Crash

Ever been in one of those moments in life where everything seems SO HARD and SO MUCH? During rational moments, you can step back and see that, no, there's nothing so bad going on. Just a whole bunch of little things, minor stresses, decisions, phone calls to make, errands to run, stuff taking over the brain. But it's enough to keep you from sleeping and enough to make you cranky? Yeah, I'm there.

When life gets like this, the strange solution for me is to get busier. Not with those phone calls and errands, but with my kids. Because when I get cranky, I lose any semblance of patience I might otherwise have. And they pay the price with sarcasm, a raised voice, and snapped answers. None of which they deserve. So, when they come home from school, I make myself get off of this computer, find some new activities and crafts, and put our grungy clothes on so we can go for a walk in the rain. And I try to give extra hugs, to cushion the crankiness.

There are what feels like 5,000 little stories to tell here on this blog o'mine. But my brain filter is clogged. So here are the titles of a few of those blog entries, since I can't seem to focus long enough to write anything further:

My oldest child is turning eight, so that makes me: old.
Wii Fit: Is kicking my virtual behind.
I love the rain, but must it make mud for my 2 kids, 2 cats, and 1 dog to track through my kitchen?
Discipline or discrimination? ...not ready to talk about this one yet.
A clean house would be lovely, going to bed early is lovelier.
Did I mention Emma's turning eight? Sigh.

Awesome

I wouldn't have guessed that we ALL would have so much fun. But there is something magical in seeing your child's dream come true.

As you can see, the blue headphones came in handy once again. We had great seats in the balcony closest to the stage. We could have been down in the orchestra seats right up front, but I felt that would be overwhelming for George, and these seats were perfect. We could see slightly offstage, so whenever Thomas was waiting in the wings, George could see him. There was much excitement, shouting, and even dancing. He even did well when the show was over. There was a very definite ending, with the actors all waving good-bye to the audience, so he understood that it was time to go.

Totally worth the money, and yet another example of how much he can handle when we give him new opportunities.

Oh boy...

Check out our schedule for Saturday afternoon:

Thomas & Friends Live! On Stage

If you don't hear from me on Sunday, assume that I've been trampled by hoards of preschoolers.

I apologize...

My dear traffic companions,

I deeply apologize for daring to go straight through the intersection. From the lane that goes straight. Yes, you behind me, I realize that technically, I could have turned right on red. If I had wanted to turn right. Your impassioned hand gestures certainly demonstrated that possibility and my obligation to do so. But I failed you. I'm sorry.

And to you, too, driver in the oncoming left hand turn lane. I should have known that you would turn left directly in front of me as soon as the light turned green. After all, I was supposed to turn right, not go straight, as established above. Obviously, you had been communicating with the driver behind me and thought that his message had convinced me of my true path. I'm sorry if it was inconvenient to slam on the brakes inches before we met head on. I know it was for me and my children, I'm sure your cell phone was equally upset.

In the future, I will endeavor to more adequately indicate my intended route of travel. Until an "I'm not turning" signal can be designed, please assume that I will be going straight through the intersection of Garfield and 7th. From the straight lane.

Thank you.

On Emma's mind...

Swimming tonight, lots of people there in the winter, a hard thing for a shy girl.
Missing her neighbor friend, there are bugs to find and no one to find them with.
Subtraction & multiplication.
Her boyfriend is moving in 20 days.
Her best friend is moving in 2 months.
Daddy is leaving for a year.
George screams when she gets bossy, and they both spend time in their rooms.

Sometimes life isn't fair.

But then...
Sometimes you get McDonald's twice in one week.
Maybe a friend from school will be at the pool tonight.
Math homework for the week is finished.
Playing tag in PE, totally the best part of school, EVER.
When the sun is shining, Mom relaxes the whole "wear a jacket" rule.

And life rolls along.

Weekend Happenings and Non-happenings

Monday was spent Standing for the Children in front of the Capital building with teachers, parents, students, and legislators. And then a trip up the freeway to IKEA with the girls. I was away from the family from 10 am to 7 pm, completely unreal!!! Lots of fun, but I was exhausted by the time I got home and, crazy as it sounds, I missed that family of mine!

Speaking of my family, this is how they spend their afternoons on semi-warm winter days:

Yeah, we're a classy family. Not everyone can brag about their chains-on-the-tires, red-wagon-towing tractor fun!

