The Start of Coat Season

I decide to get this blog done a little early tonight so I can have everything done and I can be in bed at a sensible time. Tomorrow is Ronan's eye surgery and so far so good in the breathing department. If he is up to par tomorrow we will be up at 5:00 am for a 6:00 am check in and surgery scheduled for 6:30 am. He may or may not have a stint put into his tear ducts. The doctor will decide once he attempts to balloon his tear ducts if he thinks a stint will be needed to hold the tear duct open. The stint will be similar to ear tubes but will be visible. I'm trying to prepare myself for him having tiny rods sticking out of his eyes for six months. My mom has a day off from work tomorrow so she will be up bright and early to stay with my other kids so Isaac can accompany Ronan and I to Ronan's surgery.Today the morning seemed to be chilled with a fall frost. I dug the kids' coats out for the first time since March but by the time church was over the air had warmed and jackets would have sufficed. I'm still trying to deal with the fact tomorrow is November 1st and the holidays are sneaking up on me and another year has zoomed by. I'm not sure how this happens but it seems I wake up one morning to cold January snow and with a couple of blinks we're back to the festivities of December.Sunday school lesson for the kids was Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. The kids colored pictures and were pretty proud of them. Landon was able to dictate pretty clearly how the story took place. He has always been good at retaining things and remembers events clear back from when he was around the age of 18 months.
Inara's foot is much better today and after much discussion my mom and I figured out how she got the hair around her toes in the first place. She loves to hold onto my hair when she eats. Our hypothesis is that she was holding onto my hair and pulled a strand of hair out and then when I put her down she grabbed her feet transferring the hair to her toes and from there it became a jumble mess of tangled toes. Isaac suggested that I could always shave my head but I informed him that I think keeping Nair in the first aid kit was a better option to which he replied he was glad he wouldn't have to buy me wigs. I thought about taking it further and pointing out the same thing could occur with a wig but I let it go because I knew he would shoot something back with his quick wit. It's time to start the journey of getting five little heads to their beds so until tomorrow this is all. Ronan kept stealing Inara's elephant but with her trying really hard to get mobile I don't think he'll get away with it much longer.

Diagnosis: Hair tourniquet

This blog post starts last night rather than today shortly after I wrote the previous post. Around 10pm last night I was washing Inara's feet. Now that she's rolling everywhere she somehow manages to get her feet somewhat dirty. On her right foot there was a hair wrapped around what I thought was just one toe. I gently put my finger under it and attempted to pull it up and off. I did this slowly but was unaware it was wrapped around her three toes many different directions. As I tried to remove it she let out this scream. I immediately stopped and saw it was cutting into her three middle toes. The hair was pretty deep now and I was unsure of how I was going to get it off. I had both my parents try and they had no success. My mom had some clippers and tweezers in her purse that she tried to pull it up with. The picture below is after the whole trauma and early this morning.I called Isaac who had gone out with our friend Nikko. He suggested I try his fine tipped tweezers to see if I could successfully pull it away from her toes. After studying more carefully I realized any direction I pulled would press the hair deeper into her toes. The only option that seemed plausible was an ER visit. My main worry was the circulation would be cut off and she would lose her toes. I was also unsure how the ER would be able to remove something so small that was deeply embedded in itty bitty baby toes. I felt like the worst mommy in the world at this point and called Isaac back to tell him she would have to be seen.
Ten minutes later Isaac was home and he wanted to see. Usually he'll try to talk me out of ER visits and try to pursue some home remedy he thinks will work. He took one look at her bound toes and agreed an ER visit was in order. Since my parents were here they stayed with the rest of the kids. When we got there I was pretty much in tears as I described to the nurse how the whole thing had unraveled into this big mess and how we had found no obvious means to free Inara's toes. The ER nurse then told me that this happens all the time and that once something so tiny is wrapped around small toes it's nearly impossible to manually try and remove it. The doctor came in and told me the reason we hadn't been able to remove the hair was it was wrapped different directions around each toe so removing one way would pull on a different toe.
The doctor repeated the words of the ER nurse don't feel bad we see this all the time. The parents are always upset and panicked but everything turns out fine. "So her toes will be ok?" I asked desperate to know her toes' fate. "Yes, they'll make a complete recovery. We're going to use Nair to dissolve the hair." They applied the Nair and then we waited. The child life specialist brought in soothies and a music toy. When the doctor came back in he looked Inara's toes over thoroughly and came to the conclusion the Nair had done it's job and the hair was gone. They wrapped her toes and gave me instructions on after care. I have to clean it and put prescription ointment on it two to three times a day and keep it bandaged for three days and then she should be on the mend.
Inara did great through the entire incident and I think mommy handled it worse. Nightmarish images of lost toes kept flashing through my head but we came out of it with very intact toes and I couldn't ask for more. Now I've filled up the entire blog with the events of last night but they transfer to today a bit. I had to go get her prescription ointment and bandages early this morning and did some grocery shopping while I was waiting for her prescription. After that we relaxed the rest of the day and the kids enjoyed a few of the treats they had made while at Grandma's.

