Summer fun

Hey there!! Long time, no see.

We've been having an eventful summer. The girls got out of school around the middle of June, and all 5 of us got on a plane out to California. The girls stayed with our in-laws, and Jeff and I had our 1st vacation with no kids in almost 6 years. We went to Vegas...it was awesome. So much fun. We were able to see Ka' and Penn & Teller. We can't wait to go back.

The girls had a fabulous time with Jeff's parents. Their cousin Ariel was there, too, for the majority of the time, so they had a bunch of girly fun. Played dress-up, got in the spa, played with dolls and Barbies, and generally ran amok for 4 days straight. Needless to say, my worry that they would miss us while we were gone (as this was the longest we'd ever been away from them) were unfounded. I doubt they noticed we weren't there. In fact, I think we got a passing "Hi mom, hi dad!" after we came in the door. They were too busy.

Emma got her ears pierced with Auntie M & Aunt Kammie. I'd been asking her for 3 years if she wanted to get them done, but she kept telling me no thanks, because she knew it would hurt. Ok fine. But, as soon as mom's gone, and her aunts suggest it, SURE! LOL

As soon as we got back to Michigan, Emma started PEAK. It's a day camp that runs for 6 weeks during the summer. They have water days, do arts & crafts, go on field trips. Just the thing a kid like Emma needs. Not to mention the fact that most of the kids go to her school and she needs to make some new friends. Her best friend is switching schools next fall and making friends can be hard for her.

Sarah & Katie are doing well, having fun running around like banshees at home. Katie's doing really well with the potty training. Sarah we're still working on. Hoping to have her almost 100% trained before school starts. They're getting along pretty well, with only a few screaming matches a day. Otherwise they're like peas in a pod, best friends, partners in crime, the whole thing.

Jeff is doing well. Traveling for work. He just got back from Ithaca, NY. He & a co-worker did a presentation @ a conference at Cornell for a software product they use. I got a nifty Ivy League school sweatshirt. Yeah, you're jealous.

We also went to visit our friends in Tennessee for the 4th. Fun drive, all 14 hours of it. But it's worth it because they're our oldest friends, and our kids actually get along pretty well. We're the "Brady Bunch": they have 3 boys, we have 3 girls. The logistics are going to start getting a wee bit uncomfortable, as our two oldest are only 2 days apart, and they call each other their "boyfriend/girlfriend" when they're apart. Ahem They're 9 1/2. Oh boy, not looking forward to the teenage years.

This coming semester is Jeff's last. It's going to be hell, not looking forward to it, but then it'll be done and he'll have a degree that he's been working towards for 5 1/2 years. I'm so very very proud of him. Between going to school and working full-time, not to mention getting a promotion in between there and having to travel constantly for work. he's done extremely well. He'll be graduating with honors, which is hard enough for some people to accomplish without all the responsibilities that he has.

That's pretty much the rundown of what's been going on with us. Not a whole lot of excitement, but then again, I'm not sure I want a ton of excitement.

Update from our neck of the woods

We've had quite the goings-on around here lately, so here's a wrap-up.

I flew to San Diego a couple weeks ago to attend my sister's college graduation. It was the 1st time in almost 2 years that Jeff's been alone with the kids for longer than 12 hours. He did fabulous, which makes me think I should leave him alone more often. :D

I had a really nice time seeing a lot of my dad's family. I hadn't seen any of my younger siblings in 2 years, and I hadn't seen my dad or step-mom since my mom's funeral. I was able to spend some time at the beach, which I miss, terribly. Did a little shopping and generally had a wonderful time.

Both Jeff & I finished the spring semester about a week before that, which we were both happy about. I ended up getting A's in all 3 of my classes, finishing my math class with an 102% on my final exam. I was quite pleased with myself. Jeff also got straight A's, solidifying the fact that he'll be graduating in December with honors! Woo hoo!!

The girls are all doing great. After having some struggles making friends in the beginning of the year, Emma's made a really good friend in a girl named Paige. She's in 4th grade, which means she'll be leaving this school at the end of the year (the schools here are K-4, and then 5-6) but I know she'll keep in touch, and I'm sure we'll be having sleepovers & playdates all summer.

