Costco

I love Costco. I went today. ALONE. Without kids. It was heaven. I'll have to do that more often. I used to go to Costco twice a month (every payday). Now I frequent the place maybe once every 3-4 months. With Sarah's sensory processing disorder she comes absolutely UNGLUED in the place. There is just way way way too much visual stimulation, auditory stimulation with lots of people/forklifts with beeper sounds, etc. Costco is torture for her. We can barely get past the friendly membership card checker people at the front entrance and she melts down. Anyway, that's all for today. Just had to share that I had a most wonderful and peaceful journey to Costco today. Super Bowl Party's at my house. Everyone is invited. And P.S. The party won't start until 2:30ish because we don't get out of church until 2:00 p.m.

And P.P.S. The party really starts at 5:30 p.m. EST. I just have to say the party starts a little bit earlier than the REAL start time. Otherwise, I'd have everyone showing up at my house well past the Half-Time entertainment. There's nothing worse than Mormon Standard Time + Latin/Hispanic Standard Time or Mormon Standard Time + Island Standard Time.

783.40 Developmental Delay/Unspecified

That is Sarah's diagnosis. The other part of the diagnosis is "seizures, partial complex". As far as the seizure activity goes, the seizures are happening in a specified location . . . in the frontal lobe and the parietal lobe of the brain.


Sarah hasn't had any other seizure activity that we know of during waking hours other than the isolated incident last summer. She does however continue to have night terrors. And there is a correlation between night terrors and seizures. We get to do a 24 hour EEG on President's Day. Remember that vacation I wanted? I will be chillin' for 24 hours in the comfort of the Pediatric Neurologist's office.

Dr. Davis has over 15,000 patients. Yes, that would be fifteen thousand. He has patients that come to see him from as far away as South America, Central America, and the Caribbean Islands. But the thing I absolutely love about him is he takes the time to answer our questions, explain things, etc. It's as if Sarah is his only patient and he has all the time in the world to make sure she is receiving the proper medical care that she needs. I started to voice with him my concerns regarding Sarah transitioning from Early Steps (State of Florida) to Orange County Public School system. He said "just one moment, I will be right back". He came back into the room and handed me a script that I could give to OCPS when we have our first I.E.P. meeting for the evaluation and treatment of medically necessary services Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, and Physical Therapy. Thank you Dr. Davis! Now I have my thick 4- inch binder full of documentation AND Dr. Davis's script to make sure that Sarah will continue to receive the services she needs once she transitions into the public school system.

We were inundated with information yesterday at the doctor's office. The information that stuck in my brain was A. Sensory processing and B. Reasoning skills and C. Language. Sarah is very very challenged in those areas. I have included some information that I find absolutely FASCINATING regarding the frontal and parietal lobe in the next post. Feel free to focus on the red/bold text.

Frontal Lobe and Parietal Lobes of the Brain

The frontal lobe has a major role in the planning and execution of movements. It contains the pre-frontal, pre-motor and motor areas, listed from front to back.

The pre-frontal cortex is particularly associated with higher level thought, decision-making and planning. It has a significant inhibitory role over impulses and actions.

The pre-motor and motor cortices process and transmit information regarding body movement. There are two pathways connecting the motor cortex and the basal ganglia to coordinate movement.

Parietal Lobe

The parietal lobe is separated from the frontal cortex by the central sulcus. It lies posterior to (behind) the frontal lobe and superior to (above) the temporal lobe. The parietal lobe contains the primary sensory cortex through which sensations, such as touch and pressure, are felt. In addition, it has a key role in spatial orientation and information processing.

Special thanks to Stanford University for this brain information and diagrams.

Sweet Sarah

One of my friends just sent me the link to this. I have been a little bit emotional the whole weekend because Monday is the BIG DAY. The day where we find out the pediatric neurologist's findings from all of Sarah's labs and tests completed over the last couple of months. All the educational testing points towards her being on the autism spectrum . . . somewhere.

Who is messin' with me ?!?

My family teases me all the time about being maybe a little too blonde . . . or a little too gullible. Now I am wondering if the phone call I just received from Michigan was a hoax or if it was for real. Here is what the message said:

"Hi this is a message for Heidi. My name is __________. I am calling on behalf of Mitt Romney. We have your name on a list of supporters for the Governor. There was an indication that you might be willing to volunteer over the next week. As you know the primary is January 29th and we are looking for volunteers to step up and help us out. We need to get yard signs out and we need to make telephone calls to our supporters to remind them to get out and vote. We are also asking you to call your family, friends and your neighbors and explain to them why you are supporting Governor Romney and ask them to consider voting for him as well. If you can do any of those things for us we would really appreciate it. If you will call ________ at __________ and let him know when you will be available to help out, we would surely appreciate your help. Thanks for listening and you have a great evening."

