Paul flew out yesterday for a two-week business trip to Alice Springs, Australia! It has brought back all the fantastic memories of our recent family vacation to Sydney back in May....which I'm still not finished blogging about.
For the past month we have been dealing with transitions with Kayleigh. She no longer sleeps in a crib, but with the big girl bed comes challenges of keeping her in her room. The bedtime fighting escalated to tantrums, screaming and crying over 1.5 hours were typical. We tried everything we could think of - soothing her, making sure she wasn't hungry, thirsty, too warm, too cold, room too bright, or too dark, nightmares, uncomfortable bedding, bedtime too early, too late, etc. We pretty much ran the gamut in ways to react to her. Every time we had to yell at her (or spank her!) we felt simply horrified, but nothing gets through to her, so we had to do something! The problem was that she usually clams up and refuses to talk or communicate when she gets into a stubborn mood. So, trying to solve the mystery at night was impossible and when revisiting the topic during the day, she just says, "huh?"
Well, with Paul gone and me being scared to death of having to deal with Kayleigh's bedtime war, I felt a desperate need to reach out to Facebook family and friends for help and advice. People were so kind and sympathetic. They gave really great advice and in the end, I drew from it enough courage to be proactive and change things up. The bedtime routine starts earlier. I stole Paul's reading pillow and made a little reading nest on Kayleigh's bed and we did stories in her room, all of us laying down, rather than in Abby's room. Afterwards, I had Kayleigh help me put Abby to bed and let Kayleigh close Abby's door. Seeing her sister stay in her room was the key. I haven't had even the tiniest issue with her since! So, keeping my fingers crossed that this will last....at least until Paul returns to help!
Abby starts Kindergarten this Thursday. Tomorrow is both girls' last day at Primrose. Abby's super excited. She and her friends have been busy making arrangements for playdates (i.e., begging and pleading with parents to get in touch with one another and pouncing on the parents during pickup to remember to make those playdates!) as they all know they'll be going separate ways soon. Kayleigh knows she will be transitioning to another Primrose and it's sad because she is just starting to come out of her shell and we are seeing her bond with the staff and a few kids in her class.
Abby's request for her first Kindergarten lunch....beenie weenies. Now comes the dilemma of how to pack a lunch and keep an item warm because heating of school lunches is unavailable. For some reason, I'm pretty excited about packing lunches.
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We have a new FELINE family member. I can't recall if I had ever mentioned this, but Abby's been begging for "an orange cat with a white belly who's a kitten" since about Christmas time. We looked in earnest, but didn't strike any luck. Then Belle had her skin issues and we weren't ready to bring another cat in for a little while, but she's doing great now.
At the end of July, I checked Craigslist yet again for orange kittens and found one! A wonderful lady who fosters kittens had a medium-hair, orange tabby with a white belly, roughly 3 months old. We contacted her and got to meet "Rusty." The foster lady took exceptional care of her kittens and this one was found with her sister behind a barn, so severely malnourished that they had developed swollen protein bellies. She thought they had worms and had dewormed them five times before they figured out it was protein belly. With a change in diet and a lot of love, Rusty and her sister are very healthy now.
We loved Rusty and brought him home later that week. The vet checked him out and immediately announced that he must not have come from the shelter given how healthy he was. He is a very tall cat and is expected to be a BIG cat, so despite his weight of nearly 4 pounds, they think he really is only about 3 months old.
As with our naming theme with cats, we told Abby she needed to help us choose a Disney character name for her new kitten. She thought of the little satyr in Disney's Hercules movie, which she hasn't seen yet. However, she somehow got that satyr mixed up with the satyr named Puck in Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which I highly doubt she's even heard of, yet, where did she get the name?! (Magnificent daycare she's been attending. Simply magnificent.) Alas, she insisted that our new cat's name become Puck. We liked it and it sure fits his mischievous character, so we now have felines named Tigger, Belle, Gizmo, and Puck.
Tigger was the first to start playing with Puck and they chase each other around quite a bit. Belle tolerates Puck, loves him because she loves his food, but otherwise just wants him to leave her alone. Gizmo approaches Puck on his own terms, but Puck's playfulness seems to stress Gizmo out and he'll jump if Puck moves too fast! Puck has no clue how to run on hardwood floors and we get great laughs watching him skid across the room, flat on his belly with all four legs splayed out. He has no issues with the girls kid-handling him and he's often snuggled up tight against any of us, including the girls.
