We recently went on our Joshua trip to Arizona. It was lovely there. The kids thought it was a bit on the hot side. They don't know what hot is. It was in the low 80s and that is so NOT hot. We went to our little flower store and it is getting sadder and sadder each time. I guess that's what you get for being in a less than optimal neighborhood. I mentioned to DH that one of these times it will be gone and I'll be so sad. I guess our 50 bucks a year there won't keep them afloat.
I was so proud of M. She had a mixed message the night before Joshua's birthday and thought DH wasn't keeping a promise to take them to the park. She was really disappointed because generally, we just don't break promises. We pride ourselves on being promise keepers. DH told her she could place the flowers on Joshua's grave. That fixed everything because, with only two graves, and five kids to place flowers, vase space is at a premium.
The next morning she kept asking when we were going to tell C that she wasn't going to get to place the flowers. I told her to stop talking about it because I didn't want fits any earlier than they would eventually happen. When we got there, we walked out to his little grave with M carrying the flowers. Instead of walking over there to put the flowers in his vase, she stood by and then started handing them out to her siblings so they could fill his vase. It made me so pleased to see her acting so maturely. She's a great kid. Of course I got teary because that's what mom's with dead kids do, but I blamed it on how touched I was that M thought of others instead of herself.
We took them to lunch and headed to the baseball field. The team we watched played at a new field and boy was it a beauty. We had to walk past the many training fields on the way in. Suddenly, a ball flew over the backstop. Hmmm.... DH grabbed it and handed it to a kid. We thought, "Cool. A Major League ball." Then another one flew over. So we entered the game with two balls. On the way out we spotted 3 more by the training fields. In the end, all the kids got balls. Oh, and at the baseball game C looks at me and says out of the blue, "Jesus made the whole world (said like wowd)." That kid! She's so random.
We went to our favorite shaved ice place like we always do. How many out of staters keep a frequent buyers card for a shaved ice place? I think it's a little crazy. Luckily, it was near a good friend's house and she brought her kids and most of the neighborhood over to see us.
And then the day was pretty much over. We had much to do to get ready to go home. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see more people that trip. Usually we try to visit so many friends and this trip just didn't afford that kind of luxury. But it was a mission accomplished type of trip. We celebrated Joshua's birthday. C got a little confused and thought she should get shoes too. Sorry kiddo! That's on Nikolas's birthday. My baby would have been 6. I bet he would have been a tank on the playground. Having S be that age (just 6 days older), I see little boys all the time who would be his pals. On Sunday, we went to church at a friend's building. It was early and we wanted to go see DH's grandma that day. I didn't realize that the first person I ever babysat for was in that congregation. She was there with her husband and youngest son, a boy who had difficulties at birth and has been disabled ever since. I couldn't believe how he had grown. He said a few things and I marveled that he was able. I don't think doctors gave them a lot of hope of such things. He flipped through some open the flap type of books. I was amazed. This was the little boy who went to therapy with his mom while I babysat his sisters when I was M's age. It made me think quite a bit about my Joshua. Of course I wanted to save him. What mom wouldn't. I knew what a cold deceased baby felt like compared to the two warm living ones I had given birth to. I wanted that warm snuggly baby. But Joshua's cord wasn't giving him the best of things those last moments. What would his life had been like had he lived. I would have loved him but there would have been challenges as he wasn't getting all he needed. I guess we are all set to have challenges one way or the other. We just never know what they will be like. And I remember that Joshua gave me my little C. No doctors would have taken us seriously if we hadn't had two stillborn babies. C's little cord didn't kill her because the doctors were so careful with her. I can't chose who I would want more. But I don't think I could have had both of them. Two weeks in the hospital waiting for the day when her cord was going to push her to her limits was enough to prove to me that she was saved by Joshua's result.
Anywho.... As for the rest of the trip... M had fun sitting in the back row of the car. It was her victory to have more room for her stuff. T loved playing outside. D decided that the middle seat in the middle row wasn't all he thought it would be. Controlling the DVD player just might not be worth the smaller amount of legroom. S struggled like crazy. She got mad at M for telling us that she wasn't buckled in the car (sorry... lies about that don't work. You can't just deny that you aren't buckled when we can see the buckle.) She ended up dumping M's water bottle all over M's leather seat. That didn't make for a happy M or mom. She got to help me clean both the outside and inside of the car. And C, she just loved playing. She liked the nice weather. She also liked handing out food in the car.
In other news.....
M had a fun latenight with friends. She worked at my mom's sportshow booth recently and had a lot of fun. She loves her grandma. Today she cracked me up. We headed out to church and she wore a white skirt because it was the first day of spring. We got there and as we walked in I noticed a huge problem. You can't go to church in a white eyelet skirt without a slip. Needless to say, we ended up being late.
