Photo Shoot 8/10

I took the boys out to take their yearly portraits today. I thought we'd had a great session until I looked at the pictures. I had one of the settings wrong for at least half of the pictures!  The first half of the "roll" is blurry and grainy.

And while I didn't get the shots I was hoping for, I am sort of in love with some that did turn out.

I guess we'll have to go back to get some school-portrait type shots later.  And Luke's 9 month photos. None of his turned out!

First Day of First Grade!

Jared had a "great" first day at school (that's a direct quote.) I think you can see it on his face when I picked him up:

But let's back up a bit.

We had his clothes picked out and set aside for days. Then I checked the forecast. It went from a high of 100 degrees to a high of 67 degrees in three days!!! So last night, we switched the shorts out for jeans.

Last night, we also packed his lunch in a very cool Buzz Lightyear lunchbox. Jared really wanted Club Penguin, but they are apparently not selling those this year. Bummer. But Buzz is a very good second-best.

We've had a hard time getting everyone to bed on time lately, so we were worried that Jared wouldn't be able to get up early for school. But when I went in to wake him, all I had to do was whisper, "Wake up for your first day of school!" He grinned, then his eyes popped open and he happily hopped out of bed and got ready. I think that grin lasted all day!

Big grins, even after a long day at school!

Zach, on the other hand, had to be dragged out of bed and shoved into his clothes. It was only 44 degrees when we left, and Zach just knew he'd be cold. He insisted on wearing his ski hat. In August! But I'm glad he did, 'cause he still complained of being cold.

Fleece-lined, ear-flapped ski hat in August!

We got to school and took a few pictures:

Then we hung out with the rest of the antsy kids and parents until we found the right place for each class to line up. Jared was cool and calm, already accustomed to the routine. We saw his engineering teacher, and his kindergarten teacher, and his new teacher recognized him and said a few nice words to him, too.

Jared with his engineering teacher.

Then all the teachers came out to collect their classes, and one told them all to wave goodbye to their parents. It was a hit, with smiles and waves and giggles from the kids.

All the kids waving good-bye. Jared's teacher is in the aqua shirt and gray jacket.

Then in they went.

When we picked Jared up, he was still smiling. Both Zach and Luke were asleep in their car seats, so we took the opportunity to snap a few pictures by the Galileo rock. Jared came up with his poses all by himself, and even suggested a different angle. They turned out fabulous with such input from the model.

He didn't have too much to say at first, but then he taught me a song he'd learned and told me several things they did in class. He's very excited to go back tomorrow.

Jared is at his first Tiger Cubs den meeting right now. That boy is not going to have trouble sleeping tonight!

And because I know you love pictures as much as I do, here's the link to more photos of Jared's first day in First.

Keepin' Up With His Bros

After two smarty-pants, we fully expect that Luke will be no slouch. But tonight, he surprised me!

I put him to bed, but he wanted none of that, so I got him up and thought I'd rock him or read him a book until he was sleepy. We sat on the glider and I asked, "Do you want a book?" He clapped his hands together, left them together, and wiggled them. It's a not very precise version of the sign for book.  So I asked him, "Where are the books?" He looked at me for a second, then leaned waaay over the arm of the glider to look at the basket where we keep baby books on the floor. "Wow," I thought, and put him down on the floor. "Can you get a book?" He crawled over to the basket, shoved aside one book and grabbed his favorite, which has touch 'n feel animals.

I had no idea he understood so much of what we say! Or that he knew where we keep the books.

Meet The Teacher

We met Jared's first grade teacher on Thursday. She was nice enough, but didn't seem to take us seriously when we tried to talk to her (or warn her) about Jared. Because his kindergarten teacher had no clue what Magic Treehouse books were when we met her last year, Ryan decided to take in one of Jared's latest reads. His new teacher said, "Oh, do you like to read? I do too. I really liked that book.  Do you like picture books, too?"

Jared gave her an "are you kidding me?" look and answered, "Sometimes, when I'm reading to my little brother."

"Oh, isn't that nice to read a book to your brother!" she said.

Ryan tried again a few minutes later, but the teacher just said, "Well, we'll be doing reading comprehension this year, so it'll be different."

Huh?

Feeling totally blown off, we left and went to visit Jared's engineering teacher, who goes to church with us and taught Jared last year. He told me, in his charming Swiss accent, "Your child is special. Maybe you know this already." And he vowed to challenge Jared as much as he could in his class.

The contrast in the two teachers' reactions gave me a new perspective on the situation. It's the same old problem we've run into before. Almost everyone I've talked to in the school system has an attitude of "everyone thinks their child is special, but they all even out by third grade." But when they get to know Jared, they understand that we weren't just overly-proud parents.

On the way home, Ryan said, "Well, we did our best. We tried to warn her!"
"She'll just have to figure it out on her own," I replied.

I wish her luck!

New Do

I've been wanting to get a perm for a while now. My hair has gotten wavier as I get older, so it's neither curly, nor straight. I wanted a perm with big loose curls so I would nudge my hair in the curly direction without having to "do" my hair every day. I made an appointment at the Paul Mitchell School of Hair Design and got a babysitter. I was very much ready for a few hours of pure "me" time.

