Just down in the dumps...

Emily came home sick today from school...I had to miss Deidra's talent show that I had Melina and Tracie all excited to go to. I was bummed that I wasn't going to be able to watch Deidra sing her duet. She sang Magic today with a friend. Anyway, we got home and were getting out of the van and Tracie freaked out as I was pulling Melina out and started screaming and trying to cling onto me so hard that she almost knocked me over. I couldn't figure out what was going on and as I turned around I saw that 2 big dogs were behind us. They weren't doing anything, but standing in our yard. I got kinda upset as I'm still not over my knee sprain and I didn't need to get knocked over. I finally got her in the house, but I was just really frustrated. I don't know how many times I've asked her not to yell and run when she sees a dog as it only makes it worse. Anyway, we got in the house and I got Emmy in the shower. She was doing fine. I think she got sick because she refused to eat her dinner last night and when she doesn't eat like that, she makes herself sick sometimes. However, she barfed all over in her backpack at school and so I went and brought her home. She was mad at me that after I got her all washed up and new clothes on that I had her go lay in her bed. She begged me for a couple of hours to come downstairs. She was mad that I wouldn't give her a snack. I gave her some soda to drink (about 2 oz) and told her we had to see how that settled in her tummy. That stayed down and so after we got Tracie to school, she asked for a cheeseburger. I got her a small one and a banana and she ate and started bouncing off the walls. She's been a bit crazy this afternoon. Once, the other kids got home from school, more chaos happened. Tracie can't think for herself of what to play with and she literally goes around and takes stuff that the others are playing with and they all start screaming and then she cries and cries because she has to give it back. Josiah pinched Melina with her pacifier clip because he can't leave his hands out of stuff either and her poor little neck was all red. I wound up having to put them all in their rooms and even tried to get Melina to lay down and Emily had to start yelling down the stairs that she wanted Reggie (Grandma's dog) to come play with them and it got Melina screaming when she was trying to nap. I'm down in the dumps...I need to pull myself out of it. Part of it is that I'm really tired of dealing with this knee injury....I had to chase Josiah out of Deidra's room and into his own room and I wound up twisting it again. It's these little setbacks that are getting to me. I honestly thought I'd be over this by now. I just need to pray and give it to God and let Him carry me through. I can do this! I have to say if I'm going to be completely honest that I'm not looking forward to the first couple of weeks of summer vacation to get them on the routine of summer. However, I will keep carrying on and God will help me!

Deidra's 5th Grade Promotion Ceremony

Isn't she just beautiful? I choked up seeing her all dressed up and ready to go. This Mommy isn't ready for how grown up she's becoming. It seems like just yesterday that she was toddling around and cuddling with me in the rocking chair all of the time.

singing in the choir...they sang "Unwritten" and it was beautiful

lining up to get her certificate from her awesome teacher Mrs. Hensley

Miss Deidra Cristyn

getting her certificate from the principals

Deidra and her certificate I honestly can't believe that I'm going to have a middle schooler next year. I am so proud of her. She's got so many friends and has such a big heart. She has a beautiful singing voice too. She wants to get into theater and choir and she'll be doing volleyball too. She's a wonderful girl and I couldn't be more proud!

Josiah's Kindergarten Promotion Ceremony

Josiah all ready to go to kindergarten graduation

"When I grow up, I want to be a paramedic."

Josiah and Mrs. Carlton...she did an awesome job with him this year of holding him accountable with his behaviors each and every time. I couldn't have asked for a better teacher for him this year. I'm proud of him! He did a great job at his ceremony. There were times throughout the year that he's had me in tears with his behavior at school (ok, and at home too)and I know that the school has gotten frustrated with things at times too. But, I'm proud of how smart he is and how well he's doing academically in school. He's a very smart little boy and how cute he is is his saving grace.

Emily's 1st Grade Program

I went to Emily's 1st grade program to see her sing today. She didn't get any awards from school, but as I watched her up on the stage my eyes welled up with tears. I give her an award for how hard she worked this year and overcoming her problems with reading. She went from a level 4 to a level 20 this year...most of that was over the past couple of months. I couldn't be more proud of that little girl. I love you, Emily!

Deidra and Middle School

I called the middle school where Deidra was wanting to go next year to stay with her class. I got my questions answered and God spoke to my heart as well. Andy and I have agreed that she can go where she wants to go next year. I will drive her and pick her up. My concern was really about picking her up as I didn't know what time the bus was going to get here with the littles next year, but I have until 4pm to get her and that should work just fine.

So proud of..

I'm so proud of Deidra...she made the A/B honor roll. So proud of Emily...she increased her math and reading grades (still a C, but higher) and she got all As in social studies and science. It doesn't look like we're going to have to retain her after all. Yeah! And I'm proud of Josiah...he gets to participate in Fun Friday for the first time in a long time for good behavior this week. He had the most green marks that he has since the beginning of school. One day he got on orange, but all the other days have been green. Hope he can keep this up!

The school meeting...

went well. I first got called to go in to talk to the principals about Josiah. Apparently, he dumped a chair over and kicked it across the room this morning because he was mad. They went down and talked with him and put him at a desk all by himself and told him he had to stay there. They said if he found re-focus to be funny (He was all proud that he made it to blue and got to go to re-focus) that they'd just isolate him from the class and see how that goes. They also wanted me to know that they appreciated all the work that I try to do with my children and that we had an open-door communication with them and they appreciated that. They know I'm trying and that I support the teachers and they know what I'm trying to accomplish even at home.

Then, i went and met with Emily's teacher, reading intervention specialist, and the guidance counselor. They were proud to tell me that she tested again yesterday and is now reading at a level 10. She started the year at a level 4. Right after Christmas break, she had moved to a 6 and now she's at a 10. She needs to reach a level 18 by the end of the year. I asked if this meant that maybe she could pass. Her teacher didn't wnat to commit to anything and said it would depend on how hard Emily continued to work, but she did say that she is really struggling with math. I knew this too. We also talked about the fact that I wanted her tested for dyslexia with some of the things that she's been doing. I guess they had originally been talking about if that could be a possibility before they even got my letter asking about that. So, they're going to see about doing some dyslexia observation paperwork to bring in front of the dyslexia board. They're also going to get her some more math intervention. Her teacher said that maybe she shouldn't say anything, but that if she got a special education referral for anything down the road, she can see it being with math. She's not there yet, but we'll just keep working. The guidance counselor did mention too that she's nervous about asking for testing now because she was afraid they'd come back and bring up her attention span with the ADHD and say that her difficulties were just due to that and if they test her anyway and she comes back on the border anything, they have to wait for 3 years before they can test her again. She wanted to know if I had any way to get her to Scottish Rite for testing as they do it for free and she said that they'd get some paperwork going at school for testing, but this way if I got something outside the school done I can always bring them the results and they're still an option to do school testing in another year or so. She's getting me a packet to submit with the Scottish Rite paperwork and hopefully we can get her tested soon.

We also talked about Josiah. She said that she really just wnated to get him on 504 and get some behavioral help services going for him at school and she was going to look at some books on RAD that she had in her office and see if she could come up with some strategies to help the teachers and the principals in how they interact with him. I got the documentation from the Dr today from teh school so I forwarded that on to her. It was a really good meeting.

