Fun

So, I went to a supervised visit between my CASA kids and both of their parents. It started poorly and I should've realized early that maybe I just wanted to turn around and go home.

The National Youth Advocate Program (NYAP) building, where the visits are held, is in a questionable part of town. I never feel particularly threatened there but I do become much more alert while in the area. The building has a weird entrance and I always forget that if I turn down the wrong road, it is technically one way the wrong way for me to enter the parking lot. This time I decided that I would be a good example and go around the block so I could enter the correct way. In doing so, I got stuck behind a car full of folks who stopped to talk to a man and a woman on the street. Of course this led to what I believe was a drug deal. Then everyone turned around and took a look at me, dressed up in office clothes, glowing all white and conspicuous. I just kinda smiled and nodded my head, and put the car in reverse. They must have seen that I was harmless and probably looked nervous, because they all laughed and drove off or returned to their corner.

Things only get worse from here.

The father is at least 6'5" , 270 pounds and a felon fresh out of prison. The caseworker told them something about me and he immediately demanded that I leave. Which of course I didn't. Just to make matters worse, for him, the youngest ran to me and gave me a hug. I had to force him to go visit with his parents and chase him off (gently) every time he came back to me. This did not make dad happy. But he decided that he would ignore me, which I was fine with.

The caseworker was sitting next to me and told me that she hadn't been feeling well. About half an hour into the visit, she took a drink from her gallon jug of water and promptly inhaled it. She started coughing and then ended up vomiting all over the floor, repeatedly. The oldest kid thought this was fabulous and kept yelling, "She's barfing! On the floor!" The caseworker couldn't leave because the visits are supervised. So, I had to go run all over the building begging for someone to come relieve her. Amazingly, none of the other social workers really seemed to care and it took awhile for one of them to eventually come down and relieve her.

At the end of the visit, I found myself outside in the parking lot with everyone and 4 caseworkers. The everyon, including the caseworkers, then vanished and left me alone with the parents. Dad was pretty ticked off at me and was under the impression, thanks to the caseworker, that I was the bitch who took his kids and controlled everything about the case. That was a little nerve wracking, considering he has issues with violence and all. In the end, I kinda got him to understand my roll, although I'm not going to be on his Christmas card list or anything.

That was a very hard 3 hours and I was the amusement for the CASA office the next day. Hey, at least somebody had some fun out of it all.

Wild Things

Today we trekked down to Zanesville and visited The Wilds. This is land that AEP used for mining coal back in the day. A neat piece of history, Big Muskie was the machine that did the mining at this location. It was the biggest earth moving machine ever made. It's a machine that is near and dear to most AEP employees. There are pictures in our corporate office of the bucket holding a whole marching band, with plenty of room to spare. Anyway, when the mine was closed the property was reclaimed with 6 inches of top soil and a lot of envasive plants. It was then donated and became The Wilds.

You can take safari-like tours and get close to rhinos, giraffes, bison, etc. I wasn't horribly impressed, but Max and Wilson liked it a lot. Max announced that he wants to go back. Mia, of course, was not happy that the animals could get so close. She was very annoyed that the rhino was near us and kept yelling no at it and then decided that she wouldn't look at the animals any more and would just take a nap. AEP fed us lunch, which Mia was very excited about. So, all the kids were happy in the end.

When we got back home, I decided to do some yard work. Mainly, taking the lower branches off of three pine trees. These trees take up a huge part of our yard and attack me when I mow. Not to mention they create a cave that draws kids and dogs into it and grows poison ivy. I now have a huge amount of branches to dispose of some way, but have discovered that two of the trees are perfectly spaced to hang a hammock! I'm totally excited about creating an adult space in the yard.

Neat sounds

Beth called me into the kitchen with, "You might want to come see this." Best kid routine ever.

Bunks

Max and Mia got bunk beds last Thursday. Max is very excited about sleeping up high and was even mostly ok with moving into the "babies" room and Wilson moving into his old room. When Mia saw them for the first time she yelled, "Look! Playground!" Notice that each bed has a little storage cubby in the headboard.

There is some rustling around and giggling at each other. But they do pretty good. Max is learning to turn on his light so he can see the ladder in the dark.

