Sneaky Little Devil

We walked to the bus stop this afternoon to meet Dellaina because it’s a beautiful day. (She, of course, comes out moping, because she doesn’t like when I show up without the car at the end of her day). On the way home, she finds a penny and picks it up. We come home, they wash hands and have a snack and are about to go outside to play and jump on the trampoline when Wyatt takes off up to his room. I yell after him asking what he’s doing and he just responds, “going up to my room” and when he comes back down, he doesn’t have a toy or anything, so I ask him again, “what did you do up in your room?” and he replies as he flits out the door, “I put some money in my bank” And just flashes the biggest grin (that I can see from across the room, lit up in the bright sunshine through just the sliver of a strip of non-frosted glass on the door) as Dellaina and I both realize what money he snuck away with. She makes a pouty face and I can’t help by smile and assure her I will give her another penny to go in her bank.

Boss & Woody

Sometimes my desire to fully recount every detail prevents me from even posting anything and then I don’t have the long version, or the short version to remind me of the long version. So, here are just some random collections of ideas and things for sharing.

We have really enjoyed getting the kids out on their bikes. We have a pretty flat stretch between two corners that we go back and forth a few times and have even gotten Hank out to walk, since he’s leading a more sedentary life due to Boss’ condition (one of those long versions I have yet to write about) We used to take Family Walks around the block, so it’s nice to have a little bit of that back. The kids are definitely getting more confident and stable and enjoy it.

 

one day after naps:

 

A few snowflakes and Boss gets frisky. He likes the cold and playing.

 

Okay, these pictures prompted me to get this out finally. He has a genetic, degenerative demyelination of nerves. In other words, he’s losing control of his back legs. The communication with his brain is impaired and not traveling as well (myelination is a coating around nerves that speeds up transmission of signals-so he is progressively losing this coating). It started last Spring when we’d be on walks, we’d notice every couple of steps his nails would click/scrape against the road, like he wasn’t picking his foot up. It was pretty random and far apart at first, but then became a little more consistent. Then, we noticed, he’d be standing still and his back foot would just start twisting/spinning; just a little at first. Or he’d slip and lose his balance on slicker surfaces – like the hardwood floor or the deck. In the beginning, it would almost be comical, if you didn’t know what was going on – like how watching someone fall/trip elicits laughs. We kind of thought it was a hip problem at first, but as it became more pronounced and his legs would get twisted up or one leg would be stuck very far out away from his body and he’d turn and just look at it like, “what is that?” like it wasn’t even connected to him. (proprioception – knowing the location of your body at all times) A vet friend said it sounded like peripheral neuropathy and to follow up. So, we were referred to the big guns and I took him down for an assessment in August and at the time, it was more prominent in his left leg, but they even felt like it was also present in his right, just not as pronounced. They would flip his paw under, so he was standing on it and most dogs will correct that, but it would take a bit before Boss would; a sign the signal wasn’t getting to his brain. We were offered some options of doing an expensive ($2600) procedure of dying the spinal cord and observing..it could be a tumor pressing on nerves, or a slipped disc or a genetic condition, but even the procedure wouldn’t be the fix, if there even was one, it was just the observation. The genetic test was $100, so we did opt to do that and got the positive results back. So, it’s not definitive that it is what’s going on just because he has the gene for it, but it’s pretty darn likely. So, we tried little booties to give him grip, but they rubbed sores on his legs, so we just put it on his back leg now when we go outside and we take him out the front more, because there are fewer stairs. But, he also scraped his toenails down to the nubs and they would bleed a lot, so the booties help protect that as well. He struggles more and more and going upstairs is a definite challenge and we have A LOT of stairs in our house. The walkway from the driveway has 3 step ups and there are only 3 up to the porch compared to 3 levels of steps in the back to get to the yard, plus the stairs between the levels on the inside. Losing control on the steps was causing more injury. It’s been and continues to be very difficult watching him struggle. Thankfully, personality-wise, he’s still our Bossman, but it’s very emotional and we’re trying to make as many changes as we can to adjust to his adjusting needs and help him get around.

