Small (ok they never are) update on us...

I hate to say the cliche "we're so busy" but we are. December brought us another hurdle in the life of Cowboy. This little man is just the poster child for the little train that could. As some backgrounder info for those just tuning into my life, Cowboy has a lot of different learning and processing disorders. He's been through TONS, did I say TONS? I don't think that's even an appropriate word for it. He's been through GOBS - that doesn't do it either. He's been through a lifetime of developmental therapy in his short 10 years. When he was 18 months - we started with 6-7 various therapies a week - two speech, two OT and two PT. Needless to say - busy was an understatement at that time. All of our appts were 20 miles from here so it also took a lot of driving time. January always brings new fights with insurance, social security and 'the system'. JOY!! January is also my time of reflection and my time to set some goals for what I want him to accomplish.


I am VERY proud to say my boy has shined through the years. He NEVER complains about his therapy appts, does his 'homework' without a blink of an eye (although it's proving to be harder lately) and he's made leaps and bounds. At the age of 4 only 30% of what he said was intelligible by someone other than ourselves. He still has his moments - but everyone can understand him now with 95-98% intelligibility. He still has his physical challenges here and there - but he's quickly overcoming every single one of those - he's getting stronger and stronger. I do have to credit football with a majority of that though. No amount of PT can ever work ALL his muscles the way those workouts do. His horseback riding helps too. Occupational - fine motor skills still suffer - we have to get in every few years to get him back up to speed. He desperately needs to get back in but we have to feed the most delayed hand first so to speak (funding issue since insurance doesn't cover much). We'll probably get something moving this summer or in the fall for OT or try to work in an every other week sort of thing. When you start to resolve one issue - you usually uncover another and that is what we have done.


At his doc visit at the end of Sept, they checked his eyes and he was weak in one eye so I made him an appt with the eye doc. I knew there was a possibility (the uncovering thing I just talked about) that he had some visual processing issues so I researched and researched and found the right doc we needed to see. Turns out he is nearsighted in one of his eyes, he needed glasses but he suggested further testing. We had to wait for the scheduling, etc....and finally in December we got our appt.


$400 later and my poor poor boy has a new, exciting...goal. The doc even mentioned with everything he has going on it would be hard to pinpoint this as possibly an underlying issue. He's grossly delayed in his visual processing and vision motor functions. What this means to me is that he has been accomodating for so long, it's had to be frustrating. To give you an example, an average person reading a certain paragraph fixates (focuses) their eyes on the page 150 times. His eyes fixated 508 times on the same paragraph. The child has machine gun focusing on a paragraph, sentence, or word. The average scores in all the different tests (there were tons) they gave him is 50% his HIGHEST was 37% and 25% on two sections - the rest were BELOW 9%. My poor boy. I just wanted to cry for him. We very rarely dwell on the negative and we trudge on and start in the fixing stage. He has already started vision therapy - he goes once a week and has 30-45 mins of homework each night....6 nights a week. We hope by the end of the year, most of his vision problems will be a thing of the past.

So that is why I have been so absent. It's been hard adding this extra baggage to the 'flight plan' of a regular homeschooling day, field trips, therapy appts and regular every day life stuff. Not to mention - fulfilling the obligations at Itchy's school - picking him up every day, field trips, class parties, etc. Oh...and of course getting some 'me' time with girlfriend shopping Thursdays. We are slowly working into a more comfortable schedule but it's taking time so please bear with me. We aren't even doing school in our classroom (where I usually wrote my entries) at the moment because I felt he needed new scenery to rekindle his desire to dive into action after Christmas. Plus with how cold it is - it's been nice to sit on the couch and do some lessons. I love that about homeschooling Cowboy - especially when like today he said "I really love this Mommy, thank you". When I asked him what...he clarified that he loved being able to cuddle and do school at the same time. I couldn't be more proud and it revitalizes me when I see him inspire others through his progress and gentle heart.

OH WOW!!!!

