Countdown to summer

I am back to work after a week long spring break. It actually feels pretty good to be back only because I know that we are now on the countdown to the end of school. We have 10 more weeks of school. For those of you are aren't aware, Connecticut keeps the kids in school until nearly the end of June. Thanks to the late start date and large amounts of breaks throughout the year, my school finishes up on June 19th and Arlington on June 26th. Now, we DID have 4 snow days (all tacked onto the end of the year), so that isn't helping, but still! Each state we have lived in is amazingly different. Where we were in California – year round school. Florida – we started like the 2nd week of August due to built in Hurricane season. I don't know which is worse!

Anyway, we had a very nice Easter. The kids woke up at a half decent time and were patient while we pulled it together to see what the Easter Bunny had brought them.


The kids had fun hunting for eggs and opening their presents. We went to church and then spent the afternoon relaxing. Here is some pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes.


Mat finally put the fence around his garden. Hopefully that will keep the deer away. We had a nice Easter dinner. And then the kids watched a movie before heading to bed. All in all, a good day.

Monday wasn't that bad at work. I had braced myself for a lot of stomach aches from too much Easter candy, getting up early after a week off, and just plain old "I don't want to be here" attitude. But all in all - they were well behaved. It was fun to hear the little ones talk about what the Easter bunny brought them and what they did over break.


Today was a little busier at work. The reality that we are in it for the long haul set in with the kids. I started my day with three staight meetings that lasted 3 hours total. Because I was gone for the office so long, the kids came in droves to the office in the afternoon. One kid came in and said that he was just coming in to say hi because he missed me all morning. What a riot. The day went by quickly. Today Mat decided to come home early from work, so he met Arlington off the bus and they took a nice walk in the woods. It was nice to have him home early.


Tonight was Daisy Scouts and then early to bed. Finley has been fussy for the last couple of days. When we went to the dentist they say she was breaking through three of her 4 two year molars, so she isn't handling it well. I hope they break through soon. She is whiny on a good day. Her incoming tooth pain isn't pleasant for any of us.


Everyone is doing well. Not much to report in these couple of days. Finley is into calling me "tato" (her pronunciation of potato). She will say "you a tato" and crack up laughing. I can't explain that one.

Okay - that is all. I am just beat. Enjoy the pictures! I will talk to you on Saturday. Ta-ta!

Happy Early Easter

With Easter being tomorrow, our family wants to wish all of yours a very Happy Easter. We are spending the weekend just as a family of 5 this year. No travel plans in place. The kids will hunt for their Easter eggs and surprises in the morning and then it will be off to church. The children of the congregation will be singing a little song tomorrow that they have been practicing the last couple of weeks. That should be highly entertaining.

I can't believe my vacation week is over already. I only got about 1/8 of the things done that I wanted to get done. Really sad, actually. Isn't that always the case? I get more done on a regular week. I planned on finishing Arlington's quilt. Nope. I planned on finishing painting the basement stairs. Nope. I planned on finishing some scrapbooking. Nope. What did I do, you say? I entered data into the computer every day. About a year ago - right before we moved - our computer crashed and we lost a lot of data. Mat is a "pie chart-0-maniac". He likes to keep track of our finances and where all of our money goes. Fun times. I know where it all goes. Into the three little hoodlums angels that live in our humble abode.

Anyway, it all went far, far away into cyberland when the computer crashed, so I get the lovely job of starting over. Not from scratch thank goodness. But back to 2006. It is taking........forever. And in the process of entering said information, I have done something to a muscle in my back. I can't twist my neck or head to the right. I think I should qualify for workman's comp. Or at least an afternoon off given to me by my employer husband. My back really hurts. I am surely NOT getting old. No. That isn't it. I am just being over worked. Yes, let's stick with that.


