First things first, it was Nerds day at school today.
NERDS stands for Never Ending Readers Do Succeed! It’s actually Read Across America Day and
every year the school has a reading day where they try to get the kids to take
as many AR tests as possible (but they have to get 100% on them). They raffle off prizes and with each test you
get your name in the raffle. The
librarian and teachers must do an awful good job at talking it up because my
kids were SO excited to dress up like a nerd and try to win a raffle prize. In the past they have done pajama day
instead, but this is much more fun.
(Kylee won a raffle prize! It’s
just a box of nerds, a small rubik’s cube, and a pen, but winning is always
fun.)
I wanted regular horn-rimmed glasses but they were sold out so she got clown ones instead.
Sadie wanted to be in one of the pictures. Can you tell it’s not very cold out for
February? I mean, it was a little chilly
without a coat or jacket, but not enough that they were whining or even
shivering yet. Of course, now it’s snowing
so…
So Kylee. Let’s start
with the easy stuff. Here’s her hair
right before we went for her haircut.
And the Ripstick picture shows it after.
Not too bad, huh? It
really didn’t change much, though she was whining when I said three inches.
We went to the dentist last week and Kylee got x-rays and
showed she’s getting some cavities. The
others didn’t get x-rays. Since we don’t
have insurance, we only see the dentist once a year, and Ryan claims it’s not necessary
to get x-rays every time. It’s hard to
know how much to do. I declined the fluoride
treatments and I won’t do those ever again.
There’s been so much published saying that fluoride is not good for the
body, even that people who regularly use it have lower IQs. And it’s expensive. So I’ll skip it. Anyway, Dylan had x-rays last time so he didn’t
get any. And Sadie is just so little I
didn’t think she needed them.
Maybe. I don’t know what I’m
doing. Gambling? Saving money? Whatever.
The best I can guess is that Kylee never got a cavity until now so there’s
a good chance Dylan won’t have any yet either.
Because we don’t have insurance, it’s another reason to
really make sure our kids take care of their teeth. As if avoiding holes in your teeth and all
the other dental nightmares aren’t enough of a reason. But Kylee hasn’t been flossing. Who are we kidding, none of our kids floss
with any consistency. It took me 20
years to floss MYSELF regularly. You try
sticking your whole fist in a kid’s mouth while they pull away and scream. I’m just saying, it’s not fun.
But the dentist said that everywhere her toothbrush touches
is “golden”, but she needs to floss.
Even just a few times a week. So
that’s our new goal. FLOSS! I bought some flossers for the kids and
printed out a chart and I’m hoping it helps.
I feel a little bit like it’s a mom-fail, like I’m responsible for those
little teeth and I failed them. Then I
think about the 30 fillings and one crown I have in my own mouth and I know it’s
not the end of the world. But we’re hoping
this will motivate Kylee to do more flossing.
So she got her two teeth filled where they touch. The dentist said she had a couple others that
were starting to decay, but that it hadn’t gotten past the enamel yet so if she
flosses they will probably be okay. And
the ones that she needed filled were very small so he wouldn’t have to numb her
and he would just use the laser.
Huh? Times have changed from the
days my dentist shot me up with Novocain and my jaw popped and almost bit
him. He didn’t like me much. The feeling was mutual. My poor mouth. Consequences of a candy-holic that started
young. And never flossed. And sometimes forgot to brush too. And I blame my mother a little. Not because she didn’t sit and watch me brush
morning and night, but because she used up all her calcium stores on my older
brothers so by the time I came along her bones were all drained of calcium and
her pregnant body had none left to give to me.
No? You don’t buy it? Well, that’s my theory and I’m sticking to
it. Plus, I didn’t floss. Boo.
Is this a post about Kylee?
Because I seem to be getting off topic quite a bit. Okay, here is a pic of her getting her tooth
filled.
It’s funny because my kids are always so excited to go to
the dentist because of the tree house and because they get a new toothbrush and
it’s all smiles and roses. Kylee even
said the office smelled good. I said, “really? Because this smell makes me want to vomit.” That’s called an aversion. Because I know all the horror that actual
goes on at the dentist. And if I can
help it, I will protect my children from it.