T had a good walking report card. I could pick out his writing work on the wall. It was the shortest. T isn't one for writing any more than he has to. A friend at school brought him a beanie baby that is a pig. That kid and his pigs!
D had a great report card. He'd had a rough day that day as it was the second day back from our trip and he felt a little out of control. That kept up for a few days. It's been quite a long time since he was out of control. I think he's ready to be done. We tried to talk about how he can handle those feelings. Still, great report card. He's a really hardworking little boy.
S had some good moments. A few times she really seemed to want to share. I found an analogy that sort of works for her. I showed her some saltine crackers and then pretended to throw a fit saying I wanted them to turn into snicker bars. I asked why they couldn't just turn into snicker bars. She replied that they aren't supposed to. Then I asked why she keeps throwing fits when it never gets her what she wants. She is really into food and so maybe that will work for a while. She bought a new bear at a yard sale and is thrilled with it. It's name is Chocolate. Imagine that! Academically she is fine at school. She didn't do so well on respects authority though. We'll keep working. We aren't giving up dang it.
C has been hilarious. Her new ballet class is so funny. Well, it's not funny, but she is in it. Her teacher was so surprised that she could do everything. I was as well because I put her in a class that is too old for her. She loves it. She says she just hates the 'bun part' because when they lay on their backs it hurts.
That's about it. Tomorrow I am sure I will be one tired mama. I should have gone to sleep long ago.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Wowsers what a week!
This week was STELLAR!
Here's the quick run down (and that's a lie because nothing I write is ever quick).
Wednesday was a hard day on S. She ended up hitting me among other things and wasn't behaving how she needs to to take her ballet class. Last week she wasn't choosing the right either and I couldn't leave her for her lesson. I called DH up to get some advice. S can't make up her classes as she is in school when other makeups are available. I wanted her to take ballet because she had been excited about it. But two weeks in a row equals almost 30 dollars of wasted dinero. And dance is a privilege, not a right. I just wanted her to have it. Anyway, I dropped T off to swim and headed to dance to talk to her teacher. DH and I decided we couldn't waste her tuition as we paid for the whole year. Her teacher agreed to have C take a different class in her place. It turned out to be a good choice. Apparently, she was quite defiant at ballet and was doing the fold her arms I will not do what you say thing there. I wish I would have known earlier that she was doing that at ballet and I would have pulled her earlier. Me dealing with that is one thing, but the dance teacher shouldn't have to. I talked to S about it. It's the same as everything else. "I like doing toe ball hill." If she doesn't think she should have to do something she just throws a stink.
C is thrilled to start ballet. But I am still sad for S.
Then Thursday came. She was still on one, but I sent her off to school. I later learned that she was super defiant for her teacher. There was an assignment where they were supposed to circle a specific word in the little paper. She did NONE of that. The teacher told them to not scribble at all. S scribbled huge scribbles all over every picture. S can color really well. She uses multiple colors and stays in all the lines when she is in the mood. When she came home she said she didn't 'hear' the instructions. Nice try. Later it came out she was mad the girls didn't win on some activity. Thursday she also sent her violin to the ground again. Luckily, this time it was in its case. She couldn't have a lesson. I couldn't let her play outside during lessons. She got stuck sitting there with me. Why does she keep picking things that make life NO FUN for her and me.
It hasn't stopped yet. I keep hoping but hoping isn't doing a whole heck of a lot. The thing is, it's still different. Her eyes are checked in right now. She just seems to act like she really doesn't care what the consequence is. She just wants to be in charge of everything. How at five can someone really think they can be in charge and ignore every authority figure?
If we get this worked out, she will probably do great things. DH reminded me that a lot of people who are very successful don't like to think inside the box or follow rules. (He's a closet optimist ;) )
In other news of the week....
I took T to swim on Thursday. I handed him a swimsuit and he said he already had one on. He thought he had slept in the one from the day before (ewwwww). Then I kept getting calls from a random phone number as I returned to violin but no one was ever there. When I went to pick him up I found out he didn't have a suit on. I guess he can't tell the difference. So he swam on Friday instead. It worked out because I was able to take another person's kid that day and lighten her load a bit.
M took a makeup class en pointe in D's class. She surprised me by how much she is coming along. I usually never get to watch and I watched the whole class. She was lovely!
The older three kids had dads and donuts this week. DH went to read to them for an hour at school. C was NOT happy about that. She so wanted to go. Instead we had mommy and C time. She got herself a stack of books and I read to her and then she had a muffin.
C also decided to make known who her favorite people are. She told me M was number two. Of course, I assumed I was number one. No, wrong again! It was my good friend. At the time I was number 3. Later that day daddy moved to number 3 and I dropped to 4. The plastic carebear from the dentist's treasure box moved to number 5. I barely ranked above a plastic toy! It made me laugh all night.
D came home from school with a letter to me from him. It was pretty cute. It talked about how he was glad we adopted him and then at the very end how he was so happy we gave him his own room so he didn't have to share with his messy brother. It's a letter I will keep.
Friday we did T's super absorbent polymer experiment in his class. I was so pleased with him. Other kids stood their while their parents did the work (granted sometimes it might have been too dangerous for kids...). T wrote out his 3 pages and followed them. He drew on the board what the polymers chains looked like when dry (like pig tails... imagine that!), what they tried to be like when wet (straight like spaghetti) and what they are like when neutralized (which makes the regular polymer into the super absorbent ones)... which shows them trying to straighten but they can't as they trap water. He grew them, stacked them in a graduated cylinder, let the kids in his class play with them. Anyway... I was pleased. And he came home telling me his class thought it was awesome.
Today M and C are skiing. DH would have taken S too as she also had only one day so far. But with her behavior we couldn't do it. You just can't leave a kid who won't obey in some untrained person's care especially when it entails hanging out on a ski lift. What would happen if she didn't chose to obey there? It's dangerous. Anyway... I am bummed for her. But she doesn't leave us much of a choice.
So it's the boys, S and me today. We are going to head to the dollar store to let D buy himself a yo-yo today. He's excited.
Oh and my house cleaners came. I think I will be trying someone else if I spend the money again. They didn't even do the baseboards in the bathroom. I told DH they sort of clean like I do and that's what I was hiring them to fix. Anyway... I'll be calling the master cleaner Sylvia next time I need my bathrooms done. She's awesome.
Here's the quick run down (and that's a lie because nothing I write is ever quick).
Wednesday was a hard day on S. She ended up hitting me among other things and wasn't behaving how she needs to to take her ballet class. Last week she wasn't choosing the right either and I couldn't leave her for her lesson. I called DH up to get some advice. S can't make up her classes as she is in school when other makeups are available. I wanted her to take ballet because she had been excited about it. But two weeks in a row equals almost 30 dollars of wasted dinero. And dance is a privilege, not a right. I just wanted her to have it. Anyway, I dropped T off to swim and headed to dance to talk to her teacher. DH and I decided we couldn't waste her tuition as we paid for the whole year. Her teacher agreed to have C take a different class in her place. It turned out to be a good choice. Apparently, she was quite defiant at ballet and was doing the fold her arms I will not do what you say thing there. I wish I would have known earlier that she was doing that at ballet and I would have pulled her earlier. Me dealing with that is one thing, but the dance teacher shouldn't have to. I talked to S about it. It's the same as everything else. "I like doing toe ball hill." If she doesn't think she should have to do something she just throws a stink.
C is thrilled to start ballet. But I am still sad for S.
Then Thursday came. She was still on one, but I sent her off to school. I later learned that she was super defiant for her teacher. There was an assignment where they were supposed to circle a specific word in the little paper. She did NONE of that. The teacher told them to not scribble at all. S scribbled huge scribbles all over every picture. S can color really well. She uses multiple colors and stays in all the lines when she is in the mood. When she came home she said she didn't 'hear' the instructions. Nice try. Later it came out she was mad the girls didn't win on some activity. Thursday she also sent her violin to the ground again. Luckily, this time it was in its case. She couldn't have a lesson. I couldn't let her play outside during lessons. She got stuck sitting there with me. Why does she keep picking things that make life NO FUN for her and me.
It hasn't stopped yet. I keep hoping but hoping isn't doing a whole heck of a lot. The thing is, it's still different. Her eyes are checked in right now. She just seems to act like she really doesn't care what the consequence is. She just wants to be in charge of everything. How at five can someone really think they can be in charge and ignore every authority figure?
If we get this worked out, she will probably do great things. DH reminded me that a lot of people who are very successful don't like to think inside the box or follow rules. (He's a closet optimist ;) )
In other news of the week....
I took T to swim on Thursday. I handed him a swimsuit and he said he already had one on. He thought he had slept in the one from the day before (ewwwww). Then I kept getting calls from a random phone number as I returned to violin but no one was ever there. When I went to pick him up I found out he didn't have a suit on. I guess he can't tell the difference. So he swam on Friday instead. It worked out because I was able to take another person's kid that day and lighten her load a bit.
M took a makeup class en pointe in D's class. She surprised me by how much she is coming along. I usually never get to watch and I watched the whole class. She was lovely!
The older three kids had dads and donuts this week. DH went to read to them for an hour at school. C was NOT happy about that. She so wanted to go. Instead we had mommy and C time. She got herself a stack of books and I read to her and then she had a muffin.
C also decided to make known who her favorite people are. She told me M was number two. Of course, I assumed I was number one. No, wrong again! It was my good friend. At the time I was number 3. Later that day daddy moved to number 3 and I dropped to 4. The plastic carebear from the dentist's treasure box moved to number 5. I barely ranked above a plastic toy! It made me laugh all night.
D came home from school with a letter to me from him. It was pretty cute. It talked about how he was glad we adopted him and then at the very end how he was so happy we gave him his own room so he didn't have to share with his messy brother. It's a letter I will keep.
Friday we did T's super absorbent polymer experiment in his class. I was so pleased with him. Other kids stood their while their parents did the work (granted sometimes it might have been too dangerous for kids...). T wrote out his 3 pages and followed them. He drew on the board what the polymers chains looked like when dry (like pig tails... imagine that!), what they tried to be like when wet (straight like spaghetti) and what they are like when neutralized (which makes the regular polymer into the super absorbent ones)... which shows them trying to straighten but they can't as they trap water. He grew them, stacked them in a graduated cylinder, let the kids in his class play with them. Anyway... I was pleased. And he came home telling me his class thought it was awesome.
Today M and C are skiing. DH would have taken S too as she also had only one day so far. But with her behavior we couldn't do it. You just can't leave a kid who won't obey in some untrained person's care especially when it entails hanging out on a ski lift. What would happen if she didn't chose to obey there? It's dangerous. Anyway... I am bummed for her. But she doesn't leave us much of a choice.
So it's the boys, S and me today. We are going to head to the dollar store to let D buy himself a yo-yo today. He's excited.
Oh and my house cleaners came. I think I will be trying someone else if I spend the money again. They didn't even do the baseboards in the bathroom. I told DH they sort of clean like I do and that's what I was hiring them to fix. Anyway... I'll be calling the master cleaner Sylvia next time I need my bathrooms done. She's awesome.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Okay I'll Stop
I just told S to go and brush her teeth again. (You know how kids don't usually get the upper back teeth so well.) Anyway, she was a little frustrated with me and decided to change the subject to other things. I told her to just go brush her teeth.
Frustration continued. She dropped to her back on the ground, started kicking her legs, and complained. I just looked at her and then suddenly she popped up and said, "Okay, I'll stop."
Frustration continued. She dropped to her back on the ground, started kicking her legs, and complained. I just looked at her and then suddenly she popped up and said, "Okay, I'll stop."
Monday, February 28, 2011
Oh my goodness!
I usually vow to never read my posts for editing purposes. If I felt like I had to fix every error, I just wouldn't write.
That last post, however, may just make me change my mind. I just fixed a ton of errors in the first paragraph. I sounded like a sickie who had one too many swigs of Nyquil. I'm not going to look back at it again. I can't start this editing thing. It's way too much pressure :)
So this morning we had preteen drama in out house. M went from being her usual happy self asking for her violin tuned to the kid who wouldn't talk to me. And then I told her she had 4 more minutes to practice and that didn't help a thing. She wouldn't eat her breakfast or talk to me. So I took the kids to school and had her stay in the car. We had to get to the root of the problem.
Well the root was found. It's eat with your kid at school week next week. (I'm sure it has a better name that that.) M asked me before all of the kids last week to go and eat with her on a specific day. The food that day makes T sick so he wanted a different day. I just sort of figured today when I sent the paper back that I would hit lunch with D and then 20 minutes later I would have lunch with M. In the car she cried about it. She said the little girls and I would be done and it wouldn't be like having lunch with her at all. All that preteen drama was over her wanting more time with me. I got a little teary and she cried in the car. I'll be doing lunch at school I guess on three different days next week. But now all is well.
That last post, however, may just make me change my mind. I just fixed a ton of errors in the first paragraph. I sounded like a sickie who had one too many swigs of Nyquil. I'm not going to look back at it again. I can't start this editing thing. It's way too much pressure :)
So this morning we had preteen drama in out house. M went from being her usual happy self asking for her violin tuned to the kid who wouldn't talk to me. And then I told her she had 4 more minutes to practice and that didn't help a thing. She wouldn't eat her breakfast or talk to me. So I took the kids to school and had her stay in the car. We had to get to the root of the problem.
Well the root was found. It's eat with your kid at school week next week. (I'm sure it has a better name that that.) M asked me before all of the kids last week to go and eat with her on a specific day. The food that day makes T sick so he wanted a different day. I just sort of figured today when I sent the paper back that I would hit lunch with D and then 20 minutes later I would have lunch with M. In the car she cried about it. She said the little girls and I would be done and it wouldn't be like having lunch with her at all. All that preteen drama was over her wanting more time with me. I got a little teary and she cried in the car. I'll be doing lunch at school I guess on three different days next week. But now all is well.
Sunday, February 27, 2011
What is winter doing to me?
