You know how you can remember Kindergarten, but you don't really remember it? I remember my first day because I was switched to a new class at the last minute and it took awhile to find the right place for me to go. I remember not wanting my mom to leave me there. I remember there were only 12 kids in my class (private school) and only 2 of us were girls. I remember one day we had pink cupcakes for the other girl's birthday and then she threw up in the class and it was pink and that was when I made the connection that what goes in must come out. I remember the first sentence I had to read out loud by myself: "Dad, can Al ride the bus?" I remember being bored a lot of the time. I remember being so terribly shy to the point that I would intentionally not finish my work so that I would be made to stay inside by myself while the other kids went to recess; that was when I could breathe. I remember wanting to take a backpack to school except there was no reason to, but I took one anyway filled up with toys.
What I don't remember about Kindergarten was how much coloring goes on! No wonder I had to buy 5 boxes of crayons for Collin's school supply list. That's all they do! He has brought home a stack of papers that he has colored. At this rate I will need to replace all those crayons by Christmas. The problem is that Collin has never been that big on coloring. He will draw pictures using that wonderful imagination of his, but he will hardly ever sit down with a coloring book and fill in the pictures. His pictures always include words too. They don't do much writing in Kindergarten. Not yet anyway.
There is a color chart on the wall and each child has a clothes pin, or something similar, with their name on it clipped on the chart. Everyone starts each day on green, but if you have bad behavior then your pin is moved to different colors and there is some type of consequence for each one. The first step down is a warning, then a time out, then the child is not allowed to play at recess, and eventually they are sent to the office is the offense is bad enough. For the first time on Tuesday, Collin had his pin moved down a color... to blue.
When I picked him up he was playing outside and when he saw me he turned around and ran in the other direction. He finally came back around to me and told me that he had to go on blue but he did not want to talk about it. He had a little snack that another child had shared with him and wanted to eat it on the way home. I told him he could but only if he told me what happened. He reluctantly agreed. He said at first he was talking when he wasn't supposed to and then later he was supposed to be (you guessed it!) coloring, but he was singing instead. I had to try hard not to laugh at that one! I asked if he was finished coloring when he started singing, he said no. He said he just didn't want to color anymore and that was why he was singing. Who can blame him for being sick of coloring? Although that does not excuse the singing. He was really upset about the blue mark. He told me he thought he would stay on green forever. I tried to explain that green is not a guarantee and he would have to work for it every day. I also explained that I will always love him no matter what color he comes home with. He wanted to know specifically if I would still love him if he had to go to the office. I assured him I would, but I wouldn't be very happy if that happened.
This morning when I woke him up I asked him, like I always do, if he had nice dreams. He is so creative and I love hearing his stories. I don't know if he really dreams up the stuff he tells me about or if he's just making it up, but I'm leaning towards the latter. So he tells me he had a bad dream. In his dream Owen wrote the letter A and the letter X and I was very proud of him. But then Collin also wrote an A and an X but I was not proud of him. That just almost broke my heart. I took this opportunity (as a nerd) to use my favorite line from the newest Star Trek movie spoken by Spock's mom: "No matter what you choose to be, you will always have a proud mother."
He was resolved today to do better and stay on green and he achieved his goal! I think this lesson really sunk in, for now anyway. No telling what the future will hold!
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Monday, August 22, 2011
Kindergarten!
Today was Collin's first day of Kindergarten! It feels like we have been building up to this day since before he was born. We moved to Watauga when I was about 6 months pregnant with Collin and part of the reason we chose this location was to be inside of Birdville ISD which has always had a pretty good reputation. We have driven by the elementary school so many times and talked about when he would finally get to walk through those doors. Today was a big day.
When Collin woke up he wasn't quite as excited about school as he was last night when he went to sleep. He wouldn't admit to being nervous and never said he was scared or that he didn't want to go, but honestly, how can you not be nervous? Timothy and I both had the day off work so that we would be able to drop off and pick him up. We had planned to go out to breakfast before school, but Collin said that he would rather just have cereal at home if that was alright. Owen was really sad about this because that child is in love with Whataburger breakfast for some reason. Collin said he didn't mind if we took Owen there to eat after we dropped him off, but he would still rather eat at home today.
Since we had planned to go out we were actually really early getting ready so we had plenty of time for pictures. At first he didn't want to show his face, but it's a nice shot of his backpack. (Which I got on SALE from the Disney store and even had his name embroidered on it.)
