it's been a week?

This may be the longest span of time that I haven't posted.

My apologies. I don't know what I was doing. Taking care of sick kids. (They're all well now, thank God.) Driving The Taxi. Cleaning. LAUNDRY! (Seriously, I have been the Laundry Queen!) Reading lots and lots of home design blogs. And even a book every now and then. But really, I have no excuse! Not much different than a normal week.

Except, I have been doing one thing... spray painting! Everything that isn't nailed down. Seriously, if you come to my house, don't sit down. You need to stay on your feet and keep moving. Or I will. Spray paint you.

I think the checkout guy at Home Depot thinks I'm a huffer. Nope. Just a woman in need of a change or two.

I have two little dressers like this one, that I picked up from the curb a few years ago. They were in the boys room which is blue. But now, one is in the girls room and Shout wanted it painted pink.



So here it is right now. One can of spray paint really does not go very far. I had to make a run back to Home Depot (and dodge the substance abuse counselor they had waiting for me) and get some more. Then it needs some pretty glass knobs. And SOMEONE to weed through Shout's clothes and purge like half of them so they will all fit in this little thing.



Next up is this little side table. I bought this right after I moved into my very own place after college at an antiques store. It's not an antique, but it looks like it's from the 20s or 30s and could have been in my grandmother's house. It was nicely finished, but now it's sporting some kid-inflicted wear and tear. (I also don't quite know what to DO with this table. It's too small for a lamp or anything fragile. It mostly gets used by the kids to put their toy cash register on.)



And looking at this picture, I realize how very out of proportion it is with that big chair. Ack.

Anyway, a can of blue/gray spray paint and a little distressing later and here it is





This is actually my first distressing job. Not too bad. I thought Laundry Dad was going to croak, but I think even he likes it now.


Next up, I've had this birdcage in my living room for years. It's from Target. Nothing fancy, but I like it. But after I saw Melissa's painted birdcage on The Inspired Room, I realized that mine was really kind of vanishing into the background of the room.



So here it is now. (It's hard to tell in the pictures, but it's a brighter blue than the table.)



I LOVE this change. It's much more cheery and punchy.

Here's another project. I picked up several things at a yard sale last week (post on that to come) and I was eyeing this magazine rack, but didn't pick it up. My neighbor threw it in as a freebie since I bought so much other stuff.



It's not my style, but I did have a vision.



This is a bright aqua. It needs some distressing. I was going to resell it, but Bounce (mGal) wants it to stick her Tiger Beat magazines in. We'll see. (I also need to clean it because I forgot to DUST it before I spray painted it, and I didn't notice how dusty it was on the bottom, but WHOA, it was dusty. Now that all the cobwebs are aqua, they are QUITE noticeable. And they are stuck to the underside, so it's going to take some brush or something to get them off. (Note to self, DUST FIRST.)

I've got a few more projects up my sleeve for this fall. (And no... the armoire is not done yet. I have hit a snag which can only be fixed by my iron and a hot glue gun. I need to get working on that.)

Two of them, I'm planning to do when Laundry Dad is out of town. *puts on her very innocent face* I want to SURPRISE him. (AND? I'm pretty sure he will like these projects when they are done. In-process, perhaps not so much.)

The other one requires a trip to Michaels and their more extensive collection of spray paint colors. (And perhaps I can avoid the huffing police.)

What have YOU been up to?

oh the places you'll go

Oh you would not BELIEVE the places I've been. I can't even tell you the whole story because honestly, you would think I'm making it up. But I'm not. And also? It makes my blood pressure go sky high and that throbbing vein on my forehead starts to protrude.

The upshot... I actually SHOULD have taken Cheer (mGuy) to the ER the other night. I mean, he's still alive and all, so no harm, no foul, I guess. But I brought him to the doctor who did not like how his chest sounded AT ALL. So she gave him a nebulizer treatment, which was quite a new thing for us. I know most people actually register for nebulizers when they are expecting their first babies these days, but we've never needed one before.

