PreK/Preschool Thread Week of Oct. 2nd

[RunnerKim]

Happy October everyone!
Any plans for pumpkin patches this month? I think I've convinced DH to actually play hooky one day this month to go to a patch on a week day (when it's decent weather hopefully).

Lainey had a party at a little pottery shop and quite honestly it was like taking a bull in to a china shop. I was able to get her to settle down but it was definitely not her "thing" - when we left, she and another girl ran around outside for a bit while I talked with the other mom.

One of Lainey's teacher's had emergency appendix surgery on Friday. I've talked with the director about bring in some meals for her - not sure how much room she has to store those though (if each or most parents brought something in!).

I more or less forced/bribed Lainey to get her Thank Yous done from her birthday. She didn't have too many since we indicated no gifts for her party (although a couple still brought them). Her S is now more or less vertical (we compromised and she could write "thanks" instead of "thank you").

Lainey starts swim class tonight. I reminded her that she could sit on the side of the pool for as long as she wanted but once class was over we had to go home (i.e., no or less pool time). She said she wanted me to count to 3 and then she'd jump in. We'll see.

Thought i'd lost my credit card yesterday, but Jamie had just relocated it. Lainey used to play with my wallet all the time, but this is the first time that Jamie found it and for some reason that's the only card he took away from the "scene of the crime"

How was everyone else's weekend?

Kim

[JoanneOR]

Hi Kim and everyone else!

We have a pottery shop that does birthday parties in our neighborhood, too. Ian went to one a couple years ago, so the kids would have been 6 or 7, I think. It still was pretty hectic! I'm impressed Lainey would be able to write her own thank yous! I did Caitlyn's for her and let her put her own version :rolleyes: of her name on them. I need to get on Jameson about doing his.

We haven't been to a pumpkin patch in a couple years. The kids have been going to them for field trips, so we haven't taken them. Although, Caitlyn hasn't been to one. It might be fun to take her when she gets off school some day.

Good luck with swim class! Oh, I remember the days when Caitlyn (and the boys before her) would have a blast emptying out my wallet and purse. I'm glad she's past that stage! When we first got Tully, she did the same thing one night.

Our weekend was OK. The kids were sick off and on. Everyone had a fever at one time or another. Everyone's only lasted a day, except Jameson, he seemed to get hit the worst.

DH got my car running again, so that's good. No more juggling things with one car.

Our neighbor gave Caitlyn her daughter's old toy vanity this weekend. She played with it for hours. It's got all pretend make-up, thankfully! But, Caitlyn decided to do our nails this weekend. She does her own now and actually does a pretty good job! I let her do my toenails and they are a bright silvery purple. I forgot to take it off - thank goodness sandal season is over! I'd be hiding my feet under my desk all day.

[MrsReber]

No pumpking picking so far, but we did go pick apples today with my mom. Then we met my brother, SIL and neice for lunch at a Mexican restaurant. What a gorgeous day it is here! We usually go pumpkin picking, but I'm not sure what will happen this year with the move and all.

Joanne, Casey loves to paint my toe nails. Right now, each toe is a different color. It wouldn't matter so much except that I'm wearing open toe flat sandald at work because of my knee injury. The funny thing is that not many people noticed. The ones who did notice knew that it had something to do with Casey. The thing is, it's easier to explain that to my co-workers than to explain to Casey that mommy can't have different colored nails at work. She got very insulted when I took the polish off my hands!

My weekend was okay. DH left for VA on Friday. Casey swore that he never told her that. She thought he was at work! At 8:00pm Friday, she finally asked why Daddy wasn't home from work yet. We didn't do too much. It rained Saturday afternoon and half of Sunday, but then cleared up nice. DH got home around 1:30 and promptly fell asleep. The kids wanted to ride their bikes over to the little park around the corner. While we were there, our realtor showed up with her daughter, who is Casey's age. They played together for a while so that was good.

I'm not looking forward to work this week. I'm thinking I need to talk to my boss about my situation and see if there's any possibility of me working remotely. I can easily review and negotiate contracts from home and I think I've proven myself over the past 5 years with my Mondays at home. Although I have been slacking off lately- it was just too beautiful out today and I will never regret spending time with my kids and my mom. I may take a day off this week. I really need a mental health day with all that's been going on- a day with no kids, no work and no DH. Just ME. We'll see- I'm shooting for Thursday.

Brenden keeps asking me to get that alarm that wakes you up to pee at night. He so desperately wants to stay dry all night (he still wears pull ups to bed). We saw an ad in a catalog and now he insists that he wants it so he can stay dry like a big boy. I have no idea if they work- it's $70 in the catalog! Says it goes off at the first sign of wetness. I can't see how it'd work. Anybody have any experience at all with something like this? I know I can just put him to bed in underwear and hope that helps, but I haven't seen any indication that wetness would wake him up- sometimes he falls asleep on me and pees on me, too. It's hard to fully wake him up at night. Poor kid. I do feel for him since Casey was dry at night since she was 3 and she tells him that every so often.

[karen w]

Delurking for Mrs. Reber,

When my oldest son was 7 y.o. he was still not able to stay dry at night. He was an extremely heavy sleeper and frequently had night terrors. At his 7 yr. well check up, we talked to the pediatrician who said that they do not intervene with medical testing until the child is 8 y.o. and not staying dry. He did, however, say that if he was motivated we could try a sleep alarm. DS#1 was very motivated so we ordered one(matter of fact, I just came across it in the closet last night!). The literature that came with the alarm said that it took a minimum of 3mos. and up to one year for the alarm training to work. We were fortunate with DS#1, it took exactly 3 months and he never had an accident after that. We would have him wear underwear at night with the alarm pinned to the underwear and a pull up over that so I would not be changing sheets nightly. Your son is still very young, so I really would not be too concerned at this point. However if this is something that is really bothering him, you may want to talk to your pediatrician. Good luck.

Karen

[MrsReber]

Thanks, Karen. We talk to him about staying dry. He's so proud of himself on the mornings that he wakes up dry. I really think it's just a boy/age thing for him. He was potty trained early (2 1/2) and he did all the work himself. I wasn't going to even try until he was 3. It's just overnight that's a problem for him. Every time we get a package delivered, he wants to know if it's his alarm. Maybe I will discuss with the pediatrician. I don't fret over it because I don't want it to be a huge issue, but we do talk about it, so I know he's very interested in staying dry. I read a lot about it and mostly find that I should let it go for now. However, I don't want him to feel bad or disappointed in himself. Ugh!! I tried waking him up at night to go- I know some people do this. It didn't work. I could barely get him to stand so it was useless. I realize that he just doesn't feel the sensation when he's asleep.

[RunnerKim]

Someone posted on one of these threads about having heard a doctor speaking about potty training issues and that he indicated there are two types of kids who wet their beds. The first type were those that would wake up as soon as they did it and with those kids you could wake them and take them to the bathroom or do other management techniques to help them. But the second type were the deep sleepers, who do not wake up if they've had an accident. For that type it was simply a body maturity thing and waking kids up to use the bathroom wouldn't do any good. Lainey fell in to the latter category. She started staying drive overnight at the same time she was consisently making it through nap time dry (so it was clearly not a length of sleep issue!) She was dry during nap at school 99% of the time months before being dry at home (where she slept longer and deeper). Potty training was really pretty simple for her and she took complete control of it (no nagging needed etc.). I think she's similar to Brenden in that way - so it was incredibly frustrating to her to not be able to stay dry at night. She also became upset when she had accidents - so much so that I thought she was having a night terror one time when she woke up from her nap and was wet. I just kept repeating the message over and over that her body wasn't ready yet. I think she was about 3.5 (maybe a little younger) when it seemed to happen overnight. She was throwing her pullups away herself so we didn't know that it wasn't used.

