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Tue, Dec 2, 2008 11:33 PM
So I hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving! We headed off to Lewiston on Tuesday for our annual visit to My Aunt Hilda and Uncle Joe. I, of course, still packed too much but for once I didn't forget anything major! The biggest change was going without a stroller. Each kid had their rolling back-pack filled with new coloring and sticker books which I bought just for this trip. Lauren had a new box of 64 crayons which has the built in sharpener which she was just exstatic about. The flight up there was very easy as it was surprisingly not very busy.

The day after we arrived there was snow, which I was grateful for since I had made such an effort to find snow pants,boots, hats and mittens (which is no mean feat in Tampa!) The next day it rained and all washed away, but we had some more on Thanksgiving day. The kids got a little stir-crazy spending so much time indoors. They started to run around in and knock things over which was nerve-wracking since that house has so many beautiful and breakable things in it!

Thanksgiving dinner was a wonderful feast, as always. Lauren was very excited to say what she was thankful for which was "Family and friends" I sense that they were perhaps practicing that at school. I wish I had video-taped it because Jack said something cute too, which I don't quite remember. I know at one point he said "I'm thankful for you, Auntie Hilda" gazing up at her with his big smile. The kids ate more than I thought they would, but Lauren did better since she actually likes turkey. Jack still won't really eat meat unless it's cold cuts or ground up or disguised in a nugget. But I would say overall that mealtimes were more relaxed, mostly due to the fact that I tried to leave them alone about what they ate, and also I allowed them to leave the table when they were done, provided that they asked our host if they could be excused. It's also getting easier because we gave them regular plates cups and utensils,(albeit smallish ones) and they eat so many more things than they used to. I did bring their booster seats which are bulky, but not very heavy since they're foam. I think that helped them stay put better while they were at the table.

Otherwise we went to the Aquarium and the Festival of lights at a nearby church. We tried in vain on Saturday to find the Aerospace Museum but it was just futile so we gave up and found ourselves at the outlet mall. It was sort of a mob scene though, so after having lunch and looking around a little we headed back to Lewiston. We found our way back to a playground we found when we were there in the summer a few years back. Even though it was cold, it was clear and sunny, so the kids had fun running off some steam. And our last night we had dinner at a nice restaurant where Lauren informed the waitress that she can chew gum. (Oh yeah, that's her latest obsession, my blue peppermint Stride Gum. Probably because I'm addicted to it! But I told her she can't have it except when we take off and land in an airplane.) But the kids did very well at the restaurant and we were even able to have some conversation!

Our return journey was a lot busier and our flight was jammed full. We flew through some rough weather so we never got our beverages which was annoying since I was thirsty! But all the shaking put us all to sleep so it went by quickly enough. But we did very well without the stroller, I'm happy to report, and we also had no potty issues and no wet pants! Yipee! So it's nice to be home again i sunny Tampa. Nothing like going away to make you appreciate your own home once you get back to it!

We dove right back into school and I'm STILL trying to get unpacked and al the laundry done. Today we had playgroup and then we headed home and made cupcakes for tomorrow's bake sale (where I also have to sell.) It was fun having the kids help since it was just out of a box and we bought frosting with some confetti sprinkles which we all enjoyed scattering across the tops. Of course the best part was licking the bowl! I'm applalled to realize that was the first time they've help me bake, but I've vowed to do it more since it really was so easy.

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Sat, Nov 22, 2008 10:17 PM
Friday I was asked by Jack's teacher if I had time to cut out some paper turkeys that his class will paste together along with traced cut outs of their hands as wings on Monday. But then I got caught up going to the party store to see what they had for Lauren's birthday party. I know it's sort of early, but anything they don't have I'm going to need to order online, and with holidays in the meantime, it makes me nervous. Then I went by Old Navy to look for comfy sweats for the kids for the trip up to Buffalo. Lauren has actually consented to wear her jeans lately, which is unusual, but I like them to be comfy for the plane, and she'll usually consent to wearing them. So I didn't really allow enough time to finish cutting out all the turkeys. Luckily they are only doing this project Monday, and I finished it that afternoon while watching the kids run around out in the cul-de-sac. Phew, that's a relief!

