This came as no surprise.

For a while now I’ve been debating if Kyle’s level of activity and energy is above  normal for a boy.  Let’s face it, when your kid suddenly starts jumping up and down while just watching tv and he can’t tell you why you wonder.  While a lot of kids his age and boys in general are more challenging let’s say, I started to realize that sometimes what we see him doing at home and in day care is a little above the norm.

 

The biggest concern we had was when he started school.  He’s been so excited to start 4K and make new friends and learn new things we didn’t want to see it ruined for him.  I so want to see him make friends and enjoy going to school.  You know until he hits middle school and loses his mind to hormones.

 

His behavior has also become a safety issue.  Running into the street, not staying where he’s told and climbing on things that aren’t safe.  Oh and hitting or biting other kids.  They tend to get a little testy and hurty back about that.

 

So J and I took him to see someone and he acted just like we wanted him too.  Sweet but a bundle of movement.  And as if to announce his intentions to act that way he insisted on wearing his t-shirt with a train on it that says “In Constant Motion.”   He climbed the furniture, tried to read the books, ran trains into the wall and pawed through the desk drawers.  In short, he was Kyle.

 

The diagnosis?  ADHD which is more about the activity level than just not being able to sit still so to speak.  I had never thought a child that young could be diagnosed but while speaking with the doctor I began to realize that he’s always  acted in ways that pointed to it.  Even his biting stage fit because he has a hard time regulating his emotions or reactions to them.

 

No, we won’t be putting him on the meds.  He’s far too young and the side effects with him could be a bit more dangerous because of his age and his size.  I also don’t think the meds should be a place to start or the only tool we have.  I want to learn how to help him as he is before we go down the road to giving him a daily pill, or two.  Also, I have a hard enough time getting him to take his Flinstone’s.  Trying to get him to swallow an actual pill would make mommy need to up her Paxil.

 

Bottom line?  Kyle is a funny, sweet, active boy who’s a boy.  He plays in dirt and runs around like a mad man.  I don’t want to change who or what he is I just want to help him learn to be himself without needing to jump over his chair for a few hours.

My Hello Kitty thing

My name is Danageekmom and I’m over 25.  I also have a thing for Hello Kitty.  It started out small, with a sticker here and there.  Now at the advanced age of “I no longer get carded” I drool over the idea of a Hello Kitty bathroom and matching toaster.

 

I’ve resisted my urge to own pink bows and whiskers only because at this point in my life I’d just look really sad.  It’s the same reason my hair is red not purple.  And why I no longer wear clothing from Hot Topic.  Ok, I wear some but it’s mixed in with my middle American middle-aged mom wear too.

 

I think the love of Hello Kitty is universal to Geek Girls, but it’s only after we become Geek Mom’s of girls that we can really go all in.  It’s for the baby you know!  Me, I’ve got a Geek Boy.  I can get all the Darth Vader love I want though.

I should have seen it coming

Anyone who knows me knows I’m into vampires.  I have been since before they sparkled and were the thing of high school girl’s crushes.  I love a good vampire story and freely admit I am a vampire snob, if they are whiney I’d like to see ‘em staked and left for the sun.  So, I really should have seen it coming.  My son’s a biter.

 

Yesterday he was asked to leave a second day care.  Yes, second.  Today he’s bitten his father three times.  I think he’s gotten a taste for human flesh after all this time but I can’t convince him that chicken is just as good.

 

The reality is, I don’t know how to deal with this anymore.  I honestly am at a loss as to how to direct him.  The kid is all id, all impulse, and has a temper to match mine.  He’s stubborn as all hell and I can’t figure out how to re-direct this into something that’s safe for him.  I also don’t know how to get him to stop biting except outfitting him in a nice Hannibal Lecter mask.  We’ve done all those normal things to try to get him to stop, including speech therapy, nothing seems to work with him though.  I’m all open to ideas though, short of pulling out his teeth.

Summer adventures.

