Chloe Update

With all the drama from Luke this week I completely forgot about my intentions for posting an update on Chloe's progress.

Sidenote: No trouble from Luke today! Crossing my fingers for lessons learned.

Now, on to Chloe. She came to stay with me for the day this week. Her speech is coming along excellently. Last month she had her 6 month post-activation evaluation for speech and the results were great. At that time she was at 6-9 months for speech development, which is right on target for her. Since her "hearing birthday" was the day of activation, December 31, hearing-wise she is now 8 1/2 months old. She is still constantly babbling with some words mixed in. She follows direction when told to perform certain task, such as "Chloe pick up your toys and put them in the box." She understands what we tell her, which means her speech will continue to develop and she will soon catch up to her developmental age. She is also repeating phrases and saying 2 word phrases. The other day when we got home, Crimson was there to greet us. She was very excited to see my monster-dog. The next thing that came out of her mouth "Hey Kwinson." Pretty darn close, if you ask me! She has also learned to say "thank you," or her version "thank-ye" and "Uh-ooohhhh." Other words in her vocabulary are:

hi
bye
mama
Daddy
Paul
Daisy (her dog)
Kay-Kay (Kaylyn)
Nana
Pop
Paw-Paw
eat
side (outside)
bite
please
up and down
finish (new word as of today)
and every almost-two-year-old's favorite word: No


She has also developed a full-blown two year old temper. Unfortunately, Tuesday I got a taste of her little temper. She was waaayyy past-due for a nap and had gotten fussy. There was no distracting her or making her happy. I decided it was nap-time, she had other plans. As soon as I took her processors off and gave her a paci, ohmygoodness, the drama. She tried to put her processors back on, the paci went flying, she thrashed, and screamed, and head-butted me right in the nose. It was a battle of wills - She meant she was NOT going to take a nap, and I meant she WAS going to take a nap. I eventually won, but not without battle wounds from my fight with the little wild-cat!

Sorry, no new pics of her. My camera battery died :(

Trouble AGAIN!!

It seems my youngest offspring is having trouble adjusting to the regimen of Kindergarten. Yes, Luke found himself in trouble at school again today. His crime: helping himself to some Fruit Roll-ups in the concession stand. His punishment: a trip to the Principal's office where he received a paddling. This wasn't his first offense of swiping Fruit Roll-ups from the concession stand. This summer he got himself in trouble for the same thing when he was at the school "helping" Pop and Nana get ready for the new school year. Anyway, sticking with the house rules, he was in trouble again at home this evening. He may be stuck in his room until he graduate's high school!

We Were Off To A Good Start.....

Well, after the first full week of school we were off to a good start....until today. Luke made it 3 whole days before getting in trouble at school. However, today I guess he decided he would test the waters. He had to sit in the corner for a while today because he pinched another child. He doesn't even know who he pinched, because he doesn't know the other child's name. He said the other child, A.K.A "that boy," pinched him first and they both had to sit in the corner. Soooo, because he got in trouble at school, he was also in trouble when he got home. House rules. Hopefully Luke's, trouble-causing days are over. Since this is probably wishful thinking on my part, next week we'll shoot for 4 days without getting in trouble.

Kaylyn is still doing well in school. The dreaded 3rd grade homework started this week and so far, she's been doing it without a fight. She's decided to make it her job to keep up with Luke's happenings at school, mainly for the sole purpose of getting him in more trouble. She was more than eager to report to me today about Luke's pinching episode and the disciplinary action that followed. We've had a talk about the fact that she is NOT her brother's keeper and I have other methods of finding out whether or not he's had a good day at school.

In other news, I started my LAST semester today. Come on December!

Reports From The First Week of School....

Reports from the first week of school are in. From the 3rd grader of the house: "School's good." Yeah, Kaylyn, don't give up too much information. When asked "What did you do at school today?" The answer is "Worked." Hmmmm.... I'm guessing we're going to have to play 20 questions. She finally gives up some answers when asked direct questions. She's really excited about seeing her friends and is quickly getting back in the groove of the school routine. The dreaded 3rd grade homework starts next week. Ugh! In other news from Kaylyn's world, dance classes officially started back on Tuesday. This year the competition team is really stepping it up. She will have 3 hour dance classes instead of the 2 hour classes she's had for the past 2 years. We will also be going to more competitions this year. So far there are 3 on the schedule; Birmingham, Panama City, and the other is TBA. Looks like we will have a busy Spring!

From the Kindergartner of the house: "I had fun at school today." When asked "what did you do at school today, Luke?" The answer is: "I colored, and cut out my pictures, and glued, and played ball in gym, and we didn't get to go to the playground today, and ate lunch, and snack, and walked in a line, and sang songs, and.....(the list goes on for about 10 minutes.) When asked "Who did you play with/sit by/talk to?" The answer is "That boy and that girl." "What are their names Luke?" "I don't' know." Yeah, we've got to work on those people meeting skills.

Both kids have had a great week. Kaylyn's happy, even though she's not offering up any details and Luke tells every little detail (with the exception of his friend's names!). So far, so good. Fingers crossed the remainder of the year will go as well as the first week.

Check out Luke's picture from the first day of pre-school last year. It was his first time in a new school and he was scared to death.

Holy Moly! What a difference a year makes! This year he was all smiles and just happy to be there. Last year he was one breath away from bursting into tears (he didn't, but in this pic he sure looks like he's fighting tears). I also can't believe how different he looks. Check out how blonde his hair was! I didn't realize how much darker it had gotten until I looked as these pics!

Back to School!!!

It's that time of year again! The kids headed back to school this morning and were so glad to be back. Kaylyn was happy to see all of her friends and it didn't take her long to get caught up on all of the happenings of the summer. Luke was only there for about 15 minutes this morning. We just turned in the 82 forms I filled out last night and got his bag and folder and headed back home. He won't go back until Thurdays and is SO disappointed. He has been looking forward to starting kindergarten all summer and could hardly wait for the big day to get here. He woke me up at 3:oo this morning and said "I gotta brush my teeth and get dressed so I can go to school!"

This pic was taken outside of Kaylyn's classroom. The big 3rd grader here didn't want Mom to walk her into class this morning (sniffle, sniffle)

Luke plopped right down at his desk and was ready to work! When I told him it was time to go home he said "But, but, but, I just got here. I don't want to go home yet." Oh well, he'll go back Thursday and then will be in school for at least the next 13 years!

Meet The Teacher!!!

Tonight the kids got to meet their teachers for the year. They were so excited and can't wait for the first day of school, which is tomorrow! (Mom's pretty excited too!)Luke and Ms. Jones. He is SO ready for Kindergarten and is looking forward to making new friends. He really liked his teacher. He said "She's nice and pretty too." He's become quite the little charmer! Tomorrow he will only go for about an hour and then he will either go on Wednesday or Thursday for a full day. This year the school system is staging in the kindergarten classes. Half the class will go on Wednesday and the other half will go on Thursday, then the entire class will go on Friday. We'll find out tomorrow which day Luke will go for the full day. Either way, I'll be missing his first full day because I have to work :(
Kaylyn and Ms. Cain. Kaylyn is in for a bit of a surprise this year. Third grade is the hardest of the the elementary grades because SO much new material is introduced this year. Multiplication, social studies, science, more in-depth reading (along with AR reading), and vocabulary, to name a few. She's a little nervous about all of the new work, but I know once she gets settled in, she'll have the hang of it in no time!

The Countdown Is On!

- Backpack: check
- Lunch bag: check
- 70 count notebooks (2 red, 2 green): check (surprisingly hard to find)
- 48 crayons: check
- 3 plastic folders: check
- Elmer's glue: check
And the list goes on.

Holy Cow! I had forgotten how frustrating school supply shopping was. Not to mention, new clothes, shoes, socks, underwear, etc. Whew! It's over now and school starts in approximately 37 1/2 hours. These are Kaylyn's school supplies. Luckily, Luke's are included in the classroom fee. We'll show up on Tuesday and they will be neatly placed in his desk. That's my kind of back to school shopping!

A Post That Is Looonnnggg Overdue....

A couple of weeks ago, we had a special visitor in the ER. Addie stopped by for a visit!! She has grown so much seen the last time we saw her. Of course she was showing us all her beautiful personality and was all about showing us her newly painted piggies! Mrs. Rita came by with her toy cart and Addie picked herself out a HUGE baby, then she thought the baby needed to eat so she got a bottle out of the cart to feed the baby. It was hilarious! She kept feeding the baby and I am sure she's been a good little mommy to her newest addition. The best part of the visit was when she demonstrated her newest milestone for us....she WALKED! (or I should say she RAN). Just another milestone her parents were told she would never meet!

Spring Valley Beach!!

Today we took the kids to Spring Valley Beach and we had a GREAT time. That place ROCKS!! We will definitely be going back soon.

The Half-Pike was the favorite ride of the day. We rode it several times and even the kids loved it!

Me and Kaylyn
Paul and Sam

Chris and Luke