Camp KidJam

Today I took Madi to Camp KidJam in Denton at TWU.  She's been very excited to go!  I helped her pack yesterday and made sure she had everything she needed.  Suitcase, sheets, pillow, sleeping bag, and backpack all ready!

The drive was really pretty with all the lush green trees along 380 as we got closer to the campus.  We found the lot where we were to meet our group really easy.  It was nice and shaded and everything was labeled so well.  Well-organized as always.

Madi is in group G-4.  She is doing the acting classes as her breakout class.  She was very antsy about who her roommate was.  So she asked repeatedly who her roommate was.  Her counselor asked her to wait a minute.  And then let her know the name of her roommate.  Madi was not happy about who she was to room with.  As we went to the car to get her things, she told me that the girl doesn't like to talk, can be negative and isn't much fun.  It's quite interesting as we've had a lot of talks about friends lately.  She doesn't seem to understand that her reactions to others, her lack of care about them and her choices in how she handled friendships this year had an effect on her summer and playdates or lack there of.  Hoping that she can get along with the girls this week.

So when she mentioned this about her roommate, I told her that maybe it was God's way of giving her an opportunity to think about this girl and find out more about her and to be the best friend that she could be to her.  They're not in the dorm long anyway and hardly do anything in there but sleep.

We're sooo very glad that her counselor this year is one of the most amazing women ever - Helen Hartzo.  There are six girls in her cabin.  Three of whom she already knows and only two that she doesn't so that should make it easier on her to make friends.  Helen is our children's pastor assistant at church and works harder than anyone I have ever met.  She is a Godly women who has a lot of experience with children.  We're blessed to have her as Madi's counselor as she'll be able to help her navigate the week well.  

Madi was excited to see that Mia and another girl were in her group.  Her other friend Skylar is in another dorm room.  She sits with them at church on Sunday and the group of five girls have labeled Madi and another friend as the naughty ones - devious, talkative.  Can't remember the exact title they gave her, but it's not good.  And we talked about that too.  How being the right person matters.  And being the right friend matters.  Camp should be a fantastic experience for her if she'll make it that!  

Then we have three weeks left of summer before I go back to work.  Madi has one month before she goes back to school.  Can not believe how fast the summer is going!!

Her dorm counselor:  Ms. Helen!

Lately

So yesterday was a fairly good day!  Girls got to spend time with Poppi and Grammy as they came over mid-afternoon to spend time with them while Jeremy and I went to one of his work dinners.  Madi told me today that she misses being the only kid.  Could see that.  After all she had many years where it was just her.

Today started off fairly fine.  Girls all slept well.  So I decided to venture out to Ikea with the three girls by myself (bad idea by the way - don't do it if you're ever tempted to!!!!).  Julia has no dresser and we've been getting her clothes out of bins for about a week or so since we sold the crib/dresser set.  So we needed to get another Hemnes storage unit and some bins to put clothes in.  Got what we needed.  Had Julia screaming through the store as she didn't want Madi to push her cart but I couldn't have Madi push the cart with the long materials as she is a crazy cart pusher and at least Julia's cart was smaller.

We made it through Ikea, went to Target to Julia her new big girl panties as she is basically potty trained and refusing to wear pull-ups anymore and then returned home.  The girls were home for a little while - lunch, time to write and play without electronics - and then we went to the dentist.

Madi got her cavity filled and the three sealants done and a panoramic film done of her teeth.  All went great!  Over $400 appointment paid for my Medicaid.  Praise the Lord!!!  Such a blessing.

The girls had some computer time after the visit for a few hours.  Then dinner and time for bed.  I was hoping to make it to Madi's room tonight and thinking Julia would go down easy since her nap was short and she was so tired.  But Julia would not stop talking non-stop.  I kept saying "Jules!  It's night time and you have to stop talking and lay down nice and quiet."  To which she would reply by either flopping down on her bed and laughing or crying out of having her feelings hurt.  She literally talked for an hour nonstop.  Finally got her to sleep, but fell asleep myself too.

Tomorrow I'm not sure what we're doing.  More potty training for Jules and getting ready for camp on Monday.

Camp is coming...

Madi is very excited about Camp KidJam.  Should be awesome!!!  She leaves this coming Monday and will get back on Thursday around lunch.  I take her to TWU Monday afternoon.  We've got her packing list all ready and she's very, very excited!!!

She has been working extremely hard on writing a book.  I read a few pages of it and she's such a talented young writer!!  Great imagination and imagery when she writes.  Good descriptions.  So glad she's enjoying it so much.  When she finishes, we'll get it out as an e-book.

