Brave New World

*deep breath*
There are SO many things to talk about. I'm having a hard time deciding where to start. I'm leaning towards our household plan for the time being.

We are on Day 2 of this new concept of "social distancing". So far, it's not too bad. We haven't jumped into school work yet. (I have - I use google classroom and have been reaching out to my students daily and today gave them their first "assignment"; all I asked them to do was check in, let me know they're present and following along.) My kids will get on schedule starting Monday.

We needed to create a plan because of the age range in the house. the 14 yo has high school courses and is my over-committed academic. My 11yo is more lackadaisical...she needs a plan because school isn't that important to her and she'd let everything slide if she was allowed. And the the 7yo...I mean 2nd grade is important, but I feel he needs maintenance of skills not necessarily "2nd grade curriculum". BUT - he needs to be occupied and not a distraction while the other two work. So a plan is required.

This is what we came up with:

We'll see how long this lasts.

I cannot help but spend a few moments to address the situation we find ourselves in with the corona virus. I've never been terribly political, but as this crisis has ramped up, I am paying much more attention to our Governor and am finding myself impressed.

Yesterday, I shared an article of several Italians who created a video of their experiences and misconceptions only 10 days ago. We do need to act based on the experiences of those who came before us - even though it's only 10 days before us!!! It's pretty clear how this virus will impact our population by looking at data collected, worldwide, over the past 6 weeks.

Stay healthy and well - be kind, don't forget to check in on each other and take this time to notice the little things.

sleep

wow! it's been a while...

I've been thinking of getting back into this blog-thing and so I've had some ideas have kickin' around. One of which is children's sleep. 

Those of you who know our parenting, know how important our children's sleep is to us.  Since Katie was born, my priority has been to be sure my children get adequate sleep.   I'm not sure why, but it's just one of things that I've been pretty adamant about. There have been times when we've had to bow out of events or leave early or drive separately so one of us could take the sleepy child home when appropriate. But I wouldn't change our stance.

It's a rather awkward subject sometimes.  Being a popular topic among parents, "sleep" comes up often.  I am not the one to bring it up either, but it arises and I feel like I'm guilty of something fraudulent when I acknowledge that my children sleep through the night by 6 weeks of age. Through the night is 6-8 hours.  And that 8pm is entirely too late for the 7 yr old.  Besides when dealing with illness, my children sleep 10 - usually 12 hours a night. 

You know how there's these completely random bits of advice that you hear and somehow retain? For example, when I was in the 10th grade, I had a friend who was a senior and drove, I don't recall that he ever let me drive, but he gave me a piece of advice that I'll never forget. I don't necessarily follow it to a T, but I remember. Another - I can clearly recall my sister telling me "Sleep begets sleep."  So true!!! 

Children who get adequate sleep are frequently better behaved, in my opinion. (As I tell my kids in school: "I know it's your opinion, you're writing it!!") Anyways, observation has taught me this - and my own experience with my children when they don't get good sleep...the bad behavior and attitude and defiance all really strike! (It's either lack of sleep or lack of food which usually create bad behaviors in our house!)

I guess this is stems from last night.  I can hardly say that - it was yesterday afternoon actually...Sean went to bed, for the night, at 4:05 yesterday afternoon!!!  Slept through the night.  Matt woke him up at 6:30AM. Seriously.

I don't know....I just have heard of people who don't want their kids to go to bed at a timely hour because they want to spend time together, because they had a late meeting, whatever the reason - they decide to keep their child awake past a bedtime that's reasonable.  My preference is that my kids go to bed when they need to.

What's your stance on sleep?
(next post - what would you do if your child didn't get off the bus?)

as long as you're only looking for pictures:

Pictures...sit back and enjoy!!! #5's my favorite

Summer pictures

1 - big sis doing her job
2 - the 4th in Ridgewood
3 - cooling off in a torrential summer rain

4 - Maggie in the pack-n-play at Canandaigua
5 - Katie's first bike and first bike-ride

Advertising at its finest

Yikes, it's been a while! Guess what? I'm not gonna write about kids...I've got this weird idea to write about a few of my new favorite products...I know: what the heck?! But - I've gotten a couple of things recently that I have to rave about.

First - Cheer. Yes, the laundry detergent. Seriously. I have never really payed any attention (or is it paid?) whatever, I've never payed much attention to laundry detergent - buy what's cheap or whatever's got a coupon. I had a moment of consumer/commercial affliction and fell for the ads. I decided "what the heck - might as well try it". Katie's been taking dance class and has to wear white socks and a white t-shirt, I need to try something to keep her from not looking dingy. And you know what?!?!? I really think it works!! Really; honest - I think Cheer laundry detergent makes my whites brighter!!! (And I know it's not "new" as stated in the first paragraph, but it's new to me!)

Second - everyone knows how great the magic eraser things are (cuz they're not really sponges, hhmmm) anyways, how many of you have tried the magic eraser/febreze/bathroom version?? FANTASTIC!!! Yeah, for sure - they're great, ok - not quite as great as Frosted Flakes, b/c who wouldn't rather sit down to a bowl with Tony the Tiger opposed to cleaning the bathroom, but if I have to clean the bathroom - this it totally the way to go!

Third - more specifically to moms who still use strollers - the First Years something stroller. Way better than my 100$ Britax stroller! Really! A 45$ umbrella stroller bought at BJ's is going to be our go-to stroller from now on...I might even get rid of every other stroller we have! ("How many strollers do you have?" you might ask. I don't know, I'd have to count.) Anyways, awesome awesome awesome First Years stroller. Finally found one I really love.

Okay, so there's my not-paid-for-by-advertisers ad --- go buy yourself something!

(Oh yeah - we're all good!!!)

So, Maggie'e daycare room has a little fenced in area (I don't know...4x5, 5x5) it's used for either the baby who is not yet mobile - keeping him/her apart from those who'll trample him, or it's for the single mobile baby so as not to trample over the stationary others.

I go into the room today to get Maggie and she is in the pen! You think now: maybe she's the only one walking. Well, she's not. I ask "What's the matter?" and the response is "we have a biter in the room". So, I think for a split second, that what goes through my head is: 'well, ok - I guess it's good that they're putting Maggie out of harms way'. Um - I was wrong!! Maggie's the biter!!!!!! Yikes!

What the heck do I do with that!?

A tiny bit of additional information...
1. One of the careproviders in Maggie's room left 2 weeks ago (last week, there was a girl in there temporarily, but she's in the Center regularly, so Maggie knows her)
2. The new girl started yesterday! We had never gotten a 'biting' report before this.
3. Even at 14 months, Maggie has no words yet, so I expect that extreme frustration/lack of verbal communication is a huge role.
4. She has some eating issues, so maybe she's getting too hungry and irritable

*sigh*