NYE 2015

We went to Becky's for a little bit but kids were fussing so we did not stay much, watched the ball drop program and played board games. Dave came over at about 11 pm after he was done with work.

Brandon did not want to, but Kyra and I made our lists for the going away year
Kyra's:
What she was proud of:

 Good memories:

 Worst things

 Resolutions for 2015

 The scariest things that happened

Mine:
Good things/Thankful for:

 Proud of:

Scary, worst things and resolutions for 2015

Summaries of The Last Couple Months

10/7/14 Tuesday, Kyra asked to spend the night at my place although it’s their grandparents’ day. She was with me 10/7-10/10. She said she wanted more but her dad told her no because he wanted some nights too.

10/4 Saturday, I dropped kids earlier because I had LPA to serve in the restaurant.

10/11 Saturday, Dave and I had Chelsea and Ryan’s wedding, so I had to drop the kids earlier again. I got upset that I had to change custody twice.

Since I moved out, Brandon slept either at my place or at his Non’s, not at his dad’s.

10/10 I got a bed for Brandon in Ashley’s Furniture and 10/12 bought for Kyra at Wolf’s.

10/22 Lisa Hanlen contacted us about speech - special program for Brandon and we both said yes.

10/22 his first night in his own bed. Till 10/25 he slept every night there. He would ask me to stay with him till he was asleep though :)

10/27 J let me know Brandon stayed home from school but would not tell me why. (See text).

10/29 Brandon spent the night at his Non’s. I was upset like he didn’t remember it  was my birthday the next day and he wrote me a note saying he didn’t forget.

10/31 last game - J yelled at Brandon for his effort and Brandon got upset.

11/2 came here with Kyra saying I could spend more time with her but in fact try to have sec with me. Yikes. Brandon was at Brody’s 10am-7pm.

11/4, Tuesday, Kyra slept here again. 

11/5 Wednesday, Brandon slept at Non’s and promised not to sleep there on my nights for 3 weeks.

11/7 Ruchi came over and we had so much fun!

Erin-her dad saw J in the casino the day before and there was talk about J asking women out at school.

11/12 Wednesday, we did Just Dance, had pillow fight, Kyra drew I love you for me, and read books. J had to bring a pillow for Kyra and, I guess, they talked, and he asked who Ruchi was. Yip, more than a year after I was employed there, he still didn’t know my coworker’s name. Talk about dysfunctional marriage.

11/13 Thursday, Kyra had a headache, I read her 3 books in her bed and she fell asleep. I read 51 pages of Diary of a Wimpy kid with Brandon before bed.

11/14 Freaky Friday for Brandon. Picked kids up for oral appointment for Kyra. Later Emma and Brody came over. Brody left home and the girls slept over.

11/15 so today, we went to Saturday market to buy wooden letters.

I texted J to let him know it was his turn to buy birthday gift.

Brandon slept over at Brody’s but J got mad when Brandon asked him because he didn’t spend a single night at his dad’s home yet.

After J got mad, Brandon asked him if he got a birthday gift and he said no. Brandon called Non and she took him. J got mad. Brandon said: “Mom, just to let you know, dad can yell and curse!” He was glad to go to Brody’s “because dad won’t yell at me”.

“Why does he yell at you?”

“I don’t know, anything can trigger him”.

Kyra cried because she didn’t want to leave me and go to J.

11/19 Wednesday, went to buy pink clock for Kyra and a pillow so her dad doesn’t have to bring it over if she forgets.

11/20 Thursday, Cub Scout awards, J came for a little bit only.

11/26 Tuesday, Kyra asked to sleep over but I had to work. Brandon slept at Brody’s.

J didn’t reschedule Kyra’s bone appt. he forgot to take her. I had to reschedule.

11/27 Wednesday, I picked up Kyra, who wasn’t fed and I wasn’t told that Brandon was at Bears game with Pop. He came home at 11pm.

11/28 Thanksgiving, Pop pick the kids up to go to crackle barrel. I picked them up after five. We watched the movie Bambi and painted.

11/29 Friday, whole day at my place. Brody came for a little bit, then we went to Once Upon A Child to get some clothes, stopped at Pop’s, at Ollie’s for gloves and drove to Giant Center ice ring to ice skate.

12/3 I asked both kids if they wanted to meet someone special to me. Kyra got very excited right away and all she wanted to know was when!

