A Year Ago Today...

On this day, one year ago, life was changing big-time in the Newson house. We had spent weeks and weeks packing our Maryland apartment into neat and tidy boxes, saying goodbye to many friends, getting ready to transition to a life of job-hunting in Colorado...

And on this day, our moving truck arrived. We had spent the morning and afternoon tying up loose ends, like turning in our Comcast cable equipment, putting our computer/TV stuff away, getting the last of the laundry done and clothing packed into suitcases, and spending hours deep-cleaning and scrubbing the kitchen and bathrooms. That night, a small army of men from church came to help take boxes and furniture down three flights of stairs and up the ramp into the moving truck, while Jesse meticulously stacked it (in the dark, with a small flashlight in his teeth). The work was done in a couple short hours. The truck was expertly packed in less foot allowance than we had paid for, getting us a decent refund once we arrived in Colorado. Squeezing it all in was no small feat: The mattresses stood vertically against the stack and were tied to the walls to hold in anything that felt like it might want to shift out of place. But it held, for a half-way-across-the-country trip.

We stayed up soooo long that night, already exhausted. With all the boxes and furniture gone, the carpet had some issues we tried to take care of with our hand-held steamer. But it was too much work. We did our best with some of the bigger spots, but eventually gave in, and hoped the majority would come up with the carpet cleaning the management would do after we vacated. We didn't get all our deposit back, but we didn't owe them anything, either. So maybe the effort was worth it, in the end.

After the cleaning was all done, we slept all together on the floor of the master bedroom, cozy with our suitcases and missing our box fan to provide white noise to ease us into sleep as we anticipated the long drive in the morning. We turned on the fan in the shower portion of the bathroom, and the substitute was sufficient, through a couple mostly-closed doors.

Far too early the next morning, we woke up, did a quick run-through of the apartment, gathering up the last of our things (scrubbers, cleaning solutions, vacuum, toilet paper, blankets, pillows, trash...), stuffed everything we could into our van, and maneuvered a few extra things into the moving truck. With everyone VERY cozy in the van, we dropped off our keys at management, and said goodbye to our hometown of the last six years. It was a misty, gray morning, the clouds hovering low. The beginning of our drive was so familiar- heading north on I-83 towards Pennsylvania. We drove that way every month or so to visit with our friends who moved to the York area a few years earlier. It wasn't until we passed York completely and started heading West that it really felt like a big deal.

It's hard to believe that a year ago today, I had an 18 month old who was just starting to say a lot of words (and I never wrote it down, so I could really remember what it was like!). It's hard to believe that it's been a solid year since I've seen all the dear friends I left behind. It's hard to believe that I've been doing laundry at my in-law's house for an entire year, and have survived it! Or that when we first got to Colorado, Alex would call everyone "Brea" after Aunt Breanne (easiest name for him to say, I guess!), and he could easily run underneath the bar counter, and now he can definitely not run under it, unless he wants a head wound, and can easily reach anything on top of that counter without any help at all. It's hard to believe it's been a (more than!) a year that we've managed just fine without a job to support us. It's hard to believe we've spent a year crammed into the same condo that just Jesse and I lived in as newlyweds, and that we haven't gone insane (yet), and that we even think that if Jesse got a job near enough, we'd go on living here at least 6 more months before house-hunting, to save more money.

It's been quite a year. I wish I had documented it better. But here are some pictures from that last month:

Last visit with our good friends, the Rectors.

Jacob and Melinda at work scrubbing the sidewalk chalk off our apartment's balcony.

A beautiful scene of clouds near sunset, shortly before we moved, as seen from our balcony.

One of the prettier sunsets we've seen in Maryland, seen shortly before we moved, looking from the kids' bedroom window (which was the only one facing west aside from teeny bathroom windows).

The cake I made for Melinda's "open-house" styled birthday/goodbye party.

Some of her guests who were at her party, while Melinda blows out her candles.  Is it just me, or is Melinda much better suited with short hair?  She looks completely different here!  And look, there was stuff still on our walls!  It still felt like home at that point.

Jacob and Alex and I took a small outing with our friends Brittney, Jacob and Adam to Valley View Farms, a big nursery near our house.

Jacob *still* talks about this straw maze- it's awesome because of the tunnel entrance, of course!

Look at Alex with that overly long hair!  Yup, he was still my baby.

Jacob still fits that coat right now.  But Alex can fit in it, too.

That is a BIG pumpkin!!  Hopefully it makes up for not having much of a Halloween celebration amidst all the moving last year?

Our den/playroom became the storage room for already-packed boxes.  We thought we had a pretty good blockade going, for safety, but Alex proved us wrong.  Remember, he's 18 months old here.  And sitting higher than I stand tall, on boxes stacked at least 6 high.

I'm not sure how he wriggled his way back into that corner.  But he found a nice hiding spot...

...And there's the hiding spot.  Smaller than it looks, even here.

Scenery not far from our Maryland home, driving the first day.

