The Big Blue Bin

I bought a big plastic bin after I started collecting dozens and dozens of the kid's school papers and artwork. Recently it was starting to overflow so I took some time yesterday to go through it. And oh what I found...

So many adorable fun memories.

I'm going to do a whole post on just Nicholas. I had almost forgotten how much he struggled when he started kindergarten (the first time). We had him repeat kindergarten which I will never regret. It was amazing to see the difference between the first and second year. He had so much more confidence the second time around. And it just goes to show, with some work at home and lots of encouragement, they do come around. We were so worried he would have learning problems but we were wrong. He is doing fantastic in school now.

I will take full responsibility for his lack of basic kindergarten knowledge like knowing the A,B,C's (yes he could sing the A,B,C's but didn't actually know what the letters looked like), he couldn't spell his name, he didn't recognize the numbers 1-10, and forget even knowing basic sight words. Hey, he was my oldest. I didn't know any better. I just assumed they would teach him all that when he got there. Nope. He was supposed to know all that stuff before he got there. Oh my poor baby boy.

They tested him at the beginning of kindergarten and here's what they (we) discovered.

Ok...nervous laughter...now he had to finish the other half of this picture...

OK...moving right along...how about the alphabet?


As you can see from the picture above he was only able to recognize a few letters.

Now I was really starting to sweat...

OK. Let's really see how far behind he is and stick some sight words in front of him to see if he can read!


Ah...OK...he knew three words.

I wrote on the back of this paper what he said when he came home from school, "Mom, all we do at school is shapes, shapes and more shapes. It's soooo boring!" Hey, at least he knew his shapes!

I love how much effort he put into his drawings...

(In case you need some interpretation, he's laying down in front of the TV.) His teacher was probably thinking, "Instead of laying around he should be reading."

As the year went on he improved...(Lucky, our old cat, is on the far left.)

His teacher tested him later in the year on the alphabet. He did quite well on his upper case letters, but look at the lower case letters. He just wrote the upper case letters really really small! So cute!

And here is my favorite, "A Penguin Adventure". This truly shows how much he wanted to just get an assignment over with so he could go do something (anything) else...

Love this...

And here's a note he left for me in my Christmas stocking a few years ago...

I love that I was his "best Mommy ever"...

He is just so full of love...

And he gave this to me for Valentine's Day this year...

Pure love that boy.

Behavior Alert System

Nicholas' teacher expects the "perfect" child in her classroom. What 8 year old child is perfect?


If Nicholas could only do just one of these things listed above. He's a fidgety little boy who lacks self control sometimes. He doesn't fit her mold and therefore she doesn't have a lot of patience with him.

She sent home this letter to the parents...

Dear Parents,

With spring around the corner and second grade rules well established, I feel there is a need to institute a behavior alert system. I find we are losing too much instruction time because students choose to be silly, chat or ignore directions. If this happens twice in the same day, your child will lose a recess. You will receive a behavior alert to sign and return. Your child will highlight a sentence or sentences to explain to you why you are receiving the alert.

Much love, (OK...I improvised a little)
Mrs. XXXXX

Like the pink? I thought I'd add the pretty color to soften the nastiness of the letter.

Back in November, his teacher got angry with him, took him aside and really let him have it. Whatever she said to him must have been so upsetting that he didn't want to go to school after that, had trouble falling asleep at night and was physically ill in the morning before school. One day, I couldn't even get him on the bus. Turns out it was report card day and she had told him he wasn't getting a good grade in behavior because of this one incident in class.

Another day, he accidentally spilled his water bottle (which I had filled with lemonade...a violation of her classroom policy) and again she let him have it in front of the whole class. She made him clean up the spill and took away THREE recesses. I spoke to her and told her this was excessive and unacceptable. The conversation didn't go well at first but then I knew I had to play nice or else his remaining days in her classroom wouldn't be good.

Let me try to explain what it's like sending my little boy off to school each day knowing he really dislikes his teacher, who has in turn made him dislike school.


