Since I'm all about this "for posterity's sake" dealy right now, I thought I'd come back and ask both kids the same questions (or near same questions) that I asked Journey when she was 3. It'll be interesting to see how things change, and how they stay the same.
Ryan first.

Ryan! Glad you could join us. Tell us a few things, won't you? First of all, how old are you?

Eight and 3/4ths.

What's your favorite color?

Red. (I knew this. That's why his answers are in red on the survey here.)

What's your favorite food?

Oh that's tough. It's either spaghetti or linguine carbonara. They're both my favorite!

What's your favorite drink?

What else, chocolate milk!

What's your favorite animal?

Squirrels.

What's your favorite book?

"Attack of the Prehistoric Pokemon"

What's your favorite show?

Ooh, it's a tie between Phineas and Ferb and Pokemon Black and White.

What's your favorite movie?

Phineas and Ferb: Across the 2nd Dimension.

At this point, he forgot what his answer was. He had to think about it again, then confirmed his suspicions. He is DEFINITELY Don's child. He has a crappy short term memory

What's your favorite song?

*Slowly exhaling* It's a tie between "Broken, Beat and Scarred" and "One" from the S&M album. (These are Metallica songs. He's a Metallica fanatic.)

What's your favorite game?

Oooh, that's really a tough one Mom! It would have to be Super Mario 3D Land.

Why?

Because I love all the 3D effects, I love the platforming, it's just so awesome!

Who's your favorite stuffed animal?

*Thinks real hard* It's a tie between Ooh-Ooh (his very old monkey that he's had since he was 7 months old), Phineas (the gray squirrel Webkinz) and Tails (the baby fox he got from the Natural History Smithsonian.)

Who all do you love?

I love you, Dad and Journey.

Who are your friends?

Nolen, Rory, Zach, George is a mid-friend, aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand, that's it.(He forgot about his best friend James till I reminded him!)

Anything you want to add?

I'm trying to think of my favorite Pokemon. It's a tie between Pikachu and Oshawot. And I think I'll always remember that my favorite team is the Capitals. And my favorite sport is a tie between soccer and hockey.

And this folks, is what's on Ryan's mind. Now it's Journey's turn.

Journey, how old are you?

Five.

What's your favorite color?

Pink....and purple! Pink and purple!

What's your favorite food?

Spaghetti!!

What's your favorite drink?

Ummm, water. I like water the best. Oh! And apple juice too!

What's your favorite animal?

Kitties!

What's your favorite book?

"Kitty Come Down".

What's your favorite show?

I think I watch "Pokemon Black and White".

What's your favorite movie?

"Kiki's Delivery Service", that's my favorite!

What's your favorite song?

Journey.

No, that's the band. What song?

Hmmm, let me think....(wanders off talking about something else.) No, I think my favorite song is "Down by the Bay" We sing that in kindergarten!.

What's your favorite game?

Ummmmm, my favorite game is....Hello Kitty Party.

Who's your favorite stuffed animal?

Kiki Maow!!

Which one is your favorite Hello Kitty? (She has 12 stuffed Hello Kitties)

The PINK Hello Kitty!!

Who do you love?

You.

Who else?

Just Mom.

(Ryan asks) You don't love Dad or me?

Ummmm...

Who are your friends?

Let me see, ummm...Olivia, Megan R., Meghan W., Chelsea, Ella, Reagan, Kaies, Bradley, Joshua, and Spencer...

(Keep in mind, I don't think half of those girls are really her friends.)

Anything you want to add?

Ummm yes. I remember my birthday! It's August! Mom, what number is it again?

The 23rd.

Yeah, that's when my birthday comes.

