The visit is over, they are on their way home..phew/whew!

[DammitJanet]

Who was it that started that phew/whew thing? I cant remember...lol.

Anyways..it went pretty well as far as these type visits go. No outlandish outbursts from daughter in law but I could tell Jamie had warned her about several things. He told her that when she saw Mandy that she was NOT to give any advice that was not specifically asked for. LOL. Well his exact words were "dont go over and tell Mandy how to raise her baby, thats their kid. Dont butt in." LOL. Jamie did tease Cory and asked him how it felt not to have to send one back on Mondays...lol. So this time the adults were actually better behaved.

Now Hailie..oh my gosh...talk about a pain. She was in rare form. She was clingy and demanding. Like I said in the other thread, she is claiming she cant eat anything but I later found out that her mother has gotten her to eat a few things over this past week like a few chicken nuggets and some french fries. Hmmm. Okay, so its not that she cant eat, its that she is just playing everyone for attention. She wants everyone to just give her yogurt and ice cream and milkshakes. Well okay, so would I if I was her age. And cry if she doesnt get her way? Ugh. I am so done with that junk. Mikey doesnt speak at all. Well..okay...I heard about three or four sounds that could be words. He said something that I am assuming is spongebob. We think he said Papa and uhh for everything else. Now he is 2 and a half years old and should be speaking in sentences. He is speaking like a less than one year old would talk. Billie swears her doctor says its second child syndrome. Well I had three kids and they never did it. Cory should still not be speaking if that was the case! And what about that family with 19 kids? There youngest should be pre-verbal!!!!

I really do feel sorry for Mikey though. Hailie takes over everything in that family and pushes him out. She acts like she is loving on him but she is doing it to get the adult attention. When I gave the kids their presents, she played with all of them and pushed him away. Now he is so young that he just grabbed something left behind and played with that. Unless he stays incredibly passive that wont last long and they will fight. Im surprised they didnt fight at his age now but I dont think he is cognitively there yet to understand. Im telling you...at 2 and 4, Jamie and Cory would have been duking it out.

I dont know...I worry but not much to do. Hailie is very smart I think. She can sing so many little songs she is learning in her little nursery school. I just think there is something going on underneath. No kid is that unhappy all the time.

 

[Star*]

I believe the phew/whew thing was a post and we were asked to tell which one we used mostly. Seems to me it was Suz maybe?

As for the kids? Are you telling me that you are actually GOING TO HAVE an ENJOYABLE Christmas this year without travel, and a dimsicle for a daughter-in-law hogging all the cheetos and diet coke? HALLELUIJAH. I'm so happy for you. They came, they got, they stayed - they left. Good deal. To me having Jamie tell Billie about the what not too's seems to me that he's really HAD IT with all the family hoopla, and maybe just maybe you calling her out on a few things in the recent past told her you were at your limit too - so this COULD have been a visit where everyone got loaded up and tossed out with your opinion attached to their rear ends.

Sounds like you had a really good time, and that the kids managed to keep it together to make it pleasant for Meemaw and Papaw. FINALLY!

Hugs & Love
Star

 

[DammitJanet]

Me thinks your right as usual Star. And yes, I am not driving further than the city limits this year...lol.

 

[Hound dog]

And what about that family with 19 kids? There youngest should be pre-verbal!!!!

Too funny Janet!

Brandon has some speech issues too. He'll be 3 in Feb and in my opinion he doesn't talk anywhere near 3 yr old level. But he's improving pretty well now that I have Darrin NOT talking baby talk to him and Nana can't understand him unless he works hard at being understood. lol He's too cute though. easy child says the same thing about 2nd child syndrome.........uh, no. It's called you didn't sit down and help them with their skills, let's not make it all pretty. Connor is worse than Brandon......but I believe his may also be related to other issues. But I've been hearing more words pop out of his mouth too of late.

Glory be, sounds like you finally had a decent holiday!! AMEN! And I agree Jamie telling Billie to cool it, me thinks someone is getting wiser. lol Yay!

