Glimpses of Fall

We've had some glimpses of Fall.  We have most definitely enjoyed being outside more- playing, eating lunch, walking to and from school...  all are so much more pleasant now.  Last week we did a most traditional Fall event, the State Fair of Texas!  The big kids were out of school so we could go on a weekday, also MUCH more pleasant :-)  We got out of there only spending $92.  That included $15 for parking, the kids free tickets, my $5 Dr Pepper Tuesday ticket and Huck's free admission.  So what did we get for the remaining $72?  2 hotdogs, 1 corndog, 2 Sprites, and 1 water, (sadly no funnel cake...), 3 rides each for Bubba and Dutch and 1 for Huck, 2 games each for big kids and 1 for Huck.  I think that is it.  But we did lots of free things like The Barnyard, the farm experience, saw the butter sculpture, saw Big Tex, the greenhouse...  So actually on second thought I guess it was not a ton of other things.

 

 

 But it was fun.  Except for poor Huck.  He REALLY, REALLY wanted to ride this kiddie ride.  He pointed, pulled, spoke loudly about "that, that, that!"  and fussed even louder about when I tried to talk him out of it.  So I gave in and spent $2.50 and here is what he thought of it:

He is getting much more adventurous.  He is learning to jump and can sometimes get both feet off the ground at the same time.  He also jumps from the coffee table to the couch, which gives me a heart attack every time.  He can climb up into the playset in the backyard but does not like to go down the slide.  He was doing a good job of waiting for me to get him down, but now he has decided to try to climb down the ladder.  More heart attacks for Mom.  He has decided that he wants nothing to do with his own bed.  If we try to put him in his bed (awake, near asleep, asleep) he screams and cries until you get him out.  No matter how long we let him cry, he will NOT go to sleep until he gets in our bed.  Then he'll sleep.  Uggh.  I mean I love him but I also like sleep.  So. 

 

awake at 10:30 at night...

...and 20 minutes later

We also attended the neighborhood's National Night Out again.  Bounce houses, face painting, running around with friends= fun!

School is going well for the big kids.  Bubba got his first report card and it was all good. Bubba is really enjoying the new group at church.  He is in the 2nd-3rd grade group and they start each week in large group which usually has some kind of skit.  So after church Sunday I was asking what they learned about that day.  He went on to tell me about two characters who had a cafe and cooked roadkill.  There were a lot more details that I don't recall.  I asked what roadkill has to do with the bible to which he responded "nothing, it has to do with agility."  Then the elevator came so I did not get to follow up.  I asked again later and he said "It is about agility, Mom.  Don't you know what agility means?"  I was still not getting how this was connected to a bible lesson.  Luckily later I saw a post on Facebook from church that said "Ask your kids what they learned about integrity today."  Ah, ha!  So I asked Bubba if he meant integrity instead of agility and he said "yeah, Mom.  It means do what you say and mean what you do."  So he got the point of the lesson, just not the vocabulary!  We are reading the Harry Potter books and he is loving it.  He wants to be Harry Potter for Halloween.  He is loving ballet still, most espicially partnering where he does things like assist the girls in jumps or spins.  I am very proud of him for keeping it up.  He is realizing more and more that it is unusual for boys to do and has had to answer questions about it from his friends.  He speaks openly and proudly about it and for that I am proud of him.  He has mastered bike riding and likes to ride his bike to school. 

Cub Scout Pack 890

 

 

 Dutch is doing well also.  She talks about her new friends and reports on who is misbehaving.  She has homework every night, but it is something like write the letter S five times.  She enjoys it and thinks she is so old because she has homework.  She wears 2-3 outfits everyday...  She wants to be a fairy for Halloween. 

 

The Hubby had the crazy TX-OU weekend last weekend so he worked pretty much straight from 5PM Friday till 5 PM Sunday.  He got 2 hours sleep Fri night and maybe 4 hours sleep Sat night.  But it seems to have gone well, the boss was pleased so that is good.  The Boss is taking all the staff to the fair today as a thank you. 

My work at Children's is still unclear.  I should know soon what exactly my assignment will be, but it will not be my current one in Radiology.  The whole place is in turmoil as they have announced there will be layoffs, or "workforce redesign" as they are calling it.  Right now it is confined to administrative assistants and mid-level managers.  But they won't announce exactly who will be laid-off until February.  So.  A real culture of trust around there. 

Coming up in the next few weeks:  Grandma With the Spiky Hair is coming for a visit!  She'll be here for Halloween.  Bubba and the Hubby are going on the Cub Scout fall camp out in a few weeks.  The school Fall Festival will be the Saturday they are gone.  My doula partners and I are having a family picnic at the arboretum this Saturday.  I am exited to see some of "my" babies grown up! 

Back in the Swing of Things

The big kids have been in school for two weeks now and I think we are pretty well into the swing of things.  They were very tired the first week of school but seem to be adjusting well.  We had Meet The Teacher Night last week.  It was nice to hear from the teachers and get a better feel of their personalities.
Bubba's 2nd Grade teacher has been at Wallace for many years.  She seems very kind but firm.  She expects the kids to be in charge of their own behavior, but also recognizes that they will not be perfect.  She said the math they are learning this year is the math 5th graders learned when she started teaching.  I am the room mom for Bubba's class and had my first official duty last week.  Mrs Jenkin's birthday was on Thursday.  We didn't have much time to organize anything from the other parents so I tried to keep it simple.  The grade level coordinator helped and we sent home blank cards the night before so all the kids could make her a card.  On her birthday I brought up all the fixings for yogurt parfaits- yogurt, berries and granola- and set it up in the teachers lounge for all the second grade teachers.  They have their planning period first thing in the morning.  I heard they all enjoyed it and had a nice, quiet start to their day.
 Bubba is taking ballet again this fall.  He enjoyed it so much this summer that he wanted to continue.  Last week they did partnering- while the girls stood one one foot Bubba spun them around.  He LOVED it!  In the car on the way home he said he wanted to go to ballet every day of every year.  Ms Amanda told them this week he was going to hold the girls waist while they jumped up.  I guess I'm going to have to learn the names of all these moves!
Cub Scouts has started up again and Bubba is thrilled to have his best buddy joint the pack this year.  They are super excited about camping out. 
He and I started reading the first Harry Potter book together.  He had seen some of the movie with a friend and was asking lots of questions about it so we decided to read it together and then watch the movie together.  He is enjoying it and I see it popping up in his play.  He has an imaginary pet vulcher, Vulch, that I guess comes from the pet owls in the book.  A buddy at school has an eagle named America.  I'm glad that the imaginary play is still going strong!
And Bubba finally learned to ride his bike without training wheels!  I guess it is about time since he is seven...  but honestly he has not really wanted to try before now.  And he got it down in less than an hour without any big crashes.  I was trying to decide if waiting so long was the "lazy" way of parenting, but I have decided that instead it is the "developmentally appropriate' way! There are several things that my kids have learned later than "average."  Tying shoes, riding bikes, potty training...  but by waiting the kids have mastered those skills quickly and without much stress on any of us.  I have actually decided that my approach to potty training would more appropriately be termed  diaper weaning.  Maybe I'll write a book on it :-)

Duch is doing well in school.  She tells us she is quiet and sometimes kind of shy.  I believe that her volume at home has doubled since school started.  I guess she is keeping it inside all day so when she gets home everything is L-O-U-D.  Last week she was table captain and this week she is line leader.  She talks about some friends at school and there only seems to be one boy who is having a hard time.   
She is also continuing ballet.  She has some of the same girls in her class as last year.  She says she wants to be either a ballet teacher, a doctor or a school teacher when she grows up.  "cause I like helping kids." 
We cleaned out her room and she did a decent job of chosing toys to donate instead of keep.  She is loving her new bed!
She has recovered quite nicely from her surgery.  She has her follow-up appointment tomorrow and I expect the doctor to say she looks great.  Her voice is different, a little bit higher in pitch.  I was hoping this would help with her night waking, but she is still waking up several times a week for some reason or other.

Huck is learning, learning, learning!  He has a few more "words."  Lately we can hear
"dog" He loves listening and watching for dogs when we walk to school and "buga"- bug (he thinks every black speck is a bug).  He loves playing with Duplo blocks and can stack them quite nicely.  He also loves balls, his wagon and the play kitchen.  It is fun to watch him pretend to cook, press buttons on the microwave and wash his hands.  He mimics EVERYTHING big brother and sister do and is so stinking cute.  He loves to help me- he uses the electric broom to clean up, gets a rag from the drawer to clean up spills and uses the toy vacuum along side me when I am vacuuming. He loves books- Mr Brown Can Moo is a current favorite.  So are the Llama Llama books.   He still is not a great sleeper.  Occasionally he'll sleep in his bed until 5-6 in the morning, but most nights he is up wanting to nurse.  He's not quite sure what to do with himself when the kids are in school.  He wants the Hubby and I to play with him a lot more. 

Football season has begun so that means the Hubby is working all weekend again.  We all miss him, but Bubba does especially.  He is quite tired by the time Monday rolls around.  We celebrated his birthday last week. 

We have two house up for sale right by us.  Our neighbor, Mrs Brown, has put her house up for sale because she is moving into a senior living community.  She'll be 89 this next birthday.  We'll miss her and her gentleman caller who takes her on dates.   One of the house across the street was bought by an investor earlier this summer and they are in the process of flipping it.  The rumor is they got it for a steal at $60,000!  But it does need a lot of work.  We are hoping for some families with young kids to move it!

Back to School

August 27, 2012  First day of school!

 

 

 

Duch started Kindergarten!  She was very excited and did not seem too nervous.  She planned which uniform to wear for weeks!  Her teacher is Ms Holford.  She knows one other kiddo in her class, Aiden, because he is the younger brother of one of Bubba's friends.  She knows several other Kindergartners the same way.  At the end of the day she said it was a good day.  She went to PE for Specials, recess was fun, Ms Holford read a story about going to school, lunch in the cafeteria was fine, she got green for good behavior... The information about the day trickled out all afternoon.  She was one tired girl by bedtime!

 

 

Bubba started 2nd grade.  He was excited but disappointed that his best buddy is not in his class.  Some other friends are in the class so he is glad for that.  His teacher is Mrs Jenkins and he had lots of good things to say about her.  She has "a really cool rock collection," which makes her tops in Bubba's eyes.  He had Art for Specials which is first thing in the morning.  He saw Duch in the cafeteria, which she thought was super cool.  No homework the first week!

 

 

Splish, Splash!

We returned to Gulf Shores again this summer and had a great time! Once again the whole family was there. We swam in the ocean, played in the pool, hung out in the house... We didn't go to town much- once to go to the airplane museum in Pensacola, once to go out to eat and once to ride go-carts. We celebrated Aunt Sara's and Duch's birthdays with cake and gifts. Huck did not like the sand but wanted to go to the beach.  As long as he sat on a towel or someones lap he was fine.  Bubba did great swimming, in both the ocean and the pool. 

 

 

 

First morning, looking out over the water

Huck did NOT like the sand

Uncle Scott

Cousins!

airplane museum