Dynisha Sings

Dynisha loves to sing. She has a beautiful singing voice, too. She asked me how old you have to be to enter American Idol. When I told her that she would have to be sixteen she was sorely disappointed. I promised her that if American Idol was still going when she turned sixteen that I would take her to audition myself.

She sings in the choir at school. It seems like it's fairly active. The sang at the Knoxville Fantasy of Trees, Linda Brown Realty Open House, the Oak Ridge Tree Lighting Ceremony, and are the Oak Ridge City Christmas Parade on December 13.

I'm glad she loves to sing. I've been singing since I could talk. It gives us a common bond. I have had a great many opportunities due to my voice. I hope that she will have the same experience.

Kidisms Going Into Christmas

Christmas time seems to be teeming with kidisms. Jamie seems to come out with new things every day. I just love it. I need to be more on the ball about writing them down because I forget them when I go to document them. This time flies by so quickly. I don’t want to forget any little thing.

There’s a Progressive insurance commercial where Santa Claus goes into the Progressive office to get insurance. He has a big dog with antlers strapped on his head. When Jamie saw this commercial he said, “Silly puppy is a moose!”

There was a commercial for a Conair finger nail decorating machine of some sort on TV. It put glitter and jewels on fingernails. Jamie said that he wanted that. I told him that it was for girls and he said, “I want a boy one.”

Jamie’s new favorite phrase is, “I’m a big boy.” We got him a little white pre-lit tree for his playroom and let him decorate it himself. When he ran into a little trouble wrapping the garland around the tree I jumped in to give him a bit of assistance. He said, “You’re helping me mommy? You’re a big girl.”

Today when I was cooking breakfast in the kitchen Jamie pretended to play hopscotch on the tiles. He played hopscotch right out of the kitchen. It was really cute.

A few days ago McKalah and Hayden spent the night. After McKalah went to school, Jamie and I had Hayden all to ourselves. Jamie was kind of enamored by him. He would look at him and kiss him. He calls him “Kalah’s baby.” I asked him if he wanted a baby. He said, “Yeah, but I don’t have a baby in my tummy.”

He actually gets scared when the baby cries. It makes him jump and he gets a little panicked. “Hurry, Mommy, hurry!!!” He covers his ears and hides.

Jamie has been steadfast about his Christmas wish for Santa. He wants “animal eggs,” which is a animal matching game that has egg halves that hide the animals. It comes in an egg carton. Jamie still has an obsession with eggs. He also wants chocolate. When I ask him what else he wants for Christmas he says, “Just games.” We’ve bought four games on top of the animal egg game from Santa. We’ve picked up a few other things, too.

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree

I put the Christmas tree up. I'm not sure who is more excited about it, Jamie or the cats. I think maybe the cats. They keep playing in it, much to my dismay. Ornaments are flying all over my house. Last night one of the cats got so tangled in the Christmas lights that I was afraid we would have to cut them to get him out. Usually, I would have done it without much thought, but this tree is pre-lit and would permanently destroy our tree. We managed to twist the cat until we could dislodge him from the lights. I'm just glad he got them wrapped around his rear. If it had been his neck we would have been forced to ruin the tree. After we got the little booger untangled he went right back to his mission of destroying the tree. I wish I had some way of keeping the cats out of our living room.

We decorated the tree with garland made from pipe cleaners and there's lots of little salt dough ornaments. I also put the usual balls and trinket ornaments. I put an old star on top. It was one that my grandmother had. I have no idea how old it is, but it's probably older than I am. Putting up the star was a challenge. I finally accomplished the feat with pipe cleaners.

I always put apples on the tree as a throwback from my own childhood. When I was little my favorite book was Johnny Appleseed. For the first few years that I could talk, I called the Christmas tree my apple tree. I was delighted when Jamie saw the tree and the first thing he exclaimed was, "Look at the apples!" I need to find that book. I can't believe I've never told him the story of Johnny Appleseed.

Jamie's Salt Dough Ornaments

I finally got more salt dough ornaments done. I ended up making way more dough than we had the time and patience to make ornaments with in one setting. I put the extra dough in baggies and pressed out as much air as I could to try to preserve the dough for more ornament making later. I'm not sure how effective that will be in keeping the dough from hardening, but it was worth a shot. I put the dough in the baggies yesterday afternoon and so far they still feel pliable.