Then he agreed to turn around.
And of course Owen had to be included too. This is a big day for him too. He is used to his Bubba being right down the hall at daycare all day so this will be a bit of a change for him as well.
Waiting in from of the school. All out of smiles at the moment.
Sitting at his desk with his name tag on.
He did a great job and wasn't upset at all. He was a little shy sitting at a table with other kids he didn't know, but he does have a friend in his class from daycare. They are so sweet together and run up and hug every day, just so happy to see each other. And they call each other 'Bud', it doesn't get much more manly than that even if you do hug all the time. :-)
As for me, I was a bit worried that I would lose it and cry all the way home with Timothy dragging me to the car, but it was really okay. We walked him into class at 8:00 and put his things away and did pictures and hugs and we were still outside before the tardy bell rang at 8:10. I think that's pretty good for the first day. I'm still terrified that he will get lost in that big school, or something will go wrong with the daycare bus dropping him off or picking him up, but now we are past the first day and it should be all down hill from here. Right?
After Timothy and Owen and I finally got our Whataburger, I took Owen to play with sweet Sadie for a little bit. It was a rather impromptu play date (Is it still a play date if my main motivation is to spend time with my friend?) but I was so happy to be able to go today. Sally and I met on the first day of school twenty years ago. (You know, when we were like one, because I'm not that old!) I don't get to see her as often as I would like, but I'm very grateful to have her in my life.
Owen fell asleep on the way home, still trying to talk the whole way bless his heart. After taking him home and resting a little bit I ran to Wal-Mart because suddenly I had decided that any decent mother would have freshly baked cookies for her little boy on his first day of school. Also, I had an idea for a gift for him. I bought this material called organdy (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried) which is thin and sheer like organza but made from cotton instead of silk. (Totally just ripped that off Wikipedia because I am NOT that crafty.) Anyway, I got a gray color with glitter sparkles in the material so Collin could have an Invisibility Cloak like Harry Potter. He told me the other day that he wanted one. It's amazing how 2 yards of unaltered material can make a boy so happy! He loved it!
**Side note - The little old lady at the cloth counter asked what I was making with the material and I told her fully expecting to get a glassy eyed stare and that look that you get when you admit to being a nerd. She completely surprised me by being a fellow Harry Potter fan and thought the cloak was an awesome idea. She had to be 80 years old. She excitedly told me that she owned all the movies released so far and can't wait to go back and see the new one in the theater again because she wants to see it in 3D this time! I told her I'm not that fond of 3D movies and I'm too old for them. She told me that it's important to act like a kid for as long as you possibly can and she still tries to do that every day. I sincerely hope I can be that cool when I grow up.**
Collin gave me little tidbits from his day which is as much as you can expect from someone his age. He had fun in Gym, didn't have enough time to eat all his lunch, and he was good in class and his clothespin got to stay in the green section. He was a little mad at us for picking him up because he wanted to ride on the daycare bus with his friend, but there will be plenty of time for that. In the car on the way home he asked me if he could eat the rest of his apple sauce when we got home. Um, you mean the applesauce in the little plastic cup with the foil lid you peel off? The one that is not resealable? Yup, all over the brand new lunch bag! Ew!
So we learned today that if you open the apple sauce and don't finish it, it's still okay to throw it away. I can't wait to see what other new things he will learn this week.
When Collin woke up he wasn't quite as excited about school as he was last night when he went to sleep. He wouldn't admit to being nervous and never said he was scared or that he didn't want to go, but honestly, how can you not be nervous? Timothy and I both had the day off work so that we would be able to drop off and pick him up. We had planned to go out to breakfast before school, but Collin said that he would rather just have cereal at home if that was alright. Owen was really sad about this because that child is in love with Whataburger breakfast for some reason. Collin said he didn't mind if we took Owen there to eat after we dropped him off, but he would still rather eat at home today.
Since we had planned to go out we were actually really early getting ready so we had plenty of time for pictures. At first he didn't want to show his face, but it's a nice shot of his backpack. (Which I got on SALE from the Disney store and even had his name embroidered on it.)
Then he agreed to turn around.
And of course Owen had to be included too. This is a big day for him too. He is used to his Bubba being right down the hall at daycare all day so this will be a bit of a change for him as well.
