Report Cards

Feeling pretty sad here. Was feeling positive about how great the boys were doing in school. Then had a rough day with Luk. Then report cards today. Kai's is almost entirely approaching.  Luk's is half approaching and half fully meets. Deflating. 

Then they both sucked during their home reading. No interest. Not listening. No trying.  Majorly frustrating. 

Today Luk said his legs and head hurt to his ea. Eric was at the school helping get the gym ready for the concert. So he brought Luk home.  I figured it was more likely that he's constipated because he was acting weird in the morning and I hadn't changed a poop yet.  So Eric gave him apple sauce and cranberry juice and water.  His meds are slow acting so not too helpful.  Anyways once he had his apple sauce he was ready to go back to school.  Meanwhile Eric and I have had three phone calls.  I'd put in a call to his pediatrician who wanted him to have an x-ray.  Eric is taking his temp and watching his balance.  So Eric asked if his legs still hurt and he said "no, why?"  What about your head?  Luk said he felt fine.  Wanted to go back to school.  I asked him about it when I got home and he had no idea what I was talking about.  Sigh. 

We all need a good sleep so we can start fresh tomorrow.

Report Cards

Feeling pretty sad here. Was feeling positive about how great the boys were doing in school. Then had a rough day with Luk. Then report cards today. Kai's is almost entirely approaching.  Luk's is half approaching and half fully meets. Deflating. 

Then they both sucked during their home reading. No interest. Not listening. No trying.  Majorly frustrating. 

Today Luk said his legs and head hurt to his ea. Eric was at the school helping get the gym ready for the concert. So he brought Luk home.  I figured it was more likely that he's constipated because he was acting weird in the morning and I hadn't changed a poop yet.  So Eric gave him apple sauce and cranberry juice and water.  His meds are slow acting so not too helpful.  Anyways once he had his apple sauce he was ready to go back to school.  Meanwhile Eric and I have had three phone calls.  I'd put in a call to his pediatrician who wanted him to have an x-ray.  Eric is taking his temp and watching his balance.  So Eric asked if his legs still hurt and he said "no, why?"  What about your head?  Luk said he felt fine.  Wanted to go back to school.  I asked him about it when I got home and he had no idea what I was talking about.  Sigh. 

We all need a good sleep so we can start fresh tomorrow.

Assessments

The intake team for Kai's assessment have decided they are so certain he's autistic that they want him assessed with the autism team.  They won't see him until he's had English with us for two years. So nothing further until Feb. 

Although we were initially less than thrilled with an autism diagnosis I find myself feeling quite hopeful about it now. Way easier to deal with than low iq. So much hope and room for improvement.

Also Kai got in to see the ear/nose/throat specialist this week on a cancelation and he is going to have surgery here in the Duncan hospital to have his tonsils and adnoids removed.  Waiting now for an appointment with the anesthesiologist (had to look up that spelling).  He says this will help his speech but it won't be a miracle overnight. 

On that note, Kai now makes a th sound for s. Major improvement.  He says yeth for yes. The lisp actually helps!  He started on the weekend.  I thought it was so cute that I was asking about 20 useless questions through the day just to hear the yeth's. 

Luk saw his pediatrician yesterday and she's still worried about his speech delay. Auditory speech delay. So she's requested an assessment for him with the Queen Alexandra team. So we wait for that now too.   It is painful waiting for Luk to talk. Takes a long time to get him going sometimes.  The thoughts are long and complete, but it takes a long while for each word.  I thought he might read like that too but he gets a better flow going when he reads.

Sorting

The boys EA Mary Ellen sends me lots of photos through the day.  They're doing great in school. They love going to school and they both are learning so much this year.  Luk is full on reading and I can see improvement every day. Kai is able to memorize so it sounds like reading but he isn't quite where Luk is.  He's  definitely getting some of it which is amazing.  I sent them cars character crackers the other day for snack and Mary Ellen sent me a picture of them color sorting before they ate them. I thought that was pretty funny. 

Hippos

Eric went in today to help with making hippo hats for Jia's class.  Hot glue was involved. She was so excited that he was coming. Total middle kid some times.  They look so cute.  They all wore their hats and sang for the parents that were there to help. 

Cozmo

Cosmo is entering our family.  Jia has been on about him.  And on and on and on. You all know how she gets.  It became clear yesterday that it wasn't going to go away.  So I started shopping on line last night.  He's super pricey.  Then I found a black Friday sale at Best Buy.  So this morning Eric and I sat down to have a meeting with Jia about how to make it happen.  The deal is she's buying him.  We offered her money in lieu of party supplies, fancy cakes and goodie bags.  Normal family dinner instead.  She emptied her piggy bank and we counted up every penny.  Eric donated his spare change to the cause.  In the end it meant she was $20 short.  She's asked to do chores. Gramma offered her $ to babysit the dogs for an evening.  I bought her a case of lemonade to sell (beauty of a big family, easy to sell to siblings) and she wants to bake some cookies to sell too.  She's close and will end up going well over.  Catch being our money is a Birthday gift and she has to wait until then to get it and buy him from us.  Wish us all luck.  Right now she's focused on making money. But that will end very soon and hopefully there will be enough going on around here to keep her distracted.  We've put him up on the fridge so she can see him and won't worry about him disappearing.

