Treasure hunt

The Saturday after Christmas, we took the kids on a nature walk through the Santa Rosa Plateau to collect acorns. When we get our new house, we want to plant and grow some new oak trees (although, only the grandchildren might be able to really enjoy them if we are still there : )

Here is a picture of us searching for acorns under one of the parent trees. This is a Mesa Oak.We didn't get to hike very far as it took some time to search around under specific trees for specific acorns, especially since, many of the acorns have already been harvested by birds and squirrels for the winter.

We brought a little picnic to have under the beautiful oak trees. The girls had a lot of fun on their hunt for small treasures (acorns, acorn cups, galls, etc.).

They love collecting things no matter where we go...seeds, twigs, flowers, rocks, shells...it doesn't matter.

If you ever noticed, there is a strange pile of various objects by our door. That is where the girls deposit their treasures. At first, it was only a few things every so often, but they are starting to collect a lot more stuff at a time. At the new house, we are going to have to find them each a place out of the way that they can deposit their treasures.

...that is, not at our front door!

Here is one last picture of the girls in front of a really neat old grandmother oak. It was really big. I'm not sure if I got a shot of the whole tree or not. This is just part of the trunk with the girls standing next to it. It's a coast live oak.

We had to turn back before the sun went down though because it gets really cold. In fact, as we were walking through the trails, some of the pools of water that collected in the depressions were still frozen!

Christmas Day

This is a picture of the girls' other cousins. We went to visit my side of the family on the evening of Christmas Day. We had a nice quiet evening together at my sister's house which was nice (although my Dad did not show up). The kids had fun except they had to wait an awefully long time to open the rest of their gifts, but I think they all got enough already that it did not matter so much.

Christmas Eve

Since we went to the in-laws over the weekend, we got to relax a little and stay home with the girls for Christmas Eve. Our best friend Marian from college came over for dinner and spent the night. She got us a rib roast. Christian made some awesome fresh bread and we made a ton of braised carrots. We ate way too much and stayed up too late talking so we were all pretty tired on Christmas morning.

We did more presents in the morning with the girls and Marian and had a nice waffle breakfast before Marian had to take off for another Christmas party.

It's nice being able to linger a little at home for Christmas Eve and Christmas morning. In the past we've gone to the in-laws for Christmas Eve. We usually get back late in the evening. We grab some sleep and wake up Christmas morning and have our kids open their presents. They usually don't have any time to enjoy their presents before we throw them back in the car and take off for my family's house for Christmas day. It is usually quite stressful and exhausting. I like it this way so much better.

Caldwell Christmas

We did Christmas with Christian's family this past weekend. We drove down to San Diego for the weekend. Christmas with the Caldwell side of the family was extra special this year since Christian's mom was out here from Hawaii. She doesn't make it out every year so she also spoiled all the grandchildren rotten. The kids got a few things that they really needed, which was really good...and a whole lot of things they didn't! The girls love playing with their cousins.


Above is a picture of the girls and their cousins next to the Christmas tree before the mayhem began. That was the best I could do with all the kids together and with so much going on. The picture on the right would have been my favorite...had it not been blurry. Oh well.

After the kids settled down for the night, the adults got to play some games together.

All in all, it was a pretty nice weekend except we didn't get much sleep, but the kids got to play with their cousins a little longer and we got to visit with Christian's mom a little longer. We were getting ready to leave in the afternoon though so that the girls might be able to catch a nap on the way home when Christian's brother in law accidentally backed into our truck...sigh (we won't get into that!)

House shopping

We've been shopping for a house of our own for nearly a year now (we have been renting this one for nearly 11 years). It has been a physically and emotionally draining experience (not to mention the drain to our time). We've lost on offers where we have offered less than the winning bid. We've lost offers where we bid exactly the same as the winning bid. And we've even lost to people who bid less than what we offered!

To say that it has been a frustrating and disheartening experience is putting it VERY mildly.

