Preschool "Graduation"

Calli "graduated" from preschool on Tuesday. I could launch into how silly I think it is for a bunch of four- and five-year-olds to "graduate" from anything. I could tell you that I think graduation is a term meant for finishing high school or college; a feat actually worthy of a celebration. Kids have to learn to be proud of themselves instead of us patting them on the back for every little thing they do. You completed the 2nd grade? Let's put on caps and gowns and walk down the aisle so you can graduate! Halleluah! Whatever happened to just quietly moving up a grade and being proud of yourself for the fact that you did that? Now we have to throw a great big "graduation" each year and tell you how wonderful you are. And no matter if we as parents agree with it or not, we have to go. Can you imagine Calli in couseling someday telling her therapist that the root of all her issues started when her mommy didn't attend her preschool graduation? I mean seriously, it's a little ridiculous. Caps and gowns for the preschoolers? They are only just beginning their education so to apply the term "graduating" to something like that...well, it's just silly. I won't even go into the fact that I'm not even sure I totally agree with the preschool movement that has swept the nation. But like I said, I could go into it all, but I won't ;)

So back to "graduation" day (yes, the word "graduation" will be found in quotes this entire blog entry to emphasize how I feel about it). I dropped Calli off at school at 9am and had to go waste an hour before we were supposed to come back for the "graduation". The little ones and I went to Starbucks down the street, yum!! Then it was time to go back and get our seats for the "graduation" to begin. All the other moms (and some dads) were ready with their video cameras to record this significant moment in time. The "graduates" walked down the aisle one by one and took their seats in front. Mrs. Tina, the director, led them in a prayer song. Then the kids got up and performed two songs they had practiced: the first one was Seven Days in a Week and the next was a song about Zacchaeus, based on the story in the Bible. Mrs. Tina made a short speech and then each child was called up front by their teacher, Mrs. Julie. She asked them quietly what they wanted to be when they grew up and then repeated their answers for all to hear. When it was her turn, Calli said she wanted to be "a mom and a singer". That was pretty cute. Then each child walked across the stage, pausing on the "bridge" to take a photo before getting their certificate from Mrs. Tina. At the end all the kids came and gave their moms a rose, which was very sweet and probably my favorite part. Then we celebrated with cupcakes and punch and the kids went back to class to finish the rest of their day.
 Today is Calli's last day of Mother's Day Out and they are having fun water time for part of the day. She got to go to school dressed in her bathing suit and Hannah Montana towel. I can't believe that she is all done with preschool! It doesn't seem that long ago that I was signing her up and now we've reached the end of the year. I have to say, it's going to be a LONG summer with her home every day (yes, I am THAT mom that enjoys my few hours a week without her and I don't think that makes me a bad one. In fact, I think the opposite: it makes me a better mom because I get a break). We are going to have to try to find ways to keep busy and cool or we'll be inside 24/7 getting on each other's nerves and being bored and that's not nice for anyone. Before I know it September will be here and we'll be packing her backpack and sending her off for (a ridiculously long day - here in Texas kindergarten is a full eight hour day!!!!) school. My baby girl sure is growing up!

Serena and Jameson waiting for the "graduation" to start

Calli coming down the aisle

Taking her seat

Performing the songs

Calli telling Mrs. Julie what she wants to be when she grows up

Time for the paparazzi to take photos

Getting her certificate from Mrs. Tina

The "Class of 2010"

Calli with her preschool friends.  The little boy is the one Calli has said she is going to marry since the day school started.

Cupcake time!

Calli in her pretty dress I got the day before at Dillards on clearance for $12.  What a steal!!

Slippin' n Slidin'

We broke out the slip n slide for the first time this season last weekend.  The weather has been downright terrible here; it has been SO humid and cloudy.  I think we are in for a very wet and sticky summer, but I'm going to *try* not to bitch too much about it because it will be the last summer I have to spend here.  It's all about the silver linings right?  So on Saturday we weren't doing much of anything; the girls were bored out of their minds in the house while Jameson was napping.  It was very overcast and muggy, but more than warm enough to get wet.  So I dug up the slip n slide from the depths of the garage clutter and started blowing it up (thank God for electric pumps!).  While I was doing that I felt some raindrops.  OF COURSE.  No rain the forecast, but weather can change on a dime here.  Luckily the sprinkles let up and the girls were going to get wet anyway, so I continued on with the pumping of the slide.

