Category Archives: The Girls

Nearly two weeks of good sleep!

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I’m highly impressed with the girlies. I made a point of starting the girls early on their school routines. I know I’ve posted about it before. We’ve gone nearly two weeks with NO TV at bed time. They alternate nights of choosing the sounds they get to sleep to. Kitten likes the birds and Sammi likes the bubbles. We’ve only had one night of issues really, but I think it had more to do with Mommy being sick than them really not wanting to sleep in their beds.

I think we have to adjust bed time as the weeks go on. Some days Kathleen says she needs more sleep so she goes to bed a half hour earlier. She never was a morning person though. But 6am is working, I think a shower helps her wake up too I know it helps me. Sam not so much she’s pretty much wide awake once she’s up lol. My morning kid that’s for sure.

They adjusted well. Hopefully Kathleen will do well enough for school as well. She has half a day tomorrow and then starts on Thursday full time. That’ll be fun.

First Day of Preschool

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Sammi did really well today. I’m proud of her. She stayed with Miss DL (one of the other teachers of the younger children) while she waited for her teacher Miss BreEllen to come and take her to class.

She has her own little cubby, and she had a good time.

We had a few issues when leaving. I’m not sure what it was, mostly having to do with missing me and sissy I think not actually having a bad time at school. We cried all the way home. And we cried for about 20 mins at home (and so did her sister). It was almost a take a nap moment, but I knew she had to be hungry and I didn’t want her to sleep then. But she was fighting me over food so we got her to watch some TV and snuggle in my bed for a few minutes. I showed her the 3-ring binder I bought her (and her sister and her Daddy) and the notebook she could write in. All her own. I showed her the box of colors, both crayons and pencils and she seemed to perk up and settle down. She colored for a little while, while I made lunch.

Miss BreEllen told me that her only issue was waiting her turn. Which is something we know she needs to work on. Hopefully this will help her out. They are having a more structured class for which I am grateful, not that last years was bad, I just think Sam needs more structure than Kathleen does. She’s a bit more out going and more prone to lose track of her train of doing at that moment lol.

I look forward to seeing this school year with Sammi and am a bit frightened about Kindergarten for Kathleen. Not worried so much about her, worried about the drop of process, how she’ll do with that and all the fun unknowns we are going to encounter with the start of a new year and a new school.

I am so proud of both of my girls. They are so wonderful and smart. Love em to death.

School Schedule

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This Sunday started the beginning of our morning routine. Well bedtime on Sunday. On Sunday the girls went to bed at 7pm without the TV and only an alarm clock that played bubbles for two hours. With a few issues they were asleep with 40 mins. Chalk one up on the yay list lol.

We woke up on Monday at 6am, me and Kathleen took a shower – Samantha got a bye. And we got dressed and did everything we need to before 6:30a. We need to be at school around 7am for Kathleen to eat breakfast. Samantha will have 15 mins to eat breakfast before school. We will drop her off on the way home from dropping Kathleen off. Her school doesn’t start until 8am. But it’ll give her time to play with the kids before school and all that fun stuff too.

We did the same bedtime wakeup routine this morning. Samantha had to take a shower but we did no hair washing. Tomorrow everyone has to wash hair. That will be the test. See if we can still get ready by 6:30a with everyone showering and washing hair.

A few adjustments to the routine is going to be me setting out clothes for the next day so that I don’t have to hunt them in the morning. But other than that I think we are doing real well.

I do know that I have to take a shower every morning or I will not be awake at all for the rest of the day. I was totally exhausted this morning but perked up with a shower. Thankfully, I was gonna be worried. I’m gonna have to start going to bed a tiny bit earlier cause I need a bit more sleep lol. Either that or some adjustment is needed. Probably a bit of both lol.

But so far so good.

TV Shows

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I know I am not the greatest of parents when it comes to the TV. Yes I let my kids watch it without much limitations. No they can’t watch whatever they want. They are regulated to Disney Channel, Nickelodeon, PBS kids and possibly Cartoon Network. But mostly they watch the Disney Channel with a few exceptions. But right now we are with out cable TV, so they just watch what shows we let them that stream on Netflix. Yeah we get into a rut of watching endless Dora and Deigo. But they’ve watched some pretty cool cartoons too – Speed Race:The Next Generation, Dino Squad and currently we are doing The Jackie Chan adventures. Of course that is on top of Dora, Deigo, Backyardigans, Phineas and Ferb and several PBS kids shows.

I know I shouldn’t let them watch as much as they do, but honestly they don’t watch as much of it as you’d think. More often than not they will watch a few minutes and then go off an play something, come back in a few mins and then watch some more. They rarely just zone out for hours on end watching TV. The TV is good background noise.

Phineas and Ferb was one of those shows I was worried about when it first came out. Two boys who are always doing things that they shouldn’t at least according to their sister. When it comes down to it Phineas and Ferb are about making the most of the days you have, having fun while doing it and using your mind to get things done. They never cheat, they never steal, they always have the proper permission, even if it’s not the permission you’d think – building permits etc, but not always mom and dad’s express permission to do exactly what they did lol. It sends a good message. It’s a fun show and it’s a show Shea and I don’t mind watching for hours on end. We like it – we actually stop to watch it if we’ve never seen it before. It’s a good family show.

