Autumn Weekend

Posted on October 4, 2010 by Cindy

I love fall. I’m a big fan of mild temperatures – not too hot, not too cold. This past weekend was perfect, and we took full advantage of it by spending as much time outside as possible.

On Saturday morning, we went to a birthday party for Catie’s friend Morgan. She lives across the street from our old house, so we got to see all of the neighborhood kids that we used to play with. Morgan’s mom, Kimberly, is a friend of mine, so our girls see each other on a semi-regular basis. But Catie doesn’t usually get to see the other kids from the old neighborhood, so that was A Very Big Deal. I was amazed that Catie remembered all of them since it’s been a year since the last time she saw them. One little girl in particular, McKenzie, has a very special bond with Catie, and always has. Catie absolutely adores her, and the feeling is mutual.

A month or so ago, we ran into McKenzie and her mom leaving the grocery store as we were walking in. We said hi, and the girls exchanged hugs. A few minutes later, in the store, Catie sighed happily and said, “Mommy, ‘Kenzie is my favorite.” Believe me, she’s not lying. McKenzie is 10 now, and in a couple of years, I will totally hire her out to baby-sit. She’s a great kid.

When we finally got home from the birthday party, we both collapsed and took naps. When we woke up, we decided to go to the playground to take advantage of the sunshine and mild temperatures.

That was a great day.

On Sunday, we met up with my cousin and her crew at the Green Acres Farm. BTW, huge shout-out to Andrea at Lil Kid Things for blogging about the farm because I would’ve never known that it existed otherwise! And it’s only a few miles from our house too, so we’ll definitely go back again.

After checking out the bounce houses and some of the other kid stuff, we set off to tackle the corn maze.

The corn maze was… well. It was fun for the first 30 minutes or so. Then the dead ends start to get really annoying. And you get tired of saying, “Don’t touch the corn on the ground, please.” “No, you can’t pick that up, it’s dirty.” “Be careful not to whomp anybody with your flag.” (They give you a flag to wave in case you get lost and can’t find your way out.) Considering that we had 3 kids under the age of four with us, I think we did really well. But after close to an hour in there, I think I can safely say that’s about as close to The Shining as I ever want to get.

After the corn maze, we hung out on a tractor while waiting for the hayride.

The hayride was fun, and I think we all enjoyed having a few minutes to just sit down and enjoy the view after that corn maze hike.

After that, it was time for the highlight of Catie’s entire freaking year. Also known as the pony ride.

Austin is only a year old, so he’s still too little for the pony ride. But Catie and Elizabeth absolutely loved it.

After it was over, Catie cried and cried because she wanted to go again. The pony rides are $5, which is my only complaint about Green Acres Farm – that seems a little steep for a 3-minute pony ride. But I’m a sucker, so I caved in and let her go for a second ride.

I know I know, I should be more firm with her. But I thought of how much I loved horses when I was little, and how I would’ve felt if I had the chance to ride a real live pony, and… eh. It’s only $5.

Totally worth it.

white coat phobia still firmly in place

Posted on September 28, 2010 by Cindy

I took Catie to the doctor this morning for a check-up and to review her asthma plan. Given the fact that she hasn’t had an asthma attack in almost a year, I feel reasonably certain that she might’ve outgrown her asthma by this point, but I’m also hesitant to take her off her preventative meds before winter. The doctor agreed with me on that one, so we’ll keep doing what we do for now (which is a Flovent inhaler and half of a children’s Zyrtec tablet every morning), and we’ll re-address it next spring or summer.

Oh, we also found out that she’s the average height and weight of a 4 1/2 year-old, which is kind of what I expected. Girlfriend is tall.

Catie and I talked about the doctor’s office quite a bit before her appointment. I thought it would help her feel less nervous about it. I told her what to expect: that the nurse would have her stand on the scale to see how much she weighs, and measure her to see how tall she is, that kind of thing. She said, “I going to be brave at the doctor’s like I did at the dentist.” Then the conversation sort of went like this:

Catie: “Does the doctor have a telescope?”

Me: “A tele… Do you mean a stethoscope?”

Catie: “Yeah, like the one in my daycare class!”

