On The Injured List

 

 

 

Normally, school pick up entails picking the kids up, chatting with DS’s Educational Assistant for a few minutes to see how his day was, and then we head across the street to “the Butterfly Garden” if we have other plans, or the park then the Butterfly Garden then home. Yesterday, this is NOT what happened.

 

Everything looked normal until the supply EA let go of DS’s hand BEFORE I had ahold of his hand. In that split second, he bolted. Three adults went to grab him. We all missed. I’m sure it looked a bit like baseball players all going for a fly ball. I had been carrying DD and lost my footing. Down I went. DD was crying, DS started crying because DD was crying. Honestly, I was trying really hard not to start crying too. Unbelievable pain! A bunch of fellow kindergarteners were coming over asking if my daughter’s “mommy was okay”. All I could say was “no. I’m hurt. Please give me space”. My left knee was banged up, left foot toes were scraped, the side of my right foot was twisted…which made for a painful 2 minute drive home.

 

Some things I’m thankful for from this situation…

1. I was able to turn just a tiny bit when I was falling so I didn’t land on my daughter, and was still able to protect her from really hurting herself.
2. The kids’ father was able to take the kids overnight. There was no way I could handle the stairs in our home to put the kids to bed. We have a sunken bathroom with only two steps and those are hard enough to manage, let along the 20 or so steps to upstairs!
3. A friend of ours was with us for school pick up. He caught my son after he bolted, was able to carry him to our mini-van, get us home, help me into our home, manage my kids, and get them fed. He even told me to make a stop at Starbucks on the way home to get me my favourite Starbucks order…gawd he knows me! Thanks AS!
4. My neighbour kept my daughter entertained between our friend leaving and the kids’ father coming to pick them up. Thanks JM!
5. My daughter was and continues to be such an amazing help…she’s holding my hand to “help me” whenever I have to move somewhere this morning, and she even wrote me a “get well” card this morning too.

 

This morning’s biggest decision for me was, do I put the tensor bandage on my right foot or my left knee. Went with the right foot.

“No Mosquitoes in my Underwear”, and Other Quotes

My 5yo daughter is the most quotable child I’ve ever met, so I thought I would share some on this rainy Hump Day…

• “Mommy, there are no mosquitos in my underwear” – to top it off, she was sad about this!
• While holding up a piece of pepperoni… DD: “This is yummy, it reminds me of something I like”. Me: “Pepperoni?”. DD “No mom. I don’t like pepperoni.” Oh, okay…
• “God is two years old. She had her birthday yesterday.” Good to know.
• “Jesus and Yoda are both spirits. They are very powerful and nice.” In case you were wondering.
• “I’m the princess of this family.” Hmm, as her mother, does that make me Queen, or Ruler of the World?
• “God is a girl, and Spirit is Her boyfriend.” Good to know.
• “Boys have hair all over their bodies. Girls don’t. We have pretty skin.” The closest you’ll get to sex-ed from a 5yo I guess.
• “Do Bad Guys like carrots and hummus?” Anyone know?
• “I only want to eat 10 french fries so I don’t fill up my dessert stomach.” She has her priorities straight thankfully!
• “It’s not funny when people are naked…even birds”. Ummm…okay…

The best one that makes my heart melt though:

“Mommy, do you know what I hate about you? NOTHING!”

Losing His First Tooth

 

 

 

 

 

I posted a blog called “Losing Her First Tooth” on Mom Nation today, and right after hitting “publish”, I checked my DS’s teeth to see if he had any loose, only to find that he had lost the exact same tooth as DD!

 

DS was eating rice cakes (sundried tomato and basil – they are great with melted cheese too…just saying!) and, when I went to check if any teeth were loose, I was surprised to find one missing, then my mini-panic started. Did he swallow the tooth? Is it on/in the couch somewhere? Rice cakes can be messy and there were rice cake “droppings” everywhere. I called DD over from the neighbour’s to help me look for it. DS walked over, picked up a white fleck and handed it to me. It was his tooth! Pretty amazing connection for him! (He has Autism).

 

He’s been touching the area on his gums a bit, but still continues to eat his rice cakes. I’ve talked with him about how it’s even more important that we brush his teeth every single day (it used to be a huge fight – now, there’s resistance, but he does it) because a grown-up tooth will grow into that hole where the baby tooth was.

 

My “little man” is growing up!

Hooked After My First Extreme Couponing Experience

Aimee, from ExtremeCouponingMom.ca was kind enough to take me shopping on Saturday for my very first extreme couponing experience. Even more exciting is to realize it CAN be done in Canada!

 

Normally, a 15 mins drive, it took us more than an hour to get to WalMart because of highways being closed for construction and walkathons so we kept getting detoured. A bit frustrating, but we laughed about it knowing it just made the experience that much better! We went to a WalMart that isn’t on a bus route and, as I was walking to the store with my binder of coupons, I started getting really excited to learn from my “guru”. You can learn from Aimee too as she offers coupon seminars.

