Up and Down

It has been one of those kind of days. It started out pretty good. I reluctantly got up when my alarm went off. I am really starting to hate that thing again, and it wasn’t even that early… 7am! However when you go to bed at 10pm or later every night and you love your sleep, it just sucks. I can’t wait to just be lazy tomorrow and sleep in (keeping my fingers crossed that Ayden does for a little while too) if only to 7:30 or 8am.

So, it all started out good. Ayden got up when Jay woke up and wasn’t crabby and got ready when I asked. We all headed out the door at the same time. Jay off to work, Ayden and I off to my work. However when I went to start my car… NOTHING! It didn’t start! Ugh! It was a good thing that Jay was still there and he was able to jump start my car. He said to call him when I was done with work and he would stop back over at work and jump start the car there if need be. I was really hoping that it wouldn’t need to be jump started, however unfortunately it did. At first it wouldn’t start and I was worried that my car would be stuck there and need to get towed and then I’d get a ticket because I was in a two hour park zone and my two hours was already up. Thankfully after a couple of tries it turned over and we made it home.

Jay had to leave his truck at the house with Ayden and myself since I needed a vehicle to take us to the doctor later in the afternoon. Jay had his buddy from work pick him up and then drop him off earlier tonight when they were done working.

Lunch was fine and Ayden was behaving really well. And then it was off to the doctor. I had talked with Ayden about him getting some shots, one if not two and he seemed okay with it. Well as okay as a five year old can be about getting shots. We also talked about answering the doctor’s questions when he was asked something. Ayden gets very shy and weird around strangers. I wanted him to be able to answer the doctor instead of me saying everything, especially when the doctor is asking Ayden.

He did great with the eye chart, answering the nurse, even answered most of the doctors questions. He got a little shy towards the end, but overall did very well. They did a hearing screening on him and he didn’t hear the quietest sound. The doctor said it wasn’t anything to be concerned about now and asked if I wanted him seen by an audiologist or wait until next year and see what happens. Since I have full access to the aud clinic starting next week I figured I would just test him myself or have one of the other grad students do it instead of worrying about making an appointment and what not. Plus screenings are not always super accurate as there is ambient noise and so forth. In any case, Ayden’s health checked out perfectly! One of his tonsils is slightly enlarged and I asked the doctor about that. She stated that it should not be a problem, but it is something we will keep our eye on. He isn’t snoring or having trouble breathing at night.

And then it was… shot time! And my poor baby needed FOUR shots and then needed his blood tested for lead. FOUR SHOTS! Oh, I felt SO bad for him! The nurses were awesome and double teamed him. One shot in each arm twice. I know that sort of sucks, but better than four in a row. LOTS and LOTS of tears, but Ayden was a champ! Only then I had to get him to have his finger poked and squeezed for a blood sample. He did good for that one as well, but even more tears. His new mantra ‘I hate shots and needles!’

We went to Dairy Queen after wards to calm down, both of us kind of needed it! We also talked about how he won’t need more shots until a long long time! Next ‘scheduled’ ones are in 2015, unless we decide to get flu shots or something unexpected comes up.

*That’s not to count the one he might (will probably) have to get when he goes to the dentist. Shh, but don’t tell him! They said they would give him some gas before hand to help relax him though!

We also talked about how going to the doctor doesn’t always mean shots and that shots keep us healthy and doctors help us stay healthy and so on and so forth so that the next time we go he isn’t terrified!

After we got home I got a call from our case worker saying that we will not be able to receive any child care assistance due to some new change in the rules. I am okay with this because I am just so grateful and thankful that we were able to receive the aid we were. However it does require a few more changes and money going out to pay for what I haven’t yet at the Y. Also, I can now check with the Y about seeing if we can get aid through them. Something I will need to check into tomorrow.