There are a lot of birds at the lake and Doug had a bird book looking them up over Christmas. It was a lot of fun and he showed us some pictures of Woodpeckers and we told him about how large the one around our house is and he got excited and told us about how rare they were – even bred at UGA and then released because they were endangered? So, ever since, I’ve been trying to capture pictures. We’d hear him, but not see him close enough. And even these pictures are pretty far away and very zoomed in. It’s hard to get a real sense of his size, too, but he’s a good 15-19 inches, I’d say. The first picture, he flew off as I snapped, but I kind of thought capturing the blur with the flash of red was cool, too. As I was taking these, he would disappear on the other side of the tree and I’d just see the shrapnel flying off and hear him digging out those bugs.

 

 

 

Squeaks and Creaks

Every house has them: unique or different little quirks. Things we don’t even think about until others, unfamiliar, are in our environment and startled or question.

Our floors squeak. A lot. When you step in certain places and while we learn them, there are so many, you can’t really avoid it. Our bathroom faucets in the master shower very loudly squeak as you twist them off or on; it’s a signal of the person taking a shower stopping or starting or when Greg turns it on to give Boss water to drink at night before going to bed. The water runs down through the pipes in the walls, even in the basement closet, which can be an odd sound when you are so disconnected from the other cues/sounds of the dishwasher, washing machine or toilet flush to realize it’s coming. The garage door opening just under the living room can be startling to newcomers. The gate outside slamming shut. What a 95lb dog sounds like jumping off the bed a floor above, versus an 85lb dog or 40lb boy running back on his tip toes to jump in his bed. The control for the bathroom sink drain in the kid’s bathroom doesn’t work (It’s not connected – Wyatt likes to pull it straight out and it’s just a long pole – good for poking an eye out). You can’t just pull it up to have the drain close, you have to push on down on the drain itself. And if you push it down, it isn’t released by pushing the release behind the faucet – you have to open the cabinet doors and pull down on a bar manually. The controls for my seat in my car – push forward to move it back; push backward to move the seat forward (somewhere along the way, the wires just crossed?! and now when I get in other people’s cars that aren’t backwards, I’m backwards trying to control them). We used to have handles at a house growing up where the hot was cold and the cold was hot and you’d have to remember to tell the guests before they took their shower! The clicks of our panels for lights rather than the standard toggle (it’s just a louder/different click).

I use a lot of auditory cues to know what’s going on in the house and I think it’s funny when kids seemed shocked you know when you are out of sight. The bathroom door in the kid’s bathroom squeaks when opening and closing. The sound of the stool in the bathroom moving against the tile floor. The clicks of closet doors pushing close or drawers opening (“Wyatt, I don’t hear your drawers” when he’s supposed to be picking out clothes to wear and getting dressed).

Think about your world – stop and listen and focus on what you are hearing. Just like in the kid’s magazine, making a game out of realizing all that is going on around us and we can interpret it without even thinking about it. What little quirks exist for each of you?

Toof-a-less

On December 15th, Dellaina came running up to me at school when I picked her up, clutching something in her fist. She had a tooth necklace around her neck that opened and held a tiny little tooth! She was SOOOO excited. She had been wriggling and wiggling her teeth and talking about everyone in her class that had lost a tooth and which one and was so happy to now be a part of the group. Her top tooth had gotten loose first, but her bottom one became loose and fell out well before the top. We actually stopped by Walmart to pick up a gift for her to take to the Giving Tree at school and suddenly she looked down at her necklace and realized it hadn’t closed well and her tooth was gone!! Oh no!! She’d been waiting and waiting and now we’d lost it. We went back to the aisle we’d been on and tried looking around, but I just didn’t think it was going to be possible to find the tiny little white tooth on the white floor…and then, Dellaina stepped on it and felt it with her foot and picked it up! Hopefully, it was indeed hers and not some other random tooth on the floor at Walmart.

It’s trickier to get a picture of than you’d think. And yes, I said DECEMBER 15th and she was in short sleeve! Sheesh, the weather this “winter” has been manic (as we are watching the snow flurries out the window right now and were in short sleeves last weekend) She got $5 from the Tooth Fairy for her first tooth!

