You Gotta Love Shutterfly’s Holiday Card Promotion

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Once in a while it is truly beneficial to blog.  Not only does it help you to realize that you aren’t alone in your trials and celebrations, but sometimes, you get some really cool FREE stuff.  And this is one of those times that I just have to share.  The good folks over at Shutterfly are offering a terrific deal on Holiday Cards for bloggers!  If you are interested in doing this yourself…just keep reading…..

I’m not one for sending Thanksgiving cards, but my mom always does.  As a matter of fact, I can count on one hand the number of times I haven’t been able to spend Thanksgiving with my parents.  I guess I am spoiled.  Shutterfly has a terrific selection of Thanksgiving greetings that you can send to those that you wish you were spending Thanksgiving with.

And since yesterday was Halloween, (and I will post pictures of the Twinkies at some point today…if they decide to nap)  I guess today is the beginning of the “Holiday Season“.  I can’t imagine dragging the kids out to the mall to buy a bunch of little presents….it hardly seems worth the effort……Once again, Shutterfly comes through…..they have these adorable wall calendars….and they are the perfect gift!

And my favorite of all the great cards available on Shutterfly, this one is my favorite!~  It is just classic and simple and elegant….like Christmas should be.  I can’t wait to pick my favorite picture of the kids and see how it looks!

And that is not all they have at Shutterfly……they have photo-books, stationary and even websites.  I have ordered from Shutterfly before and they consistently exceed my expectations!

I am so happy that there are great sites like Shutterfly that make my my life just a little bit easier!

 

If you are a blogger, and are interested in receiving 50 free Holiday cards just for doing what you are already doing (blogging)….just head over here and fill out the form!

Do I sound ANGRY?

Happy blogoversary to me…..I didn’t really celebrate it the way I should have, but I have a darn good excuse. But HAPPY 5 YEARS! Now, on to the 6^th year and more ranting…..

Yesterday was the boy’s “evaluation” at the Intermediate Unit.  By “evaluation” (and specifically by their CRACK POT child psychologist), I mean 7 minutes of nattering at the boy…calling him Dan, Danny, etc….(which are names ODDLY he has never heard or even would respond to BECAUSE IT IS NOT HIS NAME!). Ummm…..DUH!

Do I sound angry?   Do I seem peeved? Maybe a little…..

And from all of the nattering, the CRACK POT was able to make a tentative diagnosis……yeah, my shiny white butt……..That would be like a mechanic being able to tell you what is wrong with your car engine by listening to it from the middle of a heavy metal concert, over an old cell phone…..just not gonna happen…..AND I WILL NOT HAVE MY SON LABELED BY AN INCOMPETENT COUNTY PAID SIMPLETON!  Which was pretty much what the CRACK POT was.  No, no….that is what Medical Doctor’s specializing in developmental pediatrics are for…… Hello…..anyone heard of Children’s Hospital Of Philadelphia?  Ummm, yeah….they are kind of the experts?  I mean, this lady was at least in her late 50’s, with very scary eyeliner (not that appearance counts that much) but if I was 3 and saw that….yeah, I would freak out too!

The boy was quite upset,  despite DH being there.  He was screaming, and biting his hands and was generally not interested in interacting with the evaluators (initially).  Then again, I was not terribly interested in doing much but reaching across the table to slap the CRACK POT.  Hey, Montgomery County, PA …..thanks for putting your “best” people at the Intermediate Unit.   You know which ones I am talking about….they are terse, and brash, and frankly have not rapport with 3 year old kids.  I really appreciate that our taxes are paying this dingbat’s salary!

Needless to say, it was a frustrating couple of hours.  The speech pathologist was really nice, and we shared some commonalities with our fertility, or lack there of, journey, and she seemed genuinely on board to want to help the boy out.  The Occupational Therapist, well, did you ever watch Yan Can Cook?  Yeah, he was Yan.  Very nice, just a tad difficult to understand.  I really wanted to ask him where he gets HIS Chinese food!  I know, so wrong!  While we were discussing the boy’s proprioceptive issues, he told me that I sounded like “a therapist”!  Ewwwwwww!  Anything but that!  Geez, was I not supposed to research and educate myself about my kid’s needs?  I mean, sorry to disappoint you by not being a good little lemming and just taking what you give me rather than what the boy is entitled to and deserves.  This little gray duck will not tow the party line, Comrade!

