sickies

Got a houseful of sickies this week. Started with Maia last week. Progressed to Diana,Ethan, and Andre over the weekend. Andre was able to go to school today. Ethan too, but Diana and Jaeger are still home sick. Only a couple kids left to get it and I am hoping they dont! Easter is the end of the week and we will be hosting dinner for family and friends. I have not heard from the local doctor who said she would call me after doing some research. I guess its back to Philly with him. I was really hopeful but I guess that was a wasted doctor visit. Eric is at school today talking to second graders about bees. He brought the super(empty) and the bee suit to show them where the bees live and tell them all about beekeeping. I guess when they read a book about chickens they will want me to come in and talk about chickens. maybe not. I dont know what I would tell them. That big red rooster attacks me all the time? Eric is getting ready for summer and thinking ahead to planting. I dont know what or when hes going to plant because there is 3 feet of snow on the ground! Maia had a birthday last weekend and turned 9! wow. 9. She was just born yesterday. she was just a baby last week. just a toddler last month. and now out of nowhere she is 9? how does that happen? Miss Natasha is still 10 but suddenly 10 going on 17. tall and leggy and fashionista. her birthday is coming up next week and she wants clothes. not toys or doll stuff. they grow too fast. Diana still loves her doll and plays it all the time. Not much else is new around here. just anxiously awaiting summer and school letting out. Should be a good summer with no fixaters!

a day in the life

local ortho visit was a bust. she didnt want to cast. wanted to cut. its out motto- she's a surgeon, thats what they do. true to form she was wanting to go straight to cutting a bone out. Ben of course heard this and started crying thinking she was gonna do it right then and there. I assured him no one was taking his bones out. not now. not later. she also said the rotation in the foot is femoral. it isnt. we know this. its below the ankle. when his club feet are corrected(before they regress) they are straight! she said his hips are tight but fine. Apparently shriners was unable to send any records. so she had no info on previous plans from Dr Van Bosse. He now has an appointment to go back to Dr Van Bosse. Sophie has an appointment so they got them both in same day same time. Today Maia is home sick. She was up all night throwing up. I couldnt go to sleep after that so I have pretty much been up since about 1230 last night. I have my friends girls coming over tomorrow night for a sleepover. Im a sucker for cute little girls! they are so good though when they are here. should be fine. snow is still out there. not sure we wil see spring for a long time the way its going. late june probably! just 3 days ago we got about a fot of fresh powder. blah Im tired of winter I want spring. Had to put a bazillion dollars into my car this week. it was so hard to be without it while it was in the shop. Sophie missed therapy again because I had no car. but it runs now. life goes on. a bazillion dollars poorer. You know when they say they have to get the part from a ford dealer its gonna be spendy. I can barely keep my eyes open so I think I better take a nap.

I made some pretty amethyst crackled marble pendants. selling them for 12$ includes shipping. I have 17 right now. will be getting some blue ones for AMC. Blue is the AMC color and June 30 is AMC day when everyone wears blue. I did something to my back a few days ago and I can barely move it hurts so bad. Getting up is awful, sitting down is awful, standing is no good, sleeping is difficult. Ready for this back spasm to go away. Even the hot tub didnt help much. Tomorrow I take Ben to doc for Adhd. yes another kid will be on meds. I sure as heck hope it makes an improvement for him. it takes him nearly an hour to put on his snowpants boots jacket and hat in the morning for school. Friday Ben sees a new ortho locally. his feet are regressing. Should be interesting to hear what she has to say. thinking I will have to dig out his wheelchair and dust off the cobwebs if he goes into plaster. Life has been pretty quiet since Sophie got her ex fix off. no doc appts every week. We still have PT and OT every week, but didnt go today because of my back. There is no way I could lift her, then lift her chair, and her walker. then left chair out lift her into it and carry walker to therapy. no way possible that could happen when I cant even pick up a plate without pain. Chrysta is coming home for a week at Easter. The other kids do not have that time off from school. she has promised to be nice while staying here and be helpful. she is going to rearrange some cabinets for me since she likes that job and I dont. I told her if she emailed me a menu I would make her favorites while she is here. Well another day is over and tomorrow begins another so I better head off to bed.

ms thang is trying out a walker and loving walking all over the house! she is doing great. me? not so much. back is killing me! snow lay all over today. was a snowy night last night. We just came in from hot tub and dinner is bubbling away on the stove. Kids are outside playing in the snow. I am sitting here by the fire. love that. Eric is listening to CME on his computer. Its a nice quiet sunday. Best kind.

