Not in a Blogging Mood

Last week there was a fair amount of discussion with separate therapists about Kai and Luk.  They obviously have to look for and delve into deficits while trying to label. It is exhausting for all of us.  There are a LOT of people involved in trying to help our boys.

Five speech therapist saw the kindy kids and each of them took turns with the kids.  Luk was flagged as needing help.  His speech is fine but he has a processing delay and he's not able to connect ideas or handle two commands or tell a story or retell a story.  All of which we knew.  Horrible to hear from professionals.  They want him developmentally tested.  Sigh.  In the meantime he'll be doing conversational therapy with some of the other kids.  Then onto Kai.  He failed every single aspect of the tests.  They have no clue where to start or what to do.  So, he's getting it all.  Speech, language, ESL, group, OT and visual support.  It's deflating. 

After one call on Tuesday about the delays and deficits I sat in the car at the Walmart parking lot having a good cry.  Eric came back to the car and I asked him if the boys were going to be ok and he waved his hands over the parking lot and said "look around, they have a fighting chance". 

So we're holed up at home trying to make life normal.  Or hiding.  Working on accepting that we're working on different things with both boys for their school years. 

Not a lot of picture taking going on.

Eric had Steve look at a converter he bought for the moho.  He was able to fix it for us. Yay.  So we'll have full power!  Mostly that means charging our phones and running the electric fireplace without being plugged in or running the generator. 

There was supposed to be a huge storm here.  The storm was an under achiever.  We did all the laundry, cooked food and had baths in preperation for the possible power outages.  I know we're supposed to be glad the storm missed us but it was oddly disappointing.

Lili made banana cake today.  Jia wanted to bake too so she made granola balls.  Luk helped roll.  Or he put his hands in, made some mess and played.  Kai normally wants nothing to do with cooking but today he seemed interested so he washed up and then put the balls in the container.  He was so proud.

Fei made the red hook in metal class. Eric ran downstairs and got his first metal shop project.  They chatted happily about how they were made. It was pretty funny.

The weather seems to be making Esmei frisky.  Odd for an indoor cat?  She's been happy to have us around all weekend and playing hard.

Jia's 6th Gotcha Day.

She has told us all repeatedly today that the day is all about her.  ;)

Her choice for dinner was Doghouse with just the adults.  Also an adult menu.  She's been asking for Eggs Benedict for weeks.  The build up was pretty big today.  Then we got there and it's no longer on the dinner menu!  Yikes.  They graciously agreed to make it for her.  

Flashback. Here is the link to 2010 on the blog.

 http://ershelnel.blogspot.ca/2010/10/we-have-jia.html?m=0

Thanksgiving combined with Mom's Birthday.

Mom's broken wrist is still healing.  I offered to roll and fill her dumplings today.  6 1/2 hours today of making dumplings!  Fei helped big time putting in almost the same time. Can't wait to feast in an hour.

Jia set the table.

Miss Lacie is scratching.  Damn fleas and an impromptu bath for her.  She's such a sweet little girl. 

Mama and Jia with matching bed head.

Boys were in bed before our dessert. 

Walter brings us lots of pets.

He's hunting like crazy.  He brings everything in live and gives it to Esmei alive so she can play with it.  Wild.

Today while Fei and I were elbow deep in flour and dumplings a bird flew past us and down the hall and then back past us into the laundry room.  With Walter running behind it.  Eric came to the rescue and captured it in the shoes. 

He's getting surprisingly good at capturing the critters with his hands!  I run around with towels and boxes and cups trying to capture things.  I'm not keen on getting bit.

Sat. Night

Big night around here.

First, the boys stayed up late (until 8:30) to watch a movie with the family.  The whole thing! No fussing.  No interruptions.  It wasn't even a cartoon.  It was Splash.  Cute movie. They were up at 6 this morning. Fingers crossed they sleep in a bit since they stayed up later. A Mama can hope!

Then Eric assembled our newest gift from Mom and Dad.  Mineralized Alkaline Water.  Yay.  Thanks.  We appreciate it.  Can't wait to start drinking it!  Eric and I are hanging around the unit waiting to see the water start filling. 

Update from the week.