But today, we finally have an announcement to make. After 14 offers, we finally got two that was accepted this past week. However, in trying to decide between the two, we went back to look at one of the houses that was empty (during the rain earlier this week) and found that the roof was leaking.

We were pretty much leaning towards the other house anyway, but that pretty much cinched up our decision. And after some um, adventures with the escrow company earlier this week, we finally opened escrow today. We plan to close before mid January. The house pictured above is the picture that was posted on the listing. It is a 4 bedroom and 2 bath house so that is pretty nice. Two for the kids and two for us to use. The family room, kitchen and dining area are not very big though but it will do. And the yard isn't as large as we would like but it is in a very quiet neighborhood so that is a plus. Also, it is close to Christian's work.

Yes, so...here is the kicker. It is not in the Arlington area...nor is it in the Mt. Rubidoux area. It is actually located in the University Heights area...much to my dismay. But I guess we all need to face our demons some time!

Princess and the Pea

Yes, there is no doubt about it, Emily is a true princess of the highest order and she proves it to us almost daily. No, not with a dried pea that she can feel through a stack of mattresses but close. Every day when she has to get ready for school or church or just to go outside, she has hysterical fits as she puts on her shoes because her sock might bunch up a little near her toe or her sleeve doesn't sit perfectly on her arm or an elastic fits a little too tightly for her comfort around her body somewhere...anywhere...anyway, you get the idea. There are dozens of things to set my little princess off into bouts of whining and gnashing of teeth. To get out the door is sometimes truly a chore and a misery. I won't even get started on what it's like to brush her hair! And she might be perfectly fine as her crocodile tears dry up in the car on our way to school or wherever and she is smiling and talking away as if she has not a concern in the world. But mean while, mom's nerves are shot and has not a drop of patience left to spare as she drops off her little princess and has fantasies of kicking her little princess butt out of the car on to the curb and screeching out of the parking lot for dear life, not looking back.

Who is this little princess and where did she come from? If she did not look so much like us and I did not give birth to her, I would swear there must of been some mix up at the hospital!!!

ps. Emily, if you are older and reading this one day, know that I love you with all my heart but I'm just saying that sometimes you really suck. Please stop sucking. --love and kisses, mom

FHE - Tree Decorating

On Monday, we decided to put up and decorate the tree. Yeah, no fresh trees for us...no smells of forests and Christmas. We can't stomach the exorbitant prices of fresh trees. We've tried buying the potted kinds so that we can keep it for a while until it outgrows the house and then can be planted outdoors but most so called Christmas trees in pots aren't even fir trees...they are pine (they even have rosemary trimmed into a Christmas tree shape). We tried buying them from nurseries but they say that they don't grow here and while that may be true of some fir trees, it's not true of white fir trees and we have found them dotted all around the city including within a mile of the nursery). Believe it or not, we have even ordered seeds and tried to germinate them ourselves but to no avail.

So we unpacked and fluffed up the fake tree. The girls were bursting with excitement regardless. It was difficult to take pictures of the girls and hand out ornaments at the same time. They were so excited that they would have trampled them all to the ground if you didn't try to control them. Christian was helping them find places to put them up on the tree as well as helping with those hard to reach places.

We finally managed to get the tree up and decorated. It is one of Emily's favorite parts of Christmas (next to getting presents, of course).

We are going to try to dress the girls up this weekend to take their annual Christmas photo in front of the tree. That part isn't usually that fun, trying to get both girls to pose in front of the camera at the same time is harder than you think. They get impatient after just a couple of shots so we usually have to bribe them to sit at some point with treats or something.

Here are the girls after the tree was finished. Just a few minutes to enjoy, then off to bed...

Mt. Rubidoux

On Thanksgiving weekend, we wanted to take the girls up to the mountain again to play in the snow since we finally got some good weather in but as Christian had to help some people move that morning, we didn't really have time to make it a worth while trip to the mountains. It takes an hour to drive up and the sun sets pretty early these days.

So we decided to take the girls up for a leisurely walk up to Mt. Rubidoux.