Our financial aid stuff came through today, however there is an issue with Jay’s at the present moment. I am keeping my eye on it through tomorrow and if the right thing does not happen then he will have to go to the office and see what they can do because we were counting on that money for living expenses and the letter we got from the school loan people say the loans were guaranteed. So I don’t know what it going on at the moment.

On a brighter note, we were able to get a new battery for my car (that is what ended up being the problem) for much cheaper than I had anticipated, but I haven’t had to buy a battery in a long time, well ever for my car, and one for Jay’s a year or two ago. Battery in… car starts wonderfully. I also picked up a few clothing items at Kohls tonight for myself and for Ayden. I got four new shirts that are all clinic appropriate, yet cute enough to wear for everyday as well as some pants for Ayden. We also got some jeans for Jay as he was in need of some new ones. Well actually he needed some more work ones, but I decided to get him some new good ones and he could take some of his old good ones and make them work ones. He has this issue with ripping the back pockets from the jeans and leaving big holes. He has two pair of work pants as I speak.

The rest of the night has been pretty relaxing. Jay got a little testy with Ayden at the store, but sometimes I think Jay is just not playful enough. He is too serious and makes things worse sometimes. He needs to relax and learn how to pick his battles. I am not saying that Ayden is the perfect model five year old who never has his moments, but if you know how to work it then all is well. And I won’t say that I don’t get a little irked when Ayden isn’t behaving all the time either, but the more you push him the more he will push back. Oh well…

I’m looking forward to a good weekend!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Because I can’t put my feelings into words…

…at this moment, I’ll leave you with some fun pictures!

Ayden and I had a picnic yesterday after I got home from work. We had coffee, soup, marshmallows and relaxed by the fire. He has such a great imagination!

                

Some of the utensils we used at our picnic. Gotta love that ‘coffee maker’ and the ‘pretty cup’ that Ayden said only girls get! However because it wasn’t standing up too well on the blanket we decided to get a safer one so we didn’t spill the ‘coffee’!

                  It was a great picnic! We didn’t even get water ALL over the place… only a few different places. And then best of all Ayden wanted to clean up right away when we were done! Praise a clean toy room for the time being, ha!

My books for school came in yesterday! Three books for a little under $200… ugh! And the bottom one is a HUGE book! I am getting one more from a previous grad student for half price, yeah for previous grad students!               

               

I have become bored with my generic canon camera strap so I decided to get creative yesterday. I have seen many people with custom camera straps and know that you can order them from many different shops online, however I don’t have the money to do that so I decided to make my own. They are just camera strap covers since you can slide them on and off and for first attempts I am pretty happy with them. I used fabric glue to keep them together since we don’t own a sewing machine so they could have turned out better, but alas I’m still happy and they were uber cheap too!

Ah, the lady behind the camera! Hehe! Sporting the new camera strap and all! Its hard to take mirror pictures in my house because my flash wants to go off, but then you know it doesn’t work and Ayden’s room is the only really light one with a mirror in and then I had to adjust the WB and what not… overall I’m happy with how it turned out being an inside picture with no flash and a streaky mirror, haha!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Dreary Weather

The rainy cloudy dreary day (weather wise) that we had today did nothing to improve my attitude. It definitely didn’t start out as an icky day, nor did the afternoon start out that way, but let me tell you… it was one of those days where my child seemed to push every button he could on his momma and not in a good way either! And the icky weather didn’t make me any happier.

Work went fine this morning and the first part of the afternoon breezed by. I took Ayden to the dentist and even that went well, well mostly. He was a champ and went in all by himself (because it is a pediatric dentist and so forth they like to encourage child independence and have the children go alone). He did great and the hygienist that worked with him was very nice as well. Actually all of the ones that I saw come get patients had that super nice demeanor, which is pretty much standard for children. Anyways, like I said, Ayden was awesome! His teeth… not so much. I’m even too down about it to actually describe what he needs done. Nothing so drastic as getting anything pulled, for the most part his teeth are pretty healthy, except for a few spots. I don’t know if he will like the dentist so much after his next appointment. At least he gets out of school for it. Do kindergarteners like that?! Haha!

