Monday, March 30, 2009

Learning to Read

Carson is doing so well with his pre-reading skills. He knows his basic letter phonics and he's started putting some words together and sounding them out. When I give him a word he can tell me what it starts with and he loves to say words and then tell me what they start with and sometimes what they end with.

Yesterday he started sounding out some words: 'at' words, 'ad' words, and some others. He loves to show off what he knows.

Unfortunately he still has NO interest what so ever in coloring, drawing, chalking, etc so he can't write a single letter or so much as draw a decent looking circle.

Well, get there I'm sure, but I've just never known a child that doesn't want to draw and color. We have about every writing instrument available for him, but no interest.

Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Getting to Know Me (then 6 of you)

My sister tagged me on her blog a couple weeks ago in this random little game. I am supposed to share with you all six random things about myself and then tag six others to do the same. So here goes:

1) I check my blog a couple times each day hoping to see comments.

2) I pick up accents way to easily. I pick them up well and deeply. When I moved to SC, I did some student teaching in a small, very rural, area in the mountains and my accent became so thick that my own sister and parents could often not understand what I was saying. Looking back at video of myself at that school, I can't understand much of what I'm saying either, but those kids sure could. It's all fine and good in a situation like that, but if I'm speaking to a person say with a thick British accent, I will have to be very careful to not use that accent during our conversation. It has happened to me a time or two and is quite embarrassing because it seems as if I'm suddenly making fun of them which is not at all my intent.

3) I once dated a guy who lived in a very, very small MO town. When I went to his town for the first time, an older man approached us and Brian (my boyfriend at the time) introduced to me the man as, "This is Mr. Smith. He's the mayor, the chief of police, and my history teacher." Prior to that day, I did not know you could hold all those titles at once.

4) I MUST have weight on me when I sleep. If I could afford a weighted blanket I would without a doubt own one. I instead have an ancient sleeping bag from back in the day when they weighed a ton. The sleeping bag is about 10 pounds and I use it along with a few other blankets. Weight is the only thing that calms me when I'm anxious as well. (No I do not have Asperger's, but I understand my autistic students need for that pressure)

5) I once (actually 2x I think) drank green dyed grain alcohol from an old bathtub while being hung upside down by my ankles.

6) I have never smoked a cigarette in my entire life or even held one and never done any drugs.

So now to tag six others:
Erica
Heidi
Jenn (b/c you need to blog more)
Blythe
David
Monkey's Momma

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Kreative Blogger- thanks Kim


I got my first blog award. Thank you Kim at Stuck in the Suburbs. I found her blog through my sister at Maeve's Mom. If you enjoy funny stories of life and family those are two blogs to definitely check out.

The rules of the award are to list seven things that I love and to pass this award on to seven bloggers that I love. So here goes:

1) I love the cake donuts at ALDI. Oh yes, only the ALDI ones are worthy of my calorie intake. Once I tasted them, I was hooked and will probably put on a pound with each trip to ALDI that I make. (I am eating a powdered one now.)

2) Seeing kids play with bubbles. I am just fascinated with how something so simple can bring so much joy. I wish I could be that easily entertained over and over, day after day. It gives me such a warm, fuzzy feeling to watch my children and any child dance around and chase bubbles.

3) Coke from McDonalds. They put crack in their soda, I'm sure of it. I only buy caffeine free Coke for home so when I'm out and about, I just must stop for a HUGO Coke.

4) Seeing Nathan run for dirt and mud. Carson is not what one would call 'all boy'. Nathan is without a doubt 'all boy'. I love that every time we get him out of the car or go outside the garage to get into the car, that boy just runs for the dirt, mud, mulch. He rolls in it, eats it, shovels it... If you want to get him anywhere quickly or into the house quickly, you better carry him while he's kicking and screaming for dirt.

5) The water. I love to be in the water. Especially a creek or river. I could float around all day. I think they should make some sort of head device that would keep me from drowning so I could sleep every night in the bath tub.

6) Giraffes. Yes, weird thing to love, but I do. A kind of jerky man I once taught with asked me why a giraffe was my favorite animal. I know he was expecting the typical, "they are just cute" response. Nope, that's not it. Lots of animals are cute, cool, pretty, etc. A giraffe is my favorite animal because while I am not extremely religious, I see a giraffe and I immediately think of how God graced this earth which such beautiful things. Why a giraffe? Why something so odd, so different, so large? God could have simply made the trees shorter so they wouldn't need that neck or the trees less thorny so they didn't need those crazy long tongues. God made them simply to be beautiful and spice up the world.

7) My August Angel friends. I am part of an amazing board of women who all miscarried or lost their baby in August of 2006. We are still together every day online. Everyday there are pages of our daily events, appointments, kids stories, pregnancy stories and husband gripes to read. I've met several of the girls and I feel extremely close to them all. I was the first of our group to have a successful pregnancy after that August and for those who've read my beginning blog posts, it was successful, but far from easy. Those girls were such a support even though I'd only had a few computer interactions for less than two months. They sent flowers, gift cards, projects to keep Carson busy, called me, sent cards, and did not judge me when things were so rough after Nathan was born despite the fact that many of them were still fighting hard to have a child. I love you girls.

