Summer Vacation Ends

Well, our last week of summer vacation didn't exactly go as planned.  Our final tour of school playgrounds was thwarted by daily downpours, which were really a blessing because we needed the rain.  Plus, Henry and Caroline have been sick for most of the week with a pretty rough-sounding cough.  Sometimes I thought their coughs wouldn't have been so bad if they could have just blown their noses.  Henry could do it a little, but Caroline just hasn't figured out the blowing through the nose, not the mouth, bit.  This meant that Caroline had a lot of mucus, which would cause her to gag, so she would cart around our green throw-up bowl "just in case."  There were many close calls, but the bowl always remained empty.  (Yay!)  And then we drove to the library and that was when the poor thing no longer had a close call, she no longer had the green bowl, she just had a car seat to fill up with all that mucus-y goodness.  The drive home was a bit apprehensive with lots of "Are you okay?" and looking in the rear-view mirror.  It didn't help that when I would ask her if she felt better that she weakly said, "No."

On Friday, she was still coughing, which no doubt wore her out.  She fell asleep on our drive home from karate, at about 4:30 p.m.  She wouldn't wake for dinner, so we moved her from the couch to her bed.  And then I tried to get to bed early because with a 4:30 p.m. bedtime, there was going to be an early wake-up.  And she did not disappoint on that front.  She woke up at 1:30 a.m. and she was awake.  We finally went downstairs where she enjoyed her breakfast and a show.

2:25 a.m.

At 2:30 a.m. we went back up to bed.  She wanted to sleep with Todd and I and at that hour I was just happy to go back to bed.  Unfortunately, she moved around trying to get comfortable until 4:00 A.M.  By 4 a.m. I was no longer sympathetic/empathetic/motherly.  I think my final words were, "Lay down.  Do not move.  I need to sleep."  No one wants a crabby mother, right?

She had been waking us up most every night it seems.  Coming in our room during a coughing fit at midnight or 1.  It has usually been a fairly quick coughing fit before falling back asleep.  So, having been woken up nearly every night, I've been a bit crankier than usual (though polls may differ on that front).  One day, I was already sleep-deprived and feeling somewhat annoyed by the day's occurrences, when I noticed that our new couch in the playroom already had two loose arms. I sharply told the kids I wasn't getting them any Christmas presents because they couldn't take care of the things they had.  I'm sure that is on the "what not to say to your kids" in all the parenting books.

By Saturday I noticed Caroline's inhaler in the back of our cabinet and we've been doing it every four hours since.  I think she's finally getting some relief from her cough.

Josiah spent his week making Lowes' Ninjago kits.  He drew out the directions (what we had to color) and had all the pieces in a Ziploc bag.  After coloring them we had to tape them together.  He made four kits total over four different days.  He even blocked off our breakfast room in the mornings and gave me a liability waiver form to turn in.  When he told me to stand in line, I did, and he called out, "Five more minutes." just like the real Lowes' workers do when we go to the Build & Grows.

The kits even came with a patch.

Henry's pocket of happiness this week was that he lost a tooth (on the bottom).

He also crafted another volcano.  He gets very excited when he makes volcanoes because he likes to color the fire on a paper towel.

Otherwise, he has been a bit anxious which often manifested itself in the form of anger.  Earlier in the week, he went with me to our CC Orientation meeting at our new campus.  When we got to his classroom, he firmly stood against the wall, refusing to sit at the table with the rest of the boys.  He seemed sullen the whole time, which is how he tends to be with new things that make him nervous.  It wasn't very encouraging, but then when we got home, he got animated and told Todd all about it like he was excited.  He is definitely the type of child that needs to visit the classroom before the first day.  He doesn't like the unknown.  He gets that from one of his parents....

We got through CC Orientation, but then this Sunday was promotion Sunday at church.  Josiah told me he was scared to go to his new room, which was perfectly valid.  I knew both boys were scared and Henry has not done well with promotion Sunday in previous years.  So we talked about it.  Yes, it's scary, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try new things, and they can still enjoy their new rooms.  Well, Josiah went in fine because he always does.  I left Henry crying on the floor after the teacher helped peel him off my legs.  I always want to tell the teachers, that I promise he's a good kid.  Just give him a few weeks and he'll be fine.  I feel so bad for both him and the teachers just leaving him there in that state.  Of course, he was just fine at pick-up.

Meanwhile, while we were at church, Todd (who by now had picked up the cold) went to the store with Caroline and bought her seven containers of soy milk and a bag of her special organic, gluten-free, almost $6.00 Cheerios (but not Cheerios).  They were going to keep it a surprise for me to save me a trip to the store.  But, I decided to go with the boys after church, buying five more containers of soy milk and two bags of her special Cheerios (but not Cheerios) because she has asked for them every day this week.  We now have enough soy milk and not-Cheerios to last for probably the next six months.  

I spent this afternoon at another CC meeting for the moms.  It was very helpful and definitely will help shape how we run our school days at home.  Because school starts TOMORROW!  This evening Josiah prayed for Henry to have more work and for him to have less.

Tomorrow we'll have a "Meet the Teacher" and classroom rules kind of a day.  That and a math assessment for Josiah since we're starting a new curriculum.  I'm praying that this year we really work on good attitudes and that I set the example with that.  It can be easy to get frustrated/impatient/overwhelmed and I really want to focus more on character building this year.

Oh, and Todd got his picture taken at work this past week.  A few years ago we watched a baking championship on t.v. and there was this very Southern lady who freaked out about one of the judges.  Paul Hollywood was a highly acclaimed, distinguished looking English baker and this woman excitedly exclaimed, "Ahhhhh.  He's the George Clooney of the baking world!"  Hence, Todd's meme.