My plan didn't pan out. Loose curl perms lose their curl in as little as 3 weeks! So instead, I just got a cut and then my student hairdresser played with my hair. She said she'd classify it as curly. I didn't believe her. She said I just needed to know the right products to use and how to use a diffuser. When I saw what she did with a diffuser, I said, "Oooh!" I would NEVER have thought to use it like that. And the funniest thing happened. My hair was curly!

I had a head of big, messy, "beach" curly hair. I'll have to see if I can duplicate the results.

But it wasn't really the look I was going for, especially since we were going to have family portraits taken that night. So she showed me how to curl my hair with a flat iron and told me where to get an inexpensive curling iron and how to do a super-fast do with it.  And then she proceeded to spend like 30 minutes curling my hair to perfection.  I felt a bit like a poodle as I left, but I knew the curls would relax a little with time. And this is what it looked like when I got home.

I love it! I just hope I can figure out how to do it like this in less time, and by myself! Oh, I wish they could have permed it to do this on its own!

Side-note: I love having such a colorful wall in my kitchen!

Western Idaho State Fair

We went to the Fair last year and had a lot of fun looking at all the quilts, produce, and hobby crafts the people around here produce. It feels so old-fashioned and neighborly-like to have a fair and ribbons and all that!  So we were inspired to enter some of our own handiwork this year.

Jared entered his award-winning photo, and got a participation ribbon. I really don't think I'm biased when I wonder what in the world the judges were thinking when they awarded the ribbons near Jared's photo. Fourth place, especially, is a shocker. It's the photo right above Jared's. Click on the picture above so you can see it better. It's a snapshot of someone's little brother's bum. Hardly artistic!

Then we walked around and saw the sights. The big boys got to brush a very large cow. Luke was enamored with the geese and chickens, and just holding on to the fences in the petting zoo.

I don't feel like inserting all our pictures tonight, so click here to see them. They're funny! And the captions ought to tell you what you want toknow.

Seizure Commonalities

I've done quite a bit of research about seizures this summer, and one thing doctors usually do is try to find a common link between episodes. Zachary's only had two seizures, so it's hard to really find any sort of pattern. Still, my mind has been working on the problem subconsciously, and here's what I've found:

1. I had my back turned to Zach.
2. We were away from home.
3. There was a big stack of library books in the front seat of the van, because we were planning on returning them to the library on the way home.

So according to my observations, I must never turn my back on him, never leave home, and never, ever return library books (even though we may have to take out another mortgage to pay the late fines). That way, I can be absolutely sure that he never has another seizure!


Okay, on a more serious note (because obviously, we're not going to let a 54% chance of another seizure completely ruin our lives), a few days after his second seizure, I realized that I was feeling so on-edge because commonality #1 was, illogically, very real to me. I didn't want to let him out of my sight, or turn my back on him, even though I knew it would not cause him to have another seizure. Once I consciously confronted that illogical fear, life started to settle back down again.

#2 is just a pain in the rear, I guess. It would be awfully nice, if he has another seizure, if we were home and I could just put him to bed for a few hours. On the other hand, when we're out of the house, he's by my side 90% of the time (except when he takes off at the store and I have to call a Code Adam on him!) I'd hate for him to have one while he's walking down the stairs or something at home.

And the library book thing is just kind of funny, and very much indicative of our life with boys voracious for knowledge!

A Weed!

Seriously, Luke has been growing like crazy. CRAZY, I tell you!

Ryan swears he's heavier every morning. And his clothes are proof. A week ago, he was wearing 6 month clothes. They were too short, but still fit around him. I was being lazy and not getting out the next box of clothes, despite the fact that Luke couldn't straighten his legs all the way in his sleepers, and I could hardly get the shoulders on.

Well, I finally got out the box of 9 month clothes and tried them for two days. But they're going back in. They just don't fit! He just skipped 9 months and the 12 month clothes are a much better fit.

Even so, the long legs on the 12M footless sleeper I put on him tonight barely cover his knees.

I told you it was crazy!

Gettin' Messy, Gettin' Clean

Luke really likes to feed himself now, and yesterday, I was brave enough to plop some mashed potatoes on his tray. He loved them! What I don't get is that whether I'm feeding him or he's feeding himself, he seems to get an itchy face half-way through his meal. If I'm unlucky, he'll catch a full spoon of baby food on the way to rub his face with the back of his hand. But when he's feeding himself, smearing food all over is just inevitable.

Ryan likes to declare that the baby's gonna need a bath when things get really bad. This was definitely one of those times.

I really don't have many bath pictures of Luke, so I made sure to grab the camera this time. He LOVES bath time. He splashes hard, crawls around, and climbs up the sides. He often slips and falls into the water, too, but it doesn't faze him much.

Zach still loves bath time, too, and he gets a serious case of jealousy when he sees Luke in the tub. He begs me for a bath after Luke's, but could he please have the water a little deeper?
Tell me, with skin as different as these two have, how in the world are they possibly related?

