I took a picture instead of scanning it…
And someone wanted attention…
Category Archives: Owen
Any bets on when Owen gets kicked out?
So as we were eating dinner, I was reminding him about bathroom routines and how he could always ask to use the bathroom—even if he was outside playing, etc., and that if his teacher asked him to try to poop he needed to listen to her and not get grouchy with her. Basically trying to lead up to “You have to wipe yourself—they can’t help you like mommy does.”
Then, appropriately, I smelled poop.
I asked Owen if he had poop in his pants and of course his answer was no. We go to the toilet and oh my was it a hot mess. Poop just caked thick in his underwear, covering about the size of your fist. And some was dried on so you knew it had been there A LONG TIME. 😥 So I explained to him that he had to try to wipe himself because if this happened at school his teacher wouldn’t be able to help him. And to his credit, he tried. But it was a miserable failure. We tried a few times from the back and then the front and then with wet wipes…and he still barely touched the mess. After he was done I still needed about three wipes with paper and three with wet wipes.
I know the teacher said it wasn’t really a big deal…but it kinda is. I bet I’m either making 1-2 trips a week or we get kicked out by Thanksgiving.
Just so you have some idea what I’m dealing with, here’s how I keep track of his pooping (it’s an app on my phone). This is only a small section (I also track Miralax/Ex-lax/Mineral Oil and consistency) but you can see that he NEVER initiates pooping and he has multiple dirty underwear incidents each day. Each week looks about the same.
Dinner on the deck!
Owen wanted to eat outside tonight…so we did!
I stripped Katie down since she was soaked from playing in the water table…so I figured it was a good time to let her try to eat a food pouch on her own (in the past when I’ve tried, she squeezes it ALL OVER the place). Of course, tonight she sucked it down like a pro (two, in fact) and didn’t waste one bit. I’m thinking the trick is to make sure she’s REALLY hungry. 🙂
I took 15 pictures and this is the best of the bunch.
Katie & the Water Table, Day 2
She does whatever he does…
She’s fast!
Pre-K Home Visit
The home visit was basically just to get to know the teacher and for them (the teacher and an admin) to hand out the laundry list of materials (handbook, calendar, supply list, etc.) and let you discuss anything about your child you felt needed discussion. She also took a picture of him to put on his bin. 🙂 But it wasn’t bad at all—and I really REALLY like the teacher, Mrs. Ashley.
We went over his general home life (baby sister, three pets, daddy deployed), his potential behavior issues (how he’s generally a very well-behaved and polite kid, but with a recent streak of attitude), his food issues, and of course his poop issues. As I’m sure you can guess, the last two are the biggest worries for me.
As with preschool, all food (in this case, breakfast, lunch, and a snack) are all provided—and you CANNOT bring anything from home. If you don’t like what’s served, too bad. And while on one hand I can understand that…on the other hand, Owen doesn’t like much so I anticipate him being hungry quite a bit. I did tell the teacher about Owen earning “bonus badges” for trying new foods, so she said she’d let me know what he ate or if he tried a new food (I told her it would likely be very obvious if he tried a new food because he would initially refuse to eat it). She says their policy is that the kids have to try something…so that might help Owen—especially if other kids are having to do it, too. They will also call if (for whatever reason) he doesn’t eat anything all day. I guess I’ll just have a stash of granola bars or crackers in the car for when I pick him up.
As far as poop…I reiterated the entire saga to them (a condensed version starting from Day 1 of potty training through being hospitalized last month and the likelihood that he’s already constipated again) because I wanted them to know that I wasn’t hiding anything. I even told them I was honestly TERRIFIED of him getting kicked out due to this issue and that I almost didn’t accept the Pre-K admission because of it. They tried to assure me that it wasn’t that big of a deal and that they “have seen it all” and they “have worked with other kids on this issue”…but at the end of the day, they can ask if he needs to go and suggest he try…but they can’t really can’t assist in any way (and to me, that’s where the biggest problem will be). As she said, “We can stand outside the door and say ‘I think you might need to wipe again’ but that’s about the extent of it.” If it’s something really bad, they have to call me. Yes, call me, so I can drive 15 minutes in to clean him up. 🙁
After they left I tried to tell Owen a little about his new class and expectations so he wouldn’t be surprised. I told him he’d be eating lunch there and he might not like everything but has to try it…and it was like talking to a wall. He doesn’t pay attention and it drives me nuts. So I guess he’ll learn the hard way…
We built a boat!
