First is Best!

Yes, you read that right. Being the first . . . or in other words being firstborn is the BEST! You can ask my blogging buddies Brooke, Celia or Gab their insights about being first after reading my blog. Of course, their entries will be way more funny and amusing, but just to balance things out a little bit . . . here is the serious post from the very serious poster.

According to the PBS kids website, anything “a first-born child does is a big deal, simply because it's a first for his or her family”. Actually to mix things up a bit, I have included my big deals along with big deals of my other siblings. Please answer true or false to each "big deal". And if it's false, you need to tell me which of my siblings this "big deal" pertains to. Have fun!

1. First to have 3rd birthday party cut short due to mom going into labor with 2nd born child of the family.
2. First to learn how to slalom waterski at age 7.
3. First to go to Australia and Europe.
4. First Hazen to use the slogan “Don’t be a Raisin, Vote for Hazen” as part of campaigning for class officer in high school.
5. First to receive evil looks from everyone in public while in high school because they thought that Anne was "MY BABY" and not my little sis.
6. First to climb the Great Wall of China with younger sibling and his/her 7th grade geography teacher.
7. First to be asked to move out of the house (accompanied by a swift kick on my fanny) and/or an invitation to go ahead and run away when I was being a 13-14 year old BRAT rebelling because it wasn't FAIR that I couldn't go to Homecoming Dance because I wasn't "old enough" to date.
8. First to speak at High School graduation. (Nope, not Valedictorian, just Senior class officer speech).
9. First to go to Rhode Island for a summer to be nanny for a former San Francisco 49er family.
10. First in immediate family to serve a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
11. First person in immediate family to serve full-time mission in Argentina.
12. First in family to attend a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game in Toronto one week after the grand opening of the SkyDome. (Also visiting a family that I used to nanny for that played baseball for S.F. Giants and had been traded to the Blue Jays).
13. First to receive AA degree from Ricks.
14. First to receive bachelor’s degree from BYU.
15. First to learn how to skydive.
16. First to attend an all-Catholic institution of higher learning (St. Mary’s College of CA) for master’s degree.
17. First to have well-meaning sister place a personal ad in a Rexburg, ID newspaper in dire search of my eternal mate.
18. First to get married.
19. First to move away from the San Francisco Bay Area.
20. First to open my own business.
21. First to start blogging.
22. First to spend the most holidays with the HAZEN side of the family as compared to other siblings who split their holidays with the in-laws.
23. First to still be best friends with someone I've been best friends with since elementary school.
24. First to meet Jason Lee (Anne's hubby).
25. First to be actively involved in politics at the School District, Port Commission, City Council levels. And first to teach my firstborn how to picket, canvas neighborhoods with political flyers, and be interviewed for the 6:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. news regarding stories relating to above-mentioned political involvement.

Hope you have fun taking this little quiz! And I would like to say that I will offer a prize for the first person that gets all the answers right, but go ahead and ask my sister's Anne or Heather how successful that would be. Please don't hold your breath. It's all about having fun. Right? Right?!?

Mis Queridos Hijos 11/11/07

Dear Tino, Mateo, and Sarah,

There's not a lot to say that hasn't already been said, so this week's installment will be short, sweet, and to the point. And since the camera still has no batteries, we'll have to add the pictures from papi's cell phone later on.

Tino: Super Star-You had a once in a lifetime opportunity this week. You got to play ball on a real live, honest-to-goodness major league baseball field. You got to play where the Washington Nationals hold their Spring Training. Your coach also let you go in to the locker room, where he had put all your names and numbers on the lockers, just like MLB players.

Mateo: Super Smart???- This week your new trick was tying your shoe laces from the two shoes together, so you couldn't walk and you were "stuck". I don't know if I am more amazed at the fact that you learned how to tie your own shoelaces several months prior to turning 4 years old, or the fact that you are playing shoelace tricks on YOURSELF. You are a funny kid.

