Election Day and Griffin Milestones

First, Griffin is now rolling from tummy to back fairly consistently!!!! WTG Griffin!!!!

Now on to Election Day funnies. Last Thursday Caroline came home and this was our conversation...

Caroline; We got to vote for President today at school.
Me: Oh really. Who did you vote for?
Caroline: Barrack Obama
Me: Why did you choose to vote for Barrack Obama?
Caroline: His name is funner.

What a way to determine who should be our next President. Well apparently they did another vote yesterday and we had the following conversation the night before the Election.

Caroline: We get to vote for President again tomorrow.
Me: Who are you going to vote for?
Caroline: John McCain
Me: Why will you vote for John McCain
Caroline: Well John McCain sounds like Candy Cane. I like candy canes.
Me: I thought you voted for Obama last time?
Caroline: I did and now I can vote for both of them.

Parent teacher conference

Matt and I had our first parent teacher conference this morning since the first six weeks has come to a close. We got to see Caroline's first report card which was PERFECT! She mastered all the skills for the six weeks and had no behavior problems. Mrs B said she is by far the top in the class and is just a pleasure to teach. She said Caroline sits next to a little girl that has not had any preschool and Caroline has done a great job helping her catch up to the rest of the class. She said she is a leader in her class too, which is so great to hear. One of the things the preschool teacher last year mentioned was that Caroline never stepped up to take charge. We were also told last year that she would not raise her hand when the teachers asked the class a question. Well I've talked to her teacher about that already and she said she's always raising her hand to answer questions. I told Mrs B that I know the day Caroline gets a mark she'll come home in tears. She said that she highly doubts Caroline will ever get a mark since they get 3 warnings.

She said as far as reading, by the end of the year they should all be reading at a Level 2 and they would be ecstatic if the kids were at a Level 4. She thinks Caroline is already at a Level 2 if not a Level 4. They mentioned at the Kindergarten Curriculum meeting that they don't officially assess reading in K until December though so we'll have to wait to know for sure. I don't know what level it correlates to on their scale, but we just opened up the set 3 of her BOB books last night and she read the first one all the way through with very little help. The teacher showed us the page she used to check reading and it was a page of 20-30 words and she said Caroline almost made it through the whole list. She said she might have been able to get all the words, but the testing is done during Centers (play time) so the kids always want to get done to go play. She does plan on giving Caroline some more difficult books to read instead of the ones they would normally bring home. While we want to keep her challenged we don't want that to mean just more busy work.

We saw the over all assessment they did the 2nd week of school and Caroline scored an 86%. I thought that was pretty good until the teacher said a 30% is considered great for the beginning of the year. The things she missed she should have no problems accomplishing them by the end of the year. They will repeat this assessment again in the middle of the year and again at the end.

Overall I think it was a great meeting and I feel really good about her start in school.

And a shout out to Aunt Anne for letting Caroline hang with them while waiting for the bus this morning.

New Caroline Funny

Caroline always comes home from school saying "I didn't get a mark because I always do what I'm supposed to do." She always tells me about who got marks and color changes. I picked her up Thursday and we were talking about her day. I asked how her day was and she says "I didn't get caught." I never found out what she didn't get caught doing though. It took all I could not to bust out laughing in front of her after that one.

It's been a big week for Caroline

Caroline lost her first tooth on Monday September 22nd. Mimi happened to be over that night to watch Caroline and Griffin while Matt and I went to the Kindergarten Curriculum Meeting. She also spent the night and got up with Griffin to give Matt and I a break. Caroline had been playing with her loose tooth A LOT recently, which is like fingernails on a chalk board to me. After she showed us all her tooth I went and got the tooth fairy pillow that I used as a little girl and gave it to her. She thought it was super cool that I used it when I was her age. Later that night we put it under her pillow and she fell right asleep so the tooth fairy would come. The next morning when her alarm went off she called out for me. Once I got into her room she wanted to go see Mimi in the living room so we walked out there. One of the first things Caroline did was ask Mimi to come back to her room to see what the tooth fairy left her. She pulled out $5 and the look on her face was priceless. I totally forgot to take pictures that morning b/c my brain does not function before 8am and it was at 6am, but trust me, she was cute and I'm not biased at all. So now without further adieu......