Where did ___________ from Michigan get my phone number? Does the fact that my son is such a Boston Red Sox fan automatically qualify me as a Mitt fan? Or do I qualify as a Mitt supporter because I have some bloggin' buddies that are Mitt supporters? Or is someone just messin' with me?????

What have I done to my son's future?????

O.K. it has already been established by some people that I will be going straight to hell AND leading my eldest son by the hand for ALLOWING him to participate in community cub scouts instead of following the Lord's plan and waiting for him to turn 8 years old and join church scouts. (In my defense, might I add that two years ago a solid church program was non-existent and I was HIGHLY encouraged by parents who had been there/done that to run run as fast as I could AWAY from the "church" program which was not at the time following the church handbook of instructions OR the BSA policies.)

So now we are led to the next dilemma. When we moved to Florida, Tino was a product of bilingual education. You know, a bilingual education program that is implemented correctly and follows best practices based upon the latest and greatest research of dual language learning. By the end of kindergarten, Tino was reading at a 2nd grade reading level in Spanish and had taught himself to read in English since he had a solid foundation in the Spanish language. He was reading at a 3rd grade reading level in English. Imagine the SHOCK and HORROR when I discovered that A. Florida's public education is not so hot and B. Since Tino was not "of age" to enter 1st grade, he would have to REPEAT kindergarten. YIKES! And might I add that Kindergarten in Florida is like Kindergarten used to be 12+ years ago in California. It is NOT academic in nature and includes such things of the past as fingerpainting, NAP TIME, etc. (In California we had to cram 2 1/2 hours a day of Language Arts instruction and 2 hours a day of Math instruction into a 3 1/2 hour Kindergarten day.) Needless to say at my school site, we opted for an extended day Kindergarten program where the kiddos were with us 5 hours daily. That allowed for sufficient time to get math, language arts, and RECESS into the daily routine . . . and allowed for time for fun stuff like science, art, music, etc.

Back to Tino. Long story short . . . he ended up skipping 1st grade. According to the state of Florida, he skipped Kindergarten AND 1st grade. Which leads to our modern-day dilemma. Up until NOW, grade skipping was the perfect modification to keep Tino sufficiently challenged and interested in education. He has not been labeled "Gifted" . . . although I tend to think otherwise. He has remained one of the top students in his class despite the fact that his classmates are at least 18 months+ years OLDER than him. Not too shabby. All of his classmates are turning 11 and some are even turning 12. Tino turned 9 in September. I don't mind having a barely turned 9 year old in 5th grade. But middle school is ANOTHER story. Why don't I go ahead and feed my child to the WOLVES?

Here are the choices I have come up with so far for next year. Sending him to a traditional middle school is NOT an option. Neither is having him repeat the 5th grade. (I've tried to convince the principal and his classroom teachers since 3rd grade that maybe he needs to repeat to avoid this middle school dilemma, but since he is at the top of his class academically, that idea has been SHOT DOWN. I guess you can't repeat a grade due to young age and small size).

1. Public School K-8 Magnet program. This is strictly LOTTERY. (Although I am going to bust out with the HISPANIC card. I am going to check that little box on the application JUST IN CASE they need to have a certain number of "ethnic" or "diverse" students in their population).
   The average middle school in Orange County has between 1100 and 1700 students in grades 6-8. The Magnet program is capped at 300 students. (Total school population K-8 is 825). Last year 259 students applied to the program. 159 got rejected. They cap the program at 100 students per grade level. Period.
   
2. Private School K-8. This will cost between $9,000 and $12,000 per year. Which means I will DEFINITELY have to return to the work force FULL TIME in order to pay for his education AND get an additional night job to pay for Sarah and Mateo's full-time pre-school or daycare.
3. Home school. Ramifications? I kill Tino or Tino kills me first. We don't do well on hurricane stay-at-home days or long winter breaks. Will day to day schooling (with mom as teacher) really work out? Also, little brother and sister would HAVE to go to pre-school in order for me to effectively home school.
   

What are my other options? I NEED YOUR HELP. Please help me think outside of the box for other middle school alternatives. I knew at the beginning of the school year that we would have 1 year to figure things out. Time is ticking. There's only 1 trimester left in the school year. And then what???????