Have I mentioned that Cheer (mGuy) has a bionic sense of smell? And that he gags at the slightest whiff of a strong smell? Ok, because he does. He? Did not like the nebulizer.

Shout (Little One) was dying to be nebulized. And she was not happy about being at the doctor's office and not being center stage. It's like her home court, but she didn't have the advantage.

So the doctor sent us off with instructions to use an inhaler and some steroids for the next 10 days. And the nurse faxed off the prescriptions to the pharmacy. And by "faxed" I mean, "totally did not fax."

To make a long story short, it is now over 24 hours later and I have made 4 (or maybe 5?) trips to various pharmacies, several phone calls to the doctor's office, I've had 6 chocolate chip cookies and 3 glasses of wine. We STILL don't have the medicine we need, my kid is STILL wheezing and now? MY chest hurts. My stomach hurts. My head hurts. And I have to try YET ANOTHER pharmacy tomorrow after at least ONE MORE phone call to the doctor's office.

I think buying heroin is easier. And by the end of all this? I may NEED some heroin.

The upshot is this. Target Pharmacy... we are over. We're so over, we need a new word for over. (source? anyone?)

Pediatrician's office... you're on notice. Dr. Everything Will be Alright? I love you, man, but let's get everyone some training on the fax machine. And? The telephone. And how about a sick appointment before 4pm?

See? The ER would have been so much easier. (WHEN do you ever say THAT?)

my so called life

Last week, was how I imagine my life. Three hours of freedom every morning. The big kids in school until mid-afternon.

I spent my mornings working out (every! day!) and then stopping by the grocery store for fresh salads and healthy food.

Ahhh... the life!

This week, it's how my life actually is. I'm exhausted. I have two kids home with the croup. Yes. Croup. That thing that babies get.

No matter how old they are, it's still terrifying to see your kid (kids) GASPING for air and hearing horrible noises from their throats. At one point, I could not get Cheer's (mGuy's) breathing under control and I thought for sure we were headed to the ER. Thankfully a combination of steam and cool night air did the trick. (Steamy bathroom. Front stoop. Back to steamy bathroom. Back to front stoop. The whole time, I am thinking, "What if he suddenly CAN'T breathe and I've wasted all this time shuffling back and forth from the bathroom to the stoop?) Fortunately, it all worked out.



They both have laryngitis too, which often goes along with croup. I've probably fantasized about half my kids being unable to talk before, but actually, it's quite pitiful. Shout has had it longer, so she barely even tries to talk now. She just looks meaningfully at me with her big brown eyes.

Cheer has not yet figured out that I can't understand a single thing he says. So he keeps talking and I keep saying, "WHAT?" (It's all about SpongeBob anyway, so I guess I should just nod my head and say yes, except I wonder if one of those times I think he's talking about Bikini Bottom and he will actually be saying something like "The kitchen is on fire." You never know? Right?)

So my healthy living plans are somewhat sidetracked. But last week, I rocked. I did some form of exercise every day. (Mostly, a lot of walking.) I ate healthy meals and snacks. And I lost 4 pounds. Woooo!




Here were some of my secrets:

Verizon FiOS On Demand exercise videos - there is a SLEW of them. Most are 20-30 minutes. I did a Bob Greene one that was great. This week, I'm going to try Pilates.

V-8. I think I have food texture issues, because V-8 has always been hard for me to swallow, but I tried it again this week. It's healthy and filling. I used it as a snack and it was a decent substitute.

The salad bar. I would treat myself to a big salad for lunch from the grocery store salad bar whenever I could. Just use a low fat, low cal dressing and measure it with a tablespoon measurer. (1.5 tablespoons only)

Stir fry. My secret weapon. One of the hardest things about eating healthy for me is the extra preparation time. So I made it easy on myself and bought the pre-shredded varieties of red cabbage, carrots, broccoli slaw and then the pre-chopped fresh onions, peppers and sliced mushrooms. I'd throw all that in a pan with a little olive oil and some minced garlic and in 10 minutes, you have a healthy, delicious meal. (You can mix it up with a little soy or hoisin sauce, salsa, balsamic vinegar, red wine... but just a little.)

