Noooooooooooooo!!

My worst fears have finally come to fruition: my children have outgrown naps! <gasp>

Last week, we had several Mama & Dellaina days wherein, she did not get a nap. We watched movies or still had some down time, but never even made an attempt to go upstairs and lay down or anything. They have stopped taking them at all at school as well. Most days, Wyatt’s report is marked, “did not sleep” and they both tend to go to sleep well at night (Wyatt less so some nights, but still usually overall, they are good sleepers). Then, over the weekend, two days in a row, we all took good naps (apparently, some of our last. booo-hoo) and then both kids were up for hours past bedtime. I came downstairs whimpering to Greg about (beginning of?) the end.

Emily didn’t have much sympathy, either, remarking, “they are 6 and 4! That’s pretty darn good” and “you can’t take naps at work, either” even in the same breath as discussing being spoiled by Noah’s good nap schedule and adjustment going back to work – and after we’d BOTH delayed meeting up for lunch to lay down for a bit! It’s a strong Jones/Wickliffe family trait: napping. at the drop of a hat. I do love my sleep mask! There’s just something about shutting out the day that can get me to sleep so much faster than laying there forever at night, trying to find room to stretch around 175lbs of dogs, even after I’ve piddled for hours and should be wiped out.

Hmm, definitely think we will still have to institute mandatory Quiet Time in our Rooms to still read, play quietly or zzzzz [Dellaina, Wyatt, Mama]. yes, this could work…if Daddy goes for it.

(back in May, but still, oh so cute)

Dellaina’s Bowling Birthday Party

Somehow Dellaina remembers that she had her birthday party on Dec. 18th before and it worked out that we had it on the 18th again, only this time it was a Sunday. We invited all of the girls in her class (7) and a few of the boys and then with neighbors, friends not in class and cousins, it was quite a list. With the holidays, I didn’t expect all of them to be able to attend. oops! It was kind of mad chaos. But, it was fun. Even the adults got to bowl a few frames as well. Good old Walmart cake – we went in to pick one out, I was trying to talk her into another $7 cookie cake, but she saw a purple cake with sparkly glitter on it and was bound and determined. So, we ordered one like the sample and I found some Toob Fairies to put around it. I thought it turned out quite pretty, actually! And was still only $15, so quite a deal compared to what I have paid at Publix before!! Taste-wise, I prefer Publix, but…times are tough. Art supplies, Littlest Pet Shop, jewelry, pants (some already hemmed, thanks Aunt Morgan!!), finger nail polish, voice activated password journal with MP3 and speaker attachments (she had memorized the entire description from a magazine and Granny found it at the last minute!) a Fur Real Cat, Lollaloopsy doll – the artist, of course – and a new, bigger bike were among the choice gifts this year. Now she no longer looks like the bear at the circus riding the tiny bike. She was a little nervous still at first with the bigger size, but has gotten more comfortable with it since. And the small adult sized helmet fits her head nicely!

 

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Race weekend

Friday, after helping at Dellaina’s school, I checked her out and we all headed down to Atlanta Motor Speedway. We met up with Josh and walked around the trailers, bought some ear muffs for the kiddos and then headed into the track to watch the end of the truck race qualifying and the Cup drivers practice. We thought it would be good exposure for the kids to see the cars we talk about each week, but not pay or sit through a whole race. Sure enough, after about 40 minutes, they were asking to go. We had a great time and it was just the right amount. Greg & Josh stayed and watched the truck race and I loaded up the kids and headed to the lake for the long weekend.

I thought for sure Doug & Morgan were going to come down and was surprised they hadn’t and no one had heard from them. I figured they’d gone to the pediatrician and he’d discouraged them from coming (they need to be extra cautious exposing Martin to people – especially school age kids! and ones that had been kind of congested! but were very vigilant with hand washing, Lysol wipes, keeping Martin mostly in their room, changing shirts between holding him and hugging us, etc.). Sure enough on Sunday, they Skyped and basically said as much, but still seemed like they wanted to come down, so as the day progressed, I fully expected them to show up and was surprised when they didn’t. Mom called at dinner time to ask and Doug said they definitely weren’t coming that night, but would probably wake up and have the same battle the next day. Not 15 minutes later, they were pulling into the driveway. It was a great surprise at that point! We had a great weekend visiting – from afar – and just seeing them all interact and be an adorable little family. Dellaina & Wyatt seemed very enamored meeting their new cousin, too. Wyatt even sat down and read him a story at one point, too. precious!

The porch at the lake had recently been painted and I LOVE it. So sophisticated. And I <3 a blue porch ceiling!

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Kindergartner

Monday, August 1st, Dellaina started Kindergarten! I did really well and was just as excited for her. Wyatt and I walked her inside and we went by to see Mrs. Davis, snap a picture and then went and sat with her while she ate breakfast. It took a long time to get through the line while kids were figuring out their ID#s and trying to learn to punch them in, so the bell rang while she was still eating and we stood for the Pledge of Allegiance and made it back to class a little late, but it was expected the first day! When I walked in at the day care, the ladies at the front desk asked me how I was doing and I replied, “great! I’m excited. I’m fine.” Then, after I dropped Wyatt off (he and CJ hugged because CJ had been gone all summer and was back now!) and was walking out without taking Dellaina to her classroom and realizing I no longer had a camera to peek in on her, that’s when it hit me and I started tearing up. I admitted as I passed the front desk that it was much harder leaving than it had been coming in!

She had a great first day and did well and felt more confident!

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The next day was her first day riding the bus!! All that confidence flew out the window now that there was a new element to fear/tackle, but she did great. There were other kids at the dark bus stop; it comes at 6:52AM! …and she made it back off that afternoon! (at 2:34PM) Although, she did tell me that she’d gotten off at the first stop in the neighborhood (because she was so excited to be in her neighborhood!) and looked around and didn’t see me, so she and the bus driver decided to get back on and she was at the next stop! Everyday she gets off and runs to me; it’s pretty awesome!! Wyatt & I walked her in on Thursday as well, because she was still nervous about going to breakfast on her own and I wanted her to get comfortable so she can eat at school at least some mornings. As we were walking in the man that stands in the hall to help direct lost students (or parents) said, “you’ve got one more day, mom, and then we’re going to cut the cord!” I think it was good for her to hear that I’m not supposed to go with her. Now it’s a rule, so we’re definitely going to follow it! Wyatt & I went and ate lunch with her one day, too, which was a fun experience. I didn’t tell her I was coming, so it was a surprise. Wyatt was getting restless by the end and there were 2 boys next to her that kept smacking each other and pushing each other of the seats and showing food while Mrs. Davis had taken another little girl to the restroom and I was trying to get them to behave, but they were NOT listening to me. There was another mom sitting next to me that asked if I was one of their mom and I said, “no, I’m just acting like it!” And she was just surprised I knew their names and I told her I’d just asked Dellaina. And she still seemed impressed Dellaina already knew their names, because, I guess her son didn’t know his new friends well yet!

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Monday of her second week, she was Student of the Day. And I learned it was the first Student of the Day they’d had! Of course. She was the first in Pre-K, too. Set that standard early! She also had her first trip to the nurse when she reported that her “tummy felt funny” and she apparently felt “feverish”! (I had neglected to pick up my birth control on Sunday before the pharmacy closed, so had taken my pill Monday morning and then again Monday night, so I woke up on Tuesday feeling VERY nauseous as often happens when having to take 2 pills at the same time – especially since Wyatt came and got in our bed during the night, so I didn’t sleep well – sometimes, you can sleep through it. So, anyway, I think she pulled from my own comments that morning. just a hunch.) She’s also reported that Aden “tried to kiss me 6 times today! He was chasing all the girls and trying to kiss us!” ugh! On Friday, she fell outside and scraped her knee. Aden actually walked with her up to the front office (and apparently behaved himself, because he didn’t want anyone to know he was trying to kiss the girls!) as part of the Buddy System. When I came to pick her up the front office ladies were remarking that she was so sweet, but so quiet and didn’t say much. Mrs. Davis happened to be in the office and piped up, “not Dellaina!” in a knowing way. They continued that she was “so heavy! She doesn’t look it, but she sat in my lap for a little while and wow!” I know! I’ve always said she was very solid and dense! She just weighs more than it seems like. She’s 60 pounds now!! And size 13 shoe! Solid size 7/8 clothes!

