Littlest Guy 11 months old

Yesterday, the day our littlest guy turned 11 months old, he successfully pulled himself up on the couch into a standing position. (He’s been crawling and combo crawling with knees and worm wiggles for the last month.) I missed it, but Werty saw and heard him squeal with joy and triumph. Looks like he’s on track to make his milestones. I had to put him back on the GERD medicine last week. We took him off for about two weeks, but acid reflux was waking him up and choking him in the middle of his sleep. Scary when your baby has milk and mucus come out his nose and he’s flailing because he can’t breathe for a few seconds. He’s a calm, cheerful soul with big cheeks and a ticklish chin. He loves when his older siblings notice him or play with him.

Pandemic with Kids

Someday we will get past this Corona virus pandemic, and we might not remember the weird stress and uncertainty. Everyone has had the opportunity to discover how much social interaction means to them. We have all had the chance to realize some of the things we took for granted, like seeing family or getting a haircut.

So, for posterity, it went something like this: January 18th we rent the moving van and officially move into our new house. We bought the house just before Halloween, but the popcorn ceilings were 8% asbestos and falling off due to age. So in November and December, Werty spent almost every evening scraping, repairing, and painting. February we see news reports that lots of people are dying in China, starting at Wuhan, from a SARS virus, named COVID19. I had been attending behavior meetings at the elementary school, and now, not only was Tiger moving over to that school, but now Little Miss 7 is being moved across town to go to a contained autism class. About that time, we get the diagnosis from the doctor that we are dealing with a lot of ADD and some autism with our kids. I now spend a lot of my day driving, with kids at three different schools. Also, Littler Miss 3 started SpEd preschool because she has a sensory processing problem that makes it hard for her to produce sounds correctly

With all this going on, Werty says, hey, maybe we should be restocking our pantry. We had been eating our food storage and avoiding buying food we would just have to pack. But the new house has a separate freezer and an extra fridge in the downstairs kitchen. Why are they still empty? We should start filling them.  But then, we get the stomach flu, and I was too sick to go grocery shopping. Finally I went out the first week of March and bought extras at WinCo and Costco. Not 2 year supply extra, but 2-3 times as much as normal, enough to last a month or 6 weeks.

First half of March, we start discussing, "Hmm, will it be safe to have the kids at school? Should we take them out for a few weeks?" And then BAM, it was decided for us and the schools shutdown. Everything shut down. Fast. The kids went to a half day at school on Friday, came home normally, never to go back for the rest of the year. By that afternoon the Governor had announced all non-essential buildings and schools to close to the public. No church that weekend. Store shelves emptied. No one could find toilet paper - water bottles and tp had been out for 2 weeks, to be honest, as people stocked up "just in case." Two weeks before at Costco, they still had a few packages of tp left, and we were due to buy some, but I knew we had our one "emergency pack" at home (all those Relief Society lessons on providential living and food storage taught me to have an extra pack of tp) so I put the bulk pack of tp back on the shelf for someone who might be in more dire need than us. Werty told me two weeks before to buy twice of everything I normally buy during my weekly grocery shopping "just in case." This was a good thing, because the week before the shutdown, things got crazy, and then that weekend they got worse. We had, at least, filled our new freezer about 3/4ths full.

That weekend, BBug and her kids came to visit. When they decided to sleep at a hotel instead of here, because we were still unpacking, I was relieved because THE HOTEL WOULD HAVE TOILET PAPER. That's crazy, but suddenly in the matter of 1-2 days the "just in case" scenario became the reality. Family kept dropping by that weekend to see BBug without notice and I was stressed. I had barely stocked up on any food, much less, enough to feed extended family. And who knew when food would return to the grocery store shelves. I kept trying to calculate how much food we had, how long it could last, while having 8 kids running around the house (5 were mine).

