Bragging

One of the great things about doing a blog is that I can brag and I don't have to feel bad about it!! I had a parent - teacher conference with Caleb's teacher last week. In the past we have had a problem with talking and teaching over the teacher - disrupting the class. We no longer have that problem!!! He has an average of 95 to 100 in each subject and is reading at a 2nd grade level (he just started first grade). I got the scores for his Basic Skills test from kindergarten and he was well above average on everything. The teacher asked if I minded if he tutored other kids in his class when he was done with his work, because right now when he gets done he has to sit and wait (he reads or writes). I am very proud of the progress he has made. He loves school and comes home wanting to do more school work. I hope this will last throughout his school years!!! I just got him books 1 and 2 of the Magic Tree House series. Paul and I were not sure if he was ready for these yet, but he sat down and read all 68 pages in a matter of a couple of hours. He has not started the second one yet. There were some words that he needed help with, but most of them he was able to sound out and get!

Okay - I am done bragging on him. It just took a while to get him to the point where he would sit down and do what he was supposed to do when he was supposed to do it!!

Fall Fest and the Firetrucks

When we went to our fall fest Saturday, they had a parade. It is a pretty long route they take to the park (from the school). People were lined up all down the route, but we went ahead to the park and caught it at the end of the route. I think Bryce was hearing the firetrucks as soon as they turned on the sirens and horns. For about 20 minutes he just yelled as loud as he could "firetruck firetruck." Everyone was laughing at him and commenting how cute it was. We went where they enter the park and watched the firetrucks as they came in. We were standing right by where they went by and Bryce stood there with his mouth at the ground in ah. It was very cute, and his attention did not wander from the trucks going by. I thought he would be scared by how loud they were (since we were standing right next to them), but he did not care. They were throwing candy out to the kids, but Bryce could not take his eyes off of them long enough to get any. After the firetrucks past he did not want to see the rest of the parade. The firetrucks parked at the other side of the park and we went over to them. One of the fireman picked him up and put him in the truck, with it still running. When he got out, we stood there for about 15 minutes with him just staring at the truck. We finally got him to go play on the playground, but when he saw the trucks leaving he ran to the chain link fence and started yelling "WAIT WAIT" and waving his hands. I can't believe he is this obsessed with firetrucks at 2 years old!! He is scared to death of thunder, but he will stand and listen to firetruck sirens and horns as long as you let him!!!

Basketball

We went to our city's fall fest Saturday before the Rita hit us. They had all kinds of drawings going on and we entered quite a few. One of them was for free registration ($60) to Upwards Basketball. Upwards is done through churches and it focuses on building self esteem and confidence. The kids get equal playing time and awards after each practice and game, and then they have an awards ceremony at the end of the season. I got a phone call last night that Caleb's name was drawn for the free registration. We were going to sign him up anyway, but it is pretty cool that he gets to play for free! He will be playing basketball and when the season is over he will go back to playing soccer. Luckily they are opposite of each other so he can have a sport to play most of the year, and does not have to overdo it trying to do all of them at once.

BOYS!

I just walked into the bathroom to see what trouble the boys were getting into. I walked in to see Isaac sitting on the potty - doing his business, and Bryce standing at the side of the toilet peeing into the toilet behind Isaac. The look on Isaac's face when he realized what Bryce was doing was priceless!!!

Hurricane Rita

I sat through a tropical storm last night (what was left of Rita). I don't know how anyone would sit through a hurricane!! It got pretty scary at some points yesterday, especially last night. I had to drive Paul to his office at 9:30 last night so he could go down to Texas to the refineries in the path of the hurricane. It was raining pretty hard, but what was worse than the rain was the winds! His office is about 20 miles from our house and I think we saw about 4 cars that had gone off the road - and that was in a 5 mile stretch! I hate driving in the rain, and was not looking forward to driving home. When I got home my muscles hurt from being so tense driving! We got home about 10:15 and went to bed. Somewhere between then and midnight the electricity went out. I talked to Paul at about 4:30 am and he said he drove through town on his way to Texas and the whole town was black! There are downed trees in the neighborhood and a basketball net (the kind that you fill the base with sand) was blown over and several houses down. The roads are covered in tree limbs and leaves. There was at least on tornado that touched down, but not here, thank goodness! Luckily there was not much in the way of thundering and lightening, which is what the boys are scared of! That is as close to a hurricane as I ever care to come in contact with!!

