Tired Vent

My head is spinning after tonight!

3:30PM
Bubba really wanted to spend his tooth fairy money (he yanked out a tooth yesterday) at the dollar store. He brought it up the minute he got off the bus, so I would like to thank whomever at school planted that little seed about the dollar store being a possibility.

We had a full schedule, which didn't matter to Bubba even after it took us 5 minutes just to read the schedule board. After 10 minutes of crying, hugging, pleading, scrunching his face, and looking utterly confused, Bubba resigned to carrying the chairs into the kitchen (after I mop I leave them in the living room for him to carry in after school as a chore and "heavy work") and then passively ate his "donut snack." He really wanted to watch TV, so he earned 15 minutes by completing his reading "homework" (in 2nd grade, he even gets homework from his resource reading pullout!).

[Yes Aunt Piggy, I was doing that proofreading 'favor' during all of this!]

4:00PM
A few minutes later Moosie got off the bus, and after 10 minutes give or take, we made it into the car and on to the chiropractor, Bubba's occupational therapy, and then back home for dinner.

6:30PM
Since I had a buttload of homework staring me in the face, and homework is never pleasant, I decide to dangle the carrot-- if Bubba did all of his homework--which we already reviewed on the schedule board)--I would take him to the dollar store to spend his tooth fairy money.

The deal was made with minimal pencil throwing, minor pencil banging, lots of chattering, and even more redirection. But we completed record amounts of homework. He did a spelling word worksheet (this week's words), a math (money) worksheet, his 10 minutes of reading, a book journal entry, and practiced last week's spelling words (because he missed 7 out of 12 last week and apparently gets a "retest"). He was in a good mood, and it still took over an hour with constant redirection, assistance, modification.

I think I should do my yearly thing and call an IEP meeting in 2nd quarter since he is now struggling in spelling (he can't read half of the words and can only spell them if I say them really slowly sounding out each letter, letting him watch my lips), money, time, addition, subtraction, reading, etc. The gap seems to widen every year and I just can't fathom me tutoring him in every academic subject along with everything else. Making cookies last night with the boys was SO much better than an hour of homework!

Meanwhile, as Bubba did his homework, Moosie tore up the house, played in laundry detergent, ripped up paper, wrote all over stuff...ugh. I have yet to master how to engage him while keeping Bubba focused. TV is out for obvious reasons. Anything to distract Moosie, distracts Bubba. And Moosie in a room by himself is not good either, not that it doesn't happen all of the time, but it's just not good!

The school nurse informed me this evening that Moosie has cellulitis on his finger (infection), which is from chewing on his fingers and stuffing them in his mouth, and he is falling down at school several times a day again (no reason, he just falls and lands on his chest), and Bubba's OT did a quick occupational therapy evaluation for me yesterday so I was better prepared for Moosie's IEP meeting tomorrow and most of his fine motor skills stopped where we left off with early intervention a year ago. His muscle tone is still poor (limbs, core, and mouth), and he has sensory integration issues blah blah blah. No surprises. I wonder if this counts as regression since he's mad minimal progress in a year and seems to have lost some skills? The school did their own evaluation so it should be a fun IEP tomorrow. I didn't push for fine motor services last year since there were so many other things that were priorities like oral motor (stuffing and choking), speech, language, social. Now that he's made so much progress in those areas, I'm wondering if I should've thought more about OT and PT. But then I realize I wouldn't have changed a thing. I didn't want him in therapy 4 hours a day then and I still don't now! I wanted him in the classroom with his peers rather than walking up and down stairs in a therapy room or practicing eating with a work in isolation. He's only nearing 4 years old for goodness sake.

8:00PM

We finally make it to the dollar store where Bubba selects a PowerRanger knockoff that might just stay in one piece until we get home. Moosie lucks out because I am tired and don't want to risk a meltdown, so he also has a dollar in hand. Luckily no one questions why he didn't have to lose a tooth to get said dollar.

8:30PM

Boys are bathed/showered, nails trimmed (ah shit, can that nail infection be spread? I didn't clean the clippers in between fingers/toes or kids), vitamins chewed, bowel movements made, teeth brushed, some toys picked up, and the TV time earned--for all the above tasks--watched.

9:15PM

The boys are tucked in bed. The evening went smoother than I could possibly imagine, but I am damn tired. I mean DAMN TIRED. Almost too tired to realized how blessed I actually am that me and the boys accomplished as much as we did as uneventfully as we did. There was crying, yelling, pushing, etc., but all in all, not too bad!

9:30PM

Hubby gets home from work. He's relaxing now...

Guess I should go clean up the laundry detergent etc. now. Luckily I was smart enough to request Moosie's IEP meeting to be on two different days (tomorrow is just OT evaluation results, updating present level and Monday is the icky one with services, minutes, goals, etc.), so not too much preparation needed for tomorrow.

Oh, tomorrow is another fricken half day of school for Bubba!