Poision Control 101

 I have always kept an 'emergency' list on the side of our fridge. Mainly for whenever we have babysitters over so I don't have to write down our phone number every single time we leave the kids. It has our address on it (if the house catches fire or something so the babysitter could tell the fire trucks where to come.. ya know...besides firefighter Holdyn, of course!) and the names and phone numbers of both sets of grandparents 'just in case' we couldn't be reached. I thought my emergency list was complete... besides the normal 911 that everyone knows. Boy was I wrong! I have always seen shows on T.V. where parents have had to call poison control. I always told myself "Well I don't need to know the number to poison control because my kid would never....." haha! A few days ago I learned my lesson and poison control's phone number is now an addition to our emergency list. If you ever get hungry and don't have much food in the house, I am proud and honored to inform you that you can look in other places than your pantry for your afternoon snack and you will be perfectly fine..... Just ask my 15 month old!

I walked in the kitchen to find Hadley eating a Cascade gel pack. One of those that has the gel and the powder in the little packets. She had the white grit and powder all around her mouth and she was holding the half missing gel packet looking at me like, this is pretty good! I immediately cleaned her up and grabbed the container and of course it says if eaten to call poison control. I had no clue how to call them. After a quick google search and a nice lady at the poison control center, I was told that she would be perfectly fine and she might be extra thirsty and for us to push fluids for that day since we didn't know how much she had injested. We keep all of our cleaning products and 'dangerous' products in the cabinet above the kitchen sink. The dish detergent got stuck below the sink (only for space purposes) but we are sometimes slack about hooking the child lock back on both knobs to keep her out of the cabinets. I guess we need to move that up high or get better about child proofing. Hadley had no side effects and didn't produce any extra bubbles :) Lesson learned!

Speaking of lil miss, as of today, she is officially walking. She has walked 99% of the day. She is a bit wobbly and sways back and forth while she catches her balance (kinda like a drunkin saylor!) but she just about has it down to a T! It is so cute to see how proud Holdyn is of her. He will come running across the house to tell me where she walked and he claps for her and says "Yay baby sister!" She also has learned peek-a-boo and it is just about the cutest thing on this earth. If you say "Where is baby Hadley?" she immediately covers her eyes and starts laughing. She thinks you can't see her then she will throw both of her hands wide open and we say "There she is!" and she just giggles and giggles!

 She still LOVES jewelry. For the longest time now she just OOOOs and COOOOs at anybodys necklace, earrings, bracelet, etc. She will leap in to someones arms if they have a necklace on just so she can get her hands on it! She was walking around the house today and Mr. R asked me did I put the necklace on her that she was wearing. I hadn't. She found it in her toy box and put it on herself and has worn it all day! I hope her future husband is prepared for the expense of her love of jewelry!

 She also has been acting like a crazy baby at meal or snack time. When she is finished eating, she has started hitting herself in the head. She thinks it's funny and she just laughs!

Big boy Holdyn has a new fascination. Don't worry, he is still overly a dedicated fireman. He has now traded in Curious George, Bob the Builder, Sponge Bob, and Max & Ruby for.... Animal Planet. I don't know how he found it, but he knows what buttons on the remote to push to make animal planet come on. That is all he will watch now. 24 hours a day.... 7 days a week! He had a dental appointment this week ( 3rd apt.. no cavities and perfect behavior!) and they have TVs in the rooms. We schedule with the same hygenist everytime (Holdyn we don't do well with change!) and she knew from last cleaning that he liked Curious George. She already had it on the TV for him when he walked in. He was very quick to take the remote from her and inform her that he no longer watched curious george and that he watches animal planet now. He then proceeded to turn the channel himself and hoped up in the big chair. Ms. Jennifer was speechless!! She said "How old are you again?!"

'Pit Boss' is one of the shows that come on animal planet. I honestly have never sat down to watch it, but just from seeing previews I think it's about a little midget man (seriously!) who owns some company that rescues pit bulls? I think! I could be totally wrong. Obviously Holdyn has been learning about Pit Bulls from this show because he came to me yesterday and said " Mommy, when Bay dies, can we get a Bull Pit? Bull Pits are COOL!" A bull pit?! Ohhhh I asked him was it a pit bull. That was it and I told him we will not be current or future owners ever......EVER..... of a pit bull... or a bull pit!

