Seeking Imperfection

October Recap

2009-11-05T17:01:00.002-05:00

Seeing as I was missing in action most of October, here's a quick recap:

October was spent playing in Puppa's yard (my dad) at my nephew's birthday party.

Then there was the trip to the pumpkin patch and the hayride the next morning. That's Paige in the purple coat and my nephew, Justin, in the red coat.

Then we made our yearly trip to King Richard's Faire, where Paige and her cousin, Evan, became knights and ladies of the king's court.

There was also Paige's first "friend's" birthday party for a friend from preschool. Then that afternoon we made Halloween cupcakes and decorated them with all kinds of candy and sprinkles.

Then of course was Halloween, where my little girl was her favorite mermaid, Ariel.

I hope everyone had a great October.

Still Alive

2009-11-04T20:40:00.001-05:00

Just wanted to pop in and let everyone know I'm still alive.

My job has been VERY stressful the past month or so, and I'm finding that I'm quite wiped both physically and emotionally by the end of the day, and just haven't had the "oomph" to post lately. Does anyone have any tips on how to beat chronic stress? I could really use it at this point.

Hope everyone had a great Halloween. :)

My dear blog...

2009-10-15T19:29:00.002-04:00

Dear Blog:

I had no idea it had been over a month since I last visited you. You poor neglected thing, you!

I can only say I'm sorry - I have been very stressed since school began, and have been a little bit depressed by the way my year is progressing so far. It has been very difficult for me to find the time and energy to write.

I first got into a slump in mid-August when I lost my wedding rings. Then, as school began and I've been having all kinds of work related problems, I have just slumped even more.

I am almost embarrassed to admit, my dear blog, that I have been seeing other people's blogs, but not you! I tend to think that other people are more interesting and have more and better things to share with their blogs, than I have to share with you. Seems like I have a problem with perfectionism or something! Then the more I stay away, the harder it is to come back to you. I start to feel like I need to have an even more interesting thing to post, to explain to you where I've been.

I'm going to try to visit you more often, my dear blog, and try my hardest to come back out of my slump. Thanks for waiting for me this past month.

Your friend,
Michie

Checking In

2009-09-02T22:08:00.003-04:00

I haven't been very good at posting lately - I was in a bit of a funk due to losing my rings and the camera, and was trying to get a lot done before school started. I am back at school, and hopefully I can get back into a posting groove soon.

My friend Michelle is involved in raising money for the animal shelter that she does fostering for. They are having a fundraising walk in a couple of weeks, and she's asked me to post a link to her fundraising page. So if you are interested, please check here.

Thank You Paige

2009-08-21T12:40:00.004-04:00

Dear Paige:

Just when I'm starting to feel a little better about my perfectionism, and am not calling myself stupid all the time, I go and do something extremely stupid.

On Wednesday you and I went down to the Cape (Cape Cod) for a visit for Nana's birthday. We all went for a late evening swim. I had a beach bag that had our clothes, my watch, my camera, and my wedding rings with us. As we were leaving the beach, I believe I must have put the bag on the ground, put you in the car, and then gotten in myself, forgetting about the bag, as when we got home, I couldn't find the bag anywhere. We jumped back in the car and went right back to the beach, but the bag was gone.

When you realized that your new star shoes were in the bag, you started to get teary. I knew my wedding rings were in the bag and felt sick. Then you hugged me and told me you were sorry because it was all your fault.

"How was it your fault, honey?" I asked you.
"Because I wanted to go swimming." You replied.

Oh, my poor little girlie. I kept telling you it wasn't your fault. You realized my rings were gone, and told me on our way back to Nana's that when you grow up and get married, you're going to give me your rings. I started to really cry then. Then you told me, "except for one...I might want to keep one," and you gave me a smile.

You were absolutely wonderful for the rest of our little trip. You told me that you would keep me calm and I could keep you calm. We talked about how we could replace things, but the important thing was that nothing had happened to either of us, that I couldn't ever replace you, and that I loved you so much. You told me the same thing, that you couldn't get a new Momma and that you loved me.

If someone would have told me that when I was going through a very emotionally trying time that the person who would comfort me the most was only four and a half, I don't know if I would have believed them. And to think, just last week I was thinking about writing a post about how incredibly difficult the four year old stage has been. And now here I am, so grateful for this little girl, this little person who helped me keep my head together when I was feeling anxious, guilty, and heartbroken.

