Pixiemom

For Noelle. She’s been cranky and tired. She hasn’t wanted to go outside to play much lately. She’s had some runny diapers.  I thought at first she’d just eaten too many grapes one day.  (She got into them while I was doing dishes.)  But it is still going on.  Also, she has been favoring one of her arms a bit. I think she hurt it sometime. She has had multiple falls. After all, she is 2 years old. She fell out of her little toddler bed. She stumbled on the steps and fell down two of them. She fell out of a swing at the park one day by putting her head way back when she was at the top of her forward swing. I can’t count how many times she’s just stumbled while running or whatever. Anyway, her arm doesn’t seem to bother her all the time, just when we pick her up by putting our hands under her shoulders. That’s when she starts crying and holding her hand as if pain is shooting all the way down it. Since I don’t usually pick her up that way, I’m not sure when exactly it happened. I usually throw my right arm all the way around her waist and sweep her up.

She was so excited about all the different things she was seeing down at Hilton Head this weekend with my parents. While on the beach, they saw sand dollars, shrimp, crabs, hermit crabs, a dead jelly fish minus tenticles, and in a tide pool, she said she saw something that looked like a lot of little straws all stuck together. In the ponds on the island, they saw two alligators. She was slightly disappointed though. The thing she wanted to see the most, she didn’t. She didn’t get to see a starfish. I think she mentioned 3 or 4 times during our conversation that she didn’t find one.  Oh, and she found sisters 4 yrs and 2 yrs named Anna and Noel.  She thought it was funny that two girls that are close to her sisters’ ages would have the same names as her sisters.

…that I’m blogging this. I got him one of these. I’ll let you know how it goes. So far, in the two days since he’s had it, he was dry all night once, so it didn’t have to go off and the other time it woke him though he couldn’t stop his body from doing what it was doing. He said it isn’t a pleasant sensation, so it woke him up easily. We’ll see how it goes. I have a feeling, it won’t take long. Then on to Christine. I want to be able to save what we spend on pull-ups and still have dry sheets.  Yes, I have them in those.  Before, I wasn’t able to keep up with laundry with all the clothes that come in a 7 person household and the blankets and sheets as well.

Christine had a really bad day on Wednesday. She even spread her fear to the other two girls in her class. On Wednesday afternoon, I had a long talk with her. I said I didn’t mind her getting a little upset because when you aren’t used to deeper water, it is a little scary, but that her teacher was there for her and to trust her. We talked about all the things they’ve been doing and how she feels when she’s doing it. We talked about how her teacher is helping her and keeping her safe. We talked about all the things she needed to remember to do, holding her breath when her head started going under to the water and to keep kicking. We talked about acceptable behavior and how she overdid it on Wednesday and frightened the other girls. On Thursday, she still had her moments, but they were subdued. Once she was out doing whatever it was, she calmed down and did pretty good. She actually swam about 4-5 feet from her instructor to the edge of the pool. Because she did so well, we took her (and the other kids) to get a treat. They got ice cream (except James, he got a soda) BEFORE lunch and still ate a good lunch. I hadn’t told her that I was planning on treating her if she did well, but I think it might be good incentive for next week. After her last lesson next Thursday, I’ll probably treat them again if she does well. I’m sure she will. I’ll probably wait until after lunch though.

Oh, and the goggles didn’t help one bit. I’ll see if James wants to try them.

Christine started swim lessons yesterday. It was hard just to get her to sit on the side of the pool and put her feet in yesterday, but today, she knew that it was okay and was the first to do it. She was also the first to get her body into the pool as long as she was holding onto the side. She is afraid of going under. Today, her teacher was having all the kids hold onto her and kick. On the third round of that, she let go of the kids. Christine went under, but kicked her way back up. She was mad and scared and didn’t trust her teacher for the rest of the lesson. I just keep encouraging her. Another girl was the same as Christine today. Both her mom and I agreed that it was hard to just sit there and watch them get so upset, but neither of us interfered. I hope she is just as excited to go tomorrow. I think at the end of the eight lessons (Mon through Thurs this week and next week) that she will at least be okay in the water. That’s all I ask. I can continue doing what her teacher is doing as long as she is okay in the water.

Oh, and as James was watching today, he said that he is sure he can swim though he’s never really tried before.

I hope Amie does better than Christine when her lessons come up later this summer.

Edit to add:  I got some goggles for Christine.  I’ll see if they help any.  She’s very eager to go tomorrow since I got them.

The Raggedy Ann and Andy Festival was so much fun. We saw many people dressed up as those beloved dolls. They had a look-alike contest. They had a craft tent, which the kids had fun in. In it, they made mop Raggedy Anns or broom Raggedy Andys. I’ll have to take a picture of them. They were cute. They also were able to get their faces painted with rosey cheeks and triangular noses like the dolls. They liked the short parade. It was pretty much just a bunch of Ann and Andy look-a-likes walking or riding, but there were some interesting things in it. They didn’t mind. It was fun to them. All in all, it was a good day.

In the previous post, I told about Amie’s summer. Now for our plans. This weekend is the Annual Raggedy Ann and Andy Festival in Johnny Gruelle’s birth town, just north of us. I am planning on taking the kids with Jeremy’s mom to help me out. I believe I read every Raggedy Ann and Andy book when I was around Amie’s age. I loved them. Some of my favorite fairy tale stories. One Saturday this month, Jeremy and I are planning on taking James to Holiday World, probably the 24th. Christine might be taking swim lessons. I need to check into those today, I think. I want to do something special with AnnaBeth and Noelle as well, but haven’t figured anything out yet.

As I mentioned in the previous post, my mom will be coming to get us for the family reunion. It is taking place in the Poconos the first weekend of August. My Dad and Jeremy are going to fly there and back. They have work, so they can’t take off too much time and flying cost the same as driving for one person with the gas prices so high. After the family reunion, my mom, the kids, and I are heading north to visit with family near Syracuse, NY and then up to my Grandparents’ house in Massachusetts. Amie wants to meet her penpal who lives in Syracuse while we are there. He wants to take Amie to the zoo to show her the sun bears he helped raise money for and to which we contributed a little bit. I don’t know our plans though, so not sure if that will be possible or not. Also, Sue, who lives in Massachusetts, wants to meet us while we’re up there. That would be cool. We’ve been friends for over 7 yrs and only seen each other and our kids in photos. Like with Amie’s penpal though, we’ll have to see how everything works out.

Once we get home, it will be time to start school, dance, and drama again.

Amie is having a special vacation.  My sister and her family came up and spent Wednesday night here and then took Amie along with them down to my parents’ house.  She is staying for most of the summer down there.  I’m going to send her math book down in a week or so.  She has to finish more of her schoolwork before next year starts, but for now she has some time off.  She gets to go with her Grandma and Papa to Hilton Head next weekend.  It is for my Dad’s business, but children or grandchildren are allowed as well.  This year, they are taking Amie.  I think they are planning on taking each of the grandkids in turn.  Next year, I think James gets to go.  Anyway, we couldn’t figure out a way to bring her back up very easily so she gets to stay until my Mom comes up to get the other kids and me to take us to our family reunion at the beginning of August.  If she does need to come back up for additional medical tests, I’ll drive halfway down and meet my mom, but I think she’ll be okay.  My worry has subsided quite a bit.  I think they would have already gotten ahold of me if anything was majorly wrong.  If she needs medicine or something like that, I’ll pick it up and overnight it down there.