Happy Birthdays, school and silly boys!

First off- Happy 1st birthday to Ike!! He turned 1 last Saturday (the 23rd). Sam's 5th b-day is Friday. So in case I don't post (be surprised if I do!) -- Happy 5th Birthday Sam! We are having their parties this weekend. We are also celebrating their cousin's b-day who is only 6 days younger than Sam.

School started a couple weeks ago. Max started Thursday(14) for 1/2 a day then Sam started Friday (15). Max did fine, well, some adjustment but that is expected. He got out of school at 11:40 that day. He acted fine. Around 3 or so he acted really tired. He was sitting on my bed and started to fall asleep. I told him he could lay down and take a nap if he was tired. He did and was fast asleep. Well within 30 minutes he was awake and sick! So from 3:30 until the next day in the afternoon he dry heaved and threw up the entire time. At first I thought "stomach bug" but the more he carried on the more I thought "strep throat." He likes to make that even more fun by throwing up. I tried to peek into his mouth Friday morning and only saw a sliver of the back of this mouth. It looked red at least what I saw in that 1/4 of a second! I made him an appointment and we got right in. They did the dreaded throat swab and sure enough it was strep! Of course, he was scheduled to have a tonsillectomy 5 days later. That got postponed to Sept 10 now. Anyway, he got his meds and is better now. He has already missed a few days of school though because of it.

Sam is in PM Kindergarten this year. She loves it. She asks me from the time she gets up if it is time for school yet. She has wore a dress everyday but 2 days. Those 2 days she wore a skirt! I have tried to talk her into shirt and shorts but no, she has to look "beautiful" for school. It must be some fashion show or something! I am glad she likes school and I hope her enthusiasm continues! I am pretty sure she is the youngest K at school. In our area the child has to be 5 before sept 1. She beat that deadline by 3 days! She was so ready though. She may not be the smartest, academically, yet- but she has a great imagination, is super social and is very eager to learn. She will catch up in no time I hope. She has never been good at trying to repeat our phone number. She finally has that down- well for the most part. Now, on to address. That may be a little trickier.

Max has been testing his new Para at school. I think he is completely stressing her out. His resource teacher walks him out every day to me. Today her first words were "Max may be getting a new para!" The Para made her (resource teacher) mad today with some things she did. We'll see how that goes. Max basically won't do a thing for the Para and she doesn't know what to do. He acts fine with his resource teacher. He knows she will make him do whatever it is. The Para doesn't do that yet.

Joe is such an ornery 3 year old boy! He loves to play with all the plug ins and anything electronic. He takes the "baby outlet covers" right off so he can plug in something. He also loves to play with water -- and thankfully not at the same time!! He plays with water at our sinks and also outside with the hose. He tries out different sprinklers to see what they do. He was in heaven this afternoon when he spotted several different sprinklers in our garage. He, of course, had to go try them all out! A couple weeks ago we was playing in the master bathroom. I could hear the water go off and on and off and on, etc. After awhile I told him to leave the water off and come out of the bathroom. Well he doesn't listen at all. So a few minutes later I go in to grab him. My jaw hit the floor. He decided to fill my sink up with water and I guess go swimming in it, fully clothed. Everything on the cabinet was swimming in water, along with every drawer in the bathroom. The floor within a 3 foot area was SOAKED! When I stepped on it, my toes went under water. I sucked up about 2 gallons of water with the steam vac and the floor was still soaked. We used towels and they filled up as well. We had 2 fans blowing on the area for about 4 days to finally get it dry. Now I notice when he turns on a faucet! He also has been falling asleep in the afternoon for a nap. (he usually does not nap). The running around to pick the kids up from school I think does him in. being confined to his car seat puts him to sleep. What does this mean? It means he stays up late! Last night it was close to 2 am. He was still going strong even then. I turned the lights off an laid down with him and he went to sleep pretty fast--so did I!!!

Ike is a stinker as well. He climbs, climbs and climbs some more. He did finally figure out to go down slides "feet first" the other day. Of course that is after he went "face first" the first time. He laughs the whole time sliding down and the whole time it takes him to get turned around up at top. He still thinks his umbilical cord is attached to me. I guess I should enjoy the fact that he wants to be with me because I bet in about 12 years, He will be the opposite!

Sam's friend

Sam will be 5 at the end of this month. Her birthday is the 29th. The cut-off for Kindergarten is before Sept 1. She barely makes that one! She will be going to Kindergarten and is VERY excited about it. She may be the very youngest student in Kindergarten, but oh well. She is ready and will make so many friends. She is a social butterfly. She will talk to anyone, and does! When we are at doctors offices, photo studios, anywhere, she will find someone to talk with and will talk their ear off the entire time. Poor people! It does give my ears a break though.