So…in essence…yesterday is not one I ever want to live through again.  I am beyond frustrated.  I am beyond angry and beyond exhaustion.  The boy will get help.  He will get better.  He had already shown us, over the past three months that he can be better.  He CAN speak.  He CAN control his behavior.  We just have to find the motivating factor that works in that situation.

We are going to get through this.

Somehow.

Frustration, thy name is MOTHERHOOD!!!!

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So I am on my 10th day of this cold, or bronchitis, or walking pnuemonia or whatever it is….I am running a fever, coughing my head off, wheezing, and have a splitting headache……someone just kill me now.  I took to boy for his 3 year check up and flu shot this morning and he was an absolute monster….which really helped my headache…(insert heavy sarcasm) and they both decided, after spending their first night in their toddler beds, to pull a nap strike and not take a nap today.  How lucky am I?  Oh, AND, tomorrow is the boy’s evaluation at the Intermediate Unit.  It should be a real treat….you know, like root canal, or bamboo shoots under the fingernails.

I have been kicked, punched, slapped AND bitten today.  Funny how the boy actually can pull it together and behave for everyone BUT me.  Frustration, thy name is motherhood!!!!

As I write this,  he just pulled the charging video camera on to the ceramic tile floor and probably broke it.  He is screaming and throwing and knocking everything over.  Really, some days….I just wonder how long I can do this.  This is not what I had in mind for my mothering experience.  I am exhausted, fully spent, and want to do nothing but sleep until…well, things get easier.  And I know that I can’t.  I just wonder how these kids can pick the worst time to lose it…..I mean full on MELTDOWNS!!!

And tomorrow marks my 5th blogoversary.  I cannot believe that 5 years ago, i just started tinkering around, not knowing that I would face infertility, IVF, prematurity, multiples, depression, and now global delays.  It is overwhelming.  And I know that this post (or rant as the case may be) won’t be my last.  But I can hardly find the time to shower let alone blog these days.  So bear with me…..

 

 

So long overdue, it’s not even funny

Image by ehoyer via Flickr

if blogging were a library, I would be in BIG trouble.

Life has been crazy.

Crazier that I ever thought it could be.

My babies are 3 now…..

And the realization that I have spent the better part of the last 3 years, unshowered, in my pajamas, covered in some kind of body fluids that have escaped my children’s bodies.

Where has the time gone?

Oh….and I started blogging….get this…..5 YEARS ago….you think I would be better at it by now.

I was even so foolish to think that I could keep a written journal…..yeah….right….because the boy child NEVER crawls ALL OVER ME……. and I have SO MUCH free time….please note the very heavy dose of SARCASM…..

But I am trying….

Failing, but trying……

and I will continue to try.

 

I just had to share

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Get 50 free holiday cards from Shutterfly! http://bit.ly/sfly2010 #SFLY….

Okay fellow Mommy Bloggers…..this is a call to arms!  Or Cards!

The terrific people over at Shutterfly are offering 50 free cards to bloggers!  This is a great way to get the best holiday cards out there for nothing, while doing what we do best….BLOG!

I have ordered from Shutterfly and have always loved their final products!  They have great deals that can’t be beat!  And the quality?  Well, you know me…I won’t settle for anything but the best!  You can check out their collection here.  And you can even like them on Facebook!

Interested?  Just go here, fill out their form and they will send you an email.  Just tell them about your blog!  How easy is that?

More to follow about how Little Man D is doing…….

Just another Manic Saturday

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Shameless Plug Alert….if you are on Facebook….and who isn’t these days….stop by here and say hi!

