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Snow Day!

10/365 - Snow Day!

Yesterday we experienced our first official school snow day. As a working parent, this is a new one for me. I think we may have had one time ever that day care closed and nobody was getting out on the roads anyway. I found myself in a sudden panic over what to do with Zachary, although once Evie woke up I knew I was going to stay home. She is going through the most horrible cold ever and still wasn’t well enough to go back to day care.

We spent the day at home. I spent the day frantically trying to get some work done in between starting TV shows, giving hugs, dragging out toys, and refilling milk cups. The kids? They were thrilled to have another day at home. I worked up until about 3:30, when they finally convinced me to take them outside to play in the snow.

Hubby was home as well, but since he was on-call for work, I couldn’t leave him with the kids. With snowy roads, he would have needed to leave immediately if he would have been called out on a job. There wouldn’t have been a big enough time gap to wait for me to get home first.

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All of this got me thinking about what other parents of school-age kids do when there is a snow day or teacher work day and the kids are out of school. I’m lucky that my boss doesn’t mind me bringing the kids to the office occasionally, and I’ve taken advantage of that several times this year already. The problem is, I’m not sure how long he’ll put up with it. I certainly don’t want it to become a nuisance. We’re on day two of snow days this week and since Evie could finally go back to day care, he came to the office with me. The good thing is that he is very well behaved at the office. As long as he has his DSi or can play games on the Disney web site he’s a happy camper.

Somewhere along the way, we’re going to have to find a better solution though. There are several more days coming up that he’ll be out of school, and probably another snow day or two, not to mention Spring Break or SUMMER(!). We were lucky to have the in-laws here over winter break to help out, but we can’t expect them to do that every year. We don’t have a regular baby-sitter (Grandma, aunts, and uncles are nearby when we need an evening out) and Zach has decided that he’s way too old to go to day care with his sister (plus her cut-off is 5 yrs) so I’m just kind of stuck. We don’t know a lot of people that live nearby that might suggest a sitter in our area either.

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What I would really love to find is a local college student that would be available on those days, but how do you even go about finding someone like that when you don’t know any? What do other people do with their kids when there’s no school and they have to be at work?

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This One Is For The Grandparents

Zach’s school had a Winter Music Program this week.  Sadly, it was at 3:00 in the afternoon and nobody could make it there but me.  Lucky for all of you though, I recorded as much of it as I could with my shaky hands.  I ended up sitting on my knees in front of the chairs they had set up for parents as it was the only place I could get a clear view.  Here are the four songs that the Kindergarten performed, minus a few seconds I missed at the beginning of a couple songs. Zach is a little hidden by the big hair in front of him, but you can find him at the end of the second row from the top, on the right side.

The best part though, was at the end when the principal announced they had a Christmas gift for every single child, sponsored by Toys for Tots. I’m not sure I’ve ever heard so many kids squeal all at once!

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Smiles

Apparently, this is what I get when I pick the kids up and surprise them with a quick trip to the park:

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IMGP3173(I don’t know why his teeth and lips are blue! He came home from school like that.)

I also have realized that I’m getting much more comfortable shooting my camera in manual mode.  Twice in the last week I’ve tried to use the little point-n-shoot that I carry in my purse and I’ve been completely frustrated because I couldn’t change ALL the settings to get what I wanted.  Out of the 20 or so pics I snapped this afternoon, only about five turned out okay and even those needed a good amount of editing.  I’m finding more and more that I just wish I would carry my good camera everywhere with me.

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Just Keep Swimming

I’m not sure why I always seem to think that things will calm down in the Fall, because the opposite seems to happen instead. Between school activities, soccer practice and games, church activities, the usual errand running, and visiting with family we just keep going and going and going. Weekends are packed so full that we have very little down time. By Sunday night I end up cranky and exhausted. Add that to the fact that my allergies are insane right now and I’m stressed and not sleeping well at night. So yeah, I’m really pleasant to be around. Just ask my husband and kids.

I’m still wading through this book and trying to figure out what an SPD diagnosis might mean for Zach.  I’ve made an appointment to get started with the evaluation process, but the first available appointment isn’t until December 9th, so we still have a wait on that.  Parent/teacher conferences are this week at school, and I plan to discuss this more with his teacher during that time.  The director of his before/after school program is making some accommodations for him as well and I’m really hoping that this will make the school day easier for him.  Right now the unknown is the hard part.  His behaviors have gotten worse instead of better lately, but I question everything.  Is that behavior because of a sensory thing or just a 5-year-old boy reacting to emotions he doesn’t know how to handle?  It all leaves me frustrated because I don’t know how to handle his behavior.  I certainly don’t want to punish him for something that he really has no control over; yet, if it is something he can control, I don’t want to just let it go.  I wish I just had someone to tell me – when he does this, you do this.  Guess that’s not going to happen though.

In the meantime, I’m just trying to keep my head above water.  My body is feeling the stress for sure.  I’ve been eating like crap, let my running schedule slip into once a week, if that.  I know that it is the exact opposite of what I need right now, but I think if I could sit around eating chocolate and sipping Diet Coke all day long I would.  I just kind of need a break from everything, but that break is nowhere in sight right now.

