Night Out on the Town

We splurge on one broadway show per year because Matt knows it is something I love.  (He enjoys some shows better than others, but in general he's there only because of my love of Broadway music.)  This year we saw Jekyll and Hyde, and it was one last nice date night before our lives are taken over by a newborn in less than 2 weeks.

*everything below is my opinion on the performance, which will hold no interest if you know nothing about the play :o)

I've seen this play once before, and I preferred the first performance.  Jekyll/Hyde was played by Constantine Maroulis, who apparently was a runner-up in an American Idol season that I didn't watch.  He has a wonderful voice, but there is also a certain rock quality to his voice which I guess the director really wanted to bring out and which I didn't care for.  A Broadway first for me was seeing an electric guitar in the orchestra pit, and it was utilized in several of Hyde's songs and even a few that Jekyll sang.  Because of the electric guitar addition, "This is the Moment" was not all I hoped for, although there were several parts he sang beautifully.  Constantine also did a lot of ad libbing in his songs, which disappointed me as well.

The two songs that let me down the most were "Murder, Murder," which was changed completely from the original (it was a slow song instead of a quick song), and "Confrontation."  The first time I saw this play, this latter song won me over because it showed just how talented Jekyll was as a singer and actor.  This song is a duet between Jekyll and Hyde sung with incredible passion.  The guy who played Jekyll/Hyde the first time I saw it performed pulled half of his hair up (Jekyll) and left half of it down (Hyde) and sang the song switching back and forth between characters so quickly and masterfully, turning his head between characters, that I was left in awe.  He had some serious talent to be able to pull that off!  So I went into this one with the same expectations, and the director completely changed up the performance of this song as well.  Totally bummed.

I really enjoyed all of Emma's songs and thought she sang superbly.  Lucy had a beautiful voice, but did some ad libbing in songs that I didn't care for.  "In His Eyes" was performed beautifully, which is one of my favorite songs!

It was an enjoyable evening, and we are so grateful to Matt's mom for babysitting the boys for us so that we could enjoy this fancy date night!

Superstar!

Caleb is proving to be quite the athlete.  He has a lot of natural abilities when it comes to sports, but most importantly, I'm always so proud of the fact that he never gives up and tries hard each time.  This past Saturday he had a particularly good game day in both soccer and baseball.

In the first 5 minutes of soccer, he scored three goals.  He's doing a lot better about dribbling the ball and having control as he aims and shoots.

At baseball, each week the coach picks one player to get a medal for some sort of distinguished performance.  Saturday, Caleb got chosen as the one to receive a medal for getting the most hits out of any player.  He was 4 for 4 up at bat.  The thing that makes this more impressive is that Caleb is doing coach-pitch baseball with 6 and 7 year-olds, so he is the youngest player on his team at 5. (We had to get special permission for him to play on this team...typically 5-year-olds play t-ball.)  Also Caleb is just a small kid for his age, so this makes him the smallest kid on the team.  But he definitely doesn't let it hold him back!!  He was so proud of his medal.  We love our little sports superstar!

Pumpkin Time

Picking the perfect pumpkin took all of 2 seconds for Carter.   He found the perfect, "Carter-sized" pumpkin on the first try.

Caleb was much pickier.  We had to look over every section of pumpkins, and it took a lot of persuasion from Daddy before he would select his pumpkin.

Holding their pumpkins

Happy boys at the pumpkin patch

Matt helped the boys carve their pumpkins.  They told Matt exactly what they wanted and helped during the process.

Carter's finished pumpkin

Caleb's finished pumpkin (with a strobe light inside)

Update on the boys:

Caleb: School is going smoother now.  Week 4 of school, Caleb finally admitted that school didn't seem so long anymore, and it was about that time that a few days he would even say that school was fun that day.  Now the only things we're running into are some minor bullying issues.  His personality is such right now that he's a "teacher's pet" and "goody-two-shoes," not necessarily bad traits but they don't always go over well with other kids in the class.  There's a kid that picks on Caleb occasionally by doing things like standing behind him in line and poking him, etc.  He's too afraid to tell the teacher because he doesn't want to be a tattletale, and he's also too afraid to stand up to the kid and tell him to stop.  We've talked about this situation and others like it at home focusing on standing up for himself and also being like Jesus in trying to be nice to the kids that might be picking on him so hopefully they'll want to stop.  These situations are SO hard on me as well...I want to protect Caleb from anything bad in the world and it makes me hurt inside so much that these minor bullying issues are going on.