Tom sent this as a reward for Owen being a good boy and future pooping in the potty. Which he sometimes does after you MAKE him…or when he knows there’s a big new toy on the line.
He did pretty good following the instructions (with a little of my help) and he only got sidetracked a few times. His attention would start wandering and he wasn’t really paying attention and I told him he was losing his train of thought. He asked what that meant. I told him his brain was moving along like a train, but then when he stopped paying attention it was like the train was off the tracks. So then he would drag his finger across his forehead saying “This is where the train goes.” 🙂
Cart fun at Walmart
We do this with Owen and Katie so today Owen wanted to do it to Katie. She loved it.
Owen was accepted into Pre-K!
Today was the day we were supposed to get word about Pre-K acceptance…and when we didn’t get any call, I just assumed we didn’t get it (which, honestly, was what we expected—and honestly, kinda hoped for so we could have more time to work on the poop thing).
Then the phone rang at 6:15 with the news that he got accepted!! Which means he now has to move back to his old classroom after just three days in the new classroom. But I’m not worried about that… What I am worried about, of course, is the whole pooping issue. It was one thing for him to be gone for just 3.5 hours—pooping could generally be done before or after. But being gone for 6.5 hours…?? There’s way more of a chance for…DISASTER. And I’m TERRIFIED that he’ll get kicked out and then he’ll be on a wait list to get back into preschool. 🙁
Interestingly, NC Pre-K requirements include a home visit…so that’s Thursday afternoon. Tomorrow will, of course, be spent cleaning up a bit. 😯
So, while I’m excited that Owen got accepted…there are two annoying things.
One? I GET TO MOVE KATIE’S NAP AGAIN!!! 👿 We had JUST gotten into the schedule of naps at 12:30 (to usually around 3)…and now I have to move them earlier because I have to pick Owen up at 2:30. So it’s possible we might have to go back to two shorter naps (one before pickup and one after). UGH. I’m hoping that she adjusts as easily as she did to the other schedule…
Two? I now have to drive an hour a day every day for drop-offs and pick-ups. (Accepting this placement means we’re off the wait list and cannot get placed if there’s an opening at the school five minutes from the house.)
That said, there are two minor bonuses: I no longer have to pay for school and Owen’s buddy was accepted into Pre-K as well.
It shall all be…interesting.
From the county website:
North Carolina Pre-Kindergarten (NC Pre-K) is a state-funded, community-based pre-kindergarten program designed to provide 4-year-old children, who may not otherwise be served, with a valuable educational experience for 6.5 hours per day. Children must be 4 years old on or before August 31, 2013 in order to be eligible, and must meet income qualifications.
Children with identified disabilities and children with other documented risk factors may also be eligible. All families, including military families, are encouraged to apply.
The NC Pre-K Program standards are built on the premise that in order to be academically successful in school, children need to be prepared in all five of the major domains of development outlined by the National Education Goals Panel. Each of these domains is critical to children’s well being, in particular for their success in reading and math as they come to school. The five domains are:
- Health and physical development
- Social and emotional development
- Language development and communication
- Cognition and general knowledge
- Approaches to learning
NC Pre-K operates on the public school calendar. Children are required to have a health assessment, including dental and vision, upon enrollment. A developmental assessment is also provided to identify special needs and monitor growth in the program. Children also receive family support, and other community resources as needed.
What Does NC Pre-K Offer?
Some of the features of the program include:
- A high quality early childhood learning environment for children with developmental, social, and familial risk factors that may affect their success in school.
- High-quality childcare centers, with degreed teachers and state-approved curricula.
- Small class sizes, with no more than 18 children, and two teachers in each classroom.
- Family support regarding health, nutrition, developmental screening and placement for children with special needs.
- Kindergarten Transition Coordination to support families and children as a child moves from pre-kindergarten to ensure a successful start in school.