Part of my sadness came in that I was hoping one day to leave the rings to you, and I was thinking, "now I don't have anything to leave her." Isn't that stupid? This morning my therapist (Dr. Diane) was nice enough to fit me in, as I knew I was going to keep mentally beating myself up all weekend, and she told me, "you don't know that." I realized after talking to her, that the one thing I can always leave for you is stories like these - stories that show that it is the people in life that matter, not the things. I can document how much you helped me these past couple of days, and let you know how much I love and appreciate you.

I was originally thinking that I wouldn't ever want to write about this, or tell anyone about it. That I'd done something so awful that I needed to hide it. But, I'm thinking more and more that maybe I need to write about these things, to let them out, to try and figure out how to let go of the physical things, and how to hold onto the "things" in life that really do matter. I need to realize that Daddy still loves me, and that we still have a wonderful marriage, even if I don't have the physical rings. We also have a beautiful, wonderful, wise beyond her years, (although sometimes very trying) little girl.

So Paige Girlie, this one is for you. You'll never know how much you've helped your Momma over the past few days. Turns out you can learn from anyone, no matter their age. Keep that in mind my girlie. Always keep learning and growing.

I love you,
Mom

A Week In Photos - Week Six

2009-08-15T10:12:00.000-04:00

Saturday, June 27, 2009

When all else fails, and I don't know what to take a picture of, I end up with one of Paige. Good thing she's so cute. She's wearing a pair of her favorite jammies. Even though it is summer, she keeps insisting on wearing comfy "fuzzy" jammies. She's very sensory. Good thing we have AC.

Sunday, June 28, 2009

I signed us up for the free kids bowling program. Today Michelle and I took Paige bowling for the first time. She seemed to have fun, even though she would get a little frustrated with gutter balls because her mom is too cheap to pay for the bumpers which aren't free.

Monday, June 29, 2009

This picture pretty much sums up the month of June.

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

My other stand-by for a photo if Paige is unavailable is one of the cats. This is Michelle's cat, Doyle. And really, what's better than a cat in a basket?

Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Paige took swimming lessons for the first time this summer, at a lake in New Hampshire. You wouldn't know it from this picture or the date, but it was COLD. I was ready to take her home for hot cocoa in front of the fire after this picture.

Thursday, July 2, 2009

I took Paige for some more bowling on my own. That was tricky because she was apt to wander away while I tried to bowl. She actually got a little better this time. To try to keep her from getting too frustrated, I would keep telling her, "just keep trying" a la Dory from "Finding Nemo"..."just keep swimming." Her outfit indicates just how wonderful and July like the temperature was.

Friday, July 3, 2009

Finally, the sun came back. This is a cute tree in our yard. Turns out we have two little fruit trees in our yard. We also don't own a lawn mower.

Super Summer Swap

2009-08-14T08:45:00.004-04:00

Paige and I took part in the Super Summer Swap hosted by Super Heroes and Princesses and Life of a Dairy Queen. Paige was matched with a four year old girl in Oregon named Mason.

Paige was so excited to get her package which consisted of a Pez dispenser, four princess card games, a kindergarten workbook, a sticker book, and a small Ariel doll. Paige has had me read the letter to her from Mason several times. I'm going to have to get a map to try and get her to understand the distance between Oregon and Massachusetts though. She really wants to go visit Mason and can't seem to understand why we aren't just heading over there!

This was a lot of fun, even though I sent our package out late. I hope Mason forgives us! You know, I've only participated in two blog swaps, and they've both been for Paige!!! I'll have to find one for me sometime - it looks like fun!

For some reason, Blogger is insisting on putting this photo in upside down...but you get the idea.

Paige has learned how to play Go Fish and Old Maid thanks to Mason!

Thursday List

2009-08-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

Yummy looking cake.

I love this first day of school
book gift idea. Paige is starting preschool this year. Perfect time to start a tradition!

A Week In Pictures - from way back in June!

2009-07-28T21:02:00.005-04:00

I'm trying to get back into the swing of things here...which means making myself post about anything at this point.

I've been doing a good job at taking my photo a day - I've only forgotten one day, and I'm trying not to beat myself up too much about that day. Anyone have any suggestions about what I can put in my summer album for that day besides the big, glaring words I FORGOT that is my current idea?