More autumn scenery.

Melinda and Alex in the van, driving the first day.  Alex is thrilled because we turned his forward-facing for the first time, and stuck him in the back seat.  He could see everything!  And Melinda, in the captain chair, could hand snacks and drinks back for me.  It was a good arrangement.

Alex is squinting, and Jacob's mid-blink, but oh well.  A picture of them in the back seat, surrounded by a mountain of bags and pillows.  And obviously Jacob snacked on an Oreo-type cookie or something, with the dark mustache-like ring around his lips.

Melinda's pointing ahead of us, eagerly, at the "mountain" we're approaching.  Okay, I'll give her credit, it was a *little* bit of a mountain.  ;)  And it was pretty, with the low-lying clouds and all the autumn colors.

 Now that I've showed all the pictures, I want to add that today I mentioned to Jacob how it was this day last year that our moving truck arrived.  He moaned loudly and exclaimed that he wished we had never moved.  When I asked him why, it was because he thought our old apartment was "cool" (he's probably remembering the balcony they loved).  When I explained we could have a cool house after daddy gets a job, he asked, "With a garage?!??"  Yes, I told him.  "And a tennis court?!?"  No, probably not.  "Awwwwww!!"  Daddy chimes in, "Jacob, if we still lived in Maryland, you would have to go to Kindergarten all day long!"  Jacob got the wide-eyed, silent look of a deer caught in headlights.  I think he's glad for half-day Kindergarten. ;)

And we're glad to be in Colorado!  It seems crazy that there was a gigantic snow storm blowing in this time last year, that prevented us from arriving on our 2nd day of driving (as was our goal).  It's been cold and windy the last couple days, but we're looking at mid/upper 60's and sunny during the day all the way through at least Halloween, and we've only had one small frost that I've seen so far.  The mountains are starting to get some visible snow on the high peaks, but I'll be happy if the arrival of winter delays a bit for us this year.  Jacob, though, was whining tonight about wishing it would snow so we could go sledding.  Boy, am I not ready for that.  I haven't even managed to figure out if I need to buy anyone new boots/mittens/etc. yet.  I should get on that soon....

Thanks for reading!

Melinda's 7th Birthday

Well, you should know by now to expect recaps of epic length. I'm sure I won't disappoint you in that regard today!

Melinda, my little girl, is 7 years old. I can hardly believe it. I'm certain that I wasn't able to imagine her being this old, this developed, this big, when she was just a brand new little baby in my arms-- when I was first learning and figuring out what being a mom is like. I've still got so much more learning and figuring out to do!! I just hope she stops growing up so fast. The years are just flying by!

This time last year, we were up to our necks in boxes, packing our apartment to get ready to move to Colorado. I didn't have the time, energy, or means to throw her a traditional party. So we had an "open house", invited all her friends, and some of mine, to come celebrate whenever they wanted, have some cake, ice cream, snacks, and say goodbye while they were here. Because in less than 2 weeks, we were heading out, and we wouldn't be able to see them again. Having an open house was a lot of fun. But I sort of felt like it was a cop-out that year, because we didn't have any games, theme, yadda yadda. So I think I went a little over-board this year, trying to make up for it. And the fact that Melinda hadn't really had a birthday party between her first party at age three, and the open house party at age six.

At first, I said that I would let her invite 10 people, which I was only going to allow because I felt fairly certain that not every one of those 10 would be able to come. But then, she mentioned her party to a couple of her first grade classmates that she hadn't invited, and of course, they wanted to come. So we upped it to 12. Then she mentioned it to one of her favorite girls from church, and of course, she wanted to come, too! So, 13 it was. In the end, 10 RSVP'd that they would come. And one mother caught me the day before the party and asked if her daughter could still come, although they had forgotten to RSVP. After some hemming and hawing, I did my best to politely say no. I had already been going nearly off-my-rocker crazy for the last few days, trying to get everything ready for all the guests who would be coming. I couldn't see a realistic way to add yet one more guest to the tally, and try to make sure she was included in everything. In the end, that was a very good decision, though I hope her feelings weren't hurt. (But hey, that's why I did my darndest to send out invitations a good 2 weeks beforehand, after all!!)

Melinda decided that she wanted a horse party. I didn't have a ton of ideas for horse-themed stuff, so I decided we'd include a lunch in her party, and take up some extra time while introducing her friends to her favorite meal. I liked it. In the end, this was our schedule:

10:30am, horse craft
10:50am, follow-the-leader with horses from craft
11:00am, pin the tail on the horse
11:15am, pop-the-balloon
11:30am, Lunch, followed by cake & ice cream
12:00pm, Piñata
12:15pm, presents
12:30pm, guest go home

You wouldn't think, looking at that list, that there was terribly much to prepare. But, as I was trying to save as much money as possible, I did as much home-made as I could. We did buy the piñata-- I didn't think I'd be able to pull off a horse-shaped one on my own! But pretty much everything else, I made.

