We've Moved!

States, not blogs. Thus the lack of posts, despite the hundreds of things I've wanted to post about.

We now have . . . .

a house under contract...yippee!!!!
- an apartment in Stockbridge, GA
- a swimming pool!!!
- a van
- a tablet (our computer died while Seth was in NC :( )
- a super cozy lay-z-boy (thanks M and A!!! it's made H such a happy girl! and me too!)
- a new haircut (not one pictured above)
- a new blog picture (5th anniversary...went backward in time...prev was 3 yrs ago...ah, well. It was better than the bedragled one H took of me while Seth was out of town. ;) )
- a new LDS congregation
- a new family to play with every couple weeks (kids aged 6, 4, 2, 2wks)
- a new elementary school
- an awesome 2nd grade teacher for H,
- and H successfully falling asleep WITHOUT melatonin!!!!!

I'm feeling really spoiled, which is good, because we could still use....

- a washer and dryer (EEK!)
- a keyboard for my tablet
- an unpacked apartment

- a husband available to help unpack and declutter (just teasing here, I know that isn't happening)
two potty trained boys (scary)
a housekeeper/mommy's helper so that someday the two above items might actually occur
vinyl in apt's eating area so we can allow our kids outside our tiny kitchen
kitchen table and chairs
a toddler who doesn't scream hysterically when we try to put him in his car seat because he wants to sit in his brother's forward-facing seat...or his sister's....when his head is so huge that it can't possibly be safe to let him sit forward-facing until he's like 10.
a mother who goes to bed before 12 or 3 a.m.
drs, dentists, pediatric versions of the same, and a speech therapist
and last but not least, a health screening/form that will allow H to go to school Monday....hoping to get that tomorrow!!!!

School Portrait

Here's my cutie!

The company the school used this year allows for a free low-res picture you can print (small!) and use online.  You can also buy the rights for a higher-res photo, but you have to pay like $30 or something for it.  We figured we'd save the money and use it toward family pictures--which I did find a photographer for, thanks to Living Social!!!*  I do wish they'd fixed her collar and centered her a tad more, but they did get a great smile from her.  Check out those missing teeth!  We keep laughing that she should be a vampire for Halloween!  We were also able to chose the background.  I liked doing that because with her coloring, you really have to be careful to chose colors that work for her.  S recommended the grey, and I was a bit hesitant, but I now think he chose the best one.  It allows her coloring to be the focal point of the photograph, rather than letting it get lost behind a bright background.

*I'm (obviously) super picky about photography, being the photo-junkie that I am, and I've been searching for an opportunity to have a professional family photo shoot for a price that fit in our budget for a couple years now.  I found that Groupon and Living Social often have deals from photographers looking to market their skills, but until now I haven't been fully satisfied with the pricing, quality or style of the photographers.  I prefer a natural, photojournalistic approach, as that's my own style, but some photographers now are messing with the colors by over saturating them. I don't want my babies looking like they're wearing dark pink lipstick.  That's just not my thing.  It's a little tricky, though, to get good quality photographs of your own family without the right equipment.  I do have a great film camera, as well as a tripod, but I don't have a remote.  And even if I did have a remote, my kids aren't quite at an age where they'd consistently look at the camera and smile.  They need someone human to tease their grins out of them.  As we learned with N, though, all we have to do is say, "Boo!"

Summer Routine Planning Success!

Wahoo!!

Last night I got the basics of our summer routine figured out!  Phew!  It's awesome and even includes a nightly glass of chocolate milk as my reward for a job well done.  A.W.E.S.O.M.E.  Do I dare even admit that I'm officially joining the ranks of insane people who go exercising at times of day that only the insane consider and only the truly insane attempt--and continue?  Yes, it's true.  At 5:45 IN THE MORNING I am going to be rolling out of bed, praying, and going outside for a lovely walk in the gentle breezes and early lights of dawn.  Maybe someday it'll turn into a true workout, but hey, baby steps here.  Guess why the chocolate milk comes in. (see footnote...did I really just type "see footnote"?) ;)

PLUS, a friend emailed me a link to an e-book about teaching young kids to clean. It's FREE for a short time for FB fans, and really only costs $3 otherwise.  It's pretty simple, but the great part to it is that it's written for people like me!!!  (Short attention spans, little motivation to do something like scrubbing floors when they could be doing something else, etc.)  It's totally what I was looking for as well, something to get us all working on getting our house together--as a family effort.  Some things do still need to be tailored to my own home, naturally, but she's got outlines and game plans and a couple explanatory pictures for the kids and some learn-from-her-own-mistakes tips . . . and empathy. ;)  Again, wahoo!!!  I have activities for days we're home that actually contribute to our family goal!!!

