I LOVE CAKE!

The hubby and I went to the Nugget on Sunday night and saw Cake www.cakemusic.com. They were AWESOME! They were amazing live! Perhaps even better than listening to their albums. DUDE!

I'm dead dog tired

Every year the students from my belly dance class do a series of performances in the late spring. I only dread it because I know I'll be worn out when it's done. And it's done and I'm worn out.
We had a performance two Friday ago (April 20th), a tech rehearsal Sunday night, rehearsal Monday and Wednesday nights, a dress rehearsal on Thursday night, performances on Friday and Saturday nights and one this afternoon. Plus my son's Little League game on Saturday morning (he was an ANIMAL!! He did an awesome job!)

I am completely worn to the bone. It's 6:21 and my daughter's asleep on the couch and I know I should wake her up but she's so tired she's being naughty. My son is working on homework on and off and I have laundry going. I need like 2 full days of sleep.

The end of my day

I was born today at something like 3:05 :) Since the kids came along, I really don't "do" anything for my birthday except age. Today we got up and watched my son play for the Cardinals in a Farm League match (they won. My son hit the ball, brought in one runner and eventually ran the bases for home for a point. He was stoked), we went to breakfast at Heidi's. I haven't been there in years and it was yummy. I had scrambled eggs, pancakes and bacon. We then went to Costco for gas and movies. I bought my husband "Smallville" seasons 1 and 2 for Christmas (they were on sale 2 for 1) and we've recently started watching them. We are blowing through them and we need more. We picked up Seasons 3 & 4 plus Eragon for my son and a Mickey Mouse Club House for my daughter. I tried to take a nap but no one was having it. So for the past hour and 1/2 I've been snoozing in and out with no luck. Now it's 9:18 and I'm going to watch a movie with my kids. Yeah, it's late but it's my birthday! Tres exciting, eh?

I have Happy Feet

I broke down and bought Happy Feet. I don't typically buy a movie that no one in my family has seen but I've heard so many good things about it I figured, what the heck.

It started out kind of slow but once it got into the storyline of Mumble (the penguin with the happy feet) I was absolutely pulled right into the story. I laughed outloud, shrieked in fright and almost cried. My daughter couldn't stop dancing around in front of the TV (all four of us watched it).

I'm not saying it was the best animated movie I've ever seen in my whole life but I absolutely loved it.

Sensory Integrative Dysfunction in Young Children

What the heck is this? Anyone know or have any history of working with kids with this?
http://www.tsbvi.edu/Outreach/seehear/fall97/sensory.htm

It's all in the early stages but my daughter's teachers think she may have a form of this. I won't know more until the beginning of April but thought I would look up some information. One of the things they are seeing is that when she gets frustrated or mad she can't verbalize what is upseting her (she typically yells or cries the word, "OK" over and over again). There are other things they mentioned that I see on this website.

So strange but I guess I'll just wait until we have our first assessment.

Here we are again

As some of you remember, it was this time last year when we were agonizing over the decision to hold my son back and have him go through 1st grade again.

Here we are at the end of another school year. There are so many things going on right now with him that it's hard to really describe. He has matured *so much* in the past few months. It's almost like he's a new person (yet not, told you it was hard to describe). The last time we met with his teacher in 2006 we asked about the "th" speech impediment that he has. They both answered, "Oh that's something that they generally grow out of by the time they're 7 1/2" Mike and I looked at each other quizically then back at them. "He turned 7 1/2 last week." They just weren't used to having a student who had been held back in their class. That started the speech therapy ball rolling.

We met with the speech therapist and his teachers last week to discuss how his speech therapy would go. As we were getting ready to leave his teachers asked if they could talk to us real quick before school started. They feel as if he is falling behind. He came to them at a "C" level of reading and needs to be a "G" to go on to 2nd grade. He was at a "F" but it was too much for him and he dropped back down to an "E" They looked at his file for last year and found that he had been considered for special ed classes but it was shelved as they knew we were going to hold him back. His teachers this year feel he needs that special ed help. So, he goes off track next Friday for a month then when he comes back he'll start with speech therapy and special ed. All to help him in the 5-6 weeks he has until he transitions to 2nd grade. All so frustrating that it's being squeezed into a month at the end of the year.

Luckily for him, we're persistant.