Waiting in from of the school. All out of smiles at the moment.
Sitting at his desk with his name tag on.
He did a great job and wasn't upset at all. He was a little shy sitting at a table with other kids he didn't know, but he does have a friend in his class from daycare. They are so sweet together and run up and hug every day, just so happy to see each other. And they call each other 'Bud', it doesn't get much more manly than that even if you do hug all the time. :-)
As for me, I was a bit worried that I would lose it and cry all the way home with Timothy dragging me to the car, but it was really okay. We walked him into class at 8:00 and put his things away and did pictures and hugs and we were still outside before the tardy bell rang at 8:10. I think that's pretty good for the first day. I'm still terrified that he will get lost in that big school, or something will go wrong with the daycare bus dropping him off or picking him up, but now we are past the first day and it should be all down hill from here. Right?
After Timothy and Owen and I finally got our Whataburger, I took Owen to play with sweet Sadie for a little bit. It was a rather impromptu play date (Is it still a play date if my main motivation is to spend time with my friend?) but I was so happy to be able to go today. Sally and I met on the first day of school twenty years ago. (You know, when we were like one, because I'm not that old!) I don't get to see her as often as I would like, but I'm very grateful to have her in my life.
Owen fell asleep on the way home, still trying to talk the whole way bless his heart. After taking him home and resting a little bit I ran to Wal-Mart because suddenly I had decided that any decent mother would have freshly baked cookies for her little boy on his first day of school. Also, I had an idea for a gift for him. I bought this material called organdy (I couldn't make this stuff up if I tried) which is thin and sheer like organza but made from cotton instead of silk. (Totally just ripped that off Wikipedia because I am NOT that crafty.) Anyway, I got a gray color with glitter sparkles in the material so Collin could have an Invisibility Cloak like Harry Potter. He told me the other day that he wanted one. It's amazing how 2 yards of unaltered material can make a boy so happy! He loved it!
**Side note - The little old lady at the cloth counter asked what I was making with the material and I told her fully expecting to get a glassy eyed stare and that look that you get when you admit to being a nerd. She completely surprised me by being a fellow Harry Potter fan and thought the cloak was an awesome idea. She had to be 80 years old. She excitedly told me that she owned all the movies released so far and can't wait to go back and see the new one in the theater again because she wants to see it in 3D this time! I told her I'm not that fond of 3D movies and I'm too old for them. She told me that it's important to act like a kid for as long as you possibly can and she still tries to do that every day. I sincerely hope I can be that cool when I grow up.**
Collin gave me little tidbits from his day which is as much as you can expect from someone his age. He had fun in Gym, didn't have enough time to eat all his lunch, and he was good in class and his clothespin got to stay in the green section. He was a little mad at us for picking him up because he wanted to ride on the daycare bus with his friend, but there will be plenty of time for that. In the car on the way home he asked me if he could eat the rest of his apple sauce when we got home. Um, you mean the applesauce in the little plastic cup with the foil lid you peel off? The one that is not resealable? Yup, all over the brand new lunch bag! Ew!
So we learned today that if you open the apple sauce and don't finish it, it's still okay to throw it away. I can't wait to see what other new things he will learn this week.
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Happy Birthday Owen!
Owen's 3rd birthday was yesterday (the 12th) and we had his party today. He had a great time with both. He knew his birthday was on Friday and every day this week when he woke up the first words out of his mouth were "Is it Friday today?" Collin and I woke him up singing Happy Birthday and he popped right up and bounced all over his bed saying "Yay! Yipee! Yay!"
I was kinda bummed that I wasn't able to take the day off work to spend with him, but we will have a parents/Owen day on Collin's first day of school in a week. We started the day with donuts at his request. He had a hard time deciding between the donut shop and Whataburger for breakfast, but let's face it, we all knew what would win in that contest. We took cupcakes to daycare to share with his class and after school we all went to Cici's Pizza, which my boys consider to be just as cool as Chuck E Cheeses. (I'm so grateful for that since it's way easier.)
We came home with pockets full of candy from the game room and Owen got to open some presents. He got a Perry the platypus and a Daisy Duck stuffed animals. (The Daisy was to complete his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse collection.) He also got a Mickey Mouse DVD and a lightsaber that Collin picked out for him.
