Working in the Classroom

I worry about my kids. Are they happy? Are they well adjusted? Do they have friends? With Allie, I've really worried if she is ready for kindergarten? I'm sure every mom does it. Allie goes to a co-op preschool which means a parent must work so many days out of the school year in the classroom. I love going with Allie and getting to see how she interacts with everyone. She can be so tempermental and head strong at times and I see what might be considered immaturity at home. I have no one to compare her to because I've always felt like Jaelyn was so mature for her age. So anyway, I worked in Allie's classroom today and I so enjoyed watching her. She listens, she sits in circle time just like the other children, she plays nicely and cleans up when it's time. All those things that I worry about, I shouldn't be. She is a well adjusted, happy four year old.

I've wanted to volunteer in Jaelyn's classroom this year, this just wasn't a way with the two at home. I'm looking forward to next year with Caden starting pre-school. I'll get to work in Jaelyn and Allie's classrooms.

I think I'm feeling sentimental tonight, but I just need to write that I am so thankful to have my three precious children in my life.

I'm Done

I'M DONE! I'M DONE! I'M DONE! Want to hear that again? I'M DONE! I finished painting tonight. The stairwell is finished and now the colors flow from the front door to the back door, from the living room to the basement and back up to the bedrooms. I love it and it looks so good (if I do say so myself). I know I said I was going to do it last night, but I took a hot bath and read a book instead :p. I'm still not going to hang those pictures in the guest room, not yet anyway. I'll wait until the itch to move is impossible to resist and then I'll jinx new orders right into existence.

A Week in Pictures

Jaelyn "decorated" Allie this morning. Check out Jaelyn's smile. Her two top teeth are loose now.

Allie wants Zoe to play with her so badly and Zoe has made her wish come true. All Allie has to do to attract our playful kitty is to wear her gypsy costume and wave her arms arount a little.

Caden has become a computer expert at the age of three. He has three games he likes to play. He knows what button to click on, how to double click, how to play them, how to minimize and maximize them and how to close them and move onto another game. I'm totally impressed.

Peek a boo - Who's in the bag?
Wednesday was Jaelyn's 100th day of school. They had a 100 party and made a big deal out of it. I think she told me she has 90 more days to go!

On Our Own Again

Dan just left to head to the airport. He'll be spending the next few days in Ft. Polk, Louisiana. Sounds exciting, doesn't it :p. We don't have too much planned for while he's gone: a playdate on Monday and dinner with friends on Wednesday. Schools are closed on Tuesday for voting and that's my grocery shopping day. It's been a while since I shopped with all 3. Should be interesting.

18 days till Baba and Grandpa come!

My Day of Accomplishments

I love Saturdays. I am able to get so much done that I can't get done with the kids under foot. Dan is happy to hang out and play with the kids. Yesterday, I worked on cleaning out the blue room in anticipation of my parents visit, I patched the holes in the wall and touched up the paint (something that's been on my "to do" list for a year), I put away laundry and ran 2 new loads, I painted Caden's new door and cleaned two bathrooms. It feels so good to get so many things DONE. Dan thinks I'm silly, but when my little world around me is in order (meaning my home), my life feels in order. When my little world is in chaos, my brain feels so scattered and fragmented. Dan was awesome all day. He even put the kids to bed, read to them and let me go to Walmart to pick up a few things. One hour later, I had the things on my list plus a new curtain rod and a valence for our bathroom (another thing from my "to do" list).

I almost have my house like I want it. We have new light fixtures picked out for the dining room and entry way. Once we replace those and I finish painting the downstairs staircase (TONIGHT), our house will be all done. Of course, my general rule of thumb has been once we are all settled in and have everything just like we want it, we get orders and it's time to move on. Maybe I won't hang those last few pictures in the basement! Huh?!?!

"They did it"

I can almost always tell when Jaelyn is telling lies. Her twinkling eyes and smile give her away. With Allie and Caden, I cannot normally tell. Tonight, I went to the basement to get them started on cleaning up and discovered that someone had played in the kitty litter pan (gross) and I haven't cleaned it out today (double gross). There was kitty litter all over the floor. I questioned all three kids and cannot figure out who did it. Jaelyn says Allie and Caden did it. Allie says Jaelyn and Caden did it. Caden says Allie and Jaelyn did it. Who to believe? Could they have all been in on it? I cannot tell from any of their faces who was telling the truth. They all lost tickets since no one would fess up to the crime. Why in the world would a child want to play in kitty litter? I've talked over and over with them about her the kitty litter pan is the kitty's potty. They don't play in the big potty. Ewwww!

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.

This too shall pass...RIGHT?

