Parent-Teacher Conferences

Today we got to participate in one of our favorite events: Parent-teacher conferences.

KAYDA

Grade: 2

Teacher: Mrs. R

As always Kayda's teacher had nothing but good things to say about her.  Kayda is an amazing student!  She is doing outstanding in math, she is constantly getting 100% on her tests.  In reading she is off the charts!  In her dibels oral reading fluency she read 142 words with 3 errors making her score 139.  Her teacher told us that most students score around 80 at this time of year.  She is doing so well that most of her goals are related to listening to other students, reading to them and talking about the books.  I'm not sure how I feel about that.  On one hand, that isn't learning specifically related to her advancement, on the other I know for a face that teaching is the best way to REALLY learn and understand.  Kayda has exceptional writing skills, many students are still learning to write answers in complete sentences;  Kayda has NO issue with that.  Her teacher told us that she has excellent penmanship and voice in her writing!  During prompted writing times Kayda frequently laughs to herself as she writes her stories.  

   Kayda worked with Dillon's teacher some last year for advanced reading and Dillon's teacher also wanted to tell us how gifted Kayda is.  Kayda is currently participating in a program to help stop bullying and is also a reading mentor for some kindergartners.

DILLON

Grade: 1

Teacher: Mrs. S

Dillon's teacher is very impressed with him!  He is reading and writing well.  He is right where he should be.  She is encouraging us to have him read more non-fiction because she thinks it would take him to a whole other level of reading.  He does a great job writing and is working hard at sounding out words.  In his math testing he is in the 84 percentile, meaning 84% of students received lower scores, 16% received higher.  She is encouraging him to share his thoughts about how to work problems more.  He is very good at writing a short story and drawing an appropriate illustration for it.  She is impressed with his ability to work independently and is excited to watch his continued growth.  He knows 45 sight words, the normal fall result is 25.  The goal for the end of the year will be 75 words.  She provided us with a second grade list of sight words expressing confidence that he will master the first grade list quickly.  

Mrs. S has had frequent interactions with both of our children that are in school.  She specifically told us that we have WONDERFUL children and shared how much she has enjoyed BOTH of them.  

As always we LOVE to hear about our children.  Being the math nerd that I am I would love to have more facts and figures, also knowing where they are compared to other children in their grades.  Neither teacher had any concerns regarding their abilities and simply told us to keep doing whatever it is that we're doing.  I'm happy to have proof that I didn't do any damage to my children's education by attempting home schooling for the end of last year!!!

  

CARSON

Grade: Pre-k

Teacher: N/A

We recently took Carson in for the child find event at school.  This is where they do general testing for children 3 years to kindergarten.  I had concerns about Carson's speech just like I had concerns for Kayda and Dillon.  They've decided to do further evaluation for his speech.  If he gets speech services there is also the possibility that he will get into the preschool.  Since he may be going off to preschool anytime after evaluation we've decided it's time for potty training!  Let me outline our past experiences:  Kayda- would potty train for a week, do really well and then get bored with it.  We did that twice over a few months.  It took Grandma G telling her she couldn't spend the night unless Kayda was wearing underwear for her to decide to do it.  This was when she was 3 years and 4 months old.  Dillon- We HAD to potty train him by a certain time due to an expected baby and preschool starting.  It was over a month of accidents and cleaning, forcing him to be in underwear until he finally decided he would do it full time.  Now Carson.  This little man is amazing me!  The first day was accidents galore.  The second day I had dum dums and smarties to give him if he went in the toilet (brother and sister get candy if they are in helping him) he had two accidents.  Today (day 3) he has had no accidents.  Even with us having volunteering in Kayda's class and parent-teacher conferences.  He has had NO problem today.  This is the best potty training experience EVER! Anyways on to more about what he knows.  Carson knows the colors blue, green, red, yellow, orange, black, and white.  He still gets mixed up between pink and purple.  He know circles, squares and triangles and can sort them by shape, size and color.  He can count to 9 before he starts jumping up into the teens.  He can easily follow multi-step directions and understands EVERYTHING you tell him.  He is my first "why" child and is constantly asking it.  He can cut out a dinosaur and along lines.  He can copy basic shapes by drawing them.  He can throw a ball accurately, stand on one foot, pedal a bike and stack blocks to copy what someone else makes.  (Many of the above are things they tested at the child find). 

