My job chart

My sister Leslie was referred to this awesome site by a friend. I'm so excited. It's easy to set up and easy to involve the kids.

http://www.myjobchart.com/

I showed Duncan and you should have seen him light up. He's coming up with all sorts of rewards to encourage them to complete their jobs.

There is a place they can post comments back and forth on the site and here are a couple comments from the kids about it.

Duncan wrote

hi dad this is soo cool!!!

Samantha wrote

I love doing homewrok for you Mom.

Gotta love it!!!!

Halloween 2010

Jason was my little caged tiger. He actually left his ears on for his preschool party.


He was a little bit confused about the pumpkin.
But once the paints came out he could have gone on forever.
Tori was a ghost.
Duncan was a Dead Gangster
Samantha was "Puppies for sale"
We went Friday to Brett's office and trick-or-treated.
After we got home, we found that Jason liked the costume make-up. He really thought it was paint and now one of my make-up brushes is beat up.
Samantha advised me that Halloween would be ruined if we didn't carve pumpkins.

This is Tori's. She watched a bunch of pumpkin carving tutorials on you-tube and wanted to try out the newer techniques.
Samantha's has star glasses and braces. Dad had to help with some of it but she loved every minute.
This is Brett's 8-bit cyclops. Love the little teeth.
Duncan was cute and got his little brother a donut at the trunk-or-treat. Then the flood gates opened and it started to poor. I haven't seen so many adults running in one place for a long time.
We ran up to the in-laws and Aurora was there. Jason seems to dig her. This face was a pose. I waited to see if I could get a normal face and he wouldn't relax until I took the picture.
We had a couple of cousins come trick-or-treating with us. We had a lot of fun. Wesley said that he got twice as much candy as he ever got before. I don't know if it was true or not but at least they felt like it was worth it to come with us.
The kids loved the big cat. Had to snap a picture with them.
Samantha was exhausted and wanted to go home. The other two wanted to stay out so I was brave and let them go. This was the last door that Samantha knocked on.
My sweet husband put the pumpkins out. Duncan carved his at school, so we had 4 pumpkins to place on the porch.

Samanthaism

"Mom, I always listen to you. Sometimes."

Yes, Sam. That is how I feel too. =)

Swimming Lessons

Today was the last day of swimming lessons for the girls. Neither passed their level but they were both closer then I would have every thought possible.

Samantha's Teacher said: Great job at your elementary backstroke. Remember to take big breaths on your front crawl. Super Job!

The thing that she didn't pass was Jump into deep water from the side, swim front crawl for 15 yards, maintain position by treading or floating for 30 seconds and swim elementary backstroke for 15 yards.

Tori's Teacher said: Victoria that was some great swimming. Your breaststroke was great! Make sure you keep working on having a really good kick on that front crawl it will help a ton. Have fun in the next swim lessons.

The things that she didn't pass were 1.Shallow-angle dive, glide 2 body lengths and begin any front stroke (in water at least 9-feet deep) 2. Pike surface dive, submerging completely 3.Backstroke flip turn while swimming 4. Perform a shallow-angle dive into deep water, swim front crawl for 50 yards, change direction and position of travel as necessary and swim elementary backstroke for 50 yards. 5. Swim breaststroke for 25 yards, change direction and position of travel as necessary and swim back crawl for 25 yards.

As you can see Tori's is much more complex. I don't think I could do any of what the expect her to do to pass this level.

They both are doing well. Samantha can swim for the most part. I think her biggest issue is her ability to stay focused and listen to the teacher. When Sam's in the water she wants to play. Tori swims better then I do. Her biggest issue is that she forgets to kick. I do the same thing. I would rather use my arms then kick. Weird I know.

They are signed up for another session starting next week. Hopefully Sam will pass since she only had one thing she had to work on. I hope to see Tori build her stamina.

Today's goings on

I walked out the door to go to Jason's ENT appointment today, when I got a call from Duncan. "Mom, I just threw up." So I had to turn the car around and go check Duncan out of school. I had a nice little helper to get Jason to his appointment. Duncan seems to be doing well, so I don't think I have to worry about him.

Jason will be having new tubes placed in his ears on the 3rd of November. After that we will be having him sedated to have another ABR done, so we can hopefully get a conclusive result on his hearing. More about that when the time comes.

I took Jason to preschool the other day and the first thing he did was run over to the computer. I'd seen a few other kids do this but I knew Jason doesn't know how to run the computer, so it surprised me a bit. The teacher explained they have a touch screen and Jason is VERY good at running the schools computer. INTERESTING.

So Samantha's new favorite thing is to get on the computer and play a game that Jason would like with him sitting next to her. She's a sweet thing.

I bought a black sweat suit and some orange duct tape, and Brett made Jason's costume. I've said all along that he is "My Little Caged Tiger", I think it's pretty darn cute.

Swimming

Last night I was feeling generous, and thought it would be fun to take the kids swimming. Tori had asked me on Saturday if on Tuesday she could practice her strokes so that she could work her way up to being on the swim team. We all went together and had a wonderful time!!!



After all of this fun, Brett took the girls over to the lap pool and worked on their swimming with them. He sure knows a lot more then I do about swimming! All I can say is it's a good thing that I float.....=)

Just as a side note, Jason slept through the night. We are going to have to invest in a rec pass if he is going to do that after swimming.

This kid made my day

Look at this cute little face!!!

I got back to pick Jason up in time for the goodbye song. They came to open the door, and who was the first one there? My boy! He looked at me and smiled and jumped up and down. He ran over to me and wanted me to lift him up. I can not express how much I love this little guy!!