Week JR Continues

Week JR continued today with PreK graduation. They sang 3 songs-guess who sang the loudest and added his own dance moves where he thought necessary? They also received their PreK diploma and a lei. They all graduated in bathing suits because after graduation they were having Splash Day, complete with 2 huge blow up water-slides...I sure don't remember having Splash Day when I was growing up. I was just thrilled to do the potato sack race and eat a snow cone at Field Day. He also got his final report card and let me proudly say he got "Advanced Development" in both vocabulary and writing! He's come a long way from the first report card when he got a "Needs Development" in uses pencil with control. I can only imagine the havoc JR was causing with an out of control pencil!

It's All About...JR

We're in full swing of Week JR around here. "Week JR?" you ask. Oh yes, it's not enough to celebrate JR's birthday on the actual day(which is Thursday), we must extend his day of days throughout the whole week. Today was "take cupcakes to school to celebrate" day. (Thursday is the last day of school and graduation is tomorrow, so today was the only day left.) When I asked His Royal Birthday Highness what kind of cupcakes he wanted me to bring he informed me that he wanted Transformers for the boys and Barbies for the girls. (Um, thinking about the ladies feelings already...way to go JR!) The local Walmart down the street didn't have anything Barbie for the girls, so I came home with Hannah Montana.

Me: "JR, I couldn't find Barbie, so I got Hannah Montana instead. Is that okay?"

JR:" Um, let me see."

I show him the Hannah Montana party favors.

JR: "Oh yes! I think they will like Hannah Montana very much. Daddy, Mommy got the girls Hannah Montana, not Barrrrbie."

I arrived at school at 1:00 P.M. sharp armed with Transformer and H.M. cupcakes. They liked the cupcakes, but not near as much as they liked the blowout horns I brought. I guess I should have known they would do this...the kids started blowout horn fighting with each other immediately. During one of the fights, I heard Miracle scream, "My eye!" I was sure it was all over then, but luckily, she recovered quickly. There's only 2 more days of school left and I showed up with blowout horns, how bad do you think JR's teachers hate me? Oops, sorry teachers!

Picture Day Results

How hilarious is this picture? First of all, this looks like it was somebody's first day on the job as a class picture taker. Where are the risers? Don't we all have class pictures of us on risers? And where is the little sign in front that says who the teacher is and what year it is? And what about poor Mateo having to sit in the teacher's lap?! That poor child is going to be scarred for life. I asked JR why Mateo was sitting in the teacher's lap and he said, "that's where they told him to sit." And then they have the teacher's aid standing, making her look totally out of place. I guess it would have looked okay if Hassan, the 7 year old posing as a Pre-K student, was still in their class. He would have at least come up to her shoulder. I also have to point out Miracle's hair. JR said, "Mommy, Miracle sure had big balloon hair that day." Why yes, JR, she sure does! So, I'm not loving JR's hair (remember I even used hairspray that morning) but it looks the same as all the other boys, so I guess it's okay. At least he has a normal smile, sometimes he contorts his face while saying "cheese" into something that I can't even describe. One final note on this picture, how many crowns have these 2 women earned in heaven having to teach 13 Pre K boys everyday? I can hardly handle JR....now add 12 just like him, Agh!

Okay, so I got out Jason's kindergarten class picture to show what a class picture should look like. I would have posted my own, but all that kind of stuff is at my parents' house. I labeled Jason so you can find him easily. And I'm not being biased because he's my husband, but I must say, he is the cutest and by far has the best hair in the class. Check out his teacher, she looks so young! And skinny! BTW, Jason, love your shirt...I can totally see your dad wearing one just like it today!

JR's Western Routines

Rodeo Dancing

JR has been coming home and showing us his Western dances that they have been learning at school for two weeks now. They have been doing a big rodeo unit at school since it is rodeo time here in Houston. The kids were supposed to dress Western today, and it wasn't enough for JR to just throw on a hat and be done with it. He wanted full on Western garb (I can't imagine who he inherited the costume gene from), and kept asking me for spurs! Of course I looked for some, but I couldn't find any. I think he took his clothing inspiration from Woody from Toy Story, since he also had to have the sheriff's badge and chaps. JR had a big audience today as he had Jason, Granny Sherry, and me in his cheering section.

