350

this is post number 350.  yahoo!

owen is too smart.  he just took one of his alphabet puzzles and spelled the word "house".  it was very intentional, because after he got all of the letters out, he said, "h-o-u-s-e, house."  oh, dear.  

see my other blog for an announcement.

three words

owen now knows how to spell 3 words.  "hat" was added today at the word whammer.  i asked him tonight (after watching him spell that word earlier in the day) if he could spell "hat".  he grabbed the A, put it in the middle, then the H in the left slot, and finally the T in the right slot.  all very deliberate.  he is very close to reading, that's for sure.  school will be a very good thing for him next year.  he also saw the word "open" in one of his books and got excited because he knew what it was.  

oh, dear...

but i mean that in a very good way.   j and i are in trouble, though...

tonight owen and i were doing his alphabet puzzle (upper and lower case letters that fit into slots).  as he was putting the letters in their places, i was asking him what each letter said.  for the most part, he could tell me.  this i knew was in his abilities.  the next thing i tried was giving him a letter sound and having him show me the letter, which quickly progressed to making short words based on phonetics.  he did amazingly well.  i just sat back and watched as he quickly found the correct letter.  there are a few he has trouble hearing the difference between, but for the most part, they are very close in sound (long 0 and r for one)  other words were spelled phonetically (cat/kat).  he really has this pretty solidly.  we did it for 5-10 minutes, at which point he grew tired of it and started playing with his blocks.  oh, and he knows how to spell/recognize two words so far.  owen and open.  

in 6 very short days, my baby will be 3 years old.  i marvel at all of the things he can do now that he couldn't do a year ago.  yesterday as we were going to j's sister's house to watch the football game (ugh...our team didn't even show up.) o saw an "open" sign.  he spelled it out for us.  i asked him what it spelled and he told us.  "uh-oh" i thought.  other skills that my almost-3 year old has include good verbal skills and the ability to tell us what he wants and be understood most of the time, he is sleeping in his big boy bed without rails, going potty all the time (save sleeping times), we can have a conversation with him, he likes playing games, and will talk on the phone with people.  he can count past 30 (and to 10 in spanish), recognizes all of his letters (upper case, lower case, and sign language), and generally blows me away with all of those unexpected things he does.  i can only imagine where he'll be in a year. 

guh-aa-puh

that's what owen did this morning at his fridge phonics word whammer.  sounded out his first word, totally unprompted.  i was amazed.  that's two major things within about 12 hours.  

tonight was the first swimming lesson for the session.  jeffy took owen in today, and owen cried and clung the entire time.  hmmm...sounds like the the first lesson last session.  hopefully thursday will be better.  

i found out today that as of next week, i will no longer be traveling between my two current schools on tuesdays and thursdays.  i found out via an e-mail sent to the entire staff explaining the new classrooms and the trickle-down effect that would be creating at my second school.  i have no official word from the district on anything.  in fact, i was the one who informed my principal at my main school.  i e-mailed her to ask what she knew and her response was, and i quote, "HUH???????"  we'll see when i find out anything at all.  the principal at my second school advised me to stick around at my main school on tuesday if i don't hear anything from the district.  maybe i'm missing something, but i fail to see how switching things up like this after school has started is the best thing for the kids.  i get that smaller classrooms is good, by how can switching whole teachers' schedules (and in this case, there are two of us who are being affected.)  we'll be essentially a month behind with our new assignments, which is detrimental not only to us but to the kids as well.  i'll be starting all over again next week with a new group of kids.  getting expectations established, routines, etc.  at least my main assignment won't be changing, unless it goes from .8 to 1.0 (that would be 4 days a week to 5 days a week).  it's frustrating to say the least.  this is the worst possible week for the switch to be happening, too.  i'm out of town w-f of next week for my sister's wedding.  guess a sub will have to do the new stuff for day 2.

too early

it's 3:50 by my computer clock as i begin writing.  that's 3:50 a.m.  way too early to be awake. between the first day of school today and some stuff going on in my personal life (more details on that at a later date) it's an early morning.  not by choice, though.  i could very easily be asleep right now.  i'm wishing i were asleep right now.  