Anyways, after the dentist we needed to make a quick run to Walmart and because the dentist was so conveniently located right down the road (I’ve never noticed this until I looked up the directions today) I told Ayden we needed to go. He was adamant that he wanted to go home and well that should have told me our little trip wouldn’t be so productive. Not even 10 seconds after we walk in, I’m already trying to get him to follow me. Argh, not good! For the most part he wasn’t completely unruly in the store and improved his behavior tenfold by the time we walked out which I was grateful for. I thought maybe it was a sign our afternoon was going to go good… not so much.

I guess maybe it wouldn’t have been so bad had I given in to his requests for what he wanted, but you parents know… can’t and won’t always happen. It is not as if he was asking for anything I couldn’t easily give him, but that was besides the point. He wanted a glass of chocolate milk and I offered him water. I could have offered white milk, but he probably would have refused that as well. I have decided that he can have one juice per day (not that he was guzzling much more than that anyways) and two/three glasses of chocolate milk. He gets one in the morning when he wakes up and today I decided he could have one with supper (he had juice for lunch) and so when he asked for one as just a drink I wouldn’t cave. Anyways, that ensued with a lot of ‘you and daddy always say no' etc etc etc… it was just a whiny afternoon and despite my best efforts to ignore it, he was slowly wearing on my nerves.

The rest of the night was horrible, but it wasn’t idyllic either. I’m hoping that tomorrow is a better day.

I finally got a hold of Ayden’s potential school today. The lady who answered the phone (assuming some sort of administrative assistant) stated that she was going to mail the classroom assignments for kindergarteners this week. So we should know Ayden’s teacher by Friday at the latest. Talk about waiting until the last minute, eh? Yeah, that is what I thought. As soon as I know for sure that he is in a class at that school it is off to the Y to make sure his before and after school care is all set up and good to go, not to mention an email to our new case worker to make sure all the proper child care authorizations go through, if any go through at all.

Ayden is sleeping in the basement tonight. I think this will be the second time since moving in that he has wanted to sleep down there. Since he wasn’t a total hellion tonight, I talked with Jay and we agreed that it was okay. Actually, right before it was bed time we was coloring a picture of our cat Diesel, it was too cute.

I also managed to get a few more things together for school, like things actually in the binders. And only because one of my new professors ALREADY assigned homework! Homework even before school starts! Are they nuts?! Yes, probably certifiably so, but what can I do about it. I don’t know how I am going to do in a class of three students. No one not answering questions that is for sure, lol! I’ve never been very outspoken in class before, guess I don’t have much of a choice now. Sometimes I wish there were the other three students that were supposed to be with us, but then again not. With only the three of us, we will get a lot of one on one attention, especially in labs and I am sure that will help with the learning. At least I hope so.

Oh and guess what else happened. My engagement ring cracked! It is not as bad as it sounds, but I was outside on Sunday night writing a letter to my friend Victoria and had stopped writing to just do some thinking and was looking at my ring. It was rather light outside yet and I thought I saw a tiny crack in part of it. And sure enough after closer inspection… there was one! I was a little taken back because I didn’t think rings could crack like that and wondered how it had happened or how long it had been there since it is pretty small and hard to notice. I am totally in love with my ring so I spend a lot of time just looking at it and imaging a future wedding. Anyways, I told Jay and said I would take it in on Monday to see what the jeweler could do. Thankfully we have a few local ones. I took it to the same place that I got it resized at and they said they would be able to fix it and for a very nominal price. The only downside (besides it being cracked in the first place) is that I am ‘naked’ for the whole week. For those of you who wear jewelry on a daily basis, do you ever feel like that when you don’t wear it? I’ve had a ring on that finger for like the past how many years and one week without it, ugh! Lol! I suppose I could put one of my other rings on that I used to wear on that finger, but it just wouldn’t feel the same now. I know, just me being crazy. I’ll get it back at the end of the week…

CIAO! LOVE ME!

