Happy 6th Birthday to Tyler!

Today was Tyler's 6th birthday. We tried to make it special, but it was different because he was in school this year. I think it only felt different to me, though. He seemed to have a good day.

He started his day off with a present (and hug) from Danielle. She could hardly wait for him to open his eyes so she could give it to him. She got him a small Lego set, which he somehow managed to put together before leaving for school.



I enjoyed taking his dirt dessert into his class this afternoon. He had fun teasing his classmates that it was real dirt with real worms. Some of the kids thought it was gross and didn't want to try it at first - which was exactly the reaction he was hoping for.



Tyler didn't want me to make anything special for his birthday dinner. Instead, he opted for Chipotle. After dinner he enjoyed his pirate ship cake. Most of the reviews I read about making this cake warned that it falls apart easily. I did everything I could to prevent that, but took pictures of it after Danielle and I finished it this morning just in case. I'm glad I did. By dinner time tonight, the cake had split in half. I patched it up the best I could and told Tyler another pirate ship had fired a cannonball at it. That was good enough for him. (The candles are coming out of the cannons.) It really did turn out cute...before the attack.

















After dinner Tyler opened his presents from us. His favorite gift was a set of Star Wars Legos. We also got him a small erector set, which I think he'll really like once he tries it with Ron. The Lego set is for ages 7-12, and he did the entire thing by himself. It's almost not any fun to buy him Legos any more - all we get to do is watch. As a special treat, he got to stay up and watch the original Star Wars movie tonight. He has been playing Lego Star Wars II for the gamecube (he got another Star Wars game tonight), so he has seen a lot of the movie clips. He really enjoyed getting to stay up, and he liked the movie.






















Tyler thanked us several times for his gifts and exclaimed what a great day it was many times. It's so hard to believe he's 6 already. That tiny little guy who stole my heart six years ago has grown into a long, wiggly grade-schooler who still holds my heart in his hands. I'm so proud of him and look forward to seeing all the ways he'll grow on his way to 7.




While Tyler was putting together his Legos, Ron and Danielle played Go Fish with a set of cards Ron brought back for her from the casino he visited while on his trip. Tyler and I played Go Fish earlier, and he did an excellent job. Apparently Danielle needs a little work on her numbers - or the rules of the game - or both.

Birthday Snack

I can't believe Tyler is almost six. (I know I say I can't believe it every year, but it's true. The time just goes soooo fast.) This year Tyler has school on his birthday, so he gets to bring in the birthday snack.

I was kind of relieved he didn't want to bring in cupcakes. He wants a pirate ship birthday cake, which I'm attempting to make myself, so I was thankful I didn't have to do anything creative with cupcakes. (Although our frog cupcakes turned out cute last year.) Instead, he wanted to bring in dirt dessert. Fortunately this was a treat both the kids could help make.

Tyler informed me tonight that I really should have purchased some sort of drink to bring in, too, because all the other moms have brought drinks in with their birthday snacks. I panicked for a minute and then decided I didn't really care what the other moms did. Free water is good enough. Besides, if I had to pick between spending $6 on juice boxes or buying the real oreos, real oreos would win. I'm sure all the other moms would agree with me.

Tyler had a much better day at school yesterday. The teacher moved the kids' desks around, so Tyler is now sitting beside "a really nice girl". What I really appreciated about his teacher was that she moved several people, not just Tyler, so he wasn't singled out. I volunteered to help in the lunchroom, and yesterday was my first day. Tyler was glad to see me and proudly pointed out Danielle and me to his teacher and classmates. I got to talk to his teacher face to face and was able to personally remind Tyler to behave himself. (Sometimes you need to be reminded half way through the day!) It was fun to see Tyler and the other kindergarteners. There are several kids in our neighborhood that started kindergarten this year. It was neat to see them away from their parents and happily functioning in their new roles. Tyler was very well behaved at lunch, but when there's food involved, he's usually all business anyway.

Danielle had a really good morning at preschool today, too. She was all smiles when I picked her up. She said the little boy that had been picking on her sat across from her during snack today. She said he was making faces at her so she decided to make faces back. I guess the two of them started giggling about it and she ended up thinking the whole thing was pretty funny. Not exactly how I would have imagined our prayer being answered, but sounds to me like God is working things out.

