Football Farewell & Fall Festival, part duex

Well, last night was the Steeler's last football game. I think, overall, that Kellen enjoyed his first adventure in the world of flag football. Generally speaking, he runs the correct way on the field, and he REALLY likes to be center and to block. Ultimately though, I think his favorite thing was the "fans" making a hand-tunnel for all of them to run through after each of the games. :)

We'll have a pizza party next Monday night to commemorate the end-of-the-season and will hand out the trophies then.

After his game last night, we did a quick-change for both kids, with this assistance of MawMaw and PawPaw, and headed over to the MSC for the Fall Festival there. We had mid-season costume adjustments for a couple of reasons. 1. MawMaw and PawPaw bought Kellen an Aggie football outfit (and wow, did we have a crisis when the shoulder pads ripped on that after trying it on maybe 3 times...wanna' guess the likelihood of finding another one in his size in this town...or in Conroe?...you guessed it. NOT! Luckily the Spring Academy had one and MawMaw and PawPaw picked it up and brought it over...WHEW!); 2. Tatum's little body had a reaction to her super-cute Cinderella costume (contact dermititis to the tulle, I guess...but I didn't know until I took the outfit off of her...it cleared up really quickly, but why do that to her again?). So...while I was wracking my brain for another costume for Tatum, along came the football outfit for Kellen and, viola' - a theme was born.

You guessed it...and no surprise coming from our family, right? Matt and I even had on our jerseys to go as "fans" and complete the theme.

The first picture shows Tatum happy, because, well, she's eating a cookie. :) The next few pictures aren't quite as great because I was actually trying to get a "cute" picture, so the cookie got taken away. What WAS I thinking, anyway? For the third picture, she got the cookie back, but wouldn't sit still and pose, so we finally just gave up. They did enter and win 2nd place in the Costume Contest...but I think they were cuter than the Little Red Riding Hood girl...but hey, perhaps I'm a little biased? Nah...just look at 'em! They're adorable!

Where is my sweet Kellen?

I will preface the next few remarks by saying that I SO FREQUENTLY get comments about how sweet, funny, and well-mannered Kellen is and can be. However, he's really starting to give us behavior problems both at school and at his Kids Klub. As is REALLY. Emails from the teacher and "marks" on an almost daily basis from Kids Klub.

It's nothing "major" but when put together on a daily basis, it's starting to add up to a problem and slippery slope that we simply don't want to go down. Things such as: not listening or following directions the first (or second, or...) time, keeping his hands to himself, climbing the concrete wall and jumping off (Kids Klub), talking when he isn't supposed to, running away from the lunch lady (today's school offense), etc.

He even PAINTED THE BATHROOM WALL TODAY during Kids Klub! They were painting shirts and he had paint on his hands, went into the bathroom, and despite being told not to, "decorated" the bathroom wall at school (hand print on the wall - he cleaned it up and had to assist with clean up of the overall paint area and was cleaning when I arrived to pick him up).

My dear sweet husband and I have been talking about this and both felt like perhaps we were being too strict at home, and that maybe Kellen felt like he ALWAYS had to be "perfect" and that there wasn't any time that he could misbehave - even a little - so we have eased up at the house on some stuff. We talk about consequences, choices, Kellen KNOWS what making these kinds of choices will lead to...talks with us about those consequences, etc. He tells us that he always feels like he's in trouble (hence us lightening up at home, 'cause that just breaks my heart to hear him say that!).

After we get home and he's had a bad day, I'll sit and talk with him about specifically what happened during each incident, asking him "why" he made those choices. I try to be sure and point out feelings associated with the consequences of those choices and confirm with him whether or not he feels that way. Ex: Are you sad that you'll have to sit out during Kids Klub tomorrow while the rest of your friends are playing the games during fall festival? [Confirm his feelings] I'm so sad that you made so many bad choices that the consequence is sitting out and watching your friends have fun. I bet that is just going to stink tomorrow!

But really, we (well, I'll just speak for myself), I'm at my wits end. Please pray for guidance and wisdom as we work through this with him.