It's funny the things they'll remember. I can't wait to break this list out when Journey's 9 and Ryan's 12. We'll see what they have to say then! The reason why I don't think half of those girls are her friends? Her "friend" Olivia had a birthday party this weekend, and invited ALL the girls in her class, BUT Journey. She was the only one that was left out. Hateful little things already, are they not? She doesn't know any better, she thinks everyone is her friend, but for them to just oust her like that? That's cruel. She doesn't really seem to care though. And maybe it's for the best. We didn't have any money this weekend, so it's not like we could buy a birthday present for her, so no big deal I guess. I'm in half a mind not to invite her to Journey's birthday party though. If they can leave her out, she can be finicky too and leave them out. But then, as the protective mother bear, I'm vengeful. I don't appreciate them leaving my daughter out. I don't know what the reason was that she was the only girl not invited, but it angers me that these little girls can already pull this popularity contest B.S. at 6. This is EXACTLY why I made better friends with boys all my life than girls; girls are catty, uppity, think they're better than you, and backstab you any time they get the chance. They'll sell you down the river and make you a laughingstock if they so twistedly desire. Boys don't do a lot of drama. But sometimes they're not as emotionally in tune as girls are, so you tend to get ignored a lot. Good girl friends are hard to find. I hope Journey can find some, especially as she gets older. Nobody plays with her on the playground. They all ignore her. She doesn't seem to care though;. she just runs about all over the playground on her own. She's been playing by herself so long (she parallel plays a lot. She's been doing it since she was small. The only one she REALLY plays with is Ryan.), it doesn't even phase her. It breaks my heart though. I wish better for her. I really do.


 

Here I am, back again! Don't get used to it. Once something pops into my head, I decide to come and put it on here, for posterity. I always want to be able to look back at these little things that make up my children's childhoods, so as they grow, I'll have fond stories of them from when they were small. Who knows? It might even save their teenaged neck from me wringing it if they drive me up the wall!

So Ryan plays on this website that he got from school, called "Cool Math". On it is a game called "Papa's Pizzeria". In this game, you get customers coming in, giving you their smoothie orders. You take the order, and work off the ticket that they give you in order to fill it. Journey is very impressionable, and loves this game. She watches Ryan intently when he plays it. So now, she takes her "Candy Hello Kitty" (which is a Hello Kitty that we bought her at a candy shop in Ocean City. She has a white dress with multi-colored polka dots on it, and she's holding a lollipop.) and plays "Shake Shop".

She always starts out with Candy Hello Kitty asking "Do you want a sundae?" (which in Journey terms, means a smoothie. I don't know where she got the term sundae from, but I let her continue on with the game, I don't mind, and I don't feel like correcting her on her play pretend.) Now, sometimes she asks you, the person, directly if you want a sundae, a means to bringing you into her little game, or sometimes, she has you play Kiki Maow instead. Seeing as she's the only one that has ever voiced Kiki Maow, I don't find it fitting to be a good Kiki Maow, unless I'm shaking her little fluffy white head vigorously in agreement.

So you (as yourself or Kiki Maow) say "Yes", or you nod. If you say "Not right now," or "Maybe later", she'll be very disappointed, and say sadly "Okay." And leave you to go find something else to do.

"Okay!" Says Journey. "Medium or large?" She asks. I usually tell her medium. I'll even talk Kiki Maow and answer "Medium" with a meow. Sometimes, not often, but occasionally, she'll ask/answer for you. "Medium?" where you can just nod your or Kiki Maow's head.

"Do you want milk?" (which is a vital ingredient to a smoothie, or at least in Papa's Pizzeria it is. Ryan always booms out from another room when she's playing this "Of course they want milk Journ, you need it to make the smoothie! Otherwise it doesn't work!"). You politely answer "Yes", or nod Kiki Maow's head.

"Chocolate?" She asks. Sometimes you can offer up a different ingredient, such as cookie dough, strawberries, or blueberries. She'll take whatever request, as long as it's not outrageous. You say "Yes", or nod Kiki Maow's head.

"How old are you?" She asks. This is vital. Your age determines which blender she puts the smoothie concoction in. So you answer. She confirms, then she places it in the blender. You wait a few seconds.

"Okay, it's done!" She pronounces. If you think this is the end, you're wrong.

"Do you want cream?" She asks. This means whipped cream, for the top of the smoothie. You say yes, or nod Kiki Maow's head.

"Do you want sprinkles?" She asks. You say yes or nod Kiki Maow's head. "Rainbow?" She questions before she adds on the sprinkles. "Of course!" you reply, or you simply nod Kiki Maow's head. Now, I always find it funny that she asks if you want rainbow sprinkles, just because you would think she would link these two together, and say "Do you want rainbow sprinkles?", but instead she asks them as two separate questions, which makes me chuckle a little. I'm curious as to what would happen if I said "No, chocolate" or something to that effect. Perhaps, when we play the game again, I'll do that and see what the outcome is.

