London Calling

Once bitten: travel causes pain for London & me

I've been on the road for business most of October.  The biggest challenge is that I've lost a few weekend days to travel as well.  All kids get a little squirly when there is a change at home, but London has been acting out in ways that I haven't seen in a while.

Even though I've taken off a little early from work a day or two and took a Friday to spend with the kids at Kohl Children's museum, that doesn't seem to make up for all of the nights that I've been out of town.  (We had a blast at the museum.  The kids could've stayed there for days.  London bit me about a dozen times throughout our museum visit.)

And there we have it.  London has started biting me again.  It's just me and he bites my arms.  He started doing this when I first began traveling again -- he was just over a year old at the time.  I've noticed that it only happens after I've been away.  But (1) it hurts and (2) I'm scared to death that he'll bite a kid from school.  (He'll occaisionally take a bite out of Violet too.)

The Occupational Therapist suggested giving him gum to chew so that he's not thinking about chewing me.  I'll give it a try I guess.  It makes sense to me -- give him something else to chew instead of my arm. 

Two more trips scheduled before Thanksgiving.  (I've cancelled one other trip that can be handled by a colleague.)  We send each other videos and Facetime whenever we can but I don't think that helps as much as I'd like to think.  Below is an example of how we say good night many nights when I'm away.  Kind of sad, but still cute.  (Note Violet's non-stop twirling.)

 

"We've got to pray" MC Hammer

I pray all of the time: when I run, when I drive, when I put the kids to sleep, when I'm walking the dog -- pretty much whenever I have a second of peace. I guess it's because I grew up in a family that prayed all of the time. When my mom was sick, her friends would stop by to pray. The hospital pre-op room was packed with friends as they prayed together before each of her surgeries. And we'd pray about everything from world peace to school exams to the dog's health.

All of the years I've been praying, it still really freaks me out when prayers are answered. When we were selling our house and it had been on the market for over a year, my mom prayed that someone would just fall in love with it. And they did, but they didn't buy it. So we asked my mom to clarify a bit next time and pray that someone would buy our house for a good price. And, you guessed it, we received a bid for just below asking -- which was higher than the true value of the home -- AND it was a cash sale that closed in 10 days. Go mom!

This week I experienced "the answer" twice and it still shocks me. Honestly, this time it kind of scared me.

Prayer Numero Uno: Please make me healthy enough to finish the marathon
About three weeks ago as I was getting ready to leave for work, I made a bad decision. Emily was having a hard time getting up the stairs to the kitchen and I didn't want her to be stuck all day next to our back door, so I decided to lift her up -- all 80+ pounds of her lazy yellow lab self -- while I was wearing really, really high heels. And .... ouch! Pain shot through my back. It was terrible. I was sweating and crying. Later that morning, when I went to the doctor, I cried walking from the car to the doctor's front desk.

The doctor told me to lay off exercise for three weeks. I iced and stretched and prayed and asked my running friends to pray and had a few massages. Still, I was warned not to run and just four days before the marathon I was still feeling the discomfort. Plus, all of my back issues had traveled to other parts of my body: hips, IT band, etc. I only ran once the three weeks before the marathon & I was scared.

But on marathon morning, I set out with 50,000 other runners and finished. It was hard and my body felt every mile, but my back held strong and even with a few extra challenges, not only did I finish, but I finished with a great time. And my body actually felt better the day after the marathon that I had felt just a week earlier. Odd, right?

Prayer Numero Dos: Please keep me safe while I travel this week and keep my family safe at home.
This is a pretty common request. I travel quite a bit and usually pray about everyone's safety on my way to the airport. Today was no different. "Please watch over the kids and keep us all safe" etc.

I was driving on 290 and traffic was moving along at a nice pace -- about 60 mph -- for 7:30 in the morning. I was singing along to whatever was on the radio and keeping an eye on the cars around me. There was a white VW GTI to my right that reminded me of a former co-worker who is a triathlete. And I was singing along when the van in front of me put on his brakes pretty quickly and the cars to my left stopped even faster, some pulling onto the side of the road to stop in time. Because the van was in front of me, I missed what had happened, but I saw that the white VW GTI had crashed into the cement wall next to the left lane crushing the entire front of the car and there were about four other cars involved.

It was an accident that I missed by less than a second. Not only that, but the white van in front of me blocked not only my view but protected me from responding in a way that might have caused more damage. (Like if I freaked out because I saw the accident and over-corrected and hit some other car.)

Oddly, while I write this blog about prayer, I'm pretty sure that the guy next to me on the plane is getting a hand job from his girlfriend. Guess I should start praying that they decide to be al little more discrete.

Marathon cheer crew

Thank you family for supporting me during training and for showing up on race day to cheer me on. Every Saturday morning for the last 16+ weeks, they've given me the time for my long run which sometimes interfered with ballet lessons or yummy Saturday breakfasts.

On Saturday we dragged London and Violet to the city in terrible traffic to get to the expo to pick up my bib. The kids had the sillies which can be fun at times or really annoying in he car. Worse, they decided to have a fart fest so they were both annoying and smelly.

