School Rules! My world.

Last Tuesday was the day I had been waiting for, nay, DREAMING ABOUT since June.

The first day of school!!!

As I have confessed before, I am not a very good summer mom. I just don’t enjoy having all the kids under my feet ALL DAY. And in the big kids’ case, in each other’s faces all day.  The reality is that we are all much happier when the kids are in school.  And, since Sophie was starting full[day kindergarten, Jonah and I were finally going to have our chance to be one-on-one, and I was truly, truly, anticipating that with joy.

But let me back up a little bit.  As I mentioned, Sophie was starting kindergarten!! This is major major major, because almost two years ago when her developmental delays were first diagnosed and I sat at the table with a team from our local public school district, they asked me, “What are your goals for Sophia?” and I answered, “I want her to be able to go to regular kindergarten.”

And she is going to a regular kindergarten.  Entering it reading at a first grade level, knowing her sight words up to fourth grade.

All I can say about that is praise the Lord.  Thank you, thank you, thank you God! We are so grateful.

Sophie was SO excited to go to kindergarten.  She ran right into the room and hugged her teacher. She sat at her desk and happily kissed us goodbye.  She was so thrilled and happy to be in that classroom that I didn’t even get teary-eyed.  I could be nothing but happy for her!

Sophie at her desk on her first day of kindergarten

She loved every minute of her first day and every minute since!  I love hearing her blow-by-blow reports when she comes home.  At parent information night, her teacher said to me, “I think Sophie is going to be a teacher when she grows up.” Which to me, is code for “Sophie enjoys telling everyone in the class what to do.”  It made me laugh and did not surprise me one bit!

Joshua, even though he is entering third grade, was a little bit more hesitant about starting school.  My sensitive guy was so afraid of the unknown, he would have rather just stayed home with me.  But, he had a great day and is having a great year so far, just like I knew he would!

They are so darn cute I had to take their pic on the 2nd day of school too!

So, after a week, my big kids are doing well in school and enjoying it. And even though I have taken on a part-time work-from-home job, Jonah and I are really enjoying having our alone time, too!

I love him. So freaking much.

I love my one-on-one time with my boy, just me and him without our lives being ruled by the arduous preschool drop-off/pick-up schedule. I love having that special time with just HIM that I was able to have with Joshua before Sophie came along and with Sophie after Joshua went to school and before Jonah was born. It’s finally the baby’s turn to have mommy all to himself! So far, it’s been awesome!  I love, love, love, that baby boy.  He and I are having so much fun together, and when the big kids come home from school, we are all happy to see each other and it’s fantastic.

I love school.  It rules my world!

Are your kids off to school yet this year?

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Dirty Phonics on the Bathroom Wall (revisited)

This post popped into my head this morning for some reason, and just thinking about it, I couldn’t stop laughing! Originally published almost five years ago, when Joshua wasn’t even FOUR (and now he’s about to start THIRD GRADE!!) it’s one of my favorites. I couldn’t fight off the urge to share it with you in case you weren’t reading on December 7, 2007…enjoy! (And comment! Please!)
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Joshua is almost four and his intelligence astounds me every day (’cause you know, Bobby and I are a couple of dummies). He’s known all his letters since before he was two, partially because we have a magnetic bathroom wall. Yesssss, the tiles on our bathroom wall are made of metal. I’m not sure what era this is from exactly but it’s both functional and aesthetically pleasing. Yay! Anyhoo, a couple of years ago we got a slew of magnetic alphabet letters for the bathroom wall to entertain educate him while I was in the shower. Recently, thanks to his super-genius and the PBS Kids show Word World, Joshua has begun spelling actual words with said letters, without even asking me how they are spelled! Yesterday when I got out of the shower, he said, “Look Mom, I’m going to spell the word bug.” He then proceeded to find the b,u, and g and put them in the correct order. I was amazed and of course rewarded him with MUCH praise. Then, he asked me how to spell the word “corn.” I helped him sound it out, he spelled it with the letters, and I cheered again. Yay genius boy!

Fast forward to that evening at bedtime. Bobby and Joshua are in the bathroom preparing to brush Joshua’s teeth, and I am in the bedroom putting my PJs on. All of a sudden I hear Bobby calling me so I run to the bathroom. There I see that Joshua has made a new word. I won’t write it here because I don’t want my blog traffic to get perved up, but let’s just say he took the c off of corn and replaced it with a p. “Mommy look!” he cried. “I made p*rn!”

Bobby was already cracking up, and I just collapsed on the floor laughing. Joshua was veeeeery pleased that he had made us laugh and started giggling too. “I made p*rn!” he exclaimed again proudly. (OF COURSE, he has no idea what that means, or that it’s even a real word. He just knows phonics!) I was laughing so hard I was crying. “What are we gonna do?” I asked Bobby, who was no better off than I was. “I don’t know!” he said. He was cracking up so badly I thought he was going to have an asthma attack. Joshua noticed that we were slightly distracted from his spelling efforts, so he took the p away from the orn and said, “Mommy, now I’m gonna build the word p*rn and you’re gonna laugh.” So off I went again, rolling on the floor laughing so hard my stomach hurt. I thought I might be able to distract him with other words. “You can make other words that rhyme with corn, honey. Like worn or born.”

“Or p*rn!” he exclaimed.

(More uncontrollable laughter from his mature, twelve thirty-year-old parents.)

“Forget it,” said Bobby, “I’m just gonna hide all the p’s. ”

“Stupid Word World. Teaching my kid phonics!” I grumbled.

Somehow we all got calmed down, Joshua’s teeth got brushed, and we all went to bed. Bobby and I giggled about Joshua’s new word a while longer, and Bobby took all the p’s off the wall and hid them! Joshua hasn’t mentioned it today at all, but I’m preeeety sure he’s going to remember just in time to tell the babysitter or anyone and everyone at church this weekend that he “made p*rn”. And then, we will really have some ‘splaining to do!

So, stay tuned for that.

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Great at Eight

Eight years ago today I became a mother.  And so while I love all my children equally, Joshua’s birthday – February 27, 2004- is the most special of all their birthdays.  Because of course, it’s the anniversary of the day I became something I always wanted to be, and was meant to be.

The day of Joshua’s birth wasn’t exactly all that great.  Everything didn’t exactly go “as planned” – and Bobby and I always say it was the best day AND the worst day of our lives at the same time.  But of course the end result was we had this beautiful, sweet, healthy baby boy, who changed our lives forever.

He was the easiest, sweetest, baby.

And he is a great kid.

Joshua is 8
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He is the kind of kid who is loved by all – other kids, his friends’ parents, and his teachers, but especially his family. His little siblings, his daddy and I all adore him.  And I could not be any prouder of my big boy.

We had a great day celebrating him with our family, a brunch, and a cake made out of two dozen doughnuts!

I love you, Joshua Kenneth!  I know you’ll make me proud a million times over.  You really are my dream come true.  Happy Birthday my big eight-year-old!
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