Lyla appears to be getting into her groove. Today, she just walked right on up the stairs without even asking me to come up to the classroom. Yesterday, she told me she wanted me to leave her in the classroom, but today was fine heading up on her own.
One of the teachers told me that yesterday, once Lyla was sitting down on the carpet, she looked around, realized no one else was crying and calmed down and stopped crying. After that, the rest of the day was totally fine.
Here's hoping I'm done with the pre pre-school tears!
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Instead of chronicling Lyla's pre-school saga in my Facebook status, I realized I should use the blog and open up the info to people like... oh... my mom. Hi, Mom!
The first two days of pre-school were great. We had gone to an orientation earlier and Lyla met the teachers and saw the classroom. Then when I dropped her off on the first couple days, she was a little skeptical about the process, but didn't break down crying. To explain the process, we would enter the school, go downstairs into a little out of the way lobby and wait for the teachers to come get the kids. They would take the kids up another set of stairs and into their classroom.
The third day, since Lyla seemed mostly ok and since all had gone well the first couple days, I asked Lyla for a hug and a kiss before she headed off. Big mistake! She gave me a hug, refused to let go and started wailing and screaming that she needed her Daddy to stay with her. I tried to calm her down and failed. I realized I just had to leave and took off as the teacher who was holding her hand as Lyla went boneless, started to say, "Daddy, I think you just need to leave and..." and then saw I was already half way up the stairs.
Today, the pre-school's new plan was to take the kids in through a different door, so the parents could take the kids up to the classroom instead of dropping them off at the other door. While this worked for many kids and parents, it was a total failure for us. Lyla was fine as I was leaving her at the door, then saw the other parents going up and started to get teary eyed and turned back to find me and wanted me to go upstairs to the classroom with her. Once there, she grabbed onto me again and refused to let go. Once again, I had to pry her off and make a break for it. This time, I ended up right outside her window and got to listen to her screaming. Fortunately it subsided after a couple minutes. Any bets on how much longer this will happen? I'm hoping not much more.
I do have to say, it's nice to hear her say, "I want my daddy to stay with me forever", even if she says it while crying her head off and clinging to me for dear life. I'm sure forever will be over when she's a teenager.
The first two days of pre-school were great. We had gone to an orientation earlier and Lyla met the teachers and saw the classroom. Then when I dropped her off on the first couple days, she was a little skeptical about the process, but didn't break down crying. To explain the process, we would enter the school, go downstairs into a little out of the way lobby and wait for the teachers to come get the kids. They would take the kids up another set of stairs and into their classroom.
The third day, since Lyla seemed mostly ok and since all had gone well the first couple days, I asked Lyla for a hug and a kiss before she headed off. Big mistake! She gave me a hug, refused to let go and started wailing and screaming that she needed her Daddy to stay with her. I tried to calm her down and failed. I realized I just had to leave and took off as the teacher who was holding her hand as Lyla went boneless, started to say, "Daddy, I think you just need to leave and..." and then saw I was already half way up the stairs.
Today, the pre-school's new plan was to take the kids in through a different door, so the parents could take the kids up to the classroom instead of dropping them off at the other door. While this worked for many kids and parents, it was a total failure for us. Lyla was fine as I was leaving her at the door, then saw the other parents going up and started to get teary eyed and turned back to find me and wanted me to go upstairs to the classroom with her. Once there, she grabbed onto me again and refused to let go. Once again, I had to pry her off and make a break for it. This time, I ended up right outside her window and got to listen to her screaming. Fortunately it subsided after a couple minutes. Any bets on how much longer this will happen? I'm hoping not much more.
I do have to say, it's nice to hear her say, "I want my daddy to stay with me forever", even if she says it while crying her head off and clinging to me for dear life. I'm sure forever will be over when she's a teenager.
Sunday, September 20, 2009
I'm Catching Up!
I've got the August Gallery up! Yay for me! We're only most of the way through September.
The gallery includes pictures of crazy couple weeks for us. We traveled to Oshkosh, left the kids with their grandparents there, drove to Chicago for Jamie and Joe's wedding, then Erin brought me to the airport in Milwaukee to head back to NYC solo.
My flight got diverted due to "developing weather" and I spent 5 hours sitting on a runway in Newburgh, NY. At least the kids weren't with me! Erin and the kids stayed in Oshkosh for a few more days, then brought Jane back to NYC with them. She watched the kids while we went to Alissa and Kyle's wedding in Massachusetts.
I hope you enjoy the pictures! Now I have to start getting September pics ready. Here's a sneak peak from Lyla's first day of pre-school.
The gallery includes pictures of crazy couple weeks for us. We traveled to Oshkosh, left the kids with their grandparents there, drove to Chicago for Jamie and Joe's wedding, then Erin brought me to the airport in Milwaukee to head back to NYC solo.
