At School with Caleb

Today I helped out in Caleb's class for their holiday party. It was a lot of fun to get to hang out with his classmates and they all kind of made me feel like a celebrity. "Are you Caleb's mom?" was the question of the day. They did some bingo, some snacks and some coloring pages before it was time for the school day to end and our two week vacation break to start. Caleb loved that mom came to help out with his class.

The South Korea Project -- Finished!

Caleb's 2nd big project of this school year was due today. He did an oral report about The Republic of South Korea. We did most of our work on the computer using a word pad program for typing out his speech and creating the bits and pieces for his poster board, but we also made a paper mache mask. He really got into this project and spent a lot of time working with me to get the information he was required to have. I'm really hoping he gets a good grade on this. I think he'd be crushed if he didn't. I also hope he could remember what the mask represented. It was a bit confusing and I sent the explanation sheet with it, but it wasn't something he'd be able to "translate/read" very easily.

The Korea Project

Caleb and I have been working together on his latest project for school. He had to pick a country to research and then write a one page speech, do a poster board that contained specific information AND create something that represented that country. These are the information pieces we made for his poster board. We spent a lot of time on the computer where I showed him how to use a word document, set spacing and font changing and adding pictures. All in all it ended up being a fun project, but a lot of work. I certainly don't remember 3rd grade being this detailed when I was there. Tuesday is the deadline and the only thing we have left to do is get these glued/taped/pasted down on his poster board. I'll share the completed parts of the project tomorrow.

Christmas Movie Surprise

Last night while I was working on my computer in my room I heard Caleb start singing. Now initially, I thought that perhaps he was still awake and was just singing to himself, which is nothing new. The boy loves to sing. But then, I stopped to listen and I could definitely tell that he was singing in his sleep...and he was singing the song from the Meiser Brothers' Christmas special that we'd watched on television earlier in the evening. It was ADORABLE!

He's really into Christmas specials this year and I've been recording as many of them as possible so the kids can watch them anytime they want. We've even figured out a way to get them on DVD discs to keep. And he still believes in Santa this year; which I'm sure is a fading thing. So I'm enjoying it all the more.

The Jacket

In first grade, I bought Caleb a really nice winter coat. Or so I thought. He hates it.

So, yesterday, I made him wear it to school in the morning because it was below 40 degrees. His spring coat just isn't up to par for that kind of weather in my opinion, and we've all been sick. He was pretty upset with me, but put it on, zipped it up and we all trudged off to school.

Before I go any farther, I'll just let you know that he hates the coat because it's too "puffy". And I'll admit, it's a little puffy, but I like to think that's because it's well insulated and keeping him warm.

Anyway, when I picked him up from school he was sans jacket. I let it go. It was 54 degrees and he's an 8 year old boy. He probably was fine. I wasn't, but he probably was. We picked up Lorelei and headed over to where we get our mail. After I retrieve the mail, I ask Caleb where his jacket is because his backpack is certainly not "puffy" enough to be holding it.

His response?

"I lost it at recess."

Blah.

So, after explaining to him why we don't leave our winter jacket lying around....we come to this morning.

I made him wear one of my hoodie-less zip ups underneath his spring coat for the walk to school and we went to the office after dropping off Lorelei at the correct door. I didn't know where lost and found was, so we went into the office. Thankfully, the lady at the desk was feeling chipper and friendly. She directed, and came with us, into the hallway just around the corner where all the misc. coats, boots, shoes, hats, shirts and mittens end up. {It's also where they keep donations of clothes in case a kid needs something mid day to wear.}

No coat.

She mentions that occasionally things found on the playground only make it as far as the cafeteria, but I'll need a pass to go through the building. The only way to get a pass is to leave a valid photo ID in the office, but we walked, so I'm not sporting any ID.

Caleb gets all droopy when I start explaining that he'll need to go to his class, tell his teacher the issue and then go to the cafeteria to hunt for his jacket alone. I think the office lady senses a huge fit about to happen and instead suggests that she escort us to the cafeteria.

