Screaming and Crying

Taylor had his post op follow up appointment today.  As far as his surgical site, everything went very well.  The appointment it self probably couldn't have gone worse.  I got a late start because Wes needed his diaper changed when I discovered an explosion in his pants.  I couldn't find Ava's sandals, and my kids become surprisingly deft when I as them to help me find things.  They will wander around the house as if they have some idea what they are doing.  Then after some period of time, you say, "Liv, did you find Ava's shoes?" and she looks at you like you are a martian speaking Chinese and says, "what?"

Anyway, I did eventually find the sandals, and pack all four of my whinny, wriggling little monsters into the car.  On the way there I got an upsetting phone call that frankly just frustrated me at the most inconvenient time. When we got there, I had trouble ending the call, and my children took this opportunity to pretend not to know what they should be doing.  They found a planter of rocks next to my parking spot and began chucking the stones.  Thankfully, I don't think they hit anything or anyone. I finally got off the phone, corralled my children, and made way for the elevator.  As I got on the elevator, Wes picked that moment to make his own independence be known, and he literally high tailed it out of there.  I ran after him, leaving my three other children in the elevator.  The door closed as I chased Wes down the hallway.  Now I had three children screaming inside the elevator, and one screaming and kicking, HARD, in my arms.  

The kids really were not in any danger since I had not pushed any buttons.  So I pushed the up button again, and the door opened. But the passerby's must have thought I was completely incompetent. Once we were all united inside the elevator, I hit the button for the second floor, and the door closed.  This of course set Wes off completely.  He started freaking out, screaming and crying.  It was the longest two story elevator ride I have ever experienced.  

When the door opened all the panic resolved as the kids discovered that Children's hospital Clinics have an awesome waiting area designed (shockingly :) for kids.  I waited while the two desk attendants concluded their conversation with a personal visitor.  In the meantime, my children found all of the wheeled toys, and were pushing each other around the waiting room screaming with glee.  This, of course, procured all the eyes on the floor, visitors, other patients, nurses, whoever... 

When I finally got to the desk, the woman informed me that one of Taylor's insurance plans was not in fact on file... which was odd since he was just there for his pre-op consult... Then she asked me every question no less than twice, and in the end, found his primary insurance information.  I am convinced that she simply didn't know what she was looking at.  It took at least twice as long than usual.  Then she handed me a whole bunch of paperwork and an armband and told me to put it on him.  This turned out to be my next fail.  One would think after five years of putting arm bands on people in the ER that I could have handled this small task.  Yeah, no.  I pulled on the wrong part and the paper slipped out causing the band to stick together three times too big.  I never understood why they need to arm band kids in the first place... its just a clinic.... 

So I filled out the paperwork and broke up at least four fights between my children, before the nurse called for Taylor.  I plucked Wes out of the little car thing he was "driving", which set him off yet again.  Squawking and screaming as loud has he can manage, we followed the nurse.  Who commented, "Your very busy!" with wide shocked eyes no less than three times.  

YES, I AM VERY BUSY

After weighing and measuring, we went to the room. The kids made a bee line for the toy mounted to the wall.  (which is developmentally bellow nearly all of them...) and then preceded to fight over it... of course.  The nurse tried asking me questions, but Wes' screaming, "MY TURN! MY TURN! MY TURN...", wasn't conducive to actual communication.  I scooped him up in an attempt to put an end to it, and well it escalated.  He threw himself to the grown and then big crocodile tears streamed down because he had hurt himself.  Eventually he stopped crying and started exploring again.  He tripped at least twice before he discovered that he could climb the exam table.   Then he climbed up on the exam table step and fell twice more.  All while the nurse was trying to "assess" Taylor.  She finally determined that his incision (which BTW, is an inch long on his abdomen slightly to the left and above his belly button) looked "good".  (Which is what I told her at least three times already...)

She left... a few more fights, a few more falls... and Ava holding herself and crossing her legs.  So I get all the children together and we go looking for a bathroom.  Wes is screaming as we do this because he wasn't going to get over his last little clumsy tumble.  I get Ava on and off the potty in record time, all the kids cover their ears and cry about the "loud" potty, and we go looking for the room again.  

The doctor finally walks in, wearing a sling on his dominant hand and tries awkwardly to shake my hand.  His comment?  Yeah, "so which one is the patient?" I resisted my urge to retort, "The 6 year old male, TAYLOR."  