My flight got diverted due to "developing weather" and I spent 5 hours sitting on a runway in Newburgh, NY. At least the kids weren't with me! Erin and the kids stayed in Oshkosh for a few more days, then brought Jane back to NYC with them. She watched the kids while we went to Alissa and Kyle's wedding in Massachusetts.
I hope you enjoy the pictures! Now I have to start getting September pics ready. Here's a sneak peak from Lyla's first day of pre-school.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Shana Tova!
The Black Family wishes everyone a happy and healthy Jewish New Year. I know it's been forever since I've gotten anything up here, but I FINALLY have the July Gallery up. Hopefully, I'll have August up shortly, too. Sorry for the delays and enjoy!
Friday, July 24, 2009
We Survived!!
I know this has taken a long time to update, but first, my computer died. Motherboard just blew out. Then, I used Erin's computer and spent about an hour updating how my weekend with the kids went. Then, it turns out I wasn't actually logged in and three quarters of what I wrote disappeared. I didn't have the heart to write it again. Now a little time has gone by and I have my new MacBook Pro, so I'll try and rally enough energy to give you a shorter version of my weekend. Here's what had been saved and a little bit more...
Well, I made it through the weekend and Lyla and Quinn still have all their fingers and toes and are in good health.
Saturday went pretty much as planned. It took a little while to find The Little Mermaid, which I thought Lyla would enjoy. I didn't really think about the irony of watching that for "Sushi and a Movie" night until later. Lyla got a little whiney during the whole, "I think I have a Blockbuster account, but don't know where my card is and don't know which of my previous addesses it would be connected with, so I should open a new account" portion of the trip. But overall, both kids were great through that and running to the grocery store to pick up some needed items. Lyla managed to convince me that she needed pink ice cream, too.
We made it home in time for lunch and then managed an hour nap with Lyla before Quinn woke up from his nap. After naptime, I got everyone ready to roll and out the door to go to the park. Fortunately, the timing worked out, so my friend Julie, who was visiting from London was able to meet up with us before heading back to England. She met us at the park and hung out for a little bit, then came back to the house for a little while before her next visit with people.
Quinn, as usual, was super easy to put down for bed, then Lyla and I got down to "Sushi and a Movie. As I mentioned before, The Little Mermaid may not have been the best Sushi movie in the world. However, "Les Poissons" was fantastic to watch and popping eel into my mouth during Flotsam and Jetsam's devious moments was great. I didn't explain any of that to Lyla, though. She went to bed pretty easily.
Now the downside of Saturday was that Lyla took a few bumps. First, I accidentally got some sunscreen in her eye was I was getting her ready to go out. I got her cleaned up and calmed down, but it looked like she had a shiner the rest of the day. Next, while helping with making lunch, she fell off her stool and bumped her chin on the counter. Finally, while walking home from the park, she was trying to pull on my shirt and fell down and scraped her knees. She was a trooper through all of it.
On Sunday, we went to Igloo Cafe for brunch and saw Lyla's friend Zoe and her mom and dad, Chrissy and George. George was conveniently visiting our table in time to watch Quinn while I took Lyla to the potty and discovered the cool new toilet with the build in potty seat. Amazing what they have these days!
After naptime cousin Michelle and Becker came to visit and go to the Beer Garden. All was going great there, until Michelle was giving Quinn his dinner and then he decided to puke all over himself, his seat, the table, the ground and anywhere else he could. We headed home a little earlier than expected and Michelle and Becker took care of the kids while I cleaned up the mess. Quinn seemed fine despite the experience. I was too tired to make the test cake.
On Monday, I got the pool filled up after Quinn's morning nap. Lyla was great during Quinn's speech evaluation and it went well. The evaluator said Quinn probably wouldn't qualify as he communicates well non-verbally. Then naptime was extra long for Lyla, so we didn't have time to go out to the pool and she woke up part way through Quinn's OT. Then not too long after that, Erin came home.
Now, this is all almost a month later, so I'm sure I forgot lots. I seem to remember Monday being very difficult, but I think Lyla was just being a pain in the butt in the morning, which is why I couldn't get the pool filled up during Quinn's nap. Overall, I managed to keep it all under control.
Now that I've switched to a new computer, I need to figure out how I'm going to get photo galleries up. I might change how I do it, so hold on for new pictures. I've got some great ones!
Well, I made it through the weekend and Lyla and Quinn still have all their fingers and toes and are in good health.
