Winter Olympics (shudder)!

Well, it's that time again. Time for the winter olympics. Time for TV commentators everywhere to make jokes about curling. And time for my flashbacks.

Erica was born in Feb. 2002 - we are about to celebrate her 8th birthday! The winter olympics were under way in Salt Lake City. Peanut arrived 3 months ahead of schedule; I was listed in serious condition - no visitors - darkened room - limited phone calls; I was told going into emergency surgery that she had an 80% chance of survival... I was ecstatic as I thought when they diagnosed my HELPP syndrome that she had 0% chance at 27 wks! After her birth at a lower-than-expected birth weight for her gestation, we of course had no idea if she would live or die. I couldn't stop crying, and through it all the only thing worth watching on the TV in my hospital room was the winter olympics. I haven't tuned in to CNN Headline News since, because I think just hearing the music they play for their transitions would give me a cold chill.

Each year when her birthday rolls around, I do not dwell on the scariness of her entry to this world. Instead, I focus on the miracle that she is and how very far she has come. But, every four years when the winter olympics coincide with her birthday, the flashbacks do occur. I can almost smell the dozens of flower arrangements in my room. (I had to send some of them home because I was getting headaches from the smell!) I will tune in to olympic coverage, I'm sure, but not on Headline News, LOL!!

The light at the end of the tunnel

Well, the construction project is almost finished. It will have been a four month project, start to finish. Four months of having a rusty dumpster and a port-a-john in my driveway. Four months of having strange men, many of whom barely speak English, traipsing around and through my house and being able to let themselves in if I don't answer the door when they knock (they have all been extremely considerate, but still...). Four months of starting every conversation with my husband with a run-down of phone calls made, progress made, who was here and what they got accomplished.

It is turning out beautiful and just the way we wanted it to. The contractor keeps asking us if we want to move into the new space. Erica is excited but also hates the idea of Natalie moving into her old room, which she has stated repeatedly that she wants to do. It will be finished next week, and then the work of moving furniture and cleaning can begin.

I will post pictures when all is said and done, and we do plan to have an open house when all of the room rearranging and decorating is finished. Hmmm. Come to think of it, that list is so long it might be the annual Crawfish Boil in June when we host the open house!

Stay tuned...

Mixed feelings

Most of the time, when a family embarks on a home remodeling project, the general mood is that of excitement for the changes mixed with dread of the disruption caused by workers in your home and, of course, the cost! Yesterday a backhoe started digging a hole in the ground behind our garage. Today the digging continues, along with some sawing and other noisy pursuits. We are building a first-floor bed and bathroom for Erica. She is getting too big for us to carry up and down the stairs and our home's bedrooms are all on the second floor. We talked about moving, but we love our house, our street, our neighbors and our elementary school. And then there was the housing market - we certainly would have taken a big loss on the sale of this home if we decided to move! So... we are adding on. And, I have to say, any shred of excitement that I should be feeling is overshadowed by the fact that 1. This is costing us a LOT of money. Erica is on a Medicaid waiver, which helps us out with a lot of costs relating to her medical and therapeutic needs. And if we were on a bigger waiver (with a bigger budget, as opposed to the Level One we have) it would have paid for a lot of the specialty products needed to finish the rooms we are adding. But no waiver will pay for new construction - only adaptation of existing structures. 2. I really liked our house the way it was; it was plenty big for us already; now I'm going to have even more rooms to clean! 3. I really, really, wish that all of this weren't necessary. I don't often fall into wells of self-pity or waste time asking "why my kid?" but major upheavals like this bring it out of me.

Oh, and did I mention the girls and I all have the flu? That helps my mood, for sure!

When this is all done, it's going to be great. I have to keep telling myself that...

Pumpkinpalooza

We took the girls to a family festival that was a fundraiser for the local children's hospital NICU. They had a corn maze, pumpkin patch, hay rides, face painting, carving demonstrations, and the big hit with our little ones - the barrel train. This was at Lynd's Fruit Farm - the same location as the apple orchards of my last post (the class field trip to the apple barn). Although it was very windy and overcast, therefore much colder than we anticipated, we still had a great time. I walked alongside the barrel train as they rode, just in case Erica leaned too far to the side and started to fall out. But she never even came close - she hung on to the little "steering wheel" like a champ and she and Natalie both kept yelling "CHOO CHOO!!" the whole time and giggling away. Fall is such a great time for family fun!

Apple Orchard

Yesterday was Erica's class trip to the apple orchard. Except for the part in the apple barn where the kids had to go through a narrow door and up 3 steps to an observation platform by the conveyor belt, the wheelchair handled the terrain very well. The kids got a free sample of cider, they got a small bag to fill with Jonathan apples and were allowed to pick one more to eat after their bags were filled. I'm amazed, actually, that Erica has never taken this field trip before. Preschool and kindergarten classes all over central Ohio make the pilgrimmage to Lynd's Fruit Farm (the largest apple orchard in Ohio with over 75,000 trees) but somehow her class never went until this year. We've been to the pumpkin patch before as a family, but I really do love the apples :) Now to try my hand at my mom's unbeatable pie crust while I still have my neighbor's peeler/corer/slicer on loan!

What if...?

Erica has a one-to-one aide at school, which enables her to be in a regular classroom. The aide fills out a daily report for me, and one of the sections I put on it is "interactions with classmates today." Today's entry warms my heart, so I thought I would share it. Here are excerpts:

T. checked us in...K. helped move chairs in the bathroom and washed her hands next to Erica, chatting with her...D. & J. & A. were literally climbing over each other to push her chair (at lunch)... we went outside and there were so many kids crowded around her that I heard a kid walk up and ask "what happened?"... T. & S. argued about who would bring her inside. I find the whole thing pretty funny - what if all people fought about was who could be a better helper for someone?

What if, indeed?

You're my best friend...

Who sings that song? Now it's in my head... wish I knew how to embed a tune into a blog post!

So Erica is actually excited about going back to school this year. What a difference a year makes!! Last year - transition to kindergarten - I'm sure mom's stress about it was noted and transferred to daughter, to some extent. She cried every night about having to go. She cried many mornings about having to go. By the end of the year, she was totally OK with it. Last night she had a hard time getting to sleep. She called me into her room around 9:30 and asked, "Mom - is school tomorrow?" I said "no, in 3 more days. Are you excited?" She said "yes." I thought, "praise the Lord!"

Tonight we were talking about what we need to do tomorrow to be ready for school on Wednesday. I reminded her about her kindergarten friends who will be in her first grade class (only four of them - I thought there would be more). She thought about her friends for a while, and then said, "Mom - you're my best friend in the whole wide world." I said "I'm very honored to be your best friend" and then I had two immediate thoughts: 1) how long will this last? how old will she be when she wants nothing to do with me? and 2) how I hope she one day finds someone *else* to be her best friend in the whole wide world!