I seem to have a blister on my right index finger from cutting fruits and veggies today.  I use my knife on a regular basis and frequently chop things and while I don’t have the same skill as a professional chief I can dice and chop with out specialized kitchen equipment.  So, as you can see, how I got the blister is a bit confusing to me.

Summer always moves by the same way.  You know how summer works, you’re pretty good at it and when you live in the Mid-West you’re aware how fast it goes yet the end of August arrives and you always wonder where the heck fall came from.  Nights are already cool and leaves will start changing color soon.  I love the fall, much more than I’ve ever liked summer but you always feel a pang when you realize the snow will be here again soon.

Kyle’s been off enjoying an active and fun summer.  This year my mom and dad took him up to Castle Rock Lake to visit my dad’s parents.  It’s a trip that’s familiar to me, since I was a small girl we’d go every year to the same camp ground, the same lake.  I learned to ski in the lake, behind The Little One, I swam in the green water, saw the damn and wondered if I could ever explore Gilligan’s Island.  I played in the sandy soil, my feet coated and my skin caramel colored, just like Kyle did this year.

The summer pilgrimage no longer happens but not much changes up there.  Kyle had his first boat ride and enjoyed the first sweet taste of Vacation.  Vacation where the rules don’t apply, he could stay up later, snack on cakes and cookies and get as dirty as his baby boy’s heart desired.  That was the magic of camping for me as a child and it was for him as well.

It was a vacation for me as well, I’d been feeling run down and as the days lead into Kyle leaving me for the first time for longer than an over night stay, I realized that since he’s been born I’ve not had more then 24 hours of time to be something other than a mother.   Being his mom is something that is way more fulfilling than I could ever explain or even put into words in my own mind but after 2.5 years of living for someone else first I needed to be selfish for a while.  For a few short days I woke up without having to make someone breakfast before I even had coffee, I enjoyed a long hot shower.  I didn’t have a tiny body crawling into my bed.  I arrived home from work and sat at the computer and gorged my self on Doctor Who.  By Sunday I wanted my boy back but I could still find enjoyment in just being able to sit on the couch without watching Cars for the 2nd time.

When I got to my parents house to pick him up Tuesday he yelled “My mama!” so loud I thought he was outside.  He never one cried, though he’d asked for me a few times, but over all he acted as if he didn’t realize I wasn’t there the whole long weekend he was away.  But the moment he saw me he expressed how much he’d missed me.  As he ran to me and launched his tiny self into my arms I realized that while he’s independent and stubborn I still anchor him.  I’m going to enjoy that until he starts school and realizes his friends are much smarter than the old lady.

Since I’ve quit smoking for good, good 4 months ago I’ve decided that I also need to role model the healthy life style I want Kyle to have in other ways.  Most nights after dinner he hops into his stroller, a car in the snack tray, and he and I walk for 30 minutes at a brisk pace.  Sometimes I hit the gym and use the treadmill to run but I’m starting to enjoy our time together each night and so is he.  After changing up my eating habits and making sure Kyle and I are getting outside more I managed to lose 20lbs.  I’m still not skinny by any measure but I’m getting there.  Pants no longer fit, which is sort of fun.  I was even able to pick up some pretty panties from Target for the first time in ages.  My doctor tells me I’m the first person she knows of who’s quit smoking and lost weight.  I’m that damn good.

In the last few weeks Jason and I have begun to discuss another child.  Kyle will be potty training soon, the cars will be paid off in less than a year and by next year we’ll clear almost all the debt from the board.  I’ve been having fewer and fewer twitches though.  I think we may be at a point where we’ll decide we won’t actively seek having another child.  If it happens so be it, but we probably won’t try.  I’m over 30, we still have a long way to go, goal wise, and adding another child to our expenses seems to be reckless to us now.  It’s not an easy decision to make and who knows, we may change our mind, but we really love or small family.  Weird only child syndrome or not.