I knew Calli would be excited to play, but I never know what to expect from Serena when it comes to the water.  Sometimes she likes it and sometimes she doesn't.  She put her bathing suit on with no problem and ran out there with Calli.  While Calli will just jump right in, Serena is more hesitant, but eventually she got in there and had a blast.  Richard even put on his swim trunks to take some turns down the slide with the girls.

The girls also had fun playing with their new Minnie Water Squirters

The worst part for me is always after they are done playing.  They had grass all over them and despite the fact that Richard claimed to have hosed them off, it was everywhere.  I don't do well seeing my kids messy and usually want to have an anxiety attack right on the spot.  So I wiped them down as best I could and tried to remember that the point of the afternoon was that they had a lot of fun.

Jameson Walking!

Boys will be boys

I sort of never thought I would have a boy.  After having two younger sisters and then two daughters of my own, it seemed that life was destined to surround me with females.  I was fine with that; I love little girls!  What could be more fun than picking out dresses, painting fingernails and doing hair?  I always passed by the boys clothing section, glad I didn't have to try and pick out things I liked amongst all the giraffes, airplanes and firetrucks (for the record, I like none of those themes!).  The selection for baby boys clothing was miniscule in comparison with the girls.  And one time I made a mistake of taking a detour down a boys toy aisle: wow, I was so out of my league!  Do they really enjoy playing with tiny cars, little legos and transformers??  I had to run to the girls' section to reassure myself that the dress up clothes and Barbies were so much cuter and more fun.

So then I got pregnant with Jameson and instead of a third girl he turned out to be our first boy.  Infant dresses and pink ruffles were replaced by rompers and onsies.  The purple nursery was turned into a sports theme.  And slowly we opened our lives to the color BLUE.  But although he was a boy, as a baby it doesn't really matter; they are all the same.  They all eat, poop and sleep and don't do much else.  Now that he is growing up I can see differences between him and his sisters.  It's fun, but at the same time it's scary because I realize I am totally out of my element.

First of all, he is so much bigger than either of the girls were.  At about 25 pounds he and Serena nearly weigh the same despite being fourteen months apart in age.  This is just one reason why I am ready for him to walk!!  He also eats like crazy; the boy is a bottomless pit.  I don't think I have ever seen him full because he will never end a meal himself.  If I don't cut him off, I think he would continue eating until he exploded.  He is eating us out of house and home already.  He is also very rough already and it must be all the testosterone in him or something!  He loves to hit and thinks it's just hilarious.  He also throws things all the time.  I've been trying to ignore him lately because I found that when I acknowledged what he was doing and told him "NO" he thought this was so funny and laughed at me while he threw something else at my head.  I know he is doing it for attention so I try not to give it to him.

Jameson has no fear.  He climbs up on the couches and will fall off head first and pop back up no worse for the wear.  Last week he did a complete somersault of the couch and thought it was pretty cool.  I swear this boy is going to fall out of a thousand trees when he gets bigger!  He also loves to climb up the stairs.  We keep a gate at the bottom, but sometimes it gets left off and forgotten about, like last night for instance.  Richard had just come home from the gym with the kids and I was busy cooking dinner.  A few minutes went by and I heard a noise from Jameson, the kind of noise I could tell was coming from upstairs.  I dropped my cooking spatula and ran to the stairs and sure enough, the gate was off and there was Jameson at the top getting ready to crawl down.  I swear he made noise just to call us over so he could show us the cool trick he did.  I raced up the stairs, calling to him the whole way to distract him from putting his hand down the next step and taking a tumble.  When I scooped him up he just smiled at me, thinking he was the coolest kid ever I'm sure!  No fear.  The problem is that all his unused fear is transfered to me and I am doubly worried about what kind of trouble that kid will get into.

He's starting to take more and more steps as he becomes more confident in himself.  He hesitates to let go, but when he does he can get about four to five steps before falling or reaching whatever he was going for.  I love experiencing the first wobbly steps with a new walker.  I am anxious for him to put it all together, but it's a fun process.  He'll be running along with Calli and Serena soon I'm sure!  For now, I am just happy he is finally getting there.  I know babies who walk before one year old are early, but both my girls were taking their first steps around 9-10 months and walking proficiently by their birthday.  I knew that wouldn't be the case with Jameson so it's nice that he is even getting started this early.  Can you believe our little boy will be ONE in exactly a week from today?  I sure can't!  At this time last year I was one day over my due date and wondering why I always got stuck with the babies who didn't want to leave my uterus.  I was so hoping for a May baby (we already had a June bug and I thought it would be cool to have April, May and June babies).  Jameson had other plans for us and thought he wanted to be born in the cool month of June along with his biggest sister and grandmas.  As we approach the date, I can't believe a year has flown by, but I am also glad.  It is so nice to be out of the infant stage and getting some sleep again.  I've broken Jameson of his 5am bottle in the last few days and even put him down without his bedtime one last night.  So this means he is down to just one bottle a day when he wakes up in the morning (at a decent time!).  I am so looking forward to the fact that I have just one more week of washing and dealing with bottles, hurray!!  It has been a LONG time coming.  We had bottles in this house for two years, with a brief two month break between Serena and Jameson.  I will not miss those things one bit.  I will miss having a baby, just a *little* bit.  Although I think it does get easier to care for them as they get older, babies are just so sweet and innocent and pure.

Now if only we could get rid of the diapers...

Off to change Jameson's second poopy diaper of the day before I've even had my coffee.

Boys will be boys...

Perfection

My kids are not perfect.  They refuse to help with the laundry and chores.

They give me MAJOR attitude!

They are constantly getting into things they aren't supposed to be getting into.

They play with their food at the dinner table.

They are forever demanding snacks throughout the day, despite the fact that they just ate five minutes earlier.

No, my kids aren't perfect, but they sure are cute.  And when I have reached the end of my rope (which happens quite a few times a day) I like to look at their smiling faces and get pulled back in.

Happy Mother's Day!

Being a Mom is hard.  It doesn't start out easy and it doesn't get any easier as they age.  From the time we see those two pink lines on the positive pregnancy test, life as we know it has changed.  Suddenly there is a new fear and worry instilled inside our minds that will never go away.  We go through nine months of pregnancy trying to eat all the right things and stay away from all the bad things.  We spend the first year of their life worrying about SIDS, worrying about every little thing that could go wrong.  We spend the next few years worrying about their well being and hoping we are making the right decisions that will shape them into good people someday.  We spend the school years worrying about all the time they are spending away from us and hoping we made the right decision to let them explore the world on their own (we did).  We spend the teenage years worrying about them driving without us, breaking curfew, getting bad grades.  And even when they become adults, the worry will never end.  I envision my children leaving me someday, deciding to follow their military spouse to a tiny island on the other side of the world and I wonder how I will feel.  Heartbroken, most likely.  Families seem to go in so many different directions these days, moving to different states and countries and it makes me sad.  I make Calli promise me that she will live down the street someday when she gets older.  I want to find that good balance: I want my children to grow up and be independent and not live in my basement forever, but I don't want them to go too far.  Eighteen years is not enough.  Is there ever enough time in the world?  It seems like with each child I've had the days have shortened.  When Calli was an infant I used to sit around the house and be immensly bored.  Sure there was the task of nursing her every two hours like clockwork, but I counted the minutes until Richard got home from work.  Now two kids later, I don't have time to count the minutes; before I know it the clock is hitting 4:00pm and Richard is walking through the door and I realize there are dishes in the sink I haven't had a chance to get to.  That trip to the grocery store I needed to make never got done.  And that pile of clean laundry?  Still sitting in the laundry basket in my room waiting to be put away.  Just getting four people ready in the morning eats two hours of time.