Some suggestions that I've gotten so far (and by all means, please feel free to post words of wisdom for me/us!) are:

• Give him more responsibility
• Get his bedtime back on track (I've been lax about this and he's been going to bed between 8:30-8:45ish when his bedtime is really 8 PM; Kellen actually came up with this one...Today I asked him to think about WHY he was making these choices and told him I wasn't going to accept "I don't know" as an answer. He finally told me that he was getting up to go potty at night and that meant he wasn't sleeping as much. That led to me telling him that he was right, and that I had also been letting him stay up, too...so that a solution was that he was going to start going to bed at his REAL bedtime.)
• Letting him have his own way (when it really doesn't matter...)
• Lightening up on things (again, when it really doesn't matter - no wiggle room on safety issues)
• More quality time (One-on-one and perhaps on weekends? - I feel like I give him quality time after Tatum goes to bed each night, but maybe that's my perception and not his and/or maybe it's not enough?

He was SO sweet tonight after we talked about things! I put Tatum to bed and we read a story, then watched a few YouTube videos (sing-along Disney songs) and sang together (ok, so I sang to him - whatever) and he just asked me to hold him. He got ready for bed without any fuss or grumbling (which is not new, he usually does that) and he was in bed and tucked in a few minutes before 8 PM. I'm really hopeful that a combination of the above suggestions (plus whatever new ones you guys can offer) and his continued awareness of his control over his choices will get us through this patch. That and lots of prayer.

Proverbs 29: 17 Discipline your children, and they will give you peace of mind and will make your heart glad.

I very much like this thought...

I had already been thinking about ways to incorporate more homemade presents into our Christmas giving this year...And I saw this on another blog and really like the thought behind it.

Take a look.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVqqj1v-ZBU

(And I am apparently not technologically savy enough to figure out how to actually post a YouTube video directly onto my blog...technical assistance welcome in the comments section *grin*)

Fall Fest

Well, we haven't taken them to any of the pumpkin patches, but I've made it to a Fall Festival with them!

(sung to the tune of Old McDonald)

Central Baptist had a Fest

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest they had some games

e-i-e-i-o

Some games that Kellen & Tatum played

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest they had a zoo!

e-i-e-i-o

A petting zoo with lots to do

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a goat

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a pig

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a guinea pig

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a rabbit

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest zoo they had a kitten

e-i-e-i-o

And at that Fest they had a horse

e-i-e-i-o

Well, all-in-all, the kids had fun.

Kellen fell in love with his first kitten, and was immensely upset with me because I wouldn't let him bring the black and white kitten in the above video home with him. They were giving the kittens away with parental approval, which I withheld. Mean ole' Mommy! To rub salt in THAT wound, he didn't get to do everything he wanted to (darn it, we just ran out of time!), so he was upset about that, so unfortunately, he left the Fall Fest a little unhappy. Oh well, things happen....We talked about it on the way home, and I let him know that it was OK for him to be upset, and it was even OK for him to be upset towards Mommy because I didn't let him have the kitten. (Hey, I knew he was feeling that way, why not go ahead and validate those feelings, right?)

At any rate, he was doing MUCH better by the time we got home and went to bed in a better mood. He DID thoroughly enjoy himself...he was just enjoying himself SO MUCH that he didn't want the festival to end...And everyone has experience with those types of things, right?

As for Tatum, she did wonderfully! She was enjoying herself so much that it was challenging to keep her close to me. *grin* She tried her hand at a few games, and then warmed up rather nicely to the animals at the petting zoo. She didn't want anything to do with the goats (despite what the pictures may show or lead you to believe), but adored the pigs, guinea pigs and rabbits. She didn't even mind the kitten! And then, amazement of all amazements...we walked out of the petting zoo and there was a HUGE dog laying down...Kellen walked over to him and petted him and then so did Tatum! It was more of a smack on the back than a pet, but she did it twice! I was FLOORED, to say the least. Maybe seeing all of the animals is starting to work? I'm hopeful, but certainly don't think that today solved all of her puppy issues by any means. We'll just keep with our exposure to her comfort level and see what happens!