At pick-up time Jack was just being reprimanded for calling his classmate Jacob some sort of name like poo-poo head or something equally silly but offensive nevertheless. Both his teacher and I both tried to get him to aopologize, but all the kids had turned to look at him, and sensing an audience, he just shut down. The teacher said he did do some of his work today though. Oh well, there are always challenges! Apparently they had fun camping, evidenced by Jack's sticky chocolatey face. Lauren and Taylor both seemed in good spirits, and they decided bewtween them that they would have a play date. I was all for it since that would wear them out and I was on my own that night, but in retrospect I think I should be careful planning too much on days they have school. I think they're both fairly exhausted by the time we get home, and they need to have a snack and some down time before they're really ready for anything else.

Friday night I finally made a lasagna which I had been promising to make ever since I made one some weeks ago for a member of the Mom's Club who just had a baby. Of course it took a while longer than I expected so we had dinner rather late. But it was worth the wait because they both ate it up and it was actually delicious. Do I sound surprised? I am! It's actually not that much more complicted than spagetti and meat sauce, so I'm feeling encouraged to cook more. I don't really call what I usually do cooking. It's more like . . . heating things up! But I can read, and I can follow a recipe, so I think it would be good for all of us if I try to vary my repetoire a little more. I just need too allow more time!

Today Lauren has been saying she doesn't want to do ballet anymore, but I told her she had to stay through to Christmas. Classes only go for a few more weeks, so I thought it best to continue until there is a natural break in the schedule. She wants to start tap, but they said she can't start until the summer, so we may try to find another school where she can start earlier. But we'll see what happens. Over the summer she said she didn't want to do ballet, so I didn't register her, and then when August rolled around she said, "When am I going back to ballet? But that's OK. If she doesn't want to do it, it'll just open up our schedul for something else. Karate and ice-skating are things that immediately come to mind. Plus soccer should start again in the spring.

After ballet I took Lauren with me to lunch at Chik-fil-A and then to return all the things at the mall that didn't fit! She was a good companion and we had a fun girl's afternoon at the mall. Jack had his mygym class with Mike and then they had lunch and did a little shopping themselves. Then Jack fell asleep in the car so Mike left him there in his car seat for about an hour. It just insn't worth it to try and tranfer him. But it's only possible to leave him in the car in this cool weather. That or you have to leave the air on, what with gas prices being what they are these days!

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Thu, Nov 20, 2008 11:16 PM
Today we hosted playgroup in the afternoon, but it took me all morning to get the house cleaned up. The kids were pretty good sports about being stuck inside and Jack even graced us with a nap so I could really concentrate. It's funny, Mike calls it the "fake house" that we present when people come over, and it never looks that clean at any other time! I find it inspiring though, and something to work toward . . . eventually. I have dreams of being able to say, "sure come on in" anytime someone stops by, without tripping over toys all over the place!

Playgroup was fun, we had a pretty good turnout. Jack was having some trouble sharing his toys and he needed a few time-outs to calm him down. He kept trying to show all the girls the Star Wars episode we tivo's on TV, but they were entirely to caught up in their coloring to pay it much attention. Toward the end Lauren, Sarah and Jack were running around in the various large figure eights possible in our house -screaming at the top of their lungs!

After everyone had left we went outside so they could kick up their heels and work up an apetite since they had tons of snacks all afternoon. It wasn't too sucessful, and dinner was sort of a bust. Oh well, they were tired and went to bed agreeably enough, which I was grateful for!

Of course only at 10PM did I notice in Jack's homework folder that they are going "camping in his class tomorrow and making s'mores and we're responsible for the marshmallows! So a quick trip to Wal-mart remedied that. I hate that place but it's the only choice around here after 10PM. And the quick trip somehow turned into two hours. I bought Jack the dvd of the Clone Wars because I'm sick of watching the same episode over and over, and I'm sick of the commercials too!

