Tuesday, September 18, 2012

In Smokey NEWS!

The school is closed for the rest of the week.....

The smoke is bad. Really, really bad!

The schools in our little town are between two major fires and the air quality is almost off the charts. There are reports of one fireman's death, the medical clinics being overwhelmed with respiratory issues, and even children with compromised respiratory problems being diagnosed with carbon-monoxide poisoning!!

There are different scales to rate the air quality. The one tops off at 500 and the air has read as high as 498. There is another scale that reads the level of particulates in the air. This one goes to 1000. The levels around the school were read at 909PPM. A normal reading would be 50. The nearby town also in smoke and dealing with fires has a reading of 224.... so somehow we've got the worst of it.

The lack of structure for too many days in a row is difficult for Missy. She blew her little top off last night over brushing her teeth. Ended up slapping Christina across the face and screaming for 45 minutes. There's no timeline for this disruption in her routine and  her anxiety is skyrocketing. This kid likes to have everything predicable and under control. Christina took the blow like a grown up. Unfortunately, it is getting too easy for Missy to lash out physically. A friend says that she is probably feeling pretty safe with us these days....

Today I took Missy to a friend's house.... an adult friend who likes to play games. I am hoping that breaking up her day will help.

James on the other hand hasn't lacked for things to occupy his time. He has played with his race track and done some crafts and practiced the piano. He's worked on his memorizing and generally been pretty cool with no school. He is listening to a book on tape and has scrubbed floors even.

James has quite a tender spot in his heart for the Duckling. He is absolutely smitten. I was watching them interact and I said to the baby in high pitched baby tones, "I think you've taken a piece of that boy's heart, little man!" and James continued the vein in his best baby tones....

"OH, yes you have!! You have a piece of my heart."

It absolutely melts his heart when the baby coos back at him.

The babies' parents both came over to spend a couple hours with the children. This is going really well. I worked on some paperwork and let them enjoy their kids. I also had the social worker's monthly health and safety visit this morning. Buddy had a dentist visit. James had a dentist visit at a different clinic. And Vanessa had a dentist visit at yet another place. Good thing Vanessa can drive. She also took James out to the Blue Spoon Yogurt shop. He had a gift card he was dying to use.  I think he tried about 5 varieties of yogurt ice-cream!!

No comments: