robbinsnest - Homeschool Blogger

Oh how time flies!

Mon, 21 May 2007 01:39:00 -0500

I am again WAY overdue on updating here. Wow, can't believe it has been so long. Since the last post we have moved to a much needed new and bigger home in November and added to our little family in December.

Our new home is truly a blessing, our neighbor is also our landlord and they have two children about the same age as E (one a year older and one a year younger). Actually, one of the main reasons we got the house is because I am a stay at home mom. She was excited to have friendly neighbors with kids to hang out with during the day. They love to play together and my neighbor (now friend) loves to have E over to play. This has been very helpful especially when we did whirl-wind unpacking to get settled in before M arrived and then also after when E needed someone to play with while I tended to M.

In early December M arrived in much the same fashion as his big sister did...I spent almost the exact same amount of time in labor with both of them. And, oddly enough they were exactly the same length and he weighed about ½ a pound less than she did. He is also a great blessing to us. E adores him and can't do enough to help with him, she likes throwing away diapers, helping with baths, picking out his clothes, pretty much anything she can do for him she will. She also loves to "read" to him (from books she's memorized) and sing to him when he's fussy, it's very cute and heartwarming.

He is 5 months old now and growing at a much greater rate than she did, he is already out of his infant car seat, much to my dismay as he can't sit up on his own yet. Thankfully, my sister sent me a grocery cart seat cover thingy that has a strap to hold him in the upright position in the cart, wasn't sure how I was going to do shopping if I had to carry him the whole time (Thanks EFG!). He is very alert and starting to interact now, E loves it because he recognizes her voice and will turn towards her when he hears her (she used to sing and talk to him in my tummy all the time before he was born). She can get him to smile and it thrills her!

My dad (peppy) came to visit for a week in February to meet little mister. Both of my sisters and most their kids got to come too...pretty amazing since it was their first time meeting E (she turned 4 in March). The last time we were all togther was at Christmas just before E was born. My younger sister had a baby (her 5th) in November just before M was born, so my peppy got to meet her too (grammy met her in Nov. when she was born). It was nice to see them all, E keeps talking about her 'new cousins'.

We are currently looking forward to our big trip back east to visit grammy & peppy in June/July. The kids and I will be staying for 3 weeks, unfortunately our daddy only gets to stay for 1 week (somebody has to pay the bills). Hopefully, I will have time during this trip to go through all the stuff I left packed up in their house when I moved out "oh-so-long-ago".

Well, morning comes early so I should finish for now. Hopefully I will be more diligent in keeping this up to date.

Catch up time

Wed, 2 Aug 2006 23:45:00 -0500

Wow, I guess I am WAYYY overdue! There has been alot going on the last several months, too much to list it all but here are the highlights:

1. Emeline is now pretty much completely potty trained. She did great with #1, but #2 took us a while. Her goal was to go poop 10 times in a row on the potty and she would get a vacuum (her choice, not mine...she really really wanted one). Well this past Monday she reached her goal so off we went to Toys-R-Us and got her vacuum. Its a toy Hoover with attatchments and everything, it has a little carpet sweeper thing underneath so it actually picks up some dirt (so mom is happy too!). She was so excited she vacuumed the whole house when we got home and even used the attachments to "clean" the couch cushions.

2. Emeline is going to be a big sister! Yep...I'm pregnant, about 20 weeks. She is very excited, she is going to have a baby brother. We were calling him "Jr" before we found out he is a "he". She is very cute if she thinks I should be hungry she says "you need to eat mommy, your "Jr" is hungry"...of course she also thinks she has a "jr" too. If you ask her when "Jr" is coming she says "Jr is coming at Christmas", she has thinks he needs his own tree too. My younger sister is also expecting (her 5th), she's about a three weeks ahead of me.

3. Emeline is going to start pre-school in September with her best friend Stella. She can't wait. It is a co-op pre-school so I will be working there one day a week, but she is excited that she gets to go all by herself. She had two weeks of swimming lessons this summer and absolutly LOVED it! She is so proud of herself for being able to do new things.

Well, that's all for now, "Jr" is wiggly right now so I can't sit anymore.

She did it!

