Back to School

August 27, 2012  First day of school!

 

 

 

Duch started Kindergarten!  She was very excited and did not seem too nervous.  She planned which uniform to wear for weeks!  Her teacher is Ms Holford.  She knows one other kiddo in her class, Aiden, because he is the younger brother of one of Bubba's friends.  She knows several other Kindergartners the same way.  At the end of the day she said it was a good day.  She went to PE for Specials, recess was fun, Ms Holford read a story about going to school, lunch in the cafeteria was fine, she got green for good behavior... The information about the day trickled out all afternoon.  She was one tired girl by bedtime!

 

 

Bubba started 2nd grade.  He was excited but disappointed that his best buddy is not in his class.  Some other friends are in the class so he is glad for that.  His teacher is Mrs Jenkins and he had lots of good things to say about her.  She has "a really cool rock collection," which makes her tops in Bubba's eyes.  He had Art for Specials which is first thing in the morning.  He saw Duch in the cafeteria, which she thought was super cool.  No homework the first week!

 

 

Splish, Splash!

We returned to Gulf Shores again this summer and had a great time! Once again the whole family was there. We swam in the ocean, played in the pool, hung out in the house... We didn't go to town much- once to go to the airplane museum in Pensacola, once to go out to eat and once to ride go-carts. We celebrated Aunt Sara's and Duch's birthdays with cake and gifts. Huck did not like the sand but wanted to go to the beach.  As long as he sat on a towel or someones lap he was fine.  Bubba did great swimming, in both the ocean and the pool. 

 

 

 

First morning, looking out over the water

Huck did NOT like the sand

Uncle Scott

Cousins!

airplane museum

 

 

Say AHHHHHH

Duchess had her tonsils and adenoids out last week.  She had several strep infections and had quite a mighty snore at night so out the y came.  She did very well with the surgery and has had a pretty smooth recovery.  We had been talking about it for awhile so she was pretty well prepared.  Over the month before her concerns were- What if I wake up?  What if I have a bad dream and can't wake up?  How badly will my throat hurt when I wake up?  What will the room I wake up in look like?  The only one I couldn't answer right away was the one about the bad dream, but after asking at work I learned that people do not have REM sleep under anesthesia so no worries for bad dreams. 

The night before

 

The GIANT tonsils

We took her up to the Children's location in Plano and I can't say enough good things about everyone there.  So friendly and every single person spoke to Duch.  They had toys waiting for her in the exam room and she kept busy serving us tea and playing on the toy computer.  She brought Get Better Bunny (from Cousin William) to the hospital and she was able to go back to the OR with her.

Get Better Bunny from Cousin William

She got a little "silly juice", Versed mixed with pain medicine, and off she went to the OR.  She was laughing as she was pushed down the hall.  Daddy and I went to wait and eat lunch and had not even finished eating when they were calling us back to speak with the doctor.  Dr McClay said she did great, that her tonsils and adenoids were "pretty big and nasty looking."  So good choice in taking them out.  We went back to the waiting room and in about 20 minutes they called us back because she was awake.  I thought she looked pretty good, I expected her to be more pale or something.  She drank a little and went back to sleep for about an hour or so. 

 

 

After waking up she said "Momma, I was in a movie."  I guess a dream?  Not too long after that she was playing Where's My Water and asking to go home.

 

 She was hurting by the time we got home so we gave her some pain medicine- which was quite a battle as it tasted very yucky.  I took it back to get some flavor added but it didn't really seem to improve it much...  An hour after we got home she looked almost normal- I totally did not expect that!  With a bowel of strawberry ice cream in front of her for dinner she was begging to eat pizza!  Several times I had to ask her to please not twirl in circles.  Later she caught herself twirling and I heard a frustrated moan and "How can I possibly not spin?  I spin ALL THE TIME!"  Which is true.

Day 3 & 4 were a bit rougher as she was a bit whinny and oppositional, but still not too bad.  As long as she got her pain meds every 4 hours she was pretty good.  She did only once moan "WHY did I have to get my tonsils tooken out?!"  By day 7 she had a pretty good day.  She slept through the night without waking in pain and only needed pain meds 2 times.  By the weekend before school started she did not need pain medicine at all!

5!!!!! Five Years-Old!!!!! Duchess is Five!!!!!

5!!!!!  Five Years-Old!!!!! Duchess is Five!!!!!

Duchess, at what age do you think a person is a grown-up?  26 years

If you could be invisible for one day, what would you do?  I don't know.  Just ask me a different question.
What is something that makes our family special?  Our last name?
Are you a good friend? yeah   Why?  because...  I play a lot of games

How would the world be different if animals could talk?  I'd go, like, "what the?" 

