see our family doctor who functions as his developmental pediatrician. We had a long chat about Alex's anxiety problems since Memorial Day and decided to raise the dosage on his AD/HD meds first and then, if it isn't enough, raise the anti-anxiety meds as well. Alex did gain 2 pounds over the summer (which is amazing because I swear all he ate all summer for breakfast, lunch and dinner was tortilla chips) so we can make these changes in medication without worrying about his wasting away. I started the new stuff on Thursday and have already noticed an improvement.

For example, homework on Wednesday night was an hour long, torturous ordeal that resulted in Alex being sent to bed early with none of his regular things (light, iPod, snacks, books, etc.) and I still had to sit with him Thursday morning to help him finish it up. Thursday afternoon, he came home from school, read me his library book (we are on a Curious George kick at the moment), which, by the way, was the first school library book he's ever been allowed to take out of the library, much less bring home, and then sat down with me and cheerfully did his homework. He demonstrated he understood the concept (subtraction with borrowing) and only needed a few redirects. So what was the worst thing ever turned into something happy and easy, overnight. It was strange, but good. Now if we can only replicate this in the future.

5. Monday we were off of school for Rosh Hashanah, so being the devious mother that I am, I took Miranda off to get her flu shot. But I made the mistake of prepping her for it so she totally freaked. Next time, I'll just spring it on her and she won't have time to worry about it. And I'll be ready to hold her down. He had to stick her 3 times to empty the syringe, she was wiggling so much. We'd previously used the Flu Mist vaccine but Miranda's lungs reacted poorly to that last year (oral steroids, breathing treatments, the works) so no more Flu Mist for her.

6. We're still working the kinks out of our new morning schedule:

• 6:30 am I get up and wake Miranda and feed her breakfast.
• 7:00 am I wake up both Alex and Marshall (unless he's on early schedule, which is next week, in which case, he will be getting himself up at 5:40 am), make coffee and get Alex headed towards breakfast.
• Then I shoo Miranda off to get dressed and pack her lunch. She wants different things every day but won't tell me what; I'm just supposed to guess. Oh, and yesterday she told me she wants to buy lunch at school, the girl who won't try anything new and only eats a few more foods than her brother. Yeah, whatever. I will have to study the lunch schedule (which I have, for the last 7 years, consigned immediately to the recycle bin because of my children's food issues) on the school website and see if there's anything promising. 
• Miranda's bus still hasn't firmed up it's arrival times. I try to have her ready by 7:30, even if the bus doesn't come until 8, because, on paper, it's supposed to come at 7:38 am.
• So I shove her out the door, shove more food at Alex, help him get dressed (all the new pants I bought him are a little long so he is refusing to wear them at the moment; give him a month or so and they'll fit), pack his lunch (the same thing, every day) and then he gets his meds with applesauce at 8:20 am because while his bus isn't supposed to come until 8:38, sometimes it comes at 8:30. 
• And then, with both children off, I sit down and eat my own breakfast, hopefully. 

Hopefully, we'll have this streamlined soon. I need schedules to function and it I get off, something bad happens, like homework doesn't get packed in backpacks, or something.

7. Speaking (writing) of homework, a week ago a fill in the blank, all about yourself poster came home with Miranda. I rediscovered it when I was going through the piles with my mother-in-law on Thursday morning and guess when it was due: Thursday morning. I sent a groveling email to Miranda's teacher and was forgiven and then worked hard with Miranda Thursday afternoon and evening to have it all done for Friday. 

Here's a picture of the finished product:

About the homework thing: this is just another way to make parents into therapists. I realize, eventually, children are expected to do it on their own, but at this stage of development, this is just me being Mommy the Therapist all over again. Sigh. Whine! Whine! Whine! 

Here's Jen. Be sure to read it, especially her #5. Very funny.