It Has Been Awhile!

The week got away from me, and not a whole lot has happened.  But here are some fun nuggets...

It was like summer for awhile there, so we had been outside a lot doing summery things,which was oh so nice. Today it feels like we're back to very early spring. Argh.

The big news of the week is that Ben learned how to tie his shoes! I know, I know, he's nine and all... but he really just could never get it before now. I'm so excited for him and he was SO proud of himself.  :)

And this? I give you.... Simon's last ever kindergarten homework!! He has come SUCH a long way and I am so proud of him too! :) :)

He also brought home his highest level "Little Book" ever yesterday. They range from A-M and he had been hanging solidly in the C/D combo ones. He brought home a D yesterday and when I made a big deal about it (because sometimes he brings home "A" or "B" ones just because he doesn't feel like putting the work into reading) he said, "I picked that one because I thought it would impress you!" LOL! And indeed it did... as did his reading of it which was fantastic and he only he needed some help on a couple words!!! 

And lastly, there is this. I wandered into Ben's room this morning to find Jonathan on the floor with Ben's iPod Touch. He had put the earbuds in, had managed to find Girls Just Wanna Have Fun on Youtube and was singing his little heart out. LOL!

So that has been our week. This weekend is our last quiet one for a couple weeks... so hopefully lots of fun will be had! :)

Weekend...

Busy weekend!

Saturday morning, all the boys had swimming, as usual.  Their teacher has started taking Ben in the big pool the last few weeks and he is none too pleased about it. Part of it is that it's much colder than the therapy pool, where he has done all of his lessons up until this point. But the other part is purely Ben being Ben. It's only 3-1/2 feet deep in the lane they use, but he's convinced he can't touch the bottom. The logic of, "Well, even if you couldn't touch, you can SWIM now." or "The pool you've been swimming in is 5 feet deep in parts and you've been okay with that!", not to mention, "You are four feet tall, the water is not." is all lost on my otherwise very logical, analytical child.  I don't really have a leg to stand on since, although not pool-related, my fears as a kid were equally irrational. (still are?)

We ignore it though, knowing he'll come around eventually. I don't even get involved, I just give him his goggles, remind him he's NINE, and send him off with the teacher. I know he cries some, but I also know he does eventually swim when he's over there.

(I will say I can tell he does secretly like the fact that being taken over to the big pool by himself means he has surpassed Simon's level.)

Simon is coming along well too! He did panic after jumping a few weeks ago and suddenly forgot he could swim. It shook him a little, but he got back on the horse.  He's also doing much better with his back float, which freaked him out for awhile.

I do think both Ben and Simon, though their skills are vastly beyond where they were last summer, will still hang out in the shallow end of the pool again this year and actually, given that their confidence level is still not all that wonderful, that's a-okay with me. I'll force them over to the deep end when I have Tom there to help me child wrangle. Otherwise, they can stay where they feel comfortable.

Jonathan, this week, started full-on swimming underwater to Tara and to the steps!! He goes further and further every week. I can't get over it! Weirdest and coolest thing ever to see in action.  He may give me grey hair with his fearlessness sometimes, but it's SO different than Ben and Simon in (and me) that it just continually fascinates and surprises me what he can do and wants to do and isn't intimidated by at his age that I never would have even considered for Ben or Simon.  I'm glad I don't have THREE Jonathans though... one is plenty.

In other news this weekend, Ben had a sleepover at grandmom and poppy's. The rest of us got sushi and Tutti Frutti. :)

We also finished our garden box (sans dirt... maybe next weekend) and Ben went to another rock-climbing party where he mastered going to the top of the wall.  :) I posted the video yesterday... so proud of that kid!

I'm proud of Simon too because is working REALLY, really hard on his reading lately!! He got a new Star Wars early reader book at the bookstore yesterday and read us a bunch of pages from it last night.  He is making great strides in that department and is doing a much better job with sight words these days too. He remembers almost all of them now! He and I have definitely put in some serious time on the reading front lately  and will continue all summer. :)  He's my project. It has been a different experience from Ben learning to read. They went about it in totally different ways and on different timetables. Kids are a constant learning experience, aren't they?

And today is Monday... ahhh... my favorite. :) Quiet. Routine. Put things back in order. Happy day!

Complicated!

Ben has this sudden interest in having a social life and seeing friends all the time outside of school.
I'm excited about this because it's kind of a first. And he has made this friend who seems to like Ben as much as Ben likes him... which is a rare find, honestly.

I really want and NEED to encourage this because Ben needs this a LOT... like really, really REALLY needs this.

There are multiple issues in play here though, the biggest of which is, what the heck do I do with Simon? When I so much as mentioned to Ben that maybe we could bring his friend home from school with us tomorrow, Simon immediately burst into tears. "What about me? What will I do? I won't have anyone to play with."

I asked Ben if he would mind if Simon played with them if this playdate happened and he was okay with it. (though I wouldn't make him do this every time, of course) Simon wasn't into it though and just cried and cried.

