SEP's

Isaac and Debbie had SEP's yesterday afternoon. Both their teacher's had nothing but good to say about them.
Isaac's teacher is so pleased with how much Isaac has improved in his reading, she said she was actually quite worried about him when he started the year but now he's reading at a level above where he needs to be. It's so relieving to hear that! He's worked very hard to get to where he is. He's doing very well in math, and he loves his story problems! Mrs. O said we need to try to challenge him more in math at home. She also said he's one of her best behaved students, she just appreciates him so much because he listens quickly and doesn't need prodding and he's quiet when he needs to be quiet and he participates when he needs to participate.
Debbie's teacher repeated to me what she said at last parent-teacher conference, "Oh that I had a classroom full of Debbie's." And she basically reiterated what Debbie's kindergarten and first grade teacher said, "She's just so happy and brings sunshine and happiness to whatever she does." I guess there was a little boy in the class that doesn't have many friends and needed a friend one day at recess so the teacher asked Debbie to play with him and she happily said yes and ran off to play with him. Mrs. A showed me a page of things the kids need to know and said she highlights things the kids need to work on and nothing was highlighted on Debbie's page. And when Debbie was tested at the beginning of the year she was reading 153 words per minute and the end of year requirement for second grade is between 90-100 words per minute. It was after that that Mrs. A told me that Debbie actually kinda fits the profile of a gifted child. What?! Huh, weird. So that was fun to hear and makes you feel good as a parent. She also went on to say that Debbie was so great as a result of good parenting. My response? "Actually, I think she's great in spite of our parenting." Which I really believe is the case, my kids are independently fantastic in spite of my messy attempt at parenting them.

Poor little dude

Isaac has strep throat and scarlet fever. It's hard to tell without a picture to compare it to but his face is a deep red and that's the rash on his cheeks. He has the rash all over his chest and back and he is so miserable. I can't get the poor kid to eat anything and he isn't drinking much either. He will, thankfully, take his medicine. So we're all taking a sick day today, just chilling and watching tv, Cosette is LOVING it.

Then again, maybe it is

I got a call from the nurse this afternoon. The radiologist looked at Isaac's xray and thinks he might have a hairline fracture in his big toe. Got that phone call while trying to keep all 3 kids from literally bouncing off the school walls while waiting to get Cosette immunized for kindergarten. Totally gave up on trying to finish the registration process there, I took it home with me and will fill it out and return it later.
On a happier note...
It snowed earlier today and then again later and when Cosette saw it was snowing again she said, "Two snows in one day?!?! [pause] Lame." Haha, I thought it was cute. I know that often times these cute things don't transfer well to writing but I thought I'd try anyway.

At least it's not broken...

Isaac sprained his foot yesterday. And I'm not sure 'funny' is the right word for what happened but I don't know that 'ironic' is either.
Yesterday morning was rough. And I can't blame it all on Cosette. I was feeling tired and grumpy and she was feeling icky. We fought and fought all morning. She didn't want to take her mirilax, she didn't want to go to the store, she wanted me to buy her EVERYTHING at the store, I didn't make the right lunch, her side was hurting, etc. So I finally get her to preschool and am getting out of the car and thinking to myself, "Oh wow, finally some alone time, I can lay on the bed and read and have a quiet house and not do anything for almost 2 hours."
It was not to be.
As I was walking up my stairs my neighbor (whose son I pick up with my kids everyday) tells me it's early out day. Seriously? It's thursday! So I turn around and get back in the car and go pick up the kids. We get home and I tell them that I need some quiet time and to play with each other and I'm going to lay down for a minute. A few minutes in my quiet time I hear a scream that doesn't sound like either of my kids until I realize that it is one of my kids it's just the "I'm-actually-hurt-this-time" scream. So I run out to the living room and find that Debbie and Isaac had been attempting to jump over a blanket and land on a couch cushion but Isaac missed the cushion and somehow hit his foot wrong. I had him elevate it and put an icepack on it but 30 minutes later he was still in a lot of pain and couldn't put any weight on it so I took him in.
So no peace and quiet for me.
Thankfully it's not broken, but now I feel foolish for even bringing him in. Why can't I just chill and do the wait and see method? Oh well, we only have a $15 copay and it only took an hour to get him all checked out.
On a different note... we go in this afternoon to register Cosette for kindergarten, kinda crazy.

