Didn't take Joshua to the dr for the IV chelation last week. Daniel came down with a fever last Sunday, and Rachael followed. Abby has a bad cough at night, and some nasty diapers (let's leave it at that), and Joshua must be coming down with something, too, because his eating has been particularly bad. New routine: come to the table, vomit until he empties all his stomach, eat a couple bites of meat/protein, empty stomach again (about 50% of the time - sometimes he keeps it down). Mallory, who helped me with the kids last summer and here and there throughout the school year, was here yesterday. Joshua had just thrown up everything he drank since he got home from school. Mallory said "Are you done? Take a bite of meat now!" She's definitely a keeper. Many would have gone running from that scene. Joshua is apparently doing better with his eating (though not all that great) at school, so I am going to meet him for lunch this Monday and feed him there. Hopefully they'll be able to give me some new ideas/pointers.

So, with all the sickies, I cancelled Joshua's appt. And I don't know whether to take him in now, or wait until he's eating better. The told the dr about his eating, and he thought that the antifungals plus the chelation would get Joshua on a better track. And I forgot to call in and ask for a different antifungal. Oh well, start my "to do" list.

Rachael is excited about Mother's Day. My first child who sort of gets Mother's Day! As soon as she got off the bus yesterday she yelled "Happy Mother's Day!" Then she opened her backpack and gave me the present she made at school. It was a potholder with her handprint on it. And it says "This is the hand you used to hold when I was only 4 years old." Awwwww.. (sniff, sniff). She also brought home two red suckers (the kind that you make at home with the molds) - one was a butterfly and one a flower. I was standing there trying to figure out whether they were edible or not (they sure were pretty - maybe they were for decor?) when the girls ripped them open and started eating them. I asked them to let mommy take a bite. "No No No!!" Come on now, these are my suckers, right?! So I called Rachael's teacher and verified they were edible. Rachael's teacher said she got the sucker molds and candy at WalMart. They were sooo cute! I think I'm going to look into them, and see if I can try it out with chocolate (a major food group around this house).

I'm off to eat breakfast and get on with the day. Daniel's been up since 5 a.m with his congestion. So maybe I'll get a head start on the day and go walking. HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

Looks like the girls are working through the whole gender issue. Rachael still calls me "Ms. Mommy." And she calls Deren "Ms. Daddy." Abby, meanwhile, calls Deren "Mommy" all the time. "Daddy" was her favorite word for months on end. Now both me and Deren are "Mommy." Deren has been scolding me for not correcting them more - I'm always too busy laughing and calling for him - "Abby's calling for her Mommy!"

For those of you who may be familiar with Dora the Explorer, Abby has taken to saying "Swiper No Swiping!.. Oh Man!" Even Jacob is saying "Oh Man!" And if you're wanting more week-in-the-life-of-Abby moments, Deren came out of our room chuckling this morning. He asked Abby what she was doing. She said "Nothing!" hah! that'll be the day! This evening Deren came to me again chuckling. He said that Abby took the tiny baby that goes in the dollhouse, put it on the changing pad in the bathroom, got some wipes from the counter, and 'changed' the baby's diaper!

Joshua is on yet another hunger strike. This time he's forsaken his main source of calories, chips, along with the protein. So all he wants to eat is candy and popsicles. Oooooooooookay. I took him to his autism doc on Monday. The dr has seen Joshua since Joshua was just under 2 yrs old. The dr observed Joshua, who was acting rather psychotic from being up since 2:30a.m. He kept saying "we really need to DO something." He prescribed Joshua nizoral for his on-going yeast/gut issues. Unfortunately, Joshua will not take the crushed nizoral for anything. The dr also recommended IV chelation. Joshua has a IV challenge appt this coming Tuesday. The plan is to give him a challenge dose of DMPS and EDTA, then collect his urine for 6 hrs. If a lot of metals show up in the urine, then it may signify that Joshua has a lot of 'trapped' metals in his body that are not being eliminated like they should. Ugh! I hate to make these decisions, knowing full well that Joshua won't have a darn clue what is going on, and that IV chelation holds more of a risk. On the other hand, he's starving himself, he's not sleeping, he's withdrawing more and more. It's not looking good for the Joshua.

The following week Abby goes in to see her neurologist, who will decide if she needs to stay on the phenobarbital.

The boys & Rachael have 2 1/2 weeks of school left. Where has time gone?! Mentally, I feel like I'm still at the beginning of the year. And here I am staring down a summer with the crew! And Mr. Daniel is still VERY attached (emotionally & physically) to the milkmaid. We've tried him on applesauce - he shudders and spits it all out. I tried sweet potatoes yesterday - a bit better than the applesauce, but still not thrilled at all. So, if given his way, he would stay "hooked up" most the day, which is going to be a bit tricky, what with the other 4 running around on their own devices. So kinda worried about that. On the other hand, I'm happy with how things are. With the other kids I so often thought, "I wish they were old enough to do this or that." With Daniel, I'm really enjoying this time and loving on him.