Secular Confessions

[raspberry]

Jennifer, you'll have to get Bill Murrary to help with your gopher problems ;)

L, I hope this phase passes quickly for baby S. whew

Kate, love beagles. My niece has a male beagle named Malcolm and he's a really great dog.

Mandy, sorry your cat is having issues. Especially now when you need the money for IUI.

Suja, Khan is a pretty dog.

I miss having a dog. The other day at my sister's house, I was laying on her couch snuggling up to her dog, it would have really nice except the dog had stanky breath. I asked him if could please keep his mouth shut, but he kept licking my arm. gag.

Today, at the library and playground Gilly met two new little friends, including the little boy I mentioned in my post in new moms. Thanks for the input there btw. Anyway, all 3 boys were playing and getting along. I was glad, because sometimes 3 is not a good number, it's better to have 2 or 4. But it worked out. Except the one little boy kept repeating everything Gilly said in a high pitched voice. I was talking to 3 moms about schools and such. They all have several children in various schools around town, and at times I felt like they were speaking a foreign language.

[Cosmosmom]

Haha, yeah we getting about that way with the darn gophers. Tried these sticks you drop in and they "repel" them. Nope, ours threw the stick back on the ground and kept on digging. Tried juicy fruit (suggested by many online)...didn't work. Refilled the holes....didn't work.

Cosmo gets bad breath too. We get her teeth cleaned professionally once a year and DH tries to brush them once a week himself or whenever the breath gets bad. She's got one side she must not chew on and is really prone to tartar.
Poogie gets hers brushed because well her mouth smelled like sh*t. Fingers crossed she's eaten the last of that. Poogie has a smaller mouth so I got her a kiddie brush....they didn't have generic ones at the store so she has a Dora toothbrush. LOL DH prefers using those to the special dog ones.

[Bridget]

My dad fought gophers for years! And squirrels. I am not sure when but at some point he just gave up and now he loves all the critters in his yard.

Chrissy, your co workers sound fun. I miss having coworkers. Sometimes. lol

Lydia, I have been thinking about you all day and hoping that today is going well for you.

I made a really simple change regarding Savana's school woes and so far it's making a huge difference. She was always going on and on about how much she hates school, hates being away from me, misses all the fun stuff at home, never gets to see "the boys" (the homeschool family of 3 boys that come over twice a week). So I was always responding with things like, "You have new friends. Your teacher is so nice. You're learning to read! You get to do library/computer lab..." and she would argue and cry even louder and with more theatrics as if just to prove to me how very, very sad she is. Eventually I would just have to walk away.
So instead I've been telling her every morning how I can't wait until she gets home. When she gets home the first thing I say is how much I missed her and how the boys ask about her every time they come. And when she says she hates school I say that I hate being away from her too. And when she cries about a craft that Kai has done that she had to miss I tell her that while we were doing it I was thinking about how much she would like it.
It stops her complaints instantly. She gets a secret little smile on her face and skips off, or she hugs me. Poor little darling must have thought we were all here celebrating when she walked out door!

But one big downer is that she has a new compulsive behavior. She says her ears itch. But she won't touch them. So she is constantly rubbing her ears on her shoulders. It's like a nervous tic. Last night she said she knows she doesn't have to do it but she can't help it because she FEELS like she has to do it. It's almost constant.

[AmeriBrit]

Here's Travis with his new glasses; yes, that is a profiterole he's eating and has chocolate all over his face from it....we've had to bribe him a little to keep the glasses on.



Bridget, I'm glad you've found a way to discuss school with Savana that makes her happy; I'm sorry about the new compulsive behavior. I used to be really bad about compulsive things like that from being little, too, and it's only been as an adult that I've stopped doing them. I was always bad about touching my ears and having to touch them a certain amount of times in patterns. I cringe just thinking about how bad it used to be. (hugs)

L, I'm sorry little S is giving you a hard time lately. Do you think he could have one of those anger issues that's associated with sensory issues? I forget what it's called now, but I'm sure one of my nephews had it when he was younger and he sure did give my SIL a run for her money every single day up until just recently where he's mellowed a bit.

Suja, your doggy is so pretty! He looks like such a cool pet.

[missychrissy]

oh gosh he's so stinking cute!!!

[daylilies]

Travis looks so cute!

Bridget, I'm glad you found a way to talk to Savana that doesn't upset her. Isn't it funny how wording is everything? Sorry she's got a new behavior though

Today we went to visit Bo (the beagle) again. He's such a good dog. I really hope we get him and I hope Josh isn't too sad if we don't. We found out he has 4 other applications for adopting him.

Josh complained a couple times this morning that his tooth hurt. I was afraid he hurt it because he fell down pretty badly on Saturday so we made an appt. with the dentist and then he said it didn't hurt anymore. We went in anyway and it turns out an adult tooth is going to push through in the next few months. I'm glad he didn't hurt it but I hope it doesn't bother him too much!

