And the sickies hit AGAIN!

The beginning of February everyone here was really sick. Well, everyone but me. I managed to escape the influenza bug this year. Asher was down just a day or two. Dean was sick well over a week, Axel a few days. Angela had it the worst of all of us because it triggered her asthma which took several weeks for her lungs to recover.

And now there is something else upon us.

On Thursday last week we were innocently going through our morning routine; Angela getting her backpack/jacket on, Axel getting dressed and Asher sitting on the pot.

I was in supervisor mode, walking through checking on everyone when I heard...I heard a noise I have not heard in 16 years. Dean had never heard the noise before and looked confused, "What was THAT?" he asked.

"OMG THAT WAS PUKING!" I hollered as I ran for Asher in the bathroom.

Yes. Yes my mind had remembered that sound correctly.

I don't do puke. I can clean up a lot of things, but puke is not one of them. When big brother Tyler was a kid he used to get carsick all the time. It started when he was just an infant, so by the time he was 4 he could independently manage his puke bucket and towels in the car. All I had to do was roll down all the windows. :-)

As I lifted Asher to the bathtub I hollered for Dean to bring paper towels. Lots of 'em. When he came back with the paper towelsI don't even think he came into the bathroom. No, I think he just threw them at me and ran. "I don't do puke" he said. Really???? So I should just leave Asher here in the mess because I don't do puke either? "Sorry kid, you're on your own with this one. We don't do puke." But I am the mom, so I stayed. Dean, on the other hand, didn't say a word and supervised Angela and Axel through the rest of the morning. You know, don't draw attention to yourself and nobody will make you deal with the puke.

There is one thing about cleaning up puke, and that is I never really know where to start. I mean, do you clean up the kid first or the floor? Since it wasn't really possible to walk in the bathroom without stepping in puke, I opted to start with the floor first. That was great until I realized - too late - that Asher was standing in the tub leaning over me.

And WHY IN GOD'S NAME did He...the same god who gave me these beautiful children - why did He give us mom's the reflex to CATCH things???? ALL things?

Eventually I got the floor cleaned up, the kid cleaned up, the tub cleaned up, and then I got me cleaned up. I wasn't really sure where to put the puking Asher now. Hmmm Somewhere that can be wiped clean, but the hardwood floor didn't seem like the most comfortable option. I laid him on his bed and images of washer load after washer load of puke bedding flashed before my eyes. I stripped his sheets and let him lay on the vinyl mattress cover. Thank you to whoever invented those! They are great for puking kids! It did look a bit like a scened from an institution, but I didn't care. I was more concerned about avoiding more laundry.

I left Asher there while I went to wash my hands for the 27th time in 30 minutes when I heard that noise again. I went running back to find Asher sitting not on his bed, but on the other side of the room and he had puked all over the carpet. Lord Jesus help me! I put him through another rapid bathing and put him back on his bed then ran downstairs to get the carpet machine.

I passed Dean who was sitting quietly in the living room, minding his own business. I must have looked like I needed help because Dean was working from home that day, but when he saw me he suddenly slammed his laptop closed and ran for his shoes. "I'm outta here!"  he said, and I'm pretty sure he was smiling as the door closed behind him.

Now, this thing...this carpet machine... is brand new. I bought it when we had a pipe burst back in November and have only used it one time. It is a whole lot of awesomeness. Yeah, well, things are a lot of fun until the carpet cleaner craps out on you in your time of need!!!!

I spent the next two hours trying to unclog tubes that I decided must be the problem, stopping every 10 minutes or so to clean up more puke. He hadn't even eaten that much in the last 24 hours, how could there be SO MUCH???

Eventually Thursday ended, as did Friday and the weekend. Today is Monday and Asher stayed home with me again. He'll be home tomorrow again too. What a lovely lovely thing. NOT!

Soaker Pads

This post is for my dog breeder friends. :-)

Hospital Soaker Pads make for awesome whelping pen bedding! They lay flat, are super absorbent with a waterproof backing and wear like steel!! When using in a whelping pen, put down several layers. As they become soiled just pull up the top pad and you have a fresh clean one underneath!

