After the Rain

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Sure, they look all sweet and adorable in their matching shirts, but dealing with them on Thursday was a bit rough.  Sam and I did Potty Training Boot Camp. He looks all sweet and innocent.  We spent most of the mornings this week naked, and he does great. But today we gave underwear a go, and he only bat about 50/50 success rate.  50% is not done, Fully Potty Trained, but it's Progress!  

 

Luckily, Thursday was my evening off.  And even though it wasn't a big stress day, I was grateful to get away.  It's like They Know, they know when I'm about to get away.  So they get Craziest right before it's time for me to go, making it easier to go.  While I was driving we got a blustery storm rolling in.  It was lovely to see those dark clouds, but the wind was blowing up all this dust, all along my path, I couldn't tell if it was dust making it hard to see stretches of road,or if the rain had finally started.  

The rain finally let loose while I was inside, and was ever so kind as to finish up just as quickly.  So it was good to get some stuff off my chest, and was good for the area to get some rain.  It's been really dry around here, bordering drought.  Happy Summer.  It's supposed to be finally the first day of summer, and we finally get rain! 

It was lovely when I came out, so my friend Kathleen and I took off to West Park for a C25K Week 1 run. Turns out the weather was Perfect.  It was the first run not in the dark under 80 degrees that I've done in I can't even remember how long.  As the sun started peeking out from under the clouds, the water in the park ponds really began sparkling.  Gorgeous! 

Something amazing about a sun setting, the glow on greenage after a rain. 

Breathtaking.  I'm really loving the water lilies. 

I know the green gold glow is a little funky, but they are just how they looked in the setting sun.  

And as the sun  came out from under the clouds, all the water lily flowers started popping up out of the water.  I suppose if I had lots of time, and lots of daylight left, that I would have stayed at watched all the flowers open up.  I just need to get back over there!

But I had miles to go before I sleep.  The sun was setting, and we were thirsty...maybe a little hungry too.

After all, once we spent all those calories running, well mostly, my hip gave out there at the end, but I kept walking, we had most certainly earned a little visit to a new frozen yogurt shop.  Well, new to me.  

Oh Boy Yo Joy! 

Snapdragon Blooms

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Went outside yesterday, crawling on the ground while Sam was napping, playing around with my macro lens and  happy blooming snapdragons.  Now that I'm out there watering flowers and my tree every day, they are very happy.  It was touch and go there for a while.  :)  A subject I've never used the macro on, I thought they were really gorgeous close up.  

This one even sparkles! 

The pink one with yellow center (above) is what the blooms below turn into.  

This one is just neat as the edges curl with a bit of age.  

I Miss Game Night

Back in the day, when Chris was 1, I met this friend by stalking her blog.  We'd gone to the same college, had overlapping friends, but hadn't met in person.  Suddenly, we have kids the same age, and she's just moved to my town. She invited us over to her house for Game Night.  Sunday nights, they hosted a gaggle of   folks, some from our school, some not, all with kids similar ages, and parents who liked to play games.
We started going regularly, then we all had more kids, more issues, less time for Game Night.  It went from weekly to monthly to quarterly.  Now as I sit here writing, I think the last game night I attended was last fall, maybe longer.  Oh my goodness.

However, yesterday was a Blessed day.  I got to meet up with two of my old game night friends, even though they've each moved away.  I had the boys with me too, so first we had a playdate with our friend Parker and her Mommy Suellen.  That little girl had the nerve to Grow on us, she easily weighs as much or more than Chris, only an inch of height between them at most and she's only 6 months older than Sam.

The kids played pretty well together, except for the old Sand in the eye from the wind trick. 

So we suited them all up, and sent them out to play after lunch. 

Although the water was chilly, the kids couldn't be kept out of it. 

This kid is crazy photogenic.  

Of course she's a beauty just like her Mama.  

But even though she plays with the camera, and teases me, the camera loves her.  Although with subjects as adorable as these, what's not to love?

My boys were especially handsome gently dripping, smothered in salt, sweat, sand and I don't know even what all. 

The sky was so blue it was fake.  It was misleading, it didn't feel like we were getting sunburns, but the kids did. I spent most of my time in the shade.  That's something new this year, the kids are content to play outside with their girlfriends for hours on end. 

Nice close up Mommy.  It would have been better if I could keep Sam's attention.  Unfortunately, only grapes and string cheese were working at that time.  Something about going swimming is downright exhausting! 

First the kids played in the pool, then they broke out the sprinkler and played there until they were exhausted, sunburned, and sweaty, and until Mommy started getting exhausted.  

