I Give Up!

I'm struggling with putting together lunch for William. My original plan was that he would buy lunch at the cafeteria. But after looking at the menu and getting worried that he would end up hungry, I decided to pack lunch for him. He almost always eats his fruit (banana, strawberries, or grapes definitely; cut up apple--a little; whole or cut-up pear, no). He sometimes eats cheese and pepperoni. He sometimes eats a jam sandwich. He ate some cold chicken nuggets one day. Not the next time I tried it. He ate leftover pieces of steak one day. But we don't have steak all that often. He did not eat the carrots and hummus I packed one day. He sometimes eats wheat thins. He will always eat fruit snacks, fig newtons, Oreos, and chocolate chip cookies.

Anyway, last night I decided to get creative. I made a jam sandwich and then used a Halloween cookie cutter to cut out a ghost shape. This morning, I told him there was a surprise in his lunch box and showed him the ghost sandwich. He looked at it skeptically and said, "It's just a sandwich, Mom."

I think I'll stop trying to please him. LOL! In the meantime, for some awesome inspiration, check out This Lunch Rox.

Bad Mother Award

Seth has been coughing for two weeks, so I finally took him to the doctor today. It's been a weird cough--very junky and mucusy--but it's not usually bad during the day. It's never sounded like wheezing. He'll cough a little bit here and there, but it's been the worst after he's been sleeping--in the middle of the night, and in the morning. Two weeks ago, he had a low-grade fever for two days, but no other symptoms. His nose hasn't been runny or stuffed. He's been in a good mood (other than the car ride to and from school!), he's eating fine, he's sleeping okay (some nights, he's woken up and stayed up for a while coughing and coughing, but other nights, he's been fine). All of this is my attempt to justify why I haven't taken him to doctor.

So fast forward to today. The doctor listened to him breathe and then ordered a nebulizer treatment. After the nebulizer, she could hear him wheezing. Then she was worried about pneumonia. You can imagine how I felt thinking my child might have had pneumonia for two weeks. She had him do a second nebulizer treatment and listened again. After that, she said he did not have pneumonia, but she gave him an oral steroid and said we needed to nebulize him every four hours today and tomorrow, and then two or three times a day over the weekend. I can't believe he's been wheezing all this time! Well, it may not have been all this time, but I'm feeling pretty lame for letting it go on so long. He's basically being treated for asthma. Why do my kids have asthma????

Anyway, switching gears, not too much going on, other than adjusting to the new normal. William's school finally started full-day kindergarten this week. We haven't noticed much of a difference with him. He seems to like it, but he just doesn't say very much. And he gets mad when we ask him questions. I can't even ask him what he wants for lunch without him yelling at me. One day, after asking him what kind of fruit he wanted, he said to me in a very exasperated tone, "Mom--just fix me what you want me to eat." Alright then--easy enough!

Speaking of food, one of the unexpected consequences of kindergarten is that William has been eating his dinner (for the most part) without any discussion or comments. He just sits down and starts eating. He has an appetite! This week we had salmon and broccoli, chicken soft tacos, steak and asparagus, and pizza (with whole wheat crust), and the only thing he didn't eat was the pizza. I'll take it!

So, that's about it for us. Life is good, even though everything just feels, well, different. The end of summer seemed to hit us so suddenly, but fall is shaping up pretty well so far. Maybe I'll even get back into blogging more than once a week. Then again, maybe I won't. Maybe this is part of the new normal, too.

Checking In--Random Style

I hate going so long without updates, but my laptop screen is broken so I haven't been on the computer much at home. And I've been busy. William got better but then Ed got sick. So two nights of doing everything wore me out. And Ed and I have been watching Mad Men (we're finally on season 4). I'm also reading a book, and I find that I just don't have time at the end of the day to do everything.

Sooooo anyway.

• As I mentioned, William recovered and seems to have had a good week at school. We met with his teacher on Tuesday and basically got interviewed. His teacher wanted to know all about William so she asked questions like, What activities does he enjoy? What are his favorite toys? Who does he play with outside of school? Does he have pets? Who lives at home with him? How do we discipline him? Does he watch TV? What does he like to watch? Does he have any fears? Etc. etc. etc. It was nice to talk to his teacher. She didn't have a whole lot to say about how he's settling in. She said all the kids are still trying to get their bearings but William seems happy and friendly. So that's enough for now. Yesterday he told me he had fun at aftercare. So that's good. The teacher showed us their weekly schedule, when they have "specials," (P.E., art, music, computer lab) their discipline system. They're also starting a "Spotlight on me" week. Each full week of school, they spend time spotlighting a classmate. One day, they ask the kid specific questions at circle time. Another day the kid brings in special toys. Another day, we bring in a special treat. There are 24 kids in William's class (a little larger than I would like), and they're going alphabetically. By first name. Which means William is DEAD LAST. His week starts May 14. Fantastic! Oh well. One of the many life lessons I'm afraid we'll be learning this year.
• Moving on, since William has started kindergarten, Seth has been a bear during our commutes to and from work. He whines and cries and yells at me. He couldn't care less about the iPhone (which is what William and Seth used to fight over all the time in the car). He doesn't want to listen to music. He just wants to be disagreeable. It's only been a few weeks, so hopefully it's just a phase. But I've always been worried about how hard the commute is on the kids, so I'm starting to look into preschools/daycares closer to home. Always good to know our options.
• Fall plans are coming together. This weekend will be busy. Seth starts a 6-week soccer clinic tomorrow morning. That should be interesting. William has taekwondo as usual. There's a local festival near our house (taste of) that we're planning on going to. And on Sunday, we have a birthday party and a neighborhood social in the afternoon. Next weekend, if the weather cooperates, we'll go apple picking. I've also been toying with trying camping again. But not sure if Seth is ready yet. In October, we're tentatively going to New York to visit friends. And we have a weekend slated for a big pumpkin festival. And we're tentatively planning to re-book our Great Wolf vacation in November. 
• Speaking of fall, it turned cold here last night! High today of 68. Tomorrow and Sunday should only get to 70. I guess summer is definitely over!

