Turbo

Did you know that Burger King Turbo coffee has 40% more caffeine than the regular coffee?  I did not.  But about 5 sips in and I was beginning to get a clue.

I began to realize that the coffee cup lid was smiling at me.

The exhaustion was still there but I was all jumpy and had to pee a lot.

A few hours later it was as if the turbo kicked it up a notch. I made a great dinner, bathed all the kids, snacks, teeth brush, to bed, spend time with Big Sis, her teeth brushed, her to bed and I was still doing laundry like a mad woman. I hardly noticed when it was midnight. By 1:30 am I though man I should try to go to sleep because this is going to bite me in the morning.

I settle in and try to sleep. As I battle feet pain and fidget trying to get it just right for sleep the darn dogs start asking to go out to pee. Great. I have to do that dance of the little ones out first followed by the lummox. Then everyone with fur back in the kitchen in their beds. I settle back down into my bed and 5 minutes later Lil Bro comes knockin. Why not? Mr. C had already entered into our bed. Mr. C was happy with his spot cuddled next to Mama and was not going to be giving that up. Lil Bro was going to have his spot next to Mama or no one would sleep. So I end up crammed between the two of them. Dad happy as a lark on his side with no cuddlers.

Now I have feet pain and I am crammed between two kids. Sleep is not going to happen. I sneak out to the boys room and climb in that bed (since no one was there). Ahh sleep. What time is it by now? I have no idea, no clock in the boys room. At 5:30 am Lil Bro realizes that I am not in my bed and sounds off. Miss M ends up in the living room startled. I put her back to bed and snuggle her in with her bear. Me and Lil Bro back to bed, sleep.

7am Miss M sounds off that she is not getting up and not going to school. Her sleep was interupted and that is not good. Dad went in and gave her some direction and she was able to get it together. We were all on pins and needles because it seemed it could go bad really quickly.

My recomendation is to drink Turbo coffee with care.

Nighty Night

Why will that kid not go to sleep? I love my little 3-year-old joy but good grief already, go to sleep. The whole stay in your bed is a work in progress. I guess I need the super nanny to actually stop by the house. I don't know.

I stay and sit with him while he goes to sleep in his bed. He takes a 20-minute nap during the day while we pick up the big kids from school, that's it. Tonight I sat in that room for a stinking hour and a half. I was so sick of seeing those darn fish swimming and that tranquility elevator music playing that I wanted to pull my hair out. My sweet angelic baby boy of 3 years old flipped and flopped and flip flopped and tried this pillow and that pillow and hugged Lamby and then no Lamby and then sit up and me, "Lay down it's sleep time." More scooching and flipping and flopping and rolling around and and and. Good grief Charlie Brown Mom is going to lose it!

10 pm he finally went to sleep. Okay so I yelled first and then he went to sleep. It's not okay to yell Mom, stay in control of your voice tone. I have no doubt scarred him for life, he will now have nightmares so on and so forth and what have you. I am ashamed to say it but WHO CARES he went to sleep!

I am with my precious sunshine all day long, joy joy happy happy - we are. And then we have the afternoon homework dinner making combo routine and bath time and snack and bedtime and let's face it Mom lives for her 60 minutes of piece and quiet before she too gives way to sleep.

Ahem. Anyway, I am relaxing currently. And enjoying my me time.

Homework was brutal tonight! Never. Going. To. End. My word! The 5th grade math is getting on my nerves frankly. Then we have Science homework to cover and a Social Studies test to study for. I am happy to report that I know the exact location of Kansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, a few others AND their capitals and their appreciations. I came up with a few little ditties like how we like to sing when we are at the great lakes of Michigan and it's capital Lansing. Or how our friend Madison likes to eat cheese in the great state of Wisconsin because Madison is the capital of Wisconsin. Or how our buddy Paul likes to drink soda in Minnesota who's capital is St. Paul. Bring on that 5th grade social studies test I would so ace it!

Did I mention that we still had to study for a spelling test? Let's just say it is a good thing that we did study because otherwise we would have received a big F on that test. I think we have it covered now.

And then there was mentoring my first grader who is so not getting first grade. Did I post that she has been placed in the mentor program at school to receive help with reading? I am waiting for the mentoring in math because you know and I know that 0+2=2 but I know a certain first grader who puts 0 any time there is a problem with 0 in it. As in 0+2=0. So yeah we're working on that.

