Amanda for 365: Kids

Kids

Showing posts with label Kids. Show all posts

Irate & Chloe's First Day of School

You know what? I'm mad right now, and I can't even tell you why. It has nothing to do with Chloe, but I'm just so irate and even more irate about being irate because I can't talk about it. Life can be so damn demanding, frustrating, and the likes. I'm so tired of walking on eggshells around people, tired of being worried something I do (or don't do), do say (or don't say) will piss someone off and uproot my life again. That's all you need to know about my issue(s) for now.

So, Chloe's first day of school was today. We took her dad to work this morning, came home and played for a bit before getting her ready for school. Today, she was dressed in all "Frozen" including her boots. After she was dressed and I got her school bag together, she was ready to go "bye-bye." I was still getting a few things together, and she got mad and threw herself on the floor because I wasn't opening the door to let her go to the car. That's the picture I've shared at the top of the post.

Well, we finally get out the door and to the school. Chloe was excited to be there and kept trying to go through the double doors in the lobby to the main school hallway. She got upset when I told her she had to wait for the teacher to get her. When the teacher arrived, Chloe got super excited. They went through the double doors, and as soon as she figured out I wasn't going with her, she started to cry.

Me, on the other hand, I did pretty well. I didn't cry, but I found myself a little lost with what to do for the time Chloe was at school until my appointment later in the afternoon. Eventually, I decided to work on my project a little bit more, put away Chloe's clean clothes, and ran a few errands (kid-free).

Grandma picked her up from school today because I had therapy downtown. It sounds like her first day went very well. She ate almost all of her lunch, participated all day in class, and the teacher's report said she had a very good day. Grandma also told me that when she picked Chloe up from school, Chloe didn't want to leave. She dropped down to her knees a few times on the walk home all upset because she wanted to go back to school. Well, she'll get to go back tomorrow.

The teacher sent up a folder with a bunch of paperwork and information. Included was homework for me; a bunch of questions I had to answer about Chloe. There was an information packet on their special needs pre-k program, a daily progress report to sign, a project she did in class (shown above), and information about her IEP. My husband and I both read and signed her daily report so the teacher can see that we're both taking an interest in her education and learning experiences.

Chloe slept in her big girl bed again last night with no issues. I put her to bed a little while ago, and she's out like a light again tonight. This new bed thing seems to be going off without a hitch.

The next big thing that we'll be doing with her is starting the potty training process. She's already showing us some signs that she's ready by letting us know when she's got to go "#2 (haha)." That will be coming up very soon. I'm kind of eager and excited to see how she does with that.

The only other thing to happen today was pretty cool. I've been on a Starbucks kick as of late. When I went through the drive-thru and pulled the app up on my phone to pay, I was told I had a birthday reward (my birthday is tomorrow) and a free drink reward. Both of the awards gave free drinks. So I got one today, and I'll get one tomorrow (LOL). That double chocolate chip frappe is fantastic! I blame my sister, Destiny, for getting me hooked on those.

Well, that's all I have for today, maybe tomorrow will be better (mood-wise), and I'll have something interesting to say. Until tomorrow ...

Nothing Really New to Report

Today was just an average day. Nothing too exciting happened. Chloe did sleep in her bed all night last night until about 7:30 am this morning. She went to bed tonight without a fight, thankfully. And, she's starting school tomorrow.

I take her to school at 11 am, and Grandma will be picking her up because I have an appointment at 2:30 pm. So, I don't even get to ask the teachers about her first day :(.

I am excited and worried at the same time, about Chloe staring school. I've been very protective of her in not letting anyone but family take care of her. So, Chloe going to school for a few hours a day without me is going to feel weird, and my anxiety is going to be through the roof.

But, all of that happens tomorrow. I just need to get through the rest of tonight and then worry about tomorrow.

I spent the better part of my day writing code, again. I do this sort of thing a lot. But, today, I had an issue that I just couldn't seem to fix. I was trying to get some buttons to show in a custom user profile, and no matter what I did, those buttons wouldn't show up. After spending about an hour and a half trying to figure out the root problem, I reached out to the ProBoards support staff for some guidance. It turns out it was a stupid easy fix. I wasn't paying attention to the tab I was editing, and therefore I was adding the wrong variables to the template.

