First official school picture:

Layla

2013-2014 Preschool

Aaaaaaaaaaaand, again, I'm going to have to dock communication points from Layla's preschool for NOT telling me they were going to be taking professional pictures of the kids on a certain day!  I might have, say, done her hair that day...or something.  ;)

The picture is grainy because I blew it up (the tiny one they sent me in the online receipt), but if you are a grandparent you will be getting a hard copy, 3X5, because preschool year 1 only deserves a 3X5 I think.  ;)

But she's still pretty cute, eh?  Hair barely done and all?

Hamster watch:

I'm officially putting us on Hamster Watch.

While I love the idea of having NO pets--no other living things for Mama to take care of, no other living things to drain our already tight budget with random vet visits, etc.--I think Layla has officially put us on "I want a pet" notice.

Rather, she wants a hamster. 

She's asked about it 4 separate times now--the most recent being 1 hour ago, when she came up to me and asked if we could get in the car and go get a hamster.  Being the strong Mama I am, we ended up calling Jonas on the phone and asking HIM this question over speaker phone.  ;)  He passed the buck right back to me.  Spineless, I tell you!  ;)

I have no idea where she gets this idea, and why she keeps remembering it, but it has officially stuck in her brain.  Drat.

My guess is we'll likely get one...sometime....NOT now.  Plus we have to figure out the allergies thing.  It would be do delightfully convenient if my kids were allergic to all animals, but alas, I don't think this is true.  :) 

Having had MANY, many pets in my young life (fish, ducks, rabbit, dogs, hamsters, birds, lizards, etc), including a hamster, I can officially say the following things:

Pros:

1.  They are QUIET.  This is so key, I can't even tell you.  

2.  They are small and take up almost no space.

3.  If you have to go travel they are the least inconvenient pet to try to pawn off on a friend to watch.

4.  Their food is cheap.

5.  They rarely, if ever, need a vet (or require you to spend big bucks on them).  They live, they die.  End of story.

6.  They are cheap.  Their stuff is cheap/free.

Cons:

1.  They are animals.  Living in your house.  As someone who rarely remembers to water her house plants more than once a week, MAX, this concerns me.

2.  Who knows about allergies??  Guess I'll have to research.

3.  They can bite sometimes.  

4.  Cleaning a cage.  Sigh.  

5.  They are rodents.  They can be ugly.  Who wants ugly living in your house?? ;)

6.  I am sure there are more.  Give me time...  

Sunday night fire:

Sunday evenings we normally spend at my parent's house (weekly dinner together as an extended family), but as they are often gone/out of the country these days, we have a few more lazy Sunday nights alone at home.  :)  It was a chilly, gray November day...so we didn't need much more of an excuse than that to make a fire.  It was lovely.  

No better vantage point than right on Papa.

Telling silly stories together.  

Layla was pretty sure she was wicked funny.  

First Snow:

Layla has been waiting and WAITING for the snow to fall.

Today, she got her wish.  Sort of.  It was rather a sad little snow, so no sledding or snow men yet, and those snow angels needed a bit of interpretation.  :)

I don't know why the color was so off for these next two videos.  It switches back to normal 1/2 way through the last one...

Winter prep:

Jonas is in full-on "Winter prep" mode around here.  I think he really loves being a home owner and doing all of these little upkeep chores, and for that, I am very grateful.  :)

Saturday was a beautiful fall day around these parts, so Jonas spent a good portion of the day outside, working in the yard and on the exterior of the house.

Our bedroom windows look out over our backyard, the garage, and over the roof of our 3-season-porch.  Layla had the thrill of her young life when she was allowed to go UP ON THE ROOF with Papa and help him install a new window.  She had to just sit still and hold screws, but still--she loved it.  :)

Getting ready to hold the screws.  

Taking her job seriously.  

It was rather bright...

The view from inside one of our bedroom windows.  

The Harvest Program at Preschool:

Today, when I dropped Layla off at preschool, I found out she had a program at 11:00 a.m.!!!  So, NEGATIVE organization and communication points to NeHi Preschool for THAT, but I'll forgive them, because they really are sweet, and Layla loves it there.  :)

They lined all the kids up, then told the parents "Okay, here they are!  Come take your pictures now!"  It was very smart.  So I did.  :)

It was so darn cute.  She looked very, very worried until she spotted me in the audience.  Ah, the power of being a Mommy.  Complete easement of fears, right at my fingertips.  

