Jadon had his first "official" counselling session yesterday, and the therapist diagnosed him at that time. His diagnosis is: adjustment disorder with anxiety.
So I came home and did a little research online about adjustment disorder in kids, and here's what I have found. Its usually brought on by a sudden stressful event, like a divorce, a big move, a death in the family, a major illness of a loved one... ahem!... etc.
Symptoms are: intense separation anxiety, irritable, anxious, subdued, resists going to sleep, frequent temper tantrums, regression in the ability to toilet independently, acting out by biting, hitting. And not all kids will react to big stress like this.
Jadon's symptoms have been mostly intense separation anxiety, and resists going to sleeps, however, he sometimes goes through periods of irritability, anxiety, and he's a little subdued. He's been acting out a little more than normal, especially when his schedule wavers at all from his "normal"... whenever we do anything other than what we typically do on a normal day to day basis.
I'm very relieved to know that what he is going through is something very real, and he's not just losing his marbles or has a loose screw. The therapist said that after spending time with Jadon, he seems completely fine otherwise, a little worriesome in nature, and he might have a little underlying generalized anxiety disorder, but otherwise he's a really enjoyable boy to be around, and he is very well adjusted.
We're going to do 6 sessions with the therapist and evaluate from there the progress. After my research, the good news is that is sounds like adjustment disorder, unlike post traumatic stress syndrome, goes away after about 6 months with help.
We've done the right things sending him to therapy though, as i read its very important for people to get help if they have this disorder as it can get worse if help is not sought. And another good thing is that he will hopefully learn coping skills for the future so that he'll be able to better handle stress in the future.... I hope! I pray! Poor little guy!
I'm hoping this is all a good thing in the long run though... him getting this adjustment disorder. I'm hoping that through all this, we will learn alot about Jadon (since he keeps his emotions and his thoughts to himself most of the time), and to understand him better, and that we can all learn how to handle stressful situations better, for Jadon, and for ourselves. I love that little guy.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Spring :)
Spring is finally here! At least for a few days! Its so nice to finally see some green growing on the trees again, and some color in yards again. Its nice to hear lawn mowers, and smell the fresh cut grass. To know that the promise of summer is getting close. I love the longer days, getting to cook dinner and eat dinner with our blinds open and sun shining into our windows, and have it be light enough afterwards that we can take a walk or play outside for awhile. The fresh air. The warmth. The overall good mood that the sunshine seems to bring to almost everyone. Theres not much about spring and summer that I don't like! There's plenty about winter that I don't like.
With spring, comes kindergarten registration for fall. We got Jadon's kindergarten registration packet in the mail, and in a week we have orientation where we get to go meet his teacher, see his classroom and school, and sign up! I cant believe it! Didn't we just sign him up for his first year of preschool last week??? My little man, my firstborn, is getting ready to head off to elementary school.
Preschool has been really good for him. He's made friends who absolutely adore him, learned to write, learned numbers and he can count to 30 by himself, knows his ABC's (but he's known those for quite awhile, you may recall a video I posted on here before Avery was born when he was saying his ABC's?), he recognizes all his letters- upper and lower- and knows all the letter sounds, he is even doing a little bit of reading now, and we recently found out that he has reading groups at preschool.
His first year of preschool, he grew in leaps and bounds socially, and this year he's grown so much mentally, and he is very eager to learn now. Yes, i'm 100% certain that preschool was the right choice for Jadon.
On a different note, Jadon started counseling yesterday. His anxiety over his health and his seperation anxiety is not improving, sometimes it seems worse, and we want to get it taken care of before kindergarten. And, he's only 5, we want him to be able to enjoy life without having to worry so much. :( Luckily we were able to get him right in to get started, and next weekend will continue, and I imagine we'll be continuing each weekend until he is doing better. Thankfully our insurance covers an unlimited number of visits, so as many as he needs will be covered, whether its 10 or 1000.... after our deductible that is.
I did a little spring shoppin' for myself the other day... afterall, i've shed a few more pounds since last years shorts season. I'm happy to announce that i'm in a size 8 now, and even fit into a 6 in one pair of capris so of course I bought that pair!!!! Hip hip horray!!!!! :D
Derek ordered us a new dishwasher yesterday. Ours is 8 years old afterall, but its starting to fall apart inside, and rather than spend $300 to replace the parts inside and have it die on us in a year, we just decided to spend $500 and get a new one that will be QUIET. So, we wont get it for 2 weeks, but i'm a tad bit excited! I've hated our dishwasher since day one. Its incredibly loud, and i'm not exaggerating. We cant run it and watch tv at the same time. So, we always try to run it when we go to bed so we dont have to hear it, but alot of times we forget to run it when we go to bed.
With spring, comes kindergarten registration for fall. We got Jadon's kindergarten registration packet in the mail, and in a week we have orientation where we get to go meet his teacher, see his classroom and school, and sign up! I cant believe it! Didn't we just sign him up for his first year of preschool last week??? My little man, my firstborn, is getting ready to head off to elementary school.
