Someday

 Part 2:

Be warned, chaos continues. 

I'm surprised we made it into the hospital for Chelsea's x-ray after lunch.  Walking from the parking garage, Logan, without any awareness at all, walked in front of a couple of cars, he almost walked right into people we were passing on the sidewalk, and he managed to stop the rotating doors at the entrance.

Once there, he was picking up a colorful piece of plastic off of the ground in the waiting area and putting it in his mouth - until I reminded him that may have been on the bathroom floor at one point.  I requested he put it in the trash, and oddly he obliged.  While waiting for registration he was trying to get Chelsea out of her stroller (yes, at this point in the day I wasn't messing around and she was STRAPPED in.)  After trying to pull papers off of the registration desk, I made him hold my hand all the way into the office.  Because he was restrained he decided to use his lovely mouth.

You're the worst mom in the whole world.

You don't love me.

When we get home, I'm running away.  (Who says I'm taking you home?)

The woman taking our insurance information thought we were crazy.  While Logan went on and on, Chelsea was pulling on the desk and my chair moving her stroller around, almost tipping it a few times, and trying to stand up out of it while screaming, and signing, "BOP" at me.

Logan had to make a sudden bathroom stop before the x-ray.  It was one of those 17 second bathroom stops boys make.  I made him turn around, go back, flush, and wash his hands.  He was back in and out.  I went in after him to get Chelsea set up to go - he definitely washed, water was EVERYWHERE, but the flushing task was left incomplete.  Of course I made him come back and flush.  (Did you notice I spend a lot of time following through, making him clean up after himself etc.  When is this going to pay off, because so far, it's not working.)  When Chelsea washed her hands I realized why there was water all over, it was a tiny sink with way too much water pressure.  Chelsea and I were both wet when we left the bathroom.

The x-ray was completely uneventful.  I couldn't believe it.  I did have to buckle Chelsea in afterwards kicking, screaming and crying, but that's normal.  (For some reason the girls in the radiology room thought it was funny.  I wasn't laughing.)

At home this afternoon Chelsea crashed for a nap.  I was extremely thankful.  In order to save a bit of my sanity, I let Logan play his DS ... for way too long.  Normally we have a 20 minute cap, but he played for a little over an hour today.  Shame on me.  Give me a break, it's the first video game player he's ever had, and he's 7 1/2!

As soon as he got bored with his games, Logan and Bobo came running through the house, and of course Chelsea wasn't far behind them.  She helped me fold clothes while Logan was supposed to be reading that book I made for him this morning.  He didn't get very far.

"Mom, Bobo got a hold of the bag of skittles in your room and is eating them!"  (As a side note I don't typically keep skittles in my room, it was a large unopened bag I had inside a box of supplies waiting to go to my new school.)

Sure enough, Bobo was in Logan's room chowing down on skittles.  The weird thing is he managed to get the entire bag out of the box and into Logan's room in one piece.  He was also able to get the bag open with a nice clean tear.  Pretty amazing for a dog.  Out of fear his beloved dog might die from eating too much candy, Logan was easily persuaded to tell the truth.  He had dug the bag out and hid them behind his dresser, and the dog found them.  Again, why do we think mom and dad ALWAYS say, "no food in your room?"  Was the rotten egg in the window not lesson enough?

The rest of the afternoon was filled with sibling scuffles, a mess of staples, a demolished pad of sticky notes and a fat lip.  Yep, both kids had a bloody lip today.  You can turn me in, but I'm pretty sure after an hour with them, social services would bring em' both back.

Logan was downstairs raiding the basement (and I mean raiding - you would be shocked to see some of the things he's done after sneaking down there) and I hollered for him to get upstairs.  Chelsea was pulling the gate back and forth, the dog was trying his hardest to get past me and get down the stairs. Logan was slowly making his way to the top landing.  In an effort to contain Chelsea and the dog with one hand, I grabbed Logan with the other and pulled him by the arm up the last step and into the kitchen.  Amidst all the chaos, he whacked his mouth on the door jam at the top of the stairs when I pulled him up.  I contained the rest of the herd and went to check on him.  Sure enough it was bleeding.

I took him to clean it up and as soon as he saw it was bleeding he started to cry.  (He knows how to work me, like a knife in my chest.)

Then out came, "Daaaadddddy!!!" (Now twist.)

A little ice and a washcloth and he got over it pretty quickly.  He even apologized for being ornery.  (his words)

I took him to Jazzercise with me tonight, gave him a little more DS time while I worked out, then it was time to head home.  Before we left, I caught him desperately trying to unwrap the four pieces of Dove chocolates he had stolen from the stage.  He returned the unopened pieces and will be paying for the pieces he ate.

Bedtime couldn't come soon enough tonight.  I only wish I had the energy to accomplish something after they're in bed. 

It must seem like I'm exaggerating, but I'm not.  Sunday was just as high on the chaos scale, just different crisis', including, but not limited to - 6 underwear accidents, bloody dog vomit, sibling abuse, broken toys, baby lotion / monkey incident, multiple public bathroom trips, including a bathroom floor tantrum (because the only time she's able to verbalize she needs to potty is when we're at a particularly dirty public place).

I hope I haven't scared anyone out of parenthood, or made you fearful of having a child with Down syndrome.  Of course they are challenging, but clearly all children are.  If you have days like this, just know you're not alone.  If you don't have days like this, ... ever, ... then you're not being honest.

Often it seems like we warn our kids about the things that will happen someday if they don't behave, listen, respect.  We lay out the rules, we follow through, we let go of the small stuff - but still it doesn't get easier. 

So you see, my summer isn't full of fun playtime, blogging and facebook - it's rather a time I try to survive ... with a little bit of sanity.


My summer projects have been a flop so far.  I've got a basement full of boxes with children's clothes that need to be labeled before our garage sale in two weeks, a box of camcorder tapes waiting to be put onto DVD's, a classroom to move and setup, and a few books I need to read.  None of it is done.  Why?  Because most people's someday is my everyday.  And I'm tired.