It Looks Like We Just Might Have Grandchildren ... and other Happenings

At Jack's five-year check-up, the doctor noticed that Jack's boys (yes I am talking about those) had not dropped like they should have by now. This of course made me very nervous about the possibility of not having grandchildren since they were supposed to be dropped fully by the time he was two. So we got a referral to go to the Children's Hospital in New Orleans and we made the trip over there on Monday. And thankfully all checked out alright. It turns out he has what is called "retractable testicles" and he has the ability to retract them when he gets nervous or turns cold. Every single man that I have told about this condition has informed me that would come in handy. But anyway, it is a condition that is nothing to worry about, except have to keep an eye on it and make sure that as he grows taller, they are able to still drop. So phew. Grandchildren are still a possibility.

In other happenings, the kid's get out of school on Friday. I am actually looking forward to not having to get two kids to school all before 8 am every single day. I still can not believe that Jack is going into kindergarten next year and will be a full day of school for him everyday. He is sooo excited about the whole kindergarten experience and keeps asking me when it starts. I also got his yearbook today and I have to say that I am a proud Mama because he was awarded with the Christian Character award for his class. We plan to keep him in this Christian school all the way through the 12th grade.

Tomorrow night Jack has his preschool graduation, which I am sure will be very very cute. He says they have been practicing for it every single day. The main event will be the kindergartners who will be in little cap and gowns as they "graduate". Simply adorable.

Things are starting to calm down a bit with Brandi. She made me sooooo mad last week when I found out that she stole a cell phone from a friend and did more than 5000 text messages and was calling people that she is not supposed to be in contact with. The theft was a felony and if our friends had pressed charges, she would be in a world of trouble right now. I do not believe I have been so angry and mad in my life and it has taken me a week to calm down a little bit. I am really wondering if we are doing any good with her. She just sits there and shuts down when I or anybody else tries to talk to her. But I am not willing to give up on the girl ... yet. At least I do have somebody that I can make do the dishes and other nasty chores around the house like pick up poop in the backyard. :)

A little snippet into Jack's school day

When Jim and I were chaperones for Jack's field trip on Friday, we were priviledged to see a little snippet of what goes on during the four hours that he is there each day and let me tell you, it almost made me start to tear up watching it.

Every morning at 8:00 am, the principal comes over the loud speaker and recites the Pledge of Allegiance, then he recites the Pledge to the Bible, which is followed by a morning prayer and then the day's announcements. Well during all this, I watched Jack's class and boy was it heart warming. Mrs. Nix had one little boy hold the flag while the rest of the class held their hands over their hearts during the pledge of allegiance. Then during the pledge to the bible, a little girl held the bible while the class had their heads bowed and continued through the morning prayer. I had no idea that they did that every morning because I am out the door by the time this all happens and Jack tells me absolutely nothing about what he does all day. But I do have to say that I loved seeing the respect being taught for both the flag and the bible.

We also had the priviledge of having Mrs. Nix riding in our car to the field trip. It was really nice getting to know her on a one-on-one basis. She is a very nice woman who is a saint in my opinion for dealing with ten three-year-olds every day. She also told us that Jack was not one of her "challenging" children. She said that there are four in her class that are very aggressive and can be trouble makers, but Jack is the opposite. In fact, she said that she is proud that Jack is starting to stick up for himself a bit and won't let the aggressive kids run all over him. Of course that made me feel very proud in the least. It is good to know that my child is not one of the "challenging" kids.

Happy Halloween!

I am sure all those with the little ones are going to be out trick or treating tonight. Jack is soooo excited. It is fun to watch because he totally gets it this year. He is even practicing his "Trick or Treat" speech he is going to make at every door tonight. And he is absolutely pumped to be batman and keeps singing the batman song and yelling "Batman" through the house. Ahhh this is such a fun age.

When I picked him up from school today, the boy was absolutely crazy with a sugar high from all the snacks at the halloween party at his school. Although they are not allowed to wear costumes, they did have a party and from the look on his face, it was pretty fun. He also got to bring home the pumpkin that he painted all green.

While I was at the school there was a bit of excitement from having four police officers in the office. After a few minutes, one of them walked out a teenage boy in handcuffs. I guess he did something that he shouldn't have done. Now mind you, this is a small christian private school and this kind of thing doesn't happen that often, not like the big public high schools anyway. So now I am waiting for Jim to get up and find out what that kid did. Inquiring minds want to know ya'll!

After school, I took Jack to chick-fil-a to burn off some of that sugar high. It has the best playland and is nice for the parents to just sit back and watch their child in the enclosed area run around like crazy people. As for those other parents, I am just shocked that some of them even have kids. I feel sorry for their kids. I overheard one mother talking to another mother while I was pretending to read the newspaper. Mother A was talking about Halloween and how she hated the holiday and she saw no reason for it and she was not going to let her precious child out tonight to go "beg for candy"! At this point I snuck a glance at Mother B who was trying very hard to NOT tell this woman off. She actually handled it very well and tactful by saying "well MY child is going to grow up normal with all the tradition of begging for candy" and let it be at that. Phew glad that I didn't have to deal with THAT mother from hell.

