Brain Map & Haircut

I'm so out of creative titles.  

Today we had a map of Ab's brain made. There is definitely something there and functioning.  He had no information on her diagnosis, other than what I wrote on the paper, and the neurologist knew right away that she had a visual perception and discrimination problem (which was not on the paper).  She has her first LENS treatment on Tuesday.  I can't wait to see how she benefits.  It also helps with PTSD, TBI, Autism, and several other things.  They want to use it with the military.....maybe they can get rid of Gunner's migraines.

The doctor that applied the "thingies" to Ab's head, would place them at certain points.  After the assistant called out a few of them, Abs had to stop the doctor and make sure he understood all the numbers and letters for each location.  She explained the lettering and numbering system to him, and then asked him to explain why they used z for the center instead of c, etc.  The doctor was great and answered all 500 million of her questions. 

We got a cage for the dog.  Junior wants one of his own.

I took Abs to get her haircut today.  My regular girl was busy, so we got Sue.  I don't think Sue knew what she was getting into.  Abs had the entire place almost in tears from laughing so hard.  We walked in and she announced to the entire salon "I'm the hair emergency!".  From there it went to her asking questions about anything and everything.  I think Sue was exhausted by the end of the hair appointment, but she did a great job.

She looks so sweet and innocent, as long as we keep it pinned back.  We went and got new barrettes for her to use, and a new brush to curl it under when I dry it.  We started to walk down the aisles of Walgreens, where I immediately managed to walk through someone's vomit.  I don't do well with my own kid's, much less someone else's.  I notified the staff, and they had to go look to make sure I was giving them correct information.  Thank goodness the lady confirmed that it was barf, just in case I was making it up.
 
Abs and I enjoyed a Starbucks, hit the thrift store (found pyrex refrigerator glass), and ran laughing through the snow.

Tomorrow is Valentine's Day, so Happy Birthday to my big sister!

Gunner and I are catching up on Olympic action.  The kids are tucked into bed, and will hopefully fall asleep sooner rather than later.  Abs has slept through 4 nights out of the last 7, so we are headed in the right direction!

The haircut....again

Yep, she cut her hair again.  She wanted to even it out. 

It's about twenty different lengths in the front.  It was all one length. 

"A Brand New Day"

That's the phrase Junior calls out every morning as he wants to get out of his room.  I'm trying to keep that battle cry in mind today.

Sammy the dog barfed up all the crap that he ate yesterday.  He did it in the middle of the night.  We discovered it because Abs stepped in the barf, while she was up, in the middle of the night.  She didn't make a lot of noise though, surprisingly, but we did see the light on, and heard Abs in the tub, in the middle of the night.

Apparently you have to wash your entire body if your foot gets dirty, but only if it is the middle of the night.

I got a copy of Ab's 504.  I guess it will work for now. 

I'm thinking I will pull Junior out of school by the end of the month.  I'm making Gunner go to the conference, I just can't deal with anymore stress about what one of my kids is doing wrong.  I'll have to quit my volunteer job, but seriously, I can only do what I can do.  I think that the environment might be a little too chaotic for him?  Maybe it is that they are forcing him to take a nap?  I told Gunner that we could send in a leapster for him to play while he takes nap, or something like that. 

I miss Texas. 

Abs has polished off 16 mini hamburgers since Sunday.  At least she is eating. 

I am volunteering today, but hopefully can figure out a way to fit the gym in sometime today.  I really need an extremely hard workout, where I can do nothing but focus on breathing and trying to finish.  Then when it's all over I need to be so tired and sore that I can't think about anything but putting one foot in front of the other.

Did I mention that I got a report home from Ab's school yesterday?  She got written up.  Apparently she wandered out of class and they didn't know where she was.  Imagine what could have happened.  We had a nice long talk about safety and responsibility, etc. I also threw in there that she shouldn't have any scissors at her disposal.

Abs has her 90 minute OT session tonight.  She is having a brain map done on Saturday.  Can't wait to see how her brain works, and I have tons of questions for the neurologist.  Maybe he can explain why she was rearranging her furniture in the dark last night. 

Has anyone seen the ads that talk about "showing your patriotism by shopping our President's Day sale"?  How is shopping on President's Day make me MORE patriotic? 

Oh what a day...

