Change

How do you deal with change? Do you embrace it, shy away from or just let it roll off your back without much notice. Things are constantly changing around us. Some changes have greater effects on our daily living while others go seemingly unnoticed. I feel I am in the midst of some major changes that will have great impact on my daily activities.

I am one of those that is a little more reluctant to change. I like to have a my daily routine with just a little bit of change to spice things up, but nothing that dramatically changes my daily activities. Things are changing in two arenas for me. Often when there are changes at home, I can depend on the stability that I get at work and vice verse. However, things are changing on both fronts ,which for a person like me, can cause a little bit of stress. These are both changes that I have known about for some time, but have still found them hard to prepare for.

On the home front, our lives are about to change drastically for the fourth time. We will welcome our fourth child in January. This is a welcomed change. We are beyond thrilled to be adding to our family again, but as one of those people who resists even a welcomed change, it is scary to think about what this change actually means. I hear many comments throughout the day about how my hands are full and how do I think we will manage a fourth. I think to myself that my heart is also made full thanks to our children and that we will manage. I tell those who ask that we will still have one hand for each child between the two of us. I do stop and think though. I have a huge load with working full time and looking after three children, soon to be a fourth. I have a lot of help from my husband, a caring caregiver for my smaller kids and skilled preschool and school teachers. It is still difficult. I struggle (honestly fail) to keep my laundry caught up and I don't sweep my floors as often as I should, but I have a house full of love. When questioned, I find myself scared of adding this fourth child and the laundry and work that will go along with him. I wonder if I will be able to gather enough resources to take on this extra step, but I know that in the end, the love that this child will bring our family will be far beyond what it may cost to have him with us. Although I fear this change, I am anticipating the good that will come from it.

While I am still waiting on the change in my life that will occur at home, I am already in the midst of change that has occurred at work. We have switched over to electronic medical records. While I realize that this is not really a life changing event, it has changed the way I do things everyday. I am already in the middle of this change. We have been using the new system for about a month now. With the birth of my child, I am pretty sure from previous experiences with my other children that the change will be instantly labeled as a change for the good. With every change there is a learning curve. With a child, there is that sweet face there to always reward you for the struggle that you undergo while adjusting to the change. With EMR that reward is not always so obvious as we continue to learn and grow with the system. There is no doubt in my mind that this change is for the betterment of everyone involved, both the patients and the doctors. I see glimpses of this everyday as I am learning more, but know that it will still be awhile into the future before we are able to see all of the benefits of this change. I sometimes find that I get a little frustrated when it seems as if things were easier before the new system and I often find myself reaching for a pen to write something in a chart when in reality, it all goes in the computer now.

I am often reluctant to change. I guess it is as I have said here a few times, due to fear; fear of the unknown that comes with change. I know that both of these changes in life are going to result in a positive outcome. I just hope that I can change a little and deal more effectively with the little unknowns, extra tasks, and road bumps that come along the path of change.

Fashion foward

Do you have one of those kids? I'm talking about the one who is overly concerned about what they wear or just set in their ways about what they need to wear on a certain day or for certain occasions. Are they three? Are they male?

When I had my daughter I might have envisioned the day when she put her foot down or became increasingly opinionated about what clothes she wore. So far that really hasn't happened. As she has gotten older, she has become a little more interested, but not insistent upon what she wears. At five she likes to tell me when she wants to wear a dress vs. shorts or pants (almost everyday), and she likes to be able to pick out what she is wearing for the day, but doesn't get upset if I am the only laying out her clothes. She comes home from school with stains on her clothes and plenty of dirt and mulch from the playground. Some of her articles of clothing do not last very long. (I really must remember this when shopping for her. It is not good to pay too much money for something that may only survive her wearing it once or twice.)

