This week in Kindergarten

The letter of the week is "P" and David's new sight word in class is "to". In Math they have started working on greater than and less than. David comes home and quizzes me for hours about which number is bigger than that number. He learned a little poem to go with it too:

Mr. Gator likes to munch

Juicy numbers for his lunch.

Small numbers make his belly sore,

Big numbers make him shout for more!

When Mr. Gator takes a bite,

large numbers feed his appetite.

His whole class was busy this week preparing for the Kindergarten-wide Thanksgiving play next week. He's pretty mum on the details so I guess I'm going to have to wait til next Tuesday to see what it's all about.

He has just 2 days of school next week due to the holiday. He's starting to get a little bummed because that means he only has 2 mornings to ride the bus. The dude loves his bus now! And I'm so grateful! It has brought so much peace to our house in the mornings. Everyone is so much more relaxed when we're not rushing around and getting snappy with each other. Getting just one of us ready is waaaay easier than all 5 and I love not having to wake Kira in the morning. It's hard to force feed a baby who doesn't want to nurse. Also hard to listen to her screaming her head off all the way to school and back because she hungry and didn't want to eat when I had time to feed her.

The twins in David's class, Natalie and Kate, missed part of one day this week which, if you ask David, is simply scandalous. He can't fathom why any one would want or need to be somewhere other than school. They apparently arrived just after lunch, but David still insists that they "missed all the fun!". While talking about the twins, he told me that twins "are really just a trick because they look the same so you think it's one person, but really it's two and they are very different. They have the same pretty hair and they wear the same dress sometimes, but if you talk to them then you know which one is which right away because they have different voices and they like different things.".

David made a turkey craft with things he was thankful for written on the feathers. Among the things he wrote: Mom, Dad, Max, Titus, Keru (how he sounded out and spelled Kira) and Scl (school).

I got a call midday from the office at his school one day this week. He and a friend collided at the top of a slide on the playground and he fell from the top of the slide landing flat on his back on the ground. He had gotten the wind knocked out of him and he was very shaken up. They took him to the office and let him lie down for a little while with an ice pack on his sore back. He wouldn't talk to them much (not surprising, he's a shy kid and the office staff is not that familiar to him), but he chose to move on and meet up with his friends in the lunchroom over staying longer with the secretary in the office when given the option. All was well and he moved on with his day uninjured.

David discovered school hot lunches this week. He got a little rowdy with a friend one day in the lunchroom and David's lunch that I packed for him ended up on the floor. :/ The cafeteria helpers helped him clean it up and got him a school lunch to replace his dropped one. He thought that was pretty great. He loves the lunches I pack and send with him, but he says "it might be fun to eat school lunch again sometime".

David and I created fall lunches for him this week with leaves and acorn themes. So fun!

David's favorite -
An acorn shaped peanut butter and honey sandwich,
leaf shaped orange and yellow bell peppers, walnuts,
salad topped with turkey meat and cheese and
one of Mama's special Dove dark chocolates.

Mama and Titus

Silly picture time!

David

I caught him taking selfies with my camera. Silly dude. 

Princess Kira

This photo hereby documents the first time ever that Kira has not worn pink. 

Like ever ever. Like from the moment she was born every single outfit that has graced her sweet squishy body has been pink. That's 33 straight days of pink! I had 3 boys before her so, yeah, I'm a little pink crazy now. Don't judge me. 

Deep down she loves it. Promise. ;)

This week in Kindergarten

The letter of the week (and show and tell theme) was "C" so David took Captain America for show and tell time. This week's sight word was "a" which David tells me is "a really easy one". In Math, he continued working on writing his numbers properly and in writing they worked on writing sentences. David says that's super tricky, but he gives it a good try. They were also given their first bit of "homework" this week. A two-sided sheet full of numbers and sight words came home on Monday, to be worked on throughout the week and returned on Thursday. David felt pretty important and grown up sitting at the table with Daddy working on his big kid school work. 