It took far longer than it should have to tell me his incision, like I said now four times, "looked fine".  Then we were on our way.  But my kids have been around the block a few times and asked for the stickers.  Three of them engaged the desk ladies looking for their loot, while Wes spotted the car.  He was off.  I was not far behind him, but he beat me there.  He pushed the other kid, who was getting out of the car, out of his way and had one whole foot in before I caught up.  I apologized to the parents profusely, and scooped Wes up and brought him back across the room.  I set him down and tried to round up the troops.  Wes, threw himself on the floor so hard that I heard a crack.  And of course, started screaming.  

I picked him wailing, physically pushed all the kids to the elevator and watched all the shocked faces as the doors closed. 

I held myself together until we got to the car.  They were all complaining by then, but Wes had not let up.  I guess it doesn't surprise me in hindsight, he had hit his head so hard that there was a rug burn, bruise, and swelling to the area.  But I was loosing it.  I started crying.  All the way home sobbing.  There are times when I feel so good about Wes, and then there are these times, when I just want someone to give me some answers, support... something... 

Meet and Greet

Yesterday we took the kids to school to meet all their new teachers and leave all their new supplies.  We went to Wes' classroom first.  He jumped right in exploring and babbling away.  We discussed some logistics and confirmed all details.  His new speech and language therapist, who was also Taylor's first speech and language therapist in the school district, also stopped by to meet him.  I have a really good feeling about that.  

Then we tromped along to the other side of the building where the first grade classrooms are.  Taylor and Alivya will again have separate teachers.  I was surprised at how shy they were acting when they met their new teachers.  Alivya will have a substitute until November as her new teacher had a baby recently.  Liv will also begin the year sitting next to two of her friends from kindergarten, Addison and Ava.  They were excited to see a few of their friends also there meeting their new teachers. 

I can't

Yesterday I told Ava to bring her plate to the sink after we finished eating.  She said "I can't try that" and gave me the poutiest little girl smile.  I tried to get her to do it again for the camera, but she was on to me.  

When E was her age, he told everyone that he "can't want to" and for eleven years that has been our family inside joke whenever we don't want to do something... "Oh I can't want to" we would say to each other.  I think now its time to change up the phrase! "Oh I can't try that!"

My Wes

Who doesn't just love this face?

Where have all the flowers gone?

This morning I woke up and peered out my window over my lovely back yard.  I was disappointed to see that so many the beautiful red leaves had fallen of our enormous maple (whose leaves begin changing color every year in July). I love fall, except for the fact that it precedes winter.  There are a lot of ways in which I am ready for fall, but a lot in which I am just not.  

This afternoon I took the kids for an appointment with a therapist that specializes in feeding therapy.  I am hoping that she has some special feeding voodoo that will get Wes on the fast tract to normality, yet I don't dare to hope.  Other special needs Moms will definitely understand this. I really liked the therapist, I think she has a good energy, and some tricks that we haven't tried.  She warned me though that it can be hard to get prior authorization from insurance companies for this stuff.  Which frankly rials me up.  

So we will see how this goes.  If it goes well, I might get Taylor some help too.  

Frog

Felt a little bit like a frog today.  I sat on my perch (desk) and croaked (hit the button) all day.  A day in the life of a frog, who knew you could get the experience while working on the birth center? 

Do the Westli!!!



:o) Love this kid!!!

Meet Mr Butterfly

Doing homework... how does this happen after just the first day?  Well you all know me, so you know that these assignments are actually due until October.  But now they are done, and in October, I will be grateful not to have to worry about getting them done :)  

In other news, Ava is doing great going pee pee on the potty.  She can hold it until we decide she should try and then she goes.  Anyone know how to get her to tell us that she has to go?  She rarely gets the poopy in the potty.  Three maybe four times... but most of it ends up as a mess in her undies.  Frustrating...  suggestions most welcomed... :)

2nd Semester

I started the second semester of my nursing program today. 

It humbles me to think that I can sit for the LPN boards at the end of this term.  Marks the half way point.  This time next year, I will be one semester from graduation.  

Funny how things can seem so close and yet so far away. 

My blog posts, not unlike this week, might be shorter for the time being.  Classes really do keep me busy, sorry :(

Wordless Wednesday

Who is Pneumo?

Liv had another follow up with her pulmonologist today.  The pulmonologist who was here this time was the one that first saw Taylor in the NICU six years ago.  It was nice to be able to share with her how well he is doing.  They haven't seen Taylor since we had to switch when he was two. 

