Update (overdue!)

Wow, I don’t even know where to begin.  In my last post almost 5 months ago, I promised to post more often. Clearly, I failed miserably. But I will try to redeem myself by posting plenty of videos this time. I’ve spent a lot of hours fiddling with photos, videos and music. You know how you end up with all that footage that you never watch again and photos that end up collecting dust? Well, I think condensing them into little productions turns all that into something worth re-watching over the years.

So lets’ see…the Fall season was a pretty good one, full of events like Halloween and Thanksgiving. I’ll let the video do the talking.

The kids also turned 6 in November. We didn’t do a party this time as we knew that a couple of weeks after that we would be going to visit my side of the family in Malta and they were all very eager to meet them. So we decided to have a gathering there instead. Plus we were quite busy to get our act together and invite some friends over (Christmas time is not the “most wonderful time of the year” for Lori. One word: Retail!). So Lori bought them some gifts and after opening their presents, we went out to lunch. Following that, we went to watch Toy Story 3 in 3D, which was a gift for the whole family: very moving and entertaining.

Just two weeks shy of our departure to Malta, Isaac hurt his foot getting off the bus. So a trip to the minor emergency center and a (badly formed) splint later, we had to set up an appointment with an Orthopedic surgeon once again. He put him in a brace for a week and luckily, that’s all that was needed. Isaac was as good as new a day before our planned departure, which was on the 17th of December at 8:40pm. Lori couldn’t leave with us due to work, so I traveled with the kids to Malta by myself and she joined us 5 days later (but not her luggage, which showed up 4 days later!). I had already done it once again from Ukraine to the US, so what’s the bid deal, right? Well, see if you can figure out what happened from the video.

Ah yeah, it was such fun hauling two difficult kids and all that darn luggage. But I got it done once again and this time, without the aid of harnesses

Unfortunately I got sick twice while on vacation and so did Lori. And pretty much everyone else in the family (yup, they blamed me for it). Luckily the kids did not get sick, probably thanks to their flu shot. You can bet that I’m getting it next season!

We had a great time visiting everyone when we could and so did the twins. We did not get to see everyone as it was very difficult to accommodate everyone since we spent almost 60% of our time coughing and fighting fever. For example New Year’s eve was a blast. Unfortunately that same night on January 1st, I started round #2 of my fight against the flu.

We finally got better a few days before our departure and the weather, albeit a bit chilly, was calling us to get out, so we did!

So we made it back to the US in one piece and slid right into the usual routine. The first week of school was rough. Actually, Isaac’s first day back was awesome. He missed his teachers and aides, and was in great spirits. But it didn’t last long and the rest of the week was shaky. Isabella had on and off days but stabilized a bit after that. However her performance at school isn’t going so well and we’re now trying some medications to help with her attention deficit. We’re not seeing results yet but we still have plenty of legroom to increase the meds.

We had a parent-teacher conference and learned a lot more about how they spend their day. The highlight for me (and I’m sure Lori’s too) was to hear the teachers talking about how the kids in the main classroom adore Isaac and are always trying to help him when he’s having a tough time integrating in the classroom. It was actually quite moving to hear, and the teacher said the kids were asking about his whereabouts daily for the extra few days that he lost due to travel. His Special-ed teacher reported how he’s actually doing quite well academically and also how well he’s doing at learning and communicating through sign language.

Isabella’s teacher also said that the kids try to help her when she has a hard time following or understanding. She’s not being effective at focusing and conducting independent work, and the school finally realizes that she needs extra support. A few days later we had an official meeting and we’re glad that Isabella will now also have an IEP and further support in the classroom. It might not happen until next year, but at least assuming she moves on to first grade, she won’t continue to fall so much behind her peers. Here’s their first school performance. We were delighted to finally see Isaac participating with the rest of his friends, something that he was never allowed to do while in Ukraine. Thanks Miss L., Miss M. and all the team!

As you have seen in one of the videos, Isaac lost his first tooth in Malta. Isabella’s teeth keep coming off. Well, actually she pulls them out herself, sometimes quite early too. Can’t stop that girl. As she likes to say, “That’s crazy!”

