Bath time = crying

Bath time in our house is not a happy time for anyone involved. Just thought I would share our misery with everyone.

Josie does not like the bathtub. She does not like getting a bath. We have tried the following without sucess:
Little bit of water, Lots of water, Bubbles, Toys, a Shower

We even tried it with the DVD player in the room showing The Wiggles. She hated it still. Any suggestions on this one?

Tree!

For those of you who haven't seen our yard in a while I thought I would post some pictures of how things have been coming along. Plus we just bought and planted an Eastern Redbud tree in our front yard. It is a native tree that has pink blooms in the spring and provides great color in the fall as well. We bought the tree on Saturday and we planted it the next day as early in the morning as we could. You see the day we planted the tree had to be one of the hottest days this summer. It was a family even, planting the tree. Brian and I would tag out on the digging because most of our soil is rock. It took a lot of hand "pick axing" to get the hole deep enough through all the rocks. Josie helped us too by putting the rocks we dug out into a bucket for redistribution later. Towards the end we got out a wash pan with water for Josie to play in. She was very thoughtful and would dip a washcloth in the water and then wipe our arms, back of the neck or whatever she could reach. Helped us to stay cool. She was even sweaty and she wasn't doing much.


Once the tree was in and we pulled out the hose to water it is when the fun began. Josie likes to put her hands in the hose spray while we water the plants. So this time I set the nozzle to the mist feature and I misted her and she loved it. Normally she doesn't like to get totally wet but today she had a great time running in the mist. Once the tree was initally watered I set the hose to mist and locked in the on position and set it on the ground. She had a great time running through the water. She also picked up the sprayer and started misting me and Daddy. Which we didn't mind too much since we were plenty hot. So we all ended up soaked, cooled off and had our first tree planted. It was a good morning.

This is a good shot to prove to everyone that yes we have grass now!!!

Here is my front garden

And here is my foggy friend.

Tired of Work

I am tired of working. I know I posted a while back about the reasons I work and those are all still true but today I am just tired of working. I am tired of working in the boys club and facing the inequities that come with it. Today is just one of those days where what is good for the Gander does not go the same for the Goose. I have dealt with these issues my whole career and just normally roll with it but today it gets to me. Maybe because I am on day three of a migraine and i don't have much energy left to deal with anything. It just annoys me when favorites are played. It also annoys me when people act like i don't have two brain cells to rub together. I have only been doing this for seven years now. Just so frustrating!

Kate Grimes via my cell

Bob-isms

Bob is a guy I work with and his brain works a little differently then the rest of us I would say. He is very quick with a one liner. Here is something he said today....

"You can rationalize anything but eating a dead opossum on the side of the road. Any way you dice it, it is still dead and it smells."

Watch out!

What is with Daycares and people not paying attention in the parking lot. I can't tell you how many times I have almost been hit by another driver, both as a pedestrian and as a driver, in the parking lot of Josie's daycare. This has happened both at the daycare in PA and in MD. It seems like after a parent has either dropped of or picked up their child they just throw the car in reverse and gun it. I am sure I drive people nuts in the parking lot by driving slow and being very careful but I do that more for my own safety then anyone elses. Today I pulled into the parking lot just to have some Ford pull out of his space right in front of me like I wasn't even there. He looked a little embarrassed when he finally looked back, after being more than halfway out of the spot, and saw my CR-V there. Good thing I was going slow. One would think that in a Daycare parking lot you would be extra careful considering there are children running about and no one has a child to spare. So please, no matter what parking lot you are in, be aware that there are other cars about and children can come out of nowhere.

Blah, Blah, Blah

Lots of new words going around my house these days. Josie's vocabulary has exploded lately. Although if you came into the house you probably wouldn't hear a word out of her since she seems to clam up around new people. But at home and at Daycare she is talking up a storm. She says Hi and Bye and I love you. Whenever she give you something she says "Here you go." She recognizes the pizza delivery box (and I swear we don't order that often) and says "Pizza." She loves pizza. If you are sitting and she wants you to get up for some reason she pushes on you and says Up. She wanted me to come into the living room the other day and she pulled on my pants and said Walk while pulling me into the room. She says Hi Kitty and has gotten very good at approaching the cats and petting them gently on the back. All three cats come up to her now and rub on her legs and ask for attention. She also asks for Wiggles by name now. She calls them The Wiggies. There are so many other words too that I can't think of them all. It is just amazing how fast she has grown.

Something revisited...

I like to read the blog posts over at BabyCenter.com in the MOMFormation section. After reading this one post from Very Violet it made me think about my own childhood. The author's toddler daughter has sensory issues and is just a unique child (I know I made a hash of the description). Anyway, the point being that in the post she talks about how the diagnosis of learning/emotional/physical disorders is not a pigeon hole for the child but a key to open the doors of their world through services and aide and support groups. I want to agree with this statement.

I can remember being in third grade, God bless Mrs. Underwood, and knowing that something was wrong but not knowing what it was. Can you imagine being in third grade and wanting a diagnosis of a problem so that you wouldn't feel like it was all your fault? I had always been at the bottom of my class in reading and spelling and middle of the road with math. It had always embarrassed me. Looking back on things I feel that my first and second grade teachers just passed me along as an average or poor student. But Mrs. Underwood knew better. She was the first teacher to think maybe there was something standing in my way. There were parent/teacher conferences and it was eventually decided that I was, and still am, "mildly" dyslexic. How you can be "mildly" dyslexic is beyond me. I guess it is like being "a little" pregnant. Anyway the mild label meant that I was not bad off enough to warrant special education (which would have cost the school system money). And so more conferences ensued and a home/class plan was set up.


Mrs. Underwood put me in my own spelling group with a short list of words each week. She would put me in a different seat for tests to help me stay focused. She made me feel like I was special and not a poor student. She understood! School was still pretty hard for me and I remained in special spelling groups through fourth and fifth grade. Salvation came in middle and high school where if you didn't finish you could take it home and finish it at home.

I have made my own way in the world and figured out how to work with my disability but even as I type I can see it creeping through my brain and messing with my words. I still read slowly and depend heavily on spell check and even though I am now good at math I still work slow and check my final numbers. I can only wonder how things would have been different had someone noticed earlier that I had a disorder and if I had been given help in learning how to work with my disorder. So I guess the bottom line here is yes, a diagnosis is not a self fulfilling prophecy or an excuse but a starting point or a launching pad to to accepting who you are and working with what you have.