Just when things started to calm down.....Derrick's cough he's had for a week turned into the croup yesterday. My poor baby woke up sounding horrible, it was this dry hacking cough. We went out yesterday morning and cut it short to get back and take him into urgent care.
Luckily Leroy's doctor was on duty so I at least trusted the doctor. Without even seeing him, the doctor knew he had croup by just hearing his cough outside the door. The cough sounded just like a barking seal, it was awful. The doctor gave him a shot to help the swelling in his throat which Derrick was not too happy about. He begged me through tears to take him back home, it was so horrible. I held him down and the nurse gave it to him =(
The doctor also told me my boy has a heart murmur. Now that made me worried. He said it could be hereditary (my grandma had one) but it's a slight one. After talking to Leroy we wonder why no other doctor has caught it thus far. Either he really does have a murmur or maybe the coughing caused his heart to beat funny. Either way, one more thing to be a worry wart over.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
1st week down
Well week one of kindergarten is down and we have all survived! It has really been a rollercoaster of emotions for all of us. Here's how the week went.
Tuesday night Derrick was so excited he could bearly sleep, going to school was the same thing, super excited! When he got out I went up to get him and he looked so sad. His teacher said he's fitting in ok but he wrote on the table and had to clean it up. Ok no biggy, live and learn. Seemed weird because he's never written on things at home, he knows better. Come to find out, the teacher wanted him to draw a picture of himself and Derrick wanted to draw a roller coaster. I'll let you in on a secret, our son hates art! He has never wanted anything to do with art, coloring, painting or anything of that nature. No big deal to us but I guess a big deal in school. Apparently 5 year olds should like art?!
Thursday we went over no coloring on the table and sent him in the gates of kindergarten. When picking him up Derrick holds up a sad face card and has a miserable sad face on him. His teacher said there was an incident with a few other boys and they weren't keeping their hands to themselves. My kids?! Oh no! I sat down with Derrick outside school and talked about what happened. After two days I've learned Derrick doesn't want to talk about what happened in school right away, you need to give him time. So being the interested parent I am I went up to the teacher to find out what happened on a one on one basis without everyone around. She said that there's 5 rambunctious boys that are just flicking and picking at each other. I said ok and said I'd talk to Derrick. Later that night we found out 2 boys pushed him and he was basically defending himself. Not wanting to cause problems, we told him to stay away from the boys and if they push, hit, or shove him to just tell the teacher. Needless to say Thursday was not a very good day.
Nervous as all get out Friday came and we reminded Derrick to stay away from the boys and pay attention to his teacher. With my heart pounding, it was time to pick up my boy and when it was his turn, his teacher said he had a much better day and he is a super smart kid! Thank goodness, now that's my boy! Still haven't managed to figure out why she said he's super smart but I'll get it out of Derrick eventually =)
After talking about it, Leroy & I came to the conclusion Derrick is just trying to fit in and he was with the wrong group of boys on Thursday. I know it's every parents duty to defend their child. In all honesty our kids haven't been around but maybe 7 or 8 kids in their lives. They don't have the mental capability to understand to be mean and spiteful. Does that sound bad? Probably, but we try our best to show them how to be nice and caring to each other.
We've already done the "switch schools talk". Private school would cost $3,300 this year and over $4,000 next year. That's not a feesable option at this time in our lives. Homeschooling is a definite option. If Derrick starts to get bored, picked on, or we just don't like the public school system, I know we could homeschool him. It's just a matter of doing it. We want him to excel and not worry about being made fun of, I spent 13 year being made fun of and won't put my son through it.
Well whatever we decide it will definitely be whatever is best for our children. My only hope is that we keep on the "doing great" path of Friday for week 2 of school.
My proud mama moment is that we've been working on sight words and he already knows "the" "you" & "did"! I'm so excited because those words put him closer to reading! I can't wait to hear my first story read by my little boy =)
Off to my last 2 days of vacation....swap meets here we come!
