I am the mom of surviving quadruplets. My blog covers the birth of my children, their special needs, therapy, homeschooling and what it's like to be the mom to these special kids!
Since the black mold problem we have all been sick. So much coughing, sneezing, runny noses, and more coughing! I've been coughing and having issues until my asthma has acted back up. It's been bad. This is the most we have all been sick over a winter since their birth.
We thought this last round of illness was due to heavy black mold exposure but now we are not sure. After two weeks of being sick and LOTS of OTC medication we are all starting to feel better.
Today Margaret and Joseph had an appointment with a new endocrinologist. They are both SO small that we need to monitor them closely. Plus Joseph has Hashimoto's thyroiditis so we need to check his thyroid levels. After seeking some recommendations from other moms of multiples in the area I settled on a doctor. John had to go to the appointment by himself since I have very little time off left at work from the holidays.
Everyone dropped me off in the morning. John took the kids to the doctor office. He called me later and told me about their day. They saw the doctor and agreed that Joseph is a candidate for growth hormone. John explained why we were interested in growth hormone for Joseph with included having my grown so his teeth can fit in his jaw (because the two bottom teeth he has coming in are NOT fitting at all!) and because we want his to grow so he trachea will growth and less his breathing issues. The doctor agreed that those were good reasons and Margaret also needed to be monitored because she is also quite small. Joseph weighed 33 pounds and was 41.5 inches tall. Joseph is not on the chart for height or weight at all. Margaret was 41 pounds and is 45.6 inches tall roughly. James is basically 53 pounds and about 55 inches tall. You can see the BIG difference in height and weight between them all. That is one of the main reasons that no one asks me if they are all the same age any more. They look SO different that it looks like I had one child per year versus all the same time. LOL
You can see how people would be confused!
Joseph recently had a bone age x-ray completed and it was considered normal. Margaret was sent for a bone scan x-ray today. We will get the results back in a few days. Joseph also had his blood drawn to check thyroid levels. John said the kids were SUPER good at the doctor's office. A nurse even complimented John and how great our kids were. LOL
John left the doctor's office and took the kids to the Target we got our Christmas pictures redone but they had just closed for lunch. He went driving around a bit and found Freedom Park. He let the kids out to play for about 15 minutes before taking them back to the Target to get the pictures.
I'm not sure what else he did but I know it involved lunch, taking my car to get my tires looked at and filled, going to another Target and picking up my prescriptions, then heading to the house for a bit and feed the children dinner, load everyone back up to get me from work. When they arrived I get into the car and James was in the back sleeping. John said he tried to keep him awake but James said, "My eyes are just too tired." LOL We got home, unloaded everyone one last time. I got them into the house and it was about 7:00pm. I got the kids ready for bed while John took a break for a bit. By 8:15pm we were basically back on track for bedtime. Not too bad of a day for the kids but I am sure John is exhausted!
The Christmas holidays were a lot of fun. Santa was so good to the children this year. Santa's gifts were in special blue paper, with special tags, and had a jingle bell on them. Santa's gifts were awesome! Christmas was a group effort. With the presents John and I got along with money from my in-laws, my parents, a friend who brought over gifts, and the help of MOST (a group of high order multiple moms) the children had the best Christmas they have had in YEARS! Santa was very good and on target with the gifts he brought. One of the best gifts was an iPad mini. I am excited to get apps to help with therapy stuff for the children.
James was happy to get some great gifts including Snap Circuits and a furby. He is having fun with those. He is also enjoying the games he got from Santa like Life and Clue Jr. Margaret got several gifts that she loves including a furby, new bedspread, a pop-up playhouse, balance board and clothes. Joseph got several gifts he loves too. He got a piano that he is having a blast playing! He got a bubble timer. Visually Joseph is having a blast with it! He also loves his new backpack. It fits his little frame just right.
