Kinder Garden

Any sort of blog update has been a long time coming. I keep putting it off and putting it off. I have no idea why.

Lots of happenings in the Gore house this year. It's useless to try to play blog catch-up, so I'll just jump right in...

With a new year just around the corner comes lots of questions about where to send Grace to school next year. Public schools are way too crowded for my liking, private schools are way too expensive for my liking and homeschool just isn't an option for us. Bleh. The whole thing makes me stress. I've been looking into several options and will be attending a few school open-houses over the next month or so. Hopefully that will bring some sort of light to the subject. For right now, I'm just trying to hold tight to every.single.preschool.memory. I can't believe Grace will be starting kindergarten next year.

Because she is a major planner (hmmm, wonder where she gets that?) and likes to have plenty of warning about things to come, I've started to talk about school next year. She was actually quite upset that she wouldn't be going back to preschool next fall. We talked about it and I tried my best to get her excited about kindergarten next year. I told her she would meet a new teacher and all new friends. We could have her new friends over to our house to play, etc.

She just stood there looking at me and I could see the wheels turning in her head as she processed everything. I was so afraid of what would come next.

Would she be upset that none of her friends would be in her class next year?

Would she be mad that Chloe could go to preschool and she couldn't?

Would she be sad that she wouldn't get to have the same teacher next year?

After processing everything in her head, she turned to me and said, "Mom, will there be flowers in that kinder garden?"

Priceless.

Poop

I have never had so many poop conversations until I had kids. Seriously. No one tells you before you have children that your babies eating, sleeping and pooping habits will consume you.

Well, I have big poop news and scary poop news.

First the scary.  Last week I ended up taking Chloe into the doctor because she had black poops for about 5 days. When we got there, her doctor ran a quick test and discovered blood in the poop! Not good. Her next question was what really scared me, "Has Chloe thrown up blood or anything that looked like coffee grounds?" Of course, the answer was 'No' but at that moment I realized the seriousness of the situation. She had bleeding in her stomach.  Our pediatrician sent me down to the hospital lab immediately to have a blood draw and prepared me for the possibility of taking Chloe to the Children's Hospital that day pending the blood draw.

I started to freak.

I kept thinking, "This is how every parent with a terminally ill child starts out. First things are totally normal until one little thing happens and doctors find a major issue." I was so scared. Started praying and crying immediately.

Our pediatrician also prepared me for the trauma of a blood draw on a todder. In case you're wondering, they draw blood the same way as they do on an adult, expect you have to physically restrain your child while they scream in pain and horror. I'm not sure who it was harder on.

Thankfully, the blood draw came back fine so we didn't have to head to the Children's Hospital. The poop tests came back normal as well. Nothing viral or infectious about the bleeding in  her stomach.  Our pediatrician's assumption was some sort of lactose/dairy issue brought on by the combination of Chloe being so sick for the month prior to this happening and the fact that we changed her milk from whole milk to 2%. Apparently, the lower the fat percentage the higher the lactose. We took her totally off dairy and put her on an acid blocker to allow her stomach to heal. It was the right thing to do. Within 2 days the bleeding stopped in her stomach and poops were normal. Praise God!

Then another poop miracle happened. Chloe potty trained herself! I mean, totally by herself. Seriously. Because we are moving in a month, I decided not to even bother trying to work with her on potty training, even though I knew she was ready. She only sat on the potty once a day after her bath. That is Grace's post-bath routine that Chloe wanted in on.

One night I heard Aaron clapping and cheering for her because she peed.

That was on Tuesday, by Friday she was using the potty 6-8 times a day and I never changed a diaper. WHAT?! She's in Pull Ups now and loves it. She still has some little wet accidents but hasn't pooped in her diaper/Pull Up for 3 days.

Her favorite thing is to pee 3 drops, use 800 sheets of TP and then wave as she flushes the potty. Ha! It's a good thing we buy TP from Costco :-)

We are so proud of you, Chloe!

Pride

As a parent, there are certain things your kids can do to make you swell with pride. Usually these are their 'firsts'.

The first "I love you."
When they share with other kids.
When they learn to pray.
When they kiss you without being asked to do so first.
When they can put their shoes on by themselves.
When they first try to write their name.
Of course, pulling up on furniture, first steps and potty training also top the chart.

I had another 'first' with Choe yesterday that was one of those moments. I gave her a snack bag with some Oreo mini's to occupy her during a long bout of running errands. She had never seen an Oreo before that day. Needless to say, she LOVED them. I was full of both laughter and total pride to see her unscrewing the top and eating all of the frosting first before devouring the actual cookie part.

Atta Girl!

I have arrived

I had one of *those* moments this weekend. You know the type. It's the moment you realize you've reached a milestone. You're living the life you always dreamed of. You are THERE.

Only a parent would understand what I'm about to tell you.

I took both girls to the neighborhood park this past weekend to play in our approximately 42 minutes of sun. It was beautiful. I loved the fact that the wiggles were being worked out. But what happened next brought a HUGE smile to my face.

Are you ready for this????

I SAT on the park bench and WATCHED both girls play. That's right people. I was one of those parents who could take their kids to the park and WATACH them play. No helping Chloe climb up to the slide, no holding hands while she got situated and didn't have to catch her at the end. Both girls chased each other up and down the play structure. I actually SAT IN THE SUN, had a little bit of 'me time' and thought "I HAVE ARRIVED!"

Clothing Optional

I just can't keep clothes on this girl. She's constantly yanking her shirts and pants off, regardless of whether or not the house is warm. Luckily she hasn't figured out how to get the diaper off yet.

BTW, Chloe just turned 18 months old. EEEK! Where did the time go? More about that in another post.

Rainbowey

Graces latest venture is dressing herself.

I love it, for the most part.

It saves me about 10 minutes each morning trying to help her pick out clothes and then put them on, although some days it doesn't quite go as planned. This was one of those days, but I let her wear the outfit anyway. This is what she picked out and wore to preschool this morning.

She kept telling me, "Mom, I'm so rainbowey" She was so proud of herself

Hello, My Name is______ (cont.)

Yesterday, Grace insisted on being called Diamond. Today, it's Star. I predict Rainbow will be in our near future.