She is bringing a lot of work home that she isn't finishing in class. I asked her why she wasn't able to finish and she said, "The teacher goes too fast." Okay, good enough. Nouns and what they are is not coming easy to certain first graders either. The little dog ran fast. Which word here is a person, a place, or a thing? Little? Which one is a person-animal, place or thing? Dog? Right!

She seems to do better with a lot of one on one help. She needs specific explanation and good hints to get the right answers.

And then there was an incident that occurred this evening. I will post about that later. Need to get some insight from the professionals on the matter.  At any rate, nighty night!

(art work by Robert David Bretz)

The Family Bed

This is perhaps giving new definition to co-sleeping.

Getting Dressed

All is going fairly well here in looloo land at the moment. Mr. C is making good choices a lot more. He had another freak out yesterday when something on the Mario Cart Wii game scared him. He starts seeing things that aren't there and feeling things that aren't on him, swatting and flapping and he just becomes a wreck. Big Sis is the one that is best able to calm him. She will go and cuddle him on his bed and he is able to simmer down.

He had a couple of emotional upsets yesterday and was able to take himself to his room with out being directed. He cried rather than getting angry and was able to be comforted.

Miss M had an "I'm not getting dressed" day. Dad was able to handle it well and reminded her that if she needed help to ask and if she took too long than he would have to take her to school. She was able to get it together with in a few minutes. Dad helped her dress and life moved on. She got out the door with the other kids and off to school.

Big Sis is doing great. Daisy the dog sleeps in Big Sis's bed and Big Sis feels safe and sleeps well. In turn the mornings are going well.

Lil Bro is all about being 3. He is doing great during the day when it is just he and I and he has no one messing with his agenda or stuff. He tends to be a pest to the big kids once they come home, especially Mr. C. We have had Lil Bro and Big Sis doing bath time together for the past 2 nights and that is going well. Two birds, one stone don't ya know.

We have been walking Daisy in the evening when it is gets cooler. Last night Big Sis and Lil Bro went with me. Big Sis pushed Lil Bro in the jogger and we all had a good long walk. Everyone slept well including Daisy.

Night Terrors

I was reading this post http://johnson-mccormickfamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/starvation-and-deep-destitute-poverty.html and thinking about Mr. C and his night terrors. They are better as he gets older, less often. But this Mom (above post) was privileged with some info about her twins and their experience in the orphanage that may be insightful for us too. With Mr. C and Miss M much is a question mark related to what happened? in their early life. The evidence is there for both that it wasn't good but they can't remember verbally to talk about things yet the horror lives with in them.
Mr. C has always had sleep issues and eating issues. To this day he crams food in like someone is going to take it. We worry that he will choke, verbal reminders, etc. but in the grand picture we have bigger fish to fry and this is how he eats. I know that in his orphanage they had 75 to 100 babies and children up to age 4 and 10 caregivers. Doing the math you can understand that these women moved fast and with a purpose. The food was shove shove shove done and then they moved on to the next baby. So we are pretty clear where the cram it in eating habit formed.We know too that he did not get enough to eat. At 10 months old when I met him he was the size of a 3-month-old baby and wore a newborn cap on his head. He was not much bigger than a stacking toy at 10 months old.

Miss M was "clinically malnourished" at 2 years old and weighted 18 pounds, wore size 9 to 12 month clothes and a size 2 infant shoe. She had fragile bones that felt like you could just break her by holding her hand. Her head looked too big for her body and her tummy was very bloated with gas from finally getting some nutrition. The picture below with no shirt on you can see that her cheeks are full of food and the wrappers are near by. I was not going to tell her no to food. She kept saying "mas, mas, mas". It was one of the few words she said at 2.


Reading this post http://johnson-mccormickfamily.blogspot.com/2009/08/starvation-and-deep-destitute-poverty.html made me grateful that my little ones have all they want to eat now and are physically thriving.

At the beach June 2009.

Monday 10-20-08

"Some days all I want to be is a missing person." I saw that on a bumper sticker the other day. I got it.

M was oppositional and defiant and sort of in sneaky mode all day. She raged this evening before dinner. Dad and Nan had both just arrived home so it was actually good timing. M was determined to be attacking me and so Dad had to hold on to her. Nan took the other kids to V's room and locked the door, so they were safe.

M has already woke once with "a bad dream." She has her bear which makes womb noises, lullaby's playing, sippy cup, blankey, etc. It's no wonder she hates us, obviously we are terrible parents. (sarcastic eye rolls here)

All the kids were late again this morning to school because we can not get them to move in the morning. V and C do not want to go to school and M is struggling just being her. No doubt the truancy officer is going to be dispensed at any moment. Maybe they will take me away, vacation!