The Carver Family Polar Habitat

I'd be lying if I said Kiernan did this by himself :) He helped his dad shave the top of the iceberg (on the top of the box) with a battery operated pumpkin cutter and he cut out the pictures. Mom did the hot gluing. Who knew a Dust Devil box could go on to become something like this. The white area in the back is the part of the glacier that sits underwater. Inside sits a large Killer Whale (as Kiernan informed me, "You can never have enough Killer Whales"), a large seal, a row of fish and two swimming penguins and a pod of Killer Whales hanging from the top. The top has an arctic fox, a polar bear and walrus swimming, a Killer Whale rushing the shore and a baby seal. The green polar bear and purple seal were both handmade by Kiernan from Play-Doh. It is a masterpiece!!

Ooops I did it again

I dyed my hair again. I'm sure there is a color somewhere in nature like this but I haven't seen it yet. In the sunlight is looks FUSCHIA! Rockin' on with my bad self.

And the follow up

Yesterday, Mike went over and talked to the dad next door (he has twin boys just slightly older than Kiernan). And here's the rest of the story.

The twins, Kiernan and the crazy grandson were all playing together on the trampoline in the twin's backyard. The grandson got angry about something and started strangling the smaller of the two twins while on the trampoline. Kiernan ran over and kicked the grandson in the side and he let go of the boy. The twins ran inside and told their dad who then came out and kicked the grandson out of the yard. The grandson then turned to Kiernan and said, "Let's go Kiernan." And so he did.

The two came back over to our house and into the backyard. At this point, we were unaware that anything had happened and the two of them coming through the house to play in the backyard was not unusual.

Trash started coming over the fence and the dad next door came to the fence and yelled at the grandson to stop throwing trash over. Somewhere in his yelling at him, he said something to the effect of "You're done here!" or "I'm through with you!" <> The grandson took this to mean that he was not going to be allowed to return to their house ever and knew he had lost two friends (including the one he had tried to strangle). If he had lost his friends then he didn't want to live anymore. After having watched a man hang himself on the History Channel's "Haunted Motels" he decided he was going to hang himself too.
Here's where it gets a little convoluted. The two boys went back to the swing. Somewhere in the timeline of events the grandson picked up a stick and swung it at my son like a baseball bat--knocking him off the swing (Kiernan has said both in the head then later in the stomach). When Kiernan got back up off the ground, the grandson attempted to pick Kiernan up and hang HIM from the swingset first. We have two swings and a trapeze type swing on our set. The grandson was attempting to hang MY SON on the trapeze bar. Kiernan got free but aparently fell onto the ground. In the meantime, the grandson had twisted the trapeze bar around to make it tighten up then stuck his own head in it. Somewhere during this attempt he lost consciousness and fell to the ground. On the other side of the fence were the twins, watching. What they saw was Kiernan on the ground and Nick attempting to hang himself and falling to the ground. Those two high tailed it to their dad. That's where we got the story that they had both attempted to hang themselves.

I called my son's school counselor today and talked to her about it. It was a good talk and I felt better. She agreed that this was a person that Kiernan could no longer be in contact with and said to keep him busy for the next 2-3 weeks (so that the absence of the grandson isn';t as noticable). She also told me to call Child Protective Services (CPS). So I called them. CPS only deals with child protective issues within the family. I would have to call the police and file a report. I just wasn't prepared to do that. In the meantime, his counselor is going to touch base with him tomorrow and ask him a few questions about his friendship with the grandson and to reaffirm the toxicity of their relationship.

I'm sure this isn't over.

What was almost my worst day ever

For those of you who have been following the saga of the our next door neighbors grandson, then this is what may have been his final chapter.

My son, Kiernan, and the grandson were playing in our backyard this afternoon for quite awhile. I didn't hear from them for awhile, which can be disturbing when it's this boy over playing (as you never know what he's got running through his head). The two came busting in through the back door talking really fast and the grandson went out the front door. I looked at Kiernan quizically and asked, "What's going on?" He came back with something like the grandson was throwing trash from our yard (broken toys and what not) into our neighbors yard (the neighbors on the other side---not the boy's grandparents). Well the neighbor had come out and yelled at them and now the neighbor was on his way to gramma's house to tell them what had happened.

