Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes

Remember me mentioning here that Natalie wasn't happy with her assigned teacher? We tried to change it before school started due to the adjusting to a sub and then her regular teacher all at once. It didn't happen that way. We were told that it could still happen after school started, but I didn't think it would happen as quickly as it did.

Yesterday, ten minutes into the very first day of school the principal came in and switched Natalie into the class she wanted to be in. He didn't even ask her if she still wanted to move. I didn't even find out until I was standing in the gym waiting for her to come down. And here I am looking for a different teacher when all of a sudden I see her standing with this other teacher. I thought maybe they just sent her down with that other teacher, but when I asked Natalie about it she had been moved. I didn't think after finding out her best friend was in her class that she would want to change classes, but she didn't really have a choice in the matter and honestly she doesn't seem too broken up about it. So the picture above is Natalie with her new teacher. He is a funny guy. When I took that picture he messed with Natalie's hair and told her we needed to cover up her freckles. I said there's no covering all those freckles. Look at how tall he is compared to Natalie. I barely was able to get Natalie in the picture without cutting off her teacher's head.

And today Natalie couldn't wait to get to school. What a difference from yesterday. She had her backpack on and was waiting by the door ten minutes before we had to leave. I wonder how long that excitement will last for.

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Finally the 1st day of school is here! The girls got off just fine. I've enjoyed the peace. Joe and I went out to breakfast and then a little shopping trip for a new back pack for Kaitlyn. I wasn't going to get her one, but looking at it in the light this morning I realized it's not as good as I thought it was. So we decided we needed to buy her a new one. We got home around 12:30. Fed CJ and put him down for a nap. I then called the doctor because he has had the runs for the past three days. They weren't too much help really. I hate this virus and just having to ride them out. She told me it could last 10 days. I just have to keep him hydrated and give him binding foods like green veggies and applesauce and bananas. I should have known that's what they would say, but with his past weight issues I wanted to put them on notice of the problem.

Anyways, here are a few pics of the girls on their first day. I'm sure I'll have stories to tell when they come home in about an hour.

Natalie's 1st day of 4th Grade

Kaitlyn's first day of 1st Grade

Natalie all ready to go

Kaitlyn all ready to go

Natalie and Kaitlyn on the 1st day of school

Natalie found her best friend in her class

Kaitlyn found her class

Kaitlyn with her teacher

I don't have a picture of Natalie with her teacher because she is starting out with a sub this year. I wasn't happy about her teacher choice and neither was she. We tried to get her switched, but because there were exactly 17 in each class we had to wait for another 4th grade student to enroll. Apparently that hasn't happened. The principal could still move her a week into school, but once she saw her best friend was in her class I don't think she's going to want to be going anywhere. I think she'll do okay. Her teacher is out for the first two months of school due to a maternity leave. I suppose it could be worse. This has been very hard for Natalie though because there was a teacher she really wanted to have.

What is Wrong with Them?

The first day of school really cannot get here soon enough. Four days to go. The two older ones must really be getting on each others nerves. In the past two days I have had to deal with saliva instances. Yesterday they were LICKING each other! Ewww, gross! What is wrong with them? They are 9 and 6 now. Why would they lick each other. My oldest decides to tell me that she was going to bite her little sister because she started licking her, but decided to just do it back. Okay, that doesn't make it any better. Are you kidding me?

Just now Kaitlyn (my 6 year old) comes out and tells me that Natalie is SPITTING on her. What? Spitting? You know I think I did hear that. So I ask Natalie if she's spitting on her sister and she says no, but I give her the look. You know the one. The one that says mom knows you're lying and she quickly changes her answer to yes.

Me: "Why are you spitting on your sister Natalie?"
Natalie: "I don't know"
Me: "You have to have a reason, so why?"
Natalie: "I don't know"
Me: "Well, you knew it was wrong because you lied about it so what was so important that you felt the need to spit on your sister?"
Natalie: "She was being mean to me!"
Me: "There is no reason to spit on your sister. Now go to your room and wait until your father comes home!"

