Catching Up

Let’s see…

All three kids and I were diagnosed with impetigo last week.  We are being treated with antibiotics and an ointment for the sores.  Liam’s sores were on his back and bottom, Gavin’s were on his face (around his nose, mouth and left eye), Raegan had one spot (thankfully) on her back and I had two spots on her back.  We all obtained this little bacterial infection while all of us were fighting a nasty head cold.  Gotta love it!

Yesterday was our first ever (of many) Parent – Teacher Conferences.  It went pretty much as I expected:  teacher tells us that Raegan meets or exceeds goals and that Raegan has a talking problem.  Surprise! Surprise!  LOL!

This last weekend was quite full for the kiddos! Daddy took them to the pumpkin patch Saturday morning:

Gavin and Raegan on the haystack:

Saturday evening, my mom and I took the kids to my Twin’s Club Halloween Party.

And then on Sunday, Daddy took them with Papa and Nanny to their church’s Trunk or Treat.  The kids won Best Group Costume!  They won best costume last year at Trunk or Treat.  Way to go!  Raegan came up with the theme this year and my mom is responsible for finding (and purchasing) the awesome Captain Hook costume (Gavin) and Peter Pan costume (Liam).  Good job Mom!

Upheaval

There have been some major life changes going on in our household.  I continue to seek joy in my children, but find it hard to write here.  I’m not giving up my blog, just explaining the lack of posting.  Raegan, Liam and Gavin are doing well and thriving.  I’m sure I’ll be posting again soon as we have Halloween and the rest of the fall and winter holidays coming up.

Raegan got her hair cut!

Last Saturday, Raegan agreed to her first professional haircut.  A year ago, she allowed my mom to cut a couple of inches off, but this was closer to 6 inches.

Here she is before the cut:

If her hair was straight, she would be sitting on it.

So the first thing my hairdresser did was straighten her hair:

I wish I had taken a picture of her hair straight.  I’ve never seen her that way.  But I was getting a bit emotional.  My heart was racing.  Crazy?  Yes.

Here is what her hair looked like later, after the cut but still straightened:

A lot shorter. (sorry for the quality, I took this with my cell)

This is a picture the next day at the zoo, so this is her hair when the wave/curl was back (we’d been at the zoo for hours, so I probably could’ve ran a brush through her hair before I took the picture):

Big Boys

My mom weighed the boys yesterday. Twice.  Liam in at 39.5 pounds and Gavin at 42 pounds.  I’m hoping their growth slows a little.

Boys and Bugs

Now, I’m not going to say this is only a boy thing, but my boys are obsessed with bugs.  Raegan thinks bugs are cool, in theory only.  It started with the occasional slug slowly crawling its way into our home.  We’d let the boys play with them until the slugs died.  They moved up to daddy-long-legs.  Gavin will not hesitate to capture a bug.  As soon as he sees one and we let him know that it’s not a “mean” bug, he’ll stick his hand out and grab it.  We’ve had many daddy long legs captured and either killed in action or gone AWOL.  Recently, a friend of mine brought them caterpillars.  A total of 5.  Three are currently in cocoon state in the jar they came in.  I brought them home and let each child play with one.  Gavin let his crawl over him, Liam would touch his and Raegan would just watch it in the bowl.  They even brought the poor caterpillars to Raegan’s doll house and put them in the baby cribs.  This is how Gavin lost his first caterpillar.  It crawled away and by the time he alerted me to the disappearance, the catepillar was nowhere to be seen.  So I let him have another, which he promptly lost in his room.  So I said they were done with them and put the remaining three back in their jar.  The next morning, all three of them had cocoons.  Later that day, my mom called and said she found the one lost in the boys’ room.  It was crawling up the curtain.  Gavin played with that thing all day.  We left that one in a bowl over night and it made a cocoon.  However, Gavin started poking at it and it came out of the cocoon and kept trying to get back, but Gavin wouldn’t let it.  He just had so much fun with this thing.  It eventually died.  Or at least it seemed like it and I finally threw it away.

So now we are back to slugs, snails and daddy-long-legs.