I've also started an Organize One Thing a Day campaign and have been spraypainting. Post on that to come. As soon as I get these kids healthy again.




(This post is peppered with photos from Pottery Barn. Because my imaginary life is prettier than my actual life right now.)

obama and me

I was BEYOND thrilled to be able to attend the President's health care reform rally at the University of Maryland this week. (Right down the street from me!!!)

Despite the fact that I have lived in the DC area my whole life, I have only seen one other President in person, George Bush, Sr. I got invited to stand on the White House lawn and wave to him and Babs as they got off the helicopter and walked into the White House. (Photo op.) I didn't vote for him, but it was still VERY cool - he was the President and all.

So it was even more thrilling for me to be at the Comcast Center on Thursday to listen to a President that I voted for, speaking about a topic near and dear to my heart. (And can I add, my niece was an usher for the event and got to SHAKE! HIS! HAND! Which she promptly washed due to swine flu concerns, before I ever got a chance to shake it.)

Another very cool part of the day was that I ended up sitting next to a woman who is my neighbor, but had never met before, who works at Children's Hospital in genetic research and has a son with muscular dystrophy. She has some very well-informed opinions about health care reform. It was actually just as much of an honor to talk to her about her son and their experiences.

I am a sucker for great rhetoric. President Obama is a wonderful speaker. He is inspiring and motivating, enthusiastic and informal. He had a great connection to the young people in the crowd (which, considering it was held on a college campus, I was NOT one of the young people, {SOB}). When somebody yelled out "Obama! We love you!" he stopped and pointed and said "I love you back." (The crowd went W-I-L-D! You can see it in the video link below.)

But it's not just the appeal of his Presidency and his ability to communicate his message, it IS his message that speaks to me.

(As did the words of the Secretary Gary Locke of the Department of Commerce, who spoke before him. I can't find the text of his remarks on the internet, but he spoke of health care reform as a moral imperative. Sometimes doing the RIGHT THING is not the EASIEST THING or the LEAST EXPENSIVE THING. I agree with that. And I'm not saying I agree with every aspect of the legislative proposals lock, stock and barrel, but there are times in life when we must choose between what is right and what is easy.)

If I can do anything to pass on a better society to my kids, making sure they always have access to affordable and competent health care (particularly with no restrictions on pre-existing conditions) is one of my imperatives. Particularly for Shout who will always have to rely rather heavily on the health care system, but for all my kids. The President called health care reform the "defining struggle of this generation."

Did you know that in 10 years (10 - as in 2019) the cost of health insurance for an average American family (that's 4 people... our family would be 1.5 times more) will be $25,000 per year. TWENTY-FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS. We are very comfortably middle class, and while SOME of that burden will hopefully be borne by an employer, we can't possibly afford that. That is INSANE. (And that doesn't count out-of-pocket expenses, which are already a struggle for us some months.)

I won't bore you with more of my thoughts on health care, but here are some of the best quotes from the President's speech.

Even if you have coverage, insurance companies today, they can drop it or water it down when you’re sick and you need it the most. Or they can decide that they won’t pay the full cost of your care and make you pay the rest of it out of pocket, even if it’s thousands upon thousands of dollars. That’s why more than one-third of all young adults -- including those with insurance – have had trouble paying their medical bills. That's why one-fourth of all young adults are paying off medical debt

...in this country, we don't fear the future; we shape the future.

It has now been nearly a century since Teddy Roosevelt first called for health care reform. It's been attempted by nearly every President and every Congress since. And our failure to get it done -- year after year, and decade after decade -- has placed a burden on families and on businesses and on taxpayers that we can no longer sustain. So I may not be the first President to take up the cause of health care reform; I am determined to be the last, with your help.