The NC Pre-kindergarten program in Onslow County serves 859 children in community-based child care and public school settings in 53 classrooms.
That’s not where cars go.
Owen came up and told me he needed to put his cars in water (he has Cars cars that change color in water)…but the one he was holding was already wet. Hmmm… I asked if Amy got out water for him. No. He told me he would show me.
This is what I saw:
Me: Owen, cars don’t go in the water bowl.
Owen: Why not?
It’s like he’s 14 months all over again…until I realized that he was actually doing a good thing because I’ve told him he can’t play in the bathroom sink (because it has a leak) and he couldn’t play in his water table (because it needed cleaning). 🙂
Well, it’s not looking good for Owen.
I’m guessing he’s already completely constipated again…he still refuses to poop and has dirty underwear 3-4 times a day, which the doc previously said means blockage. 🙁
Since we’ve been home from the hospital, he has only pooped of his own free will one time. One. (I’ve been keeping track.) He’s also only said “I have to poop” four times…but those were after I strongly suggested he needed to try. He’s not earned one Lego. Which is worse than it was pre-hospitalization. 🙁
I can’t do anything serious with Miralax or ex-lax since he has school 3x a week…so I only have the weekends. So it looks like I’ll be spending this coming weekend trying to get him cleaned out…which is not fun for either of us.
I just want to scream and cry.
The doc warned this might not be the miracle solution…but something HAS to change. We can’t keep living like this. I’ve tried everything I can think of…but nothing works. Owen isn’t even swayed by the threat of quitting school OR having to go back to the hospital with the needles and tube in his nose (even though he tells me he doesn’t want to do that).
I’m hoping the doc has some better advice at the follow-up appointment in two weeks…because I am seriously at my wits end.
How many sleeps until daddy gets home?
Owen: Mama, I miss my daddy. How many sleeps until he gets home?
Me: A lot, buddy.
Owen: Like 21? 22?
Me: [laughing] No, like 150.
Owen: Wow, that’s a lot.
Me: Yes, it is.
Mama, I like your shirt.
Owen: Mama, I like your shirt.
Me: Thanks!
Owen: What about my body?
Me: 😕 I love it!
Owen: Thanks!
Daddy’s watching you!
I’m feeling disenchanted this morning.
I am a bit disenchanted with Owen’s school this morning. I know it’s all a little last-minute and that’s fine, but it’s stupid little things like no coat hooks and bins, but just bins (which backpacks don’t really even fit in) and a boring outdoor play area (no playset area like he had before—just an open space and a volleyball net—really?). Not that that’s why they’re there or they need an awesome play area…it was just a bit disappointing.
But the biggest thing is that they have no room for Katie in the drop-in care. Why? Because oh, they don’t have drop-in care for 1-year-olds (which no one ever told me) but technically they could take her but because of all this room- and building-switching, they had to move kids and now the 1 year room is at capacity. I asked “So you really never offered actual drop-in care, it’s mostly for scheduled care?” Yep. Well, thanks for wasting my time and having me fill out all the paperwork for no reason. She said I could still call in the mornings and ask if there was a space, but the chances wouldn’t be good unless someone called in sick. Great. There are other locations around town but the point was to DROP THEM BOTH OFF AT THE SAME TIME AT THE SAME PLACE—not drop Owen off then drive 10 minutes across town to drop her off, only to reverse the process at 11:30.
I still have the other drop-in care, but they don’t open until 9am which means I’d have to waste an hour in town if I want to drop her off after Owen (or drive home 15 minutes, waste 30 minutes, then drive 15 minutes back to town). Annoying, first world problems…but stuff that makes my life more difficult.
Edited after pickup to add: Okay, I jumped to conclusions. The area outside their classroom is for the bigger kids. They do take them out front to the nice, cool, new play area. 🙂
Owen’s new classroom
Playing with Katie while waiting for the teacher.
With his buddy, Braxton. (I tend to forget just how big Owen is until he gets next to other kids. Braxton is a few months younger than Owen.)
I know. Holy wah.
