A two dollar day!

I took the boys to the dentist a couple of weeks ago, and Dr. Bob  mentioned that Samuel’s two bottom front teeth were loose. He was a little surprised that Samuel hadn’t mentioned it because they were very loose.

Flash forward a couple of weeks, and Samuel mentions that his tooth hurts while he’s eating his cereal. Being the ultra-sensitive mother that I am, I told him to chew with his back teeth! As he’s getting ready to board the bus, Doug notices that his tooth is actually missing. We don’t know exactly when this happened, but the toooth has not ever been found. I was prepared for drama about what the tooth fairy would do for missing teeth. How do you prove that you actually “lost” the tooth? 

Well, no worries, because when Samuel got off the bus that afternoon he had his secod tooth in a plastic bag. That’s right, two teeth in one day! Samuel was very worried that the tooth fairy wouldn’t find him at granny’s house, but he calmed down after we sent her an e-mail!

This is just one more thing forcing me to accept that he’s growing up. Making me even sadder was looking at his new big teeth that are coming in fast and furious. I had visual proof of what the dentist tells me every time we visit:

“Boy is the orthodontist going to love you!”

Who doesn’t love a little quiet time? I’m playing a relaxing game of tetris, and I’m thinking my kids are upstairs reciting their times tables and state capitals. They’re little geniuses, and I’m not one to stifle them. Unfortunately, William decided to work on self-paced computer engineering! On the bright side, I did learn how to reattach keys to the laptop. However, my spelling hasn’t been quite the same since it happened.

And, proving he belongs in our family, Benjamin has decided to nurture his curious side! I could take pictures every day of the mischief these boys find themselves in. It usually involves something edible, or something that makes a lot of noise.

There’s never a dull day around our  house!

It’s hard to believe that it’s been over a year since our youngest boy came home with us. I would like to report on all of his teeth and his walking skills, and how big he is, but I’ll save that for the day that he actually has more than one tooth, is big, and can walk! I think he likes having his older brothers do everything for him, and I’m in no hurry to have him walking while we’re in Florida. The less mobile he is, the better! He is definitley the smallest of the three boys, but I’m hoping that will change by his 15 month check up. He seems to be eating a lot more, and he finally seems to understand the sippy cup.

As parties go, this one was pretty low key. Just the family, one gift and a lovely rendintion of Happy Birthday. I’m trying not to take it too personally that Ben’s was the only birthday not to make it into the family blog, but I can’t be too upset since it took me over a week to post about it here! (Thanks Charlotte!) Kudos to Ingrid though for calling and wishing him a happy birthday! One is a tough year to really call since obviously the birthday boy’s participation is limited to drooling all over the phone!

So, here’s to another great year. Hopefully the cake will be a little less messy at party #2!

The whole class working on their kicking

Contrary to my boys’ constant assertions, they could not actually swim. With this summer’s beach reunion looming, we felt it necessary to at least get them comfortable enough with the water to know that they should be scared of certain situations.

Samuel blowing bubbles

There was a friend of a friend who was teaching lessons at her home, and she taught both boys every day for three and a half weeks. I was a little nervous when my boys started screaming like little girls on the first day, but they eventually improved. In fact, William fell in love with his teacher’s daughter! Now, there is no more screaming, and Samuel loves hanging out at the pool without arm floaties.

Samuel loving his goggles

The true test came when we were at the pool and a bigger kid grabbed Samuel by accident and pulled him  under. Normally this would have caused a lot of water swallowing and vomiting. Not this time. Samuel blew bubbles and was just a little shaken. Worth the money right then and there!

William working the Spiderman goggles

I’m still not super excited about all the sand and salt water at the beach, but I am feeling a little more comfortable.

Ben just loves to float around the pool

So, we have been using the book, Teach your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I’ve been waiting to post about this until I actually convinced myself that we would finish the book. Today we did lesson 63, and now I feel like the end is in sight!

