Such a long time since my last Makayla update

I guess I left off my last Makayla update post saying that we had gone to the Thomas the Train show. Here are some pictures from that show.
Here Makayla is with our neighbour's son Hayden at the Thomas show.

Makayla had 2 costumes to pick from this Halloween. I got her the Princess Fiona costume which she wore to her preschool Halloween party, but she chose to wear her Jojo the Clown costume when she was out trick or treating. Here she is with her friend Jessi.

We got home Halloween night and only got Makayla to bed around 10pm. By 4:30am she had woken up with the stomach flu. Here she is feeling very sick the next day. She is the best sick kid in the world since she never complains. Her dad could take some lessons from her!!

Since we missed out on our fall pictures that I intended to have done, we settled for some homemade Christmas pictures. This is one that I took to use on our Christmas cards.

At the last minute, I bought Makayla and me some tickets to go see the Franklin Christmas show. She was pretty excited to see it. She should be thrilled with the Doodlebops tickets that she is getting in her stocking this year.

She loves to colour and write her letters and numbers. She can now count as high as 50.

We wrote her letter to Santa last week so we could give it the letter carriers during the Santa Claus parade. I asked her what she wanted Santa to bring for her and she decided that she wanted a computer game and some cars. This girl is definitely not much into dolls. She has an advent calendar that she gets into every night before bed. She loves to find the chocolate that she is allowed to eat that night. She knows that when she gets to 24, that is the night that Santa will come.

She is hardly shy at all. Since the renovations have been going on, she understood that some people would be coming into the house. Well didn't she surprise me when the painter arrived on Saturday morning and I was in the shower, she went downstairs to chat with him. I would have thought that she would barricade herself in the bathroom with me, but that wasn't the case at all.

I think preschool and tap dancing have helped with her shyness. She is still loving both activities. They have learned their first dance for the tap show - "I'm a little teapot". They have been measured for their costumes, now we will have to wait and see what cute outfits they pick out for the kids. There are about 12 kids in her tap dancing class and she is one of about 5 that pay close attention to the teachers. Some of the other kids dance for a bit and then like to do their own thing. Some just stand there and watch. But Makayla is taking it all in.

I'm excited for Christmas this year since she is going to be so much fun to watch. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Renovations in progress

We are right in the middle of more renovations. We had taken a break after the furnace was installed but we wanted to get some more stuff done before Christmas was upon us. We decided to hire a crackfiller/painter to do some minor wall repair and major painting, as well as a carpenter to put up some new drywall in the basement where the wallpaper refused to come off easily. We also picked out some new laminate flooring for the carpenter to install.

Here is our living room before. The walls were a light grey colour that was long overdue for a paint job.
Here is the living room after with it's warmer beige walls that match the dining room and kitchen.

This is the hallway with the light grey again.

Now with beige.

Here is the before picture of the foyer. You can't really tell because of the lighting in the picture but the top part is light grey while the bottom part under the chair rail is where I removed pink wallpaper.

Now the foyer is completely painted in beige.

Here is the basement family room. The brownish bottom part is wallpaper which was put right on after one coat of primer. It pulled off the sheetrock paper as I tried to remove it. No crackfiller would have been able to smooth that wall out properly.

You can see the job on the wallpaper removal that I did.

The is the family room with the new sheetrock installed and the carpet removed.

The flooring will be installed today and the painter should be able to get back in there by Tuesday.

We also had our bedroom painted. I guess I didn't take any before or after pictures of that but it looks very nice now.

100 things

Stealing this from Sheri. 100 things - you have to bold the ones you've done. Play along!
1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland
8. Climbed a mountain (Does climbing the White Mountains in a car count?)
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance
47. Had your portrait painted
48. Gone deep sea fishing
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Totally copied a post from someone else's blog to your own
43/100 I actually got more than I thought I would

My problems with Snoopy - Advice needed

My mood has not been good this week. I have been short-tempered with everybody at work, home, everywhere. I think it might be the change of season or maybe the fact that it's darker earlier in the evening and I feel like I don't have as much time to accomplish everything.

