Third Grade

The dude started third grade this week. We had meet the teacher on Thursday and his teacher seems really nice. She engaged him in conversation and he shook her hand, so I got a good feeling. I then got good reports from the other three teachers I know at the school really well. I think it will be a good school year. He is not very eager to be back in school, told her he'd rather be at home. I see all these parents posting how excited their kids are and he's just not. But, he does excitedly tell me about his new friends and a little about his day, so I think it will be alright.
He looks so much older this year.

Third Grade:




Second Grade




First Grade




Kindergarten

Second Grade

It seems like just yesterday that my baby started Kindergarten. But in reality, it was 2 years ago. Wow, does time fly. He is almost 7, getting so tall, looking like a big kid. These are the times that I really wish I could freeze time. I keep saying each year he just gets cooler and cooler. But he really is so cool right now! He is at an age where he still loves mom, not quite too afraid to show it, but just around the corner he will be. He has developed his own personality. He is a sports fanatic; he will even watch ESPN almost as much as he watches the Disney Channel. He spent the last few weeks watching the X Games on the DVR and then the Little League World Series.
I think he is more ready for the school year and it isn’t as terrifying since we know the routine, the school, and the kids. He has his little buddy from Kindergarten in his class so that made the morning super easy.
I look back today and he is looking so much older. He is growing so fast.

Kindergarten:



First Grade:



Second Grade:

First Grade

C started First grade today! Yay! He is pretty excited about going back to school. We had all of our school supplies bought for a few weeks now and packed up. I was like the first grader; I couldn’t sleep last night in anticipation of today. Both hubby and I walked him into his classroom and I took some pictures. This time last year I had a Kindergartener.

Looking Cool Ready to leave House:


In the red hallway this year:


At his desk:

Last Day of Kindergarten

So, it has been 180 days of school today and Kindergarten is officially over at the end of the day. I grabbed the camera this morning; I had taken a picture on the first day:

So, I wanted to get a picture on the last day. C decided he also wanted to make a video, it is very short, but cute. This morning was very “foggy and dark”, so not great weather to take pictures. He does look so much older. I still can’t believe my baby is no longer going to be a Kindergartener. He has decided that starting tomorrow he is a 1st grader. Of course, then he says “But we don’t have school tomorrow.” Nope, not until August, he is pretty excited about “Summer Bacation”.

School Funnies

Two school funnies this week from C.

Tuesday I went to have lunch with C. It is always so much fun and so entertaining. He gets to pick a friend and we can go outside and eat on the picnic tables, so a real treat. I also usually buy him a fudgesicle from the cafeteria or bring him a treat. I get to see him interact with his friends. In the beginning of the year he always picked a girl, but now he always picks a boy. Usually his buddy Aidan from school.
So him and Aidan were sitting and talking about the behavior colors, green=good, yellow=warning, red=trouble, possible call home, blue=principal office and call home. C always gets green except for only two yellows all year. Woohoo, total proud mommy moment all the way.

Well, apparently someone in the class got a blue. So the boys got to talking:
A: What would happen if you got a double blue?
C: What would happen if you got a triple blue? Maybe you would be banished. (He did actually come up with the word banished on his own).
A: Yeah, banished from school.
C: Yeah, banished from school and then you’d have to go to public school.

Now, for the the part that makes it super funny, he goes to public school.

So, the second one came last night as he was talking to Grammy on the phone. She asked how he was doing in school. This is what he says: "Grammy I only get A plusses, I get A plusses on everything, but someone in my class, they get Z minuses, actually there are two people that get Z minuses." Should I note here that our school grades on 1-4’s? But, he is doing really well and aced his math assessments. He now says his favorite subject is Math. It was science in the beginning of the year.

Been a while....

I am guessing that my thoughts of keeping the blog updated are really not working very well this year. Hopefully these posts about catching up will become something of the past, but looking at my track record, I rather doubt it.
Here are the latest updates:
We put the house on the market. It took a few months of procrastination on my part and packing on Hubby’s part, but we have it on the market. There have been quite a few showing so far, but no bites yet. We hope to move just one or two towns away, easing my commute a bit to/from work. It will also hopefully put us closer to C’s school. We have been busy trying to do some projects/painting the last two weeks it has been on the market and slowly looking at new houses.
We are ONE step away from being licensed to foster parent. We are pretty excited about this and wonder what this journey will bring us. We are hoping to eventually adopt a foster child and hope this will happen in the next year or two. I wonder if/when we will get a call. I joked today that we might get a call while hubby is home alone and C and I are out in California, I can totally see him playing Mr. Mom for the week.
Hubby got laid off and started a new job. It was very stressful and the layoff was a complete surprise. But, he/we were very lucky and he found a new position right away. He is now testing electronic data capture software for clinical trials. So we both work in clinical trials. He is lucky and gets to work from home, which I secretly (well, now not so secretly) am hating on him for. At least he does laundry while working ;-)
C is doing really well in school. He is starting to read a lot more. He wowed me last night by reading the word “together” without any prompting. His teacher works really hard with the kids on reading and I think our nightly readings help, too. He is counting past 100 now. Still skipping a number here and there sometimes, but doing well. He got his first report card and got all 3’s except in fine motor skills where he got a 2. I think that is very, very good. He has still kept his green streak for behavior. (They get a stamp report on how they are doing every day on their folder, green (good), yellow (a few warnings), red (disruptive behavior), and blue (principal office)). C has only ever gotten green.

100th Day

This week was the 100th day of school. I decided I would volunteer in the classroom for the 100th day. I also got to have lunch with him. It is a pretty exciting day for the Kindergartners especially and the teachers try to make it really cool.
They had a take home assignment to do a 100 Day Project. C painted a plaque red and then I put an outline of 100 and he glued 100 beads to the outline of the 100 and then put some cool wooden figures around it, a boy, bus, school house, and pencil. It turned out really nice. I got to see some of the other projects and they were cool. Some included a poster board with race track and 100 race car stickers, a poster board and a picture of a Pokemon ball with 100 Pokemon stickers, a Lego board with 100 Legos spelling out 100, 100 M&M's on a paper. They were also encouraged to dress for the 100 day. I think around 6 of the kids did, one girl had 100 beads bedazzled on her shirt, a girl had ten hearts each with ten dots in them, a little boy had 100 stars stamped on his shirt (really liked this one), and C had 100 ironed on to his shirt. It turned out cool.
The day in the classroom was a lot of fun. The kids made 100 day glasses, 100 day trail mix, wrote numbers up to 100 on a piece of paper, and decorated a 100 day Mascot, Spot with 100 spots. His teacher is really good and always does some really cool stuff with the kids. All of the kids enjoyed their special day.

Here he is making his 100 day glasses:

Here is the class (me included in picture):

Here is C and the 100 day Mascot Spot:

Here is C and his wonderful teacher:

What I sent in C's Pocket Today

Last night our conversation was this:
C: "Mom, do you think you could write down our phone number?"
Chris: "Why do you need the phone number written down?"
C: "Kierston wants our phone number so she can call and tell us that she can come to my party."

Oh my, it is starting already and we are only in Kindergarten, girls want his phone number. I am sure he will be asking girls for theirs, too. Ahhhhhh!

This is the same Kierston who he he was crying because he said the principal would not allow him to invite her to his party. We managed to work something out and I sent an invite to Kierston. He says she is coming, but I haven't heard. If her mom is anything like me, she lost the invite and this is how the phone number conversation started. She needed it so her mom could call. At least that is how it would have happened in our house.

So this morning, I sent him with the phone number in his pocket so he can give it to Kierston.

Not happy to see me?

I am on call for work this week and we get off at 3 pm when on call so we can be ready to take emergency calls at 4 pm. I was excited about getting out of work a little early and picking up Christopher for some extra mommy and son time. So I get there at 3:30 and they were about to head outside, he sees me and breaks down in tears. He was oh so not happy to see me. Man, so glad I wanted to spend extra time with him. He did not want to go home with me. So I left him for a few minutes and went over to Trader Joes, then went back at 4. I really know better than to feel hurt, but it did hurt my feelings just a little. I picked him up early again today. No tears, but I did get an upset, “Why do you always have to do that, picking me up early?” He asked if tomorrow I would please not pick him up early. So I guess I get some me time instead. I can at least be happy that he enjoys his time in after school care, right?!?!

Love and Heartbreak already?

Christopher fell in love Friday with a 1st grader. He was so excited to say he fell in love with a little girl Kennedy, who is in first grade. She drew him a heart, they hugged three times. Well yesterday I pick him up and Kennedy wouldn’t play with him yesterday. She likes someone else, says Christopher. Last night on his chalkboard he asks me to write his name, her name, heart is broken, he drew a heart. How sad for him! This is much too soon for my son to be getting his heart broken by a little girl. He said this morning he did not want to go to school if Kennedy has a new boyfriend. He had pretty much forgotten about it by the time we left for the school bus, though.

Bus Rider

Christopher was very determined to ride the bus to school. It was one of those things that we had always said we would allow, but then when it came time to do it, we were scared and nervous. He begged and begged to ride the bus, so we gave in. It is an Express Bus, so it only stops at our stop and one other school and then goes to his school. The Kindergarten kids sit up front. He has a little Kindergarten girl that gets on at our stop, Jennifer, and they sit together. It was pretty hard seeing him get on the bus for the first time, but he loves it so much! He has now ridden the bus for three days and still wants to. I think it is great that he is so independent. It also allows for him to go into the cafeteria in the morning and buy his lunch. I would love to see him do that all by himself. He has taken a liking to Cocoa Pups (Cocoa Puffs) in the cafeteria in the morning. Thank goodness we are giving him a healthy snack before sending him off on the bus.

Here he is ready to get on the bus the first time:


Here he is excitedly waiting for the bus to stop for him to get on:

Dude Started School - Kindergarten

Dude had his first day of staggered entry that our local schools do for Kindergarteners. It is a school day during the week and the kids come in just one day for assessments. Then the teachers call you that Friday and you find out who your kid’s teacher will be. C started on Wednesday, August 27th. I was so nervous. I took him to school with my mom and we sent him off. They didn’t let the parents past the hallway that leads to the Kindergarten hallway. He looked a little nervous walking back holding the teacher’s hand. But, he was pretty excited to be starting K.
Mom and I spent the day having coffee, shopping, eating lunch, and picking out school supplies for C. Then we headed back to the school at 2:40 to get him. He was exhausted. He then proceeded to say that he had the “worstest day ever in his life because I picked him up”. Apparently he had been looking forward all day to riding the bus home. Unfortunately I was a bit over-protective and didn’t let him ride the bus on the first day of school.
Since a picture is worth a lot, here is C before school and after, you can really tell how tired he was.

Karma

C came home from school the other day saying that one of his classmates had thrown the ball at a bird and her nest and broke the bird's eggs in the outdoor classroom. He was very sad to learn at school that if the eggs get broken they will never become baby birds. We then talked about what baby birds look like, will the mommy bird have more eggs, what do the baby birds look like in eggs and more. He talked about it all week how the kid threw the ball and then broke the eggs and how sad it made him. He said the mommy bird was sad, too.
Well, he came home today and said the same kid fell down and scraped his knee today. I couldn't help but think ain't karma a b1tch. I know, I know, I know, so mean of me to think. Very mean of me to think. But, he made C so sad by breaking the bird eggs. I am glad he didn't really get hurt because then I would feel even more guilty of thinking that.

Summer Camp

Yesterday hubby registered C for summer day camp. I have to say I am pretty excited. We had to pre-pay for the entire summer up-front and we wrote the check out for $570. Some would say wow, that is a lot of money, but can I tell you how happy I was when I heard the amount. Let me tell you where I am coming from. That is about 2/3 of what we would have paid for ONE month of day-care. Yes, one month. So that is a huge savings. HUGE!
Now, don't get me wrong, I am going to be a little very sad when I see my little guy off to his first day of summer camp and he runs off to be with the big kids (the campers are ages 5-12, but they split the 5-7 and the 8-12 year olds into two groups). I will also be a little lot worried when he gets on the bus to go to the pool and field trips, but he is growing up and he will have so much fun.
I was talking with a group of moms this past weekend and they asked about C going to Kindergarten this year. I responded that yes he is going and I am so excited. They all looked at me with shocked faces and said, "Really?" with very confused looks. And yes even about Kindergarten I am pretty excited. Excited, nervous, scared, happy, and more. One of my reasons for being excited is day-care costs. It will be nice having him go to school and not going to day-care and spending a small fortune on day-care each month. But, yes I will probably be one of those moms that cries on the first day. A little bit of scared, happy, nostalgia, and excitement all in one. He has already talked about riding the bus to school. Yikes! The one part of Kindergarten that I dread are my relatively care-free nights now. Yes, I have to feed, bathe, and take care of him, but I don't really have to worry about his homework or studying. We read almost every night, but when he is in K, I will feel much more guilty if I skip a night of reading than I do now.

Sleeping

The dude started having nightmares. I actually really think they may be night terrors. Saturday he woke up and sat straight up in the bed calling out "Ms. Jessica, Ms. Jessica, Ms. Jessica...". It took me a while to get him settled down, but I finally got him to lay back down and he just dozed right back off as if nothing happened. On Monday, he did it at quiet time at school, but called out for mommy, stumbled to the potty, then laid back down and went back to sleep as if nothing happened. The one I saw Saturday was a look of real fear/terror on his face. Ms. Jessica said the one she saw was kinda weird and out of character for him.

We have had several rough nights since, where he cries in the night and just been having difficulty sleeping. Two nights ago it was pretty bad and none of us handled it well. He was upset, overtired, crying, sad, scared, etc. Hubs was impatient with him, I thought I could be a little more patient, but after a long time, even I was a bit impatient. I am not happy about that, but sleep deprived no one in this house is happy. I am not sure what the issue is, but hopefully it will resolve. It seems just when we get in a sleeping groove, it never lasts in this house. He has been wanting someone to sleep with him every night. Chris We are trying to get him to sleep a little more often on his own. But he was sneaky the other day. He knows we are going to California and he said when we go he gets to sleep with someone every night because Mimi only has three beds. One for Jocie, one for Mimi, and one for me and him :-) Too funny! I am ready to get a little more sleep so hopefully it will get better soon.

I haven't taken a pic the last few days, so I will post one of him and one of his teachers Ms. Jessica since he loves her so much!

This week, I got the dates wrong, hockey starts next week. We went and they said it starts next Wednesday. So instead he got to play in open gym for a while with another little boy and they played with a basketball. They were so cute trying to dribble and shoot. The baskets were not lowered so they didn't make it anywhere near the basket, but the attempt was cute! Can't wait to see him play hockey! He seems to think he will play on the ice, but they are just going to learn some basics in the gym.