For the horse craft, I thought we would make simple Hobby Horses. So, we bought 10 dowels (one guest was going to be late, and Jacob and Alex could survive with sticks from the yard). We traced and cut 25 horse heads out of poster board. Actually, I only drew the original horse head. Jesse, bless his heart, traced all the rest (including meticulously finding a way to fit 5 heads on one posterboard), and cut them all out by hand. Then I took rectangles of fleece, folded them in half, sewed a line down the folded edge to anchor them closed, and cut strips (like grass) to make manes. At the party, each of the kids would be able to color their own pair of horse heads, which would be sandwiched on top of a mane of their choice, and secured to a dowel. We also glued googley-eyes on the horses. Although, in the chaos of 13 kids, a few who took too long/arrived too late probably never got their eyes glued on, as we scurried them along to the next thing on the schedule. Oh, well. We tried.

This is a picture of the decorations before everyone arrived:

The table all set up for the hobby horse craft, poster-board heads all lined up around the table. Yup, it was a squeeze, with so many kids coming!

Treat bags and balloons set out on the table. They have a horse printed under their names, of course. I attempted to print directly onto the bags, but my printer protested and jammed up the process. So I was left to print on paper and cut-and-paste. Yay.

Before the party started, Aunt Breanne sat down with the kids and read them one of Grandma's books. Melinda's wearing a simple crown I made for her with fun, glitter-covered craft foam.

Before I go on further, I want to tell you what I came up with to put in the guests' take-home bags. I had gotten a few things from Oriental Trading at the same time I ordered the horse-themed plates/cups/napkins, but I didn't feel like it would be enough. (While I hate the way everyone expects elaborate gift bags when they attend a party these days, I can't seem to gain the courage to just ignore the expectation and do a party the way I grew up!) I asked my mother-in-law Nedra if she had a horse pattern I could use to sew up a small stuffed horse to put in the bags. I didn't think it would be too much work, and I would have shrunk down the pattern a bit to get something nice and small. But she came up with an even better idea: Just make horse finger puppets! And I'm so glad she did come up with that. As it was, I spent a solid 3 hours one night simply cutting out pieces of fleece for the finger puppets, and from 9am-4pm the next day sewing them all up. Can you imagine how long actual stuffed horses would have taken me?? Granted, I decided to do two finger puppets per guest, as one just seemed sort of lonely... but still. Finger puppets are so simple compared to full-blown 3D horses.

I made each finger puppet different. No two had the same fleece + mane combination. It was sort of fun. But mostly tedious. And unfortunately, I didn't have the energy to sew a few up for my own kids. I've promise them that they'll get some eventually. It might be Christmas before I make it happen, but they'll get some. All the materials I used for these horse puppets were things I already had on hand. Yay for basically free!

Melinda models her 10 favorite finger puppets.

She made them nuzzle each other. Awww.

The finger puppet on the left is Melinda's favorite. She likes the "aquamarine" horses combined with the pink manes the most.

Alex really liked them, too! :)

All 20 horses lined up for display. Hard to believe it took me so long to make them. The pile felt much bigger when I was holding it.

So, back on track, the Hobby Horse craft seemed like a general hit. Except for people coming in late and not having enough time to color a horse to their own expectations. I had the whole idea planned to do a big follow-the-leader game with Melinda in the lead, all of them riding their horses. But we ran out of time. The ones who finished earliest headed out to play in Grandma's backyard, running around, or doing sidewalk chalk on the tennis court, while the rest finished up inside. And while I'm thinking of outside, we were so blessed to have a gorgeous day. In Colorado, October 16th could well be a miserable, snowy, cold day. But we got nothing but sunshine and warmth. It was perfect. (And made me think of the day I went into labor with her, when it was warm enough in Maryland to go for a walk without worrying about a jacket!)

So after they were finally all finished with their craft, we gathered them up to play pin the tail on the horse. I drew and colored the horse poster myself. (Side note: Melinda saw it the morning after it was finished, and proclaimed me the best horse-drawer she's ever known. Aww!) It was going great, right up until the point of my brown Sharpee marker running out of ink. I scrounged around and found another marker that was nearly the same color, which worked out okay (though disappointed me in my own hopes/standards for things like that). The night before the party, I made poster-board tails. I was going to color each of them as part of my preparation, but ultimately decided to let Melinda do that part in the morning before the party. I'm happy for that decision- not only was I already up until 11:45pm (completely exhausted and out of steam since about 8:30) doing last-minute prep, but she colored them differently than I would have, and was thoughtful about what colors each of her guests liked. They all "ooh'ed" and "ahh'ed" over their different horse tails, saying they were perfect and that they loved them. And the actual game was fun for them, too! They laughed so hard when someone put a tail in the wrong spot. By the time we got to the last several people, attention spans were running thin, though. 7 kids would have been much better than 13. Lesson learned for next time: There is much validity in the idea of only inviting as many kids as the age you're celebrating.

A blindfolded Melinda tries to find the horse poster so she can place her tail.