Sarah: Super Sick/Super Sensory- This week you have been sick. And you do not like the feeling of the runny nose goop . . . running down your face. Nor do you like to wipe your own nose. And as for the sensory processing disorder, we learned that the way your brain processes the sensory experiences is out of whack. Think of a kink in the garden hose. The sensory messages that get sent to your brain take a little detour on the way to the brain. By the time that message gets there, the sensory experience is either minimized or maximized. When we go into a crowded place like the mall or Costco and you have a meltdown or when your brother comes up behind you and taps you on the shoulder without you expecting it, those blood-curdling screams and tears are not you being naughty. It's just that the background noise and commotion is too much for your brain to handle. And that unexpected touch is as if you were truly being attacked and those screams of pain are truly screams of pain and not you just being drama queen.

Papi and Mami: Super Samba-less. Date night to the Samba Room was a BUST. Dinner reservations were for 9:00 p.m. (a.k.a. order an appetizer and diet coke). They were on to us. We have been discovered. After three years of living in Orlando, we know how to work the system. We get reservations for the last possible dinner seating time before the club opens so we don't have to pay cover charge. (Who wants to pay between $10-$20 per person???) This time the system beat us. The club was closed for a private wedding party. We headed over to Universal CityWalk and guess who didn't bring their purse OR i.d.? Yep, no dancing for us. But since we had the babysitter until 1:00 a.m., we enjoyed walking around CityWalk and talking . . . and thinking about all the fun we could have been having if we were inside Latin Quarters dancing. We'll try it again.

Love,
Mami

Scouting for Mateo/Scouting for Clothing Deals

We just had a lovely morning. "We" means Mateo, Sarah, and I. Today was the second part of Scouting for Food. We were assigned a neighborhood in an older part of the city. That territory should have been given to Boy Scouts and not to a hyperactive Wolf, Bear, and two monkeys (Mateo and Sarah). The area wasn't filled with tract homes. Each home had a different entrance (some of them multiple entrances) and since it is an older neighborhood there was a good 50+ years worth of oak trees, bushes, etc. surrounding the houses. It got a little nerve-wracking having Mateo and crew disappear for minutes at a time as they went to the front doorsteps to collect food bags. Anyway, we collected 45 bags of food. Sarah and I enjoyed rocking out to Disney Radio. Every time the boys got out of the van to collect more bags of food, I would try to be sneaky and change the radio station. They caught me in the act EVERY time and they would then ask me to change it back to Radio Disney. Will I receive extra blessings in Heaven for being obligated to listen to 2 hours of Radio Disney?

On another note, one of the boys is a nature lover. He collected a very funky looking spider while collecting food bags. That spider was trying to defend itself and kept shooting out spider webs. Every time he would open up his cupped hands to show us his spider, the spider would fling a web. My van is filled with 1 1/2 hours worth of spider web strings. How much spider web making ingredients can a little tiny spider have inside of it? It was icky knowing that the boy had this spider inside of MY van . . . but I'm sure there is a Wolf achievement somewhere about taking care of nature or making sure that nature comes along for the ride while we are collecting food for the homeless and hungry.

I'm off to ROSS to try and find a good dancing outfit for tonight. Cristian and I are going to the Samba Room. May the forces of Celia's clothing gods and goddesses be with me. I really need to find a good outfit at Ross because the thought of going to Florida Mall on Saturday is not on my list of fun or pleasurable activities to do.

Parent Leadership Council

Last night Cristian and I attended our very first Parent Leadership Council Meeting. The purpose of the PLC is to educate and motivate parents of children with special needs. The topic of the meeting was how to integrate sensory experiences into daily learning. I feel like I'm on information overload. Although lots of the things I heard last night I have learned through my own research AND through blog-lurking (somehow finding links to other moms that have special needs kids), I kept fighting back tears the entire night. Once again, I had to ask myself "what is going on Ramirez?" Here I have been the advocating for my baby . . . so it's not like I'm one of those moms that is in super duper denial. It was just a completely new experience to be in a room full of parents who had children that had delayed speech, behavior issues, sensory processing disorders, etc. They could relate. They knew what we were going through. Because they had already been through it or were on the same path as us. So I don't know if those tears that kept welling up in my eyes and making it nearly impossible for me to read the notes I was trying to write were tears of joy, tears of sadness, tears of relief, or just plain old tears.

Sarah's new Occupational Therapist is amazing. And yes, she was able to confirm through her own observations AND through the developmental testing that Sarah does indeed have a sensory processing disorder. Now we just need to figure out how to help Sarah properly receive the sensory input she is seeking out. (Can we say TRAMPOLINE for Christmas??? Or electric toothbrush??? Or Sarah Sandwich???) My digital camera has dead batteries. But I do look forward to posting pictures of us doing OT homework.

