[Starznight]

Hoping everyone had a happy holiday. I know I haven't been on in a while but things have been crazy, crazy, crazy and I'm not even talking about the usual holiday hoopla. I swear my DSD is trying to send me to an early grave , I am back to smoking after 3 years of not, and I had to call DFCS (department of family and child services) on her. Not fun, not in the least and also completely in effective, she's going to end up losing her children and doesn't seem to be able to stop partying long enough to care. My 3 yr old granddaughter is more responsible right now than her own mother is.

But enough about that, I still, despite the nicotine coursing through my veins, had a pretty enjoyable Christmas! We bought the DGD an 18" doll that my mother and I spent the weeks before Christmas making clothes up for. The doll got a big hug then tossed to the side in favor of the piano we got her too, but she did give the dollie a hug first . And spent the rest of the morning alternating between playing with the doll and creating migraine inducing music for all. But she had fun and worked up quite an appetite as shown at dinnertime when she ate all the adults under the table by munching down on 4 big pieces of ham, potatoes, stuffing, carrots and corn and still wanting some more ham.

She's only 3, but looks like a 6 year old, and eats every meal like it's her last meal on death row. Yet she isn't fat, she burns through every last calorie she eats, and this spring we're going to buy her a pair of rollerskates to help with her abounding energy. She goes 0-60 every day, crashes out for a 2 hour nap then jumps right back into running around. Her father would like for me to start doing flashcards and little workbooks with her, but I say for now, it's more important that she just play, she really can't keep herself settled down to anything right now. We read to her a lot and she has a brand new early Christmas present bookshelf that is over flowing with books. And on the rare time she decides she needs a break from running, jumping and dancing about, she'll sit down and "read" her books to her stuffed toys and kitten. But come August she'll be starting pre-K and then we'll start working on things like workbooks and making her letters, counting properly to ten and such. Right now she can get to five, but for some reason thinks 7 is 4. So she'll count 1, 2, 3, 7, 5 . I take that as perfectly appropriate for her age since she is only 3 and can count to 3 without an issue. And if you substitute 7 for 4 and 4 for 7 she can count to ten as well. It's just those 2 numbers she can never seem to get in the right place.

Anyways so settles my bragging on the DGD, otherwise, my health has been indifferent, thanks largely due to my DSD, and going back to smoking and I've nearly landed myself in the hospital twice I think since the last time I've been on here. I've decided to quit smoking again come the first of the year, we'll see how that goes. And I have a new ipad that I got for Christmas . So the DGD gets to inheret the old one under Nama's supervision.

So Happy Holidays again folks, hopefully I won't be quite as much of a stranger at least for the next month, my DGD is down with her dad now, so I have a bit of piece and quiet minus the DSD and trying to get her to get her life back on track.

[St George 2013]

I miss that special time when my grandkids were really young...they are between 10 and 16 now

But even at these ages it was nice to hear them outside screaming happily while playing with the new soccer ball and net and riding down our hill on skateboards !

3 of the 4 would rather be outside then inside and that is fine with me. There is one house between my daughter's and mine so they are back and forth all the time.

They know when I'm down and out and are always so helpful. I'm blessed to have them.

Awe 3 year olds ! What wonder and delight they are full of.

I need to quit smoking too......wishing you much luck with that.

Take care and thanks for sharing

Debi from Georgia

[doydie]

Starz, have they tested her for ADD or ADHD? Sounds like a hand ful.

We haven't had our Christmas yet, it is Saturday. I am in no way ready and I am not going to be and have accepted it. I have a wonderful family and they know that it is better to have me there rather than have all the wonderful gifts and traditions I have always done. I was in the hospital Dec 10-16 and then again this past Sunday through today. Earlier it was extreme hypertension, pneumonia and the worse was that I had an extreme nasal bleed. I had a stent put in in August and you sure can blees real quick on that.

I had another bleed on Monday and was so so dizzy with it. I had two units of blood earlier and this time only 1 unit. They have really cut back on their equirements of how low your blood count can be before they give you blood.

So I am home and tomorrow will start putting gifts in gift bags instead of wrapping.

[PamelaJune]

Doydie my mum embraced gift bags about 5 years ago when she could no longer juggle paper, scissors and celotape. As a family we love the bags and we happily recycle them throughout the years. Have a wonderful relaxing Saturday celebration.

Originally Posted by doydie

So I am home and tomorrow will start putting gifts in gift bags instead of wrapping.

[Starznight]

I pray she never gets tested for ADD or ADHD . I know I have ADHD, I have had since early childhood basically a classic case of it if ever there was one. But just like my dyslexia, because I was never give the "crutch" of "disorder" I was able to develop my own coping skills for my issues. My DGD acts very much like I did so I've not really a doubt that she has one or the other, but she does lack the lacking of impulse control. Something I struggled with a lot more when I was younger and almost got run over a few times and did technically drown once thanks to it. Whereas my brother like me has all the signs of ADHD, but like the DGD also lacks the lack of impulse control. But he also was brought up that there are certain rules in life that must be followed, deal with it.

