Why????

My eight year old, who is getting baptized this weekend, decided to cut her own hair on Friday. She came home while I was talking to a friend outside, and I about lost it. It had been a very complex, and stressful week. To top it all off, my EIGHT year old cut her hair.....?????

Sigh.....

I took her to Cookie Cutters and asked what on earth I could do. She cut some side bangs and now Samantha has a "Comb-Over". I also bought her some head bands. She actually looks cute, as long as she leaves those on!!!!

Samantha's Birthday!!!

Samantha turned 8 on June 8th. She was so excited that it started to worry me just a little bit. I wondered what on earth she was so excited about. We hadn't planned a birthday party. We hadn't even hinted at what her present was. So finally I had to ask her what she was so excited about. She said, "Mom, I'm going to be eight!!" I had to clarify that we hadn't planned a friend party. We were going to see her grandparents but that it would just be us. She is so sweet! She just couldn't wait for her Birthday!!!

We went to Leatherby's. I told Samantha that it was a little expensive and we'd have to think about it. She said, "I don't care where we go. I just want ice cream after we are done. We don't have to spend a lot of money." So of course after she said that we had to go!!!

Happy Birthday my sweet 8 year old!!!!

Samantha's 2nd grade program

Samantha had her 2nd grade program last week. She did really well!! Sam's teacher has been wonderful, and she has learned a lot this year.

This is a picture that her teacher had someone draw, and then they kids colored them with chalk. I think it looks wonderful!
Sam had a lot of support for her program. Grandpa Child, Daddy, and Grandma Siddoway.

Marcia and Grandpa Siddoway, and of course me....

Puke

Samantha just puked in my car! YUKKY! I literally hosed out my car. My toes are still cold from the experience. I'm trying to find a substitute but don't think I will be able to find one. It's Easter weekend. If anyone was going to be gone they set up a sub weeks ago.

She's still not looking good. She is definitely sick, not just something she ate.

Wish me luck!!!!

IEP's

This week has been so crazy I forgot to post about the girls IEP's.

Samantha's was first. Samantha has reached all her goals that were previously set. She is smart as a whip, and is very excited to be with Marcia.

Her new goal is to be reading 36 wpm in Braille. Right now she is about 17 wpm, so that should be do-able by the end of next year.

Marcia's one concern is how clingy Sam has become recently. I advised her I'm aware of the problem, and hope to get some good advice on how to help her soon.

Tori was second. She has done fabulously this year, and both teachers love her. She also has met all the goals that were set and is steadily progressing.

Her new goal is to be reading 72 wpm in Braille. Right now she is between 25 and 32 wpm. Depending on word lists or Genre reading. Again, I think this is do-able.

It is so impressive to watch my girls read the Braille with really no problems. They have to start learning short form words, slowly but surely their speed will be getting closer and closer to the speed that they read print. It's lovely to see them progress!

Samantha at the Dentist

Sam had one more cavity to fill. It was quick and wasn't too bad. I love having my Sister-in-laws Dad be our dentist. He is so good with my kids and does such a fantastic job!

Louis Braille Prensentation

The girls got to give a presentation on Louis Braille today. One of the first grade teacher asked Marcia to introduce her students to Braille, since they had been reading about Helen Keller. The girls did so well, I am such a proud Mom!!!

How can I deny this face?

Samantha and I went for a walk tonight. We got a little busy so it had to wait until after dark. She wanted to bring a flashlight so we could see where we were going.

We went to The Apple and then got some hot chocolate. We talked about her concerns. She said she has been feeling bad because I don't spend as much time with her. She seemed pretty cheerful though. She talked and talked and talked and talked and talked, all the way around the block.

At one point she said, "I'm glad we are spending some time together Mom."

Hopefully I'll be able to continue that with all the kids. But, it seems my sweet Sam might need just a bit more.

Can I Clone Myself?

There is only one of me.

A fact that can cause much guilt.

Yesterday my sister picked up the girls to play at her house. Samantha made me stay outside and wait for her to pick them up. They spent a good 5 hours with her, and I assumed they were having a good time.

When I went to pick them up, Leslie told me that Samantha had been crying and fighting the whole time. At one point the girls were coloring on the sidewalk and Sam went over to Tori and kicked her. Leslie had her sit on the stairs in time out and then sat down to talk to her. She asked her what was wrong, and why she was having such a bad day.

Samantha's response was, "My Mom works all the time. She works and plays with Jason." This all coming out of a onslaught of tears.

Leslie explained that I have to work, and that Jason needs me to help him.

With Sam's big eyes and her lip pouting she said, "But, she can play with me...."

So this morning I was woken up to Samantha asking if we could go for a walk today. Hopefully I can find time for All my kids..........sigh.

Samantha

I think she is going to be the death of me. My sweet Sam...........

