Just a brag

Everyday, I am so amazed at what we are doing/learning. I attribute a lot of what he has accomplished these past few months to the most wonderful school. I LOVE his school and his teachers and his friends and just everything about it. He is writing letters so well. He is writing out many 3 letter words on his own and can sound out almost any word up to 5/6 letters. I really don't feel like it will be long before he can take a simple book and read it all on his own. He is counting to 100 (so I'm told LOL) and is starting to write his numbers. He loves all of his friends so much and talks about them all the time. He is still in gymnastics and loves the people there. He looks forward to Karate every single day. He loves to sing and dance but he would be lost without his Thomas trains and cars. I can't believe how much he plays with that stuff. every. single. day. He loves playing outside and is already starting to ride his bike again. Him and Mac seem to grow closer and closer each day with her living at moms. This seems to be both a blessing and a hindrance. They definitely act like brother and sister. Mac has changed so much just in the past couple of months with her mom moved out. It's nice to see her smile! Our lives will definitely be a little emptier when she isn't there so much. Maybe we will just keep her!

Thank you God for the greatest family in the world. I can't imagine my like without Ryan and Jimmie in it. Thank you!!!!!

So proud... yet so sad

February 7th, 2009 was Ryan's 1st Karate Tournament. He did GREAT. He wasn't shy at all and did everything asked of him. He was just so cute. His friend Evan was in the same ring as he was so it made it a little more special. He got a huge trophy for participating. He carried it around all day. Even into the bathroom :). Jimmie did great also for his 1st time. Jimmie took 1st in forms and 3rd in One Steps, so 2 trophies for him It was a really great day. Just long. Ryan competed at 9:30 and Jimmie didn't compete until 2:30. At noon, Ryan told Jimmie that we could jsut go home because Jimmie wasn't really ready to compete and wouldn't do well. Great support system. We stayed the night before and got to do a lot of swimming. It was Ryan's first time to actually swim on his own. He had a swim suit float thing on and just went to town. He definately has developed so much more confidence in himself. It is so amazing to see. I am more and more proud of him everyday. I am so glad he is enjoying Karate because it is such a good thing for him.

Okay, now the sad part. I video taped the whole thing. I was so excited to go home an watch it. Mom and Dad came over and we loaded it onto the TV. Yep, you guessed it, nothing! When I thought I was recording, I wasn't and when I thought I wasn't, I was. I am beyond mad at myself for this. It was his only 1st competition. They have another competition in April. I will try to do better next time :(.

An Accountant or An Engineer

When mom pick up Ryan from preschool today, Miss Pat told Mom that her and Miss Arlene were torn... they didn't know if he was going to be an accountant or an engineer when he grows up :).

I'm loving this mom thing!

Christmas was wonderful! We changed our approach this year and spent it at home. Just us. It was everything we had hoped for. Ryan was so excited about Christmas and was so happy to see that Santa remembered that he wanted more train tracks. Even though we stayed home, it took almost a week to recover from all the excitement. I'm sure a double ear infection didn't help much either.

I took some time off before the holidays and we spent it outside on his sled. Once he got the hang of it, he loved it. We need to take him to a big hill and let him fly!

He started back at school this week. It will be his first week at 5 days. Well, it's supposed to be but it looks like another kicker storm headed our way so possibly no school tomorrow. I hope it's not like the one in December where we were out of power for 59 hours. It may not sound like much, but no heat and more importantly, no water, 2 3 year olds and 6 adults all hovered in one room. Not fun! We survived but I'm sure we all lost a couple years off our lives.

We had a rough couple of weeks sleep wise. I'm sure all the holiday fun plus being sick didn't help, but I am so glad to be back to our crazy schedule. Hopefully it will help with the new little attitude that seems to have erupted.

Yellow Yellow Everywhere

Last night was Belt Ceremony at Karate. My amazing little man was awarded his Yellow belt. He puts his whole heart and soul into it everytime he goes. I am so very proud of him!

This was Jimmie's 1st belt ceremony as a student. He has been working so very hard to earn his orange belt. I'm thinking he worked a little too hard because for the 1st time since the school was open, they have a student who skipped a belt. Yep, Jimmie was awarded his Yellow belt also last night. He skipped right over his Orange belt. I'm not sure who was more shocked, Jimmie or Ryan. It's a nice, healthy little competition they have going on.

I am so very proud of my 2 men. I am so glad they have found something they both enjoy so much that they can do together.

Way to go guys!!!!!

Tis the season... decisions, decisions, decisions

We are 3 very busy people. I'm tired. Jimmie is tired. Ryan is tired. I think we all need a 3 day long nap. We went to our town's tree lighting ceremony last weekend and had a great time. We actually met up with a little girl he goes to preschool with and he wouldn't leave her side. It was so cute. They sang and danced together the whole time. We had a couple of nice sleigh rides and got to tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas. Who would've thought a kid would need more trains?!?! No interest to actually sit on his lap though. Oh well. We may try again this year or wait another year. He is a big scary man you know.

On Monday night, Ryan tested for his Yellow belt in Karate. There were a ton of people there and he had just woken up from a nap. He was a little freaked out but finally came around. He did very well. The belt ceremony is next week and he will be so excited. He has been working so hard. He gives 110% every time he is in class.

Last week we had parent teacher conferences at his school. They gave us a paper that says he is doing great. I asked if there was anything that we should be working on or any trouble he is giving them. He is a perfect little boy when he is there and they just love him. They said he is remarkable with his numbers. It just was so nice to hear all the good stuff. We did talk about switching him to 5 days instead of 3. They felt it would be a great idea. We just got the new tuition info for if we switched so now I just need to sell my soul to be able to afford it. First we need to decide if we really think it's a good idea to switch and then decide if we can stretch the rubber band called our finances. Right now, it's stretched a little too far.

Dentist anyone?

Yesterday was our first official trip to the Dentist. We went about 3 months ago just so he could sit in the chair and she could count his teeth. He really didn't want to let her anywhere near him so that's all we did.

I have been talking this up for about a week. I let him know exactly what was going to happen and how much fun it would be and how easy it was. He definitely does much better in new situations if he knows exactly what to expect. He did GREAT! He did everything asked of him. She polished his teeth and flossed them. His teeth are in great shape. He is doing a super job brushing and the spacing is perfect right now. Hopefully we can keep it up and avoid any issues for as long as we can.

Pre-school is going great. He loves it. He has made so many new friends. I need to hook up with a couple of moms to set up play dates. He keeps asking me about it. I'm not too sure about French though. I think he already knows more words than I can remember :).

We go to Locomotion every Saturday morning. What a difference the summer made. He is so much more independent now. He really enjoys working with Bill and playing in the wonderful obstacle courses he makes.

We went to our first Karate tournament on Saturday. We went just to support the kids from our school and to show Ryan what it is all about. He left there talking about how he wants to compete next time. We had a great time. All of the kids did great and thought it was awesome that Ryan was there cheering them on the whole time. He has kind of become like Norm from Cheers to everyone. He is always the first one everyone talks to and they all flock to him. It is really funny to watch. He is doing great and may even test for his next belt in December. I don't think he's ready to move up but the experience of testing will only help him later. Jimmie is testing for his next belt too so it's kind of a little competition at the house. Of course, Ryan is an orange belt right now while his dad is still a white. Sorry Jimmie :). Good luck to the both of you.