CiCi My Playmate

I was just teaching this little hand-clapping game to Kid3. She's quite good at it. Now if only her mommy could remember the G-rated lyrics of the song without looking it up online.


Ooops.

You know you have a child with special needs when...

- You compare ERs instead of grocery stores.
- You compare your child's oxygen saturations.
- You view toys as "therapy".
- You don't take a new day for granted.
- You teach your child HOW to pull things out of the cupboard, off the bookcases, and that feeding the dog from the table is fun.
- The clothes your infant wore last fall still fit her this fall.
- Everything is an educational opportunity instead of just having plain old fun.
- You cheer instead of scold when they blow bubbles in their juice while sitting at the dinner table (that's speech therapy), smear ketchup all over their high chair (that's OT), or throw their toys (that's PT).
- You also don't mind if your child goes through the house tooting a tin whistle.
- You fired at least 3 pediatricians and can teach your family doctor a thing or two.
-You can name at least 3 genes on chromosome 21. (You really know your toast if you can spell the full names correctly)
-You have been told you are "in denial" by at least 3 medical or therapy professionals. This makes you laugh!
-You have that incredible sinking feeling that you've forgotten SOMETHING on those few days that you don't have some sort of appointment somewhere!
-You get irritated when friends with healthy kids complain about ONE sleepless night when they're child is ill!
-Your vocabulary consists of all the letters OT, PT, SP, ASD, VSD, IFSP, etc.
-You keep your appointment with the specialist even though a tropical storm is raging because you just want to get this one over with.....you waited 8 months to get it.....and besides, no one else will be there!
-Fighting and wrestling with siblings is considered PT.
-Speech therapy occurs in the tub with a sibling.
-When potty training is complete, you take out a full-page public notice in the Washington Post.
-When the Doctors/Specialist/Hospitals etc. all know you by your name without referring to your chart.
-You keep a daily growth chart.
-You calculate monthly statistics for the number of times your child vomits, and did this for more then one year.
-You phone all your friends when your child sits up for the first time, at age two.
-With a big smile on your face you tell a stranger that your four year
old just started walking last week.
-Her medical file is several inches thick and growing.

You have a new belief.....that angels live with us on earth

How to Thoroughly Confuse a Child in 10 Steps

1. Celebrate Chanukkah as a family.
2. Emphasize the religious significance of the holiday.
3. Explain why you are celebrating Chanukkah instead of Christmas.
4. Refute child's "But all my friends are doing it..." style whinging with the age old adage "If all your friends jumped off a bridge..."
5. Spend double your budget on extravagant gifts to "Make it up" to the child for not celebrating Christmas.
6. Re-emphasize the religious significance of the holiday and the importance of spending time with family, rather than commerical interests.
   
7. Let your child participate in only one of the following events; holiday concerts, holiday parties, Yankee gift swap with classmates, community holiday parades, mall Santa, "You've been Jingled," etc.
8. Explain to child again that you will not be celebrating Christmas. Repeat until they accept this, even if only at a superficial level.
9. Open your door on Christmas morning to find a well-meaning Christian family member laden with expensive, hard-to-find, unique or otherwise fabulous gifts for the child. Accept them. It's the thought that counts, after all.
   
10. Explain again why you don't celebrate Christmas/religious significance, etc. Then go play with the Child's new Wii until your old knee/shoulder/back injury is acting up from the sudden increase in physical activity.
    

There's Always One

No, my daughter is not the one that tells her classmates there is no Santa Claus.

She's the one that tells them there is no Jesus. Or at least, that he is merely an historical figure with good PR people and was neither a miracle worker nor a messiah.

*sigh*

At least she's comfortable with her Jewish identity.

Snow, School Days and Sisters

There is just enough snow that I can justify keeping Kid3 home from school tomorrow. I am a horribly nervous winter driver, and that extends to getting in cars driven by other people, or letting my girls get in anyone's car when the road are bad.

Kid3 has been enjoying the snow. It's too cold for the little ones to be out, but Spouse bundled up Kid3 and took her and her little friend from next door outside to build a snow hut, shovel the drive and make snow angels once the wind died down. After about 3 hours, they all came in soaked, and tired. There is going to be some mighty fine sleeping in this house tonight.

School has been trying for Kid3. She is frustrated being the only child in her ESL class who speaks Russian, or any other tongue from that language family. Most of the kids speak Spanish(we have had an influx of Mexican immigrants in the last 12 months), and tend to speak it whenever they are not being closely monitored by their teachers. Kid3 speaks good English: she understands what people say to her, and they understand her. She wants to be in an English language class, we want her to be there, even if it means holding her back a year, but the school board disagrees. We've had to put her in an ESL program because she has no experience with the Latin alphabet, although she can read and write with Cyrillic characters. There has been some discussion of pulling her out of the program and home schooling her until September, when we would have to hold her back a grade anyways. She is supposed to be going into second grade, but I doubt we could get her reading fluency up to that level in 9 months. Argh! Decisions about education are so difficult.

On the bright side, Kid3 is adjusting to her siblings better than anyone expected. It can't be easy to be dropped into a family dealing with multiple disabilities, two hectic work schedules and endless therapy and medical appointments. She has quickly become friends with Kid1, and I usually find them in Kid1's bedroom in the morning - Kid3 hears her sister wake up and goes in to talk and play with her until I get up to start the day. She is patient, and will wait for Kid1 to catch up in her gait trainer, or for Kid1 to choose a movie, meal or toy - something that her cousins often struggle with. Everyday, Kid3 does something for her sisters that makes me proud of her.

We have been struggling with doubts. Was this in the best interests of all of our girls, to bring another child into an extremely high-maintenance household? We don't know. But we are hopeful that it will be the right path for all of us. Everyday, by words and actions, we feel as if we are lighting another lamp on our cloudy pathway.

Never Fear

That caterwauling you hear in the background that sounds like a cross between a slowly-dying harpy and a a drawn out chihuahua cough is just the 6 year old trying to teach the 3 year old to yodel. A certain parent, who shall remain nameless, told Kid3 that her yodeling had a unique and melodious quality, as said parent walked out the door on their way to work.

Latke Happiness

We took the time this weekend to make latkes with the girls. It's something we haven't done, as a couple, in years, because usually we end up arguing about the recipe.
Spouse is a purist - a simple fried potato disc, maybe a little onion thrown in for flavour. No dressings or sauces. I, on the other hand, frequently throw lentils into the mix, along with some some white and green onion, egg and matzoh. I go for the savoury sour cream, the sweet cinnamon sugar, and the savoury-sweet sour cream with a touch of real maple syrup.
And the girls? Well, Kid1 takes after her dad on the latkes, and me on the sauce. Kid2 slept through the extravaganza. Kid3 loved it all; the making, the eating and the cleaning up. It felt like a little bit of my childhood as we shared our family recipes with her and shared the Chanukah celebrations as a family. And the first memory we have created that is uniquely ours as our new, complete family.
I don't remember my first latke. But I hope I will always remember hers.

By the By

She not only far surpasses me in Russian, she also speaks better Hebrew than I do.

Snowy Saturday.
Peaceful evening at home.
Three sleeping children.

Wood fire burning.
Hot cocoa with marshmallows.
My kind of cozy.

I am convinced.

The best part of your child being an early riser is having someone to share a snowy Canadian sunrise with, and who will be more than willing to share a mug of hot cocoa before 6 am.