Being home with the girls is....

Actually turning out to be quite fun and entertaining.  Today's escape took us to Walmart in the pouring rain.  POURING...as in - I got soaked just going to get the car to bring it closer to the house so the girls wouldn't get as soaked.  Rather than let them all walk and get soaking wet - I took them one by one under the umbrella.  Smart right?  But being the genius that I am - I didn't think about how I would get them from the car to the store though!  It was still pouring.  I had choices of course.  I could have turned around and gone home.  But then we wouldn't have gotten the things we needed/wanted.  I actually parked the car, climbed into the back seat (so I didn't have to get out and get wet again) and said out loud (but more to myself) "How am I gonna get you guys in the store...."  Emily doesn't skip a beat and says "Mommy - bring one at a time!"  Oh...duh - why didn't I consider that.  I can just leave you at the front door, come back, get Hailey, leave her with you (if you're still there) at the front door, come back, get Hannah and then we can all go about our merry shopping trip.  Right.  Plan C: wait out the rain.  That's not happening - so move to Plan D! 

Lucky for me - the guy parked next to me just showed up with an empty cart and left it next to the van :)  It was soaked so I couldn't just put the girls in there.  I grabbed a blanket from under the wagon the way back of the van (that took some strength since the wagon was on top of it lol).  Unbuckled the kids and got them all scrunched up in a bunch on the floor.  Opened the door, jumped out, threw the blanket in the cart, threw the kids on the blanket, threw the umbrella over the kids and VOILA!  We had a cart tent - 3 kids inside and they were ALL dry!  We did have to scratch a few things off our list since I didn't consider not being able to utilize the entire cart lol.  But the girls were more than willing to hold the following items:  marshmallows, goldfish, blueberry muffin mix and paint.  The rest went under the cart.  Oh - and the one item we desperately needed that brought us out in such a storm to begin with?  Lactaid...and they didn't have any.  Ahhhhh well.  It was well worth the trip.

Tomorrow - Pete is off to VT for the whole weekend.  Looks like the girls and I are gonna have to have a slumber party!

Happy Birthday

To me! I am taking the day off from blogging :)

Stick a fork in me

I'm sick.  Head cold, sinus infection...whatever it is - it's kicking my royal ass.  I also had some dental work done last week - and today my mouth is throbbing like crazy.  Add to that a trip to the girls doctor to get the flu MIST only to arrive and be told the girls have to have the injection.  And only 1/2 dose.  So we have to go back next month for the other 1/2.  That wasn't fun.  And now they're in bed crying that their 'boo boo still hurts'. 

The doctor also filled out my paperwork for work - and I'll have to be out 4 - 6 weeks.  That's IF the antibiotics work the 1st time and the 2nd round of testing comes back negative.  (The CDC requires 3 negative tests to consider the child negative of the c-diff and no longer contagious). 

With that said - the girls were (and really have been) very good.  Their attitudes are completely different lately.  They seem to be using their words more and more and whining less and less. 

They're doing better with going potty ON the potty and letting me know when they have to go.  They are wearing diapers though because with the diarrhea I don't want them to feel discouraged or upset about having an accident in their big girl underwear. 

The best part of today was later tonight we decided to ditch baths and go for a walk instead.  LB and I took the girls a different way than we usually go and we just ventured further than we anticipated.  What we also didn't anticipate was the torrential downpour that we got caught in!  We all ran (the girls were literally walking with us...no wagon!) to a big tree and hung out there for a minute before we decided to just head back home in the rain.  We didn't get far before Pete showed up with the van to rescue us.  We all jumped in the back, I threw Hannah & Emily in a car seat...no straps - and had Hailey on my lap while LB was sitting on the back of the seat that was folded down.  (We were in the complex...no worries).  But what's REALLY funny is just as Pete started to pull away - the CD player started playing a song that starts with "We all buckle up real tight...."  HAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!    It's a song about going for a car ride and making sure you have your seat belts on!  Irony at it's best.   The girls won't remember our walk tonight.  But I will :) 

Mid day post to vent!

So I spent MANY hours getting stool samples from the girls.  MANY.  I had to collect 4 tubes for each child...3 times.  That's a total of 36 tubes of sh*t.  Guess what we found out today?  The lab - Quest Diagnostics - labeled all but 2 with Emily's name!  I labeled each one individually - how the *f* did they mess it up?  I work at a hospital...I know better than to make those kinds of mistakes.  I made their job easy by labeling each one with their name and date of birth.  I had 3 lab slips - one for each child.  I guess the only mistake I made was putting it all in the same bag.  But what the hell am I suppose to do?  I have so much crap to carry that putting things in one bag just makes sense.  I assume that people will do their job and check things MORE THAN ONCE to get it right.  GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR   So now - I have to collect more shit because they're not sure they even labeled Hannah's & Hailey's right!  (What we're thinking is they labeled all of them with Emily's name, then found the names on them - and realized there were 3 different kids so they just put Hannah's and Hailey's name on whatever one to make it look good).  Lovely huh? 

