Arrgghhh

Okay, somehow I was just trying to fidget with my layout a little and then I totally lost all my stuff. I was able to get back to what you see now. I was thinking that I had lost all my widgets....that would have been a total bummer. I will have to play a little more another time to get my blog back to where I want it.

We have been doing good. We have managed to swap some debt around so that we currently are all on zero percent offers....the key will be to pay them off before we get off the zero percent. Emilia got a B on conduct so we are extremely happy. She has only had one A and maybe two B's most of the time she fluctuates between the C to F stage. Her academic grades are great though. We just got a progress report and she still has all A's. We are trying to encourage her to manage her behavior better....but we will see.

Upward Basketball

Both Nicholas and Emilia are in Upward Basketball for the Next few months. The actually were put on the same team and Margaret is helping to coach the team. We are all so excited. Emilia had fun watching Nicholas when he was doing soccer and she got to play a little on the last day. She choose basketball over cheerleading, so I am glad. I want her to have fun and use her energy for running around. I think this could be a great confidence builder, plus she will get to spend time with Nicholas. Hopefully they will learn to cooperate with each other on the team. We are going to borrow one of Margaret's smaller hoops so she can practice. We have a concrete slab with a real hoop attached in the backyard, but it is way too high for the kids to actually shoot hoops. I am hoping to get her to do a little practice routine, it will also hopefully get the adults out there getting exercise with her. We could use some. If you don't know about Upward it is worth checking out. It is a Christian based team sports for kids.

Mommy my hands are THICK!! (nablopomo.com 11/20)

So about a year ago or so Emilia started licking her hands in the morning and for several weeks Steve and I tried to stop her saying..."Emilia that's gross", "Ewww Yuck" and such. Finally growing frustrated, I asked her why in the world she was licking her hands. Her response was "My hands are thick!" I took me a little while, but I realized the problem was that she had dry skin and it was bothering her. So I told her htat she just needed to put lotion on. So now she has her own bottle of lotion to use....but still every once in a while I still catch her licking her hand and have to remind her to use lotion. Children contiunally provide a sense of entertainment.

Modesty

Why is it that almost every dress has no sleeves? I went to a Department store that is having a moving sale today and 99.9% of the dresses had no sleeves or even worse were halter top type dresses. Shorts are only one inch from the inseam....yikes what messages are we sending our children. My little one is only 6 years old and we are already battling over what clothes are appropriate. It gives me heart palpatations just thinking of when she gets to be a teenager. Boys are so much easier - long shorts and tees.

Behavior

Emilia is getting very unpredictable in her behavior. Thursday she pulled only one card. Unfortunately Friday, neither Steve nor I remembered to put a patch on her and by 11:30 I recieved a call from the school office that she had pulled 6 cards already. They are keeping her there for now, but if she continues to misbehave then someone is going to have to go get her. I feel so bad, because I know that we help contribue to the problems, but I still stressed to her that she was in charge of making good choices and she was not doing a good job. She sounded so distraught over the phone. She told me "I tried to pull no cards, but I pulled 6" I am going to post a big ole sign by the door so that we see it every time we go out to help us remember her medication.
Got Patch??

Unconsious Gestures

It is amazing to me that with all we teach our children ABC and 123 and such that they seem to learn more by observing and repeating. They absorb our speach patterns our unconsious gestures, our habits. Yesterday Emilia (my six year old) and I were driving to my sister's house for Halloween. I had a glass of ice water and Emilia asked for some. We were at a stop light so I turned and gave it to her waiting for her to be done so that I could take it back. She took it, swallowed some and rolled her eyes with pleasure from the cold water. It was hilarious. No one taught her that. I am positive that I have done it when trying to get them to eat something at the dinner table. Mmmmmm! these vegtables are so good (eyes rolling heavenward). This is just one of many example of my daughter "learning" without being taught.

Report Card

Emilia got all A's on her academic grades, but has a C in conduct. We have made a deal with her that if she can get an A on Conduct at the next 9 week report that she could get a Nintendo DS. Hopefully this will encourage her to do better.
Nicholas got A's and B's and is doing much better. He now has tutoring twice a week to help give him a boost. Margaret says that homework with him is now a fifteen minute deal instead of the hour it was taking. He is able to concentrate so much better now.

ADHD

Last year Emilia was having a really hard time in Kindergarden. We ended up taking her to a local dr to be evaluated. She was diagnosed with ADHD and Oppositional Defiance Disorder (That can also be found at the link above). I know that alot of times that children are misdiagnosed with these issue, but for her I know it was true. After talking to her ped. we put her on Daytrona it is a patch that worked quite well for her for the rest of the school year.

This year she seems to have a wide variance in her behavior. She can have a great day with no cards pulled and the very next pull 5 because of misbehavior. She has only pulled more than 3 cards one day this year, but her behavior is so unpredictable it has caused concern at home. I just had a parent-teacher conference and was told that Emilia had been overheard saying that she had pulled her patch off. The teacher checked over the course of the day and she did have it on, but it leads to the question of if she has been doing that. Since she takes it off herself, I haven't been tracking whether or not she had been keeping it on. We are going to her ped at the end of Nov. and will be discussing other medications with him. Nicholas was just diagnosed ADD and is on Vyvanse and it seems to be working well. I really like that they have different dose sizes. She has gotten old enough that I think she will do well with a pill, and we can be confidant that her day is with the medication instead of hoping.

The TWO BROWNIE rule

So we have rules for when Emilia misbehaves and pulls cards at school....(see previous blot) but I realized that we needed an immediate reward for when she pulled no cards at all. While we were in the grocery store I let her pick out a Nestle "break and bake". She actually picked the brownies instead of cookies. It has Halloween sprinkles on it which she just loves. She knows that when she pulls no cards that she gets to bake up two brownies. Monday she pulled cards. Tuesday she pulled no cards and was so excited to bake up her brownies. I am hoping that this will help her to not pull cards...we will see and keep you posted.

All at Once

Why is it that you can have several days...weeks even when you have nothing to do, but then Everything is scheduled on One Day?? This Saturday in town we have:

1. Nicholas's Soccer Game
2. Emilia's School Fair
3. Nicholas's School Fair
4. The Greek Festival
5. The Latin/Hispanic Festival
6. The Renasiance Festival
7. And Nic has a B-day party invitaion.
8. Steve has a Men's Breakfast to go to.

Can anyone say Yikes! Let's see....how to pack it all in on one day.

7:00 Steve leaves for Men's Breakfast
7:30 Wake up Kids
9:00 Leave for Soccer Game meet Steve
11:00 Leave Soccer to go to Emilia's School
12:30 Leave Emilia's School to go to Nich's School
2:00 Go to Renasiance Festival
5:00 Go to Latin Festival.

Will have to skip the Bday party....Oh and one more thing the Greek Festival is also going on this weekend....So Steve is going to have to get his gyro either tonight or tomorrow Night. Afterwards I think I am going to bed early to recover. I hope the kids will be worn out by the end of the day. Maybe Sunday we will all relax and play games together.