Is This Normal?
The chaos that is the KerbersArchive for daycare
Emma’s poor face
Poor Emma has had more facial injuries in the last year than many kids have in three times that long. Yesterday everyone at Danielle’s was walking down to the bus stop with Danielle’s daughter Anna. Of course, Emma was running at full speed when she tripped and fell face first onto the sidewalk. The result? Another knot & bruise on the forehead and a scraped up nose & upper lip.
She’s so tough, though…the official word from Ben was that she “cried hard, but not for very long!” That’s my girl.
An actual babysitter
Tonight we sheduled dinner out with our friends Dan and Glenda Stewart. Dan was Dave’s best man at our wedding, and it had been far too long since we had seen them. For any of you who don’t know, Dave’s best friend from high school Mark was killed in a grain bin explosion when we were 20. Dan and Glenda are Mark’s parents, and Dave stayed close with them even after Mark’s death. So when it came time to choose a best man, Dave knew he wanted Dan.
Anyway, we finally got our schedules connected, and planned to go out pretty early to beat the Saturday night restaurant rush. Typically we can make plans whenever we want because Aunt Theresa is always happy to have the kids over for an evening. However, Aunt Theresa had her high school reunion tonight, so she couldn’t babysit. I convinced Dave to let me have Danielle’s daughter Grace come babysit for us. I knew we’d feed the kids before we left and we’d be home before their bedtime, so really it was the perfect babysitting job to break her (and us) in.
Dave was a bit nervous about it all, but I was really proud of him. He didn’t freak out too much, and he kept himself pretty calm. The kids were really excited to have Grace come to our house. They never even thought twice about us leaving…it was bye Mom and Dad…have fun!
Of course everything went fine. The kids had a ball and Grace handled things beautifully. I’m so happy we had such a great first time experience with a non-family member babysitting. It was a good thing for all of us, I think.
Thank God for Danielle
Yesterday morning my friend Addie came over to our house for a play date. Her daughter is Ali, Ben’s very best friend. She also has AJ, who is almost 18 months. Ali and AJ go to Danielle’s during the school year with Ben and Emma, so they are all very close. Often times, the four of them act more like siblings than friends…they bicker and they bug each other but they defend each other more and have missed playing together this summer. So we got them together to do just that.
Now, I’ve written about how much we love Danielle, and how we think she’s probably just about the best daycare provider on the face of the planet. But yesterday proved it. Addie and I were going crazy trying to keep everyone happy and calm. There were honestly a couple of times that the chaos and noise was so great that we just stood there, looked at each other, and burst out laughing. About halfway through the morning another friend Karrin dropped her daughter Anna Klare off here because she had an appointment to go to. That made our total five kids, and you would have thought it was 50. I don’t mean that Anna brought more chaos to the mix at all…it was already nuts well before she got here. They were just all over the place, and they didn’t want to stick with any one thing for very long at all. One kid would want to go outside, and the others would want to go in. Two would want to play downstairs, and two others would want to go upstairs. Then Ben would just go off and be by himself, and all Ali wanted was for him to play with her. Like I said…chaos. Seriously, getting lunch was nearly impossible for me and I had another adult here to help me! It was exhausting.
Both Addie and I commented on how incredulous we are at Danielle’s ability and her demeanor. After one morning of all of the kids together we were both frazzled, yet she does it every day and never appears to feel that way. Thank God we have her, because I know I could never do it all myself! We really do feel blessed to have her in our lives.
One day more!
Ok, so it’s nothing like the French Revolution (my post title comes from Les Mis in case you don’t get that reference) but there is only one more day of school for the 2008-09 school year! Woo hoo!! Sure, I’ll be working most of this week, but it’s just so different being there working when you don’t have to be there. Even Ben is noticing that it’s just plain time to be done. He’s asked me several times in the last fews days if I’m almost done with school. It’s weird…he loves going to Danielle’s, but he’s just ready for summer break.
I hope everyone makes it through our first week home together. There’s always an adjustment period for us all to get acclimated to the summer schedule. I know for me, the most difficult part is getting used to the lack of adult conversation. I think for the kids, the hardest part is getting used to Mom being in charge instead of Danielle. I think she’s way nicer than I am! Well, way calmer at the very least. In all honesty, though, I am really looking forward to summer break. I will really try to cherish the time I have home with Ben and Emma this summer, because I know it will be all too soon when I will wish they would just be home more!!
The egg hunt
Today we went to an Easter egg hunt at Christ Lutheran Church. No, this isn’t our church, because of course we missed the egg hunt at our church. I mean, seriously, who holds an egg hunt in the Saturday before Palm Sunday? They’re supposed to be the day before Easter…duh! But anyway, I digress. Danielle graciously invited us to Christ Lutheran, their church, for their egg hunt. We felt a little bad going since we weren’t members, but she insisted that it would be no problem.
I have to say that this was a very impressive event. The kids were really excited that Grace and Anna, Danielle’s daughters were there. And it was awesome for us, too, because they were great helpers for our kids. 
There were three different stations that the kids rotated through…a windsock craft, coloring eggs, and making a snack. The snack station was really cool, because the ladies talked about how Jesus’s body was put in the tomb (represented by a marshmallow put inside a tube biscuit that had been smashed flat) and then treated with spices (represented by cinnamon in which the dough was rolled) after the body was put in the tomb. But then, as we all know, after three days, the body was gone. With our snack, after they were baked, the marshmallows were gone, too! It was pretty cool. Then we went to color some eggs, which made me very nervous with Emma.