This little girl is named Evie, I think, and is Layla's BFF at preschool.  They like to be "silly" together, according to her teacher.  

She spent the ENTIRE program banging her hands under her pumpkin necklace.  

Her class:  12 girls, 3 boys.  

Finally doing a few actions to a song...

Taking a bow.  On her own.  

Videos from the program: (for only the truly curious and dedicated, I'm sure.  No guilt if you don't want to watch these!  Seriously.  I barely did.)  ;)  The funny thing is, I was having a really hard time pushing the "off" button to stop recording each little video, so they get shaky at the end sometimes...but I was having such a hard time doing it because Layla wanted me to CLAP for her at the end of each song, not record her.  So I left the camera down for several...but then she started actually DOING the actions, so I had to get THAT.  ;)

Layla and the little girl next to her (to her actual right) get into a little fight in this video.  Blows are exchanged.

Layla

Phew.  I am pretty exhausted today.  We were in and out of the car all day, constantly moving, other than a 45 minute time period when Layla was in preschool, and I even pawned off one of my chores on Renee! Days like this are simply draining for me.  If I'm busy around the house all day that's one thing, but when I feel like I've spent SO much of my day in the car, I hate it.  So here I am, in bed, feet up, while Jonas takes over the spaghetti prep for the kids downstairs.  My first moment of peace all day.  Aaaaaaaaah.  :)  Lovely.

I forget if I mentioned Layla's vision in my last update about her (and I'm too lazy to go and check right now...).  The only other thing Jonas remembered about her 4 Year Well Child checkup, other than her 80th% for weight shocker, was that her vision is a little off.  Not too horrible yet, for sure, but she's on her way down.  Already.  :(  Gosh I feel sorry for her.  My vision is bad, and Jonas has horrid vision, so her genetic propensity to near-blindness is crazy high, that's for sure.

I remember getting my glasses as a kid--maybe 6th grade? 5th?--and being SHOCKED.  THAT was how people saw all the time?  It was amazing to see so clearly--everything!!  But, then the reality of wearing glasses sets in.  As soon as I could, in high school, I moved to contacts and never went back...that is until I had kids.  THEN how I felt about my appearance (the main reason I wore contacts, other than not liking the feel of having something on my face all day long...) took a BIG backseat to everything else in life demanding my attention.  But, at least as an adult I can buy new frames every few years, try to make myself look a little trendy even if I am wearing glasses, find frames that look good with my face shape and hair cut/color, etc.

Poor kids.  Kids who wear glasses get TEASED.  They break them.  They forget them.  Okay, maybe it should read more like "Poor parents of kids who have to wear glasses."  When she does get glasses I am going to try my hardest to make sure they look good on her, AND we'll be getting an insurance plan for them pronto.

Incredibly long, rambling story short:  Layla has vision that is going downhill.  But she doesn't need glasses.  Yet.

New topic:  (too tired for a transition)  I had Layla's first preschool conference today.  As a teacher, I hated/loved conferences.  When they were bad, they were AWFUL.  When they were good, they could almost make me cry happy tears.  There seemed to be very few in-between conferences.  Blech.  So glad those days are not in front of me right now.

Anyway, it was so funny to be on the parent end of conferences!  Keep in mind, this is preschool.  Glorified daycare.  But Layla loves it, and she really loves her teacher Mrs. Nelson.  Mrs. Nelson has been teaching at this school for at least 16 years, and she is very high energy and silly.  Layla especially adores when Mrs. Nelson gets silly, so I adore Mrs. Nelson for getting silly.  :)  I know that feeling, of being willing to do just about anything to get a child to pay attention and engage in something, but...man.  I'm also pretty sure I could never go to the level that preschool teachers go to when they try to get 3 and 4-year-old kids to learn something. That takes HUMILITY.