I'm a firm believer that when you fix one problem in a code, you create a million more. Hence the shirt pictured above. My buddy Chris in the U.K. sent me that shirt almost two years ago now. We use to code and create things together all the time, talk on skype, and yell at each other when one of those "it worked fine yesterday" moments came around.

Anyway, I got a good bit of work done on the Harry Potter project today. Custom Profiles and Mini Profiles are set up, changed some color issues with that chat box at the bottom of the site, created and modified a news page and four common room areas for each Hogwarts House, and wrote up and uploaded two site guides to DropBox for April to go over. It was an entirely productive day in that regard.

Today, one of my closest friends has a birthday. So, Happy Birthday CJ! I miss your face! ~ I've been so worried about him because he was diagnosed with two inoperable brain tumors not too long ago. Sometimes, he disappears and I don't hear from him. It worries me. But, after talking with someone about it, I've learned there is a reason I don't hear from him. I just do my best to check in and make sure he's doing alright from time to time.

Well, nothing else is going on over here tonight. I need to finish up a few things then head to bed as I have to get up super early in the morning to drop my husband off in Atlanta for work. Until tomorrow ...

Burrr, Boo Boos, & Growing Up

(Not Necessarily In That Order)

Growing Up

Last Tuesday, my youngest daughter turned three-years-old. It seems like I just had her yesterday. I can still remember holding her little six-pound self in my arms, bottle feeding her, and laying on the floor with her during tummy time.

This week is a massive week for Chloe. To start with, we went out today and bought her a toddler bed. She's been in a crib up to this point and has yet to try and climb out of it. She's been overdue to switch to a big girl's bed for a while.

We went to get her bed with our hearts set on the Frozen bed shown in the picture above. However, when we got to the store, we found a wooden one (dark wood like her crib) and fully intended to buy that one in case she grew out of her "Frozen" obsession before she outgrew the bed. But, the wooden bed was much more expensive. So, she got the Frozen themed toddler bed.

When we finished cleaning up her room and putting it together, we brought her upstairs to see it. She was ecstatic. She walked right up to it, climbed into bed, and surrounded herself with stuffed animals and pillows. I'm pretty sure she loves it.

I was unsure how she would do her first night in the new bed, but surprisingly, she's done well. I put her to bed around 7:30 pm and she's been out like a light since. She's growing up and way too fast for my liking. She even starts school on Tuesday this week. I'll post about that experience then.

Boo Boos

Chloe got her first "big" boo-boo today. We were at Burlington, and she cut her finger pretty bad on one of the coat racks. She said "ow," but didn't cry. There was, what seemed like, a lot of blood from her little index finger. It was running down her wrist and covered her finger. Daddy took her to the bathroom to try and clean her up and stop the bleeding.

We got a band-aid and some alcohol wipes from the manager. It wasn't until then she started to cry. She wasn't even crying because of the cut. The manager had already covered it with a band-aid. She was crying because we were trying to clean up the rest of the dried blood with the alcohol wipe and she didn't like that we had to restrain her.

It took a band-aid and a little bit of pressure to stop the bleeding, but she was a champ through it all. She didn't let it phase her one bit. I took the above picture shortly after she saw her bed for the first time and she was all playful and goofy like her usual self. Sometimes, I tend to worry too much which isn't good for anyone.

Chloe is doing just fine; we've been cleaning it and changing the band-aid out. The cut looks normal. It's not red or warm to the touch, and there's no puss around it. I'll continue to monitor it and take her to the doctor if needed.

SC Trip, Dinner & A Show

Whew! What a long day today has been. As I mentioned yesterday, we drove to South Carolina to visit our older two youngins. We woke up early-ish and headed out around 6:30 am and got home around 11 pm. I made it back in time to write a post before midnight! Trust me when I say, making it home before midnight is a feat.

So the day started out pretty good. We got into town around 10 am like we usually do. We fed the little one breakfast as soon as we got there, and then we hung out with my parents until close to noon. Then, we took the kids on a small adventure.

My son, Wyatt, was in need of some new tennis shoes. His everyday shoes were falling apart; the soles torn up with holes in them and pretty close to holes in the front toe area as well. Collectively, we decided it was time for a new pair of shoes. So, we went on our first adventure to Target to find him some.

As we're pulling into the parking lot, the two older kids are in the backseat asking over and over again if they can get one toy while we're there. Of course, we told them "no." They weren't too happy about that either. We walked through the store and found the shoe area for kids and of course they are out of everything in the size we needed for Wyatt. We opted to go somewhere else for shoes.

