Week 32, off and
running. Monday came too fast, as usual, and we were off to work and daycare,
as usual. I spent the day doing some routing of work and got a few new things
written at work – making some headway on my inbox, I’m determined to catch up!
After work, I picked the big girls up from daycare, and we stopped at Walmart
and Target for school supplies, soccer supplies and some groceries. It ended up
being much more of an ordeal than expected, and took forever! But, we’re pretty
much ready for school (I’ve been ordering clothes online and taking advantage
of sales that way – WOOT!) and they’ll be ready to kick off the soccer season
tomorrow. I can’t stand the way our school does their supplies every year. And,
there is one supply that just drives me nuts, and it’s going to be the end of
me. They pretty much have us give them money (and, not a ton at all), to just
buy community supplies – then, parents pretty much just buy tissue, wipes,
antibacterial lotion, etc. This, I think is completely backwards – I want to
buy my own supplies – I wish we just gave them money for the other stuff –
which the school could obviously buy in bulk for a much better cost I’m sure.
So, there are very few supplies that we actually have to buy. For kindergarten
– we have to send 2 Blue Dry Erase Markers. So last year, and this year, I
faced this issue. You CANNOT buy just 2 Blue Dry Erase Markers. Anywhere.
Online, in stores, NOWHERE! I’m not buying two big packs of markers, just to
send the blue ones to school. It’s so minor, but man does it drive me nuts. I
think last year I ended up having Christian raid his office supplies at work –
which he’s been tasked with again this year. Fingers crossed! Finally, after
running around and dragging the girls from store to store, we picked up some
dinner, met Christian and Eliza at home, and settled in for the night. Whew,
exhausting!
On Tuesday, I was
running late. I overslept, the girls were a pain to get out of bed, traffic was
horrible. It was the trifecta of morning woes today. I finally arrived at work,
where I spent a majority of the day sitting on an interview panel. Again – and
hopefully for the LAST TIME (at least for this particular office). I’ve been
making little sales of the kids’ random baby stuff over the last week, and
today I sold the last of their baby Halloween costumes. Awwww, so cute and so
little. So hard to part with! After work, the sports chaos began, and I stopped
home to let the dog out, grab some snacks and the soccer gear, and then picked
up the girls to get ready for their first practice. Christian met us there, and
took Amelia with him. Eliza and I were off with Olivia for her practice. It’s
her first year on an all-girls soccer team, just like softball, which I’m
excited about. (next year, she and Amelia will be on the same team – a little
less chaotic!) I could tell immediately
that quite a few of the girls/families on her team already knew each other…from
what I gathered, they were all in girl scouts together, and went to the same
school (not Olivia’s). Olivia seemed pretty left out, so I was a little annoyed
that so many of the girls were already friends. BUT, she is always a little
shy, so it takes her some time to warm up anyway. I’m sure by the end of the
season she’ll be talking to and playing with all of the other little girls just
fine. It was really hot out tonight, so both of the girls were pretty tired and
dragging a little bit. They were both a little leery of the new team and new
coaches, but they both participated, which was a promising start to the season.
On Thursday we switch roles, so I’m excited to see how Amelia does for myself.
After practice, we settled in at home and made a quick dinner. As we sat down
to eat, we were chatting and laughing and having a grand time. Eliza was
yelling and goofing around, and eventually, jokingly, Olivia yelled to her “Hey
bitch, you be quiet”. YUP – THAT happened. A real life swear word, from my
6-year old, right at the dinner table. I know some people don’t think that the
“b” word is so terrible, but to me, it’s one of the big ones. And, for her to
have used it in the right context and everything – obviously she had heard it
enough to know how to use it. Now, we’re no prudes, we do swear from time to
time, but that one is not a regular in our house, so it clearly came from
daycare. After the shock wore off, we talked to her about not saying that work,
and that is it NOT OK – that it is an adult word. She was embarrassed, I think
she gets it, but we’ll see. We ended the night in a bit of a quandary of
whether we were going to say anything to the director at daycare or not. I
don’t want to be THAT mom, but I want to make sure they know what’s going on,
and that they keep an eye on the older kids when they’re playing with the
younger ones – especially during the summer, when they spend ALL day together.