Priorities

So as I completely STRUGGLED to get out the door last night to go to Cub Scout den meeting that my son would not be attending (since it's baseball season), I had to remind myself continually to have a good attitude, put a smile on my face, and PRETEND like I am having fun. Oh yeah, I also had to remind myself to not forget to load Mateo and Sarah into the van because they too are unofficially inducted members into Cub Scout Pack #30. (I am now on strike and REFUSING to shell out another dime for babysitting while I do my church calling. If they want me as den leader, my two little ones will be coming along . . . at least until baseball season is over.) Anyway, I got inundated with a double dose of GRIEF from everyone that I happened to pass in the hallway at church for letting Sarah wear her princess costume AND for not putting a jacket on her. It is a very modest Children's Place princess costume . . . in fact it was her Halloween costume from last year. Is there something written in the Church Handbook of Instructions that states a two year old girl is not allowed into the church dressed as a princess? I don't understand, since it was perfectly acceptable last weekend for the Fall Festival. What am I missing here???? AND, if my children wear jackets or ski parkas when the temperature is 65 degrees, what are they supposed to wear when the weather really does get cold?

Finally after hearing the comment regarding Sarah's attire for the bazillionth time, I turned to the well-meaning brother and asked,"What is more important in the eternal scheme of things . . . that I am here at den meeting tonight dutifully magnifying my calling OR making sure that my daughter doesn't come to den meeting dressed as a princess?"

What's your input?????

Bombs Away

Bombs Away . . . . literally. EVERYONE in the entire Orlando City Police Department and Fire Department decided to visit the master planned community where I live. We have had some interesting news over the last couple months. You know the declarations when you buy a new house? Funny how the home builder FORGOT to mention that our homes were built upon an old World War test bombing site. Another live bomb was found this morning. In someone's backyard. Right behind Primrose School. Publix is considered a safe haven. I guess the safe place/shelter had to move across the street. You see, Odyssey Middle School is the designated safe place . . . but it is built right smack dab on top of the key bombing site that was used back during World War II. Fun times.

Medical Team Memo

Memo to Sarah's Medical Team:

Please be aware that Sarah reacts to i.v. sedation like her mother does. It simply does not work. If the doctor says it will take anywhere from 15 minutes to 45 minutes for her to metabolize the drug, that really means a minimum of 2 hours and 15 minutes. She will start to laugh out loud uncontrollably, sing silly songs, and walk around like she is drunk within 15 minutes of administering the oral meds, but in order for her to fall into a Sleeping Beauty deep sleep plan on a minimum of 2 hours 15 minutes. Whatever you do, DO NOT ABORT the procedure. Stick it out. Because if you abort the procedure, you will have to deal with Sarah and her mother yet again. Not good. And definitely not fun.

And please remind Sarah's mother that from here on out, she is to be accompanied by Sarah's father in tow. Sarah's mom isn't much help when she is slouched over in a corner chair. Apparently Sarah's mom doesn't do well with hospitals, labs, OR imaging centers.

Sincerely,

Nurse Laura
(The nurse that cared for Sarah AND her faint/queasy mother for 5+ hours today during a procedure that was supposed to take no longer than 1 hour tops.)

P.S. Yes, Sarah is wearing a PULL-UP in the picture. But Sarah's mom pleaded for you to not mention ANYTHING about this to Sarah's Behavior Therapist, Ms. Erika. Sedation AND Potty-training DO NOT go hand in hand. Unless, of course you want to witness buckets of pee dribble down Sarah's leg and onto the floor. Thank goodness she had her accident on the linoleum floor. It was a lot easier to clean up that way. And by the way, I don't remember that cleaning up other kids' bodily fluids is part of my job description. Shouldn't her mother have cleaned up that mess????? --Nurse Laura

Eviction Notice

There have been two huge boxes sitting on the floor of CRISTIAN's office for the last 18 months. (And those boxes are bigger than the boxes that were sitting in the corner of Sarah's room for the last 6 months that finally got shipped to Utah a couple weeks ago). Today, I got my 30 day eviction notice. Cristian is evicting me from HIS office if I don't get my stuff cleaned up. I tried to explain to him that my Kindermusik business conducted in HIS office serves as a tax write-off, but that argument was not convincing enough. I spent the better part of the afternoon trying to go through the contents of the two boxes. Now I have everything condensed in to one box.