Anyway, I've been doing a good job on taking the photos, but not editing them or printing them or putting them in an album. I'm not sure how to motivate myself to get back into that part of things. So, on the last day in July, here I am trying to get caught up with June. :)

Saturday, June 13, 2009

This was a nice sunny Saturday - little did we know at the time it would be our last sunny day for some time. June was very, very rainy. We were trying to work on the pool, and in an attempt to keep Paige busy, I tried to set up a little clubhouse atmosphere for her on his swing set play structure. Even though she looks quite happy here, it didn't keep her entertained for very long. Not much does....

Sunday, June 14, 2009

I found some Martha Stewart puppet making kits on clearance at Walmart. They were pretty cool as they had everything you needed to make the puppet in the kit, and most of it was just peel off the sticky section and stick it on. This turned out to be something that really entertained Paige. She made a bird and a monkey and then immediately got under the table to put on a puppet show. I don't think we've ever played with puppets before, but she really seemed to enjoy them.

Monday, June 15, 2009

There are two pictures from this day...and I had a hard time just limiting it to two! Paige finished her first year of dance school in June. She LOVES to dance. Lately she dances more than she walks...she dances down the aisles at stores, etc. She was so excited that she was going to be dancing on a stage for her recital. These are two of the pictures I took at her dress rehearsal.

She looks so "grown up" in this one to me for some reason. I really love it.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

The gray kitty is my 13 year old cat, Fidget. The tiger kitten is Michelle's former foster, now adopted cat, Doyle. Since the beginning, Doyle has loved Fidget. She's always been a very timid cat, so it has been interesting for us to see how she's become kind of a foster mother to all of the kittens that Michelle brings home to foster. Most of them seem to love her, and she follows them around and keeps an eye on them. She's turned into a good foster mom herself. :)

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

This evening I stayed at work late for the sixth grade celebration - an event where the sixth graders are celebrated before leaving for middle school. There was presentation of yearbooks, a slide show, etc. Two of my students were in sixth grade, and I got to present their yearbooks to them (and cry a lot). I was so proud to be a part of it with them. On my way home I drove past an area where I'm always thinking, "I wish I had my camera" and actually pulled over to the side of the road and took several shots since I did have my camera with me. I'm finding I really enjoy nature photography, but I don't really know what to "do" with the pictures.

Thursday June 18, 2009

When I don't know what else to take a picture of, I always seem to fall back on Paige sleeping. But come on, she always looks so cute, I can't help it!

Friday, June 19, 2009

After several rainy days in a row, when I didn't know what else to take a picture of, I wandered outside and took some random rainy flower/grass photos.

Ok, one more week in June caught up with...now to just send them to Walmart to print.

Does anyone who enjoys doing lots of projects have any tips on how you keep up with all the projects you want to do? I love scrapbooking, taking pictures, and even editing them, but if I let it seem like something I "have to" do, I start to lose interest. I'd love to hear how you accomplish projects/goals you've set for yourselves.

Random Ramblings

2009-07-15T06:36:00.003-04:00

I haven't meant to be away for so long.

I'm again struggling with what is "good enough" or "interesting enough" to post about. Yes, I know it is my blog, but sometimes I get into these funks. I've been feeling funky the last couple of weeks, and not in a good way, either. I'm realizing more and more that I have a double standard when it comes to being perfect - I don't expect it out of anyone but myself. I am not sure how to relax when it comes to my standards for myself.

My classroom has moved from the elementary school I've worked at the past two years to the middle school. It is a bittersweet move for me. It's hard to say goodbye, but there are a lot of fun new things coming our way too.

I've started working the school's summer program, which had a very bumpy start, and I'm feeling a little run down and stressed.

I've been taking my photos every day, but have gotten behind in editing them and posting them. Yesterday on my way to work I realized that I forgot to take a picture on Monday - first day I haven't taken a picture since Memorial Day weekend - and I was a little bummed.

We currently have eleven cats in our house - eight foster kittens and our three regular cats. Tomorrow Michelle's sister brings her dog to stay with us while she goes away for the weekend. Should be interesting!

I didn't write this post just to whine...honest. Just felt it was time to let everyone know I'm still alive, just have a bit of writer's block. Thanks for continuing to visit. :)

Just For Fun

2009-07-04T09:31:00.002-04:00

Happy Fourth!

Thursday List

2009-07-02T08:00:00.002-04:00

I like the patriotic mobile, but I really like the tip for cleaning up glitter!