It Only Took 4 Days...

I’m bummed tonight and Ron is traveling, so my blog is serving as my dumping ground. You’ve been warned.

Well, the bubble has burst. Tyler is no longer super excited about school. It only took 4 days. The bubble seemed to be leaking a bit on day 3, but it had a full blown blow-out on day 4 (today). I guess it would be more accurate to say that he is still excited about learning and all the different activities at school, he just isn’t excited about the kid who has decided to pick on him.

When Tyler came home on Friday, he complained about a kid who hit him in the head and pushed him out of line while they were walking down the hall. Today the same kid purposefully hit Tyler in the face (with his fist) while lining up after recess this afternoon. Unfortunately this kid also sits right next to Tyler in class and likes to poke him, too.

From what Tyler has said, I have the impression that his teacher is tired of listening to him tattle and isn’t listening to his serious complaints. (According to Tyler, he raised his hand to tell his teacher the boy across from him stuck his tongue out at him. His teacher told Tyler she didn’t want to hear about what anyone else was doing to him.) I can understand her frustration at having to deal with all the trivial issues, but these are new kindergarteners who are still learning how to appropriately deal with their issues. I hope she’s being patient. (I have told Tyler he needs to just ignore the other kids when they’re making faces or rude comments.)

I understand that I’m only hearing one side of the story and Tyler may very well be causing trouble of his own; however, I don’t think Tyler has done anything physical to anyone and I am concerned about the aggression from the other kid. I emailed Tyler’s teacher tonight to make her aware of the situation and to find out how we can resolve it before Tyler starts dreading school. Hopefully she’ll respond quickly. Tyler has school tomorrow, too.

Honestly I was at a loss for how to best respond to Tyler tonight. This very reason is why sending your child off to kindergarten is so hard in the first place – They are no longer sheltered and protected from the harsh reality of life and those living it. While putting each of the kids to bed tonight, I suggested we also pray for the kids that were bullying them when we said our bedtime prayers. I explained that the Bible says we’re supposed to pray for our enemies, those who don’t like us. Danielle thought it was a good idea (btw, the little boy didn’t bother her today). Tyler wasn’t sold. I tried to explain to Tyler that maybe this boy is picking on him because he’s sad or unhappy and if we pray for him, in addition to helping our attitude, maybe God will help him, too. Tyler looked amused. He shook his head and said, “He’s not unhappy. He had on a happy face when he was picking on me.” Sadly, it was kind of funny. I kissed his head and we prayed anyway. What more can I do?

My "BUTT" Problem

Some people have a problem with the word “butt”. For some reason it has never really been one of those “bad” words for us, but considering it is for some, I guess we probably should have been a bit more cautious about allowing our children to use it. In hindsight, we probably should have insisted on using the word “bottom” or “behind” or some other similar sounding “b” word. It’s never really been an issue before, but now I find myself faced with a “butt” problem.

While Tyler and I were putting together his school bus cake a couple weeks ago, I asked him how to spell BUS. He spelled B U T. I told him that spelled “but”, and he burst into laughter. Foolishly, I said, “Not that kind of ‘butt’” and went on to explain about BUT and BUTT. I should have just let things be.

Since that time, he has been spelling BUTT constantly. And suddenly he has been spelling it in reference to people. Most commonly, he enjoys spelling MOM BUTT. Last week we were outside playing. The kids were alternating between riding their bikes, playing on their scooters, and decorating the driveway with chalk. I wasn’t paying much attention to their artwork, so I didn’t notice Tyler had scrawled MOM BUTT in chalk on the driveway until after he was already inside. I made him come back outside and scrub BUTT off the driveway with a wet sponge.

I thought the sponge incident helped a little, and the BUTT spelling slowed down for a couple days. Then, as we were walking out of the grocery store midweek last week, we saw a cigarette receptacle that said BUTT DEPOT in very large letters. Of course, that didn’t go unnoticed. He giggled about that the rest of the day. That brought about another round of BUTT spelling. After spending some time alone in his room for his misuse of the word BUTT, I’m happy to report he has been doing better.

