Teachers, toilets and toddler beds!

Hello everyone!

I am so thrilled to be writing this to you today! Two nights ago I had to reboot my computer because it was being terribly slow and giving me error messages. Annoyed, I turned it off and back on again and the first screen it showed me was blue, which is a sign no computer owner wants to see, especially when she hasn’t backed up her system since the spring!

My computer crashed. I didn’t want to believe it, so I rebooted it again, but got the same fatal error. I had to accept it with a sigh and a cuff to the back of my head, reminiscent of my days under the care of my oldest sister. :P I did not want to take the next step in this story, which was telling my husband what happened, someone who works with computers and their problems (and the people who create those problems) every day. Without him telling me, I knew he didn’t want to spend the time or effort on it. With his leaving town today and returning tomorrow night and then family coming for the holiday, he didn’t have any time to spare. I knew this, and he knew I knew this, but he had to tell me anyway in that loud, annoyed and impatient way he has. And I told him, even though I know he knows, but I told him anyway, that my family and friends are in this here computer and if he didn’t do it, I was going to call the traveling geeks and spend at least $100 on something he could fix for free. I also mentioned some other things I won't talk about here, since this is a family blog!

I left him to it and when I came back later, he was burning music CD’s to take on his business trip. Success! He had worked his magic, so here I am! Darn it though that his victory didn’t fix my outgoing email problem. It seems every three months or so I have trouble with my provider. Last week it was incoming mail and beginning two days ago it’s now my outgoing mail! I’ve sent them another email which I’m told has been forwarded to another person to get it fixed.

Anyway – let’s get to my boys!

Hunter’s school called me today about 1:00 to say that he was being sent home early. I sent a text to my husband who had been on the road for about three hours by then and passed on the news, with a couple extra words like, Got in fight. A few blank lines down I included the letters JJ, for Just Joking. Apparently he didn’t see that part because he immediately called and said, What’s this? Did he win?? This is a running joke with us because Hunter will probably never get in a verbal battle, let alone a physical fight. My son wasn’t in trouble. Because of the previous day of rain and today’s snowfall, the school was sending kids home early before the roads became hazardous. He returns to school on Monday, which is his 11th birthday!

Monday marks another significant event for Hunter. If you go back to my update around the time Hunter started fourth grade, you’ll remember my telling you how Hunter and I went to his classroom to meet his teacher and learned that Ms. G had been in an accident and would not be returning to the school for some time. Well, that time has come. On Monday she will be there full time and Mrs. T is out. I’m told that today and yesterday she had one on one meetings with every student and I was reassured that she read Hunter’s file. What she didn’t do, however, which sits a bit foul in my stomach honestly, is attend Hunter’s IEP meeting which we had yesterday morning and will be in effect from yesterdays date to November 23rd 2009. They told me she would only be doing so much in these first two days back, but that she and Mrs. T have been talking about Hunter. I know that the two teachers were meeting with him today to talk about a solution the IEP team and myself agreed on. Read more about it below.

Hunter still isn’t asking for help and it’s affected some of his grades. I’m getting ahead of myself. While reviewing last years IEP, we talked about the class aide. I asked how that was working out this year and the faces across from me went from smiling and eager to blank and uncertain. Apparently there is an aide in his class again this year, as there is supposed to be, but the aide is assigned to one child specifically and has not helped Hunter at all. He doesn’t need a lot of help, but he does need some direction at times when the teacher’s hands are full with 31 other kids. According to the paperwork in front of every person at that meeting, Hunter should have been receiving assistance in the classroom up to December 1st. My reason for being upset is that Hunter has brought home quite a few tests where he has gotten many wrong because he didn’t remember to use scrap paper so he would have more space to write out his answers. It’s those little things that make the difference with him.

To make a long story short, we agreed that Hunter needed some sort of cue to let the teacher know that he needs help. We think he doesn’t ask because he doesn’t want other kids to see him asking for help or getting something wrong. So we came up with the idea of using a small item of some sort provided by his teacher. If it’s something of his he’ll want to play with it. When he takes this item out and puts it on his desk, that’s the signal for the teacher or the aide to come and see what he needs. After that I felt better about signing the new IEP.

Last week was parent/teacher conferences. We couldn’t get our sitter to cover for us, so Tim stayed behind with the boys. Mrs. T was very positive about Hunter. He is still doing great work in all areas and he has made noticeable improvements in his printing! The only thing counting against him, although Mrs. T chuckled about it and I, having been guilty of it myself, had to as well, is Hunter sneaking in a page or two from the current book (or three) he’s reading when he should be doing his school work! She says he puts it back in his desk right away, but in-between subjects she knows what he’s doing!

