All I wanted for Mother's Day was a freakishly huge snowstorm

 Saturday: 70°F, pleasant, mild day. Dark clouds on the horizon...rain and snow in the forecast.

 No need to wear clothes outside!

 By that night, the storm had rolled in. Luke fell asleep watching its progress. The snow had started, but surely it would only be a few flurries! It's the middle of May after all!

 Early the next morning: our poor little red maple tree in the corner is bent over double, as are our trees in the front yard. There's at least six inches of wet, heavy snow.

 Our awning caved in! Aaack!!

 Mark gets to spend a couple of hours shoveling and sweeping and doing damage control.

 

 The awning cover was ripping, and he ended up just having to cut it off. We have a new, spare cover we can use, but we still need to evaluate if the bars will even hold it up. They have been bent quite badly.

 Oh yeah...it's Mother's Day! Madelyn helps get everyone breakfast. She and Luke and Mark have cards and treats for me. :)

 It continued to snow all through the afternoon. We probably got at least 9 inches.

 Church ended up being cancelled except for Sacrament meeting--the FIRST TIME any part of church has been cancelled here for weather reasons. There were so many people with broken trees that the men spent the rest of the day going door to door with saws and clippers to help clean up the mess. We're lucky that we didn't have any power outages like a lot of other people did.

Mark made Minecraft Creeper rice crispy treats with the kids. He's fighting a cold so he napped the rest of the afternoon instead of cleaning up the neighborhood.

 

 Ironically, we did not get much snow during the winter, so the kids were happy for an excuse to play outside and get as wet and cold as possible.

 They built an Olaf snowman!

 I love those silly kids. So glad to be their mom.

 

 Today, things have mostly melted already (it's supposed to get up to 80°F later this week) and Luke is back to clothing-optional attire. He just can't resist going back out there to eat more snow.

 My favorite picture of my mom with Madelyn, who was 6 months old.

Hope the rest of you had a slightly warmer Mother's Day! So grateful for all the amazing women in my life!

Madelyn Lately

She thinks that after school snacks = frozen treats. Here she demonstrates her ability to eat an ice cream sandwich in about four bites.

Madelyn (9) is almost done with 3rd grade! Holy moly! And I have been pregnant the entire school year. THAT IS A LONG TIME. But I digress.

Her big news lately is #1: she is about to finish her 6 month course of low dose amoxicillin tomorrow!!!! 6 months is ALSO A REALLY LONG TIME. Ugh, we are sooooooo ready to be done with it. She had to go on it because of her recurring UTIs she had last year. She had at least six or seven in a row due to some E.coli bacteria that just would not go away. So fingers crossed that the infections won't come back once she goes off the meds. Because wouldn't that just be lovely!

Big news #2: she was recently diagnosed with ADD. Now, she is a great kid---very compassionate, kind, loving, smart, artistic and spunky. But, um.....she has always been rather high-strung. If you knew her as a toddler, then you know what I'm talking about. I think the Good Lord sent her to me first to teach me patience. (So that when Luke came along I'd be able to laugh off all of his antics...) Those two are nearly five years apart for a reason! I could not handle another stubborn diva any sooner!

Anyway, I'd never even considered that she might have ADD. True, she has a hard time controlling her emotions (her teacher tells her she has "soft feelings"), and can be quite the drama queen. But aren't a lot of girls that way?? Then one day on facebook, I mentioned about how she'd have dramatic meltdowns during math homework all the time. My friend Nadia messaged me and said that her son Beckham, who is Madelyn's age, just started getting treated for anxiety and ADHD, and it had helped his outbursts a lot. Her husband is a psychiatrist and I knew they knew what they were talking about.

So just out of curiosity, I researched it a little. I found this website helpguide.org and was blown away as I started reading. Myth #1: All kids with ADD/ADHD are hyperactive (Madelyn isn't hyperactive or impulsive.) Myth #2: Kids with ADD/ADHD can never pay attention. (Madelyn excels in subjects she enjoys, like reading, science and art. But she struggles to pay attention in math because it's left brained and more difficult/boring for her.)

