Second Grade Has Begun!

Not sure what happened in terms of the color. I must have had my camera on a strange setting.

Eva on the first day of second grade -- August 12, 2010.

Eva at her desk next to her buddy Henry Burch -- lots of curls in that front row!

Wow – how is it possible that Eva has started second grade? Seems like not so long ago that we were coming home from Guatemala.

All summer, I have been thinking that there is a meaningful difference between 1^st and 2^nd grades, something I didn’t feel between kindergarten and first. My thoughts were confirmed at parent orientation. The kids will be getting letter grades this year, which seems more “real” to me for some reason (means nothing to Eva, of course; she didn’t really pay attention to her non-letter grades the last two years). I got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach when the teacher began talking about the “math facts” they should know within a few weeks. First, I had to ask what “math facts” are and then I had to gulp to think Eva needs to know addition to 20 within a few weeks. Now some of you may be thinking piece of cake, and that’s great for you and your child, but math and Eva (and me!) aren’t such good friends. So, I rushed off to Target to buy some addition flashcards! Now if I can just convince myself that that will do the trick.

Eva’s teacher, Mrs. Green, seems great. The classroom is a great environment. As you can see, they sit at “real” desks in rows. Thankfully, fidgety, social Eva’s desk is in the front row. I don’t know if Mrs. Green read through Eva’s report cards or spoke with her first grade teacher to learn that front row would be helpful or if it was just chance. From my perspective it is great!

Hopefully, I’ll update more regularly as the year proceeds, so you can experience 2^nd grade with us.

Whalen Family Week

Susannah (14), Sarah (16) and Abby (nearly 13)

Sydney (10), Eva (7) and Samuel (5) -- ready for the pool!

All the grandchildren at the zoo.

Front row: Samuel, Eva

Second Row: Sydney, Susannah, Sarah, Abby

Back row: Logan (11), Colin (13), Ryan (9)

Only about a month late on this post. We had a wonderful time in West Virginia in early July. Unfortunately, my parents were not able to be there this year, and we all missed them in our own ways. Eva especially missed them early in the morning, because she is typically the first grandchild to arise, and she would enjoy a little time in the common area with Mimi and Popaw before everyone else got up. So, she missed that. I missed beating my dad at gin! More than that though we missed their contributions to conversations and their laughter and delight in their grandchildren. We’re looking forward to next year, when they will be with us and we’ll all be venturing to North Carolina instead of West Virginia.

We all had a great time together. Now that most of the kids are older, the dynamic is a little different. We adults had the chance to read more and talk with one another more. We even had an adult-siblings/spouses dinner out the last night. We took full advantage of all the activities at Oglebay – miniature golf, pedal boating, zoo, and of course the pool several times. We enjoyed interesting conversation over dinner, sparked a couple times by Family Talk conversation cards, and played a lot of games. All in all a relaxing, fun family vacation.

Rusty Update

Maybe I should change the title of the blog to Eva and Rusty’s World, because it feels like Rusty has absorbed an awful lot of my attention and the spotlight since his arrival.

I am very pleased to report that he has matured greatly and adapted to his world with us. But there were some really touch and go moments there for a while. He began to turn a corner in late June and then when we returned from Whalen Family week in mid-July, he seemed really “at home.” That’s not to say he doesn’t still have accidents in the house (argh), but he is so much more comfortable with other people. He likes our babysitter now, and I have been able to line up a dog-sitter/walker. He still doesn’t like the cleaning people, and I am going to stay home the next couple times they come, so he can hopefully acclimate himself a bit more. In early June, I tried to enroll him in doggie daycare, but it was clearly too early and he “flunked” the admission screening. I am hoping he’ll get to a place where he can do that. It will allow for a lot more flexibility.

Our biggest challenges at this point are the occasional accidents (especially in Eva’s and my rooms; I am convinced a dog lived in the house previously and the carpets still have the dog’s scent) and his tendency to nip at people clothes (which sometimes means skin). He mostly does that with new people and particularly those with dogs! We’re working on it, but it is hard. I think that once he came into his own in terms of socializing with humans, he started really living into his puppy-hood!

The photos are of Rusty after his first grooming. I hadn’t realized just how shaggy and scruffy he was until I saw him without so much hair. His coat had gotten matted, so they had to go pretty short, but I think the shorter cut has helped him weather this ridiculously hot summer.

Generous Girl and Rusty Update

Generous Girl

Give me a minute and I’ll get around to the punch-line. Rusty was neutered today, and instead of sending us home with an Elizabethan collar, the vet’s office said, “if he starts to lick himself, even once, then you’ll need to get an “E collar.” Of course, within minutes of getting him home, he had begun to try to lick himself, so off to Petsmart Eva and I went. Well, Petsmart is very near Michael’s, and I needed to get something for Eva’s class, and Eva had $3 burning a hole in her pocket (I don’t know what it is about money and that pocket of hers). Well, when I saw that some American Girl stickers (for scrapbooking, but Eva uses them to create “stories”) were on sale, I offered to get her a few. We also got a little something for Eva’s cousin, who will soon turn 10, and a like object for Eva (won’t mention it in case said cousin reads this – love you Sydney!). Well, right there in the American Girl section, Eva grabbed onto me and said, “Thank you, Mama. You are a very generous girl”! Looks like our conversation about generosity yesterday sunk in (some girls at a neighborhood parade weren’t generous with Eva yesterday when I thought they could have been, and we had a long conversation about how I hoped that would have gone if the situation were reversed)!

