Thursday, February 23, 2006
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
What a Wonderful Boy
This morning Beau Michael was playing with Leah in thier room, so I asked him to play nice, I had to hop in the shower real quick. I put the baby gate up, keeping them in thier room. When I got out of the shower, I found him in the living room playing Choo-Choo trains, 
and Leah sitting mesmerized by Teletubbies! 
Bob the Builder was the last video in before I showered, so that boy put the Teletubbies video on specially for sissy! How sweet is that??? I said to him. "Handsome! Did you put teletubbies on for sissy?" He said, "Ya". I said, "That is so nice of you to do that for sissy, thankyou so much! " He just soaked that up!
I was in town today also, and as we were walking through the store, Leah in the cart, Beau trailing behind me, an elderly woman came driving her motorized wheelchair toward me. Beau ran out in front of her, and she had to come to a very fast stop. I hollered for him to watch out, he stopped, went back behind me, and said to the lady, "Sorry!" It was so sweet coming from his 2 year old mouth. The lady was so impressed, shocked, she graciously accepted his apology. He was all smiles!
and Leah sitting mesmerized by Teletubbies! Bob the Builder was the last video in before I showered, so that boy put the Teletubbies video on specially for sissy! How sweet is that??? I said to him. "Handsome! Did you put teletubbies on for sissy?" He said, "Ya". I said, "That is so nice of you to do that for sissy, thankyou so much! " He just soaked that up! I was in town today also, and as we were walking through the store, Leah in the cart, Beau trailing behind me, an elderly woman came driving her motorized wheelchair toward me. Beau ran out in front of her, and she had to come to a very fast stop. I hollered for him to watch out, he stopped, went back behind me, and said to the lady, "Sorry!" It was so sweet coming from his 2 year old mouth. The lady was so impressed, shocked, she graciously accepted his apology. He was all smiles!
Drew...what shall I do with you?
Today, Drew came home from school complaining about a boy having slapped her hand. She said she got in trouble for no reason. I got her to emphasize a bit more, and the story changed a little to, a boy making fun of her on the bus, saying he saw her panties, she got mad, (as she is known to do!), and slapped him on the hand. I'm thinking his hand must have been the closest things to her for her to get ahold of. Well, he told on her to the bus driver, she bawled her head off on the way to school. I called this boys Mom, we talked, I let her know that I am not blaming her son, but that Drew is prone to being aggressive, and easy to anger. I told her about an incident when she was playing ball with her cousin, and he started laughing at her, which she did not like, and she hauled off and punched him in the stomach, knocked the breath out of him! This Mom replied, "Well, I think Trey's met his match!" Ha-Ha! I don't think we'll have another talk.
Thursday, February 16, 2006
What reading problem???
I laid down this evening with Drew in her bed, and we practiced her reading books from class, 'Sam' books. She read the first one with such expertise I was in shock! She had to figure out one new word, but did so very quickly! And then the next she had to practice the one new word, plus one more, she had a little bit of a hard time, I think she tries to just say the word from memory vs. sounding it out. But, she did amazing! I am so proud. I told her she earned not 1, but 5 gumballs for tomorrow. I just can't see that this meeting has to do solely with her reading abilities. I am starting to wonder even more.
Mad Momma
I called the District office to talk to them about the problems I am having with my dtr's school. He also agreed that the teachers statement set me out on a negative spin. He insisted on personally calling the school and speaking with the principal about making time ASAP for a conference. I emmediately got a call from the principal, the meeting is now February 28th. Sooner, but in my opinion, NOT SOON ENOUGH! My dtr says, "teacher will just say I'm bad, she just thinks I'm so bad!" I hate this coming from my 5 year old dtr!!!! I have DIBLES information, and I plan to let them know just exactly where they can shove it!
Wednesday, February 15, 2006
DIBLES my A**
I am just stewing right now! I have been trying to get a conference with my 5 year olds teacher for a few months. Report cards just came, and I was not happy with hers, so I tried to set up an apptmt. No luck. Finally set one up for what was supposed to be today, but the teacher cancelled it, saying,"The principal won't be able to attend, so we need to reschedule." I was speechless, I mean, I need to meet with her about this, I have NO idea what is going on. They tell me they have some special meeting planned, yet, are not telling me why, or notifying me beforehand! I looked at her, "I just don't understand why we need a principal present for a parent/teacher conference." She says to me, "Well, I just don't know what your reaction is going to be to what I have to say, or what will be said, so I just think it's better if he is there." This spun me real good! MY REACTION? WHAT I WILL SAY? WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON? AND WHY IS NOBODY TELLING ME? WHAT IS THIS BIG SECRET?! I am so angry right now. the only thing I do know is that they say her DIBLES scores are significantly low. Yeah, well, I think DIBLES is a bunch of BS! I can't sleep, my stomach hurts, I have a headache. And, this meeting is April 25th!!! OMG! I am so very unhappy with this school right now, I could scream!
