LaLaGirl – Twinfinite Chaos! Parenting Multiples and Dealing with Autism

Well. Here we are. Friday! A week ago at this time, Mallory was being diagnosed with pneumonia, Pablo was in the middle of a bad spell with his reactive airway disease, and the little girls were coughing like a pair of barking seals. And little did we know that day, that in just another twelve hours, we’d be rushing Pablo to the ER because of major abdominal distress. Our house was like a sick ward, with the smell of Vicks Vaporub hanging thickly in the air, the constant hum of the humidifier, and that loud ass nebulizer buzzing away every four hours, right on schedule.

Contrast that with today! The kids are using the toybox lid as a sled, and sliding down the entire flight of stairs to the basement. The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my little barrel of monkeys finally seems to feel better. It’s about fucking time, that’s all I have to say about that. I’m not certain we’re completely in the clear, as Pablo was just running a fever yesterday – but we’re 180 degrees from where we were a week ago.

We’re midway through the big kids’ track off from school. They got out on March 26th, and they don’t go back until April 20th. That’s three long weeks to spend at home with mom, and the last time they tracked off from school, I damned near lost my MIND! Of course, they were off for FIVE weeks that time, and it was right as we were moving into our new house. This time seems to be going a little better, in spite of the fact that we’re living in the quarantine house.

I fully expected to be clawing at the walls by now, after the seemingly endless snow and cold wind we had that first week, and the whiny sicko children this whole second week. But here we are. Just one week to go, and I’m already feeling sad about them going BACK to school! What? What’s going on here? Shouldn’t I be doing pirouettes around the living room at the very idea of restoring a small amount of order to my house? I’m not at all! I’m really ENJOYING having my kids all home, watching them make up little games and stories, doing art projects, destroying my house.

I’ve only got one week left with them! We need to really make next week COUNT! We’ve got to make our museum trip! We need to plant flowers! We need to ride our bikes to the park! We need to go get haircuts and eat sushi and buy new shoes! And we need to do it SOON, before we start wearing on each other’s nerves!

We’ll see what tune I’m singing NEXT Friday, when they’re heading back to school after the weekend!

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I feel like I’m missing out on all kinds of stuff lately! First was the kids’ graduation and last week of school – we were on vacation, of course. And Kayley missed out on taking her finals, so she had to do them Monday and Tuesday of this week, which were her last two days of school. I’m not sure if she missed out on any fun stuff while she was doing that, but she still came home with lots of pictures of her friends on her new pink digital camera and lots of signatures in her yearbook, so I guess she was okay. (Also? Wow. My kid is old enough to have a yearbook full of signatures like, “I signed your crack!” and “Stay cool and have the best summer ever!” She seems so grown up all of a sudden.)

So, yeah – Tuesday was the last day of school for Kayley, and I went to pick her up at noon. Kids were running around all crazy everywhere, hugging one another and signing yearbooks and all of that. And what fun-filled activity did I have planned for Kayley’s first afternoon of summer break? We went to Costco! Woohoo!! On my way home from Costco, I stopped at the mailbox and there was an issue of Family Fun magazine in there, with an article all about fun things to do on the last day of school. One mom made a big “Welcome to Summer Vacation!” banner and hung it across the front of the porch, so the kids could run through it. There was another idea about attacking kids with water guns as they got off the bus. Fun ideas, and dammit! It came too late for me! Oh well.

And then, I got this awesome box of goodies in the mail to review from Prestone, for their new “Get Road Ready” campaign – I’ll be posting about all of it soon on my review blog, but damn – there was some stuff I seriously could have used two weeks ago! A bunch of games to play on the road, some additive for your fuel tank, a cute little utility light that plugs into the cigarette lighter, etc. And then! I got another little DVD in the mail yesterday to review for Team Mom – it’s a DVD intended to be viewed on the road, while on vacation. Ha! Of course I would get it in the mail the week after we get back from our huge road trip.

As if that weren’t enough, I drove past the municipal pool on my way to pick up Kayley from her last day of school, and it was full of kids, splashing around and hootin’ and hollerin’. It looked so clean and pristine and refreshing. I thought, great! Kayley’s friend Taylor is staying a couple of nights over here – we’ll all go to the pool. Welcome, Summer! But, no. It’s been rainy the past two days and the pool has been closed. D’oh! And Kayley’s leaving tomorrow for yet another vacation, this time with her dad. So I guess I shouldn’t worry that she isn’t having any summer fun yet.

Sooooo, I’m just putting this out to the universe: I’m home! I’m back from my vacation. Feel free to let me in on the cool shit NOW, while I’m HERE.

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