Monday updates

The Principal at the Kiddo's school told me this morning that they are still moving kids around and she would give me a call as soon as there was room to switch classes. I know the Kiddo doesn't care, but I really hope it is soon. I think it would be easier to have him switch as close to the start of the year as possible.

The puppy is testing my temper, but I think she's learning so I'm trying to be patient. The Kiddo and her (or is it she and the Kiddo?) are very slowly learning how to play together. He has a few issues with understanding she doesn't always want to play what he wants to play. She has a few issues with jumping and "biting" at him... she acts like he is a littler mate. Somehow we have to teach her that he is her master, not brother. Not sure how to do that, it's one of the reasons I was pushing for a 3 years or older dog vs a puppy.

Even with all the stress this month I have managed to resist the urge to buy a chocolate cake and eat it all myself. I'm pretty pleased with myself about that.

The Kiddo is slowly getting over his cold. It's dropped to his chest, which always seems to be the last stop on the way out of kiddo town so I'm hopeful he'll back to himself by the end of the week. Until then I'm going to give him a double dose of his medication at noon and hope that helps his concentration level.

That's pretty much it for updates. The only thing I have left to say is that it's fall, and soon the pumpkin spice coffee will be out, I'm looking forward to it. It's my favorite flavor of coffee (and creamer for that matter) and with these early mornings I'm pulling I've been drinking a LOT of coffee so it's a big event when I find a good flavor.

Distracting week

Been a little busy dealing with a few school related complications this week. Hopefully they will all be resolved by the weekend.

At any rate I'll be back to regular posting soon..

Mental Note...

I made the call this morning to go ahead and send the Kiddo to school. He ran his little 100 degree temperature off and on all day yesterday (medicated it was lower of course). This morning his nose was still goopy but his temperature was down so I mentally apologized to the universe (hoping that would fix any karma issues I'd be causing) and I got him ready to go.

Which leads me to this very important lesson, and one we learned the hard way:

With regards to the Kiddo, a trip that takes 25 minutes on a bike, does not equal a trip that takes 25 minutes walking...

I honestly thought it would take the same amount of time. After all, he bikes really slowly! I've always felt like I was walking as slow when he was biking, as I was when he was walking with me. But no, that was not the case... it is apparently actually closer to a 45 minute walk, especially if we have Cupcake walking with us.

I glanced at the time when we were 1/3 of the way there and we had ten minutes left. The kiddo ran walked the last two quarters of the distance, and the puppy ran/got carried. Both were exhausted by the time we hit the school. The good news though is the Teacher was only just ushering the kids into the classroom sooooo the Kiddo wasn't technically late, he was just the last one that was on time *chuckle*

good news/bad news

The good news is cupcake is sleeping...
The bad news is it's 10 in the morning vs 5am when she wanted to play...



The good news is the Kiddo's runny nose last night wasn't puppy related allergies...
The bad news is he's got a pretty bad summer cold. Cough, runny/stuffy nose, 100.1 fever...

The best medicine

This is one of the videos I took yesterday... the one where he's reading to his new puppy. He did that quite a bit yesterday.

Today the Kiddo laughed more then I have heard him laugh in a long long time. Not that he's a quiet unhappy boy, but usually he's just very mellow. Today he laughed all day long, at everything. He laughed randomly remembering something she did from earlier (as she napped) and he really laughed while they played. They did a little more reading...

Then we took her to visit the inlaws and they had a three way play date, him, cupcake, and their little dog Sophie. When we got home she took a very long nap, and then we took her outside to play chase. She's learning leash very well and he loves to run and have her chase him.

She ran around the "track" with him maybe every third time, he went around at least 8 times... she was so tired by the time she went around the third time that her legs were shaking!! But she wouldn't let me hold her back so I had to tell him to stop the game. They flopped on the grass for a break.
and we all trooped inside to rest...
She did a lot of napping today (the long exhausted type from playing so hard) so I am a bit worried about her sleeping tonight. I tried to plan for it though, we took a 15 minute potty and play session outside at 7:30ish. Then I pulled her water and food at 8. I'll take her outside for a quick (lord willing) potty break at 10 and then if I'm lucky she'll sleep a good long time.