Hospital Soaker pads also make great dog blankets to give to your puppy families. Living in Minnesota we put them in our dog kennels to soak up all the water after our dogs have been out playing in the snow.

Pads are 32x32 with a waterproof backing

Boxes of 10, discounts for multiple boxes!!

Questions? EMAIL ME

Orders shipped within Continental US only

How many do you need?

10 $60.00 USD 20 $115.00 USD 30 $175.00 USD 40 $230.00 USD 50 $285.00 USD

It's Fixed!

I was receiving emails from people saying the paypal button on the KINDLE fundraiser wasn't working. After messing around all morning I finally got it fixed!!! We're running out of time to raise the last of the money we need, being short $1900, and leaving in 34 days.

OMG!

Like most kids in the U.S. Angela carries a backpack to school.

A couple weeks ago I had to drop her off after an appointment. This meant taking her down to her Special Ed. classroom (which was empty) getting her hearing aids on and her FM system hooked up, then finding where she was supposed to be.  Although there wasn't anything in Angela's backpack that she needed, she still insisted upon carrying it with her. This was clearly her routine so I didn't say anything. It was a looooooong, winding walk to the other end of the school. I wasn't sure I'd be able to find my way back to the front doors! I had a hard time keeping up to Angela who was clearly on a mission go get there quickly.

Watching Angela lean into her backpack it occurred to me she wears it more for sensory input than because she needs anything in there. She likes deep pressure and "heavy" work. Some days she crams a lot of stuff in it: phy ed clothes, hockey helmet, water bottle, etc. In the summertime she often gets puts a ton of stuff in a backpack and goes "exploring" around the yard. She has nicely taught Axel how to put all this random crap in backpacks then later dump it out all over the bedroom put it away.

And then this morning happened.

It had already been a rough morning; her obsessing over the fact the collar of her shirt got wet when we were doing her hair, me telling her to stop obsessing, which of course makes her obsess more. This evolved into her refusing to leave the bathroom mirror which was about to cause her to miss the bus. "If you miss your bus you will NOT be watching any of your shows after school and I am not EVEN going to give in on that one later on!"

"Fine!" she yelled.

"Fine!" I said back.

She gave a big growl.

After realizing the world would end if she didn't watch her shows, she finally conceded with, "I need a new shirt."

"Well then you better hurry UP because your bus is coming in 5 minutes." (and we have a long icy driveway that is difficult for her to navigate.)

I haven't yet checked, but based on historical evidence, I'm sure she ripped apart her closet to find just the right shirt.

She raced back up the stairs and got her jacket and shoes on. As she slung that backpack on I wanted to know what she had in there that was so heavy.

I reached in.

I pulled out two sets of phy. ed. clothes, two planners and a folder. I reached further down and found a water bottle that hadn't been properly closed because it was quite damp in there.

And then...then I reached further, until my hand found....

Slime.

A lot of it.

That's when I realized the bottoms of the folders and planners I'd pulled out were covered in it. After yesterdays vomiting episodes with Asher I was still pretty gaggy myself. OMG...this was nasty.

"Oh my God what do you HAVE in here???????"

Apparently when Angela is done with lunch she's been putting her left over fruit in her backpack. There was now both a LIQUID banana and a slimy apple at the bottom of her back. I still can't figure out why it didn't smell. A mystery that will probably never be solved.

I did what any good mother would do and threw the entire backpack and it's contents into the trash. Well, I did save her Lands End mittens because they're awesome, but everything else went out.

Years ago Angela had a clear backpack. I loved that thing because I could always see she's brought something home for me. I think it's time to go back!

This n That

Angela is just entering her last week of floor hockey season. She really loves floor hockey! Unfortunately the season started right when she got sick. She missed the first 3 weeks and it's a short season. Angela has been playing since 7th grade but last year was the first she really seemed to understand the game. Unfortunately "understanding" and "keeping up" are two very different things. She is usually several seconds behind the puck. The good thing is, she doesn't care!! She does lot of running around and it's great exercise for her. She's easy to pick out in this video, wearing her new bright pink shoes. LOL


This year she's been so busy with cheerleading, soccer and swimming, then floor hockey. While most people have trouble keeping their kids busy during the winter, we have the opposite problem. Angela is super busy all winter long but when softball season rolls around (in two weeks!) the activity level drops significantly. Special Olympics track and field wills start while we're in Serbia, but it's only twice a week. Maybe I will get us moving more with family walks this summer.

