She Talks Like a Man!

Aisling is slowly learning the names of her classmates. We've learned about Jack and Dina, and yesterday, she mentioned a boy named Jayden.

"I told him that his name is just like Jayden from the Power Rangers Samurai! He's the red Power Ranger," she chattered.

"Mmm...really!"

"And then he said I talked like a man!"

"What? Why would he say that?" I asked, thinking it may have to do with her gruff voice.

"Because I know about the Power Rangers, and girls don't usually know that." 

Kindergarten Rules

It seems like every other day, Aisling is informing us of a new kindergarten rule.

For instance, the second week of school, Aisling told us there is a rule that "we can't touch other people".
When I agreed that one should keep their hands to themselves, she replied with indignation, "But I just wanted to hold my friend's hands. He's a boy."

The rules are explained after certain incidents at school. Probably to drive the point home.
There's the no punching rule (after a tussle between some students), the sharing rule which goes hand in hand with no taking toys away (Aisling informed me a little boy took away what she was playing with), and I think I heard Aisling mention the no tattling rule.

Then after school one afternoon, Aisling said, in an excited manner, "My teacher has a baby in her tummy! And when we're loud, the baby gets a headache!"
Did the teacher tell her that, or was it to the entire class, I wonder.

The Sick Ward

Our household has become the sick ward. Kindergarten is an exciting time for Aisling, but it's a great time for the germs that have never invaded her system until now. While one would think she's build up an immunity from the all the germs her older siblings have brought home, apparently that's not the case.
It started with an innocent but annoying cough last week. Then it progresses to a runny nose, a gross mucous-y nose, fever and general un-wellness. Now, it's gone to an all out bacterial infection that's manifested itself as a irritating skin rash on Aisling.
She's also passed on the germs to others. Mom is out of commission (as much as a mother can be) with the flu. Daddy has a milder case (so far). Devlin is home from school with fevers and a sore throat. Ceilidh has complained of a headache but has pulled herself together to attend school. Quinn? He's had a slight fever and is a bit cranky.
There's a lots of Tylenol, chicken soup, and hot honey with lemon drinks being dispensed. But I'm getting short on TLC -  hard to dispense when you're more sleep deprived than usual, trying to get by with a throat that feels like its full of cut glass.

Reorganization Day

Believe it or not, it's still September and the kids are already on their second P.A. Day! It's called "reorganization day" to allow the schools and teachers to adjust their classrooms to the newly determined class lists. At my children's school, there was an unexpected drop in the enrollment of primary students. It seems many families decided to enroll their children in the French Immersion program. As a consequence, classes are being reduced, students are being shifted around, and teachers re-assigned. Devlin is being moved to a grade 2/3 split while Ceilidh is being moved to a grade 1/2 split. Personally, I'm not concerned with Ceilidh as I'm sure she'll do well in any environment. Devlin is getting the same teacher as last year. Since they have a great relationship, and she knows how to motivate and challenge my son, I think Devlin will be fine as well.
So in keeping with the school calendar, I decided to "reorganize" as well. I spent several hours putting away too-small clothing, and summer or warm weather outfits. I unpacked larger sized cold weather items, and took stock of what I needed to still purchase.  I had noticed that Devlin's wrists were hanging past the ends of his sleeves. Apparently, I only stock up on shirts in larger sizes when they go on sale, so Devlin was fine. And he only grew in his arms. Last year's pants (size 6) still fit him -  length and waist. While Ceilidh had an abundance of tops, she was lacking in pants. She had definitely grown over the summer. Last year's pants looked like pedal pushers on her.
Well, that's one item crossed off my to-do fall list. Next - bedding.