We then went and got in line to ride the horses, and this would be Tatum's first horse ride (that I'm aware of, at least). I was nervous as to whether or not she would actually get on the horse, but considering that she wanted to climb the corral to get TO the horse each time it came by, I considered that a good sign. See the video above for the majority of her first ride. She doesn't look excited, but the did enjoy it! (I know, I asked her later and she answered, 'Uh, huh!')

We have a few fall/halloween-type events this week, so I'll try to be diligent and post pictures as the events occur. (Notice that I did say "try", right?)

Field Trip Fun

Kellen's class went to Hockley Oil Ranch today, and Matt was the "official" chaperone, I was a tag-along helper. I took a TON of pictures, but because they have lots of our "team" in them, I won't post them here because they aren't our kids and I don't have their parents permission to do so. At any rate, the kids had a BLAST...and were worn out by the end of the day...So were we!

Here are some pictures and video of some of the different things that we did...

My little Aggies

I just had to share...this was taken in the morning late last week one of the days that it got somewhat cool here. Both kids were decked out in their Aggie gear, and yes, the both wore it to school! Now aren't they just the cutest?!?

I should have know better...

All that bragging, and we were BOUND to have a day like this...

I actually sent Matt an email asking him to pray for my temper control and for my patience, because BOTH of the kids were trying my patience tonight. Ug. I really do NOT like these kind of nights. (Ok, so I'm sure there's something I'm needing to learn here...Lord, I'm trying to be open to it...)

I had a rather productive day at work, but got an email at about 2:30 from Kellen's teacher telling me that he didn't have a good day. At all. He was disobedient all day long, and then she cited some examples so I would understand the type of behavior he was exhibiting. Ok, thank you, I certainly like and need to know when he's acting up at school - and I responded to her letting her know that I would most certainly discuss this behavior with him tonight.

Fast forward to my "work" day end and I'm picking up the kids...got Tatum and then proceeded to get her into her carseat, which she's suddenly (over the last week or so) decided she wants NOTHING to do with. I hate to have to fight with her about it, but honey, I'm gonna win. You're sitting in the carseat. Period. No if, ands, or buts about it. Your butt is going into that seat, sweetie. Scream and shriek all you want, until of course, you realize you aren't getting your way (which I truly hope is soon...I'm certainly tired of the screaming and shrieking).

On to get Kellen and his fundraiser goodies, which I get to deliver to all the blessed souls that purchased items from him (THANK YOU ALL!!). Well, I walked in and was greeted by the Kids Klub counselors, asked how his day was (because of course, I was hoping that it had gotten better after school), and one of the counselors comes walking over to me and asks if we can talk. My response to the other counselor, the one to which I had originally asked the question, "Well, I guess that answers my question, huh?"

So Kellen's day didn't get any better AFTER school. He proceeded to make poor choices during Kids Klub...climbing the concrete walls, jumping off of them, and then ignoring (really ignoring - as in hands over his ears and looking away) his counselor when the counselor was trying to talk to him. ALL inappropriate behavior, poor choices, and Kellen knows it.

What was WITH him today???

To top THAT all off, he had some other issues of the bathroom variety. And I'll leave it at that. But it was intentional, and at this point in time, with as much as we've worked with him, that just infuriates me. In fact, of all of his poor choices and "not-good" behaviors, I think this one pushes my bottons the most.

So on the way home we were discussing his actions and his response to my inquiries into his behavior and choices was, "I don't know." Ug...He doesn't KNOW why he made those choices, he doesn't KNOW why he acted that way, he doesn't KNOW why he climbed the wall during Kids Klub, he doesn't KNOW why he put his hands over his ears and didn't listen to his counselor...you get the point.

