time with Grandma

The Monday after Mother's Day is always Grandparents Day at our school (the school Dylan attends, not Logan's school).  My Mom always attends and loves the program the kids put on. They spend time in the classroom, eat lunch together and have a photographer on hand to snap poses of the kids with their grandparents.  Its such a fun, special day for everyone!

10

10.  My baby boy turned 10.  I am now the mom of a boy in double digits.  How, oh how did this happen?  He was just three feet tall, taking bubble baths and looking for earthworms in the backyard. 

Dylan, in some ways, is 10 going on 16.  Independent, social, kind and sometimes a little awkward. All about his video games, his friends, and his video games.  He's not a kid who comes home from school with drama, or has problems with other kids.  He's our laid back, easy peasy one.  Nothing is every really a big, huge deal with him.

I don't have much luck giving him a huge or kiss in public anymore.  But at home, in private, we'll share a special look and I can feel his love.

His birthday was this past Sunday, but we let him celebrate the weekend prior by inviting 8 of his "bro's" over for a slumber party, dude style.  When you get a group of 10 year old boys together, you only need a few things to make it a success - lots of cheeseballs and pizza, orange soda, Nerf guns, iPads and some fart jokes.

My baby is 10.  And yes, he will always be my baby.

 

 

Meet Me At the Sock Hop!

We look foward to our schools' spring dance every year. The kids run around like crazy, and we get to see a lot of our friends.  Its a win-win for everyone!

The teachers get way into it, too.  This is a 4th grade teacher dressed as Elvis!

 

Dylan's homeroom teacher, she is so wonderful!

 

Dylan and his friend S.  Dylan danced for three straight hours, he was so sweaty!

YMCA!

 

 

Logan goofing off with his friend N.

 

Dylan and his friend R

 

The guy in the "52" Ravens jersey is our incredible PE teacher, Mr. C.  Every year, he DJ's the event and hosts a dance off challenge between him and some students who sign up to show off their moves.  Its hysterical!

 

 

Such a great school, and a fun event!

catching up ..... again

I've been slacking on this blogging thing, that's for sure.  Lets go backwards.

It all went downhill last week when Logan came down with the flu.  Type B.  Six days of lethargy on the couch.  My boy didn't move, except when he had to go to the bathroom.  Today is Day 10 and he still isn't eating much.  He went back to school Monday, after missing all of last week. 

Then on Thursday, I started feeling the yuck come on, and I've been fighting an uphill battle for 8 days now.  Not quite the flu...more like massive head cold/respitory nastiness.  I had to miss a couple of days of work training, and returned today trying to soak in some more medical assistant knowledge as I get acclimated to my new job.

On Friday of last week, on top of all the plague in our house already, Dylan came down with strep throat and missed Friday and Monday at school. We got him on antibiotics right away so he was well enough (kind of) to attend his all day Odyssey of the Mind competition.  He's been working with his team (which Andrew has co-coached) since October, so this was a "can't miss event".  That day we also had to sandwich in a birthday party for Logan to attend, summer swim team registration (which has to be done in person for swim suit try ons), and a teacher vs. teacher basketball game.  Needless to say, we all collapsed Saturday night and slept for 10 straight hours thru the spring ahead time change.

Here are a couple of photos from Dylan's team, the "Flaming Fury":

Team Shirts representing our school...

 

Dylan the lion tamer (which is actually our leaf blower in disguise)

 

 

 

The whole team with Lucia (head coach) and Andrew (co-coach)

 

 

The big performance..

 

 

 

 

And here is Logan later that day at our school teacher vs. teacher basketball game -  halftime student free throw

 

 

 

 

So, before we all got sick last week what else has been happening in March?

 

Well, Dylan had his Webelos I Blue and Gold Banquet in late February. He's been having a lot of fun with the boys in his den, and this time next year will cross over to Cub Scout as long as he sticks with it.  This year there have been lots of focus on physical fitness, craftsmanship, and outdoors skills.  We have a family Scout camping trip coming up in mid-April, and a hike coming up this coming weekend.  Whew. See why my head spins around sometimes?

 

The week after that, it was time to send invitations out for Dylan's little birthday slumber party.  He wants the same party as he's had the past few years... inviting a few boys from school on a Saturday night in April for a pizza party sleepover at our house.  He wanted a 'cool' shot of himself to be part of the evite. 

Here he is, my big boy about to turn 10 on April 14th.  I can hardly believe it.

The first weekend in March, we had a nice treat.  Mom and Robby took the boys for the weekend, and three of my dear high school friends came out for the weekend.  Ronda, Liza, Angela, Andrew and I put in a full afternoon of wine sipping as we toured them through some of our area's vineyards.  They all live in Maryland, so they had never been to visit any of the Loudoun Vineyards. We had time to fit in five, and we had a blast.  We're hoping to do it again once the weather gets warm!

 

 

This is after visiting the first several vineyards.

 

 

In case once wasn't enough...

 

 

 

I think that one about sums up that day.  Pure joy with friends you've known forever and love, love, love.

And finally, somewhere in between all of this last week, we had a kind of, sort of snow day.  They scared us into thinking we'd be snowed in for days but fortunately it didn't out to be quite the storm they thought.  Just enough for two little boys to enjoy for a few hours.

 

 

My two monkeys. 

 

 

partying at school

We're enjoying a nice, mostly quiet and relaxing holiday vacation at home with the boys.  A good mix of family time, parties, quiet time and together time.  Many more photos to come, but for now I thought I'd share photos of the boys each at their school holiday parties December 21st before the winter break.

