And now it's Thursday

I really need to dig out the camera and post the pictures of Miranda from the first day of preschool. Our children don't really pose for pictures though (yet another reminder of the dominance of Boyle genes--all real Webber children seem to come out of the womb knowing how to pose for a photograph!) so you're really not missing out on photographic excellence or yet another "I'm SO cute" picture of Miranda. Besides, my mother takes most of those anyway. I am an indifferent photographer.

Anyway, Miranda and I have spent the morning doing mostly nothing (I think she spent 90 minutes in the tub this morning) so that she can recover from her busy week. Pesky child took a nap yesterday at 4:45 pm so didn't go to bed until 8:30 pm and then was up from 4 to 5 am. I know why she's waking up in the middle of the night: hunger because she's refusing to eat dinner. She had a small cup of vanilla pudding for dinner last night which I offered out of desperation because if she ate that, at least she'd have some calories in her. I still remember the nights when Alex at this age would have tortilla chips for dinner. But he was a better sleeper then than she is now. Ugh. Marshall and I are really struggling to stay awake during the day. But it is an effort. I was really hoping all the fun and excitement of school this week would mean she'd sleep better. Boy, was I wrong.

Miss Cathy comes for speech therapy in an hour and then we'll lie around some more until Alex come home from school. I don't even have any laundry to do.

So it's Tuesday

Miranda had her first day of preschool yesterday and it seemed to go well. I told my friend Lisanne that her daughter, Addy, is going to have to give me the daily reports of what happens in class because, well, Miranda can't.

Yesterday was a get it done day. Marshall took the day off of work since Miranda's IEP meeting with her case worker was at 10 am and he wanted to be there and he had rehearsal at church last night for next Sunday's service (he runs the sound one Sunday a month) and it just seemed easier for him to stay home. So we put Alex on the bus at 8:20, Marshall left in his car to drop it off for an oil change, 5 minutes later Miranda and I got in my car to go pick him up and head for church. He was delayed at the car place but we still made it to church on time because, amazingly, we hit green lights all the way down 73. That never happens.

We dropped Miranda off in her class room with Miss Nicki (she must have liked Miss Nicki since she asked for her by name this morning) and Miss Megan, went to the lobby to chat with friends, raced off to the Child Study Team office, had the meeting, dropped Marshall back at the car place where his car was finished. Then we split up. I went on a quick shopping spree to Kohl's to return the size 5 pants I'd bought for Miranda a week ago (she's size 5 shirts, size 4 pants and size 10 shoes), stop at Trader Joe's for groceries, run to Target to take back some more size 5 pants and made it to church in time to pick Miranda up at 12. We were good until we walked out the front door and Miranda tripped and landed on the concrete, scraping both knees and palms. So, I left all our stuff there on the concrete so we could go back in the church and find Miss Heather and her stash of bandaids. And while Miranda's sitting on the counter in the bathroom and I'm cleaning her up I'm promising her a lollipop to make it all better and then realize my purse has many things but no lollipops! Of course, it being a kid-friendly church, someone in the office has one and they are happy to give it to Miranda.

Marshall spent the afternoon with his to do list which included changing the oil in my car (and then cleaning up afterwards) and then hanging up a picture and the new mirror in our powder room. It's not completely completely done in there, but it is getting closer.

Miranda's therapist is sick this afternoon so we raced home from MOPS for no good reason. We'll probably sit around and relax as she got me up this morning at 5:30 am. Pesky girl. There's always laundry to fold.

Day 3 (or, I really hate rainy days)

It has been raining since early yesterday evening. I almost sent Alex to school in his rain boots. I hate the rain. I am so much more easily discouraged when the sun is not shining.

I am really having a tough day. I just wrote a long email to the preschool director at Miranda's new school where she starts class on Monday.

[Here in NJ, the state and the feds pay for therapy until the age of 3, when the children are turned over to their individual township's care. So, Miranda isn't eligible to start at the public school until October 30th, her third birthday. So, Tomorrow's Hope Preschool has graciously said they would take her in their 2 1/2 year old class until November. So that is what we are doing.]

In the process of writing the email, I realized what the source of my panic is. I have become accustomed to protecting the world from my children, instead of the reverse, because they do not behave or react in ways typical to other children. Tell Alex no (for a perfectly good reason) and he'll slam himself into the nearest wall. Tell Miranda no (for an equally good reason) and she'll throw whatever is handy straight at you (including furniture).

So, how do I protect the other kids in Miranda's class from her? Yes, there is a perfectly wonderful teacher and another perfectly wonderful aide (2 adults in the classroom) who's jobs include protecting the children from each other. But do they know how to restrain her effectively? Or is Miranda going to use the skills she's learned in therapy for the past 15 months as well as many hours in the church nursery (God bless Miss Brynn, Miss Beth, Miss Rachel, Miss Sarah, Miss Kim--who am I forgetting?!) and behave herself in a relatively normal manner?

I think you can gather from my abject terror that I don't trust her to be a good girl and not beat up the other students. But it is possible that I am wrong.

The Saddest Sign of the End of Summer

We started emptying the pool last night. It hasn't been warm enough to swim since Saturday.

When I first moved to NJ, I thought it was the strangest thing that community pools were only open from Memorial Day to Labor Day. We used to swim in Fresno from April until October. However, it's only barely warm enough here to swim from June-August. The first of September here is really when the weather cools off. I still find it strange, though.