Sarah is having a blast in school, with the last 2 weeks of preschool wrapping up. She's headed to K next year, which I know she'll do great in. We've have K Round-Up, and last night we went to a Parent meeting at the school, where we toured all the classrooms. She didn't want to leave! We have her transition IEP tomorrow morning, where everything for her placement will get finalized. I'm pretty sure her therapy times won't change much, and I think the agreement was that her and another little boy will share an aid, who will travel to the different classrooms with them.

Katie is doing great! Since I got back from California, we've been working on the potty training. She's had a few mishaps, but overall she's caught on really well! I decided that I couldn't handle training 2 kids at once, and Katie, although she was really hesitant to use the potty chair a month ago, started initiating it on her own, so I decided to start with Katie. I know once Katie has it down pat, that Sarah will want to emulate her and she'll be along shortly. :D Katie's biggest hurdle was she really liked the design on her pull-ups and didn't want to wear anything else. But, I convinced her with some new Minnie Mouse undies. Now, she only wears the pull-ups at nap and bedtime. I can't yet have my "ritualistic burning of the changing table pad" yet, but it's close! Unfortunately, I don't think Sarah will be able to go to the speech camp this summer (funding is non-existent) so we'll have the whole summer to work on it! I'd love to send both girls to school in the fall completely pull-up free.

Katie is still my little talker. The things that come out of her mouth have me in stitches at times. Another blogger I follow said that kids at this age are so literal. I can definitely see it with Katie. She picked up Sarah's pants from the floor of the bathroom and asked,"What's this mom?". I told her,"Those are Sarah's jeans." She said,"No, it's a flower." Apparently she had been talking about the design on her jeans, not the jeans themselves.

As for us, Jeff and I are looking forward to traveling to CA in 2 weeks to visit his family. The girls will get some quality time with Nana & Papa, and Jeff & I will be taking a well-deserved vacation to Vegas for 4 days. This will be the 1st trip without kids in almost 6 years. I can hardly wait. But first we have to get through the last couple weeks of school, and Jeff has his final ACSA exam to take. Oh, and then there's the little thing of actually flying with 3 kids cross country, which is always fun. But, they're older now, and hopefully will be a little easier. And please let there be NO exploding diapers @ 35,000 feet.

Sick & tired of being sick & tired

You'd think the plague had hit our house with the amount of snot, mucous, and general ickiness we've had here.

Last week Jeff started feeling bad, on Monday evening. He called in sick on Tuesday with a bad fever & all over achiness. I figured he had the flu, but also knowing Jeff, I figured he would kick it in about 24 hours. That's generally how things go with him. His immune system is phenomenal. When Tuesday evening came around and he wasn't better, I started to think that this wasn't a run-of-the-mill illness. The girls were ok for the most part. Emma had a cough, but seemed ok. She was coughing through the night and ended up throwing up early Wednesday morning. So, she stayed home. The other girls were ok, until the evening, when they started with their own coughs. I decided to keep them home on Thursday, and stayed home myself. By then, Jeff's symptoms had changed some. The fever was still there, but not terrible. The achiness was less, but now he had chest & nasal congestion and a very sore throat. He was thinking flu/strep throat. I knew he had the flu, but I was iffy on the strep. I know post nasal drip can cause a very sore throat. We all went to the Urgent Care to get the official diagnosis, and took the little girls with so we could get them checked out, too. They were fine, just a little upper respiratory infection, and we were told to treat them symptomatically. Jeff finally got labeled with the flu, but no strep. He was told to pretty much be in quarantine until Monday. I don't think he's ever missed 4 straight days of work due to illness. Like, ever.

By Friday morning, the girls no longer had fevers, but Emma was back to coughing up a lung along with having a fever. So she had to miss her class Valentine's Day party, which she was thoroughly bummed about. But, I promised her that I would take her Valentines to her teacher after work.