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Wed, Nov 19, 2008 11:00 PM
Today Lauren brought in her diorama of forest animals for show and tell, and though I was so proud of our work, I felt a little deflated when I saw the others, many of whom had included the lid of the shoe box on the bottom so that the bottom part stuck out, which made the whole thing much deeper, which is a great idea and I can't beleive it didn't occur to me! Plus I saw the exact same forest animals on someone else's, so it didn't look as original either. Oh well, we did our best.

At pickup Ms Adriennne told me that I need to work with Jack about paying attention and at least giving it a try when they're doing academic work. He apparently is just refusing to participate or even try to do the activities. I know he's been refusing to do homework at home, but maybe we can spend some more time with alphabet and number books. It's a bit worrying, but maybe this is where the fact that he's had so many changes is starting to show. She said he was fine for everything else, so that's a releif at least. I hope he'll come around to at least be willing to try. I'm wondering if I'm doing anything that I'm not realizing to make him feel resistant. Maybe I can figure out better ways to learn as we play.

Lauren was in good spirits and our neighbor Kayla was waiting to play when we got home. They played a lot outside in the gorgeous cool weather, and Dominic was there too. I think it's actually going to be cool all week! That's it for Tampa, we get a week or two and then it's back to sweltering.

I finally decided to have Lauren's birthday party at our Community Center, and I put down a deposit to save the date. She wants a Cinderella theme, so we'll do that plus princes or knights for the boys and I plan to get a castle bounce house that they can set up right outside the room. I'm trying to find the card of some ladies that ran a pricess tea party who I thought did a really good job. I've been looking online for ideas and there are some cute ones, like having them "joust" with pool noodles, etc. I'm so relieved to have finally made a decision because I really need to get going on organizing the invites. At least it's going to be the week after her actual birthday, so we'll have time once we get back from our trip to see Mike's family in Oklahoma.

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Tue, Nov 18, 2008 9:26 PM
Today we had the final music class which is always teddy bear day where they role model a lot of the things they're doing with the teddy bear. It's very cute. My favorite part is when the scarves came out. This shows you the difference between them; Lauren used one scarf to cover her bear and another to cover herself as she pretended to lay down to sleep. Jack tried to make one scarf into a belt and used the other one as a cape for his superhero bear who was flying around he room.

I decided to make a run down to the big consignment store down in Brandon which is about 30 minutes away, and then we'd have lunch down there. I was in search of snow pants for Jack and some turtlenecks or sweaters for Lauren. I did find a few things but no snow pants, so we went to Burlington Coat Factory which was around the corner on the way home and hit the mother load! Jack's snow pants are a bit long, but the next size down seemed too tight, so perhaps these ones will last through to next year. I also found some good snow boots for Lauren that were a good price, so I went ahead and got them although I'm wondering if I should go up a size for the same reason, they may last another year. It's hard to rationalize buying all this gear for less than 2 weeks worth of wear, but I know it'll make a difference to their snow experience this year if they are actually prepared for it. We were out in the blizzard in Buffalo last year in jeans and sneakers and Jack lasted about 5 minutes!

Then, since they were such patient little shoppers, I took them to Chuck E Cheese's for lunch. It was so quiet in there, it was actually quite pleasant. It was a stark contrast to the last time we went there on a Saturday when it was jam-packed and Jack was terrified of everything. This time we blew through all 40 tokens and they had a blast. Of course they probably had the most fun on the climb/tunnel/slide thingy that winds around overhead the whole play area.

My hopes that they would nap on the way home proved futile. I realized that playgroup was apparently going on right when we got home, but if the kids weren't exhausted, then I certainly was! So we just hung out and watched their new favorite dvd "Spirit" which is about a wild horse during cowboys and indians time (late 18th century?)