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Sweet and Sour....and Sweet!

Okay, I finished my last post and went to the kitchen to check on the kids. Caleb let Bryce try the apple dippers and caramel. Usually Bryce will not eat the apples, but go figure, you put sugar on it and he loved it! So he took the bite with the caramel, then dipped the apple again - IN SWEET AND SOUR SAUCE (they do look the same)! The sad thing - he liked it! Now, if you have read my past post, you know how Bryce gets...well...creative at the table. He decided to mix the caramel with the sweet and sour sauce. To make things worse - or better to him I guess - he dipped his chicken nuggets, french fries and apples dippers in it! The child will not eat vegetables (or most fruits for that matter) but he likes food dipped in sweet and sour/caramel sauce!! At least he is finally trying new things?

Caramel Apples

I don't know the last time I saw Caleb this excited!! We went to McDonald's for dinner. Caleb always get the apple dippers with his meal, however usually we are in the car and he does get the caramel with it. He just found out tonight that caramel came with it! I opened it and he hesitantly dipped his apple in it. HE LOVED IT!! He was so excited and asked if we could go buy lots of the little cartons so he could eat it whenever he eats apples. I explained we could buy caramel at the store. I then explained about caramel apples - on a stick, dipped whole with caramel and nuts! Now of course he wants me to make "a whole whole bunch of them" for him! So much for a healthy treat!

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Hurricane Katrina

Parenting is definently getting more challenging! The older the boys get, the more they understand and ask questions. Hurricane Katrina hit me hard, mainly because I see all of this suffering and don't feel like I can do anything. I donated, but I still don't feel as though I am doing enough. The other reason I think it hit me so hard is because Caleb has asked so many questions about it. I don't let the boys watch the news, but Katrina coverage is on every station, so any time he turns the tv on he is bombarded with this. I answer what he asks, but try not to go into any more detail than I have too. Maybe what it is is that I have watched Caleb grow up and mature a lot in the last year. He has had so much to try to understand, and it has all hit him at once. I am so proud of him though. He asks questions and tries to understand, and then moves on. It seems as though he is six going on 20 sometimes!!

How do boys learn to be "boys" so fast. More importantly - why do boys learn to be "boys" so fast? This is a question I find myself pondering OFTEN!!

I Want My Ha Ha

Bryce is in the strip down stage. I guess from all of the time that he ran around in just his underwear, during his potty training, he decided he did not like wearing clothes. I still don't dress him until we have somewhere to go because he still waits until the last minute to tell me he needs to go. Now, as soon as we get home he starts stripping. He comes to me and says "shoes ha," so I take off his shoes. Then he sits there with his feet in my face saying "I want my ha ha!" He continues repeating this until you...take his socks off!! I probably never would have figured out what he was saying if he did not always have his sock covered feet in my face!!

Bunny FooFoo and Minnesota Moose

Isaac has a green stuffed bunny he has had for a couple of years now. His name is FooFoo. Isaac has always had to have his bunny to sleep, and when he had his surgeries, FooFoo was always there to comfort him. We have tried to find another stuffed animal he likes as much, but we have never been able too.

Recently, Paul went to Minnesota on work. He got each of the boys a small stuffed animal. Caleb got Minnesota Bear, Isaac - Minnesota Moose and Bryce Minnesota Wolf. Well, the first night Isaac had the Moose, he did not want FooFoo. I was so surprised! That did not last long - now he wants FooFoo and Moose.

Last night, when Paul and I were putting the boys to bed, I handed him FooFoo and he put his hand out and shook his head no. I was shocked! I asked in confusion why he did not want FooFoo and he handed it to me and told me to sleep with FooFoo. He then handed Moose to Paul and told him to sleep with it.

This morning he came running in and gave both of them hugs and carried them around for awhile. Tonight though, I went to put him in bed and he asked me to sleep with them again. I am not sure what is going on with Isaac!! Is this the next best thing to him sleeping in my bed or does he think I am lonely and need company? Whatever the reason, I must be someone special to Isaac if I get to sleep with Bunny FooFoo and Minnesota Moose!!