My cousin is more an example of what can happen and sadly all too often does happened when given the "crutch" of " disorder" she was tested for ADHD and only showed a fraction of the signs my brother and I exhibit, she was medicated for it and given her councelling, special treatment at school, and all that jazz that goes with a "disorder" and she uses it as an excuse to this day for why she can't get her chores done, why she can't hold down a job, why she can't maintain a steady relationship, why she sleeps all day, why she insomnia, why she has/does/can't.... and I'm not saying she's lying about it, she has zero coping skills for the disorder, she was never given a chance to develop them honestly, they drugged her and still are, mad enough her spend a year of talking to someone for 30 minutes a week, and then pretty much told her welcome to your life here's your list of excuses and all the failures you can expect to experience so don't even bother setting a bar let alone setting one too high, just leave the bar alone and walk away, no one has any expectations for you anyways, but it's not your fault it's the fault of ADHD you poor baby,

And it's not just my cousin, my mothers now manager who was an associate she used to manage before retiring was and to a large extent still is, the blame it all on ADHD. Diagnosed, drugged, counseled on his excuses and then never again held accountable for his actions, after all he has a "disorder". Don't get me wrong, it is a real disorder and it can greatly upset your life if you allow it to, but if you exhibit signs in childhood long before any drugs or some kind of "crutch" is simply handed to you, first and foremost give the kids a chance to cope on their own, it goes ever so much further than if you drug, and release them from any and all future accountability. And sadly that what too many doctors, parents and school do to our kids.

Most people are shocked that I'm dyslexic, and that I lack the ability to sound out words, and I do struggle to read aloud if put on the spot to read something. Which is about the only time I end having to explain that I'm dyslexic and yet I got the highest scores in reading comprehension of my schools on all the standardized test I was always in the 99th percentile only because there's no such thing as the 100th percentile for standardized tests. But I got perfect scores, not a single mark off. My parents knew I was dyslexic before I even started kindergarten, but I was never told I was dyslexic until I was much older and we began working on Latin in school. And I simply couldn't read the words, I could define them all, I could recognize them all, but darned if I could tell the teacher what the heck the word was if she didn't tell me first. I couldn't even begin to spit it out.

[Starznight]

Speaking of ADHD, got a little side tracked there lol. But while the DGD is a handful she is also just the most adorable thing in the world and so well behaved, so long as her mother isn't around, that her hyperness really is quite tolerable. She jumps around a lot, but never on the furniture, she forgets she's not supposed to run in the house, but she won't run in the kitchen if someone is cooking even if she thinks she might need to throw a tantrum or something she'll walk out to the living room first then throw her tantrum or have her meltdown or go off running . It's just her attention span is the classic all or nothing that is generally seen with ADHD. She can either be hyper fixated on something or her little body, brains and eyes are off in a million different directions.

A typical conversation with her goes along the lines of "the lions says roar! Why do we eat chickens? Are all squirrels fluffy like cheetos? Where is the moon? How come snowcap (my cat) so fat? Do you like purple? I went to a park with mommy. Why was the wind so big on the mountain (from our trip to NH back in August and she still throws random tidbits about it into her conversations) ? I don't like pickles. Nampa took me to Publix. I'm thirsty (there's a full cup of juice sitting right beside her that she'll grab an looked shocked that she doesn't need to ask you for more because you filled it while she was chatting) What color are my eyes? (And before you can answer blue) What was that sound? (And there's about 40 different things she might have heard) Where does Gigi work? Nampa's scary so I say 'roar' to him just like the lions. The lions say 'roar'. Why do we eat chickens?...... rinse and repeat that conversation about 3 more times. All within a 5 minute span of time.

I sadly live my life for those morning conversations and don't see how her mother can ignore them. It is just the funniest thing to listen to her chattering away over breakfast, her conversations are all over the place but she almost always throws in the most random things like fluffy cheeto squirrels. Why does everyone call cow, steak or hamburger, but chicken is chicken and turkey is turkey but pig is ham, pork chops or bacon??!! And when a question like that is lisped out of the mouth of a three year old with all the seriousness of discussing quantum physics like this is one of the ninth wonders of the world... I mean it just makes my day. And though she's at the age where she'll except just about any answer to any question of hers with a simple "oh" and drop it I do my best all the same to answer them in the same manner in which they were asked.

The kid rarely hears, "because, that's why" from me. So if I can't answer off the top of my head when she asks a non-relatively common knowledge question, we look it up and Nama translates to 3 year old comprehension level words. And once she's done with her morning trivia and eating her breakfast, chats are done and she clears off her table, puts her bowl in the sink and is off and running. And I don't get another chatter session until snack time after her nap . Because of course morning snack time she's too busy devouring everything in sight to chat and the same at lunch time, and then again at dinner time. So there's only really 2 points during the day when I ses running her mouth more than her legs.
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[ger715]

Starz,

Wish you lotsa luck with your New Years Resolution.....

I know from experience how difficult it is to stop smoking. It took many attempts; but with Nicoderm Patches and prayers; have been cigarette free for several years. I stayed on the patch longer than the recommended time but it worked for me. I kept a patch in my purse for over a year for "just in case".

I remember quitting, usually lasted 17 days, then I would feel like the men with the "white coats" were coming for me and would give in.

At first I would smoke only a few and say to myself, "self, at least its less than I had previously smoked". That would only lead to eventually smoking more than I had before. I finally learned I can't even have one or it will be all over.

p.s.
Your granddaughter sounds like a real charmer.

Gerry