Close! And yet so far away...

Jacob was one of the last kids to "pin" his tail on the poster. You can see that there were plenty of silly tail placements for the kids to laugh at. :)

After our pinning-the-tails game was done, we gathered on the back lawn to play an old Wilcox-family favorite (at least, in my memory it was!): Pop the Balloon. We had 20-some-odd balloons blown up and tied off, with a rolled-up piece of paper tucked inside them. The kids had to pop the balloon (which was generally easy, with large balloons on blades of grass), read the paper that had been inside, and follow the instructions. We had some pretty basic things, like tell a funny joke, spin around, do jumping jacks, tickle your neighbor, etc. But they loved popping the balloons (and can you imagine a 6/7 year old not enjoying that?). And, I have to take a moment to brag about Jacob. When it was his turn to pop a balloon, he picked up his paper to read it. I thought he would need help, but he took just a couple seconds to process it, and then read easily: Do 10 Jumping Jacks. Some of the first graders there couldn't read easier instructions than that without help, and Jacob had no trouble at all. What a smarty-pants!

Beanie (in pink) sits on a balloon and pops it. Ooh, look! You can see one of the hobby horses in this picture!

After that game was cleaned up, everyone headed inside for lunch. We made Melinda's favorite- what she calls "Mackadacky" (but is actually Cheeseburger Macaroni) - that morning, and kept it warmed in the crock pot until lunch time. We also served grapes and cantaloupe. And I was going to serve carrot sticks and ranch dip as well, but forgot it at home. D'oh! Actually, we forgot the ice cream, too. Jesse ran home to get that, but by the time I remembered the carrot sticks, it was really too late to do anything about it. Most of the kids seemed to enjoy their food, but a couple didn't even try it, and a couple others took a few bites and decided they didn't like it. I hope the parents weren't utterly confused about why some of their kids might be hungry so soon after the party!

A few of Melinda's guests at the table eating lunch.

After lunch, we were still waiting for Jesse to get back with the ice cream. I didn't want to let them all back outside (because then we'd have to wait for 13 kids to wash their hands in 2 bathrooms before we could eat again), so we played a few quick rounds of "Penny Penny, Who Has The Penny". It was blissfully quiet at that point. All those kids were really loud!!! It was a bit overwhelming. Especially when they were inside. But trying to pay close attention to see who was given a penny among the whole group of them, well... that kept them calm for a short while. Poor Jacob... he's a slow eater. When everyone decided they were done, excused themselves from the table, and we started the Penny game, Jacob was in melt-down mode because he was left alone at the table. Just a big ol' heap of tears. Thank goodness Aunt Rachel was there to help calm him down. I didn't even realize he was having trouble for a good long while.

Once Jesse got back, we all headed back into the dining room for cake and ice cream. And okay, so I let Melinda have a choice for cake: Either a typical round cake that I would decorate with a horse of some sort, or a fancy cupcake from the Hello, Cupcake book that I got for Christmas last year. She picked the cupcakes. I thought it looked like work, but I seriously, seriously underestimated just how much work it would be. I decided, sort of last-minute, that it would be good to make them over at Grandma's house and avoid any issues of transportation. Thus, we went over in the afternoon so I could work on them then, instead of waiting until the evening to make them at home like I had originally planned. I worked on these things from noon until 5:30, with only a break long enough to pick up the kids from school. It was sort of a nightmare!! And the cupcakes were too spongy, and wouldn't hold up some of the candy heads. They were so delicate, too-sweet (not only for me, but plenty of the kids only had a few bites, too), and soooo much work. But, they were cute. Not nearly as cute as the pictures in the book, but they turned out fine. But I think I'll just stick to regular ol' cake next time.

All the horses gathered up. Some of them have some "hay" to munch on. Melinda's choice for herself was the one at the top, the only horse I added a bridle to.

Close-up of the horse cupcakes. Be afraid, be very afraid!

Melinda and a few of her guests enjoying their cupcakes and ice cream.

Alex thought the horses were *hilarious*. He giggled insanely, informing us "I killed the horse's tail! I eat it!", and so on, each time he chomped a new body part.

And finally, after all that eating, the big piñata event! I found this horse piñata online at toysRus. It turned out to be an extremely durable piñata! We started out letting every guest have 2 swings, blindfolded, whether or not they hit. We were remembering our family reunion this summer, where we went youngest to oldest, and Melinda didn't even get a turn! We wanted everyone to have at least one turn. But on the second round, when we went to no-blindfold and still 2 swings, there were plenty of good hits made, but nothing but a few stray pieces of candy flying out of the piñata's opening! So we made it three hits, no special maneuvering from the Piñata Master, Jesse. Then, with still no breakage in sight, and time running short, we hunted down a harder stick. Still no luck. Finally, Jesse took the stick, took one solid swing over his shoulder and directly onto the horse's back. Finally the sucker kicked the bucket, and the mad rush for candy was made. I was mean (aka "fair"), and made them all put the candy in one bucket, and I took it inside to distribute as equally as possible into their take-home bags. About half of the parents had arrived just before this point. Eek! No time!!

