a day...

Today TO had an appointment with her psychologist for the needle phobia and had blood work afterwards.  I am amazed at how well she did with the psychologist.  Dr. Kelly brought a butterfly needle into the room and by the end of the session, TO had held it, and had let Dr. Kelly hold it at various places on her hand and arm.  Definite progress!  But the best news is that there's no homework for us to do--other than the relaxation techniques.

After TO's blood work, they always let her pick from the treasure box, or sometimes they pick for her.  This appointment, being so close to Christmas, they gave her a bigger toy.  She got an American Girl doll!  One of the customized dolls.  Of course it's an African American doll, but I'm astounded that they have had gifts like that donated.  TO is absolutely in love with it and I know that CD is looking forward to TO leaving for school tomorrow so she (CD) can play with it.

And while TO had a good day (her blood work was no better or worse than usual), I did not have a very good day.  Things have just been off for me lately.  P has been getting longer chunks of time off in the afternoons, which is nice.  But, I'm definitely feeling the need to get out of the house--and there just doesn't seem to be time to do that.  Not like there's anything to do in this rinky-dink little town if I were to get out of the house sans kids.  P's parents are coming into town on Friday, and I'm hoping that they'll agree to stay with the kids one night so P and I can go out to supper.  We haven't been out alone together since we moved down here.  And, I'm thinking it might be time for a date night.

I know that a lot of my emotional status is stemming from the holiday season.  As excited as I am for the kids, I'm really missing being around family.  And the Christmas cards just aren't coming in like they used to.  And I'm kind of dreading P's folks coming down.  2 days of letting the kids do whatever they want and giving them whatever they want.  "McD's for the 3rd time?  Sure, why not?"  Arg.  I'm hoping things will be getting better after they head back north.

TO's class has monthly reward parties for all the kids that have met the requirements.  The requirements, you ask.  Not have more that one math homework turned in late and have completed 4 reading counts tests.  Well, the reward party this month is on the 22nd--they're heading over to the high school to watch the Polar Express on a big screen.  And she should be turning the last of her homework in tomorrow--just on time.  And as far as I know she only has one reading counts done.  And the rest need to be done by Wednesday.  Should be interesting to see if she gets it all done or not.

memory planning

The kids and I have started looking forward to Christmas time--as we see November dwindling away on the calendar.  TO asked if we still had the Advent calendar that we had last year--a small tag board card-sized one.  Which got me to thinking about a calendar for this year.  Then I remembered how we used to use our Nativity set as a calendar of sorts.  When we were getting out the Christmas decorations at home, someone would wrap the Nativity pieces up into 25 little packages.  And each day we would open one package and set up the Nativity.  Some of the packages only had one figure in them, others had two or three animals.  But on Christmas day, we would open the final package--the one that had baby Jesus in it.

So, I went online looking for a kid friendly Advent calendar or Nativity set.  I wanted something that the kids could touch, feel, play with.  Something that wouldn't leave me cringing every time I left the room.  And after exploring on Amazon.com, I eventually ended up at fisher-price.com.  I found a cloth Advent calendar (seen here)--a pocket for each day and a cloth figure to add to the Nativity scene at the top of the calendar each day.

I also ran across a Little People Nativity set .  Now, I probably should state that when TO was around 2, I actually bought the Little People Nativity set, but after 2 moves, I'm not sure if we even have all the pieces or not.  So, I ordered the whole thing--it's actually made up of 3 sets--the Nativity, the 3 kings set and the inn set.  I'm not sure how or if I will be wrapping everything up into little packages or if it will be left out for them to play with during the month of December.

I admit to hesitating a moment or two when I thought about ordering it--with TO being 8, I worried that she might be a bit too old for Little People.  But I also figure I'll get a good 3-4 years of Christmases out of the Nativity sets before Omega would be ready for something a bit more fragile.  And in the mean time, I won't have to worry if he wanders off with one of the figures.  In the mean time, I'm pretty sure 'Thou shall not gnaw on the baby Jesus' is not one of the commandments.