Famous Words of Caitlyn

Hot!

2011-08-02T10:28:00.004-05:00

Today

Partly cloudy. A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms late in the afternoon. Highs in the mid to upper 90s. Peak afternoon heat index readings 104 to 109. Southwest winds 10 to 20 mph. Gusts up to 30 mph in the afternoon.

This is the forecast for today according to Weather Underground. Naturally, cause I am intelligent, I figured I would pull the weeds in our new lawn early this morning to avoid the blazing heat. Didn't work. Cause it was already 109 out at 9:30 this morning when I went out there.

That being said, I still have to pull the weeds in the front. So if no one hears from me by tomorrow morning, please alert the authorities to come to my house for a "well-being check" as I am sure I will be dead on my lawn. But it is a nice lawn now!

The Culprit

2011-07-31T02:03:00.003-05:00

The reason I am not a good blogger anymore:

Facebook.

It is so much easier to just type out one or two sentences and let people know what's going on in your life. Easier than typing out a narrative. So to catch you up (all 4 of you that read this) I have compiled a random sampling of my facebook statuses since my last post. It pretty much sums up what has been going on in our lives.

June 20

10 years ago today, Matt and I were about to embark on a terrifying 106 day journey. We had no idea just how amazing that journey would be!

June 21

I have one very excited little girl reading a new book on her new Kindle.

I can't complain about all this rain...saves me from having to keep moving the sprinkler on the new sod!

June 22

A remake of Footloose??? Really!!!

Clean house. Full belly. Good Will Hunting on tv. Breeze coming through the windows. Me lounging on the couch. I love summer break.

June 24

Getting everything ready for the sleepover!!

June 25
‎YAWN

June 26
12 years ago I married the greatest guy in the world. Happy anniversary Matt! I love you!

June 27
Caitlyn has her first black eye. That's what happens when you run through a sprinkler and hit your friends head with your face.

June 29
I hate you insomnia. That is all.
While packing for the lake, Caitlyn says:
"Sometimes I think we take moms for granted."
From the mouths of babes!!

June 30
Waupaca bound...

July 7
Making our way home from the lake. I have one worn out little girl on my hands. That's what happens when you swim from sun up till sun down I guess!

July 9
Getting my girl ready for her Girl Scout camping trip! I think I'm going to miss her more than she will miss me!

July 10
Driving my girl to camp :/

July 12
Having a "mole" (by the name of Michelle Tatela aka Nurse) has eased my separation anxiety tremendously!! I am the lucky mom getting updates on activities, photos, and even a video of my kid doing the Macarena periodically.

July 14
Oy Vey!!! I certainly have my work cut out for me here :/

July 15
Had a wonderful sleep last night. Now, work for the day and then....I get to see my girl!!!!!

July 19
It's DynaVox, not DynaBox. It's the little things that have a tendency to push me right over the edge!

July 20
It's gonna be a hot one today folks!!

July 24
Was going to cook dinner, then decided against it. Going to Chipotle instead.....mmmmmmmm

July 25
After watching the news this morning, it doesn't look like I'll be turning my AC off this week either :/

July 26
Listening to Cait talk to the dentist cracks me up!! The conversations she has when she doesn't know I'm listening LOL

No cavities for Caitlyn! Love hearing that from the dentist (mainly cause it just saves me money). Aaaaaand....she may not need braces afterall; maybe just a tray or a retainer. Will know for sure after the next visit in January!

July 27
Caitlyn just asked me if we could watch a Lifetime movie and take a nap in my bed. Man I love my kid!

July29
Think I have an ear infection :/

July 30
I love that Caitlyn still asks me to read to her before she goes to bed. Tonight's book of choice was 'Don't Let the Pigeon Stay Up Late' by Mo Willems.

A Decade

2011-06-20T23:41:00.004-05:00

Lots of things can happen in a decade. Car models change, economics change, presidents change, technology changes. More importantly, people age. Case in point, I am now the mother of a 10 year old. Double digits!!

Each year, Caitlyn's birthday manages to bring on a slew of emotions. Granted, those emotions have changed with each passing year. For example, the night before her first birthday I wrote her a letter. And cried the entire time that I was writing it. I mourned the pregnancy that I was robbed of, the birth plan I had begun to create never came to fruition, and relived the entire horrific experience of those hours leading up to her birth. A few years later, I was angry before her birthday. Angry that she was unable to hear a familiar voice upon being born, that she had to deal with more medical procedures in 3 1/2 months than most people deal with in a lifetime, that she had to work harder to meet milestones later than other kids her age. Shortly after that, the approach of her birthdays brought many questions from her. Wanting to know all about the day she was born and what it was like to be pregnant with her and what the weather was like the day we brought her home from the hospital.

Even though each birthday had many negative emotions tied to it, each birthday brought me immense joy in the fact that she was even HERE at all. And despite the anger, frustration, and sadness, I am more thrilled with each passing year that she is MINE and I get to be the first voice she hears when she wakes up in the morning because she didn't hear it on the day she was born.

But this year is different. Yes, there are still emotions. Yes, there is still the tradition of me reading through some of her old birthday posts here on the blog (Caitlyn's Birth Story, I Will Never Forget). Yes, there is still the tradition of me looking at the clock each hour and thinking about exactly what was happening to me at that given moment the night before she was born. But the difference is, I don't have the frustration or anger or sadness anymore. Instead, I am so grateful that I have been given the opportunity to spend the last 10 years, a decade, with this amazing child! That some greater force has allowed me to watch this little girl grow from a small helpless baby to an independent child. That I was the person chosen to witness her firsts in most things, hear her laugh everyday, ease her fears, and love her more than anyone else on the planet!! While it still bothers me that I don't have many memories of the day she was born, I have replaced that void with 10 years of incredible memories. Memories that without that fateful day, I wouldn't otherwise have. And there is nothing that can compare to that.

Happy 10th Birthday Caitlyn (aka Mojo). I love you bigger than the sky!!

New Blogger

2011-03-31T23:11:00.003-05:00

I won't even try to catch up. Why bother? It would take me days to do it, then I would promise to blog more and in 4 months, I would just be playing catch up again. So I'm not even going to pretend.

We have a new blogger in the household....Caitlyn has decided that she wants to blog. I don't even know where she heard about it, but she is psyched! So we set her up with an account yesterday and are in the process of making it pretty. Now that she will be blogging, I guess I can't really say anything bad about her anymore =P

I'm excited about her blogging though. It will be interesting to watch how her posts change over time, much like all of ours have over the past years. The irony of her newest endeavor is that just 2 short years ago, she preached to me how much she HATED writing. And every time she had a writing assignment for school, it usually ended up with tears (I won't say which one of us was shedding those tears). And I try convincing her that because she loved to read so much, that she would naturally become a very good writer. Caitlyn, being Caitlyn, insisted that I was incorrect. Oh how I would love to look at her and give her the infamous "I told you so," but I will refrain...just this once though.

So a big welcome to the world of Blogging Caitlyn! Hopefully you will be more diligent about it than your mother has been!

Standardized Testing

2010-09-16T11:32:00.003-05:00

Last year, in third grade, Caitlyn took the first of many standardized tests in her academic career. She took the ISATs. To say that she was nervous about them is an understatement. The teachers really impressed upon the students how important these tests were. They also "mentioned" that any child who did not meet the standards on the test could be held back, to repeat third grade, as it is a "benchmark" year. I insisted that Caitlyn was ready and that she would do just fine on said test. However, she was still pretty nervous.

The tests are taken in the spring, and the results are sent home until the fall of the following school year. Which is now. We received Caitlyn's test scores yesterday.

Before I go on to say how she did on them, let me state for the record that I am not a big fan of these tests. They just don't give an accurate impression of who the child is as a whole, in my lay person's opinion. That's not to say that I don't think they are valid. I think they give a vague snapshot of how a child is performing at that very point in time, however, I don't feel that they give a good impression of what a child is truly capable of. I also think that many parents are mislead when it comes to reading the results of these tests. If a child scores extremely well in reading, let's say they score at the 8th grade level of reading, that does not mean that the child could succeed in an eighth grade classroom. It simply means that they are able to read and understand material (to an extent) that an eighth grade student who is performing at the lowest acceptable level of eighth grade could also read and understand.

Additionally, while I don't believe in using the test scores as a true indication of a student, I know as a parent it is the first thing I look at when exploring different schools and their level of success, so to speak. For example, prior to moving in to our current house, one of the first things I did was look at the school's ISAT scores in comparison to those at neighboring schools. So while I can profess to not "believe" in them, I also fall victim to thinking they are a good measure of a schools success as a whole. So, yes, I am a bit of a hypocrite. (It makes it okay because I can recognize that, right???)

When I looked at Caitlyn's results, I was pleasantly surprised, to say the least! Not that I didn't know my child was intelligent, I did know that (personally, I think she is borderline genius =P). But I was actually surprised at how well she did perform in some areas. For example, I have always thought that Caitlyn struggled in writing. And I say struggled for lack of a better word. Caitlyn has always disliked writing and the writing process. She is always looking to write the minimum amount necessary, to the point of asking me "How many paragraphs/sentences do I need to write to get an A?" Yet, she scored quite well on that portion of the test.

Without further ado, or ramblings, here are her scores:

National Comparisons:
Reading: 97th percentile
Math: 79th percentile
No surprise there. The kid loves to read, is a reading machine, and is not the biggest fan of math. However, in both of these areas, she has "exceeds standards."

The most amazing thing about the reading score is not the percentile that she fell into. The report also lists the number of items as well as the number correct. There were 50 items on the test, Caitlyn answered 46 correct.

Extended Response for Reading (students had to read a passage and write a response to a prompt.)
She scored a 3 out of a possible 4 on this section.
Again, surprising me with the writing ability here.

Writing
Overall Writing Score: 28
Focus: 6/6
Support/Elaboration: 5/6
Organization: 5/6
Conventions: 2/3
Integration: 5/6

I am so unbelievable proud of the scores that she got on these! I think what makes it so amazing is the fact that we were told that she would more than likely have some sort of disability for so long. Not that I fault the doctors for that, cause I don't. They were doing their job and giving me information based on the research. But every time this kid does something amazing like this, I am left in awe of her abilities and her strength. Never in a million years would I have thought that she would be as smart as she is. Granted, she really enjoys school and it seems to come very natural to her. Nonetheless, it is still beyond anything that I could have imagined she would have been capable of given her dangerous start in life.

We celebrated in true Walsh form by going out to dinner. Where you might ask? Pizza Hut of course. Where else would we go? There is no food on the planet more beloved to Caitlyn than Pizza Hut.

And not only is my girl brilliant, she is also pretty stinking cute too :)

Silly Girl

2010-09-15T10:32:00.002-05:00

Caitlyn has finished her first week of school and she is really enjoying 4th grade and says that her teacher is really nice. Her favorite part of her classroom....the reading area in the back of the room. Not surprising at all when it comes to my kid. She said she loves to sit on the comfy pillows back there and just read.

One night at dinner last week, I was asking her about the kids that she sits by. The desks are arranged in groups of 4, and each group has 2 boys and 2 girls (in most circumstances). Two of the kids that sit in her group are polish speaking students. And they are quite fluent in the language as it is what is primarily spoken at home. One of the girls is a good friend of Caitlyn's. When I asked her how things were going in her group, this was her response:

"Well, sometimes A and J start talking in polish and me and M can't understand them. For all we know, they could be talking smack about us all day long."

Nice. I am sure the 2 kids are most certainly not "talking smack" about her. And furthermore, where in the hell did she learn this phrase????

Well....

2010-09-06T00:18:00.003-05:00

So much for me be better at blogging more huh? I would love to find something to blame it on, but alas, there is no excuse. Other than I just haven't felt like blogging much anymore. Not sure why that is? I still read most of the blogs in my sidebar and a few others that I have found along the way. And every time I read someone's blog, I think, "I really need to post something on mine." I open up my blog, click on new post,....and nothing happens. I tell myself I will do it later, and then the same thing happens a couple of days later. Not sure what that is all about. So here is a little bit of an update if there is anyone that still reads this thing.

Caitlyn....
She is, in a word, amazing! At 9 years old (yikes!!) she is funny and smart and caring and any other positive adjective you can think of to describe a 9 year old. She had an exciting summer that consisted of going on vacation to the lake, going to Great America, swimming in my mom's pool, playing out front, sleeping in, hanging out with friends, playing softball, and just all around really enjoying summer. She goes back to school on Tuesday and is crazy excited! She has met her teacher and likes her (and tells me that I will too!). It scares me a little that she knows I have a tendency to be a little hard on her teachers. We went to the doctor last month for her annual checkup and she weighed in at 60 pounds and is 4'7". I can't believe how big she is now. She hasn't gotten much taller this year, but I am waiting for the growth spurt that happens every October. She is waiting so very patiently for 4'9" to come so that she can get out of her booster seat in the car.

Matt....
Football season is in full swing again. I love watching how excited he gets about practices, games, cutting up film, scouting other games, etc. It's amazing how much he truly loves what he does!

Nancy....
I finally finished school and officially have my Master's now! Thank God! Besides earning a new degree out of the program, I was offered an adjunct position to teach at the university as well. Which is fan-freaking-tastic! I would love to teach at the college level full time and this is my foot in the door. The position will also allow me to acquire my doctorate for free...should I choose to do so. I am not sure if that is in the near future, but I do think it is something that I will seriously begin to consider in the next year.

Cats....
We have a new addition in the Walsh household....by the name of Friday. Friday is one of the cutest little maine coon kitties I have ever seen in my life. She joined our family in June on the last day of school as a gift for Caitlyn. She has been wanting a cat of her own for some time now and Matt and I finally decided to give in to her. Marten isn't so sure about her, even after 2 months. But he is tolerating her even though he is now a crotchety old man.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-05T09:07:00.004-05:00

This is our neighbor's son Connor. He is 3. And we think he is a little in love with Caitlyn :)

I am that Bad Mom you have heard about

2010-04-26T15:40:00.002-05:00

Some time in the fall, I broke the news to Caitlyn that there was no Santa. Not because I wanted to be cruel on that particular day, but because she was asking about it and began doubting it a little herself. To spare her the embarrassment of being the only child in her classroom that still believed in him, I fessed up and told her the truth. In true Caitlyn format, there was drama. Tears and all. She threw out comments like, "It just seems like a little bit of the Christmas spirit is gone now that I know." OK? Well, there will still be the same amount of Christmas spirit under the tree as there was when you believed in Santa. She also learned the truth about the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy during that same discussion (which, by the way, lasted a good 24 hours). Despite her knowing the truth, we still play the game of Santa and the Bunny and the Fairy. All in jest of course, she makes air quotes and all when she says their names.

Fast forward to this past week. On Wednesday, Caitlyn's tooth fell out while we were at Family Night at her school. She was at another table with her friends and excitedly ran up to me with the tooth in her hand. (Side note, I hate the idea of teeth falling out. Grosses me out.) On the way home, we joke about the tooth fairy leaving her some money under her pillow. On Thursday, when we got home, she was very careful to tell me that she was surprised this morning that the "tooth fairy" didn't leave her any money. Yep, that's right. I totally forgot about it. I know that she knows the truth, but she still looks forward to it. I just completely forgot about it and went to bed. Instead of trying to talk my way out of it, I simply asked her if we could just forgo the formalities of putting the money under the pillow and I could just hand over the money to her. Naturally she agreed.

Yesterday, she was at a friend's house, and apparently she swallowed the other tooth that was loose. Either that was a really crunchy piece of chocolate or my kid doesn't chew her food well enough. Either way, I needed to give her money. Of which I had none on me. She woke up this morning and quickly asked if we could make the trade, tooth for cash, this afternoon.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-14T11:16:00.001-05:00

You can't see her very well, she is in the back corner wearing a white shirt and dark pants.

I'm Slipping Again

2010-04-12T21:48:00.004-05:00

I know I said I would be better at generating updates and fun posts. But life gets in the way and things get crazy and all of the sudden, I am a month behind again. However, busy is good! I think about all of the things that I imagined being a parent would be like. And to be honest, 90% has been true. I love that Caitlyn is involved in so many extra curriculars. I love that I have to have a calender in hand when someone asks me what we are doing this weekend. And I love that I get to watch her enjoy ALL of it!

Caitlyn seems to be testing the waters when it comes to activities to determine what it is that she likes. And in order to determine that, she has joined all sorts of things. She is in her third year of girl scouts, and probably enjoys that the most. She looks forward to every meeting and trip and is constantly looking for ways to earn new badges when we are home. She is also enrolled in Hip Hop again this year. The park district has a new instructor and he is, in a word, AMAZING! He has gotten these girls to do things the instructors in the past have not been able to do. She has mentioned her desire to return to ballet though. And personally, I think that is probably the better choice for her abilities and body type. Whichever she decides to continue with in the fall, I am fine with though. She also signed up for softball this spring. She has attended 2 clinics and absolutely loves it. If you know my child, you know she is a "girly-girl." So I fully expected her to shy away from the ball or complain when she gets hit with it. To my surprise (and this kid always surprises me), she runs full speed ahead for the ball when it comes at her and barely flinches if she gets hit with it. (Yes, she has already gotten hit in the face with it and kept right on going.) She has also signed up for the knitting class that the school is offering once a week. I don't know where this came from, but she has always loved "creating" things. Hopefully she will enjoy this. And very soon, cheerleading registration is coming up and she has expressed an interest in that as well.

All of that on top of school work, and busy parents, and it's no wonder we don't have a minute in our day to spare. But like I said, I wouldn't change a minute of it. There were so many times from her birth to toddlerhood, to just a couple of years ago that we didn't know what the future would hold for her. To say that we question it anymore would be a gross misrepresentation of what actually happens. I don't doubt that she will be able to do anything that she attempts. Or at least decide whether or not she wants to pursue her interests.

Every so often, when she is riding her bike, or picking up another Harry Potter to read (she is now on Book 5), I look at her and think, "My God! You don't even realize just how far you have come and the odds that were stacked against you!!!" And then I take a moment just to be thankful for being able to witness that miracle and be part of it. When I think about all this kid has been through in her short little life, I am in complete awe of her will and strength. She is such an amazing kiddo. She has an incredible sense of humor, has just a touch of sarcasm, and is as smart (if not smarter) than most kids I know, and has a heart of gold!!

OK, enough of the sappiness, will save that for her birthday post ;)

I have finally finished my classes. Well, at least those that I have to actually be in class for. I am currently doing a narrative research project as my last course for graduate school. It is easy going, and because it is narrative research, it is not anywhere near as intense as qualitative research. Which gives me some freedom with the final product. I was really worried about what this last quarter would look like and now I am so relieved. There is light at the end of the tunnel; in just over a month I will be completely finished. For how long? Who knows. There may be some opportunities on the horizon which I will mention later on. Suffice it to say, it is something that I would love to do and I think it would really "round out" my career.

On the work front, things are starting to slow down now, which is nice. We are approaching the point in the year where people just don't want me coming in and changing things up. There are only 40ish days of school left and summer can't get here fast enough! I am starting to think about our trips to the lake and all of the other fun things that summer brings.

Until next time......

Looking Back

2010-03-09T09:42:00.004-06:00

I was browsing through my pictures on photobucket yesterday, and I just can't believe how much Caitlyn has changed in just a few short years!

For example, look at how crazy long her hair is in this picture

Then, there's the pictures where she just looks so much younger. Her face was so much fuller than it is now, and her nose was so much more "buttonish" (I know it's not a word, but it's what comes to mind when I think of a way to describe it)

And then in this picture, I couldn't believe how short she was. She comes up to my chest now!

She really was one seriously cute toddler!

And an even cuter "big kid."

And has managed to turn into such a pretty little lady.

What a Week!

2010-03-07T08:45:00.003-06:00

As if my week wasn't rough enough with everything going on at work, I came home to absolute hell on Friday. My mom called me to tell me that Kelly went to get her hair cut, only to be sent home again because the beautician said she had lice. Caitlyn had spent the night there on Sunday, which meant that she probably had it as well. So I pick her up from dance and go to Walgreens to purchase the shampoo and special comb to get rid of it. Once that was done, I had to strip all of the beds, and towels and most of the clothes and begin washing them. Then bagged up all of the pillows that can't be washed and all the stuffed animal she had on her bed and put them in sealed bags. Luckily, my cleaning lady had been at the house on Friday. Why is that lucky you ask? Because the woman vacuums EVERYTHING!! And from what I have read online (and I have read a lot this weekend), that is one of the most effective ways to make sure they are gone from your house.

It took over an hour to comb through Cait's hair with that comb. And while doing it, I didn't find anything that I thought could be nits. However, that's not to say there weren't. The reason it was so difficult for me is because Caitlyn has a very dry scalp. Add to that dryness, the harshness of the shampoo, and you end up with a lot of flakes. So when you are looking for small white things in a head full of hair, it can be a grueling task to say the least. I did the best I could, crossed my fingers, and hoped for the best.

When we woke up on Saturday, I checked her hair again and couldn't really see anything other than flakes. So I took her to CCD. Naturally, she walks in the classroom and tells her teacher she might have lice. Mind you, this teacher is a freaking lunatic!! Because I haven't blogged in a while, I haven't shared the crazy things she has said to these kids. Things like, "God only forgives 50% of your sins." Looney tunes!! The teacher immediately sends her to the office. Rightly so. I would have done the same thing. The director calls me, and I tell her that I didn't see anything in Cait's hair, and I used the shampoo mostly as a precautionary measure. I assured her that I would not have sent her to class if I felt she was a threat to the other children. She agreed and escorted Caitlyn back to the Church where they were going over the stations of the cross.

I picked Caitlyn up and as we were driving home, I asked her how class was. She proceeded to tell me that this crazy bitch of a teacher, upon returning to the classroom, told Caitlyn that she needed to sit in the back of the classroom because lice can jump. Um, what???? First of all, the damn things don't jump, that is not how lice are transmitted. Secondly, if the director brought her to class, then clearly it is safe for her to be there. Lastly, if she had any issue with it, she should have called the director again and had me pick the kid up. How dare you ostracize my kid and make her sit in the back of the classroom?? Does she not realize just how cruel kids really are? They are kids, they make fun of other kids. It's their job I think.

I was so shaken and upset, I couldn't even speak. I called Matt and told him what happened (he was at a clinic all weekend), and he tells me to call the director back. I told him there is no way I could call her, as I was crying because my heart was broken for Caitlyn and the embarrassment she must have been feeling. He said he would call her and discuss this incident and the sin forgiving incident. And that he did. The director was absolutely mortified and said that she would be discussing this with the teacher. Now let's see how things go next week.

For the record, I don't know that Caitlyn ever really even had lice. I didn't see anything on her head, she hasn't scratched her head at all, and now she has the shampoo on her head that supposedly protects her from future infestations (yuck) for 14 days. Me on the other hand, I can not stop itching my head to save my life. I know it's completely psychological, but I can't shake it. I'm hoping it passes in the next couple of days or I am going to be driving myself crazy!

On a much happier note, Caitlyn had her first softball clinic this morning and absolutely loved it. She was a bit nervous about it the last few days. But once she started playing with the high school girls that were helping out, her confidence grew immensely and she had so much fun. She is counting down the days until the next one!

Vent Time

2010-03-02T15:27:00.003-06:00

So I mentioned a while back that the person who works with me wasn't that spectacular at her job. Well, it turns out that she decided to turn in her letter of resignation a couple of weeks ago. She did so because she felt she wasn't going to be asked to return next year. I can accept that. However, when she began looking for jobs, she came upon one that starts around the time that we go on spring break.

....you see where this is going right?

Yep, she is probably going to accept the position and leave the school at spring break. Leaving myself and the intervention specialist to fend for ourselves. Between the 3 of us, we make up 3 full time positions; I am 1.0 as AT, IS is 1.0, and this coworker is .5 in AT and 0.5 in IS (this sounds crazy, but it works). So now, the IS and I will have to do the job of 1.5. Unfortunately, based on the number of hours that we work, there is no way for us to fill a 1.5 position each.

I understand that people have to do what is right for them and their families. Really. I get that. But why on earth would you even tell a place that you are available immediately, when in theory, you really aren't? It just proves to me the lack of accountability people have for their jobs these days. It also goes to show that she really doesn't care about the kids she is leaving behind as there is no way that their needs can be met until we find someone to fill her position.

And the kicker of it all....I came in to a message on my phone this morning from her prospective place of employment regarding a reference. Nice. I do hope she understands that while I will be honest about her abilities, I will also be honest about her short comings. She really should have thought about this prior to putting my name down on that application.

I Did it Again

2010-02-28T21:24:00.003-06:00

Crap! I suck at this these days. I know it's because I spend way too much time on Facebook. It's the devil!

Let's see, what has happened in our world in the last month? After the cheating episode, Caitlyn managed to pass her multiplication test on her own, without cheating. She also got her report card and managed to get straight A's again. Her goal for the year was to get straight A's one quarter and get perfect attendance for the year. She has modified that goal and now wants straight A's for the year. So she is halfway there and she also hasn't missed a day of school yet! I couldn't be more proud of her. On her report card, her teacher commented that she "is a little bit of an overachiever and demands the best out of herself." Let's be realistic Mrs. C, she is not a "little bit" of an overachiever, she is a lot of one. That comment pretty much sums up the kind of person that Caitlyn has become. She DOES demand the very best of herself. And when she doesn't achieve something she is aiming for, she is very hard on herself. I know that can be a bad thing, and I try to help her understand that achieving the best and giving it your best are two very different things. While she understand that, she still demands more of herself. And I will be honest in saying that I think it will work out well for her in the future. Provided she can balance the two and continue to understand that, regardless of the outcome, I will be proud as long as she puts forth her best effort.