Saturdays are very busy now with Caleb's soccer and baseball games.  Caleb is very competitive in both, especially soccer.  No matter how tired he is or if he falls down etc., he is up and after that ball to try to score a goal.  He's getting better at being a "team player," i.e. passing the ball to teammates instead of always trying to shoot a goal himself and celebrating when a teammate gets a goal instead of being disappointed that it wasn't him that made the goal. :o)  I'm always so proud of the fact that he never gives up and is running constantly the whole time!

Carter:  Carter is a funny, funny boy.  His moods swing from one end to the other so quickly!  He can be a sweet, lovable boy one minute, but the moment he hears the word "no" to a request, a huge tantrum inevitably follows.  So we're working on accepting a no answer appropriately.  He's definitely not a good friend to kids his own age.  He's very bossy and gets very upset if a kid his age is doing something that he doesn't think is right.  We especially have issues with his cousin, Gavin.  Gavin adores Carter, and I'm not sure why because the minute Carter gets around Gavin, he starts bossing him around and yelling at Gavin for something innocent that Gavin is doing.  Gavin is just all smiles about it all and according to my sister, Ariane, he talks about Carter all the time at home.

Carter's vocabulary never ceases to amaze me as a new word will pop out of his mouth each day that I didn't even know he knew the meaning.  He speaks in sentences so well.  His speech isn't perfectly clear, but most people can understand him really well.  Some words he still can't say, but that he uses all the time: he calls movies a "vie" and band-aid a "ban-ban."  Potty-training came much easier for him than Caleb, and he potty-trained sooner than Caleb as well.  (Carter was potty trained by 2 years and 3 months, and Caleb was closer to 2 1/2.)  We still will have the occasional wet bed at night, maybe 1 or 2 times a month, but if he needs to go really bad in the middle of the night, he usually is pretty good about waking us up and telling us he needs to go.  He's not quite tall enough to go independently, so he needs our help any time he has to go potty.

I don't know that I've ever mentioned Carter's missing tooth.  He's missing a lateral incisor up top; according to the x-ray at the dentist's office, he has the baby tooth, but it doesn't look like the parent tooth is there to push the baby tooth in.  So in about 5 years or so, we'll have to start looking into retainers or other solutions for this missing tooth.  Anyone who knows me well knows how much I care about teeth (although you wouldn't think that considering the fact that my husband is in braces still and had major teeth issues growing up), so I was pretty bummed about it all.

Carter's a sweet kid, and I've loved this one-on-one time that we've had together while Caleb is at school and before Bryson joins our family!

Pregnancy Update: Countdown is 2 1/2 weeks till my due date.  For some reason I've been feeling like he will come early this time, but that wasn't the case for the other two so I don't know why it would be different.  I'm always nervous about labor each time, but this time I'm specifically worried about getting to the hospital in time.  The first labor was 12 hours and the next labor was 3 hours.

I quit running this past week.  4 weeks out from my due date I ran 3 miles and the next two times I tried to run during the week, there was a lot of pelvic pressure and I felt it was time to quit.  I'm still playing singles tennis once a week with a friend though.  I just have to concede a good shot more often now instead of running the ball down.  My weight gain is 26 pounds so far, blood pressure normal, no swelling, the baby is quite active, and he has the hiccups all the time.  At my last ultrasound at 36 weeks, the baby weighed approximately 6 pounds, and the doctor predicts he'll be around the same size as my first two babies (7 lbs 11oz and 7 lbs. 13 oz).   I feel great--although the last month is definitely very uncomfortable and I have a lot of lower back pain--and I attribute it to my exercise throughout the pregnancy.

