Wednesday, January 23, 2013

It Is Time To Move On

Since the kids went back to school earlier this month Hanna has been stuck on Martin Luther King`s birthday.  They work on a calendar, what comes first, next, weather, holidays, etc. 

First it was January 15th is his real birthday, but that is Karre`s birthday and they can not have the same day.  We explained that millions of people share the same birthday and that is okay.  After we got her off that she could not figure out how come his birthday is being celebrated on the 21st this year and it is celebrated on different days depending on how the Mondays land on the calendar.  There was no explaining to get that concept through to her so we pretty much gave up and told her that is just the way it is.  After that there was the fact that there was no school here on that day and it was not really because of the holiday, it just happened to be the end of the quarter and that Monday was a teachers work day.  We did not even try to bother and explain that to her.

Hanna was supposed to think of things about the holiday or things she might do to celebrate it so she could write them on her calendar page so she comes up with making a snowman, but we do not have any snow.  Then there was making hot chocolate (which is chocolate milk with ice cubes in it).  There were several others, but the best one was that she was going to make birthday cards for the sick people in the hospital.  Now she has something new to be stuck on, since we are trying to explain get well cards, anniversary cards, baby cards, etc.

I don`t know if she has learned anything about Martin Luther King or how holidays work on the calendar or anything else, but she sure has been busy being stuck on it.  I am glad it is finally over so we, hopefully can move on to something else.

Tuesday, January 15, 2013

Superman

It is so nice to have a soon-to-be occupational therapist in the family.  There are things for the littles  to work on all the time.  We work on one or two at a time.  Sometimes there is success and then sometimes it just isn`t going to happen no matter what.

We have been crushing pills every single day, at least twice a day since Paul arrived.  He will most likely need to be taking medications for all of his life in order to function to the best of his ability.  Anyway crushed meds mixed in apple sauce are just part of every day, that is until Rene` got him to swallow his smallest pills uncrushed with the apple sauce. Paul was one very excited little boy when he finally realized that he had done it.  After they worked on that for a couple of days he started doing the same thing with the capsiles, and finally the larger chalky ones were added.  He did it, yesterday we did not have to crush any meds at all!!!  We have been telling him that he is a real Superman because he can do this.  Next we have to work on changing from apple sauce to water, but that will come soon enough.

Now if Rene` can get Allen to stop chewing his meds, which gives me the shivers every time he does it, that would be so awesome.

Friday, January 4, 2013

One Ends Another Begins

It has been awhile since I have had a chance to blog here.  We have been busy.

We took a much needed break and found some sunshine, relaxation, and drama free days away from here.  While we were gone PCAs held down the fort here just fine.

We came home just in time to celebrate Allen`s birthday.  He is so easy to please and appreciates all the little things that life brings his way.  We had sandwiches and cookies in the van while we drove around looking at  Christmas lights and most of us sang along with the Christmas music on the radio, too.  Jared called while we were on our adventure so most of us spent some time talking with him as well. 

We had  Christmas dinner of roast duck and chicken, vegetables, dinner rolls, and cookies, (menu chosen by Trevor this year).  We draw names and Jared had gotten Paul`s name.  He had asked Paul what he wanted and he had told Jared that he wanted Army underwear.  Jared asked what that meant and I told him I didn`t know.  He got Paul a kid sized Army uniform, complete with his name on the jacket and the rank of captain.  Paul is adorable in it!  He got Kermit D`Frog from his Godfather and the frog is wearing Cars pajamas so Paul thinks he is really cool.  Paul didn`t remember that he had actually gotten to "make" the frog a couple of months earlier.
A couple of days after Christmas Paul turned 8.  He was so excited to be 8 because  "I am crazy like crazy 8".  He lost 2 teeth that week as well.  He wanted Taco John`s for dinner.  (His birthday is the only day of the year I will eat that).

Now we are into the new year and the kids are back in school.  Rene` doesn`t start her final internship for another week.  She was supposed to start Monday, but that got changed and now she is also unexpectedly getting paid for doing this one so she is happy about that. We are getting some projects done here.  I organized and got rid of some of the kids movies.  I need to go through their games and books. too. We are going to take one day for ourselves too.

It is full speed ahead as always around here, another year of appointments, paperwork, etc. has begun.