McGrath Moments

A little bit of bragging here, but I am so proud of Brenna. She has been moved to the 3 year-old class at Tots and Tales (she is 2). Her teacher told us that she has mastered the lessons they teach in her class, so they want to move her up to a new class to be challenged a little bit more. She brought home her first homework assignment last night and to say the least, she is really going to be challenged!

They are studying the letter "C" this week, so there were papers that had her writing "C" and a paper for her to practice writing her name. There were actually 6 sheets of homework that needed to be completed. There was no way that her attention span would allow for that amount of work, not to mention her handwriting skills are non-existent. Her homework was filled with little doodles, scribbles, and circles everywhere!

We have a long way to go to catch up with these students, but we will get there. Good girl, Brenna! We are excited to see how you will do in your new class!!

PS-I have Parent/Teacher Conferences today with Braeden's teacher at 2pm. I told Ed last night that his teacher better only tell me wonderful things about him! I don't know why I get so offensive when she tells me things he needs to work on. My BRAIN knows he is not perfect, but my HEART thinks he is!

After church yesterday Ed, myself, and the kids all went to visit Ed's Grandma Dorothy. She lives at Villa St. Francis, which is a nursing home in Overland Park. She is suffering from Alzheimer's. Such a TERRIBLE illness, by the way! Anyways, we were walking to her room and we passed several people sitting in wheelchairs. The next thing I know, Braeden stops, (about two feet from a woman) points and says LOUDLY, "That one must be sick!"

Ed and I just stared at each other mortified. We then proceed to tell Braeden to keep his mouth closed until we got to Grandma Dorothy's room. The only thing that I was thinking was, I hope that women was as oblivious to what was said as Braeden was. He didn't mean anything by the comment and the woman probably didn't understand anything he was saying, but it sure was enough for Ed and I to want to crawl under a rock!!

HOLY COW!!! My buns, back, legs, abs, arms, EVERYTHING hurts! My sister and I did a 50min spinning class yesterday and it was brutal.

From the moment I picked Braeden and Brenna up from school at 5:00pm, I just knew it was going to be a long night. The entire ride home was filled with Brenna tormenting Braeden and Braeden whining. I finally threatened them with going straight to their bedrooms as soon as we got home. Brenna continued her behavior, so she went and spent some time in her room.

Her attitude wasn't much better at dinner. We were all finished with our meals except Brenna, so Ed was trying to help her finish and I was loading the dishwasher. Ed kept telling her to open her mouth so he could feed her...she is 2 years-old, so she can feed herself, but this is a fun game to her. She kept closing her mouth every time Ed got the fork close to her lips. The next thing I hear is Ed yelling, "OPEN YOUR MOUTH!" and then a fork slams against the plate and the plate shatters. Ed and I both just stood there. Neither of us said a word. I calmly got a Target sack from under the sink, walked over to the table, and Ed placed the broken plate in the sack. Then I put it in the trash and we finished cleaning up dinner like nothing had happened.

Brenna had pushed Ed to his breaking point and I completely understand how that feels. He had lost his cool and I know he felt bad. I just gave him an "understanding" look. I wanted him to know that I get it.

We've still never said a word about what happened. Children will push you to the limit and I didn't want him to feel bad for getting frustrated. Although, I do have to admit I am a tiny bit upset that now I don't have full set of dishes!!! :)

Happy 5th Birthday, Braeden! Where has 5 years gone? You continue to grow and change everyday and it is a pleasure watching you develop your personality. You are such a kindhearted boy and your Dad and I are so proud of you. We love the way you care for your sister and how you love to teach her new things. You are a great big brother!

This year you started doing so many more things for yourself. You need my help less and less and in some ways that makes me sad, but I am so thankful you are learning and maturing. That is what life is all about.

You are certainly our little miracle child and 5 years ago today I was a mess of emotions. If I only knew then what I know today, I would have enjoyed every moment of your birth and infancy, but I have to admit a lot of my time was consumed with worry. We didn't know what challenges would lie ahead for a 3.1 lbs preemie, but you overcame every challenge and here we are today. You are a wonderful, healthy 5 year old boy!!

I've never really complained about my job on this blog. I am just thankful to have a job, so I usually just try to keep my job complaints to myself (well, Ed gets to hear about them). But...I have had it with teenagers and their texting! Why do teenagers think that it is appropriate to text while I am trying to clean their teeth? And the best part is, they act like my arms and hands are getting in their way while I am doing them a service. Their attitude blows my mind!Get some RESPECT!!

I have a sign hanging in my operatory, right in front of their faces, that asks all cell phones to be turned off. It is always completely ignored. I have 1 hour with my patients to get all of their treatment completed, a Dr's exam, and then get my room disinfected and set up for the next patient. I don't have time to wait for people to finish texts before I lay the x-ray apron on their chests. I don't have time to wait for them to finish texting before I can lay the chair back. I don't have time to wait for them to finish texting before they will open their mouths to get started and I don't have time for them to keep checking their phone and replying to texts they receive. ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS!! ABSOLUTELY DISRESPECTFUL!! Where are good manners and etiquette?

We always hear about texting while driving or texting while in school, well I have had it with texting while getting teeth cleaned! Enough is enough!!

WARNING: If you are Ed (the Dad), I hope you do not think I am making fun of you. I just found these few incidences funny and needed to document them!

If you remember from one of my posts last week, I talked about the kids playing with play dough and even posted a picture of them. Well, I spent the two days following that adventure picking play dough out of the carpet, off of their clothes, and finding it in all corners of the kitchen. What a mess!

The kids asked Friday if they could play with it again and I said that if their Daddy wanted to supervise, then okay, but I wanted nothing to do with it. About an hour later the kids said they were done playing and Ed went into the kitchen to clean it up. The next thing I hear is Ed yelling, "I thought I told you to keep it on the wax paper I gave you." I walked into the kitchen to check out the damage and I see about an 8x10 piece of wax paper for each child and I just started laughing! Did he really believe that a 4 year old and a 2 year old would keep their play dough on that small piece wax paper? It was everywhere! Too funny! But another lesson learned...this time for Daddy!

Next story-I have been working on potty-training with Brenna this week and she has done GREAT! On Friday Ed took her to go poo poo (as she calls it) and I hear him teaching her how to breathe correctly to get the poop out faster! What?!? She was doing exactly what he was telling her to do and it was hilarious!

Yesterday I was getting ready and Brenna said she needed to go potty, so I put her on the toilet in our bathroom and the next thing I hear is her doing her "poo poo breathing technique" and she yells, "I did it! I poo poo!" I could not stop laughing and when I told Ed what she had done, he was so proud! Very weird!

Ed is an excellent Dad and always very involved and I am thankful for that-but I can still laugh at him...I mean with him!!