I can't drive...sixty fiiiiive!

I am not usually one to drive much over the speed limit.  I may do 5 mph over the limit, but not very often do I go any faster than that.  It is illegal ya know.  I also stay in one lane most of the time, one over from the far right.  No need to change lanes unless someone is going way under the speed limit.  I know, I drive like an 85 year old lady on her way to church.  I don't care.  But today...I was SPEEDING!!!!  I couldn't get to my moms house fast enough.  At one point I looked down and was doing 18 mph over the speed limit.  I didn't give a crap. (oh, for shame!!)

It takes about an hour to get to my moms house from mine.  I was barely backed out of the drive way when Nick asked how close we were to grandmas.  He had been asking to go to her house for 3 days at this point.  I know he was anxious. 

I try to make sure I am plenty prepared for long car rides.  I have blankies and sippy cups ready.  I have music because it always seems to calm Katie when she is too upset to sit in the car any longer.  I started off this trip thinking it would be a nice hour drive. 

HA!  First, Katie only wanted to lay in the grass when I was trying to get her loaded in to the car.  Nick's car seat wasn't in the totally awesome mini-van.  After getting Nick's car seat and Katie loaded in, with threats of staying in the house instead of going bye-bye, I realized I needed gas, and an iced coffee. 

My ATM card wouldn't work at the pump.  So I went inside to get my coffee and pay for some gas.  The freakin card still wouldn't work.  We tried 3 times.  Debit and credit.  No such luck.  So I got out of line, went to the ATM 10 feet away and pulled out money, with the same stinking card.  What ever!!!  Should have known that was a sign to just turn around and go home.  Maybe try again some other time.

Ok.  Gas in and we are on the road.  Nick asks again how long it is going to take and are we close yet.  "No, Nick.  We haven't left the gas station yet."

Once we got on the freeway, we came to a stop.  Oh joy!!!!  A half hour later we passed the 4 car accident, on the other side of the freeway.  About the time we start moving at a normal speed, I think it is great that Nick starts sharing his hot wheels cars with Katie.  Until she starts pelting them at me.  After the 4th car and 3rd time telling them to not throw cars at mommy, I turned around and yelled, "YOU THROW ONE MORE CAR AT ME AND I AM GOING PULL OVER, SPANK YOU AND TAKE YOU HOME.  NO GRANDMAS HOUSE!!!"  Not one more car was thrown.

But Katie was not happy.  So she started in with asking for her blankie blankie blankie, then doggie doggie doggie, then juice juice juice.  This, of course, all came out as "Gankie gankie gankie", "goggie goggie goggie", and "choos choos choos"  not to be confused with "shoo shoo shoo" which she had taken off and thrown at me also.

My lovely and patient son Jordan kept handing Katie what ever she asked for.  Then she would throw it again, ask for it again, watch Jordan strugle to reach for it, hand it to her, throw it again, ask for it again, watch Jordan...you get the picture.

After 15 minutes of this, I was ready to pull my hair out.  So Nick decides he is going to start asking again if we are close and start complaining of his back hurting.  I don't know what his strategy is in complaining about his back, it never gets us anywhere any faster.  It never makes me pull the car over and let him out, but he still complains about his back hurting almost evertime we get in the car for more than 5 minutes.

So as I get about 20 minutes from my moms house, I look down at the speedometer and realize I am doing 18 mph over the speed limit, check my mirrors for cops, turn the radio up to 11 and keep on going at that speed while contemplating going faster just to get out of this car and away from these monsters.

I wonder how much it would cost to put them in a taxi to get them home on Sunday...

ADHD Noises

Jordan has struggled with ADHD his whole life. After many years of fighting the idea of medication, we finally gave it a try. I cried the next day because I felt I had done him a diservice in not getting him help sooner.

Even though the meds are tiny little miracles in pill form, early in the morning, before they have had a chance to kick in, the ADHD noises fill our home. It can sound like a tornado going through a zoo. Jordan makes this screeching sound that sounds like someone has stepped on a dog. He screams, yells, laughs, screeches and makes other indescribable noises, all while running and jumping through the house. But once the little miracle pill kicks in, he is calm and can carry on a conversation with out running around in circles first.

This struggle with ADHD has been rough, but I wouldn't change a thing about him. He is perfect to me. Even if I have to ask him to do something 27 times before he actually does it. Last night we went to one of those pottery painting places and had a great couple of hours just being calm and painting. A very memorable moment for me. I hope it was for him also.

Big Head Nick & the Monsters

Nick was born 5 and half weeks early. He was tiny when we first came home with him. Premie clothes were too big on him. It was adorable. Then he started to grow...and grow...and grow.