Preschool has been really good for him. He's made friends who absolutely adore him, learned to write, learned numbers and he can count to 30 by himself, knows his ABC's (but he's known those for quite awhile, you may recall a video I posted on here before Avery was born when he was saying his ABC's?), he recognizes all his letters- upper and lower- and knows all the letter sounds, he is even doing a little bit of reading now, and we recently found out that he has reading groups at preschool.
His first year of preschool, he grew in leaps and bounds socially, and this year he's grown so much mentally, and he is very eager to learn now. Yes, i'm 100% certain that preschool was the right choice for Jadon.
On a different note, Jadon started counseling yesterday. His anxiety over his health and his seperation anxiety is not improving, sometimes it seems worse, and we want to get it taken care of before kindergarten. And, he's only 5, we want him to be able to enjoy life without having to worry so much. :( Luckily we were able to get him right in to get started, and next weekend will continue, and I imagine we'll be continuing each weekend until he is doing better. Thankfully our insurance covers an unlimited number of visits, so as many as he needs will be covered, whether its 10 or 1000.... after our deductible that is.
I did a little spring shoppin' for myself the other day... afterall, i've shed a few more pounds since last years shorts season. I'm happy to announce that i'm in a size 8 now, and even fit into a 6 in one pair of capris so of course I bought that pair!!!! Hip hip horray!!!!! :D
Derek ordered us a new dishwasher yesterday. Ours is 8 years old afterall, but its starting to fall apart inside, and rather than spend $300 to replace the parts inside and have it die on us in a year, we just decided to spend $500 and get a new one that will be QUIET. So, we wont get it for 2 weeks, but i'm a tad bit excited! I've hated our dishwasher since day one. Its incredibly loud, and i'm not exaggerating. We cant run it and watch tv at the same time. So, we always try to run it when we go to bed so we dont have to hear it, but alot of times we forget to run it when we go to bed.
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Organizing..... again? still?
I'm organizing again.... or maybe i'm still organizing.... I dont know. Either way. I feel like i'm constantly going through all of our things, and purging, recycling, donating, trashing things to make room for the kids. They are growing like weeds afterall, and you all know how big our house is, and how much storage space we have... and why does it seem like kids toys are all bigger than they are? This is true before they even turn 1 year old!
So anyways, our garage is not only our laundry room, its also our yard storage, tool storage, attic storage, game storage, food storage, and everything else storage... its also our playroom. Why would anyone want to park their car in the garage???? I mean, dont people enjoy having to get out in the rain to load up and unload the kids from the cars? And don't people enjoy scraping the ice off their windows on a brisk 20 degree morning? Or sitting down and burning their bums on their seats on a hot 90 degree day? Yeah, garages for cars are WAAAAAY overrated!
So back to organizing, I dont know how much more of our stuff I can get rid of before all we have left is large toys! I'm fairly certain the large basketball hoop could double as a couch though. And the bikes could be chairs. ;)
I decided that I dont need to keep all of the kids artwork, even though it is all so precious to me, every piece of it. As a solution, i'm taking pictures of all of it, and i'm going to make a collage of it all and put it in a photobook so we always have it, but its not going to take up so much space. This is going to be time consuming. And i'm afraid i'm going to have to go through every bin in our garage again to see what I can get rid of. I keep telling myself that in the end, its just STUFF. Keep a FEW special things, and the rest of the things take pictures of and put into a photobook if I always want to remember them but dont want to physically keep the stuff. We just really dont have the space to keep so many bins of memories. I'm pretty sure my sanity is more important than bins full of memories that will probably never get looked at.
With that said, my mom saved a bin full of papers from my school years K-12, and I went through that the other day. It was interesting to see report cards, teachers comments, and stories I wrote. On every report card the teachers comments were: "Alicia is very quiet, but has some great ideas!" "Alicia is shy, but I just love her sweet spirit in my class!"
In other words, Alicia is really quiet and I have no idea what else to write about her so i'm going to add something else that sounds good! I'm so sick of the "shy" label... actually, i'm so sick of the "shy" label being such an issue with people.
So anyways, I enjoyed reading my papers. Unfortunately Mom you didnt write any dates on any papers so I had to guess about the age and grade I was when i wrote things. Here's a few papers.
I'm guessing these were around 1st or 2nd grade (and i'll type my spelling, punctuation, grammatical errors too as those add to the humor): About my cats and dog! I have same cats and my bruther has a dog before bed time for my cats and dog they haft too go outside and go too the bathroom when it is morning our neighbrors wack when cats or dogs chocke on samething my mother helps them and sametimes dogs eat poyven ivey when they up and our cats and dog wack up and the ather dogs and cats wack up sametimes do they diye it is sad when my cat diyes I will still love him even if he srached me it herts too be hert! by Alicia
My friend Erica! My friend is nice. Her name is Erica! I innvited her to my birthday party! She invited me to Blow Birds. She is very very very very nice. She is a good friend! The End by Alicia!
