Quick 5

No pithy words of inspiration here.  Jumping in...

1.  Lee took a day off of work this week so I could go in to the doctor's for a physical.  I went to our primary physician, the one I "fired" from being the girls' doctor.  She's completely awesome, but I could never get the girls in to see her because she was way too busy.  So I was a bit nervous, because I wasn't sure how un-cool it was to remove my girls from her practice, yet still see her myself.  And do I even bring it up?  Well, she took care of it.  She came in all smiles and greetings and "how the heck are ya? I haven't seen you in forever!" and then asked where I took the girls.  I told her and was about to launch into an explanation, and she stopped and said she 100% agreed with my decision.  She said she actually closed her practice to new patients about 9 months ago and this was the first week where SHE didn't feel completely overwhelmed.  She's a mom and understands the need to have an available doctor, so she thought it was a great move.  She also mentioned how in a practice where the doctors see adults AND kids, the kids often get bumped off to the PAs because of whiny, pushy adults who commandeer their appointments into much more than they should be, or calling in and DEMANDING to be seen for something that the doctor KNOWS (because they are trained to know) that the nurse could answer their questions over the phone.  I was simultaneously relieved that she is still so cool and annoyed at the hypochondriacs that forced me to move my girls to another practice.  That being said, we love our pediatrician, and I love my primary physician.  So we're in good hands.

2.  This week was a mini-fall (or end of summer?) break for Alaina.  She was off of school Wednesday, Thursday AND Friday for parent teacher conferences.  It was nice not to have the early morning routine, although we really don't mind it that much.  I love having her around to help out with things like unbuckling Joya whenever we go places.  That's one little chore I can't seem to get used to.  Alaina always does it, and I find myself having to walk around the car more than once because I walked right past Joya's door.  Anyway, we love having Alaina around.

3.  Which means that Lee and I went to our first parent teacher conference.  It went great.  Alaina's doing great.  Her teacher is great.  And she gave us some good ideas on what to work on at home, which is so nice.  We definitely need guidance in what a kindergartener should be knowing and learning.  Mrs. Galloway said that Alaina is very kind and considerate, and is VERY conscious of the rules and making sure that the others follow the rules.  I was a bit concerned about this, because I know she has the potential to be the class tattletale, but Mrs. Galloway said she is in no way annoying about it, and that she is prepared to handle it if it grows into tattletale territory.  She's so great.

4.  Part of Alaina's homework is reading 15 minutes every day.  So far I've been doing the reading, and we've been reading through Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle books.  I love those books, mostly because they were written in the late 40s/early 50s and the language is so different.  If you haven't read those books, they're about a lovely widow named Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle who LOVES children and knows them better than anyone. So any time a parent has a problem with their child, they call Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle.  She tells them how to cure crybabyitis and won't-go-to-bed-itis and selfishitis using her "cures."  It's our first foray into chapter book reading, and Alaina loves it.

5.  Since we're reading about Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, I may or may not have begun to refer to her as if she were real to help US with a problem with Alaina. Alaina has always been a thumb-sucker, and we're constantly telling her not to suck her thumb.  But at this point I believe it is an unconscious habit, and not simply a matter of will.  Well, since we made Joya give up her paci, it's only right that Alaina give up her thumb.  So starting on Wednesday we've been putting a band-aid on her thumb full time.  She immediately remembers when she sticks her thumb in her mouth and feels the band-aid to stop.  She's not too happy about it.  And there have been some tears when it comes to falling asleep at night.  So yesterday I told her that it's the Thumb Sucking Cure that Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle told me about.  She said, "Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is REAL?!?!"  I just smiled and didn't answer.  We've never done the Santa thing, and we're not to the tooth fairy thing, so this is new territory for us.  (Don't worry...I don't think she's going to tell your kid that Santa isn't real.  We've never made a big deal out of it either way, so I don't think she thinks about it all that much.)  Anyway, I told her that when she no longer sucks her thumb, we'll go get ice cream (which we've never done before.)  Her eyes lit up and she asked if she could have it in a "triangle cone" with sprinkles.  I think it's a fine reward.  The problem NOW is when do I know that she's broken of the habit?  Do I leave the band-aid on for a full week or should I take it off sooner?  I have no idea.  The paci thing was easy; it went in the trash.  The thumb thing is much harder to measure.  Any advice would be appreciated.

So long, Summer!