Even The Muppets Can Be Dangerous

I realize I don’t share as many stories about Mira on this blog. It’s not that there aren’t stories to tell, they just tend to be short and sweet, even if the subject herself is FULL of drama.

Oh yes, Mira is the supreme high ruler of drama.

Being an only child, I’ve never really understood sibling rivalry, but I’m often told that a younger child will often try to be the opposite of their older sibling in an attempt to stand out. After Cordy’s diagnosis with autism, we held our breath during Mira’s babyhood, waiting to see if she would follow the same path of development. But Mira had different plans.

She was given an evaluation when she was nearly three, and it was made very clear that although Mira had a significant speech delay at that time, there was no question that this was a social and engaging little person. She’s in-your-face, guerrilla-style social – if you’re not paying attention to her, she will make sure you notice.

And so while Cordy prefers to be alone, keeps her thoughts to herself, avoids new experiences and changes in routine, and has little opinion about her appearance, Mira has proven to be the opposite. She’s loud, opinionated, craves new experiences, hates being alone, and demands to wear dresses as much as possible so she can “look pretty.” She always wants to be the center of attention.

While Mira is the life of the party, there’s one other difference between the two sisters that I wish wasn’t there. Cordy is often careful in her movements like a cat. Mira? Mira prefers to move first, think second like an overexcited golden retriever. She’s blissfully unconcerned with where her body is moving in space as long as it gets there quickly. Or until it meets an object abruptly while traveling at high velocity.

Mira is a klutz. Thank goodness I didn’t name her Grace, because that would have been tragically ironic.

I absolutely love her enthusiasm over everything, but too often she ends up hurt when she’s not paying attention. Mira can take any normal, routine activity and turn it into an extreme sport. Walking across a room can result in a sudden loss of balance (tripping on air?) and crumbling to the ground.

Walking down the stairs isn’t even safe when holding the rail. Holding the rail as she falls only leads to her twisting her body until her hand snaps free so she does a full barrel roll the rest of the way down.

Attempting to sit down in a chair can lead to bouncing her head off the table and ricocheting her body onto the floor several feet away. (True story. Happened in her preschool class. Her teachers were amazed she was OK.)

Going to watch The Muppets at the movie theater can lead to…well…this:

(And before anyone wonders – she ASKED me to take a photo of it.)

Fifteen minutes before the end of the movie on Saturday night, Mira had to use the bathroom. Aaron quickly took her out of the theater and they were back within five minutes with no drama. But as she was walking down the row to get back to her seat (and AFTER stepping over my purse without catching her foot on it) she somehow ended up on the floor.

She started to cry, so I scooped her up into my lap and shushed her, telling her it was OK and she was fine and the movie was nearly over and hey, look at those silly muppets! She tried to stop crying but couldn’t, and it wasn’t until I finally turned to look at her face in the dim theater that I noticed the “tears” running down from her eye looked awfully dark.

When Mira took that trip to the floor, it appears that she tried to stop her fall against the metal seat legs. With her face.

At that point it looked like the whole area around her eye was bloody and I couldn’t tell where it was coming from. I ran out of the theater with her and into the bathroom, grabbing handfuls of paper towels to stop the bleeding from the gash next to her eye. Thankfully the eye itself looked unharmed, even if she managed to injure nearly three-quarters of the space around her eye.

Once the bleeding slowed down (and Mira was no longer freaking out) I took her out to the front lobby and begged for some ice to put on her eye. At that point she was telling the lobby attendant how she had to leave the movie when it was really sad. Rollin’ with the punches, that kid – she would rather talk about how the movie was sad rather than recall how she nearly took out her eye.

Yesterday she told her entire class the story of how she clobbered herself while watching The Muppets, with appropriate dramatic pauses and a little acting it out, so I think she’ll be OK.

I hope she might learn to be more careful after accidents like these, but deep down I know she’ll find new ways to injure herself soon. At least she’s got a knack for drama, so she’ll always be able to spin it into a fantastic story for her friends.

No amount of spin is going to calm my nerves, however.



Not A Cover Girl, But Still Special

Locals might want to pick up a (free) copy of Columbus Parent Magazine before the end of the month. While Cordy didn’t win the cover model contest, she was one of the five finalists, which means if you get this month’s issue you’ll have the chance to see this:

Sure, they got her age wrong, but it’s exciting to see a photo of our warrior princess in print!

Hurry to get your copy before I grab every last one to give to family. (And stash several in a memory box!)



The (Not So) Great Plague of 2011

Well, hello there. Got a little quiet in here, didn’t it?

I’d like to say I was too busy with fantastic adventures since I last wrote a post, but the truth is my entire family was brought to its knees thanks to a microscopic villain.

It all started just over a week ago.We had a family outing that Friday to my company’s annual holiday party. Everyone was in good spirits at the party. Mira got her face painted:

Rainbow butterfly FTW

Cordy visited with Santa:

And all I want for Christmas is to get away from this creepy bearded guy…

That night we arrived home full of happiness and holiday cheer, tucked the children into their beds, and then tucked ourselves into our new (Black Friday sale) bed that had just been delivered earlier that day. Ahhh…domestic bliss.