READ THIS:
National Clout of DIBELS Test Draws Scrutiny
Critics say reading tool's scope fails to justify its broad use.
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
Just a few years ago, a set of tests known as “dibbles” would have elicited little more than a chuckle from educators or anyone else. Today, they’re taking it seriously, because the acronym DIBELS has come to symbolize the standard for early-literacy assessment throughout much of the country.
Teachers in Reading First schools in more than 40 states now use the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills to screen K-3 pupils for potential reading problems and to monitor their progress. And state officials are collecting the data from the short reading-fluency tests to determine whether schools receiving some of the $1 billion given annually in federal Reading First grants are making adequate progress in getting students up to grade-level proficiency.
Several states have gone so far as to adopt the assessments for all schools to use regularly.
Seen as Reliable
Developed by researchers at the University of Oregon, DIBELS has become a catchphrase in the schoolhouse and the statehouse as officials look to test data to inform instruction, to identify children at risk of failure in reading, and to hold schools accountable for student achievement.
But while teachers, administrators, and researchers praise the tests for their ease of use and reliability in predicting which children may have reading difficulties later, the use of DIBELS has drawn criticism from some in the field. Critics cite the tendency of some educators to teach to the tests or give the measures too much weight in gauging reading ability, as well as the often-aggressive promotion of DIBELS by federal employees and consultants to the Reading First program.
“If you want a test of whether kids can read fast with low comprehension, then DIBELS is great,” said G. Michael Pressley, a professor of education at Michigan State University in East Lansing and a former editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. “It is not as well developed as the claims that are being made.”
DIBELS has become the de facto national assessment for Reading First over the last three years, with the tests’ use in most of the 4,800 schools in the program and a number of other schools. Reading First, adopted under the No Child Left Behind Act, authorized $6 billion over six years to implement strongly skills-based reading instruction in the nation’s struggling schools.
Although the total number of schools using the tests is unknown, more than 8,200 schools in 2,600 districts have signed up for the associated data-management system offered by the University of Oregon at a cost of $1 per student.
DIBELS has become widely used because “it is pretty darn good,” Roland H. Good III, who developed the tests with Ruth A. Kaminski, wrote in an e-mail message to Education Week.
“DIBELS is a reliable and valid measurement tool…that helps teachers make decisions to change reading outcomes for students,” he wrote. “It is also very efficient to use and requires modest resources to implement.”
‘Lol’ and ‘Tob’
DIBELS measures such skills as letter naming, recognizing the sounds of each letter, sounding out words, and read-aloud fluency. Its appeal is that the tests are “brief, replicable, and relatively easy to administer,” said Natalie Rathvon, a Bethesda, Md.-based consultant and the author of Early Reading Assessment: A Practitioner’s Handbook. “DIBELS is great for testing those foundational skills.”
The tests for K-6 cover a range of tasks and include benchmarks for determining whether pupils are on grade level or at risk of problems with reading. On the test of letter-naming fluency for kindergartners, for example, youngsters are asked to identify as many randomly listed uppercase and lowercase letters as they can in one minute.
Sounding It Out
Children in kindergarten and 1st grade are given this test of their fluency in decoding nonsense words as part of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.
tob, dos, et, tuf, kej, mun, ik, saf, naf
SOURCE: Dynamic Measurement Group
On the nonsense-word-fluency test, K-2 pupils must decode pseudo-words, such as “lol” or “tob,” as quickly as they can for one minute, a measure intended to gauge how well they know the letter sounds. First, 2nd, and 3rd graders are also given a test of their oral-reading fluency, which measures how many words in a given text passage they can read accurately in a minute.
At Spencer Math and Science Academy in Chicago last week, Rachel Woodrick, the Reading First coach, was in the midst of testing 3rd graders on how well they could read DIBELS passages. After spending a few minutes with each student, she entered the scores into a hand-held computer and received feedback on how each child measured up to the desired standard.
“Once you learn to do the test it’s really easy to do … and it gives me a fast result,” she said. “And the test does not push [the children] to an extreme frustration level” if they are struggling with their reading.
The battery of tests was not the first choice for Illinois and some states applying for the federal money. In fact, a number of states had intended to use other assessments for screening children and gauging progress in Reading First schools. They changed their plans, they maintain, after federal officials and consultants pressured them to include DIBELS in their grant proposal as a condition for approval. Federal officials deny those charges. ("States Pressed to Refashion Reading First Grant Designs," Sept. 7, 2005.)