(I have to add here that I admire his courage on tackling such a controversial and enormous task so early in his Presidency. Failure is not an option because it would become the hallmark of his adminstration. If I were President, I'd totally wait until I had a few good years under my belt. Which is totally why no one would ever vote for me.)

That’s why I need your help. When I was running for President, I never said change would be easy. Change is hard. It's always been hard. Civil rights was hard. Getting women the right to vote, that was hard. Making sure that Social Security was there for our seniors, that was hard. Getting Medicare in place, that was hard. I know there are doubts that creep into people’s minds. I know there’s a tendency during tough times for folks to turn on each other and get mad and get angry. But our history tells us that each and every time we faced a choice between the easy road that leads to slow decline or the hard road that leads to something better, something higher, we take the higher road.

Goosebumps, people.


The Washington Post has some video of the speech here.

NPR has some audio as well. You can hear how thrilling and electrifying it was. Click the play button below. (Toggle over to 2:51 if you don't have time to listen to the whole thing. Electric.)



(Photo by Lawrence Jackson from the Washington Post)

Copyright Laundry for Six, 2009. All rights reserved.

i'm totally going to kick some Loser ass

For the first time since May 13th, I had all the kids in school on Friday. *cue the chorus of angels* That was FOUR MONTHS ago! I kissed the driveway when Shout's carpool pulled out and headed off to school, she wearing her Mad Face because she was not allowed to take her controlled, addictive substance (mommy) with her.

I spent my 3 hours shopping. I walked through the ENTIRE IKEA store. I haven't done that in YEARS because it is impossible with a child in tow. (I have a whole post about my love for IKEA brewing.) Then I grocery shopped ALONE and even managed to fit in a trip to the spray paint section of Home Depot. (I have many things in mind to spray paint... also coming soon.)

But my promise to myself was that I was going to work out while Shout was in school. I gave myself a pass on the first day, but I have a feeling, I was going to be giving myself LOTS OF passes. (Have I mentioned how much I HATE to work out?)

Then, I had a moment, embarrassing as it is, that reminded me how very much I need to get back to a workout routine. I wrote about it over at Loser Moms where I've joined a Biggest Loser competition. I dunno if I will win, but I love a challenge. Bring it on, ladies! (I might even buy myself a Wii Fit. Or EA Sports Active. I can't decide. Any comments on either?)

So today, I was back at the gym. And I hate to say it, but Ballys, I might be breaking up with you because you have taken ALL MY FAVORITE CHANNELS off the TVs on the treadmills. That is pretty much the ONLY reason I go to the gym. Style Network, Discovery Health, TLC. WTF, Ballys?

I need some excitement to get me through my workout. ESPN and CNN don't cut it. And don't get me started on MTV. Seriously? Most of the people at the gym when I am there are women about my age. You know what? WE LIKE OUR STYLE NETWORK. THE E CHANNEL. HGTV FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

After my workout, I went and bought rabbit food to eat for the duration of this challenge. And I'm eating it out of teeny tiny containers. Do you know what that does? It leaves me VERY HUNGRY. I went to bed early last night because I couldn't stand listening to my stomach growl any more.

Feeling faint from hunger, being all sweaty from the gym. Woooo - I love this lifestyle.

seventeen

Laundry Dad and I celebrated our seventeenth anniversary this week. We had dinner in a restaurant! Without the kids! So exciting!

But you'll never guess who ELSE came with us... go see over here.

where were you?

I was at the beach on September 11, 2001. My kids (just Tide and Bounce back then, who were 3 and 1) and Laundry Dad were sleeping late. My parents and I were up drinking coffee. Suddenly, a military helicopter flew by, right over the beach and very low. Our condo was on the 21st floor and the helicopter was below us. We thought it was weird, but went on with our conversation.

A few minutes later, the phone rang and my aunt called and told us to turn on the TV. We turned it on to pictures of New York City in confusion and panic, and within just a few minutes, we saw the second plane hit the other tower of the World Trade Center.

