29 days

29 days to go until my husband moves back home.  I've talked about the series of unfortunate events that usually occurs when he is gone..it continues.  The past few days have been a little weird. On Tuesday the kids adopted a new kitten from the animal shelter.  We had a new kitten shortly after Ollie was killed.  She was a little too much for me to handle.  She was a Bengal.  Bengals are suppose to be smart yet kitten like all their life.  I can handle kitten, I can't handle stupid.  Stupid she was.  She peed and crapped everywhere she should not have.  She didn't last long.  A few weeks have gone by.  The kids had started mentioning the kitten subject again.  I debate again.  I don't like small things.  This includes puppies, babies, kittens.  I decided we really need to go the shelter route this time and the kids have spotted a kitten.  I really didn't want to get a kitten.  Monte is my boy.  A very very very spoiled boy.  Paige won't let up about the kitten and Donnie thinks we owe them one.  We head to the shelter in the first ten minutes they were open on Tuesday and adopt the kitten.  She was 25 bucks.  This included shots, license, and spay.  Good deal.  They inform us we can pick her up the next day(Wednesday) BTW 4-6pm.  We get there right at 4 and they bring her out.  Her eyes are dilated.  She looks like she has no iris at all.  We bring her home, lock her in my room bc she isn't feeling well and so Monte does not get her.  She finds her way under the bathroom vanity.  We will call this rescue number 1.  I get her out and she hides the rest of the night.  I put her in the bathroom overnight with the litter box, food, water, blankets.  This morning I go in there and she managed to find her way into the jacuzzi.  She's sitting under the leaking faucet, cold from water drips, and a bar of soap stuck to her butt.  I bring her out, dry her off, try to cuddle.  She gets down and takes off.  Behind the washer she goes.  Then I see her run into a hole in the wall bc the previous owner of the house cut out a section of drywall for some odd reason.

 Shit shit shit.  Where does that go is my immediate thought,  how am I going to get her out is my second thought.  I pull the washer out, get the flashlight out and I don't see her.  I call my grandpa to ask construction questions.  I'm getting nowhere.  I decide to leave and go tanning.  She might come out right if the house is quiet?  I go tanning, come back home, still nothing.  I'm texting Donnie that the damn kitten is stuck in the walls of the house.  I have no idea what to do and what I'm going to tell the kids should she die in there.  Then my genius self decided I would run to Walmart and get some tuna.  Tuna stinks, cats like it, she might come out.  The washer is pulled out again at this point blocking my usual garage entry way.  I head out the front door and not thinking lock it behind me.  This is significant bc I don't have a house key.  One, yes one, house key was included when we purchased our house. I gave it to a friend of mine when we went home in March.  I never got it back.  At this point again I'm thinking Fuuuuuccck.  I'm locked out, but I can't confirm until I get home.  I get my tuna, come home and yes, I'm definitely locked out.  I check the backdoor in hopes that maybe, just maybe, the kids didn't actually listen to me when I told them to lock it.  They did.  I check my usual break in window..its good and locked since the last time I had to break in the house.  I get a hold of my friend who has my key who says her husband is on his way home and will bring me the key.  I hang out for a while.  He brings a key..its not the right key.  Figures.  This is just my luck and just my day.  I want a redo. I decide to check a window that I can never usually shut all the way.  I get lucky.  Very lucky.  Liana is getting good at this crawling through the window thing.

I get in the house, set out my tuna, make the kids go away for the quiet factor.  She still isn't coming out.  I call my good friend Bernie.  He has told me before if I ever had any more snakes in the house to call him and he would come right over.  He has to be in court for a client shortly and can't help me until later.  Just a few minutes later he calls me back and says he has a friend who does drywall and is going to call him.  His sheet rock friend calls me and is coming right over.  In the meantime another friend of mine Denise says she has a husband who loves drywall and she is sending him over.  Both men arrive about the same time.  The sheet rock guy immediately notices the laundry room is not an outside wall and I take him to my walk in closet which is the other side of that wall that she went into.  He says right away confidently shes right in here.  We just need to take all this apart and she should be right there. I'm excited.  There is no wall cutting at this point.  I take all the stuff out of my closet, apologize for the comments the kids are making about things like the handcuffs their daddy has in the closet which they make note that he does sometimes use on mommy.  I do hear him ask then if their daddy is a policeman..nope.  He is an anaesthesiologist.  Nice.  Thanks kids.  He takes the closet apart and yes, there she is.  About ten feet from the entry way of that wall hole.  I grab her and lock her in a bedroom.  Then he so kindly patches the hole in the wall that some doufas cut.