I need wahoos today because poor H's been puking throughout the day.  Grateful that's the extent of it, though!  And tomorrow's her last day of school too. poor kid. :(

laugh for the day:
Lil'S has been eating berries all day, and I've had to lock the fridge to keep him out of them.
S: "[Lil'S] just found the blueberries and did a little happy celebration dance."
Lil'S: "Wha!!!  b-dl-b-dl-b-dl!!!"  (noise he makes with his tongue and lips indicating "berries" or "bubbles"...guess I'll have to add a vid of him....)

--
footnote: I've been reading a new book about habits and a book about marriage and ADHD, and I realized two main reasons why ADD/ADHDers have such a hard time with basic, normal things is 1) they get side-tracked away from even starting/completing an potential important habit, and 2) even when they do do something that would be a healthy habit to keep, their brains don't register the natural rewards as strongly as others do, either because it gets distracted from doing so or because their congratulatory dopamine release is lower.  Therefore, the mind doesn't develop a desire to repeat those actions that lead to the reward.

no desire = no repeat = no habit = dysfunctional lifestyle

Again, thus the chocolate milk that I get to sit back and enjoy for however long I feel like it, one little sip at a time.

Wish me luck!

AIG

Yay!  We've started the process for having H evaluated for her school's Academically and Intellectually Gifted program.  I'm hoping this will be the next best thing to homeschooling her.  I know she could be much more challenged in school, at least in reading and writing.  She's at a second-grade reading level in kindergarten.  Their journal entries at the start of the year were "I see a cat." when her brain was thinking, "There's an orange, white, and black cat over there.  I wonder whose it is."  It was painful to see her dumb down her typical answers to questions in order to fit into that simplistic paradigm.  Yes, shorter answers are easier for young children to write, and I know you have to start somewhere, but, again, oh, how it hurt to hear her speak like a Dick and Jane book.  Also, her teacher hasn't had her students practice writing in any serious way, so H's handwriting is often atrocious, even though she can formed her letters very nicely when we sit down with her to review them.  Am I over the top, or should a six-year-old be able to write her name legibly?  I finally got to help out a little in H's classroom on Monday, and I had a hard time deciphering nearly every name written on the little "hats" I was helping the children with.  Somebody please tell me they will focus on handwriting more in first grade!!  I know it's not as essential these days as it used to be, but it certainly shouldn't become a lost art.

Sorry to rant.  It's just frustrating seeing my daughter doing totally easy stuff the whole year long.  She was writing her letters when she was two and a half, albeit only capitals at that time.  You'd think that four years later she'd have finally been taught by either us or the school how to properly write them--consistently!

H update

Stole this from an email to a friend. . . .

We've finally bit the bullet and are taking H home one afternoon a week.  She still really should be coming home every afternoon, but logistics wise, I don't know how to pull that off.  ([Lil'S's] nap is 11 to 1 or 2, and he doesn't do well with interruptions to that--I don't want to mess with his sleep in order to get H her sleep.  [S] will be coming home this Tues to pick her up, and I have to find someone to stay with sleeping [Lil'S] while I get her next Tuesday, but at least we'll have Christmas break after that, right?)  She's been getting stomachaches that have been increasing in frequency since we started her eye drop treatments, so it's obvious she needs her sleep so that she can better handle the stress of it all.  Although she's only "allowed" 12 absences, her principal said he wouldn't be coming after us for them.  They usually only make a big deal if absences are really excessive.  Phew!  A friend of mine told me today that her son missed 18 days for various reasons through his kindergarten year, so that made me feel better.  I hope I'll be more likely now to give her a school holiday when she needs it.  Yes, she may be missing out on some academics, but there's a ton she's missing out on learning here at home too.  We've been unable to expect even the most basic of responsibilities because she's just too tired (or wired) to follow through on things regularly.  If she wasn't so much better when she's well-rested, I'd think she had severe ADHD.  Honestly, she very well could have mild ADHD--her sleep has made me wonder, as difficulty falling asleep has always been a problem for my ADHD brothers and I--but she wouldn't be able to receive a proper diagnosis if she's not getting the sleep that it's obvious she needs.  She may be asleep by 6:30 most nights, but the fact that she starts zoning out or tantruming at 5:30 (usually mid-dinner) shows she really needs to be asleep sooner.  (And then there's typically the 2:45pm and 4pm crashes and the 9am and 10:30/11am ones on weekends. . . .  How do I keep forgetting those??)