Still, observers say that DIBELS, which was in use years before the Reading First initiative, may have seemed the best fit for Reading First schools because the tests are quick and yield information about aptitude on a range of reading tasks. They were also designed around the same research on effective reading instruction that guides the federal initiative, Mr. Good said.
“It is not a coincidence … that the structure of our work corresponds so closely to Reading First and the National Reading Panel report,” the influential research review released in 2000, Mr. Good wrote. “We were all reading the same research and committed to following the evidence and the data.”
Competitive Edge
Some states were able to make a case for other tests. In Virginia, for example, Reading First schools use the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening tests, or PALS. That system, developed by researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has been the early-literacy assessment in that state since 1997 and is used by schools and districts in more than 40 other states as well.
Virginia was able to make its case for using the test in Reading First schools based on its use in nearly all of the state’s 135 school districts over the last 8 years. Several other states also initially chose PALS as their evaluation instrument. But federal reviewers, who questioned the validity and reliability of the tests, repeatedly returned those proposals. Marcia Invernizzi, the director of PALS, calls the federal claims “outrageous.”
“I would pit PALS’ validity and reliability studies against any Reading First assessment,” she said. “DIBELS is a terrific assessment tool, … but it lacks the instructional transparence and utility that teachers need.”
Ms. Rathvon, the Maryland-based consultant, agrees. While DIBELS provides good assessment tools, it is “a work in progress,” she writes in her book. Nor does it give teachers clear answers for designing instruction around students’ needs. For example, PALS pinpoints if a 2nd grader is reading at a level expected of a mid-year 1st grader, while DIBELS determines only if a pupil does or does not measure up to the benchmarks set for his or her own grade level.
The Virginia test system, however, was not included in a federally commissioned expert review of research-based early-literacy assessments that met Reading First requirements, although Ms. Invernizzi said she twice submitted the materials.
Only a few states were able to get tests other than DIBELS, such as the Developmental Reading Assessment and the Texas Primary Reading Inventory, approved under Reading First.
Some critics charge that DIBELS got the competitive edge not because of its superiority, but because its developers and their colleagues at the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, were key consultants to the U.S. Department of Education for Reading First. Mr. Good was on the assessment committee that evaluated 29 early-literacy tests, including DIBELS, his own product. That list was provided as a resource to states for drafting their Reading First plans.
Related Products
While the tests are free for download, slick, packaged sets and related products are sold by Sopris West, a Longmont, Colo.-based company that sells instructional materials and assessments and offers teacher training. The data-management program has been licensed to Wireless Generation, a New York City-based company selling hand-held computers to schools for assessment and data management.
States and districts have also paid for training sessions. Mr. Good said his influence on Reading First “has been negligible” and credits other researchers with guiding the federal initiative.
Some of the harshest criticism is aimed at the test content itself. Some researchers question whether children’s speed at reading nonsense words or carefully crafted passages has anything to do with the ultimate goal of comprehension, according to P. David Pearson, the dean of education at the University of California, Berkeley. Moreover, Mr. Pearson said, the assessment measures have not been studied adequately enough to support its widespread use in Reading First.
Research has shown that students’ ability to decode nonsense words, and their speed in reading grade-level passages, are valid and reliable predictors of whether they will have reading difficulties later on, according to Ms. Rathvon.
Even so, some researchers argue that DIBELS’ reliability and its usefulness to teachers is questionable.
Michigan State’s Mr. Pressley is completing a technical report on DIBELS. So far, he said, his analysis shows that it is an accurate indicator of how pupils will perform on high-stakes state tests in reading. But DIBELS does not show whether students are on target for developing higher-level reading skills, such as vocabulary and comprehension.
“These [tested skills] become your end goal,” Mr. Pressley said. “DIBELS is leading some teachers to infer the wrong end goal, which is to read the words fast.”
READ THIS:
National Clout of DIBELS Test Draws Scrutiny
Critics say reading tool's scope fails to justify its broad use.
By Kathleen Kennedy Manzo
Just a few years ago, a set of tests known as “dibbles” would have elicited little more than a chuckle from educators or anyone else. Today, they’re taking it seriously, because the acronym DIBELS has come to symbolize the standard for early-literacy assessment throughout much of the country.
Teachers in Reading First schools in more than 40 states now use the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills to screen K-3 pupils for potential reading problems and to monitor their progress. And state officials are collecting the data from the short reading-fluency tests to determine whether schools receiving some of the $1 billion given annually in federal Reading First grants are making adequate progress in getting students up to grade-level proficiency.
