Keeping Track of Lauren & Jack » October 2007 Journal Entries » AboutMyBaby - online baby scrapbooks, photo albums, videos, birth and pregnancy announcements

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Wed, Oct 31, 2007 9:49 PM
Happy Halloween! Sorry for such a long break from the blog. I went to NYC last weekend without the kids, so I was just busy getting ready and then I had no access to email for most of the time there. Apparently there were some pre-Halloween activities over the weekend such as cookie baking/decorating at home and a visit to a local restaurant that was celebating Halloween, face painting, (Lauren was a ghost, Jack was a spider.) with special treats etc.

It was interesting Monday morning. Jack woke up early and was calling for me, and when he saw me he seemed completely normal, as if I hadn't been gone at all. Lauren was especially pleased to see me though, and gave me a big hug, so I did feel missed.

We had a Mom's Club Halloween party on Monday afternoon, and that was when we first realized that Jack was going to REFUSE to wear his Lightning McQueen car costume. He put it on just long enough for some quick photos which I will endeavor to get on here one of these days! Lauren was adorable as a USF cheerleader, with her hair up in pigtails and her pom poms bouncing!

Today Lauren wore her costume to school, and I was worried that it would get dirty in the course of things, but it looked fine. Apparently they took it off when they ate cupcakes, which was smart because her teacher said she had frosting everywhere! But it was really just like a dress with a little t-shirt underneath, and I had her shorts as always underneath. And she had white keds on, which were really comfy. So it was a pretty easy costume for her this year.

On the way home from Lauren's school we were running an errand near Michael's craft store, and I go the idea to tie some little pom-poms in USF colors to her shoe-laces, so we got the supplies for that, which turned into an excercise in incredible restraint, there was so much great stuff in that store to tempt both of us!

So we had an early dinner and then went to the party at our community center, which had a magic show and a parade. Jack refused to wear his costume. You couldn't get near him with it or he'd shreik at the top of his lungs! Then we joined our neighbors Allison, Taylor & Hailey and their assorted family memebers for trick-or-treating. They were all dressed from Alice in Wonderland. Taylor was Alice, and she looked just like her! Allison was the Queen of hearts which looked fabulous, and baby Hailey was a flower and looked adorable.

Lauren and Taylor were very happy to see each other and walked along holding hands. At first Jack was saying "Sissy, wait!" But once he caught up with them, it was Taylor's hand he wanted to hold. He seems to be developing a serious crush on her! He spent most of the time dawdling and then running to catch up with the girls. He was really enjoying the process, (ring the bell and people give you candy!) He also got very attached to Taylor's grandma Glenda. He kept wanting to hold her hand too. So we survived his first trick or treating. He missed out last year because it was his bed-time and he was having a complete melt-down.

Now I just have to figure out how to ration out the candy so they don't overdose on the sugar!

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Tue, Oct 23, 2007 11:04 PM
Well we survived our weekend in Ft Lauderdale and I'm still trying to catch up. We went down there to see Auntie Tati who flew in from LA for a wedding. The 4 1/2 hour drive was uneventful except for the fact that Lauren lost a flip flop during one of our stops for potty breaks. I only realized it at the next stop, some 200 miles later! We stayed in the same hotel as Tataiana and her boyfriend Patrick, in our own two bedroom suite, and the kids shared a room with two queen beds. We had quite a time putting the bed rails on, but it was worth it because I honestly don't think it would have worked without them. The first night the kids were so tired they went straight to sleep. I had brought the video monitor which gave me peace of mind. You can only bring something like that if you're driving though, it's so big!

Unfortunately Spirit Airlines lost Tatiana's suitcase, (so NEVER fly them!) But that meant that the one day we were supposed to be relaxing and hanging out, we had to go shopping to buy her a whole new outfit for the wedding. Luckily we were right next door to a really nice mall. The kids were actually pretty thrilled to be in a department store, and they had fun running around the dressing rooms which were thankfully practically empty.

We had a kitchen in our suite and I had brought a cooler full of food, which I was glad for, so we were able to fix lunch in the room. Nap time was a lot more troublesome, trying to get them settled down. Lauren was tired but Jack kept popping up and chattering, so finally I seperated them and put Lauren in our bedroom. It was just too exciting for Jack that Sissy was right there in the bed next to him.

Later that afternoon I took Lauren for her first haircut at this salon which is especially for curly hair, a franchise of OUIDAD in New York. I was nervous about it, but they did a great job, gave it a good trim and took out a lot of the bulk without sacrifing length. They put a lot of product in it and showed me how to style it. I'm not sure I'll be able to replicate the results, but I have some good ideas.

So it was great to see Tatiana but the weekend went by all too quickly. The ride back was a little hairy since the kids wouldn't eat lunch and barely napped, so they were having little meltdowns all along the way. At one point we stopped and I wanted to buy Lauren a popsicle, but they didn't have them, so I bought here a bottle pop instead. I also got some gummy livesavers. Well, that injection of sugar worked wonders for a little while. I finally got them to eat some PB&J and applesauce. There's nothing worse than being confined to the car with tired and hungry children!