They will floss. I’ll try my best
to make them floss. I swear. Because we don’t have enough things to fight
about…
So when we went to get her tooth filled, the assistant asked
me if they could use laughing gas. I
said, “does she need it? He said it wasn’t
very deep and wouldn’t need to be numbed.”
She says, “we use it on pretty much every kid just to take the edge off.” Ummm… “I’d rather you not”. Call me cruel, but drugging her if she doesn’t
need it sounds unnecessary. Drugs are
bad. And Ryan and I both agreed that it
would be beneficial for her to experience a teensy bit of the pain to give her
a nice, healthy fear of cavities. But
that’s not why I chose no gas. I just
don’t want them to kill her brain cells, okay.
There’s enough toxins in our bodies.
She did great. I
watched for signs of stress. Her fingers
gingerly tapped her new little lipgloss they had given her. Her feet were still. Her body didn’t seem tense. I decided I had made the right decision. Afterwards she said it hurt, but she didn’t
break down like she does under stress often, when she puts on a brave face in
front of everyone else but totally crumbles when we’re alone. That didn't happen. She was still in good spirits. She did tell me that she had to try not to
cry because it hurt. But like I said, it
couldn’t have been that bad.
Dylan got sealants on his permanent molars when we first
went. I was a little nervous how he
would handle it. Not because it’s
painful, it’s not. But it is a weird
smell/taste (which he doesn't handle well) and he was saying there was a sharp part on his tooth
afterwards. That didn’t sound good to
me. And he was picking at it. He’s a picker. He can’t not pick. But I’m hoping it will wear down smooth
eventually. I don’t know, I’m pretty
sure I never had sealants. I’m also
pretty sure they are toxic. But what’s
worse? Another toxin in your body or a
mouth like mine? I don’t know.
Okay, moving on.
Kylee had her second gymnastics meet last weekend in Park
City. I had originally planned on a meet
in Boise that is this weekend, but then I realized that Ryan would still be in
Arizona and I did NOT want to take all four kids to a hotel and a gymnastics meet
by myself. So I begged and pleaded for
them to let me switch to the Park City meet instead and they were able to make
it happen. Thank Heavens.
Her competition time wasn’t until 6pm on Friday so we didn’t
leave town until lunchtime on Friday. I
packed us some lunch that we ate in the car.
We got to Salt Lake with some time to spare so we went to Trader Joes
first and then headed over to Rubio’s to pick up dinner before going the rest
of the way to Park City and our hotel.
There we ate our food and I fed Kaden then quickly did Kylee’s
hair. I have not yet mastered how to get
the bun to stay well or look good without using bobby pins. I think next time I may just use a couple
pins. Who is going to know? Dumb rule.
We then left and stopped at the bank because I have been
told that MOST meets don’t accept credit cards for the parent’s entrance
fee. So I went to an ATM just to be
safe, and we got to the meet with plenty of time. And they did accept credit, which is
annoying. And it was more expensive than
the other meets have been, which is also annoying. I guess they can charge more because
everything is more expensive in Park City.
We pay for the view.
So we got there with plenty of time but the other sessions
throughout the day had run long and so they were behind. They didn’t start until 7:15! I had been sitting on a bench with Kaden and
my back was already throbbing. I snuck
off to the locker room to nurse him because I felt too crowded on the bench
with people looking over my shoulder.
Luckily I made it back with some time before they started their
events. And I stood and bounced Kaden
half the time and sat half the time so my back wasn’t completely dying. We didn’t get done until 10:15.
How did Kylee do? Really
well! She got a 9.1 on floor, 9.1 on
vault, 9.0 on bars, and 8.925 on beam!
Total of 36.125. I thought that
was mighty impressive! We were hoping
she would get a first place medal. It
turns out she took 8th on vault, 5th on bars, 2nd
on beam, and 6th on floor for an all around place of 5th. I’ll be honest, I was surprised she didn’t
place better. But it seems like the
judges were being generous with the scores for everyone. I don’t know much
about the scoring or deductions. But on
the bars she got her foot caught on her shoot-through and she wasn’t quite as
straight after that. But she did stick
her landing, which is hard to do. Also,
they were rushing us a bit since we had started so late so she didn’t get to
practice much before. The one time I saw
her practice the bar it didn’t go well.
When they started judging without letting her practice again, I was
nervous. So she did really well. On the beam, she wobbled more than usual and didn’t even stick her landing (which is strange because they have one hand on
the beam so it’s not that hard to stick.