I kept reading, and found that she has a lot of the symptoms of Inattentive ADD, like

• Has trouble staying focused; is easily distracted (she can't pay attention if there's any noise/TV on/other students talking)
• Appears not to listen when spoken to (she is excellent at tuning us out!)
• Has difficulty remembering things and following instructions (you have to ask her a dozen times to do something)
• Has trouble staying organized, planning ahead, and finishing projects (she can't do certain things on her own very well, she gets overwhelmed/distracted)
• Gets bored with a task before it’s completed (her 1st grade teacher wanted her to be in an advanced reading group, but Madelyn could never independently finish her bell work so she couldn't participate.)
• Frequently loses or misplaces homework, books, toys, or other items (She is getting better at this...)

Also, red flags about her crying super easily--which gets her teased at school--her tendency to daydream constantly, and her constant struggles to get to the bathroom on time....they all started to make sense once I considered that it might be because she has ADD. It's always driven Mark and I crazy that we would send her to go get dressed for bed or school, and ten minutes later, you check on her and she's just sitting there on the toilet, staring off into space. Until 2nd grade, I just had to go in and physically get her dressed every morning or else it would take way too long.

 

With her BFF Danzi Holt

She is actually a lot better than she used to be in a lot of ways, but as Mark and I talked about it, he realized that he was exactly the same way at her age (plus he had dyslexia and testing anxiety). This sort of thing runs in families. So we decided to bring her in for a consultation with Mark's coworker Darlene, a nurse practitioner. 

Darlene was very helpful, told us that she has a daughter who is the same way, and had us fill out an evaluation. She offered to have us try some Ritalin to see if it helped at all.

Within two days of her starting the medication, she was coming home from school saying, "Mom! I was able to pay attention in math today!" and, "Let's do my homework!!" At this point, I was like, "WHO ARE YOU?!?!"  It appears the medicine was working. Darlene said that Ritalin (and Adderall) works as a replacement for dopamine in the brain, which kids with ADD/ADHD have a shortage of.

We had to cut her dose in half (she's now taking 10mg, a very low dose) because it was causing her some tummy troubles, but it still seems to help. I had a conference with her teacher and the school counselor after Mark and I had done some further evaluations, and her teacher said that she noticed Madelyn's confidence level in math had gone up immediately after she started the medication. Hurray!! Math last year was a huge, stressful ordeal every single day and she pretty much flunked it the entire year. She would do fine in homework when I was there with her talking through each problem, but she'd fail on her own because it was a lot of timed tests and "facts". Ugh, it was so awful, and it was causing her a lot of tears and stress and worry.

We are working with the school now to get her a 504 established. I'm not 100% sure what that is...it is different from an SEP, which is for kids with learning disabilities. Basically, I think it will allow her special accommodations during testing, like more time and a quiet environment. It should follow her throughout the rest of her public school career. That is what I wanted most for her--just a little extra help so that she doesn't end up hating and dreading school. (Hopefully no more of this, "I hate math! I wish it had never been invented! When I'm dead I'll never have to do math again!!!")

It has been over a month now, and even though she only takes the medicine on school days and it's wearing off by the time she gets home off the bus, it's made homework time much easier, and has increased her creativity even more. It's even seemed to help with her bathroom issues (staying clean and dry), which is GREAT because we were at our wit's end trying to figure out why she seemed to ignore her body's signals to stop what she's doing to use the potty. Hopefully the UTIs will not come back because of that.

 

She adores that cat! She is going to be a huge help when the baby comes, too.

  

 

 They always go to bed together. Tiger loves to sleep right by her head.

So that's her big update. I would tell any parent who suspects that their kid may have this to research and get it checked out--it might make a huge difference in their childhood and beyond.

Luke Lately

 I was going to do updates on both kids, but Luke clearly needed his own post. That boy has had some world class shenanigans lately. Some of these I've posted on facebook already, but he has produced a lot of fresh material for the blog as well.

 My precioussssssssss

 Still loves for me to hold him while he sleeps. Aw! Except I don't have a lap anymore to speak of, and he crushes me more than anything.