I know a HUGE part of my mood is my dog Snoopy (7 year old beagle/basset hound mix). Her anxiety level is through the roof. She is great all day but starts panicking as soon as we shut the lights off to go to bed. It started a couple of years ago when she was scared of thunder which isn't unusual for dogs. Then we figured she must have attributed rain to the thunder so then she was afraid when it would only rain, which is pretty frequently in the spring and fall. Then it was wind that she was afraid of in addition to all the rest.

At this point, I took her to the vet to see what they could do to help me. The vet prescribed a medication to help ease her anxiety. That worked to level her out overall, but it didn't help on those nights with rain/wind/thunder. So I took her back to the vet last fall when they prescribed a sedative to use during those nights. It worked well at the time.

Last year, she became terrified of new noises or changes in the house. Last fall, we replaced our carpet with hardwood flooring and it took her months to get used to that. It was to the point this past spring that we were going to find her a new home because we just couldn't handle her anxiety.

We decided to see how she was during the summer at the campground because she hadn't handled it well the summer before. This summer, she was as good as gold. You couldn't find a better dog at the campground, but she wouldn't carry that same demeanor home with her. So our weeknight sleeping was spotty at best.

Now with the new furnace we installed this summer with its new noises, she had started waking at 3-4am every night and whining and pacing until we get up for the day. Then as soon as we're up, she will go find her bed and lay down and sleep. On these nights, I've tried ignoring her, going to her, being strict with her, being affectionate with her, and no method seems to work. Not to mention that I just don't have the patience to deal with her when I've been woken up in the middle of the night. The medication doesn't seem to help anymore either. I give her the sedative before bed just so we can all get some sleep, and she's pacing when the lights are turned off and she won't settle down.

Clay and I got fed up again a couple of weeks ago and we did find somebody else who was willing to take her, but I chickened-out at the last minute. I figure she is our dog and we should be the ones to help her. I couldn't shake the guilt that I felt about giving her away.

So I really started working with her to improve the nights. I bought books and new leashes for training and I swear, Cesar Millan from the Dog Whisperer on National Geographic channel is my new favourite TV show! In the 2 weeks, she is doing much better with the furnace noise during the day, but we've had to resort to having her spend her nights in the garage so that we can all get some sleep. My current plan is to try the garage nights for a couple of more weeks and then introduce her back to the house while we're babysitting my parents' dog for 2 weeks so they can both be in the house. She always does much better when the 2 of them are here. I sometimes wonder if having a second dog might help her behaviour, but I just can't take the chance of getting another one and being wrong because I really don't want the full-time responsibility of another dog. Anyway, I wrote an entire book about my issue with Snoopy and what I could really use is some suggestions on how others might deal with this.

October 2008 update

We are well into fall now. I intended to get some fall family pictures done, but we have been busy and never got around to it. Now, it's quite cold out so I doubt we will get them done. I might see if we could do them this weekend but we are supposed to get snow flurries on Wednesday, so it could be wet.

Preschool and tap dancing are going very well. Makayla loves both of the activities. I work very close to my house, Makayla's sitter's house and the preschool. I had intended to bring Makayla to work with me in the morning and take her to preschool then pick her up when it's over, however, I didn't realize how much of my job seems to take me away from the office on the preschool days (Tuesdays and Thursdays). I have had to get my neighbour whose son goes to the same preschool to take Makayla to preschool at least twice since it started a month ago and when neither she nor I could take the kids one day, they had to miss a class. This week was supposed to be fine, but then something got cancelled on Monday and rescheduled for Thursday at 11am when I'm supposed to be picking Makayla up. I believe that my neighbour can get her that day though. I just hadn't intended for my neighbour to have to help me so much. Thank goodness we're pretty good friends too.

Makayla can now count to 20 without getting mixed up at 15 like she used to. She loves manipulating numbers. She always counts how many kids are at the sitters in the morning then she will break it down to how many girls and how many boys. She has started to ask me about addition, like she will ask "how many is 4 and 4?" I explained how she could use her fingers to add up the numbers and she has started using this technique. She likes the alphabet too and even tries to spell some words. She knows CAT, DOG, YES, NO, MAKAYLA, JOSH. I can't determine if she is going to be right- or left-handed. She can write her name equally well with either hand and she doesn't seem to favour one over the other whether she is writing or eating. I guess time will tell.