I’m a total nerd!

I labeled all my binders with nice ‘cover sheets’ and even made my own planner for this fall! Ah, what an organized neat freak of a nerd I can be sometimes! I even went so far as to email the first year grad students from last year to ask them what to expect… well I mean they just went through it and all! And you know what? Three of the five have already gotten back to me and even better… I feel about a MILLION times better already! Like today I was have some serious anxiety issues about the end of summer coming and the fact that I only have one week left before grad school starts! It just wasn’t going over very well with me today and well now I feel like I can sort of breathe again!

This week will be all about getting the final touches done for Ayden and myself regarding school. He needs some Kleenex and crackes/pretzels for school and I just need to review some material. However, I still need to call his school to make sure he is enrolled there. It wouldn’t be so bad, but since we moved and he was transferred, I don’t want us to show up at ‘meet the teacher night’ and him not on any teacher list and then us screwed because school starts the following day and us not knowing which school he is enrolled in. Crazy, right?! So, it’s just overly organized freaky nerd Ashley making sure all the cards are in order!

And then I need to stop by the YMCA to make sure all of his before and after school care stuff is in order. Oh, and then there is registering for soccer and possibly hockey (although at this point in time Ayden says he doesn’t want to play hockey), but I think he would have lots of fun playing it. I don’t want to be one of those moms that makes their child play a sport that they don’t want to because I swore that I wouldn’t be… but I think he just doesn’t know the full extent of what he would be doing. Who knows?!

Here is what happens when Ayden concentrates… I love me some Hoerth tongue! Okay, definitely not what it sounds like, because face it, you thought that way too (or at least I know I did when I typed it). Maybe I should have written ‘I love me some Ayden and his look of concentration!’ Hehe!

 

Because whether or not you think so… I think it is way too darn cute!

And here’s my cutie in all his birthday glory with his wonderful shirt on, although by the end of the day the iron on was starting to peel off and I was rather disappointed and he was pretty upset that the shirt was ruined, but I’m going to see what I can do with it because he really liked it! And his oh so yummy ice cream cake!

CIAO! LOVE ME!

Happy Birthday Ayden!

Today my little big boy turns FIVE!!! It seems like the last five years have just flown by my eyes! Ayden has been the best blessing and I am so grateful for the opportunity to call myself his mom!

I can’t believe that five years ago I was introduced (face to face that is) to the little guy that wants to dig into his ice cream cake today more than anything, well maybe after he digs into his gifts!

He has quite the personality these days! For those who really get to know him can see him pop out of his shell and become the talkative and sometimes sassy little boy that I see every day! He has this sweet soul and often surprises me with wanting to just sit outside on the swing with me or passing out hugs and kisses! But mommy also sees the tantrums he throws and just laughs when he thinks he is going to get his way! He has his mom’s determination and his dad’s knack for wrestling!

His little mind often wonders about the craziest things and I’ve already had some pretty deep conversations with him. He has a superb memory when it comes to events he really had fun at! He still talks about a water park trip with his auntie and uncle more than six months ago! And he often reminds me of things I said that even I have forgotten!

Every day brings something new with Ayden and I look forward to the phrase (and nose poke) ‘wakey wakey eggs and bakey’ each and every morning! Ayden often wakes me up every morning and I always ask him the same three things… ‘how did you sleep?’ ‘what did you dream about?’ ‘did you stay warm enough?’ And he smiles just the same! A smile I will never get sick of!

So no matter how much I want to freeze time and keep my little guy nice and little and cuddleful (yes, I made that a word) forever and ever… I look forward to the years and years that are to come… the years in which my little guy will grow into a young man and so on and so forth…

I hope you enjoy the picture montage I’ve put together… Ayden on his birthday for the last four years (well at least at his parties because this year is the first year we’ve actually had his party ON his birth DATE)!

 

 

(Picture/s to come for five!)

CIAO! LOVE ME!