Medicine drama

This has been a winter of one sickness after another in our house. The girls have both recently had strep throat and have been on antibiotics for it. Hannah got better, but just a couple of days after Nikki finished her medicine she was sick again. So yesterday she got some stronger stuff, and she did not appreciate the fact that it was white instead of pink. Before she took it I had her smell it because it had a pretty good orange smell to it. What a mistake! She did NOT want to take it. She ran around the house, hid in the closet, said her throat didn't hurt anymore, decided she never wanted to go to school again or have any friends come over, anything she could come up with as to why she didn't need her medicine. When I finally got it just to her tongue, she threw up. I felt bad for her because it is so miserable to go through that and she couldn't stop until her stomach was completely empty, but at the same time I was so mad because she made herself do it. There is no way it could have gagged her that quickly. Nobody ever flavored my medicine when I was a kid, and I certainly didn't throw up on my mother! Later that night she promised she would take it this morning after breakfast. I left for church this morning while she was crying at the table and Nate was trying to convince her to swallow it really quickly and drink something after it so she could go play. When I got home, he said she eventually took it and then said she thought it tasted really yummy. After all that drama last night, it now tastes good.

School day

Today I volunteered at Hannah's school as a proctor in a 5th grade class for their end of nine weeks testing. It was so interesting to watch the students. They were all behaving really well, except for one girl who kept snatching some snack out of her desk until she saw me looking at her. I couldn't help but give her a smile. She knew she was caught, and that was the end of it. I was amazed at how much of a difference there was in how long it took some of them to take the test. A couple of kids were finished pretty quickly, most of them took a little longer, but there were three students who took FOREVER. One girl could just not concentrate one bit. She would read a problem, look around, play with her hair, tap her pencil, and finally look back at her paper. I can't imagine what a struggle school must be for someone like that. I almost wanted to cheer for her when she finished.

I was finished in that class just as Hannah was going to lunch, so I decided to stay and eat with her. I just love the kids in her class. They all have something to say to me everytime I come in. I have never heard any of them say anything mean to each other. It's like they are all good friends. And I couldn't help feeling so pleased with Hannah. Her teacher's assistant said to me, "If we could only have a class full of students like Hannah!" And then at the lunch table one of the little girls was telling me that everybody always wants to play with Hannah, and yesterday one little girl started crying because Hannah was already playing with someone else. Then Hannah breaks into her story and says, "Well, maybe we could all just play something together." I guess it's sad that I was surprised at how nice she was, but I was really proud of her.

Madness

I don't know what is wrong with me. Last week Nikki's preschool tuition was due on Tuesday, but she was out with strep throat. So on Monday morning, I put the check in a stamped and addressed envelope. It never made it to the mailbox, so on Tuesday morning I put it on my sister-in-laws doorstep for her to take for me when she took her little girl to preschool. However, she wasn't home at the time and I forgot to call her and tell her I had left it there. So, it was late on Wednesday and I wrote a $5.00 check for the late fee and stuck it in Nikki's backpack in a sealed envelope and put Nikki's name on the envelope. Well, she came home with it unopened and I realized the teacher didn't know it was for her because Nikki's name was on it with no other explanations of what it was. So today, I wrote a note about what an idiot I am to go with the check and put it in an envelope in Nikki's backpack with the teacher's name on it and sent it to school -- only to notice later that I had left the check out of the envelope! AGHH!

Out of the mouth of babes

Isn't it amazing what little children can teach us? I have noticed how easily Hannah and Nikki forgive. They get upset with each other, and they get upset with their parents but never for an extended period of time. Today Hannah couldn't understand something Nikki was trying to tell her and got frustrated and yelled, "I don't know what you said!" Nikki burst into tears because Hannah yelled at her, and so Hannah gave her a hug. Nikki stopped crying immediately, and they went on their way playing together. It made me pause to see how quickly both of them got over it. Granted, it was a small thing, but they both had negative feelings toward each other that they were able to put aside with only a simple hug. Hannah also shows that quality whenever Nikki has colored on one of her art projects. She is really upset when that happens, but usually she'll end up saying something like, "Well, now I'll just have to make another one. You can have this Nikki."

As I was watching them today, I got to thinking about how I react to them when they upset me. It's not as easy for me to let it go. I remember one incident not too long ago where Hannah put up a stink about something when she got home from school. I don't remember what she did (or wouldn't do) that frustrated me, but I was cooking supper in the kitchen a little later and she came in with a picture she had drawn for me. She was so sweet and I was still feeling upset with her. When she said it was for me because she had drawn me as the beautiful queen and her as the princess, I was really humbled. Where I had held on to a grudge, she had let it go and was much happier than I was. What a privilege to be her mother. I am so happy that we have these precious little ones in our home.

Future American Idol?

Today Hannah was playing around on the piano, and after a while I noticed that she was picking out a note and trying to sing that pitch. I was so impressed. She was really getting it. She eventually almost got a whole scale. I praised her so much about it that she kept singing this one note for about 10 minutes. And then she found two F's a couple of octaves apart and noticed that they were the same note. Once again, I was very excited for her. I really hope she does have some natural musical talent. Playing the flute and piano have been such a rewarding part of my life, and it would be really fun to see my daughter enjoy one of the same interests that I have. One funny thing that she does is that whenever I turn on the radio in the car, she will always choose the classical station over anything else. Maybe she will be a band geek. I would love it.

Is it really January?

I took this picture in our front yard today. I don't know if you can tell, but there is a bee on one of the blooms on the left side of the picture. And I caught a mosquito in our laundry room the other day. What happened to winter?

Miscellaneous

Hannah told me tonight that she thought we should get to bed on time because she was really tired today. We have been having a lot of fun this holiday season, but I think we are all ready for our normal routine to kick back in.

Nikki was playing a game on the computer today where she was painting a picture and had to mix the primary colors together to get the other colors of the rainbow. I was painting upstairs in our bonus room and listened as she asked Nate which colors to put together. He was watching football and not really listening to her. She asked, "What makes orange?" He said, "Red and white." A couple of minutes later she said indignantly, "No! That's pink. What makes orange?!" After finally getting that one right, he messed up the green and light blue and lost all credibility with her. I had to laugh when she finally came to the stairs and said, "Mom, what makes purple?"

We're almost done painting our bonus room. Nate and the girls picked out the color for the walls, and I think they did a really good job. It's called "coconut milk" -- just a light, neutral tan. I'm going to look at carpet this week. It's really getting fun now that it's almost complete.

We went to see Charlotte's Web in the theater today with some friends. I thought it was really good. I was surprised that Charlotte was so ugly, but then she is a spider. She just didn't look that bad in the cartoon. I have a huge phobia of spiders, so I was really glad to know the story beforehand and not have to freak out about her because she was a good spider. A lady at the library had told me that it was kind of a scary movie for little kids, but our girls were fine with it. Maybe if they hadn't seen the cartoon the spider could have been freaky.

Nikki is still having ear problems, but tonight a lot of stuff finally came out of one ear. I found out that a friend at church works for an ear, nose, and throat doctor. I think I'll let JW take another look, and if it's still too hard for him to get out I'll make her an appointment for them to suction it out. I'm starting to wonder if having that wax in there for so long has affected her speech. She has a hard time with a lot of her consonants, and if she isn't hearing very well then hopefully her pronunciations would get better if her ears were clear. It's hard to know when to worry and when to let it go.

Happy New Year! I'm still trying to set some goals for 2007. I guess I need to get on the ball now that it's already here.