It's been good to spend this last month organizing (see my previous post about my Happiness Project).  I've been going through clothes and organizing every closet in the house.  I've also been making freezer meals in preparation for the baby.  After this week, I'll have 5 meals made and plan on continuing to make more up until he comes.  I also just finished my 2009 year for another blog book!  I just need to proofread and order.  I'm using Blurb to print my books because they download each post of my blog to a page in the book and format for me.  Usually I don't like the way it's formatted though, and I still go through each page reformatting, but I was very pleased with the final product of my first book.

My Quest for Happiness

Happiness/controlling anger is a topic I have studied off and on since having children.  Children bring such added joy to my life but also a lot of stress and anxiety, plus they do things that try my patience!  As each of my boys continue to grow up, I can't help but reflect, as many parents do, how quickly time passes!  I worry that I get so bogged down in the day to day stuff, that I'm not treasuring the small moments enough.  Especially now that Caleb has started school, I've realized just how precious this time is that I have at home with them before school begins.  As this cartoon says below, I want each day to be memorable.  Plus you never know when life might be cut short, and I want to live my life to the fullest and be happy each day.

I just finished reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.  I loved the idea of the book, the fact that she takes one month for a year to focus on something that will bring added happiness in her life.  Working on something month to month makes it seem more doable.  With some friends at church, we have decided to embark on our own Happiness Project for the next year, and therefore have some accountability through the process.  I want to journal the things I'm doing, the difficulties I have, and the successes.

Below are some ideas of things I want to work on over the next year.  I only have 9 months planned right now, and I don't know the order I'll want to do things (I think having a baby next month will influence what I feel I'm capable of working on for the next few months).  As I see the things my friends are doing and as I go through the process, I'm sure that will spark some more ideas for the final 3 months.  The more I've thought about this project, I have felt that focusing most of my month goals on attributes of the Savior will bring the added happiness, optimism, and perspective I want to add to my life.

October:  The goal I'm working on this month is organization.  I felt like this would be a great place to start because A) I'm having a baby in a month and may not have the energy to attempt this goal for some time later on and  B) It's great preparation for moving.  Walking into a clean, organized room or closet really does make me happy.  I feel tense and frustrated if things are messy or out of place.  Throughout the month, I'm going to attempt to go through each room in the house.  Today I started with my closet and went through all my clothes.  It's amazing how much extra space I have in my closet now that I've gotten rid of clothes I haven't worn in 5+ years!

Month Idea 2: Marriage--biting my tongue, no nagging, extra patience, greeting my husband with a smile and kiss each day when he gets home from work, focus on his love languages.  I'm so exhausted by the end of the day most days that it takes a lot of extra effort to give my husband positive attention, so this is an area that I'll focus on one month.  Hopefully I'll develop some habits this month that will stick :o).

Month Idea 3: Parenthood--lighten up, smile more, laugh often, validate my children's feelings, determine their love languages and make sure I'm meeting them, perhaps start some new family traditions

Month Idea 4: Friends--no gossiping, no judging, positive thoughts, giving the benefit of the doubt

Month Idea 5: Preparedness--updating our 72-hour kits, taking stock of our food storage and seeing what areas are lacking, going to the cannery, compiling a recipe book of recipes specifically with our food storage.  This one won't be done until after we move into our new home.  I've been using my food storage, but not restocking it because of our pending moving plans.  Moving food storage is a pain!  So after we move, I'll have a better idea of what food areas I need to work on and not to mention more room to store it all!

Month Idea 6: Gratitude--keeping a gratitude journal every day for that month.  I've done gratitude journals in the past, and they help me to focus on the positives in life and keep things in perspective.  I also want to answer this question that Eyring mentioned in a past conference talk: How have I seen God's hand in my life today?

Month Idea 7: Crafts--spending a whole month just on craft projects for the new home, doing sewing projects, crochet, etc.  I'm not the best seamstress, and I'd really like to develop that talent more.

Month Idea 8: Charity/Service--getting the family involved in service projects throughout the month.  I'll plan this one for a month when our ward is in charge of cleaning the church building as that is an easy family service project.  Now that Caleb is getting older, I really want him to understand the importance of helping other people for no other reward than it's what Jesus would do.  I think he associates service or helping with getting a reward afterwards.

Month Idea 9: Stimulate the mind in new ways--take time to learn new things, read different books than I normally would, study a topic that interests me, etc.

Some goals I want to work on consistently throughout the year: 

1) Finish turning my blog into books by year--it made me so happy to do the first year of my blog!

2) Index 200 names per month* (maybe I'll make this number higher--we'll see)

3) Read a spiritual book at least every other month--I make time to read fun literature frequently and have never taken the time to read books by General Authorities etc. 

4) Start a Happiness Box and add to it every month.  A Happiness Box is a collection of all sorts of little trinkets meant to trigger happy thoughts and memories.

5) Exercise regularly--I always make this a priority because it really does put me in a good mood.  I just signed up for my 5th half marathon scheduled Saturday, March 2, 2012, so after baby comes, I have some serious training to do.

6) Leisurely reading--I've always loved reading, and it makes me really happy if I get a little bit of time each day to read for fun.

*I just started indexing about two weeks ago.  It definitely makes me happy!  I feel so good knowing that I can sit down and do a little bit each day that might make a difference in someone's family history.  I feel like it's a productive use of my time, and I think it's fun!  I first learned about it over a year ago and wanted to get started right away.  At the time, I was teaching preschool and serving in the Primary Presidency.  I just didn't have time, and I felt so guilty about it!  After getting released from the presidency a few months ago and not teaching preschool this year, I knew it was the perfect time to relieve this guilt and get started.  I love it!  I'm almost finished with my first 200 names.

I am SO excited for this year adventure, and so grateful to have friends to keep me accountable!

Coming Soon

We're so excited about the house, but it feels so far off.  In case you missed a previous post, after much careful searching, we have purchased a model home in a neighborhood nearby.  We have to wait until they are done building in the section and no longer have need of the model home to show off to potential buyers.  They were down to two lots to sell, but two people backed out of other contracts, so now we're up to four lots to sell.  We're trying to be patient and in the mean time enjoying the things we love about our home now.  We will get a 60 day notice when they will start converting the offices into our garage and that's when we'll put our current home up on the market and hope for the best.  Houses in our neighborhood are not selling well but the average days on the market for renting is less than 2 weeks.  So if a determined amount of months go by without anyone interested in buying, we'll look into the option of renting.  

Although it seems like a long ways a way and therefore difficult to get too excited about moving in, it's fun to look at pictures and make plans about where to put things in the new house.

#1 thing I love about the house is that it is already painted and decorated professionally!!!  Decorating a home intimidates me!  I try, but I'm never quite satisfied or willing to put that much time/money into it.  They are leaving several decorations behind...curtains, bedspreads, rugs, pictures that are too high/troublesome to take down, etc.  Several other furniture items we will purchase at a discounted rate.  Another perk of a model home is that it is already landscaped!  Matt did a beautiful job on our current home with landscaping the front and back yards, but we also love that the work is already done on this new home.  I'm itching to add some color to the yard with flowers though.

Front of the home

It has a tandem 3 car garage.  One really nice perk is that they will leave the very back closet of one of the offices alone and not convert that to the garage space.  So we'll have a little less space in that 3rd garage, but also have an air-conditioned room for food storage!  I DO NOT like the divider between the garages.  What a pain that will be backing in and out of the garage every day!

Study

Guest bedroom downstairs

We're still debating leaving this a guest bedroom or turning it into a nursery.

Dining room

This will be my piano room.  We'll put a piano on the wall you can see and the opposite wall will have a big bookshelf (eventually).

Family room

One thing I was really looking for in a home was a spacious family room.  Most of the other houses that we looked at, the family room was quite small.

Kitchen

The paint color doesn't look all that great in this picture, but I like it a lot in person.

