Thursday, January 26, 2012

Growing - Turning One!

Baby Z turned 1 on January 20th!  (I guess I cant call him Baby Z any more......sad.)  And just like his big brother, he had an ear infection on his first birthday.  (insert sad face) He had come down  with pink eye on the week previous to his birthday and the cold that started that, ended up gifting him with an ear infection diagnosed on the 19th.  Thankfully, he didnt seem in pain, and was still a happy busy little guy.  He was just super stuffy and started refusing to eat.

J didn't have school on the 20th so Husband and I also took the day off.  We have always taken J's birthday off as it is so close to the New Year Holiday so we will see how it works out to take Z's day too. We spent the morning being lazy and then did a whole lot of food shopping for a birthday party for our close friends to celebrate with both the boys.  My mom and dad met us for dinner at Fam.ous D.aves (Z didn't pick, I did!)  and we went back to the house where we gave him a mini cupcake. I saved the big cake for the party the next day.

Last but not least, Z had his 12 month appointment last night.   Poor baby, he got immunizations in both arms and one leg, then I had to take him to the lab and they took 2 vials of blood!  He didn't like it very much but was a trooper.  Slept through the night didn't need any Tylenol last night.  This morning however, I laid him on the floor outside the bathroom with a bottle when I was getting ready and when he rolled over and pushed up to sitting, he burst out crying.  I think his arms really hurt.  He looked at me like "What the hell mom?"  with a big sad face.  I scooped him up and gave the meds right away. I hope his day gets better at the sitters.  Its not easy being 1!

Growing - Turning Seven!

J has turned 7!  He had his birthday on January 2.   I cannot believe how grown up he can be one moment and then need a snuggle and mommy time the next.  I am proud of his sensitivity and how much he loves his brother. I cannot believe he has been on this earth 7 whole years!  We spent a lovely lazy day at home as it was a holiday from work.  We periodically gave him a present and he played with it or used it for awhile, sometimes for several hours and then we would give him another. it was fun to spread it out not just give gifts at dinner and send him to bed. He asked to go to A.ppleb.ee's for his dinner and they put the largest ice cream sunday I have seen in awhile in front of him! He was in heaven and it was a nice finish to the day.

About J and school:  I have written before about J and his struggling a bit in school.  I have late diagnosed (not till college) learning challenges myself.  Thankfully I made it through schooling but I do have some self esteem issues that stem directly from that.  My sister has a form of dyslexia and struggled with things.  She too made it through schooling but it was not easy.  I am super afraid J will have this.  I don't want school to be hard or him to struggle. I also do not want to put ideas into teachers heads so I am careful about bringing my concerns to the table.  So. They are starting a new math program in the 1st grade and he came home SUPER disappointed when he didn't pass into the program because he couldn't write 25 randomly given numbers in 1 minute. For Gods sake the boy can do multiplication in his head in first grade!  There must be something wrong that he can't pass that test, right?  So I spent most of that night in tears.  Worried about him, worried about how to help him, worried about labeling him, feeling mommy guilt for a myriad of things.    So after a long email to the teacher and a heartfelt telephone conference, she does not see any of my fears. It's too early for dyslexia diagnosis as he is not a confidant reader yet and his errors could just be new reader errors.  The math program, I got the feeling she doesnt agree with it for first graders butshe is doing her job.  She is going to try to find him a 5th grade study buddy who can come and read with him and practice math facts at the end of every day.  We have resolved to try and do math and reading drills every night as well.  Sometimes this parenting thing is hard on the heart.

I have mentioned before we are blessed with many close friends who adore our boys and want to celebratewith them.  This group totals about 12 adults and 11 kids, add that to our 2 adults and 2 kiddos and we have a seriously full house.  Our house is not that big and in the past we were in an even tinier apartment, so we have always separated the groups and did 2 gathering but that's a lot of work and J is of the age now that he wanted to do a party at a place for some school friends too.  So, he invited 6 kids from school and daycare to join the oldest children of that group of friends for some indoor rock climbing.  Then the school friends went home and the other friends and the rest of the families descended upon our home to celebrate Z and J together.  We served a taco/nacho bar and plenty of cake. It was close quarters and we have to come up with a better eating place for the kids but it wasn't as bad as Husband had feared. It was great fun and it was over in one long day.

It also spurred us to get our house cleaned/tidied up.  I actually had some dedicated time and got J's room tidied up. Its been a disaster since September and I just haven't gotten to it. It was one of the things weighing on my mind. It looks so nice to be able to walk into his room and it feels good not worry about Z getting something unsafe to chew on!  My parents had given J a new comforter set for his bed to graduate from Thomas the Train.  He is so loving it and his room looks much older now.  We are also going to repaint his room in some cool bold colors, we need to pick a weekend to do this and we need my parents help but we are looking forward to that too. I will keep you posted on this progress I promise.

Catch up - personally

Hello Friends,

Well, I have come to the conclusion that I am a terrible blogger.  I am an avid reader and keep up fairly regularly with all whom I follow.  I just don't always know what to say on my own blog.  I am sort of on the gerbil wheel of life; running from one day into the next.  Sometimes, totally prepared and on top of it, more often hanging on by a thread. I don't want to be a complainer, and often it is the same old same old.  I am just sometimes overwhelmed (see previous posts for reference) so I default to not writing.

So lets try to catch up shall we?  So much has been going on at our house and in our hearts, I will do this over a few posts because it became a novel.

There has been major upheaval at work. Some of it has been brewing since my review in June but I was not allowed to say anything to anyone.  I couldn't even tell my best friend E because her brother works here.  Some of it was way beyond what I expected.  This has all resulted in Husbands job feeling kind of precarious, several people losing their jobs and at the same time I was promoted to General Manager.  Talk about conflicted feelings.  We are only 26 days into this new stuff and it seems to be settling down but I am t-i-r-e-d when we get home. Its a relief for it to be out in the open, its stressful that its has come about this way, and its a huge culture change for me and the whole company.

I also think I am going to take some sage advice and hire a cleaning lady once or twice a month.  I don't want to worry about the cleaning and I can handle the tidying up.  The time is now because there is some extra salary coming my way and its not spoken for in the budget yet.  So I am going to speak for it and send it to someone.  Now to find a free moment to find and hire one........