I just might go broke buying blueberries!

Stephen is eating about 2 pints a day or until they run out if we have more than 2 pints in the fridge. At least they are healthy!! We are going to investigate how much it costs to buy a blueberry bush. God help us when he becomes a teenager and eats like a horse. Hope I get REALLY good with my coupons and bargain hunting!

Sick but really busy...

I have been sick since last Friday but as usual that has not slowed me down. I had a sore throat for 3 days and have been really stuffy. I have Vasomotor Rhinitis and am always stuffy but it is 100 times worse when I am sick. I have to take expectorants to get anything out and they aren't working this time around. I'm supposed to take them everyday but I don't. I'm also supposed to use saline nasal spray but I don't. I also have cryptic tonsils (big holes in my tonsils that collect food, very gross and painful) so half the time I have an earache (my right side is the worst), stuffy nose and sore throat from that. And I don't always know if I have a virus or it is the tonsils. I know, I need to get my tonsils out! I am a big baby and hate hospitals and doctors. I could go on with the rest of my ailments but I could fill several pages with that info....back to my current, temporary illness.

I did more landscaping, refinished an end table and built a shed with Pat and our landlord. I will be posting photos on my other blog of all this work.

And of course I have not had a moment to myself since Olivia got out of school so last night I was up until midnight figuring since Stephen is out of school until summer school starts that I could sleep in. No. Pat had to go into work early and I was awakened at 5:30 a.m. by my pee soaked daughter (those Potty Patty "waterproof" pull-ups can't absorb the gallon of pee my daughter emits every night) and stumbled around changing her bedding. Of course my brain does not shut off easily once it is turned on and I was not able to fall back asleep. It is 7:40 a.m. and they are both still asleep. Any other day that I can't drag myself out of bed they are up at the crack of dawn. Murphy's Law in action.

From everyone else's blogs I've been following for the past 2 months it seems that the germs are not taking a holiday. Sick moms and sick kids are in ample supply. I don't know about any of you but this year has been full of illness and crappy weather! I hope that heading into July we can all enjoy some good health and nice weather!

Keep your foot out of the toilet because you could break it!

We were getting the kids ready for bed Friday night and Pat and I were in Stephen's room when we heard Olivia crying. We ran into the bathroom and she was crying hysterically and standing with one foot up like a pink flamingo. Her left foot and pant leg cuff was soaking wet. We asked her what happened and she said her foot went in the toilet when she was spinning around on the step stool in front of the toilet. Of course the lid was open.

I was laughing so hard I was crying. I wasn't laughing at my daughter's pain. I just could not get over how the heck she got her foot in the toilet! My husband was trying really hard not to laugh. Once I got her pants off and got a good look at her foot and she kept crying, I wasn't laughing. She had swelling and the area was turning purple. She can be quite dramatic and we don't always know how much she is exaggerating things. So to see if she was really hurt I had her take a shower and see if once she was focused on something else she would start feeling better. Well, she cried in the shower. She got out and got into jammies and we put ice on her foot for ten minutes.

Pat and I just couldn't shake the feeling that it might be broken. So I decided to take her to the ER. Let me premise this little journey to the ER with two facts, I am sick and have a back injury from a car accident in November 2008. I had to carry her everywhere and even had to hold her over the toilet when she went pee at the hospital.

We waited two and a half hours to get a 5 minute examination in the hallway from a doctor that poked her foot and said he would get x-rays and I told him she already had one! We waited another half an hour for him to come back and tell us it wasn't broken and that they would put an ice pack on it and give her some Motrin. We got the ice pack after about 15 minutes and then finally got the Motrin three and a half hours after we had first stepped foot in the hospital. Pun intended ; ) My back was screaming with pain from carrying her around and sitting in those horrible chairs.

Of course, as any parent knows, if I hadn't taken her to the ER her foot would have been broken. She woke up Saturday morning and ran around all day like nothing happened. So tell your kids to keep their feet out of the toilet or just make sure the lids are always down!

