Oh, Good Grief...

I started the day out taking Ellie to the preschool for the first time. I hadn't planned on starting her until this time next year but I am a regular volunteer at the elementary school and Ellie needs some place to go while I am there. She has been going over to my friends house but things changed and so, the director of the preschool we have been at for over six years now found space for Ellie. She is going to go two mornings a week.

When I got there, I picked out some t-shirts for her, handed in her paperwork, talked with the director...then, the director says, "Are you going to stay with her for a while?" Uh, no. If you could have seen her face! It needed a sound effect, really...maybe a "doink!" Jaw dropped, eyes widened. She was very concerned..."but, you haven't visited with her???" yah, I know, this is the fourth kid, what can I say. No, really, In all truthfulness, Ellie is just very adaptable. She loves being around other children, she takes easily to others and falls right in to whatever is going on around her. I have her going to a music class on Mondays, Tuesdays she is in a little Bible class at church while I work the nursery and Wednesday nights and Sunday mornings, she is at church as well...On occasional Thurday mornings, she attends a little gymnastic camp. The girl is used to being in a room with other children...she walked right in...not one tear, except when she fell off the monkey bars...that's right, incident report...day ONE! When I picked her up, she was eating lunch, so cute, she looks up, sees me, yells, "Mommy!!!!" and then says, "I ready to go." Is she bigger, or is the cubby?

We walked down to her classroom to check her file folder and she pulls on my hand...I looked down at her and she says to me, "Mommy, This Ellie's class?" How cute! She is always asking if this is Flip's school or is this Rusty's school? She was so excited and it really put me at ease about doing something I really didn't want to do yet.

On another note...Flip went back to the ENT today...here comes the grief...In one ear, the tube is out and the inner ear is once again full of fluid. In the other ear, the tube is still in place but it is completely obstructed and the inner ear is once again full of fluid. Recommendation: permanent tubes that will NOT fall out on their own but will have to be manually removed when his ear finally "matures." My grief: There is some controversy with multiple sets of tubes...1. scarring on the ear drum that can cause permanent hearing loss. 2. If the hole in the ear drum remains longer than three years, we run the risk of it never closing and therefore causing permanent hearing loss. (the existing tube has already been in place almost 18 months) 3. If we do nothing, he will continue to hear as if he has his head in a bucket of water possibly causing, you guessed it, permanent hearing loss, continued ear infections, sinus issues and possible speech issues. We have to do it, the question is, how long we allow the docs to leave the tubes in and whether or not his ear canal will mature in the allotted time.

I discovered this week that when I am ordering online, I now have to SCROLL DOWN to find my birth year...this is not encouraging...another sign I am getting old. I just finished my first week of 1/2 marathon training. The training plan I am following only called for 13 miles this week so I am pleased to say I finished that easily even if my times left a little to be desired. Also, I have found that I despise the cleaning that no one notices: under the couch, between the cushions, the windows, baseboards...whatever.

And without further ado: Why did God create daddies?

Ruthie: "MOMEEEEEEE! UUUGH! So they can protect their family, keep them safe and work to earn money."

Rusty: "To have ears to hear." What? "To love their kids, so God can LOVE them" very profound. "and so they can play football with them." of course.

Flip: "To love little children AND, so we can grow up to be the same size."

Good Grief, Charlie brown.