Thank goodness for small miracles!

To make this ending short and sweet... Caleb's winter coat was recovered. All is good for now. I think after forcing him to wear the puffy coat for two years, he'll be allowed a new one this year. Then maybe I won't have to fight him so often to put the darn thing on. Hopefully I can find someone his size in need of a really nice coat. With a wash, his is almost mint condition!

Sick

Caleb came home from school seemingly feeling fine and by the time we ate dinner tonight he was running a fever over 101 degrees. *sigh* It's just that time of year, right?

So, even though Motrin did the trick and the fever came down, I'm still keeping him home tomorrow. I'm not sure if I'll take him to the doctor or not. He has a cough very much like mine, so I'm guessing he may also have bronchitis. Especially after witnessing how quickly that fever came on.

My poor bug!

Now, how long before Lorelei is down for the count?

Work In Progress: Seed Project

Caleb has been working diligently on his seed project this week. Even though we had a month to get it done, October was very busy for us and so we got a later start than I had originally intended. We started collecting seeds right away though, and that definitely saved us a lot of headaches! We already have his brief presentation finished up and today we got all of his "edible" seeds clued down to their cards. Tomorrow we glue down the "inedible" seeds and finish with some text and then jazz up the poster a little.

Catch Up Post

Wow, where have we been? The last month has been hectic to say the least.

Lorelei still has cheerleading 3 nights a week and then one or two games each weekend. Pluse we have Daisy Scouts a few times a month. She still enjoys both, but boy is it wearing to keep up with her schedule!

Caleb has decided that he's interested in giving Boy Scouts another go after our botched attempt when he was in 1st grade. I'm so excited about this! I think it will be a really great activity for him. He'd also like to take swimming lessons at some point. I'm hoping we can do that for him.

After living here an entire year I finally have proper identification (ooooppps!) so we were able to go to the library tonight for the kids and I to get new library cards. They enjoyed the experience immensely and sat down to start reading their books while I looked for something new to read. They also read the entire way home.


Caleb has finally started getting into age appropriate chapter books. Bionicles and Phineas & Ferb top his list. The library doesn't carry the latter, but I did find Bionicles and that satisfied him so much he grabbed four. Lorelei is able to read a lot of simple books now. I'm proud to have two great readers.

Over Labor Day weekend George and I took the kids down into the city to get to see Chicago. They loved the train ride down and just the whole experience.



Lorelei brought home her first spelling test in September with a 100% marked in red at the top. Of course this hung on the fridge for at least a week in recognition of her achievement. Both kids are doing VERY well in school this year.


Caleb has taken an interest in drawing and writing little comic books. This was the first: "Army Man Caleb. The Original Story of Army Man vs. Money Man". They are really cute and the most recent one even includes his little sister as a trusty side kick.



We brought home some new furry friends. Because with two dogs and an odd assortment of fish we didn't have have enough critters. Two female hamsters named Rosie and Rhino. Rhino was named after the hamster/gerbil in Bolt. Not like they know the difference.



And last but not least...



We got a little goofy last night and snapped about 25 photos. My children? Are weird, strange and quite a lot adorable.

I love you, Mom.

Caleb wrote "I love you, Mom." in the dirt underneath a tree while we were wandering around during cheer practice yesterday. He's such a sweet boy!

Not the best first day ever...

Oh boy. This could turn out to be a very long year.

First, the kids dismissal doors are on direct opposite sides of the building. Caleb is let out at one parking lot and Lorelei an entirely different parking lot. Caleb will be picking up Lorelei after school (once the kids are comfortable with the routine) and walking home with her. So, I went to pick up Caleb first so that Lorelei would get used to waiting for him to arrive.

I waited and waited for Caleb and he never showed up. So, one of the teachers pointed out Mrs. L and I went to ask where Caleb was. Apparently right at the end of the day he busted open his lip on his desk. *sigh* So he had been escorted down to the office for clean up. As she was bringing me in to find him, he came walking towards us with one of the aides. I proceeded down the hall to where Lorelei should be waiting and Caleb's teacher was kind enough to take him back to class to grab his stuff and then offered to walk him to where I needed to get Lorelei.