Melinda happily takes a swing at the horse Piñata.

They're really getting into it now!! (See the Hobby Horses??)

Still no luck! They're all so full of anticipation!

I didn't get any pictures of Melinda opening presents at the end of her party. It was very chaotic, with 13 kids, the adults who were there helping, and now most of the adults there to pick up their children. And some siblings of the party-goers, too. I barely had the time to scribble down Melinda's gifts so we could get Thank-You notes right. But she seemed thoroughly thrilled with everything she was given, from teeny-tiny horses, to Silly Bandz, to various craft supplies.

And once everyone was gone, (Phew! Breathe a sigh of relief! We survived!!), we let her open a few more gifts from Grandma Wilcox, and from Jesse and myself.

Grandpa really loves to play their traditional "Heavy Heavy Hangover Thy Poor Head" guessing game. He got a little more enthusiastic than usual with this one, threatening quite a vigorous bonk on the head!

Grandma Wilcox sent this lovely umbrella! Melinda loves it. She insisted on using it on a potentially-rainy walk to school this week, even though the promised clouds were nowhere to be seen.

Grandma Wilcox also sent a lovely kid's Timex watch. Melinda was a bit disappointed that it wasn't digital (meaning, she can't tell time with it yet), but it's very pretty and has some good time-learning features. The hour and minute hands are labeled, it glows in the dark with a push of a button, and every 5 minutes are also labeled. Hopefully she'll figure it out soon, so she can wear it as more than a pretty accessory. :)

We told Melinda, when she asked for a new bike several times over the past month or so, that we probably wouldn't be able to get her a new bike until Daddy got a new job. Well, I scoured craigslist, and finally found someone parting with a 20" girls bike, just like we needed. Ready for the surprise?? She had no idea what to expect when we told her there was something special outside....

Okay Melinda, you can come out now!!! (Look at that huge grin!!)

You can definitely tell the bike is used (for instance, the seat has tape covering some cracks), but it's in good working condition, and she loooooves it. And it only cost us $20. Hooray!!

After the party, Melinda did something I've never seen from her before: She acted completely drained. She played with her new things a bit, yes. But after that, she curled up in a ball, got really quiet, and just held still for the longest time. She was exhausted. All that partying! Who would have guessed Melinda would feel as tired as I did??

It was a fun party. Way, way too much work, but fun. I think I definitely made up for years past. But I also think we're going to institute the every-other-year party rule, from now on, too. And make the parties slightly more low-key in the future. ;) But I could tell the kids enjoyed it, too. One boy's mom told me today when she saw me at school that he had *so* much fun that he decided his next birthday will be a Star Wars/Horse theme. LOL!!

And of course, that wasn't the end of birthday festivities, either. As Newson tradition goes, we had a birthday dinner for her. The next day, for everyone's sanity. She never did pick what she wanted, so she got a super-easy dinner of chicken nuggets, french fries, salad, veggies, and dessert was brownies and whipped cream (that part, she did pick). Afterwards, she eagerly ran off to the front room to sit on the couch and await her gifts from Grandma and Aunt Rachel. It took us a few minutes to realize she was waiting for us all to join her. ;) Grandma made her exactly what she requested: A stuffed elephant made from pink plaid fleece and a pink underbelly. I have no idea where she got the idea in her head that that was what she wanted, but she made it known months ago, and stuck to it like glue. And Rachel made her a lovely name banner, which is already hanging on her wall above her bed. Just what she wanted! I'll add some pictures of those sometime soon, I hope!

Parent/Teacher Conferences

Today we had something I was eagerly looking forward to: Parent/Teacher Conferences! I've been anxious to hear how Jacob's been managing in Kindergarten, and hearing what Melinda's teachers say about her, now that they've been in school for about 2 months.

We had Melinda's conference scheduled first, and I was so pleased with everything her team-teachers, Mrs. Smith and Mrs. Crain, said about her. Their notes said about Melinda:

Mrs. Smith (Reading)
Strengths:
Sweet and thoughtful
Always considerate and helpful
Growing as a reader
Great ideas for writing (spaces words well, "stretches" words well)

Still working on:
Reading comprehension (re-telling a story, doing pretty well, but has room to grow)
Using lower case letters

Mrs. Crain (Math, Science)
Strengths:
Great beginning understanding of addition
Sees patterns to help her solve mathematical problems
Explaining her thinking in math
Very sweet and respectful
Enthusiasm for what we're learning in science