When we got home Lauren really did not seem well, and she had a slight fever and she was saying that her head hurt. I was worried that she may have an ear infection, but I just gave her some Motrin and decided to see how she fared. She went straight to sleep and seemed to feel fine in the morning. Her fever was gone, so I let her go to school. Last night she had a sort of stuffy nose, but otherwise she seems normal.

I just have to say that there's nothing like going away, even just for a few days, to make you appreciate coming home again. The kids were just thrilled to be back with all their toys and to sleep in their own beds. So in many ways it was well worthwhile!

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Wed, Oct 17, 2007 10:43 PM
Yesterday we had a playdate over at Taylor's house which was actually quite calm for once. The favorite activity for the girls is always to try on all the princess dresses complete with matching shoes. Jack likes their train table which has a drawer full of other vehicles and his current favorite is a school bus. (Every time we pass the middle school, which is every time we go anywhere in the car, he makes a point to say hello to the school bus!)

Today I had Lauren's teacher conference at school with Ms. Nicole. She said she's doing well and there was an entire booklet filled with her skills in various areas. It made me think that maybe I should be working more with her connecting the dots and tracing letters at home. Apparently they are working on writing their own names. Of course it's at a very rudimentary level, but still, I could be supplementing with some worksheets at home. I think I got her other teacher Ms. Dawn into trouble with a comment she made about a boy being autistic. Apparently it's not true and no one has been diagnosed as autistic in her class. In that case Ms. Dawn's comment was really inappropriate and I'm sure they are going to reprimand her for it. I was asking about it because I was wondering if there was anything I needed to know in case Lauren had any questions about it, I wanted to educate myself about it. Well, I wouldn't want her saying something about my child's behavior to another parent, especially if it's incorrect or misleading.

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Sun, Oct 14, 2007 10:43 PM
Well Mike had to be gone all day on Saturday and there was no ballet(Fall break) so I, in my infinite wisdom decided it was a good day to have lunch at Chuck E Cheese's. I was going to try to return some things at one store at the mall, but by the time we got down there it was lunchtime, so I decided to just head straight there and forget about errands. Well, it was an absolute madhouse. There were a million birthday parties going on, but I didn't realize how many arcade type games they have there, and hence all the noise. The main trouble was that Jack got overwhelmed and needed to be held, but Lauren wanted to run around and explore. Oh yeah, and she wet her pants right after we got there and I didn't have a change of clothes, so I put her in a diaper and had to leave her shorts on, but they were not that wet so it wasn't too bad. The really hard thing is that you need at least another adult who is willing to stay at the table and be home base. I kept worrying about my bag because it was just too much to carry it AND Jack and run after Lauren too. They did actually eat once our pizza arrived, so that's something. I think they needed a break from all the mayhem. Jack didn't want to play on anything, even the kiddie area with a small slide. He was having none of it and kept asking to go home. Lauren was having a blast and now wants to have her birthday party there. I hope I can come up with a better alternative between now and then, becase it was just chaos!

When we got home and after naps the kids did some finger painting, which was very cute to see how enthusiastic they are abut it. Mike got home before dinner, which we had early, so afterwards we went on a nice family walk which is a rare occurence these days. It had cooled off to a nice temperture so it was perfect play weather.

Today after naps Lauren was asking to go swimming in our pool, so we went in despite the fact that it wasn't really boiling outside. It's sort of ironic that I've been complaining about the heat, but the moment we want to swim it's somehow not hot ENOUGH. I had to give them a bath right away just to warm them up. Jack seemed OK but Lauren was shivering and getting a little blue! The after dinner they asked to go on another walk, so I think they might be expecting one every night now. That's fine if we can actually get done in time to get out there before it gets dark!

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Fri, Oct 12, 2007 11:53 PM
Lauren seemed to be feeling fine this morning so I let her go to school. We managed to get her urine sample, despite her being very amused at the thought of peeing into a cup. I was able to drop it off on the way to MyGym class, since the doctor is just down the street. Jack is doing very well in class, with just a little rolling around in the middle of circle time, and some screaming for milk right at the end when we're supposed to sing the good-bye song.

Mike wasn't feeling well and stayed in bed all day. The only positive thing about that was I was able to leave Jack napping with him and pick up Lauren on time. I'm still not feeling great myself, so it wasn't the most thrilling of afternoons. Some days are just like that, where it's all you can do to just get through it. I'm very grateful that the kids have each other to entertain them when I am not quite up to it! They're pretty happy with a box of crayons and a coloring book. Oh yeah, and the CARS and The Little Mermaid dvd's were essesntial. I still haven't figured out what to do about Jack's screaming at the top of his lungs when he doesn't get his way. Time outs are only proving somewhat effective.

