Moving Some Old Posts

I'm going to move some old posts from the kids blog over to this one. Enjoy.

September 11, 2008
Kindergarten - The Morning Of Day Two
And It Wasn't Pretty
Yesterday I celebrated the fact that we made it through the first full day of school. This morning Eph and I walked to school and I was subject to at least 82 repetitions of the phrase "Mama, I don't want to go to school". Drop off at school was ugly to say the least. As I walked away to catch my bus my phone call to Mommy went something like this, "Hey, could you bring our son dry pants he decided to pee them to get out of school. Oh, and he ran away from Ms. A and Ms. B and when they caught him by the street he bit Ms. A. Ok, so I'll tell them that his clean shorts and underwear are in the front pocket and that he's supposed to be working on not running away so he can earn a Popsicle. Thanks for the help. Talk to ya later." While this is an average conversation for us, I found myself looking longingly at the other Mom's and Dad's who were just walking away after giving their kid a reassuring hug. Hey... but my kids got skills.... not every kid thinks to pee his pants at will!

September 11, 2008
The First Post That Didn't Post
The Lights
Today along with Eph’s first full day of Kindergarten, Roo started her new school. Though her experience at the old school wasn’t as negative as Eph’s it was time to move her to somewhere new that was better suited to her. Our fear was that she wouldn’t like it, or would have a hard time with the transition. Mommy said she’d come back and pick her up at naptime to make the first day easier. When she arrived for pick-up she was turned away by a Roo that was excited to stay for rest. “They even turn the lights off for rest time”! So, it’s the little things when you are four. She actually enjoyed school so much that when Mommy returned to get her after picking Eph up from school she said she wasn’t finished and that she wanted to be picked up later. Her wish was not granted but at least it’s good to know that it was a success. I hope there are many more days like this to come.

September, 13, 2008
Day Four - Your In and Your Out
WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO?????
Yesterday passed as just another day with Eph and Roo home with Mommy. The day of suspension passed with many phone calls by Mommy to all the parties who knew the right things to say and to focus on at our meeting this morning. We arrived at school and met with Principal, Teacher, Ms. A, Ms. B, and Moon from the district. Egad! Mommy led the discussion from our side and everyone had their chance to say their part. We’re so frustrated that they are going to expel him every time he hits someone. I get it but it seems like we’re going to spend our whole year suspended. This is Eph after all. It feels like the school is trying but that no one is trying the right thing. I watched him through the door this morning as he lay on the floor and kicked and was totally awful. I wish I knew why he’s totally unable to maintain in this classroom. Is it the people, does he just need time, do we need to move him to a B class. Today after we all had a chance to watch him in the class and see how much of a distraction he was and how he wasn’t even close to being able to participate we decided to look at a B class. No decision is made but we want to see what one looks like and if seems as though it will be a better placement. We think there is one at the school by the house. Today I just feel like a fish out of water.

September 14,2008
Better Luck On Pizza Day
I talked to Eph on the phone tonight and learned that we're really excited for school tomorrow because it's pizza day! I say whatever motivates the kid we give it a try. I'll order him his own pizza every day for a while if that's all it takes to get him to curb his behaviors enough to adjust to his class. Mommy went in and took another week off work. I feel lucky she was able to do this for all of us. C-Mom and I have used up all our paid leave so she's the only one with anything left. Hopefully by the end of next week we'll have him stable somewhere. At least enough so that we can get everyone back to work.

September 15, 2008
One Down.... Five To Go
Just Bribe Him With A Tweaker Caterpillar
We made it!!!! Well... ok... he made it through a half day. We decided that it would be a good choice to pick him up after lunch so he would have a successful day. He made it. I'm not sure of how it really went. I know that at one point they called Mommy and asked her to come get
him. She said she would come and calm him down but that we didn't want to take him home again and perpetuate the cycle. On her way to pick him up they called and again and said they got him called down so she went and sat in the coffee shop around the corner reading her book just in case. He is earning 6 gold stars so that he might have a remote control tweaker beetle that isn't a battle but is really a caterpillar. I say whatever it takes.

September 15, 2008
Parenting Sucks Sometimes
Go To SLEEP!!!!
Today in the grand scheme of things was good until this evening. Here is what I want to know. How is it that when the kids are at my house something ALWAYS happens! The bathroom gets flooded, 25 pounds of hay gets thrown around the living room, and the number 10 finds itself written on my furniture, walls, counters, and many other household items. Does anyone else see the humor in the fact that as he was going around the house writing in marker all over that when he got to the fridge he decided to write "NO" instead of 10? I think if you are smart enough to write it you should know how to use it. I was upstairs giving Roo a bath and left Eph on the computer playing Arthur's Pet Chase, which is usually hard to peel him away from. Apparently not today. When he came upstairs for his turn in the tub he informed us that he had been writing all over the house. Tomorrow we get a lesson in washing it all off! With my last nerve a little frayed everyone got ready for bed and then Roo set off on an evil streak. I asked them both tonight if they would ever act this way at bedtime at Mommies house and they both said "No". Great, so not only do they refrain from episodes of mass destruction but they go to sleep without copious drama. There has got to be some kind of bad behavior that they do for her that they don't do for me. There just HAS to be!

Our Little Camper

So, I picked up our little camper on Friday afternoon! There is no doubt that she loved it. Here is what happened about 20 minutes into our drive:
Ruby: Mama, What is homesick?
Mama: That’s where you miss home so much that your tummy hurts and you are really really sad.
Ruby: Mama, then I’m campsick!!
This was followed by 2 hours of crying about how she needed to go back to camp, she was never going to see her friends again, and how could we not send her for a whole week because she knew she was going to like it why didn’t we. EGAD!!!! Not even Dr. DQ or the iTouch fixed it. Egad!!!
So… needless to say we’re going to start saving to send her somewhere next year. We informed her that it might not be Whispering Winds but Westwind or Namanu and she flipped a nut that those were not “HER” camp. I swear we are so in trouble. Anyone want to buy a whole lot of Girl Scout cookies. I feel like a traitor to my Camp Fire heritage.

Facebook Killed Our Blog

It seems that ever since we started using facebook on a regular basis the blog has gone away. So very sad. I’m hoping to bring back the blog. We’ll have to wait and see as I believe I’ve promised that before.

So today I’m totally excited to go pick Ruby up from her first time at overnight Girl Scout camp. I remember going to overnight camp as a kid and I loved it so much. I’m hoping when I pick her up today that she had a great experience and will look forward to the years to come. Hopefully tomorrow when I post I’ll have a picture of her at her camp.