Ugh

This has been the week from HELL!

First, our van broke down. It's leaking oil pretty much at the same rate as you can pour it in. Luckily, my dad was able to identify the problem, and the part is really cheap. The ability to replace it is something neither my husband nor I currently possess, however, and it will cost us several hundred dollars, which we don't have, to pay a professional to do it. My best friend's husband knows how to do it, but can't help us until NEXT weekend. So we are down to one vehicle, which is a major pain with Monster Boy having started school this week.

Monster Boy is really enjoying school, and he had a very good week there. I can't say the same thing for home. Most of the week was at least decent - we had some listening issues but nothing major unlike last week. Then came Thursday. And Thursday was a banner day in our household. I spent over two hours before school started trying to get my son to clean his room. Most of that time was spent by him throwing fits. And apparently, somewhere in one of those fits, he decided that it would be a good idea to cut his own hair. This was NOT a good idea. But, I was so flustered with dealing with his fits and all that we were running late for school and I didn't realize it until we got HOME from school. Which means that he went to school looking like he had mange. Then when we got home, it was more of the same. His room was still NOT clean and I was still fighting him on it. When Daddy Mac got home, he wasn't having it. He gave him ten minutes to get started (which Monster Boy spent the whole time throwing the mother of all fits) and then he took a trash bag in and "cleaned" his room himself. Well that spurred an entirely different fit, of course. We finally got him calmed down from that after about 20 minutes and he was VERY cooperative the rest of the night. Daddy Mac buzz cut his hair, and I cried. He had beautiful hair, and now he is basically bald. It didn't seem to upset Monster at all, which makes me worry that we have not seen the last of the haircutting. But I guess we will deal with that as it comes.

Miss Sunshine has been just crazy all week. BUT, she said "Mama" for the first time yesterday! She is very vocal and has been for months. But it's been only vowel sounds, no consonant sounds, which I know is normal with a cleft. It was still hard hearing from all my other friends with babies the same age about how they are "talking" and my daughter isn't. But she is slowly getting there. And she should be crawling ANY DAY. She is SO close, if she would just keep her head up, she'd be gone. I want her to learn how to do it, but at the same time, I want her to stay immobile :). Not much I can do about that, I suppose.

We leave for Chicago on Tuesday. I am very nervous for this all to go well. I want everything to turn out perfectly, and for her to get approved for surgery. I am keeping my fingers crossed that the fact that our appointment is in September, and September is Craniofacial Acceptance Month, is a good sign that she is going to get approved. It would certainly make things much easier for us financially, which would be a good thing right now. We are so far managing to stay ahead. I'm eager to see what Daddy Mac's first commission check is going to look like next week, so we can see if we can just roll over my 401k or if we are going to have to pull what little is in there to get things paid off so that we are not struggling for money once my severance ends. We will still be getting unemployment unless I find a job, which is not looking likely, but it's about half of what I have gotten in severance so that's definitely going to make things a bit difficult. I am trying to have faith that it is all going to work out in the end, though.