Kim

[MrsReber]

Brenden certainly doesn't wake up when he's wet! I changed him one night because his pj's were soaked. When he woke up the next morning, he wanted to know why he had different pajamas on.

Nap time is usually not an issue for him unless he drinks a lot or doesn't go to the bathroom before he falls asleep. I feel bad for him because I think it's frustrating for him from time to time. I really think it's just a physical thing that he'll have to grow out of.

Our buyers are still making us crazy!! that's a whole other story....and we're only 20 days from our closing date.

[cchhbb]

Susan, Garrett is a deep sleeper and at night still uses a diaper or a pullup. The other night he did wake at 3 am and went potty and then stayed dry the rest of the night. He did have a wet pull up at 3 though. I think it will be a long time before he is dry at night. He's in bed at least 12 hours at night. He started staying dry for naps at about 3 1/2, but rarely takes them.

Kim, I took Griffin in for a weight check yesterday and started talking to the DR. about speech and she said she isn't concerned unless an 18 month old is saying less than 6 - 8 words.

Griffin has grown 3/4 inch in 6 weeks, but only gained an ounce. He's still under 20 pounds. He is so active and progressing in all other areas that his doctor isn't super concerned.

Yesterday, was a tough day. My grandmother, who lives in Ohio, fell and broke her hip. The neighbor called me since she couldn't get ahold of my aunt or parents. I was able to get ahold of my dad's cousin who went to the hospital with her. She's being operated on today or tomorrow.

While I was dealing with this, I was driving about an hour from our house to drop off my new cabinet doors to get refinished. I had both boys in the car. The area I was in is really rural. Well, I just got back on the highway to come home and Garrett threw up all over. He just kept getting sick and I was going 80 miles an hour down the highway. I had to drive about 5 miles before I got to an exit. Poor Garrett was covered with vomit. I stopped at the exit and did my best to clean him up. I took the cover off the carseat and considered just buckling him into a seat belt. I'm glad I didn't as we almost had an accident about 15 miles later where a car crossed all 6 lanes of traffic and I nearly hit them. I spent most of the morning today cleaning the car and car seat.

I got home in time to shower and go to Garrett's teacher conference. It went great. She doesn't think he should be in her class. She said she just loves him. We did talk about his fine motor weakness and she is having him observed by Occupational Therapy this week. She asked me if I knew Garrett could read and I said I thought he recognized words. She seems to think he can recognize a lot of words. She is working with him on phonixs now.

Have to run.

Cheryl

[HRJ]

Victor still wakes up wet about 30 percent of the time-- he sleeps in those Good Nights (the larger version of Pull-Ups) and doesn't seem to be bothered about it at all. He's definitely in the deep-sleeper category (once he falls asleep! ;) ). I was doing some research on the subject, and it seems that anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent of kids up to age 6 are still wetting at night -- our pediatrician said she doesn't recommend trying anything to deal with it until a kid is at least 6 or 7.

But I understand that for some kids it can be frustrating, especially if, like in Brenden's case, they have an older sibling to compare themselves to. It's funny -- when I started buying the Good Nights, I was calling them "nighttime underpants" because I thought Victor might be bothered by still wearing something at night. One evening when he was getting ready for bed, and I said, "let's get your nighttime underpants" he gives me this eye-rolling look, and says, "Mommy, they're really just big diapers -- can't you see that?"


Speaking of sleeping, I'm going to take a chance and report on some sleep success we've been having -- I was going to write about this about a month or so ago, and then we had some major back-sliding, so I hope I don't jinx myself ... but Victor's sleep habits have improved dramatically. I still say that "normal people" would be appalled at what we go through some nights, but things are markedly better recently.

Mainly, he will fall asleep in *his own bed* about 15 or 20 minutes after we turn down the light, if I'm sitting on the bed with him. I know that sounds excessive, considering he's 5 years old, but, considering that until recently he'd stay up for for as much as 1-2 *hours* :eek: it's a huge improvement. Also, he now *sleeps through the night, in his own bed.* I cannot tell you all what a huge improvement in quality of life that has been for me (and DH, but to a lesser extent, since I ended up dealing with most of the nighttime drama). But again, we've had some back-sliding every once in a while, so we're not out of the woods yet.

I wish I could say this change was brought about by some effort on my part -- considering all the books I've read, advice I've sought (including from professionals), etc -- but, in typical Victor fashion, this seems to have been something that he took ownership of, and did in his own time, in his own way. It does seem to have coincided with him starting the pre-K program at his new school -- they do have a nap-time there (and he does fall asleep), but it's a relatively short nap, much shorter than at his previous preschool. Also, I think they get more strenous outdoor activity at this school, and, I think in general, he thinks of himself as being more of a "big kid" now. But who knows? All my friends whose kids went to kindergarten this year tell me that their kids just konk out by the end of the day, because they are so much more exhausted than they were in preschool, especially if they also go to after-care. So this is good prep for next year.

Haven't thought about pumpkin patches -- in the past we've gone to a farm where they have the pumpkins already picked and piled in a huge pyramid, but maybe we'll try something different this year.

We're going to my MIL's in upstate NY this weekend -- I was thinking of trying to find an apple-picking place near her, and suggesting that as an activity. She isn't much interested in going anywhere outside her retirement community, but as he gets older, Victor gets more and more restless hanging out there (and so do I ;) ), so maybe we can work something out.

Our weekend was nice -- on Saturday I went to a consignment sale (Mothers of Twins) that's generally considered to be the best around here. Got some nice stuff. DH took Vic to soccer. In the afternoon we got together with a bunch of families from our old day-care - it was great to talk with the other parents again, and Victor liked seeing all his old friends. (Can you have "old" friends if you're only 5? :confused: ;) ). Sunday was a total downpour all day; Monday was Yom Kippur, we went to the children's services at our temple.

Kim, I can't believe someone would have a party for 3/4 year-olds at a pottery shop! :eek: I LOL'd about Jamie taking your credit card -- are you sure he didn't go online to buy himself something?

BTW, thanks for the recommendation a while back for the Nature's Miracle -- it is indeed. Really helped with the smell!!

Susan, here's hoping the next 20 days are relatively stress-free -- I'll be thinking good house sellling/moving thoughts for you.

Joanne, glad all the kids are feeling better. I can just imagine Caitlyn loving her little vanity.

I know there was all sorts of stuff discussed last week -- sorry I didn't get to everybody!

Helene

[SaraInWisc]

Hi All! I've been lurking and not writing. I started late with the potty with Briar. I think because it was such a negative, passive issue with my older daughter, now 11. She had "accidents" until 1st grade. My son, now 7, was so easy. I just told him no diapers and he said, "okay mama". With Briar whenever I mentioned starting she would say, "no, I'm too small" or "the potty's too big". So, we decided no more diapers. She does best when she's reminded but she stays dry through the night and poops in the potty. I'm thinking of starting a sticker chart with a reward being "Holly Tail Pockets". That's what she calls Polly Pockets handed down from her sister. I'm feeling frustrated with Henry. He's gone from being a picky eater to an ultra picker eater. I don't remember being his age and telling my mother well I don't really like chicken or hamburger or fish or spaghetti anymore. Thanks for letting me vent. We still don't know about moving either talk about stress!

