Probably TMI

Lately, it has become harder & harder to get Caleb to sleep before 10, which is my mandatory bedtime...especially on a weeknight. And, I just haven't had the heart or the energy to use the Super Nanny technique of placing him in his bed and then spending the next hour or more placing him back into his bed every time he gets up. I know the time will come, soon, when we just have to bite the bullet & do it, but not yet.

That being said, there are many nights when Caleb ends up coming to bed with us in our bed. (To be honest, he ends up in our bed every night, but sometimes he does sleep in his bed for a few hours first...it's all in the name of sleep for mom & dad) We usually watch the 10 PM news and kiss good night and go to sleep. Lately, however, Caleb has been hijacking my goodnight kiss. When Chris leans over to kiss me, Caleb pops his head up & gives him a kiss. I mean, it's bad enough he's stealing my bed, but now my kisses? I think he just knows he's so darn adorable that I won't do anything to him for it!

Tough Life

After Chris got home from work tonight & we had dinner, we sat down on the couch to relax & watch some TV. At the time, Tyler & Cameron were downstairs with the babies. Not surprisingly, though, it didn't take too long for the little people to come up & join us.

Baylee, in fact, decided she wanted to sit right in the middle of Chris & I. So, I lifted her up onto the couch and plopped her down. But she kept squirming around until her feet were resting on my legs. And even then, she kept saying "mama" and whining until I looked down & started rubbing her feet. She sat there for at least 10-15 minutes while I massaged her feet.

I can imagine they must have been pretty tired, though. I mean what a tough life that little girl leads. Wake up, have somebody change your diaper, dress you, and get your breakfast. Play for a while, whine for more milk, have somebody change your diaper & make your lunch. Take a nap, wake up, have somebody change your diaper & get you a snack. Play for a while. Have somebody else change your diaper & make you dinner. Whew...I'm surprised she made it through the day.

But, of course, with a face like this....

how could I refuse?!

Culture

My youngest 3 LOVE music. All three of them regularly give us concerts, complete with microphones & dancing. (Sadly, since Caleb does not have much a vocabulary, his concerts kind of sound like a dying animal, but Chris says I can't tell him to please top) Practically since birth, anytime they hear music they start to dance. The Toddler Tunes DVD is still one of their favorites, we play it at least once a day, and the also like to watch American Idol with me.

Lately, however, I'm wondering if we need to expose them to a little more culture. Currently, their favorite song is the McDonald's Fillet-O-Fish commercial. We have to rewind it & watch it again, at least 3 times whenever it comes on the TV and they get up & dance to it every single time. I admit, it is a catchy tune, but I don't know that I need to hear it over & over & over again!

Preschool

After several months of working with the school, Amata is finally receiving early intervention services from the school. The issue pretty much boiled down to what exactly constitutes a need. The professionals at the Development & Behavior clinic who diagnosed her with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome were all under the impression that with that diagnosis alone she would qualify for service, but they were also pretty surprised that she hadn’t qualified even without the diagnosis.

The ECSE teacher with the school, however, contacted the state who told her that Amata still had to “show a need”, but they didn’t define exactly what a need was. She assumed that meant Amata needed qualify under the same standards that a child without FAS would have to show, and when she evaluated Amata at the beginning of this process, Amata did not qualify. So, she basically said we’d have to wait until we received the written report from the clinic & hope that there would be a specific need documented in that.

That teacher was actually on medical leave when we received the report, so I emailed the state to get a clarification as to what this “need” would be. I actually didn’t think their response was very helpful, but when the teacher got back from medical leave, she said it was more information than she had ever gotten out of the state; they basically stated that the need didn’t have to be as great as a child without an FAS diagnosis. So, a meeting was set up with us, the teacher, her supervisor, and Amata’s preschool teacher.

Her preschool teacher said that she is beginning to see a growing gap between Amata & the other kids in her class. She also said that if there isn’t another adult helping with Amata’s class, she would not feel comfortable taking the class outside. Towards the end, the ESCE teacher still sounded like she didn’t think Amata would quality, but thankfully her supervisor spoke up. He went though the items he had jotted down during the meeting, and said that with everything we had discussed, he didn’t see how they could say that Amata did not show a need.

So she is now going to school on the school bus 2 mornings a week, in addition to the one morning a week she goes to regular preschool. She started about a week ago, but it didn’t quite go off without a hitch. The first morning, we waited for the bus. When it got here, I walked her to the door, and stood outside the door until she got onto the bus. About 20 minutes later I got a call from the ESCE teacher. She said the bus driver called her to tell her that I didn’t physically walk Amata onto the bus & buckle her into her booster seat…I wasn’t aware that I needed to. But what killed me was the fact that the bus driver had to call the teacher so the teacher could call me…she couldn’t have just gotten my attention while I was standing in the doorway 20 feet away. But oh well, I’m still just happy that she is getting services!

