I wish I didn't have to title posts. I never have a point, you know.
It's been a fairly uneventful week at the Sullivan house. Travis decided not to go to the football game today, which was nice. It was Homecoming weekend, so it probably would've been fun to go up and socialize, but I just haven't felt up for it this year. So we had a nice Saturday at home, on a beautiful day. Travis did a bunch of landscaping, and I did some sorting and other things that are hard to do with two children underfoot. I picked up Indian food for supper tonight, and after the kids were in bed, I made molten lava chocolate cakes for dessert, just the two of us (I only used 1 egg yolk instead of two, and some unsweetened chocolate in place of the semisweet, and it was still plenty rich and sweet!). The girls were driving us nuts for a good portion of the day so it was especially nice to work in the kitchen without being bothered, and then enjoy a treat without it being such a big deal.
I guess the biggest thing is that Audrey has fully unpottytrained herself. OhCrap told me to do a reset, so we're doing disposable diapers for two weeks. Next Saturday will be the new Day 1, and hopefully she's receptive to it and not uberpissed like she was when I gave it up. She seemed really concerned the first few times she used her diaper, but I just changed her and hugged her and sent her on her way. Now, I think she really likes how easy it is... so this may be tough. But she's gotta do it sometime, and it's gotta be soon. I'm a little worried about setbacks the following weekend at her birthday, but that's a long way off. I've gotta say that it's been really nice to not have Audrey's bladder on my mind constantly, but I hate diapers. I really, really hate them. I think the train went off the rails when Audrey had several accidents in a row, and she decided she was terrible at it and didn't have any idea what she was doing, and didn't want to try. It wasn't true, but I couldn't convince her. When I reset, I'll have to be careful of her ego, and make sure that I do my best to help her have a whole string of successes right off the bat, and then make a big deal of accidents or successes, either way, so it's not such a big deal to her if she succeeds or fails. Easy, right?? Sure...
Wednesday was fun because Grandma Sullivan came to spend the day with us!! We really made it special by going to Old McDonald's for lunch and then to the spice store, which the girls really enjoy because they have a table set up to color at. They may have enjoyed that more than the playland at McD's, which was loud and full of obnoxious children. Then we made rainbow cupcakes, wihch we are still working through. I should've sent them to daycare on Thursday because I'm sure tired of the whining and fussing for multiple cupcakes every day. And while they were a superawesome treat when they were fresh, they look particularly unappetizing now and i just keep finding more fingerprints in the frosting. Gah!!
Emily has been really enjoying her piano books. We don't do it every day, but probably every other day we sit down together and play things out of both books. One book has 4-measure exercises that are supposed to sound like the action that the stick-figure that accompanies it is doing, like Walking or Skipping or Rolling or whatever. Yesterday, Emily played 5 out of the first 6 in the book! I was SO impressed!! She was delighted and said, "let's play the other book!!" so we did a little of that, too, and all in all it's less than 10 minutes of work, but I can tell that's all she's up for. It's crazy how a short period of intense learning can really make a difference, and really wear her out. But then after supper yesterday, she sat down with a baby book with me and she worked on reading off her letters. The book is so simple - a picture of something with the word printed underneath. She would read off the letters, and then say the word because she knew it from identifying the picture. Today, I covered up a picture and asked her what the word said, and she looked at me so funny, as though, how could she know without the picture?? So we sounded it out together, and it was so fun then when I uncovered the picture and she was right. What a great grin that girl has! And again, we can't do that much of this before she gets squirmy and it's obvious she's at the end of her attention span. But it's hard for me to hold back when she's picking up so much of what I'm telling her and we're having such a good time! Oh yeah, she's only 4, and it's ridiculous that she's doing this degree of sitting-still learning.
And we're still trying to get Audrey to talk, but she's getting a little braver. She knows, she just won't do it. I wonder if she practices at Ms. Teri's? She's gotta practice somewhere!!
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Saturday, October 15, 2011
Lousy parent
It's been a rough week here. I spent Wednesday in some kind of frantic state... I can't even say what it was all about but I was seriously annoyed that I couldn't get good behavior out of Emily, and I was freaking mad. Audrey was driving me nuts because she's decided not to be potty trained anymore. Guess that was a fun little experiment, honey. I've gone back to my forum, begging for help. She totally had it all figured out, and now she's not making ANY effort at all to even tell me when she has to go, and she fights like hell if I tell her she must sit and try. Then 20 minutes later she comes back to find me with wet or dirty pants. I am so frustrated, and I'm probably doing everything wrong, but I just don't know how to get past this. Hopefully OhCrap lady has some ideas.
I finally got some good sleep Thursday night after a late night (upset with myself for the way I parented Wed), and a long day at work and an evening out to celebrate a new product release with some coworkers. Yesterday, I pretty much operated on the idea that whatever I would have done on Wednesday, I would do the opposite. We went to the store to buy paint, and Emily worked on a project while Audrey took a fantastic 3-hour nap, which was preceeded by a poop on the potty. It was all looking up. Today, pee everywhere. There never really was anything that wrong with Emily's behavior, in retrospect. I hope I've turned a corner with that.
So, I just heard that someone I knew from marching band had a 4-month-old who died of SIDS this week. Horrifying! I told Travis about it after lunch today. Apparently Emily overheard that, even though I didn't say much more than I did in this paragraph, but she got to thinking about it. This afternoon, she sat on my lap, and said she didn't like dying. I said i didn't either. She asked me if I was going to die, and i said not for a very, very long time (I can't lie to her!). She then started crying really, really hard and said she didn't want to die because she would be all alone!! Oh my gosh, I wasn't ready for this conversation yet!! I told her I would always, always be with her because I love her more than anything in the world and she's not getting rid of me! That seemed to relax her a bit. It didn't seem like the right time to introduce any kind of religious teachings, since her fear was so very literal. Instead, I talked to her about how Mommo used to be a little girl, and then she grew up and had a little girl, and that little girl grew up to be Grandma, and it took a long time to tell the story so I hoped that would show her just how long her life will be (hear that, Universe? WILL be!). And then she asked something about a birthday, and I said I have a lot of birthdays left, and that Emily has even more. That seemed to satisfy her all right, and we snuggled and talked for probably an hour after that about just fun random stuff. What a sweet girl. and an unexpected way to spend the afternoon!
Trav and I took Emily down to the parking lot near our house to see if Emily could balance on her new bike. No go. Not even excited about it, just wanted to walk (or dance, really) most of the way back. oh well. She and Audrey spent a good amount of the afternoon outside playing and watching/helping Travis work on the landscaping out front. Trav is exhausted tonight from the work, so we'll all sleep well tonight. If I can get past my own conscience...
I finally got some good sleep Thursday night after a late night (upset with myself for the way I parented Wed), and a long day at work and an evening out to celebrate a new product release with some coworkers. Yesterday, I pretty much operated on the idea that whatever I would have done on Wednesday, I would do the opposite. We went to the store to buy paint, and Emily worked on a project while Audrey took a fantastic 3-hour nap, which was preceeded by a poop on the potty. It was all looking up. Today, pee everywhere. There never really was anything that wrong with Emily's behavior, in retrospect. I hope I've turned a corner with that.
So, I just heard that someone I knew from marching band had a 4-month-old who died of SIDS this week. Horrifying! I told Travis about it after lunch today. Apparently Emily overheard that, even though I didn't say much more than I did in this paragraph, but she got to thinking about it. This afternoon, she sat on my lap, and said she didn't like dying. I said i didn't either. She asked me if I was going to die, and i said not for a very, very long time (I can't lie to her!). She then started crying really, really hard and said she didn't want to die because she would be all alone!! Oh my gosh, I wasn't ready for this conversation yet!! I told her I would always, always be with her because I love her more than anything in the world and she's not getting rid of me! That seemed to relax her a bit. It didn't seem like the right time to introduce any kind of religious teachings, since her fear was so very literal. Instead, I talked to her about how Mommo used to be a little girl, and then she grew up and had a little girl, and that little girl grew up to be Grandma, and it took a long time to tell the story so I hoped that would show her just how long her life will be (hear that, Universe? WILL be!). And then she asked something about a birthday, and I said I have a lot of birthdays left, and that Emily has even more. That seemed to satisfy her all right, and we snuggled and talked for probably an hour after that about just fun random stuff. What a sweet girl. and an unexpected way to spend the afternoon!
Trav and I took Emily down to the parking lot near our house to see if Emily could balance on her new bike. No go. Not even excited about it, just wanted to walk (or dance, really) most of the way back. oh well. She and Audrey spent a good amount of the afternoon outside playing and watching/helping Travis work on the landscaping out front. Trav is exhausted tonight from the work, so we'll all sleep well tonight. If I can get past my own conscience...
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Lots to catch up on
Travis's uncle died suddenly on Thursday. I can't seem to find his obituary online, but he was only 63 and it was as sudden as you have ever heard of. One minute he was getting ready to go drive his school bus route, and the next, he was on his way out. Apparently, a post-mortem x-ray showed a pulmonary embolism; they weren't able to resuscitate him in the ambulance. His daughter, Travis's cousin, was on her way to fly to Iowa with her 2-year-old daughter to visit Tim and Nancy, and then come to Emily's birthday party on Sunday. We had visited them in California last spring, and had a great time with them. When she arrived in Dallas for her layover, she changed her connecting flight when she got the news that her dad had died, and flew to Minneapolis instead. I feel SO bad for that family. I really liked Gerry, and I've always had a great time with Travis's cousins. It's been weird to be planning a joyful birthday weekend in this beautiful weather, knowing the degree of mourning that people I care about are enduring.
So, Nancy drove the 7 hours up to Lake Park, MN (almost to Fargo) the very next day to help her sister, nieces, and nephew plan the funeral, and has been there ever since. I cannot tell you what an amazing heart that woman has, to drop everything in her life and do that for them. Travis and Tim drove up today to be there for the wake, and they'll come home late tomorrow after the funeral in the afternoon. It's been very, very weird. I would have gone with them and left the girls with my parents, but I was needed here, as you'll see below.
We moved Emily's birthday party to Saturday instead of Sunday, and fortunately that worked for everybody except Nancy. Everything was going just fine - the cake was ready, lunch was ready, everybody was here and eating, but Emily said it was too loud, too many people, and she wanted to just sit in the living room where it was quiet. She ended up falling asleep on Travis's lap, and he put her in her bed to sleep for at least an hour. She had a fever of 102!! When she woke up, we gave her a full dose of tylenol, and within half an hour she was chipper enough to enjoy the party. She loved the Frances cake, and the gift that Audrey gave her: a Chompo bar (a snickers bar in a wrapper I made) wrapped in pretty paper with ribbon. Those of you who know A Birthday for Frances will appreciate that!! She LOVED it. She opened all of her presents, and really enjoyed everything she got, especially the umbrella that she had picked out and wrapped for herself. Very thoughtful and awesome gifts! She's got some pretty great family. She was so excited about the gift that Mark and Lea gave her that she marched right over and hugged Lea. I thought it was hilarious that she already knows that it's the females who are to credit for things like that - ha!! :)
Travis and I thought Emily would be ready for a real bike, with no training wheels and everything, and she was kind of excited when she saw it, but not like I thought she would be. In her defense, she was still feeling sick, but she was a trooper and climbed up on the seat while Travis held it, and Grandpa took her picture. We're going to go pick out a helmet tomorrow, on her actual birthday, to round out the gift. Her head is so big that I wanted to be sure she was a part of the selection so we go something that fits!!
So, I thought I would be up all night with a sick kiddo, and have a lousy day taking care of her fever today, but she has felt fine all day. However, I was up all night anyway because she had to keep getting drinks, and pooping (? who does that at 2 AM?), and worrying about Audrey, who also took her turn being up crying. I was up every 20 minutes for a good 2 hours last night. Travis left at 6:30 AM, so i talked to him for a minute before he left (i don't think i opened my eyes, though!) and then at 7:15 Emily was in my room with a bloody nose, and my day was off to the races. Needless to say, I will be headed to bed shortly here!!
