Oops.

I noticed a few days ago that Seth had a bit of a rash on his back. It's not unusual for Seth to be a bit rashy so I didn't pay much attention to it. When I undressed him last night I discovered that he was now covered in big red welts.

Oops.

So, off to the after hours clinic I go...I've never had to wait there more than 45 min or so, so I figured I would be fine with just a bottle and a few diapers.

Oops.

After 2 1/2 hours of waiting (and 2 hours past bed time), Seth had explored every inch of the clinic and was DONE. It was all I could do to keep him from screaming his head off. I resorted to wearing his pajama top as a hat for comedic effect and was ready to start making origami out of the paper covering the exam bed when we were finally seen. He's got hives all over his little body from some kind of allergic reaction (to what I'm not sure, but our scented laundry detergent is the #1 suspect right now - good thing I just used the last of it yesterday and had just bought some fragrance free stuff). By the time we got out of the clinic it was 11pm and we were both incredibly tired. I had a prescription but I didn't think he'd tolerate another stop at the pharmacy and we had to be up at 6am, so we just went home to bed.

Oops.

Did you know that the Shoppers Drug Mart on Whyte and 109th street is open at 2:30am? Cause it is! Did you know that doctors at the after care clinic prescribe weird liquids that cause pharmacists to make a "What the hell?" face and phone 4 other pharmacies looking for the stuff? Cause they do! Poor Sethers had to settle for some OTC stuff and an oatmeal bath in the middle of the night. By the time I got to bed I was supposed to be up in 2 and a half hours (to drive James to school so I would have the car to take Em to school) so I woke James up and told him he could just take the car and I would walk the kids to the school in the stroller.

Oops.

The fact that the stroller is currently located in the trunk was the very first thought I had when I woke up this morning. About an hour after James left. Thankfully my friend down the street has a very nice jogging stroller that I was able to borrow....phew! Hey, at least I'm getting my exercise today (72 blocks for 2 round trips).

Something has to go right today...right?

Prayers Answered!

Emmett is doing wonderfully at his new preschool! He did WAY better than I expected - he cried a bit when we first arrived on the first day, but once he noticed all the toys he started to warm up to the idea. I stayed at the school for his whole first day and popped in and out, and he wasn't clingy at all! This morning he went by himself the whole time and did great!

They way this worked out was no coincidence...things were mentioned to the right people at the right time just when a spot opened up. Heavenly Father knew this was where Emmett needed to be, and I know he's going to blossom!

Good News/Bad News

The past week has been crazy - in a nutshell I learned of a spot at an amazing special needs preschool and have spent the past week trying to figure out if we can get Emmett in there. One of the pre-requisites was an official assessment to send to Alberta Learning so that Em could get funding to attend. We had that assessment today.

The good news is that the speech pathologist seemed pretty positive that he would qualify for funding. He's pretty much already been accepted to the school and the vice principal is just trying to get all the ducks in a row to make it official, but that was still nice to hear. Actually, I think the reason she told me he could just start attending right away is after meeting him for less than 10 minutes she could tell he would qualify.

Emmett's speech delay has been classified as severe. She didn't give me an approximate age level that he's at, but I'd guess about a 2 year old level (he'll be 4 next month). She said "I know that's hard to hear", and I was very professional about it all and tried to focus on the positive (now he can get the specific help he needs to grow). I won't lie though, inside I'm really struggling. I know this is just the beginning and things can only get better from here, but it's still scary and overwhelming. I question my ability to help him reach his full potential.

Next week is going to be very difficult - ever since his 3 day stay at Hitler's Preschool for Young Nazis, Em's anxiety goes right through the roof whenever he's in a school type setting. Heck, he was practically hyperventilating at library storytime. My family has been great about agreeing to watch Seth so that I can stay with Em at school for as long as he needs me there, but it's still going to be hard. At least there are a TON of cool things to do at school, which should help win him over...the question is how long that will take.

To whomever is reading this...if you pray, please include Emmett in your prayers. We're praying that he will feel safe at school and learn to trust the teacher and aides. I'll post an update this time next week about how his first few days went.

Weight Loss Update

It's been 1 month since I started eating better and working out...and I've lost exactly 5lbs! It doesn't really sound all that impressive, but I'm celebrating anyway. ;) I am now approximately 10 lbs above my original weight watchers goal weight from when I was 19, so I know the scale is going to move slowly...I remember it taking a few months to get those last pounds off. Even though I'm almost 10 years older and have popped out a couple of puppies since that time, I think that goal is still do-able. I'm going to have to work it though!

My goals for this month:

-find more healthy and cheap things to cook, and try to move away from "recipes" a bit more and just cook lots of whole foods. (I'm thinking lots of root vegetables roasted with olive oil and a spinach salad sort of thing) The trick is finding something the kids will try as well...Emmett is very wary of foods he doesn't recognize, and Seth's starting to become kind of a pickypants too.

-drink lots of water, and less diet pop

-keep doing some form of exercise 6 days a week...I can really see a different in my abs already so I'm going to definitely keep up with that.

-this is unrelated to weight loss, but I need to get back in the habit of daily scripture study.

I'm hoping to see another 4-5 lbs gone this month...we'll see how it goes!