1st day of 1st grade

The Big Yellow Bus Comes Tomorrow

Since the girls are going into 1st grade and a 2nd year of preschool, the end of summer vacation is a highly anticipated event. They love school and they love their teachers and they love having a life apart from our families.

This year I found something else they love. They love shopping for school supplies. They love looking at nice shiny notebooks and folders. They love picking out crayons and markers. They love packing their backpacks.

They are now already to go. Lauren starts tomorrow and Ellie a week from tomorrow. I wonder if this will last their entire school career.

Oogi

So there is this bizarre show on Noggin named Oogi. We saw it for the first time at 6am on Friday. I turn on Noogin so I can shower in relative peace. I was expecting Kailand to come on but it has been replaced by Oogi.

Oogi is a show with talking hands and these great big eyeballs on top of the talking hands. They went to ballet school in this episoide. It was quite bizarre.

I looked at the show and said to Bob "They must have made this show using drugs". Ellie looked at me and said "No, mommy, they used hands"

Lesson learned

We went to the zoo for the Children's Hospital activities. It was hot, very, very hot. I was irritable, very, very irritable. However, we did most of the things and the girls had a very good time.

We came to the speech display and they had a communicative device. I'm not sure what it was but it was not a Dynavox. The girls could touch it and play with it. Ellie did without a problem but Lauren refused to. She would have nothing to do with it which really surprised me as Lauren usually needs to touch everything and anything.

I asked her why and she looked at me and said "It not mine. It Elli's" I said "no Ellie just had her turn it's Ok". She looked and me and said "No, Elli talk that way".

I got it then. She wasn't talking about her sister. She was talking about our friend Elli who used her Dyavox to communicate. Lauren had always been fascinated by it and wanted to push all the pictures as well. I was always telling her that it belonged to Elli and that's how Elli talked. I guess she got it.

Sick Mommy

I've been sick for the last few days. Just a cold but a bad one. I do have a faithful nurse. Nurse Ellie. She hold my hand and tells me "get better Mommy" I can't turn around or she's kissing my head. She brings me soaking wet, dripping wash clothes (she can't read, she doesn't know they are supposed to be damp) and covers my head with them.

I have to get better soon, I'm being loved to death.

The Continuing Boyfriend Saga

Lauren is bound and determined that Joshua is Ellie's boyfriend. No ifs, ands or buts about it.
She looked at me last night and said "Mommy, Joshua is a nice boy. Ellie picked a good boyfriend".

Seriously, is she going to be 17 and I didn't realize it. I've tabeled the age appropriate relationship talks for now.

Sleepless nights

We changed Lauren medication in June. She went from 25 mg to 40 mg of Straterra. We also increased her afternoon dose of Ritalin from 5 mg to 10 mg. Her neurologist warned that the increase of Ritalin may cause sleep problems.

Wow, he wasn't kidding! First, Lauren already has sleep problems which is one of the reasons she's on Clonedine at night. It is actually a high blood pressure medication but helps some kids with impulse control and makes you tired. I've never decided if it does help Lauren with impuse control but it does help her sleep and that's reason enough for me to continue to give it to her.

The last two weeks, she's been sleeping about 3 hours a night. 3 hours of very irregular, interrupted sleep. She been going to bed at around 9:30. hey, it's the summer we live it up here. She then wakes up around 12:00 or even 11:00 if it is an especially bad night. She up for the day, she restless, her entire body twitches and she thrashes around. The worst part: she's not happy about it and desperately wants to sleep. Until now, Lauren's sleep problems have primary effected everyone else. She's been blissfully unaware of the problems. That is no longer true. She's been crying for a few hours a night about how tired she is and how she just can't sleep. She may be only 6 but she knows her body. I believe her. It is not a trick or a ploy. She just can't sleep.

Hopefully her neurologist will have some ideas of how to help.

Just Hanging Around

Face painting at the Irish Festival

Irish Festival

We had a great time at the Irish Festival. There was great food. There is nothing like eating stew out of a bread bowl in over 80 degrees. We got there shortly before 11. It was free before 11 with a food donation. We didn't leave until after 8. The girls did great. They kept the playground open so we were able to unwind there several times. They loved everything from the mugs we bought, to the fudge, the Irish dancer, and the shuttle bus. And there were dogs. We love dogs!

Riding bikes

Our new favorite thing is to load up the bikes and go to Lauren's school. the playground with the basketball hoops is always empty so they can ride a lot easier then on our sidewalks