On to Devin and I have great news about him! He’s using the potty! For the past two weeks he’s been wearing underwear while at home. In the morning he tries to go when we take off the diaper and he is great about putting the underwear on afterward. Actually, last week he didn’t wear anything at all but a shirt and, well, I didn’t get to him in time and he pooped all over the floor. There was a trail from where he headed toward the bathroom, so he tried to make it. But following that trail was Bryce, who stepped in it and was reaching down to play with some when Tim and I came on the scene. What brought us running was Devin’s wail because he knew what was happening. He had the same reaction when he peed in his underwear for the first time. But here we are in the second week, maybe about five days wearing underwear and have only had four wet accidents and only one of them was real big! He hasn’t pooped in the toilet yet, but he’s interested! He often calls for me to run fast to the bathroom behind as he sprints ahead, just loving his little bum in either Cars or little dinosaur underwear. In his excitement he often overshoots the bathroom door. His left leg is still going while his right leg stops as he tries to turn into the bathroom with a Whoa! That was close! I turn the light on for him and he lifts one lid and I remind him to lift the second lid while he tucks the hem of his shirt under his chin and proceeds to make bubbles with a huge grin on his face! After an especially good amount of bubbles he’ll jump in the air with his arms up and exclaim, Yes!, giving me a high five and sometimes telling me to give him a hug.

He’s also caught the eyes of some ladies! Last weekend the weather was crappy so we took everyone to the spongy playground in the mall. Hunter being almost 11 and too tall for the equipment meant for kids no older than seven or eight, found himself a seat in the back and read his book (any surprise there?). Dev and B took off to slide, climb and conquer. Tim and I took turns leaving to shop and coming back and positioning ourselves by the open entry way, preventing B and other quick children from escaping. During all but maybe the first 20 minutes of the hour and a half we were there, two boys and their parents came to play. These two boys, on the other hand, were one head taller and the same as Hunter and also both were quite a bit wider. At the start they were just walking around and sitting on some of the equipment, but then they started chasing each other and running and knocking each other over. At one point one of the boys jumped over the side and into the miniature version of a local minor league baseball team's stadium, landing on a four or five year old who was sitting inside. The smaller boy was OK, he pushed back, but I couldn’t believe the parents just sat over there and let their children, who were well over the height limit measured by the charming forest creatures clustered around the measuring stick by the door. On our way out Tim called security and reported the family and honestly I didn’t feel guilty at all because those boys were obviously too far grown to be in there.

I said all that in preparation for this! On our way from the indoor playground, Devin ran a bit in front of us, emphasizing the movements of his arms and legs. He stopped when we called, looked back and then continued walking and ended up next to two girls about eleven or twelve. He looked up at the one nearest him, smiled and waved. His eyes fell on the purple, large sequined bag she carried over one shoulder. He took a step closer and touched one of the shiny discs and then told the girl he liked it! Then he walked next to them like he was their traveling companion. The girls kept looking at each other and giggling. Finally they took a left into a store and we had to call him back because he was going with them. They looked back and giggled again and when he saw, he waved, too.

We finally got Dev a real toddler bed and not just a crib with one side missing! After getting sticker shock for how much a new Devin sized bed and mattress would cost us, we rummaged around Craig’s List and found a race car bed and mattress for $50! So after Hunter and I got back from geocaching this past Saturday morning, Tim drove about an hour to get the bed. While there he filled the tank at $1.58 a gallon! Devin loves his bed, but within seconds after sitting on it the first time he said, Where’s the steering wheel? (I realize now I forgot to take a pic.)

We probably would still be procrastinating if B hadn’t suddenly appeared beside Tim sitting in the recliner. Apparently he had not only climbed out of his porta crib, but landed quietly and without injury on the toys scattered through out his room and then left by the partially opened bedroom door. It was a work day so I stayed up with Bryce who fell asleep just before midnight and I could put him back in his crib without worrying, at least until morning, of him climbing out and wandering around. The next day I took the crib apart and reassembled it in B’s room after retrieving the missing side from the attic. Devin slept two nights I think it was on a single sized air mattress before we presented him with the race car bed.

Bryce is doing absolutely wonderful! He’s not eating everything in sight anymore. He’s become as picky as Devin, which means the dogs are going to be getting fat this winter because almost his entire meal lands on the floor! He still does not like my dropping him off once or twice a week with a sitter. As soon as I open the door he starts to cry. I’m told his crying bouts are getting shorter though. Sometimes Bryce just walks around not touching anything, but I can see he’s thinking behind those soft brown eyes. He’s looking at everything around him, wondering what he can get into next, working things out. We found out what happens when he throws his dad’s cell phone on a tiled floor, what he can do with a pen you didn’t think he could possibly get to open and did you know an 18 month old can make the number 116 appear on your TV screen and make you spend an astonishing amount of time trying to fix it and not being able to figure it out??

Well, I think that’s all for this week. Be sure to check out my website. I made a video of Hunter and a science experiment he wanted to share with all of you.

Everyone have a great Thanksgiving!

Yo