We had his party this morning with lots of Nowells and Wiethoffs to bring in the fun. Collin and Owen had a blast playing with Cooper and Sadie and Annie. One of my favorite parts was when Collin and Cooper had what looked like a lightsaber fight, but was actually a wizard duel using the lightsabers for wands and casting Harry Potter spells. It was awesome! I love our geek kids!
Everyone seemed to enjoy Owen's pink cupcakes even though by the end of the party he said he favorite color was no longer pink but purple now. It was super nice to visit with everyone today.
My blondy bear is growing up and is so full of energy. Hobbies include bouncing off the walls, throwing things, falling down, wrestling with his brother, and running around in circles. He has almost no attention span, but makes up for it with a lot of attitude! He is the best and I am so grateful for him and the chance to watch him grow.
I was kinda bummed that I wasn't able to take the day off work to spend with him, but we will have a parents/Owen day on Collin's first day of school in a week. We started the day with donuts at his request. He had a hard time deciding between the donut shop and Whataburger for breakfast, but let's face it, we all knew what would win in that contest. We took cupcakes to daycare to share with his class and after school we all went to Cici's Pizza, which my boys consider to be just as cool as Chuck E Cheeses. (I'm so grateful for that since it's way easier.)
We came home with pockets full of candy from the game room and Owen got to open some presents. He got a Perry the platypus and a Daisy Duck stuffed animals. (The Daisy was to complete his Mickey Mouse Clubhouse collection.) He also got a Mickey Mouse DVD and a lightsaber that Collin picked out for him.
We had his party this morning with lots of Nowells and Wiethoffs to bring in the fun. Collin and Owen had a blast playing with Cooper and Sadie and Annie. One of my favorite parts was when Collin and Cooper had what looked like a lightsaber fight, but was actually a wizard duel using the lightsabers for wands and casting Harry Potter spells. It was awesome! I love our geek kids!
Everyone seemed to enjoy Owen's pink cupcakes even though by the end of the party he said he favorite color was no longer pink but purple now. It was super nice to visit with everyone today.
My blondy bear is growing up and is so full of energy. Hobbies include bouncing off the walls, throwing things, falling down, wrestling with his brother, and running around in circles. He has almost no attention span, but makes up for it with a lot of attitude! He is the best and I am so grateful for him and the chance to watch him grow.
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Date Night
For a few weeks now, Collin has brought up several times that he wanted to take me out on a date. There were several rules that he explained to me about how this was supposed to happen. First, I would be required to wear a dress. Second, we had to go out at night when it's dark. (That one didn't happen because it doesn't get dark until after 9:00 or something.) Third we had to go to a nice restaurant, specifically, Red Lobster. He was terribly sweet and cute about the whole thing. I asked what he was going to wear since I had to dress up. He said he thought he should have a white shirt with a tie. Since he doesn't own either of these two things I told him he didn't have to if he didn't want to. His response, "Well okay, but if you want me to then I would." I told him he needed Daddy's permission to go on a date with me, so he asked. Daddy was cool with it and just asked Collin to have me home by 9.
So tonight was the big night. Timothy took Collin out on the front porch to ring the doorbell so he could 'pick me up' for our date. We went to see a movie before dinner, because that's what you do. I gave Collin some money and told him what to say and he walked up to the counter and bought our tickets. We saw Smurfs, which by the way I would not recommend. Collin got a little box of candy but reminded me that we should not eat too much because then we wouldn't be hungry for dinner later. The movie kinda sucked and he even asked if we could leave at one point, but we stuck it out. It ended alright I guess, but poor Neil Patrick Harris (whose character was distractingly named Patrick) couldn't even save this movie for me and I really like him so that tells you something. Of course, I may not be the best audience as my brother and I are the only people in this country to grow up in the 80's without watching the Smurfs. (See future post about my unique childhood.)
After the movie we had to go spend a dollar in the arcade so we played air hockey!
Collin kept saying that if he could hit the puck hard enough and get it up to 88 miles per hour then we could open a portal and travel through time. I love that my kids are nerds.
After declining Collin's suggestion that we should buy more $4 movie theater candy so that we could have a snack on the way to dinner, we were off. There was a bit of a line already when we got to Red Lobster and we got one of those buzzer things that Collin was so proud to be in charge of and we hung out with the lobsters for awhile.
