Allen`s I-Pod

"I didn`t steal it I took it"!

Those two words steal and took mean the same thing for most of us in this situation, but in Hanna`s mind they are totally different things.

Allen has an i-pod (his "talker") loaded with a communication program which he is able to use to tell us simple things like " I am going to the bathroom" or "I want to eat lunch".  This device has been missing since May 22nd. I know that for a fact based on what was going on around here and the notes written in the school/home notebook. The last two months of the school year Hanna was being pretty awful with her behavior mainly because other students were getting to do things that she thought she should get to do too. She is not old enough and explaining that gets no where. At any rate she had her Dad believing that Allen had just lost his "talker", which could happen, however, the couch and chairs he sits in were checked many times, the sand under the swings was raked out, his locker and backpack were cleaned out, and the bus was checked more then once and it was not found.  Dad and I had a discussion about this a couple of days ago and at that time we decided to drop the issue and have the i-pod replaced. We did not have Hanna or anyone else in on this conversation and did not tell them that we had talked about the issue.

This morning after Dad told her to stop being nosey Hanna was mad and stomping around the kitchen.  After awhile she blurts it out "I didn`t steal it I took it". That`s when I quickly put the pieces together and figured out that she was talking about Allen`s i-pod.  Now we have to wait it out to see if she brings it back or not. I told her she would be in less trouble if it was returned, but it is just as likely she gave it to someone else and she doesn`t have it or know where it is any more.

She brought me a dollar bill (don`t know where she got that from) and a button and says "will this pay for Allen`s i-pod"?

Babies And Wings

Our little boy is so awesome! The other morning before it was really time to be getting up he was in our bed chattering away as always. He asked where my wings were so I tried to explain that I am human and I do not have wings. So he came back with mom and dad hum mans (his words for humans) have wings on their fingers. Then I realized that I had not put my wedding rings back on after cleaning the bathroom the night before.

A couple of weeks ago Karre bought our cat a green, springy, frog toy with bells on its feet, and furry and feathery things on it. Paul has decided that it is his "buddy, boy, baby" and he calls it Kermit. He is carrying the thing everywhere wrapped in a doll blanket. There is no way to get it through to him that seven year old boys don`t usually carry cat toys with them to the backyard and park so I guess Kermit comes along,  He is an adorable, little, green, baby that attracts lots of attention from people who do not know Paul.

Oh Really???

My daughter and her thesis partner called me with some serious issues with this article. I agree with their concerns. I find it hard to believe that those cells which are forming in the first eight weeks of pregnancy are safe from damage. These are the cells from which everything grows and develops and if they are impaired in any way that will cause damage to everything that comes later in the development process. For example our son who has Down Syndrome has three chromosomes on number 21 and if you were to examine all of the cells in his body you wold find the same throughout.  Why on earth would any mom want to take a chance on their child`s future? My kids whose birth moms consumed alcohol while pregnant can clearly tell you that they wish the drinking had never happened. They function at a much different level then most of us, but they do understand that they are different from their peers and when they are being impulsive, forget what day of the week it is, or can`t figure out how to make change for a dollar they get frustrated and they wish they could do those things like everybody else. http://healthland.time.com/2012/06/20/alcohol-in-pregnancy-light-to-moderate-drinking-is-safe-study-says/?iid=hl-main-lede

RAD And Routine

you would think things are going smoothly around here by reading this blog. Yeah they are I guess. Smoothly here is far from what the average family would find to be so, however.

All of the medical stuff has settled down a lot as compared to last winter. We are working with neurology for Lauren as usual. Paul`s neurology stuff has settled down so that is in a holding pattern for now. The 2 girls are still going to the orthodontist regularly, Hanna much more often then Lauren at this point. The good news is that Hanna is likely to get her braces off some time next year. There is a down side to that, in that she is likely to need jaw surgery at that time, BIG SIGH! The boys are stable. We finally have referrals for oral surgery for both Lauren and Allen to get the wisdom teeth out.  (We have been working on this project for several years now). Lauren`s is actually being done this fall when we do her other routine stuff for her CP.