They're Back!

The beautiful chaos was back with the return of the big kid's from Grandma's. I was told they had fun playing outside, raking leaves and Jadzia even enjoyed howling at the moon with Grandpa. The day was pretty low key and I spent most of it making sure the house was in good shape for the kids return and also spent time with the babies.

Tonight was the Gigi's playhouse fall party and Grandma and Grandpa Fullmer stayed late so they could help us take all the kids to the party. The kids had fun playing a Velcro dart game, bean bag stoss and pin the eye on the pumpkin. They even had a station set up where they could get candy by telling a funny joke. Xander and Landon loved this as telling funny jokes is one of their favorite pastimes. Usually the jokes make no sense but it is hilarious because of how funny they see themselves.

Landon enjoyed the music cake walk and Xander liked the textures hallway. We did have a worrisome moment when Jadzia lost her cat ears. Tears ensued and her panic face ran around to all the booth leaders in search of her cat ears. Grandma came to the rescue and found them laying on the ground next to the play area. Grandma and Grandpa stayed with the kids to get pizza and Isaac took me out to Arbys for a mini date.
I'm glad to have the kids back. I really missed them and as much as resting and having a small break is I would always rather have the beauty of the chaos of many little feet running around the house.

Mom's Mini vacation

Today was like a vacation for me. The big kids were still at Grandma's and the house was picked up and I was done with the clothes sorting. I spent the majority of the day working on trying to get Ronan to walk and just have fun with him in general. Inara is starting a fun stage where she is grabbing at everything and I had a lot of fun trying to get her to turn and get a toy she was interested in. After the morning it was nap time and I knew that tomorrow things would return to the blessing of five and I decided to get one more nap in.

After a very refreshing sleep I got up to fix dinner for Ronan and myself. Isaac was still at his porch remodel and afterward he had to go get our SUV looked at yet again. My husband loves his SUV and plans on continue to fix it until he absolutely can't. This time there were tire issues that went along with alignment trouble. It looks like another trip up to his parents will be in order to have the better mechanic complete the work. Not only will the mechanic save us money but he does a good job.
In the evening I received a phone call from my Mother in-law. She stated that Xander was limping on his leg again. She had called me the first night the kids had gone up there to let me know he was complaining his leg really hurt and didn't want to walk on it. At one point it got so bad he was gripping the wall when walking but by the next morning he seemed back to normal. Today they played really hard outside and sure enough at the end of the day Xander was limping again. I talked to him over the phone and from what I can gather the pain is near his upper leg joint near his hip. He did have a fall on Monday where he cried but had refused to let me know where he was hurt. Xander has a tendency to act tough unless it gets really bad. He had seemed fine after the fall but now I'm wondering if he pulled a muscle. If he's still limping pretty bad by the time he gets back a doctor's visit may be in order.

I am going to bake some cookies and then Isaac and I have a movie to watch so until tomorrow goodnight.

Shoe Debacle

The front door gave a thud as it closed and I heard"Doesn't Ronan have an appointment today?". I awoke with a start and starred at the clock. "Oh no!" Panic was starting to seep into my mind as I jumped off the couch where I had fallen asleep mid clothes sorting early this morning . The babies were still fast asleep and had not been my usual alarm clock. "Yes, I have to leave in a half an hour." I looked up at my dad who stood waiting in the door way. Isaac had a porch remodel today and since we still only have one vehicle I had to borrow my parent's car to get Ronan to his appointment. I now had a half an hour to get two babies fed, dressed and loaded in the car. Placing Ronan's devices on him would take at least half that time.