[Bridget]

Oh, Kate. That reminds me. I was reading an article that made me think about you (and me). Now keep in mind this is a waldorf publication so it's very much into nurturing "the soul of the child" if you know what I mean. Anyway, it talked about how children have certain energies that they need to release and that instead of always saying to them to keep it down, or calm down, stop doing that, put that stick down, don't throw, stop jumping....that we should find the appropriate outlet for them to release that energy. It said that often when children's natural tendencies are squandered too much or too often, it starts to present itself as a headache/stomach ache, etc. NOT saying you do that to Josh all the time but it resonated with me because my patience had been short lately and I found myself reprimanding the kids a lot for simply annoying me and not really for necessarily doing anything wrong. I guess for me, when I put myself in check, and really, really pay attention to the energy that I am putting out there in regards to my kids, it makes a huge difference on their attitudes in general. Just thought I'd share

[Gwenn]

L, I'm so sorry for what you are going through with Baby S. Is he still sick? Is there any chance this could be a side effect of his medication? Whatever it is, I hope it passes quickly.

Travis is so adorable!

Chrissy, the cat needs her steroid shot whenever she has a flare-up which is basically 4 times a year, possibly more or less. Sometimes they want a follow-up shot two weeks later. She also has an oral med that she takes every night and it runs us about $80/month. It's a good thing we love her so much because she is turning into a very expensive kitty. But we adore her and so long as she has a good quality of life, putting her down because her skin condition is expensive is simply out of the question. DH is not a believer in putting animals down. That cat was my one companion I could rely on with DH deployed. I love my dogs, but they were needy and had power issues without their daddy. The cat was simply a great companion. So I owe her.

Speaking of potty mouth at work today ... I was working with a little girl and this rarely happens, but I just was at the end of my patience with her. She just did not pay any attention to what I was saying, but either by luck or whatever she kept getting items right on the test so I had to keep going with her paying no attention to me. Her mother kept walking in and out of the room (5-6 times) and every time she left the little girl would totally lose focus and worry about where her mother went, and I had to get her attention again and start over. Usually I spend about 45 minutes testing, including free play. This took 1.5 hours at the table without free play, trying to get her to look at the materials and I was in such a bad mood I was trying desperately to keep a smile on my face. At the very end we had her naming words from pictures so I could figure out her speech sounds. One of the pictures was a pair of scissors. So I showed it to her and she said (written sort-of phonetically) "shidder." (replace the d with a t if you don't think it's funny). I was SO grumpy, and my partner said, oh so matter-of-factly, Did you get that, Mandy? That's a shidder. I just cracked up, right in front of the kid. Maybe you had to be there but it was hilarious. What's even more funny is that's what DH calls our toilet (military term).

Okay, so that was me being horribly unprofessional. Seriously, I'm not like that.

[daylilies]

LOL Mandy!

Thanks for sharing that, Bridget. I hope that's not what it is I know I've shared that I have been impatient with him like that but I think lately I've been getting better about it. I hope it's just growing pains. And the dentist really did seem to think the adult tooth was putting pressure on his gums, not just saying it to make me feel better about bringing him in.

Today was a tough day though. We had to skip movie day at the library to get to the dentist appt, which was the only slot they had left. Josh insisted that he didn't need to go anymore but I really wanted to go and make sure the tooth wasn't hurt. Josh kept seeming to get over the fact that we were going to miss the movie, and then he'd remember and throw a fit all over again.

I have a speech question if you don't mind, Mandy. Josh still uses incorrect past tense for pretty much everything. He'll say buyded instead of bought, hided instead of hid, etc. Should we just continue to correct him? Is there a good way to teach him how past tense works?

[Bridget]

Kate, I really, really hope you know that I wasn't implying that Josh's aches and pains were from something you were doing. It just made me think about us wondering about all these aches and pains with our kids.

[Bridget]

Haaaa, Mandy! Sometimes a little inappropriate humor is just what the day needs!

You know what I realized about myself? I cannot read stories that refer to the cat as a "*****" without giggling.

[Gwenn]

Kate, with the past tense verbs I would focus on re-casting them the right way as described here: She has two powerpoints that explain it. They both say the same thing but with different examples, so it doesn't matter which one you watch. You don't have to do as many examples as she describes because Josh isn't delayed in his language, but her point about lots of models is a good one.

In therapy we try to do lots of practice with pictures or flash cards, so you can practice "The boy is throwing the ball. Now he's done. He threw the ball." You probably don't have a set of cards but you can do that while reading a picture book as long as it has the right verbs you want to work on. Also, you can google "speech therapy" and "past tense verbs" - I just did and came up with a ton of resources, some of them free. Probably more fun at home if you make it apply to what you are doing and just talk about your actions. "Throw the ball!" "Great job! You threw the ball!" Etc.