We just modified it a little bit for her, and it went pretty well. Next was the craft project, and Ben made a really cute windsock celebrating Easter. Emma just colored, which was fine with her. Danielle (who was in charge of the event, I should mention) read a story to everyone, and then the snacks were out from the oven and ready to eat! Once everyone was finished with their snack, we were ready to start the hunting.
Even though there were a lot of kids, the egg hunting went well. The day was beautiful, even if it was a bit chilly out. The clear blue skies and bright sunshine made it so much more fun. They clearly announced how many eggs each child could find before we left the building, 
and I think that everyone pretty much stuck to their quota, which was nice. I guess that’s the benefit of going to a church related egg hunt instead of a park district one! 
The morning was a lot of fun for our kids.
My day off
Today we had off for a “board holiday”. I can’t believe that our district actually gets away with that, since everybody knows that we’re really off because it’s Good Friday. Separation of church and state, right? I feel badly for anyone who is not a Christian. After all, we don’t take any of their holy days off. But whatever…I’ll take a day off.
This truly was a day off, too, because I took the kids to daycare like any other Friday. But I didn’t waste the day at all. After dropping them off, I hit Wally to get groceries. It was pouring when I came out, which sucked, but it was nice coming home to an empty house to unload everything. Isn’t it funny how the little things are so exciting when you have little ones around? Anyway, after putting everything away, I hit the basement for a day full of painting. The doors and door frames to the bathroom, the storage area, and the bathroom closet were all still plain wood or primed surface and yes, it had been almost a year since we put them in. So obviously it was a job way past due.
While I love painting, I forgot how tedious so much brush work is. Ugh, the doors are all six panel and the frames of course have three different sections, so there wasn’t much I could do with the roller. But it was a really nice day. I’m almost done…two of the doors need a second coat of rolling, but that shouldn’t take too long. It’s another step to getting a completely finished basement. Someday it will happen…I just know it!
The slivers
This afternoon it was so nice outside that Danielle took the kids to the park to play. I met them there for pickup, and she told me that Ben had fallen and had three slivers in his hand. There had been four, but one was sticking out, so she was able to pull that one out without much problem. The other three, however, were in there pretty good. Immediately upon getting into the car, Ben was rubbing his hand, so I knew they were bothering him. I asked him if I could look at them, but he only agree if I promised not to touch them…just to look. Sure enough, I could see all three of them really clearly in his palm. Two were pretty small, but the third was rather large, and it was already red around it. I knew that I should get that one out. So the saga begins.
At first I just left it alone. I didn’t talk about the slivers for quite awhile, and we went on our business like normal. After dinner, Ben wanted to lay on the couch because his hand hurt. So, just before bath time, I approached the subject while we were snuggled up on the couch. “I can put ice on your hand and then get the sliver out, Buddy”, I said. “How will you get it out?” He asked. I told him that I’d use tweezers, and I think that the mere intrigue of the tweezers was enough to convince him. He got up in his chair and I got some ice. I had him put his palm on the ice while I ran up to get a needle and the tweezers. As I started trying to push it out, I heard a variety of exclamations.
“OW…you’re hurting me!”
“Ow, ow, ow…stop that!!”
“NO…stop pinching it…you’re squeezing it too much!”
“Why are you doing it like that…I don’t want it out!!”
“STOP…Mommy…please stop!!”
“NO, NO, NO…don’t use that pokey thing!” (which was the needle)
The poor guy. The tears were flowing and he was so scared, but I knew I could get it if he would just hold still for a minute. It was not in deep, so I just needed to get the tip out with the needle and it would pull right out. I kept telling him to close his eyes and it would be out. “Be brave, Buddy…I know you can do it,” I encouraged. I finally got a tiny tip of the thing up, and just as I thought, it slipped right out no problem. He stopped crying instantly and a big smile came across his face. He was thrilled that it was all over.
The whole ordeal took less than five minutes, but it was such a big deal. Ben was so proud of himself, and he talked about it the rest of the night. As I was tucking him in, he said, “Mommy, when you got that sliver out I was really happy even though you hurted me a little bit.” “Thanks,” I said. “I knew you could do it, and if I didn’t get it out it would have hurt a lot more tomorrow.” “But Mommy,” he said, “It doesn’t hurt at all now. You were right!”
I know I won’t always hear those words from Ben, so tonight, I’m going to cherish them.
Back to the grind
Our first day back at work and daycare, and we survived it! Truthfully, I was kind of ready to go back. Vacation was great, but we all do so much better with a routine and a schedule. The kids were very excited to go play with their friends at Danielle’s. I said to Emma, “we get to go to Danielle’s today” when she woke up, and she said, “Ali…AJ…’Nell” (which is ‘Danielle’ in Emma speak) and had a big smile on her face. Ben even cracked a smile through his crabbiness at being woken up when I told him it was a ‘Danielle Day’. He was especially excited to give Ali her shell and Danielle her shark’s tooth that we found on the beach. It was a tiny little gesture for each, but it was huge to him.
We all struggled a little bit getting going this morning, but it was a good day. Hopefully the memories of our trip will last until the warm weather hits.
