Circus!

A while back*, we went to the circus.  And although the smell was as bad as I'd worried, it was a lot more fun than I'd anticipated!

waiting for the cousins

As close as she'd get to the clown.

Uncle Joel got us cool light-up flowers for the price of a car-loan!

Sam knew the drill.

Kahlan was semi-interested in the circus itself.

But was VERY interested in the flower.  At one point I thought they might need a room...

But her lack of interest allowed for some Aunty Love too.

Waiting for the elephant ride.  I had to use Sam's college savings to pay for this as well. 

Saw an old friend while waiting.

closer...

Finally on!  I believe it was at this point that the elephant passed some gas and my gag reflex went into overtime.

squished

How was the ride?

"Bumpy."

This kid is always smiling- as long as he's in mommy's arms!

Something exciting was happening.

 The End

*April!  Holy cow I'm behind...

Three

Well, better late than never, right?
So here it is.  I'm going to fill in things that have happened in the last month, simply because I don't remember what happened when and frankly, at 3 years, what's a month?

At her 3 year appt. last month she was juuuuust shy of 36" and weighed 27.5 lbs.  She wears 2T clothing and has just graduated to size 7 shoes.  

Sam speaks in full on sentences all.the.time.  Well, ok I might be exaggerating a little.  She sings a lot of the time too.  She'll vary between her own versions of songs and just narrating what we are doing.  Since raising my voice, changing my tone or simply yelling doesn't work to get her to listen, I just break out into song what I'd like her to do and she will at least acknowledge that I'm speaking to her.  A song generally goes something like this, (sort-of to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star)

"Twinkle twinkle little star, Sam put on your sandals please."
"Mommy mommy mommy why?"
"We are going put-them-on-please."
"Where are we going to go?"
"Trader Joe's let's go now please."

In other oddities, this child is still obsessed with water.  I wish there was a better word for it, but she could very well be a candidate to sprout gills before she dies.

Even though she weaned almost 2 years ago, she'll still ask to nurse.  Talk about guilt!  I tell myself it's because she sees other babies nursing (friends and family) but she'll ask when she's tired or hurt.

Just a few nights ago we decided it was time to night potty train her.  Every night we'd have the conversation,
"Do I have a diaper on?"
"Yes."
"I can go pee-pee in it?"
"Yes."

The first night was awesome.  The second required some additional laundr.  So it's still a work in progress!.

Her other obsessions are being outside, babies and dogs.  We had to change the door handle on our front door AND change the lock.  She also has no fear of dogs.  They can be growling, snarling and pulling at a leash trying to snap her nose off and she'll be fighting me to go give the "puppy a kiss."

On the food end of things, we've decided to stay away from drinking straight cow's milk and dairy ice cream until she's better able to describe her physical ailments better than simply screaming and puking.  And she totally gets why she can't have them.  A simple reminder of "those give you owies in your tummy" deters any interest.  Don't worry, we buy her the $7/pint coconut milk ice cream! 

Other than that, she'll demand to try every food we put on the table.  She'll eat things that I have never liked and eat them by the bowl-full.  The only thing she doesn't like is spicy foods. 

A while back I posted about her putting herself to bed-.  That novelty wore off within a few days and we're back to a longer bed-time routine. 
Oh, the bed-time routine.  I try and approach things with the "she'll sleep if she's tired" attitude and just leave her alone in her room, but that ends up with a SUPER cranky kid in the afternoon.  If I hold her still rock her then she will fall asleep.  But sometimes that can take up to an hour and I'm at my wits-end when she finally does fall asleep. 

Well, this is getting a bit long and wordy, so I'll move onto the birthday day pictures:

a breakfast of threes for the three-year-old

She's most certainly not over the weight-limit, but she's finally hit the height limit for rear-facing.  We made it a b-day event.

She LOVES being able to see the lights change and tell mommy how to drive. 