(Blow Birds was supposd to be Blue Birds... girl scouts)
Do you know about the bionic man? My aunt wears a bikini when she swims. Christmas is in December! Bumble-bees hurt when they sting. this one was dated 4-28-87 (I was almost 7)
My cat. My cat is a very good cat. he tells me when he wants in sids our hose. his name is tricsie. Some times tricsie is playful. so you shude't pick him up!
(Trixie was my first cat)
Then this one was when I was in 4th grade when I switched to Christian School. We were supposed to write a love letter to Jesus, on one side of the paper was a love letter that He had written to us, and then the other side of the paper was a space for us to respond to Him. Here was my response:
Dear Jesus,
I love you to, I will try to get along with my brother. He just makes me mad. On December 19th 1989 he trogh a napkin in my breakfast.
:)
So anyways, our garage is not only our laundry room, its also our yard storage, tool storage, attic storage, game storage, food storage, and everything else storage... its also our playroom. Why would anyone want to park their car in the garage???? I mean, dont people enjoy having to get out in the rain to load up and unload the kids from the cars? And don't people enjoy scraping the ice off their windows on a brisk 20 degree morning? Or sitting down and burning their bums on their seats on a hot 90 degree day? Yeah, garages for cars are WAAAAAY overrated!
So back to organizing, I dont know how much more of our stuff I can get rid of before all we have left is large toys! I'm fairly certain the large basketball hoop could double as a couch though. And the bikes could be chairs. ;)
I decided that I dont need to keep all of the kids artwork, even though it is all so precious to me, every piece of it. As a solution, i'm taking pictures of all of it, and i'm going to make a collage of it all and put it in a photobook so we always have it, but its not going to take up so much space. This is going to be time consuming. And i'm afraid i'm going to have to go through every bin in our garage again to see what I can get rid of. I keep telling myself that in the end, its just STUFF. Keep a FEW special things, and the rest of the things take pictures of and put into a photobook if I always want to remember them but dont want to physically keep the stuff. We just really dont have the space to keep so many bins of memories. I'm pretty sure my sanity is more important than bins full of memories that will probably never get looked at.
With that said, my mom saved a bin full of papers from my school years K-12, and I went through that the other day. It was interesting to see report cards, teachers comments, and stories I wrote. On every report card the teachers comments were: "Alicia is very quiet, but has some great ideas!" "Alicia is shy, but I just love her sweet spirit in my class!"
In other words, Alicia is really quiet and I have no idea what else to write about her so i'm going to add something else that sounds good! I'm so sick of the "shy" label... actually, i'm so sick of the "shy" label being such an issue with people.
So anyways, I enjoyed reading my papers. Unfortunately Mom you didnt write any dates on any papers so I had to guess about the age and grade I was when i wrote things. Here's a few papers.
I'm guessing these were around 1st or 2nd grade (and i'll type my spelling, punctuation, grammatical errors too as those add to the humor): About my cats and dog! I have same cats and my bruther has a dog before bed time for my cats and dog they haft too go outside and go too the bathroom when it is morning our neighbrors wack when cats or dogs chocke on samething my mother helps them and sametimes dogs eat poyven ivey when they up and our cats and dog wack up and the ather dogs and cats wack up sametimes do they diye it is sad when my cat diyes I will still love him even if he srached me it herts too be hert! by Alicia
My friend Erica! My friend is nice. Her name is Erica! I innvited her to my birthday party! She invited me to Blow Birds. She is very very very very nice. She is a good friend! The End by Alicia!
(Blow Birds was supposd to be Blue Birds... girl scouts)
Do you know about the bionic man? My aunt wears a bikini when she swims. Christmas is in December! Bumble-bees hurt when they sting. this one was dated 4-28-87 (I was almost 7)
My cat. My cat is a very good cat. he tells me when he wants in sids our hose. his name is tricsie. Some times tricsie is playful. so you shude't pick him up!
(Trixie was my first cat)
Then this one was when I was in 4th grade when I switched to Christian School. We were supposed to write a love letter to Jesus, on one side of the paper was a love letter that He had written to us, and then the other side of the paper was a space for us to respond to Him. Here was my response:
Dear Jesus,
I love you to, I will try to get along with my brother. He just makes me mad. On December 19th 1989 he trogh a napkin in my breakfast.
:)
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
This n That
Avery and I had to make a stop at the craft store yesterday and I came across the cutest dress pattern for girls and I couldnt resist getting it! http://www.simplicity.com/p-5098-childs-dresses.aspx I want to make all 6 dresses for Avery! They're just too cute, and Avery has.... I think just 1 dress, and its very plain and second hand. Yeah, she's not much of a girly girl. I guess I shouldnt say SHE isnt a girly girl, its that her mommy puts her in all pants because its cold. Summer will probably bring more dresses and skirts, hence the pattern for dresses! :)
Now to decide which one to make first, they are all so cute!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, as always, i'm struggling with time management. I'm finding it so difficult to balance my time between housework, time with the kids, time working on my tutu stuff, and everything between- meals, errands, preschool, appts, activities for the kids, etc. etc. etc. I just cant seem to find a rhythm, and its driving me crazy. I like consistency. I like routine. I'm like the kids, I like predictability.
