First Communion Woes

I am literally not going to make it to April 24th and Quinn's First Communion. She's ridiculous. We have a dress that is gorgeous, but of course she doesn't want to wear it now because I picked it out and it was on sale. I told her I thought she would look pretty in bobby socks and dress shoes. She says, NO, I want to wear tights (which of course, every other time I want her to wear, she throws a fit about). I suggested she get a cute purse and gloves (thinking, surely, I'll be on target with this one). NOPE, she says, no to that too.

All I ever hear is how much other girls have and how cute other girls look and how little she has and how we don't let her do this and that! Maybe I'm being close minded and should just let her do whatever, but this dress is seriously gorgeous. I just can't believe that spending three times more on a dress that she picks out (and probably doesn't look as nice), will be worth it. But, I know I should let her because on that day, she'll make my life a living hell if she's not happy.

I don't understand why my daughter is so hard to please. It makes me so angry that she can't be happy about anything lately. I mean, she butts heads with me at every turn. She keeps saying, "I'm not a baby!" - well then quit acting like one! She wants to grow up so fast and I want her to look like a 7 year old, not 17. I feel like I'm holding on to a leash and she's pulling me along with my heals dug in the ground just trying to get away. It's exhausting trying to keep them kids.

If hear one more time how everybody has a Wii but us, I'm going to puke. She said tonight, "There are people in my class who have no money, but if they ask for something, like a dog, or a Wii, their parents will buy it for them!" That was supposed to persuade me in some fashion. I told her those people should not be buying Wii's or dogs if they don't have any money.

I am so mad right now, I can hardly gather the patience to go up and tuck her in. Now who's being immature? I think I need counseling on how to deal with my kids - I'm obviously doing something wrong or else they wouldn't do this to me, right?

Parenting, sucks. If I were to get a report card right now, I'm sure it would be all D's. D for Doing a Poor Job sister. I know I should be more understanding, more patient, more empathetic, but I have no tolerance for spoiled kids and their mouths (which mine apparently is).

Hopefully, I'll feel better about it tomorrow. I just want them to be good people - why does all this other stuff have to come into play.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Now I'm off to send sweet dreams her way. URRRRRRG.

Self-medication, I'm all for it

So, tonight was a glass and a half of wine kind of dinner. Lydia divulged to Quinn that we had gone to Culver's today for lunch and had ice cream which then opened the dam of everything I've ever done wrong where Quinn is concerned and how much nobody likes her. That led into, Lydia hates her and Lydia steals from her, and Lydia does this and that. Then she went into how I NEVER let her do anything and then it was how everyone gets so much more than she does - and on and on and on with lots of tears. By the time I was on glass two, it all started to become hilarious, so I started giggling and that pissed her off more.

I told Lydia to give Quinn a hug and Lydia was actually being so sweet. She said she only bugs Quinn because she likes her and wants to be with her - sweet!

She wouldn't hug Quinn, though, when I asked. I told her, You already got us in trouble by letting the cat out of the bag - go hug her! She still said, No. Darn. Keep drinking, I thought.

Self medication, all for it! Who says it's a bad thing? They're completely wrong, or don't have four kids, maybe one, two or three, but not four. Gotta go finish my vino before bathtime. Cheers!

It already begins

Today Quinn came down in jeans and her Old Navy sweatshirt that zips up (hoodie). I asked her if she had anything on underneath and she said, "Yes! A t-shirt". I said, "a tank top?" and she said, "No, a t-shirt." So I let her go.

Today she comes home with one of her church dresses (knit) that has some sequins on the bodice, tied behind her waist with a rubberband. I said, did you have that on under the sweatshirt this morning? She said, "Yes." and I said, "that is not a school dress!" and she said, "it's a shirt!" and I said, "No, it's a dress!"

I'm going to have to start checking the mailbox and her backpack for clothes she's going to be sneaking out of the house to change into soon, I guess.

I swear!

Somebody Did It

Have I mentioned how my four year old is a cleptomaniac lately? Well, she's going through something that's for sure. The funny thing is that everytime we're looking for something we ask her first, "Have you seen my cell phone, Lydia?" was my quest the other day. She always responds, " I didn't take it, I swear!" and she is so believable it's scary. Now we say, "Lydia would you go find my cell phone for me?" and she'll still say, "I didn't take it, I swear!" and we'll say, "Just go look for it and if you find it, bring it to me." So, off she went to look for my phone and 30 seconds later, she exclaims, "Guess what? Somebody put your phone under my bed, Mommy!" - "Imagine that!" I say. The abyss that is under her bed could easily lose a cadillac.