Just taking a quick moment, whilst the coffee is brewing to say hello. I know that I am posting far too infrequently, but it is not without cause. Little D’s therapy has taken most of my attention. Well, that and the fact that hubby has been putting in 12+ hours, 6 days a week. I am feeling kind of like a single mom (and resenting it) and have been just plain exhausted.  Oh….and I am back on my meds……going off was a BAD….BAAAAAAD idea.

But! Mind over matter people! The summer is coming to a close, which I personally do not mind….summer is always a bad hair time for me, especially after 7 (yes!) heat waves here in the Philly suburbs. Oh wait…we are getting yet another one this week! Yea! (Note sarcasm!) It is nice and cool here and night and early in the morning, which is quickly becoming my favorite time of day, and my mother will tell you, I was NOT a morning person growing up. But now, I just don’t seem to mind so much. The house is quiet, the coffee is good (either Tim Horton‘s or and organic Kona from Hawaii that my cousin Coop sent me) and I feel like I can get a handle on the day.

I already have a load of laundry going and it is not 8 am yet. Of course, I do have a dishwasher full of clean dishes that I should be putting away but…I owe the blog……

The kids are growing and changing. M is into her “tea party” stage (and no it has nothing to do with the political beliefs of her parents). “Mommy, want some tea? Mommy, don’t forget your sugar!” D is picking up 3 or 4 new words every week, and that makes me so proud!!! My cousin, R, who lives a few miles away was kind enough to give us a little tykes play set. Dad and I went over and disassembled it and got it home. Then it rained for two days…go figure. We finally put it together, somehow managing to not step on the kids as they were underfoot and wanting to play with it IMMEDIATELY. They love it and I am so thankful to my cousin, since a $400 backyard toy would have NEVER been seen in our backyard.

The New Toy!!!

D’s therapy is going well. He loves Monica, his special services teacher. She is here twice a week. And he loves Jo, his occupational therapist, who is here once a week. She always brings new toys for him to play with. Who would have thought that D would love to poke dried ziti noodles through a hole in a plastic glad bowl!!! And then we have Joan. We have only met Joan once. She is his speech therapist. I like her, she is mater-of-factually straight to the point….kind of like (ahem…) me. She is here once a week. We have now set up our schedules so that there are 2 therapy days, Monday and Thursday….rather than therapy 4 days a week, we double up. That way I don’t feel like I am trapped in my home (and I know that feeling all too well).

We also went for an interview with the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit. And I am not really complaining. I just wish someone would have told me that D and the hubby did not have to be there. Hubby took a half day of work during one of the craziest times of the year to come to this appointment and all it consisted of was asking me questions that could have been asked over the phone. I know the system is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination but…come on!!! So we go back 10/26 for his 4 evaluations that they think they are going to get done in 90 minutes….(and God laughed!!!!)

But I am alive and kicking and will blog when I can…..

One question? Anyone out there have any experience with compression vests for behavior modification? I only ask because the one time we put it on D, he calmed right down……not sure if it is a worth while investment.

Peace in your village….

What a week….

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So it wasn’t bad enough that the twinkies came down with a case of the crankies and runny noses, but they also decided on a full on nap strike, complete with the “we are getting up in the middle of the night for no good reason” routine.  We had to postpone D’s first speech therapy session and one of his special instruction sessions.

Then…

Our lovely water company announces that they will be shutting off the water between 7 pm and 3 am to work on the water main.  So, I hurry to get a shower only to have the hubby run upstairs to tell me to hurry because there was a fire at his plant (he works in a Hazardous Materials processing facility) and that he had to go back to work.  This is on top of the fact that he has been working 12+ hours a day covering for one of his guys on vacation.

Then…

While in the basement, changing loads of the never ending laundry, I hear a dripping sound.  Upon further investigation, I see out water heater leaking from the top.  So, I shut off all the water to the house AGAIN!  Hubby comes home, turns just the hot water off so at least we can flush the toilets and brush our teeth.  I proceed to order a new hot water heater from Sears.com (which I have NEVER had a positive experience with…..ever…..something ALWAYS get screwed up….I don’t know how they are still in business) and pay almost $400 extra for the installation that was to happen yesterday.  So after 4 or 5 calls to Sears, a plumbing contractor shows up at 4 pm and informs me that we have several things out of code and it is going to cost another $200 to fix before he can even install the water heater……so now we are at $1100…..

but…

we have hot water again.

