School's in session

Last week, Sydney moved up to the next room at her daycare... to the 3 year-olds class that is run like a real classroom.  I will tell you, it's been so strange shopping for school supplies, sending her to school every day with a backpack, and having her come home with "real" work (like her tracing her name).  The 3 year-old classroom uses the A Beka curriculum, and they are going to learn all their letters and numbers (recognizing and writing them), colors, recognizing words, etc.  Sydney is probably the youngest child in her room, but she is potty-trained and really ready for this kind of structure, so we decided to start her early!  She has her own chair at a table that has a little cover over it with pockets on the back and her name on it.  She has a pencil box that she loves with her crayons and pencils in it.  Her backpack hook has her name above it.  So bizarre!

Anyways, so far, so good... until yesterday.  I came to pick Sydney up after work, and Sydney was sitting in her chair, looking kind of gloomy.  I spoke to Miss Lauren, her teacher, who told me that she had to put Sydney in time-out.  I asked why, and she said that she was trying to separate Sydney and her BFF Raegan, who occasionally are really loud and hyper when they get together, and Sydney went, "NO!" to her.  Ouch.  Stephen and I have heard this come out of her mouth, but I was sad that she did it to her beloved teacher!  So, we had a chat all yesterday evening, last night, and this morning about how we talk to adults/teachers.  Sydney said she was going to tell Miss Lauren she was sorry.  I didn't know if she actually did it until I picked her up today.  I asked Miss Lauren if Sydney told her anything this morning, and she said that it was the first thing Sydney said to her!  She said that Sydney went, "Miss Lauren, I have to tell you something" and she said, "Yes?" and Sydney said, "I'm sorry!".  Sydney's version went about the same, but she told me that Miss Lauren gave her a bunch of kisses after that.  So, all is happy again. :)

It got me thinking about how I'll handle things like this when she's really in school.  I see what my students go through at school and know that my girls will be in the middle of that one day.  I guess all you can do is just talk to your child, guide them in the best way you know how, and hope they will make a good decision!  I'm very proud of Sydney that it was on her mind enough to tell Miss Lauren that first thing. 

Anyways, here are a few pics of Sydney going to school!

Taylor's Crawling!!

What happens while mama is away?  Why, her baby girl starts crawling, of course!

This is the video Stephen captured on Saturday!

Two Surgeries, 6 Days, < 20 Minutes

Well, it has been an eventful 6 days!  We have had two surgeries in our immediate family... one elective, one not.  And together, they were less than 20 minutes total.

Stephen decided to have LASIK surgery!  He's been wearing contacts/glasses for about 12 years and decided to head to Emory a couple weeks ago for a consultation.  He was cleared, and 2weeks later, he was in the surgery chair!  Since I was back to work, my mom came down to Loganville, took him to the surgery, drove him home, spent the night, and took him back again the next morning for a follow-up.  What would we do without her??  (Thanks, Mom!)  Stephen said that it took about 4 minutes per eye, and he was done. 

Anyways, his eyesight is 20/20, if not even better!  He keeps talking about how weird it is to wake up in the morning and see the alarm clock, to read license tags from far away, etc.  I'm so happy for him! (and I'm hoping I'll get a chance in the near future to do the same!).

The second surgery happened today with our sweet Taylor!  She has been battling chronic ear infections since mid-May, and no antibiotics seemed to make them go away.  After 5 rounds of antibiotics, the pediatrician said she'd recommend that we go see the ENT about it.  Luckily, we were already in with an ENT at CHOA (because of Taylor's laryngomalacia) so I got an appointment pretty quickly.  The doctor said that she is a candidate for tubes, and he wanted to make sure it was done at the hospital in case there were any complications from the laryngomalacia. 

That day, while at the ENT, they did some hearing tests.  Her left ear was fine- a little cloudy because of the built-up fluid, but nothing of concern.  However, her right ear has little hearing.  The girl said that it sounds like someone is talking to her from above while she's a few feet underwater.  Of course, they couldn't say it's definitely because of her chronic ear infections (and her right ear always seemed to be the worst one), but they're hoping that is why and that her hearing will come back without any issues.  I hope so!!!

OK, so, fast-forward to today.  We leave the house at 5 AM.  Taylor couldn't eat or drink anything after midnight last night, so we tried our best to not wake her or Sydney as we put them in the car.  We arrived at CHOA at 6 and got checked in.  We got in a room, where they checked her vitals, got her dressed, prepped, and ready to go.  Around 8:30, they took her back.  I'm not kidding you, she was back in the room, awake, at 8:47.  I was thinking they'd keep her for at least 30 minutes to let the anesthesia wear off.  They said the actual surgery was about 10 minutes total.  Anyways, Taylor was extremely fussy for about 10-15 minutes, and then it was like a switch was turned off- she was back to her normal, smiley self!  She hasn't had any bad effects from it since!  Yay! 

Such a relief they are both over, and both turned out well! 

Here are some pictures from today...

Before the gown

Playing shy

Not digging the hat!

She fell asleep right before they came to get her!

Post-op... drinking some apple juice!

8 Months!

My sweet Taylor is 8 months old!!! 

8-1-11 (her daycare teachers had some fun with her hair today. :))

Her accomplishments include:

• getting her first tooth!
• getting the whole sitting up thing down!
• feeding herself finger food
• eating spaghetti noodles for the first time
• going to the beach and splashing in the ocean
• saying "mama"
• getting up on her knees (from her belly) and rocking back and forth
• starting to have stranger/separation anxiety in full force!
• eating cheerios
• reaching for any and everything
• moving and shaking- she is all over the place without actually crawling... not quite sure how she does it, but she'll climb on things when she's on the floor, will be facing one direction and the next minute is facing the complete opposite direction, etc.
• can stand holding onto something for a short period of time
• I found her sitting up in her crib once... may have been a fluke. :)

Here are some pictures that recap this past month!

How YOU doin'?  I'm 8 months old!