Brandon didn’t want anything to hear. He kept turning away when I tried to talk to him.

12/4 Thursday, we got a Christmas tree, Kyra had haircut and later J came for us all to talk to Kyra about her surgery the next day. Brandon slept at Non’s so I could concentrate on Kyra.

12/5 Kyra had surgery in the morning and I stayed home with her the whole day. It was hard to watch her. She was scared going in, so she was allowed to have Charles with her. She was also on her dad's lap. She was fighting to fall asleep until she could not fight it anymore.

When she woke up, she did not know where she was, she was like Brandon when he had his teeth out. Poor thing, I felt awful for her but what are you going to do??

While Kyra and I worked on the snowflakes, I asked her if she felt like she was ready to meet Dave and she said she was. He came over and I have to say they clicked right away!

12/6 Saturday, Brandon volunteer at Santa Shop, after that we thumb wrestled, counted 170 balloon do not touch the ground :)

12/16 Tuesday, Kyra slept over and we went to watch Despicable Me and play games

12/19 Friday, Corey was over and Dave made cookies with Kyra

12/20 Saturday, their dad found out (3 weeks after the fact :) and he yelled at me in text that how dare I am not to consult with him about dating. Ummm. No! Now I am not allowed to communicate with school as a part of my punishment and if I do, he will go for full custody for Brandon (only)

Brandon does not sleep at his dad's anymore, usually just at his grandparents

12/22 Monday, I came to watch Kyra do gymnastics since her dad had to go to Philly (unless he lied). He asked if I could keep her since Brandon was getting sick. I said yes but what about tomorrow? They will be together again. He flipped out and told me to shut up and bring Kyra to his house. When I called Brandon for a hug, his dad slammed the door in my face saying "You are not welcome here, f*** b**". What a great dad!

12/23 Tuesday, Kyra was at my place since his parents could not keep him

We agreed the kids arrangements for Christmas to be just like for Thanksgiving and he texted me later "Drop them off at noon". Why noon? Not 10-5? He got super mad I questioned him.

Kyra's words:

• Is Dave married?
• No
• Is he divorced?
• Yes
• He is probably happier with you than with who he was before!

Out of mouths of babies!

12/29 Monday, not my day again but I took the kids skating, Brandon slept at Non's, Kyra slept here.

Jokes

I am not sure what we were waiting sitting in the car one day but Kyra all of a sudden yelled:
- Look, Mommy, look, there is Ryan Seacrest behind you.

There was a big HUH? coming from me but it was funny! :)
___________________________
Brandon:
- May I please have some strawberries and M&Ms for breakfast?

Report Cards for 2014

First marking period. As always, nothing to complain about. 

Mrs. Langan said that:

- Kyra has fluency perfect score - 99% of accuracy. Shows higher level of thinking. 

- Fluency for words - benchmark is 62 correct words per minute. Kyra had 162. 

- Her spelling test average is 125%

- Sight words - 30 out of 30 and writing 30 out of 30.

- Comprehension of fiction is 79%, non fiction 60%

- She is advanced writer - she writes using a lot of interesting details. 

- Math average score is 100%

- She has excellent behavior at school. 

I do not have much written for Kyra for the second though. 

Brandon's First marking period:
Same here - Mr. Stevens was very pleased with Brandon progress as much as with his behavior in class.
He said that he noticed how much task oriented Brandon is (just like me with to do lists), He is good with speed but often his quality suffers because of that. Needs to work on.
He is pro in reading - 90%.
Right now they are expected to write 5 paragraphs and he needs to use more desriptive words. His Math tests are excellent - 90.1%.  

For his second marking period Mr. Stevens said how strong Brandon's math skills are. He is very strong especially in fractions - he does not even have to think how to solve them. He got A+ vs. A- in 1st marking period.

He is good at getting social clues - for example, when it is okay to joke around and when to be serious. He was sure that whatever Brandon decided to do in life, he would be successful at it.

 

Christmas

Always, every year, can't wait for it to come. For kids, it sure is presents but for adults.. What is it? This year I did not have the whole huge family Christmas. It was just me trying to think about decorations and such. We got a new Christmas tree and decorations. At least... They were all picked by me and the kids, not left over from previous life.

One of my elf helpers :)                                                       Kyra's Christmas manicure

Love, love the way the tree turned out!   
 

Ohhh this blanket!! Kyra slept with it every night from that day.

Stocking presents!