A few months ago we met a girl up our street. She also will be in K this year (not the same class though). Her birthday is in Oct. So she is almost an entire year older than Sam. Since we met her Sam talks about her all the time. They play together any chance they get, which is several times a week. She is in day care during the day or it would be much, much more.

I have always thought Sam was pretty bossy. Wherever we went Sam was always the "leader" with the other kids. All but once when a group of girls would not play with her and kept trying to run away from her. She didn't give up and even went over to tell them bye when we were leaving. So back to this girl up the street. She is SO bossy. I have no idea why Sam wants to play with her all the time. This girl tells Sam what to do every second they are together. It is either this girls way or your gonna hear about it. She is an only child if that has anything to do with it! The other day on the slip-n-slide this girl wanted Sam to race her down the slide, side-by-side. However, when Sam got in front of her, winning the race, the girl would yell at Sam for doing it the wrong way. I noticed when the girl was in front, everything was just perfect- well for about a second and a half- until she had to yell about something else.

Pete has told Sam to not put up with it. I have even mentioned to Sam that this girl is very bossy and I'm not sure why she wants to play with her so much. I also look at it as good practice for "life"- there will be people out there who think they are the best at everything and that everything has to be done only their way. Sam will figure this out and hopefully find a good way to let this girl know she is not always right.

Max's Teacher

As I have said before, Max's principal at school decided to change Max's teacher for this upcoming school year. The teacher he was assigned to will be gone the first half of school (due to breast cancer). We found out who his new teacher will be and who is in his class from Kindergarten. Sadly, only 2 boys that were in his Kindergarten class will be in the same class as Max. The principal had originally had it set up so Max would be in the same class with several of the girls he hung out with. I am hoping a couple of girls that were in his Pre-K class are in his new class this year. However, I have no doubt he will gain several more 'girl' friends. The girls seem to love Max while the boys just see Max as another boy. The girls somewhat "mother" him and try to help him out. Which I love.

Over the Summer Max was invited to one of the girls b-day parties. We were going to be on vacation so he missed the party. The mom told me that at K graduation the girl was crying when the ceremony got over. The mom asked why and her response was, "I'm going to miss Max." Isn't that sweet! Anyway, we took a gift to her after we got back from vacation. While there the girl showed Max around her house. After a few minutes Max and the girl start coming back downstairs. The mom asks, "what are you two up to?" The girl is giggling and somewhat blushed. She then says, "Max kissed me on the check!"

We did met his new teacher Monday. I went up to school to drop something off and to hopefully meet her. She was out at meetings for the morning. We ran our errands (went shopping) and met her at Target! She was with another lady from our school who recognized Max. We talked for a few minutes and I think she will be a good teacher for Max.

Petition for tropic thunder

Here is a link for Ipetitions for boycotting the movie Tropic Thunder ......
(why is this all underlined?-- no idea!)


http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/stopTropicThunder?e

We got a Wii

After a couple of months talking about it and looking into it we finally got a Wii last week. I compared priced online and in stores. I called a few stores but nobody had them in. A few days later I called Wal-mart again and they had gotten 3 in. The kids and I go up and buy one. By the way, Wal-mart is $240 for the game console, $40 for the Wii Play games (comes with extra remote) and $20 for a nunchuck. Online, however, they only offer "package deals" which the lowest was $600 last I looked. Ebay has the exact same set up I got for almost $400. I Paid $330 for ours. That is just in case you have been thinking about buying one for yourselves. Max loves the Wii- surprise! He loves anything electronic. Sam also likes it and Joe does too but gets bored easily. Here a couple of pictures of Pete and Max from their boxing game.






Is that a ghost in that last picture? No- sadly, I think it might be sand on the INside on my camera from the beach in Cape May.

Tropic Thunder

The Movie Tropic Thunder is getting lots of publicity. Not because it's a great movie but because they use the word "retard" like it means nothing. So many people have blogged about this movie. I have linked (and copied Renee's post) below for you to read. Please don't give your money to see this movie.***********

Renee's post from Life with my special K's

Today's Monday Moment is a little different from the other weeks. Hopefully it will never be like this ever again. I want to talk a little about the movie Tropic Thunder. I did a half baked post about this last week but I felt that it deserved some more blog space, more attention, more than what I said... because MAYBE there are still some of you out there still planning on seeing this movie.

Ben Stiller is "funny"... I get that. His dumb humor makes people (like my husband) laugh. Jack Black... he's funny too. I guess. I even admit that I liked "School of Rock." Here's the thing... Dreamworks has attacked my daughter. Ben Stiller and Jack Black and even my VERY favorite actor in the world, Matthew McConaughey and every other actor in that movie has attacked my daughter.

Dramatic much? Maybe. But what if they used the N word? Surely that wouldn't fly. What if they were attacking gay people? You can bet that wouldn't be aired. Yet people all over the country are going to see this movie... and they're going to laugh... at my daughter and people like her. They're going to buy T-shirts that mock my child... and THOUSANDS of others who carry the diagnosis of mentally retarded.