The Boys’ Preschool

Gavin and Liam’s  first day of preschool was yesterday.  They will be attending two days a week for 2.5 hours.  We have all eagerly been waiting to see how they would like preschool.  My mom said that when she dropped them off, they went straight to their hooks and put their back packs up.  The teacher had tables of Play-doh for the kids and a one of the kids they “knew” (younger brother of a boy that was in Raegan’s class) was already playing.  No crying.  When my mom picked them up, they told her they had, “Lot’s fun!”  As when Raegan started preschool, the instructor sent  home a bag with tissues, a few Hershey Kisses and a poem about kids starting school and mommies being sad.  I was the exact opposite of sad.  I’m so happy about them attending preschool.  Excited to see them come out of their shells more (they jumped leaps and bounds over the summer).  Not so excited about paying tuition for two though!

Tomorrow is their second day.  I hope it goes as well as yesterday.

I guess it’s time

**Post originally written 8/14/09.  I guess I hit “Save Draft” and not “Publish”

I guess it’s time for Botox.  Last night, while keeping Gavin company as he has a bowl movement*, he noticed the black “dots” in my eyes.  We discussed them and the color around them. Well, as much as a discussion that a 3 year old that only speaks in phrases can, but still.  Anyway, dots and circles in the eyes and then he touches his forehead and says, “Lines!”

Yes, dear, momma has “lines” in her forehead.

*my boys don’t poop alone yet.  YET.

Already?

School started last week for Raegan and she’s already had to deal with someone calling her names.  WTF?  At dinner on Tuesday she was telling me about how C*** told her that C***’s brother called Raegan “trash” and then C*** admitted that it wasn’t her brother it was her that was calling Raegan “trash”.  So the momma-bear in me had to be silenced and I calmly asked her what she did about it.  She said, “I told her that I won’t be her friend unless she’s nice to me.” Beaming inside, I asked “and what did C*** do then?”  And Raegan said, “She said ’sorry’ and we are friends now.”

I’m so proud of her.

So now issue number two.  When Rick was asking Raegan about her day, Raegan told him that C***’s brother has been trying to kiss her on the playground during recess and she doesn’t like it.  Rick told her to tell this boy that she doesn’t like it and to please stop.  And tell him that if he keeps trying to kiss her, she is going to tell on him.

Good grief, name-calling and kissing in the first week of school.  I am not prepared for this.

First Day of Kindergarten

Raegan’s first day of school was last Wednesday.  Am I late posting?  Yes.  Do I have a good reason? No.

That morning, Rick stayed home later than usual so that he could video tape her getting on the bus.  He also did a pre-school interview and post-school interview.  And if I knew how to convert that to my PC I would upload it, but I cannot.  Sorry.  Anyway, we waited at the bus stop that is in our cul-de-sac and when the bus driver came, he spoke with me for a bit, told Raegan to sit in the seat behind him and he took off with my baby girl.  I didn’t cry.  Raegan didn’t cry.  Rick didn’t cry.  It was all good.

I got home from work about 30 minutes after Raegan got off the bus.  She had a wonderful day.  She loves it.  She has made many friends and plays with her old preschool friends at the two recesses.

Here are some pictures of Raegan while waiting for the bus.

School

One week from today, Raegan will start kindergarten.  She’s got her school clothes, shoes, backpack and lunch bag (thanks Nana Rhonda).  Last night was school orientation, which wasn’t really that helpful, but we did get to walk down to her classroom and see where it is located.  Tomorrow night is Open House and we get to go in and become accustomed to the new teacher.  It is going to be so strange for me to not know exactly what my daughter is doing on a regular basis.  Oh sure, my mom doesn’t give me a play-by-play of her activities throughout the day, but I have a general idea and can ask my mom if I have any questions.  But Raegan will be in the hands of strangers for several hours EVERY DAY.  Not only that, but she will be taking the bus.  I have so much apprehension about the bus.  Just because she’s never done it before and I’m worried about her not knowing what to do when she gets off the bus.  We’ve discussed it, but she is only 5 years old.  The school reassures me that she’ll be fine and I KNOW they’ve been doing this gig for years, but I have heard way too many stories of kids getting on the wrong bus.  So yeah, I’m a little scared.