The Week in Review

I jsut can't seem to keep up with getting the blog done, and now I am having problems getting Picasa to post to the blog, so there will be no pictures for a while. Hopefully I will get that solved this weekend. So now (drum roll.....) our week in review!!!!!

Monday- Our first trip to the Orthodontist. We decided that we need to wait 3 motnhs and then re-access. Cameron has quite an overbite and his front teeth aren't lined up correctly, plus he has a larget gap between them. Eventually this will cost us the big bucks, but not right now!

Tuesday- You and Me and No TV. We had the first of our monthly family reading nights at school. It was a baseball themed event complete with hot dogs and chips for dinner. Our school got a grant from Sprint and this is the way they decided to spend it. 30 mintues reading on the floor in the gym, then a cute skit from the teachers. Afterwords we went with Nick and his family to Sonic for ice cream. Lots of fun!

Thursday- A way busy day!! I have been having headaches on a daily basis for 4-6 weeks so I headed to the doctor. We think that the source of the headaches is my sinuses and I am headed for a CAT scan next week. If that doesn't bring an answer to my problem, then we will move on to other fun tests. Cameron had an appointment to see his doctor and that went fairly well. He still is playing alone at recess on a regular basis, but we are going to work on that a bit. She was in agreement with me that it is important that he learn to swim so we are in lessons until he is able to swim. Becca skated like crazy yesterday and we ended up almost being late to swimming lessons becuase I couldn't get her off the ice. Cameron did all right at swimming lessons, but he is still so afraid to be in water without floaties that it is a tough 30 minutes for him.

Last night we had huge excitement in the 'hood. Someone parked a huge propane filled semi outside my house and then disappeared. One of my neighbors walked by and noticed that it was hissing and leaking propane, so he called 911. We got to spend the evening with 3 fire trucks, hazmat, and the police. After a while almost everyone who lives on my street was congregated in my driveway checking things out. It took about an hour, but eventually they found the driver. After giving him a hefty ticket he moved the truck and life returned to normal. It was an interseting way to spend a couple of hours though!

Not much going on this weekend- Cameron has another birthday party to go to and Becca has skating lessons.

A small school crisis for Becca

As soon as I picked Becca up from school I knew something was not right. We had to run home to get her skates and I figured it would come out sooner or later. We had been driving a few minutes and she said- Momma, this boy drawed on me at school! He drawed on my sweatshirt, my paper and the centers table. I looked and the boy had done a real number on her. He colored all over the sleeve of her sweatshirt, behind her ear, and on her hand. She was so upset that it was all she could talk about for an hour. She seemed to get over it, but I bet it's a long time before she will sit next to that boy again!

She brought home a paper from school yesterday that she had written her name on. B and E are looking very good, but when she writes her name it comes out looking more like Benny than Becca. I am still impressed. She seems to be behaving well at school and adjusting nicely.

Cameron has had SAT-10 testing all week at school. Makes for not a very exciting week, but he feels like he is doing well. The students got to vote on a mascot and it was announced Wednesday that Wildcats won. The school colors are green and black. Not my first pick, but at least it is an okay color combination.

I think the final decision has been made on Becca's spotlight program has been made. She is skating to Good Ship Lollipop. She has made some good progress and I have seen a lot of improvement in the past couple of weeks. The competition is the weekend before Thanksgiving for anyone who is interested. Cameron didn't freak out at swimming lessons last night so that went well.

Not much going on this weekend- drum lessons, skating lessons, and a birthday party- I get to go scrapbooking with Beth all day on Saturday though. I am really looking forward to getting to spend some time working on my handmade Christmas presents. I would like to get all of those finished by halloween so that I don't have to worry about it anymore.

skating, swimming, school

Yesterday was a big day- Becca got her first skating cd. The song that is on it can't be cut short enough so I think we are going to change songs, but for the first time yesterday Becca was on the ice with her very own music. I wish I could say that she skated, but in true 3 year old form the music scared her and she wouldn't skate. Hopefully that won't last long!

Last night was Cameron's first swimming lesson. I thought that we had come so far with his fear of water, but last night I realized that was not true. He screamed and cried until they finally moved him down to the class that still wore floaties. We are at a point now where he *has* to learn to swim, I have let this go far too long. I don't care if he ever becomes a competitive swimmer, but he has to know basic floating and stuff.

On the upside, Cameron has not brought home a paper from school yet this year that wasn't graded A+. His timed tests do not count towards his grades, but even with those he is much closer to passing them that I had ever expected he would be. He actually scored 48/50 on one last week. His teacher feels that he will be able to reach proficiency this year and we are excited about that.

The boys are headed to the air show this weekend and we have the second drum lesson tonight, but it should be a pretty slow weekend.

Drums, group lessons, who could ask for more?