School Problems

I came home from running to the store, called Andy to let him know that our tickets to Disney came in the mail and checked my email to see that they were having some problems with Josiah today. Call waiting interrupted and I saw that it was the school and so I told Andy that I had to take it. I was surprised to find Emma's teacher on the line. She too was giving her teacher fits at school today and has been very busy since last week. Not wanting to stay in her seat, not doing her work, roaming around the classroom, being bossy, having a real attitude. I told her that I'd been seeing that at home lately too and was going to talk to her about it at the party yesterday, but they had a substitute and I couldn't. I wound up calling the pediatrician to ask if she could go up on her Vyvanse dose and they are going to do that for us. Hopefully, that will help the problems. Then, I wound up getting a call from the principal's office saying that Josiah is in re-focus for the rest of today and all day tomorrow. She had just told me yesterday too that his behavior had gotten so much better and now this. They do finally want documentation saying that he has RAD though so that they can put him on 504 status at school. So, I just contacted the dr. to see if she could provide me with something in writing saying that he did indeed have RAD so we can get him some services going. I wish they could have done this in the beginning of the year. I am their Mom though and I will advocate for them all that I need to.

Day 1 of Summer Faith Adventure

We had a good first day of homeschool VBS today. We said the first decade of the Joyful mysteries...the Anunciation and learned more about that. We talked about baptism. We learned about King David. We made kings and crowns cookies...they had a hard time with carving. Emmy made a crown in her dough and Tracie just wanted to do a heart. Josiah wound up eating all of his dough before it could be carved out. Oh well. They had fun anyway. We talked about the pope and they got to make miter hats too. We also played "I am a child of God." I really enjoyed the day with them and I did learn that I could homeschool if I ever needed to afterall. :-) It went surprisingly well.

A very messy Tracie...



Emily carving a crown into her dough...



Josiah's picture that he colored of John baptising Jesus...



Tracie and her miter hat...



Josiah tasting the batter...



Emily helping to make keys and crowns cookies...

ABCs and 123s

Emily



Josiah



Tracie

We are going to work on writing our letters and numbers throughout the summer and so we worked on A and 1 this week. The kids did a great job!

Just an update on the kids....

Deidra is still struggling with math and reading at school. Going to email her teacher and see if they want her to attend flex days to see if that would help her with some more one-on-one. I know she's getting bored with school, but I just want her to work on things and we'll work on stuff over the summer too. A troubled girl pushed her into a wall last week at school and left a goose egg on her head. The girl hasn't been back at school and now Deidra is worried about her. Deidra is a lot like me with her empathy, but I told her that she needs to be careful with it too as people take advantage of that and hurt you over and over again when you care more about other people than you worry about yourself. It does make me proud of her though to see her have that trait.

Emily is still developing her reading and writing skills so she is going to attend flex days. I'm curious to see how she did on her testing. The teacher said she had her reading up to par to pass kindergarten. I know that she's doing better, but I still have my doubts as when we go over her sight words, sometimes she just has the words memorized and she'll look at the beginning sound and she guesses and it's wrong. It's one of her words, but not that specific word that she is looking at. We have a lot of work to do over the summer. I still am quandering about whether it would be better to homeschool her, but Andy has his doubts and so I am praying about it. Otherwise, she is doing really well. She helped me make dinner last night and she really enjoyed being able to help. She likes being a big helper. She's turning into quite the little sweatheart. :-)

Josiah has been having a hard time. He does not like being told what to do or that he can't do something or being redirected. Time ins with him are difficult as he fights me a lot, yesterday he kicked me in the stomach when I tried to sit him back down on his bed. He spent 2 hours in his room yesterday morning, because he wouldn't quit acting ugly, screaming at me, kicking the walls, throwing things, coming out of his room and trying to come downstairs...every time he acted up, he got 5 minutes added. Finally after 2 hours, he was able to come down and eat his breakfast and then I put him to work cleaning. He got out of school and acted up majorly at the eye doctor and threw a huge fit in the car over not being able to go to a restaurant to eat and so I came home and put him back in his room. He came down to eat his dinner and then we put him to bed. His favorite words lately are "NO!" "I'm not very happy." "I'm mad at you!" "I hate being in time out!" He still struggles with the concept that it's his actions that are getting him in trouble. He wants to point the finger at me and blame me. He wants what he wants and he wants it now. Lots of power struggles going on with him. He is very smart and is learning well at school. He is spelling words, trying to sound words out, and writing his letters and numbers.