Caitlyn has signed up for softball. If you know my child, she isn't the most athletic kid on the block. She is more of a fan of sports, than a player of them. But she really wanted to do it, so we are going for it. To help her get started, we have signed her up for some fielding and hitting clinics. Just to teach her the basics, since she has never played the sport. To be honest, I don't think she has ever even seen a softball game played. We'll see how it goes. Either way, I know she will look fantastic in her uniform =P

She is still enrolled in dance classes. She decided to do hip hop again this year. The park district has a new teacher and he is, in a word, amazing!! These kids come out of that room dripping with sweat when he is done with them. Their routine looks great so far and I can't wait for the recital in May.

We are watching what the girl eats these days and how much she is eating. Not because she needs a diet or anything, if you have seen this child, you know that has never been the case, nor is it now. But she fainted a few weeks ago in the mall cause she hadn't eaten anything. Needless to say, that really threw me for a loop. It was absolutely terrifying to see her go as pale as she did and just fall into my arms completely limp and lifeless. It's amazing how the human psyche works. Cause as soon as I laid her on the floor and looked at her face, pale with lips as white as a sheet, I was immediately taken back to the times in the NICU and when she first came home that she would stop breathing. Even though she was breathing, it was as if I was looking at a tiny baby fighting to breathe again. Horrifying doesn't even begin to describe it. So, we are watching to make sure that she constantly has food in her. We have gotten the teacher to agree to allow her a snack in the afternoon as well. As long as it doesn't take more than a few minutes for her to eat. (I know I could fight with the school to allow her more than a "few minutes" and the teacher can't say if it's longer she can't have it. But I don't feel it's necessary as Caitlyn can consume a small snack of a cereal bar in under 4 minutes.

I am more than halfway through my final two classes for my master's and will start my collaborative project at the end of March. I will be done in June and ready to graduate. Thank God. Cause I am at my wits end with school at this point. While I love being a student and learning, I need a break. And with everything Caitlyn is signing up for and wants to sign up for, it's getting too difficult to manage all of our schedules. There just isn't enough time. And I want her to be able to do all of those things that she wants to do. In order to do that, I need to be more available to her. So school is ending for me at the right time!

That's about all for now. More to come "soon." LOL

Cheating

2010-01-13T10:23:00.001-06:00

So we had to go to a wake yesterday. Which meant that I was picking Caitlyn up from school so that we could hurry home, start homework, and then head to the wake. I get there a few minutes early and hang out waiting with a few other parents. I see Caitlyn's class come out, but I don't see Caitlyn. My eyes start searching all over for her, and then I see her standing by the doors of the building. So I think, "Maybe she didn't see me standing here?" So I give her a little wave, then another, and then a third when there is no response. Then I see the look on her face and realize that she is standing with the teacher. So I start to head over to the doors to see what the problem is. I figured maybe she hurt herself or was upset about something. Either way, it was evident that the teacher needed to talk to me.

It would appear that Caitlyn thought it was a good idea to attempt to cheat on her math test. Not a huge test, like on a unit of skills, but on the multiplication test that they take a few days a week. The students have 45 seconds to answer 24 multiplication problems. All of the problems are in the same number family. So each kid could be on a different number depending on what their individual skill level is. Caitlyn is currently on 4's. She has created so much anxiety within herself over this silly little quiz. See, for every family they complete, they get to add a piece to their ice cream sundae on the bulletin board. Caitlyn has a dish, a spoon, and a banana (she has completely 1's, 2's, and 3's). When she completes her 4's, she gets her first of 3 scoops of ice cream.

Needless to say, she is dying to get that scoop and will apparently do ANYTHING it takes to get that scoop. Which includes taking out one of the quizzes from last week and turning it in as yesterday's quiz (she is one of those kids that completes it even when the 45 seconds is up to practice, so she has many completed ones). When the teacher called "time" on the test, she decided to pull out an old one and turn that one in as opposed to the one that she didn't finish.

And she wasn't even slick about it. Got caught immediately after.

And she prompted the student across from her to do the same. And get caught as well.

The teacher immediately pulled them out of the room and made them wait in the hall....ON THE BENCH!!! (There is a bench in the hall for students who are waiting to get a firm talking to.) It was there that Caitlyn began to cry uncontrollably.

So, the punishment from school is that an incident letter is written up and sent to the assistant principal, who acts as the dean and deals with most of the discipline. There is a possibility that she will have to talk to him. And this, I can honestly say, scares the ever living shit out of her! She is terrified of this man, and I have no idea why. I think she is just terrified of what he represents, she just can separate the two yet.

As for the punishment that is to come at home, well we haven't decided on one just yet. She decided that she needed to write a letter of apology to the teacher, which I thought was a good idea. Matt and I are trying to determine what to take away from her for a couple of days. More than likely it will be the TV. Which will torture her I'm sure. Or the Wii. There was also a loooooong discussion about why this isn't the way to go about getting something that you want in school. And I threw the honor roll and good citizenship awards that she has gotten at her. Made sure that she understands these things may not be possible to get if she continues to cheat.

As of this morning, the child was still upset over what she had done and what was going to happen because of it. Hopefully, she will be able to move past this very quickly....and just memorize her damn multiplication facts!!!

Christmas and New Year's in Review

2010-01-07T10:50:00.004-06:00

Again, I am terrible at this now. I used to be so good about it, but lately, just don't have it in me to update as frequently as I used to. Anywho....

Christmas was wonderful this year! I will confess that I went absolutely ape shit crazy buying stuff for Caitlyn. She got darn near everything on her list that she wanted. Spoiled? Yes. However, she is an appreciative kid and would love gifts that she hadn't asked for. Not to mention the fact that we only have one kid. So what else are we going to spend our money on right? The most popular gift under the tree in Caitlyn's eyes this year was her iPod. I ordered it for her at least a month before Christmas and had it engraved. My plan was to load all of her music on it (from my iTunes) so that it was ready to go on Christmas. Do we think that really happened? You would be wise to say no, if you know me at all. But I had good intentions, really I did. We also got her the dock with the speakers so that she could use it in her room and use it without having to have ear buds in.

Next exciting gift under the tree was the plethora of America Girl Doll goodies. Thank goodness for cyber Monday (the Monday after Thanksgiving) otherwise there would have been far fewer AG items under that tree. But they just happened to have most of the stuff that she had circled in the catalog on sale that day. So she was fortunate.

Of course there were tons of pj pants, not sets, pants. Cause she is all about wearing fleecy pj bottoms and oversized t shirts now. Must be an age thing. She got a bunch of clothes from Justice/Limited Too. (The entire store happened to be having a 40% off sale the day I went.) That is the only place that I have been able to find pants and jeans that fit her nicely. They make a super skinny slim that is fantastic! And Caitlyn loves all of the "funky" looks that they have. Personally, the store has far too many 80's fashions floating around for my liking. But the girl likes all of that.

Dad got the Black Hawks jersey that he wanted. We got the Wii Fit Plus for the "family gift" and I got the INstyler. I was so very excited to receive that. That is, until I went to use it for the third time and it refused to turn on. Seems it's not a very sturdy item. And of course, you can't take it back to the store that you purchased it from. You have to contact the company. Needless to say, I haven't done that yet. And I have no desire to do so, but the thought of losing $100 is looking over me. So I will get on that.

New Year's in the land of the Walshes was very low key this year. We didn't feel like getting all gussied up and heading out to some bar. Instead, we stayed home and lounged around with Caitlyn. She was soooooo excited to count down at midnight. Then once it was over, she was sort of confused. I explained to her that as she gets older, ringing in the New Year at midnight only becomes more anti-climactic. No, I didn't really tell her that, although I thought it and believe it to be true.

We are getting dumped on with lots of snow today. Which I love. And I am crossing my fingers, toes, legs, and eyes and anything else that I can get to cross in hopes of a snow day tomorrow. I would love for this to be a 4 day work week. Not that I have anything exciting going on this weekend, but it's the first week back in school after break. And that is always a tough week. So say a prayer, do a snow dance, whatever you have to do to get me a ton of snow here in Chicago folks!

My classes start up again next week. BUT....it is the last two!!! So I am eager to get them started in an effort to get them over. Once those two classes end in March, I have my collaborative project that runs through June. I can't student teach again because I am already certified, so this collaborative project is in place of student teaching. Hopefully that won't be too painful. But I am nearing the end and couldn't be happier!!

next update.....coming soon ;)

Hmmmm

2009-12-09T09:22:00.002-06:00

3 1/2 months huh? That might be a record for me. Want to know why I haven't? It's simple really. Facebook. It is much easier to update one or two lines of a status that to write a narrative. Naturally, the downside to this is that you can't be as descriptive as you would like to be. Take Monday night's status for example. It read something to the effect of "taking Tutti out for her first legal drink because she was turning 21 at midnight." What it left out was how bad of an idea this probably was. There are several reasons that this was such a bad idea. The first obviously being that it's a Monday night and I had to work the next day. Additionally, I had to be at a training that was 40 miles away. The status also failed to mention that apparently I planned on getting shit faced! Which led to my not coming home until almost 4 in the morning. Not really good planning on my part, considering I had to leave the house at 7 in the morning.

OK, all that aside, here is an update on the girl. She is amazing! She is growing so stinking fast and getting more mature by the minute. She is now wanting to shop at specific stores and buy specific types of clothes and shoes. By the way, my kid is a boot whore. She wants any and every cute boot known to man! We just had report card pick up and Caitlyn has finally achieved her goal of getting straight A's. she tried so hard for them last year and missed by just a hair. So this year, she was gung ho on getting them. And she did. For her achievements, we went out for dinner and then to the bookstore so she could pick out a few books that she wanted. It may sound like an odd reward to most. However, the kid is a reading machine. I can not keep up with her. At this point she is in fact able to read faster than me. She typically reads about 2 books a week, never less than one. And she is reading books that range between 200-300 pages. It's insanity really. But I won't complain. I have seen her vocabulary explode when she is having conversations with people. I often ask her if she knows what the word she just said even means. And lo and behold she is able to give me a very functional definition. for example, we were talking about something, I can't remember what. And it involved 2 people disagreeing, I think it had something to do with a news story. And she said "That's a schism mom." Now, I am not ashamed to say that I had to just agree with her because I was not 100% sure that the analogy was correct. However, I promptly googled to make sure that it was. When I asked her how she knew that word, she began this long diatribe about how one of the characters in one of the books she read used it to describe something that was going on. It literally took her 5 minutes to tell me how she knew the word because she loves to talk about the characters in the books.

So, she has managed to make it through the Lemony Snicket books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, all 13 of them. And she has read a few random ones in between there as well. While reading them, she tries to tell me all about them and sadly I can't participate in the conversation because I have never read them. What I have decided to do now that she has finished all of them, is that she is going to read Harry Potter. That should slow her down a bit ;) And I can talk to her about them cause I have read them all! So it's a win win situation really.

I am 2 classes and a collaborative project away from being done with my master's program. And the end can't come soon enough. I am so sick of doing homework! While I love being in school and the atmosphere of it, the homework really sucks. Luckily, I was able to register for an online class for next term. Which means that I will only be out of the house one night a week. Works for me.

will try to be more diligent about updating....but I am not making any promises!

You know you haven't blogged in a long time when....

2009-08-30T03:08:00.002-05:00

You have completely forgotten your password. And no matter what you try, you can not get into the stupid thing. Obviously, I eventually got the correct one. Only to remember that I changed it at some point for some ridiculous reason. Needless to say, it has now been changed back to one that I know I can remember. That is, provided I log on more frequently than ever 4 months.

So I will make this recap pretty short and sweet.

Caitlyn made her communion, and looked absolutely stunning in her dress. Of course I cried, which means by the time her wedding rolls around and she wears a white dress just as gorgeous I should be a blubbering idiot that they have to physically remove from the church because I am frightening small children.

Dance recital was in May, and the girl was fantastic. She is looking forward to signing up again this year. We're just not sure what she is going to be taking yet though. She is thinking ballet, but that may fall on the same night as girl scouts. And she doesn't want to give that up. So she may end up in Hip Hop again for the first semester and ballet second semester. We'll see.

Once school was over (for both of us) we were in full swing with the birthday parties. She had her friends party at the glow in the dark mini golf place by our house. Everyone had a ton of fun, but I don't think we will be having another party there. I wasn't too impressed with the staff. Then the family party rolled around at our house. There were gifts a plenty.

Once the birthday festivities were over, we moved into vacation at the lake mode. It seemed we were gone for most of July. And when we were at home, my time was spent unpacking, doing laundry, and repacking for the next trip. While on vacation, Cate tubed by herself on her stomach for the first time and absolutely loved it. I am thinking that next summer we are going to have a hard time keeping her off of that thing!

By the time August rolled around, we were trying to spend some time at home chilling out and doing some things locally. Caitlyn also decided to take another trip with my mom to Wisconsin Dells at some point in there. By the time she came back home, it was just about time for me to return to school and for football practice to start up again for Matt.

Which pretty much brings us up to date. I am back in school and football is in full swing, with the season opener today (which we won!!!). In more exciting news, Caitlyn has finally conquered riding a 2 wheeler. Yes, she was late in acquiring this skill. You see, if there is one thing that I have learned about my kid, it is that she will do things when she is damn good and ready to do them and not a moment sooner. I have tried and tried and tried for the last 3 years to get this child to ride a bike without training wheels. Every attempt by me was thwarted by Cate saying "Nope. It's easier with the training wheels on." Yes, I know she is correct, but come on already, just ride the damn bike without the training wheels!! Well, apparently, she was ready to do so this past Monday. She got on the bike, Kelly gave her a push from behind, and off she went. Without any issues. So just like she did 8 years ago when she was born, she will do things at her own pace and there is nothing I can do to make it happen otherwise.

This evening while at my mother's, she was riding her bike and fell. She decided to break her fall with her face, as opposed to her hands and managed to give herself a fat lip and a chipped tooth. Of course it is one of the front teeth, and a permanent one. We should be at the dentist within the next few days. Fun. I suppose I shouldn't complain. She could have broken a bone or something right?

Communion Gear

2009-04-27T13:59:00.002-05:00

The girl's big day is this Saturday. And believe it or not, we are actually ready and just waiting for the day to get here. I can't believe it to be true myself as I am never usually this organized. Though it seems that with how busy things are in our lives right now, I have no other choice but to be organized. Funny how that works out. The only thing I have left to do is pick up the dress and veil from the cleaners on Friday where it is being steamed to get all of the wrinkles out.

We found out on Saturday that Caitlyn will also be doing a reading during mass. She is a bit nervous about it, but I know she will do just fine. And I know that once she does it, she will be as proud of herself as Matt and I are of her.

We had our season opener of the fire pit on Friday and the weather could not have been nicer. Though it was a bit windy which made the smoke pretty bad at times. And on occasion would blow some cinders around. But no one burst into flames, so I consider that a success.

We are almost to less than 30 days of school remaining. I can't wait to begin my countdown here in my office. Every year, I find funny pictures on google to represent the number remaining for the day. For example, when there are 12 days left, I can put up a picture of a dozen eggs. So while it sometimes is just a picture of the number that has been made in a creative way, sometimes it is just a representation of the number. It really is fun and people are amazed at the pictures that I can find. So if you have any good ideas for numbers, pass them along to me.

That's about all I've got right now.

I Have Returned

2009-04-22T10:53:00.006-05:00

And I am going to try and stay returned. That is, unless life happens to get in the way....again!

Lots going on around our house these days. So I won't go into all of the gory details, rather I will just do a small recap.

1. There was a few weeks in March where we ended up with loads of rain. Lots of that rain somehow ended up in my basement. This has never happened to us before so we just assumed it was the catch basin in the back that needed to be cleaned. That turned out to be fine. However, the pipes under our lawn were not so fine and needed to be replaced. To the tune of $6700. And of course, they don't replace the lawn they damage in the process. Feels like the front porch drama all over again.

2. Caitlyn had her spring concert. It was very cute. They sang a song called Take me Out of the Bathtub to the tune of Take Me Out to the Ballgame. I am going to attempt to put a video up here. So please be patient with me while I demonstrate my lack of technology skills.

3. Matt and I flew to Oregon for Carla's wedding. We had a great time. I forget just how green everything is out there. Just so pretty.

4. I am currently in 2 classes again this term. One of which is Assistive Technology. This is the class that I tried my damnedest to get an exempt from. All to no avail. I could probably teach the class, so I think it's so silly that I have to take it. I don't mind being in the class. But I do mind paying the close to $2000 that it costs to do so. I am also in a research class. This is an online class (which I am not a fan of to begin with) and the research paper is to be completed as a group (another thing which I am not so big on). I am convinced this class is going to completely wipe me out this term. I am am just thanking God that I am taking it now right before summer break. So I will have some good down time after it's over.

5. Work is absolutely insane. I constantly feel like I am behind on everything and can't seem to catch up. No matter how hard I try. I am convinced it is because of the person that I am working with. No matter though. She will be gone at the end of this year. So I just try to keep telling myself that I am almost through it.

6. I managed to pass the Learning Behavior Specialist I test. My paper work is now sitting at ISBE waiting for them to approve everything and include that endorsement on my certificate. Hopefully it will happen soon as I have once again been riffed. Same situation as last year. Only this time, there is light at the end of the tunnel and this process is almost over. At least I hope. If not, I will in fact be a greeter at a Wal**Mart near you. So keep your eyes open for me.

7. Caitlyn is making her communion in 2 weeks on May 2nd! The dress and shoes and tights have been purchased. We are going for the veil/headpiece this weekend, and hopefully the banner will be made by Friday night. We have not yet started the banner, because I am a bad mom. But it will be made by it's due date of Friday.

8. Report cards came out and Caitlyn went from A's to B's in a few subjects. So she is beside herself about this. She can't even tolerate that she got a B. No matter how I try to explain to her that it still means she did incredibly well, this child is bound and determined to get straight A's!

9. Hip Hop is finishing up and we have the recital coming up at the end of May. So we are gearing up and practicing like crazy in the living room.

I think that's about all. I can't even believe how busy we feel these days. There just don't seem to be enough hours in the day to get everything done that needs to be accomplished. Hopefully once I am done with school, things will settle down some and we can all relax for a bit.

Hmmmmm

2009-03-12T10:14:00.001-05:00

I suck. No discussion about it. I just haven't had time to post regardless of all the really cool things that Caitlyn has been doing in the last few weeks. A new post will come soon. I promise.

And PS....Happy Birthday to me :)

Now This Just Pisses Me Off!!

2009-02-22T21:23:00.004-06:00

Remember I mentioned that I was currently working with someone I felt to be quite incompetent? Well, I just received this email from her. And I would say that I am so angry that I can't see straight. But that wouldn't be a good indicator seeing as I couldn't see straight before getting the email. So let's just say I am so fucking pissed I can't even respond to the email because I will say things that I know for certain I will regret in 2 hours time.

Here's what angers me:
1. I took over some of her case load because she couldn't manage to see the kids cause she was so overwhelmed. Yet, she can manage to work a 3 DAY workshop into her schedule. (I have never taken more than a day for a workshop.)
2. When I take time off for a workshop, sick time, whatever, I make sure that I tell the teams I am working with in advance. Not the day before. And regardless of whether or not I am in the building, I make damn sure to make myself accessible to them either via email or phone during that time. As an example, I had double vision and was gone from work for 2 days because of he flu, on Friday when I saw some of my teams, they didn't even realize I wasn't there or was ill. Because I was still available to them when they needed me to be.
3. How dare she just assume that I have time in my schedule to manage any problems that her teams may encounter for these 3 days. What if I got sick, or Caitlyn got sick??? Or, imagine this, I have my own teams and their shit to be concerned with????
4. Telling me the night before you are leaving for 3 days and pushing your work off on me, is certainly not the advanced warning that I would have preferred. Had you told me this at some point last week, I may have been able to arrange my schedule to at least be available should I need to be. Now I can't. And now I won't.

Here is the email that she sent to me and about 10 other teachers:

Hello!

I will be out of district at a workshop Mon 2/23-Wed 2/25. I don't know if I will be able to check my email during the day, but will be checking it in the evenings. If you have major AT problems and need help before Thur, email Nancy W. at email.

Take care,
Danielle

Really? Just another indication that this person sucks at her job.

Oh Where Have I Been?

2009-02-20T22:31:00.002-06:00

I have been to the eye doctor, to the penthouse suite at a resort, to the emergency room, to the neurologist, and back again. The last week has been littered with crazy goings on for me.

I will recap for those of you who haven't followed my facebook saga.

Last Friday (the 13th) I was driving home from work. I was on the phone with Matt and mentioned to him that I was going to take a nap when I got home because I was so tired that my eyes were crossing. There were points on the drive home that things looked fuzzy to me or just a little bit wonky. So I came home, crawled into bed, and proceeded to watch 2 hours of really bad reality shows. And didn't nap at all.

I got a call from a friend asking me to go to the movies with her and a couple of other people. I told her I would go provided I didn't have to drive, cause my eyes were still being weird and I was really tired. While I was on the phone with her, I noticed that I would occasionally see double on the TV screen. Again, figuring I was just reeeeeally tired, I got dressed and went with them.

When I woke up on Saturday, there was no question that I was seeing double. It would come and go, but it was definitely obvious that something was quite off with my vision. So I called the eye doctor and made an appointment to go in. Thinking that I just needed a vision test and some glasses and all would be right with my vision again.

No such luck. It turns out I have 20/20 vision. And while this is fantastic news, it doesn't clear up the issue of why I was seeing double. The eye doc put a good scare in me by saying that the double vision could be the result of anything from extreme stress/fatigue (which I have from work) to the onset of a stroke. That's quite a spectrum if you ask me. So I chalked it up to being stressed and tired from work.

Matt and I had reservations at a resort for Valentine's Day. So we went there on Saturday, figuring the rest would do me, and my eyes, some good. The hotel screwed up our reservation, so they upgraded our room. To the penthouse suite. Which was the most outstanding room I have ever been in. Fireplace, jacuzzi, deck, and an insanely comfortable bed with loads of pillows. By the time Saturday night rolled around, there was no escaping the double vision. It was there constantly, and I was well rested at this point, and convinced there was something seriously wrong with me.

On Sunday, we decided that once we checked out, we would just head straight to the ER and have them do a CT scan to see what, if anything, was going on neurologically. After the CT scan and an entire host of blood tests, it was determined that there was absolutely nothing wrong with me. At least nothing they could find. So they sent me n my way with an appointment to see the neurologist on Monday morning.

In the meantime, I can barely walk without holding onto Matt, I certainly can't drive, and I manage to get nauseous every time I am a passenger in the car. Good times.

The neurologist performed an entire host of tests. Some of which, I must admit, I found truly amazing. He also poked me again for more blood.

I decided to buy an eye patch, suck it up, and go to work on Tuesday. On the drive home, I felt sick again, and called Matt to pick up Cate because I could no longer be in the car. I barely had the car in park in front of the house before I was running in and throwing all of my crap on the floor. I ran up the stairs to the bathroom where I proceeded to.....well I don't have to go into detail about that. Let's just say that I spiked a fever, kept a pot next to the bed, and stayed in bed until Tuesday morning. I officially had the flu. Which I have not had since, I can't remember when, certainly before Caitlyn was born.

I have spoken to the neurologist and he has confirmed that there is nothing life threatening going on based on the results of my blood work. Thank God! But he believes that I have a condition called vasculitis. Simply stated, not enough blood to the eye for one reason or another. I have been instructed to take some aspirin daily and to return to him on March 3rd.

As of today, my vision is actually a little bit better. I was able to stop spewing long enough to go to work today. And I am feeling, overall, pretty good. Hopefully, the vision is on the up and up and will return soon. You can't imagine the looks I get when I am driving around with a pirate patch on my eye!!

Will keep you all updated as to what is going on!

Crazy Week

2009-02-07T21:17:00.002-06:00

What an insane week it has been! We have come to annual review and transition time at work. That is always the busiest point of the year for me. It means that my days are always longer than usual, that I don't eat lunch until at least 1:00 (which isn't horrible, but is a long ways off from eating breakfast at 7:00), and that by the time I get home I am so completely wiped out that I don't want to do anything else but sleep. Which is proven by the amount of laundry that awaits me upstairs.

Besides the point in the school year that we are in, there have been some staff changes. The person who helps me with assistive tech left on maternity leave in November (silly babies!). Which meant I was working with someone new. And I am all for that. That is, when the person is actually competent. And I don't just mean being competent in the area of AT. When you are in an itinerant position, which we are, you really have to have a handle on social and communication skills. You have to be able to walk into a classroom with a teacher and paraprofessionals and just know how to jump in and help as well as when to step aside and let the teacher handle the situation. You have to know how to prioritize your time and things on your to do list in order to be the most effective collaborator that a team needs at that moment in time. I think these are the most essential skills for an itinerant. The person I received as a replacement has none of these skills. And because of that, she has made my life a living hell. You see, because she does not have the aforementioned skills, not only do I get multiple complaints from people, but I have now had to take over one of her classrooms. She just can't seem to find the time in her day to fill the needs of the students in there. All two of them. Because we are more than half way through the year, my schedule and routine are fairly set. Trying to find the time to fit in observations of students I don't know and meeting time with the teacher in order to determine her AT needs has proven to be very difficult while still maintaining the classes that I have had all year. Add to that the mess that she has made with the parents, and it makes for a very unhappy Nancy.

In addition to the craziness at work, there are also the 2 graduate classes I am taking. Which aren't terribly demanding, but it's just another thing on my "to do" list during the week.

On top of all that Caitlyn has her extra curricular activities. Which consist of Girl Scouts on Monday, Hip Hop on Wednesday, CCD on Saturday. Matt and I also have to attend a number of meetings from now until May in order to prepare for her communion.

