Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Playing in the Leaves

I had our back-up-babysitter, A, come this morning to watch the kids so I could go to Parent/Teacher conferences at the boys' school. When I got home, I found this:

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Micah, however, was grumpy, so I saw no evidence of his jumping in leaves.

It's been a long several days. Let's see, going back - last Wednesday was the first day he was sent home sick. Thursday morning, he seemed to be better, so I sent him to school. At 9am (school starts at 8:15), they called to say he looked very pale and droopy. I told them he had only eaten carrots for breakfast (his demand) and suggested he eat something from his lunchbox (which I had over-packed, anticipating this).

They sent him back to his class to eat, and apparently he felt better. I called several times to check on him, and each time he was "fine". Then, at 1:30, as I was napping and Sofia was watching TV, they called to say "He's been down here [the office] four times, come get him now."

Since I was asleep, it was all I could do to wake up and get Sofia into the car (she wasn't pleased). So I was half-way to school before I thought to call back and ask: "Is he ok enough to just sit in the car in front of the school for an hour, or does Sam need to come home early too?" Got my answer when I arrived; both boys were waiting at the door.

So we came home and relaxed. Friday, I just kept him home, although I do think he was really fine. He really seemed to enjoy the Mommy & Micah time while Sofia was in school. He and I get into a funy patter when we shop or drive - he pretends to be annoyed when I sing a loudsong, but he's giggling like crazy. He's really a pretty cute kid when he's not angry!

We went to pick up Sam, and I was barely awake, but when we got to school, Sam wanted to go home with his friend A (whose house we were going to that night anyway), so I hadn't needed to drive all the way in. But we stayed and played for an hour anyway. I drove home, did the few things I needed to do around the house, and took the little ones to D's house for dinner.

It was lovely. Just mommies and kids, since her husband was coming home late from a training in NYC and David was still in Mexico. Our kids all get along well - her older daughter is in Sam's class, and the younger daughter is a year older than Sofia and loves to play with Micah. After dinner, the kids watched a movie while D and I talked, and then we all watched "The Wizard of Oz" (Sofia fell asleep on my lap). Got home after 10:30.

Took the kids to shul on Saturday, and brought home one of Micah's friends afterwards. We were expecting one of Sam's friends, too, but I didn't see him. The boys all played outside, and were out for several hours before I realized the other kid was actually here! They all had fun. And Sofia and I relaxed in the house, and I made a stew for the evening.

Then we drove Micah's friend home (other kid's mom, my friend M, came to get him) and drove to the airport to pick up David. Long drive, traffic, but somewhat fun.

Came home, had dinner. Boys went to sleep quick, but Sofia, having napped all during the drive, stayed up with us until nearly 11pm.

Sunday was the last day of soccer. I dropped off Sam, drove Micah over, found him a ride back to Sam's field, and went back to watch Sam. It was a nice day, and after the game, all the MWJDS and former MWJDS kids stayed for another hour to play. It's four boys - Sammy, another kid in his class, and the two boys who used to be in their class but who switched to a different school this year. It's nice for them all to get together. One of them has a little brother who is Micah's dear friend, and the kid still in the class had his older brother there, who was a terrific game-organizer. Sam and his best buddy went for a long walk in the woods (the dad followed) while the others played more soccer.

I took the little brother home with us, and the kids played outside along with the neighborhood kids all afternoon. Big brother and mom showed up eventually and they all played. At one point there were four pairs of nine- and seven-year-old siblings in my back yard!

Eventually they all went home, babysitter arrived, and our friends L&K arrived so the grownups could go to The Bacon Brothers concert! Yeah! The band was terrific.

But it was a very long day and a late night for me, so Monday was tough. I drove the boys to school, had a mini-meeting with the office administrator in preparation for tomorrow's picture day, and then met David (and Sofia, who didn't have school again for some reason...) for our "talk-doctor".

Had 45 minutes after that to run some errands with Sofia (including jogging through Home Depot after her!), then picked up Micah to take him to the ophthalmologist. I briefly described Micah's "problem" to the doc, and he started examining. Projected some letters up on the screen; Micah could only read about half of them. Added some lenses; all letters read perfectly. Showed me the correction on the lenses he used:

0.0

Yup. No corrective lenses needed. Doc said he sees this frequently in kids this age.

Ok. Dropped Micah back at school for 90 minutes, raced home to have lunch with Sofia, and then back to pick Micah up again. This time, took him to a psychologist.

I'm not sure how it went. Poor Micah was more than willing to talk to the guy, but I felt that the guy was really feeding him the "oh, that's too bad" stuff. I have a meeting with the guy on Thursday morning, and hopefully the school psychologist will be able to chat with him tomorrow. We'll see how it goes.

We picked up Sam, and played for about an hour again. I was so exhausted already. Oh, and did I mention I'd spent the day trying to find a babysitter for this morning (since I only found out during my mini-meeting that there would not be babysitting for conferences today!).

A arrived, and told me that she COULD sit today (but she hadn't bothered to call me back all day, grrrr). SO I drove off to college - and the school principal called me to say she had just found a sitter for the school! Oh well.

I fell asleep near the end of my class, which was annoying (since I was really interested in the topic!). But I managed to drive home ok.

This morning, David had to leave earlier than me, so he took care of the kids and I got an extra hour of much-needed sleep.

Conferences were ok. Interesting thing: both boys are having the same problem. Their phonetic spellings both are...interesting... Micah sees to leave off "th" and "n" in many words, and Sam spelled something that was supposed to start with an "re" with "wer" instead.

So I'm wondering if they both need Elocution Lessons, to pronounce words clearer (and then be able to sound them out better).

Otherwise, conferences were fine. I worked with Micah's teacher to try to come up with a "memory jogger" for him, since he says he always forgets what he wants to ask when he has to wait his turn.

Came home, went back out to the grocery store before A left, then had lunch with the kids and let them play while I prepped for tomorrow's picture day. Sofia ended up stark naked (and it was pretty darn cold in the house today!).

E arrived and I took the boys to piano and Tae Kwan Do. Since Sam got his Green Belt last week, he went to two classes today. He says he wants to switch to the later class now that he's a higher-level belt. Sigh. Just means a long long day, since we wouldn't get home until 6:45.

David was already here, and E stayed, so I made a quick (and yummy) dinner, and we were able to give all three kids individual attention for bedtime!

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