Tracie is still whining a lot. She'd rather cry when she asks for things, than use her big girl words. And she's trying to pull some of the things that Josiah does when she doesn't get her way. She throws herself on the floor when she doesn't get what she wants or when she is told to go to time out. And she'll say "I forgot how to get up or where the time out corner is." So, then I'll go take her by the hand and make her get up and redirect her to where she needs to go and she throws an utter screaming fit the whole time. I need to make her an appt with the pediatrician. I was talking with her occupational therapist to ask their opinion if she has a learning disorder. She is still having trouble remembering things she's been taught, shapes and colors are there some days and others she gets them mixed up. You give her dinner and she says she wants more and you ask her what she wants more of and she says "I don't know" and will start crying because she doesn't know what it is. She has a very quirky memory and I worry now that she's going to start school and I want what's best for her. She shuts down when things get hard for her and I just don't want her to run into troubles with school. She's a litlte sweetheart and likes to nurture.

Melina is learning so much. She cruises along the furniture and stand on her own. She just got her 5th tooth. She loves to talk on her little phone and she'll put it over her shoulder and say "hi." She's learning how to open cabinets and she's been getting into the books and Daddy's computer. It amazes me to watch her play and how busy she stays just learning how everything works. She is such a joy. We all just love her to pieces. She is getting a little temper since Tracie spends the day taking toys from her and she screams to let her know she is mad and wants it back. Or Tracie will walk behind her and pick her up and that will make her mad too. I keep trying to tell her that Melina isn't a doll and that she can do things for herself. Melina is a little sweetheart and boy does she love her sisters and her brother. She hugs them and follows them all over and giggles and giggles at the things that they do. She's so funny. She brings a lot of joy to this house...even our OT said "I think the baby did a lot of good...the kids are behaving better with her here too..." I told her that we still have a ways to go, but the baby has been a huge blessing and I'm glad that the kids love her so much too and she certainly loves all of them.

We've been doing a lot of holding time for a little over a month now. The girls do ok with it...Emma's had a couple of times where she's hated it. But, she also had a huge breakthrough with it one night. She refused to drink her milk one day when she needed to take her pill. Taking her pill isn't an option as she gets in a lot of trouble without it in school and at home. She finally wound up telling me that she wanted it in a bottle. I wasn't going to fight her on it...a lot of attachment therapy is taking them back to their babyhood and letting them experience things that they missed out on. I put what was in her cup in a baby bottle, sat on the couch with her and fed her. She sat for 30-40 minutes in my lap with me just cradling her and she drank the milk out of the bottle. She loved that she got to be a baby for a little while and she told my Mom about it the next day. My Mom asked her if she liked that and she said yes. MOm didn't know what was going on and I had a conversation with her about it a little later and Mom thought that was awesome and it was so good for Emmy. She told me that we are so good at this stuff and I told her a lot of prayer has gone into all of this. It's all with God's graces. Josiah still is fighting me a lot when it's time for his holding time. He hates it when he's in trouble and will pinch me, pull my hair, hit me, try to bump me in the head with his head, kicks at me, whatever he can think of. He doesn't have a problem to come sit on my lap when it's all good, but when he's being made to do it because of bad behavior he majorly fights me. Tracie does ok with it, but she likes to scream and cry and fidget and she hears Josiah say that I'm hurting him while he does his, so she's been trying to pull that route lately to see if it gets her out of it. I don't let them out until they've calmed down so we just sit as long as they need me to sit there. Sometimes things that I need to get done get put on the backburner, but the kids are more worth it than anything else so it's all good.

