I have been
slacking on the blog lately! My apologies to any one who reads this... (anybody? Is anybody there? hello, out there!) ;)
Here are some massive updates from the past month:
School
It's hard to believe we have been in school
with kids for exactly a month today. We'll be starting our 6th week of instruction next week! Progress reports went home today! Where does the time go, people??
Things are going well... just INSANELY busy. I miss the lazy summer days when all I had to do was my to-do check list. Now, I have my to-do check list not checked, my emails backing up, my return phone calls so not returned, and about 2-1/2 million things to do at school. (And what am I doing now? ha!)
But, I am really enjoying my kids... I'm really enjoying the teachers I am teaching collaboratively with...I feel a lot more at home at this school this year than I did last year, when I only worked there part-time. Back to the kids, I REALLY love them... they, for the most part, are just absolutely precious. I probably get about 50 hugs a day. I am teaching 3rd and 5th grade, and I really like both the curricula. I have learned that I am way better suited for the "older" kids than the younger ones.
Can you spell B-A-D?
So, as well as school has been going for me, it has been the opposite for Miss Sydney. For some reason, she has just been BAD lately! I mean, she will give me and Stephen attitude on a regular basis... but she doesn't typically do this to outsiders. But, let me tell you some of the reports I've gotten from school.
1. The first incident happened in mid-August. You can read about it
here.
2. I came in one day and saw Sydney's name on the Time Out board. It was the only name up there. I went out to the playground to pick Sydney up and I asked her teacher. It turns out she BIT her BFF Raegan. Let me just pause here for a moment. When Sydney was in the 1s class, she was bit all the time. I think her sweet, chunky flesh was appealing to her teething comrades. But, I always asked the teachers if she was ever one to bite, and they always said no. So, now, she is a few weeks shy of turning THREE, and she claims her first victim?? And her BFF, on top of that?
Sydney's version was that Raegan was blocking her way when she wanted to move, so to get her to move her arms, she bit her. No excuse. We talked to her all night about that.
But, what was even WORSE was when Miss Lauren put her in time out, Sydney threw toys at her!!! So, Miss Lauren walked Sydney to the "principal" (a.k.a. one of the daycare owners) to talk. Now, this lady is one of the sweetest ladies in the world, but she said she had a stern talk to her about not biting, how she's too old for that, etc. The daycare owner told me later that Sydney looked so sad and her eyes were filling with tears, and she said it was so hard to talk to her that way because she was so cute.
So, yes, we had more talks about how you treat your teachers/friends/etc. We also took away TV for an entire weekend.
3. So, one day, Stephen goes to pick the girls up from school. He had just gotten back in town and was so excited to see the girls. Sydney apparently was expecting for ME to pick her up and literally flipped out when she saw Stephen. This is the second time she's done this when Stephen's picked her up. He is worried the people at the daycare might start thinking he is beating her or something. (LOL) But, he said this time was way worse than the first time. She was screaming, kicking, hiding under the table, crying, etc.
So, people have warned me that the 3s are worse than the 2s. I haven't really seen this kind of behavior until Sydney was about 2-1/2, so I'm wondering how it will really get the older she is.
Yes, one day she hid under her table at home, took a green marker, and totally colored her hands and arms. And chin.
Trips and other events!
So, in August, we had something to do almost every weekend.
The first weekend, I helped host a baby shower at the mountains for one of our good friends who is having a little girl in October. Stephen, the kiddos, and I headed up Friday after work. The plan was to stay until Sunday morning, but it turned out to be a wild weekend. Kerrigan, my niece, woke up Saturday morning with croup. Then, after the shower, she fell on the cement dock at the lake and scraped her whole bottom half of her body, with one part being really deep. Our other good family friend was having a big sha-bang that night in honor of her 60th birthday, but my parents and sister and nieces went on home before the party to help heal the kiddos (Kerrigan had to get some treatment on that one deep cut). Stephen and I decided to go to the party for a while and just drive on back that night. The girls slept the whole way, and we got home around 11 PM. We were tired, but it was nice to have all day Sunday to do things.
The next weekend, I headed down to Destin, FL to meet up with my friend Erica (the bride-to-be) and more girls for a bachelorette weekend! It was really nice and relaxing. I left from work on Friday, and met everyone down there (the rest were able to go down Thursday). We went out for seafood that night, and then crashed around midnight. The next day, a few of us went for a jog by the beach, then we hit the beach and the pool. It was kind of nice to be able to lay out without any distractions. I could read my book, soak in the sun... and yes, I got completely fried. That night was our "go out" night and we had lots of fun activities. It was a fun weekend!
The next weekend we had and made no plans... it was so nice!
The last weekend of August was a tag-team weekend. Friday night, Stephen went to play poker with some work friends in McDonough. Saturday morning, I went into Atlanta to have brunch with two girlfriends. I got back, we hung out, did some yard work, then Stephen went to hang out with the neighborhood guys while I took the kiddos to hang out with the girls. Then, Sunday, Stephen took Sydney to church while I stayed home and did a bunch of lesson planning. Then, I went back to Atlanta for a shower for Erica. By the time I got home, it was 5 PM and we got the girls ready for bed. Then, Stephen left town Monday to Wednesday, so it was all me. Whew!
Poor Taylor!
Taylor has not had a very good month in regards to being healthy! She came down with the stomach bug the day I left for Florida and had to come home from daycare early (luckily Stephen got home from Cali in time to do that... we hadn't seen each other since that previous Monday and didn't get to see each other until I got back Sunday!). She seemed to improve over the weekend, but it came back the next week again. Since she vomited, she couldn't go to daycare for 24 hours. Of course, Stephen was out of town when this happens, so I had to take a day. Actually, this time, my dad came down and I only had to take a half day. (A couple weeks earlier, she had thrown up and I had to take a day then, too).
So, last week, as I'm pulling into the doctor's office to check on my self-diagnosed ear infection, I get a call from daycare. They said Taylor was doing these weird, almost seizure-like episodes (arching her back, shaking, staring) and then she'd sit up really quickly and just scream. They said she did this over 10 times. They said at first, it seemed like she was playing because she would cheer up really quickly. But, then they realized she wasn't and that this was strange. So, I'm in the middle of the doctor's office bawling because I don't know what's going on. Stephen's in Kansas City. I go to pick up the girls and take her straight to the pediatrician. They said she was wheezing really badly, but that she's a silent wheezer because she doesn't show many symptoms. But, she said her air wasn't going through her windpipe very well, so she could have been panicking when she kept arching her back and all (it was done when she was being fed, occupying her mouth, and her nose was really stuffy).
Oh, and she had the start of pink-eye.
So... antibiotics, a steroid, breathing treatments, another day off for me. I was so paranoid about her breathing that I slept on the floor by her crib. I had to wake her every 4 hours to give her breathing treatments. Luckily, she is ALL healthy now. But, it was unbelievably stressful and I was about to quit my job. I really didn't know how to do it... take care of my sick child while trying to come up with sub plans and get IEPs written and papers graded and lesson plans done. I had had it. Luckily, I have a really supportive principal who I was able to call up on her cell phone that night, bawling of course, telling her what's going on... and her response was, "What's your question? You need to be with your child. Family is ALWAYS first."
Wonderful!
So, that is about it with the K-Bashes for August! One big, long update! No great pictures, I'm sad I lost my camera. But, I've included the ones I have. Until next time!