Being a mom is hard.  We don't get paid time off.  We don't get vacations and even if we did, we'd spend the whole time worrying about our kids.  I consider it a vacation if I can sleep from 10pm to 5am without waking up (this is becoming more and more of a reality which I am extremely grateful for!).  There is always work to be done.  There is always another load of laundry to put in or dishes to do or a mess to sweep up on the kitchen floor.  Don't even bother picking up the toys during the day because with three kids, they will inevitably end up back on the floor in 6.7 seconds.

Being a mom is hard.  We always wonder if we are doing a good enough job.  Am I shaping my kids into good people?  Am I instilling good morals and values that will last a lifetime?  Am I teaching manners?  Numbers?  Letters?  Proper hygeine?  Is my kid smart enough, funny enough, athletic enough?  Is my kid too spoiled?  Do they get enough exercise and sleep?  Questions that I will not know the answers to for a very long time.

Richard and I are blessed to have wonderful mothers who love and care about us and who raised us right.  A lot of who I am, I owe to my mother.  I wish I could put into words the thanks I feel, but I hope she can feel it, especially when she sees me with my own children.  What do you say to the person who gave you life and who made extreme sacrifices in their own life every day to make sure that you were taken care of?  Thank you sure doesn't seem to cut it.

So Happy Mother's Day to my mom, my mother-in-law, my grandmothers watching over me, Richard's grandmothers and all my Mommy friends who keep me sane and I don't know what I would do without!  And thank you to my children for making me a mother and pushing me to be the best one I can be. 

Goodbye Helmet!

We did it!  We are officially done with Jameson's helmet; 100% completely, totally and utterly finished with it!  The last actual day he had to wear it was April 6th.  I took him in to the orthotist for his end of treatment.  I was really happy that I followed my gut and decided to keep it on him for the extra month because he had a big growth spurt and his head dropped from a five to a three!  His brachy also improved; overall that is still not in the normal range, but that one isn't a big deal.  The brachycephaly is when the head's width to length ratio is off and it's flatter across the back.  It's pretty round and I can see how it could be rounder, but from the scans you can see how it "popped" out the last month.  My main concern was always the flat spot on the left side and we have seen significant improvement.  I am still waiting for his hair to grow in more so it will completely cover the flatness, but I am so happy with how far we have come.  From 14mm assymetry down to 3mm!  A baby's head is an amazing thing because of the way it grows so much in that first year.

I think I will always struggle with his head shape.  After having been through this whole experience, I can see it's not completely round.  It still bothers me a little and I think that's normal.  We always want to give our kids the best in life and make sure we do everything right.  I know I did right by him making him wear that helmet for five months even though it wasn't always easy for either of us.  After never having any issues with the helmet for 4.5 months, Jameson finally got his first red spots five days before he was scheduled to get it off!  They were pretty severe spots, but a little shaving of the inside of the helmet gave him more space to grow and the red marks went away.

Although April 6th was his last official "day" with the helmet he still had three weeks of "nighttime wear" to do.  He not only had to wear it at night, but for naps and any time he was in a stroller or carseat because his head was flat against it.  I will admit I was more leniant and didn't make him wear it all the time.  He wore it every night and for about 50% of the naps, but it's so much harder to take it on and off constantly than just leaving it on 23 hours a day.  So his last night with it was April 29th and now the helmet is just sitting on my living room while I figure out what to do with it.  It's a $2,400 helmet, I can't just toss it in the garbage!!  The paint is peeling, are are the stickers and the inside is brownish colored from wear, but I think I'll save it.  I will show him someday what we went through to get that head of his a little rounder.  Who knows, maybe he'll say "thanks Mom and Dad".

Here is Mr. Flathead on his first day of head scans last November.  I remember thinking what a long process this was going to be, but I was happy to get it done.  This day of being finished seemed so far away.

And what a wonderful feeling to get the helmet off and see such improvement.  It made it all worth it.