For the past month we have been dealing with transitions with Kayleigh. She no longer sleeps in a crib, but with the big girl bed comes challenges of keeping her in her room. The bedtime fighting escalated to tantrums, screaming and crying over 1.5 hours were typical. We tried everything we could think of - soothing her, making sure she wasn't hungry, thirsty, too warm, too cold, room too bright, or too dark, nightmares, uncomfortable bedding, bedtime too early, too late, etc. We pretty much ran the gamut in ways to react to her. Every time we had to yell at her (or spank her!) we felt simply horrified, but nothing gets through to her, so we had to do something! The problem was that she usually clams up and refuses to talk or communicate when she gets into a stubborn mood. So, trying to solve the mystery at night was impossible and when revisiting the topic during the day, she just says, "huh?"
Well, with Paul gone and me being scared to death of having to deal with Kayleigh's bedtime war, I felt a desperate need to reach out to Facebook family and friends for help and advice. People were so kind and sympathetic. They gave really great advice and in the end, I drew from it enough courage to be proactive and change things up. The bedtime routine starts earlier. I stole Paul's reading pillow and made a little reading nest on Kayleigh's bed and we did stories in her room, all of us laying down, rather than in Abby's room. Afterwards, I had Kayleigh help me put Abby to bed and let Kayleigh close Abby's door. Seeing her sister stay in her room was the key. I haven't had even the tiniest issue with her since! So, keeping my fingers crossed that this will last....at least until Paul returns to help!
Abby starts Kindergarten this Thursday. Tomorrow is both girls' last day at Primrose. Abby's super excited. She and her friends have been busy making arrangements for playdates (i.e., begging and pleading with parents to get in touch with one another and pouncing on the parents during pickup to remember to make those playdates!) as they all know they'll be going separate ways soon. Kayleigh knows she will be transitioning to another Primrose and it's sad because she is just starting to come out of her shell and we are seeing her bond with the staff and a few kids in her class.
Abby's request for her first Kindergarten lunch....beenie weenies. Now comes the dilemma of how to pack a lunch and keep an item warm because heating of school lunches is unavailable. For some reason, I'm pretty excited about packing lunches.
===
We have a new FELINE family member. I can't recall if I had ever mentioned this, but Abby's been begging for "an orange cat with a white belly who's a kitten" since about Christmas time. We looked in earnest, but didn't strike any luck. Then Belle had her skin issues and we weren't ready to bring another cat in for a little while, but she's doing great now.
At the end of July, I checked Craigslist yet again for orange kittens and found one! A wonderful lady who fosters kittens had a medium-hair, orange tabby with a white belly, roughly 3 months old. We contacted her and got to meet "Rusty." The foster lady took exceptional care of her kittens and this one was found with her sister behind a barn, so severely malnourished that they had developed swollen protein bellies. She thought they had worms and had dewormed them five times before they figured out it was protein belly. With a change in diet and a lot of love, Rusty and her sister are very healthy now.
We loved Rusty and brought him home later that week. The vet checked him out and immediately announced that he must not have come from the shelter given how healthy he was. He is a very tall cat and is expected to be a BIG cat, so despite his weight of nearly 4 pounds, they think he really is only about 3 months old.
As with our naming theme with cats, we told Abby she needed to help us choose a Disney character name for her new kitten. She thought of the little satyr in Disney's Hercules movie, which she hasn't seen yet. However, she somehow got that satyr mixed up with the satyr named Puck in Shakespeare's play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which I highly doubt she's even heard of, yet, where did she get the name?! (Magnificent daycare she's been attending. Simply magnificent.) Alas, she insisted that our new cat's name become Puck. We liked it and it sure fits his mischievous character, so we now have felines named Tigger, Belle, Gizmo, and Puck.
Tigger was the first to start playing with Puck and they chase each other around quite a bit. Belle tolerates Puck, loves him because she loves his food, but otherwise just wants him to leave her alone. Gizmo approaches Puck on his own terms, but Puck's playfulness seems to stress Gizmo out and he'll jump if Puck moves too fast! Puck has no clue how to run on hardwood floors and we get great laughs watching him skid across the room, flat on his belly with all four legs splayed out. He has no issues with the girls kid-handling him and he's often snuggled up tight against any of us, including the girls.
Sunday, August 12, 2012 |
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