I'm looking outside and I'm sort of seeing snow right now. It doesn't look like a snowy day but I swear I can see it from where I am sitting. It's kind of like when you are 5-10 years post bearing babies and are still swaying from side to side as you stand. I had T look outside and he verified that I am NOT going crazy. There are little itty bitty tiny snowflakes floating around out there.
This past week was busy busy. T had his swim meet. There was some confusion over some bad times posted and we were lucky to make it there. Fortunately I got that little feeling to check another place on the web and found that the time I had wasn't correct. Thankfully M was old enough to watch the kids until DH could get home from work.
When I got there I was asked to be the meet marshal. I didn't know what a meet marshal did but just told them I have a rather scatterbrained T who wouldn't just find his way to his events without an overbearing mother there to send him on his way. Lucky for me, the meet marshal can do just that because the meet marshal spends most of his/her time telling kids what to do. (Okay,... that's not the real description but it's what happens.) I was in charge of making sure things were safe. I checked the women's bathroom, sent people to check the men's room, roamed outside to make sure there weren't creepy people out there doing weird things, kept people from getting too close to the officials, and most importantly, watched the warm-up pool.
The warm up pool was where the action was. They had it in the deep end and this meet was for 12 and unders. So of course the kids do things non-stop that they know they shouldn't. There were kids jumping and diving in (only sit entries allowed). There were kids messing around in the middle when they were only supposed to be going back and forth. So in reality, I spent most of my time trying to get them to follow the rules in the warm up area as there were too many kids in that pool to be messing around.
The other thing we learned about 4 minutes before it started was that T was swimming and IM. I didn't sign him up for that. At least I didn't think I signed him up for that as I NEVER sign him up for anything involving breaststroke because he risks DQing on it. Anyway, the kid doesn't have a lot of mental prep time for the event. When it came to the 3rd leg he was a bit behind and got worried they had stopped the event. He stopped swimming and turned around. . And dang it, that's how he got DQ'd. He ended up getting DQ'd on his backstroke too. That one I can't figure out. I watched the race and didn't see anything. I'm wondering if he turned to his belly too early for a turn or something. He doesn't get DQ'd in backstroke. Then in his 100 Free his was doing great. He went out really fast and did the first 50 yards in about 40 seconds and then he spaced out and STOPPED thinking it was a 50 Free. Of course, the people on the other side were telling him to keep swimming. He lucked out and still got 3rd but boy oh boy would he have been fast if he had just done his flip turn and continued on.
The highlight of the meet however, was a big yummy sugar cookie given to all participants.
The next day M went back to school for her president's wax museum. She did a great job as Grace Coolidge. We managed to get her hair to look short and pin curled. She also looked pretty snazzy in a fancy red dress that was sort of like Gracie's inaugural dress. (I have no idea if she went by Gracie. I just read that her husband pretty much kept her out of everything.) The little girls loved the buttons on each desk that would 'activate' the statues. Both S and C thought they were really making them talk. One boy decided he was out of order for S so I went and hounded him and told him he could get back to working or tell his teacher why his button wasn't working. Amazingly enough, his button started working, but he did it in character and with a great voice. The girls loved it. M didn't love wearing fancy shoes to school all day though and complained about the 4 blisters she got. She had pointe class that day and that's not ideal when your feet are already sporting blisters.
Saturday we had Suzuki graduation. M graduated books 3 and 4. T graduated book 1 and D graduated Twinkles. Grannie came for the performance and then the kids were thrilled to get ice cream after. I noticed a few interesting things at the performance. Almost NONE of the kids there had any weight issues. It made me wonder. Is it a social thing. Is it that these kids have parents that are really involved with their kids. Do the kids just not have time to sit and play video games? What is it? I'm not saying music is the link to avoiding obesity. It was just an interesting observation.
Today was a great day at church. They divided the nurseries and we now have 3. Lucky for me, I now have NO criers. I think we can actually teach these kiddos somethings. It'll be awesome. I sort of feel bad that our criers have been moved. When they originally moved kids around I pretty much asked for some because I felt so bad that there were so many in one class. But now they are split and the older kids who can do a little more might actually be able to do something. Today in singing I thought, "Dang, we could really TEACH the songs now and not just sing them."
Good times here. Oh and the snow has stopped. Too bad DH has meetings with people from out of town both tomorrow and the next day. I know he's wanting to go board in the powder.
This past week was busy busy. T had his swim meet. There was some confusion over some bad times posted and we were lucky to make it there. Fortunately I got that little feeling to check another place on the web and found that the time I had wasn't correct. Thankfully M was old enough to watch the kids until DH could get home from work.