As for the sib rivalry between the kids.......give Mikey a bit of time, then Hallie better watch out.

 

[klmno]

Hmmm....I had it in my head that a second or third child learned quicker, not slower, due to having an older sibling.....It does sound like a strange family to me- Jamie's, I mean.

Anyway, I'm glad it went fairly well and you survived! Now, try to relax and get ready to enjoy your own Christmas!

 

[KTMom91]

Sounds like a pleasant weekend, Janet. I'm happy for you.

 

[donna723]

I'm happy for you too! So glad it went well. And I take it as a very good sign that apparently Jamie has laid down the law a little bit - loooooong overdue! But I don't know if I buy the "second child syndrome" thing either! Do they talk baby talk to Mikey? That's one thing I made sure never to do with mine and they both spoke very clearly and very early. They never talked baby talk to my 2-1/2 year old grandson, Ethan, either and he speaks very clearly, in complete sentences ... and CONSTANTLY! That little boy never shuts up! I know you've probably already thought of this but have they ever had his hearing checked? My daughter had lots of ear infections when she was little but we never suspected hearing loss because she spoke so early and so well. By the time we picked up on it and had her checked by an audiologist she had lost over 60% of her hearing from the fluid backup in her ears. She had tubes put in her ears when she was 3-1/2 and her hearing went right back to 100% - made a world of difference! The audiologist told us that young children don't realize there's anything wrong and they learn to compensate. She had even taught herself to lip-read a bit, just to get by.

 

[Nancy]

Glad it went well and that you can finally relax.

Nancy

 

[DammitJanet]

I dont know what they have actually had tested but I know what they tell me. doctor says everything is fine. I say no.

 

[Suz]

The phew/whew was a bet Addie and I had many years ago. To show a sign of relief I said it was spelled "Phew" and she said it was spelled "Whew." So we opened it to the board to vote. The results were so close that the "phew/whew" tie was born. (even though "phew" was slightly ahead- lol!)

I'm glad the weekend went ok, Janet. phew/whew!

Suz

 

[susiestar]

I am glad that the visit went better than expected. VERY glad! You don't need anymore drama/stress right now.

As for 2nd child syndrome, what idiot dreamed that up? I know as a little one I worked to keep up with my big bro because he got to do "all the fun stuff" and I can remember as far back as age 2 quite clearly (family thing - my father has memories from the time he was about 6 mos, Wiz has them earlier than my dad did and what they remember is NOT stuff that they heard us talking about. WIz asked us about the rainbow on the way home from the hospital when he was about 18 mos and saw a rainbow for the first time since he knew what the word was. Yes, there was one, and it is his first memory but not his only early memory by any means)

I can believe the doctor told htem that Mikey was fine. I am sure that Jamie didn't go to the appointment or didn't go to all of them and that Billie only told them what they wanted to hear and minimized anything they said might be an issue. There is no way it is in ANY way normal for a 2yo to not be speaking at all. This guideline from webmd says that by 36 mos a child should have between 150-200 words and strangers should understand them about 75% of the time (Speech and language development, age 1 to 3 years). It has other guidelines as well. You might, if Jamie would receive it well, send this to Jamie, or send another version of it from another site (google "language milestones for 2yo" - what I used).

Hailie sure has them wrapped around their fingers. At some point Mikey will either haul off and beat the snot out of her or else he will become incredibly sneaky. Frankly, if he doesn't I would be super worried about him because it would be a logical and expectable reaction to having a sib like Haillie. I am sorry that you are worried about them.

I hoep the rest of your holidays are peaceful and enjoyable!

 

[donna723]

It really sounds like Hailie demands and gets 90% of the attention and poor little ol' Mikey just gets whatever is left!

My kids were five years apart, my daughter being the oldest. Everything was fine when he was a baby but when they were about 9 and 4, my daughter went through a horribly bossy stage and really gave my son a hard time, everything from teasing, verbally lambasting him, and even shoving him around when she thought I wasn't looking. He was the perpetual victim and she always won. I sat down with him one day and reminded him that he wouldn't always be smaller than his sister. Told him that boys are usually taller than girls and that one day he would pass her up and be a lot bigger than she was ... and he started grinning, envisioning the day he would be big enough to beat the snot out of his sister! It had never occurred to him before that one day he would be bigger than she was! And luckily, by the time he did grow taller than she was, she had stopped picking on him and decided that he wasn't so bad after all. And lucky for her too because he's 6'5" now!

 

[buddy]

Glad you had some nice family time. Now, get some rest and regenerate as much as you can! LOVE, Dee

 

[DammitJanet]

Yeah Hailie has them whipped. Just getting her dressed to leave to get in the car was a fit...and mind you, Hailie called the shots for when to leave. Billie had been laying down on the couch in the living room resting and Jamie and the two kids were in my room playing and watching tv. Well Hailie was rolling all over Jamie going, I wanna go home, whine whine whine. Mikey was just pushing a toy car against my wall...lol. The kids and Jamie had been in my room for about 30 minutes when Billie comes out and said they might as well go because the kids just werent gonna let her get any rest. Jamie and I looked at each other and said huh, they are right here. She said no they keep coming in there and climbing all over me. We just blinked at each other and he said well lets go then, we will make it home in good time.

Hailie pitched a fit about changing into soft pants to wear in the car. I wouldnt have forced the issue. I wanted to get a mark on the wall of how tall Hailie is this year. She through an absolute fit. I got the mark though...and one for Mikey. I had Keyana's from last xmas. Keyana is going to be our tall child unless she simply stops growing at some point. She has Jamie and Tony's big feet and Hailie doesnt. Hailie is rail thin right now. Probably because she doesnt eat anything good for her...and when she wont eat, she drinks constant milk and koolaid type drinks. And milk gives her stomach cramps and diarrhea. Ugh.

I am glad this visit did go so much better than the others but I am getting more and more concerned about the kids. Hailie loved being able to be outside in our yard so I think if she had a yard she would do much better. I dont think apartment living is doing her any good. She needs room to run off some of that energy. On the other hand, Mikey has been conditioned to run like the wind every time he gets loose so if he steps foot outside the house and you call him he runs away. Its a game to him because they dont have a yard and he tries to get out there front gate and when he does he just runs down the sidewalk like a mad man.

 

[Hound dog]

Apartment living svcks for kids. At least when we lived in apartment complexes we lived in townhouses which meant we had a patio and a yard area.

Aubrey has got too much energy from not being able to easily play outside too. Nichole does her best to get her out as much as she can, and at least they have a really nice park a walkable distance but still Aubrey is just an outside sort of kid.

I hate "runners". My kids were taught when going to and from the car they had to wait for me by doing the cop frisk stance up against the car. This started at about 18 months. lol Hands had to be touching the car. I started doing that because it drove me nuts how many kids I nearly ran over in parking lots over the years. I had some people look at me like I'd lost my mind, but others thought it was a wonderful idea. At least mine weren't running around wild all over the place. I have to chuckle when I see easy child doing this with her boys and Nichole doing it with Aubrey. lol

Billie and Jamie are going to have their hands over full here shortly with Hallie if they don't start actively parenting her.

 

[DDD]

I'm really glad that all went well....I was holding my breath. Bet you need to play "catch up" on your rest. Hugs DDD

 

[DammitJanet]

Well they do live in a townhouse and have a postage stamp sized front yard and a backyard that would be big enough to put a swing set in and maybe a sand box if it didnt have this stupid shed that has been there since the former owners and it takes up about half the back yard. Jamie keeps his two dogs in it. The yard has no grass in it and is nasty with mud. If they got rid of the shed and put in grass it would be a yard but that would also mean Billie would have to go down to the basement to watch them...not happening.