Same Ole Same Ole

I keep trying to think of something clever or cute to write about, but nothing is popping into my pea brain. Things are pretty much the same. Nothing exciting is going on. We've had beautiful weather with blue skies, warm days and cool evenings. Today has turned windy, but at least it's not cold and windy yet. I am not ready for winter (although I've been busy on scarves and everyone has a new one). We've been watching the weather closely to decide if we want to go camping this weekend or not. There's a 30% chance of rain (down from 40%). We are leaning towards going. I might have lots to write about next week ; ).

School is going well for the kids. Jaelyn seems to be really enjoying it. She's had a few issues with talking, but other than that is getting her work done. She has spelling tests for the first time this year and has made 100 on every one. Her reading is improving steadily. We are reading Meet Kaya in the American Girls' Series. Math is her hardest subject. Behavior wise, she's up and down. I tried a new allergy medicine with her and that really did not work well. I gave it to her for 3 days and it took a good week of tantrums before it was out of her system. The 6 donut holes she ate at her Brownie meeting took 2 days of tantrums to get out. Her body is too sensitive. Friendwise, Jaelyn has really latched on to a little girl named, Allison. They have become best buds. We've had 2 playdates with her family. She hasn't bonded with a friend like this since Olivia at MDO from Olive when she was 4.

Allie isn't enjoying school as much as last year. I think she's having to work more and play less. She also sees less of her friend Alex. She seems to like her teacher and brings home green lights most days. We've had one instance of hair cutting recently which hasn't happened since the summer we moved here. I don't know what Allie was thinking, but she now has a lock on top of her head that's about an inch long and sticking out. Crazy girl.

Caden has settled into his school routine. He still tells me he doesn't want to go. Today, after he told me that, he said if he could have gummies after school, he'd probably do better. My little boy knows how to wrap me around his finger, doesn't he? He hasn't cried since that first day of school. We've been staying after to play on the playground and we've had a few lunch dates at play areas with his school friends. I've enjoyed visiting with the moms as much as he's enjoyed playing. I feel like "I'm" finally getting really settled here with a network of friends. Moving is going to be tough on all of us.

School Updates

Monday will be the 100th day of school for the girls. Allie, especially, is very excited about it. She has to bring in 100 of something to share as a snack and is begging for mini-marshmallows. I have a whole bag and while I don't necessarily want her eating them all, it would be nice to get them out of my pantry. Jaelyn had to make something with 100 somethings on it. We bought a package of cute shimmery pom poms and hot glued them on a baseball cap. It turned out really well. She's worried about having to count them in front of the class and losing track (since they aren't in rows). I told her as long as she ends on 100, she'll be fine.

We learned some sad news about her teacher yesterday. Mrs. M has been out on maternity leave and was supposed to be back in March. She's decided to stay out the rest of the year. I'm thrilled that she'll be able to stay at home with her baby girl, but I'm sad for Jaelyn. She was doing really well with Mrs. M and not having any of her chatty, not focused moments like last year. Well, report cards came home yesterday and there was a note from Jaelyn's new teacher, Mrs. W (who's out for 2 weeks with an emergency surgery - so we have a sub for the sub) and her reading teacher that they are both having trouble with her being chatty, silly and not focused. She's still doing well though. Her reading is continuing to improved. They don't give the kids real grades (maybe that'll start in 2nd grade). Instead they give CE (consistently evident), D (developing), NE (not evident). Jaelyn's marks were split between CE and D. She's having the most trouble with telling time in math, but according to the teacher's notes, everyone is.

I was super impressed with Allie's report card. In language arts, she's split pretty evenly between CE and D, but in math, she has almost all CEs. I think the biggest thing for me to see were her marks in personal and social development. She got Ds for "managing change" and "shows increasing self-control." Everything else like "follows rules," "completes work independently" and "interacts positively with classmates" was CE. That's huge - especially when I think back to that first month of school.

Caden loves preschool. I was going to switch him to afternoons next year. It was totally selfish - I just can't seem to get things done (mainly grocery shopping) with our current schedule and next year will be 3 days instead of 2. I had to turn in his registration a few weeks ago and not a single one of his friends was switching so I caved to peer pressure and I'm letting him stay in the mornings. It'll make starting again next year with a new teacher easier if all of his current friends are there with him.

