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Achilles Kids – Upcoming Free Events, July 2011
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Patience and Foortitude, Part 3: Just Foortitude This Time, With Special Guest Appearance By Windex
As I picked up pieces of mushroom from the bathroom floor, I noticed that my foot was bleeding ever so slightly – I must have missed another tiny sliver of glass. I silently (okay, not so silently) cursed Corelle, makers of the supposedly unbreakable dishware. The only thing that kept me from becoming hysterical was brainstorming potential titles for my post this evening, because I sure as hell had a story to tell.
It started off as a Medium kind of day. James had a medium morning, not thrilled to get up but not upset enough for any theatrics. My 2 year old discovered bras today, and spent the morning putting bras on herself, her head and every stuffed animal in sight. Only medium cute after she got two clasps stuck in her hair and bent them – I don’t have that many bras. My cranky, crying, screechy, teething 8 month old was having a not-so-great day, but one out of three isn’t that bad – it’s almost a given that at least several days a week, one of the three kids is going to have a not-so-great day.
So let’s fast-forward to see how things got from Medium to Extreme (see Patience and Foortitude Part 2: Extreme Parenting).
3:00pm
I picked James up from school and we paid our fifth trip in a row to Walgreens. The pharmacy had misplaced one of his prescriptions I had dropped off the week prior, and because I might sell Vyvanse on the black market we had to have a whole new prescription written and mailed in. The pharmacy called our neurologist (who for now shall remain nameless) last Tuesday, June 7th, but apparently they did not mail a new script until Friday, June 10th. Monday, June 13th rolled around – still no script, and now I had run out of Vyvanse for James. So, since Monday we had been making a daily pilgrimage to Walgreens to check for our prescription, and when it wasn’t there, pick up a single pill to tide us over.
Today was no different – the mail from “Friday” still had not arrived. We waited for 15 minutes for our single pill, and I left with a medium amount of frustration. Let’s be honest, 15 minutes in “Multiple Kid Time” really feels like at least an hour. I mentally added another 30 minutes because I had a fussy teething 8 month old baby strapped on.
3:30pm
On our way home James stops to stare at a beggar sitting outside of Duane Reade. The man calls over to him and James, instead of walking away or toward him, just kind of stands there and stares. I give him a little poke in the back to keep things moving (my 8 month old is still crying and my 2 yr old has stripped down in the stroller to her diaper at this point) and James, in his usual style, reacts as though I have stabbed him.
He is still kind of grumbling about it as I carry the stroller into our building. An older woman is holding the door and as we walk through James explains to her, “It really hurt when my mom nailed me with a nail in my back.”
4:30pm
Homework done after only an hour of prodding. Baby still screaming – nursing, laying him in the crib, carrying him around, even the plastic cup of water is not distracting this guy. I can tell the noise is getting to James because he repeatedly claps his hands over his ears, none to gently. For those of you who have not had the pleasure, my 8 month old sounds eerily like an amplified tea kettle when he is screaming. It is truly an ear-shattering experience for anyone, let alone James and all of his noise issues.
5:00pm
Husband working late for the 6,893rd day in a row (in “Multiple Kid Time” this is not an exaggeration). Despite continued screaming, I try to make the best of things and let the kids help me cook dinner. James and my 2 yr old get into a fight over the pasta and spill the full strainer into the sink. I put some pasta on paper plates for them and set them up at the other counter. The sink looks clean enough – pasta goes back into the pot.
5:20pm
I walk into the kitchen where my 2 yr old is working on her second banana. She looks up with a guilty expression on her face. I see more pasta and half a peach on the counter. There are banana peels on the floor and banana juice everywhere. Banana juice? Wait a second… my daughter has already dashed from the kitchen as I realize what has really happened. There is a pair of pink underwear on the kitchen floor too. Banana juice, good grief – I must be losing it. I get the Windex out.
5:35pm
The baby is finally down for a nap. Kids are helping to set the table. My daughter grabs a stack of bowls and runs out of the kitchen. “Come back here,” I call. “We need to put food in those bowls!” She tears back into the kitchen and promptly drops the bowls on the floor, where they all shatter. In an effort to escape the situation, she runs back out of the kitchen, through the broken glass. Corelle, I am very disappointed in you.
