Christmas Eve and Christmas

Christmas Eve was full of anticipation for the kids. We open family presents on Christmas Eve after dinner. It was not quite dark when we were finished eating and it was pure torture for the kids. But lets jump to Christmas afternoon.

My mom vomited and had to have a breathing treatment before she left the house. We had some part in the garage beeping that I could not figure out. I thought it was the water softener and added a big bag of salt, to no avail. Then upon doing a sink full of dishes, the garbage disposal went kaput.

The highlights were Carson and Adeline as seen below.

Carson and one of his Star Wars Lego sets

More Legos

My handsome boy Carson

His sister gave him a Star Wars sweatshirt

Adeline got a meowing, purring cat. The real cat in our house is not so sure about this fake, furry critter

What is a Christmas Eve dinner without a princess crown and the splits?

Adeline was pouring sparkling apple cider for us all

In our Christmas Advent calendar this year, each day both kids got a puzzle piece and on Christmas Eve, we finished the puzzle!

Elf

The Elf that is gracing his presence at our house this holiday season was found on top of the fridge. It just happened that I came around the corner and found this.......

Carson was telling the Elf something. I am sure he was tattling on his sister but I guess that is between he and the Elf.

Desert Hike

We love the desert behind our back yard. The kids find great things in the desert and the desert leads to a nice paved trail lined with trees.

Carson always takes his backpack, packed with light sabers (never know when you might need one of those), his camera, a notebook and pencil. He loves to observe and draw pictures.

Adeline wanted to bring our Elf on the hike to make sure that they behave.

Checking out the flowers

More flowers

Our Elf that is relaying messages to Santa. Adeline walked him in her purse.

This explaines why every boy needs to take his light sabers on a hike!!!

I Tried

For the past three weeks Carson has been visiting the health office at school almost daily. It is at times for a headache, at other times it is for his inhaler. He has not had any asthma problems at home this last month which has been fantastic, but it keeps happening at school. A few of us adults have deduced that it is probably his home room teacher in the afternoon. I have been in the class for presentations and am not a fan of the teacher. Carson has mentioned that she is not always very nice to the other kids but is nice to him.

I talked to Carson about maybe switching classes and he said he might want to do it, he had even told the teacher he might. I went to the assistant principal who said she would look into it. I gave it a week and did not hear back and also e mailed her twice and never heard back. I of course then went to the principal and she made the teacher change.

Saturday evening I told Carson he was switching home room classes and he had a complete meltdown. He was in tears sitting on my lap, on the bed and on the floor. He said the teacher had been nice to him and he was learning alot. Carson also was going to miss his friend who he plays games with on fun Friday in class. I reminded Carson that he was the one who wanted t0 switch classes.

As a mom, I only wanted to do what was best by him, but also, as much as a stink I threw I could also not have him switch back. I felt horrible. Had I taken too much advise from other people, should I have guided Carson in a different way before switching him? I don't know. I was just trying to make the best choice possible.

This morning as we were on the way to buy shoes, he told me that he was ok with the move and he was upset most likely because I took him by surprise.

Hopefully there will be no tears on the way to school on Tuesday. Only 4 school days until Christmas vacation. I know we can make it!

Out of the Bag

For the most part, my little ADHD boy stays pretty organized. His school bag is fairly simple. He has a school planner that I have been teaching him and hounding him to use, a take home folder, and luckily he does not have his own desk to clutter up. The other day I looked in his bag to get his take home folder and there was a paper tornado in there. The tornado must have hit at pack up time at school because it was not there in the morning! I took everything out and this is what there was:


A paper mess!!!!!

I consider myself lucky that this is not a regular occurrence, but it just jolts me back to the fact my son has ADHD.

On another ADHD note, Carson is very big on making sounds and I can tell in the morning by his sounds that it is time for his medication. He was drawing on the island in the kitchen and I put his medicine right next to him with his water. We were in the car on the way to school and I was still hearing his infamous noises. I double checked with him that he took his medicine and he said yes. Low and behold when I got home from taking him to school, next to his drawing book was, surprise, surprise, his medicine. Either I did not get his attention when I was leaving the medicine next to him, or most likely, he got distracted by drawing and forgot to take it. I am sure the poor kid struggled today in school, but its one of those life lessons of natural consequences.

My Inept Status

I swear at times my mother thinks I am inept as a mother and as a person. But, I guess looking at the picture below, she might have some merit.




All kidding aside though, I think I have it pretty much together. Yeah, some days are better then others and sometimes I am on it and sometimes I am not, but I always have my kids best interest in mind.

Here are few examples:

• Adeline wants to read for her old preschool class, so we have been reading a few books and practicing for her reading debut. Then Sunday when I picked up the kids from Nana's house she goes through how they have been practicing a few books for her to read, and that she needs to read really well and be prepared because Nana's friends granddaughter is in that preschool class and is reading.
• Nana was very disturbed that I was going to my husbands company Christmas party in my work clothes, which include my black clogs. She told me I could borrow a dressy sequin top of her so I would be more dressed up, but explained I still only had my black clogs to wear. I do not have dressy clothes anymore, I just don't need them. So in disappointing fashion (to my mother) I wore work clothes. Little does she realize how the culture has really changed, there were people in jeans and ball caps, and too tight leggings and spike heels. My clogs fit right in, it was a nice medium.
• I have also not found black pants for Carson to wear for his violin recital 3 weeks from now, nor has my daughter started her "Caterpillar" project that is due in two weeks. I have not started teacher Christmas gifts and have not made a doctor's appointment for Carson's toe.