At the start of school they did a very (veeeeeeery) simple, one page assessment on each kid:

1.  How far can they count on their own? Layla could count well, but she had gaps.  She got 1-17, 21-27, etc.  I guess this is normal for this age.  We never really worked on anything other than counting to ten with her.
2.  Can they recognize their own name?  She can!  We have never worked on this with her, other than just this week when she has been asking me to write letters and numbers so she can copy them.  I wrote her name down, but I have seriously never tried to teacher her how to write it, recognize it, etc.
3.  Can they identify 8 different shapes?  She got 6 of the 8, initially.  Missed rectangle and oval.  Claire would totally have nailed those as a 2-year-old.  ;)  Again, maybe if Mama cared at all...and, you know...tried to teach her things...
4.  Can they identify 10 different colors?  She got 8 of the 10...missed brown and black.  That was interesting to me and made me think of my Dad, and his "these green pants are clearly blue" incident.

The teacher says she is totally normal and right on track, maybe above a bit, in what she knows and how she can learn.  This would make sense to me just because she is the oldest kid in her class, but it was also interesting to me how much I did not care about these things.  These things???  She'll get them.  Eventually.  In time.  No biggie at all.  I thought I might be a bit more protective of her, but I just can't work up the energy right now...she's fine.  ;)

Mrs. Nelson DID say that Layla likes to be silly.  She also likes to be silly with her new BFF Evie, who I guess she solidified her bond with this week.  Mrs. Nelson says they hug, tell each other "I love you," and hang out quite often.  CUTE!  (The "making her first friend away from Mama" part is cute, not the being silly part...that we will be keeping an eye on, but again...it's preschool.  I find myself not being able to work up any energy about a preschool kid who likes to be silly, right?  Don't worry.  I'm on it.  I'm watching.  I'm just not reacting very fast...)  ;)

When asked if I had any questions, I did.  Layla has a few speech delays that I know are normal for a 2 or 3-year-old, possibly, but now that she is 4 and in a formal school setting, I wondered what Mrs. Nelson thought about her speech.  She said "Oh, yeah!  That's right!  She doesn't have a few speech issues, and we do have a hard time understanding her every now and then, but it wasn't really at the front of my mind because she clearly is not a kid that needs fast intervention right now.  However, we should keep an eye on her, and we'll meet again in December or January to see if we think a speech evaluation is the right way to go."  So, I'm glad I asked.  Because I feel like as her parent, he speech issues are so cute to me, and in some ways I hope they stay as long as possible--as long as they are just normal kid things.  BUT, if she really does have a speech problem of some sort, as minor as it may be, I would like her to be seen ASAP and have things evaluated and taken care of before she becomes self-conscious of it, or before other kids tease her, etc.

(Her speech issues are her inability to say the letters "L, "F," and the "Th" blend, which I know is a more advanced skill than the "L" or "F."  She also loves to talk like a baby at times, which I know is also a little kid thing, but I sometimes find myself wondering if she is doing that for a reason.  There may be other things too that I'm forgetting right now.)

Mrs. Nelson asked if there had been any speech issues on either side of the family, because I guess if a parent/aunt/uncle/grandparent had issues, then it tends to be more common in the family?  This seemed odd to me, but maybe it's just because I've never heard this before.  Genetics are strange creatures.  Anyway, I couldn't think of any--I felt like maybe one of my brothers was seen for a very short time, but I can't remember who it might have been.  Dan?  Eric?  I feel like I just remember funny stories being told around the dinner table of their impressions of speech therapy, but I could be wrong.  Did any Schaefer boys / parents have speech issues?  I guess I don't know that either.  :)  We'll find out.

In addition to this, it dawned on me that Layla had her tongue clipped when she has just a few weeks old--maybe 3 or 4?--to help her nurse better.  While we both doubted this had anything to do with how she currently pronounces letters, it is something to ask about, I guess, if we meet with the speech pathologist eventually.

So, that's it for now.  Conference #1 down, 2 or 3 more to go per child, for the next 14 years or so... Bring it.

*Yawn*

Random updates from a very tired Mama:

1.  Finn is naked right now.  He has basically been naked for several days now.  Two days ago he decided that clothes were VERY optional, and no matter what I do/put him in, I find him naked within about 20 minutes.  I found out outfit he couldn't get out of, but he made my life so miserable for the 1.5 hours he was wearing it that I decided it's just not worth it: naked it is.  So, we've been doing some potty training.  I don't think it's as effective at this age (2.5-ish) as it was when we trained Layla (3 years, 4 months...and she really trained herself at that point), but oh well.  I'm not rushed or "trying to MAKE THIS HAPPEN!" so hopefully it'll just be positive.  That's all I ask at this point.  I suppose I could try duct taping his diapers to his body, but...eh.