As the weather got better, we finally met our friends the H’s for a great day out at the zoo. We can’t wait to go back when time permits to meet again and also some other friends which we haven’t seen in a while.

On the Speech Therapy side, we have appealed with our health insurance company and we’re now waiting for a decision. I’m not holding my breath but at least we gave it our best shot. We had to stick with the same health insurance company as last year since there was no better option. Hopefully they’ll listen to our plea for the benefit of our kids.

Well that’s a wrap: 5 months in one post. You can now rest your eyes…until next time!

School and more

Wow, over 2 months since my last post. I’m beginning to become a real slacker! Let’s just say that life is getting more and more hectic. All the changes to life’s routine don’t help, but I think now that I’m much more settled into my new workplace and have all my systems and methods in-place (like Live Writer at work and my laptop and blogger-droid on my new phone), I should get back to more frequent, short-post blogging.

So Isaac’s thumb is all healed finally. We still didn’t do much swimming though after that. For a while every weekend it would rain and I really needed to take care of a recurring algae problem, which came down to dumping almost half the water out, refilling, cleaning the filters and super-shocking.

Housework and paperwork (mostly medical) has been keeping us busy. The to-do list is still long but hopefully we’ll manage to wrap most of the things up. It’s not easy when you are so exhausted by week’s end and need to relax a little. During the week we don’t get to cross anything off that list. Lori leaves work and picks up the kids from two separate daycares, and goes home to prepare dinner/warm up leftovers. Then it’s time to give the kids a bath, maybe do a little schoolwork, or play and make a lot of noise, catch a few minutes of something on TV and then take them to bed. I always come back downstairs for some quiet ME time, which consists of reading, testing software, other blogging, emailing, organizing, and maybe some TV watching. Which means I go to bed late and then get progressively tired each day, making it impossible to break the cycle.

Kindergarten is going…well, just going in some cases! We’re having some good struggles. Isabella has her good and bad days where she won’t listen, can’t stand still in her seat and has a hard time following rules. Thank goodness the teachers have a lot of patience. We’re working on writing and reading skills, mostly practicing to write her name. She can already recognize most of the alphabet when asking her to pronounce a letter you point at, or when using flashcards. But she struggles a lot when asking her to do something on her own. For example when writing her name, if you point her in the right direction, she does well but if you leave her on her own, she ends up not copying the letters she’s supposed to copy. It is very frustrating at times, but we (especially me!) just have to re-define expectations.

Isaac has a lot of bad days, peppered with a few occasional ok ones and a handful of great days. He spends most of his time with special-ed teachers and maybe an hour or so in the regular kindergarten classroom (he generally does really bad here). Lori has been working slowly with him on reading. I don’t have the necessary patience as I expect to see results fairly quickly and that’s just not how things work with him. The teachers are saints; I don’t envy their job! Despite the hard times, they just love Isaac so much and are always happy to see him and his sister in the morning. Here’s a shot of the first day of school just before drop-off.

Speech is going well with an occasional off day, but on the whole we’re making progress. The downside is that insurance will only cover up to age 6 and that’s only a few weeks away. We can still keep going but a quick look at the math reveals how unsustainable that would be: 1 session @ $200 x 2kids x 45 weeks = $18K! So we’re in the process of researching other health insurance options and maybe trying to appeal that exception due to medical necessity, especially for Isaac. Isabella is improving enough that it might not be necessary for her to attend much longer. Her sounds are becoming clearer and her vocabulary is improving, although she still struggles with some more abstract words such as the meaning of ‘under”, ‘over’, ‘medium’, etc. Considering the short language exposure, she’s doing great!

We have been taking the kids out separately so we can focus on each one better. For example Lori might go for a shopping trip with Isaac and I might go out to do some work outside or wash the car and take Isabella with me. Here she is helping me cut down branches and do some yard-work.