Hope you're having a wonderful holiday!

 

 

The Virginia Fair

In 4th grade, much of the curriculum focuses on the state of Virginia.  Dylan has been learning the regions of Virginia, the history of Colonial VA, and famous people from Virginia. About a month ago, he selected a topic to research and focus on, knowing he'd have to do some projects surrounding his topic.  He chose Thomas Jefferson.

It all came to a crescendo this week during American Education Week, as the kids finished their projects for display and participated in the Virginia Fair.  The VA Fair at our school is both an exhibit and a show. And in Dylan's case, he made a video with the iPad as well.

Last night was the big show, and he dressed as Thomas Jefferson, tooted his recorder, danced some Colonial dances and sang songs with all of the 4th grade.  He's been very excited, and it went off without a hitch.  Great job, 4th grade.  Way to go Dylan!

One of the projects was to make a collage in the shape of Virginia with all things Thomas Jefferson. Dylan's teacher liked his so much she's keeping it for a sample for next years' 4th graders.

 



 

Grandma is checking out his movie..

Dylan and his teacher, Miss Dardine

 



 

 

 

 

 

this, that and the other

So it seems the bloggie keeps falling to the bottom of the list each week and I'm not keeping up very well.  So many balls, so little time. The thing is, there's no such thing as a quick blog post.  Its just impossible to keep up with it all between volunteering, working, exercising, parenting, running a household, a flooding basement, yada, yada. But I do love to be able to post photos here, and be able to talk about what's going on in our little circus.

So, it might not be as frequent but when I do post I promise to try and make it nice and meaty.

Last weekend, we enjoyed a glorious kid-free weekend vineyard celebration for a dear friend's 40th birthday celebration.   We drove about an hour west of here, and visited Valerie Hill Vineyard for an afternoon picnic.  Perfect weather, nice music, great company.   And then it was onto the gorgeous Inn at Vaucluse Spring nearby for a few rounds of bocce and a fancy pants dinner celebration.  Exceptional day/evening!

The birthday girl..

And our other dear friends from Jersey Baby...

 

Ahhh, nothing like spending hours and hours of uninterrupted time with some of your besties!

 

School continues to go very well for the boys, one month in.  I'm proud of how well they've adjusted to the fall routine and all the homework that keeps building.  We had a few challenging days, but I made a homework chart and a prize basket.  Logan has a special prize basket at school and he gets to choose little trinkets on good days when he gets work done, and keeps his hands to himself.  I figured if this could motivate him at school, it would motivate him at home to get homework done. So far, so good!   Here is the chartand he has to earn a sticker in each column each day to then be able to choose a prize from the prize basket.  It might seem like 1st grade homework would take five minutes, but its spelling, math and reading every day after already being at school for 7 hours and being exhausted.  It takes some junk to keep him motivated!

 

 

 

He does get extra help at school with handwriting (OT) and speech therapy, and he also is able to leave the class with the assistant teacher for testing and other times of the day when being in a smaller group helps him focus better. He also has a special "break pass" he can raise when he feels he needs a break from doing work, and the assistant teacher gives him time to read a book, or play an iPad for a few minutes until he's ready to re-join. I already have a nice dialogue going with his teachers, and feel so fortunate his teachers seem to 'get' him and are willing to do so many extra things to make his days successful. Here is a chart Logan brought home today that shows what a great week he had...

 

Logan also saw his sleep doctor this week. We've been continuing to monitor his ferritin levels, which I've talked about here, here, and here.  All summer we visited several specialists, including a hematologist and a geneticist at Children's National Medical Center to try and help us determine why, despite being on iron supplements, his ferritin continues to be so low. No one has been able to find any reason, and we continue to hear him toss and turn every night.  Poor guy.  We've had four blood draws since May and his ferritin is very slowly rising, so it just might take a while to get to the ideal 80 - 120 range the doctor says will stop his PLMD.  His ferritin was 19, then 21, then 24, then 32 and now most recently this week, 34.  So we're heading in the right direction, at least. I feel so strongly his restless sleep is closely related to the behavioral and attention issues he has. As he gets older, some things have improved with maturity and yet, I still feel we have a ways to go.

 

He's my little monkey man, with a smile that lights up a whole room.

 

 

Dylan is just having a stellar year so far, and his teacher is outstanding as well.  The big project of 4th grade is the Virginia Fair.  The kids study the complete history of Virginia all year, and it all culminates in a big performance during American Education Week in November.  Each child has chosen a topic (Dylan's topic is either Thomas Jefferson, or a blacksmith or silversmith..we'll find out next week), and they have to dress the part for the big performance.  Its quite the affair at our school, and by the time its all over he'll be able to tell us everything we wanted to know about Virginia.  I'm secretly hoping he lands the Thomas Jefferson topic, since we bought a dandy George Washington costume for the 3rd grade Wax Museum last spring.  It would be perfect!

 

He's been enjoying his new Scout troop as a Webelo, with several of this buddies from school.  I wish I had a photo of how handsome he looks in his uniform. Next time. What I do know is that he and Andrew and leaving for their first Scout camping trip in two hours, for the next two days.  They'll spend tomorrow doing archery, first aid, shooting bb guns, skits, fire building, cooking, and doing all the stuff boys love.

 

His other love right now, a video game called Minecraft.  He got way into it over the summer and its one of those things where you build your own universe, so its never-ending.  Its not violent.  But its totally capable of sucking the hours out of young boys' days all over America.