And then Mira started vomiting at 3:30am.

Aaron and I changed her sheets, cleaned her up, and put her back to bed. I started the washing machine and went back to bed myself. We thought maybe it was too many cookies before bed that caused it.

Half an hour later, she threw up again. Change sheets, clean her up, put her back to bed, set old sheets near washing machine. Back to bed.

Thirty minutes later…well, you can probably guess the pattern at this point. It reached a point that I ran out of sheets and had her sleeping on towels. Towels that I still had to change every thirty minutes.

Aaron got up with her eventually and moved her downstairs. At least if he was nearby he could get a bucket to her when she started to feel sick, thereby sparing us more laundry. Every time she was sick, I was meticulous about cleaning up with antibacterial soap and insisted we wash our hands well. It could have been the cookies, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

By the end of the day on Saturday, Mira was mostly back to normal. She ate dinner, teased her sister, and it seemed the worst was over. Sunday morning and afternoon were also happily boring and normal.

I took a nap Sunday afternoon to prepare for going to work that night, and when I woke up I discovered Aaron now felt ill. Within an hour his nausea turned into a full stomach virus with all the symptoms you can imagine. The cookies were now no longer being blamed on Mira’s illness. I put the girls to bed on my own, as Aaron was completely down and out at this point.

I felt completely fine at this point, so I made myself dinner then showered and prepared for work. Suddenly at 9:30pm, my stomach felt a little off. I still had an hour before I had to leave, and made the decision that a quick nap would make everything better.

Half an hour later, I knew I had been conquered by the viral army. I called off work, told Aaron I was sick, too (he was still camped out on the couch) and went back up to bed. It didn’t take long before the vomiting started.

Twelve hours later, the vomiting finally stopped. Like Mira, I threw up at least every thirty minutes all night long. I didn’t sleep, and I was hot and then cold all night long. I stayed in bed all day the next day, and by evening I still didn’t feel strong enough to even walk downstairs or eat anything. No work again that night. Aaron (who had mostly recovered by this point) brought me Sprite to sip and took care of the girls that evening.

Tuesday morning, I felt a little better. I ate a little bit of toast and had finally gone downstairs. I was thankful to be over this virus, and thankful Cordy had avoided it. Aaron told me how she had avoided us the past two days, saying she didn’t want to touch either of us for fear of getting sick. Poor kid – she was so scared of getting sick.

Which is why I felt even worse when the school called at 2:30pm that day to say Cordy had just lost her lunch on the office floor.

I didn’t go to work again that night. I still felt weak, and poor Cordy spent the night delirious from being sick, drifting in and out of a restless sleep, talking to no one, and constantly moving as if she couldn’t get comfortable. Aaron and I took turns being with her and as a result got little sleep ourselves.

Wednesday morning, Cordy finally snapped out of it. She was tired, but was at least making sense when you talked to her. By mid-afternoon she was asking for food and by evening she was back to normal.

I still wasn’t feeling great, but went to work that night anyway. While the rest of the family had fully recovered, I couldn’t entirely rid myself of the nausea and an odd, dizzy feeling. The feeling was still there when I woke up Thursday afternoon, so as soon as Aaron got home I went to urgent care.

The result? Double ear infection. Apparently this wasn’t my week.

I started antibiotics that night, and then spent the weekend trying to catch up from everything I’d missed during the week. Sadly, the world doesn’t pause when you’re sick, and I never realized how fast email could pile up in an inbox. (Or laundry in a hamper. Ugh.)

At the moment I’m mostly back to normal. I’m not entirely convinced the antibiotics are strong enough to do the job, but I’ll give them a few more days to prove themselves.

It seems the evil stomach virus that brought down all of us has been making its way into many homes this week. I guess I should be thankful we got it out of the way before Christmas. We’ve had far too many Christmas celebrations that ended with someone sick.

So that was my last week or so. How are you?



Happy Blogiversary To Me

I completely missed my blog’s anniversary yesterday. Whoops. Yesterday marked six years since I decided LiveJournal was so 2004 and abandoned it in favor of my own independent blog.

What do I get myself for a blog anniversary? Wikipedia says the sixth anniversary gifts are iron, sugar or wood, depending on which chart you use. I’m holding out for my seventh anniversary: wool. In November, a nice wool sweater or socks would be lovely.

Instead, this year I gave myself a little bit of nostalgia. I read back through some of my old blog posts and laughed at how much I forgot. Thank goodness I wrote it all down – there are so many incredible stories of my daughters that I never would have remembered without my little corner of the Internet.

Oh, how I miss those curls on Cordy…

Six years ago I had one cranky toddler, worked part-time at a university, and weighed about 50 pounds more than I do now. In some ways I was happier – I had more free time, mostly – but in other ways I see how much we were struggling with the adjustment to being parents and the financial strains we were under.

So much was different then. Mira wasn’t even a thought yet. Autism was just something I connected with the movie Rain Man. I had yet to start nursing school. Aaron still had long hair. And I still felt like a rookie mom, both overconfident and unsure of everything, all at the same time.

