Can Today Be Opposite Day?

I remember when I was kid I used to love playing the opposite game. You could have so much fun changing things around. That is what I would like to do with my day today...change things around.

Colton has been sick again for the past couple of days. This is his 7th prolonged fever in 4 months. Granted, one was for the H1N1 flu and one was from pneumonia, but that still leaves 5 fevers. Fevers with a headache, stomach ache and sometimes a sore throat. And each time the doctor swabs for strep and each time it comes out negative. It is becoming altogether frustrating.

Monday, he went to the nurse with a headache, but the fever hadn't started yet. Tuesday the fever came, we went to the doc and all tests were negative. Wednesday the fever stayed. Today the doctor called and told me she wants us to go see an immunologist and try to figure out what is going on. It is not as though he is getting different viruses like a normal kid. He seems to have the exact symptoms each and every time. While I was on the phone with her, she started asking me questions and wanted to know what his throat looked like. I told her I thought it was fine, we had just been in there less than 48 hours prior. But when I looked inside, I almost died. His one tonsil was so swollen that is was pushing the little dangly thing in the back of his throat to the other side and it was covered in puss pockets. She told me to bring him in right away.

When we got there, she looked him over and told me that he still didn't have strep but what he did have was an abscessed tonsil. How in the world you get one of those, I still don't know, but he has it. And now he has medication for it and hopefully he will go back to school tomorrow.

In the midst of him staying home from school, I missed my hair appointment today. This is the 2nd time I have had to reschedule it because of sick kids too. And I am sad. I have been feeling extremely frumpy and for some reason, having my hair done makes me feel pretty and this is just one of those days where I desperately needed to feel pretty. But instead, I still feel frumpy and fat and so I had 5 candy bars from Halloween to add to the problem. Not good.

Then there is Dawson. His teacher asked me if I would like to call another IEP to address some of his behaviors that are coming back. Behaviors that have been gone since he left the 3 year old preschool, but they are back. He is back to humming when stressed. Not a happy little tune, but a loud drone that sounds like an air conditioning unit waiting to explode. He is also twirling and flapping and just out of control. It is so hard too because this is such an unstructured time of year at school that I don't know how much of a factor that is playing in all of this. There are plays and days off and Turkey Trots and Jingle Bell Jogs and class parties and all sorts of things. What there is not is consistency which he so desperately needs. So I am feeling defeated and blaming myself and frustrated with all of this too.

Finally, my dear James and his stupid broken toe. If I had known 17 weeks ago that it would still not be healed, I would have considered cutting it off. Not seriously, but that is how I feel. At his last appointment, the doc said she was not comfortable releasing him to the truck because she wasn't sure how stable it would be if he had to jump out of bed for a call. So she held him another 10 days and he went in today for his release. However, on the way there, he found out that he is not working enough time before Thanksgiving for holiday pay so it is better to stay on the 40 hour week and have the time off for free. Now his official back to work day is November 30th. November 30th for an injury that happened on July 26th. And he is not even pain free and we have lost over $800 on holiday pay while he has been in the office.

So, yes, I would like for today to be opposite day. I would like for my kids to be happy and healthy and not have to have outside therapies. I would like for my hubby to be pain free and back to the fire truck and get an occasional overtime shift. I would like to have pretty hair and feel good about myself.

But since that isn't the hand I was dealt, it looks like I better end the pity party, pull myself up by my bootstraps and hang on. This is my life. It could be better, but I know it could be worse and at least I have a great family to look back and laugh about it with.

Lying, Stealing and Touchdowns

I think I have officially lost all control with my kids and today did nothing but affirm that my parenting needs to be questioned at best.

My day started by taking Dawson to school early to return the magnets to his teacher that he stole from class the day before. Yes, he took 7 blue star magnets, stuffed them in his pocket, came home, put them on the fridge, and apparently played with them for a while before I even noticed that they weren't ours. When I asked him where they were from, he plainly replied, "school." As if this is no big deal. This, of course, is coming from my son who five-fingered a Superman toy off the bus last year without their knowledge or mine and when I asked him if he took it, he told me, "Yep, I sneaked it in my backpack!" I do not know what to do about this either. Because Dawson is Dawson, I truly don't think he "gets" what he is doing. Not that that excuses it by any means, but I think that for him it is more about seeing what he can get away with than the actual stealing and wanting to keep of an object. This theory of mine is supported too by the fact that he has also brought home post-it notes with random information that his teacher has dropped on the floor.

So, I make it through that and then there is my dear Colton who seems to be testing the "little white lie" to the max. That child will not stop with the most ridiculous lies ever. They aren't big, the aren't about important stuff and yet he keeps telling them. Dumb things like not finishing everything to eat and throwing it away instead of just being honest. Or telling us he used the bathroom before football even though he didn't so he wouldn't be late to the game once we got there. Really minor and senseless things, but when do the little lies grow. I just feel out of control.

I feel so out of control, that tonight I once again earned my Mother of the Year award when I told my children that they could keep lying and stealing and maybe we could get them a shared room at the juvenile facility they will end up in. Seriously, I know it is not that bad. I just don't know where to go. I have spanked, I have pulled privileges, I even made Colton pay me for the food he lied about wasting and still I get no where.

Which leads me to tonight. By time we got to football, I was so frustrated I told Colton's coach he had to sit out the first 5 minutes of the game, to which his reply was, "Sorry, but this is my territory." So against my wishes and better judgment, Colton played the entire game and even scored the winning touchdown. Then we go to Dawson's game and he scored a touchdown too. It is so wonderful to watch the boys do something they love, to see how proud they are of themselves when they accomplish something great, to see them as part of a team. Now if I can just get everything else under control, it will all be fine. Right?