On the other hand, when I had my baby boy I thought I would have full reign for at least a little while. I still had my girl to shop for and now I was going to be able to buy polo shirts and cute sweaters and button down shirts. It has gone as expected pretty much up until this point. As I have mentioned before, Charlie loves dinosaurs. His Nana recently got him a new pair of dinosoles shoes. They have a t-rex on them and he loves them. He loves the free t-shirt that came with them even better though. The child begs to wear this shirt everyday. We have tears in the mornings when he doesn't get to wear it and when compromise by letting him put it on when he gets home. Even if he forgets about his dinosaur shirt he likes to know ahead of time what he will be wearing so that he can give it his approval.

Today was the first day cool enough that he needed to wear jeans. He was slightly upset this morning because he felt his jeans were too big. I told him they fir just fine (one of the only pair he hasn't outgrown), but he insisted that were too big because they covered his socks. After I explained that pants were supposed to be long and cover your socks to keep you warm he was mostly OK until we put on the jacket....

How do you lose a shoe?

Chad went to pick up Isabelle yesterday from school. As she walked into the cafeteria, he notices she only has on one shoe. Somewhere on the playground she lost her shoe. Her only comment was that I was going to be really mad at her and that someone must have taken it. How in the world do you lose a shoe?

Soccer

Isabelle had her first soccer game them weekend. We chose to start with soccer because it is only on Saturdays for this age group. they have 30 minutes of practice followed by a 30 minute game. I think she really enjoyed herself. She has never played before so it was all new to her. She knew a couple of the kids on her team either from preschool or her kindergarten class. She spend a lot of time just running after people with the ball, but she came close to scoring once and she stopped a goal once. Overall we had a good time.



All of the kids are growing like crazy. Isabelle is liking kindergarten and Charlie is doing well in his beginnergarten class. Henry is starting to talk more and more. He doesn't like to say mom, momma, mommy, anything in reference to me. He just laughs when you ask him about me.



We have been super busy as always, but have been enjoying time with family and friends. Hopefully as we settle into more of a routine for the fall, I will be able to share more.

Busy Summer

I can't believe that it is the end of July already. It is almost time to send my baby off the kindergarten and I haven't had a chance to even realize it yet. We have had a very busy summer so far.

June was vacation month. We loaded all three kids in the car and headed to the Outer Banks for a week. Wow, that is a long drive!!! It was beautiful there. The beach, the weather, and home we stayed in were perfect. The kids swam in the pool and we tried to relax. Charlie has had a great fear of water for a couple of years, but by the end of the week, he was in the pool with the rest of us.

July has been busy with short weekend trips. We have had a few birthday celebrations for family and we spent a weekend in Eastern KY where I grew up. The kids got to roast marshmallows and hot dogs over an open fire, play freeze tag and catch bugs. They had a great time.

We are preparing for August. I can't believe my baby girl is going to be starting kindergarten. I am so excited for her, but I am a little anxious. I asked many around me what to do to prepare for the day. Should I take an hour or so off work that morning to take her to school, or just send her on the bus. I have elected to take her to school, but I know that she has to be there by a certain time and I will just leave her there. Hopefully she will have a wonderful day and will be ready to go back the next day.

Charlie has started playschool at the center Isabelle has been attending for the past year. He is absolutely loving it. His teachers usually comment about how funny he is so I often wonder what it is that he is doing that is so amusing. He is an awfully cute kid though.

My big girl is 5!!

Isabelle had a wonderful birthday weekend. We gathered with many of her friends on Saturday morning for her birthday party. There were 16 kids total and it appeared that they all had a great time. They got jump on inflatables, slide down slides and run through an obstacle course for the first forty-five minutes. Then they quickly at some cupcakes and ice cream before that moved over to a big play room full of toys for the last thirty minutes. All of the kids got a chance to have their faces painted. Isabelle wanted a butterfly. There were lightning bolts, pirates, spiderman, unicorns, and flowers. My two were almost exhausted by the time we left. We then went home to celebrate with family. We had good food and more cake!!

Now that she is 5 and summer is upon us, the reality that she is going to school in the fall in really sinking in. She saw our favorite doctor yesterday for her physical. It seems as if all is well. She is about 25% for both her weight and height. She did not like getting her finger pricked for the CBC, but she made it through with only a few tears.

