You Might Be a Disabled Mom if...

There are so many common experiences for every mother, but there are a few that I find myself giggling about because of their unique circumstances.

• You've burned your lap bringing dinner to the table.

• Sometimes it is safer for the 3 year old to carry something than Mommy depending on terrain.
• You've ever balanced on one leg/one crutch/up a step on wheels while your kid spotted you.
• You take your little one to more of your doctor's appointments than their own.
• You were excited when your child could help you put your shoes on.
• You've tossed imaginary objects (keys, potions, jewels) to the jungle gym from the playground bench
• You fall down just as much as as your toddler.
• You were surprised how quickly your kid was better at walking than you are.
• You've bent over to pick up a toy and rolled over your own foot.
• You've been tangled wheelchair around laptop cord, purse around crutch handle, foot through cord and simultaneously ripped something from the wall/dumpped something while hitting the deck.
• You clean to gain passage through a room rather than for tidiness
• Your kid is the only kid on the playground who gets hurts, gets up and comes to Mommy before she cries
• Your kid has left you stranded by running away with your means of transportation (Usually while you're on the toilet or in bed).
• Your kid thinks Mommy's picture is all over the parking lots
• If you're skilled at pushing something on wheels while you yourself are on wheels
• Your kids can literally push you around!
• Your kid squeals with glee at the novelty of being given permission to climb a flight of stairs in a public building rather than ride the elevator again
• Your child learned to walk on your walker

I know there's more...help me out disabled parents

Mother's Day 2013

How things change, mainly the kids ages and the length of my hair. In all seriousness we have a lot of really big changes on the horizon so it felt good to maintain some traditions. I got flowers and home made cards from the kids. We had a special breakfast and visits with grandparents. We took our annual photo and had a picnic. It was a really beautiful day.

It occurred to me recently that I'll had an opportunity to establish an identity apart from "mother of two" soon. Well, to be fair I always have had the opportunity, but now I'm likely to take advantage. I am Mom and a real person. Even if the kids don't know me apart from the one who cleans up and feeds them, i'm getting reacquainted. I gave myself a pat on the back this year for all my hard work. I'm so grateful for the time my kids have been my whole world, but I look forward to my world just revolving around them.

While digging up old Mother's Day photos I read some old posts and found this gem: best mother's day memory.

"It Is Fun To Have Fun, But You Have To Know How"

Bounce House!! Slide!! Balloons!! Face Painting!! Pony Rides!! Hot Dogs!! Dance Party!! It was like a kid triathlon! My pin balls bounced from exciting thing to exciting thing, filled their bellies and then danced off the calories. Good. Day.

From Rapunzel to Reasonable

We had a VERY busy week this week. One of the other highlights was that Miss Riley got her first haircut. She was very matter of fact about the whole affair. She started requesting a haircut about two months ago. With the weather getting increasingly hotter I figured it was time for us both to get a trim. We went to see the same woman who gave me my first haircut. She sat still, got her trim and then sweetly requested two braids.

Before & After

Foot Fail

Tired of all the cute kid happenings and pictures? Good, I have an update on the used car of a body I'm working with. I am fairly certain the trouble started when the Ortho had the nerve to put my hip IN the socket after a lifetime of the ball and socket sitting demurely next to each other. Clearly, having the ball in the hip socket is best. That's where it is meant to be kept, but my body reacts strangely to everything. In my hip bone went to it's intended residence and off went my already wacky balance. Typically, I would distort my gait in any way needed to compensate, but my spine no long has the ability to be flexible. As you can imagine it's tricky. Nothing happens in a vacuum and this is the chain of events we'll follow to get to the next. The orthopedic spider web of cause and effect.

As a result of the elimination of my hip pain my feet started to pronate last year. I'd been having ankle pain off and on for a bit by the time I really took notice last February, in physical therapy of all places. My therapist answered that my shoes were collapsing inward because my feet were pronating. This was explained with as much concern as if he'd said my elbow itched because of a mosquito bite. Pronation is extremely common most people have a mild case at some point in their life. I was preparing for a wedding and had bigger fish to fry orthopedically so onto the back burner it went.

It was not until last summer that I even mentioned it to the Ortho. He wrote me a prescription for shoes and inserts to take to his "shoe guy." I tossed that into the black hole of my purse and, as any mother of two would have done, promptly put that errand on the end of the priority list. Soon after I got new sneakers and the problem got a lot easier to ignore. The new shoes had far less give than the old worn out ones and my feet were trapped in a more normal position.