1st Quarter Parent/Teacher Conferences

I met with the girls' teachers this evening. Miss Burris had a wonderful report about Allie. She's made HUGE strides since starting school and received 6 Outstandings on her citizenship. She got Satisfactories in "star sitter," "listens attentively," and "self-control." The first week of school, every categories would have been marked "needs improvement." Miss Burris says she can really see the changes in Allie, especially in her work. She is paying more attention and taking the time to do it right. There is no more refusing to do work. Allie loves to help her friends and is always asking Miss Burris if there's anything she can do to help her. Miss Burris said everyone who meets Allie comments on how cute and funny she is. She does have quite the personality. As far as her reading and math, she is right where she should be. It was a really good meeting, especially when I remember the anxiety I had when school started. Allie is really going to make it!

Jaelyn is doing much better this year than she did last year. Mrs. Meerholz says that Jaelyn has no trouble focusing and staying on task. She's not the chatty cathy she was last year. Well, maybe a little in reading, but I was shocked to learn she is in a below average reading group. It makes no sense to me at all. I think she's doing great for 1st grade, but apparently, not as great as they expect. The reading groups are fluid and they retest often so if she continues the improvement the teachers and I are seeing, they'll move her up. Honestly, I've seen a huge improvement from September to now with her reading. In September, I had to make her read to me and she needed lots of help. Now, she'll pick up a book and just read. She's not stumbling over words or taking several minutes to sound out each word. She's on level or ahead in Math. On the math assessment, she scored 22 out of 24 (one of those she got the answer correct but she didn't do it their way - the directions said to circle a number of objects. She did, individually, instead of 1 big circle so she missed it.)

Overall, I'm happy with the progress Jaelyn and Allie have made. They've worked hard and I'm proud of them!!!

Doctor's Updates

We've been to the doctor's office 3 times this week. Monday, Jaelyn had her 6 year old well child check-up. She is 42 inches tall and weighs 39 1/2 pounds. I don't think she'll ever hit 40. The only big issue she had was she failed her vision test so we need to follow up with that. We are still working on being dry at night. She actually forgot to wear a pull-up on Monday night and was dry Tuesday morning. We've tried 2 more nights without pull-ups, but they haven't been as successful. I think the problem is she's a very sound sleeper.

Allie's had her follow-up scoliosis appoint on Tuesday. I liked the doctor we saw. She seemed knowledgable, was very friendly, and was open to answering all of my questions. Allie's spine is curved 15 degrees. Normal is 0-11 degrees so her scoliosis is mild. For now, we will monitor every 4 months. If the curve does increase, we'll talk about treatment at that time.

On Wednesday, we went back to the doctor's office for Jaelyn to have a chest x-ray and Caden to have a TB test read.

Our Day

I've kept a journal since we started our adoption process. My intention is to have the journals bound into books to give the kids when they are grown. It might not be something they appreciate now or even then, but I think one day, maybe when they are much older, they will treasure a written commentary on their lives. I've found a place to have the books bound and have been working on formatting the past five years. I've spent most of my time on 2006. I didn't journal regularly then and instead compiled the emails Dan and I wrote to each other while he was deployed. As I've worked on it this morning, it's made me miss writing like I used to. I'm not writing as often as I used to or in the minute detail of our lives in order to not bog down our blog. I think I'm going to go back to it; so you might be wading through a lot of things that are unimportant to you, but will be invaluable for the kids to read about one day.

So...on that note...our day! As I said, I worked on the journal this morning. It was a good morning, mostly, I think, because I got up and took a shower before the kids got up. There's something about having a shower and fixing my hair in the morning that just starts my day off right. Caden and I dropped Allie off at preschool and then raced to Jaelyn's school to check her out for a dentist appointment. I was able to talk with her teacher a little and she feels like Jaelyn's biggest struggle is her focus and if she can work on that, she'll be doing really well. She's capable of so much. I'm proud to tell you that Jaelyn earned her fifth green light of the week. It's the first week in months that's she's had a perfect week. As a reward, she earned a cool pen that has about 15 different colors in it.

Jaelyn didn't really want to go to the dentist. It is one of her least favorite things. She let them clean her teeth last time, but nearly broke my fingers, she was squeezing so hard during the cleaning. Today was totally different. She was motivated by the promise of another reward. She sat still in the chair. She opened her mouth and let the hygenist clean her teeth (with cookie dough polish - yummy) and then let her paint marshmellow fluoride on her teeth. Caden alternated between watching and playing. He really wanted to get his teeth cleaned too. He has an appointment at the same time as Allie next month.