Sarah- How's your sister BF? You mentioned he was in the hospital.

Cherly - I hope Garrett is feeling better. And, hope your Grandmother is doing well.

Sara

[RunnerKim]

Cheryl - I'm glad you got some good news at the end of your day. Whew!! Cleaining vomit up in the car is the absolute worst. Is he okay?

I was on the interstate with Lainey Sunday and she noticed I hadn't run the seat belt through the positioner. I'm really beginning to hate this car seat now that I've switched it over! Nothing I could do about it until we stopped at OMSI to get Star Wars exhibit tickets. Buckled her in properly and went home and sure enough some car came in to our lane. No accident but I did slam on the brakes and was thankful it wasn't on the way to the museum!

I think I've figured out the car seat a little better now - I don't take the belt completely out of the positioner. It's still a pain though and Lainey can't buckle herself which she enjoyed doing so much before. I think we'll be getting a new seat soon. Jamie's about ready for this one (i.e., the cup holder).

Cheryl - interesting to know what your pediatirican indicated. I think he's saying no more than 2 or 3 words and that seems to be a stretch. Do you really count "mama"?? or his word for hot is more of a sound than a word to imo. DH thought he was verbalizing the word "more" this morning. i'm not really worried since he communicates exceptionally well and I don't think it's so unusual for a 2nd child but enough of me worries that there could be something going on obviously. We have been trying to encourage him to use words. I think I'll check in with his teacher today about it. I probably value her opinion as much as the pediatricians (she's a long time professional working with 12-20 month olds). He might use more words at school too.

One of my nephews wasn't overnight trained until 1st grade sometime and I know that at least one of his friends was in a similar situation. It seems to be more common that boys can be late with overnight training but maybe that's because just who I've heard about. My nephew wasn't very motivated though.

Kim

Ugh - having some posting problems today.

Helene - maybe I shouldn't comment but Yeah for the better sleep!! You must be a new person. Maybe the kitten is keeping him snug in bed too.

[LA98]

Hi everyone,

Helene, congratulations on Victor’s sleep success! (trying not to jinx you of course! :D ) That’s so great. I’m going to start trying again very soon with Brian to make some improvements -- his teachers in his new preschool room don’t rub the kids’ backs to help them fall asleep, like the others used to do. And Brian’s been falling asleep on his own at naptime they tell me. So big lightbulb moment for me, I know he’ll fight us much harder, but it’s worth trying! Loved your comment about “old” friends too. :)

Kim and Cheryl, the 18-month checkup was when the pediatrician had us spring into action for a speech evaluation. Brian was saying no words at all at the time, and while there was some concern before then, that was the real cutoff.

Cheryl, what an awful experience in the car! Is Garrett better now? And that’s a wonderful report you got from his teacher!

Susan, your buyers are insane. I can’t believe what a miserable time they’re causing you.

Joanne, hope all the illness at your house has moved on?

Wow, I feel for everyone dealing with the nighttime training issues. It’s literally the one thing that hasn’t been a problem with Brian. In fact, his being dry at night was the first thing that clued me in to start potty training him. He’s hasn’t been wet once since then.

I was going through some containers of Brian’s baby stuff the other day and found a notebook from his early days--his doctors had me keep a record for several months of all his feedings, medications, nebulizer treatments, naps, etc. Ack! I didn’t mean to keep it as a souvenir or anything like that, it just got thrown into this box, but boy I had forgotten how really harrowing that first year was! And I was thinking about how on last week’s thread, I was the only one who responded to Heather’s question who said to bring the baby to the doctor for what seemed like just a cold or teething, which I found interesting. Brian’s minor little sniffles always turned into a crisis of some sort, so I guess I’ve become pretty cautious (or overcautious, not sure which!) All of this kinda makes me wonder why we’d go through it all again, but…we are. In case there’s anyone who doesn’t lurk on the pg thread ;) I’m pregnant. Just came from my 12-week appointment today, and while it took an *excruciatingly* long time for the doctor to find the heartbeat, it was there. So I’m thrilled, although I’ll admit I’m still very nervous (being treated like a senior citizen at the doctor’s office doesn’t help either :rolleyes: )

So that’s my story this week! :)

Lori

[cchhbb]

Lori, I'm not a lurker on the pg thread so I didn't know. Congratulations!!!!!! I do think your notebook is a great keepsake. We forget about things that happen and all of those things were a part of his life.

Kim, We really didn't go into the speech thing very deeply since Griffin was using more than 20 words. I do think that they count words like Mama. She asked if he pointed at things he wanted and screamed and when I said yes, she said he sounded pretty normal. Today was the first time ever that I read Griffin a story and he tried to say the word that was in it. We read Dumpy the Dump Truck and His Friends and Griffin actually said Putt, Putt, Putt. Garrett was doing things like that before he was 12 months old.

Helene, Yea for sleep. I'm a big proponent of everyone getting a good nights sleep. I'm so glad you are finally. Garrett only goes 1/2 days, but he is really tired when he gets home from school. Not enough to nap, but I can tell that he is tired. His bus comes at 7:15 so we are up pretty early due to that.

Regarding Garrett's car experience. I tend to believe that it might have been motion sickness, but I'm not sure. I went to a dinner last night at church, but DH said that he ate pretty well last night and he begged for breakfast before school this morning. I did give him a little bit to eat before the bus. His class all eats together at school as their first activity of the day.

Griffin is screaming to get out of his bed so I must run.

Cheryl

[RunnerKim]

Congratulations Lori!!! That's great news. So is that an April due date?

I know the paranoia you speak of. Jamie's had 2 chest xrays. All before he was 6 months and they were both clear. A mother without the respiratory history I had with Lainey probably would never have even taken Jamie in for those situations. But he never ended up with pneumonia (unlike Lainey, who I did take more of a "it's only a cold" approach. It still scares me to think that I almost didn't take her to the ER when she had pneumonia.). Maybe his asthma got caught earlier because I was paranoid and thus he was on medicine and never got got to pneumonia stage. I'd like to think I've learned something about when a cold crosses the line and I'm sure you have too. A cold in a kid with respiratory issues is different. I even asked an urgent care nurse one time to honestly tell me whether I was being chicken little because I felt I was being so paranoid with Jamie and the number of times we've been to urgent care (or non-planned office visits) seemed so frequent.

Kim

[LA98]

Thank you, Cheryl and Kim! :) Yes, April 21 is my due date. Funny thing, the first person I ended up telling was the pediatrician when we were at Brian's 3-year check up in August, because he was teasing me about it being time for a little brother for him. I had just had a beta done, so I told him I was pregnant, he asked when I was due, and his response was, "Good, it's not during respiratory season!"

Kim, you got it exactly right. There was not one single time that I ever brought Brian to the doctor that it turned out to be nothing (unfortunately of course!)... We were either sent for a chest x-ray, put on a steroid for his breathing, or something like that. And if it wasn't something respiratory, it was strep or the darned ears. I would walk in feeling like that stereotype of a panicky new mom, but walked out every time reassured that I did the right thing for my child. I'm just a bit worried that I'll be projecting that with the new baby (who hopefully will be just a bit healthier!) :)

[LaraW]

Congratulations, Lori! I lurk on the pg thread, but i didn't want to "out" you here. Yay!! :D :D When are you due??

I have some similar notes that I took when Natalie was a baby, and its kind of fun to look back and remember those days. I haven't kept anything like that for Colin, mainly because he has been a much easier baby than Natalie was (knock on wood).

