Over half the cookies have been picked up and I hope to get the remaining families over here soon to pick up their portions. Hopefully one day soon my dining room can be reclaimed.

Of course Madeline always has to take illness to the next level, surprising me last night with a 103.8 fever! We finally got it down and were able to sleep some. Although the sleep was not as sound because I could hear her wheezing beside me. I decided to take her in to the doctor today. He confirmed that we all have a virus and that Mimi does have wheezing. We didn’t do a chest x-ray but he felt confident that it hadn’t developed into pneumonia. Mimi has added breathing treatments into her care.

Hopefully we will all be better soon.

Today we took Kimberly to the allergist. She was getting upset before hand and was sitting in the backseat wishing she wouldn’t have to have the test today. She didn’t want to look bad for her Valentine’s Party tomorrow. I told her it would be on her back and she then just said she didn’t want to and wished it could be next week.

At the allergist they asked if she had taken any antihistamines in the past 7 days. She has a couch and a cold so she has. They said she needs to come back next week to be tested, once she is better and off the medicines for at least 3 days.

Oddly enough she got her wish. When we got in the van to drive home she was cheering and whooping it up. I wish I could have recorded it. You have never heard a child so happy to be sick!

She watched her Father have his testing done and now knows what to expect. We will go back next week to have her tested.

When they arrived they picked out a bear and named it. They stuffed it, put a heart in, and picked out a dress for it. They said it was a wonderful birthday party and that they want to go back someday. It certainly was a neat experience for them.

Mimi and Rosie

Kimmie and Cutie

Annie and Daphne

As you can see from the picture above Annie and Kimberly were overjoyed! They were both able to find the right column and check for the numbers on their own. They got close to bingo once but didn’t win—sounds like bingo to me.

Mimi had fun too, though it was much harder for her to follow the numbers. I had to help her out a bit, but she still had fun!

Paul was not into bingo at all and was fairly hard to wrangle most of the night, with the exception of the 10 minutes he was eating Dippin’ Dots.

I bought them new dresses for the event the other day. Kimberly approved of her dress by saying that it was good and twirly.

Annie loved her dress and said it was the perfect color of pink.

When Daddy came down the staircase from getting dressed Kimberly and Annie exclaimed that Prince Charming had come. It was so cute and adorable. This adoring nature will only last so long so it is best to soak it up now.

Where did those two little babies go? Somebody around here is getting old and it certainly isn’t me, must be them!

They were excited to celebrate the day at school and had tons of fun.

Annie was trying to help us figure it out and she said, “did the baby have brown or yellow hair?” Bill and I couldn’t help but laugh. If we knew that we could figure out which baby it was. She certainly keeps up laughing.

As soon as Kimberly started to tell me what she learned she got big tears in her eyes. She said, “and my little bro Paulie wouldn’t have had the same things as us.” “Mom, he would have to use dirty bathrooms and not ride on buses.” “He couldn’t go places we can.” She was hurt by the facts. I was hurt by the facts and the pain in her face.

Annie chimed in to tell me similar stories and was so choked up that she gave Paul a long hug. She wanted to know why people would do this in the first place. I took her in my arms and told her I didn’t have an answer. I cannot imagine thinking any different of any human based on the color of their skin. She shook her head and walked away.

They were so thankful to Dr. King for making all things possible for their brother. I too find myself in awe of his dreams of freedom for all people. She said she wanted to be like him and I just smiled. He had a dream and he made his life work achieving it. I can’t think of a better role model for my daughter.

A wise woman wrote this on her facebook status on Monday:

Thanks to the impossible dreams of giants before me, my dream of a family is now my reality. ~ Jill Catlett

Dr. King was born in 1929 in Georgia. He dreamed of a reality that seemed beyond possible, yet he achieved it. I hope my children will be filled with this sort of determination, whether it be for worldly ideas like Dr. King’s or meaningful personal goals like creating their family. The greatest of things come from the greatest trials.

They have rested on the couch and watched tv and movies. They played webkins on the computer and even played Littlest Pet Shop for a while. They have had a nice relaxing day. We even went and rented Santa Buddies from a red box.

It was a nice day and I am glad that I gave them this down day. They should be back in school tomorrow.

The amount of time Annie and Kimberly spend at school along with the time they just want to spend playing at home mean that I don’t spend a lot of time with them. I miss them. Having them home all this time has been wonderful. That doesn’t mean that they don’t drive me nuts from time to time and that they don’t fight or annoy Paul to no end, it just means that I like having them here.

I also really enjoy not driving constantly. During school weeks I spend a lot of my time behind the wheel of my mini van, affectionately called “vanny van.” There have been plenty of days during the break where I haven’t even driven. It has been awesome.

I am not sure Paul is enjoying it as much as I am. It is hard for him to have the Girls in his business all the time. I don’t blame him for being so upset with them. They really do have a way of driving him nuts. There are times that I just have to send all three of the Girls upstairs so that Paul can roam freely. He has also become very clingy during this time. I am sure due to the fact that I am spread more thin with all the kids home.

Annie and Kimberly are relishing each moment of their break. They are in no rush to go back to school. Mimi on the other hand is ready. She only goes a total of 7.5 hours a week when school is in session which compared to Kimmie and Annies’s 27.5 hours it is clear why she misses it more.

Break has been going so well. I am really enjoying it. We have played lots of games and worked on lots of art projects. We have had tea parties and played dolls or Barbies. As Kimberly and I always say, “if it were this way everyday it wouldn’t be special.” I am so glad for this special time with them.

