Oh goodness me, where does one begin when there is so much to tell? I know I know, the beginning is usually the best place, but that is a lot to start with. So lets start with the good, then work to the bad and the ugly, shall we?
First and foremost, I am a
very proud mother right now. I had a sit down with Lucas's school psychologist, Occupational therapist, Speech therapist, special ed teach, and his general education teacher. The meeting was to determine if Lucas was still in need of services he once qualified for. *The quick of the long here, Lucas was once in early intervention preschool. He was delayed in many areas, speech being his main problem. He didn't utter his first word until he was 3, and didn't start sentences until closer to 4. We worked mainly through sign language and picture books and such. We logged many hours of therapy time, never able to get a therapist in the home because one never became available to us in our area.* Since then he has done so much better. We still have textile problems with him and sensory issues, but for the most part he has evened out. Meaning, he isn't having as many problems and doesn't qualify for any special services anymore. (That makes me happy, but not what I am overly proud about...that is coming) Well, during this sit down that we had, everyone went around and gave their thoughts, evaluations, and opinions, about Lucas. OT, and Speech, along with the Special Ed teacher all agreed Lucas was no longer in need of services, OT did recommend that Lucas needed to work on his fine motor functions a little bit, but for the most part, he wasn't delayed, just has his own special way of getting things done; and correctly at that. Then it came time to ask him teacher her evaluation, opinions, and thoughts on how Lucas has developed since school started. (Here comes the chest puffing part) She said, that Lucas has come the furthest out of every student, in his attitude, maturity, and learning levels. That he is one of her top 10 students of the class and is the top 3 of her readers. That during centers (free time) he chooses to participate 9-10 in the academic, rather then playing with toys and such! Everyone of us just were awed by that factor. She also went on to say that Lucas does not have just one set friend in the classroom, that he is liked by all. That he is always seen with different kids all through out the day, and he can be considered a, Mr. Congeniality.....
sigh.... My baby boy has grown up so much, I can not believe how far he has come. His temper and tantrums may still rage out of control from time to time, but not to the point he was at while I was pregnant with Austin. It was so bad I had to learn a special hold for him, just so he couldn't kick or hit my stomach and throw me into labor again...yes it was that bad...Anywho, that is the past, this is the present. He makes me one heck of a proud mommy! Someone might need to that a needle to my head and pop it, bring me back down to earth!
Now lets talk about Austin....truly not much to talk about, Austin is Austin. Plain and simple actually. Ok, maybe not so plain, and not very simple, but nothing is new with him. He still has a smart mouth to him, is going through his temperamental three's, which i hope he will kick when he turns 4 here in January. His back talk is getting old quickly. He actually told me about a week ago, when we were over at my sister and brother in laws house, that I can not tell him what to do, and to not talk to him that way (All beacause I told him not to drive a car on the wall and that he needed to drive it where it belonged, or mommywould take it away. I had asked him twice before to stop). In turn his back talk was answered swiftly with a firm swat on his butt and a time out. Afterwards we had the discussion of who I am, and why I do the things I do, and who he is, and what is acceptable and not acceptable. He was mad at me, and he told me so. Which I lovingly reminded him, that as much fun as mommy can be sometimes, I am not here to be his friend all the time either. Since then I have not heard those comments from his little mouth, but others that are not so pretty. Chris and are at wits ends, trying to figure out where this is coming from, the only thing we could come up with is, it is just his personality, and we need to help him manage it and teach him what he can and cannot say. The way he is going right now, he will be my worst nightmare in school and end up getting beat up because of his mouth. He knows not how to censor himself, you could say he comes by that naturally. I use to be that way as a child, but not as blunt as he is. Oh well, right now we take it day by day and will continue to work with him. No use worrying over what is to come....I keep telling myself this, but it has yet to sink in..lol!
Now onto Lily we go. Hummm where do I start? Should we talk about her artist abilities with my walls? Or should we skip that and start with the mild concussion she ended up in the ER with?
Concussion it is. Well Lily is officially a tomboy. She loves to be like her brothers and climb. Monkey see monkey do right? Well, Lily decided that her new thing would be to get the little chairs out of our entry closet where they are kept. She has a fascination with our DVD player, she learned how to work the volume nob, to our unfortunate surprise. Well, I have caught her a few times standing on her chair, which I will swat her on the back of the diaper and tell her "No No". I tell her she can get owwies and that is why we don't stand on them. Well on the unfortunate night of the 4th, Lily decided to pull one of those blasted chairs out. I didn't know until it was to late. I turned around in the kitchen to wash my hands in the sink, and I look to the living room, and there she was, trying to reach something on top of the t.v, which was still
way out of her reach I might add. I could not get my hands washed and around the corner quick enough to catch her. I saw it all in slow motion is seems. She went head first (which of course she has a big one I might add) right into our sub woofer for our surround sound. The way she went down and hit, caused her to hit that, the rebound into the t.v stand, and she snapped her neck back while she was at it, which in the end come to find out she got a case of whiplash from. She cried of course, she was swelling around her eye and forehead. I took her to the kitchen and got an ice pack and laid her down on the couch. I watched her, no throwing up, no lethargy, nada. I gave her some Tylenol, she ate dinner, and went to bed and slept soundly. Well, the next day was not so lovely. She woke up screaming, I gave her more Tylenol, her face was swollen and puffy, and after breakfast, she started holding her head telling me, "Oww", she held her head and cried "Oww". She took her nap, slept a good 3 hours, when she woke up she was the same way. By that time, the peds office was closed so I called the on call. I explained what happened and they said better to be safe then sorry, and take her into the ER. So packed her up and took her into Mindy's Place (for those of you who are not in AZ, that is a local Peds ER that we have) I would have preferred St.Joe's, but I was not driving that far for something that was not heart related.
