No time to pee?

I don't seem to have enough time these days. I know that is a common rant of a mother, but seriously, where the hell has the time gone. It is essentially October already and I can't believe it. I don't have time for anything any more. Clearly, since I haven't written anything on here since September 5! The only reason I am writing now is that I am home with Megan who has a Urinary Tract Infection and I am procrastinating folding the laundry.

The start of the school year has gone well. Sarah is involved in many things this year: Soccer (of course), Brownies, & now she is singing in our church's children's choir. Winter swim will start at the end of October, thankfully Soccer will almost be over by then. She is loving school (as much as any kid can) this year and is thrilled with her teacher (so am I). There is definitely more work this year and she is feeling the pinch. It is still a major struggle some nights to get her to finish it, but I know she is being challenged and not just coasting through (I've got to remember to write up our first major HW battle about the thesaurus)

Megan is not involved in any activities (no surprise there). She fights anything like that. She does want to join Daisy Scouts, but I don't think anyone wants to be the troop leader. She won't admit that she likes Kindergarten, but I'm pretty sure that she does. However, I did recently realize that she hasn't been using the bathroom at school. Last Thursday when I picked her up from aftercare, She told me she had a bad day. I shrugged it off as her usual complaining until she mentioned it again and I looked at her face. She had an accident and didn't tell anyone about it. She managed to finish up the school day, go to aftercare, play and sit down to start her homework without anyone realizing she had wet pants. I got her home and cleaned up and we talked. It turns out that she has been reluctant to use the classroom potty and has been holding it all day, every day. We talked about the importance of using the potty and I sent an email to her teacher. Friday, she came home and let me know that she had used the potty. I thought we were home free.

Monday night, after a weekend trip to grandmas, she complained that it hurt to go to the bathroom. I quickly called Pat who was already at the store and told him to buy some cranberry juice. I think we were too late. She drank some, and seemed OK Tuesday morning. Yesterday afternoon I picked her up from aftercare to find out that she had another accident right at the end of the school day. This time, she was taken to the nurse's office and given a change of clothes. She proceeded to be in a great deal of pain and cried out every time she used the potty. Damn, I knew it!

Pat took her to the Dr this morning for confirmation-UTI! She is still in pain, doesn't want to drink the cranberry juice and I had to bribe her to take the antibiotic. This girl has serious control issues, to the point of self destruction!

Tears

School has been over for almost a week now and I am just getting to post about it. I really wish I could find more time in the day (without kids).

After a horrible year in first grade last year, Sarah couldn't run out of the building fast enough. She had absolutely no desire to say goodbye to her teacher, let alone give her a hug. I'll have to admit, I agreed with her. Mrs. F turned her love of school into pure torture after just two week. We spent the year in a constant state of frustration and tears. She hated going to school, she didn't understand homework, and there was little communication from the teacher. There was a bully in her class that gave Sarah such grief and Mrs. F had extremely poor classroom management skills.

However, being a counselor within the same school district, I didn't want to become that parent; the one who was always complaining and trying to blame their child's issues on others. So I worked with Sarah at home on how to deal with the teacher and the bully. She also worked with her counselor at school to develop some coping strategies as well. She managed to survive the year, and even had perfect attendance. But I knew something needed to change.

I wrote to the principal of the school at the end of last year detailing my concerns and hopes that Sarah would have a better year in 3rd grade. Thankfully, Sarah was placed with the only teacher she wanted.

This year was such a better year for her. We still have some of her own behaviors to deal with, but all in all, she had a very successful year. We had very little frustration and tears, in sharp contrast to last year. Once, again, I wrote a letter to the principal. However, this year, the letter was in praise of Mr. L and his way of bringing Sarah back to loving school. In fact, she didn't want the year to end. She was in tears over the whole thing for hours. Even at bedtime, she got weepy just thinking about the fact that she wouldn't be able to see Mr. L until school returned in the fall.



I couldn't be happier!