So proud

Nick’s school does Character Counts (what school doesn’t anymore) and each month they have a character assembly. Apparently the pillar (there are six) this month was fairness. I got an email from Nick’s teacher last week letting me know that Nick would receive an award during the assembly and we were invited to attend. Um … yes, please. While I know Nick is a good kid at school I was curious how exactly he was chosen for this award, so I asked. This is what his teacher sent back to me:

Kids are nominated by their teachers.  We nominate no more than 2 each month for the pillar we are working on.  I think Nick is always very fair with others (many opportunities to share and be flexible were available during our indoor recess days recently!  HA!  :0)  He's always very willing to share, he follows the rules of games and expectations of school and tries very hard to "work it out" when kids need to compromise on issues that may arise.  He's such a kind boy to others.  It was an easy choice.

Melt my heart. But, of course, in the interest of keeping it real I will divulge that this is what I sent back to her:

Glad to know his bad behavior is mostly only directed at his siblings. :)

She laughed, I’m guessing because she has kids at home and knows how true that statement is. Nick had no idea he was getting the award or that I would be there when he came into the gym that day. He told me later that he knew something was up as soon as he saw me. Nick’s was the first name called. He popped right up, marched up to the front of the gym in front of the whole school and shook his principal’s hand. (NOTE: He is standing next to sixth graders. Sure, they are girls, but he is almost as tall as them).

Thankfully Mr. Wiebers showed him where to go next, because I am pretty sure he was embarrassed confused.

He was soon joined by his classmates and kids from the rest of the school. However, he refused to look at me most of the time he was up there. He knew I was taking pictures and wanted nothing to do with it. I’m already that mom.

Happy 100 days

It is crazy to think that Nick has been in kindergarten for 100 days! His teacher sent home the reminder letter a few weeks ago so we could start thinking about what 100-item collection Nick wanted to bring to school for the celebration. I was at a loss. I’ve learned very quickly this year that all my craftiness and good ideas were left in the delivery room after having Ben. My brain is mush. So we thought and thought and though and finally decided he would take silly bands. So Nick sat down one night and counted 10 sets of 10 silly bands, put them in a baggy and called it good.

And that was when it hit me. Duh. What does my kid have more of than anything else in this world? That’s right, LEGOS. Why didn’t I think of it sooner. So while I was at a meeting one night Mike and Nick made 10 nice towers (or maybe it was 5) of LEGOS in preparation for the day.

And then I was struck with another brilliant idea. Why not use those LEGOS to make something instead of just leaving them in towers. So he did. And this is what he came up with.

Pretty impressive, right? He swapped out one stack of LEGOS for a bunch of little guys and added the ball. OK, so maybe it was 102 LEGOS (the ball and green board weren’t counted I don’t think) but still, I give the kid credit for his imagination. (NOTE: They left their collections at school. I saw them all at conferences. Next time, we are taking the silly bands or leaving the LEGOS in towers).

He came home from school with this Froot Loop necklace. I can only begin to imagine how many disgusting little hands touched each of those loops, but Nick ate the entire necklace anyway. I’m guessing it’s not the worst thing he’s had in his life.

Monkey see, monkey do

We have been trying to find a time to get the boys to a hockey game all season, but it just hasn’t really worked into the schedule (mostly because they start kind of late for our boys). So, when the team played on a Sunday afternoon Mike was quick to make me snag three tickets (I stayed home with Ben and ended up attending the visitation for a high school friend’s mother).

The boys are always fascinated with hockey but they seem even moreso after a game. Case in point:

That’s Zander – driving his zamboni. I give the kid credit, he has an unlimited supply of imagination. We’ve upgraded the zamboni so he can sit down now. It used to be he would just push the grocery cart around the kitchen floor. Now, he sits on that little yellow chair and scoots the tea cart he got for Christmas around instead. And his feet must stay on the bottom tray otherwise they get wet.

That’s him moving Ben out of the way. Poor kid was about to get run over by a zamboni and I’m guessing that might kind of hurt.

Trying something new

I was cleaning out a kitchen drawer today when I found something that might get Ben eating some real foods. We bought this little mesh bag thing-y (Yes, that is its technical name) when Nick was a baby but only used it a handful of time with each baby. I’m hoping this will help Ben over the hurdle, too. At lunch we put a few oranges in there and he LOVED it. It took him a second to figure out what was going on, but once he did he was sold. Then at dinner I made the mistake of putting an apple slice in there. Bad idea. It was a softer apple, but still too hard for his gums. He wanted nothing to do with it and wouldn’t touch it again even after I refilled it with oranges. I guess we will try again tomorrow.

