My Journey through Motherhood

Lets try this to see how it works..

 

My new netbook has something called Live Writer.  You click on it and type in your thoughts and it blogs it for you.  I know going to my blog doesn’t take all that much time but it’s kind of neat just the same. 

 

Work has slowed down.  The number of children in my class room has gone from 20 to 12.  Today I had 8.  When you have so few children, there are more things to do.  Today was so laid back.  We even poured sand on the tables and mixed it with water to make sand castles.  We had a lot of fun and I didn’t even mind spending the 45 minutes they were eating, cleaning up.   This year we had a tough class and spent more of the time just getting down to work and I forgot to loosen up and just have fun.  Working full time with children then coming home to my children can be a little much.  I love them all, well in different ways, but it became so demanding.  I think I need the summer to try and get back LOVING what I do again. 

 

Next year, I am going back to Toddlers.  I don’t mind because that is my favorite age group.  2-3 is the best age group.  However, that means I will have 14 – 2 year olds at work for 9 hours then picking up MY 2 year olds from the other toddler and going home with them haha.  It should be interesting and fun but i can see the stresses coming. 

 

The other thing I wanted to blog about was the girls routine.  We were really strict about the 730 bedtime this year.  No matter what, they were in bed at 730.  At 7, we would start reading to them.  Now that they are older and it’s light out longer, we’ve pushed bedtime back about 45 minutes.  In fact, we’ve changed their entire schedule to fit school.  I still want their bedtime to be 730 but I’m just not ready to say goodnight to them when I don’t get to see them until 6 and most nights an hour and a half a day isn’t enough time.  So their schedule is

630-wake up

7-breakfast

745-drop off with grandma

930-snack

1130-lunch

1215-nap

215-wake up

300-snack

630-dinner

730-bedtime

They’ve been doing so well with this schedule the last few weeks.  Some things that haven’t gone as smooth are teeth brushing and book time.  They’ve learned to talk..a lot (more on Katie and speech below) so when we read they laugh and scream out the words.  This is fantastic as repeating stories that have been read is the first step of reading, however, when you are trying to get them into relax mode and they can’t because they get so excited, it backfires and they start giggling and playing.  I am not going to stop bedtime story time because it’s just an all around fun time but I wish I knew how to calm them down.  We’ve started playing calming music during storytime.  Toothbrushing… the most hated activity in our house right now.  I hate brushing their teeth, they hate having their teeth brushed it’s just wonderful :(.  We have had to hold Karly while the other brushes her teeth while she screams.  My mother in law says I shouldn’t force it but hygiene is NOT a choice.  You will take a bath, you will change your clothes, you will change your diaper, you will get your hair brushed, your face washed and you will brush your teeth.  Tonight, she let me do a quick job because I promised her I’d read her her favorite story and I kept telling her how proud I was that she was letting me brush her teeth.  Then I gave her the toothbrush and she practiced while I read the book.  A light at the end of the tunnel?  I hope so. 

 

I wanted to call early intervention because I didn’t feel Katies speech was where it should be.  I spoke to my director and told her that if Katie were a child in my class, I would recommend the parent call EI but she’s not a child in my class, she’s MY child.  My baby girl.  My perfect baby girl.  I put if off and asked some of my friends that know Katie if it was just me being overly worried or if they thought there was an issue.  Everyone, even my friend that teaches special education, says that there is nothing wrong with her speech.  I think the problem is is that Katie and Karly are so completely different in everything they do.  Karly has very clear speech, repeats everything you say, knows what you are saying and and respomds.  Katie on the other had, doesn’t answer yes or no, doesn’t tell you what she wants and most of the time I don’t understand what she’s saying.  Everyone says that Karly is advanced and Katie is exactly where she should be.  My gut is still telling me to have her evaluated but we decided that she will start school and give her a few months and see if that helps her because more vocal.  I know my mother in law doesn’t work with her and they do so few things that I know school will be the best thing for both of them.

 

Terrible twos..Karly is at this stage.  I was hoping I’d be the parent that says “No, we never went through the terrible twos” but I’m not.  She is your typical toddler.  Everything is hers, everything she wants is hers, everything that is yours is..you guessed it, hers.  And the tantrums…my goodness the tantrums.  They are so loud and she doesn’t care where she is.  People stare at me like I’m killing her.  We’ve started doing time-outs, they work some of the time.   She is also taken to kicking and hitting, sometimes biting when she doesn’t get her way.  All I can is thank goodness Katie has decided there is no fun in being terrible lol. 

 

Bon Jovi is tomorrow!!!  I won’t see my kids until Saturday which sucks..A LOT.. but I need this and will enjoy it immensely. 

My Journey through Motherhood