I told him it would light up and start buzzing when it was our turn and that made him a bit nervous. He thought it may be loud and scare him, but we watched a few other groups when their buzzers went off so he would know what it looked and sounded like. My little Gryffindor handled it well and calmly turned it into the hostess when it was our turn.
We took several self-portraits and this was the best we could get. I think he was making that face on purpose because they all looked like that.
So we sat down and ordered drinks. He had been looking forward to that Dr. Pepper all day. Then I showed him how to put a napkin on his lap. About a minute later that napkin came in handy when he forgot you're not supposed to tilt a cup that has a straw in it. I thought it was nice that he got to see it in practice, and also it was lucky that it all landed on the napkin and nothing on his clothes.
We had fun looking through the dessert menu while we waited for our food. Funny enough after he finished eating I asked him if he wanted some of that chocolate cake he had been looking at and he said if it was okay with me he would rather just have a piece of gum from my purse. I love it!
Of course we had to spend some time looking at the fish tank too. It's always so pretty. Then we stopped at the Office Depot across the street to buy the last thing on his school supply list and we headed home.
I'm not sure if his first date was everything he thought it would be, but I think he had fun and I know I did. :-)
So tonight was the big night. Timothy took Collin out on the front porch to ring the doorbell so he could 'pick me up' for our date. We went to see a movie before dinner, because that's what you do. I gave Collin some money and told him what to say and he walked up to the counter and bought our tickets. We saw Smurfs, which by the way I would not recommend. Collin got a little box of candy but reminded me that we should not eat too much because then we wouldn't be hungry for dinner later. The movie kinda sucked and he even asked if we could leave at one point, but we stuck it out. It ended alright I guess, but poor Neil Patrick Harris (whose character was distractingly named Patrick) couldn't even save this movie for me and I really like him so that tells you something. Of course, I may not be the best audience as my brother and I are the only people in this country to grow up in the 80's without watching the Smurfs. (See future post about my unique childhood.)
After the movie we had to go spend a dollar in the arcade so we played air hockey!
Collin kept saying that if he could hit the puck hard enough and get it up to 88 miles per hour then we could open a portal and travel through time. I love that my kids are nerds.
After declining Collin's suggestion that we should buy more $4 movie theater candy so that we could have a snack on the way to dinner, we were off. There was a bit of a line already when we got to Red Lobster and we got one of those buzzer things that Collin was so proud to be in charge of and we hung out with the lobsters for awhile.
I told him it would light up and start buzzing when it was our turn and that made him a bit nervous. He thought it may be loud and scare him, but we watched a few other groups when their buzzers went off so he would know what it looked and sounded like. My little Gryffindor handled it well and calmly turned it into the hostess when it was our turn.
We took several self-portraits and this was the best we could get. I think he was making that face on purpose because they all looked like that.
So we sat down and ordered drinks. He had been looking forward to that Dr. Pepper all day. Then I showed him how to put a napkin on his lap. About a minute later that napkin came in handy when he forgot you're not supposed to tilt a cup that has a straw in it. I thought it was nice that he got to see it in practice, and also it was lucky that it all landed on the napkin and nothing on his clothes.
We had fun looking through the dessert menu while we waited for our food. Funny enough after he finished eating I asked him if he wanted some of that chocolate cake he had been looking at and he said if it was okay with me he would rather just have a piece of gum from my purse. I love it!
Of course we had to spend some time looking at the fish tank too. It's always so pretty. Then we stopped at the Office Depot across the street to buy the last thing on his school supply list and we headed home.
I'm not sure if his first date was everything he thought it would be, but I think he had fun and I know I did. :-)
Friday, July 29, 2011
Potty, shoes, and naps.
I wonder how many times you can start a blog entry with something like "sorry it's been so long but I'm still alive" before it starts to get old. You may just want to insert that on your own each time before you start reading.
We had a super cool and fun vacation to San Antonio last week, but I can't be bothered to upload pictures from the camera and the story wouldn't be nearly as good without pictures, so I'm saving that for later.
We all had a whole week off from work and daycare and it was so nice to spend time together. We never got to sleep in but that's okay because we would have just had to readjust our schedules back to normal anyway. One of these days I"m going to start acting my age and go to bed at a decent hour. I'll probably learn how to do that about the time Collin and Owen hit middle school and start sleeping till noon so we will still be off!
