here it is

I'm choosing to write this so many years from now when my son is ridiculously successful we can have a good laugh.  And because 2012 is a day away and I want to focus on the future and all the awesome things it has in store for us.

A couple of weeks ago I blogged about one really horrible day but didn't go into any detail.  Well, here it is.  The Mayor was kicked out of preschool.

This school year has not been a very good one for The Mayor.  It has been a combination of many factors.  He is a little bored (academically) at school; he has some speech issues (nothing serious.  He has a great vocabulary and a lot to say but doesn't know how to articulate verbally what he is feeling.  His brain goes faster than his mouth and when he can't verbalize why he is upset, he gets frustrated and acts out the only way he knows how - emotionally); he has a teacher who although is extremely experienced, is extremely type A and not flexible.

Let's be honest, The Mayor is not in preschool so he can get into Stanford early.  He is in preschool for the social aspect.  The letters, Spanish, writing, etc is all gravy.  I want him to learn how to socialize and take instruction from someone other than me and D.  I want him to be able to be creative and free to be a 4 year old boy.  His teacher was very sweet but prided herself on keeping a really clean classroom instead of letting them play outside.  She prided herself on doing 4 worksheets, each sheet having the child trace the letter 'M' instead of finger painting.  Not a great combination for the very creative and free spirited Mayor.  But that was ok.  I had a couple of conferences with his teacher and the preschool director on ways we could try to make this school year successful for him and the teachers.  After all, at some point in all of our lives, we end up having a teacher we don't love, or working for a boss we can't stand...but you just can't quit.  You need to learn to adapt and work through it.  So I didn't want to pull him from the class (or the school) without giving it a try.

About a month ago, I started doing some research and talking to some experts/doctors and realized The Mayor has sensory issues.  Little things are what triggered me to look into this: he would cover his ears and became very sensitive to sounds; he started gagging on foods because he was bothered by the textures; he was regressing in his behavior, his tantrums were almost like a 2 year old instead of a 4 year old.

I took him to his pediatrician to have anything medically ruled out.  After all, it could have been an ear infection causing his ears to be sensitive or strep throat causing him to gag on food.  Everything came back negative...he is perfectly healthy.  We left the pediatrician with a referral to have The Mayor evaluated by an Occupational Therapist.

Last week he had a 2 hour evaluation with an Occupational Therapist (OT) and 2 days ago he and D went for an hour session to finish the evaluation.  Starting Monday, he will go every Monday for one hour therapy sessions.

The FANTASTIC news is all of his sensory issues (and there are quite a few...fine motor and gross motor) he should outgrow.  So with maturity and therapy, most of these issues should fall by the wayside.

The SAD news is his school misses out on having the opportunity of being with my wonderfully and amazingly sweet boy.  Their loss.

I cried my eyes out for days after he was kicked out of school.  (They said he could finish out the month of December - I didn't send him except on the last day for his school party.  And I was in the class the entire time).  Then I became angry.  Because I was completely blind-sided by this decision.  The last conference/meeting we had was the first week of November.  I NEVER got a phone call or email from the teacher or director in the month and a half that followed.  Wouldn't you think a parent would get a phone call or email if their son was on the brink of being kicked out of a preschool?

But now I am happy.  I am happy he is out of that environment.  After some conversations with other parents and his OT, him being in that classroom was not a good thing for him.  The Mayor will come out of this an even better kid than he already is.  I am happy we caught all of this so early.  Had he not been in this class, we may not have noticed all of these issues until he was in kindergarten (or later).  I would much rather find these issues now and work on them now so when he is in kindergarten he can thrive and be successful.

Our game plan is keep him out of preschool for about a month or two to just focus on his therapy (OT and speech).  In the meantime, we will interview potential preschools for a good fit and enroll him for next year (which will be his PreK year).  Once he has been in therapy for awhile, then we will enroll him a couple of days a week in his new preschool so he can get back into a structured environment.  After all, that is where he is going to learn and be able to implement what he is learning in therapy.

I can say, without a shadow of a doubt, I am going to have one HUGE, MASSIVE ulcer by the time my kids are out of college.

But I love those monkeys with every fiber of my being.  So bring on the ulcer.

our christmas

Christmas 2011 was amazing.  The Mayor was beyond excited to see what Santa was going to bring and his excitement was contagious.  He made me feel like a kid again.  Love Bug was excited because she saw her brother was so excited.  Next year is going to be even better because next year she will understand a little more about Christmas.

Both kids were up early, around 7, and sat patiently at the top of the stairs waiting to be released on the gifts.  They ran into the family room and The Mayor wanted to dig right in.  Love Bug was a little confused but she eventually caught on.