Matthew, Jamie, and I made decorations together last night. I fell asleep before they were done baking and Matthew pulled them out of the oven for me. They are not quite done. You can tell by the dark areas. I will have to bake them some more later.

The Great Flood

Well, we decided to get a used washer because a new one just isn't in our budget right now. Big mistake. I was so excited to get all the laundry done at my house and happily put in the first load. I went to check on it and it never stopped running. Our entire garage was flooded! There was a shoe box gently floating in the middle of the garage. Jamie was very excited to see a swimming pool in the house. He was sorely disappointed when he couldn't go out there and play. We ended up having to completely empty our garage. This was no small task because my husband and I are notorious pack rats and we had soooo much junk piled in there. Not only that, we keep our cat litter boxes in the garage and the cats kick litter into the floor frequently. That created a nice swampy mess. It took us many hours to empty the garage and vacuum up the water with a shop vac. My husband took off work early to help me. We were both frozen to the bone and wet. The temperature was only about 30 degrees. We got another washer and around 9:30pm I was finally able to start doing laundry, albeit nervously. The washer is noisy but everything seems to be working fine. I think I'll spring for that new front loader when we get our income taxes in, though. We'll see. There's a lot of stuff we need and we may get used to this noisy little addition to our household. I just thank God that our washer is in our garage and not in the house. Could you imagine the mess on our hardwood floors???

Despite the chaos I kept a promise I made to Jamie and we made our first set of ornaments this evening. I'll post them tomorrow because I want to make more in different colors before I put up the pictures.

The Eek in the Walls

For the last few weeks Jamie has complained about "sounds in his wall". At first I thought he was dreaming, imagining things, or just plain making something up so he doesn't have to go to bed. Tonight he said there was an "eek" in his walls and he obviously was hearing something that I am not hearing. He had his fingers in his ears and said he was scared. I listened as hard as I could, but I didn't hear anything. He insists it's there and I believe he is hearing something that bothers and scares him. I just wish I knew what it was.

I remember that my little brothers used to complain about that room. They used to think there was ghosts and my parents were convinced of the same. I've lived in this house my whole life and it is not haunted. I'm sure of that, but now I wonder if there is something in that room that makes a sound that the boys heard when they were little and that my little boy is hearing now. Further investigation is certainly necessary.

Three Types of Ornament Dough

I think it would be really fun to make ornaments with Jamie this year. I could try all three recipes and see how they turn out, then he could make gifts for the family with the best recipe! I'll post pictures when we do it.

**** ALL OF THESE ARE NONEDIBLE ****

White Ornament Clay

- 2 Cups Baking Soda
- 1 Cup Cornstarch
- 1 ¼ Cups Water

Cook ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat until mixture is too thick to stir. Let dough cool until it can be handled, then knead dough until smooth. Keep wrapped in plastic when not being used.

Roll dough out to approximately 1/8 inch thick (dough that is too thick will crack as it dries). Cut ornaments out with cookie cutters. Make a hole for hanging using a straw. Dry on a cookie sheet for two days, turning periodically. Rough edges can be sanded using fine sandpaper or an emery board. Finished ornaments can be painted.

This white Christmas ornament clay recipe has replaced the old stand-by salt dough recipe in many homes and craft projects. White ornament clay dries to a matte white finish which is ideal for snowflake Christmas ornaments. Glitter can be mixed into the Christmas ornament dough when it is kneaded, for a shimmering finish that requires no more care or painting when the Christmas ornament dries. Food coloring can be added for colored Christmas ornaments.

Finish these craft dough Christmas ornaments with a length of shiny colored thread or twine that coordinates nicely with the white finish and added glitter. Children can also glue shiny embellishments, beads and more to their finished Christmas ornament gifts.

Cinnamon-Applesauce Craft Dough

- 1 ½ Cups ground Cinnamon
- 1 Cup Applesauce
- ¼ Cup White School Glue

Combine ingredients in a small bowl. Add water if the dough is too stiff, a little at a time (be careful not to overdo it). Knead mixture for five to ten minutes. Return mixture to bowl an let sit for about half an hour. Roll dough to a thickness of ¼ to 1/8 inches. Cut with cookie cutters. Make holes for hanging with a straw.

