The Kids

I realized that in my last post I didn't mention much about the kids' accomplishments, so I'm doing this post.

Diana is still doing Preschool and loves it. Over Christmas (as I mentioned in my last post), Mike's brother, sister-in-law, and niece came into town to spend half of the week with us. One of the nights when we were hanging out, his sister-in-law and I were talking and she tried to get her daughter to spell her name (which, being cute and shy like 3-year-olds get at times, she wouldn't). I knew Diana couldn't spell her name, but I figured she knew for sure what letter her name started with. So, later, I asked her. "I don't know." She said. So I showed her different letters that they've learned in school and asked her what each one was. Each time, I either got the "I don't know" response, or something that was wrong and that I could tell was a total, 100% wild guess. I was shocked. Over then next couple of days, Mike and I continued to 'grill' her on her letter recognition, but still, she didn't know any of them. I felt shocked, discouraged, dismayed. How could she not know anything? Why was I paying 90 bucks a month for her to basically go to someone's house to play for 2 1/2 hours twice a week with her friends? I knew her teacher was teaching her, I saw the papers that had been coming home weekly, but I also realized that those papers were never filled out...colored on, yes, but the work wasn't done. Mike, frustrated like me, said he was just going to pull her out of school, since it seemed it was a waste of money to send her since she didn't seem to be learning. I asked him to let me work with her first, to see if I could get her back on track. I know she loves preschool, and she's really learned a lot there more than just letters and numbers, so it's good for her..she just needed to learn her letters and numbers, too.

 So, I immediately sat down with her and started on letter A. It..was..ROUGH. At first. She has ADD (as do I), and was getting extremely frustrated as I worked with her, but I wasn't going to give up..she needed to learn, and I, as her mom, needed to teach her. So, I confidently pushed forward over the next couple of days, still working on 'A', not letting her getting distracted or discouraged deter me in my goal. Every time she'd say she couldn't do it or didn't know what letter it was, I'd say confidently "You're smart. I know you know what letter this is, and I KNOW you can do this. Try again." I knew she needed what I needed as a kid (and sometimes as an adult); she needed someone to push her and not let her get away with giving up...and it worked. The more I believed in her, the more confident she became, and the better she got. By the end of that week (we started on a Sunday night), I had her writing big and little 'A', and spelling, writing, and recognizing her name. Today, we'll be working on letter 'C', and each night, Mike goes over the visual alphabet with her, to see what she can recognize and what she can't...and she's starting to recognize many letters now, and it's encouraging.

(Diana writing her name with some visual aid one day)

(Another day, writing her name from memory, no visual aid)

Now, don't get me wrong, I am NOT at all trying to pat myself on the back here, not at all. I don't credit myself at all for her success, honestly. I'm merely detailing all of this to help illustrate a point I'm trying to make..what I discovered from all of this that surprised me the most. The revelation that my daughter does not learn in conventional settings. That she needs personal, one-on-one attention from a teacher in order to learn and progress. I learned I may have to home-school her, that any kind of traditional school (public or private) may not be enough for her, at least in her current learning state. She still gets frustrated and discouraged from time to time, and will 'forget' what she knows when flustered, but I figure that if we can't get through that, that's where medication or some sort of counseling will help her out, once she gets into school. I know I couldn't have succeeded in school without medication for my ADD...I know that, because I have experience both with and without medication, and I focused and felt so much better, so..NORMAL..when I was medicated. Now, there are programs out there to help kids overcome their ADD issues without medication, and we may try those, too. I'm not against medications, I just want to do whatever it takes to help Diana overcome her learning stumbling-blocks, and if I can provide her a way to learn how to overcome them 'on her own', then that's a terrific solution. If not, I know modern medicine can help her succeed. It has been nice to see her progress and to see her self-confidence rise as she can do more and more. She's so proud of her achievements, and I am so proud of her!

Daniel has been talking more and more. He's up to at least 60 different words now, and he loves to talk, though he's not as chatty as Diana always has been. He's learned a LOT from Diana, too. It's interesting to see the difference in language development between the first and second child. The second child learns so much more a lot sooner than the first, because they have the first child to learn from. It's so nice having him communicate so well, too..it makes my life easier. There are WAY fewer moments of frustration, as he's very good at saying what he wants and being responsive. He's got quite the hilarious little personality, too. I remember when Diana was his age, and her cute, sassy personality really shined. It's so funny to see them as a mini-version of a big kid...I pint-sized teen with a limited vocabulary. Sometimes I can't help but laugh whenever one of them gives me some sort of sassy attitude...In kids so small (especially when coming out of Daniel), so much sass and personality is not something you'd expect. It's fun to watch them both exhibit certain personality traits, and to be able to easily pinpoint which parent they got them from.