owen is growing up so fast.  in just one short year, he'll be getting ready to start at my school.  i've had people ask me already this year if owen is coming to my school this year.  i'm glad for his october b-day.  he's not ready for formal school just yet.  i'll bet that in a year he will be.  last night we played a board game for the first time.  it's based off of two of his favorite eric carle books.  it's a matching game, which he easily mastered.  remember playing "memory" as a child?  it's basically the same thing, but you have to pick the cards up and match them to spots on the game board.  we played three times.  the first time was just to show him how to play.  the second and third times were for real.   he legitimately won both of those times.  then i brought out the pink material (part of the montessori language materials, three letter phonetic words to match to pictures, mounted and laminated on pink paper) to start on.  i got a large set of that material from one of the teachers at school who is replacing it with newer pink material.  she asked me if i wanted it to bring home for owen.  of course i said yes.   i think i'm going to get the book from her and see exactly how i'm supposed to be teaching this work to him.  i have some ideas, but i want to make sure they're appropriate before i get too far in to it.  we're going to start with initial sounds, i think.  put out three pictures cards that start with different sounds (pin, dog, box) and have him figure out the first sound and then find the word card to match.  he showed some interest last night. i'll follow his lead, though.

ok.  i'm yawning again.  i think i'll climb back in bed and try to get a little bit more sleep.  the alarm goes off at 6...i need to be able to get up then.

disappointed

i was so bummed tonight when we got to the Y for o's swimming lessons and saw the sign that said that the instructional pool was closed until further notice (likely tomorrow sometime.)  that meant that we didn't have swimming lessons tonight.  we'll go again on thursday.  hopefully nothing closes the pool then.  

tomorrow is our last day for play group this summer.  owen starts back at daycare on monday, i start back to work on monday and jeff starts his new job on monday (though he starts his training tomorrow.)  

faye and i went out tonight, just the mommies.  no one under 20 and/or a male was allowed.  we went to get ice cream.  it was super yummy and so nice to get out without the kids.  faye wore a shirt that said, "escaped mom...don't tell anyone you saw me!"  i so want a shirt like that!  it was so true tonight.  we considered going to see a movie after ice cream (she had gift cards for that) but i turn into a pumpkin at about 10 so going to a movie that started at 9:45 just wouldn't work.  even the hour out was nice.  

owen and i finished his 10 books for the summer reading program at the library.  we'll go on thursday to see the petting zoo and turn in books/get his books tallied and get the goodie bag.  friday we're going to nw trek with the kids.  that will be fun.  faye has a big enough car that we can all go in hers (all 5 or 6 of us, depending on where paige is when we go.  

a barking seal

guess what that means? croup. we went in yesterday after his cough changed from normal to seal-y. he's been home from school two days. i stayed home yesterday, jeffy stayed home today. owen is back to his normal self today, which is good. that means that both of us can go to work tomorrow. he has almost coughed himself hoarse, poor kid. it's been a rough couple of days, between the fever, 105 on sunday afternoon, 103 at 2:30 a.m. on monday - both times we gave him motrin and it responded very nicely, and him coughing, it's been hard on mom too. his breathing is still a bit labored, but it's ok. i'll be glad when we're through this.

i had a meeting after school tonight. i've been home maybe 30 minutes. not too long after i got in, owen took my hands, looked at me and said, "atee atee" and then dropped to his knees. he was asking to play ring around the rosie, which we did multiple times. must be somethign he's learned at daycare.

when we were at the pediatrician's office yesterday, she was asking me questions about how owen was doing. he started readign off the letters on the label on the examining table. she stopped and looked at me in surprise. she asked me if he was trying to read the letters. i told her he was reading the letters and that he knows most of his alphabet. then i told her that he can consistently get his shoes on the right feet. she was amazed. as we were walking out, we saw his old pediatrician. she was there with her two children doing some "official business". it was so nice to see her! we miss her, but we love the new doctor, too. she was also very amazed at his skills and agreed with me that we are in for a wild ride with this kid. when kids as smart as owen get bored, they get in trouble...

