This was at the auto show.  Just think, 13 years from now she’ll be on the road with the rest of us!  AAAACCCKKK!

“Old Buckethead” in better days.  With unseasonably warm weather these last few days, the snowman that the kids built is no longer in good shape.  Let’s just say that he’s off to the North Pole to return again someday!  But how cute the children are!  There is nothing cuter than kids dressed head to toe in snow suits!

We waited a while for Francesca.  In a lot of different ways ways.  We waited to conceive.  We switched to science when our own attempts did not work.  We tried different scientific approaches, finally arriving at success with PGD and in-vitro fertilization.  When Francesca was around a year old, at the suggestion of her day care,  we had the folks from the Zero to Three program come out to evaluate her.  The teacher at the day care felt she wasn’t hitting the milestones she should be in basically all areas.  I had some concerns myself but had chalked them off to her being on the slower side of the “normal” range.  When I brought the concerns up to our pediatrician he said she was fine, we should wait, but he understood my concern and need to follow up further.

The program administrators sent out a slew of folks, from occupational and physical therapists to speech therapists, all of whom came to conduct an in-home evaluation.  I am pleased to say, as were they, that Francesca was doing just fine and would be hitting those milestones in her own time.  We just need to wait.  The speech therapist did suggest that if by 18 months she didn’t speak more we could have her re-evaluated.

She spoke a little more, but not much more at 18 months.  At this point, I was more comfortable in my own skin and felt that Francesca was just moving at her own pace and that it was just a tad behind the other kids.  We didn’t re-evaluate.   We waited some more.  Every so often I question where she is developmentally and before I have a chance to explore my concerns further, she goes and moves on up to another milestone.

At just over 3 now, she is talking up a storm.  Her sentences are not grammatically correct by any stretch of the imagination.  At times I catch myself wondering if she should have the syntax of grammar “down” a little more than she does, and then I remember that she will “get it” in her own time.  And we wait.   There will come a time, in the very near future that I will miss the little nuances and errors of her speech and grammar.  She will soon move away from those cute mixed-up phrases and be talking like a “3 going on 10″ year old. For now, she speaks like this:

“Who do that?”

“Mommy, this eye wake” (as she points to her eye), “this eye, tired” (as she points to the other).

“I hungry Mommy.”

“I no sorry!” (very popular after asking her to apologize to her brother for something she did to him)

I love the way she speaks. For now, I will cherish the words and phrases of a pre-schooler and

I will chuckle, to myself, when she talks as she does.  It will soon change.  I can wait.

We did it!  With just a small effort Francesca is potty trained.  She is a stubborn little one and has resisted for some time now, even though she knew the drill.  So I waited.  I finally revisited the whole potty training thing and within short order she was running to the potty on her own.

I still have her in pull-ups at night although she wakes up dry most mornings.  I should have let my 6 year old train her, because she looks up to him so much.  He suggested she use the ” big potty” (toilet) and lo and behold she has circumvented the potty chair and went straight to the big potty.  So much for transition.

It is so nice to not have to buy diapers anymore.  We now have quite the assortment of fancy big girl underwear.  Dora, Disney princesses and Fancy Nancy underwear are particular favorites.  Although with a big brother who is such a Star Wars fan, I think she might prefer Star Wars underwear.  She walks around humming the Star Wars theme and playing with his Lego Star Wars toys. Too bad they don’t make them for girls.

With Kiddie Land closing this summer, I thought it would be nice to bring the kids there for a first and last visit.  We used to go to Kiddie Land when my older girls were little and I remember going with my parents as a child.  We had a fun time, although we were supposed to meet one of Ross’ friends and his family.  They got there about a half an hour after us and literally could not park.  It was that crowded.  Even with the crowds though, we didn’t have to wait too long to get on the rides.  The kids had a blast and went on many a spinning ride.  I snapped this picture of the kids on one of the spinning rides, Ross looks like he is going to throw up.  When I asked him if he felt sick, he said “no - I just like to hold my breath when spinning”.  Uh, okay.

It’s kind of sad that they are closing up the amusement park.  At least we got to experience it as a family and will have the memories and the photos.  They are still open on weekends through the end of this month I believe.  We may try for one last visit since the weather is so summery now.

A fun summer Saturday.

A loyal tee ball fan!

The “object” of her affections!

A spin around the track - not as much fun as the bouncy things but still a good time!

A sword for the Clone Trooper / Super Hero / Power Ranger.

And a flower painted on a sleeping princess.

Waiting for dance class to begin.

Sorry about the red eye!

060609-033

So many of my photos of Francesca are fuzzy.  She moves all the time and never stops!  This session of Dance is over for now but she loved it, so we will definitely sign up again.  She loves to wear her dance outfit and routinely wears it around.

I dislike backhanded compliments.  I dislike ambiguous comments even more.  Francesca and I were at her gymnastics class recently.  It was the first class and we were early.  She ran around a lot while we were waiting to get into the room.  No biggie - she didn’t bother anyone or act destructively, she acted…well she acted like a 2 year old.

Inside the gymnastics room we introduced ourselves and then waited again for the instructors to set up all the pads and pieces to an obstacle course.  All the children were sitting on the sides with their moms (not a sexist comment - just noting that there were no men in the room - just women - I’m guessing some nannies and a grandmother or two) some were sitting better than others.  Francesca does not sit well.  She was wiggling and squirming and was vocal about the fact that she did not like waiting and sitting.  Mercifully, the obstacle course was quickly set up.  As we were waiting our turn, one of the moms turned to me and said “I know you.  We saw you in church on Easter.  I thought it was interesting how you just watcher her.” 