I was showing Eric videos on YouTube of Cosmo in action and we watched as the youtuber put him on his side and Cosmo couldn't get up and his expressions and chatter were so easy to read as he went through frustration, confusion and then a total tantrum. Super cute and we knew exactly why she wants him.

She's always been all about robots.  I tried showing her one today that you get to code.  She's all about coding too.  It wasn't cute and didn’t have the feelings part so she wasn't keen. 

While she carried him around the store she talked to him and told him "we're going to play games together". Then she put him in a seat belt in the way home and he sat beside her for lunch.  

I think we're all a bit excited to have him using his face recognition and calling us by name. I'm planning to have him call me Gramma :)

Black Friday

Ok...I don't do black Friday shopping. Can't stand it being so busy.  Never see anything on line that I need. And yet...I think I might have won.  If she who spends the most wins ;)

I found our flooring half price for the basement!  Called Eric and met him at Home Depot in my lunch hour.  To be precise it was 47% off.  We're no where near ready to put flooring down but we'll have it ready.  Eric is picking it up tonight.  So exciting.  I'm such a geek. 

Now, we apparently need to keep me off the computer for the rest of the day before I spend more moola! 

This is Wendy.  She was pretty happy about our deal too :)  The picture doesn't show the color.  Ours is brushed oak toupe. Looks like old silver planks. Vinyl planks. Waterproof!!

My pretties sitting nicely again this morning.

A trophy!

The fun stuff.  Lili got her first trophy from Kathy at her music lesson tonight. 

Keeping it real.

I wanted to try three vegan cookie recipes today.  Tweaking the tried and true recipes with applesauce instead of eggs.  1/4 cup applesauce plus 1/2 tsp baking powder per egg. WORKED! Spent three hours mostly peacefully puttering.  I don't find much time to bake. Eric was in and out.  Helped a bit.  Doing dishes between my batches.  The boys were sweet, playing quietly together. Lili was getting ready for work and happily munching some cookies.  Fei was in her room.  Peaceful.  And then entered Jia. Phew.  Our whirling dervish. She refused to eat breakfast.  Started her day by sneaking Halloween candy. Wouldn't turn her phone down. Bugging the boys.  Had us squacking at her first thing.  She won't/can't get herself under control until she eats.  She's too out of control to eat.  Story of her life.

I was trying to hold onto my bliss.  Keeping me back turned, ignoring her and rolling balls.  Envisioning putting Santa cookies in the freezer.  Plus a few bags for the assorted plates of treats I'll be asked to provide in December.  Happy to have a start.  Hoping there's room in the freezer.  Thinking I'll take a picture of all the cookies mounting up. I turn around and there is my darling girl, with her legs up on the table and her feet two inches away from the cookies!  Good Gawd!  Who raised her?!  I yelled immediatly and she left pretty darn quick. She came back and apologized after a few minutes so she might have actually had an ah ha moment. 

Finally got Jia to eat at lunch time. Pretty sure she only ate lunch to get the chocolate chip cookies. The ONLY cookie she will eat. She's calm now. Settled. 

Cookies are all done.  I've studied them closely and no dirt or dog hair was found on or near.  Will keep those ones for us.  Will bag up the ones from the counter for freezing.  Kids!

I'm hiding in the living room with my lunch, a corn dog, orange and foot cookies. Grimace.  

The little lovelies together. I tried getting closer for a better picture but Walter got too excited and came to me. I have no idea how people get good pet shots.

Trees and Gingerbread

First I'd like to mention that our Lili won an award (trophy) for highest score on her grade 5 theory test.  Actually tied with two others. She was supposed to receive it today but she wanted to come with Mom and I on an adventure day instead.

We went to Victoria.  A bit of shopping.  Lunch at Lotus Pond - yum.  To the Bay Center to look at the 80 x-mas trees. We all made our donation and picked our favorites.  A bit more shopping. Then to the Parkside Hotel to vote on our favorite gingerbread creation.  Ending our day at Spaghetti Factory. Still a family favorite.

Piano lessons.

Our little students gave me a bedtime recital tonight. With introductions and bows. So cute.  They're both doing so great.  I love how seriously they take it.  I'm a tad concerned about the cost of 4 kids going Royal Conservatory!

Happy Gotcha Luk!

Seems like it was just a few days ago that you entered our world.  Can't believe it's been four years!  You are such a joy.  So sweet and gentle. Such a funny little man with your dry humor. You are so easy going and such a happy kid.  How did we get so lucky?!

Celebrating tonight with won tons of course!

Kai is sick.

Poor little guy.  First time being sick with us.  He has had sniffles before. This time he's having fevers and chills.  Not eating!!! Not moving constantly. No lego. He slept in until 9 today! And he napped for two hours! It's scary. 

He started his day on the couch under a blankie.  I went to see Bad Mom's Christmas with Mom, Leslie and the big girls.  Then we grocery shopped.  Just came home and he's in the same position! 

