Last day of preschool

Annika's doctor appointment

Yesterday I took Annika to the doctor, as a follow-up to her ear infection a month ago, and to talk to the doctor about the issues we've been having lately.  Technically it was good news, in that the doctor didn't see anything that was wrong with her, but it's also a little bit frustrating, as it would've been nice to have an answer for why she's been acting the way she has lately (but of course, children are never that simple, right?).  He did notice that she was suffering from hay fever (I thought it was a cold, but he could tell by looking up her nose that it was allergies) and that she still had fluid in her ear from the infection (but no more infection).  He said it could be affecting her hearing slightly and he wanted us to come back in another month to check it again.  He also wanted to get a urine sample to check for a bladder infection, which he said could be the cause of the bedwetting and the restless feeling at night.  He checked her legs and said he could see nothing that would be causing her pain, no sign of growing pains (something about how the muscles compared to the bones).  He said that with adults he would normally do some bloodwork to check for things like iron levels, etc, but he really hesitated doing blood tests for little kids unless he thought it was absolutely necessary.  At this time he didn't see it as necessary for Annika.  As for the behavioral changes, he didn't have much of an explanation for that (again, it's never that simple).  Could be some anxiety of upcoming changes, could just be "being a kid".

So we'll just carry on, with prayer and love and as much patience as possible.  We've started to do a few simple yoga moves with the kids before bed, to help stretch and calm down the "crazy legs" and relax and quiet down.  Hopefully it will start to help - right now they seem to see it as a time to be silly. :P  Annika's activities are all ending in the next few weeks (today is the last day of preschool - boohoo!!), so maybe being a little less busy will help too.  And it's not all bad - she definitely has lots of good moments still.  Yesterday she did really well at swimming - went in the water without a single complaint (of course, that was part of the deal to get her treat afterwards!).  Sometimes it's just hard to focus on the good when the bad starts to feel so overwhelming, but really, we have so much to be thankful for, if these kinds of things are our biggest problems.

Baby doll

Doctor Mom to the rescue!  Annika has had this baby since she was about 8 months old and she's had a few "surgeries."

Just a phase?

The last few weeks we've been going through quite a rough patch with Annika.  I'm not sure what has caused the change, but it's like she's a different kid.  She resists going to almost all her activities (school, swimming, soccer, Y Neighbours, children's church, etc), and she's gotten incredibly clingy.  She's always been an introvert, but now she says she doesn't like being around crowds of people (and by a "crowd" she's referring to the 13 other kids in her preschool class :P) and doesn't like being in noisy places.  She doesn't want to be separated from me.  She's acting out quite a bit - having tantrums that could rival any two year old.  Bed times have gotten to be a struggle, with her often getting up multiple times before finally falling asleep.  She complains about her legs hurting, her stomach hurting, her head hurting (usually this happens when she's supposed to be doing something she doesn't want to do).  At bed time she says her legs "feel crazy" and she can't get them to settle down.  She's been wetting the bed almost nightly.  Tonight she told me that she was scared of the dark (something she's never had an issue with in the past).  I have no idea what's going on in my sweet girl - is it growing pains, restless legs syndrome, anxiety about starting kindergarten (could it be starting already?)????  I hope and pray that this is just a phase, but since it's been going on for almost a month, I've made a doctor appointment for her for Thursday just to see if the doctor can shed any light on what's going on.

Flower picking

Swing

New configuration for our play structure - we put up the 2-person rider today and changed the baby swing into a toddler swing. The kids love the new "teeter totter" (as they call it), but I don't understand why they are back to back. When I was a kid, we had one of these and we sat on the outside, facing each other, which makes more sense to me. Does anyone know why they changed it?

Catching up

421 photos to sort, label and put in albums. And there's still more to come...