Axel is doing tremendous in school. He is really hitting some developmental leaps right now! He has also started writing and drawing on his own.

He wrote Tyler's name on his own. He got it almost right. LOL

He drew a bus. It starts with "B". Can you see where he drew himself in the door of the bus?

 We're really working on his last name now. I won't let him just write his first name anymore. He's getting it. 

Asher...Asher...Asher. We had his IEP last week. The district is hoping to have a new special ed classroom on our end of town next year. I asked how many kids they need to open it. ;-) This  year he has been fully included in a regular ed. kindergarten classroom and it's been going really well, particularly once he got a 1:1 aid who is fluent in ASL. (Asher adores her!) His teacher is fantastic too. While Asher is developmentally 24-28 months old, it has been really good for him to see that kids TALK, and the play with toys, and just generally how they act. Never in his life has he been around typically developing kids. This has been really helpful for him and he's trying so hard to talk now. We have a solid "bye!" which is adorable. He has several other word approximations he uses as well, and his singing has increased exponentially. Asher has never been fishing in his life, nor has he been in or seen a boat in real life. As I type this Dean is sitting on the couch stringing fishing rods and Asher just signed to him "boat" and was all excited to see what he was doing. 

Asher is a daddy's boy. Yesterday we got paint for the main bathroom. Asher helped carry the paint.

I have implemented a "tough love" program for Asher and his eating. He doesn't have the stamina yet to eat and entire meal but he'll never increase his stamina if he's not made to do it. On Thursday he came home from school and I gave him pancakes for lunch, cut up as finger food. He isn't very fond of finger food since he was never allowed to use his fingers in the institution, but using his fingers allows him to place the food in his teeth.  When I gave him the pancakes he ate 2 or 3 bites and politely pushed it away. I didn't say a word. I gave him time to eat while I ate my lunch, and when I was done I put it all away. When lunch is done, it is done. 

We went to therapy where he had PT on an empty stomach. Dinner time rolled around and I knew he had to be starving. I gave him a 1/2 tuna sandwich and  he wolfed it down!  Then I gave him some stuff that doesn't require chewing. 

Friday he's at school full day so I have to send food they don't have to worry about so it was a wash. However, Friday evening he fell asleep on the couch at 5:00 and slept until 6:00 the next morning! He had slept right through dinner so I knew he'd be famished at breakfast time. He came to get me out of bed carrying his box of baby cereal then got himself a bowl and spoon. Sorry buddy, no baby cereal for you! I made him a waffle and he ate the whole thing without any prompting. Then I gave him a yogurt and some fruit puree to top him off. 

Except for breakfast this morning he has eaten finger food all weekend! He gets about 1/2 the meal as finger food then when he's done with that I give him something easier. We'll keep it at this level for a couple of weeks then up the ante to eating full meals. I'm so proud of him. This has been a real challenge for Asher - and me - but will make some things in life so much easier, particularly going to restaurants and eating at school. 

Prepositions

Asher has been working hard to learn his prepositions. I think it's really cool I haven't had to do any of the teaching. Nope, he's doing it all on his own! The last several weeks he has focused his area of studies to "On", "in", "under' and "up"

Under the table

Under chairs in waiting rooms

Back under the table

Don't forget "up"!

and in

and more "up"!

Dear God

Dear God,

I have tried to be so patient with this chewing business. I knew it would take a long time to overcome the 7 years of pureed foods that Asher received his entire life. We spent months pureeing everything while working on his oral motor strength and...you know...teaching him that he HAS a tongue.
Once he had some strength built up we worked on learning to bite, which he can do very well now and actually has for several months. Several months. He CAN chew now, but not for very long. But most important, he doesn't WANT to chew.