Innocence Still in Place For a Little Longer

At some point, children lose their innocence. Sometimes it happens in a horrifying instant for the unfortunate who find themselves in peril at the hands of evil. Hopefully, more often, children will lose their innocence in gradual increments - through conversations with peers on the playground, in a classroom setting with a teacher, at home in a discussion with a parent. Soon, they will learn the secondary meaning of the "birds and the bees", and the taboo connotations of seemingly bland words.
Already, at age eight, we're seeing that Devlin is starting to become more aware as  many of his school friends have older siblings. The clearest example being, of course, his questioning of Santa Claus' existence.
Ceilidh still has her feet planted in the land of fairy tales, pink cotton candy, unicorns and happiness. She still believes that Justin Bieber is very cute, although One Direction could be the "best band ever". Her jokes are still silly and makes very little sense, except to her.
On the way to school this morning, she told me she wanted to share her new song. It was a variation on the song Alice The Camel. Her twist? "Alvin the Chipmunk has five nuts", she sang loudly. The child in me delighted in her singing, knowing she meant acorns or walnuts. But the parent in me had to shush her, and probe whether or not she learned this from her friends at school (nope, she made it up herself) and what she knew about "nuts" (nothing, it turns out). Then I gently tried to steer her towards a more appropriate or sillier version of the song that wouldn't get a note sent home from school.

Missing Toopy and Binoo

Earlier this year, in an effort to reduce costs, we decided to get rid of our ridiculous cable bill and rely on a rooftop antenna for our television viewing pleasure. To do so, however, meant we had to upgrade our television sets (yeah I know, in order to save money we had to spend some money) to newer, sleeker, lighter, screens that would support high-definition. Instead of paying an obscene amount of money for two channels - our kids only watched Teletoon and Treehouse and we never had time or energy to watch anything - we are now paying $8 a month for Netflix. Not only has our monthly expense gone down considerably in this regard, our sanity has benefited. We are no longer bombarded with cries of "Can you buy me that? For Christmas? For my birthday? No, this toy! Hurry up and come see!" every ten minutes when the kids are watching a show. We've also discovered that both CBC and TVO has kids' programming in the morning without the inane commercials.
Generally, the children haven't really missed cable television. They've discovered that Netflix has a wealth of shows and movies, even those on cable. The Backyardigans, Max and Ruby, Dora and Diego, even SpongeBob (to my dismay). But alas, Aisling has discovered there is one show that's missing.
A few weeks ago, she asked what happened to our old television sets.
Me: Well, we gave one to Novelyn (our former nanny), and the other one to Grandma and Grandpa. Why?
Aisling: Can you please call Novelyn and ask her to bring back the tv?
Me: Why?
Aisling: Because the old tv had Toopy and Binoo in it, and this new one doesn't.

Then her face crumpled and she began to cry.

I guess I'm going to have find some Toopy and Binoo somewhere.

How I spent my summer vacation

I don't think I've ever had to write a paragraph or composition on the topic, nor have I seen my kids bring home that assignment. But now that it's September, I'm left wondering just what I did with my summer. My last summer at home with my kids, on my last maternity leave. Where did the time go?
I know it was a hot and humid summer. When the temperature hit over 40, any thought of spending time outside withered away, like my front lawn. The plants liked the hot weather, and for the first time in my adult life, I was able to enjoy tomatoes, some cucumbers and peppers from the few plants I had growing. There were many afternoons spent playing with Quinn and trying to encourage Aisling to forgo her daily naps. I know I'm guilty letting the Xbox entertain Devlin and Ceilidh on the days when I was exhausted from nursing Quinn throughout the night. There were many moments when I contemplated returning to work early when the Devlin, Ceilidh and Aisling would start arguing and fighting over some toy or some trivial point. We also watched a lot of Olympics, cheering for Canada and witnessing some exciting moments in sports.
But there were weeks and weeks of swimming lessons for Devlin, Ceilidh and Aisling. I think I spent more time chaufeurring them the various pools than I did driving them to various activities during the school year. Soccer took up much of our evenings during the week. There was a trip to Blue Mountain with good friends, and long weekends at the family cottage, the annual visit to the CNE and a night at the drive-in. There was still hockey for Devlin, and Ceilidh learned to ride the bicycle without training wheels so that the entire family could enjoy evening bike rides to the ice cream store. Quinn progressed from the army-belly crawl to motoring around on his hands and knees while his four upper teeth came in to join his two bottom pearls.
And on many days, I found there another kid in the mix with mine. I'm not sure if the neighbourhood thought I was running a free daycare, but often, Devlin would have a playmate over for the entire day (and evening!).  Funnily enough, one of the kids that came over had a mother who was running a home daycare.
And now it's September. With three kids in school, I've been able to enjoy a cup of coffee without reheating it a dozen times. While I look back over the summer of 2012 with fondness, it's time to move forward and turn my over-exhausted mind to thoughts of returning to work.