John and I did not get anything for ourselves. We figured we could get something later with tax refund money. ALL money went to buying new toys and toys to be used for
therapy for the children. The poor kids were so starved for new toys and more age/developmental appropriate toys that the children kept forgetting to open their Christmas presents to open Christmas morning. It took us TWO hours for them to open all their gifts! They would open a gift and then they would get excited about the toy and would ask for us to open it. We would open the present and then they would start playing with it. I would have to remind them to come back to open another present. James and Margaret would literally say, "Oh yea, I forgot!" LOL It was VERY cute!
Christmas day and the next few days after that was nice because no one asked me for my phone. They were too busy to playing with their new toys. :)
My children are often a source of amusement for me. Margaret is particularly funny because of how she interprets things. A few examples are...
Croutons she calls toast bites,
A comb has teeth and therefore bites the knots in her hair when I comb it,
and her stuffed animals become real things that need help, care and comfort.
Margaret lines up her Hello Kitties and tells me they are having a party....LOL!
Joseph complains to me his Spiderman WON'T stop working! ROFL. We told him, "Then stop pressing the buttons!"
James came over and asked use my bathroom to go poop since John had just cleaned the hall bathroom. When we asked him why he said he did not want to mess up the toilet. LOL. At least he was trying to be courteous!
James went into my bathroom today because someone was in the hall bathroom. He comes back out and exclaimed in a puzzled voice, "Your bathroom smells like pickles!" LOL Little did he know I had sprayed my bathroom down earlier with white vinegar to combat the hard water stains in my shower. ROFL
Then Margaret grabs Spiderman and uses him to save Hello Kitty. At least she is flexible in her play! LOL
Today we did our weekend craft. It was fun! We did Ribbon Paper Trees. I cut out some tree forms from cardboard. It would have been too hard for the children to do that. They all have poor hand strength. MY hand was hurting after a bit. I couldn't have imagined them doing it! I had to enlist John to help me cut out tree forms.
We had some scrapbook paper all ready on hand. I picked out come color coordinating paper in mostly green and blues. John used a paint stick, since we had on hand, as a straight edge to draw lines across the scrapbook paper. I initially thought the kids could cut the paper into strips but that proved to be too hard. James was able to cut half a sheet before he was complaining his hand was hurting. No problem, John and I cut the paper into strips.
All the different colored strips of paper were placed in separate piles. I poured a thin layer of glue on the cardboard tree form and then asked the children what colors/order they wanted the paper strips. I placed them on the form. That part of the craft went quick and it made the children happy. Any paper hanging off the sides of the form I trimmed off with scissors as soon as the glue had set some. I think these came out quite cute. Some of the trees have tree trunks. I'm not sure which way I like better. Picture of the finished craft is above. Give it a try! : )
I love Christmas time with the children. Since they are homeschooled they still believe in Santa. Besides Christmas the month of December is also the children's birthday. So I want to fill the month of December with all the fun I can! Today they children were so good! They helped me clean the house and do laundry with little complaint. Since they were so good I wanted to do some sort of craft with them.
I found the picture of my craft project from Pinterest. It looked like fun and fairly simple. We started with toilet paper rolls. I also found some Trader Joe's shopping bags, black card stock paper, silver pen, and some oil pastels. We also needed scissors and glue.
First we took the toilet paper rolls and I decided to cover them. You could have pointed them or left them alone. I cut one paper bag up and glued the print side of the bag to the cylinder. This left me a nice blank side to work with for decoration. You can see on Margaret's reindeer I put the paper on backwards. Whoops! Mom had applied glue to the wrong side!
After we let the glue dry for a bit we took the oil pastels and drew on the eyes and nose. I let the children pick the eye color. Some of the colors were too light to see so I went back in and darkened in some of the eyes. You could use small bits of paper or whatever you have handy.
Next I sat with each child and traced each of their hands onto the black card stock paper. Then I cut the hand prints out. Since the children have poor fine motor skills and the paper was a heavier weight I knew they would struggle. I didn't want craft time to turn into a frustrating experience so I cut the shapes out but I left time for each of the children to practice on what was left of the paper bag.