Of course, Exhaustion is in the eye of the beholder.  On my way home, to Eric working at home because a fire main blew at his workplace, so we were giving him plenty of Quiet, I called to see if I could kidnap him and take him to Lafayette to meet Amy Pfanschmidt's baby Aiden.  He hemmed and hawwed a bit, saying he needed to finish his workday, but when it came down to it, he wanted to go too.  So we went.  It was a wild and crazy thing to do, but hey, we're Wild And Crazy. We hopped in the car, all 4 of us, and drove up to Bob Booky's IU Hospital affiliate.  Her hospital isn't quite as nice as where I delivered Sam, but that was like the Hyatt.  But it was cozy and comfy.  

It ended up being just fine for the boys wind down to some tv before the newest boy Baby Aiden rolled in.  He was adorable sleeping most of the time, but I hear tell it, that he is the Best Baby Ever.    Though Amy deserves an easy baby, her pregnancy was terribly hard.  I'm so glad it's over, now she can get back to recovering.  I could see right off she was feeling better.  

Of course, it could have been these:  Aiden donuts.   

Amy had a monster craving for these wicked donuts from Dunkin' Donuts there at the end, chocolate iced, brownie batter filled wickedness.  So instead of flowers we brought her Carbs.  Ah...

Initially we got to wait a while, the perfect amount of time to hear Aiden's birth story from mama, then they wheeled him in from having some testing done.  Honestly, this was a great sign as to how wonderful a baby he is, they had messed with him in all kinds of ways, and he was out like a light.  

So we let the boys hold him.  Only Chris got to hold him, and that was great.  Chris is such a perfect big brother, he knew just what to do to hold the baby.  

Daddy took a turn.  He's kind of a natural.  Makes me want more, so bad.  And I wanted some before I held this little miracle.  My husband is a really good Daddy. 

Perfect little monkey toes.  

Sam thought what the baby really needed was his hat.  

Chris on the other hand was totally infatuated with his "chinny chin chin".

This is my favorite, Mama giving her new little sweetboy a smoochie. 

I know a lot of you read Amy's blog, so you may be familiar with all the pain this pregnancy has brought.  Be assured, she's doing much better, and the baby is perfect.  He's already made everything worth it and easier just by being so wonderful.  And it's only going to get better.  

I wish we didn't live so far apart that only on random summer days do we get to see each other.  We need to reinstate Game Night.  Oo!  Oo!  I can host!

Welcoming Wednesday

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 Look who we got to meet last night.

ARGH!

