As you know, our kids have battled lead poisoning for three years now. It has been a long road with the EPA making visits to test our house, walls, floors, and even the soil outside of our house. It all started after routine blood tests showed the boys had elevated levels on their first birthday. Over the next couple years, the levels topped off at up to 24. Nick and Annabelle had the highest levels, and they have the most delays today.

We have had to paint the interior of our house and then coat it with polyeurathane, paint the front porch, clean all of their toys with a solution made of powdered cascade, and plant new grass. They strongly advised us to put new siding on the house and even bring in new dirt for the yard and said that our children should not play outside until this was done. The kids have had to have regular blood tests. Over the past year, we’ve seen their levels go way down, and Nick remained elevated. About 6 months ago, his level was 10, which was borderline. I was due to take him back in April, but he got sick and I put it off.

Last Wednesday, I finally took him back in. I was so scared, sure that his level was going to be even higher. I called on Thursday to get the results, and as of closing time, they still weren’t in. I called several times on Friday, and finally they called me back late that afternoon with the results.

Nick’s level was 6.

Finally, after all of this hard work, the worries, everything, we are done!! Nick has to have another blood test before his fifth birthday, but other than that, we do not have to deal with this any more! I just cannot say how relieved we are.

The night we got the results, we celebrated!!

Now, for the most important thing, how to tell if your house has lead paint in it. You can get home test kits that will tell you if there is lead, but they won’t tell you how much. If your home was built after 1978, it does not have lead paint. If it was built before 1978, it may.

The older the house
(mostly those built before 1950), the better chance. If you are buying a house, ask for a lead inspection before you buy… it may save you from what we’ve had to go through!

Old lead paint often looks like cracked alligator skin. This is often found in window sills and on the exterior. Paint on the inside of the house probably will not look the same, but you may find little hard paint chips that have cracked off.

Here is what lead paint looks like on the exterior of a house:

This concludes my public service announcement.

Just a few weeks ago, I was absolutely positively sure that there was no way Nick was autistic. I didn’t think he showed any signs. Still, I’m not sure that he is, but I have noticed a few things lately that have me second guessing myself. At Nick’s IEP meeting, his teacher mentioned that he doesn’t play with other kids, he just likes to sit by himself and play. He also has trouble communicating and expressing himself, as well as understanding what we are telling him. His meltdowns seem to be getting worse, and it’s over such small things. For instance, a little girl in his class was playing with a blue paper butterfly. He wanted it, and she didn’t want to let him have it so he threw a fit and wanted to go home with me. But, the kicker is, it wasn’t because he wanted the butterfly. It’s because the butterfly was blue. Blue seems to be his new thing, he likes to collect and play with things that are blue. He’ll only drink out of a blue sippy cup and sit in his blue chair. His favorite Chipmunk is Simon because… you guessed it… he wears a blue shirt.

Nick used to have these routines he had to do. When we got into the van, he had to pull down all the coat hooks, turn on all the interior lights and pull up the child safety lock. Thankfully, he’s given up most of that and only does it occasionally. I think what really has set these thoughts in motion for me is in the past week, I have noticed him flapping his hands. Each time, he was either playing, or excited, and I’m hoping that it’s just a normal thing. Someone please tell me these things can be normal toddler behavior.

Another observation is totally unrelated to my family. It actually has to do with an ex-boyfriend. Sometimes I find his blog a funny read. I’ve noticed that there is a theme, though. He doesn’t want to take responsibility for his life. (Hmmm, could that be why we broke up?) He blames other people for his living conditions. He really became a slob, and I’m not talking about some clothes on the floor. I’m talking about the kind of person you see on the news where they do an expose about horrid living conditions. Cat feces all over the house, no running water, etc. This guy went downhill. So, he recently moved back up north and he’s complaining that people are screwing him over once again. Wake up and realize that you need to take charge of your own life! If you want something to change, then change it.