Still working on:
Symbolic representations of addition

Examples of work that they showed us that they were really impressed with included:
A math sheet where they were supposed to come up with several different combinations of apples and bananas to equal 8 total fruit. She started out with 4 each, then increased the apples to 5/decreased bananas to 3, increased apples to 6/decreased bananas to 2, increased apples to 7/decreased bananas to 1. They pointed out that this is pretty advanced for this age group. Most come up with combinations that are fairly random, thinking them up as they go (i.e., 4+4, 1+7, 3+5), but instead, she went *straight* to using an increase/decrease pattern. She generally did very well on all her math work, but as said above, she could use a little extra work on symbolic representations. They're really trying to give the kids a good handle on finger counting, and making lines that look like 5 lines on a finger, so they get a really solid idea of what 5 looks like, for instance. And instead of doing things like making 5 lines look like fingers, Melinda usually does something like jumble 8 lines together in a mass circle. But, I think she sees the representations mentally. The other day at dinner, she wanted to do addition for fun. We asked what 7+7 is, and she immediately said 14. We asked her how she came up with that answer, and she told us that she knew 6+6=12, and 2 more = 14. That's some pretty solid mental grouping right there! Her teachers also mentioned that she's doing so well with basic math that instead of counting from 1 (as in 8+5 finger counting goes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 then 9 10 11 12 13), she's ready to start at one number and count up (8, then 9 10 11 12 13). Seems easy enough, but I guess a lot of kids aren't there yet.

Her reading teacher said she was super impressed with her reading skill development. Just the time from assessments at the beginning of the school year to assessments a few weeks ago, she made huge improvements. They have a stock of easy readers available for all the kids to read both in class and to take home. She started with a level B (she was at a C/D at the end of Kindergarten), but came home today with a level F. Level F had just a couple words she had to work out, but otherwise was very easy for her. That's how they want it for those easy reader books. They don't want so much of a challenge that they get discouraged about reading. So anyway, she's been doing great, and surprising me a lot lately with how quickly she can read something I wouldn't have guessed she could. She's also doing really well with sounding words out to write them down, listening for the sounds they're focusing on right now. I asked if I should be helping her spell things, or letting her work it out, and except for high-frequency words (like the, what, etc.), they want me to let her figure it out on her own. So, when she spells "girl" like "grl", that's a good thing. Or "cake" like "cace". She's hearing the sounds and doing her best. They'll start re-enforcing vowels, etc. in a few months. Her biggest issue right now is that she nearly always uses capital letters instead of lowercase. She's slowly starting to use more, so I think she'll get it in decent time.

They are very happy with how she gets along well with *everyone*, and is always so good and easy-going in class, doesn't get stressed out about things (like how I dropped her off today and forgot to hand her her backpack and walked off without it- she just shrugged her shoulders and figured it would work out... which it did, when I came back a few minutes later). She gets excited about learning, and she herself filled out a sheet about how she feels about various aspects of school, and rated herself "great" in every aspect.

So then, there's Jacob.
The "report" his teacher gave us said:
Strengths:
Reading at grade level that we expect them to be at by the end of the year.
Very interested in read-aloud stories and being a part of a small reading group
Loves to help the teacher

Things to continue working on:
Building connections and friendships with peers
Help with making connections and retelling the text he reads

I was very pleased to hear that in the last couple weeks especially, Ms. May has seen a lot of improvement with his social issues. Now, remember, he has been having meltdowns at school, and when he gets upset, sometimes he gets really visibly/physically angry. He wasn't interacting with kids. Had to have his own spot on the rug. Stuff like that. In the last couple weeks, he's moved from his spot on the rug to sit somewhere different. He's been eagerly helping Ms. May every time she needs it (like if she drops an eraser, or needs to push in the chairs). He's learned a few of the boys' names, and called a couple of them "friends". Ms. May was approached by a boy named Luke during "choice time" this week, and Luke told her, "Jacob is my friend!" after they had been playing with cars together. Jacob hasn't been melting down in the hallways as they transition to a different activity- he's been extremely bouncy, but not melting down. Improvement! He still has his moments, but they're getting fewer and more easy to handle, it sounds like. Today, actually, he slipped on the gravel at the playground as he was running to the stairs up to the slides, and whacked the side of his head on the bottom stair as he fell down. He had to go to the nurse's office (that was a little nerve-wracking, when they called to inform me!). Ms. May said she saw it happen, and was very interested to see how he reacted. She could tell it might be one of his angry/meltdown sort of moments, but she could see that he *wanted* to cry, but tried not to for a good long time. She thinks he's starting to get better at working through things instead of instantly going to crazy-Jacob mode. And you know, Jacob's getting better about telling me things, too. Like how one day he was riding a trike around the playground at recess, and went too fast and ran into someone. He wasn't allowed to ride the trike for the rest of the day. (Which made him say he didn't like recess "anymore".) Or how sometimes, his day is a "little bit boring" because they didn't have P.E. class. Or today, how in P.E., they had a man come and do some karate with them. He's talking about things more and more, just a teeeeeny tiny little bit at at time. It's good to see him grow. Ms. May really encouraged us to try to set up times to play outside of class with the few friends he's made. She thinks he'll improve more if he gets more time to work on all that social interaction stuff. That's like major, major homework for me - I'm very BAD about meeting new people and getting to know them (gee, no wonder Jacob's the way he is, with the parents he's got!), and basic strangers who just happen to have a son who goes to class with my son are no exception.