After we get home, I tried to deal both with him and with Tatum, who was by this point screaming with hunger pangs. It's 6:15, later than usual for us to have not begun eating, and she's letting me know about it. And I haven't started boiling the water for the spaghetti yet. Oh boy. So she's incredibly unhappy, because she's hungry (take a look at her, I promise I feed her - really and truly - anyone can look at her and tell she's getting fed...and she'll CERTAINLY let her know when she's hungry...goodness gracious - she'll let ya' know!), so I try to appease her with some milk, which she drinks part of and then begins to play with. Milk rivers and thrown sippy cups, just what I want to cap the night off...YAY!

Arg.

Dinner went well, Kellen was the epitome of polite and turned very well-behaved for the remainder of the night. While I got Tatum ready for bed and put to sleep for the night, he wrote thank-you notes for all of the individuals that had purchased the aforementioned items from the fundraiser (and did a really good job, I think!).

So, I'm hopeful that today was just a horrible, no-good, rotten, very bad day...and that tomorrow will be better.

Another successful night!

YAY Kellen! He had another successful night last night...Matt and I did the same things again...I took him to the bathroom before I went to bed and then Matt did it again in the wee hours of the morning, and he made it all night long without any accidents.

Kellen reported to me this morning that he slept all night without getting up to go potty, so again, he doesn't remember our interventions and didn't wake up on his own to go (not a great sign, in my book), but he did manage to go all night without an accident, which is GREAT in our world!

Now, how do we get him to wake himself up to go?

Reading

Yes...Kellen is reading.

We got our first "Take Home Reader" sent home on Friday, and I remembered it when I pulled it out of the backpack today (you know, before he went BACK to school - yes, flame me now, I can handle it).

So tonight, after getting home from his McDonald's treat and putting Tatum to bed, he and I sat down to read it. I read it to him ONCE and he had it down. Completely. I think I had to 'help' him once, because he wants to say 'puppy dog' instead of just 'dog', so we're working on pointing to the words on the page as we're reading.

He's getting SO excited about reading. He's calling out the sight words, he's devouring these books, and read that particular one to me at least a half dozen times. Then we had to call Grandma Gerren and read it to her, too...Considering she specialized in reading for her masters, I thought it highly appropriate...No, she doesn't work with it now, but I got my love of reading from somewhere, now didn't I?

I am just loving watching him learn...he's like a little sponge! His explanation of a period and an exclamation point is great. He can tell you the difference and 'show' you how you need to use the exclamation point. We had to work on that one since Tatum was asleep while we were reading...he really wanted to 'show' me by shouting as loudly as possible when reading the sentence. But he's understanding and comprehending and wanting more and more....

It's the same way he is about his memory verses for Awana's...he's got them memorized within 15-20 minutes or less. It's truly remarkable! And he'll tell you the previous weeks verse without us having to go over it. For instance, when he called to read to Grandma Gerren, he also recited the memory verse from two weeks ago (we haven't worked on it or practiced it since then, other than HIM saying it as he was practicing THIS weeks verse) and the one from this past Sunday.

I love it, I love it, I love it!

Atta boy!

Well, for those of you who don't know, Kellen hasn't quite made it to the completely night-trained world yet. And we're ok with that. At one point in time I was somewhat stressed about it (shocker, yes, I'm sure), but am now just really and truly letting him go at his own pace for when he's physically ready. I've discovered his issue is not a battle of wills, (well, at least not 100% of the time) it's more a physical thing...he's a fairly hard sleeper and I just don't think he's been able to know when he's going (once he's actually asleep, that is).

Back to the point of this post.

A few days ago he tells me that he doesn't have any pull-ups. *ARG* He's supposed to let me know when he's running out so I can be sure and get more, but either he forgot to tell me or I wasn't listening when he did. At any rate, it was nighttime and he didn't have pull-ups to wear to bed. So we improvised, as we sometimes have to do in a pinch, and he wore a pair of his sisters large fuzzibuns to bed that night. He was laughing about it, put his clothes on, and walked around remarking about how big his booty was.

Uh huh...It really bothered him, huh.

