Woody is out of town again

And I seriously think I may lose my mind. Katherine and Lauren have been not napping, screeching, crying, screaming, not eating and being pretty much unbearable all day. And just when I think I can't take anymore, they do something super-cute which makes the anger melt away. UGH! Right now, they are playing together under Katherine's bed with all of the teddy bears. K even figured out how to use her blanket to make a "tent" for the cave. How there is even room for those two under the bed with all of those bears is beyond me. At least I can hold out hope that bedtime will come early.

Doctor visits, disorderly drunks and roadside cows

I took Lauren to the after hours pediatricians because she was complaining that her belly was hurting. Plus she was just not acting like herself so I figured bladder infection, off we go at 10pm. I was trying to get her to pee in the stupid bags that they give you to collect samples and she was drinking Gatorade. She'd put on the lid, take it off, drink some and repeat over and over again. When the Dr. came in, she was putting the lid on and she looked right at him as she tightened it down and said "there, that should do it!" He even laughed.

The upside of the night was when we were leaving. Some car had just dropped a drunk guy off on the side of the road, outside of the clinic. He was hollering, gesticulating wildly and uh, barfing in the grass. Since it's a pretty busy 6 lane road, I figured I'd call the police to get him out of there. I'm on my cell phone with the dispatcher telling him about the drunk guy when, I KID YOU NOT, I see two big honking bovines strolling down the shoulder of this busy road like they own it. So I tell the dispatch guy, "dude, I need to tell you something but please don't think I'm nuts. I'm just heading home after taking my toddler to the dr....but I swear there are also two cows rambling down the side of the road, just around the bend from the drunk guy."

After I hung up with the police, I just started giggling. I mean, that fella was snookered. What is he going to think when he runs into those cattle in the middle of Tampa at midnight? I'd love to see his face.

January 2007

 

January 12, 2007

 

So Lauren is two. What would our family be without her? She is such a delight. Ornery? Yes. Testy? Sure. But those eyes can just melt my heart. And the big “I wuv you soo much”’s combined with the bear hugs are flat out killing me. She’s also taken to kissing me on whatever exposed skin happens to be showing. Last night, she did it in her sleep. Kissed my belly then rolled over and passed back out. I thought my heart might just burst that very second.

 

Today she started daycare at Ms. Candace’s. She was only there for two and a half hours but we all deemed it a success. She had fun and wants to go back. I got some errands run and a couple of phone calls made. And I think I even completed one full thought from beginning to end without getting interrupted. Do you know how gratifying it is to realize that my brain has not actually turned into a squashed turnip?

 

We almost had her weaned (down to 2-3 times a day) until the holidays when she got the ear infection and was on me like white on rice. Now we are back to the old cycle and as soon as Woody is able to be in town for a couple of weeks in a row, we will give it another shot. For now, I’m going to try to relish the last few weeks of nursing my little girl. She really doesn’t want to give it up but I am ready to reclaim a bit of my freedom back…not to mention my body.

 

January 21, 2007

 

Woody had his Lasik and is now glasses free. He seems pretty happy after the initial trauma of having someone fry his eyeball with a laser while he was conscious. <SHUDDER>

 

Lauren went to Mrs. Candace’s for two full days last week. I asked Candace to call me if Lauren started acting like she was getting unhappy. When I picked her up at 4:30, Candace said that her naptime was pretty rough but other than that, things went well. The next day the phone rang at 1 and I figured it was time to go and pick Lauren up. How’s that for pessimism? Instead, it was Candace letting Lauren tell me how great of a nap she took. Awesome!!!

 

Katherine and I had a lovely morning on Friday when Lauren was in daycare but then Katherine decided that she didn’t need a nap and it all went downhill after that. Maybe next Friday will be a better “big girls day” for us.

 

Yesterday morning, we packed up the family and took a trip to a farmers market down in Bradenton. It was ok but lot smaller than I expected. We did get a bunch of fresh veggies and fruit. After gorging ourselves on strawberries, we had a nice quiet afternoon. In the evening, Woody talked Katherine into getting on her bicycle. She did great and we all took a trip around the block. The training wheels will stay on for a long while since technically, the bike is a little too big, but she did really well. Lauren rode the tricycle. By rode, I mean she rode while I pushed it. Her legs aren’t quite long enough to reach the pedals yet.