God, I am bored with this now, and pretty much done. Really, it is time to move on to other things. Only I don't want to be pureeing everything for him forever either. So, if I could just ask that you flip whatever switch it is you have up there with you. The chewing switch. That would be grew. Ok?

Thanks and Amen

Adoption Blog

If you're not following our adoption blog, tonight we started an awesome fundraiser! Please go have a look-see! 

What Time Is It?

Axel has been working on telling time. He is pretty obsessed with clocks right now. Just last week he was introduced to telling time to the hour. He was really excited to bring home homework!

Neglected Blog

I know! I'm sorry! It seems most of the blogging I'm doing now, which still isn't very much, is over on my adoption blog. Things have been kinda busy!

But, I'll leave you with something cute. We had a bit of a snowstorm over the weekend. Sunday turned into a BEAUTIFUL day!!!

Do you see the snowball headed my direction?

Some Days

Some days a kid just needs to sleep.

Last night I picked Angela up from floor hockey practice and I could tell she was just wiped out. He leads a busy day you know. Just like most high school students do. The difference is it takes more than the typical amount of energy for her to make it through her days.

For several years, I think the beginning of 3rd through the end of 6th grade, Angela had a shortened school day. She just could not make it through a whole day. When she was there all day staff spent a majority of their time redirecting behaviors and trying to keep everyone else safe. What we didn't know was she was having nocturnal migraines and daytime and nocturnal seizures. Once we got those things diagnosed she was a totally different kid. The majority of difficult behavior was gone and she was suddenly able to not only make it through a full day of school, but also extracurricular activities.

Unfortunately the last several weeks have been so rough on her system. Her lungs still haven't settled down and her asthma continues to be a major issue. (in fact, as I type this, I'm waiting for her doctor's office to open so oral prednisone can be called in.)

This morning I made a judgement call. Although she was in bed at 7:00 last night, she was still out cold when it was time to get her up at 5:30 this morning. I'll admit I didn't try too hard to wake her up, but as I type she's been sleeping for 13 hours. Something told me today was one of "those" days. Some days she just needs a day to sleep. She might wake up energized and ready for school, or she might sleep a couple more hours and still be groggy. It's a "wait and see" kind of day. Wait and see how she's doing before I make a decision as to weather or not she's going to school. She does have a floor hockey game today that she won't be happy to miss if she doesn't go, but some days....some days she just needs a day to recoup in the middle of the week. 

Today's randomness

Angela is back to school, but she's having to do nebulizer treatments twice a day at school, plus the ones she does at home. This is a very bad year for her asthma! Her lungs still haven't settled down from her hospital stay.

.................

A couple weeks ago, whenever someone came to the door, Asher started making this funny noise. It took us a couple times to realize he's barking like the dogs. Dudley is his favorite dog and he often comes running into the room just to hug on Dudley a bit. I think because Dudley doesn't tell him no like the rest of us do. (because these are not "love" hugs, these are "I need to squeeze the living daylights out of something!" hugs.)  Now whenever Dudley yawns, Asher imitates him with a big, exaggerated, tongue sticking out yawn. LOL

................

Axel was just eating breakfast. He's very concerned about the whole bussing schedule in the mornings because, well he just is. He just told me, (in sign)  "Mom. Bus comes. Stop. Axel on the bus. Bus drives away." 

.................

Axel is going through  learning explosion. Suddenly he understands the concept of adding. His counting isn't consistent so he doesn't end up with the right answer, but he understands the basic adding concept. He is also learning to tell time to the hour, and reading sight words. I can't wait for him to see his old social workers in Serbia and show him off a bit! 

.................

Asher is also in a little learning leap! Now in the mornings when we're waiting for the bus  he says, "Buh Buh!" for bus. When Dean comes home from work Asher comes running to tell me (in sign) "Daddy! Daddy!" Just now he finished eating breakfast and came to tell me "Ba Ba!" while signing bath. He went running to the bathroom when I told him to go take his clothes off. Oh how this child loves water! Before I could make it to the bathroom he was hollering "Ma Ma Ma!" When I got in there he was sitting naked in the bathtub waiting for me. LOL

.............