We still have a few things to do to complete our ready for kindergarten check list. She must go to the dentist and to the eye doctor. The latter should be pretty easy since I can get that taken care of. Hopefully she won't be too fearful of the eye drops. The school entrance eye exam is very important for kids. We like to see them early to identify any problems that may interfere with learning. Also many of these problems that can be found during the school eye exam are best treated when found early. If there is an eye turning in or out (strabismus), or if one eye sees a lot better than the other (amblyopia), we have much better success when treating these conditions at a young age. The visual system is much more flexible in the younger years. I really look forward to confirming that Isabelle's vision is developing properly and would love to do the same for your child if they need things checked for school, or are having any difficulties.

We see Walking with Dinosaurs, The Arena Spectacular this weekend. We are all very excited. Also swim lessons start tonight for Isabelle. She will go two nights a week for four weeks. She will have to miss one for her graduation, but hopefully we will have her comfortable in the water in time for vacation.

Rock On!

Chad and I visited Nashville last week. We were there for only one night, but we had a great time. We shopped all day on Wednesday (yes, I am very lucky to have a husband who will shop with me). Wednesday night we headed over to Bridgestone arena to see Bon Jovi. I was a little worried that we might not have a good time. My husband was so kind to buy the tickets for me for Christmas and I was so excited about it. Bon Jovi has always been one of my favorites. As the time drew closer though, I was having a hard time seeing us at a concert. We are the parents of three little kids, and spend most of our time at home with them or on trips to zoo, not at a concert. The opening act was OK. I was still questioning if I was going to want to stay there all evening. My bedtime was already drawing near since we were an hour behind in Nashville. But, when Bon Jovi took the stage I was drawn in. I was up on my feet singing and dancing and having a great time. The arena was filled and everyone was on their feet. He played a lot of his old stuff mixed in with the new stuff. I believe we were among the youngest people there so the old stuff was definitely a hit. I don't really plan on going to another concert anytime soon, but I must say that I had a great time at this one. Plus, I got to bring home some new clothes for me (and Chad) and the kiddos.

The picture post

I finally have loaded pictures on the computer. They range from early December to present so I thought I would share.

These are really out of order, but for some reason I am having a hard time moving them around. Hope you enjoy.

The kids are all great. We are really enjoying the spring weather. They have loved the stage shows that we have attended. We still have the dinosaurs to go. Charlie says it will be the best thing ever. We are planning Isabelle's birthday party and she is getting very excited. I can't believe she is almost 5 years old already.

Beautiful Weekend

What a beautiful weekend. We all enjoyed the lovely weather over the weekend. On Sunday afternoon we headed out to the backyard to play on the swing set and ride bikes. Henry didn't go with us as he was napping, but Isabelle and Charlie had a wonderful time. Isabelle loved swinging and sliding. She is really eager to play on the monkey bars, but isn't quite able to manage them by herself yet. Charlie liked swinging on the glider and enjoyed going down the slide only if I held his hand on the way down. They both liked getting out on their bikes for the first time. Isabelle took off and did really well. We had to have a little lesson about the brakes, but she caught on pretty fast. Charlie has absolutely no idea how to pedal. I pushed him around a lot and tried to get his feet going, but we have a lot of work to do before he will be riding solo. As we were all readying to go inside, Isabelle decided to jump on her bike (supposedly to put it away) and ended up falling over and scraping her knee. She declared that she could no longer walk and would need to be carried, but after a little Neosporin and a band aid, all was well.

I am so looking forward to more warm weather to get outdoors with the kids and to hopefully get Henry involved next time.

Note to Self

When your child is working really hard on potty training and has stayed dry for two whole days and nights, make sure you take his pullup off before sitting him on the toilet in the morning!! Luckily we realized before it was too late.

WOW, It is March already!