Well, for one reason or another I didn't get a chance to get pull-ups that next day, and we were in the same situation on night two (oh wait, it was Saturday...there's your reason right there!). So another one of his sisters diapers it was...only this time along with the remarks about how big his booty looked there were a couple about how it smushed his "man parts". Now why these smushed it and the pull-ups don't I'm not quite sure...But apparently there is a difference.

Move to night three and there's more of the same, didn't get a chance to go to the store and get pull-ups (and yes, I will say by this point in time I was wondering if I even should....), and Kellen was getting ready for bed. When I asked him what we were going to do about his pull-up, he proclaimed, "I'm just gonna wear my undies to bed tonight, Mommy."

It was the first time in a L-O-N-G time that he had JUST wanted to wear undies to bed, so he and I had a long talk about getting up and going to the bathroom, not pee peeing in the bed, etc, etc. So I decided to try it. (Sure, what's the harm, right? I had all weekend to try this and didn't, so why not try it out the night before I'm headed back to work, right? LOL)

Anyway, he went to bed around 8, and before I went to bed I took him to the bathroom and he went again (so close to 10), Matt did the same when he was through studying, and I did it again before I went running this morning (only he wasn't able to actually go then). When he woke up for good this morning, he and the bed was still dry.

HE MADE IT!!!

He says that he doesn't remember Matt nor I taking him to the potty, but that he got up himself a couple of times and went to the bathroom. So it doesn't seem like his bladder can make it all night, but if he's waking up to go, that's ok, I guess!?

Matt and I were just so stinkin' proud of him! Now, we aren't naive enough to think that we're in the clear...but we were just really happy for him for the first night that he tried it. So, as a reward (and I made it clear that he wasn't getting a reward for every night that he was dry - this was just extra special), he got to pick the dining location of his choice tonight...

Any guesses on where we went??





Yup...Ronald McDonalds...AKA McDonald's.

So we'll see how tonight goes! Wish him luck!

Them Ags....

Well, IT happened. I really thought I would NEVER see the day. Yes, I typed NEVER in reference to this occurance.

My husband left an Aggie FOOTBALL game early.



Really.



Yes, you read what I typed correctly.




Pick your jaw up off of your keyboard now.

If you watched the Aggies vs Texas Tech yesterday, you'll know the part that I'm about to mention, if not...well, then what WERE you doing on a Saturday afternoon, anyway?

4th quarter, 5 minutes left...Aggies needed two scores to win (yes, I am almost an eternal optimist). We had the ball and it was 4th and 15. What play was called???

Wait for it...










THEY PUNT THE BALL!!!


Sure, we hadn't been able to stop Tech's offense all day long, but perhaps we can make that happen in the next minutes or so...in enough time to 1. stop them; 2. take the ball down the field for a touchdown; 3. kick and recover the onside kick and; 4. score again.

Um...I don't think so.

The WORST that could have happened (well, not the absolute worst, but bear with me on my rant), is that we DIDN'T get the 4th down and we had a turnover on downs. Did I mention that we were on the 50 yard line? So BIG DEAL!!! It wasn't much different than what happened ANYWAY.

Which was.....1. My husband subsequently getting so angry at the play call that he left the stands; and 2. Tech took about 4 and a half minutes to score (yes, ANOTHER SCORE, because hey, they're ranked and need to run up that score for the rankings, right?), leaving us with a grand total of less than 30 seconds to try and make something happen.

R-I-G-H-T

So ladies and gentlemen, what does that tell us? In MY humble opinion, it tells us that our coach wasn't calling plays to win. He was calling plays to try and not lose badly.

Heads-up, Sherman. That isn't what we hired you for!

Now, if someone has an opinion on another reason as to why he called that particular play at that particular time given those circumstances, I would be happy to hear it...Feel free to leave your comments. However, none of the guys that attended the game with our group could give me another explanation, nor could the call in show when Matt called in asking about that part of the game...I believe their response was slightly more "PC" but along the lines of, 'playing the odds, but that wasn't the right time to do it.'

Thoughts?

Randomness...

Time article re: Schoolyard Bullying: Which kids are most vulnerable?