Some of you aren't going to believe this!!!!! Itchy outgrew a pair of his pants....NOT because of length but because "They are too tight when I sit down Mommy." This is SOOOO HUGE!! Thankfully, as it seems, he's putting on some weight!! YAYAY!! He outgrew his 5slim pants!

I've been packing it in him hoping to get him to gain some weight because I was starting to get worried about him. With his allergies, his food is VERY limited but I found a new chicken nugget for him and I told him he could have those WHENEVER he wanted. LOL We've been through quite a few boxes already. I mean - they aren't THAT fatty - they show 10grams of fat per 5 nuggets...and this is probably the highest fat content food he has..but he loves them.

Although, they are made with potato and corn based breading...we found out if overcooked in the microwave, they quickly go up in flames. EEEK! It has smelled AWFUL in this house for days.

But YAY....ITCHY GOT A GUT!! I had him weigh and he is up to 44 pounds!!

I have been eaten by the holdiay rush monster!!!!

I can barely STAND it!!! HELP! I'm stuck in Holiday Hoopla! Actually, I'm doing much better in terms of organization this year - but things are just BEYOND busy. I don't want to come off like I'm more busy than anyone else by any means because this time of year makes EVERYONE nuts. I just want to say WHEW! I'm glad it's almost over - and sad at the same time.


I guess the first item up for discussion is our Thanksgiving trip to Dallas. We spent a good portion of it at TX Stadium with my niece rehearsing for the Thanksgiving Dallas Cowboy halftime show (she's a Jr. Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader - JrDCC).

We had to be there by 10 on the day before Thanksgiving. The girls got some meet and greet time with Demi Lovato and then they rehearsed the anthem and creating the pom pom flag.
Ok, for someone who gets teary when I hear the anthem - imagine the inner torture when I heard it about 5 times. ENOUGH ALREADY, you're killing me!! I couldn't decide if a good bawl would fix it - but then I would look like I was abused for the rest of the day. So tearing up each time had to suffice. I was already a little emotional because I had taken the picture of the stadium - with thoughts of, "that might be the last time I get to be at TX Stadium as I know it" before we even entered.

Cowboy's (my cowboy - not the Dallas Cowboys) horseback riding instructor is single and there's been a running joke that I need to hook him up with one of the cheerleaders. So while we were there, I KNEW I had to get a pic of Cowboy with a cheerleader. My nieces friend has a BigDCC as a sister so when Nerdfish and BIL brought the boys at 3:30 (that's when the Jonus Brothers were rehearsing), I was yelling at Cowboy to hurry down the stairs. He was absolutely clueless and I kept telling him to walk around people to a different aisle than I was on. The cheerleaders mom kept saying "Come on, jump on the field hon, hurry" and he kept looking at me for validation - visibly CLUELESS. Once he got down there the mom said "Go ahead, stand next to Sarah - we're going to take a picture of you dear" he threw on the best smile without blinking an eye. She thought that was the funniest thing. Isn't he cute though?? Kind of in need of a haircut though. Ok - she's cute too but in a disgustingly gorgeous kind of way.



Cowboy and Itchy (and their cousin J) enjoyed watching the Jonus Brothers rehearse, the cheerleaders and of course THE PYRO effects. However, after hearing the song for the 4th time, Cowboy was baffled "Aren't they going to play a different song?" Heheh - the kids were getting restless so Nerdfish and BIL took the littles home. SIL, niece and I finally got out of there at 6:30 after hearing the JoBros sing that song another 5 or so times. My niece was super excited because she was 'stationed' right at the stage and I'm pretty sure it was heaven for her - I mean she'll be 12 next month. She touched Nick's foot during one of the rehearsals and said she would never wash her hand again. LOL she was upset when she realized it only took her 20 mins upon getting home to take a shower and wash all remnants of her teeny bop dreams away. I told her she'd have another chance the next day (Thanksgiving) at the game. They left to head to the stadium at 9 on Thanksgiving and we stayed home - the tickets and parking to the game were OUTRAGEOUS (even for the cheerleader families) so we just watched it on TV. Only my SIL and niece went. We didn't do Thanksgiving dinner until about 6:30 when they got back home so it was pretty quiet most of the day. My camera didn't have the zoomability (or a longer battery life) and I'm still waiting on close-ups from my SIL - so that's the only pic I have of the JoBros. You can really only pick out Nick from the bunch with the black guitar strap across his chest.