I also noticed in his blogs, that he is “looking for a girlfriend” and implies that he wants her to take care of him. He wants her to drive him places and he wants to live at her house. Yes, that’s a great way to get a girlfriend. If you are the person I’m talking about and you are reading this, I hope that you really will start taking charge of your own life. Don’t rely on other people to do things for you. Get yourself cleaned up, get a job, get your own place and become self sufficient. I’m sorry if that sounds harsh, but the reason you are in this mess is because you aren’t doing these things, or you are not making enough of an effort. You can’t expect other people to take care of you for the rest of your life. You are 30 years old, it’s time to act take responsibility for yourself and stop relying on everyone else.

Nick is having issues with behavior which may be because of communication issues. He scored low for Social-Emotional Development and Speech. This school year only has 3 weeks left, so he’s going to do speech therapy at school and then in August, he’s switching to a different school. He’ll be in a special class of less than 10 students, 2 teachers an 1 teachers aid. The class is split up, 1/2 of the children have IEPs and the other half help serve as role models.

We have the option of moving Aaron if there is room available. That’s the hard decision. Do we move him away from his friends and the teachers he loves? It would be so much easier for me, as both boys could ride the bus to school! I guess if we’re going to move Aaron, its best to do it now before he’s too attached to his class. If we split them up now, they’ll probably be split up until high school. I’m leaning more towards moving Aaron too.

Oh, by the way, no word of any type of diagnosis, so I was actually relieved by that. They seem to think the issues can be resolved with speech therapy to strengthen his communication skills and more focus from the teachers.

I'm hoping it's almost here! For the last few weeks, we've had so much snow and ice, it's been crazy. The boys only went to school a handful of days in the past month. This week, they have went every day. Woot! It has actually been in the mid 60's, and you better believe I am enjoying this.

So, next month, the kids get their lead levels retested. I am incredibly nervous about this. I've noticed Nick's been throwing up lately, not as much as he used to, but maybe once a week. (That's a sign of lead poisoning.) Oh, and going off on a tangent about that, why is it that he can puke in the toilet on his own, but he can't poop in it? I'm so done with potty training. This has to be the worst parenting task there is. I have three potty training right now, and Annabelle actually seems to be doing better than the boys, insane! I have all the kids wearing underwear all day, then pullups at night. The boys have to wear pullups to school, but since Nick is starting to pee at school, I may start sending him in thick underwear with plenty of spares.

Nick. Nick, nick, nick. When he was a baby, my mom told me, "That's going to be your trouble!" Boy, was she right! This boy is definitely a handful. He is very determined and strong willed. I'm not sure if I've posted about this before, but he's being evaluated at school for some speech and behavior issues. It seems like he just doesn't comprehend what you tell him sometimes. I think he's trying, because he gets frustrated, but he has difficulty responding or even repeating what you tell him. I think this is an effect of the lead poisoning. We've been working with a group of people from school, and they tend to think that what he has may be Auditory Processing Disorder. The problem is that they can't test for it at his age, I'm not sure why. They said that he fits into the description though, and there are a few things they can do to help his development even without the diagnosis. He's been going through a lot of testing at school, and we'll have a meeting soon to discuss the results. Yesterday, he had a vision and hearing test, which he passed. Yay!! The person doing the testing said she was impressed with his vision test, and that he could read every letter. She said that often they have trouble doing it at his age because many kids can't read the letters off. I say thank God for They Might Be Giants. Their video, "Here Come The ABCs" has helped us so much in teaching them. So much, that I think they might be ready to start reading. Aaron can read a couple simple words, like Mom and Dad. Honestly, though, he may just have memorized what they look like. We are working on letter sounds, though.

Speaking of Aaron, he is doing absolutely wonderful! His progress report from school was excellent. He is getting along with other kids very well, in fact, his best friend is a little girl named Hannah. He has adjusted so well to a structured setting and just loves school. He's excited every day to go. I've noticed, also, that he and Nick are doing really well with their manners. Please is still one to work on, but they have thank you and you're welcome down. They say excuse me if they burp or let a windy. I've had a lot of people comment on their manners, and that feels really good. I also have a lot of people comment on how well behaved they are when we're out in public, and I'll give them that, I just wish they would be at home!

Annabelle is doing excellent with speech & development therapy. She started last fall, and the results are astounding. When she started speech therapy, she would barely say mama or dada, and had such a hard time telling us what she needed. I was really starting to wonder about hearing problems, or even the "A" word. Five months later, though, she is talking so well. I can't even count how many words she has now! She can carry a very short conversation, and put together short sentences. Just a few months ago, I thought there would be no way that she'd be ready for pre-k or headstart next year, but I think she's right on track now. We are working with Archway in Carbondale to get her into a program, most likely headstart.

