Saturday, September 06, 2008

Kindergarten Homework, A New Vacuum, Sleep

It's a quiet Saturday morning and I'm thankful Grant is sleeping in over two hours now past when he's been getting up, he needs the rest. He's really been enjoying school! I had lunch with him again on Thursday and it was fun to chat with his little classmates and see his little friends. I am getting used to and pleased with the layout of day of the all day kindergarten.

Homework
This week was the first week of real homework for Grant. Holy cow! It was a lot of work! Each afternoon we sat down together and worked on it, each day accomplishing more and by Thursday night we had it all completed to turn in Friday. He traced letters, wrote letters on his own, drew pictures, labeled pictures, practiced sight words, read library book, counted, drew patterns, etc... His teacher seems very organized, so we have the whole month of homework on his calendar, this week we'll get an early start! I think I was a little easy on the homework as a teacher! It's nice to have that structure in the afternoons though.

Grant continues to ride the bus home and get home lickety split...I've enjoyed the extra 30-45 minutes it gives me. So far Grace has been awake and we've been able to walk up and meet him each day. I'm always amazed at how many kids get off that bus in our neighborhood, where are they the rest of the time??

Vacuum
Does anyone else own a Dyson Vacuum? We bought one back in Seattle when my favorite vacuum broke. I have not liked it since the beginning; it's heavy, doesn't clean under low lying areas, the extension for the stairs is a pain and ours has broken numerous time! The attachments, other parts of the plastic (which Dyson only would replace once for us)....AND it losses it's suction! Yup, they tout it never should....but it does! It has before and now it's done it again. We've cleaned the filter and done what we can, but it's gone. I was going to ask for your opinions on a new vacuum, but Mark beat me too it and has already ordered a new one, I just hope it's better than the Dyson.

Sleep
Grace is super woman compared to what Grant ever did as a sleeper! But, that doesn't mean she's doing fantastically. Ever since our summer trips she's been a little off, but much better as of late. We took down her bassinet to take along with us on our road trip last weekend and so she is now in her room in the crib. She doesn't need (want) to eat at night, but she is waking up, I put the pacifier in and then she's good...for like 30 minutes and so the cycle continues. The other night I went in at two in the morning and she was babbling, happy, grabbing her feet and smiling! Ugh. We tried turning off the night light which seemed to help a little and I guess I need to bite the bullet and let her fuss is she wakes up, but hen she turns over and scoots herself right into the side of the crib. She did awesome at the hotel, there was a really loud air conditioner the whole time and complete darkness, maybe a little white noise would help? I really don't have much to complain about, especially like I said compared to how Grant was. I just was hoping for a good 10 hours of sleep these last few days! Ha! Any advice?

Grant's awake now, he just walked in and said, "Mom, do I have Saturdays off?" I love the weekends...we're off on a family walk to see the latest on the road construction nearby!

10 comments:

danakat said...

Ironically, I would recommend a Dyson. I LOVE ours!!! We've had ours for about a year. It's the purple one (which also makes me happy), for allergy and animals. It is a phenom!!!! SO SO sorry to hear your Dyson was a dud.

I think white noise is the key to good sleep for little people. Everytime we've had issues begin, we put in a humidifier or something of the like. Unfortunately, now none of my kids can sleep very well without white noise. But when we go on trips, we just take our white noisemaker with us.

Let me know how the construction is going down there. I don't have the energy to check it out. Sad, but true.

Dawn, said...

So sorry about your Dyson. I have the yellow one with the huge ball, love it. I guess I've had it for 4 years, I think, and it has been a gem.

All my kids have had ceiling fans in their room and have to have it on to sleep. The ironic problem is that when we put new, fancy, ones in the new house, they aren't as loud and clunky as the fans in rental properties, etc, so I did get complaints at first the the fans weren't 'loud' enough, grin! But in the end, I guess the engines make enough of a hum to do the trick.

Sweet Peas Doula said...

Kim, I haven't had 10 hours of sleep in more than five years. I didn't know that mom's are allowed that much.

Definitely put a fan in her room. You can point it towards the corner when it's cooler. I've done that with both Charlie and Sam.

My mom just got a Kenmore canister vaccuum and it is awesome -- it works for both hardwoods and carpets. You would love it! I think it was almost $400 -- but aren't Dysons that much? I would love something like that for my house, since we have very little carpet. She always brings it over when she visits so I can clean all of the floors.

hope said...

Okay, so I am one of those weird people who freaks over spending that much on a vacuum. Our most recent (almost a year ago) vacuum we paid almost $200 for, a Hoover Windtunnel Canister. I will NEVER go upright again!!! I love my canister vacuum. I can vacuum my kitchen and dining vinyl and my carpets with it. And it picks up probably 10x as much as my old upright did.

White noise... I have always had a select Lullubye CD that I have played for the kids since they were babes. After Mom died a couple months ago Skylah started having night terrors. We put a CD player back in her room and she was good again (after a few nights of coming in our room of course).

John-n-Mel said...

I'm all about the white noise. I tried to fight it with McKenna at first but eventually gave in. We just use a fan, one that's not too loud, but just loud enough. Telling you to let her fuss is easier said than done. Good luck!

As for the vaccumn, I can't believe you had such a bad experience with a Dyson. My sister loves hers but we're too cheap at my house. I think we only spent around $200 for ours if that much, and it's not too shabby! I'm not home to check but I think it's a Bissell Windtunnell too. Good luck!

TamBaum said...

We love the Dyson! What are you talking about!

Angie said...

Since I dont have kids I only have suggestions that others say. My sister in law plays this cd of the ocean for her kids. My friend runs a fan so i think its all about a little noise.

KimiK said...

I hope you like your new vacuum, what ever it is. My favorite line is Ricor. We got ours through the housekeeping director of ISU, those are the only vacs she will use up there. Good luck!

Julie said...

White noise- I babysat for a little 18 month old that couldn't go to sleep without her noise maker. Her mom got it for about $15 at Walmart and it has all of the noises that you could want(white noise, waves, river/creek sound and more) and a volume dial. That way if you need it louder one night, you can just turn it up! I was very impressed and it wasn't much bigger than an alarm clock. Very portable!

Lisa Rampton Halverson said...

White noise helped with David (though he was always a super good sleeper). We didn't buy anything fancy -- the static from the radio works just fine.