I thought this was interesting, especially the part about the (and I'll paraphrase) parents that were overly-disciplining their children. Really? That is a CAUSE of a child BEING bullied?

Hmmm....seems to me that a LACK of discipline in the home is more of a problem now-a-days, but hey, maybe that's just my opinion....

Discipline, respect for authority, ethics, integrity...who's lining up to teach THOSE things to the youth of America?

Anywhooooo....

So the department had a picnic after work today...and I took both the kids along with me (hey, they were serving hot dogs...one of BOTH of the kids favorites!). They kids behaved remarkably well, and we only had one melt-down moment. Unfortunately, that melt-down moment came at the expense of one of my co-workers, who was desperately trying to be sweet with Tatum, who wanted NOTHING to do with him.

Really. Nothing.

She was shrinking back in the stroller away from him, and he thought he saw a small flirty smile come from her and did the whole, 'Gonna get you' gig and tried to tickle her.

Yeah, that didn't go over well.

She started screaming, and reached her arms for me while wailing, with some of the largest tears streaming from her eyes that I think I've ever seen.

I don't think I've EVER seen her do that before in her life. She's almost always warmed up to people...she's just now getting to the separation anxiety stage (see earlier post from this week)...and especially with guys, she's warmed up to them quickly because she's such a flirt!

And poor thing...he was the ONLY person there tonight that she did this to...everyone else she was smiling, waving, flirting, talking to, you name it. I was even handing her off to some of the graduate students to hold for a bit when I got tired of chasing her all over the park - you know, 'cause SHE was chasing the boys around...And all he ever wants to do is talk and be sweet with my kids...he does that when I bring them into the office, too...but neither of them have ever reacted like THIS before!

We also had another opportunity for Tatum to interact with "puppy" - several puppies, to be truthful. And we got no closer to her actually petting ANY of them. Including the small, calm, VERY well-trained poodle that was incredibly willing to allow Tatum to do whatever to her. Once again, Tatum was fascinated with the "PUPPY!", but kept her own personal space from each and every one of them. When I tried to get her closer than her comfort zone, she was having NONE of it...she tensed up, grabbed me tightly, and squeezed me for all she was worth. It's truly a physical reaction that her ENTIRE body goes into when she's too close to them. Perhaps she'll overcome this as she gets older and we continue to casually expose her to them? I certainly don't think that we need to push her - especially not based on what I continue to see as her reaction when she's around them.

Any suggestions?

So what is normal, anyway?

What does "normal" look like for you and your family?

I'm not sure that I know what it looks like for ours...Matt and I were talking about that today...we've been trying to get to a "normal" schedule recently. One where we can plan to see each other on a regular basis, discuss things, spend time together, take the kids to the park or on walks after work and school, you know...all of the things that couples should be able to do on a regular basis...the "normal" things that occur in familes.

Except in our case, one thing after another has popped up in our schedule for so long that despite our attempts to grasp that so-called "normal", we seem unable to attain it.

So I'm wondering, it is just us? Or is there even such a thing as "normal" - in the way in which our brains are thinking of it, anyway? In our world that now consists of two full-time working parents - one with an alternating schedule, church and Bible study activities, one kid with football numerous time a week and the other that does best with a 7 PM bedtime, random "misc" work events and school stuff, are we striving for something that simply doesn't exist?

Separation Anxiety...

Man oh man...I just LOVE this developmental stage (please note the sarcasm as it drips heavily from that statement)...Separation Anxiety.

They HAVE to go through it.

It's developmentally appropriate.

And normal.

And it makes me feel like my heart is being worn on the outside of my body and pierced with a thousand swords - heck, this is the world of TAMU, a thousand sabers - every day when I drop Tatum off at her class and she immediately cries, looks at me with tears streaming down her face, reaches her arms toward me, all the while crying out for me.

I adore the words "Mommy" coming from her lips, but the sound of her screaming "Mommy!" in that manner as I walk out the door just makes my heart break in a million pieces...and I walk over those pieces in my clunky boots on my way out the door heading to work.