Big Day... small puppy

Today was a rather big day in our house. The Kiddo finally got his dog. She's a Shih-Tzu Beagle mix, and (obviously) a puppy. She looks like she's going to have long hair like her daddy (which will be great for my allergies), and so far she has an amazingly sweet temperament.







I wish the man could have been here for it because I had forgotten how much work a puppy can be and I can feel myself starting to twitch (mommy needs a time out). When we put her in the bathroom and baby gate her in and she criiiies and cries. We tried putting her in a crate in the livingroom (so she was with us) and she still cried.






I think maybe all the fuss was because she was over excited and tired though because finally she settled down, and the kiddo read her bedtime stories until she was fast asleep.

We left her there and took a quick trip to the store, came back about an hour later and she was quiet. She looked at us as we came in the door, then put her head down and went back to snoozing. I think that bodes well for her not being a barker (*fingers crossed*).

I had a couple video's to post here with this but for some reason Blogger isn't uploading them right so y'all will have to make due with pictures for now.

Chapter 2 - Day 1 (Part 2)

Picking the Kiddo up from school was not the experience I thought it would be. I expected him to come running at me, full of chatter about the other kids or what really neat toy he played with. Instead I got this:

After shutting off the video camera and calming him down we talked about how the bus doesn't stop at our house. We live much to close to the school for them to want to stop here so he can't ride the bus. He looked really sad for a minute and then said "I know, what if we got a new house? Then the bus could come get me!" Well that would be a solution to the problem, I gotta give him credit for thinking it up. After that we tried again. He still wouldn't really talk to me about class though, just the very bare bones basic stuff:

Over the course of the rest of the day he told me a little bit here and there about what he did. They traced baby a's (in crayon) and circles (again in crayon). He also had a sheet of paper with a whole bunch of l's on it, I'm not clear if they were supposed to be practicing strait lines or what (he wouldn't tell me).

All in all I think he had a good day. He has said a couple of times that he "did it right, small" which I assume means the a. And that he "didn't do it right, but it was hard" which I have no idea what refers to. I'm finding the lack of actual communication frustrating. But for now it's enough that he had a smiling face (after the school bus incident that is) and he still has quite a bit of enthusiasm for the next day he gets to go to school (his teacher bribing with a ding dong probably helped that).
Just now as I put him to bed I asked him what he was going to dream about. He said "I will dream about the school bus,... and about our new house!!"

Chapter 2 - Day 1 (Part 1)

I think of today as day 1 of the Kiddo's second chapter of life.. chapter 1 was all the baby and toddler stuff, growing and learning at home.

Chapter 2 is more about social expansion, Kindergarten!! I admit I've been super freaked out, I still am. Fortunately between my mom, sister, and friends I have a great support structure and it's helping me adapt to the changes. Thanks everybody!

The Kiddo took heading to his first day of school in stride. He ate his breakfast faster then I've ever seen him eat before. When it was time to get dressed he picked his black cords and bright yellow shirt, and his favorite white tennis shoes. He wore his backpack for at least an hour pacing around the house waiting for it to be time to go.





















When we got to his school I found a place to park (across the street) and walked him towards the group of parents and kids milling around. We got about 20 feet from then and he stopped, he gave me a little push and said "okay, bye mom, you can go now, I'll see you later!" Of course I didn't leave (which ticked him off a little) and I managed to get a couple pictures before they were all shuttled into the classroom.
Look at how short he is, even WITH the last three months worth of growth. Now is the two hour wait until it's time to pick him up. I'm going to try to get THAT on video for you guys. I'm sure he's going to be bouncing up and down on an adrenalin high so we'll take a quick trip to his Grandma's house, then the store (to walk it off) and then we'll be home and I'll post Part 2 the after action review *chuckle*

$13 = (take two)

ThredUp box number two got here yesterday. Five pairs of pants and three shirts. The brown pair and the gray ones aren't adjustable but I think I can take them in a bit so they fit him, the other three are all perfect. They are all (minus teh gray athletic pants) cargo style, which is the Kiddo's favorite.

I'm VERY pleased with the whole thing. I sold both pairs of his, to small, police car shoes on Ebay (the 8's went for 15, the 9's went for 20) which more then paid for both boxes of used cloths. In the end I got him an entire new wardrobe with no money out of pocket, I can't ask for better then that.