He used a public bathroom!

And all we had to do was pay him 2 quarters!

He's obsessed with Erik's change counter, and wanted some quarters. We try not to give them to him since we don't want Maddy to come upon them and choke on them.

We had been trying to get him to use a potty all day since we went up to Long Beach with MIL to visit Jack & Maddy's Uncles & Aunt. Finally, at the restaurant, Jack demanded "TWO quarters" and then went potty with Daddy. So we paid up!

So far today, no accidents from 7:30 a.m. to now (8:35 p.m.). Wow! Are the end of diapers in sight?!?! (We'll try PT-ing Maddy at 2, so a little while to go there, but still...)

Finally, what I have been waiting for!

Today we bought Maddy some "real" shoes since she is a walker now! She is now the proud owner of sneakers and dress shoes! Maddy and I are now embarking on a glorious path of mother/daughter shoe shopping/bonding! :)

My nearly potty-trained boy!

He still refuses to use public toilets. but at least he's staying dry when we're out! Today we were out from 10:30 a.m.-2:00 p.m. and the boy stayed dry!

Small steps, I guess: home toilet--> school toilet--> public toilets??

(The picture is not related to potty-training, it's just what the kids were doing this afternoon on a hot/muggy day.)

Survived BTS Night!

After 15 years of special ed , I was pleasantly surprised by Back to School Night. The parents politely watched my PowerPoint. They looked through the handouts. They asked nice questions. They even made some suggestions, which, to my surprise, were completely reasonable. Several asked how they could volunteer and HELP me! A few volunteered to be a ROOM MOM!!

This General Ed thing just might work out!

A parent even brought me more paper today--out of the blue! She just thought I might want it!

Almost a milestone...

Tomorrow night will be my first "real" Back to School Night! Thank goodness one of my fellow teachers has given me some guidelines on what to talk about. Another teacher told me that I don't really have to say anything, except that I adore their child, since that's all they really want to hear in Kindergarten. Well, of course I like my class...

But they want me to fill an hour? I don't think I know that much about kindergarten!

Jack

He apparently now thinks that because his sister is walking, he can now tackle her. Nice. Maddy is understandably not on board with this new theory of his.

And thought I'd mention...

That Maddy is really improving in the walking department! Just when I was sure she'd need Physical Therapy (yes, I am a paranoid after teaching special ed for 15 years), she is now walking about 50% of the time. Just. Very. Slowly. And. Carefully. Most of her excursions at home center around trying to follow Jack, which is awesome :)

We also think she is saying, "Jack." It sounds like "AH! AH!" But we're pretty sure. We also think she is saying, "Dad." That one sounds like "DAH!" And of course she continues to say, "Mama." However, our pediatrician who is very understanding of my paranoia has given us a referral to the Hope Infant Center because the fact remains that she is delayed for her age. Dr. P does assure me that when Maddy is 2.5, we won't be able to quiet her. But I'd still like her seen. Why not? Hope Infant Program is a county program, my tax dollars at work. Might as well take advantage of it!

A Breakthrough?????

Jack is still wearing pull-ups at night... but... this morning he used the potty, wore underwear, and was out of the house on errands with us from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dry! Didn't want to use public bathrooms. We told him at 1:00 that he HAD to use the potty, and... he did! So he's still wearing underwear! He even took them down and up by himself! Maybe he can just wear shorts for the rest of his life...

Kindergarten!

All day kindergarten wouldn't be so bad if it weren't for the lunch period. It's like organizing a herd of cats and making sure that they either 1) Eat at least some of the gloriously well-balanced lunch packed for them by their parents (full of items that require an adult to open of course) and not fall off the lunch table (wouldn't have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes...), or 2) Choose from a mind-boggling choice of 4 school lunch entrees, successfully get through the lunch line in the right direction and then sit down and actually eat it.

A duty-free lunch, my ass. (However, this is a significant improvement over the previous RSP lunch period, which was NON-EXISTENT.) I am hopeful, though, that the kids will learn the system by say, April. Luckily, we are blessed with an amazing support staff that is dedicated to helping these kids learn it. I am so lucky to be learning general ed here!

Wow!

Jack earned himself a Dove Bar today! He was dry from 7-2:30, and then from 2:30-5:45, and up until now! Wow! Way to go! He just very well might get to preschool at this rate!

Potty Training Update...

Sort of. Supposedly Jack held it from 8 a.m. until 4:30 p.m., but finally did go in the potty at school. Yay! They wore him down! He then came home and immediately went outside to play with the neighbor kids... only to run inside without telling anyone and then peeing on the floor, after doing #2 in his potty chair. Well, how do you reward that?!?!?