My friend's husband notices while the sheet rock guy is patching that hole that I forgot to take the garbage out today.  He lives in the neighborhood as well and knows today was garbage day.  He also knows how I had to pry the window open with the wonder bar(pry bar looking thing) this morning and I think he's just feeling really bad for me at this point.  He takes my garbage for me.  The sheet rock guy thinks this is all sooo funny and charges me nothing for his repairs.  Kitten rescue number 2 complete.  I lock her into a room again and we go on our way to activities for the night.  My day has finally ended.  My house is a disaster, the closet contents are sprawled all over my bedroom, Coby handcuffed Paige's feet together, but the kitten is out of my walls.  29 more days until my husband comes home. 

For real?

Ok really.  Today is the first day that school has been out for summer vacation.  I dread this time every year.  I was excited at first only to realize that I just needed one day as a break, then they could go back.  Call me unmotherly, selfish, whatever you want, but I'm being completely honest.  Donnie has been gone for about 7 weeks now.  We have until July 1st to go.  I'm beginning to realize already how much I needed that quiet time away from most of the kids to myself.  Every mother needs time to herself.  Today has tested my patience in every way possible.  Before 10am we had already had catastrophies.  Zuri somehow pulled my spice rack down that Paige originally pulled down last week.  The combination of spices and herbs plus pepper all over the floor was a little too much AND I had just washed all the tile to make it worse.

  I decided that I would enforce a quiet hour of the day, everyday just to get my household things done and to have my quiet time.  I thought this was a good plan....I thought wrong.  Quiet time today was from 1-2.  Everybody stayed in their rooms for the most part.  At 2pm when I went upstairs to let everybody know they could come out of their rooms, I realized the destruction the little girls did while they were quiet for that hour.  They decided it would be really really cool to play inside of the bean bag.  Let me tell you, this was not a really cool plan.  I gave them oppurtunity to clean the mess together and enforced they would not be coming out until it was cleaned up.  Liana loves to clean, Zuri does not.  Liana attempted to clean the mess, but Zuri kept dumping the bean bag contents back out, so she was left to do it by herself.  It's now 5:20pm and shes still in there.

How the heck am I going to survive the summer with this?!  The events of today only scream SUMMER SCHOOL to me! 

My Liana is baaaacccckkkkk!  For a little reminder of why this is so exciting..Last year, Zuri started
Pre-K.  I really wanted to go back to work or school part time.  School didn't work out.  The classes I needed either started too early and I wouldn't be able to get the kids to school, or they ended to late and I wouldn't have been able to pick them up from school.  Before even looking for a job or enrolling in school I knew that I am a mother FIRST.  Until the kids are older and I can trust them to stay home, this will be how things work.  I refuse to put my kids in EDP so that I can work.  That would be selfish of me.  We decided to enroll Liana is preschool three days per week at a local church that has an incredible preschool program.  I took a tour of the school over the summer, was put on the waiting list.  About a week later I get a call that she has a spot.  Day one of school comes, she runs to her class, doesn't even say goodbye to me and off she goes.  About 3 hours later I get a phone call that she just stopped crying.  Donnie and I get there to pick here up and she is sitting at the table with a few other kids coloring and doesn't want to leave.  We figure the next class day would be fine then. We figured wrong.  The next few weeks go by and everyone tells me that she will adjust.  The kid had NEVER been away from me.  EVER. The next few weeks get progressively worse.  We get to the point where she cried from 9-230 every day, wouldn't eat there, wouldn't go to the bathroom there.  I would get there to pick her up and her face would be swollen from crying.  I volunteer one day to stay the whole day at preschool to try to help her acclimate.  We made good strides.  After I don't return it goes back to normal.  My mom came in for a visit and tried to stay with her...again no such luck.  We tried everything.  Late drop off's, earlier pick ups, and hour at a time and slowly increase to full day.  I could not take my baby being pulled away from me in tears any longer for my own benefit.  I never fully understood how good of a program this was and how much they teach until I had stayed for that full day and saw for myself everything they do.  I was devastated that she quit the program.  Yes, Liana is a pre-school drop out.  Every mother's dream.  She had been doing gymnastics for a few months before that and was great.  The week she started pre-school, she broke down into tears at gymnastics because I was away from her.  I was where she could see me, but not at her side. In November she quit gymnastics.  Devastated again.  After quitting all this, I figured she would get back to her normal self quickly.  Again, I thought wrong.  The next few months we endured not being able to sleep by herself, the constant " hold me", some severe separation anxiety issues.  In the next few months after that, Liana stays home with dad a few times while I did various errands like grocery shopping.  I would come home to her telling me " I didn't even miss you!"  Well, Fantastic Liana!!  Play dates start to get going, and she decides she's going on a few play dates with her big sister. She was good!  She starts to be able to be gone a little longer and a little longer.  I think we are finally moving on from the preschool experience.  She started soccer two months ago and has actually done really well.  I'm the coach, but still she was learning to trust other people and their authority.  I'm finally positive that maybe we are making some strides with this kid.  In the past few weeks, I notice she's starting to talk to other soccer and gymnastics moms. 
Zuri really wants to be a cheerleader.  Our gymnastics gym has a cheer leading program for kids ages 3-12.  Liana has expressed interest in this as well, but we never considered allowing her to do it as well.  Honestly, its expensive.  It's 1400/per child per 10 month season.  Zuri's clinics were this week on Tuesday.  She goes and LOVES it and its really adorable to see the little cheerleaders.  Since we had no intention of allowing Liana to do until she shows us she can do well in PRE-K this next year, she didn't participate.  Placement clinics are the next day.  Zuri has a slight meltdown bc a good friend of hers doesn't show up.  Mrs. P comes out to do gymnastics and Zuri is all good now, but Liana decides to join in the placement and they were ok with that.  Liana goes up with 3 or 4 other girls and does the cheer.  How does she know the cheer when she didn't do the clinic??  She then proceeds to do the gymnastics assessment and rocks it.  Mrs. P, the owner of the gym, says Liana even gets extra points for her cute little voice!  Both girls make the squad.  I text Donnie to see what he thinks of L joining bc of the financial aspect, and he could care less about how much per month this is going to cost us.  One stipulation of being int he competitive cheer squad is that they are required to do the cheer class each week and one hour of gymnastics per week.  L knows this.  Gymnastics is Thursday's.  Liana says she is going.  We have had this before.  She's told me at the point of pulling into the gym parking lot that she is going in, we get there, and is a NO, I'm not going in.  She has a favorite coach.  Every week he asks her if she's coming back.  All day Monday, I'm reminding her that if she wants to be a cheerleader, she has to do gymnastics on her own, without me.  Thursday's gymnastics class was her test.  We get there, I get her hair in a ponytail, I tell her to give me her thumbs up to let me know she's good, and off she goes.  She went it!! OMG, she went in!  It's exciting.  I'm at the window like the hover mother I am, watching my girl strut her stuff on the floor like she didn't just take a 5 month break from gymnastics. Every few minutes, she gives me a double thumbs up with her cheesy nod to go with it.  Other moms have noticed and think its hilarious.  I was so proud!  She tells me this morning " I'm not gonna quit doing gymnastics."

My baby is BACK!!!!!  She''s serious about cheer. I'm sooo good with that.  This might not be so exciting to other people, but these are huge steps for us.  Its been a really hard year with this kid.  I could only hope that she would grow and mature since quitting preschool and not have this issue in August when she goes to Pre-k.  I'm so glad that my baby is back and now I have two TCA cheerleaders!

Sheeee's Baaaaaaaack!

Liana is back, YES, my kid is back!  Liana always was the witty, loveable, one.  That is until I decided I was going back to work early and she was going to preschool.  Let me refresh for those of you don't know what we have been through with this kid...