 Master bedroom downstairs

Master bathroom

His/her closet

This definitely makes the top 5 of favorite things about the house.  Right now my closet is jam-packed with my clothes and food storage.  Matt's tinier closet is jam-packed with clothes, all our games and a few other storage items.  How nice it will be to have space to walk around!  I don't think we'll be able to fill this closet up.

Media room upstairs

If needed, we'll convert this to a bedroom one day.

 Game room upstairs

I'll use this room to teach preschool.  Another thing I love about the house is how much closet/storage space it has because I've started collecting a lot of preschool stuff.

This will be the boys room upstairs.

There is also a "girls" room upstairs that is decorated/painted so cute.  I am so torn whether to hold out for a girl someday and leave the paint or whether to change the paint and make this the baby's room/nursery.

Backyard patio

The backyard

 The backyard is the #2 reason why I love the house more than any other we looked at.  The new trend is to build houses closer together to fit more homes in a neighborhood.  Every other house we looked at, we may have liked or loved the inside, but the backyard size was a huge turnoff.  Our current backyard is modest, and I just don't want to go smaller.  Lots of room for soccer and baseball with my 3 boys!

Our current backyard

 Now it's just a waiting game and starting to get our current home ready to sell!

Adjusting

*Watch for a post in the next few days of pictures of our new house! :o)

Following up from my last post, I decided to talk to the principal about being able to volunteer in the classroom.  I just was too frustrated that my teaching skills couldn't be utilized to help the class and that I couldn't be in there once a week to get a glimpse into Caleb's learning environment.  I was nervous about "going over the teacher's" head simply because I didn't want to ruin the teacher/parent relationship.  It took a few days for the principal to get back to me, so I assume that she talked through my note with Caleb's teacher.  She finally called me back and told me that she stands by what Caleb's teacher told me about being in the classroom.  She said it was school-wide policy that parents couldn't be in the classroom for confidentiality reasons--I can't know the skill levels of the other students in case I decide to share that information.  This frustrated me, because as a teacher, I know how to keep student scores etc. confidential.  I would have been more than happy to sign a contract of some sort for legal reasons pledging my silence.  I don't even know a single parent from the classroom that I would be able to talk to anyone or share information!!  I mentioned that all my friends in surrounding schools were able to volunteer in the classroom despite this "confidentiality concern."  But it was all to no avail.

So I "volunteered" at Caleb's school last week by sitting in a workroom, writing out student names for an upcoming project all by my lonesome.  I've worked out the volunteering time to back up to Caleb's lunch, so after I work for an hour, I get to go sit with Caleb at lunch once a week.  He was so excited to see me! (I know one day it won't be so exciting to see his mom at school.)

We tried being a car rider for a few days but found out it only saved us 10 minutes in the morning and less than 5 minutes in the afternoon.  The car rider line is SO long that no matter how I timed it for the few days I tried, I couldn't pick up Caleb any sooner than 3:30, 25 minutes after school let out.  (Not to mention that car rider was a HUGE waste of my time sitting in that long line two times a day, but I was definitely willing to do it.)  Because the location of the school is on a busy street, there are no walkers or bikers, so everyone is a car rider or bus rider.  Caleb said he hated waiting in the hallway after school for his name to be called and that he liked being a bus rider better...so we went back to the bus.

One thing we've really concentrated on since school started is making the weekends SUPER fun so Caleb has something to look forward to all week long.  This past Friday, Matt made arrangements to come home from work early so that he could pick Caleb up from school at 2:45.  We will not be making a habit of picking up Caleb early from school, but I had received a coupon from AMF bowling for $5 all you can bowl (shoes included) until 5pm.  What a super deal!  Caleb LOVES bowling and that was an activity we did semi-frequently this summer because I signed up for a free summer bowling program through AMF.  (The deal was you paid for shoes and got two games free.)  So Matt surprised Caleb, and they spent two hours bowling together--the bowling alley was completely dead so they let Matt bowl for free with him.

While I went to Time Out for Women this past weekend, Matt planned a really fun Saturday with the boys full of fun activities: fishing, going to a park, flying some helicopter toys that you shoot up real high in the air with a rubber band, and lunch at Burger King.