We have not been doing a great job at keeping up with friends. Hopefully we’ll get back to hanging out more often. Speaking of hanging out…since it was my birthday in September, we went “out to eat” that evening (Isabella loves saying that phrase). We had a good time, only until we got home and Lori got sick! It was probably all a coincidence and since we pretty much all ate from each other’s plates and didn’t get sick, we couldn’t blame the restaurant. Here’s Isaac munching on brownie and ice-cream. Did I tell you he’s on a high-calorie diet?? And then there’s Izzy (Lori’s nickname for her) giving one of her beaming smiles.

 

 

That’s it for now! Let’s see what’s in store for us today at school…

SummER

Beware: Long post. What is it this year with visiting the ER? We never needed to before, but this year we went 3 times already. My Dad’s kidney stone in October/November started the trend in 2009. Isaac kept things going in 2010 after his seizure wouldn’t stop, then Isabella during our vacation (more on that later) and on Friday 30th July, I had to pay a visit myself. Lori’s managed to avoid it so far, but the year is still young, so watch out!

I was going to write about our trip to visit Lori’s side of the family, but since I started a new job on July 20th , I didn’t have the right muse. So I worked 4 days and then the following Sunday, I got sick. Really sick. It felt like the flu, strep throat, fever, and pain in my leg. Lori had some fever and sore throat too. My leg pain turned out to be the main problem: cellulitis. After visiting an urgent care facility and taking antibiotics, things got worse, so they prescribed an additional one. Well, that wasn’t enough either and I also ended up battling a 3-day non-stop headache and neck pain , so after a follow-up visit on a Friday afternoon, the doctor looked at me and said, “you need to go to the ER!”, so there I went on Friday at 3:30pm: ER visit #3 for the year. I ended up getting a tetanus shot, loaded with antibiotics via IV, blood tests and a doppler test to check for blood clots. I finally made it out at 10pm, my leg still looking like I took a blow torch to it. My head felt like it was floating a few feet above my shoulders but I managed to make it home ok. And all this perhaps due to an insect bite? Possibly. And if that wasn’t enough, the doctor prescribed new, very strong antibiotic pills for 10 days, twice a day, for $15.80 per pill with insurance! They make me dizzy, but I had to go back to work as taking an unpaid week of sick time after just 4 days of work at a new job was more than enough. This year is not gonna go down as a year of savings; not even switching to Geico will help! (we actually switched to Allstate). Here’s a very flattering photo of Isabella and myself sleeping on Saturday afternoon. Notice I’m wearing the same bloody shirt from Friday’s adventure.

So back in the second week of July, we took a drive to Roaring River State Park in Missouri (here are part 1 & part 2 of someone’s videos of the area). It was about a 10 hour drive, just under 600 miles. The weather was hot and it rained pretty much every day. On our way, Isabella got sick…sore throat and fever (sounds familiar?). We had to stop and get some over the counter meds and some head cooling strips/pads. Overall the drive was good. About 3 hours from our destination on Saturday afternoon, we got a call that our nephew Travis was at home and since he never met the kids, we took a detour to the Tulsa area and completed our trip the next day. 

So we finally made it to Roaring River on Sunday at around 1pm. I had only one thing on my mind: the World Cup final game! How on earth was I going to watch out there? Did anyone know what the heck it even meant? So we went to the Lodge just up the road and luckily, they had a lounge with a TV room. We ordered some food and while Lori and the kids ate on a table, I ate a salad to-go while watching the game on an old, orangey, rear-projection screen. At least I didn’t miss it, although it wasn’t a very exciting game. That brought the tournament to a close, which due to unemployment, I managed to enjoy to the fullest extent possible.