We did have some fun this week. Wednesday on my day off from the kids, I got all of the Easter shopping done in the morning. The Easter Bunny went a tad crazy, and ended up returning a few things, but it was fun. I NEVER get to shop alone. I always have someone along - kid, hubby - someone. I have forgotten what it is like to have quiet while shopping. I didn't have to talk to anyone for 3 hours. I had silent, pleasant, thoughts without being interrupted every 8 seconds. I spent the afternoon wrapping my treasures. We don't do a lot of candy for Easter because of the girl's allergies and Cainan's dislike for sweets. (what a sad family we are). So the kids get other things like art supplies and book and some clothes, etc. They don't seem to mind or miss it.

Wednesday was also my conference with Arlington's teacher. She had nothing but great things to say about our girl, which always makes me happy. I was a little concerned with her level of talking in the classroom, but the teacher assured me that it is nothing more than most of the kids in the class and that if I wouldn't have brought it up, she wouldn't have thought twice about it. She's just like her dad and I am just fine with that. I think the two best things she said about our girl were that she is a good friend and joy to have in class, AND that the first grade teachers will be fighting over her next year. Yay. She had about a million wonderful things to say about how great she is doing academically, but that isn't what is the most important to us. We know she is Harvard bound. :) We want our kids to be good friends and good people.


Finley is doing well. I taught her to make the letter "F" this week. I thought she might like to learn her name. So, we started with F. She did pretty well. At first when I cheerfly asked her, "Finley, do you want to learn how to write F for Finley?" she looked at me and said "um, well.. no". She is going to be fun in Kindergarten.


She has been in to calling Cainan a baby lately. Not in a mean way. Just "Cainan's the baby". "Cainan can't do that because he is still a baby". Cainan will of course tell her he is NOT a baby, but she doesn't believe it. She is sure she is right. She is also gets concerned about Arlington when Arlington rides her bike. She insists on telling Arlington to "be careful or you will bump your head on the ground" every time Arlington gets on the bike. This has never happened, but it doesn't stop Finley from reminding her. Finley will also try to run along side Arlington on the bike which is pretty hilarious.


Our little mommy. Cainan had a cup of juice that he had sitting upright on the couch. Finley took it off and said "You cannot have the juice on the couch Cainan. It might spill on the couch and then I will have to be sad to you". Cainan just ignored her, but it was still pretty funny. Maybe I COULD go on vacation. I can just leave Finley in charge of the discipline. She would have to discipline herself 90% of the time, though since she is still my little ornery child. She would have to put herself in the corner at least twice a day, remind herself not to hit her brother, and use the potty without prompting. Hm......


Cainan is great. I tried teaching him to make a C today. It wasn't happening. I did find that he can make a circle, though, which was just as good! I count that as a win. He did sing "C is for cookie" and did a little dance, which was hilarious. He is into saying "I do it" more often which is nice. He wants to try more and more things on his own without insisting on help from others.

I did have a "New Adventures of Old Christine" moment yesterday. If you don't know this show, it is about a woman who is a single mom of a little school-ager. Something is always happening to her when she is in front of the snobby mom's of the class. Now, I wasn't necessarily in the presence of a "snobby" mom at my kids preschool yesterday, but she does think her son is stellar. She loves to use every opportunity to tell me so. Anyway, we were talking about how well Cainan was doing potty training wise, and Cainan is standing RIGHT in front of me and what does he do? Yep. He pees his pants. Unreal. We had just used the potty right before we left, but yet he felt the need to pee in front of this mom. So awesome. I chuckled and said "oh, he got so excited about the egg hunt, he wet his pants!" and we quickly went off to change. At least it got me away from said mommy.Arlington's day off was Thursday of this week. We spent the morning playing, reading, and going to the dentist. She had a good report at the dentist as well. She got a special little mouth wash that she is insisting on using every night now. We had lunch out together which was fun. In the afternoon she still had Kindergarten, but rode the bus from home. This is the first time I think I put her on the bus to go to school.

I did find Arlington and the babies like this Thursday morning before breakfast:


Excuse the hair do. We hadn't gotten that far with our day. But she was reading to the babies and they were listening! It was very sweet.