Do you see what they've made me resort to? The dreaded wait until your father gets home statement I always got as a child. OMG, they are spitting on and licking each other. They act like they are toddlers or something and certainly not 9 and 6 year old. I am just so disgusted over this.

Hopefully being apart from each other for six hours a day will make them appreciate each other more and STOP this nonsense!

Old Navy Denim Sale

Hurry! Today only Old Navy is having a huge denim sale. Select jeans for men, women, boys, girls, and babies are on sale. Men's and Women's jeans are just $12 and kids and babies are all $7 each. Great sale. I just bought eight pairs of pants for the kids for just $56. So just twelve hours left on this awesome sale. You can get it in store or online. So check it out!

Wordless Wednesday: Sugar High

Check out more Wordless Wednesdays.

What about the Middle Child?

Remember her? That's Kaitlyn. My middle child now. My lovely six year old. The goofy, happy go lucky, go with the flow child of mine. I have talked a lot lately about CJ and his troubles and triumphs. I've even talked about a Natalie triumph, but there hasn't been much about Kaitlyn.

I believe I forgot to mention that before the last session this summer of swimming lessons Kaitlyn moved up to Level 2. So the last two weeks of swimming she spent in Level 2 doing a lot of this...





When she wasn't in the pool she's just been enjoying her summer and playing with her sister, or fighting whichever is most appealing at the time. Oh and we can't forget about the torture loving on her brother that she does. Yes, I get that she loves him, but does she have to get right in his face ALL the time. It's okay, CJ gets his revenge now and pulls her hair.

School starts here in nine days. This is the first year that Kaitlyn will go all day long. Hard to believe she's a 1st grader. We got her teacher assignment the other day and I was relieved to see that she did NOT get the same teacher Natalie had in 1st grade. She's very excited about her teacher assignment and I'm very happy too. Natalie on the other hand we are not so happy about. But hopefully that will change and since this post is about Kaitlyn I will share about Natalie tomorrow hopefully after I've gotten everything fixed.

So that's pretty much what Kaitlyn has been up to lately. Now that swimming is over she's been spending a lot of time in her room doing crafts. I discovered some of those crafts made it to the wall without approval first. I keep wondering at what age is she going to get that you cannot color on the walls and the furniture or anything really but paper? She very quickly forgets things that's for sure. And that's why in the shower this morning I had to remind her about five times NOT to flush the toilet on me. Because yes, she has in the past come in to go to the bathroom with me telling her just don't flush and two seconds later she's flushing.

The Next Natalie Coughlin

Well, Natalie has been watching the Summer Olympics with me. Swimming is my favorite. She's been struggling with some of her strokes in swimming lessons so I told her to watch how the olympic swimmers do it. It must have really paid off. Friday was the last day of swimming. And this is what Natalie got...





See the writing on the very top of the paper? Can you make out what it says? That's right, she finally moved up to Level 5. She had been in Level 4 since last summer. Perhaps she can be the next Natalie Coughlin. After all, her back stroke is one of her best.

Way to go Natalie! I'm sure you'll do great in Level 5.

A Rash and a Tooth or Two; Oh My

A little good news bad news with CJ. I'll start with the bad news. Tuesday night we noticed his head looked like this when we took off his DOC Band to change him. So we kept the band off for the night in hopes that it would go away. It didn't so I called Cranial Tech in the morning. They said it sounds like it's from the heat so I'm to put hydrocortisone cream on it and take the band off every three hours to wipe the sweat. So I did that under the impression that by the night it would look lots better. It did not nor did it look better the next day. So I called Cranial Tech again. They took a while to get back to me so I ended up calling his pediatrician too. Cranial Tech did get back to me first about it and they said to take the band off and don't put it back on until the rash goes away. Once it has gone away then I am to put the hydrocortosone cream on that spot to head off any further rash. A little while later his pediatrician called back and said to put Aquaphor on it and cover it with a non stick pad and then put the band back on. Okay, so I'm now using Aquaphor to get rid of the rash and once it's gone I will continue to use the Aquaphor with the non stick pad to keep his head from getting this rash again. Poor little guy. It doesn't seem to bother him too much though which is always a good sign.

