A Field Trip, From the Mouths of Babes and a Tough Couple of Days
Meg took her end of the year class trip to Kellogg's Cereal City yesterday. It isn't the first time she's been there, as in Michigan it's a fairly big attraction for these type of outings. I'm thinking she went last year with Girl Scouts. Anyhow, she didn't seem to have too great of a time - it was an educational trip and she felt discouraged in having fun. She did take a whole roll of film, so we'll see if anything interesting comes up and post some pics when they come in. She has a very keen eye for film, so it could be good.
Tonight we were goofing around and Abbie had taken a pot holder out of the cabinet drawer and was chasing Meg around the house saying "I gonna wash you!" she kept pretending to wipe her off (this was a rather old and ratty pot holder that didn't smell the greatest, I noticed). Anyhow, Meg was really in a bad mood - brooding and burying herself in a book, but Abbie really had her laughing and playing by the time it was done! Later on Bob leaned over to give me a kiss and Abbie said "Hey! Get away from my parent!" as she got between us and tried to push us apart. How funny!! She had several other great one liners tonight, she's just a riot.
Ellie's meds have been increased and she's still struggling to get on top of her manic breakthrough moods. She seems to be able to 'snap' out of the rages and such must faster, but they are just as frequent as pre-Trileptal. She is having a lot of trouble focusing and keeping on task for more than five minutes at a stretch, as well. We're trying to be very patient with her and give her lots of room - as she seems to really be aware of her state of mind and wants to make the quick recovery from rage to normal. We're keeping our fingers crossed that she will snap out of this. It's going to be a long summer for everyone, I think.
O.k., I've made a couple of changes to the template in hopes to correct the viewing problems that everyone has been complaining about. I'm sorry that it's wasn't working the way I wanted it to when I initially emailed everyone, but hopefully this will correct the problem. I like the other template better, but this one will probably work a little better.
O.k., here are my favorites from the grad pictures . . .
Try that again . . .
Just in . . .
The first of Ellie's Graduation pics are back and also a really cute picture of Abbie on Easter. Enjoy!
Meg went to the Orthodontist today. Dr. Lisa, her orthodontist said that her molars have finally moved into place. In the first week of August we go back and they will remove the appliance she has in now, a pendulum (sp?), and will replace it with the next appliance, an RME, which we will 'crank' with a key to spread her jaw out (towards the ears). They will be placing two front hooks on this appliance so that once the crossbite is corrected she can start wearing the head gear to correct the underbite - pulling the top jaw out forward. Sounds like fun, huh? Meg is happy, because she will have two whole days between appliances where she can eat popcorn, hard candy, gum and chew ice cubes - all of those are big no-nos right now.
Ellie and Abbie spent the day at Paula's, thier sitters. They always have a good time there, and Abbie even took a nap and seems to have settled right down for bedtime tonight (thank goodness!). Before bed, Ellie read me a story. She's starting to get the hang of it. She reads the first 5-6 pages and then gets bored and starts guessing what it says based on the pictures. Sometimes I wish there weren't any pictures at all, of course, that'd be pretty boring for her. I think that by the time she starts K next fall she'll be an old pro at reading.
I'm really having a tough time with this new Blogspot server. It doesn't seem to want to publish, or will only publish a portion of what it's supposed to. I'm frustrated, but I'm sure they'll get it all worked out.
A trip to the Saginaw Zoo
Yesterday (Memorial Day) we took the girls to the Saginaw Zoo and a good time was had by all. Meg was a little moody and whiny, but I think she still had a good time. The River Otters were great, they're so playful and fun to watch! Abbie had a blast feeding the goats and she kept calling "Here goatie, goatie, goatie.". Ellie really enjoyed the pony ride (all the girls did, actually, but Ellie is the horse freak in the family). Of course, it opened up the whole "When can I get a horse?" discussion again (never?!). The Saginaw Zoo is not huge by any means, but we still spent close to 3 hours there and we were all beat when we got home. Abbie is going through a 'nap skipping' phase, but even without a nap she still had trouble getting to sleep last night.
Wow, Abbie's Memory
Bob was sitting on the couch with Abigail tonight, right before bed and she was telling him about a birthday party she went to on May 10th, over 2 weeks ago. She was telling him intense details - like what she played (pirates), that she was too scared to go in the big pool, and that Jayden (one of the little girls at the party) hurt her chin. Which is pretty impressive, I think, considering she won't be three until September! He (Bob) had a moment, when he realized that our baby isn't much of a baby any longer. It's sad, but cool.
We worked in the yard a bit today, took care of the bee problem with the swing set (there are some pretty torked bees right now inside the girls swingset - we caulked it shut - they can't get in or out any longer), hung a couple of new swings and got the deck set up for summer. We put out the patio furniture, scrubbed down the table - stuff like that. Anyhow, the girls really love the new swings, Ab even has her own toddler swing now and she had, she is two you know, a tantrum when it was time to stop swinging. Then she had, she is two you know, a tantrum when it was time to stop blowing bubbles and come inside.
Meg had a blast playing outside this weekend, she spent more time in the yard than I've seen her do since she was Abbie's age. Her friend Madison was over and Meg even wanted to spend more time outside than Madison wanted to (that's rare). Ellie spent a lot of time on the deck playing with her horses (of course). Ellie likes to be outside way more than Meghen does. She was very 'manic-y' today, but over all she had a good day!
The Day Started with a Tragedy
This morning when I got up I started getting the girls rounded up so that we could run a few errands and be home before 9 a.m., unfortunately, as I was pulling the phone out of Abigail's hand for the umpteenth time, I noticed that Spot was not looking so good. As a matter of fact, he looked pretty much dead. Everyone has handled it pretty well, even Meg, as it was her hamster. Abbie told us that "Spot is died" and that "His parents will be here soon." When I told her he went to Hamster Heaven, she simply said "No, he's right there (she was pointing at his cage, where he still was laying)." As I type this, the girls and their Dad are out back having a little funeral for the fella. I'm supposed to be doing something else, but I figured I would do something I wanted to do first!
Meg and my Mom have talked about her spending a week there this summer. Sounds good to me. I found an awesome art camp (Meg is all about art), but it's $225 a week! We'll probably stick with the YMCA program as it's about half that and she will need to go somewhere during the day while Mom works.
Ellie is starting to make some progress in the way of a new mood stabilizer. We've been through the mill with her since March. First the Risperdal, which ended up with an emergency room trip, then the Abilify - which made her hide from her own shadow, now she's on Trileptal and seems to be responding slowly to it. She hasn't started on the full dose yet, we're gradually increasing it. I figure if she's starting to respond with just a few 'breakthrough' manic spots, by the time we get to the full dose she should be in good shape! One can hope.
Well, I got the not-so-original-ideal to blog for the girls from a lady who doesn't much like me (stupidly self-inflicted, I will admit) on one of email loops. She posted her kid's blog and I thought, "Hey, I ought to do that for the girls." So, here it goes!