Good Information

Did you ever wonder what would happen if you tried to turn on the toaster when there was a cardboard box sitting on top of it? I guess Amata was wondering, so she tried it....

Turns out it will set that box on fire. Dang, maybe if I wouldn't have noticed it right away, we could have gotten a new kitchen out of the deal.

Maybe we could use this as a basis for Cameron's science experiment...try see how many different things a toaster can start on fire.

Enough

I've really tried hard to not comment on Nadya Suleman, but it's just getting to be too much for me and I need to vent.

I've watched too many of her interviews, and have gotten more irritated each time. In one of her first interviews, she made a comment about this being "God's will". Give me a break. I'm thinking it was more God's will that she NOT have 14 children…I mean to me, blocked fallopian tubes might have been more of a sign. I am not against infertility treatments at all, but this woman & her doctor obviously crossed the line, having 6 embryos implanted into a single, unemployed woman who already had 6 children.

I would love to know how she could even afford the IVF, given the fact that she was on food stamps (temporary or not, it is still public assistance). To be perfectly honest, even her fingernails bother me. My husband & I both work over 40 hours a week (admittedly, I do daycare out of my home, but that is most certainly a JOB) to support our 5 children, and I do not have the time or the extra money to spend on my nails. I would also like to know how she is getting SSI for her children whose disability is ADHD? My daughter had ADHD and FAS, but we do not receive SSI. (Okay, so admittedly, that may have something to do with the fact that I have not applied for it, but still…)

And then to top it all off, I watched Dr. Phil yesterday to see all of the things being given to Nadya. I understand the Angels in Waiting, any sane person knows that is it impossible for her to care for 8 preemies by herself, not to mention the other 6 children. Without it, there is no doubt these babies would end up in foster care, costing the taxpayers even more money. But then, there was a general contractor donating his services, a flooring company donating flooring for the entire house, and another company providing a complete nursery for all 8 babies. (And again, yes, they will need cribs, but I think the simple models Wal-Mart has for under $100 would probably be sufficient.) My issue with it all is that I feel like we are again rewarding negative behavior. I realize the children have to be cared for, it just bugs me that their mom is getting things that I personally feel are not necessities.

The fact is there is simply no way that one person can provide for 14 children, not only financially, but emotionally. We "only" have five children, and there are two of us, and I often times feel that we are stretched too thin when it comes to giving all of our children the attention they deserve. Plain & simple, her decisions are just very selfish and her children & the taxpayers are the ones who will pay the price. I'm just thankful I don't live in California…those taxpayers will be paying even more than the rest of us!

Daylight Savings

I would just like to say that the moron who invented Daylight Savings time should be shot. (Yes, I realize that since it has been going on like forever, he has probably already passed away) And why does it have to be early Sunday morning? Wouldn't it be better for most people to change them Saturday morning? At least then, in theory, we could try to adjust to the change on Sunday, before most of us have to go back to work/school.

It is not natural to just tell your body (or the body of a 1, 2, or 3 year old) that it is now 9:00, not 8:00. Which means that the hour of time that is "lost" when the clocks are set back is an hour of sleep. And sleep is one of those areas that I should not have less of.

Top it all off with a 3 year old getting an ear infection and it makes for one very crabby Monday! This is definitely the time of the year that I begin to miss Arizona, big time!

A Five Letter Word

Yesterday, Caleb came up to me pointing at his right ear and said ouwie. And, like most parents, I self diagnosed him with an ear infection and decided that after daycare, I would run him over to urgent care "quick" before Cameron's band concert. They actually have an Express Care, too, that only treats specific things, one of which is an ear infection, but, just as my luck seems to go, they were closed last night due to staffing, so we made our way to the urgent care, or same day clinic, or whatever they are calling it these days. Last month when we went there for the strep tests, we were the only ones there. Last night, when I only had 2 hours before Cameron's band concert to drive the 20 minutes to the clinic, see the doctor, pick up the prescription and drive 20 minutes home, there were like 20 people there. We spent 2 hours and 15 minutes at the clinic…135 minutes…and that didn't include the drive time. So needless to say, I completely missed Cameron's concert.