But I do have to admit that I am another kind of mother that I did not think I was going to be. When we got home, I was going through the mail and was reading the November newsletter from Jack's school. It listed the "students of the month". They give out three every month. One for the preschool (K3 - K5), one for 1st - 5th grade, and one for the middle and high school students through 12th grade. Well the one for the preschool was a little girl in Jack's class and for a split second (alright for about 10 seconds), I felt jealousy because I wanna see my baby's name as student of the month! Waaahhhh. I also want the cool bumper sticker that says "My child is a student of the month at X school." Yeah I am so that mother.

The Principal's Office

It only took less than three weeks and I already had a call from Jack's Principal. That's right folks, I got a phone call this morning from the Principal's office telling me that Jack bit another little boy today. I honestly didn't know what to say to the woman because I was so stunned. He is normally a very sweet child, but here was this woman telling me that he, for no apparent reason, bit another little boy. I guess they were sitting in the classroom listening to Ms. Nix read a story and he just decided to turn around and bite a little boy named Jaxson. I am sure there is more to the story and I am sure that it wasn't totally unprovoked, but in the teacher's eyes, it was. So, my child at the age of three was sent to the Principal's office. There was a little pink slip in his folder explaining the details that I have to sign and send back. Aye Aye Aye. Is this just an omen of what's to come?

And I guess he also got a time out for not listening to the teacher when she told him to sit in his seat. He was climbing underneath the table! My child is the troublemaker?!? Needless to say that he did not get a smiley face in his folder today, which I think was more devastating to him than being sent to the Principal's office! Go figure. He keeps saying that he won't get a "mean" face tomorrow. I told him that if he did get a "mean" face tomorrow, I would take away all his trains and that prompted many tears of course.

We have had the talk about how you don't bite people no matter what and about listening to the teacher. He was crying pretty hard through it all, so maybe it sunk in a little bit. I am not sure what is going on with him lately. I don't know if having Baby Andrew around is affecting him and he is jealous, but he seems alright when the baby is here. And he always asks where the baby is when he is not here. Or is it just a "naughty" phase he is going through?

This parenting thing is hard ya'll.

Things I Have Learned

While taking care of baby Andrew for the last two days, I have learned a few things.

1. Dealing with a baby on a good night of sleep is immensely better than on two hours of sleep.

2. I know that I am done done done having any more kids of my own. Just the thought of doing all that over again, makes me ill. I am too old!

3. All babies are different in the own little way. While Jack did not like car rides and usually would scream at the top of his lungs making me want to crash the car, Andrew is the total opposite. Andrew will cry when the car is NOT moving. It makes red lights seem really long.

4. And finally, it doesn't matter if you have had a good nights sleep, 12 hours of dealing with a 6-week-old is hard work. I had him yesterday from 7:30 am to almost 8:00 pm and it was one very long day, especially considering he fought sleep from noon time till about 5:00. Thankfully, Jim got up around 4:30 and had Andrew asleep soon afterward.

So that is my observations of having a new baby around the house. Jack is so good with him and is showing absolutely no signs of jealousy toward Andrew. He loves to hold the bottle and feed him and will help me get a fresh diaper and will even throw away the stinky diapers for me. I just can't believe how good my son is turning out and how great he is lately. I think we turned a corner from the terrible threes, which were so much worse than those terrible twos in my opinion.

To update on the school issue. Jack is absolutely loving his new school. He came home and showed me what he did yesterday. He was so proud to pull his folder out of his backpack and show me all the work he did. My son has a school folder and a school backpack! He is growing up way too fast. I really believe now that his getting the "bad" teacher at the old school was a blessing in disguise. I am really happy with the new school and how Jack is loving the whole experience.

And in other news today, I get to go and get a root canal today. How fun is that? Yeah I have had for years and years a problem gap in my teeth and if I don't floss like 6 times a day there, I get bad decay. And that is what happened and it just has gotten worse over the years, so today I get to fix it with a root canal. I have never had a root canal, nor even a cavity in years, so not sure what to expect today. They told me that root canals are not as bad as their reputation. We shall see about that.

Three and a Half Years Ago Today

Three and a half years ago today, this little boy came into my life and completely changed it for the better.



And now, how is it that he is this big boy now going off to preschool?


My oh my how the time flies!

Holy Cow!

What a day it has been today.