 

Aimee is amazing! She had looked through my coupon binder in the car ride there (which included the $47.50 worth of coupons I had received in the mail the night before! It’s the pic at the top of this blog).  She was able to remember when I had coupons vs her binder that weighs more than 30lbs (!!!!). The tricks they mention on TLC’s Extreme Couponing are very true…pay attention to sizes of the products you are buying. If there’s no restriction on your coupon, then look in the areas of the store with travel sizes, or smaller sizes. If you have a coupon for a few dollars off, then you will probably get the smaller sizes for free.

 

The coolest part of shopping was when I loaded 30 boxes of Ziploc bags…for free!! By price matching with another store where they were on sale for $1.99, and having a coupon for $4 off when you buy 2, I was able to get 30 boxes for FREE! A few people around us were watching intently (including one mentioning that he wanted to get a box, but only if there were some left…we did leave some, no worries), so I kept reminding Aimee to hand out her business card.

 

Prior to this experience, I didn’t understand why there’s so much marketing around price matching. Now I get it, especially when gas prices are so high! Didn’t have to drive around everywhere. Aimee brought a spreadsheet where she listed the sale items at other stores so we were able to take advantage of those sales at WalMart because she also brought the flyers with her.

 

It took about an hour for both of us to check out (I told each new person who came in line behind us that we had lots of coupons and were price matching so, if they were in a hurry, they may want another line). Eventually, a older couple just joked that they weren’t in a hurry and were excited to see the process. One of the women from the neighbouring aisle even asked where we got our plastic sheets to hold our coupons because she just brought them all in her pocket. I handed Aimee’s card to each of them, and our cashier who was having fun with our coupons too.

 

Here are our carts before checking out:

 

 

Here’s my loot:

 

Which included, among other things:

• 1 box of 100 Pampers (for which I paid $14.97!)
• 2 bags of 8 rolls of paper towels
• 4 boxes of Koolaid Jammers
• 4 toothpastes
• 1 Glade roomspray with 2 refills (this is a gift…shh, don’t tell anyone!)
• 30 boxes of Ziploc Sandwich bags

 

So, the “numbers” from our trip:

• 2 hours in store
• 86 items bought
• coupon value used: $143.62
• spent $90.56 ($20.81 of that was tax)
• brought home $212.52 worth of products (which is based on the price-matched price, rather than the regular price of each item)
• 68% saving (excluding the taxes)

 

To put it all in perspective, if I had bought all the Ziploc bags at the price-matched price of $1.99 and the box of Pampers, all the other 55 products for FREE!

 

I’m TOTALLY hooked!! 

“Scary Mommy” Reflections

 

 

 

 

Scary Mommy has a great blog post this week – well, they are all great, but this one has caused some reflection on my part because my son has Autism. It’s inviting parents of typical kids to ask those hard questions to us parents of special needs kids that they are afraid to ask.

I have three pet peeves…firstly, don’t ask “what’s wrong” with my son. There’s nothing “wrong” with him. He just interacts with the world differently, same as there’s nothing “wrong” with me for not aceing science and math in school the way you might have; or that you didn’t ace languages, music and history the way I did.

My second pet peeve is when someone calls my son “Autistic”. Someone with Cancer, isn’t “Cancerous”. My son has Autistic traits, but he isn’t Autistic.

Lastly, when people tell me that they are “sorry” about my DS having Autism, I try not to look at them like they have three heads. Why are you sorry? I’m not. Autism is PART of how my son learns and interacts, it isn’t WHO he is. My son is AWESOME!

There is also a long discussion on Scary Mommy about how to help a parent of a child of special needs. My advice is to be there, whether emotionally or physically. If you hear we are having a bad day and that we aren’t leaving the house because of it, show up. Give us time to have a shower while you are there, bring us our favourite drink (mine’s a Starbucks chai latte, lactose-free milk, no water…in case you were wondering), do the dishes, fold laundry, bring us a home-cooked meal, etc. Sure, they are “chores” that you probably don’t want to do at your place but I can tell you from experience that my stress levels increase exponentially by the second if I haven’t had time to do the dishes (don’t have a dishwasher) and I can’t find counter space to prepare whatever food my DS wants at that moment.

At the end of the day though, just ask how you can help – please don’t be offended if we say there’s nothing you can do though…sometimes it’s just harder for us to explain how to help because you might unintentionally trigger a meltdown. Ask about the specialist appointment we took our child to today – just be prepared for a detailed answer if you ask about the appointment. Invite us out at a time of day that works best for us, whether it’s a playdate for the kids or some grown-up time. We get very isolated very easily as we have been asked if “other moms groups might be more suitable for my son” often.

