Who Would Want a Houseboat?
The other day while driving in the van Jubilee was talking about how much she loved boats and boating and being on the water.
“Move to Seattle, then, there are lots of houseboats there,” I said.
“Houseboat? Who would want a houseboat?” asked Apollo. “When you could have a pirate ship!”
See, this is exactly what I love about kids. Their perspective and total lack of inhibition in dreaming are amazing. I mean, seriously, who would rather have a houseboat when you could have a pirate ship? He nearly had me searching Craigslist for bargains on pirate ships…
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I survived Avi’s thirteenth birthday party. We have a rather ill-conceived 13th birthday tradition…allowing the kids to have a sleepover. This is kind of a big deal in our family because, for the most part, our family doesn’t do sleepovers. I survived Avi’s despite the fact that one girl laughed so hard she barfed (and no one cleaned it up) and another girl couldn’t make it on the night of the actual party, so she spent the night the next night, extending the “joy” of the sleepover.
I Don’t Want to Brag…
And, I don’t want to brag or anything, but earlier this week I spent seven hours organizing Apollo’s medical records. Part of the problem is, back in 2012 when we were first discussing the idea of taking him out of state to have his second heart surgery done, we needed to find an experienced cardiothoracic surgeon. We followed the advice of Apollo’s cardiologist and sent his medical records to the top three cardiac children’s hospitals in the country.
In order to do that, I needed to send them all of Apollo’s medical records. I took his records (which were already several inches thick) and had four copies made. Three to send to specific hospitals and one as a backup. Over the years he has, of course, acquired more medical records. I used to request updates every six months or so, so I had the information on hand. I haven’t requested them again in over a year since nothing significant has happened. Due to that, I had some duplicates of records and, when I needed to access them regularly, I had them organized by specialty (cardiologist, pulmonologist, ENT, etc). Now that we are past his medically fragile days, I sorted them by year.
And, whew, am I glad to have that done. I even reclaimed a cupboard in the process.
You Read the Book, Right?
As most of you know, Kalina is in Zambia right now with Teen Missions. Her team’s project is to drill two wells in Zambia to provide fresh water for the people there. We have been writing her letters and Jubilee, in her boundless enthusiasm, wrote Kalina a letter all about a book they had both read, writing passionately about the ending and how she felt about it. Well, she got a postcard from Kalina.
Turns out, Kalina hasn’t actually finished the book yet.
Oops.
And The Best Mom Ever Award Goes To…
And, ABA therapy, which I am extremely thankful for, is kind of ruining our summer. My son has therapy at an autism center from 12-3 M-F (which requires me to drive him back and forth) and then from 4-5 at home M-F (requiring me to be home). This makes it nearly impossible to spend a day at the lake or make a trip to the beach.
But.
Last night after a long day that included VBS, Math and Science camp, ABA, a meeting, a water balloon fight, and a day with friends my kids asked to go to the lake. So I took them. At 6:30 pm, which in RAT (Renee Adjusted Time) is pretty much 9 pm. Dinner had been made that morning (Asian salad) and Chuck is working out of town, so I really had no deadline except Apollo’s bedtime and the fact that my brain is mush by 8 pm. So we went to the lake for an hour, came home and at dinner and watched The Office.
And we all survived.
Boom.
Best Mom Ever.
Again.