Cameron finally made the decision that he wasn't going to play hockey anymore. (although he is quite angry at me for removing the "my kid is a saint" window decal off of the van) I understand why he made that decision, and it really doesn't surprise me, but all the same I am a little sad because it was a fun social time for me and I really enjoyed the friends that I made at the ice rink. Many of them I still see because of Becca, but it just isn't the same when you aren't at some ridiculously early game in a city that is an hour away. I felt that Cameron needed to do something, so we made him choose an activity- and he chose drum lessons. I was skeptical at first, and I really wish that he had picked something else, but his first lesson was last Friday and he loved it. You could hear his laughter through the store, even over the *4* kids in his class playing drums. He has practiced every night without nagging since. He is also starting swimming lessons this week. The two things that he can't do that really concern me are bike riding and swimming. This was the first summer that he wasn't afraid of the water, so we are off to swimming lessons. I think I am going to put him in a class level higher than I think he can do (with the swimming directors approval) because of his age. That and the fact that if I decide to put Becca into swimming lessons they won't be in the same class. We had taken the training wheels off of his bike at the beginning of the summer and David finally gave up and put them back on. He really wants to ride the bike, but he just doesn't get it. It is a struggle for him to keep the bike upright even with the training wheels on- maybe he just isn't cut out to be a bike rider. We will try again next summer with no training wheels.

I was really enjoying my group lesson hiatus at the rink, but it has ended. Becca was really wanting to go back to group lessons, and I told her she couldn't because she already knew everything in Beginner 1 and she wouldn't do her Beginner 2 requirements so I wasn't willing to go. The next thing I know she was out there doing the best 1 foot glides she has ever done, and she even did 1 crossover by herself. I am going to fix dinner soon, and then we are off to the rink for the second time today. At least we aren't there for hockey practices anymore! Preschool is going well for Becca, she seems to really enjoy herself. Today was "blue" day. She wore blue clothes and they talked about blue things. Thursday is "black and white" day. It will intersting to see what I pull out of the closet for that one!!

Things are going well here. Not too much exciting, but I think that is a good thing. The quick change to cooler weather brought out my jeans and yet another commitment to my "PUT DOWN THE FORK!!" diet. We'll have to see how that goes! Dinner (and the ice rink) are calling me......

First Skating Party

My first skating party was last night. I didn't really know what to expect, but we had 103 skaters that raised a whole whopping $77.25. When I called to set up the parties I was appalled at how little the skating rink gives back to the school for the amount of money we bring in to them. If we had less than 100 skaters we would have only gotten .50 per skater and if we have less than 50 skaters we get nothing. I feel like it is a pretty poor return for my $4 entry fee. There was a line almost the entire night at the snack bar, so that alone brought in a ton of money for the rink.

I am allotted a $25 budget from the school PTA, so I made that up and then some. I was definitely pleased with that! I have 3 more parties to go and if I make a similar amount I will really be worth that $25! :)

Becca's first day of school!

Yesterday was Becca's very first day of school. We sent her to PDO last spring, but this was her first day of "real" school. She did really well. Some of the other kids were sobbing and wanting to go home, but not B. She was so excited to be there and just sat right down and got to work. When I went back to pick her up she seemed a little shell shocked, but by the time we got to the van she was chatting up every detail of her day. I think she really had a good time.

After school I took her for a special lunch at Pizza Shoppe. We have an hour to kill between school and skating and Pizza Shoppe is on the way. Becca seemed so happy the rest of the afternoon. We will see how she feels about school tomorrow!

I didn't actually cry, but I was a little sad. It is quite the change of life from having kids and raising kids. All of a sudden they both seem so big! A friend and I went and did a little retail therapy and all was well! I got a 2ft tall paper mache letter D that I am going to paint so that it looks like metal and hang it on my wall. Trust me, that was a necessary purchase!
I vow that tomorrow I will come home and clean during preschool and not waste my time! 

We have (had!) butterflies!!

Last Friday the 2 remaining caterpillars emerged as butterflies and we set them free. It was a lot of fun to watch them grow and change, and I think we are going to do this again on a larger scale next year. I am really glad that I didn't have to explain to the kids why one had died. 

Met the preschool teachers today.

David and I took Becca to meet the teacher day at her preschool today. She will have a teacher, and assisstant and 15 kids in her class. Even though there were lots of people there she plopped herself right down in the middle of a bunch of girls and started to play. 2 of the girls that are in her gymnastics class go to the same preschool, but they are both in the afternoon class. I think this will be an exciting year for Becca. She is so proud of the fact that she is going to school and so excited to be there.

She really surprises me sometimes. Even though I shouldn't be this way, I have always thought of Becca as my athletic child and Cameron as my smart child. I was quite surprised when she immediately picked her name on her cubby and she has really started to do a lot of environmental reading. Just recently she has started to draw people- they have a head, hair, legs, eyes, a mouth, arms, and, most importantly to her, a bum. She has started to draw a couple of letters. She can draw "B" and "E" in her name. They look a little interesting, but you can tell what they are.

Tuesday is her first day of school- and for a brief (all too brief I am sure) moment I will be all alone. Knowing me, I will cry. Well, not the whole time. The mall opens at 10! :)