Thanks

Well Cammie finally came home on Sunday. She is feeling better, but not 100%. Glad to see you home.

Send good thoughts

A few weeks ago I told you all how my friend Cammie was pregnant. Well now she has the flu and possibly pneumonia. She has asthma and it has really affected her. She was to the ER two times on Thursday night and once on Friday. Saturday went well, but today she got even worse. She went back to the ER via ambulance. They are keeping her overnight to watch her. She is on three antibiotics and had a fever of 103.3. I spoke to her not too long ago and she is feel somewhat better. Please keep her in your thoughts. The doctors feel that the baby is doing fine, so they are concentrating on Mom. She will get through this, but it always helps to have some extra good vibes coming your way when something like this happens.

I have lost my patience

Some time last week I lost my patience and it has not come back. Then I feel like I lost more of it today. So at this point I think I am in the negative range somewhere. For those of you who have had a second pregnancy before will it come back or is it gone forever?

Our Little Fish

Well to many this may not be a big milestone, but for Ella and us it is. As you all know there have been some adult related issues with swimming at school. Well today Ella came running out of class when I went to pick her up and told me that she had gotten her face all wet. Now this is huge. We have trouble even trying to wash her hair. She was so proud of herself. As are we. For the last two classes she has been with a new teacher and a new group of kids. Maybe this is what she needed, and if I needed to be a witch to make it happen then that is what I had to do. I am good at being a witch just ask many people.

Well to Ella we are so proud of you. We always knew you could do it.

School Update

Well I realized that I had not finished the school update with the swim problems. Part of the reason is that nothing has really come of it. Ella is back in the pool and the teacher has taken everything and turned it around so that it is about her. She seems to feel like we were there to critic her teaching, not the intended purpose of seeing how to make Ella successful in swim. So at this point after a couple of other encounters with the swim teacher I have decided that I just I am giving up on swim for the year. As long as Ella is not being treated different and being singled out due to this miscommunication then I am done. I do not have time to stroke the ego of a 60 something year old woman. I more important things to take care of. Ella will still be successful in school even without swim. This way I am not stressed about it and neither is she, because she is not dumb she knows that something is going on. However I am disappointed that this could not be resolved. It is making me think twice about sending her to summer camp session and where I will be sending our new little one when the time comes. So at this point that is all the new information I have and probably will have unless something changes in the way they are treating Ella. The sad part is that I do not feel comfortable going in to see her swim now. The other day Ella came to me and asked me to come and watch her because she was so proud of what she had done that day. I had to tell her that I couldn't because I was working. I just do not want to rock the boat for Ella. I could care less what the swim teacher thinks. I just do not want to cause any more issues for Ella.

And it continues

So today I go to school to pick Ella up and the teacher comes out to tell me that Ella will not be able to participate in swim on Wednesday, because of her behavior. Talk about hitting the ceiling. Well I went in to talk to the director of the preschool and she took me to the aquatics director. Ella supposedly hit, scratched and kicked the swim teacher. She did not tell me this during our discussion yesterday and the decision to take her out of swim was made yesterday and no one called me. So now here it is a day and a half later and I am suppose to discipline Ella for during it. Is what she did o.k. absolutely not, but I would be a whole lot easier to handle had we heard about it when it happened.

I explained the whole thing from yesterday and what was explained to me was a miss communication between the swim and classroom teachers on the expectations for Ella. How that is my problem I am not sure. And that for Ella to be able to participate in swim and to be expected to follow the rules she would need one on one attention. Their goal was to provide a safe environment for swim and teach the lessons. If that meant that Ella was not involved and was off doing her own thing then as long as she was safe they were happy. I found it very odd for a school program that prides itself on making well rounded children that during a portion of their day they do not care what they are doing as long as they are safe.

I explained to the aquatics director that Ella is very smart and that it would not take her long to figure out that if I do something wrong then I do not have to participate in swim. That would just make her day. I think taking her out is a wrong decision. The aquatics director said that he would talk to the swim teacher and the others and would call me to let me know if Ella could swim tomorrow. I explained to him that I would need to know by this afternoon so that I could then try to explain to Ella why she was not able to participate in swim.

Well I got a call back and Ella will be going to swim tomorrow, because the aquatics director was able to find some one to work with her one on one. However we would need to have a meeting to discuss what is to happen from here. I told him that both my husband and I would want to be there and anytime was good for us and to just let us know. So the saga of the involved parent continues.

OH NO YOU DIDNIT JUST SAY THAT

Ella has been having trouble in swim and gym with not listening and following directions. Also the gym and swim teachers do not really enforce that with her. The classroom teachers do. So today I went into swim to watch and on Thursday Luke is going to go to gym. Well of course the swim teacher spent more time with Ella because I was there and did ask her to tow the line more. Well more than once I went and told Ella that she needed to be listening and paying attention. At the end of swim Ella was able to get a noddle. I wanted her to show the teacher how she does a back float with just a noddle and not a person. She fought me on it at first and did not listen and the teacher stepped in and asked her to do it. She told her no and swam away. The teacher then turns around and tells the aide that she has spent all of her time with Ella and the other two did not get what then needed. That is not what I am asking for how ever I find in hard to believe that Ella is the first child to have a fear of the water and listening issues at the school. So I would think they would have to have dealt with this before and have and idea of how to handle it and discuss it with me. Then the teacher turns to me and says I have told her to get out of the water and sit. However she was not going after her to get her. So I tell Ella to get out of the water. Ella then starts crying and carrying on. So the teacher then turns to me and tells me that she never has had this problem with her when I am not there. So at this point I am not able to control what I am going to say. So I tell Ella that I have to leave and I go out to the hallway.

I wait out there because I want to talk to Ella. I want to tell her that we can talk about this later and that she should go back to class and have a good snack and rest of the day and enjoy herself. The teacher comes out and tells me that she is sorry for upsetting me, but that I am pregnant and probably very emotional. That's right. I was appalled. When I told Luke this he just said "Oh no". Knowing that I would have probably decked her. Rather that is right or wrong you do not say that to a parent. Then she precedes to tell me again that Ella loves swim, her, and that she does not have any problems with her. Ella does not love swim every swim day I have to fight tooth and nail to get her ready and go to school. She then tells me to just forget about this half hour and she will take care of it, I have the whole day to deal with and can just relax about this half hour. She has two PHD's and an MBA and she can handle it. I really don't care what education you have it gives you no credit with kids. I have a masters in education and can not handle Ella. I can not just forget about a half hour of her day when I now that she is not have a good time and not behaving. That is part of being a parent. Then I explain to her that some of the behavior issues are coming about due to the pregnancy and she butts in to tell me that her children are 5 years apart and they had no trouble adjusting and thinks that Ella is not having any problems in this area. Seriously you only spend 1 hour a week with her I really do not think you know her very well. If you did you would know that she is a child who needs structure and can not be given leniency. She then goes on to tell me that it sounds like my husband and her are sending mixed messages to Ella and we should just leave the swimming to her and not worry about it. I have never felt so insulted. I would love to take Ella out of swim lessons at school and have her do them privately and she can sit during swim. However it is way to expensive, and I do not want to cause problems for the other children and Ella wondering why Ella gets to sit. Hopefully Luke's visit will go better on Thursday. So needless to say the swim teacher and I will not be getting coffee together anytime soon.