Several states have gone so far as to adopt the assessments for all schools to use regularly.
Seen as Reliable
Developed by researchers at the University of Oregon, DIBELS has become a catchphrase in the schoolhouse and the statehouse as officials look to test data to inform instruction, to identify children at risk of failure in reading, and to hold schools accountable for student achievement.
But while teachers, administrators, and researchers praise the tests for their ease of use and reliability in predicting which children may have reading difficulties later, the use of DIBELS has drawn criticism from some in the field. Critics cite the tendency of some educators to teach to the tests or give the measures too much weight in gauging reading ability, as well as the often-aggressive promotion of DIBELS by federal employees and consultants to the Reading First program.
“If you want a test of whether kids can read fast with low comprehension, then DIBELS is great,” said G. Michael Pressley, a professor of education at Michigan State University in East Lansing and a former editor of the Journal of Educational Psychology. “It is not as well developed as the claims that are being made.”
DIBELS has become the de facto national assessment for Reading First over the last three years, with the tests’ use in most of the 4,800 schools in the program and a number of other schools. Reading First, adopted under the No Child Left Behind Act, authorized $6 billion over six years to implement strongly skills-based reading instruction in the nation’s struggling schools.
Although the total number of schools using the tests is unknown, more than 8,200 schools in 2,600 districts have signed up for the associated data-management system offered by the University of Oregon at a cost of $1 per student.
DIBELS has become widely used because “it is pretty darn good,” Roland H. Good III, who developed the tests with Ruth A. Kaminski, wrote in an e-mail message to Education Week.
“DIBELS is a reliable and valid measurement tool…that helps teachers make decisions to change reading outcomes for students,” he wrote. “It is also very efficient to use and requires modest resources to implement.”
‘Lol’ and ‘Tob’
DIBELS measures such skills as letter naming, recognizing the sounds of each letter, sounding out words, and read-aloud fluency. Its appeal is that the tests are “brief, replicable, and relatively easy to administer,” said Natalie Rathvon, a Bethesda, Md.-based consultant and the author of Early Reading Assessment: A Practitioner’s Handbook. “DIBELS is great for testing those foundational skills.”
The tests for K-6 cover a range of tasks and include benchmarks for determining whether pupils are on grade level or at risk of problems with reading. On the test of letter-naming fluency for kindergartners, for example, youngsters are asked to identify as many randomly listed uppercase and lowercase letters as they can in one minute.
Sounding It Out
Children in kindergarten and 1st grade are given this test of their fluency in decoding nonsense words as part of the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills.
tob, dos, et, tuf, kej, mun, ik, saf, naf
SOURCE: Dynamic Measurement Group
On the nonsense-word-fluency test, K-2 pupils must decode pseudo-words, such as “lol” or “tob,” as quickly as they can for one minute, a measure intended to gauge how well they know the letter sounds. First, 2nd, and 3rd graders are also given a test of their oral-reading fluency, which measures how many words in a given text passage they can read accurately in a minute.
At Spencer Math and Science Academy in Chicago last week, Rachel Woodrick, the Reading First coach, was in the midst of testing 3rd graders on how well they could read DIBELS passages. After spending a few minutes with each student, she entered the scores into a hand-held computer and received feedback on how each child measured up to the desired standard.
“Once you learn to do the test it’s really easy to do … and it gives me a fast result,” she said. “And the test does not push [the children] to an extreme frustration level” if they are struggling with their reading.
The battery of tests was not the first choice for Illinois and some states applying for the federal money. In fact, a number of states had intended to use other assessments for screening children and gauging progress in Reading First schools. They changed their plans, they maintain, after federal officials and consultants pressured them to include DIBELS in their grant proposal as a condition for approval. Federal officials deny those charges. ("States Pressed to Refashion Reading First Grant Designs," Sept. 7, 2005.)
Still, observers say that DIBELS, which was in use years before the Reading First initiative, may have seemed the best fit for Reading First schools because the tests are quick and yield information about aptitude on a range of reading tasks. They were also designed around the same research on effective reading instruction that guides the federal initiative, Mr. Good said.
“It is not a coincidence … that the structure of our work corresponds so closely to Reading First and the National Reading Panel report,” the influential research review released in 2000, Mr. Good wrote. “We were all reading the same research and committed to following the evidence and the data.”
Competitive Edge
Some states were able to make a case for other tests. In Virginia, for example, Reading First schools use the Phonological Awareness Literacy Screening tests, or PALS. That system, developed by researchers at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, has been the early-literacy assessment in that state since 1997 and is used by schools and districts in more than 40 other states as well.
