Parenting Joys

Ah, the joys of parenting... It's always something, isn't it?!?

This afternoon I got a call from Elijah's lead daycare teacher, because she usually leaves before I pick him up and she wanted to let me know about his behavior today. Oh boy! Apparently this morning and early afternoon, he'd been telling her and the other teachers "No" a lot today. At naptime he wouldn't lay down and sleep (he almost always sleeps!), and got his blanket taken away because he was playing with it. Also, sometimes when the lead teacher is on break, he runs around and away from the other teachers. He and Josephine both used to do that with me when they first came home - it became a game for me to chase them, but at times it was very uncontrollable or even a safety issue - and for a while I couldn't take them places myself because of that. They're luckily better about that now, but I digress...

So, when I picked him up, I'd planned to have a good talk with him about it. His lead teacher was still there today, so it worked out even better. I talked him about his behavior and told him that was naughty and he can't do those things, and made him apologize to the teacher and talked about what he is supposed to do...

Well... Josephine's classroom has a window where she can see out into Elijah's classroom. She apparently got really upset that she could see me but I wasn't coming to get her yet because of my long talk with Elijah and his teacher. When I got to her classroom, her teacher was holding her (she'd been crying and trying to get out of the room. She wanted me to pick her up and I did, and asked her what was wrong (although already knowing). When I asked her if she was OK and if she was sad that I didn't come in right away. She nodded in agreement, but wouldn't look me in the eyes, even when I gave her a big hug and told her I loved her multiple times.

Tonight when we got home, she and Kaylen started playing, but she did something she knew she wasn't supposed to be doing so she was in timeout - more mad at mommy! Then the girls went upstairs to play. Elijah was just moping around - because he was tired from not taking his nap at daycare. I was fixing supper, but got to a place where I was waiting for stuff to cook longer. So I sat down on the cooler in the kitchen to comfort him a bit - and he fell sound asleep on me - drool and snoring included... So precious!!!When Jock got home, he finished fixing supper. I moved to a chair (Elijah remained sound asleep). When the girls realized that Jock was home, they came downstairs. Josephine took one look at me with Elijah asleep on me, and got all mad and huffed off. I did bathtime, so she had some special alone time with Mommy, but then so did Elijah, so that kind of negated that effect a bit. (Probably should've had Jock do his bath, but too late now.) Then at bedtime, she didn't want to look me in the eyes or tell me she loved me at kisses time either. She finally did, but somewhat reluctantly.

Poor girl. She's so jealous! She wants Mommy all to herself - or at least not to have Elijah get special Mommy time. She'll be fine tomorrow, just had a rough evening of it. :(

The Girls' New Bunk Beds!

A couple hours Wednesday night, and about another hour last night, and voila! It's done!...well, the bed is put together and the new bedding is on the beds. The light fixture isn't yet changed out, the girls' things will have to be moved in, and lots of other things stored in the room have to be moved out... but the bed is done at least!

The girls are excited about their new bed. Kaylen's not all that excited about having to share a room, but she is excited for a change, and to be on the top bunk (even if her sister's lower bunk bed is larger). I think, mostly, she's worried about having her toys being accessible to her sister. But, I'm hoping it'll help her keep them a little more tidy. Her room is a mess!

Elijah is not excited that he doesn't get a new bed. And he'll soon have his own room, which I'm certain he will not be happy about. But he'll get used to it... we hope. We have a few tricks up our sleeves to try to get him excited about his room too, but it'll probably still be a bit of a tough transition for him. His bed is actually the bottom half of a bunk bed set too - the top half is currently Kaylen's bed. We're planning to move it in soon. We also have had his comforter put away for the summer, and because the girls have new bedding, we'll get that back out for him too, so it'll be like it's new for him. We might get a few things to decorate his room up too - or let him bring some of his toys upstairs as well.

