House building progress

The second story of our house is being built. Along with the garage. Right now we are at the 10 week mark. The first several weeks were spent waiting for permits to be pulled, and watching the basement get framed and poured. 

The basement footings were poured at the five week mark. We signed all papers to start the house in mid-July, and the footings were done August 24th. The basement forms were put in and poured September 2nd. This is going to be a walkout basement. We are anxious for the roof to be put on, so that everything won't be getting soaked by fall rains. Fortunately, the weather has been very favorable for building in the last few weeks. 

Rough Patches

We've been suffering through several rough patches with Andy lately. He has a swollen gum around one of his upper molars that I've been treating with Orajel. The dentist says the teeth need time to break through all the way. I've been giving him soft foods, but when it is time to eat, he gets really upset. I may have to consult a third dentist, to ask about his gum. I try to floss in there, but there doesn't seem to be any space to floss due to the crying. 

Gabby can't stand Andy's crying, and neither can I.  She is only five, and quite often feels that Andy is the only one that I care about. In her own words. It sucks. Going through all this truly sucks. 

I try to stay distracted with cleaning and de-cluttering the house in preparation of our move this winter. Andy doesn't entertain himself for long though, and when he gets bored he gets really pissed off. 

I try to tell myself that other parents of normal children have to be going through the same ups and downs as me, but it often seems that we are in more patches of frustration and anger than most.

I need to petition my sons school for more help

I have been staying at my sons school on a daily basis with him. I think the teacher and parapros are doing an excellent job. However, their hands are very full with the twelve children in the class. I still don't feel comfortable leaving him there without me. He easily gets stepped on by the other kids, and has to be picked up and moved when he moves into dangerous situations.

I think I need to write a letter to the school explaining why I feel my son needs a one-on-one paraprofessional in the classroom with him. I've got to get the ball rolling now, so that he can have this type of service for the years to come. My family doctor told me a boy she knew of who was deaf had a parapro with him at school from kindergarten through high school.

Time at home with him has been really bad. He gets miserable quickly if he feels pain, or gets bored. I'm going crazy trying to get him to stop crying. I'm finding myself asking for more breaks from the kids. I don't feel guilty about it either, not anymore...

Stories needed from special needs parents and siblings

Lisa Davis has asked me to share the following post with those of you who are caring for people with "invisible disabilities".  Her email is located below for those wanting to share stories with her:

My name is Lisa Davis and I am currently teaming up with writer and neuroscientist Tricia Bliven Chasinoff to publish a book in the series called Easy to Love But... The first of the series, Easy to Love But Hard to Raise, is already published and out in bookstores and available on-line.

Easy to Love but Hard to Raise is an anthology of personal essays written by parents of children with ADD, ADHD, OCD, PDD, ASDs, SPD, PBD and/or other alphabet soup diagnoses that takes the already difficult job of parenting and adds to the challenge.

Ours is second in the series, and will expand the focus beyond raising children with disabilities.  The current book will address the experiences of children, siblings, spouses, and others who have close relationships with people who have been diagnosed with one of these "invisible disabilities".  We are also interested in hearing first-hand accounts of people who have been living with these disabilities.  While this book will not address parenting, per se, we will be including some stories from parents, specifically parents of adult children with disabilities or parents who have been affected by multiple generations of disabilities (i.e., when both parent AND child are affected). 

We need more stories and we'd love to hear yours!  You can e-mail triciaandlisa@gmail.com for more information.  

Can't find the right school

I just can't leave Andy at school. He is so helpless, and defenseless. He gets upset so easily. All the other kids can step on him, and rip toys out of his hands. He can't do anything about it. I just want to cry all the time. Right now, I am trying to just take him in for services, and stay a little extra for some class interaction with the other students. However, school just doesn't feel right for him. In fact, it feels all wrong.

I feel that I need to gear up, and find better ways to be his teacher at home. It is just hard to find the energy and motivation. I feel exhausted all the time lately. I've visited several programs, and none seem to be the right fit for him. There's no way I'll leave him anywhere. He's like a 6 month old baby, and he's in a room of three-year olds. I'm crying again.

Pediatric Wheelchair

We received Andy's pediatric wheelchair for school. It is super heavy. It has three different names on three different manuals that it came with: "Kimba", "Ottobock" and "Leckey".  Slightly confusing. I am not currently using it for everyday errands. Again, it is way too heavy. I'm envisioning just using it for when he is in school. I don't think he will be riding the bus. We will live six houses away from the school. They said I can request that the bus pick him up, but I am going to see how it goes. We won't be living near the school for the first couple of months while the house is still being built. We will be living out of district, and he's been approved to attend this school while we build.

I have been doing small enjoyable things if Andy is taking a nap, or when he goes to bed at night. I've been scrapbooking, crocheting hats, making patch pillows, or trying my hand at sewing Barbie doll clothes for my daughter. She has fun being the designer, and I'm the seamstress. It helps take my mind off of other issues.

We are building a new house

We are taking a huge leap of faith, and we are building a new colonial-style home. We are currently in a ranch, but have decided to build a home with four bedrooms on the second upstairs level. However, there is a room on the main level, which could be transformed into Andy's bedroom if we need to do this. Meaning, if he should never walk, or if he is too heavy to carry upstairs. There is also a space that could be turned into a bathroom with a roll-in shower on the main level. We've thought that all out.
I have also looked into stairlifts for curved, 180 degree staircases, and have talked to a friend about platform lifts.