Alivya is doing very well.  We made no changes to her plan and will follow up again in three or four months.  Hopefully by then we will know how the cold and flu season will effect her asthma.  

Happy Birthday E

My wonderful nephew Evan turns 14 today.  

Seems like just yesterday when I peeled his Momma off the floor of her apartment, suffered her screaming wrath trying not to drive too fast or too slow and to miss all the pot holes between her apartment in Menasha to the hospital in Neenah... The spent a long evening next to her under her strong grip while she decided too late that she wanted drugs and begged the nurses to "stop it" so they could all do it "later".  

I love being an aunt.  I was 17 when E came into the world.  I dragged him around with me everywhere.  I remember stopping by the stage at school one day.  People said, "Julie, do have something to tell us?" I said, "Umm... my sister had a baby?"

Anyway, this year, my little baby E will be a freshman at that very school.  Where did all that time go?  That was also the year I met Jon.  I don't think he loved carrying around my baby nephew, but not doing so probably would have been a deal breaker for me.  I always knew babies would be in my future, so how Jon cared for E was sort of my first chance to see how my future fit with him.  

Anyway, food for another book :)

Happy Birthday Evan, hope it was great!

Rest or not

We are spending the day getting the house ready for fall.  Trimming the burbs, burning the trimmings, cleaning, scrubbing, all that fun stuff.  

Later we will head over to Grandma K's for our usual sunday afternoon!

Happy Birthday Mom

Happy Birthday Mom, Hope your having a great day!

Lazy Photo Day

Pathophys

Since Last Tuesday, a nasty virus (known as the Rhino virus) has attacked my body.  It has carefully and laboriously embedded itself into he cells that line my sinus cavity and settled in.  The pressure of this entrenched army makes my face pound.  Yesterday said army's inhabitance caused the draining of thick nasty mucus to flow down my nasal pharynx.  There, the mucus irritated the he** out of my poor cilia that line my trachea and bronchial tubes.  I put on a good show while traipsing around Bay Beach and sucking on cough drops to sooth the pain in my throat.  Today, said thick mucus has defeated the efforts of my poor ciliated cells and encrusted itself in a hard thick coating.  My last ditch effort, huge fits of dry hacking, surprisingly having irritated my throat as much as the drippage of yesterday.  Still, cough to the state of virtual vomitus and that nasty crap that loosens is so gross!  

Lets everyone give my poor immune system some much needed encouragement... Come on immunity, HEAL already!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bay Beach!!!!

We are totally exhausted after spending most of the day at Bay Beach Amusement park in Green Bay!

The kids and I went to Taylor and Wes' chiropractor in the morning, then came home to get ready for the big day.  We packed a snack, water bottles, diapers and the cushy tushy.  Around noon we headed out.  First stop was the potties, of course.  The big kids took off on their own adventure, while the younger kids, my sister, Stephanie and I started in the kiddie area. 

Wes was apprehensive about the Lady Bugs, their first ride, but seemed to enjoy some of it.  Same with the boats... though he really got into the boats after a minute or so. 

Then he was done.  He wanted nothing to do with the Flying Fighters, where the "guns" make a high pitched whistling noise.  He let me put him in the race car, but climbed out before the ride started.  He did the same with the other cars.  I was proud of him though.  The first time we brought Taylor and Liv, Taylor wouldn't go on anything.  

Then Taylor picked the Ferris Wheel, which had a long line in mostly direct sunlight.  The kids were impatient, but waited and we finally got our turn. 

Taylor road with Leah...

Alivya road with Amy, and I got Ava (YES!!! She doesn't yet understand the concept of "rocking" the car, which is the part I don't really like...)  Ava thought it was awesome.  She giggled and laughed and yelled woohoo through the whole ride. After that we took a potty/re apply the sunscreen break.  During the break, Taylor told me he was hungry.  So we went back to the car for sandwiches and chips.  This is a terrible photo, but it is so much my kids that I had to post it anyway!  Haha!

After "second lunch", we took a long walk through the Nature Center.  The chipmunks were amazingly friendly.  The kids actually got within an arms distance at one point and Amy told them not to touch the chipmunks.  I never really thought I would hear that in the context of a "wild" animal.  

