Fun times

As I was getting dressed this morning, preparing to head out to our local Down Syndrome meeting, I couldn't figure out why my hair looked so greasy! I mean, I just washed it...on...oh golly, I forget. So now you know what sort of week I had last week.

On Tuesday, while packing for an overnight trip with Jordan, Theo, Zhen, Ralph and Ruby, I got cold feet. I suddenly felt that getting up at 3:30 am to drive to Kansas City for Down Syndrome clinic would be less awful than having a slumber party at a friends' house with five children.

So that's what I did, almost. I heard the alarm go off on Wednesday morning. And then I didn't. And then I got up and noticed the time: 4:45am. OH NO!! I threw on my clothes, made numerous frantic trips to the van to buckle children for the ride and pulled out of town at 5:10am.

It's a three hour drive unless you hit the edge of the metro area at the start of rush hour. On top of the stress of being late, the stop and go traffic was enough to give me the jitters. Pegasus, our pretty white van that flies, was in rare form and I was only 15 minutes late. The newly increased speed limit didn't hurt, either.

The folks at the DS clinic at Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City are the absolute BEST! Everyone we have encountered there over the past few years has been highly professional and caring. But, four hours in a little room is hard. It's hard with one child. With five it's just nuts. I felt like a caged animal! We had some escapes, some puke, some leaky diapers, and lots of noise. Theo bit one of the therapists. He just crawled over to her and chomped down on her shoe! She let out a little yelp of surprise. Then we had a good laugh.

I was never so happy to head for the hospital cafeteria for something to eat! Ralph had a hearing aid check after lunch. That was a breeze, but still...me, five children and an audiologist stuffed in a little office=no fun. I was so happy to be done with the appointments that I completely forgot to stop off at the lab for blood draws. I realized what I had done about an hour later, well on our way home. I never fail to screw something up!

All the aggravation and discomfort was worth it for this one thing: the clinic pediatrician commented to me that last year, when we arrived at this very clinic with an emaciated Theodore, she did not expect him to survive. She called him a miracle.

I have to agree.