Cocoa Beach

Cristian and I spent a delightful 24 hours in Cocoa Beach over the weekend. It was truly divine. My friend Romina watched the kiddos. It was Sarah and Mateo's first time to sleep over at anyone's house besides relatives in UT or CA. We redeemed Marriott points for a free night stay at the Courtyard Marriott which was 200 yards from the beach.

Cristian brought a stash of movies to watch, but I just wanted to hang out and enjoy Discovery Channel, Lifetime, and all my other favorite cable/satellite channels I have gone without for almost 2 years since we cut our cable. I finished reading and read from cover to cover. All in all it was an awesome weekend. And yes, we do have to make an effort to get away for an entire 24 hours BY OURSELVES a little more often than once every 18 months to 2 years.

Blogging Bye-Bye

I will be on a little blogging hiatus. I just received my study materials from here so I can prepare for this. I've got 22 days to get ready. This stuff is fairly new to me, so the learning curve is let's say . . . . HUGE.

Two Brothers

Today Tino had a craving for donuts. Being the good mom I am, I took him to WalMart (YUCK) so we could get a birthday present for our neighbor AND a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. We picked up Mateo from pre-school, Sarah from daycare, and headed off to the birthday party. The kids were having a conversation about donuts, sharing donuts, etc. For some reason or another Mateo was the holder of the box of donuts. Tino wanted another donut and despite his various requests, he was being flat-out ignored and tuned out by Mateo.

Mami: Mateo, I need you to share a donut with your brother please.
Mateo: Which brother?
Mami and Tino: (Almost as if it were planned in unison) You only have one brother Mateo.
Mateo: Well, ack-shuly (actually) I have two brothers.
Tino: No Mateo. You have one brother and one sister.
Mateo: NO. I have two brothers. One's name is Jesus Christ and he lives in Heaven. The other one is Tino and he lives at my house. Which brother do you want me to share with mami?

Mami: Why don't you go ahead and share with your brother that is sitting right next to you in the van?
Mateo: O.K. Here you go Tino (and he passes him a donut).

Pretty simple, yet profound. My rambunctious child is actually paying attention in church and during those gospel teaching moments at home. I thought it all went in one ear and out the other!

On Vacation

So I've been on vacation. In my head. Two of my friends taught me something really important this year. Actually, it was prior to "this year". They told me if I wanted to travel during 2008, then at the strike of midnight, I would need to run around the perimeter of my house with a suitcase in hand. I guess this sends vibes to the travel gods or maybe to the money gods so that travel during 2008 would be part of my destiny.

I wasn't at my house while ringing in the new year. I remembered to take my husband, children, Jamaican Jerk chicken, sweet potato souffle, and Sarah's pajamas to my sister-in-law's house for our New Year celebration, but I completely spaced it on bringing a suitcase. Or even asking my SIL if I could borrow one of hers. I was way too distracted watching the fireworks extravaganza that was taking place in my sister-in-law's backyard. Needless to say, I didn't follow my friends' "suitcase/run around the house" while you're ringing in the New Year advice. So maybe if I just daily VISUALIZE an exotic vacation and travel, it will come my way.

On another note, when people bring up the whole "ARE YOU GOING TO HAVE ANY MORE KIDS?" question, I always respond NO. Actually, it is usually HE-- NO! One of my silly reasons for not wanting any more kids (other than not wanting to up my daily dosage of lexapro) is because of the whole family vacation thing. My kids are actually at ages (almost 3, 4, and 9) that it would be LOVELY to travel with them. We could vacation with them and not have to worry about having poopy diapers, naptime, bedtime etc. cramp our style and get in the way of our having fun. HELLO . . . . WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME WE WENT ON VACATION AS AN IMMEDIATE FAMILY? Oh yeah, that's right . . . we don't. It's either a once every two to three year trip to the Dominican Republic to visit family or a yearly trip to California and/or Utah to visit family. So I guess what I'm trying to say is it's not like we always travel. Or that we always vacation. Because we don't. So why should I not want to have any more kids based on the whole vacation thing? Kind of silly. Yes, I know.

So I guess I will just leave this pyzam.com blogger background on my blog for a little bit longer. That way I can daily reflect upon going on vacation. Or whether or not I want to just hold the vacation plans a little longer and try having just . . . . one . . . . more . . . . child. (That gets into a whole other silly reason for wanting to have an even number of children. Is it fair to have an odd number of family members? That means someone always has to ride alone at Disney World, Animal Kingdom, Islands of Adventure or on a double ski lift.)