As I read through my archives, I see how much motherhood has changed me in six years. I’m fighting harder than ever for a better life for my kids. Tolerance for others, the environment, healthier foods, equality, health care, civil rights…it all matters more to me now. Being a special needs mom has also changed my outlook on so many things: that grumpy, strong-willed toddler from the start of this blog is now a charming, beautiful, autistic girl who depends on me to fight for her to get the services she needs to help her cope with this world, as well as understanding from others who may first try to dismiss her due to her autism.

But on this Thanksgiving eve, I’m especially thankful that I started this blog. Coping with all of the changes we’ve gone through would not have been as easy without this space to write it all out, and the friends I’ve made through this blog who have been my support when I felt like giving up on everything. The community of moms I’ve met through blogging has been fantastic – along with my close “real-life” friends, many of my blog friends and commenters have been my shoulders to lean on, my place to turn for advice, and (I hope) I’ve been able to be the same for them as well.

If you have some time, browse the archives. There are some fantastic and funny posts hidden in there. And some adorable photos of Cordy and Mira, too.

So for all of you still reading, thank you. I’m thankful for having this space to share my life with all of you, and for the friendship and community you’ve shared with me.



Our Weekend Great Wolf Lodge Getaway

Life has been a little hectic around here. With my third shift schedule, Aaron’s new job that has him out of town some days and working from home other days, and the crazy school bus schedules that our daughters endure, we often only have 1-2 hours at most during the evening where we are together as a family. Of course, most of the time I’m too busy to let it get to me, but then there are times I find myself missing my family and wishing we could spend more time together.

So this last weekend, we ran away. Or more precisely, we spent three days forgetting about homework and deadlines and schedules and instead focused on creating some memories at Great Wolf Lodge.

We’ve been to the Great Wolf Lodge in Cincinnati a few times and always look forward to going back. The indoor waterpark and resort is perfect for when you don’t have the time/money for a full vacation, but still want a mini-vacation atmosphere.

This year’s trip was yet again more awesome than the last. Shortly after we arrived, there was a knock at our door and we were presented with bottles of water and a complimentary bag of their caramel-chocolate popcorn as a thanks for being a repeat visitor. The popcorn was devoured before the weekend was over, but in that moment the kids were more focused on getting out of the room to play MagiQuest. (It’s kind of like a Harry Potter-type game for kids, with magic wands that do all kinds of neat things through the entire lodge.)

Hooray, treasure!

Saturday morning was our first visit to the waterpark, and I was surprised how much Cordy and Mira had matured since we were last there. Both were fairly scared of the water last year, requiring a lot of coaxing and gradual introduction to the wave pool and the itty-bitty water slides. (And a lot of anxiety involving any deep water.)

This year, life jackets securely on, Cordy went straight to the wave pool and ran right in, with Mira only a few steps behind her. They both tackled the intermediate water slides. (Cordy was too big for the little slides, and still unwilling to try the big ones.) They even practiced trying to swim, with Aaron and I just in reach. I was so impressed that Cordy could handle being in the water so well.

In fact, Cordy was a little too self-confident about her abilities. At one point, she disappeared from my view – it was really just a few seconds – and when I spotted her again she was about 20 feet from me in the deeper section of the wave pool, unable to touch the ground, flailing and calling for help. As I tried to get to her quickly, the lifeguard dove in and a teen boy who was less than an arm’s reach from her, well, reached out his arm and grabbed her with little effort. She wasn’t in any danger thanks to her life jacket, but it was good to know how quickly the staff reacts. (And that teen was the hero among his friends for “saving” her.)

Note to self: sign Cordy up for swimming lessons. And keep that life jacket on her for now.

But other than that one moment, the waterpark was perfect and we couldn’t have had more fun. (I have no photos of the waterpark – I know myself well enough to not take electronics around water.)

Aside from swimming, we played more MagiQuest.

“I command you to speak, tin man!”

And had plenty of snacks.

The kids got wolf ears with their lunches.

She was trying to look awake.

And enjoyed downtime in their own little “kid cabin” inside our room.

We were sad to leave Great Wolf Lodge on Sunday. Mira was weepy the rest of the day because she didn’t want to be back at home. Or maybe she was tired, since she barely slept the entire weekend. All I know is she slept eleven hours straight on Sunday night, and then still fell asleep in the car on the way to preschool Monday morning.

While it wasn’t a full-out vacation, it still wasn’t cheap for our budget, so we probably won’t be doing this again until next year. However, I think the memories we have from the weekend make it all worth the money. Well, all of the money except for the three pay-per-view PBS Kids episodes Cordy charged to the room by accident. Apparently the pay-per-view menu is just as easy to navigate on the remote control as our Tivo menu at home, only these episodes cost $3.99 a piece. Oops.

And now back to the daily grind.

Note: This is not a review post. We love Great Wolf Lodge and paid for the entire trip on our own. (You’re welcome to view my credit card bill if you’ll agree to help pay it.) Although if Great Wolf ever wants to invite us back to the lodge on their tab, we will have our swimsuits ready to go on short notice.


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