Caleb and the Phone

I have done something incredibely stupid! Caleb has been asking me for sometime to make a phonebook for him. I finally decided that he probably did need to learn some phone numbers in case of an emergency, so I made one for him. I made it last night and he immediately started trying to call people. He called Aunt Lindsay and they talked forever. Lindsay has definently met her match!! She did, however, tell me that she thought it would be cute if Caleb called whenever he wanted to talk to her. He called her again today, as soon as he finished his homework. He tried to call Daddy, but he is in New Orleans and does not have phone service. He tried to just go down the list, but I told him everyone was at work or school. He knew Lindsay was not at either, so he called her. When they got off the phone he told me he was supposed to call her back when she gets home. I asked how he would know when she got home and he said he did not know, he guessed she would have to call and tell him he can call her. He then went and got the phone and his list of numbers and tried to see who he could call. I never knew we would have to set phone limits for a six (sorry, almost seven - he does not like to be called a six year old because his birthday is almost here!!)year old!

Isaac's Big Boy Cut

The boys went this weekend and got haircuts. Caleb got "the spike" as he calls it. Of course, Isaac, being the younger brother, wanted a spikey haircut too. I told him if that is what he wanted he could get it. So he gets it and by the time we got home it was no longer spiked. It stays spiked for a couple of hours, but then he starts playing in the blankets or rolling on the floor, and it immediately goes flat. He still gets very excited every morning when he gets out of the bathtub and comes in to get his hair combed.

Isaac has started playing computer games at his therapy. Now when I pick him up the conversation goes something like, "Mom guess what!" "What?" I ask. "Today at school I got to play computer game....." He talked Daddy into buying him a computer game of his very own. He works fast!! It was nice seeing the two of them sitting at the computer, Paul patiently trying to get Isaac to understand how to do everything. Now first thing every morning I hear "Can I play computer games?" We created a monster!!

The Weak Helping the Weak

Aunt Mary (the aunt we went to see this weekend) has been sick and is pretty weak. She has little muscle left and has a hard time opening jars and bottles. Yesterday she asked Caleb to take one of the kids cups to me to open. Caleb was looking for something and did not want to be bothered. He asked why she could not open it and she said she was to weak. He looks at her and replies "Why don't you get some exercise. Then you can have muscles to open things." Aunt Mary just died laughing!

Hurricane Katrina

We spent the weekend at Paul's great aunts house, helping her do some work around the house. Unfortunately, Paul has gone down to the gulf to work with the railroads that were hit by the hurricane. It is always hard on the kids, especially Caleb because he understands better what is going on, when he goes out of town. This one has been especially hard. Caleb has heard about the hurricane, because there are so many people that have came here from it, and because that is all that is on the tv and in the papers.

When Caleb found out Paul was going, he said "Oh no - Daddy is going to drowned." Paul sat down and talked to him and said that he would be very careful and would not get in the water. When he saw that Paul had a sleeping bag he asked "are you going to float on the sleeping bag so you don't drowned?"

He understands a little better now about what he is doing, but it is still hard. This is a hard trip for me too. This is the first emergency - out of 4 1/2 years of emergencies - where we have not been able to get a hold of him whenever we want. Where he has been the last couple of nights, he has had a hotel, electricity, water and phone service. When he travels though - NOTHING! He went prepared to stay in shelters or tents - which some of the other guys have had to do. I do get calls, if not from him then from his boss, saying he is safe.

My prayers go out to those that were hit by this horrific storm, and those who lost something or everything - or someone! I know how hard it is to have my husband down there in the aftermaths, and he is being taken care of, many aren't.

The Magical Green Thumb

Everyday Caleb has been at school he brings home a "bouquet" of flowers. By the time they are fished out of the backpack - which they were put in sometime that morning - they are looking...well...DEAD! Caleb is always very proud of the flowers, so I play along and let him put them in a vase with water.

He put them in the vase - and they always end up looking like they did when they were in the ground. To hear it from Caleb, he knew that would happen. The flowers are simply sleeping until they can get some water.

Though they may not look like much more than a weed to most, to me it makes every "I hate you," and "I don't want to be a part of this family anymore" disappear, and is instead a daily reminder of how much I love my children and how glad I am to be a mother.

Brain Malfunction

Caleb came home from school today and did his homework. When he was done he asked if he could practice writing. I gave him some paper and his "toolbox" (filled with crayons, markers, scissors, pencils, glue). I went into the kitchen just now and he had out the glue. I asked what he was doing and he replied very calmly, "Oops, I think my brain is out of control." Then he put the glue away and went back to writing his name.