It's like teaching a dog to read

Today hasn't been an unbearably rough day, or really even a bad day. It's just been a day where, well... here you go:

9am call from mobility store, can they deliver E's new wheelchair before 11? Sure...
Shower, start to bathe the kids, and...
10am call from friends, can they drop off some things they'd borrowed? Sure...
Pull Micah out of the tub and dress him, pull Brianna out and...
They're here :) So little miss naked wonder visited a minute in the nude. It would have been too nice for her to wait in the family room...
10:25 IM on the computer from a mom in Ukraine
Dress naked wonder before taking that one, and
10:30 Mobility guy is here!
Fit the wheelchair to Emma's size and such
11:30 whew, it's done, a few more necessary adjustments, but time for lunch
12:30 nap time
1:30 I should be leaving the house to get K from church camp... but 2 kids are sleeping, call mom for a 'bailout'
Fast forward a bit to 4:30... I called Mike, got up to start dinner... and Micah face-planted onto a coffee table.
Blood everywhere, tongues sure bleed a lot! Ice to stop the bleeding and he chokes and gags then spits up some blood... still hoping that was all and he didn't aspirate any!
5:15 Micah is settled, dinner's not happening, and I call Mike to pick up chicken grom Wal-Mart on his way home with the sound of Brianna crying in the background... have I mentioned she's not really happy I left and is stuck to me today?

Now it's bed time... I have Emma laying on my lap as I type this all with one hand... and 3 more kids ready to get their jammies on and hit the sack. Next on the agenda: grocery shop. That is, if Mike finishes the lawn before I lose the gumption to go!

So, what's like teaching a dog to read? Emma. Some days. Like... today. I realize I've been gone for 5 days and she's not so sure about that. BUT YIKES. She's scratching and popping joints all over the place. Her legs are a huge mess of scratches from the past few days. Her toe is in constant motion popping in and out of place. Tonight at dinner she was shoving 3 pieces of popcorn chicken into her mouth at a time. She'd be told to wait and put her hands under the table and start scratching. I'd move her hands above the table and say wait. She moved them below. And above, and below, and finally she sat there with her hands level with her shoulders and stared at her food. Her ONE bite she had left of popcorn chicken. For 5 minutes straight. Yes, I eventually just fed it to her.

Some days I think that with the amount of back and forth we do- usually when it's to this extent it's for her safety-- like to keep her from drawing blood from her legs... it's just so. very. hard. to. get. the. point. across. sometimes. I know she understands it, at least sometimes. Because she usually responds. But yes, my little mini-vacation has brought Emma back a few steps even though sh was in her home with her siblings, her dad, her grandparents... and she probably had very similar days to her regular days with me. But it sometimes feels like I'm trying to teach a dog to read. Especially after a period of regression.

(Yes, I know she'll be fine in a day or two and no, I don't feel guilty for leaving. I needed it and she'll be ok. And I'll deal with it better because I did have a bit of R&R.)