School holidays, sisters, and this means war
It's school holidays and I'm here all alone with Zoë and Miranda. They're driving me insane. Miranda is the most stubborn creature on the planet and hasn't yet learned how to moderate that tendency. She has this awful habit of getting in Zoë's face and Miranda will not back off, Zoë keeps telling her to go away and Miranda refuses and eventually it turns into a big brawl. Arrrggghhh.
For the most part, Zoë has been all right. If Miranda wouldn't provoke her all the time, she'd be better.
Today, Zoë did sit down and put together a 3D multi-piece puzzle toy. It was a helicopter. After putting it together, she painted it. Then she put decals on it (I had to show her how; they were the kind you rub on with a pencil). She did really well, and I was very proud of her efforts, and it's clear she was, as well.
Unfortunately, the helicopter got broken in a brawl with her sister. *sigh* Took a while to calm her down after that. Mind you, the helicopter wouldn't have lasted long in any event, being put together out of poorly cut, cheap, thin balsa wood. Still, having it crushed only hours after it was finished was upsetting. (She's all right now, by the way, and happily playing a computer game.)
On other matters, the coin that I wrote about (the one she swallowed) still hasn't made an appearance, or, if it has, Zoë has either been unaware of it or she doesn't know how to tell me. I have been, uhm, keeping an eye on her, and I haven't seen any sign of passage. I'm not entirely sure what to do at this point. She seems to be perfectly fine, no unusual behavior or anything to indicate that she's stressed or unwell. I suppose we'll just have to take her to the doctor if things don't, uhm, move along on their own... but honestly, I don't know what they'd do other than order x-rays... (let's just hope that nature takes its course and it all sorts itself out without undue intervention).
So that's what's going on in Zoë's world today. And in mine, I can't wait for school to start up again... *sigh*
Farms and ponies and goats...
As it's currently school holidays, we've had a few outings planned for the little girls. Today we went to a local park that also has a sort of visitor farm, with various kinds of animals and things to do.
Zoë was excellent. She enjoyed petting the little goats and sheep, and, as it was feeding time, they came with bottles of lamb/kid formula and all the kids who were present got to have a bottle to feed the little animals. How cute those little goats are when they're drinking milk! Zoë was especially taken with the little goats that have long, floppy ears. She called them "dog-sheep" and I can see why; they look rather doglike (naturally, I did tell her that they were goats).
After a picnic lunch, the little girls got to have a pony ride. The queue was a bit long, but Zoë was really, really good while waiting. She got a little overly excited and pushed a bit now and then, but for the most part she was wonderful.
After the pony ride, we went on a tractor ride and saw a fair number of kangaroos and emus (no, they're not really farm animals, but some people do raise them for meat, leather, feathers, etc.). And after that, a visit to the guinea pig and rabbit barn, where Zoë held some guinea pigs (but none of the rabbits were keen to be caught).
Eventually, we sat down for an afternoon snack and we offered the kids another pony ride. Miranda said she wanted to have one, but Zoë kept saying, "No, thanks." The way this particular park works, the individual rides or special features are only done for certain time periods through the day, and we happened to be sitting at a picnic table by the pony ride area just as they were going to open again. When Zoë saw that Miranda was getting to get on the pony immediately (there was no queue at all!), Zoë was over there like a shot to have another ride! She just didn't want to have to stand in a long, boring queue again, and who could blame her for that?
There was also a nice, big playground area, and both kids had a good time running, climbing, and otherwise getting some good exercise. With any luck, they'll sleep well from their big day out!
What a good girl
We took the kids yesterday to a live performance. Their grandmother was playing the piano for an amateur production company who were doing Gilbert & Sullivan's "Trial by Jury". Prior to the G&S there were a number of individual performances by various members of the company.
In my opinion, the first bit was too long by far, and it was considerably boring. Lots of rather dreary singing pieces by light opera style sopranos, a trumpter who wasn't particularly good (that's being polite), a barbershop group that kept hitting seriously discordant notes and who did one of the worst renditions of a classic barbershop song that I've ever heard... Some of the performances were enjoyable, of course, but it was far, far too long.
