My 7 month old!

James

Loves banana and orange baby food, Nilla wafers, and baby Goldfish. He lights up when I enter the room. He rolls front and back and even bumps up on his knees. He loves to move his legs and bounce around. He has a serious side and is very attuned to the world around him. He reacts to the feelings in others more so than any baby I've ever seen. His blue eyes are piercing and so bright! He is ticklish under arms, producing wonderful fits of giggles. He loves his brothers. He also likes to watch the colors on t.v. and Baby Bach is his favorite thing to watch. We are so grateful everyday that we have him. He was worth the wait, the sickness, the weekly shots, the restrictions, his delivery gone bad, and the difficult recovery. Our family feels so complete with him.

I Know This Is A Little Late...

But I do have school starting stuff to post. Things have been so busy! I'll start with me and work backwards.

I have a good class this year. They are a typical bunch chatty wrestling kindergartners. The only downside is there are 22 of them. That is a lot of little 5 year olds in one room with one person. I also forget every year how young they are! Kindergartners still such babies at the beginning of the year. It takes them until about October before they really understand how school works and become more self-sufficient. But they will get there, it just takes time.

Nathan

Nathan is going to a babysitter with James until January, at which time I hope to get him into a preschool/daycare. He likes his new sitter, Charlissa, but hew does not like his baby cousin Hailey who she also watches. No offense Hailey, but Nathan doesn't like any babies, especially a baby that can get into his stuff. He didn't like the babies at his sitter last year. He is okay with James for now, but I know that story will change when James becomes mobile. It is something Naters will just have to get over.

One day Nathan brought his Little Einsteins rocket with him. Hailey liked the rocket. Nathan would put a little person in and go to put in the next one as Hailey took out the one he just put in. At one point he looked at her and said, "This is NOT a toy!" He also looked at her and matter of factly said, "I don't like you." Poor Hailey, she just wants to play. And poor Nathan, he doesn't want babies to touch his stuff and he's too stubborn to move his things out of the way.

As for his visit to the neurologist, his fine motor skills are developmentally delayed. He is having migraines. The doctor is a little concerned. His office exam went fine, but given his delay, and the increasing frequency of his headaches combined with his age he wants an EGG and an MRI. He already had the EGG, but I have to schedule the MRI with the hospital tomorrow because he will be under sedation. It is probably nothing, but he is fairly young to have these issues and we want to make sure. The doctor said if he were 8 or 9 and having migraines it would be much less concerning. But in a 4 year old is different. I'll update more as I know.

Kenny- The First Grader

Kenny came with me to my school this year. I was a little hesitant about taking him away from his home campus, but there are some perks at my school. One being I get to pick his teacher. Another being I am good friends with that teacher and get to hear stories. My very dear friend, Mrs. R. is a great first grade teacher. We taught together for 3 years before I moved to kinder and I was both her sons first grade teachers. Her personality and teaching style is perfect for Kenny. He really likes her and likes his new school.

And true to form, he has charmed the staff already with his wit. Here are a few examples.

DAY 1- When his teacher came to tell them to clean up after lunch and get ready to go, he looked right at her and politely said, "I am not finished with my lunch. I was too busy communicating with my friends to have time to eat." Well, too bad little mister, more eating less talking.

DAY 2- The class was supposed to decorate a little foam fish sticker or paper or something like that. Kenny paced his sea animal stickers and then drew an elaborate pirate scene with a story about the bad man walking the plank and God rescuing him and something something something. His poor teacher had other things she needed to attend to while he was deep into his story so when the principal walked in she passed him off to her and he continued his tale to my boss.

DAY 3 and 4- He took on an alter ego- a robot. He spent his time submerged in this alternate reality in his mind where he is a (his words) "fully automated robot machine." In the library he started messing with hands around his eyes. When asked what he was doing he said he was adjusting his focus or something. He came home on Friday with paper goggles on. His teacher told him if he was a robot she, as a human, should have a master control switch to turn off his volume. He didn't like that idea and told her he was the kind of robot who could do all that himself. I had to tell him that night to install an extra listening software to his robot memory systems before school the next day. At least it worked, he listened better.

He did several other funny little things with other teacher. The good news, he is behaving fairly well and his teacher doesn't mind the alter ego as long as he gets things done and doesn't bother other people. He will also be tested for G/T this year.

On a note school related note...at dinner the other day he stated the following regarding his vegetables, Mama, this is repulsive." I looked at him asked if he even knew what that meant to which he replied, "Repulsive means worser than bad. Like a tomato salad mixed with light bulbs. That would be repulsive."

Play Place Police

I has been raining off and on for a few days and has kept it just wet enough outside so the kids can't play there. Ken is home with them this week until Kenny starts school. They were driving him crazy (imagine that) and so he took them to a Burger King play place to get the wiggles out.

Being the scholar that he is, Kenny dutifully read the rules regarding the indoor playground. Once well versed he took it upon himself to make sure all the other kids were following the rules.

(Walking up to strange kids) "Are you under 4 feet tall?" "You can't have shoes on and you need socks."

This Acronym Thing Is Getting Ridiculous

All career fields have their jargon. And education LOVES acronyms. To the point that it is getting ridiculous. I sat through a training today where my co-worker and I circled all the different acronyms on the handout. Eight.

Let me show you...

I know a few of you will actually understand most of this.