Me: “Oh yeah, of course, she has a stethoscope, and she’ll use it to listen to your chest and your back and make sure you’re all healthy. She also has a special flashlight that she’ll shine to look in your ears, your mouth, your nose & your eyes. But that doesn’t hurt, since it’s just a light.”

Catie: “Do I have to get a shot?”

This is where I kind of flubbed around. I knew she needed a flu shot, but I also was so happy that she was starting to get over her fear of the doctor, and I didn’t want the shot to be the emphasis of the appointment. So I kind of hemmed and hawed, and I told her about how the flu is a very nasty thing that makes us get really sick, and they have medicine that can keep us from getting it, but it means that yes, you do have to get a shot. (Since Catie has asthma, she unfortunately can’t take the nasal mist form.) But I wasn’t sure if she’d get it at this appointment or if we’d do it later (remembering how iffy the availability was last year). And plus, it’s ok because Mommy has to get one too.

This morning rolled around, and she did amazingly well during the whole appointment. She was cheerful, she answered all of the doctor’s questions, she gave high-fives when she did something correctly. All was great.

Then, the nurse came in with the flu shot. And she was still fine and nonchalant about it… until she saw the actual needle.

Oh man. I don’t even have words. There was screaming. There were tears. There was blood. There was me and a nurse trying to hold her leg still so she wouldn’t kick and make it worse. It was awful.

The nurse left, and we took a few minutes to calm down in the exam room before we left. She got a lollipop and two stickers (she was only supposed to take one from the nurse’s sticker drawer, but whatever man, you want Tinkerbell AND Princess Tiana? Fine, lord knows I’m not gonna argue after the trauma you just endured).

Then we went to McDonald’s and got a Happy Meal. She ate about six French fries and announced she was full. I think she mostly wanted the prize that came with the meal.

So, she’s fine. I reassured her that I think she did great at the appointment, and she was so good and so brave, and I’m so proud of her. But it’s amazing how one minute with a nurse can totally deflate all of the good feelings she had about the doctor’s office up until that moment.

Oh well, I guess this means we don’t need to be putting away money for med school in her future. Fine by me.

trying not to raise a pushover

Posted on September 23, 2010 by Cindy

There’s a new little girl in Catie’s daycare class named Allie. She’s the youngest of them by far, she just turned 3 a couple of weeks ago. Most of the other kids in the classroom are 3 1/2 to 4. But Allie was used to being the Queen Bee of the 2 year-old room, and she’s trying to maintain that status in the new classroom.

So lately, a lot of conversations at our house have been going like this:

Me: Do you want to wear your sneakers or your pink shoes*?

Catie: I want my pink shoes. But I have to take my socks off. Allie says I can’t wear socks with my pink shoes.

Me: Sweetie, if you want to wear socks with your pink shoes, you can. It doesn’t matter. Allie doesn’t make the rules.

*Note: “Pink shoes” is what she calls her crocs. And yes, she usually wears socks with them. I don’t care about the fashion statement, since, you know, SHE’S THREE. And if she has socks on, she’ll stay comfortable in them longer and won’t run over to me every 2 minutes to complain about some microscopic speck of dust in her shoe that’s bugging her.

—————————-

Me: What do you want to drink with your dinner?

Catie: Milk. Allie says I can’t drink water or juice, only milk.

Me: Um, you can drink whatever you want, actually.

Catie: I can? Then I’d like some juice, please.

—————————-

At bedtime, Catie is snuggling with her stuffed horse, who she named Duck (which I think is hilarious), and we’re talking about her day. (Also: Duck the horse happens to have been the stuffed animal she brought to school earlier that day.)

Catie: Allie said I can’t call my horsey Duck, because he’s a horse, not a duck. So I need to name him Cayden.

Me: Catie Bug, he’s YOUR horse, not Allie’s. You can re-name him if you want to, but I think Duck is a great name for him.

Catie (getting upset): And today, Allie said I had to put Duck in my cubby, and I wanted to hold him.

Me: Did Miss Mandy tell you that you had to put him in your cubby, or did she say it was ok for you to hold onto him?

Catie: She said I could hold him.