"Chocolate or strawberry syrup?" She asks. You offer up your preference for her. She squiggles her hand down around an imaginary cup.

"Do you want a cherry?" She asks. "Yes please!" you answer, or simply nod Kiki Maow's head.

"You're all done! Here ya go!" She says happily, and hands you your pretend glass of smoothie/sundae. You make slurping noises and then say "Aahh!". She giggles, and asks "Wanna play it again?"

I truly love her so. I hope she never changes.


 

So just a couple of happenings and things that I thought I would put down for posterity when I'm old and gray and don't remember much.

Firstly, I wanted to put down the nicknames we have for Journey. We have a couple for Ryan (Ry, Ryguy and The Boy are the only three I can think of right now), but we have a whole laundry list of them for Journey. At least, I do.
Of course, there's the obvious one, which is Journ. A lot of people call her Journ for short. (However, she has never gone by the two nicknames I went by when Journey was my nickname, which is Jour or Jourie. In fact, Jourie is my username on here.) Mostly Ryan, me, and her teachers, and a few other relatives and friends. There are also pet names we give her. My love, my lovey, sweet pea, Dolly, Dolly Face, Super Dolly Face, Beybey and Journey girl are our ones for her when she's as sweet as can be and a wonderful little girl (which is most of the time!). When she's being mean, or just bratty in any way (which is rare), we call her super dolly brat face, or a smarmy little critter or a rotten little animal. Yes, we are very weird. When Ryan was a baby, we called him a pooper when he was being rotten (instead of a little s**t so he wouldn't pick up the bad word and say it aloud), and Pooper just stuck with him till he was about 3. Then we stopped calling him that. I don't know why. But this, the pooper, and the smarmy little critter, is our way of saying you're being a brat, roguish, naughty, or any other word like that. We don't want to cuss around them, so we don't call them little shytes even though sometimes they can be. I'm sure at some point she's going to grow out of the nicknames we have for her, but I just wanted to write them down so we would remember when she's older.

I had two other things to write, but I can only remember one of them now. If I remember the other one, I'll be sure to come back and post it. But for now, I'll just go with my last thing. Journey's been reading to her class out loud lately. They let her read a book that she has, and she reads it aloud for all of them to hear. Well, today, she got to go into the pre-k and read a book to them! She read "Biscuit", which is about a little dog named Biscuit, who lives on a farm. There are many other early reader titles starring Biscuit, and she's read many of them. I'm so proud of her for getting to read aloud to the pre-k class, and to her old teachers from last year! The teacher in the pre-k class gave her a pencil as a thank you for reading to the pre-kers.

Most of our summer will be spent learning new sight words, reading more books, and working on addition and subtraction. Ryan is mostly going to be reading and math, multiplication and fractions, some division. There are only 5 weeks left of school, so I've got to have my summer plan in place. We'll be cleaning up house as well. Ryan needs to work on cleaning off his desk and cleaning up his room (I need to help him clean up all the clothes that don't fit him anymore, and donate those.), and Journey needs to clean her room as well. Maybe (with the help of Jenn) if I can get this house in shape, we'll invite some kids from school over to spend the day with us, and they can do things like paint, and playdoh, and play in their rooms, and video games. Our house isn't that big, but it's got some room to do some things in it. It would be nice to reciprocate and let some of the kids come to our house instead. It's a dream that hopefully with some help I'll realize.

Oh yes!! Now I remember! The second thing was about how Journey is now obsessed with the Nyan Cat. It's this little cat that has the body of a pop tart, and it's flying through the night sky with all the stars, and trailing behind it is a rainbow. It sings a song in a very fast tempo of "Meow meow meow nyanyanyanyan meow meow meow", and Journey just absolutely LOVES it. Every day after school she makes me play it. So I went on Etsy, and found some cool Nyan Cat stuff that I can get for her for her birthday, which helps out with the whole "What can I get Journey this year?" debate.It's so funny, because both the kids and me enjoy it, but Don is absolutely annoyed by it. Every time Journey asks me to play it, Don grumbles and tells me "Do you have to play that damned thing while I'm here?!?" To which I grin and reply "Yes.".


 

Journey wrote what I believe is her first story a few days ago. Granted, it doesn't really have an ending to it, and it's more a run-on sentence than anything else, but it's a start! My daughter is a writer! That makes me proud!