Mike (my husband) thought that sounded pretty odd (to get that mad over toys being thrown over the fence) so he headed next door too. Not long after Mike comes back and heads right to Kiernan. "Were you both throwing trash over the fence?" Kiernan nodded his head. Then Mike said, "What is this about you two handing yourselves from the swingset until you passed out!?" I jumped up to look at them. By now Kiernan was crying and you really couldn't get anything out of him. I couldn't even tell you what the conversation was after that but it included Mike asking Kiernan if he even knew what it meant to be dead. My brain just froze and tears sprang to my eyes. Mike sent him to his room (Kiernan was bawling at this point) and went back outside. I was bawling myself at this point. I called my mom to tell her what happened and was just sobbing. While still on the phone, I glanced out the door and saw that Mike, our neighbor and the boy's gramma and mom had him surrounded in the street. He was standing in the center staring at the ground with his hands in his pockets. It took me every ounce of strength not to race out the front door and strangle him.

I got off the phone with my mom and headed upstairs. I could hear Kiernan crying before I even got to the door. He was sobbing uncontrollably with his back against the wall. I tried to pull him into a hug but he was too upset. I tried to explain to him over and over what he had almost done. When he finally calmed down we talked about it a little more but really, he was more upset that he wasn't going to be able to spend the night at Nick's house then the fact that he could have died. I told him, "Don't EVER do anything that would take you away from me. I would cry for the rest of my life from missing you." And I left the room.

Mike came in a little later and told me the whole story. After the neighbor had yelled at the boys for throwing trash, he ended it with something to the effect of "I've had enough" or "that's the last straw." Well, the boy took this to mean that he wasn't allowed to play with the neighbor's kids anymore. He was so upset that they couldn't be his friends anymore that he decided to hang himself. The neighbor was watching to see if the boys were going to throw more trash and saw the attempted hanging. Folks, this is a 9 year old boy on medication and in therapy. But It was not my son who had tried to hang himself. Kiernan insists that his friend had hit him with a stick hard enough to throw him off the swing.

A 7 1/2 year old doesn't know what it means to die forever. His idea of dying is to reboot the game and start over. Right now he's perfectly content to get ready to watch movies with me for "Movie Night." If you had asked me before, I wouldn't have said that a 9 year old would have known what it means to die forever. Now? I don't know.

Funny song

My son taught this song to me (sung to the tune of "Oh Tannenbaum")

Oh Tom the Toad, Oh Tom the Toad
Why are you lying in the road?

Oh Tom the Toad, Oh Tom the Toad
Why are you lying in the road?

Did you not see the truck ahead?
Now you're lying
FLAT!
AND!
DEAD!

Oh Tom the Toad, Oh Tom the Toad
Why are you lying in the road?

(You can always swap out the name "Tom" for other names like your dog, cat, baby sister....you name it!)

Super cute present under the tree

Well would you look at that!

He does have a real smile.

Fantastic!

My son calls this, "Two ninjas fighting on a Chinese Temple with fire down below."

I LOVE IT!

It's my fault

My 2 year old daughter was squatted down looking through our DVD collection for some movie. She just kept flipping through them faster and faster; obviously not finding what she wanted. "God dammit!" comes this little chipmunk voice. That one is all me.

Ray Harryhausen ROCKS!

"Homer" bought my husband "Clash of the Titans" for XMas. I love the fact that Medusa was so scary that my son had to pull the blankets over his face to get through the scene. I can't wait to get all the Sinbad's on DVD!!

Nevermind

Then I hear the sing songy voice of Lexy calling out, "I'mmmmmmmmm poooooooooooooooooopy!" I find her at the top of the stairs dancing with her diaper in her hands. And I'm not kidding about the dancing part. She was full on dancing. I started up the stairs praying to myself, "Please don't let there be poop everywhere." I look inside the diaper and there's nothing there. "Where's the poopy Lexy?" "Wight Der!" And wight der indeed it was on the floor. *sigh*

BTW

Nothing strikes fear into the heart of a parent quite like, "This diaper is YUCKY!" I was afraid to turn my head lest there be poop running down her legs.

Whew! She just didn't like that diaper.

Christmas is over!