February has flown by. There wasn't much going on in the Woodruff household in the month of February. We enjoyed the snow, but are definitely ready for Spring. The kids got bikes from Santa Clause that they are really eager to be able to ride and they are ready to be able to spend some time outside in the yard and on the swing set. March looks to be filled with lots of activities.

Isabelle has been taking dance classes at school. The teacher comes once a week for about an hour. Isabelle loves it. She looks forward all week to being able to wear her leotard and tights to school for dance class. She is really excited though about being able to go to the "big girl dance school with all of the mirrors." They will be having an end of the year party next weekend at the dance studio. We have been asked to dress them in their leotard and tights, put their hair in a bun and (gasp) put on a little bit of makeup. What, my baby girl with blush and lip gloss? I am sure she will look beautiful. To end the dance season they will be doing a recital at the end of March. According to Isabelle it will be "The Nutcracker" so I am sure it will be very entertaining. This time I am going to be in charge of the video camera and will press record.

We have two productions that we will be seeing this month. Long before Christmas we purchased tickets to see Playhouse Disney Live. My kids love the Little Einsteins. We have about 35 episodes on our DVR and they know each one of them by heart. If there is ever classical music playing, one of them can usually tell you which episode of the Little Einsteins that piece was on and on occasion can tell you the composer. Hopefully they will enjoy it as much as I think they will. We have never taken them to a stage show before, but this is only the first of a few.

At the the end of the month we are going to see Disney Princesses on Ice. My mom wanted to take the kids to see this and I think I will enjoy this one as well.

We are working a lot of big things right now. Isabelle is working hard on sight words. She is doing pretty well. She is good at the memory part. The phonetics are difficult for her, but she is getting better. Charlie is still working on potty training. He is finally doing really well. We can go several days without wetting. The rest is still a work in progress. Henry is working on walking. He will finally stand up and walk with you instead of buckling his legs every time you try to stand him up. I think he will be moving around soon. We are planning on rewarding everyone and their hard work, especially Charlie's, with yet another show. If you have read here before, or if you know my Charlie at all, you know that he loves dinosaurs. We have gotten tickets to see Walking with Dinosaurs in May. He is really excited and we are hoping it is the motivation needed to complete potty training. We have watched many youtube videos of the performances and he think it is going to be great. I am a little worried that it might be a little overwhelming and scary, but so far when it comes to dinosaurs the kid knows no fear.

That pretty much wraps things up for us right now. Wish us luck on the upcoming outings that everyone will be on their best behavior.

My baby is 1!!

The holidays have come and gone and my baby boy has turned 1. Sorry I haven't shared with you about all of the exiting things that have happened over the past three or four weeks. We had a wonderful Christmas and a great New Year's Eve (Henry's birthday). We visited with family and enjoyed spending time with each other. The kids are almost overwhelmed with new toys. Charlie has a room full of dinosaurs and Isabelle is enjoying art supplies and princess dolls. She was most impressed with the nail polish and chap stick that Santa left in her stocking.

Henry's birthday party was a lot of fun. We didn't have as many guests as we had anticipated as Chad's grandfather is ill. Henry really enjoyed his birthday cake. He dug in with both hands and made a pretty big mess. He fed a few pieces to the dogs, but most every bite made it to his mouth. My husband was in charge of the food - Barbeque. It was really good, but there was so much of it. We probably could have fed most of our neighborhood.

We had a few days last week of Henry not feeling well, but he is all better now. Chad stayed home with him on Wednesday, and Thursday, and I was home on Friday. It is amazing how quickly they get used to someone holding them all of the time.

We are currently in the middle of birthday overload. Henry's birthday was Dec. 31st. Isabelle was invited to classmates' birthday parties on the 9th and 16th. Then we are having Charlie's birthday party this weekend. My birhtday is the following weekend. By the end of this month, she is likely to think that every weekend means a birthday party.

I hope to get some pictures up of the birthday party, Christmas and the photos we had taken before Christmas soon. This of course means me taking time to sit down at the computer at home to get them off of the camera and uploaded. Hopefully I can get it done soon.