Yesterday, the only time I sat down was when I was eating, driving, playing with Jadon, or folding laundry. By 4:30pm, I was totally beat. At that point, I had baked potatoes in the oven cooking, the kids were occupied, so I sat on the couch, set my phone alarm for 10 minutes, and shut my eyes.
Something has to change. I need to find a way to organize my time better. I need to spend more time with my kids. I need to spend more time on myself and my business, and I need to spend more time with my husband. I think the house gets enough of my attention, it just needs to be orchestrated better.
When I was cleaning my upstairs bathrooms yesterday, I was thinking that maybe i'm going about cleaning my house all wrong. I've got a weekly checklist on my fridge, nothing too difficult, and I recently modified it to make it even more manageable. Still, i'm struggling to get things done. I've been trying to tackle at least one thing every day during Averys nap. Averys nap is now quite short. Its only about an hour, and in that hour, I have to do that chore, as well as spend my one-on-one time with Jadon. If she goes down for nap late, which often happens on preschool days since lunchtime ends up being late, therefore setting the whole day back, time with Jadon sometimes gets cut short. I do NOT let Averys nap go past a certain time, otherwise she will not sleep that night.
So when I was cleaning, I was thinking that maybe I should just be taking 1 day a week and tackling ALL the house cleaning on that day, then I have the rest of the week to focus on the kids, the errands, tutu's, etc. It sounds alot better in my head, but is it really do-able? I dont know, I think I might try it for a couple weeks to see if it works any better. Couldnt be worse than what i'm already doing. Sounds much less chaotic in my head! If I wasnt doing tutu's, I wouldn't be having this issue at all. However, I am enjoying having something extracurricular to do! And I like making things. And sewing things.
Thoughts or ideas anyone??? Also, how often do you clean? Bathrooms? Dusting? Mopping? Clean showers? etc. Do you have a schedule or routine you follow? Id love to hear!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a show on HGTV a couple weeks ago called "Clean Freaks".... and it was ALLLLLLLL about ORGANIZING!!!!!!!! I made Derek record it for me. I have to be able to sit and watch it when I have nothing distracting me so I can get lots of great ideas for organizing. I may even watch it with a pen and paper so I can write things down! ;) I'm very very very excited to watch it, since, you know, I love organizing, and the show is all about it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After 6 weeks of break, we started exercise class again last night. I'm feeling it this morning! Its sooooo hard going back, and its so easy to see why people never start exercising in the first place! But, once there, it felt good. Tough, but good.
Now to decide which one to make first, they are all so cute!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
So, as always, i'm struggling with time management. I'm finding it so difficult to balance my time between housework, time with the kids, time working on my tutu stuff, and everything between- meals, errands, preschool, appts, activities for the kids, etc. etc. etc. I just cant seem to find a rhythm, and its driving me crazy. I like consistency. I like routine. I'm like the kids, I like predictability.
Yesterday, the only time I sat down was when I was eating, driving, playing with Jadon, or folding laundry. By 4:30pm, I was totally beat. At that point, I had baked potatoes in the oven cooking, the kids were occupied, so I sat on the couch, set my phone alarm for 10 minutes, and shut my eyes.
Something has to change. I need to find a way to organize my time better. I need to spend more time with my kids. I need to spend more time on myself and my business, and I need to spend more time with my husband. I think the house gets enough of my attention, it just needs to be orchestrated better.
When I was cleaning my upstairs bathrooms yesterday, I was thinking that maybe i'm going about cleaning my house all wrong. I've got a weekly checklist on my fridge, nothing too difficult, and I recently modified it to make it even more manageable. Still, i'm struggling to get things done. I've been trying to tackle at least one thing every day during Averys nap. Averys nap is now quite short. Its only about an hour, and in that hour, I have to do that chore, as well as spend my one-on-one time with Jadon. If she goes down for nap late, which often happens on preschool days since lunchtime ends up being late, therefore setting the whole day back, time with Jadon sometimes gets cut short. I do NOT let Averys nap go past a certain time, otherwise she will not sleep that night.
So when I was cleaning, I was thinking that maybe I should just be taking 1 day a week and tackling ALL the house cleaning on that day, then I have the rest of the week to focus on the kids, the errands, tutu's, etc. It sounds alot better in my head, but is it really do-able? I dont know, I think I might try it for a couple weeks to see if it works any better. Couldnt be worse than what i'm already doing. Sounds much less chaotic in my head! If I wasnt doing tutu's, I wouldn't be having this issue at all. However, I am enjoying having something extracurricular to do! And I like making things. And sewing things.
