very proud

if you've been reading you know the struggles with jp. this made me feel so much better about the struggles, and so very proud of a boy who has borne the brunt of much of the stress.
we've always known he was smart and capable, this just lifts some of the doubt and pain off his shoulders and ours a bit.

way to go jp!!!

jp, the businessman

jp, and siblings, have been playing outside with the neighbors everyday. it's great! the weather has been awesome and they are outside!!
jp, however is not simply playing or riding his bike all the time. everyday for a week he, with the help of the younger siblings and neighbors, have been setting up stands to sell everything from rocks (princess grace) to gatorade and even held a mini yard sale. none of these were successful, which frustrated jp to no end. he was really trying, which i felt needed to be rewarded.

i baked several dozen cookies, printed some cute labels and the hubsters and i packaged them up. jp set up a booth outside on a perfect saturday morning in our driveway, which happens to be facing the farmers market on saturday mornings. convenient, no?

he was set to go. and go he did. he sold out all of his cookies. 50 cents for two cookies, so most people were buying two bags. the cute neighbor girls even made a sign and taped it up at the farmers market. he generously gave them a $2 tip (hubsters plan to keep the employees happy). it was a great moment to hang out outside and watch him being successful at something he wanted, and honestly worked for. definitely a proud momma moment

Back to school night

Back to school night has come and gone, but the highlight? jp's letter to me. it reads as follows:

dear mom
I'm having a good year.
I like living so close to the school.
I've already gotten used to getting ready at 7:00 we don't always get homework, but when we do it's always easy, or studying. I like having mr. "S" for a teacher, it's like most Fox Mill teachers were sent off to military acadamy, while Little River teachers started teaching as soon as they got the job. I know I will have a good year, and I want to stay here for years to come. If everyday is like this I'll never want to leave exept maybe a change every once in a while.
My favorite subjects are Virginia Studies, Science, Validation writing, reading, and Library. I hope "Princess Grace" isn't causing you too much trouble while I'm gone.

Signed,
"jp"


awesomeness!!!

proud momma moment

the cub scout pinewood derby was this month, and i would be remissed if i did not give props to my jp and the hubster for an awesome job done. jp designed the car all by himself and dad used the coping saw to cut it out. the remainder of the work was done by jp himself.since the hubster is the cubmaster i am also very glad the derby is finished. phew!

here's the car:

if you don't recognize the design it's bullett bill from mario brothers. if not, google it and you'll see what an awesome job jp did drawing him.

and here's all the boys

props to all the parents for good sportmanship, and allowing the boys to have fun.

good times!

scouts can be dangerous

tonight in scouts the hubsters taught jp and my 7 other scouts to do several knots. let's hope that he puts them to good use.

please note this was actually before he learned to tie the "real" knots. let's hope princess grace is a fast runner.


"today i am thankful for lego's"

sniff, sniff...

there are some moments in time that we all wish we could freeze. this is two of them.
my sweet jp just walked into my room, glassy eyed when he was supposed to be in bed. i reminded him to get back into bed. he told me that he couldn't sleep because was thinking of how much he enjoyed the beach this summer. he was so sincere and started tearing up. he said that it was the best part of his entire life, even when he was a little baby. he wants to do it again, every year, with all the same people, doing the exact same thing.

i could not agree more jp.

i wish i could freeze this time, when this sweet little spirit walked into my room at night in tears telling me that a vacation with family 2 months previously was the greatest thing ever. this little boy, who normally talks and talks and talk was sincerely expressing love. i want a freeze frame. i wish i could do it again too my boy.

quick follow up

baby e is doing much better. his jaw is back in place, and his teeth have reset nicely. he looks human again. we will see our dentist this week and double check everything, but we seemed to have cleared all the hurdles and have moved on.

he's clearly moved past the liquid diet

boom boom pow

on thursday i picked baby e up from school and headed to our friends house to pick up princess grace. e was mad that he couldn't go straight home so i let him ride his bike to pick up his sister. i drove along side watching him (an overprotective mom moment that i was happy to have). a short distance from our friends house he hit a large stick with his bike, over corrected and crashed........hard.

i stopped practically in the middle of the street and ran to him as he darted across the road. blood was dripping from everywhere, and he was freaking out. my brain went completely into that mode of "fix now, cry later". we rode to our friends house and cleaned him up. he was inconsolable. it's hard to survey damage when kids are crying. i was not sure what the damage would be, so we iced him up and we went along our day. 

i taught piano and voice, prepared for my rs lesson for that night, cooked dinner and kept baby e on ice, tylenol and rest. i left and got a text from hubsters that baby e could not open his jaw and that his teeth and mouth were completely misshapen. we had numerous text conversations during my rs class debating on what to do. hubsters called the pediatrician who told us to go to the er. i knew that the er was not the place to care for this poor little guy. we called our amazing dentist, who called us back at 10:30 at night after getting off an airplane. he recommended a "sister" practice to see him first thing in the morning. we decided that a dentist would know more about tooth and jaw issues than an er doc, so off we went to a new dentist.

baby e is used to his amazing dentist with flat screen tv's on the ceiling and nick jr, playing in the lobby. this was not like that....at all. the tech took x-rays and 3-4 other techs were checking out the x-rays too commenting on them. the dentist came over checked the x-rays and checked his teeth. she was perplexed. she said that we needed to go see an oral surgeon. ok?....... she walked into the room next to us and called the oral surgeon. the conversation was someting like this " i have a six year old with a mouth injury that you need to see asap. i dont know, i've never seen anything like it. it's ...unusual" ummmm....hello! i'm right here. tell me what the problem is.

i didn't care, i paid my $80 for their "time" and went right over to the oral surgeon. much nicer place, great staff. $200 , 3 x-rays, 2 doctors, 4 techs and about 15 miles baby e has a severely bruised upper gum line forcing the teeth out of place and forcing his jaw out of alignment. it should set back into place on it's own, and his teeth will either fall out or re-set. we are grateful they are his baby teeth otherwise the story would be much different, and he would look way more redneck than usual.

he's been a trooper. liquid diets are not very exciting, but he's making due.

the helmet he was wearing deserves to be bronzed. we know it saved him from what could have been a nasty head injury with the way he fell. he is excited that he gets a new motocross helmet this week, which gives me hope he may ride again. which means, i just may be riding along side of him for the rest of his life.

jp - my personal post

my little boy, jp.

he's so stinkin' smart. seriously smart. he knows he is, and that makes me happy.

however, this school year has been a difficult, trying journey for jp, and for us as his parents. he has a teacher that we do not like. i cannot even appreciate her. she just should not be teaching.

i know, i shouldn't hold back, right.

for 6 months we have been battling this said teacher over various things about school work. it all started after first quarter when the teacher essentially told us to have jp tested for add.

ok, fine testing, whatever, what are you going to do to help him?

well, we can help him as long as it's a confirmed diagnosis and not just you being bad parents.

(paraphrasing 6 months in 2 sentences makes it as little extreme)

we have a confirmed diagnosis. inattentive add and gifted.

as a parent this does not change anything. i know what works with him, and what doesn't.
now, convincing a bureaucratic group of women (7 to be exact) that we actually know our child, is a different story.

thank heavens he loses this teacher in 2 months. now for the next 10+ years.......

reason 1990283 i love my kids

tonight during prayer baby e prayed that he could make it to the gate and get as far as mommy has gotten.

confused?

cute though right......

except

it's about a wii game people! he wants to pass a level (or a gate) in my sims:kingdom.

what have i done?

more gone

i totally needed an excuse to post this picture. classic jp!
he lost his second upper tooth at school. he was brave enough to pull it out himself. he tried to stick it back in later, but that's beside the point. what a cutie, huh? :)

howdy there pilgrim

Somehow i was volunteered to be class room parent for baby e's kindergarten class without my knowledge. it's not something i would typically do, however there are perks to the job. i get to go to all the in-class functions. this week they had a special snack, which consisted of me popping 12 bags of popcorn. easy enough. any effort is worth it for this cute litle boy with teacup ears!

5 teeth gone

isn't he just so cute.
i had to post both cause dang, i love this kid!

first day

baby e all set for kindergarten.
i cried.
it's only half day, but still.....



jp was late getting ready (it's a recurring issue that will never end). i didn't get a picture of his front side. so enjoy his back side.



not one to be left out, princesss grace needed to wear her "hi kiki packback". she has worn it everytime we've taken the boys to school.

2 wheelin' it

baby e decided it was time to take his training wheels off. unlike his older brother he immediately started riding the 2 wheeler like a champ. he didn't even want me holding on. it was awesome. growth comes way quicker than i expect or sometimes even want.

big dreams of little kids

disclosure: iphone is a phone not a high quality action photo camera.

say cheese

both boys finally went to the dentist. it was an awesome office. the kids had flat screen tv's mounted on the ceiling to watch what they wanted during their cleaning. they had a play section where sarah could sit and play. they did great at their check ups with no cavities and normal x-rays, which were done in chair and loaded onto the computer for me to see. awesome!

for posterity

james informed his dad last night that he knew all about his future family.
he is going to have 2 boys. the first named jackson, the second named michael. by the way there is no reason for him to know anything about the former artist known as michael jackson cause we don't have a record player anymore.
he then said that he might have a girl later on named michelle but he wasn't sure.

classic

if any of you have girls who want a man who knows what he wants. this is your guy. maybe don't show her this picture though.

lazy shoes

I love baby e, but he is among the laziest children alive. honestly. it's ok, we work with it for now.
one of his things that he is particularly lazy about is shoes. he wears ugg's in the middle of summer and rain boots to the store, and even church shoes out while playing. why, you ask. cause he can just slide them on.

now this is totally my fault. i do the same thing. unless i'm working out i'm a "slide on shoe" kinda gal. j doesn't know how to tie his shoes cause he's stubborn and he can just slide his shoes on.
last year, despite my better judgement, i bought crocs. i hate crocs! i understand they are comfortable, but they are not very attractive or really that practical (they may be plastic, but wearing them in the rain is not recommended). not only did i buy crocs, but i bought orange and red. basically the brightest colors they have. e loves the crocs, cause you see he's lazy.

i must confess, i am lazy too cause it's 30 degrees outside and i don't fight against him wearing crocs. i just tell him to put socks on. so at our house the last words every day out of my mouth are e - crocs and socks.

now....how to break him of putting his clothes on over his pajama's. seriously....he is that lazy.

the power of the pen...or marker

this is why silence is never a good thing...




2 boys+1 box of markers-1 Mom = Trouble