Here they are getting ready. Can you tell who's the most excited to dance?

Leave it to JR to get the prettiest partner in the class....he's such an Ingersoll. JR loves Asians, but I think Melissa made an impression on him too since he also seems to like the blondes.

The Mexican Hat Dance and The Chicken Dance

I took some short video of each dance which I'll post soon so you can see his routines.

Busy Friday Morning

Thank goodness my mom was here this morning as there was lots to do. First off, it's picture day at JR's school (that would be class picture day). Now I know I should just let him wear what he wants, and not fuss over him. But since I don't have any girls, I had to go buy him a new shirt, make sure he didn't have any food in his lunch that would stain his clothes, and gel his hair.(Yes, I even did a quick hairspray over it...I know! I know!) I even let him wear a belt today, which he was very excited about because he said he looked "just like Daddy when Daddy goes to work". Of course when picture time rolls around I'm sure he won't look anything like he did when I was finished with him. After going to the bathroom he'll never get his shirt tucked in right, and since it was freezing this morning he decided he had to wear a hat...no telling what his hair will look like. So, here he is before he left the house...

After JR got on the bus, we took the little boys to their 2-month check up. They are both growing nicely, Kyle is 10 lbs. 15 oz. and Reed is 9 lbs. 15 oz. It's amazing the difference a pound makes, Kyle is in the 40% for weight, and Reed is in the 15 %. The doctor said they both looked good. Today was also their first immunizations. Poor little things, they got one in each leg and they sure did scream. Although I did hear my mom telling Reed that he didn't cry as loud so he was the "tough one". My mom also got upset with the nurse for letting Kyle bleed. After Kyle had gotten his shots, I wrapped him in his blanket and handed him to my mom. When I went to hold Reed's hand, I had blood dripping from my own hand. We unwrapped Kyle, and there was blood everywhere. The nurse was like, "Oh, sorry, let me go get another band aid". If you know my mom, she gave the nurse that mean, scary, schoolteacher look that she does. I love that look...as long as it's not directed at me! So here are the boys at 2 months...they are really growing!

My mom left to go back home as soon as we got back from the doctor. Jason's mom is going to come and spend the weekend here since Jason won't be back until Sunday. It sure is wonderful to have help....and since the little boys both loved to be held, they like it when I have help too!

"JR's" First School Project

Some of you might be wondering why I have JR in quotation marks in the title. Well, JR brought home a big letter J this weekend, because he is the Super Star of the class next week at school. We were supposed to decorate the J with things that tell about JR. Now, as the teachers out there know, this is not a kid project, it's a mom project. I was just telling my cousin, Lu, how I had just finished JR's project, and she summed it up perfectly when she said, "if the teacher had wanted a kid project they would have done it at school." So, JR's name is in quotes since it's really my first school project for JR. JR did help; he didn't even notice how I made sure he picked the pictures I wanted him to pick, or had me write down what I wanted him to say. JR told me that none of the other kids had pictures on the front AND back, so of course, we did. I think the other kids must have talked about really "exciting" things like their favorite color and favorite food, because JR kept asking me, "When are we going to do my favorite color?" Anyway, I think we did a really good job on the J project...and without further ado....here it is!

At the top of the J we have his favorite place in the world is Hong Kong Disneyland. Then we have pictures of JR doing karate, at hockey lessons, and on his hunting trip. The Buzz Lightyear picture is for his favorite movie, Toy Story. Coming around the hook of the J, is his first hunt in Australia, his baby pictures from China with us, and Ayi, and then a picture of his brothers. Finishing it off, is JR's love of animals as he feeds an elephant in Thailand and pets a pink dolphin in Singapore.

The top back of the J shows JR's love of swimming with a picture from The Philippines. Then, JR on the computer playing computer games. The next section is all JR without my assistance- he tells about his favorite colors, food, and how he likes to trace letters after you make the outline of them with dots (didn't know that one myself). At the bottom is JR with Jason's motorcycle and Hunter and Harley, and then we finish it off with some of his favorite superheroes.