Well, was doing better.

The past week we have been working on reading more words and writing in lower case letters. (The other night Tyler read a book to me before bed! It was a short, simple book, but he read the whole thing with only minimal help from me!!) Before he went to bed last night, I made a list of several words on his white board beside his bed that I knew he could read. Then I made sentences using those words and had him read them to me. He did a really good job. Later ,when I went to check on him before going to bed, I saw he had practiced writing his own sentence. Perfectly spelled out in upper and lowercase letters read “Mom is a butt.”

Just the Girls

First - another milestone of sorts. Tyler has finally mastered tying his shoes! Here's a video of him from this morning. (And, yes, he can tie it while it's on his foot, too.)


While I was mourning Tyler starting kindergarten, I didn't really think too much about all the bonding time Danielle and I would have. (When I did think about it, it was usually when she was talking non-stop and driving me crazy, so it wasn't with excitement.) Tyler had school today (day #3), so it was "just the girls", as Danielle said several times. We had a really nice day together.







As soon as Tyler hopped on the bus Danielle and I took off for the zoo. We got there as the zoo opened and felt like we had the place to ourselves. The animals were very active, and Danielle was a good companion. We had a lot of fun looking at the animals and sharing our morning together. Here are some pictures from our morning. (In case you didn't know by now, she likes to pose.)













We thoroughly enjoyed the orangutans this morning. They were playing with a sheet in their yard. Before I pulled my camera out, one orangutan suddenly pulled the blanket over his head, held his arms way up in the air, and ran around in circles like he was a ghost. It was hilarious. We laughed and laughed. Here are some other videos we took after we pulled ourselves together.







After lunch back home, Danielle and I mixed up some no-bake cookies. She thought that was fun to do "without the boys", too, but she did want to share them with Tyler and Daddy later.


After making cookies she helped me wash the windows and then played train on the dinette chairs while I mopped the kitchen floor. (I forgot how much easier only 1 child is!) We had a really good time together. I'm looking forward to more days like this with her throughout the school year (but don't tell Tyler).

Our Walk Through the Woods

After Danielle's morning in preschool (more about that later), the kids and I went to our favorite metropark for a walk through the woods. We haven't been there since our flower workshop in May, so it was a nice treat. Tyler thought it would be fun to collect treasures on our walk like we've done in the past, so the kids came equipped with their buckets.

They started collecting their treasures as soon as they popped out of the car. We enjoyed our walk. We didn't see any deer, only squirrels and a chipmunk. The squirrels were fun to watch. They were hopping across the tree tops, knocking nuts off the trees. By the end of our walk the kids each had a bucket full of "treasures": acorns of varying sizes - with and without "hats", various colored leaves, sticks, seed pods, walnuts & nut shells, and rocks (picked up when I wasn't watching).

After our walk they played on the playground for a few minutes. They thought this picture was funny because they have polka-dots on them.

Once we got home, we needed an outside place to look at our treasures without losing them in the grass, so Tyler suggested the playset. We scurried up to the top level and spent the next 30 minutes or so examining their finds. We had a nice time.

Danielle seems to be enjoying preschool. Already I've overheard her singing some new songs, and the other day I heard her in the playroom shouting "IT IS GOOD!" (part of their Bible verse for the week). Out of the four days she's attended, though, she's been shoved twice by the same little boy. Historically, I have been on the apologizing and correcting side of this type of behavior, so I'm not real sure what to do. Being the protective big brother that he is, Tyler thought maybe he should go in and take care of things for her. Fortunately she doesn't seem to be bothered by it too much yet, but I certainly don't want her to go through this all year.

Danielle offered to help me fold laundry this afternoon. It took a lot of floor space and a little acrobatics, but she did a pretty good job.

Tyler has his third day of kindergarten tomorrow. I was pleasantly surprised that he hopped off the bus just as excited on day #2 as he was on day #1! Tonight he got out of bed to tell us about the sporks they have in the lunchroom. Friday is pizza day, so I can tell what's on his mind tonight!