Me: Well, baby, Miss Mandy makes the rules when you’re at school, not Allie. So the next time she tries to tell you what to do, you need to very nicely say, “Allie, you’re not the boss of me.” And if she keeps trying to tell you what to do, you need to go tell Miss Mandy to make her stop.

Catie: Ok, I do that.

—————————-

Today, I took Catie to daycare. We walked in, and Catie marched up to Allie without so much as a hello, and said, “Allie, you NOT the boss of me!”

Oy. I guess she misunderstood the part about waiting until Allie did something bossy, and I was kind of horrified that she did it that way. But then? Allie’s response was, “I know I’m not the boss of you, Catie. Now here, you take this and go put it over there…” And Catie turned around and did exactly what Allie told her to do.

The good news is that the daycare teacher is well aware of the situation and is continually telling Allie to stop being bossy. Apparently she acts like that with all the kids, not just Catie.

I worry about how to teach Catie to stand up for herself and not be a pushover, but also keep her from taking it too far and becoming bossy herself. The line is pretty fuzzy when you’re dealing with kids this young.

I just never want her to conform to somebody else’s idea of what she should be.

Because who she is? Is pretty flipping fantastic.

overcoming fears

Posted on September 13, 2010 by Cindy

A year ago (less than that, even), Catie had all of these quirky little behaviors that absolutely baffled me. Little things, stuff that you’d think most kids would enjoy, totally terrified her. It used to worry me. But recently, Catie’s been proving that she’s not afraid of very much anymore. Like…

1. The tricycle. She got this tricycle on her 2nd birthday. She was ok with sitting on it (while I pushed it) when she first got it, but then something changed and she would howl and cry if I suggested she sit on it. It seemed to correlate to her fear of “motion that she’s not 100% in control of.” These days, not so much.

Apparently there are some tricycles on the playground at her daycare, and she’s recently been trying them out. She came home bragging about how she “rode a bike” at school. I thought that was odd, so I brought out her old tricycle (which had been growing cobwebs in the corner of the garage) to see if she wanted to take it for a spin. She did. And she loved it. She still won’t use the pedals, she just scoots herself along with her feet, but I think she’ll figure out that part on her own time.

2. The playground. She still doesn’t like swings, but she OWNS the slides. When she first started going down the slide this past spring, she would only go down the baby slide, and only if I held her hands.

Now, though, she goes down the big slides, all by herself. And likes to show off her static-cling hair when she lands.

That’s pretty awesome. She’s also decided that her stroller is for babies, so she walks all the way to the neighborhood playground and back, and doesn’t even whine for me to carry her. (It would be about a 10-minute walk if I did it by myself. With a slow-poke 3 year-old, it’s more like 25 minutes, each way. But it’s hilly, so I’m impressed that she walks it.)

3. Water. Apparently this kid of mine has decided that she’s half-fish. After battling her pool phobia this summer, yesterday she tried out something new: the slip & slide. I bought it for her months ago as a surprise gift ($4 at Target, yay!), and she took one look at the picture on the box, and said, “I don’t like that.” We never got around to setting it up until yesterday.

I think she liked it.

Of course, I had to show her what to do the first time. Related note: 34 year-olds are not supposed to use slip & slides. Ouch.

I’m just so proud of her, it’s like she woke up one day and decided she was a big kid and needed to act accordingly. I don’t know how it all seemed to happen at once, but I love it.

Unrelated side note: I think she might be watching too many Disney Princess movies. Last night when I was kissing her goodnight & saying our “I love you”s, she said, “In the morning, after the sun’s up, we can be together again.” Way to make bedtime dramatic, kiddo.

I’m telling you, three year-olds are a freaking riot.

everything is better in a giraffe hat

Posted on September 7, 2010 by Cindy

My parents were here for the holiday weekend, which was really nice. We met up with our realtor friend who took them out to look at some houses so they could get a feel for neighborhoods here. Their house in Mississippi is on the market right now, and the plan is that they’ll move up here as soon as it sells. Of course, the market in Mississippi kinda sucks right now, so we don’t really know how long that’ll take. (Even though they have a really gorgeous house in a nice neighborhood. Seriously. Any of y’all need to buy a house in Ridgeland? Let me know!)