He brought home his very first report card on Tuesday. Talk about a bittersweet moment for Mama! How can you be so proud of their milestones and so sad that they are growing up at the same time?! He got outstanding feedback from his teacher, both academically and socially. The kids are given a "P" for proficient, a "D" for developing or a "B" for beginning based on their skills. David earned himself 25 P's and 3 D's this quarter.   :)

Dave and I went to conferences on Thursday to discuss the report card and David's progress in class. He's progressing well academically, but his most outstanding developments have been socially. When the school year started he was extremely quiet in class. He never raised his hand, he struggled to talk to the teacher, he didn't interact with many friends. They are given choice time in the morning when first arriving at school. Each kid get to choose a box of small toys and go play with a buddy quietly on the circle time rug. David was taking a box, but he'd go off and sit by himself and not really play with it. He followed the rules and did the bare minimum that was asked, but he never gave anyone much more than that.....and then Kira was born. One of the very first pictures he ever saw of Kira was one that I emailed to his teacher. She put it up on the big screen in the classroom (and left it ALL DAY!) and printed one for him to hold as well. Mrs. H tells us that within minutes, my shy, quiet boy blossomed into quite the social butterfly. He walked up to each of the teachers that visited his classroom that day, talked to them and showed them his baby sister. Some of the teachers were ones he's never met before! He introduced himself, asked their names and started blabbing about his "pretty sister". He went around the classroom and showed each friend his picture and talked to each of them. He even asked to go down the hall and meet the principal and show her the picture! His teachers were shocked. They didn't know he could talk let alone that he could do that much of it. Getting caught up in the Kira excitement and accidentally forgetting that he is shy was one of the best things that could have happened to my buddy though. It broke the ice. At the beginning of the year, it was recommended that David do Young 5's instead of Kindergarten. I bypassed the school's warning and placed him in Kindergarten instead. We asked his teacher at conferences what she thought of our choice now that she's had some time with David. She said, in all honesty, that if I had asked before Kira was born she would have said he was a good Young 5's candidate because of his lack of social skills, interaction and cooperation, BUT baby sister changed everything. Since then he is a different boy and he now interacts on a Kindergarten level and is placed just fine. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Having that little girl was life changing. 

David discovered sometime mid-week that one of his little friends at his yellow table is secretly a superhero. Yep, it's true. Apparently, the little dude has the ability to morph (much like a Power Ranger) into whatever he needs to be to fight the bad guys. He wouldn't actually show David any of his skills because that would give away his secret and blow his cover (obviously), but he told many a tales about single-handedly defeating evil geniuses and saving the world. 

We also made the huge decision this week to start taking the bus in the morning instead of driving him to school. His first bus day was Thursday. I really struggled with this one. Mornings have turned into a little bit of a disaster around here. Getting everyone ready and out the door on time has become quite a challenge and by the time we manage it I'm stressed and snappy and we are all feeling very rushed. The bus was quickly becoming our only option, but it's still so hard to let someone just come and drive away with my kid. Letting them go is so hard sometimes....but that's just another opportunity to trust God, right? :) David on the other hand is super excited. He took a field trip last week and rode the bus there and back. He came home to tell me that "it was fun and awesome" and he "wasn't nervous at all!". He asked if he could ride everyday. Attitude and mind set are everything and to David, this is just a fun adventure. I have no doubts that this will go well. 

David told me after his first morning on the bus that he was worried that he'd be late to school because the bus driver kept driving slow and stopping so much. :) He was very worried that he'd get in trouble with his teacher and get a yellow card flip. 


David brought home 2 paintings that he did last week....

This one "is just dots".

This one is a "beautiful swan". 

Sleepy girl

Taking some time and cuddling my little girl while she naps today. I love these moments!

Max

Maybe I'm a bit biased, but I seriously don't see how there's any way this child could not grow up to be a good looking adult. He is adorable!

Titus

Girl time

Dave was out late at a friend's house last night so after putting the boys to bed, Kira and I had the house to ourselves. Once I knew the little dudes were asleep and wouldn't be sneaking down the stairs to bother us, I grabbed my sweet daughter, a cozy blanket and a good book and settled in for a couple hours of reading and cuddles. It was heavenly. After a lot of snuggling and a little nursing, she settled into a peaceful (and adorable) sleep next to me on the couch. And she was out COLD! She even stayed asleep when I moved her upstairs to bed....and she slept a solid 9.5hrs last night without waking to eat! What the what?! She's not even 4wks old. That's almost unheard of! But I'll take it. :)

Kira - just over 3 weeks old

Good grief, I love this girl.

She was just giving me grumpy faces til I told her she was pretty and gave her my usual "Hey, pretty girl" to get her attention then the biggest grin covered her sweet little face.... 

Yaaaawn....making big pretty smiles is tiring. 

Nap time. :)

Halloween lunches

In the spirit of Halloween silliness, David and I made funny face sandwiches for his lunches last week. He loved it!!