For those of you who've been here to visit us before, yes, we're moving the girls into what was the guest room - because it has more space (even though the closet is a little smaller). So, the Kaylen's current room will become the guest room. But don't worry, we are planning to paint it so you don't all dream about Pepto-Bismol when you spend the night with us. I can't promise it will be done if you come visit soon, but hopefully we'll at least have the room cleaned out of Kaylen's mess though!

Today's Holiday, Aug 19th

So I'm doing a little research on how to add some fun to my blog, when I stumble upon a list of holiday observances Not all are official, some are really strange, but some are fun too. This month's observances aren't that exciting, nor are this week's observances. But when I looked down at the daily observances, I see that today is "Black Cow" Root Beer Float Day!How fun! My family likes root beer and we like ice cream... So what better way to add some additional fun to the picnic my husband and I already had planned for supper, than to have root beer floats! Have one yourself today, to celebrate "Black Cow" Root Beer Float Day! If you don't know how to make one, see this link. (although if you don't want to have a big mess, only fill your glass about half full of root beer before putting your ice cream in).

Mmmmmmm... Enjoy!

Kaylen's 1st Day of 2nd Grade!

Kaylen's first day of 2nd grade was today. We took a few photos before we left for daycare this morning (she takes the bus from daycare to school) - and Wednesdays are 1-hour late starts for teacher development, so Mommy had to get to work.And we had to capture the monkey too! (He's a keychain that came with the backpack.)We went to the school to meet the teacher and drop off her school supplies on Monday evening. She had been a little nervous, but being there on Monday, and seeing her friends, made her really excited! She said she had a good day, and that she really likes her teacher - she's really cool apparently.

Apparently the most exciting thing is that 2nd graders get a choice of salad bar at lunch. Apparently at the beginning of the day they can choose hot lunch or salad bar, or if they bring their own lunch they just put in for milk only.

Then she told me that she got three recesses. Apparently lunch took too long and they only got 5 of their 20 minutes they were supposed to for recess - so they got a third one to make up for it. They'll usually only get 2.

They had PE today for their special, and played some game called Everyone's It. Sounded strange, but I got confused by the description, so who knows!

The 2nd Grade classroom rules are:
1) Be a kid of character.
2) Follow the Golden Rule.
Sounds easy enough, right?

They read two books - the teacher read one about some dog going to school. And she and a partner read a science book about water.

That's all they did. Sounds like kind of a short day - that, or lots of staring at the walls, but who knows. Said she didn't learn anything, and they didn't do any writing or math today. No organizing of school supplies, no weather or calendar or nothing. Odd. Oh well.

She came right home, and while I was fixing dinner, she was playing school with Elijah and Josephine. So she must be excited about school starting again! They had been playing house a lot. :)

FHG Reunion - St Louis, July 2010 (Part IV)

Sunday we loaded up our van and checked out of the hotel after breakfast, so we could make the trip home after the day’s activity – the St Louis Zoo!

This is one of the many free attractions in St Louis, making it a wonderful, affordable city to visit for a vacation. They do nickel-and-dime you a bit on parking (but we could have parked on the street and walk a little further) and getting into a few of the smaller attractions within the zoo, but it’s so much fun! I think the parking plus the one show we saw (Sea Lion show) was still only about half of what we would have paid for admission to our tiny local zoo – and the St Louis zoo is about 6 times the size!

It was another hot day, but not near as hot or humid as the previous two days, so that was nice. The zoo is beautiful and has many trees to shade the hilly walk, so that was really nice also. The kids had a lot of fun seeing the animals. We didn’t have enough time to see everything at the zoo before we had to leave for home, but we did get to see LOTS of our favorite animals. We had a late lunch with our group of 4 families, before they continued their zoo adventure and we started our 5 1/2 hour trip back home.
The kids all loved the orangutans - a couple were hiding under a sheet right up next to the glass, so the kids were inches from them!St Louis Zoo, Circa 1919 - starring Josephine & Elijah, Kaylen & Jock!Tigers and Zebras and Giraffes, Oh My!Sea Lion Show!Now this is the way to do the zoo! Wish I had a comfy ride like this!Josephine didn't like the elephant-stink! :)

FHG Reunion - St Louis, July 2010 (Part III)

Saturday, we met up with the group after breakfast, to head to Soulard Market. It is an open-air farmer’s market near downtown St Louis. Some of the older kids from the orphanage say it reminded them of Haiti’s markets, and I can understand why they think so. There were all sorts of vendors – selling everything from meat to fruits/veggies to craft items, to toys, etc… The oddest thing I saw was “whole rabbit”. I’ve eaten rabbit meat before (tastes a lot like chicken, just a little more gamey), but it was odd to see it in the market. Anyway, we wandered around, bought some fruit, then some flavored shaved ice drinks on our way out.

We then headed to City Museum, where we had a picnic lunch before heading inside to explore.

City Museum is quite the adventure. I’m not even sure how to describe the place, but it’s kind of a whimsical maze of tunnels and caves and stairways and slides. I was a little confused and lost in there – wish I’d found a map or had a tour guide. The kids had fun, but Josephine was scared to participate in several things. Elijah was a little scared but would follow Kaylen through some of the things. Maybe when they’re bigger and not so frightened of new places and things, that’ll be more fun. Some of those tunnels and things were too small for adults to go through, but the kids were too scared to do themselves. I did get some fun pictures of the kids playing though. I think we missed several sections of the place (e.g. the roof), but we were very hot and tired, so that played into some too.

We drove around downtown a bit after City Museum, and caught a beautiful glimpse of the Gateway Arch. We thought about getting out to see it a little better, but we were too hot and tired so we decided against it.



We also drove past the new Busch Stadium on the way back to the hotel.

I think between Soulard Market and City Museum, we also were about a block or two from the dome where the Rams play football, but we weren’t 100% sure, because we were a little far to see the signage. Neat drive thru downtown though.

Back at the hotel late afternoon, we rested for a bit, then went out for supper with the group. The kids were a little wild and unmannerly (unusual for them in a restaurant), but they were so tired. We might have been better off to nap, eat a quick dinner on our own, then play at the pool a bit, but the dinner was so good. We hadn't been to O'Charley's for a while since the one near us closed.

FHG Reunion - St Louis, July 2010 (Part II)

I'm finally getting around to posting more about what we did on our trip to St Louis, and some photos to go along with it...

Friday we hung around the hotel most of the day. We had arrived late Thursday night (around 11:30 pm), so we met up with two other families at breakfast. NBC Nightly News had a crew there, so they did a couple on-camera interviews and we all chatted most of the morning before heading out to the pool. It was soooo hot, and the pool was quite refreshing. We ordered pizza for lunch. A couple other families arrived mid-afternoon after we’d had our pizza, but I didn’t get a chance to chat with them much, as Elijah and Josephine were pretty much falling asleep standing up! So we headed for a nap around 2. Jock & Kaylen came up a little later and we all rested until it was time to meet for the evening activity.

Sorry - no photos of Elijah & Josephine actually in the pool because we were in the pool with them when they were.

Kaylen had a lot of fun playing with Patricia on the trip - one of our Haitian-Minnesotan friends.




We took (and NBC Nightly News filmed) a group photo in the lobby,
(will post the group photo soon)



before heading downtown for a picnic and an outdoor concert. The kids had fun playing in the water spray, courtesy of the St Louis Fire Department, and the adults chatted (and some played in the water as well), while we listened to the Sara Bareilles.

There was supposed to be fireworks that night too, but because of the Mississippi River flooding, they’d moved the concert from the levee to further “inland”, and they cancelled the fireworks. We were all kind of sad, because they would have been gorgeous over the river, in the National Park surrounding the Gateway Arch. Oh well, probably just as well, because Josephine is afraid of fireworks.

The kids were so tired - they slept good that night!