Hailey News

I took Hailey back to the doctor yesterday. Her x-rays looked good - to the doctor - and the big cast came off. I saw the x-rays and it is still looking pretty broken to me, but they said it was right where it should be.

She got another cast on (purple this time) that ends below her knee, which she will wear for four weeks. The new twist is, this is a walking cast! They want her off those crutches as soon as possible, preferably within a week of getting the new cast. They said at this point in the recovery that she needs to put weight on it to speed healing. He warned me that if she used the crutches for the next four weeks, she'll still need a cast at the end. If she walks on it, she can probably go to a boot, or perhaps nothing at all.

Her knee was really sore yesterday after being immobilized in the hip to foot cast she had before, but she is better today. Tomorrow, I am going to try to get her to use one crutch. She is still scared of the pain she experienced 5 weeks ago and is a little ginger on it. But hopefully we can get her walking around soon!

Day One

Today was our first day of school. Kelly's working shift work right now, working swings on Tuesday through Saturday, so we are adjusting our school day to match that, taking Monday's off. We are also having our "big" meal of the day at lunch instead of supper so that we can eat it with Kelly before he leaves. Though this shift working job is a temporary one (he was hired for another position, but he is working here until all the security clearances are done), I am thankful that we do homeschool, otherwise, the girls wouldn't see their dad at all for five days in a row once school started.

I've not been looking forward to this school year for a few reasons. Kora is starting high school work, which, I confess, intimidates me. I also have Lauryn with whom I need to devote plenty of time to this year as she is ready to read. I don't really enjoy teaching phonics, and I just came off a three year stint of working with Hailey to get her reading. And now, without a break, it's Lauryn's turn. If she takes three years to learn, I'll have to go right into teaching Ashlynn then, so let's all hope she picks it up a little more quickly. :-) And of course there are three others in between.

Today wasn't too bad though. Of course, the older the girls get, the fewer problems we have restarting the next year. And I always ease into the year somewhat - some courses don't need a full 36 weeks. The ones that do, we started this week. The others will be added in over the next couple of weeks. I also didn't do anything with Lauryn, besides let her watch The Letter Factory, since she had been running a high fever yesterday.

But of course, I also have a two year old. While she always makes life interesting, she fortunately saved the real fun for after nap. When I went in to get her out of her crib, she was lying in the crib with only a shirt on, her diaper in a heap on the floor beside the crib. I got her up and put a clean diaper on her telling her that taking off her diaper was a no-no. Then Lauryn comes in and says, "Mama, there's a wet spot over here by the crib." Yep, evidently the little scamp had climbed out of the crib, taken off her diaper, wet on the floor, and then climbed back into the crib before I came in. I asked her if she had done that, and she smiled at me and said, "Yep, climb crib."

This is going to be an interesting year.

The "F" bomb

*Never fear, this is a family friendly blog and post!*

The other day, I overheard an extraordinary conversation between Lauryn (5 yo) and Hailey (7 yo). One of them was informing the other one that:

"You said the 'f' word."

"No, I didn't."

"Yes, you did. Remember, we can't say that."

Needless to say I was starting to freak out a little. Where in the world had they heard THAT? Who had said that in front of my little girls? And how did they know to abbreviate it to just an "f"??? I was wracking my brain. They don't watch TV, only movies, and I didn't think any of our movies had that in it. Besides, neither had come to ask us if that was a bad word (we have an open policy that they can come ask us what anything means, without any punishment - if it is a word Kelly and I don't use they are supposed to ask before they use it).

The conversation went on for a time while I was trying to figure out how to play this. Should stay cool or flip out? Demand to know where they heard it, or just let them know we don't ever use that word. Then, as I listened to their conversation more, I realized the truth.

If you haven't read this post, here's an excerpt from something that happened a couple of months ago.

The last word I think will become a Smith family no-no word. Years ago, we decided not to let the older two girls use the word stupid at all. We figured that if they didn't ever use the word, they couldn't call each other things like "stupid head" that we had heard other kids call each other. And I have never heard my kids call other people stupid, so I guess in that it worked, though we've certainly slackened up on it in recent years. It did cause grandparents some problems when they would visit and use the word. ("That is a stupid thing for the president to have done." "Granddad, you said a no-no word.")

We may have to revise the no-no word list and add a new one to it. It's such a benign little word too. I think we need to add the word "fine" to the Smith banned list. You see this is how recent conversations have gone in our house.

Me: Ashlynn, come here. (She just stares at me, so I stand up to go over to her.)

Ashlynn (seeing me coming her way, starts running to me, yelling): FINE!

OR

Me: Ashlynn, go upstairs.

(She stands there, staring at me rebelliously. Then as I start heading her way...)
Ashlynn: FINE!

No, not "fine." I'll never hear that word again without hearing my two year old's voice yelling it at me.

Yes, evidently, the "f" word one of the girls had said was "fine" in front of Ashlynn. Once I figured it out, I had a good laugh. That's going to make me laugh every time someone asks me how I am and I answer "fine."

Laugh of the Day

I was screening for a medical research study this morning. During the EKG, the tech had to place several leads on my abdomen and chest wall. During this, she comments, "Hmmm, you don't have any stretch marks. You must not have any kids."

Her face when I told her how many kids I had was quite funny. (And I do have stretch marks, she just couldn't see them.)

Fun

Blogging is a funny thing. When there's a lot going on, there's usually no time to write about it. And many times the most important things of life are too private to blog about. There's been a lot of both going on at my house lately. Obviously some of it I can't write about, but I'll try to catch up on what I can.

With Hailey confined pretty much to the house in early July, I got a lot of painting done when Kelly would be here to help with her. I got one upstairs bathroom, two hallways, and the upstairs living area done. I still want to get the stairway done, but that may have to wait until September. It's a doozy, so I need a long concentrated time to do it.

Then, our friends, the Schneiders came for a visit. I hope to post pictures at some point, but we had a great time. I met Vivian when her oldest was crawling around on the floor and I was due to have Kora any day. Now we have 10 kids between us (and her oldest son is not crawling any more - he's 6 foot tall!) They are military and recently moved from Germany to England and were home on furlough, basically. We went to Six Flags, we went to the pool, we went shopping, we played poker after the kids went to bed. It was a great week. (And no, I didn't drag Hailey to Six Flags - she'd have been miserable! A friend let her and Ashlynn come play with her girls until Kelly got off work. Thanks, Candace!)

This week, I am going to try to potty train Ashlynn before school starts next week. She's been basically begging to potty train for weeks, and I've been putting it off. And if it doesn't "take" this week, she may not get another chance before Christmas! Two of my least favorite things as a parent are teaching phonics and potty training and I have to do both this fall! But maybe our last little girl will make it easy on me? Believe me, I am not holding my breath.