Teddy grams having a pool party on her cake

She got some old school Polly Pockets.  Believe it or not, she's REALLY good about keeping track of the pieces!  I had to show her how to let her Polly's visit each other before she allowed the different characters to interact.  Quite the literal thinker.  Or would that be OCD?

 Showing off a few gifts- rainboots, crown and Leapfrog game.

Happy Birthday Samantha! We're so glad you finally have hair!  

We'll shoot for pigtails next year.

Good News and Bad News

In regards to Jeremy's health, I think we're at a point where I can give an update that won't change as soon as I write it.  He was finally able to get in to see the doctors.  One visit was a phone call to the doc at home (he was on call) and he met Jer at the ER and rented* a room to fix Jeremy up and show him how to do it himself. So the good news is he's finally stable, able to go to work 3/4th time and is not in constant pain.  The bad news is this 6-8 week recovery period is looking more like 6-8 months.  The surgery was suppose to improve his quality of life.  He's currently at a much lower quality than before, which is very frustrating.  But at least there is an end in sight (we hope!)

*no charge

 

UUUUUgh.

Ho hum another day another hospital stay.  After an x-ray, cat-scan, some fluids and morphine he's comfortable for the first time in three days and they think it's an infection in his intestine.  They won't know until tomorrow.

We'd very much like for this chapter to be over now, Lord.  

But, alas, Thy will be done. 

 I don't have to like it, though, right?

And it's ok to "lose it" every now and then, correct?

What day is it?

I can't believe it's been almost 2 weeks since I typed the last update.  Jer had another 5 day stay in the hospital, is finally off his round of antibiotics, we celebrated Sam's 3rd bday, I've been taking out my stress on a small gardening patch in our front yard, and the school year is ending in a few days (cue parent and student e-mails!).  Lots of updates to come, most likely to be back dated!

He's Home!

Only 10 days past the original plan...:)

One HECK of a week

-Jeremy's 5 day hospital stay is now on day 8 and it's looking like he has at least another 3 to go
-Lucy's discovered to be having seizures.  The reason we didn't know is because she's fully conscious during them...yeah, talk about a head trip (no pun intended)
-I was offered the full-time position (SQUEEE!!)
-The crack house next to my parents FINALLY went down.
-Amanda got a concussion at Prom

 Thank God Jeremy's parents have been in town this week!

Update

Wow, talk about a crazy 24 hrs.
Jer's surgery did not go quite as planned but he's doing well and is cured of his ulcerative colitis.
Turing the 12 hrs of waiting I was offered the full-time position at Pius (woohoo!).  Because it took Jer so long to "wake-up" I got to tell him the good news twice, as he'd forgotten the first time :).
Keep the prayers coming!  He's in a lot of pain and we still have a long road ahead of us.

While in the Shower I was pondering...

If A=B and B=C, then A=C.

So then if my brother and my sister Lucy look alike and Lucy and Samantha look alike, does that mean I'm producing children that look like my brother?



PS
Jeremy is having "the surgery" for his ulcerative colitis today.  Prayers please!

Reason #92 to get out of bed at night:

"My butt keep waking up.  I can't get it to go night night."

That one is definitely not in the parenting books, so I went the same route I do when she wakes up screaming, telling me daddy ate her vitamins- I just played along.

"Butt, you need to go night night.  Stay in bed and go to sleep."

Kids Say

Walking out to the car on a rainy day, "Oh, mommy! I need to jump in the puddle."

"No, Samantha, you don't have rain boots on.  Maybe you'll get some for your birthday."

"Yeah, I want some reindeer-boots for my birthday party."

Sometimes...

Sometimes floors jump out and bump your head.

And sometimes, the counter steps out and bumps your head.

And sometimes the floor and counter gang up on you and attack you within the same five minutes.

And so, sometimes you just have to go back to bed and start the day over.

Cluck Cluck

The grade school just finished their embryology unit and we went to see the results.  Sam was a little hesitant to touch them at first, but warmed up to them real quick. 