Today was her first day of the third week already! Wow! She’s already had 2 different fundraisers sent home! And her first bit of homework is starting this week – nothing major at all, just writing her name and some shapes, etc. We’ve been trying to figure out what activity to get her involved in…I brought home a golf flier thinking it would be a good thing for her (not too athletically exerting) but the cost was pretty high for the length of time it lasted. She excited came home one day asking and talking about Girl Scouts, so we are both (she and I) excited for her to get involved in a Troop and have adventures and opportunities to do unique and helpful things. There is an outdoor event on Saturday to go learn more…I hope there are some good volunteers for leaders in our area! Also, we got a flier about Art classes on Tuesdays. The cost is comparable to the other activities we’ve pursued (dance and gymnastics) so, she’ll have her first class tomorrow! I hope she loves it.

Finals Week

The weekend before finals, we’d talked about trying to get the kids to G&G’s house so I could study, but, unfortunately, Friday night, Granny had spent the night at the hospital with her brother, who was experiencing trouble with his heart defibrillator. (Mom & Dad were in Gulf Shores with Emily & Daniel)

Saturday morning, Greg took the kids to Lowe’s for the Build It Workshop. AND he was even kind enough to take these adorable pictures of it, too! So proud of him!

Finals week accounted for nearly 50% of my grade for the semester, so it almost made the previous 7 weeks feel pointless. Monday, I had my first final in Health Assessment, which was worth 40%. I got a 92 – the same grade I had made on the midterm and got an A in the class.

Monday afternoon, they got biopsy results back on Granny’s brother – who had found a nodule on his neck the week before. Having cancer knocked him off the transplant list he’d just been put on the few weeks prior and without a new heart, his current heart was just too weak to fight the cancer. His son and wife decided to take him off the medicines and ventilator that were keeping him alive. Greg drove down to Emory to try to be there for his mama and I stayed at the house where the kids were already in bed, attempting to study, but I just sat at my computer desk and cried and looked out the window at the glowing orange sky behind the black silhouettes of trees and I felt a wash of peace that put a smile on my face. Greg called me as he was running into the hospital and said, “I think he’s already gone. I’ll call you back soon” and I just knew that sunset was a tribute to Mike’s passing and riding up to Heaven, where I am quite certain he pulled up and said, “woooo!” and went strutting through the pearly gates. It was very similar to what I had felt right after my grandmother passed away in 8th grade. In the midst of the tears and sadness, I had a brief moment of peace flooding through me that I knew was my grandmother letting me know it was ok and saying goodbye.

Tuesday morning, I had another test in Holistics and thanks to the collaborative testing we do afterwards (where we get in groups of 3 and retake the same test to earn some bonus points) I got a 90 and got another A for the semester.

Wednesday, I had my Pathophysiology final, which was a doozy – and counted for 75%?! (It could replace your lowest test grade, basically) I made an 86, which was better than the 80 and 84 I’d made on the first 2 tests, but kept me with a solid B. Technically, it’s not a nursing class, though, so I wonder if my nursing GPA might still be 4.0?? haha

Wednesday night, my nursing friends were having a get together to celebrate surviving!! Greg & I actually had a babysitter come so we could go!! Sarah, from the neighborhood, is almost 13 and pretty cheap! We had her come over 2 weeks before to just hang out with the kids and the dogs while I was still around, so everyone would feel more comfortable. We had a great time – I really enjoyed showing Greg off and letting him meet some of my new friends and put faces with names. This picture was taken by Kristen right as she was walking in and we were leaving. Obviously, I love it. 

me, Shannon and Celena. Shannon & I had A&P together at Chatt Tech and took the TEAS test at the same time. We also carpooled to our clinicals together (along with Sean, sometimes, too) I <3 her.

Leah is super sweet. She’s 40, with 3 kids and was diagnosed with MS in December. She was kind enough to bring her daily injections to school sometimes and let us practice giving injections! She works as a tech at Egleston Cardiac Step Down unit where Doug & Morgan are now!

  Allison (left) was my lab partner in Health Assessment, so we spent a lot of time together. She’s (almost) 24, but very mature.

Leah and her husband were our sweet hosts. The house belongs to his parents, who actually still live in Alabama. They built it thinking they were going to retire and move where the rest of the family lives, but haven’t yet. 

Ah, the ratios of nursing school!

Shannon & Mac

Whitney has a 3 year old daughter and 17 month old son.