What a Day! AFP Day 23

What a day! I'm trying to hang in there and stay positive as I know it's just a dya of testing and my attitude through it all is what will get me through. I woke up feeling cruddy...lots of nausea, very tired, killer headache. Tested my blood sugar and it was 333. Gave myself some insulin...trying to feed the baby and I just felt like I was going to throw up. Andy left for work and I put a call into the doctor to see if I could come in for lab work so we could get some better insulin coverage going. I'm going to have to pay for the lab costs out of pocket as I'm out of diagnostic money with my policy for the year...but I can't go around with blood sugars like this anymore and they've never gotten this high before. The nurse called me back a couple hours later and asked me a bunch of questions and told me I could come in for labs. Josiah has been a little terror all morning and was into everything non-stop and I was constantly chasing him all over out of everything. He got some water to drink and I turn around and he's purposely dumping it all over the counter tops watching it trickle onto the floor. I made him help me clean it up.

I take Tracie to school and Josiah went running just about took out the table and some kids. Finally got him to slow down and we get back in the van. The nurse called me back to ask me a couple more questions and Josiah's underfoot and wouldn't be quiet and I'm carrying Melina in one arm and the phone in the other and he knew I couldn't do anything about it. Pushed button after button with this huge grin on his face. Once I got off the phone, he did a time in with me and we talked. I told him that I had to go in for labwork at the doctor and that he better behave while we were there.

We get to the doctor's office and had to wait in line to check in and he started throwing himself on the floor screaming "leave me alone." All because I wanted him to stay by me as he kept trying to run off. I checked in, got my paper for the lab, pulled him off to the side and told him that he needed to show these people what a good boy that he could be and that he needed to quit with the temper tantrums. When they took me for labs, he sat really still next to Melina and asked me if they were going to make me cry. I told him that I'd be brave and then he just sat and watched the whole process and telling Melina that I was ok. I praised him big time for being such a big boy.

I took him to school and I took Melina in for her 7 month (Christmas pics) pictures. She didn't want to cooperate much and then she tried to fall off the table, not once, but twice, and just about gave me a heart attack. Then, when it came time to order the pictures, she told me which pose was my $7.99 package (I've always been able to pick before) and it was ok, but it wasn't the one that I really wanted. I started adding sheets of 3 other poses that were really cute and she told me that if I was going to do that I should just order the $100 package. I looked at her and said "why would I do that for 3 sheets?" She said that I was already over $60. That didn't make sense to me at all so I asked her if the sheets were $12.99 how I had gotten up that far. She said "they're $20 a sheet." I go in there every month and do her pics and have never paid that much and she knows who I am by first name basis. I wound up ordering the $7.99 package, a sheet of another really cute pose, and then I ordered a picture collage of her other 3 poses that I really liked. I went and paid the $62 and she took a phone call as I was getting Melina back in her car seat and it hit me...she never did my buy one get one frees from my picture saver card. I asked her "doesn't the computer store my smile saver info?" All of a sudden she said, I totally forgot that you had that. She said "I need to order you another collage and another sheet of the extra pose that you odered." I told her I really didn't need another My 1st Christmas collage and could I pick a different pose. She told me they changed it and whatever you bought is what you got for the free sheets. I haven't had to do that in the past. I really think, she just didn't want to have to go back in the system and mess with it all again. By that point, Melina was really done and was fussy and so I just left. We're going for family pics at Portrait Innovations on Saturday morning anyway. I think I'm going to take her somewhere else for her 8 month pictures (maybe Penney's).

Then, I ran and got Tracie from school and we went to go look for Christmas bows in the consignment store...no such luck. We go to get Josiah and he's not outside and his teacher is waving me to drive up by her. He pooped his pants on purpose and wouldnt' fess up to anything and the teacher said she had to smell him out to figure out where the smell was coming from. She needed me to go clean him up and change him in the nurses office. So, I had to unload Melina and Tracie from the van and go in to get him. The nurse says "I have underwear but not any clothes, so do you want to change him here or just take him home." I looked at the baby who was starting to fuss in her car seat and asked her for a plastic bag and told her I was taking him home. Got him in the shower and cleaned up and he had to put the dirty clothes in the washer and clean up the floor where he got poop all over and talked to him about why he did that. He said "I was mad." Asked him about what and he said "I don't know. I just didn't want to go to the potty." His teacher says they don't have to ask to use the bathroom, they can just go whenever they need to. He was mad at me for making him clean himself up and take care of his clothes, but he did say that he'd use the potty next time, so I guess that helped to get the point across that he's too big of a boy to be doing that.