Angela was very excited to be back to floor hockey! She missed two weeks of practice. Last night was her first game (and first day back to hockey!) and she did great. She was pretty wheezy afterward though. I cannot wait for spring and I think Angela agrees with me. 

................

In school Angela's broadcasting class just finished producing a PSA about the R-word. I think the plan is for it to air in her school in March for Spread the Word to End the Word. 

I hope you have a wonderful day! Mine promises to be busy busy busy! Oh, guess what? I filed my taxes at midnight on January 31st! Do I win the early filing award?

Just Another Friday Night

Friday.

It was supposed to be very quiet day. Well, I guess it was but now that it's 10:00 pm it feels like it was quite busy. I guess it just depends what side of the morning I'm looking at, huh?

We're having record cold here in MN this week. To cold, in fact, to send the kids to the bus stop on their own, so at 6:45 Angela and I were sitting in the freezing car waiting for her bus. It was -2 with a wind chill of -40. Brrrrrrr  Because of the ice I escorted  her across the street and around the front of the bus. In my pajamas. With bed hair. Just a little while later Dean walked (ok ran) Axel down to his bus, and another 90 minutes later I was again in the cold car with Asher waiting for his bus. Brrrrrrrrr

Dean was off work today, so I left him lounging on the couch while I went to run some errands. On the way I realized I was going to be going right past my good friend Kathie's house and decided to call and see if she was up for a drop-in visitor. That's when I realized I didn't have my phone with me. Ruh roh! It is very rare I forget my phone. The kids are spread out among three different schools and it's an unusual day that I someone's teacher doesn't call or text me. Being a woman of fantastic priorities, I stopped at my friends and we visited for quite awhile. I don't get to see any of my real life friends very often so it was a really refreshing visit.

It was almost 1:30 by the time I got home. I walked in to find Dean baking chocolate chip cookies. (is he not the best husband EVER?) He said "Hi!" very quietly and pointed to the couch. There was Asher, sound asleep buried under blankets. Of course today was the day school called! Thankfully they were easily able to reach Dean and he went to get Asher from school. Poor baby was asleep on the couch with his 101* fever.

Before we knew it the big kids were coming home. Dean made dinner (see? AWESOME MAN!) then we were just hanging out. Asher had perked up thanks to some Tylenol so the kids and I were having fun singing some action songs. Somehow this turned into Axel showing us how he could do push-ups. (and he does them quite well!) Then Angela decided to lead them through stretching exercises which included push ups, sit ups, jumping jacks, and some strange contortionist thing she had going on!

I decided to teach Axel and Angela how to arm wrestle. Apparently she already knows how, because when I asked her if she wanted to arm wrestle, she whipped up her sleeves and declared, "BRING IT!!!" and set her elbow down to wrestle!

A family arm wrestling tournament ensued.

Then I had the brilliant idea to challenge Dean to an indian wrestling dual. On the hardwood floor because we trashed our area rug months ago.

Did you indian wrestle as a kid? It's when you lay on your back, the other person lays next to you but with their head by your feet. You each bring up the leg closest to the other person, hook legs and try to pull the other person over.

Indian wrestling is not meant for two very out-of-shape middle-aged adults. Just say'in!

Now the kids are all in bed and Dean and I are both taking Ibuprofen. And also, he kicked my butt wrestling.

On the agenda for today

Now that we are all healthy again, it's time to get some stuff done!!! Today is an errand running day.

First, back in early November I bought a living social deal for a facial. I have had to reschedule it a couple times but today I'm finally going to get it done. It feels like I spent a lot of money when really I didn't. And, it's rare I do anything for myself so today I can without feeling guilty because I bought it months ago. LOL

When that's done I have a fun errand to run! All of the documents and paperwork I need to do for the adoption is complete. Today I'll be dropping that stack off with the homestudy agency. Tomorrow is our homestudy visit. Once our background check comes back (sometime next week I hope!)  our homestudy will be complete and I can send everything off to Serbia!

I must get something done in the house! I'm behind from the last couple weeks of sick people!