By the way, I just looked at the form they gave me at the hospital and it says she hurt her right foot. Gee, thank God she didn't need surgery or they would have operated on the wrong foot. Wonder why I hate doctors and hospitals!!!

Goodbye Mr. Turtle, hello The Funkster

Pat and Olivia took Mr. Turtle to the river and released him. Then they went to Petco for fish and brought home a dwarf hamster. How can I say no to something so cute and fuzzy.

Meet The Funkster : )

No more stinkin' crowns to be pulled!!

The kids had their dental appointments today. Stephen would not sit through a cleaning, again. Gee, maybe it's because the last 4 times he has been there he has had to have a baby tooth pulled because of the crown. I also think it is because the dental assistant was not warm and fuzzy. She is the first person there that I have not liked. She kept trying to tell me that they were going to have to hold him down and that they would papoose him to pull his tooth. Yes, I said I was there to help hold him down and reassure him. I told her it would not be necessary to papoose him because the numbing stuff on the Q-tip and the Novocaine shot were the hardest parts for him and that pulling the tooth would be a piece of cake. I told her this is the 4th time I have helped with an extraction. Her attitude was so impatient and not friendly that I was glad I was with Stephen to advocate for him. He survived the pull and actually skipped, SKIPPED, through the parking lot after on our way to the car! That was the last crowned tooth he has and he won't be losing anymore teeth!! Yipee!!

Olivia had another cavity (darn GERD). She has the worst teeth. She has been on medication for her GERD since birth and used to foam at the mouth while sleeping, was still spitting up in kindergarten even though she was on medication! Does anyone else's child have this problem?

So Olivia has to go back for her filling : (

How is dental care for your kids?

Here comes the sun!

When the sun shines (FINALLY!!) everyone is happy! We even had rainbows!

Even my seeds decided to sprout and catch some rays!
Bandit was scheming on how to enjoy the weather on the other side of the screen....

Hope you all were able to enjoy the nice weather. It is going to rain for another week here : (

Stop and smell the roses

Having Olivia home all day is going really well. Her behavior has been much better since she has been having 1/2 a can of Coke 2 times a day. Yes, I am letting my daughter drink some soda to help her with her ADHD. No, I am not crazy. It seems to be working for her so Yay, me! We made Sculpey magnets yesterday (we need to glue the magnets on the back today). Olivia made the one on the bottom. I just wrote my name in cursive on a piece of paper and she was able to sculpt it.

We also played almost one full game of croquet. I was enjoying it and she quit when she saw I was winning : (

She has made me slow down and do more recreational things instead of running myself into the ground with chores, errands and phone calls. She is also very bright and articulate so I get to have conversations with her which are always interesting and revealing : )

How are you all doing with your chicklets home for the summer?

Communication, yes, please!

Last night after dinner Stephen walked into the sensory room saying, "Toys". He wanted to play with the 2 new toys I bought for the kids yesterday. He has never said toys spontaneously and it isn't a word we have worked on with him. He said it again this morning after his bread and jelly because he wanted to play with one of them! He also is saying, "blueberries" and "mac and cheese". Yes, he ate blueberries and leftover mac and cheese this morning after his bread and jelly. Breakfast of champions!

Fun new cheap sensory toys

I needed fillers to use my register rewards at Walgreens today so I bought two sensory toys for the kids. They love them! Stephen has been home for an hour and a half and he is still playing with one of them. One was $1.99 and the other was $2.99. They light up so that's why some of the pictures are blurry. I had to turn the flash off to capture them lighting up. The tenticles can be pulled off and Stephen has put them in his mouth so adult supervision is definately required. They have already broken the light inside one of them and I'm sure they will be totally trashed by the end of the week.

I don't care if I go broke buying blueberries!

Stephen is eating blueberries! He has not eaten them since last year and would only eat them at school. Olivia had me buy some today (they are so expensive that I never buy them). If he will only eat one fruit he picked one of the most nutritious!! Yay!!

