School Registration

We had an appointment this morning at 9:30 to register Connor for elementary school. He held my hand pretty tight as we walked into the school. This is all new to him as we've never been to this elementary school before. He seemed a little hesitant as we walked down the long hallway to the library. As we stood in line to register, he realized that Alaina (a girl from his daycare) was standing in front of him with her Dad. He eased up and smiled at me. I must say, a calm came over me too.

The parents waited in the library while the Kindergarten teachers came and took them to their first testing site. The first test in which the parents were not able to attend took around 25 minutes. After that, the kids were taken to their hearing, speech, and vision testing. After he was all done with his testing, we went down to the kindergarten rooms to play. He and Alaina played together. During the time there, he recognized Alaina, Tylor and Sydney.

When we got home, I realized that the paper Connor was carrying around from testing site to testing site said that Connor failed his hearing test. I called to talk about his results but was asked to call back and ask for the school nurse on Monday.

I called and she said that he failed his hearing test in both ears with the lowest decibel range. We will be bringing this to the attention of his Pediatrician on May 21st. I'm hoping this was nothing but clinical error.

Maleah's 2 1/2 yr check up

I had Maleah to her Pediatrician for her 2 1/2 year visit. She weighs 31.4 lbs. and is 37 inches tall. She gained 1 pound and grew 1 inch in 6 months. She's still our line backer, but people have been telling me recently that she is looking taller. I can tell because all of her pants are getting too short. Her 18 month clothes which still fit her around the waist look like capris on her. I might be able to pull off that look this summer. :)

My only concern for Maleah is her clumsiness. She falls all.the.time and it seems to be getting worse since she is moving faster. Dr. Ann checked her out and thought she may be somewhat bow legged - which means a physical therapy referral. I'm hesitant to do this as it's been an up hill battle with all the therapists since she was 6 months old. I'm ready for her to be done with all these services. But the dedicated mom that I am, will seek it out and have her evaluated. They will be coming May 19th.

Recalling a Moment

Today was one of those days where you wonder if an event will stick in the mind of your child forever. You know, you have them, events that happened when you were very young but you can recall very clearly....

As I recall my event, I was around 5 years old. My Mom, my sister Justine and I went grocery shopping at Riverside. Back in those days, you could trust society to not abduct your child, so off to the toy area I went while they did their shopping. For some reason, I chose to go find my Mom before she came to my isle. I could not find her and this scared me to death. I went up to a total stranger and asked if they would take me home with them. Just at that point I saw my sister out of the corner of my eye and I excitedly said, "There's my Mom!" I guess I embarrassed my sister by saying that when she was only 16 or 17 years old.

This afternoon Connor was at the grocery store with me being a handful as usual. He wanted to take in his new Ironman Kids Meal toy from Burger King so I thought that would be a good idea since he wouldn't bother me with wanting one of the many junk toys that he has from that store already. Connor wanted to touch his Ironman toy on every item on the shelves. I told him that if he doesn't keep that toy off stuff that it's getting put in my purse. Just about that time, Connor did a fast run around my cart right as I was swerving my cart for a lady who was stacking shelves. The outcome was not pretty. Connor lost his balance and into the Ragu sauce he went. It was terrible, I had jar after jar fall to the floor. I'm trying to pick up my kid while jars are smashing and spaghetti sauce is splashing. All the more, I'm trying my best to keep the jars on the shelf from doing the domino effect. Never in my life have I seen such a mess. (Well I can't forget dropping a gallon of milk at walmart, but a different story for a different day!) I think I had 4 or 6 jars of sauce broken on the floor. I had to try really hard to keep my composure. I wanted very badly to laugh my ass off right there on the spot, but I had a kid that was scared half to death. I had a quick talk after we got out of that isle as to why it's very important to listen to me and ride on the front of the cart. I hope this situation impacted him. He won't be forgetting this any time soon as I won't let him. Every time we step foot into the grocery store he'll get a gentle reminder as to why it's important to listen. :)

Clinton visited Brookville

Former President Bill Clinton was in our town this afternoon speaking to a crowd of 500 people from the front porch of Joanne LuPone's home on Barnett Street. He is the first president to ever visit Brookville and Jefferson County in history.

Our newspaper stated that Clinton, campaigning for his wife, Sen. Hillary Clinton, had been running behind schedule all day long, yet was enjoying his visit to rural Pennsylvania - except for the roads. "I'm sorry I'm late, but you probably know, these roads are hard to make time up on," Clinton said as the crowd laughed. "I've been behind logging trucks today, and I feel right at home here. "I love going into small towns," he said. "I'm the designated ambassador to small-town America for Hillary's campaign."

Preparing for Kindergarten

This evening Brian and I attended our first parent meeting at Connor's elementary school. We met and listened to the principal, 3 of the 4 kindergarten teachers, the school nurse, a PTO Mom, and a few others speak and give encouraging words. We received our informative packet which included the Kindergarten Handbook, and some forms that have to be filled out and returned by next Friday when Connor is assessed for the enrollment of Kindergarten.

