Tuesday, November 27, 2007
finding it hard to keep up....
I know it has been over a year, and while I enjoy blogging, I much prefer what I think about putting in the blog than typing it. I am getting lazy and cutting and pasting from some of my email lists. I was going to do that today for my favorite holiday, black friday!
had a decent trip to FL. The weather was nice and the kids loved being on the beach. The pool being repaired did not help matters, but it was ok. The problem was once the kids were upstairs, Alyssa, especially, would get "bored". My mom has TV, some computer games, and some board games.. But Jack would want one thing and Alyssa something else. I would ask her to read a book. I also had to make sure that they did not "trash" the place. The good news is thsat I kept a pretty decent bedtime for them, so the adjustment was not bad. They woke up around the same time they usually do for school. I found though, that the sun rises earlier in FL, and also, that because its warmer, the kids got up easier than here.
Alyssa was sad because the girls she made friends iwth down there were not with their dad. The people from Long Island that have a boy about Alyssa's age and a 4 year old, were. The mom is russian. Jack really bonded well with the boy and played nicely. I really think he is slowly getting those social skills.
Jack also , as we thought, got easily addicted to his DS. Now that we are home I am hoping to wean him off it. I did get him more games for chanukah though, as it was easy. Also some board games. I guess I should play with them, versus letting them play with each other. I just never loved board games though. Also, we now have a TV in the "toy room" where theri computer is (our small living room) for his Gamecube. he will probably play more now that there is a dedicated TV to it. once again I have to watch it. I do make sure that he has swimming and gymnastics and gets outside to play when it is nice. I need to be sure to put him in "camp" during winter break, even if felix will be home.
Their schoolwork before we left was the usual. Jack, all great, and Alyssa managed to get a "C" on one test. Her ITBS scores came back. She did very well in math, which is what she hates the most, but as in all sections, she had some really great scores and some very weak ones within the sections. One math section she scored a 97%tile, but another around 70. But overall Math was her strongest, along with reading and science. Social studies and language arts was her weakest. Which is just like me.. BUT BUT she LIKES the subjects that is her weakest. So I just dont get it. On the Reading they said she was a 5th grade level, but they did the same with math, aka a "higher level" but she still doesnt know certain things like division, so I find that info false. Now in math they are doing geometry, which she seems to like lots better than computational math (addition/subtraction). Of course, in the car ride home, she managed to figure out that my clock is 5 minutes fast, and that the navigation said we would arrive at a certain time, and figured out how many more minutes, aka the clock said 10:07, the navigation said we would arrive at 10:18, so we had 16 more minutes to go.
I dont know what to think about the omega 3 she is getting. I think it is helping some. She still had a very big meltdown in Fl about Chocolate chip pancakes. The morning after her big surprise for hannah montana , we went to breakfast on the beach. We walked, so we went to the 1st place, which my mom knew about. Anyway, they did not have chocolate chip pancakes. Well the meltdown could out meltdown a 3 year old. She went across the boardwalk to the beach and played saying that she would not eat anything else. I did get her a hot chocolate and eventaully got her to drink that... then back to play. All the food came. We did order her regular pancakes, and FINALLY she did eat them. Several things come to mind.
1. the 1st chapter in "the explosive child" about the kid who find no more waffles in the freezer. I understand that Alyssa had this "thought" that breakfast on the beach included CC pancakes and not having them, her brain could not handle it. But since we did not *KNOW* that she was thinking that all she wanted was CC pancakes, and we also did not *KNOW* that we went somewhere that did not have them, I cant think of how to the technique in the book, would work. We were not going to switch restaurants, which was her "solution". For many reasons. One being that the next place was much further, and we walked. JAck was tired. She, at one point even said "I hate this restaurant, I want to break their windows". I know she did not mean this, but having her say that was disconcerting in the least. This is something the therapist needs to address.
2. the other thing that comes to mind is that when she is hungry, there is no reasoning with Alyssa. This happened again while stoppin for dinner on the way home, where she wanted drumsticks and felix wanted to get chicken fingers isntead for her, as eating in the car would be easier. You just dont start anything about food when she is hungry. If she is not hungry you can reason with her.
In anycase, I feel like getting the HM tickets were a "Waste" in that the happiness did not even last 24 hours. Though she has told me what a great mom I am since, and I am sure that the tix played a part in it.
Alyssa wants a sleepover for her birthday. Not going to happen. I cannot handle her when seh has a bunch of people over and she gets bossy ,etc. too much headache for me this year, with my parents coming and chanukah at teh same time. just the pottery party....