Tomorrow we’re heading to the zoo with Grammie and Uncle Paul, who’s announced his decision that he is going to ride a dinosaur.  Monday Kyle starts going to Mrs. Angela’s house Monday through Thursday.  We loved Ms. Betty but in the end, while Kyle has made up 6 months of language skills in 3 months, we decided he needed someone who had a little more back ground in a structured environment to deal with his temper.  Which, sadly, is emerging to be just like mine.  When he becomes frustrated he bites himself, throws things or slaps himself.  He’s not biting others as much as he used too but it’s obvious that he needs someone who has a back ground and schooling in how to deal with children like that for his sake and the sake of the other children he’s with.

I’d still recommend Ms. Betty in a heart beat and if we did have other kids she’d be first on my list.  She’s fun and she really loves the little ones she’s caring for.  She does help them learn skills and reads to them.  The TV is almost never on.  But Mrs. Angela is more like a small pre-school.  Lots of play but she has a teaching degree and taught second grade before being a substitute  for Hales Corners Lutheran Elementary.   She will do actives that are focused on letters, numbers and simple math.  Every parent thinks their child is clever but Kyle really does seem to thrive on building new skills and reaching new goals.  Mrs. Angela can help with that.  That she’s also a member of our  church and MOPS is a bonus.

Nichole and Cheyanne were fantastic all summer, each of them has different skills they brought to the table with him but they love him and they both told me taking care of him all summer was fun and asked me if they could do it again next summer.  His joy when he saw them was plain and sweet even if he’d push me away for their attention from time to time.  They also got him into watching Phineas and Ferb.  Jason hums the theme for Dr. Doofenshmirtz’s theme.

Over the summer Kyle’s gone from being a baby to turning into a child.  He’s getting close to potty training, he can speak in sentences and has the habit of calling me “my mama”.  He’s developed his own sense of humor and has begun his first movie obsession, Cars.  He even acts out scenes with the movie.  He enjoys singing with songs he knows now, and has been known to even get the words right from time to time.  I’ve enjoyed watching him grow and change this summer even as there’s a pang, just like I feel as I watch summer turn to fall, knowing the best is yet to come.

Hi, my kids’ the biter.

I want a shirt that says that because it’s true.

After biting the lawyers kid every day for a week strait our lovely Ms. Betty had to tell us that she just couldn’t risk Kyle anymore.  Not that I blame her.  I mean, of all the kids to chomp on in the world my kid choose the lawyers kid?  Really?  Of course he does.

Kyle’s biting, obviously, is something that’s a little more than a passing phase of development and both our doctor and the child behaviorist I spoke with at work, hey working at a mental health clinic has to have it’s benefits,   the verdict is he bites because his expressive language isn’t where a 26 month old’s should be.  Jason and I had already have him evaluated to see if there was reason to get him into some sort of program, ironically his first appointment was the Friday after he went Shark Boy at day care.

Our county runs a birth to three program aimed at helping children who have delays prior to them being in the school system.  They consider a child having a speech delay when they have a test score of 25% or lower.  Kyle scored at 27%.  Because he is so border line and because he is acting out they are going to take him into the program, thankfully.  The therapist is confident that he’d be caught up at 3 years old but right now he’s speaking at the level of an 18 to 20 month old.

Oddly he has skills that are way above his age group like the “sh” sound in shoes and the “k” sound.  He also has “color awareness”, as she called it.  Unknown to me that is also something above a 2 year old level.  He’s getting pretty good as recognizing  the letters of the alphabet too, though yesterday he called a “y” “boat”.  Hey you win some you lose some right?

Right now the game plan for him is a summer with grandma and his two oldest cousins during the day and speech therapy every other Friday in the hopes the biting stops.  Ms. Betty has said she’d love to have him back if he’d stop thinking his friends were snacks.  In fact she kept repeating that I should call her first if he stops.  We love Ms. Betty so our goal is that after this summer of intensive work we can call her and ask if she’s got a spot for the fall.

I swear, I’m not paid for this

After liking my E.L.F enough to blog about it, I picked up a few more buys at Target and decided to give the Translucent Matifying Powder a try.  I’ve never, ever been pleased with any other product like that because it ends up making my face look like a clown who forgot her white make up but tried her best with regular powder.

