Fat Chance

Today one of my friends sent me an update with pics of the kids. One was of them on a family trip to Sea World. In this picture the dad was behind the camera and mom and two kids were sitting in their seats excitedly watching the show, mom's arm out pointing to whatever was going on. If you ever think you'll be getting a picture like that from us, Fat Chance! S1 could never stand in line that long for starters. Second, he wouldn't be able to sit still long enough to watch the show. We'd have to get up and leave after ten minutes. I think that is one of the hardest parts of having a child with special needs, not being able to participate in some of the "normal" family activities, that you had dreamed of, because it would just be too difficult, physically and emotionally. In the end you have to decide is the outcome going to be worth the trauma? Right now, the answer is no.

Best seat in the house

I shall write this as if I was S1 doing it according to what I think must be going on in his head:

Hmmmm, I think I'll go into the kitchen. I feel like sitting down. Hmmm, mom is sitting in a chair. Silly mom, that doesn't look too comfortable. I'll pull down my own seat. Oh, it's nice to sit on this oven door and bounce. Good thing it's not hot today. What's the problem mom? Wait, the dishwasher (it's portable) is next to the stove. Ooooh, I bet I can sit on that door too. Let's see. Yes, it does open. I can sit cross-legged on it and see myself in the oven door reflection. Now to pull out these clean wooden spoons and start drumming wherever. Cool. This is definetly the best seat in the house. What's mom's problem?

I have to assume this is what he is thinking, because what else would it be?

Nap or No Nap

Well, Thanksgiving was a huge hit. It was us and two of Dave's siblings. There was more than enough food to go around. The boys enjoyed playing with their aunt and uncle - mom and dad are sooo boring. However, no one napped as I had expected even though they did watch football and eat turkey. So, I tried to lay down anyway and even though I was tired, I only managed to get S2 to fall asleep. Of course that meant that I was then up and doing the dishes. There weren't many since we used paper and plastic and I cleaned up as I went along, mostly. My MIL will be so proud of me!

Aunt K kept trying to get S3 to say her name. But every time anyone said, "S3, say Aunt K," he would reply back "NO!" So we'll just start calling her Aunt No from now on.

Dave borrowed a PS2 so there was a lot of that going on. We also watched a bit of the parade but S1 lost interest whenever the band went off camera.

The "fun" part was that my SIL spent the night and we got up at 4:30 am to get some killer deals when the stores opened at 5 am. We were mostly lucky. Now my Christmas shopping is almost complete. However, by the time we hit the check out at our third stop, Bath & Body Works, I forgot to pay for my purchase with the gift card I had! Urgh. Oh well, they have a new sale that starts tomorrow! He he he. Watch the photo blog because I will be downloading some pics from the glorious day of indulgence.

No Tryptophan

Right now I plan on taking a huge nap on Thanksgiving afternoon. I figure if this last Saturday was any indication of what is to come on Turkey day, then all my boys will be sleeping soundly. Last Saturday Dave was watching football and all the males in the house fell asleep. True it was S3's nap time and S2 went crying to his bed for a time out and fell asleep. But S1 fell asleep while watching football, and so did his dad! I had to laugh. I never realized that televised football could be such a strong sedative. I had a couple of hours to clean without interruption! Now imagine that combined with all the tryptophan in the turkey come Thursday and they should all take a nice long siesta, which means that I can take a break too.

Halloween

Well, as you can tell things have been busy, but I did promise to write about Halloween so here it is. Being at a children's hospital for Halloween was a blast! Around 9 am they came around and told everyone that there would be face painting and stuff in the play room. So S3 and I went down to play. Well, they also had an assortment of costumes for the kids to dress up in for the day. They were all donated so they made us take them home. S3 was an ER doc so we wrapped gauze around my head and painted a bloody spot on it. Then at 10:30 am they had a Halloween party where the kids got to parade their outfits and eat sugar cookies iced like pumpkins and drink apple cider. After this it was back to our room because S3 was ready to nap.

We originally were told we might go home on Tuesday, which was Halloween, but since he hadn't been eating or drinking very well they decided to keep us one more day. Also, they removed the drain from S3's head Tuesday morning. Well, S3 woke up just in time to get dressed again and go trick or treating around the hospital around 2 pm. He came away with quite the haul of candy, toys and trinkets. He had a blast and everyone thought he was the cutest little ER doc. After Trick or Treating it was time for another nap.

He ate well at dinner and breakfast so first thing Wednesday morning they discharged us. He acquired two new stuffed animals and a blanket from the hospital plus we had all the Halloween stuff, my stuff and of course the killer balloon from Grandma F - tropical fish "swimming" inside a clear balloon.

If you want to see pictures, you can go to my new photo blog. It is where I will post photos of the kids and such. It is easy to remember because it is www.momstampsphotos.blogspot.com. I will also try to get a link up to it from this page. Also, not all my pictures are there because for some reason it says it is uploading certain pics but then they aren't there and I don't have the brain power to figure it out now!

Anyway, things have been going great and except for being bald and the scar, you never would have known that S3 had surgery - okay and his head shape but I am talking about in all other aspects than physical. We have enjoyed having Grandma W here to help out with the boys and helping around the house. She'll be here until Wednesday when she leaves for her sister's home in WA. S3 has his follow up appointment on Tuesday and we'll let you know how that goes.