Anyway. Enough about his social skills in Kindergarten. Of *course* that's my major concern with him, being so young and naturally shy as he is. But Ms. May did tell us how very smart he is. (Makes me feel so proud to hear it from someone else!!) Of the two afternoon Kindergarten classes, there are about 4-5 kids who are at about the same reading level as Jacob (who, remember, is one of the very youngest in his class). Ms. May said he's at a "3", which, based on their assessment criteria, is essentially the level you hope to see Kindergartners at by the end of the year. So they take Jacob and those other 4-5 kids at that level, and when they split into their smaller reading groups (which is a really neat thing this school does, in my opinion! Small reading groups with a dedicated teacher for just them!), they are pretty much pushing those kids more than the other reading groups. So he has a lot of room to grow during the school year, since he's got a good group to work with and they can move forward at their own pace. That's exciting, I think! And I can tell Jacob really likes reading groups, too. Aside from Ms. May saying that he eagerly gets up to move with the groups to their separate locations when it's time for reading groups (remember, he hasn't been transitioning well for most things), he talks about his reading group teacher all the time, and the stories they read, and proudly shows me the work he did when he comes home. He likes books. He likes reading. Ms. May said that he just absorbs it all, when it comes to books. She even said that she felt like she could have put him at the next reading level up, except for his frustration with pictures. For the assessments, they have to ask them to guess what a picture means before they've read any words (it helps with context, etc.). Once she got to a certain level, he just propped his elbows on the table, and started pounding his ears/head with his hands, saying things like "What does it mean? What does it mean???" And getting obviously frustrated. So, one thing she'd like us to work on is maybe flipping through a book and just talking about the pictures before we ever start reading it, trying to get him to guess about things, or say what the pictures remind him of, etc. And I can see how he might get frustrated with pictures- Jacob doesn't do very well with artistic things, at least not at this point in his life. He can do numbers and reading and all that stuff really, really well - but drawing, writing, art in general? Those are not his strong suits. The other issue with being an "advanced" reader, especially at his young age, is that often the text is a little beyond his natural comprehension level, which is another reason Ms. May wants us to help him with those comprehension/picture skills. He might be able to read it, but that doesn't mean he can recall it/retell it in his own words easily.

Ms. May isn't concerned just yet with his writing skill, and said that a lot of the class is at the same place he is. They're still taking it one letter at a time as a class. And of course, she reminded us that generally, boys tend to do less well at fine motor skills than girls do, so it isn't surprising that he might struggle with that.

And like I briefly mentioned, he's doing well with his numbers, and is where he needs to be. (His digital watch sure hasn't hurt that department!). He could maybe use some help with patterns, but that's easy enough to work on.

All in all, I'm very pleased with how Melinda and Jacob both are doing in school right now. It's good to hear how easily and enthusiastically Melinda handles a school environment, and it's especially good to hear how Jacob has improved with some of the things that have made me very nervous for him, and how very well he's doing with reading, especially considering his age. And truly, I can hardly take any credit for his reading ability. I think almost all of it stems from just looking over Melinda's shoulder when we've worked with her, and having some sort of innate ability. I'm excited to see how he grows over the year. He's getting so big all the time!

And thank you for reading so VERY large of a blog post. Just hammering out my thoughts and trying to be thorough. ;)

Jog-a-Thon

Melinda and Jacob got to participate in the biggest school fundraiser of the year this week - the 2nd annual Jog-a-Thon. Each student was asked to get pledges from friends and family, either a flat rate or a per-lap pledge. Our family has been so generous, which we're so thankful for! It definitely motivated the kids to do their best.

Our schedule was so crazy on the day of the Jog-a-Thon. It was supposed to be a Walk & Wheel Wednesday, where students are encouraged to walk or ride a bike/scooter/etc. to school if at all possible. After looking at the schedule, I decided that it sounded simply far too crazy to add walking/biking into the mix, since it takes a good 15-20 minutes each way.
8:00am, had to have Melinda to school.
9:00am, had to be back at the school to cheer for the Melinda and the rest of the 1st Graders for their Jog-a-Thon scheduled slot time. They finished up at about 9:35, and then we had to head back home.
10:45, Jacob had to be fed lunch (I still have issues with lunch before 11am).
11:40, Jacob had to be at school. (Normally, if we walk, we're leaving the house at 11:15. You can see how we wouldn't want to shorten our home-time anymore than necessary this day.)
1:05, back at the school AGAIN to see and cheer Jacob with his turn at the Jog-a-Thon. They finished ~1:40.
And, at last, 2:30, we had to be back to school to pick them all up at the end of the day.

