A few fun stories

This has been a great week, even with all the appointments!  The kids have done well at home (tho some incidents here and there with my two little trouble maker 4 yr old BOYS at school...) and we've had a good week overall.

On Tuesday this week Brianna was DRY and was doing such a great job with going to the toilet that I praised her about being dry.  She was sitting in Micah's booster chair working on a puzzle.  Or, rather, asking me to work on a puzzle because it was still well beyond her abilities with that one but she wanted to see the final princess picture.  So she was in his booster and she got up, soaked, and was sent to the bathroom to go change her pants and to 'finish' on the toilet.

Except that it was quickly obvious that there would be no 'finishing' because everything in his seat was well-saturated including the buckles.  Out with the old, in with the new... that chair was washed, wiped down, lysol'd and sent to the other room to dry out for a day and a loaner booster seat that we still had after we replaced some of our other chairs came on in to the kitchen.  Micah seems to like the 'new' seat (we haven't changed it back yet) but he needs to be a little higher up to the table I think.  Never a dull moment.

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Yesterday was Kristopher's award ceremony where he got a certificate for perfect attendance!  He smiled so sweet and walked across that stage :)  Proud momma :)  I'm actually amazed at how few parents go to the first grade ceremonies compared to the Kindergarten ones!  I was glad we could be there for him and he is very proud even if it is "just" for attendance!

After the awards I checked Brianna out of school since she had a pulmonology appointment that day and we live 15 minutes away from school (toward the doctor's) and I wasn't driving back and forth.  She's only in PreK and she can miss a day :).  So her teacher brought her up to the front office then we began walking to the car.  Before I had anyone in, Michael called and said he'd left something in the Cafeteria.  So... off we went to walk back the length of the school to the cafeteria to get it for him.  Michael had already left since he needed to go back to work and I was waiting on Bria.  Then back to the car so I could load up the 4 kids into it.  I had the minivan.  You wouldn't BELIEVE how many trips I made around that car trying to get everyone buckled!!

I started letting Aleksa in, then went around to put Lynae in, then back to the other side to get Wesley in, and then Brianna was ready so back to the other side.  I then had to finish buckling Aleksa and then Brianna asked for help... Around and around and around.  Eventually everyone was buckled and I slid the stroller in under the front row's feet but it hit a backpack, which I had to go back to the other side of the car to dislodge, then back over to put the stroller the rest of the way in.  WHEW!  I'm just glad that it was a beautiful day out weather-wise so I didn't melt or freeze out there!

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Aleksa has, for the most part, ignored any and all attempts for me to get her to mimic my talking.  Pretty much just stares right THROUGH my head as if she can see things on the other side of me.  She's a SMART kid, and I thought at first it was really more the language barrier, not understanding that I wanted her to copy me.  That could be it, but alas, this week she's started to do it!

Lynae is now "Lala" and I'll take it!  Aleksa has also said "HI" appropriately twice this week and attempted to say "bye bye" instead of just "Pakakakaka" once.  Now that she has the idea and realizes she'll get a strong response, she's wanting to do it!  I'm so glad to see language begin to open up for her!

In related news, I got a little further into the "go-talk" programming by actually designing the pages to go into it and printing them out.  So now I just need to figure out how it actually works (again) and start seeing if we can get it to be useful!

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We've, thankfully!!, had a few meals brought to us by folks at the church and that has been a HUGE blessing to us!  Today, however, I knew that I needed to make supper and I knew that I needed to cook ALL of the meat that I bought or it would go bad... or I'd have to freeze it and it may as well go bad because I'm bad about using frozen meat...  So, I decided I was cooking.  About 20 minutes before our ST came!  Oops...  Well, I had 2 1/2 pounds of meat all seasoned and ready to be made into patties when the doorbell rang (which I ALWAYS forget will be happening on Thursdays... without fail... WHY??).

I think she must think we're this crazy all the time, because if there is ONE THING that you can do to make our house turn into a zoo in about 30 seconds it's to introduce the idea that the kids should be eating NOW, when NOTHING is ready!  All of our kids know that when Mrs. M shows up... it's time to eat!  Who cares that it's 4:10?  No one!  It's time to EAT!

So... A hungry Brianna climbs up to the table and starts telling me she wants a hot dog.  Wesley, in his wheelchair and watching me start to cook, all the sudden is in meltdown because rather than COOKING, I should be FEEDING HIM.  Lynae is ready, she's one of the first to say "ME!" when I ask who's ready for supper.  Aleksa is then at the gate crying because if everyone else is in the kitchen, she should be too or she might starve to death.  Micah and James come running, ready for fun with Mrs. M.  Now the entire house is in chaos, I have 5 lbs of ground beef on the counter, I have no food or drinks ready for the two boys doing feeding therapy, I don't have food ready but have 4 kids that are at the table and/or begging from nearby and at least 2 kids saying "mama!" at me needing/wanting something that I can't make magically appear.

After getting the boys settled, Lynae her cup, Brianna and Aleksa both a drink (to tide them all over until I have FOOD made), and giving Wesley a drink of his milk (which he then spit out and protested louder about), then I decided that Brianna's request would be made... and once again the kids had hot dogs for dinner.  Delicious, nutritious, and covered with ketchup, right?  Along with some peas and Aleksa also had some salad since her empty leg didn't appear to be full from the hot dog, peas, and drink.

I did get those hamburgers made with 1/2 the meat then took 1 pound and browned it and prepped it for tacos and another 1.5 lbs and made it into a meatloaf and stuck it in the oven.  Now, I have 3 nights worth of dinner... not including tonight because the kids already ate hot dogs!  I may freeze one of those meals so I have it for next week, but I was glad to be able to actually MAKE all of that and it all be things that we will eat.  LOVE that the only 'odd' ingredient I needed for the meatloaf was an onion and I happened to have one :).

Oh, and our ST has been coming to our home almost non-stop for the last 4 1/2 years since Brianna started therapy with only about a 4 month break from Sept-Jan last year when Micah aged-out of early intervention and we hadn't started back with private feeding therapy again due to insurance caps.  So, she has watched us grow from 2-8 and changed houses with us three times and knows just how nuts we are and how much we love our kids AND how crazy the house can be one minute and how CALM the next.  She also knows that I never remember that she's coming and she's good with a go with the flow attitude :)  Which is also wonderful because as of next month she will have two more little Cornishes in her care as she begins to work on communication skills with Aleksa and Wesley!