So needless to say, I am wiped out these days and can not wait for summer vacation. Which is really sad that I am already thinking about that. Typically the countdown does not begin until at least after spring break. But with the added stress of this new person at work, it just can't come fast enough.

25 Random Things About Me

2009-02-01T01:55:00.001-06:00

This has been floating around facebook and I enjoyed doing it. I saw that Kari posted it to her blog, so I copied and figured I would do the same.

1. I am only doing this because I keep getting tagged and I think I have to complete it in order to stop the tagging madness.

2. I once lived in a residential school for the blind, with fantastic girls I might add. It was one of the craziest times of my life.

3. I sleep on my stomach, with my arms at my side. If I sleep in any other position, I wake up miserable.

4. I am a night owl by nature. I loathe waking up in the wee hours of the morning, but if I am awake until those same hours, I am happy as a clam.

5. I have a tendency to cry at the simplest things that Caitlyn does. It seems every time I see her accomplish something the doctors said she never would, I get teary eyed and a lump in my throat.

6. I am married to the most amazing man in the world.

7. Matt has the most incredible work ethic I have ever seen in a person.

8. I learned quickly that I am not immortal in the 10 hours prior to Caitlyn's birth.

9. I have the best set of friends from college that a girl could ever ask for. When I am with them, I laugh harder than I ever have.

10. My mom is quite possibly the most caring person on the planet. She has a deep seeded desire to take care of everyone around her, sometimes to her own detriment, but it makes her the incredible person that she is.

11. Two and a half years ago, I came to the conclusion that God mean for me to be only Caitlyn's mom. Now that I understand that, I am truly at peace with the cards that I was dealt in the child bearing arena.

12. My job is exhausting. Even though it is exhausting, and sometimes the rewards of it are hard to identify, when I do see the rewards, they are amazing. There is nothing like seeing a child do something independently for the first time in their life.

13. I never really believed that old saying about a mom feeling her heart burst with love until I brought my fragile girlie home from the hospital and watched her sleep peacefully. I came to realize that the feeling is one that can not be described in any words.

14. Despite hating my brother for the first 18 years of my life, I now realize that I love him with all of my heart and that we are more alike than I think even he realizes.

15. I miss my grandma and grandpa every day.

16. When Caitlyn was born, I learned that the strength of a person's spirit, no matter how small, is far more strong than any doctor or medical procedure.

17. I find myself criticizing other parent's style of parenting far too often. Matt often tells me that it must be hard to be as perfect a parent as I am. I need to be more understanding of individual differences in how people raise their children.

18. I wish with all of my heart that Caitlyn would have had the opportunity to meet her grandfather. I know Matt would have loved to see her sitting on his lap snuggling with him.

19. I am terrified of loud noises. Almost to the point of making me cry. If I her a motorcycle outside, I have brief moments of heart palpatations and get shaky.

20. I am fascinated by children who have Autism. If there was anything I could do for one day, it would be to change places with a child with Autism. Just to see what goes on in their head.

21. I worry that Caitlyn is going to struggle with some type of eating disorder when she is older.

22. I hate cooking.

23. If there was one thing I could hire someone to do one thing everyday for the rest of my life, I would hire a dentist to clean and floss my teeth everyday. There is nothing better than the feeling of a completely clean mouth when you leave the dentist.

24. I have never believed that parenting is the hardest job one will ever do. I believe most of it is common sense. However, I do believe that the emotional side of parenting is the most difficult part of parenting.

25. I eventually want to teach at the college level. You know, to impart all of the wisdom I have acquired ;)

A Whole New Respect

2009-01-23T21:27:00.004-06:00

I had to take a sick day today because the girl is sick. However, I worked from home most of the morning. Then I had to pack her up into the car, runny nose, coughing and all because there is a new student coming on Monday and I wanted to make sure that he had a communication device when he walked in the door. So much for a sick day!

While I was there, I took a device that a student is no longer using. It is a Dynamyte, which is a dynamic display device. Whenever I bring these home, Caitlyn is head over heels crazy about them. All she wants to do is play with them and see what they are capable of. This particular device is a touch screen and depending on what button you press, the screen can change in order to open up a new page of choices.

Caitlyn asked me a billion times during the day if she could play with it and I kept telling her no. Then I picked it up to see what had been programmed in to it and she asked again if she could please play with it. So I gave in and told her she could. But first I had to explain what some of the functions on it were. She took to it immediately and figured it out right away.

She then asked if we could have a conversation using it and we weren't allowed to use our voices. Nor were we allowed to look at what the other person was saying until the entire message was spoken. Naturally, I was able to create messages much more quickly than she could as I am familiar with how the pages are programmed. She, on the other hand, could not create them as quickly.

And this is what leads me to the title of a whole new respect. Very often I forget how difficult these devices are for children. And that they are even more difficult for a child who is not neurotypical. I am also reminded of how patient a parent must be to hear their child utter a simple phrase. One of the first things Cate wanted to say to me was "I love you mom." It took her no less than 5 minutes to say something that she can usually say in a matter of milliseconds. It also reminds me that these are the kinds of things that kids want to say, and that parents want to hear. They could care less about the messages that we program in that revolve around what they are learning in school. They want to hear their kids say "I love you" and other things like "I like the color orange."

It's little moments like these that remind me that I love what I do. It also reminds me of how and where I can improve in my job. Last but not least, it reminds me that I am so very thankful for the things that my daughter is capable of that other children struggle with on a daily basis.

It Has Finally Warmed Up

2009-01-18T00:50:00.002-06:00

Thank goodness for that. Like I said before, I really like the cold weather, prefer it actually. But when you wake up in the morning and the temperature is 17 below and it feels close to 30 below with the windchill, that's just a bit much. I couldn't even believe when I woke up on Friday, looked at the temp on the TV and realized that I hadn't gotten a call saying there was no school. I guess it's not all bad though (remember, silver lining, eternal optimist) since we won't have to tack on those days at the end of the school year.

I will say that there is going to be an uproar from the parents of one of the schools in my district though. Seems that shortly after the start of the school day, the ladies in the kitchen were using some cleaning agent to clean the ovens. This agent reacted with something and began to smoke. This smoke resulted in the fire alarms sounding. Which, of course, caused he entire school to evacuate. In the 17 below weather. With no coats or anything. Cause remember, they are not allowed to stop at their lockers in the event of a fire alarm. I have been told that they were only outside for 7 minutes. Regardless of the amount of time, if I was a parent of one of those children, I would be irate. It's specifically reasons like this that cause schools to close when the weather is as bad as it was on Friday.

I am back in classes, and driving myself crazy with homework already. I have to keep reminding myself that I only have about 7 classes left and a practicum. Then I am finished. Hopefully by next spring. Which isn't too long. At least that's what I keep trying to convince myself of. So when I start to rant here, just remind me of that fact please.

Caitlyn is getting ready to make her first reconciliation (confession). She is a little nervous about it. She just doesn't know what sin she should confess to the priest. As if she has a slew of them in her short 7 years?? The teacher mentioned to the class today that often times, parents take their children out to dinner after the event. So when she came out of class, that was he first thing she asked me about. Now that she knows she is going to get a good meal out of the deal, she is a little more excited about the whole thing!

I do have a rant about the birthday party that we went to this afternoon and the out of control children that were there. But that will have to be another post. Cause I have a lot to say from up on that soap box!

Today is....

2009-01-15T10:34:00.003-06:00

Hmmm?

Time: 10:45 am
Condition: -2° F

Feels Like: -25° F

Forecast for tomorrow

Time: 7:00 am

Condition: -8° F

Feels Like: -25° F

Is it June Yet?

2009-01-12T10:08:00.002-06:00

I'm just wondering because I think I am done with the snow. Like I said, I generally really enjoy the winter. But I don't like all this snow that we are getting. This weekend we acquired about 7 inches. Up to 12 in some places. I have shoveled my arms off. I have pulled Caitlyn's sled more than I care to mention. And I have scraped my car off only to find it completely covered every time I come out of a store. So I am done. But Mother Nature is not.

It would seem that the strange amount of snow that Chicago has seen is not enough for the evil woman. We all know that when it comes to Mother Nature, she and I don't see eye to eye on things. I firmly believe that she has always had it in for me. Caitlyn's birth is a prime example of that, as are the events that transpired in the years after that child was born. So I know that she and I will never be fast friends. In her glee, she has pronounced that we may get up to another 9 inches of snow in the next couple of days. If you are no mathematician, I will assist you. That means there will be approximately 16 inches of snow in front of my house and about 21 inches of snow in the suburb in which I work.

Before you think I am a grouchy lady, I want the kids to have fun in the snow, I want to witness the beauty of a fresh fallen snow on the street. What I don't want to deal with are the idiot drivers (see previous post) and the snow once it is no longer freshly fallen and pretty. You know, when it turns into that grey, black, yucky slush stuff? I could do without those things.

There is a silver lining to all of this. (I am the eternal optimist.) This storm is supposed to hit between midnight and 9 AM. Should the weather men be predicting accurately (aren't they always?) this storm could peak during rush hour traffic. Now why is that a silver lining you ask? Because if it hits hard enough and at the right time, there is a snow day in my future. And we all know that is the real reason that I became a teacher. Well, that and summer vacation.

So please everyone, all 4 of you that read here, cross your fingers, toes, whatever and pray to whomever you care to that we get enough snow for a snow day.

You Would Think

2009-01-09T11:03:00.003-06:00

...that since I was on Christmas break, that I would have been able to get some pictures up here and some updates right? Not so much. Not even a little bit. My intentions were good. I had planned on making an elaborate post about Christmas and New Year's and even including a fancy little slide show. and suddenly here we are on January 9th. With no elaborate post or slideshow to speak of. I could bore you with all the gory details of Caitlyn opening up the hundreds of presents that she got on Christmas morning, or how long it has taken me to take down the decorations (yeah, the tree is bare and everything is put away, yet it continues to stand in my living room naked). Or I could go on and on about playing Guitar Hero on New Year's Eve and consuming far too much Watermelon Vodka and Sprite (which I might add really tastes like a Jolly Rancher).

But, alas, I will not do any of those things. I will, however, complain about the weather here in Chicago. I am sick of snow. REally, I am. Winter is usually my favorite season. I love cold weather. There is nothing better than walking outside and feeling the snot inside your nose freeze. But all this damn snow, I could do without it. And it's not so much the snow that bothers me. It's the fact that people who have lived in Chicago for all of their natural born lives suddenly forget how to drive in it. Seriously. Either they have forgotten or every damn person on the road this morning just moved here from California. I can think of no other reason for the person in front of me to be driving 7 (SEVEN!) miles per hour on a plowed street that has nothing but slush on it. The temperature is high enough that the slush is not freezing. Essentially, it is nothing more than rain. So why does this driver feel the need to drive slower than most people ride bikes? We will refer to him as Slow Driving Asshole for the duration of this post/complaint.

In addition to Slow Driving Asshole, we have the people who think that it is a good idea to slam their foot on their gas pedal as soon as the light turns green. (We will refer to him and his friends as Gas Pedal Asshole). Do you know what this results in? It results in their car fish tailing, which causes their car to suddenly be perpendicular to the cars around them. This then results in the other cars slamming their foot on the gas pedal. You know what happens then? Their cars also fish tail and.....you see the pattern right? Inevitably, the light changes from green, to yellow, to red. And I have not moved. Instead, I am sitting behind Slow Driving Asshole as well as Gas Pedal Asshole. And not just for one light. For two.

And finally, I would like to introduce you to the funeral director who decided that it would be a good time to begin a funeral procession onto Skokie Blvd t approximately 8ish in the morning. And it was for a city worker to boot, which meant no less than 100 cars. Under normal circumstances, I have the utmost respect from any funeral procession. But when you are foolish enough to think that pulling out 100 cars onto one of the busiest streets in the area, during rush hour, with Slow Driving Asshole and Gas Pedal Asshole on the road was a good idea, then my respect for you has dwindled. Just a little bit. In the future, Funeral Director, could you please wait until at least 9:00 to begin your procession? It really would have helped my day start off a little better.

All that pissing and moaning aside, I can't believe the amount of snow that we have managed to get this year. Let's just hope that it's enough to help out my lawn and the portions of new sod that were dying towards the end of last summer. Because if I have to replace that, there is a good possibility that I will remove all of the grass and replace it with something fancy....like mulch.

Traditions

2008-12-24T21:05:00.007-06:00

(foreword: I was going to post more pictures, but Blogger is being a jerk, so they will come later)

Happy Christmas Eve to all! It has been a busy day here. And yet, relaxing at the same time. For the last couple of years, we have managed to stay home on Christmas Eve. Which I really enjoy. Caitlyn gets to really experience what the night before Christmas is all about.

Since I was a child, my mom has let us open one present on Christmas Eve. The really good gifts were never under the tree by then, so there was no fear of us getting the good stuff the day before we were supposed to. I have carried this tradition over with Caitlyn. She was in my room around 10:00 this morning urging me out of bed so she could open her present. When she finally decided on which one, she wasn't all that thrilled with it.

Connect 4 was not on her list, and I thought she would enjoy it. After we played a few games, she packed all the pieces back up and put it away. Where it has been since this morning LOL!!! It's all good, she will have the gifts she loves tomorrow.

We then went to the grocery store. Which I have decided will never again be put off until the day before Christmas. Because, good LORD that place was a freaking disaster. But I did find this really cool gingerbread decorating kit. The cookies are made and all you have to do is load them up with the gooey gel and candy decor. Right up my alley. Mom and Dad even got in on the fun of decorating them!

I was also thinking that I want to bake cookies with the girl every year on Christmas Eve. But not from scratch. I am perfectly content buying premade dough and then using some cookie cutters. Regardless of where the cookie comes from, it's the actual process of shaping the cookies and spending time with me that is important to Caitlyn. So who cares if I make the batter from scratch or not right? Caitlyn loved, LOVED, doing this. And the cookies are quite tasty too ;)

Because we don't have a fireplace, Caitlyn early on began asking how Santa gets into her house. Right around this time, my friend Shelley sent us a Santa Key. It was perfect timing. The key is now hung on the outside of our door every Christmas Eve. Once Santa uses it to get in, he hangs it on the inside of the door.

The last of the traditions that took place tonight was right before bed. Since Caitlyn's first Christmas, I have bought her new pajamas to sleep in. Her first were from Gymboree and had the cutest little penguins all over them. Of course, they were preemie sized. She has had some really cute ones in the years past. I think my favorites were a green, red, and white striped pair that came with a stocking sleeping cap. She was able to pick hers out for the first time this year. And she didn't pick a pair that have a Christmas theme. Instead, they are just a winter theme. And they are no longer preemie sized, but rather a 7/8. Amazing I tell you. I just can't believe how big she has gotten!

She is now tucked in her bed, after checking one last time where Santa currently is on the Norad Santa Tracker. He should be here in a couple of hours according to them. So she knows she has to fall asleep quickly.

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!! I know we will.

Christmas Concert and other things

2008-12-23T08:42:00.006-06:00

The girl had her Christmas concert at school. It was splendid. All of the second graders were on the stage at once, so there were about 95 kids up there. They sang 4 songs, of which I really can't remember the names. Caitlyn had a sore throat that week, so she kept making faces at me and motioning that she needed a cough drop. As if I could do anything about that at that very moment.

She also got her progress report, which basically is a midterm report letting parents know where the kids are at and where they will be when report cards come out. Caitlyn is overjoyed, as are we, with her grades. She has all A's right now. That is what her goal for the year is. I can see that sometimes she gets too focused on her grades and is quite the determined child when it comes to getting an A on anything. I often have to remind her that B's are fine too. And C's are okay provided she put forth her best effort. She does know though that a D or an F really isn't acceptable around these parts. But where she gets this drive from to succeed in school like this, I'll never know.

More to come after Christmas :)
I am pretty much done with all of the Christmas stuff. Not only is just about everything bought and wrapped, I have also wrapped the Santa gifts for Caitlyn. Truly, this is a huge feat for me. Santa's gifts always come in wrapping paper that is different from any we have in the house. I buy it special and it is based on what Caitlyn is "in to" that particular year. In there past, there has been Barbie, Princesses, Tinkerbell, etc. This year, it is High School Musical. Go figure. Once all Santa's gifts are wrapped, the paper is put away under the stairs, never to resurface. Well, at least not until she knows Santa does not bring her gifts. Which should be within the next year or so. Mainly because the kids at school are really starting to talk. Which is fine with me. We got a good 7 years, hopefully at least one more, of the sheer excitement and joy of Santa, and I am content with that.

We have been having crazy weather here in Chicago. Loads of snow and freezing cold weather. The snow and ice resulted in snow day for me on Friday. And it allowed for Caitlyn to play outside with the neighbor's son while I shoveled. This weekend has brought us temperatures that are below zero, so we have been pretty much holed up in the house. The only good thing to come out of that, is all the stuff I have been able to get done since it's too cold to leave.

Caitlyn loves to knock people down in the snow. Here she is getting my neighbor.

This is going to be a long one!

2008-12-09T10:48:00.020-06:00

OK, time to catch up on everything that went down since last Thursday. We were going nonstop! But had an amazing weekend!

First off, the concert. OMG! The girl and I had such a fantabulous time that I am already wanting to take her to another one. She is a little superstar. I picked her up from school and we hit the road right away since we had about a two and a half hour drive. It's a good thing we left when we did cause the weather was crappy and there was blowing snow all the way there.

We got to the hotel, checked in, got ready, and headed right back out the door. When we got to the venue, we bought a Carrie Underwood t-shirt (for her not me). And that stupid shirt was $30.00!!! Yeah, you read that right. For a lousy t-shirt. But it was the only thing she asked me for all night, and it's a good keepsake for her. So we splurged. Then we sat down and had some hot pretzels with cheese before the show started.

When we got to our seats, I was amazed at how great our seats were. There was a runway that ran down the middle as well, which gave us a great view of the performers as they came out there.

So when the lights dimmed, the girl got so antsy I thought she was going to explode. Everyone had their cameras pointed at the stage ready to take a picture of Carrie. Not me. I had mine strategically aimed at the girl ready to get the expression on her face when Carrie came out. And it paid off!

So here are just some random pictures that I think came out pretty good.

Caitlyn's most favorite part of the concert was when the confetti fell from the ceiling at the very end! She wore her ear plugs the entire night and never complained about them. And afterwards I was so glad that I had her use them. She didn't complain about any ringing when we were back at the hotel at all.

So all in all, I am so so so glad that I bought those tickets. Yes the concert was wonderful, but we had so much fun hanging out in the car on the drive up there and back and having dinner and breakfast together. We just yakked and yakked the entire time. So it is definitely something that the both of us will remember for many years to come!

When we got home on Friday, we had enough time to unpack our overnight bags, only to repack them for the weekend. Once we were packed, we headed out to have our nails done and be pampered for just a little bit longer. Once they were dry, we went and picked up her dress from the cleaners. We went through a drive through right quick and got home with enough time to eat while Matt packed his bags before we had to head out again.

At the hotel, Caitlyn went swimming with her cousins and uncle while Matt and I got ready for the rehearsal. Then we were off to the church for that. Before we knew it, it was 10:00 and we were stuffed with loads of good food and had to make our way back to the hotel because we had to get up so early in the morning.

Once back at the hotel, all the kids went into one room and climbed into bed....while the adults headed into another room for a few nightcaps! Again, time got away from us and suddenly it was 1:30 in the morning!! And Matt, Caitlyn, and I had to be up at 7:00 in order to make it to the hair salon. So we had to shag everyone out of our room...much to their chagrin.

So we got up bright and early, raced to the salon, got hair done, raced back to the hotel, got dressed in our finest, and raced out the door to the church for the 12:30 ceremony. Which was absolutely beautiful. Caitlyn did fantastic walking up the aisle and looked so gorgeous!! She was a perfect angel throughout the entire ceremony and never complained about how long it was taking.

After pictures were taken, we all headed back to the hotel for some food. Once that was eaten, I told Matt that I wanted to the girl to take a nap as I knew she would end up being exhausted if she didn't. Lo and behold, it took her all of about 7 minutes to fall asleep once I had her out of the dress and in the bed. Then I managed to squeeze in a nap as well.

At 4:45 we were awake and getting dressed again to head to the reception. Where a good time was had by all. Once the kids were picked up at 10ish by the baby sitter, the adults were allowed to indulge in some spirits and act like fools on the dance floor.

Needless to say, by Sunday I could not only wait to get home and do nothing, but I was so eager to actually sleep in my bed that I practically walked in the door, dropped the bags, and headed straight for it.

Monday was hard and all three of us were really dragging ass. But it seems that we have recovered today. If you have managed to read all of this nonsense, you certainly are devoted. I will reward you with some pictures of the girl in her flower girl dress. Tell me this kid isn't going to be a looker when she is older.

Innocence is Bliss

2008-12-03T20:58:00.002-06:00

Caitlyn and I were in the car the other day and we were listening to the Carrie Underwood CD (of course). The song Before he Cheats was on and she was signing it at the top of her lungs. She suddenly stops and says:

"Mom, I have a question."

N: What's that baby?

C: What does she mean when she says cheat? Is she talking about like cheating in a game or something?

I thought to myself, if she thinks tearing up someone's car is reasonable retaliation for cheating on a game, what in the world is she going to do if she ever has a boyfriend who cheats on her?? God help that guy! Then I thought about how innocent her question was and how she really didn't have any idea what the song was really about. So I told her in simple terms that her boyfriend wasn't nice to her and that's why she is destroying his car. And I swear to you, she had this look of utter satisfaction on her face. It was almost frightening.

Needless to say, I think when it comes to dating, she will probably be able to hold her own.

Tomorrow is the concert and we are completely psyched for it! She is having a difficult time sleeping tonight because she is so excited. I booked a hotel room for us so that we don't have to drive back home afterwards since it is about a 2 hour drive. The weather here has been kind of crappy, so I am not taking any chances of driving that late for that long should it end up snowing or something. Besides, it will give us more mommy-daughter time, which is always a fantastic thing!

When we get home on Friday, we are going to have our nails done for the wedding. Then we are off to the hotel that we are staying at for the wedding. Where she plans on doing nothing but swimming until it's time to go to the rehearsal.

Then Saturday we are getting up early to have our hair done. Then the wedding starts at 12:30. The reception doesn't start until 6, so we will have some downtime in there.

Sunday, we have a birthday party to go to by our house. Hopefully that will be low key and relaxing, cause we will need it.

All in all, it will be a crazy busy weekend. And come Sunday night, I think we will both be so wiped out we won't know what to do with ourselves.

I can't wait to see her reaction tomorrow when she actually sees Carrie Underwood in the flesh. She is going to go insane!

Report Card and Reaction

2008-11-13T08:12:00.006-06:00

I will start with the report card and parent teacher conferences. First of all, the teacher had us shagged out of the room within about 7 minutes. Matt says it's because we had the meeting about 2 weeks ago, I say it's because she just doesn't want anything to do with us. Whatever the case may be, it made for a quick and easy conference.

Caitlyn's report card was outstanding. She was all worried that she was going to get a C in writing. And Cate puts a lot of pressure on herself to succeed in school. She and I need to work on curbing that at times. Sometimes I think it is how she views school and other times I think it's just part of her drama queen genetic make up. Either way, she really strives to do well at school. And it showed on her report card:

Reading A
Writing B
Math A
Science A
Social Studies A
Library A
Music A
PE A

and she got a ribbon for excellent citizenship. So all in all, a great report. Teacher had nothing bad to say about her. Said she participates all the time in class and is so well behaved that she often forgets she is even in there. To say we are pleased is an understatement.

The outstanding report card led to the big surprise. After she saw her report card, all she did was ask me what her surprise was. She had to wait until we got her from my mom's, went to the office supply store for more crap for my homework, and ate dinner. So by the time I told her I was ready to give them to her, she was already near spontaneous combustion from the anticipation of it.

I made her close her eyes and put her hands out. (side note....why do we do that?) I put them in her hands and told her to open her eyes.

The look of complete shock on her face was priceless. The interesting thing was that she knew what they were immediately. Obviously she read what it said, but I didn't expect her to know they were concert tickets.

Without looking at me she said:
"You got Carrie Underwood tickets??" In a low voice, completely stunned.

I told her yes and that was when the jumping and screaming and of course, tears began flowing. Yes, she cried. That's what my kid does. Apples and trees I tell ya!

She wanted to just sit and stare at them all night, but I had to put them away because I just knew if they were laying around any longer something was going to happen to them.

And now the countdown begins.

Tomorrow is the Day!

2008-11-11T23:12:00.002-06:00

So tomorrow is Caitlyn's report card pick up. We have our conference with the teacher at 4:30. I am fairly certain that it will go just fine. I have no worries after our last meeting.

BUT..... I told Cate that if she did awesome on her report card that I had the best surprise ever for her. I know her report card will be fine, so I figured it was a good way to work the tickets in as a gift to her. She has no idea what the surprise is and she WILL NOT stop asking me what it is. If the kid was more observant around here, she would have seen them sitting on the dining room table since I got them last Friday!! But, alas, she is not and there they sit. She is also going nutso because the country music awards are on tomorrow and Carrie Underwood is going to be on them. So she and I have a date to sit and eat junk food and watch the awards. (I just need to make sure that I have the insane amount of homework done that is due on Thursday so that I can sit with her and watch them)

I have to say that I loved the idea of putting them on the breakfast plate that I received. But I had horrible visions of the things getting milk or some other runny substance spilled on them and not being able to use them. So I nixed that idea.

Will let you know how it goes!

I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE HER FACE!!!!!

Decision Made

2008-11-05T20:39:00.003-06:00

I bought them!!

I managed to bargain with the seller and get her to sell them to me for $65.00 less than she wanted. So I got 2 tickets, 21st row, for $190.00. Which is only $80 a ticket, so not bad. It chokes me up a little to think of that money being spent on them. BUT, I got my tuition reimbursement check last Friday and somehow we managed to get a nice little check from our mortgage company. Seems there was leftover money in our escrow account when we refinanced. So I could rationalize the frivolous purchase knowing that between those 2 checks, there is plenty left over to throw into our savings account.

The girl does not know yet. And I need a creative way to tell her about them. So if anyone has any ideas, feel free to share with me please.

Thanks for voting in the poll. It was kind of fun having that up there to check daily and I may consider putting one up every week. Something silly. I really considered the 3 comments that were left too, that encouraged me to just go ahead and do it. The one that I took to heart the most was Colleen's. Her daughter Kennedy has had a really rough go of it over the last year and her comment really put everything into perspective for me. So thank you Colleen :)

Now I am super excited to go to this concert. Not because I really want to see Carrie Underwood, I have already seen her twice at Country Thunder. But I CAN NOT wait to see Caitlyn's face when she hears we have the tickets. More than that, I CN NOT wait to see her face when she is a mere 50 feet away from her. I know I will be the only fool in the audience crying. And not because of the performance, but because of how happy my little Mojo is going to be!

Poll

2008-11-03T17:02:00.003-06:00

Ok, Caitlyn loves (LOVES!) Carrie Underwood. She can't get enough of her. There are 2 tickets pretty cheap on ebay. Normally I would buy then in a heartbeat and take her. Here are the issues I am having:

1. It's a Thursday night, I would miss my last class of the term.
2. It's a Thursday night, she would miss school on Friday.
3. It's in Madison (I'm in Chicago), so about 150 miles away.
4. We would need a hotel in addition to the tickets and other crap I end up buying.
5. It's 2 days before she is standing up as a flower girl in my brother-in-laws wedding.

I don't know what to do. I really really want to take her. I just hate that it's so far away. There are still tickets at ticketmaster. However, by the time that I pay all the silly fees they have, I would end up paying the same amount for those on ebay which are FAR better seats.

Vote in the poll that I have put up in the side bar and tell me what to do.

******EDITED: Those of you who vote, leave me a comment and tell me your reasons for voting yes or no***********

The Conference

2008-10-27T20:29:00.005-05:00

No I am not in jail needing bail money (but thanks for the offer Tiffany :) ) The meeting actually went really well.

Imagine my surprise when we were greeted by the principal and told that we would be meeting in her office with the teacher! That's what I get for CCing the principal on all my emails right? Completely fine with me, I think the principal needed to be aware of what was happening in this classroom anyway. Hence my copying her on all of my emails initially.

There was no beating around the bush, I basically came right out and told them both that Caitlyn was not happy in this classroom, and I believed that she was also afraid of approaching the teacher. I really don't think that they expected me to say anything of the sort to be honest with you. Which I found great joy in. The principal looked at me funny, almost appalled, and said, "I can't understand why Caitlyn would be afraid of Mrs. L?"

And that's when I laid it out there for them both!

I told them that it started with the whole snack issue. And the principal was about to cut me off. I put my hand up and said that there was more, that was just what initiated all of this. Then I told her that she has been told in the classroom on several occasions that they needed to have fewer emergencies for the bathroom. Again, they were about to interrupt and I talked right over them and told them about the book situation and her not being able to read the library book that she brought into class. Once I had it all out there, I let them talk.

And talk they did! And in the middle of all that talking, there was a whole lot of back pedaling. Not to mention crazy distorted faces by the teacher. She insisted that she would never tell Caitlyn that she couldn't read a book from home. She also insisted that she was certain that they had a bathroom break on that Tuesday and that Caitlyn was mistaken. I am pretty sure that my daughter didn't lie about it, but even if there was a second bathroom break, my child was not comfortable enough to approach you and tell you that she needed to go to the bathroom again. So regardless of how many breaks you took, you still weren't accessible to my child when she needed you.

Once we got through what all of the issues were, I pulled out my ace in the hole, so to speak. Despite all of the medical ramifications that can happen from holding in urine or sitting in wet pants, I through this gem out there:

"Her father is an insulin dependent diabetic. When Caitlyn presents with issues that are characteristic of those with diabetes (intense thirst, urination issues) then there is reason for me to be concerned because her health is in jeopardy."

Oh the looks on their faces were priceless. And I do wish I had a camera so I could show you the pictures. Their mouths dropped open and they didn't even know how to respond. The only thing they could say was, "We have no way of knowing that." No, you don't. However, there are lots of things about these kids that you don't know. Therefore, you should not make blanket assumptions that just because a kid says they are having a bathroom emergency everyday that they are lying. Because there is obviously information that you don't know and that lack of knowledge could cost a child their health.

When all was said and done, Mrs. L said she was going to have a private conversation with Caitlyn the following day to assure her that she could ask her anything, especially when Caitlyn felt as though it was an emergency. She never did concede to saying she did the things or said the things my daughter said she did. But that's ok. Based on her reaction, it is clear that this teacher is NOT accustomed to being confronted by parents who question her judgement. (much like I reacted when she took my kid's snack away) In the end, my ultimate goal was reached.....

This lady now knows that Caitlyn informs me on everything that happens at school and that Matt and I take our daughter's educational experience very seriously. I think they got the idea that we don't just let things happen to her and when things are said and done that make her uncomfortable, we react accordingly. Needless to say, I really don't think this teacher will be messing with my kid anymore. She knows that we will be in there in a heartbeat if she does.

Oh and by the way.....Caitlyn told me that kids are now bringing in applesauce for snack time. Not only is that using a utensil, which was clearly shunned in the letter (same letter the principal wanted to show me in the meeting), but I also didn't realize that there are that many moms who make fresh applesauce for their kids. Note....that is sarcasm, I am certain it is the Mott's brand and in no way shape or form is that a damned fresh fruit or vegetable.

I do wish I had that gem the day we went to the meeting.

T Minus 90 Minutes

2008-10-27T13:24:00.002-05:00

Until the meeting with the teacher from hell.

Wish me luck. Hopefully she will understand that when it comes to my daughter's well being and education, I am not someone to mess with.

I'm nervous, and I'm not really sure why. I guess it's because I don't really know what I want out of this meeting. I just want her to start treating my daughter with the respect she deserves in school. Caitlyn is now saying that she wishes she wasn't in this classroom. She is hiding books in school that she brings from home so the teacher doesn't see them. She is constantly worried about what I have packed in her lunchbox for snack. She asked me to put an extra pair of panties in her bag in case she has an accident because they didn't get a bathroom break.

My heart just breaks for her. She shouldn't have these worries when it comes to going to school. She should be worried about what she is going to wear and how much homework she is going to get and whether or not she will get to go on the playground equipment at recess. Not this other crap.

Will update when I can.

New Voting Machine

2008-10-26T23:03:00.002-05:00

This is priceless. Matt and I were watching Chocolate News on the Comedy Channel, don't ask, it was on after South Park, and this was a skit on there. I thought it was hysterical. Let's just hope it's nowhere near the truth!

Oh, and wish me luck tomorrow. We are meeting with the teacher at 3:00. Say at prayer at that time that I don't hurt this lady and end up in jail. Will update tomorrow after the meeting.

A Horrible Nightmare

2008-10-24T22:24:00.002-05:00

Before I tell you about the dream I had last night, here is the reply from Cate's teacher regarding the email we sent her. Now this just pisses me right off for several reasons.

Mr. Walsh,

I can meet with you on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday afterschool at 3:00 or later if that is more convenient for you. Please let me know what time works for you.

Mrs. L

No mention of anything that we brought up in the letter. Also, second email we have sent, both have included me, they just came from Matt's email. First time she called Matt and completely ignored me. This time, completely ignored me again, despite the fact that our email was signed from both of us. This woman is not chalking up any points from me. God help her on Monday at 3:00. I want you all to say a silent prayer that I don't end up on Cops. Please.

Now on to the hellish nightmare that I had last night that I haven't been able to stop thinking about. ALL. DAMN. DAY!!!

Every morning I drive 2 blocks north and 1/2 a block east to drop Caitlyn off at my mom's house. I walk her in the house, say my goodbyes, give kisses and hugs, and I am out the door.

In my dream last night, I decided to drive the 2 blocks north. And that's it. I opened the car door and took Cate out and said to her:

"You can walk from here. You know the way."

I gave her kisses and a hug, and I remember touching her cheek as I kissed her. Then I got in my car and drove off. Fast forward to hours later (isn't that always how dreams work?) and I am back at home. There are loads of people there, my family and friends, but no Matt and no Cate. Turns out, she never made it to my mom's. And all I can think of is how in the world did she not get there? She only had to walk a bit over 1/2 block??? Then it occurs to me. My child is missing. She has been abducted. I have no clue for how long, who would have walked or driven up to her, who she stopped to talk to, nothing. and I begin sobbing hard. To the point that I can hardly breathe.

I then notice that everyone around me is just carrying on as if it's business as usual. Just another party or gathering at Nancy's house. So I start to think that they must know something that I don't. And I then flip flop my thoughts between two lines of thought.

1. She just hasn't made it to my mom's yet. (It never occurred to me that it shouldn't have taken her that long to walk the small distance to my mom's.)
2. She has been abducted.

At one point I remember someone saying that they knew a car had pulled up to talk to her. But I kept thinking it was impossible that she got in that car because we have had that conversation. She knows better.

Then Matt calls. Mind you, I haven't yet told him that his daughter is missing. I actually debate whether or not to tell him, or wait just a bit longer for her to make it to my mom's house. (Apparently I was really clinging to this theory and all logic had gone out the window.) I decide to tell him and again break down into hysterical sobs, to the point of not being able to breathe again. The whole time, these people are meandering about my house as if they couldn't comprehend why in the world I was so upset.

Then my alarm went off. I woke up dripping with sweat and my face covered in tears. I ran into Cate's bedroom and guess what I saw?? She wasn't in there. Nope. Gone. It took me a minute to actually realize that she hadn't been in there all night cause she slept at my mom's last night. But for that fleeting moment, I actually thought that the dream was in fact reality and somewhere among the people milling about my house I had fallen asleep and when I woke up it was really true that she was missing.

Needless to say, I called my mom's to talk to her. It was almost as if I had to just make sure that she was fine. I swear I haven't been able to stop thinking about this all day. It has been nagging at me. and I have come to the resolution that whether she likes it or not, she is not going anywhere without me for a looooooooong time.

An email has been sent

2008-10-22T19:48:00.002-05:00

Matt and I have sent an email to the teacher requesting a conference for any day after school next week. We have also sent a copy to the principal. I am thoroughly pissed and disgusted with this teacher. I am near the point of asking that Caitlyn be moved to another 2nd grade classroom and Matt agrees with me. The only thing stopping me from doing that is the fact that Caitlyn enjoys the kids that she has in there and I certainly don't want to do that to her.

I had Caitlyn outline the day and tell me the exact schedule of what they did. At no time in the afternoon did the teacher take them to the bathroom. She also made it clear to the kids that she was not to be disturbed as she was testing other students. My daughter took that literally and thought she wasn't allowed to ask her anything.

Another thing Caitlyn told me she said (and Caitlyn quoted her):

"Don't bring full water bottles. I am sick of you having emergencies, emergencies. Especially when we are working."

News flash bitch....they wouldn't have emergencies, emergencies if you actually carted them to the bathroom as a group once in the morning and once in the afternoon. And who is she to say that school policy of bringing in water is no longer acceptable.

The longer it takes for me to get a meeting with this lady, the longer I have to seethe about this.

It's not getting any better

2008-10-22T12:21:00.002-05:00

The situation with the teacher that is. Truly, I think we are now at the point where she is just out to punish me, which directly correlates to punishing my child. Which in turn, directly correlates to me being a really pissed off mother.

Now we all know how things went with the snack issue. Well, I haven't pursued it any further. Partly because when I really think about it, it isn't directly effecting Caitlyn. It is more so my own pride that has been getting in the way. So I figured I would suck it up and just send the damned fresh fruits and vegetables after all. It's not difficult for me to do so I will just suck it up and do it.

Until the two instances that occurred in the past week.

Some history, we all know that Caitlyn is a fantastic reader. I recently told her that from now on, she will be reading more chapter books and fewer easier books. And by chapter books, I mean chapters that are about 4 pages long. I just want her to get in the habit of reading things that are a little tougher for her. For every 2 chapter books she reads, she can read any 2 books that are easy that she wants. I figure it's a good compromise. Secondly, the school issues library cards for the Chicago Public Library. They send home these elaborate letters about how we should encourage our child to use the library, take out books, learn how to look for books, etc. Being the good mother that I am (usually) I follow this and traipse her over to the library to take out books. We have actually been doing it since last year and the girl loves it. So I tell her to take Gus the Greedy Puppy to school so she can finish it during silent reading.

Caitlyn obliges and takes the book out when the teacher announces that it is time for silent reading. She takes the book up to the teacher and tells her that she got it from the library and she was going to finish reading it. No what the teacher's response was? No, you have to read a book from the classroom library.

WTF??? REALLY????

I was going to confront the teacher, then thought better of it. This bitch is digging her own grave with me. No doubt about it. First of all, anytime a kid shows interest in reading, you allow them to read. Secondly, who really gives a shit where the book came from? It's not like I sent her to school with Playboy or anything. I wouldn't do that until at least 4th grade :)

Then yesterday happened. Again, a bit of history. Caitlyn came home last week and told me not to send her water bottle to school with her. See we get another elaborate note from school every year about how kids need water to learn. When they are hydrated, they are more alert, etc. Again, I follow the directions. I asked Cate why she didn't want it sent and she said the teacher told the class that there are too many bathroom "emergencies." So Cate was worried that if she had the water bottle, she would have to go to the bathroom. Well sure she will, it's the natural progression of things right?

So she comes home yesterday and it turns out she had an accident. A pee accident. The way Caitlyn tells it, they didn't get a bathroom break during lunch. Which is at 11:30. Nor did they go in the afternoon at all. Caitlyn asked at one point to go to the bathroom and was allowed to go. A little later the teacher went on a tirade about the "emergencies" again and after Cate went to the bathroom she said no one else was going. Again.....WTF???? REALLY???? Maybe if you took them to the bathroom at regular intervals throughout the day, these kids wouldn't have to ask you to go on an individual basis. But I digress.

Around 2:15, Caitlyn had to go to the bathroom. Badly. It was an emergency. She heard the teacher earlier, so she was afraid to ask. She relieved herself a bit in her pants. Probably enough to release the pressure that was building in the poor child's bladder. She told her teacher she had a small accident, who then said ok and sent her to the office. The office sent her back to class as they don't have a change of clothes for her. Nor does her teacher. See normally, my kid, like other 7 year olds, don't have accidents when they are allowed to go to the bathroom, so there was no need to send in a change of clothes. Caitlyn sat in the damp pants until she got to my mom's house around 2:50. Where she proceeded to break down into hysteria because she was so upset that she had an accident.

This morning, I told my daughter if she ever felt like she really had to go like that again and the teacher says no, that she is to leave that damn classroom and go to the bathroom. I certainly don't want my daughter suffering from a UTI, bladder infection, etc because this bitch won't take her class to the bathroom.

I haven't yet figured out what I am going to do. I don't know what to do. All I know is, this woman is in a serious power struggle with me and she is taking it out on my kid. and I am not having any of it. I want to see what happens after school today. Because of course, I sent her to school with a Junie B Jones book that certainly didn't come from the classroom library. If she even utters a syllable of disgust, this woman is going to feel my wrath. I have to talk to Matt about what we are going to do, because I think things are progressing to a point that indicates that they are only going to get significantly worse.

Progress Reports

2008-10-06T10:12:00.002-05:00

Progress reports came home from school on Friday. Caitlyn has amazed me once again. She has all A's right now in her subjects which is fantastic. But that's not the part that amazed me. They are doing DIBLES testing again, it was done earlier in September. They don't look at as many categories as they did last year; this year they only look at nonsense word fluency and oral reading fluency.

Benchmark for nonsense word fluency is 50 words per minute. Caitlyn is reading 54. So she is meeting the benchmark.

Benchmark for oral reading fluency is 44 words per minute. Caitlyn is reading 98. 98!!!!!! The benchmark for June is 90. The average words per minute read by a third grader is between 100-110. To say I am stunned is an understatement. This kid is cruising along in the area of reading. And what's even more amazing is not that she reads at this level. Cause we all know decoding words isn't the most important part of reading. What's important is whether or not you can comprehend what you have read. And lo and behold, she is.

On Thursday last week, she read her first chapter book completely on her own. She was so very proud of herself for reading a book that had close to 100 pages. And I think her mom is pretty stinkin proud of her too. Then over the weekend, she read another chapter book. So now she is all gung ho to go through her bookshelf and clean out the books that are just too easy for her. And I am all about that seeing as we have books crammed in every nook and cranny of that shelf and 2 tubs full of them as well. Now I need to figure out what to do with all of them.

In other news, Matt's football team is tied for first place in his conference. He is playing the team he is tied with on Friday. So any good vibes you can send on over to Chicago would be spectacular. I would love for him to win his conference.

My school district has signed a new contract. So there will be no striking for us. Thank goodness. Things are crazy there as usual. Though it seems to be a much calmer year than it was last year. We had a couple "high profile" kids leave at the end of last year, so I think that's the reason.

As for my master's program, I have 2 really intense classes this term. One of the classes is online and I swear it is more work than the classes I sit in class for. The class that I have on Thursday is a huge amount of work. And I am convinced the instructor doesn't like me. Which is fine with me, so long as I can manage to get through until December and get the credit for the class. I currently have a 4.0 going and I would like to keep it that way. Let's just hope that the fact that this woman doesn't like me doesn't interfere with that ;)

Caitlyn is leaving for Atlanta on Saturday for a couple of days. She is going there with Rita to visit Jimmy. She is ecstatic about it and has been counting down the days for weeks. I am a little nervous though. Not because she will be away for 2 days in a different state. That happens all the time in the summer when she heads up to Wisconsin with Matt or Rita. What I am nervous about is not being on the plane with her. She isn't afraid of flying, she enjoys it actually. I just worry that if something were to happen, that I wouldn't be there to comfort her. I am sure it will all be fine and she will have a wonderful flight, but it scares me a bit.

What a Week

2008-09-19T10:10:00.002-05:00

Life has been rough in the land of the Walshes this week. Started off with me getting a sore throat on Monday. Which by today, has progressed to a full on horrible cold. I have been this sick since I had the shingles. That was the last time that I actually had a cold. So I guess 3 years in between colds is nothing to complain about. But I am still going to because it sucks. Bad.

I also started 2 classes this week. One of which is online. They are both going to be a shit load of work and I really don't know that I am going to be able to keep up with it all. Although, I managed last spring during annual reviews and what not, so I have to keep telling myself that I can do it. I was hoping to graduate with a 4.0, but this term may do me in and ruin that dream. It's quite possible that I could end up with a B in one or both of the classes. Only because I would have to settle for work that isn't A quality in order to maintain my sanity. But it's only the first week, so I have to see how things turn out.

Work is crazy. Our district filed an intent to strike on Tuesday. Which means that we could be on strike as early as 26th. Scary. While I am hoping that it doesn't happen, I think that we are correct in demands that we have set. A fair contract is all we are asking for. Nothing more than what we feel we deserve. If we do end up going on strike, look for me at your local Wal**Mart as I will probably be getting a job as a greeter. "Welcome to Wal....will you be needing a cart today?" I have been practicing in front of the mirror. Can you tell?

Caitlyn is doing fantastic in second grade. She loves it. She loves her classroom and her friends and her teacher. She did tell me this morning that when the teacher writes on the white board, it is often hard for her to read it. I made her promise that she will ask the teacher if she can move her seat closer or if the teacher can write larger. While the Mama Bear side of me wanted to spring to action and call the teacher about it, I decided that I would first allow Cate to do some self advocating first. She is perfectly capable of it, and it is certainly a skill that I think all children should learn. So hopefully whe I ask her after school if her desk has been moved (which it has already been moved 3 times this year and I m not sure why) she will tell me that it has. Or that the teacher has made another accommodation to help her see the board. Will keep you posted.

Only 6 more hours and I can go home, take some sleepy time meds, and crawl into bed where I plan on staying for the duration of the weekend!

An Award

2008-09-15T10:34:00.002-05:00

For little ol' me? How sweet of Tiffany to think of me :) You should check out her blog. I do love when she goes on tirades about how stupid people can truly be. She is a woman after my own heart, at least when it comes to cursing people out ;)

Now for some nominees on my end:

Of course I have to nominate Stephanie. She is the person that got me in to this whole blogging thing anyway. Although, I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. But I love her dearly and she has some really cute kids too.

Next up would have to be Kari. She was a little hesitant to start blogging at first. But I will say that once she started, she became a maniac! She has three beautiful babies, all born prematurely. And she has such an amazing outlook on life despite the crappy hand that she is sometimes dealt. While you are visiting her blog, you should check out her dad's blog too. Every now and again, Gary manages to make me tear up when he writes about his daughters and grandchildren.

Here is another Stephanie. She has boy girl twins who were born 17 weeks early. Here husband is an aspiring professional boxer, who is doing amazing things with his career. Stephanie is always so articulate when she and I are discussing issues related to prematurity. Unfortunately, her blog is private, so following the link will prompt you to log in. If you want to read her children's amazing stories, send her an email for login information.

And last but certainly not least, I nominate Abby and Sharon, they are Hallie and Olivia's moms. Hallie has certainly managed to give these ladies a run for their money when comes to feeding issues. I swear they could both be certified nutritionist after all they have been through. Hallie is an amazing little girl who never ceases to amaze me.

Here are the instructions for the following Brillante Weblog Premio award recipients:

1.Place the Logo on your blog

2.Link to the person who awarded you

3.You can nominate up to 5 blogs

4.Add their links to your blog

5.Leave a message in the comment section of their blog to notify the winners.

Stephanie is right

2008-09-11T09:53:00.002-05:00

In a few years I will look back at this ridiculous string of posts and laugh my ass off. I know that. Like I said, I am laying low for now until I can have my ducks in a row. Although I can tell that my kid is wanting to really push the buck with this too. When I asked her what she wanted for snack she said that she really wanted to take dried fruit. Now she knows that the teacher told Matt this is not acceptable. But she also knows that her mother will go to bat for her if need be. And to be honest, I think my kid gets a kick out of me raising hell in her defense. She is just too smart for her own damn good I tell you.

So we got a note home yesterday that the kids are encouraged to wear red, white, and blue today. For obvious reasons. Well, last night when Cate and I were picking out her clothes, she wanted to know what holiday it was today. And I told her it was "Patriot Day" and that it wasn't technically a holiday. She wanted to know why she had to wear certain colors if it wasn't in fact a holiday at all.

And then I had to explain to her why she was being asked to wear the colors of the flag. And it was horrible. I could see the fear in her face. I tried to put it all in to kid terms as much as I possibly could. But no matter how gently you say that bad men flew an airplane into a building and killed thousands of people, it doesn't lessen the blow. I think the worst part of the conversation was when Cate asked me if the men flying the plane meant to kill those people and I had to tell her yes. the absolute look of confusion on her face paired with her fright was gut wrenching.

I tried to tell her that the reason her uncle is a soldier is to try and prevent things like this from ever happening again. That wasn't going to console her. If anything, she was concerned by the fact that there is the possibility that it could happen again. And I know she isn't alone in that fear.

I was able to calm her down and get her giggling eventually. But there is nothing worse than having to tell your child about the evils in the world and knowing that there is nothing you can do to shield them from those things. Whether she learns them from me or hears them from other people, she is going to learn that the world can really be a hateful place at times. And that makes me sad. Sad because I can't keep her in her happy little "everything is right in the world" place forever.

Replying to Comments and an Update

2008-09-10T09:24:00.003-05:00

Okay, first of all...4 posts in 4 days? I think that must be a new record for me. Maybe I will set a goal for a post a day for all of the days remaining in September (a girl can dream right!)

This snack saga continues. I need to comment on a some of the things that were said in comments as well let you all know about some new information that I have received as of yesterday.

Steph, I get the issue of a special diet and that putting some restraints on what kids are allowed to bring. However, we have not been informed of any severe allergies in the room thus far.

Kari, she is pretty young, a bit older than me maybe by a few years. I do however, think that she is a very uptight person. Judging from the way that she walks and speaks, she doesn't seem to have a bone in her body that would allow her to chill out. If she does have that bone, then it's the one that is stuck up her bum and it does her no good up there.

Tiffany, I agree that if this woman only has the battle of worrying about my kid's snack, she should be thankful. People like that, they always piss me off. Maybe she should be more concerned with the larger issues that are sure to take place in her classroom.
She was quick to tell Matt on the phone that this is a guideline set by all of the second grade classrooms; there are three of them, so about 100 second graders in all. Out of those 100 kids, I know that I can not be the only parent who takes issue with some of these rules. Which is why I am going to back to school night and talking to parents on the playground when I am able to drop off/pick up Caitlyn. I need to rally my troops so to speak.
In the original letter that was sent out, it was clear that messy foods were not allowed. She doesn't want anything too sticky cause then their desks get all sticky. I am beginning to believe that this woman really is borderline OCD. We are talking about second graders here, 7 years olds. It is their sole purpose in life to be messy and sticky and get everything around them just as messy and sticky as they are. I do wish I would have kept the letter so that I could let show you just how over the top this woman truly is.

Now an update:
Caitlyn was allowed to eat her snack that contained 2 snacks in one yesterday. Which is a blessing. Not for me, but for the teacher. Seriously, if she had denied Cate that snack, you would have been watching the news screaming, "OMG, I totally know that mom from the internet forums we are on!!!" And I would have looked like a crazed lunatic spouting off shit about cheerios and raisins. Although, I may just get off whatever charges are placed due to insanity. Because, really, who goes on and on and attacks teachers over cheerios and raisins. But I digress.

