NyQuil Ramblings

I have a cold.

A bad one.

The same one that Micah had last weekend which I described to people as a "faucet of snot"

The one that lead to yet ANOTHER round of antibiotics for him and his ears.

Thankfully, our ears are something we don't have a like so hopefully this will remain just a cold.

Still, I'm miserable and it's a long holiday weekend.

Yuck.

Anyway, Thanksgiving was fun.  We spent the day with my folks and my brother.  It was a lot of good food and fun.  I remembered to put batteries in my camera, but then forgot to take pictures.  Colds are great things.

Micah is continuing his potty-training quest.  He's really doing a great job.  Granted at this point it's mostly me and not as much him, but I did notice him starting to try and hold it if he had to go today.  It gave me time to get him to the potty and we managed to stay dry all day.  Our number 2 training hit a bit of a snag Thanksgiving morning because of the antibiotics he's on.  (GROSS)  Thankfully, our pediatrician is now my Facebook friend and she reminded me to get him started on Florastor.  No more accidents like that.

Jason is still struggling.  Things are hard for him right now and with all the added attention Micah is getting, it's making it worse.  Hopefully, when he helps Andy split the wood tomorrow, he'll either work off some of his anger or at least talk to his dad about it.

Hannah is just Hannah.  She's been a great help to me the past few days while I haven't felt well and is being really encouraging to Micah in his potty training.  She's also playing around with lots of math stuff now.  Believe it or not, but she's been working on addition facts with Jason.  Everyday she surprises me even more.

I did NOT go out for Black Friday.  I made the decision this year that my sanity was more important and have done nearly all my Christmas shopping on line.  In fact, I'm 90% done.  Just a few more click on the mouse and the rest should be on it's way soon.  It helps that we have a fairly low key holiday as it is. The kids get one Santa gift, two from us and then a small assortment of art supplies, books and board games.  We overwhelmed Jason and then Hannah those first couple of years that we have really learned our lesson in that regard.  And this year, the kids are helping me clean out some stuff they don't play with anymore for kids who aren't as fortunate as they are.

So, as I'm sure you've noticed, this cold isn't just affecting my ability to breathe, but also my ability to think.  Thus the delay in posting.

And now the NyQuil has kicked in, so good night all.

Those Stellar Parenting Moments

Today is grocery day and Hannah was my loyal helper.  To start, let's say that I am very picky about what foods I buy and what they are made with.   I have strong opinions on processed foods in general and work hard to make sure that what goes in my children's bellies is good for them. That said, here comes the story.

I'm standing in the snack aisle, reading the ingredients on a box of organic animal crackers while my daughter peruses the surrounding items.  Hannah was holding a box of Chocolate Teddy Grahams which I had already told her we were not buying.

Hannah:  Mommy, can we get these?  

Me: No, those things are full of crap!

Hannah, picking up another box, deadpanned: Are these full of crap too?

Ugh.

Potty Time

Guess who is using the potty?

Yep. It's my little man, Micah.

Can you tell he's SO proud of himself?

Can you see that he is such a BIG BOY?

Needless to say, I'm pumped.

No diapers were used today and we had only one accident.

And that is because he afraid of the water splashing him.

I think we hae a solution, but right now I all I can say is WOOOHOOO!

He's using the POTTY!

Fainting

Hannah decided to give me a real scare this afternoon.  She couldn't get her 5yo shots at her physical because of being sick.  Since then we have rescheduled it 2 times and I was making it today gosh-darn-it!

To Hannah, this was a very important day.  She calls these her "kindergarten shots" because she knows she has to have them before she can go.  I think she gets now that she isn't going until next year, but I also think she is holding out hope that we are wrong, will recognize what she believes is a grievous mistake and enroll her on Monday.  Needless to day, these shots are a big deal.

To start, she was very, very brave.  She did little more than squeak for the first one and then laughed that the second did not hurt.  The third however did hurt and she fought to not cry.  I told her she could cry, she didn't and I hugged her saying what an awesome kid I have.  Then Hannah, Micah and I bundled up again and made our way out to the elevator.

Our pediatrician is on the 2nd floor or a 2 story building, yet we ALWAYS take an elevator.  Why?  Because my kids LOVE TO PUSH THE BUTTONS.  They are physically fit kids who run up and down everywhere so I don't feel guilty about them riding the elavator. (I, however, should be walking.)

So, we get on the elevator and I am asking Hannah is she feels up to going to preschool.  I was giving her an out since sometimes she is a bit tired after her shots.  The elevator started down and she didn't answer, but instead just tipped her head back.

The she slumped a bit.

Then she banged her head on the side of the elevator and collapsed.

I freaked.

She was non-responsive and a bit stiff so I scooped her up and ran up those stairs we have just avoided.  A very nice lady in the elevator help corral Micah to follow as he yelled.  "I comin' Mama!  Hannah okay!  I comin'!" He grabbed her stuffed Hippo and she my purse as I just ran.