Pictures!

We've had a little bit of regular life lately and it's been wonderful. So here's some pictures...

Debbie started a sweeping club. She and a couple friends spent one afternoon sweeping up the playground area in front of our apartment and then made plans to go around to the rest of the apartment complex and sweep up other playgrounds as well. They did a really good job, it still looks nice. She was so invested in this project that she made these tickets and hung them up in the stairwells for kids to fill out and return to her. Notice the bottom line. I love it.

 She wanted me to put curlers in her hair on Sunday night.

 These kids would not cooperate for me to get a decent picture of them all together.

 Her hair turned out darling.

 We've watched "American Ninja Warrior" a couple times and the kids have decided that they want to 'train' for it now.

 Isaac and Debbie are tall enough that they can manage this one (ANW calls it the spider, they liked that).

 Cosette required a little help but her siblings were happy to oblige.

It's been nice to have life return to normal. And by normal I mean battling with the kids over nearly everything that needs to get done throughout the day. As I lay in bed this morning I heard the kids yelling at Chad over breakfast; whine, shriek, whine (Yes, Chad gets up and gets the kids going in the morning while letting me take a little longer to face the day, he's wonderful), "I don't want that cereal!" "That's not enough milk!" You know how it goes. And I realized, what a crappy way to start the day! Who wants to get yelled at first thing in the morning and yet I'm fairly certain that EVERY parent with kids at home starts most days getting yelled at for one thing or another. Or maybe I just have terrible, monster children. Maybe most children are wonderful in the mornings and we're just lucky (or terrible parents because our children are even acting this way). I love my children and feel that overall they're pretty good kids, but I'm having to get creative to make it through the day. I finally got the idea to make a sticker chart to earn computer time (fairly certain it was divine inspiration in answer to prayer. Lot's and lot's of prayer.) and it was worth it if only for the peace it gave me last week. They responded so well to it that first week! It was glorious. I made a list of 12 regular things they need to do throughout the day; get dressed, pick up dirty clothes, clear dirty dishes from table, etc. They get 2 stickers if they do something without me having to ask them and 1 sticker if they do it the first time I ask and then no stickers if I have to ask more than once. And man was it worth it even if it had only worked the first day. They responded so well, it's been great! Cosette hasn't been as motivated by it but the older kids are determined to get 2 stickers in every box. The novelty is starting to wear off so I don't know how much longer it'll work, but I'm grateful for even the few days peace it's given me.

I'm realizing more and more why people say boys are easier than girls. So far that's been the case for me. My girls are killing me lately. Debbie is so emotional, I almost wonder if she's hormonal, some days she gets so overwhelmed that the tiniest things will send her into a crying fit, I don't know what to do with this!! And I shouldn't even get started on Cosette, if we can survive her childhood I'll consider myself blessed. She is such a handful!!! I don't know how to discipline her!! She will willfully do something naughty so we have to discipline her, we can't just let her run wild, but the minute we put her in time out she flips and just loses it. So the tantrum we get from the timeout is so much worse than what she did to get put in timeout in the first place. She kicks the door and won't stay in her room and clings to us and cries for a cuddle and there's nothing we can do. I want to put a doorknob on her door that locks on the outside but maybe that'll cause psychological damage. She literally cannot self-soothe. I am at my wits end. I seriously worry that there's something emotionally wrong with her, she's just so extreme. I don't know what to do with her!!!!

But that's life and we're making it through and I think that, in spite of my venting here, we really are doing well and are quite happy. I love these kiddos even with all the emotional upheaval they cause in life. They also bring more joy and purpose than I ever could have imagined.