My little family dropped me off at my dad's new city apartment and headed home. At dad's I was spoiled with dinner and my favorite pre-race breakfast: PB&J. Better, I scored a ride to the start line and was able to sleep in as much as possible.

The race was so hard. I felt every mile. Mostly because I had stopped running the prior three weeks because of a back injury. I went into the race not knowing if I could run 5 miles let alone finish.

I met up with my training group for the first six miles and then headed out alone. Some "stomach issues" slowed me a bit but seeing all of the Oasis (my charity) cheerers along the way helped a ton. But best was meeting my friend Erica at mile 19. She ran the rest of the race with me and helped me keep my mind off of my discomfort and helped me stretch out a wacky IT band at mile 25.

My family saw me close to the end but I missed them. I saw my dad just before I turned the corner to the finish which helped to give me the final boost that I needed.

My finish was much better than I expected but I really felt it. I started walking to where my charity group was meeting and realized that I better get my family and gear - and cell phone - first. When I found them I could tell that the kids and Blu were done. Patience had been lost by all and they would never make the long walk through a big crowd. So we left and headed to my dad's for a much needed shower.
I don't know if it's worth dragging them to see me. Maybe next year I'll give them a break and catch a ride home without having them chase me around. I guess we'll see.

Keep calm and carry on

I've seen that sign too many times to count and every time I think of London. The biggest challenge in his young life is to understand how to manage all of the strong sensory inputs he feels and to find calm. He's doing very well and we are so proud of him. It breaks my heart when I see him struggle with his energy.

The Occupational Therapist uses a program called "How does your engine run?" to help London understand that all of the extra energy he has sometimes can be like an engine running too fast. When his engine is running too fast he gets easily frustrated and his arms and legs flail about and usually end up squeezing something (like his sister's head or my arm).

At school, London has kept his engine under control but he gets a little fidgety in the afternoon. (I hear that most first graders loose a little control at that time of day.). We've sent along a squishy toy for him to hold/squeeze/pull/bite or whatever he wants to keep him from touching his classmates too roughly. He's had a tougher time with the after school program, so we hired a babysitter so that most days he can play quietly at home or go to the library. That seems to work much better for him.

The kids have long days, so nighttime can be rough. We try to get them to bed at 8 and I've started saying a bedtime prayer with them. We pray for safety and family and for calm. One day London will understand how to work with his body and he won't feel like he's always fighting his engine.

 

Over scheduled

Before I even start this post/confession, I want to acknowledge that I realized I have gone over the edge. But please note that my expectations for the outcomes are low and my hope is only for the kids to have fun and learn. There is no pressure and if they don't want to continue an activity - outside of therapy - I am totally cool with it.

Here it is: I have over scheduled my kids.

London's extracurricular activities:

• Occupational Therapy
• Hippotherapy (aka horseback riding with an OT)
• Gymnastics
• Swimming

Violet's extracurricular activities:

• Yoga
• Spanish
• Art
• Gymnastics
• Ballet
• Swimming

London really excels with his therapy and swimming is calming for him. Three of Violet's activities happen at school during childcare hours, so if she wasn't doing yoga or art or learning Spanish, she'd be playing with the same toys or games that she plays with before and after her classes. 

Really, the hardest part is getting them to everything on time and with the right equipment. Still I don't think that I'd want them to give up anything. Violet LOVES ballet and gymnastics and London seems to like gymnastics too. I feel pretty strongly that every kid should know how to swim and they like their teachers. Plus, we swim together afterwards most Saturdays which is always fun.

It is kind of silly though. I never thought that I would be "that" mom but when I had to post a calendar for the babysitter and Taylor and Blu so that we could all juggle who was driving them or what kind of gear had to be packed for school, I just laughed out loud. These kids are busy and in turn, so are we. But - and this is very important - we are never too busy to have fun. A good case of the giggles is a great way to end a busy day.

Mommy & me

Before I start sharing about how I've completely over scheduled my kids, I thought I'd save grace with my readers (both of you) by talking about "mommy & me" time.  My company extends summer Fridays through the end of September.  It's a great benefit and I use it whenever I can.  It seems like my workload slows a bit in September and kicks into high gear in October, so it's a bit of the calm before the storm.

Since Violet is at Montessori until 6, I've been meeting London at the bus stop at 3 and we've been just hanging out together.  We've taken walks and stopped for ice cream more than once.  London took his allowance to the toy store one day and we spent an hour while he decided what he wanted to buy.  Last week we bought a tent for the backyard -- or the basement.  The best part is that I can focus all of my attention on him which he needs and I think really enjoys.  He's such a big boy some times.

I feel like I really listen when my kids talk, but they obviously don't because they keep yelling my name, "Mommy, mommy, mommy.  Mom!"  Or London always asks, "Mom, can I tell you something?"  Usually they are both yelling at the same time, while the dog barks and the phone rings.  All of this crazy makes a quiet afternoon with just one kid seem like a big prize to me.