Could they be any more different?

All 6 of us attended open house at the kids' school tonight. It went well....considering that we have 4 kids with one in the terrible twos. They only had 2 sessions so we went to Kaeli's and Paige's classes for the whole speech and just dropped in look to at Ryan's class really quick.

Ryan's teachers said he's a pleasure. While he's mostly quiet, he does participate in class and even raises his hand to get called on.....how sweet!

The thing that is so interesting to me is how night and day different Kaeli and Paige are as far as schoolwork goes. I didn't get a chance to talk to Kaeli's teacher tonight but I have talked to her recently-last week, I think. Paige's teacher was the one I was so glad to talk to. Her teacher hasn't been exactly stellar in the communication department. I feel like she could be giving more information since we are dealing with 1st graders. So, I got a few questions answered about the weekly vocab list and about when I should expect homework. I knew Paige was getting vocab words every week, but I didn't know what she was expected to do with them. Fortunately, she just needs to be able to read then on sight. She's a pretty good reader already so that hasn't been a problem. But, I did find out that she's supposed to have homework every weeknight--according to Paige she doesn't. I know last night she didn't bring any home. I also found 4 half-finished papers in her desk. I showed them to her teacher and found out it's morning work that Paige isn't completing (even though I know she has plenty of time). Paige's attitude toward all of it? A shrug of the shoulders and a little, sweet "oops". This is so incredibly different than Kaelil that I don't quite know how to handle it. Kaeli is obviously a type A personality. It drives her crazy to forget to do something. Not only does she does what's excpected, but she often goes beyond the expectations. She's soooo self-motivated that his made my job al ittle too easy, I think. Now, here I'm dealing with Paige who is absolutely opposite. I realize that I will just have to be in CONSTANT contact with Paige's teacher in order to keep her motivated. Her teacher is also going to stay on Paige a little more and have her stay in for recess and complete any work she doesn't turn in. I told her to do whatever it takes to get her in gear with taking more responsibility for herself. I taught way too many 7th graders with this problem. I think it'll be alot easier for us to correct this problem now than when she's in the older grades when this behavior can heavily impact a grade. But, I have to say, I wish I could have her "oh well" attitude a little more. She puts no stress on herself and rarely does she allow anything to really bother her....doesn't really sound like a bad way to go through life, though, does it?

At least I can let myself off the hook and stop blaming myself for Kaeli's almost neurotic approach to schoolwork. I can't imagine any stronger evidence for the theory that kids just come into the world with a certain amount of persoanlity already set. I wonder which one Ryan and AJ will be most like?

At least I can recharge a car battery now

The DVD player in my car has created a very bad habit for me. First of all, it automatically comes back on and starts up in exactly the spot it left off when I restart the car. The kids have now watched "The Lion King" a gazillion times--and they still can't get enough of it. When we get home from a quick trip AJ always wants to stay in the car to keep watching the movie. The bad habit is that I actually let him. I pull into the garage, close the garage door, and just leave the car ignition in the "on" position (so the car isn't running). I take off his seatbelt and leave the house door open so he can come in when he's ready. He ALWAYS comes in within 5-10 min and I USUALLY go out and turn the car off then--except today. I just completely forgot to go turn the car off when he came in. So, from 11:15-2:00 the car was running a DVD player. You guessed it--my car battery was dead! I called Steve and he walked me through the steps to putting the battery charger on it. Now, I have to say, I'm terrified of dealing with anything like that. But, Steve was very patient with me throughout the whole process. I didn't even hear laughing when I told him I had to put the phone down to connect the little recharger clips--although I'm sure he was laughing quietly to himself. I had to put the phone down so that if something bad happened I could react quickly without worrying about the phone. I know, my mind goes crazy with all the things that could go wrong. I'm very pleased to report that nothing bad happened and I got everything connected just right with no injuries.

But, while the battery was recharging I had to walk to the school to pick up the girls. Fortunately, we are less than a mile from the school. The problem was that before naptime Ryan scraped the back of his heel. I had forgotten about the scrape, but he certainly had not. When I tried to put his shoe on that foot he SCREAMED and wouldn't allow me to come anywhere near him with the shoe because he was afraid it would hurt his booboo. The problem was that we only have a single stroller now. AJ had to ride in the stroller and Ryan couldn't wear his shoe so he couldn't walk or ride his bike. Just as I was about to throw my hands in the air and cry, I saw the wagon. WHEW! It wasn't fun dragging a wagon all the way to the school, but at least we did all get there and in time.