I left work early to pick Cate up from school. There were 3 reasons for my wanting to do this. 1, I had to get the hell out of work. I am overworked and horribly stressed right now. So leaving an hour early did everyone around me some good. 2, I wanted to make sure that Cate was allowed to eat the snack that I packed for her. And if she wasn't, then I was a mere 37 seconds way from the principal's office; to which I would have immediately headed. 3, I wanted to talk to some of the other parents about this issue. Because you know, sometimes I really do over react. It isn't until after I have cooled off and done some research that I realize I have gone temporarily insane and may not have handled things as well as I should have. So I wanted to make sure that I wasn't the only one irritated with the snack policy. Here is what I learned from my playground adventures:

1. It would seem that a child is allowed to have dried fruit for snack. As long as it is not my child. A parent I know fairly well has already sent in dried fruit with no repercutions to their child. Mental note, send in dried fruit and see if teacher denies my child snack, then have this parent speak on Caitlyn's behalf as to why her child was allowed to eat that but mine was not.

2. It would seem that a child is allowed to bring in things like cheese sticks and crackers for snack during the winter months. This was told to me by a parent who had a son in this class last year. He was able to bring his cheese stick and enjoy the hell out of it despite it not being a fresh fruit or vegetable. Unless of course that has recently been added to those food groups unbeknownst to me. This parent also informed me that they received the exact same note, with the exact same guidelines, last year. Which leads me to believe that this policy was in effect last year as well, and she managed to bend the rules for those kids, but again, not for Caitlyn. Same mental note made as above.

3. Mentioning the issue of money and the fact that some of the students receive state assistance and free/reduced lunches upsets some people. Despite the fact that it is true, they certainly don't think that those things should impact whether or not those families can provide only fresh fruits or veggies for snack. Especially in the winter when they cost an arm and a leg. Mental note, those people who don't want to talk about families who struggle and second grade snack isn't priority on their list, suck. I need not talk to them anymore.

4. Saying the word fuck in front of a born again christian, not the best idea. They will just turn their backs and walk away from you. Mental note, avoid that person because I have a trucker's mouth and certainly don't want to offend her further.

So here is what I have decided to do:
I am going to continue to only send in fresh fruits and veggies. In the mean time, I am going to continue talking to other parents to get their impression of the rules that have been laid out for us. I also need to get my hands on parents who have kids in other classes to see if the rules are as stringent in those rooms. Because if they aren't, well then Mrs. L has clearly painted herself into a corner as her foundation for all of this is that the rules can't be bent and it is a second grade policy school wide. All I need is for one parent to say that their child has been allowed to bring something other than fresh fruit/veggies in the last week. Once I have that, this woman is going down.

But I am not making my move until I have all of my ducks in a row. And once I do, this woman will not know what hit her.

The response

2008-09-09T08:40:00.002-05:00

Well, it certainly wasn't what I was hoping for. I really just wanted the teacher to say that the note was not to be taken literally. That it could be interpreted to mean a healthy snack and not just limited to fresh fruits and vegetables. But I was not so lucky.

She called Matt after school yesterday around 3:30. Matt expressed his concern with Caitlyn not being allowed to have a snack when hers was deemed inappropriate. Mrs. L replied by saying that she handed out snacks on Wednesday and Thursday to those children that didn't have any. To which Matt quickly replied that our child wasn't even in school on Thursday. And he wasn't concerned with those 2 days, he was concerned with the Friday that his daughter was without a snack. To which she really had no reply other than the fact that it is the responsibility of the parents to provide the snack, not hers. Correct me if I am wrong, but I did provide a snack and you told my child she couldn't eat it???

Matt also questioned what the policy would be if our daughter needed a special diet. He mentioned that she was born extremely premature and often times we boost her food with some added calories to help out in the weight arena. She of course said she knew nothing about Caitlyn's medical history and Matt was quick as a whip in telling her that it's because she just assumed that all was well and she could take his daughter's food away. Every now and again a side of Matt comes out that I just love ;) Matt was worried once he said this that it would prompt the teacher to say that maybe Caitlyn would need a 504 plan if she had special dietary needs. And she may just do that. But this lady certainly doesn't want to play the special ed game with me. Cause she will surely be fighting a losing battle. See in the world of Chicago Public Schools, 504 plans are handed out for some really inane reasons; and mostly incorrect reasons. Her dietary needs in no way impact her educational performance. Thus, no need for a 504. So I dare the woman to spout that shit at me.

Matt also questioned whether or not dried fruit would be allowed. Mrs. L's response was that it is not fresh fruit and not as healthy. It's healthy in other ways. It has many benefits. Benefits that are different than those of fresh fruit. I can print out the literature if she needs me to. I would be more than happy to do that for her.

She did say that it becomes difficult to obtain fresh fruits and vegetables at the height of winter for obvious reasons. But basically said that still only fresh fruit and vegetables would be allowed. I call bullshit on that. In the winter months I am not willing to pay an arm and a leg for these things when I can provide her with dried fruit.

Mrs. L said that as teachers we should understand that if the rules are bent for one child, then other parents will want them bent as well. News flash lady, I wasn't asking for the rules to be bent. I was asking that you allow any and all snacks that are in fact healthy. Whether or not you believe them to be, there is nutritional value to Cheerios and raisins. And dried fruit.

The most amazing thing to me is that there is a large population of children in this school who are receiving free and reduced lunches and breakfast. There are many families who receive state aid who have children that attend this school. While Matt and I can certainly afford to go out and buy fresh fruits and vegetables weekly, there are many families in this community that can not. How dare this woman decide how other families spend their money?

Caitlyn also mentioned when we were at the store that they are only allowed one snack at a time. Last night when I was making lunches, I packed her grape tomatoes and green grapes. I DARE this woman to tell my daughter that she can't have what was packed for her today. I will follow her guidelines, but you can bet your ass that I am going to push the envelope every chance that I get. Unless of course it starts to impact Cate. Then I will follow the rules nicely.
(until the end of the year when I key her car)

This saga is not going to end anytime soon. I think that it is now becoming a power struggle and is going to continue through most of the year. Back to School night is on the 25th; it's a Thursday and I have class. But I will be talking to my professor about missing that night. I want to bring this up in front of all the parents and see what their point of view is on all of this.

The email

2008-09-08T12:41:00.003-05:00

Here is the email that Matt and I sent to Cate's teacher. I had to keep telling Matt that he needed to reel it in as he was being really mean and vicious. Then he got angry with me when I would ask him not to use words like deprive, and other words that make us sound as though we are attacking her.

It really was a difficult email to write. Only because what I wanted to say, I couldn't. I really just wanted to lay into her about how she has no right to tell my daughter what she can and can't eat provided what she has is healthy. So it was very frustrating to try and compose this.

Hopefully we will get a response sometime soon. We sent it off last night around 10:00 and I was sick to my stomach after I sent it. All I can think about is the possibility of this teacher now being mean to Caitlyn because of the email. Let's hope that doesn't happen. And God help the woman if it does because Matt is horribly fired up about this whole situation.

Dear Mrs. L,
I was a little concerned when my daughter, Caitlyn Walsh, came home on
Friday, September 5th, and told me that she was not allowed to eat the
snack that my wife, Nancy, and I packed for her. She told us that she was
told she could not eat it because it was not a fruit or vegetable.
However, it was in fact a healthy snack. In case you don't remember what
it was, she had Cheerios and raisins mixed together in a baggie.

I understand that you are trying to promote a healthy lifestyle by having
the children consume fruits and vegetables, and we support that. However,
the Cheerios that we packed for her aide in lowering cholesterol and are
made of whole grains and oats and the raisins are dried fruits (grapes).
We try our hardest to provide Caitlyn with healthy food choices throughout
the day and avoid foods that are high in sugar and fat. Which is why we
thought the snack that we provided was appropriate. We read the note that
was sent home regarding the guidelines of what the students are allowed to
bring as a snack. However, we did not interpret the note to literally
mean that they were only allowed to bring in fruits and vegetables.
Rather, we thought it meant that they were allowed to bring in foods that
were healthy. Which, again, what we provided for her was a healthy snack.

What is more distressing to us, is that when she was told that she could
not eat what was provided for her, you did not replace her snack with
something else to eat. Thus, defeating the purpose of eating a snack
midday entirely. In the future, if you feel that the snack that we
provided for her is somehow inappropriate, it becomes your responsibility
to give her something that you feel is appropriate. At that point, I
expect either an email or a phone call to discuss why the snack provided by us
was inappropriate.

Please know that we are not the type of parents who typically complain
about how a teacher runs their classroom. In fact, my wife and I are also
both teachers. We just feel that this situation was handled poorly and
the only person to suffer because of that was Caitlyn. She was teary eyed
when she told us that we had packed a snack for her that she couldn't have
and was quite angry about it. Please realize that we have also included
Mrs. Ortiz in this email because we wanted her to be aware of our concerns.

If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to reply to
this email or call me on my cell phone listed in the signature line of
this email. We appreciate your attention to this email.

The new teacher

2008-09-07T21:08:00.002-05:00

Let's hope that what happened on Friday is not a sign of what is to come of this year for the girl.

On Wednesday, Caitlyn came home with a letter from school about the need for a snack to be brought every day. The note was short and stated that the snack should be fruits and vegetables. It also stated that the snack should be stored in a disposable container, and the need for utensils is discouraged as they eat the snack as they continue to work. I took the note to mean that a healthy snack should be brought to school. I talked to Caitlyn about the things that she could bring and we mentioned things like dry cereal, raisins, crackers, pretzel sticks. Basically foods that are not junk but would hold her over until lunch time. Sounds logical right?

Caitlyn stayed home from school on Thursday because she had a fever. She started showing signs of a cold on Monday, of course, the day before school starts. BY Thursday she was coughing and sneezing and had a fever. So she didn't have to take a snack to school.

On Friday, I packed Cate's lunch and put in a snack of Cheerios (the plain old cardboard ones, not honey nut) and raisins mixed together in a baggie. Dropped her off at my mom's and took myself to work. When I got to mom's after work to pick her up, I checked her bag for papers and looked in her lunch box to see what she had eaten. Imagine my surprise when I found that her entire snack was still in her lunch box completely untouched. I asked her why she didn't eat it. I figured maybe she wasn't feeling well or just wasn't hungry, despite the fact that her entire sandwich had been eaten. She got all teary eyed and said:

"Mrs. L said I couldn't eat that for a snack because it wasn't a fruit or a vegetable."

I was shocked but not overly concerned. I asked her if the teacher then gave her something to have as a snack since she couldn't eat what she had brought. Nope. My kid sat there with no snack. Now correct me if I am wrong, but the whole purpose of the snack is to help kids make it through until lunch, and you took my kid's snack away and didn't replace it with anything, thus defeating the purpose of helping her get through until lunch?

Cate then told me that a friend of hers shared her snack with her. So I am glad that she had something to hold her over.

I have numerous issues with what transpired over this snack. Here is a nice little list of things that this teacher will be getting an email about:

1. Raisins are in fact fruit, they are simply dried fruit. Grapes really. So she should have at least been able to eat those.
2. Cheerios are marketed as a healthy snack as they have been known to aid in lowering cholesterol. They are basically grains and oats and are nothing more than a healthy snack.
3. How dare you refuse my child her snack because you deem it to be unhealthy and then not replace it with something that you find to be more appropriate?
4. Are you seriously questioning my judgement about what I feed my child? Do you think that I don't know what makes a healthy snack for her? I understand some parents need teaching in this arena, I however, am not one of those parents.
5. There are only so many fruits and vegetables that can be taken as a snack that fall into your guidelines of disposable packaging (which by the way is a horrible lesson to teach kids when you are always spouting about recycling and saving the earth), no utensil required, not sticky, and not disruptive. So if I choose to mix things up for my kid and make her snacks a little more interesting, how is that wrong?

Caitlyn and I did go out on Saturday and pick up a bunch of things that she could take for snacks. Naturally we got grape tomatoes (was there a question?), we got some carrot sticks, apples, bananas, and some dried fruit. I told her that if she wanted to, she could take some tomatoes and carrots on Monday. To which she replied that she is only allowed one snack.

Now, I really get that this teacher wants these kids eating healthy. You don't have to stress that to me. But I have one of the healthiest eaters on the block when it comes to 7 year olds. She would turn down junk food for tomatoes any day. She turns away cake at just about every damn birthday party we go to. The kid takes peas to school in her lunch because she loves them so much. She probably eats more of a variety of fruits and vegetables than most kids her age. So we are not the parents that need to be preached to about presenting healthy meal and snack choices to our kid.

Matt and I are drafting an email. He was actually going to go into the school on Monday during his free period to talk to the principal about it. So if he is his fired up about it, I know that it's a big deal, since he is usually the one telling me that I am over reacting. I told him that before we go into the school hissing and spitting, we need to contact the teacher. As teachers, we both know how pissed off we get when parents completely skip that step and go straight to administration. I also told him that I am proof reading the email before it goes out as I know that Matt can get hot headed at times. We are also sending it from his email account as it will have the Chicago Public Schools address attached to it, which he feels will be more powerful. And we are also copying the principal on it. Matt feels it is a power struggle move by this teacher. And I think I have to agree with him.

So please, please, cross your fingers that this is not the way that the entire year is going to go.

Really?!?!?!?

2008-09-02T09:33:00.004-05:00

Has it been over a month? Ok, so the reason that I haven't posted any updates is because......yeah, I have no excuse whatsoever. Other than the fact that the girl and I were enjoying all of our summer days together. It was fabulous. Splendid. Exhausting. We went on vacation to the lake a couple more times. Slept in a bunch of days. Swam at mom's in the pool. Went to the park. Pulled weeds in the yard. And just had an overall fantastic time.

And now we are back to the real world of school and homework and work and dance classes and brownies and team meetings and IEP meetings and football practice and football games. It's never ending and I remember why I love summer months so much every August/September when we arrive in this place once again. So here is a recap of the last week as it has been probably the most eventful of the summer (how is that even possible?).

I returned to work last Monday. All was going wonderful until 2:00 when I received an email from the admin office saying I had to stop by there to pick up a letter that was delivered for me. It came certified mail and was from a law office. Yeah. Fun. Turns out it is a subpeona for a deposition. I will not (and can not) go into details here about what it involves, but needless to say, it completely sucks. So happy first day of school for me. We are now done with the first week, and things are in full swing. Almost to the point that it seems I never left for 2 1/2 months.

Matt's team has been furiously practicing and managed to win their first game on Saturday. It was a really good game and his team looks great this year. So hopefully he will have a good season. Because we all know that Matt having a good season also equates to a happy husband, wife, and household.

Caitlyn is fantastic. She is wearing her glasses like a champ and loves wearing them. The most exciting thing that happened to her this summer is that she had a tooth knocked out. Yes, you read that right. My little lady who is always the girliest girl on the block, managed to get her tooth knocked right out of her mouth. She was swimming in the pool on Sunday and she and all the kids were splashing around like crazy and she got hit in the mouth. We didn't know right away that her tooth was missing until she started laughing and had blood all over her teeth. Gross, I know. The funniest part of the story is that one of the other little girls there said she was going to find the tooth. I shrugged it off, because it was a baby tooth in a big pool that had a blue and white speckled liner. Lo and behold that child came up about 47 seconds later with the damn tooth in her hand. Caitlyn was a trooper about the whole thing and was thrilled to learn that the tooth fairy leaves more money for teeth that are knocked out as opposed to those that fall out naturally. Thanks Mom.

Today was the first day of second grade. Holy smoke.....did you read that right??? SECOND GRADE!!!! How in the hell did that happen? She is excited and yet very nervous. She knows that things pick up in second grade and that more is required of her. I am sure she will be just fine cause she is the smartest little second grader that I have ever met (not that I am biased or anything). She looked so mature to me when I took the picture. We have let her bangs grow out this summer and they have gotten quite long. And a few weeks ago we went and got her hair cut much shorter than we usually keep it. And now she just looks like a "kid." Not a little kid anymore, a full blown kid.

And finally, for your viewing pleasure, first day of school pics with her glasses:

BIG News!

2008-07-22T22:46:00.002-05:00

Some back story before I make the announcement. Matt's graduation ceremony was at Navy Pier. When the ceremony was over, we figured we would hang out and see the sights and watch the fireworks later that night. While me and Caitlyn were standing on the pier looking out at the sail boats, she asked me a strange question. Although, strange questions from Cate are not strange really.

Now, before I tell you the question, here is a picture from google images from right where we were standing.

If you look closely, you can see in the distance that there are some pieces of wood (not the rocks and the lighthouse, the line of objects in front of that). On these pieces of wood, it is not uncommon for birds to be perched. On the day that we were there, there was a large tour boat parked directly behind those pieces of wood. On said boat, there were people standing to look at the incredible view of the city.

So here is the question posed to me by the girl:

"Mom, what are all those people in line for?"

I told her that they were not in fact in line, that they were standing on a boat looking out. Her reply:

"No, not the boat, in front of the boat."

On this particular day, it was quite sunny, not like in the picture. So I gave her my sun glasses and told her to look again. One more time:

"I can see them the same mom. What are they in line for?"

I told her that they were not people and that they were pieces of wood. She insisted that they were people.

I insisted that we would be making a trip to the eye doctor.

Well, we went to the pediatrician this afternoon for her annual checkup and I informed the doc that I wanted a distance acuity test done on her. Lo and behold, my poor baby could not see at a distance with her left eye. The doctor said that we could go to a Pearl Vision or For Eyes, anything like that to have it looked at as she will probably need some glasses. However, she was very clear in stating that if they find anything more upon that examination, that I am to not let them do a thing and she would write me a referral to the ophthalmologist. That's why I love my ped's office :)

We high tailed it up to America's Best and Caitlyn had a full eye exam. And let me just tell you the look of surprise on the optometrist's face when she found out that she was examining a 25 weeker who had ROP!! I do wish I had a camera there with me. She actually couldn't believe that the ROP had resolved itself and there was not further damage to Cate's vision.

The optometrist was spectacular. She explained everything in detail to Cate prior to doing it, which is what the girl needs in order to be comfortable with any procedure. It turns out that her left eye is pretty weak. It does have a tendency to wander every so slightly (I have not noticed this since she was an infant). When she uses both of her eyes together, her vision is pretty good, damn near normal. But when forced to use her left eye alone, she just can't do it. So we were prescribed some glasses with a small prescription. The hope is that the glasses will strengthen her left eye enough that she won't need them in a coulpe of years. However, Matt's entire family wears glasses, so I wouldn't be surprised if that doesn't happen.

The girl is beyond thrilled. She got to pick out 2 pairs, yes I ordered a back up pair cause I am "that" mom. Then she got to pick out what case she wanted. They should be ready in about a week or so. I will post pics of her with them on once we have them.

A Funny Thing Happened...

2008-07-12T03:01:00.004-05:00

...at the zoo today. Actually, it was a pretty amazing thing. Last week sometime Caitlyn asked me what an incubator was. Not even sure how the conversation came up. I told her it was basically a plastic box that she was kept in when she was born to help keep her warm, since her body was unable to do that for her. Today at Brookfield Zoo, we went into a section that has a bunch of areas where kids can have some hands on time with different things set up in different rooms. One of the rooms was arranged to mimic a vet's office. In the corner there was an infant incubator. I pointed it out to her and reminded her of the conversation that we had last week. I mentioned that this was pretty similar to the one that she was in when she was born.

Then it hit me. Not only did she now tower over the incubator, but she is so far removed from that plastic box that it's difficult to imagine her "now" body in that thing. So I told her to stand next to it and I would take her picture. Then she played vet with her dolphin. She put on her scrubs and went to work. She went over to the incubator and put the dolphin in through the arm holes and cared for her dolphin that way. Again, I was hit in the stomach with the memory of me putting my arms through those very same holes to "care" for her in the only way I could...by touching her.

It was so amazing to witness.

Caitlyn in the incubator (one of the few that I have managed to scan in) That's Matt's wedding band on her leg.

Caitlyn outside of the incubator

I was amazed at how intent and concentrated she was when she was "working"

She was quite tired after being there all day. We were barely out of the parking lot when this occurred.....I don't think the wedding band would fit on these legs LOL

Playing Catch Up

2008-07-07T14:24:00.002-05:00

Sorry for the absence. Once Caitlyn's birthday hit, we were busy busy busy. We had her party with her friends at a place in the mall that is similar to Build A Bear, only way cheaper and just as good. The following day we had family at the house for a BBQ. Once we were settled from the parties, we went to the cottage in Wisconsin with Grandma and Auntie Mary and her boys. Caitlyn had a ball tubing once again this year and swimming was a bit hit again.

In between the events we had a couple really hot days where we didn't go to Grandma Linda's to swim so we played in the sprinkler in the back. Well, Caitlyn played in the sprinkler while I pulled weeds. Then we had Matt's graduation ceremony for his Master's. Which he had no intention of attending until I pretty much forced him to.

Caitlyn picked out the song for the montage. It is currently one of her favorites :)

Rather than posting all of the pictures individually, here they are in a montage. Enjoy :)

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Happy Birthday to the Coolest Kid I Know

2008-06-21T08:50:00.009-05:00

My little girlie is 7 today. Crazy! She woke up at 6 this morning cause she was so excited about it being her birthday. I quickly shagged her back to bed. Only to be woken up not even an hour later with her squealing once again about it being her birthday. I love seeing her so excited.

We have her friends birthday party this afternoon at a place in the mall that is similar to Build A Bear. Tomorrow all of the family and some friends will be over at the house to celebrate with her.

Happy birthday Caitlyn! I love you more than you will ever realize.

More pics to follow in the next few days after all of the celebrations are completed :)

Caitlyn's Birth Story

2008-06-17T00:35:00.000-05:00

I don't think that I have ever typed this all out. While I have made references to it, and discussed memories and such, I've never written the story start to finish. So here it is, be warned, it's long!

On June 15th, I woke up in the middle of the night with a really weird pain in my ribcage. It was right near my sternum. I figured I had some indigestion and didn't want to bother Matt. So I tried going to the bathroom, and couldn't. I tried to lie back down in bed and go to sleep, but I couldn't. No matter what I did, I just couldn't get comfortable. I figured I would go into the living room and watch some TV until I dozed off. Once on the couch, managed to prop up some pillows under my legs and head to get me comfortable enough that I could doze off. But that didn't happen until somewhere around 6:30 and I was supposed to work that day. I decided to call in sick.

I was also supposed to take my cousin to one of her teacher's weddings. We didn't need to leave until the evening, so I figured I would be feeling better by then. I thought all I needed was some sleep and a few trips to the bathroom.

Just as I thought, I felt well enough somewhere around mid afternoon to get ready and take her to the wedding. It was one of the first times I was wearing maternity clothes and was so excited about that. I didn't realize that the next time I would be wearing them would be because of a swollen belly from a c-section and not a baby.

That Sunday, the 17th, we went to my mom's for a BBQ and some swimming in the pool. Once there, my mother informed us that she had forgotten to turn off the heater in the pool all night and the water was insanely warm. Yet, when I was in there, it was like heaven. I later learned that warm baths are one of the only ways to manage the symptoms that I was having. Once out of the pool, I could feel my feet throbbing from swelling when I was sitting in the chair. I just figured it was the middle of the summer and swelling is part and parcel when it comes to pregnancy. Little did I know that this weekend was when everything took a turn for the worst with this pregnancy.

(I later asked the perinatologist if things would have been different if I had come in when I had the first pain. He said "Yes." Which broke my heart, t first. He then said the only thing that would have been different is that I would have been admitted to the hospital 5 days earlier and there is a chance that Caitlyn would have been born more prematurely than she was. So in a sense, I am glad that I didn't go in until I did.)

On June 20th, I woke up in the middle of the night with that pain in my ribcage yet again. Only this time it was much worse. Like the first time, I attempted to lie on the couch with my legs propped on a pillow. Only this time it wasn't helping. Then I felt like I had to throw up, or have a bowel movement, or pee, but nothing would happen. It was almost as if I felt overly "full." So full that it was hard to breathe and get comfortable.

Just like the first time, the pain eventually subsided some and I was able to finally fall asleep. I had just been transferred with my job and I left a message that I wouldn't be in cause I wasn't feeling well. But I was certain that I would be in the following day (HA!) I slept for about 4 hours and when I woke up it was somewhere around noon. Matt told me to call the doctor and I told him that I was feeling better and I didn't think there was any reason to. So I laid around watching TV.

That's when it dawned on me, I hadn't been feeling much movement from Caitlyn. And this kid was a mover and a shaker from the moment I felt the first movement. By this time it was about 2:00pm. So I decided to call the doctor. Figuring I was just being an overly cautious first time pregnant woman. I really thought I was fine and that I had just been experiencing gas or indigestion or something. When I called the doctor's office, they told me that the docs left at 2 and there weren't any there. Thank God for that nurse who answered the phone. I was about to just say thanks and go back and lie down, but she said that she would call the on-call doctor at the hospital and have her call me back.

I had only seen one of the docs in the practice I was with. And he was male, so I had no idea who was calling me back. When all was said and done, it would turn out that to this day I never met the doctor who called me back that day. Also, the hospital that the on-call doc was at was not the hospital that I was supposed to deliver at. My insurance didn't cover that hospital.

When the doctor called me back, she told me to come into the emergency room and they would immediately send me up to labor and delivery because of where I was at gestationally, 25 weeks 2 days. She said that it could be a variety of things including, but not limited to, gas, indigestion, growing pains. She was also pretty light about the situation and said that if anything, we would have an ultrasound down and we would get a peek at the baby. All good with me.

