Where's That Mother of the Year Award?

Once again I have been nominated for the "Mother of the Year" award. Sheesh.. I'll tell ya. We started out well with Hannah and school and it quickly crumbled. Her first three days went smooth without much todo. The long weekend came and then Tuesday morning arrived. I walked her to the play area and sat in the car to watch her to be sure she would be okay until it was time to enter the building. (I'll get into the school's safety issues in due time). In the blink of an eye I see her wailing. I run out of the car to her and realized that she had fallen and had skinned her knee. With that skinned knee came a massive meltdown. Crying hysterically she begins to tell me that she in fact does not like school at all and has been lying about liking it. She doesn't want to go and she wants to stay with me. At which point she grasped onto my legs and wouldn't let go for dear life. I was so completely taken aback that I don't think I spoke for a few seconds. My Hannah? Not want to run right into school? Wants to be with ME? This is COMPLETELY uncharacteristic of Hannah. She is my independent, eager to learn new things, can't wait to be with my friends, Hannah. WHAT HAPPENED? She was obviously not letting go so after retrieving the other kids from the car I walked her to the nurse's office where she was bandaged up. When the nurse had her happy and distracted, I made my exit. The next few days went much the same with me leaving her in tears lined up to walk into the building. It BROKE my heart! I have been so confused as to what is going on and how she transitioned so well last year and not this year. All I can come up with is that we had such a loving, caring, nurturing and sweet Kindergarten teacher. This year, I have yet to meet her 1st grade teacher. (Again, this will be addressed in a future post). I have seen her once at dismissal and that has been the extent of it. She seems nice enough, but I am not sure if one could compare to Miss Geremia who is now Mrs. Thomas. As I am totally perplexed by the situation, I also know that I can't overreact and that we just have to give it some time and allow Hannah to settle back into the routine. I am sure me having the summer off to be with her has aided in this difficult adjustment as well. AND there is that matter of new baby Cameron also. So I made a deal with myself that I would keep a close eye on the situation but also give it enough time to fully asses before I go in the school all crazy Mom like.

INSERT WEEKEND STORY HERE: As if Hannah wasn't having a tough time already, CCD started on Sunday. She was SO excited because this meant she would be seeing Nya the third musketeer of their group. The three of them are the best of friends and Nya moved to Cranston this summer so Hannah has been bummed about not having her around in class, etc.. So she and Makenzie save a seat in the middle for Nya and their reunion. Nya comes in and they are delighted. Then Nicholas comes in (Hannah's "boyfriend" and my good friend's son) and they are all so happy to be together. They start to call the classes to line up and go into the classrooms and they get to Hannah's age group. They call Nya, Makenzie, then Nicholas.. and they send them to the class. Hannah is sitting all alone and suddenly realizes, they are all together in class and she is all alone without anyone she knows in the other class. I think I literally felt my heart break for her as I ran to scoop her up as the tears were streaming down her face. After comforting her for a few minutes, I marched her down to the class where her friends were and explained the situation to the teacher who was more than willing to have her stay in his class. I then explained the situation to Sister Dot who was more than willing to accommodate the situation. Sighhhhh Could Hannah have had a more traumatic week? LOL


Fast forward to yesterday when I get a phone call from the school nurse telling me she has Hannah in her office. She is complaining of her throat and a stuffy nose. She hasn't got a fever and her throat is barely pink. When I asked to speak with her, I was told I couldn't.. well because she is complaining of a sore throat and all.. and germs.. and the phone.. Not quite sure exactly why she couldn't alcohol the phone afterwards, but okay, I go with it. So I throw the other kids in the car and leave my studio work in Pawtucket to go assess the situation. When I get there, I get the feeling that Hannah is now putting the school nurse out. I explained that we are having some transition issues and she replies, "Well she is making a habit out of coming down to my office." As I was about to address this, Hannah came bounding down the hallway wanting to show Layla her classroom. (For ambiance.. add in the fact that Layla is melting down due to an interrupted nap and Cameron is screaming his head off) I looked at her and asked her if she were well enough to go back to class. She replied she was and I sent her right back as I left to calm the younger two.

