Jennifer's Journal

For Sarah's 6th birthday bracelet charm, I got her a mermaid. This is the year she learned to swim and she loves swimming. I keep saying, "You're a fish." She says no, she's a mermaid. So this seemed like an appropriate reminder of the year past.

Yesterday was Sarah's 6th Birthday!

I can hardly believe how mature she is getting. She makes me proud.

When she got to camp yesterday the kids start singing Happy Birthday which is great. But Becca started crying and would not stop until Scott called me to calm her down. My best guess is that she wanted to have cupcakes with them. :)

When Becca got to school one of her classmates was having a birthday so she did get to have cupcakes.

I learned that the local supermarket says there are nuts in the cupcakes we brought. I had no idea. The camp handled it well, arranging an alternate snack for the kids with allergies but still allowing Sarah to share with the other. I will be more careful next time.

At pickup, I found out that Sarah had been stung by a bee. This is the second time this summer (and in her life) she has been stung. The first time was on our vacation. They said she handled it well and was brave and only cried a little.

I guess the bee didn't realize it was her Birthday.

On Wednesday, when I picked Sarah up she had a big grin on her face. She reached into her mouth and wiggled her tooth! Her first loose tooth. She was so excited.

On Thursday, as we talked with some of the other kids. Another girl had a loose tooth. The kids want to lose their teeth at school because they get something special.

Last night when I picked her up. She gave me another huge grin and asked if I noticed anything different. I decided to play along and said, "New glasses?" No Sarah doesn't wear glasses.

She was proudly displaying the gap in her mouth where a tooth used to be!

She got to go to the nurse and get a sticker and a tiny treasure box to put the tooth in to bring home.

Last night she labeled an evelope and placed the tooth in it and put it under her pillow.

This morning she found a different envelop with a card in it and 4 quarters. The card conveyed congratulations from the tooth fairy.

My little girl is growing up!

Sarah's school has started promoting walking to school as a "good thing" for the kids to do. So Sarah asked if we could walk to school instead of driving.

We live very close to her school but our schedule is tight. However, it occurred to me that I could walk her to school instead of walking on the tread mill in the morning.

So we did this yesterday and today.

The weather was wonderful, not too hot or too cold. Sarah was so excited.

She held my hand for parts of the walk and we talked about stuff. It was nice to have this time with her.

After a few extra kisses this morning, I headed back. The walk back is up hill, a pleasant work out. I met up with another Mom of a girl in Sarah's class. We walked together while her younger son rode his bike. It was nice to get to know her. I usually don't get to meet up with the Moms much since I have to get to work.

I got home, got in my car and drove to work. I arrived on time.

I really like doing this. Now I need to work out with Scott how we can do something special for Becca.

Becca had a favorite doll she named Boy-Boy. He was the boy doll from the Dora Cuddle and Care Twins set of dolls. The doll was Dora's younger brother.

But to Becca, he was "her son." She liked other dolls and would sometimes ignore Boy-Boy but kept coming back to him.

A few weeks ago Boy-Boy was lost. We searched everywhere we could think of. No luck!

Then we started trying to buy a new one. But the makers of the Doll had changed the look a slight bit and we didn't know how Becca would feel.

At first Becca did not seem to miss him but lately was talking about him more and more. Especially since Sarah still had her doll Girl-Girl. (The twin sister from the set.)

We found a couple auctions on ebay for the original doll and we started watching and planning our strategy.

In the meantime, I ordered the new doll. I actually thought I was buying a few dolls instead I bought one set and a couple of outfits for the dolls. (Oops)

The last hours of the auction came, I bid and won. I payed the seller and settled in for the wait since the doll was coming from Canada.

Yesterday, the package with the new doll arrived that was the new version. I opened it up and my mouth dropped open. They must have been shipping down old inventory because there was the original Boy-Boy and Girl-Girl!

I was so excited to give Boy-Boy to Becca.

I went home and got him and the new clothes out of their packaging. Scott picked up the girls and let them know there was a surprise at home.

When they arrived I came down stairs and handed Boy-Boy to Becca.

She screamed in happiness. "My new Boy-Boy!" She was SO excited. It made all the effort to acquire him worth it. It was so nice to watch her hug him again. She says "he is my son, and my daughter." :)

We gave Sarah the new Girl-Girl and put the other away incase of loss.

The girls loved dressing the dolls in the new outfits.

Now we have a set coming from Canada that we can hide in case of loss. And in a fit of paranoia I decided to order one more set (although it will probably be the new model) when I ordered another outfit for the dolls.

So now we will have plenty of Boy-Boys and Girl-Girls. I may let each of the girls have a second doll so they have a set. I have to talk it over with Scott. I think Becca would really like have a Boy doll and a Girl doll.

Boy-Boy is back.

I cam back late Sunday night from a business trip after the girls had gone to bed.

The next morning, when Becca woke up, she came out of her room. The first thing she said to me was:

"I love you so much" and she gave me a big hug.

Needless to say, I love her so much too and told her so...

Please join me in wishing Becca a Happy Third Birthday!

She woke up feeling a bit better today. We will see if the fever comes back. At least the nurse says she is past the contageous phase so we plan to have her party tomorrow.

What a crazy week it has been. Becca has been sick, Sarah has needed some parenting, and there is so much to do everywhere.

I am feeling calmer though. I am trying to see this as an opportunity to accomplish.

The charm I got for Becca's third brithday came in the mail.

Becca is always saying, "I'm a mommy." She likes to pretend I am the baby. I think it started because she would ask to do something and I would say, "No, that's a mommy job." To which she would reply, "I'm a mommy." :) It is cute.

Her main Baby is a doll of Dora's little brother. Becca calls him Boy Boy. He is half of a pair of fraternal twins. Sarah has the other doll, her name is Girl Girl.

So for her gift I got her a small charm that says Mommy with a heart around it. This seemed right because she is so into being a mommy.

I really hate winter. Sarah is fighting a a sinus infection. I am fighting a science infection. Becca has had a fever since Sunday. Tylenol controls it and the Doctor said its "just a virus". But we keep needing to let the tylenol run out to see if the fever is over. When we do, it spikes and she is so miserable until it takes effect again.

Its her Birthday on Friday. Will she be in school by then? Her party is Sat, will she be up for it?

There is too much to do everywhere I turn.

At least the days are getting longer again.

I hate winter.

A few months ago, Becca's school issued a new biting policy that would allow them to send her home. We have struggled with teaching Becca not to bite but she had reached the point where they were going to start doing that. We consulted with a pro for help and based on that we decided that Becca would be better off in another school.

So Becca started a new school on Monday.

The Old

I was kind of teary last week and went off on my own for a bit on Friday to cry. Changes like this make me sad. We had been with this school for 5 years. I had made friends among the teachers. We will still have some baby sit and the door is open for us to return. I almost started crying when I saw the card they made for Becca.

We told Becca she was going to a new school because she was special. That is true.

The New

This is her third day. She seems to like the new school. At night she does not want to come home. She hasn't managed to actually nap yet.

At this school, parents can get pizza for their kids on Wed. Becca loves pizza so I think she will enjoy it. They also have an optional class on Wed that we signed Becca up for that is supposed to be fun.

This school also lets you put kids in for a day so we decided to put Sarah in for a day in Jan when her other options are closed. This turned out to be a good idea, Sarah is excited. I think she wants to build a connection to this place.

She was out of sorts at school on Monday and our best guess is that it was because she hadn't seen the new school for Becca. I wonder if she is missing the old school as well, she was a little sad last night. Even though she was done there she got to visit everyday when we picked up Becca and still had lots of friends there.

Winter is definitely here. I hate winter. Becca has a cough. She was coughing in the middle of the night. She didn't wake up but I did. Since it was Scott's night to help Becca when she woke up, I decided to wear ear plugs so I could sleep. Until then, every time she coughed I would feel nervous. Was she ok? Would she need help? But she didn't, a cough is just a cough...

You may have heard, Becca is a picky eater. We think the fact that she has some reflux issues may have contributed to her pickyness. She just won't try new foods. She looks at them and then rejects them.

Sometimes she'll say "what eating?" I'll tell her and ask, "Do you want some?" Her response, "No, No like it."

Another thing she has done is ask for food and then when I give it to her she says "No like it" and tries to feed it to me!

Last night we were having Pasta, a mix of little shells and penne. Sarah LOVES pasta. Becca asked for some. I gave her a bowl with a little bit expecting it would not get eaten.

I hand her the bowl and she asks for Parmesian Cheese. She loves Parmesian cheese. She puts it on Pizza and then will lick the extra off her plate.

I gave her the cheese. She applied it heavily. After it was coated we took the cheese. Then a wonderful thing occurred.

She ate. Not just the cheese but whole pieces of pasta. I don't mind giving her tons of cheese if it adds Pasta to her diet. Lots of restaurants have Pasta. We have pasta. She ate Pasta!!!

One amazing part of this was she was ravenous last night. She ate 5 chicken nuggets before she ate the pasta. She was hungry!

I hope I am not jinxing it but Becca has slept through the night for 3 nights in a row now. It feels so lovely to get actual sleep even on nights when I am on "Becca Duty."