Girls have already started making their Christmas lists.  At the top of her list are a MacBook Pro, new American Girl dolls and money.  Riley wants the Brave bow and arrow set, a new iPod and an iPod case.  It's going to be a long six months.... :)

Can't really think of much going on to write about.  She goes to the dentist for the cavity/sealants on Thursday...  ummm.... we get to hang out with my friend Katy and her son Josh (9 months old) on Friday...  

So nothing too exciting to speak of!  But camp is coming!!!

Birds and the Bees

Madi has had an ok week.  Very moody.  And defiant.  And tween-ish.  Very wearing for sure.  On everyone including her.

She's been asking a lot of questions which is good.  Some have totally made me smile.  And though this will totally embarrass her, I'm going to write it because one day she'll look back on this conversation and understand it to a level she doesn't yet.

The topic of the "Birds and the Bees" has come up a few times.  Usually very brief and not very detailed.  Have never gone into great detail.  Kept it all surface.  The other day - out of the blue - she asks "Have you ever had sex?"  I was thinking "Um... not going to lie.  Don't want to share info.  So I'll tell her the truth."  So I said "Well, I have kids right?"

She says "Oh.  So you've had sex two times????!!!"

To which I replied "Yup.  Two times."

:)

Swimming Lessons and a Dr. Appointment

Madi is really enjoying swimming lessons!  They were able to dive yesterday.  Madi did awesome!!  Loved it!  Today they stayed in their lanes and did some laps.  Tomorrow they'll spend most of their time down in the deep end.  Has been really great!

Today we spent most of the time at home after swimming.  Madi did one section of IXL.  I challenged her with a more difficult multiplication section.  She did awesome!!  Her attitude started to get similar to last summer when she'd mope and complain.  BUT she quickly (and I mean quickly) was able to overcome it and stopped complaining fast.  I told her that I would do the problems as well and then we could compare answers before she put in the final answer.

The problems were like:
70 x 59 x 5
86 x 12 x 40

Started out more simple with problems like:  5 x 2 x 4

They were harder than problems she had in fourth grade, but are part of the fourth grade curriculum on IXL.  So not sure whether they were supposed to learn them and just didn't??  Who knows.  I just told her that she is so incredibly smart that a more challenging problem is good for her to work through.  She said she couldn't do it.  I told her that she just didn't want to do it because I knew she could - she just didn't want to have to work hard on it.  And sure enough - she smiled.  And then got to work.  It helped that I could give her feedback and do the problems with her and it helped that we could talk about if they were wrong.

So after an hour of IXL and after Riley finished her IXL sections, we got ready for her dr. appointment.  Has been quite the adventure just trying to get all the Medicaid stuff together.  Lots of hours on the phone which is definitely not easy with three kids around.  For the most part, they were really great about it though.

So I took her into Trinity Pediatrics in Plano.  Medicaid had not changed her dr. from being Dr. Park to Dr. Colberg.  Grr... their website would not let me change it and the lady on the phone said I could go ahead and take her to Dr. Colberg even if it wasn't changed.  Totally wrong info.  And so I had to call Jeremy because they don't have me listed as a guardian (another issue we're getting taken care of and won't take long - just one more thing to do).  So they wouldn't let her see the doc until it was updated.  Jeremy called them, then texted me and I told the lady at the desk.  Then she brought up her file a few minutes later and thankfully, all was corrected so we could get the dr. appointment done!

She had asked ahead of time about shots and I told her that no, her file was up to date and she shouldn't need shots.  I was totally wrong!!!  Had no idea that she would need two shots at her 11 year appointment!  Thankfully we got it over with today.  Madi handled them totally different today than she had last year.  She was freaking out last year and had to calm herself down.  We've worked a lot on coping skills with things like this and she did awesome!!!!

I apologized to her about the shots and told her I had no idea there would be shots as I thought that she was good until 18.  Turns out these last two shots are the last she'll need until 18.  So I just kept telling her "Seven years!  Seven years!!  Just get through these two shots and you'll be free of them til 18."  She was really great about it.  The meningitis shot was going to sting and the nurse told her that ahead of time.  Madi took it well, but said she felt light-headed which the nurse said was totally normal.  So she lay down.  I had brought some snacks for the girls so she was able to eat pretzels while laying down and had some water once we got to the car.  We let her lay for about five minutes until she felt ready to get up.  I also gave her Aleve when we got home, had her sit on the couch and drink some juice.  She's in there now watching the movie Wall-E with Riley.

So very proud of her for working through her frustration in her attitude with IXL as well as handling the shots without freaking out and getting extremely dramatic about it.  I told her that I could actually read her emotions because she wasn't going crazy about it and it was very clear that it hurt.  I didn't have to wonder if it was just for attention or for dramatics.  She reacted well to that as well and it has been a really great day.