Once I decided I was going back to school or work, I started my preschool hunt.  I viewed a few programs, got some recommendations.  We went a toured one preschool at a ginormous church and  at first I thought it was neeeehhhh.  Laina was excited though.  We had to immediately go book bag, nap mat, lunch bag shopping.  The first day of school rolls around.  I get the bigger kids to school and then take her.  She runs to her class, hangs her belongings up, and off to the classroom she goes.  Not even a goodbye.  I'm feeling confident until the phone rings two hours later and its the classroom aid telling me she just stopped crying.  TWO Hours..REALLY?  Donnie and I go to get her and she is sitting at a table with other kids doing some homework and doesn't want to leave.  The kid has never ever ever been away from me...ever.  I figure it was just first day stuff, she will be ok.  The next few days and its the same thing.  Over the next week it progressively gets worse.  She goes from two hours of crying to crying from 930-230, won't eat there, wont go to the bathroom there.  Everybody assures me it will get better.  If this is what they call better, they are crazy.  We try multiple things.  Our first intervention attempt was me staying the entire day at school with her to try to get her comfortable and show her how fun this is going to be.  We make some major strides.  At one point she got in the front of the classroom on her own and showed her classmates all her pictures that I had brought in to try to make this transition easier.  It goes downhill from there.  We try other things like late starts, a few hours at a time then building up to full day, half day, nothing is working.  At almost two months of this, Donnie says he is done.  This just isn't healthy and for me to put her through this at my own benefit of no longer being a stay at home mom is selfish of me.  i never really understood how fantastic of a program this was until I stayed the day with her.  I was amazed at what they taught and was devastated to pull her out of the program, but I realized this just wasn't the time.  Liana had been doing gymnastics for a few months and was doing very well and loved it.  The week she started preschool, she broke down in the middle of gymnastics class and that's where this all started.  My witty, cute, so lovable child became this clingy, severe separation anxiety kid who had to be attached to me at all times.  She didn't even sleep through the night on her own anymore at this point.  It was horrible.  She ended up quitting gymnastics in November when I couldn't get to her do it without me.  Again, I was devastated.  One of my girls has to be an amazing gymnast.  It's a requirement.  Randomly at times when I was running errands for about an hour at at time, she would stay home with dad.  When I would return I would get the " I didn't even miss you!"  Fantastic Liana...so glad you didn't miss me.  I have a really great friend with a little girl that's near Liana's age.  Her other daughter is Zuri's BFF.  Liana decides to tag along on a few play dates and goes home with her.  Big strides here, this is BIG!  She gets to the point where she loves to go with my friend and this is helping us alot.

Zuri really loves cheer leading and gymnastics.  Our gymnastics gym has a private cheer leading group that starts at 3 years old and we decided to allow Zuri to do it.  I had no intentions of allowing Liana to do it bc I had spent that last 5 months trying to get her back int o the gym for gymnastics.  The original deal was when she showed us that she can do Pre-K this fall and go a great job that we would sign her up.  Its expensive to do cheer.  I'm not going to lie.  I debated and debated and debated some more about even letting Zuri do it.  Zuri goes to cheer clinic to learn a simple cheer and some jumps.  She loves it!  The next day at placement clinics, Zuri has a little meltdown bc her  friend didn't show up.  In the middle of her tears, Liana decides she is going to try out.  HUH??  Liana goes out there in front of everybody, with a group of another few girls and does the cheer.  Wait....How does she know the cheer?  She did and she rocked it.  Both girls make the squad.  Again, I'm hesitant at this point bc of the costs. At our gym, in order to do cheer you have to do gymnastics.  TCA cheers are very gymnastics based.  I repeatedly tell Liana she has to go to gymnastics the next day if she wants to be a cheerleader.  This is her test.  Her cheer fate is decided then.  She rides with another friend to gymnastics and meets me there.  I get her hair in a pony and off she goes!  I  could not believe it!  She actually went in and strutted her stuff like she didn't take a 5 month break and even got a promotion!  Several moms notice she went out there and see her giving me her cheesy thumbs up every few minutes letting me know shes ok!  I am texting away at this point and taking pictures bc I am so excited she actually did it.  Liana is back and it is sooooo very exciting.Its been a tough year with this kid!