Parental Question and Advice PLEASE!

Ok, I have about 5 posts that I've written and need to get pics cropped and uploaded for... but this is going to take a priority. Oliver is in his 3rd week of preschool. He comes home everyday and is bouncing off the walls, is mean to the baby and does not listen. What do I do? Nothing seems to help. I've threatened, put him in time out, spanked, try to give him love and attention. I'm at my wits end and considering (gasp) pulling him out of preschool. I don't know if it's normal for a kids to behave like this. Is it just a faze? On the days he's NOT at preschool it's business as usual. He's not nearly as hyper and disobedient. Of course there is some of that. He's not quite 4 years old. BUT on preschool days it's out of control. I don't know what to do.

Isaac's dreaded Iron

At Isaac's 9 month check up they tested his iron and it was LOW. :( We spend the next six weeks making sure he had BEEF at least once a day to try and bring those numbers up. Last Thursday September 8, 2011 we had his follow-up appointment and to our dismay his iron was even LOWER. It was such a bad morning. After rushing Oliver to preschool and rushing back to pick up Isaac, on the way to the pediatrician I got into a little fender bender. There was no damage to either car but it was still nerve racking. Then to have to doctor tell me his iron was even lower. I was on the verge of tears. I had to take him directly to the outpatient lab at the hospital for some blood work. That was awful. They stuck him THREE times before they drew any blood. They were doing a more accurate hemoglobin test and testing for lead poisoning. The pediatrician called back Thursday evening to let us know that his iron was a bit higher from the blood test. It was basically at the very low end of normal. So we only need to give him a multi-vitamin with iron each day. PHEW. It will take a week for the lead test results to get back. In the meantime I contacted our landlord to find out how old the house we rent is. Thankfully, it was built in 1981 and they worry about lead in homes built prior to 1978. That is a huge relief. I'm not nearly as concerned as I was about the lead poisoning. Just a little more stress than any mom wants. But a multi-vitamin everyday I can handle if it gets his iron levels up so he's not anemic anymore!

Preschool

Oliver and his friend Anya in front of preschool on the first day!



Oliver and Anya with Miss Sam!

Oliver started preschool on September 6th. He was sssooo excited! He has been going for a week and a half now and all last weekend he begged to go to preschool! I asked his teacher how he did after the first day. She said " Oliver did fine today. I know that he had a blast because he was REALLY excited and happy throughout the class. He had a lot of energy and I am excited to help him learn to channel it. Please don't ever hesitate to email or call me, I am happy to help and reassure in any way that I can."
My sweet little ball of energy! Ha! He loves it! His teacher's name is Miss Sam. She's just awesome with the kids. I am so happy that he's having this time to learn and grow! And Isaac is loving having a couple hours of time with mommy and daddy and NOT having toys yanked out of his hands every time he gets a new one!

Oliver's teeth Follow-up

After a second visit to the dentist for Oliver's face plant his teeth have not changed (which is good). I guess we are supposed to look for signs of trauma for up to a year post accident. But as of now they are fine and good and DON'T NEED TO BE PULLED!!!

9/11/11

I have a ton of catch up blogging that I'm still working on... but I felt like I needed to get this written down. On facebook on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th a friend of mine posted what she was doing that dreaded morning 10 years previous and asked to share what we were doing. So I shared what I was doing and felt like I should write it down here.

I can remember that I was at home getting ready for work and my mom called me in to her bedroom to watch the news with her. I was horrified and spent the rest of the day (next couple of weeks) listening to talk radio as I worked out of my car. What really hit home to me was the fact that two weeks prior to 9/11 I had turned in my mission papers. I was waiting for an envelope that could send me anywhere in the world. I know it's nerve racking for anyone waiting for their "call" but I felt especially terrified because of the state of the United States and of the World at that moment in time. I received my mission call that Thursday. It was signed and dated by President Gordon B. Hinkley September 11, 2001. That said so many things to me about the importance of the missionary work I was about to do. It told me that it is so important that the world was falling apart around us (at least it felt that way) and President Hinkley the latter day Prophet didn't stop to watch the news, he kept moving forward. He kept issuing mission calls. I felt like that said that now more than maybe ever before the work needs to go forward.

Thank you Jaclyn Snyder for encouraging me to write this down for my kids to read in the future.

Vacation 2011

Sea World

Disneyland

Airport seeing Lianna!
Well, we went to California in August! It was a nice vacation and the main reason we went was to celebrate my sister Lianna's return home from her mission to Omaha, NE! It was so much fun to see her! We flew which was the best idea I've ever had! We arrived in CA on August 18th! Lianna arrived home on the 19th! We had a whirlwind of activities. We met Lianna at the airport with signs of love, went to her open house the following day, listened to her wonderful homecoming report on Sunday, ate dinner and celebrated Lianna's birthday at my moms on Sunday, Went to Disneyland on Monday, rested on Tuesday (ha ha), went to sea world on Wednesday and flew home on Thursday! PHEW I'm still exhausted thinking about it! It was a super fun trip! Oliver loved Disneyland and Sea World. Isaac LOVED Lianna! Which I'm so glad he did because she hadn't met him yet!

We also stayed the entire trip with our dear friends Greg and Carol Ann! They are so amazing to put up with us for so long! Our boys play so well together, 4 boys ages 5 years old down to 10 months and I think we had one little argument in an entire week! We are always so grateful for their welcome home!

So that was our vacation in a nutshell! Enjoy the pictures! I figure there isn't a whole lot to say! We barely blinked the whole week we were so busy with things to do! But it was a great time! I think two weeks later my kids are still recuperating! :)

5K

No, No we did not win $5,000! But on August 6th Berto and I ran a 5k! It was fun! I am still trying desperately to get rid of some of, any of this baby weight that will not fall off of my body from my dear sweet Isaac. I had only ONE goal for this race... it was TO NOT FINISH LAST! And I didn't so I was happy! We just did a fun run with the Salt Lake Running Company... the one thing we learned about doing a free 5k... You HAVE to wear their hideous free shirts WHILE you run! We also WON an awesome New Balance Backpack in their raffle! It was a great experience and Berto and I have decided to run the Salt Lake City Half Marathon in the spring! WOO!!!