Author Archives: Tessa

Hop On Pop, by Dr. Seuss

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After Eve’s bath I settled on the floor with a comb and asked her to join me. She hasn’t had a bath in a few days (don’t get me started!) and therefore hasn’t had her hair combed in awhile. I grabbed Hop On Pop and she settled in. Much to my surprise a) she didn’t whine about getting her hair combed and b) she READ the book! She started as mumbles under her breath and slowly got louder and louder until she was reading a regular volume. I didn’t say a word. She sounded out the words when she got stuck, stopped and started again when necessary, and really worked on it! It’s so hard to judge (for lack of a better word, not that I’m judging) her reading skills because she always gets coy or obstinate when you ask her to read out loud. Apparently she reads for Alan sometimes, but never for me. Tonight I didn’t say a word she just settled in, picked up the book I had chosen, and started reading! I loved hearing her read and seeing her really trying to read. She got about half way through the book and by that time I was done combing her hair and Lex was out of the bath and bouncing around nearby, so she gave up and asked me to finish. I think she was too distracted and to “on the spot” since Lex and I were both paying attention to her. I’m so proud of her!

And then the sun came out

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I think I used today’s daily allotment of yelling yesterday. Maybe I used up my weekly allotment of yelling yesterday! Today was a much better day!

Lex woke up this morning and said it was going to be a good day (hallelujah!) and it was. He didn’t fuss or fight with me once. He was cooperative at home and apparently at school as well. His teacher emailed me this evening to say that he had an excellent day.

Eve and I kept our senses of humor while grocery shopping and running errands this morning, despite the 34°s and rainy weather. She fussed a little bit about being too tired for school, but she went anyway without trouble.

After I dropped her off I went back to Lex’s school to volunteer in the library. I do that every Wednesday and I really enjoy it. Shelving books is my secondary job, but primarily I’m there to check books in and out and read to the kids. One of the kindergarten classes comes while I’m there, and then Lex’s class comes in after that. I like getting to know both classes and I think they really like having a grownup who will just sit and talk to them. I need to remember that more often at home as well. It seems like there is always too much to do (dishes, laundry, meal prep, tidying, etc.) but kids really like it when you pay them undivided attention. News flash, huh?! :)

When Lex and I left school it was 46° and sunny! We picked up Eve and came home, rode bikes for a bit, had snack, and worked on Valentine’s Day cards. Lex spent a good deal of time on his belly on the living room floor playing with his toys. Everyone was happy, everyone was calm. I even managed to make a delicious dinner (for me, the kids still eat breakfast foods for dinner) and make it through the bath/bedtime routine with no fussing from anyone, myself included.

Ahhh…. thanks for all of your words of encouragement and support. The sun always comes back eventually.

Mid-winter blahs

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Read at your own risk…

I think my kids both have a case of the mid-year blahs. School year, that is! I hope it’s that because then I have a smidgen of hope that things will get better!

Lex had his worst day ever in 1st grade on Thursday. So bad, in fact, that his teacher walked out with him at the end of the day so she could talk to me. He grabbed my hand and said, “C’mon mom!” Right, like I’m going to follow him and walk away from his teacher. Apparently he was rude, disrespectful, and completely uncooperative with his teachers all day. Luckily his teacher knows he is normally a nice kid and she seemed more concerned than upset. We talked about what could make Friday better and I secretly prayed for a snow day. On the way to swim lessons after school he was fine until he didn’t get the snack he wanted then he started threatening to kick me and break the car. He lost his before and after lessons swim time, but I let him do the lesson because I paid good money for it and because he earned it by sitting nicely while Eve swam before lessons.

Friday morning came and I got my wish. Ice and sleet canceled school and all of our other plans for Friday (except ice skating, which was fun but probably not necessary) Saturday we stayed home all day, the kids were calm, all was good… until Alan and I went out to dinner with my grandparents and left the kids with a babysitter. Apparently he yelled at her, refused to get ready for bed, and threw things at her! This poor woman (who has babysat for us in the past but probably won’t again in the future) couldn’t get out of our house fast enough when we got home. Ugh. As a consequence we decided not to let him attend a birthday party on Sunday that he was invited to. He didn’t even notice. The day went by and he didn’t even remember the party. I’m really glad we skipped it! Even now, Tuesday evening, after two days spent in class with the birthday boy and his classmates, Lex still hasn’t mentioned it.

Monday and today I had trouble getting him to school. He fussed at his teacher for a little while Monday morning but then turned his day around and they had a good one. She emailed me in the evening to say how proud she was of him. I haven’t heard from her today. He said he had a good day, but then he was very rude to the school nurse at the end of the day when she tried to tell me about a small head bump he had received. He was angry that a teacher had made him go to the nurses office and I guess decided to be exceptionally rude to the nurse. I realized, in hindsight, that I while I was trying to talk to the nurse I did a lousy job correcting his very rude behavior. I drove away feeling rude myself for it. Ugh.

He is just so stubborn and feisty and buggy. He knows exactly what you can and can’t make him do and he is quick to point it out. I find myself threatening him constantly and it’s exhausting!! He’s happy in the morning, but as soon as it’s time to go to school he’s too tired to function. He picks at Eve, he’s rude and back-talky to me, he’s always “too tired” for anything he doesn’t want to do. I know, I know, I know that he does this in phases and I just have to remind myself that he’s a good kid and just going through something and the nice boy I know and love will eventually come out again. I just need to hold on tight to that belief.

Unfortunately Eve is also a bundle of crazy these days too. Crying about EVERYTHING, whining, stomping her feet, huffing, practicing her tantrums at every chance she gets. She screams and throws things. Ugh! This morning we were working on worksheets together. We were having fun. I make a worksheet for her and she does it. Yes, she was having fun with this. However, when I told her she couldn’t sit on my lap while I made the next sheet, and I nicely explained why, she proceeded to melt down. Stomping her feet, huffing, whining. I tried to be nice with her, then I tried to ignore her, then I lost my temper and crumpled up the paper. She shrieked like she was being tortured! I yelled at her (mature, I know) then left the room. I came back a few minutes later to find her sitting behind the recliner in the living room, holding the smoothed out though still very crumply paper, and crying. I felt awful. We cuddled for awhile and promised to be nice to each other. It was sweet and her niceness lasted for about an hour until it was time to get ready for school.

I know she has fun in school, but every morning when it’s time to go she cries and complains that she’s too tired and doesn’t want to go. I can’t tell if she’s really having a problem at school or just echoing Lex’s school departures each day. I lose my temper at her more often than I should. It’s exhausting.

I’m not going to survive the teenage years with either of them.

My one saving grace is that they rarely fight with me at the same time. They fight with each other all the time, but with me if one is being stubborn and putting up a fight the other is usually cooperating or at least staying out of the way.

As for myself, I’m crawling out of my skin. We have been super busy with a bunch of inconsequential things. Seriously, my friend asked yesterday what we’ve been so busy with and I couldn’t even tell her. Just stuff. Life, I guess. But I’m changing that. Canceling everything I can and slowing this train down! At the same time I just feel so…. stifled in my own life. Something needs to change but I don’t know what. My house makes me claustrophobic. I want to move or tear it down and start over. I want to travel and I’m disappointed that our April plans aren’t going to happen, but the reason they aren’t going to happen is because I don’t think this family (or maybe just me?!) can handle it. The house makes me crazy, the weather makes me crazy, the kids make me crazy, my mind makes me crazy, I make me crazy…. something needs to change. Unfortunately I think I’m the only one who can make it change. If only I know what “it” was! Right now I just wish I had a giant chocolate chip cookie. Or a bag of KAF burgundy chunks! They would be gone this evening. It’s good I don’t have anything in the house.

Lex just got up to go to the bathroom and give me a hug. How can children make you so frustrated and then turn on a dime and be the sweetest things ever? My heart melts and I feel like an ogre for ever having gotten angry at them. Sigh. I love them. Parenting is hard work. I need a drink.

