Parent-Teacher Conference (1 down, many more to come)

Last night was my first Parent/Teacher Conference. All in all, a good experience. It's not surprising that Charlie is doing well on his "work". He understands numbers/letters/shapes/sorting, etc all the basics of Kindergarten. All areas (except cutting) are above level for the big K.

I'm a believer in school being as much about learning the basics of education as it is about learning to become social & how to act in a new environment. I admire my home-schooling mommy friends, it's a hard job, one that I'm not up for. But I think Charlie has as much to learn from the other kiddos as he does from the teacher. Like how to deal with a bully (by the way little Jazzmine has been leaving him alone), and how to make friends, and get along with those who aren't necessarily buddies. And how respond to time crunches and schedules and doing things you may not want to do...you know, LIFE.

Total Shocker - prepare yourself - Charlie is a social animal. Not unlike his mother, he has some trouble staying "on-task". Well, as you can imagine sometimes things interupt those mundane tasks that are much more interesting... He also has trouble not talking...well...he's been talking non-stop since pretty much birth. But he is a leader... in fact, he tends lead other kids to getting into trouble by taking them with him as he goes "off-task" or as he roles around on the carpet or sits under his desk at circle time.

BUT he can also LEAD through active participation in group time, and story time, which he does even better now that he (and he alone) has an assigned spot next to the teacher at carpet time, and now that his seat is right in front of the teachers desk...

OK OK he's NOT perfect, but ultimately a pretty great kid. Albeit a bit talkative... Now if I can just encourage him to use his powers for good...

I've never liked pigs...

I especially hate pigs today. I'm afraid my little guy may be coming down with swine flu.... He woke up with aches & a fever then followed it up with some vomiting, just to prove the point... He's asleep now... poor baby

Swine Flu, Mad Cow Disease, Bird Flu. I think all of these animals should keep their diseases and flus to themselves.

In the meantime, I'll keep a watch out for a curly tail or a snout, right now all I hear is the sweet sound of snoring. Pray for my little guy!

word of the day

We had a lazy weekend. No agendas, no have-to's, just a calm relaxing weekend. Gotta love it. Last night when I was putting Charlie to bed, I said, "wasn't this a great day? You had great behavior, we just had a lazy fun day" he said, "Yah mom, it was a great day, it was fly-testicle!"

I just hugged him and said yah, good night sweetheart... come to think of it, maybe I should have told him not to use that phrase at school... oh well...

Hope everyone has a flytestical week!

the most wonderful time of the year

2009 - 5 years 9 mos old

~"I think Fall is tiring" Charlie~

HUMPH~ Well, I think Fall is the most wonderful time of the year. I've always been a fan of the cooler, crisper temps and the changing colors. I love cider and pumpkins and crunchy leaves. This time of year always makes me nostalgic for some reason. I've been teary thinking about how time passes so quickly! I just hope I can cherish each day, and not wish time away, there are so many little moments that turn into memories that last forever, and so many of them happen in October for me!

Yesterday my sister & I took the boys on the Pumpkin Train in Belton for our annual trip to pick out pumpkins, and take in the majesty of the 5 miles or so between downtown Belton and just past Peculiar, MO. It is a little corny, but the boys love it, and so do I... If I had to describe it one word: COLD. Last year we were in shorts & t-shirts, this year it was fleece & hats. To quote the phrase "if you don't like the weather in Kansas City, stick around, it'll change"... well anyway, in the vein of nostalgia, I'm posting some memories of the last six years of Fall outings. My oh my, how my big boy has changed!

2008 4 years 9 mos old last year on the Pumpkin Train

2007 -3 years 9 mos old with Grandma, Aunties & cousin Noah at Johnson Farm


2006 - 2 years 9 mos old at the Pumpkin Festival in Germantown Maryland

2005 1 year 9 mos old Pumkin Fest, Germantown MD

2004 - 9 mos old at the Pumpkin Festival on Halloween Day with Grandma

love notes

Charlie is learning to write/spell/read, and his teacher encourages him to sound the words out, and write them how he thinks they sound. This is exciting for me because:

A) It's fun to see him learning. I love seeing how his brain comes up with ways to spell words, though looking over his schoolwork takes a little detective work these days -- for example, take the word "dog", he has a hard time distinguishing between the vowels, so when he spells "DOG" he writes it like "D-A-G" -- those A and O sounds are pretty similar, you have to admit... and

B) This means I get little notes. This morning I found a note stuck in my book (very clever place to hide it I think). It had a picture of a cake (ish) and the letters "M-A-M". I asked him about it, and he told me it was an invitation to his birthday party... well at least I made the cut, for the birthday party that will happen in 3 1/2 months...

The note made me grin. As he grows, I find myself thinking each time of his life is my favorite, being able to express himself in writing is a new and fun experience, I'm so looking forward to my first "I love you, Mam" note and my first "I'm sorry, Mam" note too...

Here's a pic of him from last night, he fell asleep watching T.V. (we had a fun filled day of long-long walks and playing, and he was worn out)

a new phase

Kindergarten started about a month & half ago. It's been an adventure! Charlie loves it for the most part, though he has had some behavior issues, mostly just mischievious boy things...like sitting under his desk when it's circle time ("it feels good on my head") to getting into an arguement with one of his classmates about who got to be the caboose on the way back from the lunchroom, even though it was the other boy's turn ("well I like being the caboose, so I pushed him")...those things aside, he has a sweet teacher, Mrs. Roberts, who though she recognizes his bad behavior has admitted to me that he's one of her favorite kids.

The past couple of weeks we've been dealing with his first "bully"... Trust me I want to beat this kid up...what a BRAT! However, being a responsible adult, who doesn't want to go to jail for roughing up some random kid, I'm trying to teach Charlie the appropriate response to these acts of bullying... See this girl (hey - she's older) Jazzmine has decided to call Charlie names... they really aren't bad names, and actually not even that mean, but he doesn't appreciate it...NONE... she calls him "Chili" and "Chocolate". My first reaction as a mom and I'll admit it, immature, was to tell him to call DJ Jazzy Jazz a name too like "Jam" or "Jelly" or "Jingle Jam" (or DJ Jazzy Jazz) -- OK not the best idea... then I said, well Charlie two of my favorite things in the world are delicious chili and chocolate - didn't make him feel better. So the best advice I could muster was to just ignore her. She, like all bullies is looking for a reaction, if you don't give that to her, she'll move on. I went on to explain that she'd probably always be a bully, maybe she gets bullied at home... there could be a number of things that are wrong in her life.

That's when I began to feel bad for this girl - this mean child who makes my sweet boy feel sad... I guess it's a sign of maturity, but we talked about it, and realized that God wants us to pray for our "enemies". So we are praying for Jingle Jam - oh alright, Jazzmine.