The dreaded ice cream truck

One evening as we were sitting outside with our neighbor, we heard the sounds of the ice cream truck making its way through our neighborhood.  The boys always perk up thinking this might be the time we finally cave in and buy them ice cream.  Fortunately for us, the truck never turns towards our house.

Our neighbor told us about telling her nieces the ice cream truck is out of ice cream when you hear the song.  It was the drivers way of notifying everyone they didn't have anymore ice cream to sell.  Of course, we started spouting this phrase to the boys anytime the ice cream song was heard in the air.

There have been discussions about how the ice cream truck should plan better so they don't run out of ice cream.  Even the suggestion of talking with dad since he's a logistician so he could teach the ice cream truck drivers how to plan more efficiently.

During all of this I knew the day would come where I'd be caught telling the ice cream truck lie.  Little did I know this would happen at the playground.  I notice Jake and a few other kids going towards the parking lot.  I call out, asking him what he's doing.

'Mom!  The ice cream truck is here and he has ice cream!'

'Jake, I don't have any cash on me to buy ice cream.'

'But mom!  The song isn't playing!  They have ice cream!'

'I don't have any cash on me to buy ice cream.'

You can see where this is going as I dragged Jake away from the ice cream truck.  Yep, dashed my kids wee hearts in denying them ice cream the one time they were around when the truck wasn't playing its song.  Seriously, though, I didn't have any cash on me to buy them ice cream.  No, really, I'm not lying about the lack of cash on hand part.

I will say, telling your kids the ice cream truck is out of ice cream when you hear the song works.  They won't bother asking for ice cream every time they hear the song jangling around the neighborhood.

Camping according to Jake

Jason and our neighbors have talked about taking the boys camping, a theme Jake has embraced with passion. We've had several conversations about what they'll need for camping. Here is Jake's requirements for camping:

1. A tent

2. Sleeping bags

3. Fire for S'mores

4. Marshmallows

5. Graham crackers to squish the marshmallows between

6. A stick to push the marshmallow on so it'll get burned

7. The ability to blow out a burning marshmallow

8. Chocolate for the S'mores

When frisbees attack

Jake, Murphy and I headed out to Burke Lake again this morning. I'm trying to get my arse out there at least 3 times a week before the older two are out of school. I'll get in at least 15miles a week of walking/jogging if I keep this up for the next two months.

We didn't have a quiet walk today. Not even 10 minutes out and we're attacked by a frisbee. All I saw was a yellow blur coming at Murphy and the jog stroller. As I'm exclaiming 'what the fuck is that?', I hear a shout of 'sorry!' from the 3 guys playing frisbee golf. Seems we weren't loud enough to alert the frisbee golfers of our presence.

Right after the frisbee attack, a turtle crossed our paths. I don't know who was more freaked out: Murphy or the turtle. Unfortunately the lake wasn't close enough for me to get the turtle off the trail. The turtle would have been great company for the huge ass fish swimming in the lake.

Today we also saw deer. We'd stopped at a stream so Murphy could get a drink and cool off. While he was trying to catch something in the water, I spotted 5 or 6 deer to our left. Jake wouldn't budge until he could see them for himself.

Oh, can't forget about the snake near the playground.

Holy crap, I have generous kids

I started baking on Sunday for the goodies will be giving to the kids teachers and our neighbors. I sent Brendan and Colin to school with tins full of cookies for their teachers. The rest of the morning I finished up my holiday baking.

As I'm waiting for the boys after school I see Brendan coming towards me with his cookie tin. When he gets into the van I asked why he didn't give it to his teacher. He, and Colin, both passed out the cookies to their classmates. They took my saying it's for your teachers as 'hey, lets share with everyone!' Brendan said it was the nice thing to do. I thanked them for their generosity, saying it was nice.

This morning I restocked the tins and promptly forgot them in my yelling to get the kids out the door. At least their teachers will have a bit of a different fare this time around.