It started out really well.

Great workout.

Great run.

Great lunch.

I juiced.

I took care of some work.

Then it went downhill.

Abs left her door open, so Sammy went in her room and tore apart her rice heat pack.  All over the place.  He got a hold of the daddy doll, but luckily didn't damage it too much.  He ate a sponge.  Knocked over a coffee cup and broke it.

Someone put potato peels in the sink, and I didn't notice and down into the garbage disposal they went.  So the sink backed up.  The garbage disposal doesn't work, and it's leaking underneath the sink.  I plunged and worked on it, then gave up.

Em showed up and is back to her old ways of being more interested in the social aspect of school than the academics.  She lost her phone and ipod.  She's in her room, redoing her homework and making up all the missing assignments that she hasn't done.

Abs came home.  She had no problems sitting down and doing her homework.  I'm sitting there feeding her more hamburgers, and trying to figure out what is different.  She cut her hair.  She had a hair pretty in it, but couldn't get it out, so rather than cut the hair pretty, she cut off 5 inches of her hair.  A giant chunk.  Right in the front. 

I figure everyone is in their room, so I go get Junior.  I walk in to find out that he pooped in his pants, got upset, and bit the teacher.  They want a conference this week. I think they want to give him a boot.  I'm sending Gunner, I can't deal with it.  He's not a violent kid, I don't know why he does it. 

I know why mothers runaway and I am headed in that direction.  I don't even want to think about a deployment in mere months and having to deal with this all by myself.  I quit.

Gunner's Kids Revisited

I forgot to mention that yesterday while we were at the Olympic Training Center, Abs was limping.  This is nothing too unusual, she's always getting hurt doing something.  We asked her about it, and she didn't say much other than her leg hurt.

After we left the Olympic Center, we ran by the Arc, and then hit Five Guys Burgers and Fries for lunch.  We were sitting there......

Abs:  My leg hurts.
Me:  That's what you said, what happened?
Abs:  I don't know.  (Rubbing her leg)
Me:  Let me take a look at it.
Abs:  It's probably the yarn.
Me:  The YARN?????
Abs:  Yeah, it's kind of tight.

I lift up her pants legs to see tons of yarn wrapped around her leg, and tightly.  I grab a plastic knife and start to panic as I am trying to cut through the yarn.

Me:  Why do you have yarn wrapped around your leg, and why didn't you tell me?
Abs:  You didn't ask.

I'm making a mental note of that.  It was not in the parenting manual that I should ask if you have yarn tied around your leg in case of leg pain.  Geez.  I didn't get before pictures, but here are two pictures of after.

I still don't know what possessed her to do this. 

Today was Disney Live and Abs tried to hide in her room.  I finally convinced her to go.  We got there and she really perked up.  We purchased some licorice and some cotton candy.

The show was great!  Junior about came unglued and had everyone around us laughing and smiling.  The boy has some moves, and can shake his booty faster than anyone I have seen.  He jumped up and down, sang along, and was mesmerized by everything.  Abs got into it as well, and was singing, jumping, and telling me how awesome everything was.

When we left, we had the following conversation.

Me:  Looks like you had a great time Abs!
Abs:  I'm pretty good at faking it, that's what you call artificial fun.

Regardless of what she said afterward, I know she had a good time while we were there.

I watched the last 5 minutes of the Super Bowl, purged Abbie's room, and went with a friend when she took her girls to the doctor.

Gunner gets to go in late due to the Super Bowl that he didn't watch and had no interest in.  Lucky him!

The dog has been washed, I am sore from training yesterday, and the week is loaded down with trips to the gym, and Abs appointments.  Thank goodness for Gunner's kids, they keep my life interesting!

Skating

Em's troop was going ice skating, so Gunner ventured out with both girls. The last two summers when they were in daycare while I was in school, they went roller skating every week. They never really got the hang of it, but apparently ice skating is easier for them. Go figure.

Abs insisted that she have a helmet.

I'm a star!

You only have to be 16 to drive one, and apparently this is Ab's new ambition. I still have time to work on her though.

In order to earn the patch, Em has to do another two hours, so we will be back out there in the near future. It's not too expensive either over at the World Arena, and they even offer hockey lessons. I would love to play hockey, maybe they have adult lessons?