 

How pitiful are we? Florida people who don’t know diddly squat about the nearby beaches. Even if we aren’t beach people, which we aren’t’ really, it is probably our job as hosts to out of town-ers to be able to point them to a nice beach. So, this summer we are going to try and hit as many beaches as we can in the area. This morning, we all packed up and headed to Fred Howard Park in Tarpon Springs. It is a lovely state park with playground and picnic areas. After you drive through the park, you come out on a causeway to a little island about a mile offshore. The beach is nice, the area is clean and there are a lot of old people, which is awesome when you are self conscious of your figure like I am.

 

We spent a couple of hours there playing in the sand and trying to fly our kite. Some little girls were playing in the water and started screaming SHARK!!! And sure enough, there was a fin….but it was a dolphin, not a shark. He was feeding in the shallows, on the giant mullet who were flinging themselves out of the water all around the island. We drove over to the sponge docks and had lunch at an outdoor Greek restaurant, which was delish. Then the girls whined most of the way home.

 

January 29, 2007

 

This evening was parents’ observation night at Katherine’s ballet class. The girls did great performing for all the parents, grandparents and siblings. Katherine was just a tad bit distracted by us and was making the cheesiest faces ever. Their spring production theme was announced and Katherine’s class will be the colorful birds in a zoo. That should be interesting.

 

Today was pretty chilly here so we stayed in all day. The girls were pretty good for me. We did circle time, danced, played a game and they helped me clean house for awhile. They both took naps which is always good. Katherine got to go over to Sophia’s house across the street for an hour to play too. It was a nice winter day.

 

January 29, 2007…a little later in the evening.

 

Katherine was eating her after dinner snack and Woody was giving Lauren “the talk”. You know, the one about how shirts are not napkins, napkins are napkins? If you are a parent, you probably know all about “the talk”. Woody looks at Katherine and says “what are we going to do with Lauren?” and Katherine just shrugged her shoulders. I said “send her to live with the gypsies”.  After a bit of discussion about what gypsies are, (I swear you can not say anything around here without going into a long convoluted discussion about it) I mentioned that gypsies have dancing monkeys. Now both of my kids want to go live with the gypsies. So, if you are looking to get rid of your kids for awhile, might I suggest using the dancing monkeys to sell them on the idea?

 

 

December 2006

 

December 5, 2006

Katherine and Woody are in IL at Nana and Grandpa’s farm. They had snow the day before they arrived so Katherine is having a great time making snow angels and just playing. I miss my little chatterbox so I called today. She’s got a bit of a cold and sounded very stuffy but through the snot, the excitement and wonder still came through loud and clear.

 

I told her I missed her and she said “guess how much I miss you? All the way to the sky and back a hundred ninety nine thirty five times!”. Wow! I miss her that much…squared.

 

December 8, 2006

 

Dylan is the little red haired boy from Katherine’s class that says he’s her boyfriend. Katherine says “daddy is my boyfriend but Dylan is my friend”.  I had invited Dylan over for the gingerbread decorating party on Sunday but his mom just called and said he won’t be able to make it. We had a fun chat though. She said Dylan is in love with Katherine and he’s introduced him to her. Katherine is a lovely little girl and she thinks Dylan has good taste. LOL Apparently Dylan is suffering for his love. He has an older brother named Spencer and Spencer is ribbing poor Dylan to no end. Spencer drew a picture of Dylan rescuing Katherine from a big snake and he drew little hearts all around them. Dylan was ticked. I was laughing really hard when she told me that. I did not tell her that Katherine’s daddy and I are watching her son closely. J

 

Katherine and Woody are due back tomorrow from Illinois. I’ve gotten a lot done around the house and for work while they were gone as well as spending some quality time with Lauren. We’ve had a great time but I’m ready for the other half of the household to be home. I just don’t sleep well when my family isn’t all together under the same roof. Ok, so I’m a chicken. Go ahead, you can say it “bwack bwack!!” I haven’t been to sleep before 1am all week. I swear, I lived on my own for many years and now I get all whiggy….whatever. So last night, Lauren was sleeping and I was working at the computer. I hear a CRASH which sounds like someone has thrown a rock through a window. I FREAKED OUT! After summoning all of the bravery I have, I finally made it to the playroom where the stupid rats had pushed their ceramic bowl over the edge and dumped it on the next level of the wire cage. Grrrrrr.

 

December 11, 2006

 

Katherine has a great ear. Today, we were watching the Muppets Christmas Carol and Kermit was on for about 2.2 seconds when Katherine said “mom. That’s Earnie’s voice coming from that frog!” I listened for a few seconds and realized she was right. Kermit and Ernie are obviously done by the same puppeteer. I called my mom and she said that yes, she’d just heard something about how they were both done by Jim Henson. So funny that Katherine would notice that. I’ve been watching the Muppets and Sesame Street for oh…30 some years, and I’d never put them both together.  It reminded me that a long time ago, she heard a song and said “that’s the same man who sings in my little people video” and it was.

