Sunday, April 20, 2008

Hunter's arguing and denying; Devin is full of energy; Is Bryce walking yet?

Hello everyone.

Spring has sprung and it’s about time! The past few days have been gorgeous, but it rained last night and although it’s pretty cloudy out there now, it hasn’t rained yet.

A lot has been happening around here, but of course I did a lousy job remembering the more important and funny things. I count on my updates to remind me when I’m old and grey how it used to be and I’m not even keeping track of all the great things happening around here! I have a ton of pictures to share with you, so I’ll download them from my camera in a bit and that’ll help me remember. A side note here – I would have a ton of pictures for you, but I can’t get the pictures off my cell phone. I can see them in my cell phone, but when I plug the card into the computer, they are frustratingly missing!

One thing Hunter said this week that got us laughing was when we were at the playland in McDonald’s. He had asked us if we saw where Devin went inside the many tubes and areas that look like half bubbles. Tim responded something like that Devin had joined the majority and Hunter looked at him and said, ‘In English, please.’ LOL

Hunter brought home his report card on Friday. I haven’t entered the information yet on the Hunter in School page, but I’ll get to it eventually. Both today and yesterday Hunter did some practice questions for his 3rd Grade Achievement Tests. The reading one is tomorrow. He is a very good reader and I expect him to do well, but sometimes the questions asked are confusing to him, especially those that ask what someone else is feeling or why someone else will do whatever. The Ohio Department of Education has provided select questions in each area from the past three years of testing for students on their website. I had forgotten that and planned on reading a short story myself and then having Hunter read it and then asking him questions about it, but then it hit me that there was a website that did just that. So think of him tomorrow (Monday)!

Wednesday is his big math test. He didn’t do so well on his practice test, although it seems one question Hunter had the right answer marked, but the teacher marked it wrong. He said they didn’t go over it together, they just turned it in and there isn’t evidence of another answer being erased. I’m going to ask her about that .

Hunter had some friends over this weekend and they spent three straight hours outside. Devin was out there with them and even Tim was out there mowing the lawn and doing some other clean up work. Bryce was napping part of it and it was so nice to have the house to myself. I didn’t clean, I didn’t sew, I didn’t surf my message boards but I read a book! It didn’t last long enough, but it was great.

I’m mad at my hubby for cutting down a bush that is close to his grill instead of just trimming it back. I don’t know what it’s called, but it blooms yellow flowers in the spring. But not this spring!

Hunter has been a pain in my tush. If I ask him if he did something when we both know the answer is yes, he denies it and asks me if I have proof. I try to help him get coordinating outfits ready for school, but he doesn’t want my help and argues with me later that it’s OK to wear clothes that don’t match or when I comment on his shirt being backwards or inside out. He tells me that it’s fine, there’s nothing wrong with what he’s wearing, even that he likes it that way. I’m hoping now that his grandpa made a comment about Hunter’s shirt being inside out he’ll pay closer attention and it won’t happen again.

He is great with his brothers, but he doesn’t always understand when he needs to intervene. Bryce found one of Hunter’s small toys and choked on it a bit and Hunter was sitting right next to him and didn’t say anything (we have spoken about Bryce and small toys) and we were outside when Devin took off toward the road and Hunter just watched him go.

I jinxed myself. Devin had gone five nights of staying in his bed all night long, then I went and talked about it to a couple people, and now he’s back to waking and crying until we respond or wandering to one of the couches to be found there in the morning. He is an outdoor boy in either play or work. He’s getting his timing down while playing baseball and is remembering which way to run to first base! He’s a champ when jumping on our trampoline and I no longer have to spot him as he maneuvers up our small climbing wall to the slide.

We finally picked up some landscaping brick to finish the flower beds I began before I got pregnant with Devin. He helped me carry each brick from the tractor trailer to a temporary spot and helped move the rocks up into the trailer. He tried very hard to pick them up on his own, but he accepted help when offered. I’m switching out the circle of rocks around my trees with the brick and would like to make a rock garden around my wishing well. If you have any design ideas, please share them with me!

Knight is going to get back in shape with Devin around! I won’t be feeling my house shake anymore, we just go outside and I let them run around together or we go out to the pond with a bumper. Soon though I’ll just be able to open the back door and let them loose. Tim is going to install a fence that encloses the playground area and then some more with an extended corner for the dogs to do their business. Tim trained Knight to poo in tall grass, so that’ll work with him, but Kit doesn’t give a darn. I’m not really keen on having the dogs romp in the same area as my children’s playground, but it’s hard sometimes to go outside as often as Devin wants to with Bryce. It’ll be better when he starts walking, but for now he’s either on my hip or in the play pen.

No, Bryce isn’t walking yet, but he’s trying! He’s gone four steps on his own so far! Before we know it, before DEVIN knows it, Bryce will be chasing him down and tackling him! He’s still waking often during the night, just like Devin was.

Tim wants me to get Bryce a hair cut. I took a picture of his curls for you to see. I don’t want to cut them off! I want to put his hair in just one pony tail…oh, no. No! I’m not serious, but I would like to see how curly his hair gets. Hunter had curls, too. I’ll try to dig out a picture of him before his first hair cut and post it under the ‘Random picture of the boys’ I have at the bottom of my home page.