Nerdfish and BIL went fishing every morning except for 2 I think. Mostly because they had wounds, blisters and were sore. Oh to live and work with such injuries! They rotated out the kids on the boat so they all got a shot. Nerdfish caught several fish - you know making sure he still holds that title of "fisherman" high within the family. I think they all had a good time though and that's the bottom line.

I really enjoy our visits home - their older boys have turned into great guys and we had the best time joking around and just enjoying being around each other. The oldest nephew will be graduating this year and then heading off to college. I made sure to savor those memories with him. I miss the family terribly though. I wish we could figure out some way where we lived in the same place but for now, it's not going to happen.

Anyway - as if you thought you could get out of it...here's a few more pics!

Remember all that talk about the power of Neenee? Apparently it works for my BIL too.


Here's the whole brood of boys. I'm so happy I forced them into a quick picture. Little peanut on the right was about to break free from the grips of our oldest nephew within the next breath so I was lucky. I wish my niece was in this shot but I think she was already in bed. These are the same kids (except for the two youngest ones) that were in THIS post/picture so it's neat to see the progression. Our godchild is holding Itchy on the left.


Itchy and my niece.

Oh I almost forgot....a few folks asked what I ended up telling Cowboy about the tooth fairy and I just told him that she had already gotten 'buzzed' by his head hitting the pillow the first time. She did have to come for a visit the next night. She had to make another visit this past week for Itchy but thankfully she DID remember and we didn't have to chalk up another entry for reasons why I SHOULDN'T win Mom of the Year.

I'll update more soon!

I'm A-L-I-V-E!!

I know I've been missing since Thanksgiving - WOW - how did THAT happen? It feels like I wrote my last post just yesterday.

Anyway - I'm trying to dig out of bags of gifts, suitcases and dirty clothes. I'm hoping I'll update on our past months events soon.

In the meantime, I have a thought for you....

As we were driving home from Ohio the other day we saw a sign at the driveway of a home - not unlike any other sign...you know, advertising that they have "Hay for Sale" or something like that....but what WAS different about this sign was... "Used Cows for Sale". Ok - see for the next 5-10 miles or so I contemplated exactly what this meant. In NO way did this ever come out looking 'pretty' and something that I would actually want to buy.

WRONG I tell you - simply WRONG. If my purse, with my camera, wasn't buried - I would have whipped out my camera...also if we weren't in such a hurry to get home - I would have turned around. I really wish I had now.

Ya'll be good...

We're going to be out of pocket for Turkey Day so I just wanted to let ya'll know why it'll be quiet around here.

I'll give details on our field trip when I get back...it was quite entertaining to say the least.

*gulp*

What have I done?!?!?! WHAT HAVE I DONE!?!? I volunteered for something weeks ago - I think it was the end of September to be exact and the date is upon me tomorrow and I'm regretting my decision IMMENSELY. Of course, if I had made any other decision it would effect another person so I guess I had no choice.

What is this awful task you ask?!

I signed up for a field trip

with the whole first grade - oh yeah - FIRST GRADE

to go to the Tennessee Aquarium.

That's an hour and a half drive from here.

*blinks* yeah I said 1.5 hours! 90 mins - 5400 seconds - ONE WAY

We have to be at the school in the gym by 6:15 AM (YES A.M.!!)

We will load up on chartered buses - THANKFULLY - so the kids will get to watch a movie on the way there and back. I picked up Wall-E for the ride home and they get Nemo on the way there.