At bedtime we'd been giving the girls some cough/fever medicine to help them sleep, but apparently it wasn't working for Katie. She woke up Friday night and Saturday night with pretty high fevers. Friday night she ended up in bed with us for a few hours, but I eventually put her back after the meds kicked in. Saturday night I went grocery shopping late, after the girls went to bed. I got home around 11pm, and after all the groceries were put away, I went to check on the girls. Katie was, surprisingly, still awake. She was quiet, but awake. I went to go give her a hug and she was burning up. She had a temp of 102. So, she got some Motrin, along with a drink, and I stayed by her to put a cool washcloth on her forehead. Katie, when she's delirious with fever, is wryly hilarious. She was laying there, perfectly content, but she kept saying things like "Emma's asleep", and "Sarah bit me, look Mommy, she bit my finger"- all perfectly calm and matter-of-fact. She also took issue with the fact that Oreo (the cat) was walking in her room. She kept telling her to get out. "I want Oreo out of here, Mommy." It was funny.

She finally fell asleep about 1am, poor girl. But, she was running amok with her sisters this morning, so it just looks like a flukie thing.

I know I will probably jinx myself by saying this, but so far, I haven't succumb to whatever germs attacked my family this week. I think it was some higher power that basically said,"If your family is to survive this week, someone has to be able to take care of everything." But, Jeff is leaving later this week for another business trip, so I know that will probably be the time when I get bombarded with it all. Karma hates me.

Family Update

Life has slowly been chugging along for us. We're back into the routine of school/work/kids etc. I'm now working 4 mornings a week, which was an adjustment, but I've found it actually makes things easier. I'm able to get home after picking up the kids from daycare at the latest by 1pm. I then feed them lunch and put them down for a nap (no guarantees that they'll actually sleep, though) and after that I'm able to be a lot more productive. The morning routine of getting all 5 of us fed, dressed, and out the door by 8:10am is actually a lot easier than I had envisioned. I only work 4 days a week, so I have all of Friday off.

Jeff is back in school, as well. He's teaching again this semester and taking his final class for his minor. It's Metalworking, which I thought sounded fun. Not so much after he told me he needed steel-toe boots, safety goggles, and pants that weren't easily flammable. Oy. He's also going to a few training sessions for Apple. He's preparing to take the ASCA Certification test soon, and I know he'll do fabulous!

Emma is doing wonderful. She's officially out of the Resource Room at school, and in the classroom full-time. She's still seeing the school Social Worker, but it's looking like the issues she was having in the 1st semester are slowly being resolved. We got her 2nd quarter report card last week, and she's doing great. She got a majority of 3's (her school grades from 1-4, 4 being the highest), a couple 2's, and a couple 4's. From the progress reports from her teacher, it looks like her being in the classroom full-time now is really being beneficial to her academically, as well as socially. She rarely comes home from school saying she's had a bad day. She's making great strides in reading and spelling, and is testing her skills by e-mailing with family.

Sarah is still as chipper as ever. She recently got new glasses, which are slightly different than her last few pairs. These don't have the cable temples, so they fit a little looser. I was worried that this might take some getting used to, and that she might start yanking them off frequently again. But, she adjusted to them nicely, and really notices when she's not wearing them. A for school, she's doing fantastic. She did a few things over Winter break that her teachers had been working with her on, so I sent a note in the first day back after the new year. Things like counting to 10, as well as identifying more shapes, and being on the road to being potty trained. There's a small possibility that we might go ahead and send her to Kindergarten next fall, but I'm still not sure about it. There are a few more people I want to talk to about possible placements for her, and I don't want to send her just because she's old enough. Legally, I can have her stay in preschool another year, but I'm not sure what's best for her yet.

Katie is going great. She and Sarah are still the best of friends, even though Katie keeps trying to be the boss. Too many times during the day I'll hear something to the effect of, "NO, Sawah, sit down!" Or "That's bad, Sawah!" Talk about a chip off the ol' block. This child is "Mini-me" and mimics everything I do...not always a good thing.

My birthday is next week, which is always interesting. I'll be 31. Jeff is going to another Apple training for most of the week, starting on Monday, so we're celebrating my birthday on Saturday. Yay! I get to sleep in! :)

For the love of a dog

For Emma's 1st birthday, back in 2000, we bought her the "Blue's Clues Big Musical Movie" DVD. She. Loved. It. She watched it all the time. It became a staple on our long trips to see family in CA. Once she got a little older, it became less of a favorite, and usually was left, forgotten, in our DVD case in favor of the current flavor of Barbie movie (which I still haven't forgiven Mattel for). After Sarah was born, she had her own favorite movies, like Signing Time and Muppets and Veggietales. Blue's Clues came out every once in awhile, but it wasn't mesmerizing for her like it had been for Emma.
Well we officially have another Blue's Clues fanatic in the house. And she goes by the name of Katie. I kid you not, this is what I heard in my house this morning:

Katie (in the kitchen waiting for a drink, hears the opening strains of the Blue's Clues DVD in the living room): "Gasp" BLUES CLUES MOMMY, BLUES CLUES!!! ::squeal:: (as she's running pellmell into the living room, almost hitting the wall as she turns the corner) IT'S BLUES CLUES!!!! YAY!!!!!