Thoughts or ideas anyone??? Also, how often do you clean? Bathrooms? Dusting? Mopping? Clean showers? etc. Do you have a schedule or routine you follow? Id love to hear!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
There was a show on HGTV a couple weeks ago called "Clean Freaks".... and it was ALLLLLLLL about ORGANIZING!!!!!!!! I made Derek record it for me. I have to be able to sit and watch it when I have nothing distracting me so I can get lots of great ideas for organizing. I may even watch it with a pen and paper so I can write things down! ;) I'm very very very excited to watch it, since, you know, I love organizing, and the show is all about it!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
After 6 weeks of break, we started exercise class again last night. I'm feeling it this morning! Its sooooo hard going back, and its so easy to see why people never start exercising in the first place! But, once there, it felt good. Tough, but good.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Sunshine
We had a sunny day today, not quite 60 degrees, but close. It was the kind of day we havent had much of around here.... in fact, I can count on one hand, and probably even a hand minus a couple fingers, the number of days this year we've had that have been that nice. So lets just say, it was very WELCOME at our house!
So most of the week has been rainy; typical. And the forecast for the rest of the week is rainy; typical. So i'm bummed. Sometimes it scares me how much the weather affects my mood.
Anyways, I signed into Pinterest tonight.... always a bad idea. Everyone who has Pinterest knows that you can not get on Pinterest for a few minutes. Its impossible. Pinterest is like an addictive drug. So I was trying to find ideas for wall art on Pinterest, because i'm tired of my walls looking so drab. I have zero decorating creativity when it comes to my walls. ZERO. I came across alot of pictures and quotes and such. Alot of quotes are from Dr. Seuss, which I found interesting. One of them was: "Don't cry because its over. Smile because it happened."
I've been grumbling tonight about the weather because this evening the clouds rolled in, and I know what the forecast holds.... and i'm a pessimist. Derek said that the quote was perfect for me and today's weather.
Sometimes I hate when he's right, but I have to admit, my pessimist attitude does ruin my enjoyment of living in the moment sometimes. And when it comes to the weather, i'm horrible at living in the moment. Sadly, i'm already thinking about next winter, being cooped up inside; the cold; the rain; the gray; the short days.... every year it gets harder and harder to endure winter, and it seems like every year winter seems to last longer and longer into spring time! I have to admit, the thought of moving some place warmer, less gray, less rainy.... its extremely tempting.
So most of the week has been rainy; typical. And the forecast for the rest of the week is rainy; typical. So i'm bummed. Sometimes it scares me how much the weather affects my mood.
Anyways, I signed into Pinterest tonight.... always a bad idea. Everyone who has Pinterest knows that you can not get on Pinterest for a few minutes. Its impossible. Pinterest is like an addictive drug. So I was trying to find ideas for wall art on Pinterest, because i'm tired of my walls looking so drab. I have zero decorating creativity when it comes to my walls. ZERO. I came across alot of pictures and quotes and such. Alot of quotes are from Dr. Seuss, which I found interesting. One of them was: "Don't cry because its over. Smile because it happened."
I've been grumbling tonight about the weather because this evening the clouds rolled in, and I know what the forecast holds.... and i'm a pessimist. Derek said that the quote was perfect for me and today's weather.
Sometimes I hate when he's right, but I have to admit, my pessimist attitude does ruin my enjoyment of living in the moment sometimes. And when it comes to the weather, i'm horrible at living in the moment. Sadly, i'm already thinking about next winter, being cooped up inside; the cold; the rain; the gray; the short days.... every year it gets harder and harder to endure winter, and it seems like every year winter seems to last longer and longer into spring time! I have to admit, the thought of moving some place warmer, less gray, less rainy.... its extremely tempting.
April 7th???????
Sometimes I feel like such a slacker. Or maybe its just that things sneak up on me before I have a chance to even think twice about them. For example, a few weeks ago, my mom asked me what we were doing for Easter. "Its just a few weeks away you know" she said. Seemed like months away at the time. I swear that was yesterday she asked me. And here it is, the day before Easter and I am literally, as I type this, just now boiling eggs for the kids to color. I dont even have an egg coloring kit.
I dont have any Easter outfits either. Which isnt a terrible thing... I dont think I had any outfits last year either. I feel like its such a waste to buy special clothes for 1 single day, so if I buy them "Easter outfits" or "Christmas outfits" I try to make it something that they can wear again and again. In the past, I've just made tutu's for Avery and she's worn shirts that she already has, or i've bought a shirt to go with them that she can wear again. The tutu's then get used as play outfits, which by the way get used quite frequently by both kids..... yes, even Jadon likes to put them on. They like to put the tutu's on and then dance to upbeat music. I TRY to be frugal as much as I can.
So this means the kids dont have lots of shoes. Its ridiculous for kids to have lots of shoes. They grow out of them in a matter of months, so you've wasted $15+ on a pair of shoes that only gets worn for a couple months. Avery has 2 pairs of shoes- a pair of shoes that are nicer looking that she can wear with dresses or pants, and then a pair or tennis shoes. Jadon also has 2 pairs of shoes- 2 tennis shoes- 1 nice pair for school and another pair for play, although we havent had to worry about wearing the play pair since we've been stuck inside for the last couple months.
Then both kids have a pair of rubber boots.