Came home and tested my blood sugars and I'm 282. Still pretty high, but I'm glad that I'm not in the 300s anymore. I don't think I'm going to eat much for dinner.

Deidra and Emily went on a playdate...I'm just hoping that Emily behaves herself this time. She missed out when she was asked a few days ago, so I'm hoping that makes her think twice before she treats her friend badly.

Attachment-Focused Parenting Day 17

6:50-7:30 am Josiah getting into Tracie's room and testing the rules every couple of minutes

8:30 am Josiah running around with a tote of toys zooming them all in the air

8:45 am Josiah not getting dressed after a couple of reminders of what he needed to be doing

9:30 am Josiah I had gotten Chick-Fil-A for breakfast and he had already eaten, but I told him he could have some of my hashbrowns as his morning snack as I just wanted my drink and my sandwich. We got home and I took about 10 hashbrowns out of my large order for myself and gave him the rest and he pitched a fit and said "that's all I get?" We had a talk about being grateful for what we are given and having a positive attitude.

4:00 pm Emily tripping Deidra and making her fall and refusing to apologize

4:10 pm Deidra, Emily, Tracie, and Josiah for being extremely rude and loud while I was on the phone with the psychiatrist about Josiah. We had a huge talk about how we behave when Mom's on the phone, especially with the doctor.

4:20 pm Deidra, Emily, Tracie, and Josiah all had great days at school and got to pick from the reward jar. Emily got to stay up late. Tracie got to pick a tv show. Josiah got story time. Deidra gets to have a friend spend the night.

5:30 pm Emily wouldn't calm down and wouldn't play nicely with Tracie and Josiah

Attachment Focused Parenting Day 16

8:05 am Josiah wouldn't stop running his car on the entertainment center after I asked him to do it on the floor instead so he didn't scratch the wood

8:35 am Josiah climbing up cupboards and countertops while I brought Melina upstairs for her morning nap

3:45 pm Deidra, Josiah, Tracie will get ice cream after dinner for great days at school. Emily will miss out for bad behavior for the substitute teacher after computer time.

4:10 pm Josiah and Tracie running in the house after being asked to stop

4:20 pm Josiah and Tracie running in the house. Josiah did wind up getting 1 swat before his time-in for not coming to me when I told him to.

4:40 pm Josiah and Tracie someone knocked my pictures down in the playroom and wanted to blame the other person for who did it. We sat in time-in for 8 minutes before Tracie finally told me that she did it. I knew from her tears that she was the guilty party, but she still wanted to keep saying that Josiah did it. She had to apologize to Josiah for lying and getting him in trouble and then she had to sit and talk with me about the fact that she's not going to get in trouble if she does something accidentally and needs help to fix it. But, she is going to get in trouble for lying or trying to get her siblings in trouble for something that she did. She apologized.

5:10 pm Josiah shut the bathroom door on Emily when she was trying to come out of the bathroom and shut her hand in the door

Attachment-Focused Parenting Day 15

Today was an awesome day!

7:30 am Josiah getting into Tracie's room

8:15 am Tracie getting into Mom's computer

8:40 am Josiah getting into peanuts on the table while I took Melina upstairs. He was just told prior to that that snack time wasn't for a little bit yet.

9:30 am Josiah giving toys to Melina after I said no. (he keeps wanting to give her toys with tiny pieces even though we keep explaining that those types of toys can make her choke)

10:20 am Josiah not stopping when I said "no."

4:00 pm Deidra, Josiah, Emily, and Tracie all had great days at school. Well, Tracie didn't have school today, but she did have therapy and normally she's been throwing huge fits on the speech therapist. So her deal was that if she wanted a reward, she had to nicely do speech. She did! They all got to pick out of the reward jar. Deidra earned music time. Josiah got coloring time. Tracie got game time and she picked to play play-doh. Emily gets to make a special snack with Mommy. Since, we didn't have anything on hand to make what she wanted, I told her that we'd go during the week and she could pick an activity for that night to do with one of her siblings. She picked to color with Josiah.

