4 Kids + 1 Momma = Chaos

Yesterday I had a busy day at work but there were no major snafus and I got out early enough to get home and have some free time with my kids before dinner.  I’m thankful for a day like that.

Today I am thankful for a visit with an experienced adoptive mom of special needs kids.  She is always so helpful and has such an open and (when she says it) obvious perspective.  I’m thankful for her.  and I am thankful for a functioning scanner and a few minutes to make a composite picture of my kids school photos.  It makes a nice header don’t you agree?

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In the “if it rains it pours” category…we got our first cast of the children today. 

Yesterday we spent about an hour at a local playground.  They have a lot of hanging toys and monkey bars.  Amalia was hanging on this handles on rails that you slide down the rail and Riley pushed her down the rails and she fell to the ground.  I comforted her and sent her back to play.  She went to bed last night without a complaint but this morning came down stairs and had a visible lump on the bone above the wrist and pain on moving her wrist.  After getting the other 3 onto their buses, I took her to the ED at work and luckily she was back at school by 10 am – pink cast and all. 

So, I am thankful for the resiliancy of children, the rapid healing of bones (only 3 weeks in a cast), and the contacts at the hospital that allowed her to get her cast in the ED and allow me to not have to have too many follow up appointments before it comes off!

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I am thankful for a warm day in Mid November and some time to spend with my kids out in it.

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I am thankful for a phone on my camera so that I can capture this giant Hawk in my back yard…

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I am thankful for a pizza and movie and early bedtime…

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I am thankful for the thought processes of children…

Let me explain…

Riley likes to ride his bike to school.  He has anxiously awaited the day when he was a 4th grader and therefore allowed by the school to do so.  I usually ride slowly behind him or after he has a head start.  Unfortunately, because he has to take the daycare van from school, we have to drive there at night to pick it up on days he rides. 

So, he begged to ride his bike on Tuesday am and since we were having an Indian Summer week, I let him.  On Tuesday we got home so late and I forgot to head that way before we got to the house and then I was too lazy to go back out.  Yesterday was his dental surgery and I had an Upward Coaches meeting so we didnt pick it up. 

Flash forward to today.  I have a few minutes so I swing by the school and look all around and the bike is nowhere to be seen – so, I’m assuming it has been stolen and am kind of bummed because one of our neighbors gave it to Riley over the weekend and now we have to tell them that someone stole it from the schoolyard.

I get to the daycare and as we are walking to the car I drop the bomb on Riley and tell him that the bike has been stolen.  He says, “well maybe someone brought it in because it was raining so badly the last two days”.    He is bummed about losing this wonderful gift he just got.  So, I decide to run by the school again so he can show me where he parked it (hoping maybe I missed it or it had fallen on the ground). 

So, we pull as close as we can to the bike rack and I turn on my high beams and Riley and I start to get out of the car and out of the corner of my eye I see three kids out of the corner of my eye and one is on a bike up on a different part of the playground about 50 yards away and I say to Riley – is that your bike?

And he lets out this huge …loud….”Hey!”

And I’m not sure whether it was my highbeams and getting out of the car or his “Hey” but the one on the bike dropped it and the three of them ran to the neighborhood behind the school. 

Riley was HOPPED UP!  He was talking non-stop the entire ride home.  Oh my god, those guys were bad…I think they were 6th graders or something…they just wanted to take something that wasn’t theirs…I’m going to tell the Principal tomorrow.

When we got home he said ” I bet they just wanted to steal something so they could act like they were cool in front of girls” 

(oh my god…I am not ready…cuz apparently when you are in 6th grade everything you do is about getting to be cool in front of girls)

So, thankful that my kids still recognize that taking someone else’s bike is wrong…and that they are too young to be cool in front of girls…and that I decided to go back to the school because the bike was definitely not there earlier and I didn’t see anyone playing on those playgrounds so I don’t know if they had taken it and then come back or were just in a different part of the area that I couldn’t see before.

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and I’m thankful for a successful dental experience for Riley this morning …

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11/14:  Thankful for a night where we read books instead of watching TV before bedtime

11/15: Tough day.  3/4 kids had bad reports from teachers or daycare providers; I am thankful for a warm house and a couch to lie on and a glass of wine to drink and a bed to fall into…and a friend who said the thing I needed to hear after a tough morning.

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I am thankful for an essentially lazy Sunday – only left the house to get the kids out to get some exercise …cleaned the garage…4 loads of laundry… and 2 lasagnas …9 chicken salad sandwiches…an extra-large batch of pumpkin French Toast all made and frozen.

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