This age is so fun.  When even the little gifts still excite them.  It didn't matter what was unwrapped, they were as excited for the little gifts as they were with the big gifts.  Santa did not disappoint either, that sweet man brought the kids everything they asked for.  Flynn the fire engine and the Geo Trax Cars set for The Mayor; a baby doll, Barbie 4-wheeler and Minnie Mouse Princess Bowtique for Love Bug.  Mommy and Daddy filled in the rest.

After presents and a delicious breakfast, we spent the rest of the morning and afternoon playing with the new toys.  Around 3:00, we headed to Mamie and PopPop's for Christmas Round 2.  It was so fun being able to spend the evening with family and watching The Mayor, Love Bug and Bennett get excited over their gifts.  Mamie made an amazing Christmas dinner and we ate more than we should.  But it was so worth it.

We got home around 7:00 and about 5 minutes later, MeMe and Big Daddy rolled in.  The kids were so happy to see them at our door, and I was excited Christmas Round 3 was starting to get underway.  After a quick hello, The Mayor and Love Bug went to bed.  They were so exhausted from the day, they just weren't going to last.  It was nice being able to visit with MeMe and Big Daddy in peace and quiet.  As fun as the day was, it was nice bedtime had finally come.

By lunch the next day, Aunt Nat, Uncle Tom, Trey and Luke had arrived.  We were all finally together and the day was perfect.  The weather was pretty nice outside, so The Mayor, Trey and Luke played outside for hours while Aunt Nat and I enjoyed a fire in the firepit.  Uncle Tom and D threw the football around and the boys loved getting in on the action.  Sweet Love Bug was napping so she sadly missed the outdoor fun.  We finally woke her up around 4:30 and opened gifts.  After the third, and thankfully final round of gifts (where are all these toys going to go?), we went out for dinner.  We hit a local BBQ joint and dinner was delicious.  And it was so nice to eat a meal that had no sugar nor any of the typical Christmas dinner fixins.  This lady was getting very tired of eating junk.

By lunch today, the last of our family had left.  When Aunt Nat and her crew left, The Mayor told them "see you tomorrow!".  The Mayor will absolutely be devastated tomorrow when he wakes up and no one is here except me, D and Love Bug.

D is home for the rest of the week.  I AM SO HAPPY!  I love having him home and all of us together. We do not have any plans but I am sure we will find lots of fun things to do with the kids.  One of which will be organizing the toy chaos that has consumed this home.  Goodwill will be getting a donation this week from the Shirley clan so we can make room for the new toys.

so excited!  waiting to see what Santa brought!

one of six baby dolls she got for Christmas.  She loves every single one of them!

Flynn the fire engine!  The gift he was most excited to get!

playing with his most annoying gift of the season.  Thanks Mamie and PopPop...he loves it!

posing next to her new grocery cart

love sweet Bennett

my 3 favorite people

thanking Big Daddy for his presents

D surprised me with what is undoubtedly the best gift he has ever given me.  His friend Emily is an amazing artist and they collaborated on such a meaningful gift for me.  My mother used to paint and one of the things she painted and had in her kitchen was lemons.  Because of this, I have always had lemons in my kitchen since I have been married.  When I recovered our cornice boards in the kitchen, I took down the antique lemon plates hanging over our french doors.  Well D and Emily thought I needed lemons back in my kitchen so Emily painted me lemons!  But the most amazing part is Emily took my mom's recipes and made copies of some of my favorites and incorporated them in the painting.  So my mother's handwriting and name are on this painting.  My mother's recipes are one of the few things of hers that I have and I hold them very dear to my heart.  She was an AMAZING cook.  I cried for hours Christmas morning.  I love this gift.  I am pretty confident D will never be able to top this.

staples for christmas

So today didn't go quite as planned.

We didn't make it to Christmas Eve service.  Love Bug was too cranky to push her nap back to go to one of the earlier services and she slept too late to go to one of the later services.

But that was ok.  I can't sweat the small stuff.

So we decided to make breakfast for dinner...we are trying to make some fun Christmas Eve traditions.  After an awesome dinner, while D and I were cleaning the kitchen, Love Bug and The Mayor were running around excited about Santa coming.  We were going to clean the kitchen, takes baths, put Reindeer Food out in the yard, get Santa's cookies ready and then drive around and look at Christmas lights.

We got through the first item.  We cleaned the kitchen.  And while we were cleaning, The Mayor took a nasty fall and landed on the corner shelf in our kitchen (we have 2 shelves in between some cabinets and it has a very pointy corner.  He hit that corner with the back of his head.  He cried, I kissed it and thought we were fine.  I saw no blood.