I knew I couldn't be late. If you are even five minutes late they bump you two to three appointment slots. I stumbled around scooping up fresh diapers for the bag. I fed Ronan as I nursed Inara to get breakfast out of the way in half the normal time. Somehow I managed and we were in the car babies fully strapped in with the double stroller loaded and off we went five minutes behind schedule.

The wind was hitting the car pretty hard and I dreaded taking the babies out and navigating the double stroller through the parking lot. I got Ronan out first making sure he was fully covered by the canopy then I draped a blanket over and diaper bag on top of that to give him full protection from the seemingly tornado like winds that were pelting away at us. I covered Inara with her blanket and pulled her canopy all the way down for complete coverage as I pushed my way clumsily through the parking lot pushing with one had and holding the diaper bag on the blanket so Ronan would not be exposed. The trash truck was blocking the entrance. I did not have time to go around so I found a small opening between the wall and the truck and squeeze my way through. I did wonder how this would go over if there had been a sudden need for escape from the building.

I made it up to the reception desk and checked Ronan in. The receptionist picked up this huge binder bursting full of paper work. She opened it and I realized this was Ronan's chart. I looked at all the other children's charts and they consisted of the normal paper folder. Landon being five has gone to this same clinic for his entire life minus the few months we lived in Missouri and he still has a folder. Ronan at the age of almost 17 months had so much history he needed a binder to hold all of it. I sat down to wait with relief that somehow I had pulled it off and we had arrived on time. I started to remove the babies coats and when I got to Ronan the earlier panic began to return. His shoe was missing. I looked through the stroller all around the ground. Nothing. He had both socks, and both braces on but only one shoe. How in the world could he have lost his shoe? With the braces on those shoes were practically engraved to his feet. They took a great mastery of the laws of physics for them to be removed.

I have to go back and trace my steps and with that thought I heard "Ronan Fullmer!" I went back with the nurse trying to run through the last time I'd seen both shoes on his feet but had no success. They could be anywhere. Dr. Shash came in with her medical student and they examined Ronan. Due to Ronan's cold he won't be able to have eye surgery if he is the same or worse so we might have to postpone another month or two. I have the slightest idea that this will continue off and on for winter and he may not have eye surgery until Spring.

Desperate to find the shoe I made my way down to the car as soon as the appointment was over. I watched every square inch of ground to the car. Nothing. No shoe. I walked back up and asked the receptionist if anyone had turned in a shoe. "no, sorry.". Great I waited too long who knows if someone did something with it or if they turned it in at any of the fifty other offices inside the building. On the way home my internal optimist piped up at least you didn't lose the $400 braces. That's when my internal pessimist wanted to beat down the unsilenced optimist. What good does it do to have the $400 braces when you need the $50 shoes to make them fuctional! I battled back and forth with myself At least the replacement is only $50 and not $450. I dreaded facing my husband's rightful anger and well earned lecture on responsibility.

I walked in the door Inara's car seat in one hand and Ronan on my alternate hip. At that moment I knew the moment had come I could probably be justifiably committed. There sat Ronan's shoe exactly in the spot I had put all his equipment on earlier that morning. I had never even put the other shoe on his foot and had gotten all the way to the Doctor's office waiting room with a one shoe child. That's what I get for staying up until 5 am the night before sorting clothes and posting things to sell on Craigslist. Four hours of sleep were not good on my already distracted brain.

The rest of the day was much easier on me and I spent most of it playing with the babies and finishing my sale sorting.

Rolling Baby

Ronan's sleep study appointment was the main priority today. I got up and got the three big kids ready for Grandma to come pick them up. Tuesday is my mom's day off so she stayed with the kids and Inara and my in-laws came and got the big kids while Isaac, Ronan and I were at his appointment. I was a bit apprehensive about this appointment because I thought we were going to have the same sleep doctor Jadzia had. This doctor is a good doctor and she assured Jadzia got the right treatment but I sort of clash with a few things she has said. The main one being her need to call Ronan a Mongoloid baby every few minutes.

I did try to put in a correction of telling her he is a boy that has Down Syndrome but that still didn't seem to fix the issue. Then I had thought about telling her that we don't have any ancestry from Mongolia so my son is definitely not a Mongoloid baby. I realize that there is still a lot of people who mean well and they think it's ok to call people with Down Syndrome a Mongoloid but for awareness purposes anyone reading this blog, parents who have children with Down Syndrome do not want their child called a Mongoloid. But I know after decades of that being an ok term it's hard for people to realize that that is now viewed negatively and I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Plus I've heard much worse.

