She has logic...in her own 3 year old way

This morning Josie went dressed as Super Girl to preschool. This Halloween costume has gotten lots of use.
When we walked in and her teachers commented on it she said, "I was cold in my other clothes so I had to put on my Super Girl costume."

This was news to me.

Then, later in the day, she and I were downstairs and there were toys left out. She maintained that they were out because of Doug and Andy and that I was to clean them up.
When I asked her why I should clean them up and not her, she said, "Because Doug and Andy made the mess and you are the boss of us so you should clean them up."

I think I'm in trouble if she is arguing this well at age three. I am SO not looking forward to the teenage years with this girl.

I wonder what it means....

I learned long ago as a teacher to say to children "Tell me about your picture."
What comes out on the page is not necessarily all the details that are present in their heads. So this weekend Doug came home with these two pictures and I had to ask...

Apparently the green line is him racing all over. I wonder if that is how he felt about our school supply shopping trips.



I know that how a child draws their family says a lot about the family....When I heard Doug tell me about this picture I was not sure what to think.
He started by telling me that he was the first figure at the top of the page...and he has a gun to shot zombies (Oh my!...um, thanks cousins...). The next two figures (going clockwise) are mommy and daddy hugging (that's pretty good...that I'll take).
Then the next figure is a zombie attacking Josie, who is the smaller figure who comes next. Notice that the zombie has no eyes and is frowning.
The next pair of lines are zombie feet...Doug shot off the rest of him.
Andy is the final figure...and I think he is just standing there.

I'm sort of wondering if the teacher actually found out from Doug any details about the picture. He did get a "Good Job" stamp.....
We are not really a violent family. We do, however, have active imaginations.

The woe of the week

Monday as I retrieved the boys from the bus stop my cell phone fell off my waistband. I didn't realize right away that I had dropped it and someone apparently picked it up. They were not an honest someone and they kept the phone. We have turned it off. I have filled a police report. There is not much more we can do at the moment. I'm not sure if I will be able to keep my number if I get a new phone or how it all works. It also means that if I am not at home it is much harder to reach me.
It has made me realize how much I used my phone. I can't send Jim a text message while he is teaching. I can't quickly check my email while I am waiting for a child or if I do not want to take time to get on the computer. My phone was my contact list so there are numbers I will have to get from people once I get a new phone.

Part of my dilemma with all of this is when I do get a new phone how I will carry it.

• When I first had a small phone (I'm not counting the huge bag phone I had when they first came out) I kept it on a lanyard. Every time I would lean over to talk to a child the phone would swing out and whack them unless I grabbed it. I also did not really want to wear a lanyard at home.
• Then I would keep the phone in my purse. I couldn't always hear the phone and because I had no special pocket for it I was constantly having to dig for it.
• For a while I would keep it in my pocket. A few times the phone would hit the pavement when I was trying to get it out and this newer phone was pretty big for a pocket. Women's clothing does not always have pockets and there were several times I did not hear the phone ring or feel it vibrate if my clothes were looser.
• I had started wearing it on my waist but it was just a clip on holder and this was the second time it had fallen off.

I'm not quite sure what to try next. I want to be able to hear it and to know that it is safe. I may look in to getting a purse with an outside cell phone pocket, but I don't carry my purse with me every where and certainly not while I am in the house. So I am thinking about what to do.

Little Miss Josie

I have had a lot of posts about the boys lately so here is how Josie is doing.

1. Over the summer we re-potty trained (I think that the schedule switch just through her off completely...but it was almost like starting from scratch).
2. She got her haircut in a cute little bob....she sort of looks like a pixie now but we have had lots of compliments
3. I think she grew a bunch. She seems much taller and can reach all sorts of things
4. She is as sassy as ever. Nothing like a 3 year old with a huge vocabulary. Sometimes she seems like she is 3 going on 15. I remember the boys as being sort of goofy at this age but she is much more poised
5. She wants to do everything the boys do. I have about decided that I should not worry about her being 3 and assigning her 3 year old type chores. I should just give her the same things as are on the boys' list because she wants to do them all anyway
6. She started preschool yesterday. She was excited to go. She happily played. When I peeked in to catch a friend who was dropping off her children Josie was chilling in a bean bag chair reading a book.