I survived Kindergarten!

At least for one day! Luckily, the first day was a minimum day... so far, so good! The other K teachers here are amazingly awesome and are so supportive, I am so lucky! This is SO different than special ed, in a good way!

I'm way too tired to write more, though. Another day for that!

Dry for TWO hours!

Jack wore underwear this evening at his request (his Lightning McQueens, if you must know) and was dry all through a trip to Carvel & Borders. We asked him frequently if he needed to go to the potty, but he said he didn't have to. Once safely home, he went pee-pee on the potty (at parent request, but still...)!

Our only worry now is that he's not generalizing potties... last Thursday at daycare he wore underwear, but would not go on their potty and told the folks there that he would go at home (!). Of course, he couldn't hold it for 8 hours there and peed through 3 outfits. And even when he is home, out of the 3 potties available, he prefers just one of them.

ARGH! He needs to be at least day trained by 10/25 or no preschool!

I will be ready by Tuesday

Well, I have to be! The kids will show up!

Got my class list today. A couple of interesting ones: a little PEPP-er who may or may not have some issues. Plus, a relative to a kid I had in RSP a few years ago, but I don't know if my teammates knew that. Other than that, the group has just as much luck being OK as any other class.

Now, one last decision... do I introduce the letters in alphabetical order, the order of Handwriting Without Tears, or a fancy research-based order? I am leaning towards the HWT.

What was I thinking?

As long as I keep repeating, "No more IEPs, no more IEPs, no more IEPs..." I should be OK!

Right?

Busy weekend!

This weekend was the 20th reunion of Mt. Carmel HS Class of 1988. I was really on the fence about going, but after seeing some friends I regret not going to the actual event. I still did see the people who were important to me. We had a kid-friendly get-together on Friday afternoon. I did go to the "Icebreaker" event the night before (and we got a babysitter! and we lived!) and then went to breakfast the following morning with some friends. So I do feel that I did see the people that I really wanted to see. Of course, because I am a complete dork I didn't have my camera handy. Hopefully, I will be able to beg photos off Caroline, Christina and Susy :)

Memories...

My screen saver is a slide show of all the pictures in my computer. Recently found this one:

Who IS that little dude?!?!?

Whoo-hoo!

My principal came through: good-bye special ed! I'll miss the people but not the ridiculous workload and expectations!

I'll be kindergarten teacher come August 19th!

Ack!

@#$&** Splash Park is down again! This time, there's a note on the HOA webpage that it should be back up this week... but of course they neglect to say exactly when... well, at least the multi-story play area is interesting to Jack. (And Maddy, but she likes to get in the way of the other kids by standing on the first rung of ladders and then just hanging out, like her job is done. Having to repeatedly move her is always fun.)

I guess we'll be painting more bird houses tomorrow!

Poor Maddy!

Earlier this week Maddy was out and about in the back yard (following Big Brother Jack around) and got by 4 adults to touch an electric grill that was up on a stand. Luckily, Grandpa was the quickest thinking among us and got her away, so she just had 1st degree burns on a few fingers of her left hand, and 2nd degree burns on one of her right fingers. The nurses and PAs (Danielle, Pat and Cindy) at the Mercy Urgent Care in El Dorado Hills were beyond great with her. They gave her Otter Pops to hold and eat to distract her while they took care of her burns. She got both her hands wrapped. In this picture the left had come off, but she still had the right one on for a while. She was given a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine, but I'm fairly certain Walgreens forgot the Codeine. Poor baby was up until at least 1:30 a.m. (Or: maybe she's resistant to codeine? That would be interesting!) Shout out to my mom, who stayed up with me and even went with us on a car ride up and down US-50 to try to get Maddy to sleep!

Maddy's doing a lot better now, her left hand looks good and the blisters on her right hand have subsided.

Well, we made it!

It was nice to see my folks & SIL. Unfortunately my brother had food poisoning and wasn't available. The kids were beyond excited to see Grandma and Grandpa (Jack now acknowledges that Grandma's house is also Grandpa's). It was also wonderful to have a night off and stay child-free in Incline Village on Wednesday night. (My dad has some awesome pictures of Jack playing in the waves at Lake Tahoe on Thursday!)

(At the Railroad Museum in Old Sacramento.)



We did learn something very important, though. A 2 year old and a 1 year old are not at their best sleeping in hotel rooms. I think when they're older it'll get better. (Even if it doesn't, please don't tell me that. I want to believe the fantasy right now.) For that reason, we powered it home Friday, driving about 14 hours (including stopping for meals and a nice excursion to see the Bishop Creek).

(At the Little Farm in Tilden Park.)

More later, Maddy gets her own post for all she had to go through!