Halloween

I joined the league of moms who make costumes this year.  Kezie wanted to be batgirl.  Pink batgirl. 

A cape and a logo on a t-shirt are as crafty as I get.   She liked it, and she looked really cute

Ivy is a power ranger.  The gold one, which is her favorite. 

We headed up to our old neighborhood where witches fly around rooftops, ghosts float in windows, and neighbors gather for cider and nachos in driveways.  We had a great time.

Delayed first day of school post

Kezie started first grade and is doing very well

First day of school

She also lost both of her top front teeth, so she has a huge gap in her smile.  For the first few days, she had  a cute little lisp to go with it. 

Kezie has her own sense of style, and can usually be found wearing both a skirt and pants or leggings.  She loves her light-up sketchers and wears them with two shoelaces on each foot; tied at both the top and bottom.  This was entirely of her design.  She is having a great time choosing different activities each day during what her school calls flex time; one day she'll play soccer, and the next she'll do art or Spanish Club, or music.  She's trying out everything.  We can't believe how independent she's becoming.

Utah Museum of Natural History

It took an extra half hour to get there.

There are no signs. 

Luckily I heard once that it's next to Red Butte Gardens, and there are signs for that

We got quite the tour of the area around the U, but we found it

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Kezie quickly discovered the gear required for her future profession

 

     My little bugs

 There was fishing for plastic fish, and there were live native animals to see.

The eight-legged ones were in their own little room, easily avoided. The girls weren't bothered.  They have not as yet shown signs of their mothers' phobia.

Digging for dinosaur bones

While they both liked the dinosaurs, they surprised me with their favorite exhibits.  Ivy loved an interactive demonstration of the water-purifying benefits of marshes.  Kezie loved the minerals, especially the florescent ones.  They both enjoyed a snack from the cafe. 

Growing up

Quotable Ivy: (Here there be potty stories.  Ye have been warned)

We were driving home from Roosevelt one night, and Ivy was looking out the window  "The trees look like they are going to reach up and grab the moon!"

While chatting in the car: "I think Grandma is a girl, like Kezie.  And I think Grandpa is a boy, like me."
She's still working on it.  She has started asking if people are boys or girls, which is new.  For at least a year, she's been referring to everyone as "she."  This has gotten some startled responses from UPS delivery drivers and  male cousins.

Tonight, while we were talking about her accident in her underwear, she took a look at it.  She then, very seriously and with a straight face, said; "Mom, I think my poop is a poop puddle."

I was painting Ivy's toe nails, and she kept wiggling.  When I asked her to hold still, she responded, "Mom.  I can't control myself."

Ivy's math is coming along.  She gets one treat for certain potty-related activities, and two treats for--other potty related activities.  We delay any treats for the late evening and overnight until after breakfast the next morning. She is very good at adding these up and will give me her total as soon as she is done eating.

We are spending  a lot of time watching the Olympics this week.  As a family, we are especially into beach volleyball.  Ivy is confused by the whole idea.  She is convinced that the players are trapped behind the volleyball net.  She also seems to believe that the players are trying to jump over the net to escape it.  No amount of explaining will convince her otherwise.

 Growing up Kezie

A few weeks ago, Kezie heard about an opera recital at the library.  She really wanted to go, so I took her.  I thought she was bored, but afterward she asked if she could please, please go to the next one.

Kezie has now lost two teeth.  The second didn't fall out until the adult tooth had come in behind it, so she didn't get that cute gap-tooth grin.  She was pretty excited about the whole thing, and actually pulled the tooth out herself.  She did this while waiting for the pliers to be disinfected.  She wanted Shawn to use them to yank the tooth.  Brave kid, that one.

I am still getting used to the sight of Kezie sitting down to read a book.  She'll pull one out, climb into my lap, and proceed to read the whole thing with very little prompting.  

We now live very close to the elementary school, and go to view the construction work there several times a week.  Kezie is very excited to be starting first grade, and is very curious about her new teacher, three recesses a day, and eating lunch at school.  I am mostly having a difficult time with the idea that she will be gone ALL DAY. 


Kezie wants to be an Olympic gymnast.  And then a swimmer.  And when she's done with that she'll be a paleontologist and then an astronaut.  Somewhere in there she wants to have a lot of kids.  The kid has dreams.

I have a strong-willed child.

They say admitting the problem is the first step, except Ivy isn't a problem.  She's a gift.  A difficult, loud, exhausting, stubborn, temperamental gift.  She goes from affectionate and sweet to a raging demon in seconds.  She has to be watched constantly to keep her from hurting her sister (her OLDER sister) because Kezie is doing something not quite the way Ivy likes it done, and so she lashes out.  She can't be sent to her room because she won't stay there, and if we try to keep her there because she is a danger to others, we have to physically hold her down.  This is unpleasant for all.

Signs of Ivy's will are all over the house.  Last week when we picked Kezie up from school, Ivy decided that she wanted to play on the school playground.  I told her she couldn't do that right now, and pretty much dragged her home.  Ivy waited until I was busy to unlock the door, open it, and run out into the parking lot and down the sidewalk toward the school.  She was three houses down before I caught up to her at a dead run.  There is now a child lock on the door which is in place any time Ivy is home.

