I’m dreaming of a…
That’s what I did…dream…practically all Christmas. I got a little over-indulgent in the gluten department. I’m not 100% convinced that the “sleep until 10:30am” morning and the “5-hour nap” in the afternoon was a result of the 15 eclairs and cream puffs I had. Because if I were, then that would mean I would never be able to eat them ever again. I think I still had some ill effects from the half of a biscuit I ate at Bojangles, but NOT from the cream puffs. (read: denial)
Christmas Eve was pretty low-key. NOT. The kids were all over the place. The Bouncy balls were the best things ever to keep them active in the house without destroying something. We ate pretty late for each meal so talk about throwing our schedule off. I start to forget whether or not we have fed them. That is bad. very bad. As we speak, The Elder is yelling in the back of the van “I’m Hungry” and I look at the clock and it is 6:30pm! Yikes! They haven’t eaten since 11:30 this morning! Well, we are going to stop at the next exit to eat and then I’ll finish this post…
OK, we are dedicated Starbucks drinkers… We just went around our butt to find one. That calls for a Venti….
Family tradition usually has us opening gifts at midnight after Christmas Eve dinner. However, The 6yo With The No Tooth and The 8yo With The Bendy Glasses have a track record of not making it past 8pm on normal occasions so The Brother (their father) decided 10pm would be the new midnight. Opening presents was fun this year because The Elder understood that that is what you do on Christmas. However I couldn’t get his focus off his 2nd present (racing cars) long enough for him to open the rest of his presents. So we kept them for the next day as rewards.
Because I was off in Dreamland most of Christmas day, The Elder lacked some serious structure. By the end of the day, he was not only hyper, but impulsive and aggressive. I was very frustrated because I knew it could have all been prevented had I been conscious, and also frustrated because I really didn’t know what to tell The Cousins who were getting the brunt of it, because I don’t think they know about his diagnosis so I didn’t want to use it as an excuse. So as “discipline” I made The Elder bounce 10 laps around the ping pong table and he wasn’t allowed to open a present that night. (We still have like 5 presents for them each to open!) Have you found yourself in this situtaion? And if so I’d like to hear how you handled it…or wish you had handled it.
Now, according to The Lola, Santa got stuck at the North Pole and wasn’t able to deliver the presents on Christmas Eve so we didn’t wake up to overflowing stockings Christmas morn. The Hub was disappointed because Santa usually brings us chocolate. Coincidently my parents have been abroad for the last month on a mission trip and was exempt from Christmas shopping beforehand. So Santa and The Lola struck up some plan to have her just take us all shopping instead to make up for both of their lack. So we went to the outlet mall today in Myrtle Beach to find some goodies.
Updated at 11:33pm (computer battery died in the car)
We actually went to Barnes and Nobles first because I wanted to get the book about organizing for the right brainers (I can’t remember if I blogged about that or not, but The Brother and I were discussing it) and a much needed Starbucks fix. The Hub dropped me and The Lola off so we didn’t have to drag the kids in there and she ran off to the bathroom and said she would catch up with me. In my quest to find this book, I came across the psychology shelf and, out of habit, stopped to browse. Driven to Distraction caught my eye, but I felt like the title was a little negative. Well, then I saw its sequel Delivered from Distraction. Much more positive title, so I picked it up instead. The first chapter is called “Read this if you can’t read the whole book.” Now THAT’S my kind of book! I scanned the other Adult ADHD topics when my mom came up behind me…
“Did you get your book already.”
“Oh, no not yet, I got distracted.”
My nonchalant, inadvertently ironic comment made me giggle. I knew right then I was going to buy that book!
Next Stop: Target. There are some wooden trains in the Hot Spot that The Kiddos went wild over. The Elder calls them “The Trains with No Face.” I’ll post pictures one day. We bought our Christmas New Year’s Cards to be delivered sometime after we get The Kiddos Holiday Pictures made. Will probably take advantage of The Hub photographic talents this year and save on some moolah.
Finally we arrived at the Tanger Outlets. I had a goal to find new patent leather dress shoes. I went to every shoe store. Found the perfect pair (on sale too) at Nine West. However they didn’t have my size. We got quite a few things for the kids and a few decoration for the house for next year (The Elder really wanted a star for the treetop next year, as opposed to the angel), but I walked away from our “Santa went AWOL” shopping spree with only the book. I looked at The Sister-In-Law and said, “So this is the mommy syndrome…all that shopping and nothing to show for it…I must be growing up.”
We did have a nice trip to see my side of the family. It was great to see and spend time with my nephews. It was humbling to see how grown my niece is now that she is a college girl. It was nice to meet my sister’s significant other. It was fulfilling to see The AP enjoy The Lola and The Tita’s (my aunt) filipino cooking as it reminded her of Brazilian cuisine. I was thankful that The Brother and The Sister-In-Law joined us today, since I usually don’t get to tell them good-bye. It was particularly uplifting to be sad to go. Usually within 24 hours I’m ready to haul tail out of dodge, but this year was different. I felt like it was time to go home sooner than I wanted. If I didn’t have to work tomorrow, I’d probably would have convinced myself to stay an extra day.
