Rough week

After starting out last weekend with the vaccine reaction and then moving into the ear infections I think we've turned the corner. Charli went to school again on Thursday. She came home both nights exceptionally clingy. I believe we're going through separation anxiety now. I thought today may be better. I don't generally work on Fridays and thougt we'd pick up my mom, go to coffee with her gym friends and then run some errands. Again, Charli was clingy. She wanted "up" and only with me. Fortunately, after about 40 minutes, she was warming up and more playful. Then she fell asleep on our way to the store. She ended up with only a 20 minute nap. After cruising through Shopko, Charli fought falling back to sleep. As per usual, she fell asleep 5 minutes from mom's house. We decided to drive back to my house and mom would stay in the car while I attempted to replace my DVR receiver. Yep, she only slept about 10 minutes after we got home. My dad was in Hudson for an appointment and he came over, Thank God!!! Charli would NOT go to anyone else. What could have been a half hour long project ended up taking about an hour and a half. About forty minuets later Charli started to get playful. After dinner my neighbor Brian stopped by. Charli adores him. She was really playful and happy. I am finally thinking she may have turned the corner. Next week she goes to school 3 days and we start swimming lessons again. I'm hoping it gets easier. -- it has to, right???

Second day of school

didn't start out so good, but got better. All the way to church (were school is housed) Charli kept asking for "papa" or "Ois" (Lois, who works part-time at the office). I told her they were each at home and that we were going to school. She'd smile at that. But once I pulled into the church parking lot and got her out of her carseat, she began to kind of cry. By the time we got to her room she was in full tears. I spent a few minutes there holding her and talking to her teachers. Finally I kissed her and said goodbye. Connie, one of the teachers and co-owners took her from me and went right to a rocking chair. That really made me feel good. When I got to school to pick her up, I could hear her asking for "mama". That was sweet. And from the report I got when I picked her up, she did fairly well today. She did have some teary moments and asked for me and papa quite a bit. She also played with some of the other kids though and that's huge. As my friend Danielle told me the first couple of weeks will be hard because you won't really see her that much. Boy is she right. After we got home Charli didn't want me to put her down, not even to put on jammies. But she was struggling to stay awake at 6:15 so we were in jammies by 6:30 and she was down for the count by 7:00. Mind you her normal bed time is somewhere between 7:30 and 8:00 so this wasn't alot earlier, but it seemed it. I know it will all get better and easier as we get used to this. I also know that this will be a good thing for her so she can socialize with other kids. I just need to get through the next couple of weeks without a mommy-meltdown.

Crazy few days

Friday, Charli had her 18 month check up at the Dr. She got one vaccine. And of course this time she did get the reaction. She had a fairly high temp by dinner time, her eyes were swollen and tearing and her nose was running. Loads of fun. By Saturday, she seemed somewhat better. Again as night fell, the temp went up. I stayed home with her and we didnt' do much on Sunday. Her temperature kept fluctuating from 98 - 101 so I knew something wasn't right. Monday she was supposed to go to school. I called them and made arrangements for her to go Wednesday and Thursday instead. By mid afternoon, my mom came over to give me a break as I too was not feeling well and we had had three rough nights. She was going to watch Charli so I could catch a little sleep. Well, Charli wouldn't get out of my arms. She only wanted me, she wanted to be held and that was that. She felt even warmer so I took her temp again. This time it was 102. I called the Dr. again (yes I had called before and I was giving her Tylenol and/or Advil for the fever). We went in at 5:00PM. Come to find out the poor baby had a double ear infection. And so did mom. Both Charli and I are on amoxycillin. (funny part of the story, the doctor asked if any prescription worked best for her and I said I didn't know. She'd been home since September and has not been sick - hard to believe a little one has gone through as much as she has in 5 months and not gotten sick) She really seemed better today. However her temp did go up a tad after dinner. I am really hopeful that she and I will feel even better tomorrow. Besides, I need to go to work and I'd like her to go to school, so she gets used to it.

Hopefully we both feel better and we finish the week on a good note.