I usually shop at Costco about 3 times a month. I haven't been back to Costco in the last 2.5 months because I don't have the time away from my nursing baby to stand in a line that long. Werty now does the shopping, which he started doing because the first two weeks of the social distancing and shutdown, there were so many shortages in the store on staples, like FLOUR, MILK, and YEAST that most stuff was being rationed, and he was genuinely afraid people might get physical. It's been two months, and some items are still rationed, but the shelves are full again. Now I think he still does it to get out of the house every 10 days or so.

We are lucky. Some people lost jobs, some can't work. Werty is working from home. The first week of the quarantine shutdown we had to finish building a wall and turning 1\3 of the family room into a home office. He has had more meetings by teleconference, more deadlines because project managers think people should be more productive during quarantine. What?!? Grocery shopping is now stressful. Kids are home and bored 24\7, and they don't understand why daddy is working all the time, even though he is home. This week has been bad, he has had to work through the night a couple times. Our schedule is shot, and I'm exhausted trying to do it all: keep kids away from daddy, help kids with school work, referee kids fighting, unpack new house by myself, try to establish a new cleaning routine, giving first aid for injuries because Urgent Care is too risky right now, and constantly feeding everyone because we are all home all the time.

Meanwhile, I am NOT yelling at the kids to get in the car. I am not stressed about being late to church. We are finally playing all those board games I've been collecting, waiting for my kids to be old enough to play. I have gone out and shot hoops a few times, giving Bear some pointers. I planted 6 tomato plants this week on the south side of the house. I wish I could say that we are all unpacked, but I can't, because Werty's working extra hours and the kids always need something or are getting into something. But we are all healthier for longer than we have been in years. Maybe home schooling is something we should consider more seriously. 🤔

Tiger's school journey - kindergarten

This week I was grateful for this blog because I needed to report the milestones for Tiger to a charter school he just got accepted to, a charter school for autism. Tiger is on the autism spectrum, what they call "high functioning." He is bright, particularly in Math. He walked and crawled earlier than the other kids, he knew his letters, numbers and colors when he was two, but he still wasn't speaking in sentences by the time he was 3. He only spoke a few words when he was two, and I began to be concerned. It was a frustrating year, knowing something was wrong, but not having any resources available until he turned 3. The day after his third birthday, I had him at the district assessment center being evaluated so he could have speech therapy. It was the end of the school year, so we would have to keep waiting until the Fall. Frustrating! He went to inclusion preschool through SpEd for two years, and finally found his voice.

He attended kindergarten at the local university's autism center where they had an awesome sensory room. He finally had sensory regulation and started sleeping regularly - he falls asleep within 10 minutes most of the time. BUT...half way through the year his teacher tells me that he has done so well with the program that he has learned all they can teach him, it's time for him to go to a transition kindergarten class - which they have at his brother's school. We respond that we are moving to a new house across town, and no we can't introduce that much change all at once. Werty has been so busy every night with the asbestos abatement at the new house, and with an increasing workload at his newer job during the day, that we don't have time to really discuss Tiger's placement for the next month or so. Ok, now it's February, and we move Tiger over to the transition class, which is not as great of a sensory fit, but still a good fit for Tiger. Maybe he will be ready for a regular 1st grade class.

A month into that program, BOOM! Covid19 pandemic hits. He won't be finishing that transition program. He won't be reading on grade level before leaving kindergarten. He won't be ready for a general ed class. He won't have the consistency and sensory regulation that he got from school and recess. If we had known, maybe we would have moved him over back in January, but how could we have known? So, we applied to an autism charter for next year. Going to give it a try.

Messes

I am thankful for my children. Sure, I have spent a lot of time with them being sick the last two weeks. We even missed Werty's Aunt's wedding because of this nasty virus that acts like a stomach flu and then attacks the sinuses with thick junk, ending in a terrible cough. I have spent two days cleaning up diarrhea with one child, while my youngest child is having difficulty remembering that we write on paper and not walls. I have gone through three magic erasers this week because his new favorite place to draw are the walls on the staircase. But I think I finally have a child who will color in nursery instead of looking at the nursery leaders like they are crazy. Little Miss and I worked on some letter recognition, and she had fun doing it. Bear went back to kindergarten today, after being out sick for a week. I am grateful to have them. They keep life from being predictable and I love them.

