Saturday, March 22, 2008

is it me?

So were dying the Easter Eggs and I tell the boys that they have to go to bed early tonight so the Easter Bunny will come. (oh dear God, please have them go to bed early..)

My older son, who believes in the tooth fairy still, says "yea, we have to go to bed early"

My younger son turns around and says "We know its you, your the one who hides the eggs"

Well, I know the gig is up. We barely made it through Christmas with my younger son blabbing.

My older son was real good due to Santa coming and we all know what Santa leaves for little boys that make bad choices... Plus, he lives in his own world, that I dont think it even registered with him what my younger son was saying about no such thing about Santa.

But this is about the Bunny.

So then I quickly look at my older son to see his expression on his face, and have him freak out that the Easter Bunny is not coming since there is no such thing. That is where my older son would automatically go. Welcome to the meltdown.

But instead, it seems he didnt even hear him, because he didnt say anything, then with a smile on his face, he says "Yea, we know it's you, I always see the Easter Eggs in your closet " (no, not boiled eggs, those plastic ones..)

Ok, so does this mean he knows there isnt a tooth fairy? I mean, he just lost a tooth 3 days ago and talked about the tooth fairy, just as much as he has been talking about the Easter Bunny. He is 12 and we knew we would have to tell him, but we figured sooner or later, he would figure it out. But we started to worry, after all, he is 12!!!!!!!

oh, by the way, they are NOT crushed and I havnt scarred them for life, unlike other parents that I have talked to that think by 'pretending' there is a n Easter Bunny, or even a Santa Claus that they would be traumatized for life and learn never to trust us.

God only knows what your parents did to you, to make you so traumatised about Santa Claus. I can see if it was a clown, I mean, who isn't afraid of a clown.

where am I going with this...oh yea, the Easter Bunny. How quickly I get off track.

So, after we are all done, my younger son turns to me and says "should we get the carrots"

I say "for what?"

and he says "for the Easter Bunny, in case his hungry"....oh I give up.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

cat fish must go

I do love having little fishes swimming around in their tanks. What a beautiful site and the sound it makes, from the water from the filter, really does sound peaceful.

But what if you find, that in your beautiful fish tank, is a 5 inch ugly cat fish, with bulgy eyes and whiskers.

Well, welcome to our fish tank.

My younger son just loves to go fishing, but what he likes even more, is taking a net and scooping up the drudge from the bottom of the lake. fun fun fun

So last spring, he drudges up this cat fish, well, we werent exactly sure what it was, it was about 1 inch long. He also scooped up two cray fish. They were each about 1 1/2 in long.

He decides that he really wants them, and the lesson about ’taking them from their friends and there surrondings, and they might get sad and loney’ didnt go over very well. Well, it worked for me, when I was there age, but I wasnt that bright.

So with pail and one small fish and two cray fish in tow, were home to release these brown things in their tanks.

So off to the computer we went to learn how to take care of these little creatures, we werent really sure what he caught at that time.

First we found out that the cray fish need to be by themselves, so off to the pet store to buy a seperate tank for them, then they needed to have something that they can hide under. (like a cave), so i have one of those. Didnt know they didnt like to share, but I’ll get to that later.

Then came the ugly fish. Well, my son was determined to figure out what kind of fish it was, at that point we didnt know, so he looks it up in the book. I cant spell encylopedia...oh wait, did I just spell it write? but i digress.

Well, we discover it was a cat fish or bottom feeders or shit eaters. what ever term you are most comfortable calling them. Oh, "they eat anything", says the pet store man. So thats good news. That dirty little fish.

Well, its been a year now, and I guess the king of the cray fish was not about to share his ’hiding place’ or as I like to call it ’his throne’, the other cray fish ended up dying. I guess they really do need a place to hide....

Now the other cray fish, is as boring as this blog, and darn thing just sits under the ’cave’, and wont come out for nothing. So we are just looking at an empty fishtank. Oh what fun....

Well, guess who decided to come out and grab a bite to eat.....the cray fish, and he isnt an inch anymore, the darn thing is about 5 inches long. The thing grew overnight. Oh, and here is some important facts about cray fish...when you see them ’pale white’ just kinda floating around the tank, dont think they are dead. They shed their bodies.....AHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was ready to dump and clean out the fish tank because I thought that ugly thing was dead, but little did I know, he was still in his cave, alive and well, and left me a lovely little gift....