We wanted to build another ranch style home, but they are much more expensive to build than building a colonial or cape cod. We were quoted $150 a square foot, as opposed to $90-$100 a square foot to build a colonial. We also looked at a foreclosed ranch, but it needed way too much work. We then looked at a really nice, but way too expensive ranch.  The dirt road it was on wasn't too appealing either, I might add. Not to mention the fact that the school said the buses could have trouble going down private dirt roads, especially in winter.  So, we picked a paved road neighborhood, very close to his school. I could walk him there in nice weather.

I really like the look and feel of the colonial house, however, I have never lived in one. I am hoping that I will like it. We are having the laundry room put in on the second floor next to our bedrooms. We are hoping this will alleviate a negative point of the colonial home. We also will have a walkout basement, which we love the idea of, and have never had.

There will be many children the same ages of our kids, which I also like. Our current neighborhood, is full of empty nesters whose children moved out 20 years ago. So, we are excited and nervous, that we made the right decision. We have made our choices in the best interest of our kids.

You can see further progress in my later post here : Building progress

What to do if you drop your iphone in water

Long story short: my iPhone 4 came back to life (twice now) after letting it dry out for five full days in a ziploc bag filled with uncooked white rice. My phone was fully submerged in water for a few seconds after being dropped in the toilet. Yes, my iPhone fell into the toilet. Here are the details of what happened:

You have to fully submerge the phone in dry uncooked rice in a plastic baggie to suck out the moisture from the phone.  We let the phone sit for 24 hours. But later found this wasn't enough time, so the phone went back into the bag to sit at room temperature for a few more days.

**After the phone has dried out for several days (4-5 days), you must plug it into your charger and let it charge for several hours** You might think it isn't coming back to life, but might just actually need to be charged.

When the iPhone 4 initially turned on the next day (24 hours later),  it was acting funny, so it needed several more days in the bag of rice to fully dry out. Calls weren't working and the screen was looking yellow. We put the phone back into the same bag of rice. This time we let the phone sit for three more days. We then had my daughter test out the phone for two days by having her watch Netflix and play games. She reported back no problems with the phone. So, we got another new sim card once again for the now dry iPhone 4, and it was activated over the phone.

Before placing the phone in the bag of rice, I did not take the phone apart. I took my outside protective case off but that was it. I didn't remove the screen or battery or anything. I did take the sim card out, because I thought it would help dry it out more. I was successful at getting my sim card out after pushing the tiny pinhole on the side of my phone with a straightened paperclip. I had to push it really hard to get the door to spring outward. I later found out the sim card just had to be thrown out, because once the sim card gets wet, you will need a new one. It will no longer work.  The cell phone store gave us a 3GS sim card to use in an old phone with my current phone number until my phone came back from the dead.

I have been using the phone now for over a year, and it has been great. I do have a slight "yellowing" of my screen in one tiny spot, and can only see it when there is a white background. Other than that, I am SO happy my iPhone came back to life!

Honestly, I didn't panic too much when it first happened, I was mostly upset that my husband might be mad about it. I've gotten electronics wet before, and usually after they dry, they come back to life. So, I was hopeful the same would be true with my iPhone. If your phone goes out of commission, your cell phone carrier should give you a new sim card free of charge, and switch your account over to an alternative phone.

Good luck reviving your phone, I never attempted to open the phone at all. I left it as is, and let the rice suck all the moisture out of it.

P.S. I dropped my phone in water once again on accident, and it is up and running again after five days in a bag of rice. Hurray!

Scooting for toys

Andy is scooting around with a little enticing. I have gotten him to scoot as far as 25 feet, coaxing him with a toy. He will do about 5 little scoots at a time, on his belly, pulling himself with his arms. He will scoot with his own interest and motivation sometimes, just a foot or two to get to a toy. When I try to motivate him, I try to bring him down a long hallway into a new room, so he can see he can get somewhere on his own. I might have to put a long sleeve shirt on him next time, because the berber carpet seems to be irritating to his elbows after a while.

We hadn't seem him scoot around much since St. Patricks Day, back in March of this year. I was wondering when it was going to emerge again, he just didn't want to scoot for so long. He's been in PT all this time too! We are taking a break from physical therapy now, and he's scooting like crazy. Can't figure it out.

Abuse at my son's future school

We have been contemplating moving out of our current school district for a while now. I was skeptical of my son's future school not being keen on having parents in the classroom with the kids. It felt like they were hiding something as well. It turns out everything has come to light about an abusive teacher and parapro in my son's future preschool classroom! Needless to say, this has put the final nail in the coffin for us to move to a new school district. I had already spent the last couple of months researching a new district, and met with the principal about their SXI program. They are fine with my desires to be present with Andy, just kind of checking in, and my daughter will attend school there as well. In our current district, they would both be attending different schools.

Here is the news story from our local news, and a link to a message board talking about it as well.

http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/news/Livonia-teacher-fired-amid-allegations-of-mistreating-special-education-students/-/4714498/15179796/-/9j1kol/-/index.html

http://s6.zetaboards.com/Livonianeighbors/topic/8822988/3/

Take care of your kids, and don't be afraid to question anyone in regards to their care!