Experiencing Ryan's school

Wow, have I had an attitude adjustment! I volunteered in Ryan's class today for the first time and it was an eye opening experience, on many levels.

First, that poor teacher. She has SUCH patience. I have a hard time keeping it together with 2 kids and she's responsible for 9. One starts bouncing during circle time, another joins in, the first one stops, a 3rd joins in, someone else pipes up to tell them to stop it, the teacher is trying to keep everyone focused...it was crazy.

Second, on his worst day, Ryan isn't as wild as a couple of the boys in his class. One of them really surprised me. He's so unsuspecting, sucking his thumb and holding his little dog. But he's the hyper one who instigates the other kids to push, spit and misbehave. His mom is so sweet, too. I don't know if she has any idea how he is around other kids.

Third, the three girls were so mild compared to the boys. The poor things can barely get a word in! The boys were loud and rough, which is to be expected when playing, but I was surprised at how out of hand they got during learning times. I'm sure they're just a little less mature than the girls.

There are so many great ideas that Ryan's teacher has that I can adapt for home.

• They have a "wood shop" station set up outside where they have real hammers and nails that the kids can tap/pound into big Styrofoam pieces. It was so basic, yet they're learning a real household skill at the age of 3!
  
• There are several jobs that are assigned each day and they rotate each job. They include being the line leader, the bell ringer (for recess), the song leader, the weather helper and the calendar helper. They discuss days of the week and assess the weather each day. There are several things she does that I'm excited to reinforce at home.
  
• She has a mini pitcher at each table for snack time and lets the kids refill their own cups. I would have never thought Ryan was ready for that. She also taught him to crack an egg a few weeks ago. Last night I taught him how to pull it apart and keep the shells out of the batter. She has them responsible for so much...picking up after themselves and each other, clearing their place after snacktime, putting their pin on in the morning and storing their backpack in their cubby to name a few.
• One of the crafts they did today (in addition to cutting pictures of toys out of catalogs and making homemade cranberry salsa, which was delicious!!!) was to stamp and staple strips of red and green paper. It reminded me that we should make a construction paper chain link to count down to Christmas Day. Maybe that will help Ryan stop asking me daily if it's time to open presents yet.

I am so glad I participated today and am excited to do it again. It was exhausting (and I'm going to take a nap after typing this), but a great experience. Ryan was so happy to have me in there. During a craft time, he hopped up, ran over to me, gave me a huge hug, then went back to his chair. Then he did it again with a kiss, then one more hug and he was done. I almost teared up, it was so sincere. Then later on the playground, he looked up at me and said, "Mommy? I'm glad you're my friend."

A Dual Purpose Dentist Visit

Monday morning, I took Kaylin to the dentist to check out her front tooth. Apparently, there are reasons (other than cosmetic?!?!) to fix a chipped tooth. So I scheduled to bring the kids back at 8am today to do the repair. And God is SO good...our dental insurance was only going to cover $150 of the $500 bill, but Mike checked with our health insurance and, because the fall was an accident and we're not fixing her tooth for truly cosmetic reasons, they're going to cover the remaining $350. That was great news, especially right before Christmas!

So while we were there, Ryan had his first official dental check up and cleaning and he did great. Really great...I was shocked! He sat still through a ton of individual x-rays, cooperated through the cleaning, flossing and the entire check up. This dentist's office was great...Ryan left with a ton of stuff. A balloon, stickers, a plastic mini-mirror for his mouth, a toy gun thing, a bouncing ball, toothpaste and a toothbrush. AND they let him have some of the grape-flavored latex gloves. Kaylin got littler kid toys including a rubber duck, a foam puzzle, some Barbie stickers and a few other things.

Poor Kaylin's experience was slightly more traumatic. She wasn't allowed to eat or drink all morning because they gave her an oral anesthesia. It didn't knock her out (unfortunately), so she cried and squirmed through the whole procedure. They mentioned that the tooth might not look perfect, since they were working on a moving target, but I think they did a great job. They asked me to stay in the waiting room so she wouldn't try to move toward me, which worked out well for me. I could faintly hear her crying, but I read a magazine instead of being traumatized myself. It was quick and painless, just a little dramatic for Kaylin. She slept off the anesthesia all morning, but is still a little out of it.

Here are pictures of Ryan getting his x-rays...

...and getting his teeth cleaned (they put sunglasses on the kids so the light doesn't shine right in their eyes)...

...and tasting his grape gloves.

(*sigh*) Kaylin chipped her tooth

My beautiful baby with the Madonna-like gap between her front teeth now looks like a hillbilly. I went into the laundry room this morning and Kaylin started crying the "hurt cry." I rushed out to comfort her and all seemed fine. She was sitting by the coffee table when I found her, so I assumed she'd bumped her head or something. Then a few minutes later, Mike said, "Have you seen this chip in Kaylin's tooth?" I almost cried. It's practically a 45 degree angle up her entire tooth! On the way into church, I ran into a friend whose husband is a dentist and he said it's a pretty easy fix. So we're going to see a pediatric dentist ASAP. I probably seem vain for caring, but she's stuck with this tooth for 4-5 years.

My sweet, smiling girl has no idea that her tooth is crooked. I think it may have somehow messed with her, though, because she fell asleep on a childcare worker's chest today at church (which she never does) and slept there for 45 minutes until I picked her up.

An early visit with Santa

Yes, I know it seems ridiculous that it's November 24th and we've already seen Santa, but I have a good reason. Well, maybe not a good one, but it's a reason. There was a big event today at a beautiful outdoor shopping center in Scottsdale and we attended. Mike was golfing, so I took the kids with my mom and had a nice, quick, mini-Christmas experience. The festivities began at noon, so we were there right in the middle of naptime, but the hour was worth it. The weather was amazing; just cool enough (finally!) to wear long sleeves, but still sunny and beautiful. I'm finally used to Christmas scenes and palm trees all in the same area, but I have to admit, it took years to get used to.

There was story time with Mrs. Claus...

Gingerbread cookie decorating...

Live animals to see and learn about...(an owl, a vulture, bald eagle, hawks and snakes, to name a few)

Ryan's fascinated with his toy snake lately, so it was fun for him to see a real snake up close and personal.

And, of course, time spent with Santa.

All morning, Ryan talked about asking Santa for a bird. When he did, Santa looked at me and said, "Mom, are you aware that Ryan wants a bird this year?" then went on to explain that he doesn't bring live animals, but would bring him a toy bird. What on earth!??!!? I thought we were done shopping for Ryan, but it seems I now need to go out in search of a stinkin' toy bird.

After Ryan's chat, we put Kaylin on Santa's lap and got the typical, screaming toddler picture. Ryan did great though. He wasn't scared or nervous at all. Last year, he sat perfectly still and wouldn't say a word. The year before, he screamed, just like Kaylin. And I jumped in to get a decent picture, just like this year.

Why I love Thanksgiving weekend

First and foremost...the food. Why do we only have turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes and pie one night a year? I just love that meal. My mom sent me to my in laws with a baggie full of our family stuffing yesterday. Everyone makes their stuffing a bit different and that pushes the meal into the "divine" category for me. I had it all again for lunch today. I guess since I had leftovers, it's not (technically) only once a year that we eat this lovely meal, but still.

Second, I love the Black Friday sales. I've only gotten up at 5am once or twice, but the last couple of years, I discovered that many of the stores still have a bulk of their sale items at 8 or 9am. On our way home today (we stayed over at Mike's parents last night b/c it's almost an hour away from our house) we stopped by Kohl's and Target to buy a few things. The line at Kohl's wrapped the store, even at 9:30. I only needed one thing, so we headed over to Target where there were tons of cashiers and NO lines. Plus, they had absolutely everything on my list. I love saving money. After that, we went to Staples, which has really amazing sales. This year they had a laptop for under $400. One of the years that I got up at 5am was to go to Staples. With their rebates, some of the stuff ends up free. That year, I got a free shredder for us and my in laws (it was even on their wish list, ironically) and a free label maker, which I actually use and love. Seriously, check it out next year. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, most of the good stuff was gone, but I did get a couple of things. That happened to me last year, too, so I expected it.

Also, I love decorating our Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving. My mom and I did that every year while I was growing up. Ryan really got into it today. We have huge sections of the tree that are cluttered with ornaments and other areas that are virtually bare, but he had a blast.

(Look at the picture below of Ryan on his tip-toes...so sweet)

A new reason I love Thanksgiving weekend is that I decided that on Thanksgiving Eve, (that's right, Wednesday night) I'm going to have a game night at our house. We did it this year and it was so fun! Plus, unless dinner is at their house, no one ever does anything that night anyway. So a new tradition has been formed. We didn't play the typical games that we normally do, I pulled out older games like Taboo and The Newlywed Game and forced everyone to participate, guys vs. girls.

So here I am on Friday night, still a whole 2 days of weekend ahead of me. That should be thrown in there, too, huh? I love Thanksgiving weekend because it's 4 days long. Who doesn't love extra days off?

Baking and an epiphany

Tomorrow we're having a game night at our house. I decided at dinner tonight that I should make sugar cookies for the kids to decorate to keep them busy with something fun and different. I had some great Thanksgiving cookie cutters that turned out to be garbage! The dough didn't come out, there were tons of nooks and crannies for it to get caught, it was awful. So we ended up with stars, Christmas trees and snowmen. Oh well...once the frosting and sprinkles are on there no one will know the difference, right?

It was fun to do a random mid-week bake night with Ryan. I cook and bake so much and I feel guilty sometimes because I know I don't involve him as much as I could/should. But tonight was intentionally a "helping" event. He thought it was hilarious that I let him dump spoonfuls of flour right onto the kitchen counter. I try to be so tidy in the kitchen and I can tell my habits are rubbing off on him, which isn't necessarily a good thing!

So I had a huge epiphany today. My dear, annoying friend, Jessica, (you know I love you) was razzing me for being near-done Christmas shopping, saying that I rushed through the experience to get it off my to-do list. After thinking about it, I realized that even though I keep saying, "I'm bored," I'm not short of things to do. The issue is that since I've hardly been working lately and I have a 2 month break before 2 Hour Time Out starts back up at church next year, I haven't had as many coals in the fire, like I'm used to. And without those two things filling my free time, I've had trouble feeling a daily sense of accomplishment. And it's becoming apparent that I need that...maybe daily!

Before taking Ryan to pre-school today, I whipped up a batch of zucchini bread mini-loaves. WHY? Because my zucchinis were about to go bad. That's all fine and good, but in reality, I could have grated them, stored them in baggies and frozen them for later use. Instead, I baked 6 mini-loaves before 8:30am. And I felt fulfilled!

Jessica suggested I take up reading and I thought, "I don't WANT to read." Why? Likely because with reading, the sense of accomplishment is delayed. With scrapbooking, there are many mini-projects that get finished. Christmas cards...steps within the process that get done. Same with Christmas shopping. Ryan - check. Kaylin - check. Cousins - check.

I can't tell you the number of people who have asked me, "What's your secret to getting so much done and staying on top of everything?" I think I've figured it out: for now, I'm slightly addicted to that sense of accomplishment. I remember changing my pace of life when I first had Ryan. There was no rush to get things done and there was no need to fill my day. I've revved up my lifestyle and pace again, working from home and leading a ministry at church, so now I need to step back, take a breath, and coast through the upcoming holidays at a much slower pace. (or I might drive myself and everyone else around me crazy.)

