My mother, Sonja Vanderpool, passed away yesterday, November 22, 2007 after a long hard fought battle with various forms of cancer. Although I was unable to be with her, she was surrounded by her family and she passed very peacefully. Jeff, and the girls & I will be traveling to CA for about a week. Thank you for your thoughts & prayers during this difficult time. 
It can be hard to understand what your child is saying, when they're not even 18 months old. Especially in this family. We don't exactly have a good history of intelligible speech: Emma's been in ST since she was 2, but needed it about 6 months before then. By 18 months of age, Emma had 1 word we could understand: dad. She wasn't trying to imitate any words we said to her. So a ST was needed. With Sarah, I know many kids with T21 who have very good speech. Sarah isn't one of them. At 3 1/2, again, there are very few words we understand. BUT, the plus side is, she will try her very best to repeat a word when you say it to her. And when she signs, she tries to say the word as well. So, we're making progress there. With Katie, I have to say my biggest wish for her was that she would progress "typically" in the area of speech & language. I know this will probably sound petty & uppity to some people, but when you've got 2 kids who it seems you need a translator for, it's right up there with the "10 fingers & 10 toes" part. Not that I'm trying to belittle my 2 kids who have issues in the speech area. Quite the opposite. I know Katie will have her struggles, in whatever area they present themselves. I was just hoping that speech wouldn't be one of them. Well, she isn't spouting poetry on a daily basis, but I think she's progressing quite nicely. She's learning some signs, and has a few words. Mostly "dada", "mama", "Emma" (or what sounds like it), "ball", and "shoe". This last one brings up the title of this blog. I WISH I could record her saying the word "shoe". And that I could post it here, because every time I hear it, I think she's cussing me out. It sounds exactly like the word "sh*t". And it makes me laugh every time. She will toddle on over to the shoe rack, which sits right in front of the door, and she will take all the shoes down, saying the word "shoe" for each one. So, you can imagine, as a parent, going about your daily work, and all of a sudden, from the corner of the room, you hear this little angelic voice, saying what sounds to you like, "Sh*t, sh*t, sh*t, sh*t." And I will look over at her, and she'll catch my eye, proudly hold up the little white Gerber walker she has in her hand, and say "Sh*t". And I'll smile & tell her "Good job, Katie!, Yes, that's a shoe". Then she'll toddle off again on her new found walking legs and go play. And I'll think to myself, maybe I should get that ST on the phone now...
A few weeks ago, a notice came home with Emma from school. Someone was trying to get a little "pom-pom" team together to cheer at the boy's & girl's middle school basketball games. It was for girls from 1st-5th grade. I asked Emma if she was interested, and she said yes. Soccer was over and she didn't have any other extracurricular plans. So, we signed her up. Hoo-boy.
She had her first practice yesterday. The girls & I were late getting there to watch because of a car malfunction (i.e. complete & total dead battery=not so fun time with 2 small kids) so I only got to watch the last half hour of practice. They are doing the "Cha-Cha Slide". By the time the practice ended, Emma was asking if they could do something else, because apparently, she no longer likes that song after practicing to it for 90 minutes. After practice was over, we got the schedule. And what a schedule. The games are almost every week, with there being 2 games a night most times, because the girls play first, then the boys. We're talking from 5:30pm to almost 9, each time they have a home game. Until February. Ok, now I get why my mom didn't want me to be a cheerleader. Wow. This is a pretty heavy schedule for a 2nd grader. And this is in addition to having practice 3 days a week? A part of me says to quit now, while there hasn't been any monetary investment in it, but another part of me says,"Oh it'll be so cute!!!" She IS going to get some sort of uniform (probably a Morey t-shirt & a homemade skort, with some Dollar store pom-poms) and she'll be making friends. This is a good thing, right?? Please someone convince me this is a good thing.
I showed Jeff the schedule last night & he laughed at me, making sure he pointed out that I would be going to these events by myself. Such love.