Now for the good news. CJ finally got his 1st tooth. It took 9 1/2 months, but yesterday I felt it in there. And my boy he can't do anything small so there's not one, but there's actually two teeth in there. They are both on the bottom front right next to each other. Joe managed to get a peek at them last night to in fact see there are two in there, but I haven't actually seen them yet. Little bugger keeps putting his tongue in the way. Oh well, I'll see them eventually.

Spencer Jumps

Remember Spencer? He's doing great! The glasses have been helping his eye. It's not as turned in any longer. But that's not really the reason I'm talking about Spencer today. I wanted to share a different sort of triumph about him. Spencer is a very cautious little boy. He likes simple and quiet not hard and fast. He knows what he wants to do and he tends to not push himself to do more. Swimming is one of those things that he is very cautious about. He's been in the Parent/Child class for some time now, but this time they told him he could move up to Level 1. So he did move up to Level 1 even though he wasn't sure he wanted to be in the pool without mom. Spencer does not like to get his face wet. Therefore jumping into the pool is not really for him. However, he's been doing it. We are all so proud of him. So here he is jumping in the pool...



Now we've just gotta convince him to jump off the diving board. He says, "No no no!" He's still got time. Kaitlyn is six and has just begun jumping off the diving board. So I told Spencer maybe when you're six like Kaitlyn. His response, "Kaitlyn's six?" Hahahahaha, yes Spencer the woman you are going to marry is a year and a half older than you.

My Boy is AMAZING!

I just have to brag about my little boy. So please don't mind me. You don't have to read if you don't want to I am just so filled with amazement over him right now I am about to cry and I had to share.

Now CJ has been through many challenges already in his short nine months of life. He started out with a traumatic c-section birth because he was breech with the cord wrapped around his neck twice. He then couldn't regulate his temp or his sugars and needed to spend time in the special care nursery. And then he was jaundice and needed to be in photo therapy for a day. And all of this just happened a few days or even minutes after birth. What a tough beginning.

And he did not stop there either. Nope, he wasn't gaining weight and we went through a long six months of trying to figure out why until I finally found a wonderful doctor who figured it was something as simple as acid reflux. So he had to stop breastfeeding (okay granted that was probably harder on me than him) and is now on special formula and was constantly being monitored for his weight.

We got that all under control though only to discover he was physically delayed. He wasn't rolling over or sitting up yet. So we got Birth to Three in and then we realized his head is slightly flat in the back. So now he's got 12-14 weeks of wearing a helmet.

But still he has been pulling through everything life has thrown at him with a smile and a lot of determination. He has taught me a lot about keeping my chin up.

But why am I gushing today? Well, his therapists were just here and my little boy blew their socks off. He's now sitting up completely unassisted. He reaches out of things and pops himself right back up. He's getting himself down onto his tummy (where he has always hated to be and still isn't fond of it) and discovering all the world has to offer him. He's pivoting himself around in a circle on his tummy. He's pushing himself backwards. He's reaching and you know what? My little boy is finally starting to roll! They have even gotten him into a kneeling position today and he stayed like that for a good five minutes. It was just AMAZING! It's not going to be long before he's crawling and I'm going crazy trying to find a new place for everything. But it's AMAZING! He is AMAZING! I am in awe of him. I'm one proud mama. And now he sleeps. He worked hard impressing all us ladies today. He deserves a nap.

But here he is playing after he got up from his nap. I couldn't get him to roll over, but you'll get the idea of why I'm so AMAZED with him.