Tyler's First Day of Kindergarten & Danielle's After School Activities

We did it! I mean, he did it! :)

Tyler woke up very excited and ready to get to school this morning. He couldn't eat breakfast because his tummy was a bit queasy, but that was really the only indication that he was nervous. He was really excited to see the bus and gave us a big wave after he got on. And then he rode off...

This afternoon we eagerly awaited his return. (Ron went to work late to see him off and came home early to welcome him home.) Thankfully he was still excited when he got off the bus! He told us about the girl in his class that cried for her mom, how "really delicious" the pizza was at lunch time, getting to play at recess, using the super small bathroom in his class, listening to a story with the headphones on, being the helper at lunch time, drinking the yucky "untreated" water at snack time, playing with little Legos during free time, learning about "snouts", and going on a gingerbread man hunt. The gingerbread man hunt led the kids around the school looking for pictures of gingerbread men that were posted around various noteworthy places: the library, office, secretary's office, art room, etc. We were talking about why he might need to know where these places were or who these people were. He laughed and said, "We had to go there [the principal's office] so she'll know who I am when I get sent there." He had a really good day. After detailing all the events of the day for us, he collapsed on the couch with his special treat and vegged out (ha) for awhile.

Shortly after Tyler got home, Danielle, in all her grace, somehow caught her finger in the inside part (by the hinge) of the bathroom door. She cut it pretty good, and there was a lot of blood and screaming. I took her to the Urgent Care Center where she had to have xrays and stitches. Fortunately it was not broken. Unfortunately they had to actually touch her finger to do anything to it. Although she was trying to be brave, she was genuinely in a lot of pain, and she was scared. When it was time to get the shot in her finger to numb it, she was hysterical. It really was a horrible experience. I was feeling emotionally drained from Tyler's first day and other events of this week anyway. Thankfully, God gave me the strength I needed to keep it together for her sake, and I was remarkably more calm and in control than I felt. She was much better by the time we got home and enjoyed all the sympathy from Tyler.

Given the excitement and emotion of the day, I expect we will all sleep very well tonight. I'm so thankful Tyler's first day was a success!

Kindergarten Eve

It's finally upon us! Tomorrow is Tyler's big day. I still get the churning feeling in my stomach when I think about Tyler stepping on "the stupid smelly bus" (from Junie B. Jones), but it will also be good to get this day behind us. I feel as though it has loomed over our heads since his assessment, making both Tyler & I a bit edgy.

In preparation for Tyler's first day, he and I made a school bus cake while Danielle was enjoying another morning at preschool. The cake turned out better than I expected, although we forgot the big door (and we don't expect his driver to drive down the middle of the road). We had fun making it together. Our neighbor friends are also preparing for their son's first day of school tomorrow, so we shared our cake and celebrated with them tonight. (He and Tyler are in different classes, but they will ride the bus together before and after school. At least they will both know someone on their first day.) Tyler picked tonight's dinner, too - chili dogs with mac & cheese.

(In case you haven't noticed by now, our son is "smile-upon-command-challenged")

Before bed tonight Tyler and I read The Night Before Kindergarten, My School's a Zoo, and The Kissing Hand. My aunt gave me The Kissing Hand when Tyler was only one. It was a nice story and I enjoyed it, but it meant a lot more to me tonight. I must admit that I got a little choked up at the end, but I don't think Tyler noticed. (In case you don't know the story, it's about a mommy raccoon who is sending her son off to kindergarten for the first time. He doesn't want to go, so she kisses his hand and tells him if he presses it to his cheek, it will remind him of her love for him. Right before he trots off to school, he does the same for his mom and leaves her with a warm kiss on the hand.)

Tyler is freshly showered and has his new clothes all laid out. His backpack is packed and hanging by the door. My camera battery is charging, and I have a half-full box of tissues in the other room. I guess we're as ready as we'll ever be for the arrival of the "stupid smelly bus" and the first day of kindergarten.

And so begins the next stage of our lives...