After awhile, we went upstairs to start the bath and he laid on his bed.  When he got up, there was blood on his sheet.  After careful examination, and a few phone calls to some nurses we know, we decided he needed to go to the ER.  Sure enough, he had one pretty deep gash.  And that rule about head wounds gushing blood is a myth.  There was no gushing.

He and I loaded up and headed to the ER at the Children's Hospital in Atlanta and after some discussion with the plastic surgeon, we decided a staple was better than a stitch.  With the stitch, The Mayor would have to be sedated (and then more than likely still held down), he wouldn't be able to get the area wet for 24 hours and then would have to immediately dry the area once he was able to bathe, and there was the possibility he could pick the stitch out.  With the staple, once the wound was cleaned, it would literally be done in 1 second, no sedation needed and we don't have to worry about him messing with the staple.  In 2 weeks, I can take him to his pediatrician to have the staple removed.

The Mayor did so amazing.  I was so proud of my brave little boy.

Love Bug was sound asleep by the time we got home, so we let The Mayor put out the reindeer food and now he is asleep.  And this mommy is not far behind.

Santa better be REAL nice to my Mayor in the morning.

putting out the reindeer food

every creature is healthy...

Our Thursday was crazy.  I didn't blog about it because by the time the end of the day got here, I was too exhausted.  And yesterday I was just so happy everyone was on the mend, and we were busy baking, that it kind of slipped my mind.  

Thursday, the kids and I had a couple of last minute errands we needed to run.  I wanted to go ahead and get started early to beat as much of the crowds as possible.  And D was coming home after lunch so I wanted to be done by the time he got home.  After we ran our errands, The Mayor told me his throat was hurting him.  By the time we got home, we was crying that his throat was hurting him.  My sweet boy started crying at noon and cried non-stop for three. hours. straight.

Thankfully, D got home around 12:30 and Love Bug went down for an early nap.  D and I took turns trying to soothe and comfort The Mayor until his doctor's appointment at 3:00.  At 1:50 I told D I was taking him to the doctor early and praying someone had either canceled or they could squeeze us in.  I just couldn't take it anymore.  Hearing The Mayor crying in agony that his throat and ears were hurting,  I needed him to get some relief.  He even asked me to take him to the doctor so she could give him some medicine to make his ears feel better. 

Thank the Good Lord because the nurse at the desk got us right in.  The poor boy cried during the entire checkup...the doctor gave him some Motrin and put drops in his ears to numb the pain.  Prognosis: double ear infection and strep throat. 

On the way to the pharmacy, The Mayor passed out.  He was exhausted from crying for 3 hours and being in so much pain.  He was so tired he actually fell asleep with his eyes open.  The freakiest thing I have ever seen.  

Sweet boy passed out on me while we waited for his medicine.  

It is amazing how quickly antibiotics can get into someone's system and start making them feel better.  By dinner time, he actually had a little bit of an appetite and played a little.  

By yesterday, he was his normal self.  

Thank God we are all healthy this Christmas!

my little bakers

This morning The Mayor and I ran a few errands, one of them was running to the grocery store to get the ingredients to make some yummy treats.  He was so excited to get home and get started.  I had barely set the grocery bags on the counter when he was already pulling a chair to the counter to stand on.  Even Love Bug was able to get in on the action.  She was D's little helper and proved to be very meticulous at placing the Hershey kiss on the pretzel.  Each Hershey kiss was placed exactly in the center of each pretzel...she is so cute.

We are going to give a few away to some friends and save the rest for us...and Santa of course.  Have to feed the Big Guy and make sure he is happy so he leaves some presents.

Tomorrow will be a perfect laid back Christmas Eve.  I'll be cooking some food for Christmas Day and then we are going to church at 4 and then home for dinner, baths, put out reindeer food and Santa's cookies and go to bed.  So excited!

my little elves

saying "cheese"...she was so excited to help...and I love her "bed-head"

middle-age?

This morning I had an appointment at the dermatologist for my annual mole patrol...which I absolutely hate because every year she wants to remove another mole.  While I was there, I asked her about what I thought was a dry scalp I couldn't get rid of...turns out I have psoriasis.  It is at the base of my scalp and my elbows.

She explained it is just a little skin condition that usually occurs when a person hits middle-age at which point I didn't hear another word she said because I could only replay the word "middle-age" in my head.  When I finally came to, she said the word middle-age again...I almost blacked out at that point.

I'm sorry...am I middle-age?  I did remind myself, while she was insulting me, I am 35.  Although most days I feel like I just left college.  But is 35 middle-age?  Can you legally be considered middle-age with a 4 year old and a 21 month old?  Don't you have to have teens to be middle-age?