And then, as the doctor was checking him she said, "I'm afraid he is looking a lot like most of my patients today, they came down with the nasty virus that's going around." She checked his ears and said that neither one of them was infected. They were actually retracted (or something like that) because of his head cold and that's why they hurt. His glands were swollen and his throat was red so she did a strep test…negative. We wasted over 3 hours & missed Cameron's concert because Caleb has a V-I-R-U-S! I realize it is nobody's fault, but I really hate that word! What it basically means is, "so sorry you wasted your time and your child feels like crap, but there is nothing we can do for him." She said it has been lasting 3-4 days and just keep giving him Tylenol.

The only semi-bright spot was that since I didn't know how much Tylenol we had at home, we stopped at the hospital pharmacy to see how over prices theirs was…for a big bottle of generic Tylenol it was only $1.44!! I may have to start going there for my over the counter meds!!

Weekend of Travel

I was traveling this weekend to go to my mom's wedding (which was beautiful!). Since the ceremony was in Alabama, however, I was traveling to & from the wedding alone – kind of weird not having little people at my feet 22 hours a day! The flight down was fabulous. I made it through security with no problems…no small feat considering I haven't flown in a plane in over 8 years…before 9-1-1. I had one layover, and both flights left on time, and actually they both arrived 15 minutes early! The only minor hiccup was that the bathroom on the second flight was out of commission…something they failed to mention until AFTER they had closed the doors. But I survived.

The trip back home, however, was not quite as smooth. I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to spare. I did make it through security, but did get scolded for having a bottle of water (that I bought inside the airport) in my carry-on bag, and for putting a bag of souvenirs on top of my laptop…oops! I got to my gate to discover that the first leg of my flight was late. The plane that was supposed to take me from Pensacola to Memphis was delayed because that particular plane was actually coming from Memphis, and they had a lot of snow there. So we got in to Memphis about an hour late; or more specifically, approximately 10 minutes AFTER the connecting flight left for Minneapolis leaving approximately 30 of us scrambling to get to Minneapolis from Memphis.

I was able to get rerouted to Milwaukee and then onto Minneapolis, arriving a little over 2 hours after I was originally supposed to get to Mpls. We boarded the plane to Milwaukee around 2:30, which was when it was supposed to have been in the air, only to discover that the pilot had not actually arrived yet. Apparently, he is a very important part of the crew, since they were not willing to leave without him . Now in his defense, there had been snow in Memphis (which I hear they are not exactly used to), and he was apparently called in late. But, none the less, that left several of us stranded again, since we would not be able to make the connecting flight in Milwaukee. There were 7 of us that decided we would take our chances being stranded in Memphis if we weren't able to get on the stand-by flight that left a few hours later, rather than getting stranded in Milwaukee.

The only saving grace in the entire mess was Donald, the customer service agent at the gate. That poor man had actually been called in on his day off, too, and then was assigned to a flight that didn't yet have a crew to fly the plane, and a ton of people stranded from cancelled or late flights, but he worked with all of us to help get us home. Although he of course couldn't guarantee that we'd get on the next flight, he said based on how the other flights had been going that day, he said he was pretty sure we'd all make it on that flight. And he was right. All seven of us did make it onto the next flight, which was a direct flight to Minneapolis, so there was no fear of missing another connection. However, Donald did not warn us that the basketball team & cheerleaders from NDSU would also be on the plane. Three of which were directly in front of me, rocking out to their iPods… and the fact that they don't serve Diet Coke on the plane.

Once I arrived in Minneapolis, I found my car and started my two hour drive home. But even that had a couple of issues. First of all, to whoever makes those little blue signs on the interstate telling you what restrooms, and gas stations are at the next exit…if the restaurant wanting to advertise on your sign is SEVEN miles from the actual exit, it really has no business even being listed on the sigh. How many people are really going to drive 14 miles round trip just for a chicken soft taco? And to the gas station I stopped at instead since I wasn't driving 14 miles out of my way for a taco…How in the world do you run completely out of Diet Coke? No cans, no bottle, nothing??? And then when I decided I'd have a Diet Dr Pepper instead and grab some chapstick for my very chapped lips, you were also completely out of chapstick, and the Dr Pepper was not even cold. What kind of a convenience store are you?

I did finally make it home around 11 pm on Sunday night…only 5 hours after I originally anticipated and a wee bit exhausted, but at least I was home! I don't anticipate that I'll be making any more cross country trips in the near future! Or if I do, I think we will probably be driving it.

Will it Ever End

When I left my job with the city in October to take over the daycare, I honestly thought that I would have so much time to play work on the computer and update my blog almost daily. When I wasn't getting as much done as I had hoped, I just thought it was because I was still getting used to the daycare schedule, and then I thought it was because I was trying to get my Christmas shopping done. And then when the new year came around, first it was because of all of the birthday's in January, and the abundance of snow days. And then came February and because I am still helping out a little bit at city hall, answering questions for the girl that took my old job, and the audit is coming up next week, so I've been spending a lot of extra time there. In theory, come next week, the audit will be over with, and I shouldn't have to spend much time with that, but then, of course it will be time to start getting things organized for our annual garage sale.