I wish S and I were more assertive.  I mean, I can be assertive with people I know well, but with those I don't know well, I'm often more passive.  I think we'd be bringing her home more often were we so--and I certainly would have been bringing her home from the start!

A big blessing this past week is that H hasn't had a cold--S and I have mild ones, but gratefully H and Lil'S have been spared since theirs ended around Thanksgiving.  H had various colds all of Oct and nearly all of Nov, on top of school and eye treatments and sleep dep, so it's been a great relief for her to be better in at least that aspect.

Conference Request

Sigh....I finally did it. I didn't want to do it, but it had to be done and probably should have been done long ago.

Hi Mr. R[...] and Ms. M[...],

When would be a good time for us to meet to discuss H[...] further? Without her mid-day naps she has continued to act overtired at home, has had constant colds since the onset of school (excepting 3 weeks in Sept) that have often worsened her asthma, and is not handling well the additional stress of her vision treatments (has been complaining of stomachaches 2-3 times a week since we started them back up). She really needs more sleep. I do hope we can work something out to let her get it.

Thank you,

R[...]

Why I'm Seriously Tempted to Homeschool

Two emails I sent off yesterday. It's been a long week.

Hi Ms. M[...],

I just wanted to apologize for the interruptions (backpack, lunch, barrette, etc.) this week. This week's been a rough one on H[...]--and thus the rest of us. Although she's normally been asleep by 7 lately, it's too late for her, and she's progressively been sleeping worse at night, culminating in 3 a.m. wake-ups where she's been unable to fall back to sleep at all (Mon) or to not be able to go back to sleep for a couple hours (Tues, Wed, Thu). We finally got her to bed at 5:45 last night and interrupted her sleep cycle at 12:40 a.m. (which often helps habitual wakings but isn't a guarantee). Gratefully, last night she finally was able to sleep the entire night, not waking until 6:07. What a beautiful thing to hear her calling this morning, "Mom! The clock says 6-0-7! Can I get out of bed now?"

We are re-doubling our efforts to be done tucking her in at 5:45 p.m. at the latest so that she can get a full 12hrs of sleep, which is how much she appears to need. (before school: 10 at night, 2 during the day) We will also continue letting her nap at least on Saturdays, early release, and no school days. (We try for an early nap Sundays, but it often doesn't work because she naturally wants to sleep around the time we're supposed to be going to church. We've actually missed church a few times this past month just to let her sleep, she's been so worn out.) She was able to nap 3-4x each week the first couple weeks of this past month (staff workday, keeping her home from church & 2 days of school with her cold), which allowed her to stop waking every other night--simply heavenly--and is probably why it was so easy to slip into letting her stay up until 7. However, upon returning to school for the whole week last week and our not getting her to bed before 7 p.m., she started waking briefly again and then finally couldn't go back to sleep, like I mentioned. Hopefully we can stick with this insanely early bedtime because otherwise I think I'm going to lose it myself! (She's already lost it a number of times.)

I'm grateful she's naturally such a well-mannered child because otherwise I'm sure her sleep deprivation would be much more obvious during school hours!

Thanks,

R[...] :)

The ironic thing is that Miss H was honored at a reception Thursday morning for being a "Terrific Kid" in the area of responsibility. Or maybe that was a necessary positive to help rebalance the scale so we didn't completely slide off into insanity. . . . She really is an amazing kid. This sleep thing just tends to hide that, which is why this full-day school thing is really killing me. I hate the effect it so easily has on her and the rest of us. But, I guess that's life. It's supposed to be hard, right?

Hi Ms. B[...],

First I want to tell you I'm impressed with your website! Nice job! I'm glad to learn what my daughter is learning in her classes as I take her education seriously. I appreciate you sharing not only what activities you're doing with my child but also what your expectations for her are.