But we didn't quite make it up to the top this time. It was a little more than a stone's throw away, but the girls didn't care so much about it as they were having fun climbing rocks and learning to be mountaineers!


It was a beautiful day to be outdoors but that also made it crowded up on the hill, so Christian and I had no desire to go to the very top either. I thought that little Caitlyn would not be able to keep up with her big sister, but she was right there climbing too.

Thanksgiving

This year we spent Thanksgiving at my mom's house. We met up for lunch. My sister brought the turkey. My brother made the mashed potatoes and a veggie. My mom made rolls and sticky rice. I brought pies and another veggie.

The girls had so much fun with their cousins. Here is a picture of my girls with my brother's kids all piling on their daddy/uncle Christian.



I think that they are all getting too big to pile on all at the same time.

Catching up...

Now that Emily is back in school and we are back to our normal schedule, I'm going to try to catch up on stuff I wanted to post.

After a week and a half of having constant playmates, Caitlyn has again forgotten how to play on her own. So yesterday, I was tripping over her all over the house trying to catch up on dishes and laundry.

The previous week, we were baby sitting/house sitting for the Jorgenson's. The picture on the right was one of those golden moments with all four girls playing ring around the rosies together dressed in their Sunday best ready for church.

On one of the days while little Emily was down for a nap, the girls made crowns and posed for pictures. How can these be natural poses for little girls? It's scary what little hams they are!

Actually, here is a little clip of the girls playing:

Mommy dearest or mommy-rella?

Warning: Not your normal post of a gushing parent about their wonderful children. Children don't always 'feel' like a blessing. Sometimes, they are just a pain in the arse.


Sometimes I think that my kids think that I am mommy dearest...or that's the way they treat me sometimes. I admit, that I am fairly strict with my kids. I think that you have to be. Give them an inch and they will take a mile as the saying goes. But it is tiresome...gruelling even. I don't like repeating myself. I don't like yelling at my kids any more than they like being yelled at. So why don't they listen? Why don't they obey?

Most people will just say that they are just being kids but I have a responsibility as a parent to bring my children up to be good adults (there are too few of them in the world as it is). Yes, you have to love and nurture them, but our job is also to teach them. And lets face it, undisciplined, selfish, lazy, narcissistic children become undisciplined, selfish, lazy, narcissistic adults (there are too many of them in the world as it is).

All I ever get is mommy, I'm hungry, make me food. Mommy wash these clothes. Mommy fix this toy. Mommy mend these clothes. Mommy this and mommy that. I think I find myself more of a mommy-rella. I spend day and night cooking, doing the dishes, washing the clothes. I know that most children aren't really thankful until they grow up and have their own kids but is a little love and respect so much to ask? (Don't answer that).

I don't think that we demand that much from our children. Play with a toy, put it away. Eat politely. Don't fight with each other. Use the potty when they need to. It's not like we demand them to keep at spotless house (anyone who has been to our house knows that). We don't demand that they have perfect manners. We don't think children should be seen and not heard (although, some days... a girl can dream).

I think I am just tired of being the responsible parent sometimes. A little tired of the "long suffering." Tired of being treated like mommy dearest for trying to be a good parent.

Hmmm, maybe I am just tired...time to go to bed.


For those who don't know what "mommy dearest" is, it's a reference to an old movie from the early 80's.

Our Anniversary

On Saturday, we celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. We have actually been together for...let's see, 19 years! Wow, is that right? Unfortunately, we have been pretty busy lately, so we did not really have time to make any grand plans. We actually did have some small plans but it didn't quite work out. Anyway, we decided to take the kids up to the mountains for a little nature hike with us. We went to the San Gorgonio wilderness area. The kids really enjoyed themselves. The girls went around collecting little souvenirs to bring back with them. Caitlyn collected a big pile of sticks. Emily collected some pine cones. They were such little troopers going up some of the really steep hills...although, personally, I was a little sore the next day (I can't believe how out of shape I am).

