Trav visit's M's school

The chief meterologist from Channel 6 News in Tulsa visited M's school. Here is the video from their visit. M is shown at the very beginning (he's on his knees). You can't miss him! Enjoy.

The video

Pleasant surprises

I received an email yesterday from M's kindergarten teacher. She had asked for M to come over and read to her kindergarten class. We agreed, but we put a caveat on it that it would be up for his 1st grade teacher to decide when he was ready. (We've had a few issues with M not completely his work as he should as such and we wanted to make it an incentive.) Mrs. S reported that M did a wonderful job. My mommy heart was just so full of pride! Well, wouldn't yours have been too?

Watch out for foreign objects!

It's been a while since I have had a chance to write on the antics on one of the kids. Honestly, with my rupturing my eardrum and falling down a flight of stairs and breaking my arm, it's kind of been my year this year....until yesterday.

I'm sitting at my desk working on my October numbers (Yes, still!), when I notice a B'ville number pop up on my cell phone that looks vaguely like the number for M's school, so I answer my phone.

"Mrs. Bates? This is the nurse at M's school."
"Yes?"
"Either you or your husband is going to need to come pick M up from school. M has rocks in his ear."

That's all I heard. I didn't hear anything else after that because at that moment all I was seeing is red.

"Ok, let me see if I can reach his dad," and I hang up.

I forgot B was at a funeral yesterday afternoon. I call his cell-no answer. I call the office-no answer. I call his cell again-no answer. I call the main office number and ask if there is any notes on where he might be-at a funeral. Of course, I knew that!

I look at the clock. It's 3:30ish. I think to myself, "I'll give him 15 minutes. The funeral might not be over yet." After 15 minutes are up, I go ahead and leave work, call the school to let them know I have been unsuccessful in getting in touch with B and I am on my way. I'm on my way to the vehicle when B calls.

"What's going on?" I relay the story to him and he asks me to call the school and let them know he'll be there as soon as possible. He's bringing him into Tulsa to take him to the minor emergency.

I call Memaw and relay the story to her and she agrees to watch G & W while we take Genius into the ER. So B & I take M into the minor emergency because from what I could see while we were at Memaw's house, he did indeed have rocks in his ear. The nurse practitioner confirmed it.

The took him back into an exam room, put drops in his ear, made him lie still for 5 minutes and then one syringe or water later, the rocks were out. The boy felt absolutely no pain. He even had a little bit of fun. We made him do his homework while we were waiting and his math homework involved a domino game. I also thumb wrestled with him while he was having to lie still for the medicine to settle in his ear.

The boy walked out with 4 Star Wars stickers and the syringe they used to irrigate his ear. They asked if we wanted to take the rocks home as a souvenir; we declined. When we were walking out, M was just hopping along thinking that what had just occurred was no big issue. We informed him otherwise and the consequences are still up for consideration.

Boys!!!

Shameless bragging

Ok...It's my blog and I want to, so here it is...my shameless bragging on my little ones. I emailed M's teacher yesterday to tell her that M was being pulled out of school early. B & M went to the health department to get flu shots. They were giving them to state employees and county employees free of charge yesterday. So B got the shot and M got the nasal mist. Harumph! No shot for M...lucky dog! So I get an email back from M's teacher telling me that he will be ready and that he has mastered all his list A words. There are two lists for 1st grade of which they must master the words on that list by sight. Both lists contain 100 words. He mastered list A; now they will start to work on list B. After he masters those words, he will go on to the second grade word list. Way to go, M!

As I was getting ready this morning, I stumbled upon this very rare sight in M's room this morning. I grabbed the first camera available (my cell-which takes horrible pictures) and captured this sight. It just made my heart melt.



M is reading The Lion King to G & W.

