Brush, Brush, Brush the kid.

We have finished 4 full days of brushing now. 6 or 7 times per day depending on when the girl gets up. Only 56 more days to go before we can start to trim that number down. I think, now, whenever ANY of us hear that stupid trill of the timer we ALL *sigh* and just get up and do it. That's a whole freaking lot of brushing. And joint compression. It's causing some negatives to her moods too. It's a routine change. It's  a LOT of touch and routine, and effort, and just... Brushing.. So I'm not worried about it. Her OT gal told me and warned me it would happen. But as I was dragging her through Sams as she was having an epic fit, I did have to ponder the brilliance of our plan. I do so hate having to be a grown up sometimes. I really just felt like having my own fit, but NOOOOO. I had to be the grown up and "work her through it". Whatever. Silly Stinkerpot.


I have to take the boy to get his ear looked at and see what's up with his ear tube that's gone haywire and see if there is still a hole. His Ped was a bit worried about it last week at his well child and didn't want us to wait until the end of August when his next ENT appt is. Unfortunately, his normal ENT is busy (or fortunately because he is a bit lazy) so we are seeing someone else in the same office. I'm *guessing* they will probably schedule it to be removed. Hopefully there isn't any hole to patch though. If they DO, I'm going to see if Sawyer wants to scope his sinuses and if they will do a cholesterol blood draw that the ped wanted. I'm SO not doing a freaking blood draw on a 5 year old after everything else that poor boy has to do when I don't have high cholesterol, C doesn't and the ONLY reason is he's "big". Yes. He is. But if he was 9 he would be average height and weight and wouldn't want to.. SOOOO just because he's proportionate for his height and weight just not age...? That one confuses me every time.

The poor boy also has an appt Aug 1 to go get his front bottom teeth pulled. He HAS a loose one, but it isn't coming out. The adult tooth shot up behind it AND the other tooth beside it. Soooo it looks like he's going the way of his sister and will be getting a SUPER Tooth Fairy Prize from that visit. It's currently looking like they will have to pull 3 of them. *rolls eyes* It's gonna be ugly.

Yup, one big ol joyful bag of news here.

Statistics

I like statistics. I think they are fun. I think they are fun to manipulate and show whatever you want to show. You can change 1 factor and get whatever you want to show to appear. For example - Hunger. I'm not mocking world hunger. There ARE places and people who are truly starving. Then, there are places where they aren't as much - it depends on who ya ask. If you define it as "the fear of not having enough food", WE are low food secure and will starve according to my 6 1/2 year old.  Have we ever been actually out of food? No. WILL we ever be out of food, even if we are dead broke crawling down the street, living in a box? Nope. There WILL be food at every meal. I will make sure of it. I gots ways. I'm brilliant like that. BUT to an OCD, anxiety person a half empty cupboard is DAMN too low and we are starving.  We aren't. I obviously went over this with said person.

But back to statistics. That's why I like them. You can alter them SO easily to prove whatever point you want. Statistically speaking, you won't get hit by lighting. Buuuuut you could.  Statistically,  a big dog will be a good deterrent to keep you house from getting robbed.  Buuuut not if they just shoot your dog.  Ahhh statistics.

Reading, Writing, Arithmatic..

While most kids are sitting on their rumps watching tv, mine are well trained to answer to a timer to flip their school books and do their school. Ok. I lie. There is nothing "well trained" about them. They scream, have fits, stomp and other wise protest when it's time to start. BUT once they plop their underwear clad behinds down they usually focus fairly well. ADHD  they are not.

T2's BIGGEST task of recent has been to learn to read. He has known his letters since he was tiny. He knew what sounds they made. He just didn't really want to bother with putting the sounds together and READING with them. Just in this last week - after MONTHS of frustrations for both him and me - HE GOT IT. He is easily sounding out new words. The peasants rejoice. Not only just that, but he's holding his pencil and writing some too. While *some of us* may have thought would never happen, it has.

T1 has helped me customize her schedule to meet her goals to fill in the gaps of her writing gaps, which is her hardest subject. Which I can't really say much about, it's complicated with may very unclear rules. With math it's very clear. 4 +4 = 8 ALWAYS.  So I'm trying to find ways to simplify it for her with some workbooks with "rules" in it. 

We started brushing yesterday. It's looking like we will be doing it at 7,9,11, 1, 3, 5, 7   (ish) on times. With joint compression after each set.  It's making super wonky, but so far hasn't put up TOO much resistance. BUT we've been doing it for less that 24 hours so that's truly can't be an accurate statement.  She even said a  when I did the 9 am one that she "kinda liked it a little". Which sure beat the "if you touch me with that again I'll scream" which we got the first time we tried about a year ago. Now.. just 2 months to go.

T-Ball!