The previous weekend we practiced some baseball to gear up for Caleb's first baseball season starting in a few weeks.  Caleb's really excited and will do super great!  Then we all went out for ice cream.

Week 4 of school is almost complete, and things are finally starting to improve.  Week 3, the complaining about school every day started to become every few days.  Just yesterday, Caleb got off the bus and told me that school doesn't seem so long anymore.  My anxiety level has been able to come down this last week from worrying about Caleb all the time! I love being able to meet him for lunch once a week, even though I can't see him in the classroom environment.  I think he's having trouble making friends still, so I'd like to somehow set up play dates with a few kids from his class.  School fills up the weekdays though and Saturdays are always so busy.  When is there time for play dates anymore?!?

Carter and I are adjusting to the rhythm of life without Caleb during the day.  Carter is starting to play independently better, whereas a few weeks ago he couldn't handle playing or even watching a TV show unless I was right next to him.  (He was used to doing everything with Caleb.)  It was obviously difficult for me to do anything around the house like that, so we've been working on it.  Just recently he's started making voices when he plays with things like cars, so he's using his imagination better to be able to play by himself.

I just finished up project 1 of my goal projects this school year: I turned the 2007-2008 year of my blog into a book so that I could have a hard copy of this journal.  I'm going to do one book per year from here on out; that means I have 4 more books to make still...very time-consuming formatting pictures and text, proofreading, etc., but I can't wait to have it all done!  I'll take a break before starting the next year in order to do some indexing, another project goal I've set for this school year.

Tough Transition

We've all been adjusting to having Caleb go to school now.  Any other mother I've talked to with a new kindergartener has said how much their child is loving school and made the transition really well. Unfortunately, Caleb is having a really tough time, and I decided to record it for journaling purposes.  (I'm in the process of turning my blog into a book right now by year so that I have a hard copy of this online journal.)  This post is going to be long, so bear with me.

Two weeks in, and I've tried to be really patient about everything.  It can only get better right?  My biggest gripe about the schools here is all day Kindergarten.  I've been dreading Caleb starting school specifically for this reason because I don't agree with it.  I personally think all day school every day is too much for a 5-year-old.  I can't help but have frustrations towards this recent change (I believe 2007) to accommodate the working mom's schedule because it may be meeting the needs of other parents, but it is not meeting the needs of my child.  I am so jealous of all the out-of-state moms I've talked to whose kid only has to go half day.  Be so grateful!!!  I also have heard of some friends whose child goes every T/Th and every other Friday (while the other half goes M/W and every other Friday) or another friend sends their child to half day for the first semester, then transitions to full day Kindergarten for the second semester.  All those options sound fabulous!!

Caleb is a child who has not needed sleep to be happy as other kids seem to, so he doesn't come home tired or cranky each day.  Most every day he has come home in a good mood, excited to be home.  We've established the routine of doing something fun for the first 45 minutes when he gets home (play soccer outside, play a game inside, etc.), then it's time to do homework (15 min.), practice reading (15 min.), and then do a piano lesson (about 20 min.).  After that, it's dinner time, and too soon for Caleb, it's time to start getting ready for bed.  In his mind, there is not enough time in the day for anything fun, and he's right.  We can't go to the zoo anymore or to Pump it Up or any of the other fun activities we did every day up until now.  As the bedtime process starts, so does the complaining.  Caleb doesn't whine much through the complaining, but constantly asks, "Why does school have to be so long?"  Or I hear: "Why do I have to go to school every day?"  "I don't want to go to school tomorrow.  Can't I just stay home?"

I've been trying to do little "extra" things to brighten his days.  I'll make his favorite treats to put in his lunch (he loves banana bread).  I always have a note in his lunch box saying 'Mommy and Daddy love you.'  Matt will go into work 20 minutes later two mornings a week in order to walk Caleb to the bus stop, which Caleb loves (which Matt also does to let me get my weekday running in). We talk about the fun things we're going to do on Saturday or a movie we're going to rent for Friday night.  But going to school day in and day out has been really tough on him because it's so long. It tears at my heartstrings because he really tried hard for about the first 6 days or so to have a positive attitude and to buck up because this is what all the kids have to do.  Now his attitude is turning sour pretty quickly.