One of the coolest things to come out of our vacation week was that Owen is now officially, all the way, 100%, no turning back, POTTY TRAINED! I swear God must've known I needed a break and gave Owen the wisdom to do it himself. He started going pee around the first of May and was almost instantly ready to go all night without a pull-up or diaper. He has been scared to go poo in the potty up until last week. I think he just needed a little motivation. The boys and I were swimming at the hotel pool (Timothy doesn't do water stuff) and Owen had to go potty so we all trooped into the little bathroom next to the pool. Owen was fussing and asking for a diaper and I told him I didn't have any and if he didn't go poo in the potty I would have to take him back to Daddy in the hotel room and Collin and I would keep swimming. A few minutes later he had done his business and we were all 3 back in the pool! Right now it's been almost 2 weeks with no pull-ups or diapers at all and zero accidents! He is so awesome.
That awesome little baby is about to turn 3. I can't believe it. I flipped my calendar at work before I left today, because when I get back on Monday it will be August. There is was staring me in the face: Owen's birthday on the 12th and Collin starts school on the 22nd! Goodness. I ordered Collin's backpack and lunch bag this week from the online Disney store because they were having a sale and he wanted Phineas and Ferb stuff. We should get them in a few days. I took him shoe shopping too. I have to tell you about the shoes!
My friend Sally has a son, Cooper, who is only 7 months older than Collin, but he's much taller and just generally bigger. Poor Collin didn't get any tall genes from me. Anyway, they have been nice enough over the years to pass along some things that Cooper has grown out of. About 2 years ago Cooper grew out of a new pair of shoes so quickly that they were hardly used. Collin loved them so much because they were Sketchers and we don't ever buy fancy shoes that you see in commercials. They were huge on him! I'm talking clown shoes. They would fall off his feet if he walked too fast, forget running. But he insisted on wearing them ALL THE TIME. There were a few times we wouldn't let him, like when he played T-ball last year, but mostly we figured if he wanted to put up with his shoes flopping around all the time that was his business. Now 2 years later they still fit him but they have been through a lot and don't look so nice anymore so I told him we would buy him a new pair of Sketchers for school. Would you believe that when we were trying on shoes we ended up with a pair the same size as he's been wearing? It's nice to finally know what size his foot is, because I haven't know for a long time now. I don't normally recommend name brand stuff, but if you need some sneakers that will last and you're willing to part with $40ish it's not a bad deal. I'm so grateful for that old pair of shoes. They saved us a lot of money.
Now I'm wondering if that story makes me sound like I have raggy looking children with ill-fitting clothing. Collin always owned at least one other pair of shoes that would not fall off his feet, he just refused to wear them. Owen will sometimes insist, like today, that he wants to wear Collin's clothes. Collin is all too happy to share and dress his little brother. At first I told them that Owen could borrow shirts, but not pants because they would fall off. Collin proved me wrong on that one. Owen's little 2 year old belly can hold up those size 5 shorts without a problem. They are a bit long, but he's happy. Crazy boys!
One more and I'm done.....
I've been having an ongoing discussion with the daycare about keeping Collin awake at nap time. I really don't understand why they insist that the kids about to start school should still take naps. I think surely it would help them to have a transition period. Collin hasn't been taking naps at home for a long time now, and when he does sleep at school he will not go to sleep at night. There have been nights when I've gone to bed at 11:00 and he is still awake in his bed. Not cool. I try to remind Collin to stay up, but his teachers like him to lay down until the other kids go to sleep then they will get him up, but by that time he's already slept for 30 minutes and it's all over. He slept on both Monday and Tuesday this week, so on Wednesday morning in the car I reminded him not to go to sleep. It went like this:
Me: Remember not to go to sleep at nap time today.
Collin: It's not my fault because Ms Savana makes me go to sleep.
Me: How can she make you sleep? All these years I've never been able to figure out how to make you go to sleep if you didn't want to.
Collin: Mom, look at me.
Me: I can't look at you, I'm driving.
Collin: In the mirror, Mom. Look at me in the mirror!
Me: Okay, I'm looking.
Collin: Do you see me? I'm just a kid! I don't know what I'm supposed to do!!!
Me: (trying not to laugh) You may be a kid, but you are NOT just a kid. And you know perfectly well what you are supposed to do.
Oh he kills me sometimes! But no naps since then so we are doing well. I hope you are too. See you again soon!
We had a super cool and fun vacation to San Antonio last week, but I can't be bothered to upload pictures from the camera and the story wouldn't be nearly as good without pictures, so I'm saving that for later.
We all had a whole week off from work and daycare and it was so nice to spend time together. We never got to sleep in but that's okay because we would have just had to readjust our schedules back to normal anyway. One of these days I"m going to start acting my age and go to bed at a decent hour. I'll probably learn how to do that about the time Collin and Owen hit middle school and start sleeping till noon so we will still be off!
One of the coolest things to come out of our vacation week was that Owen is now officially, all the way, 100%, no turning back, POTTY TRAINED! I swear God must've known I needed a break and gave Owen the wisdom to do it himself. He started going pee around the first of May and was almost instantly ready to go all night without a pull-up or diaper. He has been scared to go poo in the potty up until last week. I think he just needed a little motivation. The boys and I were swimming at the hotel pool (Timothy doesn't do water stuff) and Owen had to go potty so we all trooped into the little bathroom next to the pool. Owen was fussing and asking for a diaper and I told him I didn't have any and if he didn't go poo in the potty I would have to take him back to Daddy in the hotel room and Collin and I would keep swimming. A few minutes later he had done his business and we were all 3 back in the pool! Right now it's been almost 2 weeks with no pull-ups or diapers at all and zero accidents! He is so awesome.
That awesome little baby is about to turn 3. I can't believe it. I flipped my calendar at work before I left today, because when I get back on Monday it will be August. There is was staring me in the face: Owen's birthday on the 12th and Collin starts school on the 22nd! Goodness. I ordered Collin's backpack and lunch bag this week from the online Disney store because they were having a sale and he wanted Phineas and Ferb stuff. We should get them in a few days. I took him shoe shopping too. I have to tell you about the shoes!
My friend Sally has a son, Cooper, who is only 7 months older than Collin, but he's much taller and just generally bigger. Poor Collin didn't get any tall genes from me. Anyway, they have been nice enough over the years to pass along some things that Cooper has grown out of. About 2 years ago Cooper grew out of a new pair of shoes so quickly that they were hardly used. Collin loved them so much because they were Sketchers and we don't ever buy fancy shoes that you see in commercials. They were huge on him! I'm talking clown shoes. They would fall off his feet if he walked too fast, forget running. But he insisted on wearing them ALL THE TIME. There were a few times we wouldn't let him, like when he played T-ball last year, but mostly we figured if he wanted to put up with his shoes flopping around all the time that was his business. Now 2 years later they still fit him but they have been through a lot and don't look so nice anymore so I told him we would buy him a new pair of Sketchers for school. Would you believe that when we were trying on shoes we ended up with a pair the same size as he's been wearing? It's nice to finally know what size his foot is, because I haven't know for a long time now. I don't normally recommend name brand stuff, but if you need some sneakers that will last and you're willing to part with $40ish it's not a bad deal. I'm so grateful for that old pair of shoes. They saved us a lot of money.
Now I'm wondering if that story makes me sound like I have raggy looking children with ill-fitting clothing. Collin always owned at least one other pair of shoes that would not fall off his feet, he just refused to wear them. Owen will sometimes insist, like today, that he wants to wear Collin's clothes. Collin is all too happy to share and dress his little brother. At first I told them that Owen could borrow shirts, but not pants because they would fall off. Collin proved me wrong on that one. Owen's little 2 year old belly can hold up those size 5 shorts without a problem. They are a bit long, but he's happy. Crazy boys!
One more and I'm done.....
I've been having an ongoing discussion with the daycare about keeping Collin awake at nap time. I really don't understand why they insist that the kids about to start school should still take naps. I think surely it would help them to have a transition period. Collin hasn't been taking naps at home for a long time now, and when he does sleep at school he will not go to sleep at night. There have been nights when I've gone to bed at 11:00 and he is still awake in his bed. Not cool. I try to remind Collin to stay up, but his teachers like him to lay down until the other kids go to sleep then they will get him up, but by that time he's already slept for 30 minutes and it's all over. He slept on both Monday and Tuesday this week, so on Wednesday morning in the car I reminded him not to go to sleep. It went like this:
Me: Remember not to go to sleep at nap time today.
Collin: It's not my fault because Ms Savana makes me go to sleep.
Me: How can she make you sleep? All these years I've never been able to figure out how to make you go to sleep if you didn't want to.
Collin: Mom, look at me.
Me: I can't look at you, I'm driving.
Collin: In the mirror, Mom. Look at me in the mirror!
Me: Okay, I'm looking.
Collin: Do you see me? I'm just a kid! I don't know what I'm supposed to do!!!
Me: (trying not to laugh) You may be a kid, but you are NOT just a kid. And you know perfectly well what you are supposed to do.
Oh he kills me sometimes! But no naps since then so we are doing well. I hope you are too. See you again soon!
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Karate Kid Woes
Collin has been doing great in his Tang Soo Do class. He is learning so much and has really been good about practicing. He keeps saying that he wants to move up to the next belt color. He was 'promoted' last week to be able to stop taking private lessons and begin practicing with the class. He is super excited. But with all this new wisdom comes a few challenges as well.
Yesterday in class, he got frustrated while they were doing a difficult kick. They have to turn around 180 degrees and kick behind them then turn the other 180 degrees to complete the circle and end up facing the same way they started. That's a lot to remember. Collin kept getting confused about which way he was supposed to turn. He looked over at me and had tears all down his face. It was so sad. He came over to where we were sitting and I started to take him to the restroom to wash his face, but the instructor called him back on to the mat. Apparently he is not supposed to leave the mat without asking permission first. The instructor made him continue through the tears and switched to an easier kick that Collin can do well. He felt better after that.
We went back to class today because I was thinking he needs to jump back on that horse since he had a hard time yesterday. Well guess what? He had a hard time again today. They sometimes use Korean instructions and today they were counting in Korean. Collin has no clue how to do that, but neither do a lot of the other kids. I guess he thought he was the only one that didn't know what he was saying. This time he remembered to raise his hand to ask the instructor for help, but he started crying in the middle of his question. Poor kid. He just wants to do everything perfectly and he gets upset when he can't. He is the youngest kid in the class and also the newest so the knowledge gap is so pronounced. He will get there. Soon he won't be the youngest or the newest kid and he will be helping them just like the older ones are helping him now.
We came home tonight and watched a video to learn how to count in Korean. We practiced up to 5 and maybe we can learn up to 10 tomorrow. Why don't you give it a shot? It's not all that easy.
Here is the form that Collin had to learn before he was allowed to join the class. We practiced this so many times I feel like I'm ready for my own belt test!
Yesterday in class, he got frustrated while they were doing a difficult kick. They have to turn around 180 degrees and kick behind them then turn the other 180 degrees to complete the circle and end up facing the same way they started. That's a lot to remember. Collin kept getting confused about which way he was supposed to turn. He looked over at me and had tears all down his face. It was so sad. He came over to where we were sitting and I started to take him to the restroom to wash his face, but the instructor called him back on to the mat. Apparently he is not supposed to leave the mat without asking permission first. The instructor made him continue through the tears and switched to an easier kick that Collin can do well. He felt better after that.
We went back to class today because I was thinking he needs to jump back on that horse since he had a hard time yesterday. Well guess what? He had a hard time again today. They sometimes use Korean instructions and today they were counting in Korean. Collin has no clue how to do that, but neither do a lot of the other kids. I guess he thought he was the only one that didn't know what he was saying. This time he remembered to raise his hand to ask the instructor for help, but he started crying in the middle of his question. Poor kid. He just wants to do everything perfectly and he gets upset when he can't. He is the youngest kid in the class and also the newest so the knowledge gap is so pronounced. He will get there. Soon he won't be the youngest or the newest kid and he will be helping them just like the older ones are helping him now.
We came home tonight and watched a video to learn how to count in Korean. We practiced up to 5 and maybe we can learn up to 10 tomorrow. Why don't you give it a shot? It's not all that easy.
Here is the form that Collin had to learn before he was allowed to join the class. We practiced this so many times I feel like I'm ready for my own belt test!
Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Ice Cream
I took the boys out for ice cream about a week ago. It was Owen's first time to get ice cream on a cone and he loved it! They both picked the craziest flavors, based purely on colors and not taste. One was cotton candy and I forget the other but it sounded equally gross to me. But whatever makes them happy works for me.
Isn't that a sweet picture?
Collin is an old pro with cones, but he had a blast too!
Even at the little kid's table Owen didn't feel tall enough so he had to sit on his knees. It looks painful to me on that wooden seat!
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