Emma

I had my first parent teacher conference with Emma's teacher this week. It went about how I thought it would go. I wasn't really worried that Emma is a trouble maker. The teacher said she has tested for reading at a level 18. That is where kids are supposed to be at the end of first grade. She is probably higher but the teacher can't test for higher because they don't want to expose kids to the content at that level too soon. Apparently it is too mature. I have suspected that she can read at about a second grade level and it was finally confirmed. Mrs. Allen also said that she can do her math just fine. She said that normally kids at that are higher thinkers can't do the math or they can only do the math in their head but can't explain how they got to the answer but Emma doesn't seem to have that problem. She also said that Emma is a rule follower (not terribly shocking) and is good about not talking to others when she isn't supposed to be. She said that she plays with her friends and is doing well socially. Emma loves kindergarten and Mrs. Allen and I told Mrs. Allen that she was so sad when she was out sick for strep. Mrs. Allen said she had missed Emma as well because she uses Emma as an assistant to go run things to the office or different places because she knows Emma will go straight there and come straight back.

The Sunday before my birthday Emma told me that she wanted me to take her to HEB so she could buy a birthday card for me. I told her that they were expensive and that I would love a homemade card from her. She finally agreed and made a card for me and made my present for me. She wrapped it up very nicely. She had asked what I wanted for my birthday and I told her snuggled. She responded with, "no snuggles until your birthday!!"

I finally got to unwrap my birthday present from Emma on my birthday and here is what I got:

I still smile when I see this paper!

Almost but Not Quite

A neighbor of ours is moving and offered us a desk. This desk has a hutch on it with a cork board on the back and a little shelf. We put it in John's room since that is the only place we currently have room for anything.

One day John called me up to his room. He was beyond excited to show me his "shift." He put his pillow and blanket on top of the desk and was pretending to sleep on top of the desk in his "shift." I was confused as to why he was calling the desk a shift. John reminded me that we had read from a book about astronauts that they "slept in shifts" so someone could fly the shuttle at all times. He thought shift was another word for bed. I have tried and tried and tried to explain that a shift means taking turns and is not a bed. He caught on to a shift means taking turns but would not let go of the idea that it is a bed.

He even explained to his sunbeam teacher that astronauts sleep in shifts and that means taking turns and it is also a bed. He had one confused teacher.

Last night John and Aaron got into it over what shift meant. Finally John said, "You are wrong and I am right!" Aaron asked John to put a shift in a tupperware container. John said he couldn't because the tupperware is too small. He also laughed as such silly request. Aaron explained that a shift can't go into a tupperware container because it is something in your head, it isn't an object. John said he got it but I am not convinced.... time will tell.

On the same Sunday that John had taught his primary teacher about shifts he taught me about stuffed animals.

John: Stuffed animals' bodies are too small for a spirit. That is why they aren't alive.
Emma: John, where did you learn that?
John: Primary.

Here is another conversation with John after I had already put him to bed:

John: I need to tell you something.
Me: What do you need to tell me?
John: Wait, I need to look it up in my head....

Interview with John and Emma

Interviewed By Jamie

1. What is something I always say to you?
John: I don't know
Emma: No treats on Thursday

2. What makes me happy?
John: I don't know
Emma: snuggles

3. What make me sad?
John: I don't know
Emma: When I don't listen

4. How do I make you laugh?
John: I don't know
Emma: read the blog story where John says, "Daddy no gonks"

5. What was I like as a child?
John: I don't know
Emma: I don't know

6. How old am I?
John: 6
Emma: 37

7. How tall am I?
John: This tall {using hands}
Emma: 1049 lbs

8. What is my favorite thing to do?
John: tickle
Emma: tickle us

9. What do I do when you are not around?
John: come play with me
Emma: I don't know

10. What am I really good at?
John: ironing
Emma: doing my hair (Emma's)

11. What is something I am not good at?
Perfect Squirt: knitting
Emma: I don't know anything that you are not good at

12. What do I do for a job?
John: clean up
Emma: you take care of us

13. What is my favorite food?
John: carrots
Emma: raviolis

14.What do you enjoy doing with me?
John: playing with me
Emma: Emma daughter dates

Snowflakes

Emma has recently started to make snowflakes out of paper. Yesterday John came running down the stairs and joyfully announced they could sell snowflakes to people for money and be rich! I giggled to myself. Later that day, as I was driving up to the house, I saw Emma and John at a table at the foot of the driveway giving away snowflakes. John apparently wanted to sell them and Emma suggested that they give them away.

They gave three away to the neighbors who were playing outside. Emma was disappointed at the low turn out. I thought it was adorable!

Space

John has been obsessed with space lately. He turned to me and said, "Are we in space?" I answered, "no, we are on the Earth." Then he returned with, "if the Earth is in space, and we are on the Earth, why are we not in space?" Well, when you put it like that, yes we are. So then we got into how you define "space."

Reading

I picked John up from preschool on Tuesday and his teacher said, "So John is learning to read, but you already knew that." I looked at her bewildered and said, "no, I didn't know that." Apparently she was reading Cat in the Hat to the kids and John saw the word p-l-o-p. He sounded it out and arrived at pop. So pretty close, anyway. That morning I had been working with him on a toy that is supposed to help kids with learning to read easy words like cat and hen. Aaron has worked with him in the past to sound out a few words but nothing terribly consistent and after a very short while, John looses interest and doesn't want to do it any more.