I love the pictures in this post - beautiful! But I really like the red, white, and blue "snack flag." What a cute idea!

I really love this neighborhood love.

Thursday List

2009-06-25T08:00:00.002-04:00

These cookies look so yummy!

I really like these Chalkboard Fridge Magnets.

I love this wishing tree idea.

A Week In Pictures - Week Three

2009-06-14T20:09:00.011-04:00

I'm running behind posting my week in pictures. I've been taking them, just haven't gotten a chance to post this week. Monday is my last day of school, so there's been a lot going on over the last week or so trying to finish up the school year. So here's last week's pictures.

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Saturday's picture is a picture of a scrapbook page that I worked on that morning. I had the idea early in the year to make little scrapbooks of Paige with different family members as birthday gifts for this year. I also thought it'd be great if I could make an album with the same pictures for Paige to have too. Of course, my perfectionism got in the way, as I had a hard time picking the "perfect" album, etc. I finally realized that I just had to start, and forced myself to start the book for my grandmother, who's birthday was back in February! So I took a picture of the scrapbook because I was proud that I'd made myself just start a project that I had been thinking about for a long time. The picture in the picture is of Paige's first Christmas, at my grandmother's house for their annual Christmas Eve open house.

Sunday, June 7, 2009

The two little yellow pots are plants from seeds that Paige and I planted. They are part of a Christmas present my dad gave Paige. Of course, I can't remember what plant is what. Ooops. Whatever was planted in third pot has never grown, so I didn't include that one one in the shot. :) The little flower Paige brought home from Grandma's the day before. It is part of a bouquet that my sister-in-law had. I thought the colors all looked so pretty with the sun coming in, and I took a bunch of pictures of them that morning.

Sunday, June 7, 2009 - #2

Our sleep saga continues around here, and I'm sleeping in Paige's room about every other night now. Sometimes while she's asleep, she shifts so she's lying across her bed. Sunday morning around 12:30 I had some little feet hanging over onto my couch cushion bed.

Monday, June 8, 2009

I like many elements of this picture. It amuses me because Doyle (who started his journey with us as a foster kitty, but who has since been adopted by Michelle) appears to be playing Chutes and Ladders with Paige. He kept chasing the spinner and knocking over the pawns with his paw. About halfway through the game, Paige knocked the pieces off the board and climbed on it, proclaiming that she was a kitty. I also like that in this picture you can see an Ariel band-aid on Paige's knee. The Thursday before this picture was taken, Paige fell at the library on their rug and skinned her knee. She told me that her leg was "broken" and that she might need a wheelchair. When Grandma put the Ariel band-aid on it, she wouldn't let anyone touch it. We had to wait for it eventually to fall off of her.

Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Besides Ariel, Paige also likes Hello Kitty. Paige wasn't sure how to go about drawing a picture of herself, but I told her to try. She also wrote her name under her picture. You can kind of see a couple of flowers from the picture on the next page. I kept those in the shot because she cracked me up by asking me to help her color the "baseball flowers" on that Paige. When I looked closely I realized they do kind of resemble a baseball!

Wednesday, June 10, 2009

I took a couple of pictures of Paige cuddled on Roland's lap. Roland hates having his picture taken and often makes faces when I take the pictures. So, here's another picture of Paige with her grouchy camera shy daddy cropped out. She's holding his baseball cap that does have a skull on it, if you can see it in the picture. Daddy always wears a hat when he goes out.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Paige spent the day with Michelle, who took this picture. They apparently picked out a "rock star outfit" for her to wear, and she did some rock star poses for Michelle. There's something about this picture...she's starting to look more and more grown up to me.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Michelle and I had been talking about my wanting to spend some time this summer decorating my room, and how I would like it to look. I love the show Dress My Nest on the Style Network, where host, Thom Filicia takes a person's three favorite personal items and three favorite style items and uses them for inspiration to design their room. The mermaid in the picture is something that I thought would be a great inspiration item for me. It is a Christmas ornament I bought for my mother a couple of years ago, that never actually made it to her because it fit in with our beach bathroom. It is currently hanging up in my new "shell" bathroom. That night I also fell in love with all the pictures on this post about a screened in porch, that I'd also like to use as inspiration for my bedroom.

