Second Grade!

It's true...we have a second grader!  I can hardly believe it.  Jonathan seems to be settled into his class and school year very well.  He seems peaceful and happy, and so far it seems that our prayers for a good fit with teacher and classmates have been answered.  We are thankful!

"Grade two!"

Ready to set out in the stroller.  Between the two younger kids, there's almost 70 lbs. of weight, and who knows how much the stroller weighs.  After taking the summer off from pushing it to and from school twice a day, I got soft.  I was pretty sore those first few days of school!  And I can't really say I was excited for school to start.  I loved summer, loved having all three kids home, loved not being a slave to the drop-off and pickup schedule.  And, just about the time that the kids had gotten pretty good at dealing with going to get groceries as a threesome with me, it was time for school to start and the "youngers" had to learn to do errands without their big brother.

Jonathan was pretty nervous about his first day.  He asked if he could give a Lego guy and motorcycle to his new teacher as a first-day gift.  Being able to do that seemed to help him feel less nervous.

With Jeff.  Jeff was able to go to work late again this year so that he could walk with us to school on the first day.  I loved that he did that!

My boy with me.  Why is this never a good picture?  Oh, well.  Love my second grader!

More Pictures from the Game

Like Jonathan?

I have been asked recently whether Benjamin looks the way Jonathan did at this age.  So, I decided to have a look for myself.  Looking back made me realize what a faithful blogger I used to be, and how much fun it is to look back at old posts, and how I need to be more faithful about blogging now.  However, I am having a harder time keeping up with life than I used to!  The scrapbooks are even further behind than the blog.  Sigh...

Anyway, here's what Jonathan looked like in September of 2006, wearing some of the same clothes you've seen on Benjamin.  (Jonathan was taller and had much bigger feet.)  Some of the fall clothes will be seen on Benjamin soon, but since fall comes later here than in our old home, it could be awhile before you see them.

Respect

I have gained a whole new level of respect for people who have to manage their kids' many therapy and medical appointments each week.

Benjamin had only three sessions - one with the speech therapist, one with the teacher, and one with the physical therapist - and we are worn out.  And by "we," I mean, Benjamin, Grace, and me.  And I don't even have to take the kids to the sessions because they are all at our house!  But, I am still tired.  Wrapping my mind around all the things Benjamin can and cannot do, and what I should be doing about it, from three different viewpoints, is hurting my head.  Finding out things that I've always done with my kids but that are wrong with Benjamin doesn't feel so great, either.

The appointment with the teacher was first this week, and that went pretty well.  Benjamin has learned that these ladies come to our house with bags full of fun things for him to play with, and he is getting very comfortable with helping himself to whatever is in their big bags.  The teacher oversees the different areas that Benjamin is working on, and she worked with B and me for an hour and then gave us things to work on until the next time she came.  Benjamin was bouncing from one activity to another, and I had to redirect him a lot.  Grace did really well doing her own thing or taking turns playing with the things that Benjamin also wanted to play with.

The speech therapy appointment was next.  The speech therapist is very young and very sweet, and I think Benjamin likes her the best.  She is always very encouraging, and Benjamin works harder for her than he will for me.  He stays engaged with each of her activities for a good amount of time, too.  He really tried to make sounds for her, and again, Grace did well waiting for her turn to play with the fun toys or doing her own thing, for the most part.  The therapist was happy with what we had been working on and encouraged us to continue.  The day after the appointment, Benjamin started saying his version of "help," appropriately and often, so I'm really happy about that.  He still has a lot of work to do.