Of course, my fear is that given the fact that I have 10 children running around my house during the day…and five children of my own that are ALWAYS around…I may never get to a point of being caught up. I mean these kids seriously expect to be fed multiple times a day! And my own kids seem to think they need to have clean clothes to wear, and baths, and more. So, maybe in 5 or 10 years I'll be able to catch up a little more…although I certainly won't be holding my breath!

D.A.S.

Caleb had his appointment with the Developmental & Behavior Clinic a few weeks ago. Our main concern for him, of course, is his delayed speech. But since we knew his biological mother got a minor consumption when she was 5 months pregnant with him, there was always a concern of fetal alcohol syndrome. The only "good" thing was that she was in in-patient treatment during the first trimester of this pregnancy, so in theory, she was probably not using, or at least not using as much, during that time.

He saw five professionals at this clinic, including a speech pathologist, an occupational therapist, a pediatrician, a psychologist, and a psychiatrist. (And sadly, I must admit, I still don't really know the difference between a psychologist & a psychiatrist). At the staffing at the end of the day, they gave their diagnosis. Although we knew he had fetal alcohol exposure, they did not feel he had fetal alcohol syndrome.

What they did diagnose him with was Developmental Apraxia of Speech. Basically, for some reason, his brain isn't getting the correct signals to his mouth needed to form the words. They don't know what actually causes this disorder, but the main treatment for it is repetitive speech therapy. Most children with apraxia do eventually learn to speak clearly. And in the last several months that the school has been working with him, we have seen improvement. He has learned to say some very important words, such as mine and spot. (And just so you know, his spot is his spot, even if he wasn't sitting in it.) Hopefully we will be able to find a speech therapist who works after hours…I have a feeling that we'll end up having to contact the county for help with that!

 

Strep

Cameron complained that he had a sore throat on Monday. I really wanted him to go to school, but I was a little nervous that I'd get a call from the school half way through the day that I had to pick him up…or at least start calling around to find somebody who could pick him up for me. So, I let him stay home. Since there have been 2 daycare kids that were out with strep in the past few weeks, I decided that I would run him to urgent care after daycare to make sure he didn't have it. I also figured if I had was going to take him in, I might as well have them swab the other kids, too. I had no desire to run a different child to the doctor every day this week.

The nurse that was working urgent care last night is actually the nurse at the clinic here in town, so she completely understood why I wanted all of the kids checked out, whether they had symptoms or not. The doctor, however, didn't seem to get it. No matter how many times that I explained to him that strep had been around the daycare, and since I had one child with a sore throat, I wanted them all checked because I have 5 kids, a very full daycare, and a husband with a full time job which makes getting to the doctor for simple things like strep tests a little difficult. Why does he even care how many I want swabbed….the nurses do all of that part anyway! And I was not asking for antibiotics if they weren't needed; I just wanted to make sure it wasn't needed.

So, for each of the kids, he kept asking if they were running a fever, and when I said no, he kept saying that usually if they have strep they would also have a fever. When he got to Baylee, he did at least discover that she had an ear infection, so at least the trip wouldn't be a total waste, regardless of how the strep tests turned out. Now, I admit, Amata had absolutely no symptoms and the doctor made sure to point out to me that she seemed to be perfectly healthy, and he didn't consider her a risk for strep at all. At least Baylee & Caleb had a little cough & runny nose. And the rapid tests for all of them did come back negative.

So, as I am expecting my mother of the year trophy to arrive in the mail any day now, I made Cameron go to school Tuesday even though he said his stomach hurt a little…I said the doctor said he wasn't contagious so there was no reason for him to stay home.

And then, about an hour after school started, the clinic called to let me know that a couple of the strep cultures did turn positive over night. Cameron's was one, which didn't surprise me, but Amata's was the other one! While I would have preferred to not have strep around here, it does make me feel a little bit vindicated, since the one test the doctor thought was a complete waste actually turned out to be strep. They were nice enough to also give us a prescription for Caleb, too, since chances are pretty high that if Cameron & Amata have it, he'd probably get it in the end. Then, today, the clinic called again to say that Baylee's culture turned positive…I didn't know they kept checking them for more than the one day. Luckily, since she had the ear infection she was already on antibiotics, so she shouldn't be contagious anymore, either.

Hopefully, we will have some happier campers here in the next day or so, once those antibiotics start to do their job!