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I must confess, I'm a little tired.  It seems like this week, I'm having to Battle extra hard for my "special needs kid" and really, I'm getting kind of pissy about it.  I did not sign up for this.  Can't I just sign up my kid for the same stuff that everybody else gets to sign their kids up for in the summertime? My sweet boy wants to go to Camp. This is the first year he's eligible for Church Camp, for the 6 year old crowd, they do a half week, 3 nights/4 days.  I saw this a couple months ago, and I contacted the guy on the website to discuss Chris's needs, his flushes, can I talk to their nurse?  I got an email back, "We've never had a kid like that, contact XYZ".. grand high pooba of lutherans outside.  I didn't contact him. Frankly, I didn't want my son to be the Experiment.  This week, a friend of Chris's from church, only a month older, went to the camp.  I'm so jealous I can't see straight, and I want to cry.  I want my kid to go swimming in a lake, I want him to ride horses.   I thought I was ok with my decision to ignore church camp this year, in favor of sending Chris to Day Camp, and having him ride the special therapy horses.  We were going to get a deal after all. Only, we didn't get that deal.
Instead, I got told on the second day of Day Camp that they hadn't filled out all the paperwork, turns out we had been getting 'free services' and that to do so we needed a prescription for services from my doctor.  The third morning, as I loaded my kid up for Camp, I got a call saying they Couldn't take him until we they got a script from my doctor.  I hung up, Fuming, then had to deal with my child's freak out when I told him to get back out of the car.  After he watched some cartoons to calm down, while I called the doctor's office, to apologize, apparently I needed that script RIGHT NOW.
You know that quote you see floating around, "Just because it's an emergency to you does not constitute an emergency for me."  I felt like I was driving around town constituting emergencies, and apologizing, for the neglect of others.
When I ran the script to the office, I was told that I needed original diagnoses paperwork too.  Seriously.  From Riley Child Psych. Fine. So I called them, their machine told me they'd get back to me in 3 days. Yeah. And living in the unknown for the next few days made my kid (and me) flipping Nuts, and Eric's grandma died in there. So Friday morning, the gal from Riley wakes me up at 7.  She tells me that she needs me to sign a release for the diagnosis paperwork.  She can't email it to me.  But she can fax.  I don't fax.  So I can come in. So I get to drive downtown to sign something only to wait 2 more weeks. And THEN once I sign it to release it to the Camp, I get put in the queue for up to 2 weeks while they process my request.  I burst into tears, slowly recovered and explained the situation.  Apologizing profusely for the camp's mistake.  So I asked, since I'm coming in to sign the release, can you release the paper to me?  She said, we have to check with the doctors involved, but I can email them.  Praise the Lord!  So we kidnapped my husband for lunch and to run downtown to Riley, so I didn't have to unpack yahoos to get the papers. I turned them in Friday afternoon to the gal, then heard nothing.  Sunday night I'm stalking them, wondering what's up?!  She offers me 2 hours of services, 9-11, Freebies for Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Which handily, enough go exactly around when we'll be gone for the funeral.  But then Wednesday morning, she asks to bump it to Thursday, good times.  That bumps us out of the 7 weeks required, that we needed, in order to sign up for the horse therapy.  We were at 7 because of summer camp only being 8 weeks long, and we were planning on pulling out for VBS for one week, bringing us to 7.  Gone one extra week for this faldarall, and we're out of the program.
TV calmed the savage beastie after that meltdown. Does the camp not Understand the kid has behavioral issue (Which is by definition Ironic since it's a Special Needs Behavioral Camp) he doesn't do well with transitions, and needs to know the Plan?!  And if you were wondering where he gets his extreme dislike of unprepared change of plans, it would apparently be from me.  Because I've been livid for weeks. The camp had told me the turnaround time for the insurance company approval etc. would be 2 days.   So we finished the week, and 5 is more than 2, so I was all, see you Monday!
In addition, while he was watching tv on Wednesday, I got a call from Sam's old preschool.  We had registered Chris to attend the VBS there next month.  He has participated there for the last two years because it was Emily's old preschool too.  And the Deaconess was calling me to tell me that they don't feel prepared to have him (don't want him because he tends towards the Crazy) UNLESS I  can tag along.  I say, he's a lot more mature than last year, he's been in full day kindergarten, he'll be fine.  But the Deaconess insists the teenaged helpers can't handle him.  I don't remember her saying, but I know it was some powers that be, over her, making her call me.  She was fine with Chris, but she's got special ed experience.  Heck, last year, he was madly in love with her. Surprised and shocked, I agreed to do it.  Simply just agreed. Under the understanding, that A. I'd have Sam with me the whole time, and B.  I would need at least one or two days off, I had "plans".  Frankly I drive all the bloody way up there to visit with my friends, not to chase my child or anyone else's all over a different church.  If I wanted to chase children all day, I'd chase my own in my own house, not drive 1/2 hour each way. Ugh.  Now that I've been chewing on it, I'm kind of (a lot maybe) pissed, and disinclined to even allow Christopher to participate.  But what does that say?  OK, so they are woefully unprepared for a special needs child.  Should I show them how just like regular kids he is?  Or should I just leave him happy at special needs camp where he's probably one of the healthiest kids, so he is happy?  I don't know.
Walking this line sucks.
So then Monday morning,  I found out at 9 a.m. (Again.) just after I'd gotten Chris dressed, that they still haven't heard anything from the insurance company, he's still not allowed back at Day Camp (Again.) yet, and the person that gave him a few 'special' hours last week is in training is Just Saying No.  (Again.) 
So I tell Chris, AGAIN, we're not going to Camp.  His lower lip starts to quiver, he starts to lose it, then he sighs and asks, Can I watch cartoons?  Yes honey, absolutely Yes!  What kind of crap is it that my son has to get used to this kind of disappointment?  

But my son is Tough.  

So that's him. Making due with the costumes given.   A Pirate perhaps. Playing with Daddy. Chris lost his Captain Hook's hook on Monday , enlisted Eric to help find it. Chris says to Daddy, " I think we'll find it faster if we split up. Daddy, you're with me." They laughed for a bit then they were off running around using swords as walkie talkies, until they found the hook, then it was, "Turn the sword over daddy, now I'm Captain Hook!" And off they ran, pausing only a moment for me to snap a pic of his toughness. Today was his first day back to Day Camp on the normal schedule, he was thrilled, happy to be back on the bandwagon, packed his lunch and his library card, and off like Gangbusters.  And he fits so well, it's really got me upset, sad, mad, and wondering, what to do now? 