Becca has been acting up a bit in "school" She is being aggressive with her classmates and biting when she wants a toy or doesn't get her way.

We are trying to decide if this is a reaction to Sarah's departure for kindergarten. There is a definite routine change for Becca from this including arriving at school without her sister.

Or if its because she is one of the older kids in her room now. Sarah went through this at a similar age and she got over it pretty quickly once she went to the next room.

Either way time should make it better since Becca should transition to the next room relatively soon.

We just got through challenges with Sarah, now its Becca's turn... Weee!

At least we are well rested. :)

Sarah's transition into kindergarten has been going well. She loves school, has been riding the bus to her after school program and is starting to make friends.

The only hiccup, and its a small one, has been swimming. Her after school program is at a club with a pool. Sarah loevs going in the water but has not yet taken swimming lessons. They start at her after school program next week.

But this is a big pool and she has never used the kind of float they provide for non-swimmers. She wants to go swimming but then she is scared to go swimming.

I think a big part of this is the newness. New pool...new float...swimming without Mom and Dad. I could not help the last one, but I could do something about the first two.

Yesterday, I arranged for her and I to have a day pass to the pool. We went over, around two. It was a beautiful day to be outside at a pool. (They put a bubble over the pool in winter.)

She was nervous at first. She stayed on the stairs. Going in and out of the pool. I showed her that the bottom of the pool was shallow enough for her to stand right after the stairs and had a gradual deepening. She was able to come in and feel a bit more confident.

Then I tried to get her to come deeper holding onto the wall. She wouldn't do it. Then I realized she didn't really know what to do. I showed her how to inch along the wall. We inched back and forth and she smiled!

Then she started to get braver. I would stand away from her and she would push off from the wall and sort of dog paddle, sort of float with her floaty, sort of tiptoe on the ground to get to me using the wall if needed. She loved this! I could tell she felt a real sense of accomplishments.

We played along the steps, she liked holding the stair railing and swinging.

Then we headed for the shallow slide pool. She really wanted to go but was afraid. I brought her to the top of the steps to watch. She said she wished I could go with her and the lifeguard said that was fine. But she was still nervous. So I asked if I could go myself and and did. After that she went down the slide with me there to catch her. Once she learned that when she landed she did not go underwater she got braver and braver. I was able to sit on the side of the pool while she went down until they closed the slide for a while.

I insisted she spend some time in the sun to warm up. Her teeth had been chattering. I was thinking about leaving when she went in the kiddy pool. I did not want her last memory of the day to be playing there so back in the big pool we went for more practice and play.

Then we did some hot tub time. That was fun.

When the slide opened we went back there. She wanted me at the bottom for the first slide but then got into the groove. I could tell she needed to go potty but she kept wanting to play. We were just about to leave when one of her friends arrived. I let them play for a bit. Then hot tub to warm up.

She did not want to leave. I told her she would get a timeout at home. She ignored me. Finally I told her she would not get dessert. That got her moving. :)

She did go in the kiddie pool for a minute but dangling dessert got her out.

We dressed and I had to make her sit on the potty, the silly stubborn girl.

Then we headed off to meet up with Daddy and Becca. I think my goal of giving her time to acclimate to the pool was achieved. We were there for over two hours!

I was surprised we knew several people at the pool. It would be nice to be members there someday, but right now its not going to work. We just would not use it enough to justify the cost.

The parents of Sarah's friend told me to call them if we wanted to go with them, they had guest passes. I know this would be fun for both of the kids!

Today was Sarah's second day of kindergarten. You would think her first day was the big deal. It wasn't.

Her first day we took her, went into the class with her, and listened to the teacher fill us in on stuff. Then we went to the school library while she heard a story and we got more orientation stuff. Then we picked her up on the playground. We never left the building. This was all by design.

Today...today was different. We knew we were dropping her off at the side walk and she would walk in herself.

We had practiced this with her for several weeks. We would stop at school on the way to daycare and pretend she got out.

Becca has a cold and had kept us up a lot last night so Scott and I were tired. I had gotten up with her at 5:30am. She seems fine just junky.

So Scott was a bit hyper. We got to school...early. No one was there to show Sarah where to go. We drove around for a few minutes to wait until official drop off time.

We drove up to the spot. We saw the person who does the directing giving high fives to kids. He had just arrived. Sarah opened the door. She tried to get out with her back pack but Scott had her get out and then get the back pack.

She put it on and started walking towards the man. She looked so little with her big back pack. She said something to him I could not hear and then gave him a high five and he pointed and off she went to the end of the walk and around the corner just as expected.