I still can't beleive he eats them because they are so squishy.

New lenses are on their way!

I went to my optometrist and in my naturally loud voice told the salesperson that these are the worst glasses I have ever had and that I am afraid to get another set of lenses from them because they might do the same thing. She said she would order a different type of lens and that I shouldn't have a problem. She said she would give me half off on my prescription. Half off on my Rx is a lot!! So that would be $82 with half off. Then I told her I wanted transition lenses (I am blinded by the sun even on overcast days so they are now a necessity) which is another $98 (discount of $33). So new transition lenses for $180. This pair of glasses originally cost me over $300 (without the transition lenses) WITH my insurance discount so this seems like a bargain! And they should be in in a week to a week in a half. I can't wait to see clearly and not be squinting my watering eyes out in the sun!

Stephen is better just really tired

He was up at 1:30 am again this morning. He woke up with no fever and acted like his old self all day. What the heck was with the fever and laying around yesterday? NO clue. I'm just glad whatever it was didn't last! I hate seeing him sick because he won't take anything or drink soup or all the usual things you do for your kid to make them feel better.

He was just crying and looking really tired about a half an hour ago so I stroked his eyebrow and his head. My mom used to do that to my eyebrow and it always put me to sleep. He went from crying to being lovey and looking really sleepy. He is asleep now and hopefully will sleep all night. He really needs a good night sleep.

Recall on Nestle Toll House cookie dough!!

We found out yesterday and returned ours for a refund.

My glasses suck

I went to clean my glasses last night and the coating is coming off worse than ever. I can barely see. These are glasses that I bought from my optometrist and they are also the most expensive pair I have ever had. I have usually been able to wear a pair until the frames fall apart or I need a new prescription. When I went for my last exam my prescription hadn't changed enough for my insurance to pay for new lenses. This is the first time I will have to replace them because of the lenses crapping out not because I really need a new prescription. I will be going there to complain and try to get them to just replace the lenses at a discount. Or I will take my business elsewhere. Ugh.

Another swollen bug bite for Olivia and her Segmental NF-1

Olivia has an area on her forearm the size of a silver dollar that is pink, hot, swollen and hard. She woke up with it this morning and said it itches. I gave her Benadryl when she woke up because she had peed and told me about her arm. She said it didn't help. I am noticing a pattern. Her last really bad bug bite was on her left eyelid and this whatever it is is on her left arm. She has her Segmental Neurofibromatosis on her left side. I have also noticed that she is starting to lose pigment on her right arm. I think that when we take her to her genetics follow-up appointment I want them to give us a referral to a specialist is Neurofibromatosis.

Stephen is sick : (

Stephen has been awake since 1:30 am. He hasn't been sleeping well for about a week. I noticed that the last bloody crown he has is half out and the new tooth underneath it is half out. Of course the last one couldn't come out on its own! The kids have a scheduled dentist appointment for this coming Friday so I am waiting to have it pulled. I keep telling him to pull it out but it isn't even loose : ( He also has another molar coming in.

And now he is sick with a fever. Poor little guy. His temp was 101.4 armpit (so it's actually 102.4). I hope he takes a nap because he won't take the oral medicine and he has to be really sick to give him the suppositories otherwise he won't let me put them in. The only relief he gets when he is sick but not sick enough for suppositories is when he sleeps.

Turtle, Mr. Turtle

Olivia found a tiny snapping turtle on our lawn last night. That is one lucky turtle. Pat just mowed the lawn Friday night and raked it yesterday morning. How the heck did he survive that and how the heck did he make it to our yard. We live on a hill on a busy main street and the river is across the street from our house.

Of course Pat and Olivia want to keep him. I said o.k. but it is THEIR pet. I already have enough things to feed, clean and take care of. I think he will be going back into the wild when the summer is over. These things get huge and I don't really know if he will survive in captivity.

Here he is, Mr. Turtle.

