So... did I mention Deklan had the flu? Well, now that it's over Deklan is having major potty training issues. It's not like he wasn't having some issues anyway. Now - it's near impossible to get him to go to the toilet. I took him to the psychologist again - have I mentioned that I love her? Her first suggestion was NO PULL-UPS except at bedtime. Uh-Oh. Deklan would prefer pull-ups every day if it were up to him. Especially if he has one accident then he likes to change into pull-ups. I'm just as guilty. I prefer the pull-ups too, anticipating an accident. He has had an accident every day since Christmas break. Her next suggestion - which will be more difficult - is to have a Potty Party. You heard me, a Potty Party. Spending a whole weekend putting him on the toilet every hour on the hour and having him sit there for at least 5 minutes. Let him eat and drink whatever he wants - that way he'll need to go to the bathroom anyway. Then let him know that if he goes potty in the toilet that he can have more of his favorite snack/drink. And when he goes potty we celebrate - a Potty Party - in essence. We were going to do it this weekend but I just found out that Deklan has a Boy Scout meeting Saturday and the girls start Cookie sales too. There's no way that we'll be home long enough to celebrate. I may be able to start it Sunday afternoon and continue into Monday - no school Monday so it may work.

The psychologist is interested in doing in-class observation and also meeting with the teacher - which she'll do on Friday. I'm anxious to see what happens there. I know the teacher doesn't really think that Deklan has a disability. She believes in tough love - her words exactly. I'll back up to Friday. We had a meeting with the psychologist, Shani. I was very concerned with the potty training issue especially since Deklan had at least one accident at school and came home wet - no one even noticed apparently. Also because he was having accidents - sometimes 2 or 3 - every day at home. I don't always take Deklan back to school after appointments, depending on what time we get finished. In this case we were finished before 10 so I felt guilty keeping him home. I took him to school - we made it in the door ok, down the hall alright, to the classroom no problem. THEN it was meltdown mode. "Don't leave me" - "I want to go home" - "stay". I convinced him to let me talk to the teacher for a minute in the hall but then he came out too and leached onto me. He grabbed my shirt and wouldn't let go. I got him to his desk but he still wouldn't let me go. I was thinking about just taking him home and not leaving him, although I had plans for later that morning and an afternoon appointment. Her comment was to the effect of you're not going to take him are you. When I said I wasn't sure but maybe. She said she believed in tough love and didn't go for the manipulation from the kids. That rather irritated me. I finally left - Deklan was crying and it killed me. But I know that once I leave he's usually fine within a few minutes. USUALLY. About 45 minutes later I get a call from the school. It's the OT. She's had to get Deklan because he was standing in the hall screaming and refused to quiet and do his work. She had taken him to her room, given him the spelling test he was supposed to be doing, and then agreed to let him call me if he would quit screaming. He asked me to come back. I couldn't - plans and appointments, but told him if my appointment finished in time I would. That sufficed - he calmed down and I didn't get anymore calls. I made it back to the school as the busses were leaving so I didn't get to pick him up. I did meet him at the bus when he got home though. I let Shani know what had happened so she's even more interested in meeting the teacher and observing Deklan in the classroom. So I get an email from the Special Ed teacher saying that next time we come in late that she should come down and get him from the office. Maybe they'll go to her room for a few minutes before going to class. OK with me - wait, I think I tried that once and she didn't do anything but come to the office, walk me to the classroom and then just stand there while Regular Ed teacher unhooked him from me. Yeah - we'll see how that goes.

Subject change - let's talk about me. :) I was VP of the Parent Brigade (PTO) at my daughter's middle school. Was is the operative word here. Before Christmas the President became overwhelmed with life in general and resigned. I didn't know that until after the fact. She and I are friends so she had called me, said, "I think I'm going to resign but I'm going to talk to the principal, I don't know what I'll do." That was the beginning of December. The middle of December I get a call from the Treasurer saying the President "has resigned are you going to be able to do the job?" Uh, WHAT?! Calming down, calming down... "Yeah, it's my job, I'll take over - what needs to be done?" Needless to say, it's been a busy month. I guess things just weren't getting done the way they were supposed to. No committees had been formed for the different activities and upcoming events, concessions for the games was a mess, no one knows what our inventory is supposed to be. We had a meeting - me, the principal, treasurer, and two other Parent Brigade members plus the old president who moved on to the high school this year. She's been a big help actually. It's been interesting, fun actually. The first thing we did was decide what we needed to do. Then I went home and sent out a mass email to all the parents that I have contact information for. Then I became the person in charge of concessions inventory so, after every game I go to the school and take inventory count - about 45 minutes to an hour if I do an accurate count. That's ok because I have the time. Last night was our monthly parent meeting. It lasted over an hour. This was the first one since I took over as president and we had a lot of new business to discuss. Anyway, that's one big thing that has been taking up my time. The second being that I am now also assistant cookie manager for the Girl Scout service unit. Yep, it's that time of year again - Cookies! So, I've had a couple of training sessions and lots of communication with the troop leaders. It really takes up more time than one would think. But it's worth it for the girls.

Last week was when the kids started back to school. My friend took her vacation from Christmas until January 11. We got together every day. We had so much fun. Monday we didn't because that was her birthday and she had plans. Tuesday we scrapbooked. Wednesday we worked on Girl Scout troop plans. Thursday we scrapbooked. Friday we just hung out and she went to my appointment with me in the afternoon. And, mostly, we just laughed and had a really good time. She's nearly 17 years older than me but we get along extremely well - there is no age difference to us. It's really nice to just be able to hang out with someone and have so much fun. We actually see each other a lot. And our daughters are best friends so that makes it really good too. Well, I think that's about a full update. Hope everyone has a great day - or week, if I don't blog again until next week.