We should get home at about 4-4:30.

Thankfully our class has PLENTY of chaperons since the aquarium is always busy. We should each get only 3 or 4 kids to watch over and we''ll all meet up later. But sheeesh - the whole bus thing is going to be NUTS. Itchy couldn't have gone if I didn't simply because of the food allergy situation. Monitoring a new environment and keeping him safe comes with more burden and not one I'm comfortable with putting in the eyes of someone that doesn't deal with it on a daily basis. The school would have provided a nurse to go with him (well I would have forced them to) but I still feel more comfortable helping out myself.

So ya think taking a bottle of tequila is a bad thing??? Yeah - you're right - 6:15 might be a bit early for that - how about Valium??? I could always clean the bottle on the way home.

------------------------------
Oh and by the way, for those that were wondering - the Cowboy tooth fairy saga, I said "it must have been because you had already 'gone to bed' and she didn't get the message you had lost one".

He had a horseback riding lesson later that day and his instructor came and gave him a hug. He IMMEDIATELY told her he lost a tooth - showed her the lovely gaping gum hole and she said "AWESOME!! How much did the tooth fairy bring you?!" Yeah when he said "The tooth fairy didn't come last night" all eyes were on me....I'd say there were 6 people in the room. Yeah - DEEELISH! That's a warm and fuzzy "Mom of the Year" feeling for ya. All I could do was cover my face and shake my head. Thankfully he explained that he had already been in bed and that's why she couldn't come - but DANG! It's one thing if *I* confess the error of that slacker fairy - but for him to rat her out....OUCH!

Can ya roll down the window?!?!

SO Cowboy and I were driving to his homeschool supplemental program and we're listening to music...not just listening to it - we're be-boppin - singing to each other, just enjoying our drive regardless of any smirks or looks we get.

He proceeds to ask me "Can I roll down the window?"

What??? I turned off the stereo so I could hear him.

"Can I roll down my window?"

"Well of course not, it's FREEEEEEZING outside"

I turned back on our be-boppin tunes...I look in the mirror and see he's pouting. Oh that boils my skin! There will be NO pouting.

"Get over it Cowboy, you're not rollin' the window down, now don't let it ruin your day....or mine."

"But I just want to roll my window down" Can you SEE the steam coming out of my ears?!?!

"What on earth did I just say?!!? Drop it - don't ask me again - stop pouting and lets enjoy our ride to school."

I turned the music on AGAIN with a sigh and a quick prayer - "please let that be the end of it"

I check in the mirror - he's not pouting anymore - just kind of nodding his head to the beat. Then he said something "Can dkgalkjgdfh;lasdfkjh?"

"WHAT??" I turned it off again.

"What did you say sweetie?"

"Can God hear through windows? Because I just want to sing and worship Him and make sure He hears me. Can He hear through windows?"

BEEESHEEEEEOUUUUUP Yeah that's the sound of me feeling about the size of an ant.

"Yes dear - he can hear through windows but if you think it'll help - roll down your window and worship Him"

So for all of those people in the Nash on this freezing morning that heard Toby Mac blaring in the streets and a little boy rock'n out this morning - join in next time - just roll down your window. ;>

I *ALMOST* made it!!

Dang, I couldn't be any closer if I tried. Here we are...what....weeks away from the end of the year and I disqualified myself for "Mom of the Year" award. I was THIS CLOSE PEOPLE! I am GREATLY disappointed in myself. How on EARTH could I let my peeps down???

You see as I was waiting for the quiet calm of two sleeping boys to take over the house last night - I heard one shuffling around, climb out of bed and go into the bathroom. Fair enough...then he, Cowboy, approached me with a beautiful baby tooth. He must have been wiggling that thing big time while trying to get to sleep. So as I write this, I'm trying to come up with the best excuse for why the tooth fairy forgot to visit last night.