What is the best thing about being a kid?  that you could go and do stuff that grown-ups can't do, like go in a place that has a small little door

What is the worst thing?  nothing!

What is your favorite place in the world?  the pool

If you could give one gift to every kid in the world, what would it be?  a Barbie and a princess

Tell me 5 words that you would use to describe yourself.  good friend, I share, playful, silly, good dancer
If you could invent something, what would it be?  something good.  Can you just ask me the next question?
What is your favorite:
color: pink, purple, green, orange and blue.  Ilike red, too.
food: mac and cheese
song: twinkle, twinkle
book: Dora
activity:  decorating stuff, like crowns
toy: stuffed animals
Thing at school: play in the kitchen with Kennedy nad Chloe
friend: Kennedy, Chloe and Keanne
animal:  elephant
TV show: Dora
movie: Cinderella

What does Dad like to do?  lay on the couch

What does Mom like to do?   play with the kids

What makes you special?  I don't know!  (Daddy offers- You are a good sister.)  Okay!

What is one thing you would most like to do? play games!

What would you like to write a book about?  a little cat

Describe what you look like.  long, brown hair, light skin, brown eyes

What are you looking forward to this year?  going to the beach!

What new things did you learn as a 4 year-old?  something I do in school.  When we are talking about something, don't tell your friends something.  Tell your teacher something that has to do with what we are talking about.  How to do a sommer-sault. 

Anything else you'd like to say?  yes, can I write my name on the computer?

madison georgia knefley



We love you so much, Duchess!  You have had a fun year.  You did great in school.  Your teachers for Pre-K 4 were Ms Tori and Ms Clare.  You friends this year were Kennedy, Chloe, Kate, Charlotte and Keanne.  Your teachers reported that you were great at school- you played nicely, listened to directions, and worked hard.  The only thing you had trouble with was talking too much sometimes!  Your handwriting improved so much and you can write all your letters, both upper and lower case letters.  You know all your shapes, numbers and colors.  You have been a good big sister to Huck.  The two of you are learning to play more cooperativly and you are a little more accepting of the attention he needs.  You continue to play well with your big brother and you two come up with really fun imagination games.  You also like to play by yourself in your room sometimes, too.  (And you really DO NOT want Huck to go into your room!)  You had your first play dates without Mom there the whole time and loved every minute.  This summer your swimming continued to improve.  You continued to take dance, this summer it was both tap and ballet.  You LOVE clothes and shoes.  You'd be happy to get a new pair of shoes every day.  You prefer to wear dresses and skirts and like things fancy.  You are looking forward to Kindergarten! 

Daddy and I love you very much and are so proud of you!

Just Another Week

Huck has decided that he wants to eat with a fork now.  We have a tiny little Peter Rabbit fork that he uses with varying degrees of success.  But don't try to help him!  He can do it himself!  He is also getting two new teeth.  That makes 6 on the top and 4 on the bottom.  When he is cutting a new tooth he is generally has a day or two that is rough- nasty diaper rash, irritable, not sleeping well and prone to melt-downs.  I consider us lucky that it is not worse.  He is learning to ride his "bike" outside and does okay with it.  I love to watch his little run- his legs swing out to the side and his bum wiggles back and forth.

There was a Popsicle party for in-coming kindergartners this week.  Our elementary school has a Wanna-Bees group for preschoolers that has activities about once a month through-out the year for kids and parents to get to know each other, teachers and the school.  I felt like a little match-maker on the playground- "Duchess, this is Star and she is going to be in Kindergarten also."  Duch did have a pretty big fall off the monkey bars and bumped her head pretty hard.  She has a little bruise to remember it by- because she forgets that it hurts until she sees the bruise and suddenly it hurts "sooo bad!"  But she recovered and went back to playing.  We met two other girls who are having their tonsils out- one a few days before Duch and the other sometime this Fall.  We are anxious to learn who her teacher will be- sadly Bubba's awesome Kindergarten teacher is not teaching in the classroom this year. 

The kids had their last dance class.  It was pretty anti-climatic, just a regular old class.  They watched some of So You Think You Can Dance (NOT the sex-on-the-dance-floor one with the girl wearing lingerie) but the ballet ones.  They decided to create their own routines incorporating lifts and jumps.  They practiced a bunch.  Duch's breathing before hand is so that she doesn't laugh :-) I sent to their teacher, Ms Amanda, who loved it!