Sigh. Simon actually has really clicked with one little boy in his class lately, but he doesn't have the kind of mom who is just going to let me bring her kid home from school with me. It will have to be a mom/kids playdate and that doesn't really work for a Friday evening.

Argh.

So complicated. I feel like Ben is having to sacrifice because I don't know what to do with Simon. It stinks. I should be able to say, "Yes! We'll bring your buddy home for a few hours! Absolutely!" But it's just not that simple. I SO wish it were that simple, for Ben's sake.

Multiple kids... especially close in age ones who are the same gender and each others' main playmate... it makes things complicated. Really really does.  What do you do?

Math. By Simon.

He did this this morning before school and came running downstairs with it. He said he wanted to take it to school to show his teacher.  I didn't say a word about the backwards or reversed numbers... just said his math was pretty awesome.

When he came home with it in his folder I asked if he had shown Mrs. B. He replied that he had.
I said, "Did she think say you did a good job?"

He said, "She told me a bunch of my numbers were backwards."

LOL.

So yes, still writing backwards. Still thinking it's a lefty/kindergarten thing. I told the teacher to just give me a heads up when and if I need to start worrying about it.  He can write forwards and read forwards... so I THINK it's nothing. I think. LOL.

Monday....

I have come to really and truly LOVE Mondays. Crazy. I know. The older I get, the more difficult deviating from the daily routine becomes. And Monday means we are back on track from the wacky craziness of the weekends... ahhh.... well, at least during the school year. Summers drive me nuts with the lack of structure. It's nice for a week or so then I get all antsy and lost and unproductive. I know, I have issues...

In my defense, everything is easier when we are in our routine. The kids are easier... the house upkeep is easier... everything.

Anyway...   so it's Monday. A new quarter at school! Ben has vowed to not miss his reading goal again, and to start right away. So YAY for life lessons. I emailed his teacher just to make sure he wouldn't be the ONLY kid not invited to the ice cream party. I'm good with him not being allowed to go (happy about it, actually), but I would have felt bad if he was the only kid from his class eating lunch in the cafeteria Friday. Yikes. (would have gone to pick him up for an hour or something if that had been the case). She replied that no, there were about four others in the same boat, which surprised her because she thought they would all work extra hard to get to go to the party... but yeah... apparently my slacker, procrastinating child is in good company.

Simon seems to have turned a corner in his bad mood and happily skipped into school this morning. Hope it stays that way. He has been a beast lately.

Jonathan is still pleasant and wonderful lately. (So maybe, just maybe, I have a respite for a bit before one of the three goes psycho on me again. they rotate the crazy, which I think is actually pretty considerate of them...) I bought him a little watering can from the dollar bin at Target today and he watered all of my outside flowers "by myself!!! I do it by myself! YOU do not help me!!!" He cracks me up. We had good intentions of planting sunflower seeds down by the woods on the vacant lot in our neighborhood, but we got chased off by a mutant monster bee. Maybe tomorrow.

Nothing much else to report. Ben has a well-visit at the pediatrician's this afternoon, so I have to pick both big boys up from school. I sort of feel bad about that, because Simon will miss center time in his class, but Simon, on the other handwas pretty excited about cutting out at 2:50. LOL! So I guess it's all good.

Update

Been so busy this week... gah.

Anyway so:

Our handyman has been here at the house working on a list of things I've been compiling for a year. At the top was getting rid of the massive entertainment wall unit that the previous owners left here claiming it was a "built-in" (it wasn't) It was functional, but massive, and didn't really fit with our decor. Needless to say, I was thrilled to see it leave yesterday and now our tv is hanging on the wall. The room looks weirdly empty though because we need some other things on the wall and also because we don't have the console for under the tv yet. I've also lost all my toy storage and am at a loss for what to do with pile of puzzles and toys that got emptied out of the cabinets that were part of the wall unit. So... there are pros and cons to it being gone, but mostly i'm just glad it's gone.

Ben has had a good week after a rough start. They started division with remainders in math class and he didn't grasp it well the first go-round. Monday was a rough homework night that involved pencil throwing and paper crumpling. He's got it now though and is super fast. :)  So yay for that!

Simon has just had a rough week period. He's going through a bit of a moody phase... not sure why. But he's awfully surly and cranky. Today was the worst. He flipped out about going to school right before we left and I had to walk him in crying, break all the rules and walk him to the classroom, dump him with the teacher and flee. She emailed to say it took awhile, but he eventually got it together. Why was he like this today? Well, his complaints range from "There are too many people at school and I don't want to be around so many people"(?) to "We didn't get extra minutes at recess yesterday" and also, "I'm nervous about first grade." They've been talking up first grade a LOT lately in his class and I actually sort of think this may be the majority of the issue... at least the part where he doesn't want to go to school. Not sure about the general bad mood...

