Age Restricitons at Play Areas

In the past month I have taken my children to two parties at local McDonald's with play areas. One was a newly remodeled location on a weeknight at dinner time and the other was an established one at dinner time on a Sunday. At both places there is an area for 3-12 year olds and another for 3 and under. I have two children who fit into both categories. Both times I saw children who were much closer to 12 than 3 in the area for smaller children, but what made it worse was they were playing tag and roughhousing where small kids were playing. While it bothered me that children who should be able to read the posted signs were ignoring them it bothered me even more that the parents were watching them (or not) and didn't make any effort to have them leave that area. At the new play land I let each of my children see the younger area before it go busy and then after that I told them they were not allowed back in because they were too old. I had to later hold my one year old for the rest of the party except when he was in a high chair because it was way too crowded for him to play. Tonight he was almost stepped on by a kid who was about as tall as me and easily outweighed me. He may very well be twelve, I'm not exactly tall, but he was playing in an unsafe manner and his dad just kept reading the paper. I hope that I manage to be a more observant parent as my children get older and need less constant supervision because if your child is putting other children in danger it is your responsibility to do something about it.

Country Living Magazine for March

Today I took a break from reading books to enjoy a magazine and it was such a nice change of pace. Lately I have felt like I've been on a lot of self-imposed deadlines. I agreed to review a number of books without thinking about how it would all add up. In the last two weeks I had six books with dates to have reviews posted by and then a few that were supposed to be done ASAP. I've finished 7 of them and am close to finished with two more. Realistically I should have read those today, but my brain felt kind of fried so I declared a bit of a holiday.

Last month my friend Kelly mentioned that she enjoyed reading Country Living on her blog http://www.kellyathomeblog.com/ and I realized I'd never read it. When I was placing some orders on Amazon I was $5 away from the super shipper discount, I could pay $4.98 to have my order shipped or buy something for $5 more. I picked a magazine subscription for $5 to Country Living. The March issue arrived today and I read it from cover to cover. I had to get out a small notebook to write down ideas for things I want to do at home like put up some shelves in the kitchen and plant flowers and herbs outside. I needed to get motivated to get to making out house more of a home. We moved here over four years ago and after moving in we added two more children and had a home based business (that we closed last spring) all of which took a lot of time and energy. I feel like we never really finished personalizing our house. we have no pictures on the walls. How can that be with four children? Hopefully I will actually do the things on my list because how your living space looks really does affect you. I know having it be perfect is unrealistic, but a little less cluttered and a little more inviting and homey would be a welcome change. Anyone else ready to change things up for spring?

Still not done!

So I thought after our visit to the doctor on Monday, which was followed by my daughter throwing up repeatedly Monday night, that we were finally done with the stomach bug and that my three year old had missed it. No such luck. He got up from a nap today and threw up all over the floor, luckily it was the hardwood floor that I hate for other reasons, but appreciate for the fact that it is easier to clean up vomit from than carpet (as the hallway carpet upstairs can attest to after Monday's stomach bout). The funny thing is the older two relished in being able to say they were sick, while he insisted, after he was all cleaned up, that he was NOT sick. Kids are so funny sometimes. But at least he didn't want to be sick which is something.

Sickness and Kids

Where to start? I realize I have pretty much ignored this blog. It seemed like a good idea when I started it and then I got sucked off in a different direction. Lately all of my kids have been sick. Today when I was at the pediatrician with all four of them for booster shots I realized I had been to the doctor four times in the past week with 1 to 4 of them with me. My older three were terrible for the booster shots, carrying on like crazy and I was a bit embarrassed. It is like as they get older they get worse rather than better. My oldest was the worst. Why? No one likes shots, I get that, but they have received all of the immunizations they were supposed to get at every visit and never have they been as bad as this. On top of that, one of them was diagnosed with strep throat so we had to go to the pharmacy for a prescription. This year my kids are sicker than they have ever been before and it is raising my stress levels. I just want them all well and back to themselves!

Phone Call from the teacher

Tonight as I was getting my youngest fed and ready for bed the phone rang. I thought it was probably my mom but it turned out to be my oldest son's first grade teacher. I was a little worried about why she would be calling me on a Sunday night but it turned out she was just touching base with me about how my son is doing so far in school. Nothing she had to say was a surprise and none of it was bad, but my first reaction when I saw her name on the caller ID was that my son was in trouble for something. Isn't it terrible that when a teacher calls we expect it to be for bad news? I commend her on calling to keep the lines of communication open. I think this is going to be a really good school year for him!

Kids say some funny things.

Tonight my almost three year old went into the bathroom to use the potty and he called out to me, "Turn the dark off." When I went in and asked if he wanted me to turn the light on he said, 'No turn the dark of it doesn't look nice in here." I've heard the PA Dutch expression to "outen the light" but never one for turning the dark off. I guess if you can turn the light off you should be able to turn the dark off too!

What to do about preschool.

I have a bit of a dilemma on my hands. My older two children both have spring birthdays so deciding when to sign themup for preschool was a no brainer. They started in the fall after they turned 3. My third and fourth children are both fall babies and their birthdays fall after the cut- off date for our local school district. The third is almost three now and seems interested in starting school, but if he starts now he will have three years of preschool. It would be good socialization wise for him to have other children to play with and to separate from me for a period of time each week, but academically he already knows his letters and numbers, colors and shapes and even some sight words even through there are 3 years until he can enter kindergarten. Also, he isn't fully potty trained which isn't an issue for the one preschool but is for the other. If heis going to start I want him to start on the first day so my planof action for this week is to call the preschool and see if they have any room left and what times the classes are to see if they conflict with the pick-up times I have for my other two children from their bus drop offs.