1st week down...

Isabel's first week went pretty damned good! When I went to pick her up on the first day, she had so much to tell me. She made friends, she has two teachers, she got to play on the playground, she had Jello for lunch, etc. etc. I'm so proud of her! There were no problems at all during the week. She went to bed right at 9:30 each night (which in a week or two I'm going to move up to 9:00pm) with no complaints! Seeing how we were going to bed pretty darned late this summer, this is great.

There was one small hurdle, though... On Thursday I received paperwork from the ESL (English as a Second Language) program at her school. They did an oral test on her, and she qualifies for help through the program. I was kind of hurt and disappointed when I received the paperwork. I felt like I did something wrong. The next morning, though, I went and spoke with the ESL director, and I signed the permission slip. She is going to have someone go into her classroom and give her extra help as she needs it.

Tomorrow Olivia starts all day prekindergarten! I'm excited for her! I have to go home and iron her uniform and label all of her school supplies. I'll post pictures of her first day as soon as I can!

Freakin' a bit here...

I've been bursting into tears randomly all weekend. Tomorrow, August 17th, my first born will be heading off to all day kindergarten. On Thursday, we went to meet her teacher and see her classroom. I was fighting back tears the entire evening. But, the closer we get, the harder it becomes to squelch the urge to cry.

I'm usually not a sentimental person, so these last couple of days have been really hard! Even though my heart is breaking at the thought of walking away from her classroom tomorrow morning, I'm also excited for her. Isabel is beyond prepared for tomorrow. She has checked her backpack a bazillion times. She asked me to make sure her tennis shoes were still in the box. She has been practicing writing her name like crazy, even though she's been able to do so since she was three. She loves change, and adapts quickly to new environments. She's going to have a blast tomorrow!

At least I hope she does... If she has a bad day and doesn't want to go back, I'm likely to let her stay home with me forever! ;)

Wish her luck tomorrow!! And then its Olivia's turn next week!!

Crazyness!

Things have been kind of crazy around here... Can you believe Isabel is going to kindergarten in less than a week?? And the next week Olivia starts her all day pre-k program!! Oh my gosh... The last few weeks have been spent searching for school supply bargains, scheduling doctors' appointments, searching down immunization records for Isabel...

Sheesh!!

Today Isabel has her check-up with her pediatrician. Olivia is spending the day with Jose's mom. I'll post an update as soon as we get back from the doctor. Adios!!

Pictures and doctor's update...

Here are some pictures from Olivia's 4th birthday party. :) Here she is with her little pinata. We had one little pinata for the small kids and a HUGE one for the bigger kids.

Isabel and her BFF Juliana posing for a picture while Olivia blows the candles out on her cake.

This is the park where we had the party at. Isn't is beautiful?? Everyone thought it was an awesome park.

And here is a picture of the bounce house we rented. That is Olivia and my mother-in-law sitting by the entrance.

Anyways...

We had our follow-up appointment regarding Olivia's wheezing episode the other night. The pediatrician said that at this point, he is almost certain it is asthma. He put her on a preventative medicine (Pulimicort) and also said that we are going to have to postpone her oral surgery until her lungs clear up.

So...

Any cool plans for the weekend?? We are invited to another party at the same park where we had Olivia's. I'm kind of excited. It is for a little girl who is turning two. I hit up an AWESOME sale at the Children's Place and bought her two outfits (skirts and halter tops), matching hair pretties, and sunglasses for $25! :)

Have a nice weekend! TGIF!

Haven't had much to report...

I've been kind of busy getting used to being back at school and having homework and tests and projects due!

Olivia's party was AWESOME. We could not have asked for nicer weather! The park looked beautiful! Once I get somewhere with a faster internet connection, I'll go ahead and upload some pictures of her party. She had so much fun. She says her favorite part was the bounce house!

Last night she gave me a scare, though! I ended up rushing her off to urgent care, where they said she was having an asthma attack! We haven't had the "asthma" word thrown around in a good 9-12 months. I had hope we were over this! Apparently not. She got bad, and she got bad FAST. She went from a little bit of coughing in the morning to non-stop coughing by 5pm and deep, scary-sounding wheezing.

They took her vitals at the urgent care clinic, and within seconds two doctors were in the room and they said she needed a nebulizer treatment and steroids. They also told me I need to talk to her pediatrician and see about getting her an official diagnosis so that she might be put on a preventative med. She is needing the nebulizer treatments every four hours like clockwork right now. We'll see how things go in the next couple of days.

Other than that, I can't really think of much to report. Take care everyone!!

Party planning committee

I can not wait until the new season of the Office starts! That is TOTALLY not the direction that this post was headed in my brain, but what can you do about it?

Also, totally not related, but one of those things I feel compelled to talk about, last night I caught a brief-but-entirely frightening glance of my mother-in-law and her beau participating in the horizontal cha-cha. My eyes, people! My eyes! At the moment I felt like gouging them out of my head! But then I realized the oh-so-horrible mental image has been forever etched into my memory. Eyes or no eyes I'm still going to remember it. Ewww...

Why the fuck would they not lock the damned doors?! Really?! What the hell?!

(sigh)

Anyways, now for the real reason for this post: Olivia's 4th birthday party is on Saturday!! I'm so excited! It looks like everything is going as planned! We're having it at a park, and I plan on serving fried chicken, Mexican-style rice, potato salad, macaroni salad, chips and dip, chips and salsa, and diced fruit. It kind of sounds like a lot of food, but if everyone that is invited shows up, there will be a lot of people.

I already have the goody bags made, and all the candy for the pinatas ready. Parties make me so happy!! I can't wait!

Math woes.

Monday was my official "First Day Of School". I was excited and a tiny bit nervous as well, but all went well! I am taking Intro. To Algebra, or MATH 921B. Unfortunately, when I took the placement test, I failed the math portion miserably and this course is a refresher class to get people prepared to take Intermediate Algebra.

Right now, things are super easy. Seriously. We are adding and subtracting. No joke, people. We did greater than or less than yesterday. Um... I totally thought I had masted that skill in 5th grade, but apparently not!

Today I also start Human Growth & Development. It is a FIVE HOUR CLASS. FIVE HOURS!!! I'm going to go crazy cooped up in a classroom for five hours! Wish me luck! I can't afford to let my attention stray, because in a class that long I bet we cover a LOT of material!

Not much else to report. Olivia's birthday party is on Saturday. Her birthday is actually today! She is a four year old now!!! WOW!

Speaking of Olivia, since I'm going to be going to school full time in the fall, we had a decision to make. Day care? Preschool/day care? All day preschool??

At first, I was totally against the all day preschool idea. I think its a bit much for some five year olds! I couldn't even fathom the idea of putting my four year old in a classroom for 8 hours a day!

But then I started reading the information packet the principal gave us. And I brought it up to Jose to see what he thought. We've talked about and talked about and talked about it, and we decided to sign her up.

Economically, its the better choice. Daycare/preschool is $110 a week. The all day preschool is $300/month. Religiously, its the ideal school setting for us, and I'm even considering switching Isabel to the school for first grade.

Anyways, time to run... 10:15, time for class! Peace!