Sat, 18 Mar 2006 15:43:00 -0600

Well...something must have clicked! Emeline has been diaper free for the last three days with no accidents! She has also stayed dry all night for the last three nights (although she is still wearing diapers overnight just in case). I don't know what the sudden change was but she seemed to realize that with regular "undies" on she had to keep them dry. We had only 3 pairs so we went and got 6 more on Wednesday so she has quite the selection now...butterflies, hearts, stripes and solid pink.

I am sooooo proud of her...she is proud of herself too and so excited when she stays dry.

My little tooth fairy

Tue, 7 Mar 2006 13:24:00 -0600

Well...our dentist visit was a great success! Emeline did great, she was sooo excited. We have an Elmo video that has a section about a little boy going to the dentist and she was sure it was going to be exactly like that. When we got there and were walking up to the door she said "oh they do, they do have one!" and I said "what do they have?" and she said "they have stairs!". How funny is that, she was expecting to go up stairs because of the video, we also had to read in the waiting room (luckily they had a Highlights magazine). Then she got to sit in the chair that goes up and down. Everyone was very impressed with her. The dentist asked her how old she was and she held up two fingers. He said "she's two?" so I said "Emeline, when is your birthday?" She held up her little finger by her face and wagged it a little and said "at the end of March". I thought the dentist was going to fall off his chair! She did very well while he checked her teeth and then she said she wanted "the pink stuff" (from the video), luckily the dentist had a pink polisher with blue paste. He was done with her in less than 10 minutes and when he was done he said "she is great, I don't want to leave". So then he checked Curious George's teeth for her (because of course he had to come to the dentist with us you know). Then they took xrays of her teeth and said she did really well and that most kids wiggle and jiggle or move their tounges around but her pictures came out well (they are going to send her a photo copy of her xrays). Then she got a goodie bag with a new toothbrush and some wild animal dental flossers and she got to pick a toy out of the toy trunk.
Then we waited until my friend Steve came and he took her to McDonalds for lunch while I had my appointment. She was so excited to be going on a date with Uncle Stevie...she even got an ice cream cone, lucky (messy) girl! After that we went to visit our friend Dorothy, she is an elderly lady from our church in Santa Cruz and she was very sad when we moved. We took her and her dog for a walk and then had a tea party with her before coming back home.
Emeline was quite anxious to show daddy her sparkly teeth. She was very proud of herself (as well she should be).
Today we had gymnastics and our daddy was able to go with us, this was the first class he has been able to come to so she was excited about that too. He was very proud of her, she does really well!
It has been a busy week and it is only Tuesday morning!!

WOW!

Wed, 1 Mar 2006 22:34:00 -0600

Sorry, I didn't realize how much time had passed since my last post! Let's see if I can get caught up now...

First: our mold "issue" seems to have been taken care of. The landlord's agent came and checked it out and luckily it was not in the walls. He had me spray the walls with bleach every other day for a week and then wait a few days to see if the mold came back. It did not, so he had some painters on stand-by and they came over and treated and painted the whole room and Emeline's closet. So hopefully that will be the last of that. It hasn't really rained all that much since then until this week so we will see how it holds up now that we've got more moisture in the air again.

Second: I have been doing lots of babysitting lately (part of the reason I haven't kept up to date here...dh wants some of my time too so he gets the evenings...unless I get a night time babysit). At first I was just doing a few here and there, but in the last week or so I seem to have gotten quite popular. I think having Emeline with me is part of the attraction as she seems to help distract the kids when the parents are gone. As of this week I now have two regular day time jobs. One on Wednesday afternoons for a mom who tutors and one on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for a mom who is getting ready to move in the next month or so and is also trying to write some books. I also have a regular every other Tuesday night (that was my first one when I started). I may have a Thursday morning one soon too for another mom who tutors. It's kind of nice to be contributing to the finances again, and also nice to relieve a little of the stress from Sean (he's a worrier...luckily, I am not). Emeline is doing really well with the babysitting too, she is really into how the kids are feeling and helping to keep them happy. She is such a blessing!!