I stayed up pretty late working on my last Care Plan that night that was due by noon on Thursday. We woke up and all went to Dellaina’s OPEN HOUSE FOR KINDERGARTEN! To meet her new teacher, Mrs. Davis and walk around her school. Mrs. Davis seems very sweet and we were excited to see Aden McVicker’s name on a folder next to Dellaina’s. He is her friend from Purple Hands! And we saw our neighbor, Kaiden! And Megan from Pre-K was also in her class. So she felt much better about knowing 3 people already! There are 14 boys and 7 girls in the class! So, they will be doing a lot of movement, according to Mrs. Davis! Then, we dropped the kids off at day care and we drove to Athens for Mike’s funeral. I worked on my care plan, typing on my laptop the whole ride and was able to go in and email it when we got there and then change to head out to the funeral home where Greg & his Daddy were both pall bearers, so needed to be there early. It was a good service, with some very moving music/singers, including video of Mike singing, because he had a glorious voice. We got to see some family we haven’t seen in a while and then headed home to pick up the kids. Daniel’s mom was going to pick them up for us if we weren’t able to make it back in time, but we got to the day care right before 6:00 and just took the kids home for baths and dinner and bed, which they were a little upset about not getting to go over and play with Samuel, but they are also tired by the end of the day, too.

I will continue my story of Friday in the next post…

Sparkly new

Dellaina was asking me about getting her ears pierced pretty regularly and I continued to tell her she needed to talk to her Daddy! But, she would get too nervous and told me, “but, he might say ‘no’” and ask, “can’t you talk to him?” I informed her that if I talked to him, he would say ‘no’ pretty quickly, but if she actually talked to him about it, he might say, ‘yes!’ Or apparently, she would hear him say ‘ok’ no matter what he actually said. Because the night after I knew she’d finally broached the topic with him, I asked her about it and she told me, excitedly, “he said ‘ok’!” and a little shocked, I asked, “he did?!” And she said he’d told her that if she really wanted to, then she could. And she really did! When I mentioned it to him later, after she was in bed, he said, “I don’t know where she got that idea!” so apparently, he hadn’t actually given permission, but he wasn’t going to take it away now, either, because he wasn’t that against it. Mammie especially appreciated Dellaina’s knack for hearing what she wanted to! “That’s my girl!” which made both of us laugh, because it’s definitely something she could have learned from her Mammie.

So, we all headed out on Saturday, July 16 and were going to FINALLY order my new kitchen table that I have had my eye on for over a year (our other kitchen table was one I had gotten right out of college for $130 from Kmart and the chairs were squeaky and falling apart!) right next door to the store we were going to was a Merle Norman, which was where one person had recommend we go. So, we went. The lady at first said they only did it for 6 year olds, unless the person REALLY wanted her ears pierced. Dellaina was shying away at this point and not overly enthusiastic for her, but she agreed and went through the whole process of how long she’d have to wear the earring she was getting today (8 weeks! much longer than I remembered) and how to clean them (2xs/day) and even after the 8 weeks, she could change out during the day to other earrings, but would still need to put the ones she got back in at night for up to 6 months?! I didn’t have my camera on me, but she did so amazingly well! the lady kept putting the gun up next to hear ear to let her hear what it would sound like and make sure she wasn’t going to flinch and she never did (and she continued to do it over and over again and I was thinking, “okaaay, move on!”) She picked out some iridescent studs that “change color” based on what you are wearing. It just picks up the colors around it a little bit, but I think Dellaina thought they really changed colors and talked about it for days. She’s been doing great with them – although keeping the hair from tangling around them has been challenging. I tried to take one off once, just to get the hair off, but I couldn’t get them off. I’m not sure how I will get them off once it’s time! it’s hard on someone else’s ears! Her friend, Emma, ran out and got her ears pierced the same day, too, because her mom saw my FB status and mentioned it to her! It was more expensive than I was expecting, too! But, I looked at Claire’s online (and through Emma’s mom) and they were both $42!!

 

Later that week, my new table came in and we got it put together. It’s a real marble top! Somehow, I lost a set of about 15 pictures I took, some of them were of my table in all of it’s newness, but I just had to retake them to post here now. I loved how big my other table was and did not want to go smaller, but was convinced with going smaller, we’d be able to pull it out more into the area and all 4 of us could sit down at one time! Very appealing, especially with us sticking around more on the weekends and Greg & I would end up eating standing at the counter! We definitely need to get covers for the chairs, too! We got the extra stain guard put on them, but still!!