Ahhhh, parenting. Always such a delight!
Ready to Kick off the new Soccer Season!
Wednesday was
overall a pretty standard day. Work, Work, Work for us. I’ve been having a
great, productive week. Feeling pretty good! We did start off a little rough –
Amelia would not get up, was not listening, and was just driving me INSANE!
6:00AM is way too early to deal with her drama every single day, let me tell
you! After work, I did in fact talk to the assistant director at daycare. She
was there, and things were pretty quiet, so I felt like it was a good time to
chat. She was pretty surprised by it, and seemed happy that I told her, so I
felt good about my decision. I told her I didn’t want anybody to get in
trouble, and I didn’t want to make a big deal – just wanted to make sure the
schoolage teachers were keeping a closer eye (and ear) out for things like
that, especially around the little kids. Glad that’s over! FINALLY, I wrangled
up the girls, and we made our way home. Their little BFF Bella came over, and
the girls played outside for a while. We had dinner and had a pretty quiet
night. I did get some exciting mail today…the girls’ teacher assignments for
the new school year! Amelia has Mrs. Eisen, who was Olivia’s kindergarten
teacher, and that makes me SUPER happy. Knowing that she’s a great teacher, and
what our experience with her has been, already makes me more comfortable about
leaving my mini-BFF in the big old school all on her own. Olivia got Ms.
Kissel, who was Bella’s teacher last year…I don’t know much about her, but
Bella seemed to like her, and Olivia seemed happy about it, so that’s
promising. So fun!! I can’t believe school is seriously right around the
corner! Just over a month and they’ll be heading off on their 1st
day, so crazy! I have all of their supplies (yes, Christian did indeed snatch
up some dry erase markers, woo hooo!), and have ordered just about all of the
new clothes they’ll need online. Just need to order some shoes, and we’ll
pretty much be ready to go. Online shopping is seriously my most favorite thing
ever! After dinner and cleaning up a little, the girls were off to bed. I
watched some TV, while Christian put together Olivia’s new bike. She is going
to die; I’m so excited to surprise her with it tomorrow!!
Thursday….my
Friday. HALLELUJAH!! It started off annoyingly, when we left for daycare and
realized that Christian had not hid Olivia’s new bike, so there it was, right
in the middle of the garage. In fact, Amelia is the one that spotted it first.
So much for that surprise! MEN, you can’t leave anything up to them! But, she
was SO happy and excited, and could not wait to get home and try it out. So
cute, I just love making my babies so happy. After that excitement, I dropped
them off, and I was on my way to work. I’ve talked about it before…probably way
too much, but “the cougher” in our office is back out of control right now.
Seriously, constant, constant, CONSTANT coughing, all day long. You really
can’t even imagine just how disruptive and unbearable somebody’s coughing can
be, until you have to live with it all day every day for a long period of time
(as in, YEARS!). I was seriously so close to losing it, I’ve had to resort to
wearing my earbuds all day. Which are painful, but they do help a little bit.
It rained pretty much all day – I thought for sure soccer would be canceled.
But, it cleared up in time, and the fields weren’t too saturated, so soccer was
on. I stopped home as usual, then was off to get the girls, get them ready, and
head off to practice. Christian went with Olivia today…they had a little
scrimmage, and he said she did really well. That she played some really great
defense, which was exciting. I was off with Amelia, and was pleasantly
surprised. She listened, she participated, she TRIED. My baby, she’s growing
up! When I told them soccer was starting up earlier this week, they both
proclaimed they didn’t want to play, they didn’t like soccer anymore. Now, they
both say they love it! Kids – you can never take their word for anything! We
were all pretty wet and cold from the rain, and exhausted, so we had a quick
dinner once home from soccer, I gave the girls their baths and we were all off
to bed. Looking forward to my day off tomorrow!
Snacks and Smiles, watching some soccer!
On Friday, we were
all up and at em’ early, even on my day off, hitting a busy day hard!! Christian
was off to work, and dropped Olivia off at daycare on his way. Meanwhile, I got
myself and the other two cleaned up and ready to go, and we were off for some
check up’s.
-
First,
to Amelia’s 5-year. I’ve officially moved her (and Olivia) to the clinic closer
to us, to a new pediatrician. I love our original pedi, but the clinic is just
too far away – and with the big girls in school now, we just don’t have the
time for that. The new pediatrician is a little awkward, and is definitely
different than our original, but she’s really nice and great with the kids, so
she’ll definitely work out. Amelia weight in at 38lbs and 42” tall, up from
34lbs and 39.5” last year. So, contrary to popular belief, she is indeed
growing! She’s about 35% for each, but she’s growing well. She’s doing well
developmentally and everything looks good. Her vision and hearing tests were
still questionable. She couldn’t read the smallest line they wanted her to be
able to on the eye chart, and it appeared that she couldn’t hear the low tones
on the hearing test, without some prompting from the nurse. Last year she
really wouldn’t cooperate at all, so this year they said to just keep an eye on
her this year, let her teacher know the potential concerns, and they’ll retest
her next year. If anything comes up before then, they’ll send her to a
specialist, who won’t need her to do anything, and make sure there’s nothing
going on. A little stressful, but I’m sure everything is just fine. After her
appointment, I got her a quick breakfast, and dropped her off at daycare.
-
Next,
Eliza and I were off to her 15-month. I do still have her see the original
pediatrician. Just because we REALLY love him, and he’s so great with the
little ones, it’s worth the drive for the first couple of years. Once she’s 3
or 4, we’ll switch her to the other girls’ pediatrician, but until she’s more
vocal and independent, we prefer our original doctor. He was running quite
late- which is pretty typical (another reason we switched the other two), but
everything went well once he arrived. She weighed in at 26lbs (95%) and 30.5”
tall (90% - though, I think this was quite off…I think she’s more around 29,
maybe 30”). She’s up from 24lbs and 29” back at her 1-year check-up. She had a
perfect check-up…she’s right on track developmentally and, while she’s big, her
growth has been consistent and on track, so that’s good. Olivia was pretty much
the same way, so I think she’s going to end up being very similar to her. I was
a little concerned about her speech, and that she doesn’t really talk much yet,
but he wasn’t concerned about that at all. Whew! She did have to get 3 shots.
My poor baby – shots are just the worst! She was very, VERY upset about it, but
recovered quickly.
I grabbed some
lunch on our way home, she fell asleep on the drive, and then continued to
sleep for a few hours. So, I got most of the afternoon all to myself. Lots of
TV and relaxing and a whole lot of nothing – just what the doctor ordered! Once
she woke up, she had a late lunch, and we hung out and played for a while.
Christian was home a little earlier than usual, and his friend from work,
Lorenzo, stopped over to hang out for a while. I left him on Eliza duty, while
I picked the big girls up from daycare. Bella stopped over and they all played
outside for quite a while. Eventually I forced them all inside for a late
dinner and some down time before sending them off to bed. What a big day!
Selfie Before her Appointment!
Here's the 15 Month Old!!