As soon as I got home, the car started right up. Many lessons were learned today. I hope I never have to use the skill again, but at least I do know how to recharge a car battery now.

Update to the guinea pig bite

The bite looked better this morning so I decided AJ didn't need to see the Dr. Also, I did a little online research--I know, shocking!! haha--and found that infection from guinea pig bites are uncommon. That doesn't mean I won't keep my eye on it, but it's comforting to know the odds are on our side.

Other than that, nothing interesting going on arond here. Paige is having significantly less problems with sleep. She's only complained of a few stomach aches. Kaeli loves her teacher and her class. Ryan is even going to school without any crying. All in all, life is good.

Guinea pig bite

Wouldn't you know that a biting guinea pig is very rare and we seem to have one! To give the guinea pig the benefit of the doubt, I don't think he really meant to BITE. I think he was planning to have a nice juicy sausage for snack. Yesterday, AJ was sitting on the floor without shoes on while the guinea pig was running around on the floor. Completely unprovoked (or so I hear-I wasn't in the room) the guinea pig came up and took a bit out of AJ's big toe. There was a good bit of blood and the cut seems to be fairly deep. But, we cleaned it up as best we could, put some neosporin on it, and covered it with a band-aid. I just took the band-aid of a little while ago. It's not TOO terrible looking, but doesn't look great, either. Right around the bite area it's kind of a purplish, whitish color and then there is a big red ring around that. I'm thinking the purplish area may just be bruising, but I don't know for sure. But, the fact that it looks a little bad now has me thinking about how much bacteria was probably introduced into that bite area. Just the thought of a deep-ish bite wound from a hairy little rodent now has me a little weirded out. I've decided, to be on the safe side, I'll take him to the Dr tomorrow. At least I'll feel better if he tells me there's nothing to worry about.

What have I been up to?

I've been creating a new blog! I enjoy writing and I enjoy sharing with others. In a nutshell? I love blogging! But, with all the very personal info on this site, it wasn't exactly conducive to sharing with the whole world. Well, now I've created a new blog that is completely separate from this one. I will continue to update this blog on a personal basis so not much will change for my family and close friends. Just keep reading here for the mundane details of our everyday life.

Because I do have a category of posts on my new blog about some of the anecdotal situations with the kids I am creating a link from this blog to the new one that will take you specifically to those posts. The link will be just before the posts themselves on this blog. At this point, I don't know how often I will be adding to that section. Just check periodically to see if I've added anything new.

AJ's first two word sentence-kind of

AJ just came up to me and did the signs for "eat" and "more" back to back to ask for more crackers!! That is his first official two word sentence--even if it is in sign language instead of actual speech. The reason this is significant is because it means his level of understanding speech is right on target for an almost 2 yr old. I'm also impressed because he took two signs that he knows and formulated a plan in his head for how to use those to get what he wanted. I'm not exactly surprised he was able to do this because he's always seemed fairly intelligent. But, it is definitive proof that he's where he needs to be and that as soon as his ability to form words catches up with his understanding his speech will take off at lightning speed. Not unlike his older sister and brother, of course.

I must say, this late speech development becomes easier and easier to deal with the more you go through it. Kaeli started talking right at 2, Ryan at 3......chances are I wouldn't get too concerned about AJ until age 4. But, I'm confident it won't take him that long. He already has several words and will try to say lots more words--they just sound nothing like the target word. But, the important thing is that he's trying and he IS communicating! One thing I find funny is that AJ's word for train is exactly the same as Ryan's first word for train. The word he uses is "eee". We never understood why Ryan chose such an unusual substitution for the word. But, even more strange to me is that AJ has chosen the exact same substitution. (Ryan does say it correctly now, so it didn't come from hearing Ryan-I don't think). Interesting!

Maryland Science Center

Back in the early part of August my neighbor and I took the kids to the Maryland Science Center. My mother-in-law watched AJ for me all day to make it a little easier for the older kids to have fun without dealing with a toddler. In fact, I saw a little girl about his age throwing an all out tantrum a little after noon. I thought to myself that's exactly what AJ would like right about that time when he started getting tired. So we were able to stay all day and the kids had a wonderful time. I just love the Maryland Science Ctr and wish we lived closer-it's about 1.5 hrs from here.