Oh, and on Wednesday, we went to the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit for D’s planning meeting.  I wish someone would have told me that D did not have to be there and that the hubby really didn’t need to be there and this was just a meeting to set up D’s evaluation in OCTOBER!   Yeah.  Not such a happy Mommy.  He turns 3 on October 16th and the evaluation is the 26th of October….then it will take them a few weeks to determine his specific therapies.  This is going to be a frigging circus….I can tell already.  Oh and of course, they put a big push on signing up for Medical Assistance (No thank you!).  I have heard HORROR stories about being on Medical Assistance and then not being able to see the doctors you really need to see, because they have opted out of providing care for MA…….due to the crappy reimbursement they would receive.

Oh….

And I had a crazy headache for 6 days in a row…..due to my TMJ.  So in the midst of all of this, I drove and hour to my dentist’s office where he made me a new appliance so I won’t grind my teeth at night…..(yeah….no stress here!)

So far…this month has pretty much sucked.

Except for when M told me she loved me over the phone.

I melted.

Wordless Wednesday

Trying Again

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Again, it has been simply ages since I wrote a really meaningful post on this blog.  I have been a bit distracted by the daily goings on in my little corner of the world.  I shall attempt to recount the past few weeks backwards since it is fresher in my head.

It is 5:22 am, I am in my pajamas with a lovely, steaming hot, mug of Tim Horton‘s coffee next to me.  That to me, is a good start to any day.  The Twinkies both have some kind of sinus thing going on.  They are little rivers of mucus and due to that, they are not sleeping well, and are in turn, cranky little monsters.  Meltdowns here, meltdowns there, meltdowns pretty much everywhere.

I had to cancel  the boy’s first speech therapy yesterday since I’m the kind of mother that doesn’t feel like sharing the germs with every other kid in the area.  It is pretty frustrating since he had only had 2 occupational therapy sessions (before the therapist went on vacation), has had about 6 sessions with his special services teacher, whom I adore, but who will be….you guessed it, going on vacation, and no speech therapy since the therapist was ON vacation.  It has been pretty frustrating since they all seem to think that 1 pm is a good time to come over….you know, 1 pm…..NAPTIME!   So we have to roll with the punches.  It is only until October 15th…..and it is through the “Easter Seals” (which I will admit, up until now…I really had no idea what they really did)….and is not costing us anything ( one of the perks of being a Montgomery county PA resident)  And today, we have the boy’s evaluation on the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.  DH will meet me at my parent’s house, where we will drop off the girl, and then head over with the boy.  DH then has to go back to work (which he has been doing an extraordinary amount of lately, leaving me to feel much like the single mama).  It is going to be a long day around here.

He seems to be responding with some slight improvement.  He is still biting his wrists when he gets frustrated or angry or is looking for attention.  I am supposed to put the wrist at his side and do something with him that he likes, or give him a toy that he likes, which is so easy whilst potty training his sister (OOOOOhhhhh she is a stubborn one!).  It is pretty much a circus around here.  Global Developmental Delays…..three very scary words in my world.

I was very saddened to get news from for friend, Janet that she lost her 23 year old son to an overdose.  It simply broke my heart.  I will never understand why tragic things happen to good people.  23 is too young.  He hadn’t even begun to see the world.  My prayers are with the family and will be for a long time.

I haven’t vacuumed my house in 2 weeks after discovering that my DH discarded the vacuum filter when he emptied the collection container.  If you vacuum now, all you get is a nice little clogged bunch of dog hair and junk that isn’t so pretty and is spewing all kinds of fun stuff in the air.  So, in a day or two, my E-Bay find should arrive and I can properly clean my house like the little frigging domestic princess that I have become (please note very, very heavy sarcasm).  I was so tempted to buy a roomba robot vacuum, but I am sure the kids and the dogs would not like it as much as me.  And the boy, with his sensory issues, cannot stand the sound of the vacuum….that means, vacuum during nap time or after kids go to bed…..because I just have a ton of energy them  (again…note use of sarcasm)

Let’s see, what else…. Oh, we had another date night.  Mom and Dad had been on vacation in Maine for 2 1/2 weeks, so there was really no going out or doing anything.  So the Twinkies stayed overnight with Grandma and Grandpa while we went out for date night.  And there was still nothing going on, if you are hearing me, ladies……ahem.  Sigh…..good thing we aren’t having more kids…..because it would be immaculate conception…….

