Happy Halloween!

This week has been crazy with all the Halloween activities.....

First was gymnastics....

(some of Becca's class and her teacher)

(at the end of Nathan's class, Ms. Angie lets Becca come in to play too!! We love Angie a LOT)

Then was a Fall Carnival for my mommy's group.....

(they got to decorate their own cookies.....very very yummy)

And of course there's preschool......

The theme was Woodland animals, Nathan was a bear....I found a mask in the dollar bin at Target, and he wore a brown sweat suit....he wanted to be a Cubby Bear, but I convinced him otherwise, though one kid had a Bears jersey on to be a "Bear."

We also went trick or treating with my mommy group (I didn't take any pictures of that, but we had fun)

And finally....Halloween itself. All of our neighbors with kids go Trick-or-treating together, which is soooooo much fun for the adults as well as the kiddos. Our neighborhood is mostly older people, and they see us all summer when we ride our bikes and go on walks around, so they always love to see us all dressed up for Halloween. Mark grew up in the country, and so it's neat for him to get to experience trick-or-treating with our children, because he didn't do a lot of it when he was younger.

TRICK OR TREAT!!!!

Pictures, finally.

I haven't posted pics in awhile, so here's a ton of them......

#1. Grandparents' day at preschool. Last year, Mark's mom came up, this year my mom did. I think that the other boy's name is Aiden, I guess he jumped in the picture last minute.

2. Look at the tile in the bathroom!!!!!! Most of it was done by my step-sister Jennifer, but Mark has done a ton on it. The kids were so excited to have their first bath in 3 months (yes they had showers), they played in there for an hour and a half, and threw fits when they had to get out.

3. My little Illini cheerleader. Too bad they stink too much to wear this in public. Oh well, there's always basketball season!

4. The best picture of Becca in the leaves today. She didn't enjoy them as much as Nathan did.

5. Nathan loved throwing the leaves....

6. ...and swinging.....

7. .....and falling in the leaves....

8. ....and generally being outside. It's been so cold and dreary, plus we've been sick, so it was nice to get out today and play.

9. Today was so nice that we decided to go out to Wildlife "Scary" Park tonight. We didn't get there in time to see the animals, but we got to ride the train and trick-or-treat. Nathan's a pilot again this year and Becca is Cinderella. There will be much more Halloween pics this week, we've got quite a few events to attend.

One step forward...Two steps back

So remember how I said that Nathan was doing well in preschool?? His Occupational Therapist is talking about releasing him from therapy, because he's made so much progress....so today I discussed it with his preschool teachers and one (who was his teacher last year) said that he had made progress, but she still sees him zoning out and not focussing well. She said he is doing better, but still not on par with the other kids as far as abilities go. The other teacher doesn't really believe that he has a sensory issue...she said that he's just slow. (which I'm hoping that she doesn't mean unintelligent).

Slow.

The word keeps coming back to me. I know he's been behind and we've worked really hard with him, but his teacher doesn't show any signs of working with me to help the problems. It breaks my heart. I keep telling myself that she's a 22-year old girl who has no experience at all with 4 year olds (or parents) and that she doesn't know what she's talking about.

Nathan's OT happened to call after we got home, and I talked to her about these things and basically she agreed that the teacher doesn't know anything about SPD and that Nathan is extremely intelligent. She said we could set new goals at our next meeting.

I guess this is just another case for why we need to homeschool him. I'm not ready to lump him in with the other kids and hope he finds a place in the herd. I think it's ridiculous at age 4 to label him as slow....we can't settle for that. I think we need to work as hard as we can to help him be the best Nathan that he can be. At least by working with him at home, we can go at his pace, and know that he can have the best opportunity to not fall through the cracks.

Christmas Lists...

OK...It's cold and that makes me think of Christmas so...

All of the family always asks me what to get for Christmas and Birthdays, so this year, I'm putting our list down here, so you can all see it (and watch for sales =) ) I hate telling people what to get us, so you don't have to stick to the list, but here are some ideas.....

Nathan: still plays with his Geotrax every day. He could use more track (not more trains or buildings, mainly track). Anything Toy Story is good too. His big present from us is going to be a Leapster 2. It would be wonderful if some of you could get some games for it. (Carz, WALL-E, Toy Story, etc.....we're not into Sponge Bob or Spiderman). He's also really into building stuff and creating stuff, so LEGOs or K'nex are great!

Becca: Her big present is going to be the Loving Family Dollhouse. Furniture comes separately, I thought if we got her the dollhouse, then between Christmas and her birthday, you could all help us get it furnished (this week the accessories are buy1 get1 at Toys R Us!!). A couple of other ideas....she's really into the disney princesses, especially Ariel (the little mermaid). Maybe one of those giant doll "styling" heads for doing hair....like a Barbie (or a princess one would be better).

I'll work on my and Mark's lists soon. I know you all have trouble finding gifts for us.

Reading and such....

Nathan's been really working on learning to read. So far, he's really into learning it, and he is so proud of himself!! I'm trying to only push him a little bit at a time so he doesn't get frustrated with it.....he can read most of the 2 letter words.....he, be, go, do, so, to, am, the...etc. I'm hoping to have him fully reading before he officially enters kindergarten....I figure homeschooling will be soooooooo much easier once we have that major hurdle crossed.

Nathan's known his letters since he was about 20 months old....but Becca hasn't really shown any interest in learning them until now, and she has most of them down! YAY!

We're working on counting too...Nathan can almost count to 100 by himself. Becca's working counting to 20 and it's funny to hear her, especially through all the "teens."

I know it's shameless bragging, but all of this gives me confidence that homeschooling can work for my kiddos.