I'm sure it's a phase. I hope it's a phase. Lately, Caden wants what he doesn't want and doesn't want what he wants. It's driving me beserk. For example, we are going to the car and I say "Caden, do you want to walk or do you want me to carry you?" I'm into love and logic parenting with choices. So, he says "carry me," but when I go to pick him up, he has a total meltdown and says "I want to walk." But then he doesn't walk, he just stands there and cries because he wanted me to carry him. It's so tiring and the crying is taking on a Jaelyn-whining tone that is not at all good for my sanity. What to do??? It's a phase...it too shall pass, right?

Jaelyn's Report Card

Jaelyn brought home her 2nd quarter report card yesterday. I missed getting to have a parent/teacher conference like they did 1st quarter to go over the report card. Jaelyn is still struggling with concentrating and focusing on her work rather than focusing on her friends around her. She doing very well academically, but I imagine she could be truly excelling if she could just exercise a little self control. Her teacher is really working with her and has set her up in her own "private office" by the teacher's desk. Two of Jaelyn's cohorts also have their own "private offices" these days, so I hear. Last month, she brought home 1/3 yellow lights to 2/3 green lights. So far, she's received 2 green lights in February. I've upped her rewards for green lights and upped her consequences for yellow; so hopefully that'll have some effect.

The main 2 subjects Jaelyn gets critiqued on are reading and math. She gets S: secure, D: developing, B: beginning. For math, she has mostly secure with a few developing. Her reading is about half and half with secure and developing. Jaelyn received one O: outstanding in "Demonstrates Effort" for PE. Silly girl!

Gymnastics

I signed all 3 kids up for gymnastics through a local rec center. The class is for an hour and is open to 3, 4 and 5 year olds. Perfect. Tonight was the first class. I knew the girls would do fine, but I was concerned about my mommy's boy, Caden. We got there right as they were calling the kids in. To begin with, they were working down a list, but lots of kids weren't there so they were just lining kids up and asking their names. Allie got pulled to go with the first of three groups. Jaelyn went into the third group. Caden was one of the last kids left. They told him to get into Jaelyn's line and asked his name. He said "Caden Thomas" and walked into the gym with the teachers like he'd been doing it all his life. He didn't even look back at me. All three kids enjoyed the class. Caden caught me watching him at one point from the hall and I gave him a thumbs up sign. I was worried he'd get upset by seeing me. Instead of, gave me the thumbs up sign back and turned back to his group. I'm so proud of my little guy. He actually cried when the class was over and didn't want to leave.

FUNdamentals

We were invited to a birthday party for one of our neighbors on Friday night. We've been here almost a year and we are finally starting to get to know some people. It's nice. Anyway, it was at a place called FUNdamentals, kind of like Gymboree. The kids had so much fun. I thought you might like to see some of the pictures.

FUNdamentals Continued

Saturday was a GOOD day

I loved yesterday. It was a wonderful day. First, Dan got up with the kids and I got to stay in bed until 9! Oh my goodness! He even kept them quiet so I actually got to sleep in instead of just staying in bed and listening to the ruckus. Dan did dampen my mood a little when I got up by suggesting we do our taxes online. I so wanted to go to the tax office this year. I hate entering everything and I'm never sure if I'm doing it totally correct, even though I'm using a tax program. So...because he had been so nice and he promised to go to the tax office if I couldn't figure it out, I gave it a good try. I registered with military one source so I could access H&R Blocks free tax prep (yea for military perks) and got started. It was about 9:30. At 1:00, after pulling most of my hair out and Dan having taken care of the kids ALL morning, literally, I clicked "submit" and sent our return to the IRS. Yahoo! Refund here we come - or should I say "Refund, here YOU come!" This is the last year we were able to claim our adoption tax credit. We used all of it over the last 5 years except about $2000, and that's mainly because Dan was deployed and his income was tax free for a year.

Now that we knew our refund was on the way and we knew my parents are on the way in May, we went to Sandals.com and booked a vacation for just the two of us. Check out the link so you can be totally jealous. We'll be spending 5 days and 4 nights in a St. Lucian paradise. We booked an ocean front honeymoon suite (a honeymoon wasn't a requirement, but it will be our 12th anniversary) with a huge patio. All the water and land sports are included so we'll be able to fill our days with snorkeling, diving for Dan, and sunning on the beach with a book for me. Heaven, I tell you. We've already checked out the menus of the 15 restaurants between the 3 Sandals resorts in St. Lucia, and we both need to lose a few pounds before we go so we can find them there! I'm super excited, but also a little nervous about leaving the kids for so long. I need a break, but I'll miss them. St. Lucia is a long way away from Maryland.

Huge Praise

Thank you so much to all who have been praying for my mom. She's had issues with her calcium levels, but it seems like things are evening out and they'll hopefully be able to start decreasing her Vitamin D and Calcium as her parathyroid takes over. She's starting to feel better and is getting her energy back. The best news, however is not about her calcium. It's about the pathology report. She had a doctor's appointment today and the mass in her thyroid is negative - BENIGN!

