Not a lot of posting lately, I know...

...but Miranda has stopped napping completely and her temper tantrums are escalating daily, reminding me more and more of Alex at this age, to my dismay. As strong as she is, though, I can still immobilize her. I just do not enjoy it. And I'm not sure which one of us has more bruises. I meet with the school district Child Study Team next Monday about setting up her evaluations preparatory to her starting in the preschool disabled program November 3, 2009.

On a good note, Alex's IEP meeting 2 weeks ago went really well and we are excited about his placement for next year. We get to stay at Springville another year, which was our preference. It would be wonderfully convenient if I could put them both on the same bus every morning, but most of the kids at Springville are ASD kids. However, Marshall and I are starting to discuss a diagnosis of PDD-NOS for her, which might put her at Springville anyway.

I have a bunch of pictures to post of the kids playing outside that I will try to get up later.

What a week!

So we had a week of potty disasters for both children (lots of baths, laundry, and steam cleaning floors and furniture) and then the meeting with Miranda's case worker from Early Intervention who was here Thursday for our one year meeting and to set goals for the next 6 months. Miranda will age out of Early Intervention when she turns 3 on October 30th, at which point she will be transferred to the Mount Laurel Preschool Disabled program like Alex, although they will probably be in difference schools, which means different buses. She will probably still go to Tomorrow's Hope Preschool for September and October, which will be Monday and Wednesday mornings, to help her get ready for 5 mornings a week starting in November. EI is also adding a behavioral therapist for Miranda to help us combat the tantrums of our little drama queen. So that was discouraging. And we have Alex's IEP meeting on Tuesday morning so we're essentially waiting for the other shoe to drop.

To take a break from it all, we are going to see Star Trek again tonight with 4 friends. We saw it last week on opening night, but our friends weren't able to find a sitter, so we went without them. I just couldn't wait. I watched the preview about once a week, starting in December, so I'm more than happy to see it again. And I'm not even a big Star Trek fan, but I am a fan of JJ Abrams and movies that are "pretty" to look at. Like Watchmen. I haven't made a decision about Terminator: Salvation yet; I'm going to wait and read the reviews.

I did finally post my iris pictures. They are really beautiful this year.

A little better today

Alex is still sleeping since there's no reason to wake him up. He still had a fever late yesterday afternoon and his appetite isn't back, so he's home for another day. Miranda bounded out of bed right before 7, per her usual habit. and has tried several times already to wake Alex up to play with her. She just doesn't understand why he should be home and not be up for chasing her around the house.

Anyway, in the end, all Alex had was the stomach flu, but it was the presentation that scared me so badly. Every other time he's had this kind of virus, we find out he's sick when he starts throwing up. This time, it was more than 3 hours of whimpering and looking pale and falling asleep at the drop of a hat before the vomiting started, which is what freaked me out. He has never been able to tell us when he's sick or where it hurts, so describing nausea was obviously beyond him.

And now he's up because Miranda's screaming just woke him. There are mornings when I am not happy with her, like today. She's been in trouble since she got up. When she's unhappy with us these days she just swings her arm back and smacks us as hard as she can. The best thing to do is catch her arm before she can hit. I understand why she's unhappy: on Tuesday, she was dragged all over creation when all she wanted to do was play at home, and now, yesterday and today, we're stuck at home because Alex is sick, but he won't play with her. It's just not her week.

If we make it to Saturday without the rest of us throwing up, we'll probably be in the clear. Here's hoping.

We're all a little bleary today...

...well, except for Miranda; she's as bouncy as ever. But Alex is definitely feeling better today. He slept from 10:30 - 3 am and then was up with me from 3-4. Then he slept until 5:30 when Marshall took a turn with him. But his fever is lower and he's eaten a few Cheerios and crackers this morning, his first food since lunchtime yesterday. So we're hopeful.

The Tuesday that started well

and ended up in the toilet. Or, at least, it would be the toilet if we could convince Alex to throw up in the toilet instead of on towels. Still, towels are better than floors. Or us.

So I got home after a busy morning (and a great meeting with Alex's teacher and therapists--things are much better at school) with a tired Miranda refusing to nap and after we'd been home almost an hour, the nurse calls from school to say at about 2 pm Alex turned pale and climbed into an aide's lap, whimpering. So I put Miranda back in the car and raced back to school to pick up a whimpering boy.

We came home and he went to bed and was asleep almost instantly, which immediately caused me to freak out. The last time Alex did that he was like 6 months old. I had left a message at the Pediatrician's office on my way to school (I did way too much driving while phoning today) and waited impatiently for him to call back at 4. (I couldn't reach either of my parents by phone at that moment which made me even more upset. I don't care how old I am; talking to them helps to calm me down.) Wonderful Dr. Monaco said to bring him in, so I called Mimi the Great to ask her to meet us there so she could deal with Miranda while I was with Alex.

It was an unpleasant trip there (30 minutes), an unpleasant exam (Alex had developed a fever on the way to the office) and when we walked back out to the car (Miranda had fallen asleep in the car right before we arrived at the office so Mimi stayed outside with her) Alex promptly threw up in the street. We had another unpleasant ride home of both children crying but Daddy was home soon after us, which made everything better.

