I Gotta Take Care Of My Momma!!!

These last few days (and weeks) have been a big rush where we've accomplished nothing... And a lot!

We got the kids established in school. C is attending 1st grade now rather than kindergarten because there is another 6 year old girl who is in 1st grade in a local school. We were struggling to give C the opportunity to learn further communication skills, social skills and educational skills while not forcing her to travel for 3 or so hours each day. We, in fact, had determined our best route for C was to simply mainstream her in our local school with an interpreter and hope for the best. Fortunately, though, there is a family living nearby who is deaf (C and I actually met them last night... I'll tell you all about that further down). Their daughter is the child with whom C is attending school. M is in the school here in town, but we decided to place him in kindergarten instead of 1st grade (which is where he was at back in Washington). He's finding the grade to be too easy, but at least he won't be made fun of when he repeats 1st grade (which he desperately needs). In addition, he gets to be in the same classroom as one of his cousins!!! That was pretty exciting for M. He's still a bit embarrassed about being placed back in kindergarten but I explained to him that the teacher really needed his help for the little kids. I think that helped boost his ego a bit and made the "demotion" a bit easier to handle. Both C's and M's teachers are fabulous and are both working hard on behalf of our kiddos... And the kiddos are really enjoying their placements.

My parents are still in Mexico... Having way too much fun, I'm sure. We're staying in their house while they are gone but will be moving into their guesthouse as soon as they return (Dad needs to get the gas line for our new gas fireplace hooked up and bled before I can use it). I have the TV and internet scheduled to be connected on the morning of the 16th and only need to get the gas tank filled, the hot water turned on and the phone connected before I can be comfortable up there.

Matt got off perfectly fine. He arrived back in Washington on Friday afternoon. One of his (our) friends picked him up and took him to the car rental place on post so he could have transportation for the week or so before he deploys. He's staying with yet another friend who is being wonderful by helping us out in this way. It's saving us loads of money and gives Matt a more friendly environment to hang out in instead of being lonely for the next 10 days or so.

Last night we attended a Deaf Social. We had a blast!!! It was great fun being able to sign and practice my receptive skills. I (quite literally) learned about 60 new ligns, though, to be honest, I can only recall about 25 or 30 of them... Not bad in my book! That just goes to show me that I can learn far more when there are others with whom I can communicate rather than simply trying to learn from a book. My biggest challenge is to learn how to use ASL while speaking. That is a huge challenge!!! We were at the pizza joint for just over 2 hours and by the time I arrived home my arms were aching from signing so much and my brain was fried from trying to think in both English AND ASL. But, again, I had a blast!

M and C spent most of the day with my sister and her family yesterday. They had way too much fun. The fun continued for M since he was invited to spend the night with them, too... It was his first sleep over at someone else's house and he loved it! He did come home quite shaken up with his asthma so we're struggling to get that back under control. He always gets a big asthma attack when we're here for any lengthy time, so I should have started his treatments as soon as we got here to help prevent this very thing. But, I was being a neglectful mother and didn't get it done. So, now we're playing "cure" instead of "prevention".

Anyway, last night my brother-in-law invited M, C and me to go to the snow with their gang. I preferred not to go because baby makes me super car sick (and the road to Tahoe can be terrible in that arena). But, I said M and C were more than welcome to go since this might be the last time they get to see their cousin (my brother-in-law is off to basic in a couple of weeks so Little Man might have to stay with his mother who, sadly, won't allow him to visit his step-family).

My sister and her gang showed up to pick up my niece and C. I was surprised, to say the least, when M walked in the door and said, "I not going, Momma." He generally loves the snow and will grab any opportunity to play in it. My sister pipes up with, "I'm not too sure he's feeling very well." I took one look at his face and utterly agreed... His asthma had blown out of proportion and he's now feverish. But, he didn't tell anyone that he was feeling poorly. His reason for not going to the snow with Auntie, Uncle and the kids was based solely on the fact that Daddy had a conversation with him before leaving for Iraq.

So, what did M say to Auntie when she asked if he wanted to go with them?

"Is Momma going?"
"No, Baby," Aunte replied.
"Who going to stay with my momma?"
"Nobody, Honey. Mommy's going to take a nap and rest for a bit while we're playing in the snow."
"Oh, I can't go. Daddy told me I need to stay home and take care of my Momma. He say I can't go to the snow."

Sure enough, his daddy did give him the whole "Man Of The House" speach and poor M has taken it almost literally (although I think the fact that he is sick and that he had been out of my presence for longer than 24 hours played a part in his decison making, too). So, I immediately called Matt and told him that he needed to clarify M's job of "staying home to take care of Momma", which he did!