Ok, so now I think I'm up to date with my pictures! Hopefully once I'm done packing up my classroom I'll have a little more time for blogging. :)

Nameless Kitty

2009-06-14T06:38:00.005-04:00

When we have foster kitties in our house, we get to name them. We have been having fun coming up with names for them - although Paige wants to name all of them Ariel. We currently have one foster however, who was a stray and is very scared of humans. Because he is so scared of us it is hard to "get to know him" enough to pick a name. We've come up with a few ideas though, and my friend Michelle has created a poll on her blog. She's asked me several times now to invite everyone to her blog to participate in the poll. Here's her post about "Nameless Kitty" and the poll. We'd appreciate it if you could help us out.

Thanks. :)

Thursday List

2009-06-11T08:00:00.007-04:00

I love this pancake birthday tradition. Too cute.

I am intrigued by the weekly photo inspiration,
It begins with a colour.

Look at these cute fairy cookie wands. Paige and I might have to try this.

I'm interested in checking out this new blog carnival, Kid's In The Kitchen starting next week.

I absolutely LOVE this doorway into summer.

I also like this summer list of things to go, read, make and do.

Watermelon Lemonade might be something to try!

A Week In Pictures - Week Two

2009-06-06T21:43:00.010-04:00

Saturday, May 30, 2009

A few weeks ago, my mother came and saw our new house. She walked around the yard and pointed out plants she knew as she went. She happened to notice that we have a bunch of strawberry plants around the side of the pool. Paige has been very interested in these, and we have been checking them, looking at the green strawberries, waiting to see if any turned red. Saturday we found one red strawberry and she picked it.

Sunday, May 31, 2009

On Sunday, Michelle went to volunteer at an event at the shelter. When she came home she had a shelter name tag on. She changed out her name for Paige's, and let her put it on. She was so excited. What a great prop for when she asks to play "Animal Shelter."

Also from Sunday:

The day before, Saturday, Michelle had taken Paige to the shelter with her. Paige convinced Michelle to buy her a small blue lamb. It is a dog toy, but Paige finally told Michelle that it was for her stuffed dog that Michelle had bought her at the shelter on a different visit. Michelle decided she couldn't deny that kind of logic and got it for her. Paige has fallen in love with Lambie, who she brought outside to swing with her. I stuck her up on the swing set to watch, and Paige loved it.

Monday, June 1, 2009

There's no real significance to this picture, other than I thought she looked cute eating her "circle bread" as we call it, and it happened to be the only picture I took that day. So there you go.

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Tuesday gives us two pictures, as I decided to document our current "sleeping plan" before I went to bed in her room. First a quick picture of Paige sleeping. She's wearing new Hello Kitty jammies I'd bought that day. She loves Hello Kitty and they are red, which is her favorite color, so I had to get them. I also like that in this picture you can see, from left to right, Taggie, Brown Bear, Douglas (the panda) and Dolphin. These four go everywhere with her right now, and there's a little song that goes with getting them ready for bed. She sings as she places them in order, "Taggie in the front, Brown Bear in the middle, Douglas in the back, and Dolphin in the back too." Then I'm allowed to join in for the chorus of "la, la, la, la." There are always four las, which she counts out on her fingers. Then I say, "and everybody schooch, to make room for Paige." You can also see her new friend Lambie on the other side.

Second, here's my current sleeping arrangement - the cushions from the couch on the floor of her room. I have sleep apnea and need to wear a CPAP when I sleep, so that's the funny looking contraption on my pillows. You can also get a glimpse of the Ariel curtains that I made for her - my first sewing project on my sewing machine, and, well, pretty much ever.

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Roland brings us Wednesday's photo. We have a squirrel that will come up on our deck, and walk right up to the screen, even if our cats are sitting there. At one point we had a Rubbermaid bin with birdseed in it, and he lifted the top and was eating out of it. Roland has named him "Ballsy," and now everyone, including my four year old, says, "Hi Ballsy" when he's on the deck. For some reason on this day, he jumped up on the screen of the slider, just to further torment the cats, I guess. I came home and Roland told me to check out the last couple of pictures on the camera, and this is what I found.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Wednesday night, Michelle and Roland had discovered some Powerpuff Girls cartoons that are offered in the "extras" stuff we can access "On Demand" from our cable company. Paige loved them. One of the episodes was about bad dreams, and the Girls eventually beat up their dreams. Michelle taught her "Powerpuff Paige" kicks and punches so she could beat up her dreams too. That night was the first night she slept through the night, in her own room, by herself, without waking up at all or needing to get one of us. Thursday morning, Michelle asked her to pose with her super punch pose.

Friday, June 5, 2009

For Christmas, Roland gave me twelve envelopes, one for each month. In each envelope was a piece of paper telling me, "Date Night Tonight. Dinner at..." and then there's a picture of the restaurant logo. Well, I've been opening them each month, but we haven't actually gotten a chance to go on our date night until Friday. I opened the envelope and it was for Chili's. When our dinner arrived, I surprised him by pulling out my camera to take a picture of it. He asked me what I was doing and told me I was crazy. Then I convinced him to share the Chocolate Chip Cookie Molten Cake with me. I told him, "you know I'm going to take a picture of that too?" and I did. He thought I was crazy, and I reminded him that crazy is one of the things he loves about me.

So that rounds out week two. I've noticed that most of my pictures from this week are of Paige, and I don't necessarily want this to become an all Paige album - but she's my favorite model. I guess I'll have to see how it goes, as I'm sure all weeks will be different.

Anyone else take any good pictures of the day this week?

Thursday List

2009-06-04T08:00:00.001-04:00

Paige loves watermelon, and likes making Jell-O too. We might need to try this Wiggly Watermelon.

I LOVE this "recycled" puzzle.

Awards

2009-06-02T22:02:00.014-04:00

I have received a couple of awards over the past couple of months, and am finally getting around to passing the first one along. I just checked and this first one was given to me back in February! Gasp. I didn't know it was that long ago! The problem I've been having is that most of the blogs that I'd like to pass the awards along to have already received these!

The award was:

passed along to me from: Forever Daisies

and the rules are:

"When you receive the prize, you must write a post showing it, together with the name of who has given it to you, and link them back. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in their content or design. Show their names and links and leave them a comment informing that they were prized with 'Honest Weblog'. List [if you can and/or dare] at least ten honest things about yourself. Then, pass it on!"

So my blogs I'm passing it to are:

1.Mom and Kiddo
2.Bare Baby Feet
3.Our Eastern Journey
4.Be Different, Act Normal
5.Our Crafts N Things
6.Scott Chris Cori Cassie Cali
7.The Write Start
8.SER.EN.DIP.I.TY

And 10 honest things about myself are:

1. I snore. A lot. And loudly.
2. I procrastinate quite a bit.
3. I am kind of a loner and a homebody. I get excited on the rare occasion when I have the house to myself.
4. I take better care of my daughter than I do of myself.
5. I get overwhelmed very easily.
6. My husband is the cook in our house, which I'm grateful for, but I get mad when people insinuate that I'm not doing my "job" because I don't cook dinner.
7. My husband also does the grocery shopping - another thing I don't like people giving me a hard time about.
8. I dislike "fake" people.
9. Respect for other people is important to me.
10. I've always been honest almost to a fault. I've often said I have Jiminy Cricket for a conscience.

Ok, there's one award down. Hopefully I can pass the second one along soon. Please don't think I'm not grateful - I'm just a big time procrastinator!

A Week In Pictures

2009-05-30T09:56:00.010-04:00

I've been intrigued for awhile by the idea of any one of the versions of Project 365 in which you take a picture a day for a year. Knowing my perfectionist tendencies though, I've been afraid to commit to doing this, as I'm afraid I'll beat myself up if I say I'll do this and then forget or start slacking.

Then a couple of weeks ago I had an idea - I'll start slowly by trying to take a picture every day of the summer, as identified as Memorial Day to Labor Day. The problem is now trying not to be a perfectionist about what album I choose, or picking just one photo for the day, or even about the photos themselves. This is going to be a challenge for me.

Even though I'd planned to start on Memorial Day, I have a couple of cute ones from Saturday and Sunday too, so I think I'll start there.

Saturday, May 23, 2009.
Playing on the deck in a bucket of water.

Sunday, May 24, 2009
Being artsy in my backyard.

and here's where I already have trouble choosing one photo to represent the day. So here's picture number two - Paige and her quarters (she's been getting a quarter every day she feeds the cats in the morning) that she used to go buy a beta fish. She got a red fish, named it Ariel, and insists it is a girl (even though it is not.) Poor gender confused fishie.

