A Christmas party!

Taylor with her face painted from her party at school.

Tuesday was a wonderful, busy day. I got to take a half day off at work and go to Taylor's Christmas party at school. It was nice to see what she does at school and be able to enjoy her and her friends. I got to help with her art project, which was a Santa hat with her name on it spelled out in glue and glitter and then we also made a paper chain, which is on our Christmas tree. I got to see how she learns and how much she has learned since starting there in September. Taylor is a very private child. When I get home from work on Tuesdays and Thursdays (her school days), I make dinner and when we sit down to eat I ask her how school was. She usually (95% of the time) answers good. Then I ask her what she did and she says nothing. I know she isn't doing nothing because she says things that I know she wouldn't normally know and sings songs I have never sang to her before, but she won't let me in her secret world of preschool. Going to her school really let me in and she was excited for me to be there.

Two of her little friends sat next to me during circle time and when it was time for her to sit down, she came over, sat on my lap and told the one little boy "She's my mom!" I thought it was too funny, but I explained to her that his mom wasn't there so he just wanted to sit next to me and she was okay with that, but she did have to sit on my lap the rest of the time. I am really impressed with how far she has come. We put Taylor in preschool because she doesn't play well with kids her own age. She plays well with younger kids and kids that are older than her, but not kids her own age. She interacts very well with the kids in her class and is very polite to them even when they are not very nice to her. Case in point, there is a child in her class that likes to push, hit and take toys off the other kids. The teacher does make the child sit in time out, but she continues to do it. This particular child pushed Taylor and the mother in me wanted to grab the girl and tell her not to touch my child again, but I didn't and Taylor just let it go. A little while later the girl pushed her again and she looked back at me like she wanted me to say something to her. I just gave Taylor a look like "you handle it."

She went over to the girl and said "Abby, you just pushed me."

Abby's response, "I know. You were in my way."

Taylor calmly told her "If you would have said excuse me, I would have moved out of your way and the next time you push me I'll have to tell the teacher because that is not how we behave."

It never happened again and I couldn't have been prouder.

After I got off work Tuesday night, the girls got their hair cut. They both got it cut much shorter than the last time, but I think they both look absolutely adorable! Taylor wanted her hair short is what she told the lady, but after last time's melt down, I wasn't so sure. When she was done, she looked in the mirror and said, "Julie did it absolutely perfect!" It was so sweet.

Last night my mom, me, my sister, CJ, Casia, Taylor, and Callee all ventured out to see the light display and Santa at Kraynak's. It was wonderful, but I left my digital camera in the car and didn't realize it until we were leaving so I have no pictures.

I am so excited for this weekend. It is going to be jam packed which I'm not looking forward to but I love seeing family and watching my kids open gifts and tell people why we have Christmas. This is the first year I am actually excited about Christmas in a long time, but it was well worth the wait. I hope everyone else has a great Christmas too. I probably won't post until Tuesday because I will be that busy tomorrow and through the weekend!

Christmas time

Okay, I say Christmas is my least favorite season, but it's mostly because of the commercialism of Christmas and how impatient people get. If I can spend time with my family and stay away from the mall this time of year, I love it! So far, I have been able to do that. I have one more thing to get each of the girls and then I'm done.

I love the Christmas movies. I have DVR'd Charlie Brown Christmas, The Grinch (animated), and now Shrek the Halls. Did anybody else watch that? I thought it was hilarious and can't wait to watch it again. I will probably delete them after Christmas, but the girls and I enjoy watching them in the evening. I was talking to a friend of mine on the phone the other night about all the Christmas movies, including Ralphy, It's a Wonderful Life and so on, and Taylor comes out with, "Can we watch Polar Express? It's a Christmas movie." I was impressed she knew to associate it with Christmas and so now I think we may have a new tradition. I think the movie is cute and all, but we'll probably have to watch it every day from now until February because Taylor has a habit of becoming addicted to movies, especially that one.

It's funny how I really never got into Christmas too much and always thought the gift giving was such a hassle and now I've gotten into the holiday spirit this year! I guess kids have a funny way of changing you!