Tonight I start back to dog school. This time I'm not teaching, but Roman and I are taking a class. We've been out for a really long time so it will be good to get back. And, it makes me get out of the house and do something fun one night a week. Dean has bowling in the winter or golf in the summer. I have...ummm...nothing. I really do miss teaching too. Maybe once we get our new son home I'll get back in the ring. Surely I will have even more spare time once we add another. Right?

The Plague

Over Christmas the plague hit our house. Dean was the one most affected. Angela has missed school a few times since then.

And then it hit, for real! On Sunday, January 20th, Angela started that barking cough that tells me it's time for the nebulizer. Monday morning she woke up with a 103* fever. She was SICK! The every-four-hour neb. treatments started as well as Tamiflu and doling out Tylenol at regular intervals.

She slept, and slept.

On Wednesday Axel woke up with a 102* fever. He laid down and just cried. He was miserable, poor kid. Tamiflu and Tylenol for him! By afternoon Dean was in bed with a fever too.

Angela still slept.

Wednesday night I realized I was now nebbing Angela every 2 1/2 - 3 hours. That means that the inhaled steroids were't cutting it anymore so it was time for a boost. We headed to the E.R. Thankfully it was the fastest E.R. visit EVER and they got us in and out of there pretty quickly. She was given oral prednisone along with a prescription for z-pack for the sinus infection she'd also developed.

The whole week there was a lot of this going on.

By Thursday Axel was acting better but I kept him home anyway. Angela was still on the couch and still getting nebs every 4 hours, sometimes a little more frequently.

Saturday the boys were feeling better so they went to my friend's house. Poor Asher was going a bit stir crazy with the rest of us doing nothing but laying around! But throughout the day Angela was going downhill. Her fever was gone but I was having to give her neb treatments much more frequently, and by late afternoon I realized we were down to every 2 1/2-3 hours. This is much too frequently and an indicator it's time for stronger meds and rule out pneumonia.

She and I took a trip to the ER. She was really dehydrated again, making me feel a bit defeated because I had been forcing her to drink a large glass of water every hour for days. Unfortunately the rapid breathing she'd been doing causes her to still dehydrate no matter what I do. She was started on an IV and they added steroid meds to it as well. These help reduce inflammation in the lungs. She had a chest X-ray done to rule out pneumonia. Thankfully she didn't have that but the did have lungs that were hyper inflated from trying so hard to move air. The person is trying to breath deep, but the inflammation causes the air to get trapped in the lung.

Even with the IV steroids she was needing to be nabbed every hour and a half so she was admitted. There was period when she needed continuous nebs for awhile because she just couldn't get over the hump. By midmorning on Saturday she turned the corner and was back to only needing nebs every 4 hours. She was discharged after dinner and so far, so good at home! It'll be a few days before she's able to return to school. She's missed several things last week that she's not happy about!

Axel returned to school today, although he's still seeming a little bit off. He doesn't have a fever or any other symptoms, he's just very quiet. Makes me wonder if he has fluid in his ears or something. Dean also went back to work today. I think he was about ready to go nuts with all the laying around!

Thankfully Asher and I were able to avoid the crud last week. I kept praying, "Please, God, if I'm gonna get sick, make it be when the kids go back to school!"

Perfecting skills

Yesterday I showed you the video of Asher perfecting his jumping skills. He's been working really hard at this. "Obsessive" is a good adjective to use right now. He's jumping over lines on the floor, doorway thresholds and all kinds of things I can't see. When he bends over to pick up something, he doesn't stand up, he jumps up! LOL It's quite cute actually. He'll be bebopping his way through room and just...jump...totally out of the blue. What a riot he is!

But now he's working on a new skill. I don't really know what to call it though. It's one that makes me scratch my head!

Jump!

Asher has been trying to jump for several months now. "Bend your knees and JUMP!" is something we have been singing around here for what seems a very long time. He will stand in front of me, hands on his knees, waiting for me to sing it.

When he first started learning to jump, I'm sure he felt he could reach the ceiling when in reality his feet never left the floor. Instead he kind of got up on his toes. It was so cute!