Now on to that cat fish, and this is the reason why I am writing. This is the most dumbest fish that I ever met. He is now 5 inches long, and the tank is just to darn small for him. His eyes are even more buldgy then before and his whiskers have grown about 2 inches long.

He has no idea when its feeding time, even though I feed him the same time everyday. He comes out looking stupid and isnt even use to any of us. We had guppies smarter then him.

But our gold fish, every morning, when he sees us, he swims up to the top, with a big ol smile on his face because he knows he is going to get some food, but NOT this cat fish, oh NOOOOOOOOOOOO, he just give you this stupid look and has no clue why your even looking at him...durrrr...

Well, before we go spending alot more money on a bigger tank, I talked to the guy at the pet store with my son in ear shot and asked about releasing him back in the lake and if he will die. He said he wouldnt....

So come the warm weather, we will have to go our seperate ways. The cray fish and the cat fish need to go be amongst their own kind, and we’ll go back to buying guppies. Unless of course my son decides that he doesnt want to use the live bait for fishing anymore, and wants to bring the bait home to put in the tank.

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

yet another project

This is the second time that my son comes home with the same project that he has to do three times. What is up with that?

First it was the Solar System, fine, but he had to do 3 projects on it. When I was in school, I just got a box and hung alluminum foil by string and that, my dear friends, is what I called the Solar System.

But not my sons class...he needed to do 3 projects.

So guess who comes home last week with a new assignment, my son. Now he has pick a hero and do three projects about him or her. What is up with these 3 projects?

He could pick anyone, we talked about doing his cousin since he fought in Iraq and has 2 purple hearts, but he wanted to do Martin Luther King. Which actually, would be much easier....lol...alot more info on him..

So here we go again, three projects on Martin Luther King. When doing three projects, it really takes fun and learning out of it, because then it becomes a goal to get it done instead of actually really investing the time on one project and giving it you all.

Oh, but if that wasnt bad enough.

When I talked to his teacher, he told me that it wasn't him assigning it, but the teacher that he has for social studies since he is matinstreamed in there. He told me that he has tried telling this teacher that 'his kids' cant do three, and some cant even do one, but it is what it is and there is nothing that he can do about it, since it's the required assignment.

The biggest issue i have, you ready for this, is that the ones that dont do it, have to lose recess to do the project.

What is up with that? OK, so you get the special needs kids mainstreamed in a regular social studies class, but they cant or wont do the projects (not sure what it is) and you take them and have them miss recess. Annnnnd thiiiiiiis helps them, how?..I must of missed of that one.

Why don't we really aleinate them even more already. Not only do they stand out because they didnt do three projects, but they have to miss recess because of it. Lets see how we can crush their self esteems even more, oh good, its actually working, they even less then now.

well, my son only did two of the projects, three was just too much. I am so pist because the last things these kids need is to lose recess, the only time where they can run and burn off the energy. These boys (they are all boys, go figure) need to get out and run for them to function.

These are suppose to be educators, why dont they educate themselves in how physical activity actual helps kids to learn better.

So now we have to deal with reprocrussions, my son doesnt ever want to go to school again. Every morning he tantrums and it is just getting worse.

yesterday he said he hurt his ankle, oh the pain and drama. But when he gets home, it amazingly seems better.

this morning, he says "well, I guess I did to much walking on it when I got home, because it really hurts now and I cant walk, which means I cant go to school"...

WHAAAAAALLLLLLLL. He missed the bus yesterday due to his tantruming, and he almost had a near miss today.

The bottom line is, he feels so 'stupid' and as he is getting older, he is realizing how far he is behind and it really is bothering him.

I wish I can help him, but he doesnt want us to know how he isn't as smart as the other kids. God knows he isnt comparing himself to his class.

The reality behind all this, is that he is a really smart kid. We have gotten alot of feedback on how impressed they are with his building skills and his ideas. HE thinks everything out, and his structures are solid. He is able to think very abstractly, and has done this since he was a little kid. He is known to look things up in the encylopedia when he wants to find out things and can put togther anything by looking at the 'picture directions'. He has taken things out of the garbage and fixed them. He really is amazing when it comes to this stuff, that I actually stopped saying "let me do it before you break it" because the reality is, at 10 yrs old and even way before that, he doesnt break anything.

But he knows he is good at that, so he has no fear on learning and doing it, its the stuff that he feels he isnt good at, that caused these meltdowns.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

geodon

Has anyone heard of this med before? my older son has gotten a tic from the risperdol, after it working for quite a few years so we have been weening him off it for the last two months.

But lately he has been coming extrememly agressive with his kicking, punching walls, cursing, banging his head and trying to scratch out his eyes. Behaviors that we havnt seen in a long time.

We were hoping that when he got off the risperdol, he would be ok, but clearly that is not the case.

I suggested abilify to the doctor but she wants to try this med first due to lack of side effects.

I never heard of this. Has anyone ever used this before, and if so, any positive or negative results.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

make them stop

Its been a tough few nights over here. My little guy has been tantruming, talking back, and just down right nasty. Last night, my older one, had his meltdown. Its been a very long few nights.

So, were back to square one. The rules are in place and they will have to pay their consequences.

Rule 1: If homework is not down at after school, then as soon as they get home they have to do it. Not when they want.

Rule 2: No talking back. They can lose chips or take a time out.

Rule 3: Picking up after themselves. They have a tendency to just drop what ever is in their hands on the floor when they dont want it.

Rule 4: WHen they are having a meltdown, they can either go on the mini trampoline and jump, or lose chips. If need be, for my older son who 'gets stuck' we can do a hug or our secret handshake.

Rule 5: When they are mean to each other with words, then for every bad thing they say, they can either lose a chip, or say something nice back.

Rule 6: Inappropriate Language: lose of chip, or have them come up with something better then poo poo head.

Rule 7: No more computer games or play station on school nights. It causes nothing but wide awake kids and alot of yelling when we have to shut it off.

It's posted, were done and everyone is clear.

So we will see how it goes, I'll try to be optomistic. So here we go....

THE WAR IS ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday, March 1, 2008

party is over

ok, so friday I get a call that the little one wasnt feeling well. He gets home and pukes everything that he tried to eat. (lovly isnt it?)

I had him lay down at 7pm and he fell asleep.

We woke up to a snow storm, the day of his party.

A few people called the night before, and now we were in charge of bringing 4 kids with us. 3 would meet us there. So to me, thats a party. 7 kids, my little one my older one.

one of the kids that we were suppose to bring, didnt show or call, so we waited and then we had to go. So my son was late to his own party....if you can believe that. But that is not what this post is about.

Which brings me to my next issue (and I got a load of 'em). One of the children that was dropped off with us, was clearly, to me anyway, a child that you wouldnt 'drop off'. He was OUT OF CONTROL. Now I'm fine with a kid with issues, Lord knows, I have had my share of parties where I was worried that my kid might go off, but I wouldnt just drop him off and NOT say a word.

He was a huge handful, and actually I almost had to restrain the child a few times because he kept running away to do whatever he wanted. Clearly the child had mental illness, but also very agressive.

I wasn't mad at the kid, but mad at the parent who just dropped him off and didnt say a word. I hate to say this, but he wasnt a 'drop off kid', he was a kid that the parent should of said "thanks for the invite, but would you mind if I stayed because if he gets over stimulated, he becomes out of control." Thats what I usually say. Or better yet, JUST STAY!.

I had no idea what was wrong with him or how to handle him since his mom just took off without a word. I felt bad because we spent so much time trying to deal with this kid, that my son's birthday party was rushed so we can get this kid back to his mother. The 'party person' was a little uncomfortable around him, so she didnt say much either. To think I had to tip her when we had to do pretty much everything because everyone was nervous around this kid.

First thing I did when i got him in the car, was call his mom to pick him up. Guess who was 40 min late picking him up? I had to call her two times to find out where she was.

The bottom line is, my son had a good time, and its OVER. I think Next year, we will do things a little different. This was the first year that we let our son invite anyone who he wanted. Last time we do that...