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!