I'm thinking that 'because your head had already hit the pillow and sent the signal to tooth fairy headquarters - you had all your teeth - there are no re-submissions'. I could say the tooth fairy had her annual dentist checkup and it appears she was slacking this year....instead she was getting cavities filled. I could say there was a tooth losing epidemic in Ireland and she was too busy...she couldn't make it. She's not as quick or as good as Santa so every once in a while some kids have to wait until the next night. I could say that '4 mountain' (technical term I'm sure) teeth have last priority on the list since the kids are older and sometimes they have to wait for two nights....perhaps a week (figured I could cover myself in case I forget tonight). I mean, those teeth are bigger than your regular front teeth and require much more effort from the tooth fairy to carry them back to headquarters.

I could certainly sneak up there and swap it out now - but at this time of morning, he wakes up if I breath funny. I'd much rather try to follow a fib than get caught in the act of swapping. Plus, through my experience, it'd be easy to go up and swap out - if they hadn't of misplaced their tooth fairy pillow - we had to go with the tooth in a zippy under the pillow theory. I've learned that fishing under the pillow to FIND the tooth is just as hard sometimes (so you don't wake them up)...as say...remembering to be tooth fairy. I'm not sure which one I will use, I guess we'll see what actually comes out of my mouth when he asks....or better yet...oh, I might just be a genius...HOLD ON....maybe I should ask him why he thinks she didn't come. *smirk* Oh yeah, the genius is spilling - 'scuse me while I go clean up. Maybe I can still make "Mom of the Year" afterall ;>

Fx4 and a whole lotta thanks.

It's FRIDAY!! (OK, well not technically...but close enough) That means it's Candid Carrie's Fantastic Funtastic Friday Foto Finish Fiesta. When you're done here...go check out it out!

Dear Neenee,

Hi, it's me, mom to Cowboy and Itchy and savior of your a$$ quite often. I've been gathering my thoughts, cleaning the house and doing some soul searching. During my soul search I have focused on being thankful for the little things in life. Then there you were, on the floor, under the kitchen table, just BEGGING to get impaled by a chair leg later when the boys got home. I went through my mental checklist and for the life of me don't see a year or check by your name as having been given thanks. I now realize the error of my ways and I would like to make amends for my omission of thanks the previous years.

Who would have known that the Easter Bunny, of all people, would bring a family angel into our lives in 2002. I do want to apologize for forgetting to put a blue bow on you like I...err the Easter Bunny promised in the store. I bet that was upsetting to wake up Easter morning and realize for the rest of your days you were going to be a girl.....oops, sorry bout that. However, Cowboy was so excited to see your cute little face, he immediately became attached to you, pink bow and all. Let's not forget how you got your name. At the time when Cowboy got you, he was 4 years old and his speech was still very bad. Instead of repeating Bunny - he could only say Neenee. It warped into Deedee at some point when Cowboy got his sounds confused - but you have always gone back to Neenee.

I must say though - for a clump of fiberfill, some furry fabric and a pink bow, you have been a rock in this family. You stand watch over my boys and never complain. You get stepped on, dropped, thrown and tugged every which way at least a gazillion times a day - yet you still maintain your sweet demeanor and slight smile. I've sewn you up, washed you and done my best to keep you safe. You've had COUNTLESS things spilled on you - not to mention suffered a few bleeding wounds. Yeah sorry about that too - those few months when Cowboy would get bloody noses in his sleep, who knew a boy could bleed so bad? Also - who knew you could soak up so much of it?? I'm sure it was quite a surprise when I whipped out version 2 of you and put version 1 in a box. I told Cowboy I gave you a bath - you looked WONDERFUL DAHLING...never better. Those next few weeks you didn't get the sleeping love you usually do since we had you sitting on the night stand watching over him every night. Thanks for helping keep him calm. You've also been to numerous doctor appointments, speech, OT and PT appointments and several hospital visits. You've helped keep us...I mean, them, calm through several procedures and if you aren't involved, you're the first thing they ask for. You definitely helped them keep from getting scared in MANY situations. When I was so sick this year and last, the boys gave me the honor of sleeping with you since you are so good at making people better. You have influenced much laughter and also been the reason for several arguments and time outs. You're one busy bunny! I'm just glad that we actually had enough wits about us to purchase all of your doubles from the shelves in 2003.

