Juergensen Family Blog

This was our first Christmas that felt like what we always though Christmas with kids would be like. In previous years, they didn’t really get the concept – the twins because they were only 1, and Zoe because, well, she’s Zoe. This year, though, boy did they get it. John woke up with the twins and spent a little time hanging out in the living room while Deb and Zoe slept on. A little while longer, Zoe comes down; she sees the pile of presents under the tree, her eyes get as wide as saucers and she yells “let’s open presents!!!” So John tells her that we can’t open presents without Mommy, and Zoe almost takes the stairs two at a time in her eagerness to get Mom downstairs.

Then the wrapping paper carnage begins. ALL of them start flying into gifts. The idea of “let’s take turns” turns out to be completely unenforceable. Fights break out when one girl wants to open another girls presents. Candy cane stickiness is everywhere, and we both nearly break a leg tripping over some freshly opened diabolically underfoot toy. And all day Zoe is running around telling everyone “Happy Merry Christmas!!!”

Like I say, what I always thought Christmas with kids would be like.

A quote by Zoe in August, that I couldn’t have said better myself. It has been an interesting few months, and I’ve decided to give up my former “things are getting harder, or things are getting easier” paradigm and just accept that every day can be a roller coaster in itself with no apparent trend line. Where to start?

SCHOOL
Though I’m long overdue in writing, I will try to fill in the 6-month gap since the last major posting, so that all my memories are not lost. We’ll start with school, since it is a major change and the title of the post. August was a very long month, made longer by the departure of our au pair Corinna, the late Labor Day, and the lack of summer camp or vacation as a distraction. (We vacationed in June.) Kate and Sabrina were eager to go to school – in fact Kate has wanted to be a big girl going to school for a long time. They each have a separate day (I’m unofficially known a the mom who separated the twins), and a combined day. The first week, they grabbed their back packs and eagerly walked to school. The other kids were not so happy to be there, and when everyone else is crying it makes you reconsider your situation. Surprisingly Sabrina is the easiest to hand over, though she had been clingy up to that point. This past napless Monday I actually put all three in “after-care” from 3:30 – 5:00, half expecting the school to suggest it wasn’t a good idea for the future, but I came back and they were all running around the room playing together. Sabrina even said “I’m happy”.

Zoe’s transition has been a little longer, but is now complete. Unfortunately most of her class from last year went on to pre-school, while she went to an afternoon class instead. She will do pre-school next year, but we decided to not have her do it twice. (Why do we have to decide in January what is best for our child in September?) So she started with few friends (Josie, Honey) but now has many that she talks about regularly. At first I was taking mental notes so we could invite them to her birthday party, but then I realized there were so many it wasn’t feasible. I am so happy that she has friends, and that she has the ability to make friends on her own.

SLEEP
After 3 1/2 years of good sleep, Zoe’s routine broke down causing up to an hour of crying at night “I want ___ to lay down with me”, middle of the night wake-ups, and premature morning wake-ups when she really needed an other hour or two. You don’t appreciate what you have until it’s gone. It started before vacation, cemented during vacation when we stayed in the room with them until they fell asleep, and then became intolerable when we came home. After about a month, I decided to do her put-down (previously it was all John) and it has been that way ever since. At first she did three puzzles, and I offered her a sippy cup, Linny, a cushion on the floor, and to check back on her.

Here are some other notes I had taken over the past months:
Zoe
- finally trying some foods, even if it is with bribery.
- acting the part of the big sister “It’s just water Kate”, It’s just
- understands cranky vs. happy. hard to find logic – baby wyatt doesn’t want to listen to crying
- back on her bed!
- loves polka dots
- loves puzzles

Kate
- sentences “me help mommy”. sometimes they don’t come out right – “Kate eat horse” probably meant she helped the horse eat by feeding him
- funny tip toe run
- superstrong and adventurous, does everything Zoe does on playground
- mature, very good at sharing, knows clean-up song, should be a star at school
- good memory – will talk about a big boo boo or a time-out (for biting) hours or days later

Sabrina
- after boycotting slides the entire summer, we went to boardwalk with tons of rides. She love them and that evening started going down slides. It was awesome!
- keeps us guessing on her true personality. Always thought she was easy, lacking the redhead tantrum mode, but she is definitely a no girl. Very particular about what color her cup, bowl, spoon is. Learned from the best (Zoe) about being demanding
- my favorite Sabrina development was when she started having fun playing with Kate and said “Kate, horsey, yeh” meaning she wanted Kate to ride the rocking horse with her, but lacked the language to say so in a regular sentence

We all went to Kids Kuts in Livingston Mall on Saturday for Kate and Sabrina’s first official hair cuts and a trim of Zoe’s bangs. Hard to believe they’re over two and hadn’t had a hair cut yet – there were many reasons, but it was probably procrastination. Growing weary of hair in their eyes, I had clipped their bangs myself and it was painfully obvious that it was not a professional job. So this time, we took them to specialists. The place has tv’s everywhere so the kids can watch whatever they want, they have fun motorcycle and dune buggy chairs for the kids to sit in (which our girls always decline), but most of all they have hair cutters who know how to cut hair when the owner of the hair does not want to have it cut. My favorite (and the only stylist I’ve gone to) is Lisa, from a few years ago when Zoe got her first hair cut and kept putting her arms up to block any attempt to get near her hair with scissors. Lisa persevered and somehow managed to deliver a decent hair cut despite the circumstances. But this trip was not about Zoe.

Kate, who we anticipated would jump right on the motorcycle, instead got nervous and had to be coaxed into a chair. She sat on Daddy’s lap while her hair was cut, looking skeptically into the mirror not sure what to make of it. When it was over, she eagerly chose her preferred lollipop and all was well. She then showed interest in sitting in one of the kids chairs, and had fun the rest of the time. She will probably be easy the next time around.

Sabrina cried or whined (hard to remember the intensity) while Kate had her hair cut, mostly because she wanted to be on Daddy’s lap. She is a real Daddy’s girl these days. Fortunately a Thomas video did the trick and instantly her crying lost steam. By the time she got to Daddy’s lap, she seemed resigned though not happy, and endured the cut. Sabrina is not a sweets girl, so she was somewhat indifferent to the lollipop except that it signified that her suffering was over.

Next we went to Mrs. Fields cookies and everyone got a big cookie. Admittedly it probably wasn’t needed after the lollipop, but I’m a fan of anything that makes infrequent difficult tasks a little easier. Looking back, I’m not sure how I took all three to LapCorp for Kate and Sabrina’s bloodwork solo, when it took two parents to get through a hair cut. Fortunately it’s all over and the cuts look good.