Worn out

I'm sure you all realize by now that Pavan made it safely to Minneapolis on Thursday afternoon. He had his first day of review yesterday from 8-6 and is in class again all day today. His last day of review will be tomorrow, with board exams on Monday and Tuesday. I will be so happy to have him home. Being here alone, with no friends or family to rely on in case something goes wrong, puts me on edge. I'm also exhausted from dealing with everything on my own.

Noah has been very difficult to deal with lately, and I am generally at wits end dealing with him within 30 minutes of getting up in the mornings. It's terrible to say, because I love him dearly, but I do not know what to do with him. I have read so many parenting books, have tried every discipline technique they contain, but nothing seems to help. I do not want to fail him as a parent, and the realization that he's already 3 1/2 years old has made me really wonder what we're going to do. We have to figure out some method of getting him to behave better before he starts school, or he will be labeled as a problem child and never get what he needs. I am thinking about calling a pediatric psychiatrist who practices here in Rhinelander, and take Noah to meet with him sometime soon. OBVIOUSLY I am not looking for drugs to dull him, I'm just looking for some support and some ideas on what I can do to make things better. At this point, I literally cannot leave the house with him for fear of how he will behave in public. People love to stare, people love to make rude comments, and I am just not the type of person who can deal with that sort of thing. I hate that people assume I am a terrible parent because of the way he acts....I just don't know what else to do!! And those of you who have spent any time with Noah know exactly what I mean! He's such a smart kid, and can be so funny and friendly. But when he's in a bad mood or irritated....WATCH OUT!! Normally I can deal with the bad moods, but lately the bad moods have been lasting from the time he gets up until the time he goes to bed. That makes for a very long 14 hours!!!

Anyway, enough of that. As you can see, all of that has really been wearing on me lately, so I'm obsessed with it right now. In other news....

I had to take Kindra to the doctor yesterday. She injured her finger at basketball practice on Monday, and still wasn't able to bend it by Thursday afternoon, so I took her in for some x-rays. They didn't show any fractures, so she must have just sprained her finger. Of course that is very painful, and can take awhile to heal. She has been wearing a finger splint, and the doctor recommended that she keep wearing it during basketball and gym class. It might take awhile to get the full range of motion back in that finger, but it should heal just fine.

Only one more week of dance class before dress rehearsal and recital. Kindra is in all 5 recitals (3 on Saturday and 2 on Sunday), and Anna is in 3 of them. Anna was only supposed to be in 2, but they added another show to her tap class this last week. We are getting 2 hotel rooms in Merrill and just staying there the entire weekend, since it's an hour drive each way from Rhinelander. The girls aren't taking dance class next year, Anna wants to focus on gymnastics and Kindra is going to be busy with all her activities in middle school. Kindra has decided she loves softball, and is interested in volleyball too...and of course she plays basketball. It's surprising to think Kindra might end up playing softball. Those of you who had the pleasure of watching her play t-ball know what I'm talking about! She was always the one in the outfield picking flowers, watching airplanes fly by, collecting rocks, etc. I'm thrilled to think she might play several sports though.

I'd better get going. Amaya is napping while the other 3 are outside playing. It's around 60 today, which is much nicer than the 40s we saw yesterday. We ran a few errands this morning, and are planning to go to WalMart this evening. The little ones just couldn't stand doing it all at one time, so we came home for a break. It's hard on the gas money to make several trips, but much easier on my sanity! And with Pavan out of town, I've got to preserve any sanity I can!

Oh, we've decided to spend Thanksgiving in Big Spring. I'll be taking the kids out of school that entire week, and we will be flying into Dallas, then renting a car to take us to Big Spring. That gives us plentyof time to save up for the airfare, hopefully we'll have some of our land sold by then.

Rebecca