2 sick monkeys :(

My monkeys are sick.

Katie has a respitory infection or a virus. She is very congested, has a yucky cough and a constantly running nose. She needs her nebulizer, benedryl, prednisone and if not better by Saturday, she'll be getting an antibiotic.

Karly has a cold and an ear infection. She has been started on an antibiotic.

I feel bad for my little ones but you wouldn't know they are sick.

Katie is a bit irritable and crabby when she gets sleeping but Karly is happy as can be. She wakes up crying, I'm guessing it's from pain. Tonight I gave her tylenol to ease any pain.

We have all fingers and toes crossed for a good nights sleep ( haven't had one of those for awhile).

(those of you that are used to getting comments on your blogs from me, if you haven't been getting them, it's not letting me. I keep getting "service unavailable" messages. Am I the only one?)

Oh Boy..

The girls are sick.

The other day Katies nose started running, she was coughing and didn't feel well.

Today, Karlys teacher said she didn't eat any lunch and woke up screaming at naptime. When we were on our way home from school, she vomited..twice.. I was disgusting :(
She kept crying "momma cween, cween" . If you know NJ traffic, then you know there was no where for me to stop or pull over until we got home. I had nothing to clean her with but a few wipes but I called Donald and told him to meet me outside with a roll of wet paper towels.

I had to take the entire carseat apart, wash it and put it back together so I can take them to the dr tomorrow night.

Katies cough is worse and both of their noses are running pretty constant.

I don't know what the dr will do but I cannot miss any days in september so It's important for them to be well and at school so what harm could a trip to the dr do?

Well that didn't take long..

Katie is sick :(. Her nose is running, she's coughing and not sleeping well. I gave her some cough and cold (it's homepathic, no medicine in it) and rubbed vicks on her feet with socks and sent her to bed.

Driving home tonight (they had another great day at school) they were in the back seat singing a song they learned today in school. It was so cute. They were even counting to 10. They've been counting for a few weeks now but they mess it up. Not today. It was perfect.

I love how the teachers at school "love" them. All I hear is how cute they are and that they are so good. It makes a mommy feel pretty darn good.

I wuve you too mom ..

Sweeter words have never been spoken.

Last weekend we decided to go to the park. It was late, 730 ish and it was getting dark but there is this beautiful park in our town right on the Hudson with a magnificant few of Manhattan. We love it there. The girls played with the other children while Donald and I watched the girls and enjoyed the views.

When it was time to leave, Katie was tired and wanted me to carry her to the car. She wrapped herself around and squeezed so I squeezed her back and said "I love you, Katie". She replied "I wuve you too, mama". Tears ..

Since that weekend, she tells me everyday. Karly has started saying it too, It's great. I love them so much and I know they love me but I love hearing it.

I also love how big they are getting. Just one week of school and Donald and I are amazed by how much more they communicate with us. Karly has started using sentences. She says "Read this, mommy", "Another one, pease", "There it is!", "Here I am", "Here ya gooo" and so on. It is really cute.

Katie speech is a little concerning to ME but not to her teacher, my director, friends or family. She talks non stop. You can make out what she says most of the time but it's not right. Karly talks like a toddler but Katie more babbles out her words. "Play" is "way", "Eat" is "eee" but "Pony D" is "Pony D", so I don't know.. We are going to wait until October to make the call.

The girls named their "lovies". Karly has called her duck "D" since she could talk. We were calling him "ducky" but she just started calling him "Dee". Katie just recently started calling hers "Pony Dee". It was cute.

They've also just started coming up to me and lounging on me. I love this most of all. When I'm sitting on the couch, they come sit next to me, drape their legs over mine and lay their head on my shoulder and look up at me. We will just sit and talk for many minutes. I rub their hair, they name all my facial parts, such a precious time for me and I love each second they sit there before they are up and off again.

9-11-01

I had gotten up and walked to the phone to answer it. My boyfriend was on the other line telling me not to panic, he'll be home soon. He asked me if I was afraid. I had no idea what he was talking about. He told me that two plans had just crashed in to the WTC and that NYC was under attack.

I had just moved here two months before. My grandpa had just died on the 28th of August and now here I was, living right across the river from Manhattan, a city that was under terroist attack.

When Donald got home, we walked up the block and the tower had already collapsed. There was smoke, so much smoke. People were trying to get home. People were standing around us, some crying, some just staring in disbelief. I was one of them.

We were JUST there. We took a trip to Manhattan to go to the Seaport and when we were done, Donald said "lets go see the towers" . We walked FOREVER. I remember once we got there I was overwhelmed. They were beautiful. I grew up in a small town. NYC is an amazing city. I sat on a bench and I leaned back to stare up at them. I had to use that restroom so we went inside. The building was beautiful. Simply beautiful and there we stood, by the river, watching in horror as the scene went on.

We took pictures thinking it was a piece of history we wanted to capture. I developed them but haven't looked at them.

The smell that blanketed our area was that of burnt metal and decay. You could only imagine what you were breathing in. So many people were killed. Nobody knew what was going to happen.

I will always remember that day.

The first week .. check!

The first week is done.



The girls did so well. They cried on Thursday when I dropped them off and Katie cried off and on throughout the day but Friday they were over the crying and had a good day.



I was sure that Karly would have trouble in school. At home, she doesn't really like to follow the rules but at school she's a perfect angel. She sits when shes told to sit, she eats all of her lunch, she holds the walking rope, she washes her hands...Katie, on the other hand, is giving the teachers a "run for their money". She is so good at home, so quiet, does what we ask but at school she refuses to hold the walking rope, talks during naptime, plays during circle .. Its normal behavior and I'm not concerned, I just think it's funny how opposite they are between home and school.