It's also funny to hear how Diana "parents" Daniel. Most of the time, I get frustrated with her forcefulness and bossy-ness towards him, but if I really sit and listen, I hear myself coming out of her as she "parents" him, and even as she plays with her dolls. She's very motherly, and REALLY loves to be in charge. She's very excited for the baby to be born, and details everything she'll do for her baby sister, like hold her, change her diaper, make her happy, sing to her, etc.

I've also closely watched Daniel's reactions around babies to gauge how he'll be. He's a very rough-and-tumble typical boy, and I've had moments where I'm so nervous that he'll be rough with his baby sister when she's born. But lately, as we're around my newest nephew (who's 2 months old), I see how gentle he can be, and he's always been a snuggly, loving sweetie (he loves to hug and kiss on EVERYONE!), so it helps ease my fears. My biggest concern with Daniel, honestly, is his clinginess. He's very much a mama's boy, and even gets angry when Diana wakes up too soon after he wakes up, because he likes having time alone with me to talk and play. Yes, I'm serious. One day he got angry and hit her and cried & tantrumed (at first by throwing himself on the floor multiple times while screaming, and then by climbing in my lap and swatting at Diana as he clung to me selfishly) for the longest time because I woke up Diana right after he woke up. Now, understand that these two are BEST FRIENDS and love to play together and chase, tickle and wrestle with each other all day long, everyday...Daniel just has some issues with sharing me. I remember when Diana went through her clingy phases, and I remember being worried how she'd react to Daniel being born, but she was so excited to have him join our family and the transition went more smoothly than I could have hoped. I'm just holding out hope it will go similarly with Daniel when the baby is born. Only time will tell.

Other than that, the kids are progressing really well. They're both sassy most of the time, but they're so cute, snuggly, and sweet that it all balances out in the end. I love my kids to death and am SO EXCITED to be adding our newest little girl in less than 8 weeks!

The Hap's

December was a fun and busy month. We spent time with family, the kids got spoiled with more gifts than they could handle, Diana and I got sick over Christmas (thank you, someone who sent their sick kid to church and spread it around)...lots of fun stuff. I'll try to recall all that happened this month and summarize it nicely, but I'm not very good at both recalling large amounts of information when put on the spot or summarizing. But, here it goes:

I finally took Daniel in for his 18 month check-up this past month...exactly 2 months too late. Hey, it could be worse! I know, 2 months late isn't really that bad, but I felt rushed to get him in because I kept forgetting to schedule his appointment and he was in need of some vaccines..they're given a couple at 18 months, and I'm very pro-vaccination, so I like my kids to be up-to-date of all of their shots. Anyway, We got him in and got him all checked out, and he's doing very well. He's had a growth spurt...height-wise. He went from the 30-something-th percentile for his height, up to the 77th percentile for his height. His weight is still in the 9th percentile. So, his height-to-weight percentile is...one. ONE. First percentile. Weird, right? I have a beanpole for a son. He gets that from me..well, from when I was a kid. I was a skinny little pole, clothes never fit right until I became a teen...my mom even had to buy me boy pants at one point in elementary school because I wasn't curvy enough to fit into the girl pants. I definitely don't a problem with that now. But hey, at least I know my kid is healthy. He eats non-stop and moves twice as much. He's a crazy little boy! 

My crazy son

While he was there, they did a blood panel on him to check for anemia/iron levels, which means they had to do a finger prick and squeeze the crap out of his finger. Oddly enough, he didn't even flinch when the nurse stabbed his finger (twice! The first time didn't produce a heavy enough blood flow) and squeezed for about 5 minutes (literally) in order to get enough blood. He watched everything she did and seemed awfully fascinated by it all. Right after she got his blood, she gave him his vaccines, and I thought, he did so well with his blood draw, he'll do just fine with his vaccines. HAHAHAHA! Yeah right. He screamed the instant that first needle hit his skin. But, he was good once she stuck the band-aid on and told him she was all done. Apparently shots hurt WAY more than having your finger stabbed, twice, and having someone SQUEEZE the life out of it. I would have thought it was the other way around, but, you know..guess I was wrong!

Trying to put on his own socks.

Earlier in the month, we decided to take the kids to go see "Frozen", because I thought it looked cute and we figured Diana would enjoy it. SUCCESS! Both kids LOVED IT!! And it was SUCH a cute movie! Definitely a Disney movie, filled with lots of music. It was adorable, I loved it! Diana has asked several times since to go see it again. It definitely will be one we buy when it comes out on video. 

Mike received the honor of "Employee of the Year" at his work Christmas party! I am SO PROUD of him and DEFINITELY believe he deserves it! He felt totally honored and shocked that he got it, but said the owner of the company told him that he and all the other higher-ups made the decision unanimously that Mike was the man that should receive the honor. It was so awesome to see that they really DO notice all his hard work and truly appreciate him! Good work, Mike!

 Yay, Mike!!