pre reader?

i think owen is getting ready to take the next step toward reading. we went to see his new cousin, eric, on saturday afternoon. on the way back to the car, he stopped us and touched every letter on the tailgate of a truck, saying each letter as he touched it. what a smart little boy? any bets on when he starts reading?

we had a battle of wills at dinner tonight. i wanted him to eat more mcnuggets before he got more apple dippers but he wanted the apples. he tried whining (didn't work - i don't understand whine.) so i offered him bbq sauce to have with his nuggets. success! he ate the rest of the chicken and then i gladly gave him his apples to finish.

muppets christmas carol is over. bath time!

waiting

to find out which 50% owen is in. we had a note sent home from day care today saying he has been exposed to the chicken pox. he got the first shot of the vaccine a year ago. i talked with a nurse and she told me what to look for and said that he has a 50/50 chance of getting it and wished us luck. the way i'm looking at it,he either gets chicken pox and we're done with it or he doesn't get it and we finish off the vaccine (2nd dose of the vaccine) and we're probably done with it. i think i'd rather he not get it and get the second dose of the vaccine - that will mean no missed work - but we'll have to wait and see. i really hope he can hold out until thanksgiving week. it's a short week of school (2.5 days) so it could be a managable thing. keeping my fingers crossed...

owen's speech is really improving lately. he's becoming more understandable more often. apple went from "at" to "appo". "pizza" is very clear. "dinosaur" is "di-doe". he's also counting to six and knows at least three letter sounds - b, d, m.

school is continuing to go well, we had our veteran's day assembly today and my choir sang. they had two weeks to learn their two songs (all but memorized!) and also to learn the poem "In Flanders Fields". they did such a wonderful job. i am so honored to be their teacher and directress.

i was supposed to have a release day yesterday for my national board process. "supposed to" being the operative words. turns out it was one day too early for finance to finalize approval for all of our release days. i'll still get the day, just on another date. more on this on my national boards blog.

tomorrow i drive to shoreline for a 7 p.m.-10 p.m. workshop, which continues on saturday all day. i'm not going to make the drive home on friday night. instead, i'll be staying with some friends in everett for that night. it will be a much better drive than coming all the way back home and then back up there again.

i am so ready for christmas break. i need the down time from work. i also need time to recoup from the cumulative hours of sleep i'm losing by a certain someone being up way too early and starting to play in his room. i get to stay in bed, but i'm still awake and losing sleep. the other day, he didn't nap at all at daycare. instead he was awake and trying to wake up his friends then quickly jumping back to his mat. what a little imp!

i received word on monday from the backpack people. owen and i will be in the 2008 calendar! immediate family will be getting calendars for christmas, among other things. we get 12 free. :-) i've asked about purchasing more. they're thinking about selling them and will let me know when they decide. i'll let you know as well. :-) i'm so excited! i'm a calendar girl! owen's a calendar boy!

pictures!

Here are some pictures, just as I promised.

The first couple are of our little man reading, a favorite pasttime for him. He's not wearing any pants to make trying the potty easier for me. Too bad he didn't get that bit...

Can you tell he's not the least bit camera-shy?

Again, he's reading. I sing the words to this book to the tune of Twinkle Twinkle. Before I took these pictures, I could hear him singing away as he was reading. I even heard a few words I didn't know he knew ("see" is one that comes to mind).

I just love the look on his face in this one.




A boy and his bed. It's a beautiful thing. Too bad he doesn't realize that right now and go take a nap. He's been playing for at least the last hour, despite my poking my head in there several times and telling him to go to sleep. I've even physicall put him in his bed at least three times this afternoon. On another note, aren't the sheets and comforter cute?!