He will be seen next Friday at 9:30am for his Phelps Kindergarten Readiness Scale II (PKRS-II) assessment. This assessment will taken 20-30 minutes and will determine his academic readiness before enrolling in Kindergarten. The testing is designed to evaluate 3 areas predictive of later school achievement. We will receive a letter of explanation concerning the results within 2 weeks of the assessment.

We learned that school will be Monday - Friday 9:18am - 3:40pm. There are 4 kindergarten classes and each class will have approximately 15 students per classroom. Connor's class will only have 60 classmates. The local talk says our school district is in financial trouble and may merge with the surrounding school districts which means Connor would attend the Brookville School District. They are talking about doing away with the Clarion Limestone sports and murging the sports with Brookville and Clarion School Districts. It will probably take several years to come down to actually closing the school, but I'm tempted to put Connor in the Brookville School District before this is enacted. It all depends on the tuition fee. I plan on checking into this next week.

Thank you Papa Hilton for watching and entertaining the kids while we had our first parent meeting. The kids were worn out! Both were sleeping 15 minutes after you left. :)

Tattoo Girl

Maleah loves to have tattoos placed on her arms. Unfortunately for her, they are usually boy tattoos. We came across this girl tattoo when she was getting Xrays of her fingers a couple weeks ago. She found it in Connor's room and brought it to me asking to have it put on.

Little Helper

I'm not sure if Maleah is is helping or creating me more work. For now, both her and Connor love helping clean windows. I will take all the help I can get while they are willing.

Shots...

Connor had to have his booster shots to go to Kindergarten today. He had a total of 5, two in each leg and one in his arm. His reaction was just as I expected, lots of screaming and a whole lot of restraining by me and a second nurse.

I have been dreading this appointment for more than a month but it's over. Every time I take him to the doctor's office, I have to sign his chart that I was the one who brought him. I must have more than 50 signatures on there, Brian has yet to sign it one time. I would have really liked for Brian to have signed his name this one time, I'm tired of being the bad guy in Connor's eyes.

Our Weekend II

Brian is starting to feel better today. He went to work for a few hours this morning. Papa Hilton and Grandma Donna wanted the kids for the day so I took them to their house.

While the kids were at their Grandparents, I went to my Mom and Dad's house for a few hours by myself and that was such a nice visit. We went to the Chicken BBQ sponsored by the Hawthorn Fire Company. We brought Chicken back to the house and ate lunch on the porch. Justine came out and had lunch with us.

I picked up the kids around 4:00 and we went home to see how Daddy was feeling. He enjoyed the silence this afternoon. He feels ready to go back to work tomorrow. I'm so ready to get the germs out of this house!

Our Weekend

What a week for sickness. I get two kids cleared up from strep throat and my other kid (Brian) comes down with the flu. He started getting sick on Thursday and had to take work off yesterday. This weekend he's been laying around the house wishing for someone to end the misery.

We had plans this evening to go to Penn Brewery with Hilton and Donna while Brenda and Steve had planned a fun filled day with the kids. I called Brenda this morning and told her we were canceling our plans. She wanted nothing to do with canceling hers so she and Steve came and got the kids for a nice afternoon/evening out.

They went to see Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, followed by dinner at Pizza Hut. Connor said he liked the movie and would like to have it when it comes out on DVD. This was Maleah's first experience in a movie theater, Brenda said she was good but mainly played with her new Barbie purse.

We plan to try for dinner again in 6 weeks when Hilton has his next Saturday off. By then, I hope the sickness doesn't return.

Update

Connor was sick with a fever on Friday and Saturday but bounced back on Sunday. However, Monday night he relapsed and started with a fever of 101. He woke up this morning with sinus congestion, a productive cough and a temp of 100. I figured I better take him to the doctor to get him checked over.

Maleah woke up this morning crying (very unusual for her). She's been bitten by the bug too. With her being feverish, I called off work.

I took the kids to their pediatricians and they both tested positive for strep throat. They are doing a round of antibiotics and should be good to go.

During Connor's visit, it's been confirmed, he has seasonal allergies like his Dad. We are trying some allergy medicines. We are trying allegra first to see if that clears his congestion.

Connor's pediatrician wants me to keep Connor out of daycare until Thursday, so I called off work tomorrow too. My boss is going to be so thrilled, but my priority is with my kids until they feel better.

I am sooo proud of Maleah!!! She was is her underwear all day long with no accidents (even a short nap). She's had just one accident this whole week. She was ready this second time around. One day she had a couple poop accidents but nothing major. I can't believe we almost have this chapter of our lives behind us.

Sleep

I love to watch my kids sleep. There is something so soothing that comes with the look of relaxation on their faces. Even though she was feeling miserable before she fell asleep, she looks so content and at piece in this picture.