As each day passed, slowly we could get information out of Caleb of why he doesn't like going to school.  I was upset the first 3 days of school because there was no recess plus no running around in P.E., according to Caleb.  He said they practiced saying "1, 2, Eyes on You" and talking about the rules.  So the first three days of school my son got no time to run around and play and be a kid!!  After hearing that, I really started focusing on doing some physical activity every day when he got home from school.  Caleb has yet to go out to recess...I understand that schools have to be very cautious about playing outside in the heat (although I've been doing it with Caleb every day when he gets home from school, and we just know that we're going to come in sweaty and need some water when we're done).  But I know how much kids need that outside time to play as they want.  When I taught preschool, it made a MAJOR difference on the way the day went if we couldn't go outside because it was raining.  Kids need that time to play make-believe or just to run around and get energy out.  If I was concerned about the weather being too hot, I cut recess time in half and we all had cold water afterwards.  I was even more upset to learn that the three other schools close by have all gone out to recess at least a few times.  Grrr.  Instead of going out to recess each day, they've been watching "Word Girl."  Caleb was really embarrassed to tell me about it after the first few days when I asked what they did instead of recess because this was a show that I didn't allow him to watch at home.  I actually haven't taken the time to sit down and watch this show, but I also haven't taken the time to watch 'Sponge Bob' and yet I know that's a show I don't want my children watching.  I'm sure the show is fine, apparently it teaches vocabulary, but any glimpses I've seen of it, I just didn't like the cartoon-ish vibe of the show with the flying monkey.  Bottom line, there were better things we could be doing with our time.

Caleb admitted just a few days ago that he really doesn't like riding the bus.  It's something I have been concerned about as a parent because the commute time both ways adds that much more time that he's away from home. He gets picked up 45 minutes before school starts to allow for the kids that need it to get to school in time for breakfast.  He gets dropped off 30 minutes after school ends.  Matt and I asked why he doesn't like riding the bus anymore--at first he was ecstatic and loved it.  He says that the bus driver just yells the whole time to sit down and be quiet.  We talked through how buses don't have seat belts and that it is very dangerous if kids are standing up, and the bus driver might need to yell so the kids in the very back of the bus can hear him.  But I could also see it from Caleb's eyes as a small boy being terrified of an adult yelling constantly.  Along these lines, there are so many rules to remember and follow about school that I'm sure it's overwhelming at first.  Caleb is such a perfectionist and wants so hard to please adults that I'm sure he gets stressed out about it all.  Anyway, I decided that's a change we're going to try out this week to see if it helps; I'm going to drive Caleb to and from school every day.  (Again, I wish we lived close enough to walk to school!!)  That will allow more time in the morning to be home and hopefully we'll get home faster than the bus as far as picking him up from school.  We'll see if this helps...

The other day Caleb and I were sitting down working on his homework assignment of drawing a picture of his teacher and filling in the blank: "My teacher is ________."  He drew a picture of his teacher just fine, but struggled to come up with an adjective to describe her.  I threw out several possibilities: nice, kind, smart, happy, etc.  He turned down each of these, so I started to throw out more neutral adjectives: short, tall, funny, etc.  We were getting no where, and I started to get a little frustrated that he wouldn't just pick one so we could be done with his homework!  After several more minutes of back-and-forth, he finally told me the adjective he wanted to write down: bad.  Uh, red flag.  We spent the next several minutes talking about why he wanted to write that word down and how that word might hurt his teacher's feelings.  He wouldn't open up to me or Matt later on about why he wanted to write that word.  Caleb and I finally compromised on the word sad.