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Thu, Oct 11, 2007 9:14 PM
Lauren has been itching at her crotch a lot lately. Usually she only does that when she needs to go potty. But today it seemed almost constant, and she said "It tickles Mommy." I asked her, "Do you mean it itches?" And she said yeah. I tried to examine her and she didn't seem red, but I decided to call the pediatrician anyway. They said they could get her in at 5:50PM, which gave me the mistaken idea that they were not busy. When we arrived the waiting room was so full there wasn't a single empty chair. Then Dr Jimenez was going to have to go pick up his son from daycare, delaying everything by about half an hour. I decided to go take the kids across the parking lot to have pizza, and I'm glad I did, because we took 45 minutes, and once we were back we STILL had to wait about half an hour. I forgot that we needed to leave them a urine sample, and Lauren couldn't produce any more pee, so we'll have to bring one tomorrow. The doctor said it didn't look like a yeast infection. I guess the other worry is urinary tract infection. Lauren hasn't been complaining of pain, but she has been drinking a lot of fluids and peeing more often. The doctor said to just treat the area with vaseline. I gave her a bath with that oatmeal treatment for rashes etc, so hopefully that was somewhat soothing. She did say it hurt right before she went to bed. The trouble is that it takes 3 days to get the results back, but he said that he could call in an anti-biotic over the weekend if things got worse.

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Wed, Oct 10, 2007 2:58 PM
Sorry to be MIA for an entire week, but Sara was out for over a week, and Lauren was home sick one day saying her stomach hurt, I was sick with a stomach bug last Thursday, and Mike finally got it too this weekend. Somehow we survived. On Friday I took Jack with me to run an errand downtown which wasn't too bad excpet it wound up running into naptime. Sunday we went downtown to see Gloria, a former colleague of Mike's from NYU and met her new fiance Jim. The kids were very excited to see all the tall buldings, ride escalators etc. Jack's new food that he will usually eat is now pizza. Still don't have much luck with Lauren. The only thing she will eat consistently is cookies!(which I try to save as special treats)

On Monday morning I took Jack to the mall to look for one-piece knit pajamas. I was dismayed to see that The Childrens Place doesn't make them past a size 3T, so I was misinformed about that. There were sales going on so I did get some good deals, and I even found Lauren a pretty nightgown and Jack some pajamas with fire trucks which he was very excited about. I would let him get out of the stroller and run around, and we even found the small play area. Of course he wanted to leave that and climb on all the little rides that require money. He kept wailing about turning on the space-ship, so I put in the 50 cents and it started swivelng around and a loud voice was saying "Danger!" or something like that. Jack FREAKED out. And he's been talking about how he's scared of the space ship ever since. I'm not sure how to get it across to him that A. The space ship is not here, and B. I won't let anything hurt him.

Unfortunately Sara's Grandma died very suddenly yesterday, and she just found out right before she was supposed to come here. I had a costume fitting downtown at the Performing Arts Center for my upcoming show, and I'd already rescheduled twice, so I decided to bring the kids with me once they woke up from their naps. Well, wouldn't you know it, that had to be the day Lauren slept 2 1/2 hours and I had still had to go wake her up! The kids were very well behaved, but it all took longer than I expected. We had dinner at Cracker Barrel on the way home which wasn't too bad. It was just getting late so they were a bit cranky, even though they had both napped well. I was going to skip the bath when we got home, but I decided it would be easier to have a quick dip than to deal with the ensuing drama if we didn't follow our usual nightime ritual. Lauren refused to go potty before going to bed, and I should have insisted, because she wet the bed for the first time in months last night. Ugh. It happened around 5AM which was just excruciating for me. . . funny how Mike doesn't seem to hear those middle of the night calls from the kids. Selective hearing!

Today Jack took an hour to settle down for his nap, so we are going to be late to pick up Lauren. I was just about to go in there and get him to go pick her up, when he fell asleep. After going to sleep so late last night, I just didn't have the heart to wake him up. I feel terrible, because 6 hours is a really long time for Lauren to be away from home as it is. I'm lucky it's an option, but I feel so bad about it. And I miss her too!

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Tue, Oct 2, 2007 11:40 PM
Not quite sure what's to be done about all the whining and screaming that seeems to happen with both kids, but especially Jack, when they don't get exactly what they want at exactly the moment they want it. Time outs are somewhat effective . . . eventually, but it's not without more screaming. This is especially moritfying during indoor activities like this morning's music class. Ugh! Eventually we just had to leave. Luckily class was just about over anyway. I feel bad for Lauren because she was behaving pretty well, but she still has to bear the consequences of Jack's bad behavior. Oh well, I guess that's just part of the sibling territory.

Sara was still out today and we were sort of climbing the walls becasue of all the rain, but somehow we made it through. She promised me she's coming back tomorrow, but I'm not counting on it until I see her. I desperately need to get my hair cut, among other errands that I can't bring the kids to, so I hope she comes soon!

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