On the way to school, Miss R wanted to listen to the Muevete CD, so we did. In the car, we debated who was a heffalump and who was a wuzzle. They both wanted to be heffalumps. When I dropped off Miss R, Miss Diana and Miss Lulu said that Miss R is ready for complete potty training at school! That's big news.
Miss Diana told me that Miss R has been hanging on her every word. When the other kids weren’t listening the day before, Miss Diana told them that they’d have to put their heads down on the table to calm themselves. One kid continued to be disruptive, which annoyed Miss R prompting her to say, “No, Christopher. You need to listen to Miss Diana.”
Grammy and Poppy picked up the kids after school. The kids were a bit whiny. They didn't eat much dinner b/c they wanted breakfast food instead of pot roast. Aunt Erin was at my parents. She said that Henry had been in a mood.
As I drove home with Henry and Miss R from Grammy and Poppy’s house, I asked Henry how his day went. He said, “Terrible.” I wasn’t expecting that answer. He is usually Mr. Happy Go Lucky. I asked him why his day had been terrible. He said, “I was crying at Grammy’s house.” He told me that he wanted "to watch something else." I told him that he'd have to wait until tomorrow to watch RV. That didn't please him. He said "I want to watch Yoga. That would be good." I felt as though his conversational skills have yet again reached a new level. I hadn’t realized that Miss R had fallen asleep when I asked her how her day went. Henry told me, “R’s asleep. Wake up, R! Wake up, R! It’s time for breakfast!” I told him that it was OK for R to sleep.
Both kids were up when we got home. We decided not to indulge them, under the philosophy that they’ll never learn to eat their scheduled meals if we let them snack whenever they want and on whatever they want. Jeff read the kids a book after teeth brushing and before bed. They didn’t go down easy, but that seems to be common these days.
On Thursday morning, Henry was up at 6:45AM, about 45 minutes earlier than usual. I asked Jeff to bring him to our bed for some snuggling, which we did for a couple minutes. He got the kids breakfast while I got ready for the day. Miss R put up a fight when I tried to do her hair in the morning. She hit me, which landed her in timeout. Nevertheless, we managed to get out of the house at 8:20AM. The kids were easy about being dropped off. In fact, when Henry saw Miss Stephanie at the end of the hall, holding the door open to the playground, he sprinted to the door without looking back.
I made it to the Women’s Center at Northwest Hospital in time to see my mom before her surgery. It was the second time that I’ve been to the Women’s Center. The first time was when I went to their Triage the day that Henry was born. I had a little bit of a flashback, but it didn’t last long. It is odd how well I can remember some details. I remember the location of my bed in Triage. I remember Jeff’s reaction when Dr. Chen (the negligent OB who did not take my symptoms seriously six days previously and had the incompetent assistant who always claimed my blood pressure was 120/80) told him that the baby would possibily have to be delivered that day. I remember calling Erin to ask her to take care of mom b/c I feared mom would absorb any stress that I was feeling. I even remember the shoes that I'd been wearing (white backless sandals with a wooden pump).
Dad and I waited in the lobby. Joe and Shirley Swaffar stopped by to keep us company while we waited. My mom’s surgery went well. The surgery lasted two hours and her time in recovery was another 1.5 hours. We made it back to my parents’ house by 2PM. She was achy, but we’re expecting her to do cartwheels in about 10 days.
I picked up the kids at 4:30PM. Miss R ran to me and gave me a big hug. She had an accident at naptime today, but other than that, she did very well wearing big girl underwear. We then picked up Henry on the playground. I asked Miss Marissa how his day was. She didn’t give their usual answer of “He had a good day” or a “great day.” She hesitated and then said, “Pretty good.” She could sense my skepticism at her response and said that everyone had been kind of fussy.
Henry wanted to see his friend Elijah, but I said that we had to go home. We went home. Henry was irked b/c I didn’t have snacks handy. He talked a lot about his friend Elijah again, which was cute. Elijah has been such a nice boy when I’ve interacted with him.
We had a visit from Alison, our family specialist, at 5:30PM. She thinks/hopes that we’ll have our adoption certification from the court next week. Then, St. Nick’s will be able to start processing our paperwork in reference to Miss R specifically. I’m looking forward to that. Less paperwork in our future AND the ability to show pictures of her to our friends! We have so many pictures of her and Henry together that we’d love to share.
I had to leave before the visit ended b/c I had a graduate student lecture to observe. Jeff said that I missed a Henry classic. Henry has been talking a lot about Peter Pan. We thought that he was referring to the Disneyland ride b/c he usually follows up his Peter Pan comment by saying something about Mr. Toad. He was straddling one of the top bars on his slide-ball pit equipment. He announced, "I'm pooping on Captain Hook!" That made Jeff and Alison laugh. Henry certainly has no shortage of imagination.
Jeff made the kids tilapia for dinner. Henry ate it. Miss R only had a couple of bites. They spent some time in the train room. Henry stretched out on the floor and studied one of his books. He talked about the getting some things from the playground. He said "That'd be good." By the time I got home from the lecture and shopping for the kids' Valentine's Day party foods and cards, the kids were asleep. Jeff and I filled out cards for the kids. 24 to Henry's class and 21 to Miss R's class.
In other news, Henry turned 2.5 years adjusted today. We haven't used adjusted age in awhile b/c when he turned 2, his development was in the normal range for his actual. But we have never bought into the idea that preemies "catchup." It is just that a 3.5 month discrepancy at age 2 isn't that much of a big deal.
What is Henry doing at 2.5 years old (adjusted)?
- giving answers to our questions with a lot more meaning behind them
- doing the long jump (both feet on floor hopping forward)
- imaginative play and more imaginative play
- getting out of bed on his own
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