When I got there I was asked to be the meet marshal. I didn't know what a meet marshal did but just told them I have a rather scatterbrained T who wouldn't just find his way to his events without an overbearing mother there to send him on his way. Lucky for me, the meet marshal can do just that because the meet marshal spends most of his/her time telling kids what to do. (Okay,... that's not the real description but it's what happens.) I was in charge of making sure things were safe. I checked the women's bathroom, sent people to check the men's room, roamed outside to make sure there weren't creepy people out there doing weird things, kept people from getting too close to the officials, and most importantly, watched the warm-up pool.
The warm up pool was where the action was. They had it in the deep end and this meet was for 12 and unders. So of course the kids do things non-stop that they know they shouldn't. There were kids jumping and diving in (only sit entries allowed). There were kids messing around in the middle when they were only supposed to be going back and forth. So in reality, I spent most of my time trying to get them to follow the rules in the warm up area as there were too many kids in that pool to be messing around.
The other thing we learned about 4 minutes before it started was that T was swimming and IM. I didn't sign him up for that. At least I didn't think I signed him up for that as I NEVER sign him up for anything involving breaststroke because he risks DQing on it. Anyway, the kid doesn't have a lot of mental prep time for the event. When it came to the 3rd leg he was a bit behind and got worried they had stopped the event. He stopped swimming and turned around. . And dang it, that's how he got DQ'd. He ended up getting DQ'd on his backstroke too. That one I can't figure out. I watched the race and didn't see anything. I'm wondering if he turned to his belly too early for a turn or something. He doesn't get DQ'd in backstroke. Then in his 100 Free his was doing great. He went out really fast and did the first 50 yards in about 40 seconds and then he spaced out and STOPPED thinking it was a 50 Free. Of course, the people on the other side were telling him to keep swimming. He lucked out and still got 3rd but boy oh boy would he have been fast if he had just done his flip turn and continued on.
The highlight of the meet however, was a big yummy sugar cookie given to all participants.
The next day M went back to school for her president's wax museum. She did a great job as Grace Coolidge. We managed to get her hair to look short and pin curled. She also looked pretty snazzy in a fancy red dress that was sort of like Gracie's inaugural dress. (I have no idea if she went by Gracie. I just read that her husband pretty much kept her out of everything.) The little girls loved the buttons on each desk that would 'activate' the statues. Both S and C thought they were really making them talk. One boy decided he was out of order for S so I went and hounded him and told him he could get back to working or tell his teacher why his button wasn't working. Amazingly enough, his button started working, but he did it in character and with a great voice. The girls loved it. M didn't love wearing fancy shoes to school all day though and complained about the 4 blisters she got. She had pointe class that day and that's not ideal when your feet are already sporting blisters.
Saturday we had Suzuki graduation. M graduated books 3 and 4. T graduated book 1 and D graduated Twinkles. Grannie came for the performance and then the kids were thrilled to get ice cream after. I noticed a few interesting things at the performance. Almost NONE of the kids there had any weight issues. It made me wonder. Is it a social thing. Is it that these kids have parents that are really involved with their kids. Do the kids just not have time to sit and play video games? What is it? I'm not saying music is the link to avoiding obesity. It was just an interesting observation.
Today was a great day at church. They divided the nurseries and we now have 3. Lucky for me, I now have NO criers. I think we can actually teach these kiddos somethings. It'll be awesome. I sort of feel bad that our criers have been moved. When they originally moved kids around I pretty much asked for some because I felt so bad that there were so many in one class. But now they are split and the older kids who can do a little more might actually be able to do something. Today in singing I thought, "Dang, we could really TEACH the songs now and not just sing them."
Good times here. Oh and the snow has stopped. Too bad DH has meetings with people from out of town both tomorrow and the next day. I know he's wanting to go board in the powder.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
The life of a 4 year old
Today C decided to help her sister do a little scooping up after the dog. I guess one piece was a little tricky and the kid used her HAND. What's worse is that I didn't feel like barfing. Instead I was just like, ick go wash your hands and do a good job scrubbing them.
She has changed her clothes multiple times today. She has settled on a bright lime green shirt and navy blue with purple flowers pants. (I really spelled that flours at first.... I really am losing my mind!)
This afternoon she said, "I can't squeeze my po po." A po po is the ballet teacher's name for your behind muscles. I don't know why C was trying to squeeze her po po since she doesn't take ballet lessons.
This morning she got her violin out first thing so she could practice while DH was still home.
As for the other kids.........
M stayed home from school today. She still has 'the fever'. It makes me wonder if she thinks has 'the plague' or something like that. Not to worry kid, it's just a cold.
T got a little talking to about getting in trouble at school. I guess last week he played on the 'snow mountain'. I guess it's forbidden and after 3 months he couldn't resist and fell in with some 6th graders who were having a snowball fight. He ended up in what I consider detention for a little while. I hate to say it but I'm not that worried about it. I pretended to be frustrated but well, come on, it's a snow mountain. I'm just surprised he hasn't climbed it.
