10K and other thoughts

Wow, I checked my counter and I'm nearing 10K hits. Are you the one? Check it down at the bottom and let me know who # 10,000 is.

Things are going as normal here. Igor's private speech therapy is looking to be a battle as the clinic I thought I had things arranged with has a waiting list and there are few other options available in the area. I'm checking on things at other clinics and such and we'll see where that leads. However if your a speech language path there are LOTS of open jobs in the SE WI area apparently.

He has had a bump up with speech therapy through 0-3 and their OT is going to evaluate him next week. He's a very distractable kid so we will see where that leads. I hope I'm not going to be dealing with another ADHD diagnosis, however I guess since I've been there and done that it will be nothing new.

Spring is in the air here and I've been trying to get my back flower beds looking decent - both for selling the house and weed control. I let the weeds get WAY out of control back there last summer and they went to seed. I've hauled a couple of van loads of mulch into the bed ( it's pretty big) and still don't have it completely covered or to a good depth. However I have gotten a jump before the weeds so with a little luck they will not take over so quickly.

No bites on the house and few lookers. I'm pretty concerned with the lack of gawkers. I really didn't expect the house to sell quickly but I figured we'd get a bunch of people wandering through. Hubby and I have decided as soon as it looks like his job is stable we are pulling the signs out of the yard. Selling now we will probably end up loosing money on the house considering what we have put in it so we are better off sitting here, though we will likely refinance and take advantage of the better interest rates now .

Well the line for the computer is forming - I think we are going to have to be a two computer family before too long!

Ponderings on Therapy

Today I decided I'm going to go full bore on getting Igor deeply immersed in speech therapy. I've been pondering pursuing this for a while, wondering if I'm just being pushy and inpatient for him to catch on, but it really hit me today when I realized that at the same age Sonny Boy was speaking in clear sentences understandable by anyone. Now I realize Sonny Boy is exceptional ( I think I may be a little biased?) but even other average 2 year olds have more vocabulary and word usage than Igor. So today I got on the horn called his speech therapist from early intervention and left a message, I'm going to bully at least one speech therapy session a week out of her, I called his pediatrician's office and found a therapy service in the next town over and started the process to get him going there - I still have to do a little leg work there but it's easily done tomorrow am. Hopefully if things work as I plan Igor will have three therapy sessions a week, one playgroup - kinda like pre-school, hits lots of areas which is very good for him, one speech session with EI and one with the private group. It will be lots of shuttling around but I think we are in a prime learning window with him and really need to take advantage of this. I have also made an appointment next week to have his hearing re-tested just in case.

To be honest the language delay being so prolonged has thrown me somewhat and I expected him to be speaking near age appropriate by now.

Friday we go back to Children's for another session with the feeding therapist. Things were going so well but then we started backsliding again. I had actually pondered the idea of cancelling the appointment up until about two weeks ago.

I have also made an appointment for Igor at a pediatric dentist -he's seen the dentist when we first came home to check for horrible rotten teeth as I had read all the stories of bad teeth and the kid had some horrible breath. No cavities and we were told the bad breath was post nasal drip. Anyhow the bad breath has improved and his teeth look better since they are now being brushed daily ( one of his favorite activities - go figure) but I'm concerned about his very high arched palate and his bite and wonder if something shouldn't be done orthodontics's while he's still growing? Igor is also a first rate thumb sucker which I know is bad, however I have been loath to try to break it because it brings him much comfort which I knew he needed at this transition time. I will inquire about this as well and ask what the best solution is. I really don't think the nasty nail bite stuff will work, but I have seen thumb guards and there is an orthodontic thing that can be glued into the roof of the mouth that stops things as well.

In other news the weather was wonderful yesterday, if a bit breezy in the 70's if you can believe that! My daffodils are starting to pop up and I may have a bloom or two in a week or so if the warm weather keeps up - I just hope it doesn't prompt everything to bloom early and then we get a freeze. No new lookers on the house - I'm starting to get worried. Sonny Boy has made friends with the neighbor and her dog and daily plays with them now. Good for both him and the dog as the dog is younger dog and the neighbor is disabled and can't romp the way Sonny Boy does with the dog. I think Sonny Boy misses Callie, but I sure don't miss the dog hair and poop in the yard.

I guess that's the extent of my ramblings. It's time to call in the little one from the yard and start the bed time routines.

Sonny Boy takes Flight!