We brought Pete lunch today and hung out with him for a few.  The girls are still running low grade fevers (hovering around 100).  They're sleeping now - when they wake up we'll be baking orange, pumpkin sugar cookies. 

Durham Fair

Was much fun!  The girls were really good even though they didn't take a nap.  They LOVE riding the school bus.  :)

Pete stayed home today - sometimes we have to split up to get things done and since my mom & LB were willing to hang out with us today it just made sense for Pete to stay behind.  He got a lot done while we were out of the house.  The girls went on rides for the 1st time today too!  They loved the cars...just sat in the car and the ride went around and around and around and around and........lol.  They went on the teacup ride - Emily will tell you she didn't like it.  She won't be lying.  They also went down the slide.  Emily loves slides but she'll say she didn't like this one.  She won't be lying again.  (I think she hurt her arm somehow). 

On the 'sick' front...we'll be back at the doctor tomorrow.  Emily's rash isn't better.  And when I tried to give them their meds this morning - Hailey & Emily threw them up again.  It's so weird because it's instant...the meds don't have time to do anything.  So we'll need to get some new meds for them.

They slept all night last night 6 - 6.  Hoping we get the same tonight since they went to bed at 6 again.  I'm headed to bed shortly because I'm sleepy myself!

Reaction

Emily was throwing up most of the night last night.  This morning she threw up before taking her meds and Hailey threw up after taking her meds.  They both have rashes on their faces (not bad...but red, raised bumps).  I called the doc on call and he suggested not giving the 2 of them their antibiotic for today.  He also said to give them some Benedryl and another medication for the nausea. 

The rest of the day went smooth. 

I'll be honest - I'm exhausted just thinking that I'm going to be home with them for a few weeks.  They need more structure than I feel I can give them.  When I'm home - I'm so focused on getting 'things' done...and as we know - things are never done.  So it's always a juggling act.  Today for instance - Pete went to take a shower.  I was in the kitchen cleaning up all the vomit off the table, chairs and floor and the girls were in the living room playing.  I'm not sure how much time went by when I realized it was QUIET.  Panic struck in me instantly.  Quiet might be good in another household - but NOT this one.  Sure enough - I peek in the living room and my 3 toddlers had vanished.  Where might they be?  Oh...said 3 toddler thought they were adults and ventured out onto the porch - with their Tinkerbell chairs and they decided to 'look for turkey's!'  Ugh.  It was a matter of a minute maybe between the 'panic' and when I actually set eyes on them.  But hold your breath for a minute and you'll realize just how long it can be.   Luckily they were all sitting quietly in their chairs watching through the railing for a turkey to go by.  Turkey's.  That's what they were looking for.  I swear the only thing missing was a cup of coffee in each of their hands. 

So rather than be mad at them (they didn't do anything wrong...if I didn't want them out I should have locked the door), I grabbed my own chair, my cup of coffee, threw down my rag and went to chill with my babies.  We spent a good hour out there before coming in. 

Being home with them worries me because I'm not sure I can teach them what they need to be taught!  How do you teach colors and numbers and names and animals and and and and and..........I'm not a teacher!  What if they go to pre-k and can't write their names?  I know I'm taking it to the extreme but you get my point. 

meds

Getting the girls to take their meds is becoming a project.  Up to this point - we have had very few problems getting them to take any kind of medication.  Occasionally one of them might put up a fuss but for the most part - it's been a fight over who's gonna get it 1st!  This new med their taking tastes awful so they're not so easy to be 1st in line anymore.  So far I've had to give 6 doses (x3) + 2 rounds of double doses due to throwing it right back up.  So 24 rounds all together.  This is day 2.  We have 19 more days ahead of us.  I have tried giving the meds 1st followed with an M&M (this is usually the way we get them to take 'yucky' medicine).  They threw this round up.  So we tried the meds followed by yogurt.  It worked but they didn't like it any more.  I've put food coloring in the meds to make it 'fun'.  I have put the meds IN applesauce and also IN yogurt.  I have tried giving them a 'chaser' of M&M's, candy corn and again - yogurt and applesauce.  Tonight it was green meds (it's fun and they are more into taking their meds when they can choose what color they are) followed by chocolate milk in shot glasses.  Yes - actual shot glasses.  Again...it's fun.  They also had straws cut to size these shot glasses thanks to LB.  They took their med, drank the milk and chased it all down with a mini snickers.  Nothing came back up.  But I can only assume this will work once and probably won't work again so I'm already trying to think of new ways to get them to take their medicine.  How on earth do you get kids to take medicine?!?! 

I talked to the doctor today and the girls will considered contagious until they finish their antibiotics and the symptoms don't come back.  No school and no play dates.  POOP (literally).  I'll be home with them. 

How?

How does something like c-diff happen?  How did we 'miss' it for so long?  What are you gonna do?  Why not just give them meds and move on?  Why can't we come over to play?  Why can't you bring them to school? 