Helene, congrats on the sleep. It seems like I'm up at least once a night with Colin (he's getting up anywhere between 3:30 and 5:00 am these days to eat) and it will be SO NICE when he sleeps all the way through. I went to a Moms of Twins sale this weekend too.

Kim, I can't believe someone would have a party for kids that age in a pottery place. Talk about giving parents a heart attack.

Cheryl, sorry about the bad experience in the car. Hope Garrett is feeling better.

We had a pretty good weekend. As I mentioned, I went to a Moms of Twins sale on Saturday. I got some nice things for both kids, and was also able to find a halloween costume for Colin. He's going to be a frog. :D The only bad/hard thing about it was that I had to take both kids with me because DH had one of his review classes. That was kind of hard, but I put Natalie in the stroller and had Colin in my hip carrier, so I had them both contained at least.

Natalie has been talking a lot about Halloween, and says she wants to be a pumpkin. I need to find a pumpkin costume for her to wear.

We went swimming on Sunday, and I got Natalie signed up for swimming lessons that start on Nov 5.

We had beautiful weather all weekend and went to the park a couple of times too. That was nice to just play outside - who knows how many more days we'll be able to do that this year.

In other big news...Natalie used the potty at school all day Friday!!! :D :D :D We just about threw a party for her. We called DH at work special to tell him, and I took her to the store to get some ice cream to pick out for dessert. The teacher that I talked to said that they had to really just trust her to do it herself.

[HRJ]

Congrats, Lori! :)

And congrats to Lara, too, on the big potty news!

Cheryl, it looks like we were posting at the same time before. Hope your grandmother's operation goes well -- I'll keep you both in my thoughts. And sorry about that icky car ride. Poor Garrett. Hope he's not developing a tendency to motion sickness -- I seem to have spent my entire childhood barfing all over the car every time we went anywhere, so I know how miserable it can be.

About taking kids to the doctor, I also tended toward taking Victor to the doc, or, the ER (it seemed he always got sick in the middle of the night.) Everytime we took him in though, it turned out that there was something that needed immediate attention -- even the last time we went to the ER, when he had croup, the ER doc told us that while it wouldn't have been negligent to wait until morning, getting him treated right away surely made him feel much more comfortable.

Also, talking about finding things from when the kids were younger, and also about speech -- DH found a video clip that we hadn't watched in a long time. In the clip, Victor is about 2 years, 9 months -- we're at my mother's house, and he found a piece of candy on the table, and he's holding it out and saying "Cake! (at that time, he called everything that was a treat "cake.") Cake! Me! Me! Open. Help." We taped it because we were so thrilled with the way he was speaking -- we were still dealing with his speech delay at that point. Considering how well he talks now, it's amazing -- and it made me very grateful again to his speech therapist.

Helene

[MrsReber]

Congratulations, Lori! The search for the heartbeat must've been pretty unnerving!

Thanks for the comments on staying dry overnight. Do the Over nights have pictures or anything on them? The reason I still buy the Pull Ups is because they have Cars pull ups and Brenden loves the pictures. I know he's really out growing them. If he wasn't so thin, they probably wouldn't fit!

Cheryl, what a horrible trip!! I hate days like that, but you somehow get through it. Glad to hear about the teacher conference, too!

Not much time to post, so many new posts to read!

[cchhbb]

Well, I was wrong. Garrett is sick. I thought his throwing up on Monday was due to motion sickness, but he's sick. He got up at 4:00 and came into my bed and I took him back to bed and he fell back asleep. I then had to wake him at 6:50 to get ready for school and I couldn't get him to get up. That happens sometimes when I try to wake him so I get him dressed and ready to go. He asked for a drink of water downstairs so I gave him one and then he threw up all over the kitchen floor. Poor kid has just laid around all day. I did take Griffin to preschool today and Garrett refused to walk in, he made me carry him. I thought my arms were going to break when I had to cross the parking lot carrying both kids. Right now he's taking his second shower of the day.

My grandmother seems to have done well with her surgery. She's pretty out of it, but the doctor said it went well. I'm sure she will have to go to a nursing hom when she leaves the hospital and she is going to be really mad about it. She's 94 and still lives alone. I don't think she should, but her children won't stand up to her. I really think it's dangerous for her to be by herself. We did finally get her to agree to have someone come in and clean for her weekly. She kept firing everyone we hired to help her. She's very strong willed if you can't tell.

Helene, I bet you can't believe the progress that Victor has made with his speech. It's amazing what early intervention can do. I do like his idea that anything sweet is cake.

We're supposed to go the beach this weekend, but I don't know if we're going to go or not. I don't want to go if someone is sick. We don't have reservations, but I'm sure it will be easy to get a spot. Garrett is off school on Monday so that is why we were going this weekend. I guess I'll wait and see. I did start packing yesterday as I folded laundry.

Cheryl

[HRJ]

Cheryl, sorry Garrett that seems to have a stomach bug. Hope he's over it quickly.

Susan, the boys' Good Nights have pictures of ATVs and motorcycles on them. Victor really liked the Pull Ups with the Cars pictures on them, but they were getting too small, and he was practically squeezing into them -- and, when he did wet at night, they were leaking a lot. He likes the Good Nights because they're much more comfortable, even though they don't feature Lightning McQueen.

Speaking of Cars, that is the new obsession around our house -- Lightning McQueen is really giving Buzz Lightyear a run for his money. Superman and Batman are very popular, too. I'm a little sad that Thomas the Tank Engine has sort of become history -- Victor will build a track in the living room every so often, but he's not nearly as captivated as he used to be. He's also become much more interested in Legos and other building toys. One of the things he got for his birthday was the Haba set where you can build a Mayan pyramid -- it's pretty cool. Oh, and Rescue Heroes -- I found a bunch for $2 each at the Moms of Twins sale, and he is having a ball with them.

What toys are all your kids into these days?

Regarding the question about computer use from last week -- was it Heather who asked? Victor's interest in the computer varies -- he'll go through periods when he wants to play a lot, and then he'll lose interest for a while. Lately, though, he's been into playing it a lot, and we've started to have to put some limits -- we don't have any set rules, but when it seems like he's been on there too long, we give him a "last call," and tell him he'll have to get off in 5 minutes. He uses an old iMac that used to be DH's -- we keep it on a little table in our living room. We have some software for him, but at the moment, he's mostly playing the various games at www.pbskids.org -- his computer is set up so that's the only internet site he can get to. Right now he likes the games for the new Curious George show, Caillou, and Peep and the Big Wide World.

At one point, DH downloaded some "mindless" games for Victor -- like things where you chase a marble around a 3D maze, and Vic became sort of obsessed with them -- I know that games like can help with hand-eye coordination, and with spatial and logical thinking, etc. but I didn't like him spending so much time on stuff like that, so we've made them a very occasional treat. (I have a feeling Victor gets to play them when I go out to meetings in the evenings and he's home with DH. ;) )

Helene

[MrsReber]

Helene, that is sad that Victor isn't as into Thomas. I love Thomas. Brenden is watching a new Thomas DVD right now. I get the catalogs from RRGifts.com. Brenden looks through them and picks stuff out. I'm glad he's still into Thomas becasue his room in VA will be Thomas! Casey really likes Thomas, too. We got a new catalog last week and they had a Halloween caboose with a "scary" DVD so I bought it for Brenden. I also got him a small rug for his room and a Percy and The Dragon DVD. Had to order $50 worth of stuff for the free shipping offer. We also got a free die cast James with the order and the DVD's were discounted. It wasn't a bad deal.

