Recovering Noah

Your middle child thinks the name of the second planet from the sun is called "Fartball?"

Well, it's 3:40 in the morning. What on earth could I be doing at this hour? Oh, I know. The same thing I was doing last night at 3:40 in the morning. Yes, yes, yes. Once again, I am visiting The Land of Sick and Inconsolable Children. Oh, you've never been there before? Are you sure? Let me tell you a little about it and see if it refreshes your memory. Here's the original post (with only a few modifications) from back in January. Not much has changed since then.... *********************************************************************************** It's been a few days, hasn't it? Well, that's because my kids surprised us and took us on a trip! No, don't get too excited. We've been there before - as, I'm sure, have you. It's a place called "The Land of Sick and Inconsolable Children" - and I hate it. Our kids take us to The Land of Sick and Inconsolable Children at least once a year. Normally, though, they give us a bit of warning. Th...

#1 Scene: Kitchen Table Eli : Hey Mom, are you cutting out tampons? Me: Noooooo, these would be coupons . #2 Scene: Kitchen Table Me: Eli, why don't you tell Daddy what you learned today about the life-cycle of a frog. Do you remember what a baby frog is called? Eli: Yes Ma'am. It's called a tampon. (Goodness. Do I detect a theme here?) #3 Scene: Environmental Co-op in Terrell. Educator: Can anyone tell me what glass is made of? Eli: Ooh! Oooh! Oooh! Educator: Yes, Eli. Eli: Beer. (I seriously wanted to crawl under the table and never emerge again. I mean, honestly, what????) #4 Scene: Kitchen Table - learning about the planets Me: So, these are all the different planets. This one's Mercury. This is Venus. This is Earth.... This one is Uranus. This one is... Eli: Wait a second. What's that one called? Me: It's called Uranus. Eli: That's my anus? Me: No, it's a planet called Uranus. Eli: My anus? Me: Nooooooooooo, it's a planet called URANUS. Eli: Wh...

Do any of you remember my New Year's Resolution? In January, I was determined to get all three kids potty-trained. Eli had been PT for quite awhile, but was such a heavy sleeper that he would go in the night and never wake-up. Yeah, I'm sure he's going to love me blogging about this. Nandi was poo-trained, but used pee as a way to get back at me. What? You told me NO? Fine. I'm going to pee all over this stack of clean laundry. See how you like that ! And Noah - well, Noah, was heading down the path of being in diapers for the next 25 years. BUT... the good news is that Eli and Nandi are now fully potty-trained! (Insert Happy Dancing. No, seriously, I want you to move away from the computer right now and do a nice little funky jig for me. This is HUGE news.) Eli got night trained immediately - so that part of the New Year's Resolution was over and done with by February. And, Nandi,well - let's just say that things at home are getting much better and she no long...

Is it possible for one's children to drive you to the brink of insanity? I mean, I'm beyond the point of locking myself in the bathroom with a pint of Ben and Jerry's "Imagine Whirled Peace". I am fully contemplating stashing a spoon in my purse,driving to Walmart, marching to the frozen food aisle, flinging open the doors containing the Blue Bell, and copping a squat right in the middle of the formica floor. And it's only 10:30 in the morning.

PLEASE HELP ABBY'S FAMILY!! Does everyone follow the Riggs family blog ? If you are not familiar with this amazing family.... check out their blog. They are a diverse family and full of love. They have 4 biological children, 2 children from Guatemala, and a beautiful daughter from Ethiopia. One of their Guatemalan children, Abby, was recently diagnosed with Leukemia. Bless her little heart. She is precious! Abby has some pretty intensive chemo treatments 1-4 times per week for the next 5 MONTHS.... This means lots of time at the hospital, lots of time needing to be spent helping Abby.... a lot less time for making meals and cleaning houses, etc...You can read more about what is going on at the Rigg's blog . So many of us who do not live in the area have wanted to help but haven't known what we could do. WELL HERE WE GO! We are trying to put together meal plans to serve this family during this difficult time to relieve some of the stress. We want these precious parents to be...

Not a whole lot to report here. We started back to school on Monday. Our first day went a WHOLE lot better than last year's - except that Noah still thinks that glue is meant to be eaten. Hey, at least he's not sniffing it. Gotta keep positive here. Anyway, this homeschooling thing.. sometimes I think I've got it under control and sometimes it just kicks me in the butt. But, so far, so good. Of course, we're only on day 3 and we didn't actually do any schooling today because we went to OT and then decorated the house for Sim's birthday. Of course, by decorating, I mean crepe paper and banners from The Dollar Tree. Because, obviously, we're a classy bunch. The kids are going to make birthday cards out of dried beans for Sim. We're doing a shape theme this week and they're going to make square patterns out of the beans. And then we'll have a whole lot of fun practicing our math skills as we pick up all the excess from the floor. Ba da bing, Ba d...

