Month: June 2010

Is Edda excited and having a lot of fun? No, not really.

She did get a nice nap in the sun.

Vince:

On the last day of school, Edda’s teacher sent home these photos. I hadn’t seen them before and they almost made me cry (in a good way).

For reasons completely having to do with work and my own health (I have a slight summer cold, the kind that doesn’t make you feel bad enough to spend the day in bed, but also you don’t feel great enough to be cheerful) I had an exhausting day.

Today was the last day of school. My kids are DONE with 2nd grade and kindergarten.
Vince and Jeremy made oatmeal raisin cookies for the teachers last night:

Edda, Vince and Eliana on the last day of the “morning routine” until school starts in the fall!

8:00 pm

Edda has been having a tough time falling asleep for the past three or four months. She can be happy all day and then as soon as she lies down, the whimpering, the crying and the fussing starts (yes, we have her on reflux medicine). Sometimes it can last up to 90 minutes.

I usually lie next to Edda and we listen to our good night music and I try not to lose my patience (or my mind). Vince has learned not to ask me about anything if Edda’s in one of these moods. I’ve snapped at him a number of times when he’s asking about not having toilet paper or pouting about my failure to pull together a John Lennon or Paul McCartney costume for the next day at school (really.). Finally, I’ve had to tell him that when Edda’s having a rough evening that I’m really on edge and not a friendly person and therefore he should only interact with me if he finds the kitchen on fire.

Sometimes I’ll be struggling to put Edda to bed and Jeremy will have finished up the downstairs chores and he’ll head upstairs and trade places with me and then Edda’ll sigh and turn and fall asleep. Then I feel a little bad. But Jeremy’s magic touch doesn’t always work.

Finally asleep (9:30 pm).

I have been dragging my feet for 2 summers now and have not joined a neighborhood pool. Jeremy really doesn’t like pools (or the beach for that matter), he gets sunburned and he likes to putter around at home and there is really no puttering around at a pool. So I understand that going to the pool would mainly be for me and the kids (or on work days, Eliana and the kids). In the past, I haven’t liked taking both kids by myself to the pool because 1. Vince couldn’t really swim and he was fearless and I couldn’t track him that well with me taking care of Edda and 2. Edda does not love the water like 95% of Rett girls. So on two counts, it was a hassle. But this year, Vince has swum a lot in camps and can at least swim 20 yards and Edda is more patient and less prone to screaming in the middle of an outing, so this year, I am prepared. There are 3 neighborhood pools and I followed the recommendation of our neighbor and went to the smaller one with a little more shade (which I know my parents will say WHAT!?! because it isn’t the pool we’ve ALWAYS gone to and where I learned to swim myself).

Edda did what she does when faced with something she doesn’t want to do. She fell asleep. We did manage to get about 15 minutes of swim time in with Edda. As predicted, she did not seem to like it that much.

We are “trying out” the pool, but I had a really nice time there today – we ran into three families from the neighborhood and Vince found pals he recognized. And Edda will learn to LOVE the pool. Maybe. At least dangling her legs into the pool was pretty OK today.

We hosted a summer kick-off potluck BBQ at the house today for MD/VA/DC families who have kiddos with Rett Syndrome. Most of the families were from MD; it’s nice to get together and form a little group. We have a really nice group of families in the area, it’s just been great getting to know everyone.

Someone came with a MyTobii, (an eyegaze system), and a lot of the girls got to try it out and I got to try it out.

After the party:

Jeremy’s been in California all week – due to be home at midnight tonight. He was at a work “retreat”. I’m sure they toasted marshmallows over an open fire.

I am exhausted. Last night I went to a planning meeting for this fall’s Rett Syndrome Stroll-a-thon which put me at Metro Center downtown at 10:15pm. Got home at 11pm and was too revved up to sleep until 1 am. Tried to put in a full day of work, but it’s hard to think with 5-6 hours of sleep.

Vince had a bagel and pepperoni slices for dinner tonight, it’s just how we are rollin’ today. I just told him I’m going to bed (it’s now 8:15 pm) and that he’ll need to put himself to bed. He nodded yes while noshing a pepperoni slice and watching a (hopefully age appropriate) youtube.com video (have you seen the new Lady Gaga video!?!).

Edda had avocados tonight for dinner. She both loves them and hates them. Loves them going in, not so much going out. We all have our vices. I’m thinking Edda might need a helmet as her head is getting further from the ground every day. It needs to be cute.

I’m at home tonight – missing my quilting group’s meeting. I have some photos from a meeting a few weeks ago. It’s going to be a beautiful quilt.

Look at this amazing ruching:

A few weeks ago, Vince and pals were down by the river and they caught a few tadpoles. I was out for the evening, so I didn’t see them until the next morning where the ‘poles were languishing around in a Tupperware container not looking too happy:

I tried to tell Vince that no way, no how were we keeping the tadpoles and that they needed to go back to the river with their tadpole moms and dads. I thought Jeremy would back me up on this 100% as he is anti-goldfish. But Jeremy did not back me up, he thought we needed to keep them and take care of the and then if they die we will all learn our lesson. I have now invested at least $40 equipping these tadpoles with a tank, filter, chlorine dissipater, siphon tubing and gravel.

We are feeding them boiled lettuce per the instructions on the internet. We also made a deal with Vince that once they turn into frogs, they are going back into the river. According to the internet, based on this agreement, I would only be responsible for tadpoles for max 3 weeks. It’s been a week and they have been chowing down and pooping and I have seen no evidence of appendages.