A Day Of Hope

We were scheduled to go on a field trip today which we ended up having to cancel. Instead, I took our three year old on a trip to the doctor. He woke up screaming in the middle of the night in so much pain that he couldn't sleep. This morning I noticed some blood-tinged fluid dripping from his ear. I thought to myself, uh oh, I bet his eardrum ruptured. So off to the doctor we went. He confirmed my suspicions and prescribed antibiotic ear drops. The doctor assured me that it would heal and he would be fine. In his 25 years of doctoring, he's only had one case where they actually had to do surgery to repair it. We are praying that he will heal quickly and that he's not in too much pain for too long.....bubblegum flavored motrin is our friend.

Kara, Sharlene and Barbara are also under the weather and I'll be making a second trip to see the good ol' doc on Friday. I've arranged to reserve the suite and inquired, once again, for our reserved parking space. The nurses just smile and nod. I'm sure I'm not the only mother who thinks they spend the better part of their Fall going back and forth to the doctor but it's quite an event for me. I can think of a zillion other things I'd rather spend my time doing...laundry, laundry, and more laundry....dishes, dishes and more dishes and did I mention the laundry????

My other kids were quite irritated that we had to cancel our fun trip today. It's hard to get them to understand that making someone who is really not feeling well tromp around is just not fun-making memories for them or me. I must tell you, that inspite of their disappointment today, they did survive.

Grace played dress-up with Sharlene and Barbara. Sharlene was her magic assistant for her magic show. I think Sharlene wasn't sure what that was especially when Grace kept putting the blanket over her head to make her disappear. Sharlene did like getting dressed up though and was prancing through the house in her gorgeous outfit.

Bob and I both have been working on Sharlene's communication skills (along with all the other little mommies and daddies here). We are pretty lovingly firm about asking correctly and we don't encourage the baby talk that both Sharlene and Barbara have been use to. We were encouraged today when we noticed that Sharlene actually said some clear words. She said 'outside' and 'bear' and she's getting better about not grunting and pointing to things she wants. I really didn't expect anything to really be different for awhile but we will take it!

We also noticed that Barbara is feeling more confident today. She is playing off with the other kids and not attached to Sharlene so much. They've even slowed down their synchronized peeing which I'm totally excited about because that alone will wear you out. Good thing we have lots of helpers here. After watching some of the changes that are coming, I've formed my opinion about Sharlene needing speech therapy. I personally don't think she really needs it. What I do think she needs is to be made to speak properly and not accept her baby talk. She needs lots of love and reassurance and she needs boundaries. All of which take lots of energy to provide and consistency. However, we are required to take her to see a speech therapist and we will do as they ask but if there is any possibility of just keeping her here and working with her ourselves, I would love that. She really likes to do little projects. I am using the Kumon books which work great for that.

Even though we have sick kids and I'm worn out from that, it's been a pretty good day. We were also excited to see that the effects of the visitation seemed to have dissipated today. The girls were able to play well and Sharlene only complained twice that her stomach hurt. We've seen some encouraging things today. Tomorrow we may be back to square one but at least, I've seen some baby steps and I know it's there.