Braedon!

Last week was an exciting week for us!

After the holiday break, I felt like we were back at square one with Braedon and his behavior at school. He did so well over the 2 week break but it's probably because he didn't "have to do anything" as far as school work or anything that really required any sort of concentration.

So the first week back was rough...even rougher because he was not going up to 1st grade for math. The 1st grade class was "re-organizing". My guess is they were re-testing the kiddos because they were split up into 3 levels-below 1st grade, average, above average-and they needed to make sure everyone was where they should be. This meant Braedon had to stay in Kindergarten during math. He has been working on double digit addition/subtraction so you can imagine the torture of having to do single digit addition and "how many are in this picture".

Ok so fast forward to last week-I picked him up from school as I always do but Miss Fredrickson seemed distracted so we didn't really talk much about his day-no biggie. I get home and when I looked in his folder for the day's report, announcements, homework, I saw a permission slip. WELL! This wasn't just any permission slip...it was a permission slip to test him for the Gifted and Talented program!! Oh...my...goodness! I talked to her the next day about it and learned the testing will be in March and that she requested it. She said "he's a very analytical thinker and always thinks outside the box" and "I really just think there is something there"! I finally felt like my thoughts were being heard! After months and months of conferences with her and the assistant principal to figure out what might work and countless times of me telling them "HE'S BORED!"..they finally listened! I've always known he was smart and not just being biased. His preschool teachers always said something. Not only is he smart, he's quick to learn which is always a good skill to have.

So the test is really hard and there isn't much I can do to prepare him for it but everyone at the school is confident he will do just fine. If for whatever reason he doesn't make it this year, they will definitely test him next year. And once he's in, he's in!!

Isn't that great?! I'm so excited for him and I know this will be what he needs. He's not being challenged enough and is getting uber bored in class which then leads to misbehavior.

Where oh where have I been?

Life has a way of getting the best of you. I haven't blogged in a month! :O It has been crazy busy around here and there were so many times that I said "Oh man this needs to go in my blog" then the event came and went.

I am back in school now and 2 weeks away from finishing my second class. I am proud to say that I finished my first class with a 99.3% and I am on my way to a very similar grade in my current class though it is so much harder. Who knew a healthcare ethics class would be so challenging? It is really making me think about my own ethics and how I would handle situations if/when I become a nurse.

Chris is doing great at work and is getting a 20% raise! He has been approached a few times about stepping into a management role and we have discussed what is best for our family. It is a step in the right direction but management doesn't get overtime which is our bread and butter at the moment. I would love for him to not have to work overtime but on the flip side, it is what allows me to stay home with the boys.

Braedon has been doing much better with the herbs he's on and the new diet. However, the last week has been rough. He is falling into old habits and of course, now we know it isn't anything other than him chosing to not make "smart choices" (per the school's wording). I am starting to wonder if he is challenging us in a way to see how far it will go. He has been grounded since last Tuesday and continues to challenge us. We also have a parent-teacher conference tonight.

Cohen is continuing to thrive and learn so much. No, he isn't "walking" yet though he could. He just won't let go and is afraid of falling. He also knows he is much faster when he crawls. He has also turned into quite the dare devil. He knows how to climb on the couch and likes to "throw" himself into the pillows after Braedon has stacked them up. We line the floor of the couch with additional pillows to help with the falls but now he intentionally falls off and laughs when he hits the floor. He is quite the little boy!

Since the boys' birthdays are 5 days apart, we had 1 big party for them a couple weeks ago at the park down the street. We reserved a ramada near the playground and BBQ. We also rented a bounce house which was a major hit with the kids and had a pinata. We were lucky that it wasn't triple digits like the weekend before and that it didn't rain as anticipated. It was very very windy so most of the decorations didn't last and we didn't even bother with the balloons. The general concensus was at least the sun wasn't beating down! The boys were spoiled as anticipated and we still have to go through the play room to make room for the new stuff.

They both had their check ups as well. Braedon came in at 47" and 52# up 6" and 10# from last year! Cohen came in at 31" and 21#. They are both healthy growing boys!

Braedon gets suspended,then gets on green & Cohen walks!

On Wednesday, the school had a "bring your grandparents to lunch" day in honor of grandparents day so Namma, Mom and I went up there. Braedon had had a rough morning and was in OCR which normally would've meant he would be walked to the cafeteria to get his lunch and then back to OCR to eat it but they made an exception since he pulled his act together in OCR and because we were there. I headed up a little early to talk to him about what he had been doing and then we went over and had lunch. While we were eating, Mr. George (OCR teacher) came in to get lunch with the other boys that were in there and Braedon's face just lit up. He had told us that he liked OCR but based on the reason's he gave, I figured it was because it was quiet in there and hew as getting over stimulated. Come to find out, he really likes Mr. George. Bells and whistles and red flags went off in my head-He likes Mr. George which is why he likes OCR which is why he keeps getting sent there. He knows if he acts up, he will be sent there. I don't know why I didn't put 2 and 2 together before that. We also discussed the possibility of him being bored in class because he is definitely smart for his age but more importantly, he absorbs everything very quickly and has an impecable memory. You don't have to tell him how to do something more than a couple times and he has it. After lunch, I met up with Ms. Jelleson (Asst. Principal) to discuss the my observances.