Virginia was able to make its case for using the test in Reading First schools based on its use in nearly all of the state’s 135 school districts over the last 8 years. Several other states also initially chose PALS as their evaluation instrument. But federal reviewers, who questioned the validity and reliability of the tests, repeatedly returned those proposals. Marcia Invernizzi, the director of PALS, calls the federal claims “outrageous.”
“I would pit PALS’ validity and reliability studies against any Reading First assessment,” she said. “DIBELS is a terrific assessment tool, … but it lacks the instructional transparence and utility that teachers need.”
Ms. Rathvon, the Maryland-based consultant, agrees. While DIBELS provides good assessment tools, it is “a work in progress,” she writes in her book. Nor does it give teachers clear answers for designing instruction around students’ needs. For example, PALS pinpoints if a 2nd grader is reading at a level expected of a mid-year 1st grader, while DIBELS determines only if a pupil does or does not measure up to the benchmarks set for his or her own grade level.
The Virginia test system, however, was not included in a federally commissioned expert review of research-based early-literacy assessments that met Reading First requirements, although Ms. Invernizzi said she twice submitted the materials.
Only a few states were able to get tests other than DIBELS, such as the Developmental Reading Assessment and the Texas Primary Reading Inventory, approved under Reading First.
Some critics charge that DIBELS got the competitive edge not because of its superiority, but because its developers and their colleagues at the University of Oregon, located in Eugene, were key consultants to the U.S. Department of Education for Reading First. Mr. Good was on the assessment committee that evaluated 29 early-literacy tests, including DIBELS, his own product. That list was provided as a resource to states for drafting their Reading First plans.
Related Products
While the tests are free for download, slick, packaged sets and related products are sold by Sopris West, a Longmont, Colo.-based company that sells instructional materials and assessments and offers teacher training. The data-management program has been licensed to Wireless Generation, a New York City-based company selling hand-held computers to schools for assessment and data management.
States and districts have also paid for training sessions. Mr. Good said his influence on Reading First “has been negligible” and credits other researchers with guiding the federal initiative.
Some of the harshest criticism is aimed at the test content itself. Some researchers question whether children’s speed at reading nonsense words or carefully crafted passages has anything to do with the ultimate goal of comprehension, according to P. David Pearson, the dean of education at the University of California, Berkeley. Moreover, Mr. Pearson said, the assessment measures have not been studied adequately enough to support its widespread use in Reading First.
Research has shown that students’ ability to decode nonsense words, and their speed in reading grade-level passages, are valid and reliable predictors of whether they will have reading difficulties later on, according to Ms. Rathvon.
Even so, some researchers argue that DIBELS’ reliability and its usefulness to teachers is questionable.
Michigan State’s Mr. Pressley is completing a technical report on DIBELS. So far, he said, his analysis shows that it is an accurate indicator of how pupils will perform on high-stakes state tests in reading. But DIBELS does not show whether students are on target for developing higher-level reading skills, such as vocabulary and comprehension.
“These [tested skills] become your end goal,” Mr. Pressley said. “DIBELS is leading some teachers to infer the wrong end goal, which is to read the words fast.”
Sunday, February 12, 2006
Mashed Potato Caper
I made some mashed potatoes this evening with dinner, which I must say, I rarely do. (BAD MOM!) Leah loves them! I started out feeding her from a baby spoon, but quickly graduated to just slopping a big heap of them on her high chair tray and letting her go for it! And, that, she did! She had mashed potatoes up her nose, all over her eye lids, in her hair! Beau just thought that was hilarious! "ha ha, ya-ya, mess!" ( He says her name, very strangly nowadays!)
I just LOVE Valentines Day!
Bee Mine, get it?!! Too cute!
I had to make Choo-Choo cupcakes for my Handsome! He loved it!The little flags say, "I choo-choose you".
Saturday night, Drew and I stayed up until midnight making her valentine's for school. It was so much fun. And, I quote her, "This is much funner than even watchin' TV!" WOW! What a compliment coming from my 5 year old electronics addict! Here are a few photos of what we made! Thank goodness for Family Fun!
Friday, February 10, 2006
My Handsome
I took Beau Micheal Joseph to Sears for the February promotional props, "When I Grow Up", using a man's jacket, hat, and tie. I thought it turned out so cute, even though I could not get him to smile, or cooperate much as far the hat was concerned, so this was the best I got. But, I love it anyway! What a very handsome "man" he will be!Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Beau's New Blankie
I had an idea for my son, it transformed from making something to hang on his crib or bed to store his choo-choo's in at night since he must sleep with atleast 3 of them EVERY night. It finally evolved into making him a quilt/blanket with a zippered pocket to place the choo-choo's in and they can sleep with him! I think it turned out great! He loves it. I am not quite finished yet, still have the binding to add, but he can sit with it for now. I am so proud of myself!