November 2006

 

November 1, 2006

 

Ok. Lauren is killing me with cuteness. Katherine has a game where she says “guess what” and you say “what” and she says “I love you”. Super adorable…I know, Right? Now, if you say “guess what” to Lauren, she says “I wuv you” then grins and buries her head in your shoulder. Killing me I say.

 

October 2006

 

October 7, 2006

 

Lauren is still being the type of kid that you can’t take your eyes off of for a second. She’s really great at seeking out trouble and making messes.

 

The girls and I are gearing up for Halloween. We spent a while this morning cutting out shapes to glue together next week. We are making pumpkins, bats, witches and ghosts to put on the front door and windows. Katherine is getting better with the scissors.

 

I had my first parent-teacher conference with Katherine’s teacher Miss Anna. I wanted her input on what she thought about Katherine’s academic and social adjustment. She confirmed that Katherine is a teachers pet, doesn’t participate in large group activities, does play well with one or two other kids at a time, is very imaginative, very very bright and ahead of some of her older cohorts, she knows how to take care of herself when rough kids are bothering her, she is chatty and sweet as pie. The only negative things she said was that K was that she’s not as independent as some of the other kids and she misses me when I leave. Those aren’t really negative things but we are working on the independence thing. Katherine does love to ask if she can do everything…wash hands, wipe butt, go pee, etcetera.

 

Miss Anna thinks that waiting until Katherine is 6 before we put her in Kindergarten is probably not in her best interest. She thinks that socially, she will be fine with older kids and academically, she will be board to tears if she’s held back. So, since the state will not accept her in public school due to her missing the date of birth cutoff by one day, our options are either home school her for Kindergarten and then test her into first (or maybe keep home schooling if it seems to be working for us all) or send her to private K then test her in. Since private Kindergarten is about $8k in our area, we are thinking home schooling. There are a lot of programs available and support groups here in our area. I need to get cracking on researching which program we will use.

 

 

 

 

October 12, 2006

 

Some of K’s latest quips:

 

“When I grow up, I want to be a mommy like you….or a flashlight” “Know why they call them chipmunks? Because they are monks and they like to eat chips!”

 

Boy howdy this kid!

 

October 25, 2006

 

I called the school district yesterday. There are state statutes regarding age and enrollment in Kindergarten and First grades. Kindergarten is 5 years old on or before September 1^st and First is 6. There is no such age rule for 2^nd grade. So after speaking with the guidance counselor, we will homeschool for K & 1^st then she will test into second. They have levels even in 2^nd grade so no matter where she tests, she should be in challenging classes.

 

She was saying that she didn’t want to go to dance class on Monday. I chatted with her about it on the way and finally ferreted out that she enjoys dance but she doesn’t like it when the kids run around aimlessly to the music and run into each other. I guess she got knocked on her bottom one day and it’s stuck with her. So, in an effort to help her enjoy the class more, I made an appointment to chat with the teacher, Miss Joan. We met her this evening while her daughter was taking a dance class. She talked with K, showed us her toe shoes and how to stand en Pointe. She showed us a video of her dancing in the Nutcracker last year. She talked about falling in classes and how much practice being a ballerina takes. She also told K that there won’t be much more of the running around since they are going to start working on their rehearsals for the spring recital. She complemented K on being quiet in class and following directions so well. K’s interest in dance is re-established. Whew!

 

After meeting with the teacher, K and I went to a local bistro for “big girls dinner”. We ate a lovely meal and K was super good. On our way out, I told her to tell the owner (who was at the front door) “my complements to the chef”. She wanted to get it right so she asked me 3 times “what is it again?”. Finally she got there and she said “my competence to the chef!”. Hahahahaaa. Of course, I called Woody to tell him and she got all mad. “that’s what you told me to say mom”. Oh man.

 

I took the girls to the pumpkin patch today. Lauren was being kind of whiney so we didn’t get to stay long but we did get some good pictures.

 

October 31, 2006

 

Last weekend we went to the Pumpkin Fest in Bradenton. It’s about an hour away at a farm and it was really fun. There was a petting zoo, pony rides, magic show, punch and Judy show, a butterfly tent, bounce house, giant slide, clogging, tons of food (including homemade pumpkin ice cream…yum) crafts, old fashioned stuff like like ladies making thread with spinning wheels and a blacksmith. We had a blast.