Note: this was written on Monday, but I didn't get the video uploaded until Tuesday.

Warning! Do Not See Tropic Thunder

My friend Renee has a request that she is trying to get out there to all of blog land and I wanted to help her. She wants people to boycott the movie Tropic Thunder with Ben Stiller and Jack Black. You can read all about her reasoning here.

To sum it up for you though the movie discriminates against the mentally challenged. It makes mean derogatory comments about them and it's just not right. So if you were thinking about seeing Tropic Thunder then I ask you please don't. I had no intention of seeing it before. Now I most certainly do not wish to see it because my friend asked me not to and I agree that making fun of someone just because they are a little different is wrong. So please keep this in mind when making your movie selections. Tropic Thunder is a must NOT see movie!

Some Fun Quizzes and Other Stuff

I found this stuff on another blog I read and of course I could not resist. Give them a try yourself. And if you do please leave me a comment telling me to come check out your blog if you post it. I'd love to see how others rate in these quizzes.


You Are Aurora! (A.K.A. Sleeping Beauty.)

Thoughtful and loving. Authority figures probably have been sheltering you all of your life. Thankfully you're a very tranquil person who is content with what life has given you, but secretly you want to know how the outside world works.

Which Disney Princess Are You?



I don't think I agree with this about myself...

Your Response is: Stay Calm

You don't have much of a fight or flight response. In fact, you rather do neither. You don't like getting worked up. You are able to approach most threats calmly and rationally. You don't let your emotions get the best of you!

How Do You Respond: Fight or Flight?

And to find out what the number 1 song was any day of the year dating back to the 1890's check it out here.

Here are mine.

My Birthday
"You Needed Me" by Anne Murray
(huh, I wonder if this was how my mom felt when I was born?)

Joe's Birthday
"Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian)" by Paul Revere & the Raiders
(Am I lame, or what, I have no clue!)

Our Anniversary
"Amazed" by Lonestar
(I think my parents were amazed that I went through with it, HA)

Natalie's Birthday
"No Scrubs" by TLC
(perhaps because the doctor's had no time to put on scrubs before she came out, hehehe)

Kaitlyn's Birthday
"Ain't It Funny" by Jennifer Lopez featuring Ja Rule
(I certainly don't remember finding anything funny that day)

CJ's Birthday
"Crank That (Soulja Boy)" by Soulja Boy Tell'em
(Hmmmm, I have no clue what this song is, but I guess it's fitting)

I hope you're enjoying these fun quizzes and #1 songs from my life. Remember, I want to see if you post about yours so leave me a comment and I'll come take a peek.

Electric Troubles

I believe most of my readers are aware that we rent and don't own and live in a multi family home. We have lived here for five years the end of this month. Actually, we used to live on the third floor, but two years ago we moved down to the second floor because it was more room. So understandably our electric bill went up. We didn't think anything of it because it was a bigger apartment.

Recently I have noticed that my usage seems a little high. In May it was higher this year than the year before. The upstairs tenants had just gotten a washer/dryer so I began to wonder if the increase in our bill might have been because somehow their power was on our power. I didn't investigate though. However, I have noticed that things haven't gotten any better. We have been using the same amount of electricity as last year at this time, but last year we had our window unit a/c's in. This year we decided to save some money we would try to get by without the air conditioners. And we have, but our electric bill isn't reflecting this savings.

So the other day I e-mailed the electric company explaining my concern that other tenants power is hooked up to our power. I don't think our landlord would be very receptive to us telling him of this possible problem so I wanted someone to help us figure this out.

Their response to me was we are using the same electricity so basically they really didn't see a problem. The third floor also uses more electricity than we do (they have a/c's in) so basically our charges are legit. However, she said it's possible their washer/dryer is hooked up to our electric and we could turn off our power and see if their machines stay on. So we ran this test tonight and discovered that the basement (a common area of the house) is all on our electric. Their washer/dryer is not, but the lights in the basement are. We are unaware of what else could be on our electricity.