When Hannah came home I grilled her about how many times she had been to the nurse's office. She said 3 times in total. Once the day she skinned her knee with me and twice yesterday. Before lunch she went down and the nurse told her to go to lunch and see if she felt better. After lunch she went back stating she wasn't feeling better. I believe this. I believe the visits were 3 in total. I explained to Hannah that if she was okay to be in class then she cant keep going down to the nurse's office. I went into great depth about Emily, the girl who cried wolf so many times that when she was telling the truth, nobody believed her. I grilled it into her to make sure she understood the difference and I do believe the point was driven home. I understand that the nurse probably thinks she is this type of child because she is new and doesn't know Hannah so I am going to have to speak to her tomorrow and explain the situation.


As I got in about 9:30 last night from the gym, I went upstairs to shower and I heard her crying. I went into her room and realized she was half awake, half asleep. My heart immediately sank. I knew.. I knew... I just knew she REALLY didnt feel well and all along she WAS telling the truth. I felt HORRIBLE for drilling her earlier when all along she just didnt feel right and couldn't vocalize it. (Something that Hannah never could do, I believe due to all the pain she was in as an infant). A few more episodes of her crying and I woke her up completely and gave her Motrin and let her sleep in my bed. Sure enough she said it was her ear that hurt. This time the right one. When she got up this morning she said she felt much better. I also noticed she slept longer than she has been. For some reason she has been getting up quite early lately. Even though she said she was better, I made the appointment at the doctor. She didn't have school and I wanted peace of mind.


Not only does Hannah have an ear infection.. HER TUBES ARE OUT! I repeat.. HER TUBES ARE OUT! These are the third set of tubes that she has had inserted and these tubes WERE ONLY PUT IN LESS THAN TWO MONTHS AGO! July 13th to be exact! I was literally beside myself! Seeing that our appointment was with the nurse practitioner and the office was slamming, I knew there wouldn't be time to pull Dr. Sowa aside and voice my concerns. I am going to have to make that phone call tomorrow. Yet, where do we go from here? Do they insert them AGAIN? DO they wait? DO we go through the entire winter with her in pain and missing school? WHAT am I supposed to do? Mind you that I am completely TERRIFIED of going through another ruptured ear drum experience. So here I sit completely dumbfounded about the situation. I am sure after a good night's sleep I will figure the solution and proper steps to take.. I am just completely exhausted with all of this sickness drama lately! Layla currently has a double ear infection. This I know only after taking Cameron in last week for his terrible diaper rash (which turned out to be yeast and eczema and has cleared quite well with the proper medication) and having Dr. Sowa say, "I hear her wheezing.. let me check her as well." Cameron also caught the cold and is completely congested. OYE! WHAT on earth is this winter going to be like? I'm losing my mind already!

Furthermore, when I went to go take Cam's Baptism photo's at the studio, I realized that the outfit that was made for him was stained! I had ordered it off of Etsy and I am looking at it in the daylight and the linen looks completely bleached stained all over the front of the vest. I freak of course, 1-because I paid money for the outfit and want it to be perfect and 2-because..well I want it to be perfect! I emailed the woman immediately and she was very sweet about the situation yet, she was leaving for vacation today. In the end, I decided to keep the outfit and make do since there wouldn't be enough time to find another and she refunded me 50%. She took her spool of linen outside and saw the same defective fabric. Something that wasn't visible to her or me inside the dimly lit house. She did feel bad and I was ready to live with it until I spoke to my mother in law today who is insisting that it is a sign because my sister in law Jill, Cam's God mother, really wanted to buy the outfit. So now I think I will return the outfit for a complete refund and mom in law and I are heading to Joe's Place tomorrow to search for a new one!

As if one more thing couldn't go wrong, I had uploaded the pics of Cameron I took last week onto the CVS photo website last night to order the 8 x 10's as centerpieces for the Baptism. I thought this was great because I didn't have to lug the kids and do them all myself in the store. I go to pick them up today and they messed them up! I just wanted 8 x 10's. They cropped and blew up images so much so that half of Cam's head was cut out of the shot! SERIOUSLY? I emailed CVS and they told me about their 100% customer satisfaction guaranteed policy and to return them for a full refund. Which I did, but not without complete attitude by the photo person. I am SORRY, but I would like my son's whole head present at his Baptism, thank you very much! What the??? Mon Dieu! I know.. trust me I know that none of this makes any iota of a difference because all that matters is that my beautiful little boy is present for us to contest to raise him in the Catholic Faith. I know this. Yet, that detail oriented part of me sometimes takes over and can really drive me crazy! I was going to be an event planner before I found out I was pregnant for Hannah!

So my long winded post is through and I will leave you by saying.. Stay tuned for my comments about the safety and unorganized craziness of Hannah's school!