Jen's Space

Mish Mash

Thanks for the diet/exercise advice.  It really is helping my motivation to stick with a program of good eating and exercise.  I have some balancing to do to get workout time, but I know it is one of the most important factors to any weight loss I may have.  Right now my plan is to put Molly down for a nap and take Audrey and the little girl I watch out for a long stroller ride everyday.  Jeremy will be home working and I'll have him call me when Molly wakes up.  Now I just need to get my booty out hitting the pavement. 

Today I went to the dentist for the first time in about 15+ years.  Seriously.  At first I didn't go just because I didn't have the time or insurance to pay for any dental visits.  Then the gap since my last visit became so large that I was embarrassed and scared to return to the dentist.  I absolutely love the dental office I go to.  The doctors and staff there are incredible.  I took Emily there for her check up before school and they were so good with her.  She even had a filling with no problems whatsoever.  That is HUGE for Emily. 

I ran out of the house this morning, leaving my mom to watch after my three girls and the the one I watch.  As much as I was worried about my appointment, I have to admit that it felt good to be going anywhere solo.  The first thing we did during my check up was a thorough set of x-rays.  18 to be exact.  My mouth was tired even before I saw the doctor.  I thought I had a lot of dental work in my future, BUT it turns out that I just need to have old fillings redone.  All of my fillings from the past have cracked or are moving away from my teeth.  They will be replaced with white composite so I'll have nice white teeth all around.  The dentist was impressed with how straight my teeth were without ever having braces.  My eyes are shot but I have a killer set of teeth!

I'll be going in for a cleaning and two separate appointments for fillings.  It will be good to be on top of my dental health.

I need to get something off my chest and this is probably the best place to do so.  Friday night Jeremy, me and the girls attended my nephew's baptism.  I was very proud of all three of my girls, they behaved beautifully in church and during the reception at a restaurant afterwards.  Anyhow, the story...

We were seated in a pew waiting for the priest to show.  Behind us sat my SIL's aunt and uncle.  Uncle struck up a conversation with Audrey.  She turned around and began "talking" to him.  Audrey is very hard to understand and most of the time speaks gibberish to people who try to have conversations with her.  Uncle was very nice and pretended to understand Audrey and would translate for her and continue speaking with her.  Audrey was so proud of herself to have a grownup conversation with an adult that she just met.  The conversation ended and Audrey turned and sat down in her seat.  Then Aunt said very snidely to her husband, "Did you understand any of what SHE said?" and he responded, "No, of course not." We could all tell he was just trying to be nice.  Aunt then said loudly, "Oh good, I thought I was missing something."  It took everything in me not to turn around and say something, or at least give her a look.  I didn't want to do something like that in church, before my nephew's baptism but I was so mad at that woman. 

Boo Hoo

Spring Break is over.  I wish we had more time together as a family.  It's been a great week.

Tomorrow I attempt to finally lose some weight.  Any success stories out there?  I need encouragement.

Nothing

Today I did nothing.  It felt good.  OH, Jeremy and I taught Emily how to play Uno.  We had a lot of fun playing together.  This evening, before bedtime, we had Audrey play with us too.  She is really good at following directions and has proven to be quite patient while waiting for her turn.

Time Out

In the past couple of years I've allowed myself to be a bit of a homebody.  Lots of different reasons why.  If you'd read any of my past posts of when Emily was around 4 years old that would be a huge part of the decision to just hang out at home and find something for the kids to do around the house.

In the past few months I've been noticing that it's been easier and easier to run errands and go on outings with all three girls.  Right now Emily is good 99% of the time.  Audrey can either be and angel or a devil, but even at her most devilish she's pretty easy to make happy again.  Molly is an all around angel baby and is along for the ride no matter what we're doing.

In an effort to stop being a homebody I've been trying to make an effort to get out with the girls at least once a week.  This past week has been very busy for everyone.  Emily had a few playdates with friends from school and cousins.  Today we took a last minute excursion to a zoo/pony rides/train rides.  We were out all morning and rushed home with just enough time to get bathed and ready for my nephew's baptism.

All three girls were so well behaved.  I was really proud of them.  We are not church goers.  That is another post that I think I need to write about.  I'm not sure where I stand as far as religion is concerned.  For never having been in church, my girls sat quietly and did as they were told.  We all went out to dinner afterwards and they continued to behave.  I know that I can't always expect my girls to be as good as they were tonight, but when it does happen, it's a wonderful feeling.

Edited to Add:  I found out tonight that Audrey HATES worms in dirt dessert.  She thought it was the grossest thing she'd ever encountered and looked at her cup and then at us with a face that said, "WHY WOULD ANYBODY DO THIS???"  I guess I won't serve her any cat box litter cake anytime soon.

