tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-81880781203651313552024-03-05T05:00:06.864-05:00Someday I'll Sleep Autism Blogs...the writings of Cammie Diane WollnerCammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.comBlogger3488125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-17184229313627390732020-02-27T22:03:00.003-05:002020-02-27T22:03:57.689-05:00A Tiny Key ThiefThis morning I found myself running around the house searching for my keys.<br />
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I felt like I was losing my mind.<br />
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You see, I try really hard to be careful about where I put my keys at night.<br />
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And I was certain that I'd come downstairs and put them in the same spot I always put them down in when I walk into my bedroom.<br />
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But then someone had needed to borrow them. I retraced my steps. I specifically remembered getting up and moving them back to the place that they belonged.<br />
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And I remembered thinking that I wouldn't have lost keys in the morning. I had been so proud of myself for remembering to put them away.<br />
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Yet there I was with no keys in pockets and no keys in my hands and no keys on any of the bookshelves or in any of the spots that I commonly set them down. I looked under my yarn and under paper work from a doctor's office and behind the Google Home Hub, but they somehow seemed to have vanished.<br />
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Sadie, Patrick, and James had a snow day, but Maggie and Tessie's schools, which are further away hadn't canceled, so we needed to leave the house in half an hour and I was feeling the time crunch in a very real way.<br />
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I had time to do everything that I needed to do.<br />
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But I did not have time to lose my keys.<br />
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I asked the boys, who had just finished breakfast, if they could check downstairs for my keys, while I made sure Maggie was ready for school,<br />
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Approximately thirty seconds after walking downstairs, James and Patrick ran back upstairs and told me that they had checked and the keys definitely "weren't down there."<br />
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And then I thought of Tessie and her midnight antics.<br />
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I thought of how lately she's been collecting all the hairbrushes in the house and hiding them in the bottom of the laundry hamper, usually next to a handful of her toys in case it wasn't perfectly clear that she was the one who had put them there.<br />
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I ran down the stairs two at a time.<br />
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At three in the morning Tessie had woken up and taken every toy out of her toy box in her room. And she had also come into our room.<br />
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I began picking up blankets and folding them, scanning the floor.<br />
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Nothing.<br />
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A hundred small toys with pointy hands and pony tails made it perilous for bare feet as I picked my way through the room, grabbing things up here and there and putting them away so that I could actually see the floor, while still searching all the while.<br />
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Then I glanced over and saw them.<br />
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They were just below here pillow, sitting all by themselves, in the middle of her bed.<br />
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I breathed a sigh of relief, decided to find a new place to keep my keys at night, and managed to hustle everyone out the door on time, which in itself felt like a minor miracle.<br />
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And now, since writing this post I have just realized that, as of 9 o'clock on this fine Thursday evening, I cannot for the life of me remember where that new, safe place for my keys actually is.<br />
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Tomorrow morning ought to be fun.<br />
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No I'm kidding. I've got to find them before then.<br />
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At least I know Tessie isn't the culprit this time. She was asleep before they disappeared.<br />
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Or maybe I should check her bed...</div>
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Meanwhile over on Wattpad, <a href="https://www.wattpad.com/story/180955006-the-traitor%27s-heir">my first story</a> reached #7 over in the Mystery section (out of around a quarter of a million stories).</div>
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Paul may have spent a while today teasing me about how it qualifies as a mystery and did not think "because you don't know what's going to happen" quite cut it since that means just about any story could have that tag. </div>
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He isn't wrong.<br />
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But I was still excited about this:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMCqRNr1faPNo_LFJ0qcx3PI59OGo9pOjZENwEZlSaavolJ2Z7MYHNYdJ9KInWMp32hKUG9WRfvTz0xslBoCXcmRK3Zqg_Ty_G12RkrKeaY6Gtibr2RYoo7Gqa-HI_2kRXs1zs0zDj3N8/s1600/Screen+Shot+2020-02-26+at+9.52.25+AM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="201" data-original-width="1600" height="50" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMCqRNr1faPNo_LFJ0qcx3PI59OGo9pOjZENwEZlSaavolJ2Z7MYHNYdJ9KInWMp32hKUG9WRfvTz0xslBoCXcmRK3Zqg_Ty_G12RkrKeaY6Gtibr2RYoo7Gqa-HI_2kRXs1zs0zDj3N8/s400/Screen+Shot+2020-02-26+at+9.52.25+AM.png" width="400" /></a><br />
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I have started <a href="https://www.wattpad.com/story/202385543-the-scarlet-wolf">a new novel </a>and am about 36k words in. 13 chapters are posted as of this moment.<br />
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It is totally different than anything I've ever done before and I'm having a lot of fun writing it. </div>
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Over on the vlog there are almost daily videos (although right now I've been knocked off my feet by a pretty brutal virus so I have taken a couple days off). </div>
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This is one of my favorites.</div>
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I've been told that at Tessie's school they had her doing puzzles line by line. </div>
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One days she walked over and completely disassembled the whole puzzle and insisted on doing all 48 pieces by herself. </div>
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She let me help her on this one. So I guess I was lucky!</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/0_EMR8424qE" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
This is totally unrelated to my vlog.<br />
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When I'm driving I tend to listen to True Crime channels.<br />
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And I finally decided to try my hand at making my own True Crime channel focusing mostly on missing persons cases.<br />
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This is my second video for anyone who is interested in True Crime:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7kzpzILPfgM" width="560"></iframe>
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<br />
Anyways, I guess now is the time to figure out where my keys are, before it gets any later!<br />
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I hope you're staying warm during these last few days of February.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-60699138017831172062020-02-08T08:40:00.003-05:002020-02-08T08:40:47.566-05:00Screwdrivers, Autism Evaluations, and a Collapsing High Chair<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I have big news but first a smaller story about our tiniest kid.</div>
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There was a day last week when this girl was walking around the house with a toy screwdriver. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFa1j9iRyqa3tJrGzgLLdQFtQtDn2yyvY7jDQwtrTcQ9t975Qxl11INkxWo7D9IIlHxvgPxrNFgIU32G4sZzV0Bzoz-nfKWyGHVhQdb4pvzlnX1PpPhVNdsSWodc-MYShqBver-tCUX0k/s1600/tessie+swinging.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="951" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFa1j9iRyqa3tJrGzgLLdQFtQtDn2yyvY7jDQwtrTcQ9t975Qxl11INkxWo7D9IIlHxvgPxrNFgIU32G4sZzV0Bzoz-nfKWyGHVhQdb4pvzlnX1PpPhVNdsSWodc-MYShqBver-tCUX0k/s640/tessie+swinging.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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I saw her crouched next to the giant chest in the dining room where I keep my yarn stash for knitting, but I didn't pay much attention. I mean, this particular toy screw driver was a very clunky plastic flat head. I didn't think that she could actually use it to unscrew an actual screw.<br />
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Do you see where this is going?<br />
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I was making dinner.<br />
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In this house, if something mischevious is going to happen it's going to happen when I'm making dinner. But Tessie wasn't alone. There were four other kids running around as she seriously walked around the dining room with her grey and orange screw driver, investigating.<br />
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She was very quiet, but Tessie's often very quiet so it's not quite the red flag it is with just about any other kid her age.<br />
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So imagine my surprise when Paul lifted her into her high chair the next night and it collapsed. </div>
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She was fine, thankfully, simply a little startled from the legs of her high chair suddenly giving out.</div>
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Upon closer examination we realized that several key screws in her Eddie Bauer wooden high chair had been removed and were missing. </div>
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Since only one person had been walking around testing out any kind of a screw driver, we're pretty confident in the culprit. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_eLAyASCp8q3CiRVKvYwXwOp7g4l313igK6j3gMKn9tEfokAACkIoyK685aec99j5g10de6f_y0CJUoO-_F301pIS3siGBjg1gyjx1zC_9Sv90MZF7IewXeNdfv-VZtDFhHbzORP4pg/s1600/tessie+swinging+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="971" data-original-width="971" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiL_eLAyASCp8q3CiRVKvYwXwOp7g4l313igK6j3gMKn9tEfokAACkIoyK685aec99j5g10de6f_y0CJUoO-_F301pIS3siGBjg1gyjx1zC_9Sv90MZF7IewXeNdfv-VZtDFhHbzORP4pg/s640/tessie+swinging+2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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The high chair had probably stayed around so long because it was an extremely convenient place to put Tessie when something needed to be cleaned up. If she'd dumped a glass of water and was trying to swim in it across the dining room floor I could lift her into her high chair until I was done mopping it up.<br />
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If she'd broken a Christmas ornament (there was a thankfully short lived glass breaking stim at the end of last year) I could whisk her up before she attempted to stomp on the glass with her bare feet and safely put her in her chair until the broken glass was no more.<br />
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But the chair is gone now and she's doing remarkably well in a big kid chair at the table after a couple of rough weeks transitioning. It took a little bit of time to understand that being out of the high chair did not mean that everyone's plates at the table was a Tessie buffet.<br />
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In other news we had a busy January.<br />
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Patrick and I bother ended up with referrals from our doctors for neuro-psych testing.<br />
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And we both ended up getting identical results.<br />
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Although we were tested on different days, when I went to get my results they happened to have his results ready as well, and so they gave me both.<br />
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We both are autistic. We both have ADHD. And we both have anxiety.<br />
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And honestly when I got my own results it was an incredible relief (which I made a video explaining right after I got the results). I might try to explain in writing more at a later date but I know it would completely overtake this post and I'm not quite up for that on this Saturday morning.<br />
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Patrick's reaction was pretty awesome too:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7gFPJOxAxT0" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Meanwhile I just realized, that I never shared that Sadie was also evaluated.<br />
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Now Sadie's evaluation was the result of Sadie learning about autism because of her sisters and saying "hey that's me too."<br />
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She then came to me and asked if she could be evaluated. She told me she would save her allowance to pay for it.<br />
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I told she didn't need to do that, we could talk to her doctor. And we did.<br />
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And she is also autistic.<br />
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Her reaction, like Patch's was pretty amazing.<br />
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Also can you believe this kid is as tall as me now? Where did the last 11 years go?<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/o3oXpBulwSM" width="560"></iframe>
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And in totally unrelated to everything else news I just love this video. It's Maggie doing something she really loves and also talking with me a lot while she does it. And that makes me so incredibly happy.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/gHPD5DNzvkI" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Anyways I hope that you are having a great winter (or summer if you're in the southern hemisphere) and that you have a good weekend too.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-17673696338642514542019-09-29T10:03:00.002-04:002019-09-29T10:03:17.039-04:00The Time She Disappeared for An HourWhat a week.<br />
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This week reached entirely new stress levels when Maggie went missing for over an hour. One moment she was playing in the treehouse, right there on the video screen while I was making dinner.<br />
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She went under the porch to look for bugs. It's her favorite place to be, but I can't see her under there on the camera.<br />
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Usually it doesn't really worry me. Our back yard has a smooth, 6 foot fence that goes around it, and we've worked hard to make it kid proof, so that when they go outside, it's a fun, safe space for the kids to play in.<br />
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All of the kids were running around the house and the back yard, enjoying a perfect fall day.<br />
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Paul had just gotten home and walked in the door.<br />
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I asked him to go out and tell Maggie it was time for dinner, because the other kids had all drifted in, asking what we having and how long it would be, before settling down inside the house.<br />
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I'd had a new chicken recipe cooking in the crock pot that day, with chicken, cheese, bacon, and a ranch packet, and I was serving it with noodles. I just had to make the noodles and put it on plates, and everything would be done.<br />
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Paul went downstairs with the other kids for a few minutes, and when he came back up he went out to call for Maggie. When he did, she didn't come right away.<br />
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This isn't that abnormal.<br />
<br />
If she's on a bug hunt she might be totally engrossed in what she's doing, so he went down under the porch to get her.<br />
<br />
But she wasn't there.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHHktt5U0Px-Gg6ST8oGlqoxGyKs9-YvxRHpj9pGkR0Nzo8z9KOqbzoCZMAQGf9RkhtUsBHN9jAmNe3VYWwH6USDLxff7e7AZAfZRWkzQjv65A3PUe8YjVjBuL9A6Tw8feZF80Za-UY5w/s1600/anniversary+2019.1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHHktt5U0Px-Gg6ST8oGlqoxGyKs9-YvxRHpj9pGkR0Nzo8z9KOqbzoCZMAQGf9RkhtUsBHN9jAmNe3VYWwH6USDLxff7e7AZAfZRWkzQjv65A3PUe8YjVjBuL9A6Tw8feZF80Za-UY5w/s640/anniversary+2019.1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
He wasn't really worried. As the other kids gathered around the table, Sadie lifting Tessie into her high chair, it might have been any other day. But I felt an immediate sinking in my stomach.<br />
<br />
I'd already been slightly anxious for no particular reason for the previous five minutes, since I'd asked Paul to go out to get Maggie. I had no reason to be worried just yet, but I ran outside, as Paul started to search the house, thinking she must have come inside.<br />
<br />
I was certain she hadn't.<br />
<br />
Maggie does very few things quietly and I knew she hadn't walked behind me and come into the house. I <i>knew</i> that she was still outside. And if she wasn't in the yard... the thought made me sick.<br />
<br />
I ran around the yard, checking all the places Paul had already checked.<br />
<br />
It was entirely empty.<br />
<br />
I ran back inside.<br />
<br />
"Did you find her?"<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBv5fcATWOOU9fZV-UoU-cZwhh1qrA_K9OQxTn2oeLeRu3xFwznc9_gnu6ZtBw0cSITCwS-COn6au0MSD2WlPulqKYRmzM8sB0hjLsLZiwdGSUHRh28yRVSVyegWTinnJ78S4mDqmz8M/s1600/EED7DAB9-3354-4E97-918E-3523C88FE74F.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1440" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyBv5fcATWOOU9fZV-UoU-cZwhh1qrA_K9OQxTn2oeLeRu3xFwznc9_gnu6ZtBw0cSITCwS-COn6au0MSD2WlPulqKYRmzM8sB0hjLsLZiwdGSUHRh28yRVSVyegWTinnJ78S4mDqmz8M/s640/EED7DAB9-3354-4E97-918E-3523C88FE74F.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
Paul shook his head. "Then she's gone." He was heading out the front door to search. "I'll call 911." <br />
<br />
"Do it." he said.<br />
<br />
I ran through the house, searching and then ran next door and banged on our neighbor's door. She ran with me barefoot to sit with the kids, while I ran outside, suddenly overwhelmed by the hugeness of the world and how Maggie was nowhere in sight.<br />
<br />
I called my mom next.<br />
<br />
"Maggie's gone." I said.<br />
<br />
"I'm on my way." She responded.<br />
<br />
I got in my car and drove. Nothing was making sense. Every time Maggie has eloped it's been barefoot down the middle of the street. It attracts attention.<br />
<br />
When I called 911 I half expected the same response as last time- for them to tell me that they already knew, even though she had only been gone for a few minutes.<br />
<br />
I drove past the nearest pond, which is still a good ways away, and turned when I saw my parents cars headed towards me. If they were coming down the road there was no way she'd gone that way.<br />
<br />
When I got to the intersection nearest our house I found that my dad had parked in the middle of it and was telling every car that went by about Maggie.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdkwitYMKs3xe2n7ZKnnFtAtasyCYycZsGQ9jBm034qrkyDEgUXx1MVkXXBwC4kSmICvdh-mqPyVrcIK-iNwUGSf1cD2LwNO8oW_nTL2TWO40ZqTkL9aldOSW-dCo7aI5PP0QpTwDwDsc/s1600/IMG_1032.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdkwitYMKs3xe2n7ZKnnFtAtasyCYycZsGQ9jBm034qrkyDEgUXx1MVkXXBwC4kSmICvdh-mqPyVrcIK-iNwUGSf1cD2LwNO8oW_nTL2TWO40ZqTkL9aldOSW-dCo7aI5PP0QpTwDwDsc/s640/IMG_1032.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
I called 911 again. It felt like everything was taking forever. They told me to go home and wait for a police officer there.<br />
<br />
I did and sat on the grass on the front lawn and cried until he pulled up and I ran up to his car and answered all his questions, thankful that I could still picture her black shirt, purple skirt and pink pants clearly in my head, and that I knew her exact height and weight from her last doctor's appointment.<br />
<br />
As long as I was giving answers I could pull it together. In the silence, when I no longer had a purpose and was doing something to help find her, when I was waiting as more police and searchers began to arrive, I would fall apart again.<br />
<br />
They brought a dog, and were bringing out more. They got out a drone. They were calling in air support. Another neighbor called her ex-husband who immediately jumped in his truck and drove over from another town and began to search.<br />
<br />
People began to show up in brightly colored vests looking for her.<br />
<br />
The dog ran back and forth behind our house but couldn't pick up her scent.<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hkJy-LdiZ83m6-GCZbFmkKMQbFzGCxSlXdJUs6HU54c27JJHb5-gw_hudieDhnt_PbOIqG-lET0sGnTmEZjrxgx0aZ4TGtScwVick7AgfGMA5LrItb6-CvtUia9DR2kFdK33mqHDiYo/s1600/IMG_0602.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1hkJy-LdiZ83m6-GCZbFmkKMQbFzGCxSlXdJUs6HU54c27JJHb5-gw_hudieDhnt_PbOIqG-lET0sGnTmEZjrxgx0aZ4TGtScwVick7AgfGMA5LrItb6-CvtUia9DR2kFdK33mqHDiYo/s640/IMG_0602.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
Paul came home from his own search. He ran into the house just after the police officer had sent me in to search again. I'd gone through it three times, and the kids had searched it too with no luck.<br />
<br />
It felt useless to me. She'd never, in all her life hidden before. I couldn't imagine her starting now.<br />
<br />
"Search every place that isn't locked," he said. And I did.<br />
<br />
She wasn't anywhere.<br />
<br />
Then I heard Paul's voice "I found her." And I raced back downstairs.<br />
<br />
He was on his way up with her and there she was, safe and sound, and I was hugging her and kissing her forehead, and she gave me a "what's the big deal mom?" look as we took her outside to tell the police that we had in fact found her.<br />
<br />
-------------------------<br />
<br />
And now for what happened.<br />
<br />
She never came inside through the door.<br />
<br />
She had broken in through our bedroom window on the bottom floor. She pried the window open and then pulled off the screen and then pulled it through, into the room after her, to cover her tracks. Then she closed the window completely, so when we went into the backyard, we didn't see a thing.<br />
<br />
Then she ransacked the room.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhULOclKP7lyBT1m6bm4xDMwWCn1n94XRMAlJKVyKs-PT5zoM3GKIw0rXkx_jaJDEtp20btwSP5a3Drqa7nYtHxdTtJz5CqoPBVeQbeD4r3SVhCVp3_NDderoVTNcc0pq-a6RbKfvtFhXc/s1600/doctors+appointment+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhULOclKP7lyBT1m6bm4xDMwWCn1n94XRMAlJKVyKs-PT5zoM3GKIw0rXkx_jaJDEtp20btwSP5a3Drqa7nYtHxdTtJz5CqoPBVeQbeD4r3SVhCVp3_NDderoVTNcc0pq-a6RbKfvtFhXc/s640/doctors+appointment+1.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I'm pretty sure that when she came in through the window, she knocked over the Our Lady of Fatima statue that was just inside of it, shattering the base, along with a cup of coffee that I'd forgotten on the bookshelf by the window. And that was probably the moment when she decided to hide, sprawled out on the bed, looking at puzzles and books.<br />
<br />
She knew that she was someplace she wasn't supposed to be and now something was broken. She was pretty sure she was in trouble and she decided to stay put.<br />
<br />
Everyone was extremely relieved to see her smiling, giggling face.<br />
<br />
---------------------------------<br />
<br />
And that is the story of how Maggie disappeared for a little over an hour and was found safely at home.<br />
<br />
I think I have at least 100 new grey hairs from this week. But I am so, so thankful that we found her and that she was safe.<br />
<br />
And I've spent the last couple days working on setting up a few new cameras so that there are no blind spots in the backyard, even when she's under the porch. Because of random rainstorms when I'm working we're not 100% there yet, but it should be up and running by the end of the week.<br />
<br />
That girl.<br />
<br />
-------------------------------------<br />
<br />
And here is the video that I made the day that it happened:<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MeQBmbtQ7Zo" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
One of my favorite videos because I think this is such an important topic:<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/wvljMjVEsOI" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
And a video jam packed with Tessie updates on her development and what she's doing at the moment. And she helped me make it!<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sG9rcXqTKBc" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Now I'm just hoping that this coming week is much, much less dramatic than the one we just put behind us.<br />
<br />
I feel like I could sleep for a week.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-84631734398378743612019-09-22T14:46:00.001-04:002019-09-22T14:46:09.590-04:00Words, Lines, And Who Needs Sleep?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
I mentioned on Facebook that Tessie had gone from "happened" to her first sentence of "I want cheese." The next day she said "go play." And today it was "okay" to everything.</div>
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<br /></div>
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She's also babbling non stop now, little nonsense sounds, which is great, because it was a developmental step that needed to happen, and it's finally happening! </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoUKbUGIzKEstZlXrI8QyhDv2SZQBt6gQx8MdZYq5he9GH5-dapd3SF9hpCOqaWBVVaG3S8z2sevW06PkVU-p11nArSTQY6As92fP4XvlyCHEbhFAoHq5uaaep3MnFUjkBHjZUF_WFTs/s1600/mom+and+tess.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaoUKbUGIzKEstZlXrI8QyhDv2SZQBt6gQx8MdZYq5he9GH5-dapd3SF9hpCOqaWBVVaG3S8z2sevW06PkVU-p11nArSTQY6As92fP4XvlyCHEbhFAoHq5uaaep3MnFUjkBHjZUF_WFTs/s640/mom+and+tess.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
This morning I woke to find she had carefully arranged a collection of her favorite My Little Ponies on the edge of her bed and she was sitting in the bed staring at them to see if they looked just right.<br />
<br />
And of course because she had been the one to arrange them, they did.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZMWn13BaYGKVWhXynP0vrqk7UzLOZn6Zjx725egmRy2ZbORSttqKrD3dSkvwy433xLHI7I4_ohcxVbCK1oee545bS1iy-nzsjTIhJtFt0OXceIUWyUO_fF_WjIXtaRaCo6xGMFZELOZQ/s1600/IMG_1170.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZMWn13BaYGKVWhXynP0vrqk7UzLOZn6Zjx725egmRy2ZbORSttqKrD3dSkvwy433xLHI7I4_ohcxVbCK1oee545bS1iy-nzsjTIhJtFt0OXceIUWyUO_fF_WjIXtaRaCo6xGMFZELOZQ/s640/IMG_1170.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
Apparently we're missing Rarity.<br />
<br />
On Friday night she partied all night long.<br />
<br />
It was like exhaustion didn't exist. Sleep was something her body just didn't need, despite not having a nap all day long. She played in her room, insisting that the lights stay on while she played with her ponies and ran back and forth across the room.<br />
<br />
And then 9 am rolled along and she was furious with me when it was time to go out and run errands because she was ready to go to sleep.<br />
<br />
Had I no decency? It was finally bedtime?<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQSbr6SPT_utM4d638iwKs8NJTuPpxSJxzbMT_0Xk33dVWv8hC3XHgDNpjJkoJdxGap5K7r9yLVmLgjP1htg-ZKGFcFvNce4vSiql5ZumYL1HM_sPDhkuZu7sUykStIO7zcGAfVerkb4/s1600/tess+smiles.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqQSbr6SPT_utM4d638iwKs8NJTuPpxSJxzbMT_0Xk33dVWv8hC3XHgDNpjJkoJdxGap5K7r9yLVmLgjP1htg-ZKGFcFvNce4vSiql5ZumYL1HM_sPDhkuZu7sUykStIO7zcGAfVerkb4/s640/tess+smiles.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
As a result of my insistence that she get up and come with us, she slept very well last night.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5siAHUly3PBUbXDmm7N0X-Flff8Y2uummYhjEs9Ty0n3SXZt4nzABSyqfRwP4wGpUoF_nVV-oUrjQCxog_GtkIus9pL4VRP-8uMEjmcr-HD4nzK-fcctINbr4L_c33Gnf7M3MhVUbGo/s1600/tess+day+3.2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgV5siAHUly3PBUbXDmm7N0X-Flff8Y2uummYhjEs9Ty0n3SXZt4nzABSyqfRwP4wGpUoF_nVV-oUrjQCxog_GtkIus9pL4VRP-8uMEjmcr-HD4nzK-fcctINbr4L_c33Gnf7M3MhVUbGo/s640/tess+day+3.2.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
In other news, today is our 13th anniversary!<br />
<br />
The kids spent the morning looking at an album of wedding pictures and debating whether or not we had kissed on our wedding day with huge amounts of giggles.<br />
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</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB9ajgdZk-3ECrC7z7zeAVobC-uCzaBsNijcuVyDkKOK1UIFE-tSwvKMqn8FhdAKzVwznm47pCrCNai4NByLxUPThbPydKth53g_kbrxgU4I7N5rRQFARWiwNvAKSPhQDBBwbPz3wBl5E/s1600/weddingdress1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="453" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgB9ajgdZk-3ECrC7z7zeAVobC-uCzaBsNijcuVyDkKOK1UIFE-tSwvKMqn8FhdAKzVwznm47pCrCNai4NByLxUPThbPydKth53g_kbrxgU4I7N5rRQFARWiwNvAKSPhQDBBwbPz3wBl5E/s640/weddingdress1.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
<br />
And what a 13 years it has been. Happy Anniversary Paul!<br />
<br />
-----------------------------------------------<br />
<br />
Meanwhile in all things video... Maggie had an amazing Sunday. She did so well at Mass. She had so much fun on the swing at Nani and Bopa's house. It was just a very good day.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mmGUXrE8bRM" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
And I made a video of my cleaning routine. It was fun trying to make a silly thumbnail.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9xs0tNBNxrE" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
And lastly the most interesting things I read about in this weeks autism news including a study where they found that girls on the spectrum have structural differences in their brains while boys don't. I thought that was super interesting!<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Co0Gyc-EVNY" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-19791158374885746852019-09-17T22:34:00.002-04:002019-09-17T22:34:33.734-04:00Play, PFTs, and My Baby Growing UpTonight I peeked through the door and saw Tessie holding the Queen of Hearts on Pinkie Pie's back (a My Little Pony for anyone who doesn't know) as she sat in the middle of the play room floor. Earlier I had watched as she carefully rearranged Rainbow Dash's colorful hair while clutching a toy otoscope, trying to figure out how to use it on a horse with so many curls that kept tumbling into the way.<br />
<br />
I think that she just leveled up in the imaginative play department.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7ZGCgtxqsk2tJ8FW1px-cd1_ad8PdlwjnzHn6CXPAmbV0zk0wZKz-ZztmC5gkSMS3k896DK5jdtZaGy7U9WFkZ3X4YnyzTK_RMFZXmdnabGRflPi_GZ22ev4MtPiWE8u2PgRUSazkNU/s1600/tessie+leather+jacket+2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="804" data-original-width="804" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEha7ZGCgtxqsk2tJ8FW1px-cd1_ad8PdlwjnzHn6CXPAmbV0zk0wZKz-ZztmC5gkSMS3k896DK5jdtZaGy7U9WFkZ3X4YnyzTK_RMFZXmdnabGRflPi_GZ22ev4MtPiWE8u2PgRUSazkNU/s640/tessie+leather+jacket+2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
---------------</div>
<br />
Meanwhile Maggie's interest has shifted from bugs and snakes this week to worms and snails.<br />
<br />
Maybe she'll become a malacologist and we will joke about the beginnings of her interests someday but honestly, I'd be okay if she was a little bit less interested in creepy crawly slimy things. Although at the moment at least she's been leaving them outside.<br />
<br />
And at least she's leaving the brown marmorated stink bugs alone. For the moment at least (if you aren't from Michigan you may not know that we are just stepping into the beginning of the wonderful and absolutely dreaded Brown Marmorated Stink Bug Season when they are suddenly everywhere).<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxYo6Y9t9ZY1_dGE5fHeNcirSYGqv-uGRoZfFpvuH4Fmu8U_V5KEKWXen4exwuTcsQd1qcOVs8-1TWPZliJ3hmKoZEyq2UCG-ezee9q9qg6XKR7OLjJ1gazfAo4DuM2F5TbUo10U_wS8/s1600/dress+up+time1.0.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="894" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCxYo6Y9t9ZY1_dGE5fHeNcirSYGqv-uGRoZfFpvuH4Fmu8U_V5KEKWXen4exwuTcsQd1qcOVs8-1TWPZliJ3hmKoZEyq2UCG-ezee9q9qg6XKR7OLjJ1gazfAo4DuM2F5TbUo10U_wS8/s640/dress+up+time1.0.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Today Patrick had his first pulmonary function test. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
I have no idea what the results were like. From what I could tell he did roughly the same before and after the nebulizer treatment. </div>
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But when he couldn't breath at home the nebulizer treatment definitely made a huge difference.</div>
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So now we wait and see what they say at his doctor's appointment next Monday.</div>
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Right now they have him using his albuterol four times a day and that has made it extremely easy for him to breath all the time, and prevented any more scares from occurring but hopefully we can get it all under control soon without needing the rescue inhaler quite so much.</div>
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He and I did have a lot of fun today though going to the science museum as a treat before his appointment! </div>
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Sadie is running for student government. They had to get signatures on a petition to run and give a speech. </div>
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When they asked if anyone was ready to give their speech in class yesterday, Sadie was the only one to volunteer, so now she's just waiting for the election to see what happens. </div>
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Today when I was at a second hand book store I ran across a bunch of American Girl books that I know she enjoys reading and in the bunch there was one about how to handle bullies.</div>
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When I gave them to her tonight she glanced at that particular book and then pointed to the title and raised her eyebrows and said "Mom, I don't really need any help at all with <i>that</i>. I know how to handle them." with a confidence that I couldn't have even imagined a couple of years ago. </div>
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My not so little baby is definitely growing up.</div>
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And James? </div>
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What can I say about James.</div>
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Tomorrow he will go to have dinner at Nani's house, but he will not eat the sticky rice that all the other kids love. His reason? </div>
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"The rice is 'too ricey.'"</div>
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Sometimes at home he'll decide he's going to pay me a compliment. </div>
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James loves giving compliments. Usually he's quite good at them. Once and a while they go off the rails in the most hilariously awkward ways. For example more than once I've heard: "Mama. You are the most wonderful cooker in the world. You really are. Even when I hate what you make and I won't try it. You're wonderful." </div>
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Um. Thank you? I think? But maybe just, taste the food?</div>
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<br />
And in case you've never heard me say Maggie's name... it doesn't sound quite like most people would expect. Unless you're from North Dakota.</div>
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Then maybe it does. And this is why.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6RRRU6mQSps" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-9939209309493330712019-09-14T08:33:00.002-04:002019-09-14T08:33:10.859-04:00Ashes, Ashes... Let's Scare Mom!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
There are so many ways that Tessie reminds me of Maggie when Maggie was tiny, and there are so many ways that the girls are very different.</div>
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Tessie is calmer and quieter than Maggie ever was at the same age. She seems less bothered by the world, and she sort of takes everything in stride. When she's trying to do something she has a tendency to work and work and work at it.</div>
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Her frustration level is usually so low when she's trying to figure something out on her own, that I sometimes find myself marveling at it, because I'm there ready to help, but she doesn't want my help, she wants to do things for herself. </div>
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The two big ways she reminds me of her big sister though, is that she is daring, just like Maggie, and now that she's beginning to use words, she's finding very creative ways to express herself.</div>
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Maggie had "come on" when she was Tessie's age and she used it for almost everything. </div>
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Come on! meant "hurry up." It meant, "can you hand me my sippie cup?" It meant anything that she wanted it to mean when she was in a hurry and she was always in a hurry.</div>
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Tessie's phrase of the moment is "Happened?" </div>
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She finally managed to say it a week ago and was absolutely delighted with herself.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQV9lm_G9WMxelLdaKIr7GuLl83u0jnTZmxhvPg7YO1Yg2iqN8-XvyiPUr5b2Kb5-QPNqyJB0Rpa-zceMRaP3KFW1V8aCqnwauJp-kE-_CpwwfnrW9jfX_vJDLRaOlvDVh7wTJwEP6F0/s1600/IMG_1017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgQV9lm_G9WMxelLdaKIr7GuLl83u0jnTZmxhvPg7YO1Yg2iqN8-XvyiPUr5b2Kb5-QPNqyJB0Rpa-zceMRaP3KFW1V8aCqnwauJp-kE-_CpwwfnrW9jfX_vJDLRaOlvDVh7wTJwEP6F0/s640/IMG_1017.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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Sometimes she throws in the "Wa?" before the "happened" for a complete "Wa happened?" but usually the <i>happened</i> just stands on its own.<br />
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Yesterday she was running and she managed to bump her head lightly. She immediately stopped, and touched the spot, before turning and saying "hap- n'd?" in a barely understandable (because she was a little bit upset) voice. Then she was off and running.<br />
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"Happened?" is for everything and she delights in saying it and in being clearly understood.<br />
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But that isn't the only word that's come out this week.<br />
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Apparently Tessie is a big fan of Ring Around the Rosy. When I picked her up at school they told me that she was even singing the last verse to the tune, all by herself.<br />
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And sure enough later that day I heard her humming it.<br />
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"How cute!" I thought at the time, excited by all the strides in communication she's been making lately.<br />
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A few hours later the kids and I were all gathered in the living room.<br />
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Maggie was excited. She was zooming around the room giggling. I had finally figured out how to watch a video I had made, upstairs on the big TV, and Maggie was watching a video of herself swimming at the pool.<br />
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She was elated, and was narrating everything that happened. "Swimming? Swimming at the pool?" she scripted as she zoomed back and forth giggling, holding not one but two mermaid dolls in her hands.<br />