Cue complete silence for the first 20 minutes of the DVD.

I call that Heaven.

I know most people wonder how much use they'll get out of the toys and games and movies they buy for their children. Eight years later, this DVD is still bringing joy to the children of the Wilson household. I'd call that money well spent.

Calm after the storm

Life has been a whirlwind the last month or so. Between school for 4/5 of us, work for Jeff & I, and general madness, it's been hard to keep up.

I've been completely remiss in my plan to blog every day for the month of October. There have been some days where I just didn't have a brain cell left to think about what to blog.

A few anecdotes from the last few weeks:

* we got the girls' costumes: Emma's a witch, Sarah's a pirate, and Katie's a cowgirl.
* Jeff signed up for his spring classes; he only has 2 more after that, and he's all set to graduate next December.
* Emma got through her first MEAP (Michigan Standardized Test) and I think they're now starting the LD evaluation
* we had an incident with the bus and Emma, I'm still following up with that, it'll be a later blog
* Emma seems to be doing very well in school; she's making great progress in reading
* Sarah continues to be the "little teacher" in class
* Katie is still doing wonderfully; she's loving daycare and doesn't cry every time we pull up to the house!
* I've been having an existential crisis over what to do with the rest of my life, education-wise

That pretty much sums up our lives for the last few weeks or so. We have some cool things coming up, including our annual get-together with our best friends from Tennessee. It's their turn to drive up here for Thanksgiving. Not to mention the election next week!! :) The girls all have the day off, which is NOT going to make it easy to go and vote. But, we'll make it work. Never too early to learn about civic duty. :)

Special Exposure Wednesday

When I took this picture, I thought it was going to be a fabulous pic of the 3 of them. Then I actually uploaded it to my computer and got a look at Sarah's face. LOL

Signing Time fiends

That would aptly describe my 2 little ones. ST holds their attention like no other DVD we own, and it's usually the only one they specifically ask for (either in sign or words).
I felt the need to expound on my Twitter from a few minutes ago. Sarah had woken up from her nap right about the time I'd finished straightening up/vacuuming the basement playroom. She wanted a snack and ST, so I happily obliged since I wanted to get a bit more housework done before Emma got home from school. I heard Katie talking in her room, after waking up from her nap, so I opened to the door to let her out. I said, "Morning Katie!"even though it's 4pm, lol. She still looked a bit groggy, but she heard ST on in the living room, gasped, and ran full out down the hall, yelling, "Bye Mom!!" She then said hello to Sarah (which is more than I got) and now they're happily sharing their bowl of plain tortilla chips and watching Rachel, Alex & Leah. Sarah chose "My Favorite Things" to watch, which is funny, cause I would have to guess that is her FAVORITE ST of all time. It's the one that has all the colors and veggies and fruits. "Leah's Farm" is probably a very close second.
The new volumes of Baby Signing Time are coming out next month (I think) and you can bet that those plus Volumes 10-13 of regular Signing Time will be on their Christmas lists.

Blog? What blog?

Yeah, so I haven't updated in a bit. Might have something to do with me working and going to school. I'm still trying to get into the swing of things. The kids have fallen back into their routines: Emma is loving school, Sarah's the queen of her classroom and bus, and Katie isn't crying every time I pull up to the daycare.

Life hasn't been all that exciting so I haven't felt the "need" to blog. But, maybe I'll have some good stories in the next few weeks. Jeff's going out of town starting tomorrow, which always brings it's own fun, Emma's in swim lessons instead of soccer, and between Sarah and Katie being my "twin dynamos", well I'm sure I'll have something to blog about soon.

ETA: I apparently spoke too soon: just tonight Sarah snuck into our bathroom and stole a box of my tampons. She proceeded to empty half of the box and open them. Oy vey.