How ironic

So, I'm standing in my yard talking to my landlord who stopped by to drop off the lawnmower and Stephen comes out and sits on the porch swing. We were talking about getting a fence with the grant we are supposed to be getting so I don't have to watch Stephen like a hawk when he is outside. I tell him that Stephen is sneaky and will wait until I am talking with someone or not looking and try to leave the yard.

We move to another area of the yard and keep talking. About 5 minutes later I casually look over at the swing and it is empty! I scan the yard quickly with my eyes and run inside to see if Stephen went back inside. I run out to the side walk and yell his name and I look over at my neighbors house and there he is trying to get in the front door. Stephen looks over at me and starts walking towards me. I brought him inside and locked the screen door and kept the front door of the house open that goes to the porch and go out the back door which has a child safety knob on it.

As my heart starts beating again, I go to my duplex neighbor's yard where my husband is mowing the lawn (yes, he is such a nice guy) and tell him I'm waiting for him to tell me "I told you so". Which he doesn't. Yes, he is a really nice guy ; ) Whenever he has been home and I am out in the yard with the kids, he constantly pops out to make sure that Stephen hasn't run off and tells me I am too trusting with Stephen. I guess he was right.

We just need a fence. I know I am not the only one who has a child that is a flight risk and would love to hear some stories.

Coca-Cola for ADHD?

First let me say that I don't like soda, at all, anymore. I lost 40 pounds about 3 years ago and many of those pounds were put there by soda. Which I really have never liked. The bubbles are too stabby (a word?) and make me hiccup. But I used to be the kind of person that would eat or drink whatever was around me. Since I have lost weight and worked really hard to maintain my weight loss I have had a ban on soda in the house. I am not tempted by it anymore and had a few sips here and there.

I mainly didn't want soda in the house because of my daughter, she is a sugar fiend like her father. I reluctantly started buying my husband Coke recently only because if I buy it it will be really cheap and if he buys it he will be paying too much. He just has to have his soda. I should give him credit because he only drinks one a day. I digress. I certainly don't let my daughter drink it. It has no nutritional value and she doesn't need the caffeine given her hyperness (is that a word?). Or so I thought......

I just read in someone else's post that the caffeine in a Coca Cola has the same stimulant effect as ADHD meds. The post was full of responses to the news that ADHD meds increases the risk of death in children. One respondent was a pharmacist that said to just give your kid a Coke in the morning because it has the same stimulant effect as meds. I am not a fan of medication unless absolutely medically necessary, especially for my kids. That is why I am excited by the theory that using soda could help my daughter. Nobody ever died from drinking a soda!

She is having a half a can this morning and the other half after lunch. I will inform you of any significant results.

I need to go have my coffee. Yes, I self medicate my undiagnosed ADHD with coffee. 1 cup 2-3 times a day. Who knew medicine could be so tasty ; )

Books, lights and music

Stephen has made some real spontaneous progress in the past week.

He has started to turn off lights when he leaves a room (except his room)!! We prompted him to do this for about a week weeks ago and he has suddenly started doing it on his own.

He was home yesterday with tummy troubles and every time I went into his room and he had his music really loud he would turn it down immediately without me saying anything : )

I started my day feeling pretty crappy. Mondays are my bad days. However, I had tons of laundry to do, as usual, and other chores that had to be done. Once I got my chores done and took a shower I got a burst of motivation. I weeded out Stephen's book collection.

These are in a box in the basement. I showed him what I removed and he didn't seem to care. If he doesn't touch them or take any out after a week I will donate, sell or throw them away depending on their condition.

This is what was left of his collection. I organized them and showed him what I did. He really liked it. I and Pat decided that we will not buy him books unless he has shown us online or in a store that he wants them. This will hopefully keep his bood collection full of books that he really enjoys.

Now there is room to grow!

I also did some organizing in Olivia's room and removed some things she doesn't need anymore.

