Splitting Hairs

Well, Grandma Golm had enough and so did Mommy. The hair got cut off. :)






I guess around here it doesn't matter how sick you are. As my mother's favorite saying conveys, Golm's are all about appearances, "It's better to look good, than feel good."

It has been a rough four days. Gus, as you know as been really sick, then Griffin joined the ill brigade on Saturday morning. The doctor thinks were either dealing with strep or mono.

We experienced insurance company run around. On Friday when we went to have blood drawn, we were told we couldn't go to the hospital where we could get a diagnosis that day. Instead we had to go to a insurance approved lab, which was WAY more convenient than the hospital, but it's Monday and no results have come in. So, if the kids have strep, we've gone four days with no treatment.

So we managed through Saturday with kids just lounging around on the couch and the t.v. at deaf kid level, because Griffin refuses to wear his hearing aids. --Did I mention this is the one weekend in the entire year Joe has to work?-- Then Saturday night Gus starts complaining that his calf muscles hurt. Typical mom response, "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see how bad they hurt on the way up the stairs to bed." Well, they did hurt going to bed and the next day, he really found it difficult to walk. We saw the doctor today with Griffin and she had no explanation for Gus' leg pain. Meanwhile, you need to know I went online and looked up polio and yes he has every sympton. Oy! But, he's also had a vaccine and the doctor didn't even mention it. Trust me, if it gets any worst I will bring him in and if not better by Thursday there's a call back over to the doctor.

Meanwhile down on the ranch . . . Griffin woke up in rare form at 12:30 coughing like crazy. He was screaming for some water in between coughs. I brought it in, he drank a bit and decided he needed to sleep in our bed. --Joe had already gone down to sleep on the couch, because he is also coughing. -- As we walked into my room, cough, cough, hack, urururmmpph! Slight puke, mostly water, got him to the bathroom in time for the rest. Poor guy got caught up in a gag reflex so bad he couldn't stop. He broke all the capallaries around his eyes. See photo.

Now we know what he'd look like with tiny freckles. Isn't he cute?

O.k. back on course here. He was able to go right back to sleep in our bed. At 6:30 am he sat straight up and screamed/demanded medicine. "I WANT MEDICINE!" Absolutely screaming. It got me up and out of bed. He took the medicine, even though it was the berry flavor he hates. Then, "I WANT WATER!" O.k. I don't care if you're on your deathbed you can say, "please." That's exactly what I said to him actually. A "please" came out; I went to get his water. He demanded it come from his bathroom not mine. He was completely freaking out about it. Screaming and pointing, "NO! THERE!" After it's all said and done . . . I think he may have still been asleep.

I can't wait to see what tomorrow will bring. I have to haul both Gus and Griffin to Griffin's IEP. Hopefully, they'll just sit around like they did today, but in a different place.

The To Do List

If you are wondering what Gus has planned for his day while he's home sick . . .

Thank God he's finally going to get that book written.

Gus is the next victim of the ping-pong fever. Unfortunately, it isn't conveniently happening in the early evening. Nope, he had one around 102 Wednesday afternoon right after school, then 102.4 last night/this morning 1:30am to be precise. This has been very frustrating, because as soon as the kids get any fever reducer the thing's gone and the kid feels fine. In fact, they feel empowered with great energy and sassiness, which I will caulk up to the illness and not there general attitude. Meanwile, I must admit their mother had nothing good to say about the snow yesterday and this morning. I really feel blindsided. I hadn't watched the weather forecast, so I was quite surprised. But really I've had it. I think being cooped up for those weeks with my leg made me want winter to end even more. I must remember though I was supposed to have the cast for 12-weeks, which means I would have had my cast removed last Friday, the 14th. Note to self: No bitching.

It took a million shots

It took about a half an hour to get these three pictures. Holy Moly!

Tickled Pink

My Life This Week. . . it's different every week.

It's been an interesting week so far. Will has had this mystery illness. He's ABSOLUTELY fine all day, then around 7-7:30, our dinnertime, he gets a fever. Wakes up cured. No other symptoms. Oy! Sorry, but I’m sending him to school. He missed so many days already this school year because of illness in the Fall. If your kid starts running a fever at night with no other symptoms you can blame me.

Gus decided to stay up until 11:00pm reading and listening to the 10 songs I put on my old Shuffle for him. He didn't just get up on the wrong side of the bed, but I think the wrong side of life. Holy moly, what a disaster! He started out with "I can't . . . I wouldn’t" and ended up with "I hate you!" That unfortunately doesn't affect me at all, which infuriates him. He's saying it just to get a rise out of me, but it doesn't happen. I was able to let him know, with no emotion, at he would not be experiencing the lovely sounds of my iPod for awhile.

Griffin's on Spring break all next week. Hopefully he's into spring cleaning, because that is all I have planned.

Life's Short

We had a conference with Gus’ teacher on Thursday. As we waited in the hallway the kids messed around. Ms. Williams came to the door only moments later saying goodbye to the couple before us. She looked out at our kids and said, “Gus in the oldest isn’t he?” We replied yes, and she said, “Will is taller.” I hate it when people do that, however I’m sure I’ve done the same thing at some point in my life. Well, the cat’s been out of the bag about the whole height thing for a couple of months anyway. I mean it’s obvious.

We made it home around 6:45 the kids were hungry and exhausted. We didn’t eat until 7:30 which is our normal bedtime. When we finally got headed in the direction of bed it was 8:15. At that point, I realized Gus had not done his EIR reading. I told him he could sit downstairs and read to Will. They sat on the living room couch, while I did some things on the computer, Joe had taken Griffin up to bed and things looked like they were going to follow plan.

Then Gus and Will started goofy around. No reading was getting done, just lots of messing around. I gave one warning. I gave another warning. Third strike they were out. It was time for them to go to bed. Gus was furious. I told him he could finish his reading in the morning, which sent him into a tirade. He went stomping up the stairs screaming at the top of his lungs, “I hate you!” I’ve heard it before. I know it means nothing. It’s just a kid with no other ammo trying to get a rise out of his mom. They went upstairs brushed their teeth and got ready for bed. Gus had forgotten chick and asked Joe if he to go down to get her. I heard Joe tell him to go down and apologize to me, which he did and then headed back up. Everything was quiet upstairs. Could the night be winding down? Well, no because this is a Shenfeld Family story.

Joe and I were listening to a thing my mom had sent from YouTube when suddenly Gus appeared on the top step crying. Up the stairs I went. I brought him back into his room as he began sobbing and tucked him in and said, “Gus, what is going on?” Niagara Falls broke loose and he told me about the kids at school that have been calling him “midget.” It was heart breaking.

My first instinct was to get names and addresses, but then I thought about it and hunting down and killing these wasn’t going to help at all. These were just the first kids, future teens and possibly adults that were going to have something to say about Gus’ height. He is the smallest kid in his class and has been following the same growth curve since birth. I doubt one day he’s going to shoot up. Although, he comes from a family with seven foot tall men on one side, the other side has five foot six men. I’m assuming he has the Shenfeld height gene.

Here I am with this kid flipping out about his height. Why that night? Well, because his teacher made that comment about Will being taller. What is damage control going to be? We talked about what a great personality he has, how much fun he is and that what he lacks inches he makes up in creativity. We talked about how when “little people” walk into a room people stop talking and stare and when my cousin Josh, who is seven foot tall, walk in a room people stop talking and stare. Gus isn’t going to have that problem, because he’s going to be somewhere right in the middle. We also had a conversation about all the famous and fantastic short people in the world. But, we did talk about the reality that he is short; it’s a fact. A fact we can’t do anything about at this point. He has to work out some strategies to handle comments. We decided to best thing to say if someone says he’s short is, “Yep. I am” or “You’re right” or the snide remark, “I am. I hadn’t noticed.” He has to own this. He had to be able to take the control back.

He was able to fall asleep. The next morning he said he felt a little better after our conversation. Now I have to find all the “Short People” recordings by Randy Newman and destroy them. While I’m at it I could track these kids down and have a word with them. J But, could I keep it just a word.

Demanding Fortune

Do I dare go look?

After a candy fueled birthday party my boys are down in the basement playing. There have been numerous tears shed, screams and yelps, yet I do not venture down to see what is exactly happening in the depths of my house. I assume if someone was seriously injured another child would come get me and not just play over their brother's lifeless body, but who really knows.