 The weather finally cracked 70° last month, so of course he needed to run in the sprinklers. If I remember correctly, he ended up with a cold after this...

Yup. Mom of the year!

 This happens basically every time I try to change my sheets. He has been known to completely strip the bed in order to crawl under there, too.

 He trashes his room like this several times a week. I don't know WHY other than he has just felt a primal need to destroy since he was able to crawl. 

 This is demonstrating how far he made it into the house from the garage after running errands before taking off his pants. I swear I do dress him, he just likes his "skin". And then every time we have to go somewhere I have to track down his clothes and talk him into getting them on again. So fun.

 And here is the "who, me??" face of someone who has just taken apart all 22 of mom's stash of cotton filled jewelry boxes.

 This is where he spends a lot of time (although usually not in his lawn chair) and you can see the debris.....a pile of his discarded clothes, food, toys and little bits of paper on the floor. If he finds a napkin, paper towel or paper, he bites off chunks of it and leaves spitwads everywhere.

He and Madelyn were watching "Peppa Pig" which is actually a very cute show and full of adorable  British accents, but he has been watching SO MUCH lately that I had Peppa dreams/nightmares last night. True story.

 Mark took the kids to see The Muppets Most Wanted matinee last weekend, and Luke decided to wear his superhero cape. He was very wiggly the last hour of the movie and kept getting up to wander the aisles. Madelyn used to do the same thing!

Luke using my garlic press as a Play-Doh "spaghettier". He and Madelyn got a dozen "spaghettiers" and "frostiers" for Easter but he insisted on using my garlic press this time. Sometimes I just have to let him get things out of his system.

 And here's he and daddy washing the car, moments before soaking Mark with the hose. I don't think he meant to, but it happened twice in a row...

 Coming in from outside where he had been eating a fudgesicle and getting wet and dirty. This is pretty much how things go every day during the summer. He looks very pleased with himself.

 Brushing up on his Cyrillic (Russian) alphabet on YouTube. That boy finds the most random things to watch.

This is his green monkey Luigi ("Weegee"), his blue monkey Toad and his teddy bear Mario, along with a plastic snake and a Nerf gun which he told me was his "sniper rifle". Okay....

 Madelyn made paper crowns for him and Luigi and it was very cute.

Okay, so this week, he has gone above and beyond. I don't know what on earth has possessed him, but I am to the point where I'd like to trade him in once I have the baby so I can stop having to clean up after him. Mark says he can sense he's about to be usurped.

 We had to rearrange in his room and closet to make room for QQ's clothes, and so his little bookshelf was suddenly there in plain view all the time. He thought, "I MUST TAKE OUT ALL THE BOOKS", and last night he thought "I MUST TAKE OUT ALL THE PUZZLES" (and always "I MUST DUMP OUT ALL THE TOYS") and sometimes he even unmakes his bed for good measure. I don't know why we bother cleaning his room at all anymore, other than that it's a booby trap and I don't want anyone to get hurt.

 We got out the baby gear and he has been rediscovering his old things. No matter how many times we told him he was too heavy, he'd be climbing in the swing. So we had to stick it back out in the garage. (I found Madelyn sitting in it, too.)

 We set up the playpen and at first the mattress was at the bottom and I let him climb in. But once we inserted the baby bassinet feature, he wanted to get in and tried really hard to take it all apart, but it was "difficult". Then he told me he wished he were an angel, "because they can pass right through things" and can apparently disobey their moms more easily that way.

 Why hide under the side table and squirt the couches with a water bottle?? WHY NOT?!

 Yesterday, I took all the couch cushion covers off to wash them, and told him approximately 23 times to stay off the cushions. So of course I look over and he's peeling the batting off of one of them, which got him sent to his room, but...

Later I found this! Our poor couch!

 That would be because he threw it up there.

 Last Saturday when I was babysitting my nieces and not in the room, he came out of the bathroom with a bottle of gel hand sanitizer, squirted out too much and got it all over our side table, and then smeared it around and stood up in it with his bare feet. The white spots are still there, and trust me, they look better than they did when I first discovered that it was ruining the wood. 

