Fei has mentioned that I haven't blogged in a while. Nothing wrong, we're just busy.
We've had to drive Lili and Fei somewhere every night this week. Tonight Lili works and Fei and I are going to a baby shower to meet new baby cousin Magnus. Girls dance tomorrow at Cairnsmore. Boys have a birthday party to go to on Sunday and Lili works. They all have Monday off and it's my flex day. So we're all looking forward to a day without obligations.
Taking Kai to birthdays can be really embarrassing. He gets SUPER excited about all Birthdays and he cries a lot at the parties. Likely because he's too excited, on high alert and not really clear about what it means for him. He seems to think all birthdays are his. He takes gifts and has in the past unwrapped them, gorges on food put out and cries if he doesn't get cake first. I love birthdays and cake too and I don't want to deprive him but he gets so over the top that we now keep ALL talk of birthdays to a very low key. To the point of considering a code word for the rest of us. He starts dancing, shaking and singing every single time he hears the word birthday. Then you have to remind him it's NOT his birthday. It's amazing how many times we have to tell him this. Then he hangs his head and pouts. I'm not looking forward to Sunday. I don't know the birthday girl or her family. I texted the Mom to say the boys could come but both require support so I'd stay with them. Not sure if she knows the boys. Then realized I probably should have been more clear. We don't have any wild out of control issues. I know now to stick close to Kai and know what the triggers are. Luk handles himself beautifully at parties. Thank goodness. I'm sure I'll need a nap afterwards.
Have found a car to go look at for Lili in Victoria but we can't find enough time to get there! She gets her learners in March. What?! Crazy. So I think she's too young to drive AND I can't wait for her to be driving. Her work schedule alone. Yeesh. It's been tough getting Lili to pinpoint what she likes in a car. So far, she is leaning to a small suv with 4 x 4 and preferably in blue.
The Rock Cod is ready to hire again. Fei is next. Have to get her in with her resume and go through the formality. Lili is going to train her. What I see is that this summer they'll end up doing back to back shifts and Eric and I will be in the bay several times a day.
Lili's Christmas work party was Tuesday night. I was her date. We didn't stay too long. School night. The party was VERY adult with an open bar. Lili didn't venture to the back deck to see exactly how adult the party was. They were a fun group and there was lots of innocent inappropriate grabbing. Unlike anything I've ever seen before. At one point Lili leaned in and whispered to me that it's like watching an x-rated movie.
Big girls had piano last night so Eric and I took the littles to Wal-Mart. Always an adventure. Kids were actually mostly well behaved. Luk and Jia sat in a cart playing a video game while Kai helped with shopping. I stepped into boys clothing to look for jammies for Kai and found Chinese New Year, year of the dog t-shirts!! $6 each. Got one for each of the kids. Eric found one for Jia in girls wear so we swapped it out. Then he went to mens wear for a red t-shirt for him and found the same t-shirts in mens wear too. So we have a whole set. Score. Told the kids we could skip the silks this year and they were all thrilled. Guessing these won't last long on the shelves! Run to get some my friends. Would be a riot to be a sea of dog shirts for our local event.
Kai got called from Sunnyhill for an appt. next day in Vancouver to see a psychologist. It was already late afternoon. I was trying to make it work but was mentioning by the time I got home and packed and got to a ferry we'd be lucky to be on a 7. Too late for a reservation. Wouldn't be to Easter Seal until 11 at the earliest if there was even a room. In the end had to decline. Why do booking staff at Children's not know that it takes hours to get there? An hour to ferry. Approximate hour early there for a reservation. Two hours on the boat. Unloading of the boat. Hour drive to Children's. If all goes perfect it's five hours! And...it never goes perfect. So now we wait again.
We need help. Answers. The first few months with Kai were survival for him and us. He learned the routine and accepted that he was going to have to feed himself, dress himself and basically do things independently. Kai has zero desire to be independent. At no point ever has he wanted to do something by himself. He still cries when he's asked to complete a new task on his own. We're coming up to two years with Kai and we still struggle every day with simple tasks. He doesn't understand why we do things and he skips steps. We tell him to wash his face and if you don't stay with him guiding each step it just simply won't get done. He will get the cloth, wander around and then put it into the laundry hamper. Dry and still folded. Completely missing the water and washing part. Yesterday I asked him if he brushed his teeth. He said yes. This morning I found his brush in the drawer with dried paste on it. Not used. So he got the brush, put on toothpaste and put it back in the drawer. Sigh. It's truely exhausting trying to teach him anything. I'm not kidding when I say he can't use a spoon yet. He needs full on care for everything and there just isn't always enough time. We need help learning HOW to teach him. Clearly everything we know just doesn't work. Luk isn't much advanced from Kai. So our hands are full to say the least.