Cover a wire rack with a paper towel and place ornaments on the towel to dry. Ornaments can also be dried by baking them on a rack (without the paper towel) for two hours at 200 degrees.

Sand dried ornaments with fine sand paper or emery boards. Wipe sanded edges with a damp sponge to relieve discoloration.

Salt Bread Dough

- ¼ Cup Salt
- ½ Cup Boiling Water
- 1 Cup All-Purpose Flour
- ¼ Teaspoon Vegetable Oil

Food Coloring (optional)

Pour boiling water in a bowl and add salt. Add remaining ingredients. Knead dough to desired consistency for crafting. If coloring dough with food coloring, work it uniformly into the dough as you knead the craft dough. Keep slat dough wrapped in plastic when not in use.

Model Dough as desired. It may be helpful to keep a bowl of water nearby while crafting to smooth dough and attach pieces.

Bake at 300 degrees for 45 to 60 minutes. Ornaments will puff a little when baked.

Completed ornaments may be painted, or brush with beaten egg and water mixture prior to baking or a darkened, shiny appearance.

A benefit of making Christmas ornaments with salt dough is that it can be colored with food coloring when it is made, and so does not have to be painted when it is finished. On the other hand, if you enjoy painting your Christmas ornaments, salt craft dough can be made plain and painted when it is dry. Salt dough is easy to work with and makes a lot of inexpensive Christmas decorations.

When crafting your Christmas ornament from salt craft dough, you may choose to cut the craft dough with cookie cutters or go for a more personal keepsake Christmas decoration. This salt dough recipe works well for baking handprint keepsakes; make handprint plaques, or with little hands, make a handprint Christmas ornament that can hang from the tree.

Our Anniversary

Our anniversary was quite a day. I fixed a good lunch with the steaks I thawed. They were great. Then we loaded up the laundry and headed to my in-laws house. Our wash machine is still broke and we can't get another one until tomorrow (pay day). On the way to their house we had a blow out. The tire actually blew out the side. We were on a busy hill and it was kind of scary trying to change the tire, praying we didn't get run over. We managed to get the spare on and got to my in-laws. We did laundry and hung out there for a few hours. When we were finally done, we loaded the baskets in the van to head home. We didn't get far before that spare came right off the rim. Arg. Matt's dad managed to get it back on and aired up properly.

While all this was going on, Matt's friend called and offered to come pick us up and take us to the movies. We decided to take him up on his offer. We went and saw The Haunting of Molly Hartley. I wanted to see The Secret Lives of Bees or Changeling. We originally purchased tickets for Changeling but the girl at the counter used to go to school with Matt and she talked us out of going since that movie ended last and she could leave work early if nobody went to see it. The Secret Lives of Bees started later and we didn't want to wait forever. I begrudgingly changed our selection and I wish I hadn't. The build up of the movie was good, but the ending was a big let down. It kind of felt like the writers didn't know what to do so they just ended the movie. We had the theater all to ourselves and that was kind of nice. There was one small problem. I had to use the ladies room about every 30 minutes. I had to get up from the movie twice and thought I was going to have an accident trying to get to the ladies room when it ended. I also went just before we went in. I don't know what's going on with that. I didn't drink much. I didn't even finish my drink at the movies.

We got back to my in-laws house around midnight. My in-laws stay up very late. Jamie was asleep, of course. I stayed a little while and had a piece of leftover cake and coffee. We got home safely in the van. After we got home I did a little work around the house and went to bed.

So perhaps it wasn't just another day.

Another Day

My eighth wedding anniversary is tomorrow. I was hoping this year we would be able to go on a vacation, or at least get a cabin for the weekend in Gatlinburg. Not this year. We have no plans. The biggest plans I've been able to make are the four steaks I have thawing in the fridge. We're not even getting a sitter for Jamie. I'm not even sure my husband is going to take off work. Just another day.

