We're Home!

We made it back, now it's time for the fun to begin again! I'm suprising myself by admitting that we actually had a wonderful trip with almost no major bumps, for once. It was so relaxing to be away from the city, the river and all its wonders has always worked some sort of magic calming on me, and I think its rubbed off on the kiddo's too. We had such a wonderful visit that when Jason came up for the weekend to bring us back we were actually talking of may'be moving back to NY after he finishes getting his degree, which is something we swore we'd never do. I guess as much as I hate to admit it I am a small town girl who wants to live close to her family, I'm not suited to live in this or any city, I yearn for a simpler life with less stress. Why is it that the older I get the more of a hypocrite I find myself becoming?

Cath is really blossoming now, she seems to be growing out of her shyness although I suspect that like me she will always be shy to a degree, she talks more especially outside her comfort zones, and we're making headway on verbalizing our emotions when she gets upset instead of just yelling. Pete isn't really doing anything new I can think of, except looking less like my baby everyday, especially nowadays since he's sporting a faux-hawk. The schooling is on hiatus right now because life is too busy and we need some cool down time before adding another thing to our schedule, I plan to start up again in a week or two, after we recover from MIL's expected visit this weekend.

The "blah's"

I'm feeling kinda "blah", I guess is the word to describe it, about things lately. I swear I'll figure out sometime how to get pictures up and personalize this blog, but then I've never been good about journals so this shouldn't be any better. And, the kid's broke my glasses today, I don't have another pair, I don't have contacts anymore, I don't have a current prescription nor the money to get new one's at the moment either! So, how am I walking around without bumping into things? Well, Jason hot glued my glasses back together (they broke at the bridge of the nose), yeah I'm not showing my face in public until we come up with a better solution for this.

Enough about me, now onto the kiddo's. Cath is loving Goodnight Moon this week, she's even answering most questions I ask about the book! Our second attempt at lapbooking is going well, although I'm still doing most of the legwork Cath is helping which is encouraging. Pete is happy and recovering well from his Corneal Abrasion last week, only thing new with him is the fact that we called PCC today because he ate some Pepto Bismol Jason left out. That child will be the end of me, he's too much like Jason for his own good.

Crayons anyone? How about paint?

I don't know what has gotten into Cath but all of a sudden she's interested in art! It started early last week with a intense interest in coloring. Now, she has been bringing me her crayons and a coloring book and announcing she needs to color, and she's been doing this 3-4x daily!! While I'm very excited about this I have to ask, did I miss something here?!

I realized over the weekend that we really haven't given the kid's a lot of access to paint, so off to the store we went. First for the hand paint, that was a hit with Pete, but Cath wanted to use a paintbrush. Next, lets try the oil based paint! Oil based paint is a hit with Cath, but Pete just wants to dip the brush in the paint and eat it. Now we have something for everyone.

Showing Off

Ever feel like you have to show off all your child's abilities just to prove that you're actually doing something with them and not just setting them in front of the tube all day? Why is it that our parents are most often the one's with which whom make us feel this way? Ok, enough with the rhetorical questions on my part.

Anyways, I'm putting together little 4th of July projects for the kid's to work on and send to the grandma's to prove we're actually "doing something". They already think I'm just homeschooling to "keep on baby-ing them", I can only imagine the talks I'll be subject to once they find out the kid's aren't going to Kindergarten much less Elementary school.

Oh well, I've always been seen as the "slightly off" one in the family, I guess this is my way of staying true to form.

Feeling out of place

About a month and a half ago Jason, me, and the kid's went up to visit some friends in PA and I have felt very conflicted about our living situation since. The area of PA we visited was about 1hr outside of Philadelphia, it reminded me of where I grew up in NY except a great deal nicer, it also brought back nostalgic memories of my grandparents who lived near there. Visiting our friends reminded me of what it was like not to live in the city but instead to live a comfortable distance outside it, and it was wonderful!! I felt so relaxed and at ease when I was up there, for once I didn't feel like I had to impress some snobbish city mom who has everything and more for her kid. On the way home both Jason and I said if we could we'd pack up and move straight away, unfortunately Jason's job is tying us down here for at least another 3yrs, what a depressing thought!

I've come to realize how much I despise city life. I can't stand all the snobbish people, traffic is horrendous, coming home to a shoebox of a apartment certainly isn't thrilling, wondering if we'll ever afford a nice home. Everything here really depresses me! Just thinking about it makes me want to tear up, and those few who know me well know how much it takes for me to not only get to that point but more importantly admit it.

I feel so lonely and out of place here, I can't stand it. I feel like I have no real friends here, with the exception of 1 person who knows who she is. Everyone here really lacks substance, and are so fake it makes me want to scream. How am I supposed to survive these next years without losing it?

My pity party is over now.

Small Victories

I finally have worn Jason down!! He has agreed to take our homeschooling year by year and just see how things go. We will reserve the option to put the kid's in public school if things aren't working out, that was my compromise. But, this is a big change in attitude that I'm extremely happy about! Before Jason would only agree to homeschooling up until Kindergarten, and after that he wouldn't even discuss the issue with me. Finally, after many discussions I sat him down and explained to him my whole plan for homeschooling, which is basically a mix of unschooling and unit studies(FIAR), he likes my plan but would like for me to get my curriculum overlooked by a Kindergarten teacher to make sure I'm not missing anything, and that I'll agree to. So we finally reached a compromise, this is a great Mother's day gift!

I also have figured out part of the reason Cath dislikes art, it's more a matter of ability than interest here. I figured out that she disliked coloring because she's been holding her crayons incorrectly, so we're working on that. And, I've noticed with some of our other art projects I think she's a little behind in Small Motor Development which would explain the reluctance with art. We have some things to work on but fortunately it's nothing big, she just needs a little fine tuning in certain areas. There may be a light at the end of this artist's tunnel!

Yay for small victories!!

Pediatrician's are driving me insane

First a little background before I explain our current situation here... Last week we had Pete's 15mo & Cath's 3yr Pediatric appt. with a intolerable pediatrician who shall go unnamed at this time. This pediatrician and I do not have a good track record considering she diagnosed Pete with a ear infection when he actually had all the signs and symptoms of Influenza Type A, and I had to literally stop her from writing me the prescription for his "ear infection" and demand she test him for the flu before dismissing us. Guess what Pete ended up having, you guessed it Influenza Type A.

Back to last week now, I asked the ped. to give us a referral to a Pediatric Hematologist so we can be 100% sure she did not inherit Jason's blood disorder. Even after both Jason and I carefully explained the whole situation to her the ped. could not understand why we would want to get Cath tested! Fortunately she did agree to the referral, but we never got it at that visit because she needed to ask her colleagues if we really needed this referral. Well, we got the referral today but there's a small problem... The stupid ped. never mentioned that Cath would need bloodwork drawn to be sent to the Pediatric Hematologist to review before we could even make the appointment!!! So now we get to visit the ped. office for the bloodwork on Tues., wait a few days then call and try to make the appt with the Pediatric Hematologist again, fun!

I'm beginning to think a new doctor is in order.