Back at the hospital again...

Well, yesterday was Dad's surgery for his shoulder. I think I mentioned before that he had a total joint replacement done on his shoulder. Well, he fractured it. Now, they went in and fixed it. He will be staying in the hospital longer than last time to try and be sure that the same postoperative complications don't occur. We're all pretty anxious to see how this all plays out. Mom is very stressed, understandably. Last time Dad was in the hospital, I chose to not bring Caleb to visit. I wasn't sure how it would all play in with Caleb's anxiety problems. Well, Caleb has been doing amazingly well with his anxiety, to the point that the psychologist feels that we don't need regular visits (yeah!!!!). Anyway, I chose to bring him to the hospital today because he really wanted to go see Grandpa. Both the kids did very well (Brent has Guard, so he wasn't with us.) That is, Caleb did well until right before we needed to leave. The whole time we were there, he kept asking "when Grandpa gets better, can I go to his house?" I told him, "of course!" We had to explain that Grandpa needed to stay at the hospital for a while to get better. Caleb must have been thinking of it a lot. He started crying very loudly when it was time to leave. It was the kind of emotional, anxious, "tight" crying that usually leads up to his meltdowns. I got him guiet enough to get to the car. When we got home, I tucked Abby into nap and curled up with Caleb. He was able to tell me that he was sad that Grandpa was at the hospital and that he was scared because Grandpa couldn't get up from bed. Wow. How do you tell a four-year-old that it will be "okay?" Caleb's really starting to talk through things....and that's been really helping him emotionally.

I should probably say that Dad is able to get out of bed, he just needs help. His gait is very unsteady and shuffling (due to the Parkinson's). He's right handed and his righ shoulder is the problem right now, so it's hard to use a cane.

Nothing too exciting.

I realized I haven't blogged in a while. That's pretty much because nothing is really going on. We stay very busy, but nothing out of the ordinary, for the most part.

Dad is looking at having another surgery. He somehow managed to fracture his freshly replaced shoulder.

I went to our Annual City-Wide Garage Sales this weekend. I went over a couple of days. Brent happened to take yesterday off, so I took the chance and headed out for a bit while the kids slept, since Brent was home. I also went out for the day today. I got a lot of good deals. I think, if I counted right, I went to about 45 or so garage sales. That's a TON (over 3 days). The nice thing about them, is the kids are still at the age where you can find things in their sizes. I think I can milk if for a few years with Abby since most girls have too many clothes to wear anyway. I'm nearing the end of garage sales for Caleb. The boys always wear their clothes out too fast!

Anyway, that's about all for now.

Kitchen

So, I decided I am bored with our kitchen. Since we've gotten the house, we've done major necessary things like the roof, windows, etc. We haven't really done much to change things inside except painting it before we moved in. I've been thinking our kitchen is boring, but we want to redo the bathroom, so we don't want to spend much on updating the kitchen. I think we'll put crown molding ontop of the cabinets....but I wanted to do something with the backsplash too. I really like tile, but I've never tiled before, and I didn't want to mess it up. Besides....if I change my mind in a few years, it's pretty permanent. So, I did some looking online and found a site that talked about a faux tile backsplash. I decided I'd try it! This is what it looks like:

I love the way kids think!

Kids think about things much more than we give them credit for. They ponder what they've been told and try to come up with explanations for the "why." The funny part comes in when they misunderstand a key word. Case in point:

For the last week or so, Caleb has been asking me "Mommy, what is gravy?" He asks this a lot. I'm thinking...what's up with gravy? I never make gravy because the kids don't like it. We've had it a few times at Thanksgiving and maybe a handful of times in between. When Caleb asked me what gravy is, I would explain that it's like a sauce that you eat on your food. After I'd explain that, he would look down like he was in deep thought, confused about my answer.