Imagine my surprise when I get to where Lorelei SHOULD be, but she isn't there. The substitute informs me that Lorelei saw me and took off. She didn't realize that wasn't okay for a 6 year old to do. Lovely.

I spend the next five minutes frantically searching in a sea of kids, grown ups, teachers and traffic for Lorelei. To no avail. I'm about to head into the office, but it's super crowded so I figure I'll go back outside and grab Caleb's teacher from last year Mrs. M to help us search. I get back outside and starting scanning the area again when I hear Lorelei (crying, huge crocodile tears) running up behind me.

She got lost. (Obviously!)

She had gone to the office to tell someone, but it was so busy in there and so hectic it's likely they hadn't even gotten started trying to figure out where in the heck she belonged.

*sigh*

It's always good to have two heart attacks on the first day of school.

Her teacher has been informed (and probably not in my nicest tone of voice) that Lorelei is to remain at her dismissal door until either her brother or I physically retrieve her from the spot. Let's hope I don't have to do that again.

It's been busy around here!

The days have slipped by so quickly. I don't even know where one starts and the next begins.

I suppose we'll start with Lorelei starting with her cheerleading group. The Fox Valley Gators.



We spend our evenings at a local park while she has practice. Starting at the end of the month we'll be going to games so that she can cheer. So far it's been a great experience. Tonight was picture night and as soon as I have ours back I'll post her "professional" cheer pictures for you to see. Let me tell you -- she looked adorable!

We got a new pool! Our baby pool wasn't cutting it and we were wanting to spend more time outside.



Talk about enjoyment! The kids and I have fully taken advantage of the gorgeous weather when it's happened and we've spent a lot of time in the last few weeks in our pool. I'll be very sad to take it down next weekend.

Caleb started and finished his first chapter book of over 100 pages last week while we were at cheer practice. Made me so proud to see him finally try to read a book of that length. He's been insisting for so long that he couldn't...but obviously...he can!




School starts in exactly one week. I'm not sure if we're looking forward to that or not? We dropped in today to try and get a look at which classes the kids were in, but they won't be out until Thursday. I think I'm more excited than they are.

I've started collecting up supplies and luckily we have a few key things still laying around from last year which is fantastic! Should help us save a little money anyway.

There's more, but perhaps I'll get around to some more posts. We'll see! We've been really, really busy!

Random Stuff

Last week I accompanied Caleb's class on a field trip to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We had an awesome time!! I am so glad I signed up to chaperone this trip. I took over 200 pictures that day and there is just no way I can share them all here.

We have spent a lot of time outdoors as of late which has resulted in less blog time. As the weather gets warmer it's just impossible to stay indoors. Much too lovely. We're looking forward to a nice relaxing summer with a couple of activities thrown in so the kids don't get too bored.

I have been smoke free for going on 19 days now. The kids really don't notice, which is funny. They were always the ones telling me to quit.

What A Beautiful Spring Day!

We spent a good majority of our time outdoors today despite Caleb's insistence that it was boring and no fun.

Around 11 I kicked both kids outdoors with their scooters, sidewalk chalk and bubbles. I finally let them back in around 1 after taking a few pictures and videos of them. We had a late lunch and then I hustled them both back out the door and down to the "big" park.

While there, a worm apparently had some offspring. This was the hit with every kid who was there for a good 15 minutes. And then, I think they buried the poor worms in the sand again. But, they are worms...so maybe this was good?

We left the park and took a mini walk/scootering around a block before heading back home.

After hanging out indoors for a short while, Lorelei wanted to go back out so she and I went out and she did some scootering, we drew some pictures with the sidewalk chalk and we played with the dogs for a bit. Well, okay, I took the dogs out and let them sniff around for a bit. Max also stuck his head out the screen on our front downstairs window -- but it was broken anyway, so oh well.