And again, Thanksgiving still reigns supreme in my book. No stress, no wrapping, no picking out the perfect gift....what should I bring to dinner and what time should I be there? Then I spend the day hanging out with the family members I do like.
I was up until super late wrapping presents. Of course, I could have wrapped them and hid them again but noooooo I'm all cool like that. Mike got to see Lexy when she first walked downstairs and her mouth just dropped to the floor when she saw everything under the tree. She ran back upstairs and woke up Kiernan and the paper shredding was on. They were so cute during the opening portion. Lexy would hand me her present and say, "Open it!" "Honey, it's your present, you open it!" I would start it for her and she would open it the rest of the way. Of course, she started to get the hang of it towards the end but then they were out of presents to open. She looked at Mike and said, "More presents!" He laughed and told her that she had opened them all which prompted her to put her hands over her mouth and sob. Needless to say, she took a long nap later on.
During the wrapping and unwrapping phases Mike and I just looked at each other like What did we BUY?! I can distinctly remember getting swamped with presents when I was little before my parents divorced. The front room would be so full of presents and wrapping paper that one literally couldn't walk through. I thought maybe that memory was false but I asked my mom about it some time ago and she told me that it was true. Those were awesome Christmas memories and maybe I wanted the same for my kids. We spoiled them rotten. And I felt both good and guilty at the same time. My daughter opened her stocking first and pulled out the Little Mermaid phone that she had picked out herself (ahh, the memory of a 2 year old) and she was supremely happy. Mike said, "And she's done." Meaning, she could have been happy right there. My mom picked up a Princess Jasmine outfit from Disney for her to wear. She even danced a little with it on then was done. "OFF!!"
Later on, my son informed me that he was bored. I just looked at him *blink blink* "You're bored? Go play with your new toys! Or better yet, pick out the ones you think are boring and I'll take them back!" Mike told me that I had it all wrong. His friends had come over to play and had left and he had no one to share his new toys with. Hence...boredom. Ah. I guess I don't quite have the hang of 7 1/2 year old boy speak yet.
Mike and I are going to celebrate our anniversary and Christmas in a few weeks. We have a spa room scheduled at a casino downtown and the kids are going to auntie's for the night. YEE HAW! Oh and a spa package that includes massages. We can't decide on Hot Stone or Deep Tissue because the sound of either makes us want to drool.
But in the meantime, it was a music and movie Christmas for the both of us. I gave him 4 classic Clint Eastwood westerns, season 1 & 2 of Smallville and the new Audioslave. He gave me Jet Li's Fearless (KICK ASS!), Jet Li's The One (so I like Jet Li), Lost Boys, Season 1 of Samurai Jack, Mortal Kombat & the 10th anniversary edition of Ninja Scroll. Oh and the new Gwen Stefani and Ludacris (I like to walk around and yell LUDA!). Santa brought us the Star Wars Trilogy (because I wasn't allowed to get another set until it came out in a DVD boxed set and I'm tired of waiting for the set of 6 to come out).
And Mike got "Clash of the Titans" from "Homer." If you've ever watched the Simpsons, then you know what a "Homer" gift is. Mike gets gifts from "Homer" every year :)
And my house is destroyed. I should be cleaning it right this very instant but I'm not going to. In fact, I may go and take a nap. How do you like them apples?

Lexy's Birthday Party

aka How many places can I find melted chocolate?

We rented a bounce house for 4 hours (3-7pm/party started at 2). They called me yesterday and asked if it would be ok if they dropped it off between 9-10 today. So we got a bounce house for almost 9 hours for the price of 4. Sweet! And it had Princesses all over it. Doubly sweet. It was one of those super deluxe houses that has a slide, basketball hoop and mini obstacle course inside. We invited all the kids from the neighborhood plus the kids in my family so I figure there was something like 10 kids or so here. We had the BBQ up and running with chicken, steak and hot dogs. The theme was Tinkerbell (or Tinka-bey-yo) and of course there was the Tinkerbell cake. We followed that up with the chocolate fountain we recently inherited and a snow cone machine. What can one say about a "Chocolate Fountain"? I had some girlfriends over a month ago and we used it. It was super tasty and actually not too bad to clean up (about 20 minutes including dumping the chocolate out). Fast forward to today---Said chocolate fountain with 10 kids. At about 40 minutes into it I was still scrubbing chocolate from the walls of my kitchen (which is just where I was cleaning it---it wasn't even used there). I walked back to the garage (thinking I was done) and found chocolate fingerprints all over the back of the door. I was standing at the sink and happened to glance over at the snow cone maker only to find the whole backside was coated in chocolate (especially around the on/off button). I laughed and came out to the front room and told my husband about where I had found more chocolate. He laughed too because it was on both my forearms. We all had a great time. I love having family and friends over.

P.S. I went to help my husband get my son up to bed and found more on the wall opposite of the stairs. I have a feeling there will be more to come.

P.P.S. Snow cone margaritas ROCK!