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.

Happy New Year

Well, 30 seconds into 2010 and I'm thinking whew - another decade. Where did it go? Where did the last ten years GO? I'm watching Dick Clark's Rockin' New Year's in New York - and okay? When did Dick Clark haeve a stroke? I missed that one. He looks good.

Now Ryan Seacrest and Jennifer Lopez are dancing - okay, what IS she wearing? Yikes.

Anyways, I wish you a great 2010 and a blessed year. I wish you a year of hope, of love, of happiness. As for me, I am praying for a better year with my own health and the will to do what I need to do to continue to improve it. I am also praying for the continued health of my family and friends. I am hopeful for the country and I'm looking forward to so many good things happening this year.

Happy New Year. Nite.

Santa Is NOT Bringing a CAT!

I got up this morning in a pretty good mood. Quinn got up in a pretty good mood, I thought. Then she starts in at breakfast. "I want a cat. Why can't I have a cat? Everything I ask for, I never get. I hate my life. I never get what I want!".

She started on the whole "cat" request to Santa over the weekend. Where that came from, I'll never know? We have tried the gentle let down method - "Santa doesn't bring animals to our house. He just can't." and "Quinn we can't get a cat right now, we have a dog." Even, "I'm sure Santa won't disappoint you!" Nothing satisfied her demand.

Last night she started in at bedtime with "you never spend time with me." and "You don't like me as much as the babies." and "Why do I always have to go to school and they get to stay home with you?" and crying, lots of crying. It got to me. The guilt set in. I was sympathetic, then.

This morning, though, I'd had enough. I am sure it was not my proudest Parenting moment. My head started spinning. My heart started racing! If there is one thing I cannot stand it's my kids being ungrateful, spoiled, demanding divas. I yelled at her and surprising to me, burst into sobs. I told her, "You are not getting a cat! Let it go! I don't want to hear another word about it!" and "You have a life most kids dream of! Get off of it! I try to get you what you want when it's necessary. I flippin' went to Walmart twice to get you a turtle neck in the right color because you didn't like what I picked out!" I told her, "I'm done! Maybe I'll just take all the gifts you're getting and give them to a child who deserves them."

Quinn has a gift for needling you until you break. She hammers at your defenses, chink by chink until you absolutely blow up in her face and then she wonders, why that happened? Accepting "NO" as an answer is not her strong suit.

She immediately started saying, "I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" and crying. Then she says, "I hate myself. I'm stupid!" and I said, "No! You are not! Don't say that about yourself!". She knows that when she talks like that it gets to me too.

So, it's five minutes before the bus is to arrive and we both have splotchy faces and I'm so mad, I could spit nails. I'm thinking, how, in a matter of minutes did my day go so far south? I think seeing me upset freaked her out, but I just couldn't listen to her "crap" anymore. I really can't wait for puberty! NOT! I probably shoudn't have blown up like that, but I doubt she'll bring up the cat again. I am sure I'm on the Naughty list now - probably gonna find some coal in my stocking. Oh well!

Ah, Lydia.

Today Lydia came home from preschool where they had their Christmas party and said, "Mom, you should have gotten the big napkins for our party." (We were in charge of plates and napkins, so I bought dessert size of both). I asked, "why?". and she said, "we got to ice some cupcakes and mine was pink and I made a BIGGGG mess. I needed more than one little napkin!". I said, "Duly noted. Next party - we get the big ones!" and she said, "good!"

I just found that funny.