Open House

The kids' school had an open house last night. There wasn't much turn out...parents don't seem to be very supportive of the school, I wonder if that's normal? Whenever the kids have parties and parents are asked to sign up to bring treats, only 2-3 parents sign up. When they have a parent breakfast or luncheon, I am often the only person to show up in my kid's classes. I think that's so sad. It's important to be part of your children's education and support what they are doing in school. I know some parents work a lot (I do too now), but I can still manage to bring treats when needed and help out when I can.

Anyway, rant over. I didn't take Alex with me because it was from 6:30 - 7:30 and if he's not in bed by 7:00, nobody's happy! I did speak to his teachers though and they said he is doing great. He is really learning to express himself appropriately and apparently listens to the teachers and follows directions well. He does that at home too, *when he wants too*. Aurora's teacher said that Aurora is her #1 helper in the class and is a big help. The class is a mix of 3,4, and 5 year olds and Aurora has been there the longest so she knows how everything works and where it goes. I wasn't surprise to hear that because she is a great helper at home too. What did shock me, however, is that Aurora knows the flags of like 20 different countries! On the wall they had a big map and flags all around the map, and Aurora pointed to them all and told me what country they belonged to - I was amazed, I didn't even know 3/4ths of them! Both of my babies are getting so big.

Fire Safety

Las night when I got home from work, Aurora was super excited. She told me that firemen came to her school today and talked to them, and she showed me the fireman hat and sticker she got. Then we had the following conversation:

Me: Did you get to see their fire trucks?
A: No
Me: What did the firemen say? Did they teach you about fire safety?
A: No
Me: Did they talk about Stop, Drop, and Roll?
A: No
Me: Well, what did they say then?
A: They said to come to Chick-Fil-A on Thursday to eat and see their firetrucks!

WTHeck?! Here I thought they came to discuss fire safety or something educational for the kids, and instead they are promoting eating at a fast food place?! Wow, I just can't believe it! I am hoping that maybe they did talk about the other stuff and she just forgot it all because she was so excited about the prospect of seeing their trucks!

Festival

Today my friend and I took some kids, including Aurora, to a local festival at a small zoo. The kids had a blast. Aurora got her face painted and got to see some animals. But her highlight of the day was to climb a rock wall! They weren't going to let her do it because she was so small but she REALLY wanted to do it. So they harnessed my little daredevil and let her go at it! They had to help her get onto the first foot holds and give her a push here and there but she did great! She got over halfway up before she fell off. And then she wanted to do it again! I'm in trouble with this one, I tell ya!

Dress Up

Have I mentioned how much the kids love to dress up?? Especially Alex. He LOVES to put on dresses and beads...I don't know about this child! Josh calls him "Mardi Gras" because of his fascination with beads...at least he knows how to match them with his outfits! I think I'm going to have to put together a more "boyish" dress up box for him for Christmas. Enjoy the pics!

Allergy Testing

Well Alex had his allergy testing today. I felt so bad for him, his back is ticklish and so he was laughing his butt off while she was marking the grid on his back, and then she started poking him and he just looked at me like I had betrayed him and starting crying and screaming...ug...you would think with all of the technology we have now there would be an easier way to do this! Anyway the good news is that he is not allergic to anything! They tested him for the most common food allergies, tons of plant allergies, cats, dogs, mold, dust mites, etc and he didn't have a reaction to any of them. The bad news is that we still don't know why he has always been draining/congested since he was 6 months old! The doctor thinks it might be some problem with his sinuses, since the drainage is always yellow or green. She wants us to have an Xray done of his face to look at his sinuses. She also gave me some stuff to try on his eczema, it's this foam stuff called Verdeso, but it seems to be making it worse. She also suggested trying Vanicream Skin Cream so I just started trying that tonight.

Swim Class

Aurora has been taking a swim class at the local aquatics center. She wasn't too sure at first but now she's having a blast and I've already seen such a difference in her. Before she refused to put her face in the water and hated having her face splashed or even her hair washed. Now it's no big deal. The aquatics center is awesome with slides and lots of shallow water for the little ones. She likes it so much I am going to sign her up for the Fall session too and get Alex into the Parent/Tot class at the same time!

New Here!

Okay so I am joining the main stream and creating a blog! I'm not usually one of those, "everybody else is doing it" type people, but this DOES seem like a great idea to keep friends and family updated on life. This blog will mostly be about Aurora and Alex and I think will be something cool to look back on to see how they've grown and changed.