Happy Birthday Brianna & Dynisha

October 14th was Dynisha's 9th birthday and November 9th was Brianna's 12th birthday. On October 14th I baked cupcakes and took them to my in-laws house so that Dynisha's birthday would not go uncelebrated. Her Mamaw and great-grandfather were visiting, so it was a little bit of a party. Yesterday (October 9th), they threw a joint party for the two girls. They let them invite one child from school each and all the neighborhood kids they wanted. Brianna decided she didn't want to invite anyone from school. Her budding preteen years have brought about an ability to be easily embarrassed. There was family there as well. I enjoyed getting my hands on some new born twin cousins who were only 2 months old. My husband enjoyed them, too. He said he wanted to use our income tax return on fertility treatments. Yeah, right. That money's going to pay bills off. I really wish it didn't have to, though.

There was hot dogs, chips, and cake for the party goers, except the two littlest participants who enjoyed a bottle of formula. Coffee and complaining were served soon after. The other adults complained of noisy, messy children. Dynisha complained that she didn't really get a birthday party. I really thought it would be Brianna complaining because Dynisha kind of got two while she only got one. Go figure. Honestly, I thought it kind of sucked for them, too.

Kidisms

Jamie just says funny things all the time. Last night when I picked him up out of our bed to move him to his own he startled awake and said, "Where is it? Where is it?" I could never get him to tell me what he was looking for he just told me, "I want to do it myself." and went back to sleep on my shoulder.

Today he turned on the calculator. A little while later he came back into the office to find it was turned off. He said, "Hey, who turned off my calculator." I said, "It turned itself off." He turned to me, looking a bit offended, and said, "What did you say about me?"

When I tell him to go to bed he usually tells me, "I'm not sleepy. I'm just waking."

He's become a master negotitor, as well. I'll ask him if he wants me to make him a sandwich and he'll say, "What about candy?" I tell him no and he he'll put a finger to his chin and say, "Hmmm, well... what about popcorn?" We'll go through this with several items he can not have until he comes to an item that can be on the menu, "Hmmm, what about sandwich?" Okay buddy, I can do that.

For most things now days we are in the grasp of the "me do phase". Somehow dressing himself isn't a priority for his growing independence, though in my opinion it should be on the top of the list. When I force him to try to put on his own clothes he says, "I'm too little." I tell him he's a big boy and he says, "No, I'm just little." He can do it. He just doesn't want to for some reason.

Battle of the Shoe Strings

The battle of the shoe strings has begun. For the first time today he put on his shoes with laces and he wanted to tie them himself. Since it is his first time I had to help him make the loops and everything. Now he's really mad because he didn't do it "all by myself". I'm so glad he wants to do it, but it's going to take some time for him to learn. He kept pulling the laces back untied. When I finally got his shoes tied he threw a big old temper tantrum, though he helped me do the whole thing. I guess tonight we'll practice tying his shoes until he can do it all by himself. Wish me lots of luck!

Online Caution

You know what I really hate? I really hate that I can no longer share whatever I want online. I learned my lesson the hard way. Even so, I have things I want to say and want to share, but you just don't know how people online are going to take the things you say and what they will do with that information.

For so many years I took for granted the ability to share my thoughts and feelings freely among people I thought were friends online. We warn our kids to be careful about sharing their information online, but here I am an adult and I broke the cardinal rule myself. In a world where people are often connecting online and then meeting in real life, whether it be dating or friendship, it's so easy to forget the dangers. The people you think are friends may not be the people you think you know. You assume you know them and that they know you. If you are lucky, you will never find out any different. I was not so lucky. I am fortunate that the damage was mostly emotional, though much greater damage was attempted.

Please be cautious when sharing of yourself online. It is not the safe world it may appear to be.

Washed Out

Our washing machine crapped out on us. Great.

We think the transmission has gone out so we have to buy a new washing machine, right here at the holidays. This happened to our last washing machine while I was on bed rest with Jamie. When we looked up the problem it seems that everyone on the planet has this problem with this particular Whirlpool washing machine. Well, I've wanted a front loader for a bit so I think we'll go get one tomorrow. I really don't want to spend the money right now, but since I have to, I might as well put out the extra bucks to get the type I want.

We could really use a break in the finance department, though.

