Sick Kid

Well, it's the second week of school and Emma's already caught a bug. I'd like to say that she picked it up from some kid at school, but I'm afraid she's picked it up from me. I've been a little under the weather all week. Today is the first day that I felt OK and I had a list of about 500 things to do and was excited to get them all accomplished. My day was looking pretty good until Emma woke up all stuffed up and coughing up a storm. We had a feeling it was coming as she's been sneezing and had a runny nose the last couple of days. So...I scrapped my to-do list for one more day to keep Emma home from school. She's still a bundle of energy, but I thought it would be best for her not to spread her germs to the other kids. Now that we have a kid, I have a better understanding of why kids are so contagious. They are not at all concerned about where they're coughing or where they wipe their snot. Ew!

Emma's teacher tells us she is fitting in well at school. We had a bit of a problem last week when the teacher told me that Emma would not sit in her desk, so she had been letting her sit at the back of the classroom with headphones on to listen to music. Apparently, she would dance and was singing in to the end of a skipping rope. This all sounds real cute, but it really got my blood boiling. I couldn't believe they would just let her do that! How will she ever learn anything? We went the next day and brought it up with the principal. She explained to us that Emma would not listen and they have a "hands off" policy when dealing with children unless they have permission from the parents....so....we gave the permission! This does not mean that they can spank or hit her, it just means they can physically get her to sit in her desk and keep her there. I told them that's the only way she will learn. That's pretty much how everything has been with her. We force her to do it...she kicks up the biggest fuss....next time she does it without a problem. I sent an email to the teacher this week to see how it was going. She responded "Emma is doing well and following through with a little guidance." I don't know exactly what that means...I hate that I don't get to be there to see what's going on. The school has agreed with us, though, to meet every three or four weeks to track Emma's progress. They have also been in contact with a retired school teacher who speaks Russian with a Ukrainian dialect who is willing to volunteer some time with Emma at school.

Ever since we got home from Ukraine, we've had a problem with Emma getting up in the middle of the night to bring toys to bed. We've tried several things, but she is a little sneak! We tried putting all the toys on the top shelf of her bookshelf, but she would climb the shelf and pull them down. We tried leaving all of her toys in the living room...she would sneak out at night and bring the toys to her bed. We set a booby trap on her bedroom door to let us know when she was sneaking out at night, but that proved to be a problem as we don't want Emma to be afraid to leave her bedroom at night. When she is afraid to leave, she won't go to the bathroom to go pee, she will pee in her bedroom. So...no booby trap. Last night, we put a bungy cord around her toy box so it couldn't open. The toys she had out in the living room, we put into our bedroom ensuite. She had absolutely NO access to any toys unless she were to come through our bedroom, which we knew she wouldn't do. Well, she must have felt pretty desperate last night as she searched through the house and couldn't find any toys. When I woke up this morning, she was in bed with the Sear's Catalog!!! I thought that was pretty funny. I have since hid the Sear's Catalog and wonder what surprise I will find in her bed tomorrow morning! :)