Running Commentary

Derailed April 03 2007

So, I started to worry about Chris at about 5:20pm, last night. That had given time to even work late (which he often does) and bike home. I even considered that he wimped out and jumped on a bus, he should be coming around the corner any minute.

No Chris.

I just KNEW something was up. Just knew it.

And then he called.

From the hospital.

Yeah, seems he was moving some huge sheet of glass at work with someone when if fell and broke. A 4ft shard fell at his feet, he simply picked it up and moved it the heap with the rest of the sheet, that’s when his boss noticed that front of Chris’s shirt (fleece, thank god it will come out) was covered in blood. Chris didn’t even feel it. He figures he was startled by the smash and was oblivious to the gash he received on his chin. A gash large enough to require 8 stitches to close it.

So he was slightly late coming home last night, our hospital likes to make you wait not matter what.

I should’ve taken a picture a of it last night, it was nasty. Today though, it hurts. The entry points of the four freezing needles are bruising. And? IT HURTS TO TALK.

So he went to the hospital, the cleaned it out a bit, THEN numbed it (so humane) and sewed it closed. Then they just sent him out. No bandaging, because he has a goatee, the Doc didn’t want to tape to it. And NO instructions on how to care for his stitches. Luckily he’s had stitches a bazillion times & his wife is the queen of looking this up on the internet and she didn’t let him SHOWER last night. (duh!)

I’m sure his day will be filled with with endless paperwork today. Incident reports and please don’t sue me reports.

So barring another hospital visit, I will be on my exercise bike tonight. Also, I’m going for a longer walk than usual today. After i drop noah off at school I will continue my walk around the subdivision.

Maybe I Should Stop Feeding the Kids Acid. March 24 2007

Last night was such a weird night.
The kids started a new session of swimming lesson (noah has graduated to the BIG pool) and Brendan is taking the level 5 for the 3rd time,cause he gets bored near the end of misses too many to pass. You see Brendan is a not PERFECT at swimming so he wants to quit. Living here, near 150 lakes that is not an option. I will keep taking him until he finished up to the life saving levels and then he can quit if he wants.

Brendan’s allergies were really acting up before bedtime, I think there must’ve been a lot of chlorine in the pool this time. So we gave him an allergy pill and sent him to bed.

A hour or so later, while Chris and i were enjoying the couch, Brendan came out of his room and went to the washroom, when he was done he came half way down. I asked him how he was feeling and he whispered VERY quietly the he was ok. His voice sounded very odd, and Chris was worried that Brendan’s allergies where worse and we called him down to be sure. I could tell when he got to the bottom of the stairs that he wasn’t awake, he is prone to night terrors so we’ve seen him in his wacked out state before. Usually he mumbles some nonsense and then goes back to bed, only to come down about 5 minutes later completely unaware that he was JUST down and babbling.

Lastnight was different. He came down and walked right over to the couch, I asked him how his throat felt, he answered “ok”

And then he closed his eyes and was kind of acting like he was asleep. Like his eyes were closed. Chris said “Do you know who I am” (always a sure test) Brendan answered “No” And so he began to walk back towards the stairs, we said good night to him and watched him go back to bed…only he didn’t go back to bed. at the last second he turned on the like in the rec room and went down there, I had inflated an air bed down there during the day to see if it really did have a leak and I thought it would be hilarious if he just plunked down on that and went to sleep, I would cover him and leave him. After a few seconds we didn’t hear anything and I jumped up to go and find him. He was all the way down in the BASEMENT. I went down and took him by the hand and walked him back up three different sets of stairs to bed (I didn’t want him to wake up in the BASEMENT he hates it down there) I asked him what he was doing down there and he mumbled something about them not being open. I tucked him into bed and that was the last we heard from him. Man that freaks me out.

he must’ve been dreaming about skiing, at our hill you go to the basement to put on your boots and stow your regular boots.

The rest of the night was uneventful. This morning I woke up with Noah beside me. We chatted briefly and he let me know that he had to seek refuge with me on account of his lobster nightmare (Brendan used to have this one too). He dreamed that there were bad lobsters every where and that there was a crab in his BUMMY! It was dead a sticky (the green ones are VERY sticky you know) but daddy pulled it off and killed all the evil lobsters, but he didn’t kill the friendly whales, they gave Noah a ride.

I think it might be time to install latches on our screen door, these nocturnal adventures could get serious.

Seeking Advice. March 22 2007

I have an autistic nephew. He’s 3. And is pretty much a nightmare behaviorally speaking. He and Noah are very close in age and we like to get them together to play. Sadly I try to keep this interaction limited because it affects Noah. Example, we were just together the other day at my Mom’s house for cake (which I baked but did not eat for I am on the LENT Diet) and the boys were running around having fun. They do laps of my moms house, this is really the only thing that the nephew EVER does. Noah loves this activity because it is something he only does with nephew. At some point they stumbled across Noah’s bike helmet accidentally left at Nanny’s house since the fall. Noah was thrilled as he has been begging for 2 wheeler (no training wheels mommy I DON’T NEED THEM!) for a bit. And he came dashing towards me with it, Nephew saw it (has always been inlove with that helmet and even stole if for a week or so a year ago) and immediately threw himself on Noah. And violently yanked it from his hand. Noah does not fight back much when it comes to Nephew because he knows what’s coming. The screaming. I mean typical autism right? High pitched squeal..full on melt down. and the entire time Noah is terrified. He borrows my mom ear muffs because he hates the screaming, it scares him. And then he sits in my arms or my Dad’s arms and hides from him.