Miraculously, her feet are untouched. I wish I could say the same for mine.
5:55pm
Glass cleaned up – I even re-Windexed the floor after sweeping to make sure I got all of the tiny pieces. Baby still napping – hooray! I feel bad about losing my temper over the bowls so we make Shirley Temples together for a special treat. We sit down for dinner – James and his sister fight over seats and the last remaining glass bowl. I eat from Bob the Builder plasticware.
6:15pm
I go to start the shower for James and stop dead when I open the bathroom door. There is poop on the floor in front of the toilet – ugh. I hear my 2 yr old running away as I call out,” Who had an accident?” (I would’ve run away too at this point.) Apparently she has decided to clean out her own potty chair and this is the result. I go back to the kitchen for some plastic bags. And the Windex.
6:30pm
I am sudsing James up in the shower when tragedy strikes. Some water gets into James’s ear! He goes crazy and the shower now becomes a soap-crazed wrestling match. Shouts of “You’re getting me wet!” and “Don’t touch my ear – you’re hurting me!!” can be heard throughout the apartment, and there’s no telling which one of us is yelling what.
The baby is woken by the shower extravaganza.
6:31pm
I carry my 8 month old out to the dining room. My 2 yr old is sitting at the table with a bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels. The table is covered in pools of clear liquid. The bag of bread and tub of butter is covered in Windex. The mail is soaked through. The dishes are wet. I put my daughter into time out, put the baby down and get to work on the mess – they both immediately start screaming.
6:45pm
I grab the baby and go to get James out of the shower. James is happily standing in the shower coating himself in daily shower cleaning spray. He is pretending it is a gun of some sort, and seems kind of annoyed when I interrupt (very loudly) “What are you doing???!! Put that down!”
I re-shower James as my 2 yr old comes in to poop again. This time I am there to empty the potty chair for her. Or so I think. As I straighten up with the bowl in hand (and baby in the other), my daughter tackles me, screaming “I can do it my big girl self!” The bowl spills all over the floor. I put her back into time out, send James to his room to get dressed, and put the baby down again. Complaints all around. I go get the Windex.
7:15pm
We are all seated back at the table, playing a makeshift version of Pictionary before bed (I am working on a post that explains the modifications I make to regular boardgames for James). James draws a great insect and my daughter makes four circles for “Four Eyes.” They both guess that my golfer is a woman sweeping. I fill two little cups with mini-marshmallows as a joint dessert/prize for kicking my butt. I feed the baby a late dinner of yogurt and pasta.
7:45pm
I am sweeping up the kitchen and dining room while my daughter follows me around whining, “Hold me, mommy, hold me.” I am already holding her brother. I compromise by singing all of the songs from The Little Mermaid as I sweep. James joins in – it is a sweeping success.
8:00pm
I give James his medicine and send him to wait in his room while I put the leftovers away. My 8 month old is quiet now, as long as I am holding him. As I silently congratulate myself on my one-handed mastery of packing food away, he casually swats the tupperware, sending it crashing to the floor below. Pasta, sausage, mushrooms, onions and tomato sauce are everywhere. I place him on the floor. He starts to cry while simultaneously eating as much pasta as he can get his hands on. I get out the Windex.
8:30pm
We are all camped out in James’s room while I read The Magician’s Nephew to him. Against direct orders, my daughter is repeatedly jumping off of James’s bed to make her little brother laugh, and is succeeding. She accidentally kicks him in the head. I put her in time out. I finally finish the chapter with two babies in my lap, sniffling.
8:35pm
I tuck James in and we all have an “air-kiss battle” for a few minutes, where we see who can smack who out of the room with the best air-kiss (think Mario meets Star Wars). James wins, much to my daughter’s dismay. One kid down. My mood lightens considerably.
9:00pm
I am laying in bed with the two babies, reading Goodnight Moon for the third time in a row. There is a light at the end of the tunnel – I’ll read this book sixteen more times if it means more peace and quiet followed by sleep. Thankfully, it takes only one more read.
9:45pm
I sneak out of my room and duck into the bathroom. I step on something soft and squishy. I take a deep breath and look down. It’s a mushroom. Huh? On further examination I can see at least half a dozen sliced mushrooms on the bathroom floor. I also notice a red smear on the floor and realize it’s coming from a piece of glass still stuck in my foot from earlier. I grab the Windex.