[Gwenn]

Haaaa, Mandy! Sometimes a little inappropriate humor is just what the day needs!

You know what I realized about myself? I cannot read stories that refer to the cat as a "*****" without giggling.

True...

[raspberry]

Ashley, Travis is so flipping cute in his glasses. How did he feel about them? I am going to date myself here but when I got my glasses I was worried kids at school would call me four eyes like Willie Oleson called Mary on Little House on the Prairie. Luckily nobody ever did.

Oh man Bridget, I am having to take G outside all the time to jump, kick, and throw sticks.

LOL Mandy at the shidder comment that kind of thing would have me laughing all day long.

When I was little I loved the story of the Three Little Kittens. Well at age 8, I thought nasty and naughty were interchangable, as well as kitty and *****. Oh yeah. I can vividly remember telling the story to my mom and her best friend about those "nasty nasty *****'s lost their mittens" I can still hear their laughter. HA!

[missychrissy]

L, I'm so sorry for what you are going through with Baby S. Is he still sick? Is there any chance this could be a side effect of his medication? Whatever it is, I hope it passes quickly.

Travis is so adorable!

Chrissy, the cat needs her steroid shot whenever she has a flare-up which is basically 4 times a year, possibly more or less. Sometimes they want a follow-up shot two weeks later. She also has an oral med that she takes every night and it runs us about $80/month. It's a good thing we love her so much because she is turning into a very expensive kitty. But we adore her and so long as she has a good quality of life, putting her down because her skin condition is expensive is simply out of the question. DH is not a believer in putting animals down. That cat was my one companion I could rely on with DH deployed. I love my dogs, but they were needy and had power issues without their daddy. The cat was simply a great companion. So I owe her.

Speaking of potty mouth at work today ... I was working with a little girl and this rarely happens, but I just was at the end of my patience with her. She just did not pay any attention to what I was saying, but either by luck or whatever she kept getting items right on the test so I had to keep going with her paying no attention to me. Her mother kept walking in and out of the room (5-6 times) and every time she left the little girl would totally lose focus and worry about where her mother went, and I had to get her attention again and start over. Usually I spend about 45 minutes testing, including free play. This took 1.5 hours at the table without free play, trying to get her to look at the materials and I was in such a bad mood I was trying desperately to keep a smile on my face. At the very end we had her naming words from pictures so I could figure out her speech sounds. One of the pictures was a pair of scissors. So I showed it to her and she said (written sort-of phonetically) "shidder." (replace the d with a t if you don't think it's funny). I was SO grumpy, and my partner said, oh so matter-of-factly, Did you get that, Mandy? That's a shidder. I just cracked up, right in front of the kid. Maybe you had to be there but it was hilarious. What's even more funny is that's what DH calls our toilet (military term).

Okay, so that was me being horribly unprofessional. Seriously, I'm not like that.

shidder! that is funny! That sort of thing would strike my funny bone too, so it's probably a good thing I don't work with kids. My dad called ours that as well...he must have picked it up in the army. I never thought about it.

Kate, I really, really hope you know that I wasn't implying that Josh's aches and pains were from something you were doing. It just made me think about us wondering about all these aches and pains with our kids.

It was a good reminder for me too Bridget. I remember learning about that when Bobbie was really little and Jesi was a baby. While I've always been all about letting the kids exert their energy in their own fashion, after you posted that before I realized Rich & I have become a little bit of the parents that snap out of irritation and not because Conner is doing anything wrong.

Sort of on the same subject, Jesi is still have abdominal pains pretty bad and I've wondered if stress could be the root cause of it. She's been checked at the dr's extensively and while she did have some cysts, they're not always there and she seems to be in pain a lot more lately. She's also finally told me in recent weeks that she only has 2 friends and 'everyone' at Owego picks on her. Probably 'cause she colors her hair and blackens her eyes. That's part of the reason I'm allowing her to go back to New Roots. There she could be herself and be accepted.

I think I'm getting sick. Like a head cold/fever thing. Boo.

[Suja]

Travis looks adorable!

Have you guys heard 'The owl and the puddycat'? It's on one of the kid's CDs, and I crack up ALL the time. It's all so 5th grade. (http://www.rhymes.org.uk/the_owl_and_the_puddycat.htm - change the 'd's to 's', of course).

Both my pregnant friends are having boys. I swear, every single kid friends/family around me have are all boys. Oh well, at least she'll learn early how to deal with them.

So today, Mira was playing with animal stickers, and she goes 'monkey tastes weird'. Just what are they feeding her in that school of hers?

[missychrissy]

So today, Mira was playing with animal stickers, and she goes 'monkey tastes weird'. Just what are they feeding her in that school of hers?