You know what wins more than a sinus infection in July? A sinus infection, ear infection, sunburn, swollen foot, and being 4 days away from getting you spine nerves microwaved. THAT so totally wins. That and I think I may have eaten something I'm allergic to because I am feeling that ever fun swelling feeling in my esophagus that is darn unpleasant.

Anyhow, 1 & 2 started beginners T-ball today. They did so good. T1 had a very difficult time understanding what she was supposed to be doing, but it was full parent involvement so I stayed with her and helped "interpret".  To make it even more confusing for her, the coach has a VERY thick accent (he's from Iran) and there is another girl that is actually the same size as her (so there can't be "big" and "little") with the same name. He would explain what he wanted them (and us) to do and then blow his whistle loudly and expect them to DO what he had just explained. The sound was bothersome to her and he touched her on the arm and back several times, which she really didn't like. BUT.. She did go through the ENTIRE 50 minutes without a single whine of "I'm DOOOOONNNNEEEE" or "I don't wannnnnaaa" or any of her typical things she does. It was good. I'm soooo proud that she was able to push herself past those discomforts because I think she liked big chunks of it, even if a few parts weren't her favorite.

#2 did super great too! He was the BEST boy of them all there. He wasn't the oldest boy, but was - by far- the largest. He ran when asked, paid attention, followed directions. The other boys were flopping on the floor, whining, whomping their dad's in the butt, and just being stupid little boys.  I know, "boys will be boys" - But MY boy will not act like a stupid fool in public. He does plenty of that at home, he can keep that there.

  I am a firm believer of the Before We Go Out Chat. It is a comprehensive list of what is expected and what will happen if it is not achieved. T-Ball's list was a bit expansive because I had to cover a lot of unknown territory. Like don't throw the ball at people, or animals, or bums, or cars, or anyone not paying attention. Don't hit anything with the bat except the ball and only when you are told and ONLY if there is no one near you that might accidentally get hurt. IT WILL BE your fault if they get hurt. Remember the bloody birthday party. Balls and Bats make Bloody.  No whining, no whaling, no whimpering, no answering questions to hear yourself talk. No dancing. Clothes must remain on. Listen and follow directions. etc....

Let's just go on to say the list was complete and expansive. BUT. It got the job done. They were the only ones NOT whining about "But why did SHHHHEEE get to go."  "But I'm tttiiiireed of running."  And quite frankly every time those kids whined and mine didn't, I wanted to smooch their little heads and give them a dime because it was making a GREAT point for me. It made them look ugly and whiny and MY kids noticed that THOSE kids whined and it was yucky. And THEY don't want to be those "yucky whiny kids out in public". 

The Things People Do... While Driving.

People do the weirdest crap while driving. There is of course the standard eating, smoking, talking on the phone, texting, dancing, applying eye makeup, drinking.Then you get to the weird.

Applying your clown nose. When you are already in full clown makeup and costume.

Feeding a puppy a bottle. Yes, safer for the infant that it's NOT a baby - perhaps not the rest of us.

3 dogs in 1 persons lap while driving.

In a bra, changing shirts. Interesting show for a few of the other drivers, and yet.


And my favorite to date: A man driving through the parking lot of Walmart WHILE playing the trumpet.  Not doing well on the former and probably not the latter either.

Boy VS Girl

One MIGHT think that by 6 1/2 a kid would know why a boy is a boy and a girl is a girl. Especially a Smart Kid. Especially a smart girl kid who has a smart 5 year old brother. One would suppose they would get together and figure this out. ONE might be wrong. This does lead to a rather odd conversation one day when they are debating the gender of dogs based on how pretty and fluffy the dog is. After decreeing an entire batch of male dogs "girls" because they are "really pretty and super fluffy" I did have to ask why they decided that. And then crush their hopes and dreams and fluffy hair does alone does not make an animal a girl. As you might assume, the conversation just got weirder from there.

Friday Followup..

So we found out that Luke - the other great dane - is almost fully deaf. It DOES explain quite a few things about his recent behavior. The complete lack of response to commands he used to follow, his lack of even looking at you, his in lack of interest in normal dog like activities. Apparently, being deaf will do that. We've gone ahead and gotten Minnie a crate of her own to see if that helps with Luke's grouch level. That and if we have Minnie in with us and let them be separated. I don't know if that will help, but it's worth a shot.

The wee ones are getting into harder things with their school stuff. T2 for instance is actually reading AND forming letters people can mostly read now. He and I seem to have to butt heads about this every single day, but massive progress is being made. T1 is zipping through her math, reading, and has significantly improved her writing in just the short time we've been really focusing on it.  History and science are easy for them both still -and they both really like doing them as often as I'll let them.

T2 has another loose tooth. This makes the 4th loose tooth in the house in 2 weeks. The Tooth Fairy is a frequent flier over here lately.