We saw, bobcats, ravens, otters, snakes, turtles, a cougar, a deer, and some other animals.  Then we refilled our water bottles and took another potty break.  The kids played in the exhibit at the nature center building.  Then we headed back to the rides.  

Ava, I must caveat for a minute, was super awesome.  She went potty twice while we were there, and stayed dry the whole day.  We walked over three miles, most of which she also walked.  She took a couple short rides in the stroller when Wes wanted to walk.  Ava took a little digger on the trail, but pretty much got right up and moved on.  She really had a great time and enjoyed everything.  She didn't complain, she didn't whine, and she got on and off when the ride attendants said it was time.  I was simply impressed with how well she handled the whole day. 

We all rode the train, which is a big tradition in our family.  We have pictures of me when I was probably younger than Ava and Wes riding the train with Amy and my dad.  So it sort of became a tradition. And who doesn't love a little train ride?  Taylor has requested that we get a train like that for home...  so Taylor. 

After the train, we hit the Merry Go Round, and the bumper cars.  Liv told us before we left that she wanted ride the bumper cars, it was the first thing she asked for when we got there, and through out the whole day all she wanted was to ride the bumper cars.  So we definitely could not leave without one bumper car ride.  Since they are so short, they could not ride the bumper cars alone.  So an adult had to ride with them, so Amy took each of Taylor and Alivya on the bumper cars.  

The missing voice

This blog was started in 2005 by my husband.  Back then, blogs were new, and few non major geeks had even heard of them, let alone have one of their own.  The trend didn't take long to catch on though, and now they are very common place.  His blog, I think, was really intended as a place where he could unleash all the geeky knowledge and finds he harbors.  If you go back to the very beginning of the blog, you will find quite a lot of this (the Nintendo Wii was just an exciting new concept). 

Then Taylor stirred up the pot, and soon they both arrived in stately fashion.  The blog became a place for our friends and family to gather information and see pictures.  In the isolating desperate world of the NICU, the blog was easiest way to disseminate up to date and accurate information about their conditions.  Six months later, when we finally had both babies home, the blog became a lifeline.  It was a means to connect with other families who had children like ours, it was a means to vent and describe the ins and outs of my new life.  It was the only adult connection I had with the world.  And by this time, it was my blog.  Jon stopped contributing and a very important perspective, in my opinion, was lost. Last year I stopped harassing him and begging him to contribute.  I changed the name and description to reflect these facts. I still miss his input, and I sometimes feel like he doesn't feel the need to talk to me because he has or will "read the blog". This is when you know that you share too much information with world wide web.

Earlier today, I was sitting at my computer completing my Meeting Minutes for our most recent SNA meeting, and I was notified that I had gotten an email from Jon.  An unsolicited email from Jon is like winning the lottery.  Hell, a solicited email from Jon is like winning the lottery, and unsolicited email is more like meeting Harry Potter in your back yard.  It just does not happen, ever... So I stopped all the presses and read the email. It read:

"In an effort to promote pease and prosperity throughout the Meadowlark household we are bringing the fight to the enemy. On Wednesday, the 15th of August, at 0900 hours, 5 diplomatic pressure devices, also known as bug boms, will be deployed. While it is unfortunate that it has come to this, we repeatedly warned the insurgent agents that their actions would have consequences.


During this period, allies of the collation, here to fore known as CATS (confidential authorized terrestrial sources) will need redeployment. Primary site location for this deployment would preferably be at the River address. This deployment, upon confirmation of Rivers commanding officer, will begin at 2000 hours on August the 14th. While some think that it is unwise to give a time table for withdrawal, as it will give the enemy a tactical advantage, we are certain that the mission will be concluded and the CATS returned to their homeland no later than 1600 hours on the day of operation.

We look forward to our victory, and hope that any future issues with the surrounding territories may be more peacefully concluded."   Later when I saw him briefly before work, I said, "interesting email."   He replied, "I was feeling creative."   Jon is a terrible speller, and rarely employs real grammar rules, but his expressive style is so unique.  That is what I miss most about his contributions to this blog.  We are pretty good about seeing things eye to eye, but the journey there is so completely different.  The email, in case you were unable to read between the lines, is explaining to his mom that we need to bomb the house for unwanted creepy crawlies and need a place for his animals to stay while we do it. 

