Thomas started Preschool

About a month ago Kelly and I went with Thomas to Snell's to take a tour.  Kelly really wanted him to go there because she went there almost 26 years ago.  She has a lot of fond memories there and ended up going to school with many of the kids that were in her preschool class and she was able to form some great friendships with the children. So, after taking the tour and Thomas asking over and over when he was going to go to school he finally started on Tuesday!

He was a little nervous at first but he did a great job and is excited to go back on Thursday.

I learned about child development in college but watching it happen before my own eyes is amazing

It amazes me how different Thomas and Noelle are.  Thomas is ALL boy.  Everything from sound effects when he's playing, his "make believe" games with good guys and bad guys, his love of sports, bugs, trucks, Army men, tools, and cars.  Noelle on the other hand is ALL girl.  She loves her babies, cooking, books, blankets, and bears.  Don't get me wrong, she can play pretty hard and often times is the one sitting on top of Thomas, pulling on his clothes, and biting BUT 95% of the time she is caring and loving. 

The other day I caught her lining up her babies like an assembly line, feeding, changing and putting them all to bed.  All along she is talking to them and loving them.  What makes this funny to me is she and Thomas have watched the same shows, were treated the same way and have grown up together but they act so different.  Nobody taught Thomas to make truck noises, or sound effects while he is playing Army men, or how to find bugs in the dirt. Nobody told him about "good guys" and "bad guys". It just came natural.  Just like nobody taught Noelle to rock her babies, feed them, cook food for them and bath them.  Kids are amazing!  I have loved watching Thomas and Noelle develop their own unique personality's. 

When I was in college I took several child development classes and in my line of work I have watched little kids develop so I have learned all of the theories but actually seeing it develop over time with Thomas and Noelle has been an eye opening experience.   

Naps and Popcorn... Auntie's favorite things.

So, Noelle decided that she didn't think sleeping was an activity she wanted to participate in on Friday night. As many of you know, when Noelle doesn't sleep no one in the house sleeps. She has this really "cute" behavior of screaming bloody murder at night and she can do that for hours if she wants to. Friday night she decided to. I wasn't very happy about it. It was a really good thing that I didn't have anything planned yesterday because sleeping was on her agenda. Needless to say Saturday afternoon was very quite around my house because she took a five hour nap!!! It was fabulous and yes I took a pretty long nap myself.

The sign of a wonderful nap. Crazy hair. One of Noelle's other favorite things to do is, eat! So, when she woke up all she wanted was popcorn, which also is one of Auntie's favorite things. Perfect! So Noelle and I made some popcorn.

This is what happens when Noelle doesn't get to eat when she wants to.

No, I didn't let her eat the popcorn off the floor.

This is Noelle happy with her popcorn.

Note to self... Noelle doesn't like to share her food.

New Daycare

Since Kelly and Dave moved back to Stockton Thomas and Noelle had to start a new daycare.  They have been going to Miss Laura's (Miss Loolla to Thomas) for a little over a year and they really enjoyed her and the other kids. They had their last day there last week. Noelle started on Wednesday and Miss Tammy said she had a good day.  Miss Tammy has a cat and Noelle loves animals so that was a HUGE plus.  I took her to McDonald's for her favorite french fries for dinner and she was pretty excited.

 

Thomas started on Thursday and I didn't get a picture of him because we had to rush to get ready in the morning.  He starts Pre School this coming Tuesday so we will get pictures of him then. 

A little mascara never hurt anyone

Noelle loves to be in the bathroom while Kelly and I get ready and watching every move we make. Once in awhile she wants us to powder her face.  She also loves lip gloss.  So, one evening while Kelly was getting ready for work she decided to use Kelly's mascara as lip gloss.  She managed to get it on her eyes, eyebrow, lips and tongue. Pretty Noelle.

   

Update on Indy

I took Indy to the Vet on Tuesday for her check up.  For the most part she is doing much much better.  Her pads haven't healed as quickly as he would have liked but there is no sign of infection.  He wants her to stay in the house for three more weeks because she still has some open sores that he doesn't want dirt to get into. She did gain 1 1/2 pounds in the 10 days she had been home.  He recommended that I cut down on the treats until she is able to go out and get some exercise. It's been pretty easy to keep her inside because we have had a lot of rain this week however on Friday we had a break in the rain and the sun came out.  After she cried at the door a couple of times I gave in and let her go play for awhile. After all she has been in the house for 14 days except to go to the bathroom.  But look what a good dog she is...

 

She took a nice nap and kept her feet out of the dirt!

Indy made it home with only...