A new school year begins

Emma started 3rd grade on Tuesday. Ack! I can't believe how grown up she's getting. I actually did take a few pictures before we rushed out the door the first day, but I haven't had time to download them to my computer. She only had a halfday the first day, but full days the last 2.

Today was her first day on the school bus. She rode the ICTC public bus during Kindergarten to Morey but the last 2 years we've carpooled. Morey doesn't have a typical "yellow bus" so this was her first real trip on a school bus. I walked her to the bus stop and we were met there by a couple boys from her school. She was very excited. Thankfully her school doesn't start until 8:40am, which means she doesn't have to catch the bus until 8am, which translates to more sleep for us all. :D

Sarah started school yesterday. Katie and I took her to school, but I had class and work immediately afterward so she took the bus to daycare. But she caught the bus this morning, and was very excited, too. I told her the bus was coming soon and she got her coat and backpack on and practically paced in front of the door. Once the bus showed up she bolted out front, with me barely holding on to her hand. This is old hat to her, lol. She knows the bus driver and the aid, and has "graduated" to a different seat. She no longer has to sit directly behind the driver, she gets to sit a couple of rows back. She has to take off her backpack and coat in order to be comfortable, and then she climbs up into the seat and helps the aid put on her 5 point seat belt. This child LOVES school. Just like Emma. :)

Tonight was Emma's Open House. It was meant only for parents (which I didn't know until the last minute), so Jeff & I did "Rock, Paper, Scissors" to see who would go.

I'm kidding.

I ended up going because Jeff had about 500 pages to read for his class.

Plus he knows I take better notes. :D

It was nice. I'd met Emma's teacher the first day, and I knew a little bit about her (she'd been a Special Ed/Resource Room teacher for 16 years) but I'm SO glad Emma's in her class. This woman just seems awesome. Sarah's teacher's daughter also goes to this school (also in 3rd grade, but a different class), as well as her niece who IS in Emma's class. Both girls had been on Emma's spring soccer team, which is why I specifically put her on that team, so she could meet some girls who would be going to her new school (the decision to switch schools had been made right after we signed the purchase agreement on the house). I'm really really hoping Emma's able to make some good friends, who actually call and want to spend time outside of school with her. In the 3 years Emma went to Morey, she had maybe 3 invitations to go to someone's house (birthday parties not included, but I could count those on 1 hand as well). And while I understand that people have busy lives, try explaining that to a sad elementary school student whose friends don't want to spend time with her. Add to that the fact that Emma's best friend for 2 of those 3 years was a boy, who played with other boys, who didn't want to play with a girl. She was ostracized from the girls because she played with the boys, but the boys didn't want her to play with them.

Playground politics aside, I'm really hoping for a fantastic year for both girls. I saw Sarah's teacher tonight, as well. She was just gushing over how much Sarah has blossomed over the summer. She's still the "little teacher" and now she has some younger classmates who apparently look up to her. She loves the routine and loves being at school. I finally voiced to her my idea of having Sarah go to the Kindergarten Readiness Preschool next year at the Human Growth and Development Lab. I'm 90% sure I want her to have an extra year of preschool, even though technically she's eligible to go next fall. I've been toying with the idea of having Sarah go to the all day K Readiness and have Katie go to the 3 year old program. We'd have to pay for Katie, but I think we'd get a multi-child discount or something. But, that's not really something I have to deal with for a few months at least. I don't foresee Sarah being in a self-contained classroom in school, so I think a year with typical peers (but still getting all her therapies) will help prepare her for public school.

Anyhow, I'm just glad the school year has started, as the girls have been antsy (to say the least) for the last month since Speech Camp ended. I hope the girls will always have this love for school. :D

Out of the mouth of babes

Our last morning at Great Wolf Lodge, as we were walking up to breakfast, I could hear Katie yelling something that I couldn't quite understand. It sounded like it ended in "Mom", so I asked her to repeat it.

"Ni Hao Mom!"

I blinked.

"What did you say?"

"Ni Hao Mom"

Ummmm this kid is 2. And she's telling me hello in Chinese??

I know there's a show on TV called "Ni Hao Kai-lan" that the kids occasionally watch, but I know this hotel didn't have that channel, so it had been at least 3 days since she'd seen it, possibly longer.