Friday no one had school. We did have an egg hunt to attend at the kids preschool at 10:30. The center made it nice for the kids and they had a good time. I helped Finley find her eggs, but Cainan did great on his own. The kids had each made a little Easter basket out of milk juggs at school, so they used those to gather their winnings. Here are some pictures from the egg hunt:

Finley is ready to find some eggs.

Cainan checks out his goods.Arlington running around looking for eggs

Just out of her reach:
Arlington and a buddy from preschool "M":
We spent the rest of the day doing art and playing outside. It was a beautiful day. The morning was warm and sunny. During the kids nap time, Arlington started a big art project.

When she does art projects, she brings EVERYTHING to the table. It was pretty funny! She is working on some birthday cards (ahem, Carrie, Teen, Jess). She worked - no exaggeration - for 3 hours without moving. It was pretty hilarious. She was really into whatever she was making! That kept her very occupied. The day went by quickly. Mat had an all day meeting today and I knew he was going to be home later than usual, but the day went smoothly. So it didn't seem so bad.


Today has been a cold and rainy day. Mat and Arlington ran errands all morning. I am still suffering in silence with my neck and back, but the babies were good to me today. They stayed out of trouble, and we all played nicely together. This afternoon was filled with relaxation, Wii playing, and time together. Overall, a nice end to my spring break.

That is about it! Have a wonderful holiday and I will be back to Tuesday. Here are a couple of "extra" pictures that didn't really fit anywhere in the post. Enjoy!

Cute but bad

You are not going to believe this, but I am not talking about Finley. She is both of those things, but this time - she is off the hook. This time, I am talking about this lovely animal:

Do you see my friend there? He (or she, I really have no idea) was very close to our back deck Monday. He caught sight of us at one point, but just kept munching on our grass. He got closer and closer, so I took his picture. That seemed to scare him. I didn't even use the flash, but he must have heard the click of the camera. We were inside, though. Who knows. Anyway, he backed up and started stamping his foot. Then four more of his friends appeared. So great. They ran up onto our property (which as most of you know about 7 of our 9 acres is woods) and found Mat garden. Double great. Mat hasn't fenced it off yet because he needed to do a few more things. I am thinking there isn't much left up there. The deer were there for quite awhile. Brave little buggers. We have seen this "family" of 5 quite a few times lately. I think they need to find somewhere else to play.

Sunday we went to church in the morning. It was Palm Sunday, so Arlington got palms which she thought were the best. Our pastor had made some of them into crosses, and she brought home a handful of those. Finley was excited about the "leaves". The kids wore some new clothes to church - but not their "official" Easter gear:


Sunday Arlington also had a birthday party. It was at a movie theater where, after the kids were served cake and juice, we saw "Monsters vs. Aliens" the kid movie out right now. It was okay. I thought it was a bit violent for a PG movie, but Arlington had fun with her friends. That girl can have fun anywhere. I sat behind her because (sniff) she asked me not to sit with her. She wanted to sit with her friends. I am okay with that. Sort of. I guess I should get used to it.

Monday was my first official day of vacation. It was also Finley's "day home with mommy". She and I dropped the other two off at daycare this morning and then headed to her dentist appointment. She did really well. This was her second visit, so she is a pro. They put little sunglasses on her to block the bright light and she looked really adorable. I wish I had a camera. Her teeth look great. Maybe she has been blessed with my teeth (I don't have any cavities). She got to brush a stuffed elephants teeth which was the highlight of her visit.

After that, we came home and played play dough for an hour:

And then for the next hour, Finley made some pictures with paint and markers. (her mother was watching her the whole time.)



At one point, while doing said art, Finley looked at me and said "look mommy, I am doing craps". I am assuming she meant crafts. But with Finley......one can't really be sure.

We had a nice day, just the two of us. We played, ate lunch together, and she went down for a nap without problems. I did have to wake her a little early to get Arlington off the bus, but she didn't seem to mind.