We 'missed' it because if you read back about a month ago the girls all had croup.  This is a virus and along with a virus comes fevers and sometimes diarrhea.  The diarrhea didn't go away.  So we figured it was just another prolonged virus that was carrying on longer than the 'norm' for other kids their age.  2 and 3 weeks can go by very quickly in the life a triplet family.  We called the doctor at the beginning of last week and over the phone decided to eliminate the dairy in their diet.  That was Monday - by Friday we took them in.  9 stool samples and 5 days later we had our answer.  The test for c-diff came back +. 

Treatment is a strong antibiotic (in their case right now it's Flagyl).  They have to take it 3 times a day for 21 days.  There is a 40% chance that this 1st round won't take care of the problem (so basically we can just assume this is only round one...and there will be more to follow).  The medicine is horrible and caused 2 of the 3 to instantly throw up.  I was prepared (I did my homework and read up on the med).  I gave it to them again and they kept it down.  Then the 2nd dose they kept down but the 3rd wasn't so easy.  Emily was smart enough to hold it in her mouth - walk out of the kitchen and spit her medicine out in the garbage in the living room.  (Pete happened to be in there and saw her!).  Hmmm...gonna have to find another way around these smarty pants kids. 

You can't come over cuz it's contagious.  Once we get the antibiotics in them for a few days we can start to decon the house.  BLEACH.  That's the only thing that'll kill the virus.  Wish me luck - it should be fun. 

See above reason for the answer to why we can't bring them to school.

What causes c-diff is being on too many antibiotics.  The girls were given a plethora of meds for constant ear and sinus infections.  The meds killed the bad and good bacteria - causing havoc in their digestive tracts.  Along with these 'different' antibiotics - they are also getting probiotics ($25 for a 10 day supply...each). 

And the scary part?  If they do happen to get an ear infection or sinus infection that needs treatment...they'll have to be hospitalized for IV antibiotics.  Let's pray that doesn't happen. 

On a bright note?  I get to be home with my babies for a while :)  AND they love to clean...so lucky for me we're gonna have a cleaning party soon.  Wanna join us?

C-Diff

All 3 of the girls have it.  FML

Same stuff different day

Today was another day full of poooooop!  But I didn't get a chance to blog about our triplet playdate we had the other day!  We had a blast with the Dudley crew!!!  It was the girls 1st triplet playdate and they were actually better than I thought they would be.  They were pretty hesitant at 1st but of course by the time we were ready to leave they were warmed up and ready to play lol.  It was a great time and we can't wait to do it again.  :)

Monday Monday Monday

Monday's stink!  Even more when your kids are STILL pooping their brains out!!!  I also learned today that the kids DO AND CAN listen to every word I say.  Even when I don't realize they're listening.  How do I know this?  Read the following conversations:

Me at the guy who cut me off on the road today:  "Thanks Asshole!"
Emily from the back seat: "Thanks Asshole!"
Me to Emily:  *Gasp* "Emily - don't say that word!"
Emily back to me:  "No?  Only momma say that word?" 
Me with defeat in my voice "Yeah..only momma." 

I think we'll start working on the states or maybe presidents. 

Ahhhh

More fevers, more diarrhea and yet it was just another usual day in our house.  Hannah was in our bed all night - and she didn't sleep very well.  At 3:00 I ended up getting up with her and giving her more Tylenol, changing her diaper and giving her some Gatorade (they finally drink the blue one!).  I tried to sleep in this morning after Pete got up with all 3 of them - but it's near impossible to do so! 

My mom came over for a little bit and then the girls actually went down for early naps (around 10:30).  They fell right to sleep and didn't wake up for 2 hours!  Once they were up - we ate and headed to a new park we hadn't been to before.  Hannah's fever has been holding strong but knowing that it's an ear infection - we figured there's no need to keep her locked in the house. 

The park we went to had about 12 slides (it was pretty big).  The girls love slides.  I love slides!  Thankfully I didn't attempt this outing alone because I quickly realized it was a job almost too big for Pete and myself.  A 3rd adult would have been great.  The girls were being wonderful...listening and making sure to stay together or wait for us to catch up.  I was right behind them wherever they went and Pete was at the bottom of whatever slide they chose.  Picture this - Hailey is going down one slide and her sneaker got caught on the side of the slide.  Her foot stuck and the momentum of her body kept going - she went head 1st over the SIDE of the slide.  My WONDERFUL multi-tasking-quick-thinking husband grabbed for her and caught her by the feet.  The way he caught her actually broke her fall and she did a soft, head over heels somersault.  Had he not been there...ugh.  We've been through this before when Hannah fell head 1st over the top of the slide.  Parks are fun but man oh man they take years off my life. 

The ice cream truck showed up so Pete bought the girls a Sponge Bob pop and we sat in the shade and enjoyed a frozen treat.  After making quite the mess - and cleaning up with ease (wipes are Gods greatest gift to moms), we headed back to the slides.

