After School

I've been meaning to type this entry for a long time now, giving descriptions of the pictures. Realistically, it's not going to happen, so I'm just posting the pics:)

After Maia's first day of school, I took the kids to Friendly's and a good time was had by all. The End.

Maia's First Day of Kindergarten

My little girl went off to Kindergarten today. Almost all the other moms cried, but I kept my cool. Yes, I felt a bit sad, but I was so happy for her! She is so ready to begin school, meet new friends, and learn exciting things!

Background information: In our little town, all the students are expected to walk to school. No buses are provided, except for Kindergarten, because the building is a 1/4 mile or so outside of the city limits. This is the only year Maia will ever get to ride a bus, and she is psyched about it.

The bus picks up all the children at the elementary school. When you arrive, you take your child to this little room inside the school, and they are checked in. Then they sit and wait together until the bus arrives. The parents hang out outside, as can be seen in the above picture. Actually, I was photographing the bus that just pulled up.

Here comes Maia, coming out of the building and in line to get on the bus. It was very cute seeing all the kids lined up in a single-file line.

Pausing to say hello...

A final goodbye...

This was Tai's expression when the bus pulled away. He was pretty devastated that his sister had been taken away on a big yellow bus. When we got home, he cried for a long time. The only thing he would say was "buh." I knew he meant bus, and it made me want to cry too.

Stay tuned for the next post to see the reunion!

I'm Back

Wow! Two months with no posts? That is bad, even for me! Actually, it is my personal record.

Get ready! Some really exciting posts coming your way in the next few days!

How's that for a teaser?

The Most Exciting Weekend of the Year

June has been fairly low-key for us. We've been enjoying the summer and trying to stay out of trouble. This weekend, however, is going to be HUGE.

On Saturday, Yoshi's parents are arriving for a 10 day stay. Maia is overjoyed, and we are all looking forward to seeing them and spending some time together.

On Sunday, we are hosting Maia's 5th birthday party! Most of you know how worked up I get about entertaining, so needless to say we have a lot going on in the cleaning/organizing/planning department.

I have just a few goals for the party:

1) I will have time to put on decent clothes and make-up.

2) I will not be running around like a crazy lady when the guests arrive.

3) I will actually ENJOY talking to everyone and the entertaining aspect of the
party rather than running around like the crazy lady mentioned above.

4) OF COURSE, the guests will all enjoy themselves!

5) Yoshi's parents will get to meet our friends and enjoy the party as well!

6) Maia will have a happy memory of her party.

To help with the above items, I've asked a local teenager who was advertising babysitting services in the newspaper to come and help us. Hopefully, this will free up Yoshi to focus on the more "entertaining" aspects of the party as well. The theme of the party is "Let's Get Messy," and I'm anticipating it will be a blast.

Then again, the weather forecast is 92 degrees and rainy, so we may all be stuck inside the house. If that happens, well... Realistically, the party won't be as amazing if it is held inside, but we can certainly try! If everyone has a good time, and I don't have a nervous breakdown, it will be a success!

Okay, must go, Tai has found Yoshi's golf clubs!

Maia Update

I just heard from the doctor's office, and it turns out that our doctor suspects Maia is not eating enough fiber and drinking enough water. Her abdominal x-ray revealed a lot of stool in her abdominal area. Yes, that's right, the ugly constipation word. Though I've never noticed it, and she goes pretty regularly, the doctor suspects it is not enough and things are getting backed up. The result, if the food stays in your stomach too long and doesn't go out the way it should, is for it to come out the other way.

Who would have thought? Well, I am so relieved it is not more serious and will be on a campaign to get Maia to eat more veggies. Usually, I try not to battle about food, and she eats really well, but she doesn't always like her veggies. It's odd to me that other people we know don't eat anything but pizza and hamburgers, but have no constipation problems. Maia eats a fairly well-rounded diet! Maybe she doesn't have veggies with every meal, but definitely fruit. So much for not being obsessive over what she eats! I'm going to have to be the controlling parent telling her she HAS to finish the veggies.

The other thing about water intake makes sense to me, because we've been working on staying dry at night, and one of the suggestions for that is to limit water intake after 6 p.m. or so. Usually, Maia drinks tons of water all day long, and now I'm thinking that limiting it wasn't such a great idea. But she's stayed dry for about three weeks now, so maybe limiting the water won't be necessary anymore.

Okay, we are all back to being healthy again for the moment, so I guess I won't have to find a shrink after all. Wish me luck with the vegetable campaign!

Worry

When Spring finally arrived this year, I was so thrilled that we would finally get a reprieve from all the sickness we had the entire winter. It seemed like the children spent most of the winter with runny noses and coughs. Then there was Tai's infamous breathing episode that struck fear into our hearts.

Well, the month of April was wonderful, but now that May is here, it looks like the kids are getting sick again. On Friday night, Tai started wheezing, and his inhaler didn't work. We got to spend the evening in the urgent care, where he got a breathing treatment and was fine minutes later. The doctor suggested asthma triggered by a virus as the culprit. We were pretty lucky this time because I recognized the symptoms of the attack instantly and got Tai help right away. He never stopped running around and playing throughout his breathing episode, even though he was wheezing heavily.

Wow, this parenting gig is tough sometimes! Though I'm not a worrier by nature, I often find myself fraught with anxiety about my the health of my kids. As I drove into the urgent care parking lot on Friday, I found myself thinking that it would be so convenient if they had a counseling center for the parents near the urgent care. Just imagine the conversations I would have!

As if this were not enough, Maia has been waking up and complaining of feeling sick during the night. Not every night, but once a week or every other week. Her belly is upset and she throws up...not once, but every 20 minutes or so for 2 to 3 hours. The first couple of times, we assumed she had the stomach flu, but this has been going on for too long. The interesting thing is that she is absolutely fine during the day and eats really well. Once her nauseous time is over, it's like it never happened.

The doctor is concerned about this and has no idea what it could be, so yesterday Maia had to have an abdominal x-ray and blood work. We should know the results sometime today.

Does anyone have the number of a good shrink?

Cleaning Kiddos

Accomplishing a task is so much more complicated with children underfoot. I cannot tell you all how much I rue all the unproductive hours I wasted before I became a mother. Quite often, I imagine how industrious I will be once the kids are old enough not to need constant entertainment. I wonder if I will keep up my vigilant cleaning/cooking schedule, or if I will begin to slack off. Actually, I have the perfect plan. The KIDS can assume some of the cleaning responsibilities. How brilliant is this?

As you can see from this cute video, I am already training Tai. Maia was trying to steal the spotlight, but I think most viewers will be able to observe that Tai is a cleaning prodigy.