Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve was with my parents. My Grandma came over for a couple hours too. She gets anxious when she's out for a long time. We went to brunch and then opened gifts with Gigi then had dinner, finished the gifts and went to mass. We had 10 p.m. mass for midnight mass. We arrived at 9 because D was singing. He had a small solo in Ave Maria and was very nervous. The carols started at 9:30. It was a very nice service and the kids did pretty well, sitting in a pew for 2 hours since we were an hour early. Both sets of grandparents were there. The choir ended with the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. It was awesome. We didn't see a Messiah this year. Most years we try to go see one and we've seen them all over the country depending on where we were living at the time. Last year we saw one in a local church. K loved it and C slept in the stroller the entire time so it worked out pretty well. We usually go see the Nutcracker every year too but that didn't happen this year. It was a scheduling issue. Last year we saw it twice, once in NYC and once in Cincinnati so we were covered for this year. After the Cincy production, K said it was good but it wasn't New York.

Christmas Day was with D's family. Everyone was in town for it. It's fun but busy. 12 adults and 15 children ages 10 to 4 months. K and C love all the playing. It seems we are always eating, feeding, cleaning up, etc. We have to eat in shifts b/c there's not enough room for everyone to eat together. All the cousins exchanged gifts and that was fun. K and C loved their gifts. K recieved Usborne I can draw people and playtime activites. She loves to draw. C received some legos.

Now we are trying to go through rooms and make a pile to give away. D had to work today.

14 years

Yesterday was our 14 year anniversary. K and C went to Grandma's and Pap's for the night. They were so excited. We all needed a break and I needed to do some shopping without them running through the store, trying to hide and scaring me. I got a lot accomplished but still feel overwhelmed. This last week is always so crazy, I don't know how to make it better.

I just reread my last post. I don't think things are as bad as I wrote. Last week the 3 year old was not in school and K had a really good week. Plus, the head teacher has been doing a great job of giving K work and asking her to work with others so she's not always with this 3 year old. I think she's doing better. Her Math work is progressing now.

C is going to start Montessori Jan 22nd. He's excited. I think he's ready for that environment and for someone to ask him to learn all his letters/sounds. He learns so differently than Kaitlin. He really has to want to learn before he will do it. Or show you that he knows it. It's hard to know what he knows. He's definitely more math oriented than K.

I have a lot to get done this morning before Grandma drops K off at school and brings C here.

Chaos

I have not been writing because things have been so chaotic here. D and I have spent a lot of time discussing all the issues with K. Today K's teacher talked to me about her behavior at school. She's been 'mothering' one of the 3 year old girls. She talks about her all the time but I guess it is getting out of control. She's doing things for her and the 3 year old cries for K when she gets frustrated. It's such an odd dynamic and so hard as a parent to know how to handle. K doesn't want to do her work, she wants to just play like the 3 year olds. Yesterday she told her teacher that she forgot her book when it was her time to do reading. The teacher said check your bag and of course it was there. She lied so she could go play. This is not K's normal behavior. We're trying to figure out what is going on and debating all kinds of options. Is she bored? Is she trying to fit in somehow or doesn't want to stand out from the other kindergarteners? She's not playing with them anymore, she's spending all her time with this 3 year old who needs her. I need a psychologist. I knew raising her would be difficult but I wasn't prepared for this type of difficulty. It's a really odd dynamic at school this year with the kindergarteners and maybe we need to pull her out. D talked about me homeschooling her starting in January. I don't know. I don't know what to do. I can't seem to write about it either.

On top of that, she's been acting/talking like a baby. When I tried to get her to tell her teacher about buying gifts for needy gifts, she wouldn't talk. She crawled around on the floor and withdrew. Of course I pushed to get her to talk and that didn't work. So, I yelled at her on the ride home about manners and answering her teacher when asked, etc. She hates when I yell but this has been going on for a couple months and I've had it. I don't know how to handle it. I think she tuned me out.

On the positive side, the son I've been ignoring drew a wonderful picture of himself tonight and did a pretty good job of writing his name.