Jonathan is having a good week. He's the danciest, singiest, happiest little thing ever. He's also all into "helping" with everything all of a sudden. And I mean EVERYTHING. He even helps me flush the toilet. Nothing is sacred. Anyway ... he is SO much fun and I am really enjoying our days together. He is definitely going through that nap transition period where he doesn't want to go down every day but then crashes at some later and completely inconvenient time. Today he fell asleep at 2:15 in the car and then I had to wake him up at 3:15 to go get the boys at school. Not fun.

So that has been our week. I'm completely exhausted and ready for it to be the weekend! :) Loving the gorgeous summery weather though!! :)

Yesterday Went Sideways....

Jonathan and I had a lovely morning at preschool yesterday. We stopped at Safeway on the way home and got some things to take to Grandmom's for dinner since Tom was going to be home late.  We came home and I was just explaining to him how we were going to have some lunch and then he was going to take his nap, when my phone started buzzing on the counter.

I didn't recognize the number. "Hello?" I said, assuming it was going to some kind of sales call.

"Hi, Mrs. Graff. It's Melissa, the school nurse from Jacksonville. How are you?"

"I'm okay... but... uhoh?"

"Yeeeah... I have a very green Simon here in my office."

(relief) "Oh no... He must have caught the stomach virus that's going around his class. I'll be right up."

"Well, Beth C. is here with me and says she'll bring him home for you if you want."

"That's okay. I don't want him to puke in her car. I'm right around the corner. Be there in five minutes."

Jonathan and I jumped back in the car and headed to school. I was not particularly worried about anything except getting my mom to come up and sit with him later so I could go get Ben at school or having her get Ben at school.

Then I got there.

Nothing could have prepared me for the sight I encountered when I turned the corner into the nurse's office. Simon was sitting with Beth with his head in a trash can. His face was completely ashen, his eyes were glassy and his lips had NO color whatsoever. He could only nod to say yes or shake his head for no.

The nurse thought maybe he just really needed to throw up since he was complaining his belly hurt, so she was pushing water and Coke. Nothing was happening. His eyes kept rolling back and then closing and he couldn't even support his own weight to sit up, much less stand or walk.

Scary. Scary. STUFF.  Ranks up there with scariest stuff I've experienced as a mom EVER.

She took his pulse, which was normal and  his blood pressure, which was on the low side of normal.  Everyone agreed he was stable enough that  I should take a minute and call the pediatrician to ask him what I should do. I called him and nurse put me on hold and then came back on to tell me I needed to immediately take him to the ER.

Wait. What? How?

I looked around at my somewhat desperate situation... Jonathan, who had a completely full diaper and was due for a nap and currently rolling around on the health room floor. (gag) No diaper bag or other supplies on me. A 50-pound, obviously ill five-year-old who couldn't walk and looked like he was going to slip into a coma at any moment, oh and Ben, lest I forget him, was still in class, oblivious to all the action.  Should I call an ambulance?! Should I throw them both in the car and just drive as fast as I could to the hospital and sort the rest out later? What about Ben? He had to get home from school somehow!

I called the pediatrician again, must have sounded frantic enough that the gatekeeper let me talk to him personally instead of just relaying the message. I don't even remember what I said, I just wanted to hear it directly from HIM that going to the ER was actually necessary. He assured me it was because of how sudden it all came on. And then he asked me a bunch of questions about if he'd possibly gotten into any medication or poisons. "Nothing! He has been at school all morning!" Can I let him go to sleep?" I asked. "Because he really just wants to sleep." He told me that was okay. I was relieved, beacuse I was fighting a losing battle on that one.

At some point, I called my husband who was in North Carolina and thus completely useless to me. I called my mom who was a half hour away at the grocery store, but headed out immediately. Then I called my mother-in-law who is ten minutes away and she came right over to school. Between my mother-in-law, the nurse, Beth and I, we formulated a plan that  I'd drive the van up to the door and they'd wheel Simon to the car and life him into his seat.  My mother-in-law would watch Jonathan at the house and give him his nap, my mom would come with me to the ER, and Beth would pick Ben up from school and take him home.

We headed to the house, where I left Jonathan with my mother-in-law and took a minute to grab some gatorade, snacks, some cash, extra clothes for Simon, a blanket, his DS and my laptop. (Not my first rodeo!)  By that time, my mom was almost to our house, so I picked her up on the way at the nearby grocery store and she talked to Simon all the way to the hospital. He sipped on the Gatorade and eventually started to perk up enough to make silly faces at himself in the rear-view mirror.

As we got closer to the hospital, he still looked tired but he was talking and could walk on his own. They took us right back and he got a hundred different tests... blood sugar, EKG, flu, strep, blood pressure standing up, sitting down and laying down. All was normal... except for strep. That he had.