I knew however that Isaac is much more blunt than I am and he would tell the doctor exactly what he thought about her calling Ronan a Mongoloid baby. With all of this in mind I was thinking about what I would say if the matter arose but it ended up being a non issue because Ronan was given a different doctor for some reason. When this Doctor had to bring up the fact he has Down Syndrome she would say just that "because he has Down Syndrome" so I was relieved that conflict was averted.

The Doctor thought that Ronan probably has significant sleep apnea and that the sleep study should definitely be done. If apnea is shown then Ronan will have to have his tonsils out and since he is so little and has other health issues this will be a one to two day hospital stay and possibly longer if complications occur. This was I think inevitable anyway not only do children with Down Syndrome have a more likely occurrence of problems with tonsils but just being part of the Fullmer family put Ronan at risk for tonsil issues. Isaac, myself, Xander and Jadzia have all had to have our tonsils removed and not for minor sore throat issues but because of apnea and chronic severe infections. In the end I don't think Ronan's tonsils stood a chance.

The sleep study couldn't be scheduled until the end of November because of Ronan's eye surgery and then the sleep center was booked. I'm supposed to call every Friday to see if they possibly have a cancellation to get him in sooner. After the appointment we did go spend a couple of our Chic Fila coupons and then it was home. With the big kids out of town and my house and class work done I found myself able to take a nap while the babies were sleeping. I feel very refreshed. Tonight I had an extra treat. My mom and I went out to dinner and did a little shopping together.

When I got back home I noticed at four months of age Inara is semi mobile. She has been rolling from tummy to back since she was 7 days old but now she is rolling both ways, pivoting in a circle and slightly scooting forward. I found her half way across the room from the place I had left her only about ten minutes before. I'm bracing myself for baby chasing two little ones crawling in opposite directions. I'm thrilled that she is doing so well and pretty proud of her too.

The Painting of Faces

This is post # 65 meaning I have a mere 300 posts left before I have met my goal. I'm surprised I've accomplished the blog this far and have not missed at least one night but my determination is holding strong. My mother in law contacted me to let me know she had found the rest of Inara's hand me down clothes. I had been desperately searching for Jadzia's old clothes to no avail. We have some things in storage at my in-laws. My in-laws have been generous enough to bring them down for me tomorrow and they are also taking the three big kids back with them for a couple of days. I have no clue what I will do with myself. When two or three of the kids are gone I kind of seem lost and unsure of what to do with myself.

I think this will be good because hopefully I can finally get my extra porch clothes sold and get ahead in school. I have to say thank you to my Mother in-law for not only finding and bringing the clothes down but also washing them for me. This evening I decided we should put the face paint I had bought for Jadzia to more use. I had the big kids look at the face painting booklet and pick out what they wanted. The book gave step by step instructions but I have not been too blessed in the artistic area. Landon was first and he wanted a lion face. He did pretty well and being the oldest he stayed the most still but occasionally he would jump and black paint would smudge in the wrong location. Xander wanted a spiderman face and he kept looking down suddenly so a few of his web marks looked a little disoriented. Jadzia picked these blue, butterfly, fairy eyes. She was pretty wiggly so her's turned out a bit strange but she was thrilled so that's all that mattered. The worse part was removing it all and even at this hour there are still small traces of paint on all of their faces. The boys look like they were in a fight as they both have faded raccoon eyes. Jadzia just looks like she has blue eye shadow on and her's would have been removed better but she kept crying and squirming when I tried to wash her eyes. I figure it'll wear off eventually.

Tomorrow I will have just the two babies and Ronan has a sleep study appointment. I think Isaac and I may have a little date and get a couple of our free Chic Fila sandwiches. I had participated in a promotion awhile back and was given about twenty free sanwich coupons from Chic Fila. We have slowly been using them up and whenever Ronan has a doctor's appointment on that side of town we try to grab lunch.

The Great Pumpkin Party

The main event of the day was the great Pumpkin party. This party takes place over a three night period but we had been invited to tonight's event because it was for families who had at least one child with special needs. The event promised a more quiet, low key atmosphere than the rest of the nights. With Ronan being scared of loud noises with his hearing aides in I thought this would be the best option.