I’m hooked.  Terribly hooked.  When I got home from work I looked just like when I’d left home that morning, no shine and no cake.  I’m going to have to go all in and say, if you’re looking for a decent make up line and a decent price, try E.L.F. out.  It’s not MAC by any means, but it’s a damn lot better than Cover Girl.  The eye lid primer?  No oily crease until 8 pm.  That is more than 12 hours from when I applied it.

And in other news, I’m really thinking of starting a small garden this summer.  I’m starting to realize that I can save year round if I can grow things that I can either store or put up in some way.  Now, I’m not a canner, though I could become one if this first year goes alright, so canning foods would be out.  I’m did some quick research and found out that I can make pasta sauce easily and freeze it.
I use a lot of pasta sauce here because it’s cheap, all Jason has to do is cook noodles and it’s Kyle friendly.  I had a pretty hard time thinking of anything else I could grow and store.  Then I found The Potato Grow Bag and it’s friend The Herb Grow Bag and an idea was born.  If I can figure out where I can store potato’s I can grow them and store them for a good long while and we use a lot of potatoes here and I’ve always wanted to grow herbs.  If I get two bags I can also grow onions or green peppers.

The genius of these is Grow Bags is I can grow things on my back patio which faces south.  Because we live in an apartment I’d always figured any type of gardening would be something that just wasn’t feasible for me.   Of course, it was convenient too because I don’t actually like to garden.  But it looks like something Kyle and I can do together and it would supplement our  grocery budget.  Who knows, next year I may decide I like it well enough to grow peas and beans and start canning them.

Christmas Christmas Time is Here!!!!

Well, I hope everyone had a great Christmas, we did here. Kyle’s so happy with all his new toys he is wandering around saying “car” because, you know, he got a dealership worth of cars from Grammie. He hops from one car to the next with the happy cry “caah!”.

Sadly my mom ended up sick on Christmas day so we moved my families celebration to Sunday. So we stayed in our jammies and I played with my new Wii games, Kyle crashed trucks and Jason played Farmville.

Jason did a lot more than that. He really let me relax and did laundry, picked up the kitchen, the living room and cleaned up cat pee. Marble cat peed on my bed on Christmas Eve. I don’t think she’ll be with me much longer.

This morning I woke up to find my neat new coffee maker ready to brew. And when I say neat I mean this thing is so neat that I want to hug it and never let it go. It has one of those insulated pots. It kept my pot hot for 3 hours and the last cup didn’t have that burned gross stale funk to it. It tasted just as good as the first cup. I’m a very happy girl.

Jason and I couldn’t afford gifts for each other but yesterday proved that you don’t need a mountain of money or a car full of gifts to give just the right thing from your heart.

Christmas, Christmas Time is Near…

It actually is.  On Halloween I gave up and finally gave in.  Christmas starts at noon on Halloween.  The commercials said so.  The malls said so.  The stores said so.  It must be true.  Christmas is a 2 month-long celebration now.

 

That snark said, we have begun Christmas shopping.  We’ve gotten in the habit of starting sooner rather than later.  With more people to buy for and a little guy who Santa comes to visit we just can’t afford to wait until December to start.  So far my dad is done, my brother-in-law is done.  Three nieces are too.  Kyle’s started.

 

I also began some crafts, which I’ll share after Christmas because some people who will receive them are reading this.  They are small stocking stuffers, but fun and in the spirit of my whole “I wanna be more creative and stuff” kick.

 

As soon as my dad bring it over, I’m going to start Kyle’s big gift.  When my grandfather was in high school he made a large wooden box in tech ed.  That box became my mom’s toy box, then mine.  For the last decade it’s been sitting in my mom’s bedroom being used to store sweaters.  Now it will be Kyle’s toy box.

