Twice Baked Sickness

When I have nothing better to go with the post title can get totally weird, like today. 

This week has been weird though so it all makes perfect sense to me.

Monday is a busy day for us because we start every week with Blaine's occupational therapy appointment at 8:00 am, which means everyone is out the door and ready for work or school by 7:45 am.  I guess I should back up a bit... for almost two months our Mister has been going to O.T. to work on some areas he needs some help with. When B was almost 18 months old we started seeing some behaviors and patterns that were odd and frankly, a bit out of the ordinary.  While many well-meaning people told us that it was a "boy thing" and he would "outgrow it" something told us that there was something else going on.  Fast forward to August of this year (and through many different doctor appointments) and we had Blaine tested by an occupational therapist. They concluded that he has Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD) and after the intial shock and denial wore off we started researching and everything started making more sense.  Long story short our Mister has some challenges right now and given time, the right therapy (and therapist), and work on our part everything will work out in the end and we'll have a happy, healthy and well-adjusted young man on our hands.  I had all these lofty plans to start another blog that would chronicle our new journey with Blaine and SPD but I realized that 1. that would be way too much work for me and 2. this is a part of our lives and we don't have to document that part of our lives as if it's a secret.  In fact, Blaine helped me come to this final conclusion the other day when we were driving to one of his appointments.

B: Mama, look at that airplane!
M: Wow, I see it.  That's pretty cool.  Hey, do you remember where we are going?
B: To see Dr. Yorke.  (The Psychologist we've been working with.)
M: That's right.
B: Mama, it's ok.  Everyone has problems.  We just work on them with the doctors.
M: (tears in my eyes)  That's right buddy.  Everyone does have problems.

So, it was at this point (and after trying to start that other blog five times) that I decided we should just lay it all out there.  And with David's go-ahead, here we are.  Coincidentally (if there is such a thing) October is Sensory Processing Disorder Awareness month. 

Instead of copying and pasting a bunch of information here I'm just going to pass along a link that will give anyone who wants more information on SPD exactly that. Click here for an overview of SPD. 

SPD - “Sensory Processing Disorder is a neurological disorder that is like a virtual traffic jam in the brain. The information from all eight senses is misinterpreted which causes a child (person) to often act inappropriately.” - SPD Blogger Network

All that from telling you what we did on Monday morning... wait until I get to Wednesday!

Just kidding.

Attention turned to Hannah on Tuesday when she started vomiting all over the place. She did this through Tuesday night and then it was over.  No fever and no other symptoms (expcept for her chronic diarrhea) and then after school on Wednesday Blaine started complaining of a sore throat.  David went to work and the kids and I made it into Dr. Howard's office for back to back visits.  Hannah is fine - she just had a virus but our Mister has strep throat which didn't slow him down a bit today when he was home with me.  He was still running, jumping and climbing all over everything.  Oh, he will be going back to school tomorrow.  Doctor's orders!

Because I was home-bound with the kids today we ran some errands and then I spent half the afternoon making Pioneer Woman's twice baked potatoes.  It was my first time so things got pretty messy but I succeeded in making some pretty good potatoes, if I (and David) do say so myself!  We also had these fantastic hamburgers that I was pretty proud of.  Actually, come to think of it, despite everything else we've got going on here I've managed to put some good meals on the table this week.  Last night we even had lamb chops.  They were semi-burned, but we really liked them with that "smokey" flavor. 

The good news is that tomorrow is Friday and we have some fun plans for the weekend and then GG comes to visit on Monday.  David has to travel to Chicago for five days so my mom offered to come help with the kids so I don't go crazy and no-one gets hurt. 

Pre-Sickness

Reading some books in the big girl chair

Testing her cowgirl boots.

Loving on mama. 

More love...

So beautiful.

Sick kids.

Watching TV together and there is no screaming.  Amazing!

A Long Time Ago

A long time ago we had something called a 3-day weekend, which was wonderful, but now that it is almost a new weekend it kind of seems silly to post about last weekend.

But whatever.  I'm gonna live on the edge.

We had a great time - one of the highlights was our first ever game night with the Pemberton clan.  We actually managed to eat dinner, clean up, then bath and put to bed four children all before 9:00 pm.  It was beautiful.  Of course Hannah and William had us cracking up right before they went to bed.  They wanted their 4th meal of the evening.  Here they are rummaging through Kari's snack bag at 8:30 pm.  I wonder where they learned their stall techniques?

We spent a lot of time at the park this weekend and actually this week, too.  A "cold" front came in last Sunday so it is now in the upper 90's during the day as opposed to the 100's.  And it's actually been chilly at night, which has been glorious.

Mister getting twirled on the swing.

Apparently Sharp-Tooth lives... we saw him at Wells Branch park.

And Sharp-Tooth also likes to be twirled on the swing.

Hannah found out that she likes to sit at the picnic table and eat her snack. 

But we really prefer her to sit in her chair where she can't walk around and smash her food into our leather couch.

And regardless of where she sits, she has to be cleaned up by Mr. Clean.

And on a much more serious note, the wildfires here in Central Texas have been devastating.  Over 750 homes has been destroyed and over 34,000 acres are burned, just in Bastrop which is south east of Austin.  There were also other fires northwest of Austin that took peoples homes.  And the fire in Bastrop is only 30% contained at this point.  David's cousin, his wife and their two young children lost their home in these fires.  We hope that you'll join us in praying for them during this difficult time.    

I found this picture online through one of our local news stations.

Dinner with the Lyons

We get to eat dinner together probably 3-4 nights during the week.  That is all our schedules allow - but we love every opportunity.

Lately, this has been the scene: Hannah in her high chair, just finishing dinner and munching on a Mum-Mum.  Blaine laughing and making jokes.  David and I trying to eat while feeding two kids.