A little update on the fam

Queenie is doing so well! she is cast free, fixater free. She is wearing PANTS!!! love her dresses but in Minnesota winters pants are definitely good. She is wearing shoes and standing and working on walking every chance she can get. Chrysta is settling in at her Dads. it was a rought start and she still isnt sure she made the best decision but she is working to make it work and I applaud that. Cody is looking at schools, vaguely. but I am encouraged that he has gotten out of bed alone this week and hasnt missed the bus. We now have two kids diagnosed as low iq. so thats a bit of a blow and at the same time really not that big of a surprise. Natasha went to a young writers conference at saint scholastica this week. she was all shy and worried but when she came home she couldnt stop talking about it. I think she enjoyed herself. Maia is still Maia. She sometimes struggles with her brothers and sisters. SHe was really crushed when she found out that her brothers brains were not functioning at the same age their bodies are. she didnt even realize that they were much younger than her. she just loves them. it really hurt her little heart that their brains are damaged. Diana is her sassy little self. sometimes pushing that sass boundry beyond funny into snarky and disrespectful. its a fine line and she walks it pretty well but sometimes falls off. Jaeger enlightened me that the boy he plays with most at school isnt a very nice boy and gets in trouble for being mean. hmmmmm that explains a lot. I really wish that boy could find some good friends that were a good influence. he always seems to go to the ones that you wouldnt want him hanging with. Ethan's therapy has been going well. We found out that he doesnt understand idioms! Just makeing sure he understands us has made a big difference in behavior. today I have NO APPOINTMENTS! I am going to run out and see if I can find a record player. I have two and neither want to work and a bunch of records we want to listen to and cant. I am also working to lose that last bit of weight. I was spurred on to do it since my mouth is filled with sore blisters. eating is not fun or easy. so slim fast is my friend right now. The chickens are all doing fine as well. We had a friend look after them last week when we went to Minneapolis for a few days. While we were there we saw the history museum, the mn institute of art, and como zoo and arboretum. we had a lot of fun with Bob and Jeanne. Bob brought the kids up the next weekend. I am beginning to see why Jaeger so love Gavin. he is a good silly little boy. they are best friends. at school he cant seem to find that. at school he ends up with the naughty kids. the good kids wont play with him. he says anwyays. but he so loves gavin and olivia. Cant wait for summer so they can come up for a week or two. The fish are growing big, they are tilapia and will eventually be dinner, but more importantly they will feed the plants. An interesting experiment for Eric.

A hard day. again.

Today we went to the pyschologist who tested one of our kids. He saw Anxiety, depression, but not as much depression as anxiety, and adhd(which we already knew)scored high in aggression also. His diagnosis is anxiety disorder and adhd and possibly a learning disability, but will have to have school look at that. We already knew he had anxiety and depression and adhd. I dont feel like I learned anything new. That is why I went there, to learn something new to get the tools to parent this boy. I tried to stay sanguin about it but I ended up speaking my mind. probably a good thing, but I dont really feel that much better. I dont feel like this answers the questions I went there with. So do some one on one couseling, and family counseling with Eric and I the boy. I feel like I am spinning my wheels in getting help for him. and for us. I should probably go in with high hopes but I dont have them. This weekend he had a sleepover, his first really. he came home and kicked a hole in the sheetrock because his brothers and sisters were asking him questions about his sleepover. He just BLOWS UP! Im not understanding. I said that I am out of tools and I just plain dont know what to do with him anymore. If I agree he blows up, if I disagree he blows up. if I correct him gently he blows up, if I yell at him he blows up. if I try to explain why something is wrong he blows up. No mention of anything attachment related. No autism, despite hand flapping. It just isnt making sense to me. It is like one more punch in the stomach saying, yeah you are the problem, he is fine. I've heard it for years. I heard with my oldest son who now can barely leave his bedroom because of his anxiety. When you have seen your manchild in such a state he can barely get off the bed and been told since he was 6 years old there was nothing wrong, you start to question the system. I am trying to keep afloat and keep him from going under and I have no tools to do it. No more than I had this morning before I went to that appointment.

I am hosting a giveaway for Alicia on reecesrainbow.org you can find the giveaway on that page, allforalicia.blogspot.com