Oh, and I wanted to mention that I didn't mean to insinuate or make it sound like my coworkers are unprofessional, because they're not. At least not with other people (our users). I think that they're so close that anything goes with them, and I like that. They've accepted Scott and I as part of their team and made us feel very welcome.

I do wonder what they would have done if we'd been uptight about stuff like that. Well, Ted. He's the real character of the bunch. I think the others would have managed. It would have been a change for them though.

Am I the only one that really, really hates the p-word? Like so much that I can't even find humor in it? Speak of touchy!! lol

[daylilies]

Bridget, I'm glad you alerted me to the fact that surpressed physical actions can lead to body pain, because I was not aware of that. I do try to calm Josh down sometimes because sometimes instead of putting his energy into doing what I asked or what needs to be done, he's spinning in a circle or running the opposite way he needs to go, etc. and I just say "Josh! stop and think" or something like that. Sometimes, yes he is annoying me and I ask him to please calm down so I can think for a second. I'm trying to be better about that.

I don't mind the p-word. It's the c-word I can't stand. (the one that rhymes with hunt)

[missychrissy]

I'm not a fan of that one either Kate, but for me they're tied for equally offensive words. I like to think nothing offends me, but those two do for some reason. Maybe offend is too strong of a word. I cringe.

[daylilies]

I think almost everyone has a certain hot button. For me it's the word lazy. I just can't stand it.

[missychrissy]

Really? Hm...interesting.

I don't like being called lazy (even when I am!) but I have no issues calling someone else lazy.

And now that I've thought about using a word rather than just hearing it, I can call someone a c*nt on occasion-but it's very rare. I can only think of two times in my adult life using it in reference to a person (woman). I can't use the p-word though. It skeeves me out something wicked.

[Bridget]

I don't like either word either. I prefer just good ol' fashioned vagina.
So we have been gluten free for....3 weeks(?) now. I feel amazing. It's so odd but I swear my mood has improved and I just realized this morning that I have forgotten to take my vitamins all week! Ususally when I don't take my fish oil, vit d, vit b, I can tell that I'm slumpy. AND I was pms-ing. How odd is that? And I don't know if Kai is growing yet but he is eating better, like more variety, then ever. He is also napping! He hasn't napped in over a year but not for lack of needing one. He just fought it so much that I couldn't take it anymore. My rule during daycare is that everyone lay quietly with no books for 20 minutes. Anyone still awake after 20 minutes may find something quiet to do. About 3 days a week he actually sleeps! Oh, he also has an accident every time. I feel so bad for him. He wakes up and tells me he's really, really hot and he sweated so much he needs to change his pants Poor peanut. He doesn't want me to know. I humor him.
I've also lost weight without trying and am wondering if it's the gluten free thing.
It could all be a coincidence.

[Bridget]

I can't believe you've called someone a c***!

Hmmm, what's my hot button word??? I don't like being called anything actually. I have very low tolerance for name calling.

[missychrissy]

I can't believe you've called someone a c***!

Hmmm, what's my hot button word??? I don't like being called anything actually. I have very low tolerance for name calling.

I agree. Name calling isn't cool and none are good. I guess for me they are the only two that I react to, even though I know better. The rest...meh, call me whatever. If you're calling me names, you're not someone I want to associate with anyway. That's my pov on it.

I know I called my father's wife the c-word once many years ago. She's an evil person and I don't regret it. For the life of me I can't remember the other person I used it on, but it was sort of recently (in the last year or two). I'm certain she deserved it too. lol

[Suja]

I don't curse, beyond saying something like S@&#, and don't like listening to people talk that way either. I really wouldn't be comfortable in a work environment like the one you described, Chrissy.

[missychrissy]

Well it's not constant...but it's pretty frequent. It doesn't bother me at all. I find myself laughing a lot and blushing more than I have since middle school. I'm not offended by it at all because it's all said in fun. I'm comfortable with it.

[Bridget]

Mark called me a slob in the kitchen the other day because I dropped something on the floor and then stepped in it. lol. I was PISSED! I do not like that. Odd because I worked in the clubs/bars for years and the things the guys (and girls too) I worked with would say...well you wouldn't believe me if I told you. None of it phased me a bit. But watch out if you come into my kitchen and call me outside my name. lol

[daylilies]

Bridget, I think I asked you about the gluten free diet, maybe I didn't. You mentioned Kai doesn't complain about having a stomach ache since going GF and I was wondering if maybe that's the cause of Josh's aches and pains too.

[Bridget]

It's really a guessing game, Kate. I'm still not sure if this diet is going to help him or not. He did wake up from his nap today saying his tummy hurt but that is the first time he has said so in quite a few days and he never used to say that before. He is eating so so much more food since we started this though.

[daylilies]

Yeah, gluten does tend to fill you up!