Tyler - Now & Then

At kindergarten orientation Tyler's teacher gave each of the kids their first homework assignment: On one side of the paper Tyler had to decorate a cut-out of a person to look like himself and then cut pictures from a magazine or draw pictures that represent things he enjoys doing, foods he likes, etc. Basically he's supposed to put things on the paper that will assist him in introducing himself to his classmates. (Already his first public-speaking assignment!) On the back of the paper, he is supposed to glue a photo of himself as a baby ("then") and a recent photo ("now").

He stayed up a little later than Danielle one night to work on his homework, and we finished the first side in one sitting. He was very excited to work on it and very proud of his finished product. For some reason he is embarassed about having to provide a baby photo, though! I thought that was so funny. Trying to keep in mind how sensitive he was about that, I looked through some pictures from his first year and picked out some he could chose from. He didn't want any diaper shots, no drooling, no goofy looks, etc. Finally, he settled on this photo of himself with a peach. It is one of my favorites and reminds me of happy times.

He picked this picture as his "now" photo. We took it last week when we were in the mountains. It reminds me of happy times, too. Hopefully he will remember all the happy times we had while he's showing these to his class next week.

Danielle's First Day of Preschool

Danielle started preschool today. Although she is in the 4 year old class, she is in the same room and has the same teacher Tyler had last year. I think that familiarity made this easier for her. Also, she has a friend from church who is in her class. That definitely made the transition easier. Surprisingly, dropping her off was a little harder for me than I anticipated. I am really excited for her because I know how much she is going to thrive in this environment, and I have been more emotional about Tyler's upcoming "first day", so I was a little surprised that I felt a little lost when I walked out the door without her. (This is a hard week to be Mom!)

She was excited to see me when I arrived to pick her up. Princess backpack strapped on, purple paint on her new dress, hair flying around her face, she happily raced down the sidewalk and jumped up into my arms. Once I got her settled in the car and was driving home, she said "That was so much fun without all you guys! It was really fun." (She did admit later that she missed me.) She told me about reading The Kissing Hand (which I meant to pull out for Tyler's first day), eating popcorn chips and yucky milk for snack, taking turns with blocks, singing loud because the teacher has a bad voice, being pushed really fast on the spinny thing on the playground, being pushed down by a boy wearing a green shirt with black stripes, and learning the Bible verse "God saw IT WAS GOOD". This all came tumbling out of her on the drive home, yet by the time Ron got home, she couldn't remember a thing other than the boy with the green shirt and black stripes. :)

We celebrated her successful first day with her favorite lunch, tomato soup & grilled cheese, followed by special cupcakes Danielle and I made earlier. She was eager to get working on her homework, and she's not sure she can wait until Thursday to go back. I look forward to watching her grow and enjoying preschool with her over the remaining 69 days. (But who's counting?)

Gone Fishin'

We took the kids fishing this morning. Ron decided Tyler was ready to use a real fishing pole this year, rather than the wimpy little kids pole he used the past couple years. Ron showed Tyler how to cast with his open-face reel and then let Tyler try his hand at it. He caught on very quickly! He was very proud of himself. Here's a video of him casting:



He caught 5 fish all by himself! He cast the line, set the hook, and reeled them in! Granted, they were tiny little things, but he did it all by himself. He had a lot of fun.

I helped Danielle, so she got to reel a couple in, too. For some reason she really wanted to touch the fish. Here's our girly girl throwing her fish back in:


She got bored after awhile and enjoyed throwing the bait (hotdogs) in to the little fish by the bank.

We had a nice day. Danielle has been especially excited today because tomorrow is her first day of preschool.

**I will be deleting the videos in a few days. I've had some potential weirdos checking out a couple of my videos on YuTube, so I'm not going to keep them public for long.**

Our First Day of Kindergarten

In anticipation of Tyler's first day of kindergarten, I thought it might be entertaining to show him what we looked like on our first day. He really enjoyed Ron's picture and wanted to know why he was wearing a girl's sweater. (In case it's not obvious, Ron is the one facing the camera.) I would like to thank my mother for dressing me normal and not like I'm "heading to the disco after school" (Ron's words, not mine). I found it interesting to note that the date written on the back of my picture was Sept. 6, 1977. Who would have thought 30 years and 1 day later my son would be starting his first day of kindergarten. Here we are, in all our glory: