TGIF

With temperatures cold and windy but a need to get outside and stretch our legs, we bundled up and went for a walk this afternoon. The walk, albeit cold, was just what we needed to get us through the final hours of the afternoon and reaffirm that [on most days] there is no place I would ever want to be then be with these kids. I truly have the best job. 

This kid never slows down.   

And her sunny personality is ever and always present.   

And this face just slays my heart every time. 

You CAN Judge a Book By Its Cover (Sometimes)

The other night the kids and I cuddled up to read books before bed. Two of the books we read were The Cat in the Hat and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Even though we have read these books countless times and my kids have had the same reaction to them, I never really thought about how some aspects of their personalities are easily determined by reading these two books. In fact a stranger could sit down and read these books with them and determine which one is willing to bend the truth and which one isn't. And which one follows the rule and which one doesn't care to follow the rules. 

If you haven't ever read The Cat in the Hat, which I find hard to believe that someone hasn't read it at least once, the Cat comes and makes a big mess of the house when two little kids [Sally and Nick] are at home alone while their mom is out. (Side note, in this day and age I don't believe any kids that little would be left at home alone but I am assuming when Dr. Seuss wrote the book the laws were a little more lax on this issue). By the end of the book, the Cat puts it all back right before the mom walks in the door. Then there is a line that reads, "Should we tell her…Now what should we do…What would YOU do, If your mother asked you?" So Mae answered immediately that she would tell me. Whitaker's response, "No I would not say anything."

The next book we read was a newish book called Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! We have read this book hundreds of times but it is an easy read (meaning short) and the kids love it. If you don't know about this book, essentially a bus driver leaves a bus parked and tells the reader Don't let the pigeon drive the bus. Insert pigeon who comes by page after page and tries to convince the reader to let him drive the bus by asking questions/pestering them. As you can see this book was designed to get the reader to say, No and I can only assume to make them thinking that following the rules is cool. Because following the rules is cool, right? It comes as no surprise that Mae always says "NO" and Whitaker always, always says "YES!! [with much enthusiasm]

Cursed

I am really starting to think that we are cursed when it comes to renting houses. I don't know what it all means but I find it pretty ironic that we complained about the weather and rain in Seattle and now we have another situation with a different house. 

To back track, on Friday the kids and I headed to have a sleepover with Jolene (and Aunt Julie) since Uncle Beef was out of town. Here is Whitaker all ready to go. 

We brought Jolene Mae's pink piano. Could she possibly be any cuter playing it? I mean really look at those cheeks. 

Can you guess which one is a doll? 

On Saturday afternoon, when the kids and I came home we came home to this!!!! Pearson was home and thank goodness caught it before it got terrible. This house has a sump pump but a piece on it froze a couple of weeks ago and broke off. They came to fix it on Friday when we were at the beach and unplugged the sump pump and never plugged it back in. Hence our basement getting water. 

Thank goodness this house is managed by a property team and this is what it now looks like. We can't go down there till Wednesday when they will come to replace the padding and make sure it is totally dried out. 

All in all it was a great weekend but it makes me want to go back to the beach. 

Parent Teacher Conference (Part 1)

Today was Whitaker's first ever Parent/Teacher Conference (hence Part 1 with many more parts to come). By no means is this a deal breaker for the basis for his academic life. BUT it is also a huge deal because it is the first time that I got to hear what someone [a trained professional] who spends a fair amount time with Whitaker thinks he is doing developmentally. 

As I might have written about before Whitaker has already been to the office at school for bad behavior and it seemed every time I went to pick him up for the first two and half months, there was some incident of Whitaker misbehaving. However, in the last couple of months things have seemed to be going a little smoother but by no means is Whitaker going to be the class pet. So when I stepped in to talk about Whitaker, I was curious to hear what his teacher had to say about him. And she said...

Whitaker's teacher said that he was a total "delight" to have in class and that he was eager to learn, inquisitive, and curious. She also did say he was "one of the most stubborn kids she has seen." No shocker there! Along with giving us a formal evaluation of Whitaker's development (fine and large motor skills, language, self care, speech, and cognitive), Whitaker's teacher put together these books that were about "ME." The books showed certain skills that they were working on. 

It goes without saying that I am so impressed and proud of him and thought this conference could not have gone anything better. 

I am pretty impressed how he stays in the lines and that he got his eye and hair color correct. His teacher also thought he did a great job. 

Whitaker's teacher asked him some simple questions and recorded his answers.  

And if you didn't believe me when I said Whitaker had some downs during the first months of school, this is a self portrait of Whitaker during the first few weeks of school. It says that Whitaker "Refused" to participate in this activity. 

Winter Beach Day

We decided to take advantage of Mae not having school today or Monday and came to Oak Island last night for some winter beach days. Our first day here was pretty spectacular with temperatures in the high 50s and was a perfect start to our time here. 

Mae decided to do a little photo shoot for me.