Tuesday night Derrick was so excited he could bearly sleep, going to school was the same thing, super excited! When he got out I went up to get him and he looked so sad. His teacher said he's fitting in ok but he wrote on the table and had to clean it up. Ok no biggy, live and learn. Seemed weird because he's never written on things at home, he knows better. Come to find out, the teacher wanted him to draw a picture of himself and Derrick wanted to draw a roller coaster. I'll let you in on a secret, our son hates art! He has never wanted anything to do with art, coloring, painting or anything of that nature. No big deal to us but I guess a big deal in school. Apparently 5 year olds should like art?!
Thursday we went over no coloring on the table and sent him in the gates of kindergarten. When picking him up Derrick holds up a sad face card and has a miserable sad face on him. His teacher said there was an incident with a few other boys and they weren't keeping their hands to themselves. My kids?! Oh no! I sat down with Derrick outside school and talked about what happened. After two days I've learned Derrick doesn't want to talk about what happened in school right away, you need to give him time. So being the interested parent I am I went up to the teacher to find out what happened on a one on one basis without everyone around. She said that there's 5 rambunctious boys that are just flicking and picking at each other. I said ok and said I'd talk to Derrick. Later that night we found out 2 boys pushed him and he was basically defending himself. Not wanting to cause problems, we told him to stay away from the boys and if they push, hit, or shove him to just tell the teacher. Needless to say Thursday was not a very good day.
Nervous as all get out Friday came and we reminded Derrick to stay away from the boys and pay attention to his teacher. With my heart pounding, it was time to pick up my boy and when it was his turn, his teacher said he had a much better day and he is a super smart kid! Thank goodness, now that's my boy! Still haven't managed to figure out why she said he's super smart but I'll get it out of Derrick eventually =)
After talking about it, Leroy & I came to the conclusion Derrick is just trying to fit in and he was with the wrong group of boys on Thursday. I know it's every parents duty to defend their child. In all honesty our kids haven't been around but maybe 7 or 8 kids in their lives. They don't have the mental capability to understand to be mean and spiteful. Does that sound bad? Probably, but we try our best to show them how to be nice and caring to each other.
We've already done the "switch schools talk". Private school would cost $3,300 this year and over $4,000 next year. That's not a feesable option at this time in our lives. Homeschooling is a definite option. If Derrick starts to get bored, picked on, or we just don't like the public school system, I know we could homeschool him. It's just a matter of doing it. We want him to excel and not worry about being made fun of, I spent 13 year being made fun of and won't put my son through it.
Well whatever we decide it will definitely be whatever is best for our children. My only hope is that we keep on the "doing great" path of Friday for week 2 of school.
My proud mama moment is that we've been working on sight words and he already knows "the" "you" & "did"! I'm so excited because those words put him closer to reading! I can't wait to hear my first story read by my little boy =)
Off to my last 2 days of vacation....swap meets here we come!
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
It all winds down to this.....
After many many many days of relaxing it all had to come to an end. My baby, my punky, my Derrick....started school today. Kindergarten-Room 16-Mrs. Fluke. Sigh.....
This kid was so excited last night, bouncing off walls and everything. Checking his backpack, getting the snack together, driving me crazy!
At 6:03 this morning Derrick comes in and says, "Psst, Mom, it's light outside, can I go to school now?" Mind you the sun wasn't even up yet and I was still tired! After trying to get him to go back to bed I got up and fixed some breakfast for him. Needless to say he was ready to go by 6:30 and having to wait over an hour to go to school was killing him! Every few minutes he was asking what time it was? Is it time to go? GRRRR
Finally time did come and I walked my baby to his first day of kindergarten. Daddy & Danae stayed behind because Danae didn't want her brother to go without her, so we diverted her attention with Daddy.