Wow. That was a little long. Sorry. If you made it through all that, I'm impressed.

Now, I pass this award on to 7 others:
Discovery Channel Won't Give Me My Own Parenting Show This blog is one of my all time favorites and I think is quite undiscovered. You must spend some time reading some of his posts. He's a fabulous writer. I am unsure if he reads my blog and I'm not sure if so that he's been reading much of anything recently. He and his wife just had their third baby girl and he's a very busy man who's also sleep deprived. You really must check his blog out.

Of course to sweet Heidi at Thinking Miracles. She's been trying so long to have a baby she can hold in her arms and bring home and has suffered such loss. Yet, Heidi is an amazing woman who remains a friend and gives her love and time to everyone.

To my goofball of a husband at Internet Corn. If you enjoy sarcasm and goofiness this is the blog for you.

Erica because I love to see her pictures and I'm really hoping that this will get her blogging more often.

Monkey's Momma - I love to check out her blog. She has awesome giveaways and those are like a bonus. Her writing is enjoyable and I like that I never know what I'm going to get. Sometimes it's a news story, sometimes an opinion, and sometimes a personal story or daily event.

Parenting isn't for Pansies - She is going through a clubfoot journey with the same doctor that Nathan sees. Her journey has unfortunately not be so simple as ours, but she does her best each day to put her faith in God and enjoy her life.

Useless Knowledge - I like useless knowledge and read several books full of it. One day I believe it will come in handy.

I of course would include my sister's blog, but Kim passed the award to her as well.

Monday, March 23, 2009

HELP I really need to know the answer!

I've been having back pain and these episodes where the pain becomes so severe in my back and stomach that I literally fall on the floor and am in awful pain. This lasts a few minutes and then stops. So I saw the doctor on Friday and he is sending me to a urologist to check for kidney stones and such.
I called to make an appointment to see the urologist. I was on hold while they were dealing with something else going on in the office. As I was waiting I began to wonder...what makes a doctor choose this specialty? I can understand the fascination with the brain, heart, or obstetrics, but what makes a doctor decide that urine is what they want to surround their days?
This is really making me curious now. Curious enough that I'll probably end up asking the doctor. I'm sure he won't appreciate my question, but I must know.

So if you are a urologist, married to one, family to one, or simply know the answer to this question; don't be shy. This is a must know for me.

Sunday, March 22, 2009

And that's what register means

Last Tuesday I loaded up the boys in the car for a quick errand. Carson of course wanted to know where we were going. I told him that we were going to go and register him for preschool. He asked, "What does register mean?" I explained that we were going to tell the people who work there what his name was and where he lived so they would save him a chair for school.

We walked down the hall and I told Carson that we needed to go into that room and pointed to the office. He walked in a few steps ahead of me. The two women in the office said 'hello' and Carson replied with, "Hello, my name is Carson and my letters are C-A-R-S-O-N. I live at 123 Blue Jay Road Paris Misery (yes no many how many times he hears the correct pronunciation he pronounces MO that way)."

The director said, 'Okay, what can I do for you?" Then looked at me a little confused and I explained that he was there to register for preschool. They were impressed with my little man and so was I.

Of course the address provided is not our real address; in case you couldn't figure that out.

Friday, March 13, 2009

I hate my body and it's not because I'm fat

Today was Greg's vasectomy. We had talked about it a lot since Nathan was born. It was something we put off for a long time because I have the Mirena and we'd also discussed my having my tubes tied some. Suddenly (at least if felt that way to me), just a week or two ago, Greg said he needed to find a urologist and get a vasectomy scheduled. Monday he made an appointment to go Wednesday for a consult. After that he had the vasectomy scheduled for just two days later.
I was required to go with him because this doctor gives a shot of Valium before the procedure and they have to have a driver in the office before they will do the procedure. No one was able to watch the boys today so we were all there. After Greg was called back into the office, the boys and I went out into the foyer outside the office so they could run around some and not bother others in the waiting room. There was a large area and a bench for me to sit on with the elevators just across from the bench.
The elevator doors opened and a woman and her husband came out. She was literally bouncing and said, 'come on, come on, I'm so excited". She went down the opposite hallway and disappeared. I didn't give it another thought. Later, as the boys and I continued to wait for Greg, she came skipping (again literally, like a school girl) back toward us with her husband a few steps behind looking kind of out of it. She had papers in her hand and as she pushed the elevator button I saw she had ultrasound photos. I said, "are you pregnant?" She beamed back and squealed, "yes and we just found out we're having twins". She proudly showed me her pictures and I gave her my congratulations. As they entered the elevator, I really wanted to run into the office after Greg. I sat there trying to hold back tears.
As my eyes welled up and a few tears fell down my cheeks, the nurse came into the foyer and told me Greg was finished and asked if I would come back to hear the after care instructions. I kept my head down until she turned her back to lead us and then I wiped my tears and followed quietly.
The entire way home, Greg was a goofy Valium mess. It was funny, I must say, but it was hard to just keep smiling even with his hilarious jokes and non-stop childish behavior.
I hate my body. I hate it.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Mom Jeans