At least while we’re going, going,  going on the weekends we are having fun.  I really need to learn to slow down and think more when I’m taking photos because a lot of these didn’t turn out the way I wanted them to, but at least there were a few keepers from the weekend.

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I Need A Weekend To Recover From My Weekend

Well, that last post was a bit of a downer, eh?  I really didn’t intend for it to be all “woe is me” but I guess that is what ended up coming out.  Life can’t always be happy, I suppose. Things really aren’t that bad.  I’m happy that we’re finally figuring some things out with Zach, just frustrated that it is going to take some time to really get the help that we want/need for him to be a little more successful.  In the meantime, we’re trying to cram in as much fun as we can.

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Zach’s school had a school carnival Friday night, which promised plenty of bouncing and climbing on inflatables. While the kids were extremely excited, I was not. Then Hubby called to say he was going to the doctor to have his shoulder checked again (relating to his accident last week) and would be home late. So, it was just me and the kids. I really have no idea why I was dreading it so much, because we ended up having a really good time. Really, how can you not have a good time when your kids are laughing, hugging, and just having a really great time together? It was also nice to see so many of the other kids there that were genuinely excited to see Zach. He claims to not have any good friends at school, but these kids proved him wrong.

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Saturday morning Zach had a soccer game. He just wasn’t in the mood to play. Then, just after we got there, something upset him and he refused to play – at all. His coach finally convinced him to go in as goalie for about the last five minutes of the game, but he spent most of that time playing in the net and not paying any attention to the game. The whole thing was pretty frustrating to all of us. I just hope he’ll get back in there and play for the rest of the season.

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That evening, we attended a dinner/bonfire for the children’s group at our church. We had a fun evening socializing with some of the families from church, and the kids had a great time playing games and then roasting marshmallows in the fire. Zach was a little too excited about the fire for my taste, but I’m glad he had fun. Evie even surprised me by being way more social than she normally is. I expected her to stick by my side all night, but she went off and played with the other kids, and even snuggled up to a couple of the adults there.

Sunday morning we got up and went to church, then grabbed a quick lunch and headed to the zoo. Hubby decided to stay home and rest instead of going to the zoo with us since his shoulder was still hurting, so Grandma decided to come along with us instead.

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The highlight of the day for Zach was getting to meet Iron Man and have his picture taken with him. He barely squeaked out a “hi” when he got up there, but it was pretty cool that he got to meet his favorite super hero.

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Evie’s favorite part of the zoo was the hippos. She loved watching them peek up from under the water they were swimming in.

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Eventually, we made our way to the Discovery Barn, where the kids discovered the Squirrel Monkeys. These little monkeys were hilarious! They kept jumping at the glass right in front of Zach’s face and would chase the kids back and forth as they ran along the glass. I don’t think I’ve ever heard my children both squealing in delight the way they did with these monkeys. It was so fun to watch them.

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We didn’t make it all the way through the zoo before closing time, but I think the kids had had enough anyway. We were all absolutely exhausted when we got back home. We had such a good time though that it was definitely worth the exhaustion. Now I just have to spend the rest of the week catching up on the laundry and housework that got ignored over the weekend!

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P.S. Don’t tell Evie that it’s after Labor Day. She LOVES this outfit!

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First Day of Kindergarten

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I sent my boy off to kindergarten this morning. I thought I would break down and cry when I dropped him off, but I didn’t. I think mostly I made it through because he had such a good attitude about it.

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Before I tucked him in bed last night we set out his new school clothes on his desk. As soon as I opened his door to wake him up this morning, he jumped out of bed and started getting dressed without even being told. He was ready to leave in record time.

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We grabbed a quick breakfast, stopped for some pictures (even though little Sis shrugged his hugs off and refused to smile), then loaded up in the car. I could tell Zach was a little nervous, but I think he was more excited than anything.

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When we got to school he jumped out of the car and had his backpack on before I even had the car shut off. We went inside, signed him in (he’s attending the before/after school program), and I sent him in with the other kids to wait until it was time to go to his classroom. He seemed a little uneasy when I dropped him off there, but I figured he needs to get used to it since this is where he’ll be dropped of every day. I took his four(!) bags of supplies on down to the room to give to his teacher and waited for him to make his way down there with the other kids.

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Once the kids got to the room, it got a little chaotic. They had all the kindergartners in the same room and then called their names to go with the correct teacher. When that was all sorted out, the kids got to go find the seat with their name on it and begin tracing their name. Then they were asked to draw a picture of themselves. Zach got right to work on his.

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When they finished their drawings, the teacher asked them all to go sit on the carpet. I took that as my cue to go ahead and leave. I told Zach good-bye, gave him a quick kiss, and headed off to work.

It wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected and the only time I even teared up was when another little boy started crying. I felt so bad for him! Zachary had a big smile on his face as I left though, so I’m not the least bit worried about him. I think he’s going to love school.

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