Markers, Day 2
Owen promised and PROMISED and PROMISED to use them correctly. So, an hour or so after he earned them back…they were ruined (he pressed the tips hard enough to disappear into the marker) PLUS he left them all uncapped and laying all over plus on the floor (which he was warned about yesterday). So I threw them all in the garbage.
Oh, and he had marker ON HIS LIPS and on his body. And there was marker on the toilet seat. Plus he had glue (from the “art set”) all over him! Ages 3+ my ass.
I may have lost my shit just a little.
I can tell I really need a break because normally I think things like that are funny or picture-worthy…and I’m not feeling that anymore. As a matter of fact, I feel like I’m failing…big time.
I’ll just say that Grannie and Papa’s visit cannot come soon enough.
Two weeks…
Two weeks…
Two weeks…
Owen lost his damn mind.
And definitely his marker privileges. This is what I walked into at bedtime:
One, I didn’t know he even took any markers upstairs.
Two, he’s been great with markers thus far so I had NO reason to believe he’d do something like this.
Three, apparently I needed to remind him markers are for PAPER ONLY.
And four—of course, these weren’t any of the 40 “washable” markers we own. Nooooo, these were some other random markers.
Breathe.
Breathe.
Breathe.
It’s in the first wash cycle now.
Second day of baseball
Here you can see how many people are on the field at one time! (If you click on this panoramic pic, it will pop up a bigger version.)
His first at-bat. Of course, since I was taking pictures, he actually hit the ball on his own! (The next time when I was taking a video (below), he ended up having to use the T—and someone obviously didn’t notice that I was recording and kept talking to me!)
This time, I let Katie out of the stroller when Owen was in the outfield. She stayed pretty close…
Except she kept wandering into the dugout (it wasn’t even Owen’s dugout—it was just the one we were closest to)!
Mid-game post-potty water break:
Here, you can see the announcer with Owen and his volunteer running in the background.
Heading for home!
A different church was helping out today so they didn’t have the full lunch truck, but they did have hot dogs and chips! Then it was off to the playground for a quick visit!
Mama, take a picture of me!
Owen loves Charlie loves Owen
A new sprinkler for the kids!
You gotta love end-of-the-season 50% off sales at the dollar store! Without further ado—Katie’s first sprinkler!
Morning at the playground
I told Owen we could go to the playground this morning, thinking he would pick the one we’ve gone to a few times (the one we stopped at on the way back from seeing Tom off) that’s closest to us…but no…he requested the “baseball playground” (obviously, the one next to the ball fields we went to after playing baseball).
He also requested “socks like grannie’s at the hotel” so he could slide down the slides better. So I gave him some of mine (no pics, unfortunately)…and they stayed on pretty long, until he saw a girl in bare feet and then he wanted bare feet, too!
It was a nice, cool, fall-ish morning so we were all in long pants and long sleeves (which felt like heaven!)…but Katie just couldn’t quite understand the long sleeves and kept trying to pull them off.
This is how she sometimes goes down stairs.
Unlike Owen, she doesn’t mind sand at all.
Owen with Connor, one of the kids from my mommy group.
Katie had her first skinned-lip/chin fall on the sidewalk moments before this (she just stumbled). She cried for about 15 seconds while I brushed the sand off her face…and then she was fine.
Owen’s school will be changing…
But I’m not sure to exactly what quite yet. :~
First, I forgot to mention that we got Owen’s Pre-K waitlist letter earlier this week—so that was good news (definitely better than a flat out no).
So, today at pickup, all the parents were getting pulled into the office…to be told that the school JUST got assigned a Pre-K class so current class locations will be changing. The Pre-K class is going to be held in the current Tiger classroom (Owen’s room) so all the preschool kids will be moving to the building next door. HOWEVER, if your child is on the Pre-K waitlist and is approved, they will be staying in their current classroom—it will just be full-time Pre-K instead of part-time preschool. But we won’t know if we’re approved until Tuesday. But the preschool class moves Monday. Which means if he’s approved, Owen will be moving classrooms TWICE in the span of a week—once to the new preschool classroom for his M-W-F days, then back to his old classroom for Pre-K starting the following Monday.