Cheryl, poor Garrett! Brenden hates throwing up! It hasn't happened in a very long time (thank goodness!) Glad to hear your grandmother is doing better. It's sad about the nursing home, though. Can't they get some sort of assisted living deal? My grandmother has been in assisted living for quite a few years now and she loves it. She'll be 86 (or 87?) next month and is very independent. She can't get around so great these days, but insists on being in her own place. She was very sick last year and, after defying death and surprising all of her doctors, she went to live with my dad for a while. He wanted her to stay, but she insisted on going back to her apartment. She was getting quite crabby with my dad.

Helene, thanks for the response on the Good Nights. I think he'd like the pictures. I'll have to check them out. The pull ups do leak at times. It seems to be happening more frequently. He's in the 4T-5T size, which is probably getting too small. He's wearing a regular size 5 or 6 now!

[Julia1Pin]

Hi all! Hellish week for me at work - and it didn't help me not being there on Monday. Monday was nice though. Saw a great short fil at temple called "The Tribe". It was at Sundance. It's all about what it mean to be Jewish, and there was a discussion afterwords. Dinner was at my house - I just did bagels, lox, sardines, frittata, hummous, kugel, chopped liver, and a couple of other things. Easy to throw together.

Kim - I can't believe they had a little kids party at a pottery shop. I like the bull in the china shop analogy that someone else made ;) I have a hard enough time with thank you notes - I CAN'T believe that Lainey added something to them. Nicole is finally starting to (about 1.5 months ago) talk in 2-3 word "sentences" - and she turned 2 in May. Ours could hav ebeen the whole hearing 3 languages at once thing, but the dr. wasn't worried unless she couldn't understand multiple commands at one.

Joanne - I hope everone is over the sickness!

Susan - Good luck on working remotely, and on the CRAZY buyers. On the night time staying dry - Abigail still wears pull-ups at night too. I think she's the deep sleeper kind. She also drinks a sippy cup of milk and a sippy cup of juice/water before bed too. And she refuses to give it up. If she is dry she's so proud of herself but doesn't really mind if she's wet. Tonight I tried talking her out of more water and she said it's ok if she pees in her pull-ups :rolleyes: I did ask the Dr. when we were at her 4 year old appt - she said that most kids get it between 4 and 6. Just what everyone else has been saying. But if Brenden wants the alarm for peace of mind, maybe just having the alarm will mentally get him to get up, like a placebo affect.

Day time, even nap time, was pretty darn simple for Abigail, and even easier for Nicole (Nicole has been dry for about 2 weeks consistently during naps).

Cheryl - it sucks that Garrett threw up!! Especially not being able to do anything about it. What did Griffin say about it? Abigail threw up on Friday, a speck got on Nicole and she started screaming to get it off her!! Congratulation on Garret's teacher conference. And good job Garrett!! Also, I hope your grandmother is doing better.

Helene - Who you calling normal. I still lay on the couch for up to 2 hours a night in Abigail's room waiting for her to fall asleep!! And Abigail is also (knock on wood) sleeping until at least 6am before coming into out bedroom (at least for the last 1.5 or so). To answer the toy question - the girls are relaly into puzzles and play doh! Abigail is doing 48 piece pizzles with no help, and 60 with help. It's probably normal, but I'm impressed :)

Lori - Congratulations!!! April is a great time to give birth (Nicole was May). You don't have to be pregnant in the summer!

Lara - Congratulations Natalie on the potty!!

I'm excited - I'm meeting Heather tomorrow for breakfast. Sadly, I cna't take the girls because I have to go to work first and their pre-school is too far away :( I am so looking forward to it though!!

OK, time to get some rest.

[RunnerKim]

Toys:
Lainey's really in to playing games (conveniently she needs DH or I to play with her :rolleyes: ). She received Hungry Hippos for her birthday and has been loving that. She's pretty much outgrown Cariboo (certainly learned how to cheat at it) but still likes to play. Matching game or Go Fish are good and I need to pull out Chutes and Ladders again as she didn't have the attention span for it a few months ago. She's played Candy Land at school.

Thomas and friends are still big with her (with or without the track). She has a bunch of dinosaurs too and she'll play pretend games with them too. I'm planning to get rid of a ton of Little People stuff because its never interested her and that stuff is so big. We have some old stuff from when I was a kid and newer stuff. It's mostly in the garage.

Balls have been big lately. Lainey's been watching her cousins play soccer. A favor from her party was one of those balloons on a rubber band and that's been "the toy" for the past week. Wish I'd asked the other mom for 2 so both kids could have one. Puzzles every once in awhile.

As you can see nothing that novel. I swear my kids don't really play with toys. I just cleared out a bunch of stuff (it's mostly in our living room). I kept the toy phones as the kids do like to pretend to talk on them (when we refuse to let them have the real one).

I think Lainey could get in to Rescue Heroes. One of my nephews (who has a lot of similat traits to Victor) is really in to rescue heroes and Lainey was able to play a little with them when we visited. I think she likes them because they do something. Are there female characters?

Julia, I hope the end of your week is better. Have a great breakfast with Heather. I think it's impressive that Abigail's doing 48 piece puzzles by herself.

Cheryl - I'm sorry Garrett was sick and I hope you can still make it to the beach. Kids can bounce back quickly sometimes so it seems possible (as long as no one else comes down with it - knock on wood). You have my empathy on carrying both kids! I've had to do it on occaison too and it's really tough. Glad your grandmother came through surgery fine.

The pottery shop - it seemed to be fine for everyone else. Well except when Lainey would entice someone to want to run around with her.

I was impressed with Lainey with swim classes this week. She did indeed pretty much jump right in the pool on the first day of class. The teacher's name is also Kim and she's really great. She has a lot of fun with the kids but still has control of the class. All girls and rather fearless. Last night there was a sub but it was a teacher that Lainey had had before. But she was super clingy but I think that had something to do with none of the other kids were on time to the class. She got in okay and was fine. It feels good to see her progress from a year or so ago when it was such a huge issue to get her to engage in the beginning.

I'm off this morning to go with Lainey's class to a children's theater production. DH was suppose to go but forgot to put it on his calendar and a work committment got scheduled. They need the parent:kid ratio so I'm going. I think it'll be a fun field trip but not the best timing for my schedule.

I talked with Jamie's teacher about his speaking and she is not at all worried about him. She's not a big believer in the by X months child should be doing Y so she said take what she's saying for what it's worth. That's fine by me, I know those kinds of "rules" have their purpose but I'm not hung up on them either. My only concern would be that he's not hearing well - he produces a ton of ear wax (at least compared to Lainey). But he has actually just started to use a few words more pronounced. More, mama and dada.

Kim

[JoanneOR]

Wow, this thread has been busy!

Everyone is now healthy in our house, yea! We made it through this one with no doctor's visits!

Susan, I agree, I think it depends on what type of sleeper the child is on when he will stay dry at night. All my kids were different and Ian has only stayed consistently dry probably in the last year or so. Neither Colin nor Caitlyn needed to wear anything at night shortly after they were potty trained. And, Caitlyn is certainly not a deep sleeper!

Cheryl, sorry to hear about your grandmother, but glad to hear the surgery went well. That is amazing that she is living alone at 94. How is Garrett feeling? It sounds like he's in such a better place for him at his new school.