So I did some research on what our rights as tenants are and found that we don't have to pay the electric of common areas. So we have two options. One, we could have the bill put in our landlords name and he pays the entire bill or two we can take off what we believe the cost of that electricity is from our rent. If we did the latter though we could get evicted and would have to then prove in court why we paid less for rent. I knew that we'd have to get in touch with the electric company though to find out if anything else was on our power that we couldn't tell ourselves.

So I called them and they are going to have to come out and do an investigation. They'll need to find out what exactly is on our power that shouldn't be. Once they do that they'll send a letter to our landlord who will then have fifteen days to repair the problem. If he does not repair the problem in those fifteen days then our electric bill will be put in his name and he'll be responsible for paying our electricity.

Now as far as all those years we've been paying this increased electricity well they obviously can't figure out just how much we've over paid over that time. So we'll have to work something out with our landlord whether he pays us something or we pay less rent for a certain amount of time.

This is all such a mess. Our lease was supposed to have been renewed by now, but of course our landlord is late with that. So now that we've brought up this problem we're worried that he's just going to tell us to leave. Although, either way he's still going to have to prove to the electric company that he remedied this problem. In other words no matter what he's going to have to do this work. I'm sure it's not going to be cheap for him. And he likes to do things by himself too. Which of course takes longer and does not get done right. Remember this post? He's still not done with that work. This sort of job seems way out of his league though so hopefully he sees that and hires someone to do it. It's all such a mess.

9 Months of CJ

Yesterday CJ was 9 months old! I would have posted this yesterday, but I was too busy Making Memories.

It's hard to believe CJ has been in our lives for nine months. It has been a whirlwind. He's come a long way. He was born via c-section on November 1st 2007 at 8 a.m. He was in a breech position with the cord wrapped around his neck twice. I should have known then life was going to be an adventure with him. We started out having to send him to the special care nursery because he wasn't regulating his temp. So he spent time being warmed in an incubator. I only got to see him for a few minutes before they took him away. And then he didn't come back to me until the afternoon. He wasn't done there though. While we were in the hospital he became jaundice. It was back to the special care nursery for photo therapy. Now we were down to only being able to have him out every three hours for half an hour for feedings. We weren't discharged until five days after his birth.

We were so happy to have him home, but his weight became an issue very quickly. I was going in for weekly weight checks. He even lost weight at a time. I was being accused of not feeding him. He was admitted to the hospital for another five days and we were worried out of our minds. This was when he was 3 months old. They made me stop breastfeeding and put him on 24 calorie formula. Things didn't entirely improve from there though. He was slowly putting on weight and finally in the end of April I found a new doctor who was willing to explore more. All this time the poor little guy had acid reflux. Now that he's on the 24 calorie formula and acid reflux meds he is thriving. We finally got to stop the weight checks and just go in for well baby visits.

And this also gave us the chance to focus on other issues that went by the wayside during all this worry of his weight. First there was the fact that he hates tummy time and wasn't sitting up. So we got him in to Birth to Three. He's been receiving physical therapy for 2 months now and is doing great. Then there was the discovery that the back of his head is slightly flat. So we got the referral to Cranial Tech and now he's wearing a DOC band 23 hours a day for the next 12-14 weeks.

Not sure what will come up next with him. It has been an adventure every single day though adjusting to life as the mother of a little boy, but I wouldn't give up any troublesome moment we've had for the world. He has handled everything these doctors have thrown at him with a beautiful smile on his face and probably a lot better than I have. He has taught me a lot in just the 9 months since he's been here and I'm sure he'll continue to teach me a lot more.

I love you my baby boy! Happy 9 month birthday and thank you for adding so much excitement to my life!

It's Happening

The questions and stares have begun. I'm not sure which is actually better. I was worried about people's reactions to CJ's DOC Band. Day one things weren't so bad, but on Friday the questions began.