The other blessing of today was that she would have needed the 11 year old shots in order to attend school in the fall so I'm glad we got them taken care of ahead of time.  So in the last three days, we've taken care of her mandatory Dentist and Dr. appointments for Medicaid and reapplying in October should be very easy as I have the printouts and have followed their procedures.  Phew!!!  That feels good!!!

Dentist Time

Today was a little helter skelter.  We were literally home for all of ten minutes all day.  Though Riley and Madi stayed home when I took Julia to Walmart to get groceries.  It is always so hard to find time to get food and find a good time to go.

The girls had their swimming lessons this morning.  We walk there and back every morning much to their dislike.  But it's good for all of us and it's great to be outside before it gets too hot.  Immediately after we got home, Madi helped me carry down Julia's changing table.  She did the best she could and was on the lighter end.  Won't be surprised if her arms hurt tomorrow due to all the lifting!

We drove out to Greenville to meet up with a lady who purchased Julia's changing table, covers and the crib.  Then immediately got in the car to drive back to Frisco to go to Madi's dental appointment.

She is now insured under Medicaid instead of CHIP.  Not sure if it's due to age or just a change in the program.  They renew her insurance every six months and she will be eligible for Medicaid again in October when we'll renew it.  In order to stay renewed, we have to take her to one regular physical with an Amerigroup Pediatrician once a year and prove that we have done so.  We also have to take her to a dental appointment one time every six months and prove that we have done so.  Since it's easier to tackle all of this in the summer, I've been spending hours (literally!!!) on the phone going through the process to make sure everything is correct and to make sure that we have what we need taken care of for her at her appointments.

Today's visit was super easy.  I made the appointment this morning - ha!  Called to get information and schedule an appointment.  They had a cancellation this afternoon so we jumped on it.  Filled out paperwork online before going to Greenville to drop off the crib set.  Madi wasn't too excited about it and was asking repeatedly if they were going to hurt her.  I finally told her that "yes, they are going to put you in so much pain you won't be able to stand it the rest of your life."  And then told her that she'd be totally fine!!  And explained what they'd do - at least, as much as I knew of what they would do.

Appointment went great.  She was told that she has mild-moderate gingivitis in her gums due to only brushing side to side on her teeth instead of at the gum line.  She also has one cavity in one of her adult molars and will need sealant on the other three molars.  So we have another appointment for those things to be taken care of next Thursday.

The dentist also said that her bottom teeth are very crowded so flossing every night is a must.  She has some, but it's been a while since she's used it.  Won't be a problem to have her start using it.

Most amazing part is that Medicaid pays the whole bill.  Crazy.  Today's free bill would have been $269.  So I'm wondering... how do I get Julia and Riley on Medicaid???  ;)  It's so awesome!!!!

Riley will have her dental appointment next Thursday as well.  I think Madi loved that she was able to watch Tangled on the tv while they worked on her and that there were video game machines to play when they finished!!  She also got a token that she could use for any of the machines at the end to choose what kind of small item she wanted.  She chose a grow animal?  Or something like that.

We got home.  I finished the list while the girls played and then took Jules to Walmart.  Came home and made dinner.  We also finished up laundry and Madi put her laundry away.

Overall a very productive day.  Madi has her yearly checkup on Wednesday with a doctor in Plano.  Only took two hours on the phone today to get that worked out because the first doctor they assigned her doesn't take Medicaid anymore so I had to get her assigned doctor switched on her paperwork and talk to the people there to get it so she could be assigned a new doctor.

Tomorrow is swimming lessons, piano students all day and hopefully some relaxation time tomorrow night!!

Another Summer Day

Madi had her swim lesson this morning.  Got to do some jumps/diving in the deep end.  Then her friend Elizabeth came over to pick her up for a playdate.  I had all my piano students today so I couldn't take her, but I was able to go pick her up at 5:30 so she had a good five hours to hang out.  They went to the pool and swam for two and a half hours.  She was pretty tired!!

We don't have big Fourth of July plans, but tomorrow will be a very exciting day!  This is due to the fact that tomorrow we will read Revelations 22 and she will have read the entire New Testament in the past year.  Or very close to it.  Will be exciting to finish it and then read some incredible Old Testament passages.  Probably start with Esther or Ruth or one of the smaller books of the Bible that has an awesome story to it.  Not that there aren't awesome stories in it everywhere, but the book of Numbers and the Chronicles are some of the least awesome that I can think of - and difficult to read through in its entirety due to all the "he begats."  So we'll start with a book she wants to read and we'll go out of order and see if we can't read quite a bit of the Old Testament.