There are some things all of the boys love about their new neighborhood school. One of them is definitely the big-kid playground.
Xander loves the slides the most, as you can tell from the photo (special thanks to his aide Mrs. G for sharing). It was a perfect fall-like day in our part of the world, and he was taking some time to enjoy the view (from his favorite, squinty one-eye perspective no less).
Good days at school ... which we love to see.
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
So Much to Say, So Little Time ...
Things like how much Connor is enjoying Fall baseball, and how I'm seriously a little in love with his coach. He is an amazing baseball coach. Fall ball is by nature laid back and fun. And while his personality seems much the same, he is also taking the time to work with kids, to get down on their level, to use this time for instruction as well as fun. He watches each player, constantly looking for ways to improve their game while also encouraging them. He talks to them before and after every play, congratulating them when they do well and explaining to them how they could do it better if it didn't go quite so well. He takes time, even with the younger players, who are still prone to sulks and tears even though there is no crying in baseball (as I keep reminding Connor when he strikes out or gets tagged out). So far, it has been a great experience, we love the league and the coach.
I might tell you how Xander is doing so incredibly well with his transition, so much better than I could have ever expected or hoped for. His teachers and his aide have nothing but good things to report at the end of every school day (there are a few minor issues here and there, of course, but overall the report is glowing). How he is always ready to go to school in the mornings and jumps out of my truck easily and happily. How every new word he sees at school becomes a word he simply now knows how to spell. How he is using many more words, trying harder to use sentences and to say what he really means. How impressed his speech therapist was with today's amazing session.
Or I could mention that Sawyer is slowly finding his way in the new school, too. That though he is spending a lot of time in his resource room and not much in the traditional classroom, he is slowly adding more minutes with his peers. How he looks you in the eyes so much more often, how he walks up and engages you more than ever before. How he even seeks out peers at school or his brothers at home to play with him. All huge, HUGE steps forward for him.
But time is in short supply these days. Today will give you a pretty good picture. Xander was up before 6 o'clock, Sawyer about half an hour later. Connor had to be dragged unwillingly from bed a little after 7:30. In addition to being tired, he is also trying to come down with a cold (sore throat, sniffles and not much voice at the moment). Backpacks prepared and into the truck by 8, into school shortly thereafter. Next it was back home for a quick walk for the puppy, and then on to a dental appointment from 9 to 10, only to have to rush home to clean up a work project at the printer today. Next a stop by the printer to review the proof, then off to the grocery store for some essentials and a prescription. Then home to return the not one, but four phone calls I missed during the very quick grocery run. Issues with a client, with the printer and a few other things to be taken care of. Then packing up the truck with supplies for the afternoon - we would leave straight from school for speech therapy, then straight from speech therapy to the baseball field.
Thankfully, Grammy and Pappy came to the rescue again. Pappy met us at speech therapy, took two of the boys for ice cream while the first one had his session. Then he waited for the second session to end and took the twins back to the house for the night - where Grammy met him after she got off from her 12-hour nursing shift and they fed them, gave them baths, and got them into bed.
Connor and I left speech therapy and hit a fast food stop for dinner. Then it was straight to the batting cages to practice a little before the game. It didn't end until after 8:15, already past Connor's normal bedtime. We had done two work sheets of Connor's homework in the truck, in the 10 minutes we arrived before our speech therapy appointment, but we still had a easy reader book he had to read not once but twice and spelling words to practice. He also needed a shower. I think he made it to bed by a 10, more than two hours after his normal bed time. And we really could have used a little more time to practice spelling words.
And then I had to unload the truck from the day's adventures. Next I had to unpack school bags, check folders, initial daily logs and write in journals, refill snack containers and Xander's lunch, file homework and prepare everything for tomorrow morning. I also needed to start the daily load of laundry, load the dishwasher and feed the puppy again. And take a shower. And spend a few hours prepping for a client meeting first thing in the morning, after I drop the boys off at school. And respond to the 15 emails that accumulated between picking the boys up from school and getting back home tonight.
I am so ready for bed. And like Connor, I am so not going to be ready to get up in the morning. The twins will probably be up at some ungodly hour, and I will once again be wondering if I will ever sleep more than 6 hours in a night. I really, really hope it happens again. Soon.
I might tell you how Xander is doing so incredibly well with his transition, so much better than I could have ever expected or hoped for. His teachers and his aide have nothing but good things to report at the end of every school day (there are a few minor issues here and there, of course, but overall the report is glowing). How he is always ready to go to school in the mornings and jumps out of my truck easily and happily. How every new word he sees at school becomes a word he simply now knows how to spell. How he is using many more words, trying harder to use sentences and to say what he really means. How impressed his speech therapist was with today's amazing session.
Or I could mention that Sawyer is slowly finding his way in the new school, too. That though he is spending a lot of time in his resource room and not much in the traditional classroom, he is slowly adding more minutes with his peers. How he looks you in the eyes so much more often, how he walks up and engages you more than ever before. How he even seeks out peers at school or his brothers at home to play with him. All huge, HUGE steps forward for him.
But time is in short supply these days. Today will give you a pretty good picture. Xander was up before 6 o'clock, Sawyer about half an hour later. Connor had to be dragged unwillingly from bed a little after 7:30. In addition to being tired, he is also trying to come down with a cold (sore throat, sniffles and not much voice at the moment). Backpacks prepared and into the truck by 8, into school shortly thereafter. Next it was back home for a quick walk for the puppy, and then on to a dental appointment from 9 to 10, only to have to rush home to clean up a work project at the printer today. Next a stop by the printer to review the proof, then off to the grocery store for some essentials and a prescription. Then home to return the not one, but four phone calls I missed during the very quick grocery run. Issues with a client, with the printer and a few other things to be taken care of. Then packing up the truck with supplies for the afternoon - we would leave straight from school for speech therapy, then straight from speech therapy to the baseball field.
Thankfully, Grammy and Pappy came to the rescue again. Pappy met us at speech therapy, took two of the boys for ice cream while the first one had his session. Then he waited for the second session to end and took the twins back to the house for the night - where Grammy met him after she got off from her 12-hour nursing shift and they fed them, gave them baths, and got them into bed.
Connor and I left speech therapy and hit a fast food stop for dinner. Then it was straight to the batting cages to practice a little before the game. It didn't end until after 8:15, already past Connor's normal bedtime. We had done two work sheets of Connor's homework in the truck, in the 10 minutes we arrived before our speech therapy appointment, but we still had a easy reader book he had to read not once but twice and spelling words to practice. He also needed a shower. I think he made it to bed by a 10, more than two hours after his normal bed time. And we really could have used a little more time to practice spelling words.
And then I had to unload the truck from the day's adventures. Next I had to unpack school bags, check folders, initial daily logs and write in journals, refill snack containers and Xander's lunch, file homework and prepare everything for tomorrow morning. I also needed to start the daily load of laundry, load the dishwasher and feed the puppy again. And take a shower. And spend a few hours prepping for a client meeting first thing in the morning, after I drop the boys off at school. And respond to the 15 emails that accumulated between picking the boys up from school and getting back home tonight.
I am so ready for bed. And like Connor, I am so not going to be ready to get up in the morning. The twins will probably be up at some ungodly hour, and I will once again be wondering if I will ever sleep more than 6 hours in a night. I really, really hope it happens again. Soon.
Monday, August 29, 2011
School Days ...
Sometimes school is hard, but today was not one of those days for Sawyer. His teacher Ms. K brought in a fun tent for her classroom, and Sawyer made himself at home. Tight, enclosed spaces are some of his favorite kind. Ever. (Special thanks to Ms. K for sharing the photo).
Friday, August 26, 2011
School Days
Some days, school can be really fun. All of Xander's teachers have been telling me that he is doing incredibly well with the transition. He has good days and bad days, or more accurately good days with a few bad moments. But overall, he is doing really well.
Today he enjoyed some serious sensory time, which both of the twins love. He particularly liked this little hand scooter in the gym. (Special thanks to his aide, Ms. G, for snapping and sending the photo).
Though I know that in a lot of ways it must be a difficult transition for the boys - so many changes all at once - they have both been doing remarkably well. There are no complaints in the mornings when I say "Time for school!" and no real issues getting out in car line. They are always happy to come back home at the end of the day, and they come out of school smiling and in a good mood.
You can't ask for much more than that.
Today he enjoyed some serious sensory time, which both of the twins love. He particularly liked this little hand scooter in the gym. (Special thanks to his aide, Ms. G, for snapping and sending the photo).
Though I know that in a lot of ways it must be a difficult transition for the boys - so many changes all at once - they have both been doing remarkably well. There are no complaints in the mornings when I say "Time for school!" and no real issues getting out in car line. They are always happy to come back home at the end of the day, and they come out of school smiling and in a good mood.
You can't ask for much more than that.
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
Self-Style by Connor
Yes. Yes he did.
Connor has been talking for a while now about how long his hair was getting. He has been wanting a hair cut, but we have been disagreeing over how to get it done. Daddy prefers to just buzz all three boys in the summer here at home. It's easy and cheap. Connor likes the top of his hair left a little bit longer, but neither Josh nor I cut hair very well, so we simply can't do it and have it look like anything. The $15 barber shop trip wouldn't be so bad, if his hair didn't grow so darn quick. Plus it's hard to find time now that school and baseball have both started.
So Monday night, as best we can tell, Connor decided to take matters into his own hands. He took a pair of children's scissors from the desk in his bedroom and cut his own hair. He even very neatly put the clippings into his trash can. There may have been a few stray pieces on his carpet, but he apparently tried really hard to be neat.
The picture does not do it justice. There are huge gaping holes where hair should be growing, but where it has been chopped off at his scalp. It's especially bad over his ears, which I sort of understand. It's terrible on top of his head, which baffles me. I thought he liked it longer up there, and yet he cut several handfuls off the top of his head. Clearly the power of wielding the scissors was too much for him to resist following even his own style request.
Now you might be wondering how this managed to escape our attention for a day and a half. I will only say that Tuesdays are ridiculously crazy in our house these days.
Yesterday, Josh was going out on a job-related meeting, so he agreed to drop the boys off at school on his way. He helped me get them all ready, so I wasn't paying as much attention as I sometimes do. The boys were in school from 8 o'clock until just after 3 o'clock. I picked all the boys up, and we immediately headed across town to the twins' weekly speech therapy appointment (where I also conveniently forgot college was back in session and I have to cross the large state university campus to get from school to therapy). We were running a little later than normal, and we also had to stop at McDonald's for dinner. At 3:30 in the afternoon. Because speech therapy would last from 4 o'clock until a little after 5 o'clock, at which point we would need to head directly to the baseball field for Connor's first scrimmage game of the season. It started at 5:45, but we had to get there in rush hour traffic on a very heavily crowded commuter road. We managed to make it, get him dressed and up to the field just in time to start (no practice for him today). The game lasted two hours. We didn't make it home until 8 o'clock (good thing we ate at 3:30, huh?). Then it was a mad rush of removing dirty clothes, getting showers and baths started, then finishing up with teeth brushing and homework. All by a little after 9 o'clock.
Did I mention Tuesdays were a bit hectic?
Or that we also noticed Connor's hair sometime in between speech therapy sessions. So once we got back home last night, he had to get his hair buzzed (which still did nothing for the gaping holes where he cut it off at his scalp) before he could shower, brush his teeth, do his homework, and go to bed. At which point I also noticed the stray hair that needed to be vacuumed, the pajamas covered in cut hair, and the sheets that surely did as well. I managed to clean up the floor and get some clean pajamas, but it was too late for new sheets.
Sigh.
At drop-off this morning, the boys' teachers commented on his new hair cut. Apparently he had told them about it yesterday at school. His hair was getting too long, and Mommy and Daddy wouldn't cut it, so he took care of it.
Indeed. How nice.
Connor has been talking for a while now about how long his hair was getting. He has been wanting a hair cut, but we have been disagreeing over how to get it done. Daddy prefers to just buzz all three boys in the summer here at home. It's easy and cheap. Connor likes the top of his hair left a little bit longer, but neither Josh nor I cut hair very well, so we simply can't do it and have it look like anything. The $15 barber shop trip wouldn't be so bad, if his hair didn't grow so darn quick. Plus it's hard to find time now that school and baseball have both started.
So Monday night, as best we can tell, Connor decided to take matters into his own hands. He took a pair of children's scissors from the desk in his bedroom and cut his own hair. He even very neatly put the clippings into his trash can. There may have been a few stray pieces on his carpet, but he apparently tried really hard to be neat.
The picture does not do it justice. There are huge gaping holes where hair should be growing, but where it has been chopped off at his scalp. It's especially bad over his ears, which I sort of understand. It's terrible on top of his head, which baffles me. I thought he liked it longer up there, and yet he cut several handfuls off the top of his head. Clearly the power of wielding the scissors was too much for him to resist following even his own style request.
Now you might be wondering how this managed to escape our attention for a day and a half. I will only say that Tuesdays are ridiculously crazy in our house these days.
Yesterday, Josh was going out on a job-related meeting, so he agreed to drop the boys off at school on his way. He helped me get them all ready, so I wasn't paying as much attention as I sometimes do. The boys were in school from 8 o'clock until just after 3 o'clock. I picked all the boys up, and we immediately headed across town to the twins' weekly speech therapy appointment (where I also conveniently forgot college was back in session and I have to cross the large state university campus to get from school to therapy). We were running a little later than normal, and we also had to stop at McDonald's for dinner. At 3:30 in the afternoon. Because speech therapy would last from 4 o'clock until a little after 5 o'clock, at which point we would need to head directly to the baseball field for Connor's first scrimmage game of the season. It started at 5:45, but we had to get there in rush hour traffic on a very heavily crowded commuter road. We managed to make it, get him dressed and up to the field just in time to start (no practice for him today). The game lasted two hours. We didn't make it home until 8 o'clock (good thing we ate at 3:30, huh?). Then it was a mad rush of removing dirty clothes, getting showers and baths started, then finishing up with teeth brushing and homework. All by a little after 9 o'clock.
Did I mention Tuesdays were a bit hectic?
Or that we also noticed Connor's hair sometime in between speech therapy sessions. So once we got back home last night, he had to get his hair buzzed (which still did nothing for the gaping holes where he cut it off at his scalp) before he could shower, brush his teeth, do his homework, and go to bed. At which point I also noticed the stray hair that needed to be vacuumed, the pajamas covered in cut hair, and the sheets that surely did as well. I managed to clean up the floor and get some clean pajamas, but it was too late for new sheets.
Sigh.
At drop-off this morning, the boys' teachers commented on his new hair cut. Apparently he had told them about it yesterday at school. His hair was getting too long, and Mommy and Daddy wouldn't cut it, so he took care of it.
Indeed. How nice.
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