When they posted her score as 8.925 I was shocked. That’s a great beam score. I asked her how she thought she did on beam and she said, "not good."
Kylee really wants a first place medal. Not that the actual medal looks any different
than the rest of them (usually), she just really wants to take first in
something. Anything. After the awards I was nervous that she would
be disappointed, but she wasn’t. She was
in really good spirits. Mostly because
we were headed back to the hotel and Lexi was staying at the same hotel and
they were hoping to go swimming. (The
pool was closed so they had to wait until the morning.) But she was excited that she took second on
beam because the top three spots got a special medal, different from the
rest. They gave medals out up to 10
places so Kylee walked away with five medals.
But the 2nd place medal was fancy and she was proud. Lexi took 5th overall in her age
group too so they were both happy.
The next day after swimming we thought about shopping, but
it was a blizzard in Park City. We
stopped at Nordstrom Rack and Kylee was very patient while I shopped, though it
was obvious she wasn’t having fun. I fed
Kaden and we stopped for lunch (Kylee talked me into Rubio’s AGAIN since she
wasn’t happy that I made her put chicken on her quesadilla the day before. I just wanted her to have a little
protein!)
Then we hit the road. We ran into traffic due to a crash in Ogden
and Kaden woke up so I pulled over and nursed him. By the time I was done, traffic was moving
again so that worked out well.
Ryan and Dylan and Sadie had a good time while we were gone and
they were asking when we will leave again so they can play again. Nice.
School. Kylee’s
teacher had great things to say about her.
He said he thoroughly enjoys reading her writing assignments because she
talks like a teenager in them. She has
quite the attitude. I’ll get into
that. As far as grades, she got perfect
marks. Even on behavior where her
teacher last time says that he doesn’t give out 4s because he doesn’t think
anyone is perfect, he gave her all 4s this time. I didn’t notice when we were sitting with him so I didn’t ask him about it. Obviously
he changed his tune on that.
Do you remember how she was racing against the fifth graders
for math objectives? Well the track only
went to 200. Kylee finished so Mr
Lundquist decided to give her a monster truck and start her over on her second
lap. Her monster truck says, “5th
grade crusher” on it. It’s pretty
fun. She currently has 239 math
objectives completed and 294.5 AR points.
She’s kind of out of control. She
hasn’t even been doing that much reading or math at home. I mean, she always reads. She complains saying that she CAN”T SLEEP if
she doesn’t read before bed. She says, “when
I slept at Grandma’s house I was up until 11:30 because I couldn’t read.” Riiiiight.
It had nothing to do with the fact that she was having a fun sleepover
with her cousin… But I get it. Reading helps to calm my brain as well. But she seems to be hanging out upstairs or having Ryan lie in bed with her instead of just reading for an hour like she used to. And we haven’t been doing math at home. We never really did that much at home anyway,
just a couple practices on the weekend if we had time. But we hadn’t been doing that since Kaden was
born. But her numbers are pretty
crazy. Of course, those are her numbers
as of today. The term ended like a month
ago, so they were a bit lower then. Her
teacher told us that she passed off all the math objectives in both groups (she had already moved up to the
next group when the rest of her class was still in the first group) but she’s
now moved past that group too so she’s into fourth grade math stuff. Her STAR tests put her at a math level of 5.5
and a reading level of 8. It says IRI is
261. I think that is words per
minute? Anyway, she’s doing well.
So, the thing about blogging updates on the kids is that you
want to find balance. Sure, I could go
on about how wonderful Kylee is. She is
wonderful a lot of the time. But we also
have struggles. And while I don’t want
to air dirty laundry constantly, I do want a realistic picture of how life
is. So I will talk about both good and
bad.
Kylee loves her baby brother. I helped out in her class today and I just
carried Kaden with me. When Kylee
finished her math test she asked if she could hold him. She walked with him for
a minute and was swarmed by classmates doting on him. Kaden liked the attention. It was pretty cute. It’s really nice to have her hold him when I
need both my hands for something and I don’t want to just let him scream. Sometimes he still fusses with her holding
him, but at least he’s not just being ignored.
He’s getting a bit heavy for her skinny little arms, so she often has to
set him down for a bit, but she does well.
