Update June 6, 2020

Hi all! Another great week here.

I managed to take a day off on Friday because I was so burnt out from last week that I needed time to recover. It was glorious. At the end of the day, we had M-8 open his presents early. The purpose was really to get IL-17mo’s half-birthday present out because he was being a fussy-butt. M-8 loved his presents. He got water guns from aunt Eleanor, a really nice slip and slide from his grandmother, Kids against Maturity from me, two Xbox games from Aaron, and a set of graphic novels about the Olympians from my dad. D-10 got Ticket to Ride, and IL-17mo got a foam mat with letters and numbers.

Saturday was M’s 8th birthday. We had a blast. I went to HyVee and picked up a monster cake for him, which turned out wonderfully, and took dad to Target, realized they were all boarded up because of the riots, then took him to Cub. You should have seen the lines! I guess all the Target shoppers were at Cub. Meanwhile, the kids played M-8’s new games on the xbox. We had McDonald’s for lunch, dyed the kids’ hair (D’s is now fuchsia and M’s is yellow if you squint at it in the sunlight), and played in the pool. The evening was filled with a lot of TV.

Sunday is usually a family day, but since we spent all Saturday with the family, Aaron and I decided to get some stuff done. We made huge progress on digging rocks on the side of the house. Maybe 2 or 3 good days and we’ll be done with it!

On a side note, J-16 was walking to his grandparents house after 8 (which is curfew, because of the riots going on) because he’d tried and failed to get an uber. He was afraid because he was walking-while-black. I wanted to go out and rescue him, but I was far enough away that by the time I got there, he’d be almost home. So he stopped and asked a cop what to do. She gave him a ride home. Isn’t that wonderful?

Monday finished up with a drive-by Cub Scout graduation – M-8 is now a bear cub.

Tuesday we all went out to dinner at a local restaurant with a patio. It went great for about the first 5 minutes, when it started pouring rain. Dad and I called everyone weak, but they insisted we leave. We ate our food at home instead.

Wednesday was M-8’s night with his mom, so D-10, Aaron, and I went to El Loro and had a lovely talk. It’s nice to have a kid that actually talks to you! I wish we could get more conversation out of M-8, but maybe when he’s older. We finished the evening watching Season 1 of Once Upon a Time.

Thursday was D-10’s night with her mom, and we had McDonald’s with M-8, followed by Troll Hunters.

Friday was fantastic. We had a meeting with the school psychologist about D-10, who really does seem to have a learning disability (I’m guessing dysgraphia). In the past they’ve ignored our concerns, but they have finally agreed to test her! It’ll start next year. We’re still trying to figure out if we want to get a medical diagnosis of dysgraphia, or just leave it as “learning disability, nonspecific” which is what the school would decide upon. We’d have to pay out of pocket for a medical diagnosis. I’m going to call Minnesota’s support group for people who are looking into special education, and will ask them what they think the benefits of a medical diagnosis is.

D-10 also agreed to start CBT again. We will reward her by giving her a treat of her choice after every successful meeting, and a sleepover or a mani-pedi after every 4 successful meetings. M-8, too, will start therapy again – this time to explore how our relationship with him might be impacting his poor appetite and pickiness with food. So it’s back to the grind for both of them.

M-8’s pediatrician suggested we test him for celiac disease since he is having some medical symptoms that fit, along with an increased pickiness of eating. We got the test done on Wednesday, and we still haven’t gotten the information back (as far as I know). If we have, the doctor hasn’t bothered pointing it out. Aaron thinks he’ll get himself checked for celiac disease, too, if M-8 comes up positive, since it turns out he has a lot of the symptoms, too. God forbid we have to go gluten-free in my household! Ugh! Hopefully it all turns up nothing.

Mom’s Alzheimer’s is getting worse, but she has not had any fainting/seizure spells this week. So that’s nice. She is starting to hallucinate a little bit, so I’m going to have to talk to her neurologist about that. We have an appointment next week. Her psychiatrist hasn’t gotten back to me – he’s quite the character.

Dad is doing ok. He’s increasingly frustrated at the coronavirus followed by the riots, and keeps telling me the “corny-bug” is nothing worth caring about and that the riots are nothing compared to the Watts riots, which he watched in person from “across the street.”

Currently Aaron is outside with J-16 working on the rocks, while I’m trying to do housework. I say “trying” because I pulled a muscle trying to carry something downstairs while walking backwards. Yes, it doesn’t seem like a bright idea. Hindsight is 20/20. I did manage to fill the bathtub with water plus a gallon of bleach with hopes of it turning a little less fuchsia (from last week’s hair job).

Myra, my eldest, cuddliest, and only cat-that-is-fine-with-IL-17mo is missing. I figure she’ll either show up later today, or we’ll start smelling her in a few days. Hopefully the former. She’s terrified of outdoors, so she would never have gone out there. Here’s a not-so-recent photo of her.