Sunday, September 30, 2007

The Tooth Fairy and Other Drama

The bane of Sophie's existence has been the other kids in her class, so much younger than her, that have already lost a tooth, or teeth. For months she has been checking her teeth, to no avail. Me, I am fine with her baby teeth. The longer the chiclets take to show their huge heads, the better! Last week when brushing, she told me her bottom teeth hurt, and I knew what was coming next. Sure enough, both her center bottom teeth are loose. They have been shifting for a while now, and it looks like she has already lost teeth, that is how far apart they are spaced.


I would imagine by the end of this week, we will have a visit from the Tooth Fairy.

If she lives that long.

I am not sure what the issue is, but we have been dealing with some HUGE tantrums of late. Over the smallest things. Well, at least to me they seem small. Like having to wear a barrette. Or not being able to wear her flip flops or dirty play sandals to Mass. That was a 45 minute tantrum this morning, it lasted all the way to church, complete with her getting out of her car seat to walk to the front seat to demand I answer her ranting about why we couldn't drive back home so she could change.

Terry took a page from our parents' book and pulled over. In no uncertain terms he told her that was it, we didn't want to hear any more, and if she EVER unbuckled herself again while the car was moving, he would paddle her bottom. I have to say, we have never had to do that, and that struck a cord with her. She tearfully replied "Yes, sir" when asked if she understood him, and then miraculously, the white sandals stopped bothering her, she stomach stopped hurting, and she wasn't dizzy anymore. She did ask to be carried into Church, which I caved on, but sometimes, I think, she just wants what Michael and Emily get. But she went into PSR and had a great time. And the rest of the day passed very peacefully. If there is something about turning 6 that no one told me about...please let me know. I feel woefully unprepared.

But of course, there are moments when I do see the child I have known for almost 6 years now, full of joy, funny, smart and loving. Here she is first thing this morning, showing me her "months of the year" song that they learned in school. And yes, that is the macarena....shudder.....

PS. I did edit this to get it right side up, but when I posted it, it flipped around again. Sorry!

Sunday, September 23, 2007

A Fair Day

Terry and I took Sophie to the North Georgia State Fair on Saturday. I haven't been to a State Fair since my college days in Milledgeville, when we used to go to one in Macon.

It was Sophie's first time riding rides, and that was a mixed bag. She liked the Ferris Wheel while it was loading, and we were only moving up one gondola at a time. However, when it started to move without stopping, she was a bit petrified. I wasn't too thrilled myself, but then again, you have to put on a brave face for your child.




Then there was the Dumbo ride, which went around in a circle, and each elephant took it's turn rising about 10 feet in the air. She shrieked the entire time, and not in delight. Yes, she seems to have inherited the Maier fondness for carnival rides, which is nil. She did like the rides on the ground, and even the kiddie roller coaster. But nothing with any elevation or speed. The bumper cars were her favorite. She and Terry rode together and hunted me down, she thought running into Mom was great.

Besides a lot of fried food (yes, we did have a funnel cake, YUM!) rednecks, and large people in not enough clothing, there were animals to see. It always makes me sad to see these poor creatures in pens, in the heat, suffering the kids trying to feed them as much as they will eat. This petting zoo even had an emu, a camel and a zebra. Are they native to North Georgia?

Here's Terry getting up close and personal with the emu, I never realized how beautiful their feathers are.

Here we are trying to feed it, just like everyone else. Sophie was taken aback when it poked it's head out toward Terry's hand.

And no fair is complete without cotton candy and a merry go round ride. Since they let me on with her, I jumped on a horse myself. This was just my speed!


Thursday, September 20, 2007

Early Morning with Emily

Emily needs less sleep than Michael, and it has been that way for awhile now. She is up before him each morning, but I am not complaining; she sleeps till 7:30 and he gets up about 8. She really enjoys it when I put her in his crib while he is still sleeping:

She can walk all around, play with his toys, and he sleeps on. In case you are wondering, that is a cloth diaper in his mouth. He sleeps with about 5 of them, one to chew, one to snuggle and extras for when the one he is chewing becomes too wet. At this point, even though I bleach them, they all have that telltale yellow trim that just won't come clean. Oh well, they'll still make good dust rags one day.

Yesterday morning, Emily came with me into the office to check email and the news, while Michael slept on. Here she is enjoying her first cup of coffee......
Since it was just the two of us, I took the opportunity to take some video of her. It came out a little dark, but I love how her face lights up when she sees the picture of Sophie and Noah on my screensaver. She calls Sophie "shu shu", so funny.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Paula to the rescue

Last Thursday night at bedtime, Sophie informed me that tomorrow was Crazy Hat or Hair day. She didn't know why, but that was what they said at school, Mommy. There was no information in her folder, so I called the room mom to see if I could get the real story. Her daughter hadn't mentioned it to her, so she called her neighbor who has a 3rd grader, then called me back. Yes, they were allowed to either do their hair crazy, or wear a funny hat if they paid a dollar. The money was for a charity, don't know what charity it was, the 3rd grader didn't get that piece of information.

Sophie had told me she just wanted to wear a hat, nothing crazy with her hair please. I came up with a beachy hat decorated with bows, an Uncle Sam hat from Halloween, and the birthday hat from Katie's 4th bday party, embellished by Paula. Sophie was so enamored with this hat, it had survived an entire year. The next morning, I gave her the 3 choices.

She liked the beachy hat, but it was a bit big, plus hard to fit in her backpack. The Uncle Sam hat was also too big.

Katie's birthday hat worked great, crazy enough, but not TOO crazy, comfortable, and small enough to fit in the backpack. BTW, that is her new favorite breakfast: bread and butter sandwich with cinnamon. Thank you Grandma Maier.

