I Can Do It

I know I put Blake down like this...



but I came back to this...



He's got it all figured out and there's no stopping him now!

Walking Wednesday

The first Wednesday of every month Pink goes green. We leave our cars and walk to school. Teachers come out to designated meeting points and we all go together. They count how many students from each grade level walk and there is a trophy that grade gets to keep for the month - "The Golden Shoe".
Last year I think that we made it to all but the April walk (we were in the hospital with Blake). This year we are off to a good start. If you live in the area, plan ahead - it takes quite a while for all those kids to cross the street and think more than a few people were surprised at how long the crossing guard made them stop today!

And So It Starts

Every year about this time always seems to start the same. It's college football time, they are starting to advertise the State Fair on tv, Halloween costumes are starting to show up in stores. The pumpkin patches will open soon and before the costumes and pumpkins and gone and we can even think about eating our turkeys, the Christmas decorations will fill the stores. I think that Brandt started to make his Christmas list in April, maybe March.
I do like Christmas. I love putting up the tree, remembering each ornament. Some I have had since I was a little girl and some are just a couple of years old, bought for our kids to celebrate each of their Christmases. No matter how hard I try I always wind up running around a couple of days before Christmas, buying the last couple of things. Every year I vow that this will be the year I will not do that. So today I broke down and bought two gifts. Two little things for Blake. Most of his toys have already been through two kids, so a couple of new things for his first Christmas seemed in order. They are safely tucked in my favorite hiding place - the closet under the stairs. The kids won't go in there because it doesn't have a light and Will hates it because I throw everything in there and don't keep in organized. It's really a great hiding place. So once again I vow, I will finish my shopping early, I will finish my shopping early, but not before I eat my turkey.

In Five Short Months

He is getting too big, too fast!

Two Weeks, Two Days

Brandt finished his second week of school on Friday. He is having pretty good days and seems to be adjusting pretty well. He is making some new friends, enjoys seeing his old ones at lunch, recess and specials and is learning a few things in the process. A lot of the first two weeks is spent on processes, routines and evaluating learning levels. Thursday night was curriculum night and I always leave so impressed with Frisco ISD and the teachers they hire. I know we are going have a great year with Ms. Reed. Mommy may have to have a tutor to help with homework by the end of the year. This year we have spelling tests (my weakest subject - sometimes spellcheck can't even decipher what I was attempting to spell), math starts fractions and includes double digit addition and subtraction without regrouping. It's really just a fancy way of saying without borrowing, but it sounds pretty scary, right? He and his class wrote a fabulous shared story during Friday writing time.




Campbell finished her first week of school, which was two days. She had a great first day and Tuesday night asked how many nights she had to sleep before she went back. How many times do I sleep is her way to counting the passage of time right now. She made a new friend the first day and refers to her as the green one (she was wearing a green dress). Her name is Caroline. On Thursday she wore a different color dress. Campbell still called her the green one, but explained to me that she wasn't green today.
Thursday morning we got up, took B to school, came home and got Campbell ready. When we were all ready to go she said "Mommy, I'm ready for pictures." Since we took pictures before the first day, she seems to think we do that everyday before school.



So far she is doing well at school. She does not throw sand because that is not nice. She shares the dollhouse because we have to share toys. She was the Line Leader on Thursday and she LOVED that. Everyday she brings home a sheet about her day. There is a space with words about her day that the teacher can circle. Hers always has energetic, happy and helpful circled. On Thursday Miss Peggy wrote VERY above helpful. I can only imagine. Next week they start learning about letters, so she will actually get to learn something she does not already know.

All Jumped Out

Blake loves to stand up and would prefer standing to sitting and definitely to lying down. I can't hold him all the time and of course he can't stand by himself. He will stay in his Exersaucer for a little while, but he gets tired of it pretty quickly. We were having some pretty long days.
On Monday I drug his Jumperoo down stairs and put him in it. It took at few minutes for him to figure it out, but then he was pretty happy.




Each day he liked it a little more than the day before. On Friday I needed to run some errands and I put him down to jump and went to get ready. I was listening for the scream when he got bored and realized that I was completely ready and he was still playing. This is what what I found when I went to check on him.

Jumping is hard work!

Campbell's First Day

Today was Campbell's first day of school. She woke up ready to go and did not understand why it was not time for her to go when we took Brandt to school. We came home and got her dressed, did her hair, packed her basket and were ready to go. She was really excited when we got there. She recognized the building as the church we went to last week and wanted to know if she was going to get bathtized again. She has this idea that you get bathtized ever time you go to church (Obviously we need to go a little more often).
She went right in and was excited to see her classroom. She was thrilled to see the dollhouse and immediately asked if she could play with it. She was annoyed that I wanted to take pictures and was taking away from her playtime. A couple of kids were crying and she just looked at them. She was fine with me leaving and happily gave me a kiss and waved bye. I think she is going to have a great day and is going to love this school.
She did tell me in the car this morning that she is not going to raise her hand because she is going to be the queen and so she doesn't have to. Miss Peggy may be in for a bit of a challenge.
The real fun started after I left her in her class and put Blake in the car. I put him in the back seat, put my bag (and keys and phone) in the front and closed the doors. As I walked around the car to get in, I heard click, click and knew it was the doors locking. Luckily it was only about 70 this morning, so I ran back to the directors office and had her call 911. By the time I got back to the parking lot, the Fire Department was already there. They started trying to get the door open and calling OnStar at the same time. Within five minutes OnStar had the doors open and Blake was fine, mad with sweaty feet, but fine. He started laughing as soon as I talked to him. It was quite an exciting morning for us. Right now I am loving OnStar and a few of Frisco's finest!