A New Little Pumpkin and Treats Gallore

I got a new little nephew for Halloween. He is McKalah's new little brother. He weighed just over 8lbs and was 20 inches long. He's a chubby, adorable little thing. When I finally got a chance to go see him my sister-in-laws mother was there holding him. The moment I walked in the door she informed me that I had to wash my hands and use hand sanitizer before holding him. Duh, I've done this before. I had a preemie in the NICU, I think I can handle a healthy newborn. After I finished washing my hands she made me sit down like I was a child before she would hand him to me. That was a little irritating. She probably would have had a heart attack if she had seen me kiss his chubby little cheeks. You'd think this was her first baby, but she has seven children and this is her second grandchild.

Jamie had a good Halloween. My uncle came by and took us out for the day. It was nice to get out and do something. He tried to take Jamie for a haircut but Jamie pitched a huge fit and we were not able to do anything more than a slight trim. Now he looks very girly to me. After that we went to Ruby Tuesday's for lunch. It's right across from my husband's work so we called him to join us. Matt had some big old double bacon cheeseburger, I had the Sonora chicken pasta, and Jamie had the little mini burgers. It was good and it was nice to have lunch out with my family, especially my uncle. After we went to my uncle's house for awhile and then to the grocery store. On the way home my uncle stopped by the butcher shop to pick up an order he had placed and he gave us some steaks. I'm saving them for my anniversary dinner that's coming up soon.

He dropped us off shortly before night fall. When my husband got home from work we dressed Jamie up as a pirate. At first he did not want to wear a costume and we thought we would have to take him out in plain clothes, but he warmed up to it. Once we started Trick-or-Treating he really warmed up to it. We tried to coach him to say "trick or treat" when he went to the doors and say "Thank you" when he was given candy. He wouldn't do it. He told us, "I just be quiet." On the way away from the houses he would say, "I loooove treats!" By the time we got home his pumpkin was too heavy for him to hold. This is the first time he's ever filled that pumpkin to the rim. I was amazed. The down side is that Jamie knows there's tons of candy and he wants it all day long. I've limited him to 2-3 pieces a day. At this rate there may be candy for the next several months.

He's On the Waiting List

I am so confused. Yesterday, when I talked to the lady from the preschool she said she had a spot held for Jamie and that we needed to get the paperwork to her by today. When Matt took the paperwork to the school they said that they would put Jamie on the waiting list. I don't know what's going on.

Finally Got the Paperwork!!

Well, I finally have the paperwork together. It took combining what my husband picked up today and the incorrect paperwork we got last week, but it's done. Matt's going to drop it by the preschool on his way to work in the morning. Maybe Jamie will start school next week. I'm not sure how fast things will happen.

I guess I need to go school shopping. I've barely bought any winter clothes yet and it's cold out. This is not a good pay day for that so it will have to be minimal until the 13th.

I still need to go find him a Halloween costume. He wants to be a spider, but I haven't seen one around that was affordable and he liked. They had a silly one at Walmart, but he just said, "No Mommy. That's not right." Please, let me find something he likes that doesn't cost an arm and a leg. Last year I wished that he cared about his costume so he could pick one out. Now I wish he'd be happy with anything!

Hurry Up and Wait for the Paperwork!

The preschool called today. They have a spot they're holding for Jamie, but they need the paperwork from his doctor now. Ugh, this is so frustrating. I don't know why getting his paperwork is so difficult. Originally we were told 24 hours, now it's two weeks later and we still don't have the paperwork.

Matt's going up to the office right now to try and get it and wait for it if they don't have it ready. The school wants it by tomorrow in order to keep Jamie's spot.

Pancakes for Lunch

We had a great lunch today. Jamie and I made home made pancakes and not so home made blueberry muffins. We were out of granulated sugar so I had to improvise and use brown sugar, but they turned out heavenly just the same. I measured out ingredients and he put them in the bowl and then he stirred them. I let him pour the pancakes onto the skillet, but I did the flipping. They really turned out perfect (despite the look of the picture). I love cooking with my little man.

