Back to School

6:45 am Sneakers velcroed. Backpacks on. Lunchbags packed. Bubbling Excitement. Board the bus!

Miriam grabbed a window seat, looked out at me with the biggest, most excited smile I've ever seen on her, and waved good-bye. It's just Sterling and me.

Sterling Speaks

Sterling was playing with a race car in his room. He was singing to himself, "the R says rrrr. The R says rrrr. Every letter makes a sound, the R says rrrr. Rrrrr! Rrrrr! Like . . . rrrace car!"

Have I recommended the Leapfrog Letter Factory DVD? You can't have this child. And if you buy the DVD, you will not turn your child into this child. He's mine and I'm keeping him.

Brothers and Babysitting

We watched a couple kids on Friday night. Kaith read the little girl's shirt, "It's My Brother's Fault."

"Her shirt has a pretty mean compliment on it," says he.

At the Sprinklers

We made a splash at the county water park over Memorial Weekend.

A Little Piracy

Arrgh, maybe!

Kaith lost his two front teeth within a few days of Cory having his tooth pulled. We laughed and said he and Dad were matching pirates. Kaith's permanent teeth were growing in fast, so we had to take this picture right away before we forgot about it!

If you haven't been seeing enough of us here, you might want to add my other blog (click here) to your sidebar. I've been working much harder on it, lately.

Happy Mother's Day

Cory gave me cold cereal in bed. Miriam colored a wooden box with markers. Trevor gave me a card that said, "Dear Mom, please let me be a missionary. From Trevor. I love you." Kaith gave me a hug.

Happy mother's day to the mother of my husband, and the mother of myself--with very different mothering styles, but, hey--we like the results! And in honor of the mother who made up so much of what I am, I remember Books My Mother Gave Me.

Super Germs

Kaith's super powers have been weak the last week. We finally took him to see the our nurse practitioner, not because his temperature was high (most of the day he didn't have any) but because it was lingering. She did a quick lab test and . . . the super germ is Streptococcus. That's right. We're dealing with strep throat. Thanks to the super drug penicillin, he'll be back to school on Thursday.

So, Grandpa W., are you rethinking whose bed you're sleeping in Wednesday night? It's not to late for us to borrow an air mattress.

Trevor's Love Letter

Trevor put sunflower stickers all over a sheet of paper, drew his own lines, and then wrote me a love letter. He wouldn't let me see until he was done. This is what he surprised me with (spelling and punctuation have been standardized):

Mom you are beautiful and you can cuddle. The end. Wait, there's more air. The end.

Trevor informed me that the "more air" section was the joke part.

Miriam School

'tis the time of year . . . to enroll in next year's preschool.

I have never entrusted the academic instruction of my preschooler to another. Ever.

Imagine you have four young children and enjoy this multiple-choice survey.

Options:

A)the public school.

Pros: It's free. They teach children how to sit at their desks, stand in a line, listen to stories, come in when recess is done, how to talk to their teacher, counting and learning their letters. This preschool prepares them for fewer suspensions and write-ups from kindergarten. The hours align to when Kaith and Trevor have school, so I can drop-off three birds with one stone. I would only have one child with me for eight hours a day on weekdays. Simplified housekeeping. Time for me to read or do hobbies? (I have no idea how Sterling would respond to life-without-sister).

Cons: Miriam is ready for kindergarten math, reading and (almost) writing. Eight hours a day, for 180 days. Getting dressed at 6:30 every morning without hating the mother who is making it happen. Coming home when two big brothers also want to monopolize mother's attention with stories of their day while not walking to the house. One-on-one time with Mom is no longer daily.

B) 3 days of homeschool-preschool, 1 day of dance class, 1 day of library storytime or playgroup

Pros: It's nearly free. Well, okay, semi-cheap. Plenty of quality time together. She gets some social interaction, and so do I (other moms go to playgroups). I'm sure I'd enjoy coming up with the booklist for the year, and the daily reading time. Also, it would be quite satisfying to see my 4-5 year old bearing fruits in kindergarten math (I'm looking at Singapore) and early reading and writing. Remember, I was a kindergarten learning coach for WAVA. I have a pretty good idea what a balanced curriculum is like now.

Cons: will she fail to learn to stand in a line? Will she fail to adjust to the sudden full-day-ness of kindergarten? Will she cry when recess gets over, come kindergarten? Will she wander around the classroom during storytime in kindergarten? (None of this would matter if we were dealing with half-day Washington).

C) Send her to the Lutheran preschool 2 days a week, for $130 a month.

Pros: It's only part-time. Some parents like it. She might learn to stand in line and be social without becoming alien to her mother.

Cons: $130 a month? And I don't get to choose the curriculum?

I see this as extra taxi-driving for me, but I'm quite doubtful I'll see a cleaner house or time to indulge in my talents/fill my calling (RS President).

Naptime

Need I explain?

In the Snow

A few weeks ago we were surprised to see it snow. The locals tell us that this winter has been colder here than it has been in about 20 years. While Cory was outside getting a photo of the house, a neighbour walked by and said, "You almost have to."

Seriously?

Between his teacher's behavior tracking sheets and simple at-home rewards (a cookie) Trevor's school behavior has become greatly improved over the last few months. Originally he only got a frowny face if he did something physical, like poking or kicking another student. Once that was under control, his teacher upgraded to tracking whether he was compliant vs. talking back. It is no longer uncommon for him to bring home a behavior sheet showing a day's worth of smiles. This is good, although he can still have a bad day.

Like today.

Call me calloused, but now I mostly roll my eyes (child not present) when he brings home another office referral. Today's offense? Putting his mouth on another child's arm. That's it. No, no biting. What gets me is the tone of the office administrator's comments, which I'll quote "Trevor intentionally put body fluids on another person. That is a serious health issue for both children. Another incident may result in suspension" (emphasis added).

Seriously?

The Magic of Glasses

Kaith's glasses came in Tuesday. I took him after school to get them fitted. With such a strong prescription, I was expecting a clever comment about how things looked different. He wouldn't even answer questions about how things looked. He was much too busy wrinkling his nose, over and over again.

We drove home. Getting out of the van, he stared at our lawn, then exclaimed "The grass looks a little like pasta with these on!"

All concerns about a difficult few weeks of training him to keep his glasses on has vanished. He put them on first thing this morning, before getting dressed. He doesn't take them off until he goes to bed. It may help that I've been playing up the awesome similarities between himself and Harry Potter: glasses with black frames, yes indeed.

He was so in Harry Potter mode yesterday after school that, after making a k'nex wand, he found book 1 and made a valiant attempt at sounding out the first few pages. He can do it, but it's a huge exercise for him. Here he is photographed with the glasses, wand and Harry Potter book, reading in the kitchen.

Seeing Double

Cory has had suspicions for years. Perhaps I blew them off too easily. In Kaith's school folder was a paper from the nurse's office, and suddenly, I see clearly: why he can't copy the spelling of words on the board; why he gets in people's faces; why he can't color inside the lines; why he may seem clueless about things right in front of his face: Kaith has 20/70 vision. In both eyes. I think I see glasses in the near future.

Christmas Eve

Yes, Christmas Eve. I'm catching up.

Grandma M. decided to sew pajamas for each of the kids, then shipped them cross-country. They got to open them Christmas Eve. The Fancy Nancy fabric on Miriam's is not left to its own merits. Nancy would not approve. The ribbons, lace, and gathers quite do her justice.

Sterling was delighted with the trucks on his. Trevor matches and Kaith--oh, his pajama pants are hiding--he has safari trucks. You think they're too excited for bed? Oh, no. It was daddy who was too excited for Christmas to sleep properly.

My Favorite Adopting Parents

If you know of anyone looking to place a baby for adoption through LDS Family Services, please encourage them to consider Steve and LeeAnn, a fun couple, very active in the Church (currently he's a counselor in a bishopric, always smiling, knows the names of most children in nursery; she's a Mia Maid leader) with lots of interesting hobbies.

They started the adoption process about a year and a half ago, and are now just waiting for the right person to read their profile. When your cursor goes over their picture, it reads "1+1=3 . . . we'd love it if you'd help us make the math work out." (If you go to their adoption blog, scroll past the "under construction" topics to get to the meat of it).

Miriam's Birthday

For breakfast, Miriam (and Sterling) had Christmas marshmallows in their oatmeal. That is also when Miriam got to open her card from Grandma and Grandpa M. She loved counting the pearls. I made her cake. I can't recommend piping with reduced sugar frosting. I had intended to put all four of her little princesses on the cake, but could only find Snow White that day. Aurora was sleeping in the barn when I had put it up.

Miriam's favorite gift was a ballerina music box from Grandparents. Her big present from us was a doll highchair. She was excited, sure, "It's a . . . a . . . !" I hadn't realized she didn't know the word highchair, but since we've never had one . . .