The Curb Dwellers

This is what my family and the neighbors are referred to as by a few PITA neighbors..

**ANNOUNCEMENT**

We, meaning about 10 of us, will be on the curb this evening enjoying some cold refreshments of an alcoholic nature and supervising the children playing in the street. If you do not enjoy the company of children and a good time being had by all steer clear of Royal Court. If, on the other hand, you enjoy a cold beverage and enjoyable company, swing on by and we'll hook you up . :)

Put the Kibosh on Naps

In preparation for Kindergarten the Preschool/Camp Teacher has removed nap time from the daily routine. All I can say.. Oh no ! Aedan can hang with the best of them without a nap. As long as there is no car ride in the mix. Since camp has started and the schedule without naps Aedan falls asleep in the car on the way home at least 4 out off 5 nights a week. He plays hard. If he didn't have that boring car ride home he would be OK and not fall asleep. But since the commute home is approx. 35 minutes on a good night he can have a cat nap.

Last night was the worst. He spent all day at the park with his class. In the heat and sun so naturally he falls asleep. We get to the hairdresser and I wake him up and leave him with Jim for the haircut. I take the girls home and in 10 minutes the boys arrive home. Aedan still has bushy hair and he storms to his room. Apparently he had a total and utterly embarrassing meltdown in a salon full of women. Swimming, outside time and fireworks viewing next weekend were taken away til further notice. I had my own appt. a 1/2 hour later. So I had a talk with him.. He had to apologize to Jim, and Angela (hairdresser) and if he went with me to get his haircut the restrictions would be pulled. He agreed. And the rest of the night was peaceful and happy.

I understand the nap removal is to prepare them for kindergarten and it's better to start now so he's ready in September but damn.. I don't like seeing my kid flip out like that due to lack of sleep. Not to mention he has picked up bad habits, for use during the meltdowns, from a certain child (Eddie Hascal type) in his class that I truly do not like and is considered unacceptable behavior in my house. Calling oneself Stupid, saying I hate myself and smacking your own head is beyond unacceptable and I am angry that he has picked that up.. We have had multiple discussions about it and every time he pulls it at home he has to go to his room. We don't use the word stupid or hate.

I just hope that as of August 31st he is ready for a full day and we can avoid these meltdowns.

My Countdown is on

Just a day and a half more to my dream floors. :) I take that back.. dream floors are self cleaning.. LOL . Anyway a couple days til I get my new flooring on the entire first floor. No more stained carpeting. Just sleek and shiny hardwood laminate that can easily be wiped up. As the mother of three "mess makers", which I tend to call them often, I find this floor to be perfect. I'll invest in a dust mop and the laminate cleaner and bask in the glory of it all.

It's funny how a grown woman can get excited about such mundane things. Like flooring or a vacuum etc. I guess our priories change as we grow and mature. It is evident in my wish list these days. Flooring - Check. Washer & Dryer. New Shower. you know .. the essentials.

Not too Far Off

Kindergarten that is. The Boy starts kindergarten on August 31st. Not too far off if you ask me.. most of the summer left and yet just around the corner. I'm starting to get nervous for him. A new school.. a couple kids he may know from soccer .. at least I hope. We'll hopefully see some friends at Open House in August. I'm nervous for him being at Day Care for the mornings and then nervous for him getting on that bus to go to school and nervous about being at school and coming home on the bus. I'm just nervous about it all. Tomorrow is an appointment to visit the Day care where he will spend his mornings. I hope he likes it because it would really suck for him if he didn't like it. :( They only have one spot left so I need to get my fee in to hold that spot. It's the ideal spot for us because I drive past it on the way to our other day care and work every morning.

I just get very nervous with him being up there near home and so far away from me during the day. Luckily I have 2 wonderful people on the emergency contact list that can be there in seconds. :)

As nervous as I am that is how excited he is. He had no problems on orientation day going on the bus with the other kids and going to his classroom with the teachers. He is very excited to be going there and then to my neighbor's house for 45 minutes after school. I just hope I can get excited soon. My stomach is all topsy turvy just thinking about it.

Friends I've never met.

Over the course of the past oh.. say about 10 years I have participated in a couple website message boards. They were resources for me to find women who, like myself , were trying to get pregnant and looking for information. This soon turned into a place to fret and complain about NOT getting pregnant. And then a resource for infertility followed by miscarriage. It became my refuge and a place where I always had support and someone who knew how I was feeling and would offer a cyber shoulder and some hugs when things weren't great. All of these women went through the most trying times in my life and also the most joyous. They are all true friends and yet I've never sat and had a drink with them. Well all except one lovely lady that lives near me. :) I consider them my friends and refer to them as that in conversations. I value their friendships and I hope that one day I can meet them in person so I can give them a real hug. I so wish I could chat their ear off while sharing a wonderful conversation about our lives and having a cocktail while watching our children play together. These women know me in and out and like me anyway. :) Maybe because there is no expectations. We expect nothing from each other .. just an ear when we have something to say and a little hug now and then. Some days we can have each other in tears from laughing so hard and then the next day we are commiserating about one thing or another.

It's a wonderful setup .... except I want to hang out with my friends. So someday everyone from Canada, to California to Texas and Georgia to North Carolina, and England will hopefully meet up and have a blast !

So much to do .. so little time

That is pretty much the motto I live by. It seems there is never enough time. At least not in my world. Always doing laundry, making lunches, changing diapers, picking up toys, running errands, going to a party, working, cleaning you name it.. it's on the list..

Today's to do list:
- call for flooring estimator appointment
- make pedicure appt. for July so I can get in on a Sunday.
- make haircut/hi-light appt.
- finish AFLAC claims
- sort through 800 photo prints and organize in to albums
- work
- dentist appt. this evening
- make lunches for tomorrow
- laundry
- bathe all 3 kiddies and cut nails before bed

Now.. of course not all of this will get done today.. but hey it's the stuff that needs to be done.. I won't go into what I need to do for this weekend.. a couple shopping trips and a snack to make before Saturday to add to the list of my daily chores. Oh and my car needs an oil change.. the little wrench light came on yesterday. lovely.

No wonder I need a cocktail every few days.. keeps me sane. Otherwise my OCD will go bat shit and I'll collapse.

Night swimmers

And I don't mean us, the owners of the pool. We purchased one of those Easy set pool for the first time this year because the kids loved the neighbor's so much last year. We swam yesterday. No issues. Pool was fine and when we were done we closed it all up etc. My neighbor calls today to ask what's up with my pool and did I even see it? No I say and what do you mean?

Apparently it's lost alot of water since we closed it up yesterday. So either we have a leak (she can't seem to find one or any water pooling around the pool to confirm a leak) or someone was getting in and out alot without the ladder, thus letting bunches of water out from the side. I'm leaning towards the latter. So now the back light will stay on and if or when I catch the little shit that's doing it there will be hell to pay.

She's no dumb blonde.

She may be a natural blonde but she amazes me daily. She has backslid on the whole potty training issue and yet other things are mastered and continue to improve.

We were all at the Dr. yesterday for Chloe and Alexa. Chloe is sitting on the table with Alexa and she's reading her a Dora & Diego book.. so I start pointing to things and asking her what they are etc.

As a test of sorts I pointed to the page number... "what's this ? " "Seventeen" My jaw drops in astonishment.. so figuring it's a fluke.... I turn a few more pages.. and point again.. "Twenty Four" ... Um.. OK.. try again out of order in case that's how she knows them.. gets them right every time.. although she hesitates on the 6 and 9 numbers..

I tell her she is awesome and give her a high five.. wow.. I knew she could identify colors and shapes and some letters.. but at the age of 3 recognizing double digit numbers is pretty advanced in my mind. I'm not even sure Aedan can do that.. looks like we have a test tonite for Aedan. See what he's learning these days

Worst Nightmare

Any (sane/normal) parent will attest that their worst nightmare is something happening to their children. My own worst nightmare came to fruition on Tuesday. As I was packing up to leave work at 4:10 A call came in from Day Care. It was Chloe's teacher Miss Becky so I assumed it was her allergies. I answered the phone and she told me who she was and then passed the phone to Miss Stefanie, Alexa's teacher, who is a bit upset. She manages to blurt out something about a temperature of 101.6, Alexa going still and stared at the ceiling and then her eyes rolled back into her head and she stared seizing. At this point she's crying and so am I. She said she cleared her airway and they called 911. I told her I'd be there in 5 and hung up.

As I was crying and driving over to Daycare the paramedic called my cell. He asked what hospital I preferred and we went over a bit of family history.

I got there and RAN past all the emergency vehicles into the school. I immediately see a paramedic carrying her from the back classroom to leave. She seems out of it and doesn't even acknowledge me. Which is NOT like her. We get out to the ambulance where I give my van keys to the director and tell her that my Mom would be there for the other 2. And off we go.

Finally after a bit in the cold ambulance and her without clothes Alexa starts to *wake up* . Her blood sugar is checked and that is fine.

We get to the ER and go directly back to a room. That is where she realizes I'm there and wants only me. I hold her until they need to start working.

I had calmed down and held myself together pretty well even after the Dr. suggested that a spinal tap would need to be performed if other tests didn't come back they way we needed them to.

A failed catheter attempt, 3 only partially successful iv attempts before they blew the veins. They got just enough blood to test. And they couldn't give her iv hydration because they couldn't manage an iv. And the whole time she screamed and screamed while myself and Jim comforted her and held her down. This is when I broke down again. While my 14 month old is fighting like you wouldn't believe to get away and me and her father are holding her there so they can torture her some more.
They got some motrin into her at one point, got some juice into her and after 5 hours she was released with a diagnosis of an ear infection. She got a strong antibiotic injection in each leg and we were sent home with instructions to get the ammoxicillan Rx filled and keep the tylenol and motrin going back to back every 4 hours.

All of this because of the gosh darn ear infection. My child's life and my own happiness flashing before my eyes.. because of a damn ear infection. Every time from now on that a child of mine gets any fever .. low or high I will suddenly be on alert worrying what could come next.. fun times.

Wiggle it..just a little bit...

During our before bed tooth brushing session last week I noticed a new tooth coming up behind Aedan's lower front baby tooth. I pointed it out to him and he was excited. He ran down to show his Daddy, who then proceeded to tell him that that baby tooth better fall out or else he'll need surgery so that his teeth stay straight. Now what freaking grown man purposely tries to scare a child like that?? My husband because he simply doesn't THINK before he speaks. I told Aedan to ignore him and put him to bed. I then went downstairs and ripped Jim a new one. He conceded that he was wrong.. Damn skippy buddy so keep your trap shut about things you do not know. So in the days that followed the baby tooth is all wiggly. Aedan had a dentist appointment last week for a cleaning. The dentist said that the new tooth is fine and to keep wiggling the baby tooth so it will fall sout soon because they don't like to leave it for more than a couple weeks. I filled both Aedan and Chloe in on the benefits of losing a tooth and how the tooth fairy comes. Chloe wanted to know if she was nice and I told her that the tooth fairy is indeed nice .. she leaves money for your old teeth.

So for now we wiggle and wiggle hoping it comes out on it's own and hoping that he doesn't swallow it by accident.

My Hookup

I am so glad my Mom came out of retirement and got a new job. Because she keeps me all stocked up on J&J meds and toiletries. She got a job as a contractor for McNeil Pharmaceuticals. Which means she gets to shop at the cheap store. :) Nothing like getting your Motrin, infants and children's tylenol and Aveeno products for next to nothing.. well actually nothing for me cause she never asks for the money. :) It's amazing how fast you can go thru that stuff when you have 3 kids. Not to mention you have to have a bottle of each for each child at daycare. That adds up pretty darn quick. She just dropped off my latest fix. :) Thanks Mom..

Humiliation at Age 5

And it made my blood boil. Our street is a big circle with an "island" of grass and trees in the center.. pretty large. The kids in the court play on it daily. Sunday night Aedan was playing with S, K & E. All older kids.. S=13, K=9 & E=11. The other kids were playing elsewhere. All of a sudden I hear Aedan crying.. So I get up an start to go over .. Sam comes running over and says that E & K pantsed Aedan. Pantsed = pulling down of pants for embarrassment. Only this time his underwear came with the shorts. So I look over and Aedan takes a swing at her (E) and laughs. K's parents immediately yell at her and send her inside. E disappears. Her parents are out so I can't go talk to them. Not to mention her dad is a real a$$ and is the subject of many discussions about drunk driving and drug use. Not to mention car accidents and lawsuits. But that's a whole other story. Anyway.. if they were home I wouldn't go there by myself to complain because he's huge. We soon find out from Aedan that K in fact did NOT take part so she's off the hook. Aedan seems unshaken even though I know it had to be embarrassing for him if he cried. So playtime with E is off limits from now on.. She's always been a bit sneaky but she was nice to him so we over looked it. No more.

Jim comes home Monday night and marches down to the house. Talks to the Dad and the Dad calls her down and asks her what happened. She claims Aedan did it to her twice before she did it to him.. I don't think so.. I have 2 other kids saying she told Aedan to stand up on the stool so she can show him something. Little witch. We'll see how funny she thinks it is when she is the one platying all by her lonesome this summer. Because now K can't play with her either.

Pomp and Circumstance

Pre-School Graduation. It reminds me of one of my favorite quotes...

Helen: I can't believe you don't want to go to your own son's graduation.
Bob: It's not a graduation. He is moving from the 4th grade to the 5th grade.
Helen: It's a ceremony!
Bob: It's psychotic! They keep creating new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but if someone is genuinely exceptional...
Courtesy of "The Incredibles"

As much as it really isn't a momentous occasion we still treat it as such because of the big step to the BIG school. :) We had camera and video camera in hand. Programs at the ready and primo seats.. well for a bit at least then I had to be the annoying person running all around trying to get the best shot.

It was a great little ceremony. The kids performed "Upside Down " by Jack Johnson as their *act* and then while the younger kids performed their acts the graduates got ready for the dispersal of diplomas. They came back in cap and gown to pomp and circumstance. Parading in with huge grins. I was very proud. :)

I cried during their singing number but not during the actual graduation. I was sad for him because his BEST friends will no longer be with him everyday. He'll get to see them on school holidays but other than that we'll be lucky if they get together twice a year for a playdate.

Next year he'll make new best friends that he will hopefully have for a very long time but we will always remember his first REAL friends. :)

Congratulations my Graduate !! Watch Out Kindergarten !!