Apparently I'm not cool because the second we crossed the street to school Derrick let go of my hand. I asked what was wrong and he said, "I'm in school now mom I don't need to hold your hand". I wanted to start balling right then but I kept my head up. We walked him to his room, put his backpack away and went to the playground. I guess we raised an independent guy 'cause he never looked back. He was in kindergarten and could handle his own. I stayed around until the teacher got the class and they I walked back, lonely, on my own, back home.
It's only 3 1/2 hours a day until October but it sure does seem longer. Time goes so fast when you have kids. But at least he's a strong kid and didn't cry like some kids did. I think it was the parents hovering over them that made them nervous, my kid didn't need me, maybe that's why I'm so sad......
Enjoy the pics!
This kid was so excited last night, bouncing off walls and everything. Checking his backpack, getting the snack together, driving me crazy!
At 6:03 this morning Derrick comes in and says, "Psst, Mom, it's light outside, can I go to school now?" Mind you the sun wasn't even up yet and I was still tired! After trying to get him to go back to bed I got up and fixed some breakfast for him. Needless to say he was ready to go by 6:30 and having to wait over an hour to go to school was killing him! Every few minutes he was asking what time it was? Is it time to go? GRRRR
Finally time did come and I walked my baby to his first day of kindergarten. Daddy & Danae stayed behind because Danae didn't want her brother to go without her, so we diverted her attention with Daddy.
Apparently I'm not cool because the second we crossed the street to school Derrick let go of my hand. I asked what was wrong and he said, "I'm in school now mom I don't need to hold your hand". I wanted to start balling right then but I kept my head up. We walked him to his room, put his backpack away and went to the playground. I guess we raised an independent guy 'cause he never looked back. He was in kindergarten and could handle his own. I stayed around until the teacher got the class and they I walked back, lonely, on my own, back home.
It's only 3 1/2 hours a day until October but it sure does seem longer. Time goes so fast when you have kids. But at least he's a strong kid and didn't cry like some kids did. I think it was the parents hovering over them that made them nervous, my kid didn't need me, maybe that's why I'm so sad......
Enjoy the pics!
Stop #3 the Los Angeles Zoo
And we're off to day 3! Originally planned, we were going to go to the Santa Barbara Zoo. Then we changed that and said, we'll save $20 and drive to Fresno for a trip. After my car acted up we decided to kill two birds with one stone and drive to LA to the zoo and head down to City of Industry for Leroy's big Hot Wheels show we planned on going to anyway.
We got to the zoo and were very pleasantly surprised when we didn't have to pay for parking! Yay one place in LA that doesn't charge =) We got there at 9:30 and had to wait until 10 to get in. The line wasn't that long for a Saturday, we were like the 10th family in line so we got lucky. The kids were so excited when they got in and saw some animals!
I know all the experts say that TV isn't good for kids, but I beg to differ. The kids grew out of the Disney channel stuff and now like Nick Jr with Dora, Diego and my nemisis Spongebob. Spongebob is plain stupid but Dora and Diego are great. So great in fact, both kids especially Derrick knew so much about the animals it was awesome! He knew where they lived, what food they ate and what they don't like. So amazing!
The kids were so excited seeing all the animals and after 2 1/2 hours we were ready to go! Thank goodness because everyone in LA woke up and headed to the zoo because it was packed and the line was out they ying yang to get in!
Here's the fun pics!
We got to the zoo and were very pleasantly surprised when we didn't have to pay for parking! Yay one place in LA that doesn't charge =) We got there at 9:30 and had to wait until 10 to get in. The line wasn't that long for a Saturday, we were like the 10th family in line so we got lucky. The kids were so excited when they got in and saw some animals!
I know all the experts say that TV isn't good for kids, but I beg to differ. The kids grew out of the Disney channel stuff and now like Nick Jr with Dora, Diego and my nemisis Spongebob. Spongebob is plain stupid but Dora and Diego are great. So great in fact, both kids especially Derrick knew so much about the animals it was awesome! He knew where they lived, what food they ate and what they don't like. So amazing!
The kids were so excited seeing all the animals and after 2 1/2 hours we were ready to go! Thank goodness because everyone in LA woke up and headed to the zoo because it was packed and the line was out they ying yang to get in!
Here's the fun pics!
Stop #2 La Brea Tarpits
Thursday was spend doing absolutely nothing! I crafted and everyone just lounged. We were all getting ready for Friday and going down to Hollywood and the La Brea Tarpits!
We managed to avoid any real traffic jams at 9 am on a Friday thankfully and made it down to LA/Hollywood with ease. The kids were so excited to see the tarpits. Unfortunately Leroy & I were a little disappointed seeing the actual tar pit because we've seen so many movies that make the pits look so cool, when actually it's just a tar pit with a few mastedon statues in it. Not too exciting. The kids however, loved it, which is what it was all about =)
After looking at the tar pit itself we went into the George C. Pace museum and got to explore. The skeletons kinda freaked both kids out because every 5 minutes one of them was saying that they wanted to go already, the bones were scary. We stayed and saw everything including a movie explaining they tar pits and all that fun educational stuff.
*Side note:* The movie in the theater there was the first ever movie they've seen on a big screen and we discovered they are so not ready to see a real movie yet. Both freaked out on the loudness and darkness of the theater, so, no movies yet =(
On the side of the museum is the LA County Museum of Art. Apparently the art is all around the park because at one "artwork" I thought it was someone selling cheap toys but no, it was "artwork". I don't think I'm so "up" on art but eh, it's not my thing. Also outside of the museum is Pit 91 where they have a spot that you can look at and see an actual pit of where they are "digging". This was closed until 2011 for working on another project.
The funnest thing of the day was watching the kids try to follow in the Saber-tooth Cat tracks all around the museum & tar pits. The video below is of the kids doing just that.....too funny!
After the tarpits we decided to go to the world famous LA Farmers Market! Well, tons of food, expensive stores at the Grove, no famous people spotted and not too amazing. But at least we tried =)
Also put up a picture show with pics of the day.
We managed to avoid any real traffic jams at 9 am on a Friday thankfully and made it down to LA/Hollywood with ease. The kids were so excited to see the tarpits. Unfortunately Leroy & I were a little disappointed seeing the actual tar pit because we've seen so many movies that make the pits look so cool, when actually it's just a tar pit with a few mastedon statues in it. Not too exciting. The kids however, loved it, which is what it was all about =)
After looking at the tar pit itself we went into the George C. Pace museum and got to explore. The skeletons kinda freaked both kids out because every 5 minutes one of them was saying that they wanted to go already, the bones were scary. We stayed and saw everything including a movie explaining they tar pits and all that fun educational stuff.
*Side note:* The movie in the theater there was the first ever movie they've seen on a big screen and we discovered they are so not ready to see a real movie yet. Both freaked out on the loudness and darkness of the theater, so, no movies yet =(
On the side of the museum is the LA County Museum of Art. Apparently the art is all around the park because at one "artwork" I thought it was someone selling cheap toys but no, it was "artwork". I don't think I'm so "up" on art but eh, it's not my thing. Also outside of the museum is Pit 91 where they have a spot that you can look at and see an actual pit of where they are "digging". This was closed until 2011 for working on another project.
The funnest thing of the day was watching the kids try to follow in the Saber-tooth Cat tracks all around the museum & tar pits. The video below is of the kids doing just that.....too funny!
After the tarpits we decided to go to the world famous LA Farmers Market! Well, tons of food, expensive stores at the Grove, no famous people spotted and not too amazing. But at least we tried =)
Also put up a picture show with pics of the day.
Vacation Stop #1
Ok I'm going to break up these blogs into sections otherwise I'll be downloading pictures all day! LOL It's official vacation officially started at 1:30 pm on August 11. That afternoon we headed over to Ventura for the Ventura County Fair and were so excited because we were going to get in for only $2 instead of the normal $20 because we were there before 3pm....or at least we thought.
When we drove over to the parking lot there was a line of at least 150 people waiting for the bus to take them over to the actual fairgrounds. Mind you, we only had 15 minutes to spare to get in the gates for the lower price. We gave up on the cheap tickets when we saw the line, then, out of nowhere a fair personnel guy started walking down the line preselling tickets for the 3pm price. HOT DOG!!! We got lucky and saved money!
After waiting for busses for an hour we finally arrived at the fair grounds. The bus ride over was the most fun of the day for the kids. It was both their first time on a bus and they absolutely loved every second of it!
I swear there had to be a million people there. I describe it as trying to fit the Big Fresno Fair into the Hanford Fairgrounds. It's ridiculously small and cramped. We went in the Gem & Mineral exhibit and ended up walking out because you literally couldn't move it was so small. We tried looking at their little aquarium exhibit and the same thing....we left. All in all we spent $10 at the fair: $8 for parking and $2 to get in. We didn't even buy a corn dog, that's how crowded and horrible it was. It was a Wednesday at 4 in the afternoon, I couldn't imagine going on a Saturday night! The picture below was taken outside of the Kid's Petting Zoo (that wasn't open), they said they just HAD to take a picture =)
When we drove over to the parking lot there was a line of at least 150 people waiting for the bus to take them over to the actual fairgrounds. Mind you, we only had 15 minutes to spare to get in the gates for the lower price. We gave up on the cheap tickets when we saw the line, then, out of nowhere a fair personnel guy started walking down the line preselling tickets for the 3pm price. HOT DOG!!! We got lucky and saved money!
After waiting for busses for an hour we finally arrived at the fair grounds. The bus ride over was the most fun of the day for the kids. It was both their first time on a bus and they absolutely loved every second of it!
I swear there had to be a million people there. I describe it as trying to fit the Big Fresno Fair into the Hanford Fairgrounds. It's ridiculously small and cramped. We went in the Gem & Mineral exhibit and ended up walking out because you literally couldn't move it was so small. We tried looking at their little aquarium exhibit and the same thing....we left. All in all we spent $10 at the fair: $8 for parking and $2 to get in. We didn't even buy a corn dog, that's how crowded and horrible it was. It was a Wednesday at 4 in the afternoon, I couldn't imagine going on a Saturday night! The picture below was taken outside of the Kid's Petting Zoo (that wasn't open), they said they just HAD to take a picture =)
Saturday, August 8, 2009
Some quickies
Ok here's some quickies as an update:
OK just a few tidbits, can you tell I'm anxious for vacation? I don't even want to sit and type!
- Danae gave herself a black eye while sleeping on a toy....she cried so hard and we didn't realize how bad she hurt herself until the morning.
- Leroy & the kids got rear ended. Kids ok, Leroy upper back, neck & shoulder pain....along with the lower back pain :(
- On a good note, because of the accident the other guys insurance is paying for new car seats!
- Done with physical therapy for Leroy, therapist said it wasn't working, waiting on referral for neurosurgeon.
- I start my 11 day vacation on Wednesday afternoon!!!!!!!! Couldn't come sooner, I can only take getting yelled at so long by horrible mean customers blaming the postal service for their miserable lives.
- We pre-register for kindergarten Wednesday afternoon and meet Derrick's teacher, Mrs. Fluke in room 16 on Friday evening.
- No, my post office isn't closing. Most offices possibly closing are small outlet offices and many are back east, only a few on the west coast. None in my district.
- My baby turned 4 on July 25 and I'm now the mom of a 5 year old and a 4 year old.....when did I become a grown up?!
- My Christmas cards are almost done, just need to put them together!
OK just a few tidbits, can you tell I'm anxious for vacation? I don't even want to sit and type!
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