It's that time of year again! We had Emma's quarterly conference with her teacher last night. Overall, she's doing very well. Still having issues with spelling, but again, we think that there's a correlation between her speech & her spelling. So, we're going to continue working on both those areas.
Her teacher had nothing but good things to say about Emma in regards to her work ethic & her attitude towards the other students. She said that Emma sometimes finds it distressing, when she's been at speech or in the resource room, to come back to class & find that she's missed a Center. She wants so badly to make it up. Her teacher also said that, if Emma IS gone, and the kids in the meantime have been working on something, 9 times out of 10, Emma will come back from wherever it is she's been at, and complete the task that the rest of the kids have been working on, first. For bringing us to conferences, Emma received a "Free Homework Pass", where, if she decided one day she really didn't want to do her homework, she could use that 1 time pass. Emma kinda gave her a look like, why would I want to NOT do my homework? Oh, I love my girl. :) The same thing happened last year, she got a "Free Centers Pass", where she could skip a center. She never used that either.
They're still not using letter grades, but instead using the 1-4 scaling system. She got all 3's & 4's, which is nice. There are a couple math areas that she showed not enough improvement, which was a bit shocking, seeing as how Math has always been her strong point. But, it might have been one of those times where she wasn't feeling in the "math mood". That's the problem with tests like that. Sometimes you're just not in the mood.
I'm glad we're getting her glasses at around the beginning of the quarter, so hopefully we'll be able to see a BIG difference in her performance by the end of the semester. It says on her Resource Room eval that the goal is to get her up to Reading Level K, which is "End of 1st/beginning of 2nd" average level. She's on G right now. So, 4 levels below. I plan on working hard with her to help her reach it. :)
Emma has been telling me for awhile now that her eyes hurt when she reads & it gives her headaches. Now, this kid loves books, but with her reading being a little bit behind, I was thinking she just didn't want to, because she wasn't doing it as well as her friends. She's in Speech (which she has been since she was 2) and is now going to the Resource Room every day to get extra help with reading. Th consensus between her teacher last year & her ST was that her speech was affecting her reading. She spells words the way she says them, which is Phonics, but she says them incorrectly, which is Phonics gone horribly wrong.
So we took her to the Pedi about a month ago, and they did the old fashioned eye chart test. She said that she thought she was slightly near-sighted, but it was only 20/40, which isn't that bad. But she recommended we take her to the ophthalmologist to make sure. We went on Tuesday. I'd been telling her that she might not end up needing glasses, and to try not to be too disappointed, because she'd been telling everyone she saw that she was getting glasses. Her little boyfriend Adam just got his this week, and apparently a few other kids in her class are getting them, in addition to the few that already do. In second grade, getting glasses is the "en vogue" thing apparently.
At first, I thought she was doing pretty well reading the eye chart. But then the 2 little ones decided that being cramped in a small dimly lit room where they're strapped to the "instrument of torture" (i.e. the double stroller) was too much for them, and they started throwing hissy fits. So, we went out to the waiting area, much to the relief of the doctor. I vainly tried to entertain them while we waited. When Emma came out, she yelled, "I have to get glasses". I'd never heard that phrase said with such joy. The doctor said that yes, she seemed to be slightly nearsighted (only about a -1) but she wanted to dilate her eyes just to take away her focusing ability and re-check. They said that we would have to wait about 20 minutes before the dilation drops were in full effect. In the mean time, Sarah & Katie were in complete mutiny, running opposite ways around the lobby, and completely driving me mad. So, I strapped them back into the stroller, told Emma to wait there & play until the doctor came for her, and I went outside with the babies. It was cold, like really cold, so I was hoping the exposure to the elements would calm my kids into some sort of complicity and we could go back into the office & wait patiently. Nuh-uh. They weren't having any of that. I stayed outside for maybe 10 minutes, went back inside, to find Emma still sitting there. They were good for about 2 minutes and then we were back outside again. By this time, it was raining, I was cold, and I was ready to accept the glares & chagrins of the office staff & patrons from my screaming children. We go back in & Emma's not there. Oh good, we're almost out of here. By that time, we'd been there for over an hour & a half.