El Dia De Reyes Part II

Last night we celebrated "Three Kings Day" with our friends from church (also the lady that takes care of Sarah on Tuesdays and Fridays when I teach). Although we spent most of our married lives in California where there is a STRONG Mexican influence, we had never participated in a Dia De Reyes celebration with a Mexican family. On January 5 (or a few days prior), Mexican children write a letter to the Wise Men or to their favorite Wise Man: Melchor, Gaspar, or Baltazar asking for the gift they would like to receive. The letter is then attached to a helium balloon and released into the heavens or the three stars in the sky that represent the Magi. We were planning a balloon release over by the lake, but Sarah let go of her balloon just a few steps away from the apartment as she stepped into the parking lot. She was very sad. So in order to help her not have a complete meltdown, we decided that all the children would release their balloons in the parking lot. Not very scenic, but they were excited to see their balloons floating away. After the balloon release, children and families return to their homes to eat Rosca de Reyes and drink hot chocolate.

Rosca is a Mexican sweet bread in the shape of a crown. Into the bread is baked a small plastic doll (baby Jesus) and four other trinkets. The bread symbolizes a secure place away from Herod's army where baby Jesus could be born. Each family member cuts a piece of the bread with a knife. The knife represents the danger that Baby Jesus was in. The person that gets the Baby Jesus or other trinket inside their bread is in charge of making tamales and hosting Candle Mass day . . . which is 40 days after the Virgin Mary had given birth to Baby Jesus on February 2nd. Tino got one of the baby bottles. And Cristian got the baby Jesus. Mateo cut about 5 pieces of bread and smashed them to smithereens in hopes of finding a prize. Which he did not.

The Rosca was a lot better than I remember it in previous years. I remember very very dry bread with not a lot of taste. But, I have never eaten fresh Rosca de Reyes. Tino had three different Mexican daycare providers in California. I was always offered Rosca de Reyes on several occasions . . . but it was always the leftovers . . . and usually several days old. What a difference fresh bread makes. AND the hot chocolate was TO DIE FOR. Yasmin is a big fan of FOOD Network. So she steered away from the traditional Mexican hot chocolate and used a hot chocolate recipe that she had seen on one of her favorite FOOD Network programs.

We got home around 10:30 p.m., the kids got the food, water, and "hay" ready and left it by our lanai door. We really, really liked the Mexican tradition. We might add that into our celebration for years to come. Could it be because it involved food for us and not just for the wise men and camels????? Tino is super excited for the party we will be hosting on February 2. And since I never did learn to make tamales when I had the perfect opportunity living in California, we will just have to cheat and go to a Mexican Market to buy them.

P.S. Just to mix things up a bit, Mateo decided to have an accident on the way to our friends' house. Her son is about two sizes smaller than Mateo. Hence, that is why he is wearing the most fashionable attire in the pictures.

El Dia De Reyes Part I

My kids look forward with more anticipation to El Dia de Reyes than they do Christmas. Our celebration of El Dia de Reyes starts out on the evening of January 5. All of our Christmas decorations are put away, EXCEPT for the nativity. On the evening of January 5, the Dominican tradition is to set out wine, a cigar, and something to eat for the Three Magi who have traveled from afar. And then we can't forget the camels . . . they need hay and water. Our LDS/Dominicanized version of El Dia de Reyes is to set out 3 caramelos (mints or other sweets), a glass of water for the Magi, and grass, palm fronds or whatever else we happen to invent the the camels would like to eat after their long journey.

El Dia De Reyes remembers the day when the Three Wise Men followed the star to Bethlehem and arrived bearing their gifts for Baby Jesus. Dominicans do not celebrate Christmas with Santa. In fact, there is NO gift exchange other than the new shirt or pair of pants that Dominican children get to open up on Christmas morning as a gift FROM THEIR PARENTS. On the morning of January 6, Dominican children wake up excited to see what GIFT (as in not twenty bazillion gifts like Santa tends to bring) the Three Wise Men have brought them.

As a side note, when Tino was younger, he was TERRIFIED of the camels. He did not want the camels to come inside of his room and poop, slobber, or leave their dirty hoof prints in his pristine clean room. So instead of having the Three Wise Men leave a gift under his bed, they started leaving the gift right next to the door where we had left the food and water for the wisemen and camels.