 

The box is in good shape, structure wise but its showing it’s years.  Thankfully my dad made the effort to teach me how to do basic carpentry as well as how to sand, prime and paint.  My plan is to sand the box down, add new legs.  Then I’m going to prime and paint it and stencil Kyle’s name onto it.  I’m going to cover the lid with batting and fabric so he has his own little seat and install break hinges so it won’t slam on him.  I want to at least get the sanding down while it’s still warm so working in the garage won’t suck as bad.  If I don’t get the painting done I can use dad’s portable heater.

 

I’m really excited about it.  Right now Kyle has a dresser in his room that was his daddy’s.  Jason’s Uncle Earl stripped it and refurnished it for him, now he’ll have something from my childhood too.  I’m also excited that I’ll have more room to store the toys that are spilling everywhere.

Speaking of, I need to go through them and soon.  I need to back up and donate the ones he no longer plays with and the ones he’s outgrown to make room for all the new stuff he’ll get.

 

Now, to go get him out of the fire-place….

Pumpkin day!

So, in case I forgot to mention, and given it’s been forever and a day, that my father took the muffler off my car, my dad took the muffler off my car.

Mom and dad’s truck has a really nasty habit of not turning over randomly and so dad will often borrow my car to run errands.  I’d rather lend him my car than have to wake Kyle up and go get him when his doesn’t start so it really works out for the best.

Well last week my mom and dad ran to visit a friend out in the country.  Dad’s driven a truck for so long even my Mom Car Sentra is like a “roller skate” to him.  To me it’s a sedan that has no frills and even less thrills.  So there he is, driving along in the dark along a country highway and he hits a dip in the road and the car bottomed out.  My best guess is that he hit at just the right angle that he put enough pressure on the weld that holds my muffler to my exhaust pipe to pop the weld.

I really wasn’t mad and actually a little amused.  My mom kept freaking out and stressing to me that dad hadn’t been driving like a lunatic teenager, I just kept telling her it sorta made up for all those times I’d had to call and say “now, about the car.”  I knew he’d fix it so I wasn’t too worried.  In fact it was drivable so I really wasn’t worried.  In fact, my car mad the really “cool” noise modded cars did.  Well, until Tuesday.  Coming home from work the muffler finally fell off the pipe and the car sounded like a jet engine coming in on emergency approach.  Yep, dad was going to have to fix it quick.

So dad was all set to fix my car today and Jason’s mom (who really, really rocks) took his to the shop to get a tune up and winterized.  Jason’s car got home but I still didn’t have my car.  Turns out the muffler for my car is special order.  Really?!  The muffler for a 2005 Sentra is a special order?!  It’s a fairly popular make and model of car…Really?  Um.  K.

Luckily Jason’s off on vacation so he’s taking me into work Monday and Tuesday morning.  Fingers crossed my car will be mine again on Wednesday.

And given that daddy’s home on vacation Kyle decided today was a great day to get a pumpkin.  Ok, so Jason and I decided that but he went along for the ride.

I’m gonna be honest.  He was not an overly happy camper.  He whined, cried and tried to break free all afternoon.  He just did not want to go along with the plan.  He did end up picking out a really nice pumpkin at The Elegant Farmer, home of the Apple Pie Baked in a Paper Bag, even Bobby Flay had no words for it.  Order it if you can.

Grammie also got his Halloween costume today.  We’re going with penguin.  Daddy loves ‘em and so does he.  And all the R2D2 costumes looked like a two year old was not only wearing them but made them.

What a busy week!

It’s finally fall here and I just love fall, it makes me all domestic and stuff.  The last week around the place has been busy.

Last Sunday Jason’s mom took us all to the zoo.  Kyle seemed to enjoy it and we lucked out with him.  He likes to walk and hold your hand and ride in his stroller, not one melt down the whole day.  While many of the animals weren’t all the interesting to him (the people had a lot of appeal though) he did really like the elephants.  I ended up getting one of those plastic ones that you put your money into the machine and it punches out for you.

The Milwaukee County Zoo also has a really neat train that runs around the zoo.  When I was a kid that was the last thing we did for the day and that’s what we did too.  The train he loved.