I am a ECE teacher (early childhood). I work in Texas teaching the TEKS (Texas Essential Knowledge Skills) in order for my students to pass the state mandated TAKS (Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills) test and the ITBS (Iowa Test of Basic Skills). Every nine weeks, I administer the K-Tips in order to score my students for their report card. I also administer the TPRI (Texas something Reading Inventory). If a student is an ESL (English Second Language) learner I also administer the TELPAS (I have no idea what this stands for). We do all this testing in compliance with the federal NCLB (No Child Left Behind) act. The government gives TEA (Texas Education Agency)guidelines to score each district and give them an AYP (Annual Yearly Progress) number based on test scores.

My training today focused on the new TEA mandated curriculum for all grade levels called the ELPS (English Language Proficiency Standards). The ELPS are for the LEP (Limited English Proficiency) and ELL (English Language Learners) students, but will benefit all kids. The ELPS focus on taking students from using the BICS (basic interpersonal communicative skills) to the CALPS (cognitive academic language proficiency skills). Essentially, getting students out of the informal, social language and using more vocabulary in the academic, formal register. I need to note my use of the ELPS in my lesson plans as a formal TLWBAT (the learner will be able to) followed by the specific language objective I wish them to obtain. How well I implement the ELPS will be reflected on my PDAS (Professional Development and Appraisal System) evaluation.

Now, aren't you glad you read this.

And people, this is just the tip of the acronym iceburg in education jargon.

Back To The Grind

I returned to work today. No kids yet. Just meetings...and more meetings...and more meetings. Starting a school year is always a little bittersweet. Always a little exciting. but I miss my kids terribly. Unfortunately, I have a bit of a cold. Not the best timing. James still wakes up A LOT during the night whinpering or sobbing for a minute or so. I can't sleep through it so I am very tired. And now I have an alarm going off at 5:45 every morning. Oh well. Such is life. At least I have a job that puts food on the table and a roof over our heads. I have a lot to be grateful for.

A Little of This and a Little of That...

"That's right Mom. I am one step closer to crawling. Ha Ha!"

We got bored one night, so I found a few plain cotton shirts in the boys drawers, supplied them with a variety of fabric paints, and went to watch a movie while the boys expanded thier creative minds. What a great mom.

James and I took some self-portraits. This was the only one I deemed moderately okay for internet distribution. Of course James looks amazing in all the pictures, but he is a super-model baby!

We really know how to kick it up 'round here!

Rainy Day Fun

This was our project for the day. I found these on a dollar rack at JoAnn's fabric. I still need to get them hung up outside. The boys had a great time painting them. They painted a background, let it dry, and put in the foreground (terminology according to Kenny). The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and cleaning floors. Not nearly as fun as painting birdhouses.

Night Time Wanderings

Last week I was sleeping on the couch in a futile attempt to ignore James' all night crying sessions. I woke up to the sound of a crunch in my ear. I pried an eye open to see little Nathan standing over me in the dark eating an apple. I asked him if he was okay and he replied, "I hungry." Then he just stood there, staring at me and eating his apple. I told him to go upstairs and get Daddy if he needed something.

The next morning Ken told me he woke up to a 'Crunch...chomp...chomp...chomp...Crunch...chomp...chomp...chomp..." He looked over and there was Nathan, on my side of the bed with an apple in one hand and a bag of jelly beans in the other.

Just last night Ken fell asleep downstairs watching t.v. and I woke up at 3 in the morning with a little boy, wearing different pjs, and covered in chocolate in bed with me. Somehow, without making a sound, Nathan got up, changed his clothes, went downstairs, helped himself to some M&Ms, wnet back upstairs, got his pillow and blanket, moved into my bed, and went fast asleep.

He can move with stealth. It's a bit creepy.

My Favorite Outfit!

He is just TOO CUTE for words!!

He finally figured out how to eat a whole rice puff and use his sippy cup. Now He's trying to pick up his puffs on his own, but his doesn't have the pincher thing down. It's so sweet to watch him grab a puff in his fist and try to shove his fist in his mouth.

Adventures in Cupcakes

These were made for my Mom's birthday by me, Katherine, and David. We had a cookout so thought these were appropriate.
Cassie and I made the sunflowers. It was a bit if an ordeal getting semi-decent petals on the flowers, but we had fun and learned a lot and have plans for more in the future.

Making cupcakes is FUN! Especially with a friends.

Trip to San Antonio

Last weekend the boys and I made an impromptu visit to San Antonio with my parents to visit my brother and slide over to Austin for Landan's 5th birthday party. It was fun and I am glad we made the trip. I had never been to San Antonio. We went down to the Riverwalk and had GREAT barbecue. I also found a gift shop and got myself some new windchimes to go on my new deck (more on that later.) I lost all my windchimes to Hurricane Ike.

We also went to eh Alamo, which I found fascinating, but the boys were a bit bored.
I have more to post anout the trip, but my baby is crying and won't let me continue. More later!

Ya Pack Rats!

(Mom, Dad, I told you I was going to blog about this. Love ya!)
Most of you know my parents are moving tomorrow to the land of the heathens for the next 6 1/2 years. This means they have cleaned out everything. I got several boxes of spices and while Cassie and I were going through them and dividing them amongst ourselves, we found these.
The cloves on the bottom in the red container were bought from Kroger. There are no Kroger stores in the north so this was bought in Texas. The expiration date is Oct. 1983! They bought those when they lived in Baytown in the early 80s!! And they have carted them around from state to state since then. Plus the container was 90% full. And they had another box of cloves they expired in 1988. All the spices pictured above expired in the 80s.

People, it is okay to toss ancient food. I will send you the $2 to get more cloves.