I recently found out what a show was and was pretty much appalled that some parents let their children watch that show and wouldn’t let them watch Phineas and Ferb. Disney has it’s set of standerds, if it doesn’t fit it doesn’t show on Disney. Disney may be a commercial business but it is pretty family oriented. If it’s one Disney I don’t question whether or not I let my kids watch it. I have yet to find a show that I’m repulsed by or find that sends a bad message to the girls, regardless of the age range for the show.

Nick doesn’t fall into that range. But the main reason we are dedicated Disney Channel household is mostly because I hate all the cereal commercials and the toy commercials that are all over other children stations. My kids don’t need any help with their toy choices and they sure don’t need the latest and greatest toy out there to be happy. Sometimes a cardboard tube make the light in my children’s eyes go on – that’s a lot of the time for Sammi lol.

Each parent has the right to do what they think is best I get that. Hehe, I have one friend who is pretty adamant that she is only going to let her kiddos watch the stuff she grew up on. She has a great DVD collection going to provide that entertainment. I’d love to see her collection but le sigh, she’s too far away hehe. We have the right to raise our kids the way we feel best. Sometimes I just feel like I’m out of the loop on things. Things in the long run make me wonder if I’m a good parent, and then other times I know I’m doing a good job. My girls are loved, cared for and they love us right back. It’s an awesome thing

Nightmares

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Kathleen has been having some pretty good nightmares over the past few days/weeks.

She was laying next to me just a few minutes ago on the floor. She yelled Mommy like she was lost or scared or something and woke herself up. It seems she dreamt we’d left Sammi somewhere.

While Shea does tease her about leaving her places I’m pretty confident that this is not why Kathleen has been dreaming about it or even thinking about it while awake. A few weeks ago, I don’t remember exactly when, I went looking for Samantha, and couldn’t find her. We looked everywhere, and I mean everywhere. Shea was at the point of wandering the neighborhood when we found her just standing in our bathroom afraid she was in trouble, so she was hiding and keeping quiet. She scared the living daylights out of all of us. Kathleen was in hysterics. She was crying and really upset that Samantha had gone missing. This isn’t the first time she’s had issues with her sister being “lost”. Sammi and Kathleen have never been separated. I will say that first off and they have never in their lives been lost. But even the thought of Kathleen being with out her sister makes her go into hysterics. She has no problem going with out her, but someone leaving Sammi or doing something with Sammi with out her scares her to death.

She is tied to the hip with Sam in a very emotional sense. I think she is her back bone sometimes, the strength she feeds off of. Kathleen is a smart girl, but she’s really shy. She has been for a long time, and I just hope that school this coming fall will go well. Thankfully she’ll have one little girl from daycare at the same school, so maybe that will help out. If they are in the same class even better!

Two Stories

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My parents are visiting. Though you won’t get any tales from that unless something really really good happens that needs it’s own post. Like this one.

However one story is not funny and the other is funny in the context it was given.

My mom accidentally washed her cat. She put in a load of laundry and the kitty jumped in afterward she’d loaded but before it was turned on. The poor thing thumped around for a little while before my Mom heard her. The kitty’s rear was a little worse for wear, but Mom says she’s doing fine she just has a sore tail now. But they are still watching and the kitty is afraid of the washer. I would be too if I got stuck in it.

Now to the funny story. Samantha got a Bullseye stuffed toy for her birthday, she got him dirty and he needed to be washed. So into the washer he went. We were telling my parents about bullseye being washed and very seriously Kathleen says to us, “Now his tail hurts.” Her logical conclusion since grandma’s kitty got washed by accident and her tail hurts means that Bullseye’s tail must hurt.

The mere fact that she remembered and understood the consequences is amazing, but what makes it funny is that she said it so seriously. It wasn’t a joke. If it had come from Samantha I’d have thought she was trying to be funny, but Kathleen not really. She was dead serious and I think her feelings were slightly hurt that we laughed about it. But she started to giggle too about it, so it didn’t last long. She is such a bright little girl.

I wanna be sedated

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Okay it’s very much my fault for the girlies wanting to listen to it. I watched My So-Called Life this past week. And it brings back memories from college and one of the song’s played in the series is I wanna be sedated by the Ramones. It was also played by a band in Reality Bites – one of the movies we saw at school in a dinky little room on campus for free. Was awesome time.

So I started listening to the song and now the girls really want to hear it over and over and over again. And it must be this version on you tube.

Getting warmer here

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It’s getting warm down here. It’s been in the 70′s for over a week, and we are running the air conditioner every night. The windows in the living room and office are open and it’s cold in the morning, but that’s only relative. The house stays chilly through out the day so I end up in a sweatshirt all day but it’s worth it.

We moved our computers to the bedroom to prepare for the incoming heat. We spent an hour or so cleaning up the bedroom to do that. It still needs a little work, and then I really need to buckle down and clean the entire house before it gets too hot.