Oh, that's another thing. Aaron and Nicholas may move to a different school next year because they are thinking of putting Nick in a special education class, one that will be able to better deal with his behavior issues. If that happens, the boys will be able to ride the bus to school. Wow, what a relief that would be! At this time, I take Annabelle with me to drop the boys off at school. She wants to stay so bad, it's hard to get her back out of the classroom. Then picking them up is just as bad! They don't want to leave. Any idea how hard it is to get three toddlers out the door and into the van when they don't want to go? Whew! Oh, did I mention that Annabelle is now bigger than Aaron? Well, around anyway. She is wearing a 3T-4T and weighs 30lbs. She's on the short side, though. Aaron is 28lbs and in a 2T-3T. Nick is 31lbs and in a 3T.

Okay, I guess I need to update about myself now. I've had some gyn issues for a couple years now. It started after I had Annabelle, my AF became very irregular and heavy. At one point, I actually skipped 3 months, freaked out and bought a bunch of pregnancy tests. Of course, those came back negative. So I talked to my OBGYN (have I mentioned before how much I love her?) last November and we discussed treatments. I asked about Novasure (which is a thermal ablation.) She said that would be a great idea, then she stopped herself. My c-sections had a verticle cut, and that disqualified me for that procedure. So, she suggested a Cryoablation, but my insurance won't cover it. We settled on a depo shot. I went in for a few months in a row to get it. At first, it worked beautifully, but after the second month it started giving me horrible mood swings. I had a hard time dealing with day to day life because I was so sad and irritable. Poor Mike got the brunt of it, too.

When I went back in February, I told her what had been going on, and she gave me a few other options. She said we could continue the depo, continue the depo with Wellbutrin or do the Cryoablation. I asked her to see if we could get a special approval for the Cryoablation, and I'm still waiting on word back. I'm getting discouraged, though, and don't think they are going to approve it since I haven't heard anything back yet. In the meantime, I went 25 days straight bleeding. I am in shock that I went that long, I've never went more than 2 weeks before. It just stopped, and I'm nervous about it starting back up. If I'm not approved for the cryoablation, my last option will be a partial hysterectomy. My doctor has not mentioned it yet, but I don't see any reason why she wouldn't. I'm done having babies. I had my tubes tied after Annabelle's c-section. Even if I wanted to do IVF, I wouldn't because pregnancy was just way too hard on me. I really don't care if I have my uterus or not. In fact, it really has caused me nothing but trouble. I had an irritable uterus (yes, that's a real condition!) through all of my pregnancies, and now it's even angrier. Let's just get it out of there, leave my ovaries and cervix, and I'll be a happy camper!

I think that brings us up to date. We're car shopping right now. We went last weekend but didn't find anything, so we're going to try again this weekend. We're looking for either a minivan, suv or car with a large backseat that will fit 3 boosters. Wish us luck!

I may be changing the format of this blog soon. I get so many spam comments, that I think I'm going to try another platform. If I do, this address will automatically go to the new one.

The boys are now starting Pre-K. For the past two weeks, they had meetings with their teachers - one at a nearby school and one at our house. This afternoon they actually got to visit their classroom. They had such a blast! I know they are not going to have any problem with me leaving them there. It's only 3 hours, 5 days a week. I was surprised they are going 5 days but I'm going to enjoy the alone time with Annabelle.

Nick loved it so much he didn't want to leave. Everytime we've left school, he has thrown the hugest fit like I've never seen before. Last time it took me 20 minutes to get him strapped into his carseat so we could leave. OMG, I was going nuts!! He just tensed up and I couldn't get his butt in the seat, much less put the straps on. This time wasn't as bad, probably because dh was with me. He did scream quite a bit after we got to the car, though.

Here are a few pics:

Aaron

Nick & Aaron

Nick

Aaron looking at Nick's art project with a magnifying glass:

By the way, their shirts say, "Monkey See, Monkey Do, Monkey Get in Trouble, Too"