New Blog!

I finally got around to creating Lola's blog about our adventures in homeschooling! I've been keeping a journal, so I thought it'd be way more efficient to get a blog going and be able to add pictures (eventually, once I get my camera fixed!).

Now, onto my other two dilemmas. The first is how to help Lola decompress from a whole day of school. She is really emotional and feisty when I pick her up. Then we get home, where she quickly proceeds to find her spot underneath my skin and I end up getting crazy irritated with her. I know she is super wound up by her long, high-energy day but doesn't really know what to do with it all. At first, before I recognized this to be a pattern, I sometimes arranged for her friends to come play after school, but each time resulted in her just completely losing it. Obviously, we have stopped having after-school playdates, but it hasn't really helped much so far. I wish I could find a way to get her to have some quiet time to herself for a little while after school, but Lola is definitely not one to surrender to being mellow without a fight. I really believe it's best for her, so this week we are going to start mandating of hour of quiet time after school (read books, color, play quietly, etc...) and see how this goes.

Dilemma number two isn't really a dilemma, just a situation that I see needs some tweaking. It's now 9 pm and Lola has been in bed for over an hour, but is obviously not sleepy or going to sleep anytime soon. The problem is that during the weekend (Friday to Monday, for us), our routine isn't as consistent and she invariably goes to bed later and sleeps in later than she does when it's not a school night. Something for us to work on...

House of Pain

In the span of about 2 hours this evening, Elise tripped on her own feet, landing with her head hitting a wall corner. Lola fell in the bathtub, hitting her head on the porcelain soap dish. Then Elise was running onto the bathroom's wet floors and slipped, landed on her back, smacking her head on the cement tile floor.
There have been many tears (mine) and goose eggs (theirs) in this house tonight. I didn't even bother putting away the arnica, rescue remedy or the bumps-n-bruises stick. Now everyone is asleep peacefully. I am finally beginning to unwind and decompress with a glass of wine.

Must be a full moon tonight??

Definitely a FIRST in my mommyhood career so far....

Elise was sitting and eating a small bowl of frozen peas this morning as I was trying to get ready for the day. I don't know, she just really likes them. Anyway, later she comes to me pointing to her nose and trying get me to look at it. She grabbed my fingers and started making me scratch her nose. It was the weirdest thing! Her right nostril was clearly red and irritated from her clawing at it. I looked up her nasal passages but couldn't find anything that might be causing her agitation. I finished getting ready and got her in the car so we could go pick Lola up from school. Maybe about 30-40 minutes had passed since this little nasal incident. I put Elise in her car seat, buckled her in, then went to kiss her nose, (as is our little car ride ritual), when what do I see but the brightest, greenest and biggest PEA I have ever seen, stuck up her nostril!!!
Well, that explained a lot! Any efforts I made trying to get it out with my fingers just ended up pushing the pea further up the nasal passage. I finally managed to get it out by massaging her nose in downward strokes from top to tip until I coaxed it to her nostril opening. And then, with a big *pop*, out it came! So in case you're ever in the position of having to coax a pea from your baby's nose...remember this technique as it was very effective for us!

What a prime photo opportunity if I would have just thought of it!!! sigh...

Pear Picking in Julian

We had a great day visiting Apple Starr Orchard in Julian today. We went for apples, but we were a bit too early so we picked pears instead...red bartlett, green bartlett and bosc. They are a cute little certified organic orchard that just happens to be on the same road as a couple of wineries, so, of course, we had to check those out as well. One of the wineries proved to be pretty good and we bought a few bottles from them. We will definitely go back to Apple Starr in a couple of weeks to get some apples. I still don't know what I'm going to do with all these pears, but I'll figure out some good recipes, I'm sure. They are delicious!

Oh, and there were a ton of great photo opportunites, but unfortunately, my camera seems to be broken. *snifff*