Third: Potty training...ugh! She will sit on the potty but only if I tell her to, and then she will sit on there until she actually goes...which is not always as great as it sounds. I had read that you should encourage the child to sit on the potty, but do not make them stay on for more than 5-10 minutes if they don't have to go...HA!! She sat on there for almost an hour the other night and would not get off because, as she put it "I'm still waiting for the tinkle". I just keep checking on her, bring her more books, give her some bubbles, and go with the flow. Her daddy on the other hand starts to go a bit bonkers when she is sitting in there singing nonsense stuff and talking and yelling questions from in there that we can't hear...all while he is trying to work...very distracting! (His office is at home, and our computer is in the living room...small house).
We are having some small differences of opinion on how the potty training should be going. He is sure that she is smart enough to be able to just get it and that if I put a bit more effort in and had her sit on the potty every hour or half hour then she would be trained in no time. I however while having her sit on the pottty frequently throughout the day, am not quite sure that she is actually ready. She will sit there and she will poop and pee, but when she is not on it she will just go in her diaper. I don't think she knows that when you get the urge that is when you go to the potty. She doesn't tell me when she needs to be changed and her standard answer when I ask her if she does need to be is "no, I'm just fine" (which she usually isn't).
All potty advise is welcomed at this point, any pointers, tips, I'll try anything. We even do MM's when she does go, and she gets a sticker to put on her "potty tree" (a picture of a tree on a big piece of paper taped to the fridge). But that does not seem to be enough incentive to make her actually do it on her own.

Fourth: We are going to the dentist on Monday. It will be Emeline's first dentist visit and she actually seems pretty excited about it. I, however, am not, I hate having my teeth cleaned...can't stand the feeling of them scraping on my teeth. I bring a CD walkman with me and a CD of hymns that I blast as loud as it will go...doesn't drown it out completely, but it helps a little bit. The funny part is, we are going to a dentist that is about an hour and a half away. He is the dentist Sean and I went to when we lived in Santa Cruz, and as much as I hate having to go to the dentist...if I have to go, he's the one I want to go to! When Sean got his dental coverage stuff from work I checked to see we would be covered going to him and I was very excited to find out we were. So we are planning a dentist and visiting day to make the trip extra worth while. Our friend Uncle Stevie is going to meet us there and take Emeline on a lunch date while I have my appointment (hers is at 11 and mine is at 12).

Well, guess that is all for now. I'll have to keep this more up to date, I like going back and reading the old stuff I put in.

Still on the run...and getting moldy!

Wed, 25 Jan 2006 23:25:00 -0600

Well my goodness, it seems like I blink my eyes and a whole week just dissapears! We have been dealing with "mold issues" in our house. Last week we discoverd that the wall that our bed was up against was all moldy! So of course part of the box spring is too (grrr...the bed wasn't even touching the wall!). We talked to the landlord's agent and he came over to check it out. I have to spray the walls where the mold is with clorox every other day for a week and then wait a few days to see if it comes back. If it doesn't he has a painter on standby who will come and treat the walls and repaint the entire room. Unfortunately, I had shoes under the bed and on a shelf against the wall and had to throw away about 8 pairs of shoes! (most of them were from my working days so I wasn't too devastated as I don't wear them much any more, but still...).

Then yesterday, I took a sweatshirt out of Emeline's bottom drawer and it had stuff on it...upon closer inspection...yep...MOLD!!! Her dresser was in her closet and the entire bottom drawer was completely moldy. Luckily the clothes were able to be washed and are okay, but the dresser is a gonner (kind of a thick particle board so washing will ruin it anyway). I called the landlord's agent again and he asked about the dresser, I told him I got it for about $20 at Kmart a few years ago so he gave me the money to get another. Unfortunately, I could not find them at Kmart or Target. So I posted a note on Freecycle last night and there was a lady who was going to post a dresser today so she called me instead. Emeline has a beautiful white dresser with white knob handles that have roses on them. She was so excited about it she wanted to put her clothes in it before I even had the drawers back in! It is bigger than he old one to so I have a place to put all her sweaters and sweatshirts now.