I am in the mood to gut things again. I am going to try to list a whole bunch of stuff I have been putting aside on ebay and get it out of the house!! Some extra money would be nice too : )

Blah

Stephen is home with diarrhea. Not bad. He had it once yesterday and once today. But he keeps pressing on his lower abdomen and just not feeling good.

I feel like crap. Runny nose, congested throat, achy. I did not want to get out of bed this morning.

Two more days and Olivia is out of school for the summer and my whole daytime routine is going to be obliterated. I really hope I can balance spending quality time with her and doing my chores, blogging, errands and what not. We shall see. Stephen will be going into summer school a week after his school year ends and will have about 3 weeks at the end of August that he will be home. Thankfully, he will be 15 minutes away again for summer school. I don't trust the summer program as much as his school year program (which is about 40 minutes away) and had to pick him up a couple times last summer for his behavior.

How are you all dealing with your kids summer vacation?

Potty Patty is not leak proof

Well, Olivia has worn the Potty Patty waterproof 2-in-1 training pants to sleep in for about 4 nights. The first night she stayed dry and didn't get up to go pee in the middle of the night. The next night she peed and it leaked around 5 a.m. Saturday night she slept over her friends house and we had to pick her up at almost 12 a.m. because her friend kept waking her up. So she peed a little in it. Last night she came downstairs after being asleep for maybe a half an hour. She was sleepwalking and we couldn't tell she was wet (she sleepwalks occasionally), even when my husband picked her up to bring her back to bed. She came down 5 minutes later to tell us she had peed in her sleep. The bed was wet.

So I'm still glad I bought these because I have to do laundry EVERY DAY in this house so I can easily throw her sheets and pull-ups in the wash without doing extra loads. I'm also glad that I am no longer contributing to the gazillions of pull-ups in the landfills. And they are making her wake up when she pees which was one of the reasons I bought them. They are also absorbing the majority of the pee. However, if you are looking for a truly waterproof cloth pull-up these are not it!

Cloth pull-ups and bedwetting

My daughter still wets the bed. She has always slept in a diaper or pull-up. She is almost 7 1/2 and I am sick of the cost and worried she will never become night trained. When Stehen was ready to be potty trained I had to take away his pull-ups and let him pee and poop in his underwear when he was at home. He had become desensitized to feeling wet and poopy. Eventually, he didn't like the feeling and started using the toilet. This took about a year of me soaking, rinsing and then washing poopy and urine soaked underwear and pants but worked and was soooo worth it. I think my daughter is not becoming night trained because she is a heavy sleeper and she is not feeling wet when she pees in her sleep.

SOOO, I went on ebay to find cloth pull-ups that fit her. Luckily, she is slim for her age and I found Potty Patty 2 in 1 waterproof cloth training pants in XL. I ordered 3 pairs. They came yesterday. One pair was a medium which I will be sending back for an XL. I washed and dried them and they are really soft inside and out. My daughter wore them last night and stayed dry all night!!! I am curious to see how well they contain the pee when she does pee in her sleep. Hopefully she is on her way to getting up to go pee in the middle of the night.

Do any of you have any stories about potty training?

Looks like chicken

Pat caught a Rainbow trout yesterday and I cooked it up today for part of my lunch.

I baked it in foil with the skin on. I took it out of the oven when it was done and removed the skin on one half and then pulled off the meat. I went to sit at the computer to eat it and Stephen came over and kept saying "chicken". I told him it was fish and he repeated it after me. I went over and sat on the couch with him and gave him a bite. He loved it!!! He ate this one other time years ago and couldn't get enough of it.

A leopard can't change its spots

It's amazing what children tell you when you are driving in the car. This is where my daughter always tells me things she would not normally bring up or discuss. We got talking about her "spots", the gazillion freckles under her left armpit from her Segmental Neurofibromatosis. In the course of our conversation she told me that kids are making fun of them. She said that she doesn't like raising her hand in class because then the kids see them and make comments. I tried to say all the right things about everyone has something that makes them different and that most kids tease other kids because they don't feel good about themselves, etc. But I just kept thinking that she is being really hurt by this and it will probably get worse (the spots keep multiplying and she is missing more pigment on her shoulder and neck every year) because kids are like this up through high school.