Then the cameras turned to the Pentagon and the devastation there. And we thought of our friends and neighbors who work there. And wondered if they were ok.

The day unfolded much like all of yours, after that. We were glued to the TV. There was a flurry of phone calls to make sure loved ones were safe. There was word that the Chesapeake Bay Bridge was closed and we would not be able to drive home. Relatives who were nearby came over so we could watch the horror together.

Eventually, we took the kids out to the nearly empty beach with a few other shell-shocked parents who were trying to go on with life with little ones.

Later that day, the bridge reopened and we headed for home. As we got closer to D.C., the highway was completely deserted. Electronic signs warned that there was limited access into the city. When we got home I turned on my computer and learned that a neighbor family had been on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

The next morning we learned that another neighbor who worked in the Pentagon was among those missing. (And was later confirmed killed in the attack.)

It was all so surreal. There was a community prayer service. And then a memorial service. And tears. Many, many tears. Fear. Hopelessness.

It's hard to remember the depth of the emotions of that day. Until the anniversary. And you watch the newscasts again. And it all comes back.

Photograph by Thomas Franklin

health care on the brain

I have lots of thoughts on the President's speech last night on health care reform.

Today, I was invited to participate in a conference call with the Children's Defense Fund about children and health care reform. It was interesting and alarming.

I spend a lot of time in doctor's offices, dealing with our insurance company and researching my daughter's future health concerns. It can be an overwhelming job. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for those parents who have children with chronic conditions and who work full-time and/or are not well-educated enough to work the system.

I have more to say, but not enough time to write it. So in the meantime, I will share this. (Seen first on The Queen of Spain's blog.)

(PS Shout is feeling much better today after a few doses of antibiotics. She got very sick very fast yesterday. It was scary. Thank God we have insurance. And thanks for the big friend hug pile.)

big friend hug pile

Shout went to see Dr. Heart today. We found a neighbor who kindly came and checked her blood pressure the other day (after her nosebleed) and it was normal, but I had made an appointment with the cardiologist anyway.

She was a trooper. She's used to this whole routine. While we were waiting for the doctor to review her echocardiogram, she was playing with her Disney Princesses. They were running around the forest, getting lost and then finding each other. And every time they found each other they would hug and fall down all over each other in a "big friend hug pile."

(Seriously, everyone should have a four year old.)

My conversation with the cardiologist was frustrating. (He wasn't at all concerned about the nosebleed, by the way. Didn't even give it a thought. Hrm.) I got the sense there was a bit of a pissing match between him and the doctors at NIH. Like they had somehow stepped on his toes.

It's hard to explain without going way down a long and boring path, but the cardiologist at NIH got some measurements that were not quite normal. Nothing to be too concerned about yet, but definitely something to watch. Dr. Heart was skeptical of the measurements, then got the same measurements today, but declared it was completely not a problem because NIH expressed the results in percentiles and he expresses the results in standard deviations.

He tried to talk circles around me about WHY these measurements were completely normal, even though the percentiles and the standard deviation works out to EXACTLY THE SAME THING. I'm no math whiz, but I do understand this stuff.

It wasn't necessarily a bad visit - we now know the measurements haven't changed in a year, so that is good news. But in his mind, it was never bad news, and in my mind, that's just not a cautious enough approach for me.

Whatevs.

On the way home, I had some time to kill, so Shout and I stopped at the grocery store before we had to pick up the big kids at school at 12:30. (Because YES, school JUST STARTED LAST WEEK and they are torturing me with DAYS OFF and HALF DAY DISMISSALS.)

So three times in the grocery store, Shout had to go to the bathroom. That's kinda weird, but it happens sometimes. (And just a note, the WINE section and the BATHROOM are at completely opposite ends of the store.)

Then, we get in line to check out and OF COURSE, I picked the cashier who has to tell her ENTIRE LIFE STORY to everyone in the line. And it was a sad story full of woe and I feel for her, but OHMYGOD, I have a kid who has to pee (AGAIN) and five kids to pick up at school in 12... 11... 10... minutes...