Yesterday was our daddy's birthday and I goofed and had to babysit (ooopsie!). We went to our friends for dinner and then I took Emeline babysitting with me so he could hang out with them for a while then we picked him up on our way home. The good news is, I had a last minite babysitting call on Monday and made some money to get him a nice birthday present! As you can see, I have started doing some babysitting, it amazes me the prices people pay for babysitting now-a-days!!! I remember charging $1/hr. When I started spreading the word I was available for babysitting about a week ago I talked to my friend Amy to see what I should charge, she said if I have Emeline with me (for during the day 'gigs') I should charge $10/hr for one child and $13-15 for two or more, and if I did not have Emeline I should charge $15 for one and $18 for two or more. WOW, I thought no one would want me...boy was I wrong! I have gotten at least a dozen inquiries in the last week and have already set up four dates. Looks like I may not have to go back to work just yet! Hoorayy!!!

The last minite gig we did on Monday was cool. The mom called to talk to me around 1:30pm about meeting (they had never left him with a sitter before except for her cousin). She happened to mention, as a 'for instance' that they had an appointment they had to go to in the afternoon and they had to take their son with them as they had no sitter. I told her she was welcome to bring him over and give us a try. So they came about a half hour before their appointment and her son (14 months) seemed very comfortable with me and Emeline. Emeline was soooo cute. I had told her before her nap that a little boy was going to come visit us while his mom and dad were at a meeting. I told her she was going to have to help me take care of him because he might be sad that his mommy and daddy were gone. She took him under her wing right away, she shared everything with him, even curious George (her favorite toy) and she didn't fuss when I held him when he was fussy. They had a little tea party with her kitchen stuff and then we went for a walk and I put him in her stroller so she pushed him all the way around the block. Then we played outside, if he got a little sad or started to cry she went to him and said "its okay, its okay". What a little mother! His parents were very pleased with the whole "experiment" and I know have a new little chickadee to babysit!

We had gymnastics again today, boy does Emeline love that! She does really well too, although her favorite part is eating a snack at the little table in the lobby when we are done (go figure!). We are hoping her daddy can get some time off and go with her to one class too (she has 3 left), she is so much fun to watch. Tomorrow I am hosting at the toy co-op, I am in charge of the mommy snack, so I am making banana bread right now and it smells sooooo good!

well, I guess I've rambled long enough! that's all for now.

Busy, Busy, Busy!

Sat, 14 Jan 2006 23:33:00 -0600

I can't believe it has been so long since the last post. Lots of stuff going on here. The mother's club is starting a toy co-op and we have been helping with that. The city has given us space in the community center to keep toys that have been donated. Once a week it will be open for moms to bring there kids to play and hang out and the moms can socialize (imagine that!). Once they have enough toys donated they plan to make it into a toy library and lend the toys out for a week or two. Pretty cool idea! The city is eventually going to move the location to the actual library and have it be open whenever the library is (they are in the process of remodeling the library now). We have been helping to organize the toys and clean them so they are ready for the first official "play day" which is going to be this Wednesday.

Emeline had her first gymnastics class this week (parent participation required for her age). She had a blast! I wasn't sure if she was going to be into it at first because she wouldn't do the warm up stretches she just watched. But once they started using all the equipment she was all for it! She did really well too. They had a half circle thing made out of foam that the lady used to help the kids do back bends over. Emeline did really well keeping her arms straight and she even landed on her feet! Made me so proud! They got to play "tennis" with balloons and big foam paddles, she thought that was quite fun. Can't wait for next weeks class.

We went to visit cousins in San Francisco yesterday, the girls had a half day of school so we met them for lunch and then walked to the park. We are going up again tomorrow to watch some of their basketball games. Then they are coming down to visit us on Monday since they have the day off from school. We are going to visit one of the local museums, not sure which one yet though.

We went bowling today. It is fun to bowl with Emeline because you never get a gutterball!! Love those bumpers! They also have a ramp made of metal rods that the little kids can use. You line it up at the end of the lane and put the ball at the top of the ramp and she pushes it down. She actually got a strike on her first ball today, very impressive...she even beat me (not hard to do). Our daddy was the big winner though, he got a 'turkey' (three strikes in a row).