The other day when I took Jack with me to exchange his snow boots at Marshalls, he insisted on looking at the toys, even though I have a complete moritorium on toys until long after the holidays and Lauren's birthday are over. He knows that, but he still wants to look at things, because I keep saying, "Well, maybe you'll get that for Christmas". But it was getting to quite a boiling point so it suddenly occurred to me that I needed to change the focus. I asked him, "Jack, what do you want to give? Because Christmas is not about what you get but what you want to give. What do you want to give Lauren? And he saw this pair of pink rollerblades that he's decided that he wants to get her. I probably should have let him get her those, (because she'd probably enjoy them,) but I had said we weren't buying any toys and I wanted to stick to that. So since then I've been asking them both, what would you like to get for your teachers? What would you like to get for Daddy? They have a holiday store at school where you can send them with like 5 dollars and a list of their family and they can buy things and then they get wrapped up and sent home with labels. Most of the things are little dollar store things. I think it's a great way for them to learn about money and about the spirit of giving. But I need to think more about how to involved them in the whole gift-giving ritual for the entire family, and perhaps what we can do to give back to the community as well.

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Mon, Nov 17, 2008 8:32 PM
This morning I had a hard time deciding if Jack should come with us on the school field trip to see a play, or send him to the doctor with Mike. Appart from his occaisional cough he didn't seem that bad, so I opted to take him on the field trip with the thought that we could always go to the doctor in the afternoon if he seemed bad, and he really seemd OK. The cough is lingering but I think it's getting better.

The play was actually really good, it was called "The Gruffalo" and it was done by a British group with just 3 actors playing multiple parts. My favorite was the guy who played the snake who shimmied his feet and hips in such a way that he looked exactly like a snake as it slithers along. And he was holding maracas for his rattle and he had this hilarious Spanish accent. I was probably laughing harder than the kids!

After the show was over we headed to a park and had lunch and then they played on a wonderful playground which is right on the water at Safety Harbor, it was a beautiful location. Then we headed home and the kids watched a DVD which I only allow on car trips of an hour or more. I forgot to mention that we carpooled with Taylor and her Grandma Glenda. I see her all the time since she's a regular over at the Brock's household, but we had a nice opportunity to talk and I was fascinated by the fact that she's a Tampa native and she's seen this city grow from a bunch of orange groves and dirt roads into the suburban sprawl that we enjoy today! She's also had some great stories from her younger days, so I really enjoyed the ride there and back.

Lauren insisted on seeing if Kayla next door was home, so they had a bit of a playdate before dinner. Lauren invited her to stay to dinner but her folks had already made plans. Lauren has taken to doing that a lot lately, either inviting people or inviting herself to stay for a meal (mostly at the Brocks which she seems to consider her second home). Sometimes I'm a little dismayed because I'm wracking my brains on what we would offer some sudden guests, but luckily the freezer is usualy full of kid-friendly foods that we can heat up in a pinch!

Oh, and I found out that episodes of Star Wars-the Clone Wars (which is the animated version) is broadcast in syndication on the Catroon network, so I Tivo'd it for Jack and it is now his new favorite thing to watch. I'm wondering if it's too violent and some of the creatures are sort of scary looking, but Jack was so insistent that I've relented. I think I might try to get it on DVD eventually though because the commercials are probably worse than the show!

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Sun, Nov 16, 2008 9:28 PM
Friday was a pretty typical day at school. I think Jack is making the adjustment fine, but there are definitely times when he doesn't listen or is stubburn about doing something. Still, overall I think he's doing very well considering this is his 3rd classroom in 3 months and he's become comletely potty trained in the span of that time. I think he's doing OK while still in school, although he does say that he's tired to his teacher. I haven't had any luck getting him to take a late nap, so he's been pretty cranky around dinner time. I have managed to get him to take naps on non school days, so hopefully he's getting enough rest.

Lauren is doing very well and was full of stories about forest friends the whole ride home from school. And she told me that they play "Diamond castle" while at recess which is the subject of one of her new books. I thought it was interesting for her to bring elements ofthat story into her imaginitive play like that.