I think I might be raising a future Al Gore here. The environmental activist part - not the whole aspiration to be President of the United States part. Poor Eli. I'm pretty sure this blog has ruined his chance of establishing a future political career. You know, what with the crazy mother and all. Plus, it's come to my attention that one of the requirements of being a politician is that you have to wear a comb over. And, knock on wood, no son of mine will ever be sporting a side part. Unkept nails and dirty ears, yes. But a side part? No. I think Eli is blossoming into a tree hugger. I couldn't be more proud. Except, of course, when he woke me up at 12:30 last night to inform me that he no longer needs a night light because night lights waste electricity. I'm not kidding. He woke me up after midnight to tell me this. Darn that Elmo and his Sesame Street Loves the Earth video. You, too, Jack Johnson and your groovy little beach voice and songs about Recycling. And then E...

Okay, I must be ancient. I am sooooooo far behind the times. I have decided to claw my way into the modern age by signing up on Facebook. I don't actually remember how I found out about it, but my oldest friend, Kirsten had her first baby last week and posted all the pictures on the site - which meant that I had to get with the times if I wanted to see the pictures of her precious little boy. If any of you got a flurry of Facebook activity from me today - that would be why. I just don't get it. It's like speaking a whole new language. I.Really.Truly.Do.Not.Understand.It. Seriously, this is not my thing. I mean, I sent my first text message just last week - and that was in response to KK sending a picture of her newborn on my phone. Do you have any idea how long it took to send that text? 35 minutes. It took FOREVER for me just to write "OMG!!!" because I didn't know where the exclamation points were kept on my phone. Please remember that I got through my ent...

Okay, so I haven't actually spent the entire last two weeks just sitting on my butt watching the Olympics. I've actually watched them while standing up, folding laundry, cooking supper... Hardy har har. No, seriously, while I admit to practically OD'ing on all that is Beijing, leotards, and anything involving goggles, these last two weeks haven't been a total wash. For example: I spent half our weekly grocery money at the Scholastic Book Fair at our local library - where admist all the Dora books, Fancy Nancy Books, Disney Princess Books, and everything that is sparkly and pink... my little three old decided that out of all of them, she just had to have this... That is the one book that she just couldn't part with. Clearly she is surrounded by too much testosterone. She also wants a shark theme for her birthday. Last year, while we were waiting for Nandi's adoption paperwork to go through, I had all these visions running through my head of having tea parties a...

Dear Michael, I can call you Michael, right? I just wanted to say what a thrill it has been to watch you achieve your goal of winning 8 gold medals in the 2008 Beijing Olympics. I was there every step of the way. Well, except for the 400m freestyle relay, because my husband turned the channel for five minutes (literally five minutes) to watch some ridiculous news show and we missed it. However, I was able to watch it numerous times on Youtube before NBC yanked it off. Well done, Michael! Well, done. I am very proud of you. It has also come to my attention that you are going to receive quite a bit of endorsements - including a $1 million dollar bonus check from Speedo. That's wonderful news, Michael. You deserve it! However... I think it's time to let you know how much anguish you have caused me since the beginning of the Olympic games. You see, as one of your biggest fans, I made it a point to stay up late every night in order to watch you swim. This resulted in many things... ...

I know I haven't been blogging much lately - but I'm still here. I'm gearing up for the start of school and furiously trying to get Noah's lesson plans done. It's a serious time-killer because I have to rewrite everything from his various curriculum. Remember he doesn't talk. And he answers questions by pointing to choices. And we're teaching him to spell so that he can point to a letterboard and spell out answers. And with CP, his body doesn't always cooperate with his brain. Needless to say, it's exhausting. And having to plan lessons is exhausting, too. I'll give you an example. We're doing Apologia Astronomy this year. That's just a fancy way of saying that he'll be studying the solar system and learning all about the planets and stars. But is there anything better than seeing the look on people's faces when you tell them your 6 year old "severely autistic" child is taking astronomy this year? I think not. So, anyway...

I'm sure most of you have seen this by now. It's had over 7 million hits on Youtube and been on loads of chat shows, but it's still worth another look - even if you've watched it a gajillion times. It's a video of a lion who is reunited with his previous owners after they go to Africa in search of him. They'd been told not to expect much because Christian, the lion, was now a wild animal. Trust me, you have to watch this! It's set to Whitney Houston's "I Will Always Love You". After we had watched the video over and over again (Eli and Nandi LOVED it), I heard a tiny voice singing "Liiiiiiiiiii-oooooooooooooooooons will always love you!" And I turned around and found Eli dressed in a lion costume on all fours. He came running over to me and jumped in my arms. Too cute. All day yesterday he kept singing "Lions Will Always Love You." He honestly thought that's how the song went. Alright. Headed to Austin in about 30 minut...