It started with a little girl that we actually know from playgroup that we saw at swim lesson sign ups on Friday. She asked Kaitlyn why "her baby" was wearing that hat. Kaitlyn apparently did not know how to respond to her so instead she looks down at her feet and tries to ignore her by moving away. So I simply said to her it's to make him have a nice round head. She seemed satisfied with that. And hey I knew that the kids would ask about it. That's what kids do.

I guess what I really didn't expect was the being approached by a total stranger in the grocery store. I went grocery shopping Friday afternoon with Joe at his store. Actually, I arrived just as he was getting off so he was still in his store "uniform". Now at first when I was approached by this woman I thought perhaps she was a customer of Joe's. He does talk to some of his customers about us like any proud father would, but nope that wasn't the case. This woman made a bee line right for us to ask about CJ's helmet. She thought he had brain surgery. So I explained to her that no that wasn't the case, but rather the back of his head was flat so this was reshaping it. She told me she wished they had that when she had her brain surgery and then showed me her scar. She wasn't mean about it or anything and was really impressed with the things they have come up with and stuff, but I thought it was a little rude that she felt the need to stop her grocery shopping to make a bee line over to us to ask why our son was wearing that on his head.

But perhaps it is better than the awkward glances we have gotten from some people. You know the ones who are probably really dying to know what that thing is on his head, but don't dare want to ask.

And I of course know that we are doing what's best for our son. I suppose I've experienced this before in a sense when Natalie was little and used sign language to communicate. People would ask if she was deaf. And I'd have to go through and explain that no this is just how she tells us what she wants because she doesn't talk yet. Still I wish that my children didn't have to experience any of this. Of course they have no clue what's going on. They are happy as a clam which really is all that matters. I am just going to have to get a thicker skin I suppose and not worry so much about what other people think or say. And things could be so much worse that's for sure. So I guess I'll just answer peoples questions and stares with a smile on my face and the confidence that I have that this is giving my child a better quality of life.

Making Memories

I've been reading a lot of mom blogs lately about how they've come to realize that these are the golden years when our children are young. Before we know it they become teenagers who want nothing more from us than money to go out and then adults who we only see during special occasions. So while we gripe about not being able to go to the bathroom in peace these are the days of making memories to last a lifetime for our children.

So last night we were making some memories for our kids. We went to a drive in theater. What? Those are still around? Yup, last summer I managed to find one about forty minutes from our house. We went once last summer and it was fun so we decided we needed to do this again. I'd like it to be more often, but it's hard with how late it goes and Joe's work schedule. We didn't get home until 2 in the morning. Gasp, we kept our 9, 6, and 9 month old out that late? Yes we did and they had fun. They watched the first movie with us (well not the baby he slept) which was Journey to the Center of the Earth. Natalie tried to stay up for the second movie (the new Bat Man movie), but she couldn't make it and Kaitlyn didn't even try. So they found a cozy spot in the back of the van somewhere to curl up and rest or go to sleep before we woke them around 1:15 a.m. to get back in their seats and buckle up because it was time to go home.

I feel so fortunate that we are able to give these sorts of memories to our children. I remember going to the drive in as a child. I remember when they tore it down in favor of some retail stores. Hopefully this doesn't happen to this drive in for our children. Hopefully this will be a memory that they'll be able to give to their children too.

What sort of memories do you or have you given to your children this week?

And the Winner is...

3boys247!

My very first giveaway was done on my 100th post. While I did not make it even close to 100 comments on it I still had a good amount. Maybe next time my readership will have grown. Thank you all who left me a comment on that post and thank you to all of you who continue to read my blog. It's all very exciting.

3boys247 please e-mail me privately with your address and I'll get that shipped out to you.

Oh wait, you're probably all wondering what she's going to win. Well, here it is...





I hope you like it 3boys247. Thanks for playing!