Art 101

While visiting Nana and Papa Joe in Tennessee, Emily and I spent some time one afternoon coloring pictures. I made a fruit bowl and a vase of flowers. Emily loves doing what mommy does, so she made a fruit bowl and a vase holding mommy's favorite flower, a tulip. Her knowledge of fruit has expanded since her first fruit bowl. This one contains from left to right: cherries, lime slice, apple, pineapple, pear, orange, banana, lemon and grapes. This girl loves to draw....I have no idea what I will do with all of the pictures she has made.....I cherish each ones, especially those made specifically for me.

Everybody in the Water

Three weeks ago Emily and Matt went back to taking swimming lessons after a winter hiatus. The first lesson back went okay - both had to relearn the things they already knew. Lessons use to be on Wednesday after school, but now with Emily's homework and other responsibilities weekdays are too hard to fit the lessons in, so we now go on Saturday morning (mommy and daddy rotate taking them). Emily's lesson is first and then Matt's. The last two weeks Emily has shown real improvement while Matt is another story. He prefers being outside of the pool and playing in the water "puddles". I took these pictures of him dancing by the pool our second week back. He is a riot. I'm sure he'll get into the gist of swimming soon but for now I am just glad both are going and happy that Emily has made progress.

So long, Japanese maple tree

On Friday, we had a company come do soil remediation which was required because of the small leak discovered in the oil tank we had removed in January. Although our neighbor was open to us using his property, mainly the driveway, for the equipment being used, we decided after talking to the guy in charge and finding that the possibility of property damage was really high, to only involve our property. Unfortunately, the tank was located in front of the house and a Japanese maple tree was planted in front of the tank area. So, we had to remove the tree in order to get the equipment on our property. It was very sad...yes, it was just a tree but this is where we took fall photos of the kids and this past Christmas was the first time we hung ornaments from it. Oh well, we are looking at it in the aspect that the kids have a larger yard to play in. Of course, we have to get some grass down....although, Matt would be all for a mud/dirt pit to play in. We aren't able to do anything at this point because the remediation showed that the oil went down to the bedrock. We are waiting to hear the next step, one possibly being that they put in a well to monitor the oil spill when the water table rises - this would be checked monthly. This oil tank issue feels like it is never going to end and we had to sacrifice a 32 year old tree for it. Thankfully, Dave was able to be home for the day and deal with all of this craziness. Matt was also off of school and loved watching the backhoe and dump trucks. He even got to go into the backhoe - no picture at this time, I was out and Dave couldn't find the camera. Our neighbor was kind enough to take one but I have to get it from him.

Art 101

I love getting Emily's handwriting projects from school because they are so revealing concerning her likes, dislikes, wants and desires. This one really wasn't much of a surprise but I love the drawing she did to support her future career of "MOVIE STAR". She has the lights, speaker, microphone and adoring fans (one with a camera in hand). You know she has to have a stylist with that outfit and a pet worthy of being owned by a movie star. Emily definitely loves to sing and dance. I think she sings more than she talks. Every night after dinner her and Matt have "dancing"/running time to music videos from the Cars movie played on YouTube. Good job Emily...maybe some day you will be a movie star.

Army Man

Matthew fascination of being an army man was given a new dimension while we were visiting Nana and Papa in Tennessee. Papa Joe decided to have Matt dress up in some of his military gear for a photo op. Matt was in his glory...even Emily wanted in on the action. Recently on a trip to the dollar store, we told the kids they could get one toy. Matt decided it was time to add a gun to his collection of toys. I heard him ask a boy who came into the aisle what his name was. After the boy replied, Matthew said, "I'm Matthew David Wessel, I'm a gun boy." Although cute all I could think of is that we have crossed the threshold of little boy toys to big boy toys and guns of all things. Although his fascination of being an army man is coming a little more to the foreground, he still loves and wants to be a fireman.

Art 101

Emily is showing her American patriotism at a very young age. This is one of her latest "creations" - Lady Liberty. I know that she has seen pictures and has also seen Lady Liberty in the distance from lower Manhattan but I have to admit I was impressed by her detail once again. The fact that she has water on the bottom, show she know she is on an island, then there is the brick column the lady is standing on. She even got the book and the torch in along with her "crown". Gotta love the green coloring too. The only thing that isn't quite accurate is that I don't think Lady Liberty has that broad of a smile on her face. Needless to say, "job well done". I think this summer we'll be taking a little field trip to have Emily see Lady Liberty in person.

Math Update

We decided to keep Emily in the inclusion math class even though she seems to have an emotional response to going into the classroom, especially when there are tests or quizzes. As for the test that she did prior to our decision being made, that was returned to us the day after we decided and advised the school to keep her in the class. We were hoping for a grade in the 80%'s especially knowing that she had a small meltdown prior to going into the class, even though we did a practice test the night before as homework. She told the aide that was with her after she settled down that she knew this and she was going to do her best and make "my mom proud". When I got the test back, I was shocked at the grade 102%. She got them all right and extra credit. They did do a pretest prior to the test and she got a 75%. I told her that she did a great job and that all we expect from her is her best. This week she had a quiz and it didn't go so well. She had her normal emotional breakdown when she heard the word quiz...then did what she could. That night we had our normal "there is no need to get upset and just do your best" talk. Her special ed teacher wrote me that the next day when she enter the inclusion class for math she went to the teacher, Miss Rocha, and asked her if there was a quiz - she said no, then she asked if there was a test - she said no and Emily let out the biggest sigh and went to her desk all happy and ready to work. The best part is that both teachers are great about helping me help Emily prepare for the chapter tests and they give all other work back to review her errors. Please keep Emily in your prayers, that she will be able to be more at ease when going into the math class especially on quiz and test days. Also, pray for me as I continue to work with her here at home. I'll let you know when we have a date for her IEP meeting determing next year's school plan.

Revisiting the Past

Matt was almost one (1) when this picture was taken. It still amazes me when I look at these pictures that he was that small. He's had a rough week. The time change really threw him for a loop. Although he has pretty much given up napping, this week he has experienced getting tired around 3 - 4 o'clock. Both Sunday and yesterday, he headed into his room in the late afternoon hours and put himself down for a nap. Of course, waking up has been hard too....he's been wanting to sleep past 8 and school starts at 8:30 - 3 days a week. Also, Wednesday and today he was up in the early morning hours (3 - 4 o'clock) complaining of leg pains. Going back to sleep after these episodes took about an hour to an hour and a half, so waking up in the morning was really difficult (both school days). In regard to the kid's sleeping habits, it sometimes feels like we are going backwards in the area of sleepless nights. I always thought the older my kids got they would sleep through the night and want to sleep in in the morning. They are truly proving me wrong. Maybe some day I will get a full weeks sleep...that week will definitely be marked on my calendar as a momentous event.