Pictures

Bear had his first report card. He loves school and is doing great. He had his first Math test last month. He informed me that he got 100% and he was "really good at Math." Yay! Still potty training Little Miss 3. Chocolate chips seems to be the reward she cared about, so that's what she gets when she goes in the potty. She is holding her pee longer and is dry most mornings, so I think we are making progress. Tiger continues to climb up everywhere and wants to do whatever his siblings are doing. He is learning new words all the time. He loves walking out in the snow. I took him around the block on the tricycle yesterday. Halfway around the block he gets off and helps me push the trike the rest of the way home. If we go somewhere in the morning, like an errand, he wants to keep his coat on the rest of the day after we get home because he wants to go back outside so badly. Here are some pictures to enjoy. 

Little Miss' new princess dress.

Playing with Daddy.



Halloween party at church.

Halloween candy monsters for FHE, our tradition.

Little Miss still falls asleep in random places, like here between the piano and the piano bench.

 

Putting up the Christmas tree. The little kids ran off with the little tree as soon as they saw it, and put it up all by themselves. 

Potty Training Little Miss (take 2)

Here we are, day 4 of potty training. We have talked about how soft and comfy underwear is compared to diapers. She has yet to tell ME she needs to go potty. Yesterday we had one small success. She went outside to play with her brother, and I knew she was due to need to go soon. She told her brother that she needed to go, and was dry when he brought her in. We got to the bathroom, still dry. Waaah, she wanted the little potty, not the toilet. I run downstairs, and get the little potty, come back up, and she's wet. I hang my head in defeat. But still, she told SOMEONE she needed to go, so that really is progress. Meanwhile, I forgot Bear's show and tell this week, and I burned his cheese sandwich on Wednesday and had to make another one because I was distracted taking care of potty accidents. It has been a little over a year since we have tried, so this time, I want to stick with it and get it done.

June flew by...now it's the middle of July!

We stayed really busy in June, with Bear doing day camp every morning, Bear's Tball games, participating in a mom's group tour of all the parks in the city - twice a week we try a different park - and the usual projects that pop up.

Every Saturday, the family has been watching Bear's t-ball games. He's the one with the yellow bat.

 

Random cute pictures of Tiger, followed by this picture that makes me thing Little Miss really does take after me. (Those who know, know what I mean.)

End of June is always Summerfest. Every year, Bear wants to do the big slide first. This year I went with Little Miss because she was tall enough to go too. 

 

 We invited Grandpa and one of their Aunts to go with us (I need a nickname for child #8 of 9)

 More cute pictures of our Tiger baby.

Bear putting on a concert in the living room.

I sewed my Little Miss 3 a rainbow twirl dress. Fourteen flounces - but totally worth it. Bear is a little obsessed with rainbows and gold (like at the end of the rainbow) right now. He was as excited as she was that I was making a rainbow colored dress for her.





We spent the last Sunday in June taking a walk around the Provo temple. We have been trying to find Sabbath appropriate things to do as a family.

Candy bomber on July 3rd. We don't usually go for the big crowd events, especially in the hot sun, but it was pretty exciting to see the WWII planes fly by over our heads. Most of the candy sadly fell north of the park and missed its mark, so there were a lot of sad kids. I think it was still fun.

4th of July at my sister Sue's house. My mother and two of her siblings were also there. We had a great time. She purchased a few aerials. Wow. Being up close to those, staring straight up into the sky. Wow.

We are getting ready for Bear's birthday party next month. I finished the pinata so far.

Tiger has discovered video game controllers, much to our chagrin. He wants to do whatever the other people are doing, and he knows the difference if you try to pull a fast one on him. 


 
 Little Miss has taken an interest in dressing up in costumes, much to my delight, even if she keeps changing her mind and costume about every 5 minutes. Here she is as Little Miss Astronaut.