She kept repeating it all morning, saying hello to everyone in sight, in Chinese. My Kids, lol.

Preschool already??

I just put in Katie's application for preschool...for NEXT fall. Yes, apparently these things have to be done a year in advance, especially if you want to get into the Human Growth and Development Lab preschool at CMU. This is the same preschool where Emma went the year before Kindergarden. This doesn't automatically get her a spot, we won't know until next April or May if she got in. There's always a waiting list. There's also the not-so-fun aspect that it's freaking expensive preschool. $1,150 a year. BUT, that includes the fall semester, the spring semester, and a 6 week long summer semester. So, she would go from the end of August to the middle of June, with a few weeks off for Christmas, Spring break, and at the end of May. Not too bad. I was hoping that this would also be where Sarah went the year before she goes to Kindergarden, which would be the same year Katie would start. But, that's something that will have to be discussed with Sarah's preschool team closer to the middle of this coming year.

It's hard to think that my youngest will be old enough to go to school here pretty soon. The day that all 3 kids are out the door to school will be both sad and triumphant, lol.

On our own again

Jeff left early this morning for a business trip in Salt Lake. I feel so bad for him because we both got such a lousy night's sleep, but I was lucky enough to get to sleep in a bit after he left.

A quick recap of the last few days: We had fun during our 1 night "stay-cation" at the hotel. As soon as the girls got out of speech camp, we went home, finished packing up our overnight bag, and checked in. We immediately changed and went to the pool. The indoor pool was heated, so it wasn't completely refreshing, but it was better than nothing. Plus it started raining outside (go figure) so it would have doubly sucked if it had been an outdoor pool.

The girls had fun, although Sarah kept wanting to go into the spa, which was a lot hotter than she was accustomed to. Whenever we go to Nana & Papa's (who have a spa) they cool the water down to about 98 degrees, but I'm betting this spa was at least 103-WAY hotter than I was comfortable with. Sarah is still kinda iffy when it comes to water in general, but Katie was a fish. She absolutely loved it. She didn't mind if her head got dunked (although after reading about dry drowning, I was a bit nervous and kept checking on her after she went to sleep) and was happy as a clam jumping off the edge of the pool into my arms. We put Emma's pink water-wings on her and while she doesn't have the coordination to keep herself upright (her body keeps wanting to float on it's back) she WAS confident enough to jump towards me from the steps of the pool when I wasn't looking.

Emma is slowly getting more comfortable with swimming. I REALLY need to get her into swim lessons. I think with her being my first, I've been a bit too protective and was perfectly happy doing everything for her and not really noticing if she didn't know how to do something when her peers probably did (such as riding a 2-wheeler and knowing how to tie her shoes). I think I've been so focused on her school work and speech & the little ones, that I've kinda neglected that part of Emma's upbringing. Either that or I just assumed she'd learn how to do things on her own. I don't remember going to swim lessons as a kid, I just remember knowing how to swim. But, I was at the beach every summer, and had family who could take me all the time because I was the only child/grandchild that was around until I was 8. *This is the part when I get all pouty over the fact that we have no family nearby.*

Anyhow, the girls had fun, and it was a nice reprieve from the heat of our house.

Speaking of the heat, it is really affecting how Sarah & Katie sleep. Last night was just awful. We tried to get everyone to sleep in the basement (which is probably about 10 degrees cooler than the main level) but no one would settle down. So we put the little ones in their room on the floor with a box fan blowing right on them. Jeff went in their and tried to get them to fall asleep, but it took awhile. Then at around 2:45am, they took turns waking up and being restless. So, Jeff and I took turns trying to get them settled back down to make sure they didn't wake the other one up. We opened all the doors to let the cooler air flow through the house, but all that did was open the door for the girls to get up and walk around the house. They were each found asleep in the living room, at the side of our bed, at the door of the pantry after getting into it, in Emma's room, under their bed, and IN our bed. Needless to say, none of us got much sleep. Except Emma, who sleeps through anything.

I tried to put the little ones down for a nap this morning, to try and help them catch up on their rest, but it took almost 90 minutes for them to settle down. By that time, it was close to the time for Sarah to go to camp. I decided to let her sleep instead. So hopefully they'll both wake up refreshed and ready to give me a run for my money. :D