back in da hood

back in Philly. arrived at Ronald McDOnalds house around 330 this afternoon. after a crazy hair raising car ride where a guy yelled at us(well not US but the driver) we finally got to see Tara and RMH. What a trip it was.

We got up at 330am to get a shower and get to airport for our 630 flight. My brother said hour and half before the flight so we got there around 5. and sat. and sat. and sat. and waited. and waited. and waited. Finally around 6ish they opened the security screening. I was worried about having to train in a whole new airport crew about sophie and ben but man that was so not necessary. so after we went through security, which goes directly to the gate(our smalltown airport has a whole 4 gates)I was given a stroller tag and ushered into preboard. where I had all of 3.2 seconds to board get the kids in and collapse the stroller before everyone else was boarding behind me. While in line for security I noticed a young mom clearly pregnant with two little girls in tow. The girls were waiting until mom was at the front of security to say goodbye to her. so off we went to Chicago. It was still dark out and I wanted them to sleep but they didnt. which means I didnt. oh look! landing already!

announcement: thanks for flying with us and be careful departing the plane as we do not have a walkway but stairs. My ears perked. STAIRS? sigh. ok. I will somehow get two bags and a boy who doesnt do stairs well and a girl who doesnt walk at all down the steps. So I took Ben leaving Sophie on the plane. put my bags and Ben next to the mom, whose name turned out to be Terri. I asked if he could stand next to her and I could leave my bags there while I ran back in to get sophie. oh look they just unloaded my stroller. I opened it up and was told you need to carry that. there is no elevator here. you have to go up the stairs to get into the airport. PARDON? wth am I gonna do now? well you guessed it. I did what I always do. I cried. seriously what else could I do? I went back to get Sophie who was charming the socks of the stewardess. She could see my tears and said she would help me. Terri also said she would help me. Being pregnant I didnt want her to have to carry my stuff and employees cant carry kids so I had no choice. I carried sophie and one bag. one employee carried my backpack. one employee walked ben up the stairs and Terri carried the stroller. WTH? NO ELEVATOR? what is with this country? Another time I encountered a similar situation and the PILOT helped me and they found a service elevator for us.

The kindness of strangers is often the only way I would get through these trips. thank god for their kindess because clearly the stupid airlines dont have a fecking clue about accessibility. So Terri and I and the kids went and found some breakfast. then we parted ways and we went on to our gate.

When I asked about changing seats to closer to the front I was told no. not possible. but they could order an aisle chair for her. so I went to my gate and she not only ordered an aisle chair but changed our seats as well and let us on well before anyone else to get settled. she told me to call and request it in advance and it would save time. It was funny when we got to PA the guys who came to put her in the chair lifted her as a team lift. huh. 31 pounds and I toss her over my arm to pull her pants off no problem and it took two of them to lift her. lol. Ben said to the one guy that he sounds like raymone from Princess and the frog. he thought ben was saying he sounded like a frog. I explained to him and he said now it all makes sense because another kid a couple weeks ago said the same thing. lol. sophie kept telling everyone to SMILE! SMILE! dont forget your SMILE FACE! as she yells across the airport.

on the ride between chicago and philly a man who said his name was Ollie sat between Ben and Sophie. He was very kind and friendly. My kids really like Harry Potter and she started talking about magic and there really is no magic but it would be nice if there was magic. Ollie didnt understand. He said yeah its magic, the plane goes along them goes up and goes down again to the ground(all the while moving his hand to show up and down and moving along.) Sophie snorted and said THATS NOT MAGIC! THATS JUST YOUR HAND! we both cracked up and Ollie said wow! cant fool you! kids today are too smart! it was very much needed comic relief. Somewhere over Ohio Sophie was saying BEN! BEN! and he wasnt responding. remember he is several seats away. I said he cant hear you. She asked why but my response tht he was too far away wasnt good enough. She formulated her own hypothesis. Oh! I know why he cant hear me! she said. Its because my ears are plugged!

well its time to go to dinner and let teh kids play awhile. they were so good on the planes. they need to scoot around and play awhile. Tomorrow off to see Dr VanBosse!

