Sickness, Craziness, Family Day and Other Stuff

Two weeks ago Aaron got to take a business trip.  He was going to Fort Worth, Texas and we, as his airport shuttle, got the lovely opportunity of taking him to the airport at 4am Tuesday morning.  Yes, you read that right we had to wake everyone up at 4 am in the morning in order to get him to the airport to catch his 6 am flight.  After dropping him off we came back home and tried to decide what to do for the rest of the day since it was only 5 am and the kids didn't have school that day.  Luckily a friend heard that I was going to be single parent that day and invited all of us over for lunch.  It was a nice break in my first day of Aaron's business trip.  Luckily, the next few days the kids would be going back to school so that would break up the monotony a bit.  By the time he was supposed to come home Thursday night I think all of us were ready for a break from each other--especially ME!  Anyway, Thursday we ended up having a really bad ice storm.  The roads were all frozen over and it was so bad they actually closed the airport for a few hours.  I was praying that Aaron would actually be able to get in that evening because I was done being a single mom!  My prayers ended up being answered because he was able to fly in even if it was two hours late.  It was a relief to see him.  He wasn't as happy to be back in Utah since he had just left 70 degree Texas to come back to single digit degree nastiness.  He was glad to see his family again, though.  He used to travel quite a bit, but he hasn't had to the last few years.  I used to handle it so much better, but this last trip was really hard on me--maybe it was the additional three kids that we added to our family since his frequent travel days....

 

Last week Aaron had to work late so that meant I had to get all three boys homework done before we had to be off to our various events like basketball and scouts.  That meant that the three oldest boys had my undivided attention for almost an hour straight.  Noah, ever the opportunist, took advantage of my lack of attention and went to town on my dining table with the only unwashable marker that we have.  Good thing I love him because otherwise.....the little stinker!!

 Last Monday the Discovery Gateway had an Autism night where individuals with autism and their families could enjoy a night without judgement from families with typical children without atypical behaviors.  There was a lot of hand flapping going on as well as tantrum/meltdowns going on throughout the night; however, Aaron and I were completely at ease and relaxed because we had a lot in common with every other family there that night.  It was AWESOME!!  I will say it was difficult to try and keep track of all 5 kids that seemed interested in 5 different things at the same time.  It was a little like herding cats!  Here's a few of the activities we did: 

Everyone got a chance to ride the horse.

Noah loved going shopping in the pretend store with the shopping cart and plastic food.

 Outside the even had a retired Life Flight Helicopter they let the kids explore.  They even had the sound of the engines going which was quite loud.  That's why Sarah and Daniel are covering their ears.

 Matthew, Josh and Daniel were exploring the controls at the front.  Matthew has actually ridden in a Life Flight Helicopter as a patient before right after he was born.  He had to be transported from our hospital to Primary Children's because he was so sick.  Anyway, that was a long almost 12 years ago.

They had a green screen set up just like in the news.  Sarah and Noah thought it was pretty funny seeing themselves on the TV.

Matthew was trying to give a newscast with the changing pictures on the TV, but couldn't quite keep up with the changing pictures.  It was pretty funny.

 They had an air tunnel and stuff to make paper airplanes and parachutes from so you could see how good of an airplane or parachute maker you were.  Aaron, of course, had to construct his own.  Good thing he's an Electrical Engineer instead of a Aeronautics Engineer is all I will say....

 They had big blocks you could build with.  Sarah got it in her mind that she wanted a tower built around her and wouldn't let us move on to another activity until she got her tower built around her.  It was about this time we were glad we were surrounded with lots of other kids throwing tantrums because she fit right in even if she wasn't autistic.

 Matthew found a generator where you could do two of his favorite activities--spin and turn on a light.  He spent quite a bit of time here just turning the handle to turn on the light.  He got pretty excited about it.

 They had a magnetic wall covered in gears that you could put together.  Noah LOVED this and stayed here for a really long time.  He was pretty good at putting them together, too.  Now I have a possible birthday present idea for him in April.