I don't usually do much 'people watching' when I'm with the girls since I have my own zoo to keep up with.  But today while the girls were eating their pops - I noticed a dad with his 2 daughters - also enjoying some frozen treats.  We were all sitting pretty close to the garbage can and one of these girls came over to throw out her wrapper.  She was probably about  8 or 9 y/o.  I saw her wipe her hands right down her shirt as she walked away from the garbage can and I snickered to myself because I had JUST DONE THE SAME THING!  I even had a package of wipes with me - yet it was just easier to wipe my hands on my shirt.  What took me by surprise was that by the time she got back to her father - he was yelling at her.  "How many times do I have to tell you NOT to use your shirt as a napkin?"  OMG I think I had a bad flashback because immediately I was brought back to a memory of me in Friendly's with my Dad and brother - and my dad was saying THE SAME THING!  Guess what Dad?  It didn't work!  I STILL USE MY SHIRT AS A NAPKIN! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   But come on - she didn't even have a napkin for crying out loud!  They were in a park and I'll bet he used his freakin' jeans to wipe his dirty hands on.  Next time I'm yelling at my kids for something ridiculous - someone please smack me over the head. 

One little boy - about 10 years old - tried to cut Emily off at the entrance to the slide.  Ha!  She looked at him and said "No!  It's Emmie's turn!" and she nudged her little butt in front of him (rightfully so because he really did cut her off) and she took her turn!  Haha what I love about this is that they know 'turns' and also that she didn't take sh*t - not even from a BIG BOY much older than her!  Side note:  The same kid did the same thing to Hannah and after she let him get in front of her she looked at me and cried.  Although my heart broke for her - I said 'Next time - say that's it's your turn and ask him to wait.'  I'm learning that I simply can't fight their every battle - and if I do it will only make things worse for them as they get older.  So the kid went down 1st and Hannah hopefully learned a lesson. 

Then came the 'Would you like to leave right now or would you like one more time down the slide?'   I dread this with Emily because leaving a park with Emily is eventually bound to get DCF called on us!  She is MISERABLE when it comes to leaving the park.  But - with some happy "Yay!  Ok make it a good last time!  Great slide!  Now go stand next to daddy and wait for everyone else!" - she was fine.  We walked back to the van and said "Bye bye park!  Thanks for letting us play today!  We'll see you soon!"  Not a single tear shed.  THANK YOU JESUS!  Pete and I are both tired from a few sleepless nights and I don't think either one of us was ready to battle the park departure.  However; I think we're making progress.  It feels great to see something work that we've worked for. 

Once home - the girls and I went to visit a neighbor who had their dog outside.  Another 30 - 45 minutes outside and then it was time for dinner.  Andy came home, we all ate dinner, then baths and bed.  We've been reading the girls some Santa books in preparation for X-mas.  Sounds weird right?  Well when the girls know that Santa is NICE and  not NAUGHTY (sort of hehe) they will be fine at the mall and when we pass a Santa in a suit.  They don't take well to costumes - so some preparation is only going to benefit us.  And what's even better?  They are excited!  And so are Pete and I..............................

Ugh

Had a great day but can't blog about it now. I'm just getting home and Hannah has a fever of 102.2 - so she's in our bed and hopefully will be better by morning.

Society sucks!

I was taught a lesson today.  It's that society in general thinks that kids are always wrong.  No matter what they do - it's them against the adult world.  And I truly mean this! 

After the girls went to the doc (2 ear infections, 3 possible parasites or infections...9 rounds of poop scooping to get to the lab) we came home and I started to make dinner.  Pete and Andy took the girls for a walk to give me some free time to get it ready.  Well all day we planned on pasta, sauce and meatballs so we could have pasta and then probably meatball grinders tomorrow.  But somehow we didn't have any sauce.

I hopped in the car and found the crew walking back home.  I jumped out, grabbed Emily and figured the 2 of us would get some one on one.  Well Hannah & Hailey threw such a fit that I just said fine - I'll take them too.  So all 3 of them got in the car and off to the store we went (Pete & Andy opted to stay behind).  At the store I decided that it would be in my best interest to let the girls walk.  They were already in rare form so I knew that if I chose to put them all in a carriage they would A: fight over who got to sit in front and then B: the 2 that sat in the back would just bicker over who was touching who.   So walking it was.  I gave them each a bag and let them help me shop.

1st stop - pasta and sauce.  They each got a box of pasta in their bags and then I got to carry the sauce.  Then at the end of the aisle there was a rack of pretzels.  I instantly had 3 childless grocery bags on the floor and 3 children with bags of pretzels in hand.  This is actually to my benefit.  Rather than argue over them getting 1 bag - I figure if they're each carrying a bag - they won't be picking anything else up!  I can always leave 2 bags at the register (yes I'm one of those people).  I grab the grocery bags, and let my 3 little ducklings follow behind me.  Through all the 'awwwws and oooohs' I hear someone say to Hailey 'Watch out for the carriage little girl!'   My instant (non-5 second rule) reply was 'Why doesn't the carriage watch out for my daughter?' 

See - instantly an adult thinks the child should watch out.  Mine, yours, anyone's.  Doesn't matter.  Do you think for one minute the guy that told Hailey to watch out would have ever considered that the person pushing the carriage probably wasn't looking where she was going because she was scanning her choice of products?  No.  So instead of telling said carriage pusher to watch out - he yells at Hailey. 