And she likes changing his diaper.
Imagine that. After
all the teasing Daddy did before he came about Kylee changing diapers, and how
much she dreaded it, she likes it now.
She’s not home that often, and I am a bit of a germ-a-phobe when it
comes to her changing him, worried she won’t get him clean or she will get her
hands dirty and touch something important before she gets to the sink to
wash. But there are times that it is
really helpful.
Sadie also really likes Kylee to put her to bed. I’m not sure what kind of shenanigans go on
when she puts her to bed, but they both seem to enjoy it. There are nights where Kylee is worn out (I’ll
get to that) and isn’t up for it. But
most nights she does it willingly.
Honestly, I’d be happy to pay her coins for her help with Sadie but she
doesn’t ask. Sometimes I offer. Sometimes I forget.
Struggles. The last
time I talked about Kylee, we were going through a power struggle. Since then we have been fine on that
regard. She has free-Friday where I let
her bring a treat in the car to gym and she’s allowed to eat Lexi’s food. She asks Lexi to bring Dorito’s on Fridays
because she enjoys them. She tries to
negotiate with me on Meet weeks where they don’t have gym on Fridays, tries to
get me to let her have Lexi’s food on Thursday instead. I say no.
Only because she has a lot of treats here. And because I hate Dorito’s and Cheetos. When she whined about it one day I got a
little upset and told her that I hate Dorito’s and I may have said something
about them being poison so I wasn’t going to go out of my way to find a way for
her to eat them. (Hey, I’m not
perfect.) But what I did do is I found
some cheesy corn chips at Natural Grocers (organic) and bought them for her and
gave them to her in her lunch on Friday.
She was really happy. Win-win. So anyway, we aren’t struggling with
that. And I’m really close to just
letting her share Lexi’s food when she wants without restrictions again, but I’m
really hesitant because I hate the idea of her eating candy and toxic chips
right before dinner and then not wanting much for dinner. I send real-food snacks with her to gym every
day. I even let her take the chips I
bought sometimes. I just don’t want her
eating too much crap. I tolerate the occasional
junk they get from school or friend’s houses or other events, but gymnastic is
four days a week and I have a problem with her eating that stuff four days a
week. Maybe I’m extreme. But I am this way and I can’t help it. I have found substitutions for everything
they have wanted so far so they don’t feel deprived. See, here I am trying to defend myself
again. I simply don’t want her filling
up on junk right before dinner, okay?
That’s not unreasonable.
The problem we have had with Kylee is that she has been
falling apart emotionally, ALL. THE. TIME.
Actually this last week hasn’t been too bad. So now I’m starting to wonder if it was that
cold bug that our family was passing around that affected her. She wasn’t sick when it started, but she got
sick and that only made it worse.
Hmm. Maybe. But it seems like it lasted weeks.
Anyway, there were weeks when she was breaking down nearly
every day. Usually it was after
gymnastics, but sometimes just after school or in the middle of the day. I kept thinking to myself, “an 8-year-old’s
life should not be this stressful.” I
was seriously thinking that gymnastics must be too much for her to handle. I didn’t know what to do for her. We would get home from church at 4pm and she
would break down saying, “I just don’t feel good.” That was her phrase. Every time.
I tried to get her to understand that it was hunger and that she didn’t
have to suffer. I also tried to help her
to understand that it was important to eat enough during each meal that she
wasn’t starving throughout the day.
Because she doesn’t have access to food all day long. I started doubling the amount of food I gave
the kids for breakfast and for snacks. I
was pretty much giving them a small meal as a snack, left-over pizza, left-over
chicken casserole, etc, etc.
Still, after gym she would break down. And it wasn’t always hunger, because though I
tried to force food on her as soon as she started crumbling, there were days
where she would say she wasn’t hungry and wouldn’t eat much for dinner. So it wasn’t just hunger, just overall
exhaustion. The hard thing is that she
would be perfectly happy in the car on the way home. Ryan would pick them up and her and Lexi
would be giggling and having a great time.
Then minutes after she walked in the door she “doesn’t feel good”. When Ryan mentioned her happiness in the car
she said she was forcing it for Lexi’s sake.
