Week 2 down

So we are almost at the end of the second week of school and the kids are exhausted and all weepy and melty and crabby.  We also had the first illness of the school year, since we want to be over achievers we decided that Week 2 was a great time to start missing school.  Poor Britt had a high fever and sore throat and missed two days, and Gray decided to catch it as well and missed one day.  Thankfully they are feeling better :)

We have been working hard to get the house ready to sell and had decided that we would try to stay here in our town, in our school district.  Well...the hubs met with some new manager of the group he wants to move into who basically said they would hire him there now, but the position is in Cary, NC.  The guy went so far as to put through a request to have the position "moved" here so they could hire Ryan, but the understanding is that eventually we would move to NC.  We were thrown for a bit until we thought about it.  I am a-ok with living further south, we would be closer to my parents, for me the area is great because of all of the universities, we would get a city without it being DC, schools looked pretty good, good medical care for Finn and well, I would get a new house which is all I really care about.  My jobs go anywhere, so it is easy for me to move.  Ryan has always been the one who didn't want to go further south, but he really wants this opportunity and it will make a big difference in his career, so I guess Cary is now on the radar.

Health wise, beside the little virus that ran through, kid are doing well.  Finn has his cardiology checkup in two weeks and I am anxious.  I am hoping for no change with the SVAS and we need to talk to them again about his heart rate.  I keep flagging it on our pulse ox at nearly 160 beats per minute while he is resting, so not a true SVT, but still a pretty elevated heart rate which is not good for an already stressed heart. I am wondering is we need to do a 24 hour monitor to see what is really going on.  I also have to try to get a double appointment at Children's, he needs his annual with genetics and he needs to see gastro for his diastasis recti.  We also still need to see ENT for his follow up and need to get pulmonology into rotation as well.  Just managing Finn's appointments and therapy is a full time job sometimes BUT he is signing a ton, trying to speak more and is super silly, fun, smart and loving.  I would go to the ends of the earth for him :)

So it begins...

Yet another first day of school has come and gone.  Haven started 7th grade, Brittan 5th and Grayson 2nd and in just a few short weeks, my Teagan will start preschool.  I figured out that by the time Finn finishes his senior year, I will have had children in school consistently (not counting college) for 23 years.  Egads!

Thankfully the day went smoothly, kids got off without a hitch and everyone had a great day.  I had our sitter come this morning to watch the little ones and I got so, so much done!  Then while they napped, I baked cookies, started a yummy dinner and finished my work.  Now I sit here and the house is cleaned up, lunches are packed and kids are set to hit the hay.  Not a bad start to the first week of school!

The run down

Well I have been absent most of the summer working to juggle many different jobs/tasks/kids.  Figured I would give a quick rundown.

Work-still do it and a lot of of it.

School-Chapter 4 of the dissertation is in final edits and Chapter 5 has been started.  Should be all done this fall...then you can all call me Doc Tribemama.

Finn-Doing well.  He is HUGE which makes me laugh since last summer he was so tiny and wasn't growing at all.  His speech is coming along slowly but surely.  We have some Occupational Therapy as well to strengthen his muscles, especially in his arms and shoulders since he has hypermobility and his joints sort of pop in and out.  He was also just diagnosed with Diastasis Recti which means basically the stomach muscles have split apart. Kids with CL are prone to hernias so I guess this is just part of it all.  We will see gastro at Children's when we go see genetics.  He also will need to get his tonsils and adenoids out at some time, and we have follow up with cardio in the fall.  That being said, you would never guess anything was going on.  He is a non-stop mover and shaker, he loves to dance and has some awesome moves, he is loving and sweet and silly.

Other kids-All doing great.  They are such a different group which makes raising them fun and a challenge.  I think they are all ready for the routine of school, time with friends and less time managing their relationships with siblings 24/7.  They love each other and get along most of the time, but just as siblings do they get on each others nerves too.

House-we are preparing the house for sale next spring, but we have no clue what we are doing when it sells.  Buying an existing home is easiest, but we are not sure we will find what we want when the time comes.  We like the idea of building, but that takes time and where the heck will we live in the meantime?  There are a few builders who have homes that we can customize some to better fit our needs, but we are not sure we want to live in a planned community again.  Decisions decisions!  We will meet with a builder and realtor this winter to see what our options are and go from there.  Personally, I would love to buy a big lot with a teeny house on it.  Live in the teeny house while we have the new house built, then rent the teeny house when we move into the big house...who knows maybe it will happen.

School starts in a few days and I think the kids will all have a great year!  Happy September :)