Part of me is nervous that she did not get to the right place since I could not see her after that. We even drove around the corner but we could not pick her out from all the kids, she may already have been inside.

I am glad I did not walk her in because I knew it would set a precedent but its still hard to watch your little girl walk away for the first time.

No, I didn't cry.

We headed off to get donuts. Scott said he was "freaking out." :)

Sarah gets out of school at 11 today and will return to her daycare for one last day. The donuts were a last day party. We brought Becca to her class and dropped off Sarah's lunch and the donuts at her class. Becca had fallen asleep in the car.

Then off to work.

My little girl is in Kindergarten

Today is Sarah's fifth birthday. I woke her by singing Happy Birthday. She had a huge smile. She is so excited to be 5. She said all her 5T clothes would fit today. :)

We got cupcakes for her to bring to school. Next week is her last week in daycare. Then she starts kindergarten. It is a whole new world. We have been practicing getting up on time and the change in drop off routine.

She has been having some issues at school over the last couple months, she has been acting out and crying. We have lots of theories but its all going to be over soon. It may be nerves about kindergarten. We have been working with her, role playing good behavior, taking away priveledges for bad behavior. Parenthood is hard.

The charm I am getting for her bracelet this year is a tiara charm. Its getting much harder to select a single thing to represent the year as she gets more interests. I chose the tiara because she likes dressing up like a princess, she likes playing with princess things and dolls, and she is my princess. :) Other ideas I considered were, a mermaid charm, a fireman charm, a paint palette charm, and a chocolate ice cream cone charm.

Tonight we will go out to dinner at Bugaboo Creek (or Keek as Becca likes to say it) so Sarah can kiss the moose.

Her party is Sat. We have had so many yeses this year. It should be fun!

After she opens her presents we will take her to choose her presents from us. She gets a budget to spend. By waiting until after her party she will be able to choose things she did not get. I suspect that will be Sunday.

I close with one final:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SARAH!!!

Yesterday we took the girls to a water park. Sarah had "earned" this trip through good behavior. The weather was a bit iffy but we did not want to wait any longer so that the reward would be associated with the behavior.

We had over an hour drive. This is the first time we have done such a long drive with them for a day trip. It went pretty well. They watched movies. We stopped at about 1/2 way and let them have snacks. (popsicles...for breakfast?) :)

Sarah was so excited when we arrived. We headed for the children's area as Sarah looked longingly at the river ride.

I thought she would like this one ride that had a jungle gym that was being sprayed with water. Boy was I wrong. The splashing and periodic dumping of water totally upset her. She so wanted to play in there but then splash and she would be upset again. It didn't help that the water was cold and the day was not that hot.

We headed for another ride that had less splashing but now she was cranky. Becca seemed to like the little water slide but not the slightly bigger one, that was too scary. Sarah liked the bigger one but needed to be coaxed to the smaller one.

Then we went in the pool area. Both girls wanted me to carry them around the pool. Not Daddy. We played a bit, taking turns, I cannot handle them both in a pool. They were getting really cranky and it was lunch time so we went to get some food.

The food at this place was even more expensive than usual for such places. We had only brought cash since we were in our bathing suits. We managed to get the kids fed and have a bit ourselves. We were feeling pretty down, the kids just seemed miserable.

We started heading for the wave pool and came near the river ride again. It was clear Sarah really, really, really, wanted to go on the river ride. She chose Daddy to go with her. I headed with Becca to the Wave pool.

The waves were a little scary at first but she liked the calm times. She got a bit upset when she bumped into someone. Mostly she just liked running around on the ground and exploring.

Then we found Daddy and Sarah. Sarah was so happy she loved the river ride! We did a few rounds of waves in the wave pool. She loved that too!

At this point, it was way past Becca's nap time and she was tired so we headed for the car and home.

Becca slept for a while and then Sarah slept in the car. We got home and Scott and I were exhausted.

We learned alot about our kids and water parks. I suspect we will try again sometime but probably not until next year.

The biggest thing I learned is, Sarah has a pretty good intuition about the kinds of things she will like. Listen to her on this topic. :)

Yesterday, we took our kids on the train for the first time.

When we got up in the morning Becca said something like "want go on train." I think she meant a kiddy train ride at the local farm but we decided to run with it.

We decided to take them on the subway into the city to visit the Aquarium. Sarah loves the Aquarium. They were both excited.

We drove over to the station. Becca looked a bit confused. Why were we in the car we said a train?

Then we arrived. It turned out there was a baseball game in town so lots of folks were taking the train for that. Sarah sang _Take Me Out to the Ball Game_ for some folks spontaneously. She sang it for some others at my request.