 

The girls went trick or treating tonight. Aside from the bigger, ruder kids (where are their manners?) we had a blast. Lauren really got into it for about 15 minutes, running up to doors giggling, saying “Twick or Tweet!” then running to show daddy what she got in her bag. Katherine had fun running door to door with her two friends, Sophia and Selina. They were 3 little puffs of tulle and sparkles. Sophia was Minnie mouse, Selina was Ariel as a bride and K was a princess on a unicorn. We now have enough candy to last us for a year.

 

September 2006

 

September 13, 2006

 

Wow! How lame am I? The real question is “how busy am I?” and I don’t even want to discuss it. All I have to say is how dare work interfere with my journaling? Hrumph!

 

So, here we are almost half a month past Katherine’s 4^th birthday. My little girl is 4. I can not believe it. Day to day life is pretty much the same as always but I am noticing the lovely little lady that she’s becoming. She’s an observant little smarty pants and just as loving as can be. She really enjoys babies and she’s very gentle with them. She’s obsessed with dogs. As I noted a long time ago, she is showing signs of being a teachers pet but there are worse things to be in my opinion. It may not make her terribly popular with her peers but I wasn’t ever popular and I think I turned out pretty ok. She seems to prefer smaller quieter groups over large boisterous ones as evidenced by a recent visit to a new daycare that I was enrolling Lauren in. I wanted to at least offer K the option to transfer from Miss Ana’s class to the new school if she was interested. The classroom was loud and full of kids getting ready for recess. Katherine looked at me, with the stress visible in her eyes, and said “mom get me out of here. I do not want to come here”. 

 

She’s learning her letters and has quite a few that are easily recognizable. Her name is coming along and she is now writing MOM on everything that she does at school. She brought home her first homework assignment yesterday and we worked on that today. Yes, I took pictures, did you expect less?

 

We had a big birthday weekend. Susan and Brad (grandma and poppy) came down for a couple of days and we did the whole birthday cake thing. We’d opened presents throughout the day so that she wouldn’t get overwhelmed. Her favorite gifts were books, a Leapster L-max learning game (handheld computer with cartridges for drawing, writing, etc), a puppet theatre that I made from a bookcase and clothes.  She got a lot of books since parentingclub.com was doing a fundraiser for a members son who has leukemia. I’d forwarded the link to a lot of people and many bought her books for her birthday. The puppet theatre was the best as far as actually giving it to her. Mom and I sat behind it and had the puppets sing happy birthday to her. For some reason my mom was channeling Edith Bunker and by the end of the song, I had tears running down my face from the insanity of it all. Our cleaning lady brought over a giant bag of dress up clothes for her and that, coupled with the Doctors Kit that Vel and Drew got her, has kept her little imagination going for days.

 

On the Sunday after her birthday, we packed up the car and headed to the All Stars Music resort at Disney World. We met the Dennis’ and got rooms with a door connecting them. It was madness but fun too. Imagine 2 four year olds (birthday’s within 2 days of each other), a 20 month old (Lauren), a 16 month old (Nora), two harried moms and two tired poppas all crammed into an area about the size of an average living room for 3 days and two nights. You’ve got the makings for two things…fun or major meltdowns. Luckily, we had mostly fun. We spent a lot of time at the resorts pools. We brought the karaoke machine and that provided about 10 minutes of entertainment. We went to downtown Disney and walked around a bit and just hung out in the room and tried to see how many juice boxes, cereal bars, goldfish and grapes we could mash into the hotel carpets. The big surprise for the 4 year olds was a “big girls day”. Amy and I took Katherine and Sophia to Downtown Disney and we spent some time shopping and snacking. Then we went to the bibbidi boppiti boutique and the girls had princess makeovers. Katherine chose the long hair extensions which the “fairy godmother” teased on top making her look like a munchkin 1980’s country music singer. Katherine took the look even further by choosing blue eye shadow. It was all topped with nail polish and a hefty dose of glitter. Too funny. The girls really enjoyed that. We then took them to Planet Hollywood for lunch to show off their looks before we headed back to the hotel. All in all it was a good time. We went to Sea World the next day and spent a half day visiting our pal Shamu and the Happy Harbor play area, then we headed home.

 

Lauren is being a nut lately. She’s starting to count but she always skips “one” and her three sounds like “fee”. This has caused a new family joke. The girls were running laps around the couch one evening with daddy watching. Lauren would stop and count, then go. So it was “too, fee, go!!” Woody interpreted it at “go two feet go!” so now Lauren is two feet. It’s quite fitting really. I mean she is about two feet tall and she has two feet. How perfect! She’s also working on colors. I am beginning to suspect that she likes pretending to not know things. She always says things are green and I’d swear she doesn’t know her colors at all but the other day she was watching my computer and some fish were swimming around on the screen. She said “two fish! Blue and green!” and she was right, there were two fish. A blue one and a green one. She’s a stinker.