Oh yes ladies, you've all see them. You've all thought, 'why would anyone wear these things.' Well, I'm beginning to wonder if this style needs a come back. I was at an event for preschoolers and parents last week. It was a great event. Parents and kids were at tables and on the floor becoming an enormous mess of stamps, paint, glitter, dirt, flour and about any other substance known to stain clothes. I really enjoyed being down on the floor with my boys and watching them cover themselves in gunk. I could see the enjoyment of other moms and dads with their kids as well. I could also see the cracks of many mommies. With the rise in the popularity of low rise jeans and low rise undies even, these kinds of events are full of so much crack that the police should be monitoring for drug dealers. I don't claim not to ever show my undies or crack. I'm sure I unknowingly do as I'm not a fan of Mom Jeans either. I do wonder though if Mom Jeans become more popular as people get older not because older people tend not to keep up with the latest styles, but more because their children get older and start to voice their embarrassment of all their friends singing "I See London" to their mom at school events.

Friday, March 6, 2009

A great day outdoors again.

Today we went to my parents' house to help them move some furniture. While Carson and I were outside enjoying the weather, the new neighbors' daughter came over. I'd guess her abou 14. She was immediately chatty and talking with Carson. Her sister and another older boy were riding bikes. Carson wanted to go watch them on the sidewalk. She went with him and they played catch for the longest time. Carson was running and laughing and just in love with the fun of his new 'friend'. I loved to see it. It broke my heart again though to see how happy I know he'd be at a preschool. Later Nathan woke up from his nap and he and I both went over by them and the two girls that are close in age to Carson and Nathan came outside. This teenage girl was playing with them all. Nathan wouldn't leave my lap, but she was still playing with him and actually got him talking and eventually he even held her hand and went for a walk without me. We went in their backyard and played on the swingset my boys were in love with the day and both cried and cried when we finally went in at 6:15 after the mosquitoes were biting. This girl was a sweetheart and so great with kids. I wish she lived nearby us and I'm sure the boys do too! (Especially Carson with his love of older women.)

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Heartbreaking Beautiful Day Outdoors

Oh, time outside was a blessing, but heartbreaking. My son is just dying to play with the bigger boys across the street. They were outside playing baseball today and Carson was just in tears that he wanted to go across the street. I told him that he was not allowed to cross the street by himself and we were not invited to come over there. The oldest boy heard Carson crying and started hitting the balls across the street and letting Carson throw them back. His younger brother would take turns with Carson 'catching' the ball and throwing it back. After they went inside, Carson was so heartbroken and wanted to go to their house. Then he saw bigger kids riding their bikes down the street and started crying that he wanted his bike (Diego tricycle). Everytime he would see another kid (all much older) he'd beg to go with them even though he doesn't know them. He kept saying, "but I'll look both ways. I'll stop, look, and listen." I was truly about in tears to see him want others to play with. We don't have neighbors his age, don't know many people here at all, and can't afford preschool. It's just sad to see him feeling lonely. I know how bad lonely can hurt.

Tuesday, March 3, 2009

The Shark Bites the Big One

I was looking for a nice, quick, way to clean the kitchen floor now that Nathan has decided to be a messy eater. I can't stand the swiffer wet jet. I just don't think it cleans much. I hate dragging out a mop bucket because that's a lot of work with the kids around.

So I went to Walmart yesterday and bought the Shark Steam Mop. I read a lot of mixed reviews. Some that it was the greatest thing ever and others saying it's total crap. Well, I go with the low end crowd. I give it 2 stars.

While it is easy to get out and fill up and it leaves the floor dry and unsticky, it doesn't live up to it's promises.

I had several spots that I went over and over again and they were still sticky and I ended up wiping it up with a cloth. These were things like yogurt from breakfast (I used it about 10 this morning and breakfast was about 7), syrup drops, something sticky behind the trash can, and a splotch of dried dishwasher soap that I assume got onto the floor last night. I'm sorry, but those things should have been able to come up quickly based on its claims.

Second biggest issue is that thing is HARD to push. It doesn't slide along the floor easily. It takes a really good push and I was getting worn out. It took a long time with going over spots several times, and pushing it all around so hard and slowly. It would have been less work and I'm sure only a few more minutes to get out the mop and bucket. I can live with a floor that needs to dry.

I'm extremely disappointed. I was really hoping for a wonder product. Don't waste your money unless your floor is rarely dirty, you don't have toddlers, and you have a strong arm and shoulder.