His head was growing the fastest. It was getting huge!!! Not only huge, but funky shaped too. It was flattening out in the back and becoming lop sided. His head was more wide than long. Kind of like that football head shaped character on TV. Nick ended up in a helmet for several months. We started this process a little later than we should have, but that was because his doctor kept saying his head would round out once he started rolling over. Yah right!!!

Now a days, his head is not so flat, but not round either. My husband and I have arguments over Nick's hair cuts because I want his hair longer to help hide his weird shaped head and Eddie's not satisfied unless it is a buzz cut.

We were never embarrassed about the helmet and we aren't embarrassed about his head now. We met a lot of people out and about who would come up to us and tell us about their kid who was in a helmet too. It was nice. Here is our problem though. Nick is a giant. He is about 6 inches taller than all the other 3 year olds at daycare. When we went to the dentist she asked what school he goes to. I told her he didn't go to school and she gave me a weird look. I had to explain that he was only 3. She was surprised because the last kid she had in her chair was the same size and was 5 years old. We get this alot.

Nick's cousin, who is only 3 weeks younger, just started wearing size 3t. Nick is wearing a 5-6. He has to wear a lot of button up shirts because his head is so big, we can't get it through the head hole of many shirts. When his head gets stuck taking a shirt off, he looks at me, shaking his head and says, "Giant head!"

We think it is cute and we try to make him see it as a special part of him. Hopefully the kids at school won't make too much fun of his giant head and that when they do, he can laugh along with them because we have been laughing at home about his head since he was helmet boy.

Starting Somewhere

I have to have a starting point somewhere, so I thought I would start with some stories from memory just to get them down and have them to use against the kids when they teenagers.

Nick:
Husband and I were watching a movie this past weekend and Nick (3) was eating his hamburger in the play room. Suddenly Nick walks in to the living room to interupt our movie for the 5th time in 7 minutes. He has this look on his face like the world has come to a stop. His arms are stretched out to the sides (he's part Italian, he can't talk with out using his hands) and there is half of his hamburger in one hand. We ask him what is wrong and he says, "THAT man put PICKELS on my hamburger!!!" He then brought the hamburger to the table and picked the pickles off of it. As he walked away, he said, "Man. I am SO pissed about the pickles!". It is really hard to reprimand a child for swearing when you are laughing uncontrollably.

Katie:
Dearest lovely Katie (Thing 3). She has to wear her pajamas backwards. We have to cut the feet out of her onesie jammies and put them on her backwards. Why, you ask? She likes to play in her poop!! The boys were never this messy. I just don't get it. The first couple of times, it happened during her nap time. I would put her down with her clothes on, then get her up a few hours later and she would be NAKED, freezing and playing in her poop. So we started puting her down for her naps in her jammies. This worked for a about a week. Then she figured out how to unzip her jammies and take off her diaper and play in her poop. It's like she saves up pooping until it is nap time just so she can play in it. The final straw came when we got her up from a nap and she looked like she had been out mudding. She had thick poop all over her legs, face, fingers. Daddy took her to the bath while I did bed room cleaning duty (doody). The whole house smelled like poop. So, that night we cut the feet our of her jammies and put them on her backwards. No poop playing since we then. Hopefully she will out grow this phase before she gets married.

Jordan:
Thing 1 is now 12 and tries not to be so funny anymore. But he has had his moments as a kid. One of the most memorable is his "WORST DAY EVER!" We were building an addition on the back of our house and had some constuction workers there that day. I came home from work and Jordan was in the front yard. His bike was in the middle of the driveway (where it belongs, duh!) so I honked for him to move it. Suddenly he drops to the ground and starts crying. I jump out of my totally awesome mini-van and go over to see what is wrong. He has stepped on something, but he was wearing socks and tried to take the sock off. The sock was being held to his toe by what ever it is he stepped on. My husband and I carried him in to the house and cut away the sock so we could take a look at the "object".

This was the weirdest thing I have ever seen. Neither of us can tell what it is. It has about 4 or 5 metal posts sticking straight out of it. While my husband and I try to decide what to do, Jordan is screaming on the couch, "THIS IS THE WORST DAY EVER!!", "Am I going to have this thing in me for the rest of my life?", "Am I going to be able to walk again?" Who knew a 9 year old could be so dramatic??

Since we couldn't figure out what this "object" was and we had construction going on at the house, we decided to take him to urgent care. We were afraid that it could be some crazy construction nail that had barbs in it and just yanking it out would be bad. Urgent care docs couldn't tell what it was right away either, so we did an x-ray. It turns out to be an earing. It was a stud earing with out the stone in it. The post of the earing went right through the center of his big toe. A big doctor came in with a pair of pliars, grabbed Jordan's foot and YANKED that sucker right out.

He didn't have to have it in him the rest of his life, he did walk again and I am sure he has had worse days since then.