I did something today that I have never done in my entire life. And I mean never done. I mopped. That's right. I have never mopped a floor. Ever. Guess I blew my image as the perfect housewife clear out of the water with that little revelation. Oh, come on. You've seen my room . It shouldn't come as a surprise. But, yup, I finally did it today. I got the mop, stuck it in some water, and cleaned our floors. Sim will be so surprised. That is if he doesn't slip and break his ankle first. How long does it take a mopped floor to dry, anyway? And I would like to point out I'm not a terrible person or anything. We've just always had carpet (until now) and a tiny kitchen. And Sim loves to mop. Okay, that is actually an extreme exaggeration. He doesn't love to mop. He just does it. I guess he's known me long enough to figure out that I won't ever get around to it. But today I did. High-five to me! So, here's the deal. Angel over at Voice of Adventure list...

Take a lazy Saturday afternoon, one bored 3-year old, a thing of shaving cream, a muffin tin, and some food coloring..... Take a lazy Saturday afternoon, one bored 6-year old, some dried rice, beans, a few hot wheels, some Smarties, and two Rubbermaid bins... Take a lazy Saturday afternoon, one bored 4-year old...... and a couch....

Hey, guess what? I got to meet a fellow blogger yesterday. Christine! From Welcome to My Brain! I've never actually met up with someone that I only knew from online before. But I've been reading her blog for awhile and was fairly safe and certain that she wasn't some crazy, psycho chick. And if she was -well, that made me one, too because we're actually a lot alike. Plus, I had the good fortune of finding out early on that she and my sister-in-law were suitemates one year in college... so she truly was, in fact, a thirtysomething female with five kids and a degree from Howard Payne - and not some weird man who was posing as a thirtysomething mother of five in order to lure me into some horrid trap. Clearly, I've watched too many Lifetime movies in my, um, lifetime. Anway, we met up yesterday and had a BLAST! The kids loved it. Of course, they were strangely on their best behavior - which means we have to meet up again sometime so they can all see the wild and unin...

Okay, I promise that this blog is not going to turn into an everyday discussion on Rick Springfield. However... I have to tell you something funny that's happened since I blogged the other day about my genuine shock that my childhood crush is 58 (turning 59 next month!) and is the exact same age as my dad. Well. I had hundreds of hits to RecoveringNoah after I blogged about Rick Springfield. I mean, this little blog was hopping. So, I checked my stats and found out that they were all coming from RickSpringfield.com. Apparently, someone found my site and mentioned it on the Rick Springfield Message Board. Isn't that cool! I mean, what if Rick Springfield actually reads my blog post about him. Not that he probably reads all that stuff, but what if he did? Wouldn't that be cool?! And it would be absolutely fine because I only had good an wonderful things to say about him. Well, except that senior citizen remark. But, it was all in jest, Rick honey. Anyway, I looked on the me...

There are some things that I really miss about going to work. Or even just taking the kids to public school. It's those little moments when you would pass another co-worker or another mom down the hall and you'd stop and have some idle chit-chat. I really miss that. Here's a conversation that I so desperately needed to have with another female the other day.... The scene is me walking down the hall to my office and passing a co-worker: Me: (Stopping). Hey, did you know that Rick Springfield is 58 years old? Co-Worker: I know! I saw him on Oprah the other day. Me: Yeah! And there he is being all Rick Springfield and the guy's 58 years old. How did he get to be 58? That's, like, my dad's age. Co-Worker: I know! What's the world's coming, too? It seems like just yesterday that I was kissing his poster's on my wall..... Me: Yeah, and now he's practically a senior citizen. Both of us are stunned into silence. Me: But he sure looked good. Co-Worker: Sh...

My friend Shara sent me a link to the video below. Wow! I don't know if I'm just an emotional wreck this week or what, but it really moved me. I have to constantly remind myself to not judge people because you never know what they've gone through. We're doing a Women's Bible study on "Becoming a Vessel" and one of the chapters deals with judgement and how we should never be critical of anyone who is walking in the path of God. We have NO idea where they've been, how long they've been on the journey, or how long it took them to get there. Even people that we think have it all planned out and are so perfect... you just never know what hurt lies in their past. You never know what people are going through or what they've been through. Anyway, most of you have probably seen it, but if you haven't, it's really worth watching.

Guess what? It's been ELEVEN days since Nandi has bit me. Isn't that cool? My arms are now turning back to a nice color and all the swelling went down a week ago. Bring on the tank tops and tanning lotion. I can now bare my arms. However.... the biting has been replaced with hurling. As in objects. Hard things. Things that hurt. Basically, anything that can make an impact. Upon hearing the word "No", my little girl will quickly scan the room to find the nearest object to hurl at me. Sigh. This will get better, won't it? And would it be really terrible if I gave her a boomerang to play with??