A Blast In The Night

It's late, or early, depending on how you see things. Lauren comes walking in and looks like she wants to crawl in bed with us. I say "OH NO, what is the matter". Can't sleep. GREAT. I tell her to use the bathroom and get a drink of water and go back to bed. Jim then takes her back to bed. When he comes back he tells me that her stomach hurts. I get up and get a pepto. I go to her room. She's in bed and crying. DOUBLE GREAT. I remind her that we will be seeing the doctor in the morning. More tears. I need to "change the channel". This is an expression we use for getting the kids to switch from crying or tantrum to something else. Preferably happy. What to do, I'm tired, what to do. Suddenly, the is a blast in the night. It's Jim, with gas. HOLY CRAP, that was loud. That did it. Now both Lauren and I are laughing. I leave her and go back to bed where, for once, I am grateful for Jim having gas.

Prayers Mother Never Taught You

There are days that I say prayers that I know are not the norm. I could soften them, but what is the point. I am trying to be honest. Here is what I am talking about. See if you too say them from time to time.

Lord grant me patience so I don't slap some idiot silly.

Lord help me to be a better mother so I don't crawl thru the phone and put this child through a wall.

Lord help me to remember to love my neighbor, even when they keep me up late at night making noise and being inconsiderate.

I guess I am just tired. I really am not an overly violent person.

Brandon, The Sun Worshiper

In Brando's World there are certain rules. One is that we should follow the sun. This does become a problem. During the summer, it's that it is still light out when I am trying to get him to go to bed. In the winter, it is that the sun comes up late. I need to have Brandon up by 6:15 am in order to get him to the sitters to catch his bus. This morning he realized that the sun was not up yet and his world was out of line. So now I will hear this for most of the winter. "Moommie, the sun not up, I not supposed to be up". Oh well, it is easier to put him to bed at night. What do I want.

Brandon to Start New Project

The other day we got some paperwork from Brandon's school about the "Olympics of the Mind". Very Cool. There are different categories that he can sign up for. It did explain something he was trying to tell us. He kept talking about building a boat to beat Quinn. One of the categories is a sailboat. He will be given a kit and he has to build it. It needs to be designed for speed and to be very creative. Brandon is already talking about a Spiderman boat with torpedoes to sink Quinn's boat. I guess I will need to buy a new camera so I can take pictures. Yup, we still haven't found the camera. I think all hope is lost on that front. I know it's in the house, but where is a mystery to all of us.

My New Work Pic

At work someone got the bright idea that they should do a work photo directory. Not bad when you consider that most of us hardly ever see one another. Example, at my office there is just me and two maintenance guys. At the 4 other apartment sites, it just about the same. No more than 5 or site at there site. Then there are the home sales and the corporate offices. I'm not so sure how I feel about the picture. I little stiff. Not too bad though. They then put all the pictures in a book that told you the name, site and position. What do you think?

Update On Brandon

I realized that I haven't really written about Brandon. I guess this is because he is really doing great. He is now writing his name in lower case letters. He is always ask how to spell something or have me read a word he sees on a box or whatever. The comments from school are really good. I really feel that him being in this special school it the best thing. Yesterday he asked me about writing a letter to Santa. I wrote and then had to read back several times because he wanted to make sure I was writing what he wanted. Then he drew a pictures to make sure Santa knew what he was talking about. Really cute. When Lauren came home he told her she needed to do the same. I can't wait to see the progress he will make this year.

Calm Down, Relax, Deep Breath

How many times a week have I said this. I have lost count. It doesn't take much to get Lauren upset. It can happen when I ask if she did her homework. Her face turns red and the tears well up. All this because she forgot it and doesn't want me to get mad. Then it happens the next day when the homework it too hard. That's really the big problem. Once she get overly emotional you have to stop and calm her down before she can do the homework. You see, working memory problems are made worst when someone, anyone really, gets upset or anxious. The question is . . . how do I stop the anxiety attacks from happening. I make a point of constantly telling her to just tell me, I won't get mad. I really try to not even raise my voice with her. If anyone has I hint, I am all ears.

Long Weekend and Still Recovering

I know I haven't written for a while. It was a long weekend and I still hurt. Lauren and I went cabin camping with her girl scout troop. We left on Friday. The trip was great and the kids had a great time. The one problem is no one told me about the hill. You see you park you car in the parking lot at the bottom of the complex. Then you are supposed to get the "carts" and take your stuff to your site. There are different kinds of sites for different levels of campers. We were the full cabins with a full mess hall (including stove). Our cabins were even supposed to have heat and air, although our air didn't work. The problem was to get to this site you had to go up a very large hill. So picture this. 7 girls, 15 if you add the other troop we were with, and 5 adults, 7 with the other troop, trying to get all our gear and food for the weekend up a steep hill. Some of the girls were having serious problems. We did make it and things were good until Sunday when it was time to go back down and get the carts to reverse the process. Of course I volunteered to take some girls down to get the carts and drag them back up.

Other than that, we took the girls on a 2 hour hike on Saturday. Worked on several badges. The funny thing about the weekend was the grub worms. You see I was talking to our group about different habitats and we were discussing food. We had gathered some acorns to leave out to feed the "wildlife" and I noticed that one of the acorns had a hole in it. I opened the acorn and showed the girls the worm that was inside. They were fascinated. After I was done the girls started looking around for more acorns and started opening the acorns and collecting all the worms. They literally were at it for over 3 hours. Every once in a while you would hear one shout that they found a baby or one was giving birth.

It really is amazing what will hold the interest of 7-15 girls, 7-9 years of age. Sorry, no pictures. I still haven't found the camera. I will try to get some pictures from one of the other Moms and post them later.

And The Answer Is. . . .

I got a note back from Lauren's Teacher. She didn't seem very happy. She says that "Lauren is Wrong." According to her Lauren has been taking all test and quizzes in the special ed class and Lauren must be remembering the review sheet she worked on in class. I wrote her back and thanked her. What does she want, we are talking about a memory problem here.

More IEP Concerns

OK, here is the newest problem. Last night I was checking Lauren's backpack. Inside she had a folder with two tests that needed to be signed. One for a map test and the other was a math test. The grades were 70% and 80%. I asked Lauren where she had taken the tests. You see her IEP says she is supposed to take all tests in the special ed. class so they can be read to her to ensure that she understands the questions. She told me she took the math test in the regular class. I looked at the questions she got wrong and they were word problems. I asked Lauren to read me the sentence and that wasn't happening. I thought so. It was not an easy sentence. The words were pretty big for a kid still reading at a first grade level. I wrote the teacher a note in her agenda book asking if the test was given in the special ed room or did she read it to Lauren herself. I thought I would give her the benefit of the doubt. I sort of know where this is going. For the past several days I have had a printout in Laurens special ed folder that has not been touched, so I don't think the teacher in there is paying any attention. I have a feeling this is going to require a visit to the school. Why does this have to be so hard. Why can't they just follow the IEP and give a damn about if this kid is learning or not.