White Lily Pancakes found at http://www.whitelily.com/

Prep Time: 10 min Cooking Time: 15 min Makes: 8 servings

Ingredients:
1 1/4 cups White Lily® Self-Rising Flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 cup milk
1 large egg
1 tablespoon Crisco® Pure Vegetable Oil


Instructions:
1. Heat griddle to 400 degrees or heat lightly oiled skillet until a few droplets of water sprinkled on surface evaporate quickly.
2. Combine flour and sugar in mixing bowl. Combine milk, egg, and oil. Add liquid ingredients to flour mixture. Stir just until well blended. (Batter will be lumpy.)
3. Pour about 1/4 cup batter into hot griddle for each pancake. Cook until golden brown, turning once. Serve warm

___________________________________________________________

I've finally perfected our version of this.

We use one tablespoon of brown sugar and one of granulated sugar.

I use canola oil.

I add a whole bunch of Cinnamon, along with a tiny bit of nutmeg and ginger.

These are awesome with or without syrup.

More Paperwork Delays

I called to check on Jamie's paperwork... again. They did receive it. There was a note left in his file for them to fax it to us. When both Matthew and I spoke to them on the phone they said they would fax it back within 24 hours. Well, today I was told that it wasn't done because they do not fax this sort of paperwork. UGH, I could pull my hair out. Fine, I'll drive the half hour to pick it up! When can I get it. Not until tomorrow afternoon.

The preschool called today because they had an enrollment meeting and wanted to know if he was coming. I said that he was, I was just waiting on the paperwork from his pediatricians office. I have everything else. She said to call as soon as we got it. I sure hope he doesn't lose his spot. He might not be able to get in at all if we lose it.

Paperwork

I love my pediatrician. I wouldn't change for the world, but his office seems very disorganized. I know that they must be incredibly busy, but whenever I need something, I can't seem to get it. Last year when I was trying to get a refer, it took months to just get the phone number of the place they were referring him to. Now, I need his health record to enroll him in preschool. They said it would only take 24 hours, but when I called to check on it they said they never got the fax. We have now faxed it 3 times, double checked the number, and still have had no response. Hopefully we can get this cleared up on Monday because available spots at the preschool could be lost.

I've got all my paperwork filled out and ready to go, except for getting a copy of his birth certificate. I have my mother's copy from the hospital, but haven't ordered the official copy. I don't know why I haven't ever done that.

Observation Day - Visiting the Preschool

We went to the preschool today so they could observe Jamie. He was pretty cranky because he had to get up early and his schedule is all messed up. He wouldn't even eat breakfast. I packed a snack for the road, but he never ate it.

He was really shy at the school. It took him a while to talk, but he came around. At one point he even wanted the psychologist to keep her arm around him. At first they were saying that he wasn't really eligible because he didn't have any educational deficits. They even canceled the speech evaluation because he clearly didn't have any speech issues. The only area they were concerned about regarding his vocabulary was that he could not or would not answer when, what, where, & who type question like "What is Humpty Dumpty sitting on?" or "What does the bunny like to eat?" and "Where do you go to buy food?"

They noted his rigid thinking and told me to work on that with him as well. I have heard of rigid thinking, but I didn't realize that always acknowledging him when he wants us to look at something was part of that. They noted that he needed a lot of control and we had to curb that. It's going to be really hard to do, but we will do our best to do as they have instructed. We just thought he was it was normal and part of the stage we lovingly (and exasperatedly) refer to as the "Me Do Stage". This is a term we coined when Brianna was little and started wanting to do everything for herself. They observed what they and the doctor called "OCD like behavior." Having to do things a certain way. Having to have things in a certain order. For example, they played with the nesting bowls. If they took them apart one by one he would only put them back together one by one, but if they took them apart in threes, he put them back together in threes. They played with shapes from the new candy land game that you put shapes on a Ginger Bread man that has cut outs of that shape. One one side of the shape they had written the name of the school in sharpie to keep them together. Jamie always had to have them up in the same direction. All the words had to be up or none could be up. When he wasn't looking they turned one over to see if he'd notice and he noticed immediately and fixed it.

