UGH! This is more of a venting post then anything fair warning. I am SO tired of not being able to do so much because of Shea's disability. Right now it seems as though I am just doing the best I can so he doesn't hurt himself. For his birthday I am hoping to get him and Skye a slide/climber thing that usually goes in the backyard but we would put it in the living room. Hopefully that would take care of his climbing needs in a safe way. I REALLY REALLY REALLY hope school helps him out in this area. I would like to be able to just pack up and go to the zoo, a park, a movie whatever. Right now it is very difficult since he doesn't understand/listen so he could easly run off. Plus he will cry/whine demand my attention and it just makes it impossible to go out with him and Skye. Poor Cody is a trouper. This summer I may hire a babysitter or have someone over to help with the other kids and take Cody out. I want them to have good memories of their childhood and have it NOT be all about Shea's disability. Although in some ways it does make our lives more fun. How many other homes have an OT room in them with a swing, trampoline, mattress, exercise balls and toys to play in?

Like I said I just hope all the therapy and schooling will help him later so life isn't always like this. Honestly by the time late afternoon gets here I feel like I have been drug through the mud, then done a triathalon and I still have dinner to make, kids to give attention to, kid's activities (like Karate and soon Baseball) baths and bedtime. Then you have a Cody who HATES to go to bed. I am instituting a sticker chart again to help correct this problem. And here he was doing so well for SO long. UGH School next year should be fun since he will have to get up between 6:45 and 7:15 depending on whether I enroll him in the school district here or a charter nearby.

Update

Skye: Littly missy is getting teeth, she currently has 4 and a couple more may be coming in. I am planning on scheduling a time for her to have picutes done. While she has taken her first steps she is lacking in confidence to walk. She is standing on her own and thinking about it. Within a couple of weeks she will be off and running. I can't believe she will be a year soon!

Shea: Little busy man. Has been doing well in Occupational Therapy, not so well in Speech. He starts Special Ed Preschool (ECSE) Monday April 6th. He has a backpack and will go to school 4 mornings a week from 7:40-10:10, we will know when the little bus will pick him up the Friday before. Then in the summer for 5 or 6 weeks he will go 3 days a week. I am looking forward to being able to bring Cody and Skye to the park.

Cody: Loves school. I am looking into our options for his schooling coming up. St Michael just isn't going to be able to keep up with him. There are a few options I want to check into. He is now a purple belt in Karate and we are going to check out Dojo in Roger's MN as the instruction may be better/more strict in knowing the moves. Next summer he will be doing baseball, this summer will just be too busy with Karate and swimming, plus he let me know he had an interest after they raised the fees $25. We are also saving up for the next Karate program which is going to be expensive, or we may do something else. We will see.

Matthew: Just ended basketball and Baseball practices may start April 1st depending on the weather. With practices and baseball it looks like our weekday time with him may be cut down again. Cody will miss him.

Carmen: Looks to have a promising year in real estate. I am thinking of training for a short triathalon for summer 2010. This summer is just too close, although if I can't get my behind in gear I may sign up for the duathalon. OF course this also gives me time to find/save for a decent bike for events and a wetsuit.

Matt: Working hard and looking forward to softball starting. He has started bowling again after a long hiatis and is enjoying it. His softball has their beer bust Saturday April 11th, the day before Easter.

Oh and we were able to refinance for 4.5% with reasonable closing costs, I am SO excited to save quite a bit each month.

Busy, Busy, Busy

Lots going on in our family so I figured I would update the blog.

Matthew: recently went snowboarding with school. He was lucky enough to have Granny Lynn go with him. Unfortunately his basketball team didn't do so well in the playoffs and they are through for the year. Soon baseball begins, April 1st weather permitting (now WHY would anyone schedule something to begin April Fools Day is beyond me...) He is also getting a small lesson on responsibility as he gets to purchase a new adaptor for the game boy as he lost the other one. At least it is a cheap lesson at $10 plus tax. I was just watching the Today show and realized soon we will need to have the sex/drugs/alcohol talk, YIKES! Since some children are having sex at the age of 14 or before it is going to have to be sooner rather then later!

Cody: is still loving school and starting to read books and everything else. The child will bankrupt us buying him books! I plan on buying workbooks to supplement the summertime and hope to participate in the library summer reader program. It also looks as though a week from today he should graduate to a purple belt in Karate (white, gold, green, purple, blue, advanced blue, red, advanced red, then black belt is the order of the belts in his program.) Not sure what we will do with Karate after he is done with the program which ends at red belt. The next program is either a 3 year black belt program for $5000 OR $8000 for a 7 year program! We will see if his interest remains, maybe he will like to take a break and try other things. Although if we leave and come back the price may be even more! I was also thinking if he wanted to we could check into other martial arts programs like Thai Kwon Do.