Thursday, February 02, 2006
Fifths Disease
My son had this virus last spring, was misdiagnosed by 2 doctors mind you, in a local urgent care, saying it was Hand-Foot-Mouth Disease, which is a Herpes virus. But, after me freaking out, and going to my doctor yet again, we figured out it was Fifths Disease. There is alot of literature online on it too. I guess only children get this type of outbreak. He had a sore throat, runny nose, the rash on his cheeks, extremities, trunk. Adults only represent with respiratory manifestations if they contract it from a child, and it is deadly to a pregnant womans fetus. Has something to do with red blood cells bursting I believe. I thought I'd post the photos of took, which I am glad now I did, for Donna to have a look-see. It got so much worse than these photos depict, and he was so itchy, it was horrible. I had to give him benadryl for the itching since it was even on the soles of his feet.
Check out this website for more detail: http://www.ecpeds.com/january.htm
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
Just me Whining
I guess it's really the thought that counts, but I am having such a hard time with this. Our 6th Anniversary. My husband was scheduled to work, and I had accepted that, made other plans for the day with my Boy. We went and saw a model train show at the mall. We had a blast. On the way home, my husband informs me that he took the night off for our anniversary. However...he did not say a word about doing anything. He took Drew to a birthday party she was invited to, came home, watched TV, and we did nothing. I was excited, thinking since he took the night off, he would have plans to take me to dinner. But, no. No dinner, no plans. It really hurt my feelings, quite honestly. I am still hurt. It was no more exciting than any other day. I cried a little as I dressed for bed in the bathroom. He offered to get me a Carl's Jr. burger, but I just wasn't even hungry at all, so he took the girls. My mothers day was a flop last year. My birthday was so -so, and our anniversary was nothing special at all. I know that I should just simply be happy that he stayed home with me. My upset probably sounds horribly selfish. And, maybe, I should have made plans. But, afterall, he is the Man, is he not supposed to take the incentive to impress me, the Woman? I don't know anymore. The little things like birthdays, holidays, anniversaries, I think are what keep you going to some extent. Something to look forward to, something to get excited about, anticipation, the hope for surprise. I just don't see alot of that in my life anymore. It's mostly blah. No real "WOW" events. I want more than average everyday norms. I want to be left speechless. I want to be romanced. I crave spontanaeity! Growing up really sucks!
Friday, January 27, 2006
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Picture Day
Today we went to the mall and had the kids' "christmas" picture done at The Picture People. Since Beau Michael just turned 2, I also had his birthday picture taken. TPP have a great selection of props, and this year they have a choo choo train. I wanted to have Beau driving it with Leah in the back. Well, didn't quite work out like I had planned. Leah was not having it, and tried to climb out of the train, and she fell face first out onto the floor hitting her forehead. So, no choo choo photo. But, we did get one of all the kids together looking ever so beautiful, I think. My handsome made such an adorable face. And, I had his picture taken all alone in the airplane, with his airplane sweater and pants on. He is so big now. All of them are just growing so fast, so big. I sure am gonna miss these 'little' years. The thought of my babies all growing and away from me is terribly heartbreaking. I just love them so much! ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
Saturday, January 21, 2006
CHOO CHOO CAKE!
My son insisted on a choo choo cake, so we had Nemo balloons, partyware, favors, etc...and then a choo choo cake! He loved it! Wanted it all for himself. One thing I did not even ponder, is that he decided to drive the choo choo edible sugars around the cake on the decorating gel track! Ha! The cake was a mess by the time everyone got a piece. I so love that boy! He had sooo much fun. Running, playing, eating his favorite food "pizza", his own pop, and his choo choo cake! He got a train table, jay jay the jet plane toys, choo choo's, cowboy boots, an animated/musical 'horse on a stick' as I like to call it. I just can't believe he is already 2! But, what a Handsome 2 he is!
HE'S 2...boohoo!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO YOU!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY SWEET HANDSOME,
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOOOOO YOOOUUUUU!
♥ ♥
Friday, January 20, 2006
Let me just say this again...
This boy of mine is simply AMAZING! The things he does, the things he now says...he just dumbfounds me most of the time. Today, I had a meeting at work. I took the babies. Both were very well behaved. On the way I picked up a Dutch Bros. coffee, but left it in the van since I was one hand short of being able to carry it in with me. When the meeting got started, suddenly Beau went rushing over to one of the other nurses, yelling, "HEY! MOMS!", I looked over to see him reaching for HER Dutch Bros. cup of coffee! Ha! I guess he does pay alot more attention to detail than I thought.