Gearing Up For Valentine's Day

JR and I worked on getting all his Valentine cards addressed for his classmates yesterday. I have a question for all the moms that have elementary aged kids...Do Valentines not come with envelopes anymore? When we were kids I remember addressing envelopes. We picked out a box of Transformer Valentines (of course) but they don't have envelopes with them...Is this the new thing? I would hate for JR to be the only kid in class envelope-less. JR was pretty excited about the whole Valentine process. He wanted to do all the boys in the class first, and he knew exactly which Transformer each person would want..."Timothy likes Bumblebee, Logan likes Deceptacon” I have no idea how he knows every Transformer's name. JR would write the kid's name on it and then his own...You should see a 4 year old try to fit "Samantha" and "Talmadge" in the tiny space provided for their name. Of course he ran out of room after the first 5 letters or so. After he had finished his part, I would ask him if he wanted me to write a message on it. For every boy in his class he wanted me to write, "I like you, you are my best friend." Now, when it came to the girls it was a little bit different. First he told me, "Mommy, the girls don't like Transformers, they like Barbies." So we put some Dora the Explorer stickers on the girl Valentines so the girls would like them better. He had a different message for all the girls. He wanted to tell Samantha, "You eat a jelly sandwich everyday, and you sit at the round table which is close to my square table." For Cadence he wanted to say, "I like sitting by you most of the time." And we can't forget about Miracle.... he wanted to tell her, "You like me!" Needless to say, I just wrote, "I like being your friend." for all the girls. He is so excited about giving out his Valentines; he already started asking this morning if it was Valentine's Day yet.

JR's Christmas Par-tay

Today was JR's Christmas Party at school. I'm the homeroom mom, so obviously I was supposed to be there, but since I couldn't go I sent 2 grandmothers and dad in my place. Jason, Maw-Maw, and Granny Buffie all helped out at the party today, and from what I hear it was very nice, but a lot of work. The kids had stations where they got to play bingo, decorate a cookie, and make a Christmas tree ornament. JR also came home with a sack full of Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa crafts (thank goodness they were mostly Christmas… Hanukah and Kwanzaa crafts don’t really go with all my Christmas trees). They also had one tiny page on Ramadan, which I told JR we could "just skip over that one." JR spent some time tonight explaining to Jason what you do with a dradle, especially since Jason thought you used a dradle to celebrate Kwanzaa. Jason was nice enough to take a few pictures and videos for me so here they are...
Here's the class singing. Yes, that is MY child wearing the Santa hat. He picked it out last night to wear today, and the teacher said he had worn it all day. It was a big decision as to whether he was going to wear the reindeer ears or the Santa hat.

This is Logan, JR, and Mateo making their Christmas tree ornaments. The school gave them all the Christmas head bands, and as you can see, Logan and Mateo have taken theirs off, JR on the other hand, is wearing his...on top of the Santa hat...I just can't imagine where he gets it from? ;-)

Here's Maw-Maw helping JR with his ornament. My poor mom just thought she was finished giving Christmas parties when she retired!

Thanksgiving Feast

It was Thanksgiving Feast Day at JR's school today. He has been upset all week about having a name that is only 2 letters long. I finally figured out today what that has been about. The kid's feathers in their headdresses spelled out their names...JR just wanted more feathers in his headdress! He was pretty proud of his macaroni necklace too. Speaking of macaroni, Jason and his dad are still talking about the mom who brought 10 macaroni shells to the party. Not a serving for 10, but 10 cooked shells. We were supposed to bring enough food to serve 12. I guess she figured only 10 people would be interested in eating one shell of macaroni. She really needs to hook up with the lady who showed up at one of our church parties for 50 with 11 deviled eggs!



Yum! JR ate cheese, jello, crackers and cookies

I was so proud when I started reading that JR was thankful for his church, and then I got to the "because" part! Too funny! They really do have a transformer car in his Sunday School room...he even calls it "the transformer car room".

The party is over; JR and Timothy ready to go home.

Back to Work Again!

Today was my day to work in JR's classroom. Quite a week for me since I had 2 days in a row of JR's class. They were all excited to see me, and it seemed each one individually had to scream out, "JR, Your mom's here!" All the kids were still on a high from the zoo, and every so often they would holler things out like, "We didn't see the rhinos!" "We saw a lion yesterday." Even though the teacher was trying to teach them about the letter "G" and in no way was talking about the zoo trip. After sitting through the "G" lesson, where I had Miracle climb in my lap, and needed me to tie her shoe, it was time for their centers. I helped out in the "sequencing center" and then when we had finished our work I read to them. It was another exciting day at school, as the firetruck came to visit them. JR was more interested in their Dalmatian, Shadow, than the truck. It was a very sweet dog. They all got to walk through the firetruck and pet Shadow if they wanted to. I think JR actually gave the dog a hug! After the firetruck show my time was up, so I headed for home. I'm now getting ready to go to church choir as all the parents are coming tonight and I am supposed to show them what I have been teaching their kids. I'm sure you can guess how excited I am about that!

It's a Zoo!

I just got home from chaperoning JR's field trip to the zoo. It actually wasn't that bad, we weren't really there that long. As a former teacher I knew they wouldn't give me the "bad" ones to keep up with. I knew those would be grouped with the teachers. My group of 5 were all nice and easy. Here they are: Hassan, Kinzah, Cadance, JR, and Rafael. That's Angela on the end, she wasn't in my group, but needed to have her picture made. Cadance was scared of all the animals and didn't want to run up and look at any of them, so she was really easy, she didn't get 2 steps away from me! We only had one run off and get lost today. If you are a regular reader of my blog, I'm sure you can guess who it was....Yep, Miracle. They found her after about 5 minutes of looking for her, she was mixed in with another class, but it gave the teacher a scare for a minute (especially since Miracle was in her group!)


Here we are at the petting zoo. That's Miracle on the end (sans balloon hair), Rafael, JR, and Mateo (the one they call Tomato) in front.


Here's the whole class. Is this diversity or what?!



I took this picture specifically to prove my point about Hassan. As you will recall from a previous blog, I talked about the huge child that couldn't possibly be 4 years old. Now look at that child! You know how big JR is for 4 and this kid is a whole head taller than JR. I'm thinking he's more like 6 or 7....I don't even think 5 year olds are that big!

And finally here are some of the guys sitting down for lunch. You'll see JR's friend Timothy is sitting next to him, and you can see Kevin in the front....Remember, JR thinks he looks like Timothy and Kevin!

Halloween

Here's JR getting ready to get on the bus this morning. He was fine with wearing the "train conductor's costume" as he called it. And was most excited when I told him he could wear his black boots.

Grandpa Gary arrived before the bus came, and Paw-Paw and Maw-Maw were here too. They (Maw-Maw and Paw-Paw) came with me to the Storybook Parade since Jason was on a flight home from Albuquerque. Jason made a big effort to arrange his work schedule so he would be home for Halloween night.

Here he is getting ready for the Storybook Parade. The kids were really cute carrying their books and waving to the parents. We definitely made the right decision in leaving the superhero costumes in the closet at home. It was about 82 degrees this afternoon and all the Spidermans (there were at least 20), Ninja Turtles, and Transformers were about to sweat to death. And those of you who know JR, know he has a real sweating problem....
If you are a regular to my blog, then you'll remember some of the kids I talked about from JR's class. Here he is with Cadence, who he referred to the other day as "my best friend in my class, Cadence".


You'll also remember me telling how JR doesn't like it when Miracle wears "balloon hair". I'm not sure if this qualifies as "balloon hair", but I thought it was definitely picture worthy!

We didn't do the trick-or-treat thing tonight. He really wanted to go to the Superhero Show at church. It was very cute, and they gave all the kids a big bag of candy. So without further ado, here is the Batman costume.....

And here's me in my version of Batgirl. This was the best I could do this year, I really don't think anybody wants to see spandex on somebody my size!

Back to Work!