"They're sleeping!"

Gross Picture

You know you're a foreign language teacher when you slice your toe open and the second thought that goes through your head is, "This is perfect, we just learned how to talk about physical ailments in class!"

Praying to be where I prayed to never return

So tomorrow is the big day.  I'll be interviewing for the full-time Spanish position at Pius.  Let me just say that when you pray for something- be prepared to get exactly what you ask for (or even better!)

In 2002 I graduated from High School, left my home-town and really did not want to return.  Maybe to raise kids, but only because my parents were there.  I was ready to move ON.

When I left Texas in 2006 I was so tired of the offensive drivers, the insanely hot summers and traveling 12+ hrs to see family (and my new baby sister).  I moved to Arkansas- MUCH closer-only an 8 hr drive- to live near my then boyfriend to see where things would take us.  After being a grocery checker, a nanny, then an ESL teacher I realized that I wanted to be the one thing I swore I didn't want to be- a Teacher.

We got married, blah-blah blah...

Two years of NTL and I was finally fully certified.  I could be a teacher and not be in school myself.  Twelve days after the birth of our daughter we took the 8 hr drive back to my home town.  I had just completed the most draining year of teaching and was. burnt. out.  I told Jeremy that if I were EVER to return to teaching that it would ONLY be for a private school- more specifically my own High School.  And, to be even MORE specific- I'd like to just teach Spanish.

Fast forward 1 year, we realized we could not, in fact, live on a Youth Minister's income with the massive amount of debt we had, so I had to return to work.  I applied for a Spanish position at my high school (not very common as they have a very low teacher turn around rate!)  Surely this was a sign.

But no, I didn't get it.

Fast forward another year and I applied yet again for a Spanish position (weird that this happened 2 years in a row-SURELY it was my time now).

But, no.  Only part-time.  Which was painfully hard on my ego, but it was what I needed to get out of the restaurant and my "foot in the door" to where I wanted to be.

Fast forward yet ANOTHER year and a long time teacher is retiring.  Three years in a row that they've hired a new Spanish teacher.  The odds are stacked in my favor, but I am NOT celebrating until I sign a contract this time.

Odd that I'm so eager to be full-time where I once was so ready to leave.  Odd that I am so eager to be teaching again, considering how burnt-out I was before.  Odd that I'm really excited to be working full-time, despite having to leave my baby with someone else during the day.

But what's even odder is the sequence of events that could not have been more delicately placed for us as a family.
1) Sam's insane health the first year of life (no WAY I'd have been able to do that while working)
2) The restaurant giving me the desire to "do something else"
3) Working part-time my first year back (Sam does not sleep anywhere but her bed- I've been able to bring her home every day to get her down for a nap)
4)  Sam will be old enough to go to full-time preschool in the fall- something she is VERY ready for

And so many other little things.  Like moving 4 times in 3 years.  And Jeremy's health.  And being there for friends.  All very much NOT possible had things gone MY way and I'd been able to teach the fall after Samantha was born.
Hindsight is 20/20.  All the ducks have been lining up exactly where they needed to be- and have stayed there despite my attempts to rearrange them.

My third interview with an old-time family friend, my own high-school counselor, math teacher and Spanish teacher is tomorrow at 8am.  Because if I can't be home with my babies, this is the next best thing.  Prayers, please!
____________________________________________________________

update:  It was a little "ho hum" as it was my third round with the same questions- although they did try and change it up a bit.  At the end I was told that they'd had some very impressive interviews with other candidates thus far and that they'll be making a decision over break and will offer the position to someone next week.

Happy Home Initiation!

This month we celebrated my 28th birthday. We had a bring your own dip and board game party.  By the time everyone left to put kiddos in bed, however, we didn't get to the boardgames.  The night owls of the family (Mom, me and Lucy) did get a few rounds of Wits and Wagers in.  During the party itself, though, we did get to initiating the bathroom.

Sam decided that she would make the party day the day that she would experiment with flushing non-flushables down the toilet.  After peeing her pants (more on that later) I sent her to the bathroom to clean herself up.  After about 10 minutes I realized that she was taking WAY too long in the bathroom.  I entered the bathroom to find the toilet overflowing and Sam standing on her stool panicking because she was all wet and things were just getting wetter.

Her pee soaked panties, however, were still on.  She'd forgotten to take care of that little bit of business.

Anyway, my dad came to our rescue and fished out lots of toilet paper and the hand towel from our pipes.  I'm glad he was there, as I would have 1)not thought to turn off the water to the toilet and 2) tried to plunge the clog down, rather than pull stuff out.  Sam has never before tried to put anything in the toilet other than lots and lots of TP, so I'm not sure what spurred the sudden curiosity.

After that fiasco was cleaned up my niece found the broom that we keep behind the door and proceeded to "sweep" the entire floor.  Unfortunately I'd forgotten about the broom during the first clean-up and it was soaking wet.  Commence clean-up #2.

And finally, my brother was in the bathroom and accidentally knocked over our soap dispenser from our tiny sink, spilling the watered down soap contents all over the floor.

tiny sink

All this in less than an hour in the smallest (and most recently remodeled) room in the house.

Happy Home Initiation!

Picky Dresser

I am proud to say that with all of Sam's "isms" that she has, being a picky eater is not one of them.

She'll try anything once- and SHE's the one who will demand to try it! She loves onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, asparagus, avocados, salads, tomatoes- you name it, she'll down it. Now, this isn't to say she won't go for the "classics" (plain noodles, pbj's, mac and cheese, hot dogs) it's just that she'll just as happily eat the healthy as she will the unhealthy. I love that I can give her a bite of any thing off my plate and she doesn't care what's on the fork (as long as I tell her what it is and it's not too spicy...she's got to be prepared you know.)
My theory, however, is that every toddler has to have an all out tantrum inducing revulsion to something that's fairly common. For most kids, it's foods. For my child, it's clothing--jeans to be more specific.

I have the most adorable gap jeans (bought used, of course!) that I've been dying to have her wear, but I may as well be trying to dress her in poison ivy. Just the sight of them sends her running and screaming "I NO WEAR JEANS!!! THEY TOO TIGHT!!"

I've tried the loose fitting kind, capris, shorts, skirts; but in my effort to get her to warm up to the rancid fabric I have simply encouraged further revulsion on her end. "Jeans" are now anything but stretchy cotton pants. That means no corduroy, no khakis, no anything that could possibly resemble the general shape (or "tightness") of jeans. No bribery in the world allows me to get them on her without tears- and even then they only stay on for a few seconds before a tantrum ensues.

So I've decided to choose my battles and am not even going to put the next size jeans in her drawer.

*Sigh*...they were just so cute...

Fly on the Wall

"Mommy! Mommy! I have a question!"

"Yes, Samantha, what is your question."

"........"

We're still working on the meaning of "question"

Fly on the Wall- Classroom Edition

I was administering a listening part of a test. The students had to indicate whether the statement I read was "logical" or "illogical". After reading the first one a native Spanish speaking student started to laugh. Seeing as this was a test, I called on him, across the room, "What's so funny?" I asked (I know I know, rookie teacher mistake).
"It's just funny. It doesn't make any sense."
Cue dramatic pause before everyone (including the student) realized that he just gave the answer to the rest of the class.

Sam's Signature

Back in October or so I showed Sam how to draw a smiley face. It pretty much became her signature and we found random smiley faces on every piece of paper we left lying around. I thought I'd give her a little variety, so I showed her how to draw tears to make a sad face too. If I'm not careful, my students get papers handed back with smiley faces and crying smiling faces on them.
Luckily, they think it's pretty cool.

Signing "Cry"

Happy Tears