Saturday, August 30, 2008

Enjoying the reward

I guess riding the bus was all worth it.

Plus Nathan got to have some fun too!

and a picture of Megan being Megan

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Bribery

It totally works, and I'm not ashamed to say that I'll be taking full advantage of it in order to maintain my sanity. Sean made a deal with Emma that if she rides the bus willingly and without crying every day this week he'll take her to the go-karts this weekend. It's working, and I'm less angry at her every day. I decided to print off a calendar for September to make a sticker chart for Emma, and if she earns enough (not sre how many), she will get a special treat at the end of each month. That seems fair to me, and if it keeps me from going insane I'm all for it. Now if stickers could only make Megan nap well daily...

Monday, August 25, 2008

I was right

There is something about intuition because I was right. That is all

up again

I hate not being able to sleep. At least I know why tonight, but it doesn't make it any better knowing how exhausted I'll be tomorrow. I'm so worried about how Emma is going to act in the morning. I don't know if I can deal with what went down last week. It's just too much for me right now. Plus I am stressing out today about everything imaginable. Do you ever have those days that you just worry about everything, even things you can't control? I do that a lot, especially when I'm pregnant, and then I just can't turn my brain off and relax to go to sleep. It's so frustrating!

Friday, August 22, 2008

better day

Today was a much better day. I wish I knew why so I could repeat it Monday, but I really think Emma is the only who knows why she's doing things the way she is. Sean went in late to help get her on the bus, because I knew if she had another meltdown today I would lose it even worse than I did yesterday. I'm hoping dad being here is not the reason Emma did so well this morning because he can't stay late and get her on the bus every morning. There were no tears at all this morning, and she willingly got on the bus, and I havne't heard from her school at all, so I'm assuming no news is good news.

Nathan started preschool again today. He was so happy he finally got to go to school too, and he danced around the house all morning saying, "I'm going to school today, I'm going to school today!" It was really cute and a much welcomed change from Emma's reaction to school. When we got to school he said, "I'm going to miss you mom." I said, "I know, but you'll have so much fun with your teacher and I'll be back soon." Then he said, "Ok, bye!" And that was that. He's so easy going sometimes it's hard to believe he's even related to Emma.
And here's a picture of Nathan today.

and here is a picture from last year. He has grown up so much!


and here are Emma's pictures from last year and this year just to compare.

and this year:

Thursday, August 21, 2008

school called

But thankfully it was good news. The counselor called and said Emma wsa in class and fine now. She said she and the teacher who was helping get Emma inside actually had to carry Emma into her office one holding her arms and the other with her legs because she wouldn't go. She said it was good that I left like I did, and that it's important to get Emma to school every day even if she throws a fit and even if she can't make it the whole day without me picking her up early. She also said Emma's teacher would call me later. Now, how do I get through that phone call without crying? It's like I just can't stop today. UGHHH!

...the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day

Umm, this morning has sucked. It's not the worst morning I've ever had my whole life, but it's right up there. Emma woke me up this morning at 6:30 to tell me she had a cough. I told her when it was time to get up we'd eat breakfast and then I'd giver he some medicine. She seemed ok and went back to bed since we don't have to get up until 7:15. It wasn't long before she was back whining that her stomach hurt and she didn't want to go to school. I did good today and told her she was going to school, and if she was really sick the nurse would call me to come get her. She cried all morning, refused to eat breakfast, and alternated between saying my tummy hurts, I don't want to go to school, and I don't like school it's not fun there. I told her she was going to school today regardless. We took her to the doctor yesterday and he gave us medicine for the only thing that might be wrong with her, so there was nothing else I could do.
At least she willing walked to the bus stop today. Then the bus arrived and she started screaming. I don't mean crying louder, I mean screaming, "I don't want to go to school!" while she cried. This of course led to me crying and begging her to get on the bus. I actually physically drug her onto the bus and when I backed up so the bus could leave, she ran off it. That happened 4 or 5, maybe more, times before I gave up and said I'd just take her to school myself so the bus wasn't any later than we'd already made it. God love Emma's bus driver. She's been doing it for 15 years and gave me a sympathetic smile and said Emma will get used to school and things will get better.
So I walked Emma back home, woke up Megan, and put everyone in the car. We got to school Emma got out of the car and walked inside willingly. At the door most of the other parents were stopping, so I gave Emma a hug there and told her I loved her and I'd see her later. I watched her walk in and turn the corner to go to her class and then turned around and started walking back to the car with the other two. Ten feet later I hear it; Emma screaming. I turn around begging in my head for it not to be her. It was. Luckily a teacher was coming after her. The teacher asked if Emma was mine, and I said yes. Thankfully this teacher took pity on me and said she's take Emma to class. Last I saw Emma was clinging to the handrail by the sidewalk outside of her school screaming and crying. The good news is school started 30 minutes ago and I haven't gotten a phone call yet.
I am a mess now. I am hideous when I cry, so just imagine what I look like after two days of it. I don't know what to do, but if things don't get better with her really fast, I'm going to need serious psychiatric help to survive. I can't believe I have "that" kid, and all I can do is cry about it.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

not anymore

Emma hates school, so much so that the last two mornings have left me on the verge of a nervouse breakdown. She doesn't just complain about it and say she doesn't want to go, she throws a fit, screams and cries and well, you the idea. Today she even started in with the whole, my tummy hurts crap. I think it really did hurt, but she went to the bathroom and then life was good and she finished breakfast and was ready to go. We got shoes on headed out the door and got just past the neighbors house when she wigged out and wouldn't walk any further toward te bus stop. I tried telling her she'd be fine and we'd just go up and wait for the bus and she'd feel better. Nope, nothing. So we went back to the house with her screaming like I was killing her. I decided fine she can miss the bus because school is less than 10 minutes away and I'll drive her in a little bit once she calmed down. She didn't calm down. She ended up not going to school today, making me cry, and Sean had to come home from work and take her to the doctor to make sure she was ok. The doctor did say she seemed a little tender in her belly in the area that would suggest reflux, so now she has some prevacid to take every night. I hope to God this helps because I can't take anymore of what went on today. It was awful!

Thursday, August 14, 2008

first day of kindergarten

Today was much better than expected. I did not cry. I came close, but Emma looked up at me with a worried look, so instead I smiled and told her she was going to have so much fun, and I put her on the bus. She was so excited all morning and didn't seem nervous at all, until the bus arrived. As soon as that big yellow bus pulled up and she realized she had to get on it by herself, she got this freaked out look on her face. That was when I just smiled and told her to get on the bus. As soon as she was on the bus she was fine. She sat in a seat on the side we were standing on and waved excitedly with a huge smile on her face as the bus pulled away.

I think it helped all of us that Sean went in to work a little late and he was there to say good-bye as she got on the bus. He also called me around lunchtime to make sure I was ok and I hadn't heard anything from school. Thankfully we didn't get any phone calls today, and Emma was perfectly fine when she got home.

It was such a quiet day in our house. Megan is really too young for Nathan to fight with the way he does with Emma, so things were pretty pleasant here today. Nathan did seem a little lost without Emma this morning until Megan got up. But once she was up he was fine since he had someone to play with. It's amazing how different kids are without their siblings.

Emma was still excited when she got home, but that lasted about 10 minutes and then the fighting with Nathan, and the whining began. I know it's because she was really tired, so I tried to give her a break, but bedtime couldn't come soon enough. I know next week is going to be really hard on Emma after seeing how tired she was today, but she'll adjust and things will get better...right?
and now for the pictures:



hodge-podge

There are a bunch of things going on around here, and rather than making several super tiny posts, you get one big hodge-podge post instead.
( I wish I knew how to make bullets on blogger)

-I think nesting has hit me ridiculously early. Either that or I've completely lost my mind. There truly is no logical explanation why at 22 weeks pregnant I decided to steam clean the carpets myself (with Sean moving furniture of course), reorganize Emma's and Megan's closet (Nathan's is next), and start cleaning out our storage area in the basement.

- Because of said cleaning projects my office is now full of stuff I want to get rid of. Some of it I have listed on craigslist and some things we have just donated to goodwill. 3 trash bags full of clothes actually! So if you come buy anytime soon and see something laying around you might want, make me an offer I'm in a selling mood!

- I have also decided that I need to start sewing things for our family instead of buying them. Don't worry I haven't gone all Laura Ingall's on you and started making our own clothes. Right now I'm making baby wipes and nursing pads, both items are pretty expensive when buying disposable one's from the store. The ones I've made are not gorgeous, but they are functional, which is what really matters.

- This new found love(lol!) of sewing has mad me decide I really want a serger. Of course in keeping with the theme of saving money this is not going to happen anytime soon.

-I finally drug the hideous pink chair out of the basement and steam cleaned it while I had the machine for the carpets. Unfortunately it is still hideous and in need of some serious help. Because of trying to save money now, re-upholstery is just not an option. Instead I found a fairly cheap, but decent looking slipcover on overstock.com. The one thing I didn't think about is that my chair has no seams between the arms/sides and the back, so there is a lot of material kind of just bunched up in those areas right now, hence the afghan in the "after" picture.
Keep in mind when you look at these pictures that I was lazy and opened the package the cover came in and put it right on the chair. There was no ironing involved at all, and there probably won't be any for a while since I hate ironing.
Photobucket
Photobucket


- On top of the insomnia, the Olympic coverage is killing my sleeping time. I am an Olympic junkie! I can't get enough. I wish they had an all Olympics, all the time channel right now. I will watch pretty much any sport. The only sport I don't enjoy watching is water polo. I think it's really because I have no clue what is going on. It's probably pretty simple; they swim around and try to throw the ball into the other teams net, but I just have no desire to sit and watch it long enough to figure it out. Watching Michael Phelps has been amazing, but my favorite moment has to be when Jason Lezak beat that french guy to win the mens 4x100 relay. AMAZING!

- Emma starts school tomorrow, and I'm in shock. I knew it was coming, but this really means my baby is growing up, and fast. It is going to be so weird to be home without her all day long. I'm going to miss her because she is so helpful, and she likes to help. She has already informed me that she is going to be really good while she's at school, and then she'll be bad at home. At least she warned us, right?

- As if cleaning and organizing the house, and working on sewing projects weren't enough to keep me incredibly busy, I've also been working really hard on the partylite thing. It is difficult trying to get things going and getting people to have shows for me. I swear I'm not trying to guilt anyone reading this. I'm just talking about what's going on here lately. I'm hoping all my hard work is going to pay off, but I'm definitely afraid of failing.

- Sean and I still have not discussed any names for this baby. Well ok, that's not entirely true. We have talked a lot about names we don't like, but have not come up with a list at all of names in the running. This is the only time I think it would be nice to know the gender. Then we would only need one first and middle name instead of a girl name and a boy name. Any suggestions for names that fit with our other kids' names and aren't super popular right now?

Check back tomorrow for pictures of Emma on her first day!

Monday, August 11, 2008

22 weeks

I had another doctor appointment today. All is well. He said I'm measuring a little larger than expected, but all that means is we'll probably have a big baby again. Who's surprised by that? He also looked over my ultrasound info the hospital sent over and he said everything looked good. So nothing new to report today. Check back in 4 weeks!

Insomnia

So the pregnancy insomnia has set in. This weekend has been awful with me getting hardly any sleep Friday night, and now here I am at 3am Sunday night/Monday morning. Saturday night I got a decent amount of sleep, but I'm still tired. I have not missed this at all. Anyone have any ideas that actually work? I feel like I've tried a lot of things in the past and nothing seems to help. So here I sit, bored to death at 3am. This sucks!

Saturday, August 9, 2008

busy week

We have one busy week coming up. Monday I go to the doctor again, Tuesday is open house night at Emma's school and Sean's last softball game, and Thursday is... Emma's first day of kindergarten. I can't believe Emma is starting kindergarten this year, and it's alreay time. I felt like it was so far away when we went to the lake, and now it's here. Emma could not be more excited, but I'm already freaking out. I know she'll be just fine and she's going to have so much fun, but I can't believe in 5 days my baby is going to be getting on a big yellow bus and heading off to school for 7 hours everyday. I'm totally going to cry. Ugggh!

Thursday, August 7, 2008

new business

In an effort to make a little extra money I've decided to get a part time job. Lest you think I'm crazy I'll tell you I did not take a job waitressing or something incredibly taxing like that, instead I've decided to sell Partylite. I know it seems like everyone is selling something these days, but I really love Partylite stuff and it will be a great opportunity for me. So if you need any candles you know who to call!

Friday, August 1, 2008

new baby purchases

We got a new crib for the baby. Yes, we already had 2 cribs because of Emma and Nathan being so close together, but Nathan's crib was part of the major crib recall, so we got a voucher for a new crib. The voucher we were given was for the highest retail price charged for the crib, and then if we bought a more expensive one we would pay the difference. Since Megan is just now in her toddler bed, and I don't know if she'll be ready to go into a twin bed when the baby arrives we decided to use the voucher and get a new crib. It was a little more expensive than the amount we had to spend, but not by much, so we went for it. I know it's early to be buying the crib, but I wanted it done now so it's one less thing I have to think about.
Here is the crib we decided on. It pretty much matches the furniture in Megan's room now.


The other major purchase we'll have to make is an infant car seat because the one form when Emma was a baby expires in December, which makes it pretty much unusable for the new baby. We know we want a graco so it will fit into the strollers we already have, and I want something neutral. It is really hard to find a car seat that doesn't look too gender specific.
These are the ones I like so far: