Hunter: A First Grade Update

It's already the end of October and in a few short weeks, I'll have a 7 year old. Yikes! He's been planning his party for close to a year.

This school year started off pretty good. We were glad to hear Hunter's teacher this year was going to be a male. Hunter really likes him too. The first couple weeks of school Hunter insisted on wearing a tie, you know because dad wears one everyday, so I ended up making him a few. They turned out really cute too! He thinks it's just the best that his teacher wears ties too!

Last year in Kindergarten we ran into a couple problems with Hunter. The most recent one I've blogged about landed him a few weeks of counseling. As I mentioned at the end of that post, Perry and I have been wondering if he might have ADHD since he really has a hard time sitting and focusing, among other concerns. We spoke with the counselor and the school psychologist, and took a couple tests. We went over the results with his teacher and the counselor. His teacher's answers had put him in an average category, Perry's put him in an above average category, and mine were in the extreme category. I was trying to be conservative too... The only helpful thing taken from that was that they could see why we were concerned with his behavior, otherwise they had no reason to believe he has ADHD.

Fast forward to this fall....Where to begin? Robin finished up grad school in May and is working in the Occupational Therapy field. Because she's currently working in the field, she has reason to believe Hunter might have a sensory processing disorder. There is a wide range of symptoms, but she feels he'll benefit from a little bit of OT. This has been in the back of my mind for a while but I've been putting off making an appointment for him to see the doctor to get referred there. I was going to ask about it when I take him in for his 7 year well-child exam.

Plans changed a lot the other week when his teacher called me after school. He didn't see it happen, but at the lunch recess, Hunter choked a kid on the playground. Hunter had a very serious conversation with his teacher following the incident when he came in from recess and then was overly defiant the rest of day. Hunter spent the last half hour or so of the day in the principal's office. Robin and I discussed this a little bit and I decided to move his appointment up a few weeks. I then called our insurance company to see if they covered OT, which they don't. Robin suggested I check to see if the school has one. I emailed the school counselor and let her know my concerns. I was a little relieved to hear there is an OT who travels between school, but he still would need a referral.

A week and a half goes by (which was last week) and I get a call from the school principal around noon. Hunter choked another kid at recess, and since this is his second offense, he was suspended from school for the rest of the day. I was a wreck after I hung up the phone with her. Hunter and I came home and curled up together on his bed to talk. He was really struggling to remember what exactly happened leading up to him choking someone. Perry came home right as Hunter and I were finishing our talk. Hunter told him a different story so Perry called the school on his way back to work to hear the actual story. His story matched closer to the one he told me.

The school counselor called me the following day to check in. She was much more helpful than the principal was. She was going to talk with the PE teacher about getting Hunter into one of his PE groups at recess. These groups help to teach kids how to play with each other. I think his "play group" starts up this week.

By the end of last week, Hunter started his "check-in/check-out" program. He was doing this last spring and would be responsible for carrying it around all day to have his different teachers fill it out based on his behavior. At the end of the day he is scored. It's helpful to see where and what time of the day most problems are happening. Last spring Perry made a deal with him that if he could bring home 5 96% and higher in a row, he would give him a speaker for his iPod. That came and went. In his first grade classroom they have a colored clip chart. Everyday they start in the middle on green. When they make good decisions they can clip up on the chart and bad decisions clip down. At the end of the day they color their final color on their homework card to take home. We made a deal with Hunter - if he could bring home 5 positive day colors, he could have his speaker. He has gotten so close a couple times. He did it this week though! He was so proud too!

I think that's what makes his behavior so frustrating. I know he's a good kid. I just don't understand these acts of violence from him. I don't know that I should even call them violence. (We also got a letter saying he kicked someone in the groin.) When I've talked to him about his actions, he doesn't seem to understand it's hurtful to others. I'm just hoping that next week at his appointment we can get some answers. I'm probably going to be a wreck...

Monkey Shiner Babblings

JP just handed me my eyelash curler and asked, "Here mom. Do you want to straighten your eyeballs?"

I crouched in the hallway when I heard JP coming upstairs after getting his pajamas on. When he reached the top, I jumped out to scare him. He pulled out some ninja move and managed to scream, punch me in the face and do an in-the-air leg kick, all in a split second. I got him good!

These ones below are ones I sent to my sister, but didn't make it to the blog until now...

8/6/2015
JP came up to me bawling as I was cooking in the kitchen.
M - What happened?!
JP lifts his shirt and points near his nipple to show me a red mark.
M - What happened? All I know is something under your shirt hurts.
J -Charli *mumble mumble* my freckle.
M - Charli head-butted your freckle?
J - No! Her bed hit my freckle!
M - Let me see the freckle that was hurt.
JP lifts up his shirt again and points directly to his right nipple and I couldn't help but bust out laughing.
J - It's not funny mom!
M - No, it is. That's a nipple, not a freckle.

7/12/2015
H - Everything needs water to survive.
J - Nuh uh! Not pirates. They're extinct!

5/1/2015
J - Mom my ears are hot.
M- Someone must be thinking about you.
J - Yeah, God probably is....Or maybe the car is just hot.

4/2/2015
Hunter and JP were playing in the basement and I thought they might have been wrestling because I heard JP wimpering. I called to Hunter a couple of times to leave his brother alone, to which he would shout back, "I AM!" Then first quietly and the next time louder, I heard JP from the bottom of the stairs, "Hunter, go get mom! HUNTER! GO GET MOM!!" Apparently JP got the bright idea to somehow attach his shark hat by the straps to the railing to slide down it, like a make-shift bucket. Genius right? He got to the bottom and was stuck with his feet inside the hat and his arm between the rail and the wall and was just hanging there. On my railing. Helpless. If I had my phone on me, I would have taken a picture before freeing him.

3/19/15
M- Hunter, name five supeheros.
H - Uhh, Astronaut Guy.
M - Nevermind. JP name one superhero.
J- the Hulk.
M - Okay Hunter, thinking about the Hulk, name me another superhero.
H - John Superhero.
M- What? You're done.

The Patio Door Is In!

We installed our new front door at the beginning of September. At the same time, we also decided to go ahead and replace our patio door. It took two weeks to order it between having someone come out and measure, and then come back to re-measure once the trim was off, and then to decide what we wanted to do - standard size and fill the gaps, or the more spendy custom size. Then it took three more weeks to have it delivered...

I was surprised to find this picture when we did a walk through of the house. Puke! Orange kitchen and green living room... Yeah no thanks...

Of course we re-painted...

For whatever reason, Perry has always wanted a sliding door instead of this door. He feels like the right corner by the entrance is wasted space. When we were discussing the slider, he wanted to put it in so it opened from the left to the right. I feel like he forgot the vent is there and you'd have to walk on it going in and out. I put the ka-bosh to that pretty quickly when the door guy came out to measure. 

Speaking of the door guy...he actually didn't call to let me know he was coming to deliver it. I had went on about my morning as normal until the door bell rang and Charlotte came running into the bathroom, while I'm in the shower, to tell me, "Papa here!" I was pretty sure it wasn't my dad because he would just come it. I carried on with my shower thinking it was the FedEx or UPS guy dropping something off. He rang the bell again and Charlotte announced "Papa here!" again. I hurried out of the shower and saw the door guys' truck from the window. So I embarrassed him and answered the door in my towel saying, "It'll be just a minute...."

This is the after picture. Not the best because our house has terrible lighting. I had to over-edit this picture just so you could kind of see the trim. The dining/kitchen area is so much brighter now during the day. I can see a big difference. The only downside I see to this new door is that you can't unlock it from the outside. And the screen locks too, which is okay, but I feel like it's only a matter of time before there's a hole in it. I actually had a dream the other night someone poked their finger through it so I took the screen door off and stuffed it in the attic... Perry did a wonderful job on the trim around it. I wonder if he'll re-do all the trim around the house...?

Our House Received a Little Face Lift! Woot Woot!

You know you're a homeowner when you get excited about doors... Hahaha! But seriously, we are over the moon about our new front door! I must be an adult because kids don't react this way! It's a door...

I've been on a kick for a few years, telling Perry how I think the front door says a lot about a house. This picture above is what our house looked like when we first moved in. (I'm so glad I took all these!) A pretty front door wasn't high on the list of things to "fix" on this house. I settled for a paint job and a wreath to spruce it up. Quite honestly, I love my wreath!
 
I wasn't totally in-love with the two-tone thing Perry was going for, but for the record, I did *kind of* like the pink with the red. I just didn't like the pink around the white windows. It looked off.

At the beginning of September, Perry's mom took a vacation and instead of leaving her truck at the airport, I took her to the airport so she could leave her truck, for free, at our house. (We used it quite a bit...) After JP's soccer game, Perry suggested we go to Lowe's to check out front doors, you know, since we have the truck in all. I was in shock! We wandered up and down the isles looking at all of our options, and did a lot of herding the kids around. Ultimately we left without a door, but went back later in the week after we thought about it for a while.

Perry said he had installed a door before and knew what he was doing. I believed him. He had to work the closing shift at work, which was a Friday, so he felt he had plenty of time to get the door in before he had to leave at 1:30. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Eventually he gave up on getting the door level and just installed the door handle, which was also a nightmare. When he left for work, the door closed, but it didn't latch. Thankfully our neighbor was able to come over Saturday morning and help him re-install the door. Phew!

  

Part of me really kind of hated to see my pink door be taken down. I can see how much the kids have grown when standing up in front of it for school pictures. But there will be plenty of opportunity for them to "grow with" the new door. Ain't she a beauty?!

Originally I was going to paint the door a dark grey color and paint over all the pink. After getting the door in and lots of discussions about paint colors with the neighbors, they convinced me to keep it white and paint the garage door white as well. I wasn't sold on the idea but I went with it anyways. I'm quite impressed with how it turned out! Honestly, I hated the white windows with the pink border and it looked even worse when I painted one of the window borders grey so I felt like white was my only option.

 

I didn't realize our trim and garage was an off-white color when we first moved in until I started this post. A little ironic if you ask me. Either way, I have a pretty door and am so glad to have this project crossed off my list. Okay, well I still have to paint three windows on the back of the house...I'm saving that for the spring. I really enjoy being able to see out my front door before I get there too! No more surprises!

The Party After the Party

Let me just start this out by saying Hunter missed the entire birthday party. I think he came in for cake and then disappeared again. By the time he came inside to stay, he was covered in dirt from head to toe.

Just filthy!

JP borrowed my camera for a minute and snapped a few pictures of me. I'm hardly ever on the other side of the camera so it feels a little weird posting pictures of myself!

The boys had some fun riding their horse around. Perry joined in a little bit later.

Papa Craig soaked in his time with the younger grandkids. Charlotte had no objection to this. She was so tired all day!

Before the night was over, the boys convinced the adults this was a good idea.

And then this happened...

Not long after their wreck, the kids settled down with Aunt Bobbi while watching a movie. Kile, Chris, Chris' parents and grandma, my mom, and Perry and I then gathered around the table to play Cards Against Humanity. So much fun! Too bad my dad was being a party pooper!

As soon I came upstairs Sunday morning, Hunter started a mini-photo session with me. "Okay stand there and smile. Okay this time kneel. Now put your hands in your pockets, but leave your thumbs out. Now dad you have to get in there too." 

This is how that turned out... Still need a little more practice :)

Siemer's Pumpkin Patch + Red Wagon

While Kile and Chris prepared for Dylan's birthday party, I thought it would be fun to take the kids to pick apples. I think everyone in the family was excited to go! This was the last weekend of the Apple Festival so I figured there were still going to be a few left for picking. I was wrong. Mom fail. 

All the kids were disappointed when we had to pack up in the car. Instead of going back to Aunt Kile's, we went to a pumpkin patch which also had activities for the kids. We went there last year and rode the train but that was about it. 

We didn't buy any pumpkins this year, as we already had some at home, but we did take advantage of the games! 

Hunter and JP had the option of riding the train or going down the giant slide. They chose 30-seconds of fun.

Charlotte chose 5 minutes of fun riding "Little Toot." She was so excited! She waved and waved as they left the station. 

As the train drove around for a little bit, her thoughts about the train completely changed.

By the end, she looked terrified and was overly anxious to get out. Did you have fun? *nods head* Do you want to do it again? *Vigorously shakes head*

Before we turned to go, Perry spotted pedal cars in the corner. I completely forgot about these! They definitely got their ticket worth on these! There wasn't a line of people waiting to use them so the lady let them go around a few times. JP went around once and had to take a break. Hunter could have spent all day doing this.

They attempted to race, but Hunter cheated by cutting through the middle of the track...

They had so much fun! I kind of wanted to try them out too...

Charlotte was mad she didn't get a turn. (She wouldn't have been able to reach the pedals!) We spent about 15 minutes watching the boys go around. By the end of it, Charlotte was almost asleep in Perry's arms. If she had her blanket, she probably would have been,

We weren't the least bit surprised when she fell asleep in the car. We had stay up WAY past our bedtime the night before.

The last time we were in Spokane it was for my friend's wedding. It coincided with Hoopfest downtown. The kids really wanted to play on the Red Wagon, but we said no way. It was much more peaceful downtown this trip. 

The first time she made it to the top of the wagon, she sat like she was going to go down the slide, but later got up and went back down the stairs. Eventually she braved the slide.

I was surprised she didn't fly off the end!

And I made this happen. Hunter hated every minute of it so I didn't have a lot of time to go back and forth between the original picture and their set-up. But hey!

Next time we'll work off of this one!

My Nephew Turns One!

He's not quite a one year old yet, but since next weekend is Halloween, we celebrated a year gone by with this little guy! Isn't he adorable?! I think he looks like his momma :)

 My sister baked this guy a pretty sweet cake. I didn't get a good picture of it, but the cake we ate (which was delicious!) was green with some grass added in the corners, and Dylan's football cake sat on top of it. This was no little football either!

 He made sure to eat every bit of it too! What a mess he made! He probably made more of a mess than my three kids combined. Way to go bud!

Nom nom nommm!

Check out those messy fingers! I could just eat them up!

Tell your brother "Happy Birthday, Casey!" Ah heck no! Hahaha! I love his eyes in the last one! Oh no you di-n't!

 After Dylan destroyed his cake, the dogs were quick to clean up the mess. Roxy ate most of it... There were a total of 6 dogs at the party, which almost out numbered the kids.

I caught this little ham being ridiculously cute eating his cake. He actually only ate the frosting!

I think it's safe to say everyone enjoyed watching this little cutie yesterday afternoon. He sure is loved by all! 

It's Time for the Corn Maze!

Since I began working in February, our family time has really decreased and I hate it. Recently I expressed I would be okay working one day a week if other people needed/wanted more hours. My wish was granted, even though I'm sure my pocketbook isn't going to be so in love with the idea once the decreased paychecks roll in! 

On my first Sunday off, I suggested we head over to the corn maze. It's become a tradition in our family; one the boys ask about year round. While it was a little windy out, the kids had a lot of fun!

Charlotte loved wandering through the kids' hay bale maze. She was so cute to watch as she navigated to the middle of the maze to get to the slide. 

Not a very good picture, but the slide is a large culvert. Hunter loved it too! As Charlotte became more comfortable going down the slide, she started getting more adventurous by going down backwards. 

They ran into one of many dead ends in the corn maze so I made them stop for a picture. Hunter's eyes are closed in all of them...

After the maze, they did a little bit of free play. Charlotte went back for more rides on the slide, cheating the system and just climbing over all the bales to get to the middle faster. She was so good as waiting in line for her turn too. I don't know that I've really taught her that. She's so patient, unless we're at the grocery store...

We let the kids pick out pumpkins to bring home as well. I was a little surprised with their choices. Hunter picked out a small white one. It's lopsided and can't stand up like a normal pumpkin. JP chose a small orange one, ignoring all the green ones. Charlotte picked out the largest of the kids' and struggled to carry it. Adorable.

JP wanted me to take this picture. You'd think he'd at least smile for it?!

Before we left to go home and watch football, we stopped at the petting zoo. Hunter and JP put their "masks" on to potentially scare the animals. So thoughtful of them...

Charlotte wasn't having much of the petting zoo and preferred if we weren't even there. 

We spent the rest of the afternoon as a family on the couch watching the football games, and me checking my fantasy team over and over. I also surprised Perry a few days before by buying all the ingredients for his dad's chex mix called "Nuts and Bolts." He had the boys help him whip up a batch the night before and then they all nibbled on them throughout the day. It was a perfect afternoon!