I also need to call the AC people to come see if they can tell us what is wrong with our AC unit and how much it’ll be to fix it. We probably won’t run it much this summer but it’ll be nice to have if we have company which we are planning on having this May. My parents are coming and we are excited. The girls are making plans already lol.

It’s always good to see my parents, I only wish we could make it home more often. We will enjoy their visit muchly but it’s not the same as going home. Probably won’t be this year maybe next year will make it up in the summer or over winter break. Kathleen starting school will limit the times we can go.

March 1st starts pre-registration for Kindergarten. I have to make a phone call tomorrow to see if I must take my Kindergartner with me or not if I don’t then I will just take the little one to fill out the paper work. Registration is in July for like two days. fun.

They are growing up so fast. I’m so happy to see Kathleen doing so well, even though it’s a fight to make her stay at school. She likes it, but she doesn’t want to leave me. I haven’t been nearly as present as I could have been with her outings and the like because I want her to learn to be with her friends with out me.

Kathleen has her first birthday party this Saturday. I have to remember to pick something up for the little girl. It’s at the skating rink so it’ll be nice to take the girls. Even if it’s an extra $4 for Sammi to skate, it’ll be good.

We’ll probably take the girls skating again for Sam’s birthday just the two of them with the passes Kathleen got for her birthday. Hopefully they will have a good time.

I am such a worry wort

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Two days ago Kathleen went to the doctor to find out she had strep throat. Yesterday we did the same thing with Samantha. At 9am she passed out on the bed while watching TV. That’s off even for Sammi. When I went to check on her she felt warm so I called the doctor to see when we could walk in. It would have to be that after noon but we got in so no big deal.

Kathleen had an eye and ear exam at 1pm so we just stayed for a walk in appointment for Samantha. Kathleen’s ears are fine so no damage done to the ears with her extended fluid on her ears. Yay! But her eyes not so much. She passed the first test, but the one where she had to tell the nurse what letter or number she saw she couldn’t make out the letters. I don’t know if she didn’t know the name of the letter or if she was being too shy or if she really couldn’t see it. They were blurry to me when I went in to see and can see how she might have problems, but I was wearing my glasses so I know it’s possible I need an update. The nurse will call eventually after the doctor sees the results and we’ll probably get a referal to an eye doctor that deals with children. Hopefully sooner rather than later.

After Kathleen’s tests we sat down to wait. As a walk in I expected to wait forever, but we were the first ones there and early too boot, and we got called back right away. Needless to say we were home by 3ish I think. Sammi refused to let them take a swab of her throat. It ended up the nurse pinning her down and me trying to keep her hands away from her so the nurse could get the swab to test. It came back positive.

Both girlies have strep. But it’s not something I worry over that came around supper time. Sammi wouldn’t eat. She had a bought of diarehha earlier and was a lot too warm. I gave her her medicine when she crawled into my bed I knew she’d fall asleep, she’d almost fallen asleep on her desk when she sat down there. She fell asleep and was awake by 9pm – hungry. I stayed up with her and fed her and made sure she was ready to stay in her room so she didn’t wake Shea up. During those 3 hours while she napped I worried. When she woke up hungry she and was more back to herself so I didn’t worry all night long like I had anticipated.

Learn Something New

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I guess it’s true you learn something new everyday. Yesterday was no exception. Thursday after school we went to Walmart for groceries. We got in the car, and Kathleen started complaining about stomach pain. She went pale white and then got sick. There was little I could while I drove the car. But it turned out she was fine after that little episode. She ate lunch with out issue and was up and playing around as soon as we got home. No more problems.

That was until she started complaining about a headache. For the next few days she’d mention to me she had a headache. I gave her some Tylenol we took a shower etc. But the next day she’d still say something. It was nearly so bothersome until Sunday night when she complained a lot. And was up almost all night because of a headache and what I believe is a fever. Why do I say I believe is a fever? Mostly because I’m cold by nature, I very rarely even hit normal body temperature when I take my temperature normally. And the girls they run hot like their Daddy. But I know the girls heat level compared to mine in most cases. And Kathleen felt warm, much warmer than she usually does. I worried about her all night and pretty much resolved to take her to the doctor that night. Not because so much of the fever but the fever with the combined headache.

Shea thought it was a good idea as well. We took her in as a walk in and didn’t spend all day there, thankfully. But we found out that Kathleen has strep throat. The doctor told us sometimes strep presents itself as a headache and stomach pain. I took her in mostly to check her ears to make sure they weren’t the cause of her headache, only to find out its her throat.

Little did I know or even suspect that it was strep, so after many kisses later, it’s possible that everyone in the family has strep or had it. We really don’t know where it came from. Possibly from Shea’s work since there hasn’t been a recent strep case in daycare in a while.

Today I have a sore throat. Yay me. I will watch to see how it progresses for the day, and we’ll see how it goes. I need to watch Sammi as well, it’s really difficult to tell when Sam is sick, she shows no signs of it ever, and she rarely complains. Well that’s a lie, she complains every time Kathleen does, so I can never tell if she really has an issue or not. If I still have a sore throat tomorrow I will most likely go to the doctor on Thursday or at least try to. Tomorrow I can’t as our new stove will be delivered sometime on Wednesday.