Last week I took Emma to her first gymnastics class.  It was a trial class, just to see if she liked it.  Who am I kidding?  She has gymnastics in her blood.  My dad was 4th in the nation in rings…you know, back in the day.  My mom was in gymnastics in college too.  I took gymnastics as well.  Unfortunately my career was short-lived as the gym was “too far away”.  Still not completely over that. Can you tell?

Anywhoo.  Emma is mad strong.  Her upper body strength amazes her physical therapist.  I think two things.  A) it’s in her blood.  B) she developed quite the upper body strength when she spent 10 weeks in a half-body (spica) cast recovering from hip dysplasia.  By the end of her 10 weeks she was standing and walking in the cast and it had to be repaired.  But from that little girl in a half-body cast  to an able-bodied girl who participates in ballet and gymnastics, she’s come a long way!

2-7-07, right before her 3rd birthday

I asked the instructor how she did in class.  Of course I watched her the whole time, but I wanted to hear what the instructor thought.  She thought that Emma might be better-suited for the special needs gymnastics class.  Kind of a punch in the guy.  BUT  this class is one-on-one with a gymnastics coach.  And the instructor did say that it was very possible Emma would be able to “graduate” from the special needs class to join a typical gymnastics class.  So at this point, I’m thinking this “special needs” gymnastics class is really just a one-on-one session with an instructor who will move at Emma’s speed.

And Emma?  She’s fast.

Good form!

Emma’s been really into her easel and the white board markers.  She practices quite a bit with her numbers and letters.  I love it!  I’m not saying anything because I don’t want to jinx it.

However, I do have to show you the word that she wrote up all by herself.  I was sooooo proud of her! I’m not sure where she came up with the word, but I’ll take it none-the-less.

So school isn’t going as smoothly as I had hoped for Emma.  I was hoping for (and somewhat expecting) a smooth transition into first grade.  After all (and much to my surprise), Emma had such an easy time going into full-day Kindergarten after being in a preschool program that was 2 1/2 hours a day, 4 days a week.

I can’t say I blame her.  She has an extremely full schedule at school.  Her therapists include special ed teacher, OT, PT, and vision.  She is pulled out from her regular classroom into the special ed room for 1 hour in the morning and 1 1/2 hours in the afternoon.  She sees OT and PT for 45 minutes a week.  That doesn’t sound like a lot, but it all adds up.  And her vision teacher sees her most days of the week, I think.  On top of that, she has her regular classroom, her specials (art, music, PE, computers) and now Spanish 2 times a week.  And when I think what we could cut back on, really I don’t know what would be of least importance.  They’re all important to me.  Of course some more than others.  But as a whole they do make up her experience at school.  And they’re all necessary.

The last time she had a really rough time adjusting to her new routine was when she went from morning preschool to afternoon preschool.  That baffled me because the only thing that changed was the time of day that she was there.  Her classroom was the same, her teachers and therapists were the same, her friends were the same.  But for whatever reason, she had a really hard time with her new school day.  When that happened, it took her 3 weeks to get used to everything.

And what is happening now?  Massive temper tantrums at home.  Talking back, yelling, and using language we don’t approve of (nothing major, but things like ‘stupid’ and ‘dumb’ and the like).  She’s being defiant and rude.  At school she’s challenging the teachers and her aides.  She’s not always following directions, sometimes talking out of turn, and she’s being difficult.  This all might not sound like a big deal, but it’s just not her.  And when the temper tantrums are seemingly non-stop, it’s grating.  It’s hard to listen to.  For me, it’s like nails down the chalkboard.

So what are we doing?  We are trying to keep a very consistent routine at home for after school and night time.  And we are putting into place a rewards system.  If she behaves well in the morning (i.e. no temper tantrums, and obeying) then she’ll earn a reward.  For example, 3 days a week school will sell ice cream or jamba juice.  And she can earn those treats by obeying us and not throwing fits.  Beyond that, I’m not sure how else to handle it.  I’m hoping this is a phase and that she’ll quickly pass through this as well.  And as we enter the third week of her new routine (4th week of school), I’m hoping this week is the week that ends it.

The “good” news is that I have heard from friends that Emma’s not the only one who is having a hard time adjusting to first grade.  Other first graders are too.  It makes me feel less alone.  And at this point, I’ll take any suggestions or advice!!

I want my sweet girl back!

What would you do?

I don’t know that she’ll ever join the Joffrey Ballet, but I love watching my girl dance!  She’s got a lot of soul that she puts into her moves and grooves.  It’s the cutest thing to watch!  And man, is she musical! When we were in California, my friend Marshelle suggested we hit Corvette Diner in San Diego.  What a hit with everyone!  The food was super-yummy and diner-ish.  My turkey burger was delish.  And I even tried fried pickles (one word: yum).  After dinner the kids got to go into the arcade and spend their coins.  Emma and Emily (who, by the way, look like they could be sisters) jammed on Dance Dance Revolution.  See for yourself!