So anyways, here it is Easter tomorrow, and we havent even gotten the kids baskets. Its been a hectic few weeks I tell ya! I'm usually on top of these kinds of things! I'm a planner! I like things planned months in advance! Even things as small as Easter baskets! :) So, I kindof feel like i've lost control. I'm not used to feeling like i'm constantly a day or so behind since i'm always living a day or two in the future.
It would sure be nice to have 3 additional hours to the day. However, i'd never make it through a 27 hour day. I can barely make it through a 24 hour day, i'm totally wiped out by the end of the day and it takes me no time at all to fall asleep once my head hits the pillow.
I dont have any Easter outfits either. Which isnt a terrible thing... I dont think I had any outfits last year either. I feel like its such a waste to buy special clothes for 1 single day, so if I buy them "Easter outfits" or "Christmas outfits" I try to make it something that they can wear again and again. In the past, I've just made tutu's for Avery and she's worn shirts that she already has, or i've bought a shirt to go with them that she can wear again. The tutu's then get used as play outfits, which by the way get used quite frequently by both kids..... yes, even Jadon likes to put them on. They like to put the tutu's on and then dance to upbeat music. I TRY to be frugal as much as I can.
So this means the kids dont have lots of shoes. Its ridiculous for kids to have lots of shoes. They grow out of them in a matter of months, so you've wasted $15+ on a pair of shoes that only gets worn for a couple months. Avery has 2 pairs of shoes- a pair of shoes that are nicer looking that she can wear with dresses or pants, and then a pair or tennis shoes. Jadon also has 2 pairs of shoes- 2 tennis shoes- 1 nice pair for school and another pair for play, although we havent had to worry about wearing the play pair since we've been stuck inside for the last couple months.
Then both kids have a pair of rubber boots.
So anyways, here it is Easter tomorrow, and we havent even gotten the kids baskets. Its been a hectic few weeks I tell ya! I'm usually on top of these kinds of things! I'm a planner! I like things planned months in advance! Even things as small as Easter baskets! :) So, I kindof feel like i've lost control. I'm not used to feeling like i'm constantly a day or so behind since i'm always living a day or two in the future.
It would sure be nice to have 3 additional hours to the day. However, i'd never make it through a 27 hour day. I can barely make it through a 24 hour day, i'm totally wiped out by the end of the day and it takes me no time at all to fall asleep once my head hits the pillow.
Thursday, April 5, 2012
YAY!!!!!!
Thank you all so much for your thoughts and prayers over the last 5 weeks! I'm very very happy to announce that Jenny gets to go HOME tomorrow!!! And I get the feeling she's ready to be out of the hospital and home with her hubby and her Hank (her dog.)
We went up to visit her yesterday and we informed her that was the last time we wanted to see her at the hospital!!!
The kids went with us this time, and Jadon has been very insistent about wanting to go into her room to see her this time. So he did, and while he was very hesitant and kept his distance, and was very concerned every time he heard a beeping noise outside the room, i'm very proud of him for going in. Being a fellow worry-wart (and the one that passed the gene on to him:( ), I know he was probably feeling very jumpy inside; still not fully understanding hospitals and sicknesses. But, he didnt even have a night terror last night!
He's still struggling with separation, particularly from me, but I imagine this is something that will take a bit longer to get over. Sounds like its something that happens in some kids around age 5-6 anyways. Also separation anxiety in kids his age is a normal thing that happens in times of stress... like when a loved one becomes ill. And I dont think that him seeing me being hooked up to the heart monitor helped much.
The hardest part has been preschool though. I'm having a really difficult time getting him to preschool. Particularly getting him to get ready and get in the car. Once we're there, i've been staying there with him for awhile, and the teachers are totally fine with that. And i'm sure they'd let me stay the whole day if I wanted, but I know that won't do Jadon any good. Monday he had a really hard time, probably because it was the first day back from spring break. I ended up staying 45 minutes, and he was glued to me. I kept trying to get him to play with things or his friends, but he just wanted to sit in my lap. Finally his teacher had him go work on his math with the other teacher, of course I had to go with him, but I stood off to the side several feet. While he was doing that, Avery was off playing with the other kids, and I quietly sneaked to the other side of the room so I could monitor her better, and once Jadon realized I wasn't standing in the same spot I was in, he had a moment of panic before he found where I was again.
Which brings me to a gross story about Avery. So I dont know if you have noticed little girls pants these days or not.... but alot of them are low rise like womens pants. Which is dumb. It drives me nuts. So in the preschool setting, and probably elementary setting too, you see a lot of little girls butt cracks because of these dumb low rise pants. So Avery was on the floor next to a couple of the girls in Jadons class, and one of the girls had on low rise pants, and low and behold, her butt crack was showing when she was bending on the floor playing. And while Avery was sitting next to her playing, Avery noticed her crack and decided to poke it with her finger. Gross. I'm glad I was sitting right there, I grabbed her hand so fast! That child is so curious.
So anyways, back to Jadon. He started crying when I told him I was going to go, and Jadon doesnt cry. So, we always know when he is TRUELY upset about something when he actually has tears. It breaks my heart.
