Parent-Teacher Conference

The elementary school held parent-teacher conferences on Wednesday the 16th and Thursday the 17th.  Due to Finn's birthday on the 17th, I requested a conference for Wednesday evening. That would give us the whole day for Finn the next day (as Kai was out of school on Thursday and Friday).

These beginning of the year conferences are always something I look forward to.  Over the last two years I have found that the teachers use the time to explain what they are working on in class, how Kai is doing, what expectations are, etc.  This conference was no exception.  However, the very first thing that Kai's teacher said to me is that Kai is a joy.  She told me he was such a positive energy in the room and that when she is having a hard day, or even week at times, that Kai is the one who reminds her why she is teaching and can make her day better.  What an incredible compliment for our boy!  She honestly spent at least 5 minutes singing Kai praises.  It was so nice to hear as a mom.  He really is just a good kid.

She told me a story about something that had happened in reading group recently.  Apparently there are 7 kids in his group and there are only 6 of the books that they were using.  So she had asked Kai if he wanted to share with her.  He was very excited about sharing with her and sitting next to her (she said he was even rubbing her back for her!).  He even remarked, "And if you get it wrong, I can help you!"  She thought that was so funny!  At one point she even texted his Kindergarten teacher (who has now moved to North Carolina) and asked her to guess which one of her kids had said something (I think it was from the story that I just mentioned but I can't quite remember--she told me a lot of funny stories!), and his old teacher knew it was him right away.  I love that he has had such good teachers!

After that she got into the meat of the conference.  She showed me his work from the beginning of the year up to the present.  We talked about Kai's greatest weakness--his distractability that inhibits him from finishing his work.  This is turn means that his work does not reflect his capabilities.  (I'm glad that she is aware of that.)  She talked about how she had moved him to a lower

level writing group to help combat the problem.  The lower level group requires that less work get done and that way he doesn't feel that he's getting left behind.  Her method seemed to be working and he has gradually progressed to being able to complete classwork.

Along with samples of his work, she showed me the result of his standardized testing.  It was no surprise that Kai scored in the 99th percentile for reading and the 97th percentile for math.  And then she showed me the requirements for the Gifted program at school.  She would like to have Kai tested for the program at the end of the year.  In order to qualify for the testing, Kai needs to have three "bodies of evidence".  The first that he will have is a teacher survey, the second would be a collection of classwork that she is putting together, and finally he needs two scores above the 95th percentile.  He will retake his assessments at the end of the year, but she does not expect his scores to drop.  As long as those scores remain, she will recommend him for testing and depending on the outcome of that testing, he could be eligible to join the gifted program at the beginning of his 2nd grade year.  However it turns out, though, I am totally proud of him.  Whether he is "gifted" or not, we know that he is an exceptional child and we are proud of him.  If the gifted program is something that he enjoys and will help him to be challenged at school, great.  If it's not something that is a perfect fit for him, that's great, too.  Kai doesn't need the label in my opinion to be a fantastic little kid!

A sample of his "published" writing for a week in early October.  She told me that when he handed this in she told him the assignment wasn't completed.  He needs to use 5 colors for a picture to show that he is being "thorough".  He pointed out to her that he had colored in a sunset behind the pumpkins.  She was impressed but still felt that his pumpkins weren't complete.  For that he told her that they were colored, just that the two pumpkins on the right were painted white.

Funny Moments

Finn can make me laugh so hard.  I would have posted this picture on Facebook but I'm afraid I would get in trouble.  This is him getting dressed....underwear complete with some buffalo horns from DU.  (And yes he was dancing in them!)

He is also in that phase where kids say the funniest things.

One of my favorite things that Finn says is "chicken". Not because he says it wrong but because he uses it to describe any meat main dish. For example, tonight at the table it sounded like this:

Finn: Mom, what's this chicken called?

Me: Meatloaf.

Finn: Kai, try your chicken. It's yummy!

And then when Reid came home:

Finn: We made chicken with cheese Dad!
Now, doesn't that sound so much better than just plain meatloaf? 

Bree--again!

Today was cold enough to break out Bree's new winter coat.  I love the ears on the hood!