It was definitely a bath kind of night after all the playing. But, I think the kids had a good time.

Promises

When Lorelei got home from school today she wanted to go to the park. Now I can't blame her one bit because it's an absolutely perfect spring day. Mother Nature has apparently figured out what season we are in and the sunshine is calling.

So, I told her we would go when Caleb got home from school. Because I didn't want to exclude him from a fun time at the park and I also didn't want to go twice. I know, I know, that's a lame excuse on my part, but I will admit that I find going to the park quite dull. Other than occasionally pushing Lorelei on the swings, I have nothing to do there.

Anyway, now that I've admitted to being the worst mother EVER....

Caleb came home from school and plopped down on the couch. He said he had a headache. He also had a note from the nurse saying he had visited and apparently the school attempted to call George a few times. Since he doesn't check his phone and sleeps very late -- I wasn't aware until Caleb told me.

So, no park. For the moment anyway.

I sent Caleb upstairs to lay down and watch some cartoons after giving him a few children's aspirin to try and settle the headache. George and I discussed and he called and set up an appointment while I took temps and checked throats. A few minutes after getting the appointment scheduled I was talking to Caleb and he was saying some weird thing about his lips being in his mouth which I didn't get at all. And then, green puke. All over the carpet in my room. And did you know green puke stains light colored carpet? Well it does.

So, definitely no park.

It's finally spring. We can finally go outside and I was even willing to suffer a visit to the park to enjoy the sunshine. And at least Caleb is sick. I will never promise a trip to the park after he gets home again. I'm just going to take the girl and go.

Taekwondo!

The kids are taking part in an 8-week introduction to taekwondo/martial arts. It was all my idea and Caleb needed a bit of convincing to actually make it happen. But, it did happen and this morning was registration and first class. Both kids really did a great job! They listened, followed instruction and tried their personal best -- you can't ask for more than that! Here's just one of many videos I took of them working on some new skills. I'm hoping they'll both enjoy it enough to continue after the 8 weeks are up because I definitely see some big positives coming from an activity such as taekwondo for them both.

3rd Quarter Report Cards

We got 3rd quarter report cards and I'm one happy mom!

Caleb's 2nd quarter math grade was a D. I was not at all happy about a D and I let him know that. We also had a conference with his teacher because we wanted to know what the issue was. This quarter is grade has gone up to a B. I know that both George and I find a B acceptable and I was quite pleased to see that his effort in math had gone up as well.

Lorelei's report card is less interesting because it's kindergarten, but she's also doing very well!

So, 3rd quarter in my book was a success! Yay!

Poor Miserable Children

Maybe grounding Caleb from television wasn't such a bad idea?

Yesterday by far exceeded my expectations. In fact, I had no idea my kids liked each other so much. But, without television -- they played together nicely. Pokemon cards. Random made-up games. They ran around the house chasing each other. They got along. There was far less fighting and bickering than usual. Homework time went better. Dinner time went better. I think even bedtime went better than usual.

When Caleb got home from school this afternoon, the television was on. {I'm still allowing Lorelei to watch in the afternoons if she'd like to. And she has a couple of things she does enjoy watching without her big brother to intercede.} I allowed one 30 minute show. I didn't care which show they picked, but it could only be one show. When it was finished, I turned everything off. No one complained. In fact, Caleb said he's going to stop watching so much tv cause it's kind of boring.


I'll admit that television is a background noise for me. I honestly don't even notice it's on most of the time. I completely tune it out. I can take it or leave it. When the kids were younger I would turn on things like PBS so there were songs and words constantly jamming through their little heads. And Caleb -- he talked pretty young. Lorelei, not as young, but instant vocabulary. So, I don't think it was a bad thing. But, they developed a love for tv. Cartoon Network, PBS, Sprout, Nick, Nick Jr., Toon Disney -- you name it, they want to watch it.

Sometimes, I'll admit it, I've used tv just to keep them quiet for a little while. My children are not quiet. Caleb's ADHD makes him wild on top of loud. For my own sanity -- I've allowed them more television than I should have.

