Our Eleven year old and our Baby Big Girl

As Emma's birthday and the start of middle school approached, we decided that it would be a good time to make some bedrooms changes. Bridget has had her own room since she was born as did each sister, until a baby arrived. We aren't expecting but we are noticing Emma's desire for privacy. It is hard in our small house to get privacy, so we decided that Emma should move into the little bedroom and be on her own. this meant each of the girls would change beds. All of the girls loved this idea. Rachael looked forward to the better desk half and being in the loft on her own. Megan was excited to acquire a desk and be on the top bunk. Bridget was over-joyed to sharing a room with her big sisters and to get a big girl bed. Emma was eager to make the little bedroom her own and have her own space.

Our goal was to get Emma into her room before the first day of school, and this meant a lot of moving and clearing out. I started the process and became overwhelmed when I realized this meant all of the baby stuff would now not have a home. The changing table will go to yard sale, the crib back to storage, the diapers into the closet and the diaper pail into the bathroom. My glider and ottoman are still in the middle of the living room as we haven't figured out where to put it. Some of my Pooh collection went to storage and some to the shelves in the living room. I purged the baby bottles, burp clothes, sheets, and baby blankets, saving the special things but donating the rest. It was just so much stuff that Bridget is quickly not needing.

Bridget is potty training and some days stays mostly dry. Other days, when I am not on top of putting her on the potty regularly, she goes through pull-ups like diapers. I plan to put more effort to this potty training thing now that school has started and my attention can be focused more on her. Bridget is on the big girl fence. she wants to be a big girl but also wants to be babied. She'll talk baby talk sometimes, and refuse to do things she is capable of doing, when she is on the baby side of the fence. Conversely she demands to do things on her own, has many opinions, and wants to do as her big sisters do. She has taken to completely ignoring directions especially if it is "come here". Jim and I spend a lot of time taking her by the hand and making her "come here" with the addition of "yes Mama" (or Papa). Bridgie can be exhausting but also a delight. Her favorite word right now is "Actually". Jim was playing around with her and planted a kiss on her nose, she looked at him and said "Actually, kiss my check". She also uses it to correct our instructions. "Bridget it is time for dinner" will result in "Actually I am playing" from Bridge. It takes a lot of vigilance to keep her on our track.

In this transition to big girl hood, Bridget's reaction to her crib caught me off guard. We got Bridge's things moved to Megan's old bed and she was very excited. Then we were emptying the room so we could paint it and Jim took down the crib. Bridge saw this and was beside herself. "Put it back" "I want my crib back" "No Dada". I hadn't seen it coming, she was so sad. she adjusted quickly and hasn't mentioned it since the day it came down. I realized that with Em and Rae the crib never came down, and with Meg she stayed in the same room. I guess that made it easier to move to the big bed. the harder part for me was the painting over the stripes. I talked Emma into keeping the thin white and thin tan stripes but paint over the yellow, green and blue with her selection of "mermaid treasure", a rich turquoise. I spent a lot of time taping the stripes, but 10 minutes into painting the turquoise, the tape came loose and the stripes were ruined. This was hard for me. I guess I was attached to the stripes, it was the last part of the baby's room. In the end the room's large wall was turquoise as was part of the facing wall. The wall with the door and the one with the window remained tan. The paint is great but would have been to much on all 4 walls.

That night was the night before school started, so we cleaned up early and switched to backpack mode. Emma slept in the basement so the fumes wouldn't get to her. Since then we have been slowly getting her room together.

We had a sleepover birthday party on Labor day weekend to celebrate Emma turning 11. I decided that after 10, it was no more themey or location parties. Instead it is about hanging out with friends. So the party was very low-key until Emma and her friends got a hold of the microphone and sang Taylor Swift songs in intentionally awful voices. They had a blast. Emma asked for an apple pie instead of a cake so that is what we had. This year marked a change in gifts as well. She received clothes from friends instead of toys and from us she received an MP3 player. The teen years are coming fast. We also had a family birthday party and Emma was eager to get a decorated cake. Our refrigerator froze up, so being in the kitchen was a challenge but we came up with a cake that had music on it and it said 'Happy Birthday Zynski". Zynski is a nickname Jim coined and frequently is said as Emmazynski. She really likes it.

Emma's new bed arrived 1 1/2 weeks after she moved into the room, but with that a new desk and shelves the room is coming together. Somehow her sisters wind up in there frequently, and for the most part I don't think Emma minds.

It could have been worse

On Sunday night I was doing Emma's laundry and stayed up to move it to the dryer since she needed her gym uniform in the morning. When I opened the laundry room door, to take care of this last chore before I got in bed, I stepped into a lake of water. No water was running so I woke Jim up and we got to work suctioning up the water. I was running the washer and dishwasher at the same time and there was a clog somewhere. It all backed up and emptied out of the basement shower drain onto the floor. As we are doing cleanup, Megan appears on the basement steps, yelling over the noise of the shop-vac, to say Bridget was on the floor crying. Megan, my monitor, comes to the rescue again.



I left Jim in the basement and went to help Bridget, and tuck Meg back in. Bridget was on the floor and crying very hard but she was also very sleepy. I wasn't sure if it was night terrors or if she was hurt. She had a hard time settling down and complained of her leg hurting, her finger hurting, her cheek hurting and her shoulder. It was all unclear except "don't touch me". After a while Jim came up and laid down with Bridget and I went back to get more water out of our basement carpet. Bridge woke up a few times that night and I began to suspect she broke her collarbone. Her arm didn't hurt at all but if I lifted her by putting my hand under the armpits or she used her arm to prop her body up, she screamed. Around 5 AM I concluded we would be making a trip to the ER. She fell back to sleep and I knew broken collarbones weren't life threatening, plus I knew they don't cast them so I let her sleep. Jim got the girls prepped for school as I got ready to go with Bridget. Bridget was exhausted and nervous anytime someone needed to move her. "Be gentle" she said as I carried her out to the van. Rachael had woken up that morning disagreeable but asked where Bridget was. I explained she was in the van because I was taking her to the hospital and Rachael's whole demeanor changed. Rachael came out and gave her a gentle kiss and spoke in a sweet reassuring voice. She is a great big sister. I had come back into the house because when I tried to open the van door the electric locks wouldn't work. The van's battery was dead. Jim and I both laughed. It was the only thing to do. As we hooked up the jumper cables Bridget sat in her booster seat complaining that she couldn't see because the hood was up. Jim jumped the van and got us on our way.



Bridget didn't like the idea of going to the hospital but she cooperated as I carried her in and checked in. St. Agnes was quick to see us and all of the staff was helpful and kind. There were other children and it made Bridget very anxious when she heard anyone crying. I pulled out the books that Jim had packed and it was a great distraction. An escort came with an over sized wheelchair to bring Bridge for an x-ray. She grabbed onto me and I asked if I could carry her instead. She was relieved and very interested in her bones as we discussed taking a picture of the inside where her bones were. Doing the x-ray was the worst part. Bridgie was scared to lay on the table and it hurt to lay her back on the x-ray board and sit her up again. After they took 2 views I pried her fingers of the sheets and carried her back. They confirmed that it was a broken collar bone, put a sling on and home we headed. She and I were both exhausted so after a "kid's show" we both napped for 2 hours. Bridget cried in pain when she woke up because she tried to sit up using her left side. Instead of the the sling at night Jim came up with the idea to use a ace bandage to secure her upper arm to her side. This was easy to sleep with and prevented her from using it.



Bridget isn't in pain unless she puts pressure on the bone or bangs it and luckily that isn't happening often. The first day she struggled to get out of a sitting position, so I found her scooting around the house on her bottom. Jim and I both showed her some techniques to get off the floor and she isn't scooting anymore. We have to help her climb in and out of seats but for the most part she is independent and in a good mood.