First off, Jim took Jack into the new school to get him all signed up. He wasn't dressed in the "uniform" so I didn't think they would let him start today, but he did. And what a big OUCHIE that was to the wallet! $575 later, Jack is now a student of the school. Yes, I know, it is a fortune. They seemed to find a fee for everything and then they add another fee on top just because. The tuition is $235/month, but all the extra fees added up big time.

So while Jim was taking care of that, today was my first full day taking care of baby Andrew. And I ended up lugging him through four stores today trying to find the proper uniform for Jack. Who knew looking for white polos and blue or khaki shorts would be so hard? All the schools started a couple of weeks ago (including Jack's new one) so the pickings were slim. I found three polo shirts in his size, one pair of blue shorts, and two pairs of long pants for the kid. I think an internet search for uniforms is in my future tonight. Oh and all that cost me $90!!

Then Andrew and I went and picked up Jack from school. He came out all smiles and didn't seem to miss his old school, thankfully. He said he liked his teacher and had fun playing on the playground. So far so good with the new school. Then his new teacher handed me a list of school supplies I needed to buy. Oh my gosh. It had 25 items on it ranging anywhere from crayons and paint to wipes, paper towels, hand sanitizer and even q-tips! Sigh. A trip to Walmart was in my future.

So back home we go and I feed Jack and Andrew. Change Andrew two (or three?) times. Turn on Thomas for Jack. Andrew goes to sleep (yay!). Then I get to get my dirty dishes cleaned up. Andrew's Dad picked him up at 6 tonight. He really was a very good baby today and not sure, but he seems easier than Jack was at that age. I am sure it will come back to bite me once I just said that.

So as soon as Andrew was picked up, Jack and I headed off to Walmart for the school supplies. And yes, I got every single one of those 25 items! Well except the first one - backpack and he already had that. And the grand total of the school list? Another $44!

So to recap today - Baby duty for 9 hours and total spent on preschool stuff - $709.

I will take the official "first day of school" picture tomorrow and post. He looks so grown up in his little uniform. Waahhhh. Where did my baby go?

T-Ball and Preschool ... These Are The Days Of Jack's Life

Well T-Ball practice started last night. I wish I could say that it went well, but I can't. It didn't start out very well when I got there and realized that I goofed and never bought Jack a baseball mitt and he was the only one without a glove. So, in Jack's true spirit, he just took over another little boy's named Brady. As you can imagine, this did not go over well with Brady and subsquently Jack when we made Jack give the glove back to Brady. Much crying and tears.

And then came the actual practice and I can tell right now that Jack is going to want to field more than bat because he loves to go running for the ball yelling "I got it I got it". But there is another little boy named Harper, who also has a love for fielding and is much more shall we say "aggressive" than Jack, which after about fourth ball Jack lost to Harper led to many crying and tears from Jack.

Hopefully Thursday's practice will be a bit better because we went straight to Academy Sports and bought a nice baseball mitt and baseball pants (so cute). His team color is royal blue. Their first game is April 9th and they play team #4.

Coach Heidi teaching Jack how to swing the bat.

Today was Jack's Easter party at school. They are out of school next week for spring break (waaaaaahhhh). I stayed in the classroom for the entire 3 hours to help out and I just have one thing to say - Ms. Kelsey is a goddess! Whatever she gets paid, which is probably next to nothing, it is NOT enough. Oh My GAH! And she handles the entire three hours of chaos with such grace and patience. I do not think that more than five minutes went by between each "crisis". And these kids are fast! I mean before you could blink, there was a fight over the trains and Kyle was smashing Jacob's head causing Jacob to scream. Then you turn around and see Seth climbing on the bookshelf trying to get to his easter basket full of candy. And you turn around again and you see Justin falling and cutting his knee up really badly requiring neosporin and a bandaid.

Seriously people, I came home NEEDING a nap after my three hour stint as preschool class mom. Yowza.

But all in all, it was a fun Easter day for the kids. They started out by having an egg hunt whereby Jack became superhuman egg-picker-upper. I swear he got a good 40% of the eggs crammed into his basket before anybody else. We had to do a bit of making things even later. There were 84 eggs and they were all picked up in a matter of 2 minutes.

Then after playing for a few minutes, the kids went inside and had their bunny rabbit cupcakes (thanks to over achiever super mom Katie) and juice. So cute they were sitting at the table waiting for their cupcakes singing their "bless this food" song. My heart swelled with pride when I saw my precious angelic son (yes I know I was calling him a devil child only days ago) saying his prayers. So So So cute.

I have to give kudos to the teachers and director at Jack's school. The school is awesome and I feel Jack has benefited so much by being there this year. They had music class with Miss Barbara today and it was adorable as they sang Old MacDonald and marched around with eggs filled with stuff shaking them. So So So Cute. Love it.

Ms. Kelsey leading the grace song before the cupcakes came out. Notice my angelic, redeemed-from-his-demon-status son holding his hands together to pray.