Doug has been very worried about making sure our 4 year old would be a good reader by the time he enters school. This was really prompted by his competitive side when he saw a little girl reading the sacrament prayer out of the scriptures at church one Sunday.

“How old is I.,” he asked

“She just turned 5,” I replied

“Crap, we’re going to be way behind!”

Ah… nothing like the love of learning for learning’s sake!

My problem then became, where do we begin. We taught Samuel his letters ages ago, but then we were sort of stuck. I didn’t know what the logical progression was when it came to reading. Samuel isn’t one of those boys who could figure it out all by himself (although, freakily enough he can figure math out by himself).So, my wonderful sister-in-law Ingrid recommended the 100 Easy Lessons book. Now, she didn’t actually use this book herself because her children are actually self-taught geniuses, but she knew someone who had had some success.

Off I went to Amazon and got myself the book. One of the things I really like about this book is that it is all scripted out. It tells you everything you’re supposed to say to your child. It gives you pronunciation guides, things to say when they do everything right and things to say when they make mistakes. I just wish it gave me something to say for when my kid is staring at the ceiling saying, “No, no it’s just too hard. I can’t read.” When I tell him he needs to look at the words to be able to read I just get a nasty look! There is also practice writing at the end of every lesson.

The other thing I like is that we’re always finished the lessons in 15 minutes. It’s not too much. Well, sometimes it is too much, but that’s probably more about my lack of sleep than my child’s ability. As a friendly hint: if any of you are thinking of trying this, the time to do reading lessons is not right before bed! We’ve had a few meltdowns when we’ve left it until the end of the day. My favorite time is right after lunch when the other two are napping.

I am amazed at the things that Samuel is able to read after two months. Just today his reading lesson involved a charming little story about a man, who couldn’t see, taking his gun to go shoot a deer. It was so tender! Yeah, so the stories seem a little out of date, but hey he’s reading them! Now, I don’t think this new-found skill is really genius on my son’s part, I just think it’s proof that persistence pays off, and it pays off better when there’s an actual organized plan involved.

However, now I think we did this a little early. I was hoping to to be able to sneak Samuel into school this year, but apparently the school-board is very strict with it’s cutoff date, so now I have to go find some more learning tools for when we’re done with the reading next month. Any ideas?

So, this is how one goes about getting a super fancy helmet to guide the growth of a misshapen head. First, a sock is placed on the aforementioned misshapen head, then some sticky thing-a-ma-bobber is placed on top so that the very star trek like laser has some kind of reference point. Then, the very nice lady hands the baby a two dollar light up toy (which my 36 year-old boy managed to break!) to distract him from the laser beam. When she finishes scanning, the image appears on a computer screen, and from that image some people in Phoenix make a custom molded helmet of what the baby’s head should look like. It’s like AutoCAD for infants. Then, all you need is three months, and hopefully the head comes out looking like the helmet.

Unfortunately for our wallet and our baby’s sensitive head, our baby is some kind of growing superstar. He has already outgrown his helmet! The neurosurgeon said that he should be fine, and not to worry about it anymore. There was however, a lot of hemming and hawing before she came up with that answer. So, I decided to take the baby for his final helmet appointment just so that I could make sure everything was as it should be. It turns out that in the space of two weeks the baby regressed 2 mm. Now 2 mm isn’t really all that much, but apparently it’s enough to worry the helmet people. I’m not sure if these people work on commission or what, but there are a whole lot of differing opinions as to the necessity of a brand new helmet. If this 2 mm is going to throw off my son’s symmetry and make it impossible for him to find a wife, than I’m all for him getting a new helmet. I don’t really want ladies attracted to him solely for his brain; they’ve got to think he’s gorgeos too! It’s a tough world out there for geniuses, and you’ve got to take all the help you can get!

Now, I’m just wait for the helmet people to talk to the head people to see if they can come up with some kind of consensus. Hopefully we won’t need another helmet, but if we do, I’m getting a whole new design. I’m thinking maybe solar system this time. Of course, I am in Texas, and they do offer a camouflage version …