This Weekend

We went to Dad's this weekend. Mom had the extra carseat for Avery so I got it from her Friday at work. When I picked C up he asked about the car seat. I think he had his hopes up for a moment that it was for a brother or sister. He was still happy when I told him it was for Avery, but he told me he really wanted to get a baby soon. I told him I understood....so do I.

I'll be honest.....I really wanted to see Avery this weekend and as my usual luck she was in a foul mood. On Saturday morning she didn't want anything to do with anybody but her mommy. We had a few good moments during the day, but for the most part she only wanted Charity. I guess Avery really didn't care that I packed for 2 people and drove for an hour to see her....the selfish life of a 16 month old!!!



He really does lover her....even if you can't tell by the picture

Turkey Talk

Halloween is the day that, in my mind, starts the holiday rush. It's hard to believe that Thanksgiving is just a few days away. It will be here before we know it. At Parent/Teacher Conferences we were given family"homework" to do with C. We were given a naked turkey and we had to decorate him. Mrs L told us to bring them back the first week of November. C started getting nervous about it Tuesday morning, he wanted his turkey. We finally finished it up Wednesday night and he took it to school yesterday. As I was thinking about how to decorate my....I mean our turkey my ideas kept getting more and more elaborate. I thought about dressing him in our school colors, I thought about getting a leaf punch and making leaves to put on the bottom of the page, etc. Finally I talked myself out of some of the bigger (and harder) ideas that I had and settled for dressing him like a Pilgrim. I looked at the turkey and realized it looked like an adult had done it so I did let C color some of him. But I made him sit on my lap so I could make sure he didn't start coloring the turkey pink or something. I also let C put some stickers on the paper around the turkey, but I was pretty firm on not letting him put any on the turkey. This turkey project reminded me of the school projects we would have to do. It seems to be one of those traits in my family that we like to do elaborate things. In Kindergarten we would never just take store bought cookies for snacks. We had Pac-Man cookies that I can still remember mom and dad cutting the triangles for the mouth and sticking M&M's in for eyes. I also remember the Valentines boxes that mom would end up doing most of the work, but we usually always won the box contest. I know there were several other projects that ended up big while Charity and I were growing up - decorating the stage for Harvest Dinner, my Homecoming Crown Bearer dress, the year I ran for StuCo President and made a hundred buttons. The other thing to remember is that most of the projects were completed late at night or really early in the morning. I guess I'm continuing the line now that C is in school. Wednesday night J was yelling at him to get in bed and I was yelling at him to come in the kitchen to work on the turkey (just so it would look like he had done something on it). I'm sure he was competely confused by us that night. C was also a little ticked at me because I wouldn't let him put the stickers on the turkey or use macaroni or popcorn anywhere on the project. I have a feeling this turkey is just the beginning of a long line of projects to be completed by me late at night. Like Hank Williams Jr says....It's a Family Tradition



Also, I've tried to do some holiday decorating on my blog so that's why it looks different.

Happy Halloween

Yesterday C had his first school party. I wasn't able to go, but J went for a little bit. He said it was pretty wild. I was a little disappointed because the kids don't get to dress up at our school. Once they got home J got him dressed and they went to our neighbors. We had only planned on going into town to the Baptist Church's Trunk or Treat party, but it didn't start until 6:30. C was getting restless so we went to Memo and Papa Jim's. They surprised C by dressing up like Pirates. I didn't have my camera with me or they would have some pictures on the blog. After we left there we went to the church and played games and ate hot dogs and chili. We had a pretty good time...until this morning. C had asked me last night what was after Halloween. I thought he just meant the next holiday so I told him Thanksgiving. Then he wanted to know what was after Thanksgiving so I told him Christmas. That wasn't what he meant because this morning he hopped out of bed and said Yeah, It's Thanksgiving!. There were a lot of tears shed this morning when he realized tomorrow is not Christmas. He must not be paying attention during calendar time at school!

Charity e-mailed me some pictures of Avery from last night so I had to include those in the Halloween slide show.

I just looked at the slide show, the first one of Avery didn't turn out very good. It makes her look like a headless giant. Sorry...but you can see her face in the next one!

More from the Kindergarten Diaries

C has really been coming up with some funny things lately. One particular story isn't probably appropriate to post, but it is one of the first times he truly embarrassed me by something he said. If you want to know e-mail me or call me and I'll be happy to share, I just probably won't do it on the blog.

J called this afternoon and told me something that C had said this morning. Our school has an afterschool program. When they first started it we decided not to put C in it. A couple of weeks ago C started talking about it and wanted to be in it because all of his buddies were in and and they were doing Karate. We talked about it and finally decided we'd see about getting him signed up. On the way to school today J told him what we were doing. C told J that he really didn't want to do the after school program. J said that we were just going to check on it. C said "Dad, I really don't think that's going to work" I guess there isn't room in his afternoon schedule of computer games at the high school for the after school program. Luckily for him the program is full and not taking any more kids.

