Never cease to be amazed....

Well, last night around 10pm Abe strolled into our room and told us his tummy hurt. We, of course, assumed this was another one of his attempts to stay up late (he has a rolodex of excuses that he cycles through each night and this is one of them). We told him to go back to bed, but within a couple of minutes he started vomiting all over our bed. Needless to say, he did get to stay up late.....all night in fact, because he threw up about every half hour ALL NIGHT! Matt slept down on the couch (he has a busy day at work today and got a pass) and I was on vomit patrol. The amazing thing is that today, Abe is running around the house like nothing ever happened. I, on the other hand, have to be heavily caffeinated to get from one room to the next. I will never cease to be amazed at the energy level of my children....even after vomiting for 12 hours straight they run around looking and feeling fabulous!

Gavin's progress report

This year Gavin is in both a "regular Kindergarten" class and what they call "Social Skills Kindergarten". He enjoys his regular kindergarten, but he REALLY likes his social skills kindergarten. He is learning a lot of great concepts in that class, like sharing, making conversation with others, problem solving, etc. He also comes home using a lot of interesting buzz words that always make us laugh. For example:
-One day Ella was in her crib crying after her nap. I went upstairs to find Gavin standing at her door saying to her "Ella, you really need to use your calming strategies!"

-Last week Gavin was in a BAD mood. I told him that if he could calm down he could go outside to ride his bike. A few seconds later he yells at me, "I'M IN A BETTER MOOD! I WANT TO RIDE MY BIKE RIGHT NOW!" I said, "Gavin screaming at me is a sign that you are still feeling angry." and he responded, "Mom, Mrs. Kovar says when someone is angry their eyebrows point down. I am lifting my eyebrows up right now so I am obviously not angry anymore!"

-A couple of Saturdays ago Gavin and Abe were fighting over what tv show to watch. Gavin says to Matt, "Dad, we have a problem. First we need to identify the problem. Next we need to brainstorm solutions. Then, we will make a choice. That's how we do a good job!" Sure enough, Gavin decided Abe could pick first and after Abe's show was over, Gavin could pick. He did a good job!

We had our first parent teacher conference yesterday and Gavin is doing great. He has accomplished all of the kindergarten academic goals for the year, so they are going to start pulling him out for a smaller reading group. They said he behaves well without any extra adult assistance. He is getting better at building relationships with the other kids, although he still needs to be pushed into it sometimes. He loves his friends from social skills because they all have similar quirks and mannerisms. We had a playgroup with some of his social skills friends last week and they all had a blast playing and laughing at jokes that nobody else understood. Most of the kids are even "gluten free" just like Gavin! It is great that he finally has a good group of friends. We are so proud of him!

The Bear Necessities

In honor of the release of 'The Jungle Book" DVD, we had a special Friday evening movie night with the boys complete with pizza, pajamas and lots of popcorn. They got to stay up way past their bedtime and pig out, we got to enjoy watching one of Karen's all-time favorite Disney flicks. I loved the groovy jazz music . . . scitelldy scat-dat-da-de-bop!

Mom knows best....

On Monday Gavin's teacher pulled me aside after school to tell me this story...
Gavin got a sticker for doing a good job on something and it had a picture of the Earth on it. Gavin decided he wanted to write a story about his sticker so he asked his teacher to help him spell the word Earth. She told him to sound out the word in his head and try to figure out which letters to use. His reply?
"Well, if you don't know I'll just go call my Mom!"

Pumpkin Patch

Every year we have a family tradition of going to Bengston's Pumpkin Patch in Homer Glen. There are pig races, a petting zoo, a haunted barn, popcorn and lots of pumpkins. The boys had a really great time and said their favorite thing was the hayride. Ella on the other hand just wasn't too happy (I guess pumpkins are hard to appreciate at that age!) Regardless, it was great fun and we got some excellent family pictures!