Bringin’ home Bear

Bear is Zander’s classroom “pet” if you will. He brought it home Thursday and has slept with it every night. Unfortunately, Bear doesn’t get much attention except at bedtime, which is too bad because we are supposed to write a couple of paragraphs about how much fun Bear had at our house this weekend. I’m sure the Catholic school won’t kick us out for a few little white lies. Right?

Dirty boy

My mom got Nick a gross body functions science kit for Christmas and Nick begged and begged to do an experiment out of the box. Unfortunately it is for kids who are a little older and most of the experiments take days, if not weeks, to be done. So a few weeks ago I finally caved and we started one of the projects. We made the gel that goes in the petri dish, let it solidify and then used cotton swabs to get bacteria and gross stuff from between Nick’s toes, under his arm, in his nose and in his mouth (new swab for each location). We covered up the dishes and put them in the cupboard to grow. I kept a close watch for a few days and then I kind of forgot about them. They were hidden away in a cupboard we don’t use often and the bacteria just continued to grow … until now. I opened the cupboard tonight and found this.

I can’t remember which part of his body was the nastiest, but apparently he’s got some gross things growing on/in his body. Remind me to hind this box away for a little while longer. I don’t know if I am ready for these kinds of science experiments just yet.

Blech

We keep trying to feed Ben people food (if you can call flavored puffs people food) but he just isn’t having anything to do with it. The last few times I’ve tried he has literally gagged (once to the point of puking) at just the smallest piece placed on his tongue. Mike tried tonight, but had only a small amount of success. He thought maybe if he ate the puffs Ben would see that they weren’t so bad and give them a chance. It kind of worked … for a second. Look at that face. He just isn’t enjoying this at all.

Neither was Mike when I told him they were sweet potato puffs. When I bought them that was the only flavor Ben really liked. Less than two puffs in Ben decided he’d had enough.

This is going to be a long process.

People person

The blocks, not Nick. Just kidding. Nick is quite the people person, now. I never would have guessed it just a few years ago when he shied away from anyone new. Now, he’s usually the first to open his mouth in a new situation.

The moon

Maybe I’ve already shared this, maybe I haven’t, but this kid for all his orneriness  is still one of the funniest kids I know. Whenever we get in the car the boys always want to find the moon and count the stars. If it is a full moon Zander will say “He must have had a big dinner.” The other night, we couldn’t find the moon at all (too cloudy) Zander however figured that it was just still eating dinner and hadn’t come out yet. I don’t know where he gets this, but apparently the moon is a hungry little thing.

So sleepy

Ben is not the kind of kid to just fall asleep anywhere (despite what his dad would tell you) but this particular night he just couldn’t keep his eyes open any longer. He just looks so comfy chillin’ there with his dad.

Eight months

Look how old my little man is looking. This cute little shirt my sister bought him for Christmas is making him look like a big boy and I am just not ready for it.

In the last month this little guy:

• Hopped back on the food train. He is eating just about all baby food like a champ and still chugging down about 6 or 7 ounces every four hours or so (except at night). Though he can easily hold his own bottle I still tend to do it for him so I can get a few minutes of cuddle time with just him. He still stares longingly at my food but the few times we’ve tried anything he hasn’t really like it (in fact he actually gags on it).
• Is still waiting on that first tooth. Ben’s “best friend” Graham has a whole mouth full of them but Ben is taking his sweet time. It’s not surprising considering Nick was 10 months before his first one popped through.
• Waves “Bye-bye” when I drop him off at daycare. It’s so cute, but just one more sign of how old he is getting.
• Is moving even more and faster if that is possible. He got a push-behind dinosaur for Christmas and is just starting to really roll with that, but when he really wants something he’s back on his belly and army crawling straight for it. I think it is starting to bother his older brothers!
• Is sleeping like a champ. We have a safe heater in his room (it’s over an attached garage and has two outside walls so it get very cold at night) and it has helped tons.
• Is saying “Dada” but no “Mama” just yet. It’s OK, he still loves me more --- you can ask anyone. He doesn’t actually associate the word with Mike, he’s just making the vowel sounds.
• loves to pull himself up on anything and everything he can get his hands on. He truly has no fear.
• outgrown all his “baby” gear. The swing was already gone but we have decided that the jumperoo is just not keeping him entertained anymore. If he is awake he wants to be on the move.
• has outgrown his size four diapers at night. He is still squeezing into threes during the day, but after several nights of leaking out all over his bed in the fours we decided to up him to fives at night.
• is now sleeping in a crib with a mattress lowered all the way to the bottom. We skipped every level in between even though he isn’t standing up in bed yet. It just seemed safer.