In other holiday news, Colin hasn't taken his santa hat off since I bought them on Monday. Brendan lost his at school and Jake waffles between wearing his and tossing it around. Colin asked for two weeks if I'd get them santa hats. He is very happy I obliged.

We're not big on traditions so I haven't gone gungho on holiday crap. Things are added each year as the kids get older. We have blue christmas trees, ornament garlands and santa hats this year. I'm thinking I might go squirrely and get solar powered outdoor lights next year.

The trifecta is complete

Jake will be getting services for speech after the holidays. I finally got him tested this year for enunciation. I kept thinking things would change if I waited. If I'd known they wouldn't change he'd have gotten tested last year. I denied myself free time this fall! Gah.

Jason and I wouldn't have been surprised if Jake had a speech delay like his older brothers. The fact he didn't was the surprise. He became a regular chatterbox for his age. We didn't sign with him as we did with the older two. The fact I have trouble understanding him brought us in for testing.

Brendan tested out once he turned 3 and didn't require anything for enunciation. Colin is still in speech and looks as if he'll be out by the end of the year. Not sure what Jake's timeline will be. He's also going in for social testing. I'd brought this up during his second screening. He's just under the cut off for services, scoring a 55 when the cut off is 62.

We don't know if the social part is coming from age, stubbornness (because holy fuck is this child stubborn) or what. The concern is his not being ready for kindergarten next year if he drops the ball around those he's comfortable with. Even the speech pathologist was on the fence in further testing.

Brendan's also going through ADHD testing. There's definitely an attention deficit issue going on but my gut says it's not on the level of ADHD. He goes in next month for a sit down with the doctor. He may get further testing. He may get put on meds right then. All we know is the school won't support us until he's failing. Jason and I don't want him failing.

We're looking at 3 kids having IEP's at the same time. I can do this paperwork in my sleep now. It's a constant struggle advocating for our kids to make sure their voices are heard.

Does it get better?

The mornings have been hell the past few weeks. Brendan and Jake are bouncing off the walls to the point I'm losing my patience before 8am rolls around. Things start off quietly enough before dissolving into chaos.

I don't know how much of this plays into whatever issue Brendan has going on or what. I do know I am at my wits end. Brendan blames Jake. Jake blames Brendan. Throw Colin into the blaming mix and it's everyone's fault.

Who likes being yelled at before school every single day? Apparently my kids do because they won't listen to a normal voice. Taking privileges away only does so much. The Santa carrot isn't making a budge into their behavior.

Can I hide in a cave until this is over? Will it ever be over?

Food Allergies and Birthdays

Baking in the oven are chocolate cupcakes for Colin's birthday at school tomorrow. Not ordinary cupcakes but gluten free cupcakes. This is the first time I'm trying the mix since I don't have any gluten free cake recipes sitting on my bookshelf. Nor any of the ingredients so I'm going the easy method in baking out of a box.

Originally Colin wanted me to make peanut butter chocolate cupcakes. His eyes shined with the thought of having those made for this birthday and passing them around the lunch table. I had him ask his teacher if there were any food allergies in his class because that could change what I make. He said it wouldn't be a problem.

The next day he comes home saying someone in his class has a peanut allergy. With this bit of knowledge I told him I'd bake different cupcakes for school and the peanut butter chocolate ones would be for home.

I find out later in the week the same student has a gluten allergy on top of the peanut allergy. He still wanted me to make cupcakes because it was okay for this student to be left out. I asked him if they were always left out. He said yes. I asked him how he'd feel being left out of a birthday celebration and he said he'd be sad. When I asked him if I should make something everyone could enjoy, the same shining eyes turned to me and he loudly said yes.

I left a message with his teacher confirming the two allergies and if this was the case I would make gluten free cupcakes. I got back a note thanking me for thinking of the student but it was okay to make what I wanted. The student's mom normally packs something special for when birthday's are celebrated at the school.