It feels like I'm taking my heart out of my chest every day and reluctantly handing it over to this teacher I don’t know. I feel like saying to her, “Here is my heart. Please take care of it. It’s so precious and special to me. Please, please don’t let it get hurt."

Nicholas is such a sweet, sensitive, little soul. It physically hurts me to know that he has to spend his days with this woman who doesn't know his heart the way I do. She hasn't taken the time to get to know him and honestly doesn't care to.

Why is she still there? After years and years of parents complaining about her, she is still teaching these precious 2nd graders. I thought 2nd grade was supposed to be fun. If I had only known about her before hand, I never would have allowed Nicholas to be in her classroom.

We can only hope 3rd grade will be better for all of us.

Julia's beam routine

Finally got Julia's beam routine loaded below. You have to look beyond the fall and all the stops and starts (she doesn't know the routine very well yet). I see moments of greatness like her pointed toes, straight legs, lift in her chest, pretty arms and hands...things no other girl did at the meet.

Dick & Jane

OK...another Gianna belly laugh moment.

This is Gianna reading Dick & Jane to me:

Grandmother said, "Come down, Sally! You can't play up there."

Sally said, "Look, Grandmother! (and Gianna improvises...) You are bald!"

Of course it didn't say "you are bald"...she added that.

Boys, boys, boys

Gianna loves boys. She has so many crushes on different boys that I'm starting to lose count. There's Brady at preschool, Ryan on Nicholas' hockey team, random boys at the hockey rink she plays with ("Mommy, that boy has a cute smile!"), Ben the 12 year old boy down the street, and on and on. If a boy pays attention to her in any way, she develops a crush. The other night Nicholas' hockey team had a pizza party after the game. She was in heaven with all the 8 year old boys. She was in major flirt mode or as Nicholas says, "Gianna gets all wierd around my friends." On the way home, she asked if she could sleep with Nicholas' hockey team picture. Today, Ben (the 12 year old neighborhood boy who she calls her "boyfriend") showed up at our door. She came running to me ALL embarrassed with a HUGE smile on her face. She said, "Momma! What am I going to do!!! My boyfriend is at the door!!! Ben can't see me with this doggie suit on!!!"  (She had on a really cute purple sweatshirt with a dog on it.) What is she going to be like as a teenager???

Flying High

Julia had a gymnastics meet today and she did so good!!! She ended up placing 4th in the all around (out of 14 girls)! Not bad for only 7 years old. Her team was the best there!

Aren't they cute?!?!





Floor routine 8.75
Vault 8.6
Bars 8.0
Beam 7.9

The Gift of the Perfectly Ordinary Day

What I would tell her...if I knew what to say

You are a miracle.

And I have to love you this fiercely so that you can feel it even after you leave for school, or even while you are asleep, or even after your childhood becomes a memory.

You’ll forget all this when you grow up. But it’s OK. Being a mother means having your heart broken and it means loving and losing and falling apart and coming back together. And it’s the best there is…and also sometimes the worst.

Sometimes you won’t have anyone to talk to. Sometimes you’ll wonder if you’ve forgotten who you are. But you must always remember this…what you’re doing matters. And you have to be brave with your life so that others can be brave with theirs.

The truth is being a woman is a gift. Tenderness is a gift. Intimacy is a gift. And nurturing the good in this world is nothing short of a privilege. That’s why I have to love you this way. So I can give what I have to you so that you can carry it in your body and pass it on. I’ve watched you sleep. I’ve kissed you a million times. And I know something that you don’t get. You are writing the story of your only life every single minute of everyday.

And my greatest hope for you, sweet child, is that I can teach you how to write a good one.

Where does the time go?

I mean really...wasn't I just telling everyone I was expecting another baby? Wasn't Franny just bringing me that hot fudge sundae at the hospital right after Gianna was born? Wasn't it just the other day that I picked Gianna up out of her crib in the middle of the night to give her a bath because she had gotten sick everywhere? Didn't I just walk into that tiny room at Little Blessings to sign her up for preschool and the director of the school said there was no way she was old enough to start school yet but she really was? And did I really just go sign her up for Kindergarten this morning? Why does it seem like an eternity when they are babies but then life moves at light speed once they start school?

So Gianna is officially going to Kindergarten in the fall and I will once again have a meltdown in September the day she gets on that bus. But hey, that's eight months away! Why worry about that now?

On another note...Gianna rode a bike for the VERY FIRST TIME! Of course there was a bribe involved. She kept saying no, no, no and then I asked her to do it for a dollar. Nope. Then I said how about doing it for a bag of Skittles? That did the trick! Skittles works every single time.

Kerry's birthday

Yesterday we celebrated sister Kerry's birthday with yummy food, cake and ice cream.  We all had lots of fun.  Happy birthday Kerry!!!

The sickies again

You know Gianna is sick when you find her little friends around...and in...the Kleenex box.

Maybe

I have so many things on my To Do List but I don't feel like doing any of them right now.  Maybe I'll tackle that list later. 

Maybe not. 

I just want to browse through all my favorite blogs and sip my tea.  Don't you love my cups?  I can't find them anymore which makes me very sad.  Some have chips and now they're discontinued. 

Maybe today I will play games with my little one...she's getting another cold and is a little under the weather today...

Maybe we'll make a special treat for the other two to have when they get home from school today...with cold milk...mmmmm...

Or maybe I'll just sit and read my book...

It's quite good, predictable, but good. 

or maybe we'll go here...

'Cause don't you just LOVE a bargain?

Or maybe I'll feel guilty and start working on my To Do List after all...

Maybe. We'll see...

It's Friday & something funny

Looking forward to another Friday night with Danny and the kids by the fire. It's really become one of our favorite things to do. 

Quote of the day:

Me: "If today is Friday, what day is tomorrow?"

Gianna: "I know! I know! Tomorrow!!!"

tooth #6

Finally! That yucky yellow tooth fell out. Actually, I kind of knocked it out of her mouth by accident. Whoops. But doesn't she look cute? She's talking kind of funny now but she'll get used to it. Again, there was lots and lots of drama when she saw the blood. I know she'll never be a doctor or a nurse. Maybe a teacher? Hmmm....did I say how cute she looks?

My new place to visit

Check out this blog. Her photography is to die for. And while you visit, check out the photos of her house. All the colors are just so beautiful. I wonder if she has room for me?

Going back

I'm a little late posting these pictures but I thought they were so cute and wanted to share them.

Christmas Eve we spent the day with my family and had a yummy home cooked meal. Here's Nana loving her grandchildren...

After everyone left, we made cookies for Santa.


The kids spent lots of time carefully decorating...

Then the kids went outside and sprinkled reindeer food in the driveway so Santa could find his way to our home...


After, we put on our jammies and watched the Polar Express cuddled up on the couch.

Christmas morning we always have the kids sit at the top of the stairs to anxiously await what Santa has brought them. My parents did this to us when we were kids and yes it was torture but it added to the excitement.

Yes!!! Santa came!!!

Lots of loot was found in their stockings...

Some gifts went over big like this area rug for Nicholas' sports themed bedroom...

Julia got some pretty grown up make-up and nail polish...

Not sure what this was but I love her expression...

She loves her dolls....

Gianna got more stuffed friends like this Santa Buddy...

Nicholas' favorite present by far was his street hockey goalie equipment. He wore it around the house all morning and even played his video games with it on...The kids had a wonderful Christmas this year and absolutely loved everything they received.

So now I will move on from Christmas and start focusing on what the new year will bring for all of us. Hopefully good things!

Happy New Year!

The Christmas Cup

Nicholas played in a hockey tournament over Christmas break. They did awesome and won all three of their games plus the final game for the trophy! I'm so proud of our boy. He's a good little hockey player and really loves the game...just like his Daddy.