Gulp.  How do you respond to this?  Easter Mass was not one of my fondest memories.  We typically attend “lower mass” on Sundays which is basically the basement of the church.  The upper church, the actual church where there are pews and the alter are no place for children who do not sit well.  I learned that lesson early when Ross was a baby and upon finishing his bottle threw it and it landed in the pew ahead of us.  A man who was less than thrilled with this occurrence turned to hand the bottle to me with a glare you would not believe.  I know it was inappropriate to throw the bottle, but heck he was under a year old.  Doesn’t this man remember what it’s like to have children?  Little children?  Needless to say since that day we have attended lower mass, a family friendly area in which no one thinks twice if little ones run around, the church even has books for the kids to read and a Church Bulletin made specifically for kids with games and pictures to color.  They even have the children come up and sing “The Lord’s Prayer”.  It’s Catholic Mass lite. 

So Easter Sunday, we ended up at the 10:30 Mass apparently a very popular choice as the upper church and lower church were filled to capacity and we were directed to the school Gymnasium otherwise known as the Parish Life Center.  People sat on the bleachers and in folding chairs.  We stood on the side, by choice.  Multiple times ushers directed us to open seats to which I declined.  Ross would sit, Francesca is just too young.  Now I must point out that we were not the only ones standing on the side.

During mass, Francesca proceeded to spin, she spins and spins until she gets dizzy.  I would stop her before she did, and she was right by me and causing no harm.  Then the dressy patent leathers came off.  I tried to get them back on but she started to scream “no shoes”.  So there she was in tights on the floor.  Again, with 4 kids, you just don’t sweat the small stuff.  Towards the end she started to walk down the corridor.  I watched her, knowing if I tried to keep her still she would cry and scream.  She didn’t go far, always turning back.  When she did get a little further I would then go and retrieve her.  The other mothers comments made at gymnastics took me right back to the moment.

Most mothers can empathize with other mothers.  We have all experienced those moments when your child will not behave.  It would have been easier to just stay home from church.  But putting our children in social situations helps to teach them how to behave appropriately.  It’s not that I didn’t try, I did.  But she didn’t listen.  I did reinforce to her that she misbehaved, there in church and then again later as we talked.  As she gets older she will get it.  I don’t think that mom will.

In the end, I decided to shake it off.  I responded that “watching her was the appropriate thing to do in that moment”.  It was a civil response.  Because really, I wanted to say how I found it “interesting that she had an opinion on my parenting”.

I think when a two year old takes her own diaper off because it is wet that it is time to start potty training.  Lately, Francesca has taken to stripping.  She takes her clothes off wherever she can.  She has never liked shoes (who can blame her - I’m a barefoot girl myself in the house) so she has always whipped off her shoes and socks at every opportunity.  Pants and shirts are optional too.

We have been at the park district and she has started to pull her pants down.  Now she undresses and takes her diaper off when she had wet herself.  We were by Nicole and Brandon yesterday visiting little Eleanor and were all in the backyard.  Francesca started with her shoes and socks and was running in the grass barefoot.  A short time later her pants and diaper were off in a flash and she run squealing through the yard.  I wish I had a photo but we were all too busy laughing.

I think it’s time to pull out the old potty chair and begin the potty training.  Goodbye Huggies size #3, hello training diapers and potty chairs!

This evening we were at the Park District for Ross’ swim lesson and as usual, after his lesson he joined us over in the kiddie pool which is where I keep Francesca occupied for the duration of his class.

As the kids were playing in the kiddie pool, I issued the 10 minute warning that we would leave soon. Francesca wanted to go down the slide and as she was leaving the pool and going over to the slide she slipped and slammed down hard on her arm.

As I rushed over to her - a whole 3 feet away or so, she was screaming and holding her left arm.  I picked her up and tried to see if I could get her to move her hand with no luck.  As I was excidedly telling Ross to come out and that we had to leave - (most likely to go to the hospital since her arm was bruised and looked swolen to me), one of the moms who had just dropped her daughter off for lessons and had her younger son in the kiddie pool calmly asked me to sit down and put Francesca on my lap.  I didn’t even know her name but we’ve engaged in small talk over the last few weeks.

She proceeded to place a towel on my lap and another over Francesca’s body and then started asking Francesca to tap her fingers on to her hand.  By now Francesca had stopped crying and was starting to move her hand a little.  As the mom continued to worked with Francesca, having her move her hand, her elbow and her shoulder - asking her to squeeze her finger and tap her hand, I asked if she was a nurse.  Turns out she is a Physical Therapist.

After some good time was passed  it was clear that she likely didn’t break anything and that I just needed to keep an eye on her for any problems most likely, she was fine.  I thanked this mom and asked her name - we finally introduced ourselves - which normally would have happened already - I guess we were both wrapped up in watching over the kids.  I also told her how very lucky for me she was there and that she was a Physical Therapist to boot!

She very politely said that if the roles were reversed I’d have done the exact same thing.  I wish I could say I was more calm and purposely reactful but I was not - I was scared and not sure exactly what to do.  After 4 kids, you’d think I’d have it down but none of my children have ever broken a bone (or almost broken one) before.  We’ve had stitches and blood - and for some strange reason I reacted more calmly and knew what to do. 

 I hope I don’t have a situation like this again although I know I’m lucky everything was just fine, but I’m going to need to brush up on my emergency first aid.  Julie, I know you are not reading this but thank you from the bottom of my heart.  Not just because you knew what to do but because you knew how to be so very calming for Francesca and for me.