We stopped part way to enjoy some refreshments and snacks and they were ready to go again.

We had hoped to take the girls hiking and camping a lot so that we could develop within them the love of the outdoors that we have but it has not quite worked out so well. We took Emily up to the Mammoth area when she was young for her first camping trip but got hit with very cold weather and kind of a freak snow storm (it was not the time of year yet for snow). We ended up staying at a motel and having to leave early. We came back to a heat wave in Riverside.

When I was pregnant with Caitlyn, we made it up to June Lake in the winter once. But we stayed in a cabin. I don't mind roughing it but I'm not sleeping on the hard ground while pregnant. It's hard enough to sleep on a soft bed when you are pregnant. We pulled Emily in a little sled we got her, but she refused to have fun. In fact she was determined not to be happy for some reason. But we were video taping her and caught her smiling at one point.

After that, Caitlyn came and we were not ready to take an infant up to the mountains to rough it in a tent. So we waited again. I think that by the time we thought Caitlyn was ready to go camping, the price of gas hit the roof and kept going up and we could barely afford to go visit family.

So Caitlyn has never camped out before and Emily has only camped out once in our backyard. So we have been afraid that they are going to be too "soft" and won't enjoy the mountains as we do, but the few times we have taken them out to go hiking or on little nature walks like this one, they have always done extremely well, so we are very pleased. We have a couple of little mountain climbers in the making...the little princesses that they are!When the sun goes down in the mountains, the temperature drops pretty rapidly, so we retreated down the mountain for some dinner. On our way home, we took the girls for a walk around the grounds at the Redlands Temple. Thankfully, the protesters were not out that night and they had already set up the nativity display.

We had such a great time. Emily could not stop talking about how fun it was for days. So I think that now that the price of gas has come down a bit, we will try to hopefully make it back up a few more times while we can.

Who knows, maybe we will actually make it out for a real camping trip this next year when the weather is right!

Christian's Birthday

Christian's birthday was yesterday but since Sunday's are pretty busy for us, we celebrated on Saturday. Our best friend, Marian came over and brought steaks to bbq. Christian's Dad came up from San Diego to join the party as well.

The girls worked on decorating a little gift for their dad. Emily drew pictures on the present and Caitlyn worked on the card. Caitlyn just started learning to write her name. And the girls were so proud and excited to give their gift to their dad.


We had a nice lunch and gorged ourselves on way too much chips and guacamole. Then we did presents. Christian got a selection of books and clothes and a really expensive piece of burlap!

We finished off with some birthday cake. Nothing fancy this year, just a plain chocolate cake.

Halloween

Halloween came and went. It was a bit anti-climatic after all the pre-Halloween festivities. I think Christian and I were done with Halloween before it got here.

Caitlyn and I decided to bake some snickerdoodles for a Halloween treat. I guess it's not really a Halloween cookie, but they taste so much better than the bland little rolled out cookies you cut out and decorate into Halloween shapes (and a lot less work).

Caitlyn helped pour some of the ingredients in the bowl and then she covered the balls of dough with the cinnamon mixture.


Then it was time for the endless minutes in the oven. Here is Caitlyn sitting back and admiring our work.

After that is the very best part of baking cookies....

eating them, fresh and warm from the oven!

We were supposed to go to another party that night but Christian couldn't make it back very early from work that day and we still wanted to let the girls go to a few doors to go trick-or-treating. We decided to take the girls to a nicer neighborhood and stop by a friend's house to say hello before heading over to the party but the girls were having so much fun, we never made it to the party!

Date Night

No, not for me and Christian but for Emily and her Daddy. Last night, the Riverside Children's Theater was putting on The Jungle Book at UCR and Christian and I decided to go see Kristina Jorgenson playing the mother wolf while the girls stayed back to play with Sophie. It sounded like a good idea anyway (any idea to get away from the kids for a little while IS usually a good idea).