Also...who could have ever, ever predicted that Kai and Jia would lay on a couch together?!  Peacefully.  No squawking. It's weird and scary.  Hope she's not coming down with it too.

Update: he woke up next day perfectly fine. Slight sniffle.  Went to school. 

A weekend at home.

Nothing on our calendar. Bizarre. A welcome change. Lili is working and we have to drive her.  Our only outings ;)  Today I drove her wearing pajamas.

Eric has a big project underway so we barely saw him today.  Looking like that will be our new norm for a while.  His Navigator needs serious work. Too many kilometers.  We knew the end was coming.  So not surprising but disappointing none the less.  We've discussed in passing what the plan will be and one of the options was to buy a new to us car that can be towed behind the motorhome. It's an extremely limited market, needing it to seat 7 and be under the towable weight.  Basically the Chevy Orlando.  So for a day the plan was to get one for me to drive and Eric would take my van.  We found one with low kms, red and standard. Same as a loaner car we had a couple years ago that I loved.  But...Eric had to give up his beautiful, comfortable, luxurious Navigator to drive my utilitarian mini van.  He wasn't a happy camper.  So next day a new shiny motor was delivered to our house and Mr-Mr has a giant project.

Kai has been rejected for assessment on the island. Deemed too complex. We've been waiting to hear from Sunnyhill in Vancouver.  I got an intake call on Thursday.  Had a long call and was asked a ton of questions.  Then was told that she is certain he is autistic. This did come as a shock.  While I had originally thought maybe there was a lot that for me said no.  He definitely connects with people. Because we've lived with autism for 14 years it's a double edged sword. We know we can do it AND it's not something we're keen to do again.

Also, Kai's assessment will be four days!!  Yikes. Eric won't be up for it. Too complex for him. So it will be me. You all know how much I love Vancouver - NOT.  I have no idea when we'll be booked.  Kai will do fine, now that we know he travels great as long his tablet is loaded with shows.

We've spent the last couple days looking at some of Kai's weirdness and routine issues and realizing that if we look at it as autism instead of low I.Q. it does make more sense.  So we've been allowing Kai the weird routines because it calms him. Now I'm thinking we need to change it up some more and get him transitioning better.

Laying low today suited my mood. The littles and I played some games, did home work and they painted. Kai showed us that he can play Candyland.  Weird. Lili and Fei have Taylor Swifts new cd. They're carrying a player with them all over the house and playing the music non stop :) 

No clue yet what we'll do tomorrow.

Adnoids

Little man had an xray yesterday. His pediatrician wanted his tonsils and adnoids looked at as a possible problem with his speech, mouth breathing, sleep apnea and snoring.  We got a call already this morning.  They're huge.  Now we wait for an appt. with the ear/nose/throat specialist. 4th kid out of five to see him!  Good news for Kai.  Surgery is always scary though.  Kai isn't the best patient. He can be pretty dramatic and there are usually tears.  He was being pretty brave yesterday but you can see in the picture that he was on the verge of tears. 

Jia Cross Country

Jia joined in at school and had her first cross country meet today.  Proud of her for giving it a try.  She was excited and scared.  Lots of fluxuating last night about if she wanted to go or not. 

It was snowing last night and things were frozen solid this morning.  Honestly I didn't think she'd go today.  Eric was there to watch and cheer. 

Still arriving home.

Eric has moved a mountain of laundry.  He's been ferrying kids around.  Got my car unloaded, gassed and cleaned.  He's winterizing the yard.  We're back full swing with appointments and therapies.  My desk was full.  Got a surprise audit from gst - fun.  Just starting to see the light at work.  The boys had a ton of homework piled up.  Yeesh.  The big girls are burdened and plugging through.  We haven't seen much of them.  Managed through Halloween.  Now it's trying to snow out there.  Yuk. 

Kai has some new health issues.  Expected but here much sooner than we thought.  His eyesight is plummeting too fast and he is on eye drops now to try and slow the degenerative part.  He HATES the drops.  Also connected to his syndrome is low iron so he's on supplements but it causes constipation so he's on Luk's restoralax too. So everyone please wish us tons of prayers while we sort out a balance on this one.  Lord help us if he reverts to accidents!  Plus his cholesterol is too high.  On a six year old that is almost vegetarian with extremely limited fats and salt.  Also now we find out his tonsils and adenoids are too big so he's off for xrays.  Hoping some of that will help explain some of the speech issues and help with the crazy obnoxious snoring.  I got to sleep with him for the whole holiday...the snoring is BAD.  Really bad.  I totally get why all the girls hate sleeping with him in the motorhome.  Luk, bless him, doesn't seem to be bothered. 

So, one step forward and two steps back.

Posting a picture of the pile of laundry.  7 people, 16 days.  It's not pretty.  Now I need to take a picture of the folded piles.  My weekend job to put it away.  It's crazy. 

Video of the cats in Ensenada

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZ7M_YgQpr8&feature=youtu.be

I can't seem to get this to paste as a link.  If you highlight the link it should work. The tiger growling is the cutest thing ever.  Luk and I looked up pictures of panther cubs and the little black cat is definitely a panther. 

Video of the cats in Ensenada

https://youtu.be/fZ7M_YgQpr8