We left about 3 hours later than we planned but still arrived in TN at a decent time. The Kiddos insisted on watching the Blues Clues Holiday DVD THE ENTIRE 8 HOUR DRIVE HOME. I bought them Polar Express (which they have been whining about all week to see) and we had to stop it 20 minutes into the movie because of The Younger’s request. (The Elder was asleep. I imagine he would have argued this had he not been.) But even once he woke up, there was no switching movies. It was cute to hear The Younger sing “We just got a letter” and The Elder sing “Spin, Dreidel, Spin.” I, personally, ran the juice out my computer catching up on blogs and then ran the juice out of my cell phone playing Spider Solitaire and Sodoku. Whew, it’s nice to be home! I’ve dedicated myself to go back on the gfcr diet, limiting casein to cheese and only once a week and only outside of the home. I figured I’d feel less guilty if I gave myself some leeway. And….no more cream puffs.
"Are you kidding me?"
This was the response from my brother after I asked, “Is there a Starbucks in town?”
I wasn’t sure if it was “duh, there are Starbucks everywhere” answer, or if it was “we don’t have anything in our dinky town” answer. It was the latter. We didn’t plan our consumption very well on this trip. We assumed way too much, so our food routine has been off the last 24 hours. Actually our whole routine is but I figured, better to do this on a trip AWAY from home than in our own home. No blender for The Hub’s daily smoothies. Because tax is cheaper in SC (like by 5%!) we decided to wait until we got here to purchase groceries since we get the organic-gluten-free-casein-free-costs-an-arm-and-a-leg brands and every little bit helps. So we had very little food to choose from. We found a KFC during the trip and peeled off the breading to get it as gluten-reduced as possible. (Here’s a picture of The Younger discovering he like
corn-on-the-cob. Was NOT a fun diaper to change later especially since I didn’t think about bringing a sprayer.) We made a box of hash browns for breakfast and noticed in the ingredients that there is wheat flour in it (I guess to keep the potatoes from sticking together). The kids have been super hyper today and I looked at The Hub saying “no more gluten for them.” He laments, “why does gluten turn us into zombies and they go freakin’ crazy?” Well, The Lola (my mom) only knew of one place to go (because we scoped 2 grocery stores in town that had nothing organic, much less gluten-free) and we stocked up on some goods for the kids that they (and we) can handle.
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So we come in yesterday and The Elder goes crazy running around the house. He goes up to The Lola and says in shock and awe, “You got TWO uv em???? One over there and one over there?” I realized he was speaking of TVs. We only have one TV upstairs in our house and we have taken the the cable out of the wall. So they had 2 channels going simultaneously on ABC family watching The Incredibles and USA watching Christmas Vacation so that those in the kitchen were bombarded by clashing noises. This morning, we were serenaded by Spongebob at breakfast. I looked at The Hub and said, we have got to buy some toys to lure these kids away from the tube. So we went out today and got these.
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The Kiddos immediately took ALL (all 832 of them) the throw pillows off the couches and onto the floors. This is acceptable in our house because we have crappy furniture. My parents however have really nice furniture, the kind I’d like to have one day when I grow up. The Lola was hilarious when she decided, “Maybe tomorrow I’ll have to establish some house rules.” I interjected, “Maybe now?”
“Rule #1: Pillows are not toys.”
So The Hub made a sign and taped it onto the oven and printed that for The Elder to read.
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Today was the first time The Younger met his cousins and the first time The Elder noticed them. Collectively, they are ages 2, 4, 6, and 8. Isn’t that cute? (Since there are more of them, I couldn’t called them The Cousin.) Well, The 8yo announces “I have glasses now….Are yours as bendy as mine?” and then later over dinner he looks at me and proclaims, “did you know that animals are connected to sound waves?” So the smarty pants are obviously hand-me-downs, except each kid keeps the smarts before passing it on.
The Elder isn’t that great with names yet until after the 2nd or 3rd meeting so as he was calling after them “Hey, 2 guys….” and then later trying to get The 6yo’s attention, he calls after him, “Hey….the one with the no tooth.” I thought I would die laughing.
The 6yo With No Tooth shares The Younger’s love for bananas. We don’t understand why he put it on his head. I think The Younger has a classic sensory look on his face as that peel gets a little too close to his face. Here you can see The Elder indulging his most recent compulsion, flipping the light switches on and off.
“Rule #2: Light switches are not toys.”
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“We need a napkin.” (uh-oh)
“What happened?”
“He has tomato on his shirt.”