I made an advent calendar with my mom (started on it last year, finished it this year), based on one she made about 40 years ago. I was excited to actually use it for the first time, and it was a huge success with the kids! I filled it with a different activity we had to do each day, and the kids were super excited to see what new activity they had waiting for them each day. We did things like make salt dough and cinnamon ornaments, make gifts for their grandparents and for Diana's preschool teacher, sing Christmas songs, go look at Christmas lights, make cookies, etc. It was a lot of fun, and it make the month of December more memorable and it helped us have the Christmas Spirit around our home the whole month, rather than just have Christmas creep up on us at the last minute. 

One of our Advent Calendar Activities

Seeing the lights @ the Cactus Garden outside Ethel M. Chocolate Factory

Once Christmas got here, we had a whole week of extended family activities. Mike had the week off of work, but spent the 23rd and 24th at the library studying, so it was like he was working for us. The rest of the week, we shared him with his family as we did family activities. Christmas Eve, early morning, Diana woke up several times crying and squeaking as she coughed and talked. That morning when she woke up for the day, she seemed fine, so we went along with our plans. By the end of that day, full of visiting both families and opening our own gifts at home, Diana was showing signs of being sick again, and I was feeling discourgaed. Sure enough, she woke up Christmas morning, hoarsely coughing and crying as she told me "Mommy, I'm sick." Not something someone wants to hear Christmas morning. Luckily, we had a chill morning planned, so she got to relax most of the morning. *We do our gifts on Christmas Eve and Stockings on Christmas morning (it's like getting TWICE the gifts! I love it...I've done it with my family all my life and would NEVER do gifts Christmas morning).* Mike's parents came by that morning to visit and see what presents the kids got, and Diana was excited to show them all the pretty things Santa brought her in her stocking (she LOVES LOVES LOVES girly things). She got earrings (Mike went and bought her a TON the night before because the ones we had ordered for her over two weeks earlier never showed up..He's SUCH a good Daddy! I told him we'd just give her the earrings when they showed up, but he couldn't bear the thought that his little girl wake up Christmas morning to no earrings, especially since she'd been wanting some new ones SO BADLY.), some necklaces and a bracelet (homemade), nail polish, nail stickers, a huge pack of Disney Princess chapstick, a mini-Ariel barbie doll, and a few other little things, like fruit snacks, tic tacs, gum, etc. She was jazzed about everything she got. And boy, did she and Daniel get SPOILED!! I went a little overboard this year and bought them both TONS of stuff, though a lot of it was stuff they needed, like clothes and bed sheets, so then I didn't feel too bad about all the stuff I got. But, by the time they got all the gifts from Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles, too, they had more stuff than they knew what to do with. They're definitely a couple of lucky little bugs! One of the gifts Diana got from my mom was a baby doll, and wow, I didn't realize she was back into baby dolls. She faded out of the baby-doll thing a while back when she discovered Disney Princesses, so we put her other baby dolls away. But, then she got his doll, along with some bottles for it, from my mom and she was SO EXCITED. It even sleeps with her most nights now. I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that she's SO EXCITED for her new baby sister to get here in a couple of months (in exactly 2 months from today!!). Both kids adored all their gifts and definitely enjoyed their Christmas.

The day after Christmas, Mike's brother, sister-in-law, and niece came into town from Utah to spend a long weekend with us and the rest of Mike's family! It was fun...though Diana and I missed out on some of it, as I came down with Diana's horrible, nasty cold the Day after Christmas. It was a bad cold. I haven't felt so run down like that in a long time, though I HAVE had worse colds in the past...but, being sick while pregnant is HARD! Especially when it's more than just the sniffles. Daniel developed a new level of love/clingy-ness for Mike over that week, as one of the days he and Daniel went and did things with his family while Diana and I stayed home and took 4 hour (Diana) and 2 hour (Me) naps...we were both having a really hard day that day. But, it was cute to see Daniel the rest of the week and beyond, actually want Mike over me at times. It made me sad, as I love to be wanted exclusively by my kids, but it was good to see him develop that relationship with Mike, and to have hope that Daniel may not have TOO hard of a time when the baby is born...we're worried he's going to have a bit of a meltdown when he's no longer the baby, as he's been really clingy the past month or two. But anyway, we had a fun week, even while sick! And, we're grateful we didn't spread the cold to the rest of his family (SO grateful!).

My sweet, sick princess, in the middle of her 4-hour nap.

By the time New Year's Eve rolled around, we were pretty partied and family-ed out, so we invited my sister and her little family over to hang out and we just chilled at my house until the kids got tired, and then she headed home and we all put our kids to bed. Mike and I stayed up "late" that night, going to bed around 10:30, and then were woken up so kindly at Midnight to loud, celebrating neighbors. I didn't get back to sleep because of all the noise until 1 am. It was a rough night for me, but luckily the kids slept well (Thank you, noise machines and humidifiers that drown out exterior noise!). 

And, that was our month in a sorta-nutshell. :)