Still think I'm over-reacting? Listen to this scene from the movie.

The actor character played by Ben Stiller, Tugg Speedman, has key scenes in the movie which recreate a character he has played called Simple Jack. Jack is a ‘retard’. This element of the movie gives rise to a slew of objectionable phrases slanted directly at the disabled. Take the following, a conversation between Downey Jr’s character and Stiller’s, revolving around Stiller’s decision to play said ‘retard’:

Stiller: There were times when I was doing Jack when I actually felt retarded. Like really retarded.

Downey: Oh yeah. Damn.

Stiller: In a weird way, I had to sort of just free myself up to believe that it was okay to be stupid or dumb.

Downey: To be a moron.

Stiller: Yeah.

Downey: To be moronical.

Stiller: Exactly.

Downey: An imbecile.

Stiller: Yeah. When I was playing a character.

Downey: When you was a character.

Stiller: Yeah, I mean, as Jack. Definitely.

Downey: It’s like working with mercury. It’s how science makes art form.

Stiller: Yeah.

Downey: You an artist.

Stiller: It’s what we do, right?

Downey: Everybody knows you never do a full retard.

Stiller: What do you mean?

Downey: Check it out. Dustin Hoffman, Rainman, look retarded, act retarded, not retarded. Count toothpicks to your cards. Autistic. Sure. Not retarded.

You know Tom Hanks, Forrest Gump. Slow, yes. Retarded, maybe. Braces on his legs. But he charmed the pants off Nixon and he won a ping-pong competition? That ain’t retarded.

You went full retard, man. Never go full retard.

How about now? Can you look at Kennedy's sweet little face, after she's fought SO hard for EVERYTHING in her life, and still go see that movie? Am I throwing you a guilt trip? Yes. I am. Because until the day I die I will fight for MY child and I will do my part to defend her against people like Dreamworks who wants everyone in the country to torture her with lines from this movie... because THEY want people to laugh. One day, Kennedy will understand what all of this means. She WILL know when people are mocking her. She WILL hurt and her heart WILL break... just like yours and mine. But until she is old enough to figure it out and speak for herself, I will be here to be her voice. If this is not enough, here's a reminder of why it hurts.

Still think I'm over-reacting? OK. Fine. But add me to the list with: Kallie's mom, Jacob's dad, MaryEllen's mom, Nash's mom, Darah's mom, Sophie's mom, Dominic's mom, Aiden's mom, Cheyenne and Mercedes' mom, Zoey's mom, Emma, Brianna and Micah's mom, Larkin's mom, Vinnie's mom, Lacey's mom, Mikey's dad, Ciarra's mom, Megan's mom, and her dad, too, Ethan's mom, Caden's mom, Aiden's mom, Ashlie's mom, Payton and Addison's mom, Tarenne's mom, Avery's mom, Lucas' mom, Charlie's mom, Angela's mom, Emma's dad, Kaia's mom, Tristan's mom, Delphine's mom, Joey's mom, Brant's mom, Ruby's mom, Nathan's mom, Paul's mom, Curtis' mom, Dillon's mom, and Parker's mom. We can't ALL be over dramatic... can we?!

PLEASE don't go see this movie. Let Dreamworks know this is wrong. There will be a lot of other choices out there for mindless entertainment. Take a stand for Kennedy and all her friends and say NO to Tropic Thunder.


********I like Ben Stiller. I think his movies are funny. However, I won't be seeing this one and I'm not so sure I will like him as much since he did at least direct or co-direct this movie and write or co-write it as well. Several groups are boycotting this film, including the National Down Syndrome Congress. The National Down Syndrome Congress, Special Olympics, and the American Association of People With Disabilities are among those that said they would picket the movie.**********

we are back from the grandparents

The kids and I had a great time in Springfield, MO visiting with the grandparents. We left Tuesday and returned Saturday. We swam, played, hung out, went to bass pro and Hemingways and went to the fair.

The fair was going on all week. We did that on one of the HOT afternoons. The kids only rode a couple of rides. The tickets were so crazy in price. Joe couldn't even ride most of them by himself- even in the kiddo part. The kids were to be 36 inches (which he is exactly) to be able to ride with an adult. 42 inches by themselves. Max is 42 3/4 inches. But they had fun none-the-less.

We got to hang out with some cousins and just play. We went swimming several times. The kids all really love the water now. Max made a birdhouse with one of his grandpa's. Well, not built from scratch but made a perch, primed it and painted it. He enjoyed that. One set of grandparents has 2 of the motorized Jeeps. I'm so glad they are just a grandparent thing and we don't have any. The kids LOVE them but like I said, I'm glad we don't have them!

It was so hot most of the time we were there. It was hot here too. Still is HOT! It was nice to go hang out before school starts though.

School starts in about 1 1/2 weeks....