She is such a great kid. She is energetic, creative, funny and independent. I really hope she learns to accept this part of herself and not let it damage her self-esteem. I also hope she learns to focus on the friends and family that love her just the way she is. I was teased and rejected as a child for various reasons and it wasn't until I reached my 20's that I finally really liked and accepted myself.

Have any of you had to deal with your child being teased or made fun of and how have you tried to help your child deal with it?

My name is....

I went to my daughter's Author's Tea at her school yesterday. She did a great job reading the story she wrote. The other kids books were cute. Olivia came and sat on my lap after she read hers. Then everyone was done reading their books and the mingling started. Olivia abandoned me for a table of her friends after about five minutes. I looked at the clock and realized that the kids were getting out soon and the bus convoy would be starting in another 20 minutes and I didn't care to be stuck at the school in traffic. I offered to take Olivia home with me but being the social butterfly that she is (she is the odd man out in this family) decided to take the bus home.



I couldn't wait to get out of there. Am I the only one that always feels like they could be doing something better when they are in these kind of shallow social situations? I know that most parents feel like schmoozing with the teacher will get their kids some kind of special attention in class and they are probably right. I don't believe in kissing people's butts and acting fake to get things. If I like you than I like you for you not for what you can do for me. I think that because I don't have a fancy house, cool stuff or something else to offer people other than my winning personality that is why they generally don't gravitate towards me. Am I off with my perception of most people being users? I feel like most people are always carefully orchestrating what they say and how they act with other people to get what they want out of the relationship or interaction.



Sometimes I wonder if what is considered a lack of social skills is actually a keen perception of people being fake. I get "vibes" about people all the time. But on the flip side I don't always know when someone is trying to take advantage of me. Because I always have a hard time "reading" people I generally approach most people with distrust. Most people annoy or disgust me. Most of the time I look at people's behavior like a kid watches bugs in a jar. Fascinated yet disgusted and somewhat terrified at the thought of actual contact. People confuse, terrify and fascinate me. I really like how some people are on the surface but somehow always feel like they are not who they appear to be. Ugh.



I also have a hard time concealing my true feelings. I have a compulsion and natural need to be honest and "real". I'm always me. What you see is what you get. I don't have 2 faces. It seems to me most people have more than 2 faces. One face for work, one for their spouse, one for their friends, etc. I find most interactions with people upsetting. I always feel like I am dealing with some "version" of someone. There is a reason women say they are putting on their face when they apply makeup. Not a fan of make up. I digress. It would be great if everyone walked around with those "My name is..." tags that said who they really are and what they are really up to.

Are any of you as confused, frustrated yet fascinated with people as I am?

I understand why my son fixates or obsesses on books, music and movies. They are consistent. They are always the same. They don't have ulterior motives. They aren't confusing. I guess that is one of the reasons why I enjoy my many hobbies. Being alone is so much easier and enjoyable for me. Unless someone else shares my interest in something. Than talking with that person is exciting to me and not stressful.

Wow, I feel like I just rambled on. If any of this made sense to anyone or they would like to give me their take on these things, please leave a comment.

Also, they had a table with food that I did not partake in because of everyone touching the food. One teenage girl (sister of student?) stood there eating right out of the bowl!! Yuck!!

Happy Birthday Stephen!!

It's Stephen's birthday today! He is 11 years old. Almost a teen. So not ready! We had his birthday party yesterday. This is Stephen's birthday "cake". He doesn't eat cake and ice cream but he LOVES candy!

He got a lot of gift cards, mostly to Barnes & Noble. He doesn't realize it yet, but gift cards=books : ) I am hoping that if he uses the gift cards a lot he will be more excited in the future when he receives them as gifts.

THE BIG ONE

This tunnel rocks! It is made for big kids : ) I got it off Toysrus.com