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.
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