Clearing Webs

I Hate to Brag, but. . .

Let's start with Mother's Day. The boys and Andy made me a couple t-shirts: "Best Mom Ever. . . Hands Down" with all the hand prints and, yes, Arlo and Bela's paw prints, too. That was incredibly sweet and pretty much what one expects for Mother's Day. I knew Andy planned on taking me to dinner minus our beautiful offspring and that's exactly what I wanted: a little time with Andy away from the kids. Mother's Day is for babysitters. That's my motto during this stage of my life. So he took me out for steak and scrumptious rolls (mmm, yeast rolls. . .) and I was pretty much high. Then, that stinkin' man pulls out of his pocket the freakin' box my engagement ring came in! You see, about three years ago I broke my finger and had to have my platinum wedding band and engagement ring cut off. It wasn't pretty. Then a couple years ago when we moved to Boise it seemed the small matter of said platinum pieces and accompanying diamond were slightly misplaced. Andy and I have been looking for them off and on for about a year now and I had gone through the difficult task of reconciling myself to them being lost. Then here it is, my diamond engagement ring, found and back in one piece! It was awesome. I cried and it looked like this big fat pregnant woman had just gotten engaged. Which was even better for our waitress b/c we'd just finished talking to her about how this was baby number four for us. It's like when we first got engaged; I can't stop staring at my finger. *sigh*


Now for brag number two. As of today at roughly eleven a.m. Gideon is riding his bicycle without training wheels. Which wouldn't be such a surprise if we'd been working with him on it. Andy took the trainers off one of the bikes a few weekends ago and it's just been laying there for weeks. Our friend Jerome picked it up and tried this morning, making it a few feet at a time. We were so pumped for him and naturally Gid was now motivated to try. The little freak tottered a couple times then took off about thirty feet. Tottered again, then was riding. That was it. He gets wobbly around turns and falls periodically, but he's out there just riding around on his no-training wheels bike like he's been doing it for a while! I'm so proud.

Brag three. I've been waiting about a year and a half to blog it, and here it is: Gid's been reading since he was three and a half. Started with three letter words and now he's reading words like chronicle, writing, continued. We'd been thinking about homeschooling him anyway and this pretty much solidified it. I'm not going to send him to a public school where the rest of the kids are learning their letter sounds and he's able to read short chapter books on his own. It'll kill his love of learning, which he's just full of right now. I'd been thinking of doing the homeschool co-op at our church where he'd be in the classroom setting two days a week and with me the rest of the time, but he'd still be held to the same curriculum the rest of the kids were on. So we found K12's IDVA which my sister's done in Georgia w/a couple of her kids. It counts as a public school so they provide all the resources including computer, printer, books, etc but I'm the one implementing the material. They've done the hard work: creating scope and sequence, writing lesson plans, pulling together materials. We work w/a certified teacher (which I am already, but this provides the accountability I think I need to stay on track). At the beginning the child tests in to see where he's at, the parent and IDVA associate decide placement and you're provided lesson plans, materials, support and regular get-togethers (which usually involve free food - mmm). Gid did the testing early this spring and was on a third grade language arts level and first to second math level. We decide to start him on a first grade curriculum in LA and math and kindergarten for the rest. The beauty is this will make sure he doesn't miss things like the literature he should be exposed to, but we can absolutely skip everything he already knows. Each unit has an end test he can take at the beginning so we skip the parts he knows and only cover what he needs. So if he finishes the first grade LA curriculum half way through the year we can move on to the second grade as he's ready. And he can be on a third grade language arts, first grade math, k science, etc if that's where he's at. It's flexible and completely tailored to his individual needs yet the hard work is done for me. I'm excited about starting - only thing is we're supposed to start in August which is only a few weeks after the new baby's due to be here. So, Oma, Nana, put your teaching hats on for your visits here!

Next brag point is related to the last. Ike's beginning to read now. *gulp* Just past three and a half years old and he's got the three-letter short vowel sound words going. It's funny to see the differences despite the age similarities in their beginning to read. Gid was completely driven to learn to gain reading as a skill and to master this ability. Isaac simploy wants access to the stories. I love it. I think he'll be much more into sight words where Gid's strength is phonics. Everybody needs both, but there always seems to be a tendency towards one or the other in different personalities.

And last brag: Phin's moved to a big boy bed. Somewhere in the middle of our stomach bug crisis Phin learned to get himself out of his pack-n-play by himself. I decided if I was going to be doing the battle of keeping him in bed I might as well go ahead and make the switch to the big bed in the boys' room w/Ike. So Ike's in the upper bunk in the boys room and Phin's in the bed beneath him. Phin pretty much stays in bed but he loves to stand in his bed and bug Ike, singing, poking at him and whatever else comes to his deranged blonde little mind. Phin loves him some Ike. So the problem now is Phin gets to sleep b/twn ten-thirty and eleven-thirty despite putting him down at eight or nine. Then he and Ike are up at six-thirty making trouble together (incidentally, what exactly motivates a child to get into a diaper pail and empty dirty diapers onto the floor one at a time?) Gid's moved into what we used to call the guest room, the room Phin previously slept in. We've painted it complete w/bluebirds at Gid's request. He's sleeping on a single bed, not a kid's bed and will be sharing his room w/the baby when he/she comes.

Wow. That's pretty much it for now. Maybe if we're all lucky I'll get pictures of the boys rooms so you can see the paint jobs. I don't think I ever showed the stars I painted in the first boys room, eh? And perhaps some video of Gid's bike riding.