So, arrangements were made, a quick dinner prepared. Caitlyn took a nap. I cleaned myself up and put on some clean clothes. The girls sat down for dinner but as Caitlyn approached her seat, she gripped her stomach and said that she didn't feel good (which was weird since she was just as right as rain before that). Then she quickly put her hand to her mouth and I grabbed for a bowl and half her lunch came back out (incidentally, she chews her spaghetti a LOT better than her sister...but that's another story). Her whole body was shaking from the sickness or from the effort of trying NOT to lose her lunch. But soon she was done. I had her lay down while I talked to her dad at work to make new plans. Anyway, the long and the short of it is that Emily got to go in my place and I stayed home to nurse my sick baby who was already feeling pretty damned good by the time Christian came back to pick up Emily.

We had actually considered taking the girls to the play originally but had decided that Caitlyn was still too young. Plus the previous play we had attended at Ramona High, the sound was so bad during parts of it, that we had a hard time ourselves trying to keep up with the story. So we decided that the kids could wait and we would investigate to make sure that the production value was better at the new venue (Plus Kristi volunteered Todd to watch the girls and who am I to say "no" to that?).

Anyway, I tried to explain to Emily the best I could about what she was going to go to. Emily was positively beaming as dad came to pick her up, giving mom and sister hugs as she left. I don't know if she was more excited for the play or just for a night out with dad.


p.s. I stayed home and folded laundry and watched movies with Caitlyn all night. She ate her dinner shortly after Emily left and has not showed signs of any sickness since. What was up with that? ...the little stinker.

Trunk-or-Treat

So I was playing with the night mode on my little digital one shot camera (which I have not used once since Christian got me this camera some 6 years ago). I took this picture of our pumpkins in front of our house.

It was a bit blurry. I obviously need a tri-pod. Which I have, but am always too lazy to pull out (especially for frivolous little shots like these). But I can see some potential for it's use.

Last night, we took the girls to the trunk-or-treat over at our church. It was kind of a small event (at least compared to the big stake ones we've had in the past. And some people put quite a bit of work in decorating their trunk for the occasion. The girls had a lot of fun though. They don't ask for much. They got to put on their costumes, see some of their friends, and got more candy to boot. Mommy and daddy are a little less enthusiastic about that part but it's all part of the fun of Halloween I guess. We'll thin out their Halloween booty later....shhhh.
Here's another night shot of the girls playing a bean bag toss game. They got four bean bags that they threw into the eyes, nose, or mouth of this scary clown face.

Again, a little blurry but definitely has some potential. I'll have to give this a little more thought next time and get my lazy butt up to pull out the tripod.

But if you can control the subject (which you have to admit is impossible when it is little children), you can get some neat action affects like you see in the last image of Cailtyn below.


The youth put on this spook alley inside the building and we were not going to take our girls in there but got pressured inside (I blame Jenny who said that she was even taking baby Emily in...I'm ratting her out to her mom right now). Anyway, the guys said that they would do a light "spook" for the little ones. But it was dark and just the costumes and props were too much for most of them. Caitlyn and I were the first to go in, followed by Josh Wilkes. I thought the rest of them were following behind us but apparently, big and little Emily plus Sophie were not going to have anything to do with it and chickened out before going in (unbeknowst to us). Caitlyn did really well until about the 2nd turn in the maze and decided that it wasn't such a good idea when it came to the end and we were supposed to crawl through this foggy tunnel to get out. They had to let us go around and she was shaking a little by the end of it. Josh was a little warry but went through the tunnel by himself (well, I think one of the guys in there helped him through! Way to go Josh!

I felt really bad about taking Caitlyn in afterwards. But she is such a little trooper. We left afterwards and she recovered and started comparing treats with her sister on the way home.I don't think I did any lasting damage by taking her into the spook alley. She didn't even wake up that night with nightmares or anything...or did I?

FHE - Pumpkin Carving

Last night, the Wilkes came over and we carved pumpkins with the kids for Halloween. We did it together last year too and the kids had so much fun. Emily can carve a pumpkin almost entirely by herself. Caitlyn didn't get to do much last year since she was still pretty small, but she got to help out a little this year.


Here is the result of everybody's hard work...
Afterwards, we had some cupcakes while we sat back and admired our handiwork.


Now there's pumpkins seeds roasting in the oven!

Halloween preview

I really still enjoy Halloween. I don't know if it's because I got a late start in my childhood and had to quit early in my youth due to certain circumstances and, therefore, I didn't really get it out of my system or if it's just an excuse. But for the most part, I put away the childish things of Halloween through my teenage years and early twenties. When I graduated from college and went to work for Isuzu Motors, I had this Japanese boss that was totally enamored with the holiday and it must have rekindled my enthusiasm for the day.

Christian has less enthusiasm for it than I do, but I convinced him to go to a Halloween party this past weekend anyway. He was such a good sport, he even dressed up as the mad scientist! Here we are with our little princess and fairie.

So, this year we decided that Emily should be Snow White because she always had very fair skin since she was born (it's a bit darker now from a summer of playing outside and swimming). And when we used to take pictures of her, everyone would comment on how red her lips were. Some people even though we put lipstick on her! If she had inherited my black hair, she would have looked so much like Snow White!

We picked Tinker Bell for Caitlyn because she is so darn petite and cute...but okay, it's mostly because of her attitude.

Piano

I think that both Christian and I had always wanted to learn to play the piano when we were younger but never had the opportunity. So we have hopes that one or both of our girls would take it up so that we could live vicariously through them.

Last night, for some reason, Christian and I were going over some of the little video clips of Caitlyn as a baby and waxing nostalgic (what does that mean exactly?) about when the girls were little. So, today, I pulled up these little clips of Emily with her play pianos...


This is clip is from when she was only 6 months old.


Emily is 3 years and maybe 9 months in this one with her little "baby grand."


This one is from last week.

*sniff* *sniff*...they grow up so fast, don't they?

The end of naps and life as I know it.

I am finally facing the possibility that Emily is completely done with naps. I know, most people can't even believe that she has still been taking naps. But the times that we let her go without one, she becomes a psychotic maniac at some time in the evening when she gets more tired (even if we put her to bed earlier). But the last couple of weeks has been difficult and she's been keeping Caitlyn up as well. Caitlyn can barely stay awake some days for the 7 minutes it takes for us to drive to Emily's school in the afternoon to pick her up but by the time we actually do pick Emily up, she wants very badly to stay up and play with Emily.

So, yesterday, I finally put Caitlyn down by herself. She played at first and refused to go to bed but finally got tired and napped for a short time. Today she went in without a fight and took her nap.

But now I get a break from Emily while she is at school but I don't get my breaks from her during her naps anymore. It's very sad and I need to find a way to maintain my sanity.

If a tree falls in the forest and there is no one to hear it, does it really fall? If Emily stops talking, will she cease to exist? I think that this must be her fear. Isn't she a little young to be delving into existential thought?

School update

Clearly, the novelty of writting in a blog as my online journal is wearing off as it's been weeks since my last entry. Or maybe I'm just really starting to enjoy my time alone with just Caitlyn now that Emily is in school. I spoke to Emily's teacher a couple of weeks ago about my concerns and she addressed most of them to my satisfaction. So I am more at ease with sending Emily to school and that she will be able to get something out of it. She's getting extra attention and additional work that is more to her level and I think that we are all happier for it (Emily included).

2008 LA County Fair

On Saturday, we went with some friends and took the girls to the LA County Fair in Pomona. The girls had a blast. They couldn't stop talking about it from last year (that's how little we get out). The weather was cooler than last year so that was nice.

Emily got to go in the little petting zoo (Caitlyn was not interested...ever since that goat incident at the San Diego zoo a year or more ago.


They didn't get to ride the carousel this year though. That was their favorite thing from last year but apparently they put a height requirement on there this year and Caitlyn did not measure up. Poor kid.
We saw the world's largest horse...and the world's smallest horse. The larger horse was definitely more impressive. Plus the normal animals there...pigs, chickens, rabbits, goats, cows, etc.