We then went to the campgrounds and met some family. They had a pick-up truck and I put Isaac in the truck bed. He was quite happy. Isabella wanted up too, so I put her in there with him while I mostly watched over Isaac’s every move (he’s the least stable after all!). Suddenly, I see Isabella fall from the tailgate as her leg got caught, and landed right on her chin with a bang. No, not on grass but on asphalt. Needless to say, she had a nice gushing wound and was crying while we tried to stop the bleeding. What a fantastic start to our vacation! What did that mean? ER visit #2 for the year. We actually tried to find an Urgent Care facility instead but there were none in the area, so we took a trip to St. John’s in Cassville. They cleaned her up, put some glue around the chin to hold some strips to close the wound and we were done; Cost: around $200 after insurance. This meant she couldn’t swim. This contraption was supposed to last a week but it only lasted 3 days. I wonder if I can get a refund? ;)

Luckily, that was the first and last bad thing that happened. Isabella’s fever and sore throat went away and she didn’t make a big deal about not swimming. We  found other things to do, such as visiting Silver Dollar City. They absolutely loved the rides, getting wet, etc. Finally Isaac was able to ride with us and they had a blast. Movement is too darn exciting to them and as other kids cried in terror, they just couldn’t get enough and wanted to keep riding over and over until our stomachs just couldn’t take any more rides! It was a very hot day and we enjoyed plenty of icy lemonades. We ended the day with a nice ice cream and a tantrum by Isabella (she was just too tired to control herself at the end). The picture on the left is the first ride we took as a family and surely the first real ride at a park for both of them. You can see Isabella’s $200 chin contraption and her look of terror. But don’t worry, she was as excited as can be at the end and wanted to ride again. Isaac seems like he can’t believe what’s happening.

I fished and maxed out every morning on rainbow trout. We took the kids around with their bikes in all their protective gear glory. Isaac is learning to pedal pretty good but just doesn’t have the strength to propel himself yet. Isabella of course was running far away from us, falling each time she took a turn too fast while looking back, but somehow managed to save herself from getting hurt again. She has pretty good balance and although her falls are not very elegant, at least she can escape a dramatic fall, somehow!

One afternoon I took Isabella to fish. She had a good amount of patience. I cast for her and she reeled in. It was great as she finally hooked a trout after rigging it with a fly I found in a wad of fishing line lying on the ground. She was so happy and now wants to cook her own fish.

The family reunion was atrociously hot. Everyone was sweating like crazy. Even Isaac was wet and he usually doesn’t sweat at all. The kids had fun, ate a good amount, played around…and we had to chase Isaac a couple of times as he ran out of the covered area and headed towards the pool. I couldn’t blame him! Unless it’s in an air-conditioned venue or moved to October, I’m not going again!

There was a mix-up with reservations and we had to find a new place for the last 2 days. That cost more than expected as everything was booked since it was a weekend. We managed to find a really nice cabin owned by the State Park and the Lodge, and was well worth it to end our vacation there. On the morning of our departure, Lori wanted to fish so we took a risk and went at 6am with the kids. I let Lori fish while I took care of the kids. Isabella, watched, talked to family members and played with the fish on stringers, while I sat Isaac on a stand and I too managed to max out by around 7:30am (fishing starts at 6:30). We left the campgrounds around 10am and got home by 8pm. It was a good break just before the start of a new job.

But that wasn’t the end of the medical mishaps. On Saturday 24th July, Isabella broke Isaac’s thumb. Don’t worry, there was no ER run this time. I took him to an Urgent Care facility by our house, the same one we visited a few days later when we got sick and on the Friday follow-up. Monday Lori took him to an Orthopedic surgeon and put a cast, which hopefully will be taken out this coming Monday. That would be good as we’ve held off swimming for over a month now. Although with this heat, the water is going to hit 94F really easy! Next: Kindergarten.

One year down

It’s hard to believe, but exactly one year ago, the kids became US citizens and slept in their own bedroom for the first time. I can safely say it was the longest day of my life, traveling with two kids that were not easy to control! But a lot has changed since then, and even though we still have to keep an invisible leash on them (especially Isaac of course), they’re much easier to handle nowadays. And look at how excited we all are!

So in the evening we went out for dinner to celebrate. The weather has been nasty around here and it won’t stop raining. Being cooler than usual, we sat outside. It was a nice reminder of all the times we ate out while in Nikopol. We even had Greek Salad! So I made sure to take an unflattering picture of everyone with their mouth open first…

 

 

 

I’m not exactly sure what I did to deserve this dirty look, but it was worth posting. Then I took another photo of the seemingly giant pizza. But don’t worry, it’s just an optical illusion and yes, we have left-overs to spare.

