Carson's First Bus Ride

Carson is incredibly shy.  He is getting much better but still has difficulty letting me leave him at preschool.  We decided the best thing to do is to start having him ride the bus to school in order to have a more clear cut separation.  He was SO excited!  He ran from the car to the bus got on and plopped down by his friend Nora.  There was no hesitation, no fear, no tiny hint of panic in his eyes.  He was just excited.  

 It's a really short ride to school.  He was still all smiles when he got there.

The next day I didn't follow the bus and he did great again!  I am so glad that he is starting to do well on his own.  I was really concerned about how he would do on the bus but it is wonderful!

Kayda's Ninth Birthday!

Kayda's birthday this year got away from us a little bit.  We decorated inside for Christmas, had Thanksgiving and then it was her birthday and outside decorations.  In all of that chaos we had cupcakes but never got to sing happy birthday.  I didn't even realize it until after I looked at the pictures.  I'm a little heartbroken.  Despite all the craziness, and the lack of singing, she had a great day!  She got to have Ella spend the night for two nights so they got tons of playtime, we rented movies and had pizza and popcorn and just generally did some extra special little things.  

 This girl is so wonderful!  I am so glad she's mine!

Christmas Prep

We did things very differently for Christmas decorating and I have to say I liked it.  We did the tree one evening, the other indoor decorations another day and then the outside lights on a third day.  It made it a lot more fun. 

 The kids are always so excited to take out their ornaments.  They each have their own collection with their names on them . Some they've made, some they've chosen at the store and others that were given to them.  The love taking them out and looking at them before hanging them on the tree.  It is so fun to watch how they change each year.  Kayda and Dillon are becoming much pickier about where to put each ornament and Carson just wants to put them all on at the nearest, most visible spot.

The day after we did the tree Carson kept telling me he wanted to put more ornaments on the tree while Kayda and Dillon were at school.  I kept telling him there was no more room on the tree!  Finally I just started bringing in the boxes of indoor decorations to appease him!  We took them all out and I put up the things that the kids couldn't help me with.  Then he sat there the rest of the day playing with the village waiting for brother and sister to get home so that he could put them all up.

Mommy's 10k

Warning: this is another one of those posts where I'll be diverging from my endless talks about my amazing children in order to talk to my amazing children. 

Growing up I hated running. Plain and simple.  Give me a sport, any sport and I would do whatever I needed to in order to keep up with the people around me.  Ask me to straight run or for that matter straight swim or do anything long and repetitive and boring and I quit in a hurry.  I would get bored and think about how hard it was, how I just didn't want to keep going, how my lungs were achy, or my muscle was pulling a little strange.  I would use those as an excuse to stop.  Guaranteed.  Every single time.  There was nothing that was worth the effort.  I did swimming.  I was a great swimmer.  I wasn't dedicated.  Pushing my body to swim laps wasn't appealing and so I wouldn't do it.  So when my coach thought I could make it to state I quit instead.  I didn't want to be pushed, I didn't want to do hard things.  

As I've grown up I've realized something else about those times.  I didn't think I COULD do hard things.  Academics came easily to me.  Sports came easy to me.  When they got hard, when I really had to dedicate myself; that's when I would give up.  I always came up with some excuse at the time to justify the fact that I was afraid to fail.  I was afraid to do anything that I might not be good at.  The idea of putting time, effort and dedication into doing something, and then NOT being the best at it was terrifying.  I love to sing.  Ask me to sing in front of people and I break.  I can't do it.  My voice shakes because my body is trembling so hard that it changes the my voice.  Well, I shouldn't say I can't because I haven't tried to sing in front of people since I was a teenager.  That's right.  Half of my life I have been unable, or unwilling to sing in front of people.  I was scared of what other people would decide about my abilities.  Same thing when I was scared of what the coach would put me through to keep swimming.  Or when I was scared of being cut so I quit dancing.  Another time I was worried about a mean coach so I quit volleyball, and the list goes on.  

I don't want that for you.  I don't want you to be scared of what happens when you try.  I don't want you to let your fear of other people opinions keep you from doing things. I want you to try and I want you to prove to yourself that you can be successful.  Even if you fail, a lot, along the way.  Even if your definition of success isn't the same as someone else's.  I want you to try.  There is no satisfaction in doing something easy.  

Taking all that into consideration.  Being able to say that I ran a 10k is incredibly satisfying and meaningful to me.  I decided I wanted to see what I could do and I did it.  I was not the fastest, not by a long shot.  In fact I was 45th out of 53 people that ran it.  But I did it.  I chose to run a 10k instead of a 5k.  I chose to keep jogging the entire way, not stopping once to walk and I am excited.  I'm excited because I did something I thought I couldn't do.  I could barely run a mile before I would quit; and that was when I was my most active.  Now I'm not nearly as active and I ran 6.2 miles.  It doesn't matter how you compare to other people.  Other people's accomplishments are irrelevant. Do things that make you happy to be you!  You'll find that the majority of the time those things are not going to be easy and that you'll need courage to do it.

Dillon's Second Grade Concert

Dillon was SO excited for his concert!  He got a brand new outfit for it, Carson got a matching on.  Carson adores Dillon so much that when Dillon got dressed to go, Carson had to wear his too.  

 Look at that handsome boy!  

 We were fortunate to get front row seats!  He did such a great job and was so expressive!  Any time the song was singing about a specific person, saying thank you or I love you etc, he would stare right at us and sing to us.

Pumpkin Carving and Halloween

Also back in October (playing catch up if you can't tell). 

 Carson is not a giant fan of the "goo" but he still dug right in to help!  He was so excited about drawing on his face and helping cut it.

 Kayda always has and always will love the goo.  She was complaining that hers didn't have enough of it.

 As you can see from Dillon's face he doesn't like it much.  Kayda and Dillon got very little help from Mom and Dad this year.  It was all them from drawing to carving.

 Our little peacock, batman and another batman.  Though Carson picked out iron man he ended up wanting to be like big brother.

Parent Teacher Conferences

Way back in October we were given the opportunity to meet with Dillon and Kayda's teachers to talk about their progress. Prior to the conferences they test the kids on their reading fluency, comprehension and their mathematical skills.

Dillon (2nd):  Dillon already knows almost all of the second grade reading words and is working on the third grade list.  His fluency is fairly low but his comprehension is well above and beyond what most second graders demonstrate.  He is scoring beyond most second graders in his math as well.  The teacher told us that he is a sweet boy and is willing to stop and double check his work.  He listens well but occasionally gets caught up with what the people around him are doing.  She is really enjoying him!

Kayda (3rd):  Kayda's teacher didn't have anything bad to say.  Kayda is already reading several grade levels ahead, has excellent comprehension, writing and math skills.  She is all around one of the highest students in the class. The only thing her teacher could tell us to do is to make sure she reads books that are challenging her.

Last month I also had the chance to meet with Carson's old preschool teacher and his current preschool teacher.  Carson is continually doing better away from home and has become very comfortable at school.  We are working on getting him onto the bus so that he has the opportunity to be even more independent.  They think his is a wonderful boy and, just as his siblings, is a very good listener and is a respectful student.