So, here are some pictures from that outing.

Here's Paige, Ryan, and Sarah "discovering fossils". Very cute how much Ryan is concentrating on it.

This was such a neat part of the Science Ctr. Children 8 and older were able to perform a REAL experiment. Lindsey, Kaeli, and Sarah did an experiment to determine which household cleaners were most effective at killing germs. I don't think they got a clearcut answer, but they all gave a different answer when I asked. But, the sure had fun acting like real scientists!
Notice the look on Paige's face here. She's sulking because she couldn't do the science experiment since she's only 6. She and Ryan got to look at prepared slides under a microscope instead. She did finally come around when I started showing her cool stuff like human blood.

Our future scientists: Lindsey, Sarah, Kaeli, and Paige

Ryan, Kaeli, and Paige

Here's Kaeli in her space gear

Paige and Ryan standing next to a mannequin in a real space suit.

What an adorable astronaut!

Sleepwalking

I talked to our pediatrician today and he's pretty certain Paige's "waking" episodes are actually sleepwalking episodes. Tonight seemed to prove that theory. At bedtime Paige's stomach was hurting as usual. We did all our usual "calming" activities and then she asked for the heating pad. I had forgotten about that one. So, when she fell asleep she had the heating bad laying on her tummy. About an hour after she went to sleep we saw her in the hall upstairs. She was carrying the heating pad with her. We tried to ask her what she was doing and she didn't really respond. That is the part that was always confusing me.....she always *appeared* awake but didn't necessarily respond. The responses I did get were often just confusing and didn't make sense. So, I was aware that she was probably sleepwalking everything made more sense. I guided her back to bed and put the heating pad on her.

Now, why I never thought about sleepwalking is beyond me! She has definitely been wrought with sleep issues for most of her life. Up until about a year ago she had night terrors. Talk about SCARY! Well, night terrors and sleepwalking are all related. Also, sleepwalking has a genetic component and I've heard enough stories about my sleepwalking and talking antics to know exactly where those genes are coming from. I still talk out in my sleep from time to time when I'm overtired.

So, the reason for an increase in this sleepwalking is probably related to the stress of starting school. Stress and anxiety can trigger these episodes. So, while it is still related to her anxiety, at least I know she's not having nightmares all night long about school. Also, if it's sleepwalking she's not losing as much sleep as I originally thought.

As soon as I can get to the store I'm going to buy her some calming herbal tea for kids that a friend told me about. I'm also going to have her take a bath every night in my whirlpool tub with some calming bath bubbles. We'll continue with the relaxation/positive imagery techniques and heating pad at bed time. In the meantime, the pediatrician is going to get in touch with a child psychiatrist that he sometimes gets advice from. He's going to see if there's anything more we should be doing. If things don't start improving within the next couple of weeks I will have to start taking her to weekly therapy appts again.

On a good note, Kaeli's evening was MUCH better. No crying episodes or emotional outbursts. She was much more pleasant tonight. WHEW!

The school blues!

The adjustment to returning to school has been pretty rough on the kids so far. I'm sure it also has a lot to do with the fact that things inherently change at home as well. I know I am stricter with routines and chores during the school year than I am during the summer. So, I think I'm seeing the fallout from transitioning to new routines and changes in general.

Kaeli isn't terrible. She does cry alot more during the afternoons and she's just much more emotional in general. She has said at least once a day this week "why is everyone stressing me out".

Paige is the real problem for now. She isn't outwardly emotional, but she never has been. I think she keeps it in and that's why we see most of her issues appear at night. Before bed she gets bad stomach aches. Then she wakes up several times a night just crying out in her sleep. Monday night she was only up 3-4 times. Last night she was up 3 times before 10:30. I don't know exactly how many more times she got out of bed after that, but it seemed like a lot. She says she had a bad dream, but then she can't remember the bad dream. My concern is that she must be exhausted during the day. I did call the Dr's office today to discuss it with him and I'm waiting for a call back. I don't know what options we have, but we really need to do something for her. At least she hasn't had a pee accident yet. Maybe we have at least worked through that one!

Ryan is doing fine. He's crying at drop off, but I know he gets over it quickly. He has been somewhat difficult, but really not much more than usual.

First day pictures