The evening finally arrived and I got the kids all decked out in their chosen costumes. Landon and Xander had an argument over which one would be iron man but neither wanted to have the same costume as the other one. I went to the store and discovered there were three different versions of iron man. The selection was then easy. I got Landon the red one and Xander the black War Machine because they matched up with their favorite colors. Jadzia went as a ballerina kitty cat; two of her favorite things united in a common costume.

My mom had gone to a thrift store to get the babies costumes. The only things she found in their sizes were an Ewok and a green dinosaur. They looked pretty cute in them as they do in most everything. We arrived at the great pumpkin party which did turn out great. There were seven different inflatables, 75 carnival games with candy prizes, free coldstone ice cream and balloon animals. There was nothing more a kid could possibly want in a pumpkin party. We spent over two hours and the kids made out with an enormous stash of candy. Landon declared he was going to sell his candy on Ebay so he could purchase a khung Zhu with the earned funds. I explained to him that he couldn't sell his candy on Ebay and he started crying, "But if I eat it all I'll get more cavities! And I really want a Khung Zhu!"

The dentist really left an impact on him not only has he been requesting broccoli but he is now afraid to eat candy. I'm not sure how long this will last. The kids are now snuggled in their beds wore out from pumpkin festivities with dreams of chocolate and lollipops dancing in their heads. As for mom, I have a Development rough draft to write so I can stay ahead on the college workload. Good night everyone!

A mosquito and a party.

I defeated the clutter corner and I now have an organized beautiful school area. I know this will make things much easier when I need to search for an extra pencil or a book we haven't used in awhile. Organization was what the majority of my day consisted of, that and chasing a mosquito around the house. I haven't seen any misquotes for awhile now and then today one randomly made an appearance in the bathroom. I was organizing the bathroom shelves and had Ronan at my feet and he was trying to put a laundry basket over his head.

I watched the mosquito carefully waiting for it to land. I swatted and missed about three times and I think maybe I should practice my mosquito squashing abilities. The mosquito zoomed in and out of my bad aim. Then he landed on Ronan and I yelled rather loudly "Stay away from my child!". It was as though I was deeply offended at the mosquito for even daring to think about biting my son and I know if anyone over the age of two had been home they would have been assured of my lunacy. I shewed it off of Ronan and then smack! I finally got him. It took the mosquito threatening my child for my aim to gain perfect accuracy. I'm hoping this is the end of the mosquitoes for the year.
While my mosquito chasing endeavor was unfolding the three big kids were at my parent's church party. I was given a full report when they got back home. From the kids Landon told me his favorite part was the shooting airplane game. Xander liked the ring toss and pinata and Jadzia was just thrilled her cousin Hannah made it to the party. From my parents I found out Landon was rather pleased with the fact some bigger boys had invited him to sit with them and he had giggled the entire time my dad was talking. Xander did have one outburst. My dad was talking about eyes and Xander yelled "What about the nose?" My mom told him to be quiet and listen and he yelled again "But I want to hear about the nose!"
I got a good report on Jadzia and that she mainly stayed close to Hannah who she considers to be her very best friend. She is constantly bringing up Hannah and things she thinks Hannah would like. Each of the kids brought home a treat bag and a bunch of pinata candy. We have a huge party we are going to tomorrow night and a Gigi's playhouse party on Friday night so there is definitely not going to be a candy shortage any time soon. I've stalked up on extra toothpaste as my mind is brought back to the recent dentist occurrences.

Dancing Landon

We had a typical day of schoolwork, house work and coloring.
A funny incident we had today was when Landon decided to have a Ho down. Here are the pictures that followed his decision.

This child knows how to keep laughter flowing and a smile on my face. While Xander is often my spoken comedian. Landon is always doing something to make me smile especially if he thinks something is bothering me. I actually got everything on my list done today and more. For the first time since I started classes I have finished all my class work before the weekend. I'm very excited because I can relax this weekend and maybe even get my dreaded corner organized. It is the one area Isaac has allowed an exception to because it is out of sight and it is going to be a big task getting in order. I plan on conquering it this weekend and then everything should be organized.

This week has been a great week. We have had no appointments or commitments and that's probably why my school work was accomplished before the weekend. I'm also happy because it's helped me maintain the house and keep the challenge going. I'm concerned next week this may not be the case since I have a few appointments next week and probably a sleep study for Ronan.