Words

I have, on several different occasions, mentioned George's "regular" preschool that he attends in the afternoons with "typical" kids. The teachers there are fabulous and the director bends over backward to make that school a successful learning (and social) environment for Geoge. We don't see her everyday; but when we do pass in the hallway, she always stops what she's doing, crouches down to George's level, initiates eye contact, and says "hello". Most times, with prompting, George will mumble-echo a "hello" back as he pushes on toward his classroom. When he's on his way somewhere and/or within a routine, it's VERY difficult to pull his attention elsewhere. Head down, feet on auto-pilot, he barrels on toward his goal.


Yesterday, as we entered the building, the director exited the lunchroom at the end of the hall, beyond his classroom. A hallway packed with parents waiting to pick up kids from the morning class or drop off George's classmates. Before I had even seen her, George spotted Lee (the director) and, at the top of his lungs, yelled, "HI LEE!!" The crowd of parents giggled and "awww'ed", Lee dashed over to George and knelt down to give him a hug, and I died.

The changes, they are coming.

As for my girl? She's entering a very mysterious phase.

Today, I had a short discussion with her teacher, making sure that she and her boyfriend weren't causing any distractions in class with their "relationship".

And then I died.

Both boys went to the barber today. Though I've been cutting George's hair with clippers for months now, this was the first time he'd allow someone else to do it. An even bigger deal for him is the cape he let the barber put on him! He hates things like that, especially when they make him feel constrained, but he sat still and let it all happen!

You've got to love those faces in the last two photos. He's not crying in the last one, just trying to vibrate hair off of his lips, LOL!! Good job, little man!

Love Thursday

When he scrubs the pots & pans, and she makes his favorite dessert... that's love.

What is your visual reminder of love today?

(Home smoked pulled pork sandwiches, baked beans, and salad for dinner, peach cobbler for dessert. Mmmmmm......)

Precocious children

I spend an hour every school day doing battle, errr, I mean, working with the dear little children in Emma's classroom. Don't get me wrong, I love that hour. The kids are still exactly that: kids. And yet? I work primarily with the group of top readers/writers. Want to know something about smart kids? They're SMART.

Yes, fine, top scores on tests, first ones done on most projects, know the answer to everything you toss at them. But also? SMART. As in: smart alecs, masters of distraction and misdirection, "throw some words on the paper and turn the page and be done" champions. And today, they won. At the end of my hour, I told Emma's teacher that I was escaping. He begged me to take him along.

Most days, they make me laugh. Today, they almost made me lose my voice. I'm fairly certain they got together before I arrived and plotted my downfall:

• "Let's make sure that each of us is always working on something different and need it explained, repeatedly."
• "Let's pretend that we have no idea what any of the vocabulary words mean; you know, the ones we've been working on all week."
• "Let's all ask the same questions, at different times, repeatedly."
• "Let's write down partial sentences as answers, even though she hasn't let us do that ever."
• "Let's summarize the story we've been reading all week by making up completely new stories off the top of our head, repeatedly!"
• "Let's wiggle so much that she has to tell each of us to sit down, many, many times."
• "Then, let's ask for hugs as she leaves, just to make her think she was imagining it all!"

There are only eight of them in that group, but I would swear that some days they multiply. And turn into monkeys. Good thing they're cute little monkeys, it's the only thing that saves them.

Vitamin D

Sometimes it doesn't matter that everyone is hacking and sneezing and using up mass amounts of tissue. Sometimes, you need to get out of the house! Due to the strange weather dynamics of the Willamette Valley, the icy & foggy weather at home masked nearly 60 degree warmth and sun less than an hour away. So away we went! It felt so GOOD to be in the sunshine. And we found this amazing inlet where the kids could run and dig and climb and splash and.....

(Click on photo grouping to be taken to the entire Flickr set)

(There are 55 photos there [pared down from 128], don't say I didn't warn you!)

A long weekend, with lots of sleeping in, is helping everyone heal. When not at the coast, the kids are playing with beans, making figure 8's in the basement on their scooters, and watching lots of videos. We're going through another phase of screaming tantrums, so George can be a handful at times. I'm hoping that will reduce once he feels better. Emma is spending more time in her room playing with Legos, her animals, or on the computer. I'm glad she can find ways to escape the craziness of a sometimes difficult brother, but it saddens me that she needs to. I suppose it's normal, though, and I need to remember that. All older siblings need to escape the younger ones sometimes, no matter how "normal" they may be.

Lots of good reports coming from school these days, thank goodness. We're heading into the span of time where the school district transition team observes all the special needs kids and makes placement recommendations. The particular school we're hoping for (provided it doesn't fall victim to budget cuts) is hard to get into, and he would have to be accepted. The behind-the-scenes rumors from his teacher are that he is high on the list. But nothing is certain until he is observed and we know how many spots are available for next year. Here's hoping that they don't view him on a "screamy" day.