She is good and for the most part wants to be good. So I'll take it!

Cremelled (or kremeled...no clue how to spell it)

Perhaps Doug will be the next Shakespeare. Shakespeare added thousands of words (I can't remember the exact figure) to our English language. If he couldn't find exactly the right word he just made it up....

Douglas has always had some made up words that he uses. Many of them have developed in to names for the pretend Star Wars Clone Troopers (some of the names have even been adopted as pretend friends for Josie and Andy).

However, for more then a year he has consistently used "cremelled" to mean wrinkled. For instance this dialogue happened yesterday:
Me: Doug make your bed.
Doug: Ok mom, I made it but you take care of the cremells....

Or how about this one from awhile back:
(We saw a car with a crumpled fender)
Doug: Mom, why is that car all cremelled?

Perhaps the term will catch on....then I can honestly say "That boy is giving me cremells."

Will they ever learn to trust my judgement!

I borrowed "Make Mine Music" from the library and we finally watched it yesterday. When I pulled out the case the kids objected and said they didn't want to watch that.

However, they were cheering on Peter in "Peter and the Wolf" and concerned over Johnny Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet and Doug wanted to watch "Casey at the Bat" again, and again and again.

This is about the fourth movie that they have not wanted to watch but have ended up loving. Now I just need to remember which Disney musical movie has Pecos Bill...because that was one of the stories I was actually after. I think I will employ the power of the Internet....

Pink Glove Dance

A few of the teachers at Jim's school have been diagnosed with cancer. When I was looking for a magnetic car tag for him I stumbled on this video.

Kindergarten homework is driving me to.....

I do not believe when I was in school that I "officially" had homework until I was in the third grade...and then it was just one day a week.
Well, these times they are a changing.
Doug & Andy have homework.
I suppose it is fortunate that their teachers are side-by-side and planning to do some co-teaching so that we have some of the same assignments come home. However, not everything coming home is quite the same. So despite trying to put names on practice sheets I had one sheet today that said Doug on it but I was unsure whether I had misplaced Andy's sheet or if there was not a sheet for Andy.

• We are supposed to be practicing writing our names. Andy is struggling with the fine motor skills (he's moving his whole hand) so this involves dealing with him whining and trying to find excuses.
• We are supposed to practice writing in a journal so we are still establishing that routine.
• I thought we were supposed to have a library book to read but apparently not today.
• I thought we were supposed to have a book for them to read to me that matches their reading program...but apparently not today.
• We do have a list of sight words to learn by Friday. However, it is not clear whether the teachers went over the words or not in class. It could just be that my boys were not paying attention.
• We had two pages of adult guided practice (mostly about recognizing initial phonemes) that have to be done and then signed and returned.
• Andy had a sheet he did not finish in class. Doug had a sheet of sentences to practice (mostly involving one of the sight words).

Tomorrow night there is a parent meeting to meet the teachers and find out expectations. Hopefully then things will be a bit clearer. I don't want to be the overbearing parent (because I have had students with parents who micromanaged their children) but I do want to know what is going on.

I suppose part of my issue is that I have two kindergartners I am trying to train into the school/homework habit.

Glad last week is over

I think I am actually looking forward to Monday.
Transitions trying to get in to a routine are difficult for me so now that the first week is under my belt it should be a bit better.
It doesn't help that three days out of last week I ended up in some sort of doctor's office.

1. I had a dental appointment one day (boys were in school and Josie came along....she kept telling me to hold still and the hygienist was getting a kick out of Josie's comments). Fortunately things looked good so I do not have to go back.
   
2. Josie saw an ENT. They say she doesn't have sleep apnea, but she snores and stops breathing for 3-5 seconds at a time (apparently it must be for more than 30 seconds to qualify) and her tonsils are huge even though she does not seem to be sick, and she has issues with hard ear wax. So she now not only has a steroid nasal spray to reduce the snoring, but also has an antibiotic to try to get the tonsils down (they're trying to avoid taking them out), and ear drops to soften the wax so that we can go back and get the wax suctioned out.
3. I ended up with pink eye. Out of eight years of being in the classroom I never had pink eye and now I have had it twice in the last year. So I have eye drops and it happened that my throat hurt when I went in so the doctor looked down my throat, in my nose, etc. and gave me an antibiotic too.

Jim came home coughing so he was medicating himself also. So between Josie's twice a day antibiotic, three times a day ear drops, and once a day nasal spray and my three times a day eye drops and three times a day antibiotic I am struggling to fit it all in and remember whether every one has been dosed.
My hats off to people who have regular medicines for chronic conditions and I'm just praying that the boys do not catch anything since they are with a new group of kids at school.

The boy moves fast....

Yeah, it's been less than a week and Doug already has a girlfriend. Don't ask her name because he doesn't know it. I did get to see her back this morning when I dropped him off....

It probably made for interesting reading....

So one of the things that I filled out on our paperwork for the boys to take back after open house was one of those pages with not only emergency contacts and allergies (information that I know I have filled out on at least 5 other forms already), but also something about their interests, strengths, weaknesses, etc.

I just LOOOVE (insert sarcastic tone here) these questions.

Oh, I realize why they do it because I have an education background too....but somehow I struggle with what to put down. It is a little better with this one because the first day of school was right after I filled it out. With our preschool you fill out this information when you register and that is about 5 months prior to when the child actually steps into the classroom. When you are talking about a 2, 3 or even a 4 year old five months is a long time. Something that they like and what your concerns are will have changed.

I think I probably also have a slightly different perspective just because of my background in education. For instance, I put down that one of my goals for both boys was to help them learn to do their work without crushing their imagination and creativity. I put down as an area of struggle for Andy that he needs help with fine motor skills (he is still moving his whole hand to write and draws clockwise circles rather than counter-clockwise circles necessary for "correctly" writing most letters). I put that I wanted Andy to write without whining, and for Douglas to actually admit that he likes "reading" (as in having stories read to him since we are not technically reading yet).

I just always wonder what other people put.
Perhaps I over think these things.

I remember when....

I can't believe I have kindergartners.
I remember when they were born! I wish I could say that I remembered every moment and all the small details...but I do not because I was exhausted.

Today Andy and Doug had their first day of kindergarten. I had to wake Andy up and Doug was a little nervous (his exact words were "my tummy is bothering me right here" and I said "are you nervous?" to which he said "how did you know?")

I ended up having to drop them off because apparently you have to notify the bus depot to add you to their route and our open house was last night so I did not find that out until last night. We'll get it worked out eventually and I am sure we will get in to a routine.

When I picked them up they both said they had had a great day. Both kept "Happy Frogs" (apparently the teachers are doing happy frogs, uh-oh frogs, sad frogs, or off the board gone frogs...if you have a happy frog on Friday you get a reward). Both ate everything I had packed in their lunch and for their snacks...and both had not bought milk as planned but just drank from their water bottles.

We ended up in separate classes but in classes where the rooms are connected by a double door and the teachers plan to co-teach. They have PE together and lunch at the same time.

It is probably a good thing (I hope) that the principal recognized us when we walked in for open house and she personally showed us to the rooms. A friend of mine also teaches in a classroom just across the hall from Doug's and Andy's classrooms so we stopped and said hi and she said she would keep an eye on them.

Hopefully tomorrow will go just as well.

If you happen to see summer....I lost it somewhere

Of all the things I wanted to try and do this summer I think the two main things I actually accomplished were going to see my family and getting the kids swimming lessons so they could actually swim.

I have worked some on other things but none of them have actually reached a stage that could be called "completion."
Jim is starting school tomorrow and the boys start kindergarten on Tuesday. We have open house to meet their teacher tomorrow. Josie will have several days with me before she starts.

I have a mile long to-do list and of course a lot of it I cannot make headway on until normal business hours. The house feels like it is a mess because we went to my in-laws to shop at the factory outlets near them and when I got home I just sort of dumped everything. So I am trying to straighten, organize, get everything on the to-do list (instead of jumping around in my head), and basically get myself in a little more of a zen state from where I currently am.