Pre-preschool

Here are the pics from Sully's first day at preschool. He was excited to go and felt like such a big boy with his backpack!

Mama, I'm ready!!

I asked him to show me his back, so I could get a picture of his backpack, and he did the above pose for me...

...then cracked up because he knew he was being silly!

A brotherly dog-pile before heading to class.

Walking up the path to Melina's. He's holding an apple for the teacher. ;o)

He kicked off his shoes soooo fast, knocked, and then peeked in the window to see if she was coming to the door.

Ooops....

Not sure how I missed putting this photo with the fire station pics...but if I add it now it will mess up the spaces and paragraphs so I'll just put it in it's own new blog.

Heck, it is cute enough to deserve a spot all to itself, huh??!!

Fire Station Open House

I took the boys to a fire station open house tonight after dinner. I was very nervous to take them without Mike (he begged not to go) as we had a super busy day, sans napping. Sully had his first day of preschool at Melina's (I'll blog about that next) and Keats had school this morning as well. Keats and I headed to Corvallis to see Ginger, Phoebe, and Morgan after school; Sully was supposed to be home napping but of course did not! About thirty minutes after we came home from Corvallis, we left for the fire station...thus my expectation of meltdowns...either the kids' or my own. ;o)

It was great fun with lots to see. There were fire trucks galore, flashing lights everywhere you looked, the fire department's bagpipers were playing in the center of the festival, a dragon bounce house, the kids could help put out a small fire, firefighters were using the "jaws of life" to completely open up a car....and there was free popcorn and firefighter hats to boot! A good time was had by the Moore boys, to be sure.

This may look like Sullivan is disco dancing, but he is actually just very excited about the dragon bounce house and is pointing up to the head whilst jumping up and down in his excitement.

Just a view of one-fourth of the setting.

Dragon bounce house

I just love the serious look on Sully's face here

Goofball kiddo

We were all impressed by the height of these tires!

Keats is standing in front of this monstrous fire truck

He was even brave enough to climb inside!

Chillin' by a fire truck

Sully really, really, really, really, REALLY wanted to help the firefighters put out the fire but he was just too scared. This was as close as he would get...but he watched for a long, long time.

We stopped at a second-hand store on our way home and found this awesome Buzz Lightyear costume for just a few bucks. Sully was just a little bit thrilled by the purchase ;o)

Seven Years

I adapted a few lines of the song "Seven Years", as sung by Norah Jones, so that it is written about a little boy rather than a little girl.

Today marks seven years since Cannon's death...and the lines "fragile as a leaf in autumn, just fallin' to the ground, without a sound" have always, always, always made me think of Cannon. Just now did I realize the title of this song is Seven Years...very apropos for today's post.

Spinning, laughing, dancing to

his favorite song

A little boy with nothing wrong

Is all alone

Eyes wide open

Always hoping for the sun

And he'll sing his song to anyone

that comes along

Fragile as a leaf in autumn

Just fallin to the ground

Without a sound

Crooked little smile on his face

Tells a tale of grace

Thats all his own

Spinning, laughing, dancing to his

favorite song

A little boy with nothing wrong

and he's all alone

The Daily Dish

I have no pictures to go with my story, but Keaton's soccer team, Liverpool, won their game on Saturday. Keaton made EIGHT goals! The final score was 12-11...big scoring game for such little guys, huh?

The sad thing is that this is the ONE game I will have to miss for the entire season. Boo hoo. Our garage sale started at 0800 and the game started at 0830. Mike had to take Keats to the game with no one else from the family to see his big game. Packing my bags for a long, long Mama Guilt Trip. Lol.

Also, since I wasn't there, my camera wasn't there. No pics or video of the action. Hopefully another family caught some photos for us.

SisterLove started off our fundraising year with a bang. We made $462 at the garage sale, and more money will trickle in as we sell a few of the nicer items on eBay or Craigslist. I am soooo happy to have extra room in my garage, too!

Keats is still loving school. He is so happy to hear "school tomorrow". He almost always chooses his clothes the night before and he makes sure he knows where his shoes and mochila (backpack) are so there isn't a scramble in the morning.

I am frequently blown away by big changes in Keaton's personality. In a good way. ;o) He is obviously maturing and it makes me very proud! Keats has always been a bit of a control freak (understatement) and wants things to be perfect the very first second of the very first try. There has also been, in the past, a line that a bad mood/tantrum crosses for Keats when he absolutely cannot control himself...and neither can we. These things are a'changin'!

One example is his soccer cleats/shin guard/soccer sock combination. The first time he wore the three of them together was the morning of his very first game (bad, bad planning on his parents' part!) and it was a near disaster. Keats doesn't like to have his clothes feel "funny" to him in any way. He simply won't wear something that is too....too.....oh, too anything. Lumpy, bumpy, crunchy, sticky...whatever. The shin guards attach under his foot with a large elastic band and the soccer socks are just funky feeling (I probably wouldn't like them either!). So....meltdown occurred before his first game. He was kicking, crying, and carrying on like a nut. He eventually pulled himself together and forgot about the funny feeling gear.

Fast forward one week later: We're getting ready for game #2 and I decided to put his soccer gear on in the car so he could get used to everything on the drive to the game. I put on his first cleat and he holds out his arms and very nicely & calmly says "Wait...can I just do something first?" And that was it. He took off his cleat, put it back on, I tied the laces and that was it. Nothing else.

I was permagrin for an hour, I swear. It still makes me smile. It is so out of character for Keats to do something like that in such a calm manner. I can tell my baby is growing up.

Sullivan, however, is very much three! Lucky for him he's so damn cute. ;o) He is sick today with a tummy bug. Actually, he had diarrhea last night before bed, and vomitted during the night, but today he seems fine and is eating quite a bit. Hopefully it was just something at dinner that didn't settle well. He starts his preschool in one week! Yay!

Sullivan, Kenna, and Alex

Soccer Game #2

Keats (and his team, Liverpool) had their second game this afternoon. Mostly they did a great job, really hustling and going for the ball. It is frustrating, however, to watch their "attention spans that of gnats" and their inability to hear their coach shout out intructions to them during the game. But I suppose that will go away in a few more seasons...or at least my blood pressure hopes so! Lol.

Liverpool lost today but they did better overall. It is sure fun to watch how excited the boys get when they make a good move. It is also funny to witness that near-lack-of-any-attention-span and how they goof off, giggle, and throw clods of grass/dirt at each other. Oh, to be so carefree!

After both games, Keats has never even known which team won, nor does he have a clue of the score (neither do we, actually!). So, I hope that means we've gotten through to him that this is all about fun....and I've even explained that someone has to lose...should it ALWAYS be the other team?? He says, no, that wouldn't be any fun for them. :o) Hopefully Liverpool wins a game or two but mostly I hope Keats just really likes soccer and playing these games!

Their team and solo pictures were taken today. We'll receive them in the mail and I can't wait to see how they turned out!

The next pics aren't the greatest quality due to being from the camera on a phone, but I like them just the same!

This is my niece, Erin, and her friend. Erin is on the left...so pretty and don't you LOVE that dimple!

Moose. All stressed out. As usual.

Sully had an urgent appointment with the doctor on Wednesday. He couldn't stop coughing no matter how much medication I gave him. I called to see what else I could give him and the nurse asked, "Is that him coughing in the background?" I said, yep, that's what I'm dealing with. She responded with "Can you be here in 30 minutes?"

So, we got there in 30 minutes! The doc checked everything, listening to his lungs for a long time. She said his lungs were perfectly clear. His cough is just awful- hacking, non-stop, and you can hear some junk in there....so she said he clearly has allergies. She also said that he was the third kid (this was fairly early in the morning) she'd seem that day with the exact same symptoms. From that she said there must be some field burning going on around town and that hopefully this reaction will be short-lived...

...but now it is Saturday and his cough is still that cruddy. Poor baby. I tried Claritin first as the doc says this has the least side-effects of other antihistamines. Then I tried Benadryl, which should be the strongest out there. Today I bought Zyrtec at Costco and tried it. His cough seems okay today but he is sooooo zoned out! He fell asleep in the car on the way home from soccer. This child NEVER sleeps in the car. Ever. Now I'm not sure what to try. I think I'll leave it up to Mike tomorrow (since I work all day) and then I won't be the one trying to choose the best medication.

Anyhoo, these two pics were of him while waiting in the exam room. I had given him Benadryl and hour or so before the appointment and I think it started kicking in while we were waiting. He was feeling better so started goofing around with the big mirror in the room. Cutie patootie!

Stuff I Need To Blog Before I Forget About...

Last Tuesday, Keaton and Mike headed to soccer practice and I dropped Sully off at a babysitter's house. I then went to Sully's preschool "Parents Only" orientation. This preschool is the same on Keats attended last year but they did change things around a bit.

This year the pre-preschoolers and preschoolers are being combined into one class; last year the four & five-year-olds had class MWF and the three-year-olds had class TTh. Now all kids can go every day, three days, or two days per week. It is the same teachers doing basically the same thing but it basically gave parents a little more flexibility in what days their child attends school.

Teacher Jennifer is the main pre-preschool teacher and Mrs. Moss is the preschool teacher. Mrs. Moss is allergic to peanuts (very allergic) and last year we were told there was a "no nuts" policy. (luckily this only applied to food and not to the parents! lol) I assumed, since Mrs. Moss is still teaching in the classroom, that the same rule would apply. Not so! I didn't see the "no nut" policy written in the snack/lunch section so I asked about it; I was told they had no kids with allergies this year...um....I hated to be the one to break it to them but yes they do have a kid with alleries signed up for the class! I was in the middle of a room-full of parents and you wouldn't have believed the collective moan/sigh from everyone. There were lots of "but but but" and "can we send nuts on the days the allergic child isn't in class?" Grrrr. Teacher Jennifer began by saying, okay, no nuts...but the parents persisted and it turned into some sort of vague "well maybe I will send nuts on the day the allergic child isn't in class" rule.

The vagueness scared me in that I KNOW that the frantic parent packing a lunch two minutes before they need to leave to take their kid to class is NOT going to stop and consider the day of the week and are nuts allowed or not. They are just going to slap together a PB&J and not say a word. My concern here is that Sullivan doesn't know a nut or nut-butter from anything else. I'm sure the teachers are there watching the kids during meal time but I also know how fast Sully is at climbing up onto the table and reaching for something on our plates before we can bat an eye. ..and if you are trying to watch 20 kids at once you are not going to see everything.

So...at this point I was pretty sure I was going to withdraw Sully from the program....then Teacher Jennifer said that the kids are all required to go into the bathroom themselves and pull up/down their pants and undies, the boys must use the urinals for peeing, and they have to pull everything back up. The staff are not allowed to go inside the bathrooms at all. They cannot go in and help the kids with any part of pottying.

Um. Not only does Sully want zero to do with going potty, he's never even seen a urinal in his life. He only goes into womens bathrooms with me when we are out & about.
The logical conclusion: Sully isn't ready for this preschool. I emailed Teacher Jennifer and called the school district and pulled him out of the class.

BUT...Melina-the-World's-Best-Babysitter is starting up a preschool in her home this year so she can teach her soon-to-be four-year-old daughter instead of having to pay for her to go to preschool outside their home. There is another little boy in the class that is just a few days younger than Sullivan that is also in the class. I called and talked to her about Sully attending her class and she was all for it! Yay. He will start October 5th. The timing is going to be a little rough with getting Keats to school as well, but Melina knows all about Sully's allergies and his lack of potty-training...and she still loves him. ;o)

I will either sign Sullivan up for the "regular" preschool next year or may try to get him into Keaton's old-old school if they have the same teacher Keaton had. Rumors circulate that she was moving to the East Coast...but hopefully not!

Keaton is loving school. He doesn't mind at all that the teacher speaks only Spanish in class. Actually, 10% of the time is in English...but in a 2-1/2 hour class, that is not much. He came home on Wednesday and said, "I know what Daddy's favorite color is; his favorite color is ROJO!" So he is apparently catching on. ;o)

We went to Open House at the school last night. It was a real eye-opener for Mike as he had no idea how much this program really is in Spanish. Everything in the room is labeled in Spanish and the teacher spoke LOTS of Spanish while we were in the room last night. Senora Stewart talked to the group of parents for about 15 minutes; during her talk she would say something in Spanish...like a whole explanation of something they do in the class...and then say it in English. She did not say "and what that means in English is..." but rather said the very same thing in both languages. During class, the teachers speak Spanish and DO NOT TRANSLATE!! Can you believe that?? We were told that if they translated, the kids wouldn't need to learn the other language. Makes sense. They want the kids to struggle to understand, look at the teachers for meaning, look at their environment to find the meaning, look at their friends to see if they understand. This awareness and struggle is apparently how we all learn our native language and this is why the program is called a "Spanish immersion" program.

I'm hoping to learn a bit as Keaton learns as well...though I suspect I would need to sit in on each class in order to really learn....I am SO glad Keaton has this opportunity!

End Of The First Day Of Kindergarten

I forgot to add these pics after the first day of school.

Keaton's school is very secure! Nothing like the days I went to school, that's for sure. All kids line up outside the school until the first bell rings at 8:45. The kindergarteners are in one line out front, and the rest of the school lines up off to the side. No one gets in until the alarm rings. Once the bell does ring, the kids can all go in through the front doors; if a parent wants to walk their child back, they must stop by the front desk to obtain a visitors badge and wear it the entire time they are in the school.

Since kindergarten is a half day, and the school has such an emphasis on security, the kindergarten classrooms have an external door, and this is where parents pick up their child. So, parents sort of line up outside the door and when it opens the kids are also lined up. Each child comes to the front of the line, one at a time, and the teacher asks them (in Spanish) to point to the person that is there to get them. The teacher's gaze follows to where the child is pointing, she makes sure she recognizes the person picking up the child, and then gives the child a high-five on their way out the door.

I love this! I love that they look at me and not just assume he knows what he is doing. ;o) In preschool, I had to go inside with Keats on both drop-off and pick-up and wait in line to sign him in/out...secure but also a bit of a pain to do this every 2-1/2 hours! I like the kindergarten style much better.

You may also note the green papers wrapped around each child's wrist. When average-importance papers come home, they are placed in Keaton's backpack; when the paper requires immediate attention, they are stapled around the child's wrist. (side note: these green papers were actually entirely in Spanish...I could only understand that there will be some sort of test on the 21st; I asked the teacher if there happens to be an English translation and she went totally red in the face! They forgot to have English printed on the opposite side. Oh well...at least I know I'm not required to translate this early in Keaton's education! BTW, it is a hearing test on the 21st...)

Senora Stewart asking Keats to look around and find me...

...and giving him a goodbye high-five.

First Day Of Kindergarten

Today was the big day. Keaton was sooooo excited! Yesterday he could talk of nothing but school. This morning he came into my room at 4 a.m. to ask if he could get dressed! I promptly put him to bed with me and he slept until about 6:45 and then wanted to get dressed...so I let him.

Sully made the trek over to the school with us. Keats had zero fear or shyness once we got there. Kindergarteners lined up separately outside the school and he just got right in line and waited. Once we got to his classroom he was very excited to find his very own hook to hang his backpack on during class. Then we found his apple-shaped name tag and a book for him to practice writing his name.

He barely looked at Sully and me as we left the room! I'm so happy that he is so happy about school!

Coolest shoes ever, according to Keats anyway. ;o)

He's been so excited to use his new backpack! We bought it months ago but he made me put it away in my closet until school so that he wouldn't be tempted to use it too early.

We walked through these gates HUNDREDS of times (to go play at the school) but this is the very first time he is walking through as a student. :o)

Standing in line with the other kindergarteners.

Getting a hug/wrestle from the baby brother.

Mom, will you leave already? I'm in school!

Bummer that this is blurry...but you can still see how dang cute it is!

Playing Around

Some pics from a trip to the Riverfront Park last week.

Look how Sully smashes the bubble wand into his face....

...and then look closely at his mouth to see all the soap & bubbles on his face.

Bubble Chaser

This is as close as Keats would let Sully sit to him during their snack. Keaton cannot stand the noises Sullivan makes while eating.

The boys love kicking around soccer balls in this grassy ampitheater.

Sully skates.

Keats did a GREAT job assisting two goals at the game today.

We started out very VERY very rocky...didn't even know if we were going to get from the van to the game...today was Keaton's first time with shin guards and socks and he JUST FREAKED OUT about how they felt in his shoes.

I honestly think it is a combination of everything new happening to him. Yesterday was his kindergarten placement test (he did a most excellent job!) and today was his very first game in soccer. He wanted everyone he knows to be there at his game; as it was, Mike, Sully, Katie (babysittter), and Aunt Debbie and I were there; he really wanted all the accessory-type people here, too. Meaning people that a) didn't give birth to him (through an incision) and b) didn't grow up with the person that gave birth to him.

Until now, he had only been to practices. But, all the newness aside, it is VERY MUCH like Keats to freak out over the feel of his socks. *sigh* He was completely and totally fine once he got to the (already in progress) game. It was like nothing had happened.

His team lost. I have no idea the score. Must have been something like 8-4 but Keats did a great job of just getting in there and trying to make the ball go towards the goal. And he says he had fun, so what more can we ask for??

He has a game every Saturday until Halloween.

Just a clip from the game today...

Friends

Misty-Jo, Wyatt, and Amelia drove to Salem (from Battle Ground, WA) yesterday. We hadn't seen them for about two years! Wyatt was Keaton's first friend- born just 51 hours and 2 minutes before Keats, they used to hang out quite a bit when we lived in Lake Oswego.

The kids had sooo much fun playing yesterday. Keats and Wy seem perfectly paired as playmates. No fighting...just some serious playing. ;o) Amelia did a great job surviving in a house full of boys! Here are some pics of them rocking out in Keaton's (very messy) bedroom.