The only kid going to school this summer is Paul and he likes to go play with his friends there so that is going okay, too.

We still have RAD behavior ALL the time. I have come to the conclusion that this will never change so we just live with it. It drives me nuts and there are times that I just have to get out of here to calm myself down. The kid spends all of her time doing things just to annoy. Some of the latest adventures include...

We are going to get your haircut in 15 minutes, get your shoes on and wait on the stairs for me. No shoes on, out the door, and sitting in  the mud puddle. Apparently Trevor said it was okay.

Wearing the only dress up outfit (which was on a high shelf) to the park, why because Mom was not here to say "no".

Feeding the cat a full 16 ounce container of food. (He actually eats 2 tablespoons at a time), poor cat was not feeling so well for a day or 2. I guess she figures that if she can not get away with eating everything in sight she will let the cat do it for her.

I had to put a code on my cell phone because she was dialing random numbers on it, and people seem to think that she should have her own phone, NOT!

All of this would be so okay if she really did not understand and know better, but when she is telling us that she is doing this "because is is so fun" then it makes me crazy. There is nothing fun about purposeful, defiant, nasty behavior and there never will be.

So this is routine and except for the RAD nonsense it is an okay place to be.

Went West

I have not blogged here for awhile, just been busy, that`s all.

We took a road trip to South Dakota for most of last week. This adventure was totally planned by Dad and Trevor. They took care of everything and I have to say they did a great job of it. They found us a cabin or more, like a rather nice house. It was built like a tree house on 4 levels so there were plenty of stairs on a spiral staircase. for Paul to drive his cars and trucks up and down. The place was laid out so we could keep Lauren on one level, too. It had a huge porch that wrapped around 3 sides which was furnished with more then a dozen chairs.

We had dinner and a country music show one afternoon/evening, went to an animal reserve to check out the bears, buffalo, deer, wolves, etc. (Paul was not really to excited about this event, though). Of course we went to Mount Rushmore, too. One afternoon I stayed at the cabin with the littles while they went to check out a cave. We had a relaxing time sitting on the porch while Paul arranged all the chairs into a school bus.

The trip home was a bit wild, but we made it. As we were leaving and had stopped to fill the fuel tank up the check engine light went on so we went to the dealership a couple of blocks from the gas station and they said they did not repair diesel engines and they sent us to quite a large truck/tractor garage across the street. There we met Turbo (that is actually what it said on her name tag). She was a very slender, early thirty something, blonde, mechanic. Taking one look at this chic and you might think "oh my goodness we are in trouble now", but this chic really did know what she was doing. She changed some clogged filter, added a little oil, and adjusted some other thingy. This all took awhile so Karre and I were left to entertain the llittles in the "lounge", which thank goodness was smoke free. We found popcorn, pretzels, bottled water, a TV, and old magazines. Lucky for us Allen will eat popcorn and watch cartoons all day and Paul will look at cars and trucks in magazines forever. Karre took Paul outside to walk around the parking lot to look at vans, tractors, trucks, oh did I mention LOTS of trucks. I know this was Paul`s favorite part of the entire trip. Well they did the fixing and the check engine light was still coming on so they did some more investigating and fiddling with things.and it still came on. Turbo and 2 other guys, Dad, and Trevor finally decided that there is something wrong with the computer board and how it rwsets itself so we got to drive home with that light on all the way. We made it though and now we have to take it to get this computer thingy fixed.

I don`t deal with this vehicle repair stuff, that is Dad`s job. I have enough to do to keep the kids repaired.

Fly Patrol

We have a new obsession around here and this one I do not mind in the least. Hanna finally figured out how to use a fly swatter. (Hey, actually being able to destroy a fly with a fly swatter takes some patience and coordination). She had been wandering around here for more then an hour trying to get a fly and when she finally whacked one dead she was so proud of herself. After that she caught on and had half a dozen of the obnoxious pests before lunch. After lunch she started looking for them again and got some more. Then she put the swatter away and paced around the kitchen. She got it out once again and went back to work on the task. She repeated this several times all afternoon. In the end she cleared out all of the flies in the house, but by tomorrow morning there will be more of them to keep her busy

This obsession will keep those flies from driving me nuts all summer long. I think I might have to reward her for this one, maybe we will have to spring for a new, hot green fly swatter.