**Serenity Now**

 And tonight, Mark got out the baby car seat and stroller, which came with lots of cardboard pieces, and so he spent an hour or two whacking away with his plastic toy hammer, destroying the cardboard and being as loud as possible. It's a good thing we don't share any walls with the neighbors.

 And then he had to play in the giant box, and kept requesting that we shut the lid. He had his pin art toy, a sippy cup of water, a plastic screwdriver and a flashlight, and later his huge Ringwraith sword, so I guess he was all set.

 THEN (last minute addition because this happened last night after midnight) I was going to bed and turned the fan on in our bedroom and it started making the biggest racket. Mark discovered a magnetic number 9 and a Nerf dart shoved inside of it.

I love that boy to pieces, but heaven help me if QQ takes after her brother!! Oy!!

The home stretch

 37.5 weeks!

 It's been about three weeks since a pregnancy post, and I am in full panic mode! Hurray!

I had an OB appointment yesterday, and Dr. Sanders asked if I'd like to be induced next Wednesday at 38.5 weeks. I was like, "UM, YES." But then he had to ask permission from "on high" (the government, who regulates these things now) and it was not approved. Sigh.....

My heart condition is such now that when I have an episode, instead of the usual 120 beats per minute, it often gets up to 150. And it happens several times a day. After I take a shower, it takes nearly an hour for my body to stabilize again. When I went to my appointment, I had just been in the shower before that, so I was still dizzy and my blood pressure and heart rate were all over the place. It sort of worked out in my favor, because now I'm pretty sure that at the very least I will be induced at 39 weeks, which is in TEN DAYS. (May 12th)

Hence, the panic. I feel like I need to be ready anyways, because Luke came on his own at 38.5 weeks and I'm already dilated to a two. I have been nesting like crazy, cleaning and sewing and shopping, washing her clothes and blankets, etc. I have stockpiled enough supplies and food to last the baby-pocalypse. I am still not 100% ready, but I'm getting there. But for some reason, people feel like telling me that it's "not a big deal" if I don't have everything ready, that it will all just "work out" even if I don't have a place for her to sleep or clothes for her to wear or clean bottles by the time she comes, or arrangements made for the other kids. (??!????) Well EXCUSE ME for wanting to have some peace of mind during labor and delivery! People!

(They obviously don't realize that I am sort of OCD challenged anyway, even when I'm not pregnant.)

 QQ at 35 weeks

I had another ultrasound at 35 weeks. Everything still looks fine, except that instead of measuring two days ahead like she did in all the other ultrasounds...now she's measuring eight days behind, putting my estimated due date at May 27th instead of the 19th. Aaaack, nooo.....

During the last month in my previous pregnancies, my other two kids slowed way down in their growth, too. I was expecting this, and my doctor doesn't seem concerned. My fundal height is a week and a half behind, too, and I've sort of stopped gaining weight. My body is just maxed out.

And yet I have random people telling me all the time, "You don't look miserable enough to be done yet!" (Actual quote from a middle aged man in my ward.) (Spin 25 different versions of the same comment.)

Thanks.

Actually I am feeling quite big and awkward and slow and tired and sore and sometimes very miserable. Aside from the heart issues, my hands and feet are swollen so that my wedding ring and several pairs of shoes don't fit anymore. And so many lovely spider veins! My inner thigh muscles have never been so sore. If I sit for more than 20 minutes (doesn't matter if it's a hard or a soft chair), then my deep hip muscles and ligaments seize up and I can't even stand or walk, and I get shooting sciatic pains. I have to hobble around, bent over like the Hunchback of Cedar City. My tailbone and hip sockets are completely out of whack. Sitting in church for 3 hours is a nightmare!! I think I will go one more time and then excuse myself... Also, because of all my near fainting nonsense, Dr. Sanders is recommending an epidural this time (to which I heartily agreed) and told me to hustle to the hospital as soon as anything happens, so we don't have another Luke situation on our hands.

So now that the baby swing is set up, her things are washed and my bags are on the verge of being packed, reality is setting in. I won't be pregnant forever, and for that I am extremely grateful! Now who wants to come be a surrogate mom for my other kids while they finish their last three weeks of school???