 

 

Her top front tooth continued to loosen and was finally REALLY, REALLY loose. Everyday this week, I expected her to come home with another tooth necklace, but finally when it was still there on Wednesday, hanging by just a thread, I couldn’t stand it anymore and told her to twist it around until it came out and sure enough, out it came! Whew! She got $2 for a big front tooth from the Tooth Fairy. Now she has a complete gap from top to bottom! And she likes to stick her tongue through it! I couldn’t get a good picture of both of them at the same time…*sigh.

*The main dragon character in How To Train Your Dragon is named “Toothless” and Wyatt always said it as “toof-a-less”

Noooooooooooooo!!

My worst fears have finally come to fruition: my children have outgrown naps! <gasp>

Last week, we had several Mama & Dellaina days wherein, she did not get a nap. We watched movies or still had some down time, but never even made an attempt to go upstairs and lay down or anything. They have stopped taking them at all at school as well. Most days, Wyatt’s report is marked, “did not sleep” and they both tend to go to sleep well at night (Wyatt less so some nights, but still usually overall, they are good sleepers). Then, over the weekend, two days in a row, we all took good naps (apparently, some of our last. booo-hoo) and then both kids were up for hours past bedtime. I came downstairs whimpering to Greg about (beginning of?) the end.

Emily didn’t have much sympathy, either, remarking, “they are 6 and 4! That’s pretty darn good” and “you can’t take naps at work, either” even in the same breath as discussing being spoiled by Noah’s good nap schedule and adjustment going back to work – and after we’d BOTH delayed meeting up for lunch to lay down for a bit! It’s a strong Jones/Wickliffe family trait: napping. at the drop of a hat. I do love my sleep mask! There’s just something about shutting out the day that can get me to sleep so much faster than laying there forever at night, trying to find room to stretch around 175lbs of dogs, even after I’ve piddled for hours and should be wiped out.

Hmm, definitely think we will still have to institute mandatory Quiet Time in our Rooms to still read, play quietly or zzzzz [Dellaina, Wyatt, Mama]. yes, this could work…if Daddy goes for it.

(back in May, but still, oh so cute)

Another Post It

Here are my more recent notes from just the past month or two:

Wyatt uses the phrase, “as a matter of fact” quite often. He sounds so sophisticated. Greg finds it very amusing and asked me when he first started, “how many other 3 year olds do you know that have that kind of vocabulary?”

Wyatt dropped something while riding in the car, let out a big sigh, and earnestly explained "it was just sitting here in my lap and then, automatically, a hole formed!"

 

Artistic photo shoot?! This is how it gets some mornings.

He has gotten where he will flip and flop and play around and kick the wall and build pillow forts instead of going to sleep. One time I even found him asleep in his pillow case with the pillow still in it as well. He had stuck his head up in it and pulled it to his waist, so it was a pillow with legs in the bed, which was tricky deciphering in the dark!

He scrunches up his face and gets mad at me a lot. Sometimes, there’s even a growl to accompany it. Or yelling. And Time-Out.

Wyatt knows that “Daddy sells electricity” and went through a phase where he was asking a lot of questions about electricity. Riding down the road, he’s ask about the power lines or his headphone cord, he asked, “will this electricity me if I hold onto the power lines?”

One night after pretending to sleep/snore, he asked, “can you see my zzzzs?” too cute. Little booger can get out of so much trouble being so darn adorable. Like Greg says, “everyone else is going to hate him. All he’s got to do is flash that smile.” and he gets away with it!

Dellaina uses the phrase, "ok, this is getting to be weird"

One night I asked her about her new Book in a Bag that she got to bring home from school and she told me it was a Junie B. Jones, mooshy, gooshy Valentine. It sounded like Japanese takeout, but without even seeing the cover, I figured out it should be “mushy, gushy”

The English language is so darn tricky. She pronounced it just like it looks as “bass xylophone” and I had to explain to her it’s actually “base” even though that’s not what it looks like. Reading stories and words are so cute at this age. She’s been encouraged to just try to phonetically spell out the words and she’s getting braver and taking more risks and allowing herself to actually do something without it having to be perfectly right!