Rusty Update

Since I mentioned little Rusty’s surgery, I thought you might want a general update. We had our first session with Kat, the trainer, on Saturday. Rusty wasn’t so sure about Kat until he learned that she was an un-ending source of tiny bites of cheese! He’s finally begun to be food-motivated – just at the right time. I can’t say he totally warmed up or trusted her, but he did allow her to work with him, and he made great progress. I have been concerned about how I can get him to like our babysitter, so that I can have a sitter with comfort/ease, and Kat recommended a spoonful of peanut butter held under the table and offered in small increments over the course of some time. She said he’ll be wondering when “that girl with the peanut butter will be back.” A friend and her two girls came by on Saturday morning, and Rusty did pretty well. We’re finding that if he meets people outside first, he is OK with them coming in the house with us. If they just come in, then he isn’t so happy to see them – he feels like they are a threat to Eva and me and “his job” is to protect us. We’ll get there; we’re just moving at a glacial pace, as far as I am concerned. He has a super sunny disposition when he is home with us or we are out and about, and he’s doing very well on the house training – just the occasional accident that is as often my fault as his (i.e., not getting him out right after he’s been asleep at my feet for a while (like he is right now)).

Here's Rusty

Friday, April 30^th, little Rusty, a 10 month old miniature poodle joined our family. Two days (14 inches) of rain immediately followed, which could have been a recipe for disaster for a pup with a new home, but Rusty did super. Rusty LOVES Eva and me and is generally very good. However, he has stranger issues, and we’re going to start therapy, I mean training, Saturday. We took him with us to the park yesterday, and he did very well, but that was with me constantly telling everyone not to approach him and to let him get to know them. He was emotionally spent by the time we headed home. Today, our cleaning people came while he was home alone (in his crate) and it wasn’t a pretty picture when we got home. I’ll spare you the details, but suffice it to say, Rusty got his first bath tonight! I am hoping he’ll make progress quickly. We need to be able to have people come to our home. So, please say a little prayer for Rusty that his fear goes away and for me that I can learn what is needed to help the little guy through this.

A few recent conversations

Well, La-Di-Da

Yesterday (Mother’s Day), as we were walking home from the park with Rusty (our new dog; watch for a Rusty post soon), we were talking about our plan for dinner. I asked Eva if she’d like to go to Bobbi’s Dairy Dip, and Eva said, no she’d like to go to McDonald’s. I said we weren’t going to McDonald’s and she said again that she wanted to go there. I said, “it is my day, and I do not want to go to McDonald’s. We can either eat at home or go to Bobbi’s.” To which, Eva said, “well, la-di-da.” I guess I had had a little attitude in my tone, and she caught me. I had a very good chuckle over that! And we ate at Bobbi’s Dairy Dip and both enjoyed it very much.

Rock Star

Eva and I were in the car one night, and had the following conversation:

Eva: Mom, who is Taylor Swift?

Mom: She’s a singer.

Eva: Is she a rock star?

Mom: Well, a pop/rock star, yes.

Eva: Is Lady Gaga a singer?

Mom: Yes.

Eva: Is she a rock star?

Mom: Yes, but I think Taylor Swift is probably more appropriate for you.

Mom: Eva, our friend Joseph works for Taylor Swift. He is her wardrober, which means he shops for her clothes and picks out things for her to wear.

Eva (after a pause): Mom, you’re my wardrober. You buy and pick out my clothes.

Mom (through much laughter): I guess I am.

Eva (after a pause): Does that make me a rock star?

Who Said 7 is Lucky?!

The subject of this blog turned 7 on Monday, and the first part of the week was rough. It actually started the day before her birthday when she woke up early in the morning with a fever, stomachache, headache and sore throat. Off to the minute clinic (or should I say “hour and a half clinic”) we went. Thankfully, the strep test was negative. While I wasn’t wishing for strep for Eva’s birthday, I was hoping for something we could treat. Rough day on Sunday, although there were a few bright spots brought on by my giving her early birthday presents. The fever broke that evening, and she was in much better spirits on Monday, although her stomach still hurt. I kept her home, because she hadn’t been fever-free 24 hours before school on Monday. By late afternoon, we could make a trip to Michael’s where she burned through the gift cards she had received (thanks Noel et al. and Columbus Cousins!). She had so much fun picking out a wide assortment of things. We also enjoyed having the “aunts” and “uncles” over for cake and home made ice cream (using my new Kitchen Aid mixer ice cream maker attachment!). Tuesday was a good day, although Eva said her stomach hurt off and on that day.

Wednesday she went to school, but mid-morning I got a call that she was crying and saying her bottom hurt. I thought it might be a little rash and ran off to help her out. But oh no, it was real, awful pain, and we went to the doctor’s office. After an exam there, the doctor, fearing a ruptured appendix, kink in her intestine or some other equally awful thing, sent us to the E.R. for a CT scan, IV fluids and morphine (that’s how much pain Eva was in – she was screaming and crying and giving me the most pitiful, pleadingest “do something about this” eyes). Long story short, it was none of those horrible things – rather, really awful constipation. After a procedure that shall remain nameless on our blog (starts with an “e”), she was much, much, much better. Altogether, we spent about 7 hours in the E.R., and both of us were spent.

The week has picked up since then. Eva has felt 100% and went to school Thursday and Friday. I took Thursday off as a recovery day for me, as I couldn’t even string together a few words to make a sentence that made sense (it was a bit like Eva on morphine the day before!).

We had spectacular weather here today, and we walked to a nearby park and had fun flying kites and connecting with various friends. Rain and colder temps are due again tomorrow, so we plan to go to Davis Kidd to spend more money burning a hole in Eva’s pocket and possibly the used bookstore, as well. We’re on a tear with certain children’s series and need to find some more of them soon (for my sanity, not Eva’s – she’s all too happy to read the same books over and over).