Finally I took the handprints and arranged them in a way so they resembled antlers. I'm sure there are at least a dozen ways to attach the antlers to the reindeer but I used tape. It seemed to be the easiest way to go about it.
As an after though I had an idea to seal off the bottom of the toilet paper roll so I could have filled it with some dry beans or rice. This would have been nice to help weigh things down since the antlers can topple the reindeer over. Next time I will know!
Now maybe you can make your own reindeer! Have fun!
So my children always fascinate me. I never really know what they are thinking. I believe having older children before I had the surviving quadruplets gave me lots of insight into raising children and what I was doing wrong (sorry older kids, I truly mean it!). I think my oldest children, even though I mostly only let them watch educational programming, still saw a LOT of commercials.
The little kids do not really see any commercials. We got rid of cable before they were a year old and got a ROKU to stream TV. We got an antenna to pick up local stations and the only channel they watched was PBS. Since PBS has no real commercials I was fine with them watching TV.
Over the years I LOVED I could take the children to McDonalds and the children were not begging to go all the time and they weren't even asking to eat the food. They called McDonalds the "place where the kids play" or "Old McDonalds". It was SO cute! Most important is that there was no begging for the toys, food, or anything associated with the fast food giant except the play place. LOL
Now fast forward to present day. Since the children do not watch commercials they have no idea what's popular or trendy. There is not a drive in them to buy toys or stuff. I have been trying to figure out what to get James for Christmas that is NOT electronic and can hopefully be played by himself. Joseph and Margaret are fairly easy to shop for but James is difficult. So last night I sat down with James and the Chromebook and we went looking on Amazon for toys. We were scrolling through pages of toys on the internet. After about five minutes James asked me if we were done. I said we had only been looking for five minutes. Do you like anything you see? James hesitated and said he only wanted a Nerf Gun and a Kindle. That was ALL he wanted! I was proud that he does not want a lot of stuff, but dang, it makes it SO hard to buy things for him!
I remember when I was a kid and I couldn't wait until the Sears Toy Catalog came out! I would scour that thing and mark all sorts of stuff that I wanted. Even my older children, Jerrin and Caitlin, would love to look over the ads from the newspaper on Thanksgiving and find stuff they would love to have. Now, I can't get the kids to tell me much of anything they want. Margaret wants a Fuby and by default so do the boys. Joseph wants musical things and so do the others. James wants a NERF gun along with a Kindle. I know Margaret and Joseph would enjoy those too. So I think that will be our Christmas. I am going to see about getting an iPad Mini instead of a Kindle so we can take advantage of the educational and therapy apps available in the Apple store.
If you do not know what the title means I am not explaining it but it does describe my life at the moment...
I have to write this stuff down so I can get it off my mind and move on to other things that are more important….like work. I just can’t work or think at the moment when I am so upset and my mind is racing. People in the office are decorating for Christmas and I am not participating. I no longer feel in a good/happy mood. The day started out well enough. I went to bed fairly early and I got some good sleep. I woke up on my own at 4:30am and I was out the door by 5:30am. I stopped and picked up some breakfast for me and then I thought I would pick up a box of bagels for the office. Food is a great way to win friends and influence people in the office…lol.
I was having a pretty good day up until 12:30ish when I got a couple of calls in a row. I call the number back and I get the Gilbert Fire department. Keep in mind Bailey’s grandfather was at the house with her and the children until 12:00pm. I ask what is going on. The Fire Department said they are concerned that my caregiver (Bailey) is not competent to be with the children. That she is stumbling around. The FD told me that they had been out several times and they were concerned about Bailey being the children’s caregiver and were close to calling “other people” to help address the issue. I know what “other people” meant. It means CPS. I said this was the last straw and I was going to fire Bailey and look for another sitter. I know she loves the kids but she CANNOT continue to bring drama into my life. She started calling people as little as 10 minutes after Bill left the house. She called Access to take her to the Urgent Care and they would not because she did not have car seats for the children. I am not sure when she called Alexa, but one of the reasons I hired Alexa was for situations such as this, Alexa said she could come over at 2:30pm. Why could Bailey not have waited to call Access when she arrived? What about calling me or Bill? Instead she calls about every government aid thing she can think of because Access would not take her and the kids to Urgent Care right that minute. Plus, if she was fine when Bill left, what changed so fast in 15 minutes?
