You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Seriously... universe... get it together! Let's just start with the worst part and work our way up to the good.  Sunday night there was a F2 tornado in Cairo.  John had to get Cole out of bed to hide in the closet while it went through.  Our house and ALL lives in Cairo were spared, thank God.  But lots of homes and businesses near downtown Cairo were destroyed or damaged.  It seems that my school may have some minor damage as does our church. What concerns me most is that the area the tornado hit is where my students live.  I'm so thankful that I know none of them were seriously injured, but I am worried about their homes.  This is our second major weather event this school year and the kids were already experiencing some PTSD. When it would rain the kids would start asking about hurricanes. Now we add tornadoes.  Cairo is a very small place and everyone really rallies together in times like this.  Cairo was lucky compared to areas in Alabama that also experienced tornadoes on Sunday. So many lives were lost.  The scary part to me is that since our house was spared during Hurricane Michael and during this tornado, I'm left feeling that we are next.  Surely the next major storm is coming for us.  We can't get lucky every single time.  I have always felt that way when I see tragedies around me. School has been out for two days in Cairo and will resume tomorrow.  I am praying for all of my colleagues as they deal with emotionally scarred children that will come back to Southside tomorrow.  I wish I could be there for them.  

Cole in the closet during the tornado Sunday night.

Moving up the list... My mom should be here right now and she's not.  She called us this morning from Target picking out a toy to bring Cody.  She planned to be here about the time we got out of "food school" today.  Unfortunately, she had car trouble just past Columbus.  She found a Ford place to take her car to in Columbus and the news was not good.  Her car needs parts that they had to order and will not arrive until tomorrow morning.  So, Mom is in Columbus for the night.  Cody was very excited today about seeing CC and getting his new toy.  I told him in the car on the way home that she wouldn't be here until tomorrow.  He was silent for the next hour, but now he's happily playing.  He never said he was sad or disappointed, but I think that's why he wasn't talking.  Cody is super resilient (obviously), so we'll make it through until CC makes it here.  The Marcus Center was planning to train her on Wednesday and Thursday, but now we will have to put that off as well.  I am not sure if one day of training is enough or not, so we will wait and see what they decide to do.  

Still on the bad side of the list... I just got a text message from John as I was writing this post that Cole's babysitter called and he has a fever of 101.  I know he was exposed to strep throat recently by one of his "classmates," but we don't know if that's it yet.  John is racing to pick him up and get him to the urgent care place that just opened in Cairo.  They close at 5:30 and when I called them they said it will probably be too late when he gets there.  Yeah. Thanks. John will have to deal with sick Cole on his own this time, since my mom is stuck in Columbus.  I know John does not want to miss even one minute of work until after Festival, especially after the kids were just out for two days... but he may not have a choice if Cole is sick. 

Still moving up... I got up this morning with a sore throat, went to the kitchen to fix coffee, and found I had bought whole beans rather than ground coffee.  NO COFFEE! UGH.  Luckily, we were up early enough that I was able to drive through Starbucks on the way to the Marcus Center.  And since i was already there... might as well get a blueberry muffin too, right?? So that turned out pretty well.  

Working towards the good stuff... We had a good visit with Daddy/John this weekend.  Mom went to Cairo on Friday and picked up Cole from daycare so that John could get off earlier than he would have on Friday.  Saturday morning Cody happily discovered that Daddy had arrived! We took Daddy to the Children's Museum of Atlanta (Cody's second visit now) and had a lot of fun.  Cody was chosen to participate in the music and movement show and had a lot of fun showing Daddy all the cool exhibits.  We rested and had lunch, then John took Cody down the street to the neighborhood playground.  I got to spend some time ALONE and made some more of Cody's purees. I didn't think they were ever coming home.  I guess they were having too much fun.  Sunday morning Cody and I slept very late while Daddy went to get doughnuts.  The one thing I wanted to do while John was in town was go to the grocery store by myself! Even though I knew John needed to get on the road (we knew bad weather was coming), I was able to get out early and go to Kroger, Publix, and Target by myself.  Kroger was my main stop.  I went to Publix and Target on the hunt for monkey yogurt.  I didn't find any, but that's ok, because Cody has hardly been eating monkey yogurt these days.  I don't think he's eaten any yogurt in two days, which must be a record for him.  After I got back to the apartment, it was definitely time for John to leave.  He made it to Albany just as they were getting their first tornado warning.  He said the only time he was scared driving was before he got to Albany, so at least he didn't have Cole with him at the time.  

Cody playing with the ball machine at the Children's Museum

Over the weekend, Cole stayed with my parents and got to hang out with some of my mom's family.  They were in Albany to cheer on my cousin who ran in the Snickers marathon on Saturday morning.  The race goes right by my parents' house, so Cole got to sit in his lawn chair and watch the runners go by.  I'm sure he spent most of the morning trying to go in the road himself.  Mom said he ate grapes and blueberries over the weekend, which are two new foods for him! John also got him to eat pineapple on Sunday night.  I have said before that if Cole was my first child, then I would definitely be concerned about his picky eating. But since he came after CODY, Cole is fine :) He's definitely picky, but more like a normal picky child.  And he's regularly adding new things to his diet. Go Coley-Cole! 

Cole watching the Snickers Marathon on Saturday morning

You see I saved all news about Cody's feeding progress to the end, because I started with the bad stuff and will end with the good stuff.  Cody is doing great!  We did 4 puree meals over the weekend and John got to witness them all.  We had just a few bad moments, but overall he's making great progress.  I think I mentioned in the last post that they are working on getting him to drink milk from a cup.  Today they were able to add drinking milk to his meal and then they trained me on cup drinking.  Now he's eating 4 bites of food and then a swallow of milk... similar to how a "normal" person might eat a meal.  We'll have our first home meal with the addition of drinking tonight. Today Cody has his weekly oral motor skills session and he didn't great! Last time he cried through it and today he made real progress.  She started getting him to chew on an empty EZ spoon, but by the end she was getting him to chew 5 times on a small piece of pear on the EZ spoon.  A few times the pear stayed in his mouth and he swallowed it.  The pear started as mostly mashed and by the end of the session it was a very small, but solid piece of pear.  He'll have another session of oral motor skills tomorrow to make up for the one we missed last week during the home visit. Hopefully he'll continue today's progress. The next step in feeding this week was going to be training my mom (like I mentioned above).  I'm not sure what the plan will be tomorrow or if they will just maintain what we're doing until my mom can get here.