First day of "school"...

Charli was in a good mood this morning. I took a couple of pictures before we left home just to mark the day. And then we were off to school. Okay, it's daycare but I'm calling it school for Charli's sake. When we got there, I put her down and took off her coat. She walked right over to Violet (another girl from our church) and gave her a kiss. It wasn't until I gave her a kiss and said goodbye that she started to cry. It wasn't uncontrollable, just sad. And then I was off. As I left I called my folks to tell them how it went. My dad asked me to come to the house to stay with my mom for a while. She was having some really bad dizzy spells. I stayed with her for a couple of hours until dad could come back. She got a doctors appointment scheduled for 1:50PM. I then went to the office and dad came home. Needless to say between the two things, I was pretty anxious, nervous whatever. Fortunately, mom only has vertigo.

Of course today was also our last swimming lesson for this session so I had to pick Charli up no later than 4:00PM. Her teachers told me she did fairly well. She asked for me and papa (my dad) throughout the day. She cried some but not too bad. She even napped for about 45 minutes. I was pleased with this. We then headed off to the Y for swimming lessons. She did well. She's really liking the water, which of course pleases me. We stayed again to play for an additional 1/2 hour. She ate a ton for dinner and was in bed and fast asleep by 7:30PM. All in all, it was a good day. Next week she goes to school on Monday and Wednesday. The following week will be three days, which is how many she'll go from then on.

Pictures

(this was taken after we got home and she was goofin' around with her hat - but you can see her Guatemalan dress)

Jake and Emma had no school today so I thought it would be a good day to have pictures of the cousins done in their outfits from Guatemala. Yikes. What was I thinking. An 18 month old who was happy until the camera came out and a 7 year old boy who said, "I'm bored" within minutes of the whole ordeal. We were just at the Proex in Woodbury and the young girl taking the pictures was not that great with kids. Or at least that was my perception. Fortunately she did get some good shots. After I order some, I think I will be able to access them online and will then post one or two for you to see. Emma and Charli wore matching jumpers that have the traditional womens 'guilpil' in the bodice. Jake has a classic Guatemalan woven fabric shirt. They looked really cute. I'm glad I did it especially before Jake out grows his shirt.

Tomorrow I am going to the Social Security Administration office to get Charli her Social Security number with Angie and Liam. (Angie alread went once but something got lost - gotta love the government) I am really nearing the end of the paperchase in this process. Or at least I hope I am. :-)

And then there's Wednesday.... the first day of day care or as I'm telling Charli, "school". It's going to be a full week.

A few recent photos of Charli

I picked just a few of the recent pictures that show the "real" Charli. I love the one of her napping on the couch. And then of course there's the tutu outfit from Maureen and Jane.

Emma and Charli spent some time snuggling at Jama's house. Later that day, Charli finally got to go outside for the first time to try sledding. She liked the outdoors but didn't seem to like the sledding part.

I'll do my best to keep pictures updated better in the coming weeks.

Just thinking

This is my last "full" week of Charli coming to work with me. She will start at Pony PreSchool next Wednesday 2/18 on her 18 month birthday. I'm a bundle of nerves. I am excited for her to go to school and for me to have some quality time at the office where I actually get things done. But I'm also nervous as to how she'll adjust. I know this is all normal, but it is a lot to process. It will also allow me to start studying again for my Series 24 exam. I'm not looking forward to another securities exam, but I need to do this so I can complete everything to be an OSJ(registered prinicple). Who knows maybe I'll have more energy at the end of the day so I can get my 'thank you' notes caught up again, get my photos uploaded so they are current again, get pix posted on my blog, get some exercise other than toddler wrangling, etc. etc. Or then again, maybe I'm just dreaming.

Oh, to update you, Charli is loving the pool. We went swimming last Friday in the morning. She loved it. She still gets kind of upset at class but not real. I think it's more a reaction to the other kids being upset. We're already signed up for the next session. I gotta keep her going so when Jama and Papa's pool opens she's excited about it.