Thursday was super busy as always. James had both of his therapist appointments although, I wasn't happy with one of them. That therapist had not bothered to tell me that James will now be seeing someone else, whom he'd only met once, in passing, last week. He was already unhappy that Grandma Sue was taking him because he wanted me (and I couldn't because I had to take Charles to his PreK class that wound up being cancelled anyway) so he wasn't that cooperative. I got the other kids downtown in time to drop the three little ones off with Sue and switch out for James. Off we went to his second therapist meeting. On the way, we stopped at a natural living store because Kitty needed a new diaper cover. While I was searching for the size needed, James stayed in the small toy area and played with the toys that had been set out for that purpose. He was quite enamored of a tree house that they have there and asked very nicely for one. I asked the price, and my heart sank when I heard the $142, but I told James that I'd talk to his father about it. From there we hurried the last three blocks to his second therapist meeting, and I was relieved that he cooperated well today. He actually got out a few minutes early since his therapist had to be somewhere else, but that fit right in with my plans because I had to get back to Sue's, grab the kids, get them home and dropped off with their father, and then haul James to a doctors appointment.

James has us all concerned. His speech therapists are both worried about his fine motor skills. He wants to learn how to write, but he just can't figure out how to hold his pencil (or whatever implement he's using) properly so he gets frustrated really fast. He isn't even drawing. It's only recently that I've even seen him draw a circle! It's always been scribbles, not even any stick figures. One of his therapists had enough concern that she called to confer with James' doctor and the doctor was concerned enough that he in turn called me and had me set up an appointment. So, James met with him on Thursday. In hindsight, I should have scheduled it for a different day than our "busy" day. By the time he saw Dr. Frosthad, he'd already seen both of his therapists that morning. He really wasn't that cooperative with the doctor although, the things that he wouldn't do, he's refused to do before which the doctor had written down in his charts. All of that stuff was fine motor related, so the doc is going to get a hold of some people in the school district to evaluate him so I can get a referral for him if services will actually be needed. Both of his therapists are also concerned about how James processes the sounds he hears. One of his therapists has been seeing him for almost two years, and he's not where she expected him to be. Auditory processing has been brought up and that was also discussed with the doctor. He has referred us to the speech and hearing department at WASU for an evaluation.

On our way back from the doctors office, we made an unscheduled stop at Goodwill. It certainly had not been planned and I was supposed to go straight home. Instead, we wandered around in Goodwill for about an hour. James found several sweaters he liked (which is what I had in mind when we stopped). I got a cool dolphin puppet for Kitty for Christmas. I also found a cool game. One side is a ring toss, and it has several pegs to screw into it for the targets. When it's turned over, the other side is a ball toss (or bean bags, whatever). There wasn't anything else included with it, but it would be simple to find something for the kidlets to throw. I especially like this because it's set up like a box, and one side slides out as a lid so the pegs and rope circles can be stored. It also works at the holding pen when it's being used for the ball toss. I also got my hands on an old Montessori alphabet kit. I was disappointed to discover that the LP it was supposed to include was missing (the paper wrapper was in there though) but everything else was there so I was going to introduce it to Washee soon. He's been wanting to learn his letters, and I see no reason he can't learn right along with James. The other three items I got that I was excited about were three more old LP's. Two of them are math songs being sung by Jimminy Cricket, one division/multiplication and the other is adding/subtracting. The third record I got is about orchestras and melody. There was a fourth I wanted called Acting out the ABC's, but when I took a look at it it was cracked really bad. :( So, I'm going to try and find it elsewhere. I know it's silly to be buying records when we don't have a player yet, but Carey and I have been talking about getting one of these soon. We have no stereo at all, and it's getting annoying. Although one can listen to cd's on the computer, our tapes and records are useless at this time. James was also really excited. He found a really cute mug with gingerbread men on it that he liked a lot. It was $0.49 and he just happened to have $0.65 in his pocket. So he got to give the cashier his money, the man counted it, gave him back his change and even accommodated him by ringing it up by itself and giving James the receipt. He was so darn proud for buying it all by himself. he has informed me that Santa wants to drink milk out of it. LOL So, I guess we've found Santa's milk mug. :D

Kitty was being really cute with Carey. She was standing by Carey and kept pointing up, saying "Ba". Carey just made a few inane comments to placate her until he realized that she was pointing to his back and was trying to say back because she wanted up! She was perfectly happy once she was ensconced on his shoulders and was content for some time.
kitty being cute pointing to back saying "Ba"

Friday was long and boring. I just didn't have any patience and didn't feel well at all. But, I did get some stuff done in the dining room although it's still torn apart. But, I did get all of the homeschool stuff set up on the new shelf like I'd planned. The kids played with play dough while I messed around with stuff, until too much had been stacked on the table and they didn't have room to work anymore. :D James and Charles also alternated on Star Fall for a while and as usual quite enjoyed that. The kids have been learning how their body works lately, and I had also meant to get to a cool new Ravensburger game I got recently, My Body, but it just didn't happen.

James didn't eat most of his dinner again. He's had me concerned lately because he just isn't eating much. He's lost four pounds since October and he looks so skinny. :( He ate lunch just fine. He really liked the braunschweiger that I pulled out. I made sandwiches with some creamy poppy seed dressing and my last Walla Walla onion and served cheese on the side. He ate a whole sandwich! He had no snack that afternoon, and when it came to our dinner of homemade biscuits and sausage gravy several hours later, he only ate the pineapple and drank the cider I served with it. He also drank his bed time tea, but that was it. It's pretty much dinner that he rarely wants to eat. Especially meat products although, he has no problems eating them earlier in the day. He also has me especially worried because he's been having a lot of diarrhea the last few days, prompting me to go out and pick up some pedialite, sprite, and some other odds and ends to help him. The poor little guy made a huge mess in the bathroom this morning. :( And another one in his bedroom.

Carey have been discussing it and we're wondering if it's stress that's getting to him and doing all of this. He's been lonely and we're trying to get him out and about to meet other kids and our homeschool group is really picking up and there are a lot of activities schedule over the next several months, one of which is a fun day at a nearby game house that happens to have a bowling alley that I think he'd have a lot of fun at. Our discussing about James led us to talk about other stuff such as the state of the house, etc. The state of the house is my biggest stressor and in turn I'm a big stressor on Carey because I'm taking out all of my frustration on him. So, we've been bitten by the cleaning bug in the hopes that this will lead to James getting better.

Last night I started going through some of our extra clothes and made a small pile in the hall. That small pile has now grown bigger than Miss Kitty and I'm still amazed at just how much we have! Especially when we still have so much still in storage across town and our little storage out back. :( Carey too wants to downsize on everything and his big idea was to just grab everything that was on the floor, stuff it into huge boxes, and get rid of it. And then go on a spree for new clothes, buying only so many items for each person. That does have some rather odd logic behind it but the practical side just screams no at the amount of money that would entail when we have good clothing already. So lots of stuff has been ditched. As items have been found they've either gone into the to go pile, the laundry hamper or folded and put away. There's still a ton to get rid of but this will certainly make it easier to weed stuff out once the quota's have been met. A large bag of stuff has also been set aside for my nephew Jordy that Charles has recently grown out of.

Kitty has discovered the computer! She was trying to manipulate the mouse today so I turned a little game on for her so she would't mess other stuff that she didn't need to be in. She couldn't quite get the hang of it, but she was certainly trying. James tryed to help her, as did Charles but she was miss independant today. I also downloaded some game demos for the kids to play. One of them was a Dora Candyland. It was a super simple game but I didn't care for it much (besides the fact that I can't stand Dora). I did like thatI could set it up for one or more players, so I had all three of the older kids playing it this afternoon. They were actually taking turns and they had a lot of fun. But nothing much really happened. You flipped a card which had a colored square on it and then went wherever you were supposed to go. There were a few squares that had candy on them and when they were passed, a little mini game opened. Those were't that great either. One consisted of "decorating" musical instrument cookies. You had to choose a specific piece to fit the cookie or you were wrong. There was also an alphabet candy cane harvest. Candy canes were shaped like different letters, and you had to click on that letter. They told you what letter was needed, but didn't show you! That's really silly considering that this game is for younger children that may or may not know their letters. So while I was thinking about getting this game because of ability for all of the kids to play on it, I think in the end I'll pass and check out the other demo's I downloaded.

Carey has been a bear the last several days. I'm happy now that dead week is over, and I'll be even happier when his finals are done, which will be on Tuesday. He's working on his last paper and that has only three more pages to go, which he plans on finishing tomorrow. And then he'll work full time until the 21st, when the University shuts down for Christmas. He might be called in if he's needed, but that probably won't happen much, if at all. We have decided this year to have our family get together on the solstice, which I'm looking forward to. And that evening those of us that wish to go will attend a local solstice ritual. I have to attend since I'm calling East but I'm hoping at least some of my family will come as well.

Kitty has started night weaning herself. For almost a week now, she hasn't nursed after 12 and then she hasn't woken me up wanting to nurse until 6. She still likes her cuddling though, and if someone isn't in the bed with her when she turns over for a snuggle, she gets really upset. I don't know what she's going to do when it comes time for her to oficially be in her in own bed. It's actually supposed to be just a few days from now. Carey and I originally decided that she would stay in our bed until she was 18 months and that she'd be night weaned. Well, it looks like she's night weaned, but I'm not up for the fight we'll have when she's moved yet so we'll evaluate again in a month or so. As it is, I'm already planning on making an appointment for her with the dentist at the beginning of the year if she hasn't had any more teeth by then. She's still got only four. :(