So after being there three hours what they concluded is that he had strep... yes... but that his body's reaction to a mild fever/dehydration and onset of illness caused what's called a vasovagal reaction...  this happens to Tom too. He turns completely ashen and then passes out cold and this is often the first warning of an illness that he gets. It's great fun, really.  It happens to his mom and grandmother too but illness isn't their trigger... they don't have any known trigger... just seems random! We had actually started to suspect this might be the case while in the nurse's office and I was happy to have it basically confirmed.

He's on an antibiotic for the strep now and is completely back to normal and will go to school tomorrow. And now we know what to watch for next time and what to do. (lay him down and push fluids)  The school nurse sent me an email about how she'll put it in his file and what she'll do if it happens at school again. It's actually all pretty fortuitous that it happened to him this young so we know what to do going forward and to keep an eye out for it happening again.

Anyway, so scary stuff!! Glad today is a more normal day!!

Third Time's the Charm!

Finally got a decent school pic of Simon for this year. I had kind of given up; but we got a third chance with the spring pics (which generally, I think are dumb and don't even dress my kids up for, much less purchase)

I told him to make sure he showed his teeth this time and opened his eyes this time.. and show his teeth and open his eyes he did! ;)  Can I still get a better picture of him than this? Yes. But I did want the real-deal school photo and this is passable. Sadly, it's NOT the one that goes int he yearbook. That honor goes to this lovely one... thanks, Lifetouch! (I don't even have a copy of the retake of this one, it was so bad!)

Angry...Bored....

That actually about sums up Simon's state of mind these days. Not sure what's eating at him... middle child stuff or school issues or what... but angry and bored are the two moods we are seeing the most often around here.

I always say they take turns being the challenging one. Right now, Ben is the easiest he has been in a year... and Jonathan, while still two and all that that entails, has kind of taken a chill pill too.  So, Simon was obviously next up to bat to give us a run for our money.

And so it goes... and so it goes...

Anyway, so he made this neato little thing at school yesterday with one of moms of a classmate. Not gonna lie, the design actually kinda blows my mind, being the spatially challenged person that I am...

Threefer Update -- school stuff

Ben:
Two days of MSA down, two to go.  "It's way better than I thought it would be, mom." he says. Still liking the extra recess, snack, and no homework aspect, of course. (I think I'm loving the no homework even more than he is!!)  He was annoyed yesterday that they gave out the teddy grahams snack to the class instead of the one we sent in, which apparently got saved for today. (We sent kids Clif Bars with assorted baked chips ... I think he really just wanted the Cheetos more than anything)

They are reading The Borrowers in reading class right now. I LOVE that book. LOVE LOVE LOVE! I need to find time to sit down and reread it along with him. Have I mentioned I love third grade? It ranks up there with first grade for my favorite elementary school year with him so far. They just do so many interesting things and things I remember from when I was in school.

He seems to me like he has gotten a little more social lately and I like that. Wish I could be a fly on the wall of his classroom sometimes...

Still no sign of the winter coat. I think it's gone for good. (sigh)

Simon:
I've started paying him off in Minecraft minutes for every sight word he can rattle off without help. Wish I'd done it months ago. He knows 57 out of 60 all of a sudden. He also brought home his first "Little Book" from kindergarten yesterday. It was called "Look" and he read it all the way through without help and without even stopping to sound words out.  YAY! Where has THIS been?! I had been a little concerned about his reading progress lately, but maybe it was all for naught.

He has been doing a little better with handwriting too -- mostly his issue is not wanting to put forth ANY effort whatsoever... but when you stand over him and make him do and redo, his writing is actually pretty age appropriate. His teacher has been tightening the reigns lately too and some papers are coming home with "second attempts" stapled to them. Hopefully we can get him whipped into shape for first grade.

The idea of Simon and first grade right now is a little bit ... um... daunting to me. I'm saying a little prayer that he gets a teacher next year who a) gets him and thinks he's funny and b) has a little boy or two of her own and c) is patient, but also has high expectations and isn't going let him get away with being lazy. I know, it sounds like a Mary Poppins request list... but  that will be the best combination for his success next year, I think. We've had good luck so far with teacher fits... so hopefully that continues.  As a mom, I live in constant fear of my kids getting the teachers who don't like/get little boys... and they are definitely out there!!

Jonathan:
I hesitate to write this, but he hasn't had a meltdown in two weeks. He has been pleasant and adorable and relatively easy. Yikes! We're coming up on one full year of our time with Infants and Toddlers and it's amazing to look back and see how far he's come in that time.

When he started with Ms. Cindy last March, he had basically NO language.  Crazy! We are opting to stay with them because why mess with what's working? He has his one-year evaluation coming up Monday and then something about Child Find coming to talk about the options when he turns three in August. We can either go to the elementary school for speech, if he still needs it. Or we can stick with services in our house. Probably going to go with the latter.

And now I need to end this because Jonathan is climbing into my lap to steal my computer. I really miss having my computer to myself... now they ALL play on it. GRRR....

Busted!

Simon brings home all this artwork that is, frankly, pretty awesome. A couple pieces I have even set aside to use year after year for seasonal decoration and there are some things I have actually been planning to frame.

