Just Rewards

He looks well, doesn't he? Today he had blood drawn, and the ring pop was his well-earned reward. He only screamed a little, more in annoyance than pain (thank goodness). The nurses told me he did really well for his age and that they were impressed.

Way back in the fall, when Sawyer went in for his clinical evaluation and received his autism diagnosis, the developmental pediatrician recommended some blood work and testing. It kind of got lost in the weeks that followed, and then the holidays happened. As it had to be ordered by our attending pediatrician anyway, we just decided to wait until the twins three-year well visit the first of the year to get her opinion on the necessity and usefulness of such tests. She thought they were worthwhile, and we agreed to do them.

Rather than torturing all three children by making them watch their brother get stuck, I told her I would work on finding a sitter for the other two and just bring him by the lab when we got a couple of free hours. Then the snow and ice storms followed. Today, Josh happened to be at home for lunch and said he could stay for a while if I wanted to try to get it done. So off we went.

He almost fell asleep in the truck (motion does that to him at times). He was happy in the elevator from the top of the parking garage down to the street. He was unhappy to enter the medical building where we had recently been for our well visit. He apparently remembered that he was none to happy that day. He was even less happy to be in the lab waiting room and was seriously pissed to be in the actually lab room. But I sat down and held him (and he's strong, so that was no easy challenge) and it took just a minute. He was pissed when the needle went in, but soon settled into annoyed whining.

And when it was all over, I pulled out the coveted ring pop. He just stared at it for while, and didn't really start enjoying it until we were safely back in the truck and headed to the house.

But all is now well. He finished the ring pop, ate lunch and has been happily playing and watching Word World. What more is there to life at three?

Snapshot Sunday

Move it or lose it. Sawyer was apparently taking a bit too long for Xander's patience. He decided to give him a "helpful" little shove down the slide. Good times.

The Ones Left Behind

Sawyer drew the lucky straw today. Aunt Kelly came over to get him for an afternoon of fun, which meant going swimming at the indoor pool and stopping for McDonald's lunch afterwards. He loves the pool, and is probably Aunt Kelly's new best friend by now.

That means his brothers did not draw the lucky straw, and they were stuck at home with Mommy.

We tried getting out of the house for a while, but it was a bit cool (mostly because of the wind). I pushed Connor and Xander in the double stroller so we could take Buster out for a little exercise. And we were going to do another lap around the block just walking after we brought Buster back, but the wind was too strong. It was practically knocking the kids down and Connor kept complaining about the cold. So back to the house we came.

Connor had been unhappy since he learned the packed bag on the steps was not for him. He continued to mope once we got back.

Mommy finally brought out one of the special occasion toys (because it's big, bulky and can get annoying after a while) - the bouncy slide. Hours of fun for two little boys (minus a few scrapes that had to be broken up by the referee). And the big boy even forgot, for a little while, that today was not his day.

Modern Conveniences

In today's busy life, you don't realize how much you actually use and rely on something until it doesn't work. Our washing machine decided to stop working a few days ago, and that's not something you want to have with three rough and tumble little boys.

Now this machine is not really that old, in terms of years of ownership, it's maybe four. But, of course, you must factor in that I do at least one load of laundry every single day, and sometimes two or three. We are a family of five, with three accident-prone toddlers and a big, hairy puppy who's bed is washed at least once a week, too.

And, of course, it would have to stop working right in the middle of the twins' first week at school. At three, you send in a change of clothes in case they have an accident or spill something on themselves. At least one twin has come home in that spare outfit each of the three days they've been in school so far. (No sippy cups or bibs at school, if you're wondering how they're suddenly so messy, but that's another story).

The machine also decided to stop right in the middle of a rather large load of half-washed clothes (you know, because we only have two types of laundry in our house - white and not-white). This was the not-white load, and it was our regular day of clothes, pajamas and the kids extra sets of clothes from school.