The girls and I had another nice day enjoying the beautiful weather, and for the most part, we had a lovely day. But wow, what a weekend. apparently, my sister-in-law met her biological dad for the first time this weekend, so it'll be interesting to hear how that all went, too! Life just keeps on happening...
p.s. since i've been posting potty training progress here, I will note that we started Audrey on probiotics that were specially formulated for children, and she is finally, finally not sliming every few hours. It's been AWESOME. It was seriously like finding a magic pill - within a few hours of her first dose, it was a whole lot better. Now she'll actually go a full 24-hours without going, and when she does go it's no problem at all. YAAAAYYYY!!! I am so happy for her!! and me, too, of course :)
So, Nancy drove the 7 hours up to Lake Park, MN (almost to Fargo) the very next day to help her sister, nieces, and nephew plan the funeral, and has been there ever since. I cannot tell you what an amazing heart that woman has, to drop everything in her life and do that for them. Travis and Tim drove up today to be there for the wake, and they'll come home late tomorrow after the funeral in the afternoon. It's been very, very weird. I would have gone with them and left the girls with my parents, but I was needed here, as you'll see below.
We moved Emily's birthday party to Saturday instead of Sunday, and fortunately that worked for everybody except Nancy. Everything was going just fine - the cake was ready, lunch was ready, everybody was here and eating, but Emily said it was too loud, too many people, and she wanted to just sit in the living room where it was quiet. She ended up falling asleep on Travis's lap, and he put her in her bed to sleep for at least an hour. She had a fever of 102!! When she woke up, we gave her a full dose of tylenol, and within half an hour she was chipper enough to enjoy the party. She loved the Frances cake, and the gift that Audrey gave her: a Chompo bar (a snickers bar in a wrapper I made) wrapped in pretty paper with ribbon. Those of you who know A Birthday for Frances will appreciate that!! She LOVED it. She opened all of her presents, and really enjoyed everything she got, especially the umbrella that she had picked out and wrapped for herself. Very thoughtful and awesome gifts! She's got some pretty great family. She was so excited about the gift that Mark and Lea gave her that she marched right over and hugged Lea. I thought it was hilarious that she already knows that it's the females who are to credit for things like that - ha!! :)
Travis and I thought Emily would be ready for a real bike, with no training wheels and everything, and she was kind of excited when she saw it, but not like I thought she would be. In her defense, she was still feeling sick, but she was a trooper and climbed up on the seat while Travis held it, and Grandpa took her picture. We're going to go pick out a helmet tomorrow, on her actual birthday, to round out the gift. Her head is so big that I wanted to be sure she was a part of the selection so we go something that fits!!
So, I thought I would be up all night with a sick kiddo, and have a lousy day taking care of her fever today, but she has felt fine all day. However, I was up all night anyway because she had to keep getting drinks, and pooping (? who does that at 2 AM?), and worrying about Audrey, who also took her turn being up crying. I was up every 20 minutes for a good 2 hours last night. Travis left at 6:30 AM, so i talked to him for a minute before he left (i don't think i opened my eyes, though!) and then at 7:15 Emily was in my room with a bloody nose, and my day was off to the races. Needless to say, I will be headed to bed shortly here!!
The girls and I had another nice day enjoying the beautiful weather, and for the most part, we had a lovely day. But wow, what a weekend. apparently, my sister-in-law met her biological dad for the first time this weekend, so it'll be interesting to hear how that all went, too! Life just keeps on happening...
p.s. since i've been posting potty training progress here, I will note that we started Audrey on probiotics that were specially formulated for children, and she is finally, finally not sliming every few hours. It's been AWESOME. It was seriously like finding a magic pill - within a few hours of her first dose, it was a whole lot better. Now she'll actually go a full 24-hours without going, and when she does go it's no problem at all. YAAAAYYYY!!! I am so happy for her!! and me, too, of course :)
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