Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Where'd it go?

Time, that is! I can't believe it's been two weeks since I last blogged. I was contacted by my former school and asked to do some part time work helping to bring a couple of new students up to speed. These two hours a day have turned out to be the two most exhausting hours of my day because of the difficult circumstances. The children are in State custody due to some really bad stuff and have never been in school a day in their lives. One of the boys is really smart, and we've moved him on to regular classes on a part time basis, but the other. Oh, the other. . .

He's a very nice boy. He just happens to not know his alphabet past the letter C, unless he's looking right at it. 12 years old and can't spell his own last name. Doesn't know what the letter Y is. Just learned how to multiply single digits, because I taught him how.

There's no way I would be able to continue this assignment out through the end of the school year if it weren't Jude's nap time after I get home. It gives me 2-3 hours to recoup and get re-energized enough to enjoy the rest of the day.

Speaking in Mr. Judah, we dealt with our first real stomach virus on Saturday night. His last diaper change before bed indicated that there might be a problem, then when he woke at 1 am wanting to nurse, I thought he was scared because the power was flickering in the crazy wind. But when he woke half an hour after I put him back to bed, and would not nurse, but just sat there with me, I knew we had a problem. That's when the throwing up began. In about an hour he threw up four times. And then he gave us one of those diaper problems that required a trip straight to the bath tub.

Poor guy. We dealt with this until just around 3am. He was so pale and just lay there with me, not moving, not wanting even water. I have never asked him if he wanted to nurse and had him tell me "no" before. I knew things were calming down around three because he sat up and kept babbling something, which I somehow figured out meant he wanted his water bottle. Then he lay there chewing on the spout and drinking every so often. He only takes the water bottle when he's falling asleep at night. So I decided to ask him if he was ready to go to bed. I wasn't expecting him to actually nod his head at this suggestion.

After sleeping in until almost 10am on Sunday, he woke up obviously on the mend, as his usual, busy self. Except for his light appetite, you'd never have known he was sick.

Next week is the kiddos' spring break, so I should be able to get something up that actually has pictures to it. Until then. . .

1 comment:

mountain mama said...

like...seriously? 12 years old and can't say his alphabet or spell his last name? that is so stinkin' sad...bless his heart.
i can't imagine how much patience it must take to work with him!!
hang in there...you are making a BIG difference in his life.
so glad your little guy started to feel better soon!