The cups and plates are in a low cupboard so Ivy can reach them, because when not allowed to choose her own cup, Ivy has been known to throw them.  There is a towel on the fridge so she can use it to open the door and see what is inside.  She has to see for herself because she won't listen when someone else tells her there are no treats in there.  A step stool is in the bathroom so she can get to it herself, and the toothpaste is clear because she must do it herself, and I was tired of cleaning up bright green paste.


Today was a typical day.  It's not quite two, and we've had two major battles today.  The second started when I gave her two minutes' notice that we were taking kezie to school.

"I don't want to do that," she said, very calmly.

Two minutes later, she was still saying it.  My usual bag of tricks all failed, and she dissolved into tears and screaming.  I had to pick her up over my shoulder and head out.  This is when the hitting and squirming to get away started.  By the time we had dropped Kezie off, there was kicking and I had to hold her legs to keep her from hurting me.

She was still fighting me when we arrived home, so I put the extra lock on the door and carried her upstairs, ignoring the screaming and trying not to get kicked.  She desperately needed a diaper change; I don't like forcing her to have a change, but this one had needed changing for quite a while, and Ivy gets horrible, bleeding diaper rash very easily.  I changed her and took the diaper downstairs and left it by the door.  I would take it out to the dumpster when she had calmed down and I was pretty sure she wouldn't come running after me.

The yelling and hitting things upstairs stopped in a few minutes, and I heard little feet on the stairs. Ivy slowly came around the corner, seeking out the diaper.  I decided to ignore her for the moment because she was no longer screaming, and if she stays calm for a few minutes, she is much easier to talk to.  I didn't want to start her off again, and start the whole process over.  She found the diaper, which I had placed up high for just this reason.  she started jumping, trying to reach it.  She then found a box and pulled it over as a stool to reach the diaper.

"Ivy, what are you doing?"

She was diaper- and pant-less and still sniffling.  "I want that diaper."

"Ivy, that diaper has poop in it."

"I want that diaper."

"That diaper is not good for you."

"I want that diaper."

I picked her up to stop the useless argument, and she snuggled into me.  We talked a little bit about why she couldn't wear the diaper, and why I had changed it.  With hugs and lots of assurances that I love her and was trying to keep her safe and healthy, she calmed down and listened.  I suggested quiet time then, and she jumped off my lap.  "OK, Mommy!"

And just like that, my sweet child was back.

She bounced up the stairs with, "Have a good quiet time, Mommy!"  and two minutes later she called to me and asked me to help put on a new diaper.  She gave me a hug and a kiss and climbed into bed for a nap.

Total time: 1 hour and 20 minutes of screaming, hitting, or trying to run away

She's asleep.  Tomorrow, around noon, we do it all again.

Ivy is a gift.  She can wrap nearly anyone around her finger with charm when she decides to.  She has a sense of humor and a laugh that delight us every day.  She simply does not care what anyone else thinks, and insults or name-calling from her peers are met with an incredulous stare and a cold shoulder.  She is a problem-solver and she lives life on two speeds; zero and ten.  Life is a musical, and we are treated her her rendition nearly every day.

I don't know how we are going to teach her to reign it in; to keep from lashing out at everyone when things aren't exactly her way.  I don't know how we'll teach her to listen to authority but not to do so blindly.  I don't know how we'll teach her to keep her fire and her drive and to use them wisely, but if we can help her figure these things out, this little girl is going to change the world.

More growing up

I got a message from Kezie last night while I was at work:

"Mom, my tooth is loose!"

Here she is with her holey smile

Showing off the gap

and hamming it up for the new camera:

Stop the room so I can get off. Please.

This is how I felt when I woke up last Monday:

While I love a good amusement park ride, this one was only fun until I opened my eyes and started throwing up.

Shawn took me to the doctor, who gave me anti-nausea drugs (which I promptly found their way back out, alas) and diagnosed an inner ear infection. Rest, fluids, let us know in a week if you aren't better.

I spent the next two days in bed, with my eyes closed and the lights off, and an audiobook playing on the mp3 player. Shawn bought me some very pretty roses, which I mostly smelled because opening my eyes to look at them induced severe waves of nausea, which is not something I want to associate with a gift from my husband. I discovered that I can find my way pretty well around the apartment with my eyes closed, though I 'm sure it was pretty funny to watch me walk in a wobbly line down the hall. Or to watch me try to eat, which I did with my fingers, by feel.

By Wednesday, I was able to open my eyes for extended periods of time without the world turning in circles around me. I was able to go in to work on Thursday, and today I'm even driving and cleaning and stuff.

I'm not completely over it: if I stay very still for a while, and then stare at an inanimate object, it starts to tilt to the side ever so slightly. I enjoy the sci-fi effect, but it is still a bit disorienting.

I would have to ask my mother to be sure, but this might be my very first ear infection. I'm hoping for 30 years until the next one.

Yesterday, just after Kezie left for school, I took out the garbage. When I came back in the apartment, and Ivy hear the door open, she jumped up and said, really excited, "Kez!" She was pretty disappointed to find out it was just mom. I love that my girls like each other.