As most of you know, we are right in the middle of moving. We are moving out to Richmond Hill for a good neighborhood for the kids to be safe to play in, and the good public school system (2 things that are hard or impossible to find in Savannah). Holdyn and Hadley will have a safe place to ride their bikes and I am sure meet lots of other kids in the neighborhood we have picked out. Within walking distance they will have a pool, soccer fields, t-ball fields, and basketball courts. We close on our current home on April 19th and will then immediately start building on an awesome lot we have under contract in a good family oriented neighborhood! One very sad thing about leaving Savannah is the little school that Holdyn goes to now, and the school that Hadley was scheduled to start in September. *SIGH* Is it sad that I have gotten attached to my kids school?! Hadley has been going there with me to drop off and pick up Holdyn since she was 2 weeks old! All of the teachers have eagerly waited until she was old enough to come! The director said as soon as she started walking, she could start. I can't tell you how many times in the carpool line the teachers would poke their head in the car and tell her to hurry up and walk cause they were waiting on her to start! It makes me so sad that we are leaving pretty much at the exact time she would be able to start! We have grown so close to his school and all of the staff. I thought I still had a good 4 years with them for Hadley to go through the program. It is the only school Holdyn has ever gone to that he runs in to happy to go. I never once had to drag him in kicking, screaming, and crying like his previous 'school' when I was working full time. The director emailed me this week about him leaving. She might have made me tear up a little bit ok, I might have shed a tear. She sits in the lobby to welcome the children every morning. She told me she is going to miss Holdyn running in every morning showing her which firetruck shirt he had chosen to wear that day. Such a small decision to an adult, but a huge and mood/life changing decision in Holdyns eyes on a daily basis! They don't stick the kids in front of the TV. They don't watch TV. It is 3 hours a day of hands on art, fun, learning, structure, stability, and excitment! He will be finishing out this school year even though we will be in Richmond Hill the last 4-5 weeks of school. It will be a pain but I think it is important for him to finish out the year. It will take me an hour to get there and probably 45 minutes to get home, but I will just stick around in town running errands and probably taking baby sister to the park to walk in the stroller or feed the ducks. Holdyn started when he was 2 years old. I remember on the first day he attended and I went to pick him up. As we were walking out in the hallway, one of the other teachers saw him leaving and said "Bye Holdyn, see you tomorrow!" I was so impressed that he had only been there for a total of 3 hours and all of the teachers and assistants already knew him by name. They are so happy and cheerful when they get him out of the car or put him in the car. They don't have the 'omg I don't want to be at work' attitude. I love(d) the small atmosphere and the outpouring of love and care that that 'family' and community shows and has shown not only for Holdyn, but for our entire family. Anytime we hit a bump in the road, multiple teachers and assistants were always right there asking what they could do to help or let them know and they would help out in any way they could. It makes me so sad to think about the last day of school... I don't even want to think about it right now. I am going to have to bring a box of kleenex to graduation and hide on the back row.

Going forward, we signed Holdyn up for the Lottery Pre-K program through the public school system in Richmond Hill. Even though he is in Pre-K now and will 'graduate', he has to repeat Pre-K due to how his birthday falls. Pretty much, he will always be one of the oldest in his class. You have to turn 5 by September 1st to move on to Kindergarden. He missed the cut off by having a November birthday. Since Pre-K is not a requirement in Georgia (it should be!! They are such sponges at this age and soak up so much learning!) you are not guarenteed a 'spot' like you would be in grades K-12. This school year, the Richmond Hill public school system had enough lottery money for 132 (?) children to attend the Pre-K program. For next year they do not know yet how much lottery funding they will be getting for the Pre-K program next year. The secretary says they might not know till the middle of the summer. Holdyn was drawn #183 for next year. I don't see any huge changes in the budget where they could take many more (or any for that matter... maybe even less) so we are not too optimistic that he will be accepted and registered in the public school system for next year. With that being said, we can't sit around and 'wait'. We need to have a spot reserved for him somewhere. We had a few options and looked around and ended up signing him up for a very similiar environment he is in this year. The only difference is he will go 4 days a week instead of 5. We received his acceptance letter today from RHUMC Pre-K ! Yay!!

It is a relief to know that he will have a spot somewhere. I guess it will be good for one more year of a 'small' environment. Holdyn really thrives with one on one attention. I just hate the thought of him attending 3 schools in 3 years. I know there is nothing we can do about it. All we can do is just prepare him and help him feel comfortable in the new environment. I am sure 99% of the children from the RHUMC Pre-K program will go on to the public school Kindergarden program with him, so that will be good. RHUMC has a ratio of  10 children with 1 teacher and there is a floater that will pop in several times a day if an extra set of hands is needed. I hope we fall in love with this school and have the same feelings as we do now at S.I.P. RHUMC starts at 2 1/2 so Hadley would/will start going not this upcoming school year, but the next (so when Holdyn goes to public school Kindergarden). They will give us the option for her to go 2 or 3 days a week and she would stay through the 4 day a week Pre-K program. Holdyn is my child that NEEDS stability in his life. He does NOT do well with change. The first 2 weeks of the new school year might will be be hell, but once he is comfortable and knows the new routine, and trusts his new teacher, he will become very attached to it. Momma will have high anxiety all summer worrying about it! Hadley is my 'whatever' child. She seems to fly by the seat of her pants and not care at all about routine or stability or who has her! It is so funny/interesting how dramatically different they both are.