We finally get the heck out of there and I arrive at school a few minutes late, so I run to grab my kids. When I get everyone back to the car, Shout announces she has had an accident and has to pee YET AGAIN.

(You know where this is going, don't you?)

So I leave my carpool in the car and walk Shout into the school. I yell to the secretary that we are using the bathroom and run down the hall with her. By now, she is screaming when she pees. Not good.

While we're in there, another one of the secretaries comes in to inform me that the principal is looking for me because I abandoned my car in the parking lot with kids in it.

Oh Lord.

As it turns out, two of my kids (who shall remain nameless, but let me just say, they weren't wearing skirts) were out of the car running around the parking lot while cars were pulling out.

Great. That is one thing our school is VERY STRICT about. Parking lot safety. I'm surprised they didn't get expelled.

Things have gotten even uglier since then, so now I'm waiting for our appointment with the pediatrician because I'm SURE that Shout somehow managed to develop a UTI within 20 minutes of walking out of a PEDIATRIC OUTPATIENT CENTER with a LAB and LAB TECHS and URINE SAMPLE CUPS and PRESCRIPTION PADS and EVERYTHING.

I could really use a big friend hug pile right about now.

thrifty finds

I visited one of my favorite places last week, Value Village. I was supposed to be looking for boys oxford shirts, but after quickly determining that there were none in the sizes I needed, I overheard an announcement that everything in the housewares section was 50% off.

Say no more.

Check out my finds:

A closet organizer-thingie. This will either go in my armoire (if I can ever get the fabric to stick to the back of it) or in my closet, after I hang all my other clothes in the armoire.




An enamel "SUNDRIES" bowl. $1!! Where SUNDRIES means batteries, toner cartridges, loose change, parts of broken toys and my cork collection.



A crunch can. Retails for $30, I got it for $4! Right now, I'm using it as a hamper in the kids bathroom, but it's hidden away in a closet. I might have to use it somewhere else so I can look at it more often.



I also had a chance to go to Marshalls BY MYSELF last week. I will risk life and limb to get a little Marshalls time. I was looking for some picture frames that I saw in my neighbor's house (the amazingly beachy and lovely one). They didn't have the blue and green ones that I wanted, but I did find some pink ones.



And although I'm totally not ready for fall decorating, Marshalls obviously is. I know you may think you have the cutest fall decor ever, but you don't. I DO. Isn't this the cutest thing ever?

a whole new world

TRY to smile there, dude.

It's a different house around here this week. School started for the older 3 with a few half days. Today is the first full day. The difference is amazing. Shout said, "Mom, it's just you and me again. Like olden days."


I was trying to keep the camera steady AND suppress my sobs. Heh.
Notice Tide's (Big Guy's) yawn. He couldn't sleep the night before school started.

And the older kids are full of conversation and chatter, with each other. They are talking. Not fighting. Seriously, in the last 2 days, I broke up exactly ONE fight. We are talking MIRACLES, people! They are going to bed without a fight, doing homework (I know the novelty of that will wear off), they are even eating better.

*cue the chorus of angels*

But you know me. There ARE a few things that are pissing me off.

For example, the fact that my kids kept coming home from school with a random list of supplies they were supposed to have that they didn't. I spent HOURS and HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS on supplies. And they are missing stuff? What the heck?

So I pulled the supply list off the school website again and it is DIFFERENT. Gah. Apparently, when they said the updated supply list would be on the website the first week of July, they didn't ACTUALLY MEAN IT. I printed off the list the first week of AUGUST, and it was apparently the OLD list. A new list got posted sometime later in August and every parent in the WHOLE school (according to my kids) used the new list except me.

That's what I get for trying to be organized. I was back at CVS last night, picking through the decimated school supply section trying to find more notebooks and folders.

