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Yesterday was Stu’s first day in First Grade.  His teacher is great and he even has a few friends in class from last year including his VERY BEST FRIEND.  I know!  It’s probably a good thing they aren’t sitting right next to each other.  He came home boasting of how great Art class was and I kept thinking, “Is this really MY child?”  He has never been interested in art.  Doesn’t like to draw, glue, or paint because…please…the mess doesn’t agree with his O.C.D.  Sticky hands?  Oh, no thank you!

Which brings me to today.  His teacher “had some questions” according to her phone message yesterday and I just KNEW what she was going to ask.  So this morning after I dropped him off on the playground I went inside to talk to her.  Apparrently  he has been washing his hands five to six times a day and amid a discussion about what constitutes an “emergency” in class a child raised her hand and announced that throwing up would be an appropriate emergency for leaving the classroom.  I’m sure at that moment my child’s anxiety level spiked because he then raised his hand and asked if he could go swish his mouth out with water because he had touched his lips with his hands and was sure his hands weren’t clean.

So…we’re going to be meeting with the school psychologist and the teacher and see if we can all just get on the same page and help my little O.C.D. boy cool down.  I’m not sure what sets him off.  He has good days and bad days but these past few weeks have all been bad days.  Maybe it is anticipation for the new school year?  He certainly doesn’t wash that often at home, but he does express his worry about eating certain things like the blueberries that appear to be too soft or the bread that has a fleck of black on it.  If anyone knows of any good books on how to cope with a child with O.C.D. let me know.  All I can do is remain calm patient, and neutral for now, but that doesn’t seem to be helping.

Posted on August 28th, 2008 by Kami
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Yesterday around 4:00 this girl knocked on my door and introduced herself as a representative of a carpet cleaning company.  She offered to shampoo any room in my house for free and the only thing she asked for in return was that I consider her company again later when I need my carpet cleaned.  I was mid-vacuuming (with my “rainbow”) but I’ve been considering having someone come in and clean the front room because it’s a high-traffic area.  Perfect!  Free carpet cleaning!

Problem #1:  She was a Kirby salesperson who, although wasn’t pushy, needed more attention from me than I could give her with my two boys and their two friends running all over the house screaming and demanding snacks.  I think she got pretty frustrated that I couldn’t sit through much of her presentation.  Every time she tried to talk to me about it, she was interrupted with one of the kids.  Yeah, welcome to motherhood.

Problem #2:  Her 20 minutes turned into TWO HOURS.  I’m not even exaggerating.  And as everyone knows, at 4:30 a mommy needs to start preparing a dinner if she wants it done before bedtime.  So I escaped into the kitchen when she wasn’t talking and put together ingredients for a tasty corn chowder.

So by 6:00 we were all sitting down for some corn chowder and biscuits, and our Kirby salesgirl in disguise was cleaning up her equipment in my kitchen sink as slowly as possible.  She was waiting for her ride so she was moving very slowly.  I offered her a bowl of chowder which she greatfully accepted and then finally went on her way.

Was I tempted to buy a Kirby?  Not in the least.  Although she thought she was being sly with her little white filters and showing me how much sand and dirt she was sucking up, I’m convinced that you could do the same thing with my rainbow.  In fact, she proved my point by standing there and doing it over and over again.  Seriously.  That was how the Rainbow salesman hooked us.  You could stand there all day sucking up little white filters full of dirt and NEVER see them get clean.

A good thing that came out of it was that she reminded me how important it is to vaccuum my mattress more often than I do.  She sucked up a bunch of dust and fibers and then handed me the dirty filter and asked, “You wouldn’t want to lay on a bed of THAT would you?”  My reply was obviously, “no.”  Then when she asked, “And you wouldn’t want to lay on it even if it was covered by a sheet, would you?”  I was soooo tempted to say, “You know?  I’m okay with that.  I really am.”  Because seriously, people…I’ve been doing it for a few years now and it hasn’t bothered me in the least.  But the thought of it prompted me today to strip the beds and suck ‘em clean with my Rainbow which, I might add, did a FABULOUS job.  I really love being able to see the junk it sucked up and dump it out.  PLUS I did the stairs.  Those get so dirty!  This is a picture of a dust mite.  Maybe you’ll be inspired to vaccuum more often too.  Nasty!

Posted on August 19th, 2008 by Kami
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