Attachment-Focused Parenting Day 11

7-7:30 am Josiah lots of redirection back to his room...met with constant testing and defiance

7:30 am Josiah moving as slow as possible to get ready for breakfast and acting up

8:00 am Josiah while I was coming downstairs he was reaching for Daddy's flashlight which was standing up on the counter. I said "don't touch that." He knocked it over and sent dishes crashing off of the counter.

8:10 am Josiah burping repeatedly after being asked to stop and then running from me when I asked him to come to me

9:00 am Josiah jumping on the furniture

3:00 pm Josiah pushing a friend down really hard at school

3:45 pm Deidra, Tracie, and Emily all got star stamps at school for a good day so they got to draw from the reward jar. Deidra got to stay up late. Tracie got to pick our dinner meal. Emily got story time with Daddy.

5:40 pm Josiah throwing toys because they didn't work at the walls and at his sisters

6:40 pm Josiah splashing water all over the girls when they were trying to wash up...Josiah was not supposed to be in the bathroom at the time.

Attachment-Focused Parenting--Day 10

The day went much better, Tracie was excited to get to go to school. Josiah doesn't know what to do with himself when he's the only one home with me and the baby, but he did pretty well. He had a good day at school and Mommy and Melina had a lunch date with a friend. The adult time was much needed.

We got home after school and I had some stuff come up that I had to deal with and things just fell apart. He wanted a snack and I told him that I'd get him a snack when Emily came home which was just a few minutes away. I had a phone call that I had to take and the baby was crying for her bottle. While I was on the phone, Josiah started yelling very ugly at me "snack, snack, snack, you get me a snack right now." I told him that he doesn't ask for things for like that and that I would get him a snack after I finished on the phone and Emily was home from school. I turned around to finish feeding the baby and he had picked up a blanket and thrown it at me. Thankfully, it was just a blanket, but I told him for acting like that, he lost out on his snack. He went over to the recliner and tried to push it over. I had to end my phone call and put him in my lap to calm down. Then, we talked about the appropriate way to ask for things and that we don't push furniture over when we're mad.

Another phone call came in that I had to take and this time Tracie went in to use the bathroom, and when she tried to come out, Josiah had ran over to shut the door on her. Totallly ignored me saying "stop" while I was trying to get over there and just before I reached them, he had shut her wrist in the door.

Emily got home from school and got in more trouble at school and then she got in trouble on the way home from the bus driver as she opened up the emergency exit door while they were on their way home. I wound up giving her a time in and we had a huge talk about safety and how she could have gotten very hurt or someone else could have gotten very hurt due to her doing that. Thankfully, nothing happened, but she is not to touch doors and knobs while on the bus. The bus driver said that she wasn't even supposed to be sitting there in the first place as he doesn't let the kids sit there and they know that.

Deidra had a choir performance and we went to a local restaurant and watched her perform and sing Christmas carols. We got dinner while we were there and Josiah and Deidra got brownies for good behavior at school for dessert. Each day that the kids earn good behavior at school, they get to pick a reward from the reward jar. Tracie missed out on dessert, because she threw a huge fit again at her speech therapist over having to do therapy. This is really becoming a problem for her and we have no idea what is causing it other than it's starting to become really hard for her and whenever something gets hard for her, she starts throwing fits to get out of doing it. Anyway, as we were going to leave, Josiah started pushing and shoving as he didn't feel that Emily was walking fast enough and he always thinks that he has to be the first to do anything. Well, the place was so packed that he had to push past other people as well and I couldn't reach him and I'm saying "Josiah, stop. Slow down. Josiah quit." All the while, he's ignoring me...he got stuck against the garbage can that happened to be on wheels and he kept going at full speed taking the garbage can with him. Finally, I yelled out to Andy who was trying to get the other kids out the door as I couldn't get to him. I'm surprised he didn't knock the whole cabinet with the garbage can in it over. Andy finally was able to get to him and get him to stop and slow down, so no catastrophe happened. We had a huge talk once we got in the car about how we don't run and push and shove to have to be first and that we calmly wait and be patient. He is SO full of energy...if we could bottle it all up, we'd be rich!

