The winter storm that was......

Teacher Conference

So, apparently we have the cutest, sweetest, happiest child in the world. (of course!) He makes everyone happier....He is never in a bad mood. (umm, no, he saves that for mom) He makes it fun to teach because he loves to learn everything. (but that curiosity can be used for evil also! lol!). So on, and on we discussed and ended up crying because they wanted to know some details of his adoption journey. Needless to say, I love his teachers. But, I still don't know what to do about Kindergarten. They said he would probably do fine to wait or to go. They felt they couldn't really push one way or the other. He does really well with the things he "wants" to do, the concern would be that if he doesn't like or want to do some things that in K you have to do, he would be a problem. Now, we can't predict this especially because we have 7 more months until school would start. He could jump in activity at any minute. I talked to them about how I was concerned that if he stayed with the much younger ones that he would not be pushed to act appropriately by "peer" pressure or imitation. They agreed and said they really thought he would be OK if he went on. They said usually the fear is later in middle school or even high school some parents regret sending the "boys" on. They said no parent has ever said we regret holding him back but many have regretted sending them a tad early. (which Nick will not be) I think it is a teacher mantra....a good one but a hard one when the child is so on the line. I think we will definitely register him for public school (he already attends speech there) kindergarten and continue to look around at the other programs....transitional K, half-day K and full day K while doing alot of praying.


IKEA

We had our first Ikea experience this weekend in another short winter storm. The roads were fine but it was like a blizzard up in Cinci. We met our friends, Mrs. Dana and Emma at the riverfront shopping area and ate at Johnny Rockets...not impressed based on the price of the hamburger. Steak and Shake much much better. But, I digress, Nick continues his hat obsession and will wear any other hat over the "star" hat. Emma and Nick were fascinated with the "jukebox" .....I hope it still works.






We arrived at Ikea and wow, big place. The kids went to the childcare center (woo,hoo) but then we only had an hour before we had to pick them up. An hour? in this place? So we basically did reconnaissance for bookshelves and organizers for the toys and left with only 3 dollars out of our pocket (a blue elephant and snack bowls)......nobody told us about the food....good thing! It could have been a sugarfest from what I have heard.


SNOW DAY?

The schools have been off all week. Monday was a mystery day. Roads good, weather moderate....maybe they were just anxious for the "storm of the century".....we have pretty dramatic weather guys around here. Regardless, we got to play with our friend Riley since he was out of school. They are both turning 5 in Feb and Nick went to school with Riley last year. They play so well together. We stood at the bottom of the stairs and listened to them talking at one point. Priceless. They sounded so grown up. They both have great imaginations. They had their Handy Manny tool boxes working overtime. Apparently plumbing may be in Nick's future...hey, they make alot more than most entry level jobs for college educated newbies. I say plunge away.





THE STORM!

My Snowbird in-laws in Florida requested "storm of the century" pics so here they are.....I know you wish you were here don't ya!


Nick the plowboy......with the ice layer underneath, the "plow" actually worked pretty well! ;)






I think our 2003 ice storm (the real storm of the century) must have pruned up our trees well because we didn't lose too many limbs in the front.....the back not so lucky. You can usually see up the street quite well but the limbs were hanging so low that it was like a winter wonderland....eerie and beautiful.




It was hard to get the right angle on the next pic. Pat was trying to get my car out from under all the stuff and had started on the roof and the ice layer and snow layer was so obvious....it was cool! Easier to see in person but interesting none-the-less.



The next pic is out our kitchen window so the screen put a bad light on the pic but these are the limbs that were constantly falling on our roof and windows ALL night. And then you hear the hmmm and flash of transformers going off as limbs fall on the power lines. Yikes is all I can say.


This was probably our thickest and biggest limb break. Amigo had quite the obstacle course to do his business. I might say before the snow came, we were having quite a good chuckle watching him try to squat on the ice layer without losing his footing but I won't say that because that would make us mean, wouldn't it.

Just another shot showing how low the limbs were.....I hope we don't lose anymore. I love our big ol' trees.

So, that's the storm of the century for us.....Western Ky got hit much much worse as well as south of here. Pat is excited to borrow the chainsaw and get busy.....he is from Wisconsin after all.

I keep forgetting to tell a few quick Nick-isms of late........

He loves his one-on-one time with each of us and has no qualms in shooing the other away. For example:

---We made the rule that Nick could not get in our bed unless Daddy was already gone to work. He follows this rule very well but if he happens to come in and Daddy is still there, his usual comment is "Daddy, go to work" (so smart)

---He loves to snuggle with me after daddy goes to work but lately (since the weather turned cold) he tells me to move over because he wants the warm spot AND the warm pillow! If I scoot over just a little (trying to give him the clue to go to the other side), he will still crawl in and say "little room here!" It cracks me up most days!

---I go to Bunco once a month or out with my friends sometimes for dinner. He knows that this means big one-on-one time with dad so one day after we had a hard day of conflict, he said, "Mom you go out with your mom friends and I play with daddy". Or, my favorite is when they are in the midst of big play downstairs and I come down to see what is going on, Nick says, "Mom you go work on your computer, go, go! "

I have also left out mentioning Nick's newest friend and go to guy....Croaky. He told us that he is a pretend friend. It seems that Croaky knows all of the right things to do but sometimes chooses not to do them and sometimes he does do the right thing and Croaky's mom and dad are so happy!. It is so sweet to watch Nick work thru all of his issues using Croaky. Croaky has a mom and dad and a dog too. We hear about Croaky all of the time and his "real" friend Mikey even included him in a prayer one day.....PRICELESS. Now, they (Mikey and Nick) both talk about Croaky on the way to school in the morning. It is a great way to talk about behaviour though and maybe less intimidating if we are talking about what Croaky did.....

OK, that's all I got for now. I always remember 10 more things that I should have mentioned after I post.....maybe I should just keep a list. Bye for now.