An essay (sorry)

Hey

This week has felt like another long hard week.  I don't know if it is the early starts (back to 6.15 wake up now Oliver is back at school), but it has felt very hard.  Don't get me wrong, we are still loving it!

Last weekend was Labor Day weekend.  This is a holiday that is celebrated in the states for the achievements of workers.  There was a festival held in Simpsonville over the weekend, the Upstate Harvest Moon Festival .  We toddled along to this on Monday, as everyone was off school and work.  It was quite good.  There was animals, a car show and lots of stands/stalls.  There was also a kids zone, $5 to enter for kids.  Clever parents, we had no cash, so did not indulge our delightful children.  It was very HOT, so we had an ice cream, and left quick sharp.

'Hump daaayyyyyy'

We have met up with a lot of friends this week, this entailed 2 trips to McDonalds (only ice cream and drinks were consumed, and round a friends house.  It is nice for the kids to be able to socialize.  I must also thank all my lovely friends here for helping me out and listening to me vent this week, it has felt good to talk.

Thursday afternoon I had a meeting with the directress and teachers from Seb's school, to see why they do not think he is ready.  It turns out they think he has problems going up and down steps, he nearly fell when holding one of their hands.  I explained that he is better going up and down on his own, even if he does tend to climb them rather than walk them.  They are concerned about his lack of language and are worried he would get frustrated about not being able to express himself.  They want his first school experience to be a positive one.  I can kinda see their point.  They also picked up on the fact he struggled to make eye contact when they were doing 'work' with him.  It was the second time he had met the teachers!  It takes time for relationships to build.... I came away feeling a bit 'meh' about the whole thing.  I still think they were over subscribed, and he was one of the easiest to turn down.  After speaking with another mum from the school, there appears to be one rule for one, and a different for another.  I want Seb to go there though.  I dont want to be driving to 3 different schools in a morning.  It is very frustrating for me, but I think Seb will love it when he gets there. I explained to them all the different things we are doing at home, and the directresses eyes lit up.  They know I am doing my best to try and prepare him, and I think this impressed them.  They will reassess him in December, so hopefully they will deem him ready, whereas I know he is nearly there now.

Then Friday morning Seb had his well child check.  He was a lucky child and did not have to have any injections.  This is because when him and I were registering, i forgot to bring our notes from the UK.  I have to drop them in next week, then they will contact me to arrange what is necessary.  The doctor was, again, awesome.  We talked about his lack of speech.  She thinks it is an expressive delay, as he makes a lot of noises.  When she was checking him over, she checked the bit under his tongue (lingual frenulum, involved in tongue tie), and thought it is still a bit thick, which could be impeding him.  She did say however that third children, particularly boys, can be slow to potty train and talk, which is what I knew already.  Sebastian was most uncooperative during his physical, god knows what he will be like when he has his jabs.  He is average in weight, and small in height, a bit like Oliver.  I explained to her what Sebs school had said about him not being ready for school.  Funnily enough, her kid goes to a Montessori school in Greenville, so she knows the drill.  She agrees with me in that, although he may not have a speech issue, for admissions sake, she recommends speech therapy.  That way they can see if it is something physical or if it is just the fact he can't get a word in edge ways most of the time.  They will contact me and let me know when the appointment will be.  I love the boys doctor, she is very common sense and down to earth.  If anyone local is looking for a good general practitioner, let me know.  I don't know if it is because these have been well child checks, but each appointment for the boys has taken at least 50 minutes.  Seb will have a 3 year check in January, as well as some jabs coming up soon (I know he will need at least 2)

Now the other 2 chimps.  They only had school Tuesday-Friday due to Labor Day.  Isaac did one day of lunch and learn.  He is been fine at school, even enjoying it, though he is very tired.  The 3 afternoons I have had him home, the TV has not gone on at all, until we have got Oliver.  We have done all sorts. he played with playdoh with the animals, using the green as land, and the pink as mountains.

He wanted some blue playdoh, so Seb and I made that for him on Friday morning.

He then experimented with baking soda and vinegar colored with food coloring.  He absolutely loved this.  He loved the fizzing, the bubbles and the colors.  I so need to do the mentos and diet coke with him, he will love it.

Oliver has had his usual 3 baseball practices this week, though one of these was a practice game against his coach from last season, coach Kyle.  It is interesting to compare the 2 different coaching styles, neither is good or bad, they are just different.  Oliver's team is the Rockies, after the Colorado Rockies. Games begin the week after next, we need to get olives some grey baseball trousers.  I presume tops and hats will be ordered pretty soon.  We all went to watch the practice game on Friday night.  Oliver's team are pretty good, though Oliver just prances around the pitchers mound most of the time.  He is a good batter though, and managed to hit a pretty big one on one occasion, and got ran put 2 other times.  Think he is being noted for his batting ability, which is good, as he plays no attention to the game.  He finds the fielding boring, but we shall be working on that over the weekend.

Wow this was not supposed to be such an essay, well done if you have managed to read this far.....think I need to blog when things come into my head, rather than waiting for the weekend.