First Day of Summer Vacation

Summer is officially here at the Ivey house.  We slept in until 7:45 - woohoo!  The kids clearly have not adjusted to vacation weekday mode.  It is 11:30am and I have just finished my 1st pot of coffee and contemplating making another.

So far we have eaten breakfast, played on PC and Grandma has come over so I can shower.

Mitchell built a fort.

I have watched Baby Genius Nursery Rhymes and Childrens Favorite Songs videos 4x, paid a bill and signed up the girls for VBS.

Mitchell has also played with water balloons - quickly going through the 1000 that arrived the other day, ran through the sprinkler and his current fitness training.

 The other kids - plus one - have retired to the basement and Minecraft.

In 1 hr the sitter arrives so I can travel to Naperville to the 1st of our last three NeuroFeedback appointments.  Mitchell starts ESY (extended school year) on Wednesday and then Summer Camp begins Friday.  Everyone in our family should be as productive with their time as he is.

Happy Summer Vacation - it is not as scary this year as it has been in the past, everyone is growing up nicely.  Considering I have been able to take pictures, upload and blog, the Summer break is starting out well.  We will have to see what everything looks like mid-August.  Maybe I should do before and after selfies.

What's with the ear?

Just realized I haven't written since the summer.  Youzer the time really flies.  Some thoughts are short enough for a quick Facebook post but most of the time I have quite a bit to say but no time to type it up.  I will try to focus more on my blogging than Facebook.  It ends up on my page anyways!

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A few days ago Mitchell started pulling on his ears a little more than normal.  He was banging his head at school and at home and crying.  One time even holding the side of his head saying "pain".  Huge steps obviously in the speech department but then he turns around quickly and we do not find the source of his frustration and pain.

About an hour ago he was trying to stick my finger in his ear and giggling once again with no other indication of the true problem.   Steve suggests we get the flashlight and really look into his ears.  Left ear looks alright but the right ear has what looks like popcorn in it!  We eat popcorn all the time but I cannot pinpoint when we had it last.

Steve is at the urgent care with him right now.  Just texted to say it was crumpled paper, not popcorn, and the ear is slightly infected so giving him antibiotics.  AND he did awesome with the Dr.  Always so exciting here.

Reminded me of the time Steven decided at the age of  6 or so that it was a good idea to pick up a piece of packaging styrofoam and jam it in his ear.  When we asked why he said "I don't know just felt like it."  Something with my boys and their ears.

I'm On A Roll

People irritate me and I'm not going to let them get away with it when they are inappropriate.
This is the email I sent to Great Clips customer service today.  I couldn't say anything then because I really would have lost it. I waited a few days to calm down before I wrote it.  Not sure if that helped.  Does anyone hear this crap everywhere like I do?  maybe I am just more in tune with it.


I took my daughter to the Lockport Great Clips last week and the conversation I overheard between stylist Jenn and her client made my blood boil.  She was talking about the kids that come in and the way they behave, kicking & screaming and yelling at their parents and how she would not put up with that and then mentioned they were "like 5 & 6".  I have a 6 yr old Autistic son who struggles everyday with sensory input that most of us take for granted and to hear a person who should be able to deal with children nicely talk this way make me furious.  I would have left right then but I didn't want to upset my daughter.  The hairstylist needs to keep her customer comments to herself - or at least in the back room.  She has no idea what some parents have to go through to get a child's hair cut, it's not cut and dry and the child isn't always being a brat.  How wonderful for her that she does not have a child who ever acts up.  Ignorant and uneducated people like Jenn are the reason I do not bring my Autistic son to a hair salon anymore.  Maybe a little more training for the stylists wouldn't hurt either.
Thank you for your time.

Always something good

I new it wouldn't be long before I would have some material to work with. It's 10 after 9 and Caroline is outside letting her lightening bugs go. Grace peeks over the railing "MOMMY!" then accepts Steve's usual response that I went to the store and heads back to our room. This is a relaxing end to a hectic day. The kicker tonight was Mitchell. I took C & G to the neighbors and M joined us a bit later. He was in their backyard when we saw him run behind the shed and drag something out. It's seemed odd he wanted to practice pitching against the netted backstop but we let him go with it. He dragged it all the way across the yard and propped it against their fence, can you guess why? Yep the neighbor that we share has a pool and he was going to climb the netting to get over the 4 ft picket fence to get to that pool. Fortunately the net was torn on the bottom, so he took off his shoes to get better footing but then his toes got all caught up. We stood with amazement and I shook my head, thanking God we went with the 6th privacy fence. We have at least another year before we have to place a dome over the yard to keep him in.

June 28, 2011

Here I am starting my blog. I first had the idea in Dec of 2009 and in typical Jen fashion did not get around to it until now. I have so much to say and not enough people to listen so here I am. I will try not to bore you with the mundane but the Ivey life is rarely that. So many wonderful people have given to me & I hope to do the same with sharing our story.