I need to get a hold of this "Somebody" character, though, because we're still missing a set of keys (just kidding!).

Haiti

I thought that 9/11 was horrific. The whole ordeal, the terror. But, this....this earth born disaster in Haiti is worse, I think. The shear numbers of people suffering, the numbers of people dead, the amount of damage. How do people recover? How does the country recover?

If you survived the earthquake, now you have to survive...period. Babies without food, water, sanitation. People with injuries untreated and devastating. How do people overcome this?

The scary thing is that we live on a fault line - it could easily be us. Probably not to the magnitude it is happening in Haiti, but still.

I can't imagine searching for my children, digging out my husband from rubble, being buried in rubble.

I'm just praying....period.

Hide n Seek

The twins were soooo cute yesterday. They were playing Hide n Seek together. The funny thing was they kept hiding in the same place and finding each other. They hid, really quiet, and still as stone, until the other found them. Then they would laugh like crazy and giggle. It was hilarious. Hayden would say, "You found me" and then "my turn - hide." Then William would hide. It was sweet.

A Funny by Quinn

Tonight I went in her room and said, "this place is a disaster!"
Quinn said, "I know! We need a maid!"
I just started laughing because I know how she feels!
Carl said, "Guess what? You're the maid!"

It was funny. Maybe you had to be there.

Beat the System

Finally, the system works. At least it did today, in my favor (well, Lydia's favor). Let me refresh....Lydia was a First Steps baby. She had low muscle tone and development delays which led to speech delays and so forth. She exited the program when she was three with no further services required - supposedly, she was caught up and age appropriate in all her skill levels. Fine.

Well, last year at age 3 and a half, we started to see her speech fall behind, again. Her preschool teacher brought it up in her first and second semester conference and together, we decided to wait and have Lydia tested further until after her fourth birthday. Why? Well, the expectations for your speech go up after you're four. I finally managed to get her tested today. She's 4 and 7 months.

The speech evaluator was great! She had asked me what my concerns were and I told her. Lydia can't do "f"s, she has trouble with "v", "w", "s", "d", and other sounds. Mostly, though, she is hard to understand a lot of the time. It's not a whole sentence you can't understand, but particular words and phrases. Her mouth gets lazy and doesn't want to annunciate.

She agreed with me after evaluating her and particularly was concerned about her "f" sounds. YEAH! She's going to recommend speech services once a week for her at Vandover (ECC) and that will get Lydia an IEP to take to Kindergarten which will hopefully mean, more speech services.

I was pretty adamant that she get tested before her kindergarten screening so that when they see her, we already have a plan in place, plus I wanted her to start services before school starts for several reasons. First, if she can make any progress before the Fall - it will only help her with her peers. If they can't understand her - well, kids can be cruel. Second, I want her to have a base to jump off of when she gets to "big kid" school. She won't think it's weird to go to speech because she's already doing it.

When I told Lydia that she was going to be taking a special class at her "old" preschool this semester, she only replied, "Okay, but can I still go to Kindergarten?" - How sweet is that!? I said, "of course!" and that was all it took. She's okay with it. Me? I'm elated.

I feel like I beat the system and that makes me one happy woman. It is a shame to know that you have to let your kid get "worse" before then can get services to get "better", but you have to play by the rules (sort of), to get what you need. Next up - William.

In a few months, we'll see how he's doing when he "exits" the First Steps program, or qualifies for further services. He will probably fall in the very broad range of normal, on the lower end, and not make the cut off for services, but we can only hope. Maybe he'll have a bad day and not perform for them - which means he'll score lower. Okay, so am I actually considering interrupting his sleep so he's a crabby mess and sleep deprivation never scores well? NO! JUST KIDDING! I wouldn't do that - would I? Hmmmm. Something to think about......ha ha!

Another Lydia comment

We decided to use some gift cards and attempt to go to dinner as a family on Sunday night. We went to Chilli's. Yum! Before we left, though, we told the kids they had to get their baths done and clean up the toys. Baths were completed in record time and then the toys were to be picked up. They were pretty lethargic about this task so Carl says, "Guys, I'm just looking for an excuse not to go to dinner! Come on, pick up the toys!".

Lydia hears what her Dad says and looks at him and says, "You're going to be awful lonely at home by yourself, Dad." It was hilarious. She totally misunderstood him and figured he didn't want to go, but she was going, so if he wanted to stay home - so be it!

She cracks me up.