The girls did get pony rides though....

And Caitlyn got to ride around on a little tractor.


Plus they got to play in the snow a little but it was too crowded for any decent pictures. The girls had a blast and mommy got these earings : )

Day Off

We had a tough week full of emotional and seemingly hormonal toddlers and overflowing toilets. Plus we are still trying to shake the last effects of that cold we got a couple of weeks ago. Anyway, at the last minute, Christian decided that we were going to get a babysitter and we were going to have a few hours away from the girls on Friday.

We picked up some food and drove to a hill at UCR and had a picnic as the sun went down. It was so peaceful. We were in between two hills so the noises from the city and freeway were muffled. After we ate, we walked up to the top of one of the hills that overlooks the city. I can't believe how much it has changed since we used to go to school there. Where there were dark spots, you can now see city lights as far as the eye can see. It's not as pretty as it used to be. Then again, neither is the campus which is nearly unrecognizeable in some areas.

Christian and I met and UCR and that hill is actually one of the places we first went to together. We had a nice evening.

Tagged

I was tagged by my friend Denise, to write down 6 random things about myself. I hate these because I find it really hard to answer, which is strange since who should know myself better than myself? Anyway, here goes...

1. My favorite place to go is the mountains. Everything is so clear, peaceful and beautiful there.
2. I love watching movies (at home).
3. I love baking anything and everything.
4. I hate doing the dishes.
5. I used to love cooking, until I had kids.
6. I love curling up on the sofa to read a good book.

Now I'm tagging...Raena, Cindy and Emilee. (Denise didn't tag 6 people, so, I'm not going to either!)

Here are the rules: These are the rules which need to be passed on:

1. Link to the person who tagged you on your blog.
2. Post the rules of the tag on your blog.
3. Write 6 random things about yourself.
4. Tag 6 people at the end of the post.
5. Let each of the people know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
6. Let tagger know that your tag entry has been posted

A Pox on Wednesdays

I've come to really dislike Wednesdays. Wednesdays are minimum days for Emily's kindergarten school. She gets out an extra 1 hour and 15 minutes. It's the day the teachers get together to brainstorm or collaborate (i.e. whatever the teacher's equivalent of milling around the water cooler to discuss the latest episode of Grey's Anatomy, etc.).

Okay, okay, I'll stop. I would hate to insult the few really good teachers left out there. The education system would come to a halt without them. Sorry, people...I didn't mean you.

Anyway, it would really be easier to get into the groove of the new school schedule if it didn't keep changing right in the middle of the week. I literally, dropped Emily off this morning, drove to the bank and the market, came home to get some lunch when I had to turn around and pick Emily up again. It's quite aggravating.

On the bright side, I don't need to deal with the letter recognition thing for the Early Steps to Reading program anymore. Emily finished it all. I was going to post a picture every day with her new crown but I got lazy when she got her orange one and she got cheated her blue crown yesterday so here is the final one. She got a little whistle for completing them all. They could have saved money on supplies if they just tested her on all the cards all at once instead of sending them home with her one by one. She could have rattled them all off from the beginning.

So my dilema now is, since she clearly does not have very much of a challenge at school in learning (nor in church since she apparently is still getting sunbeam lessons since her CTR5 class is combined with sunbeams), what do I do to engage her mind? Do I just teach her to read and do simple arithmetic myself? Or am I just going to compound my woes regarding the educational system by keeping her ahead of her class mates?

If so, do I then just let her coast through life without challenges to her mind so that it atrophies? And then when the other children catches up to her, will she freak out because she will be so unused to the challenges and rigors to her mind?

I clearly have a problem. Not the one described above, but the fact that I just think and worry too much. I think I just need to chill out and let her enjoy herself...but apparently, it is against my character to do so. I think I need professional help!