Central Park Challenge Recap and Photos
So here is one of my first posts with photos (took long enough, right?), all of them borrowed from the YAI website so far. I want to make sure to share as much of the experience with you as possible – it was that good!
To the left are James and his friend Will – they were standing along the finish line to cheer on our team members in the 5K run. And James is shamelessly posing with our team sign. We had to write our sign by hand for the second year in a row because they “corrected” our premade one to say “The Force,” with only 1 “o.” Well I never….
As usual it was an amazingly fun time (despite some trouble getting coffee in the wee hours). Our runners went first and all did well. My little brother beat his big brother’s record from last year, and one of our runners placed first in her division – go Kim!
As you can see from the pictures, we really did take anyone onto our team (our team’s dog was not the only one in a walk shirt, either) .
We knew better what to expect this year, including how slowly the walk would move with such a huge crowd participating, so I was less impatient this time around (and less pregnant). And, the weather was really perfect for the occasion – mid-70s and sunnyish – so we weren’t moving slowly and cooking like last year.
After the walk was the Jr. American Races. My 2- year old showed up late (the walk really does move slowly) so she raced in the 4 yr old division but since everyone got a medal she was thrilled anyway.
We had a lovely BBQ picnic at a nearby playground afterward (lovely except for the giant raccoon casually sauntering up to people) and said our goodbyes. All of that fun and it was only 1 o’clock!
Yep, you should have been there. Maybe next year! The Foorce raised $1100 this year, which was only a drop in the bucket of the $1.6 million raised overall! We almost doubled our team size from last year, a trend I would very much like to see continued. For more details about the Central Park Challenge on June 4th and a lot more pictures from the big day, click here.
We’ll definitely be back for third helpings next June. There is nothing in the world that makes me feel less alone and more inspired than watching thousands of runners, walkers, men, women and children (and dogs) get together and pay tribute to a common cause, especially one so close to my heart. It really helps me keep things in perspective when I see how many people are going through the same thing we are in one way or another. Yet we were all able to be there and we were all there to celebrate – amazing! Regardless of our abilities, we had a lot in common and a lot to be proud of on Saturday.
Go Team Foorce! (still looking for a team photo to insert here, hint hint)
Weekend update and a look at what’s coming
The weekend was so packed that I am too exhausted for a clever title, let alone a post that will do justice to any of the weekend events. But here is a quick sneak peak at the posts that are in the works for the week once I take a night to catch up on my much-needed sleep (it does happen once in a while):
What The Other Kids Are Saying and Thinking About Your Special Needs Child – Inside Scoop – a recap of my meeting at James’s school, where I had the chance to speak with his 4th grade class and answer their questions for an hour.
Central Park Challenge Recap – will tell you all about our awesome team and the great time we had, plus the total amount of $ we raised and some fun pictures from the big day!
Counting My Blessings at St. Patrick’s – the confirmation service for special needs people today was a wonderful event, made even more so by observing the other families around me.
First Meetings for The Foorce Summer Social Group – the more fun summer version of our school year meetings are finally being scheduled!
My Daughter is a Foorce to Be Reckoned With – a post regarding my toddler’s changing role in James’s day-to-day life.
There will also be announcements regarding special needs swim lessons (free!), Manhattan reimbursement funds and meetings regarding the new IEP format in each borough. Plus, James is going back to school tomorrow, blissfully unaware that anything unusual happened last week (see Dirty Laundry) – I am super nervous for him but cautiously optimistic. The current plan is to publish at least one post each day this week. That is, of course, if nothing else exciting happens (fingers crossed!).
There’s still time to join The Foorce on Central Park Challenge Eve!!
I know you are probably wondering how the meeting went today (see Dirty Laundry post) – I plan to tell all when things aren’t so chaotic but right now I want to make sure I get one last plug in for the Central Park Challenge, which is finally upon us!