At some point, we ended up over with the toys. The two older ones couldn't keep their hands off of things, picking up toys after being told numerous times they could look but not touch. So, we definitively said they were not getting any toys while we were at Target. Of course, they got mad, and we ignored their negative behavior while it lasted.

Both of the older two love the game Minecraft, and they're pretty good at it too. We were browsing the books section at target and came across a world creation Minecraft guide. It ended up going home with them to share (as they both need to be better sharers). When it was time to leave, I took the older two kids with me to Starbucks so I could get my Double Chocolate Chip Frappe that I order anytime I can. Torrey got a hot chocolate, and Wyatt wanted apple juice. After Starbucks, we began our next adventure.

We headed towards Haywood Mall in Greenville, SC. On the way there, the hubby started to get hungry, and the kids were telling us they were starving. So, we took everyone to the Golden Corral. I always like eating there when the kids are with us because there are so many things for them to eat and both of the girls are super picky eaters.

After lunch, we went to the mall in search of some shoe stores for kids so we could get Wyatt a pair of shoes. We ended up in Rack Room Shoes, which is where we bought his new Batman shoes. While we were there, our nine-year-old found a pair of sketcher light-up shoes that she just really wanted to have. But, because she's got a ton of shoes and that the shoes she wanted were about $60, we told her we couldn't get them today, and she'd have to wait a few weeks.

Well, all hell broke loose after that. She was so upset about not getting what she wanted that she had a meltdown in the middle of the mall. Chloe (the baby) saw how upset Torrey was and she started to cry and throw a fit too. At this point, it was after 4:30 pm and time to head back to drop them off at home. So we proceeded to do just that.

The older two kids rode with Torrey's dad, Jeff, and Chloe stayed with us. We met back up at my parent's place.

I have never seen my oldest child have a meltdown like that in a public place. I almost didn't know what to do about it. But, we got it under control and moved on.

Skipping ahead a couple of hours now, my husband, the baby and I stopped at the Iron Skillet just after we crossed the border into Georgia on our way home. This restaurant has been a ritual stop now for over a year, and usually, the food is excellent. Tonight was just one of those nights where they managed to screw up my food.

I ordered a petite sirloin (medium - well) with a baked potato. When the food came out, I cut into the meat, and it was super hard to cut. When I was finally able to cut through it, it was light pink in the middle just how I like it. I tried to take a bite of the steak and literally couldn't bite or tear the meat with my teeth at all. It was tough. So, I asked our waitress if she could take the steak off the ticket and she obliged. I mean the teeth marks in the meat where I tried to bite and tear it was an apparent sign of unedible grub.

Anyway, I went off to the restroom after I was done eating and while I was gone, there was an altercation between our waitress's boyfriend and her mom. According to my husband, the waitress asked her mom "please don't do this here, just go." The mom ignored her, walked over to the boyfriend and started laying into him about something. I'm not sure what that "something" is, but it got heated pretty quickly, and the boyfriend called the mom a name and some other things happened.

So our Saturday night dinner turned into dinner and a show. Our three-year-old was subjected to language that we try not to use around her. Overall, it was the first semi-bad experience we've had in the whole year we've frequented the restaurant.

At any rate, we picked up some lottery tickets from the gas station before we left (PowerBall). The drawing has already happened tonight, and we did not win (sorry April). It would have been nice because there's so much we need right now like a house for us all to live in, cars of our own, debts paid off, and college paid for too. We could use that money. /sigh - Maybe next time.

Well, that's the gist of my day. Nothing too "exciting" happened today. But, I do think I need to have a chat with both of my older children about the value of being grateful for what they have instead of consistently asking for more. We aren't made of money and just because they had a good Christmas this year doesn't mean we can afford to buy them a ton of new toys and other things they want every time we visit them.

I need to get to bed, so this is an excellent place to end. See you all tomorrow.

When Kids Break Your Heart

Today started off alright, then got worse before getting good again. But, for the sake of this post's title, my kid broke my heart today ...

Chloe had a dentist appointment this morning. She went about six months ago, but her daddy took her. He had told me that the baby was awesome and cooperative. Before we get too far into this, you should know that I have a huge problem with taking my kid to the doctor by myself when she has to get shots or bloodwork done because I can't stand to see her get upset. The crying, the screaming, it all just breaks my heart to pieces.