Kyra's  and Brandon's

For both: 

We watched all three Back to the future movies. 

  I HAD to order this one. It even came with Dr. Brown and McFly figurines and hover board!

Writing this piece so late, I do not even remember my feelings for this Christmas. I know because of being with Dave I did not feel lonely when kids left. My guess is that I just wished for a normal functional family that I never had with them before. Is it ever possible?

Conewago Winter Concert

I love, love going to those concerts. I love watching kids having fun and oh boy they did! Kyra was a little bit shy but still looked like she had fun in this pink outfit of hers. :) 

How could I not have a picture taken with them?? :)  Love them much!

Tooth Fairy Correspondence

I am not sure how I came across it. I think Kyra had it somewhere in her trash and I found it when I was cleaning it out? Not sure at this point!

 This Tooth Fairy is cool!

Jingles Is Back!

My goodness, he is back! Especially Kyra was so so so excited to look for him every day!

 "Do you want to build a snowman?"

 "Let's play Legos"

 This one was the most difficult to find!

 M&M angel :)

 Let's color!

Kyra asked Jingles to please, please, please stay for one more day after Christmas and guess what?? Just for her... He did!!!

Thanksgiving

School Thanksgiving Feast. Cannot believe how grown up Brandon looks here. 

Dinner with cousins from DC. 

Kyra making Thanksgiing feast for her stuffed animals and here kids' dad gave us all this food to eat after kids came home back to me that day.

Loved our T. dinenr with Dave. Not your typical Thanksgiving but then what is typical about our lives now?

Charles - The Coolest Bear Around

This is definitely one of my most favorite pictures of Kyra with Charles. I do not remember if I mentioned him here in the blog - she got him from Adventure Sports of Hershey when she had her tickets and her brother and her Pop added more and Charles was adopted. He is so cuddly and soft, she carries him around just about everywhere she goes. 

Mommy Got Someone Who Is Not Our Dad

We had to come to it some day. Dave and I met only when kids were not around. It was getting more difficult as we both were coming to realization that it was not temporary fling. Not that we thought that in the beginning but time was just proving it.

It came to the time me explain to the kids so they could meet Dave. It was after Thanksgiving. When I put Kyra to bed one night I told her that I was seeing someone and if she would like to hear about him. (She did). I told her in a few words and told her basically for her it would mean another playmate to play with. She could NOT wait to meet him.

Brandon, on another hand, did not want to hear anything. Knowing what I know now, I am not sure if he would have been ever ready. Is it him being a boy? Not being able and not wanting to see his Mom with another man who was not his dad? May be.

The first time we had a chance for Kyra to meet Dave was on the day Kyra had her surgery. Brandon went to his Non's and it looked like perfect opportunity to do so.

Kyra seemed to take to Dave right away. She is easy to talk to and Dave seemed to connect with her on her level. So far everything with her was good.

Big Brave Girl of Mine

After consultation with orthodontist and Kyra's dentist Mr. Steve, it was decided that she needed to have 6 teeth removed in order for her adult teeth to have space to come in. Because of Kyra having such a small mouth (like me), no time needed to be lost in order for her to lose them, get new ones and start her ortho treatment. This picture will always associate for me with our visit to the dr where they explain on what would be done to her during teeth extraction procedure. 

It was definitely not the best day of Kyra's life although saying that kids bounce back much faster than adults came very true. We got her in and out pretty fast but it WAS very hard. She took Charles with her, who sat on her lap while she sat on her Dad's lap at dr's office. Dr and his staff tried to put her to ease but oh boy was she fighting it! She did not want to go under this mask that would put her to sleep. 

When she woke up, her Dad and I was there. Her mouth was bleeding, she had cotton in her mouth and she was drowsy from anesthesia. 

Brandon was at school, so Kyra had my sole attention on the way home and at home. She threw up in the car just as we were getting close. Nothing new, she gets like that after Dr's visits. 

At home she was very whiny (expected) and was refusing to put cotton in her mouth so that her bleeding stopped. We went through that with watching a movie and snuggling under the blanket. 

Close to the evening she was ready to eat. Insane! Try taking 6 teeth from adults and see how long it would take for them to bounce back! 

Here Kyra being busy with the painting she got as a present for after her surgery. This butterfly kept her busy for a while. 

 Here, still with bloody mouth, but without 6 teeth, my girl was just fine!

Tough Life for 2nd Graders

No more words needed.