I don't like having a student left out because nobody bothered in finding out if there were any allergies in the class. Food allergies are common these days. It shouldn't come as a surprise a child might be allergic to every day products we all take for granted. While some allergies are pretty easy in working around some take a bit of educating oneself before whipping up a cake. Or something.

Fortunately I am only working around a gluten and peanut allergy. While I could have gone out, bought a gluten free cookbook and all the ingredients, we're fortunate enough food companies are recognizing these allergies more and more. I bought a gluten free cake mix from a box and dairy free/wheat free oreo's for the decoration.

I don't know how these cupcakes will come out. I will say they smell delicious.

Conversations around the dinner table

Brendan: Mom, guess what I'm thinking.

Me: No.

Brendan: Please Mom. Just guess what I'm thinking.

Me: No.

Brendan: I'll give you a hint. It's either butt, penis or vagina.

Cue giggling from Colin sitting across the table.

Me: Butt.

Brendan: No. I'm thinking vagina.

Me: Why are you thinking of vagina's?

Brendan: Because there are some hot girls out there.

I want a job like hers

One of my co-workers doesn't understand working = paycheck. She prefers sitting on her ass doing nothing while racking in the money. Only problem is our job pays slightly above minimum wage so no one's getting rich. She's also notorious for calling in for no reason in particular other then not wanting to work on any given day. Her boyfriend is a slight sugar daddy. I say this because, while he has a paycheck and pays the bills, he's not fabulously wealthy.

Yesterday I worked with this person by default. My whole intention was getting a workout at the gym instead of covering for my supervisor. Renee had to pick up her oldest at school since she was sick. Not a problem. I was already there to drop off Jake so I picked up a few extra hours.

I sat on the floor surrounded by kids. I had them running cars up and down my back. I was reading stories. I taught them how to hop like a frog. I got pummeled by our favorite time-out child. All the while T was sitting in the baby area where she wouldn't need to actively engage with the kids. Me? In my gym clothes getting more snot rubbed on me as the day progressed.

I'd like to think T would realize her expectations are shit in the real world and she'll grow up. Only I feel this will never happen since she's in her mid-twenties already. She's not a prima donna with the hopes of being kept in a life of privilege. She just doesn't want to work and still take home a paycheck.

Granted today I sat in the rocker with two babies who fell asleep on me, one of which christened my shirt with his snot. Inbetween the sleeping babies my supervisor and I took turns in entertaining the kids or calming them down. We do have an easy job, some would say a slack job. Still doesn't mean we can sit on our arses twiddling our thumbs.

I know how ass feels

This morning I woke up with a cotton mouth, sore throat, stuffed up ears and ears. Lovely. I've been fighting something the past week which has now started to hunker down. My neighbor had strep a week ago, her youngest just got over a virus and her oldest has gotten said virus. My supervisor's husband finally recovered from bronchitis, tonsilitis, sinusitis and double ear infections. The boys are trying their damnedest in who can be more froggy. No wonder I feel like ass this Saturday morning. I'm hoping things don't get worse.

Last Wednesday was my first day working at the gym. Awhile back I noticed the chaos in the daycare when picking up Jake. I talked with both managers about this and they know there's a problem on certain days. While they only have two people working at a time a third can be sent down as needed. Eric and I talked about different ways management could approach the clientele when things got hectic. Because the vast majority of the kids during the mornings are military, I brought up how the families should be more understanding when things are full. One idea mentioned was having the parents come in every 20 minutes or so to check on their kids. I said I'd be willing to volunteer since I'm already coming to the gym daily, or almost daily.

All of this helps after working at SAS and knowing more about the inner workings of CYS then most with regards to ratios, etc.. While the daycare doesn't have to follow regulations since they are not a proper daycare they do realize things can be overflowing. Being Red Cross certified also helped.

The pay sucks but it'll be our pocket money. It's not all bad even during the chaos.

Am I missing something here?