This morning, he finally "finished" the question, and I realized why he was confused. He very seriously looked at me and asked "Mommy, why did the soldiers put Jesus in the gravy?" The last few weeks, we've been talking about the crucifixion and ressurection of Jesus a lot to explain what Easter is all about. The kids hear about it on the radio, and at Sunday School too. Caleb must have kept hearing "gravy" instead of "grave." No wonder the poor thing didn't understand! I love the fact that he's been thinking about what we've been teaching him. I also love the fact that he's willing to ask so many questions in order to understand.

Sick and Tired!

I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired! Technically, I'm not the one that's sick....but that definitely makes me tired! It always seems that the kids trade illness back and forth. Caleb started it this time....came home from preschool two weeks ago, and just didn't look right...by the end of the night we were in urgent care with an earache, and sure enough, it was infected! Abby started the cold about a week after that, and two days after Caleb stopped his antibiotics, we were in urgent care with Abby for her ears. Ugh! I had to call in sick to work today because Abby's been sick to her stomach for the last two days. One night was three complete bed/pajama changes. Sure enough, she was better today. Caleb and Brent both started in with bad coughs Sunday night. Brent's feeling better, but Caleb won't stop coughing....and it's effecting his sleep, which means it's effecting my sleep. Hence, the tired part. Tonight, I had a friend suggest rubbing Vick's Vapor Rub on his feet and covering them with socks. I ran upstairs to try it since I knew he was still awake (could hear him coughing from downstairs). He felt hot when I went in there, so I took his temp, and sure enough, he's got a fever. Now, I don't think it was caused by being under the covers because he only had a Tshirt and pajama pants on. Oh...and did I mention, I checked Abby's ears just to see how it was going...and the one that started it looked fine...but the other one is bright red. I know we're not even halfway done with the antibiotics....so there's still time, but sheesh! AND....Brent leaves on Sunday for two weeks in Arkansas. This stinks!

And, now I'm done with my vent :)

The videos speak for themselves...

Moving forward

Okay, so if you've read my blog much, you probably know that Caleb seems to struggle a lot. He has a hard time with change (don't we all?) He has difficulty in large groups. He seems on edge frequently. I know, a lot of kids have similar problems, but Caleb seems to have more. More intense reactions, more difficulty transitioning. Brent and I have, for quite a while, talked about how it seemed different than temper tantrums. It seemed different than reactions of the kids his age. When he started preschool, he really struggled to participate. He struggled in every day things, like potty training, like holding his crayons the "right" way, like cutting with scissors, like trying new things. He always has been able to make friends easily.

I've brought our concerns up to our pediatrician...but since we had to switch doctors after Caleb turned two, I think things got a bit lost through the cracks. Caleb had one of his classic "meltdowns" during his well child check for 4 years. I asked if it was normal, the pediatrician said it was more than normal, but "not to worry about it." Well, when the difficulties in preschool began, we decided it was time to pursue some answers.

I know this sounds like it's going to be this big, dramatic blog, but it's not. :) Anyway...long story long, we had an appointment at the anxiety clinic on Wednesday. Our occupational therapist said that she thought Caleb was showing classic signs of anxiety, but she couldn't offer a diagnosis because she obviously isn't trained or licensed to do so. We survived an absolutely horrible appointment with a different psychologist who claimed to be pediatric and specializing in anxiety. Let's just say we didn't go back for a second appointment. Once we got to the psychologist that our (different) pediatrician recommended, it was much better. The diagnosis is generalized anxiety. Treatment is cognitive behavior therapy. We can alternate occupational therapy with the cognitive behavior therapy. Medication is a last resort, and no one thinks it will ever come to that. Which is good, we already decided that we'd pursue absolutely every other option before we'd even consider medication.

I'm excited. I'm hopeful. I'm relieved that our concerns have been validated. So many things that Caleb has struggled with are making sense now. I'm a reader....and have been getting books on childhood anxiety. It makes sense. It's changed how I react with Caleb and how we deal with the meltdowns. He's responding positively already to the changes we've made, and we haven't even started therapy with the psychologist. Our occupational therapist has been wonderful and has given us a lot of activities to teach Caleb coping mechanisms. I never knew pediatric occupational therapy would help that, but we see the results.

So, that's where we are at right now. :)