After Indy's long journey she managed to make it home with only a dislocated kneecap and infected paws.  The vet was able to pop her knee into place and took all of the dead skin off her paws where it was tearing.  He gave her a shot for the pain and an antibiotic one so I didn't have to give her pills twice a day for 10 days.  I have to put neosporin on her paws for 10 days and keep socks on them.  She can't go outside and can't walk on anything but carpet.  This should be a lot of fun.  I don't know how I'm going to keep the socks on her and how I will keep her from walking on only carpet but maybe the doggie Vicodin he gave me will help!!! 

Regardless, I am just happy to have her home resting!!  She has had a nice warm bath, a good meal and way to many treats and now she is snoring on the couch.  It's great to have her back!!!!

Indy is HOME!!!!

So this evening I was getting ready to give Noelle a bath when my cell phone rang. I had the bath water already running and thought I would let it go to voicemail and check it when Noelle was done. Then I thought just maybe it could be about Indy. So I ran to the phone and sure enough it was a number that I didn't recognize. I answered and an elderly lady was on the other side. She started out by saying her name and that she didn’t have my dog but she saw her this afternoon. A man and his dog were chasing her. She thought she recognized her from a flyer that I had put up. She went in to visit with her friend and thought that if she still saw her when she left she would try and get her. She did see her and she tried to get her but Indy wouldn’t get near her. At first I thought that was six hours ago and she wouldn’t be there but I called my Dad and Mom and my friend Wanda. They all met me at my house and we caravanned over to the area. We left in such a hurry we didn’t think to bring a flashlight so we were in the dark looking for her. Wanda and I got out in the rain and walked the streets. Wanda saw her and took off after her but Indy was to fast and was gone. So after about an hour of seeing her, chasing her, trying to throw a blanket over her to catch her, and trying to lure her with food Wanda cornered her between a garage and a gate. I have no idea how she got so far away from home and how she managed to cross two of the busiest streets in town but I am just glad she made it. Two of her legs are hurt but other than that she is fine. She has gotten something to eat and drink and now she is in sleeping in my bed. I am so happy to have her home. She means the world to me and it just wasn’t the same without her. Thanks for all your kind words of encouragement and prayers!!!!

It's a sad day....

Yesterday was a difficult day for me. I had some men working at my house cutting down some trees. While they were working Indy got out and ran away. The workers chased her down the street trying to catch her but they were unable to catch up to her. My Dad and I and several friends spent hours trying to find her with no luck. I posted signs, put adds in the paper and on Craigslist but I haven't heard anything yet. She had her tags and license on with my phone number and address so I am hoping and praying that someone found her and is going to call me!!! Please keep your fingers crossed and say a little prayer that she makes it home. I'm pretty sad without her. It's strange to be home by myself without her. She followed me everywhere and slept with me everynight. I really just want her back.

Mom's Birthday

My Mom's birthday was Friday (1/30) the day everyone was sick. My Aunt Paula and Scott came to spend the weekend with her. That was great because we all went to my Mom's house and relaxed and Aunt Paula and Kelly made a fabulous dinner for everyone.

That afternoon Noelle was playing with our dog, Taffy, that is 17 years old. Taffy doesn't really like to play but Noelle loves to play with her. Well Noelle played a little to much and Taffy bit her in the face. Taffy has never done that before and has always been very patient with the kids but not this time.

What a week it has been.

To start everything off I had been home sick with bronchitis and ear infections in both ears for a week.  I didn't hardly have a voice and after 5 days on antibiotics I'm wasn't feeling much better.  I knew that I needed to get back to work next week because I had been off work for a week already.

Then my Mom called Thursday night and said that she hurt her back really bad and needed a ride to the chiropractor on Friday morning.  I wasn't feeling all that well so I picked her up and dropped her off.  Went to Longs to get her some medication and then back to the Chiropractors office. She was still in extreme pain and needed to be seen again that afternoon. I went back home and tried taking a nap until...   

Kelly called me that afternoon in tears because her eye hurt.  She has had pink eye on and off for three weeks.  Thomas had it the first week in January.  I took him to see Kelly for about 10 minutes at work so she could see it and then the rest of the week he was with his Dad.  So, Kelly was only around him for 10 minutes and only gave him a kiss and a hug goodbye and ended up with it!!! So had been given two different prescriptions for it and by Friday she couldn't open her eye.  So I drove to Escalon and picked her up and got her back to Stockton just in time for her to get the last appointment with the nurse practitioner on Friday afternoon. The nurse was concerned and had the doctor come and look at her eye.  Once again Kelly has ulcers on her cornea.  The doctor gave her a different medication and did a referral for the specialist.  By Saturday morning she was in more pain than she was in on Friday and so we ended up in the Emergency Room!!!  Luckily we went to the hospital she works at and got in right away.  We left with two more medications and she is to see the specialist this coming Wednesday.