Green level

Today, Emily brought home the green crown for passing the green level letters. She put in no more effort in learning these letters than the ones before. She also brought home the orange set. The result was the same. I actually think they are getting easier. Apparently a couple more kids got the yellow level today. None other than Emily has gotten the green.

Now Emily has always been too smart for her own good, so I tested the yellow level on Caitlyn who is much more of a happy go lucky kid who acts more of her own age. She got every letter except 2 variations on the lower case "a."

I am not encouraged.

My Rant on Schools

Okay, so Emily has been in school for a few weeks now and she still loves it. She loves the whole socialization thing mostly. Most of my rants have been about how unorganized they are and how little they respect parents and their time. I'm amazed sometimes that they get it to work at all.

After taking Emily to school and picking her up again for these past weeks, I remember what miserable people most of the school employees are. They hate their jobs, they hate your kids and they hate you. Okay, maybe I am exagerating a bit on some accounts but I'm not that far from the mark in others. And this is nothing against Emily's teacher who seems okay. But from my own experience and watching these miserable souls walk back and forth skulking through the school grounds, I shudder to think of what the effects of their misery have upon our kids. If the children learn and succeed, it will not be so much because of the efforts of these people, but despite them. So when you run into a really good teacher who loves what they do and really puts effort into teaching your kids (and I can probably count the number of really good teachers I've had K-12 on one hand), don't forget to show them some appreciation. Everyone needs a pat on the back now and then for their efforts.

Enough of that, my real rant is on the kindergarten curriculum. Now, I know they are just 5 year olds. They are just kids starting to learn. But from what I have seen of the curriculum of a kindergartener, there is also very little expectation. Their idea of math is shape sorting and things that are the same and different. What exactly does that have to do with math exactly? Or maybe there is some counting involved here and there of things 1-10. My 3 year old can count whether there are 3 squares here or 7!

Their idea of social studies appear to be just learning the basic rules of sharing and class rules, like not talking while the teacher is talking or taking turns.

I asked Emily what they taught in class the other day and it was the letter "I." Okay, maybe I am mistaken and just don't really know what else they are teaching in class. I mean, communication is NOT one of Emily's strong points.

So here was Emily the other day getting a little crown for testing out of her letters. Apparently some yahoos from the University of Minnesota created these Early Steps to Reading. Letters (both upper case and lower case in different styles) are grouped and put in a certain order. Supposedly, if you learn each stage (identified with a color) in a certain order, it will help kids recognize letters and learn to read faster or better...not really sure I understand the whole idea.

So you pass each level and move on to the next. I took out the first set of letters from her envelope and asked her to identify them. She did so without blinking and she took it back to get the next set. Of course, the first sets of letters are supposed to be the easiest and will get progressively more difficult so I didn't think that much of it. They quized her and she passed and got her little award. I tried to sound excited and I should be proud and happy since she was only 1 of 2 children who got it from the get go but she honestly didn't have to put any effort into it. If she worked hard in learning it and passed, that would be a different matter.

So I am conflicted on whether I should be really excited and happy for her achievements even when it took no effort on her part since it helps build confidence or will these "achievements" that take no effort just make her overly confident and complacent?

Palm Desert

Since Christian was going to be working, over the weekend, I decided to take the girls out to Palm Desert where my sister was currently staying and meet up with my brother's family as well. This was the scenery outside her unit.


The girls had a blast swiming day and night. It's pretty much all you can do there at this time of year. It is oppressively hot. So you either swim and stay cool, or go inside the air conditioned resort. And since my girls have energy to spare, it was better to take them swimming than have them bounce off the walls inside.

Here are the girls hanging out by the pool...


One of the girls' favorite things was the waterslide...

And they also had a little water park in one area where water shoots out and you can play in it. That was the coolest water there. The water in the pools was not that cold...unless you dared climb into the jacuzzi in the evening, then the rest of the pools felt cold again.

It was all very fun, although Palm Desert was quite a bit farther than I anticipated. Thanks again Wendy for inviting us over.

Here is a little 30 second video of the girls swiming.