I had a pretty good day yesterday. Thursday was rough but a little better and Friday was very good. I had an occassional crier but for the most part they were well behaved and we had fun.



We have to go find winter coats for the kids. Last year I waited until it was already cold outside and we couldnt find anything we like. Donald found some cute ones at Marshalls on Tuesday so we are going today to try them on (if they are still there) and get them.

Ugh

Today was exhausting. Physically, emotionally and mentally. Today just sucked. I had 6 teachers in my room trying to calm down all of the screaming children. A was screaming and it was setting all the others off. Once again, he leaves and the class goes calm.



I have raging PMS. It's awful. I don't mean to be bitchy but I am. I have been keeping it in and this it lashes out quickly. It's like an ugly monster that tries to get out and I'm stuck in a classroom with 13 children, half of which are screaming. My assistant said "are you okay? your patience seems to be on a very short string" Great. It's obvious.



I'm feeling a little better and I have a game plan for tomorrow.



The issue is with my schedule and the childrens. My director wants me to start morning circle time at 9 am. I have 10 children that are schedule to show up no earlier than 9. By the time they get dropped off and are ready to start circle, its snack time. So for the last 2 days, I haven't done circle.



Well today I tried. I sat down to start and A came over and vomited on me. It was a great start to the day.



~~~~



The girls had a day too. Apparently, they try to kick the teacher when she tries to change their diaper. They have never kicked us so I don't understand why but also I heard the teacher yelling at Katie to get on the walking rope. I've known the girls teacher for 9 years so it's not a trust issue and I understand being frustrated but today I was having a very rough day and I didn't yell at any of my kids so I'm not getting it. I just don't want to think of my babies being yelled at at school. they are supposed to be

The first day of school..

I told you I would blog about the girls first day of school and well .. here it is. In pictures and words :) Here we are outside our front door. Lovin' the garage pails behind them.

Here Katie is pouting because she wants to walk to the park, not get in the car ..

When we got to school, we went to my classroom because we were early and their class wasn't open yet. They hung out until 810, then we went to their room.

Katie loved playing with the barn doors. She was so thrilled just being able to walk around and look at all the toys.

They had so much fun and didn't even notice I had left. Daddy stayed with them for another 20 minutes. He said Katie told him to go lol.

I got to see them when we all went to the playground. Katie was playing in the sandbox and Karly was running around.

The girls had a fantastic day. There was no crying and they are learning the letter A. Of course everything we asked them tonight was "No" but I know they had a good time as they didn't want to leave.

I feel like I've raised secure, indepedent children and it feels pretty darn good. (although I'm worried tomorrow will go differently being that they already told us "no" to going back lol)

My day at work was not as great. I have a lot of kids new to school. What I got was 12 screaming children who didn't want to calm down. The screamed and screamed and screamed. I thought I was going to lose it, then it was naptime. My assistant and I managed to get all of them to sleep. After about 20 minutes, one of them woke up screaming again. Not crying, screaming. His mother called and I asked her to pick him up. He wasn't eating, drinking or playing. He was just crying. He had been crying for 5 hours and although I believe he needed to be there, he was past the point of calming down so he needed his mom.

Once he was gone, everyone was happy. It was one child, one screaming child, that caused all the other children to cry. The afternoon was beautiful. Except for one adorable little boy (who had just flown in from bulgaria the night before, was jet lagged .. on his birthday .. ), he cried everytime someone came in the room, everyone was happy. We did some painting, some story times, some learning centers... just perfect :) This is going to be a great year (once A stops screaming, making everyone else in the room scream).

"Last" day of summer..

My first and only thought today is that the girls start school tomorrow. I spent all weekend cleaning purging everything we didn't need. This is going to be a good year. I have a great list of children (16 2 year olds) but I know half of them and they are all good, really good kids. So my blog will now consist of the girls day at school (In their own room) and my day.

It's amazing the transitioin this blog has made. When I started it back in April 07, I had already felt so much heartache with my attempt to become a mom, a heartache I continued to feel until November of that year and now I sit here with my beautiful daughters as they watch Dora and I blog.

Last night we tried on their first day of school outfits and it seemed that they lost all baby with one outfit. When we changed them into pjs, they still had the big girl look. We always see them as babies. They are our babies. However, they have grown up into beautiful toddlers.

So they start tomorrow. Donald is going with me to help out. I need him to be there. I'm not sure how the morning is going to go. I need to go in and open my classroom and drop the girls off in the same half hour. I'm thinking of leaving early and letting the girls hang out in my room while i set it up then bringing them to their classroom. My children don't arrive until 830, the girls go to their room at 820, so I will get 10 minutes of quiet time before the day starts. Not too bad.

I have to close right now, going over to a coworkers house for lesson plan writing and the girls can play with her kids. I'll get so much more accomplished.

Until tomorrow night...if I have the energy to blog that is :)

I'm done :)

It only took 3-12 hour days but the transformation from Preschool-storage-Toddler Room has happened. I wish I took before pictures but picture a bunch of boxes, files, posters that littered the tables, floors and every other surface (including cubbies). There was also a crib and assorted infant equipment. It was a mess. (not to mention the dust and there were spiders! I don't do well with spiders) Here is the finished product. I am very pleased.

This is the front door. You can see part of the block area and the art area and cubbies, also the back of the library area.

This is the dramatic play area. Dress up, babies and a kitchette with tons of dishes and food.

The back of the Math area and the tables.

The block area, writing area and tables.

The learning wall. I am excited to introduce "Froggy" the weather Frog and my "All About The Alphabet" Chart.

I am very proud of this room. It was a lot of work but it's done and I can spend the next 5 days with my family.