We started Bree on solids exactly at 5 months and so far she is doing well.  The first few nights she wasn't a huge fan of her milky rice cereal (I was trying to make it more milky to get more calories in her) but once I remembered some advice from a friend and adapted it to us, she was sold!  The advice--make it something they will really want. So, I started squirting in a half a teaspoon of applesauce.  And she LOVED it.  Since then we have added a few other things to try--applesauce, then coconut oil, then squash, then avocado, and most recently bananas.  All of these have been put in her cereal with pumped milk and coconut oil for extra calories.  She's not a big fan of any of these straight but she will eat them all in her cereal.  So yay!  And for the avocado, since I make it a purée with pumped milk, she actually will take that with just the oil and doesn't need the cereal.  She's eating better every day--at least the solids.  I am still pumping about 3 times a day.  I have found that the midnight pump is most critical and also the one that wears me out the most.  So I'm trying to find ways to make things a little easier and less stressful.  We've made it to 6 months (almost), so at the worst it'll only be 6 more months to go.  I am still working on a bottle with her every day though and it feels like I get closer to her taking it every day.  She took it from a friend last week, so I'm hoping it's only a matter of time.  Ideally, that would be the best solution for her but we will see of she decides to cooperate.  I think she may need a special formula, too, since she is still struggling with dairy.  Poor thing!

Other than that, the boys are keeping me on my toes.  Kai has a four day weekend this week and we are looking forward to using that to celebrate Finn's birthday.  I can't believe he is going to be 4!  That deserves a whole other post.

Magic

After a morning with a bit of adventure, Reid is home for the day.  This is what it currently looks like on our couch.  

It's a Periactin week which means Finn is tired and grumpy.  But even then I can't normally get him to lay down for a nap.  (Although he will fall asleep in the car for me.). But Daddies have magic powers at times, and today this is one of them.

Phone Blogging

I can blog from my phone now!  This could change blogging for me.

For some reason I'm looking at my kids with fresh eyes tonight and just enjoying their youth and innocence.

Bree was just too cute tonight that I didn't want to put her to bed.  (This picture is from two nights ago.)

 And Finn is being super sweet.  Here he is playing with some 3D glasses.

And Kai, well I just sat down next to him to tell him how proud of him I am.  He is reading The Wizard of Oz for his extracurricular reading this week.

 

5 Months of Bree

Wow--Blogger just ate my original post!  So, this is the Reader's Digest version.

Bree weighs 12 pounds 7.5 ounces and is 24.5 inches long.

She nurses 8 times a day and takes 2-3 naps per day.  She can take some seriously long naps and that results in only 2 naps on some days.

Because she LOVES to roll over we have slowly started to introduce the crib.  She doesn't sleep well at night because every time she wakes up she tries to roll over (or sit up!) in the cradle and that scares me so I jump right up.  So now she's not used to going a long time without me pulling her out of bed.

She is an expert sitter and loves to play with her toys sitting up.

She lights up when her daddy comes home and loves to coo and smile at her brothers.  She's even found her sense of humor and has a short, adorable little laugh.  It seems she's not going to be a belly-laugher, though.

We are so happy to have Bree in our family.  Words can't even describe how much we love her!

Ebbs and Flows

It's been pretty quiet here on the blog simply because life has been pretty quiet.  We've settled into a routine that feels pretty comfortable and makes the days go quickly and, in general, relativey easily.

Our mornings are pretty basic--kids get up, I feed them and make sure they get dressed and then they move downstairs to get Finn's morning treatments in before we leave for school drop off.  While they are doing treatments, I get myself ready and pack Kai's lunch if I haven't already.  I also get Bree ready, fed, and pump.  Most of the time we're running out of the house with my hair pretty wet, but hey, at least I showered!  Well, most days I shower.  :)

While Kai is at school, our day seems to go fast.  Having a baby break the day into segments for you tends to make everything go faster I guess.  Bree either falls asleep while we are dropping off Kai or really quickly after we get home.  While she naps, Finn and I have our time together.  We play with toys, do crafts, read books, try other new activities, do chores, etc.  Since her morning nap is normally a long one, Finn and I have some good time together.  After Bree wakes up, I feed her, pump (if I have to), continue chores while the kids play, etc.  Bree is normally ready for a nap again right around lunch time, so I will set Finn up for a "Word World" picnic and then take Bree back to her room for nursing and cuddling and hopefully sleeping.  And then our day repeats again.  More time with Finn, more chores, and by the time Bree wakes up again we are getting ready to pick up Kai from school.  After school, Finn and Kai run off to play which gives me time to feed Bree, put her down if she needs it, pump, etc.  And finally it's time for dinner and Reid comes home for our nightly routine of dinner and treatments.  It's funny how quickly the days go.

Kai's Update

Kai seems to be doing well in school, at least academically.  He still does not really like school at all.  One day last week he woke up only to come out to the living room and curl up and cry on the couch.  He says he misses us while he is at school, but then he also confessed he misses the electronics, too.  That made me less than happy and we had a nice talk about that once I had cooled off a bit.  Needless to say he has been told that there are no electronics for him during school hours whether he is here or at school.

The last weekend in August Kai declared "Kai and Finn" day.  It was a day that he dedicated to playing (aka bossing around) with his little brother.  Those two are still best buddies and I love it.  It just makes it harder for him to go to school.

One day about two weeks ago I met Kai at pick up to find him in a pile of tears.  His teacher told me that he was upset because he had not received a stamp on his "Bee-havior" chart because he took too long to pack up.  She told me that he is slow and he needs to learn the consequences.  Well, we are fully aware he is slow.  I think he was most upset that he might get in trouble with me.  He didn't.  We talked about how he could try again the next day and practice packing up faster and that seemed to resolve the issue for the time being.  He came out of school carrying his folder yesterday because he didn't have time to pack it, but he had received his stamp so I guess that's an acceptable solution for his teacher.  Sheeew!

I have volunteered as Kai's classroom "Volunteer Coordinator".  Unfortunately, there aren't very many parents willing to volunteer and I don't feel like I'm being much of a help.  Because of my concerns with leaving Bree, I have yet to volunteer in the classroom, but I have taken work that can be done at home to help out in the classroom.  I've been doing a lot of cutting for his teacher.  I hope it's been helpful.  I'm hoping to get into his classroom soon.

This was a clssroom assignment that is hanging up at school.  They were suppossed to write something that began with "I like me because...."  This is what Kai wrote!  Good grief!

Kai's class has classroom mail.  He has come home with two letters this week.  I can't quite make out all of this one, but I do get, "You are nice."

For some reason, blogger keeps turning these upside down even though they aren't upside down on my computer.  This one says, "Kai, you are cool.  You are awesome.  You are nice.  You are caring.  You are really nice.  You are my friend."  Love it!

Finn's Update

With all of his one-on-one time with me, Finn has had a busy month.  We started out the month by working on potty training.  We started on Labor Day.  That first day he had accidents up until 6pm at which point it seemed he finally caught on and made it to the potty.  Day two we started with accidents again, but it clicked again around noon.  Finally on day 3 we had no accidents.  He did really well for about a week and then started having accidents again.  After nearly another week of accidents, he finally got it again and we are now nearly two weeks accident free.  I am super proud of him and have promised him a trip to the toy store as his reward.  He even woke up with a dry pull-up this morning.  Like I said, he's doing great!

On September 9th, Finn had his annual CF clinic visit.  It was LOOONNNGG!  Four hours at the hospital was driving all three of us (me, Finn, and Bree) crazy.  But it was a really good report and Finn was relatively well behaved.  He impressed me most with his blood draw.  We had the nurse put some Emla cream (it numbs the skin) on his elbow before we went for the draw.  And when the lab tech tied the rubber band on, I started to get worried, but we turned his attention to the TV and when the needle went in he said "Ouch" and turned to look.  He looked at the needle and said, "That doesn't hurt!", and that was the end of that.

Finn weighed in at 32 pounds, which was 1 pound less than he had weighed at his GI appointment 2 weeks earlier.  I knew exactly why he had lost the pound, though, and after a talk with the doctor and dietician they agreed that I could increase his enzyme dose to 6 pills when he has his Ensure Plus drinks.  I have been mixing those drinks with whipping cream and he is losing quite a bit of that fat and calories because of his enzyme dose.  Since that appointment he has gained a half a pound back.  It doesn't sound like a lot, but it's the first time he has gained weight without being on Periactin (his appetite stimulant)in over a year.  So I'm very happy about it.  And next week he will cycle back onto his Periactin.  I'll admit I'm really curious to see what happens to his weigh with the Periactin and enzyme dosage change.

Other than that, the doctor asked us to restart Flonase.  Finn had been a bit stuffy with just a little green junk for two months, so hopefully Flonase will take care of that.  However, since that appointment Finn has caught a minor cold (Kai brought it home from school) and he has become more stuffy.  Gratefully though, he hasn't developed a chesty cough.  We have done treatments three times a day and reintroduced Hyper Tonic Saline, too, to help out.  So far, so good.

Fishing for letters

Helping me make banana bread

I pump a lot.  This is what happens when Finn is left to his own devices.  He hung up all my bangs for me using a bungee cord!

Finger paint

Playing chalks in the garage today

So, yeah, it's been pretty quiet here.  Which for the most part is good.  I'll do Bree's update in her 5 month post on Sunday--WOW!