School and other stuff
C's first day of Kindy was great! She got into the car telling me that she "loved the first day of Kindergarten". Then she proceeded to tell me how she was the best one in the class. I chuckled and asked for an explanation... apparantly those were her words, not the teacher's thankfully. It was something about a time where the teacher recognized that she was sitting and reading quietly and the rest of the class wasn't. She did end up telling me quite a lot about the day and the program seems amazing. It was a long day as they are there until 3:00. She was pretty wiped.
Today both kids went to school. R is now a "napper" staying until 3:00 since C is there and I'm hoping to have lots of work to do during the day. I had taken him yesterday to get a nap blankie, we went to Joann's and picked out a terrycloth that I cut into sections and just zig-zag stiched to stop the unravel. He has a nice silky blankie that I'd like not to go to school, so this one can stay there and if it gets lost, no biggie. He had a hard time at drop off, he's got a routine of asking for a last hug and kiss before we go. I thought I had given it to him and had handed him off to his teacher. She had already started to try to distract him and they had turned away, so I couldn't really interrupt when he was crying for a hug and kiss. It's normal for him to decide he really hasn't gotten his hug and kiss and ask again. At pick up his teacher said he got over it very quickly. During nap time, he actually slept. They usually record when the kids fall asleep, but they're still getting their acts together and no one wrote it down, so I have no idea how long he slept. He was just waking up at 3:00 when I came to get him, so it may have been for more than an hour and a half. That's more than he's napped in weeks, combined!! I was a little worried that bedtime would be a nightmare, but it wasn't so bad. He was asleep before 8:15, although without a nap he's asleep around 7PM. I don't think it'll make any difference in his wake up time, we'll see.
It was quite a productive day... I did go out to breakfast with my friend who also sent both of her kids to school today for the first time. :-) Then I had to take my dog to the vet (as if I missed the place or something and needed to go), he's got a skin allergy and is scratching like crazy. Then I got a few important errands done, got tons of paperwork and phone calls made and took a 20 minute break and then it was time to go get the kids. The rest of the day was nice, too. My kids are totally into card games right now, I think we play at least 10 games of go fish daily.... aside from C's new preference for yelling all the time and generally acting like her 2 year old brother, it was a nice day. After dinner we even went for a bike ride and walked the dog. The kids are usually so tired by that point, they're starting to melt, but R's nap helped.
While I was at the vet, I picked up Wrigley's ashes. I thought it would be much more difficult than it was. It was a little weird, the ashes were in a bag in a metal tin. There was a nice memorial card with it, but not what I expected. It kind of felt like I was bringing my dog home and she was going to be with me. Although it's hard to reconcile the ashes with the living dog I remember, but I guess that's normal. I've had a really hard time over the weekend dealing with the loss. I think I was in shock last week and I came to reality by Friday night. I felt like I was in a fog all weekend, I couldn't eat, didn't really want to do anything, etc. DH and I were actually talking on Sunday night that I might need some professional help. He and I have been talking a lot more about everything and now I'm feeling much better. I'm actually almost worried now a few days later, I'm really feeling normal and hoping that I'm not in denial and going to get totally flipped out again. We went to a friend's house for breakfast on Monday morning and one of the dad's commented on how sorry he was about my dog and I just totally lost it in front of everyone. He felt so bad, but it had just been a rough few days and he got me at a bad time. I'm much better able to talk about her now, although I still get teary and emotional, I don't feel like I'm on the brink of totally losing it.
We've actually been talking about getting a new dog. I'm thinking about trying to find a dog to adopt, and have started searching online rescue places. I know it'll take a while to find the right match for our family, but I'm inspired by all the homeless pets out of NO and I have the room in our house and our lives for a dog and would love to be able to help more than just the donation we made to the humane society (we made a bigger one to the red cross, in case anyone might be worried that my priorities are totally out of whack).