Fast forward to this month when those same shoes are wore out and the problem is much harder to ignore. I tried anyway. There were other things to spend the time and money on. The tendon in my ankle now had a well established habit of swelling and preventing me from baring weight periodically. Usually it does this when I attempt to exit the car or get off the toilet after I've been on my feet a while, fun huh? I ignored it anyway. Until this week when two nights in a row the ankle pain gave way to spasms up both legs. The spasms went on for 6hrs the first time, over 24hrs the next and seemed unaffected by muscle relaxers.

Mike was scared and the internet only fueled his fears (MS, Cancers, etc...). I tried to tell him that it was my CP body's way of getting me to deal with the pronation issue after I'd overdone it once or twice. I still made no move to seek out the "shoe guy" for a day or two. It was a horrific nightmares while the spasms continued through the night that finally gave me a kick me in the butt. I called down and then raced over with Roo in tow that morning. I fully expected to write a check and walk out with some ugly shoes and slowly start to feel better.

As is often the case, I was wrong. The shoe guy was very nice, despite me bursting in the door and spilling my coffee. He simply explained he had nothing in my size and couldn't even order it. Sigh. He told me I needed rigid frame shoes with good heel support, not my usual sneakers. I was on my own to find them in my size, but once I did he could customize inserts for them easily. I had no idea how difficult a task he'd laid at my freakishly tiny feet.

Several diligent searches later and much hair pulling I've got nothing. A boot? I can't even tie a sneaker. Hmmm...orthopedic shoes for children? They start a size and a half bigger than my feet in most cases. Custom pediatric orthopedic shoes? We just tightened out belts for summer and it's not in the budget. Get a new pair of sneakers and hope it gets better for a while? Great plan except with the pain and spasms I'm beginning to fear permanent damage to my feet. AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! This was supposed to be the easy one to fix.

"t"s Crossed & "i"s Dotted

More then getting the offspring out of the house, their summer plans are milestones this year. I enjoyed having summer camp at home last summer, but this year my birdies will spend much more time out of the nest. As of this week the kids are all signed up/turned in/registered/deposited/squared away/sorted/set for the summer. There will be camps for big brother. He'll be splitting his summer between two different summer camps to make the most of their sciency offerings. He's been waiting a million years to be old enough for the Lego robotics course and his time has finally arrived! He's top dog now, going into 5th grade in the fall. So exciting! There will be preschool for Little Miss. Now that it's official all there is left to do is wait.

In just under a month things will be different forever. Emotionally, logistically and financially. There's no going back. Riley will be in school five days a week and Isaac will finish elementary school. My children are growing up. I will be driving them to opposite sides of town this summer instead of them being five minutes away. I will be missing my little Roo like crazy now that she'll have a big kid schedule. I'll have to pack two lunches starting this summer. With kindergarten and middle school on the horizon reality is not so much setting in as smacking me in the face.

With the water fowl lined up for the kids' plans I feel a lot of pressure to "figure it all out". What will I do with the opportunity to do more? What will it be like...For now I'm hoping to get some pressing medical issues tended to and go back to yoga. I'm not imagining any huge changes right away. I'm not worried about the kids at all, just me. I know we've made all the right decisions and the kids will have a lot of fun while learning and growing this summer. I plan to make the most of our time together too. I've written as many free activities as I could squeeze on the calendar in addition to their weekly schedules. I'm looking forward to the renewed sense of appreciation that time apart brings. I'm also, as ever, looking forward to our next adventure.

Preschool countdown, bah-na-ba-ba-bah!

Handy Riley

Riley and I went to a building workshop at Home Depot, just us girls. The last time we attempted to participate in a workshop it was at a competing hardware store and I was outnumbered 2:1. It took place in December so the kids weren't following their normal schedules. I shouldn't have been surprised that a newly 10yr old Isaac had a meltdown when the nails didn't just jump into place themselves. It doesn't rank among my favorite parenting moments. The experience led me to two conclusions: 1) Home Depot Kids Workshops are better and 2) Isaac was not invited to anymore building workshops.

I'm often amazed at the tiny human I produced. She loves tools, craft projects, gardening and having her independence recognized. She is such a great mix of her father and I. She's my partner in adventure. This little trip was no different. We went to build a wooden herb planter. Home Depot even provided a packet of seeds to plant in it. Miss Roo and I arrived right on time and got a space right up front. It was bit of a balancing act with Roo, my purse, my crutches, and tools/materials. Everyone was extremely helpful. It was a very straight forward project. Riley was thrilled to wield the tiny screwdriver they provided.

Once it was together it was time to paint! You better believe Little Miss was excited. She used a whole rainbow of colors (mostly pinks) and did her best to cover every inch of her planter. While her masterpiece dried we tossed rings and bean bags. It was incredibly pleasant morning. Riley earned a certificate and a pin for completing the workshop. She chose a packet of rosemary seeds. My little builder was as pleased as she could be with the finished product.

Earth Day

I know I'm late on this post, but I thought since Earth Day happened recently it was a good time to share. The other day while reading Dora's Earth Day to Riley I realized we're pretty green around here. We've been doing curbside recycling for almost two years. I LOVE it. Totally worth the $45 dollars a year. We used to collect our recyclables and haul them down to the collection center every two or so weeks. I find we recycle a lot more when we know we only have to have room in the bin for a week's worth of stuff. It's nice to keep all those papers that come home from school, junk mail and cardboard food packages from the landfill. So, there's that obvious one.

Any paper with some reasonable blank space goes into the kids "Art Cupboard" and we have a project box for other reusable materials. I like to save good bottles and boxes for Riley's play kitchen. Things like kids vitamins, lemon juice containers, spice bottles and jello boxes. Plus they are way more authentic than the ones from the toy store. We print on both sides of a piece of printer paper before we recycle it when we remember. I wrap birthday presents in the comics and I've found that kids like it better anyway. I wash and reuse any food containers with lids too. Those are my favorites for handing out baked goods in. Here's a picture of some goodies I made my neighbors at Christmas. One is in a Llyods Pulled Pork container the other is in a Country Crock Mashed Potatoes, but a card and some ribbon later they're even cute.

We keep an eye on lights and water usage, but every family on a budget does that. Isaac walks to school and Mike works from home most days, but again that's more to do with the budget than the environment. Sometimes you can help the Earth and the budget equally though. We grow our own herbs and some fruits and veggies. So far we've had mulberries, pumpkins, strawberries, scallions, tomatoes and collards. Soon we'll have limes, avocado, corn, sprouts and cucumbers. I really can't say enough for picking fresh produce and than eating it. It's so much tastier, healthier and cost effective. Now we've got to start some serious composting.

We donate or pass on clothes, toys, shoes and even expired coupons. My expired coupons get mailed to a US military base in Italy where they have an additional 6mo to redeem them. Between family, friends, charity drives and consignment stores everything the kids grow out of gets passed on. It's nice to see them being used and it's good kharma.

Riley and I try to always pick up litter when it's safe to do so and we always throw ours in the proper receptacle. The kids have lunch boxes not paper bags (but if they did we'd recycle them). However, in the book Dora's Daddy washes and reuses her sandwich bags. I don't do that, but now I get the bento box craze. We try to get recyclable items when we buy disposable. We almost always have plastic cups that can be recycled. I think we'll cut back on paper plates when we get a dish washer (soon I'm told). I always take my own canvas bags to the store. They hold more and some places still have incentives for using your own. If someone does come home with a plastic bag we use it or recycle it. Plastic bags and foam have to be recycled in special bins at the grocery store, but it's not like I'm not there every week any way.

How do you do your part? I'd love to here your green ideas.

Everybody Do The Dinosaur

Prepare to feel old...ready? Jurassic Park just celebrated it's 20th anniversary!! I can vividly remember clutching my Dad's hand in the theater during the raptor scene. To say seeing that movie had an impact on me would be an understatement. An impact not unlike my inability to stay submerged in water for any length of time without hearing the Jaws theme. Ripples in the water glass people, ripples in the water glass. We had a date night to see it during Jurassic Park's brief theatrical re-release.

My response to acquiring a 3D TV was "when are we getting Jurassic Park?". I absolutely did acquire it on 3D Blu Ray the day it was released. So worth the wait. I don't think it's as scary as I remember in 2D, but total worth re-watching. In 3D at night it is exactly as scary as I remember.

While Mike and I were out running an incredibly romantic Home Depot errand we saw this:

I was sooo excited to have found the Jurassic Park jeep. I kept asking Mike what it could be doing there and his guess what "picking up a dino pooper scooper." It turns out, they DO carry them. Home Depot for all your dinosaur needs.

I think it's sweet that not only did Riley make T-rex some "wunch", but she made sure to put a bib on him first. Doesn't everyone's 3yr old girl have a a stuffed T-rex?

Dr. Ian Malcolm: "John, the kind of control you're attempting simply is... it's not possible. If there is one thing the history of evolution has taught us it's that life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through barriers, painfully, maybe even dangerously, but, uh... well, there it is."