 

The kids then ran around a bit around the outside shops at the nearby mall, as the air continued to sprinkle lightly. Isaac’s gait is still not where it needs to be especially when running, but he’s much more coordinated than he used to be.

 

Letting go of their hands and trusting they’ll come back when called was something we struggled with for some time. Yes, especially Isaac. I find myself repeating that quite often, don’t I?? Baby steps I guess.

Anyway, at least the other good news is that I’m employed once again. I was quite lucky as I know of some colleagues that lost their job last year and still have not landed on a good position. A few others managed to find something after about 6 months or so of intense looking and interviewing.

So with all the ups and downs, I think both Lori and I agree that we cannot imagine life without the little critters. Yes, there are plenty of times where we feel otherwise, but those pass away quickly. Lori still puts Isaac to bed and I do my duties with Isabella. Head rocking is now pretty much gone and she always wants me to lay down “a bittle bit” beside her as she dozes off. It’s one of the nicest moments of the day for me and in most cases, it takes under 10 minutes for her to calm down and doze off. They’re both making up all those years of missed, loving contact and we’re happy to be there to let them indulge. Yes, especially Isaac!

Gotcha Day – missed

Been busy. Mixed up my dates and thought today was Gotcha Day. It was the 26th. Oh well, we celebrated today by jumping in the pool and giving the kids a “shower” outside (shampoo the hair and rub all over) and hosing them down. They loved it! In summer when swimming in the ocean, my 2nd cousin Elton and I used to do that a lot, or simply rinse down with fresh water. We were spending 9 to 10 hours a day in salt water, for about 2 summer months, so we were quite cleansed ;)

Over the last few weeks, between job hunting, interviews, recruiting office testing, some side work, catching up on medical bills, watching World Cup matches, etc., we also visited some friends on a weekend. The kids had a blast playing in their backyard with sand, swings and running around (thanks U’s!). That weekend Isabella lost her second tooth and we still need to record that in a photo. The kids  have been enjoying the pool and now Isaac is swimming with no trainers either. He doesn’t do it quite as gracefully and Lori is always uneasy as he bobbs up and down like a bottle…down, kicks around, surfaces, giggles, takes a breath and repeats. But he’s been doing very good and has even succeeded at floating on his back and swimming backwards. He’s managing to loosen up and relax quite a bit. Here’s Isaac with his Shark cap at start of season (head band and silicone plugs underneath the cap).

We continue to have hospital appointments (neuropsychological evaluation for Isabella, etc.), bills piling up, fights with insurance…the usual. But that’s boring stuff. Yesterday we had some fun for Lori’s birthday. Well, it wasn’t a complete birthday really. You see, I have completely lost track of time recently, so I missed even getting her a card. She had a good birthday party with her friends from work, so I cannot top that. We went to the Woodlands mall instead and met our friend June, Dennis and their Ukies. We had a good time and the kids made some new friends. Isabella wouldn’t leave poor T alone and wore her out. (PS: You can see a great example of how NOT to take a photo. I have no idea how I missed that red straw!). Anyway, the kids played around with the quarter kiddy rides (most of the time with no actual money being put in) and in general enjoyed the whole experience, from the car ride, the walk around the mall, seeing puppies, kittens and little rabbits at the store, riding the carousel and obviously K’s and T’s company. We also met A from my old job and she was happy to see how Isaac had grown and improved since she last met him. He has turned into such a tease, always trying to strike a connection with anyone around him, saying “Hi” and waving, etc. He’s going to be a real flirt someday. Wait, he already is!