Then, a couple of weeks ago, he realized if he held one hand for balance, he COULD get off the floor. Only a fraction of an inch, but he was jumping. He practiced, and practiced and practiced some more. Like a toddler learning to stand for the first time, Asher was determined to jump.

Finally. Finally he got himself off the ground in a REAL jump!

Yesterday I decided to see if he understood the concept of "Jump OVER!"

He has jumped "over" 3,402 times since then.

Communicating

We have two boys here who are in the midst of a communication explosion! Unfortunately one of them has gotten things mixed up.

Earlier in the week I picked Axel up from school to bring him to therapy. His teacher told me that during snack time he had signed "cinnamon bar", indicating he wanted the same bars for snack that one of his friends had. He had done it on his own without any prompting. I told him we would stop and pick up more snacks.

Later, after therapy we stopped at the grocery store, only it wasn't our regular store. The one we were at was about twice the size and layed out differently.

Axel stopped me at one isle, "Snacks school." he signed.

"Oh thank you for remembering you need snacks for school."

He lead me down the isle and half way up the other until he found the cereal bars. "Cinnamon bar." he signed and picked out a box of cereal bars.

"Good choice Axel. You chose your own snacks."

Then he spotted different bars with a strawberry on the front. "Forgot strawberry." he signed. He put his boxes back and chose two boxes of the strawberry bars, placing them very carefully into the cart. "School snack backpack" he signed.

"Yes, when we get home you can put those in your backpack, then bring them to school tomorrow."

The following morning Axel reminded me his strawberry bars were in his backpack.

"Oh that's right! You need lunch money too!" I quickly wrote out a check, stuck it in an envelope and said as I wrote on the front, "Axel's lunch money." He put it into the folder in his backpack. Later I got a text from his teacher. "Axel came into the room and signed, "Lunch money backpack" as soon as he got here!

This is a HUGE leap in communication for Axel! Talking about things that are out of context. Reminding me that he needs things, AND telling me things without any prompting! Way to go Axel!!!!

Asher, too, is doing more communicating. Just today Angela's behavioral staff came to the door. Asher ran to the door barking....just like the dogs do.

We'll have to work on that more.

Tonight Dean was leaving for Thursday night bowling. He asked Axel if he wanted to go along. Axel said yes , got his jacket and put his shoes, coat and gloves on. Asher got very excited about this! He dropped the toys he'd been carrying around and ran to me.

 "Jacket, jacket jacket!" he signed. Asking me if he could put his jacket on.

"I'm sorry Asher. Today is Axel's turn to go along to bowling."

Asher's lower lip stuck out as he dropped to the floor in protest. He put is face down on his hands. A few seconds later he stood back up.

"Me me me" he signed, which is his way of signing "my turn, my turn, my turn".

"Asher, I know you want to go with daddy..."

"Daddy daddy daddy."

"Yes, you want to go with Daddy but..."

"Go go go!" (signed and SAID the word)

"Honey, you are staying home with mom."

"Home." he signed with a sad look as he watched Axel walk out the door. He ran to the window and watched Axel climb into Dean's car.

"Daddy daddy daddy!" he signed.

He came running back to me in the living room.

"My turn. Daddy."

I gave him a hug.

"I'm sorry honey. You are staying home with mom. Next week Daddy will take you along. I promise."

Old Movies

Tonight I was working on a video project for Cherish Our Children International. While digging around in my account I found some old videos I haven't watched in a long time. I thought you might get a kick out of this one. This is Angela when she was around 9 or 10, explaining the EEG equipment she was wearing. She cracks me up!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
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EEG

This has been a really long week and it's only partly done! Ok, I had to change the title of this post because I started writing it on Wednesday. LOL

Axel has been having episodes since the day we brought him home (December 2010 at age 10) that we have always chalked up to institutional or self-stimming behavior. When school started this fall, everyone decided these episodes had gotten more frequent and look a bit like simple partial seizures. We decided to get this checked out because they're affecting a significant part of Axel's day.

The first step is to take measurements of Axel's head, then mark and clean specific spots where the electrodes will be glued.

Then it was time to start gluing everything on. Axel was not thrilled with this process!!! In the institution, because of the way he'd been restrained, he developed some pretty awesome self-protective maneuvers using his feet. He put them to good use during this process. 

