Saturday, September 27, 2008

Rainy Saturday = crazy kids

Today it has rained the entire day. It wasn't too hard to entertain Arlington, since she has a wider variety of "indoor" activities she can do, but the babies - look out. They didn't do too badly, but you could tell by this evening they were about done with their toys and each other. We were glad when bed time came. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day and we can get outside and play for a little while. They are spoiled now with going to preschool - they get socialized all day, and get to play outdoors several times a day. They get bored easily with us at home now!

This week went by so quickly. Wednesday Mat had a dinner out with one of his groups from work. He didn't get home until 9pm, so I spent the evening alone with the kids. I got lucky - they were very well behaved and we had a good time. No one fought me going to bed, and everything went smoothly. It is hard doing it alone, though. I would never want to be a single parent. More than that - I wouldn't want to do it without Mat - we are a good team.

Thursday I had two meetings at school - one in the morning and one after school. So that made my day a little hectic. It is hard for me to be gone from my office during the day because that is when the kids kind of pile up and really need stuff. But it all worked out. The kids are a lot of fun. I could probably write a book over the years of all the things I hear them say. They are really funny. The little ones come in and I say, "what's going on?" They say "nothing". I say, "why are you coming to see me?" They say "I don't know". It is a fun game trying to get out the reason for their visit to the nurses office. They are really cute. I have many "frequent fliers" that don't need a thing - they just want to leave class and come and see me. I am working on being a little tougher on them, but it is hard. I don't want to make it so they don't want to come at all! I am sure I will figure it out. The most visits are for ice packs. My "yellow sponge in a plastic bag" ice packs are a big hit! They love those things! They will come in with three day old bruises and say "I need an ice pack". Or the TINIEST cut that I can't find needs a bandaid. I laugh because my own kids are the same way. Bandaids really can make ANYTHING feel better. My greatest tools during the day - yellow sponges, bandaids, vasaline. You can't imagine how much of a difference these three minor items make! It is quite funny. I do have my serious cases - kids who really need me. I have a diabetic who comes and sees me several times a day and he keeps me on my toes. I have many kids who take daily meds. In my 200 kid school I have 32 asthmatics and 12 kids who have epi-pens for allergies.

Thursday was also Cainan's speech therapy visit. He did very well again. The therapist says she can understand him quite clearly and he spoke several three word sentences while she was there. That was great. He loves saying "baby go night-night" and "where Finley go?" The therapist wants us to start to work on getting him to tell us what he wants instead of answering yes and no questions.

Friday was by far our busiest day this week. The kids had pictures at their preschool and Arlington also had pictures at Kindergarten. I am not holding my breath for anything great, but I am anxious to see the Kindergarten one. When I picked up Arlington, she had the bow (that in the morning was on TOP of her head) off to the side. She said it had been like that all day. It had come out, and she had replaced it herself. So the picture should be interesting! Oh well. Her first school picture - we are getting one no matter what! For those of you who are familiar with the books, Arlington is our own "Junie B Jones". :)

Besides pictures, it was a half a day in my school district. Well, I don't know why they call it a half a day because we didn't get out until 1pm (only 2 1/2 hours before end of day). I had meetings with the other nurses after that point. (and by meetings I mean we ordered pizza and talked about all the funny things our students do for 2 hours). The teachers had serious meetings and I felt bad for them! The meeting was a lot of fun. I love every nurse in my district and it is so much fun getting together with them. We have a few more half days this year where we will do the same, so I look forward to that!

Also on Friday was the book fair and something called "Brain Show Mania" at Arlington's elementary school. The babies are too young, so just Mat and Arlington went. Arlington looked around at the books (she is buying a book with her class on Monday) and then went to the show. Mat and she sat with our neighbors. This is like a game show and the families play against each other. It sounded like a lot of fun. Mat said our neighbor's family got chosen to go up and answer questions, and they took Arlingotn with them. That was so sweet of them, and I thank them for that! Arlington had a blast. She is a little on the young side to totally understand it, but in a few years, it will be great for her.

Full day, right? It was fun, though.

Today was a very rainy day, like I said, so the babies never went outside. Arlington and I escaped for a few hours. We went to the library to get a few more books. Arlington is participating in the "Reading Hall of Fame" at her school, and has a list of books she is to read this year. So we got a few of those, and few others. PLUS, I got the 4th and final Stephanie Meyer's book - Breaking Dawn - on CD (I listen to her books in the car too and from work.) I really liked the last book - so much better than the second book. But I have heard bad reviews for her last book in the series. I am going to listen to the whole thing, though. I am in love with Edward and Bella's love story, so I have to finish it out.

After the library, we went to pick a movie at Blockbuster for Arlington to watch on this rainy afternoon. She picked Thumbalina. Then we went to get a few groceries and then to McDonalds for some lunch before heading home (yes, I feed my kids McDonalds - shame on this nurse. Not)

This afternoon Arlington also learned another book. She is too much. I read it through to her first, and then she reads it right after me. Her memory (and listening skills) are amazing sometimes. Now, does she listen to me like she listens to books? Heck no. I could only be so lucky! So since she has such a good memory, we are back to doing flash cards with the words on them individually to make sure she is actually learning the words. She has a little booklet we are working through, and each day I am adding new words. She is really into learning to read on her own right now, so she is focused. I don't want to push her, so I just do a few words a day.

Finley and Cainan both have colds. New ones. They are both very congested. I am hoping they keep it to themselves, but I am not holding my breath. Finley's is worse than Cainans. Finley also went pee-pee on the potty here at home for the first time this week! She has been waking up dry many mornings, so I sit her on the potty to get success. I took a picture of her below! She was so proud.

No soccer today - too much rain. There are only two soccer days left before the end of the season. Then basketball starts! Arlington can't wait!

So that is it. Hope everyone has a good rest of the weekend and a good start of the week! See you on Tuesday!

Enjoy the photos.

1 comment:

The Kovalls said...

Yay for Finley on the potty!