Let's see if this new found epiphany has any merit. Or if acknowledging it does me any good! You'll see the change of pace happening as you see less blogs. Blogging gives me a strange sense of accomplishment too, I think. Documented the day - check.

Useless facts for your Thanksgiving table

If you want to wow and amaze your friends and family this Thanksgiving, throw these useless facts at them...

• 25% of the world's population lives on less than $200 a YEAR (now you know you have something to be thankful for this Thanksgiving)
• the longest record flight of a chicken is 13 seconds
• a dairy cow produces 100,000 glasses of milk in its lifetime
• a snail can sleep for 3 years (mmmm...I love sleep...)
• the first product to have a bar code was Wrigley's gum
• 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
• TYPEWRITER is the longest word you can spell using only letters from one row of your keyboard
• STEWARDESSES is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand (although it's no longer "politically correct")
• Shakespear invented the words "assassination" and "bump"
• Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors
• a raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top (I wanna try this!)
• apples, not caffeine, are more efficient at waking you up in the morning
• the average ear of corn has eight hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows
• almonds are members of the peach family
• The Bible does not say there were three wise men; it only says there were three gifts (I like the idea of our kids only getting 3 gifts from us for Christmas...just like Jesus did! We want them to be content with less "stuff." We'll see if that tradition lasts...)

A couple of fun party tricks: it's impossible to lick your elbow. Also, you can't physically eat 5 saltines (no liquids allowed) in less than 60 seconds. All of your crazy uncles or brothers-in-law will have fun with those.

Now go...enjoy your holidays with a brain full of a few more useless facts. Except that apples are more effecient at waking you up than caffeine. Please try it and get back to me, my coffee addicted friends!

Playing dress up

Poor Kaylin had a fever all day, but I still got a few really cute pictures out of her. You can tell she doesn't feel well in her eyes, but these ended up pretty cute. I put her in an outfit from my mom, then realized mid-day that the sweater would be too warm. (we went to an early Thanksgiving dinner at Mike's uncle's house and I knew we'd eat outside) So I changed her into another outfit-with-all-the-trimmings and took another mini photo shoot later in the day. To get the full effect, click on the full body picture of her in the grass. Even the shoes match with little sunflowers on them! The outfit is on loan from a friend until Kaylin outgrows it. I just LOVE having a girl!!!

Diaper heads

Often when I walk out of the room, this is the kind of thing I come back in to see...

Kaylin is 15, NOT 16, months old

I always did well in math. But when it comes to counting how many months OLD my daughter is, apparently, not so much. I was going around today thinking, "Kaylin is 16 months old today and barely learned how to walk behind the walker this weekend." Then I just got an email from Pampers saying, "Your child is 15 months old!" I think THEY can count, but I verified it on my fingers. Sure enough, she's 15 months today, not 16 months. Whew! I knew she was a little slow physically, but she just got a whole 'nother month ahead of herself in a matter of moments!

So anyway, I stood Kaylin up behind a walker this weekend and caught on immediately. She looked like Frankenstein, but she did it. She'll be walking by Christmas I'm sure, if not, maybe Valentine's Day...or Easter. I just don't push her physically. She and Ryan are both early talkers. Seriously, I can't keep up with her anymore. Her vocabulary is huge (none sense to strangers, but I know what she's saying 90% of the time) and she repeats everything...especially on command. Some new things to note:

• I caught her counting to 6 today. No joke. "Uh, oooo, eeee, or, i-eee, its..." She started saying, "uh, oo, ee, oh!" (1-2-3 go) then suddenly went to 6 a few times in a row. She can't walk, but she can count...explain that one!
• She calls vitamins, "my." It makes perfect sense. Every morning, Ryan asks for his gummy Juice Plus vitamins by saying, "Can I have my vitamins, please?" She caught the "my" not the "vitamins." When you repeat back, "Do you want a vitamin?" she nods like crazy.
• She calls towels, "eyes." Again, after dumping water on him to rinse the soap out of his hair in the bath, Ryan will ask for a "towel for his eyes." She caught "eyes" but not "towel." Hey, at least I get it.
• Ryan taught her to say, "mine" the other day. They say it back and forth again and again. It was cute. Now it's not.
• She also now says, "no" instead of just shaking her head. It's pretty sweet to hear, but it occurred to me that I should repeat back, "no thank you?" to teach her manners so I don't look back in regret when she's 2 or 3 years old barking, "NO!" at me.