I told the fire fighter that I was going to fire Bailey. He said he did not want to influence my decision. Was he kidding? If you tell me you are close to involving “other people” and I already have CPS investigating the family why would I give CPS any additional ammunition? I have to find someone else full-time. I am not sure how that is going to happen but I am going to try. I am done with the drama. When I got the phone call on what was happening I went into a corner office and cried. I called my father and told him I could not do this anymore. The stress is killing me! The drama from Bailey, my job, CPS, wanting to be with the children, and finding a quality caregiver. I just can’t do this. I said I was wanting to go home to Alabama. I may love my job but I love my children more. And how can I do my job when I am so stressed I am crying in an office at work?
My dad said don’t give up yet. He said he was going to help me try and find a new caregiver. I am going to look too. I just called the paper to see about putting an ad in the Arizona Republic. The CHEAPEST help wanted ad you can place in the paper is $376! I can’t afford that! I am going to place another ad in Craig’s List and sign up for Care.com. I can do BOTH of those things and it will cost me less than half the cost of placing an ad. That I can afford. I am not sure what I can do about tomorrow. My guess is I will have to stay home. Tomorrow is another day. Bill was a champ and went home for me today. He was there about 20 minutes after I called so just a little after 1pm. He said he would stay until Alexa arrived today. I will talk to Alexa and see if she can work every day until I can find someone else. As for my work…I am not sure what I can do. Again, that is for tomorrow. One day (problem) at a time!
I have been trying to get a post up but there always seems to be a problem of some sort. I have good intentions but it is just not happening so I am going to give up and start writing the posts during my break and lunch at work. What else am I going to do?
Thanksgiving was nice. I spent about $300 in groceries and was able to fill the refrigerator and pantry with food. I like when that happens! For Thanksgiving day I cooked turkey, sweet potato casserole and green bean casserole. Bailey and her grandfather were there too. Bill stayed busy Thanksgiving day decorating the house with Christmas lights and putting up the tree. Bailey was my assistant and she helped me cook while I was showing her what I was doing. The next day I deboned the turkey and made two large pans of stuffing long with turkey and dumplings. The turkey and dumplings came out SUPER good! YUM!!! The next day I made some pasties (I think I spelled that right…LOL). It is basically a pot pie that you can hold in your hand or maybe a savory turnover. It is pie crust that has been cut and sealed. The filling was ground beef, carrots, celery and potato. It is yummy! That night, with Bailey’s help, I made enchilada casserole. I left the black beans out (because I forgot :( ) but it was still VERY yummy and Margaret stuffed her face. That girls LOVES Mexican food!
Photo Credit: Fanpop.com
At work an email went out for people to adopt a child for Christmas (Angel Tree). I could have signed us up but instead I picked out a child to adopt for Christmas. As poor as we are, lacking furniture, and a lot of other things I am thankful we have made it to Arizona and I have a job. The little girl is three and her wish was to have Hello Kitty – anything. At the moment Margaret is SO into Hello Kitty that this Christmas wish just stuck out to me. I had already seen a lot of things that were Hello Kitty at Target for a dollar. I had picked Margaret up a few of the things. So I went back before everything was gone and got some more for our Angel. I will also pick up a pillow or throw.