So anyway, we go to the dentist's office and check in. About five minutes later they're calling her back to have her teeth cleaned. We sit in the dentist chair, my legs dangling off the side. Chloe sits in my lap facing me with her legs wrapped around me, and they place a lapboard just under her butt that extends into the dentist's lap.

The whole concept of the lap pad was new to me. I have two other kids, and I've never seen this done at a dentist's office. The lap pad is used with smaller kids to lay on. It's not very sturdy, and the parent has to restrain the kid if they get upset or fight the dental assistant.

I lay Chloe back onto the lap pad and she just starts wailing. She doesn't want to let the lady get anywhere near her mouth. I'm holding her hands and arms and trying to keep her as still as I can. Surprisingly, she is a lot stronger than anyone would think of a three-year-old. In fact, she's stronger than I am. I couldn't restrain her that well. The lady finally got her teeth cleaned, and it took 20 minutes of screaming, crying and struggling to get it done.

After the cleaning, they attempted to do X-Rays. Again, Chloe had to sit in my lap in the X-Ray chair and I had to restrain her arms and hands with one arm while holding her head back against my chest with the other. Again, she was stronger than me. After another twenty minutes of trying to get pictures of her molars, they gave up on taking the X-Rays. She was fighting way too hard. The assistant did manage to get the pictures of the upper and lower front teeth.

Roughly forty minutes of screaming and crying, my heart breaking more and more as it went on, and I was ready to say fuck it all and leave. No joke. We were sent back to the waiting room where my girly could play for a little bit before the dentist was ready to do her actual exam. Then, we were taken back to the same dentist chair from the teeth cleaning and set up exactly the same way. Her in my lap, a lap pad extending between myself and the dentist, and Chloe laying down screaming and crying her little lungs out.

At one point during the exam, she was so upset and I was so angry that I couldn't take it anymore, and I made the dentist stop. I picked up my little girl and held her close and consoled her. Her tiny heart-beat was so fast and her face was all blotchy. My heart literally hurt for her.

I laid her back down on the lap pad and the dentist tried again to get a look at her teeth. Chloe was clenching her mouth shut so hard--to prevent the dentist from getting into her mouth--that she cut her gums with her teeth and made herself bleed. One of the next times she screamed they put a bite blocker in her mouth just long enough to get a look at her molars on each side. Then, she was done.

The good news is, Chloe doesn't have any cavities. The bad news is, I need to find a different dentist. I cannot believe the horror we went through today. I have never seen Chloe so upset in all three years of her life and I swear to you my heart broke today having to watch her and hear her go through all that.

But, don't fret about it anymore because she's been all smiles since we left that place. The picture for this post shows a happy, laughing, goofy frozen dressed baby. She even had frozen tennis shoes to go with her outfit.

After the whole dentist ordeal, I didn't have much motivation to do anything. I didn't get much work done on my project. I did help a few people with their projects. And, I cooked a pot roast for dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, and mixed veggies. It was amazing!

On that note, I'm getting tired. So, I think this is an excellent place to stop tonight. I'll see you guys tomorrow. 💔

Productive Days Are Tiring

As the title suggests, I had a pretty productive day today. I woke up around 9 am. After the kid ate breakfast, we migrated upstairs so she could watch Frozen and I could get some things done on the computer after we played some games and read a book.

I've been working on this ProBoards theme for a Harry Potter forum. I got most of the new profile layout completed in PhotoShop. The next thing I have to do is code it and put it on to the live forum. That should be easy enough (not) ...

After I finished the designing stuff, it was lunchtime, so I gave the kiddo some mac and cheese with some green beans and proceeded to clean up around the house. I cleaned the kitchen, dining room, and living room. And, I even got in two loads of laundry. After lunch, Chloe took a nap, and I played around in PhotoShop for a while longer.

At some point, I took the time to write out a guide for an area of my Harry Potter forum, get my classes registered for next semester (starting January 10th), have a FaceTime conversation with my sister, and post around on some forums. I even set up a discord server with a ton of text and voice channels as a bonus for members of my Harry Potter site.

Yes, yes, Harry Potter. I'm a total nerd. You'll either learn to love my obsession with Potter or hate it. Either way, when the site is ready for the public, you'll be hearing about it, and I'll share the link with you all. No worries.