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I was so focused on Maggie and her excitement that I hardly noticed the tiny voice singing behind me at first. But then I did.<br />
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Tessie had just gotten up from where she was sitting next to me.<br />
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She had climbed up on the back of the couch.<br />
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She was standing there, and the sound that had caught my attention?<br />
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She had started to sing "ashes, ashes..." and that was when I caught her before she could completely fall to the ground.<br />
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Apparently she also has inherited her sister's early lack of fear of heights. I hope that like Maggie, she outgrows it as she gets older!<br />
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Speaking of lots of words Maggie has been talking up a storm and I love hearing all of her words. So I made a video where I captured as many of them as I had on camera from the last week. </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bLpzZl466P8" width="560"></iframe>
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And I usually don't add my weekly Autism News Episode over here, but midway through it is an update from the study in Boston that Tessie was in and it was so interesting!<br />
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They were able to identify consistent differences in the EEG results of the kids who were 12 months and under who were on the spectrum. And I talk more about that here:</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/mi-WC8RN7Jw" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Now to get the kids up and moving because we have a fair to go to today.<br />
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I love this time of year!Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-4234478361979621142019-09-12T20:20:00.003-04:002019-09-12T20:20:36.656-04:00Telling Tall Tales<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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James has always been a super articulate little kid. It's like he got all the words that everyone else didn't get at a young age and he hit the ground running with them. </div>
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He speaks like a little grown up and has sat in many an IEP meeting with me charming adults and surprising just about everyone with his vocabulary. He just seems to like big words. </div>
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And he loves giving complements, especially to people that he just met. A woman who works at the school told my mom as she was picking him up yesterday that he had told her that she was beautiful earlier that day. </div>
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But he also has a bit of a temper and it's long been a running joke among certain older siblings that if I have to be called to the principal's office in future years it's going to be for James. </div>
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So far, his year and two weeks in school has been entirely uneventful and he has behaved himself admirably (at least as far as we've heard). </div>
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Still, he came home with a story last week and as he told me his tall tale I found myself struggling to hide a smile.</div>
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Me: "So buddy, how was your day?"</div>
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James: "Bad. Really awful. Horrible."</div>
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M: "Really? I'm sorry Jamesy. What happened?"</div>
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J: Well. Miss A was in a mood and she said that I couldn't talk all day long for no reason. And everybody else could talk except for me, but I had to be quiet all day long! </div>
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M: "And this.... no talking? It didn't happen... after you got in trouble maybe?"</div>
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J: "No Mom! Here's what happened! The whole class was being loud and I was the only one in the entire classroom being good and quiet and listening and she came over and I got in trouble and had to be quiet all day long." Sighs dramatically. "It was so unfair."</div>
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The thing about spinning a lie when you're four and a half is that you don't know not to take it a bit too far in the telling, making yourself a tad too saint like for your mom, who knows you, to actually believe the story. </div>
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It ought to be an interesting year!<br />
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And now for something totally different.</div>
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I brought a camera along as I dropped the five kids off at their four different schools/therapy centers. </div>
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This is what a typical morning looks like for us on weekdays. It can be more than a little hectic! </div>
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<br /></div>
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TtN_Yq8hE_o" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-62440594415445038782019-09-10T17:23:00.001-04:002019-09-10T17:23:02.988-04:00Tessie Didn't Need HelpI was in the kitchen yesterday making dinner when I heard a blood curdling scream.<br />
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"Mom!" came Patch's voice almost immediately, before I'd even taken a single step. "Maggie just took Tessie's crackers." A few moments earlier I had given him sandwich crackers to distribute, and he'd handed out two to each kid.<br />
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But the scream only lasted for a moment. Before I could even take a step I heard him go on: "Never mind Mom. Tessie took it back!" his voice was tinged with awe. This was not something that either he or James would dare to do.<br />
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I turned back to what I was making for dinner. <br />
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I shouldn't have been surprised.<br />
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Tessie may not be very verbal, but as the youngest of five, she most definitely can hold her own in most confrontations.<br />
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She stays to herself most of the time, but heaven help anyone who tries to take something she's playing with, because she is transformed from a sweet curly haired little girl who hardly makes a sound, to a little bruiser ready to brawl over a sandwich cracker which her much bigger sister has stolen or over who's turn it is on the lower swing which she can easily climb into (James tries to steal it from her frequently).<br />
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And Maggie, who thinks that Tessie is the most awesome person on Earth, let her have the cracker back, which is the second most shocking part of this whole story to anyone who knows her.<br />
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It's also the third most shocking thing I've seen this week, #1 being when Maggie cried for a mermaid toy that had fallen on the ground in the car and when we were finally stopped and I could retrieve it she handed it to her younger sister <i>twice</i> and said "here Tessie" in the sweetest of voices.<br />
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The second most shocking moment was when she offered to let Tessie hold her purple (so favorite) sequined mermaid doll on the way to school on morning so that Tess could stim on the tail sequins.<br />
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And because<i> I cannot stress this enough</i>, she wasn't just sharing her mermaid dolls. She was sharing her absolute favorite mermaid dolls.<br />
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For those who watch the vlog, here is a special day when all the kids were in school when Tessie and I got to go out and have fun, just the two of us.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lKkcptqlc4U" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Now for a little rest before dinner because today is a Tuesday that feels like a Friday.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-72462139770070615882019-09-07T07:36:00.002-04:002019-09-07T07:36:59.502-04:00I Didn't Think We'd Homeschool Again<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Yesterday when Tessie, Maggie, and I got home Tessie was sound asleep in her car seat. So I tucked her into bed and I gave Maggie the choice between starting school at that moment or going outside.</div>
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She quickly said school, which surprised me, because she'd just been working hard from 9 to 3:30 already and I was more than willing to give her a break. </div>
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Right now I'm still really trying to get a feel for exactly what the girl knows.</div>
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She is very good at hiding it because she knows that if other people know what she knows, they'll expect her to do all sorts of work. </div>
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But now and then she's read words that are way above what anyone suspects she's capable of and it's happened enough times that I knew that her report cards last year didn't reflect what was actually going on in that head of hers, even if they definitely reflected what she was showing in the classroom.</div>
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I've been working out what motivates her the most and what is the most effective while we're focusing on reading.</div>
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Right now it's mostly me drawing stick figure mermaids.</div>
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Maggie loves it when I draw her mermaids. </div>
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By far the hardest part of any learning session is simply capturing her attention.<br />
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I will write down a word on the little lined white board we use and she will immediately say the first word that I wrote down on the previous day without even looking.<br />
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"Maggie, read. Look. Look at the word. That's not looking. Your eyes are way up here. Look at the board." I said at first as her eyes darted here and there and everywhere around the room except at the word.<br />
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Then I learned the art of negotiating.<br />
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"You read first then I'll draw one mermaid."<br />
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She immediately looked at the whiteboard and read the word. <br />
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Yesterday she read word after word for 15 minutes, which was by far the longest single sit down session of reading she'd done so far. At the end her paper was covered in tiny blue marker drawn mermaids.<br />
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Then it was time to go outside.<br />
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But once we got there we realized that it was actually raining.<br />
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Maggie didn't care. She said "Mommy splash in the rain!" and grabbed my hand and pulled me down off the porch and into the rain with her, giggling and chattering away about mermaids and running and plashing and swimming in the rain.<br />
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"Can I hide under the porch?" I asked her, pointing to the new area under the porch where she collects bugs that I recently weeded and cleared.<br />
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"Mommy splash! Swim in the rain!" She replied. That was definitely a no to hiding under the porch.<br />
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And so we splashed in the rain.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbt_Ez8w6TkLOkqQulkStMCn2XIiCtJqduiMEUusaRTa8GlP99cvfkAC530bV1aqV2TrPG_fAuN7ybTE-gnR591UkAYzrshK2mXX0yXjRjVP4X0kftqm9p6fLTqpLjgxvVyQXxga_AQv8/s1600/maggie+black+dress+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="865" data-original-width="1538" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbt_Ez8w6TkLOkqQulkStMCn2XIiCtJqduiMEUusaRTa8GlP99cvfkAC530bV1aqV2TrPG_fAuN7ybTE-gnR591UkAYzrshK2mXX0yXjRjVP4X0kftqm9p6fLTqpLjgxvVyQXxga_AQv8/s640/maggie+black+dress+5.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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Maggie's favorite holiday is coming soon. It's Halloween.<br />
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It isn't the costumes.<br />
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It isn't the decorations that will be springing up all over town soon.<br />
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It's that she gets to walk around and people give her candy.<br />
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Maggie says "trick or treat" year round when she's lobbying for candy.<br />
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The other day she started to get sad when I told her that her favorite aquatic center was closing for the winter.<br />
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Then I pointed out that while we would miss it, it meant Halloween was coming soon and her entire face lit up. She was thrilled and finally stopped asking about the pool every single day when I picked her up in the afternoon.<br />
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Now the leaves are just starting to turn and this time, between hot and humid summer and frozen winter is one of my favorite times too. Every time I see a hint of orange or yellow or red peeking through a cluster of green leaves I get excited for the days to come.<br />
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When Maggie was diagnosed with autism I slowly let go of my dream of homeschooling her until it was something that I really couldn't even begin to imagine doing.<br />
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This past winter we began to discuss the possibility again, only this time I was reluctant, weighing every other option that I had.<br />
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Could I really do this, teach my very smart, child who is so very creative at getting out of doing what she's supposed to be doing?<br />
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By the end of December we were decided. And every day that goes by now I feel more comfortable with the decision, as Maggie lets in on the secrets of what she actually knows.<br />
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I'm looking forward to the day when she can actually enjoy reading because I think that could be such a great escape for her, as it is for so many of us.<br />
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<br />
I have never been more afraid to make a video than I was to make this one. I put it off for a year, while feeling like the message in the video was important and could help others.<br />
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I tried once, last year, and just ended up sobbing.<br />
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This is the story of the time I ignored my instincts as a parent and how very much I regret that now. It is also the story of the very hardest thing that's happened to our family... ever.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RbBpEe0NNAc" width="560"></iframe><br />
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I have thought about writing about it, but I did that once, before we went to see the forensic doctor, and it was so emotionally trying that I'm still not quite there and I'm not sure I'll ever be.<br />
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So for now and maybe forever it is in video form. Because sometimes sitting down in a big empty park and talking to my camera is the second best thing to therapy.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-85321263923619222692019-09-05T21:47:00.002-04:002019-09-05T21:47:12.353-04:00Tessie is ToughTessie let us know again about a great injustice in her life.<br />
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She had apparently stashed a crust from a sandwich along the inside seam of her car's seat, where it meets the floor and as she tried to crawl on her belly to reach it Sadie stopped her, while I was helping Maggie into her seat.<br />
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"Sad, sad, sad!" she shouted as her sister told her that <i>that</i> was very gross and scooped her up off the floor.<br />
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She has a new word and she most definitely knows how to use it.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZv6IylRFY1Xq8Lgr4Q2avcpooV7Ea7X_H8c48faino7c5rHA6WmwaHUjbkj4RmMQJIBVD5TabeyzGh2EkkI62wj240-vcQ1EyvtJpvO3W1jR5IZv_uNh_pATuzXVqZF_17Jwl6vKcXCA/s1600/IMG_0955.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZv6IylRFY1Xq8Lgr4Q2avcpooV7Ea7X_H8c48faino7c5rHA6WmwaHUjbkj4RmMQJIBVD5TabeyzGh2EkkI62wj240-vcQ1EyvtJpvO3W1jR5IZv_uNh_pATuzXVqZF_17Jwl6vKcXCA/s640/IMG_0955.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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Every day when I pick Tessie up from school the first thing she does is run to me and lift up her arms so that I can pick her up.<br />
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Then once I do, she quickly swipes my sunglasses off of my face.<br />
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Originally this was so she could see my eyes. But after doing it a few times she realized that if she flipped my glasses over they actually sort of fit her, and so now she has a new motivation for her sunglass theft.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTzdYVO4Uv_7DdZFrb2GWpq8DUqx5H6bipPqyqkCa8yGjwuKpXNFfkBm5RGKsMzHpMvJq0DDYF9x1u0OzB9jENV5aV7k9X1rNVdDGInUIB7aWr59ZSNcFvZgep-SS9tgbsZ_18F9Bf10/s1600/IMG_0635.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHTzdYVO4Uv_7DdZFrb2GWpq8DUqx5H6bipPqyqkCa8yGjwuKpXNFfkBm5RGKsMzHpMvJq0DDYF9x1u0OzB9jENV5aV7k9X1rNVdDGInUIB7aWr59ZSNcFvZgep-SS9tgbsZ_18F9Bf10/s640/IMG_0635.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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And while she may not look it, Tessie is actually quite a little bruiser.<br />
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There is a certain older brother that is not quite two years older than she is who often gets into tussles with her over whose turn it is on the "favorite" (aka the lowest) swing.<br />
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They are almost exactly the same size, from their shoes to the size clothes that they wear.<br />
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And I can confirm both that he does not let her win and that Tessie has not yet lost a fight over the swing (this basically always happens when I'm making dinner and they all decide it's the perfect time to swing on the swings).<br />
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I think being the youngest of five has made her exceptionally scrappy.<br />
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Now I think I'm going to have to stop because I keep dozing off.<br />
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I missed my blogging time earlier at a parent training at Tessie's school. When I walked in and she saw me she said "hi!" and hugged me, which made it a pretty good day!<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Y5oYB_vyRbo" width="560"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RcaYim3VJrw" width="560"></iframe>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/goKU9p4fZ58" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-18216182024795092932019-09-03T13:38:00.002-04:002019-09-03T13:38:58.524-04:003 a.m. Good Morning<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Tessie kicked off our day at three a.m. when she appeared at the door of my bedroom wearing bunny ears and hopping up and down excitedly. She had already been up for several hours around midnight with Paul, so I understood upon hearing the lights click on and hearing her tiny footsteps padding across her room on her way to our door that it was my turn to try to get the tiny troublemaker back to sleep.</div>