The pediatrician recommended a pediatric play therapy for Jadon to help with his worrying, so we may pursue that. Poor guy. I think people like Jadon and me have an overactive "fight of flight response" thingy. The question is, why?????
Anyways, here's a picture of Jenny and Avery yesterday at the hospital. Obviously Avery had no problems with the hospital setting, but then again, she's only 2.5. BUT, then again, Jadon was 2.5 when Avery was born, and he was already worried about the hospital and didnt want to come near me. So.......... maybe that was a prediction into the future? Maybe his fear of hospitals all started when his little sister tried to rocket out of me before he could even leave the room, and he was seeing me wailing in pain??
I'm pretty sure he would have been afraid of hospitals no matter what. The boy's just too much like his mommy :( Sorry little man ....
We went up to visit her yesterday and we informed her that was the last time we wanted to see her at the hospital!!!
The kids went with us this time, and Jadon has been very insistent about wanting to go into her room to see her this time. So he did, and while he was very hesitant and kept his distance, and was very concerned every time he heard a beeping noise outside the room, i'm very proud of him for going in. Being a fellow worry-wart (and the one that passed the gene on to him:( ), I know he was probably feeling very jumpy inside; still not fully understanding hospitals and sicknesses. But, he didnt even have a night terror last night!
He's still struggling with separation, particularly from me, but I imagine this is something that will take a bit longer to get over. Sounds like its something that happens in some kids around age 5-6 anyways. Also separation anxiety in kids his age is a normal thing that happens in times of stress... like when a loved one becomes ill. And I dont think that him seeing me being hooked up to the heart monitor helped much.
The hardest part has been preschool though. I'm having a really difficult time getting him to preschool. Particularly getting him to get ready and get in the car. Once we're there, i've been staying there with him for awhile, and the teachers are totally fine with that. And i'm sure they'd let me stay the whole day if I wanted, but I know that won't do Jadon any good. Monday he had a really hard time, probably because it was the first day back from spring break. I ended up staying 45 minutes, and he was glued to me. I kept trying to get him to play with things or his friends, but he just wanted to sit in my lap. Finally his teacher had him go work on his math with the other teacher, of course I had to go with him, but I stood off to the side several feet. While he was doing that, Avery was off playing with the other kids, and I quietly sneaked to the other side of the room so I could monitor her better, and once Jadon realized I wasn't standing in the same spot I was in, he had a moment of panic before he found where I was again.
Which brings me to a gross story about Avery. So I dont know if you have noticed little girls pants these days or not.... but alot of them are low rise like womens pants. Which is dumb. It drives me nuts. So in the preschool setting, and probably elementary setting too, you see a lot of little girls butt cracks because of these dumb low rise pants. So Avery was on the floor next to a couple of the girls in Jadons class, and one of the girls had on low rise pants, and low and behold, her butt crack was showing when she was bending on the floor playing. And while Avery was sitting next to her playing, Avery noticed her crack and decided to poke it with her finger. Gross. I'm glad I was sitting right there, I grabbed her hand so fast! That child is so curious.
So anyways, back to Jadon. He started crying when I told him I was going to go, and Jadon doesnt cry. So, we always know when he is TRUELY upset about something when he actually has tears. It breaks my heart.
The pediatrician recommended a pediatric play therapy for Jadon to help with his worrying, so we may pursue that. Poor guy. I think people like Jadon and me have an overactive "fight of flight response" thingy. The question is, why?????
Anyways, here's a picture of Jenny and Avery yesterday at the hospital. Obviously Avery had no problems with the hospital setting, but then again, she's only 2.5. BUT, then again, Jadon was 2.5 when Avery was born, and he was already worried about the hospital and didnt want to come near me. So.......... maybe that was a prediction into the future? Maybe his fear of hospitals all started when his little sister tried to rocket out of me before he could even leave the room, and he was seeing me wailing in pain??
I'm pretty sure he would have been afraid of hospitals no matter what. The boy's just too much like his mommy :( Sorry little man ....
Sunday, April 1, 2012
:)
Just thought id share this picture I found of the kids the other day. Its from February. I just love it! This pretty much sums up their relationship most of the time. They get along so well (right now).... as long as Avery does what Jadon wants her to do, all is well! They have their moments, but usually this is what it looks like around here- playtime.
Their smiling, happy faces make me feel so blessed :)
Lottery????? Who needs the lottery when you're already a billionaire, for clearly I am quite rich!
Their smiling, happy faces make me feel so blessed :)
Lottery????? Who needs the lottery when you're already a billionaire, for clearly I am quite rich!
***They sure do love each other***
April Fools Day and Lotto
Last night when I was tucking Jadon into bed, I was explaining to him that tomorrow (now today) starts a new month, and that its April 1st, also known as April Fools Day. And I explained that its called that because people sometimes play jokes on people on April Fools Day for fun. So then I told him about the time when I was in 5th grade, and my teacher made all her students cupcakes, only cooked a cotton ball into the middle of each cupcake but didnt tell us, so when we were eating the cupcakes, we got to the middle and found the cotton balls!