Shea: Had his 6 month follow up appointment with the developmental pediatrician at Children's hospital in Minneapolis, MN. His doctor is VERY happy with his progress and what we have been doing with him. Called him a "charming little fellow" LOL. This time Shea was very quickly curious about him instead of taking and hour to even acknowledge him. We are also working on the state approving us for TEFRA which is a supplemental insurance program for people with disabilities. It will cover the copays we have and various therapies insurance won't like RDI. I would like to go meet with the people who run the RDI program but until we are approved there is no point. This program is $3000 for 6 months or $5000 for 12 months. Not to mention the $250 we are currently paying for copays for Shea's Occupational Therapy visits (lovely Medica charges us a copay EVERY time we go ACK) TEFRA will run us around $160 a month but as we would save at least $250 it would be worth it.
I will be observing Shea's special ed preschool this coming Tuesday with the intention of his starting March 30th. I will know for sure after I observe when he will start. He is a very stubborn little boy and has decided to stop working with PECs. Was doing well until Christmas and then just stopped. Hopefully the 4 mornings a week will help him a lot. We all figure his being around other children with similar needs he will adapt quickly and have a lot of progress in working with people and interacting better.
Tomorrow I am going to attempt to take him for pictures, so wish me luck. I am not sure how it is going to go. However he hasn't had pictures done since he turned one so it is time.

Skye: Now has 2 teeth (well almost they JUST broke through) Poor girl has been miserable, she may also have a cold so hard to tell but not a happy girl right now. She is starting to walk and took her first steps Valentine's Day. She has also been sleeping through the nights for the most part which is a relief to mom and dad!

I am currently drowning in paperwork and wishing for more hours in the day to get everything done. Maybe I will have a clean/picked up house in 10 years or more.....

Matt is working lots and has rediscovered bowling. He has been having fun going out with the boys for $1 bowling on Tuesday nights.

Matt and I also recently celebrated our 10th anniversary. We got away to Alexandria, MN and had a wonderful time. Stayed one night at Arrowwood which has a good sized water park for MN standards, small for WI Dells standards. Had fun and ate at a make your own pasta bar. The next night we stayed at a B&B Countryside which was wonderful. Very nice setup, the owner has 2 rooms he rents out in the basement of his home which are completely separate from his home. Each room had its own bathroom and separate spa that sat 2 people. The rooms then share a sitting room with a fireplace, sauna, and kitchenette. It is a walkout home so the patio doors overlook Lake Mina and we were treated to seeing a herd of 15 deer in the morning. The breakfast was fabulous and I highly recommend his place to anyone looking to get away. We also opened up one of our bottles of wine from Australia we have been saving for a special occasion. Well worth the wait, it was seriously the BEST bottle of wine I have EVER had. 2000 Punt Road Cabernet Sauvengian (spelling?).

Progress! We Hope

So a couple of interesting/exciting things with Shea. Now Matt and I both agree Shea is going to talk before he participates in the Picture Exchange System (Pecs). I also think he will start talking in sentences or phrases. Anyways I took him to Occupational Therapy today and when his Therapist came out she asked how he was. Both of us heard him reply "I good."

Therapy went well, I went in with him while he dressed and then left and went to the viewing room. Talked to one parent there who child is going back to OT since their insurance only allows 20 visits a year, Man I HOPE Matt's is NOT like that! I do however need to check into how many visits a year they will allow.

Anyways I digress, came home and as Uncle Nate was leaving he said goodbye to Shea and say responded "Bye." I can't express how much that meant to Uncle Nate. Now lets' keep building on that and see if we can't get him to start talking!

On another note this household is vastly disappointed in the NFL NOT reviewing the last play of the Superbowl. We all wanted Arizona to win (well Matthew was voting for Pittsburgh but was outnumbered) While they probably would not have won they deserved the NFL to make the correct calls and the chance. Oh well at least it is only a game and maybe the Vikes can do better next year!

Winter Blues and Stress Bite!

Ug I NEED some nice weather. Unfortunately the sledding hill is icey so we can't even push the kids outside to play lots. I SO want to be able to go outside and play with the kids, go for walks/runs/bike rides. Take the kids to the park. Actually I am really looking forward to biking with Cody on his new bike and the 2 youngest in the trailor. I am hoping to be able to bike to some nearby parks and maybe the Dairy Queen. The other winter events are SO expensive. Tubing is $12 a person for 2 hours ($48 for the 4 of us for 2 hours is a little steep!), skiing is crazy especially with the additional cost of renting equiptment. $26 for adults for an evening and $21 for kids with the equiptment being $19 times two. Yeah sorry don't have $115-$145 to spend on one evening not to mention who watches the little ones.

