Christmas Time

Christmas Eve, celebrated in our family as Allen`s birthday. He turned 18 and Karre said it made her feel a little bit old. I don`t know how that can be since she is 18,too. Our little man is now an adult, but when hanging out with him you would never think that he is really grown up. He got a sock monkey that dances and sings and a balloon and he is as happy as can be. He had to wrestle with Dad, Rene`, Trevor, and Paul. We took sandwiches and cookies to eat in the van while we drove around to look at Christmas lights and sang to the tunes on the radio. Allen and Paul oohed and aughed about the lights and the rest of us had a good time,.too.We encountered Santa Claus when we drove around the corner on our street. He was driving a red pick-up truck. Hanna was trying to figure out where Rudolph was. She sat in the back of the van and did not participate, but was able to hold it together until we got home so I call that success.

Today we had ham, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, green beans, cranberries, and brownies for dinner. It was Rene`s turn to choose the menu.

Jared and Kelsey will be here later. They were going to Mass with her grandma and then having dinner there. Once they get here I will have all I wanted for Christmas, just to have everyone home is enough.

This is a time of year to share with family and friends all that we have. We are blessed to have everyone stable and generally healthy. We keep everything as routine as possible, The gifts are wrapped the same way, the stockings are hung in the same order, we keep the same wake up and bed times for the littles, and we only have immediate family here to celebrate with. We do all of this to keep Hanna`s behavior under control.
She still sabotages things, but that is our normal.

We still have Santa presents to open so I had better run before they start giving me grief. Merry Christmas, everyone!!

Can I Scream Too?

The bus driver and helper gave the kids bags of candy today. Do they have to do THAT EVERY YEAR! Those bags had Star Burst, Carmel's, Laffy-Taffy, and gum in them along with several others. Hanna has braces. This is nothing new here, she has been wearing them for nearly three years now and I am pretty sure that these people are aware of that unless they are totally unaware of what goes on around them. They see this kid twice a day every school day.

Lauren, Allen, and Paul brought their treats to me, but Hanna was trying to tell me that she did not get any. As she is always telling me I am a dumb mom, but come on now I am not that dumb, besides Lauren`s eyes were nearly popping out of her head as she was shaking it to indicate "no".

I had to confiscate the goods and now I get to listen to the screaming, banging, kicking fit that will likely last until she falls asleep. I have already heard at least 500 times that she does not care about her mouth and she does not have to listen to my rules. That`s her stuff and the cops are going to get me for stealing it. Maybe I should go look for those cops just so I can get out of here for awhile.

Sometimes I would just like for these people who are really trying to be nice to this kid to have to put up with the fall out that comes afterward. I get it, giving the kids a treat now and then seems like a great idea until you have one with FASD / RAD then it is an absolute disaster.

Busy Saturday

There is a lot going on here today. We have to get lots of work done so we can go spend time celebrating Christmas tomorrow with relatives.

Rene` and I made doughnuts for the guys. They love those things! They told me that they would rather have doughnuts then cookies any day. We need to put together fruit and vegetable trays and make a batch or two of cookies yet for tomorrow`s gathering.

Rene` and Paul went to get the oil changed in her car. He is as happy as can be with that task, because they get to walk around and look at all the new cars and trucks on the lot while they wait for Rene`s car to get done.

Dad and Trevor went to Karre`s place to move furniture back into the bedrooms. (She got new carpet in them). They are also moving stuff out of the sun room, living room, and dinning room so the flooring can be put down. Last night it was snowing / freezing rain and when Karre went out to move vehicles she fell on the ice and bruised herself up pretty good so I don`t know how much she is doing today. They took Allen and Hanna along so maybe she can direct them a bit. I am sure Allen will have a great time filling the dumpster up. I haven`t been over to see the new floors yet, but Karre says they look really good.

Rene` and Trevor brought home lots of dirty laundry so I will have the washer and dryer running all day.

Dad needs to get to the bank and do a couple of things at work this afternoon. Oh, yeah, lets not forget the sales taxes need to get paid (I can`t forget to pay the state on time), and I have an inventory (a stack of papers) that needs to be calculated and filled out as well.

I will have to make something for dinner because there will be lots of hungry people by that time. We then have to get the littles showered and have their clothes laid out so we can get going early tomorrow morning. I am hoping to get the gifts into the van yet tonight so we don`t have to mess with that at the last minute. I have one gift to wrap yet, but maybe I can talk someone else into doing that. We will relax and have a good time tomorrow. Our drama queen is staying home and we have enough PCAs to keep track of the other three so Mom and Dad can just hang out.

The Jerk

As we were slowly winding our way out of the parking ramp I told Karre that we did not need to come back to Gillette Children's in St. Paul until next year. She pays our parking fee, waits for a really old guy to cross the intersection, and makes her way on to the freeway.We were moving along at a pretty nice pace during rush hour and were going to get home just in time for dinner.

suddenly she says "you jerk Mom, next year is only a couple of weeks from now".

Yeah, and we don`t have to go back there until then.

Dirty Jeans

Hanna went to school with dirty jeans on this morning. Our rule with her is that she needs to change everything every day. We have this in place because it is very concrete and makes it easy for her to remember. I know she knows what she is supposed to do, but sometimes she just does not do it.

I don`t know if she is trying to bother me or her teacher. I think on this one she is doing a pretty good job of bothering both of us, but we are not going to let her know that. Her FASD/RAD combo keeps us busy every day all day long.

A Big Day

It is a big day for Lauren, she gets her braces off. Her teeth look so much straighter now. I can hardly wait to see the results.

Lauren is floating on a huge cloud of happiness this morning. She is wearing her favorite dress up, purple sweater, and she is ready to go. We are not leaving for another forty-five minutes though.

Hanna is being an obnoxious lunatic. She keeps yelling at Lauren to stop talking. She took Lauren`s hair brush and will not tell me where it is. and she has not yet changed her underwear so we have a getting dressed issue going on.

I am at the computer for a few minutes just to keep from slugging the kid. Just because she is not getting what she wants does not mean that everyone is going to feel sorry for her. Actually today while Lauren is getting her braces off and having a retainer made Hanna is having some major work done in her mouth. No one is going to fill her in on those details yet. I will let the orthodontist deal her.

After I get done spending three hours in the van and four to five at the orthodontist I am going to spend the evening visiting with some other adoptive moms. I made some delicious, but not very nutritious snacks for us to share.

The Weekend And Beyond

We do very little celebrating during the holiday season because one of our kids can not handle it at all. We will spend the day with relatives next weekend. She will not go to that event just so we will have no chaos.

We spent Saturday afternoon watching the Army - Navy football game. Paul and Dad cheered for Army and Lauren and I cheered for Navy. Allen cheered for anyone who scored. Hanna will not watch any sports events so she spent the afternoon in her room. Navy won the game so we celebrated the victory with Rene`.

Yesterday Hanna was rambling on and on about how she was going to bother her teacher and she did not care if she got into trouble. After a couple of hours of this nonsense I had had enough so I sent everyone downstairs to watch Christmas cartoons and I baked 18 dozen cookies while I listened to Christmas music. The holiday baking is done except for the decorated cookies Rene` and Karre want to make later this week.

Today everyone is back to school and work. I have to get a lot of paperwork done today and then I need to get work schedules figured out. All nine of our PCAs will be working hours in the next few weeks. That will make things go smoothly for everyone.

Shopping Day

Lauren got her ears pierced today. She has been working at washing and folding laundry at school all year and earned enough money to do this. She has been pretty excited about this for quite a while now. We will have to come up with something else for her to work for now. Pretty much all of the kids from her class and staff were standing around watching the whole thing. A couple of the boys said no way would they do that.

Today was a shopping day for persons with disabilities at Target. The kids in grades 7-12 who spend time in the DCD classroom get to go to this event every year. They also go out for lunch and look around at a thrift store. It is a good time for them to work on skills they need to function in the community such as making a list, finding items in the store, using money to pay for them, ordering food from the menu, using appropriate table manners, and following directions.

Lauren likes to go shopping. She needs lots of help with scanning the isle for the items which takes time. She often needs reminders to look for the specific item rather than taking the first thing she sees. I got to shop with her today.

Allen is a typical guy shopper. He goes into the store to get what he needs. There is no "just looking" when shopping with him.

Hanna has anxiety issues when shopping, because of some trauma she experienced as a young child. She does not enjoy shopping one bit. She gets what she needs and leaves. She is always making sure that whoever is watching her is not leaving her there.

All of the kids from our school did really well today. One young man even left the mall with a really nice haircut, too.

The Letter

Paul wanted me to write something for him so I did. This is exactly what was on his mind word for word, just like he talks.

Hi, Santa Christmas;

I got a car bird box (card board box) from Karre and I made it into a big car. I had a little one too, but Mom said I could only bring one to my home so I left the little one at Karre`s so can you give it to a kid to play with?

I want you to give my Dad a racing car so I can play with it.

Hanna needs a new auto-tude (attitude) because Mom keeps telling her to put the bad one in her pocket and she don`t listen any more.

My Dad and me think Lauren needs some purple skis for her wheelchair so she can drive in the snow.

Bring Jared to our house, from the army some day and bring his dog Molly too. Maybe you can put some dog food in Kelsey`s (Jared`s girl friend) purse for Molly to eat cuz she gets hummery (hungry).

Rene` needs some gas from the gas station to drive her red car to Minnesota and she can bring Trevor with too. I like to go to the car wash and clean up Rene`s red car. Rene` and Trevor are in No Dakota (North Dakota) and it is weally, (really) weally cold at that place.

Bring Mom and Dad some kids cuz they woves (loves) them lots and lots and they gives um hugs and stories and a nightlight when it is time to sleep.

Good Bye!!

I don`t think there will be any purple skis for Lauren`s wheelchair, but maybe that would make it easier to drive in the snow. I will say that there WILL NOT be any kids for Mom and Dad, we have enough, thank you very much. Paul, you will always be our baby and please, stay as cute, easy going, and adorable as you are right now, forever. I sure love you little man!
I can put up with your obsession with cars, too.

Cereal

Hanna was watching the news with Dad. They were talking about a serial robber and she says "why would that guy steal cereal. He can get that at the store".