Fall Catchup

Hello Friends,

So where did I leave off with our life?  I think we were mid- August.   (How in the heck is it Oct 16th????sigh.........)

Our Peru friends left, with great sadness from all of us and 4 days later we headed north to hang out by the lake for a few days.  It was wonderful, very cool for August in WI but we managed to swim/play in water a bit for both days.  Z sat in the stones and dug, waded in the water and climbed all over that paddle boat when it was beached.  He did great.  The campfire made me a little nervous but we managed.

 J- he loves it up there.  For the most part there were no electronics, computers, or cable TV (except in the morning when it was 42 degrees out!  brrrrrrr).  This grin and hairstyle are compliments of driving the jetski with his daddy.

 This was our playground for the weekend.  I took this pic from the deck.  Its about 10 steps to the fire and 15 more to the lake; perfect for just hanging out.  It was good.

The weekend after the cabin, Z started a round of the stomach flu in our house.  He threw up several times on Saturday (I was out with girlfriends when it started so Husband go the brunt of it).  We were a little worried that he had hit his head earlier in the day but by Tuesday night J had it and by Wed the sitter had it.  Thurs took down the sitters husband and Thursday night Husband was down.  It was a fast and furious ailment, in 2 hours you could go from being fine, to tossing your cookies for about 4 hours.  Then you were just wiped out for another day.  We are supposed to leave for my mother-in-laws property on Fri night to spend the weekend with family and cousins.  At that point, I was the only one who hadn't gotten it.  I did the math - if I got it, I was gonna be sick in a camper with 10 other people and not able to get home on Sunday.    That did not sound fun and we didn't want to share our yukkiness, so we cancelled and stayed home.  To soften the blow for J, who adores time with his cousins, I took the boys to the zoo on Saturday to see the dinosaur exhibit (super cool) and walk around a bit.  On Sunday, I went to church and had a normal day, felt a little bad that we missed the weekend away and I was fine but.....on Monday I awoke to stomach issues.  I never threw up, but at one point I asked Husband if I would feel better if I did.  He said no, so I didn't.  I watched sooooo much TV on Monday and Tuesday I totally caught up on my DVR.  Pathetic, but I had no energy for anything else.

Tuesday was also the first day of 2nd Grade for J!  Holy Cow, I have a 2nd grader!  They have assignment notebooks and even change classrooms once a day to go to reading and literacy.  I don't remember changing classrooms for that stuff till maybe 3rd grade, definitely 4th.  Its crazy and he is doing great.  The transition to 2nd has been so much easier than into 1st.  Something has clicked with his reading and he is going to town!   Math is easy as ever for him and he loves Art and gym class. I am so happy for him.

J has also started back to tap class and tae kwon do and is doing very well at both.  We have been trying to teach him to ride his bike with out training wheels, but its hard and we don't have available time to be consistent with it.  My parents have even dangled a new bike in front of him if he learns to ride his old one......not sure he cares....

Little Z, my sweet little Z.  What can we say about him.  He is a fun, frustrating, amazing, trying little person! He is slowly gaining words.  If you listen and know what hes saying he says Brother (for J), Sponge Bob (eye roll - I hate it and I guess its on at the sitters), More, Ball, and babbles incessantly.  He has also taken to making noises like EH!and angry faces at you when he is angry or displeased.  That seems to be all the time lately.  I have implemented corner time, to calm him down and let him know that mommy is displeased too.  I  put him in the corner and gently hold his head there and count to 10.  I need to get a pic though because he holds both hand up over his head on either wall and his head is tucked into the corner. Its hilarious.  Frustrating and hilarious.  The Birth to Three social worker called and sent over an evaluation form to see if we need to evaluate him further for speech delay.  I had to have him accomplish many things and note it on this 4 page questionnaire.  He was at the top for Gross and Fine Motor skills, following directions and pointing to body parts and just in the gray area for his communication.  I am awaiting a call back from her, but I expect that we will have some exercises to do with him for a bit and then reevaluate.   But I am feeling better about the speech thing overall.

So, since tiny baby on, Z did not like to cuddle or snuggle, he just needed to be put in bed and he would cry it out for a few min or just roll over and go to sleep.  If you tried to snuggle him, he would tolerate for a min or so and would actually reach for his crib.  I was always proud about how easy I could put him down....until Sunday night.  He cried and wailed himself into the hiccups and just wanted to be snuggled.   Now I love the snuggles, I am happy to give them and rocked him to sleep on Sunday night, but was afraid that we were starting something bad at bedtime.  We changed nothing as far as routine and again, last night it took until 10 to get him to sleep and it was only with major snuggles and staying with him.    Husband didn't help at all in that I tried to just let him cry himself out (I hate it but ....) and he went in there and rocked him and then when he couldn't get him to go down, brought him out to me in the family room, TWICE.  At which point the little schiester, grins at me from around his two fingers and reaches for a snuggle with me!  Arrrrgh, back to frickin square one.  So today, I am tired, frustrated with everyone and tired.....He EH'd at me all morning, fought me when I got him dressed and fussed in the car seat.  Today, I was thankful for our sitter and that I had to get to work.

Last but not least, I have been called on for an emergency long term/part time sub at the dance studio.  They had hired a new tap teacher who failed to show up on the first day of classes without calling, answering phone or text or email (classy hey?) so they called to see if I could help.  I could.  I went.  It was fun!   Lots of fun!  So I did 2 weeks, then I couldn't for 2 weeks because of prior commitments.  I taught last week and will again tonight, but cannot next week. I think they are close to hiring a new  permanent teacher but I can continue like this for a bit.  Its like dipping my toe in the pool, enjoying it a bit, but I don't actually have to jump in!  I sorta suspect that I will teach again next year......

I have to run now.  Besides this is almost an obnoxiously long post.  I need to remember that posting makes me feel good.  I love reading other peoples posts and seeing that I am not the only one out there with "stuff," that life is not always magical with children and that I'm not the only other one who is tired!

Have a great day friends.  May life be good to you all.