Day 2

So at about 2:30 yesterday I got a call from the school nurse who told me Alex was not having a good day, had refused to eat anything so of course wasn't even going to take his Ritalin from her. Poor boy had woken up almost 3 hours early for school and must have been exhausted by lunch time. New bus driver, new classroom, and a new schedule was enough to completely overwhelm him. At least his teacher, Miss Kim, was familiar from summer school. And there's a problem with his bus ride home so I have a call into transportation to find out what it is. He was cheerful when he got home but didn't do a whole lot before bed. The pile of paper in his backpack just for me must have been more than an inch high, though. It will take me a couple of days to get through all of it.

So, after I put Miranda to bed (she is consenting to sleep in her new bed, mostly, although I really need to get her a bigger blanket, I left the dirty dishes in the sink, skipped my neighborhood walk and went straight to the bathtub with bubble bath and a Georgette Heyer novel. I'd forgotten how much fun Frederica was. It meant I was fairly relaxed when I went to bed.

Today everyone woke up on time and fairly cheerfully and I was able to send Alex off with a few things that should make today a little easier. I will be picking him up from school early though to take him to the allergist. His eczema is going nuts again so Mimi will meet me at the doctor's office so help me cope with him while there. Miranda is going to Basically Babysitting. Her limp is better today but she managed to walk into a wall during Speech Therapy yesterday so has a new bruise on her cheek. I think her foot injury has affected her balance.

Tomorrow is Miranda's big day: pre-school orientation at Hope. Although I had a great conversation with the Springville school secretaries when I dropped off Alex's Ritalin yesterday morning, telling them how Miranda will be joining Miss Barbara's class soon.

The First Day of School Started at 4:30 am (I think)

So I look up as I roll over about 5:30 this morning and ask Marshall why he's getting back in bed and he tells me Alex has been up for about an hour already and is not going back to sleep. And he's loud enough that Miranda wakes up at 6. These children were not supposed to wake up until their father got into the shower at 6:45. So I'm starting the day grumpy from a lack of sleep. And I have to take Miranda to Alex's school this morning to drop off his Ritalin with the nurse so he doesn't make his teacher nuts by bouncing around the classroom all afternoon but since Miranda wants to go to school now herself, I'm going to carry her out screaming. Or push her out in the stroller, that is. Because she won't be able to walk from the parking lot to the school since Alex was jumping around last night about 5:30 and landed perfectly wrong on her right foot, spraining the joint that connects her big toe to her right foot. So she's limping. It's not really swollen or bruised this morning so it is getting better, but she has to limp to get around, which is the most pathetic thing in the world to watch this girl who her father calls alternately "Thumper" and "Princess Thunderfoot" LIMP. So even though it is the first day of school and I should be jumping for joy, I'm trying not to cry.

The little girl who won't sleep in a bed (or, only 2 more days)

So, our good little sleeper--as Miranda has been since she was tiny--has decided in the last week, that she won't sleep in a bed and will only fall asleep wrapped up in her blankets on the hallway floor outside of her room at least an hour after she was supposed to be asleep. So, I decided this must mean she's really done with the toddler bed and we should just go ahead and buy her a mattress to go with the big girl bed that's been in the house in pieces for 2 weeks as Marshall needed to paint it (which he is out in the garage doing right now). So, yesterday while we were at Costco with the kids to stock up on enough bread, cheese and milk to get us through the week, we looked at the mattresses and decided to buy one that afternoon. So, after purchasing said groceries, we went for our regular French Fries run, and then Marshall left me with the kids at home so he could go right back to Costco and buy the mattress.

[We missed our French Fry stop after church because we didn't go to church because Saturday night-Sunday morning Alex was awake from 11 pm until 4:30 am. He did this a week ago and we haven't a clue what's causing the wakefulness. He's not sick, he's not bad, he's just wide awake, and so one of us adults has to be supervising him because, well, you can't leave Alex unsupervised. So it was 10:30 am until Alex woke up and since Marshall and I had taken the night assignments in shifts, Marshall didn't get up again until 11 am. So no church.]

So then Marshall and I move the baby dresser out to the street (the one with the attached changing table that she's been too big to use for at least 6 months), we move the toddler bed that will go back to Marshall's sister for cousin Lilly, and we bring in the new mattress. We let the kids bounce on it for a few minutes (see above) and then I put all the bedding on it.

And when bed time comes and she's crying with exhaustion, what does she do?

Not only did Marshall move her into the bed after she fell asleep, I had to move her back when I went to bed later. Which means she had re-awoken and gone back to the floor. She makes me so completely crazy.

So, only 2 more days until Alex goes back to school. The bus will come promptly at 8:23 am Wednesday morning with Miss Linda the driver (we hope) and he will run out of the house and off to Kindergarten. Miranda's preschool orientation at Hope is Friday morning and then she starts the following Monday morning. Her behaviors have been so bad in the last few weeks, though, that I am anxious about leaving her at Hope. What if she beats up her classmates like she beats us up when she's unhappy or thwarted? Unpleasant to think about.

New pictures are up

Since my mother's been here, she's been taking a lot of pictures. This is our favorite of Alex playing in the mud. The rest of them are here.

Miranda was playing dress-up this morning with new clothes from the hand-me-down bag. Too cute!