Parent Information day

What is "Parent Information Day"? If you were like me and thought that it was a day set aside for parents to go to school and actually ingest information about their child attending said school in three weeks or less… well you would be wrong. As it turns out, Parent Information Day, is a day set aside for parents to drag all four of their unhappy children into said quiet school (until their children arrived anyway) to be handed a manila envelope full of advertisements and papers they were given on three previous occasions. In other words, waste of my time Day.


I was worried that it might rain as it sort of smelled like rain and was terribly cloudy like rain. But Jon has this app for his phone… hmm can’t remember what its called at the moment… anyway, he is pretty confident in said app. He likes to tell me that “the rain will be here in seven minutes”… based on the information that the app provides. So I look at my local weather channel app, and it shows a huge green rain blob over our whole area… but it wasn’t raining… so I text him, “Is it going to rain in the next 30 minutes?” I feel a little stupid doing this, like when you pick up one of those eight balls and ask if your current love interest “will marry you” and it says “perhaps”. A few minutes later I get a text back, “No”.

Since it was not going to rain, the eight ball said so, I decided to bike with the kids to the school to attend this most important “Parent Information Day”. As we left the garage I realize that the tire on Jon’s bike (because his has the adaptor for the bike trailer) is most nearly flat when I get my huge bum on it. This doesn’t bother me as much as the fact that I am peddling and peddling and my speed isn’t changing at all. I jump off the bike right next to my road side mailbox. Taylor and Liv stop too. I look down, the chain is completely off. Of course. I remove my helmet, my awesome new biker gloves, and attempt to put the chain back on. I have, believe it or not, put chains back on bikes before. But this one is now jammed between the frame and the sprocket housing. Crap (drink if you are playing 50 Shades of Grey drinking game!) I play with it some more, and finally it is free. I slip it on and jiggle the metal guide a little, and it seems right.

I put on my gloves, helmet, and leap onto the bike again. Just then, Livi says, “I think we should, um, bring some tissue.” Her nose has two gross streaks of thick yellow crap (yup, another drink) oozing out of it. So I tell her to open the garage, go back in the house and get some tissues. By now, my 30 minutes is definitely up… I think about asking the oracle if there will be rain in the next 30 minutes, but I decide that it pretty much doesn’t matter. So far what could go wrong had, and well, we would probably get rained on. I hadn’t gone through all that work.. yes, I broke a sweat pulling out the kids bikes, the bike trailer, and Jon’s bike, then strapping all the kids into their helmets and little ones into their seats… to give up because it might rain.

Finally we were off. If you don’t count Wes screaming every time I had to stop (2 streets and 2 for Liv) and all of Liv’s whining about needing to “catch up”, it was a very pleasant ride. We parked the bikes and invaded the school. Afterwards, the kids showed me their new classrooms, and I told them they could play on the playground for a while. This was super exciting because Johnston installed some new playground equipment since summer school ended just under a month ago. The video above is testament that this new piece is going to cause plenty of arguments for the playground supervisors.

Eventually I realized that Tay and Liv both needed to use the potty, and they both refused to use the school facilities, so we went home. More whining from the same offenders made the home ride less pleasant, but we made it home fine. It did not rain the whole day.

Work?

After yesterday's adventures, today we had to get back to the business of housekeeping.. boring!
Jon spent five hours today outside dealing with weeds, piles of rotting twigs and branches we've been "collecting", and our waist high neglected lawn. In the meantime, I spent the day cleaning up around the inside, doing laundry, tending the munchkins, exercising, and trying to decide if I have a sliver in my foot (which I do...)
Running on the treadmill with a sliver in your foot, pretty much sucks. Still, I did my 30 minute workout without tears. I made steak and zucchini and red potato bake for dinner. My steak was perfect, Jon gave me a firm "It was fine." Which is the only adjective Jon uses, the rest is up for debate. (He did eat all of the steak, however I have seen him eat all of other awful meals that I have made and refused to eat, and declare them "fine"... your guess is as good as mine.)
After dinner, which was awesome, to me anyway, I took a shower and we watched the closing ceremony for the 30th Olympiad. :( Actually I am sort of ready for it to be over, the Olympics consumed far more of my time than I really had to give it. I enjoyed the closing but not as much as the opening. I spent a lot of time wondering what was going on exactly and chumming it up to British oddness :) "Its the Brits" became my slogan.
So tonight we said goodbye to television with the exception of a few Packer games and the super bowl until probably the next Olympics... have a darn amazing yard free of piles of rotting debris, a more tidy house and about half clean laundry.