Tuesday, January 17, 2006
Puddle Stompin'
I took that boy for a walk today. It had stopped raining, so I put on his rubber boots, and rain coat and we walked down the road a bit. He did not hesitate to stomp in the first puddle he saw! And, as we went along, he got braver, and started walking through the ditches in front of all the houses along the road. He was super stubborn too when it came time to head home. Even though his socks were all wet, and he had fallen on his butt backwards, so his pants were all wet as well. He just had a blast stompin' in the puddles!
Monday, January 16, 2006
Big Brother Beau
This morning, the babies were wide awake very early. Leah was a busy one, and likes to get into the cupboard with my cookbooks, and my Beau knows better, so he started pulling her by the leg saying, "NO! lee-la, NO!" It was too cute! I had to take a picture.A Breathtaking Moment
Today my Grace went shopping with Auntie for a few hours. I was napping when she left, the babies had gotten up at 5am. When they got back, and I saw them walking up to the door, I had to just stop a minute, and take a second look at Gracie Mae! She looked so pretty, so grown up! I don't know if it was just the way she had her hair pulled back, or her height next to my sister, (she has grown a bit!), but I just thought to myself, "WOW! She is so beautiful!"
Girls Day Out
This past saturday, a friend and I went ALONE shopping out of town. She needed to find something for her brothers wedding, and I just tagged along for a chance to get away for the day from kids. A nice break. We had a blast! We got there just as the mall opened, looked around, had a coffee, some lunch, got free facial massages, and makeovers at Meier&Frank (which was sooo much fun!) I never knew that some of the products they used even existed! It was amazing how they took pencils, and drew on our faces to make them look not only lifted, yes!, but shimmer, and shine, and GLOW! Ofcourse these things are outrageously expensive, just 18.00 for the pencil called, "high brow", or "eye bright". And, another 26.00 for the face powder called, "Dallas". Ridiculous. But, I tell ya, they do work some magic!
We hit major clearance at JC Penney, jeans for 10.00, l/s tops for 5.00. Can't beat that! We had so much fun, we just lost all track of time! I think we could have spent a full 12 hour day there.
It was great to get out, and do my own thing for the day, but as always, there had to be an absurd twist to it all. When we were leaving, I got no farther from the mall than a block or so, and we heard this strange popping sound like it came from under the van, and then I lost all power to it! I could not break, I had to think quick and put on the E break, and hazard light mid-DOWN hill mind you! I was so scared. Turns out , the rotor came loose, and it just had to have a new screw, and be tightened back down. I sure hope this NEVER happens EVER again! What a way to end my 'stress free' day.
We hit major clearance at JC Penney, jeans for 10.00, l/s tops for 5.00. Can't beat that! We had so much fun, we just lost all track of time! I think we could have spent a full 12 hour day there.
It was great to get out, and do my own thing for the day, but as always, there had to be an absurd twist to it all. When we were leaving, I got no farther from the mall than a block or so, and we heard this strange popping sound like it came from under the van, and then I lost all power to it! I could not break, I had to think quick and put on the E break, and hazard light mid-DOWN hill mind you! I was so scared. Turns out , the rotor came loose, and it just had to have a new screw, and be tightened back down. I sure hope this NEVER happens EVER again! What a way to end my 'stress free' day.
Thursday, January 12, 2006
This shirt says it all!
I was rifling through the girls' boxes of stashed away clothes, and came across this tank top I got for Drew on clearance last summer for this coming summer. I had forgotten all about it. It just fits her to a T!
Wednesday, January 11, 2006
I miss...
...reading books without pictures in them.
...the sunday paper, and a nice cup of coffee without a baby hanging off of one boob grabbing at my coffee, and newspaper!
...nice warm, bubbly evening baths!
...a shower before noon, without someone knocking the door down trying to find me.
...adult conversation.
...watching a movie from start to finish.
...spontaneity.
...summer.
...Evie.
...my skinny self.
...my husband (sometimes,ha!)
...crafts with the big kids (babies are so absorbing!)
...my Grandma Georgia.
...actually going away for Our Anniversary.
...just being a kid!
...the sunday paper, and a nice cup of coffee without a baby hanging off of one boob grabbing at my coffee, and newspaper!
...nice warm, bubbly evening baths!
...a shower before noon, without someone knocking the door down trying to find me.
...adult conversation.
...watching a movie from start to finish.
...spontaneity.
...summer.
...Evie.
...my skinny self.