Max got a new transformers bed set, which he was almost more excited about than the bed. Tonight I went in to check on him and didn't know where he was. He was laying in the storage cubby. I don't know how he fit, but I did have to break the news to him that he couldn't do that anymore. It was all I could do not to laugh.

Mia has done very well in her big girl bed. She takes her sleep pretty seriously and I thought she would do well. She has a very cute bed set with flowers and bees that Aunt Katy gave her.

We did have one incident the other night. We hear Mia yell, "NO!" and then start hysterically screaming. I was very afraid that she had really hurt herself. Beth went back and asked what had happened and Max said that "The horse might have been too low." Max has a big Black Beauty horse puppet that Mia has HATED from the first time she saw it. Max knows that it makes her have a fit and we are pretty sure that he dangled it over the edge of the bed at her until she saw it. It was all we could do to not bust out laughing. It is such a typical big bratty brother thing to do. I can almost hear him thinking to himself, "Oh, Mia. Look up here." Heh.

C is for Cookie!

Max has been talking a lot about Cookie Monster. He brought home some art that he colored of Cookie and a big paper cut-out doll of Cookie (which he slept with for a couple of nights). The teacher sends home a folder every Friday that has important papers and communication from her. In the Friday folder we found out that Cookie had caused some mischief at school. Apparently, Ms. Young used Cookie to help the kids find important places like the gym and library. He "stole" their cookies and they hunted him from the library to the gym and ended up in the principle's office. Ms. Campbell-Sauer, the principle, had caught Cookie there and had kept the cookies for the kids. It sounded cute to me.

2022

Max started kindergarten yesterday. It's been quite the event. Since kindergarten is only half day (although that has been mandated to change in 2010 by the state!), arrangements for getting him to and from school had to be made. Fortunately, we got into the am session and the daycare can transport him.

The week before school started, the kids at the daycare practiced getting on the van, buckling their seat belts, getting off the van and walking to their classroom. This was very exciting to Max and I was given frequent updates like, " Bryce missed my school and had to go back!"

On Tuesday, I took him into the daycare and he got all sorts of tags put on him and his backpack. Then he was assigned a seat in the van next to his "big". The big is an older student who will help the younger one with their seat belt and helps them get to the school. Then the daycare takes roll-call and off to the van! I was there taking a bunch of pictures and then I hopped into my car and drove over to Ridgewood and waited to get more pictures.

When they got off of the van, Max could care less that I was there. He had practiced what to do and he was going to do it without my help. All the parents and teachers were very amused at his confidence level. It was obvious I was his parent and it was also obvious that I was not needed or even particularly wanted. He only got confused at one point when he has to make a turn to go down the kindergarten wing. Luckily, they have a teacher who is stationed there to help them remember.

He found his room with no help, marched right in, found his name, then marched right over to his assigned spot to hang his backpack, found his assigned seat and told me goodbye. I took the hint and beat it out of there before I crimped his style too much.

One of the daycare teachers asked me if I was sad or excited. I told her I was excited, which I am. He is ready to have some more challenges. It wasn't until I was walking back to my car and thinking about how on his own he was in this new stage of his life that I started to cry. I had thought that he would be coddled a little bit more. I had assumed that he would be dropped off right in front of the door like the bus kids, he isn't. I had assumed that the volunteers that get the kindergartners and walk them to their class would get him, they don't do that unless he rides the bus. He has to do it all, and he is perfectly capable of it. I'm proud that he did such a good job, especially compared to some of the other kids in his class. But it hit me suddenly that he is much bigger than I think of him and that I am running out of time with my little boy.

Big Girl

On August 24th, Mia turned 2. It doesn't seem possible. She had a couple of friends over for a little celebration and proceeded to cry when we all sang to her. But I think she did have fun. On her birthday she wanted, "Pizza!" for her dinner. She's crazy about pizza.

Mia has changed so much in the past two years. She started out as this tiny little peanut and everywhere we went people asked if she was a premie. The picture below is right after we brought her home from the hospital, only two days old.

Now, I call her tank girl. She's so strong and coordinated and she makes the boys look a bit slow. We have signed her up for gymnastics, which I think will be a blast! can almost count to 5 by herself and strings together whole sentences now. She even has shown a lot of interest in potty training. Such a big girl. I can't help but wonder where the time has gone.