Luke's 8 month photos

I've been meaning to get around to this photo session for a while. Luke is almost 8 1/2 months old already! Oh well. He's still closer to 8 than 9.

Today is cloudy and rainy and even a touch cold, but it makes for good lighting! I hadn't thought up anywhere fun to go for pictures, so I just went out in our front yard.




Isn't he yummy?

Back to Level 3

Jared tried valiantly at his first Level 4 swimming lesson yesterday, but the other two kids in the class are 9. They're huge and have muscles and stuff like that. Jared was worn out at the end of the lesson and said it was just too hard. His teacher told us that he has all the skills, but needs more endurance. The class was just going to get more physically demanding, so we decided to move him back to Level 3 again.

Today at lessons, I sat next to another swim lesson mom. She asked me which classes my kids were in, and I told her Jared's story. She said, "My son is one of those 9-year-olds in Level 4. Yesterday after lessons, he said, 'Mom! There's this kid in my class who's only six and he's awesome!'"

That certainly helped dispel our disappointment!

What Would You Do?

What do you do when your 4-year old tells you that "plankton are microscopic plants and animals that live in the sea" and your 6-year old expounds, "yeah, the animal ones are called zooplankton, and the plant ones are called phytoplankton?"

Blackberry Hypothermia

My family loves fruit salad. But we were out of bananas and apples for our usual salad, so I tried a new combination. It was crushed pineapple, frozen blueberries, and frozen blackberries. The pineapple turned a lovely shade of purple. It really didn't taste all that great, but it was something new.

And Luke loved it!

We're not sure he understands what "more" means, but when we do the baby sign and ask if he wants more, he slowly puts his hands together (like a controlled clap).

Signing that he wants more--maybe.

The funniest part is that his lips and hands were stained purple. It wouldn't wash off! And we had to run to the store. He looked like he had hypothermia in August.

Luke's purple hands, after washing up!

Bust Our Buttons

Ryan and I could just bust our buttons over the boys' swimming progress. They ended their third session of lessons on Friday, and Jared's teacher handed me his report card early. Then she asked me if we'd ever considered putting him on swim team!

Of course, we did consider it last Spring. He tried out one cold rainy morning, but he'd only gotten in the water once or twice in months, and he didn't remember all his strokes. But next year, we'll be prepared!

The report card also recommended that he move up to Level 4!

In addition, Jared got to jump off the diving board without a noodle or teacher to catch him. He just swam to the side all on his own.

Jared swimming alone in 12 ft water after jumping off the diving board.

Then he dove off the starting block. He dives better than I do (I never really learned, despite Ryan's efforts.) I can't believe how grown up he is.



And wow, Zach has made mucho progresso in the past month. That's when I decided I was tired of paying for "playtime on the steps" and he needed to be pushed. Even though his teacher recommended he repeat Level 1 (only because he wouldn't put his face in the water), I put him in Lower Level 2. His first Level 2 teacher deserves a medal, because Zach was a pain. He wouldn't put his head in the water and he freaked out a lot. But by the end of that session, he was doing better.

Apparently, Zach kissed the little girl next to him in this picture.
But only on the shoulder. This was reported by her mom, who thinks he's adorable.

Then last session (the one that ended Friday), he kept getting in trouble for not keeping his head above water!!! He suddenly decided it wasn't scary, and has flown through all his exercises.
He gets sat out on the side for disobeying his teacher (usually for going swimming and going underwater on his own). That's especially scary because of his chance of having seizure. But he's having so much fun, it's hard to get too mad at him.

And Friday, Jared discovered that he can shimmy up the pole that holds up the parent's shade. I'm sure it's against the rules, but it was just too cool not to take a picture!

Zuka

We are love having a kitten!

And she seems to be in love with us, too.

She loves Luke so much that she hops up on the changing table to snuggle with him. I caught her curled up with him, taking a nap together one day. And she almost, almost climbed in the bathtub with him yesterday. She was standing on the edge of the tub, with paws reaching down toward the water before she thought better of it.


She also comes into the bathroom when the big boys are bathing or brushing their teeth.

I can't sit down in the evening without her curling up on my lap for a snooze.

She's still mostly a scaredy-cat and doesn't like going outside, but yesterday she went out voluntarily! We were out on the driveway getting ready for a bike ride (Ryan got my bike and the bike trailer fixed and tuned up as a birthday gift!) and she followed us out. When we got back from our ride, she was laying on the driveway next to the neighbor's cat. No cat fights here, I see! That's great.

Oh, and is it possible for a cat to wear out its purr-box? 'Cause I think Zuka just might manage it.

We have another tooth!

Luke now has two teeny tiny teeth showing through his gums! He's pretty proud of them. At least he smiles a lot when I tell him how great they are.

And how amazing is he? I'll tell you. I never would have guessed he's teething. No extra fussines or anything. And my kids just don't like teether toys. They don't chew on anything when they're teething. In fact, Luke doesn't like me touching his gums. I know they're a tiny bit tender, but you wouldn't know it except that he turns away when you stick your finger on his brand new teeth.

He's such a good boy!