And, I was able to get all of Sarah's medical records, prescriptions, IFSPs (Individualized Family Support Plan), evaluations reports, etc. into ONE location. Now if we have to evacuate due to a natural disaster (i.e. Hurricane Heidi), I will be able to quickly locate all of Sarah's important papers. I will post pictures of my progress tomorrow. (And if you need a visual in the meantime, my Kindermusik Korner looks equivalent to Lenore's bookcase.)

Mis Queridos Hijos 11/4/07

First off, since other people read this blog and they don't necessarily know Spanish, "Mis Queridos Hijos" is a term of endearment. It sounds super cheesy if translated directly into English, but it means My dearest/beloved children. O.K. now that we've had the Spanish lesson for the week, let's review the week.

Tino: You are growing up. And I don't know what I think about that. Isn't the photo of your Halloween costume lovely? Oh, you can't see the photo? That would be because you were OFF trick-or-treating BEFORE I could get a picture. And once you returned home from trick-or-treating, you had showered and changed into your p.j.s before I had the chance to take your picture. You went trick-or-treating with Nicolas, Chris, and their mom Kimberly along with a couple other friends for about half an hour. Then, you Nicolas and friends went to the other two streets ALONE. For one hour. You dutifully went back to Nicolas' house to check in with his mom every 15 minutes and I gave you my cell phone so I could call you every 20 minutes to make sure you guys were o.k. You got home around 8:10 p.m. You have been helping papi with the outdoor stuff. You mowed the lawn in the backyard and edged. You are doing a very good job (way better than your mami does at those tasks). Keep up the great work! In other news, there are only 3 weeks left of baseball season. You were the starting pitcher in the game yesterday. I don't know what kind of pitch you do, but it's really sneaky. You strike people out EVERY TIME. From the batters position, the ball looks like it is going to be a strike as it is heading to the plate. Then,when it gets to the plate, it curves down towards the dirt. The batter would swing right through it. (Tino wrote the italicized part. Thanks Tino).









Mateo: You slept in your bed 5 nights this week. THANK YOU MATEO! Tino still doesn't even begin to relate to the concept that you leave the comforts of your warm and cozy bed in the middle of the night and then crawl into bed with mami and papi. You learned how to spell another word. C.V.S. You had fun at the Silver Sneakers Halloween party and trick-or-treating with Sarah. But you missed your brother and kept asking when he would join us. Last night we went to your favorite Mexican Restaurant. You ordered a casadilla. (Thanks Napolean Dynamite for butchering that word for us.)

Sarah: You had a lovely Speech session with your new speech therapist Miss Lauren. She brought lots of fun toys. You still don't understand the concept of colors. When I ask "What color is that?" You dutifully repeat "What color is dat mami?" We are working on identifying two colors this week. So far EVERYTHING is boo (blue). We'll keep working on it. We are also working on one-to-one correspondence with a field of two items. You helped me clean the house this week and you were all geared up to tackle HURRICANE HEIDI that had hit the house. I'm so glad you were able to wear your bike helmet to protect your head from anything that might come tumbling down into your cleaning path. Tomorrow morning you have your MRI with sedation. You need to go to bed late tonight and I get the pleasure of waking you up EARLY in the morning. We will then make the trek across town where you will be sedated. If you cooperate and go under fast, it won't take long at all for them to do the two MRI studies. But, if you are stubborn (as you usually are), we will plan on being there the better part of the day. (Here are some pictures from when you had your first seizure and when we really started to investigate autism, PDD, etc.)
Cristian: I surprised you this week for our Friday lunch date. I told you to meet me in front of Chipotle. I didn't dare tell you where we were going because I didn't want you to back out. We then went a couple doors down to the nail salon. We ate Chinese food and had pedicures. You got a really good nail tech. My nail tech was highly annoying because she kept turning OFF my massage chair. Every time I would get it to the setting that I liked, she would take the controller out of my hands and turn it OFF. We repeated this massage chair on/massage chair off process for the entire hour. And to make things worse, she didn't speak a lick of English, so even if I told her to keep her hands OFF the controller and let me enjoy my MASSAGE, she wouldn't have understood me anyway. I am glad you were able to relax and enjoy your spa pedicure AND your General Tso's chicken from the new Chinese Restaurant.