Monday, May 25, 2009
I've already posted this one, but I love it. New sandals, and she's wearing pajamas too, by the way, to go out and play.

Tuesday, May 24, 2009
Only a couple days in and I didn't have a picture! I knew this would happen. So I had Roland take one of us.

Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Paige has been having trouble with constipation, and thus is scared to poop on the potty. She tried on Wednesday, so we made a big deal out of it and made Pillsbury Cinnabon Cookies. "I tried to poop on the potty cookies" didn't sound so appetizing, so Michelle suggested "Courage Cookies." I like that and think it might be something to do every time we do something courageous around here. We'll see.

Thursday, May 28, 2009
I took Paige to story time at the library. The local library is having a story night every Thursday for a few weeks, and the stories are being read by "local leaders." Tonight's story was read by a fireman. To explain the first picture - last summer, I think it was, Paige fell down in the library parking lot. To stop her crying, I brought her over to these flowers outside the library door, and told her they were "Feel Better Flowers." They've been the Feel Better Flowers to her ever since - she tells me all the time she wants to smell the Feel Better Flowers. Tonight she wanted to smell each one, and helped me to take this picture.

Picture number two:
The fireman read two books about dragons (as they breathe fire) and then a book about firemen. Then the kids did a craft, making a really cute fire breathing dragon.

Friday, May 29, 2009
I had a bad day at work, and didn't have a picture yet, so I asked Roland if we could go get ice cream and took this blurry photo there. I'm thinking I don't want all of the pictures to be of people or events, I want some to be objects or items that represent the day.

So I've actually followed through for one week! Wish me luck for week two.

"Momma, Let's play animal shelter."

2009-05-25T20:14:00.010-04:00

Many kids like to pretend, and take part in dramatic play. Many kids want to play house, or school or the like. My daughter? She asked me on Monday if we could play "animal shelter."

I believe that's probably because since her birthday in February we've been a foster family for the local animal shelter and have had many cuties come visit us, such as these:

Left to right: Nirvana, Dora, and Doyle. Doyle is actually now our kitty. Michelle couldn't part with him.

The kitties come to us and we take care of them until they can go back to the shelter to be fixed and to go to their "forever homes" as we call them. So far we've had eight kitties in and out for various amounts of time.

If you'd like to read more about our fostering adventures, Michelle's started her own blog:

The Animal House - Adventures in Fostering.

Here's Paige riding the "horse" at the animal shelter.

Of course all of this is even more fun if you can play it outside and in your pajamas.

Getting to Know You...

2009-05-25T11:52:00.002-04:00

Paige: "My new shoes are a little bit afraid."

Momma: "Why?"

Paige: "Because they don't know me yet."

Fair enough. :)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend.

Our Sleeping Story - Part Two

2009-05-23T08:15:00.001-04:00

I was nervous about having to take Paige to a branch of Boston's Children Hospital, to go to their sleep clinic. As much as I hate to admit it, hospitals make me a little nervous. My friend Michelle went with us, which was great, because I was anxious and our directions weren't great.

We finally found our way to where we were supposed to be. Paige got weighted (35 pounds) and measured. Finally we went into a room and met with a nurse practitioner who asked us lots and lots of questions. Paige was really good, although she wanted to chat with the nurse practitioner, and before too long told me she was bored and thirsty. But all and all she was really good while the lady talked about our family history, sleeping habits, all kinds of stuff. Then she went to talk to the doctor. Of course, we'd mentioned that Paige had a dream where Daddy had a sword at Mommy's throat, so when the doctor came in, he had to ask if Paige was seeing violence in the home. Um, no.

Anyway, the doctor told me that I (or Daddy) am a "sleep association" for Paige. She's associating needing me to go to sleep. She wants me to stay in her room until she falls asleep, so when she wakes up in the middle of the night and I'm not there, she wakes up and is upset because she thinks she needs me to go back to sleep.

The doctor went on to set us up with a "plan" that includes no more naps for her, and no more radio. (On our car ride home she heard me mention that and started crying, saying, "but I can't sleep without my radio" and I started to feel really bad.)

So the doctor talked a little more and then left us with the nurse practitioner to make a "plan" with Paige. Basically, I'm going to bed with Paige for a couple of weeks, and sleeping in her room (on the floor next to her bed) all night. If she sleeps in her bed all night, she gets a sticker. Then we move to that I'm allowed to do "chores" outside of the room while she's falling asleep and then I'll come in and sleep in the room all night with her. For a successful night then she gets two stickers. Then we move to her spending nights alone - possibly starting with every other night. Then she gets three stickers. We go back to the hospital in August.

