Aw, @jym626 Sorry about GD’s accident. Sending healing thoughts!
We had a five day visit last week at the shore with D’s family. Great time, lots of fun, but at times both kids were flagging (“they’ve been so busy”) and sniffly (“allergies”) but D eventually decided they had some kind of bug. So, this week, I’m flagging and sniffly and pretty sure I have whatever bug they had. But at least they’re better for school starting!
One week down, three more weeks and a few extra days until I drive back home from DD1/SIL’s home. 7 YO GD1 ‘back talks’ often to parents and me - but she is learning about losing privileges. 6 YO GS1 ‘forgets’ to go to the bathroom and has wetting accidents; he did once at school this past week; once he rolled out of his bed and when it was time to get up he had wet himself. He gets told at home after a few hours to go to the bathroom, and he complies. He will adjust to stop playing, and go to the bathroom. He has opportunities at school and easy access to the bathroom; fortunate to not be with kids that will tease (small private start up ‘cottage’ school). 4 YO GS2 is learning to not put his fingers in his mouth except naptime and bedtime; also not chew his fingernails. 2 YO GD2 is full of energy and complies within reason for a 2 YO. 5-month-old GD3 is a ‘dream baby’ - very happy and easy, very alert and active. Last Tuesday was the first day she ever took breast milk from a bottle, and that was a bit of a learning thing. We needed to spoon a little breast milk in her mouth and then plunk the bottle in. I also do suck noises and pinch her cheeks, and she goes right at it. Tuesday she didn’t take much, but Wednesday she was ‘regular’. All the kids are very loving and ‘good’ but kids are kids.
The Legos in the older kids’ room were not getting picked up properly over 2 days, so got picked up with help and put away. After they play with toys and put away, perhaps can have the Legos out of ‘time out’ - although the dad was giving push back on that “they will never get the Legos back with that rule”. He is around the least, and he will tend to yell instead of work with the children at their level. DD1 and I tend to agree about things, but of course he can ‘overrule’. SIL can be rude w/o self-awareness. He sometimes misses opportunities to be affectionate with the 2 YO like he was with GD1. Work in progress.
DD1 absolutely appreciates the help. After I do so, I make sure the children also compliment their mom on the delicious meals she prepares. SIL had the Costco list texted to him and he called DD1 several times because he couldn’t find things or had questions. DD1 and I had all the kids at a 2-hour birthday activity place.
SIL leaves at the end of the week to go 2 weeks to help his parents get a realtor and get working on the punch list to get their home on the market - especially if the spot at AL does open up for them in September (DD1 is on the email list to not miss the notification). I have agreed to stay a few extra days after he returns, a day after GD3 goes into daycare (spot was supposed to be open Sept 2, but now is open Sept 29). GS2 goes to 4K ‘big kid school’ with GD1 and GS1 Oct 1.
SIL is a bit territorial in his home. He ‘leads’ when he is at home, which has not been that often. I do fill in both DD1 and SIL what is going on with the kids in their absence. I pick up GD2 and GS2 M - F from daycare and take care of GD3 at home when DD1 leaves for work.
The first weekend, the two car seats were moved from SIL’s car to mine, and an extra one was put in his car when he takes GS2 to soccer practices right from daycare.
We now have two going to preschool. We pick up one day a week and now that we have two we need to have two car seats in the car. We presently have one in each of our cars. I thought we would buy a 2nd for my car and boy have car seat prices gone up. For now we’re just going to move them when we need two in the same car.
You are an amazing GM.
Car seats are the bane of my existence! We have two in our car, thus making it impossible to fit more than one other adult in the car. They must both weigh about 70lbs, and they are a bear to install. I am counting down the days until I can turn the backward facing one around. DGD is 3 1/2 but has low muscle tone, so DS and DIL prefer her to stay backward facing. the issue is that even with a mirror, I can’t see her from the driver seat, and she is soft spoken, so I can’t hear her when she is speaking. Turning her seat forward would also allow us more room for the front passenger seat.
DGS is almost six and we will need to convert his car seat into booster soon, as he is getting tall!
We have a small car and didn’t want to keep seats in if possible. When I was doing regular pr-K pickups, what we did was I would drive to their house (only two miles away), switch cars, do pickups, switch back. Slightly unwieldy but we were lucky everyone was close enough to make these doable.