I have to tell you all that yesterday was my dad's birthday. I did call and wish him a happy birthday, but I meant to give him a shout out on here and never got around to it. Sorry Dad!

Today is my older sister's 30th birthday! I used to love teasing her when she was about 26, that she was getting close to 30 and I still had way more years than her to go. Not so funny anymore! Happy birthday Alissa!

What a night

First of all, let me address the whole couch thing. Taylor and I think it is more of a green color and Mike and my mom swear it's blue. My brother said to me last night, in the picture it looks green, but at your house it's blue. So I guess I won in pictures, but at home...who knows! I still think it's green.

Last night I was sitting there watching TV at 10:30 when I got a call from a blocked number. I only have two people who call from a blocked number and neither of them usually call that late. I answered and it sounded like my friend Jenn. I said, "Hey what are you doing?" and the voice on the other end said, "This is you sister!" Oops!

"I need you to come pick me up."

"Where are you?"

"Home, but the air is no longer in my tires and I have no way out."

"I'm on my way."

I called my little sister so I didn't have to drag my kids out of bed and I hurried over there not knowing what to expect. Just my sister, niece, and nephew were there and they were packed and ready to go. I brought them back to my house where they will stay for a while. I confess to being torn about this. I love the idea of living with my sister again. I lived with her until my nephew was 2 and I loved being around them all the time. The only problem is, I now have a husband and add 2 more kids to that mix! My house is going to be crazy for a little while and I will embrace every minute of it.

I have realized through all of this how lucky I am. Mike never asked, "Can't they go somewhere else?" or "We really don't have the room." I apologized to him and his response was, "Don't be. She is your sister and we will do what we have to for however long. Our house won't be clean for quite a while though." I think I just fell in love all over.

This and That

Yesterday my sister and I took all the kids to McDonald's to play. I know, huge germ pit and really, what lives in there anyway? This McDonald's doesn't have a ball pit, only the tubes and slides and such, so in my eyes it's not quite as disgusting. The kids had a ball, except for Callee who had to sit on time out. She has such an attitude; it really is amazing how young these girls get them. I thought I had at least a few more years before this started, you know at least until puberty and hormones. Not a chance with this child. I was holding her milk for her so she wouldn't spill it, but she didn't want to take a drink that way, she wanted to hold it herself. Not a chance Callee Rose. She started throwing a fit and crying, you had to be there to really appreciate the attitude that comes out in these times. So we put her on time out. I thought she was screaming before that. She was wailing so hard and so loud it was borderline embarrassing. When her minute was up, she was all blotchy and red from screaming so I offered her the milk again (this was mean I know, but I wanted to see if what they say is true. They say if you use time out before they are 2 you are wasting your time because they don't get the concept and will keep repeating the behavior.) Well, she drank the milk nicely without having to hold it herself. Moral of the story: Callee is either a genius or these "experts" aren't so smart. I think I will keep doing things my way.

Here is another issue I have been thinking about lately: potty training. Not that I expect her to be potty trained in the next 6 months or anything, but we started sitting Taylor on the potty to get her comfortable with it when she was only 9 months. Callee is 14 months and has only sat on a potty one time. Taylor was completely potty trained one month after she turned 2 and at this rate Callee will be going to kindergarten with diapers. Ok, probably not, but I should probably start her sitting on the potty and trying to teach her the way I was teaching Taylor way before this age. The problem is I stayed home until Taylor was almost 3. I wish I could take a year off and get Callee potty trained and then go back to work. Am I doing a disservice to Callee by working? Is Taylor the one better off because I stayed home with her? I hate these guilty feelings, am I spending too much time with one and not enough with the other? Is this one going to get mad because that one got to do (fill in the blank)? I think I'm going to go scream now.

The day the world changed!

Okay so everyone knows what today is. It is the day (well 6 years ago) that the world changed. Everyone from my generation will be saying, I remember exactly where I was when I got the news, much like my mom does about the JFK assassination. Well, I remember where I was, begging my nephew who had just turned one to go back to sleep! My nephews first birthday was exactly two weeks prior and I watched him for my sister while she worked. Unfortunately, I worked afternoons and he had gotten up particularly early that morning so I was begging him to please take a nap. I had him almost all the way asleep and my cell phone rang, it was my sister from work, I wanted to kill her. She asked what we were doing and I told her, she asked me to get up and turn on the tv. I did like she wanted me to and there was the second plane hitting! I couldn't believe it. I remember holding my nephew rocking him and crying. I couldn't believe it. That is when I started hating Bush and I haven't quit yet. But, oh well I voted so I can be upset he is still in office. Well, before I make any enemies, let me stop there.