W had his 3 yo checkup today. He is now 39" tall and 30.2 lbs--tall and lean as his doctor put it (which he likes). He is above the curve on his skills. I'm not sure if I need to work with him on his colors or not. There were four blocks across the page in this order-yellow, green, blue, red. I pointed to the yellow block and asked him what color it was? Green! was his answer. I pointed to the green block and he responded blue. I pointed to blue...red. I pointed to red...yellow. I think the little turkey knows his colors and is just pulling my leg. We didn't think he knew his ABCs for the longest time and he just wouldn't say them for us. Then one night I heard him singing oh so softly from the backseat "A, B, C." The little turkey knew his ABCs. ARGH!!!! He received two vaccinations-his DTaP and his influenza and he didn't flinch on the DTaP and flinched slightly on the influenza. He didn't cry at all. If it had been M, there would have been hysterics. Just think back to the old black and white no sound movies where you can see the girl wailing and fainting (overly dramatic). That would be my M.

Miss G is now finally walking around between objects. She is still using the couches and such to walk along, but she is full blown toddling now. She was walking through Meme's house on Sunday with her bottle in her mouth drinking her milk. Now, I just need to work to get her off the bottle. Luckily, not one of my children took pacifiers.

So there's my shameless bragging...I must return to reality and work on getting stuff ready for my 1:30 meeting.

Baby steps and late nights

So, G took her first steps on Saturday. While these weren't the first set of steps, they were the second. She's 11 months today! EEK!



Last night was also a late night. M is home sick from school today. Basil got up with him both times he got sick last night. He's a Memaw's house today; I feel bad because I couldn't take off work with him as I have no more days left to take off since I had to take all my days after my accident, and B couldn't take off either. Oh, well, Memaw's a good stand-in. I'm sure B will be very tired tonight after getting up with him last night and the late football practice. Poor guy! When I called into school for him today, the secretary asked, "Stomach?" to which I replied, "Yes." Guess it's going around.

I called during lunch to check up on him and Memaw said he hadn't gotten sick anymore so that's good news.

I thought I was done with school??!?!

So, as parents, we spend the first 18 years of our life scrambling to get out of school so that we can either (1) enter the workforce or (2) go to college. If you chose option 2, you then spent those undergraduate years waiting somewhat impatiently for that light at the end of the tunnel where you get that piece of paper called a degree. You either decide you are done with school or, like me, decide to get that Masters degree, which may or may not be of future benefit to you. Finally you are finished and you can actually say, "Yes! No more homework! No more tests!" Then you have children.

M is in the first grade. The child started bringing home homework when he was in Pre-K. The amount has progressed to where he now has reading, math, and spelling Monday - Thursday. And since he is young, that means that B & I now have homework as well. Yes, that's right...as a parent you now have homework AGAIN. It seeps back into your life. You can't escape it. UGH!!!

M must read to us every night, and we have to log his performance into a log sheet that goes back to his teacher the next day. We must guide him through his math homework (notice I said guide as he must answer the questions and we provide assistance and guidance to help him arrive at the correct answer). We then quiz him on his spelling words by having him use them in a sentence, spell them out loud, and have him write them for us on command. By the time we finish homework, eat dinner, take baths, etc., it's now time for bed.

You know, I don't remember having this much homework when I was his age. If I did, I feel for my parents. It's exhausting. Don't get me wrong, I love it that M is reading well above grade level and that he is so smart and intelligent but I am longing for the days where he can do his homework on his own and I can be there to answer questions. However, I'm beginning to believe that day may never truly come until he has went off to college.

On other fronts, my sister-in-law got back to me about the time of my nephews' games. It was just as I feared. We do have a conflict so I have now pushed his party back to a Sunday. So, I fixed the invitations to reflect the new time and sent out the ones that could be sent out via email. I just need to print the ones that I will need to mail and get those ready to go out tomorrow. I can cross that task off my to do list for this month. Now I need to go around and look at John Deere cakes to see where we will buy the cake, because this mom is NOT domestic and doesn't do homemade cakes (although I did bake coookies the other night, but it was with cookie dough I bought through a fundraiser at work). The hardest part will be getting the house clean before the party. UGH! I'm getting tired just thinking about it....

I'm looking for volunteers???