I have to buy the children stuff for Christmas. It is so hard because there really is no furniture in the house but on the other hand the children’s birthday (Dec. 13th) AND Christmas are coming. John has only come out once to see the children so far. He asked me if I was going to bring them up to Vegas for December and I said I could not. Not only is my car not near as new as his, it is a gas guzzler and I am having brake issues (and who knows what other mechanical problems…sigh) that I cannot come. I told him the money it would cost would leave me nothing to spend for their birthday or Christmas. I had already told him I have Bailey and her grandfather live with me to economize money (plus I like the company…lol). I asked him if he had a roommate in his place since it is two bedrooms and the children are no longer there to use the room. He said no! This is after he complained to me about not having enough money. I just do not understand. He said he wanted to keep the room open when he gets the kids they will have a place to stay. Then we argued about him keeping the children on his insurance. I was saying it would be cheaper for him to let me cover them since he is fully covered for medical by his work. He wanted to keep the insurance so IF he had to take the children to the doctor while he had them then he would not have a co-pay. Really? This makes no sense either. Plus the kids would be triple insured. My insurance from would be primary, his insurance would be secondary (which really only works in the Vegas area) and AZ Medicaid would be last. Since his insurance will not want to cover anything then the Medicaid, most likely, would not pick up the rest.
John also complained to me about what I have said about him in the blog. I told him I try to be honest. In fairness I thought I had mentioned, but apparently never finished the post, about me moving. John did help move us out of the hotel and into the house. I appreciated the help. I really did. The problem is that it is a little help he gave when there is SO much he is doing to either not help or drive me nuts. He said he never talks bad about me in public. True, but he had plenty of bad things to say to me to our friends and family privately. I do bash him sometimes on here but I told him this is where I vent things when I am angry. He said I should talk to my friends. What friends? Krissi, my best friend in California, has different hours than I do. We used to talk at night but now that I get up at 4am I have to be asleep by 10pm (hopefully!). So we do not really get to talk much. My mother, who I like talking to and keeps me up on family gossip, is also often busy with my nephew. Jennifer, a good friend in Florida, is often busy too. That is basically all the friends I have to talk to. It is weird because I have Bailey and her grandfather living with me and I enjoy the company but on the other hand I do not want to tell them more than they read in the blog. I do not want to over burden ANYONE with all the crap I have going on in my life, the things I am unhappy about, and what I want to change/do in the future. It is hard to hold most everything in and not have anyone to tell my problems to (even if it just to listen).
Bailey is starting to go nuts concerning the children. I think she is too harsh with them (James in particular) but she thinks I am too lax. Then when I come home kids go nuts because I am there and the rules change. I agree with her but we need to find some sort of medium. With the hiring of Alexa, a high school student, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday (from 3pm to 6pm) I am hoping it will give Bailey a break and she might be able to show Bailey and I some other ways to try and get the children to comply with what we are wanting out of them. I am willing to try. It is hard to leave the children. It hurt me the other day when, after the long Thanksgiving weekend, Bailey tells me that tomorrow will be hell. I asked her why and she said because you will be gone. I understand her point of view but shouldn't you wake up every day with a positive attitude? You could make that a self-fulfilling prophecy by thinking that way. It hurt going to work on Monday knowing that was how she felt about James and the day in general. It is hard to leave my children. I am still trying to adjust. I am already having to take the day off from work on December 4th to meet with the DDD to see if the children qualify for services in Arizona. I am hoping they will be helpful and qualify all the children for services. If they do I might be able to get Bailey a break.
Christmas and the children’s birthday is coming. I am posting the Christmas/Birthday wishes online. Maybe the children will get something from Santa Claus…lol
James:
The boy LOVES books. He needs books on the second and third grade level. He also could use some math help of some sort. Math is hard for him to understand unless I have beads or something for him to count. A chalkboard would be awesome. Dry erase would be good too. Mom would like the chalk to keep from making a mess.
Joseph:
Joseph would do well with anything that can help him with Braille skills. He is not fully blind but I want him to learn Braille so if something happened he would already know it. He loves anything music (Bailey might hate me for this one). Drums of some sort would be nice (keep in mind ALL the children would want to play them so they would have to be durable). Joseph loves music and lights. Any pre-school learning materials would be nice too.