The basement carpet is still not all the way dry and now smells and our refrigerator is freezing up again for the 3rd time this month but most importantly Bridget will heal.

PS We recently moved Bridget into a big girl bed. I'll have to backtrack and tell you about that in a different blog. We are adding a railing to the bed so this doesn't happen again.

With Cousins

Our girls have seen a lot of their cousins in the past few weeks, and are ready for more. Back in August, which seems so far ago, on a Thursday Jim headed off to Vegas for a bachelor party extended weekend. Eric, being the best man, was on the trip too. Becky still had to work so her kids stayed later than normal and we had them for dinner. My girls loved having dinner with their cousins. Eric had a business trip right when he got back from Vegas, so we repeated the dinner date on Tuesday. That same day my sister in law Heather was coming to spend time with our oldest nephew Anthony so her 2 little ones joined me, the girls, and Shumakers for a few hours. It was so much fun to have them. My girls love the little cousins. Rachael and Megan were disappointed that they would be at girl scout camp and miss the visit. Ben and Lilly chased after each other and over each other, while Bridget entertained them with toys.

Mary and Ed were going away for the night that Sturday before the arrival of their newest baby and asked if Katherine could spend the night at our house. The oldest 3 of their kids where headed off to my other siblings' houses. 2 of the boys were staying with the Arbutus Jauquets so I called them and asked if Sophia would like to spend the night with the girls at our house. A general redistribution of kids took place and we had 2 extra girls in our house for the night. It was the first sleep over for Katherine and Sophia, and it was the first time Megan got to participate in a sleepover at our house. Bridget was very excited about having her cousins over and wanted to "sleep over" too. I think Jim was glad to have a poker invitation and headed out after everyone was settled. Emma went off to a sleepover at a friends house. It was me and the little girls so we lined them all up in sleeping bags in the basement, ate popcorn and watched a movie. We had a great time. Bridget couldn't settle down after lights out, so I whisked her off to her crib. It was a successful first sleepover and a great way to spend time with our nieces.

The whole family got together on Labor day to celebrate birthdays, including Emma's 11th, at Will and Heather's house. All 16 of the cousins eased in and out of the house, basement and family room through the conversations of us adults. It is such a blessing to have this tribe as a central grounding force for our girls.

And just this past week the newest member was born to the tribe. Mary and Ed welcomed Teresa Annunziata on 9/10. Katherine spent the morning with us. It was hard for me to hand over the phone to Katherine when Ed called from the hospital. Katherine was very excited the baby was a girl. Ed's mom picked her up in the afternoon. All of the big brothers were buckled in, so I packed them snacks and off they went to the hospital to see little Teresa. I was eager to meet her myself and to see Mary so that night after bedtime I went to the hospital. Becky was there as well so we visited and enjoyed our newborn member of the family.

Heather and I headed over together to Mary and Ed's to help get the final baby things ready before she came home. Heather than came over to our house and rounded up our girls. Jim and I had a wedding to attend that night, and Will and Heather volunteered to take the girls for the night. Megan got nervous and cried that she didn't want to go but when it was time she was the first packed, the first dressed, and the first out the door. Bridget enjoyed packing her things including her baby doll that is now named baby Teresa. Jim and I had a fabulous time at the wedding and were able to relax with out the worry of rushing home to return a babysitter by a certain time.

When we picked the girls up on Sunday they were all comfortably playing and had stories to share. Rachael found a tree and had climbed 35 ft up (Will's estimate). Plus she had discovered a few stuffed animals that Speckles got along great with. Emma is a great baby tender and kept her eye on Lily. I am sure Emma did as much holding as Lily would allow. Will said that Bridget was their walking comic relief the whole time. They got a big kick out of her. Heather shared that Megan, who slept in William's room, kept coming out after being tucked in, to pass on William's needs to his parents. This made me laugh as she plays the same role at home. It is always Megan that appears by my bed in the middle of the night to let me know who is sick or is in needs of my help. Meg does this well. She is clear headed and to the point. All of the girls had a blast staying with their Aunt, Uncle and cousins and we were so grateful for the night out.