After the dentist, Jaelyn wanted to go back to school. She only had an hour and a half left and I very rarely have her without Allie, so I offered either taking her back to school or taking her to a park. Play prevailed and we headed to the park. It was perfect, cold, but not too cold. The park was desserted. Caden and Jaelyn were able to play for about 45 minutes while I watched and then we picked up Allie. Allie had a great day at school and was excited to see Jaelyn with us. She was jealous of all of Jaelyn's rewards and begged me to take her to the dentist too. Silly girl. She'll have to wait her turn.

Teeth, Spitting and Pirates that fight with Swords

Jaelyn lost another tooth...her second bottom central. It came out at dinner tonight as she was eating a pickle. Her 6 year molars are working their way in as well as the first of her permanent bottom centrals. Why does she have to grow up so fast?

Allie got in trouble at preschool for spitting on a little boy on Friday (she didn't actually spit on him, she stuck out her tongue and blew so I guess he might have gotten a little spit on him, but it wasn't like nasty boy spitting). What am I going to do with her? She came out of school today and told me "I had a good day and didn't spit on anyone." Silly Girl!

Caden is into sword fighting these days. Anything will work on a sword, reomote controls, straws, pencils, even imaginary swords. He's funny though. He'll find something and say "Mommy when I poke you with my sword (straw), say "ouch." And then he says "poke" and pokes me and I have to say "ouch." He's very into directing the play. He'll also come to us and say things like "when I say 'boo,' you say 'ahhh.'" And if we don't do it, we get into serious trouble.

Caden is the Man

My big three year old Caden had to go to his friend's house for the afternoon while I worked in Allie's preschool on Monday. Normally, the visit would begin with a total meltdown for an hour before he settled down to enjoy himself. He is still so Mommy centered, but can you blame him? I've been his #1 Go-To-Girl for a long time. Anyway, it was his birthday, so we baked cookies for him to take with him. He started sniffling when he figured out I was leaving, but managed to hold it together with the promise of a birthday present from Lyssie to open. I left and returned 4 hours laters to a happy little man who hadn't had a single meltdown without Mommy! Maybe three will be the year he branches out and lets go a little, but not too much, because that might make me sad :).

Tantrums, Hissy Fits and Just Plain Ugly Attitudes

And I'm not talking about me :). We have seen an escalation in Jaelyn's tantrums in the last few months. She's always been able to pitch a doozy, but instead of getting fewer and further between as she gets older, they are getting more often and are lasting longer. I think most are related to hunger and tiredness, but knowing that doesn't make dealing with her any easier. Some mornings, she starts with a 45 minutes tantrum at 6:30. Talk about a bad alarm clock!!! We've gone back to our ticket system to help reward good behavior (along with making sure she always has food in her tummy) and it seems to be working a little. I was very proud of Jaelyn on Monday. She came home with a yellow light for her citizenship. Normally asking why would send her into a tizzy that would last long into the afternoon, but that wasn't the case. Instead, she very matter of factly told me she earned the yellow light for talking during rest time and then she went about her afternoon. There was no crying, screaming, or stomping her feet. She still received her same consequences for the yellow light, but she also earned a ticket for being a big girl and telling me the truth. She came home better yesterday as well and managed to contain several near meltdowns. Maybe we are finally making progress. I hope so because I would love to help her express herself better now than deal with a 15 year old who hasn't learned to express herself! Not looking forward to those hormonal teenage years at all!!!

Happy Birthday Caden

At 2:22 pm, Caden will be 3 years old. Well, actually, he was born at 2:22 pm German time, which would have been 8 hours (I think) ahead of Eastern time, which means at 6:22 am this morning Eastern time, Caden turned 3. Follow that???

My 5 lb 13 oz tiny baby has grown into a sweet, spunky 3 year old who is finally hitting his terrible twos. What's up with that? Where did my mild mannered toddler who always did what he was told go? He's been replaced with a head strong little boy who likes to do as he pleases. Don't get me wrong, he's still sweet and lovable, but he is definitely becoming his own person with his own feelings and an ability to express them. Caden loves to play pirates and super heroes. He is currently running around with a blue cape on his back calling himself "Super Caden." I must be the "bad knight" who locks Super Caden in the dungeon (under the play table). Super Caden also has the sleeping super power and can put anyone to sleep. I am working hard at dodging it though since Super Jaelyn with the power to wake people up isn't home.