Caroline's New and Improved Smile

First smile I caught on camera

I finally got a picture of our handsome man's smile. He's always smiling, but already has PCS, better known as, "Photographer's Child Syndrome" and stops smiling as soon as he sees the camera. I out smarted him this time!

I've got pictures from Chuck and Nancy's visit this weekend, but they are currently stuck on my camera until Matt brings me home a new Card Reader later tonight. Hopefully I'll get those up in the next few days. Even though it was a short visit we had a lot of fun. Until I get those up this one will have to do.

Griffin's 2 Month Appointment

Griffin had his two month appointment today and he is now

10 pounds 11 ounces (25%) (up 2 pounds 10 ounces from birth and 3 pounds 9 ounces from the day we took him home)
22 inches long (10-25%) (up 2 1/4 inches from birth)

She said everything looks great and he's right on track with milestones. He has a little yeast in the folds of his neck from the heat so I have to put Lotrimin on that. I remember that happened with Caroline too and her doc at the time said it is very common and especially in summer babies. He's got a plugged tear duct, again just like Caroline, so he has some drops to help it and he gets a little eye massage a few times a day. He's also had a slightly stuffy nose, but nothing green or that is causing breathing issues. The good news is I just picked up my Nosefrida and while I still haven't tried it the lady I picked it up from had tried hers and said it works wonderfully. Of course, the thought of it still grosses me out, but she assured me the snot was no where near her mouth. I always hated that bulb aspirator thing so I'll give this a shot. Also, my order came with a free window shade for the car that says something like "Swedish hoses for runny noses." Ummm. Yeah! That's what I want on my car window! Anyways enough babbling and on to Griffin's 2 month pictures. He didn't give me much time before he got fussy, but I managed to get a few cute ones. I still haven't caught his full out toothless grin on camera, but I got a little bit of a smile.

Steve comes for a visit and other things

Our old friend and roommate was in town this week to celebrate his birthday with his family and we were lucky enough to be part of his quick 3 day trip. He came over for about 4 hours today, but had to leave before Caroline got home from school. Last night as we were going to bed we were talking about what we are doing the next day and I mentioned that Steve was going to be here for lunch. She was so sad that she wasn't going to get to see Steve. While he was here he had the great idea to take a picture of himself for her so we snapped a few shots. When she came home she asked if he came over and I said yes. I showed her the pictures and she said that she was sad she missed him today, but she had to go to school.





Griffin Information-
Griffin is still doing great. He turned 2 months old yesterday!!!! He has his 2 month appointment tomorrow so expect a bit more detail and his 2 month pictures tomorrow night!!! He's is such a smiley happy baby and is sleeping in his room already. He's still waking up around 1am, 4 am and 6am, but has a nice stretch from around 8pm to 1am. I wish that long period started later though since I rarely get to bed before 11 and it's usually closer to 12am. Between broken sleep and having to be awake at 6am to get Caroline to school I’m starting to feel the effects of sleep deprivation. Matt took the night shift all last night and he always takes one weekend night which helps. I know it could be much worse so I try not to complain too much.

Caroline Information-
Caroline still loves going to school. She is such the little rule follower and comes home everyday talking about how she was the quietest one so she wouldn’t get in trouble. She says that “Table 1 always gets our drinks first because we are the quietest.” She sits at the table with Raul and Adrian, two little boys who are both “very good too.” I always hear about who got marks and who didn’t. I can pull bits and pieces of other information, but behavior seems to be top priority in her mind. I’m still not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. I wish she was that obedient at home! Tonight Caroline was really tired and kind of whiney. Well at one point she says “I haven’t seen Grammy and Gramps for a long time and I think I’m going to start crying soon.” I let her know that they would be back at some point this weekend and that she could see them then. She said “Well I guess that’s ok, but I’m still sad.” I got a call tonight saying they would be home tomorrow night so Caroline won’t have to wait much longer. The other big shocker milestone is that she came home and said "Noah's friend is in love with me and Cheyenne." I felt my heart sink a bit. Where is the "boys are icky" phase?