so begins a new year of fighting for services for Andre

he cant keep himself safe. he doesnt learn from consequences. he has short term memory loss. after a full year of Kindergarten he still doesnt recognise MOST of the letters. not just mixing up b and d and things like that. he truly doesnt know MOST of the letters. he has the IQ of a four year old, and is expected to do first grade 8 year old things. he just plain cant. not without extra support. he is now getting title one, except that means he misses more classroom lessons that are then sent home for me to do with him. he. needs. help. damn the government guidelines that keep him from it. four year olds are not sent to first grade for a reason. they arent where they should be to do first grade work without constant guidance. and yet if you are are physically 8 and function at 4 you are expected to do it all. that isnt right. it isnt fair! and they say why do you want to evaluate him again if they just did this last year? WEREN"T YOU LISTENING? HE NEEDS HELP! and I will keep hounding and fighting until he gets it! he WANTS to learn. he is MOTIVATED to learn. he just isnt ABLE to learn the way other kids do. sadly without SOME diagnosis I dont think we are going to get anything for him there. and the proposed law that nonfluent readers after 3rd grade are not promoted? (did that pass? I dont know) thats insanity! you wont help him and yet if he is UNABLE do it himself he will be punished? thats not fair!

another day another....appointment

seems all I do is run to appointments. fly to philly for appointments. run to dentist appointments. run to doctor appointments. run to AFO appointments. run to grocery store. run run run. I am so tired from all the running and the lack of sleep at night.

We leave Thursday for Philly again. Ben Sophie and myself. At least we dont have to drive two hours to the airport now. but we also wont have nonstop flight. I look forward to Philly trips. its rather relaxing taking care of only two kids. Of course it means I am the only one to take sophie potty but it also means I dont have to chase anyone down or listen to anyone's sass. Sophie occasionally gets sassy but generally not and Ben NEVER is sassy. Ben is a sweet little boy. innocent and a but tooo intent on being helpless but very sweet and knows right from wrong. AND! I usually get to read a book on the plane. nice huh?

Sophie and I will go back to Philly again on Oct 10. Her surgery is Oct 12 but was previously scheduled Oct 11. so we end up with a day to mess around. I think we will go see something. must be something to do in Philly. Now if I could just find a stroller. I thought I had one all worked out but it turned out to have inflatable tires and that at the plane the tires would have to deflate. bleh. I am running out of time on this! I cant believe there isnt a single stroller anywhere in the area that would work for me. I put an ad on craigslist, and also on freecycle, and a moms group. I have been to goodwill salvation army. There is a second hand kids shop but she mostly sells clothes. not equipment. Wondering if we can rent wheelchair of some sort that wouldnt be as difficult as the one Alexis was given for Laelia. well time to go make some calls and make some more appointments and get sophie dressed and ready to go for todays appointments since she doesnt have school today she has to come with.

well another birthday down!

I cant believe my little Andre is 8! I remember going to get Ben in Ukraine and this toothless droooling little boy tugged on my shirt and grinned up at me. he is still awful darn cute! The kids get to choose where they would like Mama and Papa to take them to dinner on their birthday. Andre, a boy after my own heart, wanted to go to McDs and have a happy meal. He enjoyed his meal very much. It was rather strange for Eric and I to be able to sit across from each other and actually speak to each other and attending to one kid. Andre must have also been missing the presence of his brothers and sisters because he didnt play very long in the play area. there were some kids there but they were loud obnoxious and inappropriate. He just wasnt all that interested in playing. I kept calling him Lil Bub. My husbands family calls him Bub, thus Andre is Lil Bub. Not really a stretch cus I call him Lil Bit already. He was very cute and animated with his new happy meal toy. but he was very nervous going out in the dark. and VERY nervous walking from the garage to the house when we got home.