I hadn't showered or shaved and I pussy footed around the house, taking my time getting ready. I figured if we waited closer to dinner, then we could stop off at Hooter's which was a couple blocks from the hospital, on the way home. As a matter of fact, I made mention to Matt to make sure that he had his insulin when we were walking out the door; now I had it in my head that I would be chowing on some wings in a couple of hours. I couldn't have been more wrong.

When we got to the ER, they called up to L&D and we were sent up right away, just like the doctor had said. Once up there, I was asked a billion times how far apart my contractions were. I kept insisting that I wasn't in labor, I just had this really weird discomfort that was pretty much gone now and the baby wasn't as active as usual. They left Matt and I in a waiting room up there for about an hour. To be honest with you, I really think they forgot about me because I wasn't technically in labor. It was during that time that I seriously contemplated just getting up and leaving. Thank God that Matt had the sense to tell me that since we were already there, we may as well just stay.

Finally we were put in a room and they began the usual checks, blood pressure, temp, etc. They didn't do a pelvic exam though as I told them I was not having contractions. A nurse mentioned to me that because this was the second time that I had experienced this pain, that there was a good possibility that it was a gall bladder attack and may have had something to do with what I was eating. She said they were going to draw some blood and see what was going on, but that there was a chance I would need surgery to remove my gallbladder.

To say I was horrified is an understatement. Remove an organ while I'm pregnant? All I could think was that this was craziness in it's rawest sense! None the less, we figured if it needed to be done, then that's what we would do. So we called our families, we didn't call on our way to the hospital so as not to make anyone worry. We really thought that I was being over cautious! We told all of them that they could stay right at home, not to fret about me and the baby, we would call them when we knew for sure what was going on with my gallbladder.

About an hour and a half later, everything changed. Drastically.

Up until this point, I had only been seen by nurses. Now there was a doctor in my room. She said that my blood work brought up some red flags. She asked me if I ever had high blood pressure. Nope, it's typically very low. She told me that they were going to draw some more blood and investigate this further, but that they didn't think it was my gall bladder anymore. They thought I was experiencing pre eclampsia. She went into it briefly, but told me that they still wanted to run more test to be sure. It was as this point that I was told I couldn't get out of the bed. Not even for the bathroom.

Another nurse came in and started to tell me about magnesium sulfate, which I kindly refer to as death in an IV bag. She said that it would be administered for my blood pressure and to ward off any pre term labor.

Now Matt and I were starting to become concerned. After all, I had gas and I wanted Hooters wings! And now I couldn't get out of bed and I was going to be having an IV? When the nurse came in to hook up and start the IV, we demanded to know what had changed in the last half hour that was making all of this necessary. UP until this point, our course of action was to just keep an eye on me and run some more test. Now suddenly they were talking about preterm labor and bed rest? She said that she was just following the orders on my chart and she would have a doctor come in and talk to me asap. She didn't even hook up the IV, she knew we needed answers and we needed them now. She also knew that we needed to figure out what our course of action was going to be and that decision of ours would determine the course of treatment on me.

And she did just that. And that conversation changed our lives forever.

The doctor was wonderful. She sat next to my bed, held my hand, and told me that I had a condition called HELLP syndrome. She went on to explain the acronym and what each of the letters meant. Her last sentence to me before getting up and walking out of the room is one that will never be erased from my memory. She said, "You are going to have this baby within 48 hours."

Just like that. And she got up and walked out. It was as if she knew that Matt and I would have to take in that sentence and digest it. To say we were stunned is an understatement. As is saying we were shocked. We didn't know what in the world to do with this information. And that was okay. We talked to each other for about 10 minutes about what had just happened. We decided that we needed to call our families and tell them what was happening. Just as I was giving Matt the number to my work to call my boss, the nurse came back in to begin the mag sulfate. She also told us that there would be a neonatologist in our room shortly to discuss what occurs with a baby born at 25 weeks gestation. There was also going to be a visit from a perinatologist to discuss what our options were regarding the pregnancy.

Matt left the room to make phone calls. A few minutes after he came back, the perinatologist was in knocking at the door. He was one of the kindest most caring doctors I have ever met in my life. He told us that his priority was to take care of his patient, which was me. I felt such relief knowing that this man really cared about what was happening to me and my body.

Once he was gone, the neonatologist came in. To say he was gentle and kind, like the perinatologist, would be a lie. He appeared cold and detached. He had nothing but horrible things to say about what lay ahead for Matt, me, and this baby. But if he was anything, he was certainly honest. Brutally honest in fact. I knew what my child would be up against being born at this gestation. After all, I worked with kids who were born at later gestations who had some pretty significant disabilities.

We had made our decisions regarding care and resuscitation known to the staff. There was nothing left to do but wait to see what my body would do and when it would do it. It wouldn't take long actually. Caitlyn would be born within 12 hours of all of these discussions taking place.

I was transferred to another room, the lights were turned off, the shades were drawn, the sound on the TV was muted and Matt was told not to turn it up, the light in the bathroom was dimmed with explicit instructions not to make it brighter, the bed rails were wrapped in blankets and an ultrasound machine was wheeled in.

Things became a blur for me at that point. The medicines had taken their toll, as did my psyche. I seemed to fade in and out of consciousness, waking only when one of the many machines I was hooked up to would beep because of my soaring blood pressure or an empty IV required refilling or when someone would poke me with yet another needle.

I had 4 ultrasounds to measure various things. They were looking at the size of the baby to determine if I was correct in regards to gestation. I remember them telling me that Caitlyn would weigh about 2 pounds! They were so off! They were also looking at amniotic fluid levels, which were steadily declining. They were watching her heart rate which was consistently level. Which I later found out was a bad thing as it is supposed to be a little jumpy, within a normal range of course.

Throughout all of this, Caitlyn was faring pretty well. Her body was trying to speed up a few things because of all of the stress my body was putting on her. I remember a doctor telling me that there is a point in which her systems will try to speed up maturation because of what was happening with me. And it will help for a little while until the stress of my body takes over and does irreparable damage. But my girlie was hanging in there.

Suddenly, at 5:40am on June 21, about 12 hours after I was admitted, there was craziness in my room. All of the lights came on, despite the orders that it was to be dark, and there were about 7 doctors and nurses in the room, despite the orders for minimal stimulation. The results of my last blood test had been very poor. Early on, I had asked the doctor what would be the deciding factor in when I would deliver. He told me that they would not allow my platelet count to go below 50,000. I asked what a normal count was and he told me that a normal low is 120,000. Hmmm. Huge difference.

Based on the results of my last blood test, they needed to deliver Caitlyn now. There was a flurry of activity in my room, IVs being changed, monitors being unhooked, catheters being placed. And suddenly I was being wheeled down the hall in my bed to an operating room.

There was even more activity in that room. And I remember it being so bright that the light hurt my eyes. I had been in a dark room for so many hours that I couldn't adjust to it. My arms were strapped down. I remember the perinatologist coming up to me and telling me that I was going to be okay. He made no mention of my baby though. I started shaking so uncontrollably that no matter what I did I couldn't stop it. I was scared and I was cold. Then I started to cry. I had no one there with me. Matt couldn't be there because they were too afraid of what would happen once they cut me open. They weren't sure about my blood's ability to clot. They weren't sure how much damage my liver had sustained and whether or not they would need to repair that. They weren't sure if my kidneys would begin to be fully functional. Because of those unknowns, they had to make sure that no one was in the room should they have to continue treatment on me once they delivered Caitlyn.

That amazing doctor who sat and help my hand as she told me the fate of my pregnancy, was there next to my head. She saw me shaking and crying, and my futile attempts to wiggle my arm out of the strap. She had another nurse unstrap my arm, I itched my nose and then she took my hand. She told me she would hold it the entire time. I can remember the look in her eyes and how she looked at me so lovingly. I doubt that she held my hand through the surgery, but I want to believe with everything in me that she did. She was the only person I had to cling to emotionally.

The anesthesiologist was at my head ready to begin. He didn't even give me the old "count back" speech. He told me that when he put the mask on my face, he wanted me to take in large deep breaths, as hard as I could. I wanted nothing more in that moment that the mask on my face and to be far far away from all that was happening. I think I started breathing deep before that plastic even touched my skin. Once on me, I breathed deeper and harder than I have ever done in my life. All to no avail. I wasn't passing out. I could feel my throat closing. I could still hear what was going on around me and I couldn't breathe. And I had no way of telling anyone. I heard the anesthesiologist tell someone that they needed to press down on my throat. I felt someone do that and I still couldn't breathe. Then I heard the perinatologist say, "I can't wait anymore, I have to cut now." And that's the last thing I remember.

I'm not sure if the anesthesia finally kicked in, or if I passed out from that comment made by the doctor. Either way, my daughter was about to come into this world 15 weeks premature and surprising all of the doctors by taking one single breath before they intubated her. This all happened only 27 minutes after the results of that final batch of blood work.

And here we are, almost 7 years later! Caitlyn shows no signs of being born early at all. She is currently receiving incredible grades at school and scoring in the top percentages of her class when it comes to reading testing. She has never ceased to amaze me!

The Dance Recital

2008-06-14T22:15:00.003-05:00

Caitlyn tried Hip Hop this time around. Now that she has finished it, she said she is ready to go back to ballet. To be honest, I think she does better at ballet than she does hip hop. But she wanted to try it, so why not. And she had so much fun with it!

Naturally, they danced to a High School Musical song, I Don't Dance.

The recital was on June 1st, and she had about 15 people from the family there to see her. So she felt like a complete superstar for the entire day. Afterwards, everyone came over to the house for some grilling and a fire. All in all, it was a really good day.

For some reason, most of the pictures that I took came out really crappy. So I don't have that many good ones. We did video it, but I have to get that uploaded to photobucket before I can get it on here. All in due time I guess.

Here she is front and center of course (she will have it no other way in life it seems)

Curtain call

This is from the day before when we went out to dinner after the dress rehearsal. But holy cow, look at those eyes!!

Here she is with her instructor, Miss Kaleen. Who we absolutely adore. She is so good with the girls and she is just as cute as can be. Caitlyn loved her, and is begging me to pay for private lessons with her. Which Miss Kaleen said Caitlyn should do to improve the skills that she has. However, that certainly wouldn't improve my bank account as Miss Kaleen charges a good penny for her services. But she is a very good instructor and said she sees a lot of potential in Caitlyn and would like to expand on that. We haven't come to a conclusion yet about what we are going to do.

And here she is with her friend Angelina from school. Notice Matt and Rita in the background. Know what they are looking at?? Somehow my kid managed to get her face on the flyer announcing the show this year. Again, front and center is the only place for her.

I will get the Brownies pictures uploaded soon.

Long Time no Blog!

2008-06-10T00:00:00.002-05:00

I've been busy. With the end of the school year for me, things get crazy. I am also nearing the end of the 2 classes that I am taking, so I am finishing up a few projects that are due. Things have been really busy with the end of Caitlyn's school year as well. She finished up her dance class and had her recital, finished up Brownies and had her awards ceremony, and will be finishing up school this week.

Second grade folks!! Where in the world have the last 2 years gone?? I can NOT believe that she is going to be starting second grade. Almost surreal to think. Finishing up first grade also means turning 7 shortly thereafter. 7!!! S.E.V.E.N!!! That's insane. I really don't know when she managed to get so old.

Naturally, with her birthday approaching, there is always much reflecting that goes into the weeks surrounding her birthday. I am working on her birth story as it occurred to me that I have never written it here. So I am finishing that up, and I will warn you, it really is so much longer than I had wanted to it be.

Hopefully I will get some pics of the recital up here soon and the pics of her in her brownies get up.

WOOOOHOOOO school is out and the warm weather has arrived :)

Spring Concert and Other Things

2008-05-15T20:31:00.000-05:00

Caitlyn had her spring concert at school today. They sang The Lollipop Tree and another song that I have never heard of. Was quite cute. And my kid looked adorable (as if there was any question???) I was able to take the day off so that I could go and watch. Which is always nice. The auditorium wasn't nearly as crowded as it is for the Christmas assembly though. Which I find interesting. Here are some pics of the girl:

Showing off the outfit (she is all girl and it is always about the clothes)

Here she is on stage. Note the boy in front of her in the plaid shirt. That would be Hugo. The man of her dreams. Who, she found out from another girl at school yesterday, does in fact like her as well. I'm not exactly sure what this "relationship entails. But I certainly need to monitor the situation as she loves talking about him.

And here she is when she came off the stage. Really folks, look at that mouth. What in God's name is going on in that thing?? Is there any question about whether or not braces are in our future? If you are questioning it, I think you're foolish. There is no avoiding it for this child. And this picture is proof of that fact.

And here are the boys doing what they do best.

Only 15 days of school left for me. That can't happen soon enough. I don't think I am doing summer school this year either. If I do, it will only be 5-7 days spread out over 5 weeks. That totally works for me.

I am nearing the end of the term for school too, that ends June 18th. I have already registered for a summer class. It will be a bit more intense because it is only 6 weeks long and meets 2 nights a week for 2 hours each meeting. But the sooner I can get done with all of these classes the better.

Another Tooth is Gone

2008-05-06T22:42:00.004-05:00

Number 6. And of those 6, only 2 have actually grown back.

Caitlyn came into my room on Monday morning at 3:30 hollering for me. I truly thought she was bleeding profusely, she was so hysterical. Turns out she woke up to go to the bathroom. While on the toilet, she tried to wiggle her loose tooth with her tongue, and the tooth popped off and got stuck on her tongue. Sounds funny, I know. But what else should she be doing when she is on the potty at 3:30 in the morning but wiggling her loose tooth? When she finally got it unstuck, that's when she hollered for me.

I told her that it was too late for the tooth fairy to come now and that we would put the tooth under her pillow that night. Mainly because my lazy ass wasn't looking for the tooth fairy pillow and waiting for her to go back to sleep so that I could put money in it.

About these teeth that haven't grown in, it's the oddest thing really. The dentist tells me that as long as they are under the gums there is no need to worry. He said that they could possibly take a year or more to come in. She lost one front tooth in June and the other in August. So we are approaching that year mark soon. But the interesting thing is that they are breaking through her gums, just not where you would expect them too. They are coming through on the top. It's kind of hard to explain, I will try to get a picture up here soon. Needless to say, I am almost certain that this kid is going to need braces. Her mouth just looks way too jacked up not to need them. Time will tell. We have our 6 month visit to Dr. Mike coming soon, and Caitlyn has to have xrays done. So that will be helpful in telling us what in the world is going on.

Matt is healing nicely. He is very itch from his brazilian because it is starting to grow back in now. Hopefully he will be back t normal in a few days.

And finally.....the countdown begins.....22 days of school left for me. WOOT!!!! I may do about 5 or 6 days of summer school, but that is it. This will be one of the first summers that I actually have the entire summer off. It really makes the countdown that much more meaningful for me :)

Long Weekend

2008-05-04T20:26:00.003-05:00

It's weird looking at your husband knowing that in a few months he will be completely sterile. Very weird. I think it's certainly going to take some time to get used to it.

I stayed home with Matt on Thursday (obviously) and I took Friday off as well. Last week, Matt had said that he was probably going to go golfing on Friday since he had already taken the day off. I told him he was crazy. That there was no way he was going to be able to golf. That he would be far too sore for that. He basically told me that I didn't know what I was talking about. Guess what? He was far too sore to do much of anything on Friday, let alone golf. He even admitted that I was right. I love those moments.

I was able to get a load of work done for school while he was sleeping most of the day and Caitlyn was at school. I have done all the research and written an outline (with the exception of 2 small parts) for the entire project. It isn't due until the 21st, but I wanted to get the bulk of it done because I have 2 other projects due around that same time. So I am trying to stay on top of things here. Now all I have to do is type the information out and administer the test/evaluation that I was critiquing. Both of those things re relatively simple.

That means I can start one of the other projects this week. The one I am planning on starting is just a reflections journal on some observations that I had to do. So it's pretty simple. Which is why I did the test critique first as that one is more difficult.

I also was able to complete my financial aid forms. (Like they're really going to give me any damn money?) I know I won't be getting financial assistance based on our income. But you have to apply for it in order to apply for student loans. Which is how we are going to have to pay for this whole thing. My district does have tuition reimbursement. However, you have to pay up front, complete the class, turn in your grades, and then they will reimburse you. In OCTOBER! They only reimburse in October. That's the craziest thing I have ever heard of. But whatever, I will try to get the loans and then it will be nice treat for me come October when I do get the money back. The shitty thing about it is, we have paid off all of our student loans from undergrad. Long ago we managed to pay them off. And now we will be swimming in them again. Such is life, I suppose it will pay off in the long run.

Here's a funny. I am 5 weeks into the term, and I just got my acceptance letter to the school yesterday. Bizarre.

No new Caitlyn news this weekend. She has another loose tooth. When this one decides to fall out, she will have already lost 6 teeth. Mind you, only 2 of those have grown in. The poor kid has gaping holes all over her damn mouth. Matt and I are going to start saving for the braces now. Cause we know they are in our future. No doubt.

Beginning to plan the birthday party. 7 folks! 7!!! It's weird to me when people ask me how old my daughter is and I have to tell them that she will be 7 next month. It's very strange to hear me say that to other people. Good lord the kid is making her way to double digits quickly.

It's Done

2008-05-01T21:46:00.006-05:00

And I'm not really sure I how feel about it. Obviously, I have to be okay with it, because there is no going back now. But once the doctor came in and they started to wheel Matt's gurney out of the room, I left the hospital to go outside. Once in the car, I cried. I didn't realize until the moment they were taking him away just how much I would be effected by it. In the midst of my crying, I cursed my body for crapping out on us 3 times. 3!! Granted, I got an amazing kid out of one of those times. But it crapped out that time none the less.

I called my best friend and told her how sad I was. Amazingly, she was wide awake at 8:30 in the morning. Which is unheard of. And she listened to me and made me feel better. Hearing myself tell her the reasons why this was the best decision for my family helped me to know for sure that it was.

But damn it, it really sucks. And it hurts.

Enough of the pity party. Matt is doing great. He is in quite a bit of pain. And he is pretty swollen. But overall, he feels really good.

Caitlyn thinks he has a stomach ache and that we went to the hospital for blood work. She is none the wiser, and doesn't need to be. She would never be able to understand this at her age.

On that note....here are some pictures of my amazingly beautiful daughter. Could she be any more gorgeous??

Tomorrow is the big day

2008-04-30T08:44:00.002-05:00

Matt is going in for surgery at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

I am so torn with this decision. I guess I just hate the finality of it. While I know that it is in the best interest of my little family to have this done, it's just such a hard thing to let go of completely. I would probably be more comfortable with the decision if we had 2 or 3 children and those pregnancies were all well and good. But when you have a life threatening condition that forces you to give birth to a 25 weeker, and then go on to have 2 more miscarriages, I think it's safe to assume that the odds are just stacked up against us.

What I keep telling myself is that I can't tempt fate. We are so incredibly lucky with Caitlyn's developmental outcome that I often fear if we were to have another preemie, our luck wouldn't be the same. One of the biggest reasons that I believe this is the right decision for us though is because of Caitlyn. If we were to have another pregnancy and I became as ill as I was with Caitlyn, I don't want to even imagine the pain and suffering that would cause my baby girl. And if for some reason I were to die because of that pregnancy, I don't know what it would do to her. Her whole life would be turned upside down and inside out. Because of that, I know this is absolutely the right thing to do for our family.

Caitlyn has no idea what I am taking Matt to the hospital for. I have told her that it is because he has to have some blood work done. And because of that, he can't eat or take his insulin. So to make sure that he doesn't go low on the way there, I am driving him. While she is accepting this explanation, I don't know how much she is buying it. She has always been quite the intuitive little girl, and when I give her these reasons, she looks at me almost as if she is thinking, "I'll pretend like I believe you, but I know there is something much bigger going on here."

In recent months, Cate has started saying that she doesn't want a brother or sister. That she is perfectly content being an only child. I think the fact that she has begun to formulate relationships outside of school and she spends time on the phone with her friends and she goes to their houses, etc, she has learned that she doesn't need a sibling in order to have a playmate. Which is what I think her logic has been in the past. Not to mention the fact that this kid can clearly see how much more spoiled she is by being the only child and the only grandchild on my side of he family ;) She is a quick study that kid! So I don't worry about her not having siblings. She has plenty of cousins and extended family through close family friends that I think they can fill that void for her; as much as it can be filled.

So wish us luck. Actually, just Matt since he is the one who will be having the procedure done. I just need the luck to deal with him for the next few days. He needs much of the luck because he is still going on about this Brazilian thing and is none too pleased about it.

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

2008-04-27T19:21:00.003-05:00

Caitlyn came to work with me on Thursday for Take Your Daughter to Work Day. I think it may actually be called Take your Child to Work Day now in order to be more politically correct?

I was curious to see how Caitlyn would respond to some of the children that I work with. While she has been exposed to children with disabilities since she was young, she hadn't been around them much in last few years. She does have a child with Down Syndrome in her class, but that is about the extent of her exposure these days. I knew that seeing some of my kids would be a very new experience for her.

The first school that I took her to, I had her in a room with a little boy who is 3 years old and nonverbal. He has never spoken a word and was recently diagnosed with autism. Caitlyn has never been around a child with autism, or a child who is nonverbal for that matter, so I wasn't sure how she was going to react. She really didn't interact much with this little boy. However, I don't think it was because of his limitations, but rather because of the age difference. There just isn't much that a 6 year old girl has in common with a 3 year old boy.

At the next school I took her to, there would be more children her age. In the classroom that we would be spending time in, there are 4 boys who have autism and one boy who has severe CP.

Caitlyn was immediately drawn to one of the little boys who is in second grade. She enjoyed playing on the floor with him with the blocks and the books. But she did notice that she had some trouble communicating with him. He is very soft spoken and often speaks off topic about things that he likes. None the less, she really enjoyed playing and interacting with him.

When I attempted to introduce her to the little boy with CP who is in a wheelchair, she backed off and said she didn't want to meet him. I was a little stunned by this to say the least. However, once he was out of his chair and on a mat on the floor, she warmed up some and ended up reading him a book and telling him he needed to listen to her when she would start acting like he wasn't paying attention! When I spoke to her about this later, she said that she was afraid of all of the wires on his chair (for his communication device) and she was worried that the wheels of his chair would roll over her toes.

After she said that, I thought those things were very plausible concerns for a 6 year old. Especially one that hasn't been exposed to wheelchairs. And really, if I were to get down to Caitlyn's height level, I can understand how all of those things could be concerning to her. Her head comes to about where the handles of the wheelchair are, and the wheels look much bigger from her point of view. What I am glad about though, is that I talked to her about it and helped her to understand that her fears/concerns were valid. As well as helped her to understand that while they were valid, I could help her to understand that those things were nothing to be afraid of.

All in all I think it was a good experience for her. I was proud of how much she actually took away from the experience. I have taken her to work in the past, but she was much too young to really understand the magnitude of what it was I did at work all day. When I came home on Friday, she asked me how each of the kids were doing by their names and how their day went. She was also excited because she got to stand up in class and tell her classmates what she did with me all day and about some of the kids that she met. So I know that she took something away from the experience. I think when I take her next year, I am going to have her complete an assignment of some sort ;)

Report Card

2008-04-17T18:44:00.003-05:00

We have made it through the third quarter, which means we are in the home stretch now. I have 34 days of school left and Caitlyn has 39. And, the weather is starting to warm up, which always gives me a warm fuzzy feeling.

We had Cate's parent teacher conferences this evening. I love this teacher so much, and I am going to be so sad when Caitlyn doesn't have her anymore.

Here are the grades:

Reading: A
Listening: A
Speaking: A
Math: B
Science: A
Social Sci: B
Art: A
Music: A
PE/Gym: A
Technology: A
Spelling B
Handwriting B
Conduct: A

She also got a ribbon for Citizenship and she didn't receive any checks :)

So all in all, I am very pleased with the report card again. Her teacher said that Caitlyn is participating a lot in class and she is doing really well in reading comprehension (based on the tests they have taken so far). They have also started timed tests in Math which include addition facts. The students are given a sheet of paper with various addition problems on them and they have 1 minute to answer all of the problems. So far Caitlyn has been able to answer all of the problems in the minute. Of course as the addition becomes more difficult, that may not be the case. But we will continue to plug along with that.

The teacher also said that there haven't been many complaints about her stomach hurting her either. Which I am surprised about. Only because of the changes that have gone on at home with me being in school. But I did tell the teacher about that before I started. To warn her that there may be complaints because I would be gone 2 nights a week. So hopefully we are done with that phase.

I am so proud of my little girlie :) She has proven time and time again just what a miracle she really is. And the surprises don't stop with this kid :)

A Brazilian

2008-04-10T19:10:00.002-05:00

Matt and I have both agreed that the time has come for a vasectomy. I know that I have mentioned this before. But I think when we first started talking about it neither of us were really "ready." And now it seems that we are finally at that point. Mainly because the cons now certainly out weigh the pros. So essentially it becomes a no brainer.

So Matt went for a consultation with the doctor last week. When he came home we were discussing the procedure and what not. We are careful not to mention it in front of Cate for a variety of reasons. One being that she is far too young to really understand what we are talking about. Second, she will be so so scared if she knows Matt is having surgery. So we speak elusively about the subject when she is around.

After she went to bed, Matt called his sister's husband to get the "inside scoop" on the procedure. Before ending the conversation, Matt asked if they would have to shave him. You know...down there. And our dear brother in law said:

"You are now the proud owner of a Brazilian."

Matt felt compelled to tell me and of course, just as he was, Caitlyn was coming down the stairs. And she had a whole lot to say about a Brazilian.

C: "You're getting a Brazilian dollars???" (with mouth hanging open)
C: "How much money is that?"
C: "What are we going to do with it??

She managed all of these questions before either of us could even get a word in edgewise and correct her. We finally we able to tell her that a Brazilian is a hair cut and not money. She was quite disappointed.

