Well, I am attempting to pick up the blogging a bit more for 2011. At least once a month… I’m hoping to update what has been going on with Team V. With 6 of us in the family, there are always exciting tidbits of life happening!
January has been a month of hanging on by a thread!! We all enjoyed the 2 weeks off at Christmas, and we even managed to pick up slack and take a few deep breaths by the time we had to jump back into the fast lane, that is our life. The house was mostly clean, Christmas was packed up and put away, and everyone was healthy! The healthy part wound up being only a temporary condition.
Griffyn has been teething like crazy, and he cut two teeth and began to crawl!! His learning curve has been steep, because the poor little guy basically went from “army crawl” to full on crawl in a matter of about 2 days. Then about 2 days from that, he began pulling himself up to standing. But as you know, the little ones are good at standing up, but not so good at the sitting down. He has taken a few good spills… but man, he takes a lickin’ and keeps on tickin’ This month, Griffyn is 8 months old! Wow, how time is flying. He is up to 3 solid meals a day, and still not sleeping through the night ;o(
Rylie is still going to preschool 5 days a week. I wish I could say that she loves it… she doesn’t. She likes it well enough, but every so often my mornings start out on the wrong foot. She doesn’t want to get up, she gets dressed through fits of tears, and then that usually continues, on and off, until I drop her off and rush back to begin my day of teaching. It really breaks my heart… having to leave my crying 3 year old, but I know that she will eventually be fine. (usually within a few short minutes). The big thing this month, with Rylie, has been my worry over her hearing. I have begun to worry that she may have some deficit in her hearing. She has had a cold all winter long, with constant congestion. I was playing a little game with her at bed time, about a month or so ago. I would whisper something in one ear, ask her to repeat it, and see if she could. Then I would whisper something in her other ear. Kinda like a little game of “telephone” but just with the 2 of us. I began to notice that she understood me clearly when I spoke in one ear, but said “what”? when I spoke into the other. Well, of course I freaked out!! She was at the pediatrician’s office the next day for a look at her ears and a hearing test. The end result was that she had fluid behind her ear! FEW!! But that relief ended up being short lived. Her ear drum burst a few days later, and I am continuing to feel like her hearing is below normal. We have appointments with the audiologist, for a deeper hearing screening, AND the ear nose and throat doctor to discuss the fluid and congestion. AUWGG!
Campbelle has had a decent month. She is plugging along in kindergarten. She has been struggling a bit this year. She began the year a little bit behind, at least that’s what we were told! Apparently, she didn’t learn some of the things that she was expected to know to prepare for kindergarten while she was in preschool. Now don’t get me started about that one… but suffice it to say, she was in preschool 5 days a week for 2 years!!! You do the math… that’s an awful lot of preschool to still end up unprepared! Anyway, the deficit seems to be continuing, and she just received a less than stellar report card. Don’t worry… I’m on it! (because I have nothing else to do with my time) I have opened up a dialog between her teachers and I. I am hoping that my 8 years of teaching (2 of which were in kindergarten) and my masters degree in education, can help me catch up my little kindergarten-er! This past week has really knocked Campbelle on her little fanny. She has missed the last 2 days of school because she has been sick. Her fever spiked at almost 106 degrees the other night, as I was throwing her into a cold bath! The good news is, she seems to be doing much better.
Wesley is fully into his first year as a teenager, complete with attitude. He is doing very well in school, and continues to sport the shaggy long hair that just barely covers his eyes. Most recently, he has taken up BMX racing again. He has a membership to a track, and gets to practice and race a couple times a week. We have not been able to get out to the track to watch him race as of yet. But we plan to try to get out there one of these days. Wesley has also really begun to enjoy skateboarding. We try to get over to a local park so that both Wesley and Mike can do a bit of skateboarding. Wesley just barely drops in… but he does. Mike is trying to encourage him to do more at the skatepark, but after breaking his arm a couple of years ago, at the Encinitas YMCA skatepark, I don’t think we should push him. He is also WAY into his Playstation3 and a couple of the video games that he got for Christmas. I’ve really begun to try to limit his screen time, especially when I read a research study about a link that researchers are making between more than 2 hours of screen time a day, and psychological problems!!!
Mike is continuing to work at Camp Pendleton, and has been a saint as far as helping out on the home front is concerned. He picks the kids up from school, and Griffyn up from daycare, a few days a week. That way, I can work later and not feel guilty about it, because the kids are home with daddy! Most days, Mike and I can barely see straight… our life is so busy. It really is a shame that Griffyn isn’t sleeping through the night, because I think that both Mike and I would have a bit more to give, if we were getting better sleep. I am continuing to evaluate my ideas about EXTRAORDINARY adventures for the family this year. I haven’t come up with anything inspiring as of yet!
AND…. since a post is no fun without pictures… here are a few of the guys!
by Katrina
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