person of the day

Life is full I guess. I've been a very bad blogger. Just can't get the time and energy to sit down and catch up. And then once I get behind, it's just too tiring to attempt to catch up.

So brief highlights from the last couple of weeks.



We went to the zoo with our friends Chris and Jana again a week or so ago. We went to wild animal show for the first time. I was very unsure how this would go. Applause was a fear in the past, though the game show obsession did give him a healthy appreciation of applause. And animals are definitely still a fear, other than riding on huge camels, which he's totally cool with. But he loved the show. Look how attentive he was in the above photo! Such a big kindergartner.



And he wanted to support the endangered crayfish that can only be found in our county (Seriously? This must be some sort of hybrid crayfish indigenous to middle Tennessee, because I'm pretty sure the crayfish population as a whole is doing okay.) and we shelled out $2 for this lovely pin and card after the show. And I have no idea where these precious items are right now. Probably on the floor of the van.

Last week was a crazy fun week. Luke really loved spirit week at school, with island day being his favorite.


I might have slightly overestimated the percentage of kids that would dress up for island day. As we walked in Tuesday morning Luke said, "Where is everyone's costume?" Whoops. Thankfully we spotted a few hats and grass skirts before he got to class. And fortunately he was pretty happy about the attention he got for his hat.


And spirit week was capped off with the Hoe Down on Friday. We toned down the level of costume just a bit. And apparently kids prefer dressing as a cowboy/girl over dressing as an islander, based on the level of participation. Lamar and I had fun helping make applesauce in Mrs. Wheeler's class on Friday.

Friday night was the school hoe down (fall festival). Luke has a blast at the chaotic, over-stimulating festivities. He LOVED the dunk tank and Mrs. Wheeler encouraged him to give it a try. The brave dunkees (some teachers and principals) let the him hit the target with his hand when he missed with his throws. I'm pretty sure he would have spent the whole evening watching the dunk tank. But he enjoyed a bounce house and some other games too. He loved bumping into friends. (Literally. It was packed.)

Luke came home sick from school today. He told me it was okay to go to the nurse's office because she doesn't have shots in there. I can just imagine the conversation he and Mrs. Wheeler must have had before he agreed to go.

When he came home sick today he was very concerned that #1 he left his rain jacket at school and #2 that he wouldn't be able to go to school tomorrow. Since the second week of school, each day there is a Person of Day. I think there are some priviledges that go along with the title, but most importantly the person stands in front of the class and everyone has a chance to ask them questions. Luke loves this (likely because it resembles a game show just a bit). Today the last student had her turn as Person of the Day, which means tomorrow is Mrs. Wheeler's turn as Person of the Day. Luke's been talking about this day for a week or so. He has his question ready: "Do you have a Wii?" If she responds no, he plans to say, "That's okay. Do you want a Wii?" If yes, his follow-up question will be, "What is your favorite Wii game?" He's thinking her answer might be the Hannah Montana game (A real shocker if he's right).

So he asked me to email Mrs. Wheeler about his jacket. He was very concerned about it. (I don't know why. He leaves things at school all the time and doesn't miss them.) I did and told her I was hoping he wouldn't miss her big day tomorrow. Mrs. Wheeler emailed me a quick response to please tell Luke she was keeping his jacket safe and if he wasn't at school tomorrow, she would wait until he returns to be person of the day. Best kindergarten teacher ever.

Guest Blogger--Luke

I LOVE HUGS
WE LOVE SHOWS
I DON'T LOVE FIREWORKS
WE LOVE SO MANY TOYS AND WII TO PLAY

unsettled

I have to be careful what I blog about these days. Luke can read so much and he loves to look at the blog. I don't want to embarrass him.

But he's kind of lost interest in my blog lately. Who can blame him?

The last 3 weeks seem like about 3 months. I guess we're settling in to school.

I love his teacher. LOVE her. She is incredibly kind, really funny, and always positive. She emails me regularly and if she thinks I'm crazy, she's does a great job of hiding it.

Luke seems to like school. He's still pretty quiet about it, but I get a few more details than I used to. This week I learned that one of his new friends has a Wii at her house. And I heard about when "suddenly it started raining really big rain drops on the playground and we had to run really fast back into class. And then Mrs. Wheeler said 'Welcome to Wheeler Theater' and we watched Sid the Science Kid."

Many staff members already know Luke by name. I don't know if I should be pleased or a little alarmed.

I volunteered in his classroom the past two Fridays. I was amazed by his improvement in one week. He knew the routine better and was staying more engaged. But he was recovering from strep the first week.

This past Friday I heard Luke ask Mrs. Wheeler, "Can I color now?" First time he's ever asked to color.

On Wednesday he brought home a worksheet he had not completed in class. He sat down and enthusiastically completed the worksheet which involved much coloring. And he took it back to show Mrs. Wheeler the next day. Amazing.

He's come home with some new words and phrases I'm not pleased with, but that is the reality of school. Today I recommended he ask me or his teacher if new words and phrases are nice before repeating them. (Though I'm pretty sure he knew "You are the meanest girl in the world!" wasn't nice but he just wanted to say it. He could have honestly been confused about "shut up" though.)