Cool

I hate the heat.  HATE IT.  If I could remove summer from the calendar I would.  I'm not kidding.  There was a plan that we made last year that would mean we would be out of this rental home (with no air conditioning) by this summer.  Many different things have happened to keep this original schedule from happening. 

Earlier this week we had a warm day.  I was crabby and unhappy the whole day.  I kept thinking of how miserable last summer was.  During the day life was bearable.  We have a window air conditioning unit in the livingroom/kitchen area.  Night times were awful.  The half of the house with bedrooms would reach temperatures of 89+ degrees.  We tried everything we could to cool the kids off, including putting ice packs on their pillows.

The easy remedy would be to buy a window A/C unit but we have old stupid windows that crank out and those don't work right with window A/C units.  Jeremy decided to make me happy and busted out a window in our bedroom and installed an A/C unit today.  I've been grinning from ear to ear.

Audrey and Emily are still doing well as roommates.  Audrey was a little hard to get settled this evening but when I did the crackdown and she realized I wasn't playing tonight she laid down and got herself to sleep.  Emily might be coming down with something.  That's a whole other long story that I might vent about on my private blog.

Happy Easter!!

Happy Birthday Baby!!

Emily is 6!!!  Time has flown by quicker than I ever could have imagined.  I remember Emily's newborn days like they were yesterday.  We've all been through so much together.  Emily is such a special girl.  I'm hoping that we're able to make her special day a day to remember.

Me-Me Free

We've been binky (me-me) free for the past 3 days.  Audrey keeps her pacifier in her crib and only uses it for sleeping.  It's been incredibly easy.  Nothing like what I thought it would be.  Hopefully her transition to moving to Emily's room will go just as smoothly. 

It's time for Molly to get booted from our room.  She is now pulling to stand and occasionally she will wake up in the middle of the night, stand up and decide that she needs to have a chat with me.  Sometimes I don't mind at all.  Who can get mad at this little face?....

Fendi

Meet the newest member of our family.  This is Emily's early birthday present. We don't know if it's a boy or a girl yet but Emily named him/her Fendi.  A few people have asked me where that name came from and my answer is that Emily has a whole bunch of pet names in her head just waiting for pets to give them to.

Jeremy and I took Molly and Audrey to pick up Fendi earlier this week.  Audrey loved all the snakes at the reptile shop.  When we got home and got Fendi's home set up I call Audrey over to see him.  Audrey looked at Fendi and said, "No snake?"  I told her, no we didn't get a snake, we got a turtle.  Audrey answered, "No turle mama!  Snake!  Turtle Boring!"  Then she walked away in a huff.  That kid is a character.

Speaking of Audrey, we are limiting binky usage to nap and bedtime.  Today was our first day and it's gone really well.  She was sad to leave her "me me" in the crib this morning but never asked me for it the rest of the day.  I never would have thought that it would have gone this easy as Audrey's binky was practically a part of her.

Progress

Some things I want to remember.  Hoping to write more about later.

Emily is released from all special education at school.  She is wonderfully average in her physical development.  During her evaluation tests she scored off the charts in a few areas.  Her visual perception and problem solving is at the level of a 9 year old.  In some areas she scored at the genius level.  Jeremy and I were so happy with Emily's progress.  I know that, had she not had the intervention that she received, her life today would be completely different.  I'm so proud of Emily.  We celebrated her graduating from the program by taking the family to McDonald's and letting Emily and Audrey run around the play area for a while with Molly looking on.  It was a great evening out.

Molly is now pulling to stand.  She is still sleeping in our room.  We're planning on rooming Emily and Audrey over Spring Break.  I'm not sure how well that transition will go.  It's time for Molly to get her time in the nursery.  She's been doing great in our room, as Audrey has been doing good in her room.  Hopefully we don't mess up a good thing with this move. 

Audrey is starting to talk more.  She said her first sentence last week during dinner, "I don't like it!"  She's still delayed by a year in some areas but therapy has been helping out a lot.

Emily also went on her first field trip last week.  Her class went to various places throughout the city, Post Office, Fire Department, Police Department.  I was unable to go with the class, but I think it was a good experience for her to go without me.  She hasn't told me much about the field trip.  She never tells me about her days at school either so I'm not surprised.

I also finally finished knitting a blanket for Emily last week.  It was a project that lasted forever because I just couldn't find time to work on it.  I'm hoping to have a picture posted on my Flickr account soon.

I need to get Audrey in bed.  She's running on empty with the lack of a nap today.

Oh, I got some new glasses.  I love them.  My last pair were over 13 years old and UGLY.