Enjoying our last few days of summer

The Innocence of Competition

In May Katie joined her first competitive swimming team, First Colony Gold. Having stayed in swim classes year round and participated in the swim team class at her swim school she was ready. The first few practices the group was split between those who could swim across the pool and those who couldn't. Katie made the could team, this is our learning year.. We still have to figure out each week where we are supposed to be and how everything works, and Katie is learning about being in a race. Her natural instincts don't generally inspire a need for speed and we are working on that and while she is not the star swimmer on the team, she is the one with the biggest smile. She loves everything about being a part of this team and because of that I am willing to get her to practice four times a week and spend hours in the heat on Monday evenings sitting around to watch her spend about 2 minutes in the water!

Tonight was our fifth swim meet, and Katie loves swim meet days. Mostly she says she loves to relax between races, really I think she loves the camaraderie of the girls. Real friendships are forming and she loves the hours spent just hanging out with these girls that are her age!

I was so proud of her tonight, as she was sitting in the ribbon chair alongside some of her teammates, she cheered on her friend, rallying her teammate who was desperate for a first place blue ribbon..... And the friend got it, and Katie cheered for her even more. Katie is not in this for the first place blue ribbon, what excites her is participating, and tonight was so pleased with her two 4th place ribbons because green is mommy's favorite color... Maybe next year she will bring home a blue one for Daddy, but until then I will be very proud of my cheer leading team player, she will always come first for me!

Happy Birthday Luke!

Our little Lukey has turned two!  I don't know where these past two years have gone, but we sure have been busy... Luke is such a little joy to have around and always has a smile on his face.  We have started potty training and it is going great.  He is so proud of himself and we are of him!  His favorite foods are grilled chicken and all fruits.. not a big veggie fan!  Luke loves his bed time routine and his favorite book is Happy Birthday Thomas.. it was a library book, but he got his own copy for his birthday.  We sing every night either Twinkle Twinkle Little Star or we hum Brahams Lullaby.  He is still in his baby bed, but I doubt it will be that way for long.  His bed is getting pretty crowded with bear, Mickey, and his nene (blanket) and now his new prized possesion his Percy pillow pet from Nana.

He loves to play roll call games with all of our family member names and this usually happens at bed time.  Last night he was telling me all of his friends names in his bed and he continued with all of his loved ones. 

We had several birthday celebrations, first at a splash park with our play group friends, then his birthday party at home with friends, then on the day breakfast out with the family and an afternoon at the pool!

His birthday party was a huge sucess... it was all about his favorite things.. trains!  We had a conductor come and give the kids a train ride around the neighborhood and Thomas was the theme for the rest of the party.  The kids all looked so cute in their matching Thomas t-shirts and all of Luke's presents had a train theme.. he was so excited!  Andy had lots of fun setting up the new tracks for the kids to play with and we now have more than enough trains to go around.

Teeny Weeny hunt

Our latest obsession has been to collect tiny little colorful balls left behind at parks from some sort of toy ( I have hunted for this particular toy without success).

Iwas first introduced to the colorful little balls by the son of a friend who gave them their name. What started out as a cute little game where each kid was happy finding one or two has today turned into a full family obsession!

My pockets are currently full of these tiny little balls covered in dirt and the majority were collected by my husband!

5x7 Folded Card

Birthday Colors Blue Birthday Card

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Happy Valentine's Day

Sending Hugs Kisses Valentine's Card

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From our loved one's to your's, Happy Valentines Day.  Hope you day (and every day) is filled with love, laughter and lots of hugs!

xoxoxo

Calling All Firefighters....

Jack truly had a wonderful 3rd Birthday Party.  The Houston Fire Museum was his pick as it is his favorite place to visit.  He loves to sit in the big fire truck cab and pretend to drive, put on a helmet and slide down the big pole.  What made this trip to the fire station even better was that he did it with a lot of his play group and pre-school friends.

It was a great mix of kids and everyone had a great time.  The party coordinator Pat gave the kids a great presentation on fire safety and manged to hold her 3 year old audience captive for the entire program. 