Zoë took it like a real little trouper. Other than her tendency to sit in her chair with her legs open in a fairly obscene way (she was wearing a dress, which is why it was so very unbecoming), she was really good. She enjoyed some of the performances, especially when there was a guitar, and she liked the trumpet (she's not old enough to realise that the player wasn't that good). She was pretty bored, that was evident, but she was really, really good. No shouting, no crying, no getting up and down or misbehaving. She was amazing!
At the start, when it was quiet, Nanna came in to go to the piano and this little voice rang out in the hall, "Oh, look, there's Nanna! Nanna play a piano!" That, of course, got a good laugh and it was a charming ice-breaker.
After the first bit, we took the girls outside and let them have a little bit of a play on some playground equipment and we had a potty break and then went back. Zoë watched the operetta with some interest at first, as people were in costume and moving around, etc., but after a while she started to get really overwhelmed and she got up on her chair, pulled her knees up, and put her head down. She'd pop up when people would applaud, and when she saw it was still going on, she'd resume the "hiding" position. She was quiet, though, no complaining or crying, just hiding a bit, which I thought was fair enough (frankly, I felt rather overwhelmed, too, by that point).
The actual production wasn't very long, as it's only one act. It was about three-quarters of an hour, and afterward there was afternoon tea (Zoë had some punch that Nanna got for her).
And then, as if this wasn't enough, we went out to eat with an uncle, an auntie, the auntie's mum (an honorary nanna), a friend of the family (an honorary grandma), both grandparents, and, of course, Andrew and Miranda and myself.
Once again, Zoë was remarkably good. She ate her dinner, and then was reasonably patient waiting to go to the indoor playground, and when it was time to go, she came along without a fight.
The improvement in her behavior since she started school is just utterly astounding. It's not so long ago that we NEVER could have taken her to anything even remotely like this, let alone expected her to sit through all of that (and, honestly, if I'd realized how long and boring the first bit was, we might have turned up a bit later), and then, despite having gotten rather overwhelmed and very, very bored, she managed to go out to eat and behave perfectly wonderfully for that, too!
I'm just so amazed at her progress in the area of behavior. It's really, well, amazing!
Dentists
There's a dentist who specialises in children, and, specifically, in special needs kids. He's apparently very good with them, and has been seeing kids from Zoë's school for years. When we were given the opportunity to have her see him, we jumped at the chance, because I knew the school would prepare her (and the other kids) and so on.
A few weeks ago, Zoë saw the dentist and it was found that she had a fairly big cavity in one of her molars. Don't try to tell me that it's okay if they're just baby teeth, because you keep your molars for a long time (sometimes into your early teens), and walking around with a hole in your tooth for years isn't good for you, and it can damage the adult tooth that's lying below the surface, as well.
That being said, we were of course happy to have the dentist try to fill the tooth, and we got back the report that, yes, she'd had the tooth filled, and she was "very good" about it.
She continually surprises me, I'm happy to say.
Cheese
We had hot dogs for dinner, and I asked Zoë what she wanted on her hot dog. She said, "Sprinkle cheese."
Her pronounciation still isn't good, and I wasn't sure what she was saying, so I had her come and show me. She looked inside and picked up the bag of grated cheese.
Apparently, you're meant to sprinkle it on the bread. (I wish I had emoticons installed, because that really needs a smiley face.)
Headaches and Trains
Saturday morning, Zoë came out and settled on the bean bag chair to watch cartoons, and suddenly threw up. She then went on to complain of having a "hurty head" and a "hurty tummy". We thought perhaps she had the virus that several family members have had, but as the day progressed, it became more and more clear that she had a migraine.
She's had what appears to be migraines since she was quite young, but this time she was actually able to tell us what hurt, and her behavior (lying down in a dark place, vomiting, headache, etc.) pretty much confirmed that it was a migraine.
Her dad is prone to them, his father, his mother, and back who knows how many generations. With Zoë's dad and grandfather, the migraine is triggered by stress and/or tiredness. I suspect that's the issue with Zoë, as well.
Sunday, she seemed reasonably well, and perked up further as the day went on. She ate breakfast, she ate lunch, and then she felt well enough to go out with Grandpop to a model railway show!
Next time we see her pediatrician (in early December) we'll bring this up and see if she has any recommendations. Honestly, I don't know what can be done other than giving Zoë pain reliever and trying to make her comfortable until the migraine passes, but you never know.
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