Babies Born ~ September 2007 #75

[Artechim]

My kiddies are back at school next week.

MD, I will hunt out the yoga-ish things and send them to you. And far out - when did H change from a gangly kid to a grown up young woman?!

W got a molar tooth pulled out the other day. I feel terrible about it - he was supposed to have it for another 4ish years. It had a hole before christmas and I didn't know until he complained it was sore so they medicated and filled it and it worked for a month but obviously it was already infected so it started to abscess so they had to take it out. Tooth fairy pays extra guilt money lol

[Cassius2]

waaahhh! i was so so sure that I had hit send on my last post like aaaaggeeessss ago...obviously not as i had replied to MDs post way back lol..

BBL...need to have a sit and read!!

Miss L had her first day back today! a whole year since she first started at the school!

[AnyDream]

Good luck with the return to school, Arte! Bugger about W's tooth - H had one pulled around a similar age, no harm done in the end. But the mummy guilt was pretty heavy at the time, so I recall.

Cass, I've had that I-so-answered-this-recently feeling a few times as well. Sign of a busy, well-filled life. How's Miss L going with school this year? As I recall the transition was a little rocky, hope it's all smoother now.

Miss E seems to be happy with her new teacher and class but she's been a rotter at home, so I'm not sure what that's all about. She doesn't have many kids from last year's class in this year's class but I saw some of them lining up to hug her this afternoon as we left, so not too much social damage there! I haven't really met the teacher, she is sooooo not chatty like last year's teacher, but E seems to like her and she's got some good (visible) classroom strategies already. So that seems all good there.

[Artechim]

Could she just be tired MD? The end of the first week back is going to be a killer here with all three tired and over it. Especially Miss A - I have tried getting her up at 7am but she still stays up until 10pm either mucking around quietly in bed or screaming that she isn't tired. I am hoping that full school days will exhaust her enough to get her to sleep earlier. She has always been a night owl since she was a tiny baby and daylight savings doesn't help.

W was a rotter today too. Not sure if it is because he knows it is last days of holidays or because I said we were going to Dunedin tomorrow. Going to another town generally sets off some sort of meltdown but not usually until just before we leave. Hopefully he got it out of his system because I am not keen to do three kids in the car by myself for 1.5 hours if he is being a toad.

Cass, are my double spacings bothering you? I read the article but it is so ingrained now that it can't be stopped. Now that I have looked I see that it is an oddity and every thing else I read is single spaced. I wonder why it doesn't autocorrect? Perhaps someone should send the article link to the autocorrect developers.
How did L go at school?

I can't believe how big all these kids are in the 'first day of year x' photos appearing all over FB!

[AnyDream]

Arte, yes, quite probably overtired, but how you fix that as the year kicks off then just gets busier and busier, I do not know . I also had a little lightbulb moment yesterday when I was thinking about the difference between a person who is bored/disengaged/uncooperative and a person who is not. Often, we think a bored/disengaged person 'lacks stimulation' ie from an external sense, but actually, I think it's more about motivation, and having a sense of direction and meaning. When you're connected to some kind of goal/direction/purpose you don't tend to have as many blah moments because you seize your time differently. I have *no idea* how to apply that within the context of parenting a seven year old... but it's food for thought, for the whole family really.

I hope your trip to Dunedin panned out ok. I loved that place when we were there. Which was about a million years ago, but stilll... I loved it.

Also - LOL @ the double spacings. I went through a stage when I consciously tried to stop it, but I think they still creep in sometimes (often after a colon not a period). And yes I'm old and I learnt to type on a manual typewriter. I'm also guilty of the double line spacing, I even turn of the automatic spacing in my word docs. Because I can. #rebel

[Cassius2]

I also had a little lightbulb moment yesterday when I was thinking about the difference between a person who is bored/disengaged/uncooperative and a person who is not. Often, we think a bored/disengaged person 'lacks stimulation' ie from an external sense, but actually, I think it's more about motivation, and having a sense of direction and meaning. When you're connected to some kind of goal/direction/purpose you don't tend to have as many blah moments because you seize your time differently.

YES! what an awesome lightbulb moment! I reckon you are right on the money there. you should so be having an oprah 'ah ha' moment right there!!

Arte: nah, your double spacing doesnt bother me...I am not forced to edit your work in word lol. it's super painful as an editor as i have to manually check for it, and sometimes a 'double-spacer' (yes, i am claiming a noun for it lol) gets a bit excited and throws in a sneaky third in excitement hahaha.

I seriously had to unlearn the double space. But i felt relish in it as I really disliked the stupid typing classes that they made us do in highschool...omg, that must a thing of the past now hahaha....getting old!

Re School: Miss L is ok. she is stressed by other kids acting out as she knows that there are penalties that make her upset (even to just witness/be aware of). she is still getting picked on for her lunchbox contents (seriously, we must be living in the 80s again man)...so as a result wil not open her lunchbox and therefore doesnt eat at school this is now going to be raised a meeting with the teacher and the principal. I guess in a nutshell, stuff is still pretty messed up, but i am happy that she is at least now in the 'experimental' class with her fave teacher - the experimental class is basically two classes and the kids work together for most activities...not sure how this is different from most composite classes i was in as a kid...but yanno, you gotta roll with it.

the news that has hit my radar is that john marsden has finally found a way to get his little school to year 12...by buying the grammar school down the road. Now i just need to find a way to afford $27,000 a year for all three girls to go and we are set

[Artechim]

Only $27k a year - don't see the problem lol
So weird kids care about what is in others lunch boxes! It never even occurred to me. What does she have that is so strange?

MD, entirely agree that disengaged comes from internal motivation. I lack both and I often think if only my life had some direction I would be happier. When I look at all the happy people I know, they may not be rich but they are where they want to be and/or doing what they love.

So big car accident here. Just feeling so grateful that my girls are alright - to walk out of that with a few little scratches is some sort of amazing. Then all the what-ifs swirl in my head - I nearly put E's car seat on the other side that morning which would have left A on the side that got more crumpled. I also nearly let A go in the front as a treat because it was her first ever day of school. Somehow I made a series of incredibly lucky decisions and they ended up safe but it could have gone the other way so easily. As an aside, it was the head rests that saved us. The car could only crumple down to the level that the head rests were at. If they weren't in we would have lost 8 inches of head space. So if you have taken head rests out for car seats etc, I would highly suggest you look at putting them back in.
It was entirely my fault - I took a corner too fast considering the degree of bend and the fact the road was wet for the first time in a month or so. As soon as I tried to correct the corner we went into a skid and there was nothing I could do. Poor A is pretty traumatised and keeps commenting on the dryness/wetness of the road and asking if we are going fast or slow. She had her first trip on the school bus yesterday and said it was good but she was worried it was going to roll off the road E is a trooper and thinks it was a big adventure, especially when the Dr played Dr's with her and did all the ear/eye checks that we play at home lol.

Overall I am feeling quite lucky to be alive and to have my children safe and sound.