Finley also made us giggle when she brought me her new stuffed Snoopy that Gramma Pletcher sent her for Easter. She was rubbing his head, and in her saddest voice said "Snoppy is sad because Gramma isn't here to pet him". Guilt trip if I ever heard one. She also asked if - when I said we would be playing play dough (her favorite activity) if Gramma was coming to play with her. Uh, what am I? But she does love her gramma and associates playdough with her.

Today was Cainan's day to be home with mommy. It is nice being able to sleep in and not rush in the morning. And when I say sleep in, I mean 7am. That is sleeping in for our house during the week.

After dropping the girls off at daycare, Cainan and I headed to his dentist appointment. He had a great check up and sat very still. He has always been stoic with doctors. He saw a ton of them in the beginning and has never really been bothered. We are lucky. The dentist took a good look at his gap in his gum and the tooth that is growing there and said it looks fine. Said it won't get any bigger, and since he will be having his bone graft surgery before the next tooth comes in, no problems should come of it. So that was good.

After the dentist was Cainan's evaluation for public school preschool. The speech therapist and teacher came to the house today to do the assessment. It was good/bad news. This is a tough one. I am REALLY glad he is doing so well. Let's start with that. He fell into the normal range for his age in development. He has caught up. That was good news. What makes it bad news is that he is on the LOW end of that normal, bu since it is still technically "normal range" he probably won't be qualifying for the preschool. I am sad about that because the school has no idea how much work it has taken for us to get Cainan to this point. We work with him everyday. Mat has been teaching him colors daily for 6 months and he FINALLY has it. Same with numbers (counting to 10). But, since he can do those things- he passed today. The teacher and speech therapist were really impressed when he said - "I like this block. It has a red car on it". Good job Cainan. They asked him all kinds of questions and he got each answer right. So, we have mixed feelings. He is doing great thanks to a ton of work. But he is doing good enough that the special program we really think he needs is right out of our reach. And with that special program goes his speech therapy for the next two years. (unless we get private therapy which is a whole different hurdle. Trust me. It isn't pretty.) But, we are just going to wait for the PPT (planning and placement team)/IEP to tell us what our options are. We will have that meeting in two weeks. The therapist came up with some different ideas and we are going to do a little research on our own, so time will tell.

That is about it. Tomorrow is MY day. I am looking forward to it. I am going shopping for Easter in the morning, we are having an appraiser come at 12:30 (we refinanced) and then at 3:35 I am meeting with Arlington's teacher to talk about her report card (nothing bad, just felt like having a conference so I could see what we should be working on over the summer). So a busy day.

Have a good rest of the week and I will see you Saturday!

Spring vacation

At least for me it is spring vacation! Today is my first day off for a whole week. I am very excited about that. I wish that Arlington was off the same week as I am, but it didn't work out that way this year. So, instead, each kid gets a day with me this week. Finley - Monday, Cainan - Tuesday, Arlington - Thursday, and then they will all be home on Friday for Good Friday. Wednesday is MY day. :) I should get at least one, right? It is vacation. I don't really think it counts as vacation without a "me" day.

This week was a completely crazy, but fun week. The kids at work were nuts, of course, because of upcoming vacation. Friday they really had ants in their pants and were trying to get out of class for everything they could think of. It surely made the day go by fast.

Tuesday night Mat got home safe and sound. He was in the house around 1:30 in the morning, tired, but safe. Wednesday was an uneventful day all around - our only one. Thursday I had a nursing conference after school. The nurse's and I went out to dinner afterwards, of course. We had to make it worth it! The conference was on delegation - who school nurse's can delegate to and who they can't. It was really great. One thing we learned was the Virginia is really stingy with it's nursing laws - that if you don't have a license in that state, BUT you are on a field trip with students from your state, you CANNOT practice as a nurse. How crazy is that? This doesn't seem like a big deal UNTIL we realized that the Washington DC trip the 8th graders in our district take each year (who take a nurse along) will be going to Viriginia AND that is where the hotel is. That was awesome news. SO - we are looking into that one......