Her favourite word lately is "actually" and her favourite colour is light blue. I can't count how many times she's told me that her "favourite colour is blue, ACTUALLY it's light blue". She can now dress and undress herself. Some shirts give her some difficulty going over her head, but overall I can get her some clothes and she can get them on. I did catch her getting frustrated with her pants the other day when she said "Oh, these friggin' pants!" Not cute. I will watch my mouth more carefully from now on.

Makayla and I went to a Thomas the Train live show this weekend. It was quite a pricy event and to be honest, it wasn't that good. If my neighbour and her son hadn't been going, I probably wouldn't have gotten tickets since Makayla isn't a huge Thomas fan. My neighbour purchased the tickets back in May and we got 3rd row floor seats. The seats were awful. You would think that sitting that close, you would have no trouble to see. I wished we had been sitting in the stands because I know the kids would have actually been able to see the show without having to stand on their chairs to see over the adults heads. It was extremely loud too. As soon as the show started, you could hear some kids around us start wailing because they were scared of how loud it was. Overall, the show was too expensive and not very entertaining. Makayla seemed to enjoy it though and that was the main reason for going.

Starting new things

Makayla started preschool on Tuesday, September 16. At first I was worried that she would be shy and wouldn't want me to leave her there, but that was not what happened at all. She was a bit hesitant at first seeing all the kids she hadn't met before. I helped her change into her indoor sneakers and encouraged her to go play Play-Doh with some of the other kids. The parents were all hanging around waiting to see if their kid was going to need them. Makayla warmed up quickly and soon she ran up to me and said "You can leave now. I'm going to stay here." I didn't leave right away, just in case. So she came back up to me and said "I told you that you could leave now." I guess that was my cue. So I was the first parent out the door.

The preschool that is operated by the Boys and Girls Club takes place on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 11am. Makayla comes to work with me at 8am for an hour and then I drive her to preschool for 9. I pick her up and take her to her sitter's then I stop at home for a quick lunch and head back to the office. If my schedule doesn't allow me to take her to preschool, I have a neighbour whose son also goes to the preschool who has agreed that we will help each other out when things come up. Makayla's sitter has also agreed to take her sometimes as long as I give her notice since she has one other girl that she looks after that she needs to get a car seat for.
Makayla has enjoyed preschool so far. She actually brought home some "homework" the other day. It was just a worksheet where they have to trace the letter B, but she was so excited about it. She hasn't been opening up much about what they are doing at preschool. When I ask her, she just changes the subject like she doesn't want to discuss it. She opened up a bit after Tuesday's class, so hopefully she will share more. I miss not knowing what's going on in her day.



Makayla also started tap dancing on Monday, September 22. She wasn't shy there either and she loved the class. The parents were allowed to stay and watch the first night, but starting next week, we have to stay out while the class is in session. There were about 12 kids in her class, two of which were boys. There is another Michaela in her class and my Makayla stayed glued to her side throughout the entire class. So cute. She followed the teacher very well and really seemed interested in what they were learning. The teacher was wonderful with the kids. She never stopped the entire half hour and was constantly doing something with them. Makayla was played out when the class was over. She can't wait for next week.

Fall is here

The weather has gotten cooler in the mornings and evenings, and that is the sure sign that fall has arrived. We enjoyed our summer at the campground although the weather wasn't that spectacular this year. I think that I heard that we had 20% more rain in July/August than average. Makayla learned 2 new things this summer at the campground:

1. To ride her bike (with training wheels) all by herself

2. To swing without anybody pushing her

I am very proud of her for working hard this summer to figure these things out.

Next week she starts preschool for 2 mornings each week. She is excited for this and has been asking me almost daily when she starts school. I talked to the coordinator and she told me that there are 7 or 8 kids registered, so it's a very small group, but they are all kids that Makayla will go to school with.

I also signed Makayla up for tap dancing. She has been mesmerized with anybody dancing at various events we have gone to, and even on TV's "So You Think You Can Dance". After she was registered she told me that she needed tap shoes and a tap dress, so I had to comply. I will post a picture as soon as I take one. These classes start in a couple of weeks.