When I look at my calendar right now I actually start to feel sick to my stomach. I know I swore not to complain, I am not complaining. There are a lot of things on that page that I could remove if I absolutely needed to, but there isn't anything that I really want to remove right now. Except for maybe the kids dentists appointments. It's not just the dread of wondering how bad a report I might get about how the brushing is going, after Scooter's last experience I am having a panic attack about going back.
Speaking of panic attacks - I left my house the other morning to go do some work and make an appointment to find my neighborhood literally swarming with police cruisers. I counted seven with their lights on, no sirens and stopped counting the ones without. By the time I left the subdivision Riley and I had seen over a dozen slowly moving police cars. He thought it was great - I was alarmed. Since the activity seemed to be centered around the school where Scooter was busy learning Phonics & basic geometric shapes, I called the school. I was told the police were maintaining a presence because there was an event overnight in the neighborhood. I badgered the poor woman into telling me what the event was: a shooting. She assured me that they weren't on lock-down, but they also weren't letting the kids play outside that day.
Okay - I know a smoke screen when I see one. These police weren't maintaining a presence, they were looking for someone. The event might have happened overnight, but there was obviously still a concern. I circled back home and double checked that my house was securely locked down and then left again. When I picked the boys up that afternoon all police were gone. I talked to a friend who said she had seen several of the SUV cops on her street that morning and an officer manning the parking lot on the other side of the school. There was a letter in Scooter's backpack telling us there had been an 'altercation' in the neighborhood and they had kept all of the doors locked during the day (Don't they do that anyway?). Oh - and the suspect had been apprehended, unarmed, about 5 minutes after my drive through right on school property by the teachers parking lot.
I looked up the police report when I got home and found out that 3 19-20 year old boys/men had gotten into an argument at 3 a.m. so one of them had shot another multiple times. The victim had surgery and was in critical condition. As of right now, there isn't any indication of drugs or gang involvement. It's the kind of thing that could happen anywhere, but it happened 4 blocks from my home and I am seriously shaken. My neighbor and I looked at the picture of the shooter and recognized him immediately as one of several boys that wander the neighborhood aimlessly all the time. Don't these kids have jobs????? Urgh. Admittedly, I am more uneasy about it than my husband. First of all, he's less of a worry wart and keeps reminding me that domestic stuff happens everywhere. Second - I lived in a crappy apartment in Commerce when Tyler was little and while he was out with his dad one night and I was home alone, there was a shooting in the apartment 2 doors down from me. I shut down that semester, barely functioning in my fear. It was a low point. I am not going to be that low about this, but some of those old panicky feelings are trying to worm their way to the surface. How can we keep our kids safe in a world like this?
In other news, Halloween was great. We had our annual party with friends and family at 'The Ranch'. There was way too much food, crafts for the kids, a hay ride, a pinata, trunk-or-treat and even a metal horse/calf contraption for the kids to try and rope a calf. Our sweet friend, Emily, got up there towards the end of the night and completely wowed the older kids when she actually caught the calf with her rope. She said it had been 10 years, but she still had the knack. Tyler had a total blast trying to rope and I hear he was getting the hang of it, but I had taken Scooter home by then since it was a school night and I missed that part of the show. I wore my 'I'm the Good Witch' t-shirt and got my picture taken in the 'Witch's Photo Spot' with my good friend Claudia who was dressed up in full Witch ensemble. The little ones thought she looked great, but they weren't going to go near her, even though they knew it was Ms. Claudia in there. Tyler got plenty of pictures taken though, both with Witch Claudia and on his own. His costume was a big hit - a front load washing machine. It really turned out cute and gave everyone a smile & a laugh. Scooter & Riley ended up as The Green Lantern and Captain America respectively and Scott & I played the parts of parents to super heroes. Despite only trunk-or-treating to about 10 cars, the kids made the rounds until everyone was out of candy so we came home with 3 full pumpkins and no need to do further neighborhood rounds. I even managed to get us to a fall carnival on Sunday night at our church and then carve 3 pumpkins last minute and make pumpkin seeds on the 31st. Hectic, but everything got done!!!!
The next morning was rough on everyone, but we managed. I woke Riley up by softly singing 'Happy Birthday' to him with Tyler joining in half way through. Riley stretched his arms and said 'Nooooo, I want a nap before my birthday!!!!' Later though, he decided he was going to be 4 'All Day!' He was a little weirded out by birthday phone calls and only talked to my sister Asheley in the morning and then no one else. That night we had end of season soccer party and awards ceremony for which I brought cupcakes & candle. He wasn't sure he wanted to be sung to then either and every time Scooter and I tried he shut us down. When we got home and tried to sing one more time before he opened his present, he finally relented and told me it was because 'I'm over it mom'. Okay.
Yesterday I took Riley for his 4 year check up and wasn't too surprised to find out that he is still slipping off of his growth curve and is only in the 7th percentile for height. My doc doesn't care what the actual number is, but wants them to maintain a growth curve. This is something Riley has always struggled with. He sprang back after his adenoid surgery and the end of his sleep apnea, but has since fallen off at a slow, but steady pace. After having to endure 3 shots in his thighs, we had to go directly down the hall and have 2 vials of blood taken from his arm (this was a mommy first for me, despite 2 surgeries and countless other procedures). His arm looked so tiny there and he was so worn out afterwards. The doctor ordered a full panel, but he most specifically wants to look at Riley's thyroid since he eats non-stop and gets plenty of protein, but isn't growing. He expects the numbers to be fine, but he's checking anyway. Riley's a peanut, and it's fine if he's a peanut if nothing else is wrong. We just have to check. If blood work is okay then we go back in 6 months for another height/weight check and go from there. For the curious - he's 37.5" tall and 32.2 lbs. He is in the 20th percentile for weight (the highest he's ever hit), it's the height we are most worried about and it can't be fixed with adding whey protein and flax seed to his food - I asked. I know we were all shorties in our family and had growth spurts late, but Riley is actually smaller than we all were at this point.
The other thing that came from the appointment is that we are being referred to a speech therapist for evaluation. If you know Riley well, you can probably catch most of what he is saying to you, but it's hard to understand him on the phone and people who don't know him don't understand him well. Even I have a hard time sometimes, have to listen to him more than once to get it and have even resorted to asking Scooter to tell me what he said. Most of the problem is that he isn't using the back of his tongue to make hard sounds, only the tip and variations on that. It's still really adorable to most of us that Okay comes out Otay and a Kit Kat is a Tit Tat, etc., but it's probably because he's our baby and he was 3 until a couple days ago. However, it won't be cute when he's 10 and evidently this is actually kind of a difficult problem to retrain. So, looks like we are going to be starting a therapy process again. After he's evaluated and I know how extensive this will be I am going to look into the school district options. Riley is old enough to get services for 1/2 day at the same school Scooter attends and that would be free. We'll see how all this plays out over the next couple of months. I won't mention it to him yet, but if he got to go to school too he would be super duper excited, regardless of the reason.
Evaluations, galore. Scooter is being scheduled for a re-evaluation by the district as well. His teachers aren't seeing any of the problems that were expected thanks to his evaluations last year. A lot of that has to do with dealing with the SI through occupational therapy and some of it has to do with maturity. Regardless, they are gathering information from a lot of other sources besides me right now and will monitor him in the classroom in February to hopefully have a more accurate idea of what Scooter does and does not need. He's really doing well in school, way better than we hoped for socially. He still has a problem going through the door in the morning and isn't quite ready to talk to his classmates outside of the school, but it gets better in teeny tiny baby steps.
So, that's the catch up - and it doesn't even touch anything that is on my calendar for this month!!! Ach! Soccer is done, we survived and thrived and it turns out I didn't even suck at the coaching thing. I am taking Tyler for Basketball evaluations on Monday. He starts practice next month, but games don't begin until mid-January. The little boys still swim on Wednesdays and they are doing really well. All three boys see the dentist this month and I am pretty sure that Tyler will be bringing home the dreaded Science Fair Project packet any day now. Tyler has a concert for violin at the end of the month and placed 2nd chair for his first chair try-out. The second one is today, but I don't think he practiced enough - we'll see.
I'm off to work today and then to clean mom's house for the birthday party. Tomorrow I get to attempt to make and decorate a birthday cake because Riley insisted I do it myself (baking part no problem, decorating ????). Next week looks downright scary, but I am determined to plow through and get it all done. Just keep the coffee brewing . . .
God Bless!
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