While I was at the vet today, I couldn't help but hear the conversation in the next exam room. I'm not sure if it was about a dog or a cat, but and elderly woman was deciding with the vet if they should put her pet to sleep. Somehow listening to this woman (who was relatively unemotional about everything) was helpful to me. I'm still trying to figure out why, but it was. Apparantly the pet had some health scare a while back that this woman helped it through. The pet was now quite old and starting to get on a lot of medicines and putting up a huge fight with the medicines. The owner knew that things would get harder and basically decided to put the pet to sleep before it started to really get bad. Although listening to their euthanasia discussion, I couldn't help but wonder how my vet will react to her own old age when her own health deteriorates. She's probably in her 50's. Not sure what made me think of it. I also learned that the walls at the vet are way too thin. :-)
Today both kids went to school. R is now a "napper" staying until 3:00 since C is there and I'm hoping to have lots of work to do during the day. I had taken him yesterday to get a nap blankie, we went to Joann's and picked out a terrycloth that I cut into sections and just zig-zag stiched to stop the unravel. He has a nice silky blankie that I'd like not to go to school, so this one can stay there and if it gets lost, no biggie. He had a hard time at drop off, he's got a routine of asking for a last hug and kiss before we go. I thought I had given it to him and had handed him off to his teacher. She had already started to try to distract him and they had turned away, so I couldn't really interrupt when he was crying for a hug and kiss. It's normal for him to decide he really hasn't gotten his hug and kiss and ask again. At pick up his teacher said he got over it very quickly. During nap time, he actually slept. They usually record when the kids fall asleep, but they're still getting their acts together and no one wrote it down, so I have no idea how long he slept. He was just waking up at 3:00 when I came to get him, so it may have been for more than an hour and a half. That's more than he's napped in weeks, combined!! I was a little worried that bedtime would be a nightmare, but it wasn't so bad. He was asleep before 8:15, although without a nap he's asleep around 7PM. I don't think it'll make any difference in his wake up time, we'll see.
It was quite a productive day... I did go out to breakfast with my friend who also sent both of her kids to school today for the first time. :-) Then I had to take my dog to the vet (as if I missed the place or something and needed to go), he's got a skin allergy and is scratching like crazy. Then I got a few important errands done, got tons of paperwork and phone calls made and took a 20 minute break and then it was time to go get the kids. The rest of the day was nice, too. My kids are totally into card games right now, I think we play at least 10 games of go fish daily.... aside from C's new preference for yelling all the time and generally acting like her 2 year old brother, it was a nice day. After dinner we even went for a bike ride and walked the dog. The kids are usually so tired by that point, they're starting to melt, but R's nap helped.
While I was at the vet, I picked up Wrigley's ashes. I thought it would be much more difficult than it was. It was a little weird, the ashes were in a bag in a metal tin. There was a nice memorial card with it, but not what I expected. It kind of felt like I was bringing my dog home and she was going to be with me. Although it's hard to reconcile the ashes with the living dog I remember, but I guess that's normal. I've had a really hard time over the weekend dealing with the loss. I think I was in shock last week and I came to reality by Friday night. I felt like I was in a fog all weekend, I couldn't eat, didn't really want to do anything, etc. DH and I were actually talking on Sunday night that I might need some professional help. He and I have been talking a lot more about everything and now I'm feeling much better. I'm actually almost worried now a few days later, I'm really feeling normal and hoping that I'm not in denial and going to get totally flipped out again. We went to a friend's house for breakfast on Monday morning and one of the dad's commented on how sorry he was about my dog and I just totally lost it in front of everyone. He felt so bad, but it had just been a rough few days and he got me at a bad time. I'm much better able to talk about her now, although I still get teary and emotional, I don't feel like I'm on the brink of totally losing it.
We've actually been talking about getting a new dog. I'm thinking about trying to find a dog to adopt, and have started searching online rescue places. I know it'll take a while to find the right match for our family, but I'm inspired by all the homeless pets out of NO and I have the room in our house and our lives for a dog and would love to be able to help more than just the donation we made to the humane society (we made a bigger one to the red cross, in case anyone might be worried that my priorities are totally out of whack).
While I was at the vet today, I couldn't help but hear the conversation in the next exam room. I'm not sure if it was about a dog or a cat, but and elderly woman was deciding with the vet if they should put her pet to sleep. Somehow listening to this woman (who was relatively unemotional about everything) was helpful to me. I'm still trying to figure out why, but it was. Apparantly the pet had some health scare a while back that this woman helped it through. The pet was now quite old and starting to get on a lot of medicines and putting up a huge fight with the medicines. The owner knew that things would get harder and basically decided to put the pet to sleep before it started to really get bad. Although listening to their euthanasia discussion, I couldn't help but wonder how my vet will react to her own old age when her own health deteriorates. She's probably in her 50's. Not sure what made me think of it. I also learned that the walls at the vet are way too thin. :-)