I expected a few bumps in the road. I honestly expected a rougher transition.

I didn't expect the reality of being the only "special needs" kid in the class to feel isolating. I want him in a room of typical peers. I believe it is exactly the stimulating environment he needs. But my little built in preschool support group of "special moms" is now spread across schools around the county. I miss them.

I'm so used to the funny ways Luke phrases his sentences. I didn't expect to be blown away by how articulate and mature 5 year old girls are.

And I didn't expect to have no clue what to do with myself when Luke's at school 7 hours a day. Well, I have a list of things I could do. A huge list. Just need the motivation to get started.

So apparently God still teaching me much about letting go of my expectations and walking with faith on this crazy windy path of parenting my special boy.

One kind of funny story:

I was at school Friday and the kids as Luke's class was lining up for lunch. Luke was asking his teacher what she was going to eat. (He's kind of intrigued that she doesn't eat with them.) Then he said, "Can I see?" And sweet Mrs. Wheeler opened her lunch bag and let him look in. He squealed, "Pizza!!!! Oh my goodness!!!"

sick, school, zoo, sick

This boy went back to school on Wednesday and was running fever again Wednesday night. Thursday morning we went to the doctor. He was very nervous he would be getting a shot or that throat thing "where they do this" (sticks finger down his throat).



The doctor was hesitant to do the "throat thing" (because he's extremely nice to Luke) but I promised we could handle it. There was a little screaming, but he didn't vomit this time (yes!) the nurse got him water, and he was so proud when he was done.



And lo and behold, he had strep. The doc said, "I assume you want the oral medicine." Remembering the agony of penicillin twice a day last May, the last time he had strep, I hesitated. He said he could certainly do the injection, but . . . looks at Luke. So the doc made a deal with Luke that if he would take the medicine without fussing, no shot. They sealed it by saying "deal", and we pretended we were on Deal or No Deal, just to make it cooler and perhaps help with compliance.



And either it worked, or amoxicillin is a lot easier to swallow than penicillin, because so far so good.





Luke went back to school on Friday. It was very interesting to see him in the classroom. His teacher is really amazing. She is the calmest, most positive person I've ever seen. She has 22 five and six year olds in her class, with no aide, and I never once saw her lose her cool. Amazing. But I'm still a nervous wreck that Luke can pay attention in a "regular" class. I just don't know. He seems to be doing well. And he can certainly do the work. But I know he gets distracted. Maybe my expectations for him are too high. At least he can already read.





I was there helping make cupcakes and helping with an art project that will be auctioned at the upcoming fall festival. Luke is about to do his thumbprint here. (He loves that tie-dyed shirt, in case it looks a little familiar.)



Since starting kindergarten, Luke seems more mature and more conversational at home. He's always conversational, but even more so on school days. It's like his brain is just more awake. And he's only been to 4 full days of preschool, given all the half days and illness.

When I was visiting class on Friday Mrs. Wheeler read the kids a story about planets and she said, "I have a funny story about Pluto." She continued to read and Luke said, "What is your funny story?" She explained how Pluto isn't considered a planet anymore (or it's a dwarf planet or something like that. Apparently I wasn't that engaged either.) And Luke said, "Yeah, and Pluto is a dog too. That's funny."

By Saturday he seemed to feel much better.





We headed to the zoo with our friends Chris and Jana and their boys, who were visiting our city for the weekend. After a summer so stifling hot that we never used our zoo membership, we were so excited to enjoy the beautiful day at the zoo. Apparently about 2 million other people also had this great idea.





Regardless of the crowds the boys had a blast. And they matched. They must have called each other. They played duck duck goose in the big grassy area while the dads got lunch.

The boys enjoyed getting up close with the fish.

We checked out the brand new flamingo exhibit.




We all liked it.

My parents loaned me their small point and shoot camera a few days ago. I took it to the zoo, rather than my big SLR that I love, but it's huge. Well, their little camera had a pretty great zoom.

The crane flew a little bit. Very exciting, for the usually extremely tame crane exhibit. Luke's making sure I don't miss it.

The boys behaved beautifully at the zoo. Luke stayed right with us, despite the crowds. I don't think we had to remind him at all to stay with us and not wander. What a huge improvement!

And Luke took this photo on the way home. Because photos of your shoes are hysterical.

I started feeling really yucky after our zoo excursion. I got worse all night and by this morning I was pretty certain I had strep. But the on call nurse practitioner needed a little more scientific evidence to call in a prescription. Lamar of course had to teach Bible class this morning. All the kids were promoting to new classes this morning and I haven't even chatted with Luke's new teachers yet.

I had Lamar leave Luke with me and he and I headed to the walk-in clinic. He was pretty excited and a little nervous for me that I would "having that throat thing". Luke was just perfect while we were at the clinic. Amazing. Such a short time ago there was no way I could have taken him to the doctor with me. He would have been everywhere, touching everything, or going limp in a tantrum over some anxiety I couldn't understand. I was so proud of him.

Just before "the throat thing" the nurse said to Luke, "Oh no, you made Mommy sick. Have you been kissing on her?" He said, "Yeah, I have!"

Oh and I have strep too. I wonder how many kindergartners and zoo patrons I've infected in the past 48 hours.