Aisling's First Day of School

It's hard to believe that summer is "officially" over. Despite the sweltering weather, it is, in fact, the first week of school. My stress level has been slowly rising as August came to an end and my thoughts turned to back-to-school preparations. Could I recycle Ceilidh's backpack for Aisling since Ceilidh had a new, larger backpack. Did Aisling need shoes? Pants were a must for Ceilidh, but not so much for Devlin who hadn't grown as much as I expected. Feet were another story. Everyone needed new shoes. I had purchased Devlin's epi-pens and gotten the doctor's note signed earlier in the summer, but where did I put them? And since we were heading to the family cottage for the last few days of summer, I had to decide how much "lunch" shopping I needed to do beforehand since we were returning on Labour Day to closed stores.
The reality was, I was filling my mind with trivial worries to delay dealing with the fact that my baby girl, my little preemie, my tiny Aisling with the loud voice was heading off to junior kindergarten. While Aisling has been enrolled in structured lessons and activities since she was eighteen months old - gymnastics, swimming, dance, soccer, Sunday school - she has never been in daycare or preschool. This would be her first taste of a classroom setting for a prolonged period of time. And more worrisome, her first time eating lunch in a group setting without a parent or caregiver hovering over her and watching her every bite.
I'm not sure what worried me more - whether or not she would actually ingest any form of nourishment while at school or whether or not she would have a temper tantrum from not getting her way on the first day of classes. For those who think I'm over-reacting or being an over-protective, over-anxious mother, you haven't met my Aisling.
Lately, we've had a few issues or struggles with food with Aisling. Rare is the meal when she would clear her plate. Often, there would be much pleading and negotiating over the few morsels of food on her plate. When urged to eat, she'd simply squirrel the bites into her tiny cheeks and then mumble she couldn't chew.
But more worrisome has been the battle of wills we've had with Aisling over the summer. I will readily admit that Aisling is a tad spoiled. She was the youngest child for nearly three and half years. I'm sure if I really closely examined my actions, the residual guilt I've carried for birthing a premature baby and having to leave her at the hospital for a week before I could bring her home probably plays a role.
However, having two older siblings also means she has two role models and examples - both good and bad. She has learned to verablly spar with us (modelling after Devlin), and she will negotiate everything. Example: when given the choice between strawberries or apples for a snack, she will ask for chocolate. When told she had to sleep in the top bunk or the lower bunk, she picked sleeping with Mommy. When told my Daddy that sleeping with Mommy wasn't an option, she took matters into her own hands. She simply walked into the bedroom, and wriggled into bed next to me and Quinn.  If all else fails in the battle of wills, Aisling will pout and stomp her feet (mimicking Ceilidh), and then stick her tongue out.  What if she does that at school?
Then there's her voice. She has no volume control. Given her stature, it's quite surprising how loud and gruff her voice can be. All summer long we have tried to instill an indoor voice, but to no avail.
Aisling's first day of school dawned bright and early. In an attempt to not be rushed, the kids were awakened early and breakfast served quickly.  Teeth were brushed, hair tied back, shoes tied, lunch bags packed and pictures taken. Despite our best efforts, we were still late. That meant we were unable to meet Aisling's teacher and she had to rush into the classroom. There were several hurried hugs and kisses at the door. Her small face looked on the verge of tears, so I pasted a huge smile on mine, waved bye and walked away.
I crossed my fingers, said a quick prayer and hoped we didn't have another Devlin on our hands. He cried for two months straight, everyday, when he started kindergarten. There were mornings I had to peel him off my legs. Now, he won't let me hold his hand on school property, and no real hugs either. He'll grant me a half-hearted semi-hug if I insist. On his first day back, I had to settle for patting his head.
Well, all my worries may have been for naught. When we went to pick up Aisling, her teacher reported that she had a very good day. Aisling was good at listening to instructions, and lining up, and enjoyed crafts and painting. "A very sweet child" were the teacher's exact words. Aisling herself reported the day was "great".
And her lunch bag? Empty save for the peaches she had informed me earlier that she wouldn't eat.