I'm happy when Cowboy got too old for you, three years ago, Itchy took responsibility of making you as his lovey too. Oh that reminds me...yeah - TERRIBLY sorry about that whole night time potty training with Itchy....that was a tough one wasn't it??? I guess that explains Version 3 and Version 4. Dang you get upgraded just about as much some software!

Regardless, I just wanted to say thanks for your contribution towards our family unit and dynamics. I have to admit - you are a cute little bunny...but it's been almost 3 years since your version 4 update and you're starting to look a bit...well..rough to be honest.



You're stuffing has gotten all wompajawed from being held in the center, NICE BUTT! Your fur is all clumpy now and your bow, well I'm not sure we could call that a bow anymore...maybe a wadded knot.

We have been TIRELESSLY trying to purge items from this house and in the midst of it - we have to make some pretty harsh decisions. The boys have gotten rid of some stuffed animals from the annual GrandEasterBunnyParent gift box. We've taken pictures of each of them so we can remember them...but I certainly don't want you to end up like Yellow Bunny as pictured below, R.I.G. (rest in Goodwill). So please, do you think you can hang in there for maybe another year?? I'm all out of versions and I'm not sure you can handle another full wash. Oh and while you're at it - make sure the boys don't look in the shoeboxes under my bed - where you'll find v1, v2 and v3. That might REALLY bring up an awkward moment.


Love you....
The bunny wrangler and only other female in the house...Mama Nik


R.I.G. 2008

Nicknames...Aliases...Codenames

I've never been big on nicknames - I mean I've been called different names throughout my life - not all of them have been vulgar either, but I've never held onto a name that long. Itchy has earned a new nickname in his classroom this year since he's one of two with his name. Let's just say that it sounds like Pace but more like the Windu variety. Only those Star Wars fans will understand that one. He thinks it's cool and it's something we've always called him...but to have his whole class call him that, he gets a kick outta it. I wouldn't prefer that he have a nickname but I would much rather him have that than being called first and last name or first and last initial...or just last name or even just by the first letter of his last name (like hubby does at work).

Cowboy had a birthday party two years ago where we used a secret agent theme. When each child got there, they drew a secret codename out of a bowl, put on a derby hat, a mustache and I took pictures of them and made them secret agent ID badges. So we've also had the secret codename going around too. For the record - Cowboy was Tumbler and Itchy was Digger. I think I ended up being FireStar and Hubby was Mustang. Even here on the blog I've handed out the nicknames - Cowboy and Itchy. I occassionally call them by those names IRL too.


Each member of the First Family receives a codename for Secret Service purposes. Former first codenames include the Clinton family, who were referred to as Eagle (Bill) and Evergreen (Hillary), and the Bush family which was Tumbler (George W.), Tempo (Laura) and Sheepskin (George Sr.).


The Obamas now have codenames beginning with the letter R. Barack Obama will now be known as Renegade. Michelle as Renaissance, Malia as Radiance and Sasha as Rosebud. I personally think Maverick would have been a good one too o;>. Ok, I *HAD* to do that - sorry.


Seriously - I found it hilarious that Cowboy had the same secret code name that George W has. Afterall, he thinks he's the president of this house. I also get a big kick out of Sheepskin for Sr. Why does that sound so wrong to me? It almost sounds like an insult. And don't you think there is SOMEONE on the force that BAA's everytime they say his name? Even if they do it mentally - it's not the prettiest picture.


Anyway - I answer to all nicknames - so do my kids because I call them various things - they have a laundry list. At least I don't think anybody can make animal sounds after they use my nicknames....ok...maybe the clean ones :>