Heidi: There was no Cub Scouts this week due to Halloween. (YIPPIE). And No Scouting for Food bag distribution because YOU...... ARE. . . . . TRYING..... TO......LEARN.......HOW.....TO.....SAY ......NO.... and/or give service opportunities to others in the branch. The Silver Sneakers Halloween party was super fun. And, you gave your first official KINDERMUSIK BIRTHDAY PARTY yesterday. You are now ready to start expanding your Kindermusik business and will offer music and movement birthday parties.

34 Acts of Service

Cristian and I have been reading Gary Chapman's The Five Love Languages together. My dominant love language is Acts of Service. And Cristian's dominant language is Words of Affirmation. So here is a big SHOUT-OUT and THANK YOU to Cristian. I LOVE YOU BABY!
Here is a list of 34 acts of service Cristian has performed for me the last week:

1. Cristian took Tino to his baseball game on Saturday.
2. He coached for Tino's baseball team AND stayed another 3 hours at the baseball fields to Umpire. (Little League parents need to volunteer their time. Since Cristian is volunteering, I can cross that off my list of things to do.)
3. He called to tell me the above-mentioned game had been cancelled BEFORE I schlepped Mateo and Sarah over to the muddy baseball field.
4. He attended the Fall Festival/Cub Scout Fundraiser with the kids and I.
5. And pretended he was having FUN at the Fall Festival.
6. He let me sleep in on Sunday morning.
7. He got the kids bathed, dressed and ready for church.
8. He took the kids with him to pick up investigators and less-active members.
9. This allowed me to play prelude music at church in PEACE.
10. Cristian did the Sunday dinner dishes.
11. And the hand-wash only dishes that had been sitting on the kitchen counter for who knows how long.
12. He kept his excitement to himself and didn't wake me up after coming to bed at 1:00 a.m. after the Bo-Sox won the World Series. (If I get awakened, it's the kiss of death for me. So much for having a good night's rest because I will spend the next 2-3 hours trying to get back to sleep.)
13. He took Tino to get a haircut on Monday.
14. And made it on time for Sarah and Mateo's Kindermusik class.
15. He jump started my car Monday evening.
16. And Tuesday morning.
17. Since he couldn't be there to help me jump start my car each time I needed to go somewhere, he let me borrow his car so I could get to class on time.
18. Even though he is ANAL about keeping his car super duper clean and tidy, he let me bring all of my stuff into his car.
19. He also let me bring my storage container full of different drums, 12 pairs of maracitas, 24 pairs of rhythm sticks, 24 egg shakers, 12 tamourines, one 12-person parachute, one 8-person parachute, and ghetto box from the early 90s into HIS car.
20. And he took Mateo into preschool so I wouldn't have to get out of the car dressed in my pirate costume one day BEFORE Halloween.
21. He spent his one hour lunch break taking me back to the house so I could change out of my pirate costume AND
22. He helped me jump start my car again.
23. And he followed me to Auto Zone to make sure I got there o.k.
24. He reminded me to ask if our battery was covered under warranty which it WAS, so with that money saved of not having to buy a new battery, we were able to go across the street
25. To eat pizza for lunch. Thus, turning his one hour lunch break into two hours. And he even pretended like he had time to take such a long lunch break.
26. #25 counts for two items because we only eat pizza on the weekends. Eating pizza mid-week is a super duper treat. Thus qualifying for another act of service.
27. He put Mateo to bed doing his batman-superman-spiderman rendition.
28. And put Sarah to be doing wonderwoman-spiderwoman rendition just to make her feel special like her brother.
29. Yesterday, Cristian showed up at the Silver Sneakers Halloween Party to surprise me.
30. And to surprise everyone else. (My class has wanted to meet Cristian for a long time now).
31. He offered to clean all three bathrooms when he got home from work.
32. He got home early enough so we could eat dinner together as a family AND
33. Go trick-or-treating with Mateo and Sarah.
34. To commemorate the Halloween occasion, he dressed up in his basketball shirt/shorts and was #34 (SHAQ).