D had a great day at school.
and C... well we already discussed her.
She has changed her clothes multiple times today. She has settled on a bright lime green shirt and navy blue with purple flowers pants. (I really spelled that flours at first.... I really am losing my mind!)
This afternoon she said, "I can't squeeze my po po." A po po is the ballet teacher's name for your behind muscles. I don't know why C was trying to squeeze her po po since she doesn't take ballet lessons.
This morning she got her violin out first thing so she could practice while DH was still home.
As for the other kids.........
M stayed home from school today. She still has 'the fever'. It makes me wonder if she thinks has 'the plague' or something like that. Not to worry kid, it's just a cold.
T got a little talking to about getting in trouble at school. I guess last week he played on the 'snow mountain'. I guess it's forbidden and after 3 months he couldn't resist and fell in with some 6th graders who were having a snowball fight. He ended up in what I consider detention for a little while. I hate to say it but I'm not that worried about it. I pretended to be frustrated but well, come on, it's a snow mountain. I'm just surprised he hasn't climbed it.
D had a great day at school.
and C... well we already discussed her.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
The long weekened
Of course everyone was looking forward to the long weekend. For me, it means one more day until 'Monday' comes and I need to clean up all the fun.
Saturday was T's last basketball game. It was the craziest game. You have to remember, these kids are THIRD graders. So far, our team is undefeated. There are a couple of good players on the team, but one kid is awesome. He has been playing accelerated basketball for sometime and he just rules the court. On Saturday he wasn't there and neither was his father who is the awesome coach. Anyway, we go to cheer T on and end up watching a game that is like grown men church ball or something. This team played dirty and the other coach really encouraged it. My friend's husband was coaching for the day as our coach was out of town and he didn't really want this guy on his back. Heck, I was scared of that coach. Two of our kids ended up being dragged off the court hurt. Hello other team. It is not normal for third graders to wrap their arms around the other team's players. You can't purposely trip them as they go up for layups. Anyway, had that been a real game there would have been only a few kids left on the other team as they would have all been ejected. Then the other coach would call double dribbling and travelling calls on our kids. He never once called it on his own. Sorry buddy, but I don't really like you. T had a great game though. He stole the ball a bunch and grabbed a ton of rebounds. I was proud that he played aggressively, yet cleanly. Oh, and they won.
After that I took M to the music store to buy a new chin rest for her violin. I really didn't want to spend 40 bucks on one when she has one on that violin already. But I also didn't like the fact that at the Christmas concert it looked like she had a double chin the whole time. This kiddo of mine is at the very bottom of acceptable weight for her height. At the Christmas concert though, I couldn't get a picture where her neck looked right. (I know... what do you expect when you are holding up an instrument with your chin?) The new chin rest combined with a new shoulder pad made all of the difference and magically the double chin disappeared. I wish I could figure out how that would work for me.
That afternoon DH and I went out to the gun range. Most people who know me wouldn't believe that I really quite like that. It's fun to shoot at targets. I always joke around with DH that we are only buying the regular targets, not the ones that show some big scary man holding some very shapely blond hostage.
Then that night I stayed up way too late watching clips from Family Feud on hulu. There are all of these hilarious clips. "Name a 3 letter animal." You'd think dog, cat, rat, bat,... something like that. Instead there was frog and alligator. LOL. I ended up watching for two hours.
Sunday DH's brother and family stopped by on their way out of town. My niece was pretty sick but I was still glad they came. And crazy as it seems, it really wasn't any harder to feed our 7 plus their 6. Maybe having a gazillion neighborkid over has prepped me for feeding big crowds.
Monday DH took D skiing. The mountains had received something like 3 feet of snow and it was a beautiful day. They both had a lot of fun. D took a lesson in the morning while DH enjoyed the harder runs and then they spent the afternoon together. I took T to swim practice in the morning, did some grocery shopping, and then hung out with the kiddos. Holidays seem to pretty much be normal days. But I didn't mind this time.
And last night T started coughing. I got the puffer out in case we needed it. Luckily today he wasn't worse. I'm glad because he has a swim meet this week and I would really like him to do well. After school, M came home and said she didn't feel well. She had around 102 degree fever. So our afternoon plans changed quite a bit as I ended up ditching 3 of the planned violin lessons. S and C ended up doing a 'group lesson' with me. S did really well. I don't know what it was about tonight but she wanted to do a good job. C was just little miss cranky pants and wouldn't listen to much. I'm worried she is getting sick because she was just as cranky as they come from about 3pm on.
