Updates

Josh is officially going to kindergarten now!! He has done amazing. I took him into his class the first 2 days. But, on Friday, he got out of the car all by himself and walked in! He's such a big boy. It's Wednesday and he's still excited about going! I hope he stays excited about it!! He gets out of bed easily, goes down and eats breakfast, comes back up and gets dressed...it's amazing!

He told me this morning that his favorite part of kindergarten was riding the Kiddie Kottage van (after school) and getting out of the car and walking in all by himself. :)

Josh started swim lessons on Saturday with Mr. Ed. I think he's really going to love it! I was amazed at how much he learned in just 45 minutes!! Mr. Ed is wonderful!! There are only 3 kids in his class, which is perfect for Josh...he gets alot of personal attention.

Here are a couple of pictures of Josh in swim lessons. :) To see more, click the link at the top of the page.

Parent/Teacher Kindergarten Meeting

We had another meeting last night - just the parents and the teacher.
I am becoming more and more impressed with Josh's teacher. She's going to run a tight, but loving ship. :)

She told us she's going to teach the kids the "old" way and not the "new" way the state insists on them teaching (not quite sure what that is). She said that the old way is working better and she's sticking with it. :) Woo hoo!! There will be a real concentration on letters and phonics (what a concept).

She also has a homeliving section. She said the county/state told the teachers they needed to get rid of it (the kids didn't need to play according to them). Well, she said, "If they want to come take it out themselves, that's fine. But, until then, I'm keeping it and the kids are going to play in it!". She said that the most interesting conversations come out of that seciton - gives the kids time to use their imagination.

She said most of the classroom setting will be verbal - some writing, but more verbal. They will learn to write alot more than they do now, but that will come later. She said that they will also be reading by the end of the year, too.

Josh will have homework every week...he'll need to cut out pictures that start with his letter of the week and glue them to a shape that she gives them. He's really excited about that. :) He turns that in on Wednesday and then on Thursday, they share their homework with the whole class. I did cringe a little bit about that because I'm not sure how Josh will do getting up in front of the whole class. However, I think this will be very good for him and give him some self confidence.

Josh also has a vocabulary list that he will need to learn over the next year...these are "sight" words. He'll just need to know these by sight and not sounding them out. They'll start with 1-2 letter words and then move into bigger words.

I am really liking her - everything that she said I was already thinking. :)

Forgive me, Josh

Josh will kill me when he's old enough to read this. :)

When he poops, he always wants one of us to go to the bathroom with him and "talk about something". That something could be ANYTHING...

Anyway, we were at Golden Corral the other night and he announces that he has to go poop (oh joy - why couldn't he wait until we got home?).

Well, we're in there and he tells me that sometimes his poop is really hard to get out (thanks, Josh - I really needed to hear that). Then he said, "Well, my poop is out, but it won't drop!". Yes, we're in a public restroom...I don't know if anyone heard or not. I thought I was going to die laughing. :)

The Weekend

We started out bright and early Saturday morning. :) We went by Children's Hospital for Emma's blood test. Poor thing - she didn't care for that at all (who can blame her?). They took the blood out of her arm. I had to hold her down while they did it...the gal that did it was great, though.

We went on to Kingsport right after that for a quick visit with Phil's family. His mom hadn't seen the kids since her surgery. The kids had a blast. We got to play outside for quite awhile that afternoon. We took Josh's bike with us and he was in heaven. He doesn't have a good place at the house to ride his bike. Even though we're in a cul-de-sac, it's on an incline. So, he got to ride around in Grandmother's neighborhood...very quiet and no traffic. :)

The girls had a good time, too. Although, Emma was very clingy a good bit of the time (so unlike her).

I gave blood Sunday morning. The church was having a blood drive and if they got a certain percentage of donors, then everyone in the church would be qualified to receive blood (if needed). It wasn't too bad. Luckily, they found my vein pretty quickly (which is amazing since it's usually hard to find). Josh was impressed w/ all of my bandaids and such. HA!

We're babysitter-less today and tomorrow. I'm going to work at home this afternoon and maybe some tomorrow. Mom and Dad went out of town. They're suppose to be back today, but not sure Mom's going to feel up to coming up tomorrow or not. We'll play it by ear.

Wendy might come in on Thursday. I know Josh will love that! :)

I've got to get back to the gym today. I went 3 times last week, but it was Mon, Tues & Wed. So, it's been a few days since I've been.

Last night, my back pulled a little weird and it's been sore all night. I think a good workout will be good for it (being cautious, though). It just feels like it needs to be stretched out!

18 month appointment

The girls had their 18 month check up today (hard to believe).
Callie was 26 lbs 13 oz (75%) and 33 1/2" (95%).Emma was 21 lbs 6 oz (10%) and 30 1/2" (25%).

Both girls did great...Callie didn't cry once...Emma is getting a little wary of doctors (she has to go to the plastic surgeon once a month to have her mouth adjusted - doesn't make her happy). So, Emma fussed a little bit, but still did great.

Anyway, I finally remembered to mention to the doctor that Emma tends to cross and lock her legs and then pump them...if she's sitting down, that's typically how she is - legs crossed (at the ankle).

Well, that concerned him a bit - especially since her soft spot hasn't closed up completely yet either.

He's sending us for some blood work to test for any chromosomal abnormalities. He said this could be indicative of CF (hopefully, not) or it could be nothing. She has a very small head, too. With the cleft lip and palate, they're concerned there could be more wrong...even though she's developmentally functioning as a 20 month old...so she's right on for her age.

Josh's First Day!

Josh started kindergarten today. I dropped him off at his room this morning. He was the first one there, but it didn't take long for another little boy to show up. He's on a staggered schedule right now, so he won't go back until next week. There were only 5 kids in there today.

His teacher said he was as sweet as could be! :) She did say he talked a little bit (I guess that's better than nothing). He's so shy right now. He's getting much better about it, though.

Anyway, he said they chased a gingerbread man all over the school. This was a good way to show them around the school. He said they finally had to run back to the room as fast as they could and when they got there, there was the gingerbread man! :)

He said he made a friend today, too! :) There were 3 girls and 2 boys there.

He also said he had to sit at the teacher's station and answer a bunch of questions. He said that he got ALOT of points! :) He said he didn't get some points on some of the questions. I'm really surprised he was able to talk enough to give her the answers. I have no doubt that he knew the answers, though! He said he answered alot of rhyming questions (he loves rhymes!).

He took his lunch today in his brand new Cars lunchbox (thanks, Grandmother!). He took a ham/cheese sandwich, applesauce, ritz bits, Rice Krispie Treat and a chocolate milk (I found some organic milk that doesn't need to be refrigerated). Anyway, he said his teacher had to open his applesauce, crackers and "nutra grain bar" (rice krispie treat). :)

He looked so cute with his backpack on - so grown up! :)

He said he's ready to go again, but I think he was pretty tired when I picked him up. He just wanted to go home and play with his sisters.

First Open House

We went to Open House last night. My first question is why on earth did they do Open House for the Primary, Middle & Intermediate schools at the same time - for only an hour!?!?

First of all, the parking lot at Cedar Bluff is torn up because of the construction (there was a parking lot, but it wasn't big enough). There must have been 3000 people there and may 30 parking spots!! Well, there were probably more than that, but you get the idea.

Anyway, Phil had to just finally drop us off while he drove the girls around the parking lot.

Josh and I found his classroom and were waiting in line to talk to his teacher. While we were in line, a mother and her daughter just bebopped to the front of the line and talked to the teacher next - uh...do you understand the concept of a line? Granted, it was kind of an informal line, but it was a line, nonetheless.

We finally got up there to talk to his teacher. She seems really nice...she's older, which I really like. She knows what she's doing! :)

We did find out that our neighbor's little boy is in the same class, so Josh did kind of know someone. :)

I felt really bad for Phil because he couldn't go in and meet her. We're having another kindergarten meeting on August 23 to learn more about the classes and such. Of course, they want it to be parents only, so that means only one of us can go. I think he was kind of disappointed in that - I told him he could go and I'd watch the kids.

After thinking about it, though, I'm going to check and see if he wants to take Josh on his first day. It will be hard for me to let that priviledge go, but it would be a very special time for a boy and his daddy. :)

Time for Kindergarten!!

I can't believe it's time for Josh to be starting school!

His kindergarten teacher called me yesterday just to "talk". :) I'm impressed, because everyone else I've talked to said their teacher never called. I hope this means Josh has a good one! I think she's been teaching for awhile, which is good. Josh needs someone that has done this awhile and will make him feel comfortable.

We have Open House tomorrow night just to see the class and meet his teacher. I think he's really excited, but a little scared, too.

Mom got Josh a Cars lunchbox, so he's really ready now! HA!!

Jumping and Spinning

Callie has discovered she can jump...she's been jumping for a couple of weeks, but I think she just became aware of it yesterday. :)

She actually gets both feet off of the ground!

Emma tries to jump...she bends down like she's ready to take off and then she just unbends and laughs...her feet never move. HA!

However, Emma is the Queen of Spinning! She loves to spin round and round until she's so dizzy she can't stand up. Callie enjoys it, too.

All 3 of them were doing that last night - jumping and spinning and laughing as hard as they could.

I think Phil got some good video of them.

Graduation Weekend

Josh graduated from Pre-K this weekend. :) He looked so handsome in his cap & gown. I think we need to have him dress up again to get some good pictures. He was NOT in a picture taking mood on Saturday. :)

After graduation, his class went to the Splash Pad to play and eat. We had a cook out with the other parents. We had a good time. It started out extremely hot, but then a storm started passing through which cooled things off a little bit (and then ran us off). It was a fun, but exhausting day! Everyone went to be with no problems at all!

Josh starts kindergarten on August 15. We have Open House on Thursday night. We'll find out who his teacher is and get a final list of school supplies.

We did go shopping over the weekend for some fall school clothes. Josh won't be too happy when he finds out he can't wear them until it cools off. I did get him a couple of short sleeve shirts, so hopefully that will keep him happy.

Our little monkeys

Phil just called (I'm at work) and told me to just guess where he had found "my" daughter??!! He was doing dishes and heard something that didn't sound quite right. The girls were in the living room - gated in safe and sound, right?? LOL

He said she was sitting on top of his keyboard (he has a small desk set up in the living room) trying to climb down into his office chair!! Yes, it was Emma. He said that Callie wasn't far behind her, though.

I think it's past time to get that computer table out of the living room.

We should have room to do that next week. We have an old piano in our dining room/office right now that is going to a friend of mine at work. They're going to pick it up this weekend. Once that happens, then Phil will move his office into the dining room/office. We'll totally block off that room and it will be hands off to little ones.

I don't remember Josh every climbing as much as the girls are. Maybe it was just easier to control with one than two...I don't know. Callie likes to climb into the leather chair and practically go over the top of it! One of these days she's going to take a nose dive right off of it!