A wider view of his bed. It has been moved over to your right by about a foot so as to make it a little harder for him to work the lightswitch. He can still manage to reach it, however. The safety rails have a latch at each end so they can swing down quite easily and automatically catch and lock when they are raised. It makes changing diapers on the bed much easier. Yesterday morning, I found him laying cross-wise in his bed, head to your right, feet toward the left, between the rails

animal sounds

we were reading a favorite book today - "moo baa la la la" by sandra boynton - and something brand new happened. i read the first part, owen did the corresponding animal sound. he didn't do a pig's propper sound, nor did he do the rhinos (snort and snuff), but he got everything else. that includes saying "bow wow wow" in the clearest i've ever heard it. add that to his rapidly expanding list of vocabulary. along with "hello!" very cool indeed.

at playgroup we had spaghetti. once i told asked him if he wanted to try spaghetti, he did the motion from the wiggles song. it took me a minute to realize what he was doing, but as usual he was right on! (he didn't eat the spaghetti by the way...no surprise there...)

i think we have a sitter set up for friday night, which is our fifth wedding anniversary. our friends katie and rob might be sitting for us. maybe even overnight, if they decide they are up for that. katie will call after she talks with rob. keep your fingers crossed!

bunny kisses

i wonder how many times i've said that owen cracks me up in this blog. well, he does. constantly. yesterday there were two things. one was while we were reading one of his current favorite bedtime stories and i asked him to give (me) bunny kisses - which are rubbing noses - he leaned down and gave the bunny in the picture a kiss. quite silly. he's big into kissing people and things right now. his teddy bear, his doggie backpack, the sesame street dvd, mommy, the kitty, etc. the other thing he did that made me laugh yesterday happened just before bedtime. he was making a bee-line for me (i was sitting in the chair in the living room) and saw his sippy cup on the coffee table. he stopped, looked at the cup, signed a quick "please" and then took a drink. i just had to laugh - hard.

new vocabulary:
blue-blue (blueberries)
there
right there
purple
singing ABCs (he tries, it's not even close to intelligible)
hissing like a snake when asked what a snake says

we're going to the zoo today with our friends katie and peter. we went to playgroup together on tuesday and while we were walking (it was in katie's neighborhood), the two boys were totally goofing with eachother. singing songs and just doing silly things. katie and i had loads of fun watching and listening to them. i'm glad the boys get along so well. today at the zoo should be a lot of fun as well. i'm really glad for the membership. so far, it's enabled us to go to the zoo twice in as many weeks.

oh, owen is getting better at trying new foods. now, this doesn't mean he eats the new food, but it at least makes it in his mouth. yesterday he finished up my scrambled eggs and last night i gave him a bite of the ravioli we were eating. he tried the ravioli but spit it right back out. that's just fine. at least he's willing to taste it!

No! More!

that's what owen said to me tonight after two stories and my mention of it being time for him to go to bed. needless to say, it was a battle i didn't feel like fighting (he was lunging after a nightly favorite - kiss goodnight) so he won. i just marvel at his acquisition of language. i think this is the first time he has put two words together verbally (as opposed to signing) to express a want without repeating each word several times (moh moh moh bee bee bee - who wants to translate that? it's not too hard!)

we had our annual school block party tonight. my principal saw owen and was absolutely taken aback at how big and grown up he is. actually, most people who haven't seen him in several months (or longer) have that same reaction. i had that same reaction with a (not so) baby brother of one of my students who is two now (the brother, obviously, not the student). owen had cheetos with his pbj and nana tonight. big mess, but it was a special treat being the block party. he didn't eat the hot dog i got for him, but at least we didn't waste any money on it - the bbq was free. :-) we like that!

bedtime stories

last night, as we were doing bedtime stories, mr. "i can do it myself" decided that that attitude extended to reading as well. he would not let me do the reading. he insisted on doing it. at first i was resistant, but then realized it was a great opportunity for him to read to me, even if i couldn't understand him. he was (and is) able to orient the books correctly, and even help tell the story in some places, either through signing or actions. one thing he knows, is that wind blows and he'll blow when the wind blows in one of the two books we read every night.

as for his language, he's saying "please" more than he's signing it these days. it sounds more like, "bee", but in owenese, that's "please". he also had some grilled cheese for dinner tonight. :-) good boy! he's still up at 4ish in the morning, but what can we do? (seriously, folks! what CAN we do?!?!)