We're finally settling into the routine.  Eric and I are working as a team like never before.  When I get home, I deal with school paperwork and homework while Eric cooks dinner.  We eat together and plan the logistics of the next day at dinner.  Then we clean the kitchen and do what we can to be prepare for lunches.  I lay out outfits for the next day while the littles get jammies on.  The boys eat their snack on their own.  They also take themselves off to bed after hugs.  Too cute.  They rarely talk or play and both are usually asleep within minutes.  In the morning we're all up at 7 and out the door at 8:10.  Packing six lunches!  That's a whole other post.  It's impressive.  The big girls are still walking most days.  Lili actually gets up earlier than us so she can eat her breakfast in peace. Smart girl. I actually take breakfast to work every day, also in the quest for peace.  It's not always peaceful but the odds are way higher at work!

We've fine tuned the extra carriculars this year so we have more evening free time and none of our dinners are interrupted.  That helps.

Kai LOVES routine, a lot.  We all function better in the routine.  I do worry about kids becoming so used to the shedule that they become confused, scared and anxious without it so in typical fashion for me, I keep things changing just enough to make sure the boys remain flexible.  Weekends are still shedule free. 

The boys remain happy in school.  Our EA support changed.  Luk barely noticed.  Luk has been flagged for speech so both boys are getting extra support now. 

Girl drama has started for Jia (grade 2). I'm so sick of mean girl stories.  In typical Jia fashion, she is playing with the boys at lunch time. 

Lili and Fei are both getting more and more homework.  Lili is facing a one month family tree project in social studies.  We've been to this outdated rodeo a few times.  Being the brave soul she is she went to him to tell him she is adopted.  She was expecting to hear the alternate project.  Instead the grown man told an adopted Chinese teenage girl to search for her biological family. Ya.  It was bad here for a bit.  He clearly lives under a giant rock.  I hit rage and moved into sadness with Lili.  We went through all the options and we told her we would back her in any direction she chose.  Starting with moving class to a different teacher, reporting his extreme insensitivity to the principal and school councilor to finally settling on sucking it up and doing our family.  He's looking to see how families came to Canada.  Reasons for immigration.  He was clearly interested in genetics.  I think she should cheekily hand over her immigration paper with her name alone on her tree.  We all laughed about it, not sure he'd get it. 

Luk saw the pediatrician today.  He's not grown much.  He's getting picky and is avoiding eating.  Worse now that he's in school because he's already figured out he doesn't have to eat there.  We got a parking permit for him.  We don't have much need for one here but it sure will help in the cities for all of the appointments! 

Luk is back to Children's next month.  He is going to a gait lab to be measured for afos.  Leg braces.  He needs to be more upright. Not great fun for his gotcha day.  We managed to get his appointment for the day before his sedated mri.  One trip instead of two.  We've booked a couple extra days so we can do something fun with the whole family.

I used hot wire.  Too funny.  Sometimes it's great.  Other times not so much.  Have to book two rooms now and when I had our reveal I went to check out the hotel and we only saved $9.  

Eric's friend Scott died this week.  It was sudden and unexpected.  We're all feeling shocked.  He had a heart attack on Monday.  He was found on Wednesday.  His son has been in contact.   First time in two years.  He is really upset about his Dad not being found for two days.  I would think that's extremely common for people who live alone.  Eric was his only friend.  He was living in independent living.  He wasn't receiving any care. He wasn't social and didn't make any friends at the manor that would have missed him.  It's just so sad all around.

I have four days off.  Thanksgiving being celebrated with dumplings again this year.  Combined with Mom's Birthday.  Jia's Gotcha on Monday.  She has requested Doghouse. 

Zootopia

We've been trying to get to Zootopia on Netflix.  Kids are too busy.

Kids and I had a jammie day while Eric went riding today.  Still couldn't get to a movie.  Playdoh, duplo, dress up, puppy game, hair salon, breaky, snack, lunch, snack, barbies, tea party, toy room, water painting, robot construction with boxes, drawing and spies.  Oy. 

I basically chase them demanding they clean up before they move on.  It's great to see the three of them playing together.  Kai is still overwelmed by them and takes breaks.  He did sit on Jia's head today.  She was freaking.  He apologized immediately.   It's just such a bizarre problem in a day.

So the only reason they've slowed down enough to watch tv is because we put their food in front of the tv.  Now they aren't eating.  Sigh.