We got there and Lily was a trooper. She held her finger out when she saw the pulse ox, and then when she saw the blood pressure cuff she held her arm up. She leaned forward then they went to listen to her and was very quiet. They were amazed by how good she was, then I told them about her medical condition and they were no longer surprised but in awe of how big she is. Which is 31lbs 4 oz now. The nurse that was checking us in through triage, told me her 5 year old daughter had a heart defect that was surgically repaired at 8 months old, by Lily's second surgeon, Dr.N. We sat and talked heart mom shop talk while she finished up what she needed to in the computer. Her daughter is healthy and thriving. She is glad to hear of such a support group with the St.Joe's parents, and said the new unit must be nice when I told her about the 7th floor, which has become home to many of us from time to time.
Lily was taken back, not sure if it was due to her heart condition that got us straight back, or it was because of her major black eye, either or, it was nice to not have to wait in the waiting room with the many other sick children that were there. I set up my laptop as soon as we were in the room so Lily would have something to keep her entertained, and she was way to cute for her own good. Take a look at the video, it is all the proof needed to testify for the cuteness!
Hurt or not she knows how to put her cuteness on. We were taken back to CT shortly after, which believe it or not, she
screamed through the whole process. Which to me makes no sense. She holds still for blood pressure, pulse ox, stereoscope, and even IVs. She whimpers with them, but holds still for them, but not with the CT. Ohh she was mad, fuming ticked off at me. She held her breath, I had to blow on her face, she yelled at me through her baby gibberish, and I am pretty sure if I could have translated it, I would have been hearing a strand of curses from her. When we were done, she didn't want me to snuggle with her, didn't really even want me to hold her. We got back to her room and I put her down, she huffed, shot me a dirty look, and then pointed to her movie. I felt like her servant and I was being reprimanded for my incompetency of looking out for her while we were there. Granted you and I know I was looking out for her by getting her check out, but to her, I was a big bad mean mommy, for holding her down and singing to her instead of picking her up when she screamed. She is a firecracker, she has a very strong willed and determined personality, where on earth she got that from I will never know...sigh...guilty again!
The results came back within 15 mins and sure as heck, she had a mild concussion. Nothing I didn't know. Nothing more I could do that I wasn't already doing, but I took her in just to confirm my suspicions, and just encase things got worse I wouldn't have CPS called on me for child neglect because goodness knows these days, it seems many parents can't be trusted.
So nothing more then Tylenol and Motrin could help out, got the, if she gots any worse such as, weakened muscles on one side, throwing up, lethargy, black outs, etc, bring her back immediately. Which to me is common sense seeing that would not be the norm for Lily. But like i also said, they didn't tell me anything I didn't already know with two boys on hand. All in all, Lily gave us one heck of a scare, not something I want to repeat, but she did learn her lesson, and hasn't climbed on chairs since then. Well at least one of my children learn from their mistakes!
Now on to my little baby Van Gogh over here; I will be needing to go up to the office and find out what paint they use on these walls, so I can paint over the areas she has colored on. Now many of you will be saying, why don't you just get one of those magic erase scrub pads, well my friends, tis such an easy answer; flat wall paint! UGH, lets talk real quick on the stupidity of this in an apartment. Do they seriously think that areas such as the dinning area will not get scuffed when chairs are in proximity to the walls? Then besides chairs and walls, excuse me while we talk about children and apartments, and crayons and little budding artist. A parent can restrain children and take away crayons, but when an older child must do their homework and these coloring objects become available yet again, the walls are at the mercy of the child's artistic abilities, when they run away with a crayon before mommy is any wiser to it. Let's just say this, when Chris left his permanent marker on our bathroom counter, and little miss grubby fingers got a hold of it, mommy about had a coronary when she walked into the hallway and saw the wall. I want to give a big thank you to the creator of acetone nail polish remover. I didn't get it all off, but at least it is hardly noticeable now. If it wasn't for Lucas and his school work, and Austin's amazing drawing abilities, I would remove all crayons, markers, and pencils from my household until her age of proper coloring maturity.
All in all the household is chaotic and full of craziness with 3 children. 6, almost 4, and almost 2, truly do give you a run for your money!!
Love hugs and blessings
Jenna
~PS: I will post a slew of pictures here a bit later, my internet connection is being a bit slow right now and I am having trouble uploading them, so be on the look out!
