Girl Scouts, Homeschool, Lice, and Other Kid Stuff
This has been quite the week! We’ve had so many events that are kids related, a lot of them happening in the past couple of days. In general, life has changed since Caelan’s come and gone. I hope things keep up on this positive trend, even if some of the things are kind of sad for me, but that’s part of life, I guess.
This weekend Corde has Girl Scouts. She missed the last two meetings because of Caelan being home. This weekend they’re going to a local retirement community to try and make friends with some of the residents. I think it’s a wonderful idea because there are a lot of people who get put in retirement homes and completely forgotten. It can be challenging, especially with so many families around here being military and dealing with deployments. Corde should be making her investiture ceremony tomorrow, provided all goes well and she memorizes the Girl Scout Promise. She’s doing pretty well with it. Unfortunately, Corde likes to spit her clothes off into the void, so tomorrow morning I’ll likely have to go shopping to get Corde dark pants and a white shirt. She’s only got a total of one white shirt because I refuse to buy them for her. Actually, she might have two. Unfortunately, unless I can find them, I’m going to have to get her a new one. I don’t know if she’s got any dark colored pants. I might just have her wear jeans.
Today we’ve got to prepare for her meeting. Our day is going to be filled with memorizing her Girl Scout Promise, making her "memory treasure box", and baking cookies. Each of the girls is supposed to be bringing cookies to share with the residents. That’s going to be a lot of cookies! We’re making oatmeal cookies and oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. They’re much healthier than the typical chocolate chip or sugar cookies. I’d rather get Corde in the habit of eating healthier food. Besides, we’re going to have to save a couple for Beekee too! It’s not fair to make cookies and not let him have any at all! He likes oatmeal cookies.
The memory treasure box is a great idea. It was suggested as a conversation starter with the residents. The girls are supposed to take a box and decorate it with things they like. I’m not sure how much decorating Corde will do, but she’ll at least have a box. Then the girls are supposed to fill it with things that are special to them, like pictures, favorite toys, or things that represent goals for their own lives. Corde should have some fun putting that together. It’s something we can keep set aside so she can fill it up if they need it again, because I’m certain Travel Bunny will go in once we find him, but he won’t be able to live in the box! A special toy from Daddy bought before she was born will not last long put away in a box!
Homeschooling has been going well today. Corde has been fighting me tooth and claw about writing her letters, but she’s at least doing it. She’s done so much work on the computer lately that I think it’s time she start doing some book work. It’s great for her to be learning how to read and spell, but she needs to develop writing skills some time. Now is as good a time as any. Besides, depending on how things go we may need her to use those skills for a placement test for a homeschooling program. She hasn’t been as bad as she used to be about schooling. She does fight me, but she’s willing to do the work, even if it is slower than death. I don’t think she realizes how lucky she is! I could have her do six hours of solid work every day and not allow her to do things like drink cider while practicing her letters, or do her work in her nightgown, not getting dressed until noon! Then there’s the hours of school. She can sleep in until nine or ten with no problems, but she’d never get that in a regular school. She’d need to be up at five in the morning so she could be dressed, fed, and ready for school. I don’t think she’d appreciate that much.
The lice thing is still a problem, but not for much longer. I’ve come to the hard realization of what needs to be done there. Corde kept having the lice killed off and removed without a problem. We’d use the chemicals, olive oil, etc and she’d be clean after two treatments. Beekee was the real problem. No matter what we did it seemed to come back. When I looked through his hair the other day it was so full of eggs that it seemed there was one on every piece of hair. The olive oil did nothing to kill the bugs. The vinegar did nothing to help the eggs come out. His hair is so fine that the comb wasn’t taking any of the tiny bugs out, nor any of the eggs at all. On top of that, all the treatments were making his eczema act up something fierce, so the poor guy was even more miserable than he would have been if it was just the bugs! We decided it was time for extreme measures, and the beautiful, curly, golden locks had to go. His hair was braided up, the braid cut off, then Beekee got his first military haircut. He’s still got a couple scrappy bits that need to be cleaned up, but it was kind of a relief to cut his hair like that. As we cut his hair we saw all the bugs on the surface of his scalp, and how dingy, dirty and brown they’d made his poor head just from being there, even though we’d washed his hair the night before. His scalp was clean the night before. I know! I checked it after he came out of the bath! The last of the bugs were removed from his scalp, as were the eggs, and all it took was a good scrubbing with a wash cloth. His poor little scalp is all torn up from scratching and the back of his neck where the bugs were worst has the most angry, red, irritated eczema patch I’ve ever seen the poor boy have! I’m just glad it’s finally over and he can go back to being his normal happy self.