They talked about how smart he was. They seemed really impressed with his writing when I showed them. They said that I had done an amazing job teaching him. I told him that I didn't do it. Jamie learns on his own and does everything on his own terms. He just lets me in sometimes. I told them that my biggest concern was that I didn't know how to teach him. I can't even imagine what all he might be able to do if he did. I told them how he seems to learn big things over night. We don't even realize that he knew certain things until he blurted something out one day. They said that they suspected he knew things for a while, but he wouldn't share until he knew he had whatever it was perfect. That's why it seemed he came out with amazing skills instantly. He has been perfecting that skill over time in secret.

They kept saying that they didn't think he would qualify, but then they started talking amongst themselves about ways they could get him in. I don't know how they finally figured it out, but they gave us paperwork to fill out and said that they had a few 4 year olds that just left and they had space. He would be on a waiting list, but they'd be able to get him in fast, but we should hurry and get the paperwork to them. I've got to call his pediatrician and get one form filled out, otherwise we would have it all done today.

I almost cried, though, when they asked him if he wanted to go to school there. I felt tears well up in my eyes and I laughed and told them, "What are you going to do if I cry when he starts school?" They said that on the first day they have boxes of tissues available and they're used to lots of tears. When they learned that my niece, McKalah, was there they took us on a tour of sorts and took Jamie to see her. She was out in the "bike yard" where her class was riding tricycles. They were excited to see each other and Jamie was disappointed he couldn't stay. Everything we passed he said he wanted to do. "I want to paint", "I want to play music", "I want to swing". He wanted to start school today.

They have parent volunteers and you can bet your last dime that I'll be volunteering. I'm happy that there is an opportunity to be involved, but I have mixed emotions about him going. I never really thought I would send him to preschool. I want to be with him. I thought I had one more year just the two of us. I'll miss things. Every single day he says and does things that I don't want to miss out on. I'll miss a lot when he's at school. I don't know these people I'll be entrusting my precious boy to. On the other hand, I know he will have a wonderful time and that he really wants to go. I guess this is the best thing, but I can't help but worry.

After we left, to cheer him up that he didn't get to stay, Matthew and I took Jamie to the playground. He had fun, but wanted to know where the other children were. The place was empty. I told him that they were at school. He said, "They'll be here soon?" Poor kid.

After the paperwork is done we'll call and set up an appointment. His doctor's office promised to have the forms filled out and faxed to us within 24 hours. The preschool will do a short evaluation of him and then I guess he'll start school. I'm not sure how quickly that happens. I have a feeling that nobody is ever going to give us a flat out diagnosis and that's okay. Maybe after some time in school he won't even have any issues. I don't really know.

My Hurts Tummy

Jamie didn't eat very well today. He kept asking for certain foods and I would give them to him, but then he wouldn't eat them. He pretty much only had yogurt for dinner. When bedtime came he said his tummy hurt. He was holding his stomach and I knew the little guy must be hungry. I offered him a peanut butter sandwich. Dramatically he said, "The hurts too big in my tummy." I started to become concerned that perhaps he had developed a stomach virus which explained his poor eating through the day when he said, "Uuuum, what about candy."

Sleeping in the Car Seat

Just wanted to share a quick pic of Jamie sleeping in his car seat. He looks so cute, but also so big. I can't believe how fast he's growing!

My Little Writer

Last night Jamie really got into a mood to write words. I got some index cards out and he would tell me the word he wanted to know how to spell and I would write it down for him. Then he would write in on his dry erase board and draw a picture that represented the word that he wrote. He didn't get it perfect and after awhile he got a little frustrated with that so I had to end out little session, but we'll keep working on that. I think he did really good. I tried to get him to work with just 3 or 4 letter words but he insisted on bigger ones. I drew the line when he wanted to write flashlight because I wouldn't have been able to fit it on the card.

McKalah's 5th Birthday Party

My niece McKalah turned 5 on October 2nd. She had her party on the 4th at the park. The kids played with silly string. They ate subs and chips followed by cake & ice cream from Kroger. The kids really didn't like the cake. I don't think any of them ate more than a bite or two. I felt kind of bad for my brother and sister-in-law because they paid extra for a half sheet cake and nobody really like it. They loved the ice cream, though. And what could be more perfect at the park on pretty day. The silly string was a big hit. Kids and grown ups alike partook of the festivities. Jamie was afraid of it at first but quickly got caught up in the fun. He always takes a little while to join in.