Monday my dad called me at work and I didn’t fully understand him, I just heard “need car, mom not well, doctor.”  Thankfully I work for a place that actually means it when they say they are family friendly because I didn’t even fully get the words out of my mouth before my boss was telling me just to leave.

It turns out my dad was having a lot of stomach pain and needed to get to the doctor.  My original plan was to pick him up and having him drop me back at work but when he started telling me his feet were numb and his back was bad and that he was in a lot of pain I asked him if he was sure he could drive.  In typical dad he just said that I needed to go back to work.  I pressed him and he just said “well if you don’t have to go back.”  Yeah, that’s dad speak for “I really shouldn’t be driving, can you help.”

Karen took Kyle for the night, her new A/C and heating unit was being installed Tuesday so she was going to have a Kyle day, and I spent the next few hours taking my dad from the doctor to the hospital for tests.  All I can say is St. Luke’s once again did nothing to impress me at all.  I’m so unimpressed by the hospitals around me I’m tempted to move back into Waukesha County again.
At any rate, dad’s doing ok, though they are still not 100% sure what’s causing the issues.  Fact is, he’s had them for years but over the last 12 months he’s only getting worse.  Scares the hell outta me, I even joked with him that he couldn’t die because then mom would have to live with me.  Between her MS and now having a total knee replacement on October 14th and his GI issues it’s hard not to worry.

Friday Jason, Kyle and I went to meet Ms. Betty to see if she was a good fit to watch him 3 days a week.  Her living room is full of cars, trucks and trains.  Kyle was pissed when it was time to leave.  Betty has three children, two grown and one 15 year old at home.  He came out and started playing with Kyle, it was even sweeter when he heard Kyle fuss because we’d taken away a toy and came around a corner to make sure he was ok.

Two family’s Betty has worked with or is currently working with, are in CPS.  Two license foster homes and one licenses day cares.  If that doesn’t make you feel a little more comfortable I don’t know what will.  She was genuinely excited when I called her Saturday night and asked all sorts of questions about what Kyle likes and who the little dude is.

I’ve also been indulging in home making.  I have a little pillow that’s the perfect size for a toddler, that is encased in plastic.  Of course you can’t find pillow cases to fit so I made 3, with a 4th getting there.  I found I actually liked sewing better than I remembered.  Of course, I’m not all that great at it, but it was still nice to make something just for Kyle from his mommy.

Thursday I made Breakfast Cookies .  Some mornings it’s just plain hard to get something together for him while getting myself ready and these seemed way more healthy than store bought bars.  Also a hell of a lot cheaper.  They’re pretty darn easy, though the dough is sticky so I used gloves while rolling them out.

Saturday Kyle and I made Lemon Ricotta Cookies.  He had fun sticking his hand in flour and watching the beaters of my mixer.  In fact, he got mad because I put him back in the living room while I was putting the cookies on the cookie sheet and into the oven.  He really, really, wanted to see what I was doing.  Kyle really likes puttering in the kitchen with me while I cook.  I give him a big plastic spoon and an old coffee can and he’ll ‘mix’ while I cook.  When he’s bored with that he’ll come over to the computer.  Yeah, I know.

After he went to bed I made meatballs for meatball subs this week while talking to Betty on the phone.  You gotta love Bluetooth there.  It’s a weird feeling having a phone conversion while you’re up to your elbows in meat.  In my continuing efforts to try and get more veggies in all of our diets I put some carrots in the mix.  I’ve done it before and it honestly doesn’t change the taste, except to make them a tad sweeter.

Tonight I made chicken pot pie, and crunchy chicken fingers.  The chicken fingers I par-fried and will finish them in the oven this week when we have them for dinner.

Kyle also went to grandma and grandpa’s today for a little of the Packer game.  Dad is really hopeful Kyle will take after him and not his daddy when it comes to the Pack but he’s happy just to have a little guy to watch the game with.

So that’s about it.  Life around my place.  Exciting no?