What's Up?

What's up with Asher you ask? He is very excited to be a fireman for Trick or Treat. He loves the church we've been attending. They have an outside playground and it has been nice enough here to use it. In fact we've been spending quite a bit of time outside. Whether it be in our neighborhood park, our backyard or just taking walks. Asher really likes it when the kids are in school and he has all my attention to himself. We've been doing lots and lots of puzzles and building bunches of trains. We also live in the flight pattern of a smaller airport and he is loving watching all of the planes fly overhead all day. He misses his beloved Gracie and his bestest paw paw ever in the whole wee-old. We have discovered that he has a fantastic memory. He has been recalling all kinds of events lately in very vivid detail. These stories come completely out of the blue and most are things that happened well over a year ago. He really likes Maia's new bff Brianna. He calls her be-nanna:) I don't think she finds it quite as amusing as the rest of us do! Once or twice a week he brings up our "old" house and tells me how much he misses it. But with each passing week he is asking less and less.

What's up with Maia? Well Maia is a star pupil. When I was in school we would have called her kind a suck up! She has already recieved 3 responsible(insert name of school here) awards! When these are awarded to her she gets her name on the morning announcements, a prize from the office and an official like certificate sent in the mail. She helps her teacher clean up the room. Without being asked she gets up and cleans up everyone elses trash. She also helps the students in her class who are not catching on to their work as quickly as she is. For example...last week, Yahir was having some trouble with his math work, so Maia tutored him. He was so grateful to her that he asked if he could kiss her!! She told him the only boy she was allowed to kiss was her daddy. Smart girl!! Her teacher hand picked her to represent their school in a program with the Chamber of Commerce. For at least the next six weeks a member of the chamber will come to the school and eat lunch with Maia. Then they will read books to each other and Maia will show her the ropes at school. I guess they will be focused on the things Maia is learning in her classroom and reading. Maia is having lots of fun with it. She seems to be making a lot of friends. Most especially the little girl who lives across the street from us. Those 2 girls are back and forth from one house to next all evening long!! You can hear their giggles through the whole house and probably down the block as well. At school another little girl, Fabiola, asked Maia to be in her club. A lot of Maia's friends are in the club but she actually turned them down. When I asked her why she said it's because it's the Perfect Club...You have to be perfect all the time and according to Maia no one is perfect. I have taught her well!! Anyways even though she isn't participating in the club all of the girls still like her. There are 4 or 5 girls she talk about pretty consistently. Only one little girl in her class doesn't seem to do well with her and we're not exactly sure why. One day they were friends and the next day Hope told her to get lost and wanted nothing to more to do with Maia. There were some tears at first but she has gotten over it already. We've decided to join Brownies. We are actually going to take on the task of starting a new troop. Not me personally all on my own or anything but me and so far 5 other families and girls. I'm pretty excited to get to be a part of this troop from the very beginning and to work with these other families. I think it's gonna be a great way to meet new people and will be something to keep me busy. Maia got her first interim and recieved all AC'S ( which means achieving standards) which is the highest mark she can get. On top of that she recieved plusses which means she is exceeding their expectations!! The only area we are having any problem in so far is her handwriting. They use a different print then anything I've ever seen before and Maia is having a hard time letting go of everything she's been taught the last 2 years to do things their way. Her parent teacher conference is tonight and I'm going to ask the teacher for a copy of the print they use so that we can begin to work on this with her at home.

What's up with Isaac? Isaac also had a wonderful interim report. I had his conference last week and his teacher is very pleased with him. She likes to watch how his brain works. She is also pleased that he has so many opinions and is so willing to share them. She said he adds a wonderful dynamic to their classroom and is more willing to speak up than most of the other students. He has made many friends and is starting to talk about joining scouts again. When I pick him up each day he is full of smiles and laughter and there are always several other boys around him. He seems happy. When we get him home though he seems to focus on the negative instead of the positive. He seems to think that by making new friends and having fun he is betraying his old friends. He is a very loyal boy!! I asked him if he wanted to invite a couple of his new friends over to the house and he said no he needed to have his old friends here first because it wouldn't be right for his new friends to see his new house before his old friends did. Loyal I tell ya!! There is no talking him out of this. His teacher and the guidance counselor have been watching him closely though and they both feel that he is adjusting rather well. He is certainly exceeding their expectations for him. He is reading well beyond his grade level and his comprehension is out of this world. He is one of the few students in his class that's not in a special intervention group. And here is the kicker...the work here is definitely more advanced than in our old district!! Go Isaac!! He also had a good time at church last Sunday. Now he would never admit that to us but he was positivley beaming when we got out to the car. And promptly told us we couldn't be late next Sunday. Sounds like he had a good time to me. He got to spend some special daddy time 2 weekends ago. They went to a gun range and Isaac shot for the first time ever. He did a fantastic job!!! He got the bullseye 3 times. I think Andy said he shot close to 200 rounds from Andy's rifle. They had to use a prop because the gun was too big for Isaac to handle on his own but once he got the hang of it there was no stopping him. I can see this as being a regular thing for the 2 of them now. Isaac also really enjoys going into the city to the big library. It amazes him that the public library has it's own parking garage!! And the kids section is FANTASTIC!! There is a really cool treehouse, tons of computers, fish tanks everywhere, a dress up station and so much more. You have to see it to believe it. The first time we went a little boy walked up to Asher and told him he was going to cut him into "really small pieces". Isaac was right there and told the boy to get lost. He stood between the boy and Ash so that he could protect Ash. While I didn't like some 4 year old brat threathen (while his mother was watching and did nothing to stop or correct him?) to do my baby bodily harm I was mighty proud of Isaac for how he handled the situation. He is a wonderful big brother. Isaac is completely infautuated with Indiana Jones right now. He hasn't seen any of the movies but he has read all the books, has the ds game and a few lego sets. I bought him an Indiana Jones costume for the school Halloween parade but he says he will not be participating in it. Isaac does not do Halloween. I always take out Maia and Asher and Isaac chooses to stay home with Andy. I thought maybe a school parade would be appealing to him but he say no way no how! It's all evil. So I guess his costume is all his. I know without a shadow of a doubt that he will don it to find hidden treaures and temples in our backyard. Using his trusty whip to save his sidekick Rex (Asher) from certain doom. It will give him countless hours of pleasure:)

Talk to you soon!!