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But really, I know that I cannot complain in any way about Tessie's sleep habits. </div>
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She was two weeks old when she started sleeping through the night every night.<br />
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And I don't mean six hours. I mean 12 hours if I didn't set alarm to wake her to eat, which we discovered because I assumed, being a newborn she would just awake on her own like all our others had.<br />
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Having had an older sister who didn't sleep more than an hour at a time for the first 18 months of her life I knew what a blessing this was.<br />
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But now at 3 years old, Tessie has a mind of her own.<br />
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She has big ideas.<br />
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And sometimes that involves waking up at 3 am to play with her ponies while wearing bunny ears in the playroom and yelling for mom to come join her.<br />
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Tessie is, so far, the least verbal of all of our kids as a three year old.<br />
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She has less than twenty words, which means that she says less than Maggie said at the same age.<br />
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But in the last month she has begun saying more and more, at what seems to be a rapidly accelerating rate. This morning she threw herself on the floor of the car when I was trying to get her into her car seat and shouted "Sad! Sad! Sad!" in a tiny perfect voice because she wanted to be given a chance to pick up a toy cell phone before settling peacefully into her seat.<br />
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I scooped her up and kissed her about thirty times, while Maggie said "Tessie alert!" (something my phone says when the car stops to remind me that she's there) and then together we headed to her school where she twirled around at least a half dozen times on the way to the front door, wearing her full sized backpack which looks enormous on her tiny frame.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwX3TFgqbvsq5-BP_QIkCVaEVuN26er6wBOPCoUhQkT9SI7m5MkVcXdDss-10ZcBlI1joHwf7P-7Wqo9APXW2qW6rREYFjlDaKV8TVm9Q1PXVmk8ldeTUnRHglFwvOdeKRjRf4-EJAb9E/s1600/tessie+green.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwX3TFgqbvsq5-BP_QIkCVaEVuN26er6wBOPCoUhQkT9SI7m5MkVcXdDss-10ZcBlI1joHwf7P-7Wqo9APXW2qW6rREYFjlDaKV8TVm9Q1PXVmk8ldeTUnRHglFwvOdeKRjRf4-EJAb9E/s640/tessie+green.jpg" style="cursor: move;" width="640" /></a></div>
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Those early nights when she slept so deeply were likely because she was having many central apneas and hypopneas a night and it's scary to think that high CO2 levels are probably why she slept 20+ hours a day as a 6 month old.<br />
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Which is why now, when she wakes up, I sometimes find myself thinking "this was how it was supposed to be" as I try to convince her to go back to sleep, while also being very grateful that she survived those early months when we didn't know what was going on.<br />
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Tessie has gone from dozens of central apneas a nights and hundreds of hypopneas, to a few apneas a week at the moment. We now have multiple nights in a row where her alarm doesn't make a sound. It seems that she really may be outgrowing it (and interestingly it seems to me that as they've decreased her other skills have increased... maybe because she's less tired?).<br />
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And for that I am definitely willing to trade some sleepless nights spent convincing her that her ponies need to rest because they have an early morning that will be arriving very soon, and so do we.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dpVG1rXekBw" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tID8Dzzww20" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-15638391163209975672019-09-01T08:31:00.002-04:002019-09-01T08:44:59.297-04:00The Princess and The Super Hero<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
When I saw the dress on the hanger at the second hand store I knew it would be perfect for her. </div>
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$8.50 was the price on the tag and so I picked it up, and then it was time for dress up and playing in the back yard when we got home.</div>
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Maggie, with her flare for the dramatic, was immediately transformed into a princess:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGt1UnDnONP9ttZzz3_TTiLG1Jg4Yid8F9mHe1F4o0ntraMHEgvv8D6ySerGtFpofPHsxp5pKwdirgsLoJ3yagTnN0NuKB9SL9lSo4X3UyE56uxbqn6dQxpltNo9fm1Yt5qPzNuL6ZNRg/s1600/dress+up+time1.7.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGt1UnDnONP9ttZzz3_TTiLG1Jg4Yid8F9mHe1F4o0ntraMHEgvv8D6ySerGtFpofPHsxp5pKwdirgsLoJ3yagTnN0NuKB9SL9lSo4X3UyE56uxbqn6dQxpltNo9fm1Yt5qPzNuL6ZNRg/s640/dress+up+time1.7.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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But then the boys arrived. Two tiny Spider Men. And the mischief began.</div>
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You see, Maggie loves to call James "baby."</div>
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And James, like any self respecting four and a half year old who sees his fifth birthday looming in the very near future, hates it.</div>
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He always corrects her and says "Big Boy Maggie. Big Boy." </div>
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And I'll explain to him that it's just like how he'll always be my baby, because she used to cuddle him so much when he really was a tiny baby. But this answer is not acceptable. </div>
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And so the battle over getting her to call him anything other than "baby" continues. </div>
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I'm fairly certain she does it because she knows it drives him crazy.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjasyI8RrtRWaYp4P1y238Dsf3DGEhEmckF6-O1i1OULdYmbAseqYRCLZ6EUqlG6zrFnbPVB4LbmWEN4xa4tuHE4DSFzqyrCpMiD5gn1A_PY4evLdw5zZP4IePksv8IVU60Tj5QhXeuxws/s1600/spiderman5.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjasyI8RrtRWaYp4P1y238Dsf3DGEhEmckF6-O1i1OULdYmbAseqYRCLZ6EUqlG6zrFnbPVB4LbmWEN4xa4tuHE4DSFzqyrCpMiD5gn1A_PY4evLdw5zZP4IePksv8IVU60Tj5QhXeuxws/s640/spiderman5.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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"Remember Maggie," I'll say. "He's a big boy. James is a big boy!" And she'll snort and mutter and chuckle to herself and say "baby" under her breath or out loud depending on her mood. </div>
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So basically it's a pretty typical sibling relationship. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgorS2F3wZ9F8Pxq5XzTk2Q8tKhJLWdv1fqBlGNBdEum_ySS1sbJNqTkF_spMAjb4_rguP_jf2X04_fr1ClKddkkcV0xt9-I77D78EtnHGoxb7LoeHmfsg_x97zYhNqE8iSvTy6JkvSop4/s1600/dress+up+time1.14.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgorS2F3wZ9F8Pxq5XzTk2Q8tKhJLWdv1fqBlGNBdEum_ySS1sbJNqTkF_spMAjb4_rguP_jf2X04_fr1ClKddkkcV0xt9-I77D78EtnHGoxb7LoeHmfsg_x97zYhNqE8iSvTy6JkvSop4/s640/dress+up+time1.14.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Meanwhile Patrick was coaching his little brother on how to actually be Spiderman.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBdYaGSF4Tg8WayuYryEizA_lJ5S-XTYEEXME8xUytbdEFw6cK5xc7C9OPgLrP9XHgRzZHrIPuE-Wx7-QYfejK00uqgPN5MW5UlkXXsaufqRF7F1o23nl-f0DEY-tiOEET9za3lw7rEA4/s1600/spiderman1.3.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBdYaGSF4Tg8WayuYryEizA_lJ5S-XTYEEXME8xUytbdEFw6cK5xc7C9OPgLrP9XHgRzZHrIPuE-Wx7-QYfejK00uqgPN5MW5UlkXXsaufqRF7F1o23nl-f0DEY-tiOEET9za3lw7rEA4/s640/spiderman1.3.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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They raced around the yard together fighting bad guys and saving the day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNeP-zgkaAWumLssb5jQ00ckG8dV0gTXUsg8o2iDi3xYEToGamIadUe77NRJVmcpn87l_l_d4GwWBMg8_7soRRoN34LMu6vILveHIL1a_ACU2ryWIvovrpdoUpvGbnv7mN2LntD6HxKls/s1600/spidermans2.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="595" data-original-width="1058" height="358" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNeP-zgkaAWumLssb5jQ00ckG8dV0gTXUsg8o2iDi3xYEToGamIadUe77NRJVmcpn87l_l_d4GwWBMg8_7soRRoN34LMu6vILveHIL1a_ACU2ryWIvovrpdoUpvGbnv7mN2LntD6HxKls/s640/spidermans2.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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And Patrick was even coaching James on how to properly form his hands to shoot spider webs.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzws7tAG6rNHeP4PUsMBr5geWYo14cLYVW6BJQ9jW8alHNnBPV7mZHGoIEF_9D2fQrHtIOWwFqibAuwFNhyphenhyphennI1HSiVUd6AQYDjGdqULYIRoyxa-oX31huhacWB-lpdMBxnaQu2GKxMO8/s1600/spidermans.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjXzws7tAG6rNHeP4PUsMBr5geWYo14cLYVW6BJQ9jW8alHNnBPV7mZHGoIEF_9D2fQrHtIOWwFqibAuwFNhyphenhyphennI1HSiVUd6AQYDjGdqULYIRoyxa-oX31huhacWB-lpdMBxnaQu2GKxMO8/s640/spidermans.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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All in all it was a very good day.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/oTaRAsfW688" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-80969638036796242132019-08-31T09:27:00.001-04:002019-08-31T09:27:59.200-04:00He Couldn't BreathA couple of weeks ago Patrick had a doctor's appointment and while he was there I mentioned that I thought the possibility of him having asthma that we'd talked about in the past, had developed into exercise induced asthma.<br />
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I've long been nervous about Patch's breathing. He was a wheezy baby, but gradually that went away.<br />
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But in so many ways his breathing, and health in general, reminded me of Sadie. And then I began to notice that despite being very active, he was becoming breathless and having coughing fits a minute after he'd begin running around with his brother and sisters.<br />
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His doctor knew about my concerns and had explained that it did sound like he was more prone to developing asthma, but there was a chance that he wouldn't. Some people can go either way.<br />
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But when the coughing fits started and I saw it really effecting his play I decided it was time to talk to his doctor again.<br />
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So a couple of weeks ago we came home with an inhaler from his doctor's office, to be used before he went out to run around, and an order for a PFT.<br />
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We were waiting on the call about the PFT, when yesterday came meandering through out of nowhere and smacked into us, in the most terrifying of ways.<br />
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I think that Patrick must have been feeling sick, because he came down and climbed into bed between Paul and I, which was something neither boy has been doing regularly in quite a while. He slept for a while, and I hardly noticed that he was there until the coughing started.<br />
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He coughed for about thirty seconds and I helped him sit up, asking Paul to go get his inhaler, because I had a sudden sinking feeling we were about to need it.<br />
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His coughs didn't sound quite right.<br />
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By the minute mark he was wheezing as he coughed and struggled to breath.<br />
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I didn't know that Paul was struggling to find the inhaler because it had gotten taken upstairs to Sadie's room with a bag of medications after a slumber party at Nani's house.<br />
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The inhaler, we'd thought, was only going to be used before he exercised or ran around. It hadn't seemed important to put it somewhere to be found at a moments notice like we have to do with Sadie's. And I had thought I'd known where it was. But I was wrong.<br />
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It took Paul a few minutes to find it and by the time he did Patrick was panicked and wheezing and coughing and sobbing and completely incapable of using the inhaler, even with the spacer.<br />
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We both tried to coach him through it, but with little luck.<br />
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He couldn't breath coordinate breathing out, or putting his mouth effectively around the spacer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA8xdXzLbUtgyfSPQLUTTlnnbgJd22m9UYvbQAhMSyTjB0QokR1EcSZ7G3IrcaXDA0kcH5s_8iMi7-yF9Xf_hM_C-rrxk6kn1ZXpu-ktzi24TVjIpaUojnzANrXclnYG4Fr2hUhsoy5s/s1600/IMG_0846.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkA8xdXzLbUtgyfSPQLUTTlnnbgJd22m9UYvbQAhMSyTjB0QokR1EcSZ7G3IrcaXDA0kcH5s_8iMi7-yF9Xf_hM_C-rrxk6kn1ZXpu-ktzi24TVjIpaUojnzANrXclnYG4Fr2hUhsoy5s/s640/IMG_0846.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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Then I remembered Sadie's nebulizer.<br />
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I raced downstairs and grabbed it and within another couple minutes was holding the mask on his face.<br />
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Within another minute his breathing was easier. By the time we finished the treatment I still thought his breathing sounded horrid but he said it felt fine.<br />
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He had another attack three hours later.<br />
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And that is how we ended up back at the doctor's office yesterday. There was one appointment available for the day, with a doctor we've seen before, and of course we took it.<br />
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His chest sounded fine, but he was stuffy. But I played a little bit of the video from one of the security cameras and she thought the cough sounded like croup (which he's also had before).<br />
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Sometimes albuterol can work on croup apparently too, so the nebulizer working doesn't rule out the possibility.<br />
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She does have him using his inhaler four times a day as we wait on his PFT, and for that reason didn't prescribe QVAR or a preventative medicine just yet.<br />
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And every time he uses it, it apparently becomes much easier for him to breath, so I'm thinking it might be a bad combination of both croup and asthma.<br />
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She also prescribed presidone in case it gets worse again (I'm pretty sure I now have three prescriptions of "just in case presidone" around here for various people).<br />
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Benadryl seems to be helping, along with his regular Zyrtec, too. And of course that four times a day use of his inhaler.<br />
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This year has been so good in some ways and so brutal in others. But I'm cautiously optimistic that if this is asthma, hopefully we'll have it under control soon. Sadie's is pretty well controlled now (she only needs her inhaler a few times a month and her pulmonologist is working on getting her to the point where she needs it even less than that) and hopefully, if that's what this is, his will be soon too.<br />
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Now if everyone could just stay healthy and uninjured for five minutes that would be great!<br />
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And for anyone interested in a few highlights from the vlog here are a few of the latest videos from over there: </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/1CyP0UI1smU" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/obzHtlSVaw8" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XwCMmF3-Ah0" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-6332476434923673102019-08-29T13:21:00.000-04:002019-08-29T14:22:08.579-04:00We Were That Car in the Drop-Off Line This MorningToday I was THAT parent in the drop off lane.<br />
<br />
You know the <i>one</i>.<br />
<br />
The one that takes forever.<br />
<br />
And I didn't even see it coming.<br />
<br />
James is four and a half but as the fourth of five kids, he can tumble out of the back of the car with his brother and sisters like he's storming the beaches of Normandy. The kids have a tendency to race to get places, even when they're been told "okay, no racing," so I know that he can move.<br />
<br />
Today however, took a turn when, after dropping Sadie off at Middle School I heard a small voice from the back say "Mommy. I have to tell you something."<br />
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My immediate thought was "Maybe now, as I've just pulled into the drop off lane, isn't the best time, dearest" but there were about six cars in front of us, and no cars behind us, because it was still half an hour until school started and so instead I said "what's up Buddy?"<br />
<br />
"My. Waterbottle. Just. Came. Out. Of. It's. Pocket." He said, his voice trembling.<br />
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As someone who has not been with our family this past week, you may not understand how monumentally dangerous I immediately understood this moment to be.<br />
<br />
There have already been hysterical tears over the correct placement of his Paw Patrol Water Bottle in his Green Slime Backpack twice this week (and it's only Thursday morning, so that's 2 out of 3 of the morning runs completed). Fortunately those other W.B. disasters happened before we left home, where they could be quickly dealt with.<br />
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<span style="text-align: center;">Now we were in the drop off lane. And getting closer to the front every second.</span><br />
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I did not ask why on Earth he was touching the water bottle in the car AGAIN, which I'm pretty sure means I deserve some sort of Mommy gold star towards a free coffee. Instead, as two cars pulled forward and we inched our way towards the front I said, in my calmest calming voice, "do you think you can slide it back in there Buddy?"<br />
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"NO I CANNOT!" he replied as we reached the front of the line. As I glanced back I realized that his bones had been transformed into jello-y mush and he had now slipped down in his seat like the tiny puddle of preschool drama he so clearly had become.<br />
<br />
"Can you just...Hold it in your hand as you walk in? Look right there buddy. There's a kid with a water bottle in his hand! Just do that! And you can put it away in your classroom!" Stress seeps through the forced brightness in my words as his older brother tumbles in an appropriately quick manner out of the car.<br />
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"NO I CANNOT!" comes the answer again.<br />
<br />
<br />
"Okay dude. You've got to go. We're holding up the line. Up, up, up. Leave it. If you can't carry it, you can have it after school."<br />
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To my abundant surprise he listens. He makes it to the door.<br />
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But then Maggie, his nine year old his sister, who's in the middle row captain's chair and is on the autism spectrum, starts to giggle which is what she always does in stressful situations.<br />
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"DON'T YOU LAUGH AT ME MAGGIE!!!!" he shouts as the principal arrives the door of the car to welcome him to school (and probably see what the hold up is).<br />
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"Are you okay buddy? What's wrong?"<br />
<br />
<i>Oh no. Don't ask that. He's almost out. He's literally centimeters from exiting the car. </i>I scream internally, while outwardly managing a polite smile of thanks for her concern.<br />
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"My water bottle." He gulps the words out in one great rush. After almost pulling it together he starts to break down again, as he remembers why he was upset, and not just his anger because his nine year old sister is annoying him.<br />
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"Oh? Do you need your water bottle?"<br />
<br />
The silent screaming in my head doesn't drown out his adamant claim that he does need it. He slowly stumbled back to the back seat and picks it up (as only a kid with low tone who's been waiting for an opening after a PT referral can do), then slowly stumbles to the front as I sink down a few inches lower in the driver's seat and try to disappear.<br />
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Finally he makes his way past his sister.<br />
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"Maggie's sock fell out!" Patrick tells me, because of course, by now her socks are off her feet and on the floor in front of her, and directly in front of the door that James is stumbling out of.<br />
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"Throw it back in." I reply. "And have a great day." The car doors finally close and as they head towards the school's front doors I glance over my shoulders to see that "no one behind us" has been transformed into Cars Lined Up All The Way to The School's Driveway Entrance. And possibly down the street, but at least I can't see that far because of the corner.<br />
<br />
I die a little.<br />
<br />
We pull out of the parking lot and I fantasize for a few minutes about the abundantly clear instructions the four and a half year old is going to have tomorrow about unloading at drop off, and then spend another ten minutes wondering if I've just single handedly gotten kindergarteners and K-club banned from using the drop off lane (they're already banned from being picked up there).<br />
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Because if that's the case, we're in real trouble.<br />
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I have to drop the boys off by myself each morning, on my way to dropping off our two autistic girls at their two individual schools, which are roughly fifteen and thirty miles away, respectively.<br />
<br />
We don't do buses, because with medication rules, they can't have their inhalers on the bus for the hour and a half bus ride, and two of our kids have inhalers and I feel like that's just too big of a risk.<br />
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And walking them in? I imagine it's physically possible, in an abstract sort of way.<br />
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And dangerous.<br />
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I would have our nine year old, who loves to elope and is a genius at escaping (and may just be melting down, because mornings are prime melt down time) and our three year old, who collapses randomly, and who I also have to hold onto every moment to keep from running off, trying to fall into every puddle she sees, and then freaking out because she's wet and HATES how that feels navigating the path to the school. <br />
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Loading and unloading them into the car by myself is the stuff that nightmares are made of. Can I do it? Yes.<br />
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Do I avoid it at all costs? Also yes.<br />
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So I risk an occasional slow morning on those days when my four and a half year old is having a <i>moment</i> to keep everyone a little bit (okay a lot) safer and to keep myself a little bit saner. <br />
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And I hope that the cars behind me understand when they see my red eyed four year old tumble out of the car, that the reason behind the unreasonably long unloading time was because of a rebel water bottle, and not because I was scrambling an egg for my kid in the car and serving him breakfast.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2uH4ezZ268nqRS_7iWS1SeXqo6PYY_O3YnGlkKlyKHCSSBLRXdnTDak_B4zrs63qghjh3Y5wySd7r5yO9kBobz6lSnCPZ7KHSt_QMrlbh_e0vDln-iSPDNuuEiiYOi9ORUPRisNlYlq8/s1600/IMG_0612.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2uH4ezZ268nqRS_7iWS1SeXqo6PYY_O3YnGlkKlyKHCSSBLRXdnTDak_B4zrs63qghjh3Y5wySd7r5yO9kBobz6lSnCPZ7KHSt_QMrlbh_e0vDln-iSPDNuuEiiYOi9ORUPRisNlYlq8/s640/IMG_0612.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JZImzLc52Lo" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-35212139965169082952019-08-26T22:21:00.002-04:002019-08-26T22:21:54.648-04:00The 1st Day of School 2019Today was the first day of school.<br />
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And last night, in anticipation of the first day of school, I had everyone put on their first day of school outfits and I snapped photos.<br />
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Because I've learned that there's no way we're getting good photos amid the chaos of rushing around to get everybody to school before 8 am, despite my best laid plans.<br />
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Besides, I only had one of each of my back to school chalk boards and interviewing and writing out each kids answer just would not work out with the hours we have between sunrise and school.<br />
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So one by one I took each kid aside on Sunday afternoon and asked them their questions. Everyone except Tessie was able to answer them.<br />
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In fact, Tessie was the loose cannon all the way around for this whole photo thing. All she wanted to do was look at the flowers on the giant flowery bush in the driveway:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzT_J77YASbZxAv-PT-K2myYy2KWaQ6Fw8uiFsxwr4xbCQMnCuFFvj59w1sWmlz2HPVydUF8pcVI3W1CECSTV7Is0x3ZUSIYbGAAE-UvN8FEhXtv9a0SJdaCm-28eIZ2tMsnxJs3amt1Y/s1600/tessie%2527s+best+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzT_J77YASbZxAv-PT-K2myYy2KWaQ6Fw8uiFsxwr4xbCQMnCuFFvj59w1sWmlz2HPVydUF8pcVI3W1CECSTV7Is0x3ZUSIYbGAAE-UvN8FEhXtv9a0SJdaCm-28eIZ2tMsnxJs3amt1Y/s640/tessie%2527s+best+1.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Meanwhile James was ready to ham it up. </div>
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James is going to K-club this year, which is not quite preschool, but not quite kindergarten, although technically it is kindergarten. It's for kids whose birthday are between September and December of the school year and it's just what this guy needs. </div>
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He loved his first day back and is so excited to be in the same school as his big brother this year.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHMLPGnTwG8i5RcmKKZuj1WVdBuGacc5bXN-KP6G_0qoiNtksG5fUVAalcEG-BuOUTz642jNFhQll2bl8uRRfzShBme6BCJeNgIAcWyPuiJX34Rwg1-M2wTWy7OrP8IQEzKbgcQFvBA8/s1600/james+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlHMLPGnTwG8i5RcmKKZuj1WVdBuGacc5bXN-KP6G_0qoiNtksG5fUVAalcEG-BuOUTz642jNFhQll2bl8uRRfzShBme6BCJeNgIAcWyPuiJX34Rwg1-M2wTWy7OrP8IQEzKbgcQFvBA8/s640/james+2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Meanwhile Patch was moved up from kindergarten into first grade. </div>
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I'm grateful that he's only a few doors down from his little brother. </div>
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It took us all summer, and approximately, 8745 pairs of shoes, but we finally found a pair that are not too "tight and squeezy" on his feet.</div>
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I was so relieved on that day.</div>
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For a moment I had visions of him wearing his favorite raggedy old sandals in the snow.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpJXxBSKhKhkHzK2EfybqeWDMKrJKgJdX7VFGPPGClfg_f_2q1TybUvQeOxGf18GGN-PQWBH-KmiuU4taM9IXE5PYCmPfercscilL-cMkiL-3JLVjZdkc33Av_S9u2RVX4Am5IJD08j8/s1600/patrick+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGpJXxBSKhKhkHzK2EfybqeWDMKrJKgJdX7VFGPPGClfg_f_2q1TybUvQeOxGf18GGN-PQWBH-KmiuU4taM9IXE5PYCmPfercscilL-cMkiL-3JLVjZdkc33Av_S9u2RVX4Am5IJD08j8/s640/patrick+2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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I am so proud of Maggie and this photo.<br />
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Not only this, but today she had her yearly physical and she went in and sat perfectly still while she had her blood pressure taken, and she remained still when the doctor looked in her ears and mouth, and of course as always she said "bu-bump, bu-bump," when they listened to her heart.<br />
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I don't think I would have believed that those things were possible if you had told me she would be doing them so soon, a few years ago.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqSuM8YEBpuxr9R5wWaAk6YsPMndswjyi4wNTNQ3HdmyWYGaWe9Nlv1WnVzcMeiECnwtLrTJyyyf1GsFLS4QDjxGRWGgWHNfseYjJmBfE5Bo73DFtauWOvHLHKDzAu4txVlMhXljprS10/s1600/maggie+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqSuM8YEBpuxr9R5wWaAk6YsPMndswjyi4wNTNQ3HdmyWYGaWe9Nlv1WnVzcMeiECnwtLrTJyyyf1GsFLS4QDjxGRWGgWHNfseYjJmBfE5Bo73DFtauWOvHLHKDzAu4txVlMhXljprS10/s640/maggie+2.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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My tween is going to Middle School! How can that be?<br />
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She is 5'3 (and a quarter) and is rapidly closing the gap between us in height. At this rate, and if her feet, which are three sizes bigger than mine, are any indication, she's going to be taller than me by Christmas time.<br />
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And she's quite anxious for that day. It might be her #1 goal as a fifth grader.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFlZbr7CpfchkuQp6sFlavPHfbmiJrftHD1NTC6urWpAVe_mW7se2J3H0a7PgFWf52fNIz8KRwAsJZ-0SUt3cRtuXze3u8Otxi0_wvOMfr9oi-hGguG6ZkdXYR7PiLYGJINASHJAR-I9c/s1600/sadie+1.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFlZbr7CpfchkuQp6sFlavPHfbmiJrftHD1NTC6urWpAVe_mW7se2J3H0a7PgFWf52fNIz8KRwAsJZ-0SUt3cRtuXze3u8Otxi0_wvOMfr9oi-hGguG6ZkdXYR7PiLYGJINASHJAR-I9c/s640/sadie+1.png" width="480" /></a></div>
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I'd like to thank James for being perpetually photogenic. As mentioned earlier, thank goodness I took pictures yesterday! Because in their sleepy, impatient state, no one really wanted photos today!<br />
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I am definitely going to have to do this again next year. It made this morning so much less stressful.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlVcWleEG9yA91aC10SsAyRqQhA3vCWrjRW_Im-cnDvragxZ6Akbvh2N0rdpyCot4-Y6GHH7Y74Tr1mBHQP8vcnz3kcHAS93phUu0HGNAq4Rbe5FhyZyKBI3gvOBhhP4BhUV2UdxzuQ4/s1600/together.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlVcWleEG9yA91aC10SsAyRqQhA3vCWrjRW_Im-cnDvragxZ6Akbvh2N0rdpyCot4-Y6GHH7Y74Tr1mBHQP8vcnz3kcHAS93phUu0HGNAq4Rbe5FhyZyKBI3gvOBhhP4BhUV2UdxzuQ4/s640/together.jpg" width="480" /></a></div>
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Now to get ready for the second day of school.<br />
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Today Nani and Bopa helped me out by taking the girls to therapy, but tomorrow I'm attempting to drop everybody where they need to be on my own. Fingers crossed we can make it everywhere without being late!Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-29883349999786370492019-04-09T11:44:00.002-04:002019-04-09T11:51:27.493-04:00A Birthday, A Collapsed Lung, and A Genetics AppointmentThe last week of March was hectic.<br />
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But before I get into the part where things got really scary and Sadie was hospitalized because of her asthma, I'm going to share a little story from this morning.<br />
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After a week of having her asthma controlled using her steroid inhaler twice a day, and her rescue inhaler every four hours, she came home from school and I learned that she had her first "attack" since getting out of the hospital.<br />
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It was at recess, she explained, but was vague about the details no matter how much we asked. But this time her inhaler had worked and she'd been fine.<br />
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At home, over spring break, after getting out of the hospital, she'd been running around quite a bit once things were under control, so I was a little surprised that recess had caused it.<br />
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That is until this morning when she said, ever so casually, "Hey Mom, guess what? I ran two and a half miles in mileage club yesterday! And guess what else? I'm faster than everyone else now!"<br />
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"Now... that you have your inhaler?" Because you see before, she was one of the slowest kids out there. Everything began to click into place. "So. Um. Were these two miles, before of after that asthma attack?"<br />
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"Oh after, after...." she trailed off. "Oh. Before. Yeah. Right before. But I'm faster now mom! Than everyone else!"<br />
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I couldn't help but laugh at her enthusiasm. The asthma attack was explained.<br />
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I think she pushed herself just a little bit too hard too soon.<br />
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<i>Especially considering the fact that her doctor thinks it's likely that she had a partially collapsed lung less than two weeks ago. </i></div>
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The day got off to a rough start. Tessie had a genetics appointment for a second opinion at the other children's hospital that's near us. </div>
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After the first office never brought us in for a follow up appointment to explain what the results actually meant, beyond a hurried phone call promising an appointment (despite asking for one), I asked our doctor if a second opinion would be possible. He said it would and a few weeks later I got a call asking if we were getting a second opinion or transferring care.</div>
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I said that I wasn't certain, that I was leaning towards transferring care, and they told me that they would triage her records from her whole exome sequencing and call me back. If it was not serious the wait would be six months. If it was more serious it would four. </div>
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I've gotten used to waiting for specialists though and six months really isn't all that bad.<br />
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A week later they called again.</div>
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Would I be willing to transfer care? </div>
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I guess. Sure. Yes. I wasn't happy where we were. What did we have to lose?</div>
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<i>They wanted to see Tessie in two months. </i></div>
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I hung up the phone. What exactly did that mean? If <i>not serious </i>was six months, and <i>more serious</i> was four, what was two?</div>
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Her doctor explained that it probably meant that she was interesting and not to worry, but it was hard not to.<br />
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I worried even more when we woke up on the morning of that appointment and Sadie could hardly breath.</div>
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We did a breathing treatment and she sounded a little better, but there was no way I was sending her to school like that. And suddenly the best place for her seemed to be one of the best children's hospitals in the country. </div>
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So I loaded her in the car, along with Tessie, and we headed south and then east. </div>
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An hour later her breathing finally sounded good and she finally felt better. </div>
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We went to Tessie's appointment and they explained a lot about the rare gene that Tessie inherited from both Paul and I. They said that they'd like her to come back in a few years, because they're hoping that by then, they know more.</div>
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However they were really interested in the other gene that she and I both have. The EXT2 mutation that we have is supposedly pathogenic. It should cause bone tumors (osteochondromas), they explained, in 96% of the people who have the gene. </div>
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But (and this was a big, hopeful, but) they were hopeful that this gene isn't really pathogenic. Because there are four people who are known to have this variation, other than Tess and I, and none of them have osteochondromas, which usually show up by the time a person is Sadie's age (and because this gene is dominant each of our kids has a 50% chance of having inherited it from me). </div>
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And I don't appear to have them, which kind of makes five. </div>
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So they wanted to do a full body x-ray of Tessie, because if she's going to have osteochondromas they should have already begun to show up by this age. </div>
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The x-ray process was not fun. But knowing with a high degree of certainty whether or not she was going to have this problem was going to be a big relief. And since it's been a week with no news, I am taking that as a very good sign.</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/haOBsw0z-vQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
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Meanwhile, Sadie was feeling great.<br />
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So we drove back home.<br />
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She felt so good that she was even able to go to her parent-teacher conference that night, which is student led, to show me her power point presentation.<br />
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We went on a little walk together, and her breathing sounded great. And we even went to the store before heading home.<br />
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As she was eating dinner, it started. She started to shake. She was freezing, she said. Could she turn on the heater?<br />
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I asked her to look at the thermostat. It was 75 in the house. No, she couldn't but if she was really that cold she could get a blanket.<br />
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Her breathing still sounded fine. Until it didn't. As dinner ended her chest felt tight. She started to have trouble breathing. I grabbed her inhaler. It didn't help much.<br />
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We waited twenty minutes, and I helped her down to my room and set up the nebulizer. She was still on three time a day treatments and it was time for one anyways. I started the machine and sat next to her.<br />
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And that was when I really realized that something was wrong. She'd say something now and then, and she just wasn't making sense. She said her chest felt tight and the right side hurt a lot. But I was especially concerned because when she spoke she just wasn't herself.<br />
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I grabbed my phone and called her doctor while she was still hooked up to the breathing treatment.<br />
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The answering service took the message and her doctor called within thirty seconds. I'm pretty sure she gasped three times while I described what was going on and then told me to take her to the ER now.<br />
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Paul had been with the other kids, and thought it was just as asthma attack (and as a person who's had asthma attacks all his life I think he thought mom was overreacting a bit). But he helped me get ready and Nani met me on the road on the way to the highway and jumped in our car.<br />
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The triage nurse said her lungs sounded okay and I thought that maybe the albuterol had finally kicked in. She had a fever of over 100, which was why she couldn't stop shaking.<br />
