First I was baffled that there were two school picture days in one school year. Then I was annoyed because I just saw it as a blatant money grab—and I was adamant I wouldn’t be buying any more. (Remember, I bought the rights to all three photos the last go-round.)
Then I saw the proofs.
OMG SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY!!
Owen loves the graduate one—and I have to admit it is SUPER CUTE. And it turns out that this is a fundraiser for the school so at least that’s a bonus.
When I told Owen I was going after I dropped him off at school he was upset because he wanted to play with the toys. Katie took care of that for him.
So, we had Owen’s autism re-evaluation today. The results? Not autistic in the least. Not even remotely close to ADHD, either (the only thing that was remotely close to the minor issues he has). So…YAY! The doc said he had obviously just been on the slow end of the curve for social/emotional stuff.
This rough graph is how the doc explained it: The yellow pie-shaped area is considered “normal” (between the 25th and 75th percentile). At age 3 he was below normal; at age 5, he’s jumped up into normal. The “issues” he has now are consistent with typical 5yo kids, but we need to watch the ADHD tendencies. (A specific ADHD questionnaire I filled out gave Owen a score of 1 out of 9—where a 6/9 is a clinical ADHD diagnosis.)
In fact, after testing Owen for a mere 10 minutes, the doc looked at me shaking his head and said “He’s not autistic.” But then he finished out the test just to get some hard (confirming) numbers.
As I expected, towards the end of the 50+ repetitive questions (“Which is the island? Which is the cliff? Which shows annoying? Where’s the mountain? Which one is the electrician? Where is the triangle? Which is the raccoon? Which is the walrus? Which one is the guitar? Which one shows sharing? Show me crying.”) he started to lose interest, wasn’t paying attention, and was staring off outside looking for the squirrel. (If you recall, this was the doctor that feeds a squirrel peanuts through his window—and Owen had remembered that when I initially told him about the appointment this morning…and he had put peanuts out but the squirrel hadn’t come to get them yet.) The doc eventually quit the test as he really already had enough confirmation that Owen was not autistic. He did the calculations and all of the results put Owen square in “normal for his age” range.
Just to put it in some perspective, they plan two hours for testing. The last time I think it took 1:30. Today we were done at 40 minutes.
Waiting for the squirrel:
Showing daddy and Katie how to feed the squirrel:
Katie drawing while we waited for the EFMP paperwork. Since Owen no longer has an autism diagnosis, we’re no longer eligible for the EFMP program.
The Doctor was printing our paperwork and the printer was making typical noises.
Owen: Excuse me? Doctor? Your printer is making funny noises.
🙂
So we’re happy. And relieved because, honestly, all this time since the original diagnosis, we haven’t really thought of him as autistic…and now it’s confirmed he’s just a normal little boy.
But it was time to get Owen from school…
And this is what it looks like walking with her…
We talked to our contractor tonight. Turns out they DID put up tons of plastic—covered all the cupboards, closed off rooms, AND had a suction fan going to pull dust outside…it was just SUPER dusty. He hadn’t been expecting the jackhammering and had to even get a bigger jackhammer. The thinset was the actual problem—he said it was REALLY thick. It took them a full day and a half just to get the floor up–and then he had to get a diamond sander to smooth it all out…and THEN he had to self-level the entire kitchen/laundry room. Lordy. Can you imagine if we had attempted the flooring install ourselves?!
Additionally, one of his guys noticed a problem with some flashing on the roof…so they fixed that.
And he fixed our toilet that Tom had planned to fix afterwards—but it was more of a major fix than we thought.
And he’ll fix the few problem boards when we move out.
So I’m happy now. I’m still annoyed at all the cleaning we had to do (LOL)…but we really got our money’s worth and he’s a good guy.
Today was a technology day—I cleaned out my email Inbox! I’m pretty good about keeping it somewhat empty by Archiving and Deleting, but it was getting out of control. A few 15-minute sessions throughout the day and I went from 750ish to 299! No, it’s not a big deal in the grand scheme of things—and it doesn’t help with decluttering the house—but it’s something instead of nothing!
We arrived a bit early at school so Owen wanted to show me some of his stuff.
Owen: Mama! Look! I’m snack helper this week!
Me: What does the snack helper do?