2.  Same child had a VERY rough night last night.  He's been sick for 2-3 days, mostly with a VERY runny nose during the day, and then constant coughing/choking on his own mucus at night.  His breathing got worse last night too, so we're off to the Dr. today.  Jonas leaves for a tour of KC BBQ joints with Scooter and Ben on Saturday, and I need healthy and sleeping kids by then! Seriously, though, I think Finn woke up at least 15-20 times last night because he couldn't breathe/was coughing.  Poor kid.  :(  He was misery.  He finally woke up and stayed up at 4:30 a.m.  *yaaaaaaaaawn*

3.  Layla woke up at 6:00 today.  Just because.

4.  I know I had more to say, but my brain is fried.  I'll remember it later and come back to update, if I'm not asleep on my feet...

I remembered one!
5.  Layla has been so funny about smell lately.  She acts like she has the world's most sensitive sense of smell.  She can't stand the smell of a ton of things that I think have almost no smell at all...like apples, for crying out loud!  The funniest one is bananas, though.  If she is even in the same room with a banana (out of the peel) she sort of flips out.  Gets as far away from it as she can, covers her mouth with her hand, and hides her head in her arms.  Wowza.  Seeeeeeeeeeeensitive.  :)  Now imagine her reaction to something that actually HAS a strong scent, in my opinion...yeah...

Today:

Layla did more painting this morning.  WITH my approval.  AT the counter.  :)

"Mama, look!  I made an H!"

Explain to me how THIS child can be in the 80th% for weight???

She looks like a skinny bean to me, other than her cheeks.  :)  

Finn is sick today.  When he is sick, he LOOKS sick.  

I've been using essential oils with him for the past two days to help with coughing and breathing, which has helped I think, but I have NO cure for his constant mucus production.  He's drowning in it, poor baby.  :(

My poor sick little boy...

Sneaky

Sooooooooooooooooooooo...

Layla.

She has added a skill to her behavioral development in the last few weeks:  being sneaky.

I'll sometimes notice her finding something she knows she can't have, and rather than give it to me (as she used to do) she'll look at it for a moment, then this "LOOK" will come over her face, and she'll hide it behind her back.  Right in front of me.  In the most laughable, obvious fashion ever.  And then slowly back away from me.  Smiling right at me.  

Oh, honey.  

I am raising a little SINNER!!!! ;)

This above video was taken yesterday afternoon.  I told her she couldn't paint while I was making dinner because it was too messy.  Her response?  "Okay.  I want to go outside to talk to Papa."  She went through a LOT of work to get dressed, find her shoes, etc. and then went outside to Jonas...with a box of paints in her hands.  I let her, mostly just because I wanted to see this play out.  :)  She came back in with the box open, hid it behind her back, and edged out of the kitchen.  She set up the paints on the bottom of the 2nd floor stairs, then went and got herself a glass of water...so I wouldn't see her in the kitchen.  Then she came back in and told me "Mama, I need somepin to draw on."  Paper...the final step.  So, I got her some and asked if she needed some crayons or markers:  "No."  Big smile.  Loving her own deception.  Little STINKER!  I probably shouldn't have let her go on, but I was just so curious.  :)  After a while, without me SEEING her, she somehow moved the entire operation out to the back porch steps.  I guess that makes sense...less likely for me to find her out there.  But I have no idea how she got it all by me in the kitchen.  So, then I saw her and filmed that video.

To her credit, she didn't make a mess at all.  ;)

This is so ending soon.  Jonas and I had a little "chat" about it last night and are ready to go into action now.  ;)

Crafts with Mama:

This feels like the first time in about 2 weeks where I've actually spent any fun time with Layla, doing something other than snuggling with her.  She loved stringing together this necklace, and then later we made one with a color pattern.  :)  

Layla's 4 Year Well Child checkup:

Because I was still in my "recovery" phase of healing, Jonas ended up taking Layla (and Finn) to Layla's 4 Year "Well Child" check on Monday.  I had completely forgotten about it in all of the focus on my rear end for the past week, so I was very thankful he was home from work and could take her without having to reschedule.

I warned Jonas ahead of time that I thought she needed to get a shot (just one at age 4, thankfully), and my only method of keeping the hysteria to a minimum:  the suckers need to be IN the room BEFORE the shots happen.  Finn absolutely hates it when Layla has to get a shot, so he FREAKS out and sobs in terror while I hold Layla's upper body down and the nurse gives her shots in the thigh.  I'll have to stop bringing him to these appointments when he gets to the age of being able to remember long term...these for sure will scar him for life.  He hates Layla getting a shot much more than getting his own shots...but that's likely because Layla is a Drama Queen.  QUEEN.  The nurses are so good, and so quick--amazingly quick.

(I mean, I guess I should have a little mercy here...it's been a while since I've had regular childhood vaccines, but I do get the flu vaccine, and the TDap every time I'm pregnant, and those seem like very mild, quick shots.  However, maybe the shots to HER feel like that lidocain shot felt to me in the ER.  If that is even close to the truth...wow.  We might have to start taking some alternative medicine, because...DANG.)

Needless to say, Layla screams and wails and gnashes teeth.  Finn cries for 20 seconds and then is done.  Layla?  We have to stay in the room for a good 15 minutes after her shots to get her calmed down.  And then she limps for the rest of the day, and tells the horrible story over and over.  :)  Poor kid.  Life is gonna be a little...rough, me thinks.

Anyway, Jonas was NOT helping my peace of mind by texting me ominous texts every 20 seconds, like "Yeah, it's all Dr. Happy now, but just wait until the needles come out!!!" etc.  I think I got at least 5 from him.  It's amazing he heard anything the Dr. actually said to him, really, with all the texting that was going on.  I wonder where Layla got her dramatic flair?  ;)

The only stat that Jonas remembered from her appointment is that Layla is now in the 80th% for weight.  EIGHTY.  That is INSANE.  She has never broken above the 50th% in anything, pretty much ever!!  However, I'm not really surprised.  For the past 3 months she has been hungry all day, every day.  She will eat FOUR pieces of toast for breakfast, then be asking for food 1 hour later.  The sheer volume she consumes at every meal has drastically increased.  Despite all of this, she is still right on target for the sizes she wears, and I still have to find skinny jeans/pants for her, or pants that have adjustable waists because she needs them on tightest possible setting or they will fall off her non-existent hips!  I'm trying to figure out where she is putting this weight:  her cheeks??  A little in the tummy, maybe, but not much.  :)

Anyway, that's about it.  As I didn't go, I don't have much more to report.  Jonas said she freaked out for her shot, but then calmed down somewhat faster than normal and was even smiling and waving to all the (laughing) nurses on her way out, saying "Thank You!!!" :)

Cutie.

Random updates:

1.  Layla had a HORRIBLE nightmare two nights ago.  I just felt awful for her.  I think it was maybe 3:00 a.m. when I heard her screeeeeeeaming on the monitor.  When I ran in there she was curled up in the fetal position, both hands pressed tight to her eyes.  I tried to comfort her and calm her down, but she just remained tense and tight.  I took her to the bathroom, because 90% of the time, if she wakes up at night, it's just because she needs to go to the bathroom.  She went, but still with both hands pressed tightly to her face.  Her talk was something about "the big one" and "make it go away," etc.  Finally I just had to play along a bit and tell her that Mommy got "it," "it" was gone now, etc.  I sloooowly pried her hands away from her face, and she looked around the room frantically in total fear.

My heart just broke.  Oh, age 4.  I remember you.  The age the nightmares started.  :(  I think I had some bad, bad dreams from about age 4 to age 8, as far as I can remember.

  Last night was the first night we have had to leave Layla's closet door all the way open, with the light on, when she went to bed.  She was still afraid.  Poor Baby.  I talked to her a bit about it, and I am thinking it was a dragon she was afraid of...at least that's what she told me last night.  Who knows if it was what she was afraid of the night before.  She asked to come in with us the night of the nightmare, which of course I said yes to--you could feel the fear melting off of her as she left the room with me.  :(  Once again, SO glad I held out for that king size bed when we got married.  Jonas couldn't understand my absolute insistence on it...but I knew.  ;)


2.  I know people who can function just fine, regularly, on 4-6 hours of sleep a night.  This seems insane to me, as I as someone who needs 8-9 hours to feel "great."  Because I know myself, I normally make a very high priority of going to bed at a very reasonable time.  Rarely will I ever got to bed after 10:00, especially with having kids--you never know when you'll need to get up, right?  Well, last night I made a mistake.  I stayed up until 11:45 p.m. watching TV.  SO lame.  Such a bad choice.  But it was fun at the time.  :)

Of course, on nights when you make a bad personal decision, what happens?  You know the answer to this.  That's right:  kids happen.  ;)  Finn actually did just fine "sleeping through the night," but after 10 hours of sleep he decided that was enough...at 5:00 a.m.  UGH.  He is the worst too, because he wakes up and wants to DO STUFF AND GET BREAKFAST RIGHT AWAY COME ON MAMA!  It's so jarring (at least when Layla wakes up she will snuggle with me in bed for ages!).  As I had only been asleep for 5 hours (which I know is fine for some people, yes, I get it...just not for me...), this was not okay.  I was walking through cement to get to him.  I try to bribe Finn with a movie/show of some sort when he wakes up, but this rarely goes as planned.  He is just so neeeeedy when he wakes up, and he especially likes to poke at my closed eyes if I somehow find a way to rest again.  Twerp.  ;)  Then, Layla woke up  around 5:45--SO unusual for her, but of course, this was the morning for it, right?  I finally got them both settled in my bed, next to me, watching a "Team Umi Zoomie" episode on my Kindle while I tried to at least rest some more.

 Evidently the episode they watched was about cereal, because about 22 minutes later Layla was convinced that we all needed to go downstairs and eat "cereal and milk."  Keep in mind, my kids have NEVER had cereal and milk (like normal kids!) because of their allergies.  But, I had some almond milk on hand, and miracle-of-miracles some cereal too.  I poured them each a bowl, and Layla had to check and make sure that it looked like the picture on the front.  After that, all she did was stir it around and around.  Finn actually took two bites!  I was impressed, but neither of them wanted anything to do with the rest of it.  Ah, well.  At least they have now had cereal.  :)

Layla's extended family birthday party:

On Sunday evening, September 22nd, my whole family (other than Eric, who was detained by the Army in Kansas, and Dad, who was returning from a trip to NYC...) came over to our house to celebrate Jonas and Layla's birthdays.  Mostly, it was about Layla, since we don't do presents for any adults anymore.  :)  But kids get presents still...and mercy did she get a lot!  I was kind of overwhelmed.  She was in heaven, of course.  

Mom got a Pinata ala Layla's favorite thing:  princesses.

She LOVED hitting it.  :)  

Finn kept escaping from whoever was holding him and coming in, from different angles, to take a whack at it too.  He had his turns, of course, but he wanted to hit it ALL the time.  :)

After the pinata had been fully knocked to the ground, Layla kept going back to it to bash on it.  We might have some things to work through with her... ;)

Opening her presents seriously took about 30 minutes, so I did not tape it all.  Renee had to leave early, but she had given her a cool tower of stacking boxes, all filled with great Layla treasures, so I filmed Layla opening Renee's gift.  It's SIX long minutes long, so unless you are Renee you might not want to invest the time.  But I wanted Renee to at least see her reactions! :)

Singing Happy Birthday:

Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl!

I am very late in posting Layla's birthday blog updates...where does the time go???

This was from her actual birthday, Friday, Septebmer 20th.  We had a simple celebration as a family.  SIMPLE being the key word.  ;)

A friend from church gave us her kitchen set that her two girls have outgrown...what a blessing!  The kids LOVE it, of course.  Here are the reveal videos:

The birthday cake:

Finn:

Opening her present from Grammy:

Saturday: Family Fun Day

This past Saturday was perfect weather, and we had absolutely nothing to do.  It was glorious.  

So we went out to Como Zoo (the smaller zoo that is close to us, and free), and Como Town, the amusement place connected to the zoo.  GREAT times were had by all.

Proof below.

Layla was VERY into riding the bronze turtle.  :)

It was a group effort, going down the big slide together in one of the amusement park attractions, but after that they both were very brave and tried it all on their own, many times.  Finn actually was much better at climbing the rope ladder than Layla was!

Heading up.

All by herself.  

"DUDE.  Did you SEE me???"

A good 15 minutes of time spent here.  

These rides were the perfect size for them both.