When they weren’t neighborhood-hunting, they spent most of their time making sure that their only grandchild was ridiculously indulged.

I cannot begin to tell you how much this picture makes me laugh. My dad looks like Jackie O. gone horribly wrong.

Then my mom joined in, but by that time, Catie had chocolate, and no longer cared about the camera.

Grandparents: giving kids sugar at bedtime since the dawn of time.

Since my folks had flown up, my brother and sister also drove over from Charlotte for the weekend too. Always nice to have everybody around, even though it does get a little loud and crazy. But we had a great time. Saturday was gorgeous here, we fired up the grill and ate outside on the deck, and it was absolutely lovely. I didn’t even take any pictures of that because I was too busy enjoying it.

Everybody left on Sunday, and we went swimming with Cat and Elizabeth that afternoon as a distraction. It worked, Catie was definitely less sad than usual about everybody leaving since we had other fun stuff on the agenda.

It was also nice that they left on Sunday, since it gave us Monday/Labor Day to sort of rest and recuperate before starting the week again. I feel like that after every family vacation or get-together; you kind of need a day of downtime before getting back to the grind.

And if that day involves watching movies and eating a banana while wearing a giraffe hat? Well, then, all the better.

one sad, one funny

Posted on August 24, 2010 by Cindy

Two stories for you.

1. The Sad.

When I picked up Catie at daycare yesterday, she ran to me sort of whimpering and buried her face in my legs. Normally she’s happy to see me, so this was unusual. I raised an eyebrow at her teacher, and she kind of whispered to me, “Clara hit her.”

Here’s the thing. Clara is a very sweet little girl with a pretty major developmental delay. I don’t know exactly what’s wrong with her. She doesn’t have Down’s Syndrome but it’s something on par with that. She’s older than the rest of the kids in her class (she’s already 4), but she’s still in diapers and just learning “bye-bye” and basic vocabulary stuff. She goes to a special-ed school during the day, so she’s only at the daycare for an hour or so in the afternoons until her parents get off work and pick her up.

The thing is, Clara can be very rough without meaning to be. None of it is ill-intentioned, she’s a really sweet-natured kid. But, like, today for example, while I was there, I saw a little girl with cute little blonde ringlet curls, and Clara ran over and yanked on the little girl’s hair. Which made her cry. But Clara wasn’t being mean, it’s like she was trying to pet the little girl or treat her like a baby doll. She doesn’t realize that she can hurt the other kids. So how do you discipline a child when she honestly has no concept that she’s done anything wrong?

The problem on this occasion, though? Was that Clara hit Catie in the face.

When we got home, Catie mentioned that her mouth hurt where Clara hit her. I looked inside her mouth and saw that she had a cut on the inside of her lip where her tooth dug into it. So obviously Clara hit Catie in the face pretty damn hard.

I didn’t know how to react to that. I wanted to cry. On the one hand, somebody hurt my baby, and that brings out the whole mama bear instinct. On the other hand, my heart breaks for this little girl who’s got an entire lifetime of obstacles and challenges ahead of her. I try to imagine myself in her parents’ place, and… oof. I cannot even begin to imagine what their day-to-day life is like.

Catie’s way of processing things is to talk about it over and over again. So we talked about it several times, and I told her that while it wasn’t nice that Clara hit her, that Clara has a hard time understanding right and wrong, so we can’t be mad at her because she didn’t know what she was doing. I said that if Clara gets too rough again, she needs to tell her to stop, and if she doesn’t stop, then she needs to tell her teacher. I absolutely don’t want to tell my daughter to avoid the special-needs kid in her class, because I think that sets an unhealthy precedent. I’m not sure how else to handle the situation. This is all completely foreign territory for me.

Later that night, Catie and I were practicing drawing her letters. I helped her get started, then I went to wash dishes. She called me and said she had something to show me. I walked over, and saw that she had flipped to a new piece of paper, and she had drawn a perfect tear-drop shape. She said, “That’s the tears I cried when Clara hit me.” I wanted to lie down on the floor and sob. I just don’t know how to explain this on a level that a 3 year-old can understand.