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The PA said she sounded bad. The same respiratory therapist from Monday came in and gave her a breathing treatment. And then the attending doctor came in with a group of people and blood was drawn, an IV was put in and another chest x-ray was ordered.<br />
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And that was when we were told that she had pneumonia, a white blood count that was through the roof, and that she was being admitted.<br />
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She was on two different antibiotics, and was curled up in bed, when I left that night, with Nani sleeping on the fold out bed.<br />
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In the morning I got Patrick, the only kid that had school, off to school with Paul, and then raced back to the hospital. Nani came home to watch the other three with Bopa. A doctor came in and repeated that it was pneumonia and ordered a new antibiotic.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmePrboT1fUC9QyD9dHASmnYLeH1C8A9YotjuUHasryEOtUur9Ke650hXwEjJgXLQWJWHUuw0GUNNWzKRzNNLms-cs8WIQYSTLzmGGBMoH8gYf23cWeYBt2n2h6VXpc-cJPQXvmwKrZ_M/s1600/IMG_7788.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmePrboT1fUC9QyD9dHASmnYLeH1C8A9YotjuUHasryEOtUur9Ke650hXwEjJgXLQWJWHUuw0GUNNWzKRzNNLms-cs8WIQYSTLzmGGBMoH8gYf23cWeYBt2n2h6VXpc-cJPQXvmwKrZ_M/s640/IMG_7788.JPG" width="640" /></a><br />
<br />
In the afternoon a group of doctor's came in for rounds. They asked a lot of questions about her history and then announced that this wasn't bacterial and that she was being pulled off all the antibiotics and had a new emergency action plan.<br />
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She <i>was</i> doing much better, bopping around the room, cracking jokes, and she could go home.<br />
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But I was confused, I told her doctor at the follow up two days later.<br />
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Was it viral pneumonia? Why did she improve so fast on the antibiotics?<br />
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Her doctor looked through the chart and said that sometimes, with asthma, a collapsed lung looks like pneumonia on an x-ray, and sounds like pneumonia, because you can't hear air moving through the lung, and that that's what they thought had happened.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1CurCiW9wR-vuq6KyKPZfALXvw17I6HkNJOxQbtDVAfLNgfrBXKSaKCt04v3bf6dYTFLVLL4ARxmjQ75DlR7zvccEDTiezZWlof-4B2bi5MaYWTAjS_s_DppNsNxPZOAIosTdcDBwNC0/s1600/IMG_7908.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1CurCiW9wR-vuq6KyKPZfALXvw17I6HkNJOxQbtDVAfLNgfrBXKSaKCt04v3bf6dYTFLVLL4ARxmjQ75DlR7zvccEDTiezZWlof-4B2bi5MaYWTAjS_s_DppNsNxPZOAIosTdcDBwNC0/s640/IMG_7908.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">I have never been so thankful that we went to the ER that night.</span></div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/y5WzBSThSxc" width="560"></iframe><br />
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I did make this video of that first day, when we went to urgent care, but more importantly, this video is mostly about the huge week long field trip that Sadie's class got to go on the week before all this started.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpYNeC9CSuE-0BOJ5xljqT4ctjLeqSFHD9w2g9t_qoJKz6mnXrwcFpScL8uTsWZgzXrBnEvnuhe-aWBO8NV-JNuoKsQuxgCN9_YIcJdq05wY8ng26OoLIWZQyfKnQpKYn_z1dfDU2Nfw/s1600/C03185B4-E386-4D80-B80F-A6624365F873.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPpYNeC9CSuE-0BOJ5xljqT4ctjLeqSFHD9w2g9t_qoJKz6mnXrwcFpScL8uTsWZgzXrBnEvnuhe-aWBO8NV-JNuoKsQuxgCN9_YIcJdq05wY8ng26OoLIWZQyfKnQpKYn_z1dfDU2Nfw/s640/C03185B4-E386-4D80-B80F-A6624365F873.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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In fact, I'm pretty sure that when she had her first attack she played down how bad it was because she didn't want to miss the last day of the field trip.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhss-iQbQO-nKZ5L8Dg3UY9PKmj6As95eFaPUU6Wc4wFRMw-60uyZBUhTVjDJXjzsyLRjyjRv2Bv0XFNjEQLKhvcFiCHPgoP6FfHPUlXyugrRIikiwTDw2JFuNNHZV_TEkMDz1jVXpzECs/s1600/IMG_7551.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhss-iQbQO-nKZ5L8Dg3UY9PKmj6As95eFaPUU6Wc4wFRMw-60uyZBUhTVjDJXjzsyLRjyjRv2Bv0XFNjEQLKhvcFiCHPgoP6FfHPUlXyugrRIikiwTDw2JFuNNHZV_TEkMDz1jVXpzECs/s640/IMG_7551.JPG" width="480" /></a></div>
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I got to go to one and a half of the days, and Paul even swung by one day after getting out of court, and it really was that amazing:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Uwuhc1tRrtQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
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In totally unrelated news, I have been working hard with Little Miss Runner on coming up with running solutions. One of those solutions is to go on one or two runs a day.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaD4Vmt4bd7P0hEw-h5DXcNL26YU5POYMnYupTYNN1LPP61ajiev2lANb8OS9xJVqu6ifjCCaQgxvlcHhSlJBoYDEB3vgEAOqyYyEjOLZRzUNEPQ2OeHIWYzwW928B8Hmp9K6T_MUXw1E/s1600/IMG_8061.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaD4Vmt4bd7P0hEw-h5DXcNL26YU5POYMnYupTYNN1LPP61ajiev2lANb8OS9xJVqu6ifjCCaQgxvlcHhSlJBoYDEB3vgEAOqyYyEjOLZRzUNEPQ2OeHIWYzwW928B8Hmp9K6T_MUXw1E/s640/IMG_8061.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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So far it isn't decreasing her eloping. But she is super happy. And that isn't a small thing at all.<br />
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We run connected by two leads and a harness. I'm enjoying it almost as much as she is!<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZblFwZc2B1c" width="560"></iframe><br />
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In other news, I am "almost fifty" according to Sadie (also known as 37), because it's all the same when you're ten. I had one of the best birthday's ever, because it was absolutely uneventful in terms of any sort of disasters, everyone was healthy and we spent time together and had fun.<br />
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And Maggie spontaneously told me "Happy Birthday."<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigg-ujiIG03gKYWVDvLNzm0pHGsQ4GZKrqrE_VHsINzlYTjIOG3HygMO9xXumxxhONTY9eiZb8i5Sks_Mha2wXfUweNCD-WBpBQ2ZPNiEJAcDyzvP1y88d1CKATpAXy2layKW9pQRf4Aw/s1600/IMG_8017.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="960" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigg-ujiIG03gKYWVDvLNzm0pHGsQ4GZKrqrE_VHsINzlYTjIOG3HygMO9xXumxxhONTY9eiZb8i5Sks_Mha2wXfUweNCD-WBpBQ2ZPNiEJAcDyzvP1y88d1CKATpAXy2layKW9pQRf4Aw/s640/IMG_8017.JPG" width="480" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Here's Maggie, face covered in paint after really enjoying some art time!</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
And that is exactly what makes a good day around here.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Xal7-2-FKoM" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
That is the latest around here! I had no idea I had so much to say! Hope you are having a lovely start to spring.<br />
<br />
Oh and I almost forgot! Chapter 11 is up! And for about three days last week I was ranked #3 in action, which was pretty exciting!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://embed.wattpad.com/story/180955006" width="500"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-18056271270181088322019-04-02T10:59:00.002-04:002019-04-02T10:59:48.722-04:00World Autism Awareness Day 2019: Do We Light It Up Blue?A lot has been going on and I have a lot to tell you about in an upcoming post, because the last week was pretty hectic.<br />
<br />
But I'm pausing all that because today is World Autism Awareness Day.<br />
<br />
And I have a complicated relationship with that day.<br />
<br />
Because in 2019 I don't really feel like "awareness" is what we need to be working towards.<br />
<br />
We need acceptance.<br />
<br />
We need to accept people on the spectrum for who they are, and support them, and welcome them into our communities as valuable members. Because they are.<br />
<br />
And so this is my little contribution to World Autism Day 2019, from one mom who doesn't "light it up blue":<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7suu8Z8sTnk" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-1913427633715413422019-03-27T21:03:00.003-04:002019-03-27T21:03:49.109-04:00Two Overwhelming WeeksNani and Bopa went out of town on the 8th and arrived home this morning long before the sun came up, after their flight landed just after midnight in Detroit.<br />
<br />
As you may have already imagined, I've been counting the days until they return. I expected their not-quite-three-weeks away to be a bit harder than usual. Juggling all the pickups and drop offs on my own is always a challenge. But I didn't expect it to be the marathon of ER visits and sick kids that suddenly appeared within days of their departure.<br />
<br />
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<br />
<br />
During their trip there were the regular things on the schedule, like a week long field trip for Sadie's class (she was home at night), and two parent-teacher conferences, but then there were some not on the schedule things that popped up... like the ER visit for Tessie when she was so dehydrated from whatever was going on with her tummy, the doctor's appointments first with primary care and then gastroenterology following that, and then blood tests and other even less pleasant tests I'd rather forget (and we got all those results today and all but the weird one that is consistently abnormal for both Maggie and Tess, were normal).<br />
<br />
And then Maggie eloped, not just once, but twice. The second time was after I thought she was safely on the school bus and headed off, but she took a split second opportunity before the door was closed and before the bus driver got her into her harness to dash down the steps and head off down the street.<br />
<br />
Thankfully I was only halfway down the path back into our house when she took off:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MbzhZbi9qm0" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
There were, of course, some really, really fun times.<br />
<br />
There was a mother-son Super Hero Dance and I got to take both boys and we had a blast.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bYd_w6dJ__E" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
And of course I did some more abstract thinking in the wee morning hours about some of the challenges we've faced over the last few years:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Tbvsr5m3olc" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
But nothing prepared me for Friday morning when Sadie woke up and said that she had had a hard time breathing when she'd woken up to get ready for school.<br />
<br />
Sadie likes to wake up long before the rest of the house and take her time getting ready. I asked her how long it had lasted and she said, "about an hour." So we talked about how that is emergency, and how that's something you tell mom and dad about right away, because with certain kids around here, if "an emergency" hasn't been defined they don't always quite realize the seriousness of the situation.<br />
<br />
I will admit though, that she seemed fine when she came downstairs, and because she hadn't come down to us during the attack I wasn't too worried. I called her doctor's office and since they didn't have any appointments available for that day anyways, I made an appointment for Monday.<br />
<br />
The next morning, she came downstairs and had a full blown asthma attack. As she struggled to speak I yelled to Paul to get his inhaler and within moments of breathing in the Ventolin she was breathing better.<br />
<br />
Still I took her to urgent care where they weren't certain she didn't have pneumonia, because her lungs sounded awful and her oxygen level wasn't great. A chest x-ray and nebulizer treatment later, they were fairly certain she didn't have pneumonia, and we headed home with a new inhaler, and a prescription for five days of an oral steroid.<br />
<br />
Sunday was uneventful with only one early morning attack, which the emergency inhaler quickly resolved. And Maggie's doctor called Sunday night (and explained that she wasn't worried about Maggie's abnormal blood test) and when I mentioned she'd be seeing Sadie the next day we quickly chatted about what was going on with her too.<br />
<br />
Monday finally arrived. We went to the doctor and Sadie's lungs still sounded pretty terrible. When the doctor asked her to breath deeply it sent her into an attack, which was resolved when she used her inhaler. She asked Sadie if she thought she needed a treatment and Sadie said she thought she was okay with just the rescue inhaler.<br />
<br />
After listening to her breathing again it was significantly improved, so she sent us home with a prescription for a twice daily preventative inhaler, thinking that along with the steroid, and the rescue inhaler, we should be on our way to getting her breathing under control.<br />
<br />
She also mentioned that the x-ray had shown "peribronchial cuffing," which she said was basically thickening from inflammation in her lungs. And finally she confirmed what we've suspected since Sadie was a little tiny baby, which is that she believes that Sadie has asthma.<br />
<br />
I thought that would be the end of the day and that we'd go home and Sadie would rest while I gathered the courage to send her back to school with her inhaler.<br />
<br />
Instead, while we waited to pick up her prescription, she had another attack. And her inhaler wasn't quite as effective this time. Five minutes later the third one hit. I stood next to her as she used her inhaler again, sitting in her seat in the car, and then I jumped into the driver's seat and headed straight to the ER.<br />
<br />
At the ER she was whisked back past the first and then second triage, and a doctor immediately came into the room to listen to her breathing.<br />
<br />
It was rattly and squeaky and wheezy and her right lung was significantly worse than her left.<br />
<br />
They ordered three back to back nebulizer treatments and told us that they might have to admit her depending on what happened after the nebulizer treatments.<br />
<br />
Four hours later, after many people had listened to her lungs, we were finally sent home with a nebulizer and a ridiculous amount of albuterol and a new asthma plan.<br />
<br />
On Tuesday she had one attack, while we waited to pick Tessie up from school. Her inhaler worked. But it was disturbing to see that my usually bouncy girl can't laugh or run a few steps, without immediately being unable to breath.<br />
<br />
It's such a sudden, drastic change, and no one can pinpoint the cause.<br />
<br />
Then Wednesday arrived and we went back to her doctor for the post hospital follow up. I was hoping, after the final day of steroids, and the daily preventative treatments that she'd sound better.<br />
<br />
I could tell though after she walked down the hall though that she was breathing fast, even after ten minutes of sitting in the exam room.<br />
<br />
He listened to her breathing and asked if she'd been taking the medications. I explained she'd completed the Presidone and had been taken the Qvar (daily inhaled steroid).<br />
<br />
A few moments later he announced that we needed to be doing 2-3 time daily nebulizer treatments alongside the Qvar and that she needs to come back next Wednesday to see if it's under control. And she needs another course of Presidone to see if that will help.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/9kkUBz0BkNA" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
As we sat in the line to pick up the prescription the phone rang. It was the nurse from gastroenterology explaining the various test results to me. I was barely juggling talking to her and verifying the prescription information when I heard Sadie say "Mom!"<br />
<br />
"Hold on Sadie. I'm kind of busy."<br />
<br />
"Mom. Mom."<br />
<br />
"Just a second honey. It's the doctor's office."<br />
<br />
It didn't even click in my head. I'm so used to people saying "mom, mom, mom" all day and it didn't dawn on me that this is the child who doesn't interrupt conversations, especially on the phone.<br />
<br />
When I hung up she finally said, "Mom. I think I need my inhaler." and it was clear that she really did. And she was sick to her stomach from waiting too long, even after she could breath again.<br />
<br />
So major lesson learned. And I've explained that she doesn't have to ask to use her inhaler at home and that if "mom" doesn't work because I'm distracted to try "help!" instead.<br />
<br />
That is basically what's gone on lately. I'm really hoping we have this under control soon.<br />
<br />
And now it's time for another nebulizer treatment.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-2918523402918966462019-03-22T09:40:00.001-04:002019-03-22T09:40:41.934-04:00A Toddler, An Update, and A Gastro AppointmentYesterday was Tessie's very first gastroenterology appointment to try to figure out why she's having tummy troubles. And it was interesting to say the least.<br />
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<br />
The resident who we say before we saw the doctor who had treated her back when she was a tiny baby in the PICU, went over her entire chart with me, and while going through it he said "so she has Segawa Syndrome?"<br />
<br />
"Um? I don't think so? I have never heard of that. What is it?" I replied.<br />
<br />
"I'm not really sure." He said. "I had to look it up before I came in here to talk to you, because I'd never heard of it either. Did she used to fall down randomly a lot?"<br />
<br />
"Oh that. Yeah. She would be fine, crawling or walking, and suddenly she'd just fall over and over again. They thought they were seizures, but her EEGs are all normal."<br />
<br />
"But no one ever told you she has this diagnosis?"<br />
<br />
"Nope."<br />
<br />
So he's thinking she doesn't have the diagnosis. I'm guessing that maybe a doctor at the hospital during one of her stays suspected it and put it down and never removed it.<br />
<br />
I don't know.<br />
<br />
I'll be asking her primary care doctor and neurologist about it at her next appointments, which aren't too far off.<br />
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<br />
But, back to gastro matters.<br />
<br />
They are leaning towards thinking this is an allergy issue. Which is good, I guess because a mild allergy is not anything more serious.<br />
<br />
But which is sad because she loves all things dairy and they are seriously suspecting dairy.<br />
<br />
And because when we tried soy, almond, cashew, rice, and coconut milk she also got really sick, he's having her drink pea milk. We're just hoping that doesn't make her sick too.<br />
<br />
So here's a bunch of Tessie cuteness (she was "talking" up a storm and making so many cute sounds) and even more of what happened in the appointment:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/edA3sc1CEgI" width="560"></iframe>
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<br />
And while I've been thinking about gastro appointments and sensory issues a lot lately, as Patrick heads into his first feeding therapy eval, which he desperately needs, I made a video about why I wish we hadn't done baby led weaning.<br />
<br />
I don't think that baby led weaning is necessarily a bad thing. I think it's totally fine for developmentally normal babies.<br />
<br />
But I think it can be a real problem for kids who have developmental delays and that's why I wanted to share our experience using it for our last three babies.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/261ZeKJwB6U" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Meanwhile I've been going through a parent training that I did with Maggie again with Tessie.<br />
<br />
And just like with Maggie, this fantastic training has been having really positive results.<br />
<br />
So I wanted to share a video of us using the technique to interact and play:<br />
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<br />
<br />
And another video of us using it to work on practicing sounds!<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/pFrQ-tzkPHE" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
And since my last post I have published two more chapters to my novel over on Wattpad!<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://embed.wattpad.com/story/180955006" width="500"></iframe><br />
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That is it for today because we need to rush off to OT and speech right now! Hope you are having a great Friday!Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-32845484906787989772019-03-19T18:32:00.002-04:002019-03-19T18:32:30.215-04:00Run Aways and WritingI wasn't planning on taking any sort of break from blogging.<br />
<br />
But then February acted the way that it always does, as the longest short month of the year, simultaneously rushing and crawling by, so that I wondered how one month could be so busy and yet so torturously slow (and also cold) at exactly the same time.<br />
<br />
We wracked up snow days until we were in the double digits and all wondered when it would actually be warm enough for any of the kids to even ask to play outside again.<br />
<br />
Which is how we plowed through, eyes on the prize (spring) into March, knowing that sooner or later, unless we're spinning off into an ice age, it has to get warmer eventually.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately you throw in a tiny bit of non sub zero temperatures and some people get more than a little restless.<br />
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<br />
In the last few weeks I've argued with small people about whether or not we needed to bring jackets when it was 36 degrees outside and whether tank tops were appropriate when the mercury in the thermometer hit 44 (they say no and yes, respectively to those questions).<br />
<br />
And that likely contributed to our major St Patrick's Day drama.<br />
<br />
I was planning on a quiet Name Day celebration that included Mass, followed by then letting Patrick pick out lunch and a cake for a small family celebration at home.<br />
<br />
While I was making lunch though, things took an extremely unfortunate turn.<br />
<br />
Sometimes the double cylinder lock on the front door doesn't quite turn all the way. That is to say, it feels like it twists, but the bolt inside doesn't quite fasten. Usually you can feel it. Sunday, as we brought the rush of kids and cake into the house, we didn't.<br />
<br />
We were home for about an hour, and lunch was almost ready, when Paul walked into the room and asked why the door was open. I asked what door it was, but before he answered I knew the answer. And I knew that it could only mean one thing.<br />
<br />
He would only ask "why is the door open" if it was the front door. The front door would only be open, if she were gone.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/g7YayTYFkGM" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
I ran outside.<br />
<br />
I looked east and west, the way the road outside our house runs and there was no one in sight.<br />
<br />
It was the worst feeling, knowing she was already so far away I couldn't see her. I headed east, figuring she would go the way that we usually go and when I hit the frontage road, already on the phone with 911, I headed south, making another guess.<br />
<br />
The 911 operator quickly asked if I was calling about the five year old running near the highway after I said my location and when I said "yes" she said that they knew about her and the police were on the way and hung up. I kept running and called back, quickly saying that I was the mother, that they needed to know, she's autistic and barely verbal. That she's a runner. That she is drawn to water. That she can't swim.<br />
<br />
I said everything that I could think might be a matter of life and death, gasping out the words, as I pushed on down the road. Paul was somewhere back behind me, locking up the house and getting in the car. He hadn't had his shoes on and I had a head start.<br />
<br />
She might be near the highway, they said. They couldn't give me an exact location, they went on, in case they were wrong. Paul pulled up and so did another woman, who could tell by my panicked expression that I was searching for the lost child that she had seen moments earlier.<br />
<br />
Then the dispatcher in my ear told me that she believed that the police had her.<br />
<br />
Yes, yes that was right, she was checking to make sure. The police had gotten her.<br />
<br />
She was in his car.<br />
<br />
The woman in the stopped car pointed us in the right direction, because the dispatcher still couldn't confirm where they were, and off we went.<br />
<br />
From the top of the highway overpass we could see the police car at the bottom of the onramp below, lights flashing.<br />
<br />
I held my breath.<br />
<br />
She had crossed the bridge and run down the onramp.<br />
<br />
Later we would learn that cars had attempted to block her but she had darted down past them closer and closer to the highway until the police officer had gotten there and jumped out and grabbed her and scooped her up.<br />
<br />
He had known who she was.<br />
<br />
<a href="http://www.cammiediane.com/2018/09/the-eloping-flyer-and-talking-to.html">Because of the flyer.</a><br />
<br />
He brought her home and we looked back on the tape together from the security cameras and realized that she had only been gone for seven minutes, while I was in the kitchen cooking and while the other kids were playing in the back yard (where she had been a short while earlier before discovering the unlocked door).<br />
<br />
In seven minutes she had put serious distance between herself and our house. <br />
<br />
When I watched the video though, it made sense, because she was sprinting the entire way.<br />
<br />
And she wasn't alone.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/rvBgieuX7wE" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
Tony, our small, extremely timid chihuahua, knew that she wasn't supposed to be out of the house and didn't know what to do to stop her. So he went with her.<br />
<br />
We didn't realize it right away because after six minutes he came back on his own and was already in the house (panicking), and in all the rush and panicking the humans were doing, no one noticed the tiny canine.<br />
<br />
He's being hailed as our own tiny hero though and you can tell he's quite pleased with himself now that she's back.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
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<div style="text-align: left;">
On an entirely unrelated note, I wanted to get the kids Easter Baskets done before Lent this year 1) so that I could focus on Lent and 2) because Dollar Tree generally runs out of seasonal candy extremely early and so, before Lent seemed like as good a time as any.</div>
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<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
So the kids' baskets are made up, and safely tucked away, awaiting the end of Holy Week and I made a video in case anyone wants ideas for a wide variety of ages:</div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_QwHMFMrMXc" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
And in other Easter related news (because checking things off my to do list early is high on my to do list these days), I also managed to hit the Once Upon a Child Easter Dress Wear Sale on it's first day, to get all the kids' Easter outfits for this year.<br />
<br />
They were all pretty excited by what I found:<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/YM3RVJrz_WY" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
A lot more than that has happened of course (there's probably about forty other videos over on the channel that goes into much of that), but I've already written so much and there's clamoring from small hungry people who need me to make dinner ASAP.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
------------</div>
<br />
Oh! But before I go.<br />
<br />
I finally decided that my finished novel (one of them anyways) wasn't doing me any good just sitting around, collecting dust, with no one reading it.<br />
<br />
So I decided to publish it on Wattpad. There are currently five chapters up and I'm updating it on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays for anyone who's interested in reading about dragons and fantasy and things that are entirely different from what I normally talk about here.<br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="280" src="https://embed.wattpad.com/story/180955006" width="500"></iframe><br />
<br />
And that is it for today. Here is hoping that the second half of March is much more boring than the first half.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-22042912653798309472019-01-14T15:24:00.001-05:002019-01-14T15:24:33.589-05:00Lucky Ducks and Another X-RayThe stressful gastro saga continues (<i>accompanied with random pictures from our weekend to lighten up the ugh factor</i>).<br />
<br />
In <a href="http://www.cammiediane.com/2019/01/stress-surgery-and-haircuts.html">the last post</a> I explained that on Wednesday morning I called the GI office and told them that the after six days of colonoscopy clean out protocol for a certain little kid in the house, things weren't going well.<br />
<br />
They sent us for an x-ray, gave the kid a two day break, and told us to start up the clean out again on Friday.<br />
<br />
So all weekend that's what we did, focused on Monday, when it would be done, the ninth day of this horrible process, and we'd go in for another x-ray that would hopefully say that things were "good enough."<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FxBvfmWReeA_ytq0c8MVGN3vKUv7SVy1gZcDLQu-xnVRag5HWY7oc1Bi9IF5gY54hmSlvLGussbasd3uXH_2br2pssfMUNZYgYsdPYCz_BAsayG13hIlVoY76RwckBYwEBjSU8ha_zw/s1600/IMG_9739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8FxBvfmWReeA_ytq0c8MVGN3vKUv7SVy1gZcDLQu-xnVRag5HWY7oc1Bi9IF5gY54hmSlvLGussbasd3uXH_2br2pssfMUNZYgYsdPYCz_BAsayG13hIlVoY76RwckBYwEBjSU8ha_zw/s640/IMG_9739.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The progress that occurred this week gave no indication that we'd reached a point that they would consider "good enough"... but doing the same thing over and over again was beginning to feel like insanity.<br />
<br />
And I have a kid who has had to miss the first week back to school (because you can't really go to school during this whole process) and who desperately doesn't want to miss the second week.<br />
<br />
At six a.m. this morning this particular kid kept begging me to ask their teacher if it was okay if they went and I kept explaining that we just had to get their tummy a little bit better for that to happen, while wishing desperately that I could make it happen so that they could go and run around on the playground and play with their friends.<br />
<br />
This morning I called gastro first thing to tell them we'd completed the additional three days of the process and to see about the x-ray.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3hbCue5hdW4r9dO-j-whz9DNYrDH___ZxdR3vpL3PwuKFjktdd2gwTN_rM_sMznKco0WTbFH1bDuwTw6VteWI1S8l_-5sN7U_PM2tLoRsQkJj_jOqs7-yxYj80ZsGphIDCZC4C4qQAc/s1600/IMG_6817.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1600" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEif3hbCue5hdW4r9dO-j-whz9DNYrDH___ZxdR3vpL3PwuKFjktdd2gwTN_rM_sMznKco0WTbFH1bDuwTw6VteWI1S8l_-5sN7U_PM2tLoRsQkJj_jOqs7-yxYj80ZsGphIDCZC4C4qQAc/s640/IMG_6817.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
The urgent nurse line went to voice mail (the non-urgent line has a two day turn around and that's why this is "urgent").<br />
<br />
I left a message and checked everything off my to do list that I could do. I had a window of time, midday when we could do the x-ray with just me and this particular kid, without hauling siblings along with us, or having to go late at night.<br />
<br />
"Please, please, please, have sent it." I whispered as I drove a couple of hours after I left the first message.<br />
<br />
But it wasn't sent and no one was calling me back.<br />
<br />
So I called his pediatrician and spoke with the nurse there. I explained that last week his doctor had told me to use the x-ray that we already had and had promised me that if we needed another x-ray he would order one ASAP (gastro later also told me to use that x-ray when they called, so they knew that it had been used). <br />
<br />
Well, now we were supposed to get that other x-ray, and I couldn't get ahold of gastro, so could he maybe send that order in like he'd offered to, so that I didn't have to bring all five kids along to the hospital after school?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz23jLZ28UxoKtVa5BB2abBRiEmINeyhbAaiqz8xYWBnm87P3dC_SHpwFfQNzVPZqVazyjYMpL4_UGsceaZ-WsKRx2EG2u_ZE-v5nR991csN7vuzmCNm43eSC17XOliLzYGSGpGgLR82w/s1600/IMG_9708.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz23jLZ28UxoKtVa5BB2abBRiEmINeyhbAaiqz8xYWBnm87P3dC_SHpwFfQNzVPZqVazyjYMpL4_UGsceaZ-WsKRx2EG2u_ZE-v5nR991csN7vuzmCNm43eSC17XOliLzYGSGpGgLR82w/s640/IMG_9708.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
I knew that the nurse, who'd been there during appointments when I'd had to do exactly that, could picture what that would be like.<br />
<br />
Unfortunately his doctor wasn't in the office today, and it might take a while to get an answer back about whether they could order the x-ray for us.<br />
<br />
I picked the kid up and we went to Dollar Tree so this particular child could pick out six small presents for doing so wonderfully through all of this.<br />
<br />
"Six is so many!" were the words I heard from the back seat.<br />
<br />
I called radiology. Any chance the order was already in? No, they didn't have anything new. I hung up the phone.<br />
<br />
The phone rang again there, in the parking lot at Dollar Tree. It was the nurse from gastroenterology returning my call.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6A0g7vh8POsNxtHiB7onWq4IIzCPE-IlI1o25fHGEhwkifhoCT3tjh_kN-Y3qmL9fsahETb5o0qR9lKCR_oJwIfiKShhvDB5oYZ8W6x50Z4cdznu0vobLBWPCtvJR7lNUbLhbSQFou8A/s1600/IMG_9756.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="426" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6A0g7vh8POsNxtHiB7onWq4IIzCPE-IlI1o25fHGEhwkifhoCT3tjh_kN-Y3qmL9fsahETb5o0qR9lKCR_oJwIfiKShhvDB5oYZ8W6x50Z4cdznu0vobLBWPCtvJR7lNUbLhbSQFou8A/s640/IMG_9756.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />
<i>It doesn't sound like things are where we want them and we have no record of wanting another x-ray. Please continue with the cleanse.</i><br />
<br />
I took a deep breath and asked her to double check with the provider. I was certain, totally certain today was supposed to be an x-ray. And this is painful. Really painful. The first five days were okay, but now it's hurting. I don't want to keep pushing this thing if we don't have to. We need to check and see if this is enough.<br />
<br />
I hung up the phone and stared at the screen and screamed internally.<br />
<br />
I know it's nobody's fault. It's just hard to get little things done and it's already a hard, exhausting process and it's already dragged on far too long (the cleanse). And it's hard not to get discouraged by the fact that it doesn't seem to be working.<br />
<br />
We lingered as long as we could in the area around the hospital before driving home so that we could get the other kids after school.<br />
<br />
We'd made it the thirty miles and had been in the house for ten minutes when the phone rang. It was gastro again.<br />
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<br />
They had wanted an x-ray.<br />
<br />
The order was in. We could go to the hospital at any time now.<br />
<br />
"Thank you." I said, feeling completely drained. And now to decide between having all the kids come along, or going super late.<br />
<br />
Fun times.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
-----------------------</div>
<br />
Meanwhile we did have some really fun times yesterday.<br />
<br />
I found a Lucky Duck Game on clearance for $10 at Walmart and the kids thought it was basically the best find ever.<br />
<br />
Maggie played it with the boys, which I think is pretty much the first successful game I've seen her play with them, and it was pretty wonderful.<br />
<br />
I still had to help her, but not really any more than I had to help the boys remember whose turn it was and not to forget that they couldn't just randomly start grabbing ducks in excitement.<br />
<br />
All in all a pretty successful game time.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XpUhBE38aZ8" width="560"></iframe>
Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-60251462024203333862019-01-12T09:16:00.001-05:002019-01-12T09:16:03.634-05:00Stress, Surgery, and HaircutsThe new year came out in a rush of things that I knew that we had to do, but that didn't make the last couple of weeks any less hectic. <br />
<br />
And stressful. There was definitely heaps of stress mostly caused by one particular doctor's appointment for one of our younger kids.<br />
<br />
I'm not saying which kid it is, because gastro issues aren't fun, but I will tell you what happened since we have quite a few kids and quite a few of the kids are still little.<br />
<br />
I took one of our littles to an appointment at the Children's Hospital for an issue we've been dealing with since summer. This particular little kid has already had to go through three colonoscopy prep clean outs and I thought they were doing better. Definitely better than when we first got a referral to gastro.<br />
<br />
The doctor thought otherwise. <br />
<br />
The little progress that had been made over the last six months since the process had started, and three months since we'd last seen them, wasn't enough. Even with two daily meds that we faithfully give this child every, single, day.<br />
<br />
We'd even gone along with the GI suggestions that are common with these types of issues to take this particular child to a therapist, to make sure the issue wasn't psychological, and had returned after a couple months of visits with a message from the therapist that they needed to figure out what was going on because he believed that it was 100% physical.<br />
<br />
They ordered a three day colonoscopy prep clean out for the kid and I gasped.<br />
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<br />
To be clear, they'd just said to prepare a colonoscopy clean out every day for three afternoons and give it to this particular child. If it didn't work (as in have colonoscopy worthy results) by the third day, we were to call them, and prepare for a forth day.<br />
<br />
We could stop at any time if the results looked good.<br />
<br />
But she said to expect more than one day.<br />
<br />
At the time, I thought three sounded so long.<br />
<br />
A week and a half later I'm glad I didn't know what was ahead of us.<br />
<br />
Three days passed. Little progress was made. I talked to the doctor on call because it was the weekend. He said to repeat the clean out for two more days and to call after the fifth day.<br />
<br />
I sighed and we did it. Five days sounded impossible, but we were already three days in.<br />
<br />
Days four and five weren't too bad. The kid was a good sport about it, faithfully drinking their sippy cups and on those days they didn't seem to mind it as much. But the drinks weren't successful in doing much either.<br />
<br />
On day five I called back and gave them the news that we still weren't seeing anything like the results they wanted.<br />
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<br />
I carefully went over exactly what I'd done, and how exactly I'd followed their instructions for the third time, and then the fourth time, until they were satisfied that I really hadn't messed it up somehow and that it really wasn't working.<br />
<br />
We needed to do a sixth day they said.<br />
<br />
And the sixth day was when things got bad and the kid got sick and after that we were at the hospital for x-rays confirming there wasn't a blockage, it just hadn't worked. And my kid was hanging out with the x-ray guys who were giving them an action figure that they had found in the sticker box and stickers and what this particular kid <i>really</i> wanted, a rubber band that had fallen off of one of the rounds of stickers.<br />
<br />
The next day I got the call that we needed to do three <i>more</i> days of clean out.<br />
<br />
I may have begged and pleaded and said I don't even know how it's possible when this kid feels this sick at this point when drinking this stuff. <br />
<br />
Isn't there any easier way? <i>And I meant any easier non-surgical way.</i> There was not.<br />
<br />
And they said, you <i>have</i> to, you absolutely <i>have</i> to, we <i>need</i> to complete the clean out.<br />
<br />
Midway through last nights colonoscopy prep drink party, when this particular kid hit the wall and "couldn't" drink anymore I excused them from helping pickup toys (let's face it they weren't doing all that much anyway, mostly following the bigger kids around while they were doing their chores) if they finished their drink.<br />
<br />
I hadn't really meant for this particular kid to be cleaning up when I said "okay guys, time to pickup" anyways. The kid in question flopped down on the couch and drank and drank and that pushed them through day seven.<br />
<br />
We have two days left in this newest prescribed span of time. And then back to the hospital for another x-ray. I am so ready to be done and I know this particular little is more than ready for it to be done.<br />
<br />
I'm so afraid that it isn't going to work (since it hasn't worked much so far) and that they're going to say we need to keep pushing through more days.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7ssKRBJVKVQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
Meanwhile, in the midst of all this, Sadie had two big days.<br />
<br />
Around the new year she started begging me to chop off her hair.<br />
<br />
Are you sure? I said, mostly because in the past she's asked me to cut her hair and then changed her mind when it was done. This time I wanted to make sure that she was sure.<br />
<br />
She assured me that she was absolutely certain and after giving her a chance to change her mind for a week, and being certain that she wasn't going to, I did what she asked.<br />
<br />
She told me that I could record it and I'm so glad that she did because she was hilarious.<br />
<br />
She kept telling me that she was "lightheaded" because she thought that lightheaded meant her head felt light from not having as much hair.<br />
<br />
She's such an awesome kid.<br />
<br />
And I'm really glad that she likes how it turned out.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/TbTJDXAC74I" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
The next day it was time for her surgery.<br />
<br />
We got out of the car at her surgery, which I wasn't planning on vlogging in any way shape or form and she asked where my camera was and why I wasn't recording.<br />
<br />
I told her I hadn't planned on recording anything, and she said that she wanted a vlog about her day and her surgery. I pointed out that I'd left my camera at home and she pointed to my phone and said "what about that."<br />
<br />
So I laughed and filmed bits of her day, and she got her video.<br />
<br />
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<br /></div>
And she lost her adenoids in a very successful, easy surgery where she had hardly any pain afterwards.<br />
<br />
She was the most excited when the anesthesiologist told her that they would put in the IV after she was asleep with gas, because the IV was what she was the most nervous about beforehand.<br />
<br />
And we're all pretty excited that she can now, for the first time in her life, actually breath through her nose.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/MBKYl7ppETw" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
In the midst of all this, my car ended up spending a few mornings at a tractor mechanic down the street from our house, where they drilled into the frame so that we could connect a new harness for Maggie, to the frame of our car.<br />
<br />
She is little, but she's so muscular that she's outgrown the weight limits on most five point harness car seats. It took a bit for us to figure out what came next, but we finally got the special harness, and another special strap, and a special seatbelt lock and altogether it seems to be working.<br />
<br />
The only problem was that the special harness had to be drilled into the car frame. But the guys at the mechanic place down the street can fix just about anything and they were able to move the brake lines and drill the harness hardware into the car and now she is set.<br />
<br />
For now at least.<br />
<br />
And she seems pretty excited about her "big girl" harness with a booster.<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8APSUFNFVvw" width="560"></iframe>
<br />
<br />
And during all of this while I was picking up a few little prize/treats at Dollar Tree I realized that they were putting out their Valentine's Day items already.<br />
<br />
Now I don't know if this is the same everywhere, but where we are the seasonal items at Dollar Tree sell out fast. The cashier told me it's not unusual for them to sell out in a single day at the store I usually shop at near Maggie's therapy center.<br />
<br />
Which is why, when I saw a mermaid box of chocolates I knew that I needed to stop then and there and change my plans from a quick trip to a quick trip getting the kids their little Valentine's Day gifts if I wanted to get them at Dollar Tree.<br />
<br />
And I made a little video about it because Dollar Tree has some surprisingly neat stuff. Ours even had mermaid fabric pillows shaped like hearts (so I guess you know what Tessie's getting with her chocolates)!<br />
<br />
<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WJ1XPFAwevQ" width="560"></iframe><br />
<br />
And that is what has been going on with us and keeping me so busy that I haven't even been able to sit down and get out a blog post in the last two weeks.<br />
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I'm hoping the next couple of weeks will be a little less eventful.Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-85320827110117713082018-12-27T23:12:00.001-05:002018-12-27T23:12:52.982-05:00The Search for the Christmas Pickle and Other Great Moments<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Merry Christmas! </div>
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The first morning of the Christmas season has come and gone (and who knows how many more before I finally finish this post) and the most exciting moment may have been when the kids raced downstairs to find the pickle ornament in the tree.</div>
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The night before Paul had teased me that Sadie wouldn't find it. </div>
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"Oh yeah, put it so low that the almost six foot tall girl will never see it!" he'd laughed as I hid it where every kid might have a chance of finding it.</div>
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"I can't put it higher than the littlest kids can reach!" I'd said, even though I doubted Tessie would actually be looking.</div>
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But when Sadie flew into the room, the first thing that she said was "it can't be above this high, because mom would never put it higher than the littlest kid could reach!" and she was suddenly circling the tree crouched down, on a serious mission to find the pickle ornament before anyone else.</div>
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And find it she did. </div>
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Tessie believed that every present was a family gift and enjoyed the day thoroughly.<br />
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The only presents that weren't being freely shared with her were the ones that were too tiny for her to play with since she's definitely still at the "everything goes into the mouth" phase at two and a half.<br />
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She was, however, especially interested in these tiny toys, and would try to swipe them (there weren't many, only a couple) and then sneak away upstairs into the Orange Play Room to hide. I snapped this picture after catching her absconding with an LOL doll downstairs. Once she realized she was allowed to have her Catboy doll she came out and alternated between jumping on the bed and hiding under the covers for at least an hour, which is her next favorite activity.<br />
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It was also definitely a good way for her to take a break from all the noise and chaos of her brothers and sisters.<br />
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Her other favorite thing to do was stealing Bopa's chair.<br />
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Because it rocks and she realized that it rocks and she thought that that was pretty amazing.<br />
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What we didn't know at the time was that we were about six hours away from a stomach bug full out striking Tessie, James, and Maggie. But I am just very, very thankful it held off until after Christmas day.<br />
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Well I can't say that we didn't entirely know that we were starting to get sick. It is definitely one of the reasons the kids and I were in pajamas all day. I'd been feeling like I was fighting something off all week and so had Sadie. But we seemed to just manage to fight it off as the little kids completely were overcome by the bug.<br />
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Thankfully they seem to be completely recovered now.<br />
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The #1 present of the day was definitely the Scruff-a-Luvs. I can't explain the attraction but three out of five kids are obsessed.</div>
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I can say that the very best thing for these little fur covered balls of glue is to toss them in the washing machines. The kids tried to wash them by hand and they were a horrible mess and were still covered in glue afterwards. </div>
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After a day of barely being able to keep it to myself how terrible they looked, I put them through the wash with some sheets and they look...somewhat less scruffy and slightly more loveable. At least they're slightly fluffy now.</div>
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I think that one of the most impressive parts of the day was watching Maggie share her presents with Tessie. I knew that Sadie would be fantastic with her tiniest sister, and that her brothers would have varying degrees of success or difficulty if she mistook their presents for her own, but Tessie was mostly interested in what Maggie had. And Maggie let Tessie play with her all day long. </div>
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She even gave Tessie some of her candy. I could hardly believe my eyes. </div>
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The littlest member of the family was definitely spoiled with cuddles and attention and love all day long. </div>
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And I did manage to record much of the excitement of the present opening of Christmas morning.<br />
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I think my favorite part was when Sadie and Patrick brought out the presents that they had gotten from the student store. I loved opening mine but my favorite part was seeing what they had given Paul (and each other).<br />
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And of course I had to capture the fun when we headed over to Nani and Bopa's.<br />
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There is so much room to run there, even when they're inside.<br />
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And run they do.<br />
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Tessie finally got to see her giant mermaid pillow and her reaction did not disappoint.<br />
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She took it out for a spin before she fell asleep on Christmas night. I love watching her with it.<br />
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It's so relaxing.<br />
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And this was probably the least relaxing day of my month.<br />
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Christmas parties at school kind of stress me out. Even when they end up being fun!<br />
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That is it for today. Hope you are all having a wonderful Christmas season!<br />
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Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-85535466688194111642018-12-24T23:59:00.000-05:002018-12-24T23:59:03.655-05:00A Scare and A Christmas SuperstoreBefore today the kids and Paul, and really anyone who'd walked across a parking lot or road with me and the kids probably thought that I was a little bit paranoid about safety.<br />
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Having Maggie with her tendency to sprint and dart and not be aware of danger sort of made me that way.<br />
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<a href="http://www.cammiediane.com/2018/11/today.html">The accident a few weeks ago</a> and that up close look at how badly a vehicle can damage a human body, even going from a stop to hitting someone a short distance away, didn't really help either.<br />
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We've talked so much about looking both ways before crossing the street in the last few weeks, and about always peeking out around the edge of the bus and being careful even if the bus stop sign is out and you think the cars should be stopped, that I've lost count how many times we've talked about it.<br />
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But we still had a very, very close call today that left all of us shaken.<br />
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Today we took a very special trip to visit a store that I've been excited to go to since we moved to Michigan. Since we moved here in 2011, that basically means I've been waiting 7 years to make the 90 mile trip to see the biggest Christmas Superstore in the world.<br />
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The store didn't disappoint. It was absolutely amazing and the kids (and grownups) had so much fun exploring it's many acres of aisles and marveling at it's delicate, sparkling baubbles.<br />
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After checking out at the end of over an hour we visited the chapel on the edge of the parking lot and looked at three beautiful outdoor nativity scenes and then made our way back to the car.<br />
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I was leading the way, pushing the stroller.<br />
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Sadie was right behind me. My mom was next to her, holding James' hand in her left hand, and Patch's in her right and my dad was a little ways behind my mom.<br />
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I am always conscious of brake lights and I've sort of trained Sadie to be the same way. My mom is exactly the same way (I come by that particular trait honestly) and she never saw them either.<br />
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Instead, without any warning a car came to life and immediately moved backwards. It was just behind me and I heard my mom and Sadie scream and I turned quickly, to hear my mom say that she'd only barely been able to yank James out of the way to keep him from being crushed.<br />
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The car slowed and looked at us and then sped away.<br />
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And it was only then that I found out that they had actually hit Sadie.<br />
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She was okay, thankfully. Her thick winter jacket had born the brunt of the blow. The worst of it, she said was that her legs wouldn't stop shaking. And by the time I was sitting in the car, mine couldn't stop shaking either.<br />
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We went out to lunch. And then we carefully navigated the way back to the car. And James and Patch were a little more willing to hold hands and a little more watchful of the still cars we walked by as we returned to our mini van.<br />
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And as this Christmas Eve gives way to Christmas Day in a few more moments I am just so, so grateful that all the members of my family are still healthy and whole and that that little accident this afternoon wasn't much worse than it actually was.<br />
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yq2tkZwhx-o" width="560"></iframe>Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8188078120365131355.post-47855415447303799462018-12-23T22:02:00.001-05:002018-12-23T22:02:07.489-05:00Tessie Rocking Her PECS Binder is the Best Christmas Gift<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
Tessie has been using a Picture Exchange Communication System book (also known as PECS) to communicate at school for a few weeks now. I went through the first training near the time when she started and then I completed the second training this last week.</div>
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On the last day of school they handed over a tiny white binder full of tiny velcro covered, laminated photos.</div>
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I'd been warned that she might be resistant to the idea of using her binder at home. </div>
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So far the only thing she's been resistant to is the idea of fetching her binder herself, which is somewhat complicated by the fact that I have to protect the binder from a certain binder destroying mermaid at all times. </div>
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Meanwhile, Tessie is rocking the PECS binder. She's been using it to tell me what's on her mind at all times: </div>
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The first time she picked it up was to tell me she didn't want a bread stick right then. She wanted pizza. </div>
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And then a sip of water. And another sip of water. </div>
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The next morning I handed her a bowl of cereal and she handed me a strip of paper and pointed at the words "I want cup" as I read them back to her before I'd even had time to walk back into the kitchen to grab her cup. </div>
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She was on a roll and was letting me know exactly what she needed at every turn. </div>
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I hadn't gotten much of it on video though, until today at Nani's house. </div>
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I know that Tessie loves oranges. She had already had three. And I realized that her binder actually had an orange card in it.</div>
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So I peeled an orange, set up the camera, and sat down to see what would happen. </div>
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And Tessie gave the greatest demonstration of how to use her book that I possibly could have imagined. </div>
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I thought she might have a bit of orange and then I could explain how it worked. </div>
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Instead, any time I would start to talk about her book she would appear to be reminded that she had a book and she would race over and use it to ask for another orange slice. </div>
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And as a mom to a kid who previously couldn't ask for anything at all it was a pretty amazing experience. </div>
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Which is why I am elated to be able to share in this video, because the content is pretty much my all time favorite.</div>
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I am so proud of Tessie. </div>
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<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/6M_PecoorLE" width="560"></iframe><br />
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And after two days of watching Tessie, Maggie who would have nothing to do with PECS when she was three is now very interested.<br />
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Yesterday she used the book to tell me she wanted a cheeseburger.<br />
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I think we might have to give this whole PECS thing another try with Maggie again too.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvUQ_gRoL3DYCZFniJs0_fWPAWfdlZFU1xbybphYWkHe3JjrxIJPG75-unEEuCstV2u2Scze_PybR_c__PAu9vuSzaysM2pQLO8qqQKozc-HTN4T7kbA6MEcHXTL5DAAih8iK_7JUB3Y/s1600/IMG_6562.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1600" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhPvUQ_gRoL3DYCZFniJs0_fWPAWfdlZFU1xbybphYWkHe3JjrxIJPG75-unEEuCstV2u2Scze_PybR_c__PAu9vuSzaysM2pQLO8qqQKozc-HTN4T7kbA6MEcHXTL5DAAih8iK_7JUB3Y/s640/IMG_6562.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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I have to say that I am going into this Christmas feeling pretty grateful. </div>
Cammie Dianehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07137080807945525006noreply@blogger.com0