Our weekend and more funnies

Mon, 2 Jan 2006 20:01:00 -0600

It has been nice to have our daddy home for a long weekend. He has gotten some nice alone time and also lots of family time too. On Saturday they had a "noon-year's eve" party at the local aviation museum for the kids. They had lots of activities and at noon they did a count-down and dropped a net full of balloons down on everyone. Emeline was quite excited because a big purple balloon came right too her and she caught it, she even still has it believe it or not (balloons tend to pop quickly here for some reason). Whe was very impressed that it came right to her, she keeps telling her daddy that "it came to me and I caught it!". She also got her face painted with a beautiful purple glittery butterfly (can you guess what her favorite color is?). She loves to get her face painted, the painters usually can't believe how good she is about sitting still to have it done, the first time she was only a year and a half and she watched the lady paint the girls in front of her and then when it was her turn she sat on my lap and did not move a muscle, and when they tell her to close her eyes, she keeps them closed until someone tells her to open them. After that we went to Costco with our daddy (she loves Costco because they have samples all over the place!) and then naps when we got home. Of course because she napped so late, her regular 8pm bedtime was out of the question, so after supper we all got our PJs on and watched a movie.

Sunday was also pretty mello, we had to skip church though because I thought she had pink-eye again (went to Dr. today though and was assured it is probably just allergies or something...definately not pink-eye). It has been very rainy and windy here in central CA so we were trying to think of something fun we could do. Our winning idea was...take the train to San Francisco, have lunch and take the train home again. Emeline was quite excited about that, she loves to watch the trains. We usually see them when we are driving and she waves and says (at the top of her lungs) "bye bye train!". We even went and watched them come into the station one day last week while we were waiting for an oil change. So of course the train ride was a huge hit. We had lunch at a "New York Style" italian place near Pac Bell park (VERY windy walk to the restaurant), and then hoped back on the train to come home.

Okay, now the funnies. At the doctors office today, the doctor checked her eyes and then was feeling around her neck checking her glands (very normal) pushing with her fingers and Emeline looked at me and said "she's making me smaller!". I thought the doctor was going to split a gut, we were both laughing so hard. So when she was done checking her glands she asked Emeline if she should make her bigger again and Emeline said "yes" so the doctor waved her hand in front of Emeline and said "okay there you go". Aparently that did the trick. Then on our way home from the doctor we were listening to "grammy and peppy" (a tape my parents made of all the songs we used to sing in the car when we were growing up) and they were singing "She'll be comin' round the mountain" they were singing the part of "we will kill the old red rooster when she comes" and Emeline said "they are going to kill the old red rooster" I said "oh really" and she said "yes, and then she will come"...my goodness she makes me laugh!!! how her little brain works is completely beyond me!

well, that's it for now, Emeline and daddy just got home from the grocery store (another of her favorite places to go), and I need to go make supper.

Happy and Blessed New Year to all!

stuffed...

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 15:03:00 -0600

today's funny story...our daddy went in to snuggle Emeline this morning before he went to work. He said "you have alot of stuff on your bed" and she said "that's why they are called stuffed animals daddy"! Ahhh...child logic...ya just can't beat it!

Tahoe fun

Wed, 28 Dec 2005 10:33:00 -0600

Well?? Did you all get good loot from Santa? We just got back from Tahoe last night. No snow when we got there, but it did finally snow in the evening of Christmas day and through the night so we got to play in the snow on Monday. We went to a cross country ski place that has a sledding hill and you can rent saucers. We rented 3 saucers and used Emeline's new sled and had a ball!!! The hill was long and steep and FAST! We stayed over to the less crazy side with Emeline, but Sean and Al and Kristen (and me once) ventured up to the tippy-top and went swirling down on the saucers. Emeline's first run she went down with her daddy from the tippy-top and he didn't want to go to fast so he kept his feet out in front of them...unfortunately he kicked up snow into her face and she did not like that, I came down after them in a saucer and she was crying (poor chickadee). After that she was fine though, we used hands to slow down (of course her mom was the best sledder of the bunch after years of experience in the Parentlea Farm Winter Olympics) so there were no more wet snowy faces! She even went on the saucer a few times and really liked that too...especially with her daddy as he tended to end up going backwards more than frontwards! She thought that was pretty funny! We had a rainy drive back home yesterday. And Emeline is already ready to go back to Tahoe.