I talked to both the daycare director and Catie’s teacher about it today, since they had no idea that the hit was so hard that it cut her lip. (It was a small cut, it probably didn’t bleed much or a very noticeable amount.) I didn’t ask them to do anything about it, I don’t want to cause any problems for Clara’s family, I just wanted them to be aware of the situation in case it happens more frequently and becomes a problem later on down the road. I didn’t know what else to do, really.

So, yeah. Anybody out there have any experiences like this? Words of wisdom? I’ll take whatever I can get.

———————————
2. Now for the funny (which is needed after all that).

I almost had the most awkward conversation with a grocery store cashier, ever.

The cashier guy rang up all my stuff and was starting to put it all in bags. Among my purchases was an econo-size HUGE box of tampons. (Don’t judge me. I buy in bulk. It saves money.) I was already self-conscious about that, because you know, it’s a dude ringing me up and apparently I’m still 13 and this whole menstruation thing is all new to me.

(Seriously, self. It’s been going on for over 20 years now. Time to get used to it.)

In an effort to make conversation, the guy says, “So, big fans of the Crimson Tide, huh?”

I was putting my wallet back in my purse when he said this, but my jaw dropped and I whipped my head around and I was about to say, “I’m sorry, WHAT?!?!!” Because OMG, how offensive can you possibly get, right?

Then I realized he was pointing at Catie’s big stuffed elephant that she was carrying with her. And I remembered that Alabama’s mascot is the elephant. And their football team is called the Crimson Tide.

I mumbled, “Oh. Uh. Not really, she just likes elephants.”

And then I died of embarrassment. The End.

the birthday party circuit

Posted on August 23, 2010 by Cindy

So, besides my girl deciding that she’s half-fish this weekend, we also had not one but TWO birthday parties to attend. This makes three birthday parties in less than a month. It’s pretty sad when you realize that your 3 year-old has a more active social calendar than either of her parents.

On Friday evening, we went to a birthday party at the Jump Zone for Catie’s daycare friend Cole. I tried out the iPhone’s video camera and got this (warning: turn down your volume, the Jump Zone is LOUD).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_kjo8tf1v5s
That’s 34 seconds of a tiny blonde blur right there. And it’s pretty much all I saw for the entire two hours we were there.

Finally, we managed to round up the kids and go have pizza and cake. The private room for birthday parties had a big inflatable throne, which I assume is for the birthday boy/girl to sit on, but all the kids took turns climbing on it.

(If you look closely, you can see evidence of the Thomas the Tank Engine cake. That blue frosting stuff requires soap and water to wash off, it won’t be contained by mere napkins alone.)

On Sunday, we went to a birthday party for Catie’s friend Ava at a local playground.

Of course, it was all fun and games until it was time to get the kids together for a group picture, at which point Catie crossed her arms and pouted. (She wanted to keep playing.)

It’s a great park, and the party was a lot of fun, but I don’t know if there are adequate words to express how miserably hot it was. Ninety degrees, humid, and not a single breeze to be found. It was about as sweaty as you can get. Not that the kids seemed too terribly bothered by it.

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen this child more sweaty in her life. Before we left, I dragged her into the ladies’ room to splash some cold water on her face to try to help her cool off.

(If any of y’all remember the boy that Catie was caught kissing? That’s him. He’s a very sweet kid. And apparently he’s told his parents that when he grows up, he’s going to drive a mini-van just like his dad, and Catie will ride beside him. I think that’s the 3 year-old version of saying he’s going to marry her. I’m taking notes of all this for when they end up going to prom together in 15 years.)

The party was great, and I love that most of the other daycare parents seem friendly and nice. But it would’ve been a lot more fun in maybe a month or so when it’s 10-15 degrees cooler outside!

On the upside, though, spending all that time out in the heat made the pool feel extra-awesome on Sunday afternoon. So there’s that.

PooBou.com

Mom. Stepmom. Nerd. Feminist. Pretty good wife. Outstanding ex-wife. I try to keep it light and funny. I'm not always successful.

Tag Archives: preschoolers

Autumn Weekend

white coat phobia still firmly in place

trying not to raise a pushover

overcoming fears

everything is better in a giraffe hat

one sad, one funny

the birthday party circuit

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