Another funny thing he's said is what he told Sharon on Friday when they were driving to eat lunch. She was asking him some questions and finally he told her she just needed to concentrate on driving him to lunch. He also told me the other day I needed to concentrate on my driving, but we were headed to a bathroom rather than to lunch.

I can tell he's really started changing since he started school. He says some really funny things, but it also is a little sad. He just keeps getting more and more mature. He also keeps growing - he's grown 1/2 inch since school started. He's not our little baby anymore.

We are on the Website!!!!

If you go to www.bethany.org look to the right of the page you'll see a button that says Family Profiles. Click on it and then go to our state. You can see our Dear Birthmother letter and see our pictures. Yeah!!!

Parent/Teacher Conference

Last night was our very first Parent/Teacher Conference. It was nice going and knowing we didn't have any problems. We just got to hear how good of a student C is. His report card looked very good. In Kindergarten they get graded on more personal skills than anything. They get a + if they've mastered it and a / if they are working on it. Mrs L said she's not very giving on + for the personal skills in the first quarter because that is what Kindergarten is all about. They were graded on 9 skills and she gave C a plus on 6 of them. The three that he's still working on are Taking Care of Personal Belongings, Completes Work on Time & Works Independently. We're still working on taking care of personal belongings at home, so that wasn't surprising. He has a hard time completing his work on time because he's a perfectionist. He tries so hard to make everything perfect that he doesn't always get it done on time. Mrs L said C is harder on himself which slows him down. That also isn't surprising. He's just learning Time Management, which is a trait most of us are still working on. The third thing he needs to work on is actually pretty funny - Working Independently. J knew what Mrs L was going to say before she even said it. He is the pet of the teacher's aide that spends a few hours a day in the classroom. He asks for her help because he likes her and she likes him. He doesn't really need the help, he just likes her. Mrs L laughed when she was telling us about it last night. J's had the teachers aide's kids in school so he knows them really well. I guess she had been telling J about helping in the classroom. C is used to getting someones full attention so if they're willing to give it to him of course he's going to take it.

He did very well on his Reading Readiness skills, he has mastered everything and he can recognize all the upper case letters and most of the lower case. He's still having problems with d's and q's, which is common. He is still working on his Motor Skills which includes Writing Neatly and Plainly, Colors Neatly, Cuts Neatly with Scissors and Glues Projects Together Neatly - once again we weren't surprised. The other things he's still working on is Knowing Right from Left, Art and P.E. Knowing how I was in school those also aren't surprising.

C started out looking so much like J that I always just assumed he would have his personality. In the last 6 months or so he's becoming more and more like me. Sitting there last night I realized how much he is starting to develop more and more of my personality quirks (good and bad). She was telling us a lot of stuff last night, but we both thought she said C was at the top of the class in reading. Who does that sound like?

The highlight of the night for me was getting his school pictures. For the last few weeks I've asked J every afternoon if his pictures were in. I know I shouldn't say this about a boy, but I thought they were really cute. We need to Ooh and Ahhh over these because if my school pictures are any indication, they're all downhill from here!


and by the way - school photos are a lot fancier then they were when I was in school. We got to select the background color and pick a border for the picture. There was a lot of thought put into ordering these pictures.

Friday Night Lights.....With Smoke in the Air

Friday night was the last Varsity home game. Of course J and his teaching partner, Lyle, were in the concession stand. Jania, Lyle's wife) and I were sitting on the opposite end of the field from the stand. There was some excitement in during the game. Since I don't pay attention to the game, I'm not sure what happened. All we knew was that Harv, the coach, was out on the field yelling so we stood up to get a better view. At that same time a huge (and I mean huge) cloud of smoke wafted over the field. Jania asked if the guys had caught something on fire. I told her who knows with the two of them. A little later Lyle came and told us the story...
They have a designated kid called the "Fry Daddy" who is in charge of the fries. They use the big pots that you can fry a turkey in and there were two pots going Friday night. The normal Fry Daddy wasn't there, so they had a substitute. One of the pots caught on fire. That's when J and Lyle realized there wasn't a fire extinguisher in the concession stand. Lyle grabbed a plastic trash can and tried to smother the fire, but the trash can melted. So J and Lyle jumped in Lyle's truck and drove across the street to the school. They left the kids at the football field with the fire, by themselves. J and Lyle ran into the school and one went to the shop and the other went to the kitchen to get fire extinguishers. Then (this is my favorite part) they had left Lyle's truck running while they went into the school. Instead of getting back in the truck they just ran back to the field. By the time they got back they were both sucking wind, but they got the fire out. After it was out Lyle realized his truck was still running over at the high school. It is a wonder the concession stand didn't catch on fire. I just keep imagining the people doing the announcing having to jump out of the top of the stand. I think J's going to mount an extinguisher to the side of the smoker. I wish I had been over there when it happened. I would've loved to have seen the two of them running from the high school. What's really funny is that the concession stand hides the smoker and friers from the field. No one else probably even realizes what happened that night. They think us getting beat by the other team was the worst thing that happened that night...little does "Santa Claus" (as J called him) know how bad it could've been!