M-Tonight we were looking up Grace Coolidge's photos online. M needs to dress up like her for her presentation on President Coolidge. M was looking through the photos and says, "She's kind of hard to look at." Well little missy, you get to play her so cut it out. How we are going to get M's hair to look like that is beyond me.
T- He finally brought all of his coats home from school. I was thinking I was going to have to march over there and clean out the coat rack myself.
D- He had a great dance class tonight it seems. He was happy as a clam when he got home. I think having a day with dad yesterday was really good for his spirits.
S- She had blast today having a friend over for 4 hours. The kids didn't even make a huge mess. Those were good times. The same struggles are there but she did much better and we all had more fun as a result.
C- She was a tyrant today! She was in her room several times in time out. Nothing could make her happy. Let's hope tomorrow is better.
Saturday was T's last basketball game. It was the craziest game. You have to remember, these kids are THIRD graders. So far, our team is undefeated. There are a couple of good players on the team, but one kid is awesome. He has been playing accelerated basketball for sometime and he just rules the court. On Saturday he wasn't there and neither was his father who is the awesome coach. Anyway, we go to cheer T on and end up watching a game that is like grown men church ball or something. This team played dirty and the other coach really encouraged it. My friend's husband was coaching for the day as our coach was out of town and he didn't really want this guy on his back. Heck, I was scared of that coach. Two of our kids ended up being dragged off the court hurt. Hello other team. It is not normal for third graders to wrap their arms around the other team's players. You can't purposely trip them as they go up for layups. Anyway, had that been a real game there would have been only a few kids left on the other team as they would have all been ejected. Then the other coach would call double dribbling and travelling calls on our kids. He never once called it on his own. Sorry buddy, but I don't really like you. T had a great game though. He stole the ball a bunch and grabbed a ton of rebounds. I was proud that he played aggressively, yet cleanly. Oh, and they won.
After that I took M to the music store to buy a new chin rest for her violin. I really didn't want to spend 40 bucks on one when she has one on that violin already. But I also didn't like the fact that at the Christmas concert it looked like she had a double chin the whole time. This kiddo of mine is at the very bottom of acceptable weight for her height. At the Christmas concert though, I couldn't get a picture where her neck looked right. (I know... what do you expect when you are holding up an instrument with your chin?) The new chin rest combined with a new shoulder pad made all of the difference and magically the double chin disappeared. I wish I could figure out how that would work for me.
That afternoon DH and I went out to the gun range. Most people who know me wouldn't believe that I really quite like that. It's fun to shoot at targets. I always joke around with DH that we are only buying the regular targets, not the ones that show some big scary man holding some very shapely blond hostage.
Then that night I stayed up way too late watching clips from Family Feud on hulu. There are all of these hilarious clips. "Name a 3 letter animal." You'd think dog, cat, rat, bat,... something like that. Instead there was frog and alligator. LOL. I ended up watching for two hours.
Sunday DH's brother and family stopped by on their way out of town. My niece was pretty sick but I was still glad they came. And crazy as it seems, it really wasn't any harder to feed our 7 plus their 6. Maybe having a gazillion neighborkid over has prepped me for feeding big crowds.
Monday DH took D skiing. The mountains had received something like 3 feet of snow and it was a beautiful day. They both had a lot of fun. D took a lesson in the morning while DH enjoyed the harder runs and then they spent the afternoon together. I took T to swim practice in the morning, did some grocery shopping, and then hung out with the kiddos. Holidays seem to pretty much be normal days. But I didn't mind this time.
And last night T started coughing. I got the puffer out in case we needed it. Luckily today he wasn't worse. I'm glad because he has a swim meet this week and I would really like him to do well. After school, M came home and said she didn't feel well. She had around 102 degree fever. So our afternoon plans changed quite a bit as I ended up ditching 3 of the planned violin lessons. S and C ended up doing a 'group lesson' with me. S did really well. I don't know what it was about tonight but she wanted to do a good job. C was just little miss cranky pants and wouldn't listen to much. I'm worried she is getting sick because she was just as cranky as they come from about 3pm on.
M-Tonight we were looking up Grace Coolidge's photos online. M needs to dress up like her for her presentation on President Coolidge. M was looking through the photos and says, "She's kind of hard to look at." Well little missy, you get to play her so cut it out. How we are going to get M's hair to look like that is beyond me.
T- He finally brought all of his coats home from school. I was thinking I was going to have to march over there and clean out the coat rack myself.
D- He had a great dance class tonight it seems. He was happy as a clam when he got home. I think having a day with dad yesterday was really good for his spirits.
S- She had blast today having a friend over for 4 hours. The kids didn't even make a huge mess. Those were good times. The same struggles are there but she did much better and we all had more fun as a result.
C- She was a tyrant today! She was in her room several times in time out. Nothing could make her happy. Let's hope tomorrow is better.
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