Cooling Off

We packed up plenty of ice water, sun screen, swimsuits, towels, buckets,shovels, trucks, PCAs, and kids and headed to the swimming hole. Everyone played in the sand and swam all afternoon. The place was packed since the MN Zoo was there having an animal show.  I figured that Hanna would freak out, but she held up pretty well until late, when everyone was tired and hungry so we headed home.

Swimming is a pretty good way to spend the afternoon when it is 94 degrees. That is pretty warm for June and I hope it cools down a bit for awhile.

Understand Or Not?

I spent yesterday afternoon trying to explain to a case manager how manipulating and comprehending work with a FASD/RAD/developmentally disabled kid.

There are many times when the kid simply  does not understand, just because she is not intelligent enough to do so.  For example she does know what a $5.00 bill is, however she has no idea what you can buy with that amount of money.There are also things that are to abstract for her such as telling time. She can read to numbers on a digital clock, but does not understand what 1:15 pm means in relation to the days events.

There are other times that she does understand and she chooses not to listen because that is just what a teenager does and when it is a teenager with RAD they amp it up to a level 1,000 times greater then the average teenager. Lets just say that the kid is very defiant.  For example she knows that she is not supposed to draw on the wall, but she does it just because she can. She also knows that you use toothpaste to brush your teeth, but if she thinks no one is watching she will not use it. The average kid grows out of these behaviors and becomes responsible for their own hygiene, money, meals, health care, education, etc as a young adult, however that is not going to happen in this situation. The kid will ALWAYS require cues and supervision in order to function in an appropriate manner.

There are also times when you really do not know if the kid does not understand or if she is just trying to rattle everyone around her. She can lie and look very convincing. She knows how to use tears when she needs to and she can suck unsuspecting bystanders into her drama.

Just why were we having this conversation? Well, it goes like this if the person does not have the ability to  understand they get service points and if they are just manipulating they do not.  We have a situation here where we have both so that cuts down on service points.  Things get a bit messy when people do not fit neatly into a standard set of expectations.

Still Early Morning Here

School is out so we are getting into summer time routines, however no matter how late we let them stay up or how long they have run at the park, we still have the by 5:00 am Hanna and Paul wake up call. Of course that means that everyone else will also be up since these 2 have absolutely no idea what ''quiet'' means.
As soon as anyone is in the kitchen the cat is joining in the noise because he is looking for breakfast. Lauren and Hanna are right there digging out the cereal and milk, too. There is no vacation from getting up to watch the sun rise and going to bed before it sets.

Chairman Meow

 Paul, the kid who screams, crawls up your leg, shakes, and totally goes nuts as soon a he knows there is an animal around actually asked for a cat about 5 months ago. After making sure he was feeling okay and hearing it repeatedly from him we started taking him seriously. We had been sitting with him while he got used to Karre`s cats, Sven and Ole. After quite awhile he actually got off the chair and started playing with them. He had even asked to go to Karre`a house, more then once to play with the cats. We finally decided to get a cat, but it had to be a Mom approved cat so finding the right one took a while.

Introducing our adorable, baby,Chairman Meow, or Meow for short.  He is a Munchkin cat so he will stay little like he is now. He weights 1 1/2 pounds. He is all white except for one very, very tiny black spot by his eye, which you will not even notice unless you are really looking for it. He is famous, since the vets asked if they could put him on their Facebook. (of course that brings about a discount for us).

This cat likes to be held so he will come stand by you and rub his head on your leg and meow until he gets picked up. After he runs around and plays he just plops down and sleeps anywhere. Hanna and Paul should try that sometime.

This is Paul holding Chairman Meow for the first time all by himself.