2nd week of school

 The second week of school was much smoother.  We started to get a bit of homework but not too much.  I think it's good that they break them in gradually.

The hard part about this week was Christopher.  Monday when he came home from school he complained that he had a headache and that it hurt to move his neck.  He walked around slowly, hunched over, and basically looked stiff.  He didn't want to tilt his head back to drink or turn it side to side.  So we figured he had probably pulled a muscle somehow.  A year or so ago he strained his shoulder and this seemed similar to that.  So it seemed like there wasn't much we could do, just have to wait it out.  Tuesday he was still complaining a bit and walking funny - I started to wonder if the injury was due to carrying his backpack - it's so big on him and he's not use to that weight on his shoulders.

Wednesday he still hurt but I knew there wasn't much I could do besides give him ibuprofen.  However, the nurse at the school called me in the morning saying that Chris was complaining of a headache and was basically in tears because she had been trying to get him to move his head.  Chris had acted like this to us as well, he just really didn't want to be forced to do anything - he knew it would hurt.  We tried to get him to stretch it at home, but he didn't want to cooperate much.

So after I got the girls situated we all went to pick up Chris.  The nurse told me on the phone that he should be looked at.  I was a little bit frustrated because I knew there wasn't anything really wrong with his neck, it just was strained and it would take awhile for it to get better.  But since they wanted me to I called the doctor.  Thankfully Chris is the one out of the five that has seen a doctor here so we could get in later that day.  We did some errands after getting Chris then went home for lunch and quiet time.  I dropped the girls off at a friends and took Chris into the doctor.  He did have a slight fever but the doctor said basically the same thing that I thought - his neck and shoulder muscles were tight.  She had the other doctor come in and take a look as well.  He brought up meningitis which got me a bit concerned - but I guess it was good to know what to look for.  The office wasn't too slow, but it was still pretty late by the time we got home.  I came up with some dinner quick so Damon and Tyler could go to scouts.

Chris got a bath to help his fever, it had been awhile since we had done bubbles.  :)

Thursday was the first day of Preschool for Jenna and Kaylee.  We are doing a mini co-op with some moms.  There are 7 moms with 8 kids (guess that happens when you have twins).  We are having one mom teach and one mom be a helper since that is a pretty big group and they are younger (2 years until kindergarten).  Jenna and Kaylee are the oldest and the youngest boy is 7 months younger.  So it's not a huge time frame but you can definitely tell a difference.  We are only doing it once a week and we are doing the Joy School program.  I haven't look at it much yet since I don't teach for another month but I was the helper for this first day so it was good for me to see how things are going to be structured.  My friend Laisa taught the first day and she was so good with the kids.  We sang lots of songs and tried to discuss some basic rules and introduce everyone.  We made ironed crayon pictures which the girls were very proud of and very excited to show everyone.  We went from 9:30-12:00 this first time, but we are going to try 9:30-12:30 next week and see how it goes.  We basically thought it would be good for them to have a little bit more time to have lunch and have some play time afterwards.  This gives the moms a little bit more time for errands etc.  

The girls were very excited to go - they had been asking all week.  They carried around their backpacks all week and put their lunches inside when I had one made for them.  

 They sure are growing up.  They talk a lot now with full ideas and let us know what is going on.  They love to play pretend - doctor is a popular one.  One of them will be "sick" and the other will be the doctor and fix them right up.  Other times one will be the mom and the other will be the baby.  Kaylee is usually the baby.  The play with their kitchen and food pretty well and they like to do puzzles with me and color with markers when I let them.  The know their letters and most of their sounds.  They know some sight words too.  They like to 'help' me in the kitchen and I try to be patient with them.  They are very good at helping me set the table at dinner time and they eat their food well most of the time.  They do tease each other and still have a hard time taking turns, but over all they are two cute little girls and we sure do love them.

Saturday we did a big house cleaning day and I was even able to get all of my jobs done.  It sure is nice to have kids old enough to really help.  I did some grocery shopping and got back in time to take Jenna and Kaylee to a birthday party.  I think this was their first one and they loved it.  They had planned on playing outside but it started to rain as soon as it started.  Luckily it didn't last too long and they were able to play outside towards the end of the party.

We rented Home from a Redbox.  We all worked hard to get dinner cleaned up so we could watch it (I enjoyed it- cried a couple of time at the end).

Sunday I had sharing time, Doug stayed home with Chris.  He neck is slowly getting better but he caught a virus of some kind and has had a fever since Wednesday.   He went to school on Thursday after I took him to the doctor on Wednesday but I kept him home of Friday.

 Just for fun and a reminder for the future - this is our little frog friend that visits us on our back door every single night.