We both told her that we couldn’t handle much more of her being so
miserable and that it’s not worth her doing gymnastics if it’s going to make
her so miserable all the time. She LOVES
gym and freaks out any time we talk about pulling her out. I explained that it’s not fair for Lexi to
get the good side of her and for us to always get the cranky side. Ryan told her he was really done with gym and
would not let her do it next year at all if she came home crying one more time. Perhaps that’s why she’s been doing better
lately. But I really think it was the
illness that we just didn’t realize she had yet.
I was really stressed about it, though. She came home from school one day and before
she said anything she just started crying.
She told me she had a bad day, and explained a couple things that had happened
(really minor things). I was emailing my
mom asking if it was normal for a child to be so emotional and if I should be
concerned. I tried to make Kylee go to
bed earlier at night to get more sleep.
With Ryan gone this week, I’ve been here and somewhat stressed and I’ve
asked Kylee for help at times. She’s
been fine. I hope we are past it.
On another note, Kylee has become a little more secure with
herself (nice way of saying cocky). She’s
always seemed fairly humble even though she’s always been at the top of her
class. In her writing assignments she sometimes comes across as thinking she's superior. And we've already talked about her arguing with us as if she knows more than us. She also snaps at her siblings unnecessarily. That all comes down to just speaking kindly, and none of the kids are great with that. Some of the things we read in her notebook surprised us, though. She keeps it at school so we only get to see it at PTC. Her teacher assured us that he never sees that attitude come out in class, only in her writing. Which is good. Still, I wonder. Should we talk to her about it? More than we already do whenever we hear anything come out of her mouth that needs addressing.
This year has introduced the boy
stage. Oh third grade boy stuff. Gotta love/hate it. I started hearing from friends that their
girls were getting texts from boys saying that they liked them and such. I was so not ready. But what really surprised me was Kylee’s
attitude. She came home telling us that
in math class Mr Adams gives Brody a hard time about liking her and
Mckinley. He would just say at random
times, “and Brody likes Kylee.” Or “Brody
likes Kinley.” I would’ve expected Kylee
to be embarrassed about it, but she wasn’t.
At all. She said it like it was
just no big deal. The good news is that she has no interest in boys. I'm sure she enjoys the flattery of boys giving her attention, but she does not like any of the boys more than just friends. And I believe her. Later she mentioned a
few other boys and eventually told me about how Cole, JT and Brody were
fighting over her in math class. I think
it they were supposed to have partners or something, I can’t remember the whole
story. But again, she was not
embarrassed. Most recently she goes, “you
know how Cole likes me?” as in, the beginning of a story. I said, “are you sure he likes you or is Mr
Adams just giving him a hard time?” She
goes, “no, he likes me. The whole class
knows.” Well okay then. She went on to tell me that he gave her a
golden coin dollar and told her to go buy a treat from the library. So she did.
Hmm. That’s really sweet of him,
but I’m not sure how I feel about it. I
told Kylee that she probably shouldn’t accept money from people. I mean, unless it’s like a quarter. Once.
She agreed. I didn’t want her
taking advantage of a kid’s kindness.
The cute thing is that Cole inspired her or something
because for some reason she told Dylan that she was going to buy him something
from the library. She made a little coin pouch bracelet out of loom bands and she put her own money in it and bought him a monster
pencil. That was only a quarter. And after that Dylan said he would buy Kylee
something. He said he would buy her a
pack of cookies, which is a dollar. He
had to pay tithing first, but he did a few chores and got the dollar and bought
her some cookies, which she then shared with him and Sadie. Not once did he try to take money to buy
himself a treat. And it’s obvious that a
bag of cookies is a much better gift than a little pencil. But they just liked doing things for each
other. I was happy and proud of them.
Another thing I think is cute is how they ride to school
together every day. I mean, of course
they leave at the same time and everything, but they stay together. Occasionally Kylee’s chain will fall off her
bike and so she will take her scooter.
Dylan will take his scooter too, even though his bike is fine. And more lately Kylee has been complaining
that Dylan goes too fast in the mornings.
I’m like, “well, you don’t HAVE to stay together.” She says, “but I like riding with him.” Aw.
She’s been riding the ripstick and he rode his scooter the first time so they could stay together, but
fell on the way home (and very nearly put a hole in his brand new pants the
first time he wore them) so I told him to just take his bike. Kylee whined a little. It’s adorable. I love my kiddos.
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