 

Bowling

At the end of June, we met up with a few of Dellaina’s friends from Pre-K at the bowling alley. My kids had never been and I was really excited for them to get to learn/play. Before school had let out, another mom and I had tried to organize the get together and sent home notes in folders with coupons for free bowling for the kids. We only ended up with 3 of the kids (including our 2, so just 1 additional) from the class, but still had fun. I even got to bowl for the first time in YEARS! I didn’t quite break 100, but was the highest of the 3 adults that did play! And Wyatt managed to press the button one time in the middle of a turn that closed the gate part and messed up a few of our scores a little. The kids did well and were each over 50 both games, which I thought was pretty awesome!

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Promptness

look! I went out and took the pictures! and I’m posting them! even if it’s just more flower pictures! Because it’s always so late, I never think the true colors are being captured…sometimes the flash does help intensify it…

 

And Greg picked his 3 red tomatoes! And there are a couple more turning red!

 

It’s late and I’m clearly too excited about everything!!!!

Puppets, tie dye and reptiles, oh my!

Two weekends ago I decided to take Dellaina & Wyatt to a puppet show at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. Thanks to seeing Peter Pan, I’d gotten an email about Beauty and the Beast production and was intrigued, so had been looking at it for a while and even made the mistake of mentioning it to Dellaina, who then brought it up regularly – “remember the puppet show in May? In downtown Atlanta?” I had it in my head it would be a good time to go since the neighborhood yard sale had been postponed a week due to expected weather (that never happened), but didn’t tell them until we woke up Saturday morning and we rushed out the door to get to the 11:00 showing just in the knick of time. The show had just started by the time we had gotten tickets and were walking in. It was SUPER dark. I mean there were NO lights on the aisles to help us see. I had to hold onto the kids’ hands to make sure where they were. We were led down to a row and I had no idea what kind of seats to expect – movie seats that fold up? – or any idea if we were scooting in too far and about to walk all over someone!! Turns out, it was a long cushioned bench, basically, which was nice, because we all got to kind of huddle together like we were sitting on the couch together. The show was entertaining. The kids were engaged – scared at certain points, laughing at others. It was good to know the story, even though this was a very urban B&B with beauty’s mom being a hairdresser that owned her own salon (rather than it being her rich dad that was a merchant and lost his ships at sea in a storm) that was bought up by someone “taking over businesses by storm” There was music/singing and Wyatt was clapping and tapping his foot, which was cute. At the end of the show, the puppeteers came out and talked to the audience for a bit and showed a few things, which were neat. Afterwards, we took a quick tour of the museum, which had a lot of neat displays, including the cast of Fraggle Rock!! Awesomeness. Makes me want to find some old episodes to show the kids! Then we went to Create-a-Puppet workshop where they handed out supplies that let you create your own puppet and decorate it. Dellaina LOVED this part – shocking, I know. And even Wyatt got his puppet done and walked about making it talk. They had large containers of buttons and sparkly jewels. We had such a great time and they seemed so excited by the upcoming Jack and the Beanstalk that I decided to sign us up for a membership. We could deduct part of our tickets we’d purchased that day and it’s tax free and I wanted to support such a fun program. It’s not as awesome of a membership as the zoo in that we still have to pay something for tickets, but I feel certain we’ll be back and hope to bring some family next time, too! And Dellaina was talking about having her birthday party there already!

because we signed up, we got a plush hand puppet and they have their alley cat puppets we made in the workshop. They chatted the whole way home with them all.

putting on a puppet show, of course.

I volunteered to help tie dye the shirts for Dellaina’s class Field Day. When I first responded, it was after a second or third request had been sent out asking for parent volunteers and I thought I’d be helping them do it, in the classroom. Then I learned the kids wouldn’t be doing it, but I still thought it would be a group effort with the teachers and other parents that knew what they were doing. They were talking about how they just do one color and I convinced them they should do at least 2! They were so excited that the other two Pre-K classes would only have one color and they’d show them up. Somehow, me and my big mouth ended up bringing all the shirts home and doing it myself! They looked really awesome right after doing them, but it said to wash them and I had to because the dye was still running and dripping and they just needed help. They got all muddled together (as you’ll see whenever I post the Field Day pictures), but we still had 2 colors! The teachers wrote on them and they still looked ok, but the other 2 classes had very vibrant colors and clear patterns. oh well. I tried.

 

 

On Sunday, we went to a reptile party. Will, from Dellaina’s class LOVES lizards and talks about them ALL THE TIME. It was very fitting for his birthday party and was a pretty neat experience! Dellaina then asked about having a reptile party for her birthday. Too many fun ideas in one weekend, apparently!

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