We're well into summer day camp and parents are still trying to get their kids enrolled. I'm not talking about parents just moving here or starting work on the island. These are parents who've gotten the emails from us months ago which they blatantly ignored. We know this because they've said so to our faces. Funny how they're scrambling now in trying to find something for their kids to do over the summer.

I know some of the military try passing the buck claiming they've never received anything. Problem is most don't realize who I am or who my husband is. Between my boss and Jason, the soldiers and parents were definitely blanketed in emails about camp and being registered with CYS. I had one Dad claim deployment status even though he got here a year ago. When I asked if he was on our email list or registered he said no, which I did verify. When I searched his name within the installation phonebook I saw he was within Jason's command. His denial fell flat after this information surfaced because I know the email Jason sent out back in February to all of his soldiers.

And yet, they get angry with us because there's a wait list. They get angry because we don't give them what they want. They get angry because they were the slackers who spaced on when school ended. We only do so much hand holding for the parents before we make them accountable for their lapses.

I want a healthy household please

I got a call about Jake throwing up after his nap on Wednesday which meant Jason or I needed to pick up him. After getting an earlier phone call about his general clinginess in the morning I called for an appointment. Helps I knew he already had HF&M so we just needed the confirmation.

The diagnosis? Double ear infections, strep throat and HF&M. For a child being this sick he spent the rest of the day on Wednesday running around like a banshee. Yesterday was pretty much the same only he was more pissed off in not getting allowed to play outside. The neighborhood didn't need a HF&M infestation going on.

On a wetter note, we got bombarded with water during our fire drill this morning. So woefully under prepared for this annual event. Bear pulled the alarm for our monthly fire drill with a giggle. The trucks were waiting for the kids by the fence to all line up before the onslaught began. No water balloons on our part. No water guns. Nothing but soaking wet kids who enjoyed the hell out of themselves.

People Get Ready,

I'm going swimming. Sort of. It's more of a chaperone deal/extra body there for ratio type of thing. I found out this morning I've been recruited the next 3 wks for the swimming field trips. I don't own a bathing suit. I'm fish belly pale. I have tattoos which aren't easily covered with a small band aid or two. All this means is I sit on the sidelines and play cards with the kids who won't go into the pool.

The last week of school and possible bus suspension

And what not to do without all of the pertinent information.

The rumor mill started with a phone call from our director informing us 3 kids, including Brendan, were suspended from the bus for eating. This came from one of my coworkers who took the phonecall. I called the director to verify when this happened. She only stated it came from Mr. C who wanted to know when the last day of school is.

I call Transportation so I can find out what happened. This is all related to Brendan's being written up last week for not sitting still or staying in his seat. His inability to do so has been a long standing issue since the first week of school. As I told my boss and Transportation my only issue is why it's being written up now. Transportation will be riding today and I asked her to double check the new monitor isn't shoving the elementary school kids towards the back.

Apparently chaos was the word of the day last Thursday. Kids were eating and drinking. One kid was spitting on another. Nobody was listening to the new monitor. Fortunately Brendan wasn't one of the ones eating. Don't get me wrong, his not sitting still is a huge issue for us. He definitely should have been written up a long, long time ago. Part of the problem stems from having a bus monitor who the kids figured out how to manipulate. Doesn't help there is now only one bus in the afternoon so all 3 schools are together. The elementary kids are on the longest since they're picked up first. Care to guess some of the words and finger gestures Brendan's picked up on thanks to all of this?

I am so glad school is almost out. The bus issues have been a bloody nightmare this year especially with the going down to one bus in the afternoons.

And the illness of the week is

Fifth Disease brought to you by Colin. At least it's giving him some color since we're both jockeying for the palest of the pale family member in our house.

In the past month we've dealt with pneumonia, strep with scarlet fever, strep with vomiting and now fifth disease. For some reason Jake has escaped the weekly illnesses invading our house this past month. I wish I could say the same for Brendan and Colin.