Okay, so today has been absolutely insane. First I slept through my snooze alarm, 4 times this morning, waking up at 6:50 (we have to be out the door by 7:10 to be on time. So it was a very rushed morning, the kids were a few minutes late to school.
For breakfast I had oatmeal with raisins, cranberries and fresh apple chunks, and a cup of coffee with cream and 1 sugar.
The it was a whirlwind day of writing as I had two articles due today and had not started wither one (had a lot of ideas in my head, but had not actually put them on paper). I did manage to get both of them done satisfactorily, but by the time I got them submitted to their respective sites, I was running late to get J for swimming (aquatic PT). On the way there I scarfed down a cheese stick and handful of almonds, and a bottle of water.
The classroom took longer getting him to me than usual, which made us even later, but we got there 10 minutes late, and they let him do his full half an hour anyway, which was good. He had a new PT in the pool today, so I was not sure how it was going to go, but he did very well with her. he listened, and did the swimming and kicking and reaching like he was asked too. He was in a great mood, and enjoyed the horsey (a rolled up float mat that he has to balance on sitting (with help) and gallop around the pool retrieving balls and tossing them into a basket). He loved the game and even used his left hand without too much prompting. He did have trouble listening on pool exit, and as she is not as familiar with him, he did slip all the way and land on his bottom on the step, but other than nicking his ankle with his toenail, he was okay.
From swimming we ran over to the mall, because I FINALLY remembered the helicopter ride that I had promised for Monday. So I took J in the mall, but with short time did not assemble his wheelchair to take him in (we have a sedan now that the station wagon died, and I have to take both the back and the two big wheels odd in order to wedge it in the truck (it is NOT a sling seat, fold up wheelchair, it is more involved than that). So, he is really getting hard to carry, being heavy and unable to wrap his legs around to help carry himself. So he rode the little insert quarters helicopter, then the corvette, and then the hot dog truck. I ran into G's first grade teacher while we were there, and it was nice to chat with her. She really is a great teacher. If we are still here when J is in first grade, I will be very glad for J to have her.
After that, we needed to go get G. As we were walking out (with J wisely on my shoulders) he announced that he was starving and needed french fries. Having not eaten actual lunch myself, I gave in to temptation and stopped at the Arby's stand in the food court. I got the All American Sandwich and he got the fries, and we got a root beer for G. So one combo split between 3 people, not too bad.
We got to G's school just in time to pick him up, and headed home. On the way I realized that tonight was the preschool transmission meeting at J's school, and I had not arranged childcare, so we took a little detour on the way home, and stopped to see my father. He agreed to watch the kids for me, so I went home, washed some dishes, had G do his homework, made dinner, and then ran back to my Dad's to pick him up 45 minutes later. Brought him and the kids back here, gave a quick rundown of the routine, and headed out as he was dishing up dinner for the kids. A whirlwind hour long drive back to J's school (which I was of course about 10 minutes late for). It was a VERY informative meeting, and I feel much more prepared going into J's CSE meeting at the end of the month. I was able to get lot of questions answered by a person who represents the state Dept of Education. I now know what I can and can not ask for. I asked a lot of question, which was good, and other parents also asked a lot of questions. So it was a great presentation and a discussion time (boy do I miss being with adults on a regular basis, it almost felt like the old lab meeting where we were discussing our work, just this time our work was our children). I had a couple of specific questions that she asked me to stay after to discuss,a s they were very specific to J. So overall a very productive evening.
Of course by staying after, I left half an hour later than planned. My father was supposed to have the kids in bed at 8:00PM (which was about the time I was leaving the meeting). I had to stop for gas, and as I had eaten no dinner, I grabbed a premade Italian sub with oil and vinegar dressing, and a small bag of Smart food Popcorn, and a water and a hot chocolate at the convenience store to eat on the way home.
Here I was thinking it would be peaceful to get home and chat with my Dad while we waited for my mom and step dad to give him a ride home (my mom's 2nd job runs until about 9:00pm). But instead I walk in to J still fully clothed, G jumping on the couch half in his pajamas, and the house totally trashed. My Dad is standing there with J's diaper saying, I have been trying to get them to go to bed, but he won't even let me change him. G had emptied the entire bookshelf of DVD's and video's and hurled them one by one across the room at J's guitar (which J does play and is trying to actually learn). G had already smashed one of J's guitars on purpose, so this second one was to replace that one, and he was trying to smash it with movies. G had also opened up four bags of art sand that he had gotten for his birthday and poured sand ALL OVER THE HOUSE. It feels like a beach to walk on the living room carpet. In addition, neither of them would eat dinner for my dad, and by this time it was nearly 9:30 pm. I told G to finish his Pajamas and clean up the movies. I send J into his room where I then changed him into his pajamas. I came back out and lectured G on his behavior and how he knew better. I also made him throw the rest of the sand art kit in the garbage, as all the sand was gone, and I let him know how disappointed I was in his intentionally destructive behavior. I gave them each a small cup of peaches (as I did not want them to sleep on a totally empty stomach), and then I tucked them in their beds, told them goodnight and went lights out.
I was SO frustrated with the way they behaved for my father. I was also a little frustrated at my father, as he seems to have not noticed any of the things going on, until I pointed them out to him. So, I think that is the last time Dad will babysit, as he just does not pay enough attention. he is getting older, and maybe the kids are just too much for him now. Oh well. My house is a complete mess, and I am exhausted after such an insane day. Now I have clothes in the washer that I need to wait to put in the dryer before I go to bed. I had forgotten tomorrow is St Patrick's Day, so I needed to wash clothes to make sure the kids have green on tomorrow. Especially since A (their other parent) is almost 100% Irish. So for race/ethnicity the kids say they are: G=Mexican Irish American and J=African Irish American. So yeah, I need to make sure the green shirts are clean. (As for my race/ethnicity I am a true American mutt=a mix of French, English, German and at least 1/16th Native American (my maternal grandfather was 1/2--though I do not know what tribe, he left is family at 16 and never really talked about his heritage) and I am 1/64th Iroquois on my Father's side) and who knows what else, my European lines have been here many generations so are not well documented or remembered).
Tomorrow will be one of those days that i drop the kids off and then drive the hour back home so that I can clean up this house!!. I hate adding an extra 100+ miles and 2 extra hours of driving to my car and day, but they really trashed the house and I need time without them here to clean it all up properly. I might have to borrow a good vacuum as mine is okay for regular stuff, but this fine sand everywhere is going to need something with better suction. Oh and a couple of the movies (older VHS movies) were broken in G's little stunt. It was such a good evening until I got home. Some days you can understand why some animals eat their young...
No comments:
Post a Comment