Helene, that's great news about Victor's sleeping. I know what you mean about the jinxing, though! Does the kitten sleep in Victor's room? It seems like every time I'd post about Caitlyn's sleeping being better, she'd backslide. :( So, suffice it to say, I'm not going to comment on hers! We used to have a bunch of Rescue Hero toys, the boys loved them, especially Colin. They definitely do move on in terms of their tastes in toys. Jameson would kill me if he knew I was posting this :o , but a few weeks ago, he asked me "can you pleeeeeze get me some underwear without characters, just plain, pleeeze?" I guess Sponge Bob and Spiderman have worn out their welcome!

Kim, I know what you mean about the car seats. Caitlyn has never before tried to get out of hers or unbuckle it, but the other day I picked her up from school, put her in the car seat, drive home, look back and she's out of the carseat sitting just on the seat next to it unbuckled. Smiling at me of course. I was a bit upset with her! I don't think she'll be doing it again. I think Jamie's teacher would be a great person to ask what she thinks about his speech. Like you said, she has alot of experience with kids his age.

Lori, CONGRATULATIONS! I occasionally lurk on the pregnancy thread, but didn't want to "out" you either! :D That's wonderful news! I think keeping a notebook is a great idea. I wish I had done one with Caitlyn. A couple nurses told me it would be a really helpful thing to do, both mentally and to keep track of everything that she'd had done. But I never did do it. But, I suppose this thread would probably have all the same information!

Heather and Julia, have a great time at breakfast!

Yay Natalie on using the potty at school!!! :D :D That's got to be such a relief!

We had some terrible storms Monday night. I didn't realize how bad until the morning when I looked outside and there were trees down everywhere. But, luckily no one was hurt. Just alot of cleaning up to do.

The boys finally picked out their costumes. I must say I miss the days of Bob the Builder, pumpkins, etc. They all picked out various ghoulish costumes. Although Colin did pick out a skeleton one that is actually kind of cute. Caitlyn kept changing her mind. Her choices were a poodle girl, mermaid, Dora, and a few others. She finally decided on Little Red Riding Hood :confused: Not sure where that came from! I just know when she gets the costume she's going to say, no, I wanted to be a mermaid or Dora!

OK, I think I've written enough!

[LaraW]

Joanne, I was Little Red Riding Hood when I was in kindergarten! My mom made my cape, and I carried a basket. And I wore one of those plastic masks that got all fogged up on the inside. What was the point of those things, anyway?

Natalie keeps telling me that she's going to be a pumpkin for Halloween. Last year I had a terrible time getting her to wear a costume, and she finally ended up wearing overalls, a red turtleneck and sweatshirt, and her firefighter hat that she got from storytime at the library. I may take her out this weekend to look for a pumpkin costume. I looked at Target but could not find anything.

We finally have a Tues/Thurs spot at Goddard, but it doesn't start until Nov 1. DH and I are noticing that we're having really difficult drop-off's on Thursday (at Joycare - the "old" school) and on Fridays. Today it started when we pulled into the parking lot, her saying "I don't want to go to my old school". :( We had talked about what she was going to do today, and who she was going to see, etc. but I don't know if she really got it. It was really hard to get her out of the car and she walked in OK but when it was time for me to take Colin to the infant room, she had a fall-down-on-the-floor-crying kind of tantrum. I just had to kiss her good bye and leave. :( I did just call, and the teacher said that she's back to her normal self. That's good.

I talked to DH about it this morning, and we wondered about having some kind of X off box for the last 4 days at Joycare. I'm planning to take in treats her last day there.

Colin is crawling all over the place now. He just figured it out last Weds, and got his arms and legs coordinated. I've had to pull him off of the wine rack and out of the plants several times a day for the last week. He is very busy. I also found out I need to keep the bathroom door closed. I did close the gate that goes down to our family room yesterday. Natalie kept standing there saying "I want to go downstairs". Yea, she only wanted to go downstairs once she couldn't. :rolleyes: :D

[cchhbb]

Our trip to the beach is off. Garrett threw up last night twice in the middle of the night. I probably only slept about 1 1/2 hours. He threw up at about 11:30 in the middle of his bed and then again at 4. I was able to get him settled back in at 11:30 pretty well after cleaning him up, changing sheets, and his clothes. I just couldn't go back to sleep. Then at 4 he was beside himself. He was so upset. He wanted to shower so I took him to the guest room so he wouldn't wake up DH, changed his sheets and did laundry. I ran out of twin sheets so I brought him back into the guest bed with me. We finally fell asleep again about 5:30 and then DH woke us up with the garage door opener and house alarm at 7:15. He was acting better today and then threw up everything a couple of minutes ago. He's in the shower now. I hope I can get him to nap today because I really need one.

Lara, I would definitely do a visual reminder for Natalie about how many more times she has to go to her old daycare. She's probably looking for some consistency and the new daycare is a novelty.

LOL about Colin crawling into everything. I remember those days. I'm sure it won't be long until he's running. Today Griffin kept stealing Garrett's Pedilyte popsicle and running away laughing.

Joanne, I was looking at the older boy costumes the other day and I think only scary costumes existed. I was really suprised at how evil some of them looked.

Toys: Garrett is a huge puzzle fan, he also likes dinos and animals. Today out the blue to started playing with some LIttle People. Griffin and Garrett got one of the balloons with the rubberbands this summer and Griffin loved it. I can't touch them since I have a latex allergy, but the kids thought they were great.

Garrett has gotten out of his carseat twice. I about killed him the time he crawled up between the seats while I was driving. I stopped the car and dragged him out. He hasn't tried since. I do think the Britax Marathon is harder for him to get himself out of than our Graco one.

Cheryl

[HRJ]

Cheryl, sorry to hear about Garrett, and that your trip to the beach is off. Sounds like he's got a nasty stomach bug. Hope you can all get some rest.

Kim, there are several female Rescue Heroes -- not as many as the male ones, of course :rolleyes: but still quite a few. (They used to make one that was a female biologist, and I've been looking for it, because I have a good friend who is a biologist, and I think she'd get a kick out of it.) I also like that they have Rescue Heroes of different ethnicities, with different skin tones. I didn't realize, though, that one of the Rescue Heroes I got at the consignment sale (Jack Hammer?) has a backpack thing that makes him talk -- Victor was playing with it the other day, and after a while, it made me and DH crazy, repeating the same phrases over and over. (DH says he'd like to start an online business called silenttoys.com -- he would only carry toys that don't make annoying noises!)

Oh yeah, I forgot all about dinosaurs -- big, big interest right now. We have quite a lot of plastic ones of all different sizes. And puzzles, too -- especially dinosaur puzzles!

Lara, I think counting off the days at the old day-care would be good, if you think Natalie has the patience for it. (Victor was never interested in that type of thing.) Crawling -- big step for Colin!

Joanne, I had to chuckle about Jameson wanting plain underwear. :) I'm sure all our kids will be terribly embarrassed if they ever have the occasion to read these threads!

Julia, say hi to Heather for all of us!

We were having some problems with the kitten continuing to soil a spot on Victor's carpet -- it was a spot she pooped on the first week she was home, and even though we cleaned it really well (and used Nature's Miracle) and we can't detect any more smell there, she was in the habit of going back there and having accidents -- it was the only spot in the house where she did that; otherwise, she's been using the litter box just fine. Our vet was kind of surprised to hear about it, because she said while cats will often urinate in the same spot, it's unusual for them to keep pooping in the same spot. So, we had to make Victor's room off-limits to Jasmine for a while, which meant she couldn't sleep with him. We have let her go in his room for the past two days, and the behavior seems to have ceased -- but, that's also something I don't want to jinx.