By the time Emma came out, I had been forced to make Figure 8's around the lobby with the stroller, and calmly talking to the kids to keep them from screaming & grabbing the $200 pairs of frames that were everywhere. The eye doc said that she was still near-sighted, but she also had issues with focusing close up. HUH? So, my almost 8 year old is getting bi-focals. Of course, why not? It's not like we could have had something easy. Oy vey. I asked about those famous "no line" bi-focals, but she shot those down, saying it was too hard for little kids to be able to find where they need to look through without the obvious line in the lens. So, Emma tried on some frames, picked out a very cute pair of satin pink, cat eye shaped ones, and we did all the paperwork. Thankfully insurance covered a big portion of the whole affair, but our out of pocket bill is still $140. I told Emma that if she wasn't careful with these things, she would have to wear them covered in black electrical tape if they broke. O.o I only half jest. LOL But I did stress that she needed to take care of them and be careful. No wrestling with them on & try not to pick any fights.
So, only 2 hours after we walked in, we walked out, completely exhausted. Needless to say, we ordered out for dinner that night. But, Emma got her glasses. She's very excited. And she was completely bummed that she had to wait a week for them to come in. I can only hope that she'll be this excited when it comes time for her to get braces, because you KNOW she'll have to get those. Of course she will. She's our kid.
So, the cold & frosty season is officially upon us: it snowed last night & this morning. Not much, maybe an inch or so, and it will most likely be melted by the end of the day. But, still, it's here. You would have thought we'd had a blizzard the way Emma got dressed this morning to take Jeff to work. Her snow jacket, hat, scarf, gloves, and boots...over her night gown. So her legs were virtually all exposed. And this was just to go into the car & drive somewhere. Did I mention that Emma loves winter? Until about February & then she gets tired of it, and joins the rest of us who've hated it since December.
So now with the first snows of the season, I realized: OH CRAP! Christmas is 7 weeks away. Emma is "this close" (imagine fingers not very far apart) to the whole "Santa" expose', but not quite. I'm not going to ruin it for her. But, I have a feeling it will be soon. Possibly before this Christmas, but we'll see. I have started referring to getting her gifts, not from Santa, but from Mommy & Daddy. I'm not going to use the term "what do you want from Santa". Besides, Santa doesn't get her the boring gifts like mom & dad. We give her things like a new comforter set, and socks. Santa gets her something pink & fluffy & altogether useless.
December is a hard month anyhow. We have 2 birthdays, plus Christmas. And no matter how I think I'll be prepared, it always sneaks up on me. Then, before I know it, it' Christmas Eve & I'm at Wal-Mart digging through the $9 movies, telling myself, Of course Sarah wants "Die-Hard 2" in her stocking...
That was just a joke....maybe.
Well, I guess Emma isn't a "babe", more like a tween, even though she's not even 8 yet. But she still comes up with good ones.
Our kids are old enough now where we have to really watch what we say in front of them. There have been times when one of us has let a curse word loose once or twice (or 12) and it's come around to bite us in the butt when Emma has repeated it. This also applies to when we talk about "alone time". That's pretty much what we refer to it as in front of the kids. We thought our ruse was working fairly well, until last night.
After dinner, as we were relaxing as a family: I was reading, Emma was eating a couple pieces of Halloween candy, and the babies were watching "The Goodnight Show", Jeff said something about spending some "alone time" with me later. Emma, ever the intent listener to things she shouldn't be, said,"Dad you just wanna kiss her." I about died laughing. She's not a dim bulb.
So, add "alone time" to the list of "No-no words in front of the children".
My kids watch a fair amount of TV. Probably about the same as the average kid. I'm not bragging, I'm not always happy about how much TV my kids watch, but hey, I have to get housework done sometime, and my kids aren't really old enough to entertain themselves for longer than 10 minutes.
Anyhow, the girls watch a lot of Disney movies, and, back when we had cable, they watched other things like Sesame Street, Dora, Clifford, and the Doodlebops (not my personal fave, but I have a musical preschooler). Last Christmas, either Santa or us (can't remember which) got the girls the 1st season of "The Muppet Show". This is the OLD Muppet Show, from the late 70's/early 80's. They had people on there I'd never heard of (who the heck is Paul Williams?). But, the girls LOVED it. For Sarah, it took a little while to get used to the theme song. But, now she can't get enough. We bought the 2nd season over the weekend. By this morning, Emma was asking me why Elton John was dressed in feathers....I told her that conversation would have to wait until she got older.
But, they're getting exposed to a type of entertainment that really isn't around anymore. Kind of like the old Bugs Bunny shorts: animation/puppets (for the kids) but sometimes with themes & jokes that only adults could get. Everyone could watch it together and be equally entertained. Of course, watching it I sometimes wonder if skits like these are the reason our generation is like it is:
So, my kids are getting an education in what TV was like when Mom & Dad were younger. Emma even recognized one of the songs that Elton John sang...from "Chicken Little". It took a bit for her to realize that the song came BEFORE the movie.
I mean, where can you find a show like this nowadays??
Yeah, that was pretty much how I was welcomed home after being in CA for 4 days. As this was Jeff's first foray into being alone with the children for longer than 4 hours, he did very well. In truth, I wasn't expecting the house to be clean, not even remotely. So, I wasn't too disappointed when the first things out of his mouth were, "I have no clean pants & there's no coffee." Well, maybe I was a little, at least about the coffee.
There were only a few minor incidents regarding shoes, soccer socks & a forgotten lunch box. But all were taken care of, and the children all came out unscathed.
My plane got in pretty late, so Jeff left the girls asleep at home with Steph and came by himself to pick me up. When I got up the next morning, and walked into Sarah & Katie's room, it was so cute: Katie just looked at me, smiled and said "HI!!!" really loud. Sarah just ran to me & hugged my legs and said "Mama!" I think they were happy to see me.
Emma had been telling her friend's mom that I needed to come home soon. When she asked why, Emma told her that there were no clean dishes, there was laundry everywhere, and there was no food in the house. And apparently Daddy couldn't amend these issues, so therefore I was the only one who could.
Emma has welcomed me home in her own little way: by getting pink eye. Her friend Adam had it on Tuesday, and Emma came home early from school with it yesterday. She now has it is both eyes because she won't stop rubbing them. I'm about to put her in a straight jacket. The pedi we saw gave us a sample bottle so we could start treatment right away, as well as treat anyone else who happened to come down with it. I'm hoping to avoid that but we share germs in this house like we share hugs. Which is to say, a lot. Kinda hard to avoid when you've got 3 kids. The germs, I mean, not the hugs. LOL And I think I jinxed myself when I was in CA, as I had just been telling my aunt that we'd been lucky to not have any illnesses since the beginning of school a month ago. /smacks forehead I need to keep my big mouth shut.
Im leaving Friday to fly to Sacramento for 4-5 days. My mom is not doing well, and I need to go spend some time with her. Will write more when I get back.
It seems we've been having a speech & language explosion over here. In the past week, I've heard 2 new words from Sarah, and Katie has learned 3 signs. Sarah has learned "book" (pronounced boop) and "bubble", which she said very clearly this morning while watching Dora. Katie now knows "mommy", "daddy" and "eat".
I saw Sarah's preschool teacher at the soccer games on Sunday and she really thinks that Sarah's on the verge of a really big speech development. And since this woman was a Speech Pathologist before she was a teacher, I'll take her at her word. It's not like Sarah was silent this whole time, but we really couldn't understand much of what she was saying, which I'm sure frustrates the heck out of her, because she KNOWS what she's saying and is mad we can't understand her.
But we are slowly making strides. I guess it's a good thing the girls both love Signing Time. :)
Katie's surgery went well. I was told repeatedly that the wait to be called back was going to take longer than the actual surgery. They were right. We got there at 7:30 and did the initial pre-surgery questions. We then sat there until about 8:15 and we called back, where we were asked another series of questions (all repeated by 3-4 people). I changed her into her little hospital gown & hospital pants and then they took her back right at 8:30. I went out to the waiting room, put on my iPod and started doing a Sudoku puzzle. No joke, less than 15 minutes later they're calling me to speak with the ENT. He came in & said everything went well, gave me some drops to put in her ears, and said she'd be out in a few. 10 minutes later, I got called back again, because she was waking up. She was still groggy & crying, so I sat with her in a comfy chair & tried to comfort her. This, of course, is the kid who cried for over an hour after she was born. It takes a lot to comfort her. After a bit, they asked if she wanted something to drink. They filled her sippy cup with some apple juice and got her some graham crackers. She was instantly content, lol. I offered her a cracker and the poor thing was still so groggy that she's not really able to take a bite. It's like her mouth forgot how to bite & chew. It was so cute. After about 15 minutes, she was wide awake & happily eating all the crackers & sucking down the juice. Then the nurses wrote up her discharge papers & we were outta there! Less than 2 hours.
She's taking a nap now, but doesn't seem to be in any pain, which is good. Now we just have to be careful with not letting water get into her ears. So this means that we have to put plugs in her ears when she gets a bath. That should be interesting.
Katie's having tubes put in her ears tomorrow. I just called the hospital to confirm what time we have to be there. They moved her surgery from 9:30 to 8:30, so we have to be there at 7:30am. They said the actual surgery only takes about 30 minutes, and once she wakes up from the anesthesia and she's coherant & drinking something, they'll let us go home. So hopefully we'll only be gone a couple hours.
So, no food or drink (even water) for Miss Katie-baby after midnight. She's gonna be one cranky kid tomorrow. This kid loves her food & juice lately. But, thank goodness the surgery is early in the day. Now let's hope they don't get backed up for some reason.
I think we can officially say that Katie has 2 words: mama & bye. She pronouces bye "a-bai" which is so cute with her dainty little voice. She babbles all the time, and I think I'm hearing snippets of other words, but I can't say for sure. I've heard "dada" & "Sa-wah", but I can't get her to repeat those to me. It's so cool listening to her speech slowly develop. I think that Katie's still at that age where she & Sarah can understand each other. It's neat to watch them play & interact with one another. They have such a fun time.
SIDE NOTE: After I put Katie down for a nap today, Sarah & I came downstairs. She wanted to watch a movie. I already knew it would be a VeggielTales one, as they are her favorite. So, I layed them all out for her to ponder, and she picked "Lyle the Kindly Viking". She very clearly said "Eye-al" when she pointed. So we're making speech strides every where we turn!!
Yes, I know it's not even October yet, but when you have a picky 7 year old, you learn to get things done early.
Back during the summer, Emma told me she already knew what she wanted to be for Halloween. Seeing as how it was 90 degrees outside with 90% humidity, Halloween was the last thing on my mind. But, she was insistant. She wanted to be the pink chick from "Power Rangers Mystic Force". That's all fine & good, but SHE HAS NEVER SEEN THIS SHOW. We haven't had cable for a few months, and I KNOW she never watched it before then. Where in the world did she come up with this?? I can only guess that it was something she got from her friends at day camp. I would catch little snippets about her day that had something to do with Power rangers. What's sad is she KNEW which one it was, so it's not like I could just buy any old pink Power Ranger-ish looking thing & say "Here you go!" No, of course not. I started looking on eBay and I said, ok how's this one? She frowned and said, No mom, that mask doesn't have a butterfly on it. I said, but it's PINK, and it says right here "POWER RANGER". She says, NO mom, that's a different show. That's not Mystic Force. ????? How would she know?? So I add "Mystic Force" to my search and there we go! The delux pink Power Rangers Mystic Force costume, complete with the butterfly mask.
So, I checked back for the cheapest ones over the next week or so, and I finally got a good deal. The original price for retail was supposed to be $39, and I got it for $28 (that included S & H), so not bad. It arrived in the mail yesterday, and Emma got a nice surprise when she came home from school. She, of course, wanted to wear it immediately. I told her she could try it on to make sure it fit, but afterwards it was going in the closet until Halloween.
Now my mission, if I choose to accept it, is to find a toddler sized, non-gawdy, Little Bo Peep costume for Sarah. Again, you'd think this would be easy, but people want $50 for a costume!! Uh, no thanks. Not for something that's going to get dirty, possibly ripped, and covered in candy. Katie's costume is easy. She's going to be the sheep for Bo Peep. We already have that costume in the closet. It's Sarah's old one. Speaking of which, I should probably have her try it on, otherwise I might be scouring eBay for a "sheep" costume at the last minute.
UPDATE: Sheep costume fits Katie, but just barely, lol. Good thing Halloween isn't in December, otherwise we might not be so lucky.
I just recently changed my blogger background, and I'm not sure I like it. :\ I love Monet and I think the colors are beautiful, but I don't like how the pictures I post are translucent, and the background shows through them. Makes them look weird. If I'm doing something wrong, and there is a way to make pictures and other images I post completely solid, please let me know. Otherwise, I'll be on the hunt for a new blogger layout....
I have stayed up WAY too late for the past 4 or 5 days, barely getting 6 hours of sleep at night. When you're by yourself, with 3 kids, doing everything alone, that's not nearly enough. Last night the fatigue hit me like a truck. I came downstairs to read a book with Sarah before her bedtime and after we were done, I reclined the chair I was in and almost fell asleep instantly. 20 minutes went by & I realized it was past Sarah's bedtime, so I put her to bed. I was having a hard time keeping my eyes open. So, at 9pm, when Emma went to bed, I did, too. I slept from 9pm until 6:30am. It was awesome! I only had a few interruptions (such as Sarah having a nightmare at 1am and coming to sleep in my bed, and the times when Sarah would toss & turn and kick me in the head). I still felt when I woke up that I could use another nap, but thank goodness today's Friday so we don't have the morning rush tomorrow. Now if I could just get Katie to sleep past 7am.
Soooo, after thinking I had Katie's fever/crankiness/rash figured out, she threw me another curveball last night and spiked an 102 degree temp. /sigh I took her to the Pedi this morning, HOPING that something was actually wrong so we could get it fixed. I know that's probably terrible, but when your child is miserable & there's no known cause, it can get extremely frustrating. Anyhow, good news: she's gaining weight! Not much, but it's a little. Bad news: another ear infection. 5th one since the end of April. Almost all in the left ear. So we're having a pattern. We're being referred to the local ENT, whom I'm assuming will probably recommend putting tubes in. I just don't want what happened to Emma to happen to Katie. I want to nip this in the bud right now. She also thought that Katie didn't have roseola, but another random virus that's going around, which would explain the fever AFTER the rash appeared. So we're on Omnicef for 10 days (I think), along with Tylenol/Motrin and Benadryl. Call me Mrs. Pharmacutical.
The nurse at Emma's school called me about 9:30 this morning, telling me that Emma had come in, looking very pale, complaining that she hurt all over, but mostly her stomach. By the time she had gotten ahold of me, the nurse said she looked better. So I asked Emma if she could try to stick it out. She said she would. But, right after Sarah got home from preschool, I got another call. So, I went & picked her up. She doesn't have a fever, but isn't feeling good. She's now cuddled up on the couch watching "The Little Mermaid".
Send her to preschool for 2 1/2 hours.
This kid almost never naps. But since she started preschool last week, she's taken a small cat-nap almost every day. Thank you Preschool Teachers!!