Now though, I think possibly we'll change our television habits.

Both kids grabbed a game out of the cabinet and sat down at the table. They've been playing solidly for at least 30 minutes, if not longer. Caleb helping Lorelei with her game and then occasionally going back to his own. They aren't arguing. They aren't fighting over who is winning. They are just enjoying themselves. And it's not in front of the television. It's wonderful!

Want to Play?

I found these in a Google search this afternoon. Have fun!

Virtual Keyboard

Virtual Java Keyboard

Lorelei and I went out to Goodwill this afternoon. They didn't have any used keyboards. I did however find one on Craigslist that still looks decent despite it's age. The man selling it would not hold it until tomorrow when George could go and pick it up. I refuse to go to some strange man's house for anything! We'll call tomorrow and see if he still has it. I can't really go wrong for $55.

And I think I'm a bit obsessed with this keyboard thing.

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Max decided to chew up the velcro tab on Lorelei's relatively new pair of school sneakers after we got home from Goodwill. I'm not sure what I can do with them. He managed to make them mostly useless unless I resort to duct tape or can figure out how in the world to sew through it. I don't think Lorelei will be pleased with duct tape. I don't think either George or I will be pleased with purchasing another pair of shoes.

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Room cleaning is on the agenda again tonight. Caleb is also grounded from television and his DS for the remainder of the week due to a temper tantrum last night. I'm thinking it won't go over real well. But I'll deal with it. He's gotten far too caught up in the games and shows anyway. Hardly ever wants to do anything else but play them or watch something. Time to get the boy a new hobby.

The Children Take Advantage

Earlier today, I pulled a muscle in my neck carrying a full basket of laundry. At first, it didn't seem all that bad, but I'm in some pretty serious pain now and wondering just what will be my best bet in terms of pain killer to alleviate some of it.

The children? They've noticed. Mommy is sitting. Mommy is barely moving. Mommy is having trouble moving her head, neck, shoulders, arms and body around. Mommy -- can't do much. And they are fully taking advantage.

Sure, I could yell at them for careening around the downstairs at 100 kid miles per hour. But shouting really isn't going to do much. I guess as long as the energy is gone at bedtime, I shouldn't be too upset. And I can totally tell them to stay out of the fridge and stop snacking since I offered to order them pizza for dinner. But they are eating yogurt, grapes and string cheese -- so really, what am I complaining about?

But they know I'm having trouble. And as kids do whenever mom or dad isn't at 110% they take full advantage. Because they know it's easier for mom or dad to just roll with the punches. Which I am. Because right now rolling is about the only thing I can do -- just not with my neck.

This Morning -- Did NOT Happen

First off, I did not black out in my kitchen this morning. Not 10 minutes after waking up. Not while I should have been strangling my children for being so darn sassy. No. I did not black out this morning.

Second, the kids did not start at each other the very minute they got out of bed. I was not already annoyed with them and their behavior by the time I got out of bed. There was no crying, and certainly no whining. Lorelei did not wait until almost 8 o'clock to finally have a shirt and a pair of socks on her body. And I didn't have to get them for her. She did not refuse breakfast. Caleb did not once again throw a fit about having to tie his own shoes.

This morning did NOT happen.

Instead, I woke up to a delicious Starbucks. And Facebook. And a quiet house with children already gone to school. Yep. That's what really happened today. My story and I'm sticking to it.

In other news, I'm getting a tattoo today. And if finances allow, the nose piercing I'm allowed only over my mother's dead body. Because I'm going to be 29 again this year and I'm old enough to do both.

My friend is taking me to the tattoo shop where she goes and so I'm pretty sure I'm in good hands. She'll be taking lots of pictures for me.

And I won't say where the tattoo is going to be. Unless you are friends with me on Facebook and then you already know. And you already know that I don't care what you think about the location of tattoo number two. So, I'll assume you won't say anything.

I am super excited!