For those of you that know Sonny Boy you know that airplanes outrank just about everything on earth. Since he was a little guy he's always pointed up at planes and it was like having a little Tatoo with you everywhere going "plane, plane!!" He's since outgrown the need to point out every plane flying in the air - but does take notice if they are out of the ordinary - but still airplanes are a significant part of his little brain. I would hazard a guess he knows more about airplanes than the typical person on the street. Therefore to feed this craze we sometimes take him on outings to the local municipal airport to watch the planes take off and land. (hey, it's free and close to home) Hubby had taken him and Igor (who could care less) to the airport on Saturday while we were having an open house. While there a nice man struck up an conversation with Hubby and offered to take Sonny Boy flying sometime. Hubby gave him his number and didn't think we'd actually hear from him but thought it was nice. Later that evening he called and took Sonny Boy and Hubby up for a little flight around the area in his little plane.

Have you ever seen such a big smile!! The two of them had a blast and Sonny Boy even got to take the yoke and "fly" the plane a little. Nothing like that to fan the flames of the airplane obsessed little boy. I wonder how long Sonny Boy's love of aviation will continue? Is he one of those people who are just born knowing what they want to do? - Fly airplanes if you haven't guessed already, not fix them like dad. If he is, I envy him because today I still don't really know what I want to be when I grow up, guess I better figure it out soon though.

On other fronts we had our first open house(s) this weekend. Our realtor does short 15 min open houses so everyone comes at once and it the hope is it will generate a sense of urgency. We officially had 4 lookers and one nosey. I wish I could have talked to the nosey as he used to own the house 30 years ago. I don't think anyone fell in love though, so we'll be at this a while longer. I do have all the house in nice order now though so it's only a matter of maintenance of keeping the clutter monster at bay.

Hubby's work is still crazy but no real news yet, there are several rumours but none of those seem to effect him directly. Hopefully the stimulus package will start trickling down quickly and make it into his company's hands. I hope for our sake, and the country's that it will be a start to turning this economic mess around.

Today at church our preacher had a sermon on the importance of being debt free and how it is related to scripture. Does your debt keep you from following God's call? A line he used is do you follow the Master or Mastercard when you are called. Interesting question.

A big hello to my faithful readers, our certainly quiet lately, are you still there? I know I'm being read by certain overstressed med student and Mrs. S but what about the rest of you? Leave a note!

One Year Ago...

One year ago tomorrow was our SDA appointment. After being shown 10-15 files we were finally shown Igor's file with this picture which was taken when he was about 5 months old - he was now edging in on two years old though. Hard to see the toddler in the infant.

Two days later we arrived in Artemovsk to meet Igor. Not quite the infant we'd been shown a picture of. The information given us at the baby house was better than the info provided by the SDA and we found a relatively healthy but delayed toddler.

About 5 weeks later my mother-in-law and I were getting tipsy on a KLM flight out of Amsterdam and were thrilled we could read signs, understand people who spoke to us and that all the stress was just about over. By the way this pic makes the flight look a little too easy.

This picture was taken at the 6 month home mark!

and this picture was taken today, smeary glasses and all!

Igor has grown several inches and gained around 8-9 lbs since we met him. He has gone from wearing a 12 month clothes to 18 or 24 month stuff, though his pants are a little loose still. He's gone from just learning to walk to running and climbing like a monkey possessed. Igor's language has gone from zero words (even in Russian) to 30-40 understandable words and he's JUST starting to string words together, his favorite is " I got it!" and if you ask him a silly question he'll give you a sarcastic tone of voice with his yes or no.

What a change!

Settling in for the long haul

Well the for sale signs are officially up in our yard as of today. Hopefully we'll start to see some looky loos in the next few days. Our real estate agent wants to do an open house next weekend depending on weather - don't want to do it if we are due really cold temps or a foot of snow. This weekend will be spend tidying up some more. We've gotten a large amount of neating done ( with the exception of the basement) but we want to clean carpet in the stairs, and in the sun room and of course get that basement where it's somewhat walkable.

I've been cleaning almost non-stop the last couple of days. I've told the agent my plan is to keep the house clean enough that with a couple of hours notice I can have it show ready. If that actually works or not I don't know. Officially we are to have 24 hours notice though. I just want to make sure anybody who wants to tour through can get in asap before they change their minds.

Today Sonny Boy's friend from school came over for a playdate. It's his first official playdate at home. He's gone to the friends house before but they've never played here. Thankfully the weather was wonderful and they could burn off lots of steam in the yard and I walked them down the street to the playground too. I discovered Sonny Boy is quite bossy and has quite a lot to learn about being a gracious host. We'll have to work on that, we haven't had too much practice with that. All in all it went well and I think both boys had a good time. Strange coincidence is that the boy's father is an Armenian immigrant which may come in handy if I need some correspondence to Ukraine as he speaks Russian. In fact they are the most multi-lingual household I've ever met as the mom is Spanish speaking, the father speaks Russian and Georgian and they are both fluent English speakers as well, though sometime the mom looses me if she starts speaking quickly but that might simply be because we are usually talking over kids etc. Sonny Boy's friend is fluent is Spanish and English, but I don't think Russian is spoken too much but the child does know a little.

I realized that I never gave results on the genetic testing that was run on Igor while at the feeding team visit. Thankfully all was negative so that was good news. Looking up the syndrome was a mistake and had a huge range of issues that it could include from very minor to very major so it was something better left till the bloodwork came back. Like I said DON'T GOOGLE THAT MEDICAL JARGON!"

Hubby had his big work meeting which calmed a few fears but opened up more. For now we are still sitting in limbo as to what will actually happen. The good new is that if there are layoffs in his department they will most likely be temporary - but how temporary is the problem - 6 months would be ok, we'd squeek by, longer who knows? And how long do you consider it no longer temporary but permanent? So for now we are just hoping work stays the same, we sell the house and live somewhere cheaper to stash away some money for a few months and when things settle out more we'll be in a position to buy something that is closer to meeting our needs. Don't get me wrong, our house is certainly adequate, we'd just like a garage, a kitchen with a better layout, another bathroom, and a larger living room. We can do with out things we have like a sun room, a fourth bedroom (though that's nice for company) and a formal dining room.

In the meantime wish me luck and sanity to keep the house clean and a flush buyer who falls in love at first sight and gives us 10K over asking! ha ha

No Running Away... Yet!

Just a little note to let you know that I have not ran away from home, though the thought has entered my mind in the last few days.

We have finally gotten the kitchen back in order. It looks like a normal kitchen with upper kitchen cabinets - they have been lacking the last few years. We had not wanted to ad them as we wanted to do a very large remodel and it would have been wasteful so we just made do, but with putting the house on the market we needed the kitchen to look a little more standard. Luckily I was able to find cabinets in the city, however it took three trips to get things to work right but at least they were in stock and easy to work with.

FIL came last week and took the dog back with him. The dog will most likely live with a friend of his who has a litter mate of hers. In the last few days we have all had moments of "Where's Callie?" I will admit it will be nice to clean up the dog hair and it be gone instead of reappearing moments later.

Tonight we will start work on the laundry room - laying a little chunk of linoleum and some quick paint, hopefully it won't take too long but if you've ever worked on a 120 year old house you know how that goes.

I can't believe it's March already. This time last year we were in a tailspin getting ready to spend a month or more in Ukraine. Seems like yesterday all that stress was being incurred. Seems like March is always a very stressful month for me. Hubby calls it superstition, however I can name many crappy events of my life that have occured either in March or very close to it and few crappy events that haven't occured in that time frame. Hmmm "Beware the Ides of March" which also is my birthday.

Keep your fingers, toes and legs crossed as Hubby's big work meeting is in the next few days. This meeting will determine our future for the next 6-12 months or longer.

All and all I'm settling, the stress level reduced dramatically with the kitchen being put back in order. Amazing how upsetting pouring a bowl of cereal can get when everything is a mess.

STRESS

Isn't it amazing how one little thing can just send you into overload? My final straw was the van not starting yesterday morning when it was time to go get Sonny Boy from preschool. I was literally in tears calling Hubby at work having a breakdown in the driveway. Why? It was no big deal, I'm a big girl, I know how to jump a car - used to do it all the time when I worked in the automotive department at wal-mart in college so why did the need to drag out the battery charger and hook it up send me into a melt down?

These are the reasons in no paticular order, though some certainly are bigger worries.

Hubby's possible upcoming job loss - though nothing has actually been done yet the writing on the wall appears darker and darker.

Prepping the house for sell, the cabinets we had on order are now on backorder for another week and a half - in the meantime we've already ripped off the meager shelving we had in the kitchen and all the dishes are stacked in the dining room. Dealing with Menards and their refusal to care however I did get them to agree to a full refund if I can find cabinets in stock somewhere - problem is I'm trying to match some exisisting cabinets that no one seems to carry in stock.

The whole fear of keeping the house is "show condition" for God knows how long with two little kids running amok.

Knowing that Hubby's job is on the line I'm trying to line up some career goals of my own - nursing school which appears out of the question now, a teaching cert in WI? well maybe but what if we move to FL or NV? I'm in limbo and quite frankly not very marketable in the best of times. What the heck do you do with a history degree?

Dealing with the loss and hope of another adoption which even hubby was set to start again, but we just can't do it now and even if the job stays put we will stay in an apartment for several months till the economic situation settles and we feel safe again. Then there is a long wait just for the adoption aspect.

The upcoming loss of my dog. We are giving her away since we most likely will not be able to keep her in an apartment and it's not conducive to showing the house etc. While I'm not terribly attached to the dog I will miss her.

Attach these big worries with the daily stress of life with two young kids and I'm literally tied in knots. I'm literally in the bathroom a dozen times a day ( I know TMI). I must cut this short, I just needed some venting. I'm off this afternoon to hopefully find some cabinets in town so we can get the kitchen put back together.

A little Rant.

Normally I don't blog about much, the kids mostly and a few fun things but I've been thinking lately, the octoplet mom sent me into a tailspin on the subject. I won't go there, plenty has been said EVERYWHERE about that craziness but it got me thinking about very large families in general.

There are a few families in the Ukrainian adoption community that are quite large. Mostly it is because the families have repeatedly adopted older children and special needs children and grown their family that way. It appears that the families (two in particular I'm thinking of) are financially and emotionally stable enough to support the craziness that must occur in households of 10+ children. I commend them for their dedication to giving families to children who would most likely live out their days in institutions or released into the bleak circumstances of an orphanage "graduate". I am glad people like them exist, I don't know how they do it but I'm glad they do.

The ones that perturb me to no end are the Duggers, if your not familiar with them they have their own show on cable called "16 and counting" but I think the actual number now is 17 with another one on the way. The family drives me bats with their holier than thou attitude. If they are so bible based why don't they follow the teaching to take care of orphans instead of procreating yet again? I find the fact that society is glorifying their whole huge family thing by giving them a TV show, they are regulars on the am talk shows and a few years ago Mrs. Duggar was named "Arkansas Mother of the Year". Is simply giving birth to two baseball teams worthy of making you mother of the year?

I'm sure you ask why do I know so much about the Duggers? I have watched the show, I'm guilty, sure who doesn't want to see how such a large family operates - maybe I can pick up a tip or two for my small brood, however it appears that the older girls get the brunt of the work associated with the family. Don't get me wrong, kids should certainly help, but to put two teenagers in charge of laundry for 20 people! That's a full time job in and of it's self.

Sorry to be so belligerent about all this. I'm really just curious if anyone else finds them as bizarre as I do. Please leave a comment on this, I know your reading! I would REALLY like to hear from Thereed & MommaJeane if you actually have time to read.

On a different note, I do like the show "John & Kate plus 8" I know they have a huge family as well, but they didn't set out to have 6 babies at once. I like the actual reality of the show, kids screaming and throwing things, the mom loosing her cool and the house looking like a bomb went off. Are they taking advantage of having a T.V. show - you betcha, I doubt the big vacations to Disney etc would be taken without the help and paycheck of the TV show. I only hope that they are putting aside some of the cash for the kid's futures.

Ok, off my soapbox of reality TV shows about large families.

For my own tiny little brood, we are doing well. Since taking Igor to the feeding team thing his eating is picking up - go figure. Spend a fortune, do nothing, and there is a big difference lately. I pray in continues as it lowers my stress level considerably. We will still go into the therapy a few more times but if things continue at this rate I doubt we will be at it much longer.

My biggest conundrum now is what to do about pre-school for Igor. I'm pretty sure he will qualify for services from the school district for speech, however they will not evaluate him until middle of the summer and determine how much and days he will attend or even if he will attend at all. The problem is that registration for preschool is now and to get him a spot and be able to choose what days he attends I need to register him now, especially if I want him in a certain teacher's class. I'm hoping the preschool will work with me on this as I've already discussed it with them and it's the same preschool Sonny Boy has attended the last 3 years.

On a more somber note, it appears the economy is hitting home now. Due to uncertainty with Hubby's job we are going to put our house on the market. I know it's not the most opportune time to do it, however if the axe falls on his job it would be nice to not have a mortgage hanging over our heads and the need to sell our house super quick because likely as not, if the pink slip is delivered, we will move from the area as Hubby's job opportunities are fairly scattered. I tell him if we are moving across country again this time I vote for Hawaii! Hopefully though his job will remain and we will just stuff into an apartment for a while until it appears things are stable and then buy another house. Hubby likes his job, benefits are good, pay is reasonable, and he gets along well with his co-workers so there is no reason to actually leave until we know more for sure.