Thank goodness the big grands are now in boosters! Little Miss Mess is still not even 2 1/2, but she is very tall for her age (wears size 4T clothes!). Her car seat is installed in the middle of the back row, and the back of the seat completely obscures my rear view! But I’m not moving the dang seat… until I absolutely have to, because it is a pita to reinstall!
Never mind - I misread your post!
How is she feeling about the cast? Hope it doesn’t have an impact on her birthday celebration.
I dread moving the seats. When my daughter and her husband visit we have to move the seat to our larger car as we can’t fit 4 adults and one car seat in our daily commute cars. D1 has two seats in both their cars. They have bigger cars but it’s still tight to fit a person in the middle. She still has them both rear facing. If we put two seats in my car or my husband’s commute car we won’t be able to transport another adult. Switching out with my daughter isn’t an option as she is at work. We are going to put both of the seats we own in my car for this week’s pickup. It just means we have to take my car out that day so we have the seats. Normally we use my husband’s car on that day as it’s electric. He doesn’t mind having one seat in his car but doesn’t want to drive around with two on a daily basis.
Thanks for asking. She seems to be doing fine. Not currently in discomfort and happy to also get the metal fragment out of her eye that flew in from an open car window. This family needs to be careful when riding in cars.
Wow—a metal fragment flying into the eye sounds awful!
SIL and DD1 moved the car seats, thankfully. One front facing in the middle back row for 4YO, one back facing in the middle bucket seat, and one bucket seat for the baby carrier (base is in mom’s car). An extra seat went in SIL’s car - they had to get slim seats for 3 for 3rd row with 5 kids.
In the front, we can hear kids better from the 3rd row in DD1’s vehicle, a Honda Odyssey, than in my Highlander. I just have to tell GS2 to wait until we get home to tell me his stories.
Glad to know she is ok. It must have been very scary. My mom was in a cast for few weeks and it was very inconvenient. It was even hard to put clothes on. Hope she is not going to have a cast on for too long.
I am going to be on the babysitting duty next Wednesday to Sunday because SIL is going to a wedding in Europe. D1 is going to be very busy at work, so someone needs to be there before 8am and after 6pm. I haven’t seen the girls as much lately, so I am look8ng forward to it. GD2 is turning 1 this month. She is a real cutie pie. I am taking GD2 to a professional ballet in 2 weeks. I got her a pair of ballet shoes to wear to the event. She always wanted a pair of ballet flats like mine. Her mom is not too pleased because they are not good for her feet. I said GD1 could only wear them for special occasions.
GD will have the cast (or a replacement) for around 6 weeks. Its her dominant hand but fortunately she is ambidextrous. She is hoping that when they replace her cast they will use gortex inside instead of cotton (like my DH had when he broke his wrist last year) as its waterproof and she can take a bath and swim.
My daughter was 5.5 years old and headed to K. Her first uniform was a size 4 and she wore it for 2 years! But she was tall and went into a booster seat. The rules were a little different then (she’s almost 30) and the car seats a LOT lighter.
I’m desperate for grandchildren but don’t look forward to the car seat issues. It’s hard enough to get the dogs into the car.
We are thrilled to have two boosters now! They clip right in to the back seat and are easy to take out and put back in. Our GS is tall and ‘solid’ and has the regular booster. He just handed down his high back booster to his tall sister.
We had a super-busy weekend with the kids. GS scored the game winning goal in Friday’s hockey game, pitched a no run inning in baseball on Saturday, and scored his team’s goal in Sunday’s soccer game. GD had a soccer game on Saturday, too. We had a fun pizza party on Saturday night. Life is good!
It’s official! I’m now an “authorized representative” who may take any of my 3 Virginia grandkids to the pediatrician for non-emergency medical care and vaccinations. SIL signed the consent form tonight.
D1 is out of town for medical conference and SIL is teaching an in-person class tomorrow morning. So I’ll be taking GS to the doctor for his annual check tomorrow, plus flu, covid and any other vaccinations that are due.
I’m VERY impressed with how involved and helpful all you grandparents are! Your kids are SO lucky you guys are willing and able to step up! My folks weren’t nearly as hands-on with any of our kids, though we all got along very well. Congrats to everyone who is making things work, and bonus points for all who are loving the journey!