All the kids enjoyed dressing up and the parents enjoyed touring around the museum.  Jack especially loved his fireman's cake & cup cakes and asked to have one of each!

After a nice long nap when we got home he tackled the pile of presents and could not have been happier with all his gifts.  He helped find a place for them in the play room and even manged to share with his brother and sister!

Trying Times

I just recently read a blog by a mom who chronicles her daily tribulations on being a mother, http://momastery.com/blog/, and how she finds writing about these things to be therapeutic.  Well I will try anything so here goes!

I was really hoping the 6th year of Katie's life would bring an end to the childish (not the right word but cant think of anything better at the moment) behavior that started when she turned 3.  Our Katie has a lot of emotions and struggles to express them, so she gets her point across in a variety of unpleasant forms.  Screaming, crying, hitting, sulking  just to name a few.  Now this started slowly not long after her 3rd birthday (we completely skipped the terrible two's) and has been a slow ramp up over the past few years to the point that I feel I need to write about it to provide me some comfort.

We could not love her anymore than we do and she is such a special, sweet girl I just hope she can learn soon how to express herself in a more rational matter.  I think her problem is that her head is so full of wonderful ideas to share, opinions to get across & stories to tell they all get jumbled up and when it actually comes time to focus on something that is not in her mind there is just not room for her to process it.  Then comes the scene... they used to just be saved for the privacy of our own home which was comforting.  I used to chant to myself, let's just get out of the house and all will be OK.  Not sure if it was the soothing car ride that calmed her or just the distractions of things outside our home, but in public she was perfect.  Sadly this has changed making little outings a stressful time.  We have always cherished our Sunday evening family dinners out of the house, but now they have become something we just try to get through so we can get back home.

Knowing in our hearts that she was not ready for big school kindergarten we chose to put her in a small private school where as it turns out she is one of 5 students this year.  It has been such a blessing as she is doing very well accademically and loves her class.  

Earlier this year Katie's Kindergarten teacher had expressed concerns about her ability to focus on class room tasks.  She was not completing work timely (or at all) and was continuously needing extra instruction to understand tasks.  After a nice meeting with her teacher who expressed these concerns but also reiterated how incredibly capable and bright she was, we sought the advice of our pediatrician. After a series of interviews with their in house specialist, Katie was diagnosed having ADD.  As this is an affliction that affects many in my family (and quite honestly myself as well although mine has been more adult onset) we were not overly surprised and started the task of educating ourselves as much as possible.  

Well then now real dilemma begins.  What do we do with this new knowledge?  Where does ADD begin/end and how does it relate to her emotional outbursts?  To help us better understand these questions we have sought a second opinion from a Child Psychologist who specializes in kids with ADD.  We are hoping after a series of meeting with Katie she will help us develop a treatment plan so we can all just enjoy this time in our lives and not have to walk on egg shells and wonder when the next flare up will be.

I have definitely tried to change my approach to these tough situations which is not always easy.  My first instinct is to scream & shout which I know does not do anyone (especially myself) any good.  But this is a hard habit to break.  We would like to get to a point again where we can reward good behavior, but I think we need to have a little more consistent good behavior before this will work.  So for now I am trying to take a very calm approach to the situations, remove her from the scene and once she has calmed down do my best to talk rationally.  This very morning I implemented a strategy that I am excited about and I hope it sticks.  I showed Katie how to hold her hands by locking her fingers together.  We practiced counting to 3, 5 & 10 for those times when she feels she might hit someone or shout at someone.  She was excited to try and started telling me other ways in which she could use this technique.

We have also tried to make some positive changes in her diet.  I have read that too much sugar & possibly gluten can affect behavior, while she has never had a sugary diet, I have cut back even further and have brought many gluten free products into her diet as well.

 

Here is hoping we get some good guidance from our various Dr's and we can help Katie better express herself, and once she can watch out b/c this girl has a lot to say and it's going to be GREAT!