Well I guess that's all. All you lurkers COME OUT THE CYBER CLOSET I'd at least like to know who you are.

Don't Google that medical jargon!!

The feeding team appointment went very well today - after we got there that is. To start off we were running late, we get to the city and Hubby is driving and I'm navigating since I know the way there, however the exit snuck up on me and we were in the far left lane of a 4 lane interstate so we missed the exit. We take the next exit planning to make a u-turn and jump back on the interstate, as we sit at a red light Igor wakes up, gives a wimpy little whine and then projectile vomits from the middle row of the van all the way to the dashboard. I kid you not! Puke went over Hubby's shoulder and onto the dash. After I recovered from initial revulsion ( I'm really bad at puke) I hop in the back and pull Igor out of his seat and lay him down in the back of the van all the while hubby is looking for an on ramp - well guess what there was no on ramp back to where we had just come from! He did however see signs that would lead him to the interstate and started following those. Meanwhile in the back of the van I'm stripping puke clothes off of Igor and digging through the emergency diaper bag that was in the van cussing WI for freezing all the wipes. Luckily I had a change of clothes in the bag, but I will admit they were ridiculous and about 3 sizes too small for Igor but at least they were clean. Eventually we intersect the road that we had wanted to take the exit for and are soon at the clinic. Couple the fact we were running a little late and scenic route it was amazing that we pulled up at the building with about 5 min to spare. Luckily there is valet parking there ( I know, kinda strange but wonderful in this instance) so we left the puke covered van with the thrilled attendant and ran for the appointment and made the door with no time to spare!

At the appointment we met with a wide range of diciplines from pych, GI, speech and nutrition. We played 1001 questions and they watched Igor eat through a two way mirror. The news we got was mixed. There is no quick fix to the issues, it will take therapy and persaverance but on the upside they thought that he will make progress and this probably will not be a prolonged battle of years and years. Well the reason for the title? The doctors seem to think he has some of the charachteristics of syndrome. I'll post what it is if we get actually diagnosis as we are running a gene test now to see. The syndrome has a wide range of things associated with it and can go from mild to severe. The problem is when you google something like that you get a lot of scary stuff. My moral for the day is don't google anything medical until you have a confirmed diagnosis in your hand. Stay away from the computer if you must, that way if the test comes back negative you say "Thank Goodness" and go on none the wiser and saved yourself much stress.

Needless to say we had to ride home 45 min in a puke scented van- I don't think that's an air fragrance you can find on one of those little pine trees.

I want to remark on how great the experience with the feeding team was. It was wonderful to have all the people involved in something that would have taken weeks of appointments and answering the same questions repeatedly to get to same conclusions. I reccomend that if you have an issue that several specialties should be consulted with to see if there is some team approach that can work like this.

Well nothing terribly new, we'll start feeding therapy again with the therapis there ( she's actually a PHD) so I hope she'll have some insights into this and how to work with Igor.

It's a relief to see some progress in this area.

GOOD News!

Children's Hospital called on Monday morning and rescheduled Igor's appointment from May 22 to tomorrow!! Yay!! They said that there was a cancellation, I can't imagine anyone canceling after waiting 4-5 months but I guess they did. Tomorrow we will trek to Children's, hubby will accompany us to the appointment as I'm sure it will be a quiz fest and I always feel if I'm being grilled and tested, makes me nervous. I've talked to Igor's speech therapist and she thinks there might be some structural issues related to adnoids, tonsils, or his pallette which is VERY highly arched. I hate to say that I wish surgery on my child, but honestly an easy out-patient surgery with a week or so recovery and then normal eating would be wonderful, much easier than dealing with therapy for months on end. I hope something is easily diagnosed and treated.

Other Igor related news - the kid has really made a dramtic difference in his personality the last month or two. He has always been a happy, easy-going kid and for the most part that hasn't changed, we are just seeing him really start to blossom socially and adjustment wise. Socially he's really wanting to play along and started a lot of pretend play. At his little speech therapy play group he's participating in all the songs and games and loves it. Adjustment wise he's finally starting to settle that this is home I suppose. Naps are frequently at least 1 1/2 hours sometimes 2 though somedays still short. Igor sleeps much more soundly at night and most nights doesn't wake to be soothed at all. That's a boon! Bedtimes are easy! The only bad side to the adjustment is we are seeing a lot more attitude, some doozy temper tantrums that I don't see a reason for and a lot of testing of limits.

I guess that's about all. I'll update if there is any worthy news from the feeding clinic appointment tomorrow.