What's Next?

As I left work Friday afternoon I received a call from Nicky's preschool, telling me that he had a 103 degree temp!  They told me it came on out of the blue (about 4:30pm-ish) and he started to cry uncontrollably...and asking for his Momma (yay me!)(he usually cries for Daddy...).  I arrived at his school, and found him laying on some bean-bags with a wet cloth on his head.  When I got him in the car I asked him if his belly hurt - no; I asked him if his head hurt - yes; throat? - no, but inside the mouth did (ok, so that's a check for throat).  He also told me his teeth hurt, which I read on the inter-web-nets that it's possible for one's teeth to hurt when a virus is involved.  Being that it was late on a Friday, I called our doctor's after-hours line, and the nurse told me to keep an eye on him, give him Motrin, and if the fever persists to take him to the doctor on Monday.

Saturday morning he still had a fever, so we cozied up on the couch and watched some movies.  He took a good nap, during which time his fever broke (he woke up nice and drenched...ew!)(and as evidenced by the cabin fever that set in shortly after - man kids get hyper when they're sick!).  Daddy was home by this time, and he helped me look in Nicky's throat, where we saw the tell-tale white patches on his tonsils, and super-red throat.  Well, I say "we", but it was actually me.  Daddy didn't think there was anything there, but I figured we better figure something out because not only is it bad for strep to go untreated for so long, but calling in sick the day after Super Bowl was probably a no-no.  Plus, given the fact I was a carrier for strep when I was a kid, I know how misreable it can be.  Maybe I should be a paramedic...they are doctors you know?  (said with much sarcasm...poor Kris and the heck he endures on shift!)

Sunday morning we took him to the doc-in-the-box to see the PA - just over an hour later, we left with a prescription for Penicillin, a strep throat diagnosis, with a bonus diagnosis - a soft-sounding Systolic Ejection Murmur.  Ok, so what's next?  Although murmurs are fairly common in children and typically disappear by the age of 5, there are those that are not so innocent.  Our plan of attack is to take him to his pediatrician (next week - he's due for his 4 year check up anyway...yikes!  4?!  already?!) and see what she thinks - possibly run a few tests - and go from there.  After the PA first told us, she asked about any childhood illnesses, which may have been a contributing factor.  Hmm...now that would be some good info to have, but sadly, we don't have much other than he's "flat-footed, had a seisure at 7 months, and had an upper respiratory infection" (things on his medical history report we received).

Sheesh!  Never a dull moment in the Johnson house!

ps...man - look at that hot chick in the picture with Nicky...not a line on her face...no way is that his mother!  thank you, Uncle Brent, for the awesome camera - it has a "facial re-touching feature on it...not that I need it...but maybe someday! :)

Random Nicky

There is nothing more annoying or nauseating than the sound of a preschooler smacking his food.  So, during all our meals, we ask Nicky to chew with his mouth shut, and we properly model the behavior.

Last night's dinner went something like this:

Nicky - noshing on pasta con broccoli...homemade of course...and by that I mean a Kraft individual microwave pasta thing with frozen broccoli added - hey, i made it at home!

Momma - enjoying a lovely crunchy salad...picked up from the grocery store salad bar on the way home.

(Dinner's always quick and easy when it's just the two of us.)

After eating for only a few minutes...

Momma:  Nicky, would you please chew with your mouth shut?  Look how Momma chews.

Nicky:  wike dis momma?

Momma:  Yes.  Good job!  Thank you!

A little bit of time goes by...

Momma: Nicky, please chew with your mouth shut.

Nicky: oookaaay momma.

Momma: Good job. Thank you, now keep doing it.

Another few minutes go by...

Momma:  NICKY.  PLEASE.  STOP.  SMACKING.  YOUR.  FOOD.  I do not want to hear you eat - please chew with your mouth shut!  (obviously this part was said through gritted teeth and with a slight inkling of agitation.)

Nicky:  Not a word.  Just a blank stare.  Began chewing with mouth closed.

We continued to eat in silence for about a minute...

Nicky:  (said while Momma was chewing the aformentioned crunchy salad) - i no want to hear you chew either Momma.

Touché my son.

A Fly on the Wall

Here are a few words and phrases you're likely to hear in the Johnson house these days.  A little sampling of Nicky's current vocabulary, if you will... 

whatcha talkin bout momma? 
Nicky's version of "I don't know what you're talking about" - a phrase usually said by Momma and Daddy when we don't understand what he's saying or when he utters random things such as "there tiger in tree" - when clearly there is no tiger to be seen.  Now Nicky says this to us to be silly.

oooOOOooohhhhhh!
Said after our response to a question Nicky has asked (see "what dis car?" below).  He says this one a lot - over and over - quite annoying - and after telling him so, he's now changed it up a bit (see OOOkkkAAAYYY below).

um maybe (insert word here), maybe (insert word here)...
When we ask Nicky a question and he doesn't know the answer, he will say this while trying to get to the right answer.  i.e. Momma: "Nicky, what did you have for snack today?"  Nicky: "um maybe fruit, maybe amel craker."

what dis car? (or what dis chair/table/shirt...you get the picture)
Nicky's way of asking a question that he knows most of the answer to - as in "i know this is a chair, but it's different than the other one..." kind of thing.  After we tell him he will say "oooOOOooohhhhhh!".

OOOkkkAAAYYY...
Either used in place of oooOOOooohhhhhh! or along with.  This is said after he asks a question and we answer.  Hard to tell if he actually understood the answer, because he tends to say this before we're even done answering.  He also says this when we ask him to do something (wash hands, put on shoes...), and our tone might be a little agitated...he'll mimic our tone while saying it.

renstraun...
This is how he says restaurant.  As in "we eatin dinner at renstraun or home?".

yesserday...
Anything that happened in the past is "yesserday".  i.e. "momma.  i fall down yesserday" - when it was actually 30 minutes ago while getting out of Daddy's car.

morrow...
Anything that happens in the future (even if it's 5 minutes, 2 hours, 1 week, etc) is considered "morrow".  He might see an airplane flying over head and will say "i fly that rayprane morrow."  (rayprane = airplane...he used to say airpene, somehow it evolved...)

And lastly...

bailey nice now!
This is said at completely random times throughout the day; usually when he sees Bailey walking around or if she's laying on the couch in the spot in which he wants to sit.  You see, Nicky and Bailey have had quite the tumultuous relationship.  When we first brought him home, he was terrified of the dogs.  Then he got a little more used to them and would pester them repeatedly.  On one such day, while Bailey was eating, Nicky decided to poke at her.  And, well, let's just say he has a scar on his cheek that is slowly fading away.  Now I suppose Bailey is a little more tolerant of Nicky and doesn't snarl at him so much - even cuddles with him at times, in which Nicky will say "bailey nice now".

The Hardest Job EVER...

Is that of being a parent.  Don't get me wrong, I never thought it was going to be easy.  But when we decided to adopt, we talked about parenting practices and what we would do in this situation or that - meaning how we would react to his different behaviors over the course of his childhood.  What we really didn't give as much thought to was his education.  I'm not talking about the "is he going to go to college" or "are we going to pay for his college" questions.  I'm talking about "should he really be attending two different preschools in order to get him caught up with his peers, when it actually might be keeping him back" kind of thoughts.

Nicky has so much going on, with attending two preschools and Occupational Therapy (for his fine and gross motor skills) once a week.  Three days out of the week he has mornings that are 5 hours long with only 2 hours spend doing actual school work.

Nicky's public preschool teacher tells us how wonderful he's doing in school, and how she's "extremely impressed with the progress he has made this year."  His private school teachers say "he's the sweetest kid they've ever met" but that "he has a hard time concentrating and staying on task in order to complete his work". 

We agree that Nicky has come a long way.  He's talking a TON more, but most times it seems like although he is talking a lot more, he's really not saying much more.  Meaning that he's just building upon the words he already knows instead of learning new words to go in their place - leaving him sounding like a stuttering caveman! (New development - he stammers a lot/stutters when he tries to get his thoughts out - very painful to listen to).

Most days he knows his shapes and colors; others he will respond quickly (with an incorrect answer) just because he knows that we require an answer of him.  At home he will mostly answer "who" questions with a "what" answer; "what" questions with "where" answers; and so forth - yet at school he tends to get them correct 70% of the time.  He gives up easily if he cannot do something - even things he's mastered in the past, but for whatever reason is unable to do so on that particular day.  Is this a cognitive issue?  Is he just not wanting to work on those days?  Is he worn out?

We've spoken with his public school teacher (who is awesome, by the way) and she's going to give him a language assessment to see exactly what words he does know and understand (it's a non-scoring test).  This will help her with formulating his new goals come re-evaluation time with the ARD committee in April (they meet every year on the child's birthday to see how much they've progressed).  At that point, we will have a big decision to make:  1) do we keep him in both schools and hope that it's not too much for him; 2) do we pull him out of public school and just have him attend the private school where he'll spend his entire day, every day, with one group of teachers so they can monitor his behavior and progress; 3) should be start him back with the OT to continue the fine tuning of his motor skills to reduce his frustrations; or 4) any combo of the above 3?!

I suppose this all means we'll have to wait to see how the next year goes and go from there.  If you had to ask us what we would do right now, it would be to just send him to private school and therapy.  But, if he is making such progress with his public school then how can we take that away?  What to do?!

Random Nicky

I've been buying bags of either "Little Cuties" or clementines (aka seedless tangerines) - whichever is cheaper or on sale usually wins.  Apparently they're pretty much the same fruit (variations of mandarin oranges) and besides being seedless, they are super easy to peel.  In fact, I am so talented, I can peel them in one big piece - I should put that on my resume..."top notch clementine peeler".  Anywho, I'm not always certain of what they're called, so I've told Nicky they were tangerines for lack of a better term.  The other day we had the following conversation:


Nicky:  you makin orange momma? (said as I was peeling it)
Momma:  No, this is a tangerine.  It's the same color as an orange, but it's smaller.
Nicky:  oh.  it orange?
Momma:  No, the color is orange, but it's called a tangerine.  It's like a baby orange.
Nicky:  oh.  it tangine.  ok.
Momma walks to the other side of the kitchen to wash her hands.
Nicky (mutters as Momma walks away):  yeah.  that orange.
Momma shakes her head and goes about her business getting lunch ready.


I suppose technically, we're both right, but, he doesn't know that - and we are trying to explain that things can appear to be the same, yet they are different.  I definitely see litigation in this kid's future.