Also, after spending, oh, a BAZILLION dollars on new school shoes, Cheer (mGuy) came home with bloody little stumps for feet. Either, he grew into a new shoe size in 3 weeks, or he didn't know what he was talking about when he told me his shoes fit in the store. (And I have NO IDEA how to work those metal slidey foot measuring things. Is it just me, or when the shoe store people use those, do they look at your kid's foot which goes just past the 7 and say, "Ok, perfect. 11.5 will do!" I stay away from those things and just do the Stick Your Foot in and Walk Around a Bit Method. Which evidently does not work so well either.)

We had to run out and buy another pair of shoes for him. (I'm up to One Bazillion and Forty-Four dollars on shoes now.) I also grabbed some moleskin at CVS while searching for school supplies. Another $5.



These may LOOK like ordinary school shoes,
but they are actually weapons of foot destruction.

In other news, Shout had a bizarre, sudden, gushing bloody nose the other day while she was riding in the grocery cart. She was literally right. in. front. of me when it happened, so I know she didn't bump her nose or pick it or sneeze or anything.

Freaked. me. out.

I know bloody noses like that can be normal and hopefully this one is too, but so many thing are NOT normal with her, I worry.

I called the pediatrician on Tuesday to see if I could get a sick appointment to get her blood pressure checked (because a nose bleed can be a sign of a high blood pressure and she is at risk for that) but the sick appointments were gone for the day.

Could I just stop by and have a nurse check her BP? Of course not.

So I tried to make a checkup appointment, since we need one of those too, but the first available is DECEMBER 10th. Good grief.

THEN, I tried the cardiologist, since it's actually pretty easy to get an appointment with him and we're due for a visit anyway, but after being on hold for over 18 minutes with the Children's Hospital appointment line, I was disconnected. I AM NOT HAPPY. Still trying to get that all sorted out.

She is also not sleeping. (Again. Still.) I got up yesterday for the day at 3am. (She of course, fell back asleep at 6 and slept until 9.) I just cannot do this job on such little sleep. Someone recommended the book, Sleepless in America, which is written by the woman who wrote Raising your Spirited Child. It sounds like it deals with EXACTLY some of our issues. So I got it at the library the other day, but every time I open it, I fall FAST ASLEEP because I AM TOO TIRED TO READ. This is a problem. (The author apparently does phone consultations. I wonder if she is up at 3am?)

Shout also started gymnastics on Tuesday. She is still a little behind in the coordination/balance department, so I though it would be good for her. There is only one other girl in the class, so practically private lessons, right? Woooo.

Except the other kid is some freakish gymnastics prodigy. So Shout looks like a toddler next to her. Or maybe this kid is a typical 3-year old, in which case OHMYGOD is my child behind! Besides all that, my kid spent most of the class hiding behind my back and wimpering and this other kid went gallavanting off with the instructor and was chattering her head off.

AND, AND, AND one of the exercises they had to do was jump on a mini-trampoline and count to 10. Gah. The other kid, of course, counted to 30. Shout just looked at me and said "You count."

Another exercise was to walk across a balance beam (already a big challenge) and step over colored bean bags and yell out the name of the color. (Oh geez.) The other girl sailed along yelling out colors. Shout got to the first one and pointed to it and said, "What's that color?"

Red. It was freaking RED. Gahhhhhhhh.

Despite all that, I think SHE had a good time. (For me, it was torture. And I'm sure it was only my imagination that detected a smirk on the face of the other parent. I'm SURE.)

I have to keep reminding myself, she has come a LONG way. She may have a LONG way to go, but she's already come far. And the fact that she knows ANY colors is a triumph for her. And she worked hard, a lot harder than any of my other kids did, just to learn the few colors that she knows.

I have remember to celebrate HER victories, even if they aren't what other kids her age (or younger) are doing. A part of me just hates that everything has to be such a challenge for her. But that's my issue, not hers. So I need to let it go.

School starts for her next week. I'm sure I will have plenty to obsess about then.

(Number of times I used BLOOD in this post = 5. Gah = 3.)