Jadon thought that was great and decided he wants to do that as a joke on daddy today. Unfortunately Daddy's not a fan of cupcakes to begin with.... how do you think he stays so trim???
So the morning started of with lots of little jokes: "Hey Jadon, there's a bunch of chicken's downstairs" says Derek (yes, Jadon actually fell for this) he ran downstairs, then ran back up and Derek says "April fools!" Jadon caught on then, so he said "Theres a bunch of brocolli downstairs!" ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you buy a lottery ticket? We did not. We never buy lottery tickets, but Derek was going to pick one up this time but forgot. Yesterday I was reading an article in the paper about people who bought lottery tickets and what they would do with the money if they'd won. Being the negative person that I am, I always question peoples responses to those types of questions:
"I'd donate most of it to charity"
"I'd start a foundation for _____"
"I'd build my grandma a new house."
Is that really what people would do with the money? Money can really bring out the worst in people. We see it all the time, people murdered for owing money; friendships ruined over $5; lives thrown away either to gambling away money, or because money is everything to people.
Yet what people dont understand is that money does not buy happiness. It doesn't. How can it?
So, Derek and I were talking about what we would do with the money if we won the lottery, and we both agreed, we'd be annoymous. Why? Well because suddenly everyone you know would become your best friend. And i'm not cool with that. I dont want people to be my friend just because I have money. Obviously you know their motive.
We'd put enough aside to put the kids into decent schools and college.
We'd pay off our house and buy ourselves a bigger one, although nothing huge. In fact, nothing much bigger than 2000 sq feet would be perfect since I dont want to have to clean more than that! And no, I do not want a maid, even if I could afford one. But something a bit bigger on a bit more property than .07 acres!
We'd get me a new car, an SUV so we can take family trips in it, and have more space. But we'd keep Dereks car because he loves his car.
Derek says he'd upgrade his computer.
We'd pay off our families houses.
Probably put some into savings.
We'd most likely give most of it away.
And as far as our every day life goes. Derek loves his job and he would not quit. And I love my job and obviously wouldnt quit. So I dont see our everyday life changing at all, other than being a little more comfortable in our living space and car. And honestly, I wouldn't want it to change. I am totally happy with where we're at. Which brings me back to my point of money cant buy happiness. Afterall, if we had enough money, didnt need to work for anything... what would we be doing all day long? playing? eventually we'd get tired of playing all the time. It feels good to work towards something. To have a goal and to reach that goal.
Jadon thought that was great and decided he wants to do that as a joke on daddy today. Unfortunately Daddy's not a fan of cupcakes to begin with.... how do you think he stays so trim???
So the morning started of with lots of little jokes: "Hey Jadon, there's a bunch of chicken's downstairs" says Derek (yes, Jadon actually fell for this) he ran downstairs, then ran back up and Derek says "April fools!" Jadon caught on then, so he said "Theres a bunch of brocolli downstairs!" ;)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Did you buy a lottery ticket? We did not. We never buy lottery tickets, but Derek was going to pick one up this time but forgot. Yesterday I was reading an article in the paper about people who bought lottery tickets and what they would do with the money if they'd won. Being the negative person that I am, I always question peoples responses to those types of questions:
"I'd donate most of it to charity"
"I'd start a foundation for _____"
"I'd build my grandma a new house."
Is that really what people would do with the money? Money can really bring out the worst in people. We see it all the time, people murdered for owing money; friendships ruined over $5; lives thrown away either to gambling away money, or because money is everything to people.
Yet what people dont understand is that money does not buy happiness. It doesn't. How can it?
So, Derek and I were talking about what we would do with the money if we won the lottery, and we both agreed, we'd be annoymous. Why? Well because suddenly everyone you know would become your best friend. And i'm not cool with that. I dont want people to be my friend just because I have money. Obviously you know their motive.
We'd put enough aside to put the kids into decent schools and college.
We'd pay off our house and buy ourselves a bigger one, although nothing huge. In fact, nothing much bigger than 2000 sq feet would be perfect since I dont want to have to clean more than that! And no, I do not want a maid, even if I could afford one. But something a bit bigger on a bit more property than .07 acres!
We'd get me a new car, an SUV so we can take family trips in it, and have more space. But we'd keep Dereks car because he loves his car.
Derek says he'd upgrade his computer.
We'd pay off our families houses.
Probably put some into savings.
We'd most likely give most of it away.
And as far as our every day life goes. Derek loves his job and he would not quit. And I love my job and obviously wouldnt quit. So I dont see our everyday life changing at all, other than being a little more comfortable in our living space and car. And honestly, I wouldn't want it to change. I am totally happy with where we're at. Which brings me back to my point of money cant buy happiness. Afterall, if we had enough money, didnt need to work for anything... what would we be doing all day long? playing? eventually we'd get tired of playing all the time. It feels good to work towards something. To have a goal and to reach that goal.
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