Other than this, the do have fun to a point. I can see Noah loosing patiences with him. Noah will be trying to talk to someone or everyone and nephew loudly repeats everything he says, to Noah that is not autism that is COPYING HIM AND THAT IS JUST BEING MEAN!

At the end of the visit which always is ended by some huge meltdown induced by my sister stopping nephew from clobbering Noah for whatever reason, Noah is stressed. And will exhibit some of nephews behaviours that night and sometimes the next day. And I kind of want to strangle him.

he mostly chooses the yelling or grunting to emulate. Charming. And I have a hugely hard time trying to explain to him why nephew does it and why Noah shouldn’t.

How do you explain autism and it’s behaviour issues to 4 yr old.

And Today… March 07 2007

Brendan has whatever it was/is that Noah had. Except Brendan threw up this morning. And now he has a fever but is refusing to take anything for it because he thinks it will make him throw up.

Last night Noah had me up from 2 – 3am. He came in at 2am and closed our door and then started to SHOUT at us to turn on the lamp. Chris held out his hand to help him find his way across the bedroom, and this caused Noah to FREAK THE FUCK OUT. And was immediately yelling and demanding. And so Chris scooped him up and brought him back to his bed. Telling along the way that showing up in someone’s bedroom in the middle of the night and immediately screaming at them was a not a great way to wake them up.

30 minutes later he was standing in the hallway calling for Brendan over and over. Clearly it was my turn so I hopped up and dashed into the hall. He thought Brendan was awake and sitting on the couch. It was my sweater and a blanket left on the couch from the night before. And ANYWAY what do you want Brendan for.

So I took him back to his bed and tucked him in. I climbed under the blanket with him and we had a warm snuggle. I rubbed his bad and he started to fade off to sleep. I kissed him goodnight and went back to bed.

JUST as I was falling back to sleep he comes in and tells us he wants to sleep with us.

FINE.

Get in

GO TO SLEEP.

But Dadddy? Can I have more room?

Gah. Eventually we all got back to sleep. Chris got up at 6am to find Brendan already awake (and yes on the couch) with a fever. And then he threw up. He is in the shower right now, shower number 2. He’s like his dad. The minute Chris gets a fever he’s in the shower 100 times a day. I think it does more harm because he has such HOT showers that he actually makes his fever worse if that’s possible. I am relatively sure Brendan will run out of hot water any second as his first shower was only 20 minutes ago. Scratch that, he was soaking in a warm tub. I brought him in a fresh towel and some toasty jammies and a hoody. He’s feeling like dirt still..but DAMN is he clean!
So that means. NO GYM again today. And NO run.

Gar.

I think I shall plunk my fat butt on my exercise bike and do that for an hour at some point.

blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.

Uber Biatch March 06 2007

Today has left me defeated. It has left me rattled and it has left my more than a little grouchy. In fact it has left me down right bitchy.

Noah has decided that he doesn’t have to listen anymore. He argues with everything and today actually said the words “I don’t have to listen to you, I can do anything I want”

Now my mother’s parenting skills would have meant a smack on the butt and an immediate trip to his room.

And while part of me wanted to head butt him and send him on his way. I didn’t. I didn’t even send him to his room (at first). I calmly told him that he did indeed have to listen and no he cannot do anything he wants.

And then he mocked me.

Mocked.

Me.

And finally after an entire day of having a 4 year old repeat everything I say and not do one thing I ask. And a walk home from school that included him screaming in my face when I reached the step before he did (i didn’t even know we were racing) I tossed him into his room and closed the door. I told him he could rejoin me when he was ready to listen and BE NICE.

30 seconds later he said he was ready to be nice.

AND I FELL FOR IT.

27 seconds later we were right back at it. He had dragged his desk across the livingroom floor so he could sit on the couch and play with plasticine while watching TV and sitting on the couch. And when I asked him to clean the room and put back his desk I got more mocking and rudeness.

And then I lost it.

I forgot that yelling at your children for yelling at you, is not productive. I forgot that mocking your children for mocking you is just plain stupid.

And then I stormed upstairs like a 3 yr old, slammed and locked the bathroom door. I turned on the fan and hoped and prayed that chris would be home from work before I filled up the bathtub enough to drown myself in.

But of course I wasn’t left alone long enough to even find the plug for the tub (it was on top of the medicine cabinet of course!Because during last night’s bath Noah did not want to listen to the NO STORMS rule and lost plugging rights) before Noah was knocking…and then pounding and then actually KICKING the door.

I mean. WHAT is HIS problem? Does he get too much positive attention? He’s decided that negative attention better suits his style? Seriously?

His teacher hasn’t noticed a difference in him at all. She says he’s still “charming” and “polite”.

ugh.

I mean look at this face.

No imagine it being the boss of you.

ALL.
DAY.
LONG.