I think that's it. I'm tired tonight and can't think of any other fun stuff she says that's crazily Kaylin-speak. I'll add more later if I think of something. (as long as I'm not lying in bed without a pen and paper handy...I HATE THAT, don't you?)

Happy Birthday, Mike!

Another weekend away from reality

I don't know how I pulled this off (and didn't even do it intentionally) but I had - yet another - girls-only getaway weekend while Mike watched the kids. 2 in 3 weeks...I'll be staying home for a while, to say the least! This time, it was a women's retreat for church. 100 ladies, all ages and backgrounds, most of whom I'd never met, escaped up north about 3 hours to a beautiful oasis of cabins and pines in the mountains. It was chilly, but not so cold that you could see your breath. Perfect since we're barely out of the 90s here in Phoenix.

(this picture was the "pajama party" portion of the retreat)

I came home grateful last night for several reasons. I'm grateful because...

• Mike let me out of the house (without complaints or guilt!) for TWO FULL WEEKENDS with only one weekend in between.


• I came home to a clean kitchen, an empty dishwasher and a sink with not a single dish in it.


• I had these opportunities to escape the reality of motherhood and homemaker-hood to rejuvinate myself.


• I came home each time refreshed and ready to tackle Life again.


• I got to know some friends better.


• I got to see fall colors.


• When Ryan threw up (again!) on Saturday night, I didn't have to deal with it. The sheets and comforter were even laundered upon my return by my sweet husband!


• Mike ended the weekend with more patience for the kids than when I left.


• I met a few girls this weekend that are carrying such a heavy burden...it makes me feel ashamed that I ever complain about my husband, kids, experiences or my blessed life in general.


• One girl I spoke with is in the same place with her husband that Mike and I were in a few years back. I'm so glad we're HERE and not THERE anymore. I hope I was able to encourage her.


• Most of all, I'm grateful that I came home to my family...closer than when I left them. Mike had a wonderful chance (more this weekend than a few weeks ago because his parents weren't available to help much) to bond with the kids together and individually. For example, this morning, Kaylin was repeating, "Dah? Dah?" in her highchair. I said, "You want down already?" and Mike said, "You see the duck on t.v.?" Sure enough, there was a duck on Ryan's show. For the first time that I can remember, I didn't understand the correct word that Kaylin meant and Mike DID. Immediately. He was completely in tune with her.

I am so blessed. I hope my gratitude doesn't diminish too quickly!

ENOUGH!

I'm never saying, "I'm bored," again. Actually, there's a huge difference between being bored and having an uneventful life. My life is quite eventful whether or not I'm ever bored.

Last night, Ryan came out of his room moaning of a stomach ache. He crawled up onto my lap at the desk as I finalized and published my most recent blog, then he started screaming and threw up EVERYwhere. On me, on him, the chair, the carpet...thankfully, not the desk full of paperwork. I had the presence of mind to scoot back and grab the trash can, so some of it was contained. We went straight to the bathtub, Mike loaded up the steam cleaner, and we tag teamed cleaning up.

We think pretty highly of Ryan, even at 3, and thought we communicated appropriately that if he felt sick again, to either grab the bowl (that we put on his dresser) or go into the bathroom by the toilet and call for us. Within the hour, he walked down the hall moaning again and threw up in front of the stairs. You know the annoying thing? I actually had a thought when I saw his door open; "I should grab the trash can again," but decided to scoop him up and rush him to the bathroom instead and thought the trash can would just get in my way. (*sigh*) Hindsight!