This is the "I'm not happy and not going to look at you any more." look. 

Wrapping everything under gauze so it stays nice and secure overnight. 

The wrapping is done. All the wires are plugged into a computer. 

The computer is placed inside the backpack so moving around our "hotel room" is easier. There is a telephone cord that tethers the backpack computer into the central system. This cord is about 20 feet long and allows Axel to move to the bathroom if needed, but for the most part he's supposed to stay sitting on the bed. There is a camera in the ceiling and they'd like to be able to see his face and eyes. 

Hanging out on the bed for a full 24 hours! There is a button hanging on the headboard that I push any time I see questionable activity, or the episodes we've been noticing. I noticed several within 10 minutes of starting the test. Every time the tech would come into the room and ask what I'd noticed, so that he knows what to watch for on the video. After awhile, once they were familiar with Axel, they didn't need to ask anymore.

It was a long night sharing that queen-sized bed with Axel. The kid flops all over the place like a fish! At home, about every 20-30 minutes he starts banging his head on the mattress, and each time lasts about a minute or so. (this used to drive me crazy hearing him do this all night long. He even did it when he had the halo screwed into his head! Finally a few months ago we changed sleeping arrangements and replace all our 1970's hollow-core bedroom doors with solid oak doors. This is allowing everyone to sleep much better at night without having to hear the banging) Axel didn't head bang at all during the study, but he did sit up and rock several times during the night. Rocking is a very common post-institutional behavior. We haven't seen him do it for a long time so I was surprised it happened on this particular night. Now, this was NOT a sleep study, which monitors the quality of his sleep. This was an EEG only, which is looking for seizures, and the overnight is to rule out nocturnal seizures. It's pretty clear that Axel's sleep is seriously disturbed and he doesn't get much quality sleep at all. We'll be doing a sleep study soon to address this. I could have had the two tests done at the same time but that would have required coming up with the idea beforehand and not in the middle of the night as I watched him rock in the dark.

Today (Wednesday) the neurologist's office called and said they were able to see all the episodes I had marked on the read out. There are definite differences in his brain waves at that time, but hey are not seizures. Instead they are "stereotyped movements", which is a fancy way of saying "just" self stimming behavior and nothing to be concerned about from a medical standpoint. We're not at all surprised that's what he's doing, as it's pretty common post-institutional behavior, but we needed to rule out that it was true seizures.

From a behavioral standpoint they ARE concerning because he completely checks out at this time. He looses chunks of time and takes a few seconds to re-orient when he comes back to us. The next question is what, if anything, do we do about it? The sleep portion is just one issue, but what about during the day when he completely checks out? I'm not really sure the best way to handle this.

Axel is on another planet so much of the time that it is sometimes frustrating. He is a very smart young man, but there are days...like today...that make me scratch my head. It is winter in Minnesota so Axel goes to school with boots on his feet and shoes in his backpack. Today I got a text from his teacher saying he had come to school with two left shoes.

How could this even be possible? At the moment he only has one pair of shoes that fit him. His orthotics are in his shoes.

We texted back and forth trying to figure it out. He had on one size 4 boys shoe, a gray high-top tennis shoe with thick, fluorescent green laces. Those laces match his jacket and his backpack. The other shoe he was waring was an 8W low-profile shoe (just happened to be a woman's shoe)  that has pink piping and gray laces. It was MY shoe!

Now, Axel has very good problem solving skills, but this morning when he (apparently) couldn't find one of his shoes, instead of looking for it he just grabbed the next gray one he could find. It just happened to be mine, several sizes too big, and included the orthotic I have for my feet which is very different from his orthotic.  To Axel this solution would work just fine. I keep going back to the fact my shoe was huge  on him, the orthotic probably felt awful! He ended up spending the day wearing his boots. I bet tomorrow he brings HIS shoes to school.

So, thankfully seizures were ruled out, and now he knows he has to bring HIS shoes to school. All we have to do is figure out how to stop him from leaving our world 20+ times per day. Believe me, the term ADD has been tossed around plenty!