My kindergarten-aged daughter H[...] S[...] (Ms. M[...]'s class) has exercise-induced asthma. Maybe you've already been informed of this, but I wanted to make sure you were aware as she's told me she's been having symptoms during P.E. Her asthma is generally mild, but it affects her ability to give her full 100% during physical activities. Her typical outward symptom when she gets active is coughing, although the less apparent symptoms are dizziness and foggy thinking. She's supposed to be receiving a dose of xoponex (similar to albuterol) before P.E. to prevent her symptoms, but this generally hasn't been happening. Apparently the dr only writing "as needed" on her medication form and then my request on all the additional health forms I filled out that she receive it before P.E. wasn't enough for her to be getting it then. Earlier in the week her doctor faxed a note clarifying that she needs it before P.E., which the nurse confirmed with me was all that was needed for H[...] to be given it regularly before P.E. However, H[...] said that she still wasn't given her medication today. Hopefully she'll start receiving it regularly next week.

I know you have lots of kids to keep track of, but if you could keep an eye out for her, maybe ask her how she's doing during/after vigorous activity every now and then, I would really appreciate it. I've talked to her about her need to raise her hand and let you know if she starts having symptoms, but she is still young and may not do so. If she does start having symptoms, she needs to sit and rest and have her xoponex so that she's symptom free before continuing activity.

Thank you so much for your help,

R[...] S[...]

There were a lot of other things I could have written in both emails, but I am very proud of myself for showing a great deal of control. To be honest, I think I've already "lost it" a couple of times this week. But as far as these emails are concerned, A+ for responsibility on my end!

2nd Day of School!

Thanks to Daddy (and his amazing punctuality), here's the official "starting school" picture of our little kindergartener!

The ascent into the bus.

Her bus driver, Ms. K, is great. She had H turn around and pose for her Daddy.

:)

First Day of School!!!!

Despite the mornings of practice runs and Mom actually getting up and out of bed before H (um...I think....at least I was awake before she got out of bed....), we barely made it to the bus! We had headed out five minutes earlier than the bus driver had told us (although, I had wanted to be there fifteen minutes early), with her last minute, cheese-stick breakfast and a chair for relaxing in hand, and before we even reached the intersection, here zooms the bus! We live in a deep cul-de-sac off a 45mph country road, so that bus will easily come and go without us having a clue. I tossed the (of course, unwrapped!) cheese stick in a back pocket of her backpack, H climbed aboard, and before the door even closed the bus was off!

There was no time for pictures, not that the batteries were working anyway, despite my vain efforts to charge them that morning. But, ah well, I figured I'd get a good one when she came home. We could always fix her hair again if she needed it, right?

Hahhaha, riiiiiight......

Jumping to this afternoon:

So, Mama's watching the clock practically the whole hour before H's supposed to come home. If I'm not there to pick up Miss Kindergartener, she'll have to ride along the whole bus route and be taken back to the school. I double-checked the time school gets out to see when the soonest is that H could arrive (she's one of the first stops). That would be 2:15p.m. At 2:10, H's teacher calls to verify that H is supposed to ride the bus as she was insisting. (She accidentally checked "car rider" during the Open House). I confirm that H's correct, give her the bus number, hang up the phone, and am feeling on the ball. At 2:20, I look in the mirror. Ooo, scary! Lil'S is still asleep. I have 10 minutes to wash my hair. Perfect. Once again, I'm feeling on the ball.

I finish washing my hair, I hear Lil'S calling, and it's 2:30p.m. Time for the buses to leave the school and ten minutes before the bus driver said to expect her. Of course, I'm expecting her sooner, so I grab Lil'S, pull on his shoes, hurry out the door, get the stroller from the car trunk, strap Lil'S in, and head down the street.

Low and behold, I'm not even halfway down the cul-de-sac when I am able to view the stopping bus. Run, Mama, run!!! If the driver doesn't see me, H'll be on her way back to school, and if she does see me, my baby's going to be crossing the highway without me!

Might I add, that my long hair was still a tangled, soaking wet mass at this point. I had started brushing it out once I got the stroller off our (NEW!!!) gravel driveway and onto the road, about three strokes before I saw the stopping bus.

Well, of course, Miss H made it across the highway safe and sound (with a long line-up of cars to watch this sloppy, running mama picking up her little girl...but I was thankful my prego belly was NOT gigantic yet!) We hugged and headed to the house. She was so exhausted when she got home that she couldn't even smile. There was NO posing outside for the camera for this little girl! So, I just had to grab some snapshots of her getting settled inside.

putting down her backpack

Here's the best I could get from her as she took off her shoes--a half smile!

Starving Girl!