People were nice and let us have the seats. This was really appeciated, especially since I had a bad cold. I probably should have stayed home but the kids needed me.

At first they were really excited. As the ride dragged on they got a bit bored and then we went underground. Sarah was SO excited to be underground. Eventually we arrived at the first station.

Then we walked over to the next train. A man was playing music so we had the girls give him some coins.

Then we got on the second train. This ride was shorter and then we were at the aquarium.

We saw a few exhibits but we had misjudged just how long the train would take. It was lunch time so we went and ate in the cafeteria and then headed to the gift shop were we got the girls mermaids. (Their choice) and some shirts.

Then back to the train.

We caught the train back and transferred easily enough. We managed to get four seats together.

Sarah loved the train and had fun playing with her mermaid. Becca started getting cranky. She wanted to sit on me, but I was tired from the cold. She started to complain a bit and ultimately fell asleep in Scott's arms. So precious!

We arrived at our stop and started heading for the car. It was just starting to thunder. Scott offered to get the car but I thought it would be safer to get to the car quickly.

Then the sky opened and it poured! Oh how it poured. Becca had been asleep in Scott's arms. She was awake.

Sarah was a tad nervous, it was hard to see with all the rain. But I just kept her moving and I decided to embrace the moment and started laughing! So she started laughing. We arrived at the car soaked.

It was a good thing we had bought shirts! Everyone stripped off their wet shirts and put on the new ones. Then everyone but Scott took off our wet shoes and socks. Scott had to drive.

We got home and changed into new dry clothes.

Sarah kept saying she could not wait to tell her friends at school about our "adventure." (Her word)

We learned alot about doing the train. I think we will do it again.

We had quite a busy weekend.

Friday, Sarah "graduated" from pre-school. The school held a small ceremony where the kids performed songs. It was very cute! Then they had a lunch with all kid friendly foods. Sarah will still be there until the end of the summer.

After school that day we took the girls to Chuck-E-Cheese to celebrate.

On Saturday we went to the mall to do some shopping, and get Scott a hair cut. Then in the afternoon we went to the local lake beach. It was the perfect day for the beach, hot and sunny! Both girls seemed to enjoy splashing in the water and playing in the sand.

On Sunday, we went to a local kids charity bike ride for cancer research. Both kids participated. Sarah rode around the course several times, I pushed Becca on her tricycle since she can't reach the pedals yet.

It was really hot so everyone kept reminding the kids to drink water. After a while Becca got bored of the course and we wondered off to see what other activities were happening. We got a balloon animal. Then Sarah joined us and had fun getting a balloon hat, a temporary tatoo, nails painted, face painted, and beads in her hair.

They ended the ride early because of the heat which was good. Becca fell asleep in the car ride home.

I think Sarah felt proud that she had participated in the ride because I explained to her that it helps people. I don't think she got the whole sponsorship thing this year but thats ok, we sponsored them both for the amount they needed to raise and I feel like I planted seeds for the future.

After Becca woke up we went to lunch and then ice cream at Ben and Jerry's. After that home and a bath for the girls, then we went to the supermarket to stock up for the next week or two.

It was quite a busy weekend, but it was fun!

Today was bike to work day at the company where I work. I decided to do it!

Fortunately, I got a good night sleep last night and I just got some new sneakers so I had good feet support.

I loaded everything I needed in a back pack and headed out. There is a slight incline coming out of our road and by the top of that I was already breathing hard wondering if I could do this. But I kept going.

The weather was beautiful and whenever possible I coasted to get my breath back.

I didn't realize it but I had broken the journey up in my head into 4 parts. As I reached each part it was very exciting.

At one point another biker passed me and asked me how I was doing. It felt like I was part of a club.

When I got to the office, I rode up to the building. They had set up a table with information. I got a free T-Shirt for my efforts. I felt so proud.

They had a complimentary bike mechanic check out my bike. It was in good shape which is good since it is only 1 week old.

The whole ride took me about 25 minutes and now I am a bit sore but I am also proud.

I need to ride home tonight and get my car so I can pick up the kids at school.

I would like to start doing this a couple times a week. I know I will get faster as I get in the habit and that will make it easier. I just need to do it!

Today, I wanted to talk to one of Becca's teachers about something that was unrelated to the kids. Since I did not know if this teacher would be there at pickup I called.

The other teacher answered so I asked to speak with the teacher I wanted to talk to. The other teacher said Jennifer French is on the phone.

Becca starts calling out, "That's my mommy!" She got all excited. So they put her on the phone with me. I said hello and I love you. She didn't speak but I heard she had a big smile!

The teachers seemed surprised that she knew it was me. :)

One of the other kids asked if she could call her mommy. :)