So, what was I to do with a big load of half-washed laundry and a machine that was broken? I dumped them into the tub in the bathroom across the hall from the laundry room. Then I filled it up with warm water and Tide, and then I washed them all - by hand. My arms still hurt from working with all those clothes (and I'm in pretty decent shape toting around three 40-plus pound boys on a daily basis). Then I drained and rinsed them, before rigging a rather sketchy bungee cord clothesline across the shower to help them drip dry before even attempting to put them in the still-working dryer. Even doing that, it still took twice as long to dry the clothes and I had to break them up into three separate loads instead of the normal one. I can wash them, but I can't replicate that high spin cycle that drains them.

With Josh's birthday last night, we didn't get a chance to look at the machine until today. Turns out it's a broken belt, which should be relatively simple and inexpensive to repair. I've already cleaned out the big mess of black powder that comes with a completely shredded belt, and Josh is going to try to pick up a new one while he's out working this afternoon. Hopefully it will be working again soon.

Which is a good thing, because we're still a messy family of five. I'm not sure how many more loads of laundry I'm willing to do by hand (and this one only makes two)!

Sick Already?

Whether he's trying to get sick or whether he's just sick of going to school we're not sure, but Xander got to come home early today. After all of three whole days (if three-hour school days can be considered as such).

His teacher called this morning about an hour after we had dropped him off, wondering if we'd noticed him not feeling well. I hadn't. Xander's signs of not feeling well are usually pretty obvious - he sleeps (even more than usual), he lays around, he doesn't eat, and he won't touch milk at all. This morning before school, he did none of those things. He ate his dry cereal and milk, he was running around chasing his big brother and playing, and he ate all of his breakfast and another glass of milk.

But, Ms. E seemed concerned. So, I quickly cut short the errands I had planned to run with Connor. We were returning part of Daddy's birthday gift that didn't fit, stopping by the grocery for a few essentials (more cereal), and then picking up Daddy's birthday cake from the bakery downtown. Connor was extremely disappointed, because we didn't get to look at the toys, as promised. We simply purchased what was already in our hands at the grocery and left the other stuff we were going to look at for another time. We did go ahead and run to the bakery, because it was five minutes away and getting in and out with Connor and the cake was hard enough. I don't want to imagine trying to balance a cake and two unhappy toddlers, one who may be getting sick, next to the very busy four-lane road where the bakery is located.

About 20 minutes after the call, we made it back to school to check on Xander. He was definitely not acting like himself (and how wonderful is it that his brand new teacher already recognized that?). He was eating and had been slowly starting to play, but his usual energy and enthusiasm were missing. He was also pulling on both of his ears and running a bit warmer than usual. That's usually not a bad sign, as both of the twins run a bit warmer than Connor ever has, but the combination was questionable. And, better safe than sorry. We don't want him to get any worse if he is starting to get sick, and we certainly don't want to risk the other kids or the teachers in his class if it's anything contagious.

So we came home, and only Sawyer got to stay to enjoy the valentine party at school. Connor and I had been planning to go and visit with both classes during party time, as parents had been invited and welcome. Perhaps another time. We left our store bought cookies (school policy, you can't make anything at home anymore) for the classes to enjoy, and we brought Xander back home.

And though he was a bit calmer than normal, he didn't truly seem sick. He played with Connor for the remainder of the afternoon while we were waiting for school to be over. He jumped right in the truck to go back and pick up Sawyer from school at the end of the day. And he ate a full lunch with the other two after we got back home.

I'm beginning to think he just pulled a fast one on all of us. He wasn't too happy when we pulled up into the carpool line this morning, and he saw where we were. Was that because he didn't feel good, or because he didn't want to go? Who knows.

Right now, he's running around with Connor again, riding his Lightning McQueen truck, and even playing with his blocks. He's saying letters right and left, and though a bit less energetic than usual, seems fine. We'll give him a long weekend to "recover" and then try again next week.

I always knew he was the sneaky one. And the one who would fight school the most . . .