I went back to work today! Okay, not really, but I am on the rotation to volunteer in JR's class. I "worked" from 9-11 today, and I was really impressed. I'm not sure how the teachers get all those 4 year olds to do all the activities they do. The best part was that I got to see all the kids JR has been talking about at home. JR talks about Kevin all the time, so when I would ask him what Kevin looked liked JR would say, "He looks like me." Well, I guess you can guess what Kevin looks like....that's right, he's Asian! I should have known since JR thinks he's Chinese! Miracle was there sporting her "balloon hair" as JR calls it. JR says he doesn't like it when Miracle wears "balloon hair". (Just so you know "balloon hair" is what I've always known as "Afro puffs") There's another kid named Hassad. JR hadn't talked about him, and I'm guessing all the other kids must be scared of him. He's almost as big as me. He has to be at least 7. I asked the classroom aid about him and she said, "Well, his parents say he's 5, so we have to go with what the parents say." If that kid is 5, he's the largest 5 year old in the world. The little girl who sits next to JR is named Cadence. She's very quiet and cute with long pigtails. Luckily, she doesn't seem bothered with JR's endless questions and comments. "Are you having fun, Cadence?" "Do you like this, Cadence?" "Look at my picture, Cadence." Thank goodness Cadence is patient! It was a fun time and I'm excited to be able to volunteer again. I guess I need to rest up, we have church choir tonight....That sure is a bunch of 4 year olds to deal with in one day!

The Wheels on the Bus...

We've added something new to our Pre K routine. JR is now riding the school bus. I was taking and picking him up everyday, and he kept asking to ride the bus, so as of Monday, he is a bus rider. He says he loves riding the bus, and I love it too since the bus picks him up and drops him off at the end of our driveway. Hunter (our bichon) loves to go to the "bus stop". It is quite a scene in the mornings. Whenever we see the bus coming, JR starts jumping up and down and twirling in circles and then Hunter tries to get on the bus with him! You should see me trying to say goodbye to JR (who could really care less about saying "bye" to mom when there's a bus load of kids) and pull Hunter off the bus at the same time! Harley (our 15 year old blue heeler) doesn't usually make the trip in the mornings, but will sometimes meet JR when he's getting off the bus in the afternoon. I can't believe he is getting so grown up!

9/12/07

We’ve had three good days in a row at school so hopefully JR is now on a roll. Wednesdays is JR’s church choir night. I’m the assistant in his class and helping out in the 4 year old choir room is pretty funny. Surprisingly, it seems the boys enjoy it more than the girls. Most of the little girls are too busy coloring to sing, so the boys are the ones who really participate. We learned fast that if we pass out some bells to ring or sticks to beat together they really get into it! We are supposed to start working on our Christmas songs soon, so I guess we’ll have a little Christmas show. Can’t wait to see how that comes out!

9/4/07

Thank goodness JR had a good day at school! He got in the car and said he had “an awesome day”, the teacher didn’t tell me otherwise, so we’re going to go with “awesome”. JR’s highlights of school today include: getting to help the teacher, one of his friends having an accident (in his pants which JR so vividly described), learning how to spell the word “red”, and playing with “lots of friends” at recess. Alas, we still don’t know any of these friends’ names, except for his friend Miracle. Best I can tell, Miracle and JR are big buddies. JR still hasn’t learned the advantages of learning his friends’ names. In China everybody has a title so the Chinese really never learn anybody’s real name. JR still calls Melissa, his Beijing best friend, “Mei-Mei” which means “little sister”.

In other exciting news we are leaving in the morning for the Bahamas. My sorority sister, Marcia, is getting married on Saturday. I’m a bridesmaid in the wedding, and we are going down tomorrow to have a little mini vacay before the festivities. The wedding is at The Atlantis and we are staying there too, so I’m sure I’ll have some fun stories for when we return!

Back to School

Many of you know that JR just finished up his first week of school. The best thing I can say about the week is that JR took a really great first day of school picture. I'm hoping once we get into a school routine, the days will get better. Of course MawMaw and PawPaw (my mom and dad) blame his "bad" behavior on his abnormally high intelligence. According to my mother "JR 's intellect needs to be challenged with higher level thinking skill manipulates. Gotta love grandparents, especially ones that have just finished their 43rd year of teaching!