Katya got braces on August 10th. She had mixed feelings about getting them - one day she seemed very excited about them and the next she seem very scared and anti-braces. Her X-tutor seemed to think that she only wanted them because we wanted her to get them. I don't know if that is true or not and maybe it doesn't matter.
On day one of the braces, although she was definately more brave during the process than I expected, about four hours into the braces she asked if we could go back to the orthodontist and have him take them off. I told her that unfortunately we would still have to pay the $2,000 for them anyway to which she seemed to be completely unphased. She then threatened to take them off herself. She used up a whole container of wax that day, brushed her teeth about four times and complained about them every two minutes.
Luckily, things have settled down and I haven't really heard any complaining about them for about ten days or so. I never had to have braces when I was a kid so I do not know how she feels. I can sympathize, though, and I definately felt really bad about her suffering and am very glad that she is either not as miserable as she was when she first got them on or she has gotten use to the misery. Poor girl!
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Cars
Usually when Tony wakes up in the morning, the first thing he does is make the sign for "eat". One morning when he woke up, he first thing he said was "car". I think he was probably dreaming about cars which is not surprising since he is OBSESSED with cars. During the day, he plays with cars all day and he always wants to ride in the car (this is really in theory, though, since once he gets in the car and we go very far he definately wants to get out!). When the TV is on and a car commercial comes on (which is actually very often!) he will make the sign for car and scream "car! car!" until we acknowledge that we too see the car!
My mother-in-law, Lisa, was going through her old stuff and gave Tony her son Joshua's old Chevron cars - about 10 of them. Tony was seriously in heaven! He drives those cars around all day making "vroom" noises and brings one with him whenever we go in the real car! You can tell that he is getting good use out of them, too, since one of them now has a missing door. But isn't that the best thing about hand-me-down toys - you don't have to feel bad about them getting broken because you didn't buy them!
Friday, July 16, 2010
I'm Happy Today!
Those were the words that came out of Katya's mouth several days ago. She told Alex and I and she told Grandpa Taylor. I wanted to blog about it because I don't think I have every heard her say those words exactly and since I doubt if happiness can follow her around for more than one day in a row I wanted to remember it :)
That day really was one of those days when I look at Katya and know that she can actually be nice and helpful and pleasant - it almost makes up for all of those days when she isn't nice or pleasant or downright mean! Although Allie is with us for the month of July, she was at her uncle's house for the day, leaving me, Alex, Katya and Tony. We had assigned Katya chores and she did them without complaining. (Mental note to self: I did let her choose her two chores so that may have had something to do with the accomodating behavior??) She even took on a few chores of her own doing - like organizing her jewelry and sock drawer! Her tutor came and she didn't complain about it. She told Alex and I that she loved us at least three times and she said that she really loved Tony and that he is the best brother ever. It really was a utopian day. I am going to have to add it to my list of "magical moments".
Unfortunately, her happiness may have also had something to do with Allie not being there. Allie and Katya's relationship - or lack of it - makes me very sad and I am at a loss to know what to do about it. The problem with their relationship is mainly due to Katya. She is so jealous of Allie and thinks that Allie gets everything and she gets nothing. Despite the fact that we tell her constantly that we don't love Allie more than her and point out all of the things that she has that Allie doesn't have, Katya still harbors this jealousy. I honestly don't know what to do about it. Maybe I need to find a book on sibling rivalry?
That day really was one of those days when I look at Katya and know that she can actually be nice and helpful and pleasant - it almost makes up for all of those days when she isn't nice or pleasant or downright mean! Although Allie is with us for the month of July, she was at her uncle's house for the day, leaving me, Alex, Katya and Tony. We had assigned Katya chores and she did them without complaining. (Mental note to self: I did let her choose her two chores so that may have had something to do with the accomodating behavior??) She even took on a few chores of her own doing - like organizing her jewelry and sock drawer! Her tutor came and she didn't complain about it. She told Alex and I that she loved us at least three times and she said that she really loved Tony and that he is the best brother ever. It really was a utopian day. I am going to have to add it to my list of "magical moments".
Unfortunately, her happiness may have also had something to do with Allie not being there. Allie and Katya's relationship - or lack of it - makes me very sad and I am at a loss to know what to do about it. The problem with their relationship is mainly due to Katya. She is so jealous of Allie and thinks that Allie gets everything and she gets nothing. Despite the fact that we tell her constantly that we don't love Allie more than her and point out all of the things that she has that Allie doesn't have, Katya still harbors this jealousy. I honestly don't know what to do about it. Maybe I need to find a book on sibling rivalry?
Monday, July 12, 2010
Thomas the Train
We decided to go see Thomas the Train over Memorial Day weekend down at the train depot in Heber Valley. My mom had showed Tony the Thomas the Train video and taught him how to say "toot-toot" so we were all sufficiently excited for this event.Tony enjoyed playing with the train toys and we will probably try to find him one of those cool train tables on KSL for Christmas (hush! hush!). We had a hard time pulling him away from fighting with the other kids over the trains.
The kids got tattoos. Tony loved his so much that when we got home he cried until I put him in the bath and washed it off!
They had a minature golf course that mildly entertained the older kids - they played the very small course about five times!
My mom and my nephew Jacob came along with us. Jacob talked Grandma into buying him an engineer's hat - spoiled boy!
The train ride was the most disappointing part of the trip. Since the activity was centered around Thomas I expected to see a full-fledged Thomas train but it was just a rickety old train with Thomas as the front car. The train scenery consisted of an awesome view of people's junky backyards. Although the ride was only about 20 minutes, Tony fell asleep during it. He didn't miss much anyway...
The tree monkeys, Jacob and Katya found a tree to climb to get out of the sun for a while.
We ended the outing with cotton candy. Tony couldn't get enough of it and Jacob, although he wouldn't eat it himself, had fun feeding it to grandma!
Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this over-priced event to anybody. It's a good thing the pictures turned out so cute because I'm almost convincing myself that we had fun!
Flag Football
I don't know what it is with Alex and football but he has been trying to convince Allie for about 12 years that she wants to play tackle football and since he's had no success with Allie he moved on to Katya. Katya was a little bit more responsive to his suggestion, until she actually saw what tackle football was. And although she was a bit more apprehensive, she still claimed that she wanted to play. Since tackle football is a bit pricey we thought that we would try flag football instead to see if she even liked the game. 
Football is sort of a complicated game and for someone that has never watched it - let alone played it - the rules are a bit confusing. The coach learned to just point to the spot that Katya needed to stand and tell her to grab the flag. She did actually carry the ball a couple times which made the sport very entertaining as a spectator! Instead of running forward, she kept just running back and forth from side to side. Since she is a pretty fast runner, this continued for a bit and was quite comical!
I think overall she had fun. She was the only girl on her team and I really only saw two other girls in any of the games so she was definately outnumbered. She didn't seem to mind, though. The large number of boys probably added to why we got my niece Kaylie to come to a couple of games and why Allie didn't complain too much about sitting on the sidelines!
Alex is not so "gung-ho" anymore about her playing tackle football. Although she would be able to play-down on account of her being so small, I can't imagine her out there with all that gear trying to tackle somebody. I am trying to convince her that in the fall she just wants to play soccer again and maybe ice skating. Besides, football in the fall would really suck. They play rain, sun or snow and I've already sat through three or four rainy and/or snowy football games (on account of the crazy weather this year!) and I am not in any hurry to do this again!
Alex's Bday
I am going to try and catch up so the next few posts will be stuff that happened months ago that I want to write about before I forget any more of the details. Sorry if it is boring!
We celebrated Alex's 33rd birthday on May 29th (instead of June 1st) because we had Allie that weekend. Sadly, I had to think about what year he was born in order to figure out how old he is, which is no different than when I try to remember how old I am! I just realized now that I am turning 34 this year - ugh! - which makes me older and wiser. Do you hear that Alex ;)?
We invited the fam over for cake and ice cream - at least I think it was just cake and ice cream since I don't remember any headaches associated with making any other food! The kids are always up for cake and ice cream although they really prefer ice cream and icing! Allie bought Alex a bag of chocolates that were her favorites (but not necessarily Alex's favorites!) and Katya bought Alex a Laker's T-shirt. Alex is a very hard person to buy a present for and usually he takes everything back that you get for him. Katya remembered him taking back the shirt she bought him for Christmas and I told her that she had every right to tell him that she was no longer going to buy him presents if he kept returning everything. So after presenting him with his gift she said to him, "Daddy, if you turn this back I am not every going to buy you a present!". To his credit, even if he didn't like the shirt (which I think he did), Alex kept the shirt. Awesome!
Here are some pixs of the family - mostly Tony because he is so darn cute!
This is Alex opening up his surprise pair of pants from my mom! Not really a surprise because my mom has also learned not to buy anything for him without prior approval. He actually ended up taking these pants back and he picked them out so I guess I shouldn't feel bad about him taking back my presents!
