August 2011 Archives

Sarah is loving her new school and I love the fun stuff they are doing there! She was so excited about the "Caps for Sale" hat that she made today.

Today Henry & I went to meet his new teachers and he was so comfortable in his classroom that he didn't want to leave after our 15 minutes were up! I was really feeling good about my choice for his school and then today his teachers kept telling me more things that made me think it is even more awesome than I had realized. I wonder why there wasn't a wait-list?! He is supposed to start next week but the Early Intervention meeting is next week so he'll have to start the week after.

Sarah & Henry thought Anna's spelling assignment was pretty tasty. She was to write all of her spelling words in peanut butter.

I ran in a 10k race today with my marathon-training group and I went more than five minutes faster than I did in Boulder in May! I really credit longer miles with this new speed and I couldn't be more pleased with my time (although I'm already wondering how I'm going to beat that at my next 10k!). My next race is a 10-miler in October.

Sarah & I had fun teaching Henry how to play "Keep-it-Steady" and "Animal Upon Animal" today.

Henry also had his follow-up with his regular doctor regarding his hearing/speech. He has added a ton of new words since he started Claritin. The current plan is to keep him on Claritin until his 3-year appointment and re-assess then. He also has an appointment with Early Intervention in two weeks.

Sarah had her first show & tell today and she brought a flashlight. Her teacher turned off the light in the classroom so Sarah could demonstrate how it worked. I asked Sarah who had the best show & tell today and she very confidently said, "me!"

Anna had her first day of school (and Sarah had her first full day). Anna said the worst part of the day was at the end when they had to leave! Sarah seems to like her new school so far, too.

Dance classes start next week for Anna and the week after that for Sarah so we stopped at the local dance store to get new ballet slippers and tap shoes for the new year!

The reading area of her homeroom classroom.

Her afternoon classroom.

Anna was super excited to check out her classrooms today and to see her teachers one more time before school starts on Monday. We also got to meet the substitute who will fill in for her teacher while she is out on maternity leave later this fall. Anna really wanted today to be the first day and can hardly wait until next week for the real thing!

Henry had his hearing test this morning and there is nothing wrong with his hearing (yay!). She said there was not excess fluid on his ears now. I will add that since he has been on the Claritin he has started adding so many words! I am wondering if at some point we will try to determine what he is allergic to so he doesn't always have to be on Claritin. We have a follow-up appointment with his regular doctor next week.

Sending cars down the tube from one of my rolls of photo background paper never ceases to be fun. It's too bad it always ends up with someone swinging the tube around so I have to put it away for extended periods of time!

Henry wanted his backpack, too.

Sarah had her first (half) day of school today. She seemed to like her new school today and I have a feeling it is a good fit for her—we will see after a few weeks!

Sorry for the fog on the lens here: it is steamy at this time of year!

Sarah's new classroom.

She was excited by all the "sea" stuff in the classroom since that her her new passion.

We went to the open house at Sarah's new school today. There are 12 kids in the class with just three girls (two Sara(h)s!). I'm interested to see how this goes since last year Sarah basically refused to interact with most of the boys in her class. She starts on Wednesday and Friday this week with 1/2 days for both days. She will go three full days this year instead of three half-days.

She is showing off the hole in her mouth, not scowling! Note that she has taped the tooth to her letter.

"show me your sad face"

The kids are all having so much fun playing together this summer. I am so sad that it is over next week!

We all went to a baby shower for one of Craig's co-workers tonight. Henry was in heaven with all of the fun car toys they had there and the girls helped Craig build a boat for a boat-building competition (they did not win).

Craig took the girls to a free performance by the Houston Ballet at the outdoor theater near our house tonight. Both girls loved it. Of course, the one night that Craig is gone there was a lizard in our room! The lizard had moved on by the time Craig got home but I'm sure it is still lurking around in there... I'm not sure how I will sleep tonight!

Anna's other teacher came to our house today and it went as well as the visit with the first. Anna spoke in front of her but not to her. I think Anna will be comfortable with both teachers and I'm thankful both seem willing to help her with her anxiety issues. One highlight of the visit was that Sarah killed a fly with her bare hand during tea. I'm not sure what Miss Manners would have to say about that but everyone at the table was impressed!

Also, Anna's school got a new principal so I went over to meet with him and he seems great. He homeschools his own kids (well, I suppose his wife does most of it!), so I think that is conducive to thinking outside the box/individualizing the education for each kid. I'm still nervous about making the switch to the new school but it seems like things are looking good so far.

Henry had his 2 year exam today. I switched him to Anna & Sarah's new doctor because his old doctor, although "intact-friendly," was a little TOO granola/crunchy/laid-back for me. Here are his stats:

Height 36" (86th percentile)
Weight 30lbs 8oz (78th percentile)
Head circumference 19.5" (72nd percentile)

Now for the news of his appointment which is not surprising to me. I explained to her my concern about his language development and when she checked his ears she said he had more fluid than is normal and that it's possible that he has some allergies. She put him on Claritin for the next two weeks and we are to take him in to get a hearing test after two weeks. She also wants us to schedule a meeting with the Early Intervention people. I guess they come to your house for a couple of hours to assess if he knows what they think he "should" know and then we go from there. The doctor's concern was that he's not even making 2-word sentences yet and most of his words sound the same and they're words that only the family understands. I know he is hearing something because he can follow multiple-step commands, but he is not mimicking our speech which is probably due to the excess fluid. Let's hope this is an easy-to-resolve problem!

I decided at the last minute to look into sending Henry to preschool for one or two days this fall. Last year went well with the babysitter coming to our house so I could volunteer, but I thought maybe Henry should meet some other kids his age. He does so well at the Y child-watch (better than his sisters!), that it is worth a shot. We checked out one school yesterday which was pretty good, but the school we checked out today really spoke to me and felt like a good place to have Henry spend three hours per week. I would have sent him to Sarah's preschool but her school starts at 3 years so he'll have to wait until next year to go there if we love that place.

We started out all together but ended up having to let Henry go first since he was a little crazy with the crystals.