And -- yesterday, Victor comes downstairs for dinner, and says, "so, when are we getting that dog I want? You know -- the Lady dog?" :eek: :rolleyes: Not that he doesn't like the cat, but, he's apparently not ready to give up on the dog question. I have to keep reminding myself that his persistence will serve him well later in life -- I hope.

Helene

[JoanneOR]

Lara, after I ordered the costume I realized I could have probably made it myself! But, the basket will work out well for trick or treating! And, it was pretty cheap, too. At least there's just a few more days left for Natalie at Joycare. A checkoff would probably be good. I can't believe Colin is crawling already! Seems like he was just born! I think that's one of the hardest and also funnest stages. Hard, because you have to constantly chase them around, but fun to watch them explore.

Cheryl, you're right, the older boys costumes are mostly scary things. If I had an iota of creativity, I would try to make their costumes, but that's just not happening! No time and no creativity! Although, Ian's nerd costume that we put together last year was pretty good. Sorry to hear Garrett's still battling the stomach bug. Those are the worst.

The boys lately have gotten into drawing their own comic books. Ian is actually really good at drawing different characters and Jameson is doing the writing. I'm not sure about Colin's role - he must be the "creative director". It's been keeping them busy for weeks. Last night they pulled out all their old papers from preschool and kindergarten and decided to copy them for Caitlyn. Colin was pretty funny about it. He won't let me get rid of the papers, either, and now we have duplicates of most of it. :rolleyes: I had to stop them because they were using our printer/copier and it ran out of ink.

Helene, I think we had that Jackhammer guy. I know what you mean about the noises! The worst is when a toy is stuck in the middle of the toy box making noise and you can't figure out where it's coming from! We had one toy and I can't even remember what it was, but it would start talking in the middle of the night when it's batteries were wearing out. Creepy! You didn't think Victor would forget about the dog, did you? :)

Saturday night I'm taking Jameson to another Chicago Fire soccer game. I got two free tickets for bringing his birthday party there. Then next week I'll be traveling for work for four nights to Albuquerque. It'll be nice to have a little alone time, even though I'll be busy. But I know I'll be homesick in a day or two.

[RunnerKim]

Helene - you can also put a (small) litter box in the spot that the kitten has been using in victor's room. Then gradually move the box closer to the regular box (or even simply removing it, depending on how much patience you have). You can buy a blacklight to see the spot but I'm not sure what good that would do since you know where it is. Maybe putting a small rug over that spot would be enough to stop it too. LOL about the dog!!

Good to know about the Rescue Heroes.

Lara - you're world has just changed! Have fun keeping track of 2 kids. :D Jamie was in to so much more stuff than Lainey ever was and b/c her stuff is around too; it's more challengine. We no longer keep knobs on the stove b/c I've caught Jamie twice at the stove (with a stool he moved there) :eek: :eek: and he's all over the counters so we have to be really careful about where we leave sharp knives. Two days ago he had his hands wrist deep in a big tub of vaseline. Lovely to clean up.

I guess I need to come up with a Halloween costume this year. Lainey wants me to and it's suggested at work (we're having our bi-annual new employee welcome lunch on Halloween). I was reading Dora's Halloween Party last night and thought I could do her flower costume. I have dark green pants and light green polo and could make flower petals out of paper or felt. I could take the petals off while working. So maybe I'll do that.

Kim

[cchhbb]

Our trip to the beach is off. Garrett threw up last night twice in the middle of the night. I probably only slept about 1 1/2 hours. He threw up at about 11:30 in the middle of his bed and then again at 4. I was able to get him settled back in at 11:30 pretty well after cleaning him up, changing sheets, and his clothes. I just couldn't go back to sleep. Then at 4 he was beside himself. He was so upset. He wanted to shower so I took him to the guest room so he wouldn't wake up DH, changed his sheets and did laundry. I ran out of twin sheets so I brought him back into the guest bed with me. We finally fell asleep again about 5:30 and then DH woke us up with the garage door opener and house alarm at 7:15. He was acting better today and then threw up everything a couple of minutes ago. He's in the shower now. I hope I can get him to nap today because I really need one.

Lara, I would definitely do a visual reminder for Natalie about how many more times she has to go to her old daycare. She's probably looking for some consistency and the new daycare is a novelty.

LOL about Colin crawling into everything. I remember those days. I'm sure it won't be long until he's running. Today Griffin kept stealing Garrett's Pedilyte popsicle and running away laughing.

Joanne, I was looking at the older boy costumes the other day and I think only scary costumes existed. I was really suprised at how evil some of them looked.

Toys: Garrett is a huge puzzle fan, he also likes dinos and animals. Today out the blue to started playing with some LIttle People. Griffin and Garrett got one of the balloons with the rubberbands this summer and Griffin loved it. I can't touch them since I have a latex allergy, but the kids thought they were great.

Garrett has gotten out of his carseat twice. I about killed him the time he crawled up between the seats while I was driving. I stopped the car and dragged him out. He hasn't tried since. I do think the Britax Marathon is harder for him to get himself out of than our Graco one.

Cheryl

[hrk]

Good morning all from So Cal.
Well Julia and I had a wonderful breakfast and I guess all the excitement for the boys did them both in cause they both crashed in the car on the way home and we were only 10 minutes away. So I am getting a rare break this past week.
It was great meeting Julia and we had a great breakfast. Julia- I hope we can get everyone together at Thanksgiving.

Susan- Sorry can't help with the overnight issues, Logan is a very light sleeper and will get up to use the bathroom, usually by himself thankfully.

Cheryl- So sorry to hear Garret is sick and your trip to the beach got cancelled. But I am glad to hear that the conference witht he teacher went well and that it is a good situation for him.

Lara- Congrats on the potty success and on getting Natalie a spot at the school. We use a calendar at night with Logan and cross of the dates until we do things. It helsp with anticipation and I think it helps with time frames as well. And I can't even think what it is going to be like when Ari starts to crawl. :eek:

Helene- Thanks for the reply about the computer. WE put limits on the computer for Logan as well, but he usually always plays educational games so that makes me feel a little better.

As for the toys- Logan loves puzzles, legos and cars right now. I used to do jigsaw puzzles for fun ( I have a 5000 piece puzzle framed over our bed) and Logans eems to ahve inherited my love for them. My mom has a 96 piece dinosaur puzzle here that he did all on his own this week. My mom was amazed.

Well we have been having a very nice time here in So Cal. The boys did great on the flight out. As a matter of fact the woman in front of us told Logan he is the best kid she has ever flown with after the flight was over. Michael headed home on Monday, so Logan has been a little off without his daddy, but he seems to be doing better. Tuesday Laura Numeroff, the author of "If you give a mouse a cookie" and other childrens books was doing a reading/signing of her new book at a local Barnes and Noble so we went to that and Logan thought that was great.
Today we head down to San Diego to visit my brother and will take the kids to the zoo and sea world while we are there. MOnday we head home and back to our routine.
HOpe everyone is well.
HEather

[RunnerKim]

Tuesday Laura Numeroff, the author of "If you give a mouse a cookie" and other childrens books was doing a reading/signing of her new book at a local Barnes and Noble so we went to that and Logan thought that was great.
HEather

What a coincidence - that was the play I just saw with Lainey's class at the children's theater! Very cute (although a lot of the humor went over Lainey's head).

