Pumpkin Party

The pumpkins are ready for there big day. They are left to right, Lauren`s which is supposed to be Mickey Mouse (we think it looks like a piece of toast), Allen`s, Paul`s, and Karre`s. Hanna did not get one because she was raging the afternoon they went to the pumpkin patch. Halloween is a rather useless holiday, but it gives the kids an opportunity to have some fun and do something different from the everyday routine so we let them do it.
Allen, Jared, and Paul hard at work on getting the guts out.
Paul actually put his little hand inside the pumpkin and took out seeds one at a time. Last year he screamed and cried and wanted nothing to do with this pumpkin mess.
Karre is very creative and can make some really cool things when she wants to.

Little Bits

Now that we have taken Hanna off ALL her medications we are starting to see what we will be dealing with. She sleeps no more nor less then she was while on them. She is a little more impulsive, but she is not so grouchy. We are not sure yet if the better attitude is because of the lack of medications or if it is just the hormone cycle she is in. It is a wait and see game.

Lauren has a medical appointment this morning and then I will get her to school.

Paul is having a Halloween party in his classroom. Treats will come home for kids to fight over.

I need to get groceries and run errands the rest of the afternoon, and of course it is raining. I always love to load five hundred dollars worth of groceries into to van while getting drenched.

Another Metal Mouth

A recipe for disaster is a kid with Cerebral Palsy, school bus steps, and a very icy sidewalk. That is exactly what we had going on almost seven years ago when Lauren fell on her face while getting off the bus at school.

The phone rang that morning just as I had gotten out of the shower. When I answered it there was my kid screaming and a teacher who said "you need to come now", that was it. Usually teachers are not at a loss for words but that is all she could say so I knew that something was very wrong. Our emergency plan went into action. I had two foster kids here at the time so I got shoes and winter garb on them, called Dad, got myself dressed, and was out the door faster then I could have imagined possible.

When I reached the school they met me at the door with a kid covered in blood, a towel covering her lower face. The most freaky thing was when one of the teachers handed me a paper cup filled with ice water and Lauren`s teeth floating on top. I gave the dentist mane to the school nurse who called them and we were on the road. When we got to the office there was no waiting around they scooped her up, took the cup with the teeth, and went to work re implanting those two front teeth back in the mouth where they belonged.

At the time we were told there were no guarantees that those teeth were going to survive, but if they did we would need to take her to surgery seventy-two hours later. Lauren headed to the operating room three days later for major repairs on those teeth. Those teeth have lasted far longer then anyone could ever have thought possible. That is because everyone was in the right place at the right time and knew what needed to be done and did it. The whole event took less then an hour to unfold. She was left with a very bruised face and two front teeth that were going to need a lot of care, but she would be okay. That is when I breathed a huge sigh of relief, and thanked God for getting us through a very scary ordeal.

Now those teeth are giving out and will need to be removed soon so while that is being done we will have orthodontic work done to straighten out her narrow over crowded mouth. The good thing here is that they will not be removing healthy teeth to make room for her other teeth, the two that need to come out anyway will be the causalities. We knew that braces would benefit her but just let that go since she has so many other medical issues to deal with all of the time, but I guess now it is time to fix this mess too. She will look gorgeous when it is all over with so it will be worth the effort. Looking on the bright side of this is that since the same team that is working with Hanna will be doing the work here I can coordinate the appointments and will have fewer trips to make as a result. Two metal mouths at one time, I am not sure I can handle all of this fun.

Medications

Having kids on medications is always a work in progress. Our four older kids were rarely on any type of medications except for the occasion when they had an ear infection or something like that. This was never an issue until we began to do foster care. Many of those kids were on medications. For our special needs kids it is a must and adjustments are just a part of the process as they grow and change quickly. We have kids on meds for everything from seizure disorders, sleeping issues, hyper-activity, anxiety, etc, etc.

It is not the best time of the year (usually we try to change meds when there is no school), to adjust Hanna`s meds but we have to. Her behavior is just so awful, she is not sleeping even on massive amounts of medication, and she has grown. She will be taken off everything and then we will start over. It is not easy to make adjustments when the kid is not able to tell you how they are feeling and what they think is working. In Hanna`s situation she does not care what she is behaving like, if she is acting really weird it does not seem to bother her, or if she bothers or hurts someone else along the way is of no concern to her. We can only observe and make or best judgement from those observations.

The next couple of months might be a rough and scary ride so hang on and get prepared.

And Off They Go

The older kids have just gone to school and Paul will soon be heading out the door too.

Lauren was wearing a long sleeved t-shirt, a sweatshirt, and her winter coat.

Allen had on a long sleeved t-shirt and a light jacket.

Hanna had on a tank top, Capri's, and no jacket at all.

It is thirty-eight degrees out, cool but not that bad for Minnesota at this time of the year. None of the three will be harmed in any way because of the choices they made this morning, so I just let them go the way they were,however I find it interesting that the kid who is supposed to be the least intelligent of the three is the only one who got it right.You are the man, Allen, way to go!

What IsTheTruth?

When it comes to telling the truth Hanna just can not do it at all lately. We can not trust her at all since she is lying about everything.

Me "Hanna did you brush your teeth"?

Hanna "Yeah I did".

Me " Are you sure you brushed your teeth"?

Hanna "Yeah"

Me "How on earth did you brush your teeth when the toothpaste is laying right here on the kitchen counter still in the box, unopened"? (I had thrown the empty one out earlier this morning)

It is like that with everything.
Did you change your underwear? (She still has on the ones she had on yesterday. I bought them all different so that we could tell if she had changed).
Did you make your bed? (It is still unmade).
Did you comb your hair? ( It still looks like a bird is living up there).
Did you unload the dishwasher? (It is still full).

The thing is that these things are just so obvious and she is a terrible when it comes to lying. She is going to get caught every time and the only one who is going to lose in this silly game she is playing is her.

Fun Friday

Hanna is home from school today because right now she can not act appropriately there. she will go back Monday, oh am I glad. She seem to think that it should be fun around here because she is home.

Doing the peed laundry is fun.

Sitting on the phone, on hold with social security for fifty-five minutes. while Paul is trying to destroy the computer is really fun. What makes it more fun then ever is that I did not get to talk to the person who might have a clue as to what is going on in the first place so I am going to have to repeat the process. That fun will wait until next week.

I have to take Paul to therapy this afternoon and as an added bonus I get to bring Hanna along and take her to get groceries. She will pout and complain the entire time, that will be extra fun.

I am making vegetable stew for dinner tonight so I will get to hear the "I don`t like that" and "aucky" from some picky eaters. That will be fun.

Finally I will get the fun of getting wet while trying to give Hanna a shower when she can not stand taking one. I will get to have her screaming at me because she wants to stay dirty.

The real fun will begin when the four younger ones are in bed and I can curl up with a book for a few minutes before crashing myself. When I asked Hanna if she thought that all of this was going to make a fun day she told me that she would just go sort out the Legos, now that sounds like Hanna`s kind of fun.