Yesterday, I can't tell you how many times I told her no. She has been so obstinate and stubborn lately I don't know what to do with her. The first time she got sent to her room, I was doing the dishes. I just wanted to get them done, I didn't want to have a big mess with water all over the ground. I just wanted to finish the bloody dishes. As you can tell I hate washing dishes. So I've got my hands in the soapy water, and she comes in and asks if she can help. I told her that I would like to just get the dishes done, and I would prefer her to go outside and play.

I'm ruthless, huh?

Well, she got up and stood on the stool and asked if she could watch. I said, "Fine but keep your hands out of the water." She proceeds to try and stick her hands in my rinse water, which is always scalding hot when I do the dishes. So I told her not to put her hands in the water, especially that water because it's really hot. Then she says, "Well this dish that is poking out of the water isn't hot." This is how she does things. She pushes and pushes and pushes until she either gets what she wants or she gets in trouble.

The second time she got in trouble was at Pack Meeting. The meeting was over and all the kids were going crazy in the church Gym. They were all playing on and off the stage. I told my kids it was time to go and that I didn't want them on the stage anyway, because there were too many things up there that could break. I took Samantha's face and said, "Don't go back on the stage, K?" Within 2 minutes she was back up there. So I told her she would be in her room when she got home.

Today, she walked home without her brother and sister. I cannot tell you how many times I have told her to stay with them. She runs ahead with a couple of her buddys. I told her she needs to stay with Duncan and Tori and she needs to tell her friends this so that maybe they will walk with the group instead of way ahead of everyone.

The thing that drives me crazy is she knows she isn't supposed to do this. She hid in our front yard until the other two made it home so that they could all walk in the house together. So she has now been in her room for about an hour. What else can I do with this monkey?????

Kindergarten Graduation

Samantha graduated from Kindergarten yesterday. I can't believe I only have to deal with Kindergarten one more time. How did that happen? Samantha loves Mrs. Wells, and will miss her very much! Here are a few highlights from her program.

Samantha's Kindergarten Testing

Samantha had her Kindergarten Testing today. She did really well, and I'm very proud of my smart little girl. She did pretty much everything that Mrs. Wells asked her too. I think she had a hard time reading "Said" but I could be wrong because I was sitting in a corner across the room. She read all the sight words, how to read a book properly, rhyming words, knowing her letters, writing her numbers, and counting to 100. The last is a big accomplishment for Sam because at the beginning of Kindergarten she counted to 25, and in the middle she counted to 29. I also know she has a hard time remembering that. We've worked on it a little at home and she struggles a little. So I'm excited that she did so well.

She got a gift certificate for a free kids meal at a local restaurant so we will be eating dinner out tonight thanks to Samantha's awesome achievement. Way to go Sam!!!!

Gotta Love Show and Tell

Samantha has show and tell today. More homework for Mom. Well, it's "Y" day., and what do you bring for show and tell that begins with the letter "Y"? I don't have anything, so we had to make something. It came to me in my "is it really morning all ready?" stupor. A Yellow Yarn Doll. Samantha is ecstatic! She loves her new doll. It's amazing how cool she thinks I am with something as simple as a yarn doll.....Gotta love 5 year olds.

Samantha is growing up.

I woke up to the frantic excited voice of Samantha.

Sam: Mom I have a wiggly tooth!!!

Me: Sweet!

Sam: I was eating an apple and my tooth hurt so I felt it and it was wiggly!

Me: Good!

Sam: I'm going to get another apple!!!

Yes, apple number 2 did the trick. She has lost her first tooth. The Toothfairy is coming to our house again!

Saturday Stuff

Samantha had her swimming lessons this morning and she did really well. It's her last day of class and she is now moving from level 3 to level 4 in her lessons. She's very excited and Tori was full of praise for her little sister.

Then we spent the majority of the day cleaning what we lovingly term, "The Room of Doom"! It is our Laundry/Utility room. My real motivation is the toy room is right off the room of doom and Jason needs something to do!!!!! He is driving me up the wall. I don't know what to do with this little monkey. He's hit the frustration phase of life and he will throw a tantrum anytime you look at him wrong. He climbs on everything and makes life pretty darn miserable. My thought was if he had a nice place with lots of stuff to keep him busy maybe he'd be a more content baby. So hopefully "The Room of Doom" will now be the Room of something else.....very, very soon!!!!

Today's craziness

Tori's class has been reading The Wizard of Oz. The idea was to read the book and then watch the movie and see how different they were. They also learned that a book usually has more to it then the movie. For watching the movie they were supposed to dress up like their favorite character. Tori wanted to dress up as Toto..............Uh-huh........

So here is my interpretation of Toto. Notice the lovely green glasses for being in the Emerald City. We also found some flowers that resembled poppies so I went to town with those.

I didn't want to have her wear a collar and leash like she wanted to, so I got her a bandana and wrote TOTO on the bottom. It worked.Then we wove her hair with the remaining "poppies". She has so much hair!!!

Then later this morning I had to attend the girls IEP conferences. If you don't know what that is, it's an Individualized Educational Plan. My sister Kristen watched Jason for me and Samantha got to sit for two of them. First we discussed Tori, and our concerns for her. Miss Palmer came to the conference and Marcia, the vision teacher and IEP fasilitator, ran through everything that Tori will need in the classroom. Since Tori can see ok, there wasn't much to worry about. She just needs to be within 10 ft. of the whiteboard, her papers need to be crisp clean copies, instructions written on the board need to be in print and not cursive. We also discussed that fact that she might struggle with "bubble tests". I told them not to make any changes with this as of yet because I want to see if this is a concern, but I have been told that they could prove difficult in the future. So I've advised them that if she takes a bubble test and it shows a lot of wrong answers to let me know, and then to check to see if this is an accurate representation of what she knows.Marcia did some testing prior to the IEP and she has determined that Tori has some fine depth perception problems, and she has some contrast problems. That would be helped a lot from print and not cursive as well as the clean copies. Obviously sitting in the front of the class is going to be an ongoing need for Tori, not surprising. The one thing she told me that concerned me a little is that Tori's hearing test in one of her ears had to be taken up to 30 DB's. I don't know if she just had a cold or if something more is going on with her. We'll have to do some more testing on her at her next well-check and see if the findings are the same. The loss wasn't bad enough for us to jump on anything as of yet. Tori will be taking Braille classes 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day.

Then it was Samantha's turn. One of the only nice things with the girls is that once one IEP is done both are almost taken care of. Samantha has also had the testing done prior to the IEP conference and she has some fine depth perception problems, but she was unable to do the rest of the testing because she is so young she couldn't complete the tests. My only concern with Samantha is that she falls down a lot. The occupational therapist said that she didn't see any problems with her ability to manuver the classroom, but I advised her that I'd like to have Samantha evaluated out on the play ground. I don't know if she is just being a little girl or if she is really have peripherial vision problems and doesn't have time to look at what she is doing when she is running around. The OT said she would come and watch her at recess sometime soon and let me know what she finds. Samantha will be taking Braille classes twice a week for 20 minutes a day for this year, and 4 days a week for 30 minutes a day next year. With Kindergarten's short schedule it made more sense to have her taught only 2 a week right now.


They sent me home with a Brailler. We can now make raised bumps on paper!!!!! Of course I don't know how to read it so I've gotta throw away all papers that were played with just in case I've typed up some naughty words.

Then my little boy isn't quite so little. Duncan is having his first "real" sleepover with his buddy. By "real" sleepover I mean not at Grandma's house. We'll see how his night goes and whether he is going to come home really grumpy or some what normal.

Maybe Competition is a good thing

Jason was standing on a folding chair behind my office chair. The boy loves to climb! I leaned back and asked him for some kisses. Being a stubborn little thing he refuses. So Samantha comes over and gives me a kiss. Jason violently pulls Samantha's hair and pushes her out of the way and proceeds to smother me in loves and kisses. He, he!!! =)

Poor Sam

Over the weekend my lovely handy husband built us a new hand railing. It was this awful black rod iron railing in my front room. Brett spent all weekend building a beautiful replacement.

That's just the opening to this blog entry. =)

Because Brett was building the railing, the front door was open. All the kids were playing in the front yard, including the baby. Duncan and Tori like to smother Jason in attention when he's outside so they were having a grand old time, and Samantha came inside crying.

Sam: "Mom, they were mean to me again. They are always mean to me."

Mom: "Sam, I didn't hear anyone being mean to you."

Sam: "Tori yelled at me. She said, 'not you Sam!'"

Mom: "Honey, Tori wasn't yelling at you. She just asked Jason to climb in the stroller."

Sam: "I used to be the cute one, and now Jason is the SUPER cute one. They always give him the attention now!"

Poor Sam and the displacement of having a little sibling. I guess she'll just need some more hugs and kisses.

My Sweet Babies

Our ward has had another blow. Our Awesome Bishop has lost his wonderful Wife. She passed away Sunday morning, due to cancer. She was the most giving person and did anything for anyone.

My kids said that we needed to make the Bishop cookies. I told them that would be a good idea and we would do that this week.

Well, they took it into their own hands to try to make our Bishop feel better. I let the kids walk to The Apple for a treat today. This was the first time that I've let them go by themselves. On their way home, they stopped at the Bishops home and gave him a chocolate doughnut and a root beer. I'm not sure if the Bishop likes either of those, but I'm sure their gesture will not be missed.

What a great example they are to me, to help those in need! Not just physical, but emotional as well.

VIP, that is Samantha!

Samantha has been the VIP in her class this week. She has talked about this week since the beginning of the year!! She gets to be the President of the class, line-up in the front all week, bring a show and tell everyday, and then Mom gets to come and tell all about her on Friday. Samantha loves her teacher Mrs. Wells!!