Someone, I don't know who, opened the door to the office for me as I continued to try and get my baby to come to.

She still wasn't moving.  Or blinking.  Or anything.

I was screaming and crying by now as I barreled to the back of the office through the sick room and yelled for help.

A nurse scooped her from my arms and another doctor from our practice immediately took her into an exam room.

By the time she reached the table, she was coming to.  (My guess is she was out for maybe 5 seconds tops even though it felt like 5 minutes.)

They started oxygen and the doctor asked for her chart and started listening to her heart.  Micah was there by now and telling everyone "Hannah, you okay!  Hannah okay!"  I was crying and Hannah was just calmly answering everyone's questions.

It turns out that she fainted.  Granted, it was dramatic, but she was okay.  Her heart and oxygen levels were just fine and although she was a bit shaky afterwards, she was going to be just "okay".  We hung out for a few minutes while she felt better before leaving.  Obviously, she wasn't going to school now, so we went home, had lunch and the three of us took naps.

It took me a bit longer to stop shaking myself.  Adrenaline does that to you.  I just pray I never, ever see one of my kids like that again.  Ever.

Friday's Random Bits of Nothing

It's been a long week.  A very long week.  Lots happening and lots to do.  Gotta love the holidays.
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We finally heard from the neurologist and Micah has an appointment...in April.  Yep.  You read that right.  April.  The day before he turns 4 in fact.  Meanwhile, he's still doing whatever it is that he is doing although, seemingly, not as often.  (or I could be having a kind of week where I'm too busy to notice.)

On a positive note, we aren't seeing near the effects of his horrible food issues.  He doesn't eat enough protein throughout the day and therefore has many highs and lows from his body processing the veggies, fruit and carbs he does eat.  So, we started giving him some Boost Kid Essentials over the course of a day to keep him more level.  He calls it his "chocolate milk."  Dinner is no longer a battle and he is actually picking up some of the foods he dropped earlier this fall.
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Hannah's teacher started her in a reading group.  She's now bringing home high frequency readers and learning sight words along with the phonics I as teaching her at home.  It was a big boost for her to hear from her little kindergarten friend, Margo, that she is bring home the same books each week as well.
__________

Jason is continuing on his downward spiral.  We believe it is simply a culmination of life in general, but that doesn't make it any easier to deal with.  It's hard to parent him effectively when he's being so darn oppositional and dishonest.

Intellectually, I know that these are left over and learned behaviors from those attached-challenged days and the only way to turn this around is for him to have enough, purge all those emotions he is building up inside of him and start making better choices.  And it doesn't help that he's feeling BAD about himself for doing all of this and bottling all that up as well.  I can consequence and talk and limit until I'm blue in the face, but he has to make the change here.  This can take as long as a week (which we're well past now) of over a month (looking that way).
__________

Today is my 10th wedding anniversary and if I can get my scanner hooked up, I'll post some pictures of the blessed event.

Although we celebrated last weekend, it's still a special day.  When I was at Target buying Micah's "chocolate milk," I picked up a bottle of wine and a card.  We'll have about a glass a piece while I fold laundry and he fiddles around with his guitar before becoming so tired we can't do anything but fall asleep.  Romance is overrated for parents.  Sleep is the in thing.
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You Can Lead a Horse to Water

My son.  I love him.  I would die for him.  But right now, he is infuriating me to the point of madness.

All week, he has "forgotten" his homework, despite it being written down in his planner and sitting a top the planner on his desk.

Since conferences, he has been surly and out to prove he is not the boy the school claims he is.

On Friday, he carved a 12 inch long gash in his wall.

He's been sneaking and lying and just a downright pain-in-the-butt since before we left for our trip.

And today...

I got a note from the teacher saying he is playing tag extremely roughly (which translates to knocking kids down) and is also SPITTING ON HIS HANDS while he plays and tags people ALL WEEK LONG.

Seriously?

We have gone to such extreme lengths for him to keep him where he is in school.  He has more interventions than I have every seen a kid get and the staff is bending over backwards to help him succeed in school.

So he decides its a good idea to pull this stuff?

I know in my heart that there is a reason behind all of this.  The problem is it may take us a while to figure it out since his standard response these days is to lie or throw a fit.  Add to that the alphabet soup of diagnoses and who knows what is going on.

I seriously thought we were past all of this and doing better.

Guess I was wrong.

Update on Micah

Today was our much anticipated appointment with our pediatrician.  The official word on the EEG is that it came back normal.  However, they had noted something that I can't pronounce (and therefore spell)  that occurred between his changes in sleep patterns, which our doctor couldn't explain either.  She also noted that there was no other medical reason for these spells.

I did ask if it could be that he is just a scattered or spacey kid, which she felt might be the issue, although unlikely.  On the plus side, she said that if we find out these are absence seizures that it is one of the easiest forms of epilepsy to have and the one most grown out of.  Still, I'm hoping for nothing.

So, it's off to a neurologist now.  I don't know yet when, but I will update as we learn more.