Kaylin also got sick in her crib on Sunday night, but I was convinced someone snuck her some peanuts b/c she acted completely fine afterward. That was an eventful midnight bathtime and laundry party! I let Mike sleep through that one and told him about it in the morning. (where's my "wife of the year" award?) Can we PLEASE be done passing things around our house?

"Be" de-coded?

Although I'd love to believe that Kaylin's true meaning for saying, "be" is to indicate that she wants to go window shopping, (read my Dutch friend's comment to the blog on Kaylin-speak below) I think I've finally figured it out. I think...THINK..."be" is her word for "grapes." She did say it while reading stories tonight and pointing to the changing table, which throws off my theory considerably, but it was pretty consistent today. Her face lit up when I repeated back, "Do you want some grapes?" like, "You GET me, Mom!!!"

Other things she says that I forgot to blog:

When we say, "I love you," she says, "I ya yow!" It's the sweetest thing you've ever heard.

"Pee pee" is "pretty pretty." I often call her a "pretty pretty girl" or put a "pretty pretty bow" in her hair. Am I creating a diva?

Onto Ryan, he was praying at dinner tonight and Kaylin was being cranky and he said, "Dear God, please help Kaylin stop crying," then said, "And hey God? Can you help her talk to us?" He was repeating things he heard Mike say, but it struck me as hilarious. "And hey God?"

I mentioned a few days ago that I'm bored. Bad idea! It's like praying for patience...God will give you MORE opportunities to practice patience. And who needs more of those??? I should have known to keep my bored mouth shut. The last 2 days, I've been inundated with lots of things, random topics and things to follow up on. My phone must have rang 14 times in 2 hours during naps yesterday. No exaggeration. And that's not mentioning the floods of emails about 2 Hour Time Out (the moms group I coordinate at church), work, Bunko, Juice Plus, a sorority sister from college (who I haven't talked to in years) who got engaged, a pregnancy announcement, long updates from faraway friends, pictures from other friends, you name it. So I'm not bored anymore. I'm completely un-bored. Stop the insanity!!! Why does it seem to be one extreme or the other?

More Kaylin-speak

Some new things Kaylin says:

"Thank you" is no longer "tay-too" but "tay-tewwwwww" (tew like "tee-you" or a cat saying "mew") which is SO adorable!!! She's just like Ryan was and will say it on command to anyone. It always gets an "awww!" response from people.

"Ra" is her word for Cheerios. It took a few days to figure out, but she eats them often, so this was a HUGE relief to finally de-code. I thought she was saying "Wa" for water and she would shake her head at me when I'd repeat back, "Do you want water?" She gets so annoyed when I don't understand her and absolutely elated when I do finally figure it out. She loves being about to communicate with us.

"My" is clearly the word for vitamins.

"Ba-boo" is cracker. If she wouldn't have repeated it again and again while shoveling crackers into her mouth, I may have missed that one.

"Eyes" is the word for towel or baby wipe. I knew that right away because after I wash Ryan's hair in the tub, he asks for a "dry towel (wash cloth) for his eyes" and Kaylin wants one too. She just doesn't know that the word for towel is "towel" and not "eyes."

"Be" is still a mystery word. She points to the trash can when she says it, out in the backyard from her high chair, in the car, I canNOT figure out what it is. I thought it was "toy" for a while, then she pointed to the mop. Then I thought it might mean "please" like she wants me to get-something-for-her-please but when I repeat, "Please?" she smiles broadly and does the sign for please like she's obeying the request to ask for the "be" using her manners. (see picture to the right to see her signing "please") Anyone have any suggestions!?!?!?! Considering "ra" is Cheerios, don't feel pressure to help me decipher this one.

I got so caught up with BE that I forgot her other cute new words. Hmmm...I'll add them later if I remember. This is why I need to write things down!