Anyways, we (the kiddo and I) also made it to the grocery store and picked up some stuff for meals the rest of the week which brings me to the photo in this post. I made bacon wrapped, parmesan breaded chicken tenders for dinner. Of course, no meal is complete without mashed potatoes and some other vegetable, so I threw in some of both.

The meals I've planned out this week include Chicken Alfredo, Pot Roast, and Teriyaki Chicken and Rice. We're a family that loves chicken. Too bad my kiddo isn't eating solids very well yet. She has to stick to all the super soft stuff. I think she'd love my cooking if she could eat it.

After getting to sleep in for a little while this morning, all the running around and cleaning, as well as laundry and cooking dinner, I am super tired. Hence the title, Productive Days Are Tiring.

Nothing fascinating happened today. Maybe tomorrow I'll have better luck, and you won't just get stuck with a horrid rundown of my entire day.

On that note, I will write again tomorrow.

Today, My Youngest Is Three

This morning started out pretty rough. Last night, I could hardly sleep. Severe anxiety and heart palpitations just didn't want to give me any relief so I couldn't fall asleep. At some point, I ended up moving from the bed to the couch in the living room, turned on the Disney Channel and ended up falling asleep (yes I'm 30 and I still watch Disney, bite me!). The last time I looked at the clock, it was 3:00 am.

So, 5:30 am rolls around. My husband gets out of bed to come and wake me. See, normally, he'd leave me alone and let me sleep. However, as we only have one vehicle and the little one was scheduled for a doctor's appointment, that meant I had to get up with him and drive him to work. Which, by the way, is about 45 minutes to an hour depending on traffic.

When I got back home from taking the husband to work, I logged onto my computer and began working vigorously on a project. I'm building a ProBoards forum theme and I needed to get some coding done. I got in the zone and before I realized it, the time had flown by quickly. One look at the clock and seeing that it was 8:45 am was enough for me to jump out of my chair (not bothering to save or do anything with the work on my computer screen).

The little one's doctor's appointment was scheduled for 9 am. She was still asleep at 8:45 am. So, I woke the poor birthday girl up early, changed her and dressed her, then we got in the car and went to her doctor's appointment. Now, this appointment was supposed to be a normal 3-year well-check. She wasn't due for any shots, so it wasn't the worst possible thing I could do to her on her birthday (I know there are judgemental people out there like that).

So anyway, we get through the triage type stuff. The doctor comes into our room and explains that the little one's platelets are low and proceeds to ask if any blood conditions are in her family. Well, of course, there are. I have Stage 0 (watch and wait) Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. So, the doctor wants to do a repeat finger prick test on the little one in about a month and if her platelets are still low, she'll be sent over to the cancer center to have a full blood panel completed. In the meantime, I'm going to serve her green veggies to see if that aids in the platelet count rising.

The other thing we found out today was that she, at three-years-old, has significant astigmatism in one of her eyes that could be hindering her ability to walk properly. So, she's being referred to a Pediatric Eye Doctor as well. Don't get me started on that, we'll be here all day.

So, we get home from the doctor's office and the little one has a meltdown because she wants to go "bye-bye again." I have stuff that I need to get done and ready for her school and mine next week and I'm not about to run back out for no reason. I fed her breakfast and she was happy until she finished eating and then she wanted to go "bye-bye" yet again. When I told her no, she threw a tantrum on the floor. So I grabbed a sippy cup, put some milk in it for her and carried her to her bed. I figured she'd calm down in a few minutes and we could try something else together.

Well, about 10 minutes later, I peeked my head in to have a look at her. She was sound asleep in her crib. Cool. I finished up some paperwork for school, worked on my project some more and then around 5 pm she woke up on her own.

The rest of the evening was pretty chill. We watched cartoons, chased each other around the house, played with the dogs, had supper, and even had a video chat with Grandma up in Ohio.

We didn't do anything for her birthday, which is TODAY because most of our family is out of town partaking in that dreadful holiday traveling. So, we'll be having her birthday party soon, and I'm sure I'll post a bunch of pictures. She doesn't know it yet, but we plan to get her a Frozen themed toddler bed in the next week. I think she's gonna love it!

Irate & Chloe's First Day of School

Irate & Chloe's First Day of School

Nothing Really New to Report

Nothing Really New to Report

Burrr, Boo Boos, & Growing Up