Another one bites the dust.... ACTUALLY.... Biting is going to be a little more difficult for Caleb now. He was biting onto a towel and wrestling with Daddy and then Daddy pulled on the towel and pulled that tooth right out. Lots of blood and panic, but the reality is that it wouldn't have come out at all if it wasn't at all ready. Explaining that began the calm down process for Caleb, but now he is still self-conscious. I told him he is an excellent SHHH sound maker. He can say SHHH be quiet, SHort, SHape, Shoulder. That kind of helped him on the morning of his first day of school attending as a jack-o-lantern. I told him to look around an there will be other kids with missing teeth.
Jockey had his field trip to the pumpkin patch yesterday. What a great day, especially compared to the bitter cold or rainy days in the years past. He loved rolling in the corn bin, going down the tunnel slides, and RUNNING uncontrolably through the pumpkin patch. I finally pointed to the coming tractor and said that if he didn't have a pumpkin by the time the tractor stopped we were getting on without a pumpkin. THEN he got down the to business of picking out a pumpkin, which was completely different than the one he initially said he wanted to choose.
He was so wild and crazy that I couldn't take him home that way to tear up my house. We ended up at a Burger King letting him play while I worked on a bible study. It was sunny and beautiful, so when we picked up Caleb... we all headed off to the park to play and then walk around the lake. Back to the lesson of grass whistles... On this trip, Jockey's second attempt, he found decent success. This was Caleb's first trip and so I hope on his second trip he will find the same success Jockey did.
One more day of school this week, 3 jobs to work tomorrow and then we can all take a deep breath for the weekend. Mike works all day Saturday (IF he is feeling any better, he cancelled going to fire training today and is struggling to get to the regular job through nausea visits to the bathroom). It's suppose to be raining, so I suppose that will cut down on what we do, but I have hope that we will find fun things.
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Friday, October 15, 2010
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Another quick update....
Caleb is doing AWESOME in school. He's bringing home completed and 100% correct math homework. His teacher tells me it is his own work and he received a 100% on his last math test. He received 100% on his spelling test too. He is reading his "decoder" pamphlets consistently and learning to count by tens etc.
Jockey is enjoying sharing day, although there are never enough sharing days for him. His teachers say they are trying to challenge him a bit more than most the other kids because he is ready for a little push. At home he is working on some sight words, patters, beginning and ending sounds. He can tell me 20 of the 26 sounds in the alphabet. He can count into the +3's so far.
A very good start for both this year with conferences coming up to confirm progress at the end of this month. Also, MOSTLY they are both excited and feeling positive about homework rather than a war each night. Much to my relief.
Awana continues and they are both learning their verses consistently.
This last Saturday we made it to the Monroe Fire Station for their Open house. The boys were able to get a hat, stickers, watch a video on fire alarms, eat popcorn, meet the fire sniffing dog, ride the fire truck, crawl through the "smoke house" trailer to practice getting out of a house, saw a car cut into pieces, spray water at traffic cones with the actual hoses, and lastly eat free pizza. It was a FULL day, and luckily 90% INSIDE on a rainy day. (Better than the alternative, which was a visit to "Bob's Corn Maze").
Caleb did not have school this Monday, but Jockey did... So he used the nice weather to scooter around quite a bit. When it was time to pick up Jockey (2.5 hours later)... he said "oh, good. I miss him. It's been like 10 minutes or 2 hours." I asked him what he wanted to do with his brother... "I don't know". Crazy.
For those of you who don't connect on Facebook... I'll share this funny story of Jockey's.
One day I waved good by to Caleb with an out of the ordinary finger-waggling wave. Jockey asked me what was I doing. I told him that I was waving good by. He promptly tells me that I was not waving.... UNLESS I was waving in CHINESE!
Last Tuesday, Papa Bill came down and spent time hanging out with Jockey while I had to work. They cruised on the scooters all around the extended neighborhood area. Jockey was on the foot pushed razor scooter, and Papa Bill was on a motorized scooter. Amazingly, Jockey did not take a nap that afternoon... we were figuring he would be wiped but no.
Last Friday, our family of 4 ate with Papa and Grammy Dahl and Auntie Kristina and Cousin Tessa at Grammy's "new" house. The kids are in LOVE with a "fort" (aka wrapped around under the stairs storage area). It is the only carpeted place in the whole house and they just play and play in there. Silly Grandparents... Forts are for kids, not storage!
Lesson learned.... These are boys. Aka Future Men. In listening to (and remembering back to when I read the book) an author being interviewed, it occurred to me that the primary way men feel love is to actually be respected. Well, I have future men that I'm trying to foster up right now and I had better build a foundation for the relationship between myself and them now so that it is a respectful one when they are teenagers and in a time of natural coming of age tension. And as one of my mentors pointed out to me today, these efforts will be building into them an expectation or establish a norm in their hearts of what a respectful mom/wife is so that when it comes time to marry this respect is something they will find and gravitate to in potential spouses. It's hard to understand "boy", but it's worth my effort if when they get to be teenagers and we get along and the still give their mom hugs (even if it's at home when no peers can tease).
Getting on to boy level today... I attempted to teach Jockey how to "whistle" with a blade of grass. Hey, it's noisy, odd, "fart-like" or shrill, did I mention loud.... all things boy. One of the still dear and precious things that I love and still cling to about Jockey are his soft and not all the way leaned out child hands... However, these are not the greatest for holding tightly a blade of grass and thus his success was about 2%. We found a compromise though where I held the grass and he blew to make the loud bird-call, fart like sounds. Fortunately we were on the other side of a lake and weren't near anyone to annoy.
I'll try to post pictures soon. Time seems to be a precious commodity, and hardly ever lined up with energy.
Caleb is doing AWESOME in school. He's bringing home completed and 100% correct math homework. His teacher tells me it is his own work and he received a 100% on his last math test. He received 100% on his spelling test too. He is reading his "decoder" pamphlets consistently and learning to count by tens etc.
Jockey is enjoying sharing day, although there are never enough sharing days for him. His teachers say they are trying to challenge him a bit more than most the other kids because he is ready for a little push. At home he is working on some sight words, patters, beginning and ending sounds. He can tell me 20 of the 26 sounds in the alphabet. He can count into the +3's so far.
A very good start for both this year with conferences coming up to confirm progress at the end of this month. Also, MOSTLY they are both excited and feeling positive about homework rather than a war each night. Much to my relief.
Awana continues and they are both learning their verses consistently.
This last Saturday we made it to the Monroe Fire Station for their Open house. The boys were able to get a hat, stickers, watch a video on fire alarms, eat popcorn, meet the fire sniffing dog, ride the fire truck, crawl through the "smoke house" trailer to practice getting out of a house, saw a car cut into pieces, spray water at traffic cones with the actual hoses, and lastly eat free pizza. It was a FULL day, and luckily 90% INSIDE on a rainy day. (Better than the alternative, which was a visit to "Bob's Corn Maze").
Caleb did not have school this Monday, but Jockey did... So he used the nice weather to scooter around quite a bit. When it was time to pick up Jockey (2.5 hours later)... he said "oh, good. I miss him. It's been like 10 minutes or 2 hours." I asked him what he wanted to do with his brother... "I don't know". Crazy.
For those of you who don't connect on Facebook... I'll share this funny story of Jockey's.
One day I waved good by to Caleb with an out of the ordinary finger-waggling wave. Jockey asked me what was I doing. I told him that I was waving good by. He promptly tells me that I was not waving.... UNLESS I was waving in CHINESE!
Last Tuesday, Papa Bill came down and spent time hanging out with Jockey while I had to work. They cruised on the scooters all around the extended neighborhood area. Jockey was on the foot pushed razor scooter, and Papa Bill was on a motorized scooter. Amazingly, Jockey did not take a nap that afternoon... we were figuring he would be wiped but no.
Last Friday, our family of 4 ate with Papa and Grammy Dahl and Auntie Kristina and Cousin Tessa at Grammy's "new" house. The kids are in LOVE with a "fort" (aka wrapped around under the stairs storage area). It is the only carpeted place in the whole house and they just play and play in there. Silly Grandparents... Forts are for kids, not storage!
Lesson learned.... These are boys. Aka Future Men. In listening to (and remembering back to when I read the book) an author being interviewed, it occurred to me that the primary way men feel love is to actually be respected. Well, I have future men that I'm trying to foster up right now and I had better build a foundation for the relationship between myself and them now so that it is a respectful one when they are teenagers and in a time of natural coming of age tension. And as one of my mentors pointed out to me today, these efforts will be building into them an expectation or establish a norm in their hearts of what a respectful mom/wife is so that when it comes time to marry this respect is something they will find and gravitate to in potential spouses. It's hard to understand "boy", but it's worth my effort if when they get to be teenagers and we get along and the still give their mom hugs (even if it's at home when no peers can tease).
Getting on to boy level today... I attempted to teach Jockey how to "whistle" with a blade of grass. Hey, it's noisy, odd, "fart-like" or shrill, did I mention loud.... all things boy. One of the still dear and precious things that I love and still cling to about Jockey are his soft and not all the way leaned out child hands... However, these are not the greatest for holding tightly a blade of grass and thus his success was about 2%. We found a compromise though where I held the grass and he blew to make the loud bird-call, fart like sounds. Fortunately we were on the other side of a lake and weren't near anyone to annoy.
I'll try to post pictures soon. Time seems to be a precious commodity, and hardly ever lined up with energy.
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