Tooth Tango

emma left for school this morning and returned a few minutes later, yelling "look, mommy...I'M SOOOO LUCKY!" she was holding up her tooth with the biggest smile on her face. she took a tissue and headed back out the door. lol

and then there is spencer...his poor mouth. he's gaining more than emma's losing.

Emma is a Peacebuilder

yesterday, emma won an award at school. her school has a program called peacebuilders. if a child is "caught" doing something right, they get their name put into a drawing, and one child wins each month. emma won!!

emma took it upon herself sometime in the last month to organize all of the books in her classroom. some of the books were leaning, falling, faced the wrong way, etc.

this is also one of the things she is really great at at home. spencer has a bookshelf in his room above his toy box. in typical spencer fashion, he likes to displace the books and steer them more towards the floor and toy box. emma organizes his, and she is even able to get him to help her with it.

i'm so proud of her, and i will hopefully have a picture soon, as she got to have her picture taken with the acting principal yesterday (actual principal was out on business.) she had her name announced over the intercom as well.

well done, emma! xoxo

Canine School

we had emma's first parent teacher meeting tonight, and it went well. emma's first term "report card" came home this past week. everything is done from 1-4. 4 being excellent.

on her listening/behaviour/effort, she got a 2.5. this isn't surprising to me mostly bc she acts up more when ken is gone, and it's also a problem we're having at home. however, the reason for the 2.5 was a little more interesting than just your average child not listening in school.

she keeps acting like a dog. panting. sniffing. and i assume some willy nilly barking thrown in for good measure. she does stay in character. the kids get excited and pet her. she actually had a boy recently kiss her on the forehead while she was doing the dog thing. lol

so, we had a talk about how she cannot be a dog at school. but if she feels as though she must be a dog with all her heart, she must start using the bathroom outside, sleeping on the floor, and eating and drinking from a bowl. oh, and she can't go to school anymore, bc dogs do not go to kindergarten.

i guess she is content with being a human, bc she wasn't too keen on that idea. lol

she also gets all the children worked up with hand chants at the table.

her teacher did say that she's a very bright kid, and she is incredibly helpful to all the other kids. she helps others tie their shoes. she also organizes items in the classroom. so, that was wonderful to hear.

and her teacher also mentioned that emma is quite the leader. we just need to work on how she uses that.

overall, she's doing really well in school. minus the dog bit.

School Hair

despite my best efforts to protect emma from the school hair that seems to plague us all...i guess i failed.

she's still incredibly cute and spunky...but i think it might be one of those photos that i have to explain and apologize for when she's older.

sorry, emma darling. i tried to make it straight. i even took you to a salon to have them take a stab at it. picture day hair nirvana just wasn't meant to be. it doesn't mean that i don't love you. look at the bright side, my dear...your next school picture will be worse. you'll have school hair AND missing teeth.

Spencer's Sick Season

he has croup again, so he got a steroid shot today. i asked the dr if it is common for children to become little incredible hulks for a few days following the steroid shot. apparently, there is a term for it: steroid induced psychosis. the dr said it is very real, and boy is it! the last time spencer had a shot, he was a crazy boy for a few days. hitting, screaming, running, etc. it was...well, i don't have the word for it.

also, spencer started limping yesterday afternoon. his knee would buckled and he'd fall down. i thought it might be one of his weird little things, so i watched him when he didn't realize i was watching. he continued to do it. he didn't sleep well at all last night...tossing, flailing his body, crying every half hour. he "slept" in my bed. i think it was a combination of the croup and the leg/foot pain.

this morning, he continued to limp, only it kept getting worse. i called to make an appt to have him checked out, and as the day went on, it didn't get better at all. he wasn't able to walk without crying, and i showed him how to crawl instead.

at his appt, they took x-rays. everything looks fine. the radiologist will read the films tomorrow to make sure the dr didn't miss anything. the dr did say that there is a term called a toddler fracture...it is very common, and quite often, they do not even put a cast on for it. it's in the lower leg. however, even that didn't show up on film. so, the dr said to watch him for any changes. if it gets worse, take him in. and if in 2 days, he's still limping and crying, take him in to be splinted.

i feel so sorry for him. he doesn't understand all the things that are happening to him. his one leg is sore, and to add insult to injury, he got the shot in the other leg. oy.

Early Christmas Shopping

this is the first time ever that i've had most of my shopping done this early. i usually wait until literally the last minute.

i now know why this is the best course of action for me. i want to give the kids their gifts now. i already gave them their meet the robinsons movie. that's it, though. i am making myself behave. it's just that it was a perfect opportunity for family movie night. it really was.

now that i think about it, ken and i have almost never given our gifts to each other on the "right" day. we pretty much give the gift as soon as we've purchased it. occasionally, we come home and wrap it, trying to pretend that we're going to wait. maybe i should put the tree and decorations up right now and just do christmas today??

Glad it's OVER

last night was fun, but i am so thrilled to not have to do it again for another year. and if ken is home next year, HE is taking them. lol

i ended up getting stuck with some neighbor's kids. they were smart to just send their young children outside without asking, bc if they'd asked, i'd have said no. one of them only wore a thin dress (we're in utah. it's cold.) and she cried for the last 10-15 minutes. full on loud sobbing. oy.

anyway, the kids mostly had fun. spencer got to to go a door once. he did end up eating 3 suckers during his stroller ride. he officially knows what candy is and what it looks like.

emma got scared at one of the houses. the people who live there set up a facade over their carport. chainsaw sounds, blood on his apron, butcher knife, screams from inside, woman in a cage. she ran from the house screaming and crying.

it was interesting watching her this year. this is the first year she has been absolutely obsessed with the actual house to house thing. every other year, she enjoyed it, but this year she and her friends were running from door to door. it was tiring just watching them.