Couldn't Get Past Day Five

We got a call from William's school at 3:30 today. He had a 101-degree fever. Ed had to pick him up from extended day. At least he made it through the full school day. He'll stay home tomorrow. Hopefully, it's minor and he'll be fine and can go back to school on Wednesday. He's coughing a little bit, but doesn't have any other symptoms. Seth got sent home Friday with a barely-above-100-degree fever, so I guess we should have seen it coming. Seth is coughing a lot more, though. But not acting sick. There goes my dream of a perfect attendance record! I guess it just wasn't in the cards.

Anyone Know How to Build an Ark?

Wow--it has been raining here since Monday. Every day. Every night. I'm so over it.

In other news, William rode the bus today for the first time. He loved it. I didn't even get a good picture because it all happened so fast. Plus it was raining. (See statement above.) He sat with his next-door neighbor who is in first grade. He was also in school until 12:30 today, and had lunch with his class, instead of his after-care group. He told me he ate all of his lunch, and even ate his Fig Newtons after his grapes, strawberries, cheese, pepperoni, and crackers. I think he had a fire drill today--they had to go out in the rain. But he said it was just his class, not the whole school. He said they talked about bus safety and rules yesterday. He has a friend in his class named Katie. One of his after-care teachers also has a peanut allergy. And Ms. Williams (the classroom aide) loves Disney.

I've been feeling so unsettled this week, mainly because I am so disconnected from this major part of William's life now. When he was at daycare, I knew every day what he did because of daily e-mailed updates from his teachers. I also talked to them every day--at drop-off and at pick-up. And sometimes, we exchanged more emails throughout the day. I realized today as William got on the bus that I will likely never see his teacher. I have to rely on what he tells me to learn about his day. We have a conference with William's teacher on Tuesday and I can't wait to talk to her and to hear her perspective about how William is adjusting. I'm fighting the urge to email her and inundate her with questions. This is all part of the growing-up process. I know that. I'm okay with that. A little bit. I hope that William is making friends. That other kids like him. That he is behaving himself and acting respectfully. I hope he is interested and curious and eager to learn. I hope that he is happy and engaged and comfortable. I hope, I hope, I hope. I thought the tears (for me, of course) would come on the first day of school. Not the fourth!

First Day of Kindergarten

It's official! William is in elementary school. From what I could gather, he had a good first day. He was a little disappointed that his time in kindergarten was so short. They only had an hour today because the school gradually acclimates the kids. So the first two days, they split each class up, and half the kids go for one hour; the other half goes for the next hour. After that, the whole class will have half days (off at 12:30) for a week and a half. (There will be parent-teacher conferences in the afternoons.) And then he will finally be in for a full day beginning September 19.

When kindergarten lets out, he attends the school's extended day program. He was not impressed by the trailer where the extended day program is based. And since it rained today, they did not get to play on the playground. Doubly disappointing. But he did report some fun things that happend today. He learned the sign for "stand up" in sign language. And he watched A Bug's Life. And today was his teacher's birthday, which he learned during circle time. (And I only found this out because he told his grandmother on the phone.) He ate his Doritoes and Fig Newtons (special first-day treats), his banana, and his cereal that I packed for snack (at his request). But he did not eat his yogurt, cheese, or crackers (the protein part of his lunch). Lesson learned--if you want him to eat healthy things for lunch, only pack healthy things for lunch. :-)

As far as the drop-off this morning, I can't believe how nervous I was. I had major butterflies, and I could tell that he was a little bit nervous. But after we put his things in his cubby, and before he found his spot on the rug, he gave me a hug and a big smile and waved at Seth and me as we walked out the door. Kind of anticlimactic, really. But I'm so proud of him and I'm so relieved he had a good first day. He said he made some friends, and that he wasn't shy at all. And I hope that once full days start and he gets into the routine and he bonds with a few kids, he'll love it.

I did manage to take a few pictures, even though he was so over me having the camera!

Happy face (cheesy, but happy!):

Silly face:

At his tablein the classroom:

As for me, life has been a bit crazy the last two weeks. After the earthquake, we had hurricane Irene. I thought we lost Clark (our cat) during the storm, since he got out and was gone for 48 hours, while the storm hit, but he came back and all was well. Almost the worst 48 hours of my life, since I was the one who forgot that he had run outside. I meant to go back out and get him, but I completely forgot and went to bed instead. The next morning--the day that Irene passed over us--he was nowhere to be found. But as I said, he came back, none the worse for wear.

Because Clark was missing, we did not take our vacation to Great Wolf Lodge, so we plan on rescheduling this fall sometime. And our last week of summer vacation was dreadfully boring--especially Labor Day weekend. I feel bad that we didn't really do anything with the boys other than errands and play with our neighbors. I don't think it bothered them, but it was kind of a lame way to end the summer. But such is life. Work is really stressful for me right now, and unfortunately, that's where I am.

I hope to make it up with fun activities over the next couple of months. I want to go apple picking in September. Maybe a trip to New York to visit friends in October. And maybe Great Wolf in November. I'm looking forward to it all already!