Sick

I've been sick for the past 2 weeks, and am just starting to get well. More coming soon, I promise!

RAD

Reactive Attachment Disorder is often diagnosed as other issues...Kiddos will often have many of the symptoms, but not all of the ones listed below...

Superficially engaging and charming
Poor reciprocal eye contact
Little conscience or empathy
Lacks genuine affection for others
Randomly affectionate with strangers but not with parents
Does not smile in return for another's
Destructive to self and others
Involved in fire setting and other property damage
Cruel to animals
Steals and lies about the obvious ("crazy lying")
Poor impulse control (acts hyperactive)
Significant learning delays
Behind in emotional and social development
Poor cause-and-effect thinking
Abnormal eating habits (gorges or hoards food)
Few and poor peer relationships
Preoccupied with gore
Chatters nonstop and asks nonsense questions
Extremely demanding or clingy

1st Lost Tooth

Ella lost her first tooth today. Very big deal, quite traumatic, and thankfully she has recovered. There were many tears, but thankfully oragel works just as well on loose teeth as it does on new teeth for baby sisters. We numbed up the tooth, and I got to quick pull it out. It took all of 3 days to go from "just loose" to out. That's efficiency. If I told Ella that it was supposed to happen in a day, she'd probably will it to happen that way.

We are now awaiting the tooth fairy. We had quite a discussion about how the tooth fairy knows which child lost the tooth, but then when we realized that she could see who was missing a tooth, it was a lot easier.

Costumes arrive

It's like a completely sanctioned time to escape and pretend to be someone else. Except that we get to do it whenever we hit the dress up closet. Our Halloween costumes arrived this week, and everyone is giddy with excitement over the upcoming sugarfest. The new costumes have also ushered in a whole new discussion around "what will I be when I grow up". Current favorites are:

• Ella - ballerina princess doctor
• Gwenn - scientist
• Lucy - no preference expressed, except for liking to pick her nose...

This weekend we get to test drive the costumes at parties. The girls are pretty excited about them, but have been floundering between the current choices and prior year choices - so they can save the best (aka - newest) for the big night. Here is a sneak peek...

Hillary-mania

Yesterday, full-fledged Hillary mania swept through campus. People cheered, no one jeered, men and women alike wept tears of joy at her arrival. What does this mean? Political season is in full force at work.

I arrived early and was rewarded with rock star seating- 2nd row, on the center aisle, literally right in front of Senator Clinton. It made for great photos and being able to see what was going on. I have to say, I have other candidates that I like who are running, but I was very, very impressed with Hillary. After yesterday, I no longer have any doubts that she could effectively lead the country, and I could support her if she gets the nomination. That's not saying I've committed to her prior to the nomination - I want to hear from from Obama and Edwards before I go that far - but I really enjoyed hearing her speak, and found that she was realistic, somewhat pragmatic, and still had some very cool, unique things to say.

About 2 weeks ago Ron Paul was here - that funky republican candidate. He, too, had some pretty interesting ideas, although for much of what he believes it is too far out in right field for me to take him seriously, but it's still good to listen. Both he and Clinton had a similar idea in one area, which is work with a coalition, and find the best person for the job regardless of party affiliation. I like that.

Implications of a new age

So, the full effect of Lucy not being 30 months old is finally sinking in. When I think about it, there are two things that come to mind on how this may have occured. Either it was not thought out - someone with many files dropped them, and put them back together in the best way possible - but aligning Lucy with the file of an older child. This seems improbable, as I would have still received the child of the paperwork, and scratched my head over how much she may have changed from her photo.

The second option is that there was something done on purpose. My best guess would still be watching out for Lucy - another, older, cardiac patient (about 6-10 months older than Lucy) didn't survive their surgery, and to expedite Lucy and her adoption her file was associated with the child who didn't survive, and she was attached to the other file.

The biggest impact came to me over the weekend - if the files are fiction, then she needs a full cardiac work-up, since I don't know the status of her heart, since the paperwork is not accurate. So, off to Children's again to try and figure out what is going on. It makes a lot of sense, since they think they found an ASD when her heart was being checked after we returned, and it wasn't listed in her file.

Pumpkin Patching it

We had a great trip to the pumpkin patch. thankfully, there were no repeats of last years ER visit when Ella suffered an allergic reaction to Remlinger Farms. Equipped with our EpiPen Jr. we headed out, and had a great time. Lucy was confused by what on earth we were doing out there, but finally got into things...