That’s it for now. I’ll post this tonight but won’t get to the pictures until tomorrow. Have a great week!

Yo

Saturday, April 12, 2008

Nature is so COOL!

I found this on another blog, who admitted to copying it from someone else, who probably did the same thing because it's just to amazing not to pass on.

A sliced carrot looks like the human eye The pupil, iris and radiating lines look just like the human eye…and YES science now shows that carrots greatly enhance blood flow to and function of the eyes.




A tomato has four chambers and is red. The heart is red and has four chambers. All of the research shows tomatoes are indeed pure heart and blood food.





Grapes hang in a cluster that has the shape of the heart. Each grape looks like a blood cell and all of the research today shows that grapes are also profound heart and blood vitalizing food.




A walnut looks like a little brain, a left and right hemisphere, upper cerebrums and lower cerebellums. Even the wrinkles or folds are on the nut just like the neo-cortex. We now know that walnuts help develop over 3 dozen neuron-transmitters for brain function.


Kidney beans actually heal and help maintain kidney function and yes, they look exactly like the human kidneys.



Celery, bok choy, rhubarb and more look just like bones. These foods specifically target bone strength. Bones are 23% sodium and these foods are 23% sodium. If you don’t have enough sodium in your diet the body pulls it from the bones, making them weak. These foods replenish the skeletal needs of the body.

Eggplant, avocadoes and pears target the health and function of the womb and cervix of the female - they look just like these organs. Today’s research shows that when a woman eats 1 avocado a week, it balances hormones, sheds unwanted birth weight and prevents cervical cancers. And how profound is this? .. It takes exactly 9 months to grow an avocado from blossom to ripened fruit. There are over 14,000 photolytic chemical constituents of nutrition in each one of these foods (modern science has only studied and named about 141 of them).

Figs are full of seeds and hang in twos when they grow. Figs increase the mobility of male sperm and increase the numbers of sperm well to overcome male sterility.



Sweet potatoes look like the pancreas and actually balance the glycemic index of diabetics.






Olives assist the health and function of the ovaries.




Grapefruits, oranges , and other citrus fruits look just like the mammary glands of the female and actually assist the health of the breasts and the movement of lymph in and out of the breasts.


Onions look like body cells. Today’s research shows that onions help clear waste materials from all of the body cells They even produce tears which wash the epithelial layers of the eyes.

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Hello everyone.

It’s Wednesday afternoon right now. I’m starting this a little early, or some of you might call it way late (Tiffany) since I didn’t post an update last week, but I say it’s early because I usually post on the weekend! :P If my hubby were to come home and see me at the computer after walking past a humongous pile of laundry on the couch and through a dirty kitchen, he’d be a bit upset! No worries about that, though, as he rarely comes home early. If he did I’d know before hand. He tends to slam the back door which shakes the house so I’d have plenty of time to zip out of this chair and into some activity that makes me appear busy! LOL Shoot, my secret is out! Sometimes he actually does read what I write, but he says it’s too long, so maybe I’ll cut this paragraph out and paste it at the end! LOL

Hunter looks so much older with his glasses on! I can’t believe it! It took him a couple days to get used to them, but now he wears them every waking moment and has been good so far about putting them in the case when he showers and goes to bed. (I was good with that too in the beginning!) I think he is still amazed at how well he can see now. He likes how they turn into sunglasses when outside, too.

He passed his third Reading Achievement test last week. He chose another Junie B. Jones book. This one was called Junie B. Jones Loves Handsome Warren. On April 21st and 23rd, Hunter will participate in the state achievement tests in reading and math. I have no big concerns, especially with the reading one, but Hunter’s not so good at timed tests in math. He goes so slow sometimes and is still distracted by his pencil, or sometimes even his fingers. I’m going to be asking his teacher what the setup is going to be for him.

The other day he came home and said he had some news to share with me. We sat down together on the couch and he told me that there’s a new law that students can’t bring snacks or water bottles to school anymore. I asked him if he meant a new school rule, but he said no, it’s a new law. I didn’t think he understood the difference, but I let it drop because then he said that a student had died in the school lunch room. WHAT? I quizzed him some more and he said that the teacher told him it happened at school, that she read it in the school newsletter.

In the Communication Notebook I asked his teacher about it, and the two above things are tied together and Hunter was right when he used the word law and not rule. Back in 2003 an 8 year old boy died of head injuries when a table he was helping to move in the school cafeteria fell and hit him on the head. I Googled it and found an article from the same year with the same aged boy. This happened in Canada.

His teacher went on to explain that because of that tragedy, the Ohio Board of Health and Safety has passed a new law. I’m not sure the correct wording of the law but am told it bans classrooms from having snacks and water bottles. She continued that until the school district releases a formal announcement the children can keep bringing their morning snacks and water bottles in the warmer months.