We took some pictures and sang happy birthday and gave him his gift. I dont know what he was expecting but I was right on when I said no matter what I get he will be disappointed. I have learned this lesson well with AJ. but I am proud of the tact he showed when his face said it all. He could have melted down and/or complained.cried/carried on. He did none of those things He thanked me and came to me afterwards to hug me and tell me thanks. No one told him to. he just did it. I am very proud of him. So now my little tiny Andre is no longer 7. no longer one of the triplets. now he is 8 with Diana. but no worries, Next month Ben will be 8 and then we will have three 8 year olds instead of 3 seven year olds. = )

Fas Fun

well andre was up bright and early this morning. at 430. after he peed his bed he got hungry. so he snuck in the kitchen and ate half the cheese. but then he couldnt see so he lit a candle. with a romantic glow he ate half of a large loaf of banana bread. at some point he must have been cold because he tossed some paper(I hope it was useless paper and not important paper) into the fireplace. skittered back to his bead with crumbs on his lips when he heard me on the stairs. so I am up. for the day I guess. I really HATE starting my day at 430. its bad enough having to get up at 530. I have sophie home today and she nags me every 5 minutes is I try to sleep. besides her AFO is busted and I have to go downtown to get that fixed as well as the pharmacy to get meds. good thing anyways since the house smells like smoke now.

I guess I will have to take the matches to bed with me now. that doesnt keep him from tossing things into the fire. time to buy a new alarm for his door. I need a threshhold alarm. so if he crosses the sensor it lets me know. so far we have only tried wake the entire house alarms. Ethan slept all night but not Andre. if Andre sleeps all night, not Ethan. he is a famous midnight snacker and gets into things too. FAS anyone? so much fun! NOT! and why when I take them to the doctor and say they dont sleep, they just nod and smile and refuse to prescribe anything? I need sleep to function!!! so last night since we went out, I got a whole four hours sleep before Andre started his crap. only 4 more hours till he goes to school. where he doesnt know 17 our of 24 letters and smiles sweetly at his teacher and she is sure he will do just fine.

life is crazy here

we had a scary evening last night. We had a busy day and busy afternoon and time got away from us. Dinner was very late. We cooked some polish sausage on the grill. Maia choked on hers! but after Daddy yanked her from her seat(no easy feat as she is getting so big!) and did the heimlich she was able to breathe again. so scary! She has always been the one to make us shake our heads in wonder how she makes it through the day. She dances she twirls she climbs she falls. she just dances along and never has the foresight to see the dangers and falls into them every time. and somehow she escapes major damage and continues dancing. But last night evern Maia was upset. she sat with her big sister for a long time afterwards before going back to her food. I made her cut it up before eating and she was fine with that. She started the day yesterday by falling down the stairs. her socks slipped while she danced down and down she went. so poor Maia had a heckuva day yesterday. Today she seems unphased. thank goodness for that.

In other news life here remains busy! even with kids in school! it seems there are doctor or dentist appointments or other errands that must be done and I never get a day off! I was supposed to get a break when they went to school! Where's my break? I WANT MY BREAK! I guess I will get my break when we go to Philly at the end of the month. Should be a pretty painless visit. thank goodness for that, since the next one in October is a biggie!

It is fall big time around here. leaves are turning. leaves are falling(even before they turn!) and there is a serious chill! Going to have to start up the fire place pretty soon. or turn on some heat! We usually try to wait until october or even november to turn on the heat but I dont know if we will make it this year!

Well it is time to get Sophie dressed and go run our errands for the day. change of address on license, buy dog food, maybe hit goodwill for a table for my laundry room(not to mention I have boxes of stuff to drop off there!)

school starts tomorrow!!!

school starts tomorrow! YAY all around! all the kids are excited. I will have NO KIDS at home for the first time in 17 years. wow. quiet. peace. do whatever I want! no car seats or wheelchairs to think about! I can just GO somewhere if I want to. Sophie will only go tues/thurs and every other fri. but the others go full time. still thats two days a week I can do whatever I like. and what will I do? probably nothing. sit here and pine for them. Read, take a long hot bath, bake, sew, stamp. maybe. At least until Sophie gets her surgery and cant go to school.

Everything is going well at the new house. it is so nice to have enough space. Sophie likes that she can wheel her chair all over the house. she still scoots sometimes though.

so Maia and Diana will be in the same class together in first grade. Ben and Andre are in same first grade class together. Jaeger Natasha and Ethan in same second grade class. Sophie will be in K all by herself.

open house for high school last night!
for elementary school tonight!
school starts tuesday!