Buddy Boy's Field Trip

Buddy Boy's school had a field trip a couple of weeks ago, and they went to the Children's Discovery Museum at the Gateway.  Munchkin had been once before, but no one else had, so we decided to check Munchkin out of school, join Buddy Boy's class, and make a family event out of it.  I'm really glad we did, because there were a couple of meltdowns, and as annoying as it is to me, Buddy Boy responds MUCH better to his teacher's prompts than to mine.  That's probably typical though, right?  RIGHT???

Anyway, we had a good time:

Munchkin really loved doing the news show.

After a few meltdowns, Buddy Boy finally found solace playing with building toys and letters.

Hanging in the life flight helicopter.

Some random playing there.

Fun times!

The Other Day...

Munchkin's been struggling with school lately.  Not with understanding or behaving or anything, but with stress and anxiety.  She's been dealing with a bully (that problem has been rectified thank heavens), she gets really stressed and upset before taking tests, and now she's having separation issues.  Her teacher has been worried about her, as have I.  Just last week I got a phone call that she'd been hurt, so I went to the school and she wasn't really hurt, but she begged me to take her home or to stay at school with her.

I've been at a loss.  So the other day we had a talk and I gave her some suggestions as well as tried to figure out WHAT was causing all this anxiety in the first place.  I eventually asked her what I could do at home to help her, since I can't come to class with her every day.  Her response, among other things:


"Well, maybe it will help me to not be so stressed at school if I can be surprised and come home to a clean house."

Are you kidding me?  That's the exact same thing my mom said to me when I was a kid, only it was coming home from work!   

In my (feeble) defense, I did mention the need for me to work harder at housework (my words) a few months ago.  I even tied it in with her school and homework.

Blah, blah, blah

I haven't had time to do a decent update, and for that I apologize.  I'll just do what my good buddy Margie did and give some simple updates from the last two weeks:

• We had visiting teachers over in January, who were sick and brought sick kids with them.  3 days later Buddy Boy and I got sick, and we've been sick since.  Grr...

• Feb 2, Buddy Boy came home from school with a huge bruise on his head.  His note said he'd fallen off a swing.  No big deal, kids run around on playgrounds and fall right?  Well, not in this case.  He was actually put into a "therapy" swing in the classroom incorrectly by an aide, and when she pushed the swing, he flipped right out onto the tile and landed on his head.  A good sized drop (at least 3 feet) too.  Poor kid was a wreck the ENTIRE day, all because of a neglectful act.  (Can you tell I was not happy?)

• Feb 3 I had a meeting with Buddy Boy's teachers and because of the incident the day before, there was a lot more to discuss than we'd planned, and I got out 30 minutes later than I'd planned.  Knowing that Munchkin was going to be home soon, I called three neighbors for help, and had no luck.  We had a back up plan for her in case something like this ever happened, but she panicked and forgot about it.  She sat out in the cold for 20 minutes before going to the neighbors (who were HOME, why didn't they answer their phone?) to call the police and tell them her mom was either kidnapped or dead.  Luckily, that was when I arrived and the police were not called.  

• Feb 4 I was put on a committee to help plan a carnival at the elementary school for a student who has cancer.  It's one more busy thing, and I feel maxed out, but what a wonderful worthy cause!

• Feb 5 I won a blog giveaway for $60 worth of boxtops...that's the equivalent of 600 box tops!  I was so excited.:-)   I also went to my sister-in-law Michelle's baby shower, and had so much fun.  She's seriously the cutest pregnant lady I've seen.  That night I went to a fundraiser for my friend's brother who has colon rectal cancer.  I was saddened to see that not one other person from our ward showed up, but it had an incredible turnout anyway, and they made a lot of money!  Yay.

• Feb 6 Munchkin bore a sweet, wonderful testimony about her traumatic experience.  Most everyone was really kind about it, but I had one guy approach me and tell me that I was apparently a neglectful mother and that he didn't want to have to call the CPS on me.  Then he said "You should have called my wife; she could have come to our house." I didn't bother informing him that I HAD called his house and got no response.  Punk....

•  Feb 8, Buddy Boy went POOP IN THE POTTY for the first time!  He's never had an accident at school, but he's also never pooped.  It was a very big and happy day.  20 minutes after that, he was coloring and wrote the word "MOM", and then showed it to me.  This is a big deal for two reasons.  One, obviously that he wrote a word, and two that he wanted to show me something he created.  One of his "autistic" traits is that he doesn't get excited or anything about sharing with me his creations and interests.  So it was awesome!

•  February 10 Buddy Boy's school called and told me he had a fever.  I went to get him and my gosh, he was SO lethargic!  He didn't eat ONE solid food for almost 3 days.  At the end of the 3rd day we finally convinced him to eat pizza. 

•  Feb 11 I lost my temper and called Munchkin's teacher.  She's been being bullied by a new girl at school.  I tried to be patient with the situation knowing what I know about the girl, but when my girl came home crying and unable to walk because her legs were bruised from being kicked, that was the final straw.  I had a good long conversation with the teacher and was able to avoid taking my frustration out on the girl herself (which would have been bad), and I THINK the situation is finally resolved. 

• Feb 14 I spent 2.5 hours at Munchkin's school with Buddy Boy (who was not at his school cause he's STILL SICK) and had a great time hanging with the kids and helping with the Valentine's Day party.  Buddy Boy had a blast as well!  That evening we made new crayons out of our old ones.

• Feb 15 (last night) Clay took the kids to Carl's Jr to play while I stayed home and tried to get better.  Thanks Clay!

So...the month is halfway over.  I can't decide if that's a good thing, or not!!!:-)

Wordless Wednesday - a Long Lost Photo

What's New Witchu??

There's not a whole lot new going on here...typical winter I suppose.  We're all cold and sick and hunkering around the house in blankets and waiting anxiously for spring.  We've tried to do some fun stuff though:

Surfing on a block of ice?  I have no idea.  Dad just loves taking pictures no matter what they're doing.

I *tried* to be a creative mom by making some snow art with the kiddos.

We used our free meal certificates and went to Chick-Fil-A.  Munchkin loved the cow.  Buddy Boy did not.

And that's what's going on in the Cox household.

GDO and Star Wars

Hmmm...what is GDO?  It's simple, really.  Girls Day Out.  See, Munchkin and I don't do girls nights out because that would put us past our bedtime.  But last Saturday we had a great girls DAY out! 

We started off at Hauser Comics in Midvale for a Star Wars meet n' greet:

After we'd spent an hour and a half being educated in all things regarding the Force, we went to Walmart to spend the gift card Timmy got us for Christmas (thanks Timmy!).  Some good girl-bonding, shopping is.  Akaila got herself a new pair of shoes.  We still had 30 minutes until our next planned activity, so we killed some time at Iceberg eating a cookies n cream shake. (No pictures, we were too busy stuffing our faces and getting brain freeze).  To finish off, we went and saw Tangled. 

Such a fun girls day out...we both were sad when it ended.  Luckily, Dad and Parker wanted to do some fun stuff when we got back, so the kids and Clay spent some quality time in the playroom doing crazy silly stuff.