Michael and Emily had a great time playing with the rejects later on that morning.



So we have survived our first incident of "oh by the way, I need this in the morning"..I am sure there will be more to follow!

PS. I just made this font larger...too big? Or better? I was straining a bit to read it myself, I really need to get reading glasses.

Saturday, September 08, 2007

Testing

Blogger now has video capability, so I shot some of Sophie and Noah today. This is only the second time I have taken a video on my digital camera, and when downloading, it required me to install QuickTime to view it. If you have problems viewing this video, you might want to install it as well, it is free on the Apple Website. Of course, it also required me to update my Windows applications first, so what I thought would be a 10 minute task turned into an hour long task. But hopefully from now on the process will go faster.



Noah came over to play today, and that was fun for all. I took the 4 of them to the playground at Preschool. Michael and Emily really enjoyed it, because of course they had to keep up with the big kids on the regular playground, rather than the Toddler section they play in on a school day. At one point I heard Noah call me to "come quick Miss Darfy, Michael is climbing up after us!" And he was. Sophie and Noah were having a discussion on the top of the monkey bars, which they can easily navigate. By the time I got to him, Michael had reached the top. It was higher than I could reach without climbing up a step or two myself. I hope on Tuesday he is content with the Toddler playground, this may have spoiled him.

Friday, September 07, 2007

Art in the Park

We were able to enjoy a family day last Saturday, and went to Marietta Square for Art in the Park. Lots of neat things to see and do, and we all had a great time. Sophie's favorites were the big slide and the face painting. Michael's favorite was the train he could climb all over. Emily's favorite was the fountain that we let her put her hands and feet into. (no pics of that though, all hands were too busy to hold a camera!) And I would have to say my favorite thing about the day was that fact that we were all together. Oh, and also that it was 85 lovely degrees, which seemed almost cool compared to the 100 degrees of the past few weeks.


What goes up.......


must come down.


Exploring the train





Work of art in progress


The finished product

Monday, September 03, 2007

Catching Up

It seems that I have spent time on Mike and Kat's blog this week-must see new pics of Will- but not on my own. So here's an update on us....

On Friday I went to Sophie's class to do Show and Tell with her. She was concerned because her classmates have been asking about her hearing aids, and I told her the best way to handle that would be to explain what they were. They weren't being mean, or teasing her, they were just curious. I offered to come into her class, and at first she flatly refused. But a couple of days later, she asked me if I would. Her teacher is now wearing a headset which sends the sound directly to Sophie's aids (Cobb County provided, hers are only 5 yr old, but not compatible with this latest technology) I asked the resouce teacher at our preschool for some coloring pages on the 5 Senses, and we started out talking about them, what they are, and what happens when one of your senses doesn't quite work right. (IE. People who can't see so well need glasses, people who don't hear so well need hearing aids.) I had picked up Sophie's own aids from the nurse, and I showed them to the class. We talked about making ear molds, how to put them in, even showed them the double sided tape that we use for swimming and gymnastics. As you can imagine, the tape was a huge hit, we passed around several pieces of that. Then I told the kids if they wanted to, they could listen through the stethescope to the hearing aids, and hear how loud they are. The kids loved this, and Sophie loved choosing who got to go next. A little power goes a long way! She also regaled them with the story about her "gook" and having to get it cleaned out, lisening to her description of that was funny.

I was so pleased with the reaction from her class, they were curious and totally accepting. I shouldn't be surprised, most 5 year olds are not jaded, but it was still nice to see the openess of the kids. I was proud of myself as well, it was hard to get started after her teacher introduced me. I got a bit choked up when she said, "And Sophie's mom is here to tell us about something she uses to help her learn." I never give the fact that she wears hearing aids a second thought, it is part of our daily lives, and has been since she was 6 ms old. But now being in a new school, having to deal with the FM system...all this has brought it into the spotlight. And I get emotional thinking of my little girl as being made to feel like she is any less "normal" than the other kids. However, any concern was dispelled when I heard the rest of the class do their show and tell. Sophie's vocabulary, articulation, intonation....all the elements that go into speech and language are at a level above most of her classmates. What a relief to see, and hear!

All sorts of objects were brought in for show and tell; some kids rambled, some barely knew what to say. I was impressed with Mrs. Miller as well. She could halt a rambler, or help a stumbler with such patience and respect. It made me feel better to see her in action, and how good she is with the kids. Tomorrow I will spend the time the twins are in MMO in Sophie's classroom helping with Centers. This is a Kindergarten teaching tool, the lessons are divided among centers; one for math, science, etc. Mrs Miller asks that 2 parents be in the class each day M-Th, from 9-10:30 to help her with this. I will do that twice a month, and work in the Media Center once a month.

Lilly and Bella came home from the bus with us on Friday. All I will say about that is having 3 girls play together is quite different from when Noah comes over to play. Noah and Sophie require no direction or interference from me; they rarely if ever, argue. And if they do argue, they work it out without my even knowing about it. The girls did ok, but there was some bossiness, some crying over who took whose doll, and some running to find me to come and settle their dispute. When Lilly's father came to pick her up early, Bella decided she wanted to leave then as well. Sophie didn't really seem to mind. I think she and Lilly may have more in common than she and Bella. Bella is very into dolls, and as Sophie has told me, they are "so boring, Mom". I did get them started painting, and they were fine doing this until Bella decided she had to play dolls. Maybe next time we will just have one other friend over. 3 can be difficult.

I was going to add more to this update, but this is already too long. Will post pictures of Art in the Park another time.....