Caden continues to amaze us with his verbal skills. He's been talking like an adult since he was 2 practically, and now his reasoning skills are improving. There's more logic in his reasoning and he actually makes sense when he explains why he must do something. One of his favorite words is 'cause. I especially see improvement when he's talking on the phone. He talks in complete sentences instead of just giving a 1 or 2 word answer. He also asks the person he's talking to questions.

Caden is going through a funny phase with his words. He likes to add a "y" sound to the end of his words. His naps are called nappies, blanket is blanky, pillow is pillowy, etc. At his birthday party, he was running around playing with his balloony.

Caden knows all of his letter and their sounds (thank you Leap Pad Letter Factory) and knows most of his numbers. He can count to 12 without a mistake and can get as high as the lower 20s with a mistake here and there. We are still working on colors. That might take a little more time.

Happy Birthday, Caden! I have been so blessed to have you in my life. I thank God for you everyday!

The Tooth Fairy is Getting Close

Jaelyn woke me up this morning so excited. At the dentist this summer, the hygenist told us Jaelyn's bottom 2 teeth were a tad bit loose and to start watching them. Well, this morning, she noticed for the first time she could wiggle her bottom left central. I checked the back of her mouth and sure enough she has 4 humps where her 6 year molars are making their way in. I wonder how much the Tooth Fairy is paying these days???

My baby girl is growing up so fast and I want her to slow down. We've made a deal, though. She's promised to give me lots of hugs and kisses no matter how old she gets and I've promised to let her grow up. Heart wrenching, I tell you!

Kiddie Updates

Jaelyn can not seem to see "memory." She will always tell me I have a bad "rememory," as in remember. The other day, I was talking to Dan about something he said happened a few years ago. I told him "The event is not in my rememory." It's sad when I'm picking up the wrong words instead of her picking up the right words. She's doing great at her reading. She has about 30-40 sight words now and is getting better at decoding words.

Caden has decided he doesn't like to give hugs and kisses. Well, that's not true, he likes hugs and kisses, but he wants them back after he gives them. I guess it's evolved from a game called kissing tag we play. Now, when he gives me a hug or a kiss, he'll cry until I give them back to him. He's still such a silly boy.

Allie has gotten harder over the last few weeks. We are having her tantrums that come out of no where and end with her crying on her bed. It's gotten colder here and I wonder if it's just a phase or if it's a season thing. We haven't had melt downs like these in months and months. They are exhausting.

Progress Reports - My Bird and Social Butterfly

Sorry, I know you are tired of me talking about this, but this is crazy. With 4 skittles and 1 tbsp of sugar free ice cream, last night, I got Caden to eat 4 bites of meatloaf w/ zucchini in it (his first beef EVER), 1 small spoon of corn (again, a 1st) and a regular serving of green beans. I weighed him at the Dr. office today and he weighs 29 lbs, up from a 27 lb plateau that lasted about 8 months. I'm so proud of my little guy. He's also willing eaten a peanut butter sandwich.

Tonight was Jaelyn's parent teacher conference. She is in the top group in language arts, about middle in math (which honestly, I haven't spent a ton of time working with her on math). Her biggest issue is the social one. Some of it might be immaturity with being the youngest in her class; some might just be my social butterfly in all her glory. She plays with EVERYONE, especially the BOYS. She's having trouble following directions because she's too busy watching what a friend was doing rather than listening to her teacher. Mrs. Daughtery has already moved her 4 times. This was all news to me since in 9 weeks of school she's only brought home 2 yellow lights (traffic light system). Mrs. D told me how "cute" Jaelyn is and how everyone just loves her because she's so sweet. Jaelyn in the epitome of "give an inch, take a mile" and unfortunately she's getting a pass on her behavior. I asked her teacher to get stricter with her and to make her behave or send her home with the yellow lights for me to deal with her. I've already been talking to other moms about 1st grade teachers and there's one that's supposed to be really strict, but fair. I'm thinking I'll request her for next year. I'm going to raise the amount Jaelyn gets for brining home a green light to a quarter, but I'm also going to change the consequence for getting a yellow light. I'm thinking she's going to have to pay me .75 or $1. I'm still thinking about it.

Green Beans and Ice Cream

I've finally figured out a way to get Caden to eat green beans. Alternate bites of green beans with sugar free ice cream! Who knew! He's eating them very willingly. Up until this point, I've only gotten 1 or 2 green beans NEAR his mouth and he's almost 3. Maybe there's hope!