*sigh*

It's a developmental stage that she MUST go through. Kellen did it and survived.

It's proving that she's realizing that she is an individual. And that I'm comfortable AND comforting to her.

And she's fine minutes after I leave.

However, many times the "head" knowledge of all of this makes every morning of this routine NO easier on me.

Flag Football

So I don't know if I've mentioned that Kellen is playing flag football or not...Much has happened in the last couple of weeks and I simply cannot remember.

At any rate, his concentrattion on the field has been less than stellar during some of his games. He did; however, during one game find a hotwheels car on the field. And the grass has also proven very interesting for him to admire as well.

I've chalked all of this up to the fact that the games are at 6 PM after a full day of school and then Kids Klub (his after school program) where he's had to behave and pay attention, etc. With us rushing to get to practice and/or the game, eating on the way, it's just tough, to say the least. So we have just encouraged him during the games and then discussed how he can improve afterwards, without really getting onto him too much. After all, he's out there to have fun and learn the basics of football, right?

Well, he had a COMPLETE turn-around during Monday nights game...perhaps it was because he was with Daddy all day long; perhaps it was because he hadn't been in school all day; or hadn't gone to Kids Klub; or maybe it was that L-O-N-G late nap that he took after the parent-teacher conference. Who knows.

But he did FANTASTIC during the game! He paid attention, hustled, and even scored a touchdown! His team ended up losing (man, there was one kid on the other team that we're sure we'll see highlight reels of later...and some of these games will be played with the 'even as a young child...' voice-overs in the background - he was juking and was just plain ole' FAST!) but he was just spectacular on Monday night!

We don't have a game on Wednesday, have canceled practice for Saturday (practice at 1 PM with the TAMU vs Tech game at 11 AM doesn't lend itself to too many kiddos showing up), and then don't have a game the following Monday either, but are looking to schedule practice at an alternative location just so the kids don't lose their momentum totally. Because they were ALL doing really well on Monday night! We had 3 different kids score touchdowns and many of them blocking really well!

Whoo hoo! I think he's actually starting to enjoy it a lot more now that he's getting into it!

Snake?!?

So Matt and I were cleaning up outside on Sunday - we moved around our swingset, put up a basketball goal for Kellen (and Tatum, apparently, since she tried to dribble the basketball as well), picked up leaves, etc., when a small snake slithered out from the leaves I was sweeping off of our concrete sidewalk area...

I thought nothing of it as it slithered away from me and under the fence to the neighbor's yard and casually mentioned it to Matt, and was even calling the kids over to come and telling them that it had gone on the other side of the fence and everything. Matt then proceeds to get the broom, somehow gets it back on our side of the fence, and starts pounding on it...I was wondering "Why?" the whole time until I heard him mutter to me, 'It's a copperhead!' - then I immediately got the kids back - yes, at this point in time they were watching Daddy and were still WAY too close.

UG!

He finally killed it with the tail end of the broom and threw it into the trash can - poor Kellen was still asking to see the snake the entire time!

As a side note...I think Matt felt so bad about him not getting to see the snake that this incident was partially responsible for their trip on Monday to the Brazos Center and the Natural History Museum...Kellen got to play with a snake there! I had lunch with he and Matt on Monday before our parent-teacher conference and Kellen told me that the snake was wrapped around him like a necklace! Matt did take some pictures, so I'll have to post them when I get a chance.

Matt made me feel ZERO better when he told me we probably have copperheads slithering all over the backyard. Grass snakes I can handle, but...um...copperheads?? No thanks!!

So how do we get rid of these things, anyway?

Parent-Teacher Conference

In liu of the first 6-weeks grades for Kellen, we had a parent-teacher conference yesterday. All-in-all, it went really well, and it seems that Kellen is doing exceedingly well academically in kindergarten. The ONLY thing that wasn't "checked" on his list was "Listens without interrupting" - and he comes by that honestly. *sigh* I'm realizing more and more just how often I have a tendency to interrupt, so I'm sure I'm not helping him with that issue. Plus, when his brain thinks of something, he wants to say it right then. He doesn't mean any disrespect, that's just how his brain works - the teacher even recognized that and said that she hesitated in not checking that particular area...