Now for black friday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Well I will post in another post about that....
had a decent trip to FL. The weather was nice and the kids loved being on the beach. The pool being repaired did not help matters, but it was ok. The problem was once the kids were upstairs, Alyssa, especially, would get "bored". My mom has TV, some computer games, and some board games.. But Jack would want one thing and Alyssa something else. I would ask her to read a book. I also had to make sure that they did not "trash" the place. The good news is thsat I kept a pretty decent bedtime for them, so the adjustment was not bad. They woke up around the same time they usually do for school. I found though, that the sun rises earlier in FL, and also, that because its warmer, the kids got up easier than here.
Alyssa was sad because the girls she made friends iwth down there were not with their dad. The people from Long Island that have a boy about Alyssa's age and a 4 year old, were. The mom is russian. Jack really bonded well with the boy and played nicely. I really think he is slowly getting those social skills.
Jack also , as we thought, got easily addicted to his DS. Now that we are home I am hoping to wean him off it. I did get him more games for chanukah though, as it was easy. Also some board games. I guess I should play with them, versus letting them play with each other. I just never loved board games though. Also, we now have a TV in the "toy room" where theri computer is (our small living room) for his Gamecube. he will probably play more now that there is a dedicated TV to it. once again I have to watch it. I do make sure that he has swimming and gymnastics and gets outside to play when it is nice. I need to be sure to put him in "camp" during winter break, even if felix will be home.
Their schoolwork before we left was the usual. Jack, all great, and Alyssa managed to get a "C" on one test. Her ITBS scores came back. She did very well in math, which is what she hates the most, but as in all sections, she had some really great scores and some very weak ones within the sections. One math section she scored a 97%tile, but another around 70. But overall Math was her strongest, along with reading and science. Social studies and language arts was her weakest. Which is just like me.. BUT BUT she LIKES the subjects that is her weakest. So I just dont get it. On the Reading they said she was a 5th grade level, but they did the same with math, aka a "higher level" but she still doesnt know certain things like division, so I find that info false. Now in math they are doing geometry, which she seems to like lots better than computational math (addition/subtraction). Of course, in the car ride home, she managed to figure out that my clock is 5 minutes fast, and that the navigation said we would arrive at a certain time, and figured out how many more minutes, aka the clock said 10:07, the navigation said we would arrive at 10:18, so we had 16 more minutes to go.
I dont know what to think about the omega 3 she is getting. I think it is helping some. She still had a very big meltdown in Fl about Chocolate chip pancakes. The morning after her big surprise for hannah montana , we went to breakfast on the beach. We walked, so we went to the 1st place, which my mom knew about. Anyway, they did not have chocolate chip pancakes. Well the meltdown could out meltdown a 3 year old. She went across the boardwalk to the beach and played saying that she would not eat anything else. I did get her a hot chocolate and eventaully got her to drink that... then back to play. All the food came. We did order her regular pancakes, and FINALLY she did eat them. Several things come to mind.
1. the 1st chapter in "the explosive child" about the kid who find no more waffles in the freezer. I understand that Alyssa had this "thought" that breakfast on the beach included CC pancakes and not having them, her brain could not handle it. But since we did not *KNOW* that she was thinking that all she wanted was CC pancakes, and we also did not *KNOW* that we went somewhere that did not have them, I cant think of how to the technique in the book, would work. We were not going to switch restaurants, which was her "solution". For many reasons. One being that the next place was much further, and we walked. JAck was tired. She, at one point even said "I hate this restaurant, I want to break their windows". I know she did not mean this, but having her say that was disconcerting in the least. This is something the therapist needs to address.
2. the other thing that comes to mind is that when she is hungry, there is no reasoning with Alyssa. This happened again while stoppin for dinner on the way home, where she wanted drumsticks and felix wanted to get chicken fingers isntead for her, as eating in the car would be easier. You just dont start anything about food when she is hungry. If she is not hungry you can reason with her.
In anycase, I feel like getting the HM tickets were a "Waste" in that the happiness did not even last 24 hours. Though she has told me what a great mom I am since, and I am sure that the tix played a part in it.
Alyssa wants a sleepover for her birthday. Not going to happen. I cannot handle her when seh has a bunch of people over and she gets bossy ,etc. too much headache for me this year, with my parents coming and chanukah at teh same time. just the pottery party....
Now for black friday !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Well I will post in another post about that....
# posted by sandy @ 7:02 AM 