Here is the quick and dirty definition of psoriasis.  It is a common skin condition in which one has an overactive immune system causing them to regenerate skin cell growth faster than a "normal" person.  Because the new skin cells grow so quickly, the dead skin cells don't fall off normally so they build up (on my scalp and elbows).  Looks like really bad dry skin.  It can lie dormant for long periods of time and flair ups can be brought on by many things...stress being one.  And it has been quite a stressful few weeks.  Hopefully the steroid foam the dermatologist gave me will get rid of this flair up.

Gross, I know.

But now that I am middle-age, guess I need to get used to old lady abnormalities.

party

Today was the last day of school and the Christmas party for The Mayor.  The Mayor was pretty excited...the boy loves a party and I was happy because I was going to be in his class the entire day.  I had told the room mom about a craft idea so she asked if I would be willing to come in and help the kids with the craft.  We did the craft at 9:30 (painted the kid's hand white and palmed a blue ornament - each finger makes a snowman and then each kid told us what color to make the eyes, nose, hat and buttons).  It was pretty cute.  We called the kids two at a time and each and everyone was patient waiting for their turn and super cooperative during the craft.  After we did the craft with 14 kids and cleaned up, we were only about 40 minutes away from the party so it wasn't worth me leaving.  It was fun seeing The Mayor do his activity sheets and playing in Centers with his friends.

how cute is this ornament?

The Mayor has been nursing a cough the past couple of days and I think it is turning into a virus.  As the morning went on, his eyes became more glassy and he seemed really tired.  He only had a bite of food at lunch and was asking to go home.  We had to wait for the book exchange to be over and then we went home.  By the afternoon, he had a fever.  Hoping a great night sleep will help him feel like he is back to his old self by morning.

Love Bug stayed home with our favorite babysitter who happens to be home from college while The Mayor and I were at school.  They had a blast playing together and I am pretty sure Love Bug loved having all of the attention.

The school year is over and in a day and a half D's work year will be over too.  Can't wait.

The Mayor with his best friend in his class

(he was squinting from my flash)

The Mayor was the helper today in class.  He is helping lead the class in prayer before lunch.

getting ready to open his present from the book exchange

cookies with mamie

The Mayor, Love Bug and Bennett all went to Mamie's to decorate Christmas cookies this morning.  It was so much fun.  The kids loved having free range to decorate with any and all types of sprinkles and colored sugars.  The Mayor did a great job of using equal parts sprinkles on the cookies and sprinkles in his belly, Bennett ate more than he decorated and somehow Love Bug managed to still decorate in a very dainty way, only using her thumb and pointer finger.  They were all so precious.

After we destroyed Mamie's kitchen, she treated us all to lunch.  Not sure it gets much better than that.

After lunch, we pushed Love Bug's nap time back so we could enjoy this beautiful weather and hit a playground.  It isn't often you have days in the mid 60s in December so we need to enjoy it while its here...especially since I hear it is going to get rainy and cold in the next day or so.

I am now making treats for The Mayor's Christmas party at school tomorrow.  Ready for tomorrow to be over and get our Christmas break started.

using some sprinkles

Mamie helping Love Bug

admiring their handiwork 

Mamie and her boys

one happy Mamie

look at that sweet, messy face

one of Meega's creations...Meega and I joined in on the decorating fun

 

date night

Last night Mamie and PopPop watched The Mayor and Love Bug so D and I could have a much needed date night.  The kids were so excited to go to their house...even Love Bug who is usually on the fence about being left without her mommy and daddy.  Apparently she only fussed for a few minutes...huge progress for our little girl!  Another huge improvement is the fact Love Bug apparently became best friends with my parent's dog Ellie.  Miss Love Bug is usually afraid of her own little shadow, let alone a dog that is 4 times her weight.

The Mayor helped Mamie make cookies, and according to Mamie, did a great job.  He rolled out the dough, helped use cookie cutters and then decorated them.  Last night they did gingerbread men.  Tomorrow we are going back so they can decorate sugar cookies.

After a bath, both kids were asleep almost immediately.  PopPop said he was certain he would have had a little boy coming out of the room several times trying to delay bedtime, but The Mayor proved them wrong.  Not only did he fall immediately asleep, he slept in.  I received a text from PopPop this morning after 8AM that my kids were boring because they were still sleeping.  HA!  Unfortunately, The Mayor woke up feeling a little under the weather.  He wanted to cuddle with PopPop for about an hour this morning and then asked to lie down and be covered up because he was freezing.  He didn't even get up when we went over there this morning to pick them up.