A Lucky Girl

2008-04-01T20:06:00.003-05:00

Today Caitlyn received an award at an assembly at school. She received a POPS award, which stands for Power of Positive Student. She received it in the area of courage. They give a few of these out each quarter to the kids and they get a certificate and walk across the stage to get the certificate from the principal of the school. She was so so so thrilled to be getting this. And Matt and I couldn't be more proud of course ;)

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend the assembly. Normally, I can rearrange my schedule so that I see kids later in the day and then stay later in the afternoon to finish up what needs to be done in my office. However, this morning I had an annual review to attend. And it was for a "high profile" kid, so there was absolutely no way that I could miss it nor could I show up late. See, these parents insist on every single team member being there for pretty much the duration of the meeting, regardless of what they have to offer at the table. So my kiddo was devastated that I wouldn't be there.

In lieu of being at the assembly, I told her that we would go to Pizza Hut for dinner to celebrate when Matt got home from work. And we did just that. We are also going to buy a frame for the certificate and hang it in her room.

After dinner, we had to go to KMart to pick a few things up. While we were there (because those trips always turn into more than just running in and out for what we need) the girlie found $20.00 on the floor. This was right after she came running up to me all excited and squealing that it was her lucky day because she had found a dime. She came running up to me a second time waving something in the air and squealing again. Only this time she was waving a 20 dollar bill shouting,

"I have 21 cents now!!!"

Not exactly kid! But I think you're right about something....it must be your lucky day!

I start my classes on MOnday evening. I will be going on MOndys and Wednesdays from 6-9pm. So I will knock off 2 of the classes necessary for the LBS endorsement. Once those are out of the way, June 15th, the university can sign off on the emergency certificate form, and the district can then apply for it. I have been reassured by the district that once those classes are finished, they will be applying for said certificate. I can't do anything but have blind faith that they are telling me the truth. Fingers crossed!

Update

2008-03-20T10:08:00.002-05:00

Long overdue, I know.

I'll start with work since that is the reason that I haven't updated in so long. I have applied for graduate school so that I can get my certification in order. In the meantime, I have been officially riffed because I do not hold this LBS endorsement. However, I was assured that once I have enrolled in a program, the district can apply for the emergency certificate, which will allow me to be rehired. The scary part of all of this is that there will be a new special ed director as well as a new human resources person. So the only 2 people who are aware of the process, know the background, and have told me I will be rehired, will be leaving. So I am trying to get all of my ducks in a row before that happens.

I am registering for one or two classes next Tuesday. Once I do that, hopefully I can get what forms I need signed signed and we can be on our way to being rehired. If not, then I could be welcoming you at a Walmart near you ;) Which I guess wouldn't be so bad. I often think that it has to be somewhat easier working at a job that doesn't come home with you. Is there such a thing? Walmart greeter has got to fit that description right?

Amongst all of the certification crap that I am dealing with, I have been completely swamped at work for the last month or so. I have gotten 7 new referrals on kids. Basically that means that I have to evaluate 7 kids, trial equipment with them, write up a report, go to the IEP meeting, and have an AT plan of action in place.....all within the legal guideline of 60 days. 60 days is fine when you are talking about a couple referrals. But not 7!! To say I am currently overwhelmed is an understatement I guess. But I am hanging in there and managing to finish everything up in the time allowed. Once I finish up all of that stuff, then comes the fun part of training staff on whatever it is that I have recommended as well as training the student. The students are the easy sell. The adults, well they aren't always so keen on implementing things that I recommend.

But there is light at the end of the tunnel. Spring Break starts this afternoon. I am so ready for that! Caitlyn and Matt were on break this week. So while it kind of sucked that I still had to get up early and they got to lounge around, it will all be worth it when they go back to school next week and I have the house to myself. That's right. Home alone. I am so excited about that. Although I have planned some things and I am going to try and chaperone Caitlyns field trip on Wednesday. But other than that, the week is all mine.

Caitlyn's lip healed beautifully and we ended up not needing to go to the doctor. Although she really wanted to, I didn't think there was any reason to as the wound was scabbing over nicely and she wasn't having any pain.

Caitlyn was the star of the week at school last week. Which was very exciting news in our house. This meant that she got to create a poster that was all about her. One of the things that she put on there was that she wanted to be a director when she grows up. This is all news to me. For the longest time she has been telling me tht she wants to be a ballerina. She loves to dance! So I am not sure where this is all coming from. But it's ok, I made her promise me that if she did in fact become a director, she had to take me to the Oscars with her. Her giving up a date for one night is a simple price to pay for everything I have gone through and done for her. Agreed?

Not a whole lot of anything exciting going on around here these days.

The Phone Call from School

2008-02-27T21:41:00.005-06:00

There is nothing worse than getting a phone call from your child's school nurse in the middle of the day. Nothing. At all.

I was driving home around 3ish when my phone signaled that I had a voice mail. I figured I just didn't hear it ring because I listen to my music in the car quite loud. It's my downtime, my escape if you will. When I called for the message, the time stamp on it was from 10:08 this morning. I was quite confused.

It was the school nurse. She began the message with:

"Hi Mrs. Walsh, this is Mrs. XXX, the school nurse from Dever. I don't want to alarm you, and Caitlyn is ok."

Thank God she said that at the beginning of the message otherwise there might have been a car accident. She went on to say that Caitlyn had tripped on the stairs and her top tooth on the left side went through her bottom lip.

I'll wait for a second while you cringe.

Apparently, she fell, hit her mouth, her top tooth went through the top part of her bottom lip and caused quite a bit of blood. In the message she said they were "able to finally stop the bleeding" and Caitlyn was going back to class with an ice pack and that she was fine. She also said I could call if I wanted to check on her. Oh, and that she had a little bit of a fat lip.

Immediately (after knowing she was fine) I thought:

"These people are going to think that I don't even care enough to call back when they tell me that my child has had a pretty significant accident at school!"

So I called the school. Because damn it I will NOT be that mom. I explained that I was just now getting the message and apologized profusely about it. I was assured that Caitlyn was fine. However, I needed to have a form filled out by her doctor. I was a little confused, but agreed.

When I picked Caitlyn up from my mom's house I couldn't believe how swollen her lip was. And the hole people! There is a hole in her lip from where her tooth pierced it.

I can wait again if you need to cringe.

The form that needs to be filled out is basically a form that says she is not restricted from any physical activity at school. In a round about way, I think it is releasing them from any liability of anything that happens as a result of this.

I made an appointment for Saturday and now I am really glad that I did. She is complaining that her hand is hurting her and it is "weak" when she picks things up. Her knuckle is a little discolored and swollen so I want the doctor to look at it just to confirm that it is fine.

And the kicker of it all.....the tooth that managed to cause all of this is that damn extra tooth that she has in her mouth. Not sure if I ever mentioned it before, but for 4 years she had a gap in between her front tooth and the one next to it. The dentist has said that he believes it is probably because the vent sat on that spot on her gum causing a space, which in turn made room for a tooth. Something along those lines. He also told me that he has NEVER seen it take 4 years for a bay tooth to grow out. Well, he needs to understand that all the rules are broken when he is dealing with my kid. And now that tooth is loose.

Hopefully there is nothing wrong with her hand and she can get over the trauma of all the blood that was everywhere.

For your viewing pleasure:

100th Day of School

2008-02-21T22:07:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow is Caitlyn's 100th day of school. I'm not exactly sure when this little tradition started in schools. I don't remember ever "celebrating" it when I was in school. I only heard about when I graduated and got my first job.

And let me tell you, it is crazy business!! And these kids are way serious about it. The schools that I am in had their 100th day last week, since we start before Chicago Public Schools. There are posters all over the walls in the hallways. That's all the kids can talk about.

One of the things that Caitlyn's room is doing is bringing in 100 of something for a snack. They are going to mix everything that they kids bring in a bowl and have a "silly snack" tomorrow. Now my kid, being who she is, wants to bring 100 grape tomatoes. Well, when you mix that with marshmallows and pretzels and cereal, I'm thinking it won't be very tasty. When she was told she couldn't bring those, she asked about bringing cherries. Again, nix that. How about frozen peas she wondered. Okay really kid, bring in some sugar and call it a day. Finally she decided on Golden Grahams cereal as they are just like mini graham crackers. Now, my kid is by no means a health food junkie, but she eats healthy. Sure she will kill anyone that steps near her Hershey's bar, but for the most part, the girl likes her veggies and fruits and just assumes that everyone else enjoys them as much as she does. So we settled on the cereal and it's all counted and ready to go.

The second dilemma we faced was what she was going to wear. It is also Spirit Day at her school. The theme is sports. She wanted to wear her Cubs jersey. For the life of me, I can not find that damned shirt anywear. God only knows what has happened to it. So we settled on the Bears jersey. Then she drops the bomb shell....she needs to WEAR 100 of something. I find this out the night before it has to happen. Not that I would have been able to construct or assemble anything really cool cause I am just not that crafty. I asked her if she wanted 100 braids in her hair and she looked at me like I was a lunatic!! So then we tried to glue 100 candy hearts on a ribbon (left overs from the valentine's day candy) and that failed miserably. I would have strung them, but have you ever tried to puncture a hole in those stupid candies? Futile. I had a very depressed child, but one who was putting on her game face and telling me it was fine and no big deal. Which in Caitlynese means "I can't believe my mom can't make me anything of 100 to wear and I am going to be the only kid without it tomorrow." So I was on the hunt and finally came across a string of beads that had.....are you ready.....103 beads on it(yes, I counted them, I was desperate damn it). I told her there were 100. She'll never know the difference.

So tomorrow I will have a really sugared up child and baggies of crap. Which will add up to thousands of piles of crap because each baggie will contain no less than 100 pieces of crap. Yay me :)

Jordan's Bath Gel

2008-02-18T21:28:00.002-06:00

Scene: Caitlyn in the bathtub this afternoon. I was in the bedroom watching television while she played. (yes I am that bad mother that you heard about that leaves her kid in the tub alone)

C: Mom!!

N: Yes baby?

C: Can you call Auntie or Ashley? (my best friend or her daughter)

N: Sure. Why?

C: Cause Jo Jo left his shower gel in here and I don't like in it my tub. Call and see if one of them can pick it up today.

That gel has been in there since New Year's Eve when Ashley was watching the kids here and they took a bath. Separately of course. But nonetheless, it has been in there for close to 2 months. And now it is suddenly driving her bat shit crazy that it is in her bath tub.

Uka La Lacha

2008-02-14T19:44:00.004-06:00

"Uka la lacha."

"Uka la lacha."

"La la la la la la la."

That's what I heard Caitlyn singing last night as she was playing. As she was singing it, she was shaking her bottom as fast and as hard as she possibly could. I asked her what she was singing and she told me it was a song she heard on TV. Thinking the tune was familiar to me I sang a song to her to ask her if that was in fact the song that she was singing. She said yes it was.

Know what the song was???

La Cucaracha.

And now, I will never sing the song the same. It will always be Uka La Lacha.

She wasn't very happy either when I told her that the song was actually about a cockroach!

The Report Card and DIBELS testing

2008-02-08T14:23:00.000-06:00

Long time no post, and I have lots and lots to post, but I figured I would at least get the info about the girl's report card and the results of her DIBELS testing up here.

DIBELS
Phonemic Segmentation Fluency Goal: 35 phon/minute Score: 47 phon.min
Nonsense Word Fluency Goal: 50 sounds/minute Score: 44 sounds/minute
Oral Reading Fluency Goal: 20 words/min Score: 53 words/minute

So the oral reading fluency.....stunning!!!!! More than double what she should be reading right now. To say that I am proud is an understatement.

Her report card was just as brilliant too.
REading B
Listening B
Speaking A (yeah, we all know how well my kid talks)
Math B
Science B
Social Science B
Art A
Music A
PE A
Learning Technology A (basically a computer class)
Spelling A
Handwriting B
Conduct A

Overall, my kid kicks ass in school. And what's even more interesting to me is how is seems to come pretty easy to her. She picks concepts up so quickly and doesn't seem to struggle with a whole lot that's going on. For example, she missed 2 days of school last week because she was sick. So when she came home on MOnday, she had a load of homework to catch up on. There were a bunch of Math sheets in there with concepts that were started, of course, on Thursday. I explained it to her once, and she had it. Did the sheets completely on her own.

Tonight I think she is being treated to Pizza Hut for all of her hard work. (And it prevents me from having to cook a meal, win win situation really>)

Met with the teacher and other things

2008-01-30T11:09:00.000-06:00

Man I love this teacher. She is so very kind to kids and Caitlyn just adores her. So much better than last year.

So we met this morning with Caitlyn and talked a bit about how she was feeling and what we were going to do to make sure that she was happy in school. We are keeping a picture of her and I in her folder so that when she gets sad or misses me she can look at the picture. Caitlyn said that she is worried this will make her miss me more, so I suggested also putting in a picture of the boys (Marten and Roger). She suggested putting in a picture of bunny. I told her that we would print up some pictures and she could actually choose which ones she wanted in there for the week. Hopefully this will nip the issue right in the bud. Because mornings can be rough when your child is complaining at 6:30am that they don't want to go to school.

Now a little bragging on myself. Since I was able to accomplish so much over Christmas break, I have felt like I want to keep that going. And I have been pretty successful with it. Here are 2 things that I have made a significant change with in my household in the last month:

1. I am trying to keep up with laundry. Caitlyn and I have enough clothes in order to be able to go without having to do laundry for 2 weeks. (We are clothes whores fo sure, I will nto deny it!) Despite having all of those clothes, it seems like all I do is a load here and there to make sure that we have what we need. Today, I managed to do all of her laundry in one day. Last load is drying as I type. At some point this week, my goal is to do all of my laundry. Then I am laundry free for 2 more weeks. Seems like a good plan.

2. I hate cooking. Loathe it. Cooking in this house has always posed a problem for several reasons. First off, Matt only eats certain things. He is a meat and potato guy. He is just not adventurous when it comes to eating new things. So in the almost 9 years we have been married, I have been burnt out on cooking the things that he likes. The second hurdle is Caitlyn's eating. She is just as damn picky as her father. So it felt like I have always had to make 3 different meals. For someone who hates to cook, do you have any idea how much of a pain in the ass that is?? Well for the last few weeks, I have hunkered down, made shopping lists of exactly what I need for meals, and have pulled out everything that needs to be thawed for the week on Monday morning. Having everything thawed, and everything that I need for the dishes I am making has made dinner soooo much easier when I get home from work. And while these seem like common sense concepts, they have been lost on me for the last 8 years I guess. Don't get me wrong, it hasn't made the issue of Caitlyn's pickiness any easier, but knowing what I am making for Matt and I eliminates that guessing game and I can focus on what to make for her then. And we are saving money in the process which is always a positive ;) The majority of meals that I am cooking are one or two pot meals too. I just don't have the time when I get home to make fabulous gourmet dinners. While I wish I did, it just isn't going to happen. So we are saving our meals out for the weekends....and now I reeeeeeeally look forward to those.

The Berenstain Bears and the Bully

2008-01-28T20:43:00.000-06:00

Everyday Caitlyn is allowed to bring home a book from her classroom library. Some days she brings one home, other days we just read one of her books. Today she brought home a Berenstain Bears book. Typically, I like these Bears. The books deal with issues that most 6 year olds face; teeth falling out, chores, fear of the dark, etc. This book about a bully was a bit more than I had anticipated when I started reading it to her.

Here are some exceprts from the book. Those with quotation marks are direct comments from the book. Those without are me filling in some parts.

Sister Bear comes home from school crying and looks a mess. She has scratches on her face and her clothes are all dirty and she is sobbing terribly. Once her family calms her down, she is able to tell them what happened.

Spoken by Sister Bear
"Lizzie, Queenie, and I were playing tag at the playground when this new cub-a no-good bully named Tuffy- stuck out a foot and tripped me. So I got up and said, 'Why don't you watch where you put your feet?' Before I knew what was happening, it was POW, BAM, WHAMMO, and I was flat on my back with this Tuffy character sitting on my chest rubbing dirt in my face."

Brother Bear was determined to rush to his sister's defense, as any big brother would be. He heads straight for the playground to find this bully so that he can handle the situation himself. Until he discovers that the bully is in fact a little girl.

Spoken by Tuffy the bully
"Hey!" she said. "You must be the big brother of Little Miss Pink Hairbow! She got fresh, so I cleaned her clock. Wanna make somthin' out of it?"

Sister Bear is at home with ehr parents trying to figure out a way to resolve the situation.

Spoken by Sister Bear
"But what I'd really like to do is punch that Tuffy's nose right through her face, then kick her in the shin, then knock her down and -"

Brother Bear being the fabulous big brother that he is, went to the school gym and borrowed some boxing gloves. He also got a book for Sister Bear to study, The Art of Self Defense. He then gave her a bag of Mama's beans to use as a punching bag.

Spoken by Sister Bear
"A punching bag named Tuffy."

Narrative
"With Brother's help, she learned the left jab, the right cross, the left hook, and the uppercut. She also learned to duck. And she punched Mama's dried beans silly."

Sister Bear did all she could to avoid Tuffy that week, but by Wednesday, it had proven to be too difficult. She happened upon Tuffy throwing stones at a baby bird and hollered for Tuffy to stop. Of course, Tuffy being the bully that she is, said she would stopm but only because she would prefer to hurt Sister Bear instead.

Narrative
"She rushed at Sister with her hard little fists ready. But Sister was ready too. She had her left out and her right up, protecting her jaw. When Tuffy threw a hard right, Sister ducked, then hit her square on the nose with a right cross. That quickly, Tuffy found herself sitting on the ground with a bloody nose.

Both bears are promptly taken to the principles's discipline bench to wait for their punishments. It then that Sister notices the bully crying. She is puzzled as to why someone as tough as Tuffy would be crying.

Spoken by Tuffy:
"If the principal tells my mom and dad about this, I won't be able to sir down for a - well, a long time."

Narrative:
"Hmmm, thought Sister. Here's a cub who maybe gets hit a lot at home. Maybe that's why she like to hit other cubs at school."

Narrative: (and final paragraph of the book)
"As for Tuffy, the principal didn't call in her parents. But she did lose a week of recess, and she had to visit the school psychologist twice a week for quite a while."

I was reading this to Caitlyn while we were sitting on the couch in the living room. Matt was in the recliner listening. He actually thought that I was making parts of this up.

Caitlyn giggled through some of the parts I have quoted above. I didn't giggle, I am stunned at the way it was written. Do I think bullying is a very real thing that kids need to be aware of, absolutely. But good Lord, to be so graphic about it?? Caitlyn had to ask me what a psychologist is and she asked me if kids become bullies because their parents spank them. Which is basically what she took away from this story. I wonder if that was what the author had intended when he wrote this?

Nothing wrong with the belly

2008-01-27T22:07:00.001-06:00

So the night before I took Cate to the doctor, I had a long talk with her about this whole stomach thing. She finally confessed, through some serious tears, that she was making up some of the stories about the stomach aches. My heart broke to see how upset she was over doing this. After some discussion, she said that she was saying it because she misses me when she is at school. However, she said that there are times that her tummy hurts that she wasn't making up. So I told her we would still go to the doctor just to make sure that she was in fact ok. But I was fairly certain that they could be attributed to her being upset from missing me and from not eating her lunch.

The doctor did a lot of poking and pushing on her belly and finally settled on having a urine test done. At the doctor's mention of her having to pee in a cup, I thought she was going to vomit. She couldn't even fathom doing it. But I got her in the bathroom stall and it worked out fine. The results were all normal. We got her sucker and left for home.

An interesting thing happened while we were in the office though. I was chatting with the doctor about how her health has been (this is a doctor that is relatively new to the practice and he is always completely amazed by her, so much so that I think at times he is using her as some kind of study). While he and I were chatting, Caitlyn was facing me and had her back to the doc and she whispered, "Please don't tell him about my lie Mommy." She had the most unbelievable look of desperation on her face. It was as though she was so mortified that this little lie of hers had gotten to this point. I assured her that I wouldn't and the doc and I continued to talk for a few more minutes before departing. When we left the exam room, I asked Cate to wait in the waiting room while I spoke to the doctor. I told him that the reason I brought her here today was to make sure all was well, but that the complaints she was making were for attention. He made sure to tell me that if I needed more help with the situation that I could call the office and they would help me. Man I love my pediatrician's office!!

Needless to say, there was a lot of talking going on about how missing me is no reason to say she is sick. Nor is wanting to leave school a valid reason. And the strangest thing about it all is that she isn't away from me for that long during the day. I drop her at my mom's about an hour before I have to be at work and she is picked up within 2 hours of her getting out of school. But either way, she needs more mom time that she is currently getting.

Here's what we did to fix the situation:
1. We pulled out the calendar and set up days in February that will be Mommy Daughter days only. She suggested going to the mall for ice cream and chat. I can certainly agree to that.
2. We picked one day that I get out of work early that she doesn't get out of school early, for me to pick her up at school. We are going to make a craft together that day.
3. We are meeting with her teacher on Tuesday afternoon so that we can talk to her teacher about some things she can do when she feels as though she is missing me.

Hopefully this will get nipped in the bud quickly. I am starting to think that it may be a developmental thing. I remember when I was about 5 years old, my mom always seemed to be working. I can remember walking to my aunt's house one day, she was babysitting us, and I cried the whole way there with my brother because I just wanted to be home with my mom. So maybe it is just a phase that she is going through. But whatever it is, I know that I can't dismiss it. Nor can I allow it to consume the both of us either. I'm not saying that she is being manipulative, but she certainly hs the ability to be, and I have to make sure that she isn't just playing me too much.

Hopefully the discussion with her teacher will be really good and we can get through this as painlessly as possible.

Off to the doctor tomorrow!

2008-01-24T21:18:00.000-06:00

At about 12:30 today, I got a voice mail from Caitlyn's school. They said that she was complaining about her stomach hurting her. When I called back 15 minutes later (after coming out of a school and getting the message)they had already sent her back to her class. I asked if she had a fever or if she looked sick. The lady I was talking to wasn't sure because she wasn't in there when Cate came in. But she assured me that if she did have a fever, they wouldn't have sent her back to class. So I told them that she could probably stick it out the rest of the day. But if she came in again complaininng, to call me and I would come and pick her up.

I didn't get another call, but decided to pick her up from school so that I could have a quick chat with her teacher. She told me that once Cate came back from the office, she was fine for the rest of the afternoon. She also reassured me that there is nothing different going on in the classroom and that Caitlyn hasn't been acting any different since I mentioned this little problem to her. But I asked her to still keep an eye out for any weird behavior. She also wanted to know if Caitlyn was complaining about this at home as well. Which she is. When we got home, I discovered that she again had left everything in her lunch box because she said her stomach was hurting too much to eat. But then she was famished and couldn't stop eating.

So the more I think about it, the more I am thinking that there may actually be something going on medically. Before I picked her up from school, I called the ped's office and got her an appointment for 11 tomorrow morning. And now I am totally freaked out that it could be something more than her just trying to get attention :(

Sick Girl

2008-01-22T19:53:00.000-06:00

Caitlyn has a cold again :( I hate when she's sick. She is just not her fun chipper self. She started with a running nose last week. And by Wednesday night, she was coughing. But it wasn't too bad. I gave her some "sleepy time" medicine. It was my hope that a good night's sleep on Wednesday would have her ready to go on Thursday. When I woke her up Thursday morning, she looked like she had been in a fight all night! She had the sleepiest looking eyes and she just didn't want to get out of bed. So I kept her home from school. Thinking that a full day off of just lounging around the house would really help her.

And it seemed to do the trick. She was feeling great on Friday. To be safe, I kept her home from CCD on Saturday, which of course she never minds missing. By the end of the weekend, she seemed like she was going to avoid the whole thing. At least I was hopeful.

Today, she woke up feeling less than stellar. But I figured maybe she was just tired having had a 3 day weekend. She made it through the school day fine and we wen to dance class as scheduled. The game plan was to come home, do homework, take a bath, then go to bed.

As we were doing homework I looked at her face and she had the darkest circles under her eyes. I told her we were going to skip the bath, finish the homework, and have something light for dinner.

Before she ate, I had her take some medicine and use her inhaler. Lo and behold, the coughing stopped and she is now sleeping soundly on the couch. I have to get her up to her bed though. Should she wake up in the middle of the night, she will freak the hell out if she is in the living room all by herself.

I would keep her home the next couple of days, but I absolutely can't miss the next 2 days of work. I could take half days, which I might do if I decide that she needs to stay at home at my mom's. Which is wonderful that I have that option. She just hates missing school so much.

She has also been complaining about her stomach hurting her lately. Which is weird for her. In the past if she has complained about this, it's usually because she needs to have a good bowel movement. But we have moved beyond the days of with holding the poop...thank God...so that really isn't a reason. I'm not sure what could be causing that to happen. But it's definitely something that I am going to be keeping an eye on.

Hopefully she will be up and back to normal in the next few days.

She is getting so big

2008-01-13T21:12:00.000-06:00

Obviously I mean Caitlyn. And I am not talking about big in the sense of size. I am talking about how much she can now do on her own.

The other night, we had breakfast for dinner. Something we do often because Caitlyn has always loved breakfast foods. And when she was a new eater, and a poor eater, we would feed her loads of breakfast foods knowing that she would at least be eating. Anyway, a couple of days after we had bacon and eggs for dinner, she asked if she could have some waffles for dinner. I told her that was fine, and that I would make them in a few minutes.

That wasn't good enough for Caitlyn.

She told me not to worry about it, that she would do it. I figured what the hell. Let's see how far she gets. She proceeded to get her chair and pull it up to the freezer. Take out the box of waffles and put them on the counter. She pulled out 2 and put them in the toaster. Once she got the toaster started, she asked me if she needed to do anything else with it.