I just put this one up on the pantry door two days ago. Now, admittedly, I initially thought it was a cute little dog (It was the ears! The EARS, people!!) and had filed it away in his keepsake folder. Then he asked me if I liked his picture of the Easter bunny.

Oops.

Yes, bunny... definitely a bunny. "I LOVE your bunny!!!"

"Yeah, see the carrots, mommy? That's how you know it's a bunny."

DUH.

So it went on the artwork door for spring!

Last night, my sister-in-law posted this piece of artwork my niece brought home...

Hm.....

Hmm....

I think it's safe to say now that the kids are looking at a picture and copying it, huh? 

I texted Simon's to my sister-in-law and she was surprised too. Then she asked, "Did he bring home a duck last week?"

Why yes... he did, in fact, bring home a duck. And I thought it was AWESOME.  

LOL! Am I the only one who didn't realize that's what was going on? The art teacher is tricky and amazing!  She makes kindergarten art look GOOOOOD.  ;)

Knowledge is Power....

I had a mom-piphany yesterday.

So I was helping Simon get dressed and he very matter-of-factly said, "If you hold your middle finger up by itself it's sign language for a REALLY bad word. But if you hold all the other fingers up, it hides it and you are just waving and that's okay."

Hm.

Awesome.

I asked him where he learned it and he said his classmate, we'll call her Zoe for purposes of this story, told everyone. ( Zoe has shared ALL kind of wonderful things this year so far. NOT my favorite classmate, I have to say. )

So, Zoe apparently gave the entire the class the middle finger and explained how it's "sign language".

"Soooo... what did your teacher do?" I asked.

"She told Zoe to NEVER ever EVER do that again."

Well, I guess that's good. But now I have a five-year-old who knows all about the middle finger. Fantabulous.  Third grade is one thing... I think Ben has heard it ALL by now. But kindergarten? Seriously? WTH.

Now, I will say, honest, open, and intelligent explanation for things has really always been my parenting strategy. Guess I just wasn't planning on having to use it much with a five-year-old...

But, as I'm learning QUICKLY, I really can't keep him in the dark about these things and it's dumb for me to try. Ben, I could, for awhile because he was my first... but with two of them in school now and the influence of all kinds of other kids, and some really interesting characters in his class this year... well, I'd be stupid to think I could keep Simon in the dark.

And Simon, especially, needs good and thorough explanations of why or why NOT to do things. Ben seems to have an innate sense of what's okay to try and what's not and a good, healthy fear of getting in trouble. Simon? Notsomuch. His judgement is occasionally lacking.

So, lest he decide to flip someone the bird at school this week, I decided we'd have a chat.

"Okay, Simon...." I began. "You know how we try not to say certain words around here? Words like 'stupid' or 'fart'?"

"Yeah."

"Okay, well, those aren't bad words, really... those are just silly words that we just don't like all that much. If you say them, by accident, you probably won't be in trouble. There are just better, smarter words to use.  But words like what the middle finger is sign language for? Those really ARE bad words and if you ever say them or use sign language for them, especially in school, you're going to end up in the office in BIG trouble. Okay?"

"Got it."

Sheesh...  middle finger. At five. Who knew?

Dear Zoe's parents... WTH?!

Getting to the Bottom of It...

Why is it that all the most dramatic things happening in my life lately seem to revolve around pickup time at the elementary school? 

So Thursday, I was standing there minding my own business, like I do every day... entertaining Jonathan, chit-chatting with the two other kindergarten moms who are always there in line with me. 

Then my librarian friend came around the corner and rocked my world -- 

Her: "Soooo... did you get any emails from teachers today?"

Me: "Uh. No?

(silence) 

Me: "WHY?" 

Her: Nothing from Mrs. B? (Simon's teacher)

Me: No. WHY? OMG. What did he do?

Her: Do you want to hear it from me or do you want her to tell you?

Me: (already mortified) Just please tell me what he did. 

Her: Well, apparently, he pulled his pants down and showed his butt.

Me: He did WHAT?  Where?! When?!

Her: In the gym line. 

The gym teacher walked by right then and knew what we were talking about. She stifled laughter and shrugged her shoulders, "I don't know why! I just don't know!"

Right then, Mrs. B. came down the hall and pulled me aside to tell the story. Apparently, they were lined up after gym and someone reported that Simon had "shown his butt". This news went from the gym teacher to the kindergarten teacher who said she'd had a talk with him about it and hadn't felt the need to email me... that I should just talk to him when we got home. 

Simon came out skipping out of the parent pickup line all smiles.

I was NOT smiling.

"Simon, WHAT did you do today?"

"Hi Mommy!"

"Simon, WHAT did you DO TODAY?!"

"Um..." He put his finger to his mouth while he thought...   "I drew a picture? It's in my folder!"

"Try again."

"Ummm... I played on the playground!!" 

"Simon... did you pull your pants down in the gym line?"

"No?" 

This was my first clue that maybe the story needed further investigation. Simon, while known to fib occasionally, is usually pretty quick to admit when he's been caught.

Ben came out of the line, followed by my two Thursday carpool friends... so I didn't have time to dig deeper.

"We'll talk when we get home." 

Later, at home, I asked him to show me what he did that got him in trouble.  He turned around, stuck out his backside and wiggled it. I couldn't help but laugh. 

"THAT's what you did?"

"Yeah!"

"That's it? You just wiggled your butt? You didn't pull your pants down?"

"No. I just showed them my pants butt. Not my REAL butt!" (as if this was the most absurd thing he'd EVER heard.)

"Well why do they think you said that?"

"I don't know. Maybe because that's what the kids said? They told Mrs. L."

Okay, so I whittled away at the story the rest of the evening until I was confident that what had ACTUALLY gone down is exactly what Simon demonstrated. Probably not the smartest thing he's ever done at school, but certainly not as bad an infraction as mooning the class.  I quizzed him about it 47 different ways to make sure he wasn't pulling one over on me and then I emailed the teacher. I pointed out that it didn't sound like a teacher had seen this happen, that they had heard the kids say "Simon showed his butt". But that they meant he had done what he showed me. 

I told Simon he needed to go to school and tell his teacher what really happened. She asked him toward the end of the day and he gave her the same story. She came up and told me I was right... that the kids had reported it to the teacher who didn't see anything and it seems like it got miscommunicated/lost in translation. 

WHEW. 

I did tell her that I was 99% sure this was what had happened, but that the pants down scenario was not entirely out of the question given that he dropped his drawers and peed on the preschool playground just last year. 

I'm just glad to have cleared his name... it turned out to not be a big deal but really had me concerned there for a good couple of hours!!

OH that Simon... what will he do next?!

Mix it Up!

Today is "mix it up" day at the kids' school as part of anti-bullying week. They are supposed to wear mis-matched clothes and sit with people they don't normally sit with.

Ten to one Ben wants nothing to do with the mismatched clothes and Simon goes bananas with it.

Pictures coming. ;)

Almost Six, Going on Nine....

At preschool yesterday, the other moms and I were talking about how it's complicated when our oldest kids befriend kids their age who have older siblings because the younger kids tend to be a little "older" and know things our firstborns don't know yet, which they then share with OUR kids.

I pointed out that our second, third, and fourth-borns (Yes, one of us is crazy enough to have four!) are going to be BE those kids.  LOL.

Anyway, thankfully, Ben is not all that streetwise or sophisticated, so the most he has really shared with Simon that is a little beyond his age is Minecraft... and maybe some funny words and phrases like, "That's awkward" or "This is EPIC!" which crack me up whenever I hear them come out of my five-year-old's mouth.

Anyway, so Simon will be the one to introduce Minecraft to the kindergarten class, I think. Sorry, other moms! But it IS kind of a cool and creative game. He JUST got into playing Minecraft himself  few weeks ago after watching Ben for a long time; but he already knows his way around really well. The funny things is that he only likes to play so he can build and create things.  And that is SO Simon.

He called me up last night to show me that he had built the Emerald City (as in, from The Wizard of Oz) LOL! And he had, indeed. The entire Emerald "castle" with all kinds of intricate details. I don't know how he has the patience for it, but he'll work on his designs for HOURS if we let him. He is absolutely driven to create and is happiest when that's what he is doing...  and he is always SO proud of his work. He is as right-brained as Ben is left-brained.

It's kinda cool. :)

What's he going be, I wonder?!

The Chase....

One of Ben's teachers has been out sick for quite awhile (probably will be out the rest of the year... cry....) so I've been driving her two little boys home from school one day a week.  I pick up Ben and Simon from school every day anyway, so I figured grabbing an extra two and taking a ride would be no big thing. (And it's not.  Once you have three boys, adding an extra couple here and there is kind of a non-event.) But it IS interesting, to say the least,  and watching other peoples' reactions to my little parade every Thursday is probably the funniest part.

At pickup time, I wait in line with Jonathan to get my boys (which is a daily challenge in itself) then we go back down the hall to get the other two, who are either in the computer lab or one of the classrooms.

Here's a fairly accurate visual of how I spend the next ten minutes or so.

The first time I picked them up,  I found her two in the classroom. Ben and Simon, realizing the mom-to-child ratio was even less in my favor than usual, seized the opportunity, immediately dropped their coats and backpacks and took off to play.

Order quickly broke down and I panicked.  "No no! We're leaving! Put your coats back on!!" I should have kept a better poker face. Children, like dogs, can sense fear a mile away.

Simon dumped out a box of toy clocks in the front of the room.  Jonathan gleefully ran in circles, screeching. The bigger ones completely ignored my pleas to get their stuff together and instead, talked MarioKart strategy. 

Zach, the older of two boys, had his coat but not his backpack. We found that and started toward the door. At this point and I also had Simon.... but had lost Ben. Adam, the younger one,  was all the way across the classroom playing with the globe and had no coat OR backpack.

I decided to take the one at a time approach and went to give Adam his stuff and herd him toward the door, turned around and Simon was behind me with no bag, ready to play again. Got those two together, turned around, Ben and Zach had dropped their backpacks and were in the other corner of the classroom.  Somewhere in there, Zach informed me that his brother gets carsick when he plays DS in the car, which had been my main selling point to entice them all to follow me.  He also handed me a note from the nurse to give to his mom that said Adam had been running a temperature earlier.

Meanwhile, Jonathan ran amok, pulling things out of kids' desks while I focused on the big boys.  Ben, whose winter coat is that stupid kind with two layers that come apart, had gotten himself all tangled up, his backpack was nowhere to be found. Adam kept going back to the far corner to look at something near his mom's desk, Simon kept dropping his tote bag to follow him and Zach stood next to me watching it all go down. I did several laps around the classroom trying to get them at least all into the same corner. "Come on guys, your mom's waiting! Let's go! We have the DS's in the car! And a movie! And juice boxes! JUICE BOXES! And DS!!!"

Nothing. OMG. My own kids had completely jumped ship and formed an alliance with the other two and I was now definitely on the losing side of this battle.

This dance continued until one of the teachers came along and used that voice that makes kids all do what they're supposed to do. Note to self: Figure out how to do that.

We've done this three? four times now and it has gotten a little bit easier each time, but it still makes me laugh. I think the most humorous thing about the whole scene now is Jonathan bringing up the caboose, yelling out all their names in Jonathanese. "Ben!!!" "'Imon!" "Am!" "Zach!""STOP runniiiiiiiiing!!!!"

There are lots of stories to tell about this little adventure, which the teacher, who now has the link to my blog, declared I must be too chicken to put on here since I hadn't written anything yet.

Challenge ACCEPTED!

Oh just you wait, MC...  just. you. wait.  ;)

Simon had a little Valentine's Concert at school on Monday. SUPER cute... ridiculously super cute. Video coming!  He did a great job, though seemed to have trouble singing and doing hand motions simultaneously. LOL!

Stuff...

I'm getting to the point where I'm trying to be careful about what I put out into the publicly accessible digital universe about Ben. My blog is not currently passworded, so I've tried to be particularly careful here.

It's just that... well, he's going to be NINE this year. He has friends with e-mail accounts and IPod Touches and cell phones ... friends who actually access the internet. Now, most of the ones I know are playing Minecraft or Coolmath or looking up MarioKart Youtube videos. And I don't actually think a 9-year-old would google Ben and stumble onto my blog and find all of his embarrassing baby stories... but it's not out of the realm of possibility in the near future. Kids can be pretty cruel.

So I'm not sure how to continue documenting the things I want to document... I tell a lot of funny Ben stories on FB, but they are only open those I choose, a relatively small list of people.

Maybe the answer is to go back to the google sign-in. I don't know. Have to give it some thought.  Any other parents of kids this age pondering this?

In other news...

Simon has some kind of sore throat bug. I am a mean mommy and sent him to school Thursday and Friday anyway since he didn't have a fever. But Friday, he also had a headache, so I told him to go and I'd pick him up at 12:15 after Jonathan's school was over. I would have skipped Jonathan's class if I thought Simon was really all that sick, but once he had some Motrin and the headache ebbed, he was bounding all over the house, so off he went. He was actually fine when I went at 12:15 to get him and I asked if he wanted to stay... but what kid in their right mind is going to take that option? (except for me, because apparently I was the only crazy kid to like school that much!)  He was happily eating pizza in the cafeteria... so fun to see him doing his thing there. :) He's super cute at school!

Later at parent pickup for Ben, I found out from the teacher that one of his little friends was out sick with a stomach bug. I REALLY hope that passes us over. Hoping the three-day weekend will be enough time to let that one fizzle out from the class virus pool.

Also at pickup, Ben emerged for the third day in a row without his heavy coat. I marched him back down the hall to his locker to retrieve it and figured while I was there I would dig through and see what else I could find. While I was standing there, in shock and aghast, at all the missing items that suddenly appeared before my eyes, his reading teacher, who had been standing a little ways down the hall talking to another teacher, came running up to me. "I'm glad I found you! I wanted to let you know that Ben and I did a little cleanout of his folders and desk today. We found his reading calendar!"

"Really?" I replied? He brought that to school two weeks ago!

"Well... it never made it to me. We found it in the science folder. Strange! We found a bunch of other things we'd been missing too... OH and here are the books from the Christmas book exchange, even the one you sent in. (it was still wrapped). We also found a couple birthday invitations."

As she continued with the laundry list of things they had come across, I reached down and pulled a pile of gloves out of the bottom of the locker... FIVE pairs of gloves to be exact. Also his winter coat, another jacket I had not realized was missing and some other child's jacket.

Sigh.

She told me she's going to do a weekly shakedown of his folders with him. I thanked her profusely. I don't know what Ben would do this year without the teachers he has watching over him. They have really helped us SO much. I can organize him and make him checklists all I want on my end, but if there is no one on the other end to help him out, it's pointless.

Things have gone a bit more haywire than usual this past week with his homeroom teacher (who is also his math/science/social studies teacher) being out on medical leave.  She had taken him on as a bit of a special project and we had a great system going. The longterm sub, while wonderful in that she seems to be inspecting his backpack every afternoon because he is suddenly coming home with all the books he needs... doesn't seem to be as on top of the other details like his folders.... argh....

Somehow though, in the midst of this organizational chaos, and with his absolute hatred of all things school-related, Ben is  managing to get As in all of his classes, at least last time I heard.  I'm not really sure how this is possible, but we'll take it.  He's a puzzle, for sure!

And in still other news, preschool registration for next year is this coming week. Hard to believe my BABY will be going to 3s preschool in the fall. That's wacky. Especially when I consider that that was Ben's first year there and at that point, I had just had Simon and Jonathan was another three years away from even existing. It's actually kind of consoling to me that he'll probably spend an extra year at preschool... I'm not ready to be that close leaving that place yet!

Oh and one more thing! The reading specialist came up to me at pickup Wednesday to tell me she had been in Simon's class Dibeling kids that day and that he blew her away. This was the first time she had done the nonsense word part of the test and she told him he only had to give her the letter sounds for the nonsense words, but that he just went down the list and sounded them all out! Go Simon! I told her that was great to hear because he doesn't always let me know what knows and that I still had a hard time figuring out how his reading was coming along. I will say though, that at the advice of my friend whose son is also in the class, (who she thinks the teacher has kicked the reading lessons up a notch because her son has really taken off) I pulled out the Bob books and sure enough, he could read them relatively well all of a sudden! Love this stage... love love love! So proud of him!

Anyway, so there's a post! A nice substantial one too! ;) Happy weekend!

As Challenging as Ben Is....

.... that's how UN-challenging Simon is these days. I'm sure his time will come again as they seem to take turns with these things.

He is seriously just the most easy-going kid though.  Happy all the time, sings all the time, loves everything about everything... except dinner... that's when he does become a little bit of a pain in the backside.

I sometimes have to shush him because while Ben is going on and on about how much he hates school and everything else right now, Simon is saying, "But mommy, *I* love school! Why does Ben HATE school! School is great!"  It makes Ben SO angry and really does not help the situation. I don't think he is trying to aggrevate Ben, I think he legitimately does not understand how Ben could possible hate school and the child has no filter whatsoever so if he thinks it, it's coming out.

He's just a relatively simple, straight-forward little boy. And, as much as I enjoy Ben's book-smart, old-soul personality (the booksmart side of which he doesn't embrace right now, but whatever), I also enjoy the typical, average five-year-old "it's all new to me and it's all wonderful!" personality Simon has.

This is not to say he is not very intelligent in his own right. In fact, he's doing really well in school and starting to really read now, which is so exciting!  He also seems to have an interest in math, which surprises me, given how obviously right-brained he is.  But, he's still young and not jaded on the math thing, so who am I to judge? ;) He has years ahead of him to curse algebra.

He is a master Lego builder already and can put together even the most complicated sets completely on his own and, now that he has his own box of art supplies that he got for Christmas, he's constantly cranking out things for us to decorate the house with. LOL. Love him.

Interesting and so different...

Jonathan? Still not sure where that one will fall just yet... he seems to have Simon's silliness, but Ben's slightly obsessive personality... plus, an added feature all his own of being amazingly fearless go-with-the-flow.

Today was a banner day for my kiddos! :)

Simon came bounding out of the parent pickup line:
"Mommy! I got this! And I heard my name on the announcements!!! I got it because I did a random act of kindness and cleaned up things people left on the floor in the bathroom."

Of course, this begs the question... why can't he do this at home... but whatever. ;) He was excited.

"Ben, did you hear Simon's name read on the announcements?"

"Yeeeeees...." Ben sighed, rolling his eyes.

He was none too pleased. ;)

However, when I was going through his folder, I discovered something that me proud too!

His mid-term reading progress report! He has an "A"! This is big news because he is in a REALLY tough class. He brought home a solid B on his last report card and I was thrilled about that because he had been struggling with following directions well, finishing work, and giving complete answers (just didn't feel like writing them... sigh.... ) Very excited about this progress so far, as is his teacher! :)

So proud of my big boys. :)

Oh, and they had an assembly yesterday -- a concert for the 4th and 5th grade chorus, band and orchestra. Simon announced in the car, "*I* would like to be in an assembly someday!!" LOL.  Not surprised. Ben said, "Not me! Never!" Love that they are so predictable. ;)