Making reindeer bags full of reindeer food.

And making Santa out of paper and cotton balls.

They were so surprised to see me there. I didn’t think I could go but I remembered that high school kids had the day off. I called our favorite babysitter to see if she could come be with Mimi and Paul.

It was great to be a part of their day. I had the teacher capture of picture of the three of us. Annie and Kimmie were wearing the reindeer antlers they made.

*I have pictures of them all before they left but since my Parents don’t like the pictures I post of them (apparently they make them look old and fat *insert me rolling my eyes*) I will spare them of the photos I took today. In the first one they all made really goofy faces, in the second my Dad has his eyes closed. So I will leave you with this photo of Paul wishing he was going to Goodies with Grandparents.

This year we made some great pies. Each kid got to help stir in one item and Paul even got to help! I am pretty sure we even got all the ingredients in this year. (Some years we forget an spice or add extra thinking we missed something. It all works out in the wash and adds to the fun!)

Kimberly making a pie crust.

Annie pouring in the milk.

Mimi measuring the ginger.

Paul cracking his first egg and pouring it in.

Tomorrow we celebrate Thanksgiving. Life has so many things to be thankful for. Focusing on the positives in life takes skill and practice and isn’t always easy.

Well, I guess she told me!

Obviously the translation got lost and I she felt I was saying little did she know that her response proved my point.

The doctor estimates that Annie and Kimberly will be around 5 foot 7 when they are done growing. I guess I better treasure the days where my kids have to look up to me.

The Cousins, Joseph, Wyatt and Damian, came over to join in the fun. Aunt Christina, Ian and Kyle came to trick or treat as well.

We all had fun walking around getting treats and seeing all the cute costumes. Paul wasn’t into the whole idea so he was either getting carried by Daddy or riding in the wagon with Grammy pulling him.

Mimi was so excited to hand out candy. Unfortunately by the time she got around to this idea there weren’t a lot of trick or treaters. She would spin her light stick around to try to get “customers.”

After the bags were full to the max we came back to the house and hung out in the driveway. The kids had a great time running around and playing. We went to a friend’s haunted garage and the kids seemed to like it. It was their first haunted experience.

It was a fun night.

Annie’s cat pumpkin design came out very cute.

Kimmie’s hungry pumpkin was a very good idea and funny!

Mimi had fun gutting and carving the pumpkin that was almost as big as her!

Before going, Bill and I discussed the questions we would ask and I told him how the teacher would answer—having been a teacher and seen parents like “that,” I knew the standard answers. Most would center around what the actual standards were and how hard it is with so many kids and blah, blah, blah. I knew we were going to have to work hard to get what we wanted, but I also know that these are our kids and they deserve the best. Knowing those answers also helped me be prepared with real things that she could do now that would help. Most parents get caught up when you tell them all those things; I wasn’t about to be put off.

Annie and Kimberly have spent the first quarter of kindergarten learning colors and 18 letters. I understand clearly that this is in alignment with the state standards, but my children are far above these and I feel that they too should be educated.

I don’t just think they are smart: they are by all objective standards. They scored very high on all testing and according to the teacher are the smartest two kids she has. I don’t doubt it.

So this is the part where I become “that” parent. When she gave us a copy of each child’s report card and test scores, she asked us if we had any questions. She looked ready to take us on. We asked what she was going to do with our children. There was a look in her eye that said she was ready for us. She told us how she has already spoken to the librarian to get the girls going on accelerated readers and how she is planning to get some reading groups started in December.

December‽ December‽ Two months away and then my babies might get to do something that will challenge them and yet I understood. I have been in her shoes. I have had a classroom where some kids are nowhere on the page and a couple are flying ahead—it is hard. I get that, but these are my babies, and that is where I became “that” parent.

Because Annie and Kimberly are older and because they are bright and driven, they will always be one of the smarter kids in their class. Kimberly and Annie are regressing in their learning. They are no longer depending on the decoding skills I had taught them; they are using the whole language skills they are acquiring at school, like little songs to help them spell the months of the year and things of this nature. I am a strong proponent of phonics-based instruction so when my little girl, who used to be able to do so, can’t distinguish June and July unless she sings a song I am a little dismayed at her educational upbringing. She used to look at the words and the sounds within them, but now she is thinking if she knows a song to help her spell something. I understand that these tricks work but I don’t want them to overshadow other learning.

Both our children know how to write their numbers. So I can’t help but ask the teacher to correct them when they make them wrong or, at the very least, not to put a terrific stamp on the top when it isn’t a terrific paper. If the brain keeps feeling the hand make a 6 backwards, eventually the brain thinks 6s are made that way and the child will have to work that much harder to fix it later. Allowing my girls to write the letters or numbers incorrectly is not differentiating teaching for them and I am sure she is differentiating it for the children who are struggling. I know many children in kindergarten don’t even know what a 6 looks like, but mine do and I want them to use it correctly.

All in all I don’t think we were too harsh on the teacher. I can understand her viewpoint, and hopefully she can understand ours. We told her that our children’s skills have gotten worse since they have started kindergarten. I am sure if she retested them on the skills she tested them on before they began school, she would see no improvement. I just don’t like that. It doesn’t sit well with me.

Bottom line is my kids aren’t being taught anything above what they knew before. The kids in the top 5% of the class don’t get the attention they need and deserve. It is sad … really sad, especially since they are my kids.