There has been a lot of playing outside now that the weather has cooled enough for that to be comfortable. They ride their bikes around the cul-de-sac and do such funny things with the other kids that live on our street. The other day they were playing with Dominick's pirate toys and they set up an entire castle or something and then said they were having a puppet show. It was very cute. I'm trying hard not to hover too close and let them work out their litte skirmishes on their own. It's difficult for me though! I've been bringing a book and just sitting in the driveway in a folding chair. Mike used to call our other neighbors who did the the "Driveway Divas" so I guess I've joined that club!

Saturday we went to a USF Bulls football game. The kids were very excited but it did go right through nap time so we did have some crankiness, plus Jack had a bad case of sniffles. Lauren dressed in her USF cheerleading costume from Halloween in '07, which she's pretty much grown out of with some leggings underneath. I didn't have any school colors for Jack so we improvised as best we could. The closest we came to forest green and gold was olive green shorts and a tan shirt! He did have a USF baseball cap but he wouldn't wear it most of the time. Otherwise they shook their pom-poms and waved their noisemakers and seemed to get into the spirit of the whole thing. Too bad we lost so badly! Jack kept asking to leave, so toward the end of the 3rd quarter we took pity on him and left. He fell asleep right away in the car, but Lauren woke him up when we got home about 30 minutes later. That was definitely NOT enough sleep!

This morning his congestion had developed into a cough and he doesn't seem to have a fever, but I'm also wondering if my ear thermometer is working properly. Still I didn't think he should go with us to Taylors' to play which of course was very upsetting for him. He did go to lunch and the store with Daddy, and then later we went to exchange his snow-boots for a bigger size. He is such a different child when I get him on his own! He liked having an excursion with just the two of us. He was thrilled to find a Transformer t-shirt that I found acceptable, because it's from the animated movie so they don't look too scary. So he's been in pretty good spirits even though his cough seemed to be worsening throughout the day.

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Thu, Nov 13, 2008 10:07 PM
We spent practically the whole day making a diorama which is a homework project for Lauren's class. It's not due until this coming Wednesday, but it's hard to know how long these things will take, so I'm glad we got it done early. And it did take the ENTIRE day. The theme this month is Forest Animals, and a diorama is a sort of 3-dimensional landscape that you make out of a shoe box. It's remarkable just how many steps it actually took. First we did the background out of construction paper. Then we cut out trees and grass and bushes and glued those on. Then I found some pictures of the animals online and printed them out onto card stock. Then we cut them out and glued them in there so they stood up. And there you go, forest wonderland! Oh yeah, and there were cotton balls for clouds, and Lauren wanted to add flowers, so it was all very involved. It's king of funny because everything is all out of proportion. like there's a mouse in the foreground that is much bigger than the red fox. And the moose is just about the same size as the geese on the little pond. And my favorite, the hummingbird that's bigger than the hawk!

Jack was a pretty good sport and entertained himself pretty well while we were going about these arduous tasks. He spent some time on Noggin.com which he just loves, and he's getting rather good with his mouse control, I must say. And he did take a nap which was so thankful for!

I finally allowed them to chew gum for the first time today, and I spent the whole afternoon repeating myself "DO NOT SWALLOW IT! If you think you're done, then tell me and you spit it out into the wrapper and throw it away." So the big old fashioned bubble gum was fine, probably because it's such a big piece. Then we went to the store and I always seem to chew my favorite sugarless gum, (sweet peppermint Stride)in the car while I'm driving. So they kept asking if they could have some of that. I was a bit wary since the pieces were smaller, but since they did so well before I thought we could give it a try. Then Jack says to me "Mmmm, Mommy, that gum was good, can I have some more?" Yup, he swallowed it! So that's it for gum, at least for Jack. He was pretty devastated, because he really did like chewing it. I was a bit worried, I called Mike, but I guess unless he chokes on it it's not a huge deal. I hope not! He did say that his belly hurt at dinner time, but he's been complaining about that for days now, ever since he threw up last week. Ayayay, it's always something!

