What an Adventure

Mornings are a bit crazy at our house. Breakfast, lunch making, getting dressed, folders signed, teeth brushed. All that type of stuff. And I needed the boys to empty the dishwasher for me. Andrew and Zane have a method to empty the dishwasher. Usually one of them does the top rack and the other one gets the bottom rack. They were racing for the machine and in the process Andrew kicked the transition strip in between the kitchen and the family room and dropped like a rock crying. He pulled it together and I sent him off to school. When he got home though he was in a lot of pain and couldn't bear weight on his foot at all. There were a lot of tears and so I took him in to the doctor. After a long wait, some x-rays and an exam, the results came back that Andrew had not broken his foot, he had just bruised it. So very glad we managed to avoid a broken bone! Andrew was fascinated with the process and the x-rays. He was so excited they sent him home with a copy of his foot x-ray.

A Tooth!

Somebody cut their first tooth last night. I saw it coming in yesterday and by this morning it was completely broken through. Break out the steak and beef jerky, Ollie is a hungry man!

Catching the Bug Young

I was attempting to feed Oliver some cereal when Eric decided to turn on the football game. Instantly Oliver twisted his head upside down to try and see the screen. Apparently football is a gene in my boys and it develops early.

Oh Zane...

Tonight Zane was in rare form. Eric was out mowing the lawn and found a garter snake and brought it up close to the house to show the kids. Zane went flying outside to check out the snake and then he wanted to hold it. After a few freak outs over whether or not the snake was going to bit him he finally grabbed the snake from Eric. I sent Andrew out with the camera because snakes and I do not mix. Plus Eric has been known to pretend to throw snakes at me. The girls would only look out the window. Lucy almost looked like she was going to pass out. And Gwen wouldn't even get too close to the window. They get their hatred of those slithery fiends from me. Plus the girls were way too busy playing with this new bin of dress up clothing. But Zane could not be left out of the fun with that either! He was absolutely all in with the dress up clothing. What a nut!

Loving the Saucer

This little man just LOVES the saucer to play in. He watches everything that the bigger kids are doing and is so easily entertained. Oliver also is in love with his cereal. He is already eating it like a champ. He fits in with our family of big eaters quite nicely indeed.

Another Smart Cookie!

I discovered this afternoon that Andrew had brought home his scores for the MSP test he took last spring. The tests were given the week that I had Oliver and I was a little bit on edge about the whole thing because I didn't want me having a baby to stress him out and give him test anxiety. I shouldn't have worried. Andrew did great. He scored 4's on all three disciplines (Reading, Writing and Math) and even scored 100% on several of the sections in each discipline. One amazed set of parents at our house this week for sure!

Top of the Class

We have always know that Zane was a smart cookie. However we were not fully aware at how well he was doing in school. Today Zane's teacher sent home the results of the math and reading assessments that they did at the start of school. In math they are required to learn their math addition and subtraction facts 0-18 and be able to pass at a 90% accuracy level for second grade. Zane has already passed the addition test (98%) and is super close to passing the subtraction test (84%). And that was before they even really started covering the second grade material.

As if the math numbers weren't enough to make us very proud of him his reading numbers came back amazing. At the start of second grade kids should be reading at least 52 words a minute, Zane is reading 167. The expected accuracy percentage is 90%, Zane is reading at 97% accuracy. When ranked against his classmates he was the top reader in his class and his teacher told us he was the second highest reader in all of the second grades in the school.

To say that we are floored is probably an understatement. This all comes so easily to Zane and it is utterly maddening to Eric and I how little that he applies himself and is able to still pull those types of marks. We shall see where the future takes Zane. I am excited to watch it unfold.

Another One Bites the Dust

Lucy lost her second tooth tonight! She has been working on it for several days and finally tonight she was brave enough to actually twist it out. Unfortunately she did it while we were at soccer practice and the tooth went flying into the grass and we were unable to find it. No worry! She dictated a note for the tooth fairy.

Dear Tooth Fairy,
I lost my tooth in the grass. I can't find it so we just send a note.
Lucy

Harmonica Boy

Play Time!

Ollie is getting quite fond of his saucer! He will sit and look at the toys for 15 minutes at a time now. It is so nice to be able to put him some place that is safe and know that he can be entertained while I get some stuff done. And I could kiss these sweet chunky cheeks all day long.

Last S'mores of the Summer

With the weather supposed to be changing next week, we did one more backyard campfire with s'mores. The kids all had there fill and it was with much sadness that we put the stuff away. Summer is so much fun and so short every year!

Cereal for Ollie

My boy is getting so big! He has been trying to put stuff in his mouth for the last couple of weeks and nursed almost the entire night last night.

So it was time for cereal. I am not certain that he was impressed. But some of it went down the pipes so it was a success!

A Novel Concept: Sharing

Lucy has had a great start in kindergarten. She is learning a lot and has come home with many different things that she has learned. A week into school she informed me. "We learned about sharing today at school!" Ummmm... is this the first she has heard about sharing? I am pretty sure that with six siblings she has heard about sharing a time or two at home.

Missing Lucy

Miss Gwendalyn is not thrilled with this whole kindergarten thing for Lucy. And honestly I am not surprised. She adores her big sister and for all that they fight like feral cats half the time, they are best friends. It has been very apparent this first week that Lucy was in school. Gwen wanders around somewhat lost. She is a kid that can play by herself but she really does like to play with Lucy the best. Reid is not super great at playing house/family/Ponies/Polly Pockets. He just hasn't figured it out yet. This year may be quite long for Gwen.

Sweet Ollie Benjamin: 4 Months

Could this little munchkin be ANY cuter? I adore his chunka cheeks. And the tipped out elfin ears? Melt my heart.

Paging Madam Tooth Fairy!

 Miss Lucy has had two loose teeth for quite a few days. She really needed to get them out because her adult tooth is coming up behind the baby teeth. One baby tooth was quite a bunch looser than the other and it was practically dangling. So Lucy worked on it to get it looser and ultimately we managed to pull it out with some dental floss. Some of my kids have been super tough about the blood involved, not Lucy. It was a sea of drama and tears to get it out. So next time I am going to leave it all up to her. I can't go through that 20 times!

Oliver Benjamin: 4 Month Stats

Took Ollie into the doctor this week a few days shy of his 4 month mark to get him checked up. He is doing great and hitting all the milestones that she wanted him to hit. I thought he might be bigger than he actually is. He is in 6-9 month clothing and it is none too huge on him! He is right in the mix with Andrew and Reid with his size. I seriously love the comparison game with heights and weights!

Height: 26.5" (96%)
Weight: 17 lbs. 4.5 oz (85%)

First Day of School!

The first day of school is upon us again and the kids were so excited/nervous. I must admit that I had the nervous anxiety thing going this morning too. It didn't help that I had a panic attack at 4:00 this morning about whether or not Lucy would refuse to get on the bus and go to school. You know that is how she rolls.

Andrew is headed to 5th grade, Zane to 2nd grade and Lucy to Kindergarten. When I got up this morning she was already dressed in her first day of school outfit and eating breakfast. I really had nothing to worry about.

And even if she had been a bit gun-shy about getting on the bus she had two big brothers there to help pave the way for her.

Seriously nothing worried or sad or anxious about this crew!

The 'hang out with mom' crew. It was shockingly easy to get out the door this morning without the bigger ones.