And now, for Journey's story. It's titled "Kitty and the little kittens".

"Kitty and the little kittens plant seeds and they wait and there's a pot of gold under the rainbow and the mom cat comes and dad cat comes."

And that, is Journey's story. She typed it all by herself on the computer, no help in spelling or anything. I was very impressed. She has an imagination. Ryan says the stories she tells are lies, but I've explained to him that they're not lies, they're just imaginative stories. Ryan's imagination is limited to his stuffed animals talking, and making up bigger better things for Super Mario Bros. games. He's very logical that way.

Other than that, not much else going on. Journey and I spend Tuesdays and Thursdays together when Ryan has soccer practice. We play games, watch videos, sing songs, and chat. It's really very fun! I love having that extra bonding time with her and her alone. I don't get as much one on one time with Ryan as I'd like though. I know that will change as soon as summer comes though...unless he gets invited to his friends' houses all summer long. I don't think that will be the case that often though. We'll see I suppose.

 

Journey is learning all about seeds in school, and how they become plants. As a project, they took a bean (I'm not sure what kind of bean; it was large and green), a moist paper towel, and put it in a plastic ziploc baggie, and taped it to the window. They did this for the whole class. Then they made an guess as to if the bean was going to sprout or not. Journey made the prediction that her sprout was not going to grow. The project was taken down from the windows and sent home. I don't know if some parents threw theirs away, or what have you, but I am a pack rat. I hold on to just about everything. So I placed the baggie with the bean sprout that had now successfully sprouted roots, in the kitchen. I left it there for a few days, to see what it would do. I asked Journey if she wanted me to throw it away, to which she replied "No, I want to save it."

This morning when I came downstairs, I decided to look in on our little bean and see if anything had changed. It sure did! It started sprouting! There's a huge stalk, and there are leaves coming out! I was so excited for Journey! I showed her here little plant, then transferred it to a terra-cotta potting plant with some potting soil this morning. I hope to continue growing it for her. I put it right next to the plant that Ryan gave me for Mother's Day in first grade. Yes, I still have it, and yes, it's still alive...but barely. I took it out of it's old dirt and put it in new potting soil to hope to revive it.

Also, my beautiful iris that I got for Mother's Day last year is growing so wonderfully! I have it in a large plastic pot outside, and it's sprouted all it's new beautiful long leaves, and it's growing two flower pods as we speak! I'm very excited for it!


 

My best friend from the area is moving away to Virginia on May 5th. I feel like I'm never going to see her again. Once she goes over that bridge, I might as well kiss any chance of seeing her goodbye, because we never have the gas to go over the bridge. When our friends from here moved to Locust Grove, Va. we didn't have a chance to see them either. Then they moved to Nevada.

It's like everyone I make friends with here moves away. I feel so alone. I don't make friends easily (I just don't trust people very well.), so when I do make a friend, I feel thrilled. Then when they move, I'm heartbroken.

We're going to go see her and her family on Saturday, so I'm glad that I get to spend some time with her before she goes. She says we'll see each other still. I hope she's right.

I have one more friend here, but we're not as close as my best friend and I are. We haven't gone out to dinner or a movie, or spent time at each other's houses. (I probably won't have anyone over until I can get this wreck tamed. I need someone to help me come in and take over it, it's ridiculous.) But she's a good friend. I'm glad I have her. I enjoy spending time with her when the kids go to the park, and we get to talk. I pray she doesn't move away, because not only would I be devastated, but Ryan would too (her son is his best friend).

I hope my friend is right. I hope we do get to still see each other. I'll definitely miss her being so close though.


 

Journey is an overly emotional child.

This frightens me, because I was also an overly emotional child, and I'm bipolar. I don't know if that means when she's older, she's going to experience bipolar, or if she'll miss that boat or not. I'm not psychologist, so I wouldn't be able to tell you, but yes, it worries me. I'm not nearly as strong a bipolar as most people are (Firstly, I'm a BP II, which means there's no mania. Hypomania, yes, but not out and out mania. Secondly, my depressive and hypomanic states are not severe in any way. They do not entirely derail my life, my family, my finances, etc. like they do for some people.), so I won't be too upset if she's a bipolar like I'm a bipolar, but still, I'd rather she just skip it altogether, considering she's got other things on her plate.