Next we walk over to the milk, grab some lactaid ($4 for a quart!?!?) and then head down the bread aisle.  Now I try to practice the 'one finger' rule with the girls.  As any child would be - they're very curious.  Touching things is how they learn.  So rather than constantly tell them 'No! Don't touch that!  Put that down!' I say 'You can use one finger to touch anything - but one finger only.'  This allows them to touch and explore and saves us from purchasing broken items we don't need/want.  Hannah was putting this one finger rule to good use.  She had her pretzels in one hand and with the other she was using one finger to touch all the peanut butter and jelly jars as she walked by them.  She was doing exactly what I wanted!  Not picking anything up, keeping up with me, and experimenting!  I love it!  But some other adult felt the need to say "Oh don't touch that!  You could break something!"  Now it was in 'good faith' and I'm sure this person was trying to 'help'.  But - why?  She wasn't doing anything wrong in my eyes and she was just being a kid (a really good one!). 

Now - we're at the cash register.  The kids are hovering around me while I'm paying for the groceries.  I sort of bumped Emily with my big butt and she scooted over into the cashier spot behind me (which was empty - that lane was closed).  She was just standing there - staying out of my big butts way and the guy behind us said 'Oh - don't go in there honey...come - come out of there.'  I looked at him and said 'I see her, she's fine thank you.' 

Lucky for this last guy - he caught me on a good day because by this point I would normally be irate and out for blood. 

The point is - kids are NOT always in the wrong.  So next time you're about to scold or correct a child...may it be yours or someone else's - try to give yourself a minute and ask if it's really necessary.  I'll bet more than 1/2 the time it's not. 

Tired

I sent the letter along with all of the appropriate paperwork to the Attorney General today.  I am tired.  And the girls are 'sick'?  They've got this diarrhea thing still going on - it's been 2 weeks.  We're thinking they have some kind of parasite or maybe an allergy to wheat or milk.  Something.  And we have to get to the bottom of it because it's becoming 'chronic'.  Grrrrrrrrr

Letter to the Atty General

September 15th, 2010



Dear Attorney General Blumenthal,


I’m writing this letter to inform you of a situation currently taking place at The Learning Experience childcare center in Cromwell, CT. I am a mother of 2 year old triplets and brought my girls to this childcare facility for full time care. Upon our registration process we informed the facility that we would only be able to afford sending our girls to school with the help of Care for Kids – which as you know is a state funded program.


An agreement was made that TLE did and would accept Care for Kids and we would be able to start our girls at the school for a cost of $665 per week which we would be paying in full until Care for Kids processed the paperwork. At that point we would pay the difference that Care for Kids didn’t cover moving forward.


Our girls are very sensitive to change and this was their 1st time experiencing childcare outside of the home. It was a very rough transition for them to make and it was actually 4 full days before one of our girls even spoke while she attended school. They no longer were interested in using the potty (they were almost fully potty trained when entering school) and they started showing high levels of anxiety. I know this may not sound like much to you but please keep in mind that we are experiencing this time 3!


The Care for Kids paperwork was signed on August 2nd 2010 by one Alyson Bruni (see attached copy of the paperwork). The girls started school on August 9th 2010. It was on September 10th that Care for Kids informed us that The Learning Experience does not qualify for any form of state aid and we have 30 days to find a new facility. This is 5 full weeks after our girls had been enrolled and we were finally seeing some progress! We now have to take them OUT of the school, find a school that has 3 openings (not an easy task I assure you), make sure we like the school and then get the girls enrolled. This is very time consuming. I immediately called TLE and explained the situation.


The financial setback was $3,703.75 (total amount we paid to TLE). We would not be getting any money back from Care for Kids as TLE doesn’t qualify. The social and emotional setback has yet to come. Our triplets are currently being care for by my elderly mother-in-law as my husband and I frantically search for a new facility. We have looked at over 6 facilities in 3 days and finally today we think we have decided on a match. Their start date is October 1st and I am not looking forward to the high anxiety levels, screaming kids all the way to school, death grips on my clothes while I try to leave and another potty training setback. These are only a few examples as there will be social and economical setbacks as well.


That’s the background story. The headliner is this – I was offered money and free childcare to ‘not say anything’ about the fact that the DPH told us the owners of TLE were convicted of vendor fraud in 2006. This offer came from Edward Faraci – one of the owners. Upon further investigation on my own part, I found out that Alyson Faraci was also convicted of this crime. I did not accept any offer from Mr. or Mrs. Faraci and in fact did not even contact them until today – September 15th 2010. I called Mr. Faraci today and explained that I would like a 100% refund of monies I paid to TLE. He agreed and stated he would write a check immediately. However; as you see from the date on the check – it looks as though it was written on September 9th 2010. The check was predated – though I’m not sure why. It is also signed by Alyson Faraci – not Alyson Bruni…even though Alyson signed Bruni to apply for the state aid – she signed her Faraci to a check. Again – I’m not sure why…I can only make assumptions.


They never should have accepted our children to their school knowing that they couldn’t accept state aid. If you note in the attached Parent/Provider agreement that is signed by Alyson Bruni (her maiden name I can only assume), she uses a different name than the name she signed on her business check (also attached copy) which is Alyson Faraci.


I feel as though I was left out in the cold since I only had the weekend to find child care for my 2 year old triplets. Edward (aka: Eddie) made several attempts to get me to give him the paperwork we received from Care for Kids. I did not honor his request and I am now putting this in the hands of the state. I will be contacting the corporate office of TLE as well. I think this business is a great place for kids to be cared for but under new ownership. I feel as though I was used as a ginneapig to ‘see’ how much they could get away with – again! Apparently a $1.2 million settlement wasn’t enough to enforce law abiding behavior in the Faraci’s.


My girls will suffer the most from this lapse in judgment by the Faraci’s and I’m very upset about this. I am happy to have received a full refund however I’m not sure it’s enough. Edward and Alyson Faraci are once again up to no good and I want them to understand they cannot just take advantage of innocent people to further themselves financially. It’s simply not ethical.


Thank you for your time and understanding in this matter,

Daycare Drama

Some of you are in the dark about the daycare drama.  I'll do my best to break it down and make it understandable.  I assure you - I did NOT pull the girls out of daycare because I was in any way unhappy with the services there.  I would not make that kind of decision so hastily as I know what kind of backlash this is going to have. 

From day 1 - we informed the daycare that we would ONLY be able to put the girls in school if we use a program called Care for Kids.  It's a state funded program that helps people pay for childcare.  We had previously been approved for the program but decided not to put the girls in daycare at the time.  This time - we were sure it's what we wanted to do.  We sat down with the director, worked out some numbers and filled out all of the paperwork.  We faxed the completed Parent-Provider form on August 2nd.  This is one full week before the girls started school. 

The girls started school on August 9th and at this point we were paying out of pocket because Care for Kids takes 30 - 45 days to process their information.  We were getting a huge discount and only paying $665 a week for all 3 of the girls.  5 weeks goes by (with many phone calls to the program to make sure they have all the paperwork and to make sure we get it processed because we're going broke!). 

Friday, Sept 10th - Pete calls Care for Kids.  They inform him that The Learning Experience doesn't qualify to accept any form of state aid for 10 years!  This started in 2006 and is in effect until 2016.  This means we don't get reimbursed from day one (which is how Care for Kids works) and we now have 30 days to find a new childcare facility or we lose our benefit.  WHAT?!?!? 

All Care for Kids could say was that if we wanted more info we'd have to call the Dept of Public Health.  Pete immediately found a new center that had 3 openings and figured the Learning Experience was a wash and there was no point in calling the DPH.  I on the other hand was too pissed off to let it go.  So I inquired.  What I was told was that the owners were convicted of vendor fraud and TLE isn't eligible for any form of state aid until 2016. 

After I calmed down and thought about it - I figured this must be a mistake because TLE is brand new to CT and they only came to CT this year!  So how can this be that they are on some form of probation from the state?  So I call the school and explain to the director what happened.  She said she would call the owner, Alyson, who would then call corporate and get to the bottom of it but she also assured me that yes it was more likely than not - a huge mistake.

A few hours goes by and I get a panicked phone call from Alyson's husband Edward.  He is talking so fast and trying to explain how this is all his fault and it has nothing to do with TLE and please don't be upset with the school or with Alyson and he's going to find a way to make this all right.  I'm still a bit in the dark but then he goes on to say 'Back in the day - my parents and I owned a business and got into some trouble and...'  Ahhh - I get it now.  So basically he signed the loan to TLE which makes him part owner which in turn now makes TLE unable to receive state funds. 

Simple mistake right?  HA!  I love the part how he says it has nothing to do with his wife or the school.  Here's the settlement agreement...and please note the names at the very top of the list!
http://www.ct.gov/ag/lib/ag/seniors/essex-meadowbrook_final_settlement_agreement.pdf

To be continued...

AHHHHHHH!!!!

Posting this one really quick.  Last night Blogger wasn't working!  So I was left not being able to blog :(  Now tonight - it's doing the same thing!  So I'm putting this up really quickly - I can edit it later when Blogger is fixed!

Monday

Monday's stink!  But it's the end of the day and tomorrow is Tuesday.  The girls loved being at Gramma's house today of course.  We have appts to look at 2 schools tomorrow...we'll see how it goes!  We like one more than the other already but we have to walk through both of them to make sure they're everything they claim to be. 

Sunday means tomorrow starts the week

Today was a great day all around.  The girls didn't wake up until 7:00 which is great in itself.  Then we hung out in the house and cleaned up a bit.  My mom came over and Miss Donna showed up for a surprise visit!  Then my sister and my niece came over.  Then later in the day - all of my brothers came over!  (Well Joey lives here but he was 'home' while the other brothers were here). 

We HAD to go grocery shopping because we were out of the essentials (milk, eggs, cheese, cookies...).  So me, Pete, Joey, Christina, Hannah, Hailey & Emily all piled into the momma van and we headed to the store.  Somehow - we made a wrong turn and ended up at Chuck E Cheese.  So we hung out there for a bit then dropped off Christina at home with my sister and then made our way to the grocery store.

We've run into a bit of a problem with the girls school situation so until we can find another school that we like & that has 3 openings, the girls will be going back to Pete's moms.  We're hoping it won't be more than a week or so but who knows.  I'm pretty frustrated with the whole situation.  I hate to know that we have to start this process all over again.  But we will prevail. 

Out to dinner

Rosemary & Bobby watched the girls on really short notice tonight so Pete & I could go out to dinner with Lucy & Bryon. It was an awesome time!!!

TGIF

It seems like this has been a very long week - even though it was a 'short' week due to Monday being a holiday.  The girls did great at school today.  I didn't make it to check in and see how they were doing - but they seemed to still manage to make it through the day ok.  

On the schedule for the weekend = FUN.

Right now Cousin Christina is sleeping over and we're going to have a bowling party in the morning (Christina brought a bowling set!).   Can't wait!  LOL

Another new teacher

The girls have a new teacher at school.  She started Tuesday and this is the 5th teacher they have had in just 4 weeks.  I'm not happy about it but decided that I would let things be for this week and see how it goes.  Monday was tragic.  When the girls got their reports for the day I noticed that ONLY Hailey used the potty and it was only 1 time!  This is very unusual for the girls.  I also got a report that the girls didn't eat lunch or snack (they were starving at dinner time though).  I do call the school twice a day - everyday.  And I wasn't very happy with the feedback on Monday.  But again - I decided to let it go. 

Wednesday when I called and talked to the teacher in the morning - I explained my surprise at the potty situation from the day before.  I thought maybe it was because she was new to the girls and they weren't comfortable telling her they needed to use the potty.  She agreed and we both agreed that she would be more aware of when they should use the potty as oppose to waiting until they ask.  It worked out great because they stayed dry most of the day.  (They still don't like to poop on the potty while at school.) 

When I called in the afternoon yesterday the teacher said to me "Do the girls speak Spanish?  They were trying to tell me something and I had no idea what language they were even talking until Emily asked me for agua!"  This is where I was frustrated with the change of teachers once again.  I have been through this in MAJOR DETAIL.  Yes the girls speak Spanish and yes there is a large list of words that they only know in Spanish.  Why wasn't this information passed along?!?! Grrrr   Then she says 'Wow - they'll really take advantage of you if you let them huh?'  Ummm...yeah!  That's where people underestimate the power of 3 against 1.  The girls work REALLY well together when they want to! 

Today when I called she said they were just sitting down to eat breakfast (snack).  Pete made them pancakes so that's what they were eating.  I could tell she was busy with the kids so I just said that Emily didn't eat anything this morning so she'll be hungry and to please make sure they get milk at lunch time.  (The school only provides juice to the kids so we bring milk in for them to have at lunch time...but it doesn't always get to the girls for some reason).   When I called to check on them this afternoon their teacher was on her break.  She didn't have their reports in front of her and she said "You know - I feel like we go through the same thing every time you call.  I'm not really sure what they ate - I can't remember but I think it was good.  And they all went to sleep easily.  Hannah isn't talking much today though - she's been really quiet."  So I ask "Well did something happen this morning?"  Her reply "I think so - something between her and Emily but I'm not really sure what.  She was just quiet after that though."  OMG

Hannah is super sensitive.  It could have been anything that made her 'quiet' but I feel like things have changed at the school.  They made some changes with moving teachers around and I feel like we went from having a TEACHER to having a BABYSITTER.  I'm not happy.  But I'm not sure what to do/say about it.  The teacher that I love has moved to the preschool room.  The girls can't move there until they are 100% potty trained.  I guess this is going to be my motivation to really get them trained. 

In the meantime - my plan is to pop into school tomorrow and take a look how things are running in their room.  Their school has video cameras in every room - with sound and the monitors are in the front office.  I can check on them anytime without actually disturbing them. 

I know that I can't change things every time I don't like a situation.  But I feel like this is a very important time for the girls and I don't want to regret NOT saying/doing something.  They have made so much progress since the start of school.  Too much progress for them to send home a note to me today saying that the girls were 'cranky and tired' this morning.  Not the kind of report a momma wants to see at the end of the day. 

Deeper than illness

The girls are getting better.  Pete and I are feeling better.  But I think I have figured out what's really got this family out of control.  Lately I can't seem to get the girls to listen.  I bought books.  I read blogs.  I asked friends.  I yelled.  I didn't yell.  I acted.  I didn't act.  I keep saying that what we're doing isn't working. 

I am wrong.  It's US that's not working right now.  Pete and I.  We use to move smoothly through the parental actions of every day.  We were on the same page with everything.  People use to ask how we did it and the truth is that it's all about teamwork.  One person can't raise these 3 kids.  Lord if it take a community to raise one kid then I suppose it takes a world to raise triplets.  But right now we're not working together. 

When I look back and read some of my earlier posts I see how we did everything in unison.  When the world was against us we held on to each other and proved them wrong.  Hopefully we can find that same strength again because what we are doing right now isn't working and it's obviously starting to impact this family in  more ways than I can even think to blog about. 

Crazy Morning

Let's just take 10 minutes of my morning and try to put in in black/white.  We woke up late and by the time I was finished getting myself ready for work and came downstairs Pete only had 2/3 of the kids dressed.  I finished getting them dressed and made their milk.  Making milk = letting them each pick out a cup, hold the cup on the floor while the milk is being poured, putting the milk in the microwave for 90 seconds and while it's warming up I must listen to 'uppie uppie uppie' from each one of them because they all want to be picked up.  The milk is done and they all give up the covers to their cups so I can properly put it on and they can guzzle the milk like newborn kittens. 

I'm in the middle of making lunch and I now have 3 kids at the table guzzling milk when Hannah sneezes and out comes nasty, green, oozing snot from her nose.  She freezes (thankfully my kids don't usually wipe their snot - they require immediate attention with a tissue and they will freeze in any position until someone comes to the rescue).  As I run to the living room for a tissue I hear Emily coughing and I know that if I don't get to her in 0.5 seconds I'm going to have more than snot to clean.  I grab a tissue AND a towel on my way back to the kitchen just in time to see Emily throw up all over the outfit that she was just changed into.  By now Hannah is doing the 'Ehhh!  Ehhh! Ehhh!'   I wipe the snot and then strip Emily down to her pull up.  Grab a new outfit (I have them all on standby now...it makes the day move a lot smoother) and then get her back to the table to finish breakfast. 

Just as I finish cleaning up the puke she dumps her cereal on the floor.  It was an accident so I immediately say 'It's ok - Momma will clean it.'  I wouldn't want to give them a complex over a little spilled milk right?  So I clean it up and get back to making lunches.  Not 3 minutes goes by and Emily dumps her cereal on the floor again - this time on purpose.  And what does she say?  "Uh oh!  It's K - Momma clean it!"   GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR 

I take her down from the table - she's done.  Clean the cereal and as I'm cleaning I realize I don't have coffee made.  So to myself but out loud I say I need to make some coffee.  I turn around to grab another towel and Emily is standing there with her tea cup and says 'Here Momma - I make you coffee.'

Yeah.  Eat your heart out.  You would LOVE to have my morning! 

Happy Birthday Grammie!

Hmmm...someone knew mommy had the camera. 

OMG

It has to end!  I feel like a cement truck has parked itself inside my face.  Pete says he feels better today but still sounds horrible.  Thank God Pete's parents took the kids last night.  We both took some meds, went to bed and didn't move.  I woke up around 8:00 and Pete woke up around 10:00.  I parked my butt on the couch and didn't move until we had to go get the kids around 4:00 this afternoon.   I felt like such a waste of space especially on a beautiful day like today! 

We got the kids, came home to Andy & Joey, played, ate, took baths, read books, and now it's time for bed...for all of us! 

While the girls are in bed - their new thing is to get out of bed, come to the door and ask for mommy or daddy.  I'm DONE going in there.  I was going up there around 6 - 10 times a night and it was lasting about an hour sometimes.  And if I went up there - they would ask for Daddy.  If Pete went up there they would ask for Mommy.  I finally told Pete that from now on - I'm kissing them good night and that's it.  I'm no longer going back in the room.  He disagreed with me.  He thinks we should go back in there and do whatever it takes to calm them down and get them to sleep.  So we came to a mutual agreement.  I would kiss them good night and walk out of the room - and not go back in AT ALL.  He can go back in as many times as he would like.  BUT I will NOT come to his rescue.  So if he has to go up there 45 times in one night - so be it.  (So far tonight it's been 3 times in 1/2 hour). 

We didn't turn the monitor on tonight.  Ooops.  Pete went upstairs because he heard the girls making way too much noise.  Apparently Hailey tried jumping from her bed to Emily's bed and fell.  But she caught herself on Emily's bed - and her feet were stuck on her bed.  So Pete walked in to see Hailey making a bridge with her body between the two beds and saying 'Help Daddy! I'm stuck!'  LOL

Sickkkkk

Pete & I are both sick. Kids are at te inlaws for the night. Phones are off, doors are locked,nyquil is kicking in - I don't want to see the sun till noon tomorrow.

BLAH

That's how we all feel right now.  Stuffy noses, sore throats, heads a poundin' and simply tired! 

On a 'brighter' side (I'm sure I'll laugh about it ONE day!) Hannah held hands with a boy in school today.  Apparently the trio were coming inside from the playground and they were all holding hands.  Hannah saw a little boy that didn't have anyone's hand to hold so she ran over and grabbed his hand.  Lol

Going to bed to get some sleep - hopefully a lot of sleep! 

Work

Tomorrow.  Thank God. 

UGH

I think they're finally getting better and then they wake up miserable.  Hailey had diarrhea all day again and Emily is still hacking up a lung.  I'm just convinced they really don't like school. 

Emily is stuffed up now too (thanks to allergies).  She said this morning that her nose was broken.  Haha...at least we can all laugh at that!