Wow.  I can’t believe I haven’t written about this.  Emma’s on a new medication!  It’s kind of big news around here.  Well, you know how she’s swallowing pills now (another milestone that deserved its own post, by the way).  Since she started swallowing pills, we decided to try a medication that we once tried about a year and a half ago.  This medication was wonderful.  It gave her the focus and clarity she lacked( by the way I’m talking about an ADHD med), and it didn’t cause her to act (or feel) drugged or lethargic.  I. Loved. It.  Problem was, she didn’t love it.  This pill came in a capsule form, so back in the day (you know, pre-swallowing-pills), we would empty the capsule and dissolve it with her other pills into Sunny D (which is, by far, the sweetest tasting juice I have found).  This pill was so bitter, she refused to take it.  She wouldn’t swallow the syringe with the dissolved medicine.  Brett and I tried it.  We didn’t blame her.  The stuff was horrid.  The most bitter and metalic tasting medicine you could imagine. Which begs the question, if you’re gonna make a kid’s medicine, please make it palatable.  Am I right?  Whatever.  That’s another story.

Okay, so back to the present.  The girl is swallowing pills!  We thought, “hey, let’s give this old medication another try!”  And we had precious few days before school started to get this medication in her system.  So we tried.  We waited for a few days.  We increased the dosage (yes, this is all under her psychiatrist’s supervision). It started working better.  In the first week of school, we had her taking it in the morning.  She took it in the morning last time, though the doc warned us that this could cause drowsiness.  Duly noted. After getting up every morning last week around 5:30, and falling asleep every chance she got in the car, we decided to switch to a night time dosage.  She slept in longer.  She wasn’t falling asleep in the car.  She didn’t want to watch TV all day.  She’s got more energy.  And….(drumroll please)…she’s got that focus that we’ve been waiting to see.  Hallelujah!!  Now, we’re not holding our breaths here.  She’s still getting acquainted with the school schedule.  Things could change.  But, so far so good!  I only hope this is the beginning of a successful year in 1st grade!!

…to all the working moms out there.  I only work 20 hours.  And yet I failed to get dinner on the table once this past week.  Or stay on top of the laundry. Fortunately the house remained somewhat tidy (ok, ok, my cleaning lady did come on Wednesday, but still).

I will recap.  We had a great week.  Emma loves first grade and she loves her teacher.  Her teacher is awesome, very accommodating and super with communication!  Yay!  By far her favorite part of first grade is getting to play at the big playground.  It’s a big deal, you know.

Mason had a great first week as well.  He has the same teachers as last year since he’s still in the pre-K program.  This is a good thing because they’re awesome!  He’s making new friends, and he’s kept some friends from last year.  I told him that he’s one of the “older” kids in the classroom so he has to be a good example to the younger children.  And that he is!

I had a great first week!  Okay, I won’t lie.  We have some challenging kids.  ”Diamonds in the rough” if you will.  A handful of my new friends are a big rough around the edges.  But it’s only the first week.  Think of how they’ll be in the spring!  I can’t wait!  In fact, I asked the teacher (we’ll call her C, who is my college roommate) how long it takes before we are not constantly reminding and redirecting.  She said 2 months.  Eek.  K (the other teacher in our room (they job share)) (can I use that many parentheses?) said 4-5 months.  Double eek.  However, I am enjoying this new position and having fun with it.  I think it’s the perfect job for me!

Finding time to balance my workouts (okay, okay, what workouts?) and feeding my family at dinner has been the hardest challenge.  I am going to be whipping out that dusty crock pot for my dinners.  And as for working out?  I do see my trainer once a week after work.  But for those other days, I need to force myself out of bed around 5:00 or so.  I can totally do it.  I just need to.  Even if it’s 2 miles in the morning, it’s something that’s important to me!  Oh, and that notorious food journal that is a blessing and a curse? Starting it back up today.  I’ll be honest…summer screwed up my whole routine.

Anyway, this is my plan for the next few weeks.  To get those routines back under my belt.  Oh yeah, and blogging on top of all this?  It may not be 5 days a week, but I’ll still be here!  I hope you stop by for a visit!

What are your goals once the kids get back to school?

Today is Emma’s first day of first grade!  It’s also my first day of kindergarten. Well, working in kindergarten anyway!  It’s going to be a busy week!  I’m going to be a little more lax this week as I navigate working and being a mom.  It’s been quite awhile since I’ve worked!  But I’m so excited to be back in the classroom.  And, truthfully, really excited to not have all the responsibilities I did when I was a teacher.  This aide position is perfect for me!

So, while I juggle the mom thing and the work thing, I will leave you with some first day pictures!!

new backpack, medical kit for nurse, and brownies for teacher

this big girl is most excited for the big kid playground!

first day for mommy and daughter!

Part of the reason we went back to California a second time was to get in some beach time that June Gloom took away from us when we were there last time (in July, mind you).  Was that a run on sentence? Anyhoo. Oh, the fact that it was like 109 here helped push us westerly too!

So on the last afternoon that we were there, the sun finally came out and we decided to ditch the zoo (which was fabulous and quickly became one of my favorite zoos) and head to Coronado Island for some beach time.  Here are some pictures from that afternoon!

We’re on our way to California.  Yes, again.  Why?  Because it’s miserable here and I have precious few days to escape before school starts again.  2 weeks from today, to be exact.  Can you believe it?  This time, it’s just me and the kids.  And it will be more low-key.  I plan on the beach a lot.  Our Uncle will take us pier fishing, too!  I can’t wait for that…Emma is SO excited!  (Note to self: bring extra hand sanitizer and baby wipes)  We will go to the San Diego zoo also.  That’s it for the outings though!

Right now the plan is to come on Friday very early in the morning so we can meet up with Emma’s (old) kindegarten class for a mini-reunion at the movies!  I really want her to see everyone and get “reacquainted” before school starts back up.  She’ll be so excited!

Pelican hanging out on the pier

Any last minute plans before your kids start back to school?