And Lara - I can't belive I forget to say a big ole Congratulations to Natalie for using the potty at school!!

Kim

[Sarah428]

Sorry I've been MIA, busy work week, but I need so input!!!

Ella was saying her “peepee” was hurting when she would go potty. While helping her clean up I took the opportunity to talk about how no one should touch her private parts, etc and she says “nobody except Gabe (4) and Logan (?)”. G & L are 2 boys from daycare and G is my BF’s son. I asked for more info and she said that G & L pulled her dress up and pull her pants down and touched her. She said it happened inside and outside in the play area, that she didn’t tell the daycare workers and I asked if she told them no and she said she just whined.

Obviously I’m going to say something to the daycare people but I’m trying to decide how freaked out over this I should be. Is this “playing doctor” and I shouldn’t get too worked up?!?!?

[cchhbb]

Sarah, Wow! I don't know what to say. I think I would talk to the daycare and then my ped. to get her advise.

I hope it's nothing. I'm so sorry you have to consider this.

((((Sarah & Ella))))

[Julia1Pin]

Lara - Congratulations (sort of, now is where the more exhaisting hard work comes in) on Colin's crawling.

Cheryl - Poor Garrett. I hope he feels better. I know how hard it is for a parent to be brave when it's not relaly fair for us either, not to be able todo something fun. Oh well, as long as the kids get healthy!

Helene - When would your husband be opening this silent toys business? Can I be first in line for some quiet, engaging toys?? :D

Sarah - No advice, but my sympathies. Abigail and her best friend, Isabella, have been in the bathroom together with me and joke about seeing each other's "peepee" but maybe it's different because there was no touching and they're both girls? I agree with Cheryl. Speak to day care and your ped. I do have a question though - where were the daycare workers? How could they not keep tabs on the kids? Please let us know what happens.

Breakfast with Heather was great. She is super sweet! Logan is super smart and mature (he does mazes and word searches :eek: ) and Ari was so cute and calm (as long as we kept feeding him cheerios ;) ). That's so funny that the boys conked out. Heather definately thought Logan would need to go to the park to run off all the waffles :) I'm already looking forward to Thanksgiving. Maybe we could meet at Marmalade Cafe in the Calabasas Commons? Anyone else want to come out?

OF course, I jinxed myself. Abigail was in our bed at 1:00am ast night and I was too exhausted to move her back :rolleyes:

Abigail will wear her Belle Costume from last year (she's pretty thin so it will still work). I may see if Nicole can wear Abigail Snow White Costume from when she was 2. I love the princess dresses because as long as you're pretty thin, the dresses still fit, they're just shorter ;)

I'll definately have to check out "if yougive a mouse a cookie".

Good night all.

[Sarah428]

Thanks for the hugs and thoughts Cheryl and Julia. I talked more w/ Ella after posting and I misunderstood part of the story. They didn't touch her but it was more of a "show me yours and I'll show you mine" situation.

I talked w/ the daycare providers this morning and at first they sort of thought she was making it up but she was so matter of fact about it (not saying "um" while trying to make up a story when telling me) that I believe her.

Another thing I forgot to mention was she said this happened when she was wearing a certain dress that she hasn't worn in a few months so the fact that it hurts when she goes potty now is a hygiene issue, not something that happened w/ G & L.

So, that's that, for now :(

[JoanneOR]

Julia and Heather, how great that you all got to meet! I'd love to meet everyone on this thread and the kids! Heather, sounds like you're having a good time in California!

Sarah, I'm so sorry to hear about Ella's experience. I think you did the right thing in talking with her teacher, but I'm curious why the teachers didn't see anything, especially if it sounds like it happened inside and outside the school. Have you also talked with your BF? I think she and the other mom should be aware of what happened, just so they can tell their boys that it was inappropriate.

We had a bad morning today. Everything was fine, but then the boys started fighting and Jameson kept egging Colin on, teasing him. He just wouldn't stop and Colin kept crying. I finally got that under control and Colin decides to antagonize Ian and Caitlyn. Caitlyn was coloring and he threw her crayon on the floor and she just lost it. So she's screaming and Ian's yelling that Colin won't leave him alone. I just lost it. I started screaming :o All this is happening while I'm trying to get everyone breakfast and get myself ready to leave. Colin gets all upset and runs to his room crying. DH finally gets home. I feel guilty so I go up to Colin's room and he tells me I'm evil. :o I told him I was really sorry for yelling at him, but things were out of control and I was just stressed out. On my way to work I'm feeling horrible, especially since I'm going to be gone most of next week. So, hopefully we can have a nice quiet evening tonight!

[tbb113]

Ella was saying her “peepee” was hurting when she would go potty. While helping her clean up I took the opportunity to talk about how no one should touch her private parts, etc and she says “nobody except Gabe (4) and Logan (?)”. G & L are 2 boys from daycare and G is my BF’s son. I asked for more info and she said that G & L pulled her dress up and pull her pants down and touched her. She said it happened inside and outside in the play area, that she didn’t tell the daycare workers and I asked if she told them no and she said she just whined.

Obviously I’m going to say something to the daycare people but I’m trying to decide how freaked out over this I should be. Is this “playing doctor” and I shouldn’t get too worked up?!?!?

Sarah - since it hurts, I would think it might be a little more than 'playing doctor' but it still may be worth looking into. Assuming that everyone involved is under the age of 5 .... I would think it is innocent. I would be more concerned that the daycare didn't know this was happening.

[RunnerKim]

Hugs everyone! Seems like a morning for it.

Sarah - I agree that if everyone is under 5 (and since the hurting while going peepee is a seperate issue) that I wouldn't get concerned about that incident. Although I'd certainly be talking about who can and shouldn't see what. But I'd be concerned that the daycare teachers didn't see it and that they jumped to saying Ella was making it up/lying. If they didn't jump to that right away that's fine but if they came back with that response right away then I'd have an issue with it. I agree it doesn't sound like something she's making up - way to specific if she's identifying a dress etc. Again I don't think the incident is that big of a deal. What a scary thing to go through! Does she have a uti or a yeast infection?

Joanne - I can totally feel your situation and I only have 2 kids! I have just screamed sometimes too. You're not evil, your a mom ;)

Julia & Heather - what a great visit. Glad you all had fun.

Happy Friday!
Kim

[MrsReber]

Sarah, how awful for you! I know how hard it is to extract information and hopefully the correct information, from a child! Like Kim, I'm alarmed at the daycare's response. If I ever brought up a situation like that in our daycare, they would immediately look into it and be in touch with me. It warrants some investigation. I also agree that the moms of the boys should know. This happened to us once. My sister's son and my SIL's daughter were together during my baby shower at my mom's house. The kids were all playing upstairs together. A few days later, SIL told me that my nephew showed his pee pee (can't use the other "p" word on the BB!) to her daughter, but she was afraid to say anything to my sister. I thanked SIL for telling me and then passed the information along. My sister was able to have a conversation with her son about his inappropriate behavior. Without SIL telling me about it, my nephew might not have realized that what he did was wrong. Maybe you could even get the daycare to get involved so that you don't have to be the one to notify the moms?

Joanne, I'm with Kim- I only have 2 kids and sometimes I lose it! I try very hard not to. I can't imagine the noise level with 4 kids since it's pretty loud with just 2!

Julia and Heather- glad you enjoyed breakfast! I often think how great it'd be if all us moms and kids could get together. Then I think of trying to coordinate all our schedules!