Rebuffed

Yesterday evening, we went to my parents' house to celebrate Jeff's birthday with Grammy, Poppy, Aunt Carolyn, Aunt Erin, Uncle Brian, and Great Uncle Jim. Miss R was shy. Erin said that she'd never heard Miss R speak. I believe that she finally said a word in front of Erin toward the end of the evening. Roger came with us. He was happy to play with Indiana. As the cake was being placed in front of Jeff, Henry said "Happy Birthday!" to him several times. Miss R and Henry enjoyed ice cream during dessert. Henry sang just about the entire "ring-around-the-rosie" song all by himself for Grammy.

Last night was rough. I was trying to get some work done b/c I wasn't tired. In fact, I finally felt like I had some energy. But Miss R woke up at least five times crying. I'm pretty sure that she wanted milk, but Jeff and I decided to stop giving them milk at night. Well, actually, Jeff was the real "decider" on this issue, but I didn't object. The kids don't use bottles at school. We suspect that the bottles are a crutch that are inhibiting food consumption when at home. Plus, we don't like them drinking milk in bed when they've just brushed their teeth. I've been wondering, moreover, whether Miss R's high levels of milk consumption are contributing to constipation issues that have been improved only minimally with medication. Long story short, she is peeved about not been given milk on command in the middle of the night.

This morning, Henry gave Miss R hugs as I was trying to get her shoes on. He has been saying a lot of long sentences lately. For example, he said "I need to give R a hug."

I took the kids to school. Henry happily said "School!" as we entered the parking lot. The kids held hands on the way to the door of the school. As they got up a step, they released their hands. Miss R reached her hand out for Henry, but Henry wasn't looking. I said, "R, I'll take your hand." She yelled, "No!", completely rebuffed me, and then reached and found Henry's hand. They walked hand in hand all the way down the hall (and it is a long hall) and outside to the playground to find Miss R's class. Miss R's class was coming inside early at the time b/c it was too darn hot outside. They walked with her class still hand-in-hand. Then, Miss R followed her class, and Henry stopped by his classroom when he saw Miss Lulu. He cried a little and made me feel guilty. As usual these days, he was playing around the room by the time I reached the lobby as evidenced on the school monitors.

Jeff and I are still sick. I'm hoping that my chest x-ray results will come in today or tomorrow. I think that the antibiotics are beginning to help, but I still feel pretty lousy. Jeff isn't coughing as frequently, but when he does, it doesn't sound good.