The final appointment for the week, physical therapy, was today.  She is still working on getting an idea of what Benjamin can and cannot do - she thinks that he has improved a lot since his evaluation, and I do, too, but he has quite a way to go before he can do what she wants him to do.  She is sometimes surprised by what he can do - he has a good pincer grasp on both right and left hands, and he can screw and unscrew a lid on a container.  He enjoys stringing pasta beads and snapping buckles on his booster seat.  But, he has a long way to go before he will be able to go up or down stairs the way she wants him to.  She had a lot of suggestions for activities I can set up for Benjamin and Grace to do together.  Benjamin and Grace both were fussy for this appointment.  Benjamin didn't necessarily want to work on the therapist's task, and I think Grace was fed up with new adults coming into the house to play with her brother and take her mom's attention, too.  And when a three-year-old is fed up, it's not pretty.  By the time the appointment was over, we were all exhausted, but of course the end of the appointment is when I need to be listening to my assigned tasks to help Benjamin.  I was just ready to eat a large amount of ice cream.

Thank goodness for no appointments tomorrow.

Teeth

Jonathan had a fantastic time with his buddy while Jeff and I were away.  He got to ride his bike on a dirt track, eat at McDonald's (probably his first Happy Meal?) and swim.  I hear the boys fell asleep as soon as their heads hit their pillows.

While Jonathan was biking, he had a crash and, among other things, chipped a permanent tooth.  Of course, since it was a permanent tooth, the dentist wanted to look at it, and of course said that the chip was near the nerve.  So, we needed to seal and repair it to prevent nerve damage and try to make sure the tooth does not die.  (And yes, I'm thankful it was not a top tooth.)

So, before the dentist fixed his tooth, the dentist had a little conference with me about Jonathan's x-rays, and told me he found a surprise.  (Imagine me trying to listen to the surprise while also trying to contain Benjamin and Grace.)  Apparently, Jonathan's permanent lateral incisor (not the very front tooth, but second to front) is just not there.  It didn't grow.  Soooo...the dentist explained to me the things that may or may not happen, depending on whether the permanent fang tooth next to the baby tooth (I know, it's really called a canine, not a fang) destroys the baby tooth while it is growing in.  When Jonathan is done growing, he may or may not have the privilege of having a false permanent tooth installed, which includes a titanium root that would be drilled into his jaw bone.  Oh, MY.

So anyway, the dentist installed what he called a "band-aid" on Jonathan's tooth, which could last several years.  Or not.  But we're hoping for years.

And, we're thankful to have a wonderful chiropractor who will get Jonathan straightened out, too.

For those who wonder about the chip, here are before and after pictures.  A tiny chip can cause a lot of problems!  But, again, I'm thankful it was a bottom tooth!  And I wonder, what did he bang it against?  He doesn't remember.

Before...

 After.

And I think the orthodontist is going to make a mint off of my kiddos, too.

An Away Game

Jeff's Aunt Connie gave us tickets to a Husker game! AND, we have family and friends who took care of our kids so that I could go to the game with Jeff.

We thought that parking might be a nightmare, but the attendants guided us and thousands of other cars into the golf course next to the stadium like it was no big deal to park on a golf course. It was much nicer to walk around and tailgate on grass instead of a parking lot!

We had a bunch of fun at the game. There were a lot more fans in red than we expected (maybe 30% or 40% of the crowd?) and I think Jeff loved being around all the people from his stomping ground.

This was the first time we've been away from all three kids overnight since Benjamin had been born. (We had gone on an overnight with just Benjamin when he was an infant.) We can't say enough to thank my mom for taking Benjamin and to the two other families who took care of Jonathan and Grace.

It was a wonderful 28-hour getaway, and we're so thankful that we got to go!

Charlotte's Visit

I am still behind on blogging, and although this post won't fix that problem, I hope it will bring some smiles.  Charlotte came over to visit the other day (with Todd, of course!) and Benjamin and Grace had a fun time playing with her.  Benjamin and Charlotte are almost exactly the same size.  It's really fun to see what they enjoy.  Hope you enjoy the pictures of their fun...and Grace's, too!

Grace Says...

I see some blood on my apple from when it died.

A Rare Moment

He usually doesn't like to read to his sister, and he really didn't want me to take this picture, but it was a sweet moment, all the same.

Pasta Beads

Hopefully soon I'll post about the pasta beads we've been stringing, but here's a sneak peek of the kids enjoying them in the meantime.