To recap: This is one of my favorite things. Last year was the first year we tried something like this, and being 6 months pregnant with a toddler and a disabled child in tow I was a little nervous. I am so glad we did it – we had an awesome team and the whole day was really fun. Some of us did the run (NOT me) and another group of us did the walk, which started shortly afterward. There was also a child area with races, games, and face painting, and lots of free giveaways. Seeing the huge crowds of people gather for the same cause was truly touching and motivating.
This year we have an even bigger team – it looks like 20+ of us so far. The event is open to all ages – my 8 month old, 2 yr old and 10 yr old will all be joining us in the walk and my 2 yr old is also going to try the junior races later in the morning. I hope you will consider walking or running with us – it’s exercise while supporting a truly worthy cause, a great way to start off any Saturday. Here is our team page – http://support.yai.org/site/TR/Events/CPC2011?team_id=14203&pg=team&fr_id=1090 – scroll down until you see the list of team members and click Join Team to join us. The more the merrier!
Upon joining I will email you with details on where to meet up with our team. You can also come to the park between 9:00 and 11:00 AM to find the crowds and cheer us on – we start by the Bethesda Fountain (enter at 72nd). I would LOVE to see a couple of “Go Foorce” signs out there! Or, if you can’t be there but would like to support our efforts, there is a Support The Foorce button too. Any donation, even $1, makes a difference toward our goal!
I plan to win the walk for my division – Moms Wearing Two Children.
5 K to run, 4 days ahead, 3 K walk, 2 parks we must be, and a very busy weekend ahead
Okay, before reading on, take a second and sing from “5 golden rings down to the partridge in a pear tree” using the text from the title – makes much more sense now, I know. It was actually pretty easy to figure out but I ran out of character space when I tried the title from 10 drummers drumming so there it is.
Moving on, the weekend ahead is busy enough to be intimidating, but also full of fun stuff. And some not fun stuff. Kicking off with tomorrow’s meeting at James’s school (see my Dirty Laundry post for details).
Followed by the Central Park Challenge on Saturday (see multiple posts or click the link to join, already!) – we surpassed our fundraising goal and have over 20 people on our walk and run teams. Our team name is The Foorce – creative, I know. (At least the last sentence wasn’t a fragment.) In any case, it will be loads of fun but a very early start to the day.
Sunday James is making his confirmation in a special ceremony for disabled people at St. Patrick’s Cathedral. Another awesome event, another early morning. Another fragment (it’s late!). Also Sunday is our usual special needs baseball game at Riverside Park.
Monday James will return to class if all goes well tomorrow. Despite my trepidation about the students, the teachers and administration have been nothing but supportive and sympathetic so I am cautiously optimistic that it will be okay.
Tuesday, after I update all of you as to how everything went I plan to sleep for a week! Wait, James has a half day at school…. never mind.
Thefoorce.com’s first survey is here!
I would be very grateful if you would take my first ever foorce.com survey – it is on the right sidebar under Click Here.
It will help me to decide which directions to pursue first as this site grows, and will hopefully help you in the process!
Your input is extremely valuable to me, and anonymous – please answer what questions you can and spread the word to others in the special needs community. Thanks in advance for your time and effort!
PS – There will also be a weekly poll to the right – after you vote you can see the results. Polls will often be related to a recent or upcoming post.
Special Education Meetup Group in NYC
I have been a member of various meetup.com groups for all of my kids, but I wanted to share with you the most recent group I joined, the New York Special Education Meetup Group. Below is the group description taken from their site:
Our Community is made up of Parents, Educators, Caregivers and Students who want to share best practices, network, talk, share stories, and lend support to each other through the sharing of information. The group meets regularly. Anyone is welcome to attend these informative meetings which provide opportunities to:
• hear from speakers
• learn about resources in the community
• network with other parents
• keep updated on issues affecting children with special needs
Meet with other local Special Education parents, care givers, case workers and educators. Gather to discuss issues facing special education students and programs. Education Through Adventure is dedicated to experiential education and the students, educators and practitioners who utilize its philosophy. We are based in Orange County New York.
You can join the group for free to see photos of their activities, participate in related discussions and be updated about meetings around the city by going to http://www.meetup.com/nyspecialeducation/ and clicking Join Us.
Their next meeting is on June 1 at 7:15pm and is about equipping your home or classroom for the sensory child. I look forward to finding out more about this group and sharing my experience with you!
The Foorce 
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