BSS Family BBQ

We went to the 4th Annual BSS Family Barbecue yesterday and had so much fun. We have been every year since they started. The kids have a blast and as they are getting older, they are allowed more freedom and independence to run around and do some stuff on their own so they have even more fun. I love watching them run around with their friends, feeling so big and cool, and enjoying being at school with nothing to do but play.
Junior and Gama won one of the 3-legged races together. Junior ran another one with his buddy and Chicken-hair ran one with his little friend. They also had fun playing in the big games of musical chairs, and the limbo. Gama also took part in the grown-up versions of both of those games, mostly because I wasn't allowed. Two years ago, I was 7.5 months pregnant with Kidney Boy and fell down during the limbo contest and freaked out the guy who runs it and this year he laughed and said, "You are not allowed to play anything this year!" So Gama played instead.
Here are a few pics from the day. The first two are Chicken-hair and his little friend, before the 3-legged race. It was so cute, the way they were standing there with their arms around each other. She put her arm around Chicken-hair first and was rubbing his back, and had her hand on his bottom without realizing it. Her mother Socie and I were cracking up! It was the funniest thing. The last picture is of Chicken-hair and Junior, sharing an iced tea that Chicken-hair went over and bought all on his own. He also went to the hair-painting booth on his own. He was such a big kid yesterday! He just kept asking me for money to go do things.

Chicken-hair

We had Madagascar in the DVD player tonight and they made mention of the lion being the king of the jungle and Chicken-hair said, "Shamu is the most king." and then 2 seconds later, "But Jesus is the MOSTEST King." I thought that was cute. =)

Kidney Boy singing

Kidney Boy sings constantly. He sings everything they sing at daycare and everything we sing at home. He sings along with TV shows, the car stereo -- everything. Some favorites of his:

Twinkle, twinkle
the alphabet
5 little monkeys jumping on the bed
5 little monkeys sittin' in a tree
Itsy bitsy spider

He does these with hand signs and everything. During 5 little monkeys jumping on the bed, he screams the line "NO MORE 'BUNKEYS' JUMP-A-BED!" and during 5 little monkeys sittin' in a tree, he loves to say (with giant hand signs) "EEEEEEEE-NAP DAT BUNKEY OUT-A-TREE!"

Junior's limerick

Junior got in the car after school on Friday and told me the limerick he made up:

There once was a boy named Gama,
who got a new pet llama.
He brought it to school,
thinking it was cool,
but the teacher chased him home to his Mama!

Kidney Boy's doctor visit on Wed. 4/16

Kidney Boy might end up with tubes in his ears. When he was dxed with asthma in December, I was hopeful that fixing that would end the ear infections and that at least he might not need tubes. But his asthma is under control and he still has fluid in his ears and is getting infections again. He had antibiotics that didn't do the trick and today as a last effort, he got a shot of lidocaine at the doctor's. We will bring him back in 3 weeks and if there is no improvement in the fluid level, we will be sent to an ENT.

I am really unhappy about the tubes. I hate that they will have to put him under and even though I know it is a routine thing and most kids do fine, I can't help but worry about other things like possible complications that I have read about. One good piece of news is that he gets to come off his asthma meds for now. He should be able to stay off of them until the weather gets cold again. So at least that is something to be happy about.

A Chicken-hair funny

The other day, Kidney Boy was playing with a broken remote control that belonged to a car. I don't think it ever worked and it is just one of those things that we never throw away for some crazy reason. The little battery compartment door is long gone and it probably hasn't had batteries in it since the day after we got it and realized it didn't work.

Suddenly, Chicken-hair yelled out, "Mommy! Kidney Boy has the remote control and he is touching the technology!" LOL I didn't realize what he meant by it at first but a day or two later, I was putting batteries in one of the Wii remotes and he said, "Mommy, be careful not to touch the technology!" so I guess he means the inside of the battery compartment! hehehe...

Parent/Teacher conferences

We went to see Mrs. S first. She said Junior is doing a great job. He has improved not only in his work, but in his attitude. He still needs improvement in some areas, like staying focused and not talking so much, and putting more work and pride into his artwork and handwriting. We were so proud, listening to everything Mrs. S had to say about his recent growth. She is definitely a teacher who expects a lot and it was nice to see that she is impressed with his efforts.

I told her that we always discuss with him how he needs to take more pride in his artwork assignments and handwriting because those will be easy grades to bring up if he just puts a little more effort into his assignments. I told her that his uncle and grandfather have terrible penmanship and I think he takes after them a bit. I know he can print neatly if he takes a lot of time but even just going at a normal pace, he has so much trouble making neat letters. She seems to think he could do a lot better than he is doing and did show me a couple of examples of good writing from him. I know it is possible. And as for his artwork, she said, "He is a wonderful artist! I know he can do it! His only problem is waiting until the last minute to do an assignment and then, for instance, drawing something quickly and not coloring it in." I know what she is talking about because sometimes he will have to draw something as part of an assignment and he will do it as fast as he can and I will ask him to do it over and take a little time and the difference will be amazing.

But overall, she gave us such a good report. She said he is such a good, sweet boy. And she is so proud of the growth he has shown. It made me feel so good to see that she obviously likes him so much.

Next, we went to see Mrs. S and Mrs. J. They had so many wonderful things to say about Chicken-hair. Mrs. S is his main teacher so she spoke the most about his improvements in his behavior. He started out the year not having any problems behaving or listening. And then after our trip to Mexico over Christmas, he came back a little wound up and had some trouble getting back into his routine. He actually took at least a month to start behaving like his old self at school again. It wasn't anything extreme, but just a notable difference. Mrs. S said that he has definitely gone back to his old self, having no problem behaving. He listens and does what he is told. She is very impressed with how quickly he is learning to read and both teachers mentioned how hard he is trying to improve his artwork -- fine motor skills.

And then Mrs. S started talking about what kind of boy he is. She said he really gets so excited about religion and we mentioned that we have noticed the same. I told them that they must be incredible religion teachers because he is so fired up about it. Mrs. S went on to say that he is such a kind boy, showing so much kindness to his friends all the time. She said, "He is just beautiful. He really is. He is so beautiful inside." And then she grabbed a tissue and said, in a half-joking way, "I mean it! I am going to have to grab a tissue because it will make me cry!" and we chuckled a little but I saw that her eyes filled up with tears. I started to say something to ease the tension but it took her a couple of minutes for her eyes to stop tearing up. I was so touched. We have noticed that she really seems to care so much for him, but to see it like that -- I was going to start crying, myself!

We left the school feeling so happy. Not only are we so proud of our boys, but we feel like they are just in such a great environment. They are being challenged but they are being cared for and loved. Today is just one of those days that all feels right with the world =)