Ican't figure out how to put a video in here, so it is on Facebook.  https://www.facebook.com/christine.knefley#!/christine.knefley/photos

Summer Days

To catch up on the little things...
Huck is quite the busy guy.  He is running and climbing and much more coordinated.  There have been 3 or 4 nights where he has slept through the night in his own bed without waking, but most of the time he goes to sleep in his bed around 8 and wakes up around 2.  I end up bringing him into my bed and nursing him back to sleep and then he wakes up for the day around 7:30.  I was out of town for two nights and he did pretty well.  He slept through the night both nights.  He has developed an attachment to a blankie.  It is pretty cute.  He is pretty insistent on following his night time routine of finding his blankie, closing the bedroom door, turning on the closet light and then sitting in the rocker in his room to nurse.   Sometimes he even asks to go to bed!  He likes to hide his blankie under the crib and pretend he doesn't know where it is. 

Hugging blankie tight

 He still doesn't have many words but communicates pretty well.  He does lots of pointing and leading you to something and there is a lot of inflection to his babble.  He understands a lot-  he nods yes and no, he follows directions (sometimes) and get excited when you ask if he wants to do something (like go outside, go bye-bye, eat lunch,...)
He has colored on the playroom walls multiple times and looks properly chastised when he gets caught.  He really wants to play with the big kids and gets upset if they shut him out of their rooms.  They do include him it their play more often- poor guy seems to get cast as the "bad guy" and awful lot.  He has started holding his hands up to ask "where?"  Super cute!  He's back to liking the bath, thank goodness.  He likes to pour water on his head.  It's pretty funny because he sputters and spits when it gets in his face but then does it all over again. 
He had his 15 month check-up and weighed 23 pounds and was 31 inches tall which puts him right in the middle percentile wise.  He got two shots and was not very happy about it.  The Hubby took them all to the zoo afterwards and he wasn't too impressed.  I hear he did like the tortoise, though.
He is eating all table food now.  He loves pasta, strawberries, apples and Cheese Its.  He mostly drinks water but will drink milk as well.  He nurses 4-5 times a day when I am home and 2-3 when I work.
Pretty fun guy most of the time!

hide and seek with blankie

Duch is getting her tonsils out.  We took her to the ENT a few weeks ago and he thought it would be best.  Between her snoring, night waking and recent bouts of strep he thinks it will help.  Surgery is scheduled for Aug 16th.  She knows all about it and brings it up every once in awhile.  She doesn't seem too nervous, the only thing she has said to indicate she is worried was to ask what would happen if she had a bad dream during surgery.  We have talked about how the doctor would be there to make sure she stays asleep.  Luckily I was able to tell her that people don't dream under anesthesia because they don't have REM sleep. 

I got to take the two big kids swimming without Huck the other day.  It was nice because I could really swim with them.  Bubba is doing great- flipping under the water, jumping in, swimming half way across the pool with out stopping.  Duch was doing well, too.  She didn't use her floaties at all that day and she was jumping in from the side.  She got scared a few times when she got water in her nose.

The big kids have been doing some really nice cooperative play.  They have played lots of imagination adventure games, built Legos together, done craft activities (yesterday it was make hermit crabs from pasta shells) and Bubba is trying to help Duchess learn to read.  Of course there have been some major battles resulting in everyone getting sent to their rooms as well.  On one such occasion after I sent bubba to his room he turned to me and said at the top of his lungs, "WHY DO I EVEN LOVE YOU?"  Who says girls are the dramatic ones...

Bubba and Duch have been taking dance together this summer.  It is a 45 minute class with half ballet and half tap.  Bubba loves it and we have already signed them both up for class again in the Fall.  Duch has been taking class for two years nad this past Christmas her teacher invited siblings to do class as well.  Bubba had fun and talked about it all Spring so we signed him up.  He loves it. 
Next week is their last week. 

I have been going to lots of meetings at work to discuss "restructuring"the department.  We have not been given approval to fill several vacated positions so everyone is going to have to share the load.  It means I am most likely going to have to leave my current position.  Not sure what I'll be doing instead...

I was able to get away for a scrap book weekend for two nights.  It was nice to get away and not be in charge of anyone.  I got Huck's whole baby book done.  I think it is 72 pages.  I was determined!  I also got to see a good friend who I have not seen in years! 

I earned the title of Best Mom Ever the other day.  Why?  Because I gave them this chocolate chip cookie sundae for dessert.  Why?  I don't know, just seemed fun.

We're headed to Gulf Shores, or "Alabama Beach" as the kids call it.  We'll be meeting my family there again and staying in the same house as last year.  We are all looking forward to the break!