Some days I have to remind myself that my mom's primary mode of communication is criticism, whether she knows it or not. So, I will continue to forge on!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Day for the most part was pretty good. We started the morning going out on a trail by our house to burn off kid and dog energy.

After the trail I put a log in the chiminea fish and the kids wanted to roast marsh mellows while my sister and I did a little cooking.

Here are the desserts, and Adeline's apple turkey she made at kindergarten.

I decided to put the turkey in the middle of the cake and I think it looked very festive.

We had a few discussions about what the kids had to eat (thanks to Nana) and she was not very patient with the fact he did not want to sit at the table and wait while everyone finished, but these are on going battle I have with every meal, and just decide day by day what battle I want to face.

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

I now need to work on my attitude and have it completely altered by the time family comes over whenever they do today.

I need to remember deep breaths and just let my mom handle details because it is not worth the energy to try and change it.

"Let go" is my mantra for today.

Where to Start

The last week or two has been so busy, I do not even know where to start.

The good part is after about two months, work has finally altered my schedule. Yippie, that only took two months.

Adeline is doing fantastic in both dance and violin and is loving school. The best part is her teacher is fabulous!

Carson is another story. About two weeks ago he came home from school due to his asthma. It was a day I was working and had my mom go and pick him up, and she said he seemed fine. Then last week on Tuesday a smoke alarm went off and apparently he had a panic attack. They tried to send him back to class after a period of time but he started to shake and again was sent up to the nurses office and I was called to come and get him. At age 8, the poor guy just experienced his first panic attack. There is so much more to this story and how his school and teacher handled it, but then Thursday he was back at the health office and Friday, when I was there to watch class presentations he did not leave my lap. I have no doubt that he was in the health office Wednesday, I was just not called. There is something about his afternoon teacher that is just not working and causing him anxiety. So, after Thanksgiving break, I will be mommy bear and request a teacher change.

In other news, PTSA is busy again, Thanksgiving is approaching and I suggested limited food that everyone will eat, and its back to work. The week off is going to fly!

My Week

This is what I walked into on Thursday when I walked into my office. This huge stack of charts, not counting intakes I do not have a chart for, and realizing this is all in 17 hours of work!

I so dislike when all my client charts are pulled for my three days at once. If I was a client and walked in and saw this stack of charts I would feel that the office is so unpersonalized.

So, I try to hide them under my desk, and the stack gets progressivly smaller and smaller as the hours tick by. And I am proud to say that by Saturday evening that desk was empty!

I'm Loosing

So, I am loosing the battle on Facebook, and here is how it started.

Carson built these wonderful Lego creations this weekend. He had really been working on me to buy him a Wii and a Playstation. My husband and I are not necessarily against video games, but we are not 100% for them. So many parents and families I see in my office have so many fights and arguments over the Wii, and kids spending way to much time on them and having meltdowns when they have to get off, or are in a middle of the game, that I just do not need to add that to my life.

But, this was Carson's attempt to show us how much he really wanted the Wii and playstation.....

This is a replica of a miniature Wii remote

Playstation controller

Wii remote and Wii numchuck

Wii console with a slot for the disk to go in

I posted these pictures on Facebook and added the comment below.....

"Carson did a fabulous job and I was more then impressed with his creation, but the poor guy only proved his point about why we do not have video games at our house. If he was playing video games he would not have this much time to be creative and use his imagination."

Not one Facebook friend agreed with my point of view, and even got the comment that the Wii is not like the video games we grew up with, and yeah, maybe they are right, now a kid can take a video game remote and shoot people and see blood and profanity flying everywhere.

Sorry Carson, not rethinking my stance.

Halloween Madness

Halloween, as usual, was a hit this year with the kids. Adeline was a pink cheetah and Carson was General Grevious from Start Wars. First thing in the morning, Adeline kept asking me why they could not go trick or treating in the morning. Let me tell you, it was a long day!

This Halloween it was especially nice to be able to trick or treat in our new neighborhood. We had a number of trick or treaters and I must say, on the whole, were very polite.

Here are a few photos of the evening.

The kids and I took a quick trip up to Utah to watch my niece dance in a Halloween production. While there we took a trip up to the canyons, and i was a mean mom and made them pose for pictures. I am such a meanie mom.

Too Much Time and a Camera

This is what happens on a 7 hour car ride when the kiddos find the camera.

They take pictures of their toes

their tongue

and up their nose holes!

But, they were both such good travelers, and I got a good laugh when I was downloading pictures.

Yep, She is Mine!

Yes, this is my little cheese head. I wanted a cute pictures of her hair buns on the way to dance class and this is what I got. But, I love it, and lover her!

This picture below is as she got in the car to leave for school and was very proud of her first ever project for kindergarten. An "All About Me Box." She is soooooo excited to present it to her kindergarten class. I am sad I do not get to see her present her first project, but from the next project on, parents will get to come and watch their presentations. I am just so lucky I have been able to help in class a few times already, her teacher Rocks!