WE HAVE AMAZING CHILDREN!

A little craziness

There has been a lot going on since Christmas.  We've decided that we're going to rent our house and go live at Grandma and Papa G's so we can a) build up a down payment, b) get a rental history.  All in the quest to get into our "20+" year home.  This house was supposed to be our starter home, we bought a fixer upper, have spent the last 6 years fixing it up and now the economy has crashed.  On the plus side the houses we want to end up in are actually within our grasp, the down side is that our house no longer has any equity, not even sweat equity.  We figure this is the fastest way to get into a new home.  So the kids and I have been spending a lot of time over at Grandma and Papa's house helping them sort through the stuff they've collected over the last 20+ years.  We've also been trying to go through our things.  We're making pretty good progress actually.  Now we just need to get somebody in our house! 

New year's eve this year we decided to let the kids stay up to watch the fireworks on TV.  We had "giant sandwiches" (Kayda's favorite thing) and played until midnight.  Carson even decided to stay awake (despite my efforts to get him to sleep).  The kids had a great time and actually went to bed pretty well when it was time. 

Carson is loving "solid" food.  We've done rice and we just started with oatmeal, he doesn't seem to like it as much but he eats it anyway!  We're trying to figure out how to get him on the bottle, I'm ready to be done nursing.  I think it's going to come down to not nursing him at all during the day and just forcing him to take the bottle, only problem with that is that he will be a really crabby baby.  Not sure that I want to try that by myself.  He seems to be growing so fast!  He's got two teeth already and the top ones are getting close too.  Forget crawling, this kid isn't going to need to, he can roll himself all around the floor and he's FAST.  He's got great control of his hands, LOVES people and babbles up a storm.  He has even figured out how to play peek-a-boo!  I've played it with him a few times but now he has decided HE wants to do it.  He'll cuddle down into me, I'll say "Where's Carson?" and he'll pop himself up and grin at me when I say "peek-a-boo" or "there he is!" and then he'll repeat it, again, and again, and again.  He just keeps going!  He is getting pretty good at sitting on his own!  I wouldn't be surprised if he can sit unaided in the next week or so.  He ADORES his big brother and sister.  He just smiles and smiles at them.  He loves it when they get down on the floor and play with him, he even likes to just sit there and watch them play. 

Kayda and Dillon started preschool again on Wednesday.  They're having a hard time switching back to "early" mornings.  They tend to wake up at around 9:30 on their own, for preschool we have to switch to 8:15 wake-ups.  It doesn't help that we're trying to get away from the bed time pull ups.  We're following the doctor's orders: no drinks 2 hours before bed, wake them up about 2 hours after they go to bed and make them go sit on the toilet, and the worst part.... NO more pull ups.  Which means we're changing sheets in the middle of the night.  It's working great for Dillon, he woke himself up in the middle of the night and went potty last night!!!  (For the first time) AND he woke up dry.  Kayda is a little less willing and boy does she get MAD when you wake her up to go to the bathroom.  She spends most of the time screaming at us!  It sucks for her, and I feel guilty but I find it quite funny. 

We're gearing up for Dillon's birthday on Sunday, his birthday party is Saturday.  As always it's a very busy holiday season for us and it looks like we're going to be busy for at least another month trying to deal with the housing situation. 

 Dillon was "teaching" Carson to play with his new toy.

 I set Carson on the floor in his room while I ran to grab something, when I came back I found Kayda and Dillon squished into the rocking chair, they were counting off when to rock!

 ...and Carson was perfectly happy on the floor, as long as there's someone close by to keep him company.

Apparently when Daddy was little he would sit in this "pocket"  and watch tv with his Dad, so he is always trying to get Kayda or Dillon to sit there which they usually won't because they want to be in your arms.  Much to Daddy's delight we have discovered that Carson LOVES to sit there and play with his toys.  He sat there for a good half hour one day, perfectly content!  Notice his SOAKED onesie?  He is quite the drooler, I try to keep a bib on him but he'll even soak through those!  That and sometimes he gets frustrated because he catches the bib on top of the toys he's trying to get to his mouth or he'll flip the bib up in front of his face.

Kayda's last day of preschool!

Yesterday was Kayda's last day of preschool.  Daddy was able to take off work so that she could have both parents at the "parent day".  She had a great time showing us around... until she found these to color.  But she got Daddy to do it right along with her (he made one for Dillon).

They had caterpillars and watched them turn into butterflies.  Kayda was very excited about them!

 Kayda with Ms. Sandi

 Kayda with Ms. Laura.

Today was the preschool picnic.  The picnic was for all four of the different preschool classes, it was a VERY busy park.  This dog is a guide dog in training that used to be at the preschool every day, until somebody apparently complained and the school district said "no more animals at preschool".  Kayda was very excited to see her again!

 Here's the first small group to realize Ms. Sandi was getting ready to set the butterflies free.

Waiting, and waiting.  Unfortunately by the time some of the butterflies were out of the net a ton of kids had pushed in front of Kayda and Dillon so they couldn't see much. 

And completely random... last weekend we decided to try the drive in's with the kiddos to see Kung Fu Panda 2.  It worked out fine for Daddy, Kayda and Dillon but my prego belly would not allow me to lay in the back of the explorer so I ended up reading.  The kids had a great time except for a certian part of the movie where the mommy panda has to leave the baby panda and Dillon got VERY upset about that.

Another completely random tidbit.  I realized I never announced Dillon's successful potty training!  It took over a month of making him wear underwear regardless of if he was getting to the potty, and me dragging him in to make him try but he now goes in on his own and doesn't seem to miss his diapers at all! Hurray Dillon!  Now he'll be able to go to preschool with Kayda next year!

What a GREAT month!

Wow... there is SO much to share but we'll start with the most important:

This week Daddy became a non-equity partner at the firm!  Congratulations to him!  He has worked so hard and we are all proud of him.  Thanks Grandpa H for getting the ball rolling!  This means that I will be able to stay home full time next year!  Daddy and I are both very nervous that something will come up and mean we need the extra income so I may still substitute occasionally.  I am THRILLED that I will be able to be home with my little ones all day, though they will miss their daily visits to play with Grandma G. 

The next most important thing is that I am declaring Kayda POTTY TRAINED!  A couple of weeks ago Grandma G told Kayda she had to wear underwear and go potty in the toilet if she wanted to spend the night (she spends the night over there anytime Grandpa G is gone).  Kayda put on underwear that afternoon and went 5 days without an accident.  Then, out of nowhere she decided that she didn't want to use the potty anymore and went back to diapers.  Well a week ago she started wearing them again and it doesn't look like she's going back again!  Way to go Kayda!  Now I don't have to be nervous about preschool, she couldn't go if she wasn't potty trained.

Now, on to getting caught up!

There have been several scattered VERY nice days this month, beautiful days, sunny, warm... just goregous.  We've been spending as many of those outside as we can.  We're working on getting some yard debris out of our backyard and I found a frog!  I grabbed one of the kids buckets, they had such a great time looking at it.  Since we are getting rid of the debris I felt bad just putting it back so the kids and I packed up and drove the frog to a new home at Grandma G's pond.  The kids thought it was just fantastic... I did too until Kayda decided that she needed to see "just one more frog".  She was NOT happy that we couldn't produce another frog magically.

With the state testing going on at the high schools I had a day off so we had a play date down at Kent common's indoor park.  It was originally just with an old coworker of mine, Rhonda and her grandson Hank but another coworker, Liz ended up bringing her little girl Maya as well. I regret to say that I didn't bring my camera but it was fantastic!  They had all kinds of kids' toys, small slides, riding toys galore, a teeter-totter, and tons of other toys.  The kids had such a great time running around.  There was a firetruck that had a seat on the back, the kids took turns driving and being driven.  At one point I was helping them with the teeter-totter, we ended up with another two kids rotating with Kayda and Dillon.  When Kayda decided she wasn't interested one of the other girls, Grace, decided that Kayda was her new best friend.  Next thing I know they're practically attached at the hip running around the gym with a small grocery cart.  True to Kayda's character, Kayda was driving and pointing out the balls that she wanted Grace to go pick up.   Dillon would chase after them every once in a while but for the most part he just ran around, perfectly happy to ride the cars as fast as he could.  He played with whomever was doing something that could hold his interest, little mister social.

Kayda started speech therapy this week.  She'll be going every Monday and Wednesday for about half an hour.  She was supposed to get a binder to put some of the things we work on in so we bought one and decorated it for her.  She LOVES it.  Of course we got horse stickers so that's probably why.  Monday she worked on leading with the "h" sound and Wednesday she was working on a lot of random sounds.  It's great to be there and see exactly what's going on so that I can practice everything at home with her.  I'm noticing a little bit of a difference already but I can't wait until her speech is clear enough that someone that isn't around all the time can understand what she's saying. 

We also had another play date on Tuesday with a friend of mine from high school, Andraea and her little boy Braden.  We met at a nearby park, not my favorite by any means but it was nice enough.  The kids immediately started climbing everywhere and racing down the slides.  Eventually Dillon decided that he wanted to go up the slide so he figured out how to stand up, hold on and walk along the edge to the top so that he wouldn't keep sliding back down.  I was amazed that he picked it up so quickly!  After that Kayda watched him and figured it out.  Next thing you know Kayda, Dillon and Braden are all playing "monster".  Of course they eventually found a patch of dandelions and I ended up with a pocket full of them. 

Last thing... Today I decided to try a craft.  Every once in a while I get motivated.  For valentine's day we made hearts with glitter all over them.  Today we tried to make bunnies.  I just grabbed whatever I could find that might work and cut out the pieces we'd need, then Kayda and Dillon glued it all together.  They did a great job and I am ever so grateful for the fact that elmers glue wipes up so easily.  Here are their bunnies!

They get big so fast!

Kayda has been a little bit interested in her potty over the last week or so. She'll have me take off her diaper and let her sit on the potty. The other day she had me do that and she kept sitting there so I shut the door and went to make Dillon a bottle. Well... apparently she actually needed to go potty because she got off the potty and peed all over the floor... I guess she kind of got the idea after that. Today at Grandma G's, Kayda told her "pa pa" for potty so Grandma brought her in and took off her diaper. Kadya sat on her potty and Grandma waited a while. She asked Kayda if she was done. Kayda said "no" so Grandma left to take care of Dillon. Grandma came back a few times to ask her if she was done and each time she said "no". Eventually Grandma came back and Kayda was standing up pulling her pants up. She had peed IN THE POTTY!!! She used toilet paper and everything. Hurray for the fact that she is such a quick learner. It didn't end up on the floor again!!! Hopefully she'll keep doing it!

Dillon's latest, though not as huge as Kayda's, is still exciting! He is starting to stand up without holding on to things more and more. He's even starting to try to take steps to get where he wants to go. He is definitely interested in walking! It's so exciting but at the same time I wish I had a pause button! Both babies are in such a fun phase that I'm not ready for them to move on. I guess that's something all moms and dads have to go through.

Anyways, on to the pictures! A few days ago Kayda decided that Dillon needed to go where she wanted him to. Well, he's pretty independent now, just like she is, and wanted to go play with the little kitchen. The entire way there Kayda was holding onto his onesie trying to drag him another direction saying "no". It was hilarious. I didn't get pictures until they were already at the kitchen but even then she was trying to get him to go somewhere else!

Last thing I promise! Yesterday morning Kayda was sitting on the couch watching her morning cartoons (this is the routine while Daddy gets ready for work). She wanted to hold Dillon so he was sitting in her lap for a little while. When Daddy HAD to go take a shower he moved Dillon next to Kayda and Kayda decided to share her blankie with Dillon. She spread it out over both of their legs and they sat like that, all cozied up together watching TV! They are such loving siblings!