Stay tuned for tomorrow's version of our Dominican celebration this year intertwined with the way our Mexican friends celebrate Dia de los Reyes.

Procrastination 101

I DO NOT like it when other people procrastinate and it puts me in a bind. But when I am the one that procrastinates, it is perfectly acceptable. That's just me. And my crazy life. So for the last couple weeks (the day after Christmas to be exact), I have been putting off the blog friend Christmas gift exchange post and picture because I have had some killer allergies and a severe head cold on top of that so my eyes were red, swollen, watery . . . and let's just say "YIKES".

I didn't want to scare off my computer friends, so I was waiting for a moment when I could actually put some make-up on. I went to pick up Mateo from school EARLY on Friday because we had a special date. I had planned to take Tino, Sarah, and Mateo to The Kangaroom. Mateo was so excited to see me come pick him up at 3:00 p.m. that he JUMPED up to give me a great big hug . . . or kiss . . . or who knows what. Anyway, that part never did happen. What did happen was I saw stars, got just a little bit nauseous, and mouth filled with blood. It really, really, really hurt when Mateo's head banged into my chin. But it really, really, really hurt even more once I realized that I had taken a chunk out of my lip. OUCH!

So, allergies . . . somewhat under control. Head cold . . . on its way out. Lower lip area continues to throb in pain. And there's some lovely purplish-grayish bruising going on. Gotta love it. Needless to say, Kangaroom got postponed until next week. Mateo felt soooooooooo bad for hurting me. He brought me ice for my lip the entire afternoon and kept checking to see if I had stopped bleeding. Yeah, it bled for a couple hours. And professional boxers get into fights WHY? Not a pleasant experience. I don't know why on earth somebody would want to get PAID to get hit in the jaw, chin, face, etc.

O.K. Tangent Heidi . . . back to the original reason for the post. Jessica sent me some LOVELY music to listen to.

Last Sunday, we listened to this c.d. over and over and over and over again. And then we started to listen to it over and over and over again . . . until I remembered that Sarah's homework for the week is to pull her out of any potential OCD moments. Which means as Sarah's mother, I also have to be a good example and not get obsessive over any one particular activity, item, etc. And as for the picture with me and the cd, of course everyone in my family has gone to bed. I have spent the last 30 minutes trying to figure out how to take a decent self-portrait, but it's just not working. I GIVE UP!

Thank you Jessica, once again for the CD!

Going Swimming

O.K. after three days straight of Mateo and Sarah running around the house and the yard in their swimsuits, I finally let Cristian take the kids to the pool over the weekend. Since it has been in the mid-80s for the last several weeks, the water was actually pleasant (according to Cristian and kiddos). WE DO NOT GO SWIMMING IN DECEMBER/JANUARY! That activity is reserved only for the CRAZY tourists (like we used to be) who vacation in Orlando over the holidays and have their nice heated time-share or Disney resort pools. The community pool must have been nice because they were at the pool for a good 2 1/2-3 hours and IT IS NOT HEATED. And yes, I know exactly how long they were there because that's how long I was able to NAP . . . IN PEACE.

I just received the following e-mail. In case you don't have time to read it, a quick translation of this e-mail is "swimsuits will need to be put away for the next 2 1/2 months-3 months". How do I break this news to my kids??? Now it will be WAY TOOOOOO cold to go swimming, unless of course we crash the Disney Resorts . . . which by the way I know how to do. (One of my blogger friends has a motto "You play, you pay" . . . but I can prove her otherwise. But that will be reserved for another post, another day.)

Issued at: 12:48 PM EST 1/2/08, expires at: 9:30 PM EST 1/2/08

Hard freeze warning now in effect from 10 pm this evening to 9 am est
Thursday,
The hard freeze warning is now in effect from 10 pm this evening to 9
am est Thursday.
The coldest temperatures are expected early Thursday morning with lows
reaching the mid to upper 20s. A long duration of below freezing
temperatures is expected, with temperatures remaining below 32 degrees for up
to 8 to 10 hours, and below 28 degrees for up to 4 to 6 hours,
especially in the rural areas.
The hard freeze warning means temperatures below 28 degrees are
possible for several hours or greater. These conditions can kill sensitive
vegetation as well as harm exposed water pipes as well as small animals
left outdoors without shelter.
A lake wind advisory is in effect until 5 pm est this afternoon. Strong
and gusty winds will create rough and hazardous boating conditions on
area lakes and the intracoastal waters.