No Injuries!!! (or Our First Time on Skates)

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After a much needed quiet, slow day (snow day!) we had dinner then headed out to attempt ice skating! Alan and I have each tried it once before, in high school, many (many!) years ago, but basically it was the first time for all of us! And it was FUN!! By the end of our 40 minute skate Lex was skating(-ish) without the milk crates. They both, we all!, want to go back again!

on the ice

Just getting on the ice.

lex

Smiling Lex

eve

Happy Eve

tired

Eve got tired (it was already past bedtime!) and sat on her milk crates for a break. At one point she sat on the crates and I pushed her around for a bit. That was fun :)

no crates

Lex with no crates. He got brave!

leaving

Leaving the ice. We closed the place down! :)

zamboni

Now for the final act - The Zamboni!!

We begin again…

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Snow day today! Rain/sleet/ice day, really. A perfect day to stay in PJs and start Valentine’s Day cards. Eve has been begging to get out the supplies all week but we’ve been so busy I haven’t let her. Today we spent most of the morning working on cards.

cards

Lots of red and white and hearts and glitter. The Valentine's Day cards have begun!

iimw

Every morning at school Lex does a "Drop in the bucket" sheet (aka Drop Sheets). This week he decided to start making worksheets for Eve as well. He calls them Invisible Ink Marker Worksheets (aka IIMWs). She loves them. They can be so sweet together!

If you’re curious, I just hit Google and found the drop sheets they do, made by Frog Publications. Last month his teacher was sending extra copies home with him for Eve to do because we told her how much Eve liked doing them. This month they have moved on to math and she stopped sending them home. Eve still “does” the completed ones that come home with Lex each week. How did I end up with worksheet loving kids? :)

Sledding

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We went sledding on Monday when the kids had no school. We haven’t done much of it this year, what with the weather being so wacky these days. The kids had a great time and I got to catch up with an old friend. Fun, fun.

little girls

Two litte girls, holding hands up the hill.

old friends

Old friends, together again.

Lex is learning about penguins at school and he and Eve like to play penguins at home. He teaches her what he learns. Here is Eve, pretending to be a penguin slidding on her belly down the hill.

PS. Here’s a post from sledding at their house two years ago. Cute!

PPS. It has been raining off and on ever since that afternoon so I’m glad we got some sledding in when we did! Now we have slushy lakes in the front and back yards and it keeps coming down. If the temps were a few degrees lower we’d have a lot of snow!

Swimming Milestone

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This afternoon presented me with another “Why don’t I have my camera?!?” moment. At the very end of swimming lessons the teachers (they have two this session) took the kids (there are three in the class!) over to the BIG pool! The 9′ deep competition pool! The first boy (Lex’s classmate and a good friend of both of theirs) shouted with joy and jumped right in! I’m not certain he hasn’t been in that pool before. My two kids were very nervous. Eve made me (twist my arm!) come with them to the big pool. The two teachers, one in the pool and one out, were able to get Lex and Eve to sit on the edge of the pool and Eve worked up the courage to slip in. Once in she LOVED it! Lex, however, said quite clearly, “I don’t want to get into a very cold, nine foot deep swimming pool!” Hmm… when you put it that way I think he has a very valid point! I was pleased that his teachers respected that and gave him space. I think in the next few sessions he’ll work up the courage to join the other two. Eve, on the other hand, is already eager to start swimming laps!

I’m repeatedly impressed with how naturally swimming comes to Eve. Lex has been practicing his freestyle (back in my day we called it the Crawl Stroke) a lot lately. I have yet to see Eve even try it. At lessons today the instructor asked them to do it across the pool. Lex worked at it like he always does. He does a good job, but he is clearly thinking and trying. Eve just did it. Not perfectly, but smoothly and easily. She’s so little in the water, yet so smooth. Like a fish. I can’t wait to see her doing laps in the big pool. On second thought, yes, I can. She’s too little for the big pool!!!