Catching up....

I was doing a pretty good job of posting at least once or twice a week, but I've gotten off track. I'll try to do better! :) I still wonder if I'm talking to myself, but thanks to my friend Jenni for commenting so I know you've been here. And thanks to Auntie M for e-mailing me to let me know I've been missed.

I haven't talked about the kids lately, so how about an update?

Chewie will be 10 in just over a month. WOW!! It's been a long road since that first phone call! He is in the 4th grade and doing well. He made "A/B Honor Roll". (4 A's and 1 B). Math was his lowest subject. On the standardized test last year, he was borderline in math. So he is going to start an afterschool tutoring program next week. It's supposed to be fun. I told him he needs to try it for two weeks and then we'll talk about it. His favorite subject continues to be science. He loves to watch Mythbusters on the Discovery Channel. He dreams of blowing stuff in the name of science!

Chewie is still recovering from his surgery in July. (There was a post about it awhile back.) He's had about a month of physical therapy with an awesome PT named Lance. Lance has had him bring in his bicycle and golf clubs to help Chewie with the things that are important to him. We are waiting to see if insurance will cover the final 2 weeks of PT that are recommended.

Chewie is an awesome big brother, and he loves to help out around the house. Of course, he has his moments.....but he's a great kid! Chewie is going to be a Star Wars Clone Trooper for Halloween.

Crunchy turned 4 in July. She is a bundle of energy and cuddles all wrapped up together! Crunchy is attending the school district pre-K/4 class. She gets extra help with her motor skills. She loves to sing and memorizes the words to any song after hearing it just once. She belts out songs full force, whether she's singing, "I am free to run! I am free to dance! I am free to live for You! I am free!" or "When there is a fire drill, lock your lips and listen to the teacher". After just a few times through Leap Frog Letter Factory, she can tell you what sound every letter makes. ("every letter makes a sound and B says buh").

After what seemed like forever, Crunchy has had success in potty training. She's been wearing panties to school for more than a month and has not had a single accident a school (or at church.) She's still having some trouble at home. We are working on consistency, and getting ready to make sure there is not a medical problem causing her trouble. (We don't want to treat it as defiance if she really doesn't know she needs to go.)

Today, Crunchy told me, "Girls like to kiss boys". Uh oh. We're in trouble. Crunchy loves Dora, Sky Dancer, anything Princess and books. For Halloween, she is going to be Hannah Montana. She had the hair for it. We just needed to add some fancy clothes.

Munchie. My baby. He's 2 1/2. (Wow!?!?) He loves to climb. We have to lock everything down. Recently he's spilt maple syrup (twice), soy sauce, conditioner, and an entire bottle of bubble bath in his bedroom. I guess he likes the way it feels!? Munchie just started receiving speech services. He has a lot of words, but is often difficult to understand. He loves his speech therapist.

Munchie's great loves in life are the movie Cars and Thomas the Tank Engine. Mostly Thomas. He spots Thomas merchandise from across the room. And there is a lot of Thomas merchandise in the stores right now. Munchie is going to be Thomas for Halloween. I was going to make his costume, but I decided to just buy the one in the store. He loves it.

Okay....now you are up to date.

I can hear you now!

Three years ago I decided to get my hearing evaluated. I have a family history of hearing loss. My brother has lost most of his hearing in both ears. My Daddy needed hearing aids by about 40, and his Dad was nearly deaf by his mid 30's. About 10 years ago, my brother was diagnosed with "otoscherlosis". Basically one of the bones in the ear calsified and doesn't vibrate any more. Stephen's was diagnosed by an MRI (after a head injury). The only way to confirm otoschrelosis is with a test like an MRI, or by actually doing surgery. My doctor was confortable calling my loss "otoschrelosis" based on family history and pattern of loss.

My loss is equal in both ears, but my insurance would only cover one appliance. Anyway, I've been wearing a hearing aid for about 3 years. Well....some days. Working with kids, I often take it out. Because the noise in daycares it too much for the sensitive hearing aid. (I hear every noise and scream!) A few months ago, I found out about a program through our state DVR (Division of Vocational Rehabilitation) that could help me get a new set of digital ears--with noise reduction to help cancel our very loud things (like screams!).

Today, I picked up my new hearing aids. My old one was concealed inside the ear. My new ones go over the top (and behind my ear) with a tube that goes into my ear canal. It's going to take some getting used to. I've already had to turn my cell phone down. I'm sure my office phone will be WAAAAY too loud too. The TV already seems to be BLARING!

So....here's a picture of my new hearing aid.

I can hear you now!


http://www.audiologyonline.com/management/uploads/news/AZ60_Mini-BTE-Thintube.jpg

If you didn't have birthday, you wouldn't be you...

If We Didn’t Have Birthdays
By Dr. Seuss

If we didn’t have birthdays, you wouldn’t be you.
If you’d never been born, well then what would you do?

If you’d never been born, well then what would you be?
You might be a fish! Or a toad in a tree!

You might be a doorknob! Or three baked potatoes!
You might be a bag full of hard green tomatoes.

Or worse than all that…Why, you might be a WASN’T!
A Wasn’t has no fun at all. No, he doesn’t.

A Wasn’t just isn’t. He just isn’t present.
But you…You are YOU! And, now isn’t that pleasant!


Tomorrow is my birthday, and I cried all the way to church this morning. I'm not really sure why. It's not a big "milestone" birthday, like 30 or 40. I am now closer to 30 than 35, but age has never mattered to me. (In fact, last month I had to ask John if I was already 38 or turning 38. The answer is, I will be 38 tomorrow.

I've always loved my birthday. I've never been ashamed of my age and I like it when people remember and acknowledge my birthday. Can I confess here? The first year I was married, I bought myself a pin that said, "It's my birthday" and gave it to John to "give" to me! I love birthdays!

So....why so melancholy today? What's different this year? The only thing I can figure is that it seems like nothing has changed since last year this time. I think the biggest disappointment is my weight. About 18 months ago, I set a goal to lose over 100 pounds by my 38th birthday. But, here I sit at the same weight I started. I've lost as much as 30 pounds, but it comes back quickly.

I have never been obsessed with my weight or diets. I don't want to spend my entire life obsessed with food. But the closer I get to 40, the more concerned I am about my high risk for diabetes. I want to live long enough to see my kids, grandkids, and even great-grandkids (?).

Maybe this will be the year I reach (or at least come close to) my goal.

Happy birthday to me.

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Potty Training: An exercise in humility?

I try not to spend too much time on my blog talking about child-rearing activities. But potty training has been a big issue in our house lately.... After about 9 years of diapers (well, some of those years overlapped) on three kids, I fancy mysefl a bit of an expert.

I'm beginning to believe that God may have created the potty training process simply as a means of humbling parents. I have really struggled with potty training and MY self image. I am a teacher. I'm a "Developmental Specialist II" who works with kids from birth to three. I'm supposed to be an expert in child development. But I struggled with potty training. Often, I felt like a failure: both as a mom and as a professional. I posted before in this blog about how I realized that even the perfect parent (God) has children who don't do their best or make the best choices. So I try not to beat myself up.

1. No matter how many books you read and theories you try the bottom line is: You can put a kid on the potty, but you can't force them to poop. My oldest was not interested. We tried everything from gentle to "you aren't getting up 'til you put something in the potty" tactics. Nothing worked. I was horrified to admit, at his 3 year check up that he was in diapers. Our doctor assured us he would be fine. 3 weeks later, he figured it out on his own. He potty trained in a day---without us setting a timer.

So when our daughter approached three, I wasn't too concerned. Then she approached 4. I tried everything. I begged. I bribed. Nothing worked. Until she was ready.

2. Just when you think you have it figured out.....watch out!
My son, once he figured it out, didn't have accidents. He went from pull ups to underwear in a day. No accidents. My daughter, once she had a couple of sucesses was ready to try panties. Today is day 10 in panties. She's had a total of 4 accidents. Two of them, she made it to the bathroom, but didn't get undressed fast enough. That was until today. Today she had two (poopy!) accidents. One was at home. The other was at McDonald's--in the play area.

3. Sometimes "close" is good enough.
My youngest (2 years, 3 months) has no interest in the potty. But he LOVES Thomas the Tank Engine. Today, I found some Thomas reward stickers. He was on my lap today, and I showed him the stickers. I told him he'd get one for sitting and two for going. He squeaked, "scuse me" and jumped off my lap. After he was settled on the potty chair, I stepped out to do something. (Big brother stayed with him.) Next thing I know, I hear "Big Bubba" calling, "He peed! He peed!---just not in the potty!" Turns out, the splash guard was missing from his chair. While there was some pee in the potty, most of it was on the floor. But this time, close was good enough for me.

Your (very!) humble servant....