Another overloaded day, the kind I'll definitely be wanting to remember in five years when all my kids will be soooo much easier to handle. Right?
1:00 AM Mali. Croup. Into the steamy-showered bathroom. Seymour calls on-call nurse to confirm that we are doing everything correctly.
3:00 Mali. Croup attack again. Not bad enough for ER, but keeping her up. Shower steam again. To bed again.
4:00 Mali. Croup attack yet again. Shower steam again. To bed again, where Mali gets punchy and starts telling us, "A is for Apple! And Alligator! B is for Bed! C is for Crayon..." and so on for about ten minutes. For the finale, she said, "T is for Tiger! I'm a tiger! ROOOAR!!" Seymour says that it's a good thing we didn't take her to the ER as children ill enough to be there generally don't roar for fun.
6:30 Leelo up. Seymour takes this shift.
7:00 I struggle awake. No time for shower. Call Dr. M to see if I can bring Mali in just to make sure nothing else is going on. I can bring her in at 8:15 if Seymour can take Leelo to school. Seymour agrees.
7:30 Take over remaining morning prep from shower-bound Seymour, get kids backpack-ed and dressed and lunched and watered.
7:50 Drop Iz off at Marys's for carpool.
8:00 Leave message for Iron Gate carpool pal, asking if she can work for me tomorrow as hers is the only schedule that interlocks well with mine as we pick up each other's kids from the two cross-town schools from classes that all get out at exactly the same time.
8:15 Appointment with Dr. M, who wants us to watch Mali carefully given her history of respiratory issues, and tells us that the second night will likely be worse than the first.
9:00 Coffee with friend from the past and Ep who I begged to come along as I am socially inept and prolonged one-on-one conversations make my stomach hurt.
10:00 Boy is the friend convivial. Her child, whom I haven't seen in five years, is perplexingly sullen. This is novel to me -- my kids and my friends' kids may be quirky, but they are either friendly or do not consider adults to be their immediate concern. Perhaps she didn't get enough sleep. I let her play with Photobooth on my computer and she is placated. Her mom gives me a copy of her book! Sweet.
10:45 Wonder if Mali will fall asleep if I take the long way to Leelo's school.
11:00 Nope. Put her in the stroller and walk the perimeter of the campus. Call up my mom to see if she got my plane and hotel reservations to come visit her and my dad in two weeks. She is feeling very vulnerable because her sister told her that she shouldn't let me or my two brothers bring our kids because my dad is too immune-suppressed. Also two of my brothers are putting her in the center of their low-key bickering over who gets to stay at her house. One brother, who lives close enough to visit on a lark and has easygoing free-range children, is not being very understanding about the other, oldest, longer-staying and flying-in-from-East-Coast brother wanting both guest rooms so that his easily overstimulated and routine-dependent child can have his own space. I assure my mom that she is being put in a tough spot and is supporting everyone and doing her best job and that the second brother should just come for the weekend and get a hotel room. She gets teary and I worry that she needs more support than I gave her.
11:25 Pick up Leelo who has a big log in his underwear -- first time ever at school. Yay milestones. Clean him up in school bathroom and hope no typical school yard mates come in during the process.
12:00 PM Arrive at Leelo's Occupational Therapy appointment. During his session take Mali on walk to local drug store, where they are sold out of every single item on my list, and do not have the Rx Dr. M called in for Iz. Return to OT/school early. Mali goes at school playground like she's never seen one before. Her non-stop whoops and squeals of joy indicate that she is one very sick kid indeed.
12:40 Take Leelo to potty at school.
1:00 Arrive home. Therapist L is stuck in traffic which is good because I'd not prepped the house after last night's fun Chez Rosenberg dinner party to thank JP, Ep, and Jo for watching my kids so I could go to that autism conference.
1:30 Leave to pick up Iz at school. On way convince Cable folks that I did in fact already pay our bill (true), and try to find someone to watch Leelo for 30 minutes this afternoon after I realize that I will be in Mountain View when Leelo's afternoon therapy session at our house gets out. As I'm calling, Badger calls me to ask if she can take Iz (bonus!) and because she is so kind she agrees to go to our house to mind Leelo, too.
2:00 TLF calls while I'm en route. Things are good for her and Floyd despite the fact that they chose to move to fucking Boston, so hurrah!
2:30 Meeting with builder and one of her associates, plus me, Seymour, and C our architects' project manager (Mali, finally napping, snoozes in stroller in the corner). So glad Seymour and C were there as builder anticipates our project will cost three times our projected budget. Their emotional support keeps me from banging my head on the table.
4:00 Return home to Badger, who is minding Leelo while successfully prodding Iz to complete her homework, and monitoring Moomin's work as well. Leelo is in different clothes then when I left; I investigate and find bag of shit-smeared gear on the washer. Apparently he had a second pooping-in-underwear incident today, for Therapist L. Carpool pal cals to confirm her working my Iron Gate shift tomorrow. I AM NOT GOING TO MISS IRON GATE AND ALL ASSOCIATED CO-OP COMPLICATIONS NEXT YEAR. We all play outside except Iz who stays inside to read. Mali follows Moomin about the yard, continuously telling him, "Careful! Be careful, Moomin!" Leelo demonstrates that he knows how to get onto a swing on his own and, if you push him, pump that swing. Wow!
5:00 Badger leaves. Spend next ninety minutes feeding kids, prodding Iz, slumping over computer, attending to bills, tasks, etc.
6:30 Seymour joins us. I go downstairs for reading break but five minutes later Leelo has another blowout (which Seymour takes on, bless him) so I come back upstairs and have "reading party" with Iz and Mali on the couch.
7:00 Leelo emerges from downstairs, freshly bathed. He looks like a blue sausage in his footie jammies as I think he's gained five pounds in the three weeks since he stopped taking Fukalin. We need to work on his compulsive eating.
7:30 Wash girls.
8:30 Read Leelo bedtime stories. (Seymour reads to girls in other room.)
8:45 Read Iz bedtime stories.
9:00 Go upstairs to try to work; tired Seymour stays in bed to sleep with Mali.
9:05 Mali is screaming for me too vigorously; we don't want to further irritate her throat. Return to bed with her.
9:45 Mali is finally down for real.
10:00 More online errands and tasks.
10:30 Hello!
Again, I've forgotten a lot. Too sleepy.
Technorati Tags: autism, parenting, parenting burn out
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