We further complicated this schedule by deciding to go to the mall and switch to Verizon for our cell phone plans, securing an awesome deal on new phones (which I desperately needed). We squeezed it into the slot between dropping Jacob off at school and the start of his Jog-a-Thon running. We badly misjudged how long it would take to finalize our contract, and we didn't even leave the mall until 1:15. At 1:05 when I couldn't stand the anxiety anymore, I speed-walked across the length of the mall while Jesse finished signing papers, got to the car, buckled Alex into his seat, and drove to the entrance of the nearest department store by the Verizon kiosk. When Jesse FINALLY emerged, he was running to me, and once he was into the car I drove as swiftly as I could back to the elementary school. I felt like I was going a million miles an hour, though I was barely going 5 over. I was just so heart-sick that I wanted to cry, thinking of Jacob starting his running without us there to cheer him on. He knew we were supposed to be there, we told him we would be there, he saw us there for Melinda, and he was so excited for the event.... but thinking of his typical reaction to hiccups in his day, and his ability to take everything very personally, I could only imagine him in a crumpled heap on the school field, crying his eyes out inconsolably. I was so afraid of what we'd find when we arrived at the school. We kept hoping for the best-case scenario, that maybe they'd spent 10-15 minutes discussing rules/expectations/encouragement, and warming up, and we'd be arriving just a couple minutes after they really started.

When we got to the school, Jesse hopped out of the car and headed quickly over to the field to find Jacob and run with him (Jacob asked for Daddy to run with him, I ran with Melinda... part of the way, at least!). I went to park the car and strap the now-sleeping Alex into a carrier to go join them at the field. By the time I got there, the PE teacher was announcing through the megaphone that they only had 30 seconds left!! I quickly scanned the field and found Jacob and Jesse at a water-cooler station just a corner before the finish line. I didn't even get to see my boy run! He sort of half-jogged to the finish, getting his last punch in his card. He and Jesse both came over to see me, and Jacob so proudly showed me that he jogged TEN (!!!) laps. The laps were 220 yards - half a normal lap on a track. Ten laps is 1.25 miles, and he did that in 20 minutes of allotted jogging time. Jacob!! The boy who I can hardly drag to school (0.8 miles) if he's not on a bike. The boy who non-stop complains about not having enough energy on a simple, flat walk. Jesse told me they did 2 laps in the time it took me to park and get back to them. Which means Jacob did a FULL MILE before his lame-o parents even showed up to cheer him on. It was amazing!!!! I've never been more proud of him and more impressed. I'm simply astounded that he could do that. I suppose it was the element of competition that kept him going - all those kids, running at the same time! Jesse said that Jacob told him a few times that he "had to catch up to Luke". And Jacob was all grins!! Did I mention that?!? When I apologized to him for being so late, all he did was grin and say, "Yeah! Good thing I had enough energy!" He was pink-cheeked and sweaty, but upbeat and proud of himself. I wish I could bundle up that attitude and put it inside him every single day. He was so amazing. I just wish I could have seen him running myself. Maybe I would have cried in amazement.

Melinda was just as great. In her 20 minutes in the morning, she did 12 laps, for a total of 1.5 miles. She only took walking breaks a couple times. I couldn't keep up with her. I probably only jogged 4 of those laps. But she kept right on going! I was originally just as amazed with her: In trying to guess how many laps they might do, I thought that tops, Melinda and Jacob might be able to do 8 or 9 laps, which is slightly more than the distance they walk/bike to school. I thought they'd get tired and have to take long breaks for walking. But nope, Melinda started the day by blowing my high guess out of the water. I'll know better next time!!

Here are a few pictures and videos of their day. Thank you so much for those of you who supported them and their jogging! And if you'd like to make a pledge still, we have until October 12 to have the pledge sheets and money turned in. Just let me know!

The 1st Graders begin their warm-up. Melinda's at about the left-hand third of the picture, in a light pink shirt and long purple pants, with her arms up in the air and her hand holding her yellow punch-card. This picture makes me smile because Melinda's morning teacher in on the right (in her blue school shirt), in the middle of a jumping jack, joining right in with the kids.

Here is a video of the start of the jogging! The PE teacher leads the group in a pacing lap.

Melinda jogging her 2nd lap. Woo!

Melinda's class at the end of the jogging, holding up their punch cards proudly, and enjoying their ice pops as a reward for all their hard work. (Melinda's in the back, clearly interested in something off to the right of the camera.)

Jacob's last stretch to the finish line

Jacob eats his ice pop and shows me his TEN LAPS punched on his card! (See his sweaty, pink face?!)

Jacob's Kindergarten class sits down to rest with their ice pops, their teacher in the white jacket behind them.

The PE teacher congratulates them on all their hard work, giving them final instructions on what to do with their cards. You can kind of see Jacob's head in between the two blonde boys right near the middle. Jacob loves to be up near the front of a crowd.

By the way... we had *just* enough time in between Jacob's jogging and the end of school to run and get food before picking everybody up at the end of the day. Phew!! So much back and forth. But the kids sure had so much fun!! And slept so soundly that night! And cooperated with each other all afternoon!! Maybe we need to run a mile every day. ;)