I think this is a huge jump. I was saddened to read the article that I found, more so because it happened in the month of December, but what does that accident have to do with snacks and water bottles? Are they worried about rodents? Then they should train and require more of janitorial services. Are they afraid of choking? It rarely happens, but if it does, have the teachers and aids be trained in the Heimlich. I just think this is overkill. Hunter's class doesn't have lunch until 12:45. He eats breakfast at 7:30, has a morning snack with his class at 11, and then lunch at 12:45. Without that snack, these kids are going to be starving and that will affect their performance in the classroom. I remember getting the note last May asking that parents send in water bottles so the kids can have refreshments at their desk and not out in the hallways all the time in long lines at the drinking fountain. I guess I’ll just have to wait and see what that formal announcement says. A teacher mom friend of mine in another state says that her school has a problem with rodents and no food is allowed in the classrooms. But are they 9 and 10 year olds and do they have lunch at 1:00? No, they’re in high school.

One more thing about Hunter is that he’s been walking for 30 minutes every evening on the treadmill for almost a week! He didn’t last night because of scouts, but he was participating with us playing baseball after school and jumped on the trampoline. When I suggested he start doing it again I emphasized healthy hearts and bodies, muscles and such. I didn’t want to talk body image, but when I was finished he said, ‘Yeah. I need to lose weight.’ I guess I don’t need to be so tender footed around him anymore!

Devin. Oh, my Devin baby. Where shall I begin? He is a two year old terror, a pint sized pain in my rear, such a terrific trouble maker! I love him so much, but he’s driving me nuts! Here we go: I thought I had the crayons out of his reach. I had the idea that he’d ask to use them and I’d bring them down and he’d color in a controlled manner at the table. What the heck was I thinking?? He pulled a chair over, got the crayons out and colored on a couple walls and windows before I noticed.

It takes time to fold the clean clothes and a load of diapers, bring them to each bedroom and put them away in drawers or on shelves. But in a fraction of the time it took me to do those things, Devin emptied Bryce’s drawers in the toy room (Bryce’s future bedroom) and push off all the diapers on the shelf. He used a toy drum, a box of outgrown clothes and the dresser to climb onto the top of the changing table, where he hollered, ‘I did it, I did it!’

My charming little guy walks around singing songs and dancing and at the same time so innocently passes Bryce and then smacks him on the top of the head. Playing next to each other Devin will look at Bryce, laugh, and then hit him on the head. Devin will be coloring with me on the floor and says he’ll be right back. I hear a giggle, a slapping sound, another giggle and then Bryce crying. While comforting Bryce I ask Devin what happened and the little rug rat happily exclaims that he hit Bryce on the head! Every time he does that I tell him to go away, that Bryce and I don’t want to be around Devin when he hits. Devin does leave, sulking and crying. When I tell him he can come back everything is fine until the next smack and a giggle and we do it all over again!

He is so observant. I addressed a package in permanent marker and put the marker back in the mug by the telephone. I didn’t even notice he took that marker with him downstairs where he had been watching a VHS Blue’s Clue’s tape until I went down there to get him and go outside and play. But when I went into the play room and turned toward our big screen to turn it off, I saw that marker, black, bold and permanent, against the blue screen. Our time outside was out of the question. Devin sat in his chair and watched me gently scrub at those markings. I didn’t have any fun, he didn’t have any fun. Thankfully I got everything off the display, but no such luck on the fabric covering of the base. My hubby took it well. He said he’s accepted the fact that we won’t be doing anymore remodeling until the kids are much older!

In five days Bryce will be 11 months old. I can’t believe it. He gets around like a champion crawler and if you put food in his reach, his hand is there grabbing it before you can blink (you can ask his grandpa about that!) LOL I’m still nursing him mostly, but he eagerly zooms to the dining room table when we sit down. I gave my high chair/swing combo to my sister Amanda because she needs it more than me, but now I need to get a booster or something because it gets messy trying to feed him on my lap!

He has one new tooth on the bottom, totaling seven all together now. He’s still not sleeping through the night, which wouldn’t be such a big deal, but it is because he hollers about it. Devin would quietly whimper, but when Bryce wakes and wants to nurse, he is loud and will even let out a screech or two until I get back into position. My hubby feels like a zombie too sometimes!

For the first time only yesterday, Bryce did a little foot shuffle from his dad in the recliner to me on the couch! The left arm of the recliner is only a few inches from the right cushion of the couch. Bryce did a right left side step to get to me but he still finds crawling from one person to another as the quickest way!

My sister Karyn and her children K’ryn and Kyler are enjoying their spring break in Northern Michigan with our parents. I had offered her my house as half way point between her place in GA and grandparents in MI, but she turned me down. To my great surprise she called early Saturday morning to ask if the invitation was still open for a visit. You bet! The kids played well together, we ate spaghetti, fed the fish in our pond (one of the big ones made an appearance!), had ice cream sundaes and watched Alvin and the Chipmunks before bed. They were off by 8:00 the next morning. It was a short but sweet visit. I’m hoping to visit them at their place in June.

Hope everyone is having a terrific week. It’s now an hour after I started. I think I finished this in record time! Bryce is sleeping and Devin is going back and forth between activities; Moon Sand and Lincoln Logs. Stick with the Logs, son!

Take care!

Yo