Houston, we have a problem

Namely, reading. Every week Nick brings home one sheet of homework that has his weekly sight words and letter sound that they have been working on. He does the homework and we kind of forget about it. Life is pretty busy and I figured he was doing OK in school so I kind of glossed over the sight word games and other things he was bringing home (Well that and he would pack them away in his piles so fast I barely had time to see them). We were busy and the thought of adding even more work to the load was a bit overwhelming.

Except now, we have to. Nick’s teacher emailed me this week about his reading abilities. Apparently, they are lacking. He’s not doing awful, but he’s not doing that great either. She’s asked us to spend some time each night reviewing his words. She sent home a set of flashcards on a ring and said we could tear them off as he learned them. The problem was he would miss different words every time we worked on them. Then he would get bored. And I can’t say I blame him. Flash cards are boring. So I scoured the Internet (mostly Pinterest) for a way to make sight words fun. The parking lot was the first non worksheet option I came across.

I made our first garage out of a piece of cardboard we had laying around. But, Mike and I both knew this option wouldn’t last. Nick is smart. After just a couple rounds of me calling out a word for him and him driving the car into its spot he numbered the parking spaces. I’m pretty sure if we would have kept this version for much longer he would have memorized the numbers that corresponded with the words instead of learning the words. That’s the way his brain works.

But, that wasn’t our only problem. The cardboard was also a bit warped so the car would go rolling around when they parked in certain spaces.

So I spent the rest of the weekend making a poster board version with laminated flashcards that sit in the spaces instead of having the words permanently in the spot. This way we can mix things up every time he uses the board. And while I don’t have any pictures Zander also got his own parking lot (he begged) that has cards with upper and lowercase letters. He can recognized just about every uppercase letter, but I am hoping having the lowercase letter on the same card will help him with that when the time comes.

As for the actual learning that was supposed to happen … it’s a work in progress. Nick is easily frustrated and easily distracted. I think he actually knows more than he shows, but he is just in such a hurry to get done that he says the first thing that comes to mind instead of actually looking at the word. I’m just thankful that he has such a wonderful teacher who communicated this problem with us before conferences so we could get started on a solution right away.

Where does he hide it?

The food that is. (I’m thinking maybe I should have called this post Gobble, gobble instead). I know Nick is a growing boy but his ability to out eat both his father and me is getting a bit ridiculous. Most Friday nights we make pizza. Mike and I are trying to cut back (we can both stand to shed a few pounds) but even still … I eat a piece of pizza and salad. Mike eats two pieces and a salad. Zander eats half a piece. Nick eats three pieces. Every time. This wasn’t a one time fluke or something, it’s been happening for several weeks. And when we go to McDonalds that kid can pack away a cheeseburger, four nuggets, apples and a handful of fries. And he is always ready for a bedtime snack just an hour or so later.

Thankfully, he is still active enough that the food just disappears inside his body. Yes, he is off the charts for his weight, but that is only because he is also off the charts for his height. He’s perfectly (if not ginormously) proportioned. Mike affectionately calls him “Gigantor.” I hope he doesn’t give the kid a complex. He’s obviously got enough problems already.

Gobble, gobble

That’s what I want to do every time I see this kid – eat him up. I just can’t get enough of his chubby little, dimpled cheeks or his fat little baby hands and feet. I’m really going to miss it when he is a toddler and no longer my baby. I am holding onto these minutes as tight as I can. I still rock him to bed every night, feed him his bottle even though I know he can hold his own and willingly bring him into my bed if he is having any trouble falling back to sleep in the middle of the night (though his big head is starting to make my arm fall asleep).

And despite the lazy look he has in this photo I’m thinking his baby days are numbered. He is too darn close to toddling for my comfort.

I think one of my sisters needs to get moving toward the baby-making stage. I can’t afford (literally) any baby fever in this house.