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
In over my head
Sometimes I have these days when I look at my life and think that I am totally in over my head. Yesterday was one of those days. Katya has been off-track since last week. I wanted to try and set up a routine for the summer that includes her doing some reading, math, writing and chores every day. I don't think this is too strenous or too much to ask - for her to spend an hour or so on these tasks and then have the rest of the day to do as she pleases. I don't wake her up early in the morning and she gets paid for doing it so when she complains about it her complaints definately fall on not-too-patient deaf ears! She actually has been fairly cooperative - only occasionally griping - and one night she literally spent at least an hour and a half doing math worksheets of her own accord. This was partly due to her wanting to avoid going to bed but it was definately the best thing she's ever done to get out of bedtime :)
Yesterday, however, in the midst of doing some math and asking her what 7 times 2 is and receiving this blank look from her - how could I not be frustrated! Do you know how long we spent last July through Octoberish working on multiplication and division facts? I am so tired of math flashcards! But that is what I pulled out again and made her practice instead of doing the math worksheet I had for her. She was pretty frustrated too, especially when we got to the number 2 division facts and our little math session ended up with her in her room crying. I have to tell you that at that moment I sort of felt like crying too! It was like starting over. I sat next her - our chins resting on her window sill - and asked her if she was frustrated, to which her tear-stained face nodded yes. I then reminded her that other kids had four years to practice multiplication and division (2nd grade - 6th grade) and that she had only been doing it for less than a year. This was actually probably more for my benefit than hers - the reminder that her class really hadn't been doing their math facts for several months and this is why she no longer remembers them as well as when we were drilling them into her brain and that it is mostly my fault because we should have still been working on this math aspect. I told her that I know how hard she has been working to catch up to the kids that are her age and that I was very proud of her and that I knew how smart she was. I told her that if I didn't think that she was smart enough to do it then I wouldn't expect anything of her but that I knew better. It is OK to be frustrated sometimes and I said that I sometimes get frustrated too, to which she of course asked me what frustrated me - a question I had anticipated a second after the words came out of my mouth but that I wasn't really prepared to answer honestly. If I could answer that honestly I would have yelled "YOU!" at her but it didn't seem that it would help the situation so I half-answered her question by talking about how I would get frustrated when I was in school too.
This little talk seemed to have appeased her and I walked away with a good feeling that I had "done good" which is why what happened later that day hurt my feelings so much. Katya would be mortified if she knew I had told anybody this so you readers are all sworn to secrecy! Lately Katya has been asking me a lot of questions about the lovely once a month "curse" (I didn't call it a curse to her but - hey - I know we all think of it that way!) - about why it happens, etc. I wasn't necessarily prepared for these questions and the maturation program that took place back in May that I meant to take Katya to (I had actually specifically called the school to find out when it was because they do that presentation in the fifth grade and not in the sixth grade) popped into my mind, along with the thought that it probably would have been more worthwile than the football game that she would have missed. I don't think Katya really trusted my expertise on this matter based on my answers to her questions and she gave me this dubious look that seemed to say, "You don't know what you are talking about, mom!" and truthfully my answers did not seem to suggest that I was all-knowing. Perhaps if I had answered with more assurance or had more intuition about why all of the sudden questions I would have gotten her news out of her. Instead, I got a hushed "Katya needs to talk to you about something" from Alex when he got home from picking Katya and Tony up from my mom's. "She has something to tell you" he said and although he wouldn't tell me what, the barrage of questions from the afternoon came to mind and when I guessed the lovely-womanly-thing-that-us-women-do-not-really-wish-upon-our-little-girls had happened, Alex positively confirmed. I did coax the news out of her after dinner without betraying Alex's confidence. Apparently it had happened back in May the day before her birthday - coincidentally the exact same week that Allie got her's - and since Allie was there for the weekend Katya had kind of seen all about taking care of it and hadn't really needed me and thus didn't really need to tell me.
Katya's secrecy brought back the memory of when I got mine when I was younger - a not-too-fond memory. It was a Sunday and my mom was trying to get eight kids ready for church and my education on the matter was a rushed demonstration of how to use a pad and then I don't recall any other conversations EVER. I see now how unwelcome this distraction would have been considering what my mom had going on at the moment yet it was one of those telling moments in your life and I vowed that I would never do that do my kids and that I would always encourage them to talk about it. How could I not be hurt to realize that it had been almost a month AND that she had told Alex before me? When I asked her why she didn't tell me she said that she thought I would be mad. This was the second time that day that I felt like crying and the point in the day when I felt totally unqualified for this position of motherhood that I have taken upon myself. What was I thinking? I didn't know if was going to be so hard - that I would feel so inadequate and frustrated so often. I really am over my head - can I swim out?
Worse yet, Katya doesn't like to play tennis with me - she would much rather play with Alex! I have to laugh at this hurting my feelings because the truth is that I don't like to play tennis with Katya either. She sucks and I suck and the combination of us together makes for a very uninteresting (and unhittable) tennis game. So - I think I can probably get over this one :)
As for the other thing, I found a website that I can study-up on so that in the next couple of days I can sit down with Katya and have an educated conversation with her and redeem myself.