He already knows all of the 'sight words' that they've covered in class (the kindergarten list has a total of 20 words - they haven't finished all 20 of them yet, but the teacher expects them to finish those up quickly and move on to the first grade sight word list), and LOVES to point them out while we're reading books or even in conversation. He's LOVING to read...and getting really excited when he's recognizing words and is able to sound them out. I don't think it will be too terribly long before he's able to read simple books on his own, but we'll see. I want him to enjoy reading, so I certainly don't want to pressure or push him.

We discussed a variety of things, and I'll just sum up by saying that I'm SO GLAD that Kellen has the teacher that he does this year! She's just a perfect match for him and understands his temperment and personality wonderfully!

Budding artist?

So Kellen has decided to express himself artistically lately. Only in the not-so-good way.

Saturday morning I wake up to the realization that he's found a green marker in his room and colored all of the fingers of one hand (don't ASK me how). I took a deep breath and decided to laugh that one off....then thought for a second and asked the question, "Kellen, what ELSE did you color?"

Kellen looked at me, then looked down, and sheepishly answered, "My bed."

I wasn't laughing on that one, as I worked REALLY hard with the soap and scrub brush to get the very artistic green marker off of his headboard. His ENTIRE headboard. I will say though, it was an interesting pattern.

*sigh*

He DID tell the truth, which meant he didn't get in as much trouble as he would have if he would have lied, so his discipline wasn't as bad as it could have been - a lesson which Daddy was certain to reiterate to him. Now, we don't want him to think telling the truth equates to a "get out of jail free" card, but we do want him to understand that telling us the truth means a lesser punishment than lying to us and us finding out the truth later.

Fast forward to a day later. Yes, you read that correctly - TODAY. We're back from church tonight and I'm getting Kellen ready for bed when I see some new strange markings on his headboard. I should know that they're new, since I just scrubbed that bright and fresh yesterday, right? This time they're red (and again very interesting-looking - he IS quite the artist!).

So I called Kellen to me and asked him about this newest of artwork. He proceeded to tell me that he colored on his bed during nap with a red crayon. (I REALLY thought I had gotten all of the possibly offending coloring-type items OUT of his room!! REALLY!!) We then have yet ANOTHER talk about taking care of our belongings, what we are allowed to color on and what we aren't, disobeying Mommy and Daddy, resting and sleeping vs. playing during naptime, etc.

I walk out of the room to cool down, and when I walk back in he had gone into the bathroom, gotten a washrag, and was scrubbing the bedframe - in a different spot than the one I had noticed. Apparently he had colored in TWO spots, but was taking it upon himself to try and start cleaning it up.

Atta' boy.

At any rate, thankfully crayola crayons DO come out of wood (mostly), so I was once again able to (for the most part) clean up the incident. But wow...twice in as many days. I do not know what has come over him!

Add the coloring incident to the fact that he ripped the stylus off of the string on his Leapster this evening when we got home from church - yes, ripped it off - and I'm at a loss here. When asked why he did that, his reasoning was very OCD, "I just don't like the string sticking out." I had a vague awareness that the string bothered him, but nothing to this extreme...

Do we need to allow him to act out at home so that he can maintain his good behavior at school? I can't expect him to be perfect all of the time, and would rather have him misbehave at home, but I can't let him just get away with everything at home, either.

This parenting gig...wow. So it seems like I need to provide more creative and artistic outlets for Kellen during the day and keep all possible writing utensils OUT of his room during nap and nighttime. The kicker to that idea is that I did just that - on Friday night (the night prior to incident #1) he made the two most wonderful pictures with his markers for me that I think he's ever done - and he did them right before bedtime...so it is a timing issue?

Lord, please help us with this...I can't stand for him to be in trouble with us every day...it's not good for him and it's so hard on us!