Today John told Aaron that he wanted to read the Book of Mormon and that Aaron would help him. I don't know that I would consider that Book of Mormon to be an easy reader type book. Aaron got out the first Bob Book. So today John read the first Bob book. He has a way to go for it to all click together but he was pretty excited at his accomplishment. He also loved that we offer gum as a reward for reading. It is what we would do for Emma when she was learning to read. She would do anything for gum. We'll see if it will work for John. He also got to help Aaron with tools in the garage as a reward. Both were intensely exciting.

Just a Flesh Wound

John has had this little white bump on his head for quite some time now. Just before Christmas it turned into this large goose egg type thing that was red and huge. It was about an inch long and a half inch above his scalp. It was very tender.

Yesterday I finally took him in to the doctor because that was the soonest appointment I could get due to the holidays. It was an abscess. We don't know if it is strep or staph yet but the doctor had to drain it. It was not for the faint of heart. Poor John was screaming and there were three of us holding him down. The kid was a trooper though. He didn't buck at all. When the doctor asked him to stop crying so that his head wouldn't bleed as much and he actually tried and did it. There was no numbing medicine at all - just a straight cutting open. Apparently there was a lot of stuff coming out of it and blood everywhere. It didn't take John long to recover from it though and figure out that he could milk it for all of the Sesame Street and treats he wanted. Other than getting his head cut open, it was a lot like Halloween or an Aunt Mary visit as far as treats are concerned.

Broccoli

John has decided that he likes broccoli with butter and salt and pepper. More accurately, he likes salt and butter. Broccoli is just the agreed upon vehicle for the salt and butter. Tonight he asked to just eat salt. I said no. He asked for some broccoli to go with his salt. I said yes. He also asked if he could eat butter from the knife. I said no. Again, we were back to the broccoli as the vehicle. My kids plowed through a bag of broccoli tonight. I am not yet ready to talk about the butter and salt yet. I will say that he didn't want toast and butter and jam as a method of eating butter.

Shoe Ransom

So I read a friend's blog and she mentioned that she has a shoe ransom basket where left out shoes get put. The owner has to either sing a song and do a dance or they can pick up five things and put them away. I loved this idea. Any and all shoes are fair game - parent's included. I thought that would make the kids excited to put each other's shoes in the basket and Aaron's and my shoes in the basket to witness something humiliating. Aaron was supportive of the idea. The kids were another matter. Emma has a pair of boots in the baskets as I write this. She couldn't bring herself to perform twice for John and me. She then proceeded to tell me how much she dislikes the idea. John was in concurrance.

Being in an exceptionally flexible mood, I told the kids we could have a family council and decide what we should do to help get the shoes cleaned up in our house. Emma had an idea. Her idea was to fold and put away all of the owner's laundry and then read four pages from two different books. I was sure to verify that her idea was better than singing a song and doing a dance or even putting away five things. She assured me that it was. I suspect her boots will be in that basket for a very long time.

More Staycation

Aaron also had this last week off and we have truly enjoyed our family time and having a quieter pace of life.

On Monday we took the kids to a place called Little Beakers with some friends. It is a place where the kids can do science experiments. I still have very fond memories of 8th grade science class where we got to do science experiments. The kids loved it. They got to do the coke and mentor experiment, make snow, make a monster (gooey stuff in a balloon with mesh over it so when you squeeze it, it bubbles out the mesh), and make an alkeselser rocket. Then we went home and made pizzas.

Here they made goo and put it into a ballon with mesh around it. When you squeeze the balloon then it squishes around the mesh.

Here they made blue snow

 Here they did alkaselser  rockets.

On Tuesday we recovered the house from Christmas. It was sad to take everything down but nice to reclaim one third of our living room.

On Wednesday we met some friends for lunch at the Hobbit Cafe. They enjoy science fiction stuff and I enjoy healthy food. It is a bit of a granola place but they also have ridiculous stuff like a burger that is too tall to fit in your mouth because it is loaded with everything delicious and unhealthy. Aaron and Wes split the burger. Then we went to the zoo. We didn't see much in the way of animals because it was a cold day and the zoo here tends toward warm climate animals (no polar bears in Houston) and all the animals went inside if they could or were huddled doing nothing. We were able to feed the giraffes. Giraffes are Emma's favorite animal so she loved it. John did as well and I confess I have always wanted to feed them every time we have been to the zoo so it was a dream come true. We went to the children's portion of the zoo which has a playground and a petting zoo and stuff to climb on. The kids loved it! The adults however, were less enchanted because we kept loosing a kid down some alley. There were no enclosed spaces and the kids kept running everywhere. We decided to head for home when our nerves where shot and the kids were getting tired from running and playing. The traffic was bad so we decided to get dinner and wait for traffic to die down. We ate mediterranean food and I loved it.

On Thursday we had friends over for waffles and ice cream for dinner. The kids were in love. The dads enjoyed it as well. The moms were another story. Hopefully they will still be friends with me. The kids are on my side at least. The adults played a game and the kids kind of watched a movie and played. Overall it was a great evening and the kids in bed by 8:30. Waffles and ice cream comes from Aaron's family tradition. Technically they did chimichangas for dinner and waffles and ice cream at midnight but since we aren't midnight people, and I don't fry stuff, we had waffles for dinner. Believe it or not, I am ok with waffles and ice cream for dinner once a year. The next morning John was beyond sad that he couldn't repeat dinner for breakfast.

On Friday we played with some friends and got stuff done around the house. On Saturday we moved into preparation mode for returning to normal life. We have had a great time the past two weeks playing together and working on projects. I am definitely not quite ready for life as usual.