My days are filled with playing with the kids, occasionally feeling brave enough to take them both to the store (which gets really expensive since they each want to hold on of everything I buy).

My now 96 year old Grandmother is “Connie in Wonderland” and is fading away on us ( dementia, Alzheimer’s, leukemia, etc. etc. etc).  I don’t like to see here like this.  I would just rather remember the idea of her since when I was growing up, she was just a name who lived on the other side of the country, who would send presents at Christmas time and for my birthday.  We butted heads when I was younger and I think she enjoys the company of my sister far more than she does mine.  And 96….yeah, I really don’t want to live to be 96 and have to be in a diaper, out live 2 of my children and most of my friends, and sit in a diaper all day.  Yeah, not so much.

And in dealing with all of this, I have had headaches….bad ones.  Apparently, I have been grinding my teeth, which in turn, has been wreaking havoc on my temporomandibular joint (TMJ).  So I broke down and bought a mouth guard, like I used in high school sports, molded it to my teeth and now sleep with this horrible blue piece of whatever it is in my mouth…..very attractive……TMJ sucks…my jaw pops, my jaw gets stuck open, the muscles contract and give me a headache nearly as bad as my migraines.  Not much fun.

But my head is above water (although I have gone back on my medicines for depression…I guess I jumped to gun on that little foray).  I have every intention of continuing to blog and to try to keep reading blogs as time allows.

But here is to life (as she raises her mug of coffee) and wishing you peace in your village……

Absence Explained

I have not been blogging, for a few reasons, some of which I am not going to post.  But primarily, because I have been trying to focus more on my son’s new issues.

Like most 2 year old boys, he has good days and not so good days.  He has tantrums.  He gets frustrated with his sister.  He wants, what he wants, when he wants.

We had some concerns because his “vocabulary” was not up to his sister’s level and had an appointment set up with our pediatrician back in February.  D suddenly seemed to be picking up new words and we decided to postpone his appointment.  But then, the more M picked up words and could express herself, the more frustrated that D got because he couldn’t.  He started biting himself, banging his head, and being very aggressive with me and with M.

So, we went to the pediatrician, who referred us to the Intermediate Unit’s Early Intervention Unit to have D evaluated.

And the results were NOT what we were expecting.

At All!

In the five areas they evaluated, D scored at an 18 month level in three of the categories (Cognition, Speech, and Social).   They believe that D has “Global Developmental Delays”.  I don’t know why…I don’t know how…I don’t know when this happened.   I am scared to death of those three little words.  Was it due to his prematurity?  Was it due to the supplemental oxygen he received?  I am just trying to wrap my brain around it.   He will be seen by three different therapists weekly until his third birthday here at the house.  Then, we have to start the process all over again to transition him into the Intermediate Unit.  That process normally takes six to nine months.  So , we are already behind.  And that also means a lot of driving back and forth.

I am still waiting for the full report and I am very blessed that I have a very supportive group of Mommies who are keeping me strong and have given me some great insight.  I also happen to have two cousins who are both speech pathologists.  Talk about lucky me…..

So, if you are keeping track…..Infertility, Multiples, Prematurity,Postpartum Depression, and now Global Developmental Delays.  That’s the story of the last few years.  Throw in some very rocky moments in my marriage…I almost forgot…..Hubby and I have VERY different ideas about parenting and GDD.

D’s Occupational Therapist is coming this morning.  M will visit with our wonderful next door neighbor for the hour so that there is minimal distraction for D.  It is going to be a long and draining day…..

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