I feel like Cho Chang.  

Hermione Granger: Well, obviously, she's feeling very sad, because of Cedric dying. Then i expect she's feeling confused because she liked Cedric and now she likes Harry, and she can't work out who she likes best. Then she'll be feeling guilty, thinking it's an insult to Cedric's memory to be kissing Harry at all, and she'll be worrying about what everyone else might say about her if she starts going out with Harry . And she probably can't work out what her feelings towards Harry are anyway, because he was the one who was with Cedric when Cedric died, so that's all very mixed up and painful. Oh, and she's afraid she's going to be thrown off the Ravenclaw Quidditch team because she's flying so badly.

 Ron Weasley: One person can't feel all that at once, they'd explode.

 Hermione: Just because you've got the emotional range of a teaspoon doesn't mean we all have.

 But why does he have to be tough? Why do I have to be the Advocate, trying to get him into this program and that program. Which is better, to go and babysit him all the way through a VBS that I'm not even sure really wants him, or just leave him at the day camp he loves, now that he's back in it. ARGH!

Happy Father's Day

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The Job was to Relax.  Eric has been stressed out, and not exactly firing on all thrusters of good health.  This week he started a new round of antibiotics for a sinus infection, his 4th or 5th diagnosed one this year, not sure, that's how many.  Ugh.  So he wanted to Relax for Father's Day.  Consider it done....sort of.

1.   This is how my hubs spent the morning:  in the hammock, undisturbed, with coffee and Kindle (and Sherlock Holmes).   As it should be.  

2.  Christopher decided after a quick nap, that he really wanted to listen to the story Daddy was reading, Sherlock Holmes.  My big boys were and still are, pretty stinking cute.  

3. Happy Father's Day!  I love to get a picture of my boys with their Daddy on his special day.  Can you tell it was Hawaiian shirt day?

4.  He told us he was King.    Not sure of what.

5.  Spending the evening with my Dad, the yahoos needed to go outside and play.  Somehow I didn't manage to get any pictures of My Father, probably because I kept picking up His Camera instead of my own.  Normally Annie doesn't smile for me, or the camera, so I got lucky.  (Sorry about the panty peek)

6.  Oma and Opa broke out the bubbles.  Technically this one is NOT my picture, Eric took it, but it's my favorite one of Charlie chasing the bubbles.  How wonderful to be free as a  bubble chasing 2 year old. 

7.  Sam is learning to blow bubbles.  Slowly.  Mostly he just makes a bubbly slimey mess. 

8.  That's an adorable Bubble Blowing crew of Crazies! 

9.  They were so crazy, and Lisa was having a day, we invited the girls over for an impromptu slumber party, the purpose of which was to introduce Lisa to limoncello and Star Trek (the 2009 version), but it ended up being just a great time to just Be together.  The kids had a little swim, then watched some bedtime Yo Gabba Gabba.  Then the 2 hour long bedtime battle.  Took us 4 hours to watch a 2 hour movie.  

But they're Cute. 

10.  Before the sun sat, my sister took a break for Father's day too. When you're double timing for both mommy and daddy, you deserve to rest on both days!  So she took a hammock break with some beer and a cigarette.  The hammock went full circle.  I just love her face.  

Happy Father's Day one and all.  

Water babies

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Can you spy, with your little eye, a couple of crazy sweetboys?  They're the ones in the white shirts with their swimsuits? Sam is on the edge by the umbrella, behaving sweetly, and Chris is floating in front of the little girl.  Yup, that's right, Floating.  Well, kind of, his arms are on the bottom of the pool with his body extended out behind him and his face partially underwater.  That's Huge.  It's funny that this year, the teacher (who isn't the same person he's had previously) comes up to us at the end of class and says, he's a little afraid to go underwater, or he's a little uncomfortable on his back.  I'm like Yes.  This is not a surprise, in fact, it's why we're here.  And really, he's not Freaking Out, and crying hysterically, and the manager has forgotten my name, because he hasn't had to come talk to us During class because Chris is behaving so badly.  This new teacher does not realize how huge this is.  I'll take "He's a Little..." any day.

Sorry about the quality and the partially hidden sweetboys, somehow just relaxing in the sun and the heat, talking about Sherlock Holmes and recent movies, I managed to NOT take a million pictures on Saturday.   Our job this weekend was to Relax, we did a fine job of it.