While the waffles were toasting, she went to the refridgerator and took out the juice. Pulled her chair up to another cabinet and took out one of her cups. Pouring the juice was a challenge. And it was even more of a challenge for me not to jump up and interfere, but I was able to restrain myself.

The waffles popped up. She proceeded to take a butter knife out of the drawer. I began to get a bit nervous. But my nervousness turned out to be unfounded. She managed to cut those waffles into strips.

She put everything away (which this is probably what I should be most proud of considering the kid never puts her damn toys away) and brought her plate of waffles, sliced, and cup of juice to the table to eat.

With the BIGGEST smile on her face. I have never seen her more proud.

The only thing that she needed help from me with was the syrup. And I think that was only because she forgot about it. I put some into a dish for her and gave it to her.

I don't think she has ever eaten a meal quicker.....or happier :)

I could be out of a job next year

2008-01-08T10:26:00.001-06:00

Turns out, when this district hired me, they didn't do their homework. Illinois has some wacky laws in regards to teaching certificates and what a person has to have in order to be able to teach. I find a lot of it ass backwards. For example, a person can be a substitute teacher for an extended period of time with a bachelor's degre.....in anything. On the other hand, someone who has been working in special ed for almost 11 years (like me) can't do so without three little letters attached to my certificate. Those letters are LBS.

It stands for Learning Behavior Specialist. For those of us who graduated prior to these letters, that means Resource Teacher, or pull out teacher.

Because I don't have these nice little letters, the district is not getting funding for me through the state. It turns out that they are losing about $8000. Which I guess is a pretty hefty sum.

I am now in a mad dash to acquire those little letters. And getting them doesn't bother me. If anything, it allows me more flexibility with my job positions and should I choose to change districts I have more options. However, one thing the district didn't consider, was the cost of my taking these classes.

I made sure that it was brought to their attention that if I go after this certificate, the classes that I need to take will be put towards my Master's degree. So in the long run, they will end up paying 80% of my tuition. The completion of the certificate entitles me to more hours of Continuing Education, thus bumping up my pay. Once the master's is acquired, I move to a different pay lane completely.

In the long run, they will certainly lose more than $8000 in this deal. And I will only benefit from it. But in the mean time, I am so irritated with the whole situation.

The Winter Break is Over

2008-01-07T09:56:00.000-06:00

And we are all back at school and work this morning. It was hell getting up at 6:00am considering that we have all been sleeping until about 10ish everyday. It was also hell trying to fall asleep before midnight last night. Not only for Matt and I, but for the girl as well. But we all managed to make it to our destinations on time this morning.

Over the break, here is what was accomplished:

1. Bssement furniture moved to make space more functional.
Despite this being Matt's "domain" I had decided that the space was just not being used very effectively. With Matt grumbling the entire time, the furniture was moved and the space is now much more effective for everyone to use. (With Matt's permission of course.)

2. Closets in basement cleaned out as well as some of the utility space in the basement.
It would appear that this time spent cleaning was all about the basement! But that's because it needed it. We have a huge storage bin that is built into the basement that spans the width of the house. Perfect for storing things like Christmas decorations and Halloween decor. Which also makes it perfect for storing nothing but crap. Which is what has happened in the last 4 years. So that storage bin was cleaned out.
We also have a row of closets down there that is perfect for hanging extra coats and storing things like wrapping paper and such. While we had those things in there, we also had a load of other crap that needed to be purged.

3. I managed to read 3 novels (they were all parts of a trilogy).
I forget how much I love reading until I am able to just sit down and completely devour a book. Which is precisely what I did after New Year's. The books I read were Uglies, Pretties, and Specials. They were written by Scott Westerfeld. The genre is sooo not what I normally read. But I was intrigued by the first one and found myself back at the bookstore to buy the second and third in the series. There is a fourth, and I read the blurb for it, but I am not so sure that I woudl enjoy it as much as I did the first 3. So I haven't decided if I am going to purchase it or not.

4. Portion of the garage cleaned out.
Our garage is a dumping ground. Literally. We put anything and everything in that stupid garage. And the garage itself is a piece of shit. We had a really bad wind storm over break and the shingles were actually flying off of the roof into our yard and into the alley. So Matt was up on the roof on Christmas Eve replacing the stupid thing.
Because the garage is such a piece of shit, we have to try and salvage what we can of it, even if that means patch up after patch up. We just don't have the money right now to replace an entire garage.
So as we were putting away the Christmas decor, some of which is stored in the rafters of the garage, I got the bug to start throwing a bunch of things away in there. I tossed the baby swing, a few bags of clothes, and some random stuff that I found in corners coverd with things I can not identify, nor do I want to.

5. Purchased and set up wireless internet and set up Caitlyn to have access to the internet.
Matt and I often want to be online at the same time when we are home. When you have to have the computer plugged in, it can't work. So we bought ourselves wireless for Christmas and set it up. Which was surprisingly easy. So now, Matt can sit in the basement and do his homework and such and I can sit upstairs and play backgammon.
Caitlyn is also wanting to be on the internet quite a lot lately. She has her Webkinz World subscription and she loves going to her school's website as they have links to other websites that she can go to. I have been letting her use my log in, but I wanted to be able to restrict certain things for her so I had to set up her own email account. Which she is head over heels thrilled about. She is terribly excited that she may actually get email from someone! So I have to send her an email this afternoon so that she will feel all special when she gets home from school. If anyone else (that I know of course) would like to send her an email let me know and I will pass along her email address to you.

6. Purchased the new car that we have been waiting for!
The van was paid in full last month, so we went out and bought the Dodge Charger that we have been wanting for over a year now. Matt is way too excited about this car. I have the feeling that he may be recieving a few speeding tickets this summer ;)

And now we are all back to our normal routines. Which I am kind of glad for.

Wrapping Up Christmas

2007-12-30T14:04:00.002-06:00

Much easier to put all of the pictures from the holidays into one montage rather than post them individually.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fun in the Snow

2007-12-19T22:51:00.001-06:00

Yeah, I know. I'm a big giant huge slacker. My bad. But I am trying to finish up everything that must be done before Christmas...which is a hell of a lot.

Here are some pictures of the girlie loving the first big snowfall of the year.

She also had her winter assembly the other day, which was very cute. But I haven't managed to get those off the camera as of yet. I also took a video. So as soon as that manages to get done, I will go ahead and put those up there.

An Artist at Work....this is really amazing!!

2007-11-24T16:52:00.000-06:00

Rotten Egg Blue??

2007-11-19T14:16:00.000-06:00

We all know Caitlyn is learning to read. And I have seen her really attempt to implement several strategies in order to decipher a word. Typically, "sounding out" really works for her. The other day she tried the strategy of looking at the first and last letter and guessing what the word is. (not really a strategy, but I think that is exactly what did)

Scene: Caitlyn on the living room floor coloring a picture for Mrs. Carson.

Caitlyn: I'm going to color this blue Mom.

Mom: I think that will look very pretty. What blue are you going to use?

Caitlyn: (with crayon in her hand, looking at the paper wrap on the crayon) "Rotten egg blue."

Mom: I think it says "Robin Egg Blue."

Caitlyn: Yeah, I guess a color with rotten in it wouldn't be too pretty.

Her first wake

2007-11-13T09:36:00.001-06:00

Caitlyn has had her first experience with death this past weekend. I guess I can't really say it was her first as she was so close to death on a couple occasions when in the NICU. But this is the first one that she will remember.

We got a call early Wednesday morning to tell us that Matt's aunt Mary Pat had died. This was very sudden and the wake would be held on Sunday and the funeral on Monday.

I thought long and hard all day Wednesday about how to break this to Cate. While this is not the aunt that she is closest to, she does enjoy spending time with Mary Pat when we see her at family functions. For example, Mary Pat is the aunt that always plays Yhatzee with Caitlyn. When I go to Country Thunder in the summer, Matt takes Caitlyn to Wisconsin for Daddy/Daughter weekend. On this weekend, Grandma Rita and Mary Pat join them. Caitlyn loves hanging out at the beach with Mary Pat.

For a long time, Caitlyn would not go up and hug or kiss Mary Pat when we would see her. In the last year or so, Caitlyn actually looks forward to seeing her now. And when we do see her, she would give Mary Pat all the hugs and kisses that Mary Pat requested. It's sad to me to think that Caitlyn missed out on those first few years of hugs and kisses, but I think she certainly made up for it in the last year.

On Thursday, I told Matt that we needed to tell Cate about what happened. I knew that Caitlyn would certainly miss her presence at functions and would begin to ask where she was. Matt sat her down and told her that Mary Pat got very sick Wednesday morning and that she went to heaven to be with Matt's Daddy. What happened next, I was completely stunned by. Caitlyn reacted in a way that I didn't expect in the least.

I saw the corner of her mouth turn down and she let out a sob. She cried and cried and cried. It was at that very moment that I wanted to hurl myself under a rock and not come out. All I could think was that I caused this child this much pain! That if I hadn't told her, she wouldn't know what it feels like to have that complete sense of loss and uncontrolability. I couldn't stand myself for breaking her heart.

Later that night when I put her in bed, she got a litle weepy again. Though it wasn't near the emotion that it was earlier. But she said to me,

"I just wish Mary Pat could go to the cottage with us one more time."

And when she said that, it hit me. Caitlyn has a pretty good understanding of death and the finality of it. She understands that she won't be seeing Mary Pat at family parties anymore. She understands that they won't play Yhatzee at the lake anymore. And it breaks my heart that she had to learn that at only 6 years old.

I talked to her all weekend about whether or not she wanted to attend the wake and the funeral. And she was set on going. I spent hours talking to her about what she was going to see and what would be happening while we were there. When I had her explain it back to me, she had most of the details correct. With the exception of thinking that she would be seeing a skeleton in the casket! Once we got that all cleared up, she was comfortable with what was going to happen over the next couple of days.

Upon our arrival at the funeral home, she began to have second thoughts. We took one step into the viewing area, and she began to shake her head back and forth and walk backwards. She couldn't get out of there fast enough. We sat in the lobby for quite a while and she eventually made her way in to pay her last respects and say her good byes to Mary Pat.

She ended up not wanting to go to the funeral. Which is probably better anyway as there always seems to be so much sadness at that part since it really is the finale.

Last night she got a little weepy again, telling me that she wishes Mary Pat didn't die. But I have assured her that Mary Pat and her Grandfather are up there in heaven having a drag out game of Yhatzee and enjoying it to the fullest.

The Report Card

2007-11-08T22:10:00.001-06:00

This school year has started out so much better than last year. Last year we (read I) had so many issues with the teacher, that I think it effected Caitlyn's performance. That aside, the teacher was a complete imbecile when it came to consistency with behavior plans and completely sucked at communication. Her skills in that arena were awful!! That aside, she was a phenommenal reading teacher. That was her only saving grace in my eyes. Caitlyn has developed a foundation that I know will make her an excellent reader because of the skills that she was taught by that teacher.

You may remember that last year I posted about Caitlyn's report cards and how the teacher gave her checks for talking and paying attention. Every quarter. In kindergarten. To say I was pissed off was an understatement. Especially when I had a conference with the teacher and her only explanation for the difference in what the report card stated versus what the behavior charts sent home daily stated was "They are two separate things." Um. No. They really aren't.

However, this year is so much different. Caitlyn received no checks at all. As a matter of fact, she received a ribbon for receiving excellent marks in conduct. Now, I know kids mature in this arena and they develop an understanding of what is expected of them as far as behavior is concerned. But how is it possible that she went from getting no less than 2 checks per reporting period to zero? Forgive me, but I doubt that she matured that much over one summer. It only confirms the idea that the teacher last year was a complete and utter moron.

On to the grades.....
Reading: B
Listening Standards: A
Speaking Standards: A
Mathematics Standards: B
Science Standards: A
Social Science Standards: A
Art Standards: A
Music Standards: A
PE: A
Learning Technology (computer): A
Handwriting: B

The teacher had nothing negative to say about Caitlyn.

I couldn't be more proud of my little lady. And she is so very proud of herself.

This is Hysterical!

2007-11-06T10:07:00.001-06:00

Star in Your Own JibJab! It's Free!My mother in law sent me one of these with her in it last night. So I decided to make one up with Caitlyn. She had a ball doing it with me and laughed so so hard when we watched it. We ended up watching it several times. Not that I minded, there is nothing better than a good belly laugh from my girlie ;)

Happy Halloween!

2007-10-31T09:37:00.001-05:00

Caitlyn is so excited about today. This kid really loves Halloween. This year she is dressing up as a cheerleader from High School Musical and is way excited about the pom poms.

Every year a bunch of my friends meet up at my house and we Trick or Treat together for about 3 hours. That's a lot of candy!! What I usually do is stop back at home every so often and dump the candy that she has gotten into the bowl of candy that we are giving out. The candy is then recycled to the other kids who come to our door. Is that wrong?? I just think that the amount of candy that kids recieve on Halloween is obscene. So any measures I can take to allow less candy consumed, thereby lessening the number of cavities, is a good thing in my eyes. Hopefully none of my neighbors read this, otherwise my poor kid will get royally screwed this year :P

I will post pictures before the weekend of the girl in her get up....which if I must say, looks absolutely adorable on her.

Caitlyn is sick for the first time this year. It seems that she is always sick on Halloween. Last year, she ended up puking on someone's lawn and having at least 2 messy accidents in her pants. I remember as a kid I was always sick on Thanksgiving. And it seems that Caitlyn is following suit by being sick from Halloween up through Thanksgiving. I loaded her up on meds last night so that she would get a really good rest and plan on doing the same tonight. She is also complaining that her throat hurts her, which she has never really complained about. Hopefully it's just a run of the mill average cold that won't lead into anything more. We don't want any repeats of being in the ER like we were last year for a cough so bad that the poor kid couldn't catch her breath. Keep your fingers crossed!

I have my husband back

2007-10-28T10:00:00.001-05:00

And Caitlyn has her father back. Football season here in our house has come to an end. Unfortunately, Matt's team lost in the second game of the playoffs.

Caitlyn couldn't be happier that he is coming home right after work these days. The two of them spent the day together on Saturday. They cleaned his car and took it to the car wash. Then they went to the mall and had Sbarro, which is Caitlyn's favorite pizza and did some shopping. She managed to score a Webkinz for herself while there too ;) She promptly convinced me to get her going on the computer and set up this little gadget. Which I have to say really is very neat for her.

We are gearing up for Halloween here. Caitlyn is going to be a cheerleader from High School Musical. It's nice that she picked something so simple this year. Mainly because the kids aren't allowed to wear their costumes to school in the morning now. They can bring them in a bag and put them on in the afternoon for the parites and parade. If she had decided to go with one of the elaborate princess get ups that she usually picks, I'm certain she would not have been able to get all of it on by herself. This costume is simply a dress that goes right over her head. Nice and simple.

Work is busy for me these days. It seems that it's all I think about most nights when I lay down to go to sleep. So I really need to stop doing that. I am even having dreams about it. There have been a couple of issues with parents and the girl that I replaced. Which have lead to some pretty interesting discusssions with my coordinators and other teachers.

That's about all that's gone on here in the last few weeks. Seems I don't have much to blog about these days.

October Fun

2007-10-23T14:22:00.001-05:00

Caitlyn says that she doesn't enjoy fall or winter and that summer is her favorite season. However, everytime fall rolls around, I find her having so much fun with all of the things that we do.

Every year, my best friend and her children, and some of her extended family, and Caitlyn and I head to the Morton Arboretum. It is so pretty there in the fall. And they have so many things for kids to do there. It's a fantastic place. After that, we all trek over to Sonny Acres Farm so that we can enjoy some carnival rides and really greasy food. Sometimes we will also get our pumpkins there, but not usually as they are so much more expensive there than they are at, say, Dominick's.

This year we went earlier in the year than we normally do. We did this mainly because when we go later in the year, when we can really enjoy the Arboretum and the colors of all of the leaves changing, it is much (much) colder outside. This year, it was a beautiful day. Which meant the kids could really run around and enjoy themselves. Rather than trekking though the rain and the wind and the freezing cold.

Here are some fabulous pics of the day:

The maze

All the kids navigating the maze

Some of the "gyms" they have in the Children's Garden (which is a fantastic place!)

Climbing the rocks

This little activity of jumping on the rocks in the pond didn't last too long as I knew if any kid was going to fall in, it would be mine.

In front of the 1000 pound pumpkin

Cate and Kely being silly

The swings

Pony Rides

And finally, Auntie Gina acting like a complete ass to get the kids to laugh.

Bad Blogger Alert

2007-10-10T22:19:00.001-05:00

Yes, that would be me. It would appear that nothing interesting has happened in our lives since I haven't posted anything in 3 weeks. But quite the opposite is true actually.

Football season here is in full swing. Which means late dinners, late bed times, lots of football practices and games, and a missing husband. Which makes me a single mom for a few months. I must say, that I can't even begin to imagine being a single mom. I only have to deal with it for a few months a year and in that time, I about lose my mind....and grow somewhere in the area of 86 new grey hairs. Multiply that by the number of years and Matt has been a coach and we have had Caitlyn and I am looking at a rapidly developing white head. But none the less, Matt is doing well in his conference and if he manages to win this game on Friday, then he is looking at taking second place in his conference. Which is fabulous for him as he has had 2 really rough seasons.

My new job is wonderful. And completely time consuming. I have worked harder at this job in the 2 months I have been there than I have ever worked at any other job I've had. Which I guess means that I care about it and really want to put the time in. But it is exhausting as well. And the parents...well let's just say that they may be the reason that I become an alcoholic. They are quite needy, and demanding. They love their children, but at times I feel as though they feel they are "owed" something. Or I am just being rotten and crabby. Either way, the job was becoming consuming enough that it has prompted Matt and I to hire a cleaning lady. Which has put me in a better mood most days. There really is nothing better than coming home and your house is spotless. NOTHING. AT. ALL.

Caitlyn is doing amazing in first grade. I absolutely love her teacher. We had back to school night last week. The teacher is quite demanding, as is the first grade curriculum. That in an of itself seems so weird to me. But first grade is certainly not what it was when I was there. Granted that was many moons ago, but still, they are requiring so much more of kids these days that I am amazed that any of them fall within the bulk of the bell curve anymore.

A few weeks ago, Caitlyn had to stay after school to complete Dibels testing. Basically a reading test to see where they are and how they are progressing throughout the year. I was a little pissed that it was going to be after school, for a couple of reasons. First, how is it possible that this isn't something that can be done during school hours. Second, you expect these kids to perform well on a test after a full day of school. Last, it was over 80 degrees out the day they were doing it; how many kids want to hang out at school on a day like that when they could be out playing?? But I kept my mouth shut since none of the other parents seemed bothered by it. And again, I know to pick and choose my battles when it comes to school.

I received Caitlyn's scores today in her progress report (yes they send out mid term reports in first grade). I have to say, I couldn't have been more proud of my little lady. Here are her scores:

Letter Naming Fluency
Goal: 37 letters/minute
Score: 55 letters/minute
Benchmark: Established

Phonemic Segmentation Fluency
Goal: 35 phonemes/minute
Score: 38 phonemes/minute
Benchmark: Low Risk

Nonsense Word Fluency
Goal: 24 sounds/minute
Score: 37 sounds/minute
Benchmark: Low Risk

So overall, she has exceeded the standard benchmark. In the area of phonemic segmentation, she has already established the benchmark for January. I couldn't believe it when I was reading this. I mean, I know the kid can read, and I know that she is making incredible progress with reading ever single day. It is obvious as we are out in the community and she is reading words that are not sight words. But I never expected her to have already exceeded the benchmarks. And exceed them in 2 areas by so much.

It really makes me wonder at times how she has managed to escape the typical outcome of a 25 weeker. And as I have said before, the doctors have always questioned that gestation and put her about a week earlier. If that is in fact the case, it is even more wondrous to me that she is doing as well as she is. I have no explanation for it whatsoever. She is the kid that completely skews the research in the area of developmental outcomes of preemies. She is the reason that putting gestational limits on resuscitation seem so wrong to me. And again, it makes me think of the things those doctors told me in those very grim and dark first few weeks. And months for that matter.

Off my soapbox now.....off to look into gifted programs for my genius :P (yeah right!)

10,000

2007-09-23T15:43:00.000-05:00

10,000 Visitors!

So leave me a comment and tell me who you are and how you found me :)

Caitlyn's Pictures

2007-09-18T19:04:00.001-05:00

Caitlyn has been begging me to use my camera to take pictures outside. I have been hesitant for the obvious reason: I am worried about her dropping it and throwing away several hundred of my hard earned dollars. But today I finally caved in. And to be honest, she took some really great pics!! And it is interesting to see things from her perspective for once.

I find it very interesting what she wanted to take pictures of though. Before we left the house, she kept telling me that she wanted to get pictures of animals. Well, in Chicago there aren't many animals running here and there. Unless you count squirrels, pigeons, and the ocassional stray dog/cat. However, once we were out there and walking, she found so many other neat things to take pictures of.

Here are a few of them:

This is my favorite of all 49 that she took. I love the way the colors are in it!

Do all kids feel it necessary to take pictures of their feet once they have a camera in their hands???

Now she wants to go out at night and take some too. Since it is supposed to be pretty warm this week, maybe we will do just that.

First Grader

2007-09-05T09:33:00.001-05:00

That's right.....first grade, FIRST!!!

I am in shock that this is true, but Caitlyn is so very proud of herself and so excited to be in first grade. All she kept taking about yesterday was how she finally had her own desk (as opposed to tables) and she gets to go to music class every Tuesday. This morning, she was all excited about what the class would be doing on Wednesdays :P

Here she is in the morning before we left

Here she is standing out front of the house

And here she is waking with the backpack that is about as big as she is

Despite her eagerness about first grade, when I woke her up at 6:30 this morning, she promptly asked if she had school today. When I told her yes, she flopped herself back on her bed with a "hmph." Just like mom, not a morning person at all.

Let's just hope that this teacher is nothing like last year's teacher.

My Little Dare Devil

2007-09-01T09:42:00.001-05:00

Every year, my brother's work rents out Great America for a private party. The employees are allowed to bring friends and family (for a fee of course). But the crowds are much smaller than a typical day, resulting in wait times in lines that are considerably shorter. We have been going to this for a few years now and have such a good time when we go.

Last year, Caitlyn went on her first roller coaster ride there. She went on the Whizzer (about 1000 times) and loved it.

After going on that, she was quite upset that she wasn't tall enough to go on any of the other roller coasters they had. I reassured her that when we came again the following year, she would certainly be tall enough for a couple more.

So this year.....my little lady decided that the first ride she would go on would be the Whizzer again. However, she made it very clear that after riding that, she wanted to go and see what other coasters she would be tall enough for. (Memory of an elephant I tell ya!)

The first ride we attempted to get her on was the Viper.

I figured it would be pretty impressive if she followed through with going on this ride.

After measuring her on the post, waiting in a short line, there she was sitting next to me in the car and rearing to go!!!
Upon it's completion she made it very clear that she wanted to ride the Viper again before we left!

Later in the evening, we were heading towards the American Eagle.

Not the most comfortable roller coaster on the planet. But certainly a novelty if you go to Great America. I don't think I've ever been there and not gone on it (provided it is running).

The height requirements were the same as those of the Viper, so we were off in line.
After the initial drop, which really is shocking, Caitlyn was having a ball and "wheeing" along.

After going on those 2, it seemed she really didn't want much to do with the other "kiddie" rides or age appropriate rides. She was awfully upset though that she wasn't able to go on some of the other coasters. I reassured her that she would be able to go on a couple more next year, just like she was able to this year. So I am certain that come summer next year, she will hold me to it. Let's hope for a few more inches of growth this year so that I haven't stuck my foot in my mouth ;)

Famous Words of Caitlyn

Hot!

The Culprit

I have one very excited little girl reading a new book on her new Kindle.

A remake of Footloose??? Really!!!

Clean house. Full belly. Good Will Hunting on tv. Breeze coming through the windows. Me lounging on the couch. I love summer break.

June 24

Getting everything ready for the sleepover!!

‎*YAWN*

I hate you insomnia. That is all.

Waupaca bound...

Driving my girl to camp :/

Oy Vey!!! I certainly have my work cut out for me here :/

It's gonna be a hot one today folks!!

Think I have an ear infection :/

A Decade

New Blogger

Standardized Testing

Silly Girl

Well....

Wordless Wednesday

I am that Bad Mom you have heard about

Wordless Wednesday

I'm Slipping Again

Looking Back

What a Week!

Vent Time

I Did it Again

Cheating

Christmas and New Year's in Review

Hmmmm

You know you haven't blogged in a long time when....

Communion Gear

I Have Returned

Hmmmmm

Now This Just Pisses Me Off!!

Oh Where Have I Been?

Crazy Week

25 Random Things About Me

A Whole New Respect

It Has Finally Warmed Up

Today is....

Is it June Yet?

You Would Think

Traditions

Christmas Concert and other things

This is going to be a long one!

Innocence is Bliss

Report Card and Reaction

Tomorrow is the Day!

Decision Made

Poll

The Conference

T Minus 90 Minutes

New Voting Machine

A Horrible Nightmare

An email has been sent

It's not getting any better

Progress Reports

What a Week

An Award

Stephanie is right

Replying to Comments and an Update

The response

The email

The new teacher

Really?!?!?!?

BIG News!

A Funny Thing Happened...

Playing Catch Up

Happy Birthday to the Coolest Kid I Know

Caitlyn's Birth Story

The Dance Recital

Long Time no Blog!

Spring Concert and Other Things

Another Tooth is Gone

Long Weekend

It's Done

Tomorrow is the big day

Take Your Daughter to Work Day

‎YAWN