...my husband (sometimes,ha!)
...crafts with the big kids (babies are so absorbing!)
...my Grandma Georgia.
...actually going away for Our Anniversary.
...just being a kid!
Beau Micheal...
what shall I do with you boy?! How busy you are, how crazy, how WILD! Flipping light switches off and on a million times while standing on a diaper box, or pink play kitchen chair! Throwing all of your food on the floor just to reitterate to me that you are "DONE!" Wiggling, and laughing hysterically, falling limp like jello everytime I try to change your diaper, and dress you, making me ever SO frustrated!!! Dragging all of Drew's clean laundry down the hallway as she makes a very lame attempt at putting it away. Analyzing and disposing of every choo choo I give you as I lay you down to sleep, declaring, "NO, THOMAS!" Getting out of bed, and turning on the light at 10pm, and being found by Mom or Dad lining up your choo-choo's on your bedroom floor! Freezing at the sound of a diesel truck driving by our house, (while inside of the house). Sneaking the box of cheez-its and hiding behind your crib, or the coffee table eating them first thing in the morning. Watching 'Polar Express' every chance you can get. Come running telling Mommy, "Mom! Lee-la, poop!" every time YOU poop your diaper! Hurrying up to hide the evidence of a mess made, and blaming it on 'lee-la' when you aren't quick enough!...I could go on and on. You WILD little boy! "I name you King of all WILD THINGS!"... "I'll eat you up, I love you so!"
Victoria's Reasons Why...
Beau getting into everything! Even the girls' jewelry boxes!
Beau having food fights with the floor!
Leah now finding everything in the cupboards! (As sweet as she may look!)
Beau's everyday, every meal highchair mess!...I need a break once in awhile!
Drew's New Do
I cut her hair all by myself! She needed a trim anyway, and asked if she could have shorter hair, I didn't want to go too short, but I think it turned out really cute! She says she looks like the girl in the "MATILDA" movie.Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Funny Little Things
Beau Michael was singing the 'Hot Chocolate' song from Polar Express today while he was eating his breakfast in the high chair. As I listened closely to him, he was actually singing, "hot hot hot hot choo choo! hot hot hot HOT choo choo! HOT CHOO CHOO!" I just laughed! It was too funny that what he got from that song was 'choo choo' vs. 'chocolate'.
We went to town today for a milk run, and I didn't have time to nurse Leah once more before we left. By 11am ( and I had to be home by 12 noon) she had taken her hat, and nursed on the ball at the top until she fell asleep in her carseat!
We went to town today for a milk run, and I didn't have time to nurse Leah once more before we left. By 11am ( and I had to be home by 12 noon) she had taken her hat, and nursed on the ball at the top until she fell asleep in her carseat!
Friday, January 06, 2006
Boys and Toys
The other day I was playing with Beau and Leah, some wooden blocks from the older girls that you can make flowers out of. I was showing Beau how to put the blocks so that they ended up looking like a flower. It has to do with colors, shapes too. Well, he watched, said, "WOW", but once I got done making 2 flowers with him, he took one apart, keeping only the stem, and flower center on and, like a boy, started jabbing it into the air and making these funny sounds like he had a sword or something?! It was so funny! So strange how it is engrained in him, the boy, so opposite the girls. Everyday he surprises me.
Tuesday, January 03, 2006
OH BABY!
Little Leah Lou is just starting to do so much more now. She is pulling herself up onto furniture, and toys, pushing buttons on toys and realizing how to work them on her own. She is gabbing nonstop, and gets sooo excited when the girls get home from school, or Beau wakes up to greet her with his, "HIIIIIII LA-LA, HIIEEE!" It is so precious to hear him in his little high pitched voice, so happy to see sissy in the morning. The other night I gave them both popscicles in thier high chairs, and Leah was in heaven! Her first popscicle. So now, everytime Beau gets one, Leah fusses for one until she too gets one. If I give Leah a gerber cookie, Beau must also have one too. I can see how being so small together will make them close. He adores her, and she loves him. I will be so sad when the baby days are all over. I wish I could just bottle them up and keep them little forever!
Monday, January 02, 2006
Bedtime, Shmedtime!
The boy is just not cooperating so well anymore with staying in his toddler bed. Since discovering the ease with which he can get his own self out of his bed, then out of his room, and back into the living room where the choo choo trains are kept, HE WILL NOT STAY IN BED! I think the past few nights he has arose an average of 10x, only to be shooed back to bed, as he yells, "more ba-ba, read me, pee-pee, CHOO CHOO!" Anything he can think of the get out of bed. It's driving me crazy! This has to get better, or I think I might have to put the crib rail back on!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)