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Wed, Nov 12, 2008 11:22 PM
Second full day at school seemed to go pretty well for Jack. Ms. Adrienne asked if he likes to color, and I realized that he doesn't really have a passion for it the way Lauren does, and he gets frustrated by rules or limitations on how he's supposed to color, and he gets bored and wants to do someting else. So apparently there were a lot of coloring activities that he was reluctant to participate in. The good news is that he didn't throw a complete fit, but he had to have some consequences that persuaded him to participate with the others. He's just showing some resistance. I guess that's somehwat to be expected in this new environment. But he was very excited and was brimming with news when he greeted me at pick-up time. Again he didn't fall asleep in the car, although there was some quiet time playing games with Sarah and watching a movie once he got home. He was defintitely spinning his wheels around dinner time and he went to bed fsirly early.

I just went tonight to an event for the theatre group I've been a part of, they were announcing their upcoming season and they were showcasing some of their talent. It was held at the library (which is practically spitting distance from our house), and while there I made the connection that Ms. Adrienne is the wife of someone I did a play with last Spring. I feel so bad that I didn't realize they were the same person until now, but I knew I liked her immediately and that's probably because she was already familiar to me! Duh! OK, I feel like an idiot . . .

Otherwise I've just been trying to get ready for our trip up to Buffalo for Thanksgiving in a few weeks, where apparently they are expecting SNOW at the moment! It's hard to comprehend in the current balmy 85 degree weather we have here. It's been occuring to me that we do need SOME winter clothes if they're going to play outside at all. Lauren only has one pair of jeans, but she does have lots of leggings and tights. I've been trying to find Jack some light pants for school that have elasticated waists so he can pull them down himself when he needs to go potty. It's hard to find things like that in his size that aren't sweats. They both tried on their snow boots from last year and I was surprised to see that they could still get them on. Lauren's seem to be fine but Jack's are really too small. I guess they'd do for Thanksgiving but I'm on the hunt for cheap new ones.

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Tue, Nov 11, 2008 9:43 PM
Monday Jack had a good first full day with his new class with Ms. Adrienne. There was a surprising lack of drama saying good-bye at drop-off time. I think they did a good job transitioning him over there so he seemed right at home. I was amazed at how much more time I had not picking him up at 11:30. I got all the beds made, did 2 loads of laundry, did all sorts of stuff around the house. But it felt lonely too, I genuinely did miss having lunch with my litte buddy. Oh well, I guess it's just the way of things. He was in a good mood at pick-up, and he reportedly did fne on the potty which was my only big worry. He did seem tired and I was hoping he'd fall asleep in the car but it didn't happen, and there was no way he wanted to nap once we got home.

They each brought home an activity kit. Lauren's was about patterns and Jack's was called "Is it alive?" all about differentiating between living things and non-living things. It came with a big magnifying glass and we went out on the back yard hunting for living things. Luckily we have another large magifying glass so Lauren was happy to come along. There was a disappointing lack of bugs around. Where are the bugs when we need them? Oh, except the big fat bumble bee which made the kids both shriek, despite my attempts to say he's just like Barry from the Bee Movie.

Then we headed off to the community center but ran into our new neigbor Kayla and her mom Nicole, so we changed route to join her at the park around the corner. That dissolved into some gemeral running/riding bikes around the cul-de-sac. I witnessed Jack using his pedals which is a first in a long time. He finally seems to see that he really will go faster that way. I was hoping that Lauren would feel inspired to use her big bike instead of her big wheel, since both Kayla and Dominick were going so much faster on their bikes. When I questioned her she said "But I could fall off!" So I guess that's what's bothering her.

Today we had a fun Music class and lots of playing in the park afterwards. I actually managed to get Jack to nap today and then we headed to playgroup at another park which had a good turnout of friends and there was a lot of running around. Too bad it's getting dark so early now since the time change!

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