We really enjoyed our conversations with June. After grabbing a bite, some drinks and snapping some photos, we parted ways and walked around. Our plan was to go eat somewhere nice in the evening, but Lori started feeling queasy and was full, so we postponed. Little did we know that she would get sick by the time we got home. It wasn’t pretty and needless to day, she’s still not great right now as she couldn’t keep anything down in her stomach. Not sure if it was food poisoning or some nasty bugger. Isaac woke up with fever at 1am and I didn’t get much sleep while playing Florence Nightingale. Hopefully in a couple of days we can go out to dinner as planned. 

Today I finally got a good offer for work so now at least I have more than one option. I’m expecting one or two more calls but I’ll have to decide by Friday. I’m also helping a friend with his resume`and cover letter. Here’s Isabella with his dog, which we watched over the last couple of weeks. Suzie was our foster dog a few years back, we found her new family, and always enjoy watching her from time to time. Isabella got along really well with her. Until next time Suzie!

Tooth and nail

It’s been an eventful couple of weeks of ups and downs. On the up side, we got a visit from the Tooth Fairy. On the down side, losing your job stings a lot more than a nail through your hand.

On June 2nd we cherished last year’s memories of the performance held on Children’s day. I could have sworn the celebration was on that day last year instead of June 1st, but that might have been a date confusion in my head because of when I blogged about the event. For the occasion, in the morning I dressed up Isabella in a Ukrainian shirt given to her as a Christmas present by Carol, which now fits quite well, and snapped a quick photo. Here they are sitting together before leaving for school. Something happened that evening and we didn’t get to watch the entire video together. The kids still love it and enjoy pointing out their friends and caregivers. Isabella seems to have pretty much lost her understanding of Russian as she cannot explain what they’re talking about!

As I was saying, on June 3rd I lost my job. I have always given my utmost and then some, but it doesn’t matter much. When you’re on one side of the scale with shareholder profits and bonuses on the other side, you lose when times are tough. That’s fine though, I’ll figure something out soon. This week’s been a busy one, filled with phone calls, support emails thanks to my other blog and LinkedIn, and lots of good leads. Monday I have an interview, a few other prospects, and also a whole radical (for me) idea of working for myself.

My great friend Matt and his family were very supportive and took us out on Saturday. Their very talented daughter A and her boyfriend watched the kids for us. This was the first time we had a sitter/s. And yes, they were totally worn out at the end! We were discussing that this could turn out to be the perfect “birth-control” experience for them. Funnily enough, her boyfriend’s first comment once we got back home was: “I don’t know if I want kids!”. We had a great time at the Alley Theatre and the comedy Boeing Boeing was absolutely hilarious and a very welcome change of pace (and distraction).

As the kids ate pizza that evening, Isabella lost her tooth. We got a call informing us of this VERY important situation and were assured that the tooth was safely recovered and placed in a plastic bag, ready for the Tooth Fairy. Cute eh? I kept teasing her that she won’t be able to eat as teeth don’t grow back. Her mom spoiled it for me though and now doesn’t believe me!

We had some more hospital appointments too. Isabella is caught up on her shots. She received 3 more in her leg and didn’t shed a tear. They hurt as she screamed and tightened up, but since she had told the nurse before “I’m not going to cry”, she kept her word. I couldn’t believe it. She’s very tough and determined.

Isaac had a follow-up with Otolaryngology (I’m practicing for the Spelling Bee) and he got retested by Audiology. It still shows hearing loss in his right ear and the doctor was hoping that the surgery might have normalized both ears. So in 3 months we have another follow-up appointment where they’ll re-test yet again and then see what’s next, which possibly includes further tests (like a CT scan) and/or a hearing aid.

Anyway, now that the World Cup is here, I’m going to have plenty to watch. I can’t believe we’ll be coming to the 1 year anniversary soon. It’s been a year (9th June) since we had our court date. Time sure flies. We’ll see what else is in store.

Liar Liar

As Isabella’s language skills continue to develop, we’re starting to tighten up and become serious about certain things that have no place in our household. One such no-no is lying.

Isabella is very strong willed (I guess that’s how you say it nicely and in a positive tone. One can also describe it as hard-headed and stubborn!). Her strong will is unfortunately accompanied by very bad judgment. Now she’s still very young and we cannot be sure this is going to get worse as she continues to grow, but this is the time to set the tone. Later it will be too late.

She’s quite sneaky and will try to get around any situation to achieve her goal. You tell her not to do something; she’ll wait and do it anyway when you’re not watching. Or worse still, she re-phrases in her own words what she’s not going to do, making you believe her even more as you think “wow, she’s really getting it!”. Then she blatantly does it anyway behind your back, thinking she’s gotten you sacked as you lower your guard. Poor little thing…she thinks she can outsmart us!

Last week she wore a watch to school and never came back home with it. So we told her she’s not allowed to take anything to school with her. She got the watch back at least and yesterday she sat on the couch by me, stuffing a toy purse in her backpack ready for Monday. Lori hid this purse from her for doing something wrong on another occasion and she was excited to get it back yesterday. In it she had some toy makeup like lip gloss and a toy cell phone. Anyway as I’m seeing her doing it, I said, “Isabella, remember that we said you’re not allowed to take toys to school”, and she immediately goes, “Ok, I’ll take it out”. She proceeds to take it out and saying “No toys to school”. She continued sitting by me watching Ratatouille with her backback and purse in her lap.

After some time, she gets up with both of them and runs in the game area. I immediately knew what was going to happen, so wanting to give her a chance to reconsider her actions, I asked her what she’s doing. She said she’s putting them back and I made sure to reinforce her words and said “Ok, make sure to put them both back over there.” She came running back and sat down. So I got up and said “are you sure you left the purse out?” and she says “Yes”. However as I got up and started walking towards them, she tried to outrun me. I got to the backpack and immediately knew what she did as the purse was nowhere to be seen and the backpack was a bit too fat ;) So there goes Lie #1.

That made me quite mad and I immediately made her go to her room. She cried and moaned and I hoped she’d get it. However in the morning as we went downstairs, I saw that her backpack was fat again (I hid the purse) and found a pair of her jeans and her black shoes together with other summer clothes. We had been telling her not to take those clothes to school since it’s hot now, yet being “strong-willed” she thinks she can do whatever she wants. I knew Lori only packed the lighter clothes, so I asked her if she did and she denied it. Knowing this was Lie #2, I told her that she will not be taking a backpack and that was it.

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out how on earth I’m going to teach her a lesson. Finally I decided to make her experience the disappointment of being lied to multiple times. Call me cruel, but I sure had a smile on my face as I acted out the following as soon as I got home:

“Isabella, guess what we’re going to do after you finish eating? We’re all going to have some ice-cream and then we’ll go to swim.” She immediately took the bait and got extremely excited. Then I told her “And you’ll stay up late with me so we can play”. The excitement continued and she quickly swallowed her dinner, getting ready for ice-cream. So there goes Disappointment #1 as I restated what happened the day before when she lied to me and that now I was lying to her and she was not getting any ice-cream. She immediately sombered up and started crying. I fed Isaac some melted ice-ream and proceeded to Disappointment #2. “Isabella, remember I told you we’d go swim? Sorry, I lied to you. Doesn’t that feel terrible? We’re actually NOT going to swim”. She proceeded to get upset, cry some more, and after asking if she’s going to lie again, she said “No!”. We’ll wait and see how much truth there is to it!

So finally we waited a little more and then proceeded to Disappointment #3: “So Isabella, I lied to you again and we’re not staying up to play. You are going straight to bed right now and Isaac is staying here. See how bad it feels when someone lies to you?”. That seems to have cracked her shell a little bit and she cried and shed some serious tears, sobbing like a sputtering engine with no gas. After taking her to bed and summarizing the whole event, she wept for a few more minutes and fell asleep.

I know I know, what a mean dad! But you gotta do what you gotta do. If we don’t set the tone now, things will get out of hand later and it’ll be too late to set the course when she’s older. We’re only a handful of years away from when she’ll think that she knows everything better than we do!

Finally, here are some photos from last Friday while eating at Black-Eyed Pea and at Isaac’s school open house on Saturday. PS: The Tooth Fairy has not paid us a visit yet.