We and our girls are so blessed.

Three Cuts

The 3rd time was the charm for Emma. In August we all got hair cuts. I let Emma talk to the hair dresser but also confered with her. Emma wound up with a stylish cut but not what she wanted. She was able to donate 6 or 7 inches of hair. The next day Emma was heading up to PA for the weeked to celebrate Maura's birthday. Maura is my long time friend MarySue's daughter. That morning Emma kept asking for me to just cut it short. I agreed but only with the condition that we take her back when she came home to get a professional to fix it properly. I was still cutting it when the Hess's arrived to pick her up. We drove up to PA on Sunday to attend the party and bring Em home. I could not stop looking at her. It is such a drastic change but a really great look for her. The same hair dresser did a good job recutting her hair. It is such a change that when we visited the elementary school and then middle school, most of her friends and teachers didn't recognize her at first. My challenge now is to get her to keep it from covering one of her eyes.

Back to School

This past week the 3 big girls started a new school year. Each of them were ready to see friends, have a structured day, and learn new things. Megan had been going to Westchester over the past few years and was eager to attend herself. The Thursday before school started they had a social so we could meet the teachers and see the classrooms. Emma really wanted to go back to WES and see her teachers and friends so she joined Megan and Rachael at the elementary school for the social. It was comforting to begin to get a feel for thier year. We dropped Meg and Rae off at home and then Emma and I went to the middle school. We got to walk through her schedule and meet all of her teachers. It was a good thing she also got a chance to try her locker combination. She and I both felt better after spending some time in the school. I realized that I have been concerned about middle school, because I just didn't have much information.


The first day meant that Emma had to get up at 6:30, which is 2 hours earlier than she normally got up. She saw a dress when we were shopping that we bought. When we came home Emma came running over to me holding the tag. The dress was designed by Taylor Swift and life just couldn't have gotten better at that point. Emma did great about getting up this week and has been good about getting through the copious amount of homework each day. Emma and Molly, our neighbor, ride the bus together and came home full of horror at the language the kids on the bus used. I am glad Emma abhors the language but I am very displeased that she will be exposed to it regularly. I am not ready for her innocence to be lost. Emma hasn't stopped talking since middle school started. She is so full of new experiences that the only place they have to go is out of her mouth. She is loving it.


Rachael doesn't have to get on the bus until 8:45 but she is regularly up before Emma. Rachael spent 1st and 2nd grade with the same teacher and classmates, but this year only 5 of her former classmates are in her 3rd grade. Rachael will also have to change classes this year and is in GT classes, so she is getting adjusted. Getting her focused enough to get things accomplished each morning without following her around is a challenge and I am grateful that we have a good amount of time. Rachael has started back with having night terrors and sleepwalking. I know that this change takes its toll on her and I am proud that she seems to be maturing in how she is handling it. There haven't been out of control outbursts or hitting, and I am hopeful for 3rd grade.


Kindergarten began with a modified schedule, so Megan got to ease into the year. It meant a crazy work schedule for me but it was great to get to go in for her first day, as well as drop her off and pick her up the other days. In the classroom Megan participated well and was very upbeat. She was really excited to ride the bus on Friday and have a whole day. She has also recognized her loss of time with her cousins and free play. She told me that she was sad because she wouldn't see baby Benjamin and she was sad because she wouldn't get to play as much. She is right on both counts, but she also has so many great new adventures that I know she is looking forward to.



Now Jim and I need to get a handle on the sports, religious ed and scout schedules. This may never happen. In the mean time Bridget is turning into a big girl and yet is still a little one.