Yesterday, however, in the midst of doing some math and asking her what 7 times 2 is and receiving this blank look from her - how could I not be frustrated! Do you know how long we spent last July through Octoberish working on multiplication and division facts? I am so tired of math flashcards! But that is what I pulled out again and made her practice instead of doing the math worksheet I had for her. She was pretty frustrated too, especially when we got to the number 2 division facts and our little math session ended up with her in her room crying. I have to tell you that at that moment I sort of felt like crying too! It was like starting over. I sat next her - our chins resting on her window sill - and asked her if she was frustrated, to which her tear-stained face nodded yes. I then reminded her that other kids had four years to practice multiplication and division (2nd grade - 6th grade) and that she had only been doing it for less than a year. This was actually probably more for my benefit than hers - the reminder that her class really hadn't been doing their math facts for several months and this is why she no longer remembers them as well as when we were drilling them into her brain and that it is mostly my fault because we should have still been working on this math aspect. I told her that I know how hard she has been working to catch up to the kids that are her age and that I was very proud of her and that I knew how smart she was. I told her that if I didn't think that she was smart enough to do it then I wouldn't expect anything of her but that I knew better. It is OK to be frustrated sometimes and I said that I sometimes get frustrated too, to which she of course asked me what frustrated me - a question I had anticipated a second after the words came out of my mouth but that I wasn't really prepared to answer honestly. If I could answer that honestly I would have yelled "YOU!" at her but it didn't seem that it would help the situation so I half-answered her question by talking about how I would get frustrated when I was in school too.
This little talk seemed to have appeased her and I walked away with a good feeling that I had "done good" which is why what happened later that day hurt my feelings so much. Katya would be mortified if she knew I had told anybody this so you readers are all sworn to secrecy! Lately Katya has been asking me a lot of questions about the lovely once a month "curse" (I didn't call it a curse to her but - hey - I know we all think of it that way!) - about why it happens, etc. I wasn't necessarily prepared for these questions and the maturation program that took place back in May that I meant to take Katya to (I had actually specifically called the school to find out when it was because they do that presentation in the fifth grade and not in the sixth grade) popped into my mind, along with the thought that it probably would have been more worthwile than the football game that she would have missed. I don't think Katya really trusted my expertise on this matter based on my answers to her questions and she gave me this dubious look that seemed to say, "You don't know what you are talking about, mom!" and truthfully my answers did not seem to suggest that I was all-knowing. Perhaps if I had answered with more assurance or had more intuition about why all of the sudden questions I would have gotten her news out of her. Instead, I got a hushed "Katya needs to talk to you about something" from Alex when he got home from picking Katya and Tony up from my mom's. "She has something to tell you" he said and although he wouldn't tell me what, the barrage of questions from the afternoon came to mind and when I guessed the lovely-womanly-thing-that-us-women-do-not-really-wish-upon-our-little-girls had happened, Alex positively confirmed. I did coax the news out of her after dinner without betraying Alex's confidence. Apparently it had happened back in May the day before her birthday - coincidentally the exact same week that Allie got her's - and since Allie was there for the weekend Katya had kind of seen all about taking care of it and hadn't really needed me and thus didn't really need to tell me.
Katya's secrecy brought back the memory of when I got mine when I was younger - a not-too-fond memory. It was a Sunday and my mom was trying to get eight kids ready for church and my education on the matter was a rushed demonstration of how to use a pad and then I don't recall any other conversations EVER. I see now how unwelcome this distraction would have been considering what my mom had going on at the moment yet it was one of those telling moments in your life and I vowed that I would never do that do my kids and that I would always encourage them to talk about it. How could I not be hurt to realize that it had been almost a month AND that she had told Alex before me? When I asked her why she didn't tell me she said that she thought I would be mad. This was the second time that day that I felt like crying and the point in the day when I felt totally unqualified for this position of motherhood that I have taken upon myself. What was I thinking? I didn't know if was going to be so hard - that I would feel so inadequate and frustrated so often. I really am over my head - can I swim out?
Worse yet, Katya doesn't like to play tennis with me - she would much rather play with Alex! I have to laugh at this hurting my feelings because the truth is that I don't like to play tennis with Katya either. She sucks and I suck and the combination of us together makes for a very uninteresting (and unhittable) tennis game. So - I think I can probably get over this one :)
As for the other thing, I found a website that I can study-up on so that in the next couple of days I can sit down with Katya and have an educated conversation with her and redeem myself.
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