Margaret:
She is in DIRE need of clothes. She has out grown everything. She is a 3T to 4T in pants and a 4T shirt. She could also use some more shoes. She wears a size 10. Margaret LOVES Hello Kitty right now so ANYTHING Hello Kitty would be great. I also want to get her a twin matters. Just a mattress would be ok and I could sit it in the floor.
Mom:
I need another ROKU for the children. It allows me to stream TV without the commercials. The regular TV is teaching the children a lot of bad habits and Margaret is starting to sounds like an infomercial. I would LOVE to have a gift card to Old Navy or Romans. I NEED work clothes and Old Navy and Romans have clothes that fit and would look nice for work. Mom also BADLY needs an elliptical to work out at home. Maybe I can work off some of my stress! Anyone have a used one taking up space? :)
So that us our Christmas wish list. Wednesday is the PowerBall lottery. I went in with the office pool. The jackpot is estimated to be $500 million dollars. I would LOVE it if I could win…lol. I HIGHLY doubt it but I can dream…
So Friday I was hoping for all sorts of great phone calls and good news. Sadly, that was not how things went. So far neither of my phone calls to the homeless shelter in Phoenix had been returned. I was even referred to the homeless shelter as a partner to another group that serves disabled children. So I do not understand why I have not heard anything back.
I asked my new employer for a job offer letter last week. I wanted the letter as reassurance that I have the job but I also need the letter to show my landlord and a few other places as to why I am moving. I especially need it for the landlord so she knows I am not just breaking my lease with her for the fun of it. I called the office but my new boss did not answer his phone so I left a message.
I called UCLA since I had not heard anything about Joseph getting an appointment there. I call the number the registration department gave me and moved through the options. After waiting for 15 minutes on the phone an actual HUMAN answered the phone! I had NEVER had that happen before when I have called! I spoke to the receptionist. I told her I was trying to get an appointment for my son. So after giving her my son's name, UCLA ID number and other information she put me on hold and was gone for several minutes. She finally comes back and says I will have to call next week to see if I can get an appointment. What? Are you kidding me??? I asked her why and she said Joseph's records were sent to the wrong department. After fighting for about a year to get special approval to see this doctor we did not make it last year. It got too late into the year with the cold and flu stuff going around so I wanted to wait. When I asked for approval again this year it took two months but I got the approval. I NEVER thought to look and see if the doctor specialized in pediatric patients. The receptionist told me that Joseph's records went to the pediatric department and their department just got them (adult side). I was told Dr. Sheih could take up to 10 days to review the records. I got upset then! I had been trying to get Joseph an appointment for the last 6 weeks at least and I still did NOT have an APPOINTMENT! Just an appointment people! OMG! Once he reviews the records he may turn down Joseph since he is so young! UGH! We just need to see the doctor for a fresh muscle biopsy. That is ALL! So I told this to the receptionist and pleaded with her. She said sorry. I asked to speak to her supervisor. I re-explained everything to him and he said there wasn't really anything he could do. He gave me the direct number of Dr. Sheih's assistant. I also got the phone number for the pediatric side. I gave the assistant a call and of course she did not answer so I left a message. I called the pediatric side and yet again no one answered so I left a message. Then I called Joseph's geneticist. She was the one who wanted the test. I called and complained to them. The assistant there is SUPER nice. She said she would call either Tuesday or Wednesday of next week after she spoke to the geneticist. She said she is hoping the geneticist would call herself and try to push things along. Then I called the insurance company and complained about the doctor NOT being a pediatric doctor. I was on a phone calling rampage at that point. All I could do though was call and leave angry message everywhere and wait until Monday to get a response.
I have been working on packing items. I came across the older children's yearbook when they were in K and 1st grade. OMG, did that bring back memories! I cried. I miss my older children. I regret the time I had to spend away from them to work and go to school. All the lost time! I miss having my son around popping out of his room and giving me a hard time. I miss baking cookies during Christmas with my daughter. I miss talking to her and her sense of humor. I am hoping she will come to visit me for Christmas but I do not know yet. I was hoping my son ans his fiance were going to come out here and help me with the babies but that is not going to happen. It would have REALLY helped me out, help them out and I would have LOVED to get to have and play with my grandchild.
