Seeking Imperfection

I am an intensive needs special education teacher. I work with students with multiple physical and cognitive challenges. I'm finishing my second year working in an elementary school, and next year they are moving my program to the middle school. There are several people - custodians, secretaries, cafeteria staff, teacher's aides, specialists (the gym teacher, the art teacher), classroom teachers, etc, who have been very accepting of my students and have also helped me out during my first two years working in public school. I'd like to give out some little thank yous to these people, but, obviously, I don't have a lot of money to spend.

My question is, what is the most memorable/thoughtful thank you note/gift that someone gave you?

I know you don't have to spend a lot of money to do something nice. I tell people all the time that a simple "thank you" goes a long way. But I wouldn't mind some ideas on maybe how I could add a little extra touch to my thank yous.

For more Aloha Friday, go to An Island Life.

I've spent LOTS of time online researching sleep issues with children, and looking for sleeping tips for Paige. Nothing seemed to be helping. We recently saw a specialist, and so I thought I'd keep track of our journey here, in case it might help someone else.

Two months ago, after several restless nights, I called Paige's pediatrician about her sleeping (or lack there of.) I knew there were several things that could be causing anxiety, leading to her not wanting to go to sleep. We have recently moved into a new home, she has a "big girl bed" for the first time, and she's in her own room for the first time. However, once we got her to sleep, we had trouble keeping her asleep. She woke with night terrors and nightmares. She would often end up needing to move to our room in the middle of the night, sleeping on a little foam Ariel sofa beside our bed. She has been having issues with constipation, which I thought might bother her more at night. She turned four, and monsters became prominent. There was so much going on, I wasn't sure what I was battling any more - getting her into the bed, keeping her there, getting her to fall asleep, getting her to stay asleep, getting myself some sleep?

We tried soothing bedtime routines. We tried having music on, the fan on, special stuffed animals that watched over her, dream catchers, nightlights, pictures of us on the nightstand next to her. We had just bought some walkie-talkies after I read a suggestion about having her have some so she feels she could contact us at any time. The ones we got didn't work so well, so we didn't get too far with that.

I read A LOT online about nightmares, night terrors, bedtime anxiety, monsters, etc. Most recently, all that seemed to work was Super Nanny's Sleep Separation Technique. The idea here was that one of us would sit on what became known as the "sleeping pillow." We would not talk to Paige, but we would sit there, on the pillow, near the bed, until she fell asleep. We would then move the pillow a little bit further away from the bed each night. According to Super Nanny, eventually you can move the pillow to the door, and then out the door. Paige would only let us get just so far away with the pillow, before she'd ask us to move it closer to the bed again. But this seemed the only way to get her to go to sleep, accompanied with a children's benedryl tablet each night to help her wind down.

This still wasn't perfect, however. Paige would often take a long time to settle down, and I could be sitting in her room for over an hour trying to get her to sleep. If I thought she was asleep and tried to sneak out when she wasn't asleep, she would cry and call out for me to come back. One night I talked to her about trying to go to sleep, and she told me, "I don't know how." My poor girlie was exhausted, as was the rest of the household - and cranky too. Many nights she'd go to sleep, only to wake up in the middle of the night looking for me, or for whoever had sat with her that evening to go to sleep. Some night's she'd want me to sit in her room in the middle of the night to get back to sleep. Other nights she'd end up in my room for the rest of the night.

Then, last Monday, we finally had our appointment at the Center for Pediatric Sleep Disorders.

I've been tired this week - we took Paige to a branch of Boston's Children's Hospital on Monday to try and get to the heart of her sleeping issues. The result is a plan that starts with me going to bed with her and spending the night in her room. I've been meaning to blog about it, but right now most of my time without Paige is when I'm at work.

In the meantime, I thought I'd take it easy today (I'm home sick) and participate in Aloha Friday.



My question this week is stems from the fact that I look at a lot of blogs, books, and magazines, and being a visual person, I come up with tons of crafty projects I want to try, or things I'd like to do with Paige, or recipes to make. However, I don't know how to best organize what I want to do, and then I can't figure out how to make time for any of it, or how to decide what to do when. Does anyone see my perfectionism sneaking in here?

So my question is, How do you keep track of all the projects you'd like to try, and how do you decide what to try when? I've been trying to decide if I should have some sort of "To Do" list or something. I guess I could use your organizational help here!

For more Aloha Friday, go to An Island Life.

I really like treasure box idea.

This fruit salad looks like a fun idea.

I wanted to post this last week, but last week was crazy. I suppose a Mother post is ok for Mother's Day though, huh?

Last Friday when I got home from work, I got out of the car and looked around. There were dandylions everywhere. My first thought? "Look at all the dandies! Paige will be so excited to pick them!"





Paige spends most Friday nights at Grandma's, and then Grandma takes her to dance class Saturday morning. So Paige didn't see all the dandies that afternoon.

The next day, Saturday, was a "watch day" at Paige's dance school. After watching Paige's class, we were getting ready to leave when the next class was lining up to go in. One of the girls in the line for the next class had a dandylion, and I thought, "that's so cute, she brought that in for the teacher." The teacher oohed and aahed and told the little girl how beautiful it was. Her mother then looked at the teacher and told her, "She tried to give it to me. I told her it was a weed and to throw it away. So she said she was going to give it to you."

Maybe I was experiencing some PMS, but I started to feel very sad about this. Didn't everyone know that when little kids pick dandylions for you, you take them, say how beautiful they are, and when the kids aren't looking, then you toss them? Isn't that just what you do?? Somehow this lady didn't get what I thought was one of the unwritten rules of parenthood.

Later, as Roland and I were out running errands, I asked him, "what does this say about me as a mother?" and told him the story. In response he produced a couple of wilted dandylions from his side of the car and told me Paige had given them to him. To which I said, "that's right! When your child gives them to you, you keep them, and then throw them away later. That's just what you do!"

I find it sad that the mother of that little girl didn't appreciate the thought behind the "weed." But maybe that's just me.

Just when I was getting pretty regular about posting, I had an exhausting week at work, full of IEP Meetings, parent meetings, and finishing state alternate assessment portfolios. I was exhausted every day. So, hopefully after I get a little rest, I can have a little more blog time. I'm trying not to feel "guilty" about not posting on my own blog. But we all know how much of a struggle that can be, right?

In any event, it is time for Aloha Friday.



In honor of Mother's Day, my question is: What is your favorite memory of you and your mother?

Happy Mother's Day to all. :)

For more Aloha Friday, go to An Island Life.

I have a four year old daughter who is an only child, and who has TONS of energy. That usually makes me her BFF, and I generally do not have a lot of energy. Most days I try to be a "good" mom and take her outside to let her run around (I often compare raising Paige to having a large St. Bernard puppy - she needs lots of room to run) or to do "projects" or play games, etc. with her. But some days I am doing all I can just to survive the hours between getting home from work and putting her to bed. When I'm really exhausted or not feeling well, that's when I find myself suggesting a video or tv show to her. Although I'm not against her watching (appropriate) TV, I sometimes feel bad that I'm the one suggesting she watch it, just because it'll keep her busy and I can sit still for a bit.

So my question is this: What are your best tips for entertaining energetic children when you are sick, exhausted, feeling brain dead, (all of the above?) or just want a minute to breathe?

For more Aloha Friday, go to An Island Life.