Callee is feeling much better today and her fever finally broke as she was up screaming at 2:30 this morning. I got no sleep, I hate my job, and I can't find a way to give my two weeks notice. I am actually afraid to do it. What am I going to do and why can't I stand up to this man? Ahhhhh....I want to scream!

Taylor started preschool

Taylor started preschool on Tuesday. She goes every Tuesday and Thursday and so far, she seems to like it. On Tuesday when we dropped her off, she broke my heart. There are about 14 kids in her class (3 teachers), but 10 of them go to the same church. Taylor doesn't happen to be in that group. She looked so sad and lonely standing there by herself. She is so shy that she won't introduce herself to anyone, but she said she did meet a little boy named Connor. Hopefully this will help her and she will become used to her new routine. She didn't cry at all though which really impressed me. On the first day she got to paint a big apple and she loves to paint so she was thrilled. She can also tell you apple starts with "a" and she knows how to spell her name. Before when you asked her to spell her name, she would say T-a-y and then a bunch of other letters that are not in her name. Now she can tell you T-a-y-l-o-r. I was pretty impressed. I'm not sure what she got to do today, one of the downfalls of working full time, but I'm sure I'll hear all about it if she'll talk to me on my lunch and if not at 5:30. I miss my girls so much when I'm at work, especially when I have really bad days like today, but I know I'm doing this for them to have a better life and we are doing the best we can. I just hope someday they understand that too.

We had a really busy weekend and like always every place we went I forgot my camera. I get so mad at myself about that. Saturday was my nephews birthday party. Nothing special just cake and ice cream and presents. It was nice because the kids all got to play together and then apparently Casia and Taylor didn't get enough of each other because Tay stayed at my sister's house. They had a really good time and she came home Sunday afternoon.

When Taylor got home, we went to Mike's grandma's for a picnic and some games. We played lasso golf and corn holes, which I suck at both but it was still fun. All the kids were running around and we ate way too much food. It was all so good you had to try a little of everything. Time went so fast while we were there and by the time I checked the time it was 8:30. That is Callee's normal bed time so no wonder why she was so fussy. We headed home to put two exhausted little girls to bed and an exhausted mommy followed not long after. It was overall a great day, but I was beat and I knew Monday was going to be just as bad.

Monday my sister and I took her two kids and Taylor to the Canfield fair. Mike had to help his sister move so he couldn't go and we knew Callee wouldn't get a nap if we took her so Mike's mom watched her for a couple hours. CJ, Casia, and Taylor rode every ride they could and ate a lot of food. They got to play this game and no matter what you won, so it was nice for them. They all had a really good time, but again after walking in the sun for hours I was completely exhausted and sun burned. It was a great end to a great summer and I can't wait until next time, except my baby will be 2 next summer...SCARY!!!

I hope everyone else had a great weekend and a wonderful week!

Taylor loves to pose, but at this point probably wished I would have put the camera down!

Diary or Diarrhea? That is the question.

I really have nothing to blog about today except one funny, yet gross story. It's about diarrhea. Taylor went to my sister's yesterday to play and I went to pick her up about 8:30. Alissa said she had given each of the kids a little notebook to write/draw in. Casia told Taylor to write diarrhea so Taylor got the green and brown marker and started drawing circles and coloring them in. That's diarrhea, right? Casia got mad and said "Not the poop!" Everyone was confused. They all, except Casia, thought there was only one kind of diarrhea. Alissa asked her what she was talking about then. She explained that she wanted her to write in the thing that you write in when you don't want your friends to see it. A diary! That made a whole lot more sense and wasn't as gross as wanting your cousin to write diarrhea.

I only have one more day of work and then it is finally family time. I am so excited. Have a great night!