Well, it's ten o'clock. I suppose I ought to go get out of my pajamas. Although, no one else in this house has yet, so maybe just another cup of coffee...

Cozy & Warm

We seem to be in for another round of the crud here (or possibly an ear infection), so still laying real low. But I wanted to post a quick picture of the AWESOME arm warmers my good friend, Beth, MADE for me. I so wish I had the creativity and know-how to do something like knitting.

Thank you, Beth!! Mouse-hand will be vanquished thanks to you! They feel like cozy sweaters on my arms!

Home of the Crippled & Ailing

Forgive the lack of posts. We're all in various stages of recovery from sickness & surgery. My head is full of cotton instead of creativity. I have three humans relying on me for food, tissues, and entertainment. Stories and pictures will return soon!

Back to School Whiplash

Snippets of conversations between all the moms at George's special needs preschool:
"So, how was your three month, I mean three week, vacation?"
"Oh my gosh, it's so nice to get back into our routine!"
"Which did you get more of, presents or meltdowns?"

Snippets of conversations between the moms (other than me) at George's "typical" preschool:
"I so didn't want to bring Timmy/Suzy/Jr. to school today! I'll miss him/her so much!"
"Timmy/Suzy/Jr. didn't want to come to school today, he/she wants more free time."
"I don't know what I'm going to do with myself while they're in school!"

wow.

The fun you can have at an airport

A random moment via the camera on our phones:

And I apologize for the quality and movement in the following video. Our phones are not fancy ones, but I was a bit in awe of our lunchtime entertainment at the airport and had to capture it. Who knew you could watch middle-aged men in far-too-tight pants sing 70's hits in the middle of the terminal?

Just like a picnic at Golden Gate Park, no? And the close up on George's shoes was because he had been dancing along to the music. You know. Until the moment I tried to capture it on film. Durned kid.

New situations, new successes

We had no idea what to expect from George on our trip South. It's been a couple of years since he's been on an airplane or shared a bedroom. He would be sleeping in a sleeping bag, too, a first for him.

Add to that a house with ten people staying in it, visits to other houses filled with even more people, and the need to share toys and space with cousins, and this could have been a disaster.

The growth I've seen in him over the last few months was apparent during this past week. He had a couple of meltdowns, but they were situational and completely understandable (a broken Thomas the Train toy [sorry, Michelle, thanks for trying!] and a plane he could get inside and look at [my father-in-law is a pilot with a stunt plane], but it wouldn't take him home no matter how often he asked). He used his activity schedule, we gave him familiar foods to eat and videos to watch, and since the weather was beautiful, we spent lots of time outdoors. He coped in his own way, wonderfully.

Both new experiences and sensory overloads are often met with this pose:

By far the most useful item we purchased for this trip was a set of child-sized headphones. We bought a set for both kids to use with our laptop on the airplane. What we didn't expect was that George loved them and used them throughout the week, whenever he wasn't sure of a situation.

In the house filled with new people, outside at a museum, travelling through busy airports, they gave him the separation he needed from the world. They worked well for watching videos at the airport when our flight was delayed by a couple of hours, too!

Arrested Development

We've been in California for the past several days. Visiting family and friends, eating a lot, and sleeping not a lot. We'll be headed home tomorrow. Assuming I can break Jason and George out of jail.

Cutest officer I ever did see!

Merry Christmas!

Surviving Christmas Eve

Best Way To Make It Through Christmas Eve. EVER.

Simple instructions: Wrap children "burrito style" in blankets. Place on separate couches. Leave the room. (Just kidding on that last one, I promise!) Feel free to tickle mercilessly.

More crafts.

Preparations for family gatherings tomorrow.

Counting the hours until little ones are in bed and Santa can bring the loot (and assemble it).

Better

After a couple of minor skirmishes and sub-sequential time-outs, today has been better. I've also kept it busy. Yes, we always try to stick to a basic routine and I use our activity schedule every day, but.... when the weather has been nasty for weeks, the snow has turned to cold rain, the last round of sniffles is still hanging around, and the stores are filled with CRAZY people... there's just not much to do but get sick of each other!

However, empty days turn into scream-filled days, so today we've done a quick trip to the store for supplies, had two arts & crafts projects available, and a trip to the library is scheduled for this afternoon! Jason is inching his way down the freeway to us. (Literally inching - two hours ago he called when he left Portland, saying he'd call again from Salem, about 30 miles down the road. I haven't heard from him yet.) Hopefully we'll all be together for dinner tonight!

For now, I'll let the kids continue working on their cereal box wreaths and ornaments. I'm going to go make some hot cocoa!