That’s what I find most pleasing about this, even though I do miss my curly headed little boy! Beekee is actually happy with his new hair! He’s less moody and fussy, I’m sure because he’s not itchy all the time. The irritated eczema is already starting to fade to a less angry red and just an irritated pink. He’s spent a lot of time running around in the fresh air and enjoying the sunshine, which I know helped my eczema heal incredibly fast when I shaved my head. He was so excited that he wanted to show the little girl next door that he didn’t have "icky hair" anymore. He’s really proud of his new look! I’ll have to get some pictures once he’s a little more healed up.
It wasn’t just the bugs that were causing this heartbreaking decision. Yes, it was frustrating. I couldn’t have my little boy suffer with the bugs anymore. He kept giving them back to Corde, which was only making things worse. However, there was the look on his face every time we had to wash his
hair. While we did really well with keeping the chemicals out of his eyes, we had more issues with the olive oil and the vinegar when it came time to rinse. He was so against having the water get in his face that he’d push the cup we used to rinse away and would start screaming as soon as he caught sight of it. He was done with hair washing, at least for a while. I couldn’t bear to watch him so upset when it came to bath time because of all the fussing with his hair. It was time to end his suffering, and he’s been so much happier since. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy!
Another major change has been made in my kids’ lives. Beekee no longer has his own room. He and Corde are sharing space because all of Caelan’s stuff is in Beekee’s room. Since that’s where Caelan was living on R&R, that just made the most sense. I had intended to move Beekee back in there once Caelan left, but there’s just too much stuff in there. There would barely be room for Beekee! I’m all but certain his new bed would only fit if we squeezed it in, and I wouldn’t want Beekee getting up in the middle of the night to mess with Caelan’s stuff. Besides, Caelan is thinking about moving in with us until he leaves for training. I’m not so sure that’s going to happen, but we’ll see. Even if that’s not the case, Corde and Beekee are sharing bunk beds right now, sort of, so it only makes sense to leave things the way they are. Once the baby’s born we’ll be deciding who gets to keep the bunk beds and who will be getting their own bed in time.
The bunk beds are a huge change. Corde’s sleeping on the top bunk and Beekee is undecided about sleeping on the bottom bunk. The transition from a playpen which is nice, safe, and enclosed to a big boy bed is a little scary. We may have had an easier time managing if we’d gone to a toddler bed first, but it just didn’t seem like a logical decision. It would only cost us more in the long run for a bed he’d only use for a year or two. We’re just working on the slow transition from playpen to bed.
We’re starting to fall into a more regular routine around here. Breakfast is had in the morning, typically before the kids get dressed. Then the kids get dressed. If we have to take Oz to work, we do that. If we don’t, Corde settles down to do some work. Beekee watches a little bit of Blue’s Clues before nap time. Usually he falls asleep watching it on the couch. While I’m not huge on kids watching a lot of television, it’s educational and it gives him a little something to distract him while Corde is working. Generally we have lunch after nap time. The rest of the afternoon is made up of play time. Once Oz is home we have dinner, for which Beekee gets stripped down so he doesn’t stain all his clothes. After dinner the kids play for a bit, then it’s into pajamas and off to bed. Oz and I actually get some quiet time before we have to go to bed ourselves!
In other changes, Beekee actually has a full week’s worth of clothing. It’s not just mix-match from previous sizes and this size, which wasn’t so bad for summer. If his shorts were a little short, no one could tell. If he ran around in a diaper and nothing else, no one really cared. It was hot. He probably felt better that way. Now with the weather cooling off, long sleeves are kind of a must, and a jacket is almost required at night. He needed new shoes instead of his sandals and socks to go with them. He’s got some nice warm pajamas to sleep in since the bedrooms get a bit chilly at night. Without hair he’s going to need some hats too, but I can work on those myself. Anything I knit will probably be warmer than the cheap, acrylic hats that are sold at retailers. He absolutely loves his new shoes too. They’re Sketchers that have little light up spots on the toe and the velcro band. He wears them even when he doesn’t have to wear shoes! His clothes are a bit big. We got him everything in 3T instead of 2T. By the height charts in the stores he’s just barely hitting the 3T height so it would be pointless to get him anything smaller, even though his shirts are a bit baggy on him and his pants need to be rolled up so he’s not walking on them. Even so, they’ll last him a good while longer yet, and 2T would be outgrown too soon to be worth it. He may not have a huge wardrobe, but at least he’s got enough clothes to last him for a while. Maybe we’ll be lucky and they’ll last him into the beginning of the fall next year. Maybe we can avoid that awkward transition period where it makes no sense to buy the smaller size, but the bigger size isn’t quite big enough yet.
This family is really starting to resemble something that seems like a "normal" family. The kids have real beds, not just mattresses on the floor. The kids both have enough clothes to last, provided Corde finds all of hers. That means we can do laundry like a normal family, without running out of clothing every two days. We’re starting to define a routine for ourselves. The house is starting to come into order again. Things are becoming less trying for us. Before long we might actually be a functional family! How scary is that?!?
~*~Rave~*~