Most of all though, share in our excitement about developmental advances our child makes. Remember how excited you were when your child started talking/walking/went potty the first time? We are just as excited, if not more so, when we finally get to experience those advances when our kids are older. Can you imagine how excited I’ll be when my soon to be 6yo son will finally be potty trained??!!!

Above all, if you happen to witness my son’s complete meltdown in public, walk over, ask if there’s anything you can do to help and offer to hold my bags, then try to keep up with us as my son takes us on a “Meltdown Adventure”, which can lead anywhere or nowhere. Hope you’re wearing your running shoes!

Losing My “Virginity”…

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow I’m having my first surgery ever. Yup, in my mid-thirties and there are a few things that people are amazed at…I have never dyed my hair (why would I? I’m a natural redhead!), had my first cavity at 31 years old, AND have never had surgery. The closest I go was having a couple teeth pulled when I was a kid because they had been wiggling forever and wouldn’t come out. Broke my arm as a kid, but no surgery required. I even gave birth to twins without a C-section for crying out loud!

 

Anticipating my first surgery feels like I’m losing my virginity…the nerves, fear, anxiety, the heart palpitations, the excitement, etc. Will I feel different after?

 

~ If you get queasy with medical information,

do NOT read the next paragraph…you have been warned ~

 

I’m having what’s called a Vaginal Myomectomy. Basically means that I have a mass in my uterus (and it’s not a baby…or two in my case!) that needs to be removed. This fibroid grew to 5cm within a year (what can I say? I’m an incubator!), and has been the bane of my existence for the last 3 years. As each month passed, my periods became heavier and heavier, and more and more painful. By the time they put me into chemically-induced menopause the 2^nd time (shrinks the fibroid), a “normal” period for me was 2 weeks “on”, 1 week off, and repeat. The pain was unbelievable, and I couldn’t leave the house for 3 – 5 days, and was going to washroom every 20 mins, day and night (therefore no sleep!). Not good when I’m a SAHM to 5yo twins. Their father would help when his schedule allowed, and my friends filled in whenever possible too.

 

My obgyn didn’t feel skilled enough (nor did any of her colleagues) to remove it without removing my uterus. What??!! I was still married when they found the fibroid and still wanted to keep the option of having more kids open so I was NOT impressed. Thankfully, my obgyn found a specialist (with the same first name as me!) who has, to quote her, “removed bigger and badder” fibroids. Phew! She can also remove it without a C-section-type entry, therefore only needing a few days to recover instead of months. Double phew! Felt kinda weird to go to appointments at a fertility clinic though – my twins were “natural”.

 

So, my fibroid is FINALLY being removed, and I can no longer say things like I did to my father a couple of weekends ago: “I’m menopausal AND having PMS. Don’t screw with me” but I’ll be glad to see the end of it. 

Redheads + Sun = Freckles

 

 

 

 

The kids and I spent a couple hours yesterday with friends of ours at a playground near the water. It was crazy hot and sunny out. With 3 redheads and 2 fair-skinned brunettes in our “party”, everyone was sprayed with sunscreen first. DD and her best friend laughed their heads off while they were being sprayed (okay, I did too). DS was NOT impressed. He’s very sensitive to liquid drying, but the feeling was short lived.

 

We also saw and petted some police horses while we were there. DS was even very interested in the horses, which was amazing as he doesn’t go near the horses at my parents’ farm. My kids are now proud owners of “trading cards” of one of the horses…and I deny taking extra time to look at/drool over the police officer in uniform on the front of the card…completely deny it…

 

After spending time with the horses, we all walked over to Pier 4 playground, where there is a very cool replica of a tugboat for kids to play on. Very quickly, the other grown-up with us was dumping water on the kids and they all looked like drowned rats.

 

Today however, the kids and I have been “counting new freckles”. Welcome to the life of redheads! If exposed to sunlight, we freckle. I was fortunate to grow up in a family where my grandmother used to always say that freckles were “marks of beauty” so I seem to have come out of childhood not being embarrassed by freckles like others who freckle easily. Even before my kids had freckles (their father is a redhead too so it was “destined”), I was working on them embracing freckles.

 

Although not a redhead, my dad is very fair-skinned so he and I were always putting sunscreen on when I was a kid, while my mom and brother didn’t “need” to with their darker skin tones. We aimed to use SPF 45 if we could find it…which was very hard to find 30 years ago. I always wanted to get that beautiful tan that all my friends did, but I also knew it wasn’t going to happen. Thankfully, I’m not a redhead that just thinks of sun and gets burnt.

 

My mom gave me a t-shirt once that encompasses redhead vs sunlight perfectly: “Authentic Redhead: Keep Out of Direct Sunlight”. My t-shirt is even in that bright green that ONLY redheads can wear.