One day, Wyatt randomly proclaimed, “I am king of China!” Dellaina countered, “you can only be king if you know where it is, can point to it on a map.” And he just as quickly, knowingly responded, “you turn left and then right.” of course!

Dellaina has a book she really likes called “No More Excuses!” and it has a marine biologist in it named Dr. Tortuga and I’d always figured that the name probably meant something and had commented about it once or twice, but then mentioned it again recently and Dellaina exclaims, “yeah, it probably means ‘turtle’ because this book is about sea turtles and The Tortuga in Wild Kratts is shaped like a turtle!” Sure enough, we finally looked it up and tortuga does indeed mean turtle in Spanish. Such an amazing little mind makes so many connections!!

Looking at the back of birthday cards, Wyatt suddenly exclaims, “what?! I didn't know cards were recycling! I didn't know that.” (after seeing the recycling symbol)

Some beautiful, rustic bells appeared hanging on our bathroom doorknob one day. I asked Greg where they came from and he said they were on a package they got at work. He thought I’d like them, so he cut them off and brought them home. Every time I saw them, they made me smile.

 

Dellaina informed me, “if you can't forgive them, that makes you mean, too.” I asked, “Where did you learn that?” and she shrugged, “I just thought of it and figured it out.” Later, I realized it came from listening to Sugarland’s Mean Girls song and Veggie Tales CDs I’m sure, but still a great concept to know.

She gets mixed up and often uses the word “familiar” for “similar”

Ripples

After sitting the kids down to explain about and discuss Martin’s death, Wyatt was the first to say anything and in a half question, half statement he said, “oh, so he was a baby and he could still die.” I know that concept can shake the foundation of understanding the world. He was very clingy with me for several weeks afterwards. He would go into a panic and even break down crying if he lost sight of me even for a second – in a store or even at gymnastics practice if he didn’t look up and see me right away. He always explores with abandon, but he definitely reigned it it and would call out to me constantly or run back and forth if trying to look at something that wasn’t right next to what I was looking at.
That night, Dellaina was a little quiet at bedtime and I asked her if there was anything she wanted to talk about and she said she was just thinking of Martin and “I just miss him.” After Thanksgiving her teacher emailed me to let me know that Dellaina had shared with the class during circle time that “she was sad that her cousin had died.” Mrs. Davis was sending condolences and said they would look out for Dellaina at school to make sure she seemed ok. I spoke with Dellaina about her day when I picked her up and knew that Tuesdays were her day to share, so I asked her, “do you still get to share on Tuesdays?” and she offered what she had shared and, very factually, “I just wanted them to know.” And then, “Next week, I’m going to share that I’m sad our neighbor moved.” I made a pained face and she said, “what?” And I just said, “I’m just sorry you’re sharing sad stuff!” And she said, “I have had happy stuff before I told them this, that’s why I’m just now telling them!”

Kicked on the way out

I thought I’d get another post in before the New Year, but felt icky that night and planned to curl up with my Percy Jackson book instead. Then, Dellaina showed up right behind me at my computer desk and said she felt sick…she barely made it upstairs to the bathroom before she was hurling! By the time I got up there, it was everywhere! She hadn’t been able to get around behind the door to the toilet fast enough, and I guess the lid had also been down, because there was now vomit on the floor, wall, back of the toilet and down the lid! That didn’t help my own ickiness, but she was still going. When she finished and was rinsing her mouth out and I was cleaning, she asked, “why does my face look like this?” and I asked, “like what?” “all red and bumpy?” And I look at her and she’s got purple dots all around her eyes and face! Busted blood vessels from straining so hard! Poor thing. Thankfully, she didn’t get sick again and felt better the next morning and no one else got it, but it was not a pleasant way to end 2011! sheesh!

The next morning (not sure how well the “red freckles” will show up):

 

unicorn earrings!