The long and short of it is Alex has flu-like symptoms and I defy anyone who's been watching the news lately not to jump to conclusions and say swine flu. Ugh.

So, he's dry-heaving now between playing rounds of golf on the Wii (while sitting down). He is the most pathetic thing in the world when he's sick. And he threw up on Beloved Brown Blanket, which is now in the dryer. It'll be dry in an hour, when, hopefully, he'll be empty enough to go to bed. Then we can go to bed. Hopefully.

Pray for us.

Better Monday

(I am having difficulty inserting the picture I want, so here's the link to our web photo site: Old Couch.) Marshall was out yard saling Saturday as we dropped off some of our junk to a friend's sale and made some cash (Thank you, Tammy!) and promptly spent it on a new sectional with a hide-a-bed. It was a great price, looks brand new and seems to have been transported straight out of 1985, style-wise, but since our children are still in the destroy the furniture phase of life, we aren't really buying furniture for the main living areas that we care deeply about. Anyway, the photo is from Saturday afternoon, after we'd lugged the old couches out to the street where the trash men will pick them up Thursday if no one else gets them before that (and I don't really expect they will as they are in poor condition). Alex saw the couches outside and wanted to go sit out with Daddy. I wanted to do a new couch-old couch comparison, but I haven't managed to get that picture yet.

But back to Monday--today. Somehow, I slept well for the first night in a while and life seems possible again. At least, our To Do List while massive doesn't seem completely impossible. I spent the morning doing laundry and planning my day tomorrow. I have a 10:15 am meeting with Alex's teacher (regular monthly conference) so Miranda's already going to the drop in day-care (brilliant idea--I don't know why there isn't more than one!) so I'm planning 6 other stops along the way:

• Put Alex on the bus per usual at 8:15, pack up Miranda with a large lunch bag in case she's having a hungry day, and drop her off at 9 am at Basically Babysitting.
• Head to Vicky Olson's house to drop off a bin full of hostas. Mine tried to take over the yard last summer so I'm hacking them back considerably and giving her the pieces. Hostas are pretty hardy and mine seem to do amazingly well, when I water them. I consulted with my neighbor last night about my out of control flower bed in the front yard (she is an amazing gardener) about what to do about reordering my plants and she gave me some great ideas and the confidence to do it. I'm going to dig up some of my cannas for her as a thank you, since they are creeping again. Anyway, I've got a couple of weeks work ahead of me, but I'm breaking it up into pieces that I might actually be able to accomplish, then Marshall will run the hoses to set it up to be watered automatically, which would keep the hostas from getting sunburnt and my hydrangea might actually bloom. And then we order a ton of mulch and spend 2 weeks spreading it. But I am a happier person when my flower bed is in order. I take after my father that way.
  
• Take the back way from Vicky's to Springville Elem for my meeting with Alex's teacher and therapist. I expect a happier meeting this time since he's been on his anti-anxiety meds for 2.5 weeks. And, hopefully, Jessica's computer will be be fixed soon. You don't realize how much you rely on email for teacher-parent communication until it's gone.
• Dry cleaners to drop off my winter coat.
• Bed, Bath & Beyond for a new mattress pad (I have a stack of coupons already stashed in my purse in case they finally have the kids' favorite Gazillion bubbles again).
  
• Target for new flip flips for me (mine are 2 years old now and after a day of wearing them, are falling apart) and for Miranda so she'll stop stealing mine.
• Costco for milk, eggs, bread, fruit and cheese.
• Panera's for lunch (my treat for clinic days).
• And back to BB to get Miranda, who should have played like crazy and be tired enough to take a nap. Her napping is irregular at best but there's a good chance she'll sleep tomorrow.
  

It was so hot yesterday we got out the bathing suits and the sprinkler beach ball for the kids. Those pictures start here.

Thankfully, it's supposed to start cooling off Wednesday. It was starting to feel like Fresno, where spring lasts about two weeks before it gets hot and stays hot until Fall.

We've had a perfectly awful day

as the Celica didn't sell and Alex managed to make Miranda bleed all the way home from church (I still haven't figured out how he cut her finger open) and we got to try out our new carpet steamer because we didn't change Miranda's dirty diaper fast enough so she tried to do it herself. Ewwww. More laundry. Sigh.

So, I thought I'd share the pictures our friend Vicky Olson took of us on Easter morning after the church service. This first one is Miranda with cookie all over her face (she managed to swipe two of them which in effect, became her lunch) clutching the new toy Daddy bought her for Easter, Purple Rubber Elephant (named for Max's Red Rubber Elephant from Max & Ruby). She cannot leave the house without it and we've almost left it twice and did leave it yesterday. It was rescued safely this morning, however.


Now we have Emily Olson with Miranda-cookie-face.

This is Alex admiring the red tulips we bought for the church and then got to bring home. He insisted on carrying them himself, all the way home on his lap. And then when he broke one, he was very distressed and asked Daddy for tape to fix it.

We always get flowers for Easter in memory of my cousin Matthew Wilson, who died suddenly almost six years ago.

Here's the four of us, although getting both children to hold still while smiling is . . . difficult.

They are really cute kids, though. It helps.
One more of Miranda with her friends, Emily and Charlotte Olson. And Purple Rubber Elephant.