My immediate thought was bloody nose, then worse I thought about the bottle of ketchup on the table. But then I see The 8yo With The Bendy Glasses with a whole Cosco-sized container of cherry tomatoes, feeding them to The Elder.
“Don’t be eating those on the couch!!” (remember, it’s nice furniture.) At least he got the Elder eating tomatoes, um, unless he spit them out and that is why it was on his shirt. The Hub thought ahead while he was in there, and removed the squeeze bottle of potentially projectile ketchup from the table while reciting, the next rule…
“Rule #3: Tomatoes are not toys.”
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Off to deal with totally overstimulated kids…
Reading & Comprehension
Those were always my lowest scores on those standardized tests in grade school. I remember that by the time I was in high school I was very aware of this deficit (being the over high achiever that I am) and would concentrate so hard on the passage trying to figure out exactly what questions they would ask on the next page and I’d scanned the paragraphs in an attempt to memorize the whole thing. I still got low scores because the older I got, the harder and more complex the questions. I’ve been overanalyzing myself these days in light of The Elder’s diagnosis and then the recent suggestion by The Super Doc in our last three sessions that I am classic ADHD. I’m not exactly sure what about me is so classic, but as much as I hate to admit it, the more I talked (just being myself – finally to that point with her), the more she pointed out my traits. Dang it. Just what I needed, another lightbulb moment to explain the madness I call daily life. Now I have to follow the a-ha! trail back to my childhood (that’s the OCD in me, which I’ve always owned up to! Ha!). Reminds me of this post by Kristina. I always wondered why both my siblings have a passion for reading and I rarely ever finish a book (though I did finish Look Me in the Eye). I like to read. I love to learn. But I have to concentrate so hard to focus that sometimes I have to read out loud to myself. And I might get really excited about something that I learned in the first chapter that I’ll go make life applications based on that and never finish the book! I know I’m not alone so I’m not ashamed. I just always wondered how my brother could read The Hobbit in 2 days when he was in the 6th grade and I can barely get past reading the title as an adult. The Super Doc doesn’t push medication but strongly suggested it with each time I put my foot in my mouth and showed my adhd colors. Well, see my last Success Sunday quote. The good news is that I’m already on the gluten-free-casein-free reduced diet. If I see no significant change then I’ll stop the meds. I’m specifically looking for consistent executive functioning skills. I tend to be one extreme or the other. The scenario that really gets me is when I spend all day on my agenda, that by the time I’m done, it’s bedtime and the day is over. I think that is why I do well flying by the seat of my pants. The no-reading thing I can live with.
So this post wasn’t really about MY reading and comprehension skills, but The Elder’s. As you recall I have witnessed him read an entire book by himself. Well, The AP takes them to the library every Friday while I’m at a church group meeting and they check out books and videos (that has actually been great for shaking up his routine. “Sorry we returned that book to the library already, pick a different book.”). Well, today after doing some great pretending (The Elder was the bus driver, I was his little girlfriend on the bus, and The Younger was The Elder on the bus – it was hilarious. We also pretended to be in the classroom, but once I told him that the bus driver doesn’t go to class, maybe he should be The Teacher, he decided he wanted to be himself so that he could pick a (PECS) card and play games. Then he told me what to say…”Now you say, ‘You may now go to your centers.’ Say it, just like that.”), we decided to read some library books because we hadn’t cracked into them over the weekend and he pulls out a sequel.
“Are you going to read it to me?”
“No, you read it.”
“Let’s take turns.”
“OK, you first.”
“It was Easter morning…your turn.”
“The Easter Bunny hid ten hot-paynk (TN twang for pink) marshmallow…I like marshmallows…chickens, um, chicks. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall over the house.”
We continued like this until I smelled The Younger. So I leave The Elder on the couch with the book to go change a diaper (Yay! It was solid). As I was cleaning him up and spraying off the diaper (we tend to always forget to use a liner when he poops), I could hear The Elder continue to read aloud. It was so cute! He was using proper story-telling inflections in his voice. He read the rest of the book by himself! You can tell when looking over his shoulder that he doesn’t sound words out as much as he tries to recognize the word first. Like saying chicken first, then correcting himself to say chick. In the past, he has said “away” instead of “always”; “engine” instead of “english”; “violin” instead of “vitamin”; etc etc.
Well, I thought I would test his comprehension level and skimmed the book and started asking questions about the the story and he got all of the questions right!
“What color were Ruby’s chicks?”
“Paynk”
“What color were Max’s chicks?”
“Lellow…and they go pop pop pop pop through the mail pop.”
“Mail pop?”
“I mean mail slot.”
“How many chicks did he get?”
“Just ten.”
I verified with The AP that she hadn’t read the book to him before, so it was his first time reading that book. Gushing with pride. Watch out standardized tests! We got a genius on our hands!