After we got home, we knew he had a fever.  He only acts like this when he has a fever.  My sweet boy just cuddled with D until he finally fell asleep a little after lunch.  A long nap and some much needed rest, and our boy seemed back to normal by dinner time.  Hopefully he wakes up still feeling well.

This week is going to go by quickly.  We have cookie decorating tomorrow with Mamie, Meega and Bennett and Tuesday is The Mayor's last day of school and Christmas party.  Thursday, the kids and I are going to meet D downtown for lunch and some fun Christmas activities in the city and Friday starts D's vacation at home.  He will be off from work until 2012!

at Mamie and PopPop's...bundled up to go outside and look at Christmas lights

helping Mamie make cookies

our sick boy...passed out

i'll take it

Not sure what is going on, but we have temperatures in the mid 60s to low 70s this week.  Apparently the calendar says mid-December but it feels like the beginning of spring...but I will take it.

The weather has been awesome so we have been able to play outside a lot this week and when D got home from work today, we decided to head up to the outdoor mall and walk around.  Why not?  Nothing better than free entertainment...especially outside.

We laughed because usually the kids are chomping at the bit to walk around when we are shopping but for the first loop around the mall, The Mayor chose to ride D's back and Love Bug wanted to be held by me.  Neither of us minded, we enjoy the moments when the littles want to be held...they won't want it forever.

D and The Mayor

my beautiful view

giving the reindeer some love

cheese

getting ready to jump

The kids had a blast running around and then hanging in the kids section of Barnes and Noble.  We looked through books and found a train table!  Jackpot!  I had no idea there was a train table, with Thomas trains, set up in the kids section of Barnes and Noble...but now that we know, I imagine we will be there often.

After our impromptu playing, we went for a quick dinner and then home for bed.

at dinner, Love Bug's first ice cream cone

(thank goodness for OxyClean)

Tomorrow D has a 10K in the morning and then we will piddle around town until nap time.  Tomorrow afternoon, the kids are going to Mamie and PopPop's and D and I are having a much needed date night.  CAN. NOT. WAIT.  After this crazy week, it will be so nice to just decompress and chill out with my favorite guy.

I forgot to post these earlier in the week, but check out this enormous tree in downtown Atlanta.  We went there after our trip to Santa...I could barely fit the entire tree in the shot with my camera phone.

that's my little Love Bug and The Mayor in front of the tree...

they look like little peanuts next to this monster tree

santa!

We had two kiddos ecstatic to see Santa.  Last night, we watched the video from their visit last year to get them excited and hopefully ward off any jitters about seeing the guy in the red suit.  It seemed to work...until it was time to actually sit on his lap.

We arrived right at our appointment time and both The Mayor and Love Bug were so happy to see Santa. We had been practicing all morning what The Mayor was going to ask for from Santa and he started asking before we even got up to him.  While he was asking for "Flynn the Fire Engine" (the newest in the Thomas the Train line) Love Bug was clawing my back in terror as I attempted to put her in Santa's lap.  She cried and The Mayor just looked at Santa in awe.  The photographer had to work a bit to get a good picture...you know, one where Love Bug wasn't screaming in terror and The Mayor was actually looking at the camera.  For whatever reason, our social boy gets very shy around Santa...he did it last year as well.  The Mayor kept covering his face.  But he finally put his hands down and Love Bug only quietly sobbed and this picture was captured:

Once our time was with Santa was up, the kids hopped down and Love Bug turned and said "Bye Santa!!" and blew him a kiss.  We just laughed.  She was screaming in terror one minute and blowing his kisses the next.

We walked around for a bit and took some pictures in front of the tree before heading to lunch.  The weather is ridiculously nice this week so we went to an outdoor mall so the kids could walk around.  We loved having D with us in the middle of a work day.

Apparently The Mayor hasn't grasped the concept of asking Santa for a gift and waiting until Christmas to see if Santa brings it.  He thinks since he saw Santa and asked for the gift, the gift should now be in his possession.  He has asked no less than 3 dozen times where Flynn the Fire Engine is.  He went down for his nap in tears because I told him he had to wait until Christmas...he said "no, I don't wait until Christmas...I saw Santa".

Going to be a long 11 days until Christmas.

(the kids have candy cane all over their faces)

one day

There are about a dozen words I could put in between "one" and "day" to describe today.  But I am trying to put into perspective the span of this life and realize that hopefully soon, today will just be "one day".  Because now we will stick with "crappy" the PG version of the word I would really like to use.

I'm not going to get into what happened today...I will eventually but not today.  I will start to cry if I type it out and my eyes and head can't take it anymore.  But I do know, everything is going to be ok...actually more than ok and will end up being for the best.

But these two sweets are making this crappy day a much better day.