One of the greatest things to happen around here in a LONG time is Joseph starting to walk. It is both a good and a bad thing. He fell EIGHT times yesterday. He busted his lip a little once and the other times added lumps to his poor little head. :( Other than the falling this makes me SO happy! How could it not? Just as recently as a year ago we wondered if Joseph was going to TALK or WALK! A little after he turned four it was all most like a miracle. One day sitting in the tub he was picking up the foam letters and telling me what they were. He quickly progressed from there and now, about a year later, Joseph is speaking in full sentences occasionally. When he fell into the floor he came over to me rubbing his head and said, " I bump my head mama. Ow." He says it so sad and pathetic it breaks my heart! I am glad he can talk though!
About a month ago Joseph started to take more steps on his own without holding on to anything. Now he is mostly walking around the house. He had a very wide-legged (V-shaped) stance and walk. He takes REALLY small steps. He does pretty well as long as he does not get too excited. If he does then he tends to fall. I have to watch him. Sometimes, when he knows he is going to fall, he can catch himself or fall on his rear. Other times he misses and bonks his head.
I have noticed, and so have the therapist, that Joseph seems to have good days with motor skill and planning tasks and other days he seems like he cannot do it. I have also noticed that since he is walking now he tends to take a nap again in the afternoon. As I have mentioned I am wanting to get Joseph tested for mitochondrial disease. The way he behaves with the motor issues I have often wondered if he suffered from silent seizures. There was one time I swear I saw Joseph having a seizure. The neurologist we see in Vegas (dislike him a lot bwt) did a short EEG on him (less than an hour) and said it showed no activity so there was nothing wrong and what I saw was Joseph having a night terror. One plus to being older and having older children is I have had experience with night terrors and THIS WAS NOT IT! Joseph not only did not seem like he was able to recognize me but the muscles ALL over his body were twitching. What concerned me the most were the muscles in the middle of his back near his spine. They were twitching too. Those are not muscles the average person would ever have move. Another thought I had was Cerebral Folate Deficiency (CFD). CFD can manifest itself in a lot of ways. Some of the possible symptoms are: ataxia, developmental delay, autism-like symptoms, intellectual deficiency, microcephaly, hypotonia, dyskinesias, spasticity, speech difficulties, and epilepsy. Joseph has quite a few of these symptoms and I want to see about getting him tested since possible causes for CFD are genetics and autoimmune issues. I don't think Joseph's cause would be genetics but it could be autoimmune. I have autoimmune issues and so does he. He has all ready developed autoimmune thyroiditis.
Here is a video of James and Joseph playing. James watched the cartoon Sonic and he was running around saying he is as fast as Sonic. Joseph wanted to play too so he was walking up and down the hall...lol. James is sometimes so rough but other times he is a good brother. He did not even knock Joseph down while they were running.
I have been talking to my friends and family about our upcoming move. I was telling my father that I was going to be homeless at the end of the month. He said he did not believe that would happen. I said that was the path we are on. There was no other way to see it. He said he would talk to a cousin of his in the area that was big into the Shriners. What good that would do I have NO idea.
My poor friend Krissi, she lives in California with her disabled son, is appalled I cannot find help. Bless her and her indignant outrage...lol. She lives in a small town and she wanted me to put together a flyer. She said she was going to hand those out and put collection jars in the local restaurants. It really is about one of the kindest things anyone has offered to do for me.
I am not sure how the move will come together but it will one way or another. I was hoping John would offer to take the children today. It is not his weekend but if he took them for the day it would have been a huge help in packing and cleaning since they would not be under foot. Plus, knowing we are leaving town, I thought he would like to spend what time he could with them. Whatever. The time is his loss. As for packing, if I can't get it all done because of my hand (still having major issues from the carpal tunnel surgery) then I will call Goodwill or someone to come and take the rest away. Got to have the house cleaned out for the landlord!