So it looks like we may have a copay EVERY time Shea goes to Therapy, that is an additional $225-$250 a MONTH YIKES! Man I am irritated Matt's work changed insurance plans, his other one would have covered the whole dang thing after the initial copay as an ungoing condition. Gotta love cost saving measures NOT. Plus I think the supplemental insurance we can get with him having a disability will be too expensive. Although if we get it and they will cover this and RDI it may make sense to have it for a short period of time. Hoping for a family grant to come through in a timely manner to help with these costs. I am also looking into RDI, but of course insurance doesn't cover it since they are training the parents to do the therapy and we don't take him to someone for it. So if we do that the cost is $3000 for 6 months of $5000 for a year. We won't go into the fact that we will probably need a fence and that will be an additional expense. Let's hope I get some deals this year or make some money in Real Estate.

Calgon Take me Away!

On a good note Matt and I have decided (okay I decided and Matt is going along) starting this spring to teach the boys how to save. Matthew wants to spend his money as soon as he gets it and Cody worships his big brother thus copies him. So we will have the kids put a minimun 30% of all earnings/gift money into long term savings. At some point we should have them add in giving to charity but not right away. (They can pick the charity). A great book I read on finances and kids is "The Financially Intellegent Parent" by a couple (I believe and not brother/sister) with the last name of Gallo.

I already talk with Cody when we are shopping about why we don't buy everything we want. I don't use the phrase "we can't afford it." Instead I tell him that we choose not to purchase it since we only have a certain amount of money and we need it to do many things. So we are choosing not to buy X so we can save for Y. I also talk with him about the toys we see and the quality/cost. Some toys are cheaply made and don't last, this can be okay if the toy's cost is minimal but if it costs a lot obviously we want to get our money's worth out of it. So I guess I am trying to get him to set his expectations accordingly.

Speaking of costs do you know how irritating it is when his school doesn't send home 1 flyer for books, they send FOUR plus one for computer games. Seriously we do buy books every month but could they limit the number of flyers to reasonable number? The boy LOVES books and I want to encourage this but we cannot go broke buying $50 worth of books each month!

Matthew's Birthday

I will try to add pictures later but we had a nice day yesterday. All the family that lives in MN showed up, including Uncle Nate and Cheyenne. Matthew received many gift certificates and cash along with a few games for the PS2. He seemed to have fun and enjoyed playing his new PS2 games.

Unfortunately his basketball team lost. Anyone else have a child who seems to perpectually get on sports teams that are subpar. I mean Matthew is VERY athletic but even when he went to the majors in baseball his team was lacking we will say. Very frustrating as a parent as you want him to do well but he can only do as well as his team. Plus then I think when a team isn't doing well it has the potential to rub off so to speak. Oh well at least we are just in the junior sports and hopefully it will get better as the years go on and the ones who aren't as talented decide to pursue other interests.

He is very excited to spend his money/giftcards, how does one nicely put the damper on such enthusiasum. He DESPERATELY wants Guitar Hero World Tour Band Kit.

So about time to update this blog!

Had a busy but hectic holiday season. We LOVED seeing my sister, niece and brother in law while they were here. Kids were properly spoiled and loved their gifts.

Now it is back to life as usual. Shea was ill last week boy that was not fun. Nothing like a nonverbal child who is ill. At least the Tylenol and Advil really helped with most of his discomfort and fever. When it was coming on and he was sitting in my lap moaning pitifully I wondered if he were going to throw up on me....Yup you guessed that was the very next thing that happened EWWWWW!

So I made the difficult decision to pull Shea from Private Speech therapy at Children's. It made it more difficult to get someone to watch Cody and Skye (not to mention putting my wonderful people who help out a lot more,) Shea was fighting the in home speech through the school district a lot more, I question the therapist's skills, and Shea never connected with her. My decision has been reinforced by the fact that the therapist has yet to call me to question WHY I pulled him from her therapy. (I called during business hours last Friday and left a message.)

I think most of us are entrenched in the winter blahs. The sledding hill is all ice, it has been to cold to send the kids out or take them places, Cody hasn't even wanted to go to Karate (we have had him go anyways). Man I need the nice weather back (before of course it gets to hot LOL). I want to go to the park, play in the yard, go for walks, swim in the pool, go for bike rides......

Now onto Matthew's birthday party on Saturday and having a few people over for Superbowl on Sunday!