Journey is not able to explain her emotions though. She has trouble verbalizing that she's hurt, upset, angry, etc. She can't tell you WHY, or HOW, or WHAT. You just have to figure out from what she's showing at that moment to decide what her emotional state is.

Tonight, I had a shocker.

Now, Journey, for some reason, is not a fan of when Don puts her to bed. I don't know why this is. I've asked her, and she can't give me a response suitable enough to make me put her to bed every night instead. All I know is, she prefers me to put her to bed over Don. She groans every night its his turn, and cheers every night it's mine. I don't know what this means.

Tonight was no exception. It was Don's night to put her to bed, which she wasn't happy about in the first place. She was very weepy and mopey. I don't know why. Well, Don compounded the issue by raising his voice when she wasn't properly spitting out her toothpaste. Now, Journey doesn't know how to properly spit out ANYTHING. If she was choking, I would have to reach my fingers into her mouth and pry out whatever it is that's choking her. She can't spit anything out. I don't know why that is. And, Don was kind of impatient because his game was coming on, so he wanted her to hurry up so he could get back to his game. (Take from that what you will.) So he raised his voice, showing his impatience, and it set her off. She began her meltdown, sobbing uncontrollably, unable to continue on. I had to carry her to her room, she was so beside herself. I took over for Don because his game was coming on, and because she was beside herself, and I'm the only one that can calm her down when she's hysterical like that. So, I carried her into her room, and attempted to comfort her. I picked a book out for her because she was being irrational, trying to get me to read books that take awhile to read. (I don't know if she did that on purpose, to try and get me to spend more time with her, or if she was just doing it because she doesn't care, she's upset, and she's not thinking straight. I wish I could tell you. This child is a mystery to me sometimes.), I placed her on her bed, and began to read to her. She cried silently, listening to me read to her and show her the pictures in the book. After I was done, she began to sob louder again. I held her in my arms and attempted to comfort her. "Why are you crying Journey?" I asked her. I knew her answer would be "I don't know.". It was. "Is it because Daddy got loud when you didn't spit your toothpaste out?" I asked, knowing I hit the nail on the head. "Yes!" she cried. I held her and rocked her. "It's okay honey, he's not mad, okay? He just got loud. He's better now, okay? "

"But I'm not!" she tells me.

Color me shocked.

"Why are you not better Journ?"

"Because, you get mad at me when I do my homework! You always get mad at me when I do it!"

Again, shocked face.

"But...but...honey," I stammered. Do I really get upset with her during homework? I questioned myself. I know I take no nonsense when it's homework time, and I'm very stern, but I don't think I've ever raised my voice at her while she was doing it...have I?

"Honey," I continued, "I don't get mad at you when you do your homework,"

"But you get loud."

"Do I? I'm sorry if I do. I'm not mad though, okay?"

She started crying all over again. I gathered her in my arms and tried to soothe her. "It's okay honey, Daddy's not mad. No one's mad, okay? Sometimes we sound like we're mad, but we're not mad. Maybe we get mad at one time, but then we get happy again, okay? Nobody's mad at you."

I wish there was a way to show her that emotions come and go. You don't have to stay on one emotion at one time. You can feel a RANGE of emotions in a matter of minutes. It seems like she gets emotionally stuck sometimes. She stays happy as much as she can, even if someone's wronged her, even if something upsets her, even if the day goes downhill. If something DOES manage to get under her skin enough to make her upset, she stays in upset mode for a very long time, and it colors her entire day. Nothing you do, engage her with Kiki Maow, talk in Kitty Talk (which is discouraged at our house except for bed time), let her play her Hello Kitty game, NOTHING gets her out. Until she decides when it's over. She's a very stubborn little thing.

This, was definitely a first though. She's never been able to tell me something like this before. I don't know how she found the words to do it, but I'm glad she did. Now I just wish I could find the words to explain to her that feelings come and go, but love is forever. It seems like every time I try to explain this, she doesn't get it. Or maybe, she's just really upset when I tell her, and I don't think it soaks in. If it did soak in though, she wouldn't think we're always mad at her. I don't know. I wish I could talk to someone that understood this better than I do.


 

Today marks the end of our vacation. Well, as far as from Ocean City, that was on Thursday, but today is the end of the spring break vacation for the kids. Tomorrow they're back to school, and everything is back to the grind again. Journey is thrilled about this, as she's missed school and her routine very much. She did fabulous on the vacation though! The only thing that drove me and Don nuts is that the kids found something to complain about every day on our vacation at Ocean City. Too much mini golf, ice skating is too hard, we didn't stay in the pool long enough, bowling's too hard, we didn't stay at the beach long enough, blah blah blah. Don says next time we go on vacation, we're going to go just him and me, leave the kids with someone else.

All in all though, I think we all enjoyed it. We were all sad to leave Ocean City, but go home and go back to our normally scheduled lives we must. I took a TON of pictures! (I'm sure you all saw them!)

Today, we're just catching up on laundry, and hanging out till we have to wake up at 7:30 tomorrow morning and get going to school. I'm coming in for her class tomorrow, and then it's a busy week the rest of the week. We have a dentist appointment on Wednesday to fill a cavity for Ryan, and then I have a therapy appointment, then Thursday I have a doctor's appointment, and Ryan has a soccer game. We don't get any time to breathe until Friday! By then it's the weekend, so we'll be able to relax then. Then next week is the honor roll assembly for Ryan, and the Good Citizen awards for Journey (she got chosen as a good citizen this month! I'm so proud of her!), and then the week after that, Journey has a field trip to Elms Beach. Busy month this month! Glad we got some rest and relaxation in on spring break while we did!

The trip to Ocean City was so enjoyable. We got to do so much, and found great restaurants to eat at, and everything. I loved every minute of it. I hope we can do it again soon!



 

We're getting ready to go on vacation. First time in 4 years. We're going to Ocean City, Maryland. I'm writing a million lists to try and remember everything we'll need when we go, but I swear I'm going to forget something and then we'll need to pick it up at Walmart there. I hope this isn't the case.

The kids are excited, but not as excited as kids usually are. They're not begging to go right now right now, but they say they're excited, so I'll take that as they are. Don's not too impressed, as he's spent most of his childhood there, so it's not as big of a deal to him. Party pooper. Oh well, we're going to enjoy it anyway!

If you're facebook friends with me (which most of you are), you'll see the pictures I post as we go along. Hopefully I don't forget my camera here at home.

We'll see how this goes folks. Hopefully a good time will be had by all!





 

A nice, springy green is in order I suppose.

So, hi. Long time no see, I know. I've been busy, and there wasn't much to say till lately.

Hold on, we're dealing with a meltdown. Shit.

Okay, bomb diffused. That was tough.
Journey's been having a lot of meltdowns lately. It's very strange, because we've never dealt with these before. Normally toddlers have these because they don't understand that they can't get what they want, or they can't have that extra cookie, or because they can't express themselves verbally correctly, which is the main culprit. When Journey was 2-3, she didn't have regular tantrum meltdowns. If we deviated from a routine, she'd melt down, but it wasn't as bad as these ones are.

She doesn't do any screaming, she does the noisy crying. She cries and sobs, none of this stifled. It's very loud, wet and noisy. If you were to ask he why she's crying, she couldn't tell you. All you get is a lot of "I don't know!" and "My eyes are all wet!!", which sets her off again. The hard part is guessing what it was that set her off. Today, there could have been three culprits: #1-She had to do homework. I don't know if I believe this is the only culprit, because she usually has no problems doing homework during the week. She's very good about it. #2-Ryan was playing Webkinz and she wanted to play too. This is very possible, but usually he plays and she doesn't notice while she's doing homework. I don't know why today she noticed and got upset. #3-Her Uncle Sean is no longer visiting. He went home this morning to Florida. This is very possible, as she saw the couch empty, and though she didn't say anything about it when we walked in the door, she looked deflated as we sauntered in. Which of these three could it be? I don't know. Could it be a combination of the three? Probably. I'll never know because she can't express herself verbally correctly yet. She was signed up for speech therapy for this exact reason. I'm not sure if they're doing the speech therapy yet (I just asked Journey if she's been seeing the speech therapist. She said yes. I asked her what they've been working on, she says she doesn't know.) That's the answer I'm very used to with Journey, "I don't know." That's what she used to tell me when her special ed teacher came in and worked with her, before her special ed teacher started making those daily progress reports to send home with me. Now, Journey is capable of telling her special ed teacher all about what she did with her day. We're making progress!

But yes, these meltdowns just started not too long ago. She can't put into words what it is she wants or needs, so she feels the need to melt down. Then when you ask her, she can't tell you why. She just keeps crying.

So, how do you diffuse this?
Well, there are a few ways. First, you get them away from the situation if you can. Taking them out of the room they started in, or getting them to the other side of somewhere is preferable. You have to talk really quiet to her. I let her snuggle up to me. And then I firmly, but lovingly, get her through it. "I know you're sad, but it's time to do homework. I can help you. Come sit down with me. Let's go get a drink of water. Let's wipe your eyes. Stop...shhhhhh. It's okay. We can do this!" And then, strategically, you work through the minefield. You watch where you walk, because if you're not careful, you'll set it off all over again, and then you're back where you started in the first place. The biggest thing is to KEEP CALM. Don't raise your voice, don't lose your cool, just stay calm, stay focused, and stay on task to putting whatever it was that set them off in the first place, back away somewhere where they won't notice it again.

So far, I'm the only one that can diffuse her. She rages on when it's Don or her Uncle Sean, as we saw last night. I don't blame them; it's not an easy thing to do. Part of you just wants to scream "KNOCK IT OFF!!!", but no, you cannot do that. You just gotta stay with them, make sure they stay with you, and walk them through. The only thing you can do.

Anyway, that's not even what I was on here for to talk about, but now that you've lived a day of the life in my shoes LOL...

Ryan needs glasses. Full time glasses, not just "reading glasses" like Journey has. We took him to the optometrist on Saturday. I really like him, he's a great guy. I knew that if I took him anywhere else, they would say "Oh yeah, Ryan definitely needs glasses", but I wouldn't know if they were saying that just to sell me a pair, or if he really needed them. The doctor that I took him to, I trust. I know if Ryan didn't need glasses, he wouldn't sell them to me. But if he did, he'd tell me just how much he needed them. Sure as anything, he told me "He's seeing 80/20 in one eye, and 100/20 in the other eye. He's going to need full time glasses." Ryan was very excited about this, and ran immediately to the counter with all the kids glasses and started trying on frames. He's a very frugal kid, so he decided to look in the clearance section as well . He knows we don't have a lot of money, and he doesn't want to cost us more than he should, so he does what he can to make the expense a little less, you know? Great kid. I told him if he wanted the $100 pair, he could get them, but he told me "I'd rather stick with the $54, if it's okay with you Mom."

Soccer practice starts tomorrow, and then Saturday at 8:30 in the morning is his first game. I'm not sure if we're going to be up and ready for his first game, or if we're going to skip it because Journey sleeps in. We'll see if she's up by 7:45 that morning. If she is, we'll go. If she's not, I'm staying home with her and Don will be taking Ryan to the game. I'm going to be missing a lot of practices too. We decided that it was just easier for me to stay home and make dinner while the boys go to Ryan's soccer practice, so that way when they come home, it'll be easy to just feed, bathe, bed. No waiting for me to make dinner, and that taking an hour and a half, and then having to rush them eating to try and get them to bed on time. That's a mess. It's just easier if me and Journey stay home (if she wants to go, I suppose she could...but that would be up to Don, really.), and I make dinner for it to be ready when they get home. It's a lot more efficient this way. I feel kind of bad, because I want to be involved in this, especially since I can't be involved in his classroom. But, I can only do so much. I'll go to the games when I can (like I said, 8:30 in the morning is probably too early for Journey, and I need to be considerate of her as well.), but I can't be there as often as Don can. It's good that Don gets to be a part of his team like this though. I get to be a part of Ryan's day with taking him to school, and picking him up, and sometimes getting to go in the classroom for parties, and helping with homework, and etc. But at least Don's got something now to partake in with him.

We have another IEP meeting, this one on the 28th. It'll be exactly a month since we had the last one. We're hoping to hear from the adaptive P.E. teacher and the speech therapist this time around, see how she's progressing there. I also talked with her special ed teacher, and requested a couple of different first grade teachers in case she could get Journey in either of those classes, and asked her if this was the last year she had with Journey. She said she's hoping that they'll move her along with the kindergarteners she's had this year, and move up with them. I hope that's the case; I really love her special ed teacher! She does too! She's been invited to her birthday party, she can't wait to have her there!

Well, I think that's as much typing as I can stand for the day! Gonna go check my email, make dinner, and read a book.