Attachment-Focused Parenting Day 9

I didn't log today either. Thankfully the day went much better. The kids were much more cooperative. I only had to put Josiah in time in a couple of times in the morning for not playing nicely with Tracie. Josiah and Emily had great days at school. I was able to talk with Emily's teacher and she told me "Please don't ever apologize for Emily's behavior. You are an awesome Mom. She's testing her boundaries and we will get through this." We did agree that if she wants to continue to get warnings on a daily basis...we would excuse the first one and write that up to a bad day...if it happens again, she will miss out on recess until she pulls her behavior back in check. If she ever has a day like she had the other day where she's just doing stuff left and right, she will follow through with a visit to the principal. I told her that she can't threaten to do something and then not do it and if Emily wants to keep behaving badly and then asks when she can go to the office that the teacher needs to send her. Emily needs to learn that behaving that way is not acceptable. I did give her a small reward for good behavior at school. She did get a bad attitude with her siblings later that required me to do a couple of time ins with her for until she got over it as she wouldn't ask nicely for things and just wanted to point, throw a fit, and try to grab for it even after the first time in. So, she sat on my lap for awhile longer and then she tried again. It actually took one more time before she got it right, but we got there and that's all that matters. :-) Tracie only got one time in today for not staying out of stuff that she wasn't supposed to be into. Overall, it was a much better day.

Feel so bad for Deidra...

All she's been talking about is her class field trip to Austin to see the Capitol building and going to a museum. They were going to ride charter buses and she was excited that they had bathrooms and movie screens on them. She couldn't wait for today. They were leaving at 6 am and coming back home at 6 pm. First time the school has done anything like this. She could barely sleep over the weekend as she was just so excited. Yesterday at church she started saying that she was really tired and feeling dizzy. She came home and took a long nap and woke up and she said that she was still dizzy, but not as tired. We went to the grocery store and she started to cry as she was feeling poor. I got some Sprite and some tylenol into her and that made her feel better. I thought it was just because she was overly tired. She went to Awana and we had our Thanksgiving feast and she said that she felt a lot better. We came home and I had her take her temp just to see and it was 99.7. I had her take a bath and put her to bed early. She came in our room in the middle of the night saying that she really didn't feel good and she felt really warm. The alarm went off to get her up for her field trip and she felt even warmer. Took her temp and it was 102.8 and had a headache and still felt dizzy and her throat is sore. We put her back to bed after I gave her some Motrin. She's been sleeping all morning. She's heartbroken that she couldn't go on her field trip. I feel bad that she missed her field trip too, but they were going to be 3 hours away and that's just too far for her to be if she's sick and feeling lousy. I told her that 5th grade is going tomorrow, so hopefully next year she'll be able to go.

Deidra and the New Kids...

I'm really proud of her and how she takes the new kids under her wing. I went and had lunch with her the other day and a boy and his Mom sat across from us. Turns out, he's a new student and we all got talking. I really liked his Mom and she just had a baby boy 6 weeks ago. Anyway, after she realized who she was and the kids went back to class she informed that he really adores her. He's coming to her birthday party tomorrow. She told me that the kids at school tease her that he's her boyfriend, but she just really likes to play and hang out with him and he likes to play with her too. I told her not to pay attention to the kids at school and that it's ok to have boys for friends too. They seemed to get along really well and his Mom just called to RSVP that he'd be there for the party and she said he wanted to get her the perfect gift so she was wondering about gift ideas. That's too cute! I'm not ready for all the crushes and stuff...but he is a sweet little boy.