There have been a few other things that have bothered me about the school in general that I won't get into, but I'm still fuming about one thing in particular.  After going through the online process of getting approved to be a volunteer, I wrote to the teacher expressing my excitement to volunteer in Caleb's classroom.  She had mentioned at Parent Night that she would love to have volunteers to help cut things out for class, if parents were willing.  I wrote to the teacher after the first week of school explaining that I would love to do more than just cutting.  I explained my background: a degree in Elementary education, taught for 2 1/2 years, gave up teaching to stay home and raise a family once I had Caleb.  I explained that I missed teaching quite a bit which is why I have used tutoring and teaching preschool these last two years as a way to fill this desire to teach.  My goal in volunteering was to be in the classroom helping with pull-out groups in math or reading or anything along those lines.  As a teacher of 22 children of varying levels of learning and having been in those shoes before, I knew that a parent volunteering with my background would be a great asset.  But my assumption was incorrect.  Because the school Caleb attends is a Title I school, the school can afford to hire paraprofessionals for just this purpose, to go in and assist in the classroom.  Caleb's teacher told me she doesn't have any need for me in the classroom, but really only has a need for me to help cut things out or make copies.  She specifically mentioned that on the days I do come in to help with these needs, that I could pick one of two workrooms to work in.

I was equally shocked and crushed.  I don't mind helping in any way that she needs, but with the concerns I have about Caleb right now, I really wanted to be in the classroom.  In answer to Caleb's constant complaining, I mistakenly mentioned that Caleb would start seeing me in his classroom once a week helping his teacher.  He was so excited about having me there and asked every day since when I would be coming in.  His teacher just told me her volunteering "needs" this past Friday, and now I have to break the news to Caleb still.

Since I have a masters degree in Library Science, the other avenue I was hoping for was to volunteer in the library once a week and possibly coordinate it with the day that Caleb goes to the library.  That desire was crushed as well when I was told that the librarian was on maternity leave, and I wouldn't be able to come in until she gets back in November.  Of course I'll be having a baby in November and was planning on taking a few months off from volunteering.  So I wouldn't be able to start helping in the library until January.

I'm trying to be patient and to wait things out.  (The idea of home-schooling has crossed my mind a few times though.)  Caleb will adjust to this new schedule eventually and hopefully the complaining will stop as well as the feelings of not liking school.  I'm trying to not be so dramatic about his experience so far.  Really things are okay, and it's not the end of the world that we've had a rough start.  But as any mother knows, it's so hard to not be over-protective of your child or to be concerned when you perceive things aren't going well.

My feelings about the experience thus far are only magnified with the fact that we didn't intend on Caleb ever attending this school.  When we moved into our house, we knew it would be a starter home and that we would only be in it for about 5 years.  We've been looking at houses the last year trying to decide on the best area to move and factoring in Matt's commute to work each day.  After much searching and prayer, we found and purchased a home where everything seemed to work out just right with the timing and the deal we found.  The catch (and the reason I haven't posted about it yet) is that we can't move into it for another 6 months.  It is a model home in a neighborhood nearby, which very much appealed to me because it's already decorated/painted before you move in!  (Let's just say that decorating a home all cute is not one of my talents.)  Plus model homes always have a few extra perks.  The circumstances are that we can't move in until they are completely finished selling homes in that area; the good news is there are only two more lots to sell and build!  In the mean time, the builder is paying us rent each month at a good rate, plus taxes while they are still there.  Since we bought the home before school started, we thought things would work out perfectly with Caleb starting school in that neighborhood.  I did NOT want to transfer him mid-year.  Long story short, because we didn't have an exact date of when we would be in the home, Caleb couldn't attend school there.  (Believe me that we fought this hard, but you can't win everything.)

So my prayer, as of now, is that the last two lots sell quickly so we can start transferring Caleb to this new school, where he's guaranteed to have at least a few friends from church in his class since a LOT of members live in this neighborhood.  Right now he has no friends from church in his class, which I guess is a good experience for Caleb in learning to make friends.  Plus in the new home, we'll be close enough to walk to school together everyday!  I'm holding out that things will get better at his current school, but I'm not as nervous about transferring mid-year as I was initially.  (The new school is also not a Title I school and hopefully will be excited to have me volunteer and help in the classroom!!)

Now that I've announced about our new house, I'll post some pictures next time!  We're so excited about it!!!  (And hats off to you if you actually read this entire post!)