Waiting Room Date

Another waiting room. It’s a new one at least, one we haven’t perused before. Jonah is in the process of having his neuropsychological exam, so this is our waiting room for the day. I just held Alex’s hand from across our chairs, we looked into each other’s eyes (didn’t have to dart our gaze around at various children to make sure they were safe and being appropriate in public), and said THREE whole sentences without being interrupted by a small person!! We decided we’d go to lunch with Jonah on his break, then bring him back for more testing, and Alex will go get us Starbucks as a special Waiting Room Date Treat! I’m so excited. Excited to be with Alex. And excited for caffeine. I said to Alex, isn’t it sad that these are our only dates? In waiting rooms at various therapies and hospitals? And isn’t it sad that I get so excited about caffeine and waiting room dates?

Jonah has his neuropsych exam this week over two days, then Aidan and Ben’s testing will be next week over three days. Fun times. I’m hoping we uncover some more answers to the great mysteries known as “my boys.” Alex laughs at me because I get so excited when a doctor hands me questionnaires I have to fill out about the boys, because as a social worker I used to give those all the time and it’s so fun to fill them out myself. Just to be nice, I always ask Alex if he wants to do them with me, but he knows I love doing it so he smiles as if he’s giving me a gift of diamonds and lets me have all the questionnaire fun. Love that man.

I wanted to get a great night’s sleep last night in preparation for today’s marathon of questions and doctor meetings. I tried to go to bed at a good time but my insanely ferocious allergies kept me up a long time. Finally got to sleep, only to be awoken at various times by Ben, Aidan, and Ella. Oh, and Sammy. At 4 a.m. when a certain child had peed in his bed and couldn’t get back to sleep, we discovered Sammy the hamster had escaped from her cage. There is nothing in this world that is as much fun as a 4 a.m. Sheet Change and Hamster Hunt, rolled into one. When I had finally rescued Sammy, who had climbed all two flights of stairs to join us upstairs, and returned her to her cage, and gotten snuggled back in next to Alex (and Ella between us), Ben came in and said he was STARVING. I said “Go get something to eat.” He said loudly and incredulously, “But it’s 4 AM!!” I said “Then go back to bed.” To which my darling replied, “But I’m STARVING.” We went in this circle until I finally just yelled at him to go figure it out because I had to get up in 45 min to get ready for Jonah’s neuropsych that was an hour away and we had to get all the kids ready and dropped off at the babysitter’s before that!!

I never did fall back to sleep. Hence the excitement about the caffeine.

Neuropsych exams are exhausting for all of us. There’s a 2-hour parent interview where the doctor gets all the information she needs on your child. Not to mention the mountain of forms you fill out about your child and their history and your concerns prior to even getting to the appointment. And any additional forms you get to fill out in the waiting room (hurray!) After the interview you feel like you’ve jumped on a trampoline for 2 hours. A little wiped out. And we get to do this two more times, Alex reminded me.

The kiddos are put through a battery of testing to see how their brains work, IQ, what weaknesses and strengths they may have in particular areas, whether they have any other things going on like a learning disability or ADHD or Autism. It’s intense. But it will be so good to have this testing done. Ben and Jonah had neurospychs done several years ago, so I’m anxious to see the results from this test and how things have changed, if they’ve changed at all. Aidan has never had testing done, so that will be really interesting too. I’m so anxious to see what the results uncover and whether there are new things we can try to help the boys be successful in all areas of life.

Ella was thrilled this morning because she got to go to a new babysitter’s house for the day with Ben and Aidan. The babysitter has children also, and Ella couldn’t wait to play with the girl stuff. No separation problems at all, hurray! She needed “one more huggy” at the door and then was off to play. Bless our babysitter’s heart. Taking all three kiddos who are not being tested today, feeding them, playing with them…so I can have a Waiting Room Date with my sweet hubby. I love finding little jewels of time like this- you think it’ll be boring sitting in a waiting room all day but then you realize you’re there with your best friend who you never get to spend time with AND you get to have caffeine AND uninterrupted conversation!! What! How awesome is that? That’s at least one fabulous thing about neuropsych testing.