Owen: Well, when they bring the snack in, I help hand it out to everyone!
Owen has still had his low-grade fever and strep has been going around, so I took him to the doctor after school…just to make sure. So he got his first throat culture—and did exactly what I do (gagged and coughed) and he started to cry so I assured him he did awesome and that his reaction was normal! Thankfully it came back negative. The doc said it was likely just something viral that would last 3-5 days and be done.
Wasting time and playing with Katie:
Baby steps today—I cleaned off the end counter that has been covered in crap for probably 30 of the 33 months we’ve lived here!
I fell down the stairs in this house and twisted both ankles (read about it here).
I slipped on the stairs in our Michigan rental while carrying Owen as a baby (I’m sure I wrote about it but I cannot find the link).
And…I just now missed a few steps and crashed down two steps into the landing hitting the wall…while carrying Katie, of course! We’re both fine (she was just scared; I skinned my knee and slightly twisted my ankle) but an hour later my back was screaming and drugs were taken. Three hours later I made the BIIIIIG mistake of trying to stretch out my ankle by rotating it—and I literally saw stars. Crap.
I’m still not sure how it happened because I am ĂĽber careful on the stairs—I count each step up and down each time (whether I’m carrying a kid or not), I keep one arm on the wall to brace myself, plus I usually look at the stairs/my feet…
But I have now fallen down stairs while carrying both kids.
I HATE STAIRS.
Owen has been playing Lego Star Wars for months now, so Tom thought it was time to show him the movie. Katie was originally on my lap, completely riveted. Then I moved her to Tom’s lap and she sat still and watched for a good 30 minutes. Owen was super into it as well. Daddy was a happy guy. 🙂
Another Lejeune Yard Sale item left my house today—yippee! It’s not quite as exciting as garbage bags of stuff, but I like the cash. And something is better than nothing! 🙂
And as a bonus…Tom sorted through a bunch of his clothes and tossed/sorted for donation the equivalent of a garbage bag. WOOHOO! 🙂
Dinner for the Mitchell’s since Ursula is really sick, dinner for us one day this week, and one for the freezer!
The bonus is that I used five [heavy glass] jars of spaghetti and Alfredo sauce that we don’t have to move!
Okay, I’m back in the saddle again after being on vacation and cleaning up from the flooring we had installed (yes, I’m still finding stuff that needs washing)…
Today was actually an easy day, as someone bought the office desk we’ve had listed on Lejeune Yard Sales [for months]. But, we also organized a horribly awful useless-because-it’s-overstuffed junk drawer…and threw out quite a bit (not a garbage bag, but I still feel accomplished).
I’m not sure what’s wrong with him (kids really need to come with a digital readout) but he’s just had a low-grade fever (99-100°) for a few days and we keep giving him Advil for that and an on/off headache; otherwise he seems fine. But today he was resting…and had some cuddle buddies. 🙂
This was the best pic I managed to get of her cute new summer outfit. She had pulled out her pigtails on the ride over so she had wild hair…and after shopping she didn’t want to be in the cart so she was standing there “helping” daddy.
I was putting Katie to bed and heard running water. Huh? Turns out she had come upstairs on her own while Tom and I were outside (unloading the pod) and turned on the water in the jetted tub. It’s a good thing it just held mostly dirty towels and bath toys…but there was a new hair dryer (still in the box) that got soaked that I’m hoping will survive. Best I can guesstimate it was running for at least 20 minutes.
Lesson learned: Owen cannot be trusted to keep an eye on Katie—especially when he’s watching TV!
It’s hard enough to get both kids to look at me at the same time, let alone dealing with props that won’t cooperate…so I needed to do a bit of computer magic to get this picture. 🙂
He was playing xbox so she had to, too (she has her own controller that we’ve removed the battery from).
Katie loves Maggie. 🙂
Listen to what she asks Maggie: Wanna nap? 🙂
Giving Maggie a kiss and a cuddle.
This is where they were:
She picked every dandelion she saw on our walk. Both of her little hands were stuffed full!
Excited to have the ears on…
Then SUPER excited to see them on!
Like brother, like sister! Or what’s more likely is that all kids just love water! 🙂
Owen had issues finding shorts and a short-sleeved shirt on his own (I was outside with Katie) so I just let him play in his undies. 🙂