So, I haven't been around as much because I'm on Paige's sleep schedule now. We wake up together, and we get put to bed together, with Roland tucking us both in. :) Paige is thrilled...and I think in the next couple of days we'll be ready to move to me doing some "chores" while she falls asleep. I think that step is going to be hard, because she's really enjoying us being roommates.

The other issue is that Paige's sleep cycle is off - she wasn't normally falling asleep until after 9, sometimes much later. So the first few nights we kept her up until 9:30 or so, so she'd be exhausted and fall right asleep. That is working, but a four year old who is being kept up later and no longer takes a nap can get a little cranky, let me tell you!

Aloha Friday #5

2009-05-22T05:10:00.003-04:00

I am an intensive needs special education teacher. I work with students with multiple physical and cognitive challenges. I'm finishing my second year working in an elementary school, and next year they are moving my program to the middle school. There are several people - custodians, secretaries, cafeteria staff, teacher's aides, specialists (the gym teacher, the art teacher), classroom teachers, etc, who have been very accepting of my students and have also helped me out during my first two years working in public school. I'd like to give out some little thank yous to these people, but, obviously, I don't have a lot of money to spend.

My question is, what is the most memorable/thoughtful thank you note/gift that someone gave you?

I know you don't have to spend a lot of money to do something nice. I tell people all the time that a simple "thank you" goes a long way. But I wouldn't mind some ideas on maybe how I could add a little extra touch to my thank yous.

For more Aloha Friday, go to An Island Life.

Our Sleeping Story - Part One

2009-05-17T11:19:00.003-04:00

I've spent LOTS of time online researching sleep issues with children, and looking for sleeping tips for Paige. Nothing seemed to be helping. We recently saw a specialist, and so I thought I'd keep track of our journey here, in case it might help someone else.

Two months ago, after several restless nights, I called Paige's pediatrician about her sleeping (or lack there of.) I knew there were several things that could be causing anxiety, leading to her not wanting to go to sleep. We have recently moved into a new home, she has a "big girl bed" for the first time, and she's in her own room for the first time. However, once we got her to sleep, we had trouble keeping her asleep. She woke with night terrors and nightmares. She would often end up needing to move to our room in the middle of the night, sleeping on a little foam Ariel sofa beside our bed. She has been having issues with constipation, which I thought might bother her more at night. She turned four, and monsters became prominent. There was so much going on, I wasn't sure what I was battling any more - getting her into the bed, keeping her there, getting her to fall asleep, getting her to stay asleep, getting myself some sleep?

We tried soothing bedtime routines. We tried having music on, the fan on, special stuffed animals that watched over her, dream catchers, nightlights, pictures of us on the nightstand next to her. We had just bought some walkie-talkies after I read a suggestion about having her have some so she feels she could contact us at any time. The ones we got didn't work so well, so we didn't get too far with that.

I read A LOT online about nightmares, night terrors, bedtime anxiety, monsters, etc. Most recently, all that seemed to work was Super Nanny's Sleep Separation Technique. The idea here was that one of us would sit on what became known as the "sleeping pillow." We would not talk to Paige, but we would sit there, on the pillow, near the bed, until she fell asleep. We would then move the pillow a little bit further away from the bed each night. According to Super Nanny, eventually you can move the pillow to the door, and then out the door. Paige would only let us get just so far away with the pillow, before she'd ask us to move it closer to the bed again. But this seemed the only way to get her to go to sleep, accompanied with a children's benedryl tablet each night to help her wind down.

This still wasn't perfect, however. Paige would often take a long time to settle down, and I could be sitting in her room for over an hour trying to get her to sleep. If I thought she was asleep and tried to sneak out when she wasn't asleep, she would cry and call out for me to come back. One night I talked to her about trying to go to sleep, and she told me, "I don't know how." My poor girlie was exhausted, as was the rest of the household - and cranky too. Many nights she'd go to sleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night looking for me, or for whoever had sat with her that evening to go to sleep. Some night's she'd want me to sit in her room in the middle of the night to get back to sleep. Other nights she'd end up in my room for the rest of the night.

Then, last Monday, we finally had our appointment at the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders.