Slinkies

"Some people are like slinkies. They're only good for putting a smile on your face when you push them down the stairs."

Today, I was the slinky!

In honor...

Since Thanksgiving is on the 26th this year, here are 26 things I'm thankful for:

1-Insta Care, great pediatricians & amazing ENTs
2-Decent paying jobs
3-Cars that get nearly 40 mpg
4-Fantastic babysitters ;)
5-3 day weekends
6-My mom & her willingness to babysit on short notice & ability to supervise my sewing adventures!
7-My chiropractor
8-Ibuprofen 800
9-My kids' smiles
10-Tylenol & teething tablets
11-Cell phones & their texting ability
12-My family
13-All modern technology (including indoor plumbing!)
14-My kids' willingness to forgive me when I'm grouchy
15-My house
16-My husband who sacrifices much
17-Long hot baths
18-Warm summer nights
19-Fresh snow
20-Friends
21-The new tires on my car
22-My next door neighbors that regularly entertains Nash & Samantha
23-Dexamethazone & nebulizers
24-My dad's willingness to change the oil in my care & rotate my tires on the weekend!
25-Dead bugs - they provide much (cheap) entertainment for Nash!
26-They way I was raised - boy it could have been worse! ;)

I tag anyone that wants to play!

We love winter...

Took Caleb to Insta Care tonight. Ear infection of the right ear & the beginning signs of pnumonia (sp?)! Yay!! Thank goodness I only work 2 days this week!!

No more baby!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Halloween was fun. We carved pumpkins before Trav left last time. The kids modeled their costumes for him before he left too. I took the kids to trick or treat in downtown Logan during the day. Caleb was really good. He just sat in the stroller and was quite mellow. Of course, he didn't feel too great. That night I left Caleb with my mom & took the other 2 to my aunt Nikki's house to trick or treat with her kids. The kids had a lot of fun. Nash's legs pooped out after about a block. He got to the point that he wouldn't even get out of the wagon at each house! Stinker. We still had fun though.

My baby is no longer a baby! Travis said this morning he was out watching TV when all of a sudden here comes Caleb. Little stink climbed out of his crib! So, tonight we took his crib down to a toddler bed. I think he was tired enough when I put him to bed that is the reason why he has stayed! Tomorrow may be a different story!!

Trav came home on Tuesday (yay). It was perfect timing because Nash got really sick Wednesday night. Trav's scheduled to go read to Sam's class Tue. morning. Sam's pretty stoked about that. He didn't shave the entire 2 weeks he was gone and he really needed a haircut before he left last time. So, he came home looking like a homeless mountain man. We'll have to get him cleaned up before he goes this time. During the last 2 weeks when he was at work, he managed to work a mere 183 hours. We are bummed he won't be home for Thanksgiving, but would much rather have him home for Christmas (which he will be) so we won't complain too much.

Nash is still loving preschool. He's getting really good at writing his name and numbers. It's funny to watch him because he's noticing letters in everything now and likes to point out "Hey, that's in my name. Look Sam!" It's really cute. The other thing he's doing lately is when we're watching TV or looking at magazines he'll tell me "Mom! I want that SOOO bad!" It's pretty funny to hear him because he totally makes it sound like he is the only kid on the planet that doesn't already have one and he absolutely needs to have it NOW.

Sam's dance recital is coming up on Dec. 16th at LaShars. I got to watch her dance for 15 min. about 2 weeks ago. Their dances are coming along pretty good. I'm sure glad she likes it. The girl has got rhythm!

Update on Sam: Met with her teacher, their school reading specialist and the principal today. Apparently the lady that is their reading specialist works with the teachers at the school where she went last year, so she was familiar with Sam and her data. She said that they place the kids at the beginning of the school year in the same level that they tested at at the end of the previous year, so she was placed in a group that was the level she was at at the end of Kindergarten. They went ahead and tested her. Come to find out, she tested out of the group she had been placed in (surprise). Apparently they do 2 different reading groups every day for 30 minutes. Beginning Monday Samantha will be in a higher level reading group for both reading groups. Yay. I find it very interesting that the reading specialist told us that because there was concern about Sam that after they looked at her data, they went back and looked at the data of other kids. As a result, they were able to move 22 additional students up in their reading level groups. I wanted to know why the data wasn't re-examined earlier but didn't ask because I didn't want to come across as a beast. Her teacher told me that she is scoring at the top of the class in language arts, but not out of what their doing (I say give her time ;) ). She is scoring in about the middle for math so since they do math centers during the day, her teacher feels like she's getting the differentiation that she needs. I'm still going to do more with her at home in that area. She'll be finished reading the phonics readers by Monday and will get to start reading AR books and taking tests. That should be interesting.

Help wanted!

Alright...I need help.

Poor Samantha is getting so bored at school lately that she doesn't even want to go to school. When I try to get her to do her homework, she just rolls her eyes and sighs as me as if to say, "Why? I've already done this and know how to do it. You're beating a dead horse here.".

Last night on the way to dance class she came right out and said, "Mom...when I go to school, it's boring. I already know what the teacher is teaching. She only calls on the first person to raise their hand and I always have my hand up first so she calls on me, and I'm BORED!". How does a mother answer this without getting mad at the teacher? How does a mother, who also happens to be a teacher, answer this without getting REALLY mad at the teacher?

I started to talk to her (I've actually been worried this is what was happening for about 2 or so weeks - maybe longer). When I ask her to tell me what she learned in school that day, she can't tell me anything. For example, today I told her "Tell me one thing you learned in school today." I'm thinking she'll give me something profound, right? Nope. She comes out with, "I went to pe and learned to dribble a ball." Wow. Earth shattering!

So, at school today I spoke with one of the first grade teachers and asked her if she had some formal assessments I could copy to give to Sam. She's going to get me a copy of the last block test we just took. Tonight I gave her the primary spelling inventory (QSI from Words Their Way). She scored about 52/84 (that's higher than some of my third graders scored at the beginning of last year people!). After speaking with our instructional coach, I'm going to have Trav check her out of school early next Wednesday and bring her down to take the STAR and 4-Sight tests (reading tests) to see how she scores there. I'm going to update her DIBELS test (last one was first of Sept. and she scored 72 cwpm). I've emailed her teacher and asked if Trav and I can come and meet with her next Friday. I'm hoping she'll agree. I'm going to take all my data (teacher dna coming out). I will ask her to explain their reading program to me (it sounds like it's a basal but not being taught in a very interactive way). I'll then present the concern I have and my data. If she can't figure out a way to differentiate, I will move her to my school. The teachers at my school all worked on differentiation last year so they're pretty good at it. I just don't want her to hate school & right now, she really doesn't like it much!

My sister about died last night when I told her that I'm very seriously considering pulling my daughter out of a Cache County school & putting her in an inner city Ogden school. But, Ogden City has really high standards and expectations, so they have some really amazing teachers. At least I'd know her teacher & could have easier access to how she was doing, right?

What suggestions do you have? The instructional coach at my school told me, "You need to go in there as a parent, not a teacher." But, I think that if I go in as a parent I have a lot more emotional ties to it and the likelyhood of me getting upset is much higher. If I go in with a teacher mindset, I can pull the emotion out of it a bit more and just look at the data and lessen the liklyhood of me wanting to smack her teacher!

Help!

Update

Well, he's been sick for a week & so far no stays in the hospital - so, that's good news, right?
Here's a review/update for you!

Last Wednesday night...went to Urgent Care at Specialty Hospital & told he had croup. By some miracle the doctore actually gave him Dexamethazone!

Thursday I stayed home with Caleb...guilty mother syndrome kicked in.

Friday...Caleb went to daycare & did so-so.

Saturday (Halloween)...he still didn't feel too hot. Since the weather was nice I took him & the other 2 into Logan to trick or treat in downtown. Caleb just sat in his stroller & played the part of Yoda quite well (pix later!). I left Caleb with my mom Saturday night and took the other two monsters trick or treating in Nibley with the Snyders. We had lots of fun & got a good share of candy.

Sunday...Duleb still didn't feel too hot so I left Nash & Sam with my mom & went back to Urgent Care at the Specialty Hospital. Randomly enough we saw the same dr. that we had seen Wednesday night. Now we get told it sounds more like Bronchitis than croup. We finally got antibiotics.

Monday...I only went to work for 1/2 a day & my mom kept Caleb that morning until I got back. He seemed to be feeling better but still didn't act like himself. When I changed his diaper he had these weird spots on his inner thighs. Yes, I was now freaked out because my mind thought "allergic reaction to Zythromax." All three kids are allergic to Penicillan & the boys are allergic to Omnicef too. So, here I am thinking he's having an allergic reaction to Zythromax & if that's the case we're in BIG trouble when the kid gets sick! I put my mom on daycare standby with all the dr. names, numbers & a list of drugs he's been taking.

Today...I sent Caleb to daycare for the whole day. He did ok. Laura never could see the weird spots I was talking about on his inner thighs. When I changed his diaper tonight I could see them still, but only just faintly. I'm thinking it's just some weird coincidence...ok, HOPING it's just a weird coincidence!

So, we are surviving. Some days I think "Just barely!" & other days go well. Tomorrow we endure dance class & a short day at school for me! When I flipped the calendar the other day I realized there's only about 3 weeks until Thanksgiving....HOLY COW! I'm sure you'll never guess what my first thought was at that realization -- yep, YAY long weekend! ;)

We are anxiously awaiting this weekend when we get to make a trip south to Manti. Sam is so excited she can barely contain herself! And who can blame her? We get to visit Grandma & Grandpa Butter!