Saturday was another
pretty busy day, and started off rough. We were all up pretty early, and
getting ready for the day. We should have been off to the girls’ last swim
class of the session, but instead we had to attend a baptism preparation class for
our niece. I hate to miss out on our scheduled events, especially things we pay
for, but at least it was for a good cause. So, after a quick breakfast, we were
off to meet my sister in law and her husband at the church for class. Eliza was
fussy and difficult, and the other two were picking at each other and acting up
the entire time we were there. Basically, a disaster, as expected. There was only
one other family there, and there were only two of them, so it was either just
the parents, just the godparents or one of each…in any event, we clearly did
not both need to be there, so I was pretty bitter about that. But, it was over,
we survived and we were off. Next up, we dropped Amelia off at my mom’s for a
late birthday outing. Even though she really didn’t deserve it with the way she
had been acting, we let her go (maybe more for our sanity than anything). She
took her to the mall to pick out a gift, have lunch and go on a couple of
rides. They hung out at her house for a while before they left, so she was away
for quite a while. The rest of us arrived home for some lunch. Olivia and I
walked over to Walmart to pick up a few things. I let her buy a little horse
purse she’d been wanting…while I’m not going to tell my mom “no, you can’t take
Amelia shopping”, I wasn’t super happy about it. Her birthday was two weeks
ago, and the girls are still fairly young, that Olivia wouldn’t understand why
Amelia was getting a random gift, when her birthday was “SO” long ago, and my
mom was there, at the party, and gave her a gift there. Back for Olivia’s
birthday, we had a separate “party” at home for our parents, which my mom didn’t
attend. Because of that, she took Olivia out that weekend for a special
birthday outing. So, I understand she wanted to do the same for Amelia – but they
don’t really remember things like that, and I knew it would just cause hurt
feelings – so, in the end, I had to shell out some money and buy Olivia a
random toy to make up for it. Life, there’s always something! Eliza ended up
taking a really long nap, which was refreshing for all of us. Once home from
Target, Olivia watched some videos and relaxed for a while. We had the windows
open, and got some nice fresh air for a while…until I took Olivia outside to
ride her bike and scooter for a while….then we were both drenched in sweat and
couldn’t cool off, so the air went back on. It was getting pretty humid out, so
I think the no-AC would have been short-lived anyway. Eliza woke up from her
nap, and Amelia was home shortly after…so, the usual chaos was back on, full
swing. Amelia picked out one of the new, super cute princesses from The Disney
Store. Olivia had “Merida” from last Easter, and Amelia picked out “Ariel”. I
guess she wanted the one with red hair, just like sissy, so they could play
together. Isn’t it sweet how much they love each other….when they’re apart?
Now, if only they could be like that when they are together! Since it was
getting pretty hot and humid outside, and getting late, we settled into the
house for the night. We watched some movies on Netflix, did some playing, had
dinner and relaxed before bed. Quiet end to a hectic start!
Today we found out Olivia has a hidden talent - she can roll her tongue! WHAT?! Turns out, Christian can too. So, I'm the lame one.
Movie Night - Girls Couch vs. Boys Couch
Sunday was a pretty
typical day. CHORE DAY! No fun. I spent the day doing laundry, doing dishes and
cleaning the kitchen, and picking up around the house. The usual; and just as
tedious as always. We had breakfast, and the big girls spent some time playing
downstairs. Before we knew it, they were back to arguing and fighting non-stop,
and we were pretty much at our wits end. They played outside for a while, while
Christian mowed the grass….and while I got Eliza down for a nap, and folded
some laundry. I’ve started watching “Devious Maids”, so that’s been my latest
obsession. So, I spent most of the day catching up on that. The girls came in
fighting and yelling, waking Eliza up – WAY before she was ready. Then, she
wouldn’t go back down, and she was crabby as can be. Oh man, that was literally
the end of me. I yelled, and lost it a little, and sent them downstairs to
clean up and hang out for a nice long while. Eventually, my in-laws stopped
over to do some grilling. They are BIG grillers, and since they live in an
apartment, and can’t grill there, we reap the benefits…they bring food over
from time to time, and Christian cooks it. Win, Win! But, entertaining on these
random days is not my thing. The girls hung outside with them the rest of the
day, but for the most part, I was inside doing my laundry and chores. Enjoying
the peace and quiet. Once the food was just about done, I did finally join
everybody to eat and hang out for a while. It was so humid out though, and
pretty miserable, that I could hardly do anything. Eliza managed to make a complete
mess of herself, so I made my way back inside to give her a bath, and get her
to bed. When my in-laws left, the big girls came inside, stomping and slamming
doors, and arguing all over again. And, AGAIN, woke Eliza up. I was so livid –
especially since Christian was still just hanging out outside, like it was no
big deal. He finally came in, gave them a bath and put them to bed, while I
dealt with Eliza…again, fighting her to go back to sleep. Let just say, it was
not our most successful weekend of parenting ever. Man these girls can really
test you. I suppose like any kids…but I feel like they just gang up and all
decide to be terrible at the same time. Tomorrow is another day. Tomorrow
starts another week. Tomorrow, the slate is clean.
She Loves her Watermelon!
Until Next Week! XOXO
