3rd week of October, 2016

She loves the slides and is fearless (even in her cute dresses)

He was really into it and was even serenading me with my own rock ballad.  "I love you.  I love you, yeah!  I love you.  I love you, yeah!  I love you, mommy.  I love you, yeah!  I love you, mommy.  So much, the rest of your lives.  And so much that I love you.  I love you so much that I'll never ever forget you."

All three of them had guitars to play rock and roll.

Enjoy some of the kids' "rock and roll"

Peter and I went to meet with Maxwell's teacher after school for Parent/Teacher Conference. 

 (I had gone a few weeks ago to talk about how he was doing.  I asked to meet with her because I was concerned that we were more than one month into school and I still felt like I was yet to see him being challenged or learning anything new - especially in math.  She showed me some of his writing and drawing and talked about how she was challenging him to give her more details and tell/show her more.  She basically said that in regards to math that they would only be covering kindergarten curriculum.  I asked if he could possibly go to first grade for math and she said she would ask the principal (the answer that came back was no).   I was really hoping to walk away feeling like she was engaged in helping him learn and grow this school year but unfortunately I didn't walk away feeling much better.  She said they were finishing up assessing each of the kids and that the kids would be put into learning groups for certain subjects with kids at their level.  So, my hope was that being grouped with kids with higher skills would help a little.  So, when I showed up today I was hoping that I might get a difference experience from the P/T Conference.) 

Here was her feedback.  Subitizing is basically having the kids look at dots and comprehending what the number is without having to count the dots (think dice).  So I said what numbers should he be working on and she said numbers above 10.  So, I guess we will work on that.

Maxwell's picture about the pumpkin patch.   I'll translate -

"I saw pumpkins.  I saw lots of pumpkins there."

We are still getting cucumbers from our garden!

Happy with her Halloween sticker

Britt had lunch with the boys at school and brought Emmalyn along.

I had a work trip to attend NACS - The National Association of Convenience Stores convention.  It's fun to spend time with some of my CROSSMARK associates plus it's a good opportunity to spend time with my clients as well.  I also walked the floor collecting bags of candy/snacks/trinkets/etc.  It is such a huge convention!

Me, Alla, and Maureen went to dinner at this crazy restaurant called "the Vortex" in Atlanta

I got the burger in the middle.  It was delicious but oh so unhealthy. I got a salad as my side to compensate but it was covered in bacon, cheese, and croutons so not very healthy.

While I was out of town, they had a dinosaur exhibit at the school one of the evenings.  The kids all had a good time.

Peeping into the neighbor's yard

Silly kids.  It's a very small hole.

Being goofy with Uncle Joe - she adores him.

This will be Maxwell's Halloween costume. We got it out to try it on.  He LOVED it.  He specifically wanted to be a blue ninja.

Ninja moves

And of course, she's got her own ninja moves.

We got our garage doors and front door re-stained.  After living in the house 4 years, they needed it.  They look so nice!!

Third week of November

Another fun and busy week... It's interesting to me as I am going back and blogging to see how much we do EVERY week yet so often I feel like we just sit around the house...

My baby in her little winter cave - this time around I got the car seat cover

Max's graduation picture on the board at swimming lessons

Nice guns!

We enjoyed a date night of wine tasting and treats made by my friend Tida.  I enjoy the treats but mostly we go for the chance to visit with Tida and Jason.  (The fancy treats are crazy delicious though.)

Max was invited to Sadie's 5th birthday party.  He wouldn't pose for pics but Emmalyn would...

super cute idea, right?  the kids also went swimming which was super fun

My Little Mermaid

Crawling around at the party

This is how she plays with her activity table now

It's snow!

It might have only been a dusting but Maxwell still went outside to check it out.

These two boys love their Emmalyn

Look how big those PJs are on her.  They are the correct size for her age but she swims in them.

Landen loves his Emmalyn

We had some fun painting.

Video - The depth of his vocabulary cracks me up.  I love hearing him use new words all the time.

Peter and I went to a surprise party for our friend in our neighborhood, Erica.

Peter and Jake

The cute couple - Erica and Jake

Some of the girls

Jenga - - who knew it could be so much fun as an adult?

I am so grateful to have such great neighbors.  We have a great time!

Peter is not getting up in the middle of the night to change Emmalyn anymore.  It's now just me.  She's only getting up once in the evening around 4 am the past few nights.  That's super nice but it's been hard to get her to go to bed originally.  She keeps waking up and needs her binky and also doesn't want to be in her crib.  So, a few nights have been spent completely in our bed.  Not good, but sometimes you just need to be able to survive.

She is starting to pull up to her feet.  Like, if I am sitting down she will crawl over and pull up to her feet on me.  

She is saying "guh guh guh" so her baby sounds are growing.

Maxwell will talk to her and calls her "Emmowhen" or "missy" or he'll say "pretty girruhl" (girl).

Max now stays dry during his nap at school - whew.

We had Maxwell's first parent teacher conference.  I was really excited to go and hear more about what he was doing and how he was doing.  I was so frustrated after it because I felt like what the teacher shared about Maxwell didn't fit the kid that I knew.  It was almost like she didn't know him at all.  She shared specific things he would do or say and it just didn't fit.

She said that he gets upset easily and doesn't want people to think he's silly so he won't participate in some group activities - like when they take turns dancing in the middle of the circle.  She also shared that he gets really upset if he has to get his hands dirty like when he's supposed to finger paint or if he spills his yogurt.  

Her comments were way more negative than positive.   She pointed out that he wasn't able to jump on one foot.  (not sure I'm super concerned about that).  Then she went through a bunch of points of evaluation and he didn't get one "above average" ranking for his age.  Even when it came to reading - he was just average for his age.  I wanted to call BS on her.  Are you telling me it's typical and average that kids read at 3 years old!??!  Argh.  It ruined my morning because it felt so impersonal.  She certainly didn't seem connected to Maxwell at all.

Maxwell is going to preschool

We did it.  We signed Maxwell up for preschool at a Montessori School.  I really like that he will be with kids aged 3-5 and that he will be able to learn at his own pace and be challenged regardless of what place the other kids are in.  It's been a stressful decision because he is just barely 3.  If he was older, I think I would have stressed a little less.  Plus I stressed over whether to put him in a traditional preschool class or pay the extra tuition for the Montessori.  I think we've made a good choice but as Peter reminds me, we can change our minds at any time.

So we went to the information night with the teacher.  Maxwell did pretty good sitting quietly the whole time but he didn't like when another boy got close to him.  Oh boy, that made me worried about how he'd do in the class.

So I asked all my questions and was okay until I asked about pull-ups during nap time and his teacher said they wouldn't put him in pull ups during nap time. The expectation was that he was potty trained.  I said he was but not at nap time.  I quickly got that there was no arguing this point.  So then I asked if the teachers would wipe him after he poops and again she said that the expectation was that they were potty trained.  And that it may mean that he might come home with little bits of poop on his underwear sometimes.  I was stunned.  So what I walked away with was that they were completely unwilling to help with anything having to do with the potty.  My son needed to do everything on his own. 

Well, crap.  (haha! get it?!)

Maxwell doesn't always stay dry during his naps and we've always wiped him after he poops.  How in the world was I going to teach my barely 3 year old #1 - how much toilet paper to use #2 - which way to wipe #3 - to keep wiping until he's clean etc?!  And in a few days?  (Today was Friday and he was starting on Monday.) Any one of these topics could take many days for him to get and now he's got to get it before Monday?  And he usually poops once a day so that meant I was going to get one shot on Saturday to teach him and one shot on Sunday to solidify it.  That was it.

Seriously, I was stunned.  This wasn't what I was told when I asked on the phone if he could wear pull ups during nap time.  

I almost changed my mind about starting preschool but decided we'd do the best we can and then hope the teacher would be compassionate and help out a little.  They can't expect a BOY who turned 3 a week ago to have this all down.  (Even his pediatrician said it's normal for 3-5 year olds to struggle to stay dry when sleeping).

Maxwell in his classroom

Okay, let's go home.  We've got work to do!

Other things we worked on that weekend...

Using his nap mat

Putting on his backpack

So cute right?  I searched FOREVER for a backpack I didn't hate, let alone liked.

My new life - labeling everything he takes to school.