Friday I had a nurse's meeting after school and then we went to one of the nurse's new house which is on a lake. It was a beatiful view. It was a fun time. We talked for hours. We tried hard not to talk shop, and we did pretty well! They are the best group. I am really lucky. I am partial to nurse's anyway. But in school's where we are REALLY alone almost all day, there is nothing like getting together with your "own kind" and bounce ideas off each other, or just laugh at some of the funny stories.
It was rainy all day, so the ride home was really foggy. One of the nurses lead me all the way back to my school (which was a long road) because she didn't want me to drive it alone. Amazing - really. It wasn't even up for discussion. We take care of each other. I know everyone has friends like this - they exist in every circle. But there is just something special about pediatric nurses. We are in our business for a reason. All nurses are caring, but pediatric nurses - their is something different.

The kids are doing well. Everyone is healthy. They had a good week at school. Arlington had a birthday party today at the "Dinosaur Place". (click on the name and you can see what it is all about). She had a great time. She loves being with her friends. I accidentally left the camera in the car. Darn it. But I had a nice time chatting with the mommies there. There really are some wonderful people in our town.

We have another birthday party tomorrow. Then, dare I say it, I think we are off the hook for a little while. I am glad for the outlet for Arlington's energy. She looks forward to going.


Arlington also got her "report card" this week. She did really well. I am really proud of her. The report cards, I guess, are just numbers until they are in 5th grade (correct me if I am wrong, Michelle). So she will just get numbers 1-4 in the areas they assess. So different than when we were little. Although, we didn't get grades in Kindergarten even then. We were judged on shoe tieing, cracker eating, and naps. Just kidding. But I can picture the report card - it was probably 5-6 little things were we got G, S, U. (I am assuming you can guess what the letters stand for). Arlington's report card had about 100 things on it that they assess. I know I am close with that number. PLUS - she got a "grade" in art, gym, and music. It is pretty hysterical.

I had a comment that really bothering me this week about the babies. I don't know why. So, I was introduced to someone new and they were asking the ages of my kids. I told them, and (as usual) they said "oh! You have twins!" Like this is a prize you can win. So, I explain (as usual). The woman said (in a different, disinterested voice) "oh, so you don't have twins". No, I explain, but they are only 30 days apart, so it really isn't that different. "yes it is" she says "they aren't related, so it is totally different". Huh? "Well, " I say (in my adoption protecion voice) "they ARE related - they are brother and sister. And it isn't different. They are still 2 1/2, they are potty training at the same time, they are learning the same skills, they are virtually twins".
I don't know why I let this stuff get to me. Yes, they aren't official twins. But come on non-twin mom's - have you tried raising two kids the same age? Same. 30 days apart does not mean that Cainan is older than Finley. 30 days doesn't mean a thing in their development level. It is equally as hard as having "actual" twins. They will always be together- I will make the same decisions as ANY twin parent when it comes to schooling. People are just ridiculous. When I lived in Florida, a few people gave me some information on a "parents of twins" mom's group that they thought I would like. I thought it might be helpful to hear what other mom's of twins were doing with their kids especially when it came to potty training, schooling, etc. Just nice to bounce ideas off of them and listen. So, I called the number. I explained my situation (because they would have found out anyway). You know what I was told? "This group is only open to people with biological multiples". Sick. Well, it WAS Florida.

So, at least I have my bloggy friend AnyMommy who is in my same boat. I am sure she can sympathize. But just know (all you mom's out there of twins or not) it ISN'T different. Just because I didn't give birth to my two children of the same age doesn't make them any less the same age.



Mat's mom and dad sent the kids a little Easter package that arrived today. They had been busy playing with all the goodies while the power was out. Yes, the power was out for awhile this afternoon. We are having terrible winds and rain today. So, in the sticks - wind = no power.


So that is it. Have a nice weekend and I will write on Tuesday!