We set up the meeting on Thursday morning before school started so Miss Fredrickson could be there. We all discussed the *problem* with Mr. George. Come to find out, Mr. George is an ex Juvenile detention officer...whoa! So he talks to them about their decisions, making the right decisions and what is going to happen if they continue to make the wrong decisions. GREAT! But not great since Braedon likes him. Miss Fredrickson brought in his DIBELS test results for me to see and he is right where he needs to be...not below, not above. However, as I looked over some of his work, he missed things that I know he can do. Miss Fredrickson said that he continues to say he's tired and doesn't know how to do something that he can do. Between the 3 of us, we think he is getting overwhelmed. Instead of looking at things one at a time, he looks at the big picture. We worked out a plan that we were hoping was going to work. Rather than using OCR as a punishment, we flipped it to be more of a positive. If he was being good but needed a quiet moment/cool off moment, he could go see Mr. George. I didn't want him to lose that connection especially if Mr. George is talking to him about his actions and what that could mean in the future. Miss Fredrickson was also going to work on "chunking" him work. Instead of telling him to do the whole worksheet, she will cover up half of it and say "Ok Braedon, you are just going to do these ones then come see me". This way he gets immediate gradification and the praise/attention he so desperately seeks then he works on the second portion. After we had that established, Ms. Jelleson piped in and talked to him about his behavior and referrals (basically write ups when it gets bad enough-3 referrals=suspension and he already had 2). She told him that he needed to work on calming down and asking to go see Mr. George if he needed help. She then proceeded to tell him that if he got another referral, he would be sent home.....BIG MISTAKE! I cringed when she said it and it took her a minute to realize what she had just done. I immediately piped in and told him that he would NOT have fun at home if he got sent home-there would be no toys, TV, games, nothing and he would be sitting at his table all day writing letters and doing homework. He agreed but I knew better.

Not 30 minutes later I got a call that he scratched on kid and kicked another. He then refused to walk out of the room to cool off and talk to Ms Jelleson and she had to carry him down the hall to her office. He officially got his 3rd referral for hurting 2 other kids and I had to go pick him up. I was beyond upset-my kindergartner was suspended. By the time I got there, I could tell he was truly upset for what he had done and was crying. Ms. Jelleson said she had never seen him so upset so I think something set him off and he lost control. It took him a minute to remember/realize what he had done and he was truly sad over it. There is definitely something going on there but I couldn't let that interfere with what had happened and the punishment. I had warned him and I had to follow through. We talked with the school counselor and I filled out a sort of permission slip so she could talk to him a couple times a week about his feelings and how to express them. She'll also work on relaxation and calming down exercises.

Once we got home, he got what he was promised. I moved his table to the base of the stairs on the other side of the baby gate where I could still see him but he couldn't see anything that was going on in the living room. I made him sit there while I calmed down and figured out what I was going to do. He complained he was tired and hungry but just because we were at home, I couldn't let him take a nap or eat prior to lunch "time" so I made him keep his head off the table and he wasn't allowed to eat lunch until 11. I found a website that has grade appropriate worksheets and printed off countless worksheets. In the meantime, I wrote out letters of appology to the 2 kids he hurt, Miss Fredrickson and Ms. Jelleson. I made him tell me what he wanted to say and then he had to write them out. It was the first time he had to write sentences so it took several times before he had a copy that was somewhat legible but it was a learning experience for him in 2 ways-1: writing sentences and seeing how letters are combined to make words, spaces between words and how words make sentences-2; writing appology letters for his actions. He got 2 acceptable letters written before lunch so I let him stop and eat but then it was back to writing the 2 others. After he finished those, I made him start working on the stack of worksheets I had printed off. I talked to him about what he had done and why he was sent home. I also made sure he realized that school was the better option. I took it as a learning experience because he kept telling us he just wanted to be at home not realizing that being at home wouldn't be like it was before he started school. I still praised him on the worksheets and gave him the gratification he needed to continue but every time he got up from his chair, I made him sit back down. I also made it a point to not talk to him and kept Cohen away from the baby gate. If he had to go to the bathroom, he told me before he got up and if he had a question about the worksheet I answered but nothing beyond that. Once school would've gotten out, I made him a snack and then made him go back to work. He was then able to stop for dinner and then back to work until bedtime. I debated on letting him stop when school was over but I felt I had to go to the extreme to make sure he remembers how much being sent home sucked. Once Chris got home, he said "I just want to go to school, I don't want to do all this" so I knew I had made the right impression. When we tucked him in he said he doesn't ever want to be sent home again and he would be good on Friday. Good :-)

Friday morning, I decided we would spend more time at home and get there right when school started rather than going early for breakfast he can't eat anyway. I had been making his breakfast and letting him eat with the other kids but most days he looked sad and I think it is because he can't have what they are having. So he ate breakfast at home and we had about 20 extra minutes together. When we got to school, I gave him the letters he had wrote so he could hand them out. First up was Ms. Jelleson-she bent down and read what it said, gave him a hug and said Thank you. She also put it up on her bulletin board that has things other kids have given her. I could see how excited he was and proud. Next up was Miss Fredrickson who also said Thank you then the 2 kids in his class. Abby is who he kicked and when he gave it to her, she said Thanks but they are all learning how to read so I had him tell her what it said. I got a glipse of him giving the other one to Ryan which is who he scratched and I could see Braedon telling Ryan what it said (they were across the room) and then I heard Ryan say "Aww how sweet Thank you!" Followed by a hug! I about lost it. I had been so worried that he didn't have any friends because of how he had been acting but kids are very forgiving-come to find out he even has 2, yes 2, girlfriends! I mean, he is quite the little handsome boy but still..lay off girls LOL!

I left the school with high hopes but didn't want to be disappointed so I settled on yellow being a good day-Yellow is better than orange, red and suspension. I got a call at about 10 from the school but I was taking Cohen upstairs for nap. My gut told me it was the school and I got sick to my stomach. When I got back downstairs, I hated to look but knew I had to-it was in fact, the school. I didn't wait for the message and called right back. Relief-it was the attendance-apparently he had been marked absent since we didn't get there for breakfast. Whew! They patched me back to his class so Miss Fredrickson would confirm he was there and not missing. She told me his morning was going great! He had one episode but was able to pull it together quickly! I was so excited but still anticipated a rougher afternoon. I found myself watching the clock, keeping tabs on what he should be doing and waiting for the phone to ring...it didn't. My heart was racing and I was anxious as I drove to the school to pick him up. Once they opened the gate, I saw that Miss Fredrickson was holding on to him and I just sank. That only happens when she needs to talk to me about his day which means it was a bad day. All of a sudden, I saw them both start smiling and she took his hand and ran with him up to me holding out his calendar (where the color is marked) and I saw a big GREEN smiley face! Oh I lost it and started tearing up. She said it was a great day-he had a couple melt downs and a couple episodes of not listening but all in all he did great! I was so relieved and happy and he was excited about it as well!

In other Braedon news, he started soccer last week and had his first game Saturday morning. He did really well and I know he wants to try football but I think soccer is going to be his niche. It is active enough to keep him running and interested and he has always done really well with kicking. They don't keep official score but his team won 2-1 :-) After his game, we went to the party supply store and got everything for his birthday party then headed over to Toys R Us so he could show us what he wants. It was definitely a long day but we had fun. We are finally starting to see glimpses of "the old Braedon" that we love. Taking out all these problems, freakouts and melt downs, he is the sweetest, most loving, cuddly, smart, quick witted, funny kid you will ever meet. We are finally starting to enjoy him again and I couldn't be happier. I am calling his ped on Monday to get him in for another behavior consult now that we can get a teacher evaluation. We will see the doctor we had seen in the past that was completely supportive of our decision not to medicate him rather find other options that work. I am also going to have them test him for diabetes, thyroid issues and refer us to an allergist to have a full allergy test run. I want to know if he is allergic to dairy or just "sensitive".

Now onto Cohen news! He had taken steps on his own a few weeks ago but he had a complex about letting go. He will walk where ever as long as he is pushing something-his walker, a chair, anything. Well, this weekend, I was in the bathroom (TMI sorry LOL) and he came crawling in looking for me. He stood up using the door frame and I said "look at you big boy". He started to laugh, then took a step, got his balance, laughed again, took another step, got his balance, laughed and took another one! He knew what he was doing and thought it was funny! He did it again when Chris got home to show daddy too. He has only made it up to 4 steps but it is progress since it is 4 steps that he realizes he is taking and not just on accident. He is walking from chair to chair, couch to ottoman, etc. He is still faster at crawling and if he wants to get somewhere, he gets down and crawls but he loves to stand!

I can't wait until his birthday! Both of theirs actually but while at Toys R Us, we got to look at toys for Cohen and things he would enjoy. I am excited about some of the toys and such we found and I know he will love getting new toys. He has quite a bit but hasn't gotten new ones in a while and he is starting to outgrow some of them.

I will try to post a "picture" post tomorrow of our recent trip to the zoo, the soccer game and pictures we took yesterday for their invitations :-)

He took 2 steps!

Yep! Cohen took 2 steps! He has become braver and braver the last few days and is no longer scared to stand alone..in fact, he thinks it's funny when he lets go. Saturday night, we were having dinner for Chris' birthday and Cohen was standing on the booth when he took 2 steps towards Chris! He hasn't done it since but he is standing for longer an longer so it won't be long now. He is still trying to reach for something to grab onto before he moves his feet. I'll keep you updated :-)

An update on Braedon: He is doing much better with the new sticker reward system had 2 out of 3 days on green and one yellow. We talked to him about this week and told him we would like to see him on green everyday this week. He agreed but then said he wanted on purple! I think this may have something to do with Megan (his "girlfriend). She is a few months older than Braedon so she was able to start K last year and has been in 1st grade for a couple weeks longer. At dinner on Saturday, we started talking about school. In K, her school used a number system 1-4 with 4 being an excellent day; in 1st grade, they are using a color system and she told Braedon that she is always on purple and asked what color he is on. When he told her "sometimes yellow and orange", she asked him why he isn't good in school, etc. Maybe she will have an influence on him that no one else seems to have had yet. I let his teacher know that his goal is purple this week and she was really excited. Only time will tell!

Meeting with the teacher

Thanks for the reminder Amy :-) The meeting was supposed to be with Braedon's teacher and vice principal however, the vice principal was called into another conference-I was lead to believe it was with a child with more issues than the "minor" ones we are dealing with.

So we bribed, er, were nice parents and brought Miss Fredrickson a Boba which we found out during meet the teacher night (when Chris and I walked in with one and she said "Oh my goodness where can you buy Boba around here? To which we turned and looked with absolute astonishment that she knew what Boba was) is one of her all time favorite drinks.

What is Boba you may ask? You can find that information right here.

So, now you know-you learned something new today didn't you? It's always good to learn new things.

Ahem, back to the meeting. So we brought her one-yeah maybe in hopes of her taking it easy on us-and after watching her grin like a kid in a candy store showing off her Boba to the entire staff, we went into the classroom. She showed us a chart she had created. In the left column, she had a box for the opposite of everything Braedon does to get in trouble-not sitting on his bum during carpet time, not sitting in his chair for table time, getting out of line, speaking out of turn, etc (there were 12 but I can't remember them all)-and the top row was Mon-Fri. So the plan is for everyday that he does each of these things (or the opposite really), he will get a sticker. I hope that makes sense LOL! So he will get a sticker for sitting on his bum, staying in line, yada yada. The ulitimate goal, obviously, is to have a sticker for every one, every day but the first goal was 8. Braedon decided he could do 9. If he gets his stickers for the day, he is on green or purple depending on how well he does but if he gets less, then he will be on yellow, orange, red accordingly. The chart will be at his table as a reminder and it will be sent home every Friday so we can see where he earned his stickers.

Miss Fredrickson was confident that this will work and will help him get back on track. I hope so!

Last week was rough

So my last post about school and Braedon was after his first day. You see, Braedon is a *spirited* child. He is very intense, emotional, energetic, and strong willed...not like his mom at all, ahem.

Moving on.

He can be hard to deal with and has a hard time listening and obeying authority. The school uses a color system to let us parents know how our dear children were at school. His calendar is colored everyday and we have to sign it.

Purple: exceptional day
Green: good day
Yellow: warning
Orange: time out/lose some recess
Red: time out in buddy room (principals office) and note/call home

So, Braedon's first day of school-Green
Tuesday: Orange
Wednesday: Green, then yellow-would've been Orange but school was over
Thursday: Orange
Friday: Thank goodness-Green
Monday (week 2): Yellow-still struggling with listening

He was throwing fits at school, laying on the floor and refusing to get up, pushing, hitting, pinching, cutting in line, refusing to listen to anything the teacher asked him to do, not doing his work and wandering the classroom and hall.

So, yeah, it was a rough week. I had to buckle down at home and become Nazi Mom-which I HATE! He tests his boundaries and constantly pushes his limits. I told him there would be no more warnings-there used to be one warning and that was it but for whatever reason, it got to the point where he was getting several warnings before punishment and he knew just how far he could push. Even after several warnings, I would give him "to the count of 3" to which he would wait until I said "3" then do whatever he was supposed to do. So, no more warnings, no more counting. I say do it, and you do it or there will be consequences. It was very hard for me to stick to my guns and he spent the majority of last week in his room. He was able to come down for dinner and then back up he went until it was time for a shower and bed. It was so hard to listen to him cry and just want to come out and talk-he's a social butterfly-but I knew the punishment had to be severe enough for him to know I mean business. I have taken away toys, TV, video games..you name it, he's lost it. But he doesn't seem to care. The only thing that seems to be working is solitude...which was proven when he got a big green smiley face on Friday.

Braedon is definitely a follower and if he sees another student being bad, then he thinks it's ok to be bad as well. I love his teacher-we almost seem to understand each other. She isn't married and has no children but it's as if we would/could be friends. The unfortunate thing is, while she's been a K teacher for 5 years, she just doesn't seem to have the forcefulness that some kids need. I may be completely off base here since I haven't seen her in "action" but she admitted that she has a brood of "rough boys" this year...which is not good for Braedon, you know, since he's a follower.

Today, Chris and I are meeting with his teacher and vice principal to work out a plan of attack, er, for success :-)

In other news-Cohen is so funny when it comes to standing without holding on. He has the balance to do so and does so very well, when he doesn't realize it LOL! If he is holding onto us and we make him let go, he holds his hands out in front of him and slowly lowers himself to a sitting/crawling position. If he's holding onto a peice of furniture, he gets distracted and grabs a toy with one hand, then wants to play with it in both hands. He will stand there for 5 min playing with the toy but the second it registered in his brain that he isn't holding something, he drops what he was playing with and grabs on! It's pretty funny to watch LOL!

Braedon's first day! and funny story at the end :-)

So in all fairness I wrote this yesterday and didn't post it and I'm too tired to upload pictures..I'll just leave you with this-today was a rough day for Braedon and I am at my wits end. For now, enjoy his first day story and I'll upload the first day of school pics tomorrow...and maybe tell you what happened today-when I'm up for it.

Yep..first official day of school and man there were a TON of kids there! I mean, I knew it was a K-8 school, but I guess I didn't expect that many.

So we get to the school and see everyone migrating over to the courtyard where we were previously told to drop them off but since it was the first day..

Anyway-we flagged down someone -still don't know who she was but she worked there, our best guess is Vice Principal- to find out about paying for his lunch and were directed to the Cafeteria. Lunch paid for-check

Then we waited LOL! The school is on a grant of some sort so all the kids get breakfast for free-cool deal! There was a whole line of parents that hadn't registered their kids yet-CRAZY! Let's register our kids for school on the first day...sounds like a good idea to me! Breakfast was supposed to start at 7:55 but of course, they were behind schedule because of all the new registers.

Once we got in the classroom, he hung up his backback and sat down for breakfast. I got him all squared away and I just didn't want to leave. There were a few other parents that I could tell were feeling the same way as I was. Eventually, the parents started filing out of the classroom so Chris and I followed and off we went. Chris started laughing at me (gently) because I started tearing up. "But he didn't say anything this time to make you cry"..."No, but it's official now..He's growing up".




Ok Now the funny story.

A little background first though-Chris' friend Lupe has been staying with us Mon-Fri since he lives in another city but works out near us. Lupe drives a Scion like this:


We were walking passed the pick up turn around and there was an H2 parked there, like this:


Then our conversation went like this:

B: Look Mommy! It's like Lupe's!
Me: Yeah kinda
B: When we get home, I'm gunna tell Lupe we saw a car like his..but it was bigger so it wasn't like his...but it was like his...and it was black. I'm gunna tell him K mommy?
Me: *silently laughing* Ok bud.

Last 2 days of jumpstart

We've been pretty busy and I fell behind on the blog front LOL!

Braedon's last 2 days of jumpstart went fairly well. He was able to stay on green most of the day. He had a couple mishaps that put him on yellow but with the "threat" of red hanging over him, he shaped up to get back on green. I was very happy with how this week went and am hoping the jumpstart program got all the wiggles out and we won't have any problems when the school year starts. On Thursday, when I was dropping Braedon off, a little boy-I say little because he was much smaller than Braedon-came up to me and said "your son 'bees' mean to me". It kind of took me by surprise but I turned to Braedon and he admitted it so I took it as an opportunity for a life lesson on being nice. It turns out, Braedon seems to be the bully. If someone has something he wants, he takes it away without asking and if they don't give it to him, he hits them. This little boy was beyond his years and kept telling Braedon that he needs to be nice to everyone and not take things away, to share, and to not hit. I talked to Braedon about being nice and making friends with everyone. It's better to have lots of friends than to be the kid that is mean. He said he wanted to be this kids friend so I told him he needed to appologize and ask if they can be friends. I couldn't have seen what was coming next. Braedon went over and asked him if they can be friends and he said "NO"..oh my-so much for a life lesson right? Good thing I'm quick on my feet because Braedon just looked at me like what now? I told him that he doesn't want to be his friend because he was mean to him and he needed to make an effort to show him he would be nice. Meanwhile, this kid kept saying "you need to be nice to EVERYONE, not just me". Hmmm..pretty smart this little kid is. I asked Braedon to work on being nice to everyone and have a good day. He was anxious to get to play and run before school started. This kid wasn't in his class so I don't know what happened or if he will be in his class for the year. I guess we'll have to see. Braedon also showed what a big boy he could be and rode the bus home the last 2 days. I was nervous about it but I figured it would be good for him to get the experience and this way if I ever needed him to take the bus home for anything, he already knows how to do it. Since it was just kinder during the jumpstart, there was only 1 bus and his stop is the first one. I talked to Ms. Jimenez about how it works to help me feel more at ease about the situation. If I had my way, I would've drove up to the school and followed the bus until he was dropped off. Anyway, the bus drivers have a list of the kiddo's and their addresses so they know where they should be dropped off at. They also won't let them off the bus unless there is an adult (that they know) at the bus stop. If there isn't, they will make them stay on the bus and take them back to the school after everyone else is dropped off. To top it off, the kindergartners have bright orange bracelets that get put on and the first graders have bright green ones so the bus drivers know they are little one's-not that it wouldn't be obvious by their size LOL! Oh and the teachers walk all the kids out to the bus and make sure they get on the right bus. That made me feel a lot better about the situation so I sucked it up and let him take the bus the last 2 days. He did great and LOVED it. According to Chris it was because he felt "liberated". He went somewhere without Mommy or Daddy and did it all on his own.

Now for pictures :-)

Wednesday-waiting for the bus:


Here it comes:


Such a big boy!


I didn't take a pic before school so here is after:


Thursday-waiting for the bus:


The bus driver saw me trying to take a pic Wed so he posed for me :-)


And again-after school-can't remember why he took his shoes off:


On Wednesday night, there was a "make and take" night at Braedon's school. We didn't have a lot of information going into it but we were told that we would be making things that would help the kiddo's practice what they learn at school, at home. Does that make sense? Ok so we went up there and the kinder teachers had typed out everyone's name in dot letters on laminated paper so he could practice writing his name. He's known how to do that for quite some time but now he needs to practice writing smaller. We also got a sheet with the letters of the alphabet along with their "characters" like W is worm-can't remember his name and Z is zebra-again, can't remember the name along with magnetic letters and activities we can do with the letters to help him learn to spell words, recognize letters, etc. We also made flashcards with numbers 0-20 for number recognition and for counting purposes. He can count to 100 so we are going to make more flashcards counting higher. He gets a little confused on number recognition when it comes to double digits. It is "1 and a 0" rather than "10" but when counting outloud, he does fine.

Pics from that night:

Week 2 Day 2

I think we may be onto something here! Another good day at school today :-) We even had a somewhat good morning. Chris hurt his back this weekend and couldn't get out of bed this morning so he ended up going with me to drop Braedon off this morning. It was nice to have an extra set of hands this morning while trying to get us all ready. It was more like a half a set since his back is really bothering him. He was able to entertain Cohen while I helped Braedon brush his teeth and do his hair. He also helped make sure we had everything before we left-backpack, lunchbox and water bottle.

He was being a little goofy this morning as you will see in the pictures I took this morning. Ms. Jimenez said he did good for the most part. He had a couple situations that he started acting up and was placed on yellow momentarily but as soon as she asked if he wanted green or red, he shaped up. We have 2 more days of jumpstart then he will have a week off before starting "officially". I'm a little nervous about the week off. I will make sure I don't pick my battles that week so he doesn't fall back into the behavior issues. I am happy to say that he has been slightly better at home. We had a rough night last night but tonight was much better.

Blood work results, Week 2 Day 1 and Cohen walks-sorta

First of all, we got Braedon's blood work back and all is NORMAL! Not even anemic :-) It's definitely good news but it doesn't explain the symptoms. The pediatrician thinks the headaches are definitely allergy related, can't really explain him cold and I suppose he just bruises easily. His pediatrician wants me to watch for nose bleeds and bleeding gums because she will want to run more tests if this starts. Not sure what those will be but we can cross that bridge if we get there.

Now onto our day-Braedon's second week of jumpstart.

We had a rough night last night-Braedon didn't want to get in the shower then once he was in the shower, he didn't want to get washed. He likes to play so I let him for about 5 min or so and then gave him a 5 min warning to get washed. Then I went back in there to give him a 2 min warning and told him that in 2 min, I was turning the water off whether he was washed or not. Gave him a 1 min warning-which I really gave him another 2-3min and he still hadn't even attempted to start washing so off the water went and another fit started. I had to drag him out of the shower then, of course, he refused to put his jammies on. Meanwhile, Chris was bathing Cohen and getting him ready for bed. I finally carried Braedon to his room, naked. Not an easy task when he's pushing 55lbs. He was still refusing to get his jammies on so I put him in bed, gave him a hug and kiss and said goodnight. He screamed and threw a fit so Chris had to take over so I could get Cohen in bed. Braedon finally got his jammies on and went to bed at 8:30-1.5 hours passed his bedtime.

Since he was late to bed, he was tired this morning making it for a rough morning as well. He wanted to take his time eating breakfast, didn't want to get dressed, didn't want to brush his teeth or do his hair. I was at my wits end but pushed through the morning sure he would continue at school and we would have to deal with it later. I dropped him off at school and told him to have a good day and to have fun-hoping he would.

HE DID! I didn't get to the school as early as I usually do because Cohen was napping and didn't want to get up-plus, I had to get him dressed again because he had messed up his outfit already and was just sleeping in his diaper. I am usually waiting for Braedon to get out but today he was already waiting. As soon as he saw me, he came running up to me with a HUGE smile on his face-a VERY good sign. He ran up to me saying that he was on green all day and he was the leader! Ms. Jimenez looked at me and said he was really good all day and he was the leader in the lines whenever they went anywhere! YAY!! I was over the moon happy that he was good. I knew he could do it, he just wasn't. We also met his teacher that he will have all year. For whatever reason, she didn't do the jumpstart but will be in the classroom this week to get to know her students better. She knew he had problems last week but did really good today. Braedon sais he likes her and we had talked to her and K roundup when we registered him...I definitely remember liking her so I'm sure it will be a good year.

This weekend, Chris and I talked to Braedon about some of the things he was doing. We also decided to monitor more closely what he watches and plays. He is obviously having a hard time distinguishing real from fake. He understands why we took things away and we will be paying closer attention to everything. We thought he understood the difference which is the ONLY reason we were letting him play video games..even at that, they weren't any that you wouldn't think would be ok-they are certainly marketed to kids-Bolt, Monsters vs. Aliens, Batman and Indiana Jones. He has games like Boom Blox and Mario Kart that he will be able to play when he gets them back.

Ok so now for this mornings pictures LOL! I won't take them everyday but since I was onto something, I figured I wouldn't stop now.





No you are not dreaming-my car IS IN THE GARAGE!!!

Chillin' telling Daddy how good he was at school!

Now onto Cohen-he's getting to be such a big boy! He has a walker, you know, the one you sit in and can walk around in it. He never quite got the concept of it but he loved to be in it. He would push himself around backwards with both feet. Well, he has a different walker, the one you push and yesterday, he stood up with it and pushed/walked with it across the kitchen floor! He thought it was the funniest thing and was laughing! I wish I would've gotten it on video. I'll have to catch it tomorrow-hopefully :-) But for now-he was so tired today! He didn't want to take a nap at his normal time between 9-10am. He didn't go down for his nap until 11am which only gave him about a 20min nap...so he fell asleep in the car:

Day 4 and the end of the first week

Another day of no nightmares or panic when I woke up :-) However, it was a rough night with Cohen...and by rough, I don't mean I have a newborn baby rough..just that he was moaning and whining in his sleep more than usual and he woke up at 5:30ish which is earlier than he has been. He was getting up at 4 but we started eliminating that feeding until he got sick. After he was over the Roseola, he eliminated it on his own and started sleeping until 7ish. I sent Chris in this morning to put him back to sleep but he was up again before 7 which didn't give me time to take a shower or start getting Braedon's lunch ready.

I had promised Braedon we would go earlier so he would have time to play so the goal was to leave about 7:40 when we had been leaving at 8. Our morning was as it had been the last couple days-Braedon ate breakfast and got ready fairly quickly and was able to play with some toys for about 10 min before we left.

When we got to school, there was only 1 other child there and no teachers so we waited a few minutes. Once everyone started showing up, I was waiting for the teachers to say it was ok for them to go play since they've been re-painting near the playground. I also wanted to see who his friend were and maybe see who he is getting in trouble with it. Before I know it, I was about to tell him bye and he ran up to me and punched me in my arm-hard. After he did it, he just looked at me like he hadn't done anything wrong. He flipped an attitude with me when he appologized and didn't seem to care that he had hurt me and that it was wrong to punch someone. I pulled him aside and told him that he hurt my feelings-which he didn't care and just kept asking if he could go play yet. I told him that if I got another bad report from his teacher today then he would NOT be allowed to watch Transformers when he got home nor would he be allowed to play with his toys or do anything fun. He's had a bad report for 3 days and we didn't punish him; just talked to him.

You'll have to scroll down for how his day went. But for now-more pictures of my handsome dude :-)




So are you noticing a trend here??

Yes-I do LOVE Braedon in plaid
Yes-he does have a "few" shorts in this very handsome plaid print-7 to be exact
Yes-I did count them :-)
Yes-he does pick out his clothes the night before
Yes-I do set out said outfits and let him chose which one he wants to wear
No-he hasn't selected a "non plaid" shorts outfit
Yes-it has been an option
No-I don't influence which outfit he chooses of the one's I've laid out
Yes-he does know how absolutely handsome he is and in fact, when he's picking out his clothes for the next day he says "I think I'll look handsome in this".

And now for how his 4th day went which also concludes his first week. Today, I went straight to Ms. Jimenez when I saw him dragging behind the class and not wanting to approach me. She said he did really great-much better than yesterday-UNTIL 11am when he punched one of his friends in the back. She said he called it a super punch. When I asked him about it, he said that this friend had a ball that he wanted. I asked him if he asked him for it and he said no, he just punched him. The problem we had today is that was 2 punching incidents and he doesn't seem to care or acknowlege that it is wrong and it hurts. He just kept saying "it was a super punch" or "it was just a punch in the shoulder". Apparently he doesn't know the difference between real and fake. The "super punch" line got me thinking about the Bolt video game he plays where Bolt has super powers one of them being a "super bark". Chris and I decided that he needs to lay off the video games because once we thought about it, all of them have some sort of reward for punching, kicking and knocking things over. He has a few that we will let him play like Boom Blox which is like a Tetris meets Jenga? Steven Speilberg created it so he had something to play with his kids. Hopefully we can get to the bottom of this. I think we are going to take him to see a psychologist so he has someone to talk to. Maybe someone that is trained in behaviors can get to the root of the problem and help him figure out a way to control his anger instead of getting rid of it by hitting, kicking, etc.

I'm really going to buckle down this weekend with him. I've been "picking my battles" for a while because sometimes it's just not worth it but we've tried everything and it's not working either. I am going to concentrate on positive reinforcements and praise when he's good. I hope we have a better week next week.

And now a couple pictures of Cohen from dinner tonight.

What are you lookin at?



Do I have something on my face??

Day 3

Third day is a charm, right? I guess we'll see when I pick Braedon up but so far so good :-)

I did NOT wake up in a panic this morning LOL! Braedon actually woke me up! He came into our room shortly after Chris got up to get ready. I'm not sure what time it was but it was still dark. Next thing I know, Braedon is waking me up: "Mommy"---"Mommy"---"yes?"----"Mommy, it's 6 o'clock"---"Ok bud, we're ok if it's only 6"---*I better check the time since he's still learning to tell time" Well, it was 6 *something* heehee It was 6:58 and he doesn't know that that really means it's almost 7 and we really need to get up. "Ok bud, it's time to get up. Mommy's going to get in the shower but I'd like for you to stay in here so you don't wake up your brother"---Yes, today yet again, Cohen was still asleep at 7. It didn't make me as nervous as yesterday but I still went and checked on him. He's taken to sleeping on his tummy which he's ALWAYS hated! I swore he was never going to crawl because he would just scream and scream if I put him down for tummy time and once he learned out to roll over, he was NEVER on his tummy.

So we followed the same routine this morning: took a shower, made Braedon's breakfast and lunch, nursed Cohen, got them both dressed, hair done and brushed their teeth and off to school we went...not late today since we sort of have the car problems temporarily fixed. We got to school a little after 8 so Braedon would have some play time before school started but apparently they were heading in early and had already lined up to go into the classroom. ARG! I guess we'll have to leave earlier tomorrow so he can play.

And now I leave you with this mornings pictures (yes I'm crazy-I mean seriously, what Mom takes a picture every day to mark the first week of school??) and I'll update with how his day went a little later today.


He's just too handsome and cool for words-but I'm biased ;-)

For Uncle Colby

And here's a couple of Cohen playing after dropping Braedon off:


He definitely still has Chris' skintone-though my mom and Colby have the "olive" tone as well-but MAN! his hair is getting so light! You'd think the dark hair would dominate but I guess I'm winning that one :-)

Update:

The boys are playing-Cohen misses him for those 3 hours-so I have a quick second for an update. The 3rd day was NOT a charm though Ms. Jimenez said he was "better". I knew something happened immediately. He came around the corner dragging his lunchbox, shoulders flopped over and his head hung but he wouldn't tell me what happened. As soon as he saw me, he sat down on the ground, buried his head in his hands and when he looked up, he had tears in his eyes. I don't get it-he knows when he is doing something wrong, he knows he will get in trouble for it, he knows it will make Mommy and Daddy sad...and yet, he still does it. We give him attention, we praise him when he's good, we give him *most* anything he wants when he's good (within reason of course) we warn him before we punish him and even tell him what the punishment will be if he continues but he still does it.

So today, he decided it would be *fun* to fling his lunchbox around hitting other kids while they were walking to the cafeteria and then refused to hold her hand when he wouldn't stop. She said he also *sulked* when he had to sit out for 5 min of playtime as a punishment. They also use a red, yellow and green light for behavior. She warned him that he was *on the verge* of going into yellow (but not there yet) which he did NOT like and she said he threw a fit about it. GREAT...She gave me some comfort when she said he was definitely better, she's seen a lot worse and she's confident that he will be fine "We just need to nip it in the butt now".

Ah, we shall see what tomorrow brings :-)

Day 2

Oh what a day it was! I woke up in a panic AGAIN but not because of nightmares LOL! It was almost 7am and Cohen hadn't been up yet. He's usually up between 4-5am, so 7 was a stretch. He must have been pretty tired-poor baby.

So we got up, got ready, I made Braedon lunch and breakfast and packed his bag. Braedon got ready faster this morning-he must've been excited-so we were still a little early. I let Braedon play in his toy room for a few minutes before we left. So now it was time to leave, I loaded up the kids into their carseats, made sure Braedon had his backpack and lunch, turned the car on, tried to put it in reverse....and it wouldn't go! It was like it was stuck so I turned the car off and back on..still nothing. I called Chris in a panic. Braedon's 2nd day of school and I had no way to get there. After almost 10 minutes of panic, the neighbor across the street-that I hardly know-came out so I ran over to ask him if we could get a ride up to the school. It turns out his youngest is starting kindergarten as well so he was headed up there..whew!

So I got him to school but I wasn't sure how I would be getting him home. I called my mom but she was going to be gone at that time, I called Namma but she had doctor's appointments. Great-stuck! Chris did some research and found out there is a plastic peice inside the shifter that is known to break in my car....FANTASTIC! While Chris was researching it from work, I called the dealership to find out a price to fix it. They told me exactly what it was but they couldn't fix just that peice; They'd have to replace the entire shifter thingy (I don't talk cars, can you tell?) and after parts and labor it would be close to $300...FANTASTIC!

Leave it to my husband to find an answer for cheaper :-) I love him! There is a company that makes just the part that broke but instead of plastic, it's metal so it won't keep breaking. The only problem is, we have to order it online and wait for it to come in. Why couldn't this have happened last week before Braedon started school. I was trying to figure out how I was going to get Braedon to school and back until we could get it fixed when Chris called with something he found. Someone figured out how to rig it to at least get you home or to the dealership and posted it online so he walked me through it. It will work until we can get the part in so I was able to pick Braedon up from school but I had to laugh because I had told him this morning that we may have to walk home. Once I picked him up, he didn't see my car and thought we had to walk-he was not happy LOL!

In other news, Braedon's day wasn't as good as yesterday. His teacher told me that he had some problems listening. She said he wanted to do what he wanted to do and wouldn't do what he was told. I told her about the problems he had at daycare and we are having the same problems at home. Right before Chris was laid off last year, Braedon was constantly getting in trouble for not listening. If the class was doing something he didn't want to do, then he didn't do it and proceeded to do whatever he wanted. Hopefully his teacher will be able to get him to listen better than the daycare and better than me for that matter. He gets sent to timeout at home and then continues to throw a fit getting him in more trouble. I don't know why he acts this way but I'm hoping for a solution soon.

A few more pictures from this morning-before the car trouble



Such a handsome boy--don't you think??

Oh and these were taken yesterday while I was making dinner. Apparently it was a rough day for Cohen having big brother at school LOL!

First day of (Jumpstart) kindergarten

The last almost 6 years have been leading up to today and it was just as emotional as I thought it was going to be.

Friday, the boys and I went shopping with Namma and Gamma for Braedon's school clothes. We went to Penny's and had WAY too much fun and spent WAY more than I had planned on. Chris and I had different views about the whole new school clothes thing for Kindergarten. I always looked forward to buying new clothes and I remember how good I felt going to school in new clothes. Chris thought Kindergarten was too early and we should wait until he starts first grade...needless to say, I won that battle. As I said earlier, we had way too much fun but Penny's was having a really good sale in the boys department. He got about 10 pairs of shorts, probably 15 or so shirts, shoes, socks, undies, Transformers backpack and Bumble Bee lunch box. After 2 hours of shopping and trying on-a lot for a boy of any age :-) -we headed to Peter Piper Pizza for lunch and some running around time for Braedon. When we got home, I got busy cutting off all the tags so they could get washed. I cleared out the clothes that were too small and replaced them with all his new big boy clothes. I also seperated school clothes from play clothes. I hated this as a kid but it isn't until you are a parent that you understand and appreciate what your parents did.

Yesterday morning, we got a newspaper to look at all the ads and headed to Wal-Mart for some basic school supplies. The secretary at the school said he would get a supply list on his first official day of school but we would be safe picking up the basics before school started. We picked up some Transformers portfolios to hold all his papers and homework, glue, stick glue, crayons, pencils, coloring pencils, erasers, pencil sharpener, ruler, markers and a Bumble Bee spiral notebook. I don't know how much the notebook will get used since he's still learning how to write but he wanted it. Last night, we loaded up his backpack, picked out his "first day" clothes and headed off to bed early for a goodnight's rest.

This morning I woke up in a panic. I had nightmares, which I thought were only reserved for kids. Apparently there's a whole new set of nightmares when you are the parent of school age children. I dreamt (is that a word?) that we were late, he didn't make any friends-yeah right if you know Braedon LOL, kids made fun of him, he sat alone at lunch, and last but certainly not least; he couldn't find me when school was out and vice versa. There were a lot of kids just running around looking for their parents and he was stuck in the middle of it and I couldn't find him. Man! Dreams are crazy and I woke up sweating and shaking thinking I had missed the alarm..but it was only 6 and he didn't have to be there until 8:30. I just stayed up to make sure I didn't miss the alarm. I took my time getting ready, packing his lunch, making sure his clothes weren't wrinkled and made him breakfast then woke him up.

I was doing OK until we got to the school. We took pictures in front of the house and I was fine. It wasn't until I took a picture at the school in front of the gym that I just about lost it. I held it in and stayed strong though I had 3 more urges before we even got to his classroom. Once we got in the classroom, I signed him in and let them know I would be picking him up while he put his backpack away and sat at a table with some kids putting puzzles together. I bent down to give him a hug and kiss; say goodbye and tell him to have a GREAT day. I was hesitant to leave and felt like I needed to stay and watch but there weren't any other parents in there and I could feel the teacher looking at me telling me with her eyes that he would be ok and I needed to leave. I turned around to walk out the door and just as I was opening the door, Braedon turns around and yells "Mommy!"---"Yes bud?"---"I'll miss you!"---"I'm going to miss you too bud"---insert tears here---I held it in until I was out the door where I met several other mothers letting their tears out too. I didn't feel so bad :-)

It was a long 3 hours for me but when I picked him up, he said he had fun. They didn't let them out where they said they would and I had told Braedon I would pick him up at the flagpole unless his teacher said something different. When I was walking toward him, he hadn't seen me yet and he kept looking at the flagpole for me. He looked a little nervous but he was fine once he saw me. I also noticed he didn't eat very much lunch so I'm sure he was nervous and excited all at the same time. He'll get better at this as the school year goes on...as will I, I'm sure.