Lazy Day - Schools Closed

Happy February, Everyone! We got a call this morning that school were delayed 2 hours. Ok - they were forecasting rain and sleet this morning with it clearing by the afternoon. An hour later, we got another call that schools are closed. The weather forecast is still the same. I have no idea why they've closed the schools, but Jaelyn's happy. We had a pajama morning and I think were all dressed before lunch. We've had cutting craft time and played Uno. Caden's down for a nap now so we might break out Monopoly or Sequence OR maybe I'll go snuggle up on the couch and let the girls watch a movie! Sounds good, huh?

Painting - 1 Step Closer

Since we moved into our house last March, we have painted the kids' bedrooms and bathroom, the living room, kitchen, dining room, computer room, and hallway/stairwell. The last area that needed to be painted was the basement. It was painted an ugly taupe color that I've absolutely hated. I got off my duff Monday night and started painting. I had 4 partial gallons of various yellows and whites that I mixed together to make 2 gallons. Dan laughed at me, but I am really happy with the finished product. I finished tonight and it looks so clean, bright and sunny down there. Now I just have one stairwell to paint and the basement bedroom to touch up and our house will be complete!!!!

My Meatloaf isn't "Too Bad!"

Some of you might remember Caden going through a food phase in the fall where I was actually able to bribe him to eat vegetables. Well, it was a phase and didn't last very long. Thankfully, most phases are cyclical and we are back at it (only with mini M&Ms for incentive instead of ice cream since it's so cold). Last night, we had meatloaf with green beans, carrots and rice. Caden very easily ate the green beans, but he turned his nose up at the meatloaf. I offered him 2 M&Ms to try a tiny piece of meatloaf. He begrudgingly put it in his mouth and then declared "Not too bad." Does that mean it's good??? He ate in total about 10 bites of meatloaf and at the end was saying "yeah, it's pretty good." Silly boy! I offered him 5 M&Ms to try a tiny bite of rice, but he decided he was done and wanted to leave the table. I know better than to push my luck!

Ramblings about Bath and growing up

When it was just me and the kids, I had such a system for baths. I could get all three kids in, scrubbed, out and into pajamas in under fifteen minutes. It seemed so hard back them, but I would love to have those days back. Baths have become quite a chore. I think the main issue is that the bathtub has shrunk - or maybe the kids have gotten bigger :). There just isn't enough room for 3 bottoms in the tub anymore. Dan's letting the kids take baths by themselves now or he throws them all in the shower. I've been letting the kids take turns by themselves while the other two bathe together. It's working okay, but I'm still nostalgic for the easier days. In general, I think the kids have gotten harder. I used to have such great control over them, but somewhere over the last year I've lost it. They are still good kids, I just think it's part of growing up and becoming their own little people.

They say the silliest things

Caden has gotten so funny. He cracks me up sometimes. At lunch today, Allie swiped one of Caden's grapes off of his plate. He got very upset about it. I calmed him down and convinced him to eat the rest of his grapes so she couldn't swipe any more. He ate them and then looked at Allie and in an authoratitive voice said "You can't eat my grapes now." Then he laughed the funniest villian laugh "Mahwwahahah...my grapes are in my tummy!"

The kids are very into pirates right now and love to insert pirate terminology into our normal everyday conversations. So...I'm driving us to the grocery story yesterday. Allie spots Giant and yells "Giant Ahoy, Mommy." Get it...land, ahoy! Silly, Silly!

Zoe's Favorites and Not So Favorites

I know I said Zoe was the sweetest kitty, but I've changed my opinion a little. She's no where near as sweet as Sebastian is to me, but she's much sweeter with the kids than Sebastian will ever be. Once she got her pain patch off last week, there was no more cuddling up with me at night to sleep. It makes me miss Sebastian, but anyway, not the point.

Jaelyn is very gentle with Zoe. Zoe will tolerate Jaelyn picking her up to put in her lap. She'll lay there patiently while Jaelyn pets her. Zoe has also been introduced to Jaelyn's top bunk and for the last three nights has disappeared right before bedtime to be found in Jaelyn's bed when she climbs in. Talk about making Jaelyn happy!

Allie is so excited to have Zoe, but her excitement comes out a little too wildly - is that a word? Zoe is scared of Allie and hides whenever she comes near. I feel bad for Allie because she wants her to like her so much. I've been trying to hold Zoe and help Allie pet her gently. It might just take some time for the two to get together. Maybe Allie can be her crazy playing partner.

Caden's treatment of Zoe and her response to him is in the middle of the road between the girls. She'll let him pet her until he gets too excited and then she scadoodles.

I'm hoping Zoe will become more of a lap kitty as she gets older. Right now, she's just so playful. Petting her tickles and then she feels the need to nibble. She's sleeping by my feet at night. It's funny - she stays with Jaelyn until Jaelyn is asleep, comes downstairs to see me and then goes back up to sleep with me. Overall, I think Zoe is going to be a great kitty!