 We had a lot of fun there that night.  I am very thankful that we had the opportunity to go.  It was a really fun Family Home Evening activity!

When we got home from the Discovery Gateway Daniel was really whiny.  Aaron happened to feel his head and he was burning up.  We took his temperature and it was 103.2.  No wonder he was so whiny!  The poor kid didn't feel good, however, he had no other symptoms beside the really high fever.  He continued to have the super high fever for the next three days without any other symptoms and then it went away.  It was really weird.

Since it has been so cold we have lots of icicles on our roof.  Josh went out one morning on his way to school and decided to knock them down.  He didn't realize that standing right under them was a bad idea until one hit him right on the cheek.  Ouch!!

The very next day I sent Josh down to brush his teeth.  Now usually this takes him all of 5 seconds on a good day because just like any other kid they don't do a very thorough job.  However, he was down in the bathroom for a LONG time.  When he finally came upstairs his face and fingers were covered in blood and he was shaking pretty badly.  He then asks me, "Do you notice anything different about me?"  Seeing the blood my worried reply was, "Ummm are you ok?!"  He then said quite proudly, "I just yanked out my tooth!"  He tried to bring it to me to see, but ended up dropping it three times because he was shaking so bad.  I am still wondering how loose the tooth even was since it seems he worked pretty hard at getting it out.  What a crazy kid.  Keeping with the crazy Josh theme he had another Talent Show program in his Music Class.  Of course he didn't give me the flyer for it until the day before.  As he was handing it to me he insisted that he did NOT want to play his Christmas song on the piano again like he did last week in his other talent show.  I made him pick a song from a different book that he could play and then I let him take that.  When he got home from the day of the talent show I asked him how it went only to have him say, "Ya I played that one song and a few others, too."  I don't know how it turned out since he likes to play things he doesn't know how to play.  This time I will really say that ignorance is bliss.  Now I am hoping there won't be many more talent shows this year because Josh just can't turn down a chance to perform whether he's ready for it or not.....

Saturday we were cleaning the house.  While I was cleaning the kitchen the kids thought I was fixing them lunch and Sarah and Noah came and sat down.  I told the kids it wasn't time for lunch and Noah got upset.  He doesn't hear the word, "No" from me very often and this was the poor, pathetic face he pulled.  Poor Noah.

 Daniel is finishing up basketball this week.  So tonight was the Jazz player appearance night when a Jazz player comes to talk with the kids and do some activities with them.  Here is Daniel taking a shot:

In other happenings Josh had scouts a few weeks ago.  When he got home I asked him what they did in scouts.  That's when he told me that I was a bad leader.  Um, gee thanks Josh.  I appreciate your critique....Anyway he then told me that they learned about how to be a good leader.  He told me that good leaders don't TELL people what to do they ask them nicely.  I guess that's where I fail in my leadership as a parent.  I don't ask the kids nicely to clean up their messes I just TELL them to do it.  Hey I have tried to ask nicely, but that has resulted in nothing being done.  Somehow saying, "Could you pretty please with sugar on top pick up your nasty socks and put them nicely in the laundry room?"  Doesn't work as well as, "Clean up your nasty socks NOW or you won't be able to play!"  I guess that makes me a bad leader, but at least I get results!

Last week was parent teacher conferences.  I dread these because I never know what kind of stuff I am going to hear about my kids.  However, I was pleasantly surprised.  Daniel is doing quite well.  He is only one of 5 kids who has gotten 100% on their spelling tests this past term.  Josh is doing good, too.  He is reading really well and ahead of most of his class.  He needs a little extra help in math, and handwriting, but otherwise is doing ok.  Matthew is having a little bit of a hard time.  Matthew has to be compared to typical students his age just to be able to compare to see progress.  He is quite delayed, but that comes as no surprise.  He does well in reading, but he is still working on comprehension.  His teacher is having a really difficult time getting him to eat his lunches, but that's nothing new as well.  Other than that he is happy go lucky as long as things are going his way.  I am glad parent teachers is over now all I have to face is the IEP meetings  for Josh and Matthew in a few months.  I can do this, I can do this, I can do this......