Saturday went pretty much as planned. It took a little while to find The Little Mermaid, which I thought Lyla would enjoy. I didn't really think about the irony of watching that for "Sushi and a Movie" night until later. Lyla got a little whiney during the whole, "I think I have a Blockbuster account, but don't know where my card is and don't know which of my previous addesses it would be connected with, so I should open a new account" portion of the trip. But overall, both kids were great through that and running to the grocery store to pick up some needed items. Lyla managed to convince me that she needed pink ice cream, too.
We made it home in time for lunch and then managed an hour nap with Lyla before Quinn woke up from his nap. After naptime, I got everyone ready to roll and out the door to go to the park. Fortunately, the timing worked out, so my friend Julie, who was visiting from London was able to meet up with us before heading back to England. She met us at the park and hung out for a little bit, then came back to the house for a little while before her next visit with people.
Quinn, as usual, was super easy to put down for bed, then Lyla and I got down to "Sushi and a Movie. As I mentioned before, The Little Mermaid may not have been the best Sushi movie in the world. However, "Les Poissons" was fantastic to watch and popping eel into my mouth during Flotsam and Jetsam's devious moments was great. I didn't explain any of that to Lyla, though. She went to bed pretty easily.
Now the downside of Saturday was that Lyla took a few bumps. First, I accidentally got some sunscreen in her eye was I was getting her ready to go out. I got her cleaned up and calmed down, but it looked like she had a shiner the rest of the day. Next, while helping with making lunch, she fell off her stool and bumped her chin on the counter. Finally, while walking home from the park, she was trying to pull on my shirt and fell down and scraped her knees. She was a trooper through all of it.
On Sunday, we went to Igloo Cafe for brunch and saw Lyla's friend Zoe and her mom and dad, Chrissy and George. George was conveniently visiting our table in time to watch Quinn while I took Lyla to the potty and discovered the cool new toilet with the build in potty seat. Amazing what they have these days!
After naptime cousin Michelle and Becker came to visit and go to the Beer Garden. All was going great there, until Michelle was giving Quinn his dinner and then he decided to puke all over himself, his seat, the table, the ground and anywhere else he could. We headed home a little earlier than expected and Michelle and Becker took care of the kids while I cleaned up the mess. Quinn seemed fine despite the experience. I was too tired to make the test cake.
On Monday, I got the pool filled up after Quinn's morning nap. Lyla was great during Quinn's speech evaluation and it went well. The evaluator said Quinn probably wouldn't qualify as he communicates well non-verbally. Then naptime was extra long for Lyla, so we didn't have time to go out to the pool and she woke up part way through Quinn's OT. Then not too long after that, Erin came home.
Now, this is all almost a month later, so I'm sure I forgot lots. I seem to remember Monday being very difficult, but I think Lyla was just being a pain in the butt in the morning, which is why I couldn't get the pool filled up during Quinn's nap. Overall, I managed to keep it all under control.
Now that I've switched to a new computer, I need to figure out how I'm going to get photo galleries up. I might change how I do it, so hold on for new pictures. I've got some great ones!
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Weekend for Three
Erin is off to Chicago for the weekend and I'm home with the kids all by myself, so I figured I'd utilize this blog to schedule out my weekend. Then I can let you all now how it went afterward. I definitely don't expect it to go as planned, but here's what I'm hoping to do [note: I started this Saturday morning, but I'm not posting it until Saturday night, but I'm not changing the content]:
Saturday (after Erin leaves):
- morning: run errands. Go rent a DVD for "Sushi and a Movie" night with Lyla. Grab some needed groceries
- noon: if home in time for lunch, great. If not, stop at a restaurant. I already remembered to pack Quinn's food!
- Naptime
- late afternoon: go to the park. Might have company for this. A few people may be available for a visit.
- evening: dinner for Quinn then put him down and it's time for "Sushi and a Movie" with Lyla.
- Put Lyla to bed and take care of some kitchen stuff that needs to be done, like repacking chicken breasts for freezing and hard boiling some eggs for the kids.
- Pray the kids sleep through the night.
Sunday
- morning: pray the kids have slept through the night.
- late morning: either brunch at Igloo or trip to Target.
- Naptime
- late afternoon: Beer Garden with Michelle and Becker and maybe Beth. Probably have dinner there or order in at home.
- evening: put kids to bed.
- make test cake for Lyla's birthday.
- pray kids sleep through the night.
Monday
- morning: pray the kids have slept through the night.
- later morning: while Quinn naps, go around back and fill up the little pool for later in the day.
- late morning: not sure. Maybe go to the playground across the street for a little bit.
- afternoon: lunch and then Quinn has an evaluation for speech therapy. He makes a lot of pterodactyl type noises, but isn't saying any words yet. It's all part of his low muscle tone, but that's a blog for another day.
- naptime!
- go to the backyard/cement square and play in the pool, water the plants, have Quinn's OT come there for his session.
- Erin should be home by dinner!
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