Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Happy Halloween!

Caitlyn is so excited about today. This kid really loves Halloween. This year she is dressing up as a cheerleader from High School Musical and is way excited about the pom poms.

Every year a bunch of my friends meet up at my house and we Trick or Treat together for about 3 hours. That's a lot of candy!! What I usually do is stop back at home every so often and dump the candy that she has gotten into the bowl of candy that we are giving out. The candy is then recycled to the other kids who come to our door. Is that wrong?? I just think that the amount of candy that kids recieve on Halloween is obscene. So any measures I can take to allow less candy consumed, thereby lessening the number of cavities, is a good thing in my eyes. Hopefully none of my neighbors read this, otherwise my poor kid will get royally screwed this year :P

I will post pictures before the weekend of the girl in her get up....which if I must say, looks absolutely adorable on her.

Caitlyn is sick for the first time this year. It seems that she is always sick on Halloween. Last year, she ended up puking on someone's lawn and having at least 2 messy accidents in her pants. I remember as a kid I was always sick on Thanksgiving. And it seems that Caitlyn is following suit by being sick from Halloween up through Thanksgiving. I loaded her up on meds last night so that she would get a really good rest and plan on doing the same tonight. She is also complaining that her throat hurts her, which she has never really complained about. Hopefully it's just a run of the mill average cold that won't lead into anything more. We don't want any repeats of being in the ER like we were last year for a cough so bad that the poor kid couldn't catch her breath. Keep your fingers crossed!

Sunday, October 28, 2007

I have my husband back

And Caitlyn has her father back. Football season here in our house has come to an end. Unfortunately, Matt's team lost in the second game of the playoffs.

Caitlyn couldn't be happier that he is coming home right after work these days. The two of them spent the day together on Saturday. They cleaned his car and took it to the car wash. Then they went to the mall and had Sbarro, which is Caitlyn's favorite pizza and did some shopping. She managed to score a Webkinz for herself while there too ;) She promptly convinced me to get her going on the computer and set up this little gadget. Which I have to say really is very neat for her.

We are gearing up for Halloween here. Caitlyn is going to be a cheerleader from High School Musical. It's nice that she picked something so simple this year. Mainly because the kids aren't allowed to wear their costumes to school in the morning now. They can bring them in a bag and put them on in the afternoon for the parites and parade. If she had decided to go with one of the elaborate princess get ups that she usually picks, I'm certain she would not have been able to get all of it on by herself. This costume is simply a dress that goes right over her head. Nice and simple.

Work is busy for me these days. It seems that it's all I think about most nights when I lay down to go to sleep. So I really need to stop doing that. I am even having dreams about it. There have been a couple of issues with parents and the girl that I replaced. Which have lead to some pretty interesting discusssions with my coordinators and other teachers.

That's about all that's gone on here in the last few weeks. Seems I don't have much to blog about these days.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

October Fun

Caitlyn says that she doesn't enjoy fall or winter and that summer is her favorite season. However, everytime fall rolls around, I find her having so much fun with all of the things that we do.

Every year, my best friend and her children, and some of her extended family, and Caitlyn and I head to the Morton Arboretum. It is so pretty there in the fall. And they have so many things for kids to do there. It's a fantastic place. After that, we all trek over to Sonny Acres Farm so that we can enjoy some carnival rides and really greasy food. Sometimes we will also get our pumpkins there, but not usually as they are so much more expensive there than they are at, say, Dominick's.

This year we went earlier in the year than we normally do. We did this mainly because when we go later in the year, when we can really enjoy the Arboretum and the colors of all of the leaves changing, it is much (much) colder outside. This year, it was a beautiful day. Which meant the kids could really run around and enjoy themselves. Rather than trekking though the rain and the wind and the freezing cold.

Here are some fabulous pics of the day:

The maze


All the kids navigating the maze


Some of the "gyms" they have in the Children's Garden (which is a fantastic place!)






Climbing the rocks


This little activity of jumping on the rocks in the pond didn't last too long as I knew if any kid was going to fall in, it would be mine.


In front of the 1000 pound pumpkin


Cate and Kely being silly


The swings


Pony Rides


And finally, Auntie Gina acting like a complete ass to get the kids to laugh.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Bad Blogger Alert

Yes, that would be me. It would appear that nothing interesting has happened in our lives since I haven't posted anything in 3 weeks. But quite the opposite is true actually.

Football season here is in full swing. Which means late dinners, late bed times, lots of football practices and games, and a missing husband. Which makes me a single mom for a few months. I must say, that I can't even begin to imagine being a single mom. I only have to deal with it for a few months a year and in that time, I about lose my mind....and grow somewhere in the area of 86 new grey hairs. Multiply that by the number of years and Matt has been a coach and we have had Caitlyn and I am looking at a rapidly developing white head. But none the less, Matt is doing well in his conference and if he manages to win this game on Friday, then he is looking at taking second place in his conference. Which is fabulous for him as he has had 2 really rough seasons.

My new job is wonderful. And completely time consuming. I have worked harder at this job in the 2 months I have been there than I have ever worked at any other job I've had. Which I guess means that I care about it and really want to put the time in. But it is exhausting as well. And the parents...well let's just say that they may be the reason that I become an alcoholic. They are quite needy, and demanding. They love their children, but at times I feel as though they feel they are "owed" something. Or I am just being rotten and crabby. Either way, the job was becoming consuming enough that it has prompted Matt and I to hire a cleaning lady. Which has put me in a better mood most days. There really is nothing better than coming home and your house is spotless. NOTHING. AT. ALL.

Caitlyn is doing amazing in first grade. I absolutely love her teacher. We had back to school night last week. The teacher is quite demanding, as is the first grade curriculum. That in an of itself seems so weird to me. But first grade is certainly not what it was when I was there. Granted that was many moons ago, but still, they are requiring so much more of kids these days that I am amazed that any of them fall within the bulk of the bell curve anymore.

A few weeks ago, Caitlyn had to stay after school to complete Dibels testing. Basically a reading test to see where they are and how they are progressing throughout the year. I was a little pissed that it was going to be after school, for a couple of reasons. First, how is it possible that this isn't something that can be done during school hours. Second, you expect these kids to perform well on a test after a full day of school. Last, it was over 80 degrees out the day they were doing it; how many kids want to hang out at school on a day like that when they could be out playing?? But I kept my mouth shut since none of the other parents seemed bothered by it. And again, I know to pick and choose my battles when it comes to school.

I received Caitlyn's scores today in her progress report (yes they send out mid term reports in first grade). I have to say, I couldn't have been more proud of my little lady. Here are her scores:

Letter Naming Fluency
Goal: 37 letters/minute
Score: 55 letters/minute
Benchmark: Established

Phonemic Segmentation Fluency
Goal: 35 phonemes/minute
Score: 38 phonemes/minute
Benchmark: Low Risk

Nonsense Word Fluency
Goal: 24 sounds/minute
Score: 37 sounds/minute
Benchmark: Low Risk

So overall, she has exceeded the standard benchmark. In the area of phonemic segmentation, she has already established the benchmark for January. I couldn't believe it when I was reading this. I mean, I know the kid can read, and I know that she is making incredible progress with reading ever single day. It is obvious as we are out in the community and she is reading words that are not sight words. But I never expected her to have already exceeded the benchmarks. And exceed them in 2 areas by so much.

It really makes me wonder at times how she has managed to escape the typical outcome of a 25 weeker. And as I have said before, the doctors have always questioned that gestation and put her about a week earlier. If that is in fact the case, it is even more wondrous to me that she is doing as well as she is. I have no explanation for it whatsoever. She is the kid that completely skews the research in the area of developmental outcomes of preemies. She is the reason that putting gestational limits on resuscitation seem so wrong to me. And again, it makes me think of the things those doctors told me in those very grim and dark first few weeks. And months for that matter.

Off my soapbox now.....off to look into gifted programs for my genius :P (yeah right!)