Please Excuse My Typos

As I have reviewed a few of my previous posts, I have realized that I have had a few typos. Most of them come in the Title. I usually do a spell check, but it does not check the title. I usually forget this fact and don't check it myself.

I have noticed that often my fingers get ahead of themselves. I have not had any formal typing class/training. I have just gotten better over time. I can type much faster than I used to but my accuracy rate is not that good. (I really need to work on this before I start back at college.) I have noticed that one of my most common errors is typing the word form instead of from.

Please understand that my blog is not called The Insane World of Motherhood for nothing. Here are a few of the normal circumstances under which I am writing my posts:

• With 1 or 2 whining girls on my lap (this is often one handed typing).
• Catching a few quick minutes during lunch or nap.
• Stopping to break up sibling spats.
• Stopping to change a stinky diaper.
• Stopping mid-word because it is too quiet.
• Stopping to kiss a boo-boo.
• Stopping to do numerous "mommy jobs" (far too many to list separately, but you have the idea of what they are.)
• Late at night when everyone is in bed.
• In a sleep deprived stupor.
• While a million other things are racing around in my head.

So if you do see a typo, please have a laugh on my expense and understand that I try my best to catch them, but they occasionally slip by.

General Updates

I know I have discussed things that have been ongoing so I thought I'd update on a few of them.

The bathroom project is just about finished. All I have left is to paint the door frames and put the trim boards in. I will try to get some pictures taken and post them this afternoon or tomorrow.

I can't remember if i had posted about B's knee, but he can't wait for the 8th to get here. He is having the screw removed from his knee. It is working it's way out of the bone and causing soft tissue irritation. We are hoping that as soon as it is gone he will have better range of motion in the knee. We will not know what time his surgery is scheduled for until the evening before. That's the way the surgery center schedules things, which I think is just stupid.

On the lice situation, L has been back since last Tuesday and had appeared to be nit free. I found one nit in her hair today. Obviously they have not taken care of the problem at home. There is something that they have neglected to treat. It is getting so damn frustrating on my end. I hate to send her home for one nit that I removed, but I really do not want to get them started in my house. My girls have thin hair, so if they get it I will not have much trouble finding and removing anything. My hair on the other hand is very thick. It is currently about 4-6 inches past my shoulders so it would not be fun or easy to get rid of any of those nasty things. I would have to ask my mom to come over and take care of it for me.

Kay has gone home and so far I have not heard from her. I'm sure they made it back alright and she is busy getting the boys' school year started early. She is doing this so that she can take about a month off to come help her dad when he is ready.

Sissy has been having horrible reactions to mosquito bites. She got bit just under her eyebrow last week. Her whole eye got so swollen it looked like someone clocked her. We were outside the other evening and she got about 12 new bites. I put hydrocortisone cream on them and gave her some antihistamine. This really helped to keep them from getting as bad as normal.

If I have forgotten anything that you want to know about, just post a comment and I will address it.

SOME

Sissy has started saying another word. We are so excited!!! She brought me her cup pointed to the fridge and said some. She also brought a package of pretzel sticks & cheese to me pointed to it and said some. She has done it a few more times so I guess it's not just a fluke. I guess she has heard me say "do you want some juice, etc." enough times to associate some with what she wants.

I guess grandma was right. She predicted that as soon as we made the appointment to get her evaluated for a speech delay she would start talking on her own. I did get a call today letting me know that 2 of the therapists that I chose have accepted Sissy. The SC will send them the folders with Sissy's info and they will set up the appointments with me.
Hopefully we can get it all done soon.

Getting Back to "Normal"

Since Kay's mom has passed and she has returned home things are beginning to get back to "normal" around our house. She was planning to stay to start the process of going through her mom's things but her dad is not ready for that to happen yet. She told him to just call her when he is ready and she will make the trip back up and stay as long as is necessary to get it all done. I am sure that it is very hard on him.

With normalcy returning the kids are settling back into their usual routines. One of these is fighting constantly. Jay loves his sisters, but he does not know when to leave them alone. Zee will scream and cry when he is trying to hold on to her and even with us telling him to let her go and leave her alone he will not stop. He spent 2 days with grandpa and it was so quite around the house. As soon as he returned her started picking on his sisters. School starts in less than 5 weeks and I cannot wait!

Samantha's Appointment

We finished with Samantha's intake appointment. We filled out all of the paperwork and picked some developmental & speech therapists. They will be contacting the ones that I chose and one from each category will be coming to evaluate Samantha. If she has at least a 30% delay, she will be eligible to receive services.

The service coordinator (that's what I was trying to come up with in the previous post) explained the process which is as follows:

1. Referral -- Call made to EI by the parent, physician, etc.
2. Assignment to a Service Coordinator (SC)
3. Intake Appointment -- SC comes to child's home to gather all needed info & explain the process to the parent(s)/guardian(s). P/G selects therapists to evaluate their child in the areas that delays are suspected.
4. Evaluations
5. Reports from eval. sent to SC
6. SC reviews reports and determines if services are needed.
7. SC lets p/g know the results of the eval. & whether or not child qualifies for services.
8. A IFSP meeting is done to determine what the goals are for the child's therapy. (This is very similar to the IEP we do each year for Jay's Special Ed. & Speech services at school.)
9. Therapist(s) begin to see the child.
10. Case review every 6-12 months.

I believe I got all steps in there. She also explained that there is a Family Fee that would need to be paid to help cover what insurance does not cover. I know that our insurance does not cover speech services, so I figured that we would have a large payment to make each month. Well I was wrong. The fee is based on your income. The monthly fees are $0, $10, $20, $30, $50, $70, $100, $150 & $200. It does say that families who are on Medicaid, KidCare or WIC, or whose income is at or below 185% of the federal poverty level are not required to pay a fee. Considering that the maximum monthly family fee for a family of 5 is for those whose income is over $144, 780 per year.

I am hoping that we can get the evaluations done next week. I would like to get things going before school starts. I will definitely post again once we have acheived the next step in the process.

Yah, Right Mom

This is the precise phrase that my 3 year old said to me yesterday evening. She is developing quite an attitude; she is 3 going on 15. This phrase I'm sure she either heard from her brother, cousin, day care friend or the TV.

It still amazes me on how quickly she picks up on things and uses them in the right context. Many kids will hear a phrase or word and use them incorrectly or with the wrong inflection. It's the opposite for Zee.

Head Lice - Round 2

After sending L home last week on Monday with head lice her mom decided to keep her home all week. She said that she wanted to make sure that she had gotten rid of all of the lice before sending her back over. I was very appreciative of this.

The problem is when she arrived this Monday I took her mom's word that she had gotten everything out of her hair. She told me that the lice was gone. About an hour and a half later she started scratching her head. I decided that it would be best to fully check her head. Guess what I found. You got it. She was not free of the "headlights" as she calls them. I spent about an hour and a half going through her hair pulling out nits. I found at least 2 dozen of them. I called her mom and her older sister came and picked her up.

Her mom said that she is embarrassed that I keep finding them in her hair. I feel sorry for what she is going through with all of this, but I really do not want to get an infestation at my house. I gathered up the few babies and stuffed animals that my girls had been playing with over the weekend and stashed them away in a trash bag. They joined the others in the basement. I vacuumed everywhere that I could. Sprayed the couch & chair with an aerosol spray that is for killing lice. I washed & dried all of the blankets & throws that I had around, including the ones out of Samantha's bed that L decided to take to use for the baby dolls.

She was free of any signs of lice on Tuesday, she stayed home today and we'll see if she is still nit free tomorrow. I sure hope so!! I am tired of treating the house, just in case.