 

I have noticed her hitting lately so I’m going to have to keep that in check. Her jumping skills are getting better and she’s almost getting some air. She is enjoying dancing and singing and reading. This child loves to look at books. Katherine was reading to her today and it was way cute.

 

September 18, 2006

 

It’s starting. The sibling stuff that you always hear about but swear that your kids will not go through. Today, all the way home from the store we hear “mom! Lauren’s touching me! Stop it Lauren!” We turn around and Lauren has her hand on K’s arm…then we pull her arm away (as she smiles and you know she would roll her eyes if she knew how) and 2 seconds later we hear “Mom! Lauren’s foot is touching my leg!” and sure enough upon inspection, Lauren is in fact stretching her leg out to touch her sisters leg with her pinky toe. Oh the torture!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Katherine had a good one today. When we drove into our neighborhood Woody said “hey! We are in our neighborhood” and Katherine said “do you know why they call it a neighborhood? Because the people wear hoods”. Wha? Hua?

By the way, this is one of her things. “do you know why they call it Busch Gardens? Because they have bushes and gardens!”  She’s always coming up with things like that but the hoods were pretty funny.

 

oh! we did have a breakthrough on Sunday. Every morning when Katherine gets up it's "mom. I want Caillou (or the show du'jour) and chocolate milk" god forbid I dare to go pee or heat up a cup of coffee before I jump up to make her stupid chocolate milk. As a certifiable non-morning person, it always put me in a snit right away. So, I put her milk on a lower shelf in the fridge, set a cup, the chocolate (slightly opened so she can tear it the rest of the way easily), a spoon and a towel for messes. She's so proud that she can make her own chocolate milk. The only drawback is that she was so excited with her new skill that she got up at midnight on Sunday, made her chocolate milk and left the milk on the table all night. She didn't spill a bit though and frankly, I'd rather wipe up a bit of milk than be directed by a 4 year old immediately upon waking.

 

September 26, 2006

 

Lauren is potty training. Poops and all…yahoo!

 

I finally got meds for my anxiety and I’m feeling like a new, happier woman.

 

Katherine has been in sweet girl mode for about a week. She had some homework this week. 25 words. Most of them two-three letters. Hi, Me, Mom, And, If, Be etc. She and I were working on the first 5 tonight and she sounded out cat! She actually read it. I was so proud of her and you could tell she was proud of herself…which is even better in my opinion. She said, “daddy! I read cat!”

 

Grandpa Henry has been visiting this week and the girls are really enjoying his company. I suspect he’s played more rounds of Go fish, Candy Land, High Ho Cherry-O and the fishing game, than he’s ever played in his entire life.

 

Last weekend we all went to Tarpon Springs and took the eco boat tour to the gulf. We didn’t see much wildlife but watching Katherine and her daddy on the prow of the boat as it sped through the water, his strong arm supporting her little body. Her pigtails were flying backwards and her little arm was clutching his back…it was almost too much for my heart to take in. It was beautiful. Lauren slept through the whole thing.

 

September 27, 2006

 

I took Katherine to have her blood drawn this morning. I’m having her tested for allergies. She was so brave. She wasn’t exactly happy but she didn’t cry at all and she was still as can be. There was another little boy getting his blood drawn at the same time and he was FREAKING out. Katherine was quite proud of herself.

 

September 28, 2006

 

It’s a phase….right? It has to be a phase or I may go utterly mad, and soon! Lauren is not only hitting her sister and engaging in typical irritating little sister antics, she is also unable to be left unsupervised for a split second. Doing such things as going to the bathroom or checking your email, while she’s under your care, may result in such things as; all of the wipes in the wipe warmer being pulled out and spread all over the house, the emptying of all Kleenex boxes within the confines of the home, climbing on the kitchen table or up on the top bunk, or drinking something and then promptly spitting it back out on whomever (sister, pet rats) or whatever (carpet, tables and clothes) may be in her way. Today, I made the mistake of staying on the couch when she ran past me into the bathroom. She stayed a little too long for my comfort so I called out…nothing. I got up to check on her and guess what? The little stinker had emptied the bathroom trash can into the toilet. Let me add that pull ups, all 6 of them, are very absorbent when wet and will actually soak up all of the water in a toilet. How’s that for a useful nugget of info?