There is also the option of moving to a different preschool where they will now have openings—but it’s farther away so we’re not interested in that (though there might be some that are, so his classmates would be changing anyway). There are still no openings at the Pre-K five minutes from our house. Of course. And we have no idea how far down we are on the waitlist to know if we even have a chance of being approved.
If Owen is accepted into Pre-K, he will lose one of his friends for sure—“his girl” Joselyne, as she’s only three and too young for Pre-K. And I know his other friend, Braxton, is also on the waitlist so maybe he will get moved to Pre-K without Owen.
Sigh.
The admin admitted that they hadn’t really wanted to add this class because of all the necessary changes (after all, they just got the kids all settled in their schedules with their teacher and the teacher knows them all) but they had already signed the contracts saying they’d take the class if it opened.
So, it shall be interesting.
Oh, the other sucky thing? I have to fill out ALL THE EXACT PAPERWORK again. All 10 pages of information, medical history, likes/dislikes, emergency information, etc. No, they can’t make copies—we asked. The only things they can copy are the shot records and school physicals, which I guess is at least something…
She likes the playset, too!
But I don’t want wine!
Having a ball outside
Katie was having a ball outside.
They found the flower!
Owen found this in Katie’s room and had fun dancing around in it.
He wore it downstairs where he left it…then Katie found it.
Sibling Love
Water!
You can kind of see how she floats around…legs just trailing along behind her!
Game day!
Well, this morning was the first Special Needs Baseball game day! We drove around a bit until we found it (I’d never been to that complex before), picked up Owen’s shirt, and then it was a waiting game before all the registration stuff ended and volunteers got everything ready. And speaking of volunteers, there were a TON of them—a church group and a biker group along with friends and family—enough for a few on each base, ones to run with each batter, ones to have fun in the outfield, and many to just stand and cheer! (They told me later that there usually aren’t that many until later in the season.)
I had only brought my telephoto lens so I had to make Owen stand about 10 feet away to get a shot. Yes, he’s wearing it over his regular shirt—that was his choice. And I could kick myself for not taking more to have one with better lighting. Oh well. And yes, he had to go potty at that moment—that’s where we headed next. 🙂
Katie wasn’t really enjoying being strapped into the stroller, but since I wanted to take pics, I didn’t really have any other options. (In the future I likely won’t be taking as many pics so I can let her wander.) But she wasn’t really that bad (it could have been much worse) and she enjoyed everyone stopping to talk to her or wave at her. And I tried to keep her placated with milk, snacks, and toys.
He found a ball right away!
Lining up to be divided into teams. He was on the Crushers and they were in the outfield first. They even had a parent sing the national anthem!
Owen’s buddy in the outfield.
There was a lot of this in the outfield.
Bowling?
I think he was going for the fumble recovery. 🙂
Waiting for his turn at bat.
Picking a bat!
On second base!
Third base!
Running for home!
Back in the outfield.
I’m not sure why, but there was spinning.
Back up to bat!
He started running the wrong way, so the volunteers helped direct him! This is one of my favorite pics—even though it’s definitely not the best pic—because it shows how awesome and supportive the volunteers are!
Running to second base!
Coming in to a high-five!
Game over! High-fiving everyone!
You can’t really get a good feeling for how crazy it was. There were so many people around, the game being announced play-by-play on loudspeakers, lots of not-playing going on, no scoring, kids running to whatever bases they want, two or more kids running at the same time, some older kids actually hitting the ball and adults in the outfield taking care of those balls, some kids refusing to bat/run, etc. But it was fun and Owen had a good time…so yes, there will be more weeks of this.
Then they announced that lunch would be served at the pavilion, and Owen was hungry…so we went. Thankfully there was just a prayer before eating—which is just fine with me. They had hot dogs